TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 717 



Spanish Benedictines, Fathers Serra and Salvado, who gradually won the con- 

 fidence of the natives by sharing their pursuits, it now forms a flourishing 

 industrial colony, consisting of a monastery, church, and schools ; surrounded by a 

 vast cultivated domain, workshops for different trades, and a native village of 

 about fifty cottages inhabited by as many Christian families. One of the girls 

 trained here ife in receipt of a Government salary as head of the post and telegraph 

 office ; in which, when absent on sick leave, she was efficiently replaced on short 

 notice by one of her companions. The boys, too, learn with great facility, and 

 many of them prove steady tradesmen or trustworthy servants and foremen. 



In the wild state these aborigines are cannibals who devour the flesh of their own 

 kinsfolk and exhume for food bodies after three days' burial. They believe in an 

 .omnipotent creator and an evil principle, but do not propitiate either by worship ; 

 regard the moon as maleficent, the sun as a benefactor, and the stars as a numerous 

 family spriuig from the marriage of several couples amongst them. The soul is 

 believed to survive after death in a disembodied state, and to transmigrate into the 

 body of others, remaining in that of the last of the party who approach to invite 

 it. They are grouped in families of ten or twelve under the absolute rule of the 

 head, but no longer, as formerly, form tribes by the agglomeration of these 

 families. The men are prohibited from marriage before the age of thirty, have 

 often but one wife, sometimes two, and a larger number only when they adopt 

 those of relatives or friends left otherwise unprotected. Defective infants and 

 ■superfluous girls are killed, but the others are reared with great tenderness, which 

 is also exhibited to aged parents. 



6. The Application of Indian. Geographical Survey Methods to Africa.^ 

 By Lieut.-Colonel "T. H. Holdich, B.E. 



The origin of the paper is requests from private sources for information as to 

 the best methods of commencing surveys in Africa. These surveys may be assumed 

 to be of a geographical rather than a revenue class, and to have in view objects 

 similar to those obtained by the geographical surveys carried out by Indian survey 

 officers. An outline of the methods proposed may be summarised as — 



1. The adoption of a rapid system of triangulation along the most important 

 lines for first survey. 



2. The extension of a graphic system of mapping from these lines by means 

 chiefly of native labour. 



The most important lines for first survey are the international boundary lines. 

 Until lately England has been peculiarly free from the necessity of demarcating or 

 maintaining national boundaries. Even India offers but a comparatively short 

 line for defence. The new partition of Africa largely increases her responsibilities 

 in this respect, though there may be no immediate cause for action. 



There is, however, a great necessity for a topographical acquaintance with the 

 boundaries adopted. Only a small portion of them apparently follow permanent 

 natural features, the rest being defined by rivers, &c. 



Danger of river boundaries and uncertainty of some other forms of boundary. 



It would appear, then, advantageous to commence triangulation along the 

 boundary lines. This is, however, so far a national or international question, and 

 consequently in these preliminary stages of survey State assistance might very 

 well be expected, and Imperial resources drawn upon for carrying it out. 



1. What are these resources ? 



2. What is the nature of surveys already existing in Africa ? 



3. What is the nature of the survey we ought to build up ? 



Replying to 2 and 3 we find that if a continuous and comprehensive scheme is 

 to be adopted, with unity of design for all the scattered districts of the African 

 colonial system, nothing has very much been done as yet which would assist us in 

 carrying out our scheme. This scheme should be largely borrowed from experi- 

 ences in Asia. A consideration of it shows (in reply to 1) to what extent Imperial 



' Printed in full n the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 596, 

 October 1891. 



