The Continent of the Future: Africa and Its Wonderful Development Exploration, Gold Mining, Trade, Missions and Elevation

The Continent of the Future.

HAMPTON, VA.: Normal School Steam Press. 1881.

THE CONTINENT OF THE FUTURE.

AFRICA AND ITS WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT――EXPLORATION, GOLD MINING, TRADE, MISSIONS AND ELEVATION.

The tide of modern civilization and religious development is sweeping round the globe. With the rapid advance of India, the unparalleled strides of Japan, and the steady progress of China to the new era, Africa is about to reveal its long-kept secrets and its possibilities of contributing to the elevation of its inhabitants and the welfare of the world. Commerce, capital, science, philanthropy, and religion have joined hands to penetrate the mysterious land and cast light on its gloomiest portions. Africa is very nearly everywhere regarded as the continent of the future.

GOVERNMENTAL.――France seems about to absorb Tunis and Tripoli, and to unite Algeria to her Senegal possessions. The Chambers have voted eight millions of francs ($1,600,000) for two railroads: (1) from Algiers to Timbuctoo, across the Sahara, and (2) from Saint Louis, Senegal, to Bamaka and Sego. Two millions of francs ($400,000) have also been appropriated for the construction of a telegraph line from Dakar to Saint Vincent, to place Senegal in telegraphic connection with Europe. A loan is proposed of forty-five millions of francs ($9,000,000) for the formation of three hundred villages and the introduction of two hundred thousand colonists into Algeria. This expanding colony is just fifty years old. In 1830, the total exports and imports did not amount to two million francs, ($400,000.) They have now reached three hundred and sixty-five million francs, ($63,100,000.)

M. Soleillet and M. Doponchel give the result of their long and thorough reconnoissance as highly favorable to the project of crossing the Sahara by steam, and they describe the desert as far more fertile than is commonly believed. The latter says: “What is being so successfully accomplished by England in India, by the United States in North America, and by Russia in Central Asia, that should we try to do in emulation of their example――seek a continent whereon to extend our beneficent influence, and find, by the employment of our idle capital, at once a new market for the products of our industries and manufactures, and a vast centre of agricultural production, able to supply us, at small cost, with the raw materials not indigenous to our soil, which we now only obtain with difficulty from foreign sources.”

The expedition under Gallieni is stated to have reached Saint Louis from Timbuctoo, having completed a survey for a railroad between those points, which is pronounced to be entirely feasible. He met with a friendly reception, and formed treaties with numerous tribes, whereby France is granted a right of way, and may establish ambassadorial or military representatives at the proposed principal stations. M. Matheis has been commissioned by the French Government to explore the country from the bend of the Niger to Lake Tchad. M. L. Vassian, an attache of the French Department for Foreign Affairs, is to reside for a time at Khartoum, to study the nature of the commercial relations to be formed with Soudan.

At a conference at Paris in relation to the territories between Sierra Leone and the Gambia, it is understood that the decision reached was that the French are to retain the Mellacouri and the English the Scarcies. The newly appointed Governor of Sierra Leone, Arthur Elibank Havelock, Esq., was one of the representatives of the British Government at the conference.

Portugal is actively caring for her extensive African domain. The Governor-General of Angola has been directed to organize a system of colonization in that province, by selecting a region best adapted for its salubrity, fertility of soil, abundance of water, and facility of communication, and to prepare accommodations for one hundred colonists and their families, an emigration having begun from Madeira. Lorenzo Marquez, the port of Delagoa Bay, has been ceded to Great Britain. It is the best harbor on the south-eastern coast, while its geographical relation to Natal, Zululand and the Transvaal makes its possession of importance to England. The latter guarantees to Portugal the exclusive right to the territory between the Ambriz and Congo rivers. The concession made by the Portuguese Government to the Andrada Land Company, extending from the Shire to the Kafrio, at Nyampanga Island, about seven hundred miles, is in course of examination by a party of French mining engineers. The Commercial Association of Lisbon is raising funds by subscription to be offered to the Government to co-operate with it in the foundation of civilizing stations in the Portuguese African colonies.

Spain is meditating a protectorate of Morocco. Messrs. Bolliglia, Mamoli and Pastori, of the “Italian Society for Promoting Commercial Exploration in Africa,” have left Tripoli to examine the elevated plain of Barka and to found trading posts at Bengasi, Derna and Tebreck, and afterwards others on the oasis bordering the road to Uadai and Bornu. The Italian Government has contributed generously to outfit the expedition. The same Society has dispatched M. Demeitri and M. Michieli from Khartoum for the Red Sea, with a caravan of seven hundred camels laden with various kinds of merchandise for trade. The Egyptian Government has sent the learned Rohlfs to the King of Abyssinia to arrange mutual relations on a friendly basis. The Sultan of Zanzibar has engaged the intrepid Thomson to conduct a geographical investigation of the Rovouma.

THE SLAVE TRADE.――It is estimated that fifty thousand natives are annually conveyed to the Turkish and Egyptian ports of the Red Sea, where they are disposed of to dealers. The Sultan of Zanzibar has dispatched an armed force of five hundred men, commanded by an officer detailed from the British Army, in the direction of Lake Tanganyika, and the British Government is to establish consuls at Suakin and Khartoum, with authority to travel in Egypt and on the Red Sea, “to heal the open sore of the world.” The French Government is to make earnest efforts and to co-operate with England in all measures having in view the same humane object. The Khedive has appointed Comte Della Salla to the special office of repressing the slave traffic in lower Egypt. It is to be regretted that at the Berlin Congress in 1878, which afforded an excellent opportunity for concerting a treaty on slavery between the Powers of Europe, this good result was rendered impossible by the action of the English representatives.

EXPLORATIONS.――In the exploration of Africa the Germans keep the lead, of which almost nothing is known until they appear after an absence of a few years, with a fund of knowledge that is astonishing. Witness, for instance, the apparition of Lenz from a journey from Morocco to Timbuctoo, and thence to Medina and St. Louis. This famous traveler reports passing through towns of from ten to thirty thousand inhabitants, and of having made discoveries which explode the theory of converting the Sahara into an ocean. He states that the most depressed portion of El Juff, the body of the desert, is some five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and that there exist in several oases points which promise to be of great utility for the proposed Sahara railway.

Dr. Pogge is penetrating the country inland from St. Paul de Loando, the German Government having asked for him the protection of the Portuguese Government in its African jurisdiction. Dr. Holub, who has made interesting researches on the Zambesi, intends to cross the continent from south to north. Starting from the Cape of Good Hope he is to strike the Zambesi, thence the watershed district between that river and the Congo, and on to Egypt through Darfur.

Dr. Stocker is exploring Lake Toana. M. Piaggia is traversing Soudan, south of Khartoum, between the Blue and White Nile, M. Lombard, corresponding secretary of the Normandy Society of Geography, has entered on a scientific mission to Abyssinia. M. J. Chouver, a Hollander of fortune and experience as a traveler, has reached the Galla country on his way to the Cape of Good Hope. Capt. Ferreira, Governor of Benguela, and several officers of the army, have offered their services to the Geographical Society of Lisbon for a Portuguese expedition across Africa, starting from the West Coast. M. Antusa is organizing a commercial station at Zomba, where he is to be joined by workmen whom the Portuguese Government has promised to furnish to erect buildings. The learned Dr. Schweinfurth has returned from a visit to the Island of Socotra, off the coast of Aden, and affirms that it is very fertile, with a splendid and varied vegetation. One-fourth of its plants are peculiar to the locality.

M. Moustier, who in 1879, with M. Zweifel, discovered the source of the Niger, is again to start from Freetown on a trading venture and to fix the exact geographical position of “the rise of the mysterious river.” Lieut. Dumbleton and Surgeon Browning, R. A., are in charge of an expedition to penetrate, by the Gambia, into the valley of the Niger to Timbuctoo. Dr. Gouldsbury lately led an exploring party from the river Gambia, via Timbo and Port Lokko, to Sierra Leone, the outlay for which from the colonial treasury was £2,400, ($12,000.)

THE CONGO.――The illustrious Stanley has reached his second station on the Congo, Isangila, about 30 miles above Vivi, which point was gained only after faithful but weary toil, and against every kind of difficulty. He was obliged to throw bridges across the streams, open, hatchet in hand, a route across dense forests, blow up rocks; leading the way with a group of pioneers, and after advancing a little, to make a halt, pitch a camp, then go back to bring by instalments the rest of the convoy, till all were united. Count de Brazza has ascended the Ogowe to its headwaters, reaching thereby the sources of several of the affluents of the Congo. Descending one of these, the Alima, partly along the shore and partly by boats, he struck the Congo below Stanley Pool, and coming down the river he met Stanley. It is suggested that a more practicable route to the interior than that by the lower Congo may be opened by the Ogowe and the streams which rise near its source. The Count is again to descend the Alima, this time in a transportable steam launch, and then to make a thorough examination of the valley of the Congo――the area of which is estimated to be four times that of France.

TELEGRAPHIC.――Telegraphic communication has been established between Elmina and Cape Coast. The Portuguese Commissioner of Public Works has constructed in Angola a telegraphic line from St. Paul de Loando to Dondo and Calcullo. Preparations are making for its extension. The French Government proposes to connect Tunis with Corsica by cable. A third cable has been laid from Marseilles to Algiers. A second telegraphic line is in operation between Algeria and Tunis.

GOLD MINES.――Six companies are working on the Gold Coast with encouraging prospects. Improved machinery has been shipped by the African Company, and its mine is reported to be one of extraordinary richness. The success of the Gold Coast Company places it in the highest rank of gold mine enterprise. At meetings of the Effuenta Company (July 7 and 21) resolutions were adopted to create an additional two thousand shares of £5 each, ($25,) to be distributed among the existing shareholders proportional to their present holding. The number of shares applied for was more than double the amount to be issued. The Akankoo Gold Coast Company――a new organization――has acquired territory on the borders of the river Ancobra, and the celebrated Cameron has been engaged to open up the property. The British authorities have placed a civil commandant with a police force at Tacquah. Much of the delay experienced in the production of the precious metal is attributed in some cases to error of management, perhaps unavoidable, and in all to the many difficulties encountered in an almost unknown region, with the additional disadvantages of a very unhealthy climate for Europeans.