44 THE UNKNOWN. 



world called for its explanation, commerce called for it ; there 

 might be vast treasures concealed there ; there might be nations 

 easily advanced in industrial interests. Philanthropy called for 

 it : there were undoubtedly untold wrongs crying to the world 

 for redress : there were evils of ignorance and superstition 

 which might be mitigated. Science called for it : her commission 

 embraces the whole world, and while there is a rock unbroken 

 or a star without a name she must not rest. But, most of all, 

 religion called for it — Christianity — there were in that region 

 souls to be saved. The time had come, and a man came for- 

 ward, little thinking of the future that lay before him ; a man 

 whose joy it was to do what his hands might find to do, only 

 doing all for Christ; a man not sent but led, step by step. It 

 is this man whom we will follow up and down in the deep 

 shadows of that vast unknown ; whose adventures we will ob- 

 serve ; whose toils and sacrifices we will note ; whose character 

 we will study ; and by whose wonderful guidance we will find 

 out all the strange, astonishing, distressing, animating, pleasing 

 and important things the land can reveal. 



The wonderful journeys of which we will read covered many 

 thousand miles ; generally they will be found to lie in regions 

 where not the shadow of a tradition exists of a white man's 

 presence before. We will find tribes presenting every phase 

 of uncivilized life. We will find every wild animal which be- 

 longs to the continent represented. We will find strange and 

 wonderful insects, and dreadful reptiles. We will read of 

 swamps reeking with pestilence, deserts and trackless forests, 

 rivers and mountains. Everywhere we will see a man alone, 

 often without supplies, with no adequate means of self-protection, 

 practising no deception ; everywhere appearing in his true char- 

 acter; everywhere condemning vice and commending virtue; 

 espousing the cause of the oppressed against the strong ; com- 

 bating long-established customs, and proposing great reforma- 

 tions. This man we will see passing unharmed, and seldom 

 resisted by native force. We will feel that he carries a " charmed 

 life," that he is " immortal until his work is done." If we ob- 

 serve carefully and weigh well his life, we will be wiser and 

 better than we are, besides the knowledge we shall gain of 

 Africa. 



