The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1885-08-22
KEEP AWAY FROM CONGO.
This Is the Advice of SPECIAL United State

CoWnIsSlOner TisUel.
The following are some Of the most
striking passages Of Mr.. Tisdors report
to the State Department:
II recommend most earnestly that
Americans who contemplate establish
izs themselves on the Lower Congo, or
anywhere on the west coast Of Africa,
should not do so mnless supplied with a
large capital, which will enable them to
compete with the long established
Dutch, English and German houses,
which control almost the entire trade Of
the west coast American houses es-
tablishing here must first be assured
that they have transportation for thor
manufactured goods outwa and for
the products of the country homeward.
This is of vital importance. They must
locate factories or stations in different
parts, engage help acclimated and ia
mliar with the country and the natives,
and with knowledge of both the Portu-
guese and Fiote languages, make pres
ents to chiefs of tribes, and in Thu man
ner induce the natives to come into tie
newly established factories. All this
takes time and money, and little or no
return can be expected for at least
year. 1t is a mistake to suppose that
all OF the products which are reported
to come from the Congo are grown
there, or do actually come from there
Not one-tenth is harvested there.
= l,1. of a. ~ 4
there is not richer territory than that
which borders the sea- commencing at
the Sinegal River in latitude 16 de-
grees north and extending to latitude
IS degrees 80 seconds, and inland an
average distance of one hundred miles.
The country is densely populated, yet
it is next to impossible to induce the
nations to pluck the valuable products
which nature produces With the ex-
ception of the Loango and Kabnda
tribes they are wild, savage and cruel
people They do not like the white
man, and, while they are glad to have
his cloth and gin, they would much
pre- 'er never to see y white man within
their domain. The question OF labor
will have much to do with the future of
this country 1t is a remarkable fact
that Zanzibar man or a Houssa
man from the Niger can travel
anywhere in the country unmo-
Tested, even among the most say
age tribes. This fact clearly proves to
me that an industrious black man with a
knowledge of the Flote language will
be enabled to exercise greater and
better influence over these people than
it can be possible for the white man
ever to do The question of climate is
o se,ious one. 1t is humid and ener-
waiting to the whites of Europe and
America, and much sickness is the re-
suit. Very much precaution must be
exercised during the first years stay
in the country in order that the system
may be kept free from the poisonous
influences of the malaria which over
hangs the entire country. Along the
entire coast the products are not at all
unlike the exports. consisting princi-
pally of rubber, ground-nuts, palm oil,
palm nuts, colo nuts and gum copal
Some ivory is also exported, but in
small quantities, the principal coast
markets for ivory being at different
points in Angola. Common cotton and
wooden goods, rum, gin, glass beads,
guns, powder, tobacco and common
cutlery make up the principal imports,
and with these articles the traders bar
ter for the products of the country. 1t
is the only currency known.
"tifty per cent of all the goods
WHICH go to the coast, including pro-
visions, are purchased in England.
The gin comes from Holland and is
manufactured expressly for the trade,
the quantity being forty per cent. of all
imports. A few bottles of gin will &C
much further in trade with the natives
than ten times its value in cloth, and
often it happens that traders are com.
PEELED to return to the coast
without having accomplished 6
trade, the natives insisting upor
having. gin, while the trader was
supplied with cloth alone. Tht
most valuable productions of the coun
try, and for which there is an ever
increasing demand, are rubber, palm
kernels and palm oil, gum copal
ground-nuts and wax. The rubber ant
palm trees are of spontaneous growtl
and to be found everywhere in the low
lands. The supply is not equal to the
demand, yet there is no limit to the
quantity of these rich products which
might be taken from the country if til,
natives could be induced to work. Here
again arises the question of labor, and t.
me it seems feasible to create wan
amongst the tribes of the low and coas
lands, which will after time induce
them to gather and bring to the traders
in large quantities the products which
they so readily exchange for anything
which they may require. There arr
other and valuable products, but tn,
staple commodities are those numer
atod
Sin no sense of the word can this b,
called an agricultural country Nothing
is cultivated except the ground-nut anj
few tropical vegetables, which how
ever, are found only in small patche
near the villages"
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