These Run From
Lisbon To The Cape Verde Islands, Thence To San Thome And Principe,
Then To The Ports Of Angola (Loanda, Benguella, Mossamedes,
Ambrizette, Etc.), And They Carry The Bulk Of The Angola Trade At
Present, Because Of The Preferential Dues On Goods Shipped In
Portuguese Bottoms.
The service of English vessels to the West Coast is weekly; to the
Rivers fortnightly; to the South-west Coast monthly; and it is the
chief thing in West Coast trade enterprise that England has to be
proud of.
Any one of the English boats will go anywhere that mortal boat can
go; and their captains' local knowledge is a thing England at large
should be proud of and the rest of the civilised world regard with
awe-stricken admiration. That they leave no room for further
development of ocean carriage has been several times demonstrated by
the collapse of lines that have attempted to rival them - the Prince
line and more recently the General Steam Navigation.
But although the West Coast trader has at his disposal these
vessels, he has by no means an easy time, or cheap methods, of
getting his stuff on board, save at Sierra Leone and in the Oil
Rivers. Of the Gold Coast surf, and Lagos bar I have already
spoken, and the Calemma as we call the South-west Coast surf is
nearly, if not quite as bad as that on the Gold Coast. Indeed I
hold it is worse, but then I have had more experience of it, and it
has frequently to be worked in native dugouts, and not in the well-
made surf boats used on the Gold Coast. But although these surf-
boats are more safe they are also more expensive than canoes, as a
fine 40 or 60 pounds surf-boat's average duration of life is only
two years in the Gold Coast surf, so there is little to choose from
a commercial standpoint between the two surfs when all is done.
As regards interior transport, the difficulty is greater, but in the
majority of the West Coast possessions of European powers there
exist great facilities for transport in the network of waterways
near the coast and the great rivers running far into the interior.
These waterways are utilised by the natives, being virtually roads;
in many districts practically the only roads existing for the
transport of goods in bulk, or in the present state of the trade
required to exist. But there is room for more white enterprise in
the matter of river navigation; and my own opinion is that if
English capital were to be employed in the direction of small
suitably-built river steamers, it would be found more repaying than
lines of railway. Waterways that might be developed in this manner
exist in the Cross River, the Volta, and the Ancobra. I do not say
that there will be any immediate dividend on these river steamboat
lines, but I do not think that there will be any dividend, immediate
or remote, on railways in West Africa.
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