The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-05

does not hesitate 10 aver that the Arabs did lit
tie more In regard to British Central Africa
than to settle on the coast OF the Indian
Ocean and establish q trading depot AZ
Soma on the lower Zambezi. Tho unwrit-
ten history Of tho region, the history whioh
can DO deducod from researches into languages
examinations OF racial type. native traditlons'
and archaeological researches, stretches oack
into tho remotoness which wells the earlier
movements Of the human genus. To Sir H. ii.
Johnston 1t seems probable that three thousand
years ago the distribution OF races In Africa
stood thus The southern half Of the continent,
from a little north OF the equator to the Cape OF
Good Hope, was very thinly populated with q
low negroid type, of which the present Bush
mon and Hottentots. and possibly the pigmy
tribes Of tho Congo forests, are the descend
ants. Tho north and northeast of Africa, from
Morocco to Egypt. and again from Egypt to
Somaliland, were pcopled mainly by the Ham,
ties. a race akin in origin and language to the
Semitic typo. which latter our author be-
lievos to have been a higher development from q
parent Hamitic stock. The Hamites themselves.
however. obviously originated as a superior
ascending variety Of the Negritic species. from
which basal stock had boon derived In still
earlier times the Bushman-Hottento group.
the languages Of which, especially tho Hotten.
tot. are thought by some authorities to show re-
mote ~affinitiee In structure to tho Hamitic
tongues. Westward of the Hamites. and repre-
senting an earlier divergence from the original
Negritic group. wero tho true black negroes.
moro closely allied. perhaps. in origin to tho
Observation-Disclosures than TO the more divergent
Hamites. But 5000 years ago. or about the
time OF the foundation Of Garth ,ge, our author
Is inclined to think that the true negroes were
bounded In their distribution by the northern
limits Of the Sahara Desert, by the Atlantic
Ocean on the west, by the great forests Of tho
Congo Basin on the south. and by either the
Nile Valley or tho Abyssinian highlands on the
east. Here and there different sections OF the
NeEritic stock would mingle. producing races
superior to the pure negro. like the Nubians. tho
Somalis and the Fulve. which dwell more or less
on the border lands between the negro and the
Hamite. When the true negroes invaded tho
southern half Of the African continent, some
two thousand years ago, they carried with them
such culture, domestic animals and cultivated
plants as they had derived indirectly from
Egypt. Sir II. II. Johnston is Of the opinion
that. In Nyasa Land and along the shores Of
Lake Tanganyika, the history of negro culture
retrograded until the coming OF the Arab and
the European. In one or two places on the shores
OF Lake Nyasa, old pottery has been dug up at a
considerable depth below the surface, with trees
OF great girth and ago growing over these re-
mains. The pottery has been found imbedded
in the sand Of an ancient shore line OF Nyasa,
now covered by about Eve feet OF humus.
In which baobab trees are strongly rooted.
From the Approximate age OF the trees.
and from the time it should have taken to accu.
mulate the vegetable soil. some of this pottery
must have been five hundred or six hundred
years old. One large pot thus discovered has been
deposited by our author in the British Museum.
The few remains exhibit evidences of greater
Rkill and faatA than IL aharrn ~ tLo
duced at the present lime in the same district.
Researches founded on the study o flanguages, of
religion, Of traditions, and on tho records of
Portuguese explorers in West Africa seem to
show that In the western part OF the continent
many OF the negro States were in a far higher
stage Of culture 500 years ago than they are
now. As regards the particular region off,
cially called British Central Africa. our author
Goes not behave that the Bantu negroes took
possession OF it earlier than about 900 years
ago. when they drove out or absorbed the ante
cedent Bushmen race.