10 AFRICA AND HER FUTURE. 



with other lands, politically or commercially, have been 

 of little account. 



But this indifference and neglect on the part of Europe, 

 after lasting several centuries, suddenly disappeared and 

 in its place has now come great interest and an intense de- 

 sire to obtain acquisitions therein, and the nations have 

 been eagerly scrambling for that which before they re- 

 fused to accept. 



I do not intend to speak at length of African explora- 

 tion. The many books of travel, with their exciting 

 stories of adventure and of peril, have made these fa- 

 miliar, and my reference to them will be brief. 



African exploration really dates from the formation of 

 the African Association, in 1788. Under its auspices 

 many travelers entered the country, but probably nine- 

 tenths of these lost their lives in the journeys, and Afri- 

 can exploration for two and a half centuries was, in 

 great part, a succession of failures and disasters. In- 

 deed, all the expenditure of lives and money before the 

 last half of the present century, had very little result in 

 making the country known, and much less in opening it 

 to civilization. 



But one result did come from this continued and per- 

 sistent entrance of Europeans into Africa ; that astonish- 

 ing and humiliating result which in so many countries 

 and at so many times has come when those whom the 

 world terms barbarous have felt the contact of civilized 

 people, the result of degrading and brutalizing the na- 

 tives. The history of the intercourse of the white race 

 with the Africans for two hundred years maybe indicated 

 by three prominent articles of traffic : slaves, gin, gun 

 powder. Of the slave trade I shall speak again, but the 

 liquor traffic while less noticed and less opposed, is 

 scarcely second to that in its power for evil. In some 

 districts liquor is today the sole currency, and in some 

 factories the entire wages of the black employees are 



