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p 374 African Memoranda. ' one European factory, and that indeed not upon the continent, but upon the island of Bissao, and no attempt has hitherto been made, except our fruitless one, by any European power, to settle Property of any of these countries, for the purposes of cultivation; and the soil in the * * native Afri- no European power has certainly any claim to the soil, which cans. . , . . belongs to its present possessors, the native Africans, except only so much as we have already purchased from them. E d^ Ua t'd f 'Admirably adapted as this country is to facilitate its own commerce as internal commerce, by means of its large rivers, and the numer- for cultiva- .. . . , . - . , . tion. ous small ones, which, in a very great portion of it, admit the approach of small vessels to carry off its produce by water; yet it is not less eligibly situated for external commerce, its distance from this country being scarcely more than half that to the West Indies ; and communication with it, at all seasons, practicable, and easy; without the dread of tiphoons and hur ricanes ; or being cramped, and retarded, by trade winds and monsoons. its coioniza- This country then I should propose to colonize. I am well tl0np, ° p0!,ed 'aware that this proposition will be opposed by a very respect- Opposition able, and weighty, body of men, the West India planters; as expected to it. ° J J 1 well as by all those concerned in carrying on the slave trade: but even though it 5^iight be hostile to their interests, which I by no means concede, yet if it will be beneficial to the country at large, it is a measure that ought to be adopted. whetheritbe Many people doubt whether it be the interest of this country this country to extend her colonies or not; probably not—generally speak- coion^es.' h » but so long as we continue to consume the same quantity of sugar and coffee, and to use in ^ur manufactures as much cotton and indigo as we do at present, the one proposed will be to the advantage of the mother country, particularly in the two 3