SPEEAD OF MOHAMMEDANISM IN AFEICA. 597 



placing the figures is one of the happiest suggestions of the genius of 

 man. 



I shall not set in contrast with these statements a catalogue of the 

 contributions of the European. We know our own doings well enough ; 

 but such facts as the preceding may serve to remind us that the Euro- 

 pean is no more justified in ignoring the obligations he is under to the 

 Asiatic than the Asiatic is justified in regarding him as a barbarian. 

 In the advance of our common humanity, both have taken and still are 

 taking their share. The European has brought to the new continent he 

 discovered his religion, his laws, his literature, his science, and it may be 

 a profitable subject of reflection to him that under them the Indian is dy- 

 ing away. The Asiatic has likewise carried the Koran into The g rpad of 

 Africa. Our prejudices and education ought not to conceal Mohammedan- 

 from us that there must surely be some adaptedness, even lsm 

 if it be in a sensual respect, between its doctrines and the ideas of many 

 climates, many nations, many colors. The light of the Arabian crescent 

 shines on all countries from the Gulf of Guinea to the Chinese wall. In 

 those pestilential and sun-burnt forests under the equinoctial line, cit- 

 ies are springing up with their ten, their twenty, their fifty thousand in- 

 habitants. That implies subordination, law, civilization. It may be 

 that this is not a course of events which would have been chosen by 

 the French on the north, with their military colonies ; the English on the 

 south, with their commercial establishments ; the Americans on the west, 

 with their political institutions ; but it is the course of Providence. Let 

 us be thankful if the African is rescued from the abyss of barbarism, and 

 brought to a knowledge of our higher morality and holier religion, as 

 brought he will be at last, even though it be by the hand of the Prophet. 



In the following chapter I shall have some remarks to make respect- 

 ing the manner in which the civilization of Europe was ac- p ectiv 

 complished, and shall offer reasons for supposing that its es- civilization of 

 sential condition was a physiological change in the inhabit- 

 ants. Without troubling the reader with details, I may here incident- 

 ally observe that the spread of Mohammedanism in Africa is altogether 

 owing to its having been introduced in the right direction. It appears to 

 me hopeless to attempt the amelioration of that continent from its west- 

 ern shore. Whatever is done must be done from the East. In power 

 of intellect, and in a disposition to appreciate our civilization, the inhab- 

 itants of the countries bordering on the Red Sea are far superior to 

 those on the Atlantic. It does not seem well to begin with those who 

 are the least prepared. We do not commonly expect success from 

 operations conducted at an eccentric point. The Koran has spread be- 

 cause it has availed itself of the great lines of trade, which reach from 

 the Red Sea to the interior of the continent; it has spread, not because 



