The Continent of the Future.
HAMPTON, VA.:
Normal School Steam Press.
1881.
[1]
THE CONTINENT OF THE FUTURE.
AFRICA AND ITS WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT—EXPLORATION,GOLD MINING, TRADE, MISSIONS AND ELEVATION.
The tide of modern civilization and religious developmentis sweeping round the globe. With the rapid advance of India,the unparalleled strides of Japan, and the steady progress of China tothe new era, Africa is about to reveal its long-kept secrets and its possibilitiesof contributing to the elevation of its inhabitants and thewelfare of the world. Commerce, capital, science, philanthropy, andreligion have joined hands to penetrate the mysterious land and castlight on its gloomiest portions. Africa is very nearly everywhere regardedas the continent of the future.
Governmental.—France seems about to absorb Tunis and Tripoli,and to unite Algeria to her Senegal possessions. The Chambershave voted eight millions of francs ($1,600,000) for two railroads: (1)from Algiers to Timbuctoo, across the Sahara, and (2) from Saint Louis,Senegal, to Bamaka and Sego. Two millions of francs ($400,000) havealso been appropriated for the construction of a telegraph line fromDakar to Saint Vincent, to place Senegal in telegraphic connectionwith Europe. A loan is proposed of forty-five millions of francs ($9,000,000)for the formation of three hundred villages and the introductionof two hundred thousand colonists into Algeria. This expandingcolony is just fifty years old. In 1830, the total exports and importsdid not amount to two million francs, ($400,000.) They havenow reached three hundred and sixty-five million francs, ($63,100,000.)
M. Soleillet and M. Doponchel give the result of their long andthorough reconnoissance as highly favorable to the project of crossingthe Sahara by steam, and they describe the desert as far more fertilethan is commonly believed. The latter says: “What is being sosuccessfully accomplished by England in India, by the United Statesin North America, and by Russia in Central Asia, that should we tryto do in emulation of their example—seek a continent whereon toextend our beneficent influence, and find, by the employment of our[2]idle capital, at once a new market for the products of our industriesand manufactures, and a vast centre of agricultural production, ableto supply us, at small cost, with the raw materials not indigenous toour soil, which we now only obtain with difficulty from foreign sources.”
The expedition under Gallieni is stated to have reached SaintLouis from Timbuctoo, having completed a survey for a railroad betweenthose points, which is pronounced to be entirely feasible. Hemet with a friendly reception, and formed treaties with numeroustribes, whereby France is granted a right of way, and may establishambassadorial or military representatives at the proposed principalstations. M. Matheis has been commissioned by the French Governmentto explore the country from the bend of the Niger to LakeTchad. M. L. Vassian, an attache of the French Department for ForeignAffairs, is to reside for a time at Khartoum, to study the nature ofthe commercial relations to be formed with