The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-11-03
THAT is STILL UNhNoBN IN AFRICA

| pHd4 10 oAILA CNhNOHN 1N dTALId
| There is a tendency to consider recen
African exploration as quite exhaustive, 81
far as the main linee of inquiry are con
| cerned, and to assume that nothing remaint
| for futnre travellers but Investigation o
details. This is SO far from the truth, how.
ever, that more than third of the African
continent is still unknown, and presents
| problems of the utmost interest and i'm
| portance.
To begin on the shore of the Red Sea, how
little is really known of Ably ssinia hey ond
the meagre reports of the English expedi
tion, confined to the route traversed by
the column. and beyond the notes of cap
Gves jotted down from memory, for the
most part ct date subsequent to their
release, like the recent work of Mr.. Mitch
ell, the American geologist, in the Viceroy's g
service. Few persons understand, how
ever, that to the eastward of Ably ssinia,
and to the northward of Zanzibar, lies a
vast peninsula, eliminating in Cape
Guardafui, between the gulf of Alden and
the Arabian Sea, which, with the exception
of q few short excursions inward from the
eastern coast, has never yet been pene-
tIated. This region is Inhabited by Mo-
bammedan population. which, if not purely
Arab, has for centuries been completely
fashioned by the Arab element, aud has
evinced a fierce fanaticism that has made
its place of sojourn as inviolable as was
Samarcand twenty years ago. Here are
monuments which point to very ancient
civilization, and these memorials are con-
firmed by the illusions to the triangular
Somauli tract in Roman and Byzantine
history. Here, there is some reason to
believe, dwelt that Q ueen of Sheba of whose
wealth we read in the Old Testament, and
here was spoken the Himyaratic dialect of
the Arabian language, as distinguished
from the Ethiopic tongue employed in an
cient Abyssnia. The explorers of this
interesting land would naturally be Eng
lishmen, who, as masters of Alden, and the
allies of the orthodox Caliph, are in posi-
tion to exert both physical and moral pres
sure upon the Somauli Moslems.
Leaving the Indian Ocean and skirting
the equator from the Juba River in the
Somaui region to the kingdom of M'Tsee
in learning something about the lofty range
of mountains alleged to follow in this
quarter the direction of the meridians.
Here, too, we have yet to ascertain the
course of the White Niles Eastern tribu-
taries. Beginning with the Sobat, and
crossing the White Nile we perceive that
as to the western and southern shores of
the Albert Nyanza we possess only copjec-
tural data. Following the equator straight
across the continent we observe -next-that
a wide tract, stretching across come fifteen
degrees of longitude, and including the
upper "dIeEs VI Ibe OSoOal TeLnalnS 10 O0
explored. This work seems to belong to |
the French, who have an establishment at
the mouth Of the river, and who have made |
some progress towards survey of its upper
W aters. But between their furthest point |
and the western shore of the Albert Ny ar "a
stretches a wide terra incognitG. We |
already know that the Ogobai is by no |
8 supposed, but has system of it's own.
As to The country south of the equator,
between the basins of the Congo and the |
Nile and the ZAmbeei reginn, it is certain |
that the laud east of st. Paul de Loanda,
and TO the east and south of St, FIlipe dc |
Bepguela, are very imperfectly known;
and still farther south, between the Ngami |
and Orange Rivers, we find a tract, known |
as the kalahari Desert, which must still be |
depicted as a blank upon our maps. |
Passing to the north of the equator, we |
find between the coast of Guinea and the |
Joliba, commonly accepted as the main
feeder of the upper Niger, an immense
space known only by the reports of the
coast tribes, and walled off against expIor-
alton by exceptional difficulties and dan
gers. Eastward of this tract we find an |
area stretching across nearly twenty five
degrees of longitude, from Gagho, on the
Niger, to SchweinfQrth's discoveries in
Darfoor, where questions of the utmost
import await settlement, respecting the
eastern feeders of the Niger, and the basin
of the Shary, which feeds Lake Tchad. We
may add that line drawn between the
last mentioned basin aud the Albert Lake,
and which would span more than a thou
sand miles, cuts through more than four
hfths of it's extent an utterly unknown
country.
The most interesting problem remains,
If indeed the history of man be of more
consequence than phys geography.
Between the waters of the Senegal, the
Niger and Lake Tchad on the south, and
the Moorish peoples of the Mediterranean,
lies the vast region known as the Sahara,
and so long incorrectly described as
an indiscriminate waste; while to the
eastward stretches another tract vaguely
comPFehended, with equal distortion of the
truth, under the term Libyan Desert.
Thanks to Natchigal and others, we know
that this country, possessing a superfcies
equal to three -fourths of Europe, does in
fact present the greatest diversity of soil
and climate, Hrd nourishes in como of its
oases civilizatI De of great antiquity, and
of considerable refinement. So far, how
ever. the lines of inOuirV ODened nv fhese