STANLEY'S DISCOVERIES AND TEE FUTURE OF AFRICA. 421 



being as he is in more complete sympathy with 

 the negro, he has succeeded where we have failed 

 in materially raising him in personal dignity and 

 in general civilization. 



Africa is not wholly destitute of means of self- 

 amelioration. There is, perhaps, no part of the 

 world in which greater differences are to be seen 

 among the inhabitants than are to be found there 

 among the negroes, and it has occurred to every 

 traveler to occasionally witness specimens of black 

 humanity that have struck him with some admi- 

 ration. By perpetual war and struggling such 

 as have gone on from time immemorial, the ten- 

 dency of the ablest to prevail will necessarily ad- 

 vance the average of the negro race. Already 

 those who appear to have been the aborigines 

 of the land, namely, the dwarf tribes of whom 

 Schweinfurth writes, and their congeners the 

 Bushmen, have been ousted by the negro. Again, 

 the negro in historical times inhabited the Sahara, 

 to the north, whence he has been driven back by 

 the Tuarek ; he inhabited districts in the south, 

 whence he has been driven back by the Caffre ; 

 and we have seen how a Galla stock has obtained 

 the ruling power in certain of the northeast parts 

 of Equatorial Africa. The negro may himself 

 disappear before alien races, just as his predeces- 

 sors disappeared before him ; or the better negro 

 races may prevail and form nations and exclude 

 the rest. It certainly appears thus far that those 

 races who accept the Arab are more likely to 

 succeed in the struggle for supremacy and exist- 

 ence than the others, and it would follow that 

 our wisest course is to give the Arab a judicious 

 and discriminating support. 



At the present moment three Englishmen are 

 appointed vicegerents of Arab influence in the 

 equatorial dominions of the Khedive of Egypt. 

 First and foremost among men, in his power of 

 quelling disorder, without the use of violent 

 means, stands Gordon Pasha, a real hero in his 

 unswerving and determined pursuit of the path 

 of duty, who is the Governor-General of the Sou- 

 dan, or country inhabited by the black races of 

 Egypt. The second is Burton, the well-known 

 traveler in many lands, and an expert in all that 

 relates to Mohammedanism, who has been re- 

 cently appointed Governor of Darfur; and the 

 third is Sir Frederick Goldsmith, an able Indian 

 officer, newly appointed Governor of Massowah, 

 on the Bed Sea. The influence of the British 

 race can hardly be exerted in a more appropriate 

 way than this: that is to say, through men who 

 have the sentiment and practice of statesmanship, 

 knowing what are the traditions, the instincts, 



and the capabilities, of the races over whom they 

 are called to rule, exacting from them that which 

 they are confident of being able to obtain, and 

 not wrecking their venture by attempting more. 

 An extension of some such method of governing 

 as this, in the regions over which the Sultan of 

 Zanzibar has more or less sovereign control, is 

 urgently needed. The foreign export of slaves 

 has to be absolutely stopped to put an end to the 

 desolating raids and horrible cruelties practised 

 in the interior, and a legitimate Arab commerce 

 and influence has to be legalized and furthered. 

 Thus much we may perhaps have strength and 

 influence to effect, but the white man can never 

 himself become the itinerant trader in Africa. 

 The climate is unsuitable, the gains too small, the 

 difference of race and civilization between the 

 negro and himself is too great. The Arabs are 

 needed as intelligent, numerous, and enterprising 

 intermediaries, and they are the best at present 

 to be obtained ; so we must accept them with all 

 their faults. 



The remaining duty of the white man is to 

 explore the land, partly to show what produce 

 worthy of exportation it can yield, and partly to 

 find out the best routes by which it can be con- 

 veyed to the coast. Let the white man originate, 

 let him conduct the larger commerce from the 

 sea-coast, let him crush the external slave-trade, 

 and let him take such part in the higher politics 

 of the continent as he can reasonably hope to ex- 

 ert ; but let him, if possible, abandon all thoughts 

 of annexing large districts in Eastern Africa, 

 which, according to the experience of the West, 

 will exercise no influence commensurate to the 

 cost in lives and money of maintaining them, 

 while they would impose upon England the un- 

 congenial duty of miserable wars like that of 

 Ashanti, and of continual petty onslaughts like 

 those we continually hear of, upon the pirates at 

 the mouths of West African rivers. Let the 

 missionaries go where they will and do what 

 good they can, but let them take the risks on 

 their own heads, be respectful to the good points 

 of Mohammedan precept and example, and not 

 entangle us in a system of national interference. 

 Equatorial Africa is never likely to become a 

 home for large numbers of white men, certainly not 

 for men of the Anglo-Saxon race. Let us, then, 

 whether as a nation or as individuals, whether as 

 cosmopolitan philanthropists or as men of com- 

 merce, confine our efforts to the more feasible 

 task of controlling and aiding the one intelligent 

 race, who already permeate it, by our action on 

 the sea-coast, and by our political influence at 



