On This Coast There Grows A Species Of
_Melegete_, Extremely Pungent Like Pepper, And Resembling The Italian
Grain Called _Sorgo_.
It produces likewise a species of pepper of great
strength, not inferior to any of that which the Portuguese bring
From
Calicut, under the name of _Pimienta del rabo_, or _Pepe dalla coda_, and
which African pepper resembles _cubbebs_, but so powerful that an ounce
will go farther than a pound of the common sort; but its exportation is
prohibited, lest it should injure the sale of that which is brought from
Calicut[6]. There is also established on this coast a manufacture of an
excellent kind of soap from palm-oil and ashes, which is carried on for
the king's account. All the trade of this coast, to the kingdom of
_Manicongo_ exclusively, is farmed out every four or five years to the
highest bidder. Great Negro caravans bring gold and slaves to the
stations on the coast. The slaves are either prisoners taken in war, or
children whom their parents have parted with in the hope of their being
carried to a more fertile country. For above ninety years after the first
discovery of this coast, the Portuguese merchants were accustomed to
enter the large rivers by which the country is everywhere intersected,
trading independently with the numerous tribes inhabiting their banks;
but now the whole of this commerce is in the hands of stationary licensed
factors, to whom it is farmed.
On quitting St Jago we steer southerly for the Rio Grande, which is on
the north of Ethiopia, beyond which we come to the high mountain of
Sierra Liona, the summit of which is continually enveloped in mist, out
of which thunder and lightning almost perpetually flashes, and is heard
at sea from the distance of forty or fifty miles.
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