AFKICA. 



AFRICA. The year 1868 is memorable in 

 the history of Africa for the English- Abyssin- 

 ian war. (See ABYSSINIA.) 



It is now generally conceded that the Suez 

 Canal, the greatest engineering work of history, 

 will be a success. Vessels of light draught al- 

 ready pass it, but it will yet require a very 

 large expenditure of money before the work 

 is thoroughly completed so that a ship drawing 

 twenty-five feet of water can pass from the 

 Mediterranean to the Red Sea. When com- 

 pleted, the work cannot fail to have a power- 

 ful influence upon developing the resources of 

 Egypt and promoting civilization in Eastern 

 Africa. (See EGYPT.) 



The states of Northern Africa, especially 

 Algeria and Morocco, again suffered from a 

 frightful famine. About Algeria, a letter from 

 the Rev. J. B. Ginsburg, dated Algiers, July 

 10, 1868, gives the following information : 



"The famine brought on by drought and the 

 plague of locusts and cholera has exhausted 

 the native resources, gradually assuming most 

 distressing proportions, and literally decimat- 

 ing the native population. They die, not from 

 any disease, but from starvation. They first 

 fed on the grass of the field and the leaves of 

 trees; the filth collected in dust-carts was a 

 luxury. They then dug out and ate animals 

 which had died from starvation. In travelling, 

 I saw these creatures, shrunk to skin and bone, 

 surrounding the dwarf palms and thistles, 

 which they thought delicious fare. Yoracious 

 jackals are deprived of any chance animal ly- 

 ing dead in the country. Men attack carts 

 laden with manure, and pull out the cabbage- 

 stalks and turnip-tops. Women grub in the 

 horse-litter for the undigested grains of corn 

 and barley, and wash and eat them with avid- 

 ity. Children throw themselves upon the 

 sweepings of the house, and dispute with the 

 dogs the bones and other pitiful refuse found 

 upon the heaps of rubbish, smash and gnaw 

 them. This appalling distress at last impelled 

 the famished beings to acts of violence and un- 

 heard-of vileness and cannibalism. They at- 

 tacked men and beasts, and even killed their own 

 children, salted, and ate them. In spite of hun- 

 dreds of thousands of francs sent over from 

 France, the famished Bedouins perish in incredi- 

 ble numbers. Bodies are still found side by 

 side in the ditches, on the high-roads, or in the 

 brooks, devoured by hyenas or jackals." 



In Morocco the situation was reported to be 

 even worse than in Algeria. According to 

 an account in the Paris Conatitutionnel, num- 

 bers of persons were constantly dying of hun- 

 ger. The roads were covered every morning 

 with the dying and the dead. The rich were 

 powerless to save these poor creatures; and 

 the number of those who perished, either of 

 hunger or the epidemic, was estimated at one- 

 fourth of the entire population. "It is not, as 

 will be seen," says the Constitutionnel, "Al- 

 geria alone which has just passed through a 

 deplorable crisis. In Tunis, as in Morocco, the 



populations, ravaged with cholera, ruined by 

 invasions of locusts such as were never before 

 seen in the memory of man, and suffering two 

 years of drought, were, in the summer of 1868, 

 plunged into the deepest suffering. Fortu- 

 nately, in Algeria a good harvest repaired, so 

 far as it was possible, the losses experienced 

 by those tribes in the earlier months of the 

 year, and it was hoped that the wants of the 

 coming winter might be met by the provisions 

 made for giving employment, by the exercise 

 of charity, and various kinds of assistance ju- 

 diciously rendered." 



The insecurity of foreign residents in Tunis 

 led to strong remonstrances on the part of 

 France and other powers ; for a time, the 

 French consul broke off diplomatic relations 

 with the Tunisian government, but in May a 

 new convention was concluded, satisfying the 

 demands of France. 



An important change took place in the gov- 

 ernment of the island of Madagascar. The 

 Queen Raosheima, who, though not a persecu- 

 tor of Christianity, was opposed to its prog- 

 ress, died, and her successor showed herself at 

 once a zealous patron of the Christian missions. 

 In consequence of this change of policy, a 

 strong feeling in favor of Christianity has set 

 in among all classes of the population, and a 

 speedy Christianization of the whole country is 

 looked for. Madagascar has now treaties with 

 many of the Christian countries. That with the 

 United States was promulgated by President 

 Johnson in October, 1868. (See MADAGASCAR.) 

 To put an end to the war between the 

 Orange Free State and the Basutos, Governor 

 Wodehouse, of the Cape colony, at the begin- 

 ning of the year, declared the Basutos to be 

 taken under the British protectorate. In de- 

 fiance of this notice, President Brand, of the 

 Orange Free State, continued the war, and met 

 with marked success. The Basuto strongholds 

 Tandjesberg and Treine were captured. At 

 the former, Bushuli, the brother of Moshesh 

 (chief of the Basutos), was killed. On Feb- 

 ruary 22d, the Free State burghers captured, 

 with the loss of only three men, the native 

 stronghold Kilme, with 1,500 horses, 8,000 

 sheep and goats, and 11,000 head of cat- 

 tle. In March Governor Wodehouse issued 

 a proclamation, declaring the Basutos British 

 subjects, and the country inhabited by them 

 British territory. The commander of the Eng- 

 lish frontier police in Basuto-land, Sir Walter 

 Currie, wrote to Coinmandant Joubert (of the 

 Orange Free State), requesting him to abstain 

 from any acts of aggression against the Basutos, 

 and informing him that if any such were at- 

 tempted he should feel bound to aid the Basu- 

 tos in resisting them. To this the command- 

 ant replied that he had no instructions to ac- 

 knowledge Sir Walter's authority, and re- 

 quested that he would restrain the Basutos, 

 and clear them out of the conquered territory. 

 An offer of the governor of the Free State of 

 three hundred farms in the Basuto territory, 



