AFRJCA YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AFRICA OF TO-DAY BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE COMING CHINA, 320 pages. With 49 illustrations $1.50 net In Preparation SIBERIA-RUSSIA CANADA MEXICO A. C. McCLURG & CO., Chicago Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Grand Avenue of Rams One of the southern approaches to the temple of Karnak, Thebes AFRICA OF TO-DAY BY JOSEPH KING GOODRICH Sometime Professor in the Imperial Government College, Kyoto author oe "the coming china" WITH 30 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND ONE MAP CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1912 COPYRIGHT, 19 I 2 BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS PUBLISHED MARCH, I9I2 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE. PLIMPTON 'PRESS [W • D «o] NORWOOD»MASS»U«S'A CONTENTS PAGE Introduction ix CHAPTER I. Africa of Fable i H. Africa as the Dark Continent and its Emergence into Light : Missionary Enterprises Briefly Touched Upon . . 17 III. Northern Africa 32 IV. The Peoples and Tribes of Northern Africa 49 V. The Sahara: The Desert, the Oases, the Inhabitants, the Life 64 VI. Egypt: The Mysterious Land of Ancient Days 80 VII. Egypt: The Land We Now Know ... 94 VIII. The Nile : Historical, Legendary, Picturesque no DC Central Africa 127 X. Eastern Africa 144 XL Western Africa 161 XII. South Africa 190 XIII. The Blacks in Africa 218 XIV. Everybody's Africa 233 V VI CONTENTS XV. America's Relations with Africa. Africa in the Future 250 XVI. White Man's Africa and the African Islands 267 XVII. "Cape to Cairo" 285 Bibliography 301 Index 307 ILLUSTRATIONS Grand Avenue of Rams Frontispiece The Beginning of the Nile facing page 8 Blacks from the Equatorial Plains Climbing a Mountain 18 Victoria Falls, Middle Zambesi River 24 The Palace at Fez 38 Native prisoners under Arab Guards 54 Picturesque Ruins of the old Royal Palace at Zanzibar . 72 The Ramesseum, Thebes 86 On the Shoulder of the Great Sphinx 92 Coffee Picking in British East Africa 104 The Great Dam Across the Nile at Assuan, Egypt . 112 The Grotto-Temple of Abu Simbel 122 Hunting the Wild Bull, Depicited on the Temple Wall of Rameses III 124 The Beautiful Water Front and Harbour of Zanzibar . 136 Native Troops at Moschi, East Africa 144 A Group of Wachagga People 148 At a Station on the Uganda Railway 152 A "Country Store" in the Wilds of German East Africa 156 East African Women of the Meru Tribe Lined up for a Dance 160 Throne Room in the Sultan's Palace at Zanzibar . . . 164 Eternal Snow almost on the Equator 182 Street in Hanover, Cape Colony 192 vii V1U ILLUSTRATIONS The Town Hall, Durban, Natal .... facing page 196 Immense Precipitating Vats at a South African Gold Mine 204 " The Compound " of the De Beers Diamond Corporation . 206 Diamond-bearing Blue Rock 210 The Sultan of Morocco on the March 232 Native Porters Curing Antelope Meat After a Hunt . . 244 A Typical African Jungle Trail 272 Victoria Falls 290 Map of Africa 300 INTRODUCTION IF this book were to be restricted to a description of any one part of Africa, or if it were intended to discuss the con ditions existing in just one particular section, no matter how extensive, and to treat of manners and. customs therein, with an account of the native population; or if it were intended to discuss serially the various parts of the great continent in a manner even approximating to careful history, an apology to the intelligent reading public for venturing to prefer a claim to its attention would be in order here, because there are already so many books at the reader's service to give him all that character of information. But it seems to be entirely proper to offer to the public a sort of general handbook which shall deal with some of the problems of to-day in a popular manner that may be entertaining and which, it is believed, will be instructive. Not unnaturally, however, such a vol ume should be, it seems, divided into parts which are given to the topics bearing upon one particular section of Africa, since there are distinct differences between the questions to be answered by the authorities entrusted with the responsi bility of exploiting a particular section and similar prob lems that face officials in another, perhaps distant, part of the continent. There is such an enormous mass of literature treating of Africa historically, much of which still possesses a peculiar charm of its own, although now centuries old, that even a synopsis thereof would greatly exceed the limitations put upon the size of this little volume. And besides, to prepare such an epitome would be, in the existing circumstances, a foolish act of supererogation, because the reader who is interested in that topic — and it cannot be denied that it is an X INTRODUCTION absorbingly attractive one — will have little difficulty in ascer taining, each for himself, just where to find that information which treats of the subject from the point of view that he wishes to take; whether it is Africa as, after all, an almost unknown part of our globe, or some particular section which, in the process of discovery, exploitation, and evolution, has come into prominence, either ephemeral or with a greater or less measure of seeming permanence. Yet it should be noted here that there is no satisfactory bibliography of Africa at this moment at our service; not even one which has arranged the books already written a score or a half- score of years ago. It seems, however, to be entirely proper that there should be just one chapter to serve as a sort of background against which shall be drawn the scenes pourtraying the events and setting forth the conclusions that are to make up the succeed ing chapters; and in this conception of the proprieties the book opens with a chapter entitled "The Africa of Fable" that is just sufficiently historical to give those readers who have not a thoroughly comprehensive view something to enable them to understand clearly the Africa of olden times in contrast with that we now know. To this chapter, then, the reader's attention is drawn in order that there may not be too abrupt a plunge into the discussion of problems which are interesting in themselves, even when divorced from the history of Africa, and filled with suggestions for the future. Each day, almost, brings to our attention some fresh condi tions in that great continent, or transforms so radically those which had before existed as to make them seem to be something almost new. Just at the present time the atten tion of the peoples of Europe and America appears to be directed more particularly towards Eastern Asia and Africa than elsewhere, but with respect to Asia that attention may almost be said to be concentrated upon China and to a consideration of what will be the final outcome of the changes which are now taking place there. Some discus sion of these and perhaps a rather presumptuous, it may INTRODUCTION XI be contended, forecast of the near future in China has been made in the author's book entitled "The Coining China." But even before that volume had been published the long- lived disposition to discredit every effort of the Chinese to make real progress along lines of reform and substantial development comparable with American and European standards had asserted itself; for Mr. C. D. Jameson,* whose experience and long residence in China surely justify us in saying that he should know whereof he speaks, expresses himself in a way diametrically opposed to the opinion of the present author, and the views expressed in various journals, most of them British, as to the insincerity of China's crusade against the opium curse — yet in the very face of statistics which were accepted by all sincere friends of China — are but added evidence in this regrettable line. But as to Africa, it is hardly correct to say that attention is concentrated upon any one particular section, because'the interests of Europeans are scattered over the great continent so widely that a very broad horizon must be secured if an approximation even is to be had of what is taking place. In many regions the conditions appear to be marching along quietly towards a consummation that promises nothing but good for the land, the natives, and the immigrants; while in other sections the state of affairs leaves sometimes a little, at other times a great deal, to be desired by those who would like to see the development of Africa proceed along the best paths. Again, in one district or another, the state of affairs verges perilously near to that acute stage when it would seem as if European Powers must inevitably be involved in war, as was the case but a few months ago in Morocco. We in the United States have but a small direct share in what is taking place in Africa; perhaps most people will con tend that, beyond a friendly interest in the Republic of Liberia, we have no special interest in African problems at all. Yet such a view, it seems to this writer, evinces an indif ference to the affairs of the great world, of which we have * The Outlook, New York, July 15, 1911. Xll INTRODUCTION become in recent years, more than ever before, an active part, that is not compatible with our social and industrial, our domestic and international aspirations. That some of our representative men have expressed an opinion of Great Britain's policy in Egypt and of her rights there which must be looked upon as indicative of peculiar views stated in doubtful taste, to say the least of them, hardly relegates all the problems of Egyptian exploitation to the pigeonhole of unimportant matters. If Belgium has pursued a course in her Kongo rubber-producing regions at which we could not consistently have pointed the finger of scorn but little over a half century ago, that is no excuse for indifference now. So too with problems of acquisition, government, develop ment all over Africa. In themselves, undoubtedly, they are no part of our affairs; still, in the interests of that humanity for which we profess to stand stoutly and fearlessly, we must give heed to what is going on in all quarters of Africa. Not that it is contemplated for a moment to suggest that the United States has the faintest right to interfere in the conduct of affairs there by any of the other great powers, unless it should be in conjunction with other nations in protest against a palpable violation of the simplest laws of humanitarianism, but merely that we must have that interest in the affairs of the whole world which our recognised importance thrusts upon us. If America's "plethoric purse" is to be drawn upon to help finance schemes of exploitation, it is manifestly essential that those who hold the purse strings shall be well informed as to the uses to which their money is to be put. To give that desirable attention in a somewhat satisfactory manner, at least, it is essential that our information should be augmented, even if it is in but a small measure, for it can not be made perfect and complete until Africa has absolutely ceased to be in any sense of the term "The Dark Continent," and that is not likely to be the case for many a long year yet to come. It is with the hope of contributing at least a little towards the sum of such desirable, comprehensive knowledge that the present volume is offered to the public. Its short- INTRODUCTION Xlll comings are manifest almost at a glance; its weaknesses are certainly more distressing to the workman than they can possibly be to anyone of those for whom he hopes he has wrought. He does not claim to have visited any considerable part of the great continent of Africa, but he has little hesita tion in saying that, if the field wherein he has presumed to labour were closed absolutely to all save those who know its every nook and corner from that actual personal observa tion which comes to those only who have visited a country with the express purpose of writing its history, there would never yet have been written a book about Africa as a unit, and it is extremely improbable that such a volume, by one just such esoteric author, will ever be prepared. Even such men as Livingstone, Stanley, Cecil Rhodes, not to burden the reader with a long list of those who really have travelled extensively in parts of Africa, could not have laid claim to the right and qualification to tell us of that con tinent as a whole, provided the condition was laid upon the author that he should speak only of that which he had seen with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, handled with his own fingers, and felt with the experiences and sensations of his own body. It requires but a glance at the earliest known accounts of Africa, whatever may be their source as to language or the nationality of the writers, to show us that all of those explorers depended largely upon what they had heard from others; and by no means does it follow that these "others" always were competent to give information at first hand. And this comment applies with equal force, almost, to the accounts of travels given by later visitors, when the obliga tion to adhere somewhat closely, at any rate, to fact had come to be recognised as a necessary qualification of the would-be describer or historian, and when myth or fable had to be carefully branded as such. Yet this present writer claims, with good reason, to have seen some things with his own eyes and to have heard very much more from men who have taken part in the making of history for many parts of Africa, Egypt, XIV INTRODUCTION the Sudan, North Africa, East Africa, the Union of South Africa, Rhodesia, the West Coast, the northern strip of the continent, the heart of "The Dark Continent," and other portions. When he has taken precise information from the work of others, due credit is given and reference made so that readers may confirm the citations, if they wish, and what is probably better yet, may pursue their investigations more thoroughly, as to some particular district or phase of life, than it has been possible to do in this little book which has condensed into a few hundred pages that which justly forms a whole library unto itself. The great continent derived its general name from one of its ancient provinces, that which was for a long time known as Africa Propria; the part of the land which extends in a narrow strip along the Mediterranean Sea. This great body of water was also called the Hesperian Sea, from the word Hesper, or Vesper, signifying West; it was known, too, as Mare Magnum ("Great Sea") and Mare Inferum ("Lower," in contradistinction to the Black Sea). Africa Propria reached from the ancient province of Mauretania (its farther coast washed by the Atlantic; Morocco is a part of it) on the west to Cyrenaica in Libya (associated with the name of the philosopher Aristippus) and bordering upon Egypt, where is now the kingdom of Tunis and where was once the seat of government of the celebrated Carthaginians. The ancient Greeks spoke of Africa as Libya, taking the name from another of the provinces, the desert part of which marched with Egypt. The old Arabs gave to the whole con tinent (that is, as they knew it) the name of El-ber, which signified a divided or forsaken land. The people of India (Hindustani especially) called Africa Bazehah. The later Arabs spoke of it as Iphrica — rather Aphirika — which quickly became Afrika, by borrowing the name from Euro peans yet limiting its use to Africa Propria, already mentioned, because the continent, as they knew it, was to them Maghreb, "Western," since it lay in that direction from their own land. The Ethiopians gave to so much of Africa as they knew INTRODUCTION XV (which after all was not a great deal) the name of Al-Kebutan, while the Persians, Armenians, and other peoples in ancient times had different names, varying most remarkably accord ing to the quaint, awful, mysterious, or simply unknown characteristics of the land bestowed by each individual nation or tribe. The etymology of the name Africa is another puzzle, deri vations for it being directly as the number of writers; but perhaps the most plausible is that which derives it from a corruption — or more correctly, philologically , a logical change — of the Phoenician word Pherio or Pheruc, which signifies an ear of corn ("corn" meaning what is specifically distin guished as "wheat" in America); hence "the country of Africa" came to be so-called because it was known to abound in that necessary commodity, which those great traders carried in their ships to many other countries. But we can not leave this subject of etymology without repeating the delightful bit of adventurous tale given by the Portuguese writer Manoel Faria-y-Sousa, an historian and poet who lived at Madrid, 1590-1649, in his "Africa Portugesa." He gets the name from Melech Ifriqui, a king of Arabia Felix, who having been defeated in war by the people of Higher Ethiopia, in a battle which took place near the banks of the Nile, forded that river with what remained of his army and its supernumeraries, followers, etc. — women, children, ser vants, slaves, and the like. He then crossed a portion of the desert of Libya, settled in the eastern part of the Berber country — modern Barbary — and called his new home by the name of Ifriquia, from his own. The running down of this word into Africa is a very simple matter in the effect of attri tion upon place-names, while of the story itself we may very well say with the Italians se non e vero e ben trovato ("if it isn't true it is plausible.") There was much and strange confusion among the ancient historians and geographers about the defining lines of Africa. That Ptolemy should have declared it extended quite to the South Pole is amusing, and we can hardly suppress a smile XVI INTRODUCTION when we think of southeastern Asia extended through the East Indies, to absorb Australia, and then going on to join Africa projected, making the Indian Ocean a mare clausum. Others disputed about the proper line dividing the two con tinents Asia and Africa. Sallust and Pomponius Mela cut off Egypt Marmorica from Africa, making the valley of the Catabathmos the boundary. Others again, among whom was Strabo, declare that the River Nile was the divid ing line, notwithstanding that Herodotus (at whom Strabo openly sneered, yet to whom we are now disposed to give a good deal of credit for having been a fairly astute observer and, all things considered, a pretty accurate recorder, because his myths and impossibilities would deceive nobody) had long before confuted this absurd notion, arguing that if it were consistently adhered to, the most important part of Egypt,, that which is called the Nile Delta, would be neither in Asia nor yet precisely in Africa. But all of these old geographers were sadly aglee when it came to computing the area of the continent; a few going to ridiculous extremes in augmenting it most extravagantly, others erring on the side of overcon- servative diminution. Even Strabo had so little notion of Africa's actual extent that he roundly condemned those who made it out to be one-third of the then-known world, and he declared it was too small and inconsiderable in every direc tion to deserve such distinction. We owe the Arabs a grudge for their effort, a wicked and silly one, to blot out the remembrance of the ancient in habitants of Northern Africa by giving new names to many places, and thus causing such geographical confusion that the older Africans, upon their recovering the land, could never thoroughly rectify it; to which statement may be added the charge that many of the old cities, and whole provinces too, were quite laid waste until restoration was impossible, and so the memory of the former inhabitants was totally lost. We find that as far back as 1526 writers could not come to even tolerable knowledge of the old geography, in spite of great pains and patient industry given to the subject. These INTRODUCTION XVU old-timers had to content themselves with dividing the Africa which they knew into the four great parts — that is, Barbary, Numidia, Libya, and Negritia — leaving their readers quite in the dark as to the rest. Those who have any interest in this subject, or are merely curious, should if possible read the account given by Christopher Cellarius (1638-1707) and consult the curious old map which he gives of Ancient Africa. Later, if the reader's interest goes out to ecclesiastical matters, he is recommended to read "The Universal History." AFRICA OF TO-DAY AFRICA OF TO-DAY CHAPTER I THE AFRICA OF FABLE THERE is to-day but little of the earth's surface which is branded as unknown to us, or even marked "unexplored" on the recently prepared maps: a little of Asia — Tibet and some other parts of that wonderful Central Asian Plateau, and tracts in Siberia, for example; a few relatively small patches of Africa, around the throbbing heart of "The Dark Continent," although some of these areas, when measured by mileage or acreage standards, would be found to be of no mean dimensions, and some of them, indeed, exceed in size that of full-fledged " countries " of Europe. If we speak with precision, as of course we should do when discussing geography or history, there are some pieces (insignifi cant they may almost be called) of both divisions of the Western Hemisphere which have not yet been so accu rately explored, surveyed, and mapped as to satisfy the exact student of geography; for there are still some considerable areas of the Dominion of Canada and small parts of Alaska, too, that are, to say the least, vaguely drawn on our present maps. There are also tracts of no mean dimensions in South America about which our knowledge of their physical geography and, certainly, 2 AFRICA TO-DAY of their ethnology are yet a little too mdefinite. It is hardly necessary to repeat the truism that we do not yet, by any means, know all there is be to known of the isles of the sea when we read of an expedition in Dutch New Guinea discovering a tribe of natives living in conditions of primitive simplicity, discarding clothing entirely (raiment, in fact, being unknown to them), un able to grasp the idea of numerals beyond two or three; and yet this was done in the year 1911. Of the Arctic and Antarctic regions we probably now know as much as will satisfy the ordinary reader for a long time to come; even if there may be vast tracts of absolutely, as yet, unexplored land in the neighbourhood of each Pole. The episode connected with the northern one seems to account for the indifference with which the public look upon the British expedition towards the South Pole, and perhaps explains the amusement caused by the Japanese failure. But he does not have to be a tottering centenarian, by any means, who can recall distinctly the time when the great continent of Africa was a mysterious, still unsolved, most alluring problem; and yet it is second in size to Asia only of the integral great divisions, having nearly ten million square miles of superficial area. It would seem almost as if the horrors of climate, peoples, and animals with which the ancients invested the coun try beyond the narrow fringe along the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the lower part of the Nile Valley — most of the Egypt that we know — had con tinued to exert its influence upon Europeans until well into the nineteenth century. A man of but little more THE AFRICA OF FABLE 3 than middle age can easily remember Africa as a land to which a few people went, men (and women, too, perhaps) who were obsessed by some strange craze, either for specific purposes, commerce, — but that was felt to be but rarely legitimate in those days of slave capture, ivory and gold depredations, and the like, — or evangeli sation; to be sure there were a few — a very few — who went in the pursuit of pleasure; and still fewer to explore. Yet all went with that sense of personal danger which so often (may we not rightly say "always" in the case of such bold hearts as beat high when Africa was the goal?) adds spice to any occupation. All were looked upon by their friends who stayed at home as veri table adventurers — and foolhardy? Yes, probably most lookers-on thought of them in just that way half a century or so ago! Yet dotted here and there along the nearly twenty thousand miles of coast, there have been ports of entry for greater or shorter periods of historic time. The northernmost of these, whether on the east, along the western shores of the Red Sea, or the west, in the remotest parts of ancient Mauretania (along the Mediterranean littoral, of course), had been visited at the very dawn of history. In those eastern and western and northern ports there was a certain measure of civilisation, varying greatly in character according to locality and in number of those who were foreigners, it might be of one type or a mixture of several. Yet, not excepting the northern coast, that bordering upon "the tideless sea" and facing the countries of the cultured peoples just across the Mediterranean, it was but a step from these outposts of 4 AFRICA TO-DAY European civilisation into the unknown territory, just back of this narrow strip, which so often swallowed up everything, man or beast, that passed the dreaded boundary. True, indeed, is it that this vast continent, though associated with the dawn of civilisation, with traditions and mysteries of the most stimulating kind, has remained until recently one of the least known and, both commercially and politically, one of the least important of the great divisions of the globe. What a difference it makes in the visitor's first impres sions and his subsequent opinions how one approaches the great continent. If from the north as, of course, the majority do first reach Africa, it is not always actual land that is first seen — usually the tall towers and min arets of Port Said, at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, rise up from the blue waters of the Mediterranean long before the low and level shore begins to show itself; and he who has just left Italy behind him once more recalls to mind the appearance of Venice, if he ever came back into that city from the Adriatic along the Grand Canal and its outlet. It was somewhat the same in the days before the Suez Canal route was opened, when steamers landed at Alexandria and passengers went by train to Cairo, for the night only, if in a hurry to catch the connecting steamer, and the next day on to the dis agreeable little port of Suez, where now the canal opens into the Red Sea. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say so, and yet there may be some who think of the Suez Canal as they have naturally been led to do by their experience with other canals; that is, as entered or left through locks. But there is no lock in any part of the Suez THE AFRICA OF FABLE 5 Canal; at either end steamers enter right from the sea, as if going into a river. There is no appreciable current, and the difference in level between the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea is a myth which caused amusing apprehension when the project of digging the canal was first mooted. When Alexandria is the objec tive port, it may be that the Libyan Hills first assert themselves to introduce the new continent; or perhaps suddenly, although there may be nothing else really to indicate it save the turbid water replacing the world- famous blue, the traveller realises that he is passing along the broad base, projected far into the sea, of the Nile Delta, although he may yet be nearly a hun dred miles off shore. Such a preponderance of those who are going to Africa make Port Said or Alexandria their port of entry that this brief description is prob ably that of the common impression of the continent, for the first time seen. Westward of Alexandria, yet still along the shore of the Mediterranean, this first impression varies greatly as it is the coast of Tunis or Algiers or Morocco that first looms in sight; while those who pass through the Straits of Gibraltar have a vastly different first view of Africa, as they see it at Cape Spartel, or Jebel Musa, "Apes' Hill." But nowadays so many tourists, Ameri cans especially, make their first acquaintance with this continent at the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, "The Gate of Tears" — because the old mariners dreaded the dan gerous place so much and for such good reason, tide- rips, treacherous currents, shifting shoals, sudden gales conspiring against them — that they see on the Africa 6 AFRICA TO-DAY side the bleak desolation of sand matched by equal deso lation of Arabia in Asia. Then, jumping in imagination some five thousand miles to the southern end of the continent, and approach ing the coast at Cape Town, now quite as popular a place of entry as the older northern ports, Table Mountain and the surrounding bold headlands create quite another first impression; or perhaps False Bay lures the careless or befogged mariner into trouble which leaves anything but a pleasing first impression. Yet no matter from what direction the approach is made, there is even now quite enough of mystery about Africa to make the nerves tingle and the imagination run riot, as perhaps no strange land can do, possibly excepting Palestine; and the influ ence of the Holy Land is of such a totally different nature that even this exception may also be passed over. With what consummate skill Nature seems to have worked in making the African continent a land filled with dreadful, impossible mysteries for the peoples of Europe, and of southwestern Asia too, in ancient times — three thousand years ago! In the north, across the whole breadth, save the narrow valley of the Nile, stretches the great desert of Sahara, forming a barrier that was simply impassable until the Arabs took their camels there, and even with these there was little more than an advance, certainly not a conquest, for a very long time. It is most appropriate to call the camel "the ship of the desert, " for the shifting sands, blown to and fro almost like the waters of the sea, are not unlike mighty waves over which the camel alone can ride in safety. The fact of there being such an obstacle to progress as the desert THE AFRICA OF FABLE 7 could not but have had the effect of making the strangers from Europe and Asia fill, in their imagination, the regions beyond with all manner of dreadful creatures and to give the fullest credence to the tales told by the savage natives about fearful places far off in the distance whose very inaccessibility added a weird fascination. Then, too, the one great river, the Nile, that furnished what might possibly have been used as a means — and the only means at that time — for penetrating the regions to the south, was itself, perhaps, the deepest mystery of all — its periodical rise and fall occurring with almost uncanny regularity, both as to season and as to volume, when the flood was at its height. What fed the great stream in those hot regions which seemed to forbid the very thought of moisture? This was a puzzle that must have sorely baffled the colonists for centuries. It is certain that Greeks and Romans established colonies along the southern shore of the Mediterranean at a very remote time past, but beyond that narrow fringe of fairly attractive land bordering the blue waters they made no successful effort to penetrate. The Phoe nicians, too, had settlements in northern Africa fully a thousand or fifteen hundred years before the time of Christ. Cambyses III, the son and successor of Cyrus the Great, of Persia, effected the conquest of Egypt in the year 525 B.C. and made that country, for a time, a part of the Persian Empire. So that all the evidence points to a fairly intimate acquaintance, among the inhabitants of the ancient kingdoms of Europe and the Levant, with the fertile Nile basin and the Mediter ranean coast of Africa. But that same testimony con- 8 AFRICA TO-DAY firms the mystery which enshrouded the mighty land up the Nile Valley, and beyond the narrow sections which the Europeans and Asiatics had reached. For that which is not really very ancient but certainly most quaint in the old literature about Africa, we turn to "The Marvellous Adventures of Sir John Maundeville, Kt." Whether or not Sir John ever really lived and travelled and wrote an account of his "marvellous adven tures," or dictated them to a scribe who added embel lishments to please his own scholarly fancy, are not of the slightest importance as facts. That which is told in the book represents fairly well the opinions concerning the mysterious land of Africa (and almost every then- known corner of the world) which obtained in Europe at the time when Sir John is alleged to have lived; that is to say, about the middle of the fourteenth century, for Mr. John Aston's edition of "The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville, Knight, which treateth of the Way toward Hierusalem and of Marvayles of Inde and other Hands and Countreys," states "ye shall here by me John Maundeville Knight which was borne in Eng land in the town of Saint Albones [St. Albans], and passed the sea in the yeare of our Lord Jesu Christ A. Mill, C. [although Pyson and other authorities say MCCCXXXIL] on the day of Sainct Michael, find set down." xNo two of the many editions of this interesting and most amusing book agree precisely in words, so that they are in reality almost translations rather than mere renderings (transliterations shall we say?) into familiar English. One of the easiest to read is that by Mr. Arthur Layard, because it is done into modern spelling. Copyright, Underwood &* Underwood, N. Y. The Beginning of the Nile THE AFRICA OF FABLE 9 Herodotus, of course, is rather disposed to give full credence to the marvellous tales from and about Africa, south of the Egyptian boundary and west into the Libyan desert, and consequently Strabo often has a sly fling at Herodotus' creduhty. "Herodotus and other writers trifle very much when they introduce into their histories the marvellous, like [an interlude of] music and song, or some melody [as if for the purpose of sweetening a pill that otherwise would be hard to swallow]; for example, in asserting that the sources of the Nile are near the numerous islands, at Syene and Elephantina, and that at this spot the river is of unfathomable depth." Strabo tells us that he himself entirely discredits these fables of other historians, and declares that he introduces some of their marvellous yarns merely to round out his own narrative; yet it is not always clearly indicated in his own text when some of these astonishing tales are just these "introductions" and when the statements are given credence by himself. One of the stories that Strabo stamps as fictitious is that the Sinus Emporicus (or merchants' bay) was a cave which admits the sea at high tide to the distance even of seven stadia (nearly three-quarters of a mile), and in front of this bay was a low and level tract with an altar of Hercules upon it, which was not covered by the tide! So is another; that on other bays of the extreme northwest coasts of Africa, beyond the "Pillars of Hercules" (Straits of Gibraltar), there were ancient settlements of Tyrians, abandoned already in Strabo's time, which consisted of not less than three hundred cities, all of them destroyed by the Pharusii and the Nigrita. Yet, just a little later, this IO AFRICATO-DAY same writer accepts without protest the statement that in certain rivers of Mauretania leeches are bred seven cubits (twelve feet!) in length, with gills pierced through with holes through which they respire. "This country is also said to produce a vine, the girth of which two men can scarcely compass, and bearing bunches of grapes about a cubit in size [length]." The Egyptian cubit is reckoned at 20.64 English inches; therefore these grapes of Mauretania would have compared not unfavourably with those of Eshcol, pictured in the illustrated Bible.* Strabo also quotes Iphicrates (or Hypsicrates, according to some commentators), whose statements he generally accepts, as declaring that in this same country there were large serpents, so old and huge that grass grew upon their backs even! But of the unknown regions beyond those districts, concerning which some information was to be had, Strabo wisely says practically nothing. He mentions, to be sure, the cave-dwellers {Troglodytce) and the lotus-eaters (Lotophagi) in a casual, half incredulous sort of way, but he invests them with none of the startling traits which are attributed to them by so many other writers of his day and by some who belong in what may almost be called modern times. We ought not to leave this subject of legendary Africa without a brief mention, at least, of the "Mountains of the Moon," which have, as Mr. E. H. Bunbury says,f proved a sad stumbling block to geographers in modern times. The very name itself suggests something quite out of the ordinary, something mythical and uncanny. The range was alleged, by Ptolemy especially, to stretch * See Numbers 13: 23. t See Enc. Brit. THE AFRICA OF FABLE II from east to west almost entirely across the conti nent at about the equator; dividing, in a most arbi trary manner and by an almost unbroken line, the reasonably known parts of the continent from the absolutely unknown. The curious persistency of these "Mountains of the Moon" is alluded to again in Chapter II, "Africa as the Dark Continent and Its Emergence into Light." Although there is seemingly a strange break in the record of intercourse between the West and the East, that is to say between the extreme parts of southwestern Asia and the Mediterranean countries of Europe, with the remotest parts of the Asiatic continent and its adja cent islands, the East Indies or "Spice Islands," from about the tenth century until the early years of the six teenth, it was but natural that the Europeans should have felt the desirability — almost, one may say, the necessity — of an ocean route to remote Asia, which should be free from one seriously crippling phase, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea pirates, as well as the expensive and hazardous transhipment at or near the Isthmus of Suez. Equally natural was it that the Portu guese should have been the first to make this attempt to reach Asia by sea, since that part of the world came within their bailiwick as defined by the famous papal bulls dividing the earth into two parts by an imaginary fine drawn north and south, west of the Azores, and granting all new lands east thereof to the Portuguese and west to the Spaniards. The great temptation, to comment jocosely upon the inevitable overlapping, be cause the rotundity of the earth was even then coming 12 AFRICA TO-DAY to be admitted by everyone, is resisted. The Portu guese assumed the correctness of the theory that Africa was not a land stretching continuously down to the South Pole, but probably circumnavigable. It should be remembered that the Spanish peninsula took no part, nationally, in the Crusades for the attempted recovery of the Holy Land. Knowing how intensely loyal the Spaniards and Portuguese were to the Roman Catholic faith, and how eager was the Pope and his advisers to achieve the expulsion of the paynims from Palestine, especially that Jerusalem with its most sacred sites, relics, and treasures might be regained for the True Faith, this seeming apathy on the part of the Spanish and Portuguese strikes us as very strange. But the Spaniards were altogether too heavily burdened by their own effort to complete the expulsion of the Moors from their own country and to recover from the disas trous effect of that expulsion upon their own economic conditions to think of sending any considerable body of troops abroad. Consequently Portugal took the lead of Spain in this effort to penetrate the Far East. It was the Portuguese who pushed down the west coast of Africa until, if possible, its southern extremity should be rounded and a way opened for their ships to reach the Indian Ocean and the whole of Asia's southern and eastern coasts. The fighting that the Portuguese had had with "The Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean," the Barbary Corsairs, had given them much valuable train ing, and it undoubtedly stimulated their effort to pass out into the Atlantic and then down the African coast, partly to be rid of these pests. More will be said of this THE AFRICA OF FABLE 13 training in encounters with the Moorish pirates in Chap ter XV, when we speak of America's relations with Africa, because the moving cause for our early intercourse was those Corsairs, and naturally it will be desirable to trace briefly their raison d'etre, their evolution, their frightful influence, and their extermination. In 13 1 7 and 13 51 certain Portuguese ships with Geno ese pilots visited the Madeira and the Canary Islands, and even went as far as the Azores, a thousand miles out in the Atlantic — these groups of islands appear on Medici's map of 1351. It should be borne in mind that a "pilot" in those days, and for some time later, was not precisely one whose ability was limited to a knowledge of safe channels; he was, in addition to that, a trained and expert navigator as well as being somewhat of a geographer. In 1377 occurred the accidental and most romantic visit of the Englishman, Robert Machin, to the Madeiras, but it is strange that this episode is not given in English histories, for we have to look into Portuguese literature for the best account of it. In 1402 the Norman knight, Jean de Bethencourt, estab lished a colony on the Canaries, and because aid and supplies had been given by the King of Castile, he yielded homage to the Spanish monarch. The African coast as far as Cape Non had been explored in a rough and ready sort of a way in the thirteenth century, the name being given because it seemed as if the point said "No" to wistful mariners, who were deterred from push ing past it by the fear of intense heat, the rotundity of the earth, and other causes operating to invest explora tion with all manner of dread. However, the cape was 14 AFRICA TO-DAY passed in the following century, and slowly, step by step as it were, those Portuguese adventurers made their way down the coast and crossed the equator, thus doing away with the dread of the impassable hot zone. And yet when Prince Henry of Portugal, "The Navigator," died in 1463, these newer discoverers had actually gone no farther than had Hanno two thousand years before; for between 570 to 470 B.C. Hanno had made a voyage out into the Atlantic, passed down the coast of Maure tania, and established seven small stations as far to the southward as Kerne, at the mouth of the Rio d' Oro, which existed for a considerable time. From the extreme southernmost of these he made two voyages of explora tion, the second one going as far as Sierra Leone and the neighbouring Sherboro Island, where he found "wild men and women covered with hair, called by the interpreters, 'gorillas.'" But very near to the end of the fifteenth century Bartholomew Diaz, when some four hundred miles south of the Tropic of Capricorn, was driven due south by a storm for thirteen days into a region of frightful waves and turbulence that well-nigh prostrated his seamen; then, with moderating weather, he shaped his course towards the east and slowly hauled up towards the north, until he made the coast to the west of him and reached the land at the mouth of the Gouritz River, over two hundred miles east of the Cape of Good Hope. He had rounded Africa and got into the Indian Ocean, although for a time he did not realise what he had done. Retracing his course, he doubled the point to which he gave the name "Stormy Cape," but King John H of Portugal promptly changed this THE AFRICA OF FABLE 15 to Cape of Good Hope as soon as he comprehended the great importance of the event.* This circumnavigating of Africa had been one of the topics that aroused the fiercest sort of controversy amongst scholars and navigators from the earliest times, and the Greek and Latin writers quoted by Europeans in the Middle Ages were arrayed into two strenuously opposed factions. It is strange, although this is of course the expression of an opinion based upon knowledge after the event, that the Homeric notion of an ocean entirely surrounding the terrestrial world, the flat one then conceived, should have survived so persistently and for long after the globular form of the earth had come to be maintained by most geographers. The greatest of them, Erastosthenes, correctly assumed that the Indian Ocean was actually connected with the Atlantic at some point far to the south, very vaguely surmised, however, and hence he and others of his way of thinking, such as Posidonius and Strabo, contended for the circum- navigability of the African continent. There is neither opportunity nor necessity for discussing the interesting stories, decidedly apocryphal as they are, of the actual accomplishing of this feat in times long preceding the voyage of Bartholomew Diaz; as, for example, the story told by Herodotus of the Phoenician squadron which, during the reign of Necho in Egypt, 610 to 595 B.C., sailed quite round Africa and reappeared in the Red Sea. It is right, however, to mention, without details, * Some accounts of Diaz's performance state that he deliberately steered south, east, and north, and would have gone farther up the east coast of Africa, had not his sailors almost mutinied and compelled him to turn back. l6 AFRICATO-DAY Erastosthenes' strange blunder about the Caspian Sea being a huge gulf connected with the Baltic (and North) Sea by a long, circuitous channel which afforded another route to the Atlantic and thence round the world. We should naturally assume such a geographer as he to be possessed of sufficient information to prevent his mistak ing the Volga River for a salt-water channel, but such he apparently did. In a certain way, however, this blunder finds parallels in mistakes made by very recent geographers as to physical conditions in Africa — some of which will be mentioned in subsequent chapters. We must here note again the extraordinary way in which Ptolemy, usually reckoned to be a master of his craft, came to grief in his speculations as to the form of the African continent. This he contended extended south ward until it reached the South Pole; that the continent of Asia likewise swept down from eastward of Farther India until it, too, joined the Antarctic continent; thus making the Indian Ocean a completely landlocked body of salt water. We must not omit mention of the fact that Antonio Goncalves, in 1442, brought back to Portu gal gold and negro slaves from the Rio d' Oro country, four hundred miles beyond Cape Bojador (260 06' 57" N. lat.), and that this was the beginning of the African slave trade — a subject which will engage our attention later. CHAPTER II AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT AND ITS EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT. MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES BRIEFLY TOUCHED UPON IT seems a long while ago, as we look backward now, to the time when Henry M. Stanley published his interesting account of his quest for the German governor of Equatoria (1890), Edouard Schnitzer, Emin Pasha, and he told of the rescue of what was left of Emin's Httle band, and of their successful retreat. It strikes the reader now with singular force that the measure of appre ciation shown by the rescued governor, the almost child ish objections he made to being saved, and the difficulties he needlessly put in Stanley's way, hardly justified the great expense incurred and the terrible anxiety and suffering of those who took part in the mission of succour; but this may be declared heartless. Yet Stanley, only a little more than twenty years ago, gave his book the title "In Darkest Africa," and if we compare his sketch map in that volume with the one which he mserted in his previous work, "How I Found Livingstone," published in 1871-72, and also study another map in a little volume entitled "Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time";* reading, in connection with these other books, the account * Edinburgh Cabinet Library, 1830. 17 18 AFRICA TO-DAY given by. Major Denham, who expressed himself as having "almost full assurance of reaching those depths of Africa from which no European has ever yet returned"; and last, when we read Mungo Park's book and study his routes, taken a little before and just at the turn from the eighteenth century into the nineteenth, we are com pelled to admit that barely a score of years ago Africa was still not at all inaccurately described as "The Dark Continent," and it is not until the opening of this twen tieth century that the emergence into the light began to assume satisfactory conditions in fact. By this state ment we do not mean that there had not been wonder ful development accomplished in many parts of Africa before the end of the nineteenth century; it is only when we regard carefully the tremendous area of the great continent and think of the narrow fringe of civili sation along the east and west coasts, the old civilisation of the Egyptian inset along the Nile, and the newer one which has pushed northward from the Cape of Good Hope, that we realise properly how meagre, after all, had been the "emergence into light." The chronological series of small maps of Africa, reproduced in "In Darkest Africa," beginning with that of Hekatseus, 500 B.C., and coming down well into the nineteenth century, gives us a most emphatic demonstra tion of how very slow was the opening up of the great continent, Africa, into that light which permitted of even a rough comparison with, let us say, Asia. And in 1819, when the "Mountains of the Moon" still appeared on the maps given in school atlases and the "Sources of the Nile" were placed at "somewhere Copyright, Underwood &° Underwood, N. Y. Blacks from the Equatorial Plains Climbing a Mountain The natives are wrapped in blankets for protection against the unaccustomed cold. The peak in the distance is 18,000 feet high AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT IO, between io° north and 200 south latitude" (a margin of over two thousand statute miles, which excites a smile !), conditions were but httle better. In this view of the case we may safely say that until very modern times our knowledge of Africa was far from satisfactory. As recently, comparatively, as 1747 — at which date our knowledge of Asia was fairly satisfactory — an English writer* said: "The far greater Part [of Africa] continues still unknown to us, and the Ancients knew still less, who looked upon it as desart and uninhabitable. And though we are since become better acquainted with it, yet our Knowledge of it extends Httle farther than the Regions that He along the Coasts, especiaUy those along the Mediterranean; which being the most fruitful in Corn and other Products, and more easy of Access, have been more constantly resorted to both by Euro peans and Asiatics. As for the Midland Parts, as they were for a long while beUeved inaccessible and uninhabited, by reason of their intolerable Heat, they lying mostly under the Torrid Zone, they have on that very Account as weU as the Savageness of its [their] Inhabitants, been Httle Visited by any Strangers. Even the Southern Parts of it, which He under a more temperate Climate, and are much easier of Access, are found inhabited by such barbarous People, so fierce and savage in their Nature, so uncouth and forbidding in their Manners and Language, so shy of [in] aU Intercourse with foreign Nations, that our Readers need not wonder at our being *"A Complete System of Geography: Being a Description of all the Continents, Islands, Countries, Chief Towns, Harbours, Lakes and Rivers, Mountains, Mines, etc., of the Known World." Emanuel Brown, Geographer to His Majesty. 20 AFRICATO-DAY almost as much in the Dark about them as we are about Midlands [Central Africa.] " When we speak of Africa's emergence from darkness into Hght, we are, of course, using the words in a strictly modern sense as connoting European progress. There is no intention to disparage the civihsation which was to have been seen in Egypt thousands of years ago; nor is it meant to ignore the fact that even the influence of the Arabs along the Mediterranean shores (unsatisfactory as it was when measured by European standards for several hundred years past) was decidedly an advance upon what they had originally found there. Of the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman civiHsation, it would be an impertinence to aUude to it as in any way similar to conditions existing in Africa among the aboriginal peoples and tribes of savages. In discussing the efforts of Europeans to explore, colonise, and develop the Dark Continent, we should — at least so it seems to us — begin with the time when they really commenced to have serious aspirations in those matters. Something has already been said of Portu guese progress along the west coast; but we must now give a Httle attention to a most important episode in European history which had grave and almost disastrous bearing uponAfrican development — thatis, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in the latter part of the fifteenth century. When the conquest of Granada brought about the final downfall of Moorish supremacy in Castile, the attitude of the victorious Spaniards was at first fairly lenient towards the Moors; the latter were prom ised security in their material possessions and entire AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 21 freedom in the practice of their religion, providing always that nothing was done which might be construed as offensive to the Christian faith. But this indulgence was soon displaced by harshness, and the Moors were compeUed to make choice between apostacising or ban ishment. Many of them chose the former alternative and made profession of the Christian faith; but even their apparent subscribing to the Roman CathoHc doc trine did not reHeve them from severity, because the sincerity of their conversion was always impugned, and the Hfe of the Moriscoes (as those Moors were called who remained in Spain) became almost unendurable: yet so strong is the human instinct to protect material interests that many continued to submit to indignities and actual persecution rather than give up their property. Those who accepted banishment and held to the faith of Islam now turned their hands against all Christians, regardless of nationaHty, and speedily developed capacity to make the Hves of Europeans along all the northern Mediterranean shores, from the Dardanelles to Gibraltar, one constant dream of horror. The act of the Spaniards in driving out the Moors resulted in national as weU as individual loss amounting almost to destruction, and it was one of the most fatal mistakes recorded in history. The Portuguese, blocked in their pathway towards the East by the Moorish pirates and by the Turkish domination of the Levant, turned their attention to parts of Africa beyond the spheres of influence of Moor and Turk. It cannot truthfully be said that the Portu guese had at that time any serious plans for colonising Western Africa. What Httle they did in this way along 22 AFRICATO-DAY those coasts was merely incidental: and whatever they did was rarely, if ever, to the credit of Christians, or indeed of human beings. As John Fiske and others tell us, there were most unholy deeds wrought by those men who, having suffered more or less from the bitter, merci less crusades of the Barbary Corsairs, themselves turned freebooters, and wherever they landed they left behind them an unsavoury reputation for expropriation of property and kidnapping of men, women, and children to seU them into slavery but Httle better than that which their own countrymen endured from Moorish captors. Innumerable deeds were committed by these Portuguese adventurers which should have been requited with condign punishment, only there was no one to inflict it. They were a law unto themselves, and for many years the story of the West Coast of Africa is one of violence which should have brought the perpetrators to the gallows. Much as there is to admire in the bravery of those Portuguese sailors in pushing down into unknown seas, it is almost negatived by their acts towards their fellowmen, blacks though they were, on land and on sea. Were this the only tale to narrate of Africa's earHest sign of emergence from darkness into Hght, it would be wiser to leave it untold here. But there is a better one, and it redounds to the credit of men and women who sought to upHft the natives of Africa. First, however, it must be admitted that the earHest efforts of commer cial men from other nations of Europe than Spain or Portugal were not always — indeed were not often — along the ideal pathway of Christian civiHsation: the temptation to practise unfairly upon the ignorance of AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 23 the heathen natives was almost irresistible, and the pioneers of trade were all too frequently actuated by most sordid motives only. StiU, we detect rays of Hght almost synchronous with those evil deeds. In 1521 Manoel, King of Portugal, sent a Jesuit priest, one Quadra, to the Kongo and instructed him to cross overland to Abyssinia, where it was known there were evidences of the survival of a primitive form of Christianity. In 1526 and 1537 two others, Jesuits probably, Castro and Pacheco, had pro posed a similar journey; while in 1546 King John III of Portugal, he who introduced the Inquisition into his domains about 1526, had recommended the Portuguese missionaries, then already in Abyssinia in considerable numbers, to try to push their way westward across the continent to the mouth of the Kongo. In that great, interesting, and most instructive series entitled "Jesuit Travels," there is a statement of a missionary, a Jesuit, of course, who crossed Africa at some time between 1550 and 1560 and endeavoured, to the best of his linguistic abiHty, to teach the natives something of the Christian rehgion. In 1553 was despatched the first regularly organised Jesuit mission to Africa, and in 1592 Breto, one of the successors in this enterprise, advocated and attempted, although he was not successful, a chain of mission stations right across Africa from the east to the west coasts. One of those Jesuit missionaries to Abys sinia, Father Paez, claimed to have been the first to discover the actual source of the River Nile, redis covered one hundred and seventy years later, in 1770, by the Scotchman James Bruce, of whom it is said 24 AFRICATO-DAY "he wfll always remain the poet, and his work, Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, the epic of African travel." It may be interpolated here that Bruce and WilHam D. Cooley, the EngHsh geographer (died 1883), deny the correctness of Paez's claim and contend that he was merely the first to describe a portion of Central Africa which other Portuguese sojourners in Abyssinia had visited about 1595, but without asserting discovery of the actual headwaters of the Nile. Bruce's discovery was of the Blue Nile source. In 1606 one AragHs made a journey, combining explora tion with an attempt at Christian propaganda, of some four hundred miles into the interior from the coast of the Angola territory on the west of Africa. Half a century later, in 1663, Godinho, another missionary, recom mended the estabHshing of an overland route, with mission stations at regular intervals; and Jaine, another Jesuit, stated that, according to reHable information he had obtained, there was nothing to prevent traveUers, on peaceful mission bent, from going from the northern Zambesi Country, on the east coast, right across the continent to Angola. The Jesuits actually penetrated from the Toka (Batoka) Plateau, north of the Zambesi River, into the present Rutsi Country above Victoria FaUs. From the mouth of the Zambesi to that of the Kunene, in what is now German Southwest Africa, is quite half the distance across the continent in a straight Hne. In 1798 Francisco Jose de Lacerde e Almeida, who was sent to explore the Mozambique Country, where he died of malarial fever, opened up some eight hundred square miles of new country between Mozambique and (Tv £? Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N . Y. Victoria Falls, Middle Zambesi River, Rhodesia The regatta course above the Falls, where aquatic sports are much in favour among the English residents AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 25 the southeastern lakes of the Lualaba district (Kongo Free State). Lacerda was accompanied by a Roman CathoHc chaplain. So that, between 1500 and 1800, at least one missionary was among those who crossed Africa and actually anticipated Livingstone in this hazardous enterprise. Without burdening the reader with further details (interesting though they are) of pioneer journeys into the heart of Africa undertaken by representatives of the Roman CathoHc Church during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, their work on the Sudan Nile between 1848 and 1863 deserves brief mention. In 1849 Ignaz Knoblechejr, at that time the head of an Austrian mission, undertook what was really an exploring tour in the cause of Christian propaganda. During this journey up the Nile from Khartum to Gondokoro (Equatorial Province) the Jesuit reached the Rejaf Hill (Logwek) 4° 45' N. and was the first European to ascend it. Six years later Beltrame, another missionary, traveUed up the Blue Nile to Rosieres. Duryak, Gossner, Kauf- mann, Kirchner, Morlang, Mosgau, and Vines were also Jesuit explorers as weU as evangeHsts, and to them subsequent traveUers who worked as speciaHsts were greatly indebted. The accounts they gave of research in geography, meteorological observations, ethnograph ical and linguistic studies greatly expanded the knowl edge of Nile lands and peoples. August Petermann (died 1878), the eminent German geographer, admitted that Duryak and Knoblecher "kept an accurate hygro- metrical and meteorological register with great precision and scientific regularity." In 1878 Massaia, by reason 26 AFRICATO-DAY of his influence with MeneHk, king of Abyssinia, ob tained permission for Antinosi, an ItaHan explorer, to establish a scientific station on the royal estate. In 1880, Duparquet made a journey from Walfisch Bay, German South West Africa, to Omaruru and thence to the Ovampo district between the Kunene and the Okavanga rivers. In 1884 Ohrwalder, an Austrian Jesuit, escaped from the Mahdists and brought out news of what was taking place in the Sudan during the dark days following its prolonged closure to the outside world. This information, confirmed and empha sised by that furnished later by Alexander Murdock Mackay, first mechanical engineer and afterwards Protestant missionary, led to the despatch of the rehef expedition, headed by Stanley, to which reference has already been made. We may safely say that practically all Roman CathoHc missionaries in Africa were explorers, and that a good many of them were in the field before Livingstone. Turning back, in the matter of time, in order to take up the consideration of Protestant missionary effort as contributing greatly towards Africa's emergence into Hght, we find that as long ago as 1661 two members of the Quaker fraternity arrived at Alexandria and began preaching to the Copts and the Moslems with, it is said, some sHght measure of success. But it must be admitted that there was not conspicuous zeal displayed by Prot estants during the rest of the seventeenth and almost all of the eighteenth centuries. This does not mean that there was no effort made, but that it was desultory, and precise information cannot be had without research, AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 27 which is not expedient. It is to be assumed that the Dutch colonists in South Africa were accompanied by clergymen, and that these did something, at least, among the natives; but it was very near the end of the eigh teenth century, 1792, that EngHsh missionaries entered Cape Colony. They crossed the Orange River in 180 1 and entered the Chivana Country. In 18 12 Campbell, of the London Society, determined the course of the Orange River, and in 1820 he, with Moffat, discovered the source of the Limpopo River and explored a good part of the region traversed by that stream. Early in the nineteenth century there were considerable numbers of Protestant missionaries in the field and their success was measured by the numerous converts, but the deadly cHmate prevented the prosecution of the work zealously, and until 1887 the Gold Coast was practically the only field in the west of Africa. In Central, Eastern, North Eastern, and West Africa Dr. Nassau explored the reaches of the Ogowai River, which were unknown until then. A Httle later, Grenfell of the British Baptist Mission, discovered the Mobangi, the greatest tributary of the Kongo. In 1855 Erhard and Rebmann made a map of East Africa between the equator and 140 south latitude and for about sixteen degrees inland from Zanzibar. The information given and the size attrib uted to the lakes induced the Royal Geographical Society to equip Burton for his great and successful expedition. In 1877 the Young Men's Missionary Society of Birmingham, England, entered the African mission field and spread Christianity widely throughout Natal. Before Stanley had completed his first descent 28 AFRICATO-DAY of the Kongo, TiUy, a director of the EngHsh Calvinist Baptists, had invited the East London Institute for Missions to join in sending men abroad; so that prior to Stanley's reaching Europe, 1878, missionaries were on their way to Central Africa. This was the origin of the Livingstone Mission. It was the intention to form a chain of mission stations from the West Coast far into the interior ; these were to be self-supporting. But the plan was found to be impracticable; no European could safely engage in the necessary manual labour, and trade was quite out of the question because the natives would have misconstrued the motive and thought the mis sionaries were seeking their own interests in the profits. It may be noted here, although it is rather parenthetical, that Bishop Colenso, Natal, for a time entertained differ ent views as to the method best to foUow in Christian propaganda. His predecessors had advocated the plan of first Christianise and then civiHse; he tried the other order, but speedily confessed it was a failure. The ques tion naturaUy occurs to the average lay observer, why not let the two things go on together, hand in hand? David Livingstone, born at Blantyre near Glasgow, Scotland, March 19, 1813, died at Chitambo, Central Africa, April 30, 1873, travelled twenty-nine thousand miles in Africa, practically all of it on foot, and added one milHon square miles to the known areas, or about one-twelfth of the total continent. He discovered Lake Ngami in 1849 (it now Hes within British South Africa's sphere of influence); in 1851 the Zambesi River in the middle of the continent, and determined its course to the Indian Ocean; in 1856 the Victoria FaUs; in 1859 two AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 29 longitudinal ridges flanking the great Southern-Central African VaUey, ascended the Shire' River, by way of Murchison Cataracts and Lake Shirwa. His so-called rediscovery of Lake Nyasa was virtually an original one, since its reputed position was inaccurate. Although ill at the time, he fixed the true orientation of Lake Tan ganyika, and was the first European to traverse its length. In 1867 he discovered Lake Mweru (Moero); in 1868 Lake Bangiweolo, the Lualaba stem of the Kongo River, opened up the Nyema (Manyema) Country, and, supported by Stanley, showed that Lake Tangan yika did not empty northward and therefore could not feed the Nile. Stanley said of Livingstone: "In the annals of exploration of the dark continent, we look in vain among other nationaHties for such a name as Livingstone's. He stands pre-eminent above aU; he unites the best quaHties of other explorers : the method ical perseverance of Barth, Moffat's philo-Africanism, Rohlf's enterprising spirit, Duveyrier's fondness for geographical minutiae, Burton's Hteral accuracy, Speke's cheery simpHcity and seductive bonhommie; he is a rare human mosaic, a glory to Britain. But to Burton, Germany can show Barth and France Duveyrier, and to Speke, the first can show Rohif and the latter Cattle ; to Cameron, Germany can oppose Nachtegal and to Baker Schweinfurth, though two greater opposites can scarcely be imagined; and France can boast of Compeigne and Brazza (the ItaHan). But Britain, after producing Bruce, Clapperton, Denham, the Landers, and Park excelled even herself when she produced the strong and perseverant Scotchman." There are several most 30 AFRICATO-DAY admirable traits with which we justly credit Livingstone: first, with being a real missionary; second, with reclaim ing South-Central Africa from barbarism and sin; and third, with doing a noble work in contributing towards the suppression of the slave trade. Thus it becomes manifest that a major share of Africa's emergence from darkness into Hght is attrib utable directly to missionary effort, and that what was feebly begun centuries ago and revivified in the last one, is marching on hand in hand with material civiHsation. Naturally, an acquaintance with the language of the strange people among whom they are working is of more importance to the missionary than it is to the merchant, yet equal with the needs of a competent diplomat or consul. Hence we find the missionaries in Africa, as in aU other parts of the world, using their command of language for (i) Propaganda, (2) Philology, (3) Natural Sciences, (4) Arts, Industries, and Com merce, (5) Advantages to be conferred by colonisation, commerce, and civiHsation, (6) Peace! Schweinfurth says that American missionaries "have done an enormous amount of good." Gordon in the Sudan said that no permanent ameHoration of conditions there could possibly be accompHshed without the aid of Christian mission aries. Schnitzer (Emin Pasha) requested the co-opera tion of missionaries for the Equatorial Province and would have defrayed their entire expenses had there been difficulty on this score for the home boards. O'Neill, British Consul to Mozambique, after ten years' experi ence, spoke of missionaries as contributing much to the pacification of the country and greatly furthering the AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 31 suppression of the slave trade. Layard said the same thing. Mailland, Governor of Cape Colony (1844-47), told the British Government that more depended upon the labours of missionaries than on rifles and soldiers in keeping the savages quiet. Groat, an American Congregational missionary who had been working suc cessfully among the Zulus, was about to return home because his Society had decided to withdraw from the field; but Mattland sent him back at his own expense. The good work done in Algiers by the French Roman CathoHc bishop, Lavigerie, is praised by all and has gained words of hearty appreciation from military men and civttians of all nations and creeds. In Africa, as in every part of the world, history repeats itself, even if sometimes the order of procedure varies a Httle. Sometimes it is the trader who is the absolute pioneer; in which case the later effort of the missionary is likely to be all the harder — and so it was in most of Africa. But there was no satisfying evidence of the breaking away of darkness until there came those who brought the message from God and also tried to put away the love of strife, so that there might be something of civiHsation in its highest plane. GraduaUy, throughout the great continent it is becoming more and more evident that it is not the most mihtary nation which leads the van, but that this post is held by those who strive for peaceful progress.* * A good deal of information in this chapter was derived from " The Redemption of Africa," Frederick Perry Noble. The interested reader who desires further data and precise statistics is heartily referred to that book. I have supplemented Mr. Noble's statements with facts gained from my own observation. — J. K. G. CHAPTER III NORTHERN AFRICA BY the term Northern Africa, a very indefinite one at best, we shaU mean aU of the continent north of the southern Hmit of the Sahara and a line extended eastward to include the Egyptian Sudan and reaching the Red Sea at about 220 north latitude, but excluding Abyssinia and the ItaHan colony of Eritrea, which we shaU consider under the title of East Africa. Just south of this Northern Africa comes what we call Central Africa, but on the Atlantic coast it falls under our division of West Africa. Now the Sahara is such an important and interesting part of this continent that it deserves a chapter to itself; and as for Egypt, it would be impossible to do justice to that great and absorbingly interesting section of Northern Africa within the Hmits of this chapter without neglecting everything else; therefore it, too, is excluded here. Consequently we shatt restrict ourselves in this chapter to a consideration of the four countries the names of which school children were formerly allowed to rattle off so ghbly as almost to be rhythmical; namely, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and TripoH. That is, the very narrow fringe along the Mediterranean Httoral; although Morocco does stretch for a long distance down the Atlantic coast and TripoH pushes itself quite halfway across the Sahara. In 32 NORTHERNAFRICA 33 general terms it is the great, old headquarters in Africa of the Islam faith, and from it went out into the desert and across it into the very heart of the Dark Continent missionaries in such numbers, and whose success was so remarkable, that far down towards Southern Africa the earHest European traveUers found Mussulmans who were even stricter, in the rigid observance of the faith, than were those who Hved nearer the earthly gate to Paradise, Mecca. Within the past two years much anxious attention has been given to Morocco and there were, within a few months, very disquieting signs of trouble, in that part of Africa, which might involve several European nations in actual war. But while this chapter is being written the indications point to adjustment without recourse to arms, and French supremacy appears to be estabHshed in Morocco. Still, the episode of June and July, 191 1, is so typical of what may happen at almost any time in a Moorish country, and its repetition may so easily involve European nations, that it is worth while giving it some attention; for it really represents one phase of Africa To-day as nothing else can do. Just what portion of the French Kongo will be ceded to Germany as compensation for withdrawing from Morocco and promising to keep hands off, had not been officiaUy announced, but it was assumed to be of value to the latter country's already acquired rights in the Kamerun region; in return France is to be allowed a free hand in Morocco. If by this "free hand" was meant that the administration of affairs is to be taken up by the French — a Protectorate, in other words — it can hardly 34 AFRICATO-DAY be that the task is going to prove an easy one. The seem ing intention of the French Government to uphold the authority of Sultan Mulai Hafid and his Vizier Glawi does not exactly satisfy our ideas of doing that which is for the best interest of the whole country and all the peoples. While apparently the recent uprising was directed solely at the Sultan and his immediate friends who are declared to have given themselves up to robbery, "until there is now nothing left to rob," to have com mitted the most indecent assaults upon women every where, and to have brought slavery and misery on aH sides, yet the attitude of the tribesmen was not hostile to Europeans — the rebelhon was against the Sultan and his Vizier. But we know too well that when such a revolt is once started in a Moslem country, religious fanaticism at once asserts itself and the fate of Christians who fall into the hands of the turbulent natives is rarely anything but that which means death for the men and worse than death for the women. In the effort to restore and maintain order, perhaps France was right in insisting that the authority of the (alleged) legitimate successor to the throne should be upheld, and therefore the reHef expedition was justified in acting as it did in Mulai Hafid' s behalf. Of its humanitarian motive there can be but one opinion : Europeans — Christians — were in danger and they had to be saved, if possible. No one would for a moment beHttle the successful effort of that expedition to reHeve the few strangers who were shut up in Fez last summer. But the motive for the reHef expedition was greatly NORTHERN AFRICA 35 misunderstood by the natives, and it is certain that the conduct of the French troops, after they reached Fez, left something to be desired and which did not tend to correct entirely the misunderstanding among the rebelhous natives. In June, 1911, we read of out rages committed by the Fez garrison and of remorseless reprisals made upon neighbouring villages as soon as the siege was raised. Mulai Hafid had sent his own troops, under the command of French officers, and these committed wholesale destruction of Hfe, expropriation of property, and nameless assaults, until stopped by General Moinier as soon as he understood what was being done. It is hardly to be wondered that the Moors felt resentment at the arrival of an infidel army which lent itself — even if but for a short time — to the designs of their hated officials. Of course Mulai Hafid and his immediate advisers denied stoutly all possibttity of there being a savage re-estabHshment of the Sultan's power; yet their acts were totaUy opposed to the spirit in which France sent succour and in which General Moinier conducted the reHef operations. The feeling of aU the natives who are opposed to Mulai Hafid, and information justifies the statement that numericaUy they are in the majority (although this is not a case wherein majority rules!), was admi rably expressed in a letter from Akka Duimeni, chief of the Beni M'Tir tribe and leader of the Berber rebel hon, extracts from which were printed in the London Times of May 12, 191 1 (weekly edition). This chief is known to be not in the least anti-European and not ultra-fanatical in reHgion. After some general state- 2,6 AFRICATO-DAY ments as to the motive of the rebelHon and the feelings of the people towards the Sultan, the Vizier, and the court favourites (and what has already been stated in this chapter gives an idea of these sentiments) he said: We discovered that Europeans had no pity; but we still looked for justice. What have we found? The Sultan and the Maghzen, who rob wholesale to leave us to die of starvation, and who have brought the whole country to misery, are assisted and defended; but two wretched soldiers who stole a pack-horse and, fearing the results, deserted — what happened to them less than three months ago in Fez? The Europeans intervened and they were shot pubhcly in the presence of the troops. What law of God, what justice of man, can justify that? What can we do now but die? It is aU that is left to us. We know we cannot resist the French troops for long, but none the less can we permit them to invade the country. We wttl not surrender; we wttl not cease from [asserting] our cause and fighting for what we know to be our rights, so long as Mulai Hafid remains Sultan and Glawi his Vizier. Under any other Sovereign we will disperse in peace and accept all international agree ments, but this man and his Vizier have oppressed us too rigorously. The blood of our slain, the cries of our children caU us to avenge them, — the blood of our slain and other blood! But a few weeks ago three Httle girls from one of the tribes went to Fez to appeal for their father's Hberty. When they arrived he was already dead. They were brutally violated by the Palace attendants and sent home. Had it not been for European assist ance [extended to our oppressor], peace would have NORTHERN AFRICA 37 reigned months ago and a new Sultan would be on the throne. You know now to what purpose Europe's assistance is put, and it wttl be her everlasting disgrace that she has consented to and connived at the prolonga tion of this period." The letter concludes with these words: "By the service I once rendered you, by our friendship which has never ceased, and in the name of the God of mercy and justice, and in the name of our people, whom you know and love, I call upon you to make known my message." Following quickly upon France's action in sending troops into Morocco came Germany's in sending a war ship to Agadir, an open roadstead moderately protected by headlands and five hundred miles south of the Straits of Gibraltar. Germany's contention was that the possi ble occupation of Morocco by France was a breach of the Algeciras Act and restored to all Powers signatory to that Act freedom of action. There were German firms interested south of Morocco, and if Agadir were opened it would be a natural outlet of the Sus district. It seemed for a time as if the five European Powers, — ¦ France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Russia as the ally of France, — would be required to enter into further negotiations to restore peace in Morocco; and if this necessity was evaded, nevertheless conditions indicate something of what is to be seen in at least one part of Africa To-day and no one will say they are satisfactory. The French Government had decided to re-enforce the French troops at Casablanca (Dar-el-Beida, about midway between the Straits of Gibraltar and Agadir), and drew up an agreement with the Maghzen for the 38 AFRICATO-DAY purpose of supplying the Sultan with financial means to estabHsh a serviceable army of five thousand troops, to be drilled and commanded by French officers, and to assist in the upkeep of the palace. There was to be an issue of two successive loans through the agency of the Morocco State Bank. France intimated to the Shereefian (the chief magistrates) her willingness to renounce tem porarily the annual installments of the war indemnity due her. It is hardly surprising that all of this was con strued by Germany as inimical to her position; nor is it astonishing that Great Britain threw her influence into the scale with France, because the total maritime trade of Morocco for the year 1909 (the latest for which statistics are readily available) amounted to £4,600,000, an increase of £800,000 over the previous year: but Great Britain's share in this trade increased propor tionately more than did that of any other European Power. France showed an increase of £90,000, Great Britain £430,000. This extreme northern strip of Africa has been most appropriately called "The Land of Winter Sunbeams," and it is yearly attracting more travellers who seek for mildness of cHmate, picturesque scenery, and variety with opportunity, of seeing something of a civilisation that is still strange, although it is fast becoming Euro- peanised and commonplace. Or, if there is a desire to combine with much of indolence a Httle of energetic activity, in the form of mountain cHmbing, there is the Atlas range, that attains its greatest height in Morocco and stretches off to the east, graduaUy becoming lower and lower until it runs out to nothing in the extreme '^¦¦.*»~-^-. Pluto, Underwood &* Underwood, N. Y. The Palace at Fez The Sultan arriving to receive the tribes at a feast NORTHERN AFRICA 39 northeast of Tunis. There yet remain some very toler able peaks to be conquered, some of them between thirteen and fourteen thousand feet in elevation, possibly, more; but the attempt to reach those summits is still attended with risk because of the turbulent natives, as fond of backsheesh as are the Corsican brigands of ransom, and because these mountains are infested with danger ous wild beasts. These things must make the would-be mountain climber give careful heed to his plans ere he ventures. It is more consistent with our own ideas to Hmit the Atlas range to the chain which begins in the ex treme southwest of Morocco, back of Cape Non, that so long said "thus far and no farther" to the early Portuguese adventurers, and extends to Tunis, excluding the lower httls which are sometimes included in the Atlas range and go on into TripoH. These true Atlas moun tains, except the tops of the highest peaks, are generally well covered with forests, pine, oak, cork, white poplar, walnut, chestnut, and other trees, and in them many minerals are found — lead, copper, antimony, sulphur, and even gold and silver. There are not, there cannot well be, any rivers of importance; those which run off towards the south are quickly absorbed in the desert sands; those flowing north have too short a life to attain any appreciable size — about three hundred and seventy miles is the measure of the longest, from source to mouth. None of the Atlas peaks is snow-covered all the year round, but on some of them the snow Hes until well into June ; and the contrast between their cold look and the heat of the coast is great indeed. 40 AFRICATO-DAY Morocco is weU defined, geographically, on the north by the Mediterranean and on the west by the Atlantic; while the boundary on the east, between this state and Algeria, has been fixed, although in a most arbitrary manner, by the treaty of 1844. But towards the south east, the line which separates the province from the officially unappropriated part of the Sahara and that, too, on the extreme south, had not yet been clearly estabhshed unttt recently, when the Spanish colony of Rio d' Oro was delimited. It is well for the people of Morocco that Nature has seen fit to. build the Atlas range as a barrier to the encroachments of the desert sands from the southeast; for if it were not for this it is prob able that the fields would be converted into desert, although the prevailing winds rather tend to drive the sand in the opposite direction, towards the east. Notwithstanding the decidedly disagreeable character of the prominence given to Morocco during the past few years, it yet remains that portion of North Africa about which European and American information is most deficient, and the ordinary maps are based upon the most unscientific material supplemented by probabihties and conjecture. It is reasonably safe to say, however, that aU of this uncertainty will be removed ere this twentieth century has grown much older. Should France really be granted a free hand, a trigonometrical survey will surely be one of the first things undertaken. The seacoasts — Mediterranean and Atlantic — have been well known for many centuries, and the latter is especially remarkable for its regularity and sameness, "not a single gulf or noteworthy estuary occurs through- NORTHERN AFRICA 41 out its whole length." (Enc. Brit.) From the same authority is taken the following extract, which rather appeals to the tourist: "The prickly pear forms one of the features of the landscape from the coast up to the slopes of the mountains. The cork tree, common in the time of Addison, has lost ground enormously, though it probably forms the staple of the Ma'mura forest, which extends some twenty miles between the Bu Rakrak and the Sebu. Though not so widespread as in Algeria or some districts of Europe, the palmetto is often locally very abundant. Citrons, lemons, limes (sweet and sour), shaddocks, mulberries, walnuts, and chestnuts are common in many parts. Tetuan is famous for oranges [the 'Tangerenes'], Meknes for quinces, Morocco for pomegranates, Fez for figs, Tafilelt and Akka for dates, Sus for almonds, Dukalla for melons, Tagodast, Edante- nan, and Rabat for grapes, and Tariidant for olives. The grape is extensively cultivated and the Jews manu facture crude but palatable wines. Sugar, once grown in Sus to supply the demands of the whole of Morocco, has disappeared. Both hemp and tobacco are cultivated under the restrictions of an imperial monopoly, — the former (of prime quaHty) being largely used as hasheesh, the latter, though never smoked, as snuff. Barley is the most usual cereal, but excellent crops of wheat, maize, mttlet, rye, beans, pease, chick-peas, and canary-seed are also obtained. Potatoes are coming into favour in cer tain districts. It is still true, as in the time of Addison, that the Moors 'seldom reap more than wiU bring the year about,' and the failure of a single harvest causes inevitable death." Yet other authorities tell of wonder- 42 AFRICATO-DAY ful underground granaries wherein are stored supphes of foodstuffs to last for years. Algeria as to-day is, of course, France's most impor tant colony, and in all of the principal places the visitor feels almost as if in Europe; yet there is always the air of being away from "gay Paree" or any other home city. The north, east, and west boundaries are well defined, but the southern line is still most vague, and it is not Hkely that "vested interests" of other Powers will for a long time to come demand a strict delimitation of France's sphere of influence to and beyond the Niger River. The coast-line is already well equipped with a railway from Oran to Tunis, and there are many short branches running back into the hills, already presaging an extension of a great trunk Hne across the Sahara via Timbuctoo to the Gulf of Guinea, and in the east towards the French Sudan and Kongo region. The natives have for a long while spoken of two distinct zones, the Tell and the Sahara, running east and west. The former is the belt of truly arable soil, the "corn land," along the Mediterranean, and it is a series of fertile swales in which grow grain of many kinds, especially wheat and barley. Here were the great granaries that made Africa so famous in ancient times, as has already been told. The Sahara zone is not, strictly speaking, a part of that great desert, although it is sometimes so called; but there are here, again, two parallel sections : the northern is mountainous, yet very fertile in spots, and here are some of the greatest fruit orchards; the southern belt, bordering the Great Desert and projecting most in definitely into it, is made up largely of oases, whose NORTHERN AFRICA 43 inhabitants are shepherds and gardeners. Throughout, the mountainous regions are covered with extensive forests, but the lack of good roads and navigable rivers has prevented the French from deriving much benefit from this timber. There is temptation to dwell here upon the interesting history of this great French colony, but it must be resisted because of Hmitations of space. It is, however, but right to give the following extract from the Encyclopaedia Britannica : " The villages of the Sahara [zone] are surrounded by belts of fruit trees, of which the [date] palm is the chief, though there are also pomegranate, fig, apricot, peach, and other trees and vines. On the mountain ranges near the coast are ex tensive forests of various species of oak, pine, cedar, elm, ash, maple, olive, etc. The cork tree is also very common. The trees, especially the cedars and oaks, are frequently of gigantic size. Great injury is often done to the forests by the people annually burning up the grass of their fields. In this way extensive forests are sometimes consumed. . . . Locusts are common, and sometimes do great damage to the crops. One of the severest inva sions of these pests ever known occurred in 1866, when the crops were nearly all destroyed, and the loss sus tained by the colonists was estimated at £800,000." There is one part of Algeria which has the unenviable reputation of being one of the hottest places on earth, ranking with Death Valley, Cahfornia, and the head of the Persian Gulf. On July 17, 1879, the thermometer registered 124° F. in the shade! Tunis. In spite of a promise made, according to the authority just quoted, that France did not intend to 44 AFRICA TO-DAY maintain proprietary rights after carrying out punitive measures, found necessary because of the recrudescence of piracy, the Regency of Httle Tunis, which was formerly one of the Barbary States of North Africa, has been since 1881 a dependency of France, whose resident-general exercises aU real authority within the nominal dominions of the Bey of Tunis. Where it adjoins Algeria and TripoH, the borders are defined with reasonable clearness and the coast-line is determined; but along the south the frontier Hne extends somewhat indefinitely into the Sahara. Were greater attention given to catering to the wants of winter traveUers, Tunis would be an agreeable place for those who seek "Winter Sunbeams," because the mean temperature of the winter or rainy season is 6o° F. in the northern part of the country, at Susa or the capital, Tunis; but at present there is Httle on the west, to draw the tourist away from Algeria, and simply nothing in Tunis on the east to set off against the attractions of Egypt or, but a short distance beyond Barca, of Tripoli. TripoH or Fezzan, including Barca, is the last of these North African States to be discussed here; and again, excepting the sea-front and the northwestern border, where it marches with Tunis, the boundaries are most indefinite, for the actual frontier in or along the Libyan Desert (Egypt) and that in the Sahara have yet to be estabhshed. Since 1835 TripoH has lost the semi- independent character of a regency, which it formerly enjoyed in common with Tunis, and has become a vilayet or outlying province of the Turkish Empire. There are extensive ruins which have not yet lost all NORTHERNAFRICA 45 attraction for the archaeologist. The strip of fertile land along the Mediterranean is narrow, yet the country produces considerable grain, and the dates of TripoH have the reputation of being the finest in aU North Africa, if not in the whole world. The wide sandy plains and rocky, mountainous regions of the interior and south are practically non-productive. The country is, as a whole, badly watered; the rivers are small and the desert wells and watering places are often dry. It is strange how Httle attention has been given in modern times to the spacious harbours of Tibruk and Bomba, but until progressive capitaHsts decide to build a railway to Lake Chad, to reach the populated Sudan, there is not likely to be much use made of these ports. "In consequence of recent events in Tunis, TripoH has become the last surviving centre of the caravan trade of Northern Africa. It is at least two hundred and fifty miles nearer the great marts of the interior than either Tunis or Algeria. A large proportion of the commerce of TripoH is in the hands of British merchants or dealers in British goods, who send cloth, cutlery, and cotton fabrics south wards and receive in return esparto grass, ivory, and ostrich feathers."* In the next chapter we shall discuss the peoples and tribes of these four North African countries, and then it wttl be seen what absorbingly interesting problems are yet waiting to be solved by the student of sociology and anthropology. Since this chapter was written war has been declared by Italy against Turkey and a demand made for the * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 46 AFRICA TO-DAY ceding of the entire province of TripoH to the former country. Those who have made themselves familiar with the story of events in Northern Africa during the last twenty years wttl hardly be surprised either at the declaration of war or at the demand. When Italy evinced a disposition to make a somewhat similar demand, towards the end of the last century, and obtained from Great Britain reasonable assurance that the latter would not look upon the former's ambitions unfavourably, it was pretty well understood that, although conditions at that moment seemed to be adverse, Italy would eventually accomphsh her pur pose, and thereby drive the Turks from all active con trol in Africa; and it is the general consensus of opinion that it is well this should be, although there are not wanting many intelHgent and unprejudiced observers who disapprove strongly of the methods to which Italy has had recourse in accomphshing her objects. Yet if we investigate carefully the conditions that existed in TripoH and its hinterland, under Turkish administration, we find that in the territories which that government had been controlHng, there yet existed an active and cruel slave trade which should have been sup pressed long since. It seems as if this buying and hold ing of slaves must be a necessary concomitant of Turkish control in any part of Africa. It is alleged even that some Turks engage in the trade as a sort of pastime; and if transfer of possessory rights to Italy holds reason able assurance of the suppression of this business, humanitarians should not cavil too much at the means Italy employs to accomphsh this desirable end. It is, NORTHERNAFRICA 47 however, useless and untrue for the ItaHan Government to pretend that its subjects were in personal danger or even treated unfairly by Turkish officials in Tripoli, or that their property and material rights were endangered, and the allegation to the contrary is but a pretence after aU. Still, flimsier pretences than this have been found or made, many times before this, sufficient founda tion upon which to base a declaration of war. The fact that Italy seems to have retted more upon British com placency and French indifference than upon German or Austrian co-operation tends rather to make us think of her act as discrediting the famous Triple A1H- ance; but there have been so many events in late years which justified the suspicion that the great alhance is more a name than an effective combination, aggressive, defensive, or simply preventive, as to make this latest (possible) imputation upon it not in the least astonish ing. With Great Britain as a neighbour on one side and France on the other, Italy, in Africa, will be almost a member of the entente cordiale. Intrinsically, the territory which Italy seems to have added to her domain is not of great value. The volume of trade passing over the caravan route to the Lake Chad district is not very large, and it is Hkely to decrease to even smaller proportions with the activities of the Egyptian influence in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan diverting some of this trade into the Nile Valley, and with French effort to deflect more of it westward into French Sudan. It is highly probable that ItaHan effort may accomphsh something in utilising the Tripolitan harbours, which have been mentioned, and it is not 48 AFRICATO-DAY impossible that Italy may undertake the building of a railway from TripoH to Lake Chad, along the present caravan route; although in the Hght of present knowl edge this must be called, commercially and industrially, a venturesome undertaking. Physically, it is not remarkably difficult; yet the Libyan Desert offers but scanty inducement in the matter of local traffic, except that everywhere in Africa the natives have taken so kindly to railway travel that passenger trains are said to be crowded on every Hne now opened, and this source of revenue may go a good way towards yielding profit able returns on the investment. It is not likely that any objection would be raised by the Anglo-Egyptian or the French Government on the ground that the TripoH-Chad Hne would be a parallel rival to the Cape to Cairo or the Algiers-Timbuctoo Hne; the interven ing distance, in both directions, is too great to justify apprehension. Much has been said of the possibility of trouble for Italy with the Senussi when she has secured possession of the entire province of TripoH and, with the con currence of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and France, determined the southern boundaries of the colony. This, however, we think is something that has been unduly exaggerated. The most competent ob server of recent years, Mr. Hanns Vischer, gives these Senussi people a fairly good reputation, and their alle giance to Islamism is not so virile as to justify serious apprehension of their declaring a "Holy War" to resist annexation and control by Christian Italy. CHAPTER IV THE PEOPLES AND TRIBES OF NORTHERN AFRICA THERE are not many places on this earth where, in such a comparatively small area, so great diver sity in racial characteristics, degree of civihsation, and every phase of Hfe is to be noted as in this relatively small section of the great continent, the part known as Northern Africa. It is quite impossible to give even a satisfactory approximation of the size of the four States which have been included in this section, for the reasons that were given in the last chapter — that is to say, the absolute indefiniteness of their interior, southern, boun daries; but we may say that, excluding the Sahara tract and the Tuat district of Morocco, the Algerine desert quite beyond the actual sphere of French influence, and guessing (somewhat wildly, to be sure) at the southern boundary of TripoH, the aggregate of the four countries is something over half a milhon square miles and the population something Hke fifteen milhons, including all races and peoples, which indicates a very sparsely settled territory — only about thirty to the square mile. Within this area the peoples are divided, racially, thus: i. Kabyles, or Berbers, who represent the aborig inal inhabitants, and who have preserved, to a some what remarkable degree, their purity; 2. The Arabs; 3. The Moors; 4. The Jews; 5. The Turks; 6. The 49 50 AFRICATO-DAY Kolouges, descendants of Turks by native women, but left by their fathers to shift for themselves; 7. The Negroes, and, 8. The Mozabites, an African race of people who have, in some strange way, sifted through the other peoples and reached the shores of the Medi terranean, where they are the chief manual labourers — the longshoremen, stevedores, and roustabouts. There are, of course, a great many Europeans, of whom some may properly be called permanent residents; while the great majority are in the several countries for but a short time, still thinking of "home" as certainly across the sea and of the happy time when they may return to the homeland. In a most entertaining book, and yet one that is scientifically accurate enough to satisfy the demands of most people for precise information as at that certain time, Samuel S. Cox tells of his "Search for Winter Sunbeams"; that is, his experiences in Africa half a century ago. The book is now but seldom read, and yet the information which we are about to borrow from it concerning the Kabyles is quite as apposite to-day as it was when "Sunset" Cox wrote about those interesting people. Inverted commas are not inserted to indicate an exact quotation, because the expressions have been somewhat modified to adapt them to our present pur poses. The Kabyles in the French colony of Algeria are seen, perhaps, to best advantage at Tizzi Buzi (Tiziuzi), between the city of Algiers and Fort Napoleon on the sides of one of the highest of the Eastern Atlas range of mountains, the chain which runs from Tunis westward through Algeria and Morocco to the Atlantic PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 51 coast near Cape Non. The loftiest peaks of this range are hkely to be "silver-tipped" save in the heat of mid summer, and strange stories are told of the early French troops leaving the plains in summer outfit, to return in a day or two with frosted hands and feet, much to their amazement. Perhaps the Kabyles do not appear so well as we read of them in history as do the Arabs; they do not dress so statuesquely; they wear no fetching sashes or cinctures; no fez or abundant turban hides the head. They are just common people who work hard, raise a great deal of grain — as Europeans, in ages long past, knew to their great and endless comfort; attend to their flocks most zealously; make local laws which (speaking in general terms and having due regard to France's super vision) they obey faithfully; fight bravely and well, when they are pushed to it, but not seeking any needless quarrel merely for the gratification of seeing blood flow, and not prone to raids and depredations; holding to the tenets of the reHgion of this country, Islamism, with as earnest a soul as any class of labourers, patriots, or religionists on earth. It may easily be proved, by the ancient words of their language preserved in classical writings, that the Kabyles (Berbers) were the original occupants of the whole of this Northern Africa, and that they spread well down into the Sahara. They still are not only the most numerous, but the most industrious and civiHsable section of all the native races. They tickle the ribs of old Atlas till he laughs with plenty! While the Arab is still by preference a dweller in tents, a nomad, the Kabyle almost invariably builds for him- 52 AFRICATO-DAY self a house of stone or clay, although it may be just one of canes, roofed with the same and thatched with straw. As to their personal appearance, the man's head is generally shaved, except the crown, where a short tuft of raven-black hair is allowed to grow. Their women are not veiled or hidden. Their dress is very primitive and yet not wholly devoid of attractiveness. They wear woollen robes summer and winter; their sheep give them their Roman senatorial toga, with its Capuchin- hood ornament. Linen and cotton they did not know, and hence did not use at all until recently, and even now they wear but Httle of it. Although they Hve within sight of telegraph lines, they still dress and eat, and watch their herds just as did Abraham, or any other Oriental patriarch. They do more and better — they raise good - crops and are not wanderers upon the face of the earth. The Kabyles are older than the Arabs; they go back to the twilight of antiquity. In Northern Africa generally, and in Algeria especially, they are considered as aborig inal, and certamly in their own government they are very independent and democratic. The tribes Hve in villages, usually quite small, and they may be counted by the hundreds from any elevated point. The villages are grouped into communes, decheras; each dechera has as many karoubas as there are distinct famtties. The members of the karoubas elect local councillors or dahman, each of whom represents the interests of his commune in the djemma, the local legislature or county council, which is presided over by an Amin, who is a village headman and possesses judiciai'as well as military author ity. The collective Amins choose one of their number PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 53 to be the Amin of Amins, and he becomes the political chief, or president, of all the tribes, but in Algeria always under French supervision; although the latter have learnt the wisdom of as Httle interference as possible. A Kabyle looks upon his Httle plot of ground as his castle in very truth, and should anyone venture to step a foot on his land, after having been formally forbidden to do so, the owner would be very Hkely to kill the intruder without compunction, and he would be held blameless. Cox concludes his remarks about these in teresting people thus: "If I were to speculate about the Kabyles, and with the valuable work of John C. Baldwin before me, I should say, first, the races are seldom found pure; secondly, that Africa, even in its interior, is not inhabited by savage blacks, Hke the Guinea negroes; thirdly, an opinion based on conversation with Dr. Beke and other explorers, that the African proper, if not white, is a 'red race' — that is, brown or ohve coloured, Hke the Kabyles; fourthly, that in Northern Africa, although there is a great intermixture of black and white, growing out of the conquests of Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Goth, Turk, and French, yet so far as that portion of the continent is concerned, the Berbers, or Barbarians, now supposed to be the Tauarigs, or Touar- icks, are the prehistoric, primordial stock, from which the Kabyles are doubtless an offshoot. The Tauarigs are of the Desert and not the people to acknowledge the relationship; they are proud and reluctant to recognise any power but their own — even'their camels are said to be more aristocratic than the beasts of other tribes. Whether coeval with the first forming of the Mississippi 54 AFRICA TO-DAY delta, only one hundred thousand years ago, or the Florida coral reefs, still thirty-five thousand years older; whether they are Cushite, Semitic, or Aryan; whether out of Arabia, Egypt, or India; whether they are the second birth of a race, aroused to self-consciousness by some new physical developments — one thing is as cer tain as any other nebulosities of history; viz., that the Kabyle is very Hke this same prehistoric Berber. The Kabyle is not black; neither is the Berber. Their colour comes alone from solar exposure, it is not organic; so of the Berber. He who describes the Berber unconsciously describes the Kabyle. . . . There is something very beautiful in the grand plan of the Mitidji. Not only its fields of waving oats, barley, and wheat, just ripening; not only its flax fields, in bluish bloom; not alone its flowers and shrubs, two out of every three of which we have seen in Corsica Or in the Riviera; not alone its yellow genista, a flower of Gascony, and from which the Plantagenets took their name — for they are Gascons, Hke the flowers; not alone the ferula, the camels, the donkeys, all things please." The somewhat lengthy account of the Kabyles — or Kabail, as many ethnol ogists and travellers contend the name should be written — has been given because they are the most , interesting of all the Northern Africa peoples. The Arabs of this section are, of course, the descend ants of the two great incursions by those people from their homeland in Arabia; the first — which has to do more particularly with Abyssinia and therefore comes in Chapter X, "Eastern Africa," — in the eighth century, and the second, which began in the eleventh. Of the ,x-> Copyright, Underwood &° Underwood, N. Y. Native Prisoners Under Arab Guards Going out to work on public highways in Zanzibar PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 55 first it is unnecessary to speak here, for what is said of the Arabs now to be found applies with equal propriety to all. There are plenty of these people to be seen in all parts of this Northern Africa, and they are especially numerous in Morocco and the southern part of Algeria; in both these States it is impossible to draw a Hne which marks off, even approximately, the Arabs of the recog nised government districts and those in the free desert. Some of the Arabs are cultivators of the soil and live permanently in villages in the neighbourhood of towns; but by far the great majority of them, true to those habits which are an inheritance from ancestors in the remote past, have no fixed habitations and dwell in tents, which they move about from place to place as the fancy strikes them or as the exigencies of their pastoral Hfe demand. The preponderating influence which the Arabs exert is indicated by the statement of Dr. Latham* that all which is not Arabic in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, TripoH, and Fezzan is Berber, and that, as a general rule, the Arabic is the language for the whole of the seacoast from the Nile Delta to the Straits of Gibraltar, and from the Mediterranean down the Atlantic coast of Africa to the mouth of the Senegal. There is really but Httle that is attractive about the migratory, predatory, troublesome Arabs, and the fact is empha sised by the history of Africa for many generations. "The origin of the Arab race, like that of most others, * Probably Robert Gordon Latham, whose contention for the European origin of the Aryans — rather favourably alluded to by Canon Isaac Taylor in his "Origin of the Aryans," — must be ad mitted to reflect somewhat upon his reliability. 56 AFRICATO-DAY can be only a matter of conjecture; no credit can be attached to the assertion, evidently unbased on historical facts, of those authors who, building on the narrow foun dation of Hebrew records, have included the entire nation under the titles of Ishmael and Joktan; and Mahometan testimony on these matters can have no more weight than the Jewish, from which it is evidently derived." * The race must be divided into two branches — the "Arab," or pure, and the "Mustareb," or supple- riiental division; and since the Arabs of Northern Africa are essentially Bedouins, nomads, "dwellers in the open land," it is probably safe to say that most of them belong to the Mustareb division. The Moors are among the most numerous of the inhab itants of the Kingdom of Morocco; but they are, also, spread all along the southern Mediterranean Httoral. Their evolution is most unsatisfactorily given. The most that can be said of them is that they are a mixed race, "grafted upon the ancient Mauretanian stock — whence their name." After the Arabs had conquered Northern Africa, including Egypt, in the eleventh cen tury, the Moors became mixed with them; and when they in turn invaded Spain, they intermarried with the Spaniards, still further complicating the blood. The greater part of the Moors were driven out of Spain in the early years of the sixteenth century and returned to Mauretania, whence they have spread eastward throughout the whole of Northern Africa and southward to a considerable distance. By some writers it is said that the "Arabs of the towns are usually known as the * Enc. Brit., article Arabia. PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 57 Arabs; and among them are the Spanish Moors, de scendants of the Andalusian refugees " ; but this is rather loose ethnology. It is certain that the town-dwelhng Moors form a most exclusive and aristocratic class, who have no social intercourse with the true Arabs and very httle to do with them in any way. The Moors are "a handsome race, having much more resemblance to Europeans and western Asiatics than to Arabs or Ber bers," although their language is Arabic; that is, the Mogrepin dialect, which differs considerably from the Arabic in Arabia and even from that which is spoken in Egypt. Mograb is that region in Northern Africa which is nearly equivalent to the coast regions of Morocco and Algeria. "My proper name is known only to my brethren. The men beyond our tents call me Hayrad- din Mangrabin; that is, Hayraddin the African Moor."* It is hardly necessary to say that the Moors are an intellectual people, having some attainments in educa tion; with their known antecedents they could hardly be otherwise : but they have not a very attractive repu tation, being "cruel, revengeful, and blood-thirsty, exhibiting but few traces of that nobihty of mind and deHcacy of feeHng and taste which graced their ancestors in Spain. The history of the throne of Morocco, of the dynastic revolutions at Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, is written in blood; and among the pirates who infested the Mediterranean they were the worst." The Jews in this region were estimated, some years ago, to be between sixty and seventy thousand in num ber, and it is not Hkely that they have materially * Scott, "Quentin Durward," Chapter XVI. 58 AFRICATO-DAY decreased. They are said to be looked upon by their orthodox co-rehgionists as almost apostate, so greatly have they diverged in rituahstic observance. As is the almost universal rule with Jews, these people in Northern Africa are to be found in the towns only, where they are money lenders and merchants. They use a corrupt form of Spanish for their speech and cannot be said to offer much that is attractive or even interesting to the visitor; although the tourist who seeks to increase his collection of curios from a region that is rich in possibilities will, of course, find himself continuaUy deal ing with these Jews, and he is quite as certain to suffer in consequence. The Turks, although the dominant race in Northern Africa for a long time, were never very numerous, and since the French occupation of Algeria and Tunis and preponderating influence in Morocco they have nearly disappeared. But wherever the Turk has been in Africa, as everywhere else for that matter, he has given way to his natural animal passion and taken the native women into his harem in any way that suited his pleasure — by nominal marriage, by purchase, or by capture. It is remarkable, however, that this intercourse has been most fruitful, and this custom has, in North Africa, resulted in the creation of a numerous mixed race, called Kolougis: for the Turkish fathers, on leaving for the homeland, seldom took any of these mixed offspring with them — never any of the girls; so that now a consid erable proportion of the inhabitants of the towns are Kolougis. Of them the travellers rarely have much to say that is good. PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 59 The Negroes who are found in this region were, it need hardly be said, all slaves brought by caravans across the desert and who had been captured in the interior. Slavery is no longer tolerated in any part of this domain where European authority exists or influence asserts itself; but the negroes are still quite numerous and the traces of their blood in the mixed populace, distinct or remote as the case may be — for this progeny is a great factor in the general population, — are self-evident. When we know of the large number of negroes in Northern Africa, mulattoes, and thinner strains of the blood, and then read of the thousands upon thousands of these poor slaves who were abandoned in the desert when the water bags in the caravan ran low and the oasis failed to keep its promise of a fresh supply, it makes the heart ache. We shall learn something of the horrors of the Slave Caravans in the next chapter, "The Sahara," and something of the general inefficiency of the negro in Chapter XIII, "The Blacks of Africa." It is sufficient to say here that in North Africa they fill only the most menial of positions, except when, as eunuchs, they are placed in positions of some responsibttity in charge of the harem of a Moor, an Arab, or a Turk. It is sel dom that they are found to be efficient domestic servants in the household of the Europeans. The allusion just made to the harem recalls the fact that- the women who have been born and brought up in the homes of Moslems, or those who have been forced to enter the harem by reason of purchase or capture, have been and still are treated as if they were scarcely human beings. They are taught that they exist merely to gratify the animal 60 AFRICA TO-DAY passions of their lord, and since this sort of training cannot possibly induce anything like sincere affection and respect, these women are rarely influenced in their deportment by any sense of propriety or chastity. It is strange, yet the fact is vouched for by many observers, that nearly all of these Moslem women become possessed with violently amorous passion for Christians, if chance in any way gives them the opportunity of seeing one who is at all attractive, and then the infatuation which succeeds leads them to go to the greatest extremes, if only they can gratify their lechery. An exception must be made to the somewhat condem natory remarks which have just been made upon the Negroes of Northern Africa in the case of the Mozabites, who are an African race and akin to the Negroes, if they are not actually Negroes themselves. They are found in most of the coast towns, from Tripoli west, and are de scribed as an honest, industrious, and peaceable people; the description differentiates them widely from the typical Negro of the same region. < Of the continental European resident or temporary sojourner in Northern Africa it is not necessary to say anything, since they display no traits which in any way distinguish them from their fellows at home. But something may appositely be said about the Maltese, who probably are the most numerous of those whom we may call Europeans along the southern shore of the Mediterranean. They are described as being- a strong, well-formed race, dark, handsome, and hthe; the women have black eyes and fine hair, are coquettish but chaste, they carry themselves gracefully and are attractive in PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 6l every way, being cheerful, good, honest, and industrious. All these Maltese are sober and abstemious, although they are quick-tempered, and when their anger is aroused they are a Httle too much addicted to the use of the knife. There is a large infusion of Spanish, Italian, and even French blood, but among these African Mal tese the Arabian characteristics predominate quite as markedly as on the island of Malta itself. In their language fully seventy per cent, of the words are Arabic, in fact or as derivatives, and the rest are corrupted ItaHan. As is said of the Maltese when at home, "the festivals and ceremonials of the Roman Catholic Church are kept up with extraordinary precision, while there are a few that are seemingly derived from the Greek Church. The perpetual ringing of monotonous church bells and the pecuhar method of striking time — feat ures which are very noticeable in the quarters where these Maltese congregate — are reHcs of Southern Ital ian customs." There is an amusing myth told of the people of TripoH city, who were said to entrust the guarding of their city in the night time entirely to mastiffs, dispensing alto gether with the services of warders or patrols. The dogs were shut up during the day in one of the bastions of the ramparts. At night these animals discharged very faithfully the duties entrusted to them; they patrolled the streets, and if they happened to meet any person they were sure to tear him to pieces. The moment the day broke they went of themselves back to the door of their prisons; but at all times they would bark furiously the moment they heard anyone come near their habi- 62 AFRICA TO-DAY tation, and their roaring was to be heard in all quarters of the city. We should hardly, in justice to the native population of Northern Africa, and especially of the Colony of Algiers, close this chapter without some reference to the unfair treatment to which the aboriginal peoples were subjected by their modern European conquerors. It is not neces sary to go back into the ancient history of the land and tell of the cruel deeds of Greeks, Romans, and Goths — and there are some very black pages connected with Lybia, Numidia, Mauretania; but in the last century deeds were wrought of the grossest cruelty and treachery. One of the French generals, in 1831, killed a whole Arab tribe, including the feeble old men, the defenceless women, and the helpless children, because of a robbery that had been committed by some male members of the tribe. The same officer also treacherously caused two Arab chiefs to be murdered, after those men had given themselves up on the general's written assurance of their safety. Naturally such acts, and hundreds more Hke them, exasperated the natives, and their attempts at vengeance and reprisal greatly added to the burdens of the French. But can we truthfully say they were absolutely without justification? There has been, within the last fifty years, a marked improvement in the condition of the native population in French African territories. An act of July 19, 1865, gave to natives, both Mahometan and Jew, rank and prerogative equal with French citizens, on placing them selves completely and absolutely under the civil and pohtical laws of France; and thus they were made admis- PEOPLES OF NORTHERN AFRICA 63 sible to all the grades of the colonial army and navy and to many posts in the Civil Service. The colony is now represented in the National Assembly by delegates; and after many vicissitudes, the story of which belongs in the domain of precise history, the Colony of Algiers and the Protectorate of Tunis may be said to be now in a peaceable and flourishing condition. It will be known to all how the HberaHty of the act of 1865 has been somewhat curtailed by subsequent legislation; although this has not been directed specifically against Algeria and Tunis. CHAPTER V THE SAHARA: THE DESERT, THE OASES, THE INHABITANTS, THE LIFE ONE of the earliest accounts which we have of the Sahara is that given by Herodotus, telling of certain Nasamonian youths, impressed by the marvel lous stories from the desert that had reached their ears, who set out from their home, somewhere in the eastern central part of the continent, it is to be presumed, and probably to be located southeast of the desert itself, to explore the Libyan Desert. They were gone a long time and on their return had, of course, many wonderful tales to tell of their adventures. They found, far off in the wilds, a race of diminutive men, of less than middle stature, who carried them off as prisoners to their city, standing on the bank of a river flowing from west to east, in which river were many crocodiles. It is impos sible to identify this river, but the association of Httle men, river flowing eastward, and crocodiles rather sug gest the Niger country than the Sahara or Libyan desert. The intruders seem to have been very gently treated by the dwarfs, and eventually the Nasamonians returned safely to their home, emphasised the wonderful stories which had been heard before, and declared that the men whom they had met were necromancers. The general impression of the physical appearance of 64 THE SAHARA 65 the desert, the one which prevails very widely, that it is a vast level or undulating expanse of sand, is by no means correct. There are rocky hills and mountains of no mean altitude; as, for example, the central range, about midway between the Nile and the Atlantic and running north and south, the Ahaggar (Hoggar or TasiU Ahaggar), a great mountain plateau, and in the east the Tarso mountains; while between them are the moun tains of Air, of volcanic origin. "Nearly all the rest of the Sahara consists in the main of undulating surfaces of rock (distinguished as hammada), vast tracts of water- worn pebbles (serir), and regions of sandy dunes (vari ously called maghler, erg or areg, igidi, and in the east rhart) which, according to M. Pomel, occupy about one- ninth or one-tenth of the total area." Scattered all over the desert are the ravines or narrow valleys (wadi), some of them more or less fertile; and there are, besides, the great number of oases. On the caravan road from TripoH to Lake Chad there are many of these hamada, and Hamada el Homra, "the red wilderness," stands first of all. A great range bars the road to the south between the coast of the Mediterranean and Fezzan; it rises in one great sohd plateau of chalk, eighteen hun dred feet in height, and it is about one hundred and forty miles broad where the road crosses it. Below it begins the desert proper, naked and hopeless. The Sahara has been visited by innumerable travellers of all classes, from the idlest tourist, merely on pleasure bent, to the most precise scientist. Representatives of all these have tried to give us their descriptions of the desert and to analyse their own impressions, and yet it 66 AFRICATO-DAY is safe to say that no one of them has been able to give a pen and ink picture which enables those who have not seen for themselves to get even a faint idea of just what the desert is. It is not intended to attempt to do here that which so many, far more competent, have failed in doing. For every visitor finds the desert to be totally different in its aspect and in its influence from his preconceived idea. The impressive desolation, the enor mous mass of rolling sand, the atmosphere, the irresist ible fascination of the place, all bid defiance to the pen, while the attempts to depict the desert with the brush have not yet been satisfactory and are not Hkely to be so. To the uninitiated, pictures are almost sure to suggest exaggeration of colour effects, both in land and in sky, while the experienced eye too often fails to be satisfied with even this seeming exaggeration. The statement of this writer, that he has seen sunsets in the desert which, if it were possible faithfully to reproduce them on canvas, would be pronounced, by those who have not seen the same sort of colour display, the fantasy of an overwrought imagination, will be endorsed by those who have seen just such gorgeous sunsets. One feature, however, may safely be named, since this is not a description — the awe- inspiring silence when the desert is in its normal condi tion. This seems to grip the intruder's very soul, while the sunrise and sunset and the moonttght effects almost admit of description because of their very gorgeousness and the curious refraction that makes the distant httls appear to be floating in midair. Everyone who has seen the desert must agree with the writer who said: "The desert has left an impression on my soul which nothing THE SAHARA 67 will ever efface. I had entered it frivolously, like a fool who rushes in where angels and, I believe, even devils fear to tread. I left it as one stunned, crushed by the deadly majesty I had seen too closely. I imagine that such must be the feelings of the shipwrecked mariner whom the stormy seas have torn from his wreck and thrown, half drowned, upon the shore." * Another writer has tried to describe his sensations, and he has been almost successful, as having a slight feeling that he is leaving all things behind: "It seemed as if God were putting forth His hand to withdraw gradually all things of His creation, all the furniture He had put into the great Palace of the World; as if He meant to leave it empty and utterly naked. First He took the rich and shaggy grass, and all the little flowers that bloomed modestly in it. Then He drew away the orange groves, the oleander and the apricot trees, the faithful eucalyptus with its pale stem and tressy fohage, the sweet waters that fertilised the soil, making it soft and brown where the plough seamed it into furrows, the tufted plants and giant reeds that crowd where water is. And still, as the train ran on, His gifts grew fewer. At last even the palms were gone, and the Barbary fig displayed no longer among the crumbhng boulders its tortured strength and the pale and fantastic evolutions of its unnatural foliage. Stones lay everywhere upon the pale and grey-brown earth. Crystals glittered in the sun like shallow jewels, and far away, under clouds that were dark and feathery, appeared hard and relentless mountains, which looked *" Across the Sahara from Tripoli to Bornu," Hanns Vischer. 68 AFRICATO-DAY as if they were made of iron and carved into horrible and jagged shapes. Where they fell into ravines, they became black. Their swelling bosses and flanks, sharp sometimes as the springing of animals, were steel- coloured. . . . Domini scarcely looked at them. Tttl now she had always thought she loved mountains. The desert suddenly made them insignificant, almost mean to her. She turned her eyes towards the flat spaces. It was in them that mystery lay — mystery, power, and all deep and significant things. ... It was noon in the desert. The voice of the Mueddin died away on the minaret, and the golden silence that comes out of the heart of the sun sank down once more softly over everything. Nature seemed unnaturally stiU in the heat. The shght winds were not at play, and the palms of Beni-Mora stood motionless as palm trees in a dream. The day was like a dream, intense and passionate, yet touched with something unearthly, something almost spiritual. In the cloudless blue of the sky there seemed a magic depth, regions of colour infinitely prolonged. In the vision of the distances, where desert blent with sky, earth surely curving up to meet the downward curving heaven, the dimness was like a voice whispering strange petitions. The ranges of mountains slept in the burning sand, and the Hght slept in their clefts Hke the languid in cool places. For there was a glorious languor even in the light, as if the sun were faintly oppressed by the marvel of his power. The clear ness of the atmosphere in the remote desert was not obscured, but was impregnated with the mystery that is the wonderous child of shadows. The far-off gold that THESAHARA 69 kept it seemed to contain a secret darkness. In the oasis of Beni-Mora men, who had slowly roused themselves to pray, sank down to sleep again in the warm twihght of shrouded gardens or the warm night of windowless rooms. The gazelle dies in the water, The fish dies in the air, And I die in the dunes of the desert sand For my love that is deep and sad. No one but God and I Knows what is in my heart." * But the desert in its anger, is described in quite a different strain: "As the sea in a great storm rages against the land, ferocious that land should be, so the desert now raged against the oasis that ventured to exist in its bosom. Every palm tree was the victim of its wrath, every running rttl, every habitation of man. Along the tunnels of mimosa it went like a foaming tide through a cavern, roaring towards the mountains. It returned and swept about the narrow streets, eddy ing at the corners, beating upon the palm-wood doors, behind which the painted dancing-girls were cowering, cold under their pigments and their heavy jewels, their red hands trembHng and clasping one another, clamour ing about the minarets of the mosques on which the frightened doves were sheltering, shaking the fences that shut in the gazelles in their pleasaunce." f A different attempt at describing the desert, with a very fetching slap at the ways of "personally conducted tourists," is adapted from another book, but not as a * " The Garden of Allah," Robert Hichens. t IMd- 70 AFRICA TO-DAY precise quotation. We went through the rich fields of Abydos to visit the sanctuaries of Osiris, beyond green plains, on the edge of the Libyan desert. Suddenly, after passing between the little houses and through the trees of a village, quite a different world was reached — the familiar world of glare and death which presses so closely upon inhabited Egypt — the desert. The desert of Libya begins at once, without transition, absolute and terrible, as soon as one leaves the thick velvet of the last field, the cool shade of the last acacia. Its sands seem to slope towards one, in a prodigious incline, from the strange mountains that were to be seen from the happy plain, and which now disappear, enthroned beyond, like the monarchs of all this nothingness. The town of Abydos was here, yet it has vanished; but the necropolis, more venerated than that of Memphis even, and its thrice-holy temple are still west, buried under the destructive and yet preserving sands. The desert! As soon as one puts foot upon its shifting soil, which smothers the sound of one's steps, the atmosphere too seems suddenly to change ; it burns with a strange new heat, as if great fires had been lighted in the neighbour hood. The colours of the ground are brown, red, yellow. The horizon trembles in the mirage. The Necropolis of Abydos once, and yet for hundreds of years, exercised extraordinary fascination over the Egyptians; it was the precursor of later comers, possibly of those of the present dwellers in the Nile Valley. Osiris was the head of the pantheon; he was the lord of the other world, and he reposed in the depths of one of the temples that are to-day buried in the sands that have silently, slowly, THE SAHARA 71 relentlessly swept in from the desert. Good influences emanate from all parts of this sacred domain, but there are certain places which are particularly capable of conferring good luck to all entrusted to them ; hence all wished to lie near their gods. So great was the crowd of bodies brought for sepulture here that many of the mummies had to be stood up in rows wherever space could be found, and there were funeral processions all the time along the road from the Nile to Abydos. Of the temples, the first was that built by King Seti in honour of the Prince of the Other World, Osiris; and in the spacious halls of this temple, which have been cleared of the sand that so long buried them, to-day one of the most popular entertainments offered to Cook's tourists, who go to see the temple and the awe- inspiring desert, is a luncheon spread on tables set up in what should be respected, even by Christian visitors, as a sacred spot, reclaimed at great expense and with supreme labour from the silence of the desert. And until the desecration was stopped by official order at the urgent request of Europeans, the limestone bas- reliefs were crushed to make cement for building purposes in a mill hard-by, owned by other foreign vandals. These bas-reliefs were in every way beyond price. Think of this outrage! The walls, as restored, display fresh colouring and an artless kind of frescoing that are bright after thirty-five hundred years. The old Egyptians could not think of interring their dead in such gloomy places as our modern cemeteries usually are.* * See " La Mort de Philae," Pierre Loti. 72 AFRICA TO-DAY Oases are defined as various fertile tracts occurring throughout the great belt of deserts extending from the west coast of Africa, across practicaUy the whole of that continent, across Arabia, and on to Central Asia. These garden-like spots, the oases, are watered by natural springs, ordinary or artesian wells, and are clothed with vegetation. The best known are those which occur in the central and eastern portions of the Great Sahara and in the Libyan deserts. It is said that what seems to be almost a chain of oases in the eastern part of the latter are the present survivals of a broad belt of arable land which extended from the west bank of the Nile far out beyond these comparatively smaU tracts of fertile land, and it is declared that had reasonable intelhgence been displayed and ordinary care been taken, the en croachment of the sand upon much of this great tract might have been stopped; but it was manifestly much easier for the farmers, thousands of years ago, to move away from the oncoming desert than to struggle against the overwhelming sand. As Sir H. H. Johnston inti mates in his Foreword to Mr. Vischer's book:* "What the Young Turks had already achieved in the, until then, neglected Tripolitaine, even before the revolution of 1908 placed them in power, is a very hopeful promise for the future condition of Turkish North Africa and should be a distinct help to the new Turkish cause. While Mr. Vischer's accounts of how French soldiers have fought recalcitrant Nature and negligent man, and are already beginning to restore a most happy form of civihsation to districts that once enjoyed a radiant * Opus cit. Copyright, Underwood 6* Underwood, N. Y. Picturesque Ruins of the Old Royal Palace at Zanzibar THE SAHARA 73 prosperity (until the desert, and still more the wanton Tuareks, got the upper hand), wttl strengthen the bonds of friendship between France and those other sister nations of hers in Europe who are trying, with occasional mistakes, it must be admitted but, on the whole, with happy results, not only to make Africa as good as she has ever been at her best, but far better as the home of man and, it is to be hoped, if this is not too presump tuous, the home for a long time to come of some of the most wonderful beast forms that the earth has ever known." In the North African deserts these oases are generally found in deep depressions or vaHeys; the constantly recurrmg "wadi" of our maps often points to the place where these fertile places are to be found, for it is here that the water comes to the surface in natural springs or is procured by sinking wells which are rarely of very great depth. There is good reason to believe that many parts of the desert are underlaid with watercourses, and it is certam "the Arabs have long been in the habit of tapping these subterranean waters by sinking weUs, a copious supply being usuaUy obtained at depths varying down to two hundred fathoms. Indeed, so rapidly does the water ascend when the aqueous strata are pierced in certain localities that the weU-sinkers are sometimes suffocated ere they reach the surface." The French have sunk a number of artesian wells in the desert south of Algeria, and so successfully that oases have been developed to such a satisfactory degree that the natives are encouraged to turn from their nomadic Hfe and be come permanent, peaceful agriculturaHsts. These artifi- 74 AFRICA TO-DAY cial oases, if we may be permitted to coin the expression, are not always permanent, and if the supply of water becomes insufficient or gives out altogether, the relapse into sterttity is rapid and destructive. But this lack of permanency is not a characteristic of some of the artificial oases only, for even when the oasis is a natural one, if it is small great care and constant attention are necessary to stop the encroachment of the sand, else the tract speedily becomes overwhelmed; and it is sur prising how persistent is the old habit of indifference among the natives — it often leads them to neglect their own welfare unless carefully supervised. In the western part of the Sahara, Tuat, about one thousand miles southwest of Tripoli, is probably the most important of the oases — as Fezzan and Air (or Asben) are in the eastern Sahara. This last is some hundred and eighty miles in length from north to south and has a population of upwards of sixty thousand souls living in a number of villages and towns of considerable size. In the Libyan desert Khargeh (or Kharije), about one hundred and twenty miles west of Luxor (Thebes), is sometimes called oasis magnus. There are a great many more of these spots throughout the deserts, ranging in size from an acre or two to those immense tracts that have been mentioned, and which support populations numbering scores of thousands. It is strange how many Europeans have yielded to the fascination of Hfe in these garden spots; the soil is almost always exceptionaUy fertile, the variety of crops surprising, all that is needed to support human existence is given by lavish Nature without even the asking, and raiment — the little that THE SAHARA 75 is needed — can be had for a song. With the possible exception of some of the most favoured islands of the Southern Seas, no spot on earth can excel these oases for absolute dolcefarniente, if human indolence seeks it. There is a very considerable and yearly increasing trade carried on in the desert; although it must be said that with the changes which have come in the matter of communication business now finds access to the world at very different places from those which were reached by caravans when aU of them went to the north. Of the importation of cotton goods, machinery, and vari ous articles of American or European manufacture, noth ing is said here because such information is so entirely of a statistical nature and obtainable in any Trade Returns. The principal commodities which were carried by the caravans were dates and salt. The main sources of supply for the latter were the rock-salt deposits of El Juf and the oasis of Kawar, the lakes of Kufrah, and the brine wells of Kawar. The dates are gathered in every one of the innumerable oases, it being estimated that there are fully five mttlion date-palm trees growing in these fertile spots of the desert — from Cape Non to the Nile Valley. The most important of the former trade routes were: Morocco to Cairo by way of Insala, Ghadames (Tripoli), and through Barca to Egypt. This was the route taken by practically all of the Moslem pilgrims of Western Africa and the Central Sahara in going to and returning from Mecca. That was, of course, in the time when a voyage by sea was not safe for either Moslem or Christian, but since the introduc tion of steam navigation and the opening of the Suez 76 AFRICA TO-DAY Canal, these pilgrims take passage by coastwise steamers. Other old, important caravan routes were those from Kuka to Murzuk and Tripolis; from the Sudan to Tripolis by way of Air and Ghat; from Timbuctoo to Insala and on to Tripolis; from Timbuctoo to Algiers and Tunis, also to Morocco. The only one of these that is now of really much importance is the TripoHs-Kuka one, going on to the Lake Chad district; this has been already mentioned in Chapter III. It may be added that the southern end of this route is not Hke some other places, where the desert ceases and arable land begins. Often the transition is most abrupt, as has been noted in the case of the extreme eastern border of the Libyan desert, were the sand stops sharply defined. In the Lake Chad region the desert graduaUy gives way to vegetation and forests of acacia trees appear; frequently thorn-trees are met first, and exceUent pastures for camels, with stubbly grass in between forest and pasture, are crossed, until at length the full glory of the tropics is reached. The bald statement that the principal inhabitants of the Sahara are Arabs, Berbers, and Negroes, is but partially satisfactory, because even the Arabs now dis play marked differences of character, although always permanent in racial type; while the various tribes of Berbers evince their usuaUy unattractive traits in vary ing degree, according as they are influenced by situation and human surroundings. Of the Negro tribes, it is the same here as elsewhere, that a very short interval of space marks a great difference in characteristics. The Berbers are, in the main, to be found in the eastern and central parts of the desert; yet they are to be met THE SAHARA 77 with, here and there, in the western central regions, and even go northward into Morocco and Algeria. The Negro tribes are spread along the southern parts of the desert, where it merges into the Sudan, and they go northward and northeastward from Lake Chad. The Arabs are in possession of all the country wherever there is neither Berber nor Negro. The shght difference (although sometimes it is impor tant) in customs, dialect, and other traits, which mark off the separate communities of all these three races, offers an attractive opportunity for research by the ethnologist which promises rich results; and there is yet so much that is not known about these Saharan peoples that all wiU welcome the gradual opening of the country. It is speciaUy to be noted how the display of military power has affected the Bedouins and the Berbers; this is one of the few places in the world where the non-militarist finds the "matted-fist" justifiable. Wherever these peoples have been brought under French discipline there is a marked improvement in their wild habits and a corresponding display of appreciation on their part for the security of Hfe and property. Not any of the authoritative writers on Saharan topics has a good word to say for the Tuareks (wild Berbers), who, although aUied to the attractive Kabyles of Mo rocco and Algiers, are not to be compared with them in character. Mr. Vischer tens of his troubles with the Tuareks, and his opinion of them tends to confirm that of all others who have expressed themselves. The Kwaidas love their own oasis (Wunzerik) more than does any tribe of the desert feel affection for its 78 AFRICA TO-DAY home, and life in that place approaches more nearly to an ideal which satisfies us than, probably, at any other place in the desert. Here tea is cultivated and the inhabitants are very fond of the beverage. In its use they have arranged a ceremonial that is said to be almost as punctttious as is the famous one of Japan, the cha-no-yu. There is a Senussi poem in praise of tea, which is really much admired by those who are able to understand it. Wunzerik is at the eastern end of Wadi Shiati, the most northern of the well-watered depressions of Fezzan. The merchants here, if not positively dishonest/ are adept in devising means for getting much money for small supplies. The people of the oasis of Mandara, where there is a Httle lake of natron, are negroes, probably Kanuri, perfect specimens of the negro in form and features, having large mouths, thick lips, and broad noses, but good teeth and high foreheads. The women try to make up for their utter lack of physical beauty by ex tensive tattooing; they also stain their faces with indigo and dye their front teeth black and their canine teeth red. Polygamy is permitted but the expense of a multi- phcity of wives induces even the wealthiest men to be satisfied with two, or three at the most. Throughout Bornu, whence these Kanuri come, Islamism is universal and is practised with bigotry and violence. With these suggestions about the Saharan people we leave them. Politically, the Sahara belongs partly to Morocco, partly to France through her position in Algeria and Tunis, and partly to Turkey through Tripoli, Egypt, etc. We know how assiduously France has been pushing THE SAHARA 79 southward from her Algerian frontier and has planned to build a railway across the desert, by way of Timbuctoo, to connect with her Senegambian colony. In further ance of this scheme for dominating the Sahara, a plan has been mooted for creating an inland sea of something hke thirty-one hundred square miles in area, and per haps sixty to one hundred feet in depth. The plan has been declared entirely feasible by competent engineers (M. de Lesseps for example) and Hkely to contribute much towards furthering France's ambitions; especially as against the awkward spirit of independence which is displayed by the Mahometan populations of the desert. It is not likely, if we may judge by the known influence of existing inland seas, such as the Caspian and Aral, that the construction of this Saharan Sea wiU have any appreciable effect for good upon the rainfall in the desert. CHAPTER VI EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND OF ANCIENT DAYS WE now purpose giving consideration to some of the attributes of that mysterious Hfe which found their expression in the monuments and even humbler works — all of them remarkable in their vary ing degrees — of architect, engineer, scribe, or artisan, and which to-day have been restored to us through the assiduous efforts of competent savants and the sustained labour of inteUigent, hard-working super intendents of native labourers who have dug deep into the superincumbent sand, clearing the remains of temple or monument for us to see something of that Mysterious Land of Ancient Days. The present writer here admits his indebtedness to the recently pubHshed book by M. Moret.* It is doubtless correct to say yet that history begins on the banks of the Nile, but the recent explorations in Babylonia and Assyria bid fair to give that part of Asia a record for antiquity in civilisation which may ere long push Egypt very closely. In this connection it is neces- * " In the Time of the Pharaohs," Alexander Moret, Sub-Director of the Mus6e Guimet and Professor of Egyptology in L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes. The English translation by Madame Moret is well done, but, as is always the case, those who are able to read the book in the original will derive even greater satisfaction. 80 EGYPT! THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 8l sary to explain the meaning of the word Thinile, of rather modern use in Egyptian terminology. It denotes the first two dynasties of kings, beginning with Menes, whose date is variously given as from 5702 to 2691 B.C. Mariette, who is probably, aU things considered, a most precise, painstaking, and rehable investigator, says 5004, Brugsch 4445, Lepsius 3892, as the first year of the first dynasty; the second continuing down to 4751, Mariette, and 3639, Lepsius. They had their origin in the capital city, Thinis, near the site of later Abydos, about two hundred miles up the Nile from Cairo and famous for the palace of Memnon and the temple of Osiris. Of this Thinite civiHsation M. Moret says: "The excavations or researches of Messrs. Maspero and Barsanti have estabhshed the fact that the sites of Memphis and Sakkarah were occupied by the Thinite kings; the researches of M. Weill have proved the existence of monuments of King Meisekh in the mines of Sinai, the working of which dates back to the first dynasty. The whole of Egypt, therefore, was once under Thinite rule. Thinite civiHsation differs funda mentally from the culture of the neohthic age* in that it acquired a few new elements of the utmost importance — the use of metal, the art of building, the knowledge of writing. The indigenous population could not have contributed the elements of such considerable progress; its potters and carvers did not become the smiths and masons of Abydos and Negadeh. We are forced to *The fact of there having been in Egypt both paleolithic (old stone) and neolithic (new stone) ages — that is, periods during which rough flint implements and, later, dressed ones were in use — has been satisfactorily demonstrated. 82 AFRICA TO-DAY the conclusion that some invasion brought into Egypt a new race — the Egyptians of the historic period." At another place M. Moret declares: "The question of the origins of Egypt may be put to-day in the foUow- ing terms: a race, caUed native or indigenous, having attained the highest stage of neoHthic civilization, occu pied the vaUey of the Nile; a. foreign race, more civilised, of unexplained origin, displaced the first and founded around Abydos a kingdom which we caU Thinite, to use the term of Manetho again." But M. Moret goes further and contends that because the language of these invaders was completely formed when they arrived, using the signs that are caUed hiero glyphics, "which, while reproducing the shape of a particular object or being, are rarely ideographic," and because the Egyptian language is a branch of the Semitic trunk, all this "is a potent argument in favour of the Asiatic origin of the invaders." Furthermore, he believes that the admitted facts "point to the conclu sion that these newcomers came from Chaldea." Since then these signs would justify the statement that they brought with them a civiHsation which was weU estab- Hshed, it is not altogether iUogical to say that the claim for the antiquity of Egyptian history is, at least, begin ning to have a rival in that of Assyria and Babylonia; because there must naturally have been something in Chaldea from which to draw. This theory is advanced most tentatively, however, and does not pretend to be destructive of any recognised history; because the writer makes not the shghtest claim to being an Egyptologist. Another point to be noted in support of this argument EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 83 for the influence of Asiatic civihsation is found in the interesting chapter, "Pharaonic Diplomacy," of M. Moret's book. In the summer of 1887 some Egyptian fellahs were pulling down portions of the walls of one part of a large building at Karnak, since identified as a palace of King Amen6phis IV (fifteenth century B.C.), the heretic king. These peasants discovered some incised bricks, etc., which proved to be a stock of Baby lonian tablets, and when deciphered they were found to be official communications, notes, and reports — cor respondence, in fact — in cuneiform characters. There were, to be sure, marginal notes in the Egyptian char acter, which was of later development; but the fact that a Babylonian scribe was attached to the Egyptian "Department of State," or "Foreign Office," over thirty- five hundred years ago for the purpose of conducting this diplomatic correspondence, certainly seems to give a degree of precedence to the Babylonian script which is worthy of consideration. This episode is but one of many that are of absorbing interest as giving us a glimpse to-day of what the Mysterious Egypt was. The dedicatory legends cut deep into the prominent stones, the doorposts and lintels of some of the ancient buildings of Egypt read: "Temples to endure for mil- Hons of years, founded for ever and ever," and it was not unnaturaUy supposed that having endured for so long as four or five thousand years, or longer, some of them almost intact architecturally, they would con tinue to stand "for ever and ever." Perhaps, had there never been any yielding to the desire to see with our own eyes some of these monuments, aU if possible; 84 AFRICATO-DAY had we been content with what myth and legend told us, they might have slept peacefully and practically undamaged beneath their covering of the desert sands. But if there was to be material development in Egypt it had to carry with it full consequences, and one of them meant disaster to those old monuments unless modern science put forth its hand to save them; and salvation meant restoration, for the extended irrigation scheme allowed the Nile water to work havoc where before had been preservative dryness. Since the work of excavation has been prosecuted so actively, it is found that two causes are operating disastrously and with remarkable speed to bring about the complete destruction of those priceless old buildings, tombs, palaces, and monuments. The first of those causes is that which would naturaUy follow from the way most of the superterrene edifices had originaUy been constructed; without adequately deep and broad founda tions to bear up the immense weight put upon them, and the weathering which would necessarily follow if the foundation gave way or a defective joint in the masonry allowed one block to sUp from its place and let others, dependent upon it, foUow the collapse. The other cause is the great accumulation of debris in which, because of human beings and animals taking up their abode in or above the old buildings (which have been completely imbedded in the sand), there is much salt petre, and this corrodes the masonry whenever it is moistened by rain or when, as has been the case par ticularly since the construction of the great dam at Assouan, the Nile water floods the old buildings and EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 85 remains standing for some six months, thus helping greatly in the destruction of aU stone, particularly the granite and limestone used in constructing those buildings. Some of those magnificent old edifices were in such a state of hopeless, helpless ruin when the idea of trying to restore the Egyptian monuments, or at least attempt to preserve them from further destruction, was first conceived that it was then altogether too late to save them from their deplorable fate. Others had practically disappeared entirely. It is known that Ousirniri, of the fifth dynasty, about 3500 B.C., built a grand temple in honour of the sun god, Ra, the first king of the Egyp tians, who, they say, reigned more than twenty-three thousand years before Alexander's conquest; that Mon- touhotpou, of the eleventh dynasty, about 2500 B.C., had erected another, in pyramidal form; but there is now nothing to be seen of them except bare ter races, scattered bas-reHefs, and a few crumbhng colon nades, and there are others which we know to have existed, while there must have been many of which we know nothing even by hearsay. The expert Egyptologist who visits Karnak may, perhaps, still find quite near the pylons of Thothmes "marvellous carved blocks, half buried, which are all that remain of the effaced halls erected by the Ousirtasens and Amen6phises" ; yet Karnak was once the most famous place in all Egypt, a national sanctuary, where every Pharaoh, from the chieftains of the primitive clans to the Roman Caesars, used to build a temple or a chapel. The eye prefers to rest securely on the buildings of 86 AFRICA TO-DAY the Rameses, or of the Bubastite kings. There, at least, the general plan of the Egyptian temple still stands out distinctly, though many wans have fallen in and the construction is compHcated. An Avenue of Sphinxes leads to a high gate, defended by two pylons similar to the towers of our cathedrals. In front of the gate are placed two obelisks, as well as colossal statues in a seated or standing posture. Cross ing the threshold, we enter a spacious court surrounded by a cloister of colonnades or caryatids; in the centre is an altar whereon the offerings were burned. Walking up a gentle incline, we come to what is known as the "hypostyle" court, where many rows of enormous col umns support, at the height of sixty-three to sixty-six feet, a ceiling of ponderous flagstones. At New Year's, on fete-days of the seasons, and on days set apart for divine or royal worship, the crowd of devotees had access to this part of the building, in order that they might see the procession of the gods or of the king. Before entering into the court, ablaze with sunshine and flooded with light untempered by any kind of awning or screens, it must have been pleasant to linger in the freshness and dimness of these high covered haUs. But beyond this court no human being would dare venture unless he were of divine race, either in his own right, by birth, or by initiation. Only the high priest and the king had access to the sanctuary, a central chamber, low and massively constructed, with no other opening than the door. There was installed behind the bolted and sealed panels, in complete darkness almost, the statue of the god, placed in an ark or granite naos, waiting H >s w Wa Hft! EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 87 for the celebrant who was to summon him to activity by force of secret rites.* There are some temples which have been but Httle damaged by the weather, and because they were sunk in the living rock, so that they were not attractive as residences for human beings, have suffered less than many others at the hand of man. At Deir-el-Bahri f the underground part of the temple is practically unin jured; as is also the large speos of Abu Simbel, J which is Hghted to its very depths by the rays of the rising sun, and whose entrance is guarded by four colossi chiselled from the solid rock. Some of the superterrene temples, also, are in remark ably good state of preservation. Those which were repaired or entirely reconstructed by the Ptolemies and Caesars at Edfu (on the left bank of the Nile in latitude 240 59' N), Philae (an island in the Nile sixty miles south of the last mentioned), Denderah (on the river, a hun dred and thirty miles north of Philae) were built about a thousand years after those which have been described. They were well cared for until the fourth century of the Christian era; they show a more distinct and uniform plan in their construction than do the older edifices, and * Adapted from M. Moret, op. cit. t Deir-el-Bahri. Here in 1881 M. Maspero made by chance a remarkable archaeological discovery — that of a number of mummies of the Pharaohs, including some of the most famous of the Egyptian kings, among them Thothmes II and Thothmes III, the conqueror of Assyria, Seti I, and the great Rameses II, the "Pharaoh of the oppression." These mummies are in a remarkable state of preservation and supply a not inadequate picture of the features of the sovereigns in life. See Century Dictionary and Chapter VII infra. t In Upper Egypt, built by Rameses II, nineteenth dynasty, about 1300 B.C. 88 AFRICATO-DAY it is thought by some "perhaps the harmonious pro portions of Greek art influenced the last Egyptian architects." If this was so, it cannot truthfully be said to have been a real improvement. "The largest of the Ptolemaic structures no longer give that impression of heroic grandeur which is striking in the case of Karnak and of the Rameseum; their outlines are stiff and hard; their dimensions appear meagre even when they are vast; the decoration is overdone rather than sumptuous; the rehefs and inscriptions show a compromise between the realistic modelling of Greek art and the hieratic gener alisation of the old national style, and as a result are seen those sad and monotonous faces that make a visit to Esneh and to Denderah painful." Yet there is much that attracts at all three of these places and a great deal which justly calls forth praise even from those who are disposed to be technically critical. Briefly summarising, it must be said that the temples which were built before the advent of the eighteenth dynasty* are nothing but ruins which appeal to the archaeologist only; that the monuments of the next period remain in an unsatisfactory state of partial de struction, and "only the temples last constructed seem stttl to defy the centuries." Besides the comparatively transient causes of destruc tion to which aHusion has been made briefly, there should be mentioned some others; for we cannot discuss all exhaustively. Some of these cannot truthfully be said to add much lustre to our boasted Christian civiHsation * Mariette combines the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties in one, calling that the eighteenth, 2214 to 1462 B.C. Lepsius gives 1591 as the date of the eighteenth. EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 89 that was, in the early centuries, iconoclastic if it was nothing else. The temples of Egypt, in particular, were frightfully neglected for a long time from internal as well as foreign causes. The Roman Emperor Theodo- sius I (346-395 a.d.), having yielded submission to the Christian prelate, Ambrose, one of the Fathers of the Latin Church and for a time Bishop of Milan, prohibited every form of religious worship except that of Chris tianity; and inasmuch as Egypt was then under his dominion, the temples of that land (when not converted into churches) were given over to the ravages of the weather and — what was often far more disastrous — to those wrought by the hand of man. Until that time great care and loving attention had been given them, and it is made clear by recorded tradition, as well as other satisfactory evidence, that it was the constant endeavour of the Pharaohs to maintain the tombs in good order "and that is why such munificent sums were expended in endowing and supporting the sacerdotal colleges that were entrusted with the maintenance of the sacred buildings." Sometimes the State's income ran short, as was the case most conspicuously after the great inva sions; those of the Hyksos, the Assyrians, the Persians, and others, had left the temples despoiled of almost everything valuable. Not infrequently, after one of these disasters, complete rebuilding was necessary to replace the edifice and properly equip it. The king, from his privy purse (although, to be sure, that means the whole of the revenue!), bore the entire burden of the expense, no matter whether he was a Pha raoh, a Ptolemy, or a Caesar; for being considered the 90 AFRICA TO-DAY descendant of the gods, it was incumbent upon him to preserve the abodes of his ancestors. Had the temples been left to themselves, even after the pagans had been driven from power, perhaps they might have got along pretty well, because of their sohdity and the preservative climate. But when the Christian priests appeared, their pious zeal (and we cannot help stigmatising it as mistaken in too many instances!) led them to destroy priceless buildings with their contents, to deface reliefs and beautiful carvings, and to efface inscriptions even when such were rehgiously harmless. "At Denderah, the smoke of their camp-fires blackened the ceiling of the halls; at Luxor they con verted the antechamber of the sanctuary into a church; even to this day the stucco, with which they covered up the scenes of the Egyptian ritual, dishonours the walls and conceals the rehefs of Amen6phis II. Else where they have copied, in red ink, passages from the Fathers, decrees of the councils, and entire sermons in Coptic language." Time and space forbid of even touching upon the irreparable destruction wrought by the followers of Mahomet, the very consummation of the religious fanatic and iconoclast, in the Arabian and Turkish invasions and since the domination of the latter. In passing through the streets of Cairo the observant traveller will see bits of stelae and fragments of rehefs, spoils from the old monuments of Memphis and HeH- opohs, worked into the masonry of mosques and palaces, yet still to be seen openly here and there. This systematic destruction continued until well down into modern times, because the temple of Erment, the last EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 91 rehc of the oldest Theban shrine, is known to have been in good condition one hundred years or so ago; but it was puUed down most needlessly and the materials used for building purposes. We cannot hold even the savants entirely blameless in this iconoclasm; the earHest Egyp tologists, besides helping themselves most ruthlessly, trained the Arabs and the Copts in the art of plundering, and before their rapacity was checked by official control incalculable damage was done. Thanks to the surprising co-operation of the Turkish officials with the efforts of American and European scientists and technologists, this wholesale senseless despoiling is now virtually suppressed. It can hardly be necessary to say that there are hun dreds of pyramids scattered over the length and breadth of Egypt; but those near the west bank of the Nile, opposite Cairo and between the head of the Delta and the oases of Fayum, those of Lower Egypt, stand out most conspicuously, not only as a matter of fact but in Hterature, being the ones of which all think when mention is made of the pyramids of Egypt. They loom up in the dry clear air long before reaching Cairo, whether the visitor comes from Alexandria or from. Port Said or IsmaHa, rising from the sands that are themselves high above the cultivated fields of the river valley. There are about forty of them existing now, although many are quite small when compared with the "Great Pyramid," commonly called Cheops, built by, and the tomb of, Khufu, of the fourth dynasty, who Hved about 2800- 2700 B.C. or a century earher. For a long time, even until the early years of the present century, it was 92 AFRICA TO-DAY thought "that the beginnings of Egyptian history and the most ancient monuments of mankind were to be found about the pyramids, but the recent discovery of the prehistoric cemeteries and royal tombs of Abydos have proved the existence of the first two dynasties and disclosed, in broad outhnes, the Thinite dynasties." Readers who are interested in quaint myths are recom mended to read that one which tells of King Khufu's unfatherly scheme for replenishing his funds when he had exhausted his treasures in building "the first pyramid." It is evident now that the pyramidal form of these grand tombs was not the result of mere chance; on the contrary it was really an evolution from a primitive mode of sepulture. "The prehistoric inhabitants of Egypt buried their dead in pits where the body, interred at no great depth, was surrounded by the domestic vessels that were used by the deceased." Then came brick buildings, with the victorious race from Chaldea; then the jars and implements were placed in rooms adjoining the sepulchral chamber. This was the royal tomb at the beginning of the Thinite period, and slowly was evolved the great pyramid of "Cheops." The Sphinx of Ghizeh dates from probably the time of the second dynasty, and is now thought to be older than the pyramid of Ghizeh. Little need be said of the appearance of this ambitious work, since aU are so familiar with "the meditative majesty of the splendid face," which, in spite of its being brutally mutilated, shows to what degree of technical skill and expressive power the old Egyptian artists had attained. There Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. On the Shoulder of the Great Sphinx EGYPT: THE MYSTERIOUS LAND 93 are many other monuments in Egypt which belong in the domain of ancient history; some of the obehsks, the monuments to the sacred bulls of Apis, the laby rinth cannot with propriety be discussed here, and yet all who desire to be thoroughly informed should read of them. Here is but a faint outline of what modern research, excavation, and restoration have done to bring back to us something of the mysterious land of olden time, and it seems as if there can be but few parts of the earth which hold such allurements for the tourist as does Egypt to-day. The opportunity to see the handiwork of man at the dawn of history is here furnished in temple, tomb, and pyramid. The ordinary tourist cannot but find that which holds his interest, the artist that which appeals to his keenest sense of form and colour, the archaeologist an inexhaustible fund of precious material. There is, however, more in Egypt than that which may take one away from the physical comforts of Hfe, and some of these are to be the subject for our consideration in the next chapter. CHAPTER VII EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW TO speak of Egypt in its aspect of To-day, we ought to commence with the chmate. It is never intensely hot, although this statemerit may be surprising to those who think of "Afric's golden sands"; yet it should be borne in mind that Egypt Hes between 210 and 3 20 north latitude, and that very Httle of it is really within the tropics. It is always warm, and the first part of the summer is too trying for those not acclimated to justify recommending strangers to visit Egypt at that season. Still, we do know that many Americans and Europeans, those who are not accustomed at home to intense and continued heat, have passed the summer in the land and without serious results, save in the few exceptional cases. Those who have done this are merchants, industrialists, missionaries, and the students engaged in research, excavation, restoration of temples and monuments, or kindred pursuits in the cause of science that are associated in our mind with the word "Egyptology," and to their successes we owe practi cally all that there is of Egypt To-day. The Egyptians themselves speak of two summers; the first includes the months of March, Aprtt, and May, and it is the most undesirable and sickly season, because of the changeable weather, the heat, and the hot winds which prevail at 94 EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW 95 that time and are Hable to cause various sicknesses. But in the "second summer," June, July, and August, and during the autumn and winter, one breathes a much cooler air, the weather is more settled, and it is then really dehghtful to be in the country; yet strangers should be careful about incautious wanderings in the Nile Valley when the water of the inundation has been drawn off and the mud is drying up. The cold of winter is hardly entitled to the name, except for about seven days in the month of February, which the Arabs mark off very precisely, seventh to fourteenth, and call them Berd al ajuz, "The old woman's cold." Yet among the permanent residents, both foreigners and natives, and many of the transient visitors, those who are even tolerably rich wear furs in winter, because of the uncertainty of the weather. We are all famttiar with the phrase, "the cloudless blue skies of Egypt," and there is thoroughly good reason for it. There are but few places where rain is known at all, and even where it is, it is a phenomenon that is distinguished as being something which happens once a year or as occurring perhaps once in three or four years. Asthmatic people would do well to shun Egypt at all times, because the fine particles of sand, ever present in the air, are very irritating to the throat. Pulmonary patients, on the other hand, almost secure a new lease of Hfe in the desiccated air, and when they. can get comfortable quarters right away in the desert, it is safe to recommend them to go there. With increase of travel and with the encouragement that is making the natives more tolerant towards strangers of another faith and more friendly generally, it is yearly becoming 96 AFRICA TO-DAY easier for invaHds to find comfortable lodgings, and there is always at their command that most seductive tent life. For the strong, the enthusiastic, Egypt is perhaps the most charming of all Winter Playgrounds, provided the more strenuous activity of such places as the Winter Tyrol does not appeal to them. "He who hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world: its soil is gold; its Nile is a wonder; its women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise; its houses are palaces; and its air is soft — its odours surpassing that of aloes- wood and cheering the heart: how can Cairo be other wise when it is the Mother of the World?"* We are prepared to subscribe to all this, excepting the odours; there are some of these, in many parts of the old town especially, which are anything but those of "Araby the Blest." Of the women another writer, an Enghshman whose statement is apposite, even if it is now more than a hundred years old, said: "Before we take leave of this Egyptian Metropohs [Cairo], we shall beg leave to add a few observations concerning the Fair Sex that Hve in it. The generahty of them are brought thither by the Cara vans either from Georgia, Mengreha, or other places, where the unnatural parents make a trade of selling them, and where they are commonly very beautiful and finely shaped; and others drawn from Abyssinia, where though they are of a very tawney complexion, yet are so slender, tall, and genteel, and have such a majestic air, as quite captivates the men here, and makes them despise their own native women for them. And as those foreign females have commonly Httle or no education, are bought * "The Thousand and One Nights." EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW 97 and kept only as servile creatures, rather to cool their lust than engage their affections, it can be no wonder if, considering their idle Hfe, the heat of the climate, and the smaU satisfaction they receive from the embraces of their lords and masters, which must be likewise less frequent than their wishes, considering the number they have of them for the same use, we say it is not to be wondered at, if they naturally give way to gallantry and intriguing, and are so ingenious and successful in it. They have, however, found the way to gain so far on their husbands, that they are allowed greater hberty both in this Metropohs and almost all over the kingdom, than in any part of the East; so that they can go abroad a visiting from morning to night; divert themselves with their relatives and acquaintances, walk along the streets with a retinue of their servants, and appear at pubHc places, and on pubHc rejoicings, such as the birth of a Prince, the gaining of a Victory, etc., on which occasions they take special deHght. They wear a variety of dresses and the appearance of the scene is not unhke that of Venice at the Carnival time. They are attended by eunuchs and good order is kept; there being no mdecency or affront in the streets; but they elude their guards and aUow themselves greater Hberties than any Turkish women. Unmarried women must be very careful, for any immodesty on their part condemns them to celibacy, or it may even be punishment with death. Married women are more freed from restraint, and not only indulge in these dangerous but stolen pleasures as in no other Mahometan country; but, as Lucas tells, they visit each other, drink coffee, sherbet, and such Hquors, 98 AFRICA TO-DAY smoke, and tell erotic stories, until the effect leads to showing themselves at the windows, where they act lecherously to tempt beholders."* This naturally leads to mention of the dancing-girls, who have the reputation of being the most consummate of their kind. Their posturings range from that which is the simplest, most innocuous pantomime to sug- gestiveness that is positively indecent. These girls are wanton, but not necessarily immoral; they are about the same as the geisha of Japan, only the Egyptians are so much the superior in grace, abandon, and physical attractiveness that there is no exact comparison to be made between them. Those who have seen these profes sional posseuses in all parts of the world unanimously award the palm to the Egyptians. Out in the country, where one sees those who are the nearest to the true Egyptians to be found, the men and women are stout and tawny. The men are labourers engaged in agriculture and in rearing cattle. It seems almost unnecessary here to dwell upon the marvellous fertility of the Nile VaUey, where never less than two crops are garnered and often three and four. This fecundity is so absolutely dependent upon the annual overflow of the Nile that it seems proper to defer our Httle discussion of it to the next chapter, which is to deal specifically with that river. There is, however, one super stition connected with the overflow that should properly be mentioned; it is that the Egyptian peasants affirm most positively that nine-tenths of the married women conceive only at the time when the Nile water is rising *"A Complete System of Geography," etc. EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW 99 and spreading over the land, bringing with it promise of plenty and making all hearts rejoice. These peasant women often give birth to twins, and not infrequently triplets. They are noted for their grand walk and carriage; some of our own writers making comparison between their stride and the "strut" of the American girl. Even if true, this is most ungallant! It is said, and truthfully, that at Alexandria, Port Said, and Cairo one sees a greater mixture of peoples from all corners of the world than in any other three places of one and the same country on earth. London, doubtless, will show a more motley collection and a greater number of certain types in one place. But in the winter season, one who stands on the verandah or terrace of a hotel in Cairo will hear almost every lan guage of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is, probably, the most kaleidoscopic place of the Near East, and, in a way, one of the most democratic. The crowd of guides and donkey boys, the camel drivers, the hackney cabmen, and now the chauffeurs, assume that all the tourists are simply walking money-bags and that it is their privilege and duty to get as much of the contents as possible. Milord, the aristocratic British nobleman, and the plebeian American multi-milhonaire are pretty much the same to hotel people, guide, and donkey boy; with perhaps a Httle in favour of the American who, in Egypt as everywhere else in the world where tourists foregather, has tried his best — and most successfully — to spoil pleasure and debauch the natives by the absurd munifi cence of his "tips." For example; at the pyramids, where — as everyone knows — if it is not absolutely IOO AFRICA TO-DAY necessary for each chmber to have two or three "pushers " to help him get up the Brobdingnagean steps, custom has decided that he must engage them or he will not be allowed to ascend, half a piastre, say two and one-half cents of our money, ought to be ample for each man; but the extravagant American has raised this to two or three piastres. There may be a certain exclusiveness among the visitors themselves, yet it is astonishing how the most seemingly incongruous human elements mingle at Cairo in placid content. The Cook's parties are made up, at times, of people who represent the most unapproachable of aristocratic circles, with others who are most offensively nouveau riche; and after a day's jaunt to the pyramids these same oil and vinegar factors may, perchance, mingle together in temporary harmony for a trip up the Nile, or some other excursion wherein there is greater satisfaction (and economy for the cautious aristocrat !) with a goodly company than for an individual or two. In Cairo itself there is so much to do, so many places to visit that every book discloses something which is not named in others, and even the rashest of writers would not presume to tell of all of them in such a Httle volume as this. Only a very few will be mentioned, but every tourist will find each one of them leads to others, until a whole winter season will prove to be too short a time wherein to exhaust the attractions of Cairo. After the pyramids and the Sphinx — for that is almost sure to be the first excursion — a visit to the National Museum, sometimes called the Ghizeh Museum, EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW IOI because it was once the palace of Ghizeh, the old Harem- Hk ("Palace of the Harem") of Ismail Pasha, will be attractive, and here the wealth of material is truly indescribable. There is a black granite stele which was discovered at Thebes in 1896 by Professor Flinders- Petrie. It is what may be called a stone palimpsest, because there were manifestly two inscriptions cut, as the signs of erasure show, the one over the other. The earlier was done in the time of Amenhotep II (reigned about 1566 B.C.); the later one was cut in the time of Seti I, or Sethos (about 1366 B.C.), who was the father of Rameses II. The latter is of the greatest importance to Bible students, because on the back of the stone there is a long description of wars waged between Libyans (Egyptians) and Syrians, in which this statement is made: "The people of Israel is spoilt: it hath no seed." This is the first allusion to the Israehtes, by name, found as yet on any Egyptian monument, and is several cen turies older than any allusion to them in Assyrian records.* As the sale of Joseph is traditionally said to have taken place during the reign of the Hyksos or shepherd king Apepa, probably the Aphobis of Manetho's Hst, who ruled at Avaris (Zoan) about 1700 B.C., this allusion may perchance refer to the fact that the children of Israel had been called upon to aid the Egyptians in war and had proved to be inefficient as soldiers, or possibly abject cowards. The Exodus is usually assigned to the time of Rameses II (1300 B.C.). In 1881 rumours reached the authorities in Cairo that an Arab, known among his fellows as "The Tomb * Vide Murray's " Handbook to Egypt." 102 AFRICA TO-DAY Robber," because of his successes in abstracting treasures, was up to some sort of mischief at Deir-el-Bahri, west of Thebes. Upon investigation being made it was found that Ahmed, "The Tomb Robber," had opened a shaft leading down into a vast mortuary chapel and had played upon the superstition of his comrades, to keep them from intruding upon his find, by declaring that the well was the abode of a fearful djinn (an evil spirit). To give colour and odour to his story he had thrown into the shaft the bodies of some donkeys, and the effluvia from their decomposition made the other Arabs beheve Ahmed's story, for djinns are supposed to exhale a most disgusting stench. When Messrs. Brugsch and Maspero went to the place they discovered thirty-six coffins, all of them containing the mummies of kings, queens, princes, and princesses. Brugsch's account of this find is most sensational. The mummies were all taken away for careful study, and to-day, in the National Museum, we may see some of them. One is of particular interest, that of Rameses II, whose father, Seti I, is the Pharaoh with whom Moses and Aaron had so much to do. It was due to his opposition to the departure of the Children of Israel that the plagues came, and it was he who com manded that all Hebrew boy babies should be drowned in the Nile. His mummy is one of the most remarkably well preserved that have yet been discovered. When a number of mummies were to be sent to muse ums of Europe and America, they were put on board a large Hghter in the river and arranged side by side. As the boat was moving away from the bank many — per haps all — of the mummies seemed to come back to Hfe; EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW I03 certainly they moved and the heads seemed to rise as if the bodies were turning, so that their eyes might take a last look at the place where these old kings and queens had lain in peace for over two thousand years. The effect upon the boatmen was most panicky, and even the unsuperstitious foreigners felt as if something uncanny were occurring. The explanation is absurdly simple — the heat of the sun had caused irregular expansion of certain parts; but it was never a satisfactory explana tion to those Nile boatmen, who were for a long time loath to handle mummies as cargo. At the risk, which in this case practically is certainty, of controverting one of the most popular stories of sight seeing in Cairo, the truth had better be told about the famous ceremony which is called, commonly but absurdly, "The Procession of the Holy Carpet." There is much confusion about this, and to clear it up requires a Httle careful explanation. The ka'ba (Arabic; Hterally "a square building") is the small block-like structure at the very heart of the Great Mosque, Mecca, the most sacred shrine of the followers of the Prophet. In this chest-like sanctuary is a sacred stone, hajar al aswud (said to be a ruby which came down from heaven, but now it is blackened by the pilgrims' tears, shed for sin). The ka'ba is opened twice or thrice annually, but only the faithful are permitted to approach it. Now, when the caravan of pilgrims for Mecca sets out from Cairo, in it is a small palanquin on the back of a camel. This palanquin is called mahmal. It contams nothing of the least importance, probably nothing at all, and is only a symbol of sovereignty. But many Frankish visitors think 104 AFRICA TO-DAY — indeed they are so told by some of the citizens — that this httle box contams the kiswa, or robe, which is spread over the ka'ba, and which is renewed every year. This is manifestly an absurdity, for the mahmal could not begin to contain the kiswa. The procession that is miscalled "The Procession of the Holy Carpet" — for it is evident there is no carpet about it — is really a street ceremony in which the kiswa is carried from the place where the material is woven to the Hasanen, the most sacred mosque in the city, there to be sewed together into sections which are packed in ordinary boxes to take it to Mecca. Still this procession, after its description has been despoiled of some of its romantic fiction, is certainly one of the things to see, if possible. "I was privileged to see it from the balcony of a native school that looked out on the corner of two streets. In one direction we looked down the street through which the procession came; in the other down the street to that very sacred mosque of the Hasanen itself. . . . Down the street, then, came the kiswa, carried on wooden frames to show its embroidery of rich gold flashing in the sunHght, and with it and after it trooped a motley procession of darwishes of all the different fraternities of Egypt — the Qadirites, the Rifa'ites, the Ahmadites, the Burhamites, the Sa'dites — all carrying banners of their own colours, beating Httle drums, and chanting their distinctive Htanies. As they went by, the air was charged with emotional electricity; all nerves were a-quiver and ready to leap to a signal. Here, as time and again thereafter at Mushm reHgious scenes, I felt the grip of the will of the crowd, and knew practicaUy Copyright, Underwood 6° Underwood, N. Y. Coffee Picking in British East Africa EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW 105 how shght a touch may turn and sweep a great concourse into a simultaneous brain-storm."* Let us add that the stranger who is permitted to witness one of these func tions must bear himself respectfully and refrain from disparaging remarks, even in the EngHsh tongue. Rhamadan is the name given to the ninth month of the Mahometan year, and if perchance it falls in winter, the tourist season, the visitor is to be congratulated and he should try to be in the streets at nightfall of the first day, especially. Every Moslem knows just when Rhamadan, the great "fast" month, is to begin, even if the lunar calendar (unlike the Chinese calendar) is without any intercalary month in Mahometan communi ties to adjust occasionally, although only approximately, the divergence from the Gregorian. But the crescent moon must be seen by the "astronomer royal" at Con stantinople and the fact telegraphed to Cairo (note the strange commingling of mediaeval chronology and modern science!) before the cannon on the citadel can announce that the celebration may officially begin. This same fact of the new moon being seen at Constantinople must be notified to all parts of the Mahometan world that are accessible by telegraph. What happens when clouds obscure the Constantinople official's vision, deponent sayeth not! Every good Mussulman keeps strict fast during the daytime of the whole of Rhamadan, even abstaining from tobacco; and the careless will observe that first day, even if they are not very strict on the others of the great fast. But after sunset the fast gives place to feasting and jollification that are almost * "Aspects of Islam," D. B. Macdonald, io6 AFRICA TO-DAY riotous, and then all places of entertainment are gaiety itself. &-&V- J W S La i - la ha la-1 - lah i 3§53 ^ La i - D.C. i la - ha i 1 - la - 1 - la - h La i - la - ha il - la-1 lah. This is the favourite song of the dervishes during Rhamadan (although popular at all times). It is called a zikr, and is sung by a group of perhaps thirty, more or less, seated in a circle. At first the tempo is slow and the swaying of the bodies, backward and forward, from side to side, is in time to the chant. Gradually the move ment quickens and erelong passes into wild frenzy; not unfrequently some of the singers collapse in an epileptic fit. The general effect of the song and action is said to be strangely erotic. If the opportunity offers, the visitor is recommended to see a marriage procession and a Mussulman funeral, with its attendant "professional mourners," whose vociferous lamentations, but perfunctory to the verge of the ridiculous, often relieve the sorrow of those whom we should expect truly to lament, so that the "bereaved" friends appear to be rather joyous in their indifference. The so-called "HowHng Dervishes" have come to be so very professional that they are found to be rather a fake. "On the birthday of the Prophet, for example, there is a great festival in Cairo, and on the plain, outside of the city to the north, tents are erected in which the EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW 107 different darwish fraternities hold exhibitions. For this reason, inasmuch as they are perfectly open to the public and inasmuch as the public passes along from one to another, taking up staU after stall, the solemnity and religious reahty were greatly impaired. It was evident to me what must have been the effect on those zikrs when tourists were freely admitted." * But let the unwary tourist be careful of the perfume seUers, who can cleverly palm off the poorest compounds as genuine "attar of roses," and let him shun the itinerant hawker of antiques, rugs, etc. ; even the aUeged reputable dealers are scarcely trustworthy. If the traveller must of necessity turn to the new town for the physical comforts which only a properly con ducted "European" hotel can furnish, it is to the old quarters that he will have to go for real fascination. At one place he may run across a fortified gateway, at another a dilapidated mosque bearing a text from the Koran in the quaint old Cufic characters, and each has its history. Perhaps it will be something which, when translated by the guide (if, fortunately yet exceptionally, he is competent to do this), may recall the story of Sala- dhin as he went forth from El-Kahira (Macira-el-Qahira is the true Arabic name for Cairo) to meet Richard and his crusaders on the plains of Acre; or there is pretty sure to be some episode that will bring to mind the good Haroun-al-Rashid, who has just arrived from Bagdad and is stealthily pursuing his midnight rambles. The tourist is likely to take at least one trip down the Ntte, two or three miles, to see the place where Napoleon * D. B. Macdonald, op. cit. 108 AFRICA TO-DAY and his army, near the Embabeh end of the railway bridge on the Alexandria line, won the "Battle of the Pyramids"; his European tactics, of infantry hollow squares receiving sternly and invincibly the wild cavalry charges at the point of the bayonet, completely baffling the Mamelukes. This visit will probably lead the visitor to recaU the fact that it was Napoleon's success which led to the beginnings of modern Egyptian research. Or there is another trip, into the Land of Goshen, where the Children of Israel so long sojourned, which wiU appeal with special force to the biblical student. What an infinity of possibihties for every class of visitors does Cairo offer! Alexandria and Cairo were the seat of learning, the nursery of arts and sciences from which Greece and other northern lands received them, and Egypt was hkewise the granary of the world. It is certain that the plenty or scarcity of the Roman Empire depended upon a good or a bad harvest in Egypt. Its favourable situation for commerce, fronting the Medi terranean and bordering on the Red Sea, wttl again — and perhaps before long — reassert itself. The temptation to dwell upon some pohtical aspects of Egypt to-day must be resisted, for already this chapter is too long and we should now be journeying up the Nile. But we cannot refrain from saying that since France withdrew, in 1883, from sharing with Great Britain in the control of Egyptian finances and govern ment, Egypt has been, in every respect save the name alone, a dependency of Great Britain; and since France has been seeking the consent of other European Powers to her exercise of controlling rights in Morocco, the EGYPT: THE LAND WE NOW KNOW IO9 Sahara, etc., this British suzerainty has been more effec tive than ever. It cannot truthfully be denied that it is for the good of the whole world that this is so. If the Young Turks' ambitions take the course of attempting to wrest from Great Britain this control, it wttl surely bring about nothing but disaster. CHAPTER VIII THE NILE: HISTORICAL, LEGENDARY, PICTURESQUE IT would seem, at first glance, as if the discovery of the Nile's sources in Victoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza had solved the mystery of ages and proved that Egypt is not dependent solely upon the irrigation that naturally follows the rise in the river from rainfall alone. It is quite true that "the Ntte is the Life of Egypt," but if the stream were entirely unaided by the art of man — in conserving the supply, constructing feed canals, etc. — it would never sufficiently overflow its banks to inundate (without destructive floods), and by that same reasonable inundation fertilise the whole of the arable land in the vaUey and in the Delta. The two great rivers from Abyssinia are the Blue Nile and the Atbara (called by the natives Bahr-el-Aswad, "Black Nile") which, although streams of great size while in the mountains and highlands of Abyssinia, are reduced to insignificance from the middle of June until September, or during the dry months. Then, the water supply from Abyssinia having ceased, Egypt is dependent entirely upon the equatorial lakes and the affluents of the White Nile until the rainy season again fills the Abys sinian rivers; so that it is, as a matter of fact, these rivers which contribute to the visitor's pleasure. THE NILE: HISTORICALLY III The Nile overflow is not only remarkably regular in its annual occurrence as a means of irrigation, but the deposit of mud which it spreads over the fields so enriches the soil that artificial fertttisation is rarely resorted to. Baker, the great discoverer who solved "the mystery of ages," happily describes the joint action of the rivers thus: "The equatorial lakes feed Egypt, but the Abys sinian rivers cause the inundation." Erastosthenes' description of the Nile is not a bad one to insert here. Briefly, he says that this river is distant from the Arabian Gulf (Red Sea) towards the west one thousand stadia * and resembles the letter N reversed. For after flowing twenty-seven hundred stadia from Meroe, later the capital of Ethiopia, it turns south and to the winter sunset, when it is almost in the lati tude of the places about Meroe, thus entering far into Africa; and having made another bend, it flows towards the north a distance of fifty-three hundred stadia, to the great cataract; and inclining a Httle to the east traverses a distance of twelve hundred stadia to the smaUer cata ract of Syene (Assouan), and thence fifty- three hundred stadia to the sea. The figures which deal with the river's length are palpably mistakes; for it has been agreed generaUy that day's marches were converted into stadia; but the directions are fairly accurate and indi cate that the Nile was looked upon as a mighty river. At the point of the Delta, just north of Cairo, it was intended to construct a barrage which, by crossing * Erastosthenes' stadium was, roughly, five hundred and twenty English feet, and the part of the Nile that he probably knew is about ninety miles, at an average, from the Red Sea. 112 AFRICA TO-DAY both branches of the river, was to regulate the inunda tion above and below that point; but this has been supplanted by the great dam at Assouan and the elabo ration of the system of distributing canals. And here it is, perhaps, well just to mention the tremendous undertaking that has been accomplished by British engineers, although anything like a full description would be out of place, since it would take too much space and for such a technical matter reference should be had to the work of a specialist. Yet something may be said of the old, native, very crude way of watching and, to a certain extent, regulating the overflow of the country. The ancient writers tell us, and their accounts have been remarkably verified by later, scientific observers, that the river commenced to rise in May, but that not much attention was paid to the rise until somewhere about the end of June, or just after the summer solstice. We may interpolate here that Egyptians superstitiously connected the Sphinx with the Nile's overflow, because those great figures (particularly that one near the pyra mids of Ghizeh), with the head of a woman and the body of a Hon, symbohsed the time when the sun passes through the constellations Virgo and Leo, thus marking the swelling of the Nile as occurring at the season for which the Sphinx seemed to stand. In very ancient times the rise was watched by means of pits or wells sunk at places sufficiently near the river- bank to make sure that the percolation of water would be free. Later, more elaborate nilometers were con structed; one of these was a large reservoir in a castle right on the bank. Round this reservoir was a hand- 2*KK r-:-'**^ -' Copyrignt, Underwood cr Underwood, N. Y. The Great Dam across the Nile at Assuan, Egypt The most gigantic masonry of modern times THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 113 some gallery, supported by twelve marble pillars, joined at their tops in such a way as to form arches. There was a balustrade on the inner side of the gallery to lean on when looking down at the water, which entered the reservoir and passed out through a canal cut down from the river. In the centre of the basin was an octagonal marble shaft divided into twenty-four equal sections, and each section (save one) marked off into small spaces of a few inches each. When the water had risen to some sixteen or eighteen feet in depth, public criers proclaimed the fact through the capital and other cities and con tinued their proclamations until the water had risen to about twenty-five feet or a little more (although even a Httle over, say twenty-seven feet, was approaching the danger point), when preparations were made to cut the dam of the Khalii, or great canal at Bulak, which passed through the heart of Cairo, during low water being httle better than a stinking cesspool. This cutting of the dam was an important ceremony inasmuch as it presaged the irrigation and fertihsation of the whole agricultural districts, and it was always performed with great solemnity in the presence of the Governor (Pasha), accompanied by all his high officials, and attended by a vast throng of people. We are told that, long ago, the Egyptians would, at this ceremony, sacrifice a girl, or as others say a boy and a girl, to the river god as a thank offering for the benefit he was about to confer upon them. They were even tually persuaded to give up this inhuman practice. But legend has it that the very year the cruel sacrifice was discontinued the river failed to reach the proper height, 114 AFRICA TO-DAY and when it seemed as if this misfortune were going to occur a second time, that is in the foUowing year because the overflow was delayed, the people began to murmur and call for a resumption of the human sacrifice, fearing a famine. The governor thereupon led all the men of the city, Arabs, Turks, Jews, Christians, to a mountain east of the city, and after a pathetic exhortation he bade them all pray to their common God to grant His mercy, and in this intercession they passed all that day and the succeeding night. Before daybreak the next morning some women came hurrying from the town to the moun tain top bringing the glad news that the Nile had risen thirteen feet during the night and was still rising. Greatly rejoicing and uniting in thanks to God for thus promptly and acceptably answering their prayers, the multitude came hastily down the mountain, and when they reached the bank of the Khalii canal, they built there an altar ten feet high on which they heaped flowers and olive branches as a thank offering. This was re peated year after year, and when the dam was broken down, the rush of water carried altar and flowers away to the sea. The absolute importance of the Nile overflow is so fully recognised that every appliance of science to secure an equable distribution of the water was adopted as civilisation developed and learning broadened, and to day there is nothing within the ken of speciahsts that is not done to further and extend this blessing which the "Life of Egypt" brings to the Egyptians, as the tourist wttl admit when he sees at Assouan the result of engineers' efforts to "harness the Nile." The appointment of THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 115 Field Marshal Lord Kitchener — Kitchener of Khartum — to be British agent ensures the broadening and strengthening of Great Britain's influence (we might reaUy as well say control) in Egypt, and his appreciation of the fundamental necessity for wisdom in controUing the Ntte overflow is an assurance that the great under taking wttl be duly administered. What is more, although outside the scope of this chapter and in antici pation of what wiU be said in Chapter XVII, his views as to the importance of completing the Cape to Cairo Railway promise a speedy extension of that work, until North and South Africa are linked together by a steel band. Beginning an account of the Ntte at the broad base of the Delta, where its many streams debouch into the Mediterranean, there are the two great branches, the Rosetta and the Damietta, which take their names from the important cities at their respective mouths. From these main stems a great many smaUer streams and canals meander across the level country to the east of Damietta, to the west of Rosetta, and aU over the Delta between these two arms of the Nile. But Alexandria itself is not on any stream, for it stands on a sandy shelf inside of which is the body of water — now salt, but originally fresh — caUed Lake Mariut; yet Alexandria is connected with the Nile by the Mahmoodeyeh canal from the Rosetta River. This was dug by Mehemet AH in the first half of the nineteenth century. As an example of crass stupidity, the ultimate effect of the act recoiling upon the perpetrators, it may be told here that in 1801 the British thought to cut off Alexandria's Il6 AFRICA TO-DAY supply of fresh water by severing the narrow neck which separated Lake Mariut (or Mareotis) from the sea. The plan was futile, for the sea flowed in and submerged one hundred thousand acres of arable land, many human Hves were lost, and forty villages destroyed, while the cH- mate of Alexandria was prejudiciaUy affected to the dis comfiture of the British when they eventuaUy acquired preponderating influence. Now, with the irony of fate, EngHsh pumps, operated by a staff of EngHsh engineers, but paid from the Egyptian treasury, are kept busy returning one and a half miUion tons of salt water back into the Mediterranean each day, and the damage wrought a century ago is irreparable. When approaching Alexandria, the Hght-house on the island of Pharos attracts attention because it is the modern successor of the "Pharos" of antiquity, prob ably the first lighthouse ever erected for the specific purpose of being a guide to mariners. The original was built by Ptolemy I, Soter, and Ptolemy II, Phila- delphus, in the third century B.C. and was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. There formerly stood at Alexandria two objects of considerable historic interest. These were the two obelisks of pink granite, known as "Cleopatra's Needles," which were brought from Hehopohs (modern Matarieh, on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, latitude 300 8' N), a distance considerably greater than from Cairo, and a more diffi cult journey. One of the "Needles" is now on the Thames embankment, London, and the other is in Central Park, New York. Another object of interest is the beautiful Corinthian column, ninety-nine feet tall, which THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 117 bears the fanciful name of "Pompey's PiUar" (because Pompey had nothing whatever to do with it). It bears an inscription stating that it was erected in 302 a.d. in honour of Diocletian. Before leaving Alexandria we should commend the wisdom of Alexander the Macedonian in selecting this site for a harbour, west of the Nile mouths, because the current sets along the coast from west to east and carries the silt away from Alexandria, as has been demonstrated in the case of Port Said, where an enormous training-waU is not sufficient to obviate the constant use of dredgers. Along the coast, east of Alexandria, the first place of importance is Rasheed, caUed.by foreigners Rosetta. It would seem to be the natural deep-sea port for Egypt, but it has been successfuUy supplanted by Alexandria, and since the opening of the Suez Canal, Port Said and Ismaha have still further affected it. But we must not forget to mention the providential Rosetta stone. "The name is given to a stone now in the British Museum, originaUy found by French soldiers who were digging near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It is a piece of black basalt and contains part of three equivalent inscriptions, the first or highest in hieroglyphics, the second in demotic characters, and the third in Greek. According to these inscriptions, the stone was erected in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes, March 27, B.C. 196. This stone is famous as having furnished to Young and ChampoUion the first key to the interpretation of Egyp tian hieroglyphics. In its present broken condition it measures three feet nine inches in height, two feet four and a half inches in width, and eleven inches in thick- Il8 AFRICA TO-DAY ness." * The story of the discovery, the casual first treatment, the subsequent intense and close study from the known Greek back to the form of writing which was popular with the common people, the demotic in contra distinction to the hieratic (sacred), and from this back into the realm of the hieroglyphics, until then almost a sealed book, is intensely interesting. Along the course of the Rosetta, in the Delta proper, and on the banks of the Damietta, there are many places of great interest to the historian and archaeologist, but hardly Hkely to attract the ordinary tourist, although aU would be repaid by a visit to the town of Damietta itself and to El-Mansoorah, to the south of which are the remains of a remarkable temple to the goddess Isis. This was built of granite brought from Syene (modern Assouan) a distance of six hundred miles up the river. This fact, taken in connection with the further one of the extreme difficulty those old stonecutters and masons must have had in working such hard material, justify the statement that this was probably one of the most costly temples in aU Egypt. Southward from Damietta and east of the river are the ruins of a large temple which was built of red granite. Here was held the festival of the goddess Bast or Pasht (Greek Bubastis), whose sacred animal was the cat. Herodotus considered this festival the most important of the Egyptian ceremonies. Cairo is, of course, the point of departure for the trip up the Nile, and there are several ways of doing it. For the tourist who is limited as to time, or somewhat re stricted in the matter of expenditure, there is the railway * Century Dictionary. THE NILE: HISTORICALLY II9 to Assouan, the head of comfortable navigation, and, for the present, the end of the railway; for between Assouan and Wady Haifa the mountains close in upon the river and make railway construction somewhat difficult. It is, however, quite possible to cover the intervening distance by boat, so that the tourist may, if he hkes, go on to Wady Haifa and there take the train again for Khartum, thus passing out of Egypt into Nubia. By taking the railway and stopping over at Karnak, to visit Thebes and Luxor, the traveller will get a satisfactory idea of the Nile Valley and a glimpse at some of the most celebrated ruins, and at Assouan he may decide for himself how much more he wiU do. Thebes, caUed afterwards Diospolis Magna, or the City of Jupiter, once stood on both sides of the river, although the city proper was that part on the east bank, the Libyan suburb (Pathyris, Memnonia) being on the west bank. The village of Luxor, rich in archaeological "finds," as has been already indicated, now occupies a part of the site of Thebes. The city was deservedly esteemed to be one of the finest in the world. Homer speaks of it as Heca- tomplos, because of its hundred gates; other authorities declare there were not that many gates in the city waU, but that there were many temples within the city limits, that most of them had large porches entered through sumptuous gateways, and these gave rise to the use of that form of expression which employs a definite number in an indefinite sense. At Assouan the first cataract ends. It was not a very formidable obstruction to navigation, and during high water could be ascended without much trouble in the 120 AFRICA TO-DAY ordinary river boats; when the river was low consider able assistance from towers was necessary. Since the construction of the great dam, a canal sixty-five hundred and forty feet long, with four locks, permits mail steamers and other vessels to pass round the cataract at all times. Some of the earliest traveUers in Egypt tell of what they thought was a surprising spectacle, and it may possibly still be witnessed at the upper cataracts if one cares to see it. Two of the natives would get into a small boat, one to guide and the other to bale out the water that dashed over the gunwale. Having borne the violence of the tossing waters for some time, they would dexter ously steer the boat through the narrow channels, avoid ing the rocks in a breath-taking way, and let themselves be carried down by the falling waters, directing the Httle vessel with their hands, rushing headlong, and plunging over the brink to the great terror of the spectators, who thought them utterly lost and swaUowed up. They appeared again on the water below the cataract, far from the place where they feU, as if they had been shot out of a gun.* For those tourists who are not hampered, either by time or purse, there are the Nile River steamboats, wherein comfort and luxury are pleasingly combined and, aU things considered, at not exceedingly great expense. However, there is often the objection raised to this mode of travel that the "guide" describes, in the truly characteristic, parrot-like manner of his kind, the places that are visited or passed, and tells their history in a way that too frequently conflicts with the * Adapted from " An Universal History." THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 121 narrative given by recognised authorities. This is to be expected. The ideal way to make the Nile trip, extended on to and beyond Khartum, is still by private (that is, hired) dahabeeyah — excepting, of course, the private steam- yacht; although this latter is not to be too highly recom mended because of difficulties that are raised by officials tied up into hard, unyielding knots by yards of red tape, and the not unnatural opposition of steamboat com panies and proprietors of dahabeeyahs, who feel their prerogatives intruded upon. The foUowing sketch of the trip is compiled from various sources and is con densed to suit those who have leisure and desire to see from their own boat; although much that is said applies equally weU to those who travel by the steamboats. A short distance above Cairo the mountains and desert draw in close on the west, and soon the site of the stone quarries is seen, especially those of El-Masarah, from which were taken, as tablets in situ record, the finer blocks of Hmestone built into the pyramids of Ghizeh. The foreshore widens, and overlooking the beautiful, fertile vaUey, studded with villages shaded by many palm trees, the long line of the pyramids is seen beyond. A divergence may be made into the Fayum, a pear-shaped tract extending over thirty miles into the desert. Here is the site of the famous Labyrinth. It is lamentable that this wonderful struc ture is now such a hopeless mass of ruins that nothing satisfactory can be made out of them, although the plan may, in a measure, be understood even at present. A few remarks are borrowed from an old writer as being 122 AFRICA TO-DAY a little more effective than the bald account given in our works of reference. It was designed as a pantheon or universal temple for all the Egyptian deities, as well as to be a meeting-place of the magistrates of the nation for feasting and sacrifice. Each nome was represented by a delegate, and these, coUectively, judged causes of great importance. For each nome there was a hall. Herodotus says twelve, for Egypt was, in his time, divided into that many districts or prefectures; Pliny says sixteen; Strabo, twenty-seven. The first says these halls were vaulted and each had the same number of doors opposite one another, six opening to the north and six to the south, all shut off by the same outer waU. There were three thousand apartments; one-half in the lower storey, below the level of the ground, the rest in the upper storey. Herodotus saw only the upper ones, being refused admission to the lower on account of their sanctity, for here were the sepulchres of the holy croco diles and the tombs of the kings who had built the Labyrinth. This writer declares that what he saw seemed to surpass the work of human hands; there were so many ways out through the various passages, and there were such infinite returns which afforded a thousand occasions for wonder. He passed through spacious halls into grand chambers; thence into private apartments; then by hallways out of the smaller rooms and spacious chambers into stiU grander ones. The roofs and walls were encrusted with marble, and on the latter were sculptured figures also. The halls were surrounded with pillars of polished white stone. To Herodotus' descrip- Copyright, Underwood b° Underwood, N. Y. The Grotto-Temple of Abu Simbel From a boat on the Nile, Egypt THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 123 tion others add that the Labyrinth stood in an immense square surrounded by buildings at a great distance. The porch was of Parian marble and there were other piUars of Cyene marble. Inside were temples dedicated to several deities, and galleries to which one ascended by ninety steps; these were adorned with columns of porphyry, images of the gods, and statues of kings, all of monstrous size. The passages met and crossed in such an intricate manner as to make it impossible for a stranger to find his way without a guide. Stttl farther on in the Fayum may be traced the remains of Lake Moeris, and this indicates considerable skiU in hydraulics and engineering. It was an artificial lake the water of which was intended to be a reservoir for the Nile's excess in time of unusual flood and to supplement in time of insufficiency. There is every indication of a much greater population in the Fayum than the present handful of peasants and labourers. This fact is an incentive to archaeologists to pursue investigations. Returning to the Nile proper, and continuing to ascend, it is soon noticeable that the mountains on the east now approach so close to the river that at times there is not even a narrow strip of arable land, while towards the west the vaUey is wider than before. There is nothing of special interest for some time and then a handsome mosque, with minarets resembling in appearance those of the mosque of Sultan Hasan at Cairo, is seen. Pres ently the river touches the cliffs of Gebet el-Teyr, or "Mountain of the Birds," on the summit of which stood a Coptic convent caUed the "Convent of the Virgin." 124 AFRICA TO-DAY One of the monks used to descend and swim off to pass ing boats, if there were strangers aboard, asking ahns from "fellow Christians." Many sepulchral grottoes are noticed in the face of the eastern mountains. Those of Beni-Hassan are as beautiful and as interesting as any in Egypt; they stand in line near the summit of the mountain and it is not much of a climb to reach them. The two northernmost are remarkable for having porti coes, each supported by two polygonal columns, "of an order that is believed to be the prototype of the Doric." Most of the grottoes are adorned with sculp tures and paintings which pourtray with great truthful ness phases of life in the time when they were done, long ago; for these grottoes were the tombs of nomarchs and other governors of the twehth dynasty (about 2500 B.C.). The paintings are said to be surprisingly fresh even now. These are certainly appeaHng places which tempt the traveller to stop, and at short distances there are others; for example, at el-Ashmuneyn. Erelong the boat is opposite Abydos, on the border of the desert here separated from the Nile by a broad, cultivated tract. At Abydos was found the famous list of Pharaohs, known as "The List of Abydos," one of the most valuable things, connected with Egyptology, in the British Museum. After the discovery of that first one, M. Mariette found a corresponding tablet in another temple here, which fortunately proved to be complete. In the desert near by are many tombs, remarkable for the interesting antiquities discovered while clearing them out. Forty miles from Abydos is the viUage of Dendereh. Here is seen the first Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Hunting the Wild Bull Depicted on temple wall of Rameses III, Medine Habu, Thebes THE NILE: HISTORICALLY 125 well-preserved and unburied temple that is found on the voyage, that of Athor, the Egyptian Venus, and at this place the tourist is almost certain to tarry. Soon after leaving Dendereh, Thebes is reached. Its monuments do not show at a distance as well as do those of Memphis; they stand on both sides of the river, which here has for a few miles a west to east course. They are simply indescribable in the space here available. Possibly the names Luxor and Karnak are more familiar, and the Rameseum wttl hold the attention, as wiU the Tombs of the Kings. From Thebes to the beautiful island of Philae, beyond the proper limits of Egypt (for we are now in upper Egypt), there is but Httle to hold the attention of any but the enthusiastic speciahst. This little gem of an island is only a quarter of a mile long and five hundred feet wide. It was highly revered by the ancient Egyptians because it was a burialplace of Osiris. The great temple of the god stands here, the portal bearing the name of Nectanebes II, but the wings were added by the Ptolemies, making the entire width of the edifice about one hundred and twenty-two feet. Assuming that the tourist will wish to continue his voyage up the Nile, and this is not impossible, though not altogether easy in the winter, there will be found some very exhilarating scenery between Assouan (already briefly, but sufficiently, mentioned) and Wady Haifa, just above which place is the second cataract; here it wttl be remembered a railway to Khartum was opened in 1899. One hundred miles farther up the river, at Hannek, is the third cataract. Just below Sehni, two 126 AFRICA TO-DAY hundred and thirty miles from Hannek, is the fourth, and forty miles below Berber is the fifth, the highest. From this point on to where the Atbara River comes in from the east the river is navigable, flowing through the Nubian Desert. Two hundred miles above the junction is Khartum, concerning which place sometiiing will be said in the next chapter. At Khartum the White Nile is joined by its largest eastern tributary, the Blue Nile, that drains an enormous territory. Some three hundred miles stiU farther is Fashoda, and sixty miles beyond, Sobat. All along here the river flows through a great plain, often as flat as a floor, stretching from spurs of the Abyssinia highlands on the east, far away to the hilly districts of Taghala and Kordofan on the west. But a little farther and the stranger is in one of the many spots of Africa which still possess attraction for those who wish to explore some of the numerous tracts that are not perfectly drawn on our maps. CHAPTER LX CENTRAL AFRICA TF we consider this section as being that part of the -*• continent bounded, speaking without much pretence at geographical accuracy, by the Sahara and Libyan deserts on the north; the Red Sea, Abyssinia, British East Africa, and German East Africa on the east; British South Africa (as including Rhodesia) on the south, and the several Atlantic Coast States on the west, we shall then have left for discussion the two parts of the Sudan (the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the French Sudan) and what was caUed for some time the Kongo Free State. The Sudan has an ethnological rather than a physical unity, and politicaUy it is now cut up into a large number of sections, aU under the control of European Powers, and not yet brought into that condition of peaceful recog nition of authority which is to be desired. This territory is, in very truth, the Heart of the Dark Continent, and it is not yet thoroughly weU known, although there is quite enough of interest to say about it to hold the atten tion for a few minutes. The Arabs called this region Bilad es-Sudan, the "Country of the Blacks," and the natural inference is that the aborigines, as well as the people stiU farther south, were Negroes; but it wiU be shown, we think, when we come to discuss the Blacks of Africa, in Chapter XIII, that very few of the original inhabitants were of pure negro blood. 127 128 AFRICA TO-DAY From all sides, as one enters the Sudan, the impression produced by the appearance of the country, "a moder ately elevated region, diversified with extensive open or rolling plains, level plateaus, and even true highlands, especiaUy in the southwest," is likely to be pleasing; but of course the transition on the north from the barren desert, whether abrupt, as is frequently the case, or gradual, as has been shown to be the case sometimes, is most refreshing. Yet the climate of the Sudan is truly tropical, although not necessarily unhealthy, save in the low lands along the rivers, which are almost fatal to Europeans. There are two distinctly marked seasons; a rainy one, from April or May to October, during which the temperature is high and the humidity trying, the rest of the year being dry and warm. The country is noted for terrific thunderstorms and torrential down pours which often cause devastating floods. Lake Chad, almost at the exact central point of the northern boun dary of the Sudan, has been described as being in a landlocked basin; but if we may accept the account of an expedition made in the autumn of 1910, this descrip tion must be amended. In March, 1911, there was printed in the London Times a synopsis of a pilgrimage made by Miss OHve Mac Leod to the grave of her lover, Lieut. Boyd Alexander, who was killed by the natives in the French Sudan. The party left the town of Fuh, intending to reach, if possible, the falls of the Mao Kabi River in French Equatorial Africa. According to local legend, these falls had never, until that time, been seen by human beings. They were said to be defended from curious natives by fearful devils who resented intrusion, CENTRAL AFRICA 129 and from inquisitive Europeans by immense herds of giraffes under magic spell who would show themselves and thus lure away the strangers from the holy spot. The Mao Kabi River was reached in October; its valley was thickly covered with lush grass and unusuaUy thick brush for that part of the country, but it was also strewn with great stones and masses of rock, hidden by the undergrowth, that made progress difficult. Along tribu tary streams the banks were granite walls and the streams a succession of rapids, the current running about ten miles an hour, forming cascades and long series of falls. These were separated from one another and from the Mao Kabi itself, which bends sharply at that place, making a great, ghstening St. Andrew's Cross. Retrac ing their course, the party reached a lower level and at last came to a place where the whole river sHdes over a precipice sixty feet high. The roar was deafening because of the reverberation from the almost perpendicular walls of the narrow canyon. They reached a point jutting out over the water and took photographs. The scene was grand. At the place where the spray rose from the bottom of the falls there was an elhptical rainbow about two hundred feet in diameter. It is claimed by the members of this party that these falls are of consider able importance as they form the main obstacle to a navigable waterway from the ocean to Lake Chad. This claim requires further verification. Captain Lenfant is reported to have had a distant view of these falls during his expedition into the same country a few years ago.* While there is a large number of political divisions * See Report of P. A. Talbot, Asst. Dist. Commr., Southern Nigeria. I30 AFRICA TO-DAY in this Central Africa, some of them important states but most of them petty village communities, yet the Sudan so nearly embraces all that it is quite sufficient to speak of that territory, drawing precise statements and statistics from the tenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "The Sudan," an important speciahsed work published in London, and other sources that are rec ognised authorities, to supplement our own information. It has been the custom to speak of Eastern, Central, West ern Sudan, of Egyptian Sudan, or French Sudan, and probably this wttl continue for some time; but as a matter of fact all these terms have no real political meaning at all. In a rough and ready sort of way the various divisions, large and small and using the old native names, may be segregated thus : first group, those in the upper Nile Valley, embracing the. territory reconquered by the Egyptians, with material British assistance in men and means, during the last part of the nineteenth cen tury, and now under the joint control of Great Britain and Egypt. This group of states is now known officially as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The second group includes the Sultanate of Bagirmi, with Kanem and Wadai, the latter being the last to yield to European control, its conquest having been effected only in 1909. This group is now included in the French Kongo. The third group is almost whoUy included in the British Northern Nigeria Protectorate. It embraces Sokoto, formerly an independent Sultanate, and its dependencies the emirates of Kano, Bida, Zaria, and some other insig nificant domains, as well as another old Sultanate, Bornu, which partly comes within the lines of the German CENTRAL AFRICA 131 colony of the Kameruns; and the same thing must be said of Adamawa. The fourth group includes all the native states of Bondu, Futa Jallon, Massina, Mossi, and the district within the great bend of the Niger River. During the latter part of the last century France gained control of all this territory and gave it the name of the French Sudan, but in 1900 the official title was changed and now practically all of it is divided between the two colonies, the Upper Senegal and the Niger. It was Mungo Park who first made Europe acquainted with the western part of this great Central Africa, although he was not the first traveller there, for he visited it between 1795 and 1797, and again in 1805. He kept a careful journal, pubhshed after his death, but in his account of explorations there is not so much of ethno logical value as of physical difficulties, sometimes over come, but too frequently overwhelming, and of personal discomfort — aU going to prove that African exploration was then a more serious matter than it is now. We note with some amusement, because of later knowledge, of course, Park's surprise at hearing the native Blacks chanting the Moslem La illah el allah Muhammad rasowl allahi, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet." But we approve his praise for the Man- dingo negro's maternal affection, who exclaimed, "Strike me, but do not curse my mother!" because fanatical Mohammedanism, almost exceeding that of the Mecca- ites, and allegiance to his mother are still conspicuous traits. Ever since Park's time, as was the case then, the natives of this section have been astonished, mysti fied even, at the avidity of Europeans for ivory; and it 132 AFRICA TO-DAY is probably true now, as it certainly was then, if we could but get at the truth, that they thought the strangers beheved the elephant's tusks. to be endowed with some magical and potent power. We have, as yet, singularly Httle information as to social and economical conditions in Katanga, the lofty, southeastern corner of the Belgian Kongo; of unsavoury reputation, however. It is rich in minerals, we know, and because of its proximity to Rhodesia and its compara tively healthy chmate, it bids fair to prove — both industriaUy and pohtically — a second Rand in the not distant future, if only its administration can be ordered along wise and humane lines and entrusted to strong and competent hands. There was pubhshed in 191 1, by the Solway Institute of Sociology, in Brussels, a report on the Upper Katanga which gave a thoroughly scientific, and therefore dispassionate, account of the economic conditions which existed there at the end of 1910 and which, owing to the special quaHfications of its author, Professor G. de Leener, is weU worthy of receiving careful attention. Rhodesia, because of its geographical prox imity and through the enterprise of its British population, has secured a practical monopoly of the trade of Upper Katanga, and it means to keep it. Owing to reluctance on the part of the Belgian exporters to adapt themselves to the estabhshed requirements as to packing, shipping, etc., the granting of credit, and other factors necessary if a trader is to be successful in that particular country or, as a rule, in any recently opened section, and also because of the further fact that there is not a single Belgian engaged in trade in either Rhodesia or Mozam- CENTRAL AFRICA 133 bique (there appeared to be, at the time this report was written, only one Belgian in the Upper Katanga with a store of his own), practicatty the whole trade depends upon the activity of British houses, , and this naturally entails, in its turn, the use of the English lan guage and of EngHsh currency. The failure on the part of the Belgian merchants is attributed largely to over-centralisation in all things Belgian, and Professor de Leener expressed the opinion that his countrymen are temperamentally ill-adapted to successful colonisation. Belgians do not take even reasonable chances in commercial exploitation; they have not the capacity or inclination to turn their hand to any and every kind of work. There are two valu able warnings to be taken from the professor's paper, and these may well be carefully noted by Americans who are looking towards Africa or any foreign land: first, against paying people to emigrate who have not the natural inchnation to do so without receiving any bonus, and second, against supposing that the type of man who may be good enough for the easy-going, secluded existence of the Lower Kongo is hkely to be able to adapt himself to the needs of social, commercial, or industrial Hfe as it is understood by the pushing, keen Briton in South Africa. However, in western and central Sudan there is just now Httle to hold the attention except in commercial and industrial matters, and these are in the control of Europeans, so that there is not much opening for Ameri can enterprise. The country possesses no such wealth of ethnological and archaeological material as does eastern 134 AFRICA TO-DAY Sudan, and therefore we shall proceed to discuss that section. It was not through easy conquest that the revolt of the tribes of the Egyptian Sudan who had yielded to the rehgious and pohtical domination of the Arabian civiHsation was overcome and the territory reconquered by the Anglo-Egyptian expedition of 1896- 1898. It was a serious problem to solve which was offered by the uprising of the Mahdi (the "well- guided," that spiritual leader who, according to Moslem belief, is to appear on earth during the last days of this world and lead the Mussulmans to world-wide victory at the point of the sword), Mahommed Ahmed, in 1881- 1884 and the consequences that flowed therefrom. In Mr. Steevens' book, "With Kitchener to Khar tum," we read this: "And the Dervishes? The honour of the fight must still go with the men who died. Our men were perfect, but the Dervishes were superb, beyond perfection. It was their largest, best, and bravest army that ever fought against us for Mah- dism, and it died worthily of the huge empire that Mahdism won and kept so long.. Their riflemen, mangled by every kind of death and torment that man can devise, clung round the black flag and the green, emptying their poor rotten home-made car tridges dauntlessly. Their spearmen charged death every moment hopelessly. Their horsemen led each attack, riding into bullets till nothing was left. . . . Not one such, or two, or ten, but rush on rush, com pany on company never stopping, though all their view that was not unshaken enemy, was the bodies of the men who had rushed before them. A dusky line CENTRAL AFRICA 135 got up and stormed forward, it bent, broke up, fell apart, and disappeared. Before the smoke had cleared another line was bending and storming forward in the same track. . . . From the green army there now came only death-enamoured desperadoes, strolling one by one towards the rifles, pausing to shake a spear, turning aside to recognise a corpse, then, caught by a sudden jet of fury, bounding forward, checking, sinking Hmply to the ground. Now under the black flag in a ring of bodies stood only three men, facing the three thousand of the Third Brigade. They folded their arms about the staff and gazed steadily forward. Two fell. The last Der vish stood up and filled his chest; he shouted the name of his God and hurled his spear. Then he stood quite still, waiting. It took him full; he quivered, gave at the knees, and toppled with his head on his arms and his face towards the legions of his conquerors." Commenting upon this, Mr. Norman Angell, in "The Great Illusion," says: "Let us be honest. Is there anything in European history — Cambronne, the Light Brigade, anything you Hke — more magnificent than this? If we are honest we shall' say no. But note what follows in Mr. Steevens' narrative. What sort of nature should we expect those savage heroes to display? Cruel, perhaps, but at least loyal. They wttl stand by their chief. Men who can die Hke that will not betray him for gain. They are uncorrupted by commerciaHsm. Well, a few chapters after the scene just described, one may read this: 'As a ruler the Khalifa finished when he rode out of Omdurman. His own pampered Baggara horsemen killed his men 136 AFRICA TO-DAY and looted his cattle that were to feed them. Some body betrayed the position of the reserve camels. . . . His foUowers took to killing one another. . . . The whole population of the Khalifa's capital was now ready to pilfer the Khalifa's grain. . . . Wonderful workings of the savage mind! Six hours before they were dying in regiments for their master ; now they were looting his corn. Six hours before they were slashing our wounded to pieces; now they were asking us for coppers.' " It is well for Africa, for the whole world, that such people have been brought under firm, consid erate control. The limits of this joint administration (joint in name rather than as a pohtical fact), now called Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, are not precisely the same as were those of the States which were formerly included. The line between it and Egypt is now defined at 220 north latitude, the Egypt-Nubia boundary; then, going on round the compass towards the east, the Red Sea, Eritrea, Abyssinia, Uganda Protectorate, Belgian Kongo, French Kongo. North of Darfur the western and the northern boundaries are supposed to meet, but the line is absolutely indefinite. According to the Turkish firman, issued in 1841, a semicircle, convex towards the north, from the Siwa Oasis to Wadai, and cutting the Nile between the second and third cataracts, was to be the frontier; but that line is disregarded by the Sudan ese government. This Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, as will be understood by a glance at a map, is a compact terri tory which brings the whole Nile Valley, from the lakes to the Mediterranean, under the control of Great Britain. Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. The Beautiful Water Front and Harbour of Zanzibar British, French, and other steamers call here regularly CENTRAL AFRICA 137 It is a country about one-fourth the size of Europe, being about nine hundred and fifty thousand square miles in area. From south to north it is traversed by the Nile, and all the great tributaries of that river are partially or entirely within its borders; and between the southern border of Uganda and the northern Hne of Rho desia, along both sides of Lake Tanganyika, is the only stretch of the whole band through which is to pass the Cape to Cairo Railway that Great Britain does not now control. The most elevated portion of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is a range of low mountains — reaUy Httle more than hills as seen from the Red Sea — paraUel with the sea and rather close to it. Between the coast and the Nile is the Nubian desert, a rugged, rocky, barren waste, with here and there a httle scanty vegetation in the wadies. But within the triangle formed by the Nile, the Atbara, and the Blue Nile, the so-called Island of Meroe, the soil is very fertile, and here the rich land alternates between rolling open ground and forests wherein is but Httle undergrowth. The desert stretches wett down into the Sudan on the west of the Nile, much farther than on the east. The northern part of Kordofan, which Hes between the desert and the plains of Bahr el- Ghazal (the important western tributary of the Nile), is barren steppes, but south of the tenth parallel of lati tude there is plenty of water everywhere. In the high lands of this region the chmate is healthy because of its dryness. There are Hterally but few people Hving in the desert, and even in the fertile districts the population is not now 138 AFRICA TO-DAY great, for the former inhabitants suffered much from disease and war during the Mahdi regime. The popu lation is increasing slowly and there are some Europeans, mostly Greeks, going into this region. It is not quite correct now to apply the term Bilad es-Sudan to the Anglo-Egyptian domains, for the people in the north are Hamitic or Semitic and there are many nomads who are classed as Arabs. North of Khartum is found a great mixture of blood, especially among the Nubians. North of the twelfth parallel the inhabitants are almost altogether of mixed Arab descent; in Dafur they are Arab and Negro. Those who may be called true negroes are from the Nilotic tribes; there are several strains to be detected and great variation in physique and colour. A marked contrast is to be noted between the industry of the Europeans and the easy-going manner — not to say laziness — of the native Sudanese. British firmness has effectually put a stop to the capture of slaves, and that traffic has ceased; but domestic slavery continues. This probably is a survival of old custom, when, as a result of famine, men and women sell themselves to obtain food for themselves and their famihes, or through insolvency, and possibly as punishment for serious crimes. The treatment of these slaves is not now marked by cruelty. In the northeastern parts of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan facilities for travel are now fairly adequate — north of Khartum by railway, south of that place by train and steamboats, or by caravan where modern con veniences have not yet been installed. There are two principal lines of railway; the one connects the CENTRAL AFRICA 139 Sudan with northern Egypt, the other goes to the Red Sea. The first follows the east bank of the Nile to Abu Hamed, then goes straight across country to Wady Haifa, thence by steamboat to Assouan, at which place connection is made with trains for Cairo and Alexandria. At Khartum the Hne crosses the Blue Nile by a bridge and follows up the vaUey to Geteinah (Gezira) and Sennar, turns west into the White Nile VaUey, crosses that stream, by bridge, near Adlar (Abba) Island, and continues on to El Obeid, the principal town of Kordofan. It was near this place that the Mahdists overwhelmed Hicks Pasha's army, and for a time thereafter the trade of the whole province was diverted towards the north; but it is now finding its way back into Egypt. The second important railway leaves the trunk line at Atbara Junction, near the confluence of the Nile and Atbara Rivers, and goes east via Berber and the old Berber- Suakin caravan route. It forks at Sallom, one branch going on to Suakin, the other to Port Sudan, a newly estabHshed harbour on the Red Sea by rail from Khartum 493 miles, while Suakin is 497 miles from Khartum. There is another line from Abu Hamed to Kareima (opposite Merawei) in the Dongola district, below the fourth cataract. The short railway from Wady Haifa along the bank of the Nile to Kerma was abandoned in 1903, and connection with the Assouan-Cairo Hne is for the present made by steamer. The total distance from Khartum to Alexandria, rail and boat, is very nearly fifteen hundred miles, or more than one-quarter of the entire length of the Cape to Cairo Railway. There are river steamers also between Kerma and Kareima, and I40 AFRICA TO-DAY above Khartum the Government maintains a regular steamboat service to Gondakoro in the Uganda Pro tectorate. When high water permits, boats also run for some distance up the Blue Nile, but powerful dredgers and machines to cut the masses of reeds, grass, trees, etc., which accumulate to form awkward obstructions (called Sudd), are required constantly to keep open the fairway in the Upper Nile and Bahr el-Ghazal. The old caravan routes Korosko-Abu Hamed and Berber- Suakin have been superseded by railways, but else where weUs and rest-houses are kept up along others of these roads which lead from interior towns to the Nile; and on some of the thoroughfares regular motor car service is maintained, removing some part of the stigma of being antiquated. Durra is the chief grain crop in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Two crops a year are gathered, but besides this wheat, barley, beans, sesame, onions, melons and many other grains, fruits, and vegetables do well; and there are considerable quantities of peanuts. There are, in the western sections, extensive forests yielding gum and rubber. The gum of eastern Kordofan is of two varieties: white, hashab, which is the better, and red, talk. Rubber comes mainly from the Bahr el-Ghazal region, where there are both Para and Ceara plantations; some is obtained in the Sobat valley. The wealth of Arabs is, however, measured yet by their camels, horses, and cattle. Ostrich farming is a growing and profitable industry. The ancient gold mines in the Nubian desert, about midway between Wady Haifa and Abu Hamed, were reopened in 1905 and are now paying. Small CENTRAL AFRICA 141 quantities of gold dust are washed in Kordofan, and the metal is found in several other locahties. There is fairly good Hgnite in Dongola and iron ore in Darfur, south of Kordofan, as well as in the Bahr el-Ghazal region; "in the last mentioned place mudiria (?) iron is worked by natives." The desert of Hofrat el-Nahas, "the copper mines," is rich in copper ore and mines have been worked intermittently from the remote past. The trade of the condominium is systematised and regulated by the Government. A governor-general who has been recommended by Great Britain is appointed by the Egyptian Government. In 1910 a council of four officials and from two to four civttians, nominated by the Egyptian ministers, was created to advise the governor-general in the exercise of his official and legislative duties, and all questions are decided by a majority vote of the council. Their action is, however, always subject to the governor-general's veto. It is to be expected that the appointment of Lord Kitchener wttl result in there being more direct supervision from Cairo than ever before. Archaeological research in the Sudan generally was greatly retarded by the long-continued poHtical confu sion, and the work which had been begun by French, German, British, and other students was stopped by the Mahdist outbreaks, so that the Egyptian Sudan, with certain portions of Egypt south of Assouan, was practi cally closed to investigators. Even after the overthrow of the Mahdi at Omdurman, in 1898, it was a long time before this work was resumed, and before much had been done scientists were thrown into a state of terrible 142 AFRICA TO-DAY consternation by the Egyptian Government's resolution to raise the dam at Assouan and to extend the reservoir at the first cataract. This plan threatened the whole valley from Assouan up to Abu Simbel, and haste was demanded if opportunities for underground research were not to be lost forever. Large sums were granted for this purpose and to preserve buildings which would be affected by the overflow. The University of Pennsyl vania sent out the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., expedition to the southern half of Lower Nubia, while Egyptian excavators worked from Korosko to Assouan. From 1907 to 19 11 an enormous mass of new material relating to the archae ology of Egypt and the Sudan was secured. All of Nubia, save about twenty miles in the south, is attached to Egypt for administrative purposes; yet this boundary is artificial. The natural geographical and ethnical frontier of Egypt on the Nile is the first cataract. The earHest writers, as did Diocletian later, recognised this fact clearly, and Julian merely anticipated the opinion of every modern observer when he described "pontus Syenes" as the gate of Africa. This concluding paragraph, it need hardly be said, is condensed from the fuller account given in the Encyclo paedia Britannica, eleventh edition. The University of Pennsylvania expedition opened a new chapter in the history of African races. We had no records of the founders of the first great Ethiopian kingdom from Piankhi to Tirhakah, nor had any fresh light been thrown upon the relations of that remarkable king, Ergamenes, with the Egyptian Ptolemies. But exploration of sites in the southern half of Lower Nubia revealed the exist- CENTRALAFRICA 143 ence of a wholly unsuspected and independent civiHsa tion which grew up during the first six centuries after Christ. Graves gave new types of statues, bronzes, ivory carvings, and painted pottery — all of the highest artistic value — as well as a large number of stone stelae inscribed with funerary formulae in the Meroitic script; the cemeteries of Shablul and Karanag yielded one hundred and seventy inscriptions on stone, besides inscribed ostraka. CHAPTER X EASTERN AFRICA WE are to include in this chapter Eritrea, Abys sinia, the British Somah Coast Protectorate, ItaHan Somahland, French SomaHland, British East Africa (Ibea), German East Africa, and Portuguese East Africa; all maritime states, except Abyssinia, which had access to the Red Sea Httoral in former times and, inclusively, stretching along the east side of Africa from i8° 2' north latitude to 260 52' south, where the Portuguese possessions touch Tongaland (Natal) in British territory. Of all these, Abyssinia is the most interesting in its history; although British and German East Africa are probably quite as attractive to the general reader to-day because of the great possibihties they hold for the naturahst, the sportsman, the industrialist, and the active merchant. At the time of the Roman domination in Northern Africa the country now caUed Eritrea formed part of an independent kingdom which was the same as that known later, somewhat loosely, as Ethiopia. The old name Axum, or Aksum, was apphed specifically to a city in the present Abyssinian province of Tigre, that stiU possesses some remarkable ruins. In 1870 Italy secured the nucleus of her overseas possessions by the purchase of Assah for £1880. It was but natural that 144 Copyright, Underwood &• Underwood, N. Y. Native Troops at Moschi, East Africa They are drilled by European officers EASTERNAFRICA 145 Great Britain should look with some jealousy at the establishing of a port of call which might become a rival for the East India steamship service. But eventuaUy Great Britain's opposition to Italy's plan was withdrawn, while that of Turkey and Egypt was calmly ignored, and by a decree dated July 5, 1882, Assah was declared an ItaHan colony. Then, in 1885, Italy took possession of Massawa (or Massowah), Great Britain approving of the act as tending to promote the peace of the Red Sea coast of Africa. "Between 1883 and 1888 various treaties were concluded with the Sultan of Aussa, ceding the Danakil coast to Italy and recognising an Italian protectorate over the whole of his country, through which passes the trade route from Assab Bay to Shoa." On the first day of January, 1890, a decree was issued by the ItaHan Government uniting the various Italian possessions on the west coast of the Red Sea into one colony, which was given the name of the Colony of Eritrea, "so named after the Erythracum Mare of the Romans." (See modern Litri, in Asia Minor.) At first the form of government was a military one, but after the defeat of the ItaHan forces by the Abyssinians this was changed to a civil admimstration directly responsible to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rome. The civil laws for natives are those which were established by old local usage, while Europeans are amenable to Italian laws, although in their case, too, a certain regard is had for native customs. "The frontiers were defined by a French-Italian convention (January 24, 1900), fixing the frontier between French Somalttand and the ItaHan possessions at Rahtala, and also by various agreements I46 AFRICA TO-DAY with Great Britain and Abyssmia. A tripartite agree ment between Italy, Abyssinia, and Great Britain, entered into on the fifteenth of May, 1902, placed the territory of the Kanama tribe on the north bank of the Setit, within Eritrea. The convention of May 16, 1900, settled the Abyssinia-Eritrea frontier in the Afar country, the boundary being fixed at sixty kilometres from the coast." In the southern part of the colony there are several small sultanates, for example Aussa and Raheita, which, although stiU possessing a certain similitude of independence, are nevertheless under Italian protection. The Dahlak archipelago and other groups of islands in the Red Sea, but near the African shore, belong to Eritrea. MeteorologicaUy considered, the colony may be divided into three distinct districts. Along the coast the climate is decidedly bad, being characterised by great heat and an excess of humidity. Massawa, the chief port and virtuaUy the metropolis, shows a general average for the whole year of 88° F., and in summer the mercury often rises to 1200 in the shade, although June, September, and October are, on the whole, the hottest months. In the season that is euphemistically caUed winter, that is from November to April, the tempera ture is slightly lower; but at that time malarial fever is very bad. From about 1650 to 8500 feet above sea- level the climate is much better; the air is moderately cool, especially at night, because of the great radiation. Europeans find life in this section quite agreeable. Above eighty-five hundred feet the climate is compar able with that of any other alpine region. The population is mixed. In the north there are EASTERNAFRICA I47 Arabs, or people of Hamitic descent; in the coast lands, between Abyssinia and the sea, the inhabitants claim to be Arabs, but they are more like the Somalis and GaUas of southern Abyssinia, British and German East Africa. They are almost all given to fetishism and tree worship, although a great many profess to be devout Mussulmans. These people are admirable specimens of mankind. They have narrow, straight noses, thin lips, and small, pointed chins; the girls are very pretty while stiU young, but lose their physical attractions early. The men are desperate fighters and successfully resisted the Egyptians in 1875, Dut. between 1883 and 1888 the most influential sultan made treaties acknowl edging Italian protection, and these have been reason ably respected with the result that these people are now quiet and peaceful. The Afar region, in the extreme south, is partly in Eritrea and partly in Abyssinia, while the Afar people are found in French Somalttand in considerable num bers. Their saying, "Guns are useful only to frighten cowards," gives a clue to their character. In former times they were bold and terribly successful pirates, and to-day their descendants are the only fishermen in the Red Sea who dare hunt the big and combative dugong. The line between Eritrea and French Somalttand is just north of the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, on the opposite shore of which stands Perim, with which place Massawa is connected by a submarine cable giving telegraphic connection to all parts of the world. There are land telegraph lines pretty weU over the colony and fairly good roads. One railway, sixty-five miles long, connects 148 AFRICA TO-DAY Massawa with Asmara, the capital of the colony; wisely chosen as such, for it stands on the Hamasen plateau, at an elevation of seventy-eight hundred feet above the sea. It is intended to extend this line to Sabderat and Kassala in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Thus, when the contemplated Hne from Khartum to Kassala is built, there will be railway service in connection with the Anglo-Egyptian system. All things considered, while Eritrea is an interesting country for the ethnologist and economist, it can hardly be said to be a place which wttl attract many tourists. The smaU colony, French SomaHland, may be dis missed with a very few words. Beyond the fact that the intensely hot and uncomfortable httle port of Djibouti (EngHsh writers drop the initial "D") affords a means of entrance to Abyssinia by railway, one hundred and eighty-eight miles long, to Dawa, there is really nothing to be said here. Several authors of interesting books about East and Central Africa have gone into the country from Djibouti, and their descriptions of efforts to make Hfe at the God-forsaken, dirty little spot ape that of Paris are sufficiently amusing to be read as an incident. Although the Portuguese had some acquaintance with the country now included in British SomaHland and ItaHan Somalttand, we really knew but little of it until the Egyptians took possession of Berberah in 1874. There are some interesting problems for the student of comparative philology to unravel, and it is possible that the archaeologist may find reward for effort bestowed. CommerciaUy the volume of trade, which is rapidly grow- Copyright, Underwood £r Underwood, N. Y. A Group of Wachagga People On the lower slopes of Mt. Kilima njaro, East Africa. The entire family, man and beast, is housed in one small hut EASTERN AFRICA 149 ing to considerable proportions, especially in the section under British protection, must command the attention of the economist. As a field for Christian propaganda, both colonies demand attention from missionaries, as do most of the colonies considered in this chapter. Abyssinia is, it hardly need be said, the most interest ing, historically, politicaUy, and ethhologicaUy, of aU these countries that we have included in our Eastern Africa. That missionaries of the Christian faith made their way into Abyssinia in the earHest centuries of our era has been accepted as a fact for such a long time that discussion is unnecessary. We shaU merely note that in a.d. 330 Frumentius was consecrated the first Bishop of Ethiopia by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, but that Httle progress was made in conversion until after the close of the next century. Many interesting papers are to be found in the series of volumes entitled "Jesuit Rela tions." The notorious Prester John, after being chased over pretty much the whole of Asia, has been located in Abyssinia since the fourteenth century, and there are several accounts of expeditions to this country given in such weU-known works as "Purchas: His Pilgrims" and the like, which contain statements that the ruler of the kingdom, or empire, was this famous Prester John, or descended from him. The name Ethiopia continued to be associated with Abyssinia even as late as the end of the nineteenth cen tury; for on May 2, 1889, King Menelek signed a treaty with Italy in which was this clause: "His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to make use of the government of His Majesty the King of Italy for the 150 AFRICA TO-DAY treatment of aU questions concerning other powers and governments." Because of this, Italy, not unnaturaUy, claimed protectorate rights over the whole of Abyssmia. As it is too long a story to teU here, for Httle could be omitted so interesting is it aU, we refrain from comment ing upon the political troubles that ensued and Italy's discomfiture. In September, 1889, this treaty was rati fied in Italy by Menelek's representative, the Ras Makonnen, who entered into a convention by the terms of which Italy recognised Menelek as "emperor of Ethiopia," while Menelek recognised the Italian colony of Eritrea and arrangement was made for a special Italo-Abyssinian currency and for a loan with which to readjust the Abyssinian currency, etc. Since the beginning of the present century we may say that Abyssinia's autonomy has been restored; although the presence in the capital, Adis Ababa, of representatives of various European States, exercising decidedly more than merely diplomatic functions, has tended somewhat to impugn the integrity of Abyssinia's complete independence. The Anglo-French-ItaHan agreement of December, 1906, provides in its preamble that it is to the interest of the three signatories "to maintain intact the integrity of Ethiopia," and Article One provides for their co-operation in maintaining "the political and territorial status quo in Ethiopia." But every student wiU note, with varying feelings according to his individual bent, the absolute ignoring of Abyssinia in the seemingly praiseworthy agreement to preserve the peace. In 1903 the American Government con cluded a commercial treaty with Abyssinia in terms EASTERN AFRICA 151 which are more in the way of recognising her autonomy than any of the European conventions display. For the time being, at any rate, we may consider the frontiers of Abyssmia as being fairly well defined; and that country, which at one time exercised rights of communication to the shores of the Red Sea, is now relegated to the position of an inland state, a strip, varying in width from forty to two hundred and fifty miles, intervening between her frontier and the Red Sea. The country is divided, almost equally, into two districts, that in the east being comparatively low land, that in the west high. There is a spur of low mountains, the Harrar Hills, running out towards the east into British Somalttand. But there is, besides, a large tract of low country in the southwest, the Sobat territory, which is a part of the Nile basin. Abyssinian SomaHland, back of British SomaHland and ItaHan SomaHland, comprises about one-third of the kingdom. Naturally, the climate of Abyssinia is very variable, but with the exception of most parts of the lower lands, it is fairly healthy and in the heights of medium altitude it is exhilarating. Some mountain peaks run up to fifteen thousand feet above the sea. There are no large cities except Harrar, which was originally founded by Arabs. Axum was formerly the capital city of a great Semitic people, whose language, as it was spoken at the time when Christianity was introduced, continues to be the hieratic form. " The Chronicles of Axum were pre served in the church, and are frequently referred to as the Books of Axum. The most interesting of the monu ments stiU extant are the obelisk and the so-caUed 152 AFRICA TO-DAY coronation-room, both constructed of granite, and the latter containing some valuable bttingual inscriptions." * Magdala, which was the residence of King Theodore, is chiefly associated in our minds with the terrible suffer ings of certain British subjects who were kept impris oned there for some time, in 1866, and for whose relief expeditions were organised that led, eventuaUy, to the proper opening of the country and the establishing of the present satisfactory conditions. Abyssinia cannot yet be said to be weU developed; there is a railway, one hundred and eighty-eight miles long, connecting Dawa with Djibouti, and there are caravan routes which give communication with Massawa (Italian) and Jaila and Berbera (British). All of these ports are connected with Aden by steamship lines, and that place is the distributing point for aU the East African trade. The bulk of Abyssinian commerce con sists of shipments of skins (hides and pelts) to the United States, to which country, also, practicaUy aU the coffee, caUed "Harrar Mocha," is sent, and this is con sidered to be a first-class article. The cattle are mostly of the zebu, or hump-backed breed, and are rather small. With the exception of one numericaUy smaU breed of sheep, these animals have no wool to shear. There are, however, a good many goats that, in a measure, supply this deficiency. Until a few years ago the media of exchange were the old "Maria Theresa" doUars, bars of rock-salt, and rifle cartridges, but in 1905 the Bank of Abyssinia was created under Egyptian laws. King Menelek had given a concession *Enc. Brit., nth ed. Photo, Underwood &• Underwood, N. Y. A Station on the Uganda Railway EASTERN AFRICA 153 to the National Bank of Egypt, with this purpose in view. This bank is now coining the Menelek doUar or talari. British East Africa, the eastern part of which was formerly known as Ibea, comprehensively includes all territory under British control on the east side of the continent south of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and north of German East Africa. On the north it borders also on Abyssinia; on the south the German colony; on the west the condominium, and on the east Italian SomaHland and the Indian Ocean. It is now understood as comprising the protectorates of Zanzibar, Uganda, and East Africa. Along the coast there is a narrow belt of low land, marked by the most luxuriant of tropical vegetation, for the equator crosses the southern end of the colony. But even here the climate is not nearly so unhealthy as it is in some other places similarly situated as regards the tropics, for there is a constant breeze from the ocean and the soil is exceptionaUy dry. Back of the coast the land rises rapidly in a series of steps which show a singular paraUehsm in climate and vegetation; the first of these uphfts is rather arid, but once past this the variation through sub-tropical, semi-temperate, and other phases up to an alpine region is most marked. The highlands are wonderfully healthy, fever being unknown. After crossing the backbone of the mountains, there is a dip in the western part of the territory into the basin of Lake Victoria Nyanza, which may be reached by the Mombasa-Victoria Nyanza railway, 584 miles long. This is essentially a mountain line; the gradients 154 AFRICA TO-DAY are frequently from 88 to 105 feet in a mile, the curves are sharp, and the gauge only 3.28 feet (one metre), that of the Sudan, South, and Central African Hnes being 3.50 feet. At the Mau Escarpment (cutting) the altitude is 8,321 feet above sea-level. The cost of the line was about $46,000 per mile. It was finished in 1903 and promptly put a stop to the impressing of slaves to be used as porters on the old caravan routes, thus dealing a deathblow to the slave trade in this part of the continent. In fact, the main reasons for con structing the railway were to suppress the slave trade and to strengthen the position of the British in Uganda. Of this last-named section, which, properly speaking, should be caUed Buganda, it is weU to say a Httle something because of the rather extraordinary diver sity of physical aspects which it presents. There are mountain peaks forever snow-capped, elevated table lands that offer every attraction of cHmate and condition for life that one could ask, primeval forests which are almost impassable, so closely grow the trees and under brush; but there are, too, great swamps and arid regions utterly devoid of attraction. The most remarkable peak is Mt. Elgon, an extinct volcano with a crater that is ten miles in diameter and the top more than fourteen thousand feet above sea-level. Near the northern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza are the famous Ripon FaUs, discovered by Speke in 1862 and subsequently proved by Stanley to be the only outlet of the lake, just at Napoleon Gulf. The Nile is here fully four or five hundred feet wide and is weU said to be "fuUy born." In Uganda are found the Pigmy-prognathons, "the EASTERN AFRICA 155 so-caUed 'Kongo pigmies' of Simliki forest, of Kiagwe in Buganda, and of the western flanks of Mt. Elgon, and the types of Forest Negroes." On Lake Victoria Nyanza there are steamboats which run in connection with trains from Mombasa; others are found on the Victoria Nile, caUed here also Somerset River, and on Lakes Ibrahim and Koja, as weU as on Lake Albert Nyanza and the Mountain Nile. A short line of rail way, fifty miles, is under construction from Jinja to Kakindu, along the valley of the Victoria Nile, from the place where it issues from the lake to the point, near Lake ^Koja, where the stream becomes navigable. The history of this province is very interesting and its perusal wttl repay the careful reader. German East Africa, stretching along the Indian Ocean from 40 to io° 40' south latitude, extends west ward to Lake Nyasa, Lake Tanganyika, and Belgian Kongo. In the north it includes within its borders about one-half of the great Victoria Nyanza. From the British East Africa boundary, south to the neigh bourhood of Bagamoyo (opposite Zanzibar Island), the narrow coast belt is similar to that of the British posses sions; but then the mountains trend abruptly away from the sea and some run out in the great plain of the south ern and western districts of this province. But in the northern part of the colony, about midway of the north ern border and between the ocean and Lake Victoria Nyanza, are the loftiest peaks in aU Africa — Mt. Kilima n'jaro (19,320 feet) and Mt. Meru (14,955 feet); while in their immediate vicinity are such a number of high mountains that the region may, with much propriety, 156 AFRICA TO-DAY be called the Himalayas of Africa; for that name, it should be noted, means "Snow Abode." Railways, either built or under construction, are a trunk line from Dar es-Salaam through M'rogoro and Tabora to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika; from Tabora a branch to M'wansa on Victoria Nyanza; and in the south from Kilwa through Wiedhafen to Lake Nyasa, to be carried on until connection is made with the British system (Cape to Cairo Railway) and into the southern part of Belgian Kongo. This last Hne wttl eventuaUy be one of the most important "Across Africa" railways. As only the coast region of this country was known to strangers until weU into the nineteenth century, we find that there are many Arabian and Indian merchants at the ports. In the interior there are many mixed races, Banta and Semitic; the preponderance among the inhabitants goes to the Swahtti people. But the province is rapidly fitting up with immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. Even domestic slavery was suppressed from December 31, 1905, and since then aU children born of slave parents are free. Before leaving this colony we must comment again upon the remarkable feature of its physical geography. In the north the Victoria Nyanza basin drains into the Mediterranean; in the west Tanganyika into the Atlantic, and in the south Nyasa into the Indian Ocean. The principal rivers within the colony make their way into the last- named ocean. Portuguese East Africa ¦. The official title is the "State of East Africa." The coast-line extends from io° 40' south latitude to 260 52', where the Portuguese Copyright, Underwood &¦ Underwood, N. Y. A "Country Store" in the Wilds of German East Africa Gaily printed calicoes from United States' mills are very popular sellers EASTERN AFRICA 157 possessions join those of Great Britain; from north to south the distance is about 1430 miles. To the west are the British South Africa States, and the total area is about 293,500 square miles; yet the population (in 1909) was only 3,120,000. The colony includes the island of Mozambique, the name of which was formerly that of the whole territory. Save at Pemba, about midway of the coast (where there is ample anchorage for vessels of large size), the harbours are poor and few. The whole coast region and that portion of the Zam besi valley adjacent to the river are very unhealthy, but the higher lands of the interior offer a salubrious ch mate. Wild animals are plenty, and plants, both tropical and those of cooler zones, are abundant, so that the province stiU holds attractions for the naturalist. Communications, despite a certain apathy on the part of the Portuguese Government and private promoters, are reasonably good for such a colony. In Portuguese territory the Zambesi is navigable for Hght draft steamboats, except at the Kebressa (Karao-bassa) rapids, four hundred miles from the river's mouth, and these are as yet an insuperable obstacle. The Shire branch of the Zambesi gives direct communi cation, by boat and rail, with British South African possessions. There is a railway from Lourenco Marques into Swaziland and the Transvaal, which will be aUuded to again in a later chapter. Another Hne extends from Beira, on the coast, to Mashonaland, Rhodesia. A Hght, narrow gauge line runs inland from Inhambane (an indifferent harbour, about 240 south latitude) for some 158 AFRICA TO-DAY fifty miles and affords facilities for getting into Gaza- land. Other lines are under construction; Beira to Sena, on the Zambesi, and from Quilimane to the same river. There are caravan routes in aU parts of the colony, but these are nothing more than very indifferent trails along which travel is difficult and very slow. The whole trade of the colony amounts to some fifty miUion doUars annually, but altogether too large a part of it consists of very inferior wines imported from Europe and sold to the natives, in both Portuguese and British dominions, at low prices, with results that do not make for the best civilisation. The history of this section is interesting, especially in those chapters which treat of the jealousies and conflicts of British and Portuguese for possession and for trade. It would be remiss to leave East Africa without men tion of the Nyika, that lovely wonderland which seems to have exercised a strange fascination upon every travel ler who has come within its influence. It is a strange medley of forest and glade in such endless change that the visitor sometimes becomes surfeited with its weird beauty and wonderful effects. The air possesses a tropical brightness and plays strange tricks upon the eye, making smaU objects appear great ones, tttl gnus are metamorphosed into elephants, ostriches become rhinoceroses, zebras turn into wild asses! We take leave, for the time being, of East Africa with a touch of human nature, borrowed from an American explorer and sportsman — a dance in the Meru country. After certain preHminaries, such as obtaining permission of the strangers, and this carried with it reasonable EASTERN AFRICA 159 consideration of some kind as well as the approval of the "doctor" who acted as master of ceremonies, "the dance then commenced, and it was a most weird and wild affair. The Witch Doctor first took the precaution of placing a guard around us, so that none of the excited warriors might do us an injury while in the half -frenzied state. The warriors, decked out in their semi-Masai garb and painted hideously, then formed up in two com panies in front of us, one on our right and the other on our left. Groups of from four to six advanced from each side, and with savage shouts and yells dashed at each other, bounding into the air with great leaps and making their spears quiver in their hands. They circled round in front of us, feigning to attack each other and making fierce passes in the air, leaping and yeUing aU the time, unttt one party retired pursued by the other. This was repeated time after time, until the whole of the company had in turn taken part in the display, after which the two companies united and went round us in a great circle, springing and bounding and hurling defiant words at their absent enemy — in this case the warriors of a chief caUed Thularia, whose district adjoined. Dur ing all the time that the war-dance was going on, the women of the tribe kept away at a discreet distance, not daring to come near. Now, however, on its con clusion, they approached, decked out in all the finery of the Meru beUes, and each with a broad smile on her face, without any bashfulness or timidity, selected a fa vourite warrior, and a peace ingoma commenced. In this the performers made a ring, the men on the outside and the women on the inside, facing each other. Then, with l6o AFRICA TO-DAY hands on each other's shoulders, they commenced an up- and-down motion, raising themselves on their toes and then sinking down again on their heels, accompanied by a monotonous chant which was weirdly interrupted now and then by the beating of the war drum or the savage yeU of an excited warrior. . . . The festivities were kept up throughout the day, nor did they cease at nightfaU, as, while I lay awake, far into the night, I could plainly hear the fiendish sounds of the heathen revelry." Copyrignt, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. East African Women of the Meru Tribe Lined Up for a Dance The brass wire collars are assumed when a maiden becomes a wife CHAPTER XI WESTERN AFRICA THIS section presents such a number of states and colonies, and some of them are so smaU, yet by no means unimportant, while others are almost conti nental in size, that it is somewhat difficult to do the subject futt justice within the Hmits of that smaU space we have assigned to it. Besides, there must almost of necessity be some repetition, because such colonies as those of France, Spain, and other European Powers, while properly included in Western Africa, in reality stretch back into the territory of the Sahara and Central Africa. Beginning at the extreme northern and western parts of the section, we shaU find that the Spanish colony, Rio d' Oro, first engages our attention. Its northern border, where it adjoins Morocco, has been but recently defined; the most northerly point claimed by Spain is Cape Bojador. The southern and eastern lines of Rio d' Oro are clearly determined by the French-Spanish convention of 1900. As this colony is in reahty only a part of the Sahara, it is practicaUy aU desert, for there are but few oases and these are smaU; consequently the water supply is almost nil. It foUows, therefore, that the population is very scant; no rehable statis tics are available. In the estimated area of seventy 161 162 AFRICA TO-DAY thousand square miles the people are almost all Arabs or Berbers, and Mahommedans, of course. The name of the colony comes from the fact that the Portuguese discoverers, in the fifteenth century, mistook the smaU estuary, to which they gave the name Rio d' Oro, for a river; and because they obtained con siderable gold dust from the natives they fancied the place was rich in that precious metal. The estuary, or narrow bay, runs back into the land for some twenty-two miles; at its mouth it is five miles wide and it is navigable for more than two-thirds of its length. Were it not for a sandbar, which is not easily passed in rough weather, the estuary would be an exceUent harbour, for there is good holding ground and plenty of water in the broad channel. Between the estuary and the sea there is a slender peninsula twenty-three miles in length, from two miles to one and a quarter wide, and only twenty feet above sea-level. The principal Spanish settlement, Villa Cisneros, is at about the central point of the coast-line, where the cli mate is generally temperate and the place not specially unhealthy except in the autumn. In 1885 Spain took possession of the coast between Capes Bojador and Blanco and attempted to exercise protectorate rights somewhat indefinitely back into the interior. This latter was resisted by France, already claiming protecto rate over the whole western Sahara, and the question was adjusted in 1900, as has been stated. The principal exports are esparto grass and manzanilla (the common chamomile). The wild animals are mostly smaU. The natives rear a few cattle, sheep, and camels. But a WESTERNAFRICA 163 remarkable contrast may be drawn between the lean earth and the bounteous sea, which is teeming with life. Fishing is an important industry, the principal catch being cod, and this is carried on by the inhabitants of the Canary Islands and by Frenchmen. We next group together most of the French posses sions in this section of Africa; viz., Senegal, Upper Senegal and Niger, Guinea (French), the Ivory Coast, the territory of Mauretania, and that large part of the Sahara included in French West Africa. In area it is nearly two million square miles (Europe is 3,760,000 square miles), but more than half of it is desert. Its outlines may be roughly defined as the greater part of Africa west of the Niger delta (British territory) and south of the Tropic of Cancer; and thus it wiU be under stood that it includes the territory along the upper and middle course of the Niger River, the entire Senegal basin, and the extreme southwestern portion of the Sahara. The most northern point on the coast is Cape Blanco, where it joins the Spanish colony just described, and it thence takes in all the coast down to the British settle ment of Gambia, thus including Cape Verde, the most western point of the continent. It then sweeps back towards the east, forming the hinterland of numerous colonies, either independent or protectorates of other European Powers, except when, as in the case of French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey, itself dips down to the Atlantic or Gulf of Guinea; and again, on the north, these possessions in French West Africa them selves are the hinterlands of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis. While not yet precisely defined, perhaps, we may as 164 AFRICA TO-DAY well say that the eastern boundary of this enormous tract is the frontier of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Sufficient has already been said of the Sudan part and we now content ourselves with a hasty discussion of the western section. When apposite, we may adopt the description given in the authority already mentioned, and say that there are three marked physical characteristics to be'noted: first, a dense forest region back of a narrow coast belt which is greatly broken by inlets and lagoons; second, a region, small in comparison with the vast size of the whole, of moderately elevated and fertile plains, seldom rising higher than two thousand feet above sea- level; and third, that great section, north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, that trends away into the Sahara Desert. The most elevated districts are far away in the west, the Futa Jallon territory, back of French Guinea, where we find the ultimate sources of the Niger, the Senegal, and the Gambia Rivers, and in the Gon (or Gona) region, both presenting mountain ranges along the southern edge of the desert plateau and in which are peaks rising to six thousand feet or more. The chief towns of this French West Africa are Tim buctoo, Jenne, and Segu, on the Niger, Porto Novo, in Dahomey, St. Louis and Dakai, in Senegal. The last named is probably the most important from the French point of view, because it is a naval base besides being a thriving commercial seaport. The majority of the inhabitants of this western region are typical negroes, although in Senegal and the Sahara there is a strong admixture of Berber and Arab blood; and yet a most Hberal estimate of the population puts the total at only Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Throne Room in the Sultan's Palace at Zanzibar WESTERN AFRICA 165 about thirteen miUions, of whom some twelve thousand are Europeans. In the upper lands the flora is often magnificent. The fertile hiUsides are covered with baobab, tamarind, and other valuable forest trees. Some of the baobab (Adan- sonia digitata) at twenty-four feet from the ground are thirty-four feet in diameter. There are, too, many vari eties of the acacia; one of them (Acacia Adansonia) makes exceUent ship timber. Palms are numerous, of course. The wood of the ronier (palm) resists moisture and the attacks of insects most wonderfuUy. In some places, Cayor for example, this tree forms magnificent forests. There are, too, many rubber plants. The soil in a goodly part of Upper Senegal and Niger is remarkably fertile, producing rice, Indian corn, mttlet, melons, manioc, grapes, bananas, and other fruits. There is, too, rich pasturage of guinea-grass, and the people own large herds of cattle and sheep. The fauna is hardly entitled to much consideration as compared with the superabundance and character of East African animal Hfe. Strictly speaking according to French official defini tion, the colony of Senegal means the towns of Dakar, St. Louis, Gorce, and Rufisque, a narrow strip along the Dakar-St. Louis railway, and a few other detached places. Its area then, is only about four hundred and forty square miles, and the population, in 1904, something over one hundred thousand. PoHtically, however, the colony includes certain native states under French administration, and therefore has an area of nearly seventy-five thousand square miles and a l66 AFRICA TO-DAY population approaching the two million mark. One of the most important of these protected states is Bondu, visited by Mungo Park, who had a very rough experi ence there. Later Major W. Gray, when trying to determine the source and course of the Niger, found the capital, which had been Fatteconde in Park's time, transferred to Buhbani. A railway connects Dakar with St. Louis. The Senegal is navigable during high water — August to November — for a long distance, to Kayes, whence another Hne goes to the Niger. There is, besides, direct railway connection between Dakar and the Niger by way of Thies to Kayes. This colony is well equipped with telegraph Hnes and there is a cable from Dakar to Brest, France. The colony of Upper Senegal and Niger is bounded on the north by the Saharan territory which comes under the jurisdiction of Algeria; on the west by Senegal and the Mauretania district; on the south by the French colonies of Guinea and the Ivory Coast, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (British), Togoland (Ger man), and Dahomey (French). On the east the Mtti- tary Territories (French and accounted a part of this colony) extend to Lake Chad in French Equatorial Africa — the official name given in 1910 to all French possessions in equatorial Africa, consisting of the Chad Circumscription, the Ubangi-Shari Circumscription, the Middle Kongo Colony, and the Gabun Colony; the two first named divisions form the Ubangi-Shari-Chad Col ony. The colony is bounded on the south by Nigeria (British). It thus contains, practically, all the French possessions in northwest and central Africa, is over WESTERN AFRICA 167 two hundred thousand square miles in area, yet has a population of some three milhons only. A specially interesting factor of this population are the Fulas (vari ous alternate names), who are now a conspicuous example of what improperly assimilated European civil isation is responsible for in spoiling Africans. These Fulas are probably a mixture of Berber and Negro stocks; they certainly are not Egyptian. They were good soldiers, especially cavalry-men; but they are now luxurious, idle, and getting to be worthless. Returning to the Atlantic coast, we find the httle British colony of Gambia, at the mouth of the river of that same name, "wedged into Senegal and surrounded by it save seawards." It is the most northerly of British West African possessions, comprising strips on both sides of the river running inland about two hundred miles. Although the area of the whole dependency is in the neighbourhood of four thousand square miles and the population one hundred and sixty-three thou sand, as estimated in 1907, yet the British Government considers the colony as restricted to the tract immedi ately at the river's mouth, about seventy square miles. Above this the sphere of British influence extends for about six miles on each side of the stream, and within it are some petty native states, such as Barra and Komm'bo. The cHmate during the dry season — November to January inclusive — is the best in this part of the coast, and at other seasons it is not so very bad, Gambia being a fairly healthy place, all things consid ered; doubtless the persistent crusade against mosquitoes has had much to do with this. Bathurst is the chief l68 AFRICA TO-DAY town, population some eight thousand, and is an interesting example of the small British colonial town. Considerable gold was formerly sent from here, but that industry has practically ceased, although some gold dust may stiU be bought. There are some interesting but inexpHcable archaeological remains, stone circles and posts apparently akin to the Druids' work; these are still venerated by Mohammedans. Slavery was finally suppressed, in every form, only in 1906. Portuguese Guinea extends along the coast from Cape Roxo to the Cogon estuary and inland until it reaches the Casamance district of (French) Senegal on the north: on the east and south it is bounded by French Guinea. The area is about fourteen thousand square miles and the population is variously estimated at from two to eight hundred thousand. The land is mostly low and the cHmate unhealthy. Several of the rivers are navi gable, some of them for one hundred and fifty miles, but the navigation is awkward. The history of this colony takes us back to the first half of the fifteenth century and recalls the joy of the early navigators upon finding the coast bearing off to the east; thus holding out a promise of speedily circumnavigating Africa. In the nineteenth century the United States figures in the his tory, for in 1870 President Grant, acting as arbitrator, disallowed Great Britain's claim to the island of Bulama and a part of the mainland. Portugal has done almost nothing towards developing the colony, and consequently it is of Httle importance. " If, however, agriculture and commerce suffer, the ethnologist and zoologist find in this easily accessible Httle enclave a rich field for inves- WESTERN AFRICA 169 tigation, the almost nominal sovereignty of Portugal having left the country, practically uninfluenced by European culture, in much the same condition that it was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." French Guinea. This was formerly called Rivieres du Sud, and it is pecuharly irregular in shape. On the southwest it faces the Atlantic; on the northwest and north it is bounded by Portuguese Guinea and Senegal; on the east and southeast by Upper Senegal and the Ivory Coast Colony (French), and on the south by Sierra Leone (British) and Liberia (independent). The coast runs N.N.W. and S.S.E. between latitude io° 50' and 90 2' north, only one hundred and seventy miles. The area is approximately one hundred thousand square miles, and the inhabitants number about two and a half miUions. The important district of Futa Jallon is in the western part, just back of that which still bears the name of Rivieres du Sud. The cHmate is usually very bad, but the Niger basin is fairly healthy. The history of the coast region is intimately associated with the adventures of the early Portuguese explorers, who pushed down into this part of the world in the fif teenth century. PhysicaUy, the accounts to be given of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast apply to French Guinea with reasonable precision. A British protectorate was declared in 1906 over the coast district of Sierra Leone as well as a large area of the dependent interior, and the colony now is some thirty thousand square miles in area. Under British direction the development has been rather remarkable; there is a railway from Freetown through Waterloo to 170 AFRICA TO-DAY Songatown, and across the Ribbi River to Rotafunk and Bo. The trade of the colony has already attained appreciable proportions, the share of the United States amounting to some $300,000 annually and steadily increasing. Liberia. This negro republic is east of Sierra Leone and west of the (French) Ivory Coast Colony; its coast- Hne is about three hundred miles in length. The north ern boundary is quite irregular, so that the width of the republic varies much; but the greatest breadth is about two hundred miles in a northeast to southwest direc tion. The frontiers on the north and east were indefi nite until adjusted with France in 1907, since which date the territory is rather larger than was indicated on maps prior to that time. The area is now forty- one thousand square miles. The geographical position of this Httle repubhc gives it a strategic importance that deserves attention; it is just at the shoulder of the continent, where the coast turns sharply to the east, and it is on the direct route of vessels plying between the United States or Europe and the West Coast of Africa or the Cape of Good Hope. Unfortunately, it has no good harbour, although the anchorage at Mon rovia is safe, unless the weather is exceptionaUy bad from the southwest or south. A smaU artificial harbour could easily be made at Great Bassa without enormous expense. At certain places along the coast and in the river bottoms, the soil is swampy, but the general surface is hilly and even mountainous, some peaks rising to six or nine thousand feet above sea-level and giving oppor- WESTERN AFRICA 171 tunities for the estabhshing of sanitaria. There are several rivers of some size, but the awkward bars are an obstacle to navigation. The coast belt, as all along this region, is unhealthy, but from about one hundred miles inland the chmate becomes agreeable and the country is healthy. Broadly speaking, the whole terri tory is covered with dense forests, which have been cut down in spots to permit of husbandry. The fauna and flora are sufficiently pecuhar to attract the natu ralist, and the possibiUties have by no means been exhausted. The traditions and history of the republic are very interesting. The colony was founded as a home for manumitted slaves (Americans especially), but when Jehudi Ashmun (who is sometimes, inaccurately, called the "founder") visited it in 1822 it was in a deplorable state; yet under his direction, and with the assistance of Ralph Randolph Gurley, who in 1824 christened the place "Liberia," the colony was reorganised and put upon a permanent basis. In 1847 the colonists who had gone from America declared their country an independ ent repubhc and its status, as such, was recognised by the great Powers, except the United States. Until 1857 the colony may be said to have composed two inde pendent republics, Liberia and Maryland, each having smaU settlements scattered along its coast, while exert ing but Httle influence in the interior. Not unnaturaUy, disputes as to boundaries occurred with Great Britain and France, both of whom were disposed to encroach improperly; and it was not until 1903 that the line between Liberia and Sierra Leone was defined, that 172 AFRICA TO-DAY between Liberia and the Ivory Coast being estabhshed later. Reports of this disposition to trespass reached America and in 1909 President Roosevelt appointed a commission to investigate the matter. Satisfactory results followed and United States officials were placed in charge of the Liberian Customs' service. In July, 1910, it was announced to the world that the American Government, acting with the consent of Great Britain, France, and Germany, would take charge of all ques tions relating to the welfare of the repubhc. A loan of £500,000 was arranged with which to put the finances into satisfactory and sound condition. This fact of an "American Protectorate" in Africa has not received the attention that one would expect, but it is comforting to know that Europe has no fault to find with the intrusion. The need of a strong hand was made apparent by the futile attempt of the Liberian Government to control the natives of the Kru coast (in the southern section of the repubhc), whose turbulence had led to trouble such as improper fines levied upon foreign steamships for unmtentional breaking of regulations, or even to their being firing upon; and in 1910 the natives near Cape Pahnas, about Harper, were in open warfare with the Liberian authorities. In 1906 the total revenue (gross) of the repubhc was upwards of $325,000 and the expenses about $300,000, but it must be noted that some of the revenue was collected in paper currency of doubtful value. There is much to be said of the interesting history of this Negro Repubhc, but space forbids. That there is yet plenty of work for sympathetic people, is demonstrated by the fact that WESTERN AFRICA 173 even now most of the forest women go about naked; although it must also be said that the Mohammedan costume is becoming popular throughout the country. Sierra Leone and Liberia were included in what was formerly called the Grain Coast. East of Liberia is the French West African colony of CSte d'lvoire, the Ivory Coast; the name suggests the opinion held by the early European explorers. Its boundary on the west has been indicated; on the east it marches with the British Gold Coast Colony, etc., and on the north it borders upon the French colony of Upper Senegal and Niger. In area it is some 120,000 square miles and the population has been estimated, by the French, at 980,000 natives and some 600 Europeans; while other estimates run as high as two milhons. The coast-Hne is 380 miles, without lagoon or promontory in the west; some lagoons towards the east; but there are no good harbours because of bars and heavy surf, The highest land is in the northwest, near the Liberian frontier, where there are some peaks estimated at 6000 feet or more in altitude. The coast region is extremely unhealthy and yellow fever is there prevalent and viru lent. This region has been called Cote des Dents, " Coast of the Teeth," and Kwa-Kwa because of the natives' imitation of the quacking of ducks. These names per sisted until towards the close of the last century. The British Gold Coast Colony is a comprehensive name for the Gold Coast proper, and includes Ashanti and the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast which extend northward to the eleventh parallel of latitude, joining French possessions. A line separating the 174 AFRICATO-DAY foreland from Ashanti was fixed in 1906. These juris dictions are all noted for their primeval, unopened forests, in which are hardwood trees of magnificent proportions; there are, also, bombax trees two hundred feet taU. But these forests are painfully monotonous, since there are no flowers, birds, or beasts. Ferns and brakes, some of enormous size, are abundant, and the mimosa grows to a height of from thirty to sixty feet. Where the forest has been cleared, the soil is fertile and it is cultivated with care. Twenty-five mttes southeast of Kumasi, in Ashanti, is Lake Basumchioi, the sacred lake of the Ashantis. The history of the colony, inclu sively speaking, is most interesting, as it is hardly neces sary to state; for the many battlefields marked on our maps point to the numerous British expeditions. In the spring of 191 1 we received accounts of one of these against a refractory tribe in the Northern Territories, inhabiting the Sapan on Tong Hills close to the French frontier in the north. The operations took place in difficult, rocky country and were entirely successful, the machine-guns handled by the three or four hundred British troops proving too much for the natives. There is a railway from Kumasi to Akkar, via Man- goase, in the centre of the cocoa plantations, and another from Sekondi, on the coast to Kumasi; the latter serv ing to exploit the gold fields, from which the output, in 1905, amounted to considerably over $1,250,000 in value. There is a branch Hne from Tarkwa to Prestia on the Ankobra River. There are, too," many circui tous trails through the forests. The district is admin istered as a crown colony, not being independent. The WESTERN AFRICA 175 natives are still slaves to their fetishes, and it is worth mentioning that in early times, the King of Ashanti was compelled to have 3333 wives, because that was the number required by the "fetish," although a goodly part of them were nothing more than palace servants. The people display considerable skiU in weaving cotton, moulding pottery, and making ornaments of silver and gold, both sohd and plate, — a large quantity of this last mentioned work was found in the king's palace at Kumasi when the place was captured by the British in 1874. In these various industries the influence of Moor ish art is noticeable. The one-time independent Anlo tribes, whose territory appears in quite recent maps as a separate state, have been absorbed into the Northern Territories. Togoland (the name has no connection with the famous Japanese naval officer !) is a narrow strip, with a seafront of only thirty-two miles, which reaches back, between the British Gold Coast Colony, on the west, and Da homey (French) on the east to the Upper Senegal and Niger colony on the north, where Togoland is something Hke one hundred miles or more wide. It was annexed by Germany in 1884. The area is estimated at 33,700 square mttes and the population at about one million. Physically, the colony is quite like the rest of this section. It is a part of the notorious and infamous old "Slave Coast"; very unhealthy along the sea and likely to be most uncomfortable in the north because of the hot, dry wind from the Sahara when the air is charged with fine sand, although the temperature may then fall even in midsummer. ' -¦ 176 AFRICA TO-DAY We begin, in this colony, to come into touch with the interesting Hausa people, born traders, who roam over the country in large caravans. The contrast between the activity of the German colonists and the apathy of the Portuguese, as noted, is most marked in results. Togoland is rich in natural products which have been so well exploited that "it was the first German colony to dispense (1903-1904) with an imperial subsidy towards its support." A railway connects the port of Lome with Little Popo, and this is to be continued into French territory and then northward to reach eventually Gaya on the Niger River, in northern Dahomey (or Upper Senegal and Niger, since the line of demarcation has not yet been clearly drawn by the French authorities). Another line goes from Lome to Misahohe and will be pushed on into the interior. There are also good wagon- roads everywhere. This coast, prior to German appropriation, had a most unsavoury reputation. At "the time when 'the scramble for Africa' began, the narrow strip of coast over which the King of Togo ruled was the sole district between the Gambia and the Niger to which Great Britain, France, or some other civihsed power had not a claim. At Togo, Bremen merchants had trading sta tions, and taking advantage of this fact Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, German imperial commissioner, induced the King of Togo (July 5, 1884) to place his colony under German suzerainty. The claims made by Germany to large areas of the hinterland gave rise to considerable negotiations with France and Great Britain, and it was not until 1899 that the frontiers were fixed on aU sides." WESTERN AFRICA 177 The peaceful progress of the colony has since been steady. At stated intervals the native chiefs are summoned to Lome, the capital, to discuss with the German officials about matters relating to special or general government. Dahomey. This French colony reaches from the Gulf of Guinea north to the indefinite limits of the old, familiar kingdom of Dahomey. Although it has a coast line of only seventy-five miles, between Togoland on the west and Nigeria (British) on the east, it spreads out so much in the north that the area is about forty thou sand square mttes; the population is estimated at over one mittion. There are four well-marked seasons: "the harmattan or long dry season, from the first of Decem ber to the fifteenth of March; the season of the great rains, from the fifteenth of March to the fifteenth of July; the short dry season, from the fifteenth of July to the fifteenth of September; and the 'little rains,' from the fifteenth of September to the first of Decem ber." Along the coast it is always hot, the yearly average being 8o° F. The Dahomeys (who call themselves Fon or Fawin) are a very interesting people. They are taU, weU- formed, proud, reserved in demeanour, polite in their intercourse with strangers, warlike, and keen traders. There is another class, the Minas, who are remark able surf-men. Kotomi is the chief port and seat of government. From here the railway starts for Gaya (see Togoland); it is a narrow gauge line, one metre, 3.28 feet. As there is almost always a Seabreeze Kotomi, despite the heat, is a comparatively healthy place for white men. There is a short branch rail- 178 AFRICA TO-DAY way from the main Hne into the western part of the colony. There are, in addition to the steam railways, many electric tramway lines. One, twenty-eight miles long, connects Porto Novo with Sakete close to the British frontier (Nigeria) in the direction of Logos. The reader who is interested in history will naturally give some attention to the awful, bloody orgies known as "Dahomey Customs"; but an account of them is too long to be inserted here. The great British protectorate of Nigeria includes the lower basin of the Niger River, the country between that river and Lake Chad, — • thus reaching back into Central Africa, — and includes the Fula empire, that is the Hausa states, as well as the greater part of the former Bornu sultanate. Its area is somewhere about three hundred and thirty-eight thousand square miles and the population is estimated at fifteen million souls. There are three distinct chmatic and physical regions: the delta of the Niger and the coast, the forest lands, and the high plateau of the interior. There are many rivers, and ocean-going steamships can ascend some of them for distances varying from fifteen to forty miles. A pecuHarity to be noted of the Niger and Benue Rivers is their very shght fall in their lower reaches; at the confluence of these rivers, some two hundred and fifty miles from the sea, the altitude is only two hundred and fifty feet. Nigeria, on the southeast, joins the German colony of Kameruns. The rivers are the most important factor for internal communication. A railway of the standard Central and South African gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) runs from WESTERN AFRICA 179 Lagos to Ibadan, sixty miles inland. It is to be extended on through Oshogbo, Ilorin, Jebba, and Zungeru to She, and here a junction will be effected with the Baro- Kano line. A short hght line, laid on the surface of the ground without permanent way, has been built from Baryuko, on the Kaduna River, in the northern part of the colony, to the capital, Zungeru; it is successful and remunerative. Another standard gauge Hne (3 ft. 6 in.) leaves the Niger River at Baro and goes via Bida and Zarra to Kano, about four hundred miles. There are, also, good wagonroads pretty well over the whole terri tory. Regular steamship service is maintained with Liverpool and up and down the African coast. The trade is principally in "jungle produce," and there are considerable exports of rubber, ebony, etc. In former times this trade was entirely in the hands of Arabs, who carried their purchases to TripoH by caravan across the desert. This has been practicaUy discontinued. Kameruns, from the Portuguese Camaroes, "Prawns," and therefore justifying the EngHsh Cameroon, is a large West African German colony, bounded on the north west by Nigeria; on the north by Lake Chad; on the east and south by French Kongo, except the short stretch of the Spanish colony, Muni. Its area is estimated at one hundred and ninety thousand square miles and its population at three and a half millions, of whom about twelve hundred are white. It is in the northwest corner of the great Central African plateau, and the hills reach almost to the Atlantic, but there is a narrow strip of low coast. Good grass land is found in the south, and quantities of hardwood, valuable for cabinet making, 180 AFRICA TO-DAY are taken from the vast forests. The colony is rich in natural products; e.g., oil-palm, rubber plants, etc. Wild animals are plentiful, and include some of the great pachyderms and carnivora. Duala is the chief town. Steamship lines ply between the colony and Germany and England; on the rivers there axe many lines of steam-launch service. One railway goes from Hickory to Bayong, one hundred mttes, to Victoria, Sappo near Buea, thence northward; another, from Duala to the upper-waters of the Nyong. The history of the colony is connected with the name of Fernando Po. The Spanish Settlement of Muni. The same agree ment between France and Spain which estabHshed the boundaries of Rio d' Oro, as has been stated, Hkewise settled a dispute over a tiny bit of land at the mouth of the River Muni, wedged in between Kameruns and French Kongo. Along the coast it extends from the Campo River to the Muni River. The northern frontier is Kamerun; the eastern boundary is n° 20' East, and the southern is the first parallel of north latitude to its point of intersection with the Muni River. French Kongo. In 1910 this was officially renamed French Equatorial Africa. It comprises the Gabun Colony, the Middle Kongo Colony, Ubangi-Shari Cir cumscription and Chad Circumscription; the two last- named divisions forming the Ubangi-Shari-Chad Colony (see Upper Senegal and Niger). It is most irregular in shape. It is bounded by the Atlantic on the west; by the Spanish Muni River Settlement, the German colony of Kameruns, and the Sahara on the north; by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on the east, and by the Portu- WESTERN AFRICA 181 guese territory of Kabinda and Belgian Kongo on the south. For the greater part of its length the southern frontier is the middle course of the Kongo, the Ubangi and the M'bomu, the chief northern affluent of the Kongo; but in the southwest the French frontier keeps north of the river, whose navigable lower course is divided between Portugal and Belgium. The estimated area of the whole colony is seven hundred thousand square miles, and the population from six to ten milhons. The large part of the coast is backed by primeval forest, with trees one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet tall. The scenery is most pleasingly varied — open lagoons, mangrove swamps, scattered shrubs and trees, park-Hke reaches, dense walls of tangled under wood along the rivers, prairies of tall grass, and patches of cultivation. Behind the coast region are the Crystal Mountains, springing up three thousand to forty-five hundred feet; further on is a plateau with an elevation varying from fifteen to twenty-eight hundred feet. The rivers run in deep clefts, with steep walls, almost perpendicular; in some places as much as seven hun dred and sixty feet high. Across this varied country the rivers traverse four defined terraces. The climate, in general, is hot and dangerous. The fauna is what might reasonably be expected. The huge Cardisoma armatum (heart-crab) is kept in tanks and carefully fattened for the table. Of the flora, baobab, silk-cotton, screw-pines, and palm trees are plentiful. The rivers afford the principal means of communica tion and give access to a greater part for ocean steam- 182 AFRICA TO-DAY ships as far as Matahdi on the lower Kongo; then round the. falls by railway to Stanley Pool. From Brazzaville, on Stanley Pool there are six hundred and eighty miles of uninterrupted steam navigation northeast right away into the heart of Africa, three hundred and thirty on the Kongo and three hundred and fifty on the Ubango. At the farthest point is Zongo, where there are rapids; but beyond are several navigable stretches along the Ubango, and for small steamers there is access to the Nile by means of the Bahr el-Ghazal tributaries. The Sanga joins the Kongo two hundred and seventy miles from Bezoe and is navigable three hundred and fifty miles to and beyond Kannu. The Shari also is navi gable for a considerable distance, and by means of its tributary, the Logone, connects with the Benue and the Niger, affording a waterway between the Gulf of Guinea and Lake Chad. Stores for the mihtary and government posts are forwarded by this route. There is, however, no connecting Hnk between the coast rivers — Gabun, Ogowe, and Kwilu — and the Kongo system. A railway, five hundred miles long, is under construction from Gabun to Sanga. Another is proposed from Loango to Bizol. A narrow gauge line, one metre, begun in 1908, was the first railway in French Kongo; it serves to develop rich copper and other mines. There is still in commission the caravan route via Wadai across the Sahara to Bengazi on the Mediterranean. There are sundry telegraph Hnes throughout the territory. Very large landed estates were granted to Limited Liabihty Companies, the con cessionaires representing a capital of £4,000,000, the Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Eternal Snow Almost on the Equator An American explorer climbing Mt. Kibo (Kilima njaro), 10,700 feet high in East Central Africa WESTERN AFRICA 183 concessions ranging in size from four hundred and twenty-five to fifty-four thousand square miles. It was felt that the French Government was discriminating un fairly in favour of these companies, and certam Liverpool merchants, having made considerable private invest ments in good faith, entered a protest which was waived aside with a legal quibble. The matter was taken up by the British Foreign Office and in September, 1908, the merchants won their point. Kabinda is a small Portuguese possession north of the mouth of the Kongo River, only three thousand square miles in area. It resembles in every way the coast region of the Kongo. The chief town is Kabinda, a seaport. The colony is noted for its beauty and fertil ity, and it is called the Paradise of the Coast; its harbour is sheltered and commodious, with four fathoms of water. The place was a slave market, as were most of the ports to the north. The inhabitants are Bantu- Negroes, called Kabindas; they are intelHgent, energetic, and enterprising, daring sailors and active traders. Kongo Free State was the name given by British writers to the Etat Independent de Congo. It was formally annexed to Belgium in 1908. It is the development of the private venture of a royal investor, King Leopold II, who became the official head of the state in 1885. For the interesting history, reference may be had to a large number of special books and all encyclopaedias. The United States was the first to recognise the " International Association of the Kongo," on April 22, 1884. Other Powers followed promptly. In 1885 and 1886 various protocols and agreements were entered into to determine 184 AFRICA TO-DAY the boundaries. The final result was that the Kongo Free State had for neighbours France, Portugal, and Great Britain on the north, Great Britain and Germany on the east, and Great Britain and Portugal on the south. King Leopold's greatest desire was to push forward the northeastern section until he could reach the Nile, and this was eventually accomphshed. Fla grant maladministration became apparent and the most heartless cruelty to natives was openly charged. Condi tions became so notorious, especially in the Domaine de la Couronne, that a British Commission of Inquiry was appointed. The Commission's report, but without the full evidence, was submitted in 1902, and the scandal of the Kongo Rubber Trade became an open one, which aroused indignation in all parts of the civttised world. In November, 1908, the state ceased to exist as an inde pendent domain, and sovereign rights were assumed immediately by Belgium, since which time the disgraceful proceedings have been suppressed, at least in a measure. The coast-line is only twenty-five miles long, yet the total area is estimated at nine hundred thousand square miles, almost wholly in the Kongo Basin, and the popu lation at from fourteen to thirty milhons. It touches the Ntte Valley on the east and aU the western shore of Lake Tanganyika as well as northern Rhodesia; on the south, Angola of Portuguese West Africa. Living stone's description of this territory is most interesting. The inhabitants are almost all Bantu-Negroes, but there are some pygmies who were probably aborigines. There is a railway from Matadi, one hundred and eighty-five miles from the mouth of the Kongo, past WESTERN AFRICA 185 the cataracts to Stanley Pool. It is two hundred and sixty miles long and cost £2,720,000. From Stanley FaUs another railway goes towards the Nile. Great Britain, in 1906, agreed to co-operate in its construc tion from Belgian Kongo through the Lado Enclave to the navigable Ntte near Lado, it being contemplated to estabhsh a joint service of steamboats and railways from the Kongo's mouth to the Red Sea. Another rail way, seventy-nine miles long, foUows the left bank of the Kongo from Stanley Falls past the rapids to Pon- thiervttle, whence there is a navigable waterway, three hundred miles, to Nyangiwe and from there by the Lado railway to Lake Tanganyika. At Nyangiwe on the main stream another railway passes round the next cataracts into Upper Lualabe. The total steam con nection is 2150 miles, 1548 by water and 596 by rail. Another line, ninety miles, goes from Boma into May- umbe. The Katanga district, as has been already stated, is served almost wholly from Rhodesia. The colony is included in the Postal Union. The Portuguese possessions in Southwest Africa are now known officiaUy as the Province of Angola, a name corrupted by the Portuguese from the Bantu word Ngola which was for a time restricted to the coast between the Dande and Kwanza Rivers, one hundred and five miles, including the territory just back thereof. Save for that part of the eastern boundary which marches with Rhodesia, in Barotseland, and the southern Hne along the German possessions, the frontiers have been already sufficiently indicated. This is a very large colony, nearly half a miUion square miles in area and 186 AFRICA TO-DAY having a population that, in 1906, was estimated at over four miUions. Whtte there are sundry smaU bays and one deep inlet — Great Fish Bay (Bahia dos Tigres) — there is only one fairly good harbour, Lobito Bay, where large ships may discharge cargo close inshore. The low, rather swampy, coast region is unhealthy for Europeans, but in the highlands of the interior, say from thirty-three hundred feet upwards, the air is brac ing. The fauna and flora display no marked features which differentiate them from other adjacent parts of tropical West Africa. There are many rubber plants, but something must be done by the officials to conserve them or this valuable asset wiU be lost irrevocably. Most of the inhabitants are of the Bantu-Negro stock, and along the coast the natives stiU retain traces of the influence of the successful Christian propaganda of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "Crucifixes are used as potent fetish charms or as symbols of power passing down from chief to chief; whilst every native has a 'Santu' or Christian name and is dubbed dom or dona." In the east of the province there are settle ments of Boers, numbering some two thousand persons, and along the coast there are a good many whites, most of them Portuguese. Angola is rich in its agricultural and mineral possi bilities, which have been exploited in a way, although the prosperity stiU depends upon "jungle products." Copper, iron, petroleum, gold, and rock-salt are to be had in quantities, and the native blacksmiths have a weU deserved reputation for their good work. There are plenty of steamship lines, both to Euro- WESTERN AFRICA 187 pean ports and coastwise. The railway, about three hundred miles in length, from Loando to Ambaca and Malanje, is notorious as being the most costly of the tropical Africa Hnes; it cost something like $45,000 per mile. The original plan was to carry this railway right across Africa to Mozambique, thus linking up the Portuguese colonies on the east and the west of the continent; but this project has been given up, for the time being, certamly. There is another rail way from Lobita Bay towards the Kongo-Rhodesia frontier; this is a British enterprise. Besides these, there are a few short, local, industrial lines. The old caravan routes and ox-cart roads are stiU used, and oxen are much liked as saddle-animals. The history of this colony connects it with that most interesting period, the fifteenth century, of Portuguese adventure. After recovering from the effects of the blow which the abolition of negro slavery dealt, the agricultural resources have been better exploited and merchants from Brazil have figured extensively in the development of the country. The mihtary, punitive expeditions of the Por tuguese against the turbulent natives, notoriously the Kunahamas, make an especiaUy interesting chapter in the history. German South West Africa. Before discussing this large territory a few words may be said about the thriv ing little British settlement, Walfish Bay, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It is officially a part of the Union of South Africa, having been annexed to Cape Colony in 1884. The harbour is the finest along the coast for a thousand miles, and the acumen of the l88 AFRICA TO-DAY British authorities in securing it is entitled to praise. The colony, if we may properly caU it such, is only 430 square miles in area, and in 1904 had a population of 997, of whom 144 were Europeans. It exists more as a fitting-out place for whalers than anything else (hence its name), although it does some trade with the people of the surrounding German territory. This concludes the sketch of Great Britain's western African domin ions, for we are now in touch with the South African states, which are to be the subject of another chapter. The great German colony, of some three hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles in area, is but sparsely populated, for in 1903 it was estimated that there were but few more than two hundred thousand in habitants, the natives being Bantu-Negroes and Hotten tots. There were some seven thousand Europeans and a garrison; most of them were Germans. South West Africa is the only one of Germany's African possessions that is suited to white colonisation, and therefore it is likely to develop along satisfactory lines. There are no good harbours, and the only suitable one, Swakop- mund, is an artificial port on the north bank of the Swakop River, the southern bank belonging to Walfish Bay. Just back of the coast-line is a mountain range having some peaks of respectable altitude, such as Mt. Omatako, nearly nine thousand feet. In the northern part of the colony there is some excellent grazing land. Some of the rivers are sizeable, but those of importance come from beyond German territory. The large game has been nearly exhausted, but antelopes are stiU plenti ful, and rabbits also. The flora presents no aspects at WESTERN AFRICA 189 aU strange and is just what might be expected; the ana tree (Acacia albida) may be specifically mentioned as its seeds are much liked by aU domestic animals. There is a narrow gauge (one metre) railway from Swakopmund to Windhoek (the capital), 237 miles; another from the former place to Grootfontein, 400 miles, to develop the Otavi. At one place this Hne reaches an altitude of 5213 feet above sea-level. Another railway, of the standard South African gauge (3 ft. 6 in.), has been built from Luderitz to Keetmanshoop, with the expecta tion of connecting with the British systems at Kimberley, Orange Free State; and a branch goes from Seeheim to Kalkfontein. The history of this colony will give particular attention to the revolts of native tribes, in 1903 to 1907, that caused the Germans much trouble, — and of course involved enormous expense in money and caused the loss of many precious Hves. These wars of punishment and suppression were against the Bondelzwarts, the Hereros, and the Hottentots. CHAPTER XII SOUTH AFRICA IN this chapter we have to discuss British possessions only: the Union of South Africa and Rhodesia. The latter for certain internal reasons — as wiU appear — has decided not to join the Union just yet, although it is quite safe to say that she wiU do so erelong. When it was first proposed to unite the British South African colonies into a Commonwealth the name, the United States of South Africa, was suggested by some; but this was rejected, and we are of the opinion that this rejection was wisely taken. What with the United States of America, the United States of Brazil, the United States of Colombia, the United States of Mexico, and the United States of Venezuela, we now have quite enough of these "United States," and, besides, the title has come to suggest a union of states in an independent republic. The Union of South Africa was duly carried into effect on May 31, 1910; the first General Election was held in September, 1910, and the Union Parlia ment was opened in the first week of November by the Duke of Connaught, to whom King George delegated the office that he had hoped, before his father's death, to perform himself. The Union Parliament held its first session and adjourned before the close of the year 1910, and the course, which the business considered took, igo SOUTH AFRICA 191 served to show that the working majority secured by General Botha at the elections was quite strong enough to effect att the purposes of efficient government; but at the same time the opposition led by Dr. Jameson evinced sufficient force to ensure that check which is desirable in every legislative body. When the settlers in Rhodesia were called upon to express themselves as in favour of or opposed to enter ing the Union, they decided that their province was stiU too immature. It is yet in its childhood, although growing in a way that gives promise of a great future which wttl fully justify the prescience of the man Cecil Rhodes. The province does not desire incorporation with the Union at present, not on account of any dis approval of the plan or of unfriendliness towards the movement for which it stands, but because of a modest sense of immaturity. She looks forward to enter later, when she can be an effective unit and not a dependency; and this we are confident is a reasonable and politic opinion. With this by way of introduction, let us now proceed to consider the units which have now coalesced into another great British Commonwealth. Cape Colony, officially styled "Province of the Cape of Good Hope," is at the extreme southern end of the African continent, and has been a British province since 1806. Its name, of course, comes from the cape, which King John II of Portugal declared should be considered a promise of Good, and not the "Stormy Point!" (See Chapter I.) It was near the Cape of Good Hope that the Hollanders made their first settlements in 1652. In 1686 the 192 AFRICA TO-DAY Dutch colony was materially increased in numbers and greatly helped, both physically and spiritually, by the arrival of a number of French Protestant refugees, who felt themselves driven from home by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which Henry IV had signed on April 13, 1598, and to which the Huguenots had pinned their faith, believing that they were assured of religious liberty, quiet, and prosperity under the protection of a law expressly declared to be perpetual and irrevocable. But subsequent legislation in South Africa, unfair and invidious, caused the Huguenots to lose their identity, and before long all knowledge of French disappeared. The advent of Europeans had one most disastrous effect upon the natives of South Africa: the introduction of smallpox worked havoc amongst them; whole tribes of Hottentots were destroyed by the scourge between 1713 and 1755. The attitude of the Hollanders towards the natives was not marked by great consideration in many ways; they were overbearing and too frequently unjust. On the other hand, however, it must be said that the Hollanders themselves received but little con sideration from the Dutch East India Company, " which closed the colony against free immigration, kept the whole of the trade in its own hands, combined the ad ministrative, legislative, and judicial powers in one body, prescribed to the farmers the nature of the crops they were to grow, demanded from them a large part of their produce, and harassed them with other exactions tend ing to discourage industry and enterprise." The reader is recommended to look at the article "South Africa" in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Copyright, Underwood &° Underwood, N. Y, Street in Hanover, Cape Colony SOUTH AFRICA 193 especiaUy that part of it which treats of the methods and results of Dutch colonial government in their broadest aspect. We pass on to the time, 1814, when, after various vicissitudes of war, the colony was ceded outright to Great Britain. At that time the colony extended northward to what was called Bush- mansland; it was about one hundred and twenty thousand square mttes in area and had a population of only some sixty thousand, made up of twenty-seven thousand whites, seventeen thousand free Hottentots, and sixteen thousand slaves. If space permitted, we should like to speak of the various Kaffir and Zulu wars, because they have had an effect in moulding the Union of South Africa but the discussion must be omitted. When once the barren shore belt is passed, the interior of the country is found to be attractive in many ways. There are some high mountains in the country; for ex ample, Compass Berg, eighty-five hundred feet. Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, is so well known, both physically and in legend, that it is unnecessary to speak of it. Cape Colony is famous for its healthful and health-giving climate: healthful in that there is so little sickness; health-giving, because those who go there ill so quickly recover. Some of the wild animals that were plentiful in early days — e.g., quagga, blaauwbok, and others — have been exterminated; while the largest game — elephants, giraffe, lions, etc. — have been driven by hunters and the advance of civilisation beyond the borders of the colony. The flora is rich and varied in the coast districts, but somewhat sparse in the interior; 194 AFRICA TO-DAY cultivated fields are satisfactorily thrifty. It was the HoUanders who invented the name Hottentot* for the Quaequae, who, with Bushmen (their kinsmen), were the natives when the first Europeans arrived. Farther north were various other tribes, the principal ones being Kaffirs (Bechuanas and others). The bulk of the population, outside of the pure European stock, is a most heterogeneous mixture of Dutch, Hottentot, and Kaffir blood. In 1865 the first proper census was taken, and then the area of the colony was 195,000 square miles (this excluded the "Native Territories") and the population, 566,158. The 1904 census figures are: area, 276,995 square miles; population, 2,409,804. The principal towns are on the coast. Cape Town is the capital, both of the province and of the Union. Agriculture, viticulture, fruit growing, mining, live stock rearing are aU important and constantly expand ing industries, the volume of trade rising into many hundreds of millions of pounds sterling. There are over four thousand miles of railway in the country, the South and Central African gauge being three feet six inches. These may be divided, for a general consideration, into three systems: Western, Midland, and Eastern. The first is the southern section of the Cape to Cairo Rail way, from Cape Town to the Belgian Kongo frontier, about two thousand miles. The main line has various branches, both in the Province of the Cape of Good Hope and in the northern provinces; one of the latter from Salisbury, Mashonaland (Rhodesia) to Beira (Por- * Derived from hot-en-tot; the first and third syllables being an imita tion of native ' clicks " in speech, akin to stammering; the Dutch en equalling the English and. SOUTHAFRICA 195 tuguese), the last-mentioned place being 2037 miles by rail from Cape Town. The second system starts at Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, the main line going north to Pretoria, Transvaal, 741 miles, with one branch east via Ladysmith to Durban, Natal; another connects the first and second systems, and there are other branches and independent lines. The third section starts from East London and, cutting across the other two, reaches into the Orange Free State, etc. There are, besides, a number of east and west lines, and many short ones in the various southern and eastern parts of the colony. In 1910 Cape Colony entered the Union of South Africa as an original province. Natal is one of the maritime provinces of the Union. Its area is 35,371 square miles. The province is divided into two districts: Natal proper, 24,910 square miles, and Zululand, 10,461 square mttes. The former is especially noted for the steepness of the earth's surface. The rivers plunge down eight thousand feet or more in a course of about two hundred miles; they are, of course, not navigable. The chmate is wonderfully varied, but nowhere actuaUy unhealthy. It has been compared, quite justly, with that of northern Italy, notwithstand ing that in the lower valleys and along the coast there is much humidity. As is to be expected in such a country of marked difference in physical characteristics, there is an extremely wide range in the flora. The fauna is now restricted to the smaUer animals only; aU the larger ones, such as ele phants, giraffes, buffaloes, ostriches, and hosts of others, having been exterminated or driven out. The aborigi- I96 AFRICA TO-DAY nal inhabitants were almost annihilated by the Zulus about a hundred years ago. The official estimate of the population of Natal proper, on December 31, 1908, was: Europeans, 91,443; natives (including "mixed and others"), 998,264; Asiatics, 116,679; total, 1,206,388. The task of suppressing the internecine wars and that of subduing the Zulus were severe and expensive for the British. The capital of the province is Pieter- maritzburg, the long, awkward name being abbreviated by the foreigners to "P. M. B." Natal is weU equipped as to means of communication. From Durban there are steamers via Suez or via Cape Town to Europe, caUing at many intermediate ports as well as lines direct to London. There are, too, many coastwise Hnes. The first railway laid in South Africa was that from The Point harbour, to Durban, two miles. There is now the standard gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) railway from Durban, via Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kim berley, to Delagoa Bay (Lourenco Marques, Portuguese), eight hundred and sixty miles, with many branches and subsidiary lines. There are, also, from Durban coast lines north and south; the former into the Santa Lucia coalfields, the latter to Port Shepstone, with a branch. The diversity in soil and climate results in great variety of agricultural products. There are, too, many Hvestock and horse-breeding ranches. The output from the latter cannot yet be very large, however, for it will be remem bered that during the last Boer war the British army officers were compeUed to go to aU parts of the world, including America, to secure needed " remounts." Zululand, the "Province of Zulu" as it was officially Copyright, Underwood 6r° Underwood, N. Y. The Town Hall, Durban, Natal Kaffir-drawn jinrikisha in foreground SOUTH AFRICA 197 designated from 1898 to 1910, is now a part of the Natal province of the Union of South Africa. It is a region of hills and mountain plateaus, with many shaUow lagoons along the coast. The uplands are very high, rising to 4500 feet above sea-level. The area is 10,450 square mttes; the population (in 1904) was about 230,000 only, including 1693 whites. The flora presents nothing sufficiently marked to caU for special comment. Of the fauna it may be said that the Hon and elephant, with a goodly number of the other larger animals, reappear. Although there are two hundred and ten miles of sea- coast, there is no good harbour. There is fairly safe holding-ground at the mouth of the Tugela River, except when westerly winds blow; but this is nearly a mile off shore. The one railway, Durban-St. Lucia, has been already mentioned. Good roads are now found everywhere. The Zulus afford to the student of history an absorbingly interesting subject, and the various wars between them and the British fttl some of the most thrilling of South Africa's records. The native name for the province of Swaziland is Pungwane. Its area is only 6536 square miles and the population (in 1904) numbered 85,484, of whom 898 were white. The natives are all Ama-Swazi Bantus and are closely aUied to the Zulus. The different sections of the country are spoken of as the high veld, western, average altitude forty-five hundred feet; the middle veld, about twenty-five hundred feet; and the low veld, eastern, about one thousand feet, and reach ing to the Lebombo Mountains, which are flat-topped and do not rise over two thousand feet anywhere. 198 AFRICA TO-DAY The province is weU watered. The rivers aU empty into Delagoa Bay. The flora and fauna caU for no special remark, since they present no feature that in any way distinguishes them from those of the rest of this part of the country. Embabaan, the Anglicised form of the native M'babane, is the capital and is forty-three hundred feet above the sea. The cHmate is most healthy. There is a railway to the town of Lourenco Marques, in Portuguese East Africa, which crosses the frontier forty-seven miles east of Embabaan; it is the eastern link in the direct Johannesburg-Delagoa Bay line. There are a number of good roads in sections where development calls for them. The soil being generally fertile and the natives having a disposition thereto, agriculture is of importance and stock-raising is a considerable industry. Gold, tin, and coal mining are now receiving some profitable attention. To the ethnologist there is much that appeals in the history of the Ama-Swazi tribes and their enemies, the Bantus and Zulus. Basutoland, officiaUy "The Territory of Basutoland," is an inland state and crown colony of Great Britain. (Area, 10,293 square miles; population, 1904, 348,848.) The native name is Lesuto, and the country is a part of the southeastern ridge of the great South African table land, having a mean elevation of six thousand feet. Its cHmate may easily be imagined. The famous Draken- berg range attains its greatest elevation on the Basuto- land-Niger frontier, where there are peaks towering up ten thousand feet and more. It is a great and beautiful country, in its scenery fuUy deserving the title "The SOUTH AFRICA 199 Switzerland of South Africa," which has been given it; and not only physicaUy but industrially is it coming to approach Switzerland. One conspicuous characteristic — for Africa — is the fact that the four seasons, as we know them in the higher latitudes of the north temperate zone, are sharply defined. These are, of course, just the reverse of ours, if we adhere strictly to our months by name; for Basutoland's July is the beginning of mid winter snow and ice, whtte Christmas is celebrated under the broiling sun of midsummer! There are trees, but no forests; there are charming heaths, and higher up again the alpine flora is very beautiful. Compara tively few wild animals are seen, and none of them are very large. This province is one of the greatest grain districts of South Africa, and if the promise of development is kept, it wiU not be necessary to retain the modifying "South" very long. ExceUent ponies,*tlescended from some Shet- lands that ran wild over half a century ago, are reared and lately the strain has been highly improved by the introduction of Arab stallions. Communication depends upon the highroads, which are in exceUent condition; none of the rivers are navigable. A short railway from Naseru, the capital, connects with the trunk line from Bloemfontein to Ladysmith. Rather exceptional educa tional f acuities are supplied and availed of; but the schools, as yet, are those founded by missionary so cieties, although the Government contributes, without sectarian discrimination, towards maintenance. Social conditions among the natives are on a much higher plane than is customarily found in South Africa. 200 AFRICA TO-DAY Orange Free State was, from 1854 to 1900, an inde pendent republic. From May, 1900, to June, 1910, it was known as the Orange River Colony, and since the last date it has formed a province of the Union of South Africa as the Orange Free State, although why the "Free" is retained it is not easy to say. It Hes north of the Orange River and south of the Vaal. It is a part of the great interior tableland and has an elevation of some four to five thousand feet. Mont aux Sources, eleven thousand feet, and the highest peak in South Africa, is partly in this province; there are, besides, a number of very respectable mountains entirely within the borders. Generally speaking, the province is a great tree less plain, strikingly uneven in its surface. The area is 50,392 square miles, and the population 229,149, at the last census. The cHmate is not comparable with that of Basutoland, although it is very healthy, for there are trying, hot winds and occasionally bad dust-storms. The flora is just what one would expect to find in such high lands when rain is scarce. The tobacco plant grows wild. A great change has taken place in the fauna during a hundred years. Big game, that was plentiful during the early days of the Boers, has dis appeared, and what small game there is does not appeal strongly to the sportsman. The Bushmen were, probably, the autochthons, as in many other parts of South Africa; then came the Hottentots, and afterwards the Bantu-Negroes of the Bechuana tribes. Representatives of all these are seen, and there are, besides, many "mixed." It may be mentioned here that there are in various parts of South SOUTHAFRICA 201 Africa graffiti in caves and on rocks which show that the Bushmen were at one time in regions where they are not now found and where they do not appear to have been for a very long time. This province has an extensive system of railways; they are owned by the state and are all of the standard South African gauge (3 ft. 6 in.). One division connects the colony with Cape Town by the trunk Hne, Cape to Cairo, etc. The other is the Natal trunk line, northeast and southwest. The two systems are interlocked in a double way. Agriculture is the most important industry; next come sheep and stock raising. " Under the provisions of a Land Settlement Ordinance of 1902 over 1,500,000 acres of crown land had been, by 1907, aUotted, and in September, 1909, there were 642 families, of whom over 570 were British, settled on that land. In 1907 a Land Settlement Board was created to deal with the affairs of these settlers. At the end of five years the Board was to hand over its duties to the Gov ernment." After the industries which have been men tioned, comes diamond mining; in 1909 the value of the stones dug was considerably over $5,000,000. Coal rnining has attained importance. Gold and iron deposits have been found, but these are not worked to an appre ciable extent. Transvaal; Hterally "Across the Vaal," because this inland province Hes north of, or beyond from, Cape Colony, the Vaal River, and south of the Limpopo. Its boundaries have already been given indirectly, save the northern one, which joins Rhodesia, and that part of the western Hne which adjoins the Bechuanaland Protectorate. These 202 AFRICA TO-DAY frontiers, with the exception of a little of the south western one, are well-defined natural features. The area is 111,196 square miles and the population, on April 17, 1904, when the first complete census was taken, was 1,269,951. This latter number included 8215 British soldiers in garrisons, and of that total a little over twenty per cent, were European or white; the white people being British or Hollanders. Most of the British subjects are gathered into the towns, where 'practicaUy aU the white foreigners are to be found; while the HoUanders, Boers, are mainly farmers and stockmen. The natives are of the Bantu-Negro race, chiefly from Basuto, Bechuana, Bavenda, and Xosa- Zulu tribes — aU immigrants. Just who the autochthons were wiU probably never be known, for in the second dec ade of the nineteenth century such havoc was wrought among the natives by the Zulu chief Mosilikatze that they were practicaUy annihilated; and after that, in addition to the immigrants already mentioned, there came in from the east and southeast Swazi, Shangaan, and people of other tribes. The province in the east is mountainous, but in the west it is a part of the main tableland of South Central Africa. "The true veld, extending east to west one hun dred and twenty miles and north to south one hundred miles, consists of roUing grass-covered downs absolutely treeless, save where, as at Johannesburg, plantations have been made by man, the crests of the rolls being known as builts and the hoUows as laagtes or pleys. The surface is occasionaUy broken by Kopjes — either table-shaped or pointed — rising sometimes one hundred feet above SOUTH AFRICA 203 the general level. Small springs of fresh water are fre quent and there are several shallow lakes or pans — flat- bottomed depressions with no outlet. The largest of these pans, Lake Chrissie, some five miles long by one mile broad, is in the southeastern part of the high veld. The water in the pans is usually brackish. The middle veld is marked by long, low, stony ridges, known as rands, and these rands and the kopjes are often covered with scrub, while mimosa trees are found in the river valleys." * The Transvaal has a healthy, invigorating climate; that of the high veld being among the finest in the world; for it is unusuaUy dry because of the desiccating influence of the Kalahari Desert (Bechuanaland) on the west and' of the Drakenbergs on the east, which intercept the damp air from the Indian Ocean. But the daily range of the temperature is sometimes startling; in winter the mercury may be at ioo° F. in the shade at noon and the succeeding night ice wiU form ! The mean tempera ture in summer (October to Aprtt) is about 730 F., that of winter about 530. The flora is most interesting and stiU appeals to the investigating botanist; but its greatest practical value lies in the exceUent, short, sweet grasses so abundantly supplied and so admirably suited to domestic animals. The fauna has been almost metamorphosed since the advent of Europeans. The indiscriminate slaughter of the larger animals — lion, elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, crocodile, — has nearly exterminated them; but there are still many small wild animals whose habits have undergone change since the removal of those that preyed upon them. 204 AFRICA TO-DAY Noxious insects, such as the tsetse fly, ticks (there are at least six species), mosquitoes, locusts, and ants, are very common. The administrative divisions and their measures, the government, the school system, industrial enterprises, and other topics must be passed with the comment that they are what is to be expected in an intettigently governed British colony, when the economic and pohtical value of that colony is thoroughly appreciated, as is the case with the Transvaal. The railway development has reached remarkable proportions. There are almost innumerable short, private lines built to exploit some particular industry; of these no account is taken here. The principal (trunk) lines of the standard South African gauge aU converge at Johannesburg. The following table gives the distances from that city to other places in South Africa (for projected routes, shortening the journey between Europe and Johannesburg, see the Geographical Journal, December, 1910). INLAND CENTRES SEAPORTS Miles Miles To Pretoria 46 To Cape Town (via Kimberley) 957 " Kimberley 310 " " " (via Bloemfontein ).. .1013 " Bloemfontein 263 " Port Elizabeth : . . . . 714 " Bulawayo (via Fourteen Streams) 979 " East London 665 " Salisbury ( " " " ) 1279 " Durban 483 " Lourenco Marques (via Pretoria) 396 Other important Hnes are: east via Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway; from Witbank to Brakpan; Krugersdorp to Zeerust; Pretoria to Rustenberg; Pretoria to Pietersburg; the "Selati" railway from Komati Poort to Leydsdorp and on to the Limpopo River; Belfast to Lydenburg; Potchefstroom to Lichtenburg. Telegraph Hnes are Copyright, Underwood 6* Underwood, N. Y. Huge Precipitating Vats at a South African Gold Mine SOUTHAFRICA 205 extended aU over the province and are connected with ocean cables at one or the other of several seaports. Inland communication is had with British Central Africa and Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, through Rhodesia. This gives access to German East Africa and its principal port of entry, Dar es-Salaam. The postal service is well organised and in some parts of the Pietersburg district zebras are hitched into mailcarts for rural delivery. The mineral re sources of the province would demand several long chapters for themselves if they were discussed thoroughly. The famous "Rand Reefs," along the Witwatersrand, are known in every stock exchange of the world. Diamonds, coal and other minerals, iron and copper ores — aU these are important. Agriculture yields precedence to mining, although the development in farming and stock-raising is rapidly pushing these industries to the front. Fruit growing is a thriving occupation, for the cHmate and soil in many places are admirably suited for this purpose. The crown lands, about twenty-one miUion acres in area, are being wisely administered and attractive inducements are held out to settlers. The history of the colony presents an absorbingly interesting combination of romance, matter of fact, struggle, and war, but it fills volumes and cannot even be condensed into part of a chapter; and since it cannot be given here, it is unfair to criticise either Boer or British acts. Griqualand East and Griqualand West are naturaUy parts of Bechuanaland. The former is known also as Kaffraria. Neither one is a separate political division, 206 AFRICA TO-DAY and they are mentioned here by name simply because of the importance of the diamond mines and because Kimberley, the chief town of Griqualand West, is of considerable note; it is the headquarters for the diamond miners and dealers. Diamonds were first discovered in this district in 1867, and by the end of 1905 the quantity taken out amounted to thirteen and one-half tons in weight, and the value was nearly five hundred milhon doUars. To speak of tons of diamonds, each ton being twenty-two hundred and forty pounds avoirdupois, as if they were so much pig-iron, must strike the reader as commercialising the jewel in an extraordinary way. The history of Griqualand blends together accounts of Bushmen, Hottentots, Bastaards (the name, even in its Dutch form, is shamefully sug gestive; they were the offspring of Hollander fathers by Hottentot mothers, but were not cared for by their fathers), and Europeans. The British Protectorate of Nyasaland is a small district, still administered by a governor, appointed from London, with the assistance of an executive and legislative council. It will eventually become a part of the Union of South Africa, we may reasonably assume, but probably not until after Rhodesia, with which it is geographically allied, joins that Union. Nyasaland includes all the west coast of Lake Nyasa south of the Songwe River, where it marches with German East Africa; the southern end of the lake and up the coast of the lake to n|° south latitude where the British and German possessions join; in the south it is surrounded by Portuguese territory; westward it projects Copyright, Underwood eV Underwood, jV. Y. "The Compound." The DeBeers Diamond Corporation A device to prevent stealing diamonds is to compel miners' families to live within this area SOUTH AFRICA 207 into Rhodesia. It takes in the greater part of the Shire river basin and the Shire Highlands. The area is about forty thousand nine hundred and eighty square miles and the population is estimated at very nearly one mil- Hon. Light draft steamboats can travel on the Zambesi River from its mouth, at Chinde, to Port Herald on the Shire River; but during low water they cannot always go quite so far. There is a railway from Port Herald to Blantyre, the commercial metropohs of the ShirS Highlands. The Cape to Cairo Railway, which crossed the Zambesi in 1905, and the Kafukwe in 1906, reached Broken Hill mines in 1907, and was continued to the Bel gian Kongo frontier in 1909. There is a connecting line to Blantyre, three thousand feet above the sea. The place is a monument to Livingstone, for the name was taken from the great missionary explorer's birthplace, and the town was founded by the Church of Scotland Mission. The history of the whole province is interesting because of the connection with Livingstone's name, for on the shore of Lake Nyasa he planted a mission station soon after he had reached the lake, from the south, in 1859. Rhodesia, the name being a monument to another one man — of vastly different metal than that other one man whose name is associated with the adjoining Bel gian Kongo — who, backed up by the British Gov ernment, was its founder, Cecil Rhodes. It is a great interior possession of Great Britain in the southern part of Central Africa and the northern part of South Africa. In extent it measures some four hundred and fifty thou sand square miles, or more than France, Germany, Hol land, and Belgium combined. That it was in the mind 208 AFRICA TO-DAY of the founder of this great state to have it preserve absolute independence and become a separate nation is possibly too much to say; certainly we cannot now know. The Zambesi River naturally divides the colony into two unequal parts, the northern of which is again subdivided into North West Rhodesia (Barotseland) and North East Rhodesia. In its northern regions Rhodesia is a part of the Kongo basin; the rest is practically all in the Zambesi basin, although in the south and southeast it is drained by tributaries of the Limpopo River. The entire province is a part of the high tableland of Central Africa. The colony is rich in its fauna, both the great beasts and the small animals. For the entomologist there are yet attractive possibilities of catching unidentified specimens of beetles, butterflies, and moths; and for the practical entomologist there is work to be done in exterminating pestiferous ants that are working havoc. It may be, too, that the ornitholo gist who makes a lengthy stay will be rewarded by the discovery of something new. The flora ranges from the tropical through the subtropical (constituting the greater part) to that of the semi-temperate. It is a Httle strange that all the forest trees yield timber that is either too hard or too soft for practical use; therefore house lumber has as yet to be imported. The Rhodesian teak, a tree that the natives call Ikusi, yields wood that is fifty per cent harder than the teak with which we are familiar. There are, too, a few indigenous fruit trees, the best of which is the fig, in many varieties. The blossoming of the flowering plants on the veld is a pretty phenomenon; these do not wait for the rains, after the four to seven SOUTH AFRICA 209 months of dry weather, but being mostly bulbous plants whose tubers have stored up a reserve of moisture, they send out their blooms in anticipation, as it were, of the rains that are soon to come, and the store is sufficient to keep them fresh until the rains actually arrive, when they send out other flowers. Southern Rhodesia already has a very large percentage of Europeans in its population, and the concentration of effort in this direction is Hkely to increase the ratio of whites to black. The natives belong to the Bantu- Negro stock. Some have developed a limited capacity for advancing, but practically all are yet ruled by super stition and their imphcit behef in spirits — of aU kinds, beneficent very few, maleficent innumerable. Their feasts are frequent, misfortune or good luck being equally made the occasion for eating, drinking, and dancing. Salisbury is the capital of Southern Rhodesia; it stands forty-eight hundred and eighty feet above the sea. We are famttiar with the names of other Rhodesian towns: Bulawayo, near which, at World's View in the Maloppo, is Rhodes' burial place, UmtaH, Victoria, Melsetter, and many others. The railways are already in an advanced state for a colony hardly more than a quarter of a century old; for with the trunk line, the Cape to Cairo, and its ramifica tions, branches, and connections, it is possible to reach almost every important centre. The highroads built and maintained by the Government, over four thousand miles in length, may well receive the admiration of Ameri cans, and if they could be imitated in this country it would greatly conduce to our comfort. As yet the adminis- 2IO AFRICA TO-DAY tration of Rhodesia is in the hands of the British South African Company, which appoints an administrator. There is a legislative council, a majority of whom are elected by the registered voters. There is a High Court of Justice, with two judges who have civil and criminal jurisdiction; besides these there are sundry magistrates' courts throughout the province. Of Rhodesia's history and archaeology there is so much to be said, and it is so very interesting, that we must refer our readers to the bibhography for special works dealing with these subjects at the length desired. Barotseland. Most of this South Central African coun try now forms a part of Rhodesia. The people are the most important in this section of the world and are an in teresting ethnological study. They were once conquered by Basutos from the south, but eventually reasserted their supremacy. The territory defined as Barotseland is of vast area, extending from the Kwito River (about longitude 200 E.) on the west to the Kafue (Kafukwe) River (about 28°E.), and from the Kongo-Zambesi water shed in the north to the Linyante district of the Kwando River basin and the Zambesi on the south. The area of that part of Barotseland which is under British protection is something like one hundred and eighty thousand square miles. There is excellent pasturage, the cattle having a famous reputation for fatness. The climate is generally healthy, but the valleys should be avoided by white settlers. It is well for the reader who is in terested in such topics to give some attention to the accounts — favourable as well as adverse — of how Brit ish suzerainty came to be estabhshed in Barotseland. Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N . Y. Diamond-bearing Blue Rock, Kimberley Exposed to the air to disintegrate before washing SOUTH AFRICA 211 There are two sections of Rhodesia which deserve a few words of comment: Mashonaland and Matabeleland. The inhabitants of the former are Bantu-Negroes, whose name comes from the contemptuous Amashuina, applied to them by the Matabeles (Zulus) because they would lurk in caves among the rocky hills to escape from fighting with the intruders. Although many of them submitted to the Matabeles they preserved a certain national unity. They are skilful potters and weavers of cloth from bark, as well as industrious farmers. They excelled in smelting and forging iron and in carving wood. They are also quite musical, and make a rude sort of "piano" with iron keys. They also worked in the gold diggings and could even extract gold from quartz. The Matabeles got their name from a word which means "vanishing" or "hidden" because of the clever way they had of protecting themselves from their adversaries' primitive missiles by crouching behind immense shields covered with thick oxhide. They are a people of Zulu origin, adept in the use of the assegai, who were driven from the Transvaal by the Boers in 1837; they crossed the Limpopo River with a host re cruited from every one of the numerous tribes they had conquered, led by the notorious chief Mosilikatze. In the new territory the mere name of that chief was sufficient to inspire dread, and they conquered and absorbed the Mashona tribes, estabhshing a military despotism. Their sole occupation was war conducted with an extreme of rigour, and it was not an easy task for the British to suppress this tendency. But since the conquest of Matabeleland, in 1893, they have ceased 212 AFRICA TO-DAY to be predatory warriors and are now herdsmen and agriculturalists. A few particulars of Rhodesia's railway equipment will be found interesting. The main line is the continua tion of the Cape to Cairo Railway from Cape Town through Kimberley and Mafeking. From the latter place the general direction is northeasterly to Bulawayo; thence northwesterly to the Zambesi River, which is crossed below Victoria Falls. The rather difficult task of throwing a bridge across the stream was completed in 1905. Then the railway continues, in a northeasterly direction, ninety-two miles to Kalomo. Barotseland is then entered, and the line goes forward through Rhodesia to the Katanga district of Belgian Kongo. The section from Kalomo to Broken Hill, two hundred and sixty-one miles, was completed in 1907, and the Belgian Kongo frontier was reached in 1909. This main line makes the southern division of the joint railway and steamboat service (the latter for a short distance on the Nile, temporarily, no doubt), by which passengers wttl very soon be able to go from Alexandria to Cape Town, the entire length of the continent. As is suggested in a later chapter, the extension of the Hne northward from the Belgian Kongo is contemplated along the east shore of Lake Tanganyika. Physical conditions would seem almost to necessitate this, although other considerations may lead to a change. From Bulawayo a Hne goes north east to Gwelo, Salisbury, and on to Beira (Portuguese) ; from the same junction point a line one hundred and twenty miles southeast to West Nicholson mine. A line runs from Gwelo forty miles to Yankee Doodle and SOUTH AFRICA 213 a two-foot-gauge Hne goes fifty miles to Lomagundi. Altogether there are about four thousand miles in or immediately subsidiary to the province. It is interesting to read of the Duke of Connaught's almost "Royal Progress" through the South Africa Union and Rhodesia in 1910, and of his declaration that he returned to England "a confirmed Rhodesian," as he expressed himself. We may have to make some allowances for the careful sweeping and garnishing preparatory to this visit of the King's delegate; but figures do not always He and Britons have an incisive way of looking into estimates of income and expenditure, side by side in their Budgets, which we should do well to imitate. Therefore when His Royal Highness stated that the estimated expenditures for the Union of South Africa for the fiscal year ending March 30, 1912, "are £16,165,958, a decrease of £650,281 proportionately as compared with the year 1910-1911," we may accept the figures, and they speak loudly for the economics of the Union. So far as Rhodesia itself is concerned, it is the southern part of the province which, naturally, shows the greatest advance; but the population, as a whole, has in creased more than two hundred thousand in eight years. Educational standards have been raised and provision made not only to care for children of European parents, but natives as well. In the statement of accounts submitted by the Board of the South African Company, responsible for the administration of Rhodesia, were two items, — Rhodesia Defence Expenditure, £2,587,410, and General . Expenditure, £4,748,525, which represent a part of what may be called the purchase money expended in obtaining 214 AFRICA TO-DAY Rhodesia and keeping it. Commenting upon this, the Duke is reported to have said: "They, as weU as other smaller items, are entered in the balance sheet in order to explain what has become of sums appearing on the other side of the account. They no doubt include a certain proportion of money unwisely expended, but omelettes are not made without breaking eggs and addi tions are not made to an Empire without cost. If we consider what the territory now known as Rhodesia was when Cecil Rhodes and his associates obtained possession of it and compare its condition then and now, few people will be found to deny that very great progress has been made, in spite of difficulties and disasters of a formidable character." In January, 191 1, the earnings of the South African railways showed, for the seven months that the Union had been an accomphshed fact, a sum exceeding by £1,000,000 the figures for the corresponding period of the previous year. In February a notice was given in the Union (Parliament) Assembly of a motion for the segre gation of natives within reserves that would be admin istered through native councils. There is before the authorities a very grave problem in dealing with native labourers, and it is something which must be handled with the greatest caution and consideration. The influx of settlers, mainly from England, undoubtedly tends to make the future of all parts of the Union seem very bright; but the coming of these strangers has an influ ence upon the natives that is not always for good. Those who are willing to work evince a perfectly natural objec tion to the giving precedence to the newly arrived whites. SOUTH AFRICA 215 But that is not the gravest aspect of the case. The European immigrant is encouraged to bring with him his wife and children, and when he takes up his home stead the family is installed as quickly as a dwelling can be built for them. The necessary isolation of these farms too frequently leaves the wife unprotected, and there have been a number of disquieting assaults made upon these lonely white women. Stringent repressive measures have been advocated and severe punishments suggested, in addition to the objectionable segregation already alluded to; but the local statesmen and publicists are reluctant to have recourse to harsh means, and even many of the Britons decline to favour such action. The militarist, and there are such in appreciable numbers in South Africa, would rely upon a standing army and its auxttiaries; and he points to the fact that but for the Boers' lack of trained officers and military disciphne the history of the country would be written very dif ferently, and hence he calls for a division of the country into districts, with trustworthy officers — British, of course — to train the youths, but the permanent officers may, perhaps, be South African born, and to this he adds the statement that the mixture of races supports his con tention. However, acute militarism has not yet asserted itself in South Africa and it is not likely to do so, while the suggestion that the visit of the Japanese cruiser Ikoma showed that other powers were coming into the world who might dream of invading South Africa has been openly and properly laughed to scorn. But the language question, although not a serious menace, is one that is sure to give trouble. It was wise 2l6 AFRICA TO-DAY forethought which led the framers of the Constitution to provide that EngHsh and Dutch should be equal; but it is hardly practicable at all times. EngHsh is the most useful — as to that there can be no question — and the Boers themselves recognise this; yet they can hardly be blamed for wishing (we speak of parents who have had no opportunity to acquire a command of EngHsh and who feel themselves to be too old to learn) to talk freely with their children ; nor should we be surprised to know that pure Dutch is rather a scarce article. The Taal is a patois much used by the Hollanders, and this cannot be recognised by School Boards; so it comes about that some of the older Hollanders are not satisfied to have good Dutch taught, the British settlers almost to a man object to it vehemently, and the language question is one of the awkward nuts for the administration to crack. The leaders of both races appeal for co-operation and undoubtedly the possible — yes, easy — middle course will be determined and followed. The Union of South Africa has already acquired momentum that is irresistible and its future is bright. Its pohcy is Hberal and aU strangers are made welcome; most cordially the sound, strong, energetic young man. It has been declared that South America is the ideal place for the young citizen of the United States to go to if he feels that he must seek his fortune away from home; but it seems to us that, aU things con sidered, it is South Africa that is to be recommended for such ambition. Soil, cHmate, social conditions, estabhshed and permanent government, schools, aU things are there in a more attractive form than any of SOUTH AFRICA 217 the South American States offer. If proof of HberaHty towards strangers is asked, it is found in the Govern ment's attitude with respect to Asiatics. The following concessions have been made to East Indians: first, Asiatics now in South Africa who had not applied to be registered in consequence of the passive resistance movement were permitted to make application within six months; second, thirty Asiatics then in India, who were deported under the Acts of 1907-08, or who left in consequence of the passive resistance movement and who would otherwise be entitled to register, might return and apply within six months; third, six edu cated Indians wttl be admitted annually free from registration. For the year 1911 ten Indians then in the Transvaal were permitted to remain under temporary permits as special cases, pending final legislation; fourth, well-educated and well-known Asiatics are to be ex empted from identification by thumb-prints when making apphcation. CHAPTER XIII THE BLACKS IN AFRICA WE do not have to follow the Negro race from Senegal, in the extreme west of Africa, to its furthermost eastern bounds in the Fiji Islands of the Pacific Ocean, through Northern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Malaysian Islands. Nor do we purpose making this chapter an anthropological study of the Negro race. The Negro tribes of whom we mean to speak may be said to be scattered over Africa from a Hne roughly drawn south of the great deserts, Sahara and Libya, down to a Hne which may be traced "from the Gulf of Biafra with a southeasterly trend across the equator to the mouth of the Tana"; or, defined by terms of lati tude, from about 140 north to 30 south. Within these Hmits are found most of the true negroes. There may be excursions outside of the boundaries, for we are pretty sure to mention the Bantu-Negroids who are south of this band; whtte the relations between the yellowish- brown Bushmen and Hottentots and the Negro, admit tedly, uncertain, must be considered, as well as the mixtures of negro blood with Berbers, people of Hamitic stock, and Arabs found to the north, almost exclusively, of the true negro zone. It is the consensus of opinion among anthropologists that the mental development of the Negro is of a lower 218 THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 219 standard than that of the Caucasian, most markedly in adults. The negro child is quick to learn, the grown negro is very slow at it; yet even in the fuUy grown negro there are certain traits, which we usually attribute with special acuteness to animals, that are surprising. Their senses of sight and hearing are certainly keener than are those of the whites ; their instincts for direction and locality are not infrequently as precise as those of a homing pigeon or the most intelHgent wild animal. In these attributes the negro is remarkably Hke the North American Indian. There are several names used to designate the people whose physical characteristics — without too much effort at scientific precision — are dark skin, closely curling, coarse hair (this, last word is employed quite loosely), broad noses with low arch, thick and protrud ing Hps, and large, clumsy feet. "Negritos," hterally little negroes, is one of these names, and it was given by the Spaniards to those people who were, they assumed, the aborigines of the Philippine Islands, although this is probably rather doubtful ethnology. The term is now employed to designate one of the great groups of the East Indies and elsewhere, and by some writers is appHed to certain of the African tribes who are, those writers think, akin. M. de Quatrefages, the eminent French ethnologist, made a suggestion that seems reasonable. It is that an original stem, undetermined as to origin but assumed to have been in southwestern Asia, sent out two branches, one of which went eastward into Indo-Oceanica, the other westward and eventually reached equatorial Africa. Generally accepted by eth- 220 AFRICA TO-DAY nologists and sociologists, this theory would seem to place the negrito race closest to the primitive form of human beings, and we must admit that the mental and physical characteristics of the negro seem to justify this conclusion; assuming, as we may properly do, that negro and negrito simply differentiate the two sections of one and the same division of mankind. But still there is no satisfactory theory advanced as to the link connecting that primitive form with the higher ones, and the discussion takes us too far into the field of speculative anthropology. Restricting ourselves to the word Negro and Hmiting our horizon to Africa, we still find considerable, indeed tremendous, differences between the various groups which, in that continent, make up the great negro race. A glance at the plate given in the last edition of the New International Encyclopaedia will at once satisfy the investigator that the negro of the east coast of Africa is the superior to his kinsman of the west coast, and that both are higher in the scale of human develop ment and mental attainment than are the negroes of the interior of the continent. The colour of these people ranges from a light chocolate through deepening shades of brown to nearly black. We must note, however, that the negro colour does not depend upon the influence of geographical position, exposure to the sun, relative degree of heat, or purity of blood. In Central Africa there are to be found, side by side, the greatest diver sity in colour; and even in the one family, when there is no reason to charge infidehty to the mother, there are sometimes inexphcable variants. The negro THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 221 hair (?) has been shown by several ethnologists and microscopists, conclusively by P. A. Brown,* to be flat in cross section, not round; without central duct; to leave the skin at a right angle to the surface; it is spirally twisted or curled; it gets its colouring in a different way from that of true hair, and it will mat together; that is, it will felt as wool does, which true hair cannot be made to do — in fact that this growth upon the negro is alto gether unlike true hair and is Hke true wool. These capillary characteristics are found equally in all divisions of the race, Negroes, Negritos, and Negroids; but in the last they change with the degree of infusion of other blood. Other characteristics to which attention must be given are the length of the fore-arm and of the leg, the small calf of the leg and projecting heel, and the tendency to projecting jaws (prognathism). If we accept the statement which has been made by many competent, thoroughly honest, and sympathetic observers, that the negro is mentally inferior to the white man mainly because the premature closing of the cranial sutures and lateral pressure of the frontal bone arrest the growth of the brain-pan in later adolescence or early maturity, yet it is not fair to assume too much from the seeming inferiority. When a reasonable opportunity is given under competent direction in the matter of education, we cannot truthfully say that the negro is unable to study and to assimilate knowledge in a degree measurably comparable with the attainments of the white pupil or student. But while cheerfully making mental note of the brilliant exceptions we must *"The Classification of Mankind." 222 AFRICA TO-DAY say that this receptivity shows a tendency to check as the young grow into manhood, and one has but to read the reports of any Christian missionary society working in Africa to be convinced that the relapse is the rule. Of this, even in our own country, there is such constant danger as to make it a rule; whtte in Africa there are few exceptions. Although the negro (we are now thinking of him as raised above the savage whose delights were war, slaughter, capture, and destruction) is first of aU an agriculturahst, then a hunter and a herdsman, yet he is capable of very satisfactory development as a crafts man, and with proper training he wttl develop skill in working with metals and as a carpenter; the metal working which explorers found was never to be con sidered seriously as the effort of artisans. "The bronze castings by the cire perdue process,* and the cups and horns of ivory elaborately carved, which were produced by the natives of Guinea after their intercourse with the Portuguese of the sixteenth century, bear ample witness to this. But the rapid decline and practical evanescence of both industries, when that intercourse was interrupted, shows that the native craftsman was raised for the moment above his normal level by direct foreign inspiration and was unable to sustain the high quality of his work when the inspiration failed." f The various allusions in the preceding chapters of this book * A method of casting bronze by making a model in wax and inclos ing it in plaster, melting the wax out of the plaster, and then using the latter as a mould for the bronze. — Cent. Diet. t Thomas Athol Joyce, Assistant in the Department of Ethnography, British Museum. THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 223 to the skiU displayed by negroes, negroids rather, for the cases cited have generally been found among peoples of mixed blood, in no way stultify this quotation, because the work of making arms, offensive and defensive, in handling iron, etc., has all been of an inferior character. We must be extremely careful if we venture to discuss degrees or forms of culture among the Central African negroes, because environment has always been such an important determining factor; and the admitted ten dency of the natives to wander, whether as a truly pastoral people, primarily for the benefit of their herds or flocks; as nomadic hunters, following the game which their own attacks might drive from place to place; or simply as waifs and strays, for change or because of some misfortune-bringing " voodos" — anyoneof these ormany other causes would tend to produce appalling confusion in habits and customs, and these would in turn lead all but the most careful and precise observer to conclu sions which ethnological facts will not support. Social conditions have always been and are now primitive among the negroes in Africa, and even in our own land it cannot be denied that when left to their own devices the negroes are lamentably prone to evince a tendency towards looseness in such matters. In African negro society the basis has been found to be the viUage com munity rather than the family, and even when there has been such a thing as a negro kingdom, such as, for example, Dahomey, the tendency towards imperial or royal brutality has been painfully marked. Among the Bantu-Negroids — the name itself suggests the like- lihood of there having been an infusion of other than 224 AFRICA TO-DAY the pure negro blood — the history of the states of Lundaand Cazembe,aswe know of it, does not completely demohsh the theory which has just been advanced. Lunda was an empire of no mean proportions, if its culture was not high; the people were Bantus, and at one time their domains stretched from the Kuango River to the Lualaba. The territory is now divided between Angola (Portuguese) and the Belgian Kongo. Cazembe took its name from its ruler. It is now a part of the Union of South Africa. It is north of Lake Bangweolo and is rather outside of the equatorial zone wherein are the true negroes we are discussing. Polygyny is the normal instinct with the negro, although in this he is not at all peculiar, and in Africa this state of affairs is almost essential to the maintenance of the population. Women are so much in excess of men numericaUy, owing to accidents of the chase, private brawls, and communal wars, that if the effort of sincere missionaries to induce the natives to give up their plu rality of wives were successful, the result would be a decrease of population that would rapidly verge upon extinction. Monogyny, by the way, is rarely demanded by the women themselves, mainly on the principle that many hands make Hght work. Yet women are reckoned of some account, it would seem, for among the negroes descent in the female hne is more common than is the patriarchal system. The African secret societies are a most potent influence for good or evil, as the case may be; oftener the latter, probably. And so powerful is this system that it is usually quite impossible for a man to keep out of a society — the pressure brought to bear is THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 225 quite as strong and as irresistible as is that of a labour union with us; and always allegiance to his society is more dominating upon a man's acts than are family ties. Cannibahsm was popular with the true negro simply as a matter of taste. He ate human flesh whenever he could get it because he liked it, not for any rehgious or sentimental reason. Good luck had nothing to do with the performance and rarely was it a case of necessity, because usually it would have been much easier to kill wild game or butcher a domestic animal than to catch an enemy, with the possibility always of having the tables turned and himself put into the pot to satisfy the appetite of his enemy! Indeed, it has been estab hshed as a fact that the negroes who were, and it may be proper to say are, most addicted to this horrible practice of cannibaHsm are the very ones who inhabit districts where game is most plentiful. Among the true African negroes there is no evidence of a Stone Age, either neohthic or palaeolithic. So far as has been observed, when stones were used at all they were simply handy pebbles or smaU waterworn boulders employed as rough hammers for the moment, perhaps to crush ore or to shape metal, without being preserved as permanent implements. The people display traces of some aptitude as metal workers, but up to a very low stage only, and implements and weapons — of war or chase — even when made of stone, evince no sign of shaping. In other industries, such as pottery making and weaving, the native attainments were nothmg to attract attention. With the true negroes it is doubtful if much time was given to weaving; when they conceived 226 AFRICA TO-DAY the idea that garments of some kind were essential or desirable, it is pretty certain that these people took the handiest leaves for the purpose. The sentiment which led the savage to use raiment is not only outside of our province, but its consideration involves esoteric knowl edge which had better not be displayed here. Among the Bantus palm cloth was woven with some skill, but these people, as has been said, do not properly belong in the class we are discussing. We cannot, of course, recognise cotton weaving as an African native industry. Pottery certainly was known to all negroes, but only in its lowest stages of development. They did not make use of the potter's wheel, of glazing and firing they had but the most rudimentary knowledge, if any at all, and naturally the product had less endurance than is ordinarily expected. The religion of the negroes is a very complex subject which hardly seems apposite here, since it demands too much space and because it has received such careful attention from speciahsts who have discussed it from every conceivable viewpoint. Spencer's "The Principles of Sociology" gives about the most convenient synopsis. Broadly speaking, the negro is naturally a spiritist and almost invariably strongly controlled by bis fetish. He may, it is true, make his own fetish out of any material at hand or raise some small object to that dignity; but once made and installed, whether a shell, a bone, a scrap of cloth, a bit of wood shaped by nature or by hand, it is reckoned all-powerful, offensively and defensively, until something happens to discredit its influence; then it is cahnly rejected or violently deposed with vile THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 227 contumely and another is picked up or made! The placating of evil spirits, who are in the majority as a rule, not only in Africa but all the world over, and the gratifying and flattering of good spirits is the whole of the negro's ritual. The witch doctor, magician, medi cine-man is aU-powerful, unless he makes an egregious mistake, when he is deposed incontinently, if he is not murdered outright and eaten. Before considering the present status of the African Blacks or venturing, most hesitatingly, to speak of their future, let us stop for a moment to think of a fact which may be thought interesting. Even if the negro is lower in the scale of mental endowment, and in the capacity which that statement suggests, than is the white man, the Creator (Nature, if the word is preferred) seems to have adapted him to his environment in precisely the same admirable way that He has displayed when putting His hand to so many others of His works — shall we not say all of His works ? The skin of the negro is so con structed that the pores are, from our point of view, abnormally large, permitting of a flow of perspiration which seems to us to be excessive, but which really enables the negro to thrive in just such an intensely hot climate as is found in equatorial Africa; and there are other selected characteristics of the skin which work together with that just mentioned. This is but one of the apparent adaptations to environment which Nature has provided in the case of the negro to fit him to Hve and actually to be comfortable in that trying region. Immunity from disorders which have proved so fatal to the intruding white man is another. Whether this came 228 AFRICA TO-DAY after long acchmatisation or as a natural endowment we can hardly know. The same thing wiU, of course, be said of every other trait that differentiates the negro from the white man and contributes towards his fitness for his native home. But whether all of these are called adaptations through natural selection or special providences, the result was that the Arabs, or whoever were the first pioneers of a different culture and earHest intruders upon the black man's equatorial preserves, found him estabhshed there, if not in entire peace, at least with a measure of comfort which gave him pro prietary rights; and it has seemed to many students of sociology that there in Africa was the place intended by a beneficent Creator to be the permanent abiding-place of the Negro; that there he might be dominant. Yet the march of civiHsation, if it has not actually displaced the blacks by whites, has so transformed the conditions under which they formerly Hved that there is Httle left of the old life; and it is a lamentable fact that the present status of the natives is, all things considered, worse than was the former. It is an unfortunate con comitant of European civiHsation that its first impress has, almost without an exception, been disastrous to people of a lower degree of culture than the European standards (e.g., Africa, America, AustraHa) or essen tially different from them in kind even when there was a reasonable comparison in degree (e.g., India, China, Japan). If we look at any part of the world to which the adventurous European explorers and navigators went in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries we must admit, if we are honest, that the first touch of THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 229 that civiHsation was bhghting. For every sincere bearer of the banner of the Prince of Peace there were a hundred reckless buccaneers, without one thought for the physical or spiritual welfare of the "savage heathen" whom they met; whose sole object was to get wealth, the means being unimportant; whose fierce lust held no woman in respect, and whose determination to seize slaves was stopped by nothing. It was so in the case of Africa. Down both coasts the European civiHsation marched, one missionary disposed to recognise the brotherhood of man and a hundred freebooters insistent that to the vic tors belonged the spoils, and they took them in any way they could and in every shape they found them, — gold, ivory, slaves, whatever there was that could be converted into money. Not always was the so-called missionary the epitome of Christian kindness; the cross and the sword were too often borne by the same person; and it is not surprising that erelong the sight of a foreign ship was enough to throw the helpless natives into a panic, no matter how bravely waved the banner of the Church. The compensation for articles purchased, when it was made at aU, may have satisfied the childishly ignorant native, pleased with a toy. It was, no doubt, high finance in those days to get an elephant's tusk worth two hundred pounds sterling for a string of beads that cost sixpence, but it never was honest; and when the paucity of that for which articles of real value had been exchanged came to be known to the Africans, the effect was bad. This sort of barter was contemptible, but there were worse influences exerted by the civilised Europeans. We have no reason to beHeve that these blacks of Equa- 23O AFRICA TO-DAY torial Africa were aU and always strictly abstemious in the matter of intoxicants. Just how they first learnt to get alcohol in a potable form is not of moment here; but there are few places on this earth where the palm tree grows that the people were not making palm wine long before the day of their discovery by Euro peans. As it was made by them it was one of the least injurious forms that alcohohc beverages assume. Had the drinking habit been permitted to stop there, all would have been reasonably well; but the newcomers taught the natives, only too witting to learn, that there were other alcohoHc stimulants more potent than their own almost innocuous palm wine. Nearly every book about Africa we pick up, whether written by mission ary or layman, contains stories of natives' demand for "whiskey." This was the first lesson, and from its influ ence Africa has not yet recovered. Again, it seems to the native that it is very easy to earn, by doing some httle odd task for the European, the pittance which suffices to keep him alive for a few days. That much secured, there is no occasion to worry about the future, and he "knocks off" all work until his purse is once more empty and his stomach catting for food. The same statement which has been made about the Fulas* may be repeated here as applicable to both sides of the continent as well as all across the broad zone in which the true negroes are found: the people are examples of bad results arrived at when a strange civili sation has become dominant and yet is not properly assimilated by the natives. The present state of the * See Chapter XI, Upper Senegal and Niger. THE BLACKS IN AFRICA 231 African negro is, in nearly every respect, decidedly worse than was the first. The exploiting of his country, the estabhshing of steamboat Hnes on the rivers and lakes, the building of railways all over the continent, have made it easier for the people to gratify their natural fondness for moving about — simply to be on the go, for business they have none — and they yield most readily; but the assimilation of the civilisation that all this develop ment connotes has not yet attained the level which those who wish the negro well would like to see. Of other conditions, such as the horrors of the Belgian Kongo, and other places where they are somewhat similar, yet not quite so bad, we will not speak further here. It is enough to say that it is the influence of the acts of Europeans which has brought about such conditions, and which would keep them alive indefinitely were it not for pubHc sentiment, of which the African negro, who is the real sufferer, knows nothing All this must do more to counteract the altruistic efforts of missionary and teacher than has been accomplished for permanent good in the way of evangehsation at all the mission sta tions throughout Central Africa put together. Nominally the slave trade has been aboHshed, but it is true that festering spots still exist — a disgrace to our vaunted Christian civilisation. Of the future for the blacks in Africa it is difficult to speak. Pessimistic as it sounds, the present writer looks upon it as Hkely to be hopeless in the extreme. What has been said by earnest, hopeful, and sympathetic observers, diplomats and consuls, scientists, merchants, travellers, missionaries, concerning the natives of the 232 AFRICA TO-DAY West Coast, is equally appHcable to those of the interior and of the East Coast. They have no idea of business — for their bartering is not business — and no exchange of arts; the Httle they do of their own initiative in agri culture and stock-raising is not a sufficient foundation upon which to erect an economic structure that is to survive. Throughout this broad belt the natives, even when they profess Christianity, have no resource of occupation or employment upon which to faU back when they are made to reahse that one of the first prin ciples of that rehgion demands the sweat of the brow before there shaU be eating of bread. They are natu rally idle, and in idleness they readily fall into evil. The contact with European civilisation, when that contact comes outside the confines of the mission station, too often brings an education which panders to their idleness and proneness to evil. If something salutary and per manent is to be done to save the Blacks of Equatorial Africa from extermination, there must be co-operation between governments, merchants, and missionaries to establish industrial and technical schools in order that the weakly disposition to idleness may be overcome and something like capital secured; and this effort must pass out beyond the door of the school until watchful care shall round out the good work begun by the teacher: - , -7- ¦?"... :H ... , -~- - 4*:; .Ste •:-¦ • ¦¦¦'.'' ¦'' ' - PAoto, Underwood &¦ Underwood, N. Y. The Sultan of Morocco on the March CHAPTER XIV EVERYBODY'S AFRICA ON a recent sketch map of Africa, dated 1910, there were just three spots uncoloured, indicat ing independence, — Abyssmia, Morocco, and the Httle republic, Liberia; together their area did not reach seven hundred thousand square miles. Morocco's estimated one hundred and seventy thousand was a very indefinite quantity, and Abyssinia's four hundred and sixty-two thousand is another rough approxima tion. Liberia's forty-one thousand is now fairly exact. It is, however, reasonably safe to say that these three States are but about one-twentieth of the whole conti nent, and they were all that was not under the control of a European Power. Whtte writing this book, nego tiations were concluded between France and Germany whereby Morocco virtually ceases to be an independent State, and may hereafter be included with France's other holdings, for Spain's protest is really to be looked upon as a negligible quantity. As a matter of absolute fact, however, Abyssinia is the only part of Africa which possesses even a semblance of original autonomy. It is still nominally, at any rate, ruled by natives; whereas Morocco is not governed by aborigines, and Liberia is a creation of comparatively modern times, whose gov ernment has in no way connection with the original inhabitants of the land. 233 234 AFRICA TO-DAY Now this means that these three countries — Abys sinia, Liberia, and Morocco — are all that is left, in 1 910, of the great continent which had not been taken under the "protection" of some one of the European nations. Admitting cheerfully the benefit to the whole world which this "protection" may confer, yet not accepting it as a necessary result in every aspect, it is still some what depressing to think that all efforts to civilise Africa have resulted in there being but the handful of its inhab itants still Hving in Abyssinia who are considered able to take care of themselves; for, after all, the dominant class in Morocco are ahens, and Liberia, nominally ruled by officials who are elected, is nevertheless "protected" by the United States. Considering this sketch map in its most important phase — that is, taking careful account of the markings that indicate the particular European Power which claims protectorate rights — we find that Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Turkey have all felt called upon to grab some part or parts of Africa for various alleged reasons, most of them specious, although others appeal strongly to our sense of propriety. It is probably true that some of the European countries are overcrowded in their population, and that being so it seems but right and natural that the government of a particular State should prefer to get possession of a piece of land in another continent and have absolute controlling rights there than to see its citizens go to the United States, or Canada, or some one of the South American repubhcs as . colonists, there to become contributors towards the support of another government — possibly EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 235 a commercial or military rival — and eventually expatri ate themselves, as does that large percentage of European emigrants who are really desirable citizens in the countries wherein they make their new homes. But the specious- ness of some of the alleged reasons for acquiring a part of Africa is manifest to all disinterested persons who have read what has been said in the preceding chapters of the cHmate, generally, in Africa. Compara tively Httle of the great continent's 11,508,793 square mttes is suited to colonisation by Europeans; the Medi terranean Httoral is not really attractive to Europeans who desire to make permanent homes and rear families. Back of that narrow foreshore, with only occasional attractive spots, is the wide, practically impossible desert, whose oases even are not in every way desirable "homes"; then comes equatorial Africa, with barely possible colonies on the extreme eastern and western coasts, but quite impossible in the interior, and we must go a long way down towards South Africa before we reach territory that is properly adapted to European colonisation. "The scramble for Africa" is a coined phrase which most aptly describes the determination of sundry Euro pean Powers to get just as large shces of the continent as possible. The earHest efforts of Holland, Great Britain, and France can hardly be stigmatised as an indecent scramble. Holland's effort, as has been shown, was a perfectly legitimate one, and in it she received some co-operation from France; although we may very properly take exception to Holland's methods apropos of the natives. The joint effort of Great Britain and 236 AFRICA TO-DAY France in Egypt did not contemplate colonisation, and since the latter has been ousted, upon tacit understand ing that she is to have a free hand in other parts of the continent, the former has not strengthened her hold with any idea of making Egypt a colony for British emigrants. Great Britain's supplanting HoUand in South Africa was not looked upon with favour by the British people for a long time. In Parliament there was, at one time, a resolution introduced and accepted by a large majority vote declaring that further effort in promoting South African colonisation was to be deprecated. This atti tude was so general and so strong that the ambition of those who had in mind to secure a broad belt, north and south through the longitudinal centre of the conti nent, to connect the Egyptian "sphere of influence" with the actual possessions in the extreme south, was so effectually blocked that when the time came, as it was sure to come, for the great importance of this to be appar ent to every Briton, the opportunity to acquire this most desirable right of way had been lost forever. Germany and Belgium had closed in south of the equator and from the southern end of Lake Tanganyika up to the Uganda Protectorate the Cape to Cairo Railway — the exclusive control of which would be so highly advan tageous to Great Britain — must traverse lands over which England exercises no rights. If we somewhat arbitrarily fix the date, we may say that the scramble for Africa began in 1884. Not a full decade before that year an over-liberal estimate of the areas in Africa controlled by European nations put the total at about one milhon two hundred and seventy- EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 237 one thousand square miles or only one-tenth, roughly, of the continent. These figures include the claim of Portugal, known to be impossible, to something Hke seven hundred thousand square miles and embracing a vague hinterland to her coast possessions, although the area under her effective control did not actually exceed about forty thousand square miles. Great Britain, before the real scramble began, had two hundred and fifty thousand square miles, France one hundred and seventy thousand, Spain one thousand, and the indepen dent Dutch repubhcs, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, one hundred and fifty thousand. All of these figures are merely rough approximations, for any thing like precise surveys and strict dehmitations have not yet been made in most of the African protecto rates. "Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, Tunisia, and Tripoli were subject in differing ways to the overlord- ship of the Sultan of Turkey, and with these may be ranked, in the scale of organised governments, the three principal independent states, Morocco, Abyssinia, and Zanzibar, as also the negro republic of Liberia." In Central Africa, below the Sahara and Libya deserts, almost a full half of the continent, and virtually all within the tropics, was still held by innumerable tribes, with every conceivable form of government, from an " empire " down to a petty village community of just a few huts. It is not difficult to determine the moving causes which led to the cutting up of Africa and the appropria tion of the slices by European states. The first of the excuses for the "scramble" is not usually given much prominence by writers who hold a brief from their respec- 238 AFRICA TO-DAY tive governments, but there is no such impediment to declaring here that it was simply a game of "they should take who have the power and they should keep who can." The weakness of the African people was the opportunity for Europe's strength. To say that this native chief or that negro king asked some European monarch to take him under his protection is simply euphemism. After Great Britain realised that Germany had designs upon African territory, it was a case of "off we go and the devil take the hindermost." That is a plain, ingenuous statement made without intending to hurt anybody's feelings, and certainly without thought of flattery. There is, to be sure, something more to be said. The war between France and Prussia had several im portant effects. The unification of all Germany and the creation of the German Empire was only one. This strong empire most naturally became imbued with a desire to shine as a World Power and to emulate Great Britain as a creator and promoter of overseas colonies. France, too, rose from her defeat with much the same ambition. There was no opportunity for either people to accomphsh its desire in South America, for the re affirmation of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine by the United States, if they had seemed to be weak during our own troubles in 1861 to 1865, later supported morally by the British Government, effectually closed that part of the world to French or German colonisation schemes. It seemed at that time as if Great Britain, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain held all other regions where colonies might be estabUshed. We do EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 239 not here take cognisance of what several European Powers did a few years later in securing larger or smaller tracts of Chinese territory. If there are parts of Central Asia where European colonists might prosper, there are Powers having, so they claim, preponderant interests which prompt them to say to all others "Keep off!" Africa was the only section left, and to that continent the European Powers went almost en masse. That Africa was not and is not, save in the certain parts to be considered later, a desirable place for Euro pean colonists is patent from the fact that although it has been for centuries at Europe's very door, acces sible easily in every way, there was not, unttt the last few years of the nineteenth century, any great and popular move made to exploit the country. It was King Leopold II's ambition which was the prime mov ing cause that led to the scramble. However much and justly we may condemn the brutal methods for carry ing out his schemes which he sanctioned, and for which the world will always hold him primarily and solely responsible, we cannot deny that he combined in his own person remarkable quaHties of financier, indus- triaHst, and promoter. Whtte we may inveigh against his methods, we cannot keep from him a measure of praise for carrying out his scheme to success. It was certainly so successful that it provoked the rivalry of both France and Germany and it went so far that it eventually compelled Great Britain to grant him access to the upper Nile; and this we may be quite sure would never have been done from merely altruistic feeling. Belgium having started the grab-game, Germany and 240 AFRICA TO-DAY France were prompt in taking a hand. Portugal at first insisted upon having a belt right across the continent to join together her possessions on both coasts. This, it need hardly be said, was promptly objected to by Great Britain, and not only that, but Portugal was held down to much smaller shares than entirely satisfied her. Ger many took as much as possible and now wishes more, which she will probably get. France's plans for increas ing her holdings in Africa had been already suggested, and there was Httle opposition raised to her designs upon the whole of the Sahara, with the several tracts, already described, reaching down to the Gulf of Guinea. Great Britain bestirred itself, but it was too late to overcome the obstacle raised by the feelings of those statesmen and pubhcists at home who were opposed to further territorial expansion in Central and South Africa. Italy followed the lead of the others and was the only power to co-operate with Great Britain, the rest combating ItaHan efforts at every point. Italy's wisdom was rewarded by the peaceful acquisition of the Red Sea colony, Eritrea. Even then she had designs upon Tripoli, held in check by fear of war. Yet it may be that Italy's discretion is to be rewarded by securing TripoH, although the issue of the present war is not yet determined, and this may be a sentimental wish to regain a possession of Old Rome. And what will be the fate of Abyssinia ? We do not believe that the independence of that kingdom is to be permanent, and we are inclined to think that erelong Italy will be further rewarded by being allowed to add it to Eritrea. EVERYBODY S AFRICA 24I With these things brought about for Italy, and France guaranteed a free hand in Morocco, absolutely the whole of Africa — with the exception of little Liberia — wttl be under the domination of Europe; for the authority of the Sultan of Turkey in Egypt may be quietly ignored. But to retrace our steps for a moment, we must comment upon a most daring scheme of France. After the defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians and the temporary weakening of Great Britain's influence in the Egyptian Sudan, because of the overthrow of the Khahfa's power in the upper Nile region, France con ceived the idea of pushing through the heart of Africa to connect her possessions — now known as the Ubangi- Shari-Chad Colony — with her little French SomaHland Protectorate. This gave rise to the Fashoda episode, and pretty nearly brought Great Britain and France into war in the very heart of Africa. The hst of international agreements and conventions which were entered into by the European Powers for the partition of Africa makes interesting reading of a certain kind; although the disinterested outsider is pretty sure to comment upon the fact that no African State was a party to any of them. The natives' rights were absolutely ignored and the division was carried on as if there were no inhabitants to be considered. Reading that Hst, in connection with comments made upon the conditions which led up to the agreements and the effects produced in certain instances, causes a smile at times when we note how national ambition was thwarted. An example is to be found in the Anglo-Kongolese agree ment of May 12, 1894, whereby King Leopold II's 242 AFRICA TO-DAY lease (?) of certam territories in the western basin of the upper Nile, extending along the Nile from a point on Lake Albert Nyanza to Fashoda and westward to the Kongo-Nile watershed, was recognised. The upsetting of British plans for a monopoly of the Nile basin calls for no further comment. If not precisely corollaries to what has just been written, Africa's attractions for the European set tler, for the sportsman, and for the tourist, may now be discussed briefly. The possibttities for the merchant and industrialist are deliberately ignored, for they concern classes who are amply supplied with informa tion and statistics upon which they rely in determining their course of procedure. This aspect of Africa is one which calls for esoteric knowledge and its consummation depends largely upon the spirit of the authorities govern ing a particular region, when a merchant or industrialist of another country — America, for example — seeks to secure for himself a share of the commerce or physical exploitation of that region. In passing, however, it may be noted that, when all the conditions and cir cumstances of the case are given their due weight and a reasonable (unfortunately, a necessary) allowance is made for national, class, or individual jealousy, the measure of success achieved by citizens of the United States in contributing towards the physical, industrial, and agricultural development of Africa is by no means contemptible; and persons who are interested in such matters, or who are disposed to scout that last statement as being unduly optimistic, are commended to the pub lished returns of the American Custom House Service EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 243 for precise information as to materials sent to Africa and their values. But the opportunities for settler, sportsman, and tourist come within the realm of speculation and therefore are not necessarily debarred here. As has been already stated in the preceding chapters, with the exception of less than half a dozen ports along both the west and the east coasts, and the higher lands of the interior, but in regions where other conditions are not attractive (until we get below about the tenth degree of south latitude), there is com paratively little of Africa that is suited to the needs of the European settler; and we think we may safely say that Great Britain is the only Power which really has something satisfactory to offer such immigrants. We ought to interpolate here that by immigrants we intend to limit our meaning to those who enter one country from another with the intention of settling down as permanent residents, who intend to make homes for themselves and their families, who expect to bring up their children as citizens of the adopted country, and who are, as a rule, agriculturalists; yet, at the same time, what we shall say applies, other things being equal, to aU other classes who enter the new country with the purpose of making it their permanent home. The east coast of Africa is, in our opinion, entirely unsuited to white settlers until one has gone well down into Natal. Conditions are somewhat better along the southwest coast, because Portuguese West Africa and German South West Africa are by no means im possible places of abode for European immigrants. The 244 AFRICA TO-DAY best part of the whole contment, however, is to be found in certam sections of the British possessions, the Union of South Africa. Not only are physical conditions — that is, cHmate, soil, and meteorology — admirably suited to the needs of people of the white race, but the develop ment of the country is being pushed along just the lines which here contribute to their welfare by a govern ment that is determined to do all in its power to build up a dominion which shall be the peer of the other white, self-governing, colonial realms of the British Empire — the Dominion of Canada and the Austrahan Commonwealth. The crown lands, or what we Americans would call the public lands, are being surveyed and allotted to bona fide settlers upon terms that are even more Hberal than are those the United States Government grants to actual homestead settlers; although some objection has been raised by loyal British subjects that faculties are made too easy for individual or corporation wealth to acquire large tracts of the most desirable agricultural lands — a process which inevitably operates to deter the man with Hmited means from seeking a home. The Government, too, is giving much attention to agricultural subjects in their widest range, through commissions of experts whose researches and conclusions are placed at the disposal of farmer, fruit grower, or experimenter without fee. Only a year ago an entomological com mission was appointed by the Government to make thorough investigation into the ravages of certain destructive insects. The personnel of that commission was such as must command the respect of scientists the Copyright, Underwood &° Underwood, N. Y. Native Porters Curing Antelope Meat after a Hunt In large sections of the African jungle food is scarce, and must be provided beforehand in this way EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 245 world over and inspire confidence in the farmer for whose special benefit the commission worked; for it was not only scientific in its composition, but essentially practical in its methods and results as well. The members were drawn from various parts of the British Empire — McGill University, Montreal, Canada, was represented — and their combined knowledge and experience would seem to cover the ground as well as could be expected of any human effort. Without presuming to say that there are no other parts of Africa which offer reasonable inducements to European settlers, for the evidence to the contrary is quite sufficient to refute such a statement, it is entirely reasonable to say that, as conditions now are and are Hkely to be for some years, South Africa is the most attractive part of the contment in every way. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, in "African Game Trails," draws pen and ink pictures of ranches in British East Africa which tend to make us beHeve that this part of the continent is a desirable locality for the European settler, but the evidence is not conclusive. Before considering Africa as a "happy hunting ground," we should first define a sportsman, for the word is often outrageously misused. Such a man is something more than a mere killer of wild animals or the slaughterer of birds that have been fattened and tamed in "preserves"; and the true sportsman is, or ought to be, not the one who measures his success solely by the size of his "bag"! In North America we have suffered too much from indiscriminate slaughter of wild animals to be willing to call such men sportsmen, such as are the 246 AFRICA TO-DAY miscreants who prowl about the bounds of the Yellow stone Park hoping to get a shot at the few buffaloes who now stand as the only representatives of miUions kttled by "sportsmen." We cannot look with toleration upon some of the expeditions to Africa that have been made simply that the "sportsman" might say he had killed so many ele phants or even lions — of that kind we have read ad nauseam; and we are provoked to the verge of anger when we read of the great "game drive" organised for the delectation of His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, when a vast number of animals (and not destructive or noxious ones) were simply butchered in cold blood. Nor have we much patience with some of the alleged expeditions to kill great game in order that the collections of our Natural History Museums may be enriched, when the narratives of such expeditions give accounts of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other animals merely kiUed and left to feed hyenas and beasts of prey that lack courage and strength to provide for themselves. If a sportsman has some reasonable object and legit imate purpose, he will stiU find plenty of elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses, and other African great game to give him muscular exertion and test the steadiness of his nerves as he faces their charge. The great Game Reserves of British East Africa, the Northern and the Southern, of many thousand square miles in area, are one of the well-conceived and wisely adminis tered efforts on the part of the British Government to do at least something to prevent the utter extinction of EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 247 the great animals. Part of the wisdom displayed Hes in the choice of sections of the country which are not likely to be of great value for agricultural or industrial purposes. A goodly portion of these reserves fall within the nyika that was mentioned in Chapter X. The North ern Reserve is in the upper part of the colony, above the Guaso Nyiro River and east of Lake Rudolf. It reaches up to the Abyssinian frontier, and, roughly estimated, there are thirty-eight thousand square miles in it. But not yet being properly guarded, it suffers much from the depredations of hunters, who are not sportsmen, coming in from Abyssinia to kill elephants wantonly and "run" the ivory to the Red Sea coast at French or ItaHan ports. It is a wild country, torn by vast clefts — the Rift valley is one — with many lakes that have not yet been properly explored and rivers which are still traced on the map with broken lines beto kening indefinite knowledge. There are, too, a number of mountains that appeal to the adventurous explorer. The Southern Reserve is smaller and stretches along the southern border of the province, a mile or so to the north of the Nairobi railway and down to the south ern and western provincial borders. Germany, like wise, is doing something commendable in this effort to protect the great game of Africa in her East African Protectorate. Then, too, as will have been noted in reading the preceding chapters, there are other places where the great pachyderms, the lion, and many other animals are still to be found in sufficient numbers to leave Africa a paradise for the true sportsman. 248 AFRICA TO-DAY Mr. Roosevelt says, of the Southern Game Reserve: "Next morning we were in the game country, and as we sat on the seat over the cow-catcher, it was liter ally like passing through a vast zoological garden. Indeed, no such railway journey can be taken on any other line in any other land. At one time we passed a herd of a dozen or so of great giraffes, cows and calves, cantering along through the open woods a couple of hundred yards to the left of the track. Again, stiU closer, four .waterbuck cows, their big ears thrown forward, stared at us without moving until we had passed. Hartebeestes were everywhere; one herd was on the track, and when the engine whistled they bucked and sprang with ungainly agility and gaUoped clear of danger. A long-tailed, straw-coloured monkey ran from one tree to another. Huge black ostriches appeared from time to time. Once a troop of impalla close by the track took fright, and as the beauti ful creatures fled we saw now one and now another bound clear over the high bushes. A herd of zebra clattered across a cutting of the line not a hundred yards ahead of the train; the whistle hurried their progress, but only for a minute, and as we passed they were already turning round to gaze. The wild creatures were in their sanctuary and they knew it." This is certainly attractive to the keen, true sportsman and we hope no other will be induced to make an effort to secure trophies; also that he will know exactly where to place those trophies that they may have some educational value, and not be simply the senseless objects of that desire in so many human beings to kill something. Mr. George H. EVERYBODY'S AFRICA 249 Scull's "Lassoing Wild Animals in Africa" is an account of "Buffalo" Jones' expedition in 1910, and it tells of quite a different phase of the sportsman's pleasure in East Africa. It is a book that appeals strongly to every true lover of dangerous sport. CHAPTER XV AMERICA'S RELATIONS WITH AFRICA. AFRICA IN THE FUTURE AS "Sunset" Cox states in his book, "A Search for Winter Sunbeams," it was not long after the United States had achieved her independence and had been recognised as a nation that she felt called upon to show her new flag in African waters and to move in the matter of checking the outrageous depredations of the Barbary Corsairs. Although the relations between the two English-speaking nations are now almost brotherly and the sentiment of both Americans and Britons strongly for peace, it is useless to close our eyes to the fact that in the last decade of the eighteenth century and until long after the middle of the nineteenth, the feeling in England was generally hostile towards the United States. Cir cumstances so shaped themselves after the War of Ameri can Independence that the American merchant marine took on rapid development and the type of vessel flying the Stars and Stripes became a serious menace to the British effort to keep a monopoly of the Medi terranean trade. The jealousy which this success of American ships created found expression in many ways, and one of them was the affirmation by an English statesman that if there were no Barbary Corsairs it would pay the British Government to subsidise them 250 RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 251 just to have them act aggressively in crippling the Yankee merchant service. It is more than suspected that some of the captures of ships and the harsh treat ment of their crews, if not actually instigated by British machinations, were made possible by substantial contributions of money and munitions of war supphed to the Corsairs from EngHsh ports. There is an interesting volume, entitled "The Sea- Wolves of the Mediterranean," which gives the story of how these pirates came to be as formidable as they undoubtedly were; but the reader of that book will be likely to conclude that the author has seen fit to depict his heroes in rather bright colours, and we may not, perhaps, entirely endorse his opinion of them. If any one wishes to know precisely the evolution of the Bar bary Corsairs, he will find all he needs in that book. We are interested in knowing only that they did exist, and that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were a scourge which Europe tolerated for such a long time as to justify the charge that it was to Europe's disgrace that these creatures were permitted to go so long un punished, or rather without being absolutely annihilated. Their haunts were well chosen, both offensively and de fensively; for the rocky coast of the Mediterranean from the Straits of Gibraltar to Cape Bon (Tunis), and the low shore eastward of that point, where the water is shoal and reefs extend far off shore, make an almost ideal place for such pirates to carry on their occupation, because it was difficult to find them and well-nigh im possible for an armed vessel of any size to foUow them into their refuges. 252 AFRICATO-DAY Had the Barbary Corsairs been contented with piracy alone, and shown even a trace of human consideration for the unfortunate people who came to them as a part of their booty, there might, perhaps, be less to say against them. But rehgious fanaticism, self-stimulated to frenzy, and racial hatred, aroused by what we must frankly say was absolutely an unjust act of the Christian Spaniards, had so much to do with influencing these Sea- Wolves that their treatment of captives was inhuman to a degree almost indescribable. We do not mean to intimate that the pitiful condition of the Christian slaves in those Barbary States was not known throughout Europe, or that it did not arouse great sympathy in aU parts of Christendom; that would be unjust. For as early as 1199 there was founded in Paris the "Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives." Its members were caUed^ Fathers of the Redemption or Mathurins, from the church of St. Mathurin, and they devoted their Hves to effecting the ransom of captives and the alleviation of their deplorable misery; the lay- following was large, wealthy, and influential. But it seems almost incredible and certainly inexcusable that Europe should so long have tolerated the existence of the Scourges and all that they stood for. Expeditions were sent against them but there was not that con certed action, directed by intelligent zeal and competent officers, which alone could have effected their extermi nation prior to the early years of the eighteenth century and the later development of warships. Long before the War of Independence there were American citizens held as slaves in North Africa. But RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 253 when those pirates had learnt to know our flag as the ensign of a new nation and one they assumed to be weak, they thought our merchant ships would be easily cap tured; and for a long time this conclusion was justified. Between 1783, the year the independence of the United States was recognised, and 1801, when Commodore Richard Dale was sent with a squadron of four vessels to begin active measures against the pirates, we have records of a great number of captures, and we know that the prisoners were usuatty treated with characteris tic cruelty; for among those unfortunates were univer sity graduates and others possessing sufficient hterary abttity to tell the story of their experiences as slaves most convincingly, when the opportunity came, with release, to do so. We should like to tell again here the story of America's castigation of those Barbary Corsairs while yet in her infancy as a nation. The episodes display individual and concerted bravery and the account would recaU names of which we are justly proud — Dale, who had been Paul Jones' first Heutenant in the famous fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis in 1779, Bainbridge, whose first command in Mediterranean waters was the frigate George, Wash ington, the two Barrons, Sterrett, Porter, Preble, and so many other gallant naval officers, and, not forgetting civilians, who actually suffered more mentally as well as physically than did the military, Eaton, Cathcart, John Adams; but it is not well to introduce the "Twice- told Tale." It was not until 1817 that what is called the final peace with the Barbary Corsairs was secured, 254 AFRICA TO-DAY and then only when they had been thoroughly scourged. "Trouble with the Barbary States, so far as concerned the United States, was now at an end, except occa sional trivial difficulties with consuls. But it was considered prudent to keep a naval force in the Medi terranean for several years. The need of this is aUuded to in nearly all the annual messages of the presidents down to 1830."* As a nation we at first made the mistake of following the example of Europe in dealing with these creatures and tried to purchase peace and protection for our citizens from people who had not one grain of truth or honour as individuals, and as communities no respect whatever for the obligations of a treaty. When, however, the mistake of this course became apparent, the con trary method, and the only right one, was followed so strenuously as to have the direct, salutary effect upon the actual offenders and the indirect, wholesome one of making Europe bestir herself. Contemplating the episode of America's relations with the Barbary Corsairs as a whole, there was nothing to make the people of the United States blush with shame when looking back at the efforts of their navy to suppress the nuisance, and the first — and as is to be hoped the only — appearance of the American flag in transatlantic waters, borne with martial intent, was creditable. One phase of the slave trade was certainly checked. If we cannot say that since 181 7 there have been absolutely no more Christian white slaves held in the Barbary States — for there have been occasionaUy such prisoners — yet rarely * " Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs," Gardner W. Allen. RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 255 has their treatment been marked by the cruelties of a hundred years and more ago, and always their release has been speedily achieved; either by punitive military expeditions or payment of ransom. Later, but not until after the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States took its part somewhat per functorily in the suppression of the African slave trade, when heathen blacks were the victims of rapacity and of cruelties which put to shame the miseries of the white slaves chained to the rowing-bench in a Moorish galley, confined in filthy dungeons, or held as menials in the home of a brutal Mussulman master. Slavery is a topic which presents no attractions however we may look at it; yet it is a condition, a phase of human society, that asserts itself no matter how far we go back in history. Without seeking to support this statement with references to other portions of the globe, we may say that from the very earHest dates of competent history we know it has been the custom in Africa for victors to hold their human prizes of war as slaves, as well as to acquire such property by purchase, and these conditions exist to this very day in all parts of the continent where European Powers have not made and enforced the manumission of domestic slaves obhgatory or decreed that their offspring should be absolutely free. In some of the Central African countries, or rather among some of the tribes, where cannibaHsm has not yet been effectually stamped out, it is the rule for slaves to be fattened and eaten. Indeed, it is often contended by these man-eating peoples that in no circumstances must a slave be aUowed to die a natural death, for if 256 AFRICA TO-DAY he were to do so, his ghost would inevitably return and murder his master, ¦ — a direful possibttity that is obvi ated safely by the butchering and eating of the slave. Although just how the spirit, or ghost, of the victim is ehminated by murder and yet persists in the case of natural death has not been made clear by competent students. The odious distinction of having been the first person to interest the English people in the negro slave trade belongs to Sir John Hawkins. "In 1562 he transported a large cargo of Africans to Hispaniola (Haiti). The rich returns of sugar, ginger, and pearls attracted the notice of Queen EHzabeth, and five years later she took shares in a new expedition, though the commerce, on the part of the EngHsh, in Spanish ports, was by the law of Spain iUicit, as well as by the law of morals detestable."* It is not fair to the American colonies first, and later to the young United States, to say that they wittingly accepted negro slavery. In other British colonies such slaves were held before there was one in the British colonies of North America which subsequently became the United States; and in those same colonies slaves were owned after negro slavery ceased to exist in the United States, 1863. In August, 1619, a Dutch man-of- war entered the James River, Virginia, and landed twenty negroes who were offered for sale. This merchan dise was not made welcome, and it is not too much to say that had the vessel not been a warship, flying the flag of a friendly State, the opposition to the introduction and sale of these human beings might have been insistent * Bancroft, " History of the United States." RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 257 to the final point. Nor were subsequent similar adven tures of forcing negro slaves into the colonies received with favour for some time. Indeed, the sentiment of the colonists was generally and strongly opposed to the traffic, and even after the War of Independence the wish of Maryland and Virginia was to aboHsh negro slavery. But it was contended, and with some semblance of reason, it must be admitted, that in the extreme Southern States it was impossible in those early days to cultivate the fields with white labourers, altogether insufficient in numbers and ill-suited to the task physically, while Indian labour was simply impossible. The tilling of the Southern cotton fields, picking the lint, cleaning it, and preparing it for market could be done satisfactorily, at least, by the ignorant slaves; but the industries of the North demanded of the workmen a fair measure of intelligence not found inherently in the negro and not to be given him through the possible education then provided. Where slavery was profitable, therefore, it was tolerated before it was welcomed, and since house servants may be said to be able to do their work without the need of much natural intelligence, there were negro slaves in that capacity as far north even as Massa chusetts. At one period, as a matter of fact, and for some time, there were such domestic slaves in all the thir teen colonies, in addition to the field hands owned in considerable numbers in some of the other colonies. But most of the colonists realised that it was unprofit able as well as impolitic to hold slaves, and before the War of Independence their representative officials (not the Government appointees) were protesting against the 258 AFRICA TO-DAY determination of the British Government to increase the number of slaves in the face of such colonial legisla tive action as the following: Massachusetts, in 1641, in her "Body of Liberties," declared that there should never be any bond slavery, villeinage, or captivity in the colony, "unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, or such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us." In 1652 Rhode Island passed this resolu tion: "No black mankind or white shall be held to service longer than ten years." We are more than half inclined to laugh at the sophistry which led many of the Puritan slave-owners to seek to quiet their consciences by assert ing stoutly that America would confer benefit upon Africa by fostering and even increasing the slave trade; on the principle that one slave brought under Christian influences was better than a thousand free heathen in the wilds of Africa. In colonial days, and until just before the culmination of differences in the Revolution, the royal governors were charged to keep their markets open for the sale of negro slaves, to stimulate the colonists to buy them, and every measure adopted by the colonial legislatures to restrict that traffic was rendered inoperative by the royal veto. In December, 1770, the King of England, George III, over his own signature, issued instructions to the governor of Virginia commanding him, "upon pain of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law by which the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed." Virginia demurred vehe mently to this royal interference with what was even then contended was a right in the matter of self-govern- RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 259 ment, and so did aU the other colonies to the principle for which His Majesty was asserting himself. After the Revolution even, Maryland and Virginia opposed negro slavery, and we may note the attitude of their leading statesmen and scholars. It was not unttt tobacco plant ing became the industry of the former and sympathy was keen in the latter that this form of slavery attained the importance of an estabhshed institution. But there was another form of slavery existing in the American colonies which has no direct bearing upon Africa, and yet must be mentioned here in order that a properly comprehensive view of conditions affecting the African slave trade may be had. This form of slavery is what was called "indentured servitude." Boys and girls, men and women, were bound out as servants for a term of years and became, to all intents and purposes, the slaves of their masters upon payment by the latter of a "bonus" that was easily juggled into purchase money. Sometimes the chttd was "bound out" by its parents, who received a part of the bonus, to be a servant, lodged, clothed, and fed, for a term of years. Often this binding out was a form of punish ment ordered by the State for crime or misdemeanour that to-day would be attended to in a reform school. Not unfrequently the man or woman bound himself voluntarily in order to secure passage to the New World, in the hope of bettermg his condition when the term of indenture had been completed. Too often the adults sent out to this "indentured servitude" were most un desirable as citizens for the colonies; frequently they were criminals, the scourings of prisons or brothels, 260 AFRICA TO-DAY and their coming was usually resented hotly. As the colonies grew in population and desirable house servants became scarce, the demand for these indentured servants, at any rate the better ones, increased beyond the supply and kidnapping was resorted to in the mother country. Yet even such shamefu1 measures were not sufficient to supply the demand, and there was, seemingly, no recourse but to sanction and even stimulate the impor tation of more and more negro slaves. Thus it will be understood that this holding of white slaves had a con siderable bearing upon negro slavery. It is interesting to note that the Pennsylvania Quakers, who were always vociferously opposed to African slavery, were yet among the leaders in patronising this "indentured servitude." In 1696 it was estimated that there were more inden tured servants in Pennsylvania than in all the rest of the colonies put together, and it should be remembered, too, that these were nothing more nor less than white slaves, because their term of servitude was rarely closed in fact at the date stipulated in the articles of indenture; either moral suasion or debt was used as a coercive club to compel renewal of servitude almost indefinitely. But the opposition to negro slavery, which we have seen was actively sincere and earnestly expressed in the colonies, grew in force and in strength of expression after the formation of the Union; but now it was heard more to the north of Mason and Dixon's hne, the boun dary between Pennsylvania and Maryland which divided the free and the slave states. It was the beginning of the movement for the abohtion of negro slavery, and although the effort was at first directed towards the RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 261 suppression of kidnapping blacks in Africa, their trans portation to the United States in those "hells," the slaverships, and their sale in America, it received some support from regions that later evinced most uncom promising opposition to the central government's inter ference \rith states' rights to hold slaves, and to the Hberating. of slaves already purchased or owned from birth by southern slaveholders. If we are compelled to admit, and the confession causes a blush of shame, that the effort of the United States in the suppression of the African slave trade was in the beginning and for three- quarters of a century not a mighty one, we may justly point with some pride to the fact that when the people of the United States became convinced that this blot must be effaced they paid for their conviction with men and means most unselfishly, and did not hesitate, for a thrilling moment in history, to face the possibility of breaking up the Union. In 1784 an unsuccessful effort was made in Congress to provide for the abolition of slavery after the year 1800. This was not done through a special bill, but as a "rider" to a bill providing for the admission of territories as states, etc., and the fact speaks volumes for the care which the aboHtionists had to take to keep from arous ing too vigorous antagonism. Ten years later, 1794, the first official step was taken along the pathway lead ing to the suppression of the African slave trade, and, as a consequence, the abolition of slavery in the United States. At that time the North demanded and obtained the passing by Congress of a law for the suppression of the slave trade, which contained this provision: No 262 AFRICA TO-DAY citizen and no foreigner was to be permitted to build or equip ships in any United States port for the slave trade of foreign countries. Unfortunately the invention of the cotton-gin just at that time gave such an impetus to the cultivation of cotton that the demand for slaves could not be supplied in the country. Liberated slaves were seized and taken South for sale, and because there was lacking a firm determination on the part of the Government to enforce the law of 1794, the building and equipping of ships, in Northern ports, went on almost openly. In May, 1800, a more stringent law was passed, and "vessels bearing commissions from the United States were empowered to make a prize of any ship found violating the law."* Yet Httle was done for "more than half a century because domestic politics prevented the champions of abohtion carrying out their humane plans, lest insistence might bring about disunion. When the time came, how ever, the necessary steps were taken, and since 1865, whenever the opportunity has offered itself, the voice of the people of the United States has been clear and unmis takable for the suppression of African slavery. Aside from this and the interest taken in the negro colony of Liberia there has been little in America's relations with Africa to call for comment. The feehng in the country about conditions in the Kongo has been rather the ex pression of philanthropy, individual or associate, than official, for it could not weU be the latter. That the United States is looked upon as being a World Power, in the sense that all questions of international impor- *McMasters, "History of the People of the United States." RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 263 tance have an interest for her, is indicated by the sugges tion that her voice be heard in the pending (September, 191 1) dispute between France and. Germany concerning Morocco. In the event of a settlement of that contro versy without recourse to war, as seems most probable while this is being written, it may be possible that the United States will be invited to sign the agreement recog nising France's absolute supremacy in Morocco — such a course has been suggested — but to do so would seem to be a departure from the recognised and wise policy of this country to refrain from taking any active part in matters wherein the rights of European Powers are paramount. The relations of the United States with Africa have been mainly in the way of Christian missions and edu cation, and these are her only present duty. The devel opment of commerce and the exploitation of industrial enterprise are the right of every man who chooses to interest himself in them. Such an investor has merely to overcome any foreign jealousy that may exist, and he may feel that his government will see to it that he is not unlawfully discriminated against in the matter of having a "fair chance." The fact that railway and mining machinery and supplies have been sent to Africa from America indicates that either the quality is superior or the price lower than Europe offers, and it is an induce ment to others to try for a share of business that is only just in its beginning. We may note, however, that it is hardly satisfactory to home purchasers of American watches, and thousands of other articles as well, to be told that in South Africa he can buy these Ameri- 264 AFRICA TO-DAY can products at less than he pays at home. But this is merely one of the beauties of a high protective tariff. Of the Coming Africa it is not so easy to speculate as it is to speak of China in the future, because in the former case we have to consider the problems that face the numerous European peoples who have annexed the land and must try to mould the natives so that they shall be able to adapt themselves to the new and strange civiH sation, whereas in the latter we contemplate the effort of an intelligent, already highly cultured people to change their condition and voluntarily transform their own civil isation. In Africa there are grave dangers facing the intruders who have grabbed the whole contment, no matter how generously we judge their motives. One of these dangers has been suggested by the recent (Sep tember, 19 11) episode which has bulked so largely in our journals for many weeks under the heading "The Morocco Question." In this, for some time, there seemed about to be confirmed the depressingly pessimistic fore cast of an intelligent Chinese who declared that when there was not left another nook or corner of the earth for the peoples of Europe to grab they would fall to fighting among themselves, seeking to take from each other what had been seized from somebody else. But if in this par ticular case, the cloud blows away without destructive effect it will largely be due to the fact that financiers have pronounced against war between Germany and France over such a small matter as the mastership of Morocco and the giving up of a slice of the Kongo region. Yet the matter brings up thefquestion whether or not there is danger of a recurrence of similar conditions RELATIONS WITH AFRICA 265 in some other part of Africa. Will such episodes as Fashoda, Morocco, the greater Egyptian problem, and a host of petty ones (we are not thinking of troubles be tween natives and European intruders) continue to be adjusted without recourse to "the 'arbitrament of war,' a specious phrase, for war settles nothing but military superiority, and that only for the time being?"* We must admit that the partition of Africa puts the continent into the hands of those who are, at present certainly, better able than the aborigines and natives to develop it and make it what it is well adapted to become again, as it was called three thousand years ago, the granary of the world, as well as the source of supply for food products incalculable in quantity and almost inex pressible in variety, and of other materials, raw and finished, which shall contribute to the necessities, the comforts, the luxuries of life. But this development depends so much upon the ability and desire of the exploiters to Hve together in peace that disquieting apprehension will creep in when we contemplate the narrow escapes of the past and the danger of greater friction as these interests draw closer and closer together and competition becomes keener and keener. It is but the expression of personal opinion, yet not that of a single individual by any means, to say that the future of Africa is a brilliant possibttity and one in which it should be the pride of many young men and young women emigrants from the homelands of Europe to take an active part. As the railways go creeping out into *See The Nineteenth Century, luly, 191 1; article by Rear-Admiral Casper F. Goodrich, U.S.N. 266 AFRICA TO-DAY the interior from the coast on the north, south, east, and west, opening up to the mfluence of civiHsation great tracts of forest, broad stretches of fertile plain, deserts that modern science can, sometimes at any rate, trans form into productive gardens, so must that same civiH sation seek to overcome its own many weaknesses and try to remember that Africa, too, is a part of God's good earth, whose peoples are His handiwork and each one of them entitled to Hve. CHAPTER XVI WHITE MAN'S AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN ISLANDS YES, it is probably to be the White Man's! It is strange how many legends of the natives tell of an original white progenitor. This is the account of creation that is given by one of the interesting peoples of southwestern Africa: " There was once a wonderful tree called Omumborombongo. From it came forth all the living creatures, great and small, human and brute; but it grew in the time so long ago that there was not any Hght, all was darkness. Then a Damara lit a fire, and the brightness so frightened the zebras, gnus, giraffes, and all the great wild creatures that they fled away into the forest. But the oxen, sheep, dogs, and other domestic animals were not frightened, either when they saw the bright light that dazzled their eyes, or when they gazed, for the first time, upon the face of man, and they clustered fearlessly together about him; so these have ever since been man's friends. Later, when the white man came, all the creatures felt that he was their superior, and even the domestic animals were afraid of him, although these latter did not always run away." This is a very brief synopsis of one of the folk-lore tales of the Ova-Herero tribe; the people are stiU Hving in German South West Africa. It is suggestive to note how often, in these folk-lore 267 268 AFRICA TO-DAY tales of the black people of Africa, there is mentioned — always as belonging far back in the dim past — a white man from whom the people originally sprang; but they almost invariably add that they themselves, or their more recent ancestors, were turned black by the sun. To cite but one more, quite new instance : In Central Africa there is an important nation, the Bushongo, who have been referred to by some explorers, who do not seem to have become very well acquainted with them, as Bakuba. They now Hve in a very extensive territory south of the Sankuru River, and between the Kasai and the upper Sankuru Rivers — 40 to 8° S., 200 to 24° E. in the Bel gian Kongo. They are a most interesting, friendly, and, by comparison with all other black people of any part of the contment, the most cultured of the Africans. The particulars given here are epitomised from a long account read by the Danish-British explorer, Mr. E. Torday, before the Royal Geographical Society, London (see the Society's Journal for July, 1910). The name, Bakuba, employed by travellers who had not had the same opportunities for prolonged and close study of these people, that Mr. Torday gave them, is a Baluba word and appears to mean "People of the Light ning. " It may be recognised as a transformation or paraphrase of Bushongo, meaning "People of the Throwing Knife." Now those Balubas were undoubt edly in possession of the country before the Bushongos, who conquered the aborigines (the word is used merely for convenience and without pretence at scientific accuracy), because of their phenomenal prowess in using that remarkable weapon of attack. Their skttl, WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 269 displayed both in the swiftness of the throw and in the accuracy of aim, was not ineptly likened by the Balubas to the swift flash and deadly effect of the lightning, and therefore they dubbed these invincible people Bakuba. The Bushongo people are not strong in numbers, and ethnologically are opposed to certain Basongo Meno and Baluba tribes that have been incorporated into the Bushongo nation and have adopted Bushongo customs more or less completely. These Bushongo people "are remarkable for the manner in which they have preserved their tribal history, including a Hst of one hundred and twenty-one paramount chiefs." According to this his tory, corroborated by many cultural details, they are immigrants from the north, probably from the Shari basin. The emigration took place under the fifth of their recorded rulers, and their empire reached its height under the ninety-third king, named Shamba, who is regarded as the great culture-hero of the tribe. " This empire was ruled by means of a highly developed hierarchy of officials, more elaborate than has been recorded of any other African people, which was in full activity at the time of the first advent of the white man, though it is now showing signs of decay. Next to the possession of a history and an organised system of government this people is distinguished by a remarkable artistic sense which finds expression in the proficiency with which they pursue certain crafts, notably embroidery and wood-carving. This proficiency has been noted by other travellers, but the specimens pro cured by the expedition surpass anything which has yet been obtained from savage Africa. In particular, 270 AFRICA TO-DAY four portrait-statues of early chiefs, one dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century, may be mentioned." Mr. Torday was told that the founder of that royal dynasty was a white man, and this is most significant as well as suggestive. These people, who were but a short time ago the most civilised, cultured, and artistic people in Central Africa (we cannot quite subscribe to the wide inclusiveness of Mr. Torday's "any other African people"), claim that some hundreds of years ago — it cannot be so very many hundreds if there are only one hundred and twenty-one chiefs recorded who constituted one unbroken dynasty — there was a white ancestor behind them. How long the influence of that white strain was felt we have no means of knowing, but the evidences of recent decadence are unmistakable, and it raises the most interesting of problems. Assuming that the claim made by and for these people is correct, it is most unfortunate that the phrase "recorded rulers" is not more clearly defined; in other words, we should like to know precisely how those records were kept and who has been competent to read them now. If, in the sixteenth century of our era — less than four hundred years ago — a (black?) king known now as Shamba Bolongongo ruled a kingdom in Central Africa that had then reached the zenith of its high civilisation, when the people were "united among themselves, respected by their neighbours, governed by a wise king, controlled by a sort of parliament, composed of the representatives of the provinces, the arts, and trades; — a parliament in which the chief magistrates, WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 271 the chief mihtary and civil officers, women, and even the slave class, were represented," and has since relapsed, notwithstanding that conditions in Bushongoland are almost immeasurably superior to what exist in other parts of "Black" Africa, what a problem is offered to the champions of Christian civiHsation! Is it possible for the Negro to work back from the absolutely low present conditions to a culture, claimed to be high, achieved without the stimulus of foreign influence hundreds of years ago, and at the same time mould that new phase of old culture to conform to stand ards which must inevitably rule in Africa as, other conditions being equal, they do in Europe? Is the ten dency to degeneration ineradicable? It is not unduly presumptuous to assert that, with many weaknesses and deplorable faults, the highest phases of culture and civiHsation are now found in those people who belong to the lands where Christianity is the generally ac cepted behef, no matter what the past may teach us of physical, mental, and spiritual development. If the African desires to take a place alongside the most highly cultured white people, he must work out his own salvation, assimilate that esoteric culture, or yield control to the white man. We take no special satisfaction in declaring that a careful study of the history and development of Africa, from north to south, from east to west, compels us to admit that evidences point relentlessly to a time in the not far-off Future when it is to be in every essential White Man's Africa. And yet we cannot believe that this means what such writers as the author of "The White Man's Burden" 272 AFRICA TO-DAY suggests so selfishly, or that it impHes a recurrence of recent conditions in Belgian Kongo, the earlier state of affairs in South Africa under Dutch reign, in the brutalising liquor traffic of Portuguese possessions and elsewhere, and other phases of miscalled European civiHsation. Now, assuming that it is to be White Man's Africa, let us stop for a moment and, putting aside as much as possible all personal, ethical, and religious prejudice, frankly and honestly consider what that means, if even present conditions are maintained; that is to say, assum ing that the pohtical geography of Africa has now become established and the "scramble for Africa" is satisfied. Here is another quotation from Mr. Torday's paper: "The next viUage but one was inhabited by Badjok, and called Mayila, after the chief. This chief had come up from Angola to collect rubber and shoot elephants. Rubber and ivory he then sells to the Kasai Company. As soon as he has earned some money he returns to Portuguese territory, where natives can obtain Hquor, and will spend his fortune in drink." Taken in connection with what was said in an earlier chapter, a part of which was devoted to a consideration of the import trade at Lourenco Marques, in Portuguese East Africa, and the heavy importation of low-grade European wines, mainly for the use of natives in British possessions, this presents for thoughtful con sideration a phase of what may be one feature of White Man's Africa that is not conducive to very high culture. And there are altogether too many ports and European colonies all over Africa where the opportunity to obtain Copyright, Underwood &• Underwood, N. Y. A Typical African Jungle Trail WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 273 European Hquors is too easily granted and too willingly availed of by the weak natives; for rarely, if ever, is this liquor anything but the "low-grade," wretched stuff that is sold cheap and is highly charged with alcohol! The consensus of opinion in America and Europe is strongly opposed to cultivating among the natives of Africa, and of all parts of the world where the present state of civilisation is in any way compar able, a taste for foreign liquor, and there have been regulations issued by some of the European governments now exercising protective rights over great areas of that contment prohibiting absolutely the sale of such Hquor to natives; but without earnest and honest co-operation in enforcing such rules they are simply dead-letters. This seems to be another case wherein An Inter national Police is very much wanted,* and unless some thing of the kind is provided to compel all to follow the wish of the majority, not only will the degenera tion of the natives rapidly go on towards physical and mental wreck and ultimate extinction, but the incentive to broils and outbreaks, which must cost those same "protectors" the Hves of national poHce and soldiers, as weU as much money, to suppress, will be greater directly as is the neglect to keep the poison out of natives' hands. We do not like to say much about conditions in the Belgian Kongo, for we cannot believe that the Belgian Government will not eventually live up to its promises when it declared it would improve the state of affairs * Rear-Admiral Goodrich, op. cit. 274 AFRICATO-DAY in its African protectorate. This was the declaration: "The question of improving the lot of the natives is not less a matter of solicitude in Belgium than it is in England. It is one of the loftiest preoccupations of our country, which is fully sensible of the importance of the civilising mission that falls to its lot in Africa." In the memorandum of April 25, 1908, of a draft for a colonial law to be enforced in the Belgian Kongo, it was declared that the principle of individual Hberty is free from any further restriction whatsoever. "The Cabinet of Brussels intends to issue and give effect to the said measure for improving the lot of the natives as soon as ever the annexation of the Kongo and the Colonial law have been voted upon affirmatively by Pariiament. It has promised the Chamber of Representatives to do so on more than one occasion; it has confirmed these prom ises to the British Government in writing, and to-day it can only repeat its promise with the same earnestness as before." The Belgian Government substituted itself for the personal rule of King Leopold II in August, 1908, and yet now, three years after, conditions in the Belgian Kongo are not materially improved, if we consider them as a whole. In 1910 the Belgian Budget Committee of the Chamber of Representatives passed a budget which provided that out of a total sum of £1,589,812, to be drawn from the Kongo, native labour in one form or another was to supply £839,900; raw rubber, £535,000; ivory, £18,000; copal, £11,200, taxes in kind; gold, £100,000, from mines worked by compulsory native labour for Government account; silver, £80,000, a tax in WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 275 coin. Besides these it was reckoned that rubber, ivory, and copal to the value of £94,000 would be received as profits on shares in concessionaire companies, owned by King Leopold and transferred to the Government. "And this huge amount is to be wrung, four-fifths of it admittedly — the whole of it probably — by compulsion, out of a miserable population, exhausted, partially decimated, and racked (in many regions) by disease following seventeen years of infamous misrule."* Admitting, but (as Scotch juries sometimes declare) it is "not proven," that two years have brought some amelioration of conditions for the natives in the Belgian Kongo, the fact remains that for seventeen long years those miserable, unfortunate people, innocent of all crime deserving punishment, were subjected to a policy of organised pillage and to a form of slavery necessarily accompanied by hideous outrages, since the medium whereby it has been enforced consisted of a savage and often uncontrolled soldiery, feeding upon the country, frequently recruited by annual raids and so poorly paid that unrestricted license to gratify every lust has been the main incentive to loyalty. All this must make the most ignorant negro contemplate with more than anxiety the time when his country shall be in truth the White Man's Africa. We turn abruptly and without apology to the contem plation in this chapter of another topic, and one which is as attractive as the last was, in some of its aspects, * "The Future of the Congo," E. D. Morel, on behalf of the Congo Association, to Lord Grey, His Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, November, 1909. 276 AFRICA TO-DAY repulsive in its recent history and ominous for the future. That is the African Islands. It is striking that both of the great continent peninsulas which project down towards the south from the broader northern parts of the two hemispheres should have so few islands along their coasts. At hardly any place is there anything approximating an archipelago or even a well-defined fringe or group of islands; and yet there are several islands that geographically are considered as belonging to Africa, and several of them have a history which is very interesting, with here and there a touch of romance that is attractive; as, for example, in the case of the Madeiras. Legend tells us that these were first discovered by an Englishman, but rediscovered by the Portuguese, and the romance is connected with one Robert Machin, who loved and was beloved by a lady whose father refused to accept Machin as a suitor because of his humble birth and poverty. To get Miss Ann D'Arfet away from her lover, the father sent her to a castle near the coast of Kent and for a time kept her in close con finement. But the lady, acting strictly the part she and Robert had planned, affected to be very cheerful and happy in her banishment. So well did she play her part that both father and duenna were deceived, and after a time Ann was permitted to leave the castle un attended to walk along the cliff over what was supposed to be a deserted coast; and such it had been until, in response to a prearranged signal, Robert approached in a small vessel. Ann was taken on board, all sail was set, and the course laid for France; but suddenly a WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 277 fierce gale from the north sprang up and the sloop was driven out to sea, southward, for fourteen days. Then they reached an island, and getting into the skiff landed and were the first Europeans to step upon one of the Madeira Islands. But another gale drove away the sloop, leaving the few on the island. The exposure, hunger, and anxiety were too much for the lady, who died, and five days later Machin, with his few comrades, took passage in something they seem to have been able to build. They shaped their course for the mainland, but misfortune stiU accompanied them and they reached the coast of Morocco, only to be captured by Moors and sold as slaves. This is the substance of the tale as given by a Portuguese writer; but other accounts, absolutely re gardless of dates and chronology, continue the narra tive by saying that Machin was ransomed by a Spaniard of Sevttle, one Juan de Morales, and entered his service as a naval officer. Morales transferred his allegiance to Portugal, under Prince Henry the Navigator, redis covered the island and visited Ann's grave; there were then no inhabitants. The group of islands has been under different flags, the British for a time, but is now a possession of the historically original discoverers, and its fame as a health resort is its greatest asset. There are really but two islands that are large enough to support human life, and these are so salubrious in every way that, despite the considerable emigration to other parts of the world, they are declared to be over crowded. These people are of most mixed descent, Por tuguese and a good deal of Moorish and Negro blood 278 AFRICA TO-DAY in the lower classes; their history has been considered sufficiently important to induce ethnologists to make careful research. Probably the name, Madeira, is asso ciated in most people's mind with the wine that was justly famous for so many generations. The destruction wrought by phylloxera has not yet been entirely over come, and conditions are now such that probably even "Old Madeira" will never again be so seductive as it was of yore. It is doubtful if the myth that the islands were known to the Phoenicians has any reasonable foun dation in fact. The Canary, or Fortunate, Islands. There are seven inhabited islands; the largest, Teneriffe, is only eight hundred and seventy-seven square miles in area and the smallest, Hierro (or Ferro), but eighty-two square miles. Besides these inhabited islands there are a num ber of islets, most of them without residents. Inasmuch as Lanzarote, the most easterly of the group, is only some fifty mttes from the African coast, it is quite rea sonable to admit that these islands were known to the earHest Phoenician navigators who ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules. But their history dates from the year 1417 only, when they were discovered by one Jean de Bethencourt, a' Frenchman, but then in the service of Castile. During the war between Spain (Ferdinand of Castile) and Portugal (Alfonso V) each country laid claim to the possessions of the other, but the Peace of Alcobaco, in 1479, confirmed Spain's right to the Canaries, and they have ever since belonged to her. Lying right in the track of all vessels bound down the coast of Africa, these islands will always be an important WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 279 centre for navigators, and most of the submarine tele graph cables between Europe and the West Coast are landed here, either for relay or as a matter of convenience. The Hakluyt Society has recently set its mark of approval upon the archaeology of these islands by re printing, with EngHsh translation, the earliest account of the most ancient inhabitants, the Guanches, of whose origin nothing positive is known. That they came from the neighbouring mainland is too simple a statement to satisfy ethnologists; but if this is the fact, the entire absence of Mahommedan custom and ritual, when the islands were first visited by modern Europeans, indicates that the Guanche emigration took place in the very early years of Hejira, and probably before 622 a.d. The custom of embalming the dead seems to form a connect ing link between these Guanches and the Egyptians; but this is merely sportive ethnology. The great Canaria dogs, from which the name of the islands is alleged to have been derived, have long since disappeared. The Peak of Teneriffe, Pico de Teyde, which rises almost sheer from the sea to a height of twelve thousand two hundred feet, is one of the most remarkable mountains in the world, and every person who has looked almost straight up to its summit from the deck of a passing steamer is impressed by its appearance and inevitably possessed with the horrible thought of what would happen should the almost perpendicular mass topple over. But visitors who land and make the ascent of the mountain are rewarded by cloud effects that are almost unique and by a sea view (when they are so fortunate as to catch a clear day) which is inde- 280 AFRICA TO-DAY scribable. The climate of the Canaries is not such as to tempt visitors to make a lengthy sojourn. The vines on these islands, too, have suffered from the grape disease almost as much as those of Madeira. The Cape Verd Islands are but a very short distance, comparatively, from the extreme western point of Africa, and since their discovery in 1441 have been a Portu guese colony. They are unusually weU administered. The Roman CathoHc clergy give considerable attention to the education of the poorer children, but those of the wealthier classes are all sent to Lisbon for their edu cation. The cHmate is not good; the Harmattan, mentioned in Chapter X, Western Africa, blows from the contment at times and it is very trying. Cattle raising is the principal industry. The flora is remark able, but doubtless a good many plants which now seem to grow wild were originally exotics brought from the mainland. St. Helena, discovered and settled by the Portuguese in 1 501, on the festival of the Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, was later deserted by the discoverers and lay waste and almost uninhabited until the Dutch found it to be a convenient stopping-place for their ships going to and returning from the Far East. Then the Dutch East India Company took possession and resettled the island, but gave it up for the Cape of Good Hope. Later the English East India Company occupied it and fought with the Dutch for its possession, eventually maintaining their supremacy. St. Helena is so absolutely associated in our minds with Napoleon I, and therefore is so well known to most readers, that WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 281 further comment here seems superfluous. But those who wish to read a full description of the island and its history are referred to the extensive library on these subjects. Ascension and St. Matthew can hardly detain us long. They are really nothing more than peaks of a great submarine range of mountains which mark the division between the northern and southern basins of the Atlantic. Ascension has been brought to some use as a "market garden," and among old-time navigators it was called "The Post Office," because ships passing, outward bound, would sometimes leave letters in a crevice of the rocks, to be passed on by the next comers going in the right direction. Besides these, there are a few other small islands in the Atlantic Ocean that geographically pertain to Africa, but not any of them have sufficient historic or popular interest to call for mention. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope and entering the Indian Ocean, we presently come to what may be called the only "group" of African islands attaining proportions of real magnitude: Madagascar, Reunion (Bourbon), Mauritius (He de France), and northeast of the first-named the islets that culminate in the Sey chelles, and off Cape Guardafui, the extreme eastern point of Africa, in Italian Somalttand, the island of Sokotra. Madagascar is one of the largest islands in the world. The French claim to have been the first to discover the island, but this is very naturally disputed by the Por tuguese, whose date, 1506, is now generally accepted. We know that Arab merchants were dealing with the 282 AFRICA TO-DAY inhabitants over a thousand years ago. While the geology of Madagascar has been but imperfectly investi gated, and the fauna and flora not yet exhaustively studied, we are certain that a full narrative of its known plant Hfe would more than fttl a volume the size of this, and there are yet, in all probability, unidentified and unnamed species, awaiting the earnest student; for in a strange way the flora of Asia and Africa are blended here. The conformation of the island, having a high interior plateau, is naturally the cause of great variety in cHmate; the highlands being in every way suited to Europeans. "While the people are not civihsed in the European sense, they are not a savage race, and some of the tribes are hardly to be classed among barbarous peoples. They have never, for instance, fallen into the cannibal practices of many attied races in Polynesia, and the tribal instincts are strong among all sections of the population. They are law-obeying and loyal, Hving in settled communities, in villages which are often fortified with considerable skill, with a government of chiefs and elders, a development of a primitive patriarchal sys tem." Yet, at the same time, these people are very immoral and untruthful, disregardful of human life, and cruel in war. This native society offers a field for most interesting ethnological research. Madagascar is now an important French colony. Reunion, formerly Isle de Bourbon, was one of France's most important overseas possessions, but may be said to have yielded precedence to the protectorates of Central Africa and the Far Eastern colonies in Indo- WHITE MAN'S AFRICA 283 China. The geological connection, through Mauritius and curving round through the Seychelles, with Mada gascar, is most interesting. The active volcano, Piton des Neiges (10,069 feet), presents a very curious freak of nature in its conformation. "The traveller approaching the present craters from the west has consequently to descend upwards of one thousand feet by two abrupt stages (into a bowl) before he begins the ascent of the cones." The mountainous character of Mauritius makes it a most picturesque spot and its scenery is varied and beautiful. The highest peak, Montagne de la Riviere Noire, is twenty-seven hundred and eleven feet in alti tude. The cHmate is agreeable during their winter, May to November, but oppressively hot in summer, December to April, when there are frequent hurricanes, the typhoons of farther eastern seas. Although Mauritius is now a British crown colony, having been captured in 1810 and confirmed to Great Britain upon the restora tion of peace in 1814, it has largely retained the old French laws and rules of legal procedure. It is an attractive place in many ways; and were it on one of the comfortable lanes of travel, without the necessity of crossing the equator to reach it, it would undoubt edly be included in the itinerary of many tourists. The dependencies of Mauritius are the SeycheUes group, the islands of Rodriguez and Diego Garcia, the Chagos group, and seventy other smaller islands scattered widely through the Indian Ocean. Sugar, as is well known, is the principal product of both Reunion and Mauritius. 284 AFRICA TO-DAY The Seychelles belong to Great Britain and are practically the only archipelago that can be said to be in any way connected with Africa. There are eighty small islands, some of them nothing more than rocks, and they are usually surrounded by coral reefs. The valleys and hill slopes are fertile and covered with most luxu riant vegetation. The sea-breeze tempers the heat, so that the archipelago is by no means uninhabitable for white people, were there any inducement to Hve there; but since manioc is the chief product and turtle flesh figures largely in the exports, it may be imagined that there is not much to attract Europeans. Without pre tending to have enumerated all the African islands, we shall close this sketch with a few words about Sokotra, a distant glimpse of which is sometimes had from the deck of steamers passing to and fro between the Red Sea and Aden, Southern Arabia; and it is the first of Africa which the American globe-trotter, travelling westward round the world, can possibly see. When it is possible to get a near view the scenery is found to be very striking, with bare rocky heights and fertile vaUeys. There is httle cultivation, the inhabitants depending almost entirely upon their flocks of sheep and goats, or on dates, either grown at home or imported. The people have a good reputation for hospitality and de portment. In 1886 the island was formaUy ceded to Great Britain. The flora and fauna are peculiar; Sokotran aloes is esteemed the best in the world. In former times the ambergris obtained here was justly famous. CHAPTER XVII "CAPE TO CAIRO" THERE is always something distinctly attractive about an effective alliteration. Doubtless it is because there survives in each one of us a trace, if nothing more, of the fondness of our remote British ancestors for this primitive form of EngHsh poetry; and the phrase "Cape to Cairo Railway" possesses at least two, if not more, attractions for both eye and ear. First, there is the pleasant alhteration in the words themselves; and second, it compels our admiration for the stupendous physical and professional undertaking which the con struction of the links in that long line and the tying together of those parts into a complete system indicate. Yet, after all, we had rapidly come to expect that in Africa would be rounded out and completed the great task of providing, with the most modern practical means at our command, for the rapid and, all things duly con sidered, regular traversing of the second in size of the continents, from its southern extremity, at comparatively recent Cape Town, to its northern limit at Alexandria, making of Cairo but an important "way station." This latter city, which is relatively new when we think in terms of Egyptian chronology, for Alexandria was already twelve hundred years old when the "new" city of Cairo was begun, will hardly satisfy the demands of 28s 286 AFRICA TO-DAY present-day traveUers who are altogether too parsimo nious of time and too sybaritic about personal comfort to consent to anything but direct connection between railway train and steamer at the ship's side. In all probabttity, then, Alexandria wttl be the northern ter minus of the great north and south African trunk line, and the link between Cairo and Alexandria has been in operation for many years. The completion of the first great transcontinental railway in the United States, the Union and Central Pacific, actually preceded the fastening together of the links of independent and international lines in Europe which permitted of the precise use of the term "trans continental" as apphed to trains on that continent. Still, it was not long after 1869, in which year, it will be remembered, through service from the Atlantic to the Pacific was given in the United States, until it became possible to go by train from any one of several European ports on the Atlantic coast to Constantinople in the southeast, where one looks across the narrow Bosphorus right into Asia, or to Chehabinsk, on the frontier between Russia in Europe and Siberia; and then transcontinental railways in Europe were an accomplished fact. To our American mind that fact as accomplished, however, may not be entirely satisfactory; since, with the exception of the Oriental express trains which go all the way from Paris to Constantinople without the necessity of passengers changing cars, the journey can not be performed without break by the ordinary traveller, whose purse compels consideration of expense or whose CAPE TO CAIRO" 287 ideas of the proper use of money forbids yielding to the luxury and extravagance (both actual and incidental) of the Oriental trains de luxe; because not only is the price of the ticket very high, but the expenses for sleep ing-car accommodation, meals, and the innumerable "tips" run away with a goodly sum of money. E the traveUer intends to cross Europe and Asia by the trans-Siberian Hne, a change at the Russian frontier — to say nothing of others when once within Russian territory • — is a necessity that is more radical than that which we make at either Chicago or St. Louis. The extreme caution displayed by the Russian Government to prevent (if possible) all improper crossing of the frontier either by passenger or luggage is one of the rea sons, probably the principal one, for the change of gauge and the consequent inconvenience to which travellers are subjected. Our change at any one of the several points where connection is made between Atlantic and Pacific systems is not imperatively necessary, and many trains, or at any rate a large number of private cars, have been taken through from coast to coast without the occupants making any change at all. For many years the through trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway, between Mon treal and Vancouver without change for passengers of aU classes, have daily made what is virtuaUy a complete transcontinental journey. Then, with the completion of the trans-Siberian Hne, came the railway's conquest of the greatest of all the continents, Asia. Now we are looking for the time, in what is confidently expressed as the "near future," when the suppression of international jealousies about 288 AFRICA TO-DAY "spheres of influence," concessions, supplying materials, rights of construction, equipment, mamtenance, and operation shall permit of the building of needed divi sions and the tying together of the existing links of a system of railways across Turkey in Asia, Persia, one or the other of the small buffer states, Baluchistan or Afghanistan, unttt connection is made with the British- Indian system of railways, and then across Farther India, Burma, and Siam, into French Indo-China, on to China itself, so that Canton and Hongkong shall be accessible from Europe by rail across the southern part of Asia. This is already more than a mere dream of enthusiastic engineers; and it may very well be that there are children living to-day who, soon after they shall have attained majority in age, wttl enter a com partment carriage at, let us say, Calais or Cherbourg or Havre and leave it ten days or a fortnight later at Kowloon, opposite Hongkong! Already the thought of railways that shall permit of a virtually continuous journey by train from far north in Canada, across the United States, down through Mexico and the Central American States, to the south ern end of Chtti, along the western slope of the Andes, is something so near accompHshment as to excite but Kttle of the amazement which, a score or two of years ago, would have been caused by the mere suggestion of such an audacious enterprise. The contemplation of this possibility — nay, we venture to say reasonable probabihty — carries with it almost of necessity, cer tainly as a perfectly logical consequence, the thought of traversing aU the South American countries with "CAPE TO CAIRO" 289 intercommunicating railways, which shall be connected at the Isthmus of Panama with the Central American trunk Hne, and by this with the whole of the American and Canadian systems. While, at the other end of this tremendous system, there appears the probable exten sion of railways through the Dominion of Canada to Alaska, and by ferry across Behring Straits until connec tion is made on the Kamschatkan coast with Russian railways extended from the Siberian trunk Hne into the extreme eastern part of Russian territory. It may not be generally known that this project — even if it does seem almost a mad one — was seriously considered within the past ten years; that the engineer ing problems, stupendous as they appear to the unini tiated layman, were confidently discounted by expert engineers and the capital for the whole tremendous enterprise secured. It was shelved by the French pro moters merely because it was decided to be a little premature and of some difficulty in securing American, British, and Russian concessions and co-operation. But it may come up again in the course of a short time and be carried to engineering and economic suc cess. Then shall we be able to speak of quite a new phase of "circling the globe!" The only seemmgly insuperable obstacle to a through train from New York, via aU the way round the globe, back to New York, wttl remain in the Northern Atlantic. This Httle diver gence into the realm of fancy, as we think of these possible continental and world-inclusive railway systems, leads to a bit of trifling pleasantry — how fearfully magnified and complicated will become the duties of 29O AFRICA TO-DAY the "lost-car tracer!" Truly, we must not yet say that the age of miracles has passed. But not one of the transcontinental lines which have already become accomphshed facts presented such a combination of difficulties as those which faced the late Cecil Rhodes when he first moved in the matter of the Cape to Cairo Railway. Not only were the physical obstacles hard to overcome, although these may be matched by similar conditions elsewhere, but there were problems in poHtics, sociology, and meteorology to be solved. The plan for traversing the great continent from south to north is no longer something which sug gests the use of the word "miracle." It is something exceedingly practical, even if there yet stand in the way of its completion difficulties which would have baffled constructive and operating engineers but a very few years ago. In building the numerous sections which must be welded together, the several nations exercising rights that accrue from possession and "spheres of influence" are displaying a wiUingness to co-operate which augurs well. If the route that Rhodes approved of is followed, the actual financial burden in constructing the main trunk line will fall upon but two European countries, Great Britain and Germany; because the route crosses the South Africa Union, Rhodesia, skirts the extreme western part of German East Africa, re enters British territory at Uganda in the British East African State, and on leaving that enters the valley of the White Nile and continues within the sphere of British influence until it meets the " Nile Valley Railway " at Khartum. 4 \ f'Wmf w si m m HB'i;--iiiitofir '- %'i ¦w^pgap^iffipgWr /- ;-'lp| Copyright, Underwood &° Underwood, N. Y. Victoria Falls, Zambesi River CAPE TO CAIRO" 291 It is more than interesting, it is positively pathetic at times, to note how soon after leaving Cape Town the railway enters the lands which were traversed by the great Livingstone. Through Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, into the Transvaal, the two hnes are almost parallel. In Matabeleland the railway diverges to the eastward from Livingstone's trail, but crosses it again some distance below the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi River. Livingstone, as we know, went down the valley of the Zambesi to its mouth. Afterwards he struck back towards the north to Lake Nyasa and diverged to the northwestward through what is now Rhodesia. It is not pretended that this is an accurate chronological account of Livingstone's explorations; it is merely a rough statement of some of his work which connects with it the task now in hand. In the northern part of this Rhodesia territory the proposed Cape to Cairo Railway again crosses Livingstone's trail, south of Lake Tanganyika; it then inclines a Httle towards the east at Ujiji, on the east shore of the lake and about the middle thereof, and rounds the northwest corner of Lake Victoria Nyanza. Here it goes towards the east of north through the Koromori Mountains and Juba Hills in order to get down graduaUy to the White Ntte Valley. In tracing thus roughly the proposed route of the railway, it is not alone Livingstone who is constantly brought to mind, but the journeys of other famous African explorers are recalled: Serpa Pinto, who crossed the lower end of Africa in 1877-79; Glave, who in 1893-95 went from the mouth of the Zambesi around 292 AFRICA TO-DAY Lake Nyasa along the Loangwa River to Chitambo's (where Livingstone died in 1873) near Lake Bangweolo, and eventually down the Kongo to its mouth on the west coast. Further on, after leaving Rhodesia, in German East Africa, the line comes in touch with Stanley, Speke and Grant, and Baker. All of these are names with which to conjure when we are dealing with the great Dark Continent, and to whose records the surveyors and constructing engineers of the Cape to Cairo Railway are admittedly greatly indebted for the success of what they have done, and to whom they must continue to be beholden. If there were any doubt in the mind of readers as to the Herculean nature of the task which has been undertaken by those civil engineers, it wttl be instantly dispelled by reading the records of those pioneers and explorers and the accounts that all of them give of trackless tropical forests which are not yet so opened as shall materially reduce the labour of surveying and then building a railway. Since the word "Cape" is given precedence in the title bestowed on this proposed railway, which is rapidly progressing towards the point of accomplishment, it seems quite proper to begin at Cape Town in hastily considering the line and its probable bearing upon the permanent development of the whole continent. This last expression is chosen deliberately because it is be lieved that when the direct connections with other rail ways that shall act as feeders and the transverse lines with which it will exchange business are considered later, it must be made manifest that the Cape to Cairo Railway is to exert a tremendous influence for good on the whole "CAPE TO CAIRO" 293 of Africa. Already the line has been extended so far beyond Bulawayo, in Matabeleland of British South Africa, that passengers can readily go to any part of Rhodesia, and the construction reaches so near the southern end of Lake Tanganyika that already one-third of the lower part is now operated. With the Nile Valley Railway included, fuUy two-thirds of the Cape to Cairo is completed. Whtte the construction work on this com pleted southern one-third has not been an easy matter at aU, the difficulties are not to be compared with those which face the constructors through the central one-third. Some idea of what must be undertaken by the engi neers who are to build a railway along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, and — better yet for the general reader — some hint as to the scenery which is to greet the traveller, may be had from a brief description of this lake. It is the longest known body of fresh water in the world, being four hundred and twenty miles long, or one hundred miles longer than our own Lake Michigan (three hundred and twenty miles), and seventy miles longer than Lake Superior; but inasmuch as its breadth ranges only from ten to fifty miles, its area, twelve thousand six hundred and fifty square miles, is much less than those American lakes. Its altitude may be taken as about twenty-seven hundred feet above sea level, and while its depth has not yet been actually determined, it is said (Hore) that a one hundred and sixty-eight fathom line often failed to reach the bottom. It is, indeed, an enormous crevasse, bordered on all sides by hills and mountains, some of which rise from five to ten thousand feet above its surface. 294 AFRICA TO-DAY Burton, quoted in Encyclopaedia Britannica, from which authority some of the above-given information has been taken, described Tanganyika thus: "It fitted us with admiration, with wonder and delight. Beyond the short foreground of rugged and precipitous hill-fold, down which the footpath painfully zigzags, a narrow plot of emerald green shelves gently towards a ribbon of ghsten- ing yellow sand, here bordered by sedgy rushes, there, clear and cleanly cut by the breaking wavelets. Farther in front stretches an expanse of the Hghtest, softest blue, from thirty to thirty-five miles in breadth, and sprinkled by the east wind with crescents of snowy foam. It is bounded on the other side by tall and broken walls of purple hill, flecked and capped with pearly mist, or standing sharply pencilled against the azure sky. To the south lie high bluff headlands and capes; and as the eye dilates it falls on Httle outlying islets, speckling a sea horizon. Villages, cultivated lands, and frequent canoes of the fishermen give a something of Hfe, of variety, of movement to the scenery." Hore, another of the careful and accurate African explorers, who visited the lake in 1880, says: "I have never witnessed such wondrous cloud-scenery and majes tic effects of thunder and lightning as on Tanganyika." The lake was for a long time one of the many African puzzles. The general conformation of the country not unnaturally led the first European visitors to assume that it emptied northward and was a part of the great Nile water system. Others argued that it must have an outlet to the south and contribute to the Zambesi basin. But eventually it was determined conclusively that what- "cape to cairo" 295 ever water leaves it goes from about the middle of its western shore and reaches the Kongo River. Yet this outflow is not constant, being dependent upon the rain- faU and the consequent rise of the lake's surface. At times there is actually no flow at aU from Tanganyika. From Ujiji on Tanganyika, where the proposed railway is to leave that lake, to the approximate point where it is to strike Lake Victoria Nyanza is a distance, as the crow flies, of about four hundred miles. Yet when we remember that the former is twenty-seven hundred feet above sea-level, while the latter is somewhere about four thousand feet, and that the intervening distance forms the watershed between the Ntte and the Kongo basins, it need not be said that those four hundred mttes pre sent some very pretty problems for engineers in sur veying the line and for contractors in building it. It is probable that the traveller by train on the Cape to Cairo Railway will mark a distinct difference in the scenery along the shores of these two great bodies of water, Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza. Both will be declared rugged and grand, but the latter will be re marked for the richest examples of tropical vegetation to be seen anywhere. The many islands along the coast are said to be clothed with forests and fringed along the shore with papyrus or low jungle. Its surface is quite twice that of Tanganyika, although it is some two hun dred miles less in length; its average breadth is two hundred and twenty miles. It is a remarkable thing in African physical geography that three such great lakes as Victoria Nyanza, Tangan yika, and Nyasa (over three hundred and fifty miles 296 AFRICA TO-DAY long), less than fifteen degrees of latitude from the northern end of the first to the southern end of the third, and five degrees of longitude sufficing to include them all, east and west, should be so absolutely independent of one another as they are. It was a most natural mis take for early explorers to assume that they were con nected, and this goes a good way towards explaining the persistency of the statement that the sources of the Nile were "somewhere between ten degrees north and twenty degrees south latitude." Yet these three large bodies of water send their overflow in three directions until they reach the ocean at points separated from one another by thousands of miles of seacoast. Victoria Nyanza is the Hfe of the Nile, a tributary of the Mediterranean; Tanganyika contributes to the Kongo and by that river to the south Atlantic; Nyasa sends a stream to the Zam besi River, and thus its waters reach the Indian Ocean. But a small patch of paper will cover all three on a map of fairly good scale, and although we cannot exactly say that the third, Nyasa, is on the route of the Cape to Cairo Railway, it is but a comparatively short distance from the main line and is sure to be included in the itinerary of the traveller who uses that railway for the purpose of enlarging his knowledge of this Httle world by personal observation, or the tourist who must see all there is to be seen, or the commercial man who follows his ever-expanding business into the remotest corners of the earth. Already there are built connecting lines with the main trunk line of the Cape to Cairo. From Lourenco Mar ques, the capital of the Portuguese State of East Africa, "CAPE TO CAIRO" 297 a line is in operation to Pretoria, and this city is to be connected with the main line. In German South West Africa a short line is open from Walfish Bay (British) to Windhoek, and this is to be pushed on to the frontier at Rietfontein and through Bechuanaland to the trunk line. Another line has been constructed across German East Africa from Zanzibar, on the coast, to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. Yet another line was completed while writing this, and there is now furnished means of rapid communication between Mombasa, on the southeastern coast of British East Africa, and the northern end of Lake Victoria Nyanza, much needed strategically and industrially. Whether or not the line which has been talked of from the Cape to Cairo at Khartum through Abyssinia to a port of French SomaHland, and possibly to the British Somah Coast Protectorate, is to be car ried into execution with reasonable speed is a question that this writer confesses he has no right to answer; but it probably will be done. Then, although it is some what outside the purview of this chapter, there is the great east and west trunk line across Northern Africa which, so it is said, German promoters intend to build from Alexandria to Morocco. The fact that it would connect with the Cape to Cairo Railway is the reason for mentioning it here; but, as an economic factor, it has already been discussed in an earlier chapter. The pushing forward from Cape Colony of this Cape to Cairo hne has given the most remarkable activity to development throughout the whole of the British South African colonies, and it cannot but have had an influence in achieving the Union. Already territory is opened that 298 AFRICA TO-DAY is rich in many things — grain, fruits, live stock, minerals are but afewof these — and passengers are now "booked" from Cape Town for some two thousand miles, or about one-third the total distance which separates the Cape of Good Hope from the Mediterranean at Alexandria. The equipment is a sort of compromise between the very exclusive old-time English railway "carriage" and the thoroughly open, democratic "coach" of our American railroads; that is to say, the "guard," who is the Ameri can "conductor," has access to all parts of the trains that run any considerable distance, and that too without im perilling his life by creeping along the "running-board." Usually there is a narrow corridor, well-lighted, along one side of the car, with a lobby at each end, onto which open the lavatories and through which a person can pass by doors into the next car. From this corridor open the compartments, with two broad seats across the car and intended to accommodate three or four persons each; of course one set must sit "back to the engine." When it is a through train sometimes these seats are convertible into beds, the backs Hfting up and held firmly and rigidly in place by strong springs which come out from the woodwork. There are thus four "athwart- ship" berths, and if it be a first-class or second-class carriage, there is an attendant who supplies, for a reason able fee, the necessary sheets, blankets, and pillows. Third-class passengers (and, as in the British Isles, these are by far the most numerous) have to provide for them selves. The Pullman sleeping-car, with longitudinal ("fore and aft") berths may be found on some trains, but we have not heard of them. "CAPE TO CAIRO" 299 In the plainer carriages for third-class passengers, especially when on a long run, there is an aisle through the middle of the car, with seats arranged on both sides in much the same way as our own; but these are not upholstered, yet they are said to be very comfortable. Ample provision is made for getting food, because dining-cars (often called "restaurant cars") are attached to all trains making a long run, and these are graded so that the purses of all classes of passengers are con sidered. Those who have been fortunate enough to travel by the "Cape to Cairo" trains in the South African Union speak well of the dining-car service both as to the character of the food supplied and the reasonable charge for meals; while the scale of "tips" would probably cause the waiters in the American dining-cars to ignore calmly the proffered "thruppence" or accept scornfully the extravagant shilling. There are, too, exceUent restaurants in the large stations where, at convenient times during the day, a stop is made of suffi cient duration to enable the passengers to eat a meal in comfort. There is one phase of this South African railway travelling which should be carefully noted by strangers, and that is the extraordinary variation between the maximum temperature during the afternoon, from noon unttt three o'clock, and the minimum from mid night until daybreak, both winter and summer. The heat is often stifling and the glare most trying when the sun is high, but as soon as the sun sets the tem perature begins to drop and the passenger who has sweltered and gasped during the afternoon now finds 3CO AFRICA TO-DAY himself shivering with cold. The reason for this is that the radiation from the veld is phenomenally rapid, but the traveller should accept the fact and provide him self with two sets of clothing: one diaphanous, as for the equator; the other warm and heavy, as for a polar expedition. If we leave Africa with this paragraph relating to railway travel, it seems to be reasonably appropriate. The linking together of the various sections of the land with these exponents of modern civilisation is probably as indicative of what this great continent is to be as anything which could be chosen; and that there is a great future in store for Africa cannot be questioned. To-day is a period of transition for most of the conti nent; in but a comparatively small part can we truly say that conditions are permanently estabhshed, and just what the political, social, and industrial conditions in other parts are to be depends entirely upon the measure of wisdom, or indiscretion displayed by the governments of those European nations that are now exercising Protectorate rights over virtually the whole land. The Coming Africa wiU have to be reckoned with seriously, but it will not be the native African who measures the terms of that reckoning. It seems sad to think that, in the whole of the second continent in size, there is scarcely an acre left to the exclusive control of the aborigines. BIBLIOGRAPHY A List of Books and references to other sources of information which may be useful Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. London. The English Quarterlies and other magazines: for example, in the Contemporary Review for December, 191 1, The Resources of Tripoli. J. W. Gregory. Tunisia. H. Vivian, 1899. British Africa (The British Empire Series), 1899. Story of Africa and its Explorers. Robert Brown, 1892. Under the African Sun : a Description of Native Races in Uganda, Sporting Adventures and Other Experiences. W. J. Ansorge, 1899. The Future of Africa: being Addresses, Sermons, etc., delivered in the Repubhc of Liberia. Rev. Alexander Crummell, 1862. The Land of the White Helmet: Lights and Shadows across Africa. Edgar Allen Forbes, 1910. The Gateway to the Sahara: Observations and Experiences in Tripoli. Charles Wellington Furlong, 1909. An Ivory Trader in North Kenia : the Record of an Expedition through Kikuyu to Galla-Land in East Equatorial Africa. With an Account of the Rendili and Burkeneji Tribes. A. Arkell-Hardwich, 1903. Across Widest Africa: an Account of the Country and People of Eastern, Central, and Western Africa, as seen during a Twelve Months' Journey from Djibuti to Cape Verde. 2 vols. A. Henry Savage Landor, 1907. Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time: with Illustrations of the Geology, Mineralogy, and Zoology. Prof. Jameson, James Wilson, Hugh Murray, 1830; reprinted 1840. Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia. William C. Prime, 1874. 301 302 BIBLIOGRAPHY Our Houseboat on the Nile. Lee Bacon, 1902. Court Life in Egypt. Alfred J. Butter, 1887. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. 2 vols. Edward William Lane, 1836, 1871. Egypt as It Is. J. C. McCoan, 1877. Oriental Cairo, the City of the "Arabian Nights." Douglas Sladen, 1911. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. John Hanning Speke, 1864. Egypt in 1898. G. W. Steevens, 1898. Below the Cataracts. Walter Tyndale, 1907. Along the Nile with General Grant. Elbert E. Farman, 1904. Today on the Nile. Harry Westbrook Dunning, 1907. The Redemption of Africa. Frederic Perry Noble, 1899. Africa in the Nineteenth Century. Edgar Sanderson, 1898. Actual Africa or the Coming Continent: A Tour of Exploration. Frank Vincent, 1895. The Life and Travels of Mungo Park. Various editions; one 1857. Story of Africa. Robert Brown, 1892-95. Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, 1898. Historical Research into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians. A. H. L. Heeren (Bonn's Library), 1850. Through Jungle and Desert. W. A. Chanler, 1896. In African Forest and Jungle. Paul Du Chaillu, ed., 1903. Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger. R. L. Lander and John Lander, 1832. Travels in Interior Districts of Africa. Mungo Park. Flashlights in the Jungle. C. G. Schillings, 1905. Scouting for Stanley in East Africa. Thomas Stevens, 1890. Ismailia : a Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade. Sir Samuel White Baker, 1821, 1875, 1893. In Wildest Africa. C. G. Schillings, 1907. In Darkest Africa. Sir Henry Morton Stanley, 1890. Fighting the Slave-hunters in Central Africa. Alfred James Swan, 1910. The British Mission to Uganda m 1893. Sir Gerald [Herbert] Portal, 1894. BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 On Safari : Big Game Hunting in British East Africa. Abel Chapman, 1908. My African Journey. Right Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill, 1908. Camera Adventures in the African Wilds. Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore, 1910. In Africa: Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country. John T. McCutcheon, 1910. Hunting in British East Africa. Percy C. Madeira, 1909. Man-eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. J. H. Patterson, 1907. The Land of the Lion. W. S. Rainsford, 1909. African Game-trails. Theodore Roosevelt, 1910. To Abyssinia, through an Unknown Land. Chauncy Hugh Stigand, 1910. France in North Africa. T. W. Balch, 1906. Roman Africa: Archaeological Walks in Algeria and Tunis. Gaston Boissier, 1899. White Man's Africa. Poultney Bigelow, 1898. Monkeyfolk of South Africa. F. W. Fitzsimmons, 1911 Lassooing Wild Animals in Africa. Guy H. Scull, 191 1. The Engineer in South Africa : a Review of the Industrial Situation in South Africa after the War and a Forecast of the Possibili ties of the Country. [James] Stafford Ransome, 1903. The South African Natives : the Progress and Present Condition. Edited by the South African Native Races Committee, 1909. Britain's Title in South Africa ; or the Story of Cape Colony to the Days of the Great Trek. James Cappon, 1901. London to Ladysmith via Pretoria. Winston Churchill, 1900. Rights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War. Edited by T. Cook, 1902. England and South Africa. E. J. Gibbs, 1887. Dr. Jameson's Raid : its Causes and Consequences. Rev. James King, 1896. Story of South Africa (Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South Africa Republic). Story of the Nations Series, 1894. Briton and Boer : both Sides of the South African Question. Right Hon. James Bryce and dthers, 1900. Breath of the Veldt. J. G. Millars, 1899. The Country of the Dwarfs. Paul Du Chaillu, 1903. 304 BIBLIOGRAPHY The Jungle Folk of Africa. R. H. Milligan, 1908. The Niger and the West Sudan. A. J. N. Tremearne, 1910. The Kairwan, the Holy : Scenes in Muhammedan Africa. A. A. Boddy. Lake Regions of Central Africa. R. F. Burton. Travels through Central Africa. Rene Caillie. Dr. Livingstone's Seventeen Years' Exploration and Adventures in the Wilds of Africa. Edited by J. H. Coombs. Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern Central Africa. 2 vols. D. Denham and H. Clapperton. Travels and Researches among the Lakes and Mountains of Eastern and Central Africa. J. F. Elton. The Heart of Africa. 2 vols. G. H. Schweinfurth. How I Crossed Africa. 2 vols. Serpa Pinto. Travels and Adventures in Africa. J. H. Speke and J. A. Grant. Coomassie and Magdala : the Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa. H. M. Stanley. How I Found Livingstone. 2 vols. H. M. Stanley. Through the Dark Continent. 2 vols. H. M. Stanley. On the South African Frontier ; the Adventures of an American in Mashonaland and Matabeleland. 1899. South Africa of Today. F. E. Younghusband, 1898. South Africa and the Transvaal War. 6 vols. L. Creswicke, 1900-01. Cecil Rhodes: a Study of a Career. H. Hensman, 1901. The Moorish Empire: an Historical Epitome. B. Meaken, 1899. The Land of the Moors. B. Meaken, 1901. Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1 541-15 43. M. de Castan- hose. History of the Civilization of Africa by Alien Races. Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, 1899. Ancient Remains of Rhodesia. Richard Nicklin Hall and W. G. Neal, 1902. Africa from South to North through Marotseland. 2 vols. Alfred St. Hill Gibbons, 1904. Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean. Edward Hamilton Curry, 1910. The Nile Quest. Sir H. H. Johnston. Morocco: painted by A. S. Forrest, described by S. L. Bensusan, 1904. Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond. Budgett Meaken, 1905. BIBLIOGRAPHY 305 The Congo: a Report of the Commission of Enquiry appointed by the Congo Free State Government, 1906. Africa and the American Flag. Lieut. Andrew Hull Foote (U. S. Navy), 1862. Modem Egypt. 2 vols. Earl Cromer, 1908. The Story of the Congo Free State. Henry Wellington Wack, 1905. Liberia. 2 vols. Sir H. H. Johnston, 1906. In Morocco with General D'Amande. Reginald Rankin, 1908. The Truth about Morocco. M. Aflalo, 1904. The Egyptian Sudan: its History and Monuments. 2 vols. E. A. Wallis Budge, 1907. Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan. Maj. F. R. Wingate, 1891. The Passing of the Shereefian Empire. E. Ashmead-Bartlett, 1910. In the Grip of the Nyika. Lt.-Col. J. H. Patterson, 1909. With Kitchener to Khartum. G. W. Steevens, 1898. Ten Years in Equatorial Africa and the Return with Emin Pasha. Maj. Gaetano Casati, translated by the Hon. Mrs. J. Randolph Clay, 1891. Morocco: its People and Places. 2 vols. Edmondo de Amicis, translated by Maria Hornor Lansdale, 1897. The Gold Coast Past and Present. George Macdonald, 1898. History of the Emigrant Boers in South Africa. George McCall Theal, 1888. A Search for Winter Sunbeams. Samuel S. Cox. INDEX INDEX Abydos, 124. Abyssinia, 149; Christianity in, 23; development, 152; physical geography, 151. Afar region, East Africa, 147. Africa, American interest in, xi, 263; attention to, x; circum navigation of, 15; conditions in, xi; crossed in 1550, 23; de velopment, 18; divided among European nations, 235; emer gence from darkness, 20; first impressions, 4; for colonists, 239; for sportsmen, 245; maps, 18; mysterious land, 2; Na ture's works in, 6; oases, 73; present political divisions, 233; the name, xiv. Africa Portugesa, xv. Africa Propria, xiv. African Lakes, 296. African slave trade, 255. Akka Duimeni, quoted, 36. Alexandria, 116. Algeria, 42; history, 43. Al-Kebutan, xv. America and Barbary corsairs, 250; and African slave trade, 255; American protectorate over Liberia, 172. American interest in Africa, xi, 263. Amins, Kabyle chiefs, 32. Ancient sacrifice at Nile's rise, 114. Angell, Norman, "The Great Illusion,'' 135. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 130, 137; archaeology, 141; crops, 140; facilities for travel, 138; in habitants, 137; joint admini stration, 136; railways, 139; steamboats on Nile, 140. Angola (Portuguese), 24, 157, 185. Apes' Hill, 5. Aphirika, xiv. Arabia Felix, xv. Arabs, 49, 54; changed geographi cal names, xvi. Araglis, missionary, 24. Ascension Island, 281. Ashmun, Jehudi (see Liberia), 171. Asia, attention to, x. "Aspects of Islam'' quoted, 105. Assouan dam, 112. Aston, John, his edition of "Sir John Maundeville,'' 8. Athos, "Egyptian Venus," 125. Atlas Mountains, 39. Attention to Africa and Asia, x. Azores, 13. Bab-el-Mandeb, Straits of, 5. Baker, Sir Samuel White, 11 1, 292. Barbary, xv. Barbary corsairs, 2, 250. 3°9 3io INDEX Barca, see Tripoli, 44. Barotseland, 210. Barrage at Nile Delta, 112. Bast (Bubastis), Festival of, 118. Basutoland, 198. Bazehah, name for Africa, xiv. Belgian Kongo, conditions in, 273; negroes, 23. Belgians in Katanga, 133. Belgium, xii; began "grab game," 239- Beltrame, missionary, 25. Beni-flassan, grottoes of, 124. Bfithencourt, Jean de, 13. Beyond Khartum, 126. Bibliography, none complete, x. Bilad es-Sudan, "Country of the Blacks," 127. Break in intercourse between West and East, 11. Breto, missionary, 23. British East Africa, 153; railways, 154; pygmies, 155. British Gold Coast Colony, 173; monotonous forests, 174; rail ways, 174. British SomaHland, 148. British South African Company, 210. Bruce, James, 23. Bubastis (Bast), Festival of, 118. Bunbury, E. H., 10. Bushmen, 200. Bushongo nation, 268; "Throw ing Knife," 269. Cairo, "Arabian Nights," 96; dancing-girls, 98; old, 117; point of departure for Nile trip, 118; women of, 96. Cambyses, 7, in. Camel, "the ship of the desert," 6. Canary, the "Fortunate," Isles, 13, 278. Cape of Good Hope, Province of, 191; flora and fauna, 193; agriculture, 194; communica tions, 195. Cape to Cairo Railway, 285; con necting railways, 296; general sketch of, 290; suggestions to travellers, 299; trains, 298. Cape Town, 6. Cape Verd Islands, 280. Caravan routes, 75. Caspian Sea, "connected with Baltic," 6. Castro, missionary, 23. Catabathmos, xvi. Cataracts, Nile, 119, 123. Central Africa, political divisions, 127. Chad, Lake, 128. Character of Early Explorers, 22. China, x, xi. Christian propaganda, 24. Circumnavigation of Africa, 15. Civilisation in Africa, ancient, 20. "Cleopatra's Needles," 116. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, 28. "Coming Africa," 264. Commencement of modern explo ration, xi, 20. "Complete System of Geography, etc.," 19. Conditions in China, xi. Connaught, Duke of, on Rhodesia, 213. Convent of the Virgin, Coptic, 123. Cooley, W. D., English geog rapher, 24. Coptic Convent of the Virgin, 123. INDEX 3H Cosmopolitan Egypt, 99. Cox, Samuel S., "A Search for Winter Sunbeams," 50. Crossing of Africa in 1550, 23. Crusades, apathy of Spain and Portugal, 12. Dancing-girls, Cairo, 98. Dahabeeyah, 121. Dahlak archipelago, 146. Dahomey, 177. Damietta, 118. Delta barrage, Nile, 112. Denham, Major, 18. Dervishes, 134. Desert, physical appearance, 65; inhabitants of, 76. Development in Africa, 18. Diaz, Bartholomew, rounds Africa, 14. Discovery of Nile's sources, no. Duke of Connaught on Rhodesia, 213. Duparquet's expedition from Walfish Bay, 26. Dutch, colonists, 27; E. I. Co., 192. East Africa, included territory, 144; Nyika, 158. Egypt and Babylonia and Syria, 81; British control, xii; for invalids, 95; now, 94. Egypt Marmorica, xvi. Egyptian history, 80; peasants, 98; Sudan, conquest of, 134; Venus, "Athos," 125. Egyptians, their origin, 82. El-ber, xiv. Elizabeth, Queen, shares in slave expedition, 256. Emin Pasha (Edouard Schnitzer), relief of, 17. English missionaries, their explo rations, 27. Equatoria, 17. Erastothenes, 15; his description of Nile, 1 ix. Eritrea, 144; Afar region, 147; Dahlak archipelago, 146; in habitants, 147; Masawah, 148. Ethiopia, name associated with Africa, 149. Ethiopian Kingdom, archaeologi cal research in, 142. Etymology of "Africa," xv. European, immigration, 215; protectorates, 234. False Bay, 6. Faria-y-Sousa, explorer, xv. Fayum, 121. Fezzan, see Tripoli, 44. First impressions of Africa, 4. Fiske, John, 22. France in Africa, 238. French, Equatorial Africa, 166; Guinea, 169; Huguenots in South Africa, 192; Ivory Coast Colony, 173; Somaliland, 148; treatment of Algerines, 62. French and German agreement as to Morocco, etc., 33, 34, 38. French possessions in West Africa, 163; towns, 154; flora, 165. Gambia, 167. Game Reserves, 246. "Garden of Allah, The," 67-69. Gebet el-Teyr, cliffs of, 123. German East Africa, 155; railways, 156; South West Africa, 188. 312 INDEX Germany's action in Morocco, 37; in Africa, 238. Ghizeh Palace, 101. Glave, explorer, 291. Godinha, missionary, 24. Goncalves, Antonio, first negro slaves, 16. Goodrich, Rear-Admiral C. F., quoted, 265, 273. Gouritz, R. W., 14. Grant, President, arbitration Great Britain and Portugal, 168. Gray, Major W., explorer, 166. Great Britain in Egypt, xii. "Great Illusion, The," Norman Angell, 133. Greeks in Africa, 7. Greeley, R. R. "Liberia," 171. Griqualand, East and West, 205. Hanno, 14. Harem, women of, 59. Hausa people, 176. Hawkins, Sir John, slave trade, 256. Hekatsus, map of Africa, 500 B.C., 18. Herodotus, 9, 64, 118, 122. Hesperian Sea, xiv. Hichens, Robert, "The Garden of Allah," 67-69. History, present characteristics, xiii. Homeric notion of flat earth, 15. "How I Found Livingstone," H. M. Stanley, 17. Howling Dervishes, 116. Important "finds," 102. "In Darkest Africa," H. M. Stanley, 17. Indentured servitude, 259. Inquisition in Portugal, 23. International agreements, 241. Iphrica, xiv. Isis, temple near El-Mansoorah, 118. Italian Somaliland, 148. Italian Turkish War, 1911, 45. Italy, Tripoli and Abyssinia, 240. Jaine, missionary, 24. Jameson, C. D., conditions in China, xi. Jesuit mission, first in Africa, 23. "Jesuit Travels," 23. Jews in Africa, 49, 57. John II of Portugal, 14. John III of Portugal, 23. Joint administration of Anglo- Egyptian Sudan, 136. Kabinda, Portuguese possession, 183. Kabyles, or Berbers, 49-51; their Amins, or chiefs, 52. Karnak, 83. Katanga, 132. Khalifa's defeat at Omdurman, 135. Kitchener, Field Marshal, Lord, "5- Knoblesher, Ignaz, missionary up Nile, 25. Kolouges, 49-58. Kongo Free State, 183. Kongo, French, 180; railways and communications, 182. Kongo, missions in, 23. Kunene River, 24. Kwaidas of Wunzerik, 77. Labyrinth, 121. Lacerde y Almeida, F. J. explorer, 24. de, INDEX 313 Language problem in South Africa, 215. Latham, R. G., 55. Lembobo (Limpopo) Mountains, 197. Liberia, xi, 170; American Protec torate, 172; Ashmun, J., 171; Greeley, R. R., 171. Libya, xiv, 64. Libyan Hills, 5. Livingstone, D., xiii, 25; Stanley's tribute to, 29, 291. Livingstone Mission, origin, 28. Loti, Pierre, "La Morte de Phila?," 7i- Luxor, 119. Macdonald, D. B., "Aspects of Islam," 105. Machin, Robert, 13. Mackay, A. M., news of Emin Pasha, 26. Mac Leod, Miss Olive, trip to Mao Kabi River, 129. Madagascar Island, 281. Madeira Islands, 13, 276. Maghreb, xiv. Maltese in Africa, 60. Manoel, King of Portugal, 23. Mao Kabi River, 29. Maps of Africa, 18. Mare, Infernum, Magnum, xiv. Mariut, Lake, 116. Mashonaland, 211. Matabeleland, 211. Maundeville, Sir John, 8. Mauretania, leeches and vines, 10. Mauritius, Island, 283. Mediterranean shores, 5; pirates, 12. Mela, Pomponius, xvi. Meneleek, King of Abyssinia, 26, 149. Missionary, effort, 30; explora tions, 25. Moeris, Lake, 123. Moinier, General, 35. Monuments, old, unknown, 85. Moors, in Spain and their expul sion, 20, 49, 56. Moret, Alexander, 80. Morocco, 33, 34, 40; flora, 41. Mountains of the Moon, 10, 18. Mozabites, 50, 60. Mozambique, 24. Mosilikatsze, Zulu chief, 211. Mulai Hafid, 35. Mummies, 102. "Narrative of Discovery and Adventure," 17. Nasamonians, 64. Natal, 195. Nature's workings in Africa, 6. Negro slavery, opposition to in United States, 260. Negroes, 50, 59, 218; adapted to Africa, 227; alcohol, 230; artistic ability, 223; cannibal ism, 225; culture, 223; effect of European civilisation, 228; polygyny, 224; possibilities for, 271; physical traits, 220; reli gion, 226. Nile, 6; cataracts, 119; delta bar rage, 112; Erastothenes' de scription of, 11 1 ; mouths, 108; overflow, effect on buildings, 84; rise, its importance, 114; old measure, 113; rivers, no; river steamboats, 120; source, dis covery of, no. 3H INDEX Noble, F. P., explorer, 31. Northern Africa, 32; "Land of Winter Sunbeams," 38; peo ples, 49. Nyasa, Lake, 295. Nyasaland, 206. Nyika, 158; native dance, 159. Oases, 72, 73; artificial, 73; im portant Saharan and Libyan, 74; trade of, 75. Ohrwalder, news of Emin Pasha, 26. Old Cairo, 117. Old measure of Nile's rise, 113. Old, unknown monuments, 85. Orange Free State, 200; railways, 201. "Origin of Aryans," 55. Opposition to negro slavery, 260. Pacheco, Father, missionary, 23. Paez, Father, missionary, 23. Park, Mungo, 18, 131, 166. Partition of Africa, 265. "People of the Throwing Knife," 268. Peoples of Northern Africa, 49. Peterman, A., his tribute to mis sionaries, 25. Pharaonic diplomacy, 83. Pharos, island and lighthouse, 116. Pherio, xv. Philas, island of, 125. Phoenicians, xv, 7. Pinto, Serpa, explorer, 291. Pirates, Mediterranean, n. Political aspects in Egypt, 108. Pompey's Pillar, 117. Ports of entry, ancient, 3. Portuguese, blocked in effort to reach East Indies, 21; desire to reach Far East, n; lead in West African exploration, 12. Portuguese East Africa, 156; railways, 157. Portuguese Guinea, 168. Portuguese South West Africa, Province of Angola, 185. Posidonius, 15. Possibilities, for African negroes, 271; for Europeans in South Africa, 242. Prince Henry of Portugal, "The Navigator," 14. Procession of the Holy Carpet,io3. Protestant missions, lack of early zeal, 26. Province of Cape of Good Hope, 191. Ptolemy, xv, 10, 16. Pyramids, 91. Quadra, 23. Quaker missions in Africa, 26. Rejaf Hill, 25. R6union, Island of, 282. Rhamadan, fast, 105. Rhodes, Cecil, xiii. Rhodesia, 190, 207, 212. Rhodesian teak, 208. Rio d' Oro, 14, 161. Roman Catholic missions, 25. Romans, 7. Roosevelt, T., "African Game Trails," 248. Rosetta and "Rosetta Stone," 117. Rutsi Country, 24. Sahara, 6, 64; its political fate, 78. St. Helena, island, 280. St. Matthews, island, 281. INDEX 315 Sallust, xvi. Schnitzer, Edouard, Emin Pasha, 17, 26. Scramble for Africa, 176, 235. Senussi, 78. Serpa Pinto, 291. Seychelles, islands, 283. Sherboro, island, 14. Sierra Leone, 14, 169. Slave Coast, 175. Slave trade, 256. Slaves in America, 216. Sokotra, island, 284. Sources of the Nile, 18. South Africa, for Americans, 216; temperature variations, 299. Spanish Colony, Rio d' Oro, 161; Muni, 180. Speke and Grant, explorers, 292. Stanley, H. M., xiii, 292; relief of Emin Pasha, 17; tribute to Liv ingstone, 29; his "How I Found Livingstone," 17; "In Darkest Africa," 17. Steevens, G. W., "With Kitchener to Khartum," 134. Stormy Cape, Cape of Good Hope, 14. Strabo, 9. Sudan, 127. Suez Canal, no locks, 4. Swaziland, 197. Talbot, P. A., 129. Tanganyika, lake, 293. Taylor, Canon Isaac, 55. Temples, desecration of, 89; de scription, 81. Teneriffe, Peak of, 279. "The Coming China," xi. "The Dark Continent," xii. "The Garden of Allah," 67. "The Sea-Wolves of the Mediter ranean," 12. "The Tomb Robber," 102. "The Universal History," xvii. Thebes, 119. Thinite Dynasty, 81. "Throwing Knife," people of the, 268. Togoland, 175. Toka, plateau, 24. Torday, E., 268. Transcontinental railways, 286. Tripoli, 44, 240; mastiffs as watchmen, 61. Tuareks (Wild Berbers), 77. Tunis, 43. Turkey in Africa, 237. Turks in Africa, 49, 58. "Unexplored" regions of the earth, 1. Union of South Africa, 190. United States and Christian missions, 263. Upper Senegal and Niger, prov ince, 166. Valleys in the desert, 65. Victoria Falls, 24. Victoria Nyanza, lake, 295. Vischer, Hanns, 67. Volga River, 16. Wady Haifa, 119. Walfish Bay (British), 187. Western Africa, political divisions, 161. White Man's Africa, 267. "With Kitchener to Khartum," 134-