The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-08-30

traps until 1 can buy ticket, and l a.
sure you I'm a thousand times oblige
to you for your kindness to a stranger.
CENTRAL AFRICA.
Progress of Civilization and Trade in tn
Dark Continent.
"One railway" said Mr.. Cappar, a
he looked in at the Pail Mall Gazett
Office the other day on his way to tn
house of commons, where he was ex
pected to give evidence in Welsh rail
way bill and Thames communications
"one railway is worth ten bishops il
Africa. That is what Sir Lyon Play
fair once said, and entirely agree will
him. think that if all the missionary
societies were to devote years income
20 the construction of a Central African
line of railway from the highesC naviga
BILE point of the Niger to the Congo they
would do more for the Christianizatior
and civilization of the Dark Continent
than all the efforts of the missionaries
for the next fifty years. 1t is great
delusion to imagine that the African
native is not quite as good man as
many Europeans, and good deal bet
ter than some Europeans. 1 have trav-
eled on foot A, ZOO miles down the Afri-
can coast, going in at the Niger and
coming out at Loanda, and my expert
ence is that in manliness and shrewd-
ness, In intelligence and honesty, and in
the essentials of government, the black
man is quite as good as the white. Boil
down your idea of civilization as much
as you please, and unless you make it
consist of the mere use of pocket hand
kerchiefs you will find that these So
called savages are as civilized as any of
ourselves. They are traders, and keen
traders, too. They have their religion,
their own laws and their now patri-
archal methods of life. All the best of
them are Mohammedans. They admin
lister justice in thsir own way, and show
more hospitality to the stranger and
the traveller than the ordinary English
man or foreigner. Through all my
travels in those parts-and have lived
for many years in Central Africa-I
was never molested nor had any occa-
sion to molest native. Only once was
stolen from me, and the man
who did it made a mistake. 1t was in
ole of the creeks running into the
Niger, where lodged for the night in
the grounds of one of the traders. In
the morning I found that my clothes
and all my belongings had disappeared.
[ simply sent word to the local king of
what had happened, and in very short
time every missing article was restored.
Stolen goods are always recovered,
provided you 60 the right way to work
and some of the African chiefs might |
give Scotland Yard hint in that mat
er. They have not, it is true-these
TO- called uncivilized black fellows-our
conception of the value of time. Neither
lave they the penny newspapers; but
hey have what, until the last hundred
7ears, served US as very effective sub
titute, and still serves the Spaniard
md the Portuguese, in the shape of
heir barber shops, which are the ac-
epted news centres of the neighbor-
lood. Every one goes to the barber
hops to learn the news, and these
Establishments fulfill q great social
vant. So particular are many of the
atives in the matter of personal neat
ess that in many districts the barber,
esides shaving and shearing his GUS
omer, trims the nails of both his feet
nd hands. Nor are they far behind
8 in the art of transmitting intelli-
ence. News travels from mouth to
iouth through the villages more rapidly ,
IAN it could be brought by steamers +,
long the rivers. l heard of the Franco
russian war in 1870 from the mouths .
natives who had passed it on from
ne to the other from the seaboard OF
le Mediterranean to the upper waters
the Niger. Then as to trade, would
Ike to take those who think that these \
nsophistocated natives are mere chill J
rem to an African horse fair. They |
now as much about horse as any l
orkshireman, and are up to all the {
Icks of the trade of the professional I
orse-dealer.
"The wealth of those regions is SIM
ly boundless. The amount of money
lat is to be made by an intelligent ap-
lication of British enterprise and Brit
h capital is beyond belief, though it t
not as if you had 10 do there what
ou have to do elsewhere, that is, to {
low you1 land and to sow your seed $
IT the harvest. The harvest smiles |
round on every hand and only wants 6
, be gathered. Look, for instance, at I
le developement of the oil rivers. A I
w years ago it used to be thought a
reat thing to get fl000 worth of oil; t
ow f100,000 worth of oil is collected /
7ery year, and this is but a mere
of what might be done !
ong the whole of West Africa if the '
,untry were only opened up. The 7
reat disadvantage in the way of trade
ith Africa is the fact that the coast
ne is inhabited by set of very infer
r natives, who are middlemen be-
veen the tribes and the nations of the /
terror and the foreign trader. AS you t
oproach the sea in Africa from the in t