, 1875-09-04
THE NEWEST AFRICAN PROJECT.
(From the SPECTATOR

even l|lllIDuCLNo, VIII sell IKE q DO0h ABOUT
Lake Nyalza, even Trough the former
is written by an artist, and the latter by
one who has as little idea how to make
a book as POOR Dr.. Livingstone. No lee
ture on the Niger attracts an audience
like one on the Upper Nile, and men who
know all about DR.. Ljvingstone's friends
and Sir s. Bakers enemies and the Khe-
dives new tributaries, hardly know the
names of the States which claim the
Southern border Of the Mediterranean,
and do not know at all the limit of their
southern boundaries. This neglect is a
mistake, tor even if a negro is more
interesting than an Arab Moor, which he
is not, the Moor having perhaps of all
semi savage men the largest undeveloped
potentially OF genius, and having displayed
his power already as c0nqueror, architect,
and scientific inquirer, and if tropical Africa
is less known than the Northern region
which is now not the case-Nolth Africa
has one advantage which ought to make
its geography a permanent object of en-
lightened curiosity. Every foot gained
in Northern Africa is a foot gained
Tor Europe, a foot Of room for the develop
ment of the races to which, so far as nan
can perceive, the civilization of mankind
has been entrusted. The Nyanza is far
off, but Timbuctoo is near. Livingstone
may have been clearing the way for the
English ultimately, but he has cleared it
Immediately for. the Egyptian Turks.
North Africa has once BEEN European,
and ifEurope could but once il |lnyiuced
that it is worth having, would be Eos -
an again. The Emperor Napoleon, V 3se
cleanliness was his strong as well Is his
weak point, dreamed aud said tina; Il was
worth having; and ho may haze been
right, though Europe, alarmed by the
desert, by Mohammedau faua,icjsm, AID
by the failure of the French, who are Not
colonists, t. cSfonise A.gelia, declines
without ~Tu:tlcr evidence to believe it..
Europe ma. be justified by the event, but
a region prac ;caIly limit less, which wa
once a grun"iy, which may contain mineral
is everywta.c within six days seam Of
Marseilles, is worth a orcac deal more
effort at exploration than mas ye; betn
bestowed upon it. The exploration Of
Northern Africa, with an especial view to
it's fertility, its mineral treasures, and its
capacity for sustaining Europeaus-a capa-
city probably exceeding that of Spain
should be undertaken Systematically and
iftbe Southern nations, to whom the task
properly falls, are unequal to the task,
Enelishmen should it for them.
They have the men, the energy, and the
money, and may we'll expend a moderate
quantity of all three in an effort to hnow the
Que grand region which European energy
has once attacked, has begun to conquer,
and then has abandoned to the seml-savage
AMI The Sand.
They could hardly make a better begin
ning-though it seems to be an indirect
one--than by supporting the Mackenzie
Mission, brought before a public meeting
Il the Mansion House on Monday, but APP
n~arently received with more of astonish-
ment than of the enthusiasm which yields
money. The project then unfolded seems
a dreamy one, but its dreaminess may be
exaggerated and granting that it IS q
dream, it is a dream which may have
material consequences. The idea of the
persons who are supporting Mr.. Mackenzie
is to get behind the great desert barrier
which. divides Mediterranean Africa from
the, more fertile centre, and attack the
Continent from the West, at a point where
the Canary Islands give, or would give,
;r +bou belonged to anv BODY but the Por-