722 REPORT— 1886. 



a worthy field of enterprise for this nation above all others. The perils may be, as 

 stated on good authority, far greater than those of the Arctic Seas, but the 

 conditions of the two poles greatly differ, and it is most desirable to find such a 

 winter quarter within the Antarctic Circle as has never yet come within the 

 experience of any human being. Those interested in this important question may 

 remember that a Committee was appointed to report upon the advantages to be 

 derived from further exploration of the immense region referred to — near which, 

 some fifty years ago, James Ross made his famous discoveries. Hitherto, for 

 reasons which might readily be explained, no report has been issued; and perhaps 

 the wiser and the better preliminary step towards bringing matters to a successful 

 issue would be to expand and strengthen the Committee by the accession of 

 influential members. I now leave the subject iu the hands of experts, who alone 

 are qualified to deal with it in detail. 



To return from this brief digression. There are two regions in which geo- 

 graphical activity has been evinced in a remarkable degree : both are in that large 

 continent which one who knows it as well as any living man has qualified as 

 ' dai-k ' — the east and west coasts of Africa. It is really astonishing to trace the 

 changes in a map of Africa during the last quarter of a century. Large spaces 

 that were quite blank have been filled up with conspicuous delineations of moun- 

 tains — fine lines representing rivers, crossed by or connected with finer lines of 

 afiluents or feeders — with names, circles, and dots for towns or villages. Yet as I 

 now contemplate that map in its latest form, it seems to me that hundreds of spots 

 visited have yet to be indicated, and that the coast lines of the Indian Ocean on 

 the one side and the Atlantic on the other, are teeming with life imported, as it 

 were, from Europe. Singly or collectively, emissaries and missionaries — would-be 

 settlers or mere explorers — the number of these now in movement foretells in the 

 course of time a change in the political divisions of the countiy, whatever the re- 

 sult for good or evil. For the sake of argument let us take the whole extent from 

 20° N. to 30° S., leaving out Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt, as poh- 

 tical considerations more or less understood iu England. On the west, Germany 

 has stepped in to hoist the flag of colonial power, and is to be recognised at the 

 Cameroons. France has possessions and protectorates between Senegal and the 

 mouths of the Niger, which promise development and consolidations such as it is 

 now impossible to estimate. Below the Gold Coast she has just added to the 

 Gaboon, by agreement with the Belgian-African International Association, an 

 amount of territory which gives her, in place of a comparatively small settlement, 

 a continuous coast line of more than 350 miles, touchuig inland a great portion of 

 the right bank of the Congo. Those who would know how her agents work for 

 her have only to read the narrative iu the publications of her Government, her 

 geographical society, or the records of her missionary fathers. They will there 

 learn that if her soldiers find active service in Senegal, the Peres du Saint Esprit 

 are not slack in peaceful attempts to educate and civilise the natives of the Gaboon. 

 Spain and Portugal have also possessions which have been lately extended on the 

 seaboard of AVest Africa ; and the international partition efiected at Berlin has 

 confirmed to the latter her right to lands which had been denied on more than one 

 distinct occasion during the last half-century. As to individual explorers of the 

 west coast within the last year or two, I need only refer to the names mentioned 

 in the address of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, and which I 

 have just repeated. Others might be added were it necessary; but they would 

 scarcely strengthen the case. For the east coast, again, Germany has annexed 

 territory in the neighbourhood of tlie Sidtan of Zanzibar ; while the names of in- 

 dividual explorers and settlers are legion. Of these I will simply recapitulate 

 some, without further comment. These are Major Serpa Pinto and Lieutenant 

 Cardozo ; Herr Colin and Captain Chaders ; Messrs. Arnot and Giraud ; Mr. Last, 

 Mr. H. H. Johnston, Consul O'Neill, and Mr. Richards (of the American East 

 Central African Mission) ; Bishop Harrington and Bishop Smythies ; Governor 

 Vieira Braza of Tete and Padre Courtois ; also Herr Reichard, who, by the death 

 of his last remaining colleague. Dr. Bohm, has become the sole survivor of the 

 German East African Expedition. The names are taken almost at random and 



