CHAPTER VI. 



AFRICA-A SKETCH. I, 



Civilization Taken Root — Parci:i,e;d Out Among Many 

 European Countries— General Characteristics — The 

 River Niee. 



A FRICA is one of the three great divisions of the Old World, 

 '**■ and the second in extent of the five principal continents of the 

 globe forms a vast peninsula joined to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez. 

 It is of a compact form, with few important projections or 

 indentations. 



The continent extends from yj degrees north latitude, to 35 

 degrees south latitude, and the extreme points, Cape Blanco and 

 Cape Agulhas, are nearly 5,000 miles apart. From west to east, 

 between Cape Verde, longitude 18 degrees west, and Cape Guarda- 

 fui, longitude 51 degrees east, the distance is about 4,600 miles. 

 The area is estimated at 1 1,508,793 square miles, or more than three 

 times that of Europe, The islands belonging to Africa are few; 

 they include Madagascar, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde 

 Island, Fernando Po, Prince's Island, St. Thomas, Ascension, St. 

 Helena, Mauritius, Bourbon, the Comoros and Cocotra. 



The desperate struggle among the European powers for 

 colonial possessions in Africa is of comparatively recent origin. 

 While the earliest explorations began in 1553, when a body of 

 British merchants sent out in search of trade a few vessels to 

 Guinea, there was no thought of anything more than an effort to 

 find a new market for English productions. 



It was more than forty years later, in 1595, that the Dutch 



followed the English merchants in the attempt to establish a trading 



station on the coast of Guinea. About the same time that the British 



traders began the exploration of the Guinea coast the French set 



out on the same errand and located at what is now known as French 



7ft 



