His Writings 



91 



Africa — the land lately despised among the 

 nations of the earth, the victim of misrepresen- 

 tation and evil repute ; the land flowing with 

 milk and honey, but over large tracts refusing to 

 repay the labourer or the husbandman ; the land 

 subject to the scourges of locusts, droughts, 

 pestilences, pitiless storms and terrible displays of 

 electricity. Such in physical, civil and political 

 aspects has been the past of Africa, Viewed from 

 every side she has been the scene of disaster and 

 evils innumerable, her path covered with clouds 

 dark and lowering, with scarcely a ray of light 

 through which a glimpse of the future could be 

 discovered. The scene changes. A glimmer of 

 bright prospects and a glorious future appears on 

 the distant horizon. Suddenly without apparent 

 law or order, in the depths of the earth, in the 

 most modern deposits, yes, on the surface of the 

 rocks and ground, treasures are revealed, which 

 rival the most incredible fables of antiquity . . 



In conclusion I should like to give in Brown's 

 own simpler words a well-known native parable 

 of which he seems to have been particularly fond, 

 for he wrote it out twice in his Journal. And 

 no wonder he liked this story of the Lightning 

 Bird, since he himself had learnt its lesson all 

 too often and too well. 



