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Show JEWISH TRADERS IN AFRICA Are Known to Have Had Depots for Commerce There in the Fifteenth Fif-teenth Century. Jew of the fifteenth century had trading posts In northwest Africa and curried on a vast commerce with the nntlves from the Sahara to the Atlan tic, and from Algeria to the Niger, according ac-cording to letters recently discovered by Charles de la Koneiere, librarian of the national library in France, and published by the National Geographic society. Hitherto Africa lias not figured fig-ured at all in medieval history. It was called the "Dark continent" when Stanley and Livingstone penetrated It about a century ago. The letters recently discovered were written In 1447 by Antonia Malfante, a Genoese citizen, believed to be tlie only Christian the Jews allowed to penetrate their trade region. They were written from Timbuktu and Touut. Timbuktu was the Chicago of tlie West African plains, and Touat tlie center of can'iel caravan tralllc that exchanged the wheat and barley of Egypt for the powdered gold of Timbuktu and the precious salt from Tegbuzza. Touat was an oasis containing con-taining from 150 to 200 villages, and each village had a chief. The civilization of that date was advanced enough for the residents to take a census of their populations. This was done when the people of Timbuktu and a rival city, Gao, were numbered to decide a wager. Business Busi-ness was done on a large scale. |