Africa of to-day . hat there had not been wonder-ful development accomplished in many parts of Africabefore the end of the nineteenth century; it is onlywhen we regard carefully the tremendous area of thegreat continent and think of the narrow fringe of civili-sation along the east and west coasts, the old civilisationof the Egyptian inset along the Nile, and the newer onewhich has pushed northward from the Cape of GoodHope, that we realise properly how meagre, after all,had been the emergence into light. The chronological series of small maps of Africa,reproduced in In Darkest Africa, beginni
Africa of to-day . hat there had not been wonder-ful development accomplished in many parts of Africabefore the end of the nineteenth century; it is onlywhen we regard carefully the tremendous area of thegreat continent and think of the narrow fringe of civili-sation along the east and west coasts, the old civilisationof the Egyptian inset along the Nile, and the newer onewhich has pushed northward from the Cape of GoodHope, that we realise properly how meagre, after all,had been the emergence into light. The chronological series of small maps of Africa,reproduced in In Darkest Africa, beginning with thatof Hekataeus, 500 , and coming down well into thenineteenth century, gives us a most emphatic demonstra-tion of how very slow was the opening up of the greatcontinent, Africa, into that light which permitted ofeven a rough comparison with, let us say, Asia. Andin 1819, when the Mountains of the Moon stillappeared on the maps given in school atlases and theSources of the Nile were placed at somewhere. Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Blacks from the Equatorial Plains Climbing a Mountain The natives are wrapped in blankets for protection against the unaccustomed cold. The peak in the distance is 18,000 feet high AFRICA AS THE DARK CONTINENT 19 between io° north and 200 south latitude (a marginof over two thousand statute miles, which excites asmile!), conditions were but little better. In this view ofthe case we may safely say that until very modern timesour knowledge of Africa was far from satisfactory. Asrecently, comparatively, as 1747 — at which date ourknowledge of Asia was fairly satisfactory — an Englishwriter* said: The far greater Part [of Africa] continuesstill unknown to us, and the Ancients knew still less,who looked upon it as desart and uninhabitable. Andthough we are since become better acquainted with it,yet our Knowledge of it extends little farther than theRegions that He along the Coasts, especially those alongthe Mediterranean; whic
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