The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-04-30
PROGRESS IN AFRICA.
Railroad and Telegraph Construcr
ton in the Dark Continent.
Thousands Of Native wo,kmen Busily
Engaged in Opening Up the
Trackless wilds to
Civilization,

Engaged In Opening Up the
Trackless wilds to
Civilization.
The great progress of civilization Ii
marked in nothing more plainly than
in the vast extent of the railroads built
or contemplated. At this time thou
sands of men are at work in different
regions, lcveling course for them.
The rapids of the Congo will soon he
passed by railroad from, Matadi, ut
the head of navigation in the lower
Congo. 24o miles to Stanley pool, which
is at the foot of steam navigation in
the upper Congo river and its great
affluents, through which steamers of
different sizes may be run for 5000
miles. So that when this railroad is
built there will be steam communion
tion by this route into the very heart of
Africa.
The work is being pushed by force
Of about a thousand blacks directed by
about hundred whites, says the Bos-
ton Transcript. Before next spring it
is expected that the worst part will be
completed and locomotives running
through the Moose valley to the plains
above. After crossing this valley the
road will run on u plateau several
miles south of the Congo all the way to
Stanley pool. Here it can be easily
constructed. In South Africa 5000 men
are leveling the roadbed for railway
from the diamond fields of Kimberly
north toward the Zambesi, through a
country which was only visited by
hunters and missionaries a few years
ago.
! These laborers are accompanied by
hundreds of wagons loaded with vari-
! GUS kinds Of implements, explosives
and everything required in road-buifd-
ing. Such scenes of busting activity
! are altogether new in these regions.
The road is already completed for l25
miles from Kimberly to Vryburg, and it
! is expected that it will be extended 100
miles more between now and next
spring to Mafeking, u prosperous town
with bank, newspaper and thriving
trade, where few years ago was only
the home of native chief.
Kimberly is future railroad center
Il has now a road that connects it with
Cape Town on the south, and another
pushing toward the east, besides the
one mentioned going north. The East
crn railroad runs through the Orange
Free State, and before long will extend
to Pretoria, the capital of the South
African republic. A Dutch syndicate
has taken contract to build a railroad
to ioin Pretoria with the Portuguese
line from Delagoa bay on the east coast
When these are finished Kimberly will
have direct railroad communication with
both the east and south coasts. In a
short time the railroad from Natal will
be completed from the south coast to
the Transvaal frontier, and thence to
the capital of the Boer republic.
These railroads will be the main chan
nels of communication, which will ex-
tend in every direction through an ele-
waited country abounding with every
thing essential to comfort The Portu-
guese are soon to build railroad from
the head of the navigable waters Of
the Busi river on the east coast to
gold fields of Manica. 1t is said that
the Germans have about decided upon
the route of their road, which is to con-
meet one of the coast ports with Nouns
Kilmanjaro,' near tht edge of that enor-
nous plateau where cattle thrive. The
British are already building their line.
which will meet the German road at the
great mountain and then push over the
plains and through the forests to the
shores of Victoria Nyanza.
Some forty or fifty miles Of this line
will soon be in operation, and the Brit
ish road will doubtless have the distinc-
ton of being the first to connect the
heart of Africa with the sea coast. For
some time there has been a railroad in
operation from st. Paul de Loanda al
most to Malange, running through the
Portuguese province Of Angola. Soon
this will extend to the rich mountainous
coffee district of Cazengo, which will
then be but days ride from Loanda,
which has the best harbor on the west
coast.
The work of building telegraphs has
far exceeded the railroad enterprise. A
telegraph line will soon be finished
which will reach the new capital OF
King Khama, 1,70O miles in an air line
northeast of Cape Town; 26o wagons.
each drawn by ten or twelve yoke Of
oxen, have taken their way to the north,
loaded with nothing but telegraph
wires. To support the whites now en-
gagged in these tasks and the 700 armed
men sent by the Imperial British South
African Company to open Mashonaland,
1,5OO, 900 pounds of provisions have been
carted. The most glowing reports are
made of the healthful climate and of
the riches in gold and agricultural re-
sources of this Mashonaland.
No recent enterprises of the sort sur
pass in magnitude, or in the energy with
which they are being pressed forward,
these railroad and telegraphic projects
now far advanced in South Africa.
Mashonaland is called the El Dorado OF
Africa, because no other part of inner
Africa holds out the same promise of q
bounteous return for white enterprises.
Soon Mount Hampden, the most
northern station in Mashonaland, will
be connected with Cape Town by tele-
graph, while the railroad that is being