Suffice it to say that we can draw freely
upon the labour-banks of Macao, Bombay, and Zanzibar. The intelligent,
thrifty, and industrious Chinese will learn mining here, as they have
learnt it elsewhere, with the utmost readiness. The 'East Indian' will be
well adapted for lighter work of the garden and the mines. Finally, the
sturdy Wasawahili of the East African coast will do, as carriers and
labourers, three times the work of Pantis and Apollonians.
I need hardly say that Captain Cameron and I would like nothing better
than to organise a movement of this kind; we would willingly do more good
to the West African coast than the whole tribe of its so-called
benefactors.
Sec.3. GOLD-DIGGING IN NORTH-WESTERN AFRICA.
_a. Sketch of its Origin_.
The mineral wealth of Central Africa has still to be studied; at present
we are almost wholly ignorant of it. We know, however, that the outlying
portions of the Continent contain three distinct and grand centres of
mining-industry. The first worked is the north-eastern corner--in fact,
the Nile-valley and its adjacencies, where Fayzoghlu still supplies the
noble metal. The second, also dating from immense antiquity, is the whole
West African coast from Morocco to the Guinea Gulf, both included.
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