My Knowledge Of Bonny, Bell, And Akkwa Towns,
Libreville, Lembarene, Kabinda, Boma, Banana, Nkoi, Loanda, Etc., Is
Extensive And Peculiar,
And I have spent hours in them when the
whole of the missionary and Government people have been safe in
Their distant houses; so had the evils of the liquor traffic been
anything like half what it is made out to be I must have come across
it in appalling forms, and I have not.
The figures of the case I will not here quote because they are
easily obtainable from Government reports by any one interested in
the matter. I regard their value as being small unless combined
with a knowledge of the West Coast trade. The liquor goes in at a
few ports on the West Coast, and into the hands of those tribes who
act as middlemen between the white trader and the interior trade-
stuff-producing tribes; and is thereby diffused over an enormous
extent of thickly inhabited country. We English are directly in
touch with none of the interior trade - save in the territory of the
Royal Niger Company, and the Delta tribes with whom we deal in the
Oil Rivers subsist on this trade between the interior and the Coast,
and they prefer to use spirits as a buying medium because they get
the highest percentage of profit from it, and the lowest percentage
of loss by damage when dealing with it. It does not get spoilt by
damp, like tobacco and cloth do; indeed, in addition to the amount
of moisture supplied by their reeking climate, they superadd a large
quantity of river water to the spirit before it leaves their hands,
while with the other articles of trade it is one perpetual grind to
keep them free from moisture and mildew.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 651 of 705
Words from 179750 to 180048
of 194943
