CHAPTER XXX 
Early Explorers of Africa 
4 FRICA', as it appears to the traveler of to-day, is not the same 
/A that centuries ago stood at the head of the world’s civilization. 
When Greece was under the tumultuary sway of a number of 
petty chieftains, Homer already celebrates the hundred gates of 
Thebes, and the mighty hosts which in warlike array issued from them 
to battle. While other nations dwelt in ignorance, the valley of the 
Nile became the abode of learning; and here might be found works of 
sculpture, painting, and architecture, which were without equals. And 
while Egypt was thus pre-eminent in knowledge and art, Carthage 
equally excelled in commerce, and in the wealth produced by it; and 
rose to a degree of power that enabled her to hold long suspended 
between herself and Rome the scales of universal empire. Amid the 
abundance of her wealth, and the splendor of her glory, Carthage sunk 
in her struggle with Rome; while Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, 
whose grandeur and power had for ages won the admiration and 
provoked the envy of surrounding nations, passed under the rule of 
the Caesars. At a later period, when the din of war had ceased, and 
the tumult of contending armies had died away, the fires were again 
kindled, and northern Africa boasted of its sages, its saints, its heads 
and fathers of the church, and exhibited Alexandria and Carthage on 
a footing with the greatest cities which owned the imperial sway. 
But although the northern shores of Africa, and the valley of the 
Nile, were renowned for their progress in civilization, the glory of it 
did not extend beyond a narrow strip of land which bordered upon the 
Mediterranean, and skirted the shores of the Nile. Beyond this was 
the dark and bloody ground, inhabited by savage tribes, to whose 
inhuman appetites many an adventurer fell a victim. Those who 
sought to penetrate the wilds which lay beyond, were suddenly con¬ 
fronted by a desert, wide and bare—a barrier vast and appalling— 
( 303 ) 
