358 



r GOLD! gold! gold! gold!" 



firmed by the members of the expedition, as to the agricultural 

 possibilities of the soil. They had brought some cotton seed 

 with them to Africa, but found that, besides the fact that there 

 was already a superior grade of cotton in the country, there was 

 no hope of inspiring the Portuguese natives with any ideas 

 above block ivory and gold dust. 



"Gold! gold! gold! gold! 

 Bright and yellow, hard and cold ; 

 Molten, graven, hammered and rolled ; 

 Heavy to get and light to hold ; 

 Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold ; 

 Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; 

 Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old 

 To the very verge of the church-yard mould ; 

 Price of many a crime untold ; 

 Gold! gold! gold! gold!" 



Had brought them to this shore. 



The authorities at Lisbon, like the authorities everywhere, 

 had watched the tantalizing ignis fatuus of the terra incognita 

 which all tradition pointed to, until their fancies, overmastered 

 by their desires, seemed to be the conclusions of philosophy and 

 the testimony of history, and they hastened to possess the long- 

 lost Ophir in eastern Africa, and, disappointed more by their 

 own folly and idleness than by the resources of the country 

 which they were neglecting, they were attempting to compen- 

 sate themselves for the disappointment by converting the 

 precious block ivory into gold. But gold is gold, and Portugal 

 found a world full of sympathy for her in the recourse of her 

 disappointment. There was no justification of this recourse. 

 Gold was unquestionably plenty. They fell into the snare of 

 those who make haste to be rich, and the weakness and con- 

 tempt to which their colony was now reduced was only the 

 rebuke of Providence. The gold fields had been forfeited, and 

 their treasures remain secure still to reward a loftier wisdom' 

 and truer philanthropy. 



Of course the newcomers did not think of enjoying the full' 

 benefits of African life, or counting themselves to have a claim 

 on all its treasures of things, new and old, before they had 

 passed through the ordeal which may as well be considered the 

 initiatory ceremony of the continent. One of the members of 

 the expedition has written on this inspiring theme with a 



