The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

DR. LIVINGSTONE AT MANCHESTER.
AR interview between Dr. Livingstone and the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce took place on
Wednesday, at the Town-hall, Manchester. Dr.
Livingstone was very warmly received, a congratula-
tory address was presented, and, after the usual pre-
liminaries, Dr. Livingstone entered at once upon
his subject—the enormous capacity of Africa to
supply our increasing demands for cotton, sugar,
and other products. In the course of his explana-
tions Mr. Cheetham, M.P., put several questions to
the learned traveller, to which Dr. Livingstone re-
plied satisfactorily. From these replies and his ad-
dress in general we gather that the natives of Central
Africa are eager for trade, but that they have no
markets of importance. That with regard to cotton
it grew abundantly on the west coast, and that was
by far the best field for cotton. Between the rivers
Conza and Loando large quantities were grown :

On the east it was cultivated a little, but it was not so
good. It clung to the seed, and an iron roller had to be
used to separate it. The quantity grown on the east side
was very much smaller than that on the west side, but the
natives had never been induced to cultivate cotton; they
Lad never been offered anything for it, and they only
cultivated a little to make clothes for themselves. He be.
lieved if they had a market they would cultivate largely ;
for wherever they had the opportunity of selling anything,
they immediately began to collect it.
The natives of Angola are acquainted with many
dyes, which they are unwilling to make known to
Europeans. The Columba root was exported by the
Americans in abundance, as a dye-stuff, and grew
along the Zambesi river. Besides this there was
throughout the country indigo—the kind called the
silver indigo, with which the people dyed their
clothes, and which grew wild, for it was not at all
cultivated. The only exportation of it was by the
Portuguese who lived at Tete, but it might be ex-
ported abundantly.
With regard to cereals, Dr. Livingstone said wheat
had never been tried in the central country. Angola
produced beautiful wheat, and he saw it growing on
high lands with ears the length of his hand. The
high land produced it without irrigation, and it
might be grown there to almost any extent. It was
quite remarkable that the Portuguese did not culti-
vate it, because they paid the Americans hand-
somely for all the flour and biscuits they consumed;
and he found they had Irish butter from Cork :
The east side of the country also produced wheat.
The Zambesi overflowed large tracts of country annually,
like the Nile. All wheat required was that a slave woman,
with a little hoe, should make a hole in the ground, drop
a few seeds in, and push back the soil with her foot. In
four months there was a crop of beautiful wheat. This
simple operation answered all the purposes of our Rub-
soiling, ploughing, draining, liming, and manuring. The
higher they went up, the better the wheat was. At 'Limbo
the grain was twice the size it was at Tete, where it was
rather small. It had newer been tried in the high lands
in the interior. The country ascended eastwards from
the west coast to a height of 5,000 feet above the sea ; then
it descended into the central valley, where the rivers on
both sides contributed to the Zambesi in the middle, and
this river flowed from north to south, leaving the valley
by a fissure or creek in the ridge of thirty miles long,
which formed the most beautiful sight he had seen in
Africa. There were two ridges on that side of the valley,
one of 5,0 O( feet. The bottom of the valley and the coasts
were very unhealthy, but the high lands were very healthy.
The central hollow contained herbage excessively rank.
The healthy ridges were remarkably well adapted for the
production of grain. The natives cultivated a kind of
millet often called Kaffir-corn; another kind of millet,
somewhat larger; and likewise our own corn millet.
As to sheep or goat's wool, Dr. Livingstone ex-
plained that, inland from Benguela, " there was a
long stretch of cold, elevated country, where the
sheep actually had wool, and cattle flourished re-
markably well." Then, as to metallic produce, Dr.
Livingstone said throughout the country there ap-
peared to be plenty of knives, axes, and hoes, and
near the sea there were igneous rocks shot up, with
fine iron ore
The Portuguese Government employed the natives in
working iron. At Kasembi a good deal of malachite was
found. He had not seen copper ore in its proper place.
A number of the native hoes bad been made into an
Enfield rifle for him (Dr. Livingstone) at Birmingham,
the maker pronouncing the metal very good, resembling,
but not equal to, Swedish or Russian iron. It abounded
along the Zambesi.
In reply to subsequent inquiries, Dr. Livingstone
said there were extensive tracts of forest land.
There were nine seams of coal. He examined one
near Tete, which was about sixty-eight inches in
diameter, the coal having been tilted to the surface
by volcanic action. Lieutenant Hoskins, who had
command of one of the gunboats now gone to China,
had given his opinion that the bar at the real mouth
of the Zambesi was no impediment to commercial
purposes, as there were twenty-two feet of water
upon it, and, though the river was rather tortuous,
he would not hesitate to take up a steamer of the