CHAP. V. MINERALS AND METAL S. 70. If we except fome trifling and unsuccessful attempts Minerals of the Chevalier de la Brue, in the beginning of the prefent fearched for. fcarcely century, the Europeans have never made any particular search for metals or minerals in Africa. Of late, indeed, the directors of the Sierra Leona company, fent out my countryman Mr. A. Nordenskjold, a very skilful mineralogist on this business: but forry I am to say, he fell a victim to his spirited exertions in the wet season, before he was able to accomplish the object of his miffion. His death is lamented by many of the learned throughout Europe, as a public lofs, and with great reafon; for I may venture to say, that never were greater ability, industry, and zeal in the cause of science and of mankind, united in one perfon. It is to be hoped, however, that the company will not be discouraged by this unfortunate event; but will pursue the search with the attention it deferves. It is well known that very Gold. confiderable quantities of gold are found near the surface, and in the channels of torrents, in the inland parts; although the negroes cannot be faid to be skilful in collecting it. About the year 1728, the gold brought annually into Europe from Africa was valued, by the English writers, at £271,732 fterling. According to the cotemporary Dutch accounts, Africa furnished Europe with gold to the value of £230,000 yearly*. The near agreement of these estimates seems to prove that neither of them were very remote from the truth. "Guineas were first coined in King Charles II.'s gentleman, who has often vifited the gold coaft, told me that he had seen a very large fpecies of nutmeg, brought from the interior parts by the negroes, fome of whom wear ftrings of it by way of ornament. * Atlas Maritimus et Commercialis, printed 1728, folio 271. V. CHAP. reign. They went for twenty fhillings, and had their name from the gold whereof they were made, being brought from that part of Africa called Guinea, which the elephant on them likewise denotes*." " From 120,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold were formerly imported from the gold coal of Africa annually; and in one year 400,000 guineas were coined from what was brought from thence+." Iron. 71. These facts will doubtless be interefting to many readers; but, for my own part, I confess that I am more partial to the useful, than to what are called the precious, metals. Gold and filver, as hitherto used, or rather abused, have occafioned infinite mischiefs to fociety. Effodiuntur opes, irritamenta malorum. These words of an ancient poet (Ovid) are but too applicable to modern times. But iron, and the other humbler metals, are so indispensibly necessary to man, without their affiftance every thinking perfon must see that civilized fociety could never have existed, and will be disposed to look upon them as peculiar gifts of Providence; especially as the discovery of iron, the most useful of all metals, is fo very remote from any experiments that we can fuppofe uncivilized tribes capable of making. Hence it gives me much fatisfaction to be able to state, from the best authority, that the inhabitants of the mountains of * Poftlethwayt's Commercial Dictionary, printed 1763, Article "Coin." + Treatife upon the Trade from Great Britain to Africa, by an African merchant, printed 1772, App. p. 2.—It is worthy of remark that Brazil, while in the hands of the Dutch, as it was for a whole century, produced no gold; because they did not fearch for it. The Portuguese, afterwards getting poffeffion of that country, opened the gold mines, which are now faid to be the richest in the world. May not the fate of the African mines be fimilar?-For an interesting memoir, relative to the difcovery of gold up the river Gambia, fee the Appendix. Bambouc V. Bambouc and Gallam, about 700 miles up the Senegal, CHAP. poffefs this valuable fecret, or at leaft poffefs plenty of excellent malleable iron*. The Chevalier de la Brue, describes it as fo malleable, that the natives of those parts, work it into pots with hammers, and fays they do not value European iron, unless it be already formed into some useful inftrument †. Whether the natives extract this iron from it's ore, or whether they find it in a malleable state, M. de la Brue does not say, and I will not presume to speak pofitively on a point so much disputed among the learned. Profeffor Pallas, in particular, affirms that he found malleable iron in Siberia; and a certain eminent naturalist, lately flattered himself, that he had made the fame discovery in Africa. I confefs, however, with all due refpect for fuch authorities, that I am inclined to think iron, from it's great corruptibility, is of all metals, the leaft to be looked for, in any other than a mineralized state; unless placed by nature in such a particular, and hitherto unknown, vehiculum, as has entirely excluded the air from it. Doctor Pallas, indeed, very fairly transmitted fpecimens of this malleable iron to several chymists throughout Europe; but most of them were of opinion, that it had undergone the During my flay at Goree, I often converfed with a negro captive, called Tumanififi, who came from Fouta Jallo (as he pronounced it) a confiderable distance above Gallam, and who was very much regarded and trusted by his master, M. Auguftus Newton of Goree, with whom he had lived ten years. This negro told me, that he had been often down in the mines in his country, which, he faid, were very deep, and had also many galleries, or horizontal paffages. These he defcribed as very long, and, in fome places, very high and wide, with openings from above, to give air and light. He added, that those mines were wrought by women, who, when they went down into them, always carried victuals along with them. + Nouvelle Relation de l'Afrique Occidentale par Labat, Tome 4. P. 57. CHAP. action of fire, and that the matrix, to which it was united, VI. was nothing more than the scoria of the metal. However this be, it is certain that the natives of the inland countries, juft mentioned, dig up and manufacture iron; for I was affured of the fact by several respectable officers at Goree. Men and larly affected by being 72. H С НА Р. VI. THE MEANS OF PRESERVING HEALTH. AVING given fome account of the climate, soil, and produce of the part of the coast laid down in the map, it seems natural to make a few observations on the comparative falubrity of different places and fituations; and to offer to Europeans, who propose to reside in that region, some advice respecting the preservation of health, in a country so very different from that to which they have been accustomed. This appears to me to be a matter of fuch serious importance, that I mean afterwards to propose the superintendance of it, as a separate department in the direction of every new colony. 73. Men," fays Dr. Lind, who exchange their native, plants fimi- for a diftant, climate, may be confidered as affected in a manner fomewhat analogous to plants removed into a foransplanted. reign foil; where the utmost care and attention are required to keep them in health, and to inure them to their new fituation; fince, thus transplanted, fome change must happen in the constitutions of both*." * Essay on the Diseases of hot Climates, Introduction, p. 2. 74. During VI. 74. During my stay in Africa, I have often observed with CHA P. astonishment, how little the Europeans, both individuals and public bodies, appear to regard the preservation of health. They could not act more abfurdly, if they aimed at ruining their conftitutions, in order to bring upon the climate a degree of reprobation which, with all it's faults, it really does not deserve. I cannot better express my own fentiments and obfervations on this head, than in the words of the able and intelligent physician just quoted. cleared, the most fa lubrious West lands. Indian If 75. "It is not uncommon," fays he, " in many trading Africa, if factories, to meet with a few Europeans pent up in a small would be as spot of low, damp ground, fo entirely furrounded with healthful as thick woods, that they can scarcely have the benefit of walking a few hundred yards, and where there is not so much as an avenue cut through any part of the woods for the admiffion of wholesome and refreshing breezes. The Europeans have also unfortunately fixed fome of their principal fettlements on low, inland, unventilated spots, on the foul banks, or near the swampy and oozy mouths of rivers, or on falt marshes, formed by the overflowing of the ocean, where, in many places, the putrid fish, scattered on the shore by the negroes, emit fuch noisome effluvia, as prove very injurious to health. Notwithstanding what has been said, I think it will hardly admit of doubt, that if any tract of land in Guinea was as well improved as the island of Barbadoes, and as perfectly freed from trees, underwood, marshes, &c. the air would be rendered equally healthful there, as in that pleasant West Indian Island*.' 76. As an instance, in fupport of this position, the doctor Inftance in mentions the Portuguese town of St. Salvadore, which, "not * Essay on the Diseases, &c. p. 50. St. Salvadore. |