: The Continent of the Future: Africa and Its Wonderful Development Exploration Gold Mining Trade Missions and Elevation by Coppinger William - Africa Colonization

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The Continent of the Future.

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 for two railroads: from Algiers to Timbuctoo, across the Sahara, and from Saint Louis, Senegal, to Bamaka and Sego. Two millions of francs 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 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, They have now reached three hundred and sixty-five million francs,

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.

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