AFRICA 
 
 ITS PARTITION AND 
 ITS FUTURE 
 
 HENRY M. STANLEY 
 
 AND OTHERS 
 
I 
 
 
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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
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 ;Hi|g 9—165 
 
AFRICA 
 
AFRICA 
 
 Its Partition and its Future 
 
 BY / 
 HENRY M. STANLEY 
 
 AND OTHERS 
 
 With an Introduction 
 
 By harry THURSTON PECK, Ph.D. 
 Professor in Columbia University 
 
 With Colored Map in Pocket 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
 1898 
 
Copyright^ 1898 
 By The Independent 
 
 Copyright, 1898 
 By Dodd, Mead and Company 
 
 ^ 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
 1st COPY, 
 1898. 
 
o 
 
 NOTE 
 
 The papers collected in this volume were recently 
 prepared by their authors at the request of The Independent y 
 in whose pages they first appeared, together with the map 
 which accompanies them. They are reprinted in the 
 belief that they have a unique value at the present time 
 in giving a lucid and authentic statement of facts which 
 are of the very greatest contemporaneous interest, but 
 which have hitherto been practically inaccessible to the 
 general reader. 
 
Contents. 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Africa in the Twentieth Century 
 The Partition of Africa . . . 
 The British Empire in Africa . 
 The German Empire in Africa . 
 The French Empire in Africa . 
 The Independent Kongo State . 
 England, The Sudan, and France 
 The Future of Nigeria . . . 
 The Kingdom of Uganda . . . 
 Abyssinia and its People . . . 
 The Republic of Liberia — its Future 
 The Commerce, Railways, and Tele- 
 graphs OF Africa 
 
 The Map of Africa 
 
 PAGE 
 V 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 49 
 
 83 
 
 105 
 
 127 
 
 147 
 167 
 
 187 
 
 201 
 219 
 
 229 
 255 
 
Introduction. 
 
 "PX Africa semper aliquid novi. So wrote the 
 "^^ epigrammatic Roman nearly twenty cen- 
 turies ago, and each one of these centuries has 
 brought out into still clearer relief the essential 
 truth of his terse saying. Africa, indeed, has 
 always been the Dark Continent from which in 
 every age have come the mysterious and the 
 unexpected. Superficially, to be sure, it is 
 chiefly as a continent of marvels and mysteries 
 that it has been popularly thought of until 
 within the memory of the present generation. 
 In the earliest recorded times and, for that mat- 
 ter, in our own century, its geographical prob- 
 lems have been those which the mention of its 
 name most readily suggested. Circumnavigated 
 by the Phoenicians before the time of Herodo- 
 tus, whose record of this fact was for a long 
 while discredited; believed for many an age 
 to curve toward the East until it united with 
 Farther India and made of the Indian Ocean an 
 inland sea ; containing in its inaccessible depths 
 the source of one of the mightiest rivers of the 
 earth, whose origin was surrounded by a mist 
 
vi Introduction. 
 
 of legend and romance — the wonder-makers 
 have from time immemorial been active in the 
 invention and transmission of marvellous stories 
 regarding this strange continent. Its interior, 
 which for many centuries no white man ever 
 penetrated, was peopled with strange creatures 
 of the unfettered imagination, — with anthro- 
 pophagi and dwarfs and giants. Mysterious 
 cities were believed to exist upon the rivers 
 that lay beyond the Desert. The limitless tropi- 
 cal forests were fancifully held to teem with 
 dragons and mythical monsters. All travel- 
 lers, from Herodotus to Mungo Park, brought 
 back additions to the existing stock of curious 
 stories to excite the wonder of their contem- 
 poraries. 
 
 It is not, however, as a wonderland that 
 Africa deserves the very great attention which 
 it receives from the minds of men to-day ; nor, 
 in fact, has this been wholly true even in the 
 historic past. Something more than a pretext 
 for myth-making it has always been ; for, just 
 as the hot breath of its Desert blowing over the 
 Mediterranean sensibly affects the climate of the 
 neighbouring continent, so, to a great extent, 
 has Africa exercised upon Europe an enduring 
 influence of another sort, which has varied in de- 
 gree from age to age, but which has never ceased 
 
Introduction. vii 
 
 to have a very real existence. From the time 
 when Egypt under its native rulers developed 
 an extraordinary civilisation of its own, — a civ- 
 ilisation that knew the arts and sciences, and 
 that had a literature and a philosophy which in 
 many subtle ways found a reflection and a per- 
 petuation in the recorded thought of Greece, — 
 there has never been an age in which in some 
 way the influence of Africa has not been felt in 
 either the political or the intellectual Hfe of 
 Europe. In the Alexandrian Age, Africa was 
 the home of the highest culture, whose scholars 
 laid the foundation of scientific research and 
 literary criticism. In the Roman era, it con- 
 tained the wealthiest provinces of the Empire. 
 It produced in literature men of high talent, like 
 Fronto and Apuleius, who left a lasting mark 
 upon the history of Roman letters; while the 
 Latinity of the second century is found to be 
 sensibly modified by the example of the great 
 Africans who moulded it and used it to their 
 needs. In the early days of Christianity, Ter- 
 tullian, the fiery fanatic, and Augustine, whose 
 noble intellect and saintly life are among the 
 most precious heritages of the Church to-day, 
 are but two of the African Fathers whose names 
 are cherished by all Christendom. In the an- 
 nals of the Later Empire, men of African birth 
 
viii Introduction. 
 
 play so important a part in the political life of 
 Rome that a distinguished scholar has said that 
 the whole history of the Roman State at last 
 resolves itself into the history of a conflict for 
 supremacy between the African and the German 
 claimants of imperial power. 
 
 It is, however, in our own century that the 
 direct political importance of Africa has re- 
 ceived through circumstances a very general 
 recognition, — a recognition that has come to 
 the statesmen of the Old World with a startling 
 suddenness. The colonisation of the continent 
 by Europeans began two centuries ago, when 
 the English established themselves at the Cape 
 and on the Western Coast; but as this was 
 before the days of steam, and before the vari- 
 ous Powers of Europe had seriously considered 
 a systematic colonial policy, the settlement at 
 the Cape assumed no very real importance, any 
 more than did the fact that men of Dutch de- 
 scent had occupied the territory on the Orange 
 River, or than did the existence of the petty 
 trading-stations which Portugal established. In 
 the latter half of the present century, however, 
 Europe has awakened to a knowledge of some 
 very obvious facts. The first of these is the 
 necessity of finding some outlet for its own ex- 
 cessive population, and, in the second place, the 
 
Introduction. ix 
 
 need of new markets for European trade. A 
 recognition of these facts has greatly enlarged 
 the scope and modified the nature of continen- 
 tal policy. A desire for colonies has come 
 upon the rulers of the greatest nations. Russia 
 long ago found a natural outlet for expansion in 
 those vast Asiatic territories adjacent to her own 
 domain ; but France and Germany were forced 
 to look elsewhere. The greatest islands of the 
 South Pacific had already been secured by Eng- 
 land ; the American Republic haughtily barred 
 out from the Western Hemisphere all European 
 colonists who sought to carry to new homes 
 their old allegiances. There remained, there- 
 fore, only Africa still unpossessed, essentially 
 unprotected, and presenting possibilities such 
 as might tempt alike the military and the naval 
 strategist, and attract the notice of the resource- 
 ful trader. Great tracts of country, teeming with 
 undeveloped riches, lay unclaimed. There were 
 millions of acres of fertile land watered by noble 
 rivers; there were tropical forests that gave 
 promise of untold wealth in the shape of exotic 
 woods and spices ; there were also vast regions 
 still unexplored, but described by rumour as 
 rich in gold and silver and precious stones. 
 
 Upon the soil of Africa, therefore, in the past 
 fifty years there have been unfurled the flags of 
 
X Introduction. 
 
 many nations, until now there is very little of its 
 territory that remains unoccupied or unclaimed 
 by European States. France gained her earli- 
 est foothold on African soil in Senegal in the 
 seventeenth century, "but she won a more valu- 
 able possession in Algeria soon after 1830, when 
 she began the suppression of Algerine piracy, 
 and ended with the conquest of the entire 
 country, following up this acquisition later with 
 her protectorate over Tunis, her annexation of 
 Madagascar, and the extension of her sphere 
 of influence over Central Africa through the 
 French Sudan and the French Kongo ; so that, 
 roughly speaking, she now claims supreme 
 control of the territory extending from Algeria 
 to the head waters of the Niger, having seized 
 in 1893 the so-called holy city of Timbuktu, 
 the great trade-mart for the interior, and ulti- 
 mately to be united with Algiers or Biserta by 
 a railway nearly two thousand miles in length. 
 The German occupation of Africa is much more 
 recent, since it dates only from 1883, when the 
 imperial flag was raised on the West Coast, and 
 almost simultaneously in East Africa, in Togo- 
 land, and the Cameroons, leaving a certain un- 
 defined sphere of influence south of the Portu- 
 guese Angola. The next year, 1884, saw the 
 Italian flag hoisted upon African soil where 
 
Introduction. xi 
 
 Italy has lately lost so much and gained so 
 little in attempting to maintain herself upon the 
 strip of sea-coast called Eritrea, and to acquire 
 a sphere of influence at the expense of Abys- 
 sinia. The interesting experiment, called the 
 Kongo Free State, was begun in 1885, when its 
 existence under the sovereignty of the King of 
 the Belgians was recognised by the Congress 
 of Berlin. Portugal, whose claims were once 
 so great as to include an immense tract extend- 
 ing across the entire continent, has been re- 
 stricted to the possession of two or three small 
 strips of territory that are still not very accu- 
 rately defined. 
 
 The seizure and the gradual occupation of 
 these portions of Africa have, as already stated, 
 been fraught with momentous consequences to 
 the poHtical conditions of Europe, inasmuch as 
 new interests have thus been created whose con- 
 flict has been a source of contention and of 
 endless friction among the colonising States. 
 When the so-called territorial " scramble " 
 began, the balance of European power had 
 been very carefully adjusted and was holding 
 the opposing forces in a very delicate equilib- 
 rium. The Triple Alliance between Germany, 
 Austria, and Italy had been ofl'set by the less 
 formal, though in many respects no less real, 
 
xii Introduction. 
 
 entente existing between France and Russia; 
 while England, uncommitted to either combi- 
 nation, and thus left free to cast her enormous 
 power into either scale, enjoyed remarkable 
 advantages from the standpoint of diplomacy. 
 The colonisation of Africa, however, has already 
 materially changed the conditions that existed 
 so lately as five years ago. As soon as other 
 nations began to push their way into the Afri- 
 can continent, and to attempt the deHmitation 
 and definition of their new possessions, they 
 found themselves at many points brought into 
 a direct and sometimes an almost irreconcilable 
 conflict with each other. Their hinterlands 
 and spheres of influence often overlapped ; and 
 the difficulties of the situation were frequently 
 enhanced by the duplicity of the native chiefs, 
 who made treaties with one or the other of 
 the different rivals, pledging to each and all, 
 with utter irresponsibility, the very same con- 
 cessions. There were also conflicting claims of 
 discovery and of actual occupancy to be ad- 
 justed ; and as the territories in question were 
 often so little known as to be incapable of exact 
 definition, another element of confusion super- 
 vened. But in this clash of interests it has 
 been England which in a political sense has 
 suffered most. Her earlier exploration and 
 
Introduction. xiii 
 
 actual possession of territory made her the one 
 power whose presence oftenest blocked the way 
 of the later colonisers, so that at the present 
 time there has been roused against her the bit- 
 ter jealousy not only of France, her traditional 
 enemy, but of Germany, her traditional ally as 
 well ; while again and again her bold explorers 
 have crossed the tracks of the Portuguese, and 
 have at times been on the verge of actual mili- 
 tary conflict. Thus, to-day, the political results 
 of the scramble for African territory are very 
 striking. In the first place, Italy, by under- 
 taking in Abyssinia a task beyond her power 
 to perform, has demonstrated her military weak- 
 ness and administrative incapacity, so that she 
 has ceased to be an actively effective member 
 of the Triple Alliance. In the second place, 
 England no longer stands aloof and unembar- 
 rassed in her colonial ambitions, but is con- 
 fronted by the opposition of two of the greatest 
 Powers of the continent, whose enmity to each 
 other has been appreciably softened by the 
 acrimony which animates them both in the 
 presence of their great Anglo-Saxon rival. 
 
 It is this phase of the colonisation of Africa 
 which possesses for most of us the greatest in- 
 terest and importance ; for again and again it 
 has seemed to involve the possibilities of ac- 
 
xiv Introduction. 
 
 tual warfare, and it certainly contains within 
 itself innumerable elements of extreme danger. 
 It is, in fact, the critical position into which 
 England has been brought through her colonial 
 policy in Africa and Asia that has made her 
 turn during the past few months to the Ameri- 
 can Republic as a possible ally against a con- 
 tinental combination, and that induced her to 
 give not only moral but active diplomatic as- 
 sistance to this country during the progress of 
 its war with Spain. It would be a curious out- 
 come of the entrance of Europe into Africa, if 
 the partition of African territory should indi- 
 rectly bring about a federation for defensive pur- 
 poses of the entire English-speaking race. 
 
 During the past ten years, the periodicals of 
 all countries have teemed with description and 
 argument as to the partition and the future of 
 Africa. The press has recorded from week to 
 week the progress of discovery and colonisa- 
 tion, and it has brought to the minds of every 
 one the acuteness of the rivalry which exists 
 between the claimants for colonial supremacy. 
 Amid all the mass of geographical statistics, 
 and in the maze of controversy that has been 
 woven about the aims and motives of the differ- 
 ent Powers, it has been almost impossible for 
 even the most intelligent person to gain a defi- 
 
Introduction. xv 
 
 nite understanding of the existing facts. The 
 remoteness of the scene and the paucity of 
 authentic information have been utterly bewil- 
 dering. All that most of us have known is sim- 
 ply the broad fact already stated, that the greater 
 Powers of Europe are now confronting one 
 another in a contest for empire in a continent 
 that is still but half explored. It was a happy 
 thought, therefore, which led to the preparation 
 of the papers reprinted in this volume. Taken 
 together they constitute a brief, authoritative, 
 and lucid statement of the African situation as 
 it is to-day. They describe with perfect clear- 
 ness the possessions actually held by each of 
 the rival Powers; they define and explain the 
 claims which have brought these Powers into 
 opposition; and they give an interesting fore- 
 cast, from the point of view of each nation, of 
 the manner in which the complicated problem 
 is likely to be solved. The writer of each paper 
 is a specialist whose knowledge is a first-hand 
 knowledge, and who has had access to all the 
 sources of official information that exist; and 
 the fact that he shows a certain half-unconscious 
 national bias in his statements, merely gives ad- 
 ditional interest to what he has to say. No vol- 
 ume that has yet appeared has thrown such light 
 upon a subject which in all its phases appeals 
 
xvi Introduction. 
 
 with exceptional force to the reflective mind; 
 for whether one regards it from a geographi- 
 cal standpoint, or from the side of contempora- 
 neous political history, or as marking an epoch 
 in the history of civilisation, the whole theme is 
 fraught with the most striking possibilities. 
 
 To many minds the most fascinating feature 
 of this African complication is to be found in 
 the attitude of England standing face to face 
 with so many powerful rivals, and fronting all of 
 them with the dauntless serenity of the Anglo- 
 Saxon, holding in a grip of iron all that she has 
 won, and awaiting with calm confidence the out- 
 come of the future. In the great game of 
 colonial diplomacy she has never lost a point. 
 Planting herself firmly in Egypt, where she won 
 an irresistible advantage in 1882 through the 
 momentary vacillation of the French; trans- 
 forming that country from a miserable tax- 
 burdened nest of thieves and cowards into a 
 prosperous and self-respecting State, whose 
 sons she has taught to dare as well as to en- 
 dure ; pushing her outposts farther and farther 
 south, so that her soldiers may at length clasp 
 hands with the hardy pioneers of the Cape, who 
 with equal boldness and persistency are forging 
 toward the North; outwitting her French and 
 Russian rivals in Abyssinia, and in the West as 
 
Introduction. xvii 
 
 well, — no thoughtful person can for a moment 
 doubt that it is she at last who will be the 
 arbiter of Africa. She alone, indeed, has the 
 instinctive genius for colonisation, for her sons 
 alone are unfettered by the oppressive and 
 brutal militarism which blights the colonies of 
 Germany, and by the timid inefficiency which 
 makes the Frenchman in a foreign land so help- 
 less and so ill at ease. No one can refuse to 
 believe that she will repeat in Africa the history 
 that she has made in North America and in 
 Australasia; that in the end it is Anglo-Saxon 
 civilisation which will give to the Dark Conti- 
 nent the light of free institutions, of justice, and 
 of law; and that England will once more reap 
 the rich rewards which in the past she has 
 always won through the inestimable service 
 that she has rendered to the cause that is the 
 cause of all humanity. 
 
 HARRY THURSTON PECK. 
 
 Columbia University, 
 August the firsty 1898. 
 
AFRICA IN THE TWENTIETH 
 CENTURY. 
 
AFRICA IN THE TWENTIETH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 BY HENRY M. STANLEY, M.P. 
 
 TO draw the horoscope of Africa, and 
 foretell in what condition she will 
 be in 1998, is a rash and risky under- 
 taking; and it is with considerable mis- 
 giving that I have ventured to consent to 
 giving you my opinion upon the subject. 
 If I mass them under the term " proba- 
 bilities " there will be no harm done, while 
 I hope they will be of interest to some of 
 your readers. 
 
 In 1798 the whole body of the African 
 continent north of the limited Cape 
 Colony to the Mediterranean countries 
 was absolutely unknown except a thin 
 coast fringe. Bruce had been to the head 
 of the Blue Nile, and Mungo Park had 
 visited Timbuktu ; and their lines of travel 
 with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, 
 Egypt, Abyssinia, and Senegal comprised 
 
4 Africa in the 
 
 our knowledge of inner Africa. Despite 
 numerous maps that had been published 
 between the fifteenth and nineteenth cen- 
 turies the best geographers knew little 
 more of the continent than the contem- 
 poraries of Ptolemy, 1 50 a. d. 
 
 What is known of Africa in 1898 is 
 mainly due to the explorations which com- 
 menced with Livingstone's journey to the 
 Zambezi in 1854-57. By August, 1884, 
 the basins of the Nile, Kongo, Niger, Zam- 
 bezi, and Limpopo, together with all the 
 great lakes, were fairly well known ; and 
 since then exploration has been on such a 
 scale that there is now but little left to 
 discover. 
 
 In December, 1884, commenced the 
 Berlin Conference, and soon after came 
 the scramble for the bulky continent. We 
 find Africa partitioned to-day as follows : 
 France has secured 3,000,000 square miles, 
 Germany 884,000 square miles, Great 
 Britain 2,190,000 square miles, Italy 
 549,000 square miles, Portugal 825,000 
 square miles, Kongo Free State 905,000 
 square miles, the Boer Republics 178,000 
 
Twentieth Century. 5 
 
 square miles, which, with 2,435,000 square 
 miles occupied by Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, 
 and Liberia, make about 11,000,000 square 
 miles out of the entire 11,500,000 square 
 miles said to be the superficial area of 
 Africa. 
 
 It is from the above delimitations that 
 we have to forecast the probable condition 
 of Africa a hundred years hence. 
 
 Egypt's future depends largely upon the 
 state she will be in when England retires 
 from the care and control of her. For 
 sixteen years England has been redeeming 
 her from the anarchy she fell into through 
 the wastefulness of Ismail the Khedive, 
 the revolt of Arabi, and the rebellion of 
 the Sudan. During this period her finances 
 have been restored and her army reorgan- 
 ised. The revenue has been steadily aug- 
 menting, her trade increased, the instituted 
 reforms have tended to the happiness of 
 her people ; and now, assured of pros- 
 perity, she is advancing to regain her lost 
 Sudanese provinces. Last year the Egyp- 
 tian troops were at Berber ; this year they 
 will be at Khartum and Omdurman, and 
 
6 Africa in the 
 
 probably at the Bahr Ghazal. A couple 
 of years hence Kordofan and Darfur will 
 have been occupied. Egypt must then 
 devote several years — under British 
 supervision — to the work of consolida- 
 tion and restoration of these countries, 
 which should occupy at least fifteen years 
 more. 
 
 Despite assertions to the contrary, I do 
 not think France will attempt forcibly to 
 interfere with the British occupation until 
 it is clear to all the world that Egypt is 
 in a condition to conduct her own affairs. 
 But notwithstanding the fact that the 
 mutual action of England and Egypt may 
 be comparatively smooth for fifteen or 
 twenty years to come, the time must 
 arrive when the new Egypt will be vehe- 
 ment in her desire to terminate the tute- 
 lage to which she will have submitted for 
 nearly forty years. Then the good sense 
 of England will perceive it necessary to 
 withdraw the British troops. For the in- 
 estimable services she will have performed, 
 England will doubtless demand the privi- 
 leges of a protector, as security against 
 
Twentieth Century. 7 
 
 relapse and the attempts of any foreign 
 Power to succeed her. 
 
 For a few years after the departure of 
 the British forces, the policy of the Egyp- 
 tians will be cautious, and to proceed on 
 the safe lines to which they will have been 
 accustomed. Agriculture along the Upper 
 Nile will be encouraged, Meroe will be 
 developed, the Sudan will be studded with 
 fortified stations, and these will be con- 
 nected by railways. If they continue this 
 policy, enduring prosperity will be certain ; 
 but if a khedive of self-will seeks to restore 
 the old order of things, override his coun- 
 cillors, veto legislative enactments, neglect 
 the schools, overtax his people, then, of 
 course, disaster and ruin must follow, and 
 Egypt will once more need the foreigner 
 to save her. I do not think it possible 
 myself ; on the contrary, the lessons of 
 forty years will not be forgotten, and the 
 end of the next century will find the 
 Egyptian dominions thickly populated, 
 independent of Turkey, protected by a 
 powerful native army and ranking among 
 the second-class Powers. 
 
8 Africa in the 
 
 With regard to Abyssinia, I do not think 
 the country will be much more advanced 
 a hundred years hence than it is to-day, 
 though a century is a long time to look 
 forward to. A nation of mountaineers, so 
 jealous of its independence and hostile to 
 foreigners, cannot evolve out of itself the 
 elements of progress in so short a period. 
 The Abyssinians may possess breech- 
 loaders, and have a better and larger 
 army; but these in a barbarous nation 
 rather tend to confirm its barbarism. 
 They will be too powerful to be subdued, 
 too dreaded for the attempt of a civiliser, 
 too isolated to catch the spirit of civilisa- 
 tion, too poor to excite cupidity ; in brief, 
 the game of civilising Abyssinia is not 
 worth the cost of the effort. More than 
 once the Abyssinians will measure their 
 strength against the Egyptians, and against 
 the British to the south ; but though they 
 may meet with a temporary success, their 
 defeat is assured in all the lowlands round 
 about. 
 
 Italy claims African territory to the 
 south of Abyssinia much too spacious for 
 
Twentieth Century, 9 
 
 her revenue. Becoming infected with the 
 craze for African territory and puffed up 
 with vanity, she attempted to swallow more 
 than she could digest. The result was 
 satiety, and disgorgement. Her Somali 
 and Galla lands, 280,000 square miles, are 
 of no value to her, but are coveted by both 
 France and Abyssinia. It is obvious to 
 me that they will be a cause of trouble, 
 expense, and humiliation to her yet. The 
 sentiment against absentees is as strong 
 with rival Powers as with private tenants. 
 Italy, not daring the cost of proper occu- 
 pation, must decide quickly what alterna- 
 tive she will adopt in regard to them. 
 This section, then, being in a state of 
 suspense, there is no certain basis for a 
 forecast of the future. A few years hence 
 it will be safer to pronounce it. 
 
 British East Africa has a fair future. 
 In 1875 a traveller sounded the praises of 
 Uganda, and suggested that it required 
 missionaries. Two years later mission- 
 aries landed in the country, after a voyage 
 across Lake Victoria. To-day there are 
 321 churches and over 100,000 converts 
 
lo Africa in the 
 
 in it. Parliament has voted ;^3,ooo,ooo 
 toward the railway which is to connect 
 Uganda with the sea; 150 miles of it is 
 now in running order. The terminus is 
 to be on the shore of the lake, which will 
 soon be floating many steam vessels. It 
 will then be necessary to extend the rail- 
 ways, so as to make the frontiers of this 
 region accessible and secure against dis- 
 turbance. Lake Rudolf is one objective 
 point which must be reached ; Gondo- 
 koro on the White Nile is another; Lakes 
 Albert Edward and Albert are others. By 
 the time these necessary works are con- 
 cluded, white communities will have estab- 
 lished themselves along the trunk railway, 
 the Kenia, Elgon, and Massowa mountains 
 will possess their sanatoria and hotels, and 
 long before the half of the century has 
 gone British East Africa will have become 
 one of the most prosperous African colo- 
 nies, somewhat similar to what Natal is at 
 present. 
 
 Under German Africa, I include East 
 Africa, Damara, and Namaqua lands, and 
 the Kamerun. Intellectually the native 
 
Twentieth Century. 1 1 
 
 races of these countries are inferior to 
 those of British East Africa, and the trend 
 of German policy toward them does not 
 promise great success. As against the 
 constitutionalism of the British methods, 
 it is a decided militarism that is in favour 
 with the Germans ; and from such I gather 
 that, successful as it may seem by steady 
 persistence and force, only a kind of pro- 
 gress like that found in Boer States can 
 follow. Military control permits no radi- 
 cal change among natives, and does not 
 conduce to moral and intellectual improve- 
 ment. Being too rigid and supercilious 
 to stoop to associate with inferiors, it is 
 satisfied with the outward form of civilisa- 
 tion. The tribes protected from mutual 
 slaughter will naturally multiply, and sup- 
 ply labour for mines, public works, mer- 
 cantile establishments, and agricultural 
 estates ; but, as there is no sign of ele- 
 vating effort in view, the great mass of 
 natives will not have profited morally by 
 German civilisation. The German pos- 
 session a century hence will be in much 
 the same condition as the Gold Coast is 
 
12 Africa in the 
 
 to-day; that is, materially improved, but 
 in heart and understanding only a degree 
 above barbarism. 
 
 Portuguese East Africa, north of the 
 Zambezi, has no remarkable future in 
 prospect. Its climate and situation are 
 against it. A certain improvement in 
 government may be expected from pick- 
 ings derived from trade passing by its 
 borders to British Nyassaland. That part 
 of the Portuguese possessions south of the 
 Zambezi River is exposed to the demands 
 of Rhodesia and the Transvaal ; but as 
 flexibility will be more advantageous than 
 obduracy, and neither Boer nor British 
 colonists will greatly care for malarious 
 lowlands, the Portuguese will avert the 
 danger by the freest access to the sea-posts 
 of Beira and Louren9o Marquez, and thus 
 render friction unlikely. 
 
 Neither Nyassaland nor northern Char- 
 terland, though in other ways prosperous 
 enough, can present such results as British 
 East Africa at the end of the next cen- 
 tury, unless some sure curative of malarial 
 fever is discovered. The tribes are a mere 
 
Twentieth Century, 13 
 
 agglomeration of fragments of tribes, and 
 though of the sturdier type, they are not 
 intellectual. Before many years, educa- 
 tion, which is freely bestowed, must neces- 
 sarily make a great change in them. The 
 connection of Lake Nyassa with the Cape 
 must increase trade to a large extent, and 
 otherwise be of material benefit. The ris- 
 ing importance of the Tanganyika region 
 by the prosperity of the regions east and 
 west of it, must be of great advantage to 
 the revenue of Nyassaland ; coffee, cotton, 
 sugar, tea, etc., may be largely exported, 
 and altogether the general progress may 
 be most marked ; still the area of Nyassa- 
 land is but limited, and northern Charter- 
 land is as yet in a primitive state, far in 
 the interior, with nothing exceptionally 
 promising. Should Rhodesia seek an 
 outlet to the Atlantic at Mossamedes 
 then Charterland's prospects would be 
 brighter. 
 
 In treating of South Africa I must in- 
 clude Cape Colony, Natal, Bechuanaland, 
 the South African Republic, and the 
 Orange Free State, because want of space 
 
14 Africa in the 
 
 forbids detail and compels brevity. The 
 most marked advance in Africa during the 
 next century will be in this region, because 
 it is suitable to the constitution of the 
 European, and for 250 years he has proved 
 himself adapted to it, and has already 
 founded several flourishing States within 
 it. Even the youngest State is possessed 
 of all the advantages necessary to the 
 fullest expansion ; railways, telegraphs, 
 and steam lines bring it in direct contact 
 with the centre of the civilised world. 
 Nevertheless, there is a peculiar condition 
 of things in South Africa, found in no 
 other part of the continent, which, as we 
 look forward along the coming century, 
 satisfy us that there must be a troublous 
 future in store for these colonies and States. 
 The worst danger, I think, to be appre- 
 hended is from the stubborn antagonism 
 which exists between two such determined 
 races as the British and the Dutch. Years 
 do not appear to modify, but rather to 
 intensify the incompatibility. Already 
 they have lived side by side under one 
 flag for over ninety years, but the feeling 
 
Twentieth Century. 15 
 
 has been more hostile of late years. The 
 South African Bond (Boer) and the South 
 African League (British) represent the 
 variance of feeling existing. Though the 
 Boers are in the majority at present, time 
 appears to be in favour of the ultimate pre- 
 dominance of the British. During the 
 last six years the steam lines took 66,coo 
 people to South Africa, and Johannesburg, 
 Kimberley, and Rhodesia must account for 
 most of these. The next ten years at this 
 rate will place the British as numerically 
 equal to the Boers, and in twenty years 
 they wdll exceed the Boers, and by that 
 time the supremacy question will have 
 been definitely settled. 
 
 The Imperial supremacy is an altogether 
 different thing, and not worth considering. 
 What we want to know is, if the suprem- 
 acy is of such a character as to assure 
 us of the largest possible civil and relig- 
 ious liberty to the people of South Africa. 
 If the British are in the ascendant, the 
 principles w^hich triumphed in the United 
 States, Canada, and the Australias wall 
 triumph here also ; but if tlie Dutch gain 
 
1 6 Africa in the 
 
 the ascendency, the outlook is not so 
 bright. In my opinion the latter can 
 scarcely be the case, though at present 
 Boer ideas and views preponderate. If a 
 happy solution of the problem be arrived 
 at, South Africa in 1998 must have 
 a population of European descent ap- 
 proaching 8,000,000 and a coloured popu- 
 lation of 16,000,000. Sectional revolts of 
 blacks against whites will doubtless happen, 
 but any combination of the negroes of the 
 various States is impossible. Long before 
 the end of the century the connection of 
 South Africa with Great Britain will be 
 very slight, unless common interests will 
 have invented some form of nexus where- 
 by Britain and her colonies may have the 
 utmost freedom of action in domestic 
 matters, while yet restrained from pursu- 
 ing opposing politics in foreign affairs. 
 
 Portuguese Angola, which comes next, 
 possesses such advantages from its posi- 
 tion and natural resources, as might, with 
 energetic administration, make it an opu- 
 lent colony. Its climate on the whole is 
 very tolerable for the tropics ; it contains 
 
Twentieth Century. 17 
 
 spacious highlands, the soil of which is 
 well adapted for cereals and grazing ; in 
 its valleys may be grown coffee, tea, cotton, 
 sugar-cane, etc. It is rich in copper and 
 iron. A judicious expenditure on railways 
 would open out a rich interior, and enable 
 it to share to a great extent in the pros- 
 perity of its neighbours. It possesses 
 several good seaports which some day 
 will attract the attention of North Char- 
 terland and Rhodesia. Mossamedes is 
 but a thousand miles away from the Vic- 
 toria Falls and less than 1,300 from Bulu- 
 wayo, which fact is sufficiently suggestive 
 of what the next century may see. 
 
 The existence of the Kongo Free State 
 depends upon whether Belgium will suc- 
 ceed King Leopold in 1900. Hitherto 
 she has been strongly disinclined to the 
 idea. However, the completion of the 
 Kongo Railway, which gives easy access 
 to the Upper Kongo basin, may convert 
 her to a better appreciation of the noble 
 State the King has created. The shares 
 are at present worth double their face 
 value, the trade of the State is annually 
 
1 8 Africa in the 
 
 increasing, while the revenue may be made 
 to keep pace with the expenditure at any 
 time. The mortality due to climate shows 
 a steady reduction, and by means of the 
 railway, which will be open next June to 
 regular traffic, and better accommodation 
 on the river steamers, it will be still further 
 reduced. In 1879 the ocean voyage to 
 the Kongo occupied forty-five days ; in 
 1898 the voyage takes twenty-two days; 
 it will shortly pay to run steamers which 
 will do the voyage in half the time. In 
 thirteen years the number of Europeans 
 on the Kongo has risen from a few score 
 to 1,500; ten years hence, by the accel- 
 erated means of transport, I estimate there 
 will be 5,000, and by 1998 there probably 
 will be 250,000 Europeans within the 
 State, and railways to the Tanganyika, 
 the Nile, and Katanga. To-day the native 
 population is estimated at 16,000,000, 
 which a century hence will no doubt have 
 increased to 40,000,000. But how easy 
 it were to efface this fair prospect, by im- 
 agining the destiny of the State consigned 
 to other hands than that of Belgium } 
 
Twentieth Century. 19 
 
 French Africa, which includes the 
 Gabun, French Kongo, Dahomey, Sene- 
 gal, Algiers, Tunis, the Sahara, and 
 Nigeria, is too vast to be here treated of 
 otherwise than under one head. Twice 
 has France in the past possessed mag- 
 nificent colonies ; but during the wars of 
 the Louises and Napoleon she has had 
 the misfortune to lose them nearly all. 
 She has acquired others since, as great 
 and as valuable as those she lost; but 
 Gallic nature remains the same as when 
 Polybius declared the Gauls to be " swayed 
 by impulse rather than by sober calcula- 
 tion." As in the far past the Gauls yielded 
 to passion, were so needlessly provocative 
 and prone to rash enterprises, it is to be 
 feared that in the future they w^ill not 
 sufficiently deliberate upon the choice of 
 evils, and so again endanger their vast 
 possessions. Algiers, Tunis, and Senegal 
 are, however, so well established that it 
 is doubtful whether a calamitous war 
 would interrupt their progress. But for 
 the rest, unless a more prudent policy be 
 adopted toward well-meaning nations, it 
 
20 Africa in the 
 
 is impossible to say what another century 
 may bring forth. Like Italy, France has 
 been forward in annexation; and her 
 revenue is not equal to nourishing an 
 Asian and an African empire of such 
 prodigious extent and a huge island like 
 Madagascar at one and the same time. 
 One or the other must needs starve or all 
 must suffer through the want of nutrition 
 for development. 
 
 The British West African colonies dur- 
 ing the coming century are destined to 
 be much more progressive than in the 
 past. Inclusive of Nigeria, their super- 
 ficial area extends over 480,000 square 
 miles. Hitherto they have been neglected 
 and remained comparatively undeveloped ; 
 but owing to French aggressiveness, which 
 threatened to limit them to the coast-line, 
 they have of late received more attention, 
 and railways have been started both at 
 Lagos and Sierra Leone toward the in- 
 terior. Cape Coast Castle is also to be 
 connected with Kumassi. These lines 
 will enable our merchants, so long con- 
 fined to the coast, to enter into commer- 
 
Twentieth Century. 21 
 
 cial relations with the more populous 
 interior. To-day the revenue of these 
 colonies amounts to ;^500,ooo, while their 
 trade with that of Nigeria is valued at 
 ;^6,ooo,ooo. Given a hundred years more, 
 the trade will have increased to ^25,000,000, 
 while there will be a corresponding im- 
 provement in the social condition of the 
 natives of these regions. 
 
 There remains only the Moroccan 
 Empire to consider. Owing to the jeal- 
 ousies of the Powers, annexationists have 
 been shy of Morocco. It must be the 
 policy of Great Britain to uphold the 
 native ruler as long as possible, were it 
 only for the reason that if a foreign Power 
 occupies Morocco, Gibraltar will have been 
 flanked. It is certain that a course of 
 British administration, similar to that 
 which is regenerating Egypt, would have 
 a decidedly beneficial effect on Morocco, 
 and start it on a prosperous course. But 
 this would not be done without the 
 consent of Europe. Therefore, Morocco 
 must be left to natural evolution which, 
 of course, requires centuries to produce 
 
22 Twentieth Century. 
 
 substantial civilisation. It is possible that 
 some foreign Power will take advantage 
 of some serious European entanglement 
 to bring the Moroccan question to a sud- 
 den issue ; but it will not be such an easy 
 task as the seizure of Tunis, nor so quietly 
 acquiesced in. 
 
 I have thus gone round Africa in a 
 perfunctory way, I fear ; still, if the reader 
 will take the map of the continent in hand 
 and study the limits I have given in each 
 paragraph he will find the sum total of 
 the changes, which the next century must 
 see, to be very large. The Cape to Cairo 
 Railway, which some appear to think as 
 improbable, will be an accomplished fact 
 before 1925, I believe. There is nothing 
 very difficult about it, for even to-day 
 ;^ 1 0,000,000 would rail the entire distance 
 from Buluwayo to Lado on the White 
 Nile ; and with steam navigation on Lakes 
 Nyassa, Tanganyika, Albert Edward, and 
 Albert, and on the White Nile, communi- 
 cation would be established between Cape 
 Town and Alexandria. 
 
THE PARTITION OF AFRICA. 
 
THE PARTITION OF AFRICA. 
 
 BY J. SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., 
 Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society. 
 
 FOURTEEN years ago I wrote a 
 paper entitled " The Scramble for 
 Africa." In the beginning of 1884 that 
 scramble had just begun. Up to that 
 time England and France were the two 
 great European Powers in Africa; but 
 they pursued their annexations leisurely. 
 Portugal, though she possessed some 
 800,000 square miles in East and West 
 Africa, was hardly taken into account, and 
 in the scramble was dealt with by the 
 other Powers as if she were a native State. 
 The King of the Belgians was pushing 
 his way on the Kongo rather as the head 
 of a private company than as the sovereign 
 of a State ; France was fighting her way 
 toward the Upper Niger, while the British 
 Niger Company was establishing its foot- 
 ing on the lower river. Even British 
 
26 The Partition 
 
 South Africa did not, fourteen years ago, 
 extend much beyond the Orange River; 
 and over the whole of Central Africa, 
 i, e., Africa between the tropics, effective 
 European possession was confined to a 
 few patches along the coast. Suddenly 
 Germany intervened, and precipitated the 
 leisurely game of annexation into a scram- 
 ble. In 1883 the German flag was raised 
 by a private trader on the coast of Nama- 
 qualand, in Southwest Africa. In 1884 the 
 scramble began in earnest; and by 1885 
 the *' Spheres " of the three great Euro- 
 pean Powers chiefly interested — England, 
 France, and Germany — may be said to 
 have been roughly blocked out over the--, 
 whole continent. Meantime, in 1884-85^- 
 the Berlin Congress had met and laid 
 down the rules for the game, at the same 
 time recognising the Kongo Free State 
 under the sovereignty of the Belgians. 
 During the years that have elapsed since 
 then there have been occasional crises 
 among the Powers concerned when their 
 African frontiers approached each other; 
 but till now the difficulty has been got 
 
of Africa» 27 
 
 over by international agreements. There 
 was so much elbow-room on the great 
 neglected continent that mutually satis- 
 factory arrangements were not difficult. 
 But now that the continent has been prac- 
 tically partitioned, and the various spheres 
 delimited, the Powers have been taking 
 stock of the extent and value of their 
 possessions, and one, at least, is not satis- 
 fied. Let us briefly inquire what the 
 result has been. 
 
 British South Africa now extends from 
 Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika, a dis- 
 tance of 1,800 miles. The whole south 
 coast is British. On the west the sphere 
 is bordered by German Southwest Africa, 
 Portuguese Guinea, and the Kongo Free 
 State ; on the east by Portuguese and 
 German East Africa, while the two Boer 
 Republics are shut into the British spheres 
 as inclosures. It may be said that the 
 only disputed boundary in this part of 
 Africa is between Great Britain and 
 Portugal, the Barotse country to the west 
 of the Zambezi being claimed by both ; 
 the difference will probably be settled in 
 
28 The Partition 
 
 favour of the stronger Power. This im- 
 mense British area, covering nearly a 
 million of square miles, is at various stages 
 of incorporation with the Empire, from the 
 self-administrating colony to the "Sphere 
 of Influence " ; Cape Colony and Natal 
 belong to the former categories. Beyond 
 Cape Colony we have the Bechuanaland 
 Protectorate, but much the greater share 
 belongs to the British South African 
 Company, whose territories extend to the 
 heart of the continent. On the west and 
 south of Lake Nyassa we have the British 
 Central Africa Protectorate, which is under 
 direct imperial administration and is inde- 
 pendent of the company. A traveller 
 from the Cape to Lake Tanganyika might 
 sail up the lake and from the north end, 
 after a journey of about 120 miles either 
 through the Kongo Free State or through 
 German East Africa, find himself again in 
 British territory, in the country of which we 
 have recently heard so much, — Uganda. 
 Here we are in British East Africa, which 
 has a coast-line on the Indian Ocean of 
 some 400 miles to the south of the Juba 
 
of Africa. 29 
 
 River, extends westward to the Victoria 
 Nyanza, the Albert Nyanza, and the 
 Albert Edward Nyanza, and on the other 
 side along the Juba, and westward across 
 the Nile into Bahr-el-Ghazal and Darfur. 
 It includes the islands of Zanzibar and 
 Pemba, and embraces an area of some 
 800,000 square miles. The limits of Brit- 
 ish East Africa have been arranged by 
 agreements with Germany and Italy, the 
 two contiguous Powers ; but they have 
 never been formally recognised by France 
 — and thereby hangs a tale to which we 
 shall presently refer. This vast territory 
 is under the jurisdiction nominally of Her 
 Majesty's representative at Zanzibar, but 
 it is divided into provinces each with its 
 resident and sub-residents, though the 
 portion to the north of Uganda on the 
 Upper Nile has not yet been finally occu- 
 pied. The island of Zanzibar has still 
 a Sultan as nominal ruler; but he is a 
 mere figure-head. On the northeast, 
 British East Africa is bordered by Soma- 
 liland and Gallaland, which is nominally 
 Italian, except a block on the Gulf of 
 
30 The Partition 
 
 Aden to the west of Cape Guardafui, 
 which is British. It covers 75,000 square 
 miles, and it is of great importance as 
 commanding the trade of the interior. 
 
 On the opposite side of Africa will be 
 found another extensive British sphere 
 covering the lower Niger. The total 
 area secured by various agreements be- 
 tween England, France, and Germany, 
 and by treaties with native potentates is 
 about 500,000 square miles ; all except a 
 portion on the coast, which is a protect- 
 orate, being under the jurisdiction of the 
 Royal Niger Company. About the east- 
 ern boundary there is no dispute ; it 
 extends from the south end of Lake Tchad 
 in a southwest direction to the coast near 
 the Calabar River. On the north, by 
 arrangement with France in 1890, the 
 British territory is bordered by a line 
 drawn from Say on the Niger east to 
 Barua on Lake Tchad, but bending north- 
 ward so as to include all that belongs to 
 Sokoto. It is the western boundary that 
 is at present in hot dispute between 
 France and England. The English in- 
 
of Africa. 3 1 
 
 terpretation of the agreement of 1890 is 
 that a line drawn south from Say marks 
 the western boundary of the British 
 sphere ; and this was the French inter- 
 pretation when the agreement was made. 
 The Niger Company has made treaties 
 with native chiefs so as to cover all this 
 sphere. For reasons satisfactory to the 
 company they have not occupied every 
 point in this territory, among others the 
 important town of Busa on the Niger. 
 The French maintaining, by an erroneous 
 interpretation of the Berlin Agreement, 
 that effective occupation is necessary, 
 have slipped in and occupied Busa and 
 other places. The fact is, it is only now, 
 when the partition is all but complete, 
 that France realises her disadvantage in 
 having no direct access to the Lower 
 Niger. Great Britain has apparently 
 made up her mind on no account to yield 
 any part of the west bank of the Lower 
 Niger to France, except a small strip to 
 the south of Say. France insists on her 
 rights as actual occupant. The two 
 Powers are, therefore, at a deadlock ; what 
 
32 The Partition 
 
 the result will be remains to be seen.-^ 
 These British Niger territories are the 
 most densely peopled part of Africa; they 
 are capable of great commercial develop- 
 ment; many of the people are far above 
 the rank of savages. Lagos, the Gold 
 Coast, Sierra Leone, Gambia, all British, 
 have been reduced to patches blocked 
 everywhere from the interior by French 
 territory, except Lagos, which is really 
 part of the great Niger territory and 
 which, along with this and the Niger 
 Coast Protectorate, will shortly be united 
 under one administration under direct 
 Imperial control. The total area in Africa 
 claimed by Great Britain may be roughly 
 estimated at 2,300,000 square miles. 
 
 The territory claimed by France in 
 Africa covers something like three mil- 
 lion square miles, including Madagascar. 
 Algeria and Tunis she holds by right of 
 conquest, and her claims there are not 
 disputed. From the Mediterranean to 
 
 1 By a compact announced in the Speech from the Throne, 
 August I2th, 1898, the deadlock mentioned here has been 
 broken. The French have abandoned their claim to Busa, re- 
 ceiving in return some minor territorial concessions. The result 
 must be viewed as a diplomatic victory for England. — H. T. P. 
 
of Africa. 33 
 
 the Gulf of Guinea her territory extends 
 without interruption. By the Anglo- 
 French arrangement of 1890, already 
 referred to, the greater part of the Sahara, 
 " very light soil," as Lord Salisbury called 
 it, is allotted as her sphere. On the 
 northwest she is shut off from the coast 
 by Morocco and the Spanish block known 
 as Rio d'Oro, about 150,000 square miles. 
 From a little to the north of Cape Blanco 
 round to the British Gold Coast Colony, 
 France possesses a long line of coast, 
 interrupted by such patches as British 
 Gambia, Portuguese Guinea, Liberia, and 
 Sierra Leone. The whole of the Niger 
 above Say is French, and nearly the whole 
 of the country in the great bend of the 
 river is claimed by her ; and, as a matter 
 of fact, the disputed area is very small. 
 It consists of a patch behind the British 
 Gold Coast and German Togoland, mainly 
 composed of the Kingdom of Mossi. 
 Great Britain claims some of the territory 
 behind Ashanti, and within the last few 
 months France and Germany have come 
 to an agreement as to the limits of Togo- 
 3 
 
34 The Partition 
 
 land. The whole region to the west of 
 this, included in the basins of the Nis^er 
 and the Senegal, are French and all the 
 territory embraced in the northern bend 
 of the Niger. This is known as the 
 French Sudan, with the exception of 
 the most westerly portions, Senegambia. 
 Like the Niger territories, this region is 
 densely populated and capable of great 
 commercial development. The French 
 Sahara probably covers 1,500,000 square 
 miles, and Senegambia and the French 
 Sudan close on half a million square miles. 
 Further south, on the equator, the 
 French Kongo extends from the coast 
 along the north side of the Kongo River, 
 north to Lake Tchad, and east to the 
 water — parting between the Nile and 
 the Kongo. These limits, by arrange- 
 ments between France, Germany, and the 
 Kongo Free State, are beyond dispute. 
 They include an area of some 560,000 
 square miles ; but France is not satisfied 
 with this. She declines to accept the 
 eastern boundary, and during the last five 
 years has been making strenuous efforts 
 
of Africa. 35 
 
 to extend her sphere into the Bahr-el- 
 Ghazal district, — one of the abandoned 
 provinces of the Egyptian Sudan, and 
 included in British East Africa, in accord- 
 ance with the agreement between Great 
 Britain, Germany, and Italy. These agree- 
 ments, France declares, are not binding 
 upon her ; and at the present moment the 
 relations between France and England 
 are in a state of tension, because an ex- 
 pedition, under Captain Marchand, is 
 reported actually to have reached the 
 Nile, and established itself at Fashoda, 
 while another French expedition from 
 Abyssinia has completed, or is endeavour- 
 ing to complete the French connection 
 between the West and East Coasts. 
 Some three years ago it was declared 
 in the House of Commons that any at- 
 tempt on the part of France to establish 
 herself on the Nile would be regarded as 
 " an unfriendly act." It is here, then, and 
 on the Niger, that the final crisis in the 
 partition of Africa has been reached. The 
 eagerness of France to find a footing on 
 the Upper Nile is intimately associated 
 
36 The Partition 
 
 with the position of England in Egypt, 
 which, as all the world knows, is bitterly 
 resented by the French. Egypt is nomin- 
 ally under the suzerainty of Turkey, but 
 is practically independent, or, rather, under 
 the tutelage of England. Under the guid- 
 ance of England, an attempt, so far suc- 
 cessful, is being made to regain the lost 
 provinces of the Egyptian Sudan, so long 
 terrorised by the Khalifa. An advance 
 has been made to within measurable dis- 
 tance of Khartum; if that stronghold 
 should be taken, it would mean the defeat 
 of the Khalifa. Doubtless no time would 
 be lost in establishing an Anglo-Egyptian 
 rule in the old provinces, Kordofan, Dar- 
 fur, and Bahr-el-Ghazal. If the French 
 are found to be actually established in the 
 last-named province, and if no compro- 
 mise can be come to, then a crisis will 
 have been reached which will affect not 
 only the partition of Africa, but the peace 
 of the world. These Egyptian Sudan 
 provinces cover an area of some 800,000 
 square miles, while that of Egypt proper, 
 from the Desert to the Red Sea, is about 
 
of Africa. 3 7 
 
 400,000 square miles. To the west of 
 Egypt is the Turkish territory of Tripoli 
 and Fezzan, to the south of which is a 
 portion of the Sahara, at present unan- 
 nexed, and, with the exception of the 
 Tibesti Highlands, a hopeless desert. 
 This unannexed area probably covers 
 about 800,000 square miles ; on its south- 
 ern border is the semi-civilised Sudan 
 State of Wadai, at present independent, 
 but which ultimately, no doubt, will be 
 claimed by France. 
 
 Just at the mouth of the Red Sea, 
 opposite Aden, France has a block of 
 territory, Obok, estimated to cover 50,000 
 square miles, its only value being that 
 it commands Abyssinia. Partly by con- 
 quest and partly by international arrange- 
 ment, France is in undisputed possession 
 of Madagascar, which with neighbouring 
 islands covers an area of about 280,000 
 square miles. Altogether, then, the ac- 
 knowledged claims of France in Africa 
 gives her the enormous area of about 
 3,300,000 square miles, much of it sand. 
 
 Germany, which may be said to have 
 
38 The Partition 
 
 begun the scramble, came off with an 
 area much less than the other two Powers. 
 However, unlike the others, she began 
 fifteen years ago with nothing, and now 
 has undisputed possession of about a mil- 
 lion square miles. In Southwest Africa, 
 where she began her acquisitions, her 
 possessions — Damaraland and Namaqua- 
 land — by arrangement with England, 
 cover 322,450 square miles. Except in 
 the north, it is doubtful if this half-desert 
 country can ever be of much value. Ger- 
 many's greatest African territory is in 
 East Africa, marching with British East 
 Africa in the north and with Portuguese 
 East Africa and British Central Africa 
 on the south. It includes the southern 
 half of the Victoria Nyanza and the east- 
 ern shore of Tanganyika. It has about 
 400 miles of coast-line. The possession 
 is undisputed, based on arrangements 
 with England and Portugal, Zanzibar and 
 native chiefs in 1885-90. It only remains 
 to settle a few details with England as to 
 the southern boundary. Attempts with 
 varied success have been made to estab- 
 
of Africa. 39 
 
 lish plantations in the north of the ter- 
 ritory; but at present the bulk of the 
 country is untouched, and much of it is 
 just a stage beyond desert ; it covers 
 385,000 square miles. On the opposite 
 coast, between French Kongo and the 
 British Niger territory, Germany pos- 
 sesses an area of over 190,000 square 
 miles in the Kamerun, which extends 
 eastward into the interior some 400 miles 
 and north through Adamawa to Lake 
 Tchad. By arrangem^ent with Great Brit- 
 ain and France the limits of the German 
 concessions are practically settled, and 
 the country, which is thickly populated, 
 is in a fair state of development. German 
 Togoland is a long, narrow strip on the 
 Gold Coast. By an agreement with France 
 in 1897, its limits as respects French 
 Dahomey have been settled, and the colony 
 may now cover about 25,000 square miles. 
 But to the west of this and to the north 
 of Ashanti is a neutral zone as between 
 Germany and England, which remains 
 to be adjusted. About this there is not 
 likely to be much difiRculty ; and it is 
 
40 The Partition 
 
 not probable that unless through some 
 cataclysm or cession by the other Powers 
 the German area in Africa will ever 
 exceed the million square miles. 
 
 When the scramble began, Portugal 
 put in enormous claims for an " empire " 
 across the continent between Angola and 
 Mozambique. This was made short work 
 of by England and the Kongo Free State ; 
 and her possessions have been restricted 
 to a long strip on the East Coast, with 
 a wedge along the Zambezi, and a much 
 bigger block on the West Coast between 
 the rivers Cunene and Kongo. The 
 actual jurisdiction of the Portuguese, 
 especially on the east, hardly extends 
 beyond the coast. In Portuguese West 
 Africa, as has already been pointed out, 
 the region to the west of the Upper 
 Zambezi is claimed by the British South 
 African Company ; meantime a provincial 
 agreement exists pending the final settle- 
 ment. On the Guinea coast all that 
 remains of Portugal's old possessions is 
 a small strip of 14,000 square miles south 
 of the Gambia ; she also retains the Cape 
 
of Africa, 41 
 
 Verde Islands and St. Thomas. Alto- 
 gether the African possessions of Portugal 
 cover only 750,000 square miles. 
 
 The Kongo Free State, which practi- 
 cally coincides with the enormous basin 
 of the river Kongo, is the creation of 
 the Berlin Congress of 1884-85. Its 
 boundaries are defined by international 
 agreements with the leading Powers con- 
 cerned, dating from 1884 to 1894. It 
 covers 900,000 square miles, and has a 
 population of, probably, 30,000,000 native 
 Africans. By a convention with Great 
 Britain in 1894, a strip along the w^est of 
 the Albert Nyanza and the Upper Nile 
 was leased to the King of the Belgians. 
 This strip extended much further than it 
 at present does; but, under pressure from 
 France, the King gave up the northern 
 section. The Kongo Free State possesses 
 the most magnificent series of waterways 
 on the continent. 
 
 There is only one other Power largely 
 interested in Africa, though that interest 
 has been lately largely diminished. Italy 
 could not resist the example of the other 
 
42 The Partition 
 
 great Powers. She had long had an eye 
 on Tripoli, but France virtually warned 
 her to keep her hands off that. So long 
 ago as 1870 an Italian trading house had 
 obtained the cession of a spot of territory 
 on Assab Bay, near the mouth of the 
 Red Sea, as a coaling station. In 1882 
 Italy took active possession of this spot, 
 and in 1883 she began to extend her 
 territory northward until in 1888 she 
 reached Cape Kasar, north of the port of 
 Massaua, 650 miles north of Assab. Had 
 Italy been content with this strip, and 
 used it as a basis of commercial opera- 
 tions with Abyssinia, all might have gone 
 well. But she was ambitious far beyond 
 the limit of her means. She would needs 
 conquer Abyssinia. Space prevents us 
 entering into details. Suffice it to say 
 that, after long-continued operations, Italy 
 met with disastrous defeat, and is now 
 confined to the limits of her strip on the 
 Red Sea, about 88,500 square miles, and 
 Abyssinia has asserted its independence. 
 But she was not content with Abyssinia. 
 By various concessions Italy obtained a 
 
of Africa. 43 
 
 footing in Somaliland, to the north of the 
 river Juba, and claimed an area here of 
 335,000 square miles. She has not for- 
 mally renounced this, but as a matter of 
 fact she must give it up. At present, with 
 the aid of the French Prince Henry of 
 Orleans and the Russian Colonel Leon* 
 tieff, Abyssinia is preparing to sweep the 
 whole of Somaliland and Gallaland within 
 her grasp ; and it is stated that England 
 has even consented to give up more than 
 half her territory on the Gulf of Aden. 
 At present, then, Italy's effective claim 
 is limited to the area of Eritrea, as her 
 Red Sea strip is named. 
 
 Besides the block, Rio d'Oro, already 
 referred to, on the Sahara coast, Spain 
 possesses the Canaries, Tetuan in Mo- 
 rocco, Fernando Po, and one or two other 
 islands, and a patch on the Guinea coast, 
 — altogether about 3,800 square miles. 
 Liberia, the negro Republic, is still nomin- 
 ally independent, though France has cut 
 down her territory to 14,600 square miles. 
 Through the jealousy of the several Powers 
 interested — Spain, France, Germany, and 
 
44 The Partition 
 
 England — Morocco still remains unan- 
 nexed, though it is to be hoped, for the 
 sake of its wretched inhabitants, that that 
 will not be for long ; it covers an area of 
 220,000 square miles. 
 
 The general result of our examination 
 of the partition of Africa may be sum- 
 marised briefly in the following table, in 
 which an approximate estimate is given 
 of the area claimed by the different Euro- 
 pean Powers and that which may still be 
 regarded as independent: 
 
 Square miles. 
 
 France 3,300,000 
 
 Great Britain 2,300,000 
 
 Germany 925,000 
 
 Kongo Free State 900,000 
 
 Portugal 750,000 
 
 Italy (including Somaliland) . . . 420,000 
 
 Spain 214,000 
 
 Boer Republics 168,000 
 
 Abyssinia 195,000 
 
 Morocco 220,000 
 
 Liberia 14,600 
 
 Turkey (Egypt ^ and Tripoli) . . . 800,000 
 
 Mahdi's territories 650,000 
 
 Wadai 150,000 
 
 Unannexed Sahara 800,000 
 
 Lakes 68,0 00 
 
 Total Africa 11,874,600 
 
 ^ Including regained territories on the Upper Nile. 
 
of Africa. 45 
 
 At present these are little more than 
 figures. It has been pointed out that 
 the final crisis in the partition of Africa 
 lies between France and Great Britain 
 on the Niger and on the Nile. Whether 
 the one succeeds or the other, in gaining 
 its point, will not materially affect the 
 figures in the above table ; but the result 
 may have a very important bearing on 
 the commercial and social development 
 of the continent. It is not my business 
 in this article to discuss the value of the 
 various areas claimed by the different 
 Powers; but, in conclusion, I may be 
 allowed to point out one interesting fact. 
 In the whole of Africa's nearly twelve 
 million odd square miles there are prob- 
 ably not more than 1,200,000 whites 
 to 150,000,000 natives. Of the former 
 750,000 are in Africa, south of the Zam- 
 bezi, and over 300,000 in Algeria and 
 Tunis, leaving 150,000 for all the rest of 
 the continent. South Africa is the one 
 section of the continent which may be- 
 come the home of generations of Euro- 
 peans, and in this respect England has 
 
46 
 
 of Africa. 
 
 fared best of all the Powers. Of the 
 continent between the tropics, all experi- 
 ence up to the present goes to show that 
 it can never be colonised by white races, 
 but must be developed by the natives 
 under white supervision. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 IN AFRICA. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 
 AFRICA. 
 
 BY W. T. STEAD. 
 Editor of the " Review of Reviews ^^ 
 
 LESS than forty years ago it was a 
 commonly received doctrine among 
 British statesmen that Africa was worth- 
 less. A select Committee of the House 
 of Commons, in the early sixties, reported 
 that the settlements on the Wfest Coast 
 of Africa cost more than they were worth, 
 and recommended the gradual abandon- 
 ment of the country. Even in the seven- 
 ties there were eminent men who argued 
 earnestly in favour of the abandonment 
 of the whole of South Africa, with the 
 exception of a coaling station at the Cape 
 of Good Hope. But a change came o'er 
 the spirit of the British dream when, in 
 the early eighties, they saw" all the nations 
 of Europe prepare to take part in a pas- 
 sionate scramble for the Dark Continent. 
 That which they despised and wished to 
 
50 The British Empire 
 
 throw away in the sixties, became in the 
 nineties the coveted objects of Imperial 
 ambition. Now, when the century is 
 closing, the pick of the continent is 
 coloured British Red. 
 
 British Africa can be variously de- 
 scribed, — geographically, politically, eth- 
 nologically, and religiously. But the 
 simplest definition is this, all Africa that 
 is comfortably habitable by white men is 
 under the British flag or under British 
 protection. And again, everything in 
 Africa that pays dividends lies within the 
 sphere pegged out for John Bull by his 
 adventurous sons. Wherever in Africa 
 you find land in which white-skinned 
 children can be bred and reared, you will 
 find it lies within the British zone. And 
 wherever there is in Africa any paying 
 property, that also will be found to be 
 within the same sphere of influence. All 
 of Africa that is habitable and all of 
 Africa that pays its way, that is British 
 Africa. 
 
 The other nations have scrambled for 
 John Bull's leavings. France, for in- 
 
in Africa. 51 
 
 stance, has annexed the Sahara. In her 
 West African colony of Senegal every 
 fifth European is a French official. Ger- 
 many has annexed 320,000 square miles of 
 desert in the southwest, and 400,000 of 
 semi-tropical land in the east; but they 
 have more officials than colonists, more 
 subsidies than dividends. Portugal has 
 quite an empire of malarial marshes on 
 both coasts. Belgium has the Kongo 
 Free State, a magnificent empire in the 
 heart of tropical Africa which needs 
 ;^8o,ooo a year subsidy from Belgium to 
 keep it from bankruptcy, and which, not- 
 withstanding the subsidy, has run up a 
 debt of over ;^8,ooo,ooo. Italy, the last to 
 join in the scramble, has nearly come to 
 grief over her African adventure. Africa 
 stands solely on the debit side of the ac- 
 CQunt of every European nation but one, 
 and even in the case of Britain the entries 
 to the bad are neither few nor small. 
 
 British Africa may be described in an- 
 other way. Wherever you find a good 
 harbour in Africa or a naviofable river or a 
 great inland lake, there you may be sure ^ 
 
52 The British Empire 
 
 the British flag is not far off. The Kongo 
 is the only great African river which does 
 not enter the sea under British protection. 
 The Kongo was opened up, "boomed," 
 and made accessible by Mr. Stanley, a 
 British explorer; and its waters are as 
 free to the flags of all nations as if they 
 were British. The only harbour in South- 
 ern Africa that is worth havinsf which is 
 not British is Delagoa Bay, and John Bull 
 to this day ruefully recalls the fact that he 
 only lost that by allowing it to be sent 
 to arbitration before a tribunal which took 
 more account of musty little deeds of a 
 remote past than the necessities of the liv- 
 ing present. The only harbour on the 
 southwest coast, the natural port of Ger- 
 man Southwest Africa, is Walfisch Bay, 
 where a British sentry stands on guard 
 under the shade of the Union Jack. 
 Wherever navigable water is, there the 
 descendant of the old Vikings recognises 
 his Fatherland even in the heart of Africa. 
 Of the great lakes which lie in a long 
 string from the Zambezi to the Nile, there 
 is not one on whose shores there is not 
 
in Africa. 53 
 
 a British possession. Even the smaller 
 lakes, such as Lake Tchad, seem to at- 
 tract the sea-rovers of the Northland. 
 
 There is less objection taken by the 
 other Powers to this extraordinary mo- 
 nopoly of the ocean gates of a continent, 
 because no other Power believes that its 
 interests demand that it should admit all 
 the world to its markets on equal terms 
 with its own subjects. The British may be 
 right, or they may be wrong. They make 
 no claim to superiority of altruism to their 
 neighbours. Their policy is undoubtedly 
 prompted by self-interest ; but British, self- 
 interest takes the form of opening all 
 British possessions freely to the traders of 
 the world, whereas the self-interest of 
 other nations leads them to impose differ- 
 ential and prohibitive duties upon the 
 goods of foreign competitors. It is not 
 surprising that the second vote of all the 
 nations is given to Britain. So rigorously 
 is this rule enforced that the Imperial 
 Government ruthlessly rejected the pro- 
 posals made by Mr. Rhodes, which 
 tended, in the remote future, to the im- 
 
54 The British Empire 
 
 position of heavier duties on foreign than 
 on British-made goods. Britain has now 
 occupied Egypt for fifteen years, but so 
 far has she abused her opportunity to close 
 the Egyptian market upon her rivals that 
 the comparative volume of British trade to 
 that of other nations is less to-day than 
 it was before the country was occupied. 
 
 Another reason why British rule has 
 spread so rapidly is because England 
 alone among the nations carried to Africa 
 the principle of religious liberty conjoined 
 with religious propaganda. British Africa 
 is the product of three forces, — British 
 conquest, British trade, and British mis- 
 sions. And of the three the first counts 
 for the least, and the last for the greatest 
 factor in expansion of Britain in Africa. 
 The Roman Catholic priests sent out by 
 the Portuguese in olden days were zeal- 
 ous but intolerant. The Roman Catholic 
 priests sent out by the Freethinking 
 French Republic have only recently ar- 
 rived on the field. The few German and 
 Swiss missionaries have been too few to 
 leave much mark on the continent. But 
 
in Africa. 55 
 
 British missionaries have been everywhere 
 the pioneers of empire. The British fron- 
 tier has advanced on the stepping-stones 
 of missionary graves. Deduct the mis- 
 sionary from the sum total of the forces 
 which have coloured the African map red 
 from Table Mountain to the Zambezi, and 
 the Empire disappears. It was David 
 Moffat, the missionary, who led the way 
 into Central Africa from the south. It 
 was his dauntless son-in-law, the mission- 
 ary Livingstone, who pierced the heart of 
 the Dark Continent in which he laid down 
 his life ; and it was Moffat's successor, the 
 missionary Mackenzie, who secured the 
 open road from the Cape to the Zambezi 
 along which Cecil Rhodes subsequently 
 marched to empire. 
 
 It is true that Britain did not first go to 
 Africa to convert the heathen. It is a 
 melancholy fact that her first relations 
 with the African continent were those 
 connected with the slave-trade. The 
 West Coast was, in the sixteenth century, 
 the great emporium of the trafHc in human 
 beings. The first form of the scramble for 
 
56 The British Empire 
 
 Africa took the shape of a keen competi- 
 tion among the sea-faring nations for the 
 profitable business of buying negroes 
 cheap in the Gulf of Guinea, and selling 
 them dear in the West Indies and in the 
 Southern States. The slave-trade began 
 in Elizabeth's reign. It was not finally 
 extirpated till our century. On the whole, 
 the ships of Europe are estimated to have 
 transported ten million Africans to the 
 American continent. Europe was the 
 middleman in this traffic of the conti- 
 nents. Africa sold, America bought. It 
 was a rude system of emigration by which 
 the overflow of the Old World was dis- 
 charged upon the New. Of the 100,000 
 dusky and involuntary emigrants who 
 were transported across the Atlantic 
 every year, about 30,000 sailed under the 
 British flag. Britain, like the other na- 
 tions, had her foot planted on the West 
 African coast, not to colonise but to buy 
 slaves. The first European settlements 
 were little more than the African counter- 
 part of Castle Garden, — barracoons where 
 the expatriated ones from the interior were 
 
in Africa. 57 
 
 mustered before their shipment to their 
 ultimate destination. As wars were fre- 
 quent in those days, and every man had 
 more or less to fight for his own band, the 
 French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and 
 the British studded the coast with forts, a 
 few of which still remain, although their 
 original use has long since disappeared. 
 After the slave-trade was suppressed in 
 1808, the prosperity of the Guinea Coast 
 dwindled, and it was many years before 
 the trade in gin and other alcoholic drinks 
 revived the fortunes of the West African 
 merchants. Then the scramble for mar- 
 kets recommenced. The Germans, who 
 manufacture the cheapest intoxicant, en- 
 tered the field. The soldier came to the 
 rescue of the trader. Britain twice sent 
 an armed force to dictate terms in the 
 capital of Ashanti. The French crushed 
 Dahomey, despite the army of Amazons, 
 and bickering about the respective limits 
 of the hinterlands of the three Powers 
 has been going on ever since. 
 
 In West Africa the British possessions 
 are none of them colonies in the sense of 
 
58 The British Empire 
 
 being territories in which Britons settle 
 and found families to rear up new nations. 
 The climate forbids that. The only white 
 men on the coast are officials, traders, and 
 missionaries. Sierra Leone, long known 
 as the White Man's Grave, was but typi- 
 cal of the whole of the group of West 
 African possessions. These possessions 
 may be thus described. 
 
 1. The Gambia, a Crown colony, gov- 
 erned by an administrator appointed by 
 the Colonial Office in London, is chiefly 
 notable because it commands the mouth 
 of the river Gambia, the only West 
 African river navigable by ocean-going 
 steamers. Its exports consist almost en- 
 tirely of ground-nuts, which are crushed 
 for their oil in France ; its imports, gun- 
 powder, gin, cotton, and sugar. Popula- 
 tion, 13,000; revenue, ;!f 25,000; exports 
 and imports, ;^2 25,ooo. First discovered 
 by the Portuguese ; founded by the British 
 in 1686. 
 
 2. Sierra Leone was ceded to Britain in 
 1787 by the native chief, to form an asy- 
 lum for destitute negroes in England. It 
 
in Africa. 59 
 
 was, therefore, a colony proper, founded 
 to receive emigrants. Many liberated 
 slaves were settled there. The colony 
 stretches along i8o miles of coast-line. 
 Its trade consists of exchanging palm-oil 
 and palm kernels for hardware, cotton, gun- 
 powder, tobacco, and spirits, — a Crown 
 colony, with governor appointed by the 
 Crown. Revenue, ;^ 1 10,000; exports and 
 imports, ;^940,ooo. Attached to the col- 
 ony there is a protectorate over about 
 20,000 miles in the neighbourhood. 
 
 3. The Gold Coast stretches about 250 
 miles along the coast, and extends some 
 300 miles into the interior, with an indefi- 
 nite hinterland. It was first founded by a 
 chartered company; the settlements were 
 transferred to the Crown in 182 1. In 
 1874 they were constituted a separate col- 
 ony, with a governor appointed by the 
 Crown. Population, 1,500,000, of whom 
 150 are Europeans; revenue, ;^240,ooo; 
 imports and exports, ;^ 1,5 70,000; exports, 
 gold, ivory, copal, palm-oil, rubber; im- 
 ports, cotton, alcohol, and hardware. 
 
 4. Lagos, like Sierra Leone, is a colony 
 
6o The British Empire 
 
 and a protectorate. It was the headquar- 
 ters of the slave-trade. Then it became a 
 great missionary centre. In 1861 it was 
 taken over by Britain, and in 1886 was 
 established as a separate colony, with a 
 governor of its own. Exports, palm-oil 
 and kernels, and imports, chiefly cotton 
 goods (;^2 70,000), spirits (;^ 106,000), and 
 tobacco (;^25,ooo). Population, 2,000,000 ; 
 revenue, ;!^ 140,000; exports and imports, 
 ;^ 1,900,000. 
 
 5. The Niger Coast Protectorate covers 
 the whole coast from Lagos to the Ger- 
 man possessions in the Kameruns, except 
 the mouth of the Niger. Governed by a 
 Royal Commissioner. Protectorate estab- 
 lished in 1885. Recently its authority 
 was carried farther inland by an expedi- 
 tion which suppressed human sacrifices 
 in Benin city. Exports, palm-oil, ker- 
 nels, rubber, ebony, and ivory; imports, 
 cotton, cutlery, and coopers' stores. Reve- 
 nue, ;!f 1 50,000; imports and exports, 
 ;^ 1, 600,000. 
 
 6. The Royal Niger Company. This 
 chartered company, with a capital of 
 
in Africa. 6i 
 
 ;!f 1,100,000, has established the most 
 prosperous of all the West African colo- 
 nies. It is practically sovereign over the 
 whole of the Lower and Middle Niger. 
 It has its own army and fleet. It makes 
 treaties, levies war, conquers territory, 
 suppresses the slave-trade, and, in short, 
 exercises sovereign authority over the 
 wealthiest and most populous region in 
 all Central Africa. The Niger Company 
 is much more rigorous in restricting the 
 sale of rifles and of spirits into its pos- 
 sessions than any other British colony. 
 North of latitude 7, all import of spirits 
 is interdicted, and elsewhere so high a 
 duty has been charged that the import of 
 rum and gin has dwindled to one-fourth 
 what it was before the charter was 
 granted. Exports, rubber, palm-oil, ivory, 
 guns, and hides ; imports, cotton, woollens, 
 silks, hardware, salt, and earthenware. The 
 chief man is Sir George Taubman Goldie, 
 the Cecil Rhodes of West Africa, a quiet, 
 determined little man, with a genius for 
 government, whose word is law among 
 30,000,000 of Africans, and who, when 
 
6a The British Empire 
 
 that word is not obeyed, teaches the diso- 
 bedient with Maxim guns that the way of 
 the transgressor is hard. 
 
 When we pass from West Africa to 
 East Africa, we come to a totally different 
 class of possessions. Properly speaking, 
 Britain possesses nothing in East Africa. 
 All that is British on the East Coast, until 
 you come to Zululand, is denominated 
 Protectorate. In a protectorate there is less 
 direct government by Britain. In a Crown 
 colony the laws are made and administered 
 by the Government. In a protectorate 
 the British undertake to protect the na- 
 tive authorities from foreign attack, to put 
 down the slave-trade, to restrain inter- 
 necine war, to open up trade routes, to 
 maintain a kind of Roman peace; but 
 otherwise the inhabitants are left very 
 much to do as they please. Protecto- 
 rates are looked after by commissioners 
 who are also Consuls-General. They are 
 appointed by the Crown. British domi- 
 nation in East Africa began in our own 
 times. For half a century and more the 
 natives of India crossing the sea had estab- 
 
in Africa. 63 
 
 lished themselves in business largely as 
 money-lenders in Zanzibar. But no Euro- 
 pean Power had planted its foot on the 
 equatorial East. In 1888, however, thanks 
 chiefly to the enterprise of a Scotchman, 
 the Imperial British East Africa Company 
 was formed and incorporated by Royal 
 Charter. It received permission to accept 
 a lease, to administer territories lying be- 
 tween the Indian Ocean and the great 
 equatorial lakes. This chartered com- 
 pany never paid. " You cannot run a 
 fort on coffee planting," said Mr. Rhodes. 
 " Gold or diamonds can do it — nothing 
 else." So after a time the company was 
 wound up, receiving ^250,000 for its as- 
 sets, and the task of administering its 
 million square miles was undertaken by 
 the Imperial fort. This was in 1895. Its 
 sphere of influence was then divided up 
 into the following protectorates: 
 
 1. The East African, capital Mombasa, 
 the finest harbour on the East Coast. 
 
 2. Uganda, the pearl of Africa, discov- 
 ered by Mr. Stanley, snatched by Captain 
 Lugard from the hands of the French, and 
 
64 The British Empire 
 
 now in the throes of a mutiny, is the cock- 
 pit of Central Africa. Heathens, Protes- 
 tants, and CathoHcs are always struggling 
 for the mastery. It is the land of romance 
 and of the unexpected. It commands the 
 northern shores of the Victoria Nyanza 
 and the head waters of the Nile. 
 
 3. The Witu Protectorate is a small 
 tract of land governed by a Sultan, with a 
 British Resident, at the mouth of the river 
 Tana. 
 
 4. Zanzibar, the great commercial en- 
 trepot of Eastern Africa. Population of 
 the island, 250,000. Exports and imports 
 of the port, not including trans-shipments 
 in harbour, £ 2,400,100 per annum. Gov- 
 erned by a Sultan, under a British Com- 
 missioner, since 1890. 
 
 5. Nyassaland. This is now called the 
 British Central Africa Protectorate. It is 
 an appendage to Lake Nyassa. It is ap- 
 proached by the Zambezi, and is notable 
 as the seat of the Blantyre mission station, 
 as a thriving coffee plantation, and as a 
 scene of almost continual warfare against 
 the slave-traders. 
 
in Africa, 65 
 
 Of all the regions now administered by 
 the British, those of East Africa supply 
 most elements of adventure and of ro- 
 mance. There we see white men from 
 the Northern European seas, using the 
 fighting men of Northern India in order 
 to establish a Roman peace among the 
 black races of Central Africa. Europe uses 
 Asia as her sword to civihse Africa. These 
 regions are continually witnessing scenes 
 that recall the adventures of Ivanhoe or 
 the warlike prowess of the Lion Heart; 
 but the Knights Templar of to-day wear 
 white felt helmets and use Maxims, steam- 
 boats, locomotive engines, and the print- 
 ing-press as their instruments of conquest. 
 On Lake Nyassa there are two gunboats, 
 and in East Africa the British Govern- 
 ment is spending three million sterling in 
 constructing a railway 6co miles long, 
 w^hich will place the seaboard in direct 
 railway communication with the heart of 
 Central Africa. Three thousand coolies 
 have been employed on the line since 
 January, 1896, and the rate of construction 
 is now said to be about half a mile a day. 
 
66 The British Empire 
 
 We now come to the most important 
 section of British Africa, that which Hes 
 at the southern extremity of the great con- 
 tinent. It is only in this southern section 
 that the British race is founding colonies 
 properly so called. In the lofty plateaux 
 of Southern Africa the climate is so de- 
 lightful that the country is becoming the 
 sanatorium of the Empire. Mr. Cecil 
 Rhodes himself was first sent out to the 
 Cape in the forlorn hope that South 
 Africa might enable him to throw off the 
 consumption that appeared to have seated 
 itself on his lungs. Olive Schreiner de- 
 clares that after one has breathed the air 
 of the Karoo, the air anywhere else seems 
 thick and heavy. There is champagne in 
 its atmosphere. It is not only the climate 
 that is attractive. South Africa has been 
 for the past twenty years the great El Do- 
 rado of the world. No other continent 
 has ever produced within such narrow lim- 
 its such a Golconda as the diamond mines 
 of De Beers, such a storehouse of gold as 
 the Rand of Johannesburg. Out of the 
 blue clay at Kimberley there have been 
 
in Africa. 6"] 
 
 dug, in the last twenty years, diamonds 
 which have been sold for ;^ 70,000,000. 
 Out of the Reef below Johannesburg gold 
 has been brought to bank of the value of 
 ^50,000,000. The annual output is ap- 
 proaching ^10,000,000, and before the 
 Rand is exhausted it is calculated gold 
 valued at ^450,000,000 will be brought to 
 bank. Behind the Diamond Fields and 
 golden Johannesburg lies the land of 
 Ophir of Rhodesia where, as yet, mining 
 operations have only just begun. Greater, 
 how^ever, than diamonds and more valu- 
 able than gold is the master of diamonds 
 and of gold. South Africa is chiefly fa- 
 mous as the pedestal of Cecil Rhodes, the 
 most conspicuous and commanding per- 
 sonalitv which the British colonies have 
 produced in our generation. The limits 
 of space allotted to these articles render it 
 impossible to describe, except in the brief- 
 est detail, the great divisions of Residen- 
 tial Africa. But before entering upon the 
 detail of the provinces it is necessary to 
 say a word as to the general location of 
 the whole. South Africa is all British 
 
68 The British Empire 
 
 with the exception of the German protec- 
 torate over the desert region in the south- 
 west, and the narrow strip of Portuguese 
 territory that cuts off the Transvaal and 
 Rhodesia from the sea. The Germans 
 have no port The Portuguese have 
 two, — Beira and Louren9o Marquez on 
 Delagoa Bay. With these exceptions all 
 South Africa, from the Cape to far to the 
 north of the Zambezi, lies under the shel- 
 tering protection of the British flag. 
 Within the British influence are the two 
 Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the 
 Orange Free State. These republics are 
 absolutely free from any interference in 
 their internal affairs from without. They 
 have the protection without the taxation 
 or the authority of the Empire. Sooner 
 or later they will abandon their attitude 
 of isolation and unite with the colonies 
 by which they are surrounded. As Mr. 
 Rhodes recently declared : " Although we 
 human atoms may divide this country, 
 nature does not. Nature does not and 
 the Almighty does not. Whether in 
 Cape Town, in Durban, or in Rho- 
 
in Africa. 69 
 
 desia, the interests are the same. The 
 languages are the same. Those who form 
 these States are the same, connected in 
 their family and domestic relations and 
 the like ; and any one who tries to sepa- 
 rate them in that feeling and action is 
 doing an impossible thing." South Africa 
 one and indivisible from Table Mountain 
 to the great Equatorial lakes is the idea of 
 Cecil Rhodes ; and when Cecil Rhodes 
 thinks, thoughts are things. 
 
 The premier colony in South Africa, 
 that of the Cape, has now extended itself 
 so far up-country that its title is a misno- 
 mer. Originally discovered by the Portu- 
 guese, it was first colonised by the Dutch 
 in 1652. For a hundred years it was little 
 more than a naval station, with a back 
 country useful for the settlement, where 
 native labour was plentiful and native land 
 could be had, if not for the asking, then 
 for the shooting. When the French 
 Revolutionary wars broke out, the exiled 
 Prince of Orange made over the Cape to 
 the British, who promptly took possession 
 in 1796. They gave it back, however, at 
 
70 The British Empire 
 
 the Peace of Amiens, in 1803; but when 
 war broke out again it was recaptured by 
 the British, in 1806, and it has never since 
 passed out of their possession. The 
 Dutch to this day are in a majority of 
 the agricultural population, not only in the 
 Boer Republics, but in the Cape Colony 
 itself. When the British came, their 
 ideas as to the rights of slaves to free- 
 dom offended the conservative Boers, who 
 trekked northward to lands where the 
 divine right of slavery was not interfered 
 with, and the meddling Britishers would 
 not be able to interfere with their peculiar 
 institution. But many of the Dutch re- 
 mained behind, and to this day the farm- 
 ing interest in the Cape is substantially 
 Dutch. The natives were tolerably thick 
 on the ground at first ; but the coming of 
 the white men thinned them off. The 
 Hottentots and Bushmen are vanishing 
 like the Maori and the Australian aborig- 
 ines. Far different was the case of the 
 Kaffir, the sturdy child of the great Bantu 
 race. In him the white man, whether 
 Dutch or British, has encountered a man 
 
in Africa. 71 
 
 as vigorous as himself. The Bantu is not 
 dying out. He is increasing and multi- 
 plying and replenishing South Africa. 
 The black and white races are flourishing 
 side by side, and the great question of the 
 future is, how their mutual multiplication 
 may be so ordered as to leave room for 
 both. Cape Colony has been continually 
 extending its frontiers northward. 
 
 For a long time it halted at the Orange 
 River; but when it had taken over the 
 Diamond Fields, it began a northward 
 march, which is now halting for a time on 
 the southern frontier of Matabeleland. Its 
 area is 275,000 square miles. Its govern- 
 ment is democratic. The Crown appoints 
 a Governor and High Commissioner; but 
 the right of the Colony to govern itself 
 through its own representatives is almost 
 as absolute as that of any State in the 
 American Union. There are two houses 
 of Parliament, both elective ; the Legisla- 
 tive Council consists of 23 members, the 
 House of Assembly of 79. The franchise 
 is not denied to the natives on the ground 
 of colour; but the representatives are all 
 white. 
 
72 The British Empire 
 
 The population of Cape Colony in 1891 
 was 1,600,000, of whom only 380,000 were 
 white. The Dutch dwell in the country, 
 and preponderate in the Western prov- 
 ince. The English fxock to the towns 
 and are strongest in the East. There 
 are about 3,000 miles of railway built or 
 building. The chief exports in 1896 to 
 the United Kingdom were: Diamonds, 
 ;^4,50o,ooo; wool (sheep), ^2,330,000; 
 wool (goat), ;^490,ooo; ostrich feathers, 
 ;^490,ooo; copper ore, ^300,000. Alto- 
 gether the total exports amounted to 
 ;^ 1 7,000,000, while the imports were 
 about ;;f 18,000,000. 
 
 The central feature of South Africa is 
 its mountainous plateau. At about 150 
 miles from the seaboard the mountains 
 rise in a lofty table-land, which stretches 
 over 1,000 miles northward. It is on this 
 table-land Europeans live and thrive. 
 
 The colony of Natal was first colonised 
 in 1824 by a handful of Englishmen. The 
 Boers tried to effect a lodgment in the 
 country, but were beaten by the Zulus 
 who occupied the land, and shortly after 
 
in Africa. 73 
 
 the Governor of the Cape formally an- 
 nexed Natal to the Cape. It lies front- 
 ing the Indian Ocean with a seaboard of 
 180 miles. Durban is the only port. It 
 has 420 miles of railway which, as is usual 
 in South Africa, are owned and worked 
 by the Government. The area is about 
 20,000 square miles, its population 
 540,000, of whom not 50,000 are white. 
 There are 40,000 Indian coolies, but the 
 enormous majority of the population are 
 Zulus. The country is mountainous, fer- 
 tile, and healthy. It contains coal, and 
 yields tropical produce. Its exports in 
 1896 included wool, ;^6oo,ooo; coal, 
 ;^ 1 00,000. Its imports were ;^6,4oo,ooo, 
 but most of these were for the Transvaal. 
 The exports were only ;^ 2, 000,000. 
 
 Between Natal and the Cape there are 
 the two native locations, or reserves, of 
 Basutoland and Pondoland. The latter was 
 annexed to the Cape quite recently. Basu- 
 toland is a native State of 250,000 popula- 
 tion. The chiefs govern their own peo- 
 ple, subject to the control of the British 
 Commission. Basutoland is 10,000 square 
 
74 The British Empire 
 
 miles in extent, has a delightful climate, is 
 well watered, very mountainous, and pro- 
 duces great quantities of cattle and of 
 grain; revenue, ;^45,ooo; exports and im- 
 ports, ;if 300,000. To the north of Natal 
 lies Zululand, chiefly famous for the 
 war of 1879. It was not annexed until 
 1887, when part of the territory had been 
 taken by the Boers. It is very largely 
 kept as a native reserve, Europeans being 
 only permitted to settle in one district. It 
 is technically described as a British terri- 
 tory governed by a Resident Commis- 
 sioner and chief magistrate under the 
 Governor of Natal. 
 
 The two Republics of the Transvaal 
 and of the Orange Free State lie between 
 Natal and the northward extension of the 
 Cape Colony. The Orange Free State 
 is an inoffensive pastoral community of 
 Boers. The Transvaal was a great ranch. 
 It is now, thanks chiefly to the extraordi- 
 nary gold reef on which Johannesburg 
 stands, one of the greatest gold-producing 
 countries in the world. It is an anomaly 
 and an anachronism. Nowhere else in 
 
in Africa. 75 
 
 the whole world is an overwhelming ma- 
 jority of English-speaking men governed 
 by a minority, speaking a foreign tongue, 
 without any voice in the framing of their 
 own laws and without any rights as citi- 
 zens. It will pass, and the Transvaal will 
 take its natural place in the federation of 
 united South Africa. 
 
 On the west of the Transvaal stretches 
 the vast expanse of the Protectorate of 
 Bechuanaland, now traversed by the rail- 
 way to Matabeleland, which is, however, 
 but small compensation for the rinderpest 
 which has swept off the herds of South 
 Africa. 
 
 To the north lies the land of contro- 
 versy and of mystery, the famous Charter- 
 land of Rhodesia, a territory many times 
 larger than the German Empire, which 
 has been reclaimed from savagery to col- 
 onisation and civilisation by the genius 
 of the only millionaire with imagination 
 which the century has brought forth. 
 The British South African Company, 
 which in 1889 received a Royal Charter 
 authorising it to develop and administer 
 
76 The British Empire 
 
 the lands lying between Bechuanaland 
 and the Zambezi, was the creation of Mr. 
 Rhodes's brain. Mr. Rhodes, the Dia- 
 mond King of South Africa, had a soul 
 above diamonds. He saw that the 
 territory lying north of Bechuanaland 
 would be snapped up by the Germans or 
 secured for ranching by the Boers trek- 
 king from the Transvaal. He conceived 
 the idea of creating a joint stock company 
 with a capital of two millions and more 
 which would enable him "to paint the 
 African map British red" all the way 
 up to the Zambezi. The Imperial Gov- 
 ernment absolutely refused to expend a 
 pound on any such enterprise. Mr. 
 Rhodes undertook to raise the money 
 and to direct the operation. The Gov- 
 ernment, believing, as they said, that 
 such a chartered company could "relieve 
 Her Majesty's Government from diplo- 
 matic difficulties and heavy expenditure," 
 granted the charter. 
 
 Then Mr. Rhodes set to work. He put 
 his own money into the Company, and 
 others, inspired by a similar enthusiasm, 
 
in Africa. '^'j 
 
 joined their capital to his. On June 28th, 
 1890, the pioneer expedition of 200 Euro- 
 peans and 150 labourers, accompanied by 
 500 mounted police, set out to take pos- 
 session of the Land of Ophir. They cut 
 a road for 400 miles across the country, 
 established posts and stations ; and at last 
 were disbanded at Fort Salisbury on Sep- 
 tember 19th, having established themselves 
 in Mashonaland at a net cost of ;^89,285 
 \os, od. without firing a shot or spending 
 a life. Settlers in search of gold poured 
 into the country. To feed them, it was 
 necessary to open a w^ay to the sea at 
 Beira, and this brought them into sharp 
 collision with the Portuguese. The diffi- 
 culty was arranged by a concession for the 
 construction of a railway from the sea to 
 the upland held by the Company, over 
 which goods can be brought without pay- 
 ing any other tax but a transit duty of 
 three per cent. The mines in Mashona- 
 land were in full work when a new diffi- 
 culty loomed on the western frontier of 
 the new colony. Lobengula, the Chief of 
 the warlike Matabele, was urged by his 
 
78 The British Empire 
 
 young warriors to allow them to flash 
 their spears on the newcomers. He re- 
 sisted for a time, but at last he gave way. 
 An impi threatened the miners with 
 destruction. Mr. Rhodes instantly took 
 action. Placing ;^5o,ooo to the credit of 
 the Company, he ordered Dr. Jameson to 
 raise and equip an expeditionary force 
 and to march on Buluwayo, Lobengula's 
 kraal. One little force, 1,227 strong, of 
 whom only 672 were whites, marched 
 from the east; another of 445 of the 
 Bechuanaland police came from the 
 south. Against them Lobengula hurled 
 first 5,000, then 7,000 of his best fighting 
 men. They dashed themselves to pieces 
 against the British laager. Buluwayo 
 was captured, Lobengula fled, and Mr. 
 Rhodes found himself in possession of 
 Matabeleland. His force had only lost 
 84 men killed and 55 wounded. The 
 total cost of the war was only ^113,488 
 2S. \\d. This was in 1893. The success 
 was too brilliant and too complete. It 
 tempted Dr. Jameson to essay the daring 
 raid on the Transvaal which in the early 
 
in Africa, 79 
 
 days of 1895 led to so overwhelming a 
 disaster. Not only was Dr. Jameson's 
 force made prisoners, but the Matabele, 
 seeing the country denuded of its usual 
 garrison, rose in revolt. Then the Impe- 
 rial authorities were compelled to inter- 
 vene, and send up troops to assist the 
 colonists to hold their own against the 
 insurgent natives. Mr. Rhodes, although 
 in disgrace, and stripped of all his offices, 
 was still the master of the situation. The 
 natives trusted him and accepted terms of 
 peace on his guaranty. After the sup- 
 pression of the revolt the constitution of 
 the Charter was modified so as to place 
 the control of the armed forces of the Com- 
 pany in the hands of a representative of 
 the Crown. 
 
 The future of Rhodesia, which covers a 
 region of 750,000 square miles stretch- 
 ing from the Transvaal to Tanganyika, 
 depends upon the quantity of paying gold 
 that may be discovered. Plenty of aurif- 
 erous mineral exists, but until the stamps 
 needed to crush the ore can be brought 
 up, nothing can be said positively as to 
 
8o The British Empire 
 
 the fate of the millions which have been 
 invested under the aegis of the Chartered 
 Company. Mr. Rhodes himself is as con- 
 fident as ever in the future of the country 
 that bears his name. It will, he believes, 
 yield good dividends as well as good poli- 
 tics — but of the two he is much more 
 anxious about the latter. 
 
 History is still in the making in South 
 Africa; but unless all past experience 
 fails us as a guide to the probabilities of 
 the future, the hold on South Africa now 
 acquired by the English-speaking race will 
 never be relaxed. The Cape is the key- 
 stone of the arch of the British Empire. 
 Without the coaling stations at Simon s 
 Bay, steam communication between Brit- 
 ain and Australia would be difficult, if not 
 impossible. Hence the retention of the 
 Cape, and all that is necessary to the 
 safety of the Cape, is one of the few 
 things which, if threatened, the British at 
 home and over-sea regard as necessary to 
 fight for without discussion and without 
 phrase. 
 
THE GERMAN EMPIRE IN 
 AFRICA. 
 
THE GERMAN EMPIRE IN 
 AFRICA. 
 
 BY F. BLEY, 
 
 Late District Governor in East Africa^ and Member of the Ger' 
 man East African Society* 
 
 IT was the political principle of the 
 German Government up to very 
 recent times not to seek colonial aggran- 
 disement. Prince Bismarck took posses- 
 sion of African lands mainly because of 
 their possible worth, as objects of future 
 barter. A colony had been founded in 
 southern Brazil by a union of patriots in 
 Hamburg as early as 1848 ; but this idea 
 of obtaining a transmarine outlet for sur- 
 plus German enterprise fell in abeyance 
 with so many other popular ideals of that 
 revolutionary year. 
 
 The nation lived to see the axiom set 
 up that the flag of the Fatherland was to 
 follow, not precede German merchantmen 
 or pioneers, and to hear from the lips of 
 the Imperial Chancellor, Count Caprivi, 
 
84 The German Empire 
 
 that " the worst thing that any one could 
 do to Germany would be to give it the 
 whole of Africa." 
 
 In contrast to this view stands the 
 opinion of the men who are practically 
 active in colonial affairs; they believe 
 that the future of the German race will 
 be determined essentially upon the soil of 
 Africa. And, indeed, it is only necessary 
 to glance at the map of the great Dark 
 Continent, and contemplate the historic 
 struggle of the Low German Boers 
 against the aggressive tendencies of 
 Great Britain, to find a support for this 
 hypothesis. 
 
 The Germans received the accounts of 
 Krapf, Mauch, Rohlf, and Schweinfurth, 
 their native explorers in Africa, with scep- 
 tical indifference. On the other side of 
 the canal the English greeted the dis- 
 coveries of Burton, Speke, and even those 
 of Stanley, as self-evident facts, saying 
 to themselves, in accordance with their 
 wonted material sense, that the interior of 
 Africa could not be a sun-parched desert, 
 possibly because mighty rivers flowed 
 
in Africa. 85 
 
 down from the interior, and products 
 were brought away from it by traders. 
 
 If the English Government did not at 
 once seize the territory thus recognised 
 as fertile and valuable, the reason lay in 
 the fact of its having its hands full at the 
 time in other parts of the world, as well 
 as in the fact that it remained in igno- 
 rance of the change which had taken place 
 in the German character under the gui- 
 dance of Prince Bismarck. From a people 
 given up to romantic idealism, a nation 
 of ironlike hardness of will had been 
 evolved, which, when the partition of 
 Africa began, was to demand its due 
 share of spoils and conquests. 
 
 England looked on while Germany ac- 
 quired African territory in the east and 
 west with surprise and good-natured 
 mockery at first. But when it saw that 
 the land-rat had not fallen into the water 
 by accident, but knew how to swim, and 
 intended to keep on, British envy was 
 aroused ; and by degrees it has learned 
 to see in Germany a power which it is 
 destined to encounter henceforth, not only 
 
86 The German Empire 
 
 in the Dark Continent, but in every other 
 part of the world. 
 
 In the beginning, this jealousy was 
 exerted with some success. From longi- 
 tude 48° east, around Cape Guardafui to 
 f/ Rovuma, Dr. Peters had laid claim to the 
 coast-lands in the name of Germany. And 
 if German diplomacy had acquiesced in 
 his plans, the flag of Germany would be 
 waving to-day over Uganda and the pal- 
 aces of the Sultan of Zanzibar. Instead 
 of this the Government signed one treaty 
 after another, allowing that which had 
 been acquired de facto to become a sub- 
 ject of dispute and the claims of others, 
 while the German people, in the ingrati- 
 tude it showed to the founder of its East 
 African colonies, proved once again its 
 want of insight into the historic task of 
 helping to extend civilisation. 
 
 Fortunately, that part of East Africa 
 which was assured to Germany is the 
 more valuable one. Its boundaries in- 
 close an area of 885,000 square kilometres, 
 which is to say an area twice as large as 
 the German Empire. In this territory lie 
 
in Africa. 87 
 
 Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, and the 
 north side of the Nyassa. The wonderful 
 summit of the ice-covered Kihmanjaro 
 sends from its fountain sources the clear, 
 sparkling rivers of the Pangani, while the 
 rivers Wami, Lungerengere, and Kingani 
 have their origin in the wooded sides of 
 Usagara and Ukami, which remind one 
 of the mountainous region of the Hartz 
 and the Salz Kammergut. 
 
 The Rufiji River is navigable for boats 
 of 2 J metres displacement as far as the 
 Pangani Cataracts, and the seaboard of 
 this province is the richest in harbours of 
 all the East African coast. 
 
 The natives, who belong essentially to 
 the Bantu race, are divided into several 
 branches with various traits. On the 
 whole they are tractable, and may be 
 trained to work if they are treated with 
 justice and humanity. Nor is a certain 
 superior intelligence and capacity for re- 
 flection wanting to them. It happened 
 more than once during my sojourn among 
 them that their chieftains expressed a 
 sense of their own native want of the 
 
88 The German Empire 
 
 talent for organisation. " It is good you 
 are here, lord," the chieftain in my station, 
 Usungula, declared often. "You under- 
 stand things better than we do. Look at 
 this house. It is made of the clay of our 
 earth, and with the hands of our bodies; 
 but it was your head that gave to it regu- 
 larity and great size. You take the axe to 
 labour, and the hatred of brothers you allay 
 by treaties of peace. You alone are lord, 
 and it is well. Each of us strove to be 
 master, and none was. But you are rich ; 
 you have pieces of shining silver, and the 
 caravans bring you more continually for 
 our people. We went in rags, and hunger 
 ate at our vitals in the wet seasons of the 
 year. We have clothes now in our huts 
 as fine as those of Arabic traders, and we 
 possess bright rupees with which to buy 
 us goats and fowls and rice when we 
 are hungry. You are lord, for you knew 
 how to order all things so as to make 
 them flow even and smooth as the little 
 
 rains." 
 
 In regard to its soil. East Africa affords 
 considerable variety, as is evident, indeed, 
 
in Africa. 89 
 
 that it must, by reason of its topography. 
 There are no mighty primeval forests, 
 such as cover the mountain districts of 
 Ceylon and Sumatra ; but the wooded 
 mountain districts of Usambara, Usagara, 
 Ukami, and Ukonde, as well as its boun- 
 dary districts of Kilimanjaro, are well 
 suited for plantations to be carried on 
 after the manner of those of the Dutch; 
 while in the bottom-lands, sugar-cane, to- 
 bacco, rice, and certain kinds of spices 
 flourish luxuriantly. 
 
 The capital of the province of Dar-es- 
 Salaam, in the point of construction, is a 
 pattern city, and, what is the chief thing, 
 the plantations of Usambara are making 
 brilliant progress. The coffee raised there 
 is rapidly winning a market for itself. In 
 short, there can exist no doubt but that 
 German East Africa will succeed before 
 long in furnishing valuable agricultural 
 products in exchange for the productions 
 of German industry. Our capitalists per- 
 ceive this, too, for they are investing more 
 and more in East African stocks. 
 
 Many of the original African products 
 
po The German Empire 
 
 are doomed to fall way, and ultimately 
 to entirely disappear. Copal will proba- 
 bly begin to be furnished from the far 
 interior after the supply has been ex- 
 hausted on the coast-land, and continue 
 to be an article of trade for some years to 
 come, copal-trees being found inland, in- 
 dicating the existence of this fossil gum 
 there. But the days of the ivory trade are 
 numbered ; it must end wdth the vanish- 
 ing of the elephant herds. This, to my 
 mind, is a consummation devoutly to be 
 wished, for with the passing away of these 
 herds will cease the brutal hunting of the 
 natives as slaves to carry tusks ; and, pos- 
 sibly, the few remaining animals may then 
 be trained for beasts of burden, as elephants 
 are in India. With no more slave raids, 
 there will likewise end the internecine 
 wars which have hindered the natural 
 increase of the native population hitherto. 
 In the long run, the negro comprises the 
 chief wealth of Africa. The advance of 
 civilisation and its need for increasing 
 quantities of manufactured goods depends 
 upon the multiplication of population. 
 
in Africa. 91 
 
 East Africa has an advantage over all 
 tropical provinces belonging to Germany, 
 in possessing, in the high lying district of 
 Uhehe and the border mountains of the 
 Nyassa, moist meadow-lands in which the 
 usual unhealthy conditions of equatorial 
 latitude are neutralised by an Alpine-like 
 climate. 
 
 The present Governor intends, with the 
 aid of influential corporations, to make use 
 of this most favoured locality by establish- 
 ing a peasant settlement therein, in which 
 case, I hope the settlement will devote its 
 energies, not to raising graip, but to breed- 
 ing cattle, raising ostrich herds, and the 
 like, after the manner followed by the 
 Boers in the Orange Free State. The 
 climate and soil of the Nyassa district and 
 Uhehe resemble those of the Free State 
 in all particulars. What will be the result 
 of the transplanting of a colony of white 
 men to these mountain regions is an open 
 question. Everything appears favourable 
 to the increase of the Caucasian race there. 
 
 The prospects for the future in the two 
 other chief possessions of West Africa are 
 
92 The German Empire 
 
 similar to those of German East Africa, 
 except, indeed, as to what concerns the 
 two last mentioned districts. In Togo 
 and Kamerun, the hinterland had been 
 allowed to be deplorably cut into, and 
 partly cut off, by other Powers. It was 
 above all in the Togo treaties that the 
 German Government erred gravely, in- 
 asmuch as, for the specious gain of a 
 strip of coast twenty-five kilometres long, 
 it relinquished the piece of territory which 
 connected its possessions with the Niger 
 River. Borgu and Gurma were ceded to 
 France, and with the concession the ex- 
 pansion of German influence was relin- 
 quished toward the north. The land 
 which remains in our possession, however, 
 is most valuable. It is traversed by a 
 double range of mountains, which rise 
 abruptly from an undulating plain, and 
 give origin to numerous rivers which flow 
 from their sides to the coast, — the Mono, 
 Haho, Sio, Tojie, and the tributaries of 
 the Volta: Kalagba, Djavoe, Deine, 
 Konsu, Asukoho, and Oti. The great 
 Volta itself flows through the highland 
 
in Africa. 93 
 
 in a broad valley, and is navigable from 
 Kratji on downward. 
 
 Togo could be reckoned among the 
 countries of the Southern Hemisphere as 
 far as the climate is concerned, for the 
 season of maximum heat corresponds with 
 the Northern winter, and that of mini- 
 mum heat to the Northern summer. The 
 coldest months are those of July and 
 August. The principal products of the 
 soil are brought to the trading factories 
 that have been established in the province 
 by native negroes, who compose a branch 
 of the Sudan negroes, and possess the 
 same energetic traits which distinguish 
 the Sudanese. 
 
 Among these products are palm-tree-oil 
 and nuts, copra, cocoanuts, gutta-percha, 
 and ivory. Plantations also of coffee and 
 Maitihot Glaziovii have been laid out. 
 
 Still more favourable than Togo seems 
 to be the situation of the plantations in 
 Kamerun ; for the mountains of the prov- 
 ince draw near the coast, and their west- 
 ern slope affords, in its soil of decayed 
 lava, with plentiful rainfalls, the most ex- 
 
94 The German Empire 
 
 cellent conditions for the cultivation of 
 cocoa and coffee trees. Over half a mil- 
 lion of cocoa-trees already stand on this 
 slope, and new plantations are about to 
 be started. 
 
 The other products are the same as in 
 Togo. In the south a kind of coffee bush 
 has been discovered, which may, perhaps, 
 obtain importance some day as a staple 
 article. 
 
 German Southwest Africa presents quite 
 different conditions, being of a sub-tropi- 
 cal character, and suitable for European 
 immigrants. It is the last territory ac- 
 quired by Germany. Herr von Luderitz 
 bought it in the year 1883, without know- 
 ing much about it, and placed it under 
 the protection of the Imperial flagship 
 " Leipsic " in 1884. 
 
 It appeared to be of little worth. The 
 coast, which stretches from Cunene to the 
 Orange River, that is to say from a Por- 
 tuguese to an English colony, is not 
 merely inhospitable, it is dreadful. Sand- 
 dunes squat like bands of crouching 
 Titans on it and shift from place to place, 
 
in Africa. 95 
 
 burying all beneath them. The only har- 
 bour, Angra Pequena, affords but a bad 
 connection with the interior, and Walfisch 
 Bay with its tolerable inlet into Damara- 
 land, was in the hands of the all-grasping 
 English. So the acquisition of Southwest 
 Africa appeared a poor enough bargain, 
 and Germans generally took it for granted 
 that the wandering sand-hills could not so 
 much as supply a turtle with water and 
 food to keep it alive. But Liideritz be- 
 thought himself of the fact that a flourish- 
 ing export trade in ivory, ostrich feathers, 
 gums, skins, and horns had been carried 
 on from this country as late as i860; and, 
 granting that the game in the meanwhile 
 might have become exterminated, still the 
 grass-lands must remain which had sup- 
 ported it. Besides, as late as the develop- 
 ment of Kimberley, in 1872, large numbers 
 of cattle had been shipped from here to 
 the country of the Boers. Hence fertile 
 lands must lie somewhere, and Luderitz 
 thought he recognised them in the high- 
 lands of the interior. 
 
 Unfortunately, he met with his death on 
 
96 The German Empire 
 
 an exploring tour, and before he had had 
 the time to convey his own growing con- 
 viction of the immense worth of South- 
 west Africa to his countrymen at home. 
 The Government was so ignorant that it 
 felt embarrassed and annoyed over the 
 need of settling with the heirs of the cour- 
 ageous man, and regarded the offer of a 
 syndicate in 1885 to purchase the Llide- 
 ritz family claims as a favour to the State. 
 Its inadequate protection, furthermore, and 
 its ill management of the province, en- 
 couraged the English to stir up the natives 
 to rebellion ; and these political difficulties 
 discouraged, of course, money investment. 
 Southwest Africa, in short, was considered 
 for a long time as a very bad job ; and 
 Count Caprivi appears to have been pre- 
 pared to cede it to England in 1890, 
 whenever an opportunity should occur. 
 It was public opinion chiefly which saved 
 the province to the German Crown; for 
 the scientific reports of travellers slowly 
 and surely aroused the people to a sense 
 of its potentialities, as well as the determi- 
 nation to hold for themselves what they 
 
in Africa. 97 
 
 had acquired. The Government, in the 
 mean time» however, had unfortunately 
 granted two charters to English com- 
 panies, — one to what is known as the 
 Southwest African Company, in 1893, 
 and a second to what became the South 
 African Territories Land Company, in 
 1895 ; and these had to remain in force 
 henceforth to the disadvantage of German 
 interests. At the present time, the pro- 
 vince can boast of an energetic and cir- 
 cumspect Governor. Major Leutwein not 
 only facilitates immigration, but proposes 
 to domesticate it by obtaining subsidies 
 for the importation of such German women 
 as are suitable to become the wives of 
 German pioneers. 
 
 These settlements are not to be thought 
 of as small farms, with careful tillage of the 
 soil, like the farms of Iowa and Wisconsin, 
 for example, but as resembling rather the 
 ranch farms of Texas. Gardens and or- 
 chards, of course, will be cultivated in the 
 vicinity of the trading and military posts, 
 for the better welfare of the inhabitants ; 
 and there are prospects of some of the more 
 7 
 
98 The German Empire 
 
 fertile sites along the valley slopes being 
 turned into vineyards and tobacco planta- 
 tions. But the main occupation of the 
 settlers must be cattle breeding for long 
 years to come. 
 
 Southwest Africa has a paradisiacal cli- 
 mate; nothing can surpass it. Although 
 the land lies two-thirds in the Tropic Zone, 
 and only one-third in the Temperate 
 Zone, the local configuration is such that 
 the temperature is everywhere moderate, 
 except in the district of Cunene and a few 
 inland sections. The air of the broad, 
 upland plains is pure and dry, and the 
 juicy verdure is encouraged into luxuriant 
 growth by the brilliance of the southern 
 sun. Alternating with the heat of the 
 day is a coolness of the night which bene- 
 fits both man and beast alike. Hoar-frost 
 is no infrequent occurrence, and heavy 
 dews form during all the dry season. The 
 rainy season falls in December and Jan- 
 uary, and brings showers that fill the beds 
 of the rivers full to their brims. In sum- 
 mer the lower streams dry up, but the 
 water courses under the sand at no great 
 
in Africa. 99 
 
 depth, and breaks out wherever there is a 
 rift, making puddles and small ponds. 
 Irrigation is an easy task, and, whenever 
 it shall be applied on a large scale, will 
 transform vast tracts of waste land into 
 pasture grounds. 
 
 As to that one great drawback of the 
 country, the so-called rinderpest, it is al- 
 ready being overcome. Applied science 
 is sure to put an end to the plague and 
 further infection from it. 
 
 Less likelihood exists of the province 
 getting rid of the moral hindrances which 
 the bureaucratic disposition of the Gov- 
 ernment is laying constantly in the way of 
 its free development. I reckon among 
 these the systematic attempt which is kept 
 up to exclude Boers from the country. 
 Is it from an apprehension of their spread- 
 ing a spirit of Republican independence 
 therein? The Boers are, indeed, intract- 
 able in their half-civilised devotion to the 
 idea of political liberty ; but, at the same 
 time, they compose the best conceivable 
 material for what may be termed a colo- 
 nising plant. They are industrious, tern- 
 
loo The German Empire 
 
 perate, tough in body, and, above all, 
 experienced particulady in just those 
 things which pertain to South African 
 farming and cattle raising. It is the very 
 element which is needed by Germany to 
 aid in settling its new African lands. 
 
 The present deprivation which the Gov- 
 ernment's action lays upon the colony, 
 however, is not the only one ; still more 
 to be regretted is likely to be the future 
 consequences that must flow from neglect 
 of Boer good will and welfare. The 
 struggle between the Dutch and English 
 in South Africa would be accelerated to 
 an end, if a power like Germany afforded 
 open aid to the Dutch. At present the 
 Boers wish to become neither German nor 
 English ; but they will be unable to resist 
 subjection in the long run of time; and 
 as natural affinity will draw them ulti- 
 mately to the lap of Germany, the better 
 will it be for the Germans, the more wide- 
 spread and prosperous they have become. 
 The Government ought to leave no stone 
 unturned to encourage its subjects to try 
 to understand and appreciate the peculiar 
 
in Africa. loi 
 
 ways and opinions of the Boers. The 
 future of the white race in Africa depends 
 upon the rapidity with which a mutual 
 understanding between the two Teutonic 
 branches of it can be developed. 
 
 The German Government may be 
 brought to perceive this, and to let minor 
 political considerations drop into abey- 
 ance, in order to adjust its policy in ac- 
 cordance with the one great question at 
 stake. But at present its task appears to 
 be to seek colonial aggrandisement /^r se ; 
 it is even emulating Great Britain in en- 
 couraging colonial commerce, all of which 
 is a great step in advance beyond its 
 former indifference to matters colonial. 
 The final comprehensive grasp of the sub- 
 ject of African colonisation, however, from 
 the point of view of the political future 
 is still wanting. At least no evidences 
 of such grasp of the subject are visible 
 as yet to men working in Africa. 
 
 In conclusion, a word may be added in 
 respect to railways in the German African 
 provinces. In East Africa a road extends 
 from Tanga to Korogwe, and will be carried 
 
I02 The German Empire 
 
 to the Kilimanjaro. Two other roads are 
 planned, one from Dar-es-Salaam through 
 Usaramo, Ukami, Usagara to the Victoria 
 Nyanza, another from Rufiji to the Pan- 
 gani Falls. 
 
 In Southwest Africa there is a railway 
 from Swakopmund to Windhoek. 
 
THE FRENCH EMPIRE 
 IN AFRICA. 
 
THE FRENCH EMPIRE IN 
 AFRICA, 
 
 BY M. PAUL GUIEYSSE, 
 Deputy and Ex-Minister of the Colonies. 
 
 TWENTY years ago Stanley de- 
 scended the Kongo, and thus 
 opened its immense basin to European 
 cupidity. The carving up of the Black 
 Continent has nearly been completed, 
 though its consequences may still give 
 rise to many discussions. But the sphere 
 of action of each of the invading nations is 
 now clearly traced, and the difficulties that 
 spring up from time to time are due to a 
 narrow sentiment and a misunderstanding 
 of true economic interests, which lead to 
 an attempt to substitute artificial limits for 
 rational and natural ones. 
 
 The present century has witnessed the 
 geographical conquest of Africa. To 
 speak only of the northern regions, which 
 are naturally subject to French influence, 
 
io6 The French Empire 
 
 it may be recalled that a Frenchman, 
 Caille, was the first to penetrate, in 1828, 
 into mysterious Timbuktu. At the same 
 moment Clapperton, the Scotchman, dis- 
 covered Lake Tchad and Sokoto, while 
 Bath, in 1850, and Nachtigal, in 1869, 
 explored the regions of the middle Niger 
 to Lake Tchad, and thence to the Nile. 
 Lenz reached Timbuktu in 1880, and 
 Flatters, following out the plans of Duvey- 
 rier, fell before the attacks of the Tuaregs, 
 while striving to connect Algeria with the 
 Sudan. The grand divisions of North 
 Africa were settled. The French expedi- 
 tions into the basin of the Upper Niger 
 were about to begin and to continue with- 
 out interruption down to the present day 
 by the joining of the Sudan with Dahomey, 
 while a mission, under the command of 
 Captain Marchand, connected the French 
 posts on the Kongo and the Ubangi with 
 the Nile. 
 
 France is one of the earliest nations 
 established on the western coast of Africa. 
 The Dieppe factories there rival those of 
 Portugal as regards age. As early as 
 
in Africa, 107 
 
 1626, the Senegal region attracted the 
 traders of Normandy, one of whose com- 
 panies bought the islet, situated at the 
 mouth of the Senegal River, which be- 
 came St. Louis. Under Louis XIV. the 
 Royal Company took possession of the 
 whole coast, stretching from the Bay of 
 Arguin to Goree, and these territories 
 were declared to belong to France by the 
 Treaty of Nimeguen. Trade in gums, 
 hides, and ivory brought good returns. 
 But the European traders w^ere stationed 
 only along the coasts ; as was the case in 
 fact, till recent years, all the way to Gabun. 
 A few small fortified store-houses sufficed 
 to protect the traders against the treachery 
 of the native chiefs. 
 
 In 1697 ^h^ Governor of Senegal, Andre 
 Brue, went up the river, entered into ne- 
 gotiations with the chiefs along the banks, 
 and concluded with them treaties of com- 
 merce and friendship. But the wars in 
 Europe caused the colony to fall into 
 the hands of the English, who lost it, re- 
 took it, but, finally, ceded it to France in 
 the general peace of 1815. It was not till 
 
io8 The French Empire 
 
 1854 that the enterprise began by Andre 
 Brue could be taken up seriously by 
 the real creator of Senegal, General 
 Faidherbe. 
 
 The inhabitants of the region belonged 
 to various races. On the right bank were 
 the Trarza Moors, an almost white race, 
 mingled with half-breeds and blacks, one 
 of the results of slavery. Successive trea- 
 ties had succeeded in getting them to 
 abandon the few settlements which they 
 had on the left bank. An agricultural 
 and pastoral people, their interests com- 
 manded them to live in peace with us. 
 On the left bank and in the upper valley 
 were pressed together the Puis or Fulahs, 
 of a dark red hue, who came from the 
 East and who were shepherds and mer- 
 chants ; the Toucouleurs, half-breeds, 
 farmers for the most part ; and many 
 negroes, pushed back by the Puis, and 
 with no definite past history, but under 
 Mohammedan influence, either through 
 force or simply through contact, and, like 
 the Toucouleurs, given up to fetichism. 
 The Woloffs were in majority in these 
 
in Africa. 109 
 
 negro races. They are the most intelli- 
 gent and are very good labourers, so that 
 there is every reason for us to cultivate 
 their good will. 
 
 The most profound peace now reigns 
 through this region, with no danger of its 
 being broken, and, consequently, prosper- 
 ity is increasing daily. The railroad from 
 St. Louis to Dakar passes through fertile 
 fields where scarcely two years ago mili- 
 tary acts of repression were necessary. 
 But when Faidherbe wished to proceed to 
 the occupation of Upper Senegal, he had 
 first to break the power at Medina, of the 
 Toucouleur Marabout, El Hadji Homar, 
 whose empire extended from Lake Tchad 
 to Senegal, and who, by terrorising and 
 fanaticising the inhabitants, hoped to be 
 able to push us back into the sea. 
 
 Since then the advance of French in- 
 fluence in those regions has been more 
 or less rapid, but always continuous. The 
 negro empires rise up in a night, and melt 
 away quite as quickly. Based on the 
 momentary pow^r and ascendency of a 
 Marabout, they disappear with him. The 
 
no The French Empire 
 
 grand influence of Timbuktu, which was 
 once exerted over the whole upper and 
 middle region of the Niger basin, had a 
 solid reason for its existence ; for the geo- 
 graphical position of the city made it the 
 commercial centre of all the surrounding 
 regions, and causes it to survive its politi- 
 cal renown which exists no longer. The 
 Empire of Ahmadon, son of El Hadji 
 Homar, was no exception to the general 
 rule. 
 
 The expeditions of Borgnis-Desbordes, 
 Gallieni, and Archinard pushed back, but 
 not without considerable difficulty because 
 of the feeble means at their disposal, the 
 bands of pillagers and devastators occupy- 
 ing the right bank of the Niger. The 
 last of these chiefs, who exists only by 
 terrorising and massacring the inoffensive 
 inhabitants, is Samory, who has recently 
 won such an unenviable reputation by 
 betraying and assassinating an officer sent 
 to confer with him. He is now carrying 
 on his operations on the confines of Sierra 
 Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, being 
 driven more and more into a corner. An 
 
in Africa. 1 1 1 
 
 end must be put to this bandit, who yearly 
 sacrifices a hundred thousand unfortunate 
 beings in order that he may preserve his 
 power. 
 
 The Niger, once in our possession, and 
 joined by a chain of forts and soon by a 
 railroad to Senegal, the rather inaccessible 
 region of Futa-Jallon, which was already 
 under our protectorate, ought to become 
 an annex of our possessions. This is 
 now the case. Senegal is connected di- 
 rectly with our colony on the Ivory Coast. 
 The settling of the boundaries with the 
 little English and Portuguese colonies of 
 Gambia, which are little else than indent- 
 ures into our territories, and especially 
 with Sierra Leone and Liberia, has now 
 been brought about by definite treaties, 
 so that France is at last free to advance 
 into the Upper Niger region by way of 
 Senegal, or by the new route in process 
 of construction, which starts at Konakry, 
 on the coast, and passes along the Futa- 
 Jallon country. 
 
 The Upper Niger, which resembles the 
 Nile in its periodic and fertilising over- 
 
112 The French Empire 
 
 flows, waters a wonderfully rich region 
 inhabited by peaceable dwellers who ask 
 only to live in quiet and security, and who 
 could promptly repair the evils caused 
 by the devastators from whom we have 
 delivered them. This region, which is 
 within our reach, has a great future before 
 it. This is proved by the whole history 
 of Timbuktu, of which we have lately 
 come into possession without any resist- 
 ance ; in fact, with the complicity of its 
 inhabitants, whom we have thus delivered 
 from the tyranny of the Tuaregs. 
 
 Timbuktu is on the confines of the 
 desert, and the great commercial centre 
 for all the products brought there by the 
 camel caravans and other means of trans- 
 port of the neighbouring or distant tribes. 
 Though its trade has considerably fallen 
 off, it is rapidly picking up again, — a 
 trade which, at the beginning of the pres- 
 ent century was still valued at more than 
 twenty million dollars annually. The 
 security which it will now enjoy under 
 France will soon restore to the town its 
 old importance. 
 
in Africa. 113 
 
 The chief scourge of the Sahara and 
 at the same time the conductors of the 
 Timbuktu caravans are the Tuaregs, who 
 are beginning to feel their dependence 
 on us since our discovery of the grand 
 reservoir lakes which play for the Niger 
 the same part — in fact, a still more impor- 
 tant one — that the ancient Lake Moeris 
 did for the Nile. The important town 
 of Bassikunu, which these lakes separate 
 from Timbuktu, has just been taken pos- 
 session of, and the vast region of which 
 it is the capital has become our territory. 
 This whole country is destined to enjoy 
 a wonderful future, provided peace can be 
 preserved, so that it becomes the interest 
 and duty of France to protect the inhabi- 
 tants against all incursions which, in fact, 
 are becomins: more and more rare. 
 
 The Niger region has become an object 
 
 of cupidity to all the nations which had, 
 
 but a short time ago, simple trading posts 
 
 along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. 
 
 The destruction of the bloody despots of 
 
 Dahomey and Ashanti, by France and 
 
 England, has been an inestimable benefit 
 8 
 
114 The French Empire 
 
 to all the peaceable peoples of the interior. 
 But France occupies a preponderant posi- 
 tion in these regions. By means of her 
 Ivory Coast Colony her possessions ex- 
 tend to the Kongo States, traversed a few 
 years ago for the first time by Binger, 
 and which are the centre of the campaign 
 against Samory. Our frontier line on 
 the west, in the direction of Liberia and 
 Sierra Leone, has been fixed by treaties, 
 and on the east, where lie the English 
 Gold Coast Colony and the German 
 Togo, a few concessions have brought 
 about a similar result; so that we are 
 now in complete possession of all the 
 territory lying between these colonies and 
 the course of the Niger. The actual oc- 
 cupation of these lands was brought about 
 only a few months ago. Scarcely had 
 Lieutenant Hourst of our navy accom- 
 plished the whole descent of the Niger, 
 than the expeditions which had started 
 simultaneously from the Sudan and Da- 
 homey, under Lieutenant Voulet and 
 Captain Baud, effected a junction, after 
 having established posts in all the princi- 
 
in Africa. 115 
 
 pal centres of the Niger region. But 
 one point remains unsettled, — fixing the 
 northern boundary of French Dahomey 
 between that colony and the English 
 Lagos. This is in fact " the Niger ques- 
 tion," which is now occupying the atten- 
 tion of the French and English Foreign 
 Offices. 
 
 While Stanley was finishing the general 
 exploration of the Kongo, and the King 
 of the Belgians was bringing about the 
 formation of the Independent Kongo 
 State, Brazza, going up the course of the 
 Ogove, reached by the Alima, an affluent 
 of the Kongo, Stanley Pool, where he 
 founded Brazzaville. This was the origin 
 of the French Kongo State, which is in 
 communication with Lake Tchad by the 
 navigable river Shari and with the Nile 
 by the Bahr-el-Ghazal. 
 
 The important results which the future 
 has in store for this part of Africa, and 
 the grave differences arising on every 
 side, caused the bringing together of the 
 Berlin Congress, which regulated these 
 various difficulties. One of the principal 
 
ii6 The French Empire 
 
 of these decisions was the proclamation 
 of the free navigation of the Kongo and 
 Niger Rivers, and a declaration that a 
 tax must be levied on all nations alike 
 which used these rivers, these moneys to 
 be employed for the general expenses of 
 administration, etc. France gave her full 
 consent to this regulation, and it is the 
 realisation of this stipulation that she 
 firmly demands to-day in the case of the 
 Niger. 
 
 The course of the Niger is interrupted 
 at Bussa, north of Dahomey, by rapids 
 which render navigation very difficult. 
 Furthermore, the claims — I may almost 
 say, the reprehensible acts — of the Royal 
 Niger Company have rendered access to 
 the river almost impossible for Europeans. 
 France has unfortunately shown, in the 
 treatment of this affair, a feebleness or a 
 negligence which is greatly to be re- 
 gretted, and which does but little credit 
 to our diplomacy. The abandonment of 
 the Mizon Mission at Yola, on the Upper 
 Binue, south of Lake Tchad, and of the 
 Aremberg post created by Toutee, on 
 
in Africa. 117 
 
 the right bank of the Niger below Bussa, 
 were acts of culpable condescension to 
 England. 
 
 During the past year these faults have 
 been partly repaired by the arrival at 
 Bussa of Lieutenant Bretonnet, of the 
 French Navy, who has been received in 
 a friendly manner by the Chief of that 
 region. It is absolutely indispensable 
 that we hold this town in order that the 
 French Niger region may have a practi- 
 cable communication with the sea. At 
 this moment a commission is settling the 
 question of the boundary line between 
 Dahomey and Lagos. France cannot 
 abandon the results obtained by Decoeur, 
 Toutee, Bellot, and so many other of her 
 noble sons. France and England will 
 not fall out over details; but w^e occupy 
 those regions legally, by treaties with the 
 native chiefs and, effectively, by the plant- 
 ing there of our standard. It will be 
 dangerous for the English to disturb us. 
 We have yielded too often to English 
 pretensions. When we decide to speak 
 to England in a firm tone, especially when 
 
II 8 The French Empire 
 
 we have justice on our side, she will have 
 to give way.^ 
 
 To sum up the situation in the Niger 
 region, it may be said that this magnifi- 
 cent result may now be considered accom- 
 plished ; the whole vast territory is French 
 up to the recognised limits of the foreign 
 colonies. There is but one shadow in the 
 picture, Samory, who cannot, however, 
 hold out much longer. He once disposed 
 of, prosperity will then reign, without seri- 
 ous danger of any interruption, through- 
 out these five districts, which ask only 
 to be left to live in peace under our pro- 
 tectorate, and whose intelligent inhabi- 
 tants appreciate with feelings of real joy 
 our gentle influence. 
 
 Quite other are the peoples over whom 
 France rules in her Kongo State. There 
 begin the regions which, along with those 
 of Guinea, were so long the inexhaustible 
 source whence were drawn the slaves for 
 the Antilles and America ; and the re- 
 ports of Speke, Burton, Livingstone, and 
 others have shown at the price of what 
 
 1 See note on p. 32. 
 
in Africa. 119 
 
 monstrous cruelties and massacres the 
 trading Arabs, who exploited the eastern 
 part, obtained the slaves necessary for the 
 transporting of ivory and other merchan- 
 dise. It was none too soon for the Bel- 
 gians and French, who occupy the whole 
 basin of the Kongo, to put an end to this 
 horrible state of things. The way of pro- 
 ceeding of the two nations is quite differ- 
 ent, for while we hear too often of conflicts 
 and revolts in the Free State, it may be 
 permitted to point out that France has 
 only a few hundred Senegalian soldiers 
 on the Kongo and its chief affluent, the 
 Ubangi. 
 
 The first tribes one meets in these 
 Kongo regions on leaving the coast are 
 genuine savages, always at war with one 
 another, often cannibals, but who can be 
 easily managed if strict rules of justice 
 and equity are observed. The men are 
 good only as carriers and paddlers, and 
 are as yet incapable of performing regular 
 labour. But this can be changed by a 
 slow and continual effort on our part. 
 The farther you recede from the coast, 
 
I20 The French Empire 
 
 greater and greater becomes the primitive 
 barbarity. But when, by the Shari River, 
 which empties into Lake Tchad, and along 
 whose waters float our steam-launches, 
 or by the Ubangi, you approach the dis- 
 tricts under Mussulman influence, the 
 situation improves. 
 
 In passing around Lake Tchad, whose 
 western and southern shores are partly 
 within the zone of the influence of the 
 English of the Niger and of the Germans 
 of Kamerun, the French possessions are 
 found to be brought into contact with 
 the Sudanese or rather Saharian regions, 
 great stretches of territory which are 
 often but deserts, and whose rare inhabi- 
 tants, the Tuaregs, still inspire great fear. 
 By the Ubangi River one reaches the 
 States of the Sultans Rafai and Zemio, 
 with whom we are on friendly terms on 
 account of our common interests. In 
 giving them our support, we enable them 
 to exert an influence over those confused 
 masses who participate in the Mahdist 
 movement and to resist them. It was 
 throueh the aid of Zemio that Marchand 
 
in Africa. lai 
 
 was able to reach the basin of the Bahr- 
 el-Ghazal, to descend one of its water- 
 courses, and at this moment, doubtless, 
 gunboats, flying the French flag, float on 
 the Nile at Fashoda. Abyssinia is not 
 far away. It must not be forgotten that 
 the Harrar Railroad, whose construction 
 is begun, and whose prolongation toward 
 the interior is simply a matter of time, 
 starts from our possessions of Djibouti, 
 on the Gulf of Tadjurah, at the entrance 
 to the Red Sea. It is unnecessary to 
 dwell on the consequences to Egypt and 
 the Egyptian provinces of the Upper Nile 
 which will spring from this road. 
 
 Nothing need be said of Algeria and 
 Tunis, as they are under a regular admin- 
 istration, and, in this respect, may almost 
 be classed among European nations. It 
 must be admitted, however, that there 
 always exists the danger in those regions 
 of a revolt, due to Mussulman fanaticism, 
 which has grown all the more arrogant as 
 a result of the shameful feebleness of what 
 is called oddly enough "the Concert of 
 Europe." Tottering Morocco, which is 
 
122 The French Empire 
 
 kept standing only because of the rival- 
 ries between the Powers, may play at any 
 moment an important part in a general 
 uprising, which would spread as far as 
 Tripoli. But the farther France pene- 
 trates into the Sahara, occupying new 
 oases and making fresh treaties with the 
 Tuaregs, who are so hard to win over, but 
 who can be depended upon having once 
 given their word, the greater is the prob- 
 ability of obtaining in these northern 
 parts of Africa a state of stability and 
 security. When one has to do with reli- 
 gious fanaticism, force alone must be 
 counted upon. By showing that a revolt 
 will be repressed without pity, a check 
 may be put to a movement for the starting 
 of one. 
 
 As regards the great island of Mada- 
 gascar, it stands so without Africa proper 
 that I simply mention it here in passing. 
 It is a world apart. 
 
 Will the French know how to make 
 the most of the vast domain which is now 
 open to them in the Black Continent ? 
 The changes at present going on in the 
 
in Africa. 123 
 
 French public mind are happily very 
 significant. Colonial expansion in this 
 country was checked by the wars of the 
 Revolution and the Empire. But a move- 
 ment in that direction has now most 
 decidedly set in again. Just as under the 
 ancient regime the younger sons of noble 
 families sought their fortune in foreign 
 parts, so now the children of the bour- 
 geoisie, not being able to find occupations 
 at home, are beginning to turn their faces 
 toward the colonies. May my fellow- 
 countrymen recover that old spirit of 
 initiative, and renew that early taste for 
 colonisation which produced such brilliant 
 results, always bearing in mind that it 
 was not Frenchmen who lost their colo- 
 nies, but the miserable governments which 
 they too long permitted to exist. 
 
THE INDEPENDENT KONGO 
 STATE. 
 
THE INDEPENDENT KONGO 
 STATE. 
 
 BY LIEUT. CHARLES LEMAIRE, 
 
 Ex-Commissioner of the Equator District of the Kongo State. 
 
 THE astonishing creation of a vast 
 free State, which has, in twenty 
 years, completely changed the greatest 
 river basin of the world, till then pro- 
 foundly buried in darkness and barbarism, 
 and made it a land of order and civilisa- 
 tion, — this astounding transformation is 
 due to the will of a single man. Before 
 mounting the Belgian throne, the then 
 Duke de Brabant, in a volume entitled 
 "The Complement of the Work of 1830," 
 pointed out in the most elevated language 
 the necessity for Belgians to have a colony 
 beyond the seas. Become King, this 
 same prince, Leopold H, now sovereign 
 of the Independent Kongo State, turned 
 his attention forthwith toward carrying 
 out this dream of many years. 
 
128 The Independent 
 
 In 1876 the King brought together in 
 his palace the Brussels Geographical 
 Congress, composed of well-known men 
 of learning, geographers, and explorers of 
 all nations. This was the origin of the 
 International African Society, whose aim 
 was to create an uninterrupted chain of 
 stations from the eastern coast to the 
 great lakes discovered by Livingstone. 
 This meant the penetrating into equa- 
 torial Africa from the east, as all attempts 
 from the west had failed. 
 
 The best known of these expeditions 
 from the west was that placed by the 
 English Admiralty under the orders of 
 Capt. James K. Tuckey. In 18 16 Tuckey 
 went up the Kongo to a distance of some 
 170 miles, but lost eighteen men in four 
 months, which seemed to check further 
 attempts in that direction. 
 
 On August 9th, 1877, a man arrived at 
 the mouth of the Kongo and said : *' It 
 is now 999 days since I left Zanzibar. I 
 have seen all the lands known to the 
 Arabs of the East, and during 281 days 
 I have traversed countries which no white 
 
Kongo State. 129 
 
 man ever saw before. I have sailed along 
 over 1,500 miles of a wonderful river, and, 
 by making a detour of some 150 miles, 
 I have been able to pass around forty 
 cataracts." 
 
 The man who told this wonderful tale 
 was Stanley, who had thus completed the 
 discoveries of Livingstone, and who, in 
 order to solve the problem of the Kongo, 
 which could not be approached from the 
 west, had taken it at the other end and 
 had descended from Nyangwe to Banana, 
 telling of his thirty-two fights which he 
 had had with cannibals along the un- 
 known river, of the seven equatorial cat- 
 aracts (to-day Stanley Falls), of the 
 thirty-two falls, of terrible privations, 
 deaths, massacres, etc. 
 
 For the third time Africa had now 
 been crossed from the Orient to the Occi- 
 dent. After Livingstone and Cameron, 
 Stanley had traversed those regions 
 marked on the maps as terra incognita. 
 Doubtless an enthusiastic welcome awaited 
 the brave adventurer. Not at all. Europe 
 pretended to see in Stanley signs of an 
 9 
 
130 The Independent 
 
 impostor, and mistrusted him. But he 
 inspired confidence in the King of the 
 Belgians, and from this confidence was to 
 spring the future State of Kongo. 
 
 In 1873, at the suggestion and under 
 the auspices of Leopold II, the Committee 
 for the Study of the Upper Kongo was 
 formed. Its purpose was to do on the 
 West Coast what the International Afri- 
 can Society was endeavouring to accom- 
 plish on the East Coast. This new 
 organisation also determined to foster 
 commercial development, which is the 
 best way to get into contact with the 
 
 negroes. 
 
 An expedition, whose aim was the 
 study of this whole question in detail and 
 on the spot, was immediately organised 
 and placed under the orders of Stanley, 
 who, in 1879, again appeared at the mouth 
 of the Kongo, and set to work to perform 
 the duties assigned him. These duties 
 were to examine into the navigability of 
 the river and its affluents, to enter into 
 peaceful commercial and political rela- 
 tions with the natives, to secure territorial 
 
Kongo State. 131 
 
 concessions, to establish posts, conclude 
 treaties, to learn what were the exploit- 
 able riches of the region, to decide what 
 lines of artificial communication could be 
 opened, and particularly to find out if it 
 would be possible to link, by means of a 
 railroad, the Atlantic Coast with the river 
 system of Central Africa. This pro- 
 gramme reveals the long-cherished dream 
 of Leopold II, — the desire to create an out- 
 let for the industrial activity of his people, 
 to spread the benefits of civilisation by 
 means of commerce and labour, and to 
 found, without the effusion of blood which 
 characterised earlier conquests in Africa, 
 a grand, rich colony that, later, could be 
 handed over to Belgium. 
 
 Full of enthusiasm, Belgian officers 
 begged to join the expedition, and, accom- 
 panied by them, Stanley sailed up the 
 noble river and its branches, making 
 treaties and dropping along its banks his 
 agents, whom he inflamed with his own 
 enterprising ardour. And in the foot- 
 steps of these bold pioneers followed 
 missionaries, scientists, merchants, and, 
 
132 The Independent 
 
 curiously enough, even tourists, some of 
 whom were so filled with enthusiasm for 
 the enterprise that they asked to be al- 
 lowed to share its dangers and hardships 
 alongside of the Belgians. Such, for in- 
 stance, was Lieutenant Mohun, U. S. A., 
 consular agent, charged by his Govern- 
 ment with a mission to the Kongo, who 
 made this whole campaign. 
 
 In the end the decisive results obtained 
 by this Stanley expedition led the Com- 
 mittee for the Study of the Upper Kongo 
 to transform itself into an International 
 Kongo Association, so that the newly 
 explored territories could be brought 
 under a strong and independent adminis- 
 tration, emanating from a duly established 
 authority, recognised as such by the prin- 
 cipal nations of the world. 
 
 Toward the end of 1883, the Inter- 
 national Kongo Association had in its 
 possession more than 10,000 treaties 
 signed by the native chiefs, who volun- 
 tarily ceded their sovereign rights over 
 the lands which they occupied. While 
 continuing its active work in Africa, the 
 
Kongo State. 133 
 
 Association entered into diplomatic rela- 
 tions with the Great Powers, in order to 
 obtain from them the recognition of its 
 sovereignty in the Kongo basin, and the 
 enjoyment of the immunities and pre- 
 rogatives of a State. The United States 
 was first, on April loth, 1884, to recognise 
 the new State, and, seven months later, 
 the German Empire followed this good 
 example. 
 
 On November 15th, 1884, opened the 
 Conference of Berlin, assembled to regu- 
 late, in a spirit of mutual amity, " the con- 
 ditions which should assure the develop- 
 ment of commerce on the Kongo and 
 prevent contentions and misunderstand- 
 ings." This memorable conference traced 
 the limits of the conventional basin of 
 the Kongo, indicated what the economic 
 legislation should be for its government, 
 declared its neutrality, that it should 
 be under the protection of nations, that 
 free navigation and liberty of conscience 
 should be assured, that the slave-trade 
 should be prohibited, and finally decided 
 that, " in order to protect the native popu- 
 
134 The Independent 
 
 lation from the evils of war, all serious 
 differences concerning the limits, or within 
 the limits, of the territories designated by 
 the conference should be submitted to the 
 mediation of one or several Governments." 
 
 During the sittings of the Conference, 
 most European nations, imitating the ex- 
 ample set by the United States and Ger- 
 many, recognised the sovereignty of the 
 International Kongo Association, and the 
 Association itself having, on February 
 26th, 1885, adhered to the resolutions 
 promulgated by the Conference, Prince 
 Bismarck closed the assembly with a 
 speech in w^hich he expressed best wishes 
 for the prosperity of the new State. 
 
 But a ruler for the State was necessary. 
 The Berlin Conference had unanimously 
 proposed Leopold II. Thereupon the 
 Belgian Parliament authorised the King 
 to accept the new sovereignty by declar- 
 ing that "the union between Belgium and 
 the new State will be an exclusively per- 
 sonal one." The Government was then 
 immediately organised, and in July, 1885, 
 the constitution of the Kongo State was 
 
Kongo State. 135 
 
 proclaimed at Banana and at all the sta- 
 tions of the interior districts. In August 
 of the same year Leopold notified all the 
 Powers of the creation of the Independent 
 Kongo State and that he had become its 
 ruler. The declaration of neutrality im- 
 mediately followed, and the State was 
 thus definitely founded. 
 
 By this time Stanley had, by the aid 
 of three little steamers, got up the river 
 as high as Stanley Falls, and had explored 
 several of its affluents, while still others 
 were explored by his successors, so that 
 there could be no longer any doubt as to 
 what there was in that great white blank 
 found on even the latest maps at that 
 time. It had been learned that at some 
 200 miles from Matadi, which the great 
 ocean steamers could reach, spread out 
 an incomparable river system, some 20,000 
 miles of whose banks, accessible to steam- 
 ers, had been visited. The world now 
 knows that this immense basin was a 
 hundred times larger than Belgium, that 
 it was once a vast fresh-water lake, which 
 buried for a time the fecundity of the 
 
136 The Independent 
 
 submerged soil ; that this great plain was 
 virgin, waiting for a comer ; that it was 
 covered with the richest of tropical vege- 
 tation, and was cut up by a network of 
 navigable waters, the like of which could 
 be found, probably, nowhere else on the 
 globe, — for there is no point on it more 
 than sixty miles from a river-bank; that 
 the region was peopled with millions of 
 negroes, those incomparable labourers of 
 the tropics. 
 
 But Stanley declared to all who would 
 listen that the full possibilities of the 
 region could be realised only through the 
 instrumentality of a railway which should 
 connect Matadi with Leopoldville. He 
 further stated that no other road was 
 necessary unless one wished to reach the 
 most distant confines of Central Africa 
 and to pass from the basin of the Kongo 
 into that of the Tchad, the Nile, and the 
 Zambezi. Thereupon came to the aid of 
 the King daring men who promised to 
 build the road from the ocean to Stanley 
 Pool. Nothing daunted them, — neither 
 numerous deaths, the continual disap- 
 
Kongo State, 137 
 
 pointments at the start, nor the unmerited 
 attacks of low politicians. So from 1889, 
 the year when the work began in Matadi, 
 until the present moment, the gigantic 
 labour has gone on, so slowly at first that 
 even the most sanguine lost heart, then 
 faster and faster, till finally the whistle 
 of the first locomotive from Matadi reached 
 Stanley Pool and was answered by the 
 whistles of the steamers on the Upper 
 Kongo. This memorable event happened 
 at the moment I was writing these lines ; 
 and I can easily imagine the emotion it 
 must have occasioned in the hearts of 
 the white men assembled on that occasion 
 from every part of the Pool. 
 
 Under the pressure of political parties, 
 the Belgian Government, which had ac- 
 corded to the Kongo Railway undertak- 
 ing a certain amount of pecuniary support, 
 was forced to send out in 1895 a technical 
 commission charged with drawing up a 
 report on the condition of the work al- 
 ready finished or under way, on the possi- 
 bility of completing the whole enterprise, 
 and on the amount of traffic which would 
 
138 The Independent 
 
 probably occur on the line. This com- 
 mission, which was extremely cautious in 
 its statements, reported that the work on 
 the road was well done, that the roll- 
 ing stock was well made and properly 
 mounted, that the trains ran regularly, 
 that the whole labour could be finished 
 by the end of 1900, and that the road 
 could do an annual business amounting 
 to 30,000 tons' weight. But the fact is 
 that the road will be ready from one end 
 to the other and inaugurated this coming 
 May, thus requiring half the time for 
 completion stated by the commission, 
 while the engineers now declare that it 
 can easily handle 60,000 tons of merchan- 
 dise annually. 
 
 While the railway was being finished, 
 European establishments of one kind and 
 another began to spring up on all sides. 
 Trees supplanted brushwood. From year 
 to year new steamboats, carried up over- 
 land, piece by piece on the backs of men, 
 w^ere put together on the Upper Kongo. 
 Commercial agencies were set up on every 
 hand, while Catholic and Protestant mis- 
 
Kongo State. 139 
 
 sionaries divided the country among them 
 up as high as Tanganyika. 
 
 A few figures will give a more striking 
 and exact idea of the present situation on 
 the Kongo. There are now forty-five 
 steamers constantly plying on the waters 
 of the Upper Kongo and its afiluents, 
 transporting merchandise, food, and troops, 
 thus carrying life and progress every- 
 where. It is true that the largest of them 
 are of only forty-five tons burden, for, as 
 has already been said, they had to be 
 brought up from the coast on the backs 
 of men. But now, thanks to the railway, 
 a steamer of 250 tons has reached the 
 Pool, where it will be at work in two 
 months more. Another of the same capa- 
 city is now being built at Antwerp, and 
 will join its sister in due time. 
 
 What do these steamers carry.? All 
 those products collected since the four- 
 teenth century till now only along the 
 coasts of Africa, — ivory, gums, resin, wax, 
 incense, ostrich feathers, pepper, coffee, 
 cocoa, tobacco, cotton, rubber, skins, oils, 
 indigo, fruits, animals of various kinds, 
 
140 The Independent 
 
 etc. To give an idea of what may be 
 exported from the Kongo, I may state 
 that the coffee and cocoa fields planted 
 only in 1891 now contain 1,500,000 coffee 
 plants and 200,000 cocoa plants. Not 
 100 pounds of rubber was exported in 
 1885, whereas not less than 3,000,000 
 pounds were extracted from the forests 
 of the Upper Kongo in 1896, valued at 
 $1,500,000. In 1897 these figures were 
 doubled, and coming years will see them 
 still further increased. It is not aston- 
 ishing, therefore, that Antwerp tends to 
 become for rubber — as it is already for 
 ivory — the most important market in the 
 world. The following table showing, in 
 round numbers, the trade of the Kongo 
 Independent State, speaks for itself: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 1893 . - 
 
 . . $2,029,700 
 
 $1,503,000 
 
 ^3.532,700 
 
 1894 . . 
 
 . . 2,371,000 
 
 2,206,000 
 
 4>577»ooo 
 
 1895 • ■ 
 
 . . 2,368,000 
 
 2,427,000 
 
 4,795,000 
 
 1896 . . 
 
 . . 3,208,000 
 
 3,012,000 
 
 6,222,000 
 
 The figures for 1897 are not yet given out, 
 but it is known that the total surpasses 
 $7,000,000. 
 
Kongo State. 141 
 
 A few more figures : In 189 1 the Kongo 
 budget was, in round numbers, $911,000. 
 In 1898 it is $3,450,000, with a growing 
 tendency to balance. The number of 
 Europeans on the Kongo is 1,600, of 
 whom 150 are Catholic missionaries and 
 250 Protestant missionaries. These mis- 
 sionaries occupy some hundred missions 
 scattered over the whole territory, and 
 nobody denies the good they are doing. 
 Among the more important religious es- 
 tablishments should be particularly men- 
 tioned the Colonial School, where the 
 State receives abandoned children, and 
 gives them professional and agricultural 
 instruction. 
 
 Order is preserved by a remarkable 
 colonial force, whose soldiers are at the 
 same time labourers. This body, which in 
 1889 contained only iii natives, now has 
 enrolled 12,000, of whom 8,000 are mili- 
 tiamen and 4,000 volunteers. There are 
 properly constituted courts in all the chief 
 centres, and post-offices all the way to Tan- 
 ganyika. A telegraphic line is being built 
 from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls. Lines 
 
142 The Independent 
 
 for new railways are being examined, so 
 that in the near future roads will run to 
 the Nile in one direction, and to Tan- 
 ganyika and Nyassa in the other. Well- 
 fitted-out scientific expeditions are study- 
 ing all the unexplored regions. 
 
 Such, rapidly told, is the present condi- 
 tion of the Kongo State, whose participa- 
 tion at the Brussels Exhibition last year 
 produced a sensation in Europe. The 
 preparations for the Paris Exhibition of 
 1900 are already underway on the Kongo, 
 and on that occasion Europe will, I feel 
 sure, again proclaim that the constitution 
 and development of the Kongo State is, 
 and will remain, one of the brightest jew- 
 els of the Belgian crown. An uninter- 
 rupted series of successes of a scientific, 
 economic, moral, and military nature ; the 
 bringing within the boundaries of civili- 
 sation the whole heart of Africa; the 
 suppression throughout this immense ter- 
 ritory of those cruel bands that used to 
 send to European markets ivory stolen 
 through the blood of men, and to Eastern 
 harems violated orphans ; the establish- 
 
Kongo State. 143 
 
 ment of order, justice, labour; the faith 
 revealed to millions of human beings, — 
 such are some of the results attained by 
 the Kongo State. 
 
 The black population of the Kongo 
 basin is estimated to be 30,000,000 souls. 
 The Belgians have undertaken the task 
 to act as their educators, for the climate 
 will not permit the white man to labour 
 uninterruptedly on the Kongo. He can 
 only direct others. The high table-lands 
 of the Katanga, where the temperature is 
 lower, can become the regions habitable 
 by our race. At present Europeans must 
 return home after a sojourn of two or 
 three years in Africa. The number is 
 continually increasing of those who go 
 back for the fourth and fifth time. In a 
 word, this distant colony has put fresh 
 life into the Belgian nation, which was in 
 danger of growing torpid after sixty years 
 of peace. It needed this new venture to 
 bring out once more its virile qualities. 
 
ENGLAND, THE SUDAN, 
 AND FRANCE. 
 
 lO 
 
ENGLAND, THE SUDAN, AND 
 FRANCE. 
 
 BY HENRY NORMAN, 
 
 Editor of the London " Daily Chronicle." 
 
 ■T17HERE the Atbara flows into the 
 ^^ Nile, 1,530 miles from Cairo, 170 
 miles from Khartum, savagery is making 
 to-day its last attempt but one to with- 
 stand civilisation in Egypt. The world 
 is necessarily always interested in such 
 conflicts ; but this one possesses far more 
 than the usual significance of fights be- 
 tween white men and black. Civilisation 
 has never presented a higher form than 
 the work of England in Egypt, and sav- 
 agery has never assumed a more hideous 
 aspect than in the Khalifa Abdullah and 
 his Baggara horde. No history appeals 
 more vividly to the imagination of man- 
 kind than that upon which the Sphinx 
 for so many centuries has "stared with 
 mysterious, solemn, stony eyes ; " and no 
 
148 England, the Sudan, 
 
 problem of to-day involves such incalcu- 
 lable uncertainties and such colossal possi- 
 bilities in the relations of all the European 
 nations to one another as that connected 
 with the present domination of Great 
 Britain upon the Nile. All the elements 
 of a thrilling world-melodrama are pres- 
 ent, and the curtain rises to-day upon the 
 last act. It is well at such a moment to 
 cast a glance backward and forward. 
 
 Everybody remembers how England 
 came to occupy Egypt in 1882, in con- 
 sequence of the rebelHon of Arabi ; how 
 she invited France to join her, and how 
 France declined ; how she then undertook 
 the rehabilitation of Egypt single-handed ; 
 how the Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed, first 
 an Egyptian civil servant, then a slave- 
 trader at his birthplace, Dongola, raised 
 the Eastern Sudan in 1882, isolated the 
 Austrian, Edward Schnitzler, otherwise 
 Emin Pasha, in the Equatorial Provinces, 
 seized El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, 
 annihilated the Egyptian Army sent 
 against him under Hicks Pasha in 1883, 
 and finally captured Khartum and slew 
 
and France. 149 
 
 Gordon in 1885, thus becoming undis- 
 puted master of Upper Egypt. Hicks 
 was doomed to destruction from the start. 
 His *' army " was a rabble of cowardly 
 Egyptians, sent to the front in chains. 
 O'Donovan, of Merv, the brilliant corre- 
 spondent of the " Daily News," said in his 
 last letter that he should shortly be lying 
 in the desert with " a spear-head as big as 
 a shovel " through him, — a prophecy ful- 
 filled to the letter. The mission of Gor- 
 don had hardly better prospects. A man 
 of heroic courage and singular virtue, in 
 his relations with other men he could 
 often hardly be described as sane. His 
 personal momentary inspirations and in- 
 tuitions constituted his rule of life, to the 
 neglect of such mundane considerations 
 as orders from his superiors and his ov/n 
 undertakings. Sent formally "as a man 
 of peace, on a mission of peace," and ofH- 
 cially forewarned that he would not be 
 supported by an armed force, he was not 
 long at Khartum before he began tele- 
 graphing minute instructions for an army 
 to be sent to him ; and not only that, but 
 
150 England^ the Sudan, 
 
 his own requests telegraphed in the morn- 
 ing were cancelled by his despatches of 
 the afternoon, till the authorities at Cairo 
 were wholly at a loss to know what line of 
 action to follow. He could have retired 
 from Khartum when the situation was 
 known to be hopeless ; and if he had 
 taken ordinary precautions in keeping the 
 military e^tceinte of Khartum in repair, he 
 could have held out till the British relief 
 expedition reached him. Ethically, his 
 character commands profound respect ; 
 but from another point of view, the story 
 of his career, if ever British opinion permits 
 it to be written, will materially modify the 
 legend which has grown up around him. 
 With his death, the Sudan lapsed into 
 barbarism, wholly beyond the power of 
 Egypt at that time to destroy. Lord Cro- 
 mer (then Sir Evelyn Baring) settled down 
 to the gigantic task of bringing back 
 Egypt, ruined by the inconceivable ex- 
 travagances of the Khedive Ismail, and 
 sucked dry by the concession-hunters and 
 scoundrelly parasites of every European 
 nation, to solvency and military efficiency, 
 
and France. 151 
 
 — a task greater and more brilliantly ac- 
 complished than any of our time. Then 
 Egypt ended at Wady Haifa. Beyond 
 that was hell, the unimaginable horrors of 
 which have only been fully revealed of 
 late in the narratives of the Mahdi's es- 
 caped prisoners, Ohrwalder and Slatin. 
 Beyond Haifa was the little advanced post 
 of Sarras ; and I well remember standing 
 in its gate one morning in February, 1892, 
 and, as I had just been present at manoeu- 
 vres of the Egyptian Army, and had mar- 
 velled at the transformation wrought by 
 English officers out of the horde of human 
 sheep, like those who had turned up their 
 throats to the butchers of El Obeid, won- 
 dering if the time had not come for the 
 Egyptian flag and the Union Jack to ad- 
 vance once more across the " Belly of 
 Stones " in front of me, which divides 
 Egypt from the Sudan. On my return I 
 advocated taking the first step, writing as 
 follows : — 
 
 " There would be no need to strike the blow 
 at once. A comparatively small addition need 
 be made to the present Egyptian army to ena- 
 
152 England, the Sudan, 
 
 ble an amply sufficient force to advance to 
 Dongola, and hold that and the line of commu- 
 nications with Wady Haifa. This single step 
 would bring many waverers at once from the 
 enemy. A pause then would enable that por- 
 tion of the Sudan to settle down into peaceful 
 development before another step was taken. 
 Then a farther advance to the next most con- 
 venient place might be easily, leisurely, and 
 irresistibly made." ^ 
 
 Four years passed ; but then the plan I 
 had thus hoped to see was precisely fol- 
 lowed. On March 13th, 1896, the Sirdar 
 of the Egyptian Army, Sir Herbert Kitch- 
 ener, was ordered by the British Govern- 
 ment to retake Dongola; on September 
 26th the Egyptian flag was raised upon 
 the old Mudir's house there; the expedi- 
 tion then stopped, and the British regi- 
 ment returned to Cairo. On July 13th, 
 1897, the advance was resumed ; Abu 
 Hamed was taken on August 7th, and 
 Berber occupied on September 8th. Kas- 
 sala was ceded to Egypt by Italy on De- 
 cember 25th, and three Dervish forts in 
 
 ^ " Contemporary Review," April, 1892. 
 
and France. 153 
 
 the direction of Khartilm were captured 
 immediately afterward. Two days ago 
 (March 20th) the entire Egyptian and 
 British force, the latter greatly strength- 
 ened, marched again, and to-day it is 
 probably fighting the Khalifa's forces un- 
 der the Emirs Mahmud and Osman Digna 
 on the Atbara River. The result needs 
 no foretelling. 
 
 The coming engagement has been de- 
 scribed in the telegrams as a " decisive 
 battle." This it cannot be ; the real battle 
 will be at Omdurman, about the beginning 
 of August. The present Dervish advance 
 is due either to the Khalifa's increasing 
 difficulty in finding food for his forces, or 
 more probably to his defective informa- 
 tion. He no doubt imagines that the ad- 
 vancing force is a small column, chiefly 
 composed of Egyptian troops, for whom 
 he has a profound contempt, and whom 
 he expects to cut to pieces by falling upon 
 them suddenly, or to isolate by taking 
 Berber in their rear. His main body will 
 certainly not fight until it is attacked at 
 Omdurman (Kharttlm, of course, was long 
 
154 England, the Sudan, 
 
 ago abandoned, and is in ruins), which 
 place he has been fortifying for a long 
 time. On his side, the Sirdar will cer- 
 tainly not advance farther until the Nile 
 rises, when his transport can be by river, 
 and the gunboats can lend him their tre- 
 mendous aid. One steamer carries as 
 much baggage and forage as a thousand 
 camels. It is high Nile at Kharttlm in 
 August, and the Sirdar's advance will be- 
 gin about the middle of July. By that 
 time the railway, now eighty miles north 
 of Berber, will have reached the Nile just 
 below the Atbara. If he does not ask 
 for more white troops, the strength of his 
 army will be approximately as follows : 
 Six battalions of Egyptian infantry, six 
 battalions of Sudanese infantry, seven 
 squadrons of Egyptian cavalry, the Egyp- 
 tian Camel Corps, 800 strong, and three 
 field batteries of Egyptian artillery, — a 
 total strength of about 10,000 men, all, of 
 course, under British officers; one battal- 
 ion each of the Warwickshire Regiment, 
 the Lincolnshire Regiment, the Cameron 
 Highlanders, and the Seaforth Highland- 
 
and France. 155 
 
 ers, and a British battery of machine guns, 
 — a total British force of about 3,500 men. 
 Against him he will have an army of, per- 
 haps, 60,000 Dervish troops, known to 
 have not more than 12,000 rifles, com- 
 posed partly of black soldiers, driven to 
 battle at the point of the sword, but de- 
 pending chiefly for its fighting strength 
 upon the Baggara tribe. In former strug- 
 gles he has had other formidable Arab 
 tribes upon his side, — the Jaalin, the 
 Hadendoa, and the Beni Amer; but these 
 have now come over to the Egyptian flag, 
 as their territories have been gradually 
 reoccupied. Nobody but the Baggara 
 Arabs fights for the Khalifa an hour after 
 it is possible to escape from his ven- 
 geance. These Baggaras, however, are 
 among the most terrible foes in the 
 world ; they are now at bay, and they 
 will probably die almost to a man in de- 
 fence of their last stronghold. Mr. E. F. 
 Knight, the special correspondent of " The 
 Times " in the Sudan, has recently given 
 a striking picture of these men and their 
 position. He says : — 
 
156 England, the Sudan, 
 
 " Whatever the Baggara may have been in 
 former days, these last fifteen years of indul- 
 gence in unbridled cruelty and rapine have 
 made of them a race of men apart, more like 
 wild beasts, indeed, than men, the enemies of 
 mankind. Sullenly ferocious, having no joy 
 save in slaughter, they seem to have lost the 
 attributes of human nature. They are devoid 
 of all affection for their wives, who are to them 
 of far less account than their cattle. As our 
 surgeons who have tended their wounded in 
 hospital can testify, the Baggara, unlike others 
 of our Dervish foemen, have absolutely no sense 
 of gratitude, and scowl with hatred on those 
 who bring them succour. When lying maimed 
 on the battle-field, they have often treacherously 
 stabbed those who in pity have carried water to 
 their parched lips. They have never shown 
 mercy, and they are now likely to receive little 
 from the tribes which they have ground down 
 with such unspeakable cruelty, and which are 
 now rising, one after the other, all round the 
 doomed Baggara hosts at Omdurman and 
 Metamneh.'* 
 
 Omdurman, therefore, will not be taken 
 without a severe struggle. Taken, how- 
 ever, it will be, and the Dervish power 
 be broken forever, always supposing that 
 
and France. 157 
 
 no European or far Eastern complication 
 necessitates the return of the British 
 troops, in which case the Egyptian Army 
 would confine itself to holding Berber. 
 Remnants of the Dervishes will make 
 their way up the Nile, or scatter to the 
 southwest, to be absorbed or destroyed by 
 the native populations, or be exterminated 
 piecemeal as the Egyptian administration 
 gradually extends over the remoter prov- 
 inces. For, of course, Omdurman is not 
 the goal. "Cape to Cairo" is the ideal, 
 although at present it is difficult to see 
 how the through route is to be secured. 
 But the Equatorial Provinces — Kordofan, 
 Sennaar, Darfur, and the Bahr-el-Ghazal 
 — were all part of the old Egyptian Sudan, 
 and they will be restored to the new one. 
 Omdurman will be held as a fortified base 
 and centre, and sooner or later a farther 
 series of advances will be made. In this 
 direction, however, the British Govern- 
 ment has suffered a most severe disap- 
 pointment in the revolt in Uganda and 
 the ruin of Major Macdonald's plan. 
 Though not officially announced, it was 
 
158 England, the Sudan, 
 
 well known to students of the situation 
 that an advance down the Nile northward 
 was to be made pari passu with the ad- 
 vance southward from Omdurman. Now 
 the movement from the south has been 
 indefinitely postponed, while the French 
 are straining every nerve to reach the 
 Upper Nile first. Possibly with a view 
 to filling the gap in their preparations 
 left by the wholly unexpected collapse in 
 Uganda, the Foreign Office consented to 
 a private expedition attempting a short 
 cut to the Nile, across the country to the 
 south of Abyssinia. This was planned by 
 Mr. S. H. S. Cavendish, a very young, 
 wealthy, and plucky relative of the Duke 
 of Devonshire, who has recently returned 
 from a long, adventurous, and highly suc- 
 cessful hunting expedition in Africa. His 
 preparations were made, a very large sum 
 of money spent, several officers given leave 
 to accompany him, his transport engaged, 
 and a ship sent out from England with his 
 stores, when suddenly the authorities with- 
 drew their permission. The reason has 
 not been made public, and, indeed, all the 
 
and France. 159 
 
 details about the Cavendish expedition 
 are confidential; but it may be surmised 
 either that they had good reason to fear 
 complications with the Emperor Menelek 
 of Abyssinia, or that they have learned 
 that the French have already reached the 
 Nile. Be that as it may, Mr. Cavendish 
 remains in London, and Indian troops are 
 marching to suppress the Uganda revolt. 
 In this connection, too. Lord Salisbury's 
 warning against the use of small-scale 
 maps should be borne in mind, and the 
 fact realised that Kharttlm is just about 
 halfway — 1,700 miles — between Cairo 
 and the great African lakes. 
 
 So far all is plain forecast. The com- 
 plication and uncertainty come in when 
 we consider the action of France. Herein 
 lies not only the gravest problem for 
 Egypt, but a very real danger to the 
 peace of Europe. In 1895 it became 
 known that French expeditions were se- 
 cretly advancing from the West Coast of 
 Africa toward the Nile. Sir Edward Grey, 
 then Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 
 declared in the House of Commons that 
 
i6o England, the Sudan, 
 
 the valley of the Upper Nile was included 
 in the " British and Egyptian Spheres of 
 Influence," and he added that "any ad- 
 vance into the Nile Valley on the part of 
 France would be an unfriendly act; and 
 it was well known to the French Govern- 
 ment that we should so regard it." Diplo- 
 macy affords no more serious language 
 than this, and the speech produced a deep 
 impression, Mr. Chamberlain, on behalf 
 of the Opposition, expressing entire con- 
 currence. The present Government, I 
 happen to know, maintains precisely the 
 opinion thus expressed by Sir Edward 
 Grey on behalf of Lord Rosebery. The 
 French answer has been to push on her 
 expeditions with redoubled vigour, and to 
 allow it to be frankly declared that their 
 object was "to reach the Upper Nile be- 
 fore the English, and, after reassuring the 
 Mahdi concerning the pacific intentions 
 of France (!), to take possession of the 
 Sudanese province of Bahr-el-Ghazal." 
 Two expeditions are on their way from 
 the west, under Captain Marchand and 
 Captain Liotard, while a third, under the 
 
and France. i6i 
 
 Marquis de Bonchamps, comprising five 
 Frenchmen and 500 Abyssinian soldiers, 
 has crossed Abyssinia from the East 
 Coast. The rendezvous of the three par- 
 ties was Fashoda, an important fortified 
 town on the White Nile, 344 miles from 
 Khartum, the river being navigable be- 
 tween the two places. Above Fashoda it 
 is choked by enormous masses of floating 
 vegetation. . It is known that Marchand 
 and Liotard reached Dem Soliman and 
 Jur Ghattas in September last, — places in 
 the Bahr-el-Ghazal respectively 300 and 
 200 miles from Meshra-er-Rek, the "port" 
 of the province, whence the Nile may be 
 reached by water. At this time the Mar- 
 quis de Bonchamps had reached the Abys- 
 sinian boundary of the Sudan. It has 
 since been repeatedly alleged, on the one 
 hand, that disaster has overtaken the 
 French expeditions, and on the other that 
 they have all three met, as arranged, at 
 Fashoda. The two from the Kongo side, 
 at least, were safe and well on August 2 2d 
 and September 12th, for private letters 
 bearing these dates were received from 
 
1 62 England, the Sudan, 
 
 them. Thus France, wholly disregarding 
 the British protest and warning, has com- 
 mitted the " unfriendly act " which Great 
 Britain is pledged to resist. 
 
 The case on each side is simple. 
 France claims that as the Egyptian Gov- 
 ernment was driven out of the Sudan by 
 force of arms, that territory became the 
 right of any nation which could first re- 
 occupy it, all previous sovereignty being 
 at an end. England, for Egypt, replies 
 that, although the Egyptian forces were 
 driven out by a revolt, Egypt has never 
 abandoned her rights there, but has cease- 
 lessly prepared herself for the re-establish- 
 ment of her authority. That the whole 
 of the Sudan was administered by Egypt 
 is beyond question. When Gordon was 
 Governor-General, his steamers went up 
 and down to Fashoda, and he himself 
 once went to Bahr-el-Ghazal, and declared 
 that if he could have a free hand to deal 
 with it, he would guarantee to pay all the 
 expenses of the Sudan. On her own be- 
 half, England adds that, as Egypt evacu- 
 ated the Sudan on British advice. Great 
 
and France. 163 
 
 Britain is in honour bound to see that she 
 returns to it. Moreover, these southern 
 provinces are the richest in men and pro- 
 ducts. The Bahr-el-Ghazal is, perhaps, 
 the finest recruiting ground in Africa, 
 and Sennaar is "the granary of the 
 Sudan." Therefore the Sudan cannot be 
 successfully administered without them. 
 Finally, as the very life of all Egypt, 
 down to the sea, depends upon the Nile 
 and its periodical rise, it would be fatal to 
 Egypt for any foreign and hostile Power 
 to be seated upon the Upper Nile, where 
 modern engineering skill could draw off 
 its waters for irrigating purposes, and thus 
 instantly ruin whole districts of Lower 
 Egypt. 
 
 The coming conquest of Khartum — 
 one uses the old word, although the old 
 place no longer exists — will, therefore, 
 bring to a head another acute ground of 
 difference between England and France, 
 whose relations are already severely 
 strained by the situation in West Africa. 
 With two such bones of contention as 
 the Nile and the Niger, anything may 
 
164 England, the Sudan. 
 
 happen. It can be regarded as perfectly 
 certain that England will not give way so 
 far as the Nile is concerned. Whether 
 France will do so or not, supposing her 
 expeditions to have accomplished their 
 extremely difficult task, remains to be 
 seen. If not, she will open up the whole 
 question of the ultimate fate of Egypt, 
 with which the fate of Turkey, the suze- 
 rain of Egypt, is inextricably bound up, 
 and thus precipitate a European situation 
 in which a war between herself and Eng- 
 land would be only an incident. 
 
 Thus, as I said at the beginning, the 
 march of the white men round the Union 
 Jack, and the black men round the Egyp- 
 tian crescent and star across the desert 
 to-day, to meet and destroy the horsemen 
 and the riflemen and the spearmen of the 
 accursed Abdullah, deserves attention not 
 only as a long stride of civilisation, but 
 also because it is pregnant with issues of 
 unimaginable gravity for the world. 
 
THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA. 
 
THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA. 
 
 BY SIR GEORGE TAUBMAN-GOLDIE, 
 K.C.M.G., 
 
 Governor of the Royal Niger Company. 
 
 THE Niger Territories is the official 
 name of the sphere acquired for 
 Great Britain by the Royal Niger Com- 
 pany, and governed by it under Royal 
 Charter. Within the last few months a 
 shorter and more picturesque name has 
 been given by the press to these territo- 
 ries, and has been generally adopted by 
 the public, — Nigeria. The British sphere 
 of Nigeria is divided, roughly speaking, 
 into two sections, as widely separated in 
 laws, government, customs, and general 
 ideas about life, both in this world and 
 the next, as England is from China. End- 
 less misconceptions have arisen from 
 neglect of this fact, some writers having 
 discussed Nigeria as if it were entirely 
 composed of tribes similar to those of the 
 Lower Niger, or in other West Coast 
 
1 68 The Future of 
 
 possessions of Great Britain, while some 
 writers have treated it as if it were 
 entirely composed of organised and 
 semi-civilised Mohammedan States, The 
 southern third of Nigeria, lying on either 
 side of the Lower Niger, and to the south 
 of the river Binue, is for the most part 
 occupied only by pagans, occupying as 
 yet only a low rank of civilisation. They 
 are divided into hundreds of tribes, most 
 of which, before the advent of British 
 power, were not only addicted to practices 
 of outrageous cruelty, but were also con- 
 stantly warring against each other, chiefly 
 for the purpose of capturing slaves. This 
 southern third of Nigeria — and especially 
 the maritime and most barbarous portion 
 — has naturally been more frequently vis- 
 ited by Europeans than the regions of the 
 far interior, so that to many persons the 
 word Niger conjures up only a picture of 
 mangrove swamps and tropical forests, 
 inhabited by semi-nude savages living 
 under the terrors and horrors resulting 
 from witchcraft and fetishism. 
 
 I do not propose to say much about 
 
Nigeria. 169 
 
 this southern third of Nigeria, because, 
 although the forests teem with valuable 
 products, such as rubber, and there seems 
 little doubt that the trade of this region, 
 in forest products alone, will at no distant 
 time attain such dimensions as to count 
 materially in the volume of trade of the 
 British Empire, a considerable period 
 must elapse before these inferior tribes, 
 who have doubtless been gradually driven 
 south toward the sea by the pressure of 
 higher races advancing from the north, 
 acquire the industrious habits on which 
 alone a wealthy and civilised State can be 
 built up. To most of this region applies 
 the popular idea of the negro as a some- 
 what indolent person, with moderate wants 
 and little ambition. 
 
 Very different, however, are the condi- 
 tions of the inland two thirds of Nigeria 
 lying between the Great Sahara on the 
 north and the two great branches of the 
 rivers Niger and Binue on the south. 
 This region covers the larger portion of 
 the Central Sudan. It is specially impor- 
 tant to bear in mind its Sudanese charac- 
 
170 The Future of 
 
 ter, at a time when the attention given by 
 the press to Egyptian questions tends to 
 confine to the eastern or Egyptian Sudan 
 a name which, as every geographer knows, 
 applies to all the black man's lands under 
 Moslem influence. The Stldan extends 
 some 3,000 miles across Africa from the 
 frontiers of Abyssinia on the east to those 
 of Senegal on the west. No adequate 
 policy can be formed for dealing with the 
 northern two thirds of Nigeria without 
 due recognition of its close connection 
 with other Sudanese regions, — a connec- 
 tion due partly to unity of religion, and 
 partly to the constant intercommunication 
 maintained by the streams of Hausa cara- 
 vans, bent on trade or pilgrimage, or both 
 combined, which flow from Kano and 
 other great cities of Hausaland into al- 
 most every part of Africa north of the 
 equator. To this larger, more important, 
 and more interesting part of Nigeria, I 
 wish to draw special attention. 
 
 For the sake of brevity, it is desirable 
 to find an appropriate name for the whole 
 of the Sudanese region, and I know of 
 
Nigeria, 171 
 
 none more suitable than that often given 
 to it, — Hausaland. It is true that in 
 considerable districts — for instance, in 
 Northern Nupe — the inhabitants are not 
 Hausas, but have a language of their 
 own ; yet even in these portions the civil- 
 ised habits and modes of thought of the 
 Hausas are predominant. The caravans 
 which pass almost continuously along 
 the bush-tracks in every direction are 
 Hausa. The merchants in the towns are 
 Hausa, and the lingua franca is \h.e Hausa 
 tongue. But the Hausas are not rulers, 
 even in their own provinces. Supreme 
 political power in Hausaland is held by 
 the Fulah race, — an alien people of uncer- 
 tain, but probably Eastern origin, who, in 
 the early part of this century, conquered 
 the seven old Hausa kingdoms, whence 
 they gradually extended their power 
 southward and eastward, thus forming the 
 vast empire known as Sokoto Gandu, or, 
 more briefly, as the Fulah Empire. The 
 Fulahs, when of pure breed, have light 
 complexions, regular and fine features, 
 and oval faces; and some of the women 
 
172 The Future of 
 
 are possessed of striking beauty, both of 
 face and figure. But as Fulah men fre- 
 quently intermarry with women of Hausa 
 and other African races, many of the rul- 
 ing caste are now of negro colour and fea- 
 ture. The conquest of the immense and 
 fairly civilised populations of Hausaland 
 at the beginning of this century, by a 
 comparatively small number of Fulahs, 
 has often excited surprise. The Fulahs 
 are undoubtedly inferior to the Hausas 
 in the arts of peace, and, so far as it is 
 known, they have not introduced any sin- 
 gle element of civilisation into Hausaland, 
 while their passion for slave raiding has 
 impoverished and depopulated those re- 
 gions. Their military success has been, 
 doubtless, due to religious fanaticism and 
 to personal courage. To these qualifica- 
 tions of the Fulahs of fanatical and first- 
 class fighting men must be added their 
 astuteness as diplomatists and their 
 knowledge how to "divide and govern." 
 The proud character of the race is well 
 described by the proverbial saying that a 
 Fulah man slave will escape or kill his 
 
Nig 
 
 ena. 173 
 
 master, and that a Fulah girl slave will 
 rule the harem or die. 
 
 But the main secrets of the Fulah con- 
 quests and of their present power is the 
 fact of their being an equestrian race. 
 Their cavalry, armed like our own with 
 lances and swords, is formidable to dis- 
 ciplined troops, and is irresistible against 
 an untrained army on foot. History tells 
 us that this rule has been universal. The 
 part played by the horse in the conquest 
 of Mexico by Cortes is too well known 
 to need more than a passing reference ; 
 so, too, in Europe, mere handfuls of 
 knights used to put to flight masses of 
 sturdy villeins^ until Morgarten and Crecy 
 showed how disciplined infantry could 
 resist cavalry. The thorough training 
 and leading of Hausa soldiers by British 
 officers and the introduction of modern 
 artillery into the Sudan regions have com- 
 menced, and will, before long, complete 
 the enfranchisement of Hausaland from 
 the unceasing slave-raiding which has 
 been so terribly destructive to human life 
 and an absolute barrier to prosperity. 
 
174 The Future of 
 
 This summary of the political and 
 social situation in Hausaland has been 
 necessary, because misgovernment has 
 been the main obstacle to progress there. 
 At the International Geographical Con- 
 gress, two years ago. Sir John Kirk very 
 aptly described tropical Africa as " a lost 
 continent, owing to the misrule which has 
 pervaded it." His description is true of 
 all tropical Africa ; but it is specially true 
 of Hausaland, where, but for native mis- 
 government, all the elements of a great 
 civilisation are present. The Hausas are 
 possessed of remarkable energy, judgment, 
 and intelligence. They are skilful and 
 almost artistic workers in metals, leather, 
 and other materials. They possess his- 
 tories, songs, and tales written in their 
 own tongue. Stanley says that of all 
 the African races the Hausa alone valued 
 a book. They have the advantage of a 
 fertile soil, and they display that eager 
 desire to get on in the world which is so 
 unpleasing in the individual but so valu- 
 able for the State. Above all, they are 
 unlike most African races in that they 
 
Nigeria. 175 
 
 are extremely industrious, notwithstanding 
 the little inducement to display this virtue 
 in a land where the acquisition of wealth 
 has too frequently led to loss of liberty or 
 life. Many competent authorities have, 
 accordingly, declared Hausaland to be by 
 far the most valuable section of tropical 
 Africa. 
 
 For excellent reasons, its mineral re- 
 sources have not yet been explored, 
 although some deposits are already known 
 to exist. In this connection it is well to 
 remember that only thirty to forty years 
 ago the immense mineral wealth of South 
 Africa was so little suspected that a con- 
 siderable section of the English press used 
 to advocate retirement from South Africa, 
 excepting Cape Town, which was to be 
 held as a coaling station on the road to 
 India. But although minerals are most 
 valuable to give a start to a new country, 
 the only foundations of permanent pros- 
 perity are the industry, intelligence, and 
 prolificness of its inhabitants combined 
 with fertility of soil. All these conditions 
 are united in Hausaland. The manner in 
 
176 The Future of 
 
 which population there rights itself after 
 the wholesale destruction resulting from 
 slave raids is hardly credible in colder 
 climates where infancy is prolonged, while 
 at least six times the existing population 
 could support themselves in comfort. If 
 properly administered, Hausaland would, 
 at no distant date, become as valuable 
 as any equal area of British India ; but 
 patience is needed. 
 
 The vital question to consider is how 
 to maintain and increase British power 
 there pending the final pacification of the 
 country and the consequent development 
 of a revenue sufficient to support normal 
 colonial administration. The initial labours 
 of opening up Nigeria and of laying the 
 foundation of British justice there have 
 so far been successful. The bugbear of 
 Fulah power, which the official documents 
 of ten years ago declared would crush 
 the Niger Company at the first impact, 
 has been, at any rate partially, laid by 
 the recent campaign. The international 
 struggles of the last fifteen years, with 
 France and then Germany and then again 
 
Nig 
 
 eria. 177 
 
 France, have been gradually reduced to 
 modest proportions. The most cogent 
 motives for absolute silence have ceased. 
 It seems to me the time has come to dis- 
 cuss publicly the methods calculated to 
 lead to success as well as those certain 
 to lead to failure. 
 
 In discussing this subject I am con- 
 fronted with a personal difficulty. Being 
 connected with the company which gov- 
 erns Nigeria, it may be thought that my 
 views are necessarily prejudiced. Let me, 
 then, briefly state, once for all, that I have 
 no mandate from the Niger Company, that 
 the views advanced are purely personal, 
 that these views are consistent either with 
 the continuance of the company or its dis- 
 appearance, and that I shall place myself 
 at an entirely outside standpoint. 
 
 Great Britain is at present in a hot 
 fit of empire-making, which, like African 
 fever, has its alternation of cold fits ; so 
 lately as 1865 the House of Commons 
 Select Committee, appointed to examine 
 into West African matters, reported as 
 follows : " That all further extension of 
 
178 The Future of 
 
 territory, or assumption of government, 
 or new treaties offering any protection to 
 native tribes, would be inexpedient." It 
 was, perhaps, partly due to this resolution 
 that, until the Royal Niger Company 
 stepped in and acquired half a million 
 square miles of the most valuable part 
 of tropical Africa, not a single step was 
 taken into the interior by any of the 
 West African colonies, which allowed 
 another colonising Power to hem them 
 in to the sea and deprive them of their 
 hinterland. If a few failures and dis- 
 asters, such as must occasionally occur in 
 building up empire, were to happen, we 
 should probably see the same policy re- 
 vived. If the quondam author of " Greater 
 Britain " urges our retirement to coast 
 spheres in Africa at a time when colonial 
 expansion is at fever heat, what will others 
 of his opinion say — and do, if in power 
 — when, as must inevitably happen, tem- 
 porary misfortunes and disappointments 
 occur, when reaction succeeds the out- 
 burst of energy displayed since Germany 
 commenced as a colonising Power, and 
 
Nigeria. 179 
 
 when the watchword, " Imperium et liber- 
 tas! " gives way to the " Rest and be 
 thankful " against which we used to chafe 
 twenty to thirty years ago? There would 
 be little chance, in such circumstances, of 
 Parliament continuing the financial sup- 
 port which would certainly be required 
 by Nigeria during its infancy, to maintain 
 the costly method of normal imperial gov- 
 ernment. The inevitable result would be 
 failure, disappointment, and abandonment. 
 Assuming that enough has been said to 
 show the necessity of continuing in some 
 shape or other the existing abnormal sys- 
 tem which has enabled Nigeria to pay its 
 way without the assistance of a single 
 shilling from the Imperial Government, 
 the next point to consider is how much 
 of this is essential. 
 
 The only vital condition to my mind 
 is that Nigeria should continue to be 
 administered as heretofore by a permanent 
 council, untrammelled by bureaucratic 
 formulae, experienced in African questions, 
 corresponding somewhat with the Council 
 of the Governor-General of India, con- 
 
i8o The Future of 
 
 trolled, as are both chartered companies 
 and governors of Crown colonies, by a 
 Secretary of State, but no more subject 
 than British India is to constant par- 
 liamentary interference, and above all 
 administering not locally, like Crown 
 colonies, but from home, as the Council 
 of the Niger Company has always done. 
 The permanence of the members of such 
 a council, subject, of course, to changes 
 made by the Secretary of State, seems to 
 me to be of vital importance. Let me 
 say, with all respect, that I look on the 
 appointment of the present Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies as likely to mis- 
 lead the public mind in regard to the 
 principles for dealing with inner African 
 dependencies. Mr. Chamberlain's extra- 
 ordinary vigour, rapidity, voracity for work, 
 and willingness to accept responsibility 
 before Parliament, are likely to give the 
 Colonial Office a reputation of suitability 
 for creative administration which cannot 
 be expected to survive his tenure of that 
 particular office. 
 
 The second vital point is that the Ad- 
 
Nigeria. i8i 
 
 ministrative Council should govern from 
 home and not locally in Nigeria. This 
 is the only possible way of securing con- 
 tinuity of administration of a region where 
 no local continuity can be obtained at 
 present, owing to the nature of the climate, 
 in which Nigeria has perhaps greater diffi- 
 culties to meet than the other European 
 possessions in Equatorial Africa to which 
 I have referred. There are, indeed, high 
 ranges of plateaux in the far interior 
 where white administrators could retain 
 their activity and powers of work for long 
 periods; but these areas of the Central 
 Sudan are not yet effectively occupied, 
 so that for some years to come they must 
 be left out of account. Yet I desire to 
 draw attention to them, as they will 
 afford the ultimate solution of the diffi- 
 cult question of the administration of 
 Nigeria. 
 
 Meanwhile it must be taken for granted 
 that no local continuity of government is 
 at present practicable, and this in regions 
 where continuity is of vital importance, 
 owing to the enormous difficulties to be 
 
1 82 The Future of 
 
 overcome. In the coast possessions of 
 West Africa, where European adminis- 
 trators and traders live on or near the 
 seaboard, and are practically under the 
 protection of the Imperial Navy, and 
 where powerful native governments do 
 not exist, or can be dealt with by Imperial 
 troops, as in the Ashanti War of 1874, 
 local administration is not open to the 
 same objections, although it is well known 
 that the Colonial Office is compelled to 
 exercise a larger share in. the actual gov- 
 ernment of West African colonies than 
 it does in Crown colonies in healthier 
 climates, where continuity of local govern- 
 ment can be maintained. 
 
 In Nigeria, ever since the issue of the 
 charter, the two agents-general, or local 
 heads of the Niger Government, have been 
 only executive officers with considerable 
 latitude in carrying out their instructions, 
 and they relieve each other at short inter- 
 vals, to allow of their renewing their vigour 
 at home. The real work of the adminis- 
 tration, the work performed by governors 
 — or by governors and councils — in 
 
Nigeria. 183 
 
 Crown colonies or by the council of the 
 Governor-General in India, has been dealt 
 with day by day by a council living in the 
 temperate and healthy climate of London, 
 where not only can men work continuously 
 for twice as many hours a day as they 
 can in West Africa, — a vital matter in an 
 emergency, — but where the character and 
 effectiveness of the work done is entirely 
 different. To this system, and not to any 
 individual merit, has been due the suc- 
 cessful administration to which both Lord 
 Salisbury and Lord Kimberly have borne 
 such striking and gratifying testimony. 
 
 Whether this system continues as hereto- 
 fore under the Chartered Niger Company, 
 or whether, that company retiring from 
 Nigeria, a governing council is created 
 ad hoc, is only an accidental, I do not say 
 unimportant feature. 
 
 The one essential element is that con- 
 tinuity shall be maintained by permanent, 
 unwearying, and bold administration from 
 home as heretofore controlled, but not 
 conducted, by the office of a Secretary of 
 State, until the simlas of Hausaland, to 
 
1 84 Future of Nigeria. 
 
 which I have already alluded, are occu- 
 pied and utilised, and a sufficient volume 
 of commerce, and therefore revenue, is 
 created to permit local government of the 
 Norman type. When that day arrives, 
 the foundations of Nigeria will have been 
 fully laid, and it may then be left to 
 natural causes to raise that great struc- 
 ture of Nigerian prosperity which I shall 
 not see, but in which, under reasonable 
 conditions, I have the most absolute 
 faith. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF UGANDA. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF UGANDA. 
 
 BY COLONEL F. D. LUGARD, 
 
 Commander of English Forces in Eigeria, Formerly of 
 Uganda. 
 
 THE people of Uganda are a Bantu 
 race, much intermixed with the 
 Wahuma stock. The latter are a great 
 pastoral, nomad tribe, who probably form 
 one of the most important offshoots of 
 the stock from whence sprang the Abys- 
 sinians, Somalis, Gallas, and other power- 
 ful tribes, distinguished from the Bantu 
 races not merely by their aquiline and 
 regular features, their thin lips, and the 
 fact that they have curly hair instead of 
 the wool of the negroid races, but also 
 by the different construction of their lan- 
 guages. The Wahuma, it is related, con- 
 quered the countries lying to the west of 
 the Victoria Nyanza, including Uganda, 
 Unyoro, Torn, Ankoli, Karagwe, and 
 toward the Lake Tanganyika. They still 
 retain Ankoli and Toru in the British 
 
1 88 The Kingdom 
 
 sphere. This vast kingdom was known 
 under the name of Kitara. 
 
 Since there are no written records of 
 the past, it is difficult to learn anything 
 reliable concerning the ancient history of 
 the Waganda. Emin Pasha, Dr. Felkin, 
 the Rev. C. T. Wilson, and other early 
 residents in and around the country have 
 collected much interesting information, 
 which is easily accessible to those who 
 care to learn more of these people. Com- 
 ing, however, to the events of to-day and 
 the people as we find them at the present 
 time, it is the unanimous verdict of every 
 one, without exception, who has been 
 brought into contact with this remarkable 
 race, that they show a most extraordinary 
 advance upon all the people who sur- 
 round their country for thousands of miles 
 to north, south, east, or w^est. They have, 
 in fact, a certain civilisation of their own, 
 a wonderful intelligence, customs, tradi- 
 tion, etiquettes innumerable, and a won- 
 derfully comprehensive language with an 
 enormous vocabulary, which alone indi- 
 cates the superiority of their intellectual 
 
of Uganda. 189 
 
 attainments and the range of their ideas, 
 as contrasted with the crude and simple 
 dialects of their neighbours. Their quali- 
 ties of disposition are marked. They are 
 an extremely brave race, though treacher- 
 ous from our point of view, are passion- 
 ately fond of learning, and are capable of 
 high attainments if educated from early 
 childhood. 
 
 I reached Uganda in 1891 as the first 
 British officer to enter the country on a 
 political and administrative mission since 
 the time of Gordon and his emissaries, 
 Chaillu, Long, and Emin Pasha. Gordon 
 and his lieutenants had represented the 
 extension of civilisation from the North, 
 and were the representatives of the 
 Khedive and of Egyptian rule. I came 
 as the representative of the Imperial 
 British East African Company, a corpora- 
 tion under royal charter, vested with the 
 delegated powers of sovereignty of the 
 Queen of Great Britain. The rule of 
 the Khedive and the germs of civilisation 
 implanted in the Nile Valley by Baker, 
 and developed by Gordon, had been swept 
 
ipo The Kingdom 
 
 away by the religious upheaval which had 
 enthroned the Mahdi in Omdurman, and 
 placed an iron despotism over the tribes of 
 the Eastern Sudan. It was the mission 
 of England now to advance from the 
 east, through the vast Sphere of Influence 
 secured to her from Mombasa on the 
 East Coast to the valley of the Nile and 
 its watershed to the west. 
 
 At this time I found the country torn 
 by religious dissensions and a prey to 
 anarchy and internecine war. Not the 
 least remarkable of the traits of the 
 Waganda is their passionate devotion to 
 religion, and, like the Athenians of old, 
 their cult is that of " the Unknown 
 God." Mohammedanism taught by Arab 
 missionaries from the East Coast, and 
 Christianity as interpreted by Roman 
 Catholic missionaries of a French Al- 
 gerian mission, and Protestantism as 
 represented by the English Church Mis- 
 sionary Society were the protagonists on 
 this virgin field, while paganism retained 
 its hold on the more illiterate and less 
 accessible classes of the population. It 
 
of Uganda. 191 
 
 was indeed a most interesting study, this 
 war of the creeds ; and, had the rivalry- 
 been confined to an odium theologicttm 
 only, an administrator might have re- 
 garded it with the interest of a philoso- 
 pher, and, while taking steps to prevent 
 violence and war, have remained a specta- 
 tor of the struggle, confident, with Carlyle, 
 that that which held the strongest germ 
 of truth within it would ultimately win. 
 But, unfortunately, it was far otherwise. 
 
 Though religion had lent its name to 
 the strife, and accentuated its bitterness, 
 the factions had become more political than 
 religious at the time of my arrival. The 
 Christians and pagans were the adherents 
 of Mwanga, who, after various vicissitudes, 
 was now on the throne, while the Moham- 
 medans were for the moment the defeated 
 party, and were massed on the frontier 
 under their Sultan Mbogo, — Mwanga's 
 uncle and rival for the kingship of 
 Uganda, — and in alliance with Kaba 
 Rega, the powerful King of Unyoro. 
 Their constant raids made it essential to 
 deal with them first, and as soon as I 
 
i^z The Kingdom 
 
 had concluded a treaty with Mwanga and 
 the chiefs, we marched out to meet them. 
 It was my intense desire to come to terms 
 with these people, who comprised a very 
 large part of the population of Uganda, 
 and to repatriate them ; but I had not yet 
 acquired sufficient influence to carry my 
 point, and my negotiations failed, and we 
 were compelled to fight. Some 15,000 to 
 20,000 combatants were ranged on either 
 side, and my handful of " Askaris " formed 
 the centre and rallying points of the so- 
 called " Christian " army. We defeated 
 them. Later on I made a new attempt, 
 — its extreme difficulty is described in 
 my book, — and I am glad to say it was 
 successful. The Mohammedans rendered 
 up their Sultan Mbogo to me, and he 
 came to reside at Kampala with me. I 
 assigned them three small provinces in 
 which to settle down, and a small propor- 
 tion of the offices of State. It is my great 
 regret that since I left the country this 
 arrangement has been upset, the Moham- 
 medans have been accused of intrigue 
 and treachery, and ousted and, I believe, 
 
of Uganda. 193 
 
 almost annihilated. I do not doubt the 
 intrigue; it is inevitable and certain in 
 Uganda; but recent events have proved, 
 if further proof were necessary, that in- 
 trigue and rebellion were at least as com- 
 mon to the other factions as to this. But 
 to return to our protagonists. At the 
 moment, the factions of the Christians 
 and the pagans were united in their 
 common dread of the Mohammedans ; 
 but, this removed, they settled down into 
 a triangular duel. Here again the re- 
 ligious name was merely an accessory to 
 further division of interests. The pagan 
 party, called the Fublauji, or Chang- 
 smokers, since they held to the old cus- 
 toms of the country which all three 
 religious factions alike had condemned, 
 were the blind adherents of the King, 
 who was at heart a pagan, and they de- 
 tested all the religions alike; and the 
 upstarts who had by their religious in- 
 fluence made themselves the chiefs of the 
 country, and superseded the old pagan 
 aristocracy — if that term is admissible. 
 Their political objects were to get rid 
 13 
 
194 The Kingdom 
 
 of all Europeans and all the troublesome 
 religions which had proved such a curse 
 to the country. The Christians again were 
 equally divided between themselves, by 
 causes quite apart from religion, though 
 accentuated by it. The Roman Catholics 
 were the French party who, taught by 
 their priests, resented English influence, 
 the more so that it strengthened, in their 
 view, their detested rivals, "the English 
 Party," or Protestants. Such were the 
 promising materials out of which it was 
 the task of the British Administrator to 
 endeavour to evolve law and order, and 
 such the factions between which he had 
 to endeavour to hold the balance evenly 
 and to distribute that justice without par- 
 tiality which it is the pride of the English- 
 speaking race to carry with them into the 
 far places of the earth, and to which, as 
 Lord Justice Vaughan Williams said the 
 other day,^ is attributable the success 
 of the English as colonists. Credit — an 
 ephemeral and a worthless credit — may 
 be gained before Europe by the aggran- 
 
 1 Vide, the London "Times," February 3d, 1898, p. 10. 
 
of Uganda. 195 
 
 disement of the two factions who have 
 their loud-voiced representatives ready to 
 sing the praises of the Administrator who 
 adopts the views of their factions, or to 
 execrate through the far-reaching chan- 
 nels of the press of Europe him who will 
 not listen to and follow their counsels. 
 But the Mohammedan and the pagan, 
 who form probably the bulk of the popu- 
 lation, and who have no French Colonial 
 Party, and no English mission enthusiasts 
 to champion their cause, — are they and 
 their wives and people therefore to be 
 " no man's child," and dubbed the " out- 
 law and criminal classes of Uganda " ? 
 Until their claims to recognition and to 
 justice are considered equally with the 
 Christian factions, we shall hear of con- 
 tinual uprisings in Uganda, of discontent, 
 and of mutiny. 
 
 The railway proceeds but slowly; and 
 when it reaches the vast lake a new era 
 will dawn, not only for Uganda, but for 
 Central Africa. The development of the 
 country will be on no known lines ; for 
 when in the world's history have coun- 
 
196 The Kingdom 
 
 tries, in the heart of a till recently un- 
 explored land, and peopled by savages 
 absolutely devoid of clothes, begun their 
 march of progress by a ready-made rail- 
 way 700 miles long ? This vast stretch of 
 land, reaching from the sea to the inland 
 lakes, is for the most part a very beautiful 
 and a very fertile one. Its products may 
 be almost anything that v^ill grow in a 
 sub-tropical region and a rich soil. They 
 will be what the world of commerce needs, 
 and will be dictated by the wants of civil- 
 ised man. Indigenous coffee, fibres of 
 value, rubber, oil-seeds, and other products 
 may be quoted ; but where a railway runs 
 from one of the finest harbours in the 
 world to the second largest lake on the 
 planet, it has almost seemed to me idle 
 to forecast the future commercial possi- 
 bilities of a country where the soil is rich, 
 the rainfall abundant, and the altitude 
 renders the climate very fairly healthy, 
 even in spite of the known dangers of 
 virgin soil and virgin forests. 
 
 My early connection with the country 
 has given me the keenest interest in 
 
of Uganda. 197 
 
 its present and future. My old friends 
 among the chiefs still write to me con- 
 stantly, though it is now six years since I 
 left them ; and I trust that some day 
 I may see them again, when other duties 
 permit of it. Meanwhile, I am always 
 glad to be able to interest any one in a 
 country which is full of interest, and in 
 whose future, under proper management, 
 I believe. I trust, therefore, that these 
 lines, written under press of much work, 
 may interest their readers. 
 
ABYSSINIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
ABYSSINIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 BY CAPTAIN T. C. S. SPEEDY, 
 Member of the Recent British Mission to King Menelek. 
 
 UNTIL comparatively lately but little 
 has been known of even the country 
 of Abyssinia. It has been to the other 
 nations of the world almost a terra incog- 
 nita, a somewhat mythical land supposed 
 to be inhabited if not by savages, at any 
 rate by a wholly uncivilised people. Its 
 boundaries even have been often ques- 
 tioned, and the fact that it comprises 
 several distinct nations speaking different 
 languages has perhaps been known to 
 very few. Such, however, is the case. 
 Abyssinia consists of three large prov- 
 inces, — Tigre on the north, Amhara on 
 the south, and Shoa to the southeast. 
 The people of Tigre speak Ethiopic, and 
 those of Amhara and Shoa, Amharic. 
 
 The Emperor of Abyssinia bears in his 
 own country the titje of " Negusa Negust," 
 
202 Abyssinia and 
 
 the interpretation of which is " King of 
 Kings," meaning that the reigning sover- 
 eign has by his own power conquered and 
 subdued all other chiefs and aspirants to 
 the throne, and that he reigns supreme 
 until some chief greater and more power- 
 ful than himself shall arise and dethrone 
 him. 
 
 The three sovereigns under whose sway 
 Abyssinia has of late come to the front 
 and attracted the attention of Europe, 
 have been Theodore, who held his court 
 at Magdala, and reigned from 1855 to 
 1868 ; Johannes, his successor, 1870 to 
 1889, whose capital was Makaleh; and 
 the present Emperor Menelek, whose 
 palace is at Adis Adaba, the town in 
 which the late British mission, under Mr. 
 Rennel Rodd, visited him in 1897. 
 
 These kings had all a very distinct in- 
 dividuality, and each in his own way was 
 a remarkable man. Theodore, but little 
 understood and much maligned, was a 
 man of great foresight and very advanced 
 ideas ; he was extremely anxious to bring 
 his country to the front, and in every 
 
its People. 203 
 
 way to promote its prosperity. He ar- 
 dently longed for a seaport, and it was 
 the keen disappointment of finding that 
 he was not aided by the European Powers 
 in these matters that caused his personal 
 downfall and ruin. 
 
 Johannes was distinctly more of a 
 warrior than Theodore, with a less keen 
 intellect ; and the present Emperor, Men- 
 elek, although a man of no mean abilities, 
 is parsimonious, and unwilling to make 
 present outlay for future benefit. He is, 
 however, greatly influenced by his clever 
 wife, Ta-hai-itu, and his Commander-in- 
 Chief, Ras Makonen, both of whom have 
 aims in the right direction for Abyssinia. 
 
 The people themselves have all the 
 instincts for civilisation and progress, and 
 their physique is that of a perfectly inde- 
 pendent and clear-headed race. They are 
 well formed, the men averaging five feet 
 ten inches in height, with good features, 
 bearing but little if any resemblance to 
 other African tribes, and none to the 
 negro. They are athletic and hardy, 
 having great powers of endurance, the 
 
204 Abyssinia and 
 
 rugged and mountainous nature of their 
 country inducing, from their earliest years, 
 a capability for climbing and rough walk- 
 ing, equalled perhaps only by the Tyrolese. 
 They make excellent soldiers with even a 
 minimum of training, and show an apti- 
 tude for following the evolutions of drill 
 which is surprising in an untutored 
 race. 
 
 Possessing strong characters and ardent 
 passions, it is at present, in their somewhat 
 lawless condition, difficult to reckon upon 
 their line of action in exceptional circum- 
 stances. In cases where their affection 
 and confidence have been gained, they 
 show the most unswerving fidelity, even 
 to the white man, and run risks of punish- 
 ment from their own chief or emperor 
 rather than betray confidence. It was well 
 known that before the first British expedi- 
 tion to Abyssinia in 1867 and 1868, under 
 Lord Napier, of Magdala, the captives in 
 the dungeons of Magdala were able to 
 send messages to the British agent at 
 Massoua, who procured for them wines, 
 provisions, and money, which their trusty 
 
its People. 205 
 
 Abyssinian servants conveyed surrepti- 
 tiously to them at the risk of their own 
 lives and liberty. 
 
 Should, however, no such confidence 
 or affection exist, treachery, cruelty, and 
 deceit are often met with ; but even these 
 qualities do not exist among them to a 
 greater extent than among many uncivi- 
 lised peoples. 
 
 But little can be said of the morality 
 of the Abyssinians. This, however, is 
 chiefly attributable to the prevalent form 
 of marriage, which is merely a civil con- 
 tract of the loosest description, dissolved 
 at the pleasure of either of the contract- 
 ing parties. 
 
 There is besides this a binding and 
 most sacred form of marriage celebrated 
 by the Church, from which there is no 
 divorce; and it is, perhaps, the irrevoca- 
 bility of this tie that causes the bulk of 
 the people to prefer the civil contract, 
 rather than any tendency to gross sensu- 
 ality. I do not think I have met one in a 
 thousand who had chosen the marriage 
 in church. 
 
2o6 Abyssinia and 
 
 The Abyssinians are a Christian nation 
 of ancient date, having been converted 
 to Christianity in the fourth century, by 
 missionaries sent from Alexandria, by 
 Bishop Athanasius, the author of the 
 creed that bears his name. 
 
 Their tenets are similar to those of 
 the Coptic Church, and for the last two 
 centuries the " Abuna," or High Priest 
 of Abyssinia, has been a Copt from Egypt. 
 Before leaving for Abyssinia he is invari- 
 ably obliged to take an oath never to 
 return to his own country. They hold 
 the Divinity of our Lord, the redemption 
 of man, the annunciation to the Virgin 
 Mary ; and they believe in Purgatory, but 
 they allow no images in their places of 
 worship. 
 
 The walls of their churches are 
 frequently adorned with rude frescos 
 representing the crucifixion, — accurately 
 depicting the thieves on either side, the 
 Roman soldier offering a sponge filled 
 with vinegar on the end of a spear, and 
 the Mother of our Lord at the foot of 
 the cross. Other paintings depict the 
 
its People. 207 
 
 passage of the Red Sea, the soldiers being 
 armed with match-locks, Eve offering the 
 forbidden fruit to Adam in the shape of 
 a huge banana, and many different scenes 
 from Scripture history. They also in- 
 troduce the likenesses of their favourite 
 saints, — Saint George and the Dragon, 
 Saint George being, curiously enough, the 
 patron saint of the country. They are 
 extremely tenacious of their faith, and in 
 the sixteenth century, when the country 
 was overrun and subdued by Moslems 
 from the Adal Kingdom on the east, 
 now known as Somaliland, they preferred 
 death to the abnegation of Christianity. 
 Messages imploring assistance were sur- 
 reptitiously sent to Portugal, and an 
 armed force, under Cristoforo de Gama, 
 enabled them to reclaim their country 
 from the infidel invaders, since which 
 time they have remained in undisturbed 
 possession of their Christian faith. 
 
 The laws of Abyssinia are primitive, 
 and based on those of the Israelites, " An 
 eye for an eye." There are neither law 
 courts nor lawyers ; both plantiff and 
 
2o8 Abyssinia and 
 
 defendant plead their own cause. For- 
 merly, prior to the appointment by King 
 Theodore of executioners, the guilty per- 
 son, in case of murder, was slain in 
 exactly the same manner in which he had 
 taken the life of his victim. For instance, 
 if a man killed another with a sword, the 
 avenger of blood had to use a similar 
 weapon. If death had been caused by 
 blows from a club, a club was used to 
 take the life of the murderer. This law 
 most unjustly operated even in cases of 
 man-slaughter ; and the life of a man 
 who unwittingly and unintentionally had 
 caused the death of another could be de- 
 manded by the relatives of the deceased. 
 Among many others, an instance of this 
 kind was once related to me. Two men 
 were cutting grass on the side of a preci- 
 pice, and when they were about to de- 
 scend one of them fastened the end of a 
 rope round his companion's body to lower 
 him down the cliff, and attached the other 
 end to the trunk of a tree. Accidentally, 
 the man to be lowered slipped before 
 all was ready, and a coil of the rope, 
 
its People. 209 
 
 becoming entangled round his neck, he 
 was strangled. His comrade, on sub- 
 sequently descending by slipping down 
 the rope, was horrified to find him dead 
 at the bottom, and hastened to the village 
 to report the circumstance. The judge 
 passed a sentence of man-slaughter, and 
 ordered a fine of one hundred and fifty 
 dollars to be paid to the widow. The 
 widow, however, refused the compensation, 
 and demanded the literal carrying out of 
 the law. After some deliberation, it was 
 agreed that she could carry her point, 
 and the unfortunate and perfectly inno- 
 cent man was sentenced to be hung with 
 the same rope which had caused the fatal 
 accident; the rope was, accordingly, fast- 
 ened round his waist, and a coil of the 
 same passed round his neck, and he was 
 hauled up a few feet from the ground, 
 suspended a few moments and then 
 lowered again. The widow, believing him 
 from all appearances to be dead, was sat- 
 isfied; but the relatives of the victim 
 hastened to him and applied restoratives, 
 which were so effective that in course of 
 14 
 
2IO Abyssinia and 
 
 time he got up and walked away. The 
 widow was furious, and demanded that 
 the sentence should be again enacted, 
 adding : *' Next time I will hold on to 
 his feet until he is dead." The judge, 
 however, declared that justice must be 
 tempered with mercy, and her demand 
 was not complied with. 
 
 In conducting a lawsuit, the case opens 
 by the plaintiff laying his complaint be- 
 fore the judge. The charge having been 
 heard, a bystander is placed between plain- 
 tiff and defendant as " asteraki," — i, e., 
 " peacemaker," — a kind of clerk to keep 
 order between them, and the defendant is 
 directed to reply. After listening for a 
 short time the judge enjoins silence by 
 holding up his hand, and two or more 
 elders, called '* ShimagelH," are then ap- 
 pointed to act as jury. The plaintiff is 
 then allowed to go into the details of his 
 case, while the defendant may murmur 
 dissent or denial at intervals by grunts of 
 disapprobation, though no word is allowed. 
 Brevity and speaking to the point are 
 imperatively demanded of both parties. 
 
its People. 211 
 
 When the plaintiff has spoken, the de- 
 fendant is heard, and no interruptions 
 are permitted while either man is 
 speaking. 
 
 A curious custom is followed during a 
 lawsuit, which is part of the dramatic 
 habit of the Abyssinians of expressing their 
 feelings by the way in which they wear 
 their clothes. Either plaintiff or defend- 
 ant may take a corner of the toga, or 
 shammah, worn by the asteraki, and, hav- 
 ing knotted it, may hold it up before the 
 judge, and, laying a hand expressively on 
 the knot, may wager that he is speaking 
 the truth. A man will exclaim : " I wager 
 a mule, a sheep, a fat ox, or a jar of honey 
 that my statement is correct ; " and if his 
 opponent accepts the wager, he unties the 
 knot, saying : " I accept." Witnesses are 
 then heard ; and when the case is ended, 
 judge and jury confer apart, and judgment 
 is given, the loser paying his wager to the 
 judge in lieu of other fee. 
 
 The custom already referred to, of ex- 
 pressing their feelings by the manner of 
 arranging their toga, is unique and artis- 
 
212 Abyssinia and 
 
 tic. This toga is a large white cotton 
 sheet, woven in the country, with a deep 
 red border, at least twelve inches in width, 
 a foot and a half from the edge. To ex- 
 press scorn, a man will take the end of the 
 toga, or "shammah," and raise it to his 
 face, drawing it lightly across his nose 
 just below the eyes, and turn at the same 
 moment with an indignant and haughty 
 gesture from his opponent. The superi- 
 ority of a chief when conversing with his 
 inferiors in rank is shown by throwing the 
 shammah over both shoulders, crossing it 
 over the left, thereby indicating that no 
 hand of friendship is to be offered. Equal- 
 ity is indicated by the shammah being 
 thrown over the left arm only, leaving the 
 right hand free to greet an acquaintance. 
 Not infrequently when pleading his cause 
 the accused, at the commencement of a 
 trial, will draw his shammah before his 
 face and, with expressions of humility and 
 shame, state his defence, whether guilty or 
 not; at the same time he will whisk one 
 end of it into the semblance of a rope, 
 and, passing it round his neck, exclaim: 
 
its People. 213 
 
 " Hang me, if I deserve it," or, twisting it 
 into the likeness of a sword, say : " Behead 
 me, if I speak falsely," then, allowing it 
 to fall to the ground, he will drop on 
 his knee, adding: "But what I ask is 
 justice." 
 
 Although the Abyssinians are a decidedly 
 progressive race, and fond of meeting and 
 mixing with other nations, and anxious for 
 commerce and the improvement of their 
 country generally, they are heavily handi- 
 capped by their despotic government, and 
 the individual character of their Emperor 
 and various chiefs. From the latter, for 
 instance, they are often subject to exorbi- 
 tant taxation, so that they have little or 
 no inducement to cultivate their land 
 further than is sufficient for their imme- 
 diate use, although enough cereals could 
 be grown to form a large export. The 
 soil is principally black clay, excellent for 
 the growth of wheat, barley, oats, millet, 
 and coffee. The latter indeed grows wild 
 everywhere, the plants, at an elevation of 
 from three to five thousand feet, growing 
 twelve feet high and upward. An exten- 
 
214 Abyssinia and 
 
 sive trade could also be carried on in 
 honey, beeswax, butter, aloes, sulphur, 
 ebony, ox-hides, ivory, and civet-musk. 
 Iron is also common, cropping up all 
 over the country, while gold and copper 
 have frequently been met with. 
 
 Another defect which militated against 
 the promotion of commerce is the absence 
 of a seaport. The present Emperor is not 
 anxious to have one. He represents, with 
 some reason, that a port could easily be 
 wrested from him by any nation possess- 
 ing a fleet, and he has not a sufficiently 
 well-trained army or ordnance that would 
 enable him to hold his own against a 
 maritime power; whereas the high table- 
 land of Abyssinia, with its almost inacces- 
 sible fastnesses, renders defence in the 
 interior a comparatively easy matter. On 
 the western border, moreover, lie the 
 inimical Mahdists, who, with their hatred 
 of Christians, are ever ready to harass 
 and oppose any traders from or to their 
 own land. This same foresight caused 
 Theodore to seek the intercession of 
 England and the other European Pow- 
 
its People. 215 
 
 ers to grant him a protected passage 
 to the coast ; and though his wish may 
 have been chimerical, there is no doubt 
 that the want of such safe transport is 
 one of the greatest hinderances to the 
 prosperity and advancement of this Httle 
 kingdom. These difficulties make it quite 
 impossible to form any definite idea of 
 the influence of Abyssinia in the future 
 of Africa. Time and the wisdom of their 
 rulers, combined with European aid, will 
 alone be able to determine this point; but 
 there is but little doubt that she possesses 
 all the capabilities of becoming a very 
 powerful factor ; and it can only be hoped 
 that in the near future Ethiopia may re- 
 sume her original position as one of the 
 great empires of the world. 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA — 
 ITS FUTURE. 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA — 
 ITS FUTURE 
 
 BY J. C. HARTZELL, D.D., 
 
 Missionary Bishop of Africa. 
 
 LYING between the fifth and eighth 
 degrees of north latitude, on the 
 West Coast of Africa, is the little Negro 
 Republic of Liberia. Its coast-line is 
 about 300 miles, and its domain extends 
 250 miles into the interior, so that its ter- 
 ritory includes, perhaps, 75,000 square 
 miles. It owes its existence to good men 
 in America, both North and South, who, 
 many years ago, felt that the freed people 
 of the United States should have a place 
 in the land of their fathers where they 
 could have the opportunity and satisfac- 
 tion of building a nation of their own, 
 which should demonstrate the capacity 
 of the negro for nation-building, and also 
 open the way for his having a share in 
 the civilisation and redemption of the 
 
220 The Republic 
 
 African continent. The American Colo- 
 nisation Society, and kindred organisa- 
 tions, inaugurated and have fostered this 
 philanthropic movement by facilitating 
 the migration of negroes from the United 
 States, and by advice and material aid in 
 educational and other enterprises. 
 
 There are now in the Republic about 
 24,000 Americo-Liberians, speaking, of 
 course, the English language ; and, per- 
 haps, 1,000,000 native Africans. The for- 
 mer are emigrants from the United States, 
 or their descendants ; and the latter are 
 made up of various tribes of aborigines, 
 speaking many dialects, acknowledging 
 the sovereignty of the Republic, but as 
 a whole living in barbarism, as their 
 fathers before them have done for many 
 centuries. 
 
 The form of government is modelled 
 after that of the United States, and only 
 negroes can own land, become citizens, or 
 hold office. A few thousand natives have 
 become civilised, and are a part of the 
 nation. For twenty-five years Liberia was 
 a colony, under the immediate direction 
 
of Liberia. 221 
 
 of the Colonisation Societies; but in 
 1847 the nation was formed and received 
 the friendly recognition and good will of 
 other nations. Liberia and Hayti are 
 the only nations in the world controlled 
 entirely by negroes. 
 
 To say that the hopes of the friends of 
 the negro as a nation-builder have been 
 realised during the past fifty years in 
 Liberia, would not be true. On the other 
 hand, to accept the uncharitable and un- 
 kind criticisms of the struggling Republic, 
 which are heard along the coast from 
 many traders and travellers^ and often reit- 
 erated in Europe and America, would be 
 doing great injustice to the people of 
 Liberia. I have recently held conversa- 
 tions with representative Liberians and 
 others in the principal centres of the 
 Republic, and have studied its present con- 
 ditions and outlook. When we consider 
 the difficulties which these people have 
 had to meet in a new and, to many, a 
 hostile climate, their lack of wealth and ex- 
 perience in government, surrounded and 
 permeated by multitudes of barbarous 
 
222 The Republic 
 
 heathen, and subjected constantly to the 
 uncharitable criticisms of white traders 
 and travellers, the marvel is that so much 
 in the way of efficient government and 
 advance in social conditions has been ac- 
 complished. True, their national domain, 
 rich in minerals and agricultural possibili- 
 ties, has not even been explored; but it 
 is also true that, until within a very few 
 years, but little advance has been made 
 by other nations on either coast of the 
 continent in extending practical and effi- 
 cient government among the natives of 
 the interior. The advance of the past 
 few years has been the result of enor- 
 mous expenditures in money, backed by 
 powerful Governments, able to command 
 the best administrative talent. 
 
 President Coleman and his official ad- 
 visers have come fully to realise the in- 
 creasing difficulties which their nation 
 must face. In the first place, a few great 
 nations are rapidly dominating all Africa, 
 and the possessions of any one small na- 
 tion on the continent must be in constant 
 jeopardy unless its Government has the 
 
of Liberia. 223 
 
 practical friendship of at least one great 
 nation. Both Germany and France are 
 exceedingly anxious to acquire the terri- 
 tory of the RepubHc, and France holds a 
 treaty by which, if any part of the Repub- 
 lic's domain is alienated, it will have the 
 right to reassert its claim for certain valu- 
 able territories on the coast, and also its 
 hinterland down to within forty miles of 
 the coast, which would mean practically 
 the annihilation of the Republic. Recent 
 troubles between a German subject and 
 some . Liberian natives led to the demand 
 for a large indemnity in money and other 
 concessions, accompanied with a proposed 
 treaty for a German Protectorate, which, if 
 agreed to, would settle the dispute. 
 
 The growth of the Republic in popula- 
 tion is slow, and it cannot be large until, 
 by the opening up of the country, there 
 can be opportunities for the investment of 
 capital, so that remunerative labour and 
 agricultural openings can be given to 
 those who migrrate from the United States 
 and elsewhere. Lack of money has made 
 the development of an efficient educa- 
 
224 The Republic 
 
 tional system impossible, and the second 
 generation of children is growing up 
 with but few facilities for instruction. 
 
 What Liberia wants and needs is, first, 
 that her nationality shall be guaranteed 
 by some powerful friend. She naturally 
 turns to the United States, and if for any 
 cause a proper protectorate cannot be 
 secured from that source, she next turns 
 to England. Both nations have shown her 
 friendly offices several times, and, being of 
 the same language and religion, she natu- 
 rally looks to them. Her people shudder 
 at the thought of falling under a forced 
 protectorate of any people of foreign 
 language. 
 
 A nationality secured in the way sug- 
 gested would open the way to practical 
 and efficient co-operation in the adminis- 
 tration of the local government, and of 
 extending influence and control among 
 the natives, would open the way for aid 
 in the development of a system of finance, 
 by which reliable and adequate revenue 
 could be collected and administered. It 
 would also open the way for the appoint- 
 
of Liberia. 
 
 225 
 
 ment, at the request of the Republic, of 
 explorers and specialists to explore the 
 territory and locate its wealth, and open 
 lines of communication, first, by ordinary 
 roads, then, by telegraph, and, later on, by 
 railways, — all in the interest of the 
 Republic, and of such friendly represen- 
 tatives of commerce as might desire to 
 develop trade. Another important mat- 
 ter would be advice and assistance in 
 proper emigration from the United States 
 and elsewhere. Whatever America can- 
 not do herself, I believe England would 
 gladly co-operate in doing, at the sugges- 
 tion of America, and Liberia is ready 
 and anxious to have such friendly aid 
 as these nations could properly and wisely 
 give. 
 
 With the exception of this little patch 
 of territory owned by the Republic of 
 Liberia, all the African continent, with 
 its 150,000,000 of black natives, is rapidly 
 passing under the rule of the white man. 
 This tremendous fact must be accepted as, 
 in the Providence of God, marking a new 
 era in the history of the black races. 
 
 15 
 
226 Republic of Liberia. 
 
 They are to have their chance in their 
 continental home for generations at least 
 under the tutelage of white Govern- 
 ments. 
 
 Liberia, however, has existed for seventy- 
 five years as a colony or nation. It is the 
 Providential child of the best thought and 
 prayers and help of thousands of Christ- 
 ian people whose convictions were clear 
 and positive that in some organised way 
 the millions of negroes in America should 
 have a share in the redemption of Africa. 
 I believe that conviction was of God, and 
 I also believe that it is the duty of Amer- 
 ica and England to hear and heed the 
 appeal of this child of Providence. 
 
THE COMMERCE, RAILWAYS, 
 
 AND TELEGRAPHS OF 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
THE COMMERCE, RAILWAYS, 
 
 AND TELEGRAPHS OF 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 BY EDWARD HEAWOOD, M.A., 
 Of the Royal Geographical Society. 
 
 THE great Desert of Sahara divides 
 the African continent into two 
 very distinct regions. To the north, we 
 have a strip of country similar on the 
 whole in climate and productions to the 
 southern parts of Europe, with which, 
 through the facilities of communications 
 supplied by the Mediterranean, it has 
 been brought into close relations almost 
 since the dawn of history. To the south, 
 on the contrary, the great bulk of the con- 
 tinent has for centuries been isolated by 
 that great desert barrier, while, as regards 
 by far the greatest part of its area, it dif- 
 fers in toto from North Africa, both in its 
 climate, productions, and people. It is, 
 therefore, to Africa south of the Sahara, 
 and in particular to the tropical regions to 
 
230 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 which the term " new world of the nine- 
 teenth century " above all applies, that 
 our attention will be directed in the pres- 
 ent article. 
 
 In dealing with the commerce of Africa, 
 it is unavoidable that we should look to 
 the future rather than the present. The 
 total volume of trade of the whole conti- 
 nent, and especially of the area within the 
 tropics, is at present so insignificant, as 
 shown by the latest estimates, that the 
 question that perforce thrusts itself upon 
 our consideration is, whether the present 
 state of things is to continue, or whether 
 the future has in store that awakening to 
 participation in the life of the world which 
 may enable the African continent to take 
 a more equal place among the rest than it 
 does at present. It will, therefore, be 
 necessary to look briefly at some of the 
 causes which are responsible for the pres- 
 ent backward condition of Africa. 
 
 Foremost among these is usually placed 
 the uniform outline of the continent, and 
 the absence of natural means of commu- 
 nication with the interior. But although 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 231 
 
 these certainly account for the isolation of 
 the interior parts, they form an inadequate 
 reason for the undeveloped condition of 
 the coast-lands, — many of which possess 
 great fertility, — except in so far as the 
 unbroken nature of the coasts and the 
 absence of outlying islands has not tended 
 to the evolution of enterprising races of 
 navigators, such as have sprung up in 
 more favoured parts of the world. The 
 reason is rather to be found (i) in the 
 character of the inhabitants; (2) in the 
 absence of valuable products which might 
 attract merchants from other parts of the 
 world. 
 
 Africa possesses few thrifty and indus- 
 trious races, such as those of southern 
 and eastern Asia, whose silks and muslins 
 formed an article of trade with the West 
 in very early times; nor, on the other 
 hand, could its supplies of the precious 
 metals, or its natural vegetable produc- 
 tions, vie with the riches of Mexico and 
 Peru, or with the costly spices of the far 
 East. Thus, while America and Asia 
 offered an irresistible attraction to the 
 
232 Commerce^ Railways, 
 
 merchants and adventurers of Europe, 
 and poured untold wealth into their cof- 
 fers, African commerce has remained in a 
 state of complete stagnation down to our 
 own day. 
 
 It by no means follows, however, that 
 the outlook for the future must of neces- 
 sity be equally gloomy. While the rich 
 treasures of the East and West did their 
 work in attracting European enterprise to 
 those regions, they no longer form the sole 
 or even the principal basis of commerce, 
 vast as have been the strides made by it 
 within the past century. If we examine 
 a list of the exports of such countries as 
 India or Brazil, we find that by far the 
 larger part consists of plantation products, 
 grown largely under European supervi- 
 sion, most of which Africa is equally 
 capable of producing, when once a suffi- 
 cient impetus is given by the enterprise 
 of the white races. Of the leading articles 
 exported by India during 1865-96, at 
 least three-fifths (in value) consisted of 
 such products as rice, raw cotton, oil- 
 seeds, tea, coffee, and indigo, not including 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 233 
 
 opium, or items such as hides, skins, and 
 wool, for the production of which Africa 
 is at least equally adapted. From Brazil, 
 again, the great bulk of the exports con- 
 sist of the five items, coffee, sugar, rubber, 
 tobacco, and cotton, all of which are also 
 supplied by tropical Africa. It is, no 
 doubt, an advantage to these countries to 
 have obtained so important a start in the 
 race, while Africa has hitherto lagged 
 behind. 
 
 We hear, too, of overproduction of some 
 of these articles ; but, with the ever- 
 increasing wealth and population of the 
 world, it may be supposed that the in- 
 creasing demand will, in time, necessitate 
 new fields of supply. That most of the 
 products alluded to will thrive well in 
 tropical Africa, has been abundantly 
 shown by recent experiments in cultiva- 
 tion, notably by the successful introduc- 
 tion of coffee-growing into Nyassaland and 
 elsewhere, while it has been proved that, 
 although the tropical regions of the con- 
 tinent can never become the permanent 
 home of the white man, many of the 
 
234 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 higher districts are sufSciently healthy to 
 enable him to live in comparative comfort, 
 and supply the energy and supervision 
 which are absolutely necessary to any 
 undertakings of the kind alluded to. 
 
 There is no doubt that agriculture is 
 destined in future to be the mainstay of 
 commercial prosperity for Africa, suppos- 
 ing that it is ever attained. The supply 
 of ivory, which, together with slaves, has, 
 in the past, formed the staple product of 
 the continent, must, sooner or later, come 
 to an end, while the best of the jungle 
 products — palm-oil, orchilla-weed, wax, 
 gums, etc. — are hardly like to meet with a 
 much larger demand than at present. An 
 exception must be made in the case of 
 rubber, the trade in which has made rapid 
 strides within the past few years; but 
 with the careless methods of collection 
 employed, it is becoming more and more 
 evident that the natural supplies cannot 
 hold out indefinitely, but that, for this 
 too, systematic cultivation will become 
 necessary before long. 
 
 In fill attempts at cultivation the labour 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 235 
 
 question undoubtedly forms an important 
 difficulty, owing to the unwillingness of 
 the negro to work except for the supply of 
 his own positive wants. It would carry 
 us too far from the subject to enter fully 
 into the question ; suffice it to say, that 
 the difficulty does not seem insurmounta- 
 ble. The introduction of Indian coolies 
 will, in Africa as elsewhere, possibly prove 
 the best solution, while it may be hoped 
 that the example of their thrift and indus- 
 try may in time induce the natives to 
 throw off their habits of indolence. It 
 would, of course, be preferable to make 
 use of the negro races, if that were possi- 
 ble; and that this may be the case is 
 shown by satisfactory reports from Nyas- 
 saland, where tribes like the Angoni (of 
 Zulu affinities) have shown an unusual 
 readiness to work, and have proved them- 
 selves both honest and industrious. 
 
 We have considered so far merely the 
 question of the supply of products for 
 export. We have now to examine briefly 
 the prospects of a market being obtained 
 in Central Africa for the productions of 
 
236 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 civilised nations. In this respect, also, 
 Africa stands at a disadvantage by com- 
 parison with other continents, the wants 
 of the natives, both in the way of clothing 
 and any of the other adjuncts of civilised 
 life, are at present so small that it will 
 be long before any large demand for such 
 articles will arise. It is among the races 
 of the Central Sudan, where Arab influ- 
 ence and civilisation have long made 
 themselves felt, that we may expect that 
 a market will be soonest obtained. The 
 population is here unusually dense for 
 Africa, while some of the races, notably 
 the Hausas, are naturally keen traders. 
 The Hausa caravans travel for long dis- 
 tances through the neighbouring coun- 
 tries, and have of late been pushing 
 farther and farther south, having even 
 penetrated as far as the French estab- 
 lishments in the Kongo Basin. Uganda 
 is perhaps the next promising field for 
 European trade, owing to its fairly dense 
 population, and the remarkable readi- 
 ness with which the inhabitants have 
 imbibed European ideas. 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 237 
 
 One of the greatest obstacles to the de- 
 velopment of African trade, at least with 
 the interior regions, has of course been 
 the entire absence of easy means of trans- 
 port, that by native porters, which has 
 until the last few years been almost the 
 only method of conveying goods through- 
 out the whole of tropical Africa, being far 
 too costly to answer from a commercial 
 point of view. This important defect is 
 now being rapidly removed by the con- 
 struction of railways, the progress made 
 in which up to the present we shall 
 shortly consider. First, however, it may 
 be well to glance at the existing state of 
 trade in the various European colonies 
 and protectorates, and at the principal 
 resources on which its future develop- 
 ment, in each case, must depend. 
 
 Beginning with South Africa, which 
 occupies a position of its own, first, from 
 the fact that its climate permits of col- 
 onisation by the white men, and, secondly, 
 from the great impetus given to trade by 
 the recent development of mining indus- 
 tries, we find, for the Cape Colony and 
 
238 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 Natal, according to the statistics for 1897 
 just published, a total volume of trade of 
 somewhat over ^47,000,000, divided almost 
 equally between imports and exports, the 
 latter being in excess in the Cape Colony, 
 the former in Natal. This amount cer- 
 tainly far exceeds the total trade of the 
 whole of tropical Africa, which w^as esti- 
 mated by a well-informed writer in the 
 London " Times," two years ago, to amount 
 to little more than ;^ 1 7,000,000. It shows 
 a great increase as compared with the total 
 amount a few years back; in 1891, for 
 instance, it reached a total of less than 
 ;^25,ooo,ooo. The great bulk of the in- 
 crease is, however, made up of exports of 
 gold coming from the Transvaal, though 
 other items, such as mohair, hides, and 
 ostrich feathers, show a satisfactory gain. 
 Wool, on the contrary, shows a consider- 
 able decline. A large proportion of the 
 trade of the Transvaal and Orange Free 
 State passes through the Cape Colony 
 and Natal, and is thus included in the re- 
 turns for those colonies. The rest passes 
 through Louren90 Marquez, the Portu- 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 239 
 
 guese port of Delagoa Bay; but the ex- 
 ports by this route are very small, while 
 of the imports, food-stuffs form a consider- 
 able item, showing the disregard to agri- 
 culture due to the gold fever. In the 
 interests of the permanent prosperity of 
 South Africa, it is to be hoped that, in 
 future, trade may depend less than it does 
 at present on the proceeds of the gold and 
 diamond mines. 
 
 Turning now to tropical Africa, we find 
 that it is only where jungle products are 
 obtainable in large quantities, within easy 
 distance of the coast, that the volume of 
 trade has reached any considerable figure, 
 and even here it is insignificant compared 
 with that of flourishing colonies in other 
 parts of the w^orld. In the British West 
 African colonies, — including the Niger 
 Coast Protectorate, — where the exports 
 have been swelled by large amounts of 
 rubber, palm-oil, and palm-kernels, the 
 total trade has not yet much exceeded 
 ^6,000,000. Lagos, the Gold Coast, and 
 the Niger Coast Protectorate, each show^ 
 a trade of between ;^ 1,500,000 and 
 
240 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 ;^2,ooo,ooo, while that of Sierra Leone 
 falls a little short of ;^ 1,000,000. Al- 
 though these figures are very much 
 higher than was the case a dozen years 
 ago, the increase during the last three or 
 four years has not been rapid, some arti- 
 cles of export, including palm-oil, even 
 showing a falling off in certain of the col- 
 onies. The rubber industry has received 
 a decided stimulus ; but it is exceedingly 
 doubtful whether the supply will not soon 
 show signs of exhaustion. Satisfactory 
 points are the rise in the total of imports, 
 largely consisting of cottons, in spite of 
 the reduced influx of spirits, and the in- 
 creased export of such products as timber 
 from the Gold Coast, and coffee, cocoa, 
 arrowroot, etc., from the Gold Coast and 
 Niger. 
 
 The trade of the interior Niger territo- 
 ries, peopled by the enterprising Hausa 
 race, though possessing, perhaps, greater 
 potentialities than any other part of Cen- 
 tral Africa, has not yet assumed large 
 proportions, being probably little over 
 ;^ 1, 000,000. 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 241 
 
 Of the French colonies, Senegal stands 
 first with respect to volume of trade, 
 which, however, probably does not exceed 
 ;^ 1,500,000. In the vast region known as 
 French Kongo, litde advance has yet been 
 made. Nor has any decided success at- 
 tended the heroic efforts of the Belgians 
 to develop the resources of the Kongo 
 Free State, where the total imports and 
 exports fall short of ;^ 1,000,000. Ivory 
 and India-rubber form at present almost 
 the sole products of the greater part of the 
 area, but, with judicious management, the 
 supply of both might last for a great num- 
 ber of years. It has been shown that both 
 coffee and cocoa will thrive on the Upper 
 Kongo; but many difficulties will have to 
 be overcome before these can repay cul- 
 tivation. Angola, though a very rich 
 country, suffers from the want of en- 
 couragement to merchants on the part 
 of the Portuguese Government. Its trade, 
 though it has reached about ^1,500,000, 
 has of late not been in a satisfactory con- 
 dition, having been injuriously affected by 
 
 the fall in the price of coffee, which, with 
 16 
 
242 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 rubber and wax, forms the chief export. 
 Of the German West African Colonies, 
 the Kamerun has the most flourishing 
 trade, amounting to nearly ;;{^5oo,ooo in 
 1897. Spirits form a large item in the 
 imports. 
 
 In East Africa, the principal trade-cen- 
 tre is, of course, Zanzibar, where, in 1896, 
 the total trade with foreign countries 
 amounted to nearly ;^2, 500,000. This 
 figure is, however, swelled by the fact 
 that it includes a considerable transit 
 trade with the mainland opposite, espe- 
 cially German East Africa. As regards 
 its own proper trade, cloves form almost 
 the only important article of export, and 
 the island is at present suffering from 
 overproduction, which has brought about 
 a decline in the price of cloves. A satis- 
 factory increase is reported in the import 
 of piece goods. The trade of the main- 
 land still remains within very narrow lim- 
 its, though great possibilities exist. Thus, 
 in British East Africa, the rubber trade 
 only awaits encouragement to assume 
 large proportions, while large supplies of 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 243 
 
 copra, cotton, etc., could be produced. In 
 British Central Africa, the outlook is 
 encouraging, owing to the large measure 
 of success attained in the cultivation of 
 coffee, while in Uganda, although the trade 
 is at present trifling, signs of increased 
 activity were noticed before the outbreak 
 of the recent disturbances. In German 
 East Africa, in spite of the display of 
 much energy in the establishment of 
 plantations, the total trade has not yet 
 exceeded ;^750,ooo. Coffee is the most 
 paying product, but unfortunately the 
 fungus known as Hemeleia vastatrix has 
 found its way into the plantations. Far- 
 ther south, the port of Beira, destined to 
 serve as the outlet for Mashonaland, 
 has lately sprung into being, and already 
 shows signs of considerable activity. 
 
 It remains to speak of the progress 
 which has been made of late years in 
 opening up communication with the inte- 
 rior of Africa by means of railways and 
 telegraphs, which have now been recog- 
 nised as indispensable aids to the exten- 
 sion of commercial intercourse throughout 
 
244 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 the continent. Owing to the manner in 
 which its surface has been parcelled out 
 among the European nations, it has come 
 about that almost each colony or protecto- 
 rate has its own scheme for a railway, des- 
 tined to bring down the produce of its 
 hinterland for shipment at its principal 
 port. For Central Africa, the earliest 
 schemes were those intended to re-enforce 
 the navigable portions of streams as means 
 of communication. Thus, in Senegal, the 
 French, some years ago, constructed a 
 line from the port of Dakar to the Lower 
 Senegal, and commenced the construction 
 of another from Kayes, at the head of the 
 navigation on that river, across to the 
 Upper Niger. Great difHculties were en- 
 countered in this second section, and pro- 
 gress ceased for a time, when the line had 
 reached Bafulabe, at the junction of the 
 two main branches of the Senegal. In 
 1895 work was resumed, and the line has 
 now crossed the Baling, and reached a 
 place called Diubeba, about thirty miles 
 beyond. Its gauge is one metre. Lately 
 a new project has been started, which, if 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 245 
 
 carried out, will somewhat detract from 
 the importance of the existing line ; it has 
 been proposed to build a railway through 
 from Konakry, on the coast of the Upper 
 Niger, a distance no greater than that to 
 be traversed by the line from Kayes. 
 
 The great difficulty encountered by 
 most of the African railway schemes is 
 the fact that they all have to negotiate the 
 crossing of the difficult outer escarpments 
 of the interior plateau. Thus the Kongo 
 Railway, intended to supply means of 
 communication past the rapids of the 
 lower river, has involved an enormous 
 outlay and has proceeded exceedingly 
 slowly. The greatest difficulties have 
 been, however, at last surmounted, and 
 the line has now come within measur- 
 able distance of its goal, — Stanley Pool. 
 According to the report of Major Thys, in 
 December last, it had reached the 348th 
 kilometre, out of a total of 388. A con- 
 siderable traffic already exists on the por- 
 tion completed, and there can be no doubt 
 that when once trains reach the Upper 
 Kongo, with its thousands of miles of 
 
246 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 navigable waterways, a great impetus will 
 be given to trade. While on the subject 
 of the Kongo, it may be mentioned that 
 new schemes have lately been set on foot 
 for railway construction in the remoter 
 parts of the basin, — in the northeast, 
 southeast, and in the region of the 
 Rapids of the Mobangi, the great 
 northern tributary. 
 
 Another railway which has been under 
 construction for some years is that starting 
 from St. Paul de Loanda, the capital of 
 Angola, toward Ambaka and Malange. 
 Difficulties in the way of bridging the 
 streams have here too caused delays ; but 
 it is hoped the line will in August next 
 be completed to the end of its first section, 
 the Lukalla River. The receipts per kilo- 
 metre on the mileage open have steadily 
 risen during the last few years. The com- 
 pany constructing this line bears the 
 ambitious title of " Royal Company of 
 Trans-African Railways," it being hoped 
 that a junction may be ultimately effected 
 by its means with the Portuguese East 
 Africa Colonies. More recent West Afri- 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 247 
 
 can schemes are those for lines starting 
 inland from Sierra Leone, Lagos, and 
 Swakopmund, the new port of German 
 Southwest Africa. Some progress has 
 been made with each of these, while rail- 
 way surveys have also been carried out on 
 the Gold Coast. 
 
 Passing now to East Africa, we come to 
 the important schemes for linking the 
 coast with the great interior lakes. Both 
 Germans and British have for some years 
 aimed at connecting their coast settle- 
 ments with the Victoria Nyanza; and it 
 seemed at one time as if the former would 
 carry through their project while the latter 
 were deliberating. At last, however, the 
 British scheme has been taken up energet- 
 ically by the Government, and the progress 
 so far has been rapid. Starting from 
 Mombasa, the line has already passed the 
 1 20th mile, and has proved of value in 
 facilitating the passage of the Taru Desert ; 
 but the country lying ahead, especially at 
 the Kikuya encampment, will present 
 more difficulties than those hitherto en- 
 countered. The route has, however, been 
 
248 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 carefully surveyed, and, with the efficient 
 base of operations provided, it may be 
 hoped that progress will continue to be 
 rapid, and that in another five or six years 
 the line will have reached its terminus at 
 Port Alice in Berkeley Bay, Lake Victoria, 
 656 miles from Mombasa. Not till this 
 occurs can any great development in the 
 trade of Uganda be looked for. In German 
 East Africa, a short line of railway already 
 penetrates inland, toward the borders of 
 Usambara, but funds have not yet been 
 provided for a more extended scheme. 
 The idea most favoured is the construction 
 of a line from Dar-es-Salaam to Ujiji, on 
 Lake Tanganyika, with a branch north- 
 ward from Tabora to Lake Victoria. An 
 important scheme has been set on foot in 
 British Central Africa, — Nyassaland, — for 
 the making of a short railway across the 
 Shire Highlands so as to supply commu- 
 nication past the rapids by which the Shire 
 River is obstructed. This would mate- 
 rially improve what is known as the 
 " Lakes Route " into Central Africa. To- 
 ward the north, the French have com- 
 
Telegraphs of Africa. 249 
 
 menced the construction of a line from 
 their port of Dijibouti, on the Reel Sea, to 
 the important town of Harrar, subject to 
 the King of Abyssinia ; while the Italians 
 have opened a short line inland from 
 Massaua. From Suakim also a line is 
 certain to be made by the British either 
 to Berber or to Kassala. 
 
 In South Africa, an important system of 
 railways, starting from the ports of Cape 
 Colony, Natal, and Delagoa Bay, and mak- 
 ing for the mining districts of Kimberley 
 and the Transvaal, is already in full work- 
 ing order, though new lines are being now 
 added. More nearly bearing on our sub- 
 ject are the new lines destined to serve as 
 highways to the rising settlements in 
 Mashonaland and Matabeleland. The one 
 of these which forms the continuation of 
 the Cape line to Kimberley and Mafeking 
 v/as opened through to Buluwayo on 
 November 4th, 1897, having been com- 
 pleted in a wonderfully short space of 
 time considering its length ; the other, 
 which starts from Beira on the East Coast, 
 and is to end at Salisbury, in Mashona- 
 
250 Commerce, Railways, 
 
 land, has not made such rapid progress, 
 but has passed Chimoio, near the frontier, 
 between British and Portuguese territory. 
 A proposal has been made to unite SaHs- 
 bury and Buluwayo by railway, and thus 
 complete the circuit between the East and 
 South Coasts. 
 
 A brief mention only can be made of 
 the telegraph lines which have accom- 
 panied, and in some instances preceded, 
 the lines of railway lately opened or 
 planned. Both in East and West Africa, 
 for instance, the Portuguese possessions 
 have been provided with short lines, while, 
 in British East Africa, one running north- 
 ward from Mombasa to Lamu has been 
 opened for several years ; but the most 
 important line of all, and the one which 
 has progressed most rapidly, is that which 
 owes its inception to the energy of Mr. 
 Cecil Rhodes, and goes by the name of 
 the African Transcontinental Telegraph 
 Line. Starting from the Cape, it makes 
 its way to Buluwayo and Salisbury, and 
 thence via Umtali to Tete on the Zambezi. 
 It then cuts across to the Shire River, and 
 
Telegraphs of Africa, 251 
 
 has already ascended the west shore of 
 Lake Nyassa as far as Kota Kota. By 
 the end of 1898 it is thought that it will 
 reach the south end of Lake Tanganyika, 
 while an extension still farther northward 
 is proposed, so that it may eventually 
 reach the Nile and form an uninterrupted 
 chain between the two extremities of the 
 continent. It is said that the newly 
 opened section in Nyassaland is already 
 used by the natives for communication 
 with friends at a distance. 
 
THE MAP OF AFRICA. 
 
THE MAP OF AFRICA. 
 
 BY H. K. CARROLL, LL.D. 
 
 THE map of Africa has undergone 
 wonderful, indeed, revolutionaryj 
 changes in the last half century. Except 
 in outline and certain general features, the 
 Africa of 1898 bears little resemblance to 
 the Africa of 1848. The changes are due, 
 first, to the results of exploration, secondly, 
 to the European greed for territory. 
 
 It is rather strange that so large a por- 
 tion of the continent should have remained 
 unknown to the rest of the world until the 
 last half of the present century. Africa 
 was known for ages and ages before the 
 Western world was discovered. We speak 
 of America as new, but Africa is as old as 
 civilisation or human history. When the 
 United States celebrated, in 1876, the first 
 centenary of its independence, this message 
 was received from Egypt (I quote from 
 memory) : 
 
256 The Map 
 
 " The oldest country of the world sends greet- 
 ings to the youngest." 
 
 Egyptian civilisation was second to none 
 in antiquity, unless, possibly, to that of 
 Babylonia. The Nile, its great physical 
 feature, has been the geographical puzzle 
 of the centuries, from, if not before, 
 Ptolemy to Stanley, to whom the honour 
 of its solution belongs. The great explorer 
 found its source not far from where the 
 old Egyptian geographer conjectured it to 
 be. Ptolemy's idea was that the mighty 
 artery came from the heart of the conti- 
 nent, rising in two lakes lying 4° or 
 5 south of the equator. The fact is, it 
 rises in the Victoria Nyanza, nearly all of 
 which is below the equator, though it does 
 not reach the fourth degree. The second 
 lake is, of course, the Albert, which, how- 
 ever, is not a source, as Sir Samuel Baker 
 supposed, but only a back-water of the 
 Nile. It will be noticed that the smaller 
 map, representing Africa as it appeared 
 in atlases fifty years ago, has no indica- 
 tion of these lakes, nor of those of Tan- 
 ganyika and Nyassa farther to the south. 
 
of Africa. 257 
 
 These are a part of the results of recent 
 exploration. 
 
 One of the notable features of all the 
 older maps is a chain of mountains repre- 
 sented as extending across the continent 
 from east to west, about five degrees north 
 of the equator. In these fabled mountains, 
 perhaps suggested by Mts. Kenia and 
 Kilimanjaro, the Nile was supposed, as 
 will be seen by the accompanying map, to 
 have its rise. The mythical mountains 
 disappear, and the Kongo is shown to be 
 a much mightier river than the old map- 
 makers knew. It does for South and 
 Equatorial Africa what the Nile does for 
 the northeastern quarter of the continent, 
 drains an immense territory. Above the 
 cataracts, by the side of which a railroad 
 has been constructed, the noble river, with 
 its many long tributaries, aggregating 
 thousands of miles of navigable stream 
 offers to commerce abundant transporta- 
 tion facilities, and opens a country un- 
 known to Europeans until the intrepid 
 Stanley explored it. 
 
 One now looks in vain for the equatorial 
 17 
 
258 The Map 
 
 country known for centuries to African 
 map-makers as " Ethiopia." The great 
 native kingdom of Uganda occupies part 
 of the territory that bore the ancient and 
 honourable name, and the rest of it is gath- 
 ered into the State of Kongo, and " Ethi- 
 opia," with the " Mountains of the Moon " 
 as its northern boundary, disappears for- 
 ever, probably. Thus do the practical 
 geographers of the closing century sweep 
 away ruthlessly some of the most charac- 
 teristic features of the old African maps. 
 
 The new Africa has no " unexplored 
 regions " inhabited by all manner of 
 ferocious four-footed beasts and creeping 
 things. Elephants and lions and gorillas 
 and reptiles there are in abundance ; but 
 the spaces in old maps which were adorned 
 with pictures of them are now filled with 
 details of rivers, lakes, mountains, towns, 
 and tribes. Fifty years ago, not even the 
 location of tribes was known. " Wander- 
 ing Bushmen " were indicated as having 
 penetrated as far north as the equator, 
 2,000 miles or more beyond the territory 
 where they are actually found. Living- 
 
of Africa. 259 
 
 stone, Stanley, and other active explorers 
 have left but little for their successors to 
 discover. Africa is no longer a terra in- 
 cognita, and, while minor details remain to 
 be settled by more leisurely and better 
 equipped expeditions, nothing of great 
 importance is likely to be revealed as to 
 the geographical features of the continent. 
 The political changes have been quite 
 as remarkable as those due to exploration, 
 and much more extensive. Unappropri- 
 ated Africa is now only a comparatively 
 inconsiderable portion of the whole conti- 
 nent. There are two sections, one lying 
 between Egypt and the French Sahara and 
 Tripoli and the tenth degree of north lati- 
 tude, and the other on the right bank 
 of the Upper Niger, which as yet wear 
 no European colour. They appear on the 
 map as light yellow. The Niger territory 
 will, however, soon be divided between 
 France and England, if the Anglo-French 
 Commission, sitting in Paris, can reach an 
 agreement. Doubtless the larger part will 
 a few months hence be annexed to the 
 immense French territory which surrounds 
 
26o The Map 
 
 it on the north and west. England would 
 be satisfied if she could have the triangular 
 strip indicated by the dotted lines running 
 south from Say to the border-line between 
 English Lagos and French Dahomey, and 
 with a reasonable hinterland for its Gold 
 Coast Territory. Within a year the lines 
 between French Dahomey and German 
 Togoland have been changed, so that the 
 latter now extends north to and including 
 Gambaga, and west to the White Volta 
 River. This extension is somewhat faintly 
 indicated on the map. ! 
 
 Doubtless the British red, which covers 
 Egypt and Nubia, will be extended ere- 
 long to the northern border of British 
 East Africa, thus making the Nile a Brit- 
 ish stream from source to delta. The 
 French Marchand expedition, whose pur- 
 pose was to annex some of the Nile terri- 
 tory, appears to have met with defeat. At 
 last accounts, nearly all the force had 
 deserted the indomitable Frenchman, who 
 still refused to abandon entirely his enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Abyssinia appears in our map with 
 
of Africa. 261 
 
 much larger territory than it was repre- 
 sented as having in most other maps, pub- 
 lished as late even as January ist, 1898. 
 It was then represented as lying within 
 the Italian Sphere of Influence, with Brit- 
 ish East Africa for the western and south- 
 ern boundary, and the Indian Ocean for 
 the eastern. Abyssinia has emerged an 
 independent kingdom with greatly en- 
 larged boundaries, and the Italian posses- 
 sions have shrunken to the province of 
 Eritrea, on the Red Sea, and Somaliland, 
 on the Indian Ocean. The portion 
 printed in deep colour indicates Abyssinia 
 proper; the rest is territory conceded to 
 Menelek by English and Italian treaties. 
 Adis Adaba has just been made the 
 capital. 
 
 There are six countries bearing the tint 
 of Abyssinia, — Morocco, Liberia, Kongo, 
 South African Republic, and Orange Free 
 State, besides Menelek's kingdom. These 
 are classed as independent native States, 
 although Kongo is really as much Belgian 
 as Egypt is English. These are the only 
 native States remaining. All the rest, ex- 
 
262 The Map 
 
 cept the yellow tinted desert west of Egypt, 
 is under European control. In the last 
 half century nearly the whole continent has 
 been divided up between England, France, 
 Belgium, and Germany ; and even the 
 two Republics in South Africa are dom- 
 inated by a population of European ori- 
 gin, and the Transvaal owes suzerainty to 
 England. 
 
 Fifty years ago England had only the 
 extreme southern end of the continent, 
 with small holdings on the West Coast 
 north of the equator. Now its possessions 
 are well-nigh continuous from Cape Town 
 to Alexandria ; and it is the dream of 
 Cecil Rhodes to connect the two at no 
 distant day by telegraph, and to consoli- 
 date, in one magnificent empire of British 
 South Africa, all the territory south of 
 Lake Nyassa, save the German and Por- 
 tuguese possessions. 
 
 France had only Senegal and Algiers at 
 the date when the smaller map was made. 
 Portugal had the same coast-line then as 
 now; she has only added hinterlands to 
 her Angola and Mozambique territories. 
 
of Africa. 263 
 
 Turkey still holds Tripoli, but has lost 
 Tunis and, practically, Egypt. Spain has 
 made no appreciable gain. Germany, 
 Italy, and Belgium are altogether new- 
 comers. 
 
 In the eighteenth century the civilised 
 world was engaged, some one has said, in 
 stealing Africans from Africa, while in the 
 nineteenth it has been stealing Africa 
 from the Africans. How thoroughly this 
 has been accomplished is shown by the 
 accompanying map. 
 
OCT U 
 
 ms