DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0157
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 129
these poor treasures of the primitive man's ingenuity, still in his own hands, will
unquestionably tend to allay the melancholy feeling too prevalent among us, that
numerous portions of our race should be doomed by Providence to perish at the approach
of their more instructed brethren. Facts encourage a nobler and a wiser prospect. A
capacity for a safer and better condition of life is clearly established by these produc-
tions of industry—exercised in every climate, within the burning tropic and at the pole,
by Negro and Esquimaux ; by the gloomy American forests, and over the bare steppes of
Tartary: by the half-amphibious islander of the Pacific equally as by the Kaffir, to whom
an iron-bound coast and unnavigable mountain streams refuse the use of the simplest
boat—each, however, having his peculiar occupation. All this confirms the oft-repeated
judgment, that art is natural to man, and that the skill he acquires after many ages of
practice, is only the improvement of a talent he possessed at first. Destined to cultivate
his own nature and co mend his situation, man finds a continual subject of attention, of
ingenuity, and of labour. The same satisfactory conclusion was supported by analogous
materials in the Exhibition, and more abundant ones than the purely aboriginal products.
These were the contributions obtained for our daily use by the combined labours of
civilised and aboriginal men. They are the raw materials of commerce to an enormous
amount in quantity and value; the dyes, the gums, the drugs, the oils, the seeds, the
woods, the woven and textile plants, the leaves, the roots, the skins, the furs, the feathers,
the shells, which promote so largely the comfort and adornment of social life. The
several departments of each civilised nation in turn have received these contributions
from the barbarian, and sometimes from the savage—the aborigines—whom, in return,
civilisation has not yet discovered a better way to manage, than by almost incessant
warfare. It is a capital point, in considering these raw materials of the arts, to know
how to obtain them in a genuine condition; and on this point it will be found that our
interests as manufacturers and merchants, and consumers, coincide happily with our
duties as men. Exactly in proportion as the native collectors of nature's stores are
well treated and well instructed in the best ways of civilisation, the more expert are
they, and the more disposed to be vigilant and honest in their work.
British Guiana.—The survey of aboriginal products in the Exhibition may be
conveniently begun with British Guiana, as the collections from the colony were
remarkably complete, and it is a country admirably described by Sir Robert H. Schom-
burgk, one of the most accomplished of modern travellers. It is a portion of South
America on the Atlantic, in latitude six degrees north of the equator, and contains
forty-eight and-a-half millions of acres of land. The staple produce is sugar, rum, and
coffee, with some cotton. Other produce of less value are its plantains and various
esculents, with timber and other articles approved by the experience of the aborigines.
The chief food of the natives, the cassava bread, was to be seen here; which it is seriously
proposed to export to England, as being superior to the potato in nutritious quality,
and so much more abundant than any meal known, that a profit of .£50 per acre may
be gained by its culture. The graters used by the natives in preparing the cassava meal
from the root are the manufacture of particular tribes, famous for this business, as others
are especially famous for the manufacture of hammocks—the materials probably in both
cases being abundant in their countries; as Manchester owes its ancient celebrity to the
streams and coals of its neighbourhood. The cassava bread is made in an elastic
tube, called the metappee, a very ingenious contrivance of the Indians, says Sir B. Schom-
burgk, to press the juice from the root, which is one of the most violent poisons before
being pressed. After the root is scraped, it is pressed in this tube, plaited of the stems of
the calathea. A pole in the tube is used as a powerful lever, and weighed down by
two persons sitting on it. The juice escapes through the plaited work, and the dried
2 L
these poor treasures of the primitive man's ingenuity, still in his own hands, will
unquestionably tend to allay the melancholy feeling too prevalent among us, that
numerous portions of our race should be doomed by Providence to perish at the approach
of their more instructed brethren. Facts encourage a nobler and a wiser prospect. A
capacity for a safer and better condition of life is clearly established by these produc-
tions of industry—exercised in every climate, within the burning tropic and at the pole,
by Negro and Esquimaux ; by the gloomy American forests, and over the bare steppes of
Tartary: by the half-amphibious islander of the Pacific equally as by the Kaffir, to whom
an iron-bound coast and unnavigable mountain streams refuse the use of the simplest
boat—each, however, having his peculiar occupation. All this confirms the oft-repeated
judgment, that art is natural to man, and that the skill he acquires after many ages of
practice, is only the improvement of a talent he possessed at first. Destined to cultivate
his own nature and co mend his situation, man finds a continual subject of attention, of
ingenuity, and of labour. The same satisfactory conclusion was supported by analogous
materials in the Exhibition, and more abundant ones than the purely aboriginal products.
These were the contributions obtained for our daily use by the combined labours of
civilised and aboriginal men. They are the raw materials of commerce to an enormous
amount in quantity and value; the dyes, the gums, the drugs, the oils, the seeds, the
woods, the woven and textile plants, the leaves, the roots, the skins, the furs, the feathers,
the shells, which promote so largely the comfort and adornment of social life. The
several departments of each civilised nation in turn have received these contributions
from the barbarian, and sometimes from the savage—the aborigines—whom, in return,
civilisation has not yet discovered a better way to manage, than by almost incessant
warfare. It is a capital point, in considering these raw materials of the arts, to know
how to obtain them in a genuine condition; and on this point it will be found that our
interests as manufacturers and merchants, and consumers, coincide happily with our
duties as men. Exactly in proportion as the native collectors of nature's stores are
well treated and well instructed in the best ways of civilisation, the more expert are
they, and the more disposed to be vigilant and honest in their work.
British Guiana.—The survey of aboriginal products in the Exhibition may be
conveniently begun with British Guiana, as the collections from the colony were
remarkably complete, and it is a country admirably described by Sir Robert H. Schom-
burgk, one of the most accomplished of modern travellers. It is a portion of South
America on the Atlantic, in latitude six degrees north of the equator, and contains
forty-eight and-a-half millions of acres of land. The staple produce is sugar, rum, and
coffee, with some cotton. Other produce of less value are its plantains and various
esculents, with timber and other articles approved by the experience of the aborigines.
The chief food of the natives, the cassava bread, was to be seen here; which it is seriously
proposed to export to England, as being superior to the potato in nutritious quality,
and so much more abundant than any meal known, that a profit of .£50 per acre may
be gained by its culture. The graters used by the natives in preparing the cassava meal
from the root are the manufacture of particular tribes, famous for this business, as others
are especially famous for the manufacture of hammocks—the materials probably in both
cases being abundant in their countries; as Manchester owes its ancient celebrity to the
streams and coals of its neighbourhood. The cassava bread is made in an elastic
tube, called the metappee, a very ingenious contrivance of the Indians, says Sir B. Schom-
burgk, to press the juice from the root, which is one of the most violent poisons before
being pressed. After the root is scraped, it is pressed in this tube, plaited of the stems of
the calathea. A pole in the tube is used as a powerful lever, and weighed down by
two persons sitting on it. The juice escapes through the plaited work, and the dried
2 L