STATES.] AFRICA 269 pal article of food with the natives. Boinbaceie (cotton- trees) are likewise numerous, and they are among the loftiest in the world. Acacias, which furnish the gum-arabic, are most abundant, while the shores are lined with mangrove trees. The flora and fauna are similar to those of Nubia. Gold and iron are the chief metals. The inhabitants consist of various Negro nations, the chief of which are the Wolof. The gum trade is the most important traffic on the Sene gal ; bees-wax, ivory, bark, and hides, forming the chief exports from the Gambia. Of European settlements are : The French possessions on the Senegal ; the capital of which is St Louis, built about the year 1626, on an island at the mouth of the river. The total population of the settlement amounts to about 210,000. The British settlement on the Gambia has about 7000 inhabitants. Bathurst is the chief town. The Portuguese settlement consists of small factories south of the Gambia, at the Bissagos Islands, Bissao, Cacheo, and some other points. be Guinea The west coast of Africa, from Senegambia to the Nourse Dast. River, is commonly comprised by the general denomination Guinea Coast, a term of Portuguese origin. The coast is generally so very low, as to be visible to navi gators only within a very short distance, the trees being their only sailing marks. North of the equator, in the Bight of Benin, the coast forms an exception, being high and bold, with the Cameroon Mountains behind ; as also at Sierra Leone, which has received its name (Lion Moun tain) in consequence. The coast presents a dead level often for thirty to fifty miles inland. It has numerous rivers, some of which extend to the furthest recesses of Inner Africa. The climate, notoriously fatal to European life, is ren dered pestilential by the muddy creeks and inlets, the putrid swamps, and the mangrove jungles that cover the banks of the rivers. There are two seasons in the year, the rainy and the dry season. The former commences in the southern portion in March, but at Sierra Leone and other northern parts, a month later. Vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant and varied. One of the most important trees is the Elais guineensis, a species of palm, from the covering of whose seed or nut is ex tracted the palm-oil, so well known to English commerce and manufacture; several thousand tons are annually brought into the ports of Liverpool, London, and Bristol. The palm-oil tree is indigenous and abundant from the river Gambia to the Congo ; but the oil is manufactured in large quantities chiefly in the country of the Gold and Slave Coasts. The former comprises nearly all the more remark able of African animals : particularly abundant are elephants, hippopotami, monkeys, lions, leopards, crocodiles, serpents, parrots. The domestic animals are mostly of an inferior quality. The principal minerals are gold and iron. The population consists, besides a few European colonists, of a vast variety of Negro nations, similar in their physical qualities and prevailing customs, but differing considerably in their dispositions and morals. The chief articles of commerce are palm-oil, ivory, gold, wax, various kinds of timber, spices, gums, and rice. The divisions of Northern or Upper Guinea are mostly founded on the productions characteristic of the different parts, and are still popularly retained. i-rra The British colony of Sierra Leone extends from Rokelle river in the north, to Kater river in the south, and about twenty miles inland. The chief portion of the settlement is a rugged peninsula of mountains with a barren soil, but surrounded by a belt of rich coast-land, with a moist and pestilential climate. The colony was founded in 1787, and has been maintained with a view to the suppression of the West African slave trade. The population, consisting chiefly of liberated slaves, amounted, in 1869, to 55,374, of which number 129 were white men. Freetown, the capital is, after St Louis, the most considerable European town on the western coast of Africa. The Malaghetta or Grain Coast extends from Sierra Grain Leone to Cape Palmas. Malaghetta is a species of pepper Coast, yielded by a parasitical plant of this region. It is some times styled the Windy or Windward Coast, from the fre quency of short but furious tornadoes throughout the year. The republic of Liberia, a settlement of the American Liberia Colonisation Society, founded in 1822, for the purpose of removing free people of colour from the United States, occupies a considerable extent of the coast, and has for its capital Monrovia, a town named after the president, Mr Monro. The Ivory Coast extends from Cape Palmas 3 W. long., Ivory and obtained its name from the quantity of the article Coast, supplied by its numerous elephants. The French settle ments of Grand Bassam, Assinie, and Dabou were aban doned in 1871. The Gold Coast stretches from west of Cape Three Points Gold to the river Volta, and has long been frequented for gold- Coast, dust and other products. By a treaty of February 1871, the whole of the Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast were made over to Britain, and the Danish settlements of Chris- tiansburg and Friedensburg were ceded to the English in 1849; so that the British coast now extends from the mouth of the Teuda river, in long 2 40 W., to that of the Ewe, in long. 1 10 E. of Greenwich. The protected territory extends inland from this coast strip to an average distance of 50 miles. Cape Coast Castle and Fort James, founded by the British, and Elmina (population about 10,000) the most important of the former Dutch stations, with Accra, are the chief settlements. The Slave Coast e tends from the river Yolta to the Slave Calabar river, and is, as its name implies, the chief scene Coast, of the most disgraceful traffic that blots the history of man kind. Eko or Lagos, one of the chief towns of the coast, was destroyed by the British in 1852, and was proclaimed a British possession in 1861. Palma and Badagry are also British settlements. The kingdoms of Ashantee, Dahomey, Ycruba, and others, occupy the interior country of the Guinea coast. Ashantee the most powerful Negro state of Upper Guinea, is a;. exceedingly fertile and productive country. Its inhabitants, though skilled in some manufactures and of a higher intel ligence than is usually found in this region, are of an exceedingly sanguinary disposition, and have frequently been involved in war with the British. The capital city, Kumassi, is believed to have a population of about 100,000. The coast from the Old Calabar river to the Portuguese possessions is inhabited by various tribes. Duke Town, on the former river, is a town of 4000 inhabitants, with considerable trade in palm-oil, ivory, and timber. On the Gaboon river, close to the equator, are a French settlement (in 1871 the French retained only a coaling station), and American missionary stations. At the equa tor Southern or Lower Guinea begins, where the only European settlements are those of the Portuguese. Loango is reckoned from the equator to the Zaire or Loango. Congo river. Its chief town is Boally, called Loango by the Europeans. Congo extends south of the Zaire, comprising a very Congo, fertile region, with veins of copper and iron. Banza Congo or St Salvador is the capital. Angola comprises the districts of Angola proper, Ben- Angola ; guela, and Mossamedes. In these regions the Portuguese Henguel:
settlements extend farther inland than the two preceding
