Africa, the oldest of the continents, containing the earliest remains of man, and the birthplace of European civilization, is the last to be explored. Long before the temples of India or the palaces of Nineveh were built, before the hanging garden of Babylon was planted, the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren had been constructed, the temples of Palmyra and Thebes filled with worshipers.
Greece owes its civilization to Egypt: its beautiful orders of architecture came from the land of the Nile. The civilization of Egypt had grown old, and was in its decay, when Rome was born. Think what a vast abyss of time separates us from the days of Romulus and Remus! And yet the pyramids of Egypt were then older by a thousand years than all the centuries that have passed since then.
For ages upon ages, Africa has refused to reveal its secrets to civilized man, and, though explorers have penetrated it from every side, it remains to-day the dark continent. This isolation of Africa is due to its position and formation. It is a vast, ill-formed triangle, with few good harbors, without navigable rivers for ocean-vessels, lying mainly in the torrid zone. A fringe of low scorched land, reeking with malaria, extends in unbroken monotony all along the coast, threatening death to the adventurous explorer. Our ignorance of Africa is not in consequence of its situation under the equator, for South America in the torrid zone has long been known. There the explorer easily penetrates its recesses on its great rivers,—the Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata,—for they are navigable from the ocean far into the interior. The Amazon, 3,000 miles from its mouth, is only 210 feet above the ocean-level, and, with its branches, is navigable for 10,000 miles. Africa also has three great rivers,—one on each side of this peninsula. On the north, the Nile, the river of the past, empties into the Mediterranean Sea, but its navigation is soon interrupted by five cataracts; so that the camel, the ship of the desert, bears the wares of Europe from the foot of the first cataract far up the river, 800 miles, to Berber, whence they are again shipped by boat 2,000 miles to Gondokoro, close to the lakes Albert and Victoria Nyanza, 4,000 feet above the sea-level, 4,200 miles by water from the Mediterranean.
On the west, the Kongo, the river of the future, empties into the Atlantic Ocean under the equatorial sun; but its navigation is also impeded by successive falls extending from its mouth to Stanley Pool. Then there is almost uninterrupted navigation on the river and its tributaries for 10,000 miles. Far inland the head waters of its north-eastern branches interlace with the waters of the Nile. Another branch rises in Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa, while the main river finds its source higher up in the mountains, north of Lake Nyassa, 5,000 feet above the sea-level. On the east the Zambezi, the great river of southern Africa, empties into the Indian Ocean opposite Madagascar. The navigation of its main branch, the Shire, is interrupted not far from the ocean. The Zambezi itself is navigable to the rapids near Tete, 260 miles from its mouth; while one or two hundred miles higher up are the mighty falls of Victoria, only exceeded in volume of water by the Niagara, and nearly equal in height.
In whatever direction Europeans attempted to penetrate Africa, they were met by insurmountable obstacles. Communication by water was prevented by falls near the mouths of great rivers. The greater part of the coast was very unhealthy, and, where not unhealthy, a desert was behind it; but these obstacles, which formerly prevented exploration, now stimulate the traveler. The modern explorations of Africa commenced one hundred years ago, when Mungo Park crossed the Desert of Sahara, and lost his life in descending the Niger. From that time to the present, travelers in ever-increasing numbers have entered Africa from every side. Some who have entered from the Atlantic or Pacific coasts have been lost in its wilds, and two or three years after have emerged on the opposite coast; others have passed from the coast, and have never been heard from. Zanzibar has been a favorite starting-point for the lake region of Central Africa. Stanley started from Zanzibar on his search for Livingstone with two white men, but returned alone. Cameron set out by the same path with two companions, but, upon reaching the lake region, he was alone. Keith Johnson, two or three years ago, started with two Europeans: within a couple of months he was gone. Probably every second man, stricken down by fever or accident, has left his bones to bleach along the road. Drummond, a recent explorer of Africa, chose a route by the Zambezi and Shire Rivers as healthier and more desirable. Let us hear his experience. Early in his journey, at the missionary station of Livingstonia, on Lake Nyanza, he entered a missionary home: it was spotlessly clean; English furniture in the room, books lying about, dishes in the cupboards; but no missionary. He went to the next house: it was the school; the benches and books were there, but neither scholars nor teacher. Next, to the blacksmith shop: there were the tools and anvil, but no blacksmith. And so on to the next and the next, all in perfect order, but all empty. A little way off, among the mimosa groves, under a huge granite mountain, were graves: there were the missionaries.
The Niger is the only river in all Africa navigable by small steamers from the ocean; but the Niger does not give access to the interior, as it rises within 100 miles of the ocean, and, after making a great bend around the mountains of the Guinea coast, empties into the ocean only about five degrees south of its source, after a course of 2,500 miles. Its main branch, the Benue (or "Mother of Waters"), is navigable 500 or 600 miles above its junction with the Niger. The country through which it flows is thickly peopled and well cultivated; but the natives are fierce and warlike, and have until recently prevented any exploration of the Benue.
THE MOUNTAINS OF AFRICA.
As mountain-ranges determine the course of rivers, influence the rainfall, and temper the climate, we must understand the mountain system of Africa before we can understand the continent as a whole.
Standing on the citadel at Cairo, and looking south, you see a sandstone ridge which gradually grows in altitude and width of base as it runs far away to the south, even to the Cape of Good Hope at the other end of Africa. Successive ranges of mountains follow the coast, sometimes near, at others two or three hundred miles inland; the land, in the latter case, ascending from the coast. The only breaks in this long chain are where the Zambezi and Limpopo force their way to the Indian Ocean.
In Abyssinia, on the Red Sea, there is a range of snowy mountains 14,700 feet in height. A few hundred miles to the southeast, and near Lake Victoria Nyanza, almost under the equator, is another snow-capped mountain, Kilima Njaro, 18,700 feet high,—the highest mountain in Africa,—and the mountains of Massai-Land, a continuation of the Abyssinian Mountains. Another range, apparently an offshoot of the long range from the Red Sea, forms a wall 100 miles long, and 10,000 feet high, on the east of Lake Nyassa, separating the waters of that lake from the Indian Ocean. This range continues to the Zambezi. South of this river the mountains rise 8,000 to 10,000 feet in height. In Cape Colony are several ranges of mountains. The highest peak is Compas Berg, 8,500 feet. In the eastern center of Africa, in the equatorial region, is an elevated plateau in which is the lake region, then there is a sudden rise, and a gradual descent towards the Atlantic. There are few continuous ranges of mountains on the western coast; but at Kamerun there is a cluster of mountains reaching an elevation of 13,100 feet; and south of Morocco some of the peaks of the Atlas Mountains reach an elevation of 12,000 to 13,000 feet, but they have little if any influence on the rainfall or temperature of the country. It will be seen from this statement that eastern Africa has high mountain-ranges rising into an elevated plateau; that the land in Equatorial Africa gradually descends toward the west and north-west until within one or two hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean, when the descent is rapid to the low and unhealthy coast-lands. Through equatorial Africa runs the Kongo, the land north of the Kongo gradually rising to an elevation of about 2,000 feet, and then descending to 1,200 feet at Lake Chad. South of the Kongo the land rises to an elevation of 3,000 feet, and retains this elevation far south into the Portuguese territory.