I Know This Is Heresy, So I Will Attempt To Explain The
Matter.
First, as regards communication to Europe by sea, the West
Coast is extremely well off, the two English lines of steamers
managed by Messrs.
Elder Dempster, the British African, and the
Royal African, are most enterprisingly conducted, and their devotion
to trade is absolutely pathetic. Let there be but the least vague
rumour (sometimes I have thought they have not waited for the
rumour, but "gone in" as an experiment) of a puncheon of oil, or a
log of timber waiting for shipment at an out-of-the-world, one house
port, one of these vessels will bear down on that port, and have
that cargo. In addition to the English lines there is the Woermann
line, equally devoted to cargo, I may almost say even more so, for
it is currently reported that Woermann liners will lie off and wait
for the stuff to grow. This I will not vouch for, but I know the
time allowed to a Woermann captain by his owners between Cameroons
and Big Batanga just round the corner is eight days.
These English and German lines, having come to a friendly
understanding regarding freights, work the Bights of Benin, Biafra,
and Panavia, without any rivals, save now and again the vessels
chartered by the African Association to bring out a big cargo, and
the four sailing vessels belonging to the Association which give an
eighteenth-century look to the Rivers, and have great adventures on
the bars of Opobo and Bonny.
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