TRAVELS IN AFRICA.――PARK, DENHAM, CLAPPERTON, LANDER, AND OTHERS.

The vast continent of Africa, measuring 5000 miles in length, and

about 4700 in its greatest breadth, and the area of which is

calculated at 12,000,000 square miles, or nearly one-fourth of the

entire land area of the globe, has presented greater obstacles to

human enterprise than any other equal portion of the earth’s surface.

The peculiar physical condition of Africa has operated as one cause of

her isolation from the rest of the world. The other portions of our

earth situated under the tropics consist generally either of sea, or

of narrow peninsular tracts of land, the clusters of islands blown

upon the sea-breeze. Africa, on the other hand, presents scarcely one

gulf or sea-break in its vast outline. A consequence of this compact

geographical shape of a continent, the greater part of which is within

the torrid zone, is its subjection, throughout its entire extent, to

the unmitigated influence of the sun’s heat. All that is noxious in

climate we are accustomed to associate with Africa. Here stretching

out into a boundless desert, where for days the traveler toils amid

burning sands under a stifling sky――there covered with dense and

swampy jungle, breathing out pestilence, and teeming with all the

repulsive forms of animal life, the African continent seems to defy

the encroachments of European civilization. And although, probably,

our ideas of these African horrors will be modified by more accurate

knowledge, enough seems ascertained to prove that the lying open of

interior Africa to the general flood of human influence will be among

the last achievements of the exploring spirit of our race.

Notwithstanding the difficulties which lie in the way, Africa has at

all times been an object of curiosity and interest to the inhabitants

of the civilized parts of the earth; and scientific zeal, the desire

of extending traffic, and even the mere thirst for adventure, have

prompted many expeditions for the purpose of exploring its coast and

making discoveries in its interior. The ancients appear to have

acquired much knowledge of Africa, which was afterwards lost, and had

to be reacquired by the moderns for themselves. The African coasts of

the Mediterranean and the Red Sea were not only familiar to the

ancient geographers, but were inhabited by populations which performed

a conspicuous part in the general affairs of the world, and ranked

high in the scale of civilization――the Egyptians, Carthaginians, etc.

Nor, if we may believe the evidence which exists in favor of the

accounts of the circumnavigation of Africa by ancient navigators, were

the other coasts of the continent――those, namely, which were washed by

the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean――unvisited by northern ships.

Regarding the interior of Africa, too, the knowledge possessed by the

ancients, although very meagre in itself, was nearly as definite as

that possessed by their modern descendants, until within a

comparatively recent period. As far as the northern borders of the

Great Desert, their own personal observation might be said to extend;

and respecting the wandering tribes of black and savage people living

farther to the south, they had received many vague notices. The Nile

being one of the best-known rivers of the ancient world, its origin

and course were matters of great interest, and the African geography

of the ancients, in general, may be said to consist of speculations

respecting this extraordinary river. The first mention made of the

other great African river, the Niger, is by Ptolemy, who lived seventy

years after Christ. Ptolemy believed that this river discharged itself

ultimately into the Nile; others, however, did not admit this

conclusion, and acknowledged that the real course of the Niger was a

mystery.

Such are some of the more prominent points in the ancient geography of

Africa. How wild and inacurate must have been the notion entertained

respecting the shape and total extent of the African continent, may be

judged from the fact, that one geographer describes it as an irregular

figure of four sides, the south side running nearly parallel to the

equator, but considerably to the north of it! Others, again, held

forth the fearful picture of Central Africa as a vast burning plain,

in which no green thing grew, and into which no living being could

penetrate; and this hypothesis of an uninhabitable torrid zone became

at length the generally received one.

The invasion of Africa by the Arab races in the seventh century

wrought a great change in the condition of the northern half of that

continent. Founding powerful states along the Mediterranean coasts,

these enterprising Mohammedans, or Moors, as they were called, were

able, by means of the camel, to effect a passage across the Desert

which had baffled the ancients, and to hold intercourse with the

negroes who lived on its southern border along the banks of the Niger

and the shores of Lake Tchad. In some of the negro states the Arabs

obtained a preponderance, and with others they carried on an

influential and lucrative commerce. The consequence was a mixture of

Moorish and negro blood among the inhabitants of the countries of

Central Africa bordering on the Great Desert, as well as a general

diffusion of certain scraps of the Mohammedan religion among the negro

tribes. Hence it is that, in the innermost recesses of interior Africa

at the present day, we find the negroes partly professing Paganism,

partly Mohammedanism, but all practicing ceremonies and superstitions

in which we observe the Pagan spirit with a slight Mohammedan

tincture.

It was not till the fifteenth century that the career of modern

European discovery in Africa commenced. The Portuguese, leading the

van of the nations of Europe in that great movement of maritime

enterprise which constitutes so signal an epoch in the history of

modern society, selected the western course of Africa as the most

promising track along which to prosecute discovery; their intercourse

with the Moors having made them aware that gold and other precious

commodities were to be procured in that direction. In the year 1433,

Cape Bojador was passed by a navigator called Gilianez; and others

succeeding him, passed Cape Blanco, and, exploring the entire coast of

the Desert, reached at length the fertile shores of Gambia and Guinea.

The sudden bending inwards of the coast line at the Gulf of Guinea

gave a new direction and a new impulse to the activity of the

Portuguese. Having no definite ideas of the breadth of the African

continent, they imagined that, by continuing their course eastward

along the Gulf, they would arrive at the renowned country of the great

Prester John, a fabulous personage, who was believed to reign with

golden sway over an immense and rich territory, situated no one could

tell where, but which some contended could be no other than Abyssinia.

The Portuguese, while prosecuting their discoveries along the African

coast, did not neglect means for establishing a commercial intercourse

with those parts of the coast which they had already explored.

Settlements or factories for the convenience of the trade in gold,

ivory, gum, different kinds of timber, and eventually also in slaves,

were founded at various points of the coast between Cape Verd and

Biafra. Various missionary settlements were likewise founded for the

dissemination of the Roman Catholic faith among the natives.

The chimera of Prester John was succeeded by the more rational hope of

effecting a passage to India by the way of Southern Africa. This great

feat, accordingly, was at length achieved by Vasco de Gama, who, in

1497, four years after the discovery of America by Columbus, persisted

in his course to the south so far as to double the Cape of Good Hope,

and point the way northward into the Indian Ocean. By his voyages and

those of his successors, the eastern coast of Africa, from the Cape of

Good Hope through the Mozambique Channel to the Red Sea, was soon

defined as accurately as the western coast had been by the voyages of

his predecessors; and thus the entire outline and shape of the African

continent were at length made known. This great service to science and

to the human race was rendered, it ought to be remarked, by the

Portuguese, who may be said to have conducted the enterprise of the

circumnavigation of Africa from its beginning to its end; and this is

perhaps the greatest contribution which the Portuguese, as a nation,

have made to the general fund of human knowledge.

The outline of Africa having thus been laid down on the maps, and the

extent of its surface ascertained, the attention of discoverers was

next turned to its interior. The efforts made by the Portuguese to

explore Nigritia in search of Prester John have been already alluded

to; but it was by the other nations of Europe, especially the English,

the French, and the Dutch, who, on the decline of the Portuguese

power, began to compete with each other in this field of enterprise,

that the greatest advances were made in the knowledge of geography of

the various parts of Africa, and of the races which inhabit it. For

these last two hundred years, discoverers and travelers of various

nations have been adding to our information respecting this vast

continent; and in consequence of their joint labors, some in one part,

some in another, we are now able to form an idea, very general, it

must, be admitted, but still tolerably distinct, of Africa and its

inhabitants. In presenting a summary view of the progress of African

discovery, from the period of the final circumnavigation of the

continent, and its correct delineation in outline, down to the present

time, it will be advantageous to take up its various divisions in the

following order:――Western Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa,

Central Africa or Nigritia, and Northern Africa, including the Great

Desert.

WESTERN AFRICA.――The shores of Western Africa, especially those which

border the Gulf of Guinea, have retained to the present time the

distinction which they acquired at the period of their discovery by

the Portuguese, of being the market which European ships visit for

African commodities.

The Portuguese, as we have already mentioned, where the first to plant

factories along this coast, from the southern termination of the Great

Desert to Congo, and other maritime districts south of the equator.

Allured by the profits of the slave trade, other European nations

hastened to occupy stations on the same coast; and towards the end of

the eighteenth century, the number of European forts and factories

round the Gulf of Guinea were said to be forty in all; of which

fifteen belonged to the Dutch, fourteen to the English, four to the

Portuguese, four to the Danes, and three to the French. Deriving its

principal commercial importance from the trade in negroes, which this

chain of forts was intended to guard, Western Africa has, since the

abolition of the slave trade, fallen considerably out of view.

According to the best information, however, that has been obtained,

‘the territory is in the possession of a number of petty states, many

of which compose aristocratic republics, turbulent, restless,

licentious, and generally rendered more depraved by their intercourse

with Europeans.’

Proceeding from north to south, let us briefly notice the various

countries of the western coast, with the tribes which inhabit them.

The most northerly is Senegambia, the name applied to the district

watered by the two rivers Senegal and Gambia, commencing from the

Desert, and extending as far as the Grain Coast. According to Mungo

Park, this territory is inhabited by four tribes――the Feloops, the

Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the Mandingoes. In all these tribes, part

are Mohammedans by profession; but the great body of the people are

Pagans, called by their Mohammedan brethren Kafirs, or infidels, and

practicing the Fetish form of worship; that is, the worship of

inanimate objects. The Feloops were described by Park as a gloomy and

revengeful race, but honorable and faithful in their dealings with

friends; the Jaloffs as an active and warlike people, with jet-black

skins, but among the most handsome of the negroes, divided into

several principalities, and excelling in the manufacture of cotton

cloth; The Foulahs――a race of more importance in Africa than Park

imagined――as of a tawny complexion, with soft silky hair and pleasing

features, much attached to a pastoral life; and the Mandingoes, who

are by far the most numerous people in this part of Africa, as of a

mild, sociable, and obliging disposition, the men commonly above the

middle-size, well-shaped, strong, and capable of enduring great labor,

the women good-natured, sprightly and agreeable.

The tract of country adjoining Senegambia on the south, and stretching

along the Gulf of Guinea, from the Grain Coast to the Bight of Biafra,

has been named Upper Guinea, and includes, besides the colonies of

Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory and Gold Coasts, so noted for their

unhealthiness, three native states――namely, Ashantee, Dahomey, and

Benin. Our information respecting these negro kingdoms is derived from

the discoveries of various travelers, among whom may be mentioned Mr.

Norris, who undertook a journey to the court of the king of Dahomey in

1772, with the hope of making arrangements beneficial to English

trade; Mr. Bowditch, who took part in a mission for a similar purpose

to the king of Ashantee in 1817; and Captain Adams, who visited Benin

at a later period.

Ashantee is described as a hilly country, well watered by numerous

streams, and covered almost entirely with that rich vegetable

luxuriance, the labor of removing which, it has been observed, is as

severe for the agriculturist as the opposite labor of fertilizing

barren lands. The Ashantee negro clears the land by means of

fire――thus both removing the rank vegetation, and spreading the soil

with a rich manure, which yields two crops a year. Besides innumerable

kinds of fruit and flowers, and all the giant trees of the tropics,

the productions are sugar, tobacco, maize, rice, yams, and potatoes.

All kinds of tropical animals likewise swarm in Ashantee. The human

inhabitants of the whole region or empire are estimated at three

millions, and though possessing, in a marked degree, some of the worst

negro characteristics, they are, upon the whole, more advanced than

most of the African tribes, not only practicing a regular and

tolerably skilled agriculture, but showing considerable ingenuity in

several mechanical arts――as dyeing, tanning, pottery, weaving, and the

manufacture of instruments and ornaments out of gold, iron, etc. They

are also cleanly, and well clad, and pay some attention to the

building and decoration of their houses. Their government is an

absolute monarchy, or nearly so; the classes of society under the

monarch being cabocees or nobles, gentry, traders, and slaves.

Polygamy is allowed, but no one but the king possesses many wives. The

royal number of wives is said to be precisely 3333, who, however, act

also in other capacities; as bodyguards, etc. The most horrible of the

Ashantee customs is that of sacrificing a number of persons on the

death of every man of rank, the number of victims being regarded not

only as indicating the dignity of the deceased in this world, but as

determining his rank in the next. The belief in a future state is one

of the strongest of their religious ideas. Regarding the origin of

mankind, they, as well as other negro tribes of the Guinea Coast, have

the following singular tradition:――The Great Spirit, they say, having

created three white men and women, and as many black, offered the

blacks the first choice of two articles which he held in his hand, one

of which was a calabash, the other a sealed paper. The blacks chose

the calabash, which contained gold, iron, and all the choice products

of the earth; in consequence of which the negro race to this day

possess these blessings in abundance: while the sealed paper falling

to the share of the whites, has conferred on them a higher gift of

knowledge, wherewith the contents of the calabash may be turned to

account. This admission of the superiority of the whites on the part

of the Ashantees appears also in their belief that the good negroes

become white in the future state. No part of Africa, or even of the

world, is believed to be richer in gold than Ashantee.

The kingdom of Dahomey, situated eastward from Ashantee, resembles it

in the general aspect of the soil, and in many other particulars. It

appears to be a recent negro state, formed by the conquest of a number

of tribes by a powerful race from the interior. The government of the

Dahomans, like that of the Ashantees, is an absolute monarchy; but the

Dahoman king seems to be still more despotic in practice than his

Ashantee neighbor. When, in obedience to some superstitious freak, he

wishes to send a message to some of his deceased relatives in the

other world, he delivers the message to some attendant negro, whose

head is immediately cut off, as a means of forwarding him to his

destination; and if the monarch has forgot any part of his

communication, he immediately adds a postscript by a second messenger.

The bloody custom of sacrificing a number of victims on the occasion

of a great man’s funeral is practiced at Dahomey as well as Ashantee.

The Dahomans have similar religious beliefs with the Ashantees: their

principal object of worship, appropriately enough, is the tiger. Of

late years some improvement is said to have taken place in the habits

of this fierce African race.

Passing from Upper Guinea, of which Ashantee and Dahomey are the

principal territories, we come next to Lower or South Guinea, which

extends from the Bight of Benin to the commencement of Southern

Africa, and includes the provinces or districts of Loango, Congo,

Angola and Benguela. The whole of this tract of coast presents the

aspect of a country degraded and deteriorated by intercourse with

Europeans, to a condition worse than its original negro barbarism.

Here, more than three centuries ago, the Portuguese established

themselves partly as missionaries of Christianity, and partly as

traders in slaves; and while their efforts in the former capacity,

directed as they are by the most absurd and wretched bigotry, produced

almost no beneficial effect, the curse of the slave traffic which they

imported has adhered to the country with a tenacity which all the

rigors of modern philanthropy cannot overcome. It is from these coasts

that the exportation of negroes is said to go on at the present time

more busily than it did before the abolition of the slave trade. The

characteristics of the coast, and of the population which inhabit it,

are determined by the brutal traffic of which it is the scene. It is

impossible, within our limits, to give a description of the whole line

of shore, of the small port-towns scattered along it, with their

motley population of negroes, mulattoes, and slave-dealing Portuguese;

or of the negro districts in the interior, where the natives fight and

kidnap each other to supply the demand for slaves on the coast.

SOUTHERN AFRICA. Occupied with their commerce on the coasts of Western

Africa, the Portuguese scarcely give a thought to the southern

extremity of the continent, the aspect of which was less promising;

and accordingly, for a century and a half after the famous voyage of

Vasco de Gama, the district round the cape of Good Hope remained a

blank waste to Europeans. The prudent and enterprising Dutch, however,

having embarked in the East India trade, soon discovered the

importance of the cape as a commercial station, and in the year 1650

they founded Cape Town, the capital of Cape Colony, the most

flourishing of all the European settlements in Africa. Encroaching,

without the least scruple, on the territories of the natives, the

Dutch extended their possessions so as to include an area of upwards

of 120,000 square miles, some spots of which were cultivated and

planted with vines, or laid out in corn-fields, but the greater part

of which was converted into immense grazing farms. Under the Dutch the

natives suffered dreadfully, numbers of them being reduced to bondage,

and others driven into the interior to find subsistence as they best

could. In 1795 the colony was taken by the English; it was again

restored to the Dutch in 1800; a second time, however, it was taken by

the English, to whom it was finally ceded in the year 1815, and is

now, accordingly, an English possession. Both before and after the

cession of Cape Colony to the British, various travelers have

undertaken journeys among the tribes inhabiting this extremity of

Africa; and no accounts are more full and interesting than those of

the various missionaries, who, since the beginning of the present

century, have employed themselves in the arduous task of carrying the

doctrines of Christianity into the heart of the native tribes. The

native tribes of Southern Africa are two in number――the Hottentots and

the Caffres; the former, so far as not extirpated, inhabiting the

tract of country adjacent to Cape Colony on the western coast, and the

other the tract adjacent to the colony on the eastern coast.

Of the Hottentots of the colony and its vicinity, it is said that they

have ‘become noted and almost proverbial for presenting man in his

lowest estate, and under the closest alliance with the inferior orders

of creation. It must, indeed, be admitted that they take particular

pains to render their external appearance the most hideous that the

human body can possibly present. Grease is poured over their persons

in copious streams, which, being exposed to the perpetual action of

smoke, forms on their skin a black and shining cake, through which the

native color, a yellowish-brown, is scarcely perceptible. Grease in

Africa forms the chief distinction of rank――the rich besmearing

themselves with fresh butter, while the poorer classes are obliged to

tear the fat from the bowels of slaughtered animals. They assign as a

reason for this singular practice, an effect which has been readily

admitted by judicious travelers――namely, that such a coating has, in

this climate, a most salutary influence in defending them from the

rays of the sun, and in averting many cutaneous disorders. Nature

seems to have aided the task of disfiguring them, by covering the head

with irregular tufts of hard and coarse hair, and causing singular

prominences, composed of fat, to jut out in parts where they are least

ornamental. Nor do their habits of life present anything to redeem

this outward deformity. Their kraals or villages, consist of a

confused crowd of little conical hovels, composed of twigs and earth,

in which large families sit and sleep without having room to stand

upright. The fire in the middle fills these mansions with thick smoke,

the floors being deeply covered with every species of filth. At

festivals, when an ox or a sheep is killed, the Hottentots rip open

the belly, tear out the entrails, which they throw on the coals, and

feast on them before the animal is completely dead. Yet they are a

friendly, hospitable race, living together in the greatest affection

and harmony. The sluggish and senseless stupidity with which they have

been so generally taxed, seems to have been in a great measure

produced by their degrading subjection to the Dutch boors.’ It has

been asserted that the Hottentots are destitute of all ideas of

religion; but this is not correct. It is ascertained that they believe

in a Supreme Being, as well as in an inferior spirit of malignant

nature; and that they practice certain superstitious rites, such as

are usual among savages.

Such is the description given of the Hottentots as they were under the

Dutch rule. Since the Cape came into the possession of the British,

they have not been treated with the same neglect and cruelty as they

experienced from the Dutch, who used to prohibit Hottentots, equally

with dogs, from entering their places of worship; still, with some

exceptions, arising from the beneficial effects produced in some

places by the missionaries, the account seems to remain substantially

true. Immediately to the north of the colony, and on the borders of

the Snewburg or Snowy Mountains, are the Bosjesmans, or Bushmans, the

most savage and degraded of all the South Africans. They were visited

in 1797 by Mr. Barrow, private secretary to Lord Macartney, with the

view of ascertaining whether friendly relations might not be entered

into with them, to prevent their incursions upon the farms of the

Europeans.

Mr. Barrow, at the same period, crossed the frontier which divides the

colony from the country of the Caffres, and made acquaintance with

this race, differing widely in almost all respects from their

neighbors the Bushmans. He found them a handsome and spirited people,

of frank and generous deportment, leading a roaming pastoral life, and

possessing numbers of cattle, in the rearing of which they seemed

proficient.

Before the commencement of the present century, little more was known

respecting the original inhabitants of Southern Africa than what we

have thus generally indicated. But in 1801, two gentlemen, Messrs.

Trutter and Somerville, made an excursion to a considerable distance

beyond the districts of the Bushmans and the Caffres, whom Mr. Barrow

had visited, and discovered a large river, now called Orange River,

flowing westward into the Atlantic. The banks of this river they found

inhabited by a pastoral tribe called the Koranes; and the information

they received from this people inducing them to continue their journey

still farther to the north, they at last reached what not a little

surprised them――a city or town of two or three thousand houses, very

neatly built, and well-arranged. The name of this city was Lattakoo;

and the accounts which the travelers brought back of it to the Cape,

and of the friendliness with which they had been received by the

Boshuanas, who were then the prevalent tribe, induced the government

to send Dr. Cowan and Lieutenant Denovan to continue the discovery,

and, if possible, make their way past Lattakoo, so as ultimately to

reach Mozambique on the east coast. The issue of this expedition was

unfortunate. The travelers reached Lattakoo in safety, but were killed

at a distance of eleven days’ journey beyond it. The same route was

afterwards pursued by Dr. Henry Lichtenstein, who added considerably

to the knowledge then possessed of this part of Africa. But the most

enterprising traveler in these regions was Mr. John Campbell, a

missionary, who, animated with an eager desire to spread Christianity

among the rude Hottentots and Caffres, undertook a journey for that

purpose in 1813. He reached Lattakoo, made known the object of his

visit to Mateebe, king of the Boshuanas, and, after some importunacy,

obtained leave to establish a missionary station in the capital.

Having succeeded in the object of his expedition, Mr. Campbell

returned, but made a second journey to Lattakoo in 1820. He found the

missionary establishment in active operation, but little progress had

been made in converting the natives, who manifested the most profound

indifference on the subject of religion. Mr. Campbell now penetrated

beyond Lattakoo, and came among tribes till then unknown, some of them

showing a considerable advance in the arts of life, inhabiting neat

villages, cultivating the ground, smelting iron and copper, and

manufacturing various implements. He also came upon the borders of an

immense desert, which, from its appearance, and the information which

he was enabled to collect respecting it, he thought entitled to be

named the Southern Sahara, as rivaling in extent the Great Northern

Desert. Whether, as he was led to imagine, this Desert stretches from

the tropic of Capricorn, where he saw its extremity, to the equator,

is a point which can only be settled by farther discovery; but the

supposition does not appear probable.

Subsequently to Mr. Campbell’s journey, these regions have been

visited by other travelers, who have made us better acquainted with

the tribes of the South Cape, by giving us details of their customs

and manner of life. The latest of these is Mr. Robert Moffat, likewise

a missionary. The general conclusion, from the accounts of these

various travelers, seems to be, that the southern extremity of Africa

is inhabited by two principal races――the Hottentots, who, both

physically and intellectually, are far inferior to the average of

mankind; and the Caffres, a bold and savage, but promising race,

resembling in their general features the natives of other parts of

Africa, and divided into a number of tribes, who inhabit villages

scattered through the country which borders on the Southern Desert.

While describing the inhabitants of Southern Africa, we have left the

general features of the country itself undescribed. The following

passage will supply the deficiency:――‘Southern Africa consists,’ says

a writer, ‘of a most strange assemblage of mountains and plains, of

spots lovely and picturesque beyond description, and gifted with

inexhaustible fertility, and of seemingly boundless plains, where

barrenness reigns so completely paramount, that the very principle

of vegetation appears to be extinct. At a certain distance from

the colony we enter upon regions over which the clouds of

ignorance――almost the only clouds one meets with――-still brood. We

traverse large rivers, which rise no one knows where, and envelop

their exits in equal obscurity. Ranges of mountains also, with

appellations uncouth, and hiding no one knows what treasures of the

animal and vegetable kingdoms in their unvisited recesses, sweep

before us along the verge of the horizon, dim, blue, and shadowy, like

so many fragments of fairyland. And if the great outlines of the

landscape be original and bold, the filling up and coloring are no

less so. Everything upon which the eye rests has the appearance of

having been cast in a mould nowhere else made use of in the system of

nature. Among the terrestrial animals, what bulk and fantastic

formations! How numerous and strikingly contrasted are the groups that

present themselves! In their character and habits what extremes seem

to meet! How unspeakably lavish seems to be the waste of vitality! Yet

who will dare to say that, in this prodigious outpouring of animal

life, there is a single creature that does not enjoy and adorn the

scene on which it moves? If there be anything we should be disposed to

think out of place, it is the stunted representatives of humanity,

who, under the name of Bushmen, roam in indescribable misery and

degradation over those sublime savannahs. To a man of imagination,

nothing more inspiring can be conceived than climbing one of the

breezy peaks overlooking that strange wilderness, at the moment that

the dawn is busily unfolding all its varied features. From every tree

the heavy dewdrops pour like rain; streams of white mist, smooth and

glassy as a tranquil river, float slowly down the valleys, reflecting

from their surface the trees, and cliffs, and crags on either hand.

Here, through openings between feathery mimosas, weeping-willows, and

tall trembling reeds, we catch a glimpse of some quiet lake, the haunt

of the hippopotamus; while a herd of graceful purple antelopes are

seen drinking on its further margin. There, amidst thick clumps of

camel-thorn, we behold a drove of giraffes, with heads eighteen feet

high, browsing on the tops of trees. Elsewhere, the rhinoceros pokes

his long ugly snout from a brake; while the lion, fearless in the

consciousness of his own strength, parades his tawny bulk over the

plain, or reclines, in sphinx-like attitude, beneath some ancient

tree.’

EASTERN AFRICA. With the exception of the countries bordering on the

Red Sea――Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia――which cannot be included in so

general a survey as the present, the eastern coast of Africa is

undoubtedly the least-known portion of the whole circuit of the

continent. The tract of country extending from the northern extremity

of Caffreland to Cape Guardafui, and including the states or

territories of Sofala, Mozambique, Zanguebar, and Ajan, was early

visited by the Portuguese in their voyages to India; and in the course

of the sixteenth century, various settlements were planted in it by

them, similar to those which they planted along the Guinea Coast. The

most conspicuous difference was, that here the ruling race were not

pure negroes, but men of Arabic descent, and vehement Mohammedans. It

was from these that the Portuguese wrested the immense line of

coast-territory which they once held in this part of Africa, and of

which they made Mozambique the capital. On the ruin of the Portuguese

power in India, their settlements in Eastern Africa declined; the

Arabs and blacks reconquered a great portion of their ancient

territory; and it is now merely by sufferance that the once-powerful

Portuguese retain a footing on the coast at all. What they do possess,

however, they guard with the utmost jealousy; and they testify extreme

aversion to the intrusion of any other European nation into those

territories where they once lorded it so proudly. Mr. Salt, who

visited Mozambique in 1808, found it to contain a population of less

than three thousand, of whom only five hundred were Portuguese. ‘The

rural population of this part of Africa,’ says Mr. Macculloch, ‘is in

the most degraded state; and although the soil be naturally rich and

productive, the culture of cotton, indigo, sugar, and other articles

of commerce is wholly neglected. Rice, millet, and manioc are raised

almost without labor, furnishing, with cocoa-nuts, almost the entire

food of the slaves. The commerce of Mozambique has greatly decreased,

in consequence of our exertions to suppress the traffic in slaves; but

although much diminished, the slave trade is still carried on to a

considerable extent both with Brazil and Arabia. These slaves, who are

chiefly of the tribe of the Monjores, and brought from the centre of

the continent, a distance of forty or forty-five days’ journey from

the colony, are procured from the native merchants in exchange for

salt, shells, tobacco, coarse cloths, etc. Goods costing about two

dollars, will bring in, as far as the case may be, either a slave or

an elephant’s tusk, weighing from sixty to eighty pounds of ivory.

Hippopotamus’ tusks, gold dust, Columbo-root, gums, and amber, are the

other chief exports.’

From these few particulars, which include nearly all that is known of

this part of Africa, it will appear that, with the exception of the

infusion of the Mohammedan and Arabic element, which is here very

strong, it bears a close resemblance to the corresponding portion of

the western coasts. There are at the same impediments, arising from

climate, to the acquisition of much knowledge of the country by

Europeans, who, at best, are unable to penetrate farther than a few

miles into the interior. It appears probable, indeed, that the last

portion of the coast of Africa to be thoroughly explored will be these

sites of the declining Portuguese colonies.

CENTRAL AFRICA. Under the general name of Central Africa may be

included the whole of the interior of the continent south of the Great

Desert. This immense extent of country may be divided into two

parts――Southern Central Africa, lying between the tropic of Capricorn

and the equator; and Northern Central Africa, called also Souden, or

Nigritia, lying between the equator and the Great Desert. The former

is as yet totally unknown and unexplored; and before our information

respecting it can be at all authentic and accurate, two most difficult

expeditions must have been made, which have not yet been so much as

proposed――one from the Cape of Good Hope northwards as far as the

Mountains of the Moon, the other transversely across the continent

from Congo to Zanguebar or Mozambique. At what future period the

spirit of enterprise may achieve these two journeys it is impossible

to tell.

Northern Central Africa, or Nigritia, has, on the other hand, been

penetrated by travelers, who have advanced into it from all

directions. From the earliest times this part of Africa attracted

attention, as being the country through which the famous Niger flowed,

on whose banks the great city of Timbuctoo, of the wealth of which

vague accounts had reached the shores of the Mediterranean, was

reputed to be situated. To ascertain the course of this river, and to

reach this celebrated negro city, were the leading objects of all who

engaged in the enterprise of African discovery. In the year 1618, an

English company was formed for the purpose of opening up a

communication with Timbuctoo, and not long afterwards a similar

company was formed in France. For a century and a half the two nations

continued to compete with each other in the enterprise: the English

trying to make their way up the river Gambia, which they imagined to

be the outlet of the Niger; the French, on the other hand, persevering

along the Senegal, which seemed to them more likely to be identical

with the Niger. Much useful information was acquired in these

successive voyages respecting Western Africa; but no intelligence was

obtained of the site of the great city of the negroes. It was clearly

ascertained, however, that neither the Senegal nor the Gambia could be

identical with the Niger, supposing the traditionary accounts of that

river to be true. Three distinct opinions respecting this river began

to be entertained. Some said that there was no Niger at all, such as

the ancients had described it, but that some river, branching off into

the Senegal and Gambia, was alluded to. Others believed that the

ancient accounts of the Niger as a river flowing towards the east

was-correct, and that it was to be considered one of the upper

branches of the Nile. A third party maintained that the supposition of

the Niger being identical with the Nile was untenable, considering the

immense breadth of the continent, and that the true Niger was some

stream rising in the interior of Africa, and flowing into the sea at

some point of the western coast farther south than the Senegal and the

Gambia. A subsequent modification of this opinion was, that the Niger

did not flow into the sea at all, but terminated in some great marsh

or lake in the interior of Africa, resembling the Caspian Sea.

Such was the state of information, or rather of doubt, with respect to

the course of the Niger, when, in the year 1788, a number of spirited

men of science, including Lord Rawdon, Sir Joseph Banks, the bishop of

Landaff, Mr. Beaufoy, and Mr. Stuart, formed themselves into an

association for the purpose of prosecuting this and other questions of

African geography to an issue. No sooner had the society been formed,

than it commenced its labors. The first travelers, however, whom it

sent out were cut off by death. One of them, Major Houghton, ascended

the Gambia, and never returned; it was afterwards ascertained that he

had been killed by the Moors in the interior. It was at this juncture

that the celebrated Mungo Park presented himself to the society. Born

in the county of Selkirk, in Scotland, in the year 1771, and having

been educated for the medical profession, Park had just returned from

a voyage to the East Indies in the capacity of assistant-surgeon on

board one of the East India Company’s vessels, when he offered his

services to the association through Sir Joseph Banks. After due

inquiry into Mr. Park’s character and qualifications, they were

accepted. This was in 1793; but he did not depart on his expedition

till the summer of 1795. His instructions were, on his arrival in

Africa, ‘to pass on to the river Niger either by the way of Bambouk,

or by such other route as should be found most convenient ――that he

should ascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and

termination of that river――that he should use his utmost exertions to

visit the principal towns or cities in its neighborhood, particularly

Timbuctoo and Houssa――and that he should be afterwards at liberty to

return to Europe either by the way of the Gambia, or by such other

route as, under all the then existing circumstances of his situation

and prospects, should appear to him to be most advisable.’

The ship in which Park sailed reached the African coast in the latter

end of June 1795, and on the 5th of July the traveler took up his

residence in the house of an English settler in the village of

Pisania, situated on the northern bank of the Gambia, at a

considerable distance from the coast. After remaining here about five

months, preparing for his journey into the interior, and acquiring

information respecting the western parts of Africa, Park launched upon

his perilous enterprise on the 2d of December 1795. For three months

he toiled on in a north-westerly direction, passing through various

negro kingdoms, and numberless towns and villages, almost everywhere

received with kindness and respect, although the cupidity of some of

the negro sovereigns stripped him of most of the articles of value he

had brought along with him, as a tax for allowing him to pass through

their dominions. For a detailed account of all his adventures during

the journey, we must refer to his own narrative, which has long and

justly been regarded as one of the most interesting and best-written

books in the English language. Suffice it to say, that after having

pushed on till he found himself near the southern borders of the Great

Desert, and when ‘fancy had already placed him on the banks of the

Niger, and presented to his imagination a thousand delightful scenes

in his future progress,’ a cruel accident came to delay, and, as it

seemed, utterly to prevent, the fulfillment of his ‘golden dream.’ In

this part of Africa he found that the Moors, or men of Arab blood,

were the ruling race, domineering over the negroes in the most

insolent manner; and while from the negroes, almost universally, he

experienced kind treatment, the Moors he describes as the most

barbarous and tyrannical of the human race. Accordingly, after

entering the countries which, from their proximity to the Great

Desert, were under the thraldom of the Moors, he proceeded with

greater caution than he had found it necessary to adopt in passing

through the countries inhabited by a pure negro population. His

caution, however, was of no avail; on the 7th of March, 1796, he was

carried away captive by a Moorish chief to Benown, a village on the

margin of the Desert, where he was detained for nearly three months,

enduring incredible hardships from the cruelty of his keepers, who

persecuted him both as a stranger and as a Christian.

Escaping at length from the hands of his tormentors, Park continued

his journey in a south-easterly direction, passing, as before, through

several negro kingdoms, where, however, the Moors seemed to exercise a

powerful influence, and where, consequently, he was obliged to undergo

much suffering and insult, although, even in the depths of his

distress, he always found sympathy and compassion from some poor

negro. On the 21st of July, 1796, he was approaching a large town

called Sego, the capital of the kingdom of Bambarra, in company with a

party of negroes, who were proceeding thither, and who entertained him

on the way with accounts of the traffic which went on at this town,

and of the Great Water, or Joliba, which flowed past it. This stream

Park had no doubt was the Niger, of which he was in search; and so it

proved. ‘We rode together,’ he says, ‘through some marshy ground,

where, as I was anxiously looking around for the river, one of them

called out, “_Geo affilli!_” (“See the water!”) and looking forwards,

I saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission――the

long-sought-for majestic Niger glittering to the morning sun, as broad

as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly _to the eastward_. I

hastened to the brink, and having drunk of the water, lifted up my

fervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things for having

thus far crowned my endeavors with success.’

Having thus been successful in reaching the banks of the long-sought

Niger, Park would have pursued his journey along them so as to

ascertain its farther course, and even trace it to its termination;

but his entire destitution of everything necessary for such an

enterprise, and the reports which he received of the bigotry of the

Moors who ruled in the districts through which he must pass, prevented

him from advancing farther than Silla, a town considerably to the east

of Sego. Accordingly, having collected all the information he could

respecting the course of the river beyond this point――having done all

that he could towards the settlement of the question of the course of

the Niger――having ascertained the existence of large trading cities in

the interior of Africa, some of which he had visited, and the position

of three others of which (namely, Jenné, Timbuctoo, and Houssa) he had

learnt by accurate inquiry――having, moreover, accumulated a vast mass

of information respecting the manners, customs, and social condition

of the natives of Central Africa――Park returned to the coast along the

banks of the Niger, and consequently by a route different from that

which he had adopted on his journey inland. He reached Pisania on the

10th of June, 1797, having thus been absent twenty-one months in the

interior of Africa. He arrived in London on Christmas Day in the same

year; was received with great enthusiasm by all classes; prepared the

narrative of his journey for publication; and at length, in 1800,

having in the meantime married, he settled as a medical practitioner

in Peebles.

Park’s success gave an impulse to the spirit of discovery, and two

attempts were made shortly after his return to follow up what he had

begun. ‘A German, named Hornemann, undertook to penetrate into the

continent by way of Egypt, and succeeded in reaching Fezzan, whence he

wrote, in April, 1800, to England; but no particulars relative to his

future history are known. He was never again heard of till 1824, when

Captain Clapperton, who followed the same route with a better issue,

learnt that the German traveler had succeeded in penetrating from

Fezzan to Nyffee, or Nouffie, on the Niger, where he fell a victim to

dysentery. Hornemann’s papers had been all accidentally burnt.

‘In 1804, another enterprising spirit, Mr. Nicholls, endeavored to

enter the African interior from the Calabar coast, in the Gulf of

Guinea, but, at the very outset of his journey, he also perished from

the pestilential fever of those latitudes.’ At length Mr. Park――who,

notwithstanding the public respect and domestic comfort which he

enjoyed in the situation in which he had settled down, still hankered

after a life of wandering in Africa, avowing, it is said, to Sir

Walter Scott, who was one of his most intimate friends, that he

preferred it to any other――consented, on the invitation of government,

to undertake a second journey. ‘All requisite preparations for the

enterprise were completed before the end of January, and on the 30th

of that month 1805, Park set sail from Portsmouth, in the Crescent

transport, taking on board with him from the dockyards of that place

four or five artificers.’ He was accompanied also by his

brother-in-law, Mr. Anderson, and a friend, Mr. Scott. When, on the

21st of March 1805, the transport anchored in the Goree Roads, near

the mouth of the Gambia, and ‘Mr. Park’s purposes were made known

here, almost every man of the garrison volunteered his services for

the expedition. The traveler selected thirty-five able-bodied men, and

also accepted the offered services of one officer, Lieutenant Martyn,

thinking it of consequence to have in the party some one already

acquainted with the soldiers. Two experienced seamen from the Squirrel

frigate were added to the party with the view of benefiting by their

valuable assistance in sailing down the Niger.

‘Park communicated these arrangements by letter to the colonial

department, and thus he describes his departure from Goree:――“On the

morning of the 6th of April we embarked the soldiers, in number

thirty-five men. They jumped into the boat in the highest spirits, and

bade adieu to Goree with repeated huzzas. I believe that every man in

the garrison would have embarked with great cheerfulness; but no

inducement could prevail on a single negro to accompany me.”’ Park’s

intentions with respect to this second journey were stated to

government before his departure from England. He said that ‘he would

proceed up the Gambia, cross the country to the Niger, and travel down

that river _to its termination_.’ Sailing up the Gambia as far as

Kayee, Park and his party commenced their land journey from that point

on the 27th of April, in high spirits, and amply provided with all

necessaries. ‘At Kayee he was able, for the first time, to perfect his

preparations for the route, by attaching a few natives to his party.

Isaaco, a Mandingo priest and merchant, and one well inured to long

inland journeys, engaged himself to act as a guide to the expedition,

and to give it the assistance of several negroes, his own personal

attendants.’ Unfortunately it was the worst season of the year for

traveling, and the journey was one of continued toil and sickness.

Before the 19th of August more than three-fourths of the party had

died, or been left behind to die. On that day, after leaving the place

called Toniba, ‘coming,’ says Park, ‘to the brow of a hill, I once

more saw the Niger rolling its immense stream along the plain!’ This

was a pleasant sight for Park’s companions. Several more of them,

however, died before Sego, the capital of Bambarra, was reached. Here,

being kindly received by Mansong, the king of the Bambaraas, Park

hoped to be able to obtain a vessel in which he might navigate the

Niger to its termination. He waited for several weeks at Sansanding, a

town a little below Sego, using all his endeavors to obtain from

Mansong a canoe sufficient for his purpose. ‘After much labor, he did

get a vessel of the desired kind fitted up, and named it his Britanic

majesty’s schooner the Joliba. At Sansanding, on the 28th of October,

Mr. Anderson underwent the fate of so many of his companions, and

regarding his death Park observes――“No event that took place during

the journey ever threw the smallest gloom over my mind till I laid Mr.

Anderson in the grave. I then felt myself as if left a second time

lonely and friendless amidst the wilds of Africa.”

‘At this point the authentic account of Mungo Park’s second journey

ends. Isaaco’s engagement here terminated, and the papers given to him

by the traveler, and carried back to the coast, constitute the only

records of the expedition which came from Park’s own pen. These papers

were accompanied by several letters, the most interesting of which is

one (dated Sansanding, November 17) addressed to Lord Camden. In this

letter Park says――“I am sorry to say, that of forty-four Europeans who

left the Gambia in perfect health, five only are at present alive;

namely, three soldiers (one deranged in his mind), Lieutenant Martyn,

and myself. From this account I am afraid that your lordship will be

apt to consider matters as in a very hopeless state; but I assure you

I am far from despairing. With the assistance of one of the soldiers,

I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good schooner, on board

of which I this day hoisted the British flag, and shall set sail to

the east, with a fixed resolution to discover the termination of the

Niger, or perish in the attempt. I have heard nothing that I can

depend on respecting the remote course of this mighty stream, but I am

more and more inclined to think that it can end nowhere but in the

sea. My dear friend Mr. Anderson, and likewise Mr. Scott, are both

dead; but though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and

though I myself were half dead, I would still persevere, and if I

could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at last _die on

the Niger_.”’

These were the last words which Park sent to Europe; the next

intelligence was a vague rumor of his death. For five years, however,

no authentic information of the event was received; but from the

exertions of Isaaco, Park’s former guide, who was induced in 1810 to

make a journey with a view to ascertain the traveler’s fate, it

appeared that his prophetic words had been accomplished, and that he

had ‘died on the Niger.’ Isaaco obtained the particulars from Amadi

Fatouma, who acted as guide to the party onward from Sansanding. They

were as follows:――Passing Jeuné and Timbuctoo in safety, the little

schooner, with Park and his surviving companions (eight in number) on

board, reached Yaour, in the kingdom of Houssa. Not willing to delay

his progress by landing, Park sent Amadi Fatouma, whose engagement as

guide terminated here, on shore with presents to the king. These

presents being treacherously appropriated by the inferior chief to

whom Amadi delivered them, the king of Houssa, thinking his dignity

insulted, sent an army after the schooner. The army came upon the

schooner at a part of the river called Boussa. ‘There is before Boussa

a rock extending across the river, with only one opening in it, in the

form of a door, for the water to pass through. The king’s men took

possession of the top of this rock, until Park came up to it and

attempted to pass. The natives attacked him and his friends with

lances, pikes, arrows, and other missiles. Park defended himself

vigorously for a long time; but at last, after throwing everything in

the canoe overboard, being overpowered by numbers, and seeing no

chance of getting the canoe past, he took hold of one of the white men

and jumped into the river; Martyn did the same; and the whole were

drowned in their attempt to escape by swimming. One black remained in

the canoe, the other two being killed, and he cried for mercy. The

canoe fell into the hands of the natives. Amadi Fatouma, on being

freed from his irons three months afterwards, ascertained these facts

from the native who had survived the catastrophe.’

From 1805 to 1822, various attempts were made to penetrate after Park

into the heart of Nigritia. In 1809 Roentger, a German, proceeded from

Morocco with a view to cross the Great Desert, but he seems to have

been murdered by his guides. Shortly after, some information was

obtained from two Americans, Adams and Riley, who were wrecked off the

coast of the Great Desert, and carried into the interior by the Arabs.

Adams alleged that he had been carried as far as Timbuctoo, but little

credit was attached to his statement. The famous Burckhardt was to

attempt a journey into the interior from Egypt, but died before

carrying his resolution into effect. In 1816 the British government,

possessed with the idea, which we have seen that Park himself came

latterly to entertain, that the Congo was the outlet of the Niger,

fitted out two expeditions, one of which, under Captain Tuckey, was to

ascend the Congo in vessels; the other, under Major Peddie, was to

penetrate the interior by Park’s route, and, embarking on the Niger,

to sail down it so as to meet Captain Tuckey, which would of course

happen if the Niger and Congo were identical. Both parties were

brought to a halt――the expedition up the Congo by cataracts, which

prevented further navigation, and the land expedition by the hostility

of the natives; and the only result of consequence was to explode the

hypothesis that the Niger and the Congo were the same.

About the year 1819 attention was drawn to the possibility of

penetrating into Central Africa by a route not yet tried――namely, from

Tripoli through the Great Desert; and as the bashaw of Tripoli, whose

influence extended far into the interior, was understood to be willing

to cultivate the good will of the British, it was resolved to make the

attempt under his auspices. Accordingly, in 1819, Mr. Ritchie and

Lieutenant Lyon began the journey from Tripoli across the Desert. They

reached Mourzouk in Fezzan; but Mr. Ritchie dying there of bilious

fever, the expedition was abandoned. In April 1822, however, three new

adventurers, Major Denham, Captain Clapperton, and Dr. Oudney, with

several companions, followed the same route. ‘A caravan, belonging to

a great native merchant named Boo Khaloom, was on the point of

starting for Soudan on the Niger, and with this the band of travelers

were to cross the Desert in company.

‘Boo Khaloom, a Moor or Arab of remarkable abilities, and of a liberal

and humane disposition, had a retinue on the journey of above two

hundred Arabs, and with this company performed their dreary marches,

under a burning sun, across the sands of the interior. The most

extraordinary sight on this route was the number of skeletons strewed

on the ground, the wrecks of former caravans. Sometimes sixty or

seventy lay in one spot, and of these some lay entwined in one

another’s arms, as they had perished! For fourteen days, hills of

sand, and plains of sand, constituted the only objects in sight of

travelers. At the end of that time they again beheld symptoms of

herbage, being now on the northern borders of the kingdom of Bornou.

Shortly afterwards, on reaching a town called Lari, the British

travelers beheld a sight which made up for all they had undergone.

This was the great inland sea of Africa, Lake Tchad, the existence of

which had been so often canvassed, and which now lay before them

“glowing with the golden rays of the sun.”

‘Lake Tchad, one of the most interesting points of Central African

scenery, is a vast triangular sheet of water, about one hundred and

eighty miles long from east to west, and above one hundred miles in

extent at its greatest breadth. It lies between 14 and 17 degrees of

north latitude, and 12 and 15 degrees of east longitude. Two large

streams flow into it――the one called the Yeou, from the west, and the

other the Shary or Tshary, from the south. Lake Tchad is situated

about five hundred miles to the east of the Niger, and the country

lying between them bears the general name of the Soudan, though

particular appellations are given to provinces, such as Houssa, and

others. Bornou is the district lying immediately to the west of the

lake. Major Denham spent a considerable time here. He found the

kingdom of Bornou in a very peculiar position as to government. The

people are negroes, and had once been subjugated by the Foulahs or

Fellatahs――a bold race, of uncertain descent, and the conquerors and

oppressors of many kingdoms in the interior. But a Bornouese negro, of

humble birth and powerful talents, had aroused his countrymen and

driven out the Fellatahs. This individual was found by Major Denham to

be in possession of the whole power of Bornou, though, out of respect

to the prejudices of his people, the old Fellatah prince was still

permitted to hold a nominal throne, and the empty title of sultan. The

real ruler contented himself with the title of sheikh. He is described

by Denham as being extremely intelligent, and as holding the reins of

power with great firmness and sagacity. The Bornouese are disciples of

Mohammed, and may be called well civilized in comparison with other

inland nations. Their country supplies them abundantly with food, and

they carry on manufactures to a considerable extent in cotton.

‘Major Denham found an opportunity of traveling round nearly the whole

of Lake Tchad, and thus satisfied himself that the waters of the Niger

did not enter this inland pool. After eighteen months’ stay in Bornou,

Denham was joined by Captain Clapperton who had separated from him in

order to explore the country of Soudan――an excursion on which Dr.

Oudeney unfortunately perished from fatigue, and the diseases

incidental to the climate. Clapperton was well received at Soccatoo,

the Capital of Houssa, and the seat of Bello, the great Soudanite

monarch, and the head of the Fellatah nation. Like the sheikh of

Bornou, Sultan Bello was found to be an able and intelligent man.

‘Soccatoo, the capital of Houssa, situated on a tributary of the

Niger, and distant four days’ journey from that river, is one of the

largest cities of the interior, containing, to appearance, above forty

thousand inhabitants. The city is laid out in regular streets, and is

surrounded, like most African towns, with clay walls. The houses are

well-built cottages, generally of clay; and the mosques, as well as

parts of the sultan’s palace, are ornamented with painted wooden

pillars, in a very pretty style of architecture.

‘Upon the whole, the two countries of Houssa and Bornou must be

regarded as far above any kingdoms of the African interior yet visited

by Europeans in point of power and civilization. The Fellatah sultan,

Bello, was extremely anxious that an English consul should be sent to

Soccatoo, and that a trade should be opened up with the English.

Before the travelers left either Houssa or Bornou, however, they found

the rulers of these places to cool in their desire for British

intercourse. This arose, without doubt, from the intrigues of the

Arabs, who were afraid that the traffic through the Desert from the

Mediterranean might be superseded by the commerce of the British from

the Atlantic or western coast. The Arabs, therefore, artfully placed

before the minds of the African princes the consequences which had

resulted to India and other countries from a connexion with Britain.’

Having spent in all about three years in the interior of Africa,

Denham and Clapperton returned to Tripoli, which they reached on the

26th of January 1825. ‘The safe return of two principal members of

this expedition, and the interesting nature of the observations made

by them, was cheering and encouraging to the British authorities and

to all who took an interest in African Discovery. But the question of

the Niger’s outlet, through which alone it was obvious commercial

intercourse could be securely and effectually established with the

interior, remained yet in doubt, though the late travelers were fully

convinced that the river flowed into the Atlantic somewhere in the

Gulf of Guinea. Ere he had rested many months at home, Clapperton, one

of the bravest of the many brave men who had risked their lives on the

same dangerous adventure, was again on his way to Africa at the head

of an exploratory party. His companions were Dr. Morrison and Captain

Pearce, besides a faithful servant of Clapperton, Richard Lander. It

was resolved on this occasion to enter the interior from Badagry, a

district on the northern coast of the Gulf of Guinea, from which

Clapperton believed the Niger might be soonest reached.’

In the course of their arduous journey all of the party died except

Clapperton and his servant Lander. They persevered, nevertheless,

passing through many populous negro towns situated between the coast

and the Niger. The whole of this tract of country they found very

thickly peopled; and the natives appeared, at a distance from the

coast, to be of superior disposition and character. In April 1826 they

reached Boussa on the Niger, the place where Park had been killed;

they saw the spot where the traveler had met his death, and heard that

some relics of him were still preserved, but could not obtain a right

of them. After staying some time at Boussa, Clapperton crossed the

Niger, and paid another visit to the territories of his former

acquaintance, Sultan Bello, who, however, seemed less friendly to him

than on the previous occasion, apparently suspecting the motives which

actuated the British in their efforts to procure information

respecting a part of the world so remote from their own. Wearied out

by his toils, Clapperton became ill at Soccatoo, and died there on the

13th of April 1827, in the arms of Richard Lander, who, with great

difficulty, made his way alone back to the coast, which he reached in

November. He immediately set out for England, carrying Captain

Clapperton’s papers with him, and a journal of his own proceedings

subsequent to Clapperton’s death.

‘Meanwhile the British government were making another attempt from the

Mediterranean. About the time that Clapperton set out on his second

journey, Major Laing, an able officer, who had already traveled on the

African coasts, entered the Desert by way of Tripoli, under the

protection of a personage who had resided twenty-two years at

Timbuctoo. When in the middle of the Desert, the party was attacked by

a band of wild Tuaricks, and Major Laing was left for dead, with

twenty-four dreadful wounds on his person. He recovered, however, by

the care of his surviving companions, although numerous portions of

bone had to be extracted from his head and temples! When able to do

so, he pursued his journey, and on the 18th of August reached the

famous city of Timbuctoo. Several letters were received from him,

dated at this place, which he described as having disappointed him in

point of extent, being only about four miles in circuit, but that he

had found its records copious and interesting. Major Laing never had

the opportunity, unhappily, of making these valuable discoveries

known, being murdered, three days after leaving Timbuctoo, by a wretch

who had undertaken to guide him to the mouth of the Senegal, or its

neighborhood. What became of the ill-fated traveler’s papers is not

known.

‘The next light thrown upon African geography came from a source

somewhat different from those described. René Cailliè, a Frenchman of

humble origin, assuming the character of a Mohammedan on a pilgrimage

to Mecca, joined, on the 19th of April 1827, a small native caravan,

traveling from the river Nunez to the interior. He soon after reached

the Joliba (the name which the Niger bears as far down as Timbuctoo),

but was detained by illness for five months at a place called Timé. On

his recovery, he passed onwards to Jenné on the Niger, a city

described by him as containing eight thousand or ten thousand

inhabitants, and as being a place of considerable traffic. At Jenné,

he embarked in a loose native vessel of sixty tons burden, and sailed

with a party of merchants through Lake Dibbie, and down the Niger,

until, in April 1828, the vessel stopped at Cabra, the port of

Timbuctoo. The inhabitants of Cabra were about twelve hundred in

number, and were solely occupied as porters, either in unloading

goods, or in conveying them on the backs of asses to Timbuctoo. That

city itself lies about ten miles from the Niger, and is a place of

some ten thousand or twelve thousand inhabitants. It is chiefly built

of bricks, and is supported entirely by commerce. The population are

partly negroes and partly Moors; but the king is a negro, and the

government is solely in the hands of that class. On the other hand,

though all the people engage more or less in trade, the Moors are the

principal merchants. The great article of traffic is salt, which is

brought from the mines in the neighboring Desert of Sahara, and is

disseminated from Timbuctoo over the whole of Central Africa.

‘After leaving Timbuctoo, Cailliè made his way across the Desert to

Tangier, where he arrived in August 1828, and whence he was forwarded

by the French consul to Europe. Upon the whole, however, M. Caillé has

contributed little to the removal of those glaring blanks which have

so long defaced the map of Africa.

‘Not so the next adventurer to whom we have to allude. This was

Richard Lander, the faithful follower of Clapperton. Lander made an

offer of his services to government for the investigation of the

course and termination of the Niger. The offer was accepted; and

Lander embarked at Portsmouth on the 9th of January 1830, accompanied

by his younger brother John, who shared in all the toils and honors of

the expedition. The Landers arrived on the 19th of March at Badagry,

and at the end of the month started on the same route pursued by

Clapperton in his journey to the Niger. Paskoe, the old guide, was

again taken into service by the Landers. After an interesting journey

through the populous cities of Yarriba, the travelers arrived at

Boussa on the Niger on the 17th of June. The king of Boussa welcomed

them with great cordiality. Though gentle and hospitable, this prince

was a mere ignorant savage in comparison of the kings of Houssa and

Bornou. At Boussa, notwithstanding that aversion always evinced by the

natives to speak about Park, the Landers found an old nautical

publication belonging to that traveler, with a loose paper or two

between the sheets――one of them an invitation card to dinner. The man

who possessed this book regarded it as his household god――every

written paper being of magical import in the eyes of the natives. The

_tobe_, or surtout-dress, of rich crimson damask, which Park had worn,

was also recovered at Boussa by the Landers; but no distinct account

was got of the mode in which these articles came into the hands of

their owners.’

After making all inquiries, so as to rescue any relics of Park, and

even ascending to Yaourie, a city and province a few days’ journey

farther up the Niger for that purpose, obtaining for their trouble a

double-barreled gun which had belonged to the traveler, the Landers

endeavored to procure a canoe, that they might sail down the river,

and solve the great problem of its course and termination. They were

assisted in the kindest manner by the king of Boussa, who sent

messengers down the Niger to a town called Rabba, in order to pave the

way for the secure passage of the travelers. On the 20th of September,

the travelers embarked in a canoe provided for them on the Niger.

‘On the 7th of October they arrived opposite Rabba, having passed a

number of islands and towns on the river, which was always a

magnificent stream, but varying considerably in width. Rabba is a

large market town, governed by a relative of Sultan Bello. The ruler

of Rabba being dissatisfied with the presents made to him, the

travelers were reluctantly forced to give him Park’s _tobe_, and they

subsequently had the misfortune to lose his gun. Near Rabba, the river

took a wide sweep to the eastward, but it again turned to the south.

Egga, another famous market town on the river, and Kacunda, were

afterwards passed, and the mouths of two large tributaries, the

Coodoovia and the Tchadda, were also seen. Various other towns were

passed in succession, the largest of which were Bocqua and Attah. The

Landers had now arrived at a region where signs of European

intercourse were seen, and where the natives had been tainted by the

demoralising consequences of the slave commerce. At a place called

Kirree the travelers suffered a heavy misfortune. They were attacked

by a number of canoes, seized, and their property taken from them.

Richard’s journal, amongst other articles, was lost in the river,

though the notes of his brother were happily preserved. The travelers

expected nothing but death at this time themselves; but their lives

were saved, that they might be carried down the river to Eboe Town

where the king of the Eboe poople resided, and by whose subjects the

attack had been made.

On their way to Eboe Town, they passed a large lake on the river,

which afterwards divided itself into three broad streams, flowing at

different inclinations to the south-west. From this, and previous

branchings of the stream, the Landers felt convinced that they were

close by the termination of the Niger in the Gulf of Guinea; and their

anxiety to continue their route was proportionable to their pleasure

at the near accomplishment of their task. Obie, the Eboe king,

resolved to detain them, however, till a ransom was got up from the

English; but King Boy, a monarch residing farther down the river, and

who was then in Eboe Town, became bound for the ransom of the Landers,

and carried them down (what proved to be the stream commonly called

the Nun River) to Brass Town, his father’s capital. King Boy

subsequently went down to the mouth of the river with Richard Lander,

leaving John at Brass Town. An English merchantman was lying in the

Nun, and, with hope in his heart, Richard Lander went on board of her

with Boy, and explained his situation to the commander, Captain Lake,

expecting to find a country’s sympathy and aid. The wretch refused to

expend a penny on their ransom, though, if he had possessed a spark of

intelligence, he might have been assured that the British government

would gladly have paid, ten times over, any outlay made in such

circumstances. Richard Lander with difficulty prevailed on Boy to go

and bring his brother John to the brig, by which time the traveler

hoped Lake would relent. The brutal captain, however, did not relent;

and when John Lander came to the brig, he and his brother, much

against their will, were forced to leave the river without satisfying

Boy, who had generously taken the risk of recovering their ransom. It

is a consolation to think that the British government ultimately

remunerated Boy beyond his expectations. In Captain Lake’s vessel,

meantime, the Landers, after much danger, crossed the bar of the river

Nun, and entered the open sea in the Bight of Benin, Gulf of Guinea,

with the deep satisfaction on their minds of having thus attained the

glory of discovering the termination of the Niger! On the 1st of

December they were put ashore at Fernando Po, where they experienced

the warmest reception from the British residents. Shortly after, they

found a passage homewards, and reached Britain on the 9th of June

1831, after an absence of a year and a half.

‘The solution of the great African mystery by the Landers was justly

felt by their countrymen as a national triumph. But the matter, when

explained, looked so simple, as in the case of Columbus with the egg,

that men wondered how they could have been so long in the dark with

respect to it. The splitting of the Niger into numerous branches near

its close, some of them a hundred miles distant from others, was the

real cause of all the difficulty. Like the Nile, the Niger has a large

delta (so called from the shape of the Greek letter [Greek: D]

_delta_), and each of its branches bore the look of independent

streams. The delta of the Niger is partly inhabited, but is extremely

marshy.’

Since the completion of Park’s great discovery by the Landers, two

expeditions have been fitted out for the navigation of the Niger from

its mouth into the interior. At first there was a general belief that

now a communication had been opened up with Central Africa, and that,

by means of the Niger, an easy and speedy intercourse could be held

with the negro tribes living south of the Great Desert. Accordingly,

two steamers, one of them entirely iron, were fitted out in 1832, at

the expense of some individuals in Liverpool anxious to commence the

new trade. They arrived at the Delta of the Niger in the month of

October, accompanied by a sailing-vessel laden with articles for

traffic. Many of the crew were carried off by the pestilential

influence of the climate; and the steamers did not ascend very far.

The Tchadda, a tributary of the Niger, was explored for about a

hundred miles by one of them; but its banks were not found to present

much opportunity for commerce, and the steamer returned to the Niger.

Richard Lander, who had given his services to the expedition, was

mortally wounded in a scuffle with the natives, while ascending the

river in a boat with a supply of kowries which he had returned to the

sea-coast to procure. He died thirteen days after, on the 2d of

February 1834; and in July, the vessels left the Niger on their voyage

home, the crew of the one having been reduced from twenty-nine to five

and that of the other from nineteen to four. In a commercial point of

view, likewise, the expedition was a failure, the only article of

value procured from the natives being ivory, and that in too small a

quantity to pay the expenses of the enterprise.

A second expedition, consisting of three iron steamers commissioned by

government, set sail for the Niger in May 1841. The object of this

expedition was to open up such an intercourse with the native princes

on the banks of the Niger as might serve to assist in suppressing the

African slave trade, and to plant the seeds of civilization in the

centre of the continent. Besides being amply manned and furnished, the

vessels carried with them all that was necessary for establishing a

little colony or model farm on the hanks of the Niger, such a scheme

seeming best fitted for inoculating the African population with the

habits which it was desired to naturalize among them. The entire

number of individuals connected with the expedition was 301, of whom

145 were Europeans, and 156 persons of color. The vessels commenced

the ascent of the Niger on the 20th of August; passed Aboh, the

capital of the Eboe country, where the commissioners negotiated with

Obie, the king or chief of the district, regarding the suppression of

the slave trade. Ninety-five miles farther up they came to Iddah, the

capital of the king of Eggarah, with whom a treaty was also concluded.

On the 10th of September the confluence of the Niger and the Tchadda

was reached; and here it was determined to establish the model farm.

Accordingly, the part of the crews and cargoes intended for the

purpose was disembarked.

Meanwhile sickness had become so prevalent, and the number of deaths

so great, that two of the steamers were obliged to descend the river

with the invalids, in order to give them the chance of recovery on the

coast. The remaining steamer, the Albert, advanced as far as Egga,

about 350 miles from the sea. Farther than this, however, the

increasing illness of the crew prevented it from proceeding; and

accordingly, having explained to the chief of the place the object of

their visit, the commander turned back on the 5th of October, and

descended the river, there being hardly hands sufficient left to

manage the vessel. The Albert reached the sea on the 16th of October,

the other two steamers having reached it on the end of the previous

month. The expedition had been most disastrous. Of the 145 white men,

only fifteen escaped the river fever; while of the 156 blacks, only

eleven were attacked. The list of deaths showed a total of

fifty-three. The news of these unfortunate results having reached

England, orders were sent out in the summer of 1842 to abandon the

enterprise, and remove the laborers from the model farm; which was

accordingly done.

By way of summing up the information which we have yet been able, by

all our researches and expeditions, to obtain respecting Soudan or

Nigritia, we may state an opinion which seems to be gaining ground. It

is maintained by some that there is evidence that great changes have

occurred in Central Africa within the last few centuries; that, in

fact, a general movement towards civilization is discernible in the

heart of this vast and forbidding continent――a movement not originated

by European contact, but born among the Africans themselves. There is

evidence, it is said, that a few centuries ago the inhabitants of

Nigritia were very far inferior in promise and culture to what they

are at present; that the commercial spirit and manufacturing ingenuity

which travelers report to exist among the negro tribes are of recent

growth. The great agents in this change in the condition of Central

Africa are said to be the Foulahs――a people of doubtful origin, but

possibly Asiatic. These Foulahs are represented as having acted as

conquerors of the original negro tribes――triumphing by virtue of their

superior temperament and organization, and incorporating the petty

states of the old negro chiefs into large kingdoms; helping also to

civilize the natives by introducing among them the ideas of

Mohammedanism, which, however inferior and pernicious in themselves,

were yet an advance upon the original negro beliefs.

‘Throughout the whole extent of Nigritia or Negroland,’ says a writer

who advocates the opinion we have just stated, ‘the Foulahs

undoubtedly occupy preëminence. They are found spread over a

geographic region of 28 to 30 degrees of longitude (1500 miles), and 7

to 10 degrees in latitude, or 500 miles. They extend from the Atlantic

Ocean, from the mouth of the Senegal and Senegambia on the west, to

the kingdoms of Bornou and Mandara on the east; from the Desert of

Sahara on the north, to the mountains of Guinea or Kong on the south.

This wide superficies contains more than 700,000 square miles, which

is equal to the fourth part of Europe, and a tenth part of the immense

continent of Africa.’

In some parts of this vast extent of territory the Foulahs are

politically supreme, in others they are feudal dependents of the

original chiefs; but everywhere they seem to be the growing power.

‘The Foulahs,’ says Mr. Hodgson, ‘are not negroes. They differ

essentially from the negro race in all the characteristics which are

marked by physical anthropology. They may be said to occupy the

intermediate space betwixt the Arab and the negro. All travelers

concur in representing them as a distinct race in moral as in physical

traits. To their color, the various terms of bronze, copper, reddish,

and sometimes white, has been applied. They concur also in the report

that the Foulahs of every region represent themselves to be white men,

and proudly assert their superiority to the black tribes among whom

they live.… The Foulahs are rigid Mohammedans, and, according to

Mollien the French traveler’s report, they are animated by a strong

zeal for proselytism. They are the missionaries of Islam among the

Pagan negro tribes. Where they have conquered, they have forced the

adoption of the Koran by the sword; and whilst pursuing quietly their

pastoral occupation, they become schoolmasters (_maalims_), and thus

propagate the doctrines and precepts of Islam. Wherever the Foulah has

wandered, the Pagan idolatry of the negro has been overthrown; the

barbarous Fetish and greegree have been abandoned; anthropophagy and

cannibalism have been suppressed.… Thus the Foulahs are now exercising

a powerful influence upon the moral and social condition of Central

Africa. I do not doubt that they are destined to be the great

instrument in the future civilization of Africa, and the consequent

suppression of the external Atlantic slave trade.… They will,

probably, erect one vast empire in the Soudan, and the influence which

that power may exert in the great question of African civilization,

gives them no ordinary importance.’ If this opinion be true, what

might not be the result if the Foulahs, at present barbarians and

Mohammedans, themselves were overpowered by the higher and purer ideas

which have raised Europe to its present supremacy over the earth?

Meanwhile, it is consoling to think that, even in Central Africa, the

human race has been moving onward.

NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE GREAT DESERT.――Respecting that vast section of

the African continent which extends from the Mediterranean to

Nigritia, it appears that we are only beginning to obtain a correct

description. Various officers of the French army at present engaged in

the arduous enterprise of establishing the colony of Algeria, have

occupied themselves in collecting information regarding the numerous

tribes overspreading Northern Africa; and it would seem, from their

accounts, that the ideas we have been accustomed to entertain

concerning these regions are far from correct.

According to the recent accounts, Northern Africa, between the

Mediterranean and Nigritia, consists of two portions――the Tell, or

that strip of land varying from 50 to 120 miles in breadth, which lies

along the sea; and the Sahara, or, as it has commonly been called, the

Great Desert. The following remarks respecting the Tell are from the

work of Mr. Hodgson previously quoted:――‘On the Mediterranean coast of

Africa, there are in progress at this moment great political and

commercial revolutions. There exists in that region a sanguinary and

unceasing conflict of Christianity with Mohammedanism, of civilization

with semi-barbarism. France having conquered the extensive territory

of Algeria, is now pushing forward her victorious legions into the

more important and more populous empire of Morocco. The result of a

conflict between undisciplined hordes and the science of European

warfare cannot be doubtful. But there are elements in this contest

which perhaps have not been well understood. It is not with the Arab

populations of those countries with which France has chiefly to

contend. That, indeed, is the more intellectual but smaller portion of

the people of Algeria and Morocco. The more ferocious and larger

portion of that population consists of the aboriginal Berbers, the

ancient Numidians, and Mauritanians. The Romans term this race _genus

insuperabile bello_――“unconquerable in war.” It remains to be

determined if they have lost that proud appellation.’

‘To form a correct conception of the Sahara,’ says a writer in the

Edinburgh Review (No. 169), condensing the information contained in

some of the recent French publications on the subject, ‘our readers

must dismiss from their minds all loose and fantastic conceptions

which have been attached, from time immemorial, to the interior of

Northern Africa. Instead of a torrid region, where boundless steppes

of burning sand are abandoned to the roving horsemen of the Desert,

and to beasts of prey, and where the last vestiges of Moorish

civilization expire long before the traveler arrives at Negroland and

the savage communities of the interior, the Sahara is now ascertained

to consist of a vast archipelago of oases; each of them peopled by a

tribe of the Moorish race or its offsets, more civilized, and more

capable of receiving the lessons of civilization, than the houseless

Arabs of the Tell (the mountainous tract lying between the Great

Desert and the sea); cultivating the date-tree with application and

ingenuity, inhabiting walled towns, living under a regular government,

for the most part of a popular origin; carrying to some perfection

certain branches of native manufactures, and keeping up an extensive

system of commercial intercourse with the northern and central parts

of the African continent, and from Mogador to Mecca, by the enterprise

and activity of their caravans. Each of the oases of the Sahara, which

are divided from one another by sandy tracts, bearing shrubs and

plants fit only for the nourishment of cattle, presents an animated

group of towns and villages. Every village is encircled by a profusion

of fruit-bearing trees. The palm is the monarch of their orchards, as

much by the grace of its form, as by the value of its productions; and

the pomegranate, the fig-tree, and the apricot cluster around its

lofty stem. The lions and other beasts of prey with which poetry has

peopled the African wilds, are to be met with only in the mountains of

the Tell, never in the plains of the Sahara. The robber tribes of the

Tuaricks frequent the southern frontier of the Sahara, and the last

tracts of habitable land which intervene between these oases and the

real Desert; but in the Sahara itself, communications, carried on

after the fashion of the country, are regular and secure. War is,

indeed, of frequent occurrence between the neighboring tribes, either

for the possession of disputed territories, or the revenge of supposed

injuries; but all that is yet known of these singular communities

shows them to be living in a completely constituted state of society,

eminently adapted to the peculiar part of the globe which they

inhabit, governed by the strong traditions of a primitive people, and

fulfilling with energy and intelligence the strange vocations of their

life.’

‘Almost all the Sahara tribes,’ says M. Carette, a French captain of

engineers, who has contributed much to clear up our notions of this

portion of Africa, ‘are accustomed to a system of annual

peregrination, which must have existed from time immemorial, inasmuch

as it is based upon the nature of the climate and the produce, and the

primary wants of their existence. This general movement is commonly

performed in the following manner:――During the winter and spring the

tribes are collected in the waste tracts of the Sahara, which, at this

season of the year, supply water and fresh vegetation, but they never

remain more than three or four days on any one spot; and when the

pasture is exhausted, they strike their tents, and go to establish

themselves elsewhere. Towards the end of the spring they pass through

the towns of the Sahara, where their merchandise is deposited. They

load their camels with dates and woollen stuffs, and then turn their

steps towards the north, taking with them their whole wandering

city――women, dogs, herds, and tents――for it is at this season that the

springs begin to dry and the plants to wither on the Sahara, at the

same time that the corn is ripe in the Tell. There they arrive at the

moment of the harvest, when corn is abundant and cheap, and thus they

take a double advantage of the season, by abandoning the waste as it

becomes arid, and seeking their fresh stock of provisions in the

north, when the markets are overstocked with grain. The summer they

pass in this country, in commercial activity, exchanging their dates

and woollen manufactured goods for corn, raw wool, sheep, and butter;

whilst their herds are allowed to browse freely upon the lands, which

lie fallow after the gathering in of the harvest. The signal for the

return homewards is given at the end of the summer; the camels are

reloaded, the tents again struck, and the wandering city once more

marches forth, as it came, in short day’s journeys towards the south.

The Sahara is regained about the middle of October, the period when

the dates are ripe. A month is passed in gathering and storing this

fruit; another is devoted to the exchange of the wheat, and barley,

and raw wool, for the year’s dates and the woollen stuffs――the produce

of the yearly labor of the women. When all this business is concluded,

and the merchandise stored away, the tribes quit the towns, and lead

their flocks and herds from pasture-land to pasture-land among the

waste tracts of the Sahara, until the following summer calls for a

renewal of the same journey, the same system of trade.

‘The Sahara,’ continues M. Carette, ‘is that part of Algeria which is

most civilized and most capable of receiving civilization. It is there

that habits of precision are most generally diffused, and there that

we find the greatest amount of intelligence, activity, and social

disposition.’ The only portion of the Sahara which answers to our

ideas of an uninterrupted waste of sand, seems to be the most southern

belt of it, which adjoins Nigritia, and which is infested by a roving

race called the Tuaricks, who conduct a commercial intercourse,

especially in slaves, between the negro countries and the oases of the

more northern parts of the Sahara. ‘These Tuaricks,’ says M. Carette,

‘pretend to be of Turkish descent, and affect to treat the Arabs with

disdain. They are tall, strong, of slender make and of fair

complexion, with the exception of a few of mixed blood. They wear a

head-dress, one of the ends of which covers the whole face except the

eyes; and almost all, whether rich or poor, have their feet bare,

because, according to their own account, they never go on foot.’ The

southern Tuaricks keep the towns of the Soudan in a constant state of

blockade, hunting down the negroes in their neighborhood, and carrying

them off for sale.

CONCLUSION. From the general survey which we have taken of Africa, and

of the progress of African discovery, it appears that, while there is

scarcely a point in its vast circuit where Europeans have not

attempted to settle, scarcely any of the settlements have flourished.

For the purpose of trade, such establishments will no doubt be

maintained at a vast sacrifice of life――the consequence of the

pestilential effects of the climate on European constitutions; but it

is not likely that any settlements of a permanent description will be

effected except at the southern and northern extremities of the

continent. Cape Colony, as yet, is the most prosperous, indeed the

only settlement, worthy of the name, in Africa: whether the French

will be able to make anything of Algeria, remains yet to be seen. As

for the centre of the continent, it seems quite hopeless to suppose

that Europeans can ever operate there directly. The utmost that can be

anticipated is, that they shall be able to act upon the continent

through native agents. By establishing a commerce with Central Africa,

they may stimulate whatever tendencies to civilization exist among the

negro races; they may create an activity through the continent

resembling that caused by the slave traffic, but everyway nobler and

more beneficial. Whatever seeds of improvement there are among the

natives, whether negroes, Foulahs, or Arabs, may be developed by this

means, and made to fructify. In this respect, nothing could be more

gratifying than to know that the opinion explained in a former part of

this article with regard to Central Africa is well-founded, and that

an actual movement is in progress among the natives towards a more

advanced stage of humanity.