A WOMAN'S chance discovery in a pile of rubbish, a few years ago, of the official correspondence of a Pharaoh who lived a century before the Exodus has an importance scarcely inferior to that of the Rosetta Stone. These letters, written in the Assyrian language and character, are all from the Asiatic portion of the Egyptian empire. The tributary king of Assyria and the governors of towns in Palestine, Phoenicia, and Asia Minor are the principal writers, and they report the condition of their various governments much the same as in more modern times.

This "find" has not only greatly extended our knowledge of Egyptian history and appreciation of the intellectual condition of that part of the world, and especially of the Canaanites, at that time, but it has wakened hopes that other heaps of rubbish may conceal other royal archives. It is not impossible that in some hidden collection of tablets, like that of Tell el Amarna, or of papyri, there may be an account of the bold explorers who discovered the gold mines of South Africa unknown ages ago. Still more likely is it that there will be some record of the pioneers who followed in the footsteps of these men and built Zimbabwi and the other mining towns and castles, the ruins of which are scattered over Mashonaland. A history of that great Sabæan colony, its origin, progress, and final downfall, whether through the irresistible inrush of savage hordes, the far distant ancestors of the Kafir and the Zulu, or through the exhaustion of the gold, we cannot tell, would necessarily prove of the greatest interest. is more than probable, it is certain, that this episode of African history, as it apparently extended over centuries of time, contained more of romance, of exciting adventures, of hopes and fears, of gains

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and losses, than that of our modern California or Australia.

We can hope beside that records may be brought to light which will clear up the mysteries still clinging about the shadowy land of Punt, and the expedition sent out to explore it in the year B. c. 2400 by Sankhara of the Eleventh Dynasty, as we learn from the inscription in the Wady Hammamat. This region some scholars believe to be the still partly explored Galla and Somaliland, known also as the "horn of Africa." The discovery of the abandoned gold mines in the southern part of the continent seems to show that it was better known to the men of those distant ages, whose civilization, learning, and wealth we are now only beginning dimly to appreciate, than to those of any other time except our own. This may

be true even if we accept the somewhat doubtful story of Herodotus of the fleet dispatched by Necho in the year B. C. 620, which returned to Egypt reporting that it had circumnavigated. the continent; or the tales of the Carthaginian merchant travelers who are said to have crossed the Sahara and to have traded with the inhabitants of the Niger basin.

The exploration of Africa, which is yet in progress, may be said to have begun with the formation of the African Association in 1788. Up to that time, since the voyages initiated by Prince Henry the Navigator and those of Vasco da Gama, little had been done by any traveler, trader, or colonist except to touch here and there along the coast. Mungo Park was one of the pioneers of this association, and there are those still living, of whom the present writer is one, whose childish ideas of Africa were largely drawn from the rude pictures of this daring but ill-fated traveler whipping a pool to drive away the innumerable frogs that his horse might drink, or lying ex

hausted under a tree and receiving water from a compassionate negro woman.

Though there has been a continuous succession of travelers since his day, the most memorable period, and that which gave the greatest impetus to exploration, was the year 1849. It was in that year that Livingstone, in the first of his great journeys, reached the shores of Lake Ngami, a discovery which kindled in him the inextinguishable enthusiasm of the explorer, and caused him finally well-nigh to forget his original purpose of discovering new lands simply that they might be fields for missionary work. Notwithstanding his gradual sinking of the higher in the lower aim, however, no man has done more in our days to promote the work of christianizing the savage world. At the same time, a man of a very different stamp, Gordon Cumming, had just finished his five eventful years of hunting in South Africa, the fascinating account of which he published the next year. By this book he attracted a whole army of sportsmen and professional hunters, by whom and the "trekking" Boers the game which then swarmed on the plains and in the river bottoms was either exterminated, or else driven in greatly diminished numbers to the yet comparatively inaccessible Zambesi valley. On the east coast, in this same year, Mt. Kilimanjaro, superb with its two snow-clad peaks, was discovered by Dr. Rebmann, and Mt. Kenia, snow-clad also, though directly under the equator, was seen by his fellowmissionary, Dr. Krapf. Their report of these wonders filled men's imaginations, recalling the ancient traditions of the Mountains of the Moon at the source of the Nile, and reviving the interest of the civilized world in the solution of that mystery. In this same eventful year, also, Dr. Barth set out from the Mediterranean on his great journey of twelve thousand miles, lasting nearly seven years, during which he crossed and recrossed the desert, explored the central Sudan, and

gave to us the greater part of the knowledge which we possess of those flourishing and populous negroid states to the south of the Sahara. From that time there has been a continually increasing host of travelers, missionaries, and adventurers who have penetrated into nearly every part of the continent. The map, which was mostly blank or conjecturally drawn in our childhood, is now filled with lakes, rivers, mountain chains, plains, and deserts, while the political boundaries which mark the division between the different states and colonial possessions of the European powers show still more evidently the changes wrought by the last half century. The motives which have prompted this conquest of Africa have been various. On the west coast they have been mainly commercial since the first cargo of slaves was shipped to the New World. Undoubtedly there has been much missionary effort there, and Liberia and Sierra Leone both show what has been attempted for the development of the freedman; but mercantile interests, the exchange of palm oil for gin, now that the slave trade has ceased, have been predominant. In the south, Livingstone, the devoted missionary and explorer, and Gordon Cumming, the ardent sportsman, were the men who were the leaders and examples of those who have opened up this region. On the east coast the missionary has been invariably the first in the field, while in the north commercial and political interests have mostly prevailed. The so-called "partition of Africa," which has occupied the public attention so much recently, is due largely to trade interests, though political motives have not been wanting. The great powers that have shared together the unappropriated parts of the continent have been actuated principally by a wish to open new markets for their own products as well as to secure and develop the trade and resources of the regions which have become their "sphere of influence." France and Italy, cramped by

their European boundaries, have sought in Africa freedom to expand and a field for the activities of their young men, a nursery for soldiers and statesmen. Then mere jealousy, occasionally leading a nation to annex comparatively valueless territory to prevent a neighbor from taking it, has played a not unimportant part.

In all this opening up of Africa, however, whether it has proceeded from political, commercial, or in some cases, it must be confessed, from religious motives, the native himself has suffered grievously. The original inhabitants, if the pygmies represent them, as we are inclined to believe, linger only in the recesses of the great and inhospitable forests of the Congo and Aruwimi. The descendants of those who have driven this race to their last refuge are in their turn being crushed out by the raids of the slave hunters in equatorial Africa, or by the almost equally destructive advance of western civilization in other parts. To Livingstone it was the source of the bitterest regret that the slave raiders were the first to profit by his discoveries. The devastation caused by these enemies of the human race is almost inconceivable. There are regions of great extent, in the Congo Free State especially, which a few years ago were filled with a peaceful and industrious people, but are now uninhabited wildernesses. It is difficult to realize what damage an expedition of several hundred men almost necessarily does to a sparse ly settled country poorly supplied with food. The expeditions, for instance, from the east coast to the interior, even when peaceful, literally "eat up" the country. But if the wretched native, in despair, attempts to defend his banana groves and wells, even from those who would pay for food and water, he suffers dearly for his act, and the result is often much the same as if he were attacked by a slave hunter.

The literature of this period of ex

ploration and development, it is hardly necessary to say, has closely followed every movement. At first it consisted mainly of accounts of journeys into unknown regions. Now these are comparatively rare, and have given place to histories of countries, scientific treatises, government documents, missionary reports, and biographies of men who have given their lives to Africa. There are also works on the ethnography of the native races, their language and literature. But the largest class of writers are the travelers, neither explorers nor men with scientific aims, who simply describe the scenery and life of the countries through which they pass. A very favorable specimen of this class is the veteran Dr. H. M. Field. His latest work is an account of a few weeks spent in Northern Africa in the winter of 1892-93. It is written easily and pleasantly, and we judge from the frequent Scriptural allusions and illustrations that it was for a special audience. Though it contains nothing profound or original, yet Dr. Field is a good observer, and describes the picturesque life of the half-African, half-European towns on the Mediterranean exceedingly well.

He had unusual opportunities for meeting interesting people, both natives and foreigners, of which he always availed himself for the benefit of his readers, and some of the most entertaining and suggestive passages in his book are accounts of interviews with leading men in the places he visited. The fact that this was his second journey to the region enables him to write somewhat more intelligently and to give more truthful impressions than the traveler to whom everything is new and strange. Of Gibraltar he tells nothing new, but there is much that is of interest in his account of Tangier, almost the only place where Moor and Christian freely jostle each other in the

1 The Barbary Coast. By HENRY M. FIELD With Illustrations. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893.

streets. He had an interview with the bashaw, "a magnificent specimen of manly strength and beauty," who gave him the rare privilege of seeing the prison. The horrors of this place, where starvation is the only and continual discipline, are rather hinted at than described. There is a striking picture of the late Sultan, "the only one in existence that gives any just impression of the man." It is the enlargement of a photograph taken by a kodak while he was riding in the midst of a great procession, four years ago, in Tangier. A pleasant anecdote, showing his kindly feeling, is all that Dr. Field has to tell of him; though he devotes a chapter to the relations which Morocco sustains to the European powers, and emphasizes the fact that because of its great and undeveloped resources in agricultural and mineral wealth "it is the greatest prize in the world"! Of Algeria, naturally, he saw far more than of Morocco. Besides the capital he visited Constantine, and rode through the mountains of the Kabyles, of whom he gives a particularly interesting description, obtained from one who had lived long among them. He also went into the southern part of the colony to the edge of the Sahara. The impressions which he gives from what he saw and heard, as compared with those of his former visit, strengthen the conviction that the French, after sixty years of conquest, have done little or nothing to overcome the sleeping but ever living hostility of the natives. The prefect of Constantine said to him: "All is quiet now, but an insurrection may break out at any time. We cannot guard against it, nor even anticipate its coming, any more than that of an earthquake. ... One thing we cannot do: we cannot touch the religion of the people. If we did, there would be an insurrection to-morrow!" Notwithstanding this feel

1 A Historical Geography of British Colonies. By C. P. LUCAS. Volume III. West Africa. Oxford University Press.

ing of living on a volcano, the Frenchman has come to stay, and he is planning to connect Algeria with Senegambia on the west coast and the states of the central Sudan by a railway, a magnificent scheme, to which Dr. Field devotes a chapter. There is nothing noteworthy in this, nor in his very sketchy account of his visit to Tunis and Carthage. This is the occasion of a diffuse and didactic chapter upon St. Augustine, which, we fear, will find fewer interested readers than his brief sketch of Jules Gérard, the lion-killer. This chapter and a dull recapitulation of the familiar events leading to the ruin of Carthage are perhaps the only instances of "padding" in a book which tells us much in an entertaining manner.

Of a very different character is Mr. Lucas's history of the British colonies on the west coast. It is packed full of information, clearly and concisely given, first of the general history of the discovery and settlement of the whole coast by the various European nations; then each colony is described separately, its history, government, commerce, resources, and present condition. The general impression left by the book is not favorable. These colonies have been from the beginning, and still are, hardly more than mere trading settlements. Though the slave trade by sea has ceased, yet slavery itself, with its attendant barbarism, exists almost within cannon-shot of the towns and factories, and little is done to suppress it or to elevate the negro. The most satisfactory condition is found at Lagos, the least at Sierra Leone, where "Mohammedanism is increasing more rapidly than Christianity, and education is making no progress."

One of the most remarkable of recent journeys is that of Dr. James Johnston,2 who crossed Africa from Benguela on the Atlantic coast to the mouth of the

2 Reality versus Romance in South Central Africa. By JAMES JOHNSTON, M. D. New York: T. H. Revell & Co.

Zambesi. It was a walk of 4500 miles, occupying seventeen months; and though his way led through regions inhabited by tribes hostile to every stranger, he never fired a shot in anger or in selfdefense, nor lost a carrier by death. This is an absolutely unique record for a journey of any extent, and shows that he had extraordinary tact and patience in dealing with the natives, as well as unremitting care for his men. His object was to see whether there was an opportunity for Christian negroes from the West Indies to aid the missionaries as lay assistants, especially in teaching the natives the industrial arts. Taking six from Jamaica with him, he traveled from station to station, from the establishments of the American Board at Bihé to the Scotch missions at Blantyre and on Lake Nyassa, only to be disappointed at each. There was no opening for his Jamaicans, who ultimately returned to their island. The missionary work did not seem to him to have advanced beyond the initial stage, and little progress had been made in christianizing the negro.. This failure of his hopes has affected his impressions of the whole of the country through which he passed more unfavorably, perhaps, than he is aware. Its fertility, for instance, had been greatly exaggerated. Much of it was a barren wilderness, and the climate was pestilential. Of Mashonaland, the latest British acquisition in this region, he says, "No one looking out on the dreary wastes we have traversed during the last forty-five days could hope to earn even a bare living from the sandy soil." He traveled here for twenty-three days without seeing a native village, but this may have been due to the raids of the Matabele, and not to the poverty of the land. In Salisbury, the new town which sprang up with the advent of the miners, bankruptcy was the "order of the day," and the liquor trade was the only thriving business. "Out of a hundred wagons on the road to Salisbury, seventy carry an average of two thou

sand bottles of intoxicating liquor each." The only things in which he apparently was not disappointed were the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, and the famous Bechuana king, Khama, who is "a noble example of what Christianity and civilization can do for the African." Dr. Johnston was very successful as a photographer, and the reproductions of his pictures which are given in the book are the most beautiful of African scenery which we have ever seen.

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A great part of this same region was the theatre of the adventures of which Mr. Selous writes so entertainingly in his new book.1 He is a hunter by profession, and is honorably "known throughout Africa as the man who never tells a lie." But for this reputation it might be hard to credit some of the stories which he tells, as, for instance, of the night attack upon his camp by lions, or the escape from the Mashukulumbwi, a native tribe on the upper Zambesi, a story of extraordinary endurance, woodcraft, and pluck. They are told, moreover, with great simplicity and modesty, and with literary skill very unusual in one more accustomed to hold a gun than a pen. is interesting to note that he does not regard the extinction of the large game in Africa as probable, with the exception of the white rhinoceros, of which only a few individuals are left. The native chiefs in the regions in which he hunted now carefully preserve the game. The only difficulty, indeed, which he had with the noted Matabele king, Lobengula, was about a hippopotamus which the king accused him of killing without permission. The latter part of his volume is chiefly devoted to an account of his pioneer work in Mashonaland. In 1889 he was employed to guide a gold-prospecting company through this country, and soon after he built a road for the South African Company through the wilderness to

1 Travel and Adventure in Southeast Africa. By F. C. SELOUS. Imported by Charles Scrib

ner's Sons. 1893.