KANSAS CITY 



Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 

 VOL. III. MAY, 1879. NO. 1. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



THE FRENCH EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.* 



BY CAPTAIN H. W. HOWGATE, U. S. A. 



Access to Equatorial Africa has always been more difficult from the western 

 than from the eastern coast, and the burden of effort from that direction has 

 fallen upon France, whose colonies on the west coast have given her especial in- 

 terest in the subject. The expedition which terminated its work in 1878, after 

 three years of labor, of suffering and of danger, had for its primary object the 

 exploration of the principal river of the French-African possessions — the Ogoone. 

 It was officered by M. de Brazze and Dr. Ballay, who were assisted, in the 

 early part of their work, by M. Marche, who had, on a previous expedition, ad- 

 ded much to the knowledge of the course of this river. M. Marche was soon 

 compelled to abandon his companions on account of the impaired state of his 

 health, and they were left to push on without his assistance. Both M. de Brazze 

 and Ballay were, from the first, sufferers from the malarial influences of the cli- 

 mate, but never wholly gave way. They had for escort twelve native soldiers of 

 Senegal, in the French service, commanded by a subaltern named Hamon. 



From the start the explorers were forced to struggle against the ill-will and 

 cupidity of the blacks. This struggle was intensified as the distance from the 



^Translated from the French for the Review. 



