478 ACEOSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



a line may be constructed for about one thousand pounds a 

 mile. 



I allude here to the " Pioneer" form of railway, which seems 

 to be best adapted to a new country. 



Such a railway advancing into the country would at once 

 begin to make a return, for the present ivory trade to Zanzibar 

 should be sufficient to i)ay working expenses and leave a mar- 

 gin for ])rofit, without making any allowance for the increased 

 trade. Numbers of Indian merchants at Zanzibar would at 

 once push into the interior, if they could do so without phys- 

 ical exertion. 



On the Zambesi, Kongo, and Kwanza there should at once be 

 placed steamers of light draught, good speed, and caj^able of 

 being taken to pieces and transported past rapids that might be 

 encountered. A steamer should be stationed on each section 

 of a river, depots should be formed at the rapids for provisions 

 and merchandise, and the goods should be carried past them by 

 men stationed there for the purpose, or by bullock-carts, or small 

 lines of tram-ways. 



The affluents of the Kongo would enal)le our traders and mis- 

 sionaries to penetrate into the greater portion of the, at present, 

 unknown regions of Africa. 



The Kongo, at its mouth, is not under the dominion of any 

 European power, and the principal merchants there are the 

 Dutch. They would be delighted to see the trade of the inte- 

 rior in the hands of Europeans, instead of being dependent on 

 the caprice of some of the most depraved of the West -coast 

 tribes, who, ever since the Kongo has been discovered, have 

 been engaged — in company with Europeans even more vile 

 than they — in slave-trade and piracy. 



A hundred and ten miles from the coast are the Yellala rap- 

 ids {Yellala really means "rapids"), the farthest point hitherto 

 reached by any European since the unfortunate expedition of 

 Captain Tuckey, R.N., in 1816. 



A portage of by no means a difficult character, and past which 

 a tram-way might be constructed, would conduct an exjjedition 

 to the npper waters of the river described by the gallant Tuckey 

 " as a noble, placid stream from three to four miles in width." 



We may well ask ourselves why we allow such a noble high- 



