2. If they were able to pay a fair price, either in money, or by giving goods for which there would be a demand in European markets, in exchange for such articles of British manufacture as might be introduced amongst them.
Upon both of these points I received very satisfactory information. In some instances most respectable merchants detailed to me the result of speculations of this kind in which they had been engaged; in others mercantile letters were placed in my hands, fully corroborating what had been told me; but the information I thus obtained bore reference also to the following points:
1. The degree of labour necessarily required to transport articles of British manufacture to such a distant mart as the one here contemplated for their consumption.
2. The length of time during which wages must be paid to and food provided for the individuals engaged in this labour.
3. The duties to which the articles will become liable in the various ports; and,
4. The danger of loss or injury that may be incurred in their transport thither.
With regard to the two first of the above heads it appears that the profit that may be realized by the trader is so considerable as not only to cover the expenses that they would necessarily entail upon him; but after these expenses have been defrayed the residue of profit that would remain in his hands would be so large as to render this commerce one of the most lucrative in which capital could be embarked.
METHOD OF BARTER.
This will be readily conceived when it is considered that the mode of barter is that which is most usual amongst the inhabitants, and that the trader puts his own valuation upon the articles he exchanges with them. One of the oldest and most respectable merchants at the Cape made a voyage through these islands for the purpose of procuring gold dust, and he detailed to me the mode in which he conducted the traffic. A Spanish doubloon was placed in one of the scales, and gold dust in the other; when the quantity of gold dust was equal in weight to the doubloon, he gave a doubloon's worth of goods they required, at his own valuation; the profit realized was large.
One great drawback to this commerce at present is the necessity of coasting from place to place in order to obtain a full cargo. The same inconvenience was felt along the coasts of Africa and Madagascar until some enterprising London and Liverpool mercantile houses established the system of receiving vessels, which remained stationary at one point whilst smaller vessels collected cargoes for them. Now a colony in some northern part of Australia would in the same manner totally obviate this inconvenience by affording a place in which cargoes could be collected from small vessels, and to which the British manufactures to be exchanged could be brought. Kupang in Timor at the present moment is used for this purpose by the Dutch.