The fruit groves were delightful to the eye of the beholder. Every
variety common to the country, were there to be seen in a high state of
cultivation. Their roads and public highways were in good condition, and
well laid out, as by the direction of skillful supervising surveyors.
The villages, towns, and cities, many of them, being a credit to the
people. Their cities were well laid out, and presented evidence of
educated minds and mechanical ingenuity. In many of the workshops in
which they went, they found skillful workmen, in iron, copper, brass,
steel, and gold; and their implements of husbandry and war, were as well
manufactured by African sons of toil, as any in the English
manufactories, save that they had not quite so fine a finish, garnish
and embellishment. This is a description, given of the industry and
adaptedness of the people of Africa, to labor and toil of every kind. As
it was very evident, that where there were manufactories of various
metals, the people must of necessity be inured to mining operations, so
it was also very evident, that this people must be a very hardy and
enduring people.
In 1442, fifty years previous to the sailing of Columbus in search of a
new world, Anthony Gonzales, Portuguese, took from the gold coast of
Guinea, ten Africans and a quantity of gold dust, which he carried back
to Lisbon with him.
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