Northern Africa

“ It thus affects our two most important interests in the Continent In Northern Africa we have chosen Egypt and the east as our sphere rather than Morocco and the west. Now, the main factor in the prosperity and safety of Egypt is the Nile, and by the possession of Uganda we control the whole course of this river from its double source in Lakes Victoria and Albert to its mouth in the Mediterranean. ”

“ If our victory is great enough, we can hope to unite under our hand the whole of Central Africa with our old colony South-west Africa; Senegambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Dahomey, well-populated Nigeria with the port of Lagos, Kamerun, the rich islands of San Thomé and Principe with their splendid ports, the Katanga ore district, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Mozambique, and Delagoa Bay, Madagascar, German East Africa, Zanzibar, and Uganda ”

“ The best description of North Africa as a visual fragment of the globe is that which delineates it as a vast triangular island, whose two northern horns lie, one off Spain at Gibraltar, the other, with a broader strait, off Sicily—with a southward wall overlooking the ocean-like Sahara, and running slantingly to the Atlantic, whose seaboard makes the narrow base of the triangle. ”

“ The Northern frontier of British East Africa was defined by the Jub River and the conterminous boundary of the Italian sphere of influence in Galla-land and Abyssinia up to the confines of Egypt; in the west, by the Congo State and the Congo-Nile watershed. (4.) Germany withdrew, in favor of Britain, her Protectorate over Vitu and her claims to all territories on the mainland to the north of the River Tana, as also over the islands of Patta and Manda. (5.) In South-West Africa, the Anglo-German frontier, originally fixed up to 22 south latitude, was confirmed ”

“ This may be considered as the first picture on record of the northern part of Africa; a country, which, even after the lapse of two thousand years, presents to the eye of science, as regards its interior recesses, a blank in geography, a physical and not less a moral problem ”

“ South of the Congo are the drainage basins of the Zambezi and Orange rivers, which extend nearly across the lower limb of the continent, and have an eastward and westward slope respectively. The great land-mass composing the western limb of the continent is poorly watered, the Niger being the only river of first importance lying wholly within the area. This river drains the northern slopes of the coastal highlands of Guinea, through which it breaks after being joined by an important tributary from the east, the Benue, and enters the Gulf of Guinea. ”

“ I allude to the western part of Africa, which, whether on the shores of the sea, or in the interior districts, is of the greatest importance in the double respect of agriculture and commerce. It appears that the ancients were only acquainted with the northern coast of Africa, which extends from the straits of Gibraltar to the isthmus of Suez, and with the eastern coast, contiguous to the Red Sea. ”

“ Practically, France will now have all North-Western, and all Northern, and all North Central Africa, except Morocco, our West African Colonies, Tripoli, Darfur, and the Valley of the Nile,—giving that phrase its widest interpretation, and regarding it as the whole of the country whence water flows into the Nile. ”

“ But a European colonisation of Abyssinia, possible as it might be climatically, is out of the question in view of the relatively abundant and warlike population indigenous to the Ethiopian Empire. ... {4} "Then comes Central Africa, which may be taken to range from the northern limits of the Congo basin and the Great Lakes on the north to the Cunenc River and the Zambesi on the south. British East Africa and Uganda offer probably the largest continuous area of white man’s country in the central section of the continent. ”

“ The third division of the higher region of Africa is formed by the Abyssinian highlands, a rugged mass of mountains forming the largest continuous area of its altitude in the whole continent, little of its surface falling below 5000 ft., while the summits reach heights of 15,000 to 16,000 ft. This block of country lies just west of the line of the great East African trough, the northern continuation of which passes along its eastern escarpment as it runs up to join the Red Sea. ”

“ Generally, however, in quitting the northern coast, which he terms significantly the forehead of Africa, the country became more and more arid. Hills of salt arose, out of which the natives constructed their houses, without any fear of their melting beneath a shower in a region where rain was unknown. The land became almost a desert, and was filled with such multitudes of wild beasts, as to be considered their proper inheritance, and scarcely disputed with them by the human race. ”

“ In form Africa consists of two parts, a northern ellipsoid, with an east and west longitudinal axis, comprising the Sahara-Sudan region, and a southern triangular limb attached to the southern side of the eastern half of the northern portion, and consisting of the Congo region and the South African highlands. Somewhat north of the middle point of the eastern side of the continent, a massive triangular projection, the Somali Peninsula, extends almost 1000 miles toward the Indian Peninsula of Asia. ”

“ On the other hand, in northern and specially northwestern Africa, the gates are not yet fully open, the trail of the trader does not yet reach far into the hinterland, and from what is already known of the possibilities, the next twenty-five years will witness an exploitation of northwest Africa which will produce astonishing results. International effort is more concentrated than in years gone by. ”

“ The source of the Congo is at a height of 6,000 feet; of the Nile at 4,500; and of the Niger at 3,000; while that of the Amazon is not more than 700 feet, and the Mississippi only about 2,000 feet. It has been said that Africa has been less travelled than any other part of the world. It is there that are found, more than anywhere else, huge mountains, such as Kilima-Njaro, Kenya, etc., which rise suddenly from the level surface of great plains; vast lakes of uncertain outlines, which seem at one time to be drying up and at another to be making new inroads on the land ”

“ But France has also gained a huge extent of country covering almost the whole of North-West Africa. While much of this is merely desert, there are caravan routes which tap the basin of the Niger and conduct its products to Algeria, conquered by France early in the century, and to Tunis, more recently appropriated. The West African provinces of France have, at any rate, this advantage, that they are nearer to the mother-country than any other colony of a European power ”

“ Nyassaland is not Africa, but itself. Neither can we call the wilderness of Masai Land, or the scrub-covered deserts of Kalahari, or the rolling grass land of Usukuma, or the thin forests of Unyamwezi, or, the ochreous acacia-covered area of Ugogo, anything but sections of a continent that boasts many zones. Africa is about three times greater than Europe in its extent, and is infinitely more varied. ”

“ The moisture dripping from the vegetation either fed the Atlantic through the Congo or the Mediterranean through the Nile at the dictate of the morning breeze, for even as the destinies of nations are moulded by the play of the infinitesimally small, so is the form of Africa carved by the breezelets from Karissimbi's snows. ”

“ It is not, however, these tropical lowlands which are the most valuable and characteristic feature of East Africa, but the temperate highlands, which are not merely a planter's country, but suited to the permanent residence of Europeans. ”

“ My brother Parisians, when I think that, at the most moderate computation, nine-tenths of you picture Africa to yourselves as a vast desert, destitute of water and shade—wretched creatures that you are—there is not a country, perhaps, in the wide world that is watered by so many, and such great torrents and rivers, that is shaded by such gigantic trees, that is beautified by nature to such a luxuriant extent, as certain parts of central Africa. ”

“ The Nile, known always, has ever nestled its head in Africa’s unknown Lake Region, safe because of mangrove swamp and arid waste. But now that the secret of its sources is out, and with it the fact of a high and delightful inner Africa, full of running streams and far stretching lakes, of rich tropical verdure and abundant animal life, is the dream a foolish one that here are the possibilities of an empire whose commerce, agriculture, wealth and enlightenment shall make it as powerful and bright as its past has been impotent and dark? ”

“ The spirit of enterprise has carried our mariners to the arctic seas, braving the most appalling dangers in the solution of a great geographical problem; by the same power, civilization has been carried into the primeval forests of the American continent, and cities have arisen in the very heart of the Andes. The interior of Africa, however, notwithstanding its navigable rivers, has been hitherto almost a sealed chapter in the history of the globe. ”

“ Introduction—The African Association—Ledyard—Lucas—First information respecting the Niger, or Quorra, and the Gambia—Timbuctoo heard of—Thompson and Jobson’s voyage up the Gambia—Major Haughton’s expedition and death.
When the fathers of the present generation were young men, and George the Third ruled the land, they imagined that the whole interior of Africa was one howling wilderness of burning sand, roamed over by brown tribes in the north and south, and by black tribes—if human beings there were—on either side of the equator, and along the west coast. ”

“ Between the two sterile tracts of Africa lies the real Continent. All the coast lands are a shell. Egypt is but a strip on either side the Nile. Central Africa—the Lake regions which feed the Nile, Congo and Zambesi—is a great and grand section, where nature has been prodigal in all her gifts, and which invites a civilization as unique and strong as its physical features. ”

“ Western Africa within the tropics constitutes in many respects one vast natural-history province, extending far into the interior and towards the eastern coasts. This wide-spreading region is capable of being subdivided, and the steaming districts along the coast from Senegal to Congo present numerous peculiarities that are not seen in the inland portions. These latter again vary considerably in features of surface, and the animal and vegetable population must change more or less accordingly. ”

“ West Africa, as some of us have known her, is rapidly changing. Within the memory of most men, there were deserts uncrossed, forests unexplored, tribes of people unknown. To-day every desert has been traversed; to-day we know not only the forests, but nearly every species of tree they contain; we know, and can locate, almost every African tribe, and almost every foot of territory has passed under the control, for the time being at least, of some alien Power. ”

“ For say what you like, if the Royal Niger had not got on well with the natives in its territories—dealt cleanly, honestly, rationally with them—it would never have extended its influence in the grand way it has, represented only by a mere handful of white men, in what is, as far as we know, the most densely populated region with the highest and most organised form of native power in all tropical Africa. ”

“ It is a land where the sky is without cloud, and the earth without shade. These deserts, which are not lacking in grandeur and attraction, mark, north and south, the true boundaries of Africa. Beyond them, north and south—to the north, Mauretania, Algeria, Egypt; to the south, the region of Cape Colony—the soil, the climate, the fauna and flora, the inhabitants are no longer characteristically African, but European.
II. The Inhabitants.—The most recent statistics give the population of Africa as from 160,000,000 to 200,000,000 souls. ”

“ When these two things have been accomplished, then, and not till then, can the mystery of the Nile be explained. The two countries through which the marvellous lacustrine river, the Lualaba, flows, with its manifold lakes and broad expanse of water, are Rua (the Uruwwa of Speke) and Manyuema. For the first time Europe is made aware that between the Tanganika and the known sources of the Congo there exist teeming millions of the negro race, who never saw, or heard of the white people who make such a noisy and busy stir outside of Africa. ”

“ We here trace a historical thread which guides us through this labyrinth of tribes and overthrown kingdoms; and a lively interest is awakened by reflecting on their possible progress and restoration, through the intercourse with more civilized parts of the world. Finally, we find here commerce in every direction radiating from Kanó, the great emporium of Central Africa, and spreading the manufactures of that industrious region over the whole of Western Africa. ”

“ The Congo Free State and the western watershed of the basin of the Upper Nile form the western boundary line.
Now that England has come into possession of so much East African territory, we may expect to receive much interesting information about the natives, as their land becomes open to civilization and commerce. A large part of East Africa must now become known to the world, and many improvements are to be looked for. A railway of six hundred and fifty-seven miles in length has at this early date been planned from Mombassa to Lake Nyanza. ”