122 



Selections. 



[NO. 3, NEW SERIES, 



AFRICAN COTTON. 



Considering therefore the general quality and limited supply yet 

 received from India by free labour, the whole sea coast of Africa 

 presents a large, cheap, and more contiguous field for the wants of 

 England; while it offers an extensive market for our manufactured 

 goods. Park and almost all African discoverers speak of markets 

 for the sale of native cloths, made of their indigenous Cotton ; but 

 the separation of the raw material from the seed must occasion 

 them much trouble and loss of time. So far as I can learn, the 

 process is very rude, and by hand picking is very tedious. The 

 saw gin moved by the hand will become the means of supply- 

 ing their own wants first, and thereafter of increasing expor- 

 tation ; the screw-press packing it into square bales for ship- 

 ment. The original mode of packing, still practised, was for a man 

 to stand inside of a large round bag and press it down with his 

 feet. St. Domingo Cotton is still liable to this objection, and is 

 thereby exposed to a double or triple freight. 



The question is does Cotton abound on the coast of Africa ? 

 From the reports of Missionaries and of gentlemen who visited 

 the Niger it appears to be plentiful ; and they are the men who by 

 acquiring the esteem of the Natives, rendering them teachable (as 

 in many instances they have), and residing among them, are the 

 most likely to introduce both the saw gin and screw-press. Of 

 cotton cultivation the natives most likely know more* than Euro- 

 peans. 



I understand, from the Secretaries of the Wesley an and Baptist 

 Missionary Societies, that the missionaries of those societies have 

 not only their sanction, but their instructions, to promote such 

 objects among the Natives at their several stations, as a means of 

 enabling the Natives to support their missons, and of drawing the 

 aborigines within reach of teachers. We find these Missionary 

 establishments all along the coast of Western tropical Africa ; — 

 and to the former has now been added the Scotch ; or rather 

 Jamaica establishment, at Old Calabar, near to Fernando Po. 



The cost of a common eighteen saw gin, moved by a wheel and 

 pinion and crank-handle, is about £25 to £30. Larger and more 



