The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-08-26
Geographical Discoveries in
Africa.

=. We are living in an age Of surprises
Il and discoveries. and some of these Of O
nature to change all the material relations
which have hitherto governed tho distri.
Q button OF tho race over tho oarths surface.
Seas once separated are joined by mans
labor; deserts and steppes and lofty
mountain ranges cease to oppose impassa.
Z bic barriers between natious Iron roads
traverse tho Rocky Mountains as thoy
have already pierced the Alps, linking
: together tho Atlantic and Pacific By a
: direct limo from shore to shore; while for
purposes Of communication, Livcrrool and
New York speak with each other across
the ocean with the quickaess of thought.
Voyages Of five months round the cape
to India and China are now reduced to
less than as many weeks. So rapid is
progress in every field of human activity,
that fact outruns anticipation, and the
most active imagination lags behind in iho
march of events
ln no province can this be more truly
said than of geographical discovery, espo.
cially in central Africa. 1t was iut
yesterday that Lieut. Cameron returned
from "walk across Africa" from sea to
sea, and yet there has been time to hear
OF the circumnavigation of the Albert
Nyanza, and the missing link required to
unto the White Nile with its source 10
that inland sea of equatorial Africa las
been found at last. How many ages of
the world have succeeded each other
since the first attempts to discover tho
sources OF tho Milo! When the Phara.
obs ruled in Egypt and Ethiopia, and
built city at Meroe after crossing The
Nublan desert, eaorts were made in this
direction but there is no reason to
believe that either the armies or tho
explorers Of Pharaoh ever penetrated far
into tho country; aud when Herodotus
inquired of the priests for the sources Of
tho Nile, they had only ridiculous story
to give him about its rising from four
fountains between Egypt and Abyssinia.
Diodorus Sicuus, at much later d,te,
did not get any better information from
the priests or philosophers Of Memphis.
When the Greeks entered tho country,
and an exploring expedition was sent out
to sail round Africa, they never penetra.
ted TO the sources of the Nile. Neither
the Persians nor the Pheuiciaus know
anything of inner Africa. The Romans
did not succeed much better. Although
Nero sent an exploring expedition up the
Nile, 1t seems only to have reached the
marshy country near khartoum. They
made the desert their southern frontier.
In a word, tho ancients knew little OF
inner Africa beyond such information as
Ptolemy and Pliny collected, x picked
up, it might have been, from slaves in
Cairo or on the Barbary coast)-that the
Nile proceeded from great lakes, and
across the Sahara was another river run.
ming eastward. Nor was this state of
ignorance much improved in later ages,
when the Berbers were converted to
Islam, and camel caravans travcrsod the
Sahara. Arab merchants settled, indeed,
on the banks Of the Niger, and then as
nov, ioamed from kingdom to kingd m
but they contributed nothing to he
knowledge Of these inner regions Of Cen.
tral Africa. They converted the Sou an
into "a second hand Asatic possession, ;"
as Barth described it, and there tley
stopped. And now from that same Khar.
toum whero tho Romans we're check cd
Col. Gordou's progress in command of
the present ruler Of Egypts expedition ry
forces has beon steady and continuous,
until crowned with the triumph already
mentioned. After establishing q chain
OF military posts from Iardo on the uypcr
Nile to Victoria NyanZa on the one hand,
and Magungo on the Albert Nyanzp on
the other, he despatched Signor Cess in
two life boats. What this meant can
only be realized when it is known ,hat
the life boats were each capable of con.
tanning sixty or seventy men there WAS
also one small steamer of thirty.eight
tons and they all had 20 be moved 10
pieces by Col Gordon from Gondok 70
to Duhe, above the Makedo rapids, wi re
they were put together by workmcn b.
tanned from Khartoum. With the two
boats the Albert Nyauza was circumuavi-
gated, and its exact dimensions deternin.
ed. 1t was found to be one hundred aud
forty miles in length, with a width of
fifty miles-considerably less than has
been imagined; just as Lake Nyassa as
recently found by absolute mcasureu Mt
to be nearly one hundred miles LONGER
than was supposed. The president Of he
geographical society rightly said at he
last meeting that so important and Tt id
had been the discoveries of the last II ec
o. ious years that new map OF At ca
must be made, tho present large dag am
being no longer available as record of
our knowledge.
If now we turn to the future it is iii.
cult to avoid the conclusion that great
events are preparing, not only in the cen.
ter OF this great continent, but in Africa
generally. The Egyptian conquest of
Dariur and Wadai has doubtless given,
as Sir Henry Rawlinson pointed out late.
ly, n gtert impetus to exploration in this
direction. Not that there is any quos-
tion as TO these equatorial lakes being
the feeders Of the Milo aud offering a
direct line of water communication, how.
over impeded by cataracts and other %.
structions, from tho Mediterranean to he
great water system of Central Africa So
important fact cannot be without fruit.
ful results. Since 70 many interests are
concerned. it cannot be doubted hat
within few years great changes will be
seen in the relations OF Africa and the
world, and in the condition of the mixed
races in occupation of this vast continent.
1t is early to write the history OF African
exploration and it ia too early to fore
cast its more immediate, lnuch less its
remote, consequences on the destines of
the negro race. Exploration is only yet
at its first stage, and the practical results
are wholly undeveloped. But now that
discovery has onened ont suoh n osneot