A system of general colonization on a large scale was, during this year, undertaken by the British Government. By a new homestead law, embodying liberal inducements, a vast army of colonists from all over the British dominions were transported to Central Africa. Thousands upon thousands of persons from the congested districts of London, Glasgow, Liverpool and other large cities, were persuaded to leave their limited surroundings and uncongenial atmosphere, and go to the promising new land, teeming with boundless opportunities.
Almost the entire inhabitants of the isolated islands of the Shetlands and Orkneys, who led an indolent life and eked a meagre existence by fisheries, joined this grand trek to Central Africa. Many thousands from the Canadian provinces and from the United States of America joined this exodus, as did also thousands from the East Indies. The thorough and admirable manner in which this laudable movement was handled mitigated the hardships of transportation, and thus within a few years more than five million, poor, homeless and indolent people were given homesteads of their own, awakening them into energy and thrift.
Within a decade the population of Central Africa reached the grand total of 25,000,000 industrious, loyal citizens, forming a flourishing dependency, enjoying home rule and liberty, under the protection of British laws and arms.
1928
The Conflagration of the Atlantic Ocean
One of the most wonderful and at the same time awful conflagrations of its kind on record in the history of the world, was that of the apparent burning of the Atlantic Ocean, covering an area one hundred and fifty miles wide. It started in the Gulf of Mexico and, like a prairie fire, only a thousand times more furious, this floating furnace consumed scores of vessels that came into its fiery path.
A few weeks previous to this awful holocaust, the petroleum wells in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana had run dry, on account of a severe earthquake. It was argued by scientists that, by some subterranean convulsions the oil well fissures had shifted their course, into the waters of the gulf, and the vast accumulation of the inflammable fluid, floating on the ocean, had been ignited, either by an electric spark during a thunderstorm, or by some combustible being thrown from a sailing craft.