Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-04-06
NUMBER 40.
ABOUT AFRICA.

smooth-shored Africa, known from the earliest
dawn of time, yet so unknown the granary Of
nations, yet so sterile and fruitless As the sea
swarning with life, yet dazzling the eyes with
its vast tract Of glitterng sand. North 4Ameri-
ca, first seen the other day, has been proved from
end to end: its gallant and restive Phillips, Te-
cumsehs, and Montezumas, have been bridled
and broken by the white man; but Africa has
seen no Cortez, nor even De Soto or La Sale,
"wringlng favor from fate' Some solitary
Mungo Park, or faithful Lander, or persevering
RurcKhardt, alone has tried to read the secret
of the mother of civilization, the gray haired AZ
flea.
If we seek land of romance and mystery,
what quarter Of the globe compares with that
which holds the pyramids; the giant Theban
temples, under one roof of which clusters d
modern village the solemn-hewn mountain cliff
of Sphynx the ruins Of Carthage; the Nile
with its hidden sources; the Niger. with its hid
den outlet the remembering Atlas; the dim
ly seen Mountains of the Moon.
There, reader, the slave rose romantically to
be the ruler of millions; there, Moses, foatingin
cradle, is saved by Kings daughter, and, like
the hero of some earlier character, breaks the
bonds of his peoplean founds new and mighty
nation. There was the home fDidb, of Hanni-
bal, the scene Of Scipio's triuhphs and Jugurl
tha's crimes; there lived Tertuian, Athanasius,
and Augustine the romance of the Moors dwelt
there; the last breath Of Louis, of France was
drawn there. .atss
Africa is the home of the leviathan, the behe-
moth, the unicorn, the giraffe, the slight antelope
the earth-shaking elephant, the unconquerable
lion, the all conquering buffalo. 1t is the home
too, 6fthe mysterious negro races, yet lying DOR
mant In the germ, destined, perhaps, to rule the
earth when our proud Ango-Saxon blood is as
corrupt as that of the descendants of Homer and
of Perieles.
The past, present, and future of Africa are
alike wrapped 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 ro-
mancng Livy, still less an unwearied Neibuhr,
to explain her rise and entangle the mysteries
of her constitution. Of all the vast interior,
what do we know more than the Punic merch-
ants, who like us, dealt there taking slaves, ivo-
y and gold? ~ - q .s
And what can we hope to see hereafter in
those immense unknown lands God has ena-
bled the European to drive the North American
step by step towards extinction, and has given
great continent the full development and trial
Va Wh'ICNCt PeiuaIeuI poWcT the NducdSSIaH
race possesses. But Africa He has preserved
for what? For future contests? For an impor-
tant foreign civilization, to be entered through
Liberia and Cape Colonies? France and Brit
ain are watching each other now along those
burning sands, as they once watched by the icy
rocks of Canada and Arcadia; is it to end in
the same subsection Of the aboriginal owners to
one or both of these! Or does the dark race, in
all its varietiespossess acapacity for understand
ing and living out the deep meaning of the
worlds sruler--Chrstianity-- the offspring of
the followers of Odin, never did and never can
understand and act 1t!
If the old Egyptian Sesostris had paused to
contemplate the lliterate wanderers of Greece,
to whom Cadmus was striving to make known
the letters of PhGnica would not Plato and Ar
istotle have seemed as,impossible to him as the
existence in Africa of higher Christianity than
has yet been seen, seems to us ? Would not the
present position of the Teutonic race have ap-
peared equally incredible to the Parthenon, the
loungers in the gardens of the Academy?
English Review.