Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1850-08-17
Africa.

| What a wonderful continent is this rounded
smooth-shored Africa, known from the earliest
| dawn of time, vet so unknown; the granary OF
nations, vet sterile and fruitEess rs the sea
swarmng with life, vet dazzling the eyes with
| its vast tract of glittering sand. North Aulerl-
| ca, first seen but the other day has been prob
| ed from end to end; its gallant and respective
| Philips, Tecumsehs, and MonteZumas, have
been bridled and broken by the white man: but
Africa has seen no Cortez, or even DeSoto
or LaSalIe: "wringing favor from fate. Some
solitary Mnngo Park, or faithful Lander, or
persevering Burckhardt, alone has tried to read
the secret of the mother of civilization, the gray
haired African.
1 If 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 mountain cliff of a
sphinx; the ruins of Carthage; the Nile, with
its hidden sources; the Niger, with its unknown
outlet; the Remembering Atlas; the dimly seen
Mountains of the Moon!
There, reader, the slave rose romanticaly to
be the ruler of millions; there Moses, floating
in his cradle, is saved by the kings daughter,
mad like the hero of some earlier chivalry,
breaks the bonds of his people, and feunds a
new and mighty nation. There was the home
of Dido, of Hannibal, the scene of Scipio,s
triumphs, and Jurgurtha's crimes; there lived
Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine; the ro-
nance of the Moors dwelt there; the last breath
of Louis of France was drawn there.
Africa is the home Of the leviathan, the be-
hemoth, the unicorn, the giraffe, the slight an
telope, the earti-shaking elephant, the unac-
blo l;o,, tho oil hpffa1n II
is the home, too, of the mysterious negro races,
yet lying dormant in the germ.
The past, present and future of Africa are
alike wrapt in mystery. Who can tell us Of
the childhood of dark-browed Egypt, square,
shouldered and energetic? Carthage, the Eng
land Of the old worlds rulers, has not even a
romancing Livy, still less an unwearied ME-
buhr, to explain her rise and untangle the mys-
teries of her constitution. Of all the vast in
terror, what do we know more than the Punic
merchants, who, like US, dealt there, taking
slaves. ivory and gold.
And what can we hope hereafter to see in
those immense, unknown lands? God hae ena-
bled the European to drive the North Ameri-
can, step by step, toward extinction, and he has
giver- great continent the full development
and trial of whatever permanent power the
Caucasian race possesses; but Africa ne mas
what! For future contest!-
For an imported foreign civilization, to be en-
tered through Liberals and Cape Colonies!-
France and Britain are watching each other
now along those burning sands, as they once
watched by the icy rocks of Canada and Aca-
dia; is it to end in the same subjection of the
aboriginal owners to one or both of these? Or
does the dark race, in all its varieties, possess
a capacity for understanding, and living out
the deep meaning of the worlds ruler Chris
tianity, as the offspring of the followers of 0.
din never did, and never cam hderstand and
act it?
If the old Egyptian Sesostris had paused to
contemplate the illiterate wanderers Of Greece,
to whom Cadmus was just striving to make
known the letters of Phenicia, would not Pla-
to and Aristotle have emed as impossible to
him as the existenc59lh Africa of higher
than has yet been seen, seems to
us! Would the present position of the Teu-
tonic race have appeared equally incredible to
the founder Of the Parthenon, the loungers in
the gardens of the Academy?--Foreign Re
,fe3y esE5 -. ...-