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AFRICAN TRAVEL. 



unsavoury savagery — the mala gens, as was said 

 anent certain South countrymen, of a bona terra 

 — of bleared misery by day and animated impurity 

 by night, and of hunting adventures and hair- 

 breadth escapes, which often made the reader re- 

 gret the inevitable absence of a catastrophe. It 

 felt the dearth of tradition and monuments of the 

 olden time, the lack of romance, variety, and 

 history, whilst the presence of a ' future,' almost 

 too remote for human interest, was rather an ag- 

 gravation than a palliation of the evil. A tem- 

 porary revival of interest was, it is true, recited 

 by the Egyptian hippopotamus and Gordon Gum- 

 ming' s trophies : Livingstone's first journey and 

 Paul du Chaillu's gorilla also caused a tran- 

 sient burst of enthusiasm. But this soon had its 

 day, and the night that followed was darker than 

 before. In fact it still glooms. 



Yet African travel still continues to fulfil all 

 the conditions of attractiveness as laid down by 

 that great city authority, Leigh Hunt. The 

 theme has remoteness and obscurity of place, 

 difference of custom, marvellousness of hearsay ; 

 events passing strange yet credible; sometimes 

 barbaric splendour, generally luxuriance of na- 

 ture, savage life, personal danger and suffering 

 always borne (in books) with patience, dignity, 



