Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/128

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CHAP. VI.
Whether the Natives of Africa have not many and valuable Productions in their own Country, in which they could offer a Trade to the Europeans in the Place of the Trade in Slaves.





Productions of Africa.

Among the Productions of Africa, mentioned by the different evidences, may be reckoned millet of various sorts, pulse, Indian corn, and rice. [1] Of the last of these articles it appears to have been proved often by experiment, that it is much heartier and better than the Carolina.


In the next class may be reckoned cotton, indigo, tobacco, and the sugar cane. Dalrymple says of the cotton, that it is esteemed far superior to that from the West Indies. He says the same of the sugar cane, and as to the indigo, it is considered to be equal to that from Guatimala.


In the next class may be mentioned black pepper, the same as from the East Indies, long pepper, Malaguetta, or grains of Paradise, red pepper of various sorts, but particularly the Cayenne, a species of ginger, cardamums, wild nutmegs, and cinnamon. Mr. How says of the cinnamon, that one sort of it is not inferior to that imported from the East Indies. Some of the former brought to

  1. The African rice has a red husk, but is beautifully white when the husk is taken off.

England