AFRICA.

43

In the vast

in crossing the continent to Loando on the W. coast. ing retraced his steps to the point of the Zambesi from zan enjoys periodic rain from the moist winds of the MediHav- Tripoli through the kingdom of Fezzan to Lake Tchad. Fezwhich he had started, the adventurous traveler next followed terranean, which extend farther into the continent here than that stream till he reached the E. coast, at Quilimane, in elsewhere. The portion of the desert lying E. of the route 1856. From 1859 to 1863 was spent in various explorations above described is called the Libyan desert. It is chiefly in of Lake Nyassa and the neighboring regions. Again setting this region that the oases are susceptible of cultivation; the out in 1866, he found, in the region S. of Lake Tanganyika, tracts of vegetation in the western portion are fit for little else the river Chambezi. This river falls into Lake Bemba or than pasture, mainly for goats and sheep. The principal Bangweolo, is known between that lake and Lake Moero as production of the more fertile oases is dates. Gum-arabic is the Luapula, and further on in its course as the Lualaba, and another production. Some of the larger ones support thouwas by Livingstone traced through these lakes and as far as sands of inhabitants living in villages. Commerce is carried 4° S. lat. Livingstone's belief was that this basin, now known to be the Upper Congo, contained the head-waters of consisting of from 500 to 2,000 camels, with their attendants. on across the desert by various routes by means of caravans, the Nile. In 1871, along with Stanley, who had been sent by The inhabitants consist of independent tribes of Moors, the New York Herald in search of Livingstone, he found the Berbers, and Arabs. The great rivers of A. are the Nile, river Rusizi flowing into the N. of Lake Tanganyika. His the Niger, the Zambesi, the Orange, the Congo, the Senegal, last enterprise consisted in further exploration of these re- and the Gambia. The first of these is formed by the juncgions and new efforts to find the Nile sources. Ilala, beyond Lake Bemba, in May, 1873. Burton and Speke, Blue Nile, (Bahr-el-Asrak.) The principal lakes are Tchad, He d. at tion of two rivers-the White Nile (Bahr-el-Abiad) and the crossing the Border Mountains from Zanzibar, in 1857, dis- Chad, or, more correctly, according to Dr. Barth, Tsad, the covered Lake Tanganyika, and the latter, then journeying chief lake of Soudan or Central A., circumference about to the N.-E., discovered the southern part of the great Vic- 200 m.; Denibea or Tzana, in Abyssinia, through which the toria Nyanza, which he supposed to be the head reservoir of Blue Nile flows, about 65 m. 1. and 30 w.; Lake N'gami, in the Nile. A second expedition, undertaken by Speke and southern A., the center of the internal drainage of the counGrant in the end of 1860, penetrated as far N. as Gondo- try between the Orange and the Zambesi, about 2,500 ft. koro, on the White Nile, and added vastly to our knowledge above the sea-level, 70 m. 1. and 20 w. of the eastern equatorial regions of A. and Grant were met by Mr. (now Sir Samuel) Baker. Baker, bique, lies Lake Nyassa, at an elevation of 1,200 ft. above At Gondokoro Speke besi, and about 350 m. inland from the coast of MozamNorth of the Zamaccompanied by his wife, pushed on to the S., and discovered the sea-level. The discoveries of Tanganyika and the Vicin 1864, W. of the Victoria, another extensive lake, which toria Nyanza by Speke, and of the Albert Nyanza by Baker, he called the Albert Nyanza. He returned in 1873 from a have been already noticed. It is now satisfactorily ascersecond expedition-of a military character-undertaken at tained that the source of the Nile lies in the basin of these the expense of the Pasha of Egypt to suppress slavery in the lakes. In time of flood Tanganyika also discharges into the upper regions of the Nile. (See SLAVERY, etc.) The geog- Lualaba. Climate, Productions, etc.-There are three variraphy, language, and manners of the inhabitants of Abys- eties of climate, corresponding to the structure of the contisynia, Sennaar, and Kordofan have also during late years nent: first, that of the plateaus; second, that of the terraces been greatly illustrated by the efforts of various European which lead to them; third, that of the coasts. travelers. The researches of Dr. Barth and his companions desert of Sahara, extending over an area equal to that of the (1850-55)-investigating the same central division of the Mediterranean Sea, almost destitute of water and vegetation, continent as Clapperton and Denham-and Dr. Schwein- and partly covered with tracts of sand and bare low rocks, furth's travels (1868-71) in unexplored regions, have enriched the heat of the day is uniformly contrasted with the coldness our store of knowledge regarding this land. In 1874-75 of the night; while on the terrace-land of Limbu, for inLieut. Cameron surveyed the lower half of Lake Tanganyika, stance, situated behind the Sierra Leone region, we find a and walked across tropical A. from E. to W., all but deter- temperate and wholesome climate; and in that rising bemining the source of the Congo. Finally Mr. Stanley, who had hind the Slave Coast we have beautiful landscapes, abunstarted from Zanzibar in 1874, explored the Victoria Nyanza dant springs, new forms of vegetation, and a mild Italian air. and its affluent, the Shimiyu, in 1875-76. ing the Lualaba at Nyangwe in the end of 1876, he forced thickly peopled, "the Paradise of the World." Then, strik The natives of Congo call their terrace lands, which are his way down the stream, and, arriving at the mouth of the vegetation of A. is decidedly less varied than that of Europe Congo in autumn, 1877, demonstrated that the Lualaba and or Asia. Along the Mediterranean sea-board it greatly reThe the Congo are identical. Physical Features.-A. is situated sembles that of southern Europe. in the Eastern Hemisphere, to the S. of Europe and the S.-W. of are not so rich in species of plants as those of South AmerAsia. It is of an irregular triangular form, with the vertex ica, but still they exhibit many peculiar genera. The tropical regions toward the S., having the Mediterranean on the N., the Isth-leave the sultry coasts and ascend the terraces toward the inmus of Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean on the E., and the terior we pass gradually from tropical productions to those of As we Atlantic on the W. The formation of the Suez Canal has the temperate zones, which all flourish well in several parts nominally converted A. into an island. The coast-line is of A. The forests are rich in valuable woods, especially the marked by few indentations or projections; the most impor- harder kinds, some of them excellent for ship-building. Here tant gulf being that of Guinea on the W., and Capes Bon, we find the gigantic Adansonia digitata, or baobab. Ebony, Verd, Good Hope, and Guardafui, the extreme points respect- certain kinds of rosewood, and the timber called African teak, ively on the N., W., S., and E. The greatest 1. of the continent, taken from N. to S., is about 4,985 m.; its greatest ter-tree is one of the most remarkable productions of the are among the productions of the tropical forests. The butw., from E. to W., 4,615 m.; and its area, excluding the central regions. Extensive level tracts are covered with adjacent islands, 11,514,500 sq. m. and the cultivated tract which borders the Mediterranean parts of A., and are of the greatest importance to the inhab Between the Soudan acacias. Certain palms are very characteristic of different stretches the Sahara or Great Desert. nearly to the Senegal, the N. bend of the Niger, and Lake degree, the doom-palm, both of them growing in regions comIt extends S. itants, particularly the date-palm in the N., and, in an inferior Tchad, northward to the Atlas range in Morocco and Algeria, paratively arid, and often surrounded by the very sands of and toward Egypt it reaches to the Mediterranean. Its the desert; while the oil-palm flourishes amid the tropical average w. from N. to S. is about 1,000 m. the Atlantic to the western edge of the valley of the Nile which now attracts the ships of Europe, in constantly increas Its 1. from luxuriance of the W., and supplies an article of commerce is 2,000 m. Over a great part of this region rain never ing numbers, to shores once frequented only for the prosecu falls, and every-where it is rare. of fine shifting sand, which frequent storms of wind raise many parts of the tropical coasts. It consists partly of tracts tion of the slave-trade. into the air so as often to overwhelm travelers. But the success at the Cape of Good Hope, and the sugar-cane in The cocoanut-palm flourishes on greater part of the surface consists of naked but firm soil, different parts of the continent. In the animal kingdom we The vine is cultivated with composed of indurated sand, sandstone, granite, and quartz- find the lion, the leopard, hyenas, jackals, and others of the rocks, often rising into ridges or hills. The desolation is in- canine family, a species of elephant differing in some particu terrupted at intervals by patches, sometimes of considerable lars from that of Asia, several species of rhinoceros, the hipextent, covered with bushes and coarse grass, and often of popotamus, wart-hogs, (Phascocharus,) and many kinds of great beauty and fertility. These oases, or wadies, as they monkeys, particularly within the tropics. The giraffe, the are called, which are occasioned by subterranean springs, are zebra, and the quagga are peculiar and characteristic, as are most numerous and fertile in the eastern portion of the desert. also numerous species of antelope, which occupy in African The easiest route across the desert to Soudan runs from zoology the place of deer in other parts of the world. The

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AFRICA-AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

ration of the Ogové district. They found that the Ogové rises in a mountain range on this side of the Congo, and is formed by a number of rivulets descending from this range. They still believed, however, that the Ogové receives much of its water from the Congo basin, though by subterranean infiltration.-The Abbé Debaize, under the auspices of the French government, undertook an important expedition from Marseilles via Zanzibar, April 20, 1878, but d. at Ujiji, Dec., 1879, just as he had completed his preparations for exploring the great tract of country between Lakes Tan ganyika and Albert Nyanza. African Exploration from Western Coast. - Major Serpa Pinto left Benguela toward the end of 1877, and made a journey across the African Continent from W. to E. Starting from Bihé, at the back of the Portuguese settlements, he followed the Zambesi for some distance, explored the Cuando, discovered the source of the Cubango, crossed the Kalahari Desert, and reached Pretoria, whence he was forwarded to Durban, in Natal, at the commencement of 1879, and so home.-M. Paul Soleillet, in 1878, conducted an expedition from Senegambia to open up a trade route between the W. coast and Algeria by way of In Calah and Timbuctoo, but was compelled by the natives to return after having reached Kouniakary in Segou. His expedition, however, enabled him to bring back a mass of information bearing on the plan of connecting the French colonies in the N. and W. by a railway passing through the Great Sahara and Timbuctoo. Among the more recently organized expeditions for exploring the interior of Africa may be mentioned that of the Belgian International Society, sent out via Zanzibar in 1878; that of Mr. Henry M. Stanley, from the W. coast, (1879-84,) to co-operate with the Belgians; and two German expeditions via the N., one commanded by Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs, and the other by Dr. Oscar Lenz; Lieut. Wissman's journey across Africa, 1881-83, and the De Brazza (1883-84) expedition, on the Congo, (French.) (See CONGO FREE STATE, AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, etc.) Besides the work of the International Association, Serpa Pinto and Wissman have crossed Africa; Ivens and Capello have performed remarkable journeys to the E. of Angola; De Brazza has given to France an empire in West Africa; Germany, fired with the spirit of colonial enterprise, has annexed all the territory in S.-W. Africa between Cape Frio and the British dominions at the Cape, besides acquiring the country of the Cameroons and a province in East Africa; Italy has colonized on the Red Sea; Great Britain has annexed the Niger Delta; and Portugal has become possessed of 700,000 sq. m. of African soil. Stanley's great expedition, 1887-89, from the W. coast to the interior to rescue Emin Bey, though not properly an exploring expedition, added largely to our knowledge of the interior of Africa.

gnu is one of the most remarkable of the antelope genus. Gold is much more plentiful than silver, being found abundantly in the sands of the great rivers that flow out of the central region, on the coast of Guinea, and also in the S.-E. of A. The Sierra Leone coast has valuable iron ore, which is also found in the Upper Senegal, the region of Timbuctoo, the Congo chain of mountains, Egypt, and Darfur. Copper is plentiful at Majomba, and elsewhere. The pop. is stated at 130,185,000. Population and Religion.-The native inhabitants belong to one of the three great divisions of the human family, called by Dr. Latham Atlantida, the Ethiopic of other ethnologists. The subdivision into tribes is endless, but they may be all classed in six groups: The Negro Atlantide, or negroes proper, who occupy western Africa from the Senegal to the Gaboon, Soudan in the center, and the low parts of the Upper Nile; the Kaffir Atlantida, or modified negroes, who inhabit the regions from N. of the equator to the Tropic of Capricorn; the Hottentot Atlantide; the Nilotic Atlantida occupying the water-system of the Upper and Middle Nile, (modern Abyssinians;) the Amazig Atlantida, usually called Berbers, and the Egyptian Atlantida, or old Egyptians, represented by the modern Copts. In religion the natives are various, but it may be questioned whether some of the tribes, especially in South Africa can be fairly described as having any religion. In not a few of these the religious consciousness seems wholly extinguished, and the very terms which express it have dropped out of their language. Throughout the N., and, to a considerable extent, in the interior, the creed of Mohammed is received, but held very loosely by many. The Mohammedan tribes on the W. coast divide themselves into two classes the Marabouts and the Sonnachees; but it is not easy to understand the exact nature of this distinction, beyond the simple fact that the Marabouts profess to adhere rather strictly to the laws of the prophet, while the Sonnachees are more secular, make little profession of sanctity, but eat pork, and will drink spirituous liquors. The lowest form of superstition, styled fetichism, prevails among the uncultured negro tribes, as well as among the Gallas, a nation widely spread S.-E. of Abyssinia; and the practice of offering human sacrifices is found in many tribes. The Abyssinians hold by tradition a crude form of Christianity. Of the forms of government among the several nations and tribes our knowledge is not definite. Though women are generally found in a degraded position, the wives of the king often take a part in council and exercise influence in State affairs. Of the interior commerce or barter of the natives among themselves our knowledge is scanty. The chieftains in the desert are the principal traders; and one feature in their character, though carried to a cruel extreme, is certainly favorable to commerce; debtors are treated with great severity. When payments are delayed, not only the debtor himself, but, if he African International Association, The. This body is absent, any member of his family, may be seized as a slave. was established in 1876, under the patronage of the King of The principal places of commerce in the E. are Marnegar, the Belgians, for the purpose of furthering a unity of aims Berber, Ankobar, Gondar, Sennaar, and Kobbe. In Benguela and methods among the various persons, societies, and govand Angola negro caravans from the interior arrive at the ernments engaged in colonizing or exploring the Congo counchief places on the coast, bringing slaves, ivory, and gold-try in West and Central Africa. The association was supported dust, which are bartered for various commodities, and the mainly from the private purse of King Leopold, and its chief plateau of the Upper Nile is visited by Arab traders from object was the opening of trade routes from the coast to the Zanzibar engaged in the same traffic. The political and geo- interior for legitimate traffic, hoping in time to stop the slavegraphical divisions of Africa are treated under their several trade and reduce the natives to a semblance of civilization. names, (q. v.) For accounts of the recent history of Africa On the E. coast similar operations were undertaken, and the see ABYSSINIA, ALGERIA, ASHANTI, EGYPT, LIBERIA, SUEZ route from Zanzibar to Ujiji was shortened from six months CANAL, ZULULAND, CONGO FREE STATE, TRANSVAAL, etc. to 45 days. Mr. Henry M. Stanley entered the service of Africa, Recent Exploration in. For accounts of King Leopold and founded several stations on the Congo, the earlier explorations see AFRICA, and other articles. Mr. Henry chief of which he named Leopoldville. (See VIVI, STANLEY M. Stanley surveyed the Victoria Nyanza 1875; Lake Tangan- POOL, etc.) De Brazza, the French explorer, and Lieut. Becker, yika 1876; crossed the African Continent from E. to W., also made advances into the interior on behalf of their recompletely identifying the Lualaba with the Congo, arriving spective governments. The West African Conference met at at Cape Town Oct. 21, 1877, in London, Jan. 22, 1878; pub- Berlin on Nov. 15, 1884. Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denlished Through the Dark Continent May, 1878. Stanley was mark, Spain, the U. S., France, Great Britain, Holland, Porsubsequently engaged in Africa as chief of the CONGO FREE tugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Italy, and Turkey, took STATE, (q. v.,) opening up routes of travel and surveying much part. The result of its deliberations was that the A. I. A. of the equatorial lake region. The Royal Geographical So- was constituted on a firm basis for trade and development ciety founded an African Exploration Fund in 1876, and sent in the CONGO FREE STATE, (q. v.) The yrs. 1885-90 were an expedition via Zanzibar, under Mr. Keith Johnson, Nov. occupied in the building-up process, the aim of the officers of 14, 1878, who d. at Berobero, June 28, 1879, when the con- the association, at the various stations planted by Stanley, beduct of the expedition fell upon Mr. Joseph Thompson, who ing to educate and civilize the natives to the extent of teachdiscovered a new route from Dar-es-Salaam to the N. end of ing them to raise and bring to market those products of the Lake Nyassa, opened up the unknown tract of country be-country suitable for commerce. Conflicting reports reached tween Nyassa and Tanganyika, settled the question of the out- Europe and Am. from time to time as to the possibilities flow of the latter, determined the position of Hikwa, a lake of the Congo country, some accounts representing affairs as which has long puzzled geographers, and arrived at Zanzibar being in most promising shape, while others painted the situawith all his men July 16, 1880.-M. Savorgnan de Brazza and tion and probable future in the darkest colors. Probably the Dr. Ballay arrived in Paris in 1879, after a three yrs.' explo- truth lies midway between these extreme views; meantime,