YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

The Opening of a World.

WASHINGTON, I). C. :
Thomas McGill A Co , Printers.
1881.

THE OPENING OF A WORLD.

For many years the star of empire cast its rays westward,
until it reached the Golden Gate of the Pacific, where it
reposed, and has been the beacon light of nations. But
now it seems to be receiving a new impulse, and is turn
ing toward the Southern Cross. Governments, geographical
societies, mercantile organizations, capitalists, and mission
ary associations are penetrating Africa in all her parts, and
that vast continent is beginning to feel a new era. Christ
endom is becoming undeceived. . A world is opening.
GOVERNMENTAL ACTION. •
Reports have been made to the President of the French
Republic by the leaders of the four expeditions dispatched
to prospect for a railroad across the so-called Desert of
Sahara and from the upper Senegal to Timbuctoo. That
from St. Louis had met with armed opposition from the
natives, but the others were comparatively successful in
testing parallel lines as to their security and practicability.
This year the Chambers further Voted $300,000 to the Min
ister of Marine, to be expended in the erection of fortifi
cations in Medine, in surveys for a railway from the Sen
egal to the Niger, and for a cable from Isle de Saint to
Cape Verd.
The German Parliament appropriated $25,000 for Afri-

2 THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
Can research in its relations to commerce, and with this
aid and private gifts the German Geographical Society has
six different expeditions in Africa, led by Messrs. Buchner,
Sentz, Rohlfs, Bohm, Pogge, and Flegel, respectively.
Italy has taken her first installment of African territory
by seizing the Bay of Assab, south of St. Paul de Loando,
and she has sent mechanics and colonists there to form a
settlement. The harbor is large, and can receive vessels
of any tonnage. The Egyptian Government has ordered
an official exploration of Soudan, both from a geograph
ical and an economical point of view. At the extreme
south of the continent the English are pushing northward
their arms and institutions, building up an empire. The
occupation of Quittah and Porto Novo, on the west coast,
is urged on the British Government, and Dahomey and
Ashantee will soon become, it is believed, possessions of
the same sagacious power.
GEOGRAPHICAL EXPEDITIONS.
The Geographical Society of Spain has sent Commander
Sosten on a mission of discovery in eastern Africa. Two
Portuguese expeditions are to start simultaneously from the
Portuguese territories on the east and west coasts, which
are intended, after founding a series of commercial sta
tions, to meet in the interior. They will probably follow
nearly the line of the Zambesi — the Mississippi of Africa.
An Austrian party is to examine Kalakka, and another, led
by Holub, is preparing to start from Cape Colony to pen
etrate to Zambesi and through Darfur. An Italian expedi
tion is exploring Abyssinia, and thence to Soudan. A Rus
sian party is journeying up the Nile. The British expedi
tion, commanded by Mr. J. Thomson, successor of the

TUB OPENING OF A WORLD. 3
lamented Mr. Keith Johnson, has examined the region
north of lake Nyassa and south of lake Tanganyika. Count
de Brazza is engaged in a second attempt to discover the
sources of the Ogove. Captain Philipson Wybrants is
leading an English expedition for the exploration of Urn-
zila's kingdom.
Ardent expectations centre on the Congo country. Here
Mr. H. M. Stanley, under the patronage of the International
African Association, is conducting a generously-equipped
party of some twenty Europeans and one hundred Africans.
Part of his grand mission is the opening of a road ten feet
wide on the north side of the Congo or Livingstone river,
and the establishment of " rest-houses," supplied with goods,
provisions, and medical stores for trade, travellers* and
missionaries. This indefatigable explorer has founded the
first civilizing station at Vivi. The next is to be at Stan
ley Pool, and two others are to be far inland. He is sur
mounting the gigantic difficulties in the way, and continues
sanguine of his ability to ascend this mighty river to its
source. Four other expeditions of the same association, of
which the enlightened King of Belgium is president, are
exploring Africa. One of these is proceeding from Zanzi
bar, forming stations and intending to join Mr. Stanley on
the upper waters of the Congo, the whole to constitute a
chain of commercial centres across the continent.
It is an interesting and important fact that elephants,
trained as transports, are performing their part well. There
can no longer be any question that this new burden-bearer,
which can carry about half a ton each, will be a very valu
able assistant in the march of civilization through the wilds
of tropical Africa.

THE OPENING OP A WORLD.

COMMERCIAL ENDEAVORS.

Many eyes are looking to Africa as the quarter from
which relief may be most speedily expected for the languish
ing industries and idle capital of Europe. Mr. Donald Mac
kenzie is again at Cape Juby with a miscellaneous cargo by
the steamer Corsair, from London, to open trading connec
tions inland. The Governor of Sierra Leone is arranging
an expedition from Bathurst, by way of Sego, to Timbuc-
too, prepared to conduct an extensive business on sound
principles. Mr. Geoffrey, an experienced engineer, and
Mr. Gillis, formerly a merchant at Cape Palmas and at
Grand Bassam, have left Antwerp for the Congo to intro
duce a system of legitimate commerce. The formation is
stated at Viele of an Anglo-Franco-Danish society to dis
patch caravans and commercial parties and to open farms
and trading depots in the interior of Africa. A company
in Paris has secured privileges in the forests and mines
of the Zambesi section, which are said to be of immense
value. A company has been formed at Zanzibar with the
view of organizing a regular service of transport between
the coast and the lakes Tanganyika and Victoria. The
society is to guarantee the arrival at its destination of mer
chandise and baggage confided to its care. It has, more
over, taken steps to establish at Tabora a depot for mer
chandise, whence travellers can obtain supplies, and where
payment will be made by letters of exchange either upon
Zanzibar or upon some European banker previously ap
pointed. By the aid of the eight stations which -will soon
be established between Bagamoyo and Karema, a traveller
will be able to reach the lakes with a light caravan in less
than two months.

THE OPENING OF A WORLD. 5
STEAM LINES.
A line of steamers belonging to Urich Durler & Co. is
to commence running early in the year from Germany to
the west coast of Africa. Messrs. A. C. Verminck & Co.,
long engaged in the trade, intend to put on several steam
ers between Marseilles and western Africa, the first ves
sel to leave in December. She is 1,200 tons register, and
is named the Djolibah, in commemoration of the discovery
of the sources of the Niger by Messrs. Zweisel and Mou-
stier, at the direction and expense of Mr: Verminck. They
describe this famous stream as rising about 100 miles back of
Liberia, running thence northeast toward the desert ; turn
ing at length to the southeast, and again to the southwest,
emptying into the sea more than 3,000 miles from where
it began. A third line of steamers — the West African Steam Navi
gation Company — has been commenced between Liverpool
and the west coast of Africa for freight and passenger
accommodation. The African Steamship Company and
the British and African Steam Navigation Company are
jointly dispatching a monthly steamer direct from Ham
burg to western Africa. This is in addition to their week
ly steamer from Liverpool and Glasgow for Africa. The
last-named company has just had built two steel steamers
of 1,850 tons register each. The shallow depth of water on
the bars of most of the west African rivers, always a seri
ous obstacle, will be thus measurably overcome by the light
ness of steel over iron. Steel is now considered the most
perfect material for ship-building, as well as the cheapest
in the long run. If so, it is surely destined to make a rev
olution in the ocean marine and war fleets of the world.
German merchants are extending their connections along

6 THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
the northern African coast, and a line of steamers is pro
jected between Morocco and Bremen. Increased commu
nication has been provided between Algeria and Marseilles.
A royal mail steamer leaves Lisbon the 5th of every month,
and, touching at various places on the way, makes the pas
sage to Angola and Benguela in about thirty-five clays.
Steamers are running on the rivers Senegal, Gambia,
St. Paul's, Niger, Gaboon, Ogove, Coanza, and the Zam
besi and its tributary, the Shire, and on the lakes Victoria-
Nyanza, Tanganyika, and Nyassa, mostly in the prosecution
of trade. GOLD MINING.
Five organizations are operating in the Wassaw country.
These are the Effuenta Gold Mine Company, the Swanzey
Company, the Gold Coast Mining Company, and the Aboso
Gold Minfhg Company (English), and the African Gold
Coast Company (French). The latter named is the pio
neer mover, having only began in August, 1878, to drive
three tunnels or drifts, yet they now report "between one
and two thousand tons of ore extracted, worth £5 4s. per
ton, and are in a condition to extract some forty tons per day
of much richer ore, with an almost certainty of an output
of a hundred tons a day at the end of another year." A
commissioner has been appointed to reside at Tacquah,
with a salary of $3,000 per annum, thus giving assurance
that British law and security will be afforded capital and
labor in mining operations. RAILROADS.
The West Africa Light Railways Company of London
propose the building of four railroads in the Yoruba coun
try, viz. : From Salt Pond to Mackessim, twenty miles ;

THE OPENING OF A WORLD. 7
Accra to the river Volta, fifty miles ; Chamah or Dix Cove
to the Wassaw gold mines, fifty miles ; and from Gaiin,
opposite Lagos, to Abbeokuta, reputed to have a popula
tion of 125,000, forty miles.
It is humiliating, perhaps, to Americans that an English
company has received a' charter from Liberia for a railroad
extending two hundred miles back from Monrovia, and
designed ultimately to connect that port with the head
waters of the Niger. This is a shorter and more feasible
route than that contemplated by the French by way of the
Senegal, and is attracting considerable interest in Europe.
Six different railroads — short ones, of course. — are par
tially completed in South Africa. A railroad from Zanzibar
to the Victoria-Nyanza lake is popularly advocated in Eng
land. The Portuguese propose communication with lake
Nyassa and the east coast by steamers on the easily naviga
ble part of the Zambesi and its tributaries, and obviating
the difficulties of the impeded points by railways.
TELEGRAPHS.
Telegraphic communication is now complete between
London and the Cape of Good Hope. A project for con
structing an electric line from end to end of Africa has the
sanction of the African Exploration Committee ofthe Royal
Geographical Society of England. A report made to that
society on the subject speaks in sanguine terms of its feasi
bility, with particulars of probable cost and revenue. The
route is thus described : " The Egyptian Government, at one
end, is prepared to carry forward its line, which already
extends southward some distance beyond Khartoum, as far
as Gondokoro. At the other end the Government of Cape
Colony is expected to extend the existing line in British
south Africa to Pretoria, in the Transvaal. It is now pro-

8 THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
posed to continue the line from the southern limits of
Egyptian territory to Mtesa's capital, and thence round the
western shore of the Victoria-Nyanza, and on to Unyam-
yembe ; from thence to branch out westward to Ujiji and
eastward to Mpwapwa, Bagamoyo, and Zanzibar; from
Bagamoyo to conduct the wires in a southwesterly direction
to the head of lake Nyassa, where they would be carried to
Livingstonia, and down the Shire and Zambesi, and thence
southward to Pretoria. The whole distance from Khartoum
to Pretoria is 3,335 geographical miles, or allowing for de
viations, just 4,000 miles." This is claimed to be no more
difficult than was similar work accomplished in Australia
and India. COAL, IRON, AND DIAMONDS.
According to an official geological report upon the Free
State of the Orange River, immense beds of coal and iron
exist in that district. The iron presents three parallel
strata, separated by grit, which will furnish millions of
tons, and it lies in conditions peculiarly favorable for work
ing, as it is only a few miles from a coal-bed. The South
African mines yielded diamonds in 1879 of the estimated
value of $18,000,000, a slight increase over the product of
the previous year. NEW PUBLICATIONS.
The African Times, devoted to African development, is
a paper issued at London. L'Afrique is a magazine pub
lished at Geneva in the interest of African exploration.
The existence of such enterprises, wholly devoted to one
country, is evidence of the present importance attaching
to Africa. No little of the information herein presented
is derived from these faithful and valuable monthlies.

THE OPENING OF A WORLD. 9
MISSIONARY EFFORTS.
To the Christian, Africa is one of the most interesting
portions of the globe. Efforts to penetrate it with the light
of the Gospel evince an enthusiasm and a consecration of
talent and life worthy of the spacious field to be illumi
nated. Though the bright prospects attending the early
history of the Church Missionary Society of England mis
sion in Uganda have not been realized, and after three
years' work there is a seemingly unanimous rejection of
Christianity by Mtesa and his people, still a number of
missionaries remain, and others are on their way, the latter
accompanied by three Uganda envoys on their return from
London. The tidings from the stations of the same society,
and from those of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge,
Durham, and Dublin, on the island of Zanzibar, and at
Magilla and Macasi on the mainland, tell of steady prog
ress. The London Missionary Society has not only rein
forced its flourishing mission on lake Tanganyika, but
commenced a station on its western shore. The Free
Church of Scotland Missionary Society has opened another
station at Zomba. The French Evangelical Society is to
push forward a mission from that at Victoria Falls into the
Barotse valley. "The Congo Inland Mission" is an un
denominational organization in England, whose fourteen
representatives have accompanied or joined Mr. Stanley,
and are establishing stations under the protection of the
enterprise with which he is intrusted.
Robert Arthington, Esq., continues his liberality by offer
ing the London Missionary Society $15,000 for the building
and equipping of a missionary steamer to be placed on lake
Tanganyika, and to the English Baptist Missionary Society
$20,000 toward putting on and maintaining a missionary

10 THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
steamer on the Congo above the cataracts. It is to be
launched at Stanley Pool, which the readers of "The Dark
Continent" will remember is situated in the midst of a
fertile and populous country.
The Church Missionary Society has the steamer Henry
Venn employed in missionary service on the Niger and
its branches by Bishop Crowther and clergy. The Central
African Company of Edinburgh has placed the steamer
Lake Nyassa on the lower Zambesi and its Shire feeder
from lake Nyassa ; while the Free Church of Scotland
Missionary Society has floated the steamer Italia on the
upper Shire, above the cataracts, and on the lake itself,
and it has also made a road sixty miles long around the
Shire cataracts, bringing the head of lake Nyassa, by the
Suez Canal route, within sixty days' travel of Great Britain.
The receipt of a very large legacy has stimulated and
enabled the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions to undertake the establishment of a mission at
Bihe, a populous town near the sources of the Coanza, and
to extend the Zulu mission into Umzila's kingdom, on the
southeastern coast, near Delagoa Bay. The American Mis
sionary Association is preparing for the commencement of
a mission in the Nile basin, near the junction of the Sobat
with the Nile, making Khartoum the base of supplies.
THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY
appeals for wider and more favorable recognition and sup
port than it has hitherto received. The planting and suc
cess of Liberia illustrate the character and worth of its
labors and vindicate its claims upon the sympathy and
benevolence of the patriot, philanthropist, and Christian.
With the increased interest now felt in the settlement and

THE OPENING OF A WORLD. 11
Christianization of Africa, there is every reason to hope that
the beginnings made in the young African republic may
lead more rapidly than ever to great and blessed results.
THE APPOINTED AGENTS.
The occupation of western and equatorial Africa by whites
cannot proceed fast, if at all, the climate being too peril
ous to attract large numbers of them. The list of dead
and missing among recent explorers, traders, miners, and
missionaries but confirms the sad experience of previous
attempts to open and elevate the continent. " Out of 117
missionaries," wrote a faithful laborer on the ground, " sent
by the Wesleyan Missionary Society during forty years, 54
died on the field, 39 of them within one year of their ar
rival ; and of those who survived 13 were obliged to return
after a. residence of from six to twenty months." In thirty
years the English Church Missionary Society sent 109 mis
sionaries, half of whom were removed by death at their
posts, 4 on their way home, and 14 returned with impaired
constitutions. Forty-one missionaries of the Basle Mission
ary Society died at their stations in the course of a few
years. From 1836 to 1851, 31 persons who had taken part
in the American Episcopal mission were obliged to relin
quish their labors. The celebrated Niger expedition, or
ganized and equipped with the zealous co-operation of
Prince Albert, lost by death in the few months of its explo
ration of that river 40 of the 145 whites which composed
the officers and crew, while among the 158 blacks engaged
not one died ! PREPARING TO GO.
It is a significant coincidence that, with the general efforts
for the development of Africa, there should come among

12 • THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
the Negroes of the United States unrest — an exodus — a
longing for a permanent home and aspirations for nation
ality. Inquiry proves that there is scarcely an institution
for the higher education of colored young men that has
not several students who have chosen Africa as their coveted
field of labor. The colored Baptists of Virginia are sup
porting one of their race in the Yoruba country, and the
colored Baptists of South Carolina raised $1,007 in the
year ending March last towards the salary of their (colored)
missionary in Liberia. At the last General Conference of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church $25,000 was ap
propriated for missionary work in Africa, and Bishop Tur
ner has since been appointed to proceed to Liberia and to
organize efforts for the propagation of the Gospel in that
republic. He states that " already four ministers and two
female teachers have volunteered to go, and are only await
ing the means of transportation and support," Communi
cations received by the American Colonization Society
demonstrate that some 500,000 people of color are consid
ering the question of removal to Liberia.
OTTR ADVANTAGES.
America has superior advantages over all Europe for
colonizing, civilizing, and evangelizing Africa and control-
ing its valuable commerce. It has Liberia, the only daugh
ter republic, with about 1,000,000 of settlers and natives,
holding some 600 miles of the best part of the west coast ;
and about 5,000,000 of colored people at home, many of
the latter of whom, enterprising farmers and mechanics,
and teachers and ministers, would make homes in " Father
land" if cheap and rapid passage thither were provid
ed. Their presence would create no surprise or hostil-

THE OPENING OF A WORLD. • 13
ity among their kin. They could keep communication
open, and gradually train the aborigines in habits of en
lightened and systematic industry. They could readily
penetrate the vast interior, exchanging foreign goods and
manufactures for local products, which are everywhere in
demand. They could extend a line of railroad and a chain
of Christian schools and churches, with civilized farms and
settlements, from the malariods sea-board across the beau
tiful, populous, and salubrious highlands, to the banks of
the Niger and on to the very heart of Soudan, growing
stronger and stronger in the confidence of a noble destiny
in the land of their ancestors.
SUPERIOR AFRICANS.
Many of the inland tribes of western Africa are of manly
character and comparative advancement in certain useful
arts. Prof. Edward W. Blyden, D. D., LL. D., himself a
Negro, writes: "I have carefully studied the African char
acter, and can speak advisedly of its worth. I have seen
him under Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, and Semetic
rule. I have lived in the United States, in the West Indies,
and in Venezuela. I have travelled in Syria, Egypt, and in
the interior of Africa, and I testify that the manhood of
the race is in the heart of Africa — the basis upon which
the African national superstructure is to be erected. When
in the interior of Africa I have met men, both Pagan and
Mohammedan, to whom, as well from their physical as their
mental characteristics, one voluntarily and instinctively
feels like doing reverence."
AN AFRICAN STATE NEEDED.
It will doubtless be observed that nearly all the attempts
to penetrate Africa have been from its eastern side. For

14 THE OPENING OF A WORLD.
the United States the indications point to the duty and pol
icy of entering from the western coast, so as to reach the
most intelligent population of the continent, and especially
those from whom large numbers of AfricoAmericans came
as slaves, and to occupy the most fertile and desirable lands
in all Africa. Let a renewed and determined effort be
made to strengthen Liberia — the open gateway to the
wealthy interior.
The spirit of progress has shown itself strongly in that
republic, and by projects for extending coffee-planting and
introducing railroads into that important key to populous
and opulent Soudan. The contemplated annexation on
mutual and peaceful terms of the extensive and valuable
territory adjoining its eastern frontier, known as the King
dom of Medina, demonstrates increasing strength and
power. We have dreams of an interior State of Africans, start
ing from Boporo and going back, where the people will
live in the peace and quietness of a highly-civilized and
pure Christian community, and, surrounded by a congenial
population whom they can influence, grow and expand un
der the guidance of their race instincts into a useful and
honorable State. The world needs such a State, and such
a State it will have.

[Editorial from The Sun, of Baltimore, November 27, 1880.]
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA.

In our supplement to-day, under the caption of "The Open
ing of a World," will be found a very interesting and exhaustive
resumS of the progress of recent African discovery, research,
colonization, and commerce. This article has heen carefully
prepared by the Secretary of the American Colonization Society,
at Washington, and many of the details given are now published
for the first time. No man in the country is more competent to
deal with this subject intelligently than Mr. Coppinger, who
has been connected with the Colonization Society for forty-three
years, and has represented Liberia as Consul-General at Wash
ington for a quarter of a century. The commercial and man
ufacturing countries of Europe are pressing forward their expe
ditions into every part of Africa with intense vigor. It is the
only continent which is free to occupancy and conquest by the
powers of civilization, and it is so rich in every species of prod
uct, not omitting men, that it cannot fail to excite the avidity
of every ambitious government. The United States has a deep
and peculiar interest in Africa. The Republic of Liberia is the
one foreign colony sent out from our loins. It was founded and
has been protected and encouraged by the United States, as
aflfording a gateway through which our emancipated slaves could
be restored to the continent from which their ancestors were
stolen away.
The republic which we have set up on the west coast of Africa
is growing steadily, and nothing but its poverty and the defi
ciency of its foreign and internal communications prevent it
from developing more rapidly. Its population is already a mill
ion in number, including the tribes under its control; it has

16 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA.
six hundred miles of coast line, and a very little deeper penetra
tion into the continent will bring its frontiers over the coast
range of mountains and to the Niger river. Once there, it will
be easy to open communication with the heart of the Soudan.
An English company is about to build a railroad in Liberia, and
the country is so rich in every sort of tropical product, including
cotton, tobacco, sugar, and the best and richest coffee, that a
very little development is all that is needed to convert its re
sources into wealth. The mere fact that there are half a million
colored people in this country now seeking a way to emigrate to
Liberia should suffice to make the United States eagerly watch
ful of European designs upon Africa. If these 500,000 colored
people could be successfully transplanted into Liberia, American
trade would secure a foothold in Africa which could not be
shaken ; and when once the tide of emigration successfully sets
that way, it will not be early checked.