The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1857-04-09
CAROLINA SPARTAN.
Bowen on Central Africa.

"a Bowen on Central Africa.
CENTRAL AFRICA, Adpentures and Mission
arg La6ors in Several Countries IN the
Interior Of africa. from ls49 to 1856,
by T.J. BowEN, $50 pp. l2mo. Charles
ton: Southern Baptist Publishing Socie
ty. 1857.
From review Of the above work in the
National Washington Inteiiigeneer we
make the following extract, which consti-
tutes almost the entire article:
Mr.. Bowen in youth was bold and har.
dy soldier; but in his manhood and his
Christian devotion the qualities of hero
born in him have found field which no
soldier ever has n chance TO enter. To
penetrate alone into an entirely unknown
and hostile region, TO go straight through
the gates OF n city peoped by hundreds of
thousands who looked on him with the
same wonder as they would on an angel or
fiend dropping down from the clouds; to
say before the Court and King OF grea,
nation in whose presence he stood arragu
ed, "a Bowen did, "The God of Heaven is
my King; am n soldier, and this book is
my sword" and thus 10 conquer his way
from city to city and through people after
people, Is an achievement such as an Alex
ander never would have dreamed of under.
taking. II is comparatively cowdrdice To be
a conquerer shielded on all sides by an in.
vincible army.
Peculiar intellectual rs we'll rs moral
tr'ts always belong TO such n pioneer
Wnen country is fairly open plenty of
u okworns work their way through it and
give the world heavy books, and plenty of
butterflies in literature flip over IT to skim
materials for light books; but book tha,
sa book" upon new country is written
by man OF practical philosophy, one Of
mingled power as man of perception and
OF reflection. Such work will always have
the life OF romance and a, the same time
the clear analysis and classification which
belong 10 nature herself; for both the
bookworm and the fashionable are always
unnatural in their pictures Of other lands
They did not themselves see naturally, and
of course cannot paint naturally to the eye
ofapother
Pages might be filed with extracts from
this rich sketch book Of several years oriai
nal research in the rareSt of the worlds
fields for new investigation. So peculiar is
that characteristic Of tue explorer lust
alluded to, that the most thorough studen,
of African colonization in Liberia is struck
with entirely new yet perfectly simple and
truthful views OF things seen there. and of
principles legitima,ely drawn from observa
ton; and the leader III the colonization en-
terprise has been heard to saw, this book j,
the best ever written on African colonial
ton, because it presents the subject indirect
y Truth is never appreciated until its
connexions are seen; and the colonization of
Western Africa, seen in or out Of its con
nexion with Central Africa, is as different
IN aspect rs American colonization has an
peared TO n man Of the seventeeth and ano.
iher of the nineteenth century. African
colonization in Bowen's narrative. and ,hM
by the simplest style of statement, grows
from infancy TO maturity, and looks as Vir.
g'nla now would to Capt John Smith il he
could wake from the sleep of generations.
And now that background of Central
Africa, covered so lately with cloud Of i'm
penelrable darkness, comes up into the dis
tInet foreground. the mist clearing away as
in broad sunlight, and one of the most eu
chanting prospects the world ever presented
peering into view. Such immense cities as
denseIy populated Asia alone can rival; such
broad, rich, cultivated fields; such wealth
that $1,000 is sometimes paid for n choice
Arabian horse; snch genial knllness
anu u'oanlty among the people; such
trade, such culture, surely it seems dream
TO think that, so near TO the coast of Africa
within but a hundred or two of miles from
the most barbarous and horrible portion of
should be living.
IL any man of DIR. Knne's or Mr.. Bowens
spirit wishes a field of promise for expora
ton such rs none other on earth affords, he
will at this day seek Central Africa. If
any such man has fears in such AN underta
king, he may fling them to the winds. for
human nature never has and never can re-
sist the advances of truly noble and gene.
rous spirit. II n selfish man, Il man of mere
avarice and ambition, attempted to pene
trate the land, he would probably meet the
tate such spirit always has met. But the
compliment Livingstone has received from
the scientific world is based on necessary
principle. Friends of science and of human
discovery who wish new countries explored
have learned that mono but the missionary
OF Christ can satisfy an exclusive and dis.
trustiul people Of the disnterestedness of
his mission. China and Japan Oere open
TO such men so long as they aOere such men,
and never can the world be opened by any
others.
A few extracts illustrating these princ
Piles are cul!ed almost Mt random from Mr.. |
Bowen's book After rapid sketch Of
what was anciently known Of Africa. Mr..
Bowen gives summary Of Christian efforts