HENRY V. PELTON. 15 



the Congo than any river in Europe pours into the sea. 

 Twenty-tive hundred miles above its mouth the Congo is 

 from twelve to eighteen hundred feet wide, and at its 

 mouth it is fourteen miles in width. At nine miles out- 

 side its water is perfectly fresh, and at forty miles dis- 

 tant is only partially mingled with the sea. This great 

 river system is not equalled in other parts, but many of 

 the other rivers have long navigable courses and large 

 tributaries, and when is added to these great rivers the 

 lake system, equal in area to that of North America, and 

 when we realize how these rivers and lakes are interlaced 

 and connected, we see how great an aid to the develop- 

 ment of the country is here given. 



The partition of Africa has gone forward rapidly. It is 

 only a few years since Europe first manifested its present 

 desire to possess this continent, and alargepart of Equa- 

 torial Africa is not yet explored, yet nearly the whole 

 of this country has already been parcelled out among 

 the nations. Except the extremities of the continent, 

 Egypt and the other countries on the Mediterranean Sea 

 in the North, and Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, 

 and the Transvaal in the South, both of which sections 

 have been long under settled government; excepting 

 these, no considerable African possessions were well de- 

 fined and generally acknowledged until very recent years. 

 European proprietorship was confined to small coast set- 

 tlements and indefinite claims to land in the interior. 

 But several national conferences have resulted in treaties 

 by which the different nations acquire large and well- 

 defined sections of African territory. In some cases this 

 takes the form of direct annexation, in some only of 

 suzerainty, or as being within the sphere of its influence, 

 but the result is that each of these nations has now room 

 for colonies without colliding with each other. 



The title of Portugal is recognized to about 700,000 

 square miles of African territory including nearly one 



