wealth there may be in the heavily-forested stretches of
country remains unworked and unknown. The difficulty of
transport here greatly hampers the exploitation of the timber
wealth, it being utterly useless- for the natives to fell even
a fine tree, unless it is so close to a waterway that it can be
floated down to the factory. This it is which causes the
ebony, bar, and cam wood to be cut up by them into small
billets which a man can carry. The French and Germans
are both now following the plan of getting as far as possible
into the interior by the waterways, and then constructing
railways. The construction of these railways is fairly easy,
as regards gradients, and absence of dense forest, when your
waterway takes you into the great park-like plateau lands
which extend, as a general rule, behind the forest belt, and
the inevitable mountain range. The most important of these
railways will be that of M. de Brazza up the Sanga valley in
the direction of the Chad. When this railway is constructed,
it will be the death of the Cameroon and Oil River trade
more particularly of the latter, for in the Cameroons the
Germans have broken down the monopoly of the coast tribes,
which we in our possessions under the Niger Coast Protectorate
have not. The Niger Company has broken through,
and taken full possession of a great interior, doing a bit of
work of which every Englishman should feel proud, for it is
the only thing in West Africa that places us on a level with
the French and Germans in courage and enterprise in penetrating
the interior, and fortunately the regions taken over by
the Company are rich and not like the Senegal “ made of sand
and savage savages.” Where in West Africa outside the
Company will you find men worthy as explorers to be named
in the same hreath with de Brazza, Captain Binger, and
Zmtgraff?
Some day, I fear when it will be too late, we shall realise
the foolishness of sticking down on the sea coast, tidying up
our settlements, establishing schools, and drains, and we shall
find our possessions in the Rivers and along the Gold Coast
valueless, particularly in the Rivers, for the trade will surely
drain towards the markets along the line of the French railroad
behind them, for the middlemen tribe that we foster
exact a toll of seventy-five per cent, on the -trade that
comes through their hands, and the English Government is
showing great signs of an inclination to impose such duties
on the only stuff the native cares much for— alcohol— that he
will take his goods to the market where he can get his alcohol •
even if he pays a toll to these markets of fifty per cent!
But of this I will speak later, and we will return to the
question of transport. Mr. Scott Elliot,1 speaking on this
subject as regarding East African regions, has given us a most
interesting contribution based on his personal experience, and
official figures. As many of his observations and figures are
equally applicable to the West Coast, I hope I may be forgiven
for quoting him. His criticism is in favour of the
utilisation of every mile of waterway available. He says, regarding
the Victoria Nyanza, that “ it is possible to place on
it a steamer at the cost of £12,677. Taking the cost of
maintenance, fuel and working expenses at £1,200 a year (a
large estimate) a capital expenditure of £53,000, (.£13,000 for
the steamer and £40,000 to yield three per cent, interest)
would enable this steamer to convey, say thirty tons at the
rate of five to ten miles an hour for £1,600 a year. This
makes it possible to convey a ton at the rate of a halfpenny a
mile, while it would require about £53,000 to build a railway
only eighteen miles long.”
The Congo Free State railway I am informed, has cost, at
a rate per mile, something like eight times this. Further on
Mr. Elliot says: “ In America the surplus population of
Europe, and the markets in the Eastern States have made
railway development profitable on the whole, but in Africa,
until pioneer work has been done, and the prospects of
colonisation and plantation are sufficiently definite and settled
to induce colonists to go out in considerable numbers, it will
be ruinous to build a long railway line.”
I do not quote these figures to discourage the West
Coaster from his railway, but only to induce him to get his
government to make it in the proper direction, namely, into the
interior, where further development of trade is possible.
Judging from other things in English colonies, I should
expect, if left to the spirit of English (West Coast) enterprise,
it would run in a line that would enable the engine drivers
to keep an eye on the Atlantic Ocean instead of the direction
in which it is high time our eyes should be turned.
I confess I am not an enthusiast on civilising the African.
My idea is that the French method of dealing with Africa
is the best at present. Get as much of the continent
as possible down on the map as yours, make your flag
wherever you go a sacred thing to the native— a thing' he
dare not attack. Then, when you have done this, you may
abandon the French plan, and gradually develop the trade in
an English manner, but not in the English manner d la Sierra
1 A Naturalist in Mid Africa, 1896.