Xebec

“ EGYPTIAN ART. According to their most ancient traditions, the Egyptian race descended from a point high up on the Nile, or the land of Ethiopia, but modern science proves them to belong to a Caucasian race, and not of the Negro type. The name Egypt has been derived from “Het-ka-Ptah,” one of the titles of the city of Memphis, which means “The Temple of the Genius of Ptah,” and has been interpreted by the Greeks as “Aiguptos,” the latter being the old name for the Nile. ”

“ Whatever the motives that have led the white man into the centre of the Dark Continent—love of adventure, scientific curiosity, big game, or patriotism—the result has been that the continent has become known instead of merely its coast-line. On the whole, English exploration has been the main means by which our knowledge of the interior of Africa has been obtained, and England has been richly rewarded by coming into possession of the most promising parts of the continent—the Nile valley and temperate South Africa. ”

“ 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 ”

“ African.—The best way to study the wide and complex philology of Africa is to begin with the frontier of the Semitic languages, remembering that the Ethiopic branch of them is, to all appearance, indigenous to Africa; then to bear in mind that the Arabic, by intrusion and extension, is spread over a great part of Northern and Eastern Africa. The Eastern frontier, however, of the Arabic and the Syriac is in Asia, and in Asia it begins where the Persian and Turk areas end. ”

“ I listen to the childish, quavering voice, twittering almost like a bird, and one word alone came up to me—the word one hears in Egypt from all the lips that speak and sing: from the Nubians round their fires at night, from the little boatmen of the lower reaches of the Nile, from the Bedouins of the desert, and the donkey boys of the villages, from the sheikh who reads one’s future in water spilt on a plate, and the Bisharin with buttered curls who runs to sell one beads from his tent among the sand-dunes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Egypt is the only part of Africa that could be reached easily by people in Europe and Asia, because in Egypt is the only place where men could walk from Asia and Europe into Africa. Even if they did not want to walk, the sea was not too wide to cross in small boats. In the Bible we read how Abraham, who lived in Asia, walked to Egypt, and later how Moses led the Children of Israel back to Asia. Since that time Europeans have cut a waterway for ships through this narrow neck of land, which is called the Suez Canal. ”

“ This romance is of Africa, that vast, mysterious country which this author knows so well how to portray. All the fascination and colour of Africa are here, and her soul—that eternal mystery to the white man—is dimly discernible through the threads of the story and the well-drawn character of the Master of the Hour, the dominating influence in the story. This black Napoleon has erected a marvellous ivory temple in the heart of Africa, and is gathering the tribes together to make a great nation that will drive out the white man. ”

“ If you are really anxious to see it through my spectacles, you have only to turn to my letters of 1861, when I was assisting that most charming of all charming travellers, Alexina Tinne, to arrange the expedition which was to have reached the sources of the Nile, and in them you will find a very detailed account of Egypt. Consequently, for some time to come, you must not expect any geographical details. That part of Africa where I now am does not count for anything—it is far too civilized. ”

“ It is impossible in a small book to deal more than briefly with the subject, and very slight treatment has had to suffice for many matters of interest. I hope, however, that I have succeeded in conveying a clear impression of what South-West Africa is, and what it may become. Brief and unpretentious though the book is, it may serve to dispel the notion that the country is nothing more than a desert and of very little value to the Empire. ”

“ Ethiopia is over against Egypt and Africa, on the southern part thereof; from the east it stretcheth over against the west even to the Ethiopian Sea. And because much of the people of these three nations are Christians, and because they desired to see the world, they came to these parts of Spain, where they received great gifts from the Infant, on account of which the author hath given this description in his chapter thereupon. ”

“ These African tribes are not what we conceited Europeans often take them for. Their languages are very beautiful, and they have no patois. I beg of you not to give credence to all the absurdities which have been uttered on these subjects. You will meet with a number of very intelligent tribes. They are merely behind the age; and Livingstone, who had studied them thoroughly, stated once in my presence that Europe, a century ago, was not one whit more enlightened than the Africa of the present day. But let us turn our attention once more to the preparations for our departure. ”

“ Asia and Africa are divided by Alexandria, a city of Egypt; and that country is bounded on the west by the river Nile, and then by Ethiopia to the south, which reaches quite to the southern ocean. The northern boundary of Africa is the Mediterranean sea all the way westwards, to where it is divided from the ocean by the pillars of Hercules; and the true western boundaries of Africa are the mountains called Atlas and the Fortunate Islands. ”

“ The glowing accounts brought back by the returned navigators of the abundance of fruits, vegetables, and the splendor of the climate of the new country, kindled the fire of adventurous enthusiasm in the Ethiopians, and they soon followed the example set them by the Egyptians. Henceforward, streams of emigrants were passing over the Isthmus of Suez, that high road to Africa, who became permanent residents of the promised land. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is one of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of the nineteenth century that a complete continent remained thus until late in the history of the world to serve as a new field for the outpouring of the nations. The occupation of Africa by Europeans, indeed, began earlier. The Arabs had held the section north of the Sahara for many centuries, Portugal claimed—but scarcely occupied—large sections east and west, and the Dutch had a thriving settlement in the south. ”

“ In olden times the gateway to Africa was Egypt and the Nile. As an empire, history furnishes nothing so curious as Egypt; as a river nothing so interesting as her Nile. We may give to the civilization of China and India whatever date we please, yet that of Egypt will prove as old. And then what a difference in tracing it. That of China and India rests, with a187 few exceptions, on traditions or on broken crockery tablets and confused shreds of ruins. That of Egypt has a distinct tracery in monuments which have defied the years, each one of which is a book full of grand old stories. ”

“ In short, Africa, such as we have seen it either on the banks of the Senegal or the Peninsula of Cape Verd, is a new country, which promises to the naturalist an ample harvest of discoveries, and to the philosophical observer of mankind, a vast field for research and observation. May the detestable commerce in human flesh, which the Negroes abhor, and the Moors desire, cease to pollute these shores! ”

“ I was astonished, when I met Portuguese traders who came down as far as 150 miles eastward of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, that they came from the lakes, traversing the continent from Loanda, Benguela, and Mosamedes, and appear in the vicinity of Shesheke. Those men know every tribe and river, and the peculiarities of the different tribes, in those tracts so well that they should be able to write a book on those parts. A very lively trade is going on in the interior towards the West coast. ”

“ West Africa, name given to the region SW. of the Sahara, consisting of low lands with high lands behind, and through the valleys of which rivers flow down, and including Senegambia, Upper Guinea, and Lower Guinea, the coast of which is occupied by trading stations belonging to the French, the English, the Germans, the Belgians, and the Portuguese, and who are severally forcing their way into the inland territory connected with their several stations. ”

“ We see, however, no good in pretending that she has not obtained the most magnificent opportunity for over-sea development which has fallen to any Power within recent times. The best way of understanding the Convention is to realise what it is that France now possesses in West Africa. Let our readers look at a map of Africa, and first fix their eyes on Algiers and Tunis, with their rich soil and splendid harbours and their remains of an ancient and splendid civilisation,—Phœnician, Greek, Roman, Christian, and Arab. ”

“ Hence eight generations of European mariners had circumnavigated the continent without seriously attempting to penetrate its central mass; and apart from the Anglo-Dutch settlements at the Southern extremity, the French empire in Algeria in the north, a few trading centres on the West Coast, and some half-derelict Portuguese stations in Angola and Mozambique, the whole continent remained available for European exploitation in 1878. ”

“ For centuries Africa has been known as the Dark Continent. The edges of this immense tract have been known as far back as 22history goes. Egypt, on the North, is the oldest government on earth; while the nations bordering on the Mediterranean and Red seas, were actors in the earliest recorded histories. ”

“ Strange country, Egypt, master. You know, our people have come from there; but, trust me, I could find none of my cousins among either the Turks or the Arabs. The Arabs, master, are quite the gipsies of Egypt: and Bill and I—but he paid dearly for them afterwards, poor fellow—used frequently to visit such of their straggling tribes as came to the neighbourhood of our camp. You, and the like of you, master, are curious to see our people, and how we get on—and no wonder ”

“ For the political economist and the humanitarian, Egypt is the most interesting and the saddest study of this age; its agriculture and its people are alike unique. For the ordinary traveler the country has not less interest, and I suppose he may be pardoned if he sometimes loses sight of the misery in the strangeness, the antique barbarity, the romance by which he is surrounded.
As we lay, windbound, a few miles below Soohag, the Nubian trading-boat I had seen the day before was moored near; and we improved this opportunity for an easy journey to Central Africa, by going on board. ”

“ Egypt shall labour, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians and Sabeans. Men of stature shall come over unto Thee and shall be Thy servants, and shall follow after Thee, bound in chains, and shall worship Thee and make supplication unto Thee, for God is in Thee and there is no God beside Thee. For Thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of Israel, the Saviour. ”

“ And from that other coast of Chaldea, toward the south, is Ethiopia, a great country that stretcheth to the end of Egypt. Ethiopia is departed in two parts principal, and that is in the east part and in the meridional part; the which part meridional is clept Mauritania; and the folk of that country be black enough and more black than in the tother part, and they be clept Moors. In that part is a well, that in the day it is so cold, that no man may drink thereof; and in the night it is so hot, that no man may suffer his hand therein. ”

“ EGYPT has sat for her likeness longer than any other country. Nothing disturbs her composure. Financial ruin may stare her in the face, armies may come and go, but each year the Nile rises and spreads out over her, and all traces of disturbances are gone. ”

“ Vincent, that "while Egypt was under the power of its native sovereigns Tyre, Sidon, Arabia, Cyprus, Greece, Sicily, and Carthage, were all enriched by the trade carried on in its ports, and the articles of commerce which could be obtained there, and there only; the Egyptians themselves were hardly known in the Mediterranean as the exporters of their own commodities; they were the Chinese of the ancient world, and the ships of all nations, except their own, laded in their harbours." ”