TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 723 



include, besides our own countrymen, those of one or more representatives from 

 France, Belgiiim, Germany, Portugal, and America. 



This drawing within the pale of civilisation of semi-barbarous States, this in- 

 clusion among common things of the imcommon and strange by the independent 

 or joint action of individual agents, is a matter which cannot fail to arouse a deep 

 interest in those European Powers whose position is secured or prestige enhanced 

 by the maintenance of empires, kingdoms, or colonies beyond the seas, over and 

 above their home possessions. It has been seen that France and Germany have 

 marked their sense of the situation by fresh annexations. The first, it is true, has 

 made her West African gains a mere supplement to the more palpable advantages 

 obtained under treaty with Madagascar and AuuHm ; but M. de Brazza's exertions 

 on her behalf have won the important line of the Ogowi river — the additional terri- 

 tory on the seaboard, to which we have referred, being a bargain of comparatively 

 trivial cost. England, in the meanwhile, has refrained from active interference, fur- 

 ther than reserving for herself certain rights connected with the Niger and Gold 

 Coast, and entering into treaty with Portugal in respect to the Lower Congo. The 

 reservation was a political fact to which we need not do more than allude ; but 

 the treaty calls for a word of remark. It was never ratified, and fell through in 

 embryo. I do not say that a knowledge of Africa better and more comprehensive 

 than that usually taught in English schools would have averted this result ; but I 

 do say that to treat so important a question a knowledge of geography, such as that 

 which I would combine with history, would have been the best protective weapon. 

 That low and uninviting mouth of the Congo — that unhappy birthplace of man- 

 groves and of malaria— that much desired and yet most undesirable site of a few 

 European factories, with enterprising but fever-stricken tenants — has a story of its 

 own ; and only those who know that story, in its geographical, ethnological, 

 commercial, and political bearings, can understand why it is coveted by this or that 

 European Power, and consequently what view England, when appealed to, should 

 have taken regarding its disposal. All is now over ; the Congo has been divided out 

 under the Congress of Berlin. 



From West Africa we turn to the East — to countries west of the northern 

 frontier of India. 



Three of these merit our serious attention, i.e., Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and 

 Persia, more particularly their history and geography, and full information on 

 them is available in books. Nowhere is this to be found in the comprehensive 

 form that would necessarily be adopted were geography honoured with professional 

 chairs ; bur, in the absence of the appropriate manual, search must be made in 

 encyclopfedias, gazetteers, and volumes of history and travel. Afghanistan has 

 been of late years so much the subject of official correspondence that the blue 

 book is perhaps as useful a record as anj^ other from which to draw the more im- 

 portant details on the character of the country and people. Baluchistan has a 

 divided history. Her eastern half, contiguous to, and immediately connected 

 with British India, is to all intents and purposes under the protection of that em- 

 pire ; her western half, till within the last fifteen years, encroached upon by Persia, 

 is equally amenable to our influence, and should profit from English advice and help. 

 Persia is never in lack of European travellers who delight to place on record their 

 experiences of a country which with all its drawbacks has the immense advantages 

 of grand associations and a charming climate. Nor are its people the effete race 

 that some would suppose. Many of them, whether in the higher, middle, or 

 peasant class, are endowed with energy and activity which need but occasion to 

 draw out ; and if cruelty on the part of governors and extortion and peculation on 

 the part of high oificials are painfully recognised native qualities, there is great 

 kindliness and hospitality shown to strangers by the same classes, and, let me add, 

 the love of poetry is universal. The servant who corrects his master's faulty poetical 

 quotation from his humble post behind his master's chair can hardly be lost in 

 VandaUsm. I regret there is no paper to be read in our Section on Persian 

 geography, but may incidentally mention that one of our latest travellers in that 

 countiy, Mr. Rees, who will favour us with his impressions of Northern China, 

 has published a graphic .account of his recent journey, by a direct and little known 

 route, from Kazvin to Hamadau. 



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