Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-29
BLACK RECRUITMENT NOW
Newspaper Expedition Through
the Wilds of Africa.
STUDIED ON THE GROUND
How the French Are Reforming the
Sahara Desert.
CAPE TO CAIRO RAILROAD
Up-to-Date Pictures Of Phenomenal
Progress-Mines That May Make
Gold Cheaper Than Silver.

| Copyright, 1906, by Frank G. Carpenter)
| ON THE PRINCESS IRENE.
| En- route for Africa.
l am now on my way across the Atlantic
| to begin a journalistic tour of the Black
Continent of Africa for my American read
| ers. The North German Lloyd steamer the
| Princess Irene, upon which 1" have booked
| for Gibraltar. left New York ten days ago
| and our southern passage across the ocean
| has been smooth and pleasant. We have
| already gone through the Azores, a group
| of fertile volcanic islands, belonging to
| Portugal, and are now approaching the
| narrow straits which lead into the Mediter-
| ranean sea. That lighthouse on my right
| marks the end of Cape Spartel, the north
| western extremity of the African continent
and those thirsty mountains behind it are
| the Atlas, the homes of the Moorish brig
| ands, who by their recent kidnapping of for
| eigners have made travel there almost as
unsafe as it was in the days when this
| whole coast swarmed with the Barbary pi-
| rates when Christians were ensaved and
| all the shipping of Europe paid tribute On
| my other hand Spain is plainly in view. and
with my glass l can the Notifications of
| Tarifa. the Spanish castle from where the
Dr1SanoS OF the sea Sal!1ed fOrtn to attack
| the ships coming into going out of the
| Mediterranean. Just in front of me the
| mighty rock of Gibraltar with Its British
| Notifications. is looming up, and at the
| foot of 1t, facing the Atlantic, lies the har-
Dor. where 1 shall take ship for Morocco,
| and long before this letter is published be-
| gin my African travels in the land of the
| Moors.
$4,000 Miles of African Travel
My story today is Introductory only. My
African letters will begin one week later,
and they will continue from Saturday to
Saturday until the close of my tour. They
will be written on the ground, in the midst
Of the strange people and their stranger
| surroundings, and shall do what / can to
make them smell of the SOIL by trip is to
be long one. 1t will comprise the greater
part of the black continent. and will in
clude altogether journeys covering more
than twenty-five thousand miles. 1t will
cover the whole of northern Africa from
one end to the other, and also parts of the
Desert of Sahara and the British Soudan
Journeys into the Libyan and Arabian des-
erts will form part of it, and the Suez
canal, the Nile. the Red sea and the Indian
ocean will be traversed l shall go along
the whole eastern coast of the continent
from Port Said to the Cape Of Good Hope
and will have many expeditions into the
wild lands of the interior. 1 shall visit Lake
Victoria, and shall go far up the Zambesi
river into central Africa to the borders of
Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika.
After that 1 shall visit the Kalahari des-
ert, and thence go down into those parts of
the continent which are now being settled
by white men and describe their curious
phases of savage and civilized life.
The tour is so long that it is impossible to
describe 1t in detail. 1t will take many
months of continuous travel and that of
every description and by every means of
locomotion. Parts of it will be on horseback
and Comeback, and parts upon foot. 1t
1y,;n hn i,> ~, hi rSt,,
even in automobiles and upon the new rail-
roads now building
The itinerary may be varied from time to
time in accordance with the conditions of
the various countries, whether at peace or
at war; and also by the changes in news in
terest, and the facilities of travel The only
reason for the expedition is to secure inter-
esting material for the readers of this pa
per, and it will be my object to hunt out
the new, the wild and the strange
The Morocco Complications.
In these letters 1 hope to give a live pic
ture of the Africa of today. The black
continent is rapidly changing. Dead for
ages, it is now one of the news centers of
the globe. Big things are going on in all
parts of it, and the conditions as they ex-
list today are not to be found in any of the
books or magazines of the past. My first
letters will be from Morocco. That country
is in such a wild and unsettled state just
L u.
The Berbers are on the edge of a revou-
ton, the sultan cannot control his. people,
and brigand chiefs-men like Raisuli, who
kidnapped Perdicaris-are in control l
shall go from Glbra tar across to Tangier.
This is the chief port of the country" where
the foreign ministers and consuls live, and
the news center for all matters relat-
ing to the Moors and the foreigners Raj
sui is operating near there and l shall be
able to give live pictures of the situation
it is today. l shall write a letter about the
young sultan, who is one of the most eX-
travagant rulers on earth, although his peo-
Pile among the poorest. and shall tell
you about his harem and his slave girls and
wives. l shall have also story about I'm
Gle Sam in Morocco, showing the queer
features of Moorish business and trade and
how our goods can be sold there. l will
describe the eXtortions of the government
and at the same time give live pictures of
the turbulent people.
In African France.
Leaving Morocco I shall next make my
way eastward into the great French colo
MES. France has more land in Africa than
almost any other European power. She
owns something like four million square
miles, or more than one-third of the CONT
nent. A part of this extends from Morocco
clear along the Mediterranean to the Lib
yam desert. 1t embraces Algeria and Tu-
nisia, lands which for ages were the gran
aries of the world; they fed the Phoenicians
and the Romans and now feeding the
French
France has had control of these countries
for just about three-quarters of century
and she has there shown what she can do in
the way of colonization. 1 understand that
Algeria has excellent roads and that 1 shall
be able to get to almost any part of 1t by
train or by carriage. l want to visit the
famous ruins of North Africa to tell you
how old Carthage looks today and to get
down to a ruined city, as old as Pompeii,
w Ia 1ipcri
the sands of the Sahara. That city is Tim
CAD. 1t was twice as large as Pompeii and
its ruins are in many respects far more
wonderful.
One would naturally think that the desert
of Sahara could never change That vast
region of sand and rock, larger than the
whole United States, would appear to be
unalterable-forever deserted and forever
dead This is not the Tho tor