The Daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1845-1850, 1849-08-04
AFRICA.

AFRICA.
What wonderful continent it is, this rounded
smooth shored Africa known from the earliest
dawn of time, yet unknown; the granary OF
nations, yet sterile and fruiless as the sea
swarming with lie, yet dazzling the eyes of
Moon men with its vast tract of glitterng sand.
North America first seen but the other day, has
been probed from en1 to end; its gallant and res
tive Philips, Tecumsehs and MonteZumas have
been bridled and broken by the white ran but
Africa has sent no Cortez, or even a De Soto or
La Sale, 'wringing favors from fate as Santa
Anna has it. Some solitary Mungo Park, or
faithful Lauder, or perseverng Bruckhardt, alone
has tried TO read the secret OF the mother OF civ
lizahon, the gray haired African.
Ii we seek land of romance and mystery,
what quarter of the globe compares with that
which holds the pyramids; the giant Theban
temples, one roof OF which clusters modern
village; the solemn, hewn mountaiA cliff of a
Sphinx; the ruins of Carthage; the Nile with
its hidden sources; the Niger, with its unknown
outlet; the heaven bearing Atlas; the dimly
| seen mountains of the moon
There Joseph, the slave, rose Economically 10
be the ruler OF millions; There, Moses, floating
in his cradle, is saved, in the pures spirit of ro-
nance, by kings daughter, and like the hero OF
some earlier chivary, Arthur aud Merlin in one,
breaks the bonds of his people and POUNDS new
and mighty nation; there was the home of Dido,
OF Hannibal, the scene OF Scpio's triumphs,
Jugurtha's crimes there lived Turtullian, "A tha-
nasus, and Augustine the romance OF the Moors
dwelt there; the last breath OF the sainled Louis
OF France was drawn there and but.a year has
elapsed since the last shout of the latest hero of
romance, Add -Kadir, came family across the
Atlantic.
Africa is the home of the leviathan, the behe.
moth, the unicorn, the giraffe the slight antelope
scarce bigger than cat. the tlI Shaking elo-
plant, the unaccountabe hon the all cononerino
buffalo. 1t is the home, too, of the mysterious
negro races, races yet lying dormant in the germ:
destined, perhaps, to rule this earth when our
proud Anglo Saxon blood is as corrupt as that Of
the descendants OF Homer and Pericles.
The Past, Present, and Future of Africa are
alike wrapped in mystery. Who can tell us of
the childhood OF dark browed Egypt, square
shouIdered and energetic Carthage, the Enc
land OF the old worlds ruler, has not even a ro
mancing Livy, still less an unwearied Niebuhr.
TO explain her rise, and untangle the mysteries of
her constitution. OF all the vast interior, the
Abyssintas and Sondons what do we know more
IMAM the Punc merchants, who, like US, dealt,
there, taking slaves, ivory aud gold
And what can we hope hereafter to see in those
immense, unknown lands God has enabled the
European to drive the North American, step by
step, toward extinction, and has given our great
continent for the Enll developments and trial of
Whatever permanent power the Caucasian race
possesses; but Africa he had preserved - for
what? For future contest? For an imported,
foreign civilization, TO be entered through Libe-
rias and Cape Colonies? France and Britain are
watching each other now along these burning
sands, as they once watched by the icy rocks OF
Canada and Acadia is it TO end in the same sub
Jectlon OF the aboriginal owners to one or both of
these land pirates: Or does the dark race in all
its varieties possess capacity for understanding
and living out the deep meaning of the worlds
ruler, Christianity, as the offspring of the follow
ers OF Odin never did, and never can, understand
and act il?
Ii the old Egyptian Sesostris had paused amid
ms conquerlng and rock hewing to contemplate
Va llllteiate wanderers of Greece, to whom
Cadmus was just striving to make known the let
ters OF Phenicia, would not Plato and Aristotle
have seemed as impossible to him, as the exis.
tence in Africa OF higher Christianity than has
yet been seen, seems to US! Would not the
present position of the Tuetonic race have an
peared equally incredible to the founder of the
tarthenon, the loungers in the gardens OF the
Academy? North American Reu;e,,