28 MOHAMMEDAN FAILURE. 



known as Wangara and Ungara, mentioned confusedly by the 

 early writers, whence the merchants are reputed to have derived 

 vast quantities of gold. The progress rested against the Alpine 

 range on the south, which divides Soudan from Guinea, and the 

 dwellers in those wild regions were branded as infidels, and the 

 darkness which repelled the light of Islam was made to cover 

 deeds of violence and blood, and treasures for the final day 

 stories of wrong for which there is no adequate condemnation in 

 human censure. West of the Niger there was an extensive re- 

 gion, hardly known to exist by the Arabians. On the east the 

 regions of Nubia and Abyssinia, which Grecian enterprise had 

 reached with ships, had received the name of Christ, and hostile 

 creeds can no more touch than light and darkness ; and there 

 was an unknown wilderness on the west, there were despised 

 infidels on the south, and a hated creed in Nubia and Abyssinia 

 — Mohammedan altars in the midst. The splendors of this 

 foreign presence contrasted strangely. with the native wildness 

 for a time, but it was not a corrective, assimilating light. It 

 was modifying, but aggravating. The cities were bright spots 

 unquestionably ; so penal fires are bright, but earth is darker 

 for their glare. 



Fitful efforts were made to explore the west from the inland 

 cities. Settlements were effected from southern Arabia at various 

 points along the eastern coast as far down as Mozambique. But 

 Mohammedanism was the inspiration of Arab energy ; Moham- 

 medanism possessed no inherent vitality. The inspiration 

 gradually failed ; barbarism gradually reclaimed its dominion 

 by the degeneracy of its invaders, and became intenser because 

 it was a little more intelligent. The life which is not nourished 

 by the fruits of nature must gradually waste away and give 

 itself to feed that whereon it should have fed. The civilization 

 which does not assimilate the surrounding barbarism must itself 

 degenerate into its stimulant. The sun itself would be but half 

 a sun amid the whirling realms if it did not clothe them all with 

 its own brightness and make them helpers, giving as they re- 

 ceive. Aggression is the law of existence. The inefficiency of 

 Mohammedan civilization in Africa was the prophecy of its 

 decadence. The prophecy was only too true. The glory de- 

 parted, and that which promised to elevate Africa became its 



