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AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
CHAPTER XI. 
Between Angola and the Zambesi. 
Except that there are no railways, Africa is now almost 
as easy and as safe to cross as America, at least in its 
southern part. It was not always so ; Livingstone was 
the first white man, as we know, who crossed the con¬ 
tinent from west to east. Stanley followed some years 
later from east to west. When Stanley arrived at 
St. Paul de Loanda, after leaving the mouth of the 
Congo, he met with Major Serpa Pinto, who was then 
making preparations to follow in the footsteps of 
Livingstone. Accompanied by Colonel Capello and 
Captain Ivens, he had undertaken the command of a 
great Portuguese expedition into the interior of Africa, 
starting from the possessions of Portugal on the West 
Coast. For reasons into which we need not enter, 
Capello and Ivens separated from Major Serpa Pinto, 
ere the expedition had well started, and undertook an 
exploration of their own in the interior of the province 
of Angola. Serpa Pinto resolved to cross the continent, 
and he succeeded in doing so. Since then—it was in 
1877-79, Africa has been crossed several times; by 
Major Wissmann, by Oscar Lenz, by M. Trivier, by Mr. 
Arnot, and a second time by Mr. Stanley and his com¬ 
panions on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. Let us 
follow Serpa Pinto, who landed at St. Paul de Loanda 
about the middle of 1877. He had great difficulty in 
obtaining carriers, and like most African travellers had 
trouble in this respect all through the expedition. He 
had to go south to the town of Benguella, capital of the 
province of the same name, and his account of what he 
found there throws great light on the position of Portugal 
