The morning call., 1891-03-14
STANLEY ON AFRICA.

San Francisco is separated from Stanley
Falls on the Congo by nearly half the cir
conference of the globe, yet the audience
which met Mr.. Stanley on Thursday could
hardly have been larger or more brilliant
if they had been assembled to listen to
discourse on matters Of close personal I'M
port. The distinguished traveller cannot
complain Of the indifference OF Pacific Coast
people to the attractions of science and dis
covery.
To the reading public the story of his
travels and personal adventures was a
twiee-tod tale. Almost every one has read
his books and followed the daring explorer
on his journeys through the Dark Cont
nent. What was new in the Thursday
lecture was prospective rather than retro
spectiye. AT its close Stanley dwelt for
moment on the future of Africa when the
savages have been civilized and fused into
nations; these views naturally afforded
matter for thought. Africa, said the trav-
eler, will never become the home of the
white man as this continent has, but it is
bound to become the nursery of dark ma
ti0ns infinitely greater than any that his
tory describes. What q boundless and
mysterious vista this suggestion opens!
The history Of Africa, as we are learning
it by deciphering hieroglyphs and ancient
Inscriptions, beggars chronology. Ceutu-
ries 20 for nothing in the annals of races
whose existence must have been contempt
Taneous with the last ice age in Europe and
America. Our national life does not yet
cover four hundred years. The birth of
the European peoples from whom our an
cestors sprang is hidden in mist, which
lifted just about thousand years ago. But
the priests of sails showed HerodotuS, sew
eral centuries before Christ, an unbrOken
record of events, which. according to them.
eXterded back for eight thousand years.
And the thing is possible. The education
that must have been required to enable
a race of savages to build the pyramids and
lay out the avenue of sphnXes may well
have covered period in which mere centu-
ries were trifling segments of time.
The wholesome life of Africa ended twelve
or thirteen hundred years ago. Ever since
then it has been a land of darkness, inhab-
tied by wild beasts and men as savage. 1t
mas teemed with human life, such as it was,
but the only fruit of the prolific nature of
its Inhabitants was the organization of the
slave trade. Until very lately, in a large
portion of the globe African and slave were
Synonymous terms The traffic in human
flesh was for centuries the only inducement
which led white men to visit the great con-
tinent. The millions Of human beings who
first saw the light in Africa every year were
horn merely to work for others as bonds
men. They took no more part in shaping
the worlds destinies than the hippopOtami
and the cTocodlcs which inhabit its waters.
Now we are told all this is going to be
changed. Africa is being pierced by rail-
roads on four sides, and transportation will
be created that will furnish a market for the
products Of the interior. The English are
building line from the cape to the southern
equatorial region. In 1894 the railroad
round the cataracts of the Congo will be
opened and steamers will ply from the
Atlantic Ocean to Stanley Falls. a little
later the French will open their line from
the Mediterranean to Lake Tchad, and some
time or other the Germans and English COM
bined will lay a line of rail from the coast OF
Zanzibar to Victoria Nyanza. Railroads be-
get commerce and commerce brings in its
train civilization, learning, intelligence and
the Christian virtues. These will convert
the African savage into a self-reiant and
useful citizen, and will raise tribes which
are now little better than herds of cattle
into vigorous nations.
LuiOtS"H h"tiuuo "uhSlIH5 " oOSO'S'o
ideas Of territorial extension by force of
arms have been pareelIng out the Dark
Continent between them and appear to
fancy that they can repeat in Africa the
performance OF Great Britain in Hindostan.
They will discover their mistake in due
time. To attain their immediate object OF
acquiring new markets for their surplus
goods, the European invaders will have to
educate the African and Undue him with
new wants. The day he is educated he will
undertake to manage his own concerns.
From the hour that he learns his strength
be viii brook no white master. The part
which Europe is destined to play in the
resurrection Of the DARK Continent is honor
able, but the idea that il will become con-
geries of European colonies is likely to
prove a chimera.