ow what
Africa was capable of affording instead of the Slave-trade, and that they
might make a proper estimate of the genius and talents of the natives. The
samples which I had collected, had been obtained by great labour, and at no
inconsiderable expense: for whenever I had notice that a vessel had arrived
immediately from that continent, I never hesitated to go, unless under the
most pressing engagements elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could
pick up but a single new article. The Lords having consented, I selected
several things for their inspection out of my box, of the contents of which
the following account may not be unacceptable to the reader.

The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts,
tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow ebony,
palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were seven woods of which
the native names were remembered: three of these, Tumiah, Samain, and
Jimlake, were of a yellow colour; Acajou was of a beautiful deep crimson;
Bork and Quelle were apparently fit for cabinet work; and Benten was the
wood of which the natives made their canoes. Of the various other woods the
names had been forgotten, nor were they known in England at all. One of
them was of a fine purple; and from two others, upon which the privy
council had caused experiments to be made, a strong yellow, a deep orange,
and a flesh-colour were extracted.

The second division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper, the
long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta: three species of gum;
namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice, tobacco,
indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet; three species of
beans, of which two were used for food, and the other for dyeing orange;
two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to give whiteness to
the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds, some of the latter of
which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced, from a trial during his residence in
Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.

The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle with
spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds, made by the
natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and
others, in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made of
grass, and fancifully coloured; orna