ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 31 



" Portugal passed under the yoke of Philip II. of Spain, and 

 under that influence became involved in war with the Dutch, 

 w T ho had risen to the first rank as a naval people, and whose 

 splendid armaments successively stripped them of their most 

 important possessions on the African continent as well as in the 

 East Indies." In 1632, Elmina, their capital, the key to the 

 gold coast, fell into the hands of these successful rivals. 



But the splendid results which had followed so rapidly, 

 the revival of interest in maritime matters had attracted uni- 

 versal attention to the ocean, and that vast trackless realm 

 became the theatre where unrivalled wealth and glory seemed 

 to await the seeking. The gallant Hollanders soon found their 

 proud mastership of the seas disputed by powerful rivals. 

 England and France had come to the front in European affairs, 

 and were already pressing forward in a jealous race to surpass 

 each other and all the past. For a while their settlements on 

 the African coast were made with a view only to obtaining 

 slaves for their new possessions in the West Indies. Soon 

 there came wonderful reports of the gold-trade carried on at 

 Timbuctoo. There was no hope of establishing a highway 

 across the desert from the north, and a company was formed in 

 England for the purpose of exploring the Gambia, by which the 

 geographical systems of the age warranted them in hoping to 

 reach the glittering treasures. Richard Thompson, the first 

 representative of this company, after desperate engagements with 

 the Portuguese, who still boasted their lordship over the region, 

 fell by the hands of his own men. But a better star guided his 

 successor, Richard Jobson, who, while falling far short of reaching 

 the far-famed Timbuctoo, won, perhaps, the glory of being the 

 first Englishman who had an opportunity to observe the manners 

 and superstitions peculiar to native Africa. As he advanced, a 

 new world seemed to dawn on him. All about him land and 

 water were • inhabited by multitudes of savage animals. The 

 enormous sea-horses sported in every pool, herds of enormous 

 elephants crowded to the shore, lions and leopards moved about 

 among the trees in full view, and everywhere there were myriads 

 of monkeys going through their eccentric evolutions. Armies of 

 baboons marched along occasionally, and displayed their surly 

 tempers by horrid grimaces and angry gesticulations, as they 



