socially, politically, and commercially.

I have determined to leave to my children the inheritance of a country,
the possession of territorial domain, the blessings of a national
education, and the indisputable right of self-government; that they may
not succeed to the servility and degradation bequeathed to us by our
fathers. If we have not been born to fortunes, we should impart the
seeds which shall germinate and give birth to fortunes for them.

XII

TO DIRECT LEGITIMATE COMMERCE

First Steps in Political Economy

As the first great national step in political economy, the selection and
security of a location to direct and command commerce legitimately
carried on, as an export and import metropolis, is essentially
necessary. The facilities for a metropolis should be adequate--a rich,
fertile, and productive country surrounding it, with some great staple
(which the world requires as a commodity) of exportation. A convenient
harbor as an outlet and inlet, and natural facilities for improvement,
are among the necessary requirements for such a location.

The Basis of a Great Nation--National Wealth

The basis of great nationality depends upon three elementary principles:
first, territory; second, population; third, a great staple production
either natural or artificial, or both, as a permanent source of wealth;
and Africa comprises these to an almost unlimited extent. The continent
is five thousand miles from Cape Bon (north) to the Cape of Good Hope
(south), and four thousand at its greatest breadth, from Cape Guardifui
(east) to Cape de Verde (west), with an average breadth of two thousand
five hundred miles, any three thousand of which within the tropics north
and south, including the entire longitude, will produce the staple
cotton, also sugar cane, coffee, rice, and all the tropical staples,
with two hundred millions of _natives_ as an industrial element to work
this immense domain. The world is challenged to produce the semblance of
a parallel to this. It has no rival in fact.

Advantageous Location

Lagos, at the mouth of the Ogun river in the Bight of Benin, Gulf of
Guinea, 6 deg. 31 min. west coast of Africa, 120 miles north-west of the
Nun (one of the mouths of the great river Niger) is the place of our
location. This was once the greatest slave-trading post on the west
coast of Africa, and in possession of the Portuguese--the slavers
entering Ako Bay, at the mouth of the Ogun river, lyi