SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 311 



and when they have become acquainted with the country, and 

 gathered large quantities of ivory, and porters are wanted to carry 

 the tusks to the coast, a quarrel is instigated with the Negroes, war 

 declared, captives taken, — men for porters, women for the harem, 



— the villages are burned, and the caravan of slaves and ivory 

 takes its route to the coast, where all are sold. We are told on 

 good authority that during the past twenty years more slaves have 

 been sent out than formerly were exported in a century. Wissmann 

 tells us what he has seen : — 



" In January, 1882, we started from our camp, — 200 souls in all, 



— following the road, sixty feet wide, to a region inhabited by 

 the Basonge, on the Sankuru and Lomami Rivers. The huts 

 were about twenty feet square, divided into two compartments, 

 the furniture consisting of caned wooden stools ; floor, ceil- 

 ing, and walls covered with grass mats. Between the huts were 

 gardens, where tobacco, tomatoes, pine-apples, and bananas were 

 grown. The fields in the rear down to the river were cultivated 

 with sweet-potatoes, ground-nuts, sugar-cane, manioc, and millet. 

 Goats and sheep and fowls in abundance, homestead follows home- 

 stead in never-ending succession. From half-past six in the morn- 

 ing, we passed without a break through the street of the town until 

 eleven. When we left it, it then still extended far away to the 

 south-east. The finest specimens in my collection, such as open- 

 work battle-axes inlaid with copper, spears, and neat utensils, I 

 found in this village. 



" Four years had gone by, when I once more found myself near 

 this same village. With joy we beheld the broad savannas, where 

 we expected to recruit our strength and provisions. We encamped 

 near the town, and in the morning approached its palm-groves. 

 The paths were no longer clean, no laughter was heard, no sign of 

 welcome greeted us. The silence of death breathes from the 

 palm-trees, tall grass covers every thing, and a few charred poles 

 the only evidence that man once dwelt there. Bleached skulls by 

 the roadside, and the skeletons of human hands attached to the 

 poles, tell the story. Many women had been carried off. All who 

 resisted were killed. The whole tribe had ceased to exist. The 

 slave-dealer was Sayol, lieutenant of Tippo-Tip." 



Sir Samuel Baker was largely instrumental in the suppression of 

 the slave-trade, and, while the rule of the English and French in 

 Egypt was maintained, slavery was greatly diminished ; but, since 

 the defeat and death of Gen. Gordon, the slave-trade has rapidly 

 increased, and is now carried on more actively than at any other 

 time. The only obstacles to this traffic are the presence of Emin 

 Pacha at Wadelai, the English and American missionaries, and 

 English trading-stations on Lakes Victoria Nyanza and Tangany- 

 ika. 



The slave-traders unite in efforts to destroy Emin Pacha, and to 

 expel the missionaries and all European traders, except the Portu- 

 guese, and for this purpose excite the hostility of the Negro against 

 the foreigner. In this they are aided by the Mahdi. The 

 work of the Mahdi is largely a missionary enterprise. The der- 

 vishes who accompany his army are religious fanatics, and desire 

 the overthrow of the Christians and Emin Pacha as earnestly as 

 the slave-trader. Religious fanaticism is therefore united with the 

 greed of the slave-trader to drive out the Christians from the lake 

 region. 



Aroused by these reports, and influenced by these views. Car- 

 dinal Lavigerie, last summer, started a new crusade in Belgium 

 and Germany against slavery and the slave-trade. The cardinal 

 has organized societies, and is raising a large fund to equip two 

 armed steamships for Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyassa, the 

 headquarters of the slave-trade, and offers, if necessary, to head 

 the band himself. The Pope has engaged in the work, and has 

 sent Catholic missionaries to Central Africa. The slave-trade is 

 carried on with arms and ammunition furnished by all the Euro- 

 pean traders. Without these arms, the slave-trade could not be 

 successfully carried on, for the Negroes could defend themselves 

 against slave-traders armed like themselves. While the demand 

 for slaves continues, the slave-trade will exist, and will not cease 

 until the factories of European nations are planted in the interior 

 of Africa. 



Mineral Wealth of Africa. 



We are told in Phillips's " Ore Deposits " that the precious 



metals do not appear to be very generally distributed in Africa. I 

 believe that more thorough research will show that this view is in- 

 correct, and that there are large deposits of iron, copper, gold, and 

 other metals in many parts of the continent. Gold is found on the 

 Gold Coast, in the Transvaal, in the Sudan, and in Central Africa, 

 but only worked in surface diggings, excepting in the Transvaal ; but 

 near all these washings, gold nuggets of large size, and the quartz 

 rock, have been discovered. In Transvaal the mines were worked 

 a long time ago, probably by the Portuguese, then abandoned and 

 forgotten. Recently they have been rediscovered, and worked by 

 the English. In the Kaap gold-field in the Transvaal, three years- 

 ago, the lion and zebra, elephant and tiger, roamed undisturbed in 

 the mountain solitudes, where there is now a population of 8,000,. 

 with 80 gold-mining companies, having a capital of $18,500,000, 

 one-third of which is paid up. Barberstown, the chief mining- 

 town, has two exchanges, a theatre, two music-halls, canteens in- 

 numerable, several churches and hotels, four banks, and a hospital. 

 A railroad was opened in December, 1887, from the Indian Ocean 

 towards these mines, 52 miles, and is being rapidly constructed 100 

 miles farther to Barberstown. 



There is reason to believe that gold deposits equal to those of 

 Mexico or California will yet be found in several parts of Africa. 

 Copper is known to exist in the Orange Free State, in parts of 

 Central and South Africa, and in the district of Katongo, south- 

 west of Lake Tanganyika, which Dr. Livingstone was about to ex- 

 plore in his last journey. Rich copper ores are also found in the 

 Cape of Good Hope, Abyssinia, and equatorial Africa. Large and 

 excellent deposits of iron ore have been fouitd in the Transvaal and 

 in Algiers, and a railroad 20 miles long has been built to carry it 

 from the Algerian mines to the sea. Very many tribes in equato- 

 rial and Central Africa work both iron and copper ores into differ- 

 ent shapes and uses, showing that the ore-beds must be widely dis- 

 tributed. 



One of the few large diamond-fields of the world is found in 

 Griqua and Cape Colony, at the plateau of Kimberly, 3,000 feet 

 above the sea. The dry diggings have been very productive ; this 

 tract, when first discovered, being almost literally sown with dia- 

 monds. 



Coal has been found in Zulu-'Land, on Lake Nyassa, and in 

 Abyssinia. The latter coal-field is believed to be secondary. Iron, 

 lead, and zinc, and other minerals, have been found in the Orange 

 Free State. Salt-beds, salt-fields, salt-lakes, and salt-mines are 

 found in different parts of Africa. 



Railroads. 



The peculiar formation of Africa, its long inland navigation, in- 

 terrupted by the falls near the mouths of its large rivers from con- - 

 nection with the ocean, renders it necessary to connect the ocean . 

 with the navigable parts of the rivers by railroads. 



The Belgians will soon construct a railroad on the southerly side 

 of the Kongo, to the inland navigable waters of the Kongo at 

 Leopoldville, following the preliminary surveys lately completed ; 

 the French may also construct a road from the coast to Stanley 

 Pool ; and by one or the other of these routes the interior of Africa 

 will be opened. 



South of the Kongo, the Portuguese are constructing a railroad 

 from Benguela into the interior. In Cape Colony raflroads have been 

 constructed in different directions, connecting the greater part of 

 the British possessions with the Cape of Good Hope. They are 

 also constructing a railroad from Delagoa Bay to the mines in 

 Transvaal. 



Sudan and the upper waters of the Nile can only be opened to a 

 large commerce by a railroad from Suakin to Berber, about 280 

 miles. Surveys were made for this road, and some work was done 

 upon it, just before Gen. Gordon's death. The navigation of the 

 Nile above Berber is uninterrupted for many hundred miles. Be- 

 low Berber the falls interrupt the navigation. The route from 

 Gondokoro down the Nile is by boat to Berber, camel to Assuan, 

 boat to Siut, and railroad to Cairo and Alexandria, making a route 

 so circuitous that it prevents the opening of the Sudan to any ex- 

 tensive commerce. 



In Algiers there are 1,200 miles of railroad, and more are being 

 constructed. The French are also constructing a railroad from 



