At This Meeting Mr. Canto Communicated Some Ideas
Which I Had Written Out On The Dignity Of Labor, And The Superiority
Of Free Over Slave Labor.
The Portuguese gentlemen present
were anxiously expecting an arrival of American cotton-seed from Mr. Gabriel.
They are now
In the transition state from unlawful to lawful trade,
and turn eagerly to cotton, coffee, and sugar as new sources of wealth.
Mr. Canto had been commissioned by them to purchase three sugar-mills.
Our cruisers have been the principal agents in compelling them
to abandon the slave-trade; and our government, in furnishing them
with a supply of cotton-seed, showed a generous intention to aid them
in commencing a more honorable course. It can scarcely be believed, however,
that after Lord Clarendon had been at the trouble of procuring
fresh cotton-seed through our minister at Washington, and had sent it out
to the care of H. M. Commissioner at Loanda, probably from having fallen
into the hands of a few incorrigible slave-traders, it never reached
its destination. It was most likely cast into the sea of Ambriz,
and my friends at Golungo Alto were left without the means of commencing
a new enterprise.
Mr. Canto mentioned that there is now much more cotton in the country
than can be consumed; and if he had possession of a few hundred pounds,
he would buy up all the oil and cotton at a fair price,
and thereby bring about a revolution in the agriculture of the country.
These commodities are not produced in greater quantity,
because the people have no market for those which now spring up
almost spontaneously around them.
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