October 1, 1895. 



KNOWLEDGE 



221 



that will tend to raise the negro and furnish allies to the 

 whites, while giving skilled labour in the hot districts. 

 The negro is an eager and ready imitator. 



Count von Pfeil, in a paper on " The Development of 

 Tropical Africa," contended that success depended on 

 three conditions. (1) A thorough knowledge of each 

 district must be obtained by the aid of the geographer, so 

 that we shall be able to tell with some degree of certainty 

 whether our intended pursuits, agricultural or other, are 

 adapted for the country or not. ('2) Much attention 

 should be given to the study of tropical hygiene, as a 

 most important means of making Tropical Africa a healthy 

 abode, which will be the greatest step towards colonizing 

 it. (3) Make the negro take a share in the labour of 

 ci\'Llization, which is difficult, but do not rely either on 

 force or setting a good example, but teach him to want 

 and he will work. As Nature supplies food and shelter, 

 there are few material wants he can be taught, so wants 

 must be created by removing those things from which he 

 suffers, but which wiU return if he does not aid the white 

 man and relapses into an inert state. 



Mr. H. M. Stanley, il.P., though generally agreeing 

 with Sir John Kirk, thought his paper looked too far 

 ahead. The colonization of Central Africa was not yet 

 the question, but the making of it possible in the future 

 by commerce, improving the blacks, etc. When in 187tj 

 and 1877 he saw the Congo expanding and the shallows 

 increasing, he was a pessimist, for it seemed impossible 

 that the river could be occupied by a flotilla of steamers ; 

 but before the end of 1877, with further knowledge, he 

 wrote, " The time will come when this great river, now 

 known for the first time, will be an international question.'' 

 But in founding the Congo State, they did not lose time 

 in studying scientific geography. He had never known a 

 colony founded upon scientific geography. What was 

 known of scientific geography by Smith, the founder of 

 Virginia, by the Pilgrim Fathers, by the founders of 

 Australia and New Zealand, or by Cecil Rhodes, who had 

 planned colonies so vast as to be the wonder of the 

 century ? The pioneer must clear the way slowly and 

 cautiously, ascertain if the country is livable, and employ 

 the instruments of civilization as aids. There were now, 

 in sixteen years, forty steamers on the Congo, with eight 

 himdred white men, by which the whole of its basin could 

 be navigated. Central Africa might be as livable as India or 

 Brazil. In the highlands of Ceylon, English families could 

 live healthily, and so it might be in Central Africa, which 

 with rapid transit, cultivation, roads, hotels, and European 

 sanitary arrangements, would be quite different from the 

 Africa of to-day. It was so with other tropical regions, and 

 why not with Central Afiica ? In a certain state in America 

 he had had more fevers than in five years in Afi-ica ; but 

 since then the population had increased fourfold because 

 they had learned the art of living, which, and not scientific 

 geography, was what was wanted in tropical countries. 

 Young men would not learn this, and so died in Africa. 

 He had been twenty-three years there altogether, and he 

 felt just as strong as if he had never been in Afiica ; and 

 so it was with others. Before young men from the 

 universities went to Africa, they should study for some 

 months the arts of conquering fevers, warding them oft", 

 and living wisely. 



Count von Pfeil, in reply, said that as a pioneer he had 

 been a founder of a colony, that of German East Africa, 

 but the work of the pioneer was past, and what was 

 wanted now was scientific geography. 



Mr. E. G. Ravenstein considered a study of African 

 climatic conditions to be of the first importance, and this 

 should be conducted in a systematic and scientific manner. 



From what he knew of these conditions he would not 

 advise anyone to found a colony in Central Africa. 



Mr. Silva White concluded that (1) Tropical Africa is, 

 on the whole, unsuitable for European colonization. (2) It 

 is capable of only a limited degree of development, as 

 compared with other and still undeveloped regions of ths 

 world. (3 ) In order to reach even this restricted stage of 

 de%-elopment, it is essential that the signatory Powers at 

 the various African Congresses should carry out in practice 

 the excellent enactments for which they are theoretically 

 responsible ; that in the absence of reliable native labour, 

 imported labour be introduced ; and that railways be built 

 from the nearest base on the coast to the chief centres of 

 European settlement in the interior. (4) Very few regions 

 are, in the absence of mineral wealth, capable at the present 

 day of returning a reasonable interest on expended capital. 

 (5) The opening up of Africa must follow the lines of least 

 resistance. The most favourable direction is from the 

 south, next from the east, and then from the west. (6) 

 Speaking generally. Tropical Africa may be profitably 

 exploited by the European Powers, provided they cordially 

 unite in adopting an uniform progressive programme, and 

 are able to solve the labour problem. 



M. Lionel Decle's paper assumed that Europe's partition 

 of .\frica can only be excused by the good we may do 

 to the natives. For the natives there are only blacks and 

 whites, and it ought to be so with us. All our efforts 

 ought to be directed towards developing trade and agricul- 

 ture. Railways would do more towards civUization than 

 soldiers or missionaries, but they are costly, and take long 

 to build. Six feet roads, instead of native winding foot- 

 paths, should be opened out to begin with, and be furnished 

 with a good supply of water every ten or fifteen miles. 

 Along these roads, at intervals of one hundred or one 

 himdred and fifty mUes, small trading stations should be 

 estabhshed, with market places and fixed market days. 

 The native labourers should be paid in cash, and a ciu-rency 

 introduced. Traders to establish stations might be sub- 

 sidized and provided with six armed policemen for each 

 station, and an escort of soldiers to accompany caravans 

 to and from the coast. Elephants should be protected, 

 both for ivory and to serve as beasts of burden, and an 

 international commission should settle disputes between 

 the Powers. 



SlatLn Pasha said that, during the sixteen years he had 

 been in Africa, many regions had been made accessible to 

 civihzation. In most of these, from the establishment of 

 mihtary posts, trade is becoming more active. From the 

 east and the west, England, Germany, France, and Italy, 

 are on the point of joining hands in Central j\.frica. 

 Tribes formerly quite wild are beginning to respect the 

 advancing Powers, and some are contemplating alliances. 

 The Soudan, in the middle of Africa, which no European 

 can now cross, was for sixty years open to civilization, 

 and in Khartoum the Powers had their representatives, 

 while travellers of all nations could pass through the region 

 safely. By the aid of religious fanaticism, Mohammed 

 Akmed united the tribes and overthrew the Egyptian 

 government. Khartoum fell, and with it its bravest 

 defender, General Gordon, but the greater part of the tribes 

 of the Soudan now desire to be freed from the oppressive 

 rule of the Mahdi. Slatin Pasha then gave an interesting 

 accoimt of his escape from his eleven years of captivity. 



Mr. H. M. Stanley, replying more especially to Mr. 

 Ravenstein and Mr. White, said, despite all the theorists 

 and pessimists, Africa was bound to be opened up. Africa 

 had been cursed by the sand of the Sahara and by slavery, 

 and now it seems as if it is going to be cursed by an army 

 of pessimists. 



