The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-02-06
Recent Publications.


not success. is known; the slave trades no.
stopped and he did not get his steamers tLaks
Albert which he proposed to explor and
where he wished to give deathblow to syerv
by opening direct traffic with the Central fri
can tribes and drive the slave traders out the
market The difficulties in the way of that
ter undertaking are these: All transporton
has TO be done by native bearers, and theDe-
ing obliged also to bear their provision tn
them, 'eat their own beads Off on the jr-
ney; this makes it impossible TO export a.
thing but ivory, and the decreasing supplyf
that article as the animals are driven fartr
and farther into the interior, has thrust all (,
trades out of the field and thrown the busin,
into the hands of few scoundrels who suppl
ment the ivory traffic with the sale of the bea
| ers, who are mostly women and children pu
chased in the Interior. The average African
not shocked at slavery excepting when prac
tIced on himself; it is natural institution Oi
| the country" A Sheik of the Shir tribe who
was complaining bitterly of the slave hunters
told Baker that he had an only son, and nice
boy, very fat and very hungry, an only son, be
added, 'and I'll sell him to you for an iron
spade" Baker broke up the trade temporari-
ly, but so many of the Egyptian officials were
secretly interested in it, that he did little more
than exasperate them. Some of the native
kings, too, prefer the slave-trade to legitimate
commerce, and turned against him, aud Kabba
Rega the son of his old acquaintance Kamrasi,
near the lake, attacked him treacherously and
drove him back with great disaster.
But his expedition was success in showing
that steamboats, can be put upon the lakes sue
cessfuly, that short line of railway will open
| the whole country to commerce and sem-cvil.
ization, and that the slave-trade can be abol-
ished. If any cavler ask "Why inflict the
| curses of civilization upon a people living in
primitive innocence?' 1T can be said, look at
the picture presented and you will see that bar
barism means cannibalism, superstition, driv-
ing out old parents as witches to starve, univer-
sal drunkenness, (on native beer, murder in ev-
cry form, and constant war and slaughter Whole
districts are depopulated, and whole tribes an
initiated. Indeed, there seems to have been,
since time immemorial, a current of population
setting towards the west coast, slowly destroy
ing the tribes which it encounters, to be over
whelmed in its turn by more recent comers.
Here is field for civilization to work in,
which cannot be rendered worse by any treat
the Nile and across the lakes will build upa
traffic in grain, wax, tallow, gums, native iron,
ETC., and induce the negroes to apply them
selves to agriculture; the road to Zanzibar will
be opened and perhaps to the Cape and the
west coast, and peace and civilization must fol-
low. Baker has shown that this is practicable
anl destiny is boosting the inert Otto
man.
Geographically Sir Samuel has not added
much to previous knowledge. From the na-
tives he gathered information which led him to
think that there was water communication be-
tween Lake Albert and Lake Tanganika. Liv-
ingstone and Stanley's discovering river fiow-
ing into the latter from the north initiates
against that theory, unless we accept that of
Djiaffer Pasha, former governor-general of
Soudan, who, says Baker, ''having been an ad-
miral in the Egyptian navy, was highly scien-
tiic, and great geographer." He explained
to select circle of admiring boys, that as the
equator is the centre and very summit of the
globe all the water on one side must flow
down north, and all on the other down south.
As the lake extends south of the equator,
Diiaffer will probably conclude that it divides
ana flows both ways.
Albert Lake is the greatest and principal source
of the Nile. 1t is interesting to look upon
map of the world as known to the ancients.
and see that Its source was placed at this very
point And it is curious, also to note that this
was the true geographical centre of the world.
Not only is it upon the equator, but also upon
the meridian of the great Pyramid, which we
know. or think we know, to have been built to
des gnate the initial point fixed upon by those
Egyptian scientists who first measured de-
gree, delineated the planet and founded sys-
tenn of weights and measures upon its true pro-
portions As Greenwich has no special claims,
we may yet come back to that point. and the
sacred river may yet have a significance to US
which shall not rest upon a myth.
HIS Two WIVES. By Mary Clemmer Ames. Pub
lished by Messrs. Hurd s. Hougton, N. Y. For
sale by Messrs. Loring, Short s. Harmon.
Mrs. Ames will hardly add to her reputation
as writer, by her latest work of fiction. "His
Two Wives is rather discouragingly bulky
novel, founded upon the varied phases OF
Washington society which the writer's keen
eyeland sharp pen have noted. 1t is essential
ly bitter book one which deals with
men and women as if prompted by individual
injuries, greater or less; and this decided tone
of universal pique Injuries its effect. Few
women are capable of losing their sense Of per-
sonal identity in more extensive interests; and,
in consequence, the blows given to the pur-
poses and theories which they represent, or the
faction to which they belong are felt by them
as individual grievances. This may or may
not be fault of their nature-it is simply a
truth. Thus, a woman among the fierce strug-
giles of political life, is unable to cope with the
jostling crowd, with the insouciance, wholly
Pickwckian, that envelopes the masculine
mind as a wadded overcoat-but, believing that
every chance elbow-thrust is deliberately and
of malice aforethought dealt at her as per-
sonal affront, she soon becomes unhappy, en-
bittered, and distrustful No doubt, the socie-
ty of the Capitol affords material enough for
novels even sadder than this, even more tragic
in that tragedy which, lacking the dignity of
sudden and overwhelming misfortune, consists
IN the crumblng ruin of happiness and all
traits upon which it may be founded-a slow
decay not less sure than the lightning stroke.
In a city whose e7er fiuctuating population is
largely made up of the ambitious and the un-
scrupulous who trample under foot without
remorse, all obstacles to power or gan-what
render novelist's words bitter aud querulous?
As an exponent of some of these evils, the
book may do good; as a novel it is narrowing,
unsatisfactory, and over-weghted by its inten-
tion; and as a literary work, its style shows
haste, want of skill in the construction of It's
plot, and various inelegancies ana faults more
readily pardonable to the writer of off-hand
letters to a Newspaper than to novelist, whose
work has presumably received careful revision.
We must however give Mrs. Ames credit for
some very good sketches of character, which
though not agreeable, seem consistent and
within the limits of possibity-and as always,
she exhibits great earnestness and honesty OF
purpose 1t seems to US that rest from hurried
and often incongruous literary WORK, and remoy-
a. for time from the whirl of Washington life,
and its clash of conflicting interests, would do
much to restore to Mrs. Ames the more refined
balanced and womanly manner which we have
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