The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30
Frank G. Carpenter Writes of
Newspaper Expe dition
Through Africa
SOME GREAT QUESTIONS
OF MODERN PROGRESS
The Morocco complicatlons-Ralsull
and the Sultan-How the French
Are Reforming the Sahara.
Great African Lakes.

Copyright, 1903, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
On the Princess Irene, En- route for
Africa
am now on my way across the At
lantic, to begin a journalistic tour of the
Black Continent of Africa foI my Ameri-
can readers. The North Gelman Lloyd
steamer, the Princess irene, upon which
1 have booked for Gibraltar, left New
York ten days ago, and our southern pas
sage across the ocean has been smooth
and pleasant. We have al eddy gone
through the Azores, group of fertile
volcanic islands, belonging to Portugal.
and are now approaching the narrow
straits which lead into the Medlterra-
mean sea. That lighthouse on my light
marks the end of Cape Shartel, the north
western extremity of the African CONT
nent, and those thirsty mountains behind
1t are the Atlas, the homes of the Moor
ish brigands. who by their recent kid
naping of foreigners have made travel
there almost as unsafe as it was in the
DAYS when this whole coast swarmed
with the Barbary pirates, when Christians
were enslaved and all the shipping of
Europe paid tribute. On my other hand
Spain is plainly in view, and with my
glass can see the Notifications of Tar
ifa, the Spanish castle from where the
brigands of the sea sailed forth to at
tack the ships coming into or 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 it, facing the Atlantic,
lies the harbor, where / shall take ship
for Morocco, and long before this let
ter is published begin 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 Sunday to
Sunday 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 l shall do
what l can to make them smell OF the
soil. My trip Is to be long one. II
will comprise the greater part of the black
continent, and will include 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 Oh
Sahara and the British Soudan- Journeys
form a part of 1t, 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 CONT
nent from Port Said to the Cape OF Good
Hone. and will have many expeditions
into the wild lands of the interior.
shall visit Lake Victoria, and snail go lar
up the Zambest river into central Africa
to the borders of Lakes Nyassa and Tan
ganyika.
After that I shall visit the Kalahari
desert. and thence go down into those
parts of the continent which are now
being settled by white men and describe
their curious phase of savage and civilized
life.
The tour is so long that it is impossible
to describe it 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 horse
back and camelback, and parts upon foot.
It will be in canoes and in big steamers.
and even in automobiles and upon the
new railroads 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 interest and the facilities of travel.
The only reason for the expedition is TO
secure interesting material for the read
ers of this paper, and 1t will be my OBJ
ject to hunt out the new, the wild and
the strange.
Morocco Complications.
In these letters l hope to give live
picture 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
exist today are not to be found in any
of the books or magazines of the past.
MS first letters will be from Morocco.
That country is in such a wild and I'M
settled state just now that l do not ex-
pect to get far inland. The Berbers are