made the wilderness to blossom as the rose; while in the north-east, the aborious fellahin of Egypt turn to such good account the gifts of the Nile, that, on a cultivable area of less than 10,000 square miles, 10 millions of people live in comparative comfort, although they depend almost entirely on agriculture.

Elsewhere, however, the country and the people generally are far behind the least progressive of European, and we might almost say Eurasian, countries and peoples. In Inner North Africa, from the shores of the Red Sea to the coast of the Sahara, in the Kalahari region in Southern Africa, and in the sterile country between the Cunene and the Orange, the native populations are pastoral nomads, while some tribes subsist by hunting and fishing. The inhabitants of the Sudan and adjoining region have fixed habitations, and engage in agricultural as well as pastoral pursuits, but the two occup. tions employ different classes or castes of the people. In the Barbary States, in Abyssinia and on the Upper Nile, and in part of the Great Lake Region, and in British South Africa, no such distinction is made between cultivators and stock-breeders. The purely agricultural regions, in which the people are, above all, tillers of the soil, are the narrow valley and broad delta of the Nile, the littoral belts of Upper and Lower Guinea, much of the Congo basin in the interior, and the East African littoral from the Equator to the Zambesi.

The indigenous industries of most African peoples are, as we have sad, limited to the production of the barest necessaries of life, and the simplest preparation, or the mere collection for market, of useful raw products, which are exchanged for European manufactures, principally cotton goods, and, unhappiy, firearms and cheap spirits. The evil influences and the dire results of the drink traffic, especially in Western Africa and in the Portuguese possessions on the East Coast, are simply appalling, and sadly counterbalance any good that contact with Europeans may have effected. "For every native," writes Joseph Thomson, "we have brought to the confession of Christianity, we have driven a thousand into deeper depravity than before, and ruined them body and soul. We commenced our intercourse with these ill-fated people by shipping them in myriads to a life of slavery, and now, in the nineteenth century, we continue our kind attentions by supplying them with incredible quantities of gin, rum, gunpowder, and guns: and it is doubtful whether the evils arising from the latter traffic do not quite outrun the horrors of the former." Although some of the more settled and advanced tribes are industrious agriculturists, and weave cloth, work in metals, and can make rude arms and agricultural implements and vessels for domestic use, the average African has no love for labour of any kind, and little inclination for any fixed trade or handicraft. Where enslaved, his labour is forced; where free, he works spas modically on the farm or in the mine, almost invariably returning to his primitive mode of life as soon as he has amassed a little money or has gained some eagerly desired object. But even if he were disposed and able to work in the European sense of the term, the restless activity and enterprise of Europeans leave absolutely no chance for successful imitation or competition on the part of the natives; in fact, as the late Keith Johnston pointed out, the indigenous industries, even in the most flourishing of the native States, such as those of the Central Sudan, are declining, and threaten ere long to disappear.

The means of communication between Africa and Europe are daily becoming more numerous and rapid, and in a few years there

will be no point of any importance on the African coasts which will not have regular steam communication with, and also be united by, submarine telegraph lines to Europe.

As it is, there is direct and regular steamship communication with all the more important ports on the African coasts. The mail steamers of the BritishAfrican Steam Navigation Co. and of the African Steamship Co., from Liver. pool, sail regularly to the West African ports; the Union Castle Line, from Southampton, despatch their mail steamers to South and East African ports; while the Cunard, Papayanni, and Moss steamers, from Liverpool, call at the principal ports on the North African coast. The Clan Line, from Glasgow (fo: West and South-West Coast ports); th Wilson Line, from Hull (for Egypt); the British India Steam Navigation Co., from London (for Zanzibar); and Italian vessels, from Genoa (for North African ports); German steamers, from Hamburg (for all African ports); French steamers, from Marseilles (to Algeria and North Africa), and from Bordeaux (for Senegambia); Brit sh and other steamers, from Antwerp (for the Congo)-these sail regularly to and from the ports named. Hundreds of cargo steamers and sailing vessels are also employed, but the entire trade of the continent is deplorably small wher compared with that of Eurasia, America, or Australia.

Of the total maritime commerce of Africa, which amounts to about zoo millions sterling-imports and exports-about 80 millions must be credited to the countries along the Mediterranean, and 100 millions to the countries at the other end of the continent-the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal-the remaining 20 millions representing the over-sea trade of the West and East African ports. Egypt alone, although its productive area is limited to the delta and valley of the Lower Nile, scarcely 13,000 square miles, sends out cotton and other products far exceeding in value the total exports from the whole of tropical Africa. How insignificant, comparatively, the trade of Africa is may be gathered from the fact that the foreign trade of our Indian Empire, covering, with the Native States, 11⁄2 million square miles, amount to something like 212 millions sterling, or about 12 millions more than the total imports and exports of Africa-a continent with an area of 12 million square miles Or, comparing it with the commerce of the thinly. peopled continent of Australia, with only one-fourth of the area and one-fiftieth of the population, we find that the imports and exports of the whole of Africa ar only twice the value of those of the naturally far less productive islandcontinent.

This paucity of interchange of productions with the outside world is due to the same causes as those which retard the development of almost all industries in Africa. But, as things are at present, the maritime trade would be far greater than it is were it not for the extreme difficulty, and consequent costliness, of transporting goods and produce from the interior to the coast. The apparently magnificent waterways into the heart of the continent-the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, and the Zambesi-are unfortunately obstructed by falls and rapids. The cataracts of the Nile are formidable; those of the Congo render 200 miles of its lower course absolutely impassable. "The Zambesi is of little value as a commercial highway. Vessels of small size, if they manage to pass the bars at the delta, may, when the river is not too low, go up some distance beyond the mouth of the Shiré; but above that there are rapids and shoals which make the navigation extremely risky. The Niger is not so ill adapted as the

others for navigation, though its delta is puzzling and the bars at its mouth sometimes awkward. Practically it may be navigated by launches and large boats up to about Bussa; and a little engineering could make it navigable as far as Timbuktu. On its great tributary, the Benue, boats or launches can ascend to Yola, not far from its source. The Niger, then, may be regarded as on the whole the best river highway in Africa, and as it leads into the rich Central Sudan, its commercial importance is evident." The Nile, between the upper and lower cataracts, is navigable for river steamers; and the Congo, which sea-going vessels can navigate for over 100 miles from the sea, has, above the falls, over 1,000 miles of uninterrupted navigation, while not a few of its tributaries, especially on the south, form excellent water ways.

Railways, then, especially short lines to connect the navigable portions of the chief rivers, are essential to any considerable development of the resources of Africa.

South Africa is being rapidly opened up by means of railways, none of its rivers being of any value for navigation. The Cape Railways have been already extended beyond the limits of the Colony to the Diamond Fields, and further north, viá Mafeking, to Bulawayo, the capital of Rhodesia, and beyond the Zambezi, which is crossed by a bridge near the famous Victoria Falls; and the line is to be extended as rapidly as possible to Lake Tanganyika, and will ultimately form the southern section of the Cape-to-Cairo Trans-continental Railway, planned by the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes, which, when completed, will have a total length of about 5,700 miles. The Midland Railway from Port Elizabeth has been already extended to Bloemfontein, the cap tal of the Orange River Colony, and Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal; while the Eastern Railway, from East London to Aliwal North, is also united to the other trunk lines of the Cape. Pretoria is also connected by rail with Deiagoa Bay, and with Durban by a railway which traverses the whole of Natal; and the line from Beira to Salisbury has been extended to Bulawayo.

In East Africa a railway now runs from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza, and a German line is under construction from Tanga to the southern shore of the lake. A railway is being built from Jibuti, on the French Somaliland coast, to Harar and Addis Abeba, the capital of Abyssinia. In Algeria and Tunis, a long line runs 10m Tlemcen through Oran, Algiers, and Constantine to Tunis, and shorter lines run into the interior from Phillip peville and Oran. Morocco and Tripoli have no railways, but Egypt is well supplied with them. Excellent lines connect Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez, while the main line is continued up the Nile Valley to Assuan, and will be extended to Wadi Halfa, from which place the line has been built as far as Khartoum, and is to be shortly extended to the Sobat River, nearly 500 miles further south. This line is joined near Berber by a railway across the desert from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea. In the Congo State, a railway is now open from Matadi to Stanley Pool, between which places cataracts impede the navigation of the Congo. In West Africa, an important line between Kayes and Bamako, links the Senegal and Niger, another line connects the Upper Niger with the coast at Konakry, and railways are now built from Lagos and Kotonu into the interior. In Angola, a line runs from Loanda to Ambaca and Kasanje, and in German South-west Africa there is railway communication between Windhoek, the capital, and the coast.

With the exception of a few other railways, the internal traffic of the continent is carried on by camel-caravans in the north, and by ox-waggons in the southboth slow and costly means of transit. In Central Africa several attempts have been made to introduce the Asiatic elephant, the ox, and the mule, as beasts of burden, but the climate and the tsetse fly have rendered all precautions use1. J S. Keti. See further an excellent resume the Development of the Continent."-Applied Geoon "The Geography of Africa in its bearings on graphy, pp. 52 90. (London: George Phiip & Sea )

less, and thus the only possible way of conveying merchandize across he country to and from the coast is by negro carriers. And it is this necessity of employing human porters to carry the only valuable product of Inner Africa-ivory-to the coast that is the real cause of the slave-hunting still pursued by Arab traders in the interior. The slave trade in itself does not pay, and is only carried on because the traffic in slaves and the traffic in ivory have always worked hand in hand. All trade-routes are slave-routes; and as ivory is by far the most valuable product of Africa, the trade in it is carried on in conjunction with that of the next most valuable product-slaves. A strict blockade of the coasts is maintained by British and other cruisers, and many an Arab dhow, laden with slaves for the Arabian ports, has been captured and the slaves liberated; but the slave trade still flourishes in the interior, and thousands of slaves are annually driven across the Great Desert to Morocco and Tripoli, on the shores of the Red Sea. But those who "reach their destination represent only a tithe of the victims of the Slave Trade. Apart from the innumerable deaths on the march, we have to account for the untold thousands who are butchered in the raids when these slaves are captured."

The progress of African Exploration has been so rapid during the last half century that Africa can no longer be called the "Dark Continent." With the exception of the great barren wastes in the north, and the country between Lake Chad and the Congo, almost every part of the continent has been traversed again and again, and no geographical problem of the first importance now remains unsolved.

The Story of African Exploration is intensely interesting, but we cannot here follow the brave explorers who dared to face the perils and difficulties of the unknown, in order to lift the veil of mystery which had for so many ages covered the face of the Dark Continent. The discovery of the Great Lakes is the crowning glory of modern African exploration, and all these were revealed to the world by English-speaking explorersLivingstone, Speke, Grant, Burton, Baker, and Stanley. Livingstone was undoubtedly the greatest explorer, and Stanley is the most daring adventurer the world has ever seen. Other nations also have sent brave men to pierce through and illumine some part of this great continent, and the Russian Junker, the German Schweinfurth, the Portuguese Serpa Pinto, the Belgian Van Gele, and a host of others, have so nobly supplemented the labours of British and American explorers that we can now say of Africa, Post tenebras ¡ux.

The Political Partition of Africa: The numerous changes in the political and territorial divisions of Africa, effected during recent years, have doubtless proved somewhat confusing to the student, especially if he has not been able to correct the statements in the ordinary text-books by reference to the most recent maps. As the whole of Africa, with the exception of the States of Morocco and Abyssinia, have now been brought, at least nominally, under the influence of European powers, it may be of service to give a twofold view of the present divisions of the continent.

1. The student should read "The Traffic in Slaves," forming Chap. vi. of "The Develop

ment of Africa," by A. Silva White. (London George Philip & Son, Lt.)

I. NORTHERN AFRICA includes :

1. The Native Kingdom of Morocco.

2. The French Colony of Algeria and the Protectorate of Tunis.

3. The Turkish Vilayet of Tripoli, including Fezzan and Barca.

4. Egypt, nominally a province of the Turkish Empire, but practically a British Protectorate.

II. WESTERN AFRICA includes:

1. The Spanish Sabaran coast, from the borders of Morocco to Cape Blanco.

2. The French Colony and Protectorate of Senegal, the Upper SenegalNiger Colony, Mauritania, and across the Sahara to Algeria and Tripoli in the north, and the Egyptian boundary in the east.

3. The British Colony of the Gambia.

4. Portuguese Guinea and the Bissagos Islands.

5 French Guinea.

6. The British Colony of Sierra Leone.

7. The Independent Republic of Liberia.

8. The French Ivory Coast.

9. The British Gold Coast Colony, with the formerly independent native State of Ashanti.

10. The German Colony of Togo.

II. The French Protectorate of Porto Novo and Dahome, formerly the most powerful native kingdom on the Guinea Coast.

12. Nigeria, till 1899 governed by the Royal Niger Company, but now under the administration of the Colonial Office, and administratively divided into Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria (which now includes Lagos, and the former native kingdom of Yoruba and the old Niger Coast Protectorate).

13. The German Protectorate of the Kameruns.

14. The French Congo, which includes the whole region between the Kameruns and the Lower Congo, with the exception of the Ccrisco Bay enclave, which belongs to Spain, and the small Portuguese district of Cabinda, and the narrow coastal zone belonging to

15. The Congo State, nominally independent with the King of Belgium as sovereign, but practically a Belgian Crown Colony.

16. Angola (Portuguese West Africa), extending from the Congo on the north to the Cünene River on the south.

1 SOUTHERN AFRICA includes:

1. British South Africa-the Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland, the Colony and Protectorate of Bechuanaland and Rhodesia, and the recently annexed Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony.

2. German South-West Africa, which extends from the Cünene River on the north to the Orange River on the south, and includes Kaokoland, Damaraland, and Namaqualand but excludes the British possession at Walfish Bay.