The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-23
AN AFRICAN EXPLORER.

fOulLuey blScloW III lie
and instructive volume. He is a grad
uate of Harvard and a good traveller.
There is still another work, among
Others, upon Africa to which we wish
to call attention brify. M. Lionel
Dec1e is a French traveller who has
exhausted a dozen lands, and among
them Africa, in which country he tar
ried for three years. He lived in
Savage Africa" travelling 1000 miles
extremely of the continent, and Nom
bosa, a little south of the equator and
on the eastern coast. He saw many
dangers, had extreme trials and fear
full experiences. To know what trav-
elling in Africa really mean you must
read M. Decle's book. Dangers by the
hundreds, as we'll as privations, Turk
On every hand. He is one Of those men
peculiarly ado pied to explorations in
desperate lands. He was some times
driven SO nea to death from thirst
that he drank tainted pools and wells
and even Liquid manure"
What did he see Of peculiar note.
Much, but we can only suggest a few.
He saw a shower of locusts and
a plain on fire. He saw a native
village of twelve thousand inhab-
itants, the inhabitants being of a
bronze color, bodies covered with skins
Of animals and sandals on the feet. He
found n tribe where the king was
absolute and where no personal free
property is held. Children do not
belong to their parents. One can buy
a child for a trif1e or what would buy
an OK. If a slave falls sick on a jour-
ney and retards the march he is killed
out of hand. The greatest crimes
among the Barotse are any attempt
against the king and witchcraft. The
punishment most in practice is stran-
.f.ulation, after which the body is
lHIo liC llFCi' g
rarer, but is sometimes practiced."
This tribe is very superstitious, be-
lieves in transmigration of souls, and
that men are changed into ami
mails "to execute vengeance or to pro-
cure something they wish for. Polyga-
my is common. The ONE are be-
4l -~~ ,nfnnoxy nn1 orr of on
early age. The number Of wives
ranges from two to several hundred.
The children are numerous. Twins
are put to death, and the mortality
among children is enormous. Owing
chiefly to the lack of proper care more
than 70 per cent. die before the age OF
five months, and for that reason if
polygamy ceases to exist the native
races will disappear from Africa"
Mr.. Decle says that a great deal OF
c%annibalism still exists in Africa, and
even the dead are eaten. He sees the
immense difficulties in the way of i'm
proving the race and says:
THE present problems in Africa are
many and enormous. A large native
population, densely ignorant and super
stitious, under the pernicious but pow
erful influence of witch doctors, with
no idea of morality, is to be dealt with
and removed. 1t would not be good
policy to suddenly and violently sub
stitute European ideas of Jurisprudence
c~. +ho ar,,Ia h,,t fvnd ideals that have
grown into the native mind for cen
turtles"
All travellers bear witness to the
fact that the English are by great odds
the best civilizers in Africa. We have
read frequently testimony to this eff
feet from travellers not of Great Brit
ain. Mr.. Decle, Frenchman as he is,
says that Great Britain possesses the
very best portion of Africa from the
Cape to the Nile, that she alone has
justified her right to be in the country
by developing every spot where the
Union Jack has a right to fly, and she
alone understands o to COLOMBO; and
III n CONSIDERS the g1gantlc Work tnat
has been carried out under the aegis
of her flag within the last ten years
in the heart of Africa, comparing it
with the work accomplished by the
Portuguese and the Germans, it will be
found that England has within these
ten years, accomplished ten times as
much as the Germans are ever likely
10 do within the next fifty years., al
though the German East African col
ony has already cost the German tax
payers more than the whole of the
British possessions north and south of
the great African continent have cost
the British government"
This is a remarkable tribute. Mr..