302 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



political significance. The geographical results 

 are also important. At the outset he met with 

 many difficulties with the English Niger Com- 



Eany. He charged that its workmen drilled 

 oles in the boilers which they pretended to 

 rivet for him, and that its agent did his best to 

 prejudice the Sultan up the river against the 

 coming Frenchman. He reached Jola, the capi- 

 tal of Adamawa, in September, 1891. From this 

 point the northward route to Lake Tchad was 

 rendered dangerous, perhaps impossible, by the 

 warlike operations in that region ; and therefore 

 the lieutenant decided to give up the northern 

 journey and turn southeast toward the Congo. 

 The German view seems to be that he gave up 

 the plan originally announced so very willingly 

 as to make it look like a pretext for drawing 

 the attention of the Germans in the Cameroons 

 from the real object of his expedition. His 

 journey has opened a line of connection be- 

 tween the upper Niger and the French Congo. 

 The following extract sums up the geograph- 

 ical results : 



Mizon's chief distinction is that he has solved the 

 question of the water parting bet ween the Niger and 

 the Congo basins. Hi' has followed from its source 

 to its mouth the Sanga river, and has proved that it 

 is one of the most important atlhu'iits of the Congo. 

 It flows into the Congo not far from the equator, 

 comes from the far north, and its head waters are 

 near those of the Benue, the greatest tributary of the 

 Niger. Mizon has shown that this river is about 1,000 

 mill's in length, and ranks in importance fourth 

 amongthc Congo tributaries, the Mobangi, the Kassai, 

 and the Lotnami alone surpassing it. 



Another fact which makes Mizon's journey con- 

 spicuous is that lie succeeded in pushing his way en- 

 tirely across the great country of Adamawa. He says 

 it comprises a succession of elevated plateaus, and is 

 certain to have a great future. Its altitude of 4,500 to 

 7,500 feet makes it a very healthy region, and a large 

 part of it, Mizon says, can be colonized by white peo- 

 ple. Its population is largely composed of the great 

 Fula people of the Soudan, who are farmers and cattle 

 raisers. Mizon says Adamawa extends farther to- 

 ward the south than had been supposed. In this 

 great region Mizon found that the important com- 

 mercial center of Gaundere, which was known only 

 vaguely, is a large and picturesque town, well forti- 

 fied, and having from 20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants. 

 Mizon crossed the large territory of the Sultan Tibati, 

 who is a vassal of the Sultan of Adamawa, and whose 

 country had never before been visited by a white 

 man. He also visited the large market of Gaza, whoso 

 name was known, although it has never been possible 

 before to place the town on the maps with approxi- 

 mate correctness. 



On his return to Paris a banquet in his honor 

 was given to 400 guests, at which each guest had 

 before him a map of the region between the 

 Congo and Lake Ichad, containing the itinerary 

 of the explorer. On Ang. 10, 1892, he set out 

 from France"-on a new journey of exploration. 



Much has been said of Mashonaland, the new 

 British possession in South Africa its gold 

 fields, its wonderful ruins, its agricultural capa- 

 bilities. The ruins were discovered thirty years 

 ago by Karl Mafich, a German traveler, and it is 

 probable that no white man has visited them 

 since, until recently. Theodore Bent was sent to 

 examine them by the Royal Geographical Society 

 and the British South Africa Company. His 

 paper describing them is of great interest. Al- 

 though many of the results of his work belong 



rather to archaeology than to geography, a few 

 notes from his account will not be out of place. 



The ruins of the great Zimbabwe are in south latitude 

 20" 1C' 30" and east longitude 31 10' 10", at an eleva- 

 tion of 3,300 feet above the sea level. They form the 

 principal of a long series of such ruins istrete.hing up 

 the whole length of the west side of the Subi river, 

 the southernmost, which we visited, being that on the 

 Lundi, and the northernmost in the Muzoe valley. 

 There are also manv other ruins on the Limpopo, in 

 the Transvaal, in Matubeleland, at Tati.the Impakwc, 

 and elsewhere, all of the same type ana construction ; 

 but time would not permit our visiting them. Some 

 are equal to the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe in work- 

 manship, others again are very inferior, and point to 

 the occupation of this country having continued over 

 along period, probably centuries. These all would 

 seem to have been abandoned at one time in the face 

 of sonic overwhelming calamity, for all the gateways 

 at the Great Zimbabwe and at Matindela, the seeond 

 ruin in importance, 80 miles northeast of it as the 

 crow flies, have been carefully walled up as for a 

 siege; a forcible entry had been cU'ected into the 

 Great Zimbabwe by a gap in the weakest part of the 

 largo circular building. Doubtless at this capture ot 

 the fortresses a wholesale massacre of the inhabitants 

 took place, and a complete destruction of the people 

 and their objects of art. . . . The Great Zimbabwe 

 ruins cover a vast area of ground, and consist of the 

 largo circular building on a gentle rise with a net- 

 work of inferior buildings extending into the valley 

 below, and the labyrinthine fortress on the hill, about 

 400 feet above, naturally protected by huge granite 

 bowlders and a precipice running round a consider- 

 able portion of it. ... It [the lower building] is built 

 of small blocks of granite broken with the liammer 

 into a uniform size, but bearing no trace of chisel 

 marks whatsoever, and no mortar had been used in 

 the construction ; in parts this encircling wall is 30 

 feet high and between 10 arid 17 feet in thickness, 

 and the courses of small stones arc carried out with 

 surprising regularity, arguing an accurate knowledge 

 of leveling and an unlimited command of labor at a 

 time when slave labor was abundant and time no ob- 

 ject. There are three entrances on the north side of 

 the circle, carefully rounded off and protected on the 

 inside with buttresses ; that to the north, facing the 

 fortress on the hill, would appear to have been the 

 principal one, the small space inside being floored 

 with strong reddish cement. Five passages Ted away 

 from this entrance among the labyrinthine buildings 

 inside. The one to the left went down some cement. 

 steps, and was carefully protected by a doorway con- 

 sisting of two buttresses witli apertures on either side 

 to receive some form of door, which seems to have 

 been universally employed in the buildings. These 

 doors at the time of the siege had been removed, and 

 their places supplied by walls carefully constructed 

 of the same kind of stones as the outer walls. Then 

 the left passage led into the long narrow passage, 

 which conducted between high walls to the sacred 

 inclosure . . . where stand the two towers; the 

 largest is now 32 feet high, and had presumably 

 several more courses. A few courses below the sum- 

 mit ran a pattern formed bv the stones in one course 

 being placed edgewise. This tower is really a won- 

 derful structure of perfect symmetry and with courses 

 of unvarying regularity, fiy working underneath it, 

 and by extracting as many stones as we dared from 

 two holes in the side, which we afterward replaced, 

 we satisfactorily demonstrated that it was solid. It 

 was built on no other foundation but the hard clay of 

 the place, and covered nothing ; the foundations only 

 go down about 2 feet below the present level, and one 

 foot below a floor of cement which presumably 

 covered this inclosure. It has been preserved to us 

 simply by its solidity and the way in which the 

 stones have supported one another. Its religious im- 

 port would seem to be conclusively proved by the 

 numerous finds we made in other parts of the ruins 



