West African Studies/Appendix 3
APPENDIX III
"Those used in trade by the Senga Company of Senegal at St. Lewis and Goree and their dependent factories of Rufisco, Camina, Juala, Gamboa (Gambia), circa 1677.
"For the convenience of trade between the French at the Senega and the natives, all European goods are reduced to a certain standard, viz., hides, bars, and slaves, for the better understanding whereof I give some instances. One bar of iron is reckoned as worth 8 hides, 1 cutlace the same, 1 cluster of bugles weighing 4¼ lbs. as 3 hides, 1 bunch of false pearls 20 hides, 1 bunch of Gallet 4 hides, 1 hogshead of brandy from 150 to 160 hides. Bugles are very small glass beads, and mostly made at Venice, and sold in strings and clusters. At Goree the same goods bear not quite so good a rate, as, for example, a hogshead of brandy brings but 140 hides, 1 lb. of gunpowder 2 hides, 1 piece of eight 5 hides, 1 oz. of coral 7 or 8 hides, 1 oz. of crystal 1 hide, an ounce of yellow amber 2 hides.
"A slave costs from 12 to 14 bars of iron, and sometimes 16, at Porto d'Ali 18 to 20, and much more at Gamboa, according to the number of ships, French, English, Portuguese, and Dutch, which happen to be there at the same time. The bar of iron is rated at 6 hides.
"Besides these, which are the most staple commodities, the French import common red, blue, and scarlet cloth, silver and brass rings or bracelets, chains, little bells, false crystal, ordinary and coarse hats, Dutch pointed knives, pewter dishes, silk sashes with false gold and silver fringes, blue serges, French paper, steels to strike fire, English sayes, Roan linen, salamporis, platillies, blue callicoes, taffeties, chintzs, cawris or shells, by the French called bouges, coarse north, red cords called Bure, lines, shoes, fustian, red worsted caps, worsted fringe of all colours, worsted of all kinds in skeins, basons of several sizes, brass kettles, yellow amber, maccatons, that is, beads of two sorts, pieces of eight of the old stamp, some pieces of 28 sols value, either plain or gilt, Dutch cutlaces, straight and bow'd, and clouts, galet, martosdes, two other sorts of beads of which the blacks make necklaces for women, white sugar, musket balls, iron nails, shot, white and red frize, looking-glasses in plain and gilt frames, cloves, cinnamon, scissors, needles, coarse thread of sundry colours, but chiefly red, yellow, and white, copper bars of a pound weight, ferrit, men's shirts, coarse and fine, some of them with bone lace about the neck, breast, and sleeves, Haerlem cloths, Coasveld linen, Dutch mugs, white and blue, Leyden rugs or blankets, Spanish leather shoes, brass trumpets, round padlocks, glass bottles with a tin rim at the mouth, empty trunks or chests, and a sort of bugle called Pezant, but above all, as was said above, great quantities of brandy, and iron in bars; particularly at Goree the company imports 10,000 or more every year of those which are made in their province of Brittany, all short and thin, which is called in London narrow flat iron, or half flat iron in Sweden, but each bar shortened or cut off at one end to about 16 to 18 inches, so that about 80 of these bars weigh a ton English. It is to be observed that such voyage-iron, as it is called in London, is the only sort and size used through-out all Nigritia, Guinea, and West Ethiopia in the way of trade. Lastly, a good quantity of Cognac brandy, both in hogsheads and rundlets, single and double, the double being 8, the single 4 gallons.
"The principal goods the French have in return for these commodities from the Moors and Blacks are slaves, gold dust, elephants' teeth, beeswax, dry and green hides, gum-arabic, ostrich feathers, and several other odd things, as ambergris, cods of musk, tygers' and goats' skins, provisions, bullocks, sheep, and teeth of sea-horses (hippopotamus)."
The main trade of the Senga or Senegal Company seems to have been gum and slaves in these regions. Gold dust they got but little of in Senegal, the Portuguese seeming to have been the best people to work that trade. The ivory was, according to Barbot, here mainly that picked up in woods, and scurfy and hollow, or, as we should call it, kraw kraw ivory, the better ivory coming from the Qua Qua Ivory Coast. Hides, however, were in the seventeenth century, as they are now, a regular line in the trade of Senegambia, and the best hides came from the Senegal River, the inferior from Rufisco and Porto d'Ali. Barbot says: "They soak or dye these hides as soon as they are flayed from the beast, and presently expose them to the air to dry; which, in my opinion, is the reason why, wanting the true first seasoning, they are apt to corrupt and breed worms if not looked after and often beaten with a stick or wand, and then laid up in very dry store houses." I have no doubt Barbot is right, and that there is not enough looking after done to them now a days, so that the worms have their own way too much.
The African hides were held in old days inferior to those shipped from South America, both in thickness and size, and were used in France chiefly to cover boxes with; but in later times, I am informed, they were sought after and split carefully into two slices, serving to make kid for French boots.
The French reckoned the trade of the Senga Company to yield 700 or 800 per cent. advance upon invoice of their goods, and yet their Senga Company, instead of thriving, has often brought a noble to ninepence. Nay, it has broken twice in less than thirty years, which must be occasioned by the vast expense they are at in Europe, Africa, and America, besides ill-management of their business; but this is no more than the common fate of Dutch and English African Companies, as well as that to make rather loss than profit, because their charges are greater than the trade can bear, in maintaining so many ports and other forts and factories in Africa, which devour all the profits." I quote this of Barbot as an interesting thing, considering the present state of West Coast Colonial finance.
GAMBIA TRADE, 1678.
"The factors of the English Company at James Fort, and those of the French at Albreda and other places, drive a very great trade in that country all along the river in brigantines, sloops, and canoes, purchasing—
Elephants' teeth, beeswax, slaves, pagnos (country-made clothes), hides, gold and silver, and goods also found in the Sengal trade.
In exchange they give the Blacks—
Bars of iron, drapery of several sorts, woollen stuffs and cloth, linen of several sorts, coral and pearl, brandy or rum in anchors, firelocks, powder, ball and shot, Sleysiger linen, painted callicoes of gay colours, shirts, gilded swords, ordinary looking-glasses, salt, hats, Roan caps, all sorts and sizes of bugles, yellow amber, rock crystal, brass pans and kettles, paper, brass and pewter rings, some of them gilt, box and other combs, Dutch earthen cans, false ear-rings, satalaes, and sabres or cutlaces, small iron and copper kettles, Dutch knives called Bosmans, hooks, brass trumpets, bills, needles, thread and worsted of several colours." This selection practically covered the trade up to Sierra Leone.
SIERRA LEONE, 1678.
"Exports.—Elephants' teeth, slaves, santalum wood, a little gold, much beeswax with some pearls, crystal, long peppers, ambergris, &c. The ivory here was considered the best on the West Coast, being, says Barbot, very white and large, have had some weighing 80 to 100 lbs., at a very modest rate 80 lbs. of ivory for the value of five livres French money, in coarse knives and other such toys. The gold purchased in Sierra Leone, the same authority states, comes from Mandinga and other remote countries towards the Niger or from South Guinea by the River Mitomba. The trade selection was: French brandy or rum, iron bars, white callicoes, Sleysiger linen, brass kettles, earthen cans, all sorts of glass buttons, brass rings or bracelets, bugles and glass beads of sundry colours, brass medals, earrings, Dutch knives, Bosmans, first and second size, hedging bills and axes, coarse laces, crystal beads, painted callicoes (red) called chintz, oil of olive, small duffels, ordinary guns, muskets and fuzils, gunpowder, musket balls and shot, old sheets, paper, red caps, men's shirts, all sorts of counterfeit pearls, red cotton, narrow bands of silk stuffs or worsted, about half a yard broad for women, used about their waists.
The proper goods to purchase, the cam wood and elephants' teeth in Sherboro' River, are chiefly these:—
Brass basons and kettles, pewter basons, and tankards, iron bars, bugles, painted callicoes, Guinea stuffs or cloths, Holland linen or cloth, muskets, powder, and ball. A ship may in two months time out and home purchase here fifty-six tons of cam wood and four tons of elephants' teeth or more."
The trade selection for the Pepper Coast was practically the same as for Sierra Leone, only less extensive and cheaper in make, and had a special line in white and blue large beads. The main export was Manequette pepper and rice, the latter of which was to be had in great quantity but poor quality at about a halfpenny a pound; and there was also ivory to be had, but not to so profitable an extent as on the next coast, the Ivory. The same selection of goods was used for the Ivory Coast trade as those above-named, with the addition of Contaccarbe or Contabrode, namely, iron rings, about the thickness of a finger which the blacks wear about their legs with brass bells, as they do the brass rings or bracelets about their arms in the same manner. The natives here also sold country-made cloths, which were bought by the factors to use in trade in other districts, mainly the Gold Coast; the Ivory Coast cloths come from inland districts, those sold at Cape La Hou are of six stripes, three French ells and a half long, and very fine; those from Corby La Hou of five stripes, about three ells long, and coarser. They also made "clouts" of a sort of hemp, or plant like it, which they dye handsomely, and weave very artificially.
THE GOLD COAST.
This coast has, from its discovery in the 15th century to our own day, been the chief trade region in the Bight of Benin; and Barbot states that the amount of gold sent from it to Europe in his day was £240,000 value per annum.
The trade selection for the Gold Coast trade in the 17th and 18th centuries is therefore very interesting, as it gives us an insight into the manufactures exported by European traders at that time, and of a good many different kinds; for English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Danes and Brandenburghers were all engaged in the Gold Coast trade, and each took out for barter those things he could get cheapest in his own country.
"The French commonly," says Barbot, "carry more brandy, wine, iron, paper, firelocks, &c., than the English or Dutch can do, those commodities being cheaper in France, as, on the other hand, they (the English and Dutch) supply the Guinea trade with greater quantities of linen, cloth, bugles, copper basons and kettles, wrought pewter, gunpowder, sayes, perpetuanas, chintzs, cawris, old sheets, &c., because they can get these wares from England or Holland.
"The French commonly compose their cargo for the Gold Coast trade to purchase slaves and gold dust; of brandy, white and red wine, ros solis, firelocks, muskets, flints, iron in bars, white and red contecarbe, red frize, looking glasses, fine coral, sarsaparilla, bugles of sundry sorts and colours and glass beads, powder, sheets, tobacco, taffeties, and many other sorts of silks wrought as brocardels, velvets, shirts, black hats, linen, paper, laces of many sorts, shot, lead, musket balls, callicoes, serges, stuffs, &c., besides the other goods for a true assortment, which they have commonly from Holland.
"The Dutch have Coesveld linen, Slezsiger lywat, old sheets, Leyden serges, dyed indigo-blue, perpetuanas, green, blue and purple, Konings-Kleederen, annabas, large and narrow, made at Haerlem; Cyprus and Turkey stuffs, Turkey carpets, red, blue and yellow cloths, green, red and white Leyden rugs, silk stuffs blue and white, brass kettles of all sizes, copper basons, Scotch pans, barbers' basons, some wrought, others hammered, copper pots, brass locks, brass trumpets, pewter, brass and iron rings, hair trunks, pewter dishes and plates (of a narrow brim), deep porringers, all sorts and sizes of fishing hooks and lines, lead in sheets and in pipes, 3 sorts of Dutch knives, Venice bugles and glass beads of sundry colours and sizes, sheep skins, iron bars, brass pins long and short, brass bells, iron hammers, powder, muskets, cutlaces, cawris, chintz, lead balls and shot, brass cups with handles, cloths of Cabo Verdo, Qua Qua, Ardra and Rio Forcada, blue coral, alias akory from Benin, strong waters and abundance of other wares, being near 160 sorts, as a Dutchman told me."
I am sorry Barbot broke down just when he seemed going strong with this list, and I was out of breath checking the indent, and said "other wares," but I cannot help it, and beg to say that this is the true assortment for the Gold Coast trade in 1678. The English selection "besides many of the same goods above mentioned have tapseils, broad and narrow, nicanees fine and coarse, many sorts of chintz or Indian callicoes printed, tallow, red painting colours, Canary wine, sayes, perpetuanas inferior to the Dutch and sacked up in painted tillets with the English arms, many sorts of white callicoes, blue and white linen, China satins, Barbadoes rum, other strong waters and spirits, beads of all sorts, buckshaws, Welsh plain, boysades, romberges, clouts, gingarus, taffeties, amber, brandy, flower, Hamburgh brawls, and white, blue and red chequered linen, narrow Guinea stuffs chequered, ditto broad, old hats, purple beads. The Danes, Brandenburghers and Portuguese provide their cargoes in Holland commonly consisting of very near the same sort of wares as I have observed the Dutch make up theirs, the two former having hardly anything of their own proper to the trade of the Gold Coast besides copper and silver, either wrought or in bullion or in pieces of eight, which are a commodity also there.
"The Portuguese have most of their cargoes from Holland under the name of Jews residing there, and they add some things of the product of Brazil, as tobacco, rum, tame cattle, St. Tome cloth, others from Rio Forcado and other circumjacent places in the Gulf of Guinea."
USE MADE OF EUROPEAN GOODS BY THE NATIVES OF THE GOLD COAST. BARBOT.
"The broad linen serves to adorn themselves and their dead men's sepulchers within, they also make clouts thereof. The narrow cloth to press palm oil; in old sheets they wrap themselves at night from head to foot. The copper basons to wash and shave. The Scotch pans serve in lieu of butchers' tubs when they kill hogs or sheep, from the iron bars the smiths forge out all their weapons, country and household tools and utensils; of frize and perpetuanas, they make girts 4 fingers broad to wear about their waists and hang their sword, dagger, knife and purse of money or gold, which purse they commonly thrust between the girdle and their body. They break Venice coral into 4 or 5 parts, which afterwards they mould into any form on whetstones and make strings or necklaces which yield a considerable profit ; of 4 or 5 ells of English or Leyden serges, they make a kind of cloak to wrap about their shoulders and stomachs. Of chintz, perpetuanas, printed callicoes, tapsiels and nicanees, are made clouts to wear round their middles. The wrought pewter, as dishes, basons, porringers, &c., serve to eat their victuals out of, muskets, firelocks and cutlaces they use in war; brandy is more commonly spent at their feasts, knives to the same purposes as we use them. With tallow they anoint their bodies from head to toe and even use it to shave their beards instead of soap. Fishing hooks for the same purpose as with us. Venice bugles, glass beads and contacarbe, serve all ages and sexes to adorn their heads, necks, arms and legs very extravagantly, being made into strings; and sarsaparilla."—Well, I think I have followed Barbot enough for the present on this point, and turn to his description of the dues the natives have to pay to native authorities on goods bought of Europeans, which amounted to 3 per cent. paid to the proper officers; the kings of the land have at each port town, and even fishes, if it exceeds a certain quantity pays 1 in 5; these duties are paid either in coin or value. Up the inland they pay no duty on river fish, but are liable to pay a capitation fee of one shilling per head for the liberty of passing down to the sea-shore either to traffic or attend the markets with their provisions or other sorts of the product of the land, and pay nothing at their return home, goods or no goods, unless they by chance leave their arms in the village, then the person so doing is to pay one shilling.
The collectors account quarterly with their kings, and deliver up what each has received in gold at his respective post, but the fifth part of the fish they collect is sent to the king as they have it, and serves to feed his family.
No fisherman is allowed to dispose of the first fish he has caught till the duty is paid, but are free to do it aboard ships, which perhaps may be one reason why so many of them daily sell such quantities of their fish to the seafaring men.
Barbot, remarking on this Gold Coast trade, says: "The Blacks of the Gold Coast, having traded with Europeans ever since the 14th century, are very well skilled in the nature and proper qualities of all European wares and merchandize vended there; but in a more particular manner since they have so often been imposed on by the Europeans, who in former ages made no scruple to cheat them in the quality, weight and measures of their goods which at first they received upon content, because they say it would never enter into their thoughts that white men, as they call the Europeans, were so base as to abuse their credulity and good opinion of us. But now they are perpetually on, their guard in that particular, examine and search very narrowly all our merchandize, piece by piece, to see each the quality and measure contracted for by samples; for instance, if the cloth is well made and strong, whether dyed at Haerlem or Leyden—if the knives be not rusty—if the basons, kettles, and other utensils of brass and pewter are not cracked or otherwise faulty, or strong enough at the bottom. They measure iron bars with the sole of the foot—they tell over the strings of contacarbel, taste and prove brandy, rum or other liquors, and will presently discover whether it is not adulterated with fresh or salt water or any other mixture, and in point of French brandy will prefer the brown colour in it. In short they examine everything with as much prudence and ability as any European can do."
"The goods sold by English and Dutch, Danes, Brandenburghers, &c., ashore, out of these settlements are generally about 25 per cent. dearer to the Blacks than they get aboard ships in the Roads; the supercargoes of the ships commonly falling low to get the more customers and make a quicker voyage, for which reason the forts have very little trade with the Blacks during the summer season, which fills the coast with goods by the great concourse of ships at that time from several ports of Europe; and as the winter season approaches most of them withdraw from the coast, and so leave elbow room for the fort factors to trade in their turn during that bad season.
"In the year 1682 the gold trade yielded hardly 45 per cent. to our French ships, clear of any charges; but that might be imputed to the great mumber of trading ships of several European nations which happened to be at that time on the coast, whereof I counted 42 in less than a month's time: had the number been half as great that trade would have appeared 60 per cent. or more, and if a cargo were properly composed it might well clear 70 per cent. in a small ship sailing with little charge, and the voyage directly home from this coast not to exceed 7 or 8 months out and home, if well managed."
These observations of Barbot's are alike interesting and instructive, and in principle applicable to the trade to-day. Do not imagine that Barbot was an early member of the Aborigines' Protection Society when he holds forth on the way in which Europeans "in former ages" basely dealt with the angelic confidence of the Blacks. One of his great charms is the different opinions on general principles, &c., he can hold without noticing it himself: of course this necessitates your reading Barbot right through, and that means 668 pages folio in double column, or something like 2,772 pages of a modern book; but that's no matter, for he is uniformly charming and reeks with information.
Well, there are other places in Barbot where he speaks, evidently with convictions, of "this rascal fellow Black," &c. and gives long accounts of the way in which the black man cheats with false weights and measures, and adulterates; and if you absorb the whole of his information and test it against your own knowledge, and combine it with that of others, I think you will come to the conclusion that it is not necessary for the philanthropist to fidget about the way the European does his side to the trade; the moralist may drop a large and heavy tear on both white and black, but that is all that is required from him. Unfortunately this is not all that is done nowadays: the black has got hold of Governmental opinion, and just when he is more than keeping his end up in commercial transactions, he has got the Government to handicap his white fellow-trader with a mass of heavy dues and irritating restrictions, which will end most certainly in stifling trade. My firm conviction is that black and white traders should be left to settle their own affairs among themselves.
The French opened trade in this district in 1669, when the Dutch were already there.
"The main export of this coast was 'slaves, cotton cloth, and blue stones, called agoy or accory, very valuable on the Gold Coast.'
"The best commodity the Europeans can carry thither to purchase is Boejies or cawries, so much valued by the natives, being the current coin there and at Popo, Fida, Benin and other countries further east, without which it is scarcely possible to traffic there. Near to Boejies the flat iron bars for the round or square will not do, and again next to iron, fine long coral, China sarcenets, gilt leather, white damask and red, red cloth with large lists, copper bowls or cups, brass rings, Venice beads or bugles of several colours, agalis, gilded looking glasses, Leyden serges, platilles, linen morees, salampores, red chints, broad and narrow tapsiels, blue canequins, broad gunez and narrow (a sort of linen), double canequins, French brandy in ankers or half-ankers (the anker being a 16 gallon rundlet, canary and malmsey, black caudebec hats, Italian taffeties, white or red cloth of gold or silver, Dutch knives, Bosmans, striped armoizins, with white or flowered, gold and silver brocadel, firelocks, muskets, gunpowder, large beads from Rouen, white flowered sarcenets, Indian armorzins and damask napkins, large coral earrings, cutlaces gilded and broad, silk scarfs large umbrellors, pieces of eight, long pyramidal bells."
All the above-mentioned goods are also proper for the trade in Benin, Rio Lagos and all along the coast to Rio Gabon.
BENIN TRADE GOODS.
"Exports, 1678: cotton cloths like those of Rio Lagos, women slaves, for men slaves (though they be all foreigners, for none of the natives can be sold as such) are not allowed to be exported, but must stay there; jasper stones, a few tigers' or leopards' skins, acory or blue coral, elephants' teeth, some pieminto, or pepper. The blue coral grows in branching bushes like the red coral at the bottom of the rivers and lakes in Benin, which the natives have a peculiar art to grind or work into beads like olives, and is a very profitable merchandise at the Gold Coast, as has been observed.
"The Benin cloths are of 4 bands striped blue and white, an ell and a half long, only proper for the trade at Sabou river and at Angola, and called by the blacks monponoqua and the blue narrow cloths ambasis; the latter are much inferior to the former every way, and both sorts made in the inland country.
"The European goods are these: cloths of gold and silver, scarlet and red cloth, all sorts of calicoes and fine linen, Haerlem stuffs with large flowers and well starched, iron bars, strong spirits, rum and brandy, beads or bugles of several colours, red velvet, and a good quantity of Boejies, cawries as much as for the Ardra (Fida) trade being the money of the natives, as well as them; false pearls, Dutch cans with red streaks at one end, bright brass large rings from 5 to 5½ ounces weight each, earrings of red glass or crystal, gilt looking glasses, crystal, &c."
OUWERE (NOW CALLED WARRI) TRADE, AND THE NEW CALABAR TRADE, 1678.
"Exports mainly slaves and fine cloths from New Calabar district and Ouwere. 'The principal thing that passes in Calabar as current money among the natives is brass rings for the arms or legs, which they call bochie, and they are so nice in the choice of them, that they will often turn over a whole cask before they find 2 to please their fancy.'
"The English and Dutch import there a great deal of copper in small bars, round and equal, about 3 feet long, weighing about 1¼ lbs., which the blacks of Calabary work with much art, splitting the bar into 3 parts from one end to the other, which they polish as fine as gold, and twist the 3 pieces together very ingeniously into cords to make what form of arm rings they please."
OLD CALABAR TRADE, 1678.
"The most current goods of Europe for the trade of Old Calabar to purchase slaves and elephants' teeth are iron bars, in quality and chiefly, copper bars, blue rags, cloth and striped Guinea clouts of many colours, horse bells, hawks' bells, rangoes, pewter basons of 1, 2, 3 and 4 lbs. weight, tankards of ditto of 1, 2, and 3 lbs. weight, beads very small and glazed yellow, green, purple and blue, purple copper armlets or arm rings of Angola make, but this last sort of goods is peculiar to the Portuguese."
The blacks there reckon by copper bars, reducing all sorts of goods to such bars; for example, 1 bar of iron, 4 copper bars; a man slave for 38 and a woman slave for 37 or 36 copper bars.
"The Dutch have the greatest share in the trade here in yachts sent from Mina on the Gold Coast, whose cargo consists mostly of small copper bars of the same sort as mentioned at Old Calabar, iron bars, coral, brass basons, of the refuse goods of the Gold Coast, bloom coloured beads or bugles and purple copper armlets or rings made at Loanda in Angola, and presses for lemons and oranges. In exchange for which they yearly export from thence 400 or 500 slaves, and about 10 or 12 tons weight of fine large teeth, 2 or 3 of which commonly weigh above a hundredweight, besides accory, javelins and some sorts of knives which the blacks there make to perfection, and are proper for the trade of the Gold Coast."
"Ambozes country, situated between the Rio del Rey and Rio Camarones, is very remarkable for the immense height of the mountains it has near the sea-shore, which the Spaniards call Alta Tierra de Ambozi, and reckon some of them as high as the Pike of Teneriffe (this refers to the great Camaroon, 13,760 feet). Trade in teeth, accory and slaves, for iron and copper bars, brass pots and kettles, hammered bugles or beads, bloom colour purple, orange and lemon colour, ox horns, steel files, &c."
The trade in the Rio Gabon at this time was inferior to that at Cape Lopez. Indeed, the ascendency the Gaboon trade attained to in the middle parts of this 19th century was an artificial one, the natural outlet for the trade being the districts round the mouth of the Ogowé river, which penetrates through a far greater extent of country than the rivers Rembwe and Ncomo, which form the Gaboon estuary or Rio Gabon of Barbot.
"Great numbers of ships ran to Cape Lopez Gonzalves in the seventeenth century, and did a pretty brisk trade in cam wood, beeswax, honey and elephants' teeth, of which last a ship may sometimes purchase three or four thousand- weight of good large ones and sometimes more, and there is always an abundance of wax; all which the Europeans purchase for knives called Bosmans, iron bars, beads, old sheets, brandy, malt, spirits or rum, axes, the shells called cauris, annabas, copper bars, brass basons, from eighteen- pence to two shillings apiece, firelocks, muskets, powder, ball, small shot, &c."
There were about 150 ships per annum calling and trading at San Tomé in the seventeenth century. The goods in "French ships particularly consist in Holland cloth or linen as well as of Rouen and Brittany, thread of all colours, serges, silk stockings, fustians, Dutch knives, iron, salt, olive oil, copper in sheets or plates, brass kettles, pitch, tar, cordage, sugar forms (from 20 to 30 lbs. apiece), brandy, all kinds of strong liquors and spirits, Canary wines, olives, carpets, fine flour, butter, cheese, thin shoes, hats, shirts, and all sorts of silks out of fashion in Europe, hooks, &c., of each sort a little in proportion."
In connection with this now but little considered island of San Tomé, so called from having been discovered in the year 1472, under the direction of Henry the Navigator, on the feast day of the Apostle Thomas, there is an interesting bit of history, which has had considerable bearing on the culture of the Lower Congo regions.
The Portuguese, observing the fertility of the soil of this island, decided to establish a colony there for the con- venience of trading in the Guinea regions; but the climate was so unwholesome that an abundance of men died before it was well settled and cultivated. "Violent fevers and cholicks that drove them away soon after they were set a-shore."
"The first design of settling there was in the year 1486 but perceiving how many perished in the attempt, and that they could better agree with that of the continent on the coast of Guinea, it was resolved by King Jaō II. of Portugal that all the Jews within his dominions, which were vastly numerous, should be obliged to receive baptism, or upon refusal be transported to the coast of Guinea, where the Portuguese had already several considerable settlements and a good trade, considering the time since its first discovery.
"A few years after such of those Jews as had escaped the malignant air, were forced away to this Isle of San Tomé; these married to black women, fetched from Angola in great numbers, with near 3,000 men of the same country.
"From these Jews married to black women in process of time proceeded mostly that brood of mulattos at this day inhabiting the island. Most of them boast of being descended from the Portuguese; and their constitution is by nature much fitter to bear with the malignity of the air." (For a full account of this matter see the History of Portugal by Faria y Sousa, p. 304.)
San Tomé is now very flourishing, on account of its soil being suited to cocoa and coffee, and there are to-day there plenty of full-blooded Portuguese; but the old strain of Jewish mulattos still exists and is represented by individuals throughout all the coast regions of West Africa. Moreover, these mulattos secured in the seventeenth century a monopoly for Portugal of the slave trade in the Lower Congo, and I largely ascribe the prevalence of customs identical with those mentioned in the Old Testament that you find among the Fjort tribes to their influence, although you always find such customs represented in all the native cultures in West Africa (presumably because the West African culture is what the Germans would call the urstuff), but I fancy in no culture are they so developed as among the Fjorts.[1]
TRADE GOODS FOR CONGO AND CABENDA, 1700.
"Blue bafts, a piece containing 6 yards and of a deep almost black colour, and is measured either with a stick of 27 inches, of which 8 sticks make a piece, or by a lesser stick, 18 inches long, 12 of which are accounted a piece, Guinea stuffs, 2 pieces to make a piece, tapseils have the same measure as blue bafts.
Nicanees, the same measure.
Black bays, 2½ yards for a piece, measured by 5 sticks of 18 inches each.
Annabasses, 10 to the piece. Painted callicoes, 6 yards to the piece.
Blue paper Slesia, 1 piece for a piece. Scarlet, 1 stick of 18 inches or a yard is accounted a piece.
Muskets, 1 for a piece.
Powder, the barrel or rundlet of 7 lbs. goes for a piece.
Brass basons, 10 for a piece. We carry thither the largest.
Pewter basons of 4, 3, 2 and 1 lb. The No. 4 goes 4 to the piece, and those of 1 lb. 8 to a piece.
Blue perpetuanas have become but of late in great demand, they are measured as blue bafts, 6 yards making the piece.
Dutch cutlaces are the most valued because they have 2 edges, 2 such go for a piece.
Coral, the biggest and largest is much more acceptable here than small coral, which the Blacks value so little that they will hardly look on it, usually 1½ oz. is computed a piece.
Memorandum. A whole piece of blue bafts contains commonly 18½ yards, however some are shorter and others exceed.
Pentadoes. Commonly contain 9 or 9 to the piece.
Tapseils. The piece usually holds 15 yards.
Nicanees. The piece is 9 or 9½ yards long."
The main export of Congo was slaves and elephants' teeth and grass clothes called Tibonges, were used by the Portuguese as at Loando in Angola. Some of them single marked with the arms of Portugal, and others double marked, and some unmarked.
The single marked cloth was equal in value to 4 unmarked, equal to about 8 pence.
TRADE GOODS FOR SAN PAUL DO LOANDA.
"Cloths with red lists, great ticking with long stripes and fine wrought red kerseys, Silesia and other fine linen, fine velvet, small and great gold and silver laces, broad black bays, Turkish tapestry or carpets, white and all sorts of coloured yarns, blue and black beads, stitching and sewing silk, Canary wines, brandy, linseed oil, seamen's knives, all sorts of spices, white sugar and many other commodities and trifles as great fish-hooks, pins a finger long, ordinary pins, needles and great and small hawks' bells.
"The English compose their cargoes generally of brass, basons, annabasses, blue bafts, paper, brawls, Guinea stuffs, muskets, powder, nicanees, tapseils, scarlet, Slesia's, coral, bags, wrought pewter, beads, pentedoes, knives, spirits, &c., all sorts of haberdashery, silks, linens, shirts, hats, shoes, &c., wrought pewter plates, dishes, porringers, spoons of each a little assortment are also very probably vended among the Portuguese, and also all manner of native made cloths from other parts of Guinea fetch good prices in Angola."
- ↑ For the reasons for the unhealthiness of this island see Travels in West Africa (Macmillan), p. 46.