CHAPTER XXX 



Early Explorers of Africa 



4 FRICA, as it appears to the traveler of to-day, is not the same 

 r\ that centuries ago stood at the head of the world's civilization. 

 When Greece was under the tumultuary sway of a number of 

 petty chieftains, Homer already celebrates the hundred gates of 

 Thebes, and the mighty hosts which in warlike array issued from them 

 to battle. While other nations dwelt in ignorance, the valley of the 

 Nile became the abode of learning ; and here might be found works of 

 sculpture, painting, and architecture, which were without equals. And 

 while Egypt was thus pre-eminent in knowledge and art, Carthage 

 equally excelled in commerce, and in the wealth produced by it; and 

 rose to a degree of power that enabled her to hold long suspended 

 between herself and Rome the scales of universal empire. Amid the 

 abundance of her wealth, and the splendor of her glory, Carthage sunk 

 in her struggle with Rome; while Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, 

 whose grandeur and power had for ages won the admiration and 

 provoked the envy of surrounding nations, passed under the rule of 

 the Caesars. At a later period, when the din of war had ceased, and 

 the tumult of contending armies had died away, the fires were again 

 kindled, and northern Africa boasted of its sages, its saints, its heads 

 and fathers of the church, and exhibited Alexandria and Carthage on 

 a footing with the greatest cities which owned the imperial sway. 



But although the northern shores of Africa, and the valley of the 

 Nile, were renowned for their progress in civilization, the glory of it 

 did not extend beyond a narrow strip of land which bordered upon the 

 Mediterranean, and skirted the shores of the Nile. Beyond this was 

 the dark and l)loody ground, inhal)ited by savage tril^es, to whose 

 inhuman appetites many an adventurer fell a victim. Those who 

 sought to penetrate the wilds which lay beyond, were suddenly con- 

 fronted by a desert, wide and bare — a barrier vast and appalling — 



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