Northeast and Southwest Alabama Railroad [pp. 225-228]

NORTHEAST AND SOUTHWEST ALABAMA RAILROAD. 225
the name of Djahr Djrumbo for it. The Hiadramee do not care for the Rebsh
of the Curria Murria isles on their own coast, and, as before mentioned, they do
not take it from the depths but from the superficies.
Rebsh, I am informed by Muscat fishermen, is to be found on or near the
Abdel Curria island, near the westward of Socotra.
There are no guano islands north of the Dahlak group, in which the follow ing have been designated to me, viz.: M'Dbooha and the twin islands M'Dshe dech and Oklan, also a rock covered with guano in the north of the group, near
the island called Doehel (German spelling D6chel). A year ago a fisherman
from Great Dahlak had three boat-loads of guano in store, for which he could not
get buyers, because Dahlak trades but with Massawah and Lohiea, two places
where this article of commerce is not looked for yet.
Throughout the Arabian Gulf people are getting aware of the commercial
value of guano in Frenghistan, it is therefore a comparatively easy task for one
acquainted with the language of the country, who knows how to circumvent
the jealous character of the narrow-minded Arabians, to hunt up every guano
isle or rock in the whole gulf, especially when he has a comfortable light draught clipper at his disposal.
The Red sea offers besides guano highly valuable commodities, such as cof fee, hides, mother-of-pearl, and drugs of all kinds; also, stallions of hoirse and
ass kinds; and last, not least, dried fish of superior quality, for half a cent the
pound. From the moment England declares against France we will be able
to recover from the latter our lost coffee trade in the Red sea, if we but man age it properly. EMANUEL WrISS.
NEW-ORLEANS, May 30th, 1859.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
NORTHEAST AND SOUTHWEST ALABAMA RAILROAD.
LIBERTY, VA., 1st May, 1859.
NEWTON L. WHITFIELD, Esq.,
President N. E. and S. W. Ala. Railroad.
Dear Sir: I have read with much pleasure the annual report of your Company
It is gratifying to the friends of Southern progress to see so much achieved in
the face of such difficulties as you have had to encounter; and ttie energy and
resource manifested by you give an assurance of ultimate and entire success in
your important enterprise.
The Southern States have been found to possess advantages which place them
far in advance of the North in the construction of railroads.
The great elements for the construction of roads are labor and provisions. As
the South possesses these important materials, the problem of their conversion
into a way to market is very simple. A mortgage of this investment and of the
staple freights will furnish the money to iron and stock the road.
The North, on the contrary, is compelled to raise large contributions of money
to purchase labor and provisions; and as its roads are chiefly employed in the
transportation of the productions of other States, the North derives little incidental
advantages from the reduction of freights upon its own staples. The construction of roads in the South adds as directly to the value of real estate, labor,
and productions, as if it had been invested in drainage or fertilization of the
country.
Your road seems to have encountered more than average obstacles. It traverses a sparsely settled country. deficient in slave labor and capital. But you
have adverted to an advantage which will insure you success. Your road is a
section of the "great Southwestern national and international railroad " You
may, therefore, confidently claim the through mail and travel, and the measurement goods; and you must participate in the California gold, mail, and passenger business by the Tehuantepec connection.