EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 



119 



state, and its ' evident destiny' is to disappear 

 before the European colonist. 



The central and equatorial land, 34° deep, 

 including and bordering upon the zone of almost 

 constant rain, is distinguished by the oppressive 

 exuberance of its vegetation and by the con- 

 sequent insalubrity of its climate. The drain- 

 age of the interior, pouring with discoloured 

 efflux to the ocean, in large and often navigable 

 channels, subject to violent freshes, taints the 

 water-lines with deadly malaria. The false coasts 

 of coralline or of alluvial deposits — a modern 

 formation, and still forming — fringed with green- 

 capped islets, and broken by sandy bays and by 

 projecting capes, are exposed to swells and roll- 

 ers, to surf and surge, to numbing torrents and 

 chilling tornadoes, whilst muddy backwaters and 

 stagnant islets disclose lagoon-valves or vistas 

 through tangled morass, jungle, and hardly 

 penetrable mangrove- swamp. This maremma, 

 the home of fever, is also the seat of trade, but 

 the tribes which occupy it soon die out. 



The true coast has already risen high enough 

 above the waters to maintain its level ; and the 

 vegetation — calabashes, palms, and tamarinds — 

 offers a contrast to the swampy growth below. 

 Inland of the raised seaboard are high and 



