The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-02-14

Africa, that Will be read with interest.
The commerce OF Africa, regards imports, ad-
mits of being classified in four great divisions.
The first is that of Egypt and lite immediate DEEPEN
denotes, and which will always have its special
advocates. It is country as easily and as often
visited by the traveller any other classic ground,
and needs no further mention here.
The commerce of the Barbary States, and the
Cyrenaica, includes Tripoli and Fezzan, Tunis
and the Eastern Jerreid, Morocco Fez, Suse and
Tafiat in fact, the whole country from the west
ernmost limit of Egypt to the confines of Sause and
the Great Atlas opposite the Canary islands This
division includes a highly industrial population
agricultural, pastoral, and commercial
Algiers, colony of France being the focus
of another system, and under different commercial
restrictions, is not included with the other Barbary
States.
The third division of commerce is that which
prevails the Atlantic coasts of Africa, mostly
within the tropics, and which the European trader
pursucs from the Senegal river to the Zaire, or
Congo river, in six degrees of south latitude, and
sometimes in the countries beyond that boundary
claimed by Portugal These people are pagans
generally; almost universally so on the coast.
The fourth is commerce which prevails on the
eastern coast of Africa, both in the Indian and
Red seas, from our colony at the Cape of Good
Hope and Port Natal to Abyssinia, including Mo-
caranga, Sofala, and the coast of Mozambique,
Quiloa, Zanzibar, (Which ID claimed tributary
to the lmaum of Muscat,) Malinda, and the coun.
tries south Of the Red sea. Most of these nations
have hardly any manufactures of their own, but
live on the produce Of their iocks and herds. The
Mahommedans, as usual, more civilized, but
they all exchange commodities with Arabia, Sy-
ria, Persia, India, &c
Our business is principally with the second and
third divisions Of this commerce, or the Barbary
and Ethiopian trade in the Atlantic and Meditorra-
mean To the shores of these seas we bring
our produce. Beyond these shores it is carried to
the interior by the Arab He is the wholesale ped
lar OF Africa; he knows where his customers to
be found, what they want, what they will exchange
or pay for it, what his risks and expenses in
conveying it; his chances of being overwhelmed
in the sand, or perishing from thirst, or by the
lance, or the gun the arrow; the exactions he
must submit to from the tribes whom he must
either defy caress; these the things which he
has to calculate day by day, while borne on his
long land-voyage by his camel, his ship of the
desert; guided, like the mariner, in the main d.
rection of his course, by STARE and landmarks, and
like him, i'll the intricate details of local import
anco such as the existence Of water and food, and
tho nearness of hostile trbes, by guides TO whose
pilotage he must trustimpicitly, and for whose as
sistancc he is willing in emergencies to pay almost
any price.
Here, it will be admitted, arc the materials for a
great trade In fact trade that may almost bs
called great, already exists. 1t is however, curl
ously small when compared with what it might be,
and when we remember how near it is TO our own
country and that our produce is coveted as eagerly
as ever our manufacturers covet market. The
articles OF import to Barbary principally Brit
lsh manufactured Cloths Of cotton, linen, and
wool, fine and coarse, BARI iron, steel, tin and cop
per IN plates, nails, cutlery brass pans, earthen-
ware, china cups, and glass ware, mirrors, cop
peras, arsenic, alum, lead, silk. taflcta, dainask,
velvet and brocades, spices, refined sugar, tea
coffee, India cottons, white and blue, (thc latter
for the tribes of the Sahra rice, and other things
adapted to the respective countries of Barbary.
The consumption of tea, however, is principally
confined to Morocco, coffee being the beverage of
the towns east of that empire, as far as the limits
Of Africa extend.
The trade with tropical Africa on the Atlantic
shores is also sort of desultory trade in many in
stances conducted upon the principle of barter
from town to town, and occupying considerable
time The imports acceptable TO these races, who,
1t Is to DO remembered, are not Mussulmen, or
rarely so, but pagans arc rum, cowries, beads,
trinkets, white and blue cotton cloths. coarse wool.
len and linen ditto, firearms and gunpowder,
lead, tobacco, brass pans, sugar, silver, galoon,
cutlery, needles, paper, thread, plush and velvet,
carthcnware, bottles, choap looking glasses, gin in
cases, silk in thread, and some other articles of
minor considerations to which may be added old
clothes, especially hosc of footmcn and bcadles In
exchange for these commodities the Ethiopian tribes
will readily give whatever is desired of them
their gold dust, ivory, dyeng woods, gums, drugs.
aromatic seeds, wax, honey, palm oil, bullocks'
hides, cassava, yams, and other provisions, or
slaves, if they be wanted.
What has just been described, moreover, in
Guides little more than long shore trade. To open
and extend this trade, where give manufactured
goods for crude produce is surely object of the
greatest interest.
The quality of the African products is shown by
the ready market they command in Europe. 1t is
in quantity that this trade is deficient With so
vast a field, we ought seriously to consider why 80
little is cultivated. Are there any real obstacles to
our trading largely with population that may
fairly be reokoncd at two hundred millions? This
is the estimate of the Mahommedans themselves
but there ample for concluding that il is
not excessive
The obstacles to the navigation Of the rivers
too formidable to leave any sanguine expectation
that successful voyages Of a commercial nature
could be undertaken by Europeans up those streams.
But the placing of factories their shores, and
trusting of the transit department to Mosem Afri-
cans of reputation, would be means of inroduc-
ing our produce copiously into the interior, and be
the proper compensation to the African for the
foreign slavetrade upon which he subssted. We
have compensated the European, for whom the slave
trade is SIM But, with all that may be hoped for
in this quarter, it is the grand highway leading
down from the north, and through the Sahra and
Upper Ethiopia, upon which the greatest reliance
should be placed and as by land Caffla the Arab
could ease the camel of his burden on the upper
courses Of the Koara, Tchdde, Shari, Ghulbi, Yco,
and other large rivers, the descent of merchandise,
II needful, down those streams, would surely be
easier than forcing il up them.
Is there no way of making known to the natives
OF these interior States of Africa our peaceful de-
sires to supply their wants in the greatest possible
abundance, and obtain fair share of their Gus