In the south-eastern portion of the continent the small but rapidly-developing British colony of Natal has been established, forming a nucleus of civilization, which is already beginning to have a visible effect on the amelioration of the state of the natives of that portion of Africa.
The discoveries of Dr. Livingstone have drawn attention to the vast interior of that continent, to which access may be obtained by the Zambesi and other rivers, which are soon destined to become highways of commerce and civilization; while recent events on the east coast of Africa have arrested the attention of civilized communities, and commerce seeks for instruction as to the productions of this portion of the world, in order that with her enterprise and fostering care the nations of that continent may be brought into close connection with the other portions of our globe.
I have already, in the course of these pages, touched upon the productions of Eastern Africa, following the coast as high as the city of Mozambique, and I propose now briefly continuing that account as far as Cape Guardafui, and thence up the Red Sea to Suez.
The natives from the far interior bring down to Messuril, on the mainland, opposite the city of Mozambique, every year, gold, silver, ivory, wax, skins, and malachite, the latter in considerable quantities—showing that there are mines of copper in the Monomoises’ country.
In 1856 many of these natives who came down to trade were seized by the Portuguese to supply the (so-called) French Free-Labour Emigration, since which occurrence they have not made their appearance at Messuril.
When Mozambique was in the hands of the Arabs, an important trade was carried on between it, Arabia, and India; but for the last two hundred years, under its present rulers, the trade, principally carried on by Banyans to Cutch and Goâ, has been gradually decreasing.
At present it exports ivory, annually two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, bees-wax, sesame seed, orchella, rhinoceros horns, cocoa-nut oil, castor oil, ground-nut oil, coir, arrowroot, sago, coffee, tortoise-shell, indigo of inferior quality (from ignorance in manufacturing it), and a spirit made from the cachu.
There are large plantations of cocoa-nut trees, which for the last three years have been much neglected; coffee plantations, likewise in the same position; and a coir manufactory has for the same period of time ceased to work: all caused by the new impetus given to the slave-trade, under the denomination of French Free-Labour Emigration, which was established in 1854.