Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1852-03-24
About Africa.
.. Smooth.s hored Afric 4 know

from the earliest dawn Of time, We
so unknown; the granary Of nations
yet so sterile and truitless, as the sea
swarming with life, yet dazzling the
eyes with its vast tract Of slitterins
sand. North America, first seen the
other day, has been proved from enc
to end: its gallant and FESTIVE Phillips
Tecumsehs, and Montezumas, have
been bridlcd and broken by the white
man; but Africa has seen no Cortez
nor even a De Soto or La Sale
"wringing favor from fate" Some
solitary Mungo Park, or faithful Lam
der, or persevering Burckhardt, alone
q has tried to read the secret of the
mother Of civilization, the gray-hair-
ed Africa.
If we seek a land Of romance and
mystery, what quarter of the globe
compares with that which holds the
pyramids; the giant Theban temples,
under che roof, Of which clusters a
modern village, the solemn hewn
mountain cliff Of Sphynx, the ruins
Of Carthage; the Nile, with its hidden
sources; the Niger, with its hidden
outlet; the heaven bearing Atlas; the
dimly seen Mountains of the Moon.
There, reader, the slave rose ro-
mantically to be the ruler of millions;
there, Moses floating in a cradle, is
saved by a Kings daughter, and,
like the hero of some earlier charac-
ter, breaks the bonds of his people,
and POUNDS new and mighty nation.
There was the home of Dido, of
Hannibal, the scene Of Scipio's tri-
umphs and Jugurtha's, crimes; there
lived Tertullian, Athanasius, and
Augustine; the romance of the Moors
dweit there; the last breath Of Louis,
OF France, was drawn there.
Africa is the home of the leviathan,
the behemoth, the unicorn the giraffe,
the slight antelope, the ea'th-sh shaking
elephant, the unconquerable lion, the
all conquering buffalo. 1t is the
home, too, of the mysterious negro
races, yet lying dormant in the germ,
destined, perhaps, to rule the earth
when our proud AngloSaxon blood
is as corrupt as that of the decen-
dants of Homer and Of Percles.
The past, present, and the future
of Africa are alike wrapped in mys-
terry. Who can tell Us of the child
hood of dark browed Egypt, square
ehouldered and energetic? Carthage,
the England Of the old worlds rulers,
has not even romancing Livy, still
less an unwcarled Neibuhr, to explain
her rise ana entangle the mysteries Of
her constitution. OF all the vast inte-
rior, what do we know more than the
Punic merchants, who, like us, dealt
there, taking slaves, ivory and gold?
And what can we hope to see here
after in those immense unknown
lands? God has enabled the Euro-
pean to drive the North American step
by step towards extinction, and has
given great continent the full de-
velopment and trial OF whatever per-
manent power the Caucasian race
possesses. But Africa He has pre-
served-ior what? For future CON
tests? For an important foreign civ
iiization, to be entered through Libe-
ria and Cape Colonies? France and
Britain are watching each other now
along these burning sands, as they
s.a hs. s,lt.chad BY the icy rocks Of Can
D -. -. A = -cysasa, - &C l. Md ethe
..sHubjection Of she aboriginal
owners to one or both of these? Or
does the dark race in al its varieties
possess a capacity for understanding
and living out the deep meaning Of
the worlds Observation-Disclosures
the offspring of the followers of Odin
never did and never can understand
and act it?
If the old Egyptian Sesotris hae
paused to contemplate the illlterat,
wanderers of Greece, to whom Cad
mus wasj just striving to make known
the letters of Ph9nica, would no
Plato and Aristotle have seemed a.
impssible to him as the existence i,
Africa of a higher Christianit,
than has yet been seen, seems t.
us? Would not the present posi-
ton of the Teutonic race hav,
appeared equally incredible to th'
Parthenon, the lounyers in the gar
dens OF tho ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Review. -~,--7a-s.s-----------