286 COMMERCE.

in their power, for a long time, to keep secret the sources, whence they derive so large a quantity of this commodity ; thus they remained perfectly quiet at Suakim, where this article of commerce was brought to them, avoiding the necessity of exposing themselves to the unhealthy climate of the interior of Africa, or rather of Kordofan. They have appointed agents at Suakim, Indians by birth, who manage the business for two, or at the most three, English houses established in India. In the year 1840, an Englishman was stationed there transacting business, and he was by no means pleased at finding the secret, which had stood the test of so many years, at last discovered. The cantaro costs from 10/. to \2L, and scarcely a fourth part of it pays duty at the customhouse in Suakim, Small coasting vessels act as lighters to convey the cargo to the larger Arabian and Indian ships lying off in readiness to receive it, which then sail for India directly.

At a distance of half a league from the shore of Abyssinia, and two leagues from Arkiko, is an island in the possession of the Viceroy of Egypt, named Massauwa, which forms, as it were, the key of Abyssinia; for all the ivory brought from Abyssinia, the Galla country, and the south-west and southern parts of Africa, must pass through this island The cargoes from Shoa (in southern Abyssinia) and the neighbouring states, are discharged at Berbera and Zeila, a town on the Af-