'
In regions richer than the Upper Gambia the disappearance of man is ever
followed by a springing of bush and forest so portentous that a few hands
are helpless and hopeless. Such is the case with the great wooded belt
north of the Gold Coast, where even the second-growth becomes impenetrable
without the matchet, and where the swamps and muds, bred and fed by
torrential rains, bar the transit of travellers. The Whydah and Gaboon
countries are notable specimens of once populous regions now all but
deserted.
Nothing more surprising, to men who visit Africa for the first time, than
the over-wealth of labour in Madeira and its penury on the Western Coast.
At Bathurst they find ships loading or unloading by the work of the Golah
women, whose lazy husbands live upon the hardly-earned wage. They see the
mail-steamers landing ton after ton of Chinese rice shipped _via_ England.
The whole country with its humid surface and its reeking, damp-hot climate
is a natural rice-bed. The little grain produced by it is far better than
the imported, but there are no hands to work the ground. It is the same
with salt, which is cheaper when brought from England: no man has the
energy to lay out a salina; and, if he did, its outlay, under 'Free
Trade,' would be greater than its income.
Pages:
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384