Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
History
Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]
Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
Africa -- Description and travel
Among the few circumstances which characterize the _Trade_ of Cashna,
as distinguished from that of Bornou, the most remarkable is, that
the Merchants of the _former_ kingdom are the sole carriers, to other
nations, of a scarce and most valuable commodity, which is only to be
obtained from the inhabitants of the _latter_. For though the salt of
Bornou supplies the consumption of Cashna, and of the Negro Kingdoms
to the South, yet its owners have abandoned to the commercial activity
of the Merchants of Agadez, the whole of that profitable trade.
The lakes, on the dreary shores of which this scarce article of
African luxury is found, are separated from Agadez by a march of
five and forty days, and are encompassed on all sides by the sands
of the vast Desart of Bilma, where the ardent heat of a flaming sky
is returned with double fierceness by the surface of the burning
soil. A thousand camels, bred and maintained for the purpose, are
said to compose the caravan which annually explores, in the savage
wilderness, the long line of this adventurous journey. Perilous,
however, and full of hardships as their labour is, the Merchants
find an ample recompence in the profits of their commerce; for while
the wretched villagers who inhabit the neighbourhood of the lakes,
and collect the salt that congeals upon the shores, are contented
to receive, or obliged to accept a scanty price, the value that the
Merchants obtain in the various markets of Cashna, of Tombuctou,
and of the countries to the South of the Niger, is suited to the
high estimation in which the article is held.
Attentive in this manner to the means of profiting by the produce of
a neighbouring country, the people of Agadez are equally anxious to
avail themselves of the commodities that are furnished by their own;
for knowing the superior quality of the senna which grows upon their
mountains, they demand and receive from the Merchants of Fezzan a
proportionable price.
The senna of Agadez is valued in Tripoli at fourteen or fifteen
mahaboobs, or from 4l. 4s. to 4l. 10s. per hundred weight, while
that of Tibesti is worth no more than from nine to ten mahaboobs,
or from 2l. 14s. to 3l. sterling. From Tripoli the senna is exported
to Turkey, Leghorn, and Marseilles.
Of the other articles of sale which the extensive Empire of Cashna
affords, the principal are—
Gold Dust—the value of which appears to be estimated at a higher
rate in Cashna than in Fezzan; for in the former the worth of an ounce
of 640 grains (which is the weight of an ounce in Fezzan, Cashna,
and probably in all the States between that kingdom and the Niger)
is said to be nine mitkals, or 4l. 10s. sterling; whereas an ounce
of the same weight is worth in Fezzan but 4l. In Cashna the value of
an English ounce of 480 grains is consequently 3l. 7s. 6d. whereas
in Fezzan it is only 3l.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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