AFEICA. 



sharply westward, and the coast line of Upper 

 Guinea faces the south. This region, long known 

 as the slave coast, is occupied by several native 

 states, the largest being the Kingdom of Da- 

 hoiney, the king of which has attained an evil 

 notoriety by the vast number of human sacri- 

 fices immolated on his altars. North of this, 

 and stretching in a belt of variable width across 

 the continent to the confines of Nubia and 

 Kordofan, is that region known formerly as 

 Soudan and Nigritia, composed of numerous 

 and constantly changing states, part of them 

 Mohammedan and part pagan. The most im- 

 portant of these, beginning in the east, are Dar- 

 fur, Waday, Bergoo, Kanem, Bornou, Adamawa, 

 Houssa, Timbuctoo, Yoruba, and Bambarra. 



Where the western coast of Africa begins 

 again to turn-northward, is the little Republic 

 of Liberia, and northwest of it the British 

 colony of Sierra Leone, both settled in great 

 part by free negroes, either from the United 

 States or Great Britain, or recaptured Africans 

 taken from slave ships, or, as in the case of a 

 portion of the inhabitants of Liberia, native 

 tribes who have become civilized. Lying be- 

 tween this and the Great Desert is the country 

 of Senegambia named from its two great rivers, 

 inhabited by several tribes of negroes and 

 mixed races. France has a colony, St. Louis, 

 at the mouth of the Senegal, and England a set- 

 tlement, Bathurst, at the mouth of the Gambia. 

 Between this country and the Empire of Mo- 

 rocco, and extending eastward to the confines 

 of Egypt and Nubia, with but here and there 

 a fertile oasis and grove of palms amid its vast 

 wastes of sand, stretches the Great Desert of 

 Sahara. Its oases are inhabited by tribes of 

 Arab or half Arab origin, the Tuaregs, the 

 Tibboos, &c., and its deserts are traversed by 

 caravans and companies of Arab Bedouins, the 

 exact counterparts of their brethren of Arabia. 



In another place (see GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLO- 

 RATIONS) , will be found the results obtained, 

 during 1862, by the numerous exploring parties 

 who have penetrated into the unknown interior 

 of this vast continent-peninsula. In the present 

 article it is proposed to notice briefly a few of 

 the important political events of the past year 

 in the countries best known to the civilized 

 world. 



In Morocco the treaty of peace with Spain, 

 of April 26, 1860 (see NEW AMERICAN CYCLO- 

 PEDIA, vol. xi, art. MOROCCO), by which the 

 Emperor Sidi Mohammed agreed to pay to 

 Spain an indemnity of 20,000,000 piastres 

 (about $4,000,000, and to cede a district of ter- 

 ritory around Melilla, valued at $37,^00,000, 

 had remained unfulfilled up to the summer of 

 1861. The indemnity had not been paid, and 

 the Kabyles, or inhabitants of Eif, refused to 

 obey the mandate of the emperor, and sur- 

 render their lands ; and throughout Morocco, 

 there were indications of insurrection, which 

 the emperor lacked the power to suppress. 

 Spain meantime held the important city of 

 Tetuan in which she was authorized to con- 



tinue a garrison till the fulfilment of the 

 treaty, and made preparations for its perma- 

 nent occupation. Unwilling to relinquish this 

 important post, Sidi Mohammed sent his brother 

 Muley-el-Abbas, to treat with the Spanish 

 Government for more favorable terms. He 

 succeeded in negotiating a new treaty, in 

 which the payment of three million douros 

 within 5 months is guaranteed, and the, pay- 

 ment of the remainder of the indemnity made 

 a lien on the customs receipts, for the prompt 

 payment of which the Queen of Spain is au- 

 thorized to appoint an agent to receive a por- 

 tion of the duties at each of the five ports of 

 the empire. The Spaniards are to evacuate 

 Tetuan when the first instalment of the indem- 

 nity is paid, the territory ceded by the former 

 treaty being placed under their control prior to 

 the evacuation. The Spanish missionaries are to 

 be allowed to found a Mission House at Tetuan, 

 and to be protected in their persons, their asy- 

 lums, and the exercise of their worship through- 

 out the empire. In January, 1862, a conven- 

 tion was concluded between the Sultan of 

 Morocco and the British Government, by 

 virtue of which the sultan obtained a loan of 

 about half a million pounds sterling, at 5 per 

 cent., at a discount of 17 per cent., reimbursable 

 from the half of the revenue of the ports, at the 

 rate of 38,000 per annum, to be collected by 

 English officers resident at those ports. The 

 amount of this loan was to be paid over to 

 Spain as indemnity. This gives the British 

 Government an influence in Morocco, which, 

 with her possession of Gibraltar, enables her to 

 hold the keys of the Mediterranean. 



In Egypt, Mohammed Said Pasha, viceroy 

 since 1854, and the wisest and most judicious 

 ruler of Egypt in modern times, died in Jan- 

 uary, 1863. He had released the fellahs or 

 cultivators of the soil, from the condition of 

 serfs in which he found them, abolished the 

 system of monopolies by which the government 

 was the sole purchaser and vender of Egyptian 

 products, and allowed the farmer to sell his 

 crops in any market he chose ; substituted a 

 tax of 8 per cent, of the income, payable in 

 money, for the old tax of one tenth, payable in 

 kind, abrogated all internal excises, bestowed 

 on the fellah the liberty of changing his resi- 

 dence at will, and allowed the judges of the 

 provinces and districts to be elected by the peo- 

 ple, as a measure of judicial reform. He had 

 also made great reforms in the conscription, 

 organization, and discipline of the army. The 

 finances, which, on his accession to the vice- 

 royalty, were in a deplorable state, are now in a 

 better condition than those of any other oriental 

 country. The debt is only 32 millions of dol- 

 lars, the annual receipts about 8 millions of 

 dollars beyond the ordinary expenditure, and the 

 bonds of the government at par, with 8 per 

 cent, interest, while the ordinary and legal in- 

 terest of the country is 10 per cent. 



There is undoubtedly a dark side to this pic- 

 ture. Bribery, corruption, and peculation, 



