CAPE COLONY. Oi 



The Dutch, ever wide awake to the best chances, soon seized 

 on the Cape and began the settlement which has gradually ex- 

 tended over the Cape country, and made its impression on many 

 of the tribes of southern Africa, and furnishing, besides a foot- 

 hold for the missionary, splendid opportunities to the sports- 

 men, and a starting-point for many of the most important ex- 

 plorations. Associated with this point we find the names of 

 Hope, and Barrow, and Lichtensteiu, who shed the earliest light 

 on the habits and homes of the Hottentots and various Caffre 

 tribes. Hither came Campbell, and Trutter, and Somerville, 

 and Moffat, to deeds of love and heroism which have enriched 

 the literature of missions. 



And hither, too, in later days came Livingstone, purposing 

 in his heart to do only as other men had done; chosen of God 

 to do a peculiar and unrivalled work, and lift the curtain on all 

 the hidden region. 



While so much attention was being bestowed by European 

 nations on the western coast, the eastern had remained either 

 unknown or in the undisputed possession of the Arabs. In 

 1489, when Vasco de Gama had rounded the Cape of Good 

 Hope, he touched at Mozambique, Mozamba, and Milinda, 

 where he found the Arabs ruling in all their Mohammedan 

 bigotry. Cabrial visited Quiloa, and very soon the power of 

 Portugal had swept the ancient settlers from the delta of the 

 Zambezi. They quickly found their way up the river and 

 established the forts of Sena and Tete, and ultimately the city 

 of Zumbo, with whose ruins we will become familiar. From 

 these settlements several journeys seem to have been made into 

 the interior, extending some of them quite into the heart of the 

 region which came down to our time an unsightly blank. But 

 only the dusty unexplored archives of the Portuguese govern- 

 ment can reveal the now useless facts which were so jealously 

 concealed when they would have been welcomed by the world. 

 The same fatal policy which distinguished their efforts in the 

 west brought speedy decay of power here likewise. A govern- 

 ment, over anxious for gain and unscrupulous as to measures, 

 and a church with nothing better to give than beads and cruci- 

 fixes, and images, and solemn mummeries, can have no lasting 

 glory. 



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