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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9795a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #55553 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55553) diff --git a/old/55553-0.txt b/old/55553-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3e31e33..0000000 --- a/old/55553-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8608 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Frontier, by E. Alexander (Edward -Alexander) Powell - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Last Frontier - The White Man's War for Civilisation in Africa - - -Author: E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell - - - -Release Date: September 26, 2017 [eBook #55553] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST FRONTIER*** - - -E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Christian Boissonnas, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images -generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations and map. - See 55553-h.htm or 55553-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55553/55553-h/55553-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55553/55553-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/lastfrontierwhi00powe - -Transcriber's note: - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - - - - -THE LAST FRONTIER - - - * * * * * * - -_BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL_ - - -THE LAST FRONTIER - -GENTLEMEN ROVERS - -THE END OF THE TRAIL - -FIGHTING IN FLANDERS - -THE ROAD TO GLORY - -VIVE LA FRANCE! - -ITALY AT WAR - - -_CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS_ - - * * * * * * - - -[Illustration: A SANDSTORM PASSING OVER KHARTOUM. - -“It approached at the speed of a galloping horse—a great fleecy, -yellowish-brown cloud which looked for all the world like the smoke of -some gigantic conflagration.”] - - -THE LAST FRONTIER - -The White Man's War for Civilisation in Africa - -by - -E. ALEXANDER POWELL, F.R.G.S. - -Late of the American Consular Service in Egypt - -With Sixteen Full-Page Illustrations and Map - - - - - - -New York -Charles Scribner's Sons -1919 - -Copyright, 1912, by -Charles Scribner's Sons - -[Illustration: Publisher's Logo] - - - - - To - MY CHEERFUL, UNCOMPLAINING - AND COURAGEOUS COMRADE ON THE - LONG AFRICAN TRAIL - MY WIFE - - - - -FOREWORD - - -The unknown lands are almost all discovered. The work of the explorer -and the pioneer is nearly finished, and ere long their stern and hardy -figures will have passed from the world's stage, never to return. In -the Argentine, in Mexico, and in Alaska store clothes and stiff hats -are replacing corduroys and sombreros; the pack-mule is giving way to -the motor-car. The earth has but one more great prize with which to -lure the avaricious and the adventurous: Africa—mysterious, opulent, -alluring—beckons and calls. - -The conditions which exist in Africa to-day closely parallel those -which were to be found, within the memory of many of us, beyond the -Mississippi. In North Africa the French are pushing their railways -across the desert in the face of Arab opposition, just as we pushed -our railways across the desert in the face of Indian opposition forty -years ago. As an El Dorado the Transvaal has taken the place held by -Australia, and California, and the Yukon, in their turn. The grazing -lands of Morocco and the grain lands of Rhodesia will prove formidable -rivals to those of our own West in a much-nearer future than most -of us suppose. French and British well-drillers are giving modern -versions of the miracle of Moses in the Sahara and the Sudan and -converting worthless deserts into rich domains thereby. - -The story of the conquest of a continent by these men with levels and -transits, drills and dynamite, ploughs and spades, forms a chronicle -of courage, daring, resource, and tenacity unsurpassed in history. -They are no idlers, these pioneers of the desert, the jungle, and the -veldt; they live with danger and hardship for their daily mates; they -die with their boots on from snake-bite or sleeping-sickness or Somali -spear; and remember, please, they are making new markets and new -playgrounds for you and me. Morocco, Algeria, Tripolitania, Equatoria, -Rhodesia, the Sahara, the Sudan, the Congo, the Rand, and the Zambezi -... with your permission I will take you to them all, and you shall -see, as though with your own eyes, those strange and far-off places -which mark the line of the Last Frontier, where the white-helmeted -pioneers are fighting the battles and solving the problems of -civilisation. - - E. ALEXANDER POWELL. - - - - -AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT - - -For assistance in the preparation of this book I am grateful to many -people. To the editors of _Collier's_, _The Outlook_, _The Review -of Reviews_, _The Independent_, _The Metropolitan_, _Travel_, and -_Scribner's_ my thanks are due for their permission to use such -portions of this volume as originally appeared in their magazines in -the form of articles. I also desire to acknowledge my indebtedness -to the Right Hon. James Bryce, O.M., for permission to avail myself -of certain data contained in his admirable work on South Africa; to -Charles K. Field, Esq., editor of _The Sunset Magazine_, for the title -and introductory lines to Chapter V; to the Hon. F. C. Penfield, -former American Diplomatic Agent in Egypt, from whose clear and -comprehensive “Present-Day Egypt” I have drawn portions of my account -of the complex administration of the Nile country; to J. Scott Keltie, -LL.D., F.R.G.S., author of “The Partition of Africa” and editor of -“The Statesman's Year-Book,” for much valuable information obtained -from those volumes; and to Miss Isabel Savory, A. Sylva White, Esq., -S. H. Leeder, Esq., C. W. Furlong, Esq., and Francis Miltoun, Esq., -for suggestions derived from their writings on African subjects. To -the American diplomatic and consular officials in Africa, and to -missionaries of many creeds and denominations, I am indebted for -innumerable kindnesses and much valuable information. At consulate -and mission station alike, from Cape Bon to Table Bay, I found the -latch-string always out and an extra chair at the table. I likewise -take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the courtesies -shown me by H. H. Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive of Egypt; H. R. H. Prince -George of Greece, former High Commissioner in Crete; H. H. Ali bin -Hamoud bin Mohammed, ex-Sultan of Zanzibar; H. E. the French Minister -of the Colonies; H. E. the Belgian Minister of the Colonies; Sir -Thomas Cullinan of the Premier Diamond Mine, Pretoria; and to the -officers of the Imperial German East Africa Railways; the Beira, -Mashonaland and Rhodesian Railways; and the British South Africa -Company. - - E. A. P. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - FOREWORD vii - - AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT ix - - CHAPTER - - I. THE THIRD EMPIRE 1 - - II. THE PASSING OF THE PEACOCK'S TAIL 27 - - III. SIRENS OF THE SANDS 56 - - IV. THE ITALIAN “WHITE MAN'S BURDEN” 80 - - V. THE LAND OF BEFORE-AND-AFTER 108 - - VI. IN ZANZIBAR 143 - - VII. THE SPIKED HELMET IN AFRICA 165 - - VIII. “ALL ABOARD FOR CAPE TOWN!” 190 - - IX. THE LAST STAND OF THE PIONEER 205 - - X. THE COUNTRY OF BIG THINGS 223 - - XI. THE FORGOTTEN ISLES 248 - - INDEX 287 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - A Sandstorm Passing Over Khartoum _Frontispiece_ - - “Through Dim Bazaars where Turbaned Shopkeepers Squat - Patiently in their Doorways” 17 - - The Troglodyte Town of Medenine, Southern Tunisia 26 - - Some Sirens of the Sands 58 - - Jewish Women in the Cemetery of Tunis 70 - - An Arab Bride Going to Her Husband 79 - - Sunrise on the Great Sands 87 - - Work and Play in Black Man's Africa 110 - - The Saviour of the Sudan and Some of Those he Saved 118 - - Strange People from Innermost Africa 129 - - The Gateway to East Africa 146 - - Arab Women of Zanzibar 156 - - The Hand of the War Lord in German Africa 187 - - Railroading Through a Jungle 188 - - More Work for the Pioneer 219 - - The Prison Place of a Great Emperor 268 - - - Map of Africa, Showing Railways and Spheres - of Influence _At end of volume_ - - - - -THE LAST FRONTIER - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE THIRD EMPIRE - - -We have witnessed one of the most remarkable episodes in the history -of the world. In less than a generation we have seen the French -dream of an African empire stretching without interruption from the -Mediterranean to the Congo literally fulfilled. French imperialism did -not end, as the historians would have you believe, on that September -day in 1870 when the third Napoleon lost his liberty and his throne -at Sedan. The echoes of the Commune had scarcely died away before the -French empire-builders were again at work, in Africa, in Asia, in -Oceanica, founding on every seaboard of the world a new and greater -France. In the two-score years that have elapsed since France's _année -terrible_ her neglected and scattered colonies have been expanded into -a third empire—an empire oversea. She has had her revenge for the loss -of Alsace-Lorraine by forestalling Teutonic colonial ambition in every -quarter of the globe: in China, in Australasia, in Equatoria, and in -Morocco the advance of the German _vorlopers_ has been halted by the -harsh “_Qui vive?_” of the French videttes. - -Though thirty centuries have elapsed since Phœnicia first began to -nibble at the continent, it was not until 1884 that the mad rush began -which ended in Africa's being apportioned among themselves by half a -dozen European nations with as little scruple as a gang of boys would -divide a stolen pie. This stealing of a continent, lock, stock, and -barrel, is one of the most astounding performances in history. France -emerged from the scramble with a larger slice of territory than any -other power, a territory which she has so steadily and systematically -expanded and consolidated that to-day her sphere of influence extends -over _forty-five per cent of the land area and twenty-four per cent of -the population of Africa_. - -So silently, swiftly, and unobtrusively have the French -empire-builders worked that even those of us who pride ourselves -on keeping abreast of the march of civilisation are fairly amazed -when we trace on the map the distances to which they have pushed -the Republic's African frontiers. Did you happen to know that the -fugitive from justice who turns the nose of his camel southward from -Algiers must ride as far as from Milwaukee to the City of Mexico -before he can pass beyond the shadow of the tricolour and the arm of -the French law? Were you aware that if you start from the easternmost -boundary of the French Sudan you will have to cover a distance equal -to that from Buffalo to San Francisco before you can hear the Atlantic -rollers booming against the break-water at Dakar? It is, indeed, not -the slightest exaggeration to say that French influence is to-day -predominant over all that expanse of the Dark Continent lying west of -the Nile basin and north of the Congo—a territory one and a half times -the size of the United States—thus forming the only continuous empire -in Africa, with ports on every seaboard of the continent. - -With the exception of the negro republic of Liberia (on whose -frontiers, by the way, France is steadily and systematically -encroaching), the little patches of British and Spanish possessions -on the West Coast, and the German colonies of Kamerun and Togoland, -France has unostentatiously brought under her control that enormous -tract of African soil which stretches from the banks of the Congo to -the shores of the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic seaboard to the -Valley of the Nile. Algeria has been French for three-quarters of a -century, being regarded, indeed, as a part of France and not a colony -at all. Though the Bey of Tunis still holds perfunctory audiences in -his Palace of the Bardo, it is from the French Residency that the -protectorate is really ruled. Though Tripolitania has passed under -Italian dominion, it is French and not Italian influence which is -recognised by the unsubjugated tribesmen of the hinterland. And now, -after years of intrigue and machinations, which twice have brought her -to the brink of war, France, by one of the most remarkable diplomatic -victories of our time, has won the last of the world's great -territorial prizes and has set the capstone on her colonial edifice by -adding the empire of Morocco—under the guise of a protectorate—to her -oversea domain. - -On the West Coast the tricolour floats over the colonies of Senegal, -French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Senegal-Niger, and -Mauritania (the last named a newly organised colony formed from -portions of the Moroccan hinterland), the combined area of these -possessions alone being about equal to that of European Russia. - -From the Congo northward to the confines of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan -stretches the great colony of French Equatorial Africa—formerly known -as the French Congo—the acquirement of which by Savorgnan de Brazza, -counterchecked the ambitious plans of Stanley and his patron, King -Leopold, thus forming one of the most dramatic incidents in the -scramble for Africa. Though potentially the most valuable of the -French West African possessions, being enormously rich in both jungle -and mineral products, notably rubber, ivory, and copper, France has -taken surprisingly little interest in this colony's development, and, -as a result, it has been permitted to fall into a state of almost -pitiful neglect. There are two causes for the backwardness of French -Equatorial Africa: first, its atrocious climate, the whole territory -being a breeding-ground for small-pox, blood diseases, tropical -fevers in their most virulent forms, and, worst of all, the terrible -sleeping-sickness; second, the almost total lack of easy means of -communication, the back door through the Belgian Congo being the only -direct means of access to the greater part of the colony, which was -virtually cut in half by the broad area lying between the southern -boundary of Kamerun and the equator and extending eastward from the -coast to the Ubangi River, which France ceded to Germany in 1911 as -a _quid pro quo_ for being permitted a free hand in Morocco, and -which has been renamed “New Kamerun.” Though the economic development -of this region must prove, under any circumstances, a difficult, -dangerous, and discouraging task, it can be accomplished if the -government will divert its attention from its projects in North Africa -long enough to make Libreville a decent port, to provide adequate -steamer services on the great rivers that intersect the colony, and to -link up those rivers with each other and with the coast by a system of -railways. - -Lying on the northern frontier of French Equatorial Africa, and -separating it from the Sahara, is the great Central African state of -Kanem, with its organised native government, its important commerce, -and its considerably developed civilisation, which was completely -subjugated by France in 1903, Wadai, its powerful neighbour to the -east, accepting a French protectorate in the same year. In the centre -of this ring of colonies lie the million and a half square miles of -the French Sahara, which the experiments of the French engineers have -proved to be as capable of irrigation and cultivation as the one-time -deserts of our own Southwest. Off the other side of the continent -is the great colony of Madagascar, the second largest island in the -world, in itself considerably larger than the mother country; while -the French Somali Coast forms the sole gateway to Abyssinia and -divides with the British colony of Aden the control of the southern -entrance to the Red Sea. Everything considered, history can show few -parallels to this marvellous colonial expansion, begun while France -was still suffering from the effects of the disastrous Prussian War, -and quietly carried on under the very eyes of greedy and jealous -neighbours. - -The territorial ambitions of most countries have been blazoned to -the world by many wars. It took England two disastrous campaigns to -win South Africa and two more to conquer the Sudan; Russia learned -the same lesson in Manchuria at even a more terrible cost; while -Italy's insecure foothold on the Red Sea shore was purchased by the -annihilation of an army. Where other nations have won their colonial -possessions by arms, France has won hers by adroitness. Always her -policy has been one of pacific penetration. Trace the history of her -African expansion and you will find no Majuba Hill, no Omdurman, no -Adowa, no Modder River. Time and time again the accomplishments of her -small and unheralded expeditions have proved that more territory can -be won by beads and brass wire than by rifles and machine-guns. - -Not long ago I asked the governor-general of Algeria what he -considered the most important factors in the remarkable spread -of French influence and civilisation in North Africa, and he -answered, “Public schools, the American phonograph, and the American -sewing-machine.” The most casual traveller cannot but be impressed by -the thoroughness with which France has gone into the schoolmaster -business in her African dominions. She believes that the best way to -civilise native races is by training their minds, and she does not -leave so important a work to the missionaries, either. In Algiers -there is a government university with nearly two thousand students -and a faculty of one hundred professors, while in more than eighteen -hundred secondary, primary, and infant schools the youth of Algeria, -irrespective of whether they believe in Christ, in Abraham, or in -Mohammed, are being taught how to become decent and patriotic citizens -of France. In Tunisia alone there are something over fifteen hundred -educational institutions; all down the fever-stricken West Coast, -under the palm-thatched roofs of Madagascar and the crackling tin ones -of Equatoria, millions of dusky youngsters are being taught by Gallic -schoolmasters that _p-a-t-r-i-e_ spells “France,” and the meaning -of “_Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité_.” To these patient, plodding, -persevering men, whether they wear the white linen of the civil -service or the sombre cassocks of the religious orders, I lift my hat -in respect and admiration, for they are the real pioneers of progress. -If I had my way, the scarlet ribbon of the Legion would be in the -button-hole of every one of them. We too may claim a share in this -work of civilisation, for I have seen a band of savage Arab raiders, -their fierce hawk-faces lighted up by the dung-fed camp-fire, held -spellbound by the strains of a Yankee phonograph; and I have seen the -garments of a tribal chieftain of Central Africa being fashioned on an -American sewing-machine. - -“When the English occupy a country,” runs a saying which they have -in Africa, “the first thing they build is a custom-house; the first -thing the Germans build is a barracks; but the first thing the French -build is a railway.” Nothing, indeed, is more significant of the -civilising work done by the French in these almost unknown lands than -the means of communication, there being in operation to-day in French -Africa six thousand miles of railway, twenty-five thousand miles of -telegraph, and ten thousand miles of telephone. Think of being able to -buy a return ticket from Paris to Timbuktu; of telegraphing Christmas -greetings to your family in Tarrytown or Back Bay or Bryn Mawr from -the shores of Lake Tchad; or of sitting in the American consulate -at Tamatave and chatting with a friend in Antanarivo, three hundred -miles away. Why, only the other day the Sultan of Morocco, at Fez, -sent birthday congratulations to the President of France, at Paris, by -wireless. - -To-day one can travel on an admirably ballasted road-bed, in an -electric-lighted sleeping-car, with hot and cold running water in your -compartment, and with a dining-car ahead, along that entire stretch -of the Barbary Coast lying between the Moroccan and Tripolitanian -frontiers, which, within the memory of our fathers, was the most -notorious pirate stronghold in the world. A strategic line has -been built six hundred miles southward from the coast city of Oran -to Colomb-Bechar, in the Sahara, with Timbuktu as its eventual -destination, and, now that the long-standing Moroccan controversy -has been settled for good and all, another railway is already being -pushed forward from Ujda, on the Algerian-Moroccan border, and in -another year or two the shriek of the locomotive will be heard under -the walls of Fez the Forbidden. From Constantine, in Algeria, another -line of rails is crawling southward via Biskra into the Sahara, with -Lake Tchad as its objective, thus opening up to European commerce the -great protected states of Kanem and Wadai. From Dakar, on the coast -of Senegal, a combined rail and river service is in operation to the -Great Bend of the Niger, so that one can now go to the mysterious -city of Timbuktu by train and river steamer, in considerable comfort -and under the protection of the French flag all the way. In Dahomey, -within the memory of all of us a notorious cannibal kingdom, a railway -is under construction to Nikki, four hundred miles into the steaming -jungle; from Konakry, the capital of French Guinea, a line has just -been opened to Kourassa, three hundred and fifty miles from anywhere; -while even the fever-stricken, voodoo-worshipping Ivory Coast boasts -two hundred miles or so of well-built line with its rail-head already -half-way from the coast to Jimini. From Tamatave, the chief seaport -of Madagascar, you can go by rail to the capital, Antanarivo, three -hundred miles up into the mountains, and, if you wish to continue -across the island, government motor-cars will run you down, over roads -that would make the Glidden tourists envious, to Majunga, on the other -side. From Djibouti, the capital of the French Somali Coast, another -railway has been pushed as far up-country as Diré-Dawah, in Menelik's -dominions (fare sixty dollars for the round trip of two hundred and -fifty miles), thus diverting the lucrative trade of Abyssinia from the -British Sudan to the French marts in Somaliland. - -France has more good harbours on the coasts of Africa than all the -other nations put together. Algiers, with one of the finest roadsteads -in the world, is now the most important coaling-station in the -Mediterranean and a port of call for nearly all of the lines plying -between America and the Near East; by the construction of a great -ship-canal the French engineers have made Tunis directly accessible -to ocean-going vessels, thus restoring the maritime importance of -Carthage to her successor; with Tangier under French control, a naval -base will doubtless eventually be constructed there which will rival -Toulon and will divide with Gibraltar the control of the entrance -to the Mediterranean. With its entire western portion dominated by -the great French ports of Villefranche, Toulon, Ajaccio, Marseilles, -Oran, Algiers, and Bizerta, the Mediterranean is well on the road to -becoming, as Napoleon once prophesied, a French lake. - -But, though good harbours are taken rather as a matter of course -in the Mediterranean, one hardly expects to find them on the -reef-bordered West Coast, which is pounded by a ceaseless and -merciless surf. At all of the British, German, Spanish, and Portuguese -ports in West Africa, save one, you are lowered from the steamer's -heaving deck into a dancing surf-boat by means of a contrivance -called the “mammy chair,” and are taken ashore by a score of ebony -giants who ply their trident-shaped paddles madly in their desperate -efforts to prevent your being capsized. Alternately scorched by the -sun and soaked by the waves, you are landed, about three times out -of four, on a beach as hot as though of molten brass. The fourth -time, however, your Kroo boys are not quite quick enough to escape -the crest of one of those mighty combers—and you can thank your lucky -stars if you get ashore at all. This is the method by which every -passenger and every bale of merchandise is landed on the West Coast -and it is very dangerous and unpleasant and costly. But when you come -to the French port of Dakar, instead of being dangled between sea and -sky in a bo's'n's chair and dropped sprawling into the bottom of a -pitching surf-boat, and being paddled frantically ashore by a crew of -perspiring negroes, you lounge in a cane chair on an awning-covered -deck while your vessel steams grandly in, straight alongside a -concrete wharf which would do credit to the Hudson River, and a steam -crane dips down into the hold and lifts the cargo out, a dozen tons -at a time, and loads it on a waiting train to be transported into the -heart of Africa, and as you lean over the rail, marvelling at the -modernity and efficiency which characterise everything in sight, you -wonder if you are really in the Dark Continent, or if you are back in -America again. - -But if the French harbours are amazingly good, the French vessels -which drop anchor in them are, for the most part, amazingly bad. -The _Messageries Maritimes_, a highly subsidised line which has a -virtual monopoly of the French colonial passenger trade, and which -is notorious for its we-don't-care-whether-you-like-it-or-not -attitude, has the worst vessels that I know, bar none, and charges -the most exorbitant fares. If you wish to visit the Somali Coast, or -Madagascar, or Réunion, you will have to take this line, because there -is no other, but elsewhere along the coasts of Africa you will do well -to follow my advice and travel under the British or the German flag. - -The struggle of the French colonial army to maintain law and order -along the vast reaches of France's African frontiers forms one of -the most thrilling and romantic chapters in the history of colonial -expansion. Theirs has been a work of tact, rather than of force, for, -where England, Germany, Italy, and Belgium have used the iron hand in -dealing with the natives, France, more farsighted, has seen the wisdom -of hiding it within the velvet glove. Always she has conciliated the -Moslem. She has safeguarded the privacy of his mosques and harems; she -has encouraged by government subsidies his schools and universities; -instead of desecrating the tombs of his holy men, she has whitewashed -them; the burnooses of the great tribal and religious chieftains -are brilliant with French decorations; the native _mollahs_ and -_cadis_ are utilised as local magistrates in all except the gravest -cases or those involving a European. To attempt to govern a country -without those, or against those, to whom it belonged, is a blunder -of which France has never been guilty. It has been the consistent -policy of other European nations, on the contrary, neither to trust -the natives nor to treat them with any degree of consideration. -Hence the ominous unrest in India; hence the ever louder murmur of -“Egypt for the Egyptians”! hence the refusal of the natives of German -East Africa to work on German-owned plantations and their wholesale -emigration from that colony; hence the fact that no Italian official -in Eritrea or Benadir dares venture outside the town walls unarmed and -unescorted, nor will in Tripolitania for many years to come. I have -been assured repeatedly by North African sheikhs that, should France -become involved in a European war, her native soldiery would volunteer -almost to a man. That England is far from certain how her Egyptian and -Sudanese troops would behave in such a contingency is best proved by -the formidable British garrisons which she deems it wise to maintain -in the land of the Valley of the Nile. - -I am but reflecting the opinions of many highly placed and intimately -informed European officials in North Africa when I assert that -Germany's repeated interference with the French programme in Morocco -was due as much to military as to political reasons, the Germans using -this means to hinder the expansion of that mysterious _force noire_ -which has long been a bugaboo to the War Office authorities in Berlin. -Whether this was the true reason or not for Germany's attitude in the -Moroccan business, no one knows better than the German general staff -that, in the event of war, the Republic would be able to advance a -great black army to the banks of the Rhine in thirty days—and that she -would not be deterred by the scruples which prevented her utilising -her African soldiery in 1870. It has been repeatedly urged, indeed, -that the numerical inferiority of the annual French conscription, as -compared with that of Germany, be made up for by drafting a corps of -black troops drawn from French West Africa into the continental army. -France has already recruited very close to twenty thousand native -troops—which is the strength of an army corps—in her West African -possessions alone, and as any scheme for drafting it into Algeria, -so as to enable the French troops stationed there to be available -elsewhere, would instantly arouse the Arab population to revolt, it is -highly probable that this African army corps would, in case of war, be -employed on the European continent. Though France's African army does -not at present number much over fifty thousand men—all well drilled, -highly disciplined, and modernly armed—the French drill-sergeants in -Africa are not idle and have limitless resources to draw from. The -population of the negro states under French protection runs into many -millions, and would easily yield twenty per cent of fighting men, -while the acquisition of Morocco has added the Berbers, that strange, -warlike, Caucasian race, to the Republic's fighting line. Nothing -pleases the African as an occupation more than soldiering, his native -physique, courage, and endurance making him, with amazingly little -training, a first-class fighting man. It is no great wonder, then, -that Germany looks askance at the formidable army which her rival is -building up so quietly but so steadily on the other side of the Middle -Sea. - -No small part in the winning of North Africa has been played by the -Foreign Legion—how the name smacks of romance!—that picturesque -company of adventurers, soldiers of fortune, and ne'er-do-weels, -ten thousand strong, most of whom serve under the French flag in -preference to serving in their own prisons. In this notorious corps -the French Government enlists without question any physically fit man -who applies. It asks no questions and expects to be told any number -of lies. It trains them until they are as hard as nails and as tough -as rawhide; it works them as a negro teamster works a Kentucky mule; -it pays them wages which would cause a strike among Chinese coolies; -and, when the necessity arises, it sends them into action with the -assurance that there will be no French widows to be pensioned. So -unenviable is the reputation of the Legionnaires that even the -Algerian desert towns balk at their being stationed in the vicinity, -for nothing from hen-roost to harem is safe from their depredations; -so they are utilised on the most remote frontiers in time of peace and -invariably form the advance guard in time of war. It is commonly said -that when the Legion goes into action its officers take the precaution -of marching in the rear, so as not to be shot in the back, but that -is probably a libel which the regiment does not deserve. Wherever -the musketry is crackling along France's colonial frontiers, there -this Legion of the Damned is to be found, those who wear its uniform -being, for the most part, bearers of notorious or illustrious names -who have chosen to fight under an alien flag because they are either -afraid or ashamed to show themselves under their own. - -Several times each year it is customary for the commandants of the -French posts along the edge of the Sahara to organise _fantasias_ in -honour of the Arab sheikhs of the region, who come in to attend them, -followed by great retinues of burnoosed, turbaned, and splendidly -mounted retainers, with the same enthusiasm with which an American -countryside turns out to see the circus. At one of these affairs, -held in southern Algeria, I could not but contrast the marked -attentions paid by the French officials to the native chieftains with -the cavalier and frequently insolent attitude invariably assumed by -British officials toward Egyptians of all ranks, not even excepting -the Khedive. Were a French official to affront one of the great Arab -sheikhs as Lord Kitchener did the Khedive, when he exacted an apology -from his Highness for presuming to criticise the discipline of the -Sudanese troops, he would be fortunate indeed if he escaped summary -dismissal. - -At the _fantasia_ in question luxuriously furnished tents had been -erected for the comfort of the native guests; a champagne luncheon -provided the excuse for innumerable protestations of friendship; a -series of races with money prizes was arranged for the visitors' -horses; and, before leaving, the sheikhs were presented with ornate -saddles, gold-mounted rifles, and, in the cases of the more -important chieftains, with crosses of the Legion of Honour. In return -for this they willingly agreed to capture and surrender certain -fugitives from justice who had fled into the desert; to warn the -more lawless of their tribesmen that the plundering of caravans must -cease; to furnish specified quotas of recruits for the native cavalry; -and to send in for sale to the Remount Department a large number of -desert-bred horses. And, which is the most important of all, they go -back to their tented homes in the desert immensely impressed with the -power, the wealth, and the generosity of France. - -[Illustration: “THROUGH DIM BAZAARS WHERE TURBANED SHOPKEEPERS SQUAT - PATIENTLY IN THEIR DOORWAYS.” - -Here, in the native quarters of the remote towns of the Algerian -hinterland, the disciples of Pan-Islam find eager listeners to their -creed of Africa for the Africans. - -_Photograph by Em. Frechon, Biskra._] - -Not content with these periodic manifestations of friendship, the -French Government makes it a point occasionally to invite the native -rulers of the lands under its control to visit France as the guests -of the nation. Escorted by French officers who can talk with them in -their own tongue, these colonial visitors in their outlandish costumes -are shown the delights of Montmartre by night, they are dined by the -President of the Republic at the Élysée, they are given the freedom -of Paris at the Hôtel de Ville, and they finally return to their own -lands the friends and allies of France for the rest of their lives. -“It doesn't cost the government much,” an official of the French -Colonial Office once remarked to me, _à propos_ of a visit then being -paid to Paris by the King of Cambodia, “and it tickles the niggers.” - -Straggling down here and there into the desert from some of the -North African coast towns go the trade routes of the caravans, and -it is the protection of these trade routes, traversing, as they do, -a territory half again as large as that of the United States, that -is entrusted to the twelve hundred _méharistes_ composing France's -Saharan forces. By a network of small oasis garrisons and desert -patrols, recruited from the desert tribes and mounted on the tall, -swift-trotting camels known as _méhari_, France has made the Saharan -trade-routes, if not as safe as Fifth Avenue or Piccadilly, certainly -very much safer for the lone traveller than lower Clark Street, in -Chicago, or the neighbourhood of the Paris _Halles_. It has long been -the fashion to hold up the Northwest Mounted Police as the model for -all constabulary forces, just as it has been the fashion to extol -the English as the model colonisers, but, taking into consideration -the fewness of their numbers, the vastness of the region which they -control, and the character of its climate and its inhabitants, I give -the blue ribbon to these lean, brown-faced, hard-riding camel-men who -have carried law and order into the furthermost corners of the Great -Sahara. - -Though comparatively unfertile, the Sahara vastly influences -the surrounding regions, just as the Atlantic Ocean influences -the countries which border on it. Were commerce to be seriously -interrupted upon the Atlantic, financial hardships would inevitably -result in the countries on either side. So it is, then, with the -Sahara, which is, to all intents and purposes, an inland ocean. Ever -since the caravan of the Queen of Sheba brought gifts to King Solomon, -ever since Abraham came riding down from Ur, it has been customary -for the nomad Arab rulers through whose territories the desert trade -routes pass to exact heavy tribute from the caravan sheikhs, the Bilma -trans-Saharan route alone being plundered annually to the tune of ten -million francs until the coming of the French camel police. Many of -these great trade caravans, you will understand, are literally moving -cities, sometimes consisting of as many as twelve thousand camels, to -say nothing of the accompanying horses, donkeys, sheep, and goats. -To outfit such a caravan often takes a year or more, frequently at -a cost of more than one million dollars, the money being subscribed -in varying sums by thousands of merchants and petty traders dwelling -in the region whence it starts. It is obvious, therefore, that the -looting of such a caravan might well spell ruin for the people of a -whole district; and it is by her successful protection of the caravan -routes that France has earned the gratitude of the peoples of all -those regions bordering on the Great Sahara. But the days of the -caravan trade are numbered, for the telegraph wires which already -stretch across the desert from the Mediterranean coast towns to the -French outposts in the Congo, the Senegal, and the Sudan, are but -forerunners to herald the coming of the iron horse. - -France's path of colonial expansion in Africa has been remarkably -free from obstructions, for, barring the Algerian campaign of 1830, -and the German-created incidents in Morocco, she has acquired her -vast domain—close on half the total area of the continent—at a -surprisingly low cost in money and lives. The only time, indeed, -when her African ambitions received a serious setback was in 1898, -at Fashoda (now known as Kodok), on the White Nile, when the French -explorer, Major Marchand, yielded to the peremptory demand of Lord -Kitchener and hauled down the tricolour which he had raised at that -remote spot, thus losing to France the whole of the Western Sudan and -the control of the head-waters of the Nile. - -There is an interesting bit of secret diplomatic history in this -connection. The story has been told me by both French and British -officials—and there is good reason to believe that it is true—that -the French Government had planned, in case Marchand was able to hold -his position until reinforcements arrived, to divert the waters -of the White Nile, at a point near its junction with the Sobat -River, into the Sahara, an undertaking which, owing to the physical -characteristics of that region, would, so the French engineers -claimed, have been entirely feasible. France would thus have -accomplished the twofold purpose of irrigating her desert territory -and of turning Egypt into a desert by diverting her only supply of -water; for this, remember, was in those bitter, jealous days before -the Anglo-French _entente_. It was, indeed, the intelligence that the -Khalifa proposed, by doing this very thing, to bring Egypt to her -knees that caused the second Sudanese expedition to be pushed forward -so rapidly. (I should add that the idea, once so popular in France, of -turning the Sahara into an inland sea, has been proven impracticable, -if not impossible.) It is safe to say that England's prime reason for -clinging so tenaciously, and at such heavy cost, to the arid tract -known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, is to safeguard Egyptian prosperity -by keeping control of the head-waters of the Nile. To illustrate -how completely the Nile is the barometer of Egyptian prosperity, I -might add that the last time I was in Khartoum the officials of the -Sudanese Irrigation Service complained to me most bitterly that they -were being seriously hampered in their work of desert reclamation by -the restrictions placed upon the quantity of water which they were -permitted to divert from the Nile, a comparatively small diversion -from the upper reaches of the river causing wide-spread distress among -the Egyptian agriculturists a thousand miles down-stream. - -Because the map-makers from time beyond reckoning have seen fit to -paint the northern half of the African continent a speckled yellow, -most of us have been accustomed to look upon this region as an arid, -sun-baked, worthless desert. But French explorers, French engineers, -and French scientists have proved that it is very far from being -worthless or past reclamation. M. Henri Schirmer, the latest and most -careful student of its problems, says: “The sterility of the Sahara is -due neither to the form of the land nor to its nature. The alluvium of -sand, chalk, and gypsum which covers the Algerian Sahara constitutes -equally the soil of the most fertile plains in the world. What causes -the misery of one and the wealth of the other is the absence or the -presence of water.” Now, an extensive series of experiments has -proven that the Sahara, like the Great American Desert, has an ample -supply of underground water, which in many cases has been reached at -a depth of only forty feet. There is, incidentally, hardly a desert -where the experiment has been tried, whether in Asia, Africa, or -America, where water has not been found within two thousand feet of -the surface. Though usually not sufficient for agriculture, enough -has generally been found to afford a supply for cattle, railroads, -and mines. Three striking examples of what can be accomplished by -scientific well-drilling in arid lands are the great wells of the -Salton Desert, the flowing wells at Benson, Arizona, and a supply of -seven hundred thousand gallons of water a day from the deep wells on -the mesa at El Paso, each of these supplies of water being obtained -from localities which were superficially hopelessly dry. - -It should be borne in mind, in any discussion of North Africa, that -until the early '80's the Great American Desert was as primitive, -waterless, and sparsely settled a region as the Sahara. Its scattered -inhabitants practised irrigation and agriculture very much as the -people of southern Algeria and Tunisia do to-day, and, like them, they -constructed buildings of unburnt brick and stone. Though the Indian -was able to find a meagre sustenance upon the American desert, just -as the Arab does upon the African, it was of a kind upon which the -white man could not well exist. The unconquered Apaches plundered -wagon-trains and mail-coaches just as the Tuareg occasionally plunders -the Saharan trade caravans to-day, and the only white men were the -soldiers at scattered and lonely posts or desperadoes flying from the -law. There is, indeed, a striking similarity between the conditions -which prevail to-day along France's African borders and those which -existed within the memories of most of us upon our own frontier. - -Then the railways came to the American West, just as they are coming -to North Africa to-day, and the desert was awakened from its lethargy -of centuries by the shriek of the locomotive. The first railroads -to be constructed were designed primarily as highways between the -Atlantic and the Pacific seaboards, with hardly a thought of revenue -from the desert itself. But hard on the heels of the railway-builders -followed the miners and the cattlemen, so that to-day the iron highway -across the desert is bordered by prosperous cities and villages, by -mines and oil-derricks and ranches and white farm-houses with green -blinds, this one-time arid region, which the wiseheads of thirty years -ago pronounced worthless, now yielding a wealth twice as much per -capita as that of any other portion of the United States. - -What has already been accomplished in the American desert, French -brains, French energy, and French machinery are fast accomplishing -in the Sahara. Thanks to the recent invention, by a non-commissioned -officer of France's African forces, of a six-wheeled motor-sledge -driven by a light but powerful aeroplane engine, the problem of rapid -communication in these desert regions, which have hitherto been -impassable to any kind of animal or mechanical traction, has been -solved. As the new vehicle has proved itself capable of maintaining -a speed over sand dunes of twenty miles an hour, it promises to be -of invaluable assistance to the French in their work of opening up -the waste places. Not only have French expeditions explored and -charted the whole of the unknown regions, but they have thoroughly -investigated the commercial possibilities of the immense territories -which have recently come under their control. These investigations -have shown that the Sahara is very far from being the sandy plain, -flat as a billiard-table, which the pictures and descriptions in our -school geographies led us to believe, and which the reports of those -superficial travellers who had only journeyed into the desert as far -as Biskra, in Algeria, or Ghadames, in Tripolitania, confirmed, but -is, on the contrary, of a remarkably varied surface, here rising into -plateaus like those of Tibesti and Ahaggar, there crossed by chains of -large and fertile oases, and again broken into mountain ranges, with -peaks eight thousand feet high, greater than the Alleghanies and very -nearly as great as the Sierra Nevadas. - -An oasis, by the way, does not necessarily consist, as the reading -public seems to believe, of a clump of palm-trees beside a brackish -well, many of them being great stretches of well-watered and -cultivated soil, sometimes many square miles in extent, and rich -in fig, pomegranate, orange, apricot, and olive trees. The oasis -of Kaouer, for example, with its one hundred thousand date-palms, -furnishes subsistence for the inhabitants of a score of straggling -villages, with their camels, flocks, and herds. There are said to be -four million date-palms in the oases of the Algerian Sahara alone, and -to cut down one of them is considered as much of a crime as arson is -in a great city, for its fruit is a sufficient food, from its leaves -a shelter can be made which will keep out sun and wind and rain, and -its shade protects life and cultivation. Many date plantations and -even vineyards have flourished for several years past in southernmost -Algeria by means of water from below the surface, while the chief of -the French geodetic survey recently announced that a tract in the very -heart of the Sahara, nine degrees in longitude by twelve degrees in -latitude, is already sufficiently watered for the raising of grain. -The reports of these expeditions and commissions bear with painstaking -thoroughness on the productivity of the soil, the suitability of -the climate, the existence and accessibility of forest wealth, the -presence and probable extent of mineral veins, and on transportation -by road, rail, and river over all that huge territory which comprises -France's African empire. - -The story of French success in the exploration, the civilisation, -the administration, and the exploitation of Africa is one of the -wonder-tales of history. That she has relied on the resources of -science rather than on those of militarism makes her achievement -the more remarkable, for where England's possessions have largely -been gained by punitive expeditions, France has won hers by pacific -penetration. Look at Senegambia as it is now under French rule, -and compare its condition with what it was as Mungo Park describes -it at the end of the eighteenth century; contrast the modernised -Dahomey of to-day, with its railways, schools, and hospitals, with -the blood-soaked, cannibal country of the early '60's; remember that -Algeria has doubled in population since the last Dey, by striking -the French consul with his fan, turned his country into a French -department—and you will have a bird's-eye view, as it were, of what -the French have accomplished in the colonising field. - -If French Africa becomes in time a rich and prosperous dominion—and I -firmly believe that it will—it is to her patient and intrepid pioneers -of civilisation—-desert patrols, railway-builders, well-drillers, -school-teachers, commercial investigators—that the thanks of the -nation will be due; for they are pointing the way to millions -of natives, on whose activities and necessities the commercial -development of Africa must eventually depend. So I trust that those -at home in France will give all honour to the men at work in the -Sahara, the Senegal, and the Sudan or rotting in the weed-grown, -snake-infested cemeteries of the Congo and Somaliland; men whose -battles have been fought out in steaming jungles or on lonely oases, -far away from home and friends and often from another white man's -help and sympathy; sometimes with savage desert raiders, or in action -against Hausa, Berber, or Moor; but oftenest of all with an unseen and -deadlier foe—the dread African fever. - -[Illustration: THE TROGLODYTE TOWN OF MEDENINE, SOUTHERN TUNISIA. - -Perhaps the strangest city in the world. The dwellings, known as -rhorfas, are built in the form of horseshoes to keep out thieves. - -_Photograph by Soler, Tunis._] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE PASSING OF THE PEACOCK'S TAIL - - -An unaccustomed silence hung over the labyrinth of court-yards, -corridors, gardens, mosques, and kiosks which compose the imperial -palace in Fez. The chatter of the harem women was hushed; the -white-robed officials of the household slipped through the -mosaic-paved passages like melancholy ghosts; even the slovenly -sentries at the gates, their red tunics over their heads to protect -them from the sun, seemed to tread more softly, as though some great -one lay dying. Within the palace, in a room whose furnishings were -a strange jumble of Oriental taste and European tawdriness, a group -of men stood about a table. Certain of them were tall and sinewy -and swarthy, their white burnooses, which enveloped them from their -snowy turbans to their yellow slippers, marking them unmistakably -as Moors. Of the others, whose clearer skins showed them to be -Europeans, some wore the sky-blue tunics and scarlet breeches of the -_chasseurs d'Afrique_, some the braided jackets and baggy trousers of -the _tirailleur_ regiments, some the simple white linen of the civil -administration, while across the chest of one, a grizzled man with the -épaulettes of a general of division, slanted a broad scarlet ribbon. -At the table sat an old-young man, a man with an aquiline, high-bred -nose, a wonderfully clear, olive skin, and a fringe of scraggy beard -along the line of his chin, a man with a weak mouth and sensual lips -and heavy-lidded, melancholy eyes. The man with the scarlet ribbon -unrolled a parchment and, bowing, spread it upon the table. One of -the native dignitaries, with a gesture of reverence which included -heart and lips and head, dipped a quill pen into an ink-well and -tendered it to the silent figure at the table. “Your Majesty will have -the goodness to sign here?” said the soldier, half-questioningly, -half-commandingly, as he indicated the place with his finger. The -man at the table gravely inclined his head, reached for the pen, -hesitated for a moment, then slowly began to trace, from right to -left, the strange Arabic signature. “Inshallah! It is done!” he said, -and throwing down the pen he sunk his face into his hands. “Vive la -France!” said the general solemnly, and “Vive la France!” echoed the -officers around him. Well might the one lament and the others rejoice, -for, with the final flourish of the Sultan's pen, Morocco had ceased -to exist as an independent nation and France had added an empire to -her dominions. - -“The world is a peacock,” says a Moorish proverb, “and Morocco is the -tail of it.” Now, however, it has become the tail of the Gallic cock, -for when, on March the thirtieth, 1912, Sultan Mulai-abd-el-Hafid -signed the treaty establishing a French protectorate over his country, -Morocco entered upon a new phase of its existence. With that act there -ended, let us hope for all time, a situation which on more than one -occasion has threatened the peace of the world. Not since the English -landed in Egypt a third of a century ago has an event occurred which -so vitally concerns the future welfare of Africa; not since the Treaty -of Tilsit has France won so decisive a diplomatic victory or added -so materially to her territorial possessions. By the signing of that -treaty France laid the final stone in the mighty colonial structure -which she has built up in Africa, and opened to Christianity, -civilisation, and commerce the door of a region which has hitherto -been a synonym for mystery, cruelty, intolerance, and fanaticism. - -Though scarcely forty hours of travel by train and boat separate the -departure platform at the Quai d'Orsay station in Paris from the -landing-beach at Tangier, though its coast is skirted by the tens -of thousands of American tourists who visit the Mediterranean each -year, less is known of Morocco than of many regions in central Asia -or inner Africa. Though a few daring travellers have made scattering -crow's-feet upon its map, there are regions as large as all our New -England States put together which are wholly unexplored. It is almost -the last of the unknown countries. As its women draw their veils to -hide their faces from the men, so the Moors have attempted to draw a -veil of mystery and intolerance over the face of their country to hide -it from the stranger. What strange tribes, what ruins of an earlier -civilisation, what wealth in forests or minerals lie behind its ranges -can only be conjectured. Its maps are still without the names of -rivers and mountains and towns—though the rivers and mountains and -towns are there; the sole means of travel are on camels, mules, or -donkeys along the wild, worn paths, it being the only country of any -size in the world which cannot boast so much as a mile of railway; its -ports and the two highways leading from the coast to its capitals, Fez -and Morocco City, were, until the coming of the French, alone open -to the traveller—and none too safe at that; the foreigner who has -the hardihood to stray from the frequented paths is taking his life -in his hands. Few of the maps of Morocco are, so far as accuracy is -concerned, worth the paper they are printed on, being largely based on -unscientific material eked out by probabilities and conjectures, there -being less accurate information, in fact, about a country larger than -France, and only two days' journey from Trafalgar Square, than there -is about Abyssinia or Borneo or Uganda. Even the names which we have -given to the country and its inhabitants are purely European terms and -are neither used nor recognised by the people themselves, who call -their country _El Moghreb el Aska_, which means literally “Sunset -Land,” the term Morocco being a European corruption of the name of one -of its capitals, Marrakesh, or, as it is known to foreigners, Morocco -City. A land almost as large as the State of Texas, with snow-capped -mountain ranges, navigable rivers, vast forests, a fertile soil, -an abundant water supply, and an ideal climate; a land of walled -cities and white villages, of domed mosques and slender minarets, -of veiled women and savage, turbaned men; a land of strange peoples -and still stranger customs; a land of mystery and fatalism, of -suspicion and fanaticism, of cruelty and corruption, of confusion and -contradiction—that is Morocco, where, as an Arabic writer has put it, -a wise man is surprised at nothing that he sees and believes nothing -that he hears. - -This empire which has come under the shadow of the tricolour is, -above all else, a white man's country. Unlike India and Tripolitania -and Rhodesia and the Sudan, Morocco is a country which is admirably -adapted for European colonisation, being blessed with every natural -advantage that creation has to offer. Its only objectionable feature -is its people. Lying at the western gateway of the Mediterranean, -where the narrowed sea has so often proved a temptation to invasion, -its Atlantic ports within striking distance of the great lanes of -commerce between Europe and South America and South Africa, Morocco -occupies a position of enormous strategic, political, and commercial -importance. The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas, which, -taken as a whole, has a higher mean elevation than that of any other -range of equal length in Europe, Africa, or western Asia, attaining -in places an elevation of nearly fifteen thousand feet. Snow-clad, -this mighty and isolated wall rises so abruptly from the plain that -it needs but little stretch of the imagination to understand how the -ancients believed that on it rested the heavens—whence, indeed, its -name. Personally, the thing that surprised me most in Morocco was -the total absence of desert. Either because of its proximity to the -Sahara, or because of its camels, or the two combined, I went to -Morocco expecting that I should find vast stretches of sun-baked, -yellow sand. As a matter of fact, I found nothing of the kind. -Traversed from east to west, as I have already said, by the strongly -defined range of the Atlas, the greater part of its surface is really -occupied by rolling prairies, diversified by low hills, and not at -all unlike Ohio and Indiana. Though admirably adapted to the growing -of cereals, the strict prohibition against the exportation of grain -has naturally resulted in discouraging the native farmers, so that -immense tracts of fertile land remain uncultivated. The alluvial soil, -which is remarkable for its richness, frequently reaches a depth of -fifteen feet and could be brought to an almost incredible degree of -productiveness by the application of modern agricultural methods. What -greater praise can be given to any soil than to say that it will bear -three crops of potatoes in a single year and that corn is commonly -sown and reaped all within the space of forty days? - -Unlike its neighbouring countries, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania, -Morocco does not lack for navigable waterways, for it possesses -several large rivers which could be navigated for hundreds of miles -inland, though at present, owing to the apathy of the inhabitants, and -the unsettled condition of the regions along their banks, they are -used for neither traffic nor irrigation. The chief of these is the -Muluya, which, with its tributary the Sharef, provides northeastern -Morocco with a valuable commercial waterway for a distance of more -than four hundred miles. The most important river of northwest Morocco -is the Sebu, which empties into the Atlantic, while in the central -and western districts the Kus, the Bu-Regreg, the Sus, and the Assaka -will, under the new régime, prove invaluable as means of opening up -the country. - -A very large number of people seem to be under the impression that -Morocco is unhealthy and suffers from a sweltering heat. Nothing -could be farther from the truth. The climate is, as a matter of fact, -extremely healthful, malaria, the scourge of the other countries of -North Africa, being unknown. In the regions lying between the central -range of the Atlas and the sea the thermometer seldom rises above -ninety degrees or falls below forty degrees, the mountain wall serving -as a protection from the scorching winds of the Sahara. During the -winter months the rains are so heavy and frequent along the Atlantic -coast that good pasturage is found as far south as Cape Juby, while in -the interior the rivers frequently become so swollen that travel is -both difficult and dangerous. The unpleasantness of the rains (and you -don't know what discomfort is, my friends, until you have journeyed in -Morocco during the rainy season) is more than compensated for by the -beauties of the spring landscape. For mile after mile I have ridden -across meadows literally carpeted with wild flowers, whose varied -and brilliant colours, combined with the peculiar fashion in which -each species confined itself to its own area, gave the countryside -the appearance of a vast floral mosaic. After seeing these gorgeous -natural combinations of colour—dark blue, yellow, white, and scarlet, -iris, marigolds, lilies, and poppies—I no longer wondered where the -Moors draw the inspiration for that chromatic art of which they left -such marvellous examples in the cities of southern Spain. - -Though the country has, unfortunately, become largely deforested—for -what Moor would ever think of planting trees, which could only be -of value to another generation?—a wealth of timber still remains -in the more remote valleys of the Atlas, the pines and oaks often -attaining enormous size. Though Spanish concessionaires are profitably -working gold mines in the Riff country, and the great German firm of -Mannesmann Brothers has acquired extensive iron-ore-bearing properties -in the Sus, and though large deposits of silver, copper, lead, and -antimony have been discovered at various points in the interior, the -mineral wealth of Morocco is still a matter for speculation. It is not -likely to remain so long, however, for history has shown that it is -the miners who form the real advance-guard of civilisation. - -To the stranger who confines his investigations to the highways which -connect the capitals with the coast, Morocco gives the impression of -being very sparsely settled. This is due to the fact that the natives -take pains to avoid the highroads as they would the plague, the -continual passage of troops and of travellers, all of whom practise -the time-honoured custom of living on the country and never paying -for what they take, having had the natural result of driving the -inhabitants into less travelled regions, though traders and others -whose business takes them into the back country find that it is far -more densely populated than most foreigners suspect. Heretofore it -has been possible for almost any foreigner, by the judicious use of -bakshish, to obtain from the authorities an official order which -required the people living along the roads to supply food both for -him and his escort and fodder for their horses. Now, this was a very -serious tax, especially among a people as poverty-stricken as the -Moorish peasantry, and as a result of it the heedless traveller often -caused much misery and suffering. But if the occasional traveller -proved so serious a burden, imagine what it meant to these poor -people when the Sultan himself passed, for, able to move only with an -army, without any commissariat or transport, and feeding itself as it -went, he devastated the land of food and fodder as though he was an -invader instead of a ruler, sweeping as ruthlessly across his empire -as the Huns did across southern Europe, and leaving his subjects to -starve. Is it any wonder, then, that the desperation of the wretched, -half-starved peasantry has vented itself in repeated revolutions? -The coming of the French is bound to change this deplorable and -demoralising state of affairs, however, for, once assured of -protection for their crops and justice for themselves, the fugitive -country folk will quickly flock back and resume the cultivation of -their abandoned lands. - -One of the facts about Morocco that will probably surprise most -people—I know that it surprised me—is that the Berbers, who form -fully two thirds of the population, are a purely white race, as white -indeed, barring the tan which results from life under an African -sun, as we ourselves. Though the generic term Moor is applied by -Europeans to all the inhabitants of Morocco, there are really four -distinct racial divisions of the population: the Berbers, who, -being the earliest-known possessors of the land, are the genuine -Moroccans, and are, when of unmixed blood, a very energetic and -vigorous people, indeed; the Arabs, who are the descendants of the -Mohammedan conquerors of the country and possess to the full the -Arab characteristics of arrogance, indolence, and cruelty; the -negroes, brought into the country as slaves from Central Africa in an -influx extending over centuries, this admixture having resulted in -deteriorating both the Berbers and the Arabs, the infusion of black -blood showing itself in dark skins, thickened lips, low foreheads, -sensual tastes, and a marked stupidity; and lastly, but by no means -the least important, the ubiquitous, persecuted, and persecuting Jews. -The Berbers dwell for the most part in the mountains, while the Arabs, -on the contrary, are to be found only on the plains, it being the -weak, sensual, and intolerant amalgam produced by the fusion of these -two races, and tinctured with negro blood, which forms the population -of the Moorish cities and to which the name “Moor” most properly -belongs. - -Between the Moor of the mountains and the Moor of the towns there -is as wide a gulf as there is between the natives of Vermont and -the natives of Venezuela. The town Moor is sullen, suspicious of all -strangers, vacillating; the pride, but none of the energy, of his -ancestors remains. In his youth he is licentious in his acts; in his -old age he is licentious in his thoughts. He is abominably lazy. He -never runs if he can walk; he never walks if he can stand still; he -never stands if he can sit; he never sits if he can lie down. The -only thing he puts any energy into is his talking; he believes that -nothing can be done really well without a hullabaloo. The men of the -mountains are cast in a wholly different mould, however, from that of -the men of the towns. Fierce enemies and stanch friends, they like -fighting for fighting's sake. They are intelligent and industrious; -though fonder of the sword and the pistol than of the plough and the -hoe, their fertile mountain valleys are nevertheless fairly well -cultivated. They are a hardy, warlike, and indomitable race and have -never yet been conquered. It is well to remember in any discussion of -these people that, through all the vicissitudes of their history, they -have never before had the flag of another nation flying over them. All -the successive invaders of North Africa have been confronted with the -problem of subduing them, but always they have failed and have gone -back. Not only that, but once the Moors went invading on their own -account, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, conquering all southern -Spain, holding it for five hundred years, and leaving behind them the -architectural glories of Seville, of Cordova, and of Granada to tell -the story. Unless I am very much mistaken, therefore, it will cost -France many lives and much money to make them amenable to her rule. - -The decadence of the Moors is primarily due to two things: immorality -and racial jealousies. They are probably the most licentious race, in -both thought and act, in the world. Compared to them the inhabitants -of Sodom and Gomorrah were positively prudish. This extreme moral -degeneracy is in itself enough to ruin the sturdiest people, but, -as though it was not sufficient, the two principal races, Arab and -Berber, hate each other as the Armenian hates the Turk, this racial -antagonism in itself making impossible the upbuilding of a strong and -united nation. In fact, the only thing they have in common is their -religion, which is the air they breathe, and which, though incapable -of producing internal harmony, unites them in hostility to the -unbeliever. - -There is less public spirit in Morocco than in any place I know. No -Moor takes the slightest interest in anything outside his personal -affairs, and no one ever plans for the future—other than to hope that -he will get a comfortable divan and his share of houris in Paradise. -The last thing that would occur to a Moor would be to spend money on -anything which will not bring him in an immediate profit, so that, -as a consequence, trees are never planted, mines never worked, roads -never made, bridges never built. He does not want civilisation. He -does not believe in modern inventions or improvements. What was good -enough for his father is good enough for him. Why lug in railways and -telegraphs, and similar contrivances of the devil, then, when things -are good enough as they are? - -There is no cause for the other European nations to envy France the -obligations she assumed when she declared a protectorate over Morocco. -She has a long and hilly road to travel before she can convert her -latest acquisition into a national asset. Before Morocco can be thrown -open to French settlers its savage and hostile population will have -to be as effectually subdued as were the Indians of our own West. -The tribes of southern Morocco are especially hostile to the French -occupation, and many military experts believe that the protectorate -will never be enforced in those regions without a long campaign and -much shedding of blood, while one eminent French general has openly -asserted that it will take at least a dozen years fully to subdue the -country. - -Personally, I am a firm believer in the future of Morocco and the -Moors under the guidance and protection of France. I have seen too -much of what France has accomplished in far less favoured regions, and -under far more discouraging conditions, to think otherwise. Nothing -illustrates the latent possibilities of the Moorish character better -than an experiment which was made some years ago. At the request of -the Sultan, the British minister to Morocco asked his government -for permission to send a body of Moors to Gibraltar for the purpose -of being instructed in British drill and discipline. The War Office -acceding to the request, two hundred Moors, selected at random from -various tribes throughout the empire, were sent to Gibraltar and -remained there for three years, the men being occasionally changed -as they acquired a knowledge of drill. They had good clothing given -them, slept in tents, and were allowed by the Sultan a shilling a -day, receiving precisely the same treatment as British soldiers. -During the three years they were stationed on the Rock, there were -only two cases in the police court against them for dissolute conduct -or disorder. The soldiers of what civilised nation could have made -such a record? Colonel Cameron, under whose superintendence they were -placed, reported that they learned the drill as quickly and as well -as any Englishmen, and that they were sober, steady, and attentive to -their duties. (The Moors, it should be remarked, are noted for their -abstemiousness, the precepts of the Koran which forbid the use of -spirits and tobacco being rigidly observed.) This tends to show that -Moors, living under a just and humane government, and having, as these -men had, proper provision made for their livelihood, are not a lawless -or even a disorderly people, and that they are capable of being -transformed, under such a form of government as France has established -in Algeria and Tunisia, into the splendid warriors which their -ancestors were in Spain. It was, as I think I have remarked in the -preceding chapter, the knowledge that France, in acquiring Morocco, -would obtain the material for a formidable addition to her military -forces which was, it is generally believed, one of the motives that -inspired Germany's persistent opposition to a French protectorate. - -Though the reins of Moorish power are already firmly in the hands of -the French Resident-General at Fez, there is no reason to believe that -the French expect, for the present at least, to depose the Sultan, -it being to their interests, for obvious reasons, to maintain the -pleasant fiction that Morocco is still an independent empire to which -they have disinterestedly lent their protection, In August, 1912, -Sultan Mulai-abd-el-Hafid, appreciating the emptiness of his title -under the French régime, abdicated in favour of his brother, Mulai -Youssef, who is known to be friendly to France. The new Sultan, who is -the seventeenth of the dynasty of the Alides and the thirty-seventh -lineal descendant of Ali, uncle and son-in-law of the Prophet, is -known to his subjects as Emir-el-Mumenin, or Prince of True Believers, -and as such he exercises a spiritual influence over his subjects which -the French are far too shrewd to disregard. The position of the Sultan -of Morocco has, indeed, become strikingly similar to that of his -fellow-ruler in the other corner of Africa, the Khedive of Egypt, for, -like him, he must needs content himself henceforth with the shadow -of power. Even if the imperial form of government is permanently -maintained (and this I very much doubt, for it is characteristic of -the Latin races—as Taine puts it—that they always want to occupy a -“sharply defined and terminologically defensible position”), its real -ruler will be the Resident-General of France, whose policies will be -carried out by French advisers in every department of the government -and whose orders will be backed up by French bayonets. So long as -Mulai Youssef is content meekly to play the part of a puppet, with -French officials pulling the strings, he will be permitted to enjoy -all the honours and comforts of royalty, but let him once give ear -to sedition, let him make the slightest attempt to undermine the -authority of the French régime, and he will find himself occupying a -sentry-guarded villa in Algiers near the residences of the ex-Queen of -Madagascar and the ex-King of Annam, those other Oriental rulers who -thought to match themselves against the power of France. - -The Sherifian umbrella, which is the Moorish equivalent of a crown, -is hereditary in the family of the Filali Sherifs of Tafilelt. Each -Sultan is supposed, prior to his death, to indicate the member of the -imperial family who, according to his conscientious belief, will best -replace him. This succession is, however, elective, and all members -of the Sherifian family are eligible. It has generally happened that -the late Sultan's nominee has been elected by public acclamation at -noonday prayers the Friday after the Sultan's death, as the nominee -generally has obtained possession of the imperial treasure and is -supported by the body-guard, from whose ranks most of the court -officials are appointed. I might add that all of the Moorish Sultans -in recent years have been so extremely bad that no successor whom they -could appoint, or who could appoint himself, could by any possibility -be worse. The present Sultan knows scarcely half a dozen places in his -whole empire, and has spent most of his life in two of them—Marrakesh -and Fez—having held, up to the time of his accession to the throne, -the important post of Khalif of the latter city. The Moors never pray -for their sovereign to journey among them, for, so disturbed has been -the condition of the country for many years past, and so numerous have -been the pretenders to the Sherifian throne, that recent Sultans have -rarely ventured outside the walls of their capitals with less than -thirty thousand followers behind them, so that when they had occasion -to pass through the territory of a hostile tribe, as not infrequently -happened, they fought their way through, leaving ruin and desolation -behind them. Though both Mulai Youssef and his predecessors have -always resided at one or the other of the two official capitals, the -coast city of Tangier has heretofore been the real capital of Morocco. -Here lived the diplomatic and consular representatives of the foreign -powers and, with a cynical disregard for the Moorish Government and -people, ran things between them. Though considerations of safety -doubtless entered into the matter, the chief reason for making Tangier -the diplomatic capital was the extreme inconvenience to the foreign -legations of being obliged to follow the court in its periodical -migrations from one capital to the other. Therefore the diplomatic -folk remained comfortably in Tangier—which, incidentally, can readily -be overawed by a war-ship's guns—and the Sultan appointed ministers to -treat with them there and thus carry on the foreign business of the -state. When questions of great importance had to be negotiated special -missions were sent to the capital at which the Sultan happened to be -residing, the departure of these ambassadorial caravans, with their -secretaries, attachés, kavasses, servants, and body-guards, not to -mention the immense train of pack-mules and baggage camels, providing -a spectacle quite as picturesque and entertaining as any circus -procession. That feature of Moorish life disappeared with the coming -of the French, however, for the foreign ministers will doubtless -shortly be withdrawn; and hereafter, when any negotiations are to be -conducted anent Morocco, instead of a diplomatic mission having to -make a two-hundred-mile journey on horses or camels, the ambassador at -Paris of the power in question will step into his motor-car and whirl -over to the Ministry of the Colonies in the Rue Oudinot. - -I know of nothing which gives so graphic an idea of the amazing -conditions which have heretofore prevailed in Morocco, and to which -the French are, thank Heaven, putting an end, as the speech which a -former British minister, Sir John Drummond Hay, made some years ago to -the reigning Sultan, and which was, probably, the most extraordinary -address ever made by a diplomatic representative to a foreign ruler. - -“Your Majesty has been so gracious as to ask me,” said Sir John, -looking the despot squarely in the eye, “to express frankly my -opinion of affairs in Morocco. The administration of the government -in Morocco is the worst in the world. The government is like a -community of fishes; the giant fish feed upon those that are small, -the smaller upon the least, and these again feed upon the worms. -In like manner the vizier and other dignitaries of the court, who -receive no salaries, depend for their livelihood upon peculation, -trickery, corruption, and the money they extract from the governors -of provinces. The governors are likewise enriched through peculation -from tithes and taxes, and extortion from sheikhs, wealthy farmers, -and traders. A Moor who becomes rich is treated as a criminal. Neither -life nor property is secure. Sheikhs and other subordinate officials -subsist on what they can extort from the farmers and the peasantry. -Then again, even the jailers are not paid; they gain their livelihood -by taking money from prisoners, who, when they are paupers, are -taught to make baskets, which are sold by the jailers for their own -benefit. How can a country, how can a people, prosper under such a -government? The tribes are in a constant state of rebellion against -their governors. When the Sultan resides in his northern capital -of Fez, the southern tribes rebel, and when he marches south to -the city of Morocco, eating up the rebels and confiscating their -property, the northern tribes rebel. The armies of the Sultan, like -locusts, are constantly on the move, ravaging the country to quell -the revolts. Agriculture is destroyed, the farmers and peasantry only -grow sufficient grain for their own requirements, and rich lands are -allowed to lie fallow because the farmers know the crops would be -plundered by the governors and sheikhs. Thus it happens with cattle -and horses. Breeding is checked, since the man who may become rich -through his industry is treated as a criminal and all his possessions -are taken from him, as in the fable the goose is killed to get the -golden eggs.” - -France, in pursuing her Moroccan adventure, will do well to bear -in mind two danger-spots: the Riff and the Sus. Unless she treads -carefully in the first she is likely to become embroiled in a quarrel -with Spain; with the natives of the Sus she will probably have trouble -whether she treads lightly or not. Sooner or later France is bound to -come into collision with Spain, for, with Morocco avowedly a French -protectorate, I fail to see how she can tolerate Spanish soldiers -on its soil. Spain, basing her pretensions on her expulsion of the -Moors from Granada in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, has always -considered herself one of the heirs of Morocco. In fact, a secret -treaty was signed between France and Spain in 1905 which distinctly -defined the respective spheres of influence of the two powers in that -country. By the terms of this treaty Spain was acknowledged to have -predominating interests in those regions adjacent to the ports of -Ceuta, Melilla, and El Araish, as well as in the Riff, a little-known -and exceedingly mountainous district, believed to be rich in minerals, -which lies in the northwestern corner of the empire, two days' -journey eastward from Tetuan. Spain distinctly engaged not to take -any action in the zone thus allotted to her other than to proceed -with its commercial exploitation, but it was stipulated that, should -the weakness of the Sherifian government make the maintenance of the -_status quo_ impossible, she should have a free hand in her sphere. - -France, meanwhile, steadily continued her “pacific penetration” -of Morocco, pushing her Algerian railways closer and closer to -Morocco's eastern frontier, mobilising troops at strategic points, and -overrunning the Sultan's dominions with “scientific” expeditions and -secret agents. Spain soon began to regard with envy and impatience -the subtle game which the French were so successfully playing, but -it was not until 1910 that she found the opportunity and the excuse -for which she had been eagerly waiting. Some Spanish labourers, who -were working on a railway which was being laid from Melilla to some -mines a few miles distant, were attacked by Riffian tribesmen and a -number of the Spaniards were killed. Spain jumped at the opportunity -which this incident afforded as a hungry trout jumps at a fly, and a -few days later a Spanish army was being disembarked on Moroccan soil. -A sharp campaign ensued which ended in the temporary subjugation of -the Riffians and the occupation by Spain of a considerable tract of -territory extending from Ceuta eastward to Cabo del Agua and southward -as far as Seluan, thus comprising practically all of Morocco's -Mediterranean seaboard. A Moorish envoy was sent to Madrid and, after -protracted negotiations, a convention was signed which permitted Spain -to establish a force of Moorish gendarmerie, under Spanish officers, -at Melilla, Aljucemas, and Ceuta, for the maintenance of order in the -districts near those places. Until this force has shown itself capable -of maintaining order, the Spaniards assert that they will remain in -occupation of the territory they now hold. Emboldened by her success -in this adventure, and greedy for further expansion, Spain, in June, -1911, sent a vessel to El Araish (Laraiche) on the Atlantic coast, and -a column was despatched from there to Alcázar, which lies some twenty -miles inland. The region was apparently perfectly calm at the time, -and the reasons given by Spain for her action—that mysterious horsemen -had been seen upon the walls of Alcázar—appeared, in France at least, -to be mere pretensions and raised a storm of indignation. As things -now stand, France has proclaimed a definite protectorate over the -whole of Morocco, an arrangement to which the Sultan has consented. -Despite that proclamation, however, Spain continues to occupy a rich -and extensive district of the country with an army of forty thousand -men. By what means France will attempt to oust her—for oust her she -certainly will—is an interesting subject for speculation and one which -is giving both French and Spanish diplomats many sleepless nights. - -A word, in passing, upon the region known as the Riff. It is more -discussed and less known than any other quarter of Morocco. Nothing -has been written upon it except from hearsay and no European has -penetrated across its length and breadth, and this although it is -but two days' ride on horseback from Tetuan. Situated in the very -heart of the Great Atlas range, and accessible only through narrow -passes and over rough mountain trails, this region has, from time -beyond reckoning, been the home and the refuge of that savage and -mysterious clan known as the Riffs. Their feudal chieftains live in -great castles built of stone and lead much the same lives as did the -European nobles of the Middle Ages. The passes giving access to the -Riff are commanded by hilltop forts impregnable to anything short of -modern artillery—and to get within range of them the artillery would -need to have wings. They are a people rich in possibilities, are these -Riffs, and one whom it is wiser to conciliate than to fight, as France -will doubtless sooner or later learn. Brigands by nature, farmers in -a small way by occupation, disciples of the vendetta, scorners of the -law, suspicious of strangers, their only courts the gun and dagger, -the Riffs have more in common with the mountaineers of the Blue Ridge -than any people that I know. They have nothing in common with the -other inhabitants of Morocco except their dress, wearing the universal -brown hooded _jellab_ and over it the toga-like white woollen _haik_, -a skull-cap of red or brown, a belt with pouches of gaily coloured -leather, and in it, always, a muzzle-loading pistol and the vicious -curved knife, while over the shoulder slants the ten-foot-long Riff -rifle, coral-studded, brass-bound, ivory-butted, and almost as -dangerous to the man behind it as to the one in front. The Riffs are -fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and quite frequently red-haired, and claim to -be descended from the Romans, which is no unreasonable assumption on -their part, as the Romans were adventuring in Morocco—they called it -Mauritania—long before Cæsar's day. - -The other danger-point in Morocco is the Sus, a “forbidden” and -unknown country through which only a handful of European travellers -have ever passed, all in disguise and all in peril of their lives. -The Sus is the rich and fertile valley lying between the Great Atlas -and the Anti Atlas, and touching the Atlantic coast at Agadir. It is -said to be thickly populated; it is believed to contain rich mines; -it is fanatical to the last degree. Its Berber inhabitants, who are -separated from the Arabs of the surrounding regions by a totally -distinct language known as the _Tamazight_, or Tongue of the Free, -though acknowledging the religious supremacy of the reigning Sultan, -have always maintained a semi-independence, having never submitted to -Moorish rule nor paid tax nor tribute to the government of Morocco. -Twice within the last three or four decades Moorish Sultans have -invaded and attempted to conquer the Sus, but each time they have been -driven back across the Atlas. The origin of the people of this region -is lost in the mists of antiquity. According to the Koran its original -inhabitants were natives of Syria, where they proved themselves such -undesirable citizens that King David ordered them to be tied up in -sacks and carried out of the country on camels, since he wished to see -their faces no more. Arrived in the vicinity of the Atlas Mountains, -the leader of the caravan called out in the Berber tongue “_Sus!_” -which means “Let down! Empty out!” So the exiled undesirables were -dumped unceremoniously out of their sacks, and the country in which -they found themselves, and where they settled, is called the Sus to -this day. The people of the Sus have never liked the French, and -there is little doubt that they will oppose any attempt to treat them -as a province of Morocco, and consequently subject to French control. -It is obvious that France will sooner or later be obliged to send an -expedition into the Sus for the purpose of asserting her power as -well as to counteract the German influence which is rapidly gaining -ground there, for the Sus, remember, is the region where Germany's -interests in Morocco are centred and provided the excuse for sending -her gun-boat to Agadir and almost provoking a European war thereby. -Germany still retains her commercial interests in the Sus Valley, and -France will be obliged to step gingerly indeed if she wishes to avoid -stirring up still another _affaire Marocaine_. - -If France accomplishes nothing more in Morocco than the extermination -of the slave trade she will have performed a genuine service to -humanity. Though slavery has been abolished in every other quarter of -Africa, no attempt has ever been made by the European powers to put -a check upon the practice in Morocco. Something over three thousand -slaves, it is estimated, are imported into Morocco every year, most -of them being brought by the terrible desert routes from Equatoria -and the Sudan, the trails of the slave caravans being marked by the -bleaching bones of the thousands who have died on the way from heat, -hunger, or exhaustion. Many smug-faced people will assure you that -slavery has been wiped out in Africa—praise be to the Lord!—but I can -take you into half a dozen Moroccan cities and show you slaves being -auctioned to the highest bidder as openly as they were in our own -South fifty years ago. There is a large and profitable demand for -slaves, particularly girls and boys, in all of the Moroccan cities, a -young negress having a market value of anywhere from eighty dollars -to one hundred and twenty dollars. Although, as I have already -remarked, the bulk of the slaves are driven across the Sahara by the -time-honoured method, exceptionally pretty girls are often brought -from West African ports in French vessels as passengers and disposed -of to wealthy Moors by private sale. So great is the demand for young -and attractive women that girls are occasionally stolen from Moorish -villages, the slave-dealer laying a trail of sweets, of which the -native women are inordinately fond, from the outskirts of the villages -up to neighbouring clumps of trees, behind which he conceals himself, -pouncing out upon his unsuspecting victims as they approach. If France -succeeds in stamping out the slave trade in Morocco as effectually as -she has in her other African possessions, she will prove herself, as -our missionary friends would put it, the flail of the Lord. - -Of all France's ambitious projects for the exploitation of North -Africa in general, and the opening up of Morocco in particular, the -one which most appeals to the imagination, and which, when executed, -is likely to be of the greatest benefit to the world, is her -astounding scheme for bringing South America a week nearer to Europe -by means of a railway from Tangier, in Morocco, to Dakar, in Senegal. -The route, as at present planned, would run from Tangier, via Fez, -to Tuat. From Tuat the Sahara would be crossed and the Niger gained -at Timbuktu. Though about three hundred miles of this section would -lie through the most hopeless desert country, it presents no great -obstacle to engineers, the Sudanese line from Wady Halfa to Khartoum -proving how easily the difficulties of desert construction and lack -of water can be overcome. The third section would be from Timbuktu -to Dakar, where the French within the last few years have created a -magnificent naval port and commercial harbour. Already Timbuktu and -Dakar are in regular communication by a mixed steamer and railway -service, the journey taking, when the Senegal is in flood, but five -days. As such a system would have, of necessity, to be independent of -the Niger and Senegal river services, which are not always reliable, a -line is now under construction which will bring Timbuktu into direct -rail communication with Dakar, thus eliminating the difficulties -and uncertainties of river navigation. From Dakar to Pernambuco, in -Brazil, is less than fifteen hundred miles, which could be covered -by a fast steamer in three days. There are already regular sailings -between these ports, but with the completion of this trans-African -system (and, believe me, it is far from being as chimerical as it -sounds, for the French do not let the grass grow under their feet -when they once get a clear right of way for railway-building) ocean -greyhounds will be placed in service between Dakar and the South -American ports, it being estimated that the traveller who purchases -his ticket via Madrid, Gibraltar, and then over the Moroccan-Saharan -system, can journey from Paris to Rio de Janeiro in twelve days. It -is obvious that in some such scheme as this lies the future of the -French Sahara, as well as the enormously increased prosperity of the -Moroccan hinterland and of the Niger-Senegal possessions, for it was -just such a transcontinental line, remember, which brought population -and prosperity to the desert regions of our own West. - -It is no light task to which France has pledged herself in agreeing -to effect the regeneration of an empire so decrepit and decadent as -Morocco, but that she will accomplish it is as certain as that the -leaves come with the spring. The changes which the coming of the -French will effect in Morocco stretch the imagination almost to the -breaking-point. Already the wireless crackles and splutters from a -mast erected over the French Residency in Fez. With the proclamation -of the protectorate the waiting railway-builders jumped their -rail-heads across the Moroccan border as homesteaders, hearing the -signal gun, jump their horses over the border of newly opened lands. -Two or three years more and the traveller will be able to purchase -through tickets to Fez and Marrakesh as easily as he can now to San -Francisco or Milan. At Tangier, Rabat, El Araish, Mogador, and Agadir -harbours will be dredged, break-waters built, and wharves constructed, -while the filthy, foul-smelling cities will be made as clean and -sanitary as Tunis and Algiers. Under French control Tangier, with its -ideal climate, its picturesque features, and its splendid situation, -will rival Cairo and the Riviera as a fashionable winter resort. The -Moorish peasantry will be permitted to till their farms in peace, -undisturbed by devastating armies, while the warlike Riffs can have -their fill of fighting in French uniforms and under the French flag. -This is no empty vision, remember. Peace, progress, and prosperity -are bound to come to Morocco, just as they have come to those other -African regions upon which the Frenchman has set his hand. Just how -soon they come depends largely upon the Moors themselves. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -SIRENS OF THE SANDS - - -Zorah-ben-Abdallah was a perilously pretty girl, judged by any -standard that you please. She was unveiled—a strange thing for an -Eastern woman—and the clearness of her _café-au-lait_ complexion was -emphasised by carmine lips and by blue-black hair, bewilderingly -becoiffed and bewitchingly bejewelled; her eyes Scherazade would have -envied. She was leaning from the window of a second-class compartment -in the ramshackle train which plies between Constantine and Biskra -and was quite openly admiring the very tight light-blue tunic and the -very loose scarlet riding-breeches of my companion, a young officer of -_chasseurs d'Afrique_ who was rejoining his regiment at El-Kantara. - -“She's a handsome girl,” said I. - -“Not for an Ouled-Naïl,” said he, adjusting his monocle and staring at -her critically, very much as though he were appraising a horse. “An -Ouled-Naïl's face is her fortune, you know, and in the Ziban, where -they come from, she wouldn't get a second look.” - -“She would get several second looks on Broadway,” said I, taking -another one myself. “I once travelled twelve thousand miles to see -some women not half as pretty.” - -That is why I went to the Ziban, that strange and almost unknown -zone of oasis-dotted steppes in southernmost Algeria. Hemmed in -between the Atlas Mountains and the Great Sahara, it forms the real -Algerian hinterland, a region vastly different in people, manners, -and customs from either the desert or the littoral. Here, in this -fertile borderland, where the red tarbooshes and baggy trousers of -the French outposts are the sole signs of civilisation, is the home -of the Ouled-Naïls, that curious race, neither Arab, Berber, nor -Moor, the beauty of whose dusky, daring daughters is a staple topic -of conversation in every harem and native coffee-house between the -Pyramids and the Pillars of Hercules. - -Rather than that you should be scandalised later on, it would be -well for you to understand in the beginning that the women of the -Ouled-Naïl are, so far as morality is concerned, as easy as an old -shoe. It comes as something of a shock, after seeing these petite and -pretty and indescribably picturesque women on their native heath, or -rather on their native sands, to learn that from earliest childhood -they are trained for a life of indifferent virtue very much as a -horse is trained for the show-ring. But it is one of those conditions -of African life which must be accepted by the traveller, just as he -accepts as a matter of course the heat and the insects and the dirt. - -Breaking home ties almost before they have entered their teens, they -make their way to Biskra, to Constantine, and to Algiers, yes, and to -Tripoli on the east and to Tangier on the west, dancing in the native -coffee-houses or in the harems of the rich and not infrequently -earning considerable sums thereby. The Ouled-Naïl promptly converts -all of her earnings that she can spare into gold, linking these gold -pieces together into a sort of breastplate, not at all unlike that -jingling, glittering affair which Mary Garden wears in her portrayal -of _Salome_. When this golden garment becomes long enough to reach -from her slender, supple neck to her still more supple waist, the -Ouled-Naïl retires from business, returns to the tents of her people -in the edge of the Great Sands, hides her pretty face behind the veil -common to all respectable Moslem women, and, setting her daintily -slippered feet on the straight and narrow path of virtue, leads a -strictly moral life ever after. - -[Illustration: Ouled-Naïl dancing-girls. “Petite, piquant, and -indescribably picturesque.”] - -[Illustration: Women of the “Great Tents.” The wife and daughter of a -nomad sheikh of the Algerian Sahara. - -SOME SIRENS OF THE SANDS.] - -The peculiar dances of the Ouled-Naïls demand many years of arduous -and constant practice. A girl is scarcely out of her cradle before, -under the tutelage of her mother, who has herself been a _danseuse_ -in her time, she begins the inconceivably severe course of gymnastics -and muscle training which is the foundation of their strange and -suggestive dances. From infancy until, scarcely in her teens, she -bids farewell to the tent life of the desert and sets out to make her -fortune in the cities along the African littoral, she is as carefully -groomed and trained as a colt entered at the county fair. Morning, -noon, and night, day after day, year after year, the muscles of her -chest, her back, her hips, and her abdomen are developed and trained -and suppled until they will respond to her wishes as readily as -her slender, henna-stained fingers. Her lustrous, blue-black hair -is brushed and combed and oiled and brushed again; she is taught to -play the hautboy, the zither, and the flute and to sing the weird and -plaintive songs the Arab loves; to make the thick, black native coffee -and with inimitable dexterity to roll a cigarette. By the time she -is thirteen she is ready to make her début in the dance-hall of some -Algerian town, whence, after three or four or possibly five years of -a life of indifferent virtue, she returns, a-clank with gold pieces, -to the tented village from which she came, to marry some sheikh or -camel-dealer and to bear him children, who, if they are boys, will -don the white turban and scarlet burnoose of the Spahis and serve in -the armies of France, or, if they are girls, will live the life of -their mother all over again. It will be seen, therefore, that the -profession is an hereditary one, which _all_ the women of the tribe -pursue without incurring, so far as I could learn, a hint of scandal -or a trace of shame. It is a queer business, and one to which no other -country, so far as I am aware, offers a parallel, for whereas the -geishas of Japan, the nautches of India, and the odalisques of Turkey -are but classes, the Ouled-Naïls are a race, as distinct in features, -language, and customs as the Bedouin, the Nubian, or the Jew. - -That the men of the Ouled-Naïl (which, by the way, is pronounced as -though the last syllable were spelled “Nile”) look upon the lives -led by their sisters, daughters, and sweethearts with much the same -toleration and approval that an up-State farmer shows for the -village maid who goes to the city to earn a living as a waitress, a -stenographer, or a shop-girl, is proved by a little incident which -Mr. S. H. Leeder, the English author-traveller, tells of having once -witnessed on the station-platform at Biskra. A tall young tribesman -of the Ouled-Naïl, the son of a sheikh of some importance, was -leaving Biskra, to which town he had been paying a short visit with -his mother. He was taking back with him one of his countrywomen, a -dancing-girl named Kadra, who had been a resident in the Rue Sainte, -as Biskra's Tenderloin is known, for two or three years, and was -quite celebrated for her beauty, with the intention of marrying her. -Here was this girl, after such an amazing episode in her career, -quietly dressed, veiled to the eyes, and carefully chaperoned by the -prospective bridegroom's mother, returning to assume a position of -rank and consideration among her own people, while several of her late -companions, tears of sorrow at the parting pouring down their unveiled -and painted faces, clung to and caressed her with every sign of -childlike affection. And such marriages, I have been assured by French -officials, are not the exception but the rule in the Ziban. Never was -the truth brought home to me more sharply that “East is East, and -West is West, and never the twain shall meet” than in the land of the -Ouled-Naïls, where, unlike our own, it is never too late to mend; not -even for a woman. - -Barring the two who appeared in the production of “The Garden of -Allah,” the only genuine Ouled-Naïls ever seen in the United States -were those who, owing to the enterprise of some far-seeing showman, -were responsible for introducing that orgy of suggestiveness known -as the _danse du ventre_ to the American public at the Chicago -World's Fair of 1893, a dance which, thanks to numerous but unskilled -imitators, French, Egyptian, and Syrian, spread from ocean to ocean -under the vulgar but descriptive nickname of “the houchee-kouchee.” As -a matter of fact, the _danse du ventre_, as seen in the questionable -resorts of our own country, has about as much in common with the real -dance of the desert people, as performed on a silken carpet spread -before the tent of some nomad sheikh, as the so-called “Spanish -fandango” of the vaudeville stage has with the inimitably beautiful -and difficult dances to be seen at Señor Otero's dancing-academy in -Seville. The dance of the Ouled-Naïls is the very essence of Oriental -depravity. It is the dance of the pasha's harem; it is the dance of -those native cafés which the European tourists are always so eager -to visit; it is the dance which every little girl of the tribe is -taught—long years before she knows its meaning. - -Depraved though they are, the Ouled-Naïls never depart in their dress -from that which would be considered perfectly proper and respectable -even by Mr. Anthony Comstock. The painters of every country seem -to have taken a peculiar delight in depicting Arab dancing-girls -as conspicuously shy of clothing, but, picturesqueness aside, the -décolleté gown of an American woman would embarrass and shock these -daughters of the sands as much as it would all Moslems, for though -they may be somewhat lacking in morals they are never lacking in -clothes. The women of the Ouled-Naïl are considerably below the medium -height and, owing to the peculiar fashion in which their gaudy-hued -tarlatan skirts are bunched out around the waist and are shortened -to display their trim ankles and massive silver anklets, they appear -even smaller than they really are. Their hands and feet are small -and wonderfully perfect—if one is able to overlook the nails stained -crimson with henna; arched eyebrows meet over eyes as big and lustrous -and melting as those of a gazelle; while their wonderful blue-black -hair, plaited into ropes and heavily bejewelled—whether the “jewels” -are genuine or not is no great matter—is brought down over the ears in -the fashion which made Cléo de Mérode famous. - -But the really distinguishing feature of the Ouled-Naïl's costume is -her jewelry. She has so much of it, in fact, that there is no gold to -be had in Algeria. Ask for napoleons instead of paper money at your -bank in Algiers and you will meet with a prompt - -“Impossible, m'sieur.” - -“But why is it impossible?” you ask. - -“Because we have no gold, m'sieur,” is the polite response. - -“Where is it, then?” you inquire, scenting a robbery or an anticipated -run on the bank. - -“On the Ouled-Naïls, m'sieur,” the cashier courteously replies. - -And he speaks the literal truth. Every centime that a dancing-girl -can beg, borrow, or earn goes toward the purchase of massive -silver jewelry, anklets, bracelets, and the like, and these in turn -are exchanged for gold pieces—whether French napoleons, English -sovereigns, or Turkish liras she is not at all particular—which, -linked together in that golden armour of which I have already spoken, -envelops her lithe young body from neck to hips. When her portable -wealth has attained to such dimensions it is usually the sign for the -Ouled-Naïl to retire from business, going to her desert husband with -her dowry about her neck. - -When it is remembered that the native quarters of these towns in the -edge of the Sahara are frequented by savage desert tribesmen who -know little and care less about civilisation and the law, is it to -be wondered at that time and time again these unprotected girls are -done to death in the little rooms up the steep, dark stairs for the -sake of the gold which they display so lavishly as part of their -allurements? During my stay in one of these Algerian towns an Arab, -stealthily coming up behind an Ouled-Naïl as she was returning one -night from the dance-hall through the narrow, deserted streets, drove -a knife between her shoulders and, snatching the little fortune which -hung about her neck, fled with it into the desert. But the arm of -the French law is very long, reaching even across the sand wastes -of the Great Sahara, and months later, when he thought all search -for him had been abandoned, the fugitive felt its grasp as he sat, -cross-legged, in the distant bazaars of Wadai. After that came the -trial and the guillotine, for in Algeria, as in the other lands which -they have conquered, the French have taught the natives by such grim -object-lessons that punishment follows swift on the heels of crime. - -Now, if that same crime had been committed fifty miles to the -eastward, across the Tunisian frontier, the murderer would, in all -likelihood, have gotten off with thirteen months in jail—that is, if -he was caught at all. For, though the regency of Tunisia is French in -pretty much everything but name, it has been deemed wise to maintain -the fiction of Tunisian independence by permitting the Bey a good -deal of latitude so far as the punishment of his own subjects is -concerned, his ideas of justice (_la justice du Bey_ it is called, -in contra-distinction to _la justice française_, which is a very -different sort of justice indeed) usually working out in a fashion -truly Oriental. In Tunisia all death sentences must be confirmed by -the Bey in person, the condemned man being brought before him as he -sits on his gilt-and-velvet throne in the great white palace of the -Bardo. In the presence of the sovereign the murderer is suddenly -brought face to face with the members of his victim's family, for such -things are always done dramatically in the East. The Bey then inquires -of the family if they insist on the execution of the murderer, or if -they are willing to accept the blood-money, as it is called, a sum -equivalent to one hundred and forty dollars, which in theory is paid -by the murderer to the relatives of his victims as a sort of indemnity -if he is allowed to escape with his life. If, however, he does not -possess so large a sum, as is frequently the case, the Bey makes it -up out of his private purse. Nine times out of ten, if the victim was -a woman, the blood-money is promptly accepted—and praise be to Allah -for getting it!—for in Africa women are plenty but gold is scarce. In -case the blood-money is accepted the murderer's sentence is commuted -to imprisonment for twelve months and twenty-seven days, though just -why the odd twenty-seven I have never been able to learn. But it -may have been that it was an only son, or a husband, or a chieftain -of importance who was murdered, and in such cases the relatives -invariably demand the extreme penalty of the law. - -“Do you insist on his blood?” inquires the Bey, a portly and -easy-going Oriental who has a marked aversion to taking life, even in -the case of murderers. - -“We do, your Highness,” replies the spokesman of the family, salaaming -until his tarboosh-tassel sweeps the floor. - -“Be it so,” says the Bey, shrugging his shoulders. “I call upon -you to bear witness that I am innocent of his death. May Allah the -Compassionate have mercy upon him! Turn him toward the gate of the -Bardo,” which last is the local euphemism for “Take him out and hang -him.” Five minutes later the wretch is adorning a gallows which has -been set up in the palace gardens. - -Due north from the land of the Ouled-Naïls, and hemmed in by the -snow-capped peaks of the Atlas, is the Grand Kabylia, a wild, strange -region, peopled by many but known to few. Whence the Kabyles came -nobody knows, though their fair complexions, red hair, and blue eyes -lead the ethnologists to suppose that they are a branch of that -equally white and equally mysterious Berber race who occupy the -Moroccan ranges of the Atlas. Thirteen hundred years ago they came to -North Africa from out of the East, bringing with them a civilisation -and a culture and institutions distinctively their own. Retreating -into their mountain fastnesses before that Arab invasion which spread -the faith of the Prophet over all North Africa, they have dwelt there -ever since, the French, who conquered them in the middle of the -last century only after heavy losses, having wisely refrained from -interference in their tribal laws or customs, which remain, therefore, -almost unmodified. - -Though the Kabyles, of all the Moslem races, treat their women -with the greatest respect, neither imprisoning them in harems nor -hiding them beneath veils and swaddling-clothes, they share with the -mountaineers of the Caucasus the somewhat dubious distinction of -selling their daughters to the highest bidder. Between the Circassians -and the Kabyles there is, however, a distinction with a difference, -for, whereas the former sell their daughters in cold blood and take -not the slightest interest in what becomes of them thereafter, the -Kabyle parent expects, even if he does not always insist, that the man -who purchases his daughter shall marry her. A fine, upstanding Kabyle -maiden of fifteen or thereabouts, with the lines of a thoroughbred, -the profile of a cameo, and a skin the colour of a bronze statue, will -fetch her parents anywhere from eighty to three hundred dollars, at -least so I was told at Tizi-Ouzou, the _chef-lieu_ of the district, -and the man who told me assured me very earnestly that, the crops -having been bad, a girl could be bought very cheaply, and begged me to -think it over. - -Though the Mauresques of Algeria, the Jewesses of Tunisia, and the -fair-skinned beauties of Circassia combine a voluptuous figure with an -altogether exceptional beauty of complexion and features, the women of -Kabylia, with their flashing teeth, their sparkling eyes, their full -red lips, their lithe, slender bodies, and their haughty, insolent -manners, suggest a civilisation older and more sensuous, and entirely -alien to our own. The humblest peasant girl, grinding the family flour -between the upper and the nether stones in the doorway of a mud hovel, -possesses so marked a distinction of feature and figure and bearing -that it is not difficult to believe that Cleopatra or Helen of Troy -might well have come from this same race. - -The approach of a Kabyle woman is heralded in two ways: first, by a -strong-scented perfume, which, like the celebrated _parfum du Bey_ of -Tunis, is composed of the blended scents of a score or more different -kinds of blossoms, the odour changing from carnation to rose, to -heliotrope, to violet, and so on every few minutes (no, I didn't -believe it either, until I tried it); and, secondly, by the clink -and jingle of the bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and bijoux of gold, -silver, turquoise, and coral with which they are loaded down, and -which sound, when they move, like an approaching four-in-hand. Good -specimens of this Kabyle jewelry are becoming increasingly difficult -to obtain, by the way, and bring high prices in the shops of Tunis and -Algiers, being eagerly sought after by collectors. - -Personally, I am quite unable to picture an admirer making love to one -of these insolent-eyed beauties, for they are headstrong and hot of -temper, and if the gentleman happened to say the wrong thing he would -very probably find the _yataghan_, which every Kabyle maiden carries, -planted neatly between his shoulders. They seem to be fond of cold -steel, do these Kabyles, for at the conclusion of a wedding ceremony -the bridegroom, walking backward, holds before him an unsheathed -dagger and the bride, following him, keeps the point of it between her -teeth. Another wedding custom of Kabylia, no less strange, consists of -the partial martyrdom of the bride, who, clad in her marriage finery, -stands for an entire morning with her back to a stone pillar in the -village square, her eyes closed, her arms close at her sides, and her -only foothold the column's narrow base, the cynosure of hundreds of -curious eyes. Despite the stern stuff of which the Kabyle women are -made, it is small wonder that the bride usually faints before this -peculiarly harrowing ordeal is over. - -As far removed from these half-savage women of Ouled-Naïl and of -Kabylia as a Philadelphia Quakeress is from a Cheyenne squaw are those -poor prisoner women of whose pale, half-hidden faces the visitor to -the North African coast towns sometimes gets a glimpse at the barred -window of a harem, or meets at nightfall hastening home from their -sole diversion, the weekly excursion to the cemetery. You can see -them for yourself any Friday afternoon if you will loiter without the -whitewashed gateway to the cemetery of Bou-Kabrin, on the hill above -Algiers, for they believe that on that day—the Moslem Sabbath—the -spirits of the dead re-visit the earth, and hence their weekly -pilgrimage to the cemetery to keep them company. When the sun begins -to sink behind the Atlas these white-veiled pyramids of femininity -reluctantly begin to make their way back through the narrow, winding -lanes of the native city, disappearing one by one through doors which -will not open for them until another Friday has rolled around. Picture -such a life, my friends: six days a week encloistered behind jealously -guarded doors and on the seventh taking an outing _in the cemetery_! - -That many of these Mauresque women of the coast towns are very -beautiful—just as many others are exceedingly ugly—there is but little -doubt, though they are so sheeted, shrouded, veiled, and draped from -prying masculine eyes that a man may know of their beauty only by -hearsay. I imagine that the dress of the Mauresque woman was specially -designed to baffle masculine curiosity, for if Aphrodite herself were -enveloped in a white linen sheet from head to waist, and in enormous -and ridiculous pantaloons from waist to ankle, she could go where she -pleased without being troubled by admirers. Not only is a Mauresque -woman never permitted to see a man—or rather, the man is not permitted -to see her, for despite all precautions she sometimes manages to -catch glimpses of people through the lattices of her harem windows—but -she may not receive a visit from her father or brother without her -husband's permission. When she is ill enough to require the services -of a physician—and she has to be very ill indeed before one is -summoned—incredibly elaborate are the preparations. All the women -of her household are ranged about the bed, while her servants hide -her under the bedclothes almost to the point of suffocation. If her -pulse has to be felt a servant covers her hand and arm so carefully -that only an inch or so of her wrist is visible. If she has hurt her -shoulder, or back, or leg, a hole is made in the bedclothes so that -the doctor may just be able to see the injured place, and nothing -more. Should he have the hardihood to insist on looking at her tongue, -the precautions are still more elaborate, the attendants covering the -patient's face with their hands and just leaving room between their -fingers so that her tongue may be stuck out. I know a French physician -in Tunis who told me that he was once called to attend the favourite -wife of a wealthy Arab merchant, and that while he was conducting the -examination the lady's husband stood behind him with the muzzle of a -revolver pressed into the small of his back. - -[Illustration: JEWISH WOMEN IN THE CEMETERY OF TUNIS. - -“They believe that the spirits of the dead revisit the earth, and -hence the weekly pilgrimage to the cemetery to keep them company.”] - -Always over the head of the Arab woman hangs the shadow of divorce. -Nowhere in the world does the law so facilitate the separation of man -and wife. If a man grows weary of his wife's looks, of her temper, -or of her dress; if he wishes to replace her with another; or if -he is tired of married life and does not wish a wife at all, he has -but scant difficulty in getting rid of her, for in North Africa a -divorce can be had in fifteen minutes at a total cost of a dollar -and twenty cents. In theory, either husband or wife may divorce the -other by a simple formality, without assigning any reason whatever. -As a matter of fact, however, actual divorce by the man is rare, the -Moslem husband usually preferring to get rid of his wife by a process -called repudiation, which bears with great injustice and cruelty on -the woman. If he tires of her for any reason, or merely wishes to -replace her, he drives her away with the words “Woman, get thee hence; -take thy goods and go.” In this case, although the husband is free -to remarry, the woman is not and can only obtain a legal release by -returning to the man the money which he paid for her. The woman may -apply to the courts for divorce without her husband's consent only -if she is able to prove that he ill-treats or beats her _without -sufficient reason_, if he refuses her food, clothes, or lodging, or if -she discovers a previous wooing on her husband's part, all previous -betrothals, or even offers of marriage, whether the other lady refused -or accepted him, being considered ground for divorce. - -The next time you happen to be in Tunis don't fail to pay a visit to -the divorce court. It is the most Haroun-al-Raschidic institution -this side of Samarkand. A great hall of justice, vaulted and floored -with marble and strewn with Eastern carpets, forms the setting, while -husbands in turbans and lawyers in tarbooshes, white-veiled women and -green-robed, gray-bearded judges complete a scene which might have -been taken straight from the _Arabian Nights_. The women, closely -veiled and hooded, and herded like so many cattle within an iron -grill, take no part in the proceedings which so intimately affect -their futures, their interests being left in the hands of a voluble -and gesticulative _avocat_. On either side of the hall is a series of -alcoves, and in each alcove, seated cross-legged on a many-cushioned -divan, is a gold-turbaned and green-robed _cadi_. To him the -husband states his case, the wife putting in her defence—if she has -any—through her lawyer and rarely appearing in person. The judge -considers the facts in silence, gravely stroking his long, gray beard, -and then delivers his decision—in nine cases out of ten, so I was -told, in favour of the husband. Should either party be dissatisfied, -he or she can take an appeal by the simple process of walking across -the room and laying the case before one of the judges sitting on the -other side, whose decision is final. A case, even if appealed, is -generally disposed of in less than an hour and at a total cost of six -francs, which goes to show that the record for quick-and-easy divorces -is not held by Reno. - -It is characteristic of the Moslem view-point that infidelity on -the part of the husband is no cause for divorce whatsoever, while -infidelity on the part of the wife, owing to the strict surveillance -under which Moslem women are kept and the prison-like houses in -which they are confined, occurs so rarely as to be scarcely worth -mentioning. Should a Moslem woman so far succeed in evading the -vigilance of her jailers as to enter into a liaison with a man, -instead of a divorce trial there would be two funerals. To put his -wife and her paramour out of the way without detection is a matter of -no great difficulty for an Arab husband, for if any one disappears -in a Mohammedan country the harem system renders a search extremely -difficult, if not, indeed, wholly out of the question. In fact, it -has happened very frequently, especially in such populous centres as -Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo, that a man has enticed -his rival into his house, either keeping him a prisoner for life or -slowly killing him by torture. Though the French authorities are -perfectly well aware of such occurrences, neither they in Algeria -and Tunisia nor the English in Egypt feel themselves strongly enough -intrenched to risk the outburst of fanaticism which would inevitably -ensue should they violate the privacy of a harem. - -I am perfectly aware of the fact that it has become the fashion among -those travellers who confine their investigations of African life to -the lanes about Mustapha Supérieur, to the _souks_ of Tunis, and to -the alleys back of the Mousky, to pooh-pooh the idea that slavery -still exists in North Africa. As a matter of fact, however—though -this the European officials will, for reasons of policy, stoutly -deny—slavery not only exists _sub rosa_ in Algeria and Tunisia and in -Egypt, but slave markets are still openly maintained in the inland -towns of Morocco and Tripolitania, the French and Italian occupations -notwithstanding. When a wealthy Moslem wants slaves nowadays he does -not send traders to Circassia or raiders to Uganda, but he applies to -one of the well-known dealers in Tetuan, or Tripoli, or Trebizond, -a marriage contract is drawn up, and all the ceremonies of legal -wedlock are gone through by proxy. By resorting to these fictitious -marriages and similar subterfuges, the owner of a harem may procure -as many slaves, white, brown, or black, as he wishes, and once they -are within the walls of his house, no one can possibly interfere to -release them, for, the police being under no conditions permitted to -violate the privacy of a harem, there is obviously no safeguard for -the liberty, or even the lives, of its inmates. As a result of this -system, a constant stream of female slaves—fair-haired beauties from -Georgia and Circassia, brown-skinned Arab girls from the borders of -the Sahara, and negresses from Equatoria—trickles into the North -African coast towns by various roundabout channels, and, though the -European officials are perfectly well aware of this condition of -things, they are powerless to end it. The women thus obtained, though -nominally wives, are in reality slaves, for they are bought for money, -they are not consulted about their sale, they cannot go away if they -are discontented, and their very lives are at the disposal of their -masters. If that is not slavery, I don't know what is. - -In those cases where the European authorities have ventured to meddle -with native customs, particularly those concerning a husband's -treatment of his wife, the interference frequently has had curious -results. A wealthy Arab from the interior of Oran, starting on a -journey to the capital of that province, bade the wife whom he -adored an affectionate good-bye. Returning several days before he -was expected, he seized the smiling woman, who rushed to greet him, -tied her hands, and dragging her into the street gave her a furious -beating in the presence of the astounded neighbours. No, she had not -been unfaithful to him, he said, between the blows, nor had she been -unkind. He not only was not tired of her, so he assured the onlookers, -but she was a veritable jewel of a wife. Finally, when his arm grew -tired and he stopped to take breath, he explained that, passing -through a street in Oran, he had seen a crowd following a man who was -being dragged along by two gendarmes. Upon inquiry he learned that he -was being taken to prison for having beaten his wife. Therefore he -had ridden home at top speed, without even waiting to complete his -business, so that he might prove to himself, to his wife, and to his -neighbours that he, at least, was still master in his own house and -could beat his wife when he chose. - -And here is another incident which illustrates the fashion in which -the French administrators in Algeria deal with those ticklish -questions which involve Arab domestic relations. A farmer and his wife -were travelling through the interior; he was on a donkey and she, of -course, on foot. Along came an Arab sheikh on horseback and offered -the woman a lift. She accepted, and presently, growing confidential, -admitted that she was unhappily married and detested her husband. Her -companion proposing an elopement, she readily agreed. Accordingly, -when they came to a by-road, this Lochinvar of the desert put spurs -to his horse and galloped off with the lady across his saddle-bow, -paying no heed to the shouts and protestations of the husband toiling -along in the dust behind. Though he succeeded in tracing the runaway -couple to the sheikh's village, the husband quickly found that plans -had been made against his coming, for the villagers asserted to a man -that they had known the eloping pair for years as man and wife and -that the real husband was nothing but an impudent impostor. Unable to -regain his wife, he then appealed to the French authorities of the -district, who were at first at somewhat of a loss how to act in the -circumstances, for the Europeans in North Africa are always sitting on -top of a powder barrel and a hasty or ill-considered action may result -in blowing them higher than Gilderoy's kite. Finally, an inspiration -came to the _juge d'instruction_ before whom the matter had been -brought. Placing the dogs of the real husband in one room, and those -of the pretended husband in another, he confronted the woman with them -both. Now, Arab dogs are notoriously faithful to the members of their -own households and equally unfriendly toward all strangers, so that -though her own dogs fawned upon her and attempted to lick her hand, -those of the sheikh snarled at sight of her and showed every sign of -distrust. The judge promptly ordered her to be returned to her lawful -husband—who, I fancy, punished her in true Arab fashion—and had the -village placarded with a notice in Arabic which read: “The testimony -of one dog is more to be believed than that of a townful of Arabs.” -To appreciate how much more effective than any amount of fines or -imprisonment this notice proved, one must remember that the deadliest -insult an Arab can give another is to call him a dog. - -Perhaps it is because they live so far from the contaminating -influence of civilisation, or what stands for civilisation in North -Africa, that the lives of those women who dwell beneath the black -camel's-hair tents of the Sahara are far freer and happier than those -led by their urban cousins. Which reminds me of a little procession -that I once met while riding through southern Algeria. It consisted of -an Arab, his wife, and a donkey. The man strode in front, his rifle -over his shoulder. Then came the donkey, bearing nothing heavier than -its harness. In the rear trudged the wife, carrying the plough. Though -the Arab women may, and probably do, till the fields yoked beside -a camel, a donkey, or an ox, their faces are unveiled and they are -permitted free intercourse with the men of their tribe. Even among -the nomad desert folk, however, women are regarded with indifference -and contempt, the Arabs saying of a boy “It is a benediction,” but -of a girl “It is a malediction.” With the Arabs a woman is primarily -regarded as a servant, and long before a daughter of the “Great -Tents” has entered her teens she has been taught how to cut and fit a -burnoose, to sew a tent cover, and to make a _couscous_, that peculiar -dish of half-ground barley, raisins, honey, hard-boiled eggs, and -mangled fowl, stewed with a gravy in a sealed vessel, of which the -Arabs are so fond. By the time she is ten her parents have probably -received and accepted an offer for her hand—and praise Allah for -ridding them of her!—and by the time she is twelve she is married -and a mother. When a match has been decided upon—and it is by no -means an uncommon thing for an unborn child to become conditionally -engaged—several days of haggling as to the price which is to be paid -for her ensue, the bridegroom eventually getting her at a cost of -several camels, cattle, or goats, her value being based upon her -looks and the position of her parents. On the day of the wedding the -bride—on whose unveiled face, remember, the bridegroom has never laid -eyes—concealed within a swaying camel-litter which looks for all the -world like a young balloon, preceded by a band and accompanied by -all her relatives, is taken with much ceremony to her new home. When -the long-drawn-out marriage feast is over, the hideous racket of the -flutes and tom-toms ceases and the wedding guests depart. Alone in -her tent, the bride awaits her husband, who will see her face for the -first time. Seating himself by her side, her husband makes her take -off, one by one, her necklaces, her rings, and her anklets, so that, -unadorned, she may be estimated at her true worth. If, thus stripped -of her finery, she is not up to his expectations, the man may even at -this late hour declare the marriage off and send the girl back to her -parents. Should he be satisfied with his latest acquisition—for it -is more than likely that he already has three or four other wives—he -produces a club, which he places on the floor beside her, a custom -whose significance requires no explanation. An Arab husband does -not confine himself to a stick in regulating his domestic affairs, -however, for only a few months ago the French authorities of Oran -divested a desert sheikh of the burnoose of authority because, in a -fit of jealous rage, he had cut off his wife's nose. - -[Illustration: AN ARAB BRIDE GOING TO HER HUSBAND. - -“Followed by rejoicing relatives, the bride is taken to her husband's -home in a swaying camel litter which looks like a young balloon.” - -_Photograph by Em. Frechon, Biskra._] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE ITALIAN “WHITE MAN'S BURDEN” - - -Since the world began the arm of Italy has reached out into the -Mediterranean toward Africa, its finger pointing straight at Tripoli. -Phœnicians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Spaniards, and -Turks followed the suggestion of that finger in their turn, but of -them all only the Arab and the Turk remain. In every case a colonial -empire was the mirage which beckoned to those land-hungry peoples -from behind the golden haze which hangs over the African coast-line, -and in every case their African adventures ended in disappointment -and disaster. After an interim of centuries, in which the roads and -ramparts and reservoirs built along that shore by those primeval -pioneers have crumbled into dust, the troop-laden transports of a -regenerated Italy have followed in the wake of those Greek galleys, -those Roman triremes, and those Spanish caravels. Undeterred by -the recollection of her disastrous Abyssinian adventure, Italy is -imbued with the idea, just as were her powerful predecessors, that -her commercial and political interests demand the extension of her -dominion across the Middle Sea. - -Ever since the purple sails of Phœnicia first flaunted along its -coasts the history of Tripolitania has been one of invasion and -conquest. In the very dawn of history the galleys of Greece dropped -anchor off this shore, in the belief that it was the Garden of the -Hesperides, and the vestiges of their colony of Cyrenaica lure the -archæologists to-day. The Greeks, who, because of its three leagued -cities of Oëa, Sabrata, and Leptis, named their new possession -Tripolis, just as Decapolis signified the region of ten cities and -Pentapolis of five, retreated before Carthage's colonial expansion, -and the Carthaginians gave way in turn to the conquering Romans, -who included the captured territory within their province of Africa -and called it Regio Tripolitana—whence the name it bears to-day. -Christianity was scarcely four centuries old when the hordes of -fierce-faced, skin-clad Vandals, sweeping down from their Germanic -forests, burst into Gaul, poured through the passes of the Pyrenees, -overran Spain, and, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, carried fire and -sword and torture from end to end of the Mediterranean. Before another -century had rolled around, however, Belisarius, the great captain of -Byzantium, had broken the Vandal power forever, and the troubled land -of Tripolitania once again came under the shadow of the cross. Then -the wave of Arab conquest came, rolling across North Africa, breaking -upon the coasts of Spain, and not subsiding until it reached the -marches of France, supplanting the feeble Christianity of the natives -of all this region with the vigorous and fanatical faith of Islam. -Though Ferdinand the Catholic, not content with expelling the Moors -from Spain, continued his crusade against the infidel by capturing -the Tripolitan capital, the Knights of Saint John, to whom he turned -the city over, surrendered to the beleaguering Turks just as the -sixteenth century had reached its turning-point, and Turkish it has -remained, at least in name, ever since. - -We of the West can never be wholly indifferent to the fate and -fortunes of this much-harassed land, for our flag has fluttered from -its ramparts and the bayonets of our soldiers and the cutlasses of -our sailors have served to write some of the most stirring chapters -of its history. So feeble and nominal did the Turkish rule become -that the beginning of the last century found Tripolitania little -more than a pirate stronghold, ruled by a pasha who had not only -successfully defied, but had actually levied systematic tribute upon, -every sea-faring nation in the world. It was not, however, until the -Pasha of Tripoli overstepped the bounds of our national complaisance -by demanding an increase in the annual tribute of eighty-odd thousand -dollars which the United States had been paying as the price of its -maritime exemption that the American consul handed him an ultimatum -and an American war-ship backed it up with the menace of its guns. -Standing forth in picturesque and striking relief from the tedium of -the four years' war which ensued was the capture by the Tripolitans -in 1803 of the frigate _Philadelphia_, which had run aground in the -harbour of Tripoli, and the enslavement of her crew; her subsequent -recapture and destruction by a handful of blue-jackets under the -intrepid Decatur; and the heroic march across the desert to Derna of -General William Eaton and his motley army. - -Eaton's exploit, like that of Reid and the _General Armstrong_ at -Fayal, seems to have been all but lost in the mazes of our national -history. With the object of placing upon the Tripolitan throne the -reigning Pasha's exiled elder brother, who had agreed to satisfy -all the demands of the United States, William Eaton, soldier of -fortune, frontiersman, and former American consul at Tunis, recruited -at Alexandria what was thought to be a ridiculously insufficient -expeditionary force for the taking of Derna, a strongly fortified -coast town six hundred miles due west across the Libyan desert. With -a handful of adventurous Americans, some two-score Greeks, who fought -the Turk whenever opportunity offered, and a few squadrons of Arab -mercenaries—less than five hundred men in all—he set out under the -blazing sun of an African spring. Though his Arabs mutinied, his -food and water gave out, and his animals died from starvation and -exhaustion, Eaton pushed indomitably on, covering the six hundred -miles of burning sand in fifty days, carrying the city by storm, and -raising the American flag over its citadel—the first and only time it -has ever floated over a fortification on that side of the Atlantic. - -A territory larger than all the Atlantic States, from Florida to -Maine, put together; a dry climate as hot in summer and as cold in -winter as that of New Mexico; a surface which varies between the -aridity of the Staked Plains and the fertility of the San Joaquin -Valley of California; so sparsely populated that its fanatic, -turbulent, poverty-stricken population averages but two inhabitants -to the square mile—that is Tripolitania. Bounded on the west by -Tunisia and the French and on the east by Egypt and the English, -the hinterland of the regency stretches into the Sahara as far as -the Tropic of Cancer. Its eleven hundred miles of coast-line set -squarely in the middle of the north African littoral; its capital -almost equidistant from the Straits, the Dardanelles, and the Suez -Canal; and half the great ports of the Mediterranean not twelve hours' -steam away, the strategical, political, and commercial position of -Tripolitania is one of great importance. - -Tripolitania, as the regency should properly be called, or Libya, as -the Italians have classically renamed it, consists of four more or -less distinctly defined divisions: Tripoli, Fezzan, Benghazi, and the -Saharan oases. Under the Turkish régime the districts of Tripoli and -Fezzan have formed a vilayet under a _vali_, or governor-general; -Benghazi has been a separately administered province under a -_mutes-sarif_ directly responsible to Constantinople, while the -oases have not been governed at all. The district of Tripoli, which -occupies the entire northwestern portion of the regency, is for the -most part an interminable stony table-land, riverless, waterless, and -uninhabited save along the fertile coast. The stretches of yellow sand -which the traveller sees from the deck of his ship are not, as he -fondly imagines, the edge of the Sahara, but merely sand dunes blown -in by the sea, such as may be seen elsewhere on the Mediterranean -coast. - -Sloping from these coastal sand dunes up to the barren interior -plateau is a zone, averaging perhaps five miles in width, of an -altogether remarkable fertility, for its deep ravines, filled with -considerable streams during the winter rains, continue to send down a -supply of subterranean water even during the dry season. By means of -countless wells, round and round which blindfolded donkeys and oxen -plod ceaselessly, the water is drawn up into reservoirs and conducted -thence to the fields. In this coast oasis it is harvest-time all the -year round, for, notwithstanding the primitive agricultural implements -of the natives and their crude system of irrigation, the soil is -amazingly productive. From April to June almonds, apricots, and corn -are gathered in; in July and August come the peaches; from July to -September is the vintage season, and the Tripolitan grapes vie with -those of Sicily; from July to September the black tents of the nomad -date and olive pickers dot the fields, though the yellow date of the -coast is not to be spoken of in the same breath with the luscious, -mahogany-coloured fruit of the interior oases; from November to April -the orange groves are ablaze with a fruit which rivals that of Jaffa; -the early spring sees the shipment of those “Malta potatoes” which -are quoted on the menus of every fashionable hostelry and restaurant -in Europe; while lemons are to be had for the picking at almost any -season of the year. - -Southward into the Sahara from the southern borders of Tripoli -stretches the province of Fezzan, its inaccessibility, its prevalent -malaria, and its deadly heat having popularised it with Abdul-Hamid, -of unsavoury memory, as a place of exile for disgraced courtiers -and overpopular officials, presumably because of the exceeding -improbability of any of them ever coming back. Artesian wells and -scientific farming have proved in other and equally discouraging -quarters of Africa, however, that the words “desert” and “worthless” -are no longer synonymous, so there is no reason to believe that the -agricultural miracles which France has performed in Algeria and -Tunisia on the one hand, and England in Egypt and the Sudan on the -other, could not be successfully attempted by the Italians in Fezzan. -Arid and inhospitable as this region appears to-day, it should be -remembered that its Greek and Roman colonists boasted of it as “the -granary of Europe.” What has been done once may well be done again. -All that this soil needs, after its centuries of impoverishment and -neglect, is decent treatment, and any one who has seen those vineyards -on the slopes of Capri and those farmsteads clinging to the rocky -hill-sides of Calabria, where soil of any kind is so precious that -every inch is tended with pathetic care, will predict a promising -agricultural future for an Italian Tripolitania. In its physical -aspects, northern Tripolitania resembles Europe much more than it does -Africa; its climate is no warmer than southern Italy in summer and -not nearly as unhealthy as the _Campagna Romana_; while its soil, -as I have already remarked, holds great possibilities for patient, -hardy, frugal, industrious agriculturists of the type of those twenty -thousand Sicilians who are forced by poverty to emigrate each year -to America or the Argentine. Keeping these facts in mind, one does -not have to seek far for the causes which underlay Italy's sudden -aggression. - -[Illustration: SUNRISE ON THE GREAT SANDS. - -For sheer majesty and grandeur, the only thing that is at all -comparable with a Saharan sunrise is daybreak in the Grand Cañon of -the Colorado.] - -Reaching Egyptward in the form of a mighty fist is the peninsula -of Barka, the Cyrenaica of the ancients, officially known as the -Mutessariflik of Benghazi, its many natural advantages of climate, -soil, and vegetation making it the most favoured region in the -regency, if not, indeed, in all North Africa. While the climate and -vegetation of southern Tripoli and of Fezzan are distinctly Saharan, -the date-palm being the characteristic tree, Benghazi is just as -decidedly Mediterranean, its fertile, verdure-clad uplands being -covered with groves of oak, cypress, olive, fig, and pine. Though -well supplied with rain and, as I have said, extremely fertile, the -Benghazi province, once the richest of the Greek colonies, is now -but scantily populated. Scattered along its coasts are Benghazi, -the capital, with an inextricably mixed population and one of the -worst harbours in the world; Tobruk, which, because of its excellent -roadstead and its proximity to the Egyptian frontier and the Canal, -Germany has long had a covetous eye on; and the insignificant ports of -Derna and Khoms, the lawless highlands of the interior being occupied -by hordes of warlike and nomadic Arabs who acknowledge no authority -other than their tribal sheikhs. - -South by east into the Libyan Desert straggle the Aujila and Kufra -chains of oases, marking the course of the historic caravan route -to Upper Egypt and presenting the aspect of a long, winding valley, -extending from the Benghazi plateau almost to the banks of the Nile. -Underground reservoirs lie so near the surface of the desert that all -of these sand-surrounded islands have water in abundance, that of Jof, -for example, supporting over a million date-palms and several thousand -people, together with their camels, horses, and goats. - -Such, in brief, bold outline, are the more salient -characteristics—climatic, agricultural, and geographical—of the -region which Italy has seized. Everything considered, it was not -such a long look ahead that the Italian statesmen took when they -decided to play their cards for such a stake. Though neither soil -nor climate has changed since the days of Tripolitania's ancient -prosperity, centuries of wretched and corrupt Turkish rule, with -its system of absentee landlords and irresponsible officials, has -reduced the peasantry to the same state of dull and despairing apathy -in which the Egyptian _fellaheen_ were before the English came. If -Tripolitania is to be redeemed, and I firmly believe that it will be, -the work of regeneration cannot be done by government railways and -subsidised steam-ship lines and regiments of brass-bound officials, -but by patient, painstaking, plodding men with artesian-well drilling -machines and steam-ploughs and barrels of fertiliser. It may well -be, as the Italian expansionists enthusiastically declare, that -Tripolitania constitutes a “New Italy” lying at the very ports of old -Italy, but it is going to take many, many millions of lire and much -hard work to make it worth the having. - -To those unaccustomed to the sights and sounds and smells of the East, -a visit to the town of Tripoli is more interesting than enjoyable. -Both its harbour and its hostelry are so incredibly bad that no -one ever visits them a second time if he can possibly help it. The -harbour of Jaffa, in Palestine, is a trifle worse, if anything, than -that of Tripoli; but the only hotel I know of which deserves to be -classed with the Albergo Minerva in Tripoli is the one next door to -the native jail in Aden. Picture a cluster of square, squat, stuccoed -houses, their tedious sky-lines broken by the minarets of mosques and -the flagstaffs of foreign consulates, facing on a crescent-shaped -bay. Under the sun of an African summer the white buildings of the -town blaze like the whitewashed base of a railway-station stove at -white heat; the stretch of yellow beach which separates the harbour -from the town glows fiery as brass; while the waters of the bay look -exactly as though they had been blued in readiness for the family -washing. Within the crumbling ramparts of the town is a network of dim -alleys and byways, along which the yashmaked Moslem women flit like -ghosts, and vaulted, trellis-roofed bazaars where traders of two-score -nationalities haggle and gesticulate and doze and pray and chatter the -while they and their wares and the passing camels smell to heaven. -Scattered here and there among the shops are native bakeries, in the -reeking interiors of which, after your eyes become accustomed to the -darkness, you can discern patient camels plodding round and round and -round, grinding the grain in true Eastern fashion between the upper -and the nether millstones. - -Follow the narrow Strada della Marina past the custom-house, where the -Italian sentry peers at you suspiciously from beneath the bunch of -cock's feathers which adorns his helmet; past the odorous fish-market -and so into the unpaved, unlighted, foul-smelling quarter of the -Jews, and your path will be blocked eventually by the sole remaining -relic of Tripoli's one-time greatness, the marble arch of triumph -erected by the Romans in the reign of Antoninus Pius, now half-buried -in débris, its chiselled boasts of victory mutilated, and its arches -ruthlessly plastered up, the shop of a dealer in dried fish. In that -defaced and degraded memorial is typified the latter-day history of -Tripolitania. Before the Italian occupation disrupted the commerce of -the country and isolated Tripoli from the interior, by long odds the -most interesting of the city's sights were the markets, which were -held upon the beach on the arrival of the trans-Saharan caravans, for -they afforded the foreigner fleeting but characteristic glimpses, -as though on a moving-picture screen, of those strange and savage -peoples—Berbers, Hausas, Tuaregs, Tubbas, and Wadaians—who are -retreating farther and farther into the recesses of the continent -before the white man's implacable advance. - -All down the ages Tripoli has been the gateway through which weapons, -cutlery, and cotton have entered, and slaves, ostrich feathers, and -ivory have come out of inner Africa by plodding caravan. Since the -sons of Ham first found their way across the wilderness of Shur, this -region has been the terminus of three historic trade routes. The -first of these runs due south across the desert to Lake Tchad and the -great native states of Kanem, Sokoto, Bagirmi, and Wadai; the second -follows a southwesterly course across the Sahara to the Great Bend of -the Niger and the storied city of Timbuktu; while the third, going -south by east, long carried British cottons and German jack-knives to -the natives of Darfur and the Sudan. Is it any wonder, then, that, -fired by the speeches of the expansionists in the Roman senate, all -Italy should dream of a day when the red-white-and-green banner should -float over this gateway to Africa and endless lines of dust-coloured -camels, laden with glass beads from Venice and cotton goods from -Milan, should go rolling southward to those countries which lie beyond -the great sands? But, lost in the fascination of their dream, the -Italians forgot one thing: modern commerce cannot go on the back of -a camel. No longer may Tripolitania be reckoned the front door, or -even the side door, to central Africa. As the result of French and -British encroachment and enterprise, not only has nearly all of the -Tripolitanian hinterland been absorbed by one or the other of these -powers, but, what is of far more commercial importance, they have -succeeded in diverting the large and important caravan trade of which -the Italians dreamed, and which for centuries has found its way to -the sea through Tripoli, to their own ports on the Nile, the Senegal, -and the Niger, leaving to _Tripolitania Italiana_ nothing but its -possibilities as an agricultural land. - -The statesmen who planned, and the soldiers and sailors who executed, -the seizure of Tripolitania, were obeying a voice from the grave. -Though the overwhelming disaster to the Italians at Adowa in 1896, -when their army of invasion was wiped out by Menelik's Abyssinian -tribesmen, caused the political downfall of Crispi, the greatest -Italian of his time, his dream of Italian colonial expansion, like -John Brown's soul, went marching on. With the vision of a prophet -that great statesman saw that the day was not far distant when the -steady increase in Italy's population and production would compel her -to acquire a colonial market oversea. Crispi lies mouldering in his -grave, but the Italian Government, in pursuance of the policy which he -inaugurated, has been surreptitiously at work in Tripolitania these -dozen years or more. - -Never has that forerunner to annexation known as “pacific penetration” -been more subtly or more systematically conducted. Even the Pope -lent the government's policy of African aggrandisement his sanction, -for is not the Moslem the hereditary foe of the church, and does not -the cross follow close in the wake of Christian bayonets? Italian -convents and monasteries dot the Tripolitanian littoral, while cowled -and sandalled missionaries from the innumerable Italian orders have -carried the gospel, and the propaganda of Italian annexation, to -the oppressed and poverty-stricken peasantry of the far interior. -Under the guise of scientists, Italian political and commercial -agents have been quietly investigating the problems and possibilities -of the regency from end to end, while the powerful Banco di Roma, -an institution backed with the funds of the Holy See, through its -branches in Tripoli and Benghazi, has been systematically buying up -arable farm-lands from the impoverished peasantry at a few lire the -hectare, which quadrupled in value with the landing of the first -Italian soldier. - -Though prior to the war there were probably not two thousand -native-born Italians in the whole of Tripolitania, the numerous -Jews, in whose hands was practically the entire trade of the -country, were offered inducements of one kind and another to become -Italian subjects, Italy thus laying a foundation for her claims to -predominating interests in that region. On the pretext that the -Turkish authorities had tampered with the foreign mail-bags, Italy -demanded and obtained permission to establish her own post-offices -at the principal ports, so that for many years past the anomalous -spectacle has been presented, just as in other portions of the -Turkish Empire, of letters from a Turkish colony being franked with -surcharged Italian stamps. The most ingenious stroke, however, was -the establishment of numerous Italian schools—and very good schools -they are—where the young idea, whether Arab, Maltese, or Jew, has been -taught to shoot—along Italian lines. - -To those really conversant with the situation, Italy's pretexts that -the activities of her subjects resident in Tripolitania had been -interfered with and their lives and interests seriously endangered -sound somewhat hollow. To tell the truth, Italians have had a freer -rein in the regency—and, incidentally, have caused more trouble—than -any other people. Italy's real reasons for the seizure of Tripolitania -were two, and only two: first, she wanted it; and second, she could -get it. - -Now that she has Tripolitania in her grasp, however, her task is but -begun, for setting forward the hands of progress by occupation of -Moslem territory has ever been a perilous proceeding. Though France -shouldered the white man's burden in Algeria with alacrity, she paid -for the privilege with just forty years of fighting; it took England, -with all the resources of her colonial experience and her colonial -army, sixteen years to conquer the ill-armed Arabs of the Sudan, while -the desperate resistance of the Mad Mullah and his fanatic tribesmen -has compelled her practically to evacuate Somaliland; overthrown -ministries, depleted war-chests, and thousands of unmarked graves in -the hinterland bear witness to the deep solicitude displayed for the -cause of civilisation in Morocco by both France and Spain; Russia -spent a quarter of a century and the lives of ten thousand soldiers in -forcing her beneficent rule on the Moslems of Turkestan. Italy will -be more fortunate than her colonising neighbours, therefore, if she -emerges unscathed from her present Tripolitanian adventure, for every -page of the history of latter-day colonisation proves that seizure -of Moslem territory never ends with a naval demonstration, a landing -party, a staff with a descending and an ascending flag, and the flash -and thunder of a national salute. - -When Italy pointed the noses of her transports Tripoliward she -committed the incredible blunder of underestimating for a second -time the resistance that she would encounter. She made just such a -mistake some years ago in Abyssinia, and the plain of Adowa is still -sprinkled with the bleaching bones of her annihilated army. The -Italian agents in Tripolitania had assured their government that, -as a result of Turkish oppression, corruption, and overtaxation, -the Turks were heartily disliked by the Tripolitanians—all of -which was perfectly true. But when they went on to say that the -Tripolitanians would welcome the expulsion of the Turks and the -substitution of an Italian régime, they overshot the mark. In other -words, the Tripolitanians much preferred to be ill-treated by the -Turks, who are their coreligionists, than to be well-treated by the -Italians, who are despised unbelievers. The Italians, having had no -previous experience with Moslem peoples, landed at Tripoli with every -expectation of being welcomed as saviours by the native population. It -is quite true that the natives gave the Italians an exceedingly warm -reception—with rifles and machine guns. Here, then, were some sixty -thousand Italian soldiers, who had anticipated about as much trouble -in taking Tripolitania as we should in taking Hayti, instead of being -permitted to play the jaunty and picturesque rôles of deliverers from -oppression, being forced to battle desperately for their lives against -the very people whom they had come to save and civilise. It was a -graphic instance of the workings of Mohammedanism. How Kitchener and -Cromer, those two grim men who have had more experience than any other -Europeans in fighting and governing Mohammedans, must have smiled to -themselves when they read the Italian statements that the taking of -Tripolitania meant only a campaign of a fortnight. - -To comprehend thoroughly the peculiar situation in which Italy -finds herself, you should understand that the portly, sleepy-eyed, -good-natured old gentleman who theoretically rules Turkey under -the title of Mohammed V is, politically speaking, as much a dual -personality as Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde. As Sultan of Turkey, or, to give -him his proper title, Emperor of the Ottomans, he is the nominal ruler -of some twenty-four millions of divided, discontented, and disgruntled -Turkish subjects—Osmanlis, Arabs, Syrians, Armenians, Circassians, -Bulgars, Greeks, Jews—and in that capacity plays no great part in -ordering the affairs of the world. But Mohammed V is more than Sultan -of Turkey: he is likewise Successor of the Prophet, Commander of the -Faithful, and Caliph of all Islam, and as such is the spiritual and -temporal leader of the two hundred and twenty millions who compose the -Moslem world. Nor is there any way of disassociating the two offices. -In making war on the Sultan of Turkey, therefore, Italy automatically -made war on the chief of all Mohammedans, thus shaking her fist in the -face not alone of a nation but of a religion—and the most militant and -fanatical of all religions at that. There is not a wearer of turban -or tarboosh between the Gold Coast and the China coast, be he Hausa, -Tuareg, Berber, Moor, Algerian, Tunisian, Tripolitanian, Egyptian, -Sudanese, Somali, Arab, Kurd, Turk, Circassian, Persian, Turkoman, -Afghan, Sikh, Indian, Malay, or Moro, who does not regard Italy's -aggression in Tripolitania as an affront to himself and to his faith. - -Among all Moslems there is growing an ominous unrest, a fierce -consciousness that the lands which they have for centuries regarded as -their own are gradually slipping from them, and a decision that they -must fight or disappear. On the Barbary coast, the Nile, the Congo, -the Niger, and the Zambezi they see the turbans and the tarbooshes -retreating before the white helmets' implacable advance, and now they -see even the Ottoman throne, to them a great throne, shaking under the -pressure. Hence there is not a Moslem in the world to-day who will -remain indifferent to any action which hints at the dismemberment of -Turkey, for he knows full well that the fate of the Ottoman Empire and -the political fortunes of Islam are inextricably interwoven. - -That Italy can hold the Tripolitanian coast towns as long as her -ammunition, her patience, and her public purse hold out, no one -acquainted with the conditions of modern warfare will attempt to -deny. Unless, however, the militant section of Islam, of which this -region is the very focus, can be induced to acquiesce in an Italian -occupation, the life of an Italian soldier who ventures out of -range of his war-ships' guns will not be worth an hour's purchase. -Hordes of fanatical, desert-bred Arabs, inured to hardship, deadly -sun, scanty food, and dearth of water, mounted on swift camels and -as familiar with the trackless desert as the woodsman is with the -forest in which he works, ablaze with a religion which assures them -that the one _sure_ way to paradise is to die in battle with the -unbelievers, can harass the Italian army of occupation for years to -come by a guerilla warfare. Even though Turkey agrees to surrender -Tripolitania and to withdraw her garrisons from that province, Italy -will still have far from smooth sailing, for the simple reason that -she is not fighting Turks alone, but Moslems, and, as a result of her -ill-advised slaughter of the Arabs, she has made the Moslem population -of Tripolitania permanently hostile. Most significant of all, the Arab -resistance to an Italian advance into the interior of the country will -be directed, controlled, and financed by that sinister and mysterious -power known as the Brotherhood of the Senussiyeh. - -To American ears the word “Senussiyeh” doubtless conveys but little -meaning, but to the French _administrateurs_ in Algeria and Tunisia, -and to the officers of the Military Intelligence Department in Egypt -and the Sudan, it is a word of ominous import. Though the Brotherhood -of the Senussiyeh is, without much doubt, the most powerful -organisation of its kind in the world, so complete is the veil of -secrecy behind which it works that comparatively little is definitely -known as to its designs, ramifications, and resources. Briefly, it is -a secret Moslem society, organised about a century ago by an Algerian -dervish, Mohammed ben Ali ben Es Senussi, from whom it takes its -name; its object is the restoration of the Mohammedan religion to -its original purity, austerity, and political power, the first step -toward which is the expulsion of the Christian from Moslem lands; its -initiated members, scattered throughout the Mohammedan world, have -been variously estimated at from five to fifteen millions; the present -grand master of the order, Senussi Ahmed-el-Sherif, the third of the -succession, is admittedly a man of exceptional intelligence, resource, -and sagacity; his monastic court at Jof, in the oasis of Kufra, five -hundred miles, as the camel goes, south of Benghazi and about the same -distance from the Nile, is the capital of a power whose boundaries are -the boundaries of Islam. - -It is no secret that the growing power of the Senussiyeh is causing -considerable concern to the military and political officials of those -European nations that have possessions in North Africa, for, in -addition to the three-hundred-odd _zawias_, or monasteries, scattered -along the African littoral from Egypt to Morocco, the long arm of -the order reaches down to the mysterious oases which dot the Great -Sahara, it embraces the strange tribes of the Tibesti highlands, it -controls the robber Tuaregs and the warlike natives who occupy the -regions adjacent to Lake Tchad, and is, as the French and British -have discovered, a power to be reckoned with in the protected states -of Kanem, Sokoto, Bagirmi, Bornu, and Wadai. - -The organisation of the order is both strong and simple. The _khuan_, -or brothers, whose names are carefully recorded in the books of the -mother lodge at Jof, owe unquestioning obedience to the _mokaddem_, -or prefect, in charge of the district to which they belong. Each -_mokaddem_ has under his orders a corps of secret agents, known as -_wekils_, whose duty is to keep him constantly in touch with all that -is going on in his district and to communicate his instructions to -the brothers. On Grand Bairam—the Mohammedan Easter—the _mokaddems_ -meet in conclave at Jof, on which occasion the spiritual and political -condition of the order is discussed and its course of action decided -on for the ensuing year. Above the _mokaddems_, and acting as an -intermediary between them and the veiled and sacred person of -the Senussi himself, is a cabinet of viziers, who, by means of a -remarkable system of camel couriers, are enabled to keep constantly in -touch with all the districts of the order. - -At Jof, from which no European investigator has ever returned, are -centred all the threads of this vast organism. There is kept the -war-chest of the order, constantly increased by large and small -contributions from true believers all over the world, for every member -of the Senussiyeh who has a total income of more than twenty dollars -a year must contribute two and one half per cent of it to the order -annually; there the Senussi has established depots of stores and war -material and factories for the manufacture, or rather the assembling, -of modern fire-arms; thither come to him from the obscure harbours -of the Tripolitanian coast cargoes of arms and ammunition; thither -flock pilgrims from North and West Africa, from the Niger and from the -Nile, to receive his orders and to seek his blessing; there is centred -one of the most remarkable secret-service systems in the world, its -agents not alone in every corner of the Mohammedan world, but likewise -keeping their fingers ever on the political pulse of Europe. - -A place better fitted for its purpose than Jof it would be hard to -imagine. Here, surrounded by inhospitable desert, with wells a long -day's camel-ride apart, and the route known only to experienced and -loyal guides, the Senussi has been free to educate, drill, and arm -his disciples, to accumulate great stores of arms and ammunition, and -to push forward his propaganda of a regenerated and reinvigorated -Islam, without any possibility of interference from the Christian -nations. There seems to be but little doubt that factories have -been erected at Jof for the assembling of weapons of precision, the -materials for which have been systematically smuggled across the -Mediterranean from Greece and Turkey for years past. Strange as -it may sound, these factories are under the direction of skilled -engineers and mechanics, for so well laid are the plans of the order -that it annually sends a number of Moslem youths to be educated in -the best technical schools of Europe. Upon completing their courses -of instruction they return to Jof, or other centres of Senussiyeh -activity, to place their trained services at the disposal of the -order, others being sent Europeward to be educated in their turn. The -Senussiyeh's military affairs are equally well organised, the Arabs, -than whom there is admittedly no finer fighting material in the world, -being instructed along European lines, modified for desert warfare, -by veteran drill-masters who have learned their trade in the native -armies of England and France. The nucleus of this mobile and highly -effective force is, so I am told by French officials in Africa, an -admirably mounted and equipped camel corps of five thousand men which -the Senussi keeps always on a war footing in the Kufra oases. These -facts in themselves prove definitely that it would be no sporadic -resistance, but a vast, organised movement, armed with improved -weapons, trained by men who learned their business under European -drill-masters, and directed by a high intelligence, with which Italy -would have to reckon should she attempt the hazardous experiment of an -advance in the real hinterland of Tripolitania. - -Let me make it perfectly clear that the grand master of the Senussiyeh -is a man of altogether exceptional ability. Under his direction the -order has advanced with amazing strides, for he is a remarkable -organiser and administrator, two qualities rarely found among the -Arabs. The destruction of the Mahdi and of the Khalifa, and the more -recent dethronement of Abdul-Hamid, resulted in bringing a large -accession of force to his standard by the extinction of all religious -authority in Africa except his own. Though the Sultan of Turkey -is, as I have said, the titular head of the Moslem religion, and is -venerated as such wherever praying-rugs are spread, the chief of this -militant order is undoubtedly regarded by the average Mohammedan as -the most actively powerful figure, if not as the saviour, of Islam. -The first Senussi was powerful enough to excommunicate the Sultan -Abdul-Medjid from the order because of his intimacy with the European -powers; the father of the present Khedive of Egypt was accustomed to -address the second Senussi in such terms as a disciple would use to a -prophet, while Abbas Hilmi II, the reigning Khedive, a few years ago -journeyed across the Libyan desert to pay his respects to the present -head of the order. - -Those who are in a position to know whereof they speak believe that -the Senussiyeh would actively oppose any attempt on the part of -the Italians to occupy the hinterland of Tripolitania, for it is -obvious that such an occupation would not alone bring the Christian -in dangerous proximity to the chief stronghold of the order, but it -would effectually cut off the supplies of arms and ammunition which -caravans in the pay of the Senussiyeh have regularly been transporting -to Jof from obscure ports on the Tripolitanian coast. It has been the -policy of the Senussiyeh, supported by the Turkish administration in -Tripolitania, to close the regions under its control to Christians, -so it is scarcely likely that it would do other than resist an -Italian penetration of the country, even in the face of a Turkish -evacuation. Though the order encouraged resistance to the French -advance in the Sudan, considering that the extension of the French -sphere of influence threatened its own prestige in those regions, it -has, as a rule, refrained from displaying antagonism toward the rulers -of the adjoining regions. Aside from proselytism, the Senussiyeh -has performed a great work in the Sahara in the colonisation and -cultivation of the oases, the encouragement of trade, the building of -rest-houses, the sinking of wells, and the protection of trans-Saharan -caravans. - -Stripped of the glamour and exaggeration with which sensational -writers and superficial travellers have invested the subject, it is -apparent that the Senussi controls a very wide-spread and powerful -organisation—an organisation probably unique in the world. As a -fighting element his followers are undoubtedly far superior to the -wild and wretchedly armed tribesmen who charged the British squares so -valorously at Abu Klea and Omdurman and who wiped out an Italian army -in the Abyssinian hills. Their remarkable mobility, their wonderful -powers of endurance, their large supplies of the swift and hardy -racing-camel known as _hegin_, and their marvellous knowledge of this -great, inhospitable region, coupled with the fact that they can always -retreat to their bases in the desert, where civilised troops cannot -follow them, are all advantages of which the Senussi and his followers -are thoroughly aware. - -Although the Senussi is, as I have shown, amply capable of causing -the Italians serious trouble, it is very unlikely that he will prove -actively hostile if they refrain from encroaching upon those remote -regions which he looks upon as his own. Italy will have her hands -full with the development of the coastal regions for many years to -come, so, if she is wise, she will leave the interior of the country -severely alone, recognise the religious authority of the Senussi, and, -if possible, effect some such working agreement with him as England -has done with an equally dangerous neighbour, the Amir of Afghanistan. - -From the glimpses which I have given you of the inhospitable character -of Tripolitania and the still more inhospitable people who inhabit it, -it will be seen that Italy's task does not end with the ousting of the -Turk. She has set her hand to the plough, however, and started it upon -a long and arduous and very costly furrow, the end of which no man can -see. For a nation to have a colony, or colonies, wherein she can turn -loose the overflow of her population and still keep them under her -own flag, is an undeniable asset, particularly when the colony is as -accessible from the mother country as Libya[1] (for we must accustom -ourselves to the new name sooner or later) is from Italy. But if Italy -is to be a success as a colonising nation she must school herself to -do things differently in Tripolitania from what she has in her other -African dependencies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. - -[1] The Italians have given their new possession the historic name of -Libya. - -First and foremost, she must pick the men who are to settle her new -colony as carefully as she picks the men for her _carabinieri_, -choosing them with a view to their intelligence, industry, energy, and -sobriety, for to flood Tripolitania with such a class of emigrants -as every vessel from Italy dumps on our hospitable shores is but to -invite disaster. - -Secondly, she must impress on these colonists the imperative necessity -of keeping on friendly terms with the natives, who are, after all, -the real owners of the soil, and of obtaining their co-operation -in the development of the country. The Arab, remember, unlike the -negro, cannot be bullied and domineered with impunity, Germany's -African colonies providing significant examples of the failures which -invariably result from ill-treatment of the native population. - -Thirdly, there must be no “absentee landlordism,” the future of -the colony largely depending, to my way of thinking, upon frugal, -hard-working peasant farmers, owning their own farms, whose prosperity -will thus be indissolubly linked with that of the colony. - -Lastly, all local questions of administration should be taken entirely -out of the hands of Rome and left to “the man on the spot,” for -history is filled with the chronicles of promising colonies which -have been ship-wrecked on the rocks of a highly centralised form of -government. - -If the Italians will take these things to heart, I believe that -their conquest of Tripolitania will prove, in the end, for the -country's own best good, contributing to its peace and to the welfare -of its inhabitants, native as well as foreign, and that it will -promote the opening up of the dark places to civilisation, if not -to Christianity—for the Moslem does not change his faith. When, -therefore, all is said and done, I cannot but feel that the cross of -the House of Savoy portends more good to Africa in general, and to -Tripolitania in particular, than would ever the star and crescent. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE LAND OF BEFORE-AND-AFTER - - -This is the story of how a handful of white men jerked a nation out of -the desert and the depths of despair, as though by its collar, set it -on its feet, and taught it to play the game. It is the story of how -northeast Africa—a region which God had seemingly forgotten—has been -transformed into a prosperous and self-respecting country by giving -it two things which it had always needed and had never known—justice -and water. It is the chronicle of a thirty years' struggle, under -disheartening conditions, against overwhelming odds, and when you -have finished it you will agree with me, I think, that it is one of -the wonder-tales of history. It is a drama in which English officials -and Egyptian pashas and Arab sheikhs all have their greater or their -lesser parts, and it is as full of romance and intrigue and treachery -and fighting as any moving-picture play that was ever thrown upon a -screen. - -To my way of thinking, the rescue and rehabilitation of the Nile -country is the most convincing proof of England's genius as a -colonising nation. That you may be able to judge, by comparison, what -she has accomplished, you must go back a third of a century or so, to -the days when Ismail Pasha—he with the brow of a statesman and the -chin of a libertine—still sat on the throne of the Pharaohs, wielding -an extravagant, vacillating, and ineffectual rule over a region which -stretched from the Mediterranean seaboard southward to Uganda and the -sleeping-sickness, and from the Red Sea shore westward until it lost -itself in the sand wastes of the Great Sahara. Of the one million -three hundred and fifty thousand square miles at that time included -within the Egyptian borders, less than five thousand were cultivated -land; the rest was yellow desert and nothing more. The seven millions -of blacks and browns who composed the population were so poor that the -dwellers in the slums of Whitechapel were affluent when compared to -them; they lived, for the most part, in wretched hovels of sun-dried -mud scattered along the banks of the Nile, maintaining a hand-to-mouth -existence by raising a low grade of cotton on a few feddans of land -which they irrigated by hand, at an appalling cost of time and -labour, with water drawn up in buckets from the river. As a result -of the _corvée_, or system of forced labour on public works which -prevailed, a large part of the population was virtually in a state -of slavery; the taxes, which were unjustly assessed and incredibly -exorbitant, could only be collected with the aid of the _kourbash_, -as the terrible whip of rhino hide used by the slave-dealers was -known. Barring the single line of ramshackle railway which connected -Cairo with Alexandria and with the Suez Canal, the only means of -transportation were the puffing river-boats and the plodding caravans. -The unpaid and ill-disciplined army was a synonym for cowardice, -as proved by its defeats by the tribesmen of Abyssinia and the -Sudan. The Khedive was a profligate and a spendthrift; his ministers -and governors were cruel, dishonest, and tyrannical; the national -resources had been dissipated in a veritable debauch of extravagance -and corruption. I doubt, indeed, if the sun ever shone on a more -decadent, demoralised, and discouraged nation than was Egypt on that -June day in 1879, when a cablegram from Constantinople, addressed, -significantly enough, to “Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt,” brought -the Sultan's demand for his immediate abdication in favour of his -son Tewfik. Called to a heritage of bankruptcy and wide-spread -discontent, the new ruler, anxious though he undoubtedly was to use -his prerogatives for his people's good, found himself forced to decide -between European intervention and native rebellion. The question was -decided for him, however, for, in the spring of 1882, Arabi and his -lawless soldiery broke loose and overran the land. - -[Illustration: Dance of Nuba women, Kordofan. - -Illustration: Shilluk warriors, Blue Nile. - -Illustration: Bread-making in the Lado Enclave, Sudan. - -WORK AND PLAY IN BLACK MAN'S AFRICA.] - -Whether this Arabi Pasha was at heart a patriot or a plunderer is a -question which has never been satisfactorily decided, nor is it one -which particularly concerns us, although, if you ever happen to find -yourself at Kandy, in the hills of Ceylon, where he still lives in -exile, I would recommend you to call upon him, for he will receive you -with marked hospitality and will talk to you quite frankly about those -stirring events in which he played so prominent a part. As this is a -story of the present, rather than of the past, suffice it to say that -Arabi, then an officer in the Egyptian army, instigated a military -revolt which had as its object the ending of European influence in the -affairs of Egypt. So rapidly did this propaganda of “Egypt for the -Egyptians!” spread among the lower classes of the population, and so -perilous became the position of foreigners resident in the country, -that, upon Alexandria being captured and looted by the revolutionists, -a British squadron bombarded and partially destroyed that city, while -a British army, hurried from Malta for the protection of the Canal, in -which England held the dominating interest, dispersed Arabi's forces -at Tel-el-Kebir, pushed on across the desert to Cairo, stamped out -the remaining embers of the revolt, and restored in a measure the -authority of the Khedive, though not without taking the precaution of -surrounding him with British “advisers” and garrisoning his cities -with British troops. Such, in tabloid form, is the story of the -beginnings of British domination in the land of the Valley of the Nile. - -In view of the chaotic condition of the country, England naturally -decided that the only way to insure the safety of her subjects, as -well as of her great financial and political interests in that region, -was to continue the military occupation of Egypt, for the time being -at least, and boldly to begin the task of its financial, judicial, -political, and military reconstruction. The form of government which -has resulted is, I suppose, the most extraordinary in the history of -nations. - -Nominally a province of the Turkish Empire, and administered by -a viceroy who theoretically derives his power from the Turkish -sovereign, Egypt is autonomous (so far as Turkey is concerned), -though it still pays annual tribute of about three million five -hundred thousand dollars to the Sultan. Though the title “khedive” -means sovereign or king, without qualification or limitation, the real -ruler of Egypt is not his Highness Abbas Hilmi II, but his Britannic -Majesty's Agent and Consul-General—at present Lord Kitchener of -Khartoum—who, though officially Britain's diplomatic representative -in Egypt and nothing more, in reality exercises almost unlimited -authority and power. In other words, England has assumed the position -of a receiver for Egypt's foreign creditors and has apparently made -the receivership—which has never been agreeable to the khedivial -government—a permanent one. Egypt's situation might, indeed, be -quite aptly compared to a railway system which has been forced into -bankruptcy by the extravagant methods of its directors, and one -of whose largest creditors has become receiver with full power to -reorganise the system for its stockholders' and its creditors' best -good. - -Another feature of Egypt's complex form of government is the -International Debt Commission, which consists of delegates from -England, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy, who are -stationed at Cairo for the purpose of keeping an eye on the national -revenues and periodically collecting a share of them, over and above -the actual running expenses of the government, to pay the interest on -the Egyptian bonds held in those countries. - -To this administrative medley must be added the complications caused -by the Ottoman Capitulations—by which fourteen foreign governments, -including our own, exercise almost sovereign rights in Egypt, the -International Tribunals, or “Mixed Courts,” in the control of which -Egypt has almost nothing to say, giving them complete jurisdiction in -all civil cases in which aliens may be involved with each other or -with Egyptians, while the foreign consuls possess absolute authority -in criminal cases where their nationals are concerned. - -The Capitulations, many of which date back to the early days of -Turkish power, are nothing less than guarantees to foreigners within -the Ottoman dominions of full and complete immunity from the laws -governing Turkish subjects. No reciprocal obligation was constituted -by a Capitulation (which, by the way, means the instrument containing -the terms of an agreement), as it was intended to be a purely -gratuitous concession granted to Christians, by virtue of which they -were tolerated upon the soil of Islam. Though the Capitulations -were never regarded by the Turks as treaties—it being obvious that -the Commander of the Faithful, who is likewise the Successor of -the Prophet and the Shadow of Allah, could never treat a Christian -ruler as an equal—they have all the character and force of treaties -nevertheless, inviolability of domicile, freedom from taxation of -every sort, and immunity from arrest for any offence whatsoever being -but items in the comprehensive promise not to molest the foreigner. -In short, the Capitulations give to the nations possessing them as -complete jurisdiction over their citizens as they exercise at home, -the Egyptian Government being powerless to lay so much as a finger on -a foreigner who breaks its laws. - -Should an American sailor, for example, become involved in a drunken -affray, as sometimes happens, and wound or kill an Egyptian, the -Egyptian police would no more arrest him than they would the Khedive. -They would merely keep him under surveillance, meanwhile notifying -the American consul, who would despatch his _kavasses_, as the armed -guards which are attached—also by virtue of the Capitulations—to the -various consulates are called, to effect the man's arrest. He would -then be tried by the consul, who possesses magisterial powers, before -a jury drawn from American residents or tourists, and, if found -guilty, would be confined in one of the several consular prisons which -the United States maintains in the Turkish Empire, although, if the -sentence were a long one, he would probably be sent to a prison in -this country to serve it out. - -Though the Egyptian police may be perfectly aware that Georgios -Miltiades runs a roulette game in the back room of his café, and keeps -a disorderly house up-stairs, he can lounge in his doorway and jeer -at them with perfect safety for the simple reason that he is a Greek -subject, and therefore his café is as much on Greek soil as though it -were in the Odos Ammonia in Athens, his consul alone possessing the -right to enter it, to cause his arrest, and to inflict imprisonment or -fine. - -Notwithstanding the fact that the importation of hasheesh into Egypt -is strictly prohibited, the government making every effort to stamp -out its use by the natives, the Italian smuggler who drops anchor in -Alexandria harbour with a cargo of it aboard knows perfectly well -that the arm of the Egyptian law is not long enough to reach him. If, -however, he is caught by the local police in the act of taking the -contraband ashore, it will be confiscated, though he himself can be -arrested and punished only by the Italian consular official resident -at that port. - -As a result of the privileges granted to foreigners by the -Capitulations, the consuls stationed in Egypt, as well as in other -parts of the Turkish Empire, are virtually the governors of their -respective colonies, possessing powers which cause their wishes to -be respected and their orders obeyed. They are expected to keep a -watchful eye on the doings of their nationals, especially those who -keep saloons, dance-halls, or cafés; to settle, either in or out of -court, their quarrels and even their domestic disputes; to inspect the -sanitary condition of their houses; to perform the marriage service -for those who prefer a civil to a religious ceremony; and to attend to -their burial and the administration of their estates when they die. -It is scarcely necessary to add that, as a result of this anomalous -state of affairs, there is constant friction and frequent conflicts -of authority between the foreign consuls and the local authorities. -So jealously, indeed, do the foreign powers guard the privileges -conferred upon them by the Capitulations, that Cairo can have no -modern drainage system because certain of the European governments -refuse to give the Egyptian sanitary inspectors permission to enter -the houses of their subjects. - -In matters of personal law, such as marriage, divorce, guardianship, -succession, and the like, foreigners are, in general, subject to their -own patriarchs or other religious heads, while similar questions are -decided for the natives by the native courts known as _Mehkemmehs_, -which are presided over by the Cadis. In other matters Egyptians are -justiciable before the ordinary native tribunals, which now consist of -forty-six summary courts having civil jurisdiction in matters up to -two thousand five hundred dollars in value and criminal jurisdiction -in offences punishable by a fine or by imprisonment up to three years; -seven central tribunals, each of the chambers of which consists of -three judges; and a court of appeals at Cairo, about half of whose -members are European. Since its reorganisation, the native Egyptian -bench has won an enviable record for honesty, energy, and efficiency, -and would, if granted complete jurisdictional powers, prove a great -influence for good in the land. - -So far as the Khedive is concerned, he has about as much to say in -the direction of the government as the child Emperor of China had -before the revolution put a president in his stead. Not only is Abbas -Hilmi surrounded by English secretaries and advisers, without whose -permission he may scarcely change his mind, but he is compelled to -yield to England even in choosing the members of his ministry, the one -or two attempts which he has made to assert his right to independence -of action in this respect having been met by England with a military -demonstration in the streets of his capital which was not abated until -the office was filled by an Egyptian satisfactory to the British -Consul-General. - -Some years ago, when that grim old statesman, Lord Cromer, was still -_deus ex machina_ in Egypt, the Khedive, emboldened by the rapid -spread of the Nationalist movement, which has for its slogan “Egypt -for the Egyptians!” flatly declined to give a cabinet portfolio to a -certain Egyptian politician whose appointment had been urged by the -British Consul-General and who was notoriously a British tool. The -following morning Lord Cromer drove to the Abdin Palace and demanded -an audience with the Khedive. There were no euphemisms employed in the -interview which ensued. - -“I have come to obtain your Highness's signature to this decree,” -announced Lord Cromer, in the blunt and aggressive manner so -characteristic of him. - -“Suppose, my lord,” the Khedive asked quietly, “that I decline to make -an appointment which is not for the good of Egypt—what then?” - -“Then, your Highness,” said Cromer menacingly, “Ceylon.” - -“But suppose, my lord,” Abbas Hilmi again inquired, his face pale with -anger, “that I disregard your threat to exile me to Ceylon and still -refuse to sign this commission?” - -Lord Cromer strode across the room to a window which commanded a view -of Abdin Square and threw back the curtain. “Will your Highness look -out of this window before you give me a final answer?” he asked. - -The Khedive stepped to the window and looked down. There, drawn up in -motionless ranks which stretched from end to end of the great square, -was a brigade of British infantry, the Egyptian sun blazing down on -the rows of brown helmets, on the business-like uniforms of khaki, -and on the slanting lines of steel. For five full minutes Abbas Hilmi -stood in silence, looking down on that grim display of power. Then he -turned slowly to Lord Cromer. “Give me the pen,” he said. - -[Illustration: - -The real ruler of Egypt, His Excellency Field Marshal Lord Kitchener -of Khartoum, British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, inspecting a -guard of honour upon his recent visit to the battle-field of Omdurman. - -Illustration: “Riflemen made from mud.” A march past of Sudanese -infantry. - -THE SAVIOUR OF THE SUDAN AND SOME OF THOSE HE SAVED.] - -Here is another example of the harshness of the attitude which England -has seen fit to adopt in her dealings with the Egyptian sovereign. In -the days when Lord Kitchener, fresh from his triumphs in the Sudan, -was still Sirdar of the Egyptian army, the Khedive announced that he -would utilise the occasion of his approaching visit to Khartoum to -review the troops of the garrison. For hours the sinewy, brown-faced -soldiery marched and countermarched before the Khedive on the field -of Omdurman. The infantry in their sand-coloured uniforms swept by -with the swing of veterans; the field batteries—the same that had -mown down the Mahdi's fanatic tribesmen—rumbled by at a gallop; the -camel corps, the riders swaying on their strange mounts like vessels -in a gale, paced past; then the cavalry came, as fast as the horses -could lay foot to ground, lances levelled, the troopers cheering -like madmen, thundering past the reviewing party in a whirlwind of -colour and dust and noise. It was a fine exhibition and one of which -any commanding officer might well have been proud, but the Khedive had -received his military education in Austria, where faultless alignment -and the ability to execute intricate parade movements are reckoned -among the first requisites of a soldier; so when Lord Kitchener, the -conqueror of the Sudan and the maker of the Egyptian army, reined up -his charger before him, saluted, and perfunctorily asked, “I trust -that your Highness is satisfied with the discipline and appearance of -your forces?” Abbas Hilmi, probably as much from a spirit of hostility -to the English as for any other reason, answered in a voice loud -enough to be heard by all around him, “They are a fine body of men, -Lord Kitchener, but I am far from satisfied with their discipline.” -Officers who witnessed this incident have told me that Lord Kitchener -was as amazed as though he had received a slap in the face. Within -an hour his resignation as Sirdar was in the hands of the Khedive, -who as promptly accepted it. But England could never permit her -foremost soldier to be so wantonly and so publicly affronted, for to -do so would be dangerously to impair her prestige among all classes -of Egyptians. So the cable flashed a message from Downing Street to -the British Agency in Cairo and a few hours later the Khedive was -peremptorily informed that he could choose between apologising to -Lord Kitchener and requesting him to withdraw his resignation or of -abdicating in favour of his brother. Appreciating that it was wiser -to apologise and keep his throne than to remain stubborn and lose it, -Abbas Hilmi requested Kitchener to remain on as Sirdar—and he himself -remained on as Khedive. - -The men who really transact the business of the Egyptian Government -are not the holders of cabinet portfolios, but the departmental -under-secretaries, all of whom are English, their plans being -perfunctorily submitted to their Egyptian chiefs for their -approval, though they would be used whether they received it or -not. The national revenues and expenditures are controlled by an -English financial adviser, without whose permission the Khedive -and his ministers cannot spend so much as a piastre of government -funds. Similarly, the ministries of the interior, of justice, of -communications, and of agriculture are dictated by English “advisers.” -For upward of thirty years, in fact, the Nile country has been -more absolutely governed from London than has India, or Canada, or -Australia, or South Africa, or any of the Crown colonies, and this -despite the fact that between England and Egypt there is no tie that -is officially recognised by any foreign power. Now, thirty years is -a considerable lapse of time anywhere, particularly in the East, -where men mature rapidly, so that those who were children when the -British came are in the prime of life now. The fact that in that -interim England has had ample time to train them for the duties of -governmental administration, as witness what we have accomplished -among the Filipinos in less than half that time, but that she has -made little, if any, effort to do so, is quite naturally taken by -all thinking Egyptians as a proof that there is no sincerity back of -her repeated assertions that she intends to turn Egypt over to them -as soon as they are fitted to administer it. In fact, I have heard -responsible British officials assert that, to their way of thinking, -the natives were getting altogether too much education as it was, and -that the less they were taught to think the easier it would be for -England to hold the country. Frankly stated, England's attitude toward -the Egyptians has been “You cannot go near the water until you know -how to swim.” - -Let it be perfectly clear, however, that nothing is farther from my -intention than to intimate that British rule has not been beneficial -to Egypt. No fair-minded person who was familiar with the appalling -condition of the country and its people before the English came, and -with their present state of prosperity, would cast so much as the -shadow of a doubt on the wonderful improvement which has been brought -about. The story of Egypt's rise from practical bankruptcy until its -securities are now quoted nearly as high as English consols reads -like a romance of the gold fields. During the last few years the -country has been experiencing a land boom equal to that of southern -California, property in Alexandria having sold at the rate of one -hundred dollars a square yard; scientific irrigation, combined with -the completion of the great dam at Assuan, has enormously enlarged -the area of cultivation and has made Egypt the second greatest -cotton-producing country in the world; the national debt has been -materially reduced; and, most significant of all, Egypt's European -bondholders have consented to have the interest on their bonds reduced -from seven to three and a half per cent. Life and property have been -made as safe in Port Said and Zagazig and the Fayoum as they are -in Yonkers or Salem or New Rochelle; slavery has been abolished; -official corruption has been rooted out; forced labour for public -works is no longer permitted; an admirable system of railways brings -the entire cultivated area within reach of the coast; hospitals have -been established in all of the larger towns; while every phase of the -public health has been so closely watched that the population of the -country has actually doubled in the thirty years since the English -came. - -To my way of thinking, the most interesting chapter in the history of -present-day Egypt is that which records the development of scientific -irrigation. Northeast Africa being practically rainless, its sole -source of water supply is the Nile, this mighty river created by -torrential rains in the mountains of Abyssinia and by the overflow of -equatorial lakes, and which is without tributaries in Egypt proper, -having an overflow which varies with the seasons. For four months -the flood rushing seaward, which is known as “high Nile,” enriches -hundreds of square miles of what would otherwise be arid and worthless -land. Then come eight months of low Nile, which, were it not for the -genius of an English engineer, would mean unwatered fields, scanty -crops, and probably famine. The British administrators, appreciating -from the very outset that Egypt's entire future depended upon its -agricultural prosperity, and that this, in turn, depended upon the -_fellaheen_ having an ample and steady supply of water for their -farms, set their engineers at the task of devising some scheme for -compelling the great river to pay tribute to the land through which it -passed instead of wasting its fertilising waters in the Mediterranean. -Hence the great barrage at Assuan, suggested by Sir William Willcocks, -designed by Sir Benjamin Baker, built by Sir John Aird, and financed -by Sir Ernest Cassel. A mile and a quarter long, containing a million -tons of stone and creating a reservoir three times the area of the -Lake of Geneva, this titanic barrier permits the additional irrigation -of one million six hundred thousand acres of land. Though its cost was -twelve million five hundred thousand dollars, it has already increased -the earning power of Egypt fully thirteen million dollars annually, so -it will be seen that it more than pays for itself to the country every -twelvemonth. The systematic liberation, during the burning summer -months, of the water thus conserved, means unfailing prosperity for -Egypt, for it is almost unbelievable, to one who has not seen it with -his own eyes, what agricultural magic water can work in this naturally -fertile soil. As the regions capable of responding to irrigation are -almost boundless, and as the water supply is almost inexhaustible, and -as the engineers—and, what is far more important, the financiers—have -come to appreciate that the pregnant soil can be made to pay for -the cost of any reservoir, or series of reservoirs, which they may -construct, it is only reasonable to assume that the great dam at -Assuan is but the forerunner of many others, so that eventually the -Valley of the Nile will be white with cotton and yellow with grain -from the Delta to the Sudd. - -But if Upper Egypt suffers from being too dry, Lower Egypt suffers -from being too wet. The prosperity of the country, remember, depends -almost entirely upon its cotton crop, which has an approximate value -of one hundred million dollars annually, the cotton fields covering -some one million six hundred thousand acres, most of which are in the -Delta. That this source of revenue may be increased, the Egyptian -Government has recently undertaken a huge drainage project, which -will, it is estimated, when completed in 1915, redeem a great tract -of flooded and hitherto worthless land, bringing a million additional -acres under cultivation, almost doubling the production of cotton, -and, incidentally, draining Lake Mariout, that historic body of water -disappearing forever. - -Agriculture and its attendant problems of irrigation and fertilisation -constitute the sole hobby and amusement of the present Khedive, Abbas -Hilmi II, and, consequently, he is keenly interested in anything that -pertains to it, being a ready and liberal purchaser of all improved -types of agricultural machinery, which he puts to practical use on -the great estates which he owns near Alexandria, in the Delta, and in -the Western Desert. It so happened that, while I was the consular -representative of the United States at Alexandria, I received a -call one morning from the president of an American concern engaged -in the manufacture of agricultural and well-drilling machinery who -explained that he was passing through Egypt and asked if it would -be possible for me to obtain him an audience with the Khedive. The -request was duly transmitted to the Grand Master of Ceremonies, and -shortly thereafter a reply reached me naming the day and hour when -his Highness would receive my compatriot and myself at the palace of -Ras-el-Tin. Frock-coated and top-hatted, we drove to the palace on -the day appointed, were received by the officials of the khedivial -household, and shown into the _salle de réception_, where Abbas Hilmi -stood awaiting us. After a cordial greeting—for the Khedive makes no -secret of his liking for Americans—he drew me down beside him on a -small sofa, motioning my companion to take a chair opposite us. - -“It gives me particular pleasure,” I began, “to present Mr. K—— to -your Highness, particularly as he is an authority on agricultural -machinery—a subject in which your Highness is, I know, considerably -interested.” - -“Say, Khedive,” exclaimed my fellow-countryman, suddenly leaning -forward and emphasising every sentence by waggling his finger under -Abbas Hilmi's august nose, “I've got the niftiest little proposition -in well-drilling machinery that ever struck this burg, and if you -don't jump at a chance to get in on the ground floor, then all I've -got to say is that you're throwing away the chance of your lifetime.” - -The Khedive, being, naturally, quite unaccustomed to this form of -verbal assault and still more unaccustomed to having any one waggle a -finger under his nose, at first drew back haughtily; then the humour -of the situation dawned upon him, and, as the river of talk which -is one of the chief assets of the trained American salesman flowed -steadily on, he became interested in spite of himself, now and then -interjecting a pertinent question, and terminating the audience by -giving the American an order for several thousand dollars' worth -of American machinery, which, the last I heard of it, was giving -excellent satisfaction on the royal farms. - - * * * * * - -If it is difficult to fix the exact legal status of Egypt, it is still -more difficult to explain that of the Sudan, which is described in the -official blue-books as “an Anglo-Egyptian condominium.” Until 1882 -the Sudan was as much a part of Egypt proper as Florida is a part of -the United States, but in that year Egyptian rule was interrupted by -the revolt of the Mahdi, who, with his successor the Khalifa, held -the country for sixteen years under a bloody and desolating tyranny. -In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian army under Sir Herbert Kitchener began -operations for the recovery of the lost provinces, and, on September -2, 1898, the overthrow of the Dervish power was completed on the -battle-field of Omdurman. In the following year the pleasing farce was -presented of a convention being signed by the British and Egyptian -Governments (or, in other words, by Lord Cromer as the representative -of England in Egypt and by Lord Cromer as the virtual dictator of -Egypt) which provides for the administration of the territory south of -the twenty-second parallel of latitude by a governor-general appointed -by Egypt with the assent of England; and which declares that the -British and Egyptian flags shall be used together; that laws shall be -made by proclamation; that no duties shall be levied on imports from -Egypt; and that slavery is prohibited. In view of England's absolute -domination of Egypt, it is obvious that the term “condominium,” as -applied to the Sudan, is a euphemism for “British possession,” and -that England controls this great region as completely as though her -flag alone flew over it and King George's picture ornamented its -stamps. - -The name Sudan is short for Beled-es-Sudan, which means the Land of -the Blacks. Extending from the southern frontier of Egypt to Uganda, -a distance equal to that from Saint Paul to New Orleans, and from the -shores of the Red Sea to the confines of the great central African -kingdom of Wadai, or as far as from Chicago to Denver, the Sudan -boasts an area three times that of Texas. This area, prior to the -Dervish oppression, had a population estimated at eight and a half -millions, but, as a result of the wholesale massacres perpetrated by -the Mahdi and his followers, it has to-day less than two and a half -millions. Since the return of peace, however, the Sudan is gradually -recovering from the effects of the Dervishes' barbaric rule, during -which the whole country was depopulated, wide tracts of land went out -of cultivation, and trade was largely abandoned. - -At present the poverty, the scanty population, and the lack of -irrigation in the Sudan form a striking contrast to the wealth, the -density of population, and the high state of cultivation found in -Egypt. But, though it has been, until very recently, little better -than an abandoned estate, with practically no market value, the money -and labour which its British proprietors are expending upon it are -already beginning to produce highly promising results. As a matter -of fact, the agricultural resources of this inland empire are hardly -guessed at, for the fact is too apt to be overlooked that, beyond -the sandy deserts which guard its northern frontier, there exist -extensive and fertile regions which, in the provinces of Gezire and -Sennar alone, are estimated at fifteen millions of acres. Added to -this, the Sudan is particularly fortunate in possessing, in the Blue -and the White Nile, two great waterways which are destined to prove -invaluable as mediums of fertilisation and transportation. There is, -indeed, no room for doubt that the Sudan is destined to be in time -a great agricultural centre, for cotton, wheat, and sugar-cane are -staple and give every promise of prolific crops—many English experts -prophesying that, when provided with facilities for irrigation, it -will supplant the United States as the chief cotton-growing country -of the world—while, farther afield, there are excellent cattle ranges -and untold wealth in forest lands. But although much money has -already been spent upon the Sudan, much more will have to be spent -before it can have more than a speaking acquaintance with prosperity, -for none of its three great needs—population, irrigation, and -transportation—can be provided for nothing or in a hurry. - -[Illustration: - -Fighting-men of the Emir of Wadai. (“They are wearing helmets and -chain mail captured by their Saracenic ancestors from the Crusaders. -The quilted armour on the horses will turn anything short of a -bullet.”) - -Illustration: A gift from Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, to the Sirdar -of the Sudan. (The Sultan of Darfur is a semi-independent and powerful -native ruler of the Southwestern Sudan.) - -STRANGE PEOPLE FROM INNERMOST AFRICA.] - -I was told so repeatedly by people in other and more favoured parts -of Africa that the Sudan was nothing but a waste of sun-scorched -sand, that I went there as much to see if the description were a true -one as for any other reason. You don't have to search for romance in -the Sudan; it's there waiting for you when you arrive. It met me on -the station platform at Wady Halfa, which is the first town across -the Sudanese frontier, in the form of a fair-haired, moon-faced, -khaki-clad guard on the Khartoum express, who spurned the tip I -proffered him to secure a compartment to myself as insolently as the -poor but virtuous heroine of the melodrama spurns the villain's gold. -He drew back as though the silver I offered him were a rattlesnake -in working order and his face flushed a dull brick-red; then, -bowing stiffly from the waist, as a Prussian officer does when he -is introduced, he turned on his heel and strode away. “I say, you -got the wrong one that time, old chap,” remarked an Englishman who -had witnessed the little incident and who, judging from his pith -helmet and riding-breeches, was of the country. “You probably didn't -know that you were offering a tip to a former captain in his German -Majesty's _garde du corps_?” I remarked that a month before a former -general of division of the Bey of Tunis had accepted with marked -gratitude a tip not half so large for showing me through the Palace of -the Bardo. - -“Well, this Johnnie won't,” was the reply. “He may not have much -money, but he's loaded to the gunwales with pride. The story of his -career sounds as if it had served as a model for one of Ouida's -novels. Refused to marry the girl his parents had picked out for -him, so his father cut off his allowance and left him to shift for -himself. He sent in his papers, went to Algeria, and enlisted—of all -fool things!—in that regiment of earth's hard cases called the Foreign -Legion. It didn't take him long to get all he wanted of that kind of -soldiering, so one day, when he was sent down to Oran in charge of -a prisoner, he swam out to a British steamer lying in the harbour, -worked his passage to Alexandria, enlisted in a British cavalry -regiment, took part in Kitchener's campaign against the Khalifa, was -wounded in the shindy at Omdurman, and retired on a pension. Now he -wears a guard's uniform and carries a green flag and walks up and -down the platform shouting 'All aboard for Khartoum!' And at home he -would have a coronet on his visiting-cards and spend his afternoons -swaggering along Unter den Linden. Extraordinary what a man will do -if he has to, isn't it? But you'll find lots more of the same kind in -the Sudan. It's no place for idlers down here; every one works or gets -out.” - -That struck me as a pretty promising introduction to a country which, -so I had been assured elsewhere, had nothing more interesting to -recommend it than sun and sand, and it was with a marked rise in my -anticipations that I saw my luggage stowed away in a compartment of -one of the long railway carriages, which are painted white for the -same reason that a man wears a white suit in the tropics, which have -windows of blue glass to prevent the sun-glare from injuring the -passengers' eyes, and which are provided with both outside and inside -blinds in an attempt to keep out a little of the heat. Looked at from -any stand-point that you please, the thirty hours' railway journey -from Wady Halfa to Khartoum is far from being an enjoyable experience, -for a light in your compartment means a plague of flies, while any -attempt to get air, other than that kicked up by the electric fan, -means suffocating dust. It being too dark to read and too hot to -sleep, the only alternative is to sit in your pajamas, swelter, and -smoke. - -Considering the obstacles it has had to overcome, the Sudan government -deserves great credit for the railways it has built and the trains it -operates. The construction of the railway to Khartoum was undertaken -by General Kitchener in 1896, in order to support the advance of -his army, and, in spite of the difficulty of laying a railway line -across the sandy and stony surface of the desert, the work was so -energetically carried on that the line advanced at the rate of a mile -a day. The most serious obstacle was, of course, the provision of an -adequate supply of water for the engines and workmen, so a series of -watering-stations was established, at which wells, sunk to a depth of -eighty feet or more, tap the subterranean water. These stations are -so far apart, however, that to supply the engines it is necessary to -attach two or more tank-cars to each train. Still another difficulty -is the shifting sand, which, during the period of the _khamsin_, or -desert wind, proves as disastrous to railroading in the Sudan as snow -does to the railroads of our own Northwest, an inch of sand throwing -an engine from the rails far more effectually than a yard of snow. - -It was my fortune, by the way, to encounter one of the _huboubs_, -or sand-storms, for which the Sudan is famous. To give an adequate -idea of it, however, is as impossible as it is to describe any other -overwhelming phenomenon of nature. Far off across the desert we saw -it approaching at the speed of a galloping horse—a great fleecy, -yellowish-brown cloud which looked for all the world like the smoke of -some gigantic conflagration. A distant humming, which sounded at first -like the drone of a million sewing-machines, gradually rose into such -a roar as might be made by a million motor-cars, and then the storm -was upon us. The sand poured down as though shaken through a sieve; -the landscape was blotted out; the sun was obscured and there came -a yellow darkness, like that of a London fog; men and animals threw -themselves, or were hurled, to the ground before the fury of the wind, -while a mantle of sand, inches thick, settled upon every animate and -inanimate thing. Then it was gone, as suddenly as it had come, and we -were left dizzy, bewildered, blinded, half-strangled, and gasping for -breath, amid a landscape which was as completely shrouded in yellow -sand as an American countryside in winter is covered with snow. Under -any circumstances a sand-storm is a disagreeable experience, but out -on the desert, where the traveller's life frequently depends upon the -plainness of the caravan trails, it ofttimes brings death in its train. - -It is a gratifying compliment to American mechanical skill that the -running-time between Wady Halfa and Khartoum has been shortened four -hours by the recent adoption of American locomotives, which run, -fittingly enough, over American-made rails. In the construction of -its trains the Sudan government has avoided the irksome privacy of -the European compartment car and the unremitting publicity of the -American Pullman by designing a car which combines the best features -of both. The first-class cars on the Sudanese express trains contain -a series of coupés, each somewhat roomier than the drawing-room in -a Pullman sleeper and each opening into a spacious corridor which -runs the length of the car. For day use there is one long cushioned -seat running crosswise of each compartment, which at night forms the -lower berth, the back of the seat swinging up on hinges to form the -upper. Each coupé is provided with running water, a folding table, -two arm-chairs of wicker, and an electric fan, without which last, -owing to the almost incredible dust which a train sets in motion, -one would all but suffocate. At several stations along the line are -well-equipped baths, at which the trains stop long enough for the -passengers hurriedly to refresh themselves. - -The mention of these railway baths recalls an incident which seems -amusing enough to relate. I once had as a fellow-passenger on the -journey from Khartoum northward a red-faced, white-moustached, -choleric-tempered English globe-trotter, who was constitutionally -opposed to the practice of tipping, which he took occasion to -characterise on every possible occasion as “An outrage—a damnable -outrage, sir!” Now, at these wayside bath stations it has long been -the accepted custom to give the equivalent of five cents to the -silent-footed native who fills the tub, brings you your soap and -towels, and brushes your garments. But this the irascible Englishman, -true to his principles, refused to do, still further unpopularising -himself by loudly cursing the cleanliness of the tub, the warmth of -the water, the size of the towels, and the slowness of the Sudanese -attendant. Five minutes before the time for the train to leave the -whistle gave due warning and the passengers scrambled from the bath -into their clothes, which the native attendants were accustomed to -brush and leave outside the bath-room doors. Every one hurried into -his clothes, as I have remarked, except the anti-tipping Englishman, -who almost choked with blasphemy when he found that his garments -had mysteriously disappeared. Though a hasty search was instituted, -not a trace of them could be found, the impassive Sudanese stolidly -declaring that they had seen nothing of the effendi's missing -apparel. The engine shrieked its final warning and the laughing -travellers piled aboard—all, that is, but the Englishman, who rushed -onto the platform clad in a bath towel, only to retreat before the -shocked glances of the women passengers. My last impression of that -God-forsaken, sun-blistered bath station in the desert was the rapidly -diminishing sound of his imprecations as he continued his fruitless -search for his garments. There was no other train, I should add, for -three days. Weeks later I heard that his clothes were eventually -returned to him by a native, who said that he had found them, neatly -folded, underneath a near-by culvert. - -Nowhere is the overpowering romance of the land brought more vividly -before you than in the dining-cars or on the decks of the river -steamers. The tall young Englishman in flannels who sits opposite -you at table remarks casually that he is using a four months' -leave of absence to go up Gondokoro-way after elephant, and a -French marquis who is sitting near by, happening to overhear the -conversation, leans across to inquire about the chances for sport -on the Abyssinian frontier. “You can't go across there, you know,” -interrupts a bimbashi, whose freckled Irish face looks strangely -out of place beneath the tarboosh which denotes an officer in the -Egyptian service. “The Hadendowas are on the rampage again and the -Sirdar has issued orders that no one is to be permitted to cross into -Menelik's territory until things have quieted down. There's no use -your trying it, for the camel police are jolly well certain to turn -you back.” The bearded man in the ill-fitting clothes, who would be -taken almost anywhere for a commercial traveller, is, you are told, -one of the most celebrated big-game shots in the world, and just -now is on his way to the Lado Enclave in search of a certain rare -species of antelope for the Berlin museum. The grizzled Egyptian -officer sitting by himself—for the British no more mingle socially -with the Egyptians than Americans do with negroes—once served under -Gordon, as the bit of faded blue ribbon on the breast of his tunic -denotes; the brown-faced Englishman in riding-clothes, with the -wrinkles about his eyes which come from staring out across the sands -under a tropic sun, is a pasha and the governor of a province as -large as many a European kingdom, and farther up the line he will get -off the train and disappear into the desert on one of his periodical -tours of inspection, perhaps not seeing another white face for three -months or more. It struck me that there was something particularly -fine and manly and self-reliant about these young Englishmen who are -acting as policemen and judges and administrators and agricultural -experts rolled into one, out there at the Back of Beyond. “It's only -the hard work that makes it bearable,” said one of them in answer to -my question. “What with the heat and the flies and the never-ending -vista of yellow sand and the lack of companionship, we should die from -sheer loneliness if we didn't work from dawn until bedtime. Besides, -every two years we get long enough leave to go home.” (And oh, the -caress in that word home.) Then he asked me with pathetic eagerness -about the latest song-hits at the London music-halls, and was this -new Russian dancer at Covent Garden as wonderful as the illustrated -weeklies made her out, and honestly, now, did I think the government -was going to be such a bally ass as to give the Irish home rule? That -young man—he was twenty-four on his last birthday, he told me—has -charge of a province four times as large as New York State, and in it -he wields a power which is a strange cross between the patriarchal -and the despotic. With a score or so of camel police he maintains law -and order among a population which, until very recent years, were as -savage and intractable as the Sioux; he holds the high justice, the -middle, and the low; and he is, incidentally, a practical authority on -such varied subjects as wheat-growing, cotton-raising, camel-breeding, -fertilising, and irrigation. Nor would I fail to call attention to -the little-known but wonderful work of a handful of British officers, -who, working continuously since 1898, in those fever-ridden swamps -near Lake No, have finally succeeded in removing the last block -of Sudd,[2] twenty-four miles long, thus making the Nile a free, -navigable waterway from Khartoum to Rejaf, in Uganda, a distance of -twelve hundred miles. And these young men, remember, are but isolated -examples of the thousands, in Africa, in Asia, in America, and in -Oceanica, who are binding together Britain's colonial empire. - -[2] The name given to the dense masses of water plants which have long -obstructed the upper reaches of the Nile. - -Its discomforts notwithstanding, the railway journey from Wady Halfa -to Khartoum is filled with interest, comparing not at all unfavourably -with that other remarkable desert journey by the Trans-Caspian railway -from Krasnovodsk to Samarkand. For two hundred miles or more after -leaving Wady Halfa we see through the blue glass of the windows -nothing but endless wastes of black rocks and orange sand. Then -the desert gives place to undulating sand-hills, and these in turn -to clusters of dom-palms, to fields of barley, to conical acacias, -and finally a fringe of palms announces the proximity of the river. -We pass in turn Gebel Barka, the sacred mountain of the ancient -Egyptians, and, at its base, the ruins of Napata, once the capital -of an Ethiopian kingdom. A few miles south of Atbara, which is the -junction of the railway to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, we pass the -so-called Island of Meroe, with its score of pyramids, beside which -the majestic monuments of Egypt are but the creations of yesterday, -for this region, remember, was the cradle of the Egyptian arts and -sciences. In the settlements along the banks we now begin to see the -typical round straw huts of Central Africa, with their pointed roofs -and airy _recubas_, or porches. The peoples change with the scenery, -the slender, tarbooshed Nubian giving way to the fierce-faced, -shock-headed Hadendowas, that savage fighting-clan who hold the -country between the Nile and the Red Sea, and they, in turn, to the -Kabbabish Bedouins, those freebooters of the desert, who, perched high -on their lean white racing camels, were the terror of every caravan -in the days before the British came. The cultivated patches become -thicker, the signs of civilisation grow increasingly frequent, the -train rumbles across a long iron bridge which spans the river, and -slowing, comes to a halt before a long, low station building on which -is the word “Khartoum.” - -Like another Phœnix, Khartoum has risen from its ashes on the site -of that city which formed the funeral pyre of the heroic Gordon. The -name—“elephant's trunk”—refers to the shape of the long peninsula on -which the city stands and which forms the point of separation of the -Nile into its Blue and White branches. It is a brand-new city which -the British engineers have constructed; a city with a ground plan -as mathematically laid out and with streets as broad as Washington; -a city with pavements and sidewalks and gutters and sewers and -lighting facilities on the most modern lines. As all the buildings -are of a dust-coloured brick, the business portion of the city has -a certain air of substantial permanence, but so uncompromising is -the architecture and so destitute of shade are the streets that it -looks more like a Russian penal settlement than like an African -capital. In the residential quarter, however, the picturesque has -not been sacrificed to the utilitarian, for along the bank of the -Blue Nile a splendid boulevard—a sort of African Riverside Drive—has -been constructed, and here no business or commercial trespass will -be permitted, for from the Grand Hotel to the Palace, a distance -of a mile or more, it is lined with the residences of the British -officials, low-roofed, broad-verandaed bungalows nestling in luxuriant -gardens. The thing that impresses one most about Khartoum is the -extraordinary width of its streets and diagonal avenues and the -frequency of its open circles, but the British will tell you quite -frankly that military considerations, rather than beauty, guided them -in planning it and that a few field-guns, properly placed, can sweep -the entire city. There are two buildings in Khartoum which seem to me -to be more significant of the new era which has begun for the Sudan -than all the other features of the city combined. One is the Gordon -Memorial College, built with the object of training the sons of the -Sudanese sheikhs and chieftains along those lines which are best -calculated to make for the future peace, progress, and prosperity of -the country. With his laurels as the victor of Omdurman still fresh -upon him, Lord Kitchener appealed to his countrymen for one hundred -thousand pounds for the establishment of this institution, which he -felt that England owed to the memory of Gordon, and, so prompt and -general was the response, the entire sum was subscribed within a few -days. The other building to which I referred is the recently completed -Anglican Cathedral, which stands as a recognition of Gordon's great -work as a missionary and as an impressive exhibition of the advance -of the Christian faith. Could Gordon have returned to life on the -occasion of the consecration of this cathedral, and have seen -harmoniously gathered beneath its lofty roof religious dignitaries of -such different minds and faiths as the Bishop of London, the Coptic -Archbishop of Alexandria, the Greek Patriarch of Abyssinia, and the -Grand Cadi and the Grand Mufti, the heads of the Mohammedan community -in the Sudan, he might well have exclaimed, “I did not die in vain.” - - * * * * * - -I have now sketched for you the conditions which prevailed in the -Valley of the Nile before the English came and those which obtain -there to-day. What its future is to be depends wholly upon the action -of England. Were she to leave the country now, or within the near -future, she would leave it under conditions which would soon result -in chaos, and the good that she has done would be largely lost. The -extensive schemes of irrigation upon which she has entered, and upon -which the prosperity of this whole region so largely depends, could -never be financed by an independent Egypt, and the same is true of the -question of transportation, which is at the bottom of all the problems -of economic development in the Sudan. - -That England's position in the Nile country is illegal and illogical -her stanchest supporters do not attempt to deny, but those who are -really familiar with Egyptian conditions and character will agree -with me, I think, that Egypt could suffer no greater calamity than -to have the English go. Not that I think that there is the slightest -probability of their doing so, for Italy's aggression in Tripolitania, -combined with the attitude of the other members of the Triple -Alliance, has resulted in Britain strengthening, rather than relaxing, -her grip on Egypt and the Suez Canal. The canal provides, indeed, -the key to the entire Egyptian situation, for upon her control of it -depends England's entire scheme of administration in India and the -Farther East. To withdraw her forces from Egypt would be tantamount -to leaving the gateway to her Eastern possessions unguarded, and -that, I am convinced, she will never do. Two lesser, though in -themselves important, reasons militate against her surrendering the -control of the Valley of the Nile. One is her hope of eventually -realising, in spite of German opposition, Cecil Rhodes's dream of -an “All Red” route from the Cape to Cairo, of which Egypt and the -Sudan would be the northern links. The other is the belief that in -the scientific irrigation and cultivation of the fertile Nile lands -lie the means of freeing British manufacturers from their dependence -on American cotton. I am inclined to believe, therefore, that in the -not far-distant future England will become convinced that candour -is a better policy than hypocrisy, and will frankly add to her -globe-girdling chain of colonial possessions the whole of that vast -region lying between the mouths of the Nile and the swamps of the -Sudd. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -IN ZANZIBAR - - -There is no name between the covers of the atlas more redolent of -romance and adventure. Ever since Livingstone entered the African -jungle on his mission of proselytism; ever since Stanley entered -the same jungle on his quest of Livingstone; and ever since the -railway-builders began to run their levels and lay their rails along -the trail blazed by them both, Zanzibar has been the chief gateway -through which Christianity, civilisation, and commerce have entered -the Dark Continent. Though its area has been steadily lessened by -spoliation, treaty, and purchase, until the sultanate, which once -extended from Cape Guardafui to Delagoa Bay and inland to the Great -Lakes, has dwindled to two coastwise islands in the Indian Ocean, -Zanzibar the capital is still the most important place, politically -and commercially, in all East Africa, and one of the most picturesque -and interesting cities in the world. - -It bears the impress of the many kinds of men of many -nationalities—Arab sultans, slave-traders and pirates, Portuguese -merchants, European explorers, and ivory-hunters—who have swaggered -across the pages of its history. Four hundred years ago Vasco da -Gama's exploring caravels dropped anchor in its harbour, and the -architecture of the city is still Portuguese; a century later the -dhows of the piratical sultans of Muskat swooped down, giving to -Zanzibar an Arab dynasty, a lucrative slave trade and the Arabic -tongue; then a British war-ship came, bringing with it British law and -order and decency, and, under the mask of a “protectorate,” British -rule. Though its golden age ended with the extermination of the trade -in “black ivory,” it is still a place of considerable importance: the -end of several submarine cables, a port of call for many steamship -lines, a naval base within easy striking distance of the German and -Portuguese colonies on the East Coast and guarding the lines of -communication between the Cape and the Canal, and the place of export -for the major portion of the world's supply of copra, cloves, and -ivory. - -Seen from the harbour, Zanzibar has little to commend it. So -uninviting, indeed, is the face that it turns seaward, that the story -is told of an American politician sent there as consul, who, after -taking one look from the steamer's deck at the sun-baked town, with -its treeless, yellow beach and its flat-roofed, whitewashed houses, -refused to go ashore at all, from the next port at which the steamer -called cabling his resignation to Washington. Though a city of -something over one hundred thousand people, with the major portion -of the trade of East Africa in its hands, Zanzibar has neither dock, -jetty, nor wharf, passengers and packages alike being disembarked in -small boats and carried through the surf on the shoulders of Swahili -boatmen. There are no words in the language adequate to describe the -scene which takes place on the beach bordering the harbour when -a mail steamer comes in. The passengers—white-helmeted tourists; -pompous, drill-clad officials; sallow-faced Parsee merchants; -chattering Hindoo artisans; haughty, hawk-nosed Arabs; and cotton-clad -Swahilis from the mainland—are unceremoniously dumped with their -belongings on the sand, where they instantly become the centres of -shouting, pleading, cursing, struggling, gesticulating, perspiring -mobs of porters and hotel-runners, from whose rough importunities they -are rescued only by the efforts of a dozen _askaris_, who lay their -rhinoceros-hide whips about them indiscriminately. - -When a poor imitation of order has been restored and the luggage has -been rescued and sorted, you start for the hotel—there is only one -deserving of the name—with a voluble hotel-runner clinging to your arm -as though afraid you would break away, and followed by a miniature -safari of porters balancing trunks, hat-boxes, kit-bags, gun-cases, -bath-tubs, and the other impedimenta of an African traveller on their -turbaned heads. Returning the ostentatious salute of the tan-coloured -sentry at the head of the water-stairs, you follow your guide through -a series of tortuous and narrow alleys, plunge into the darkness of an -ill-smelling tunnel, and suddenly emerge, blinded with the sun-glare, -into a thoroughfare lined on either side with tiny, fascinating, -hole-in-the-wall shops, whose owners rush out and offer you their -silver, ivory, and ostrich-feather wares vociferously. - -Quite unexpectedly the procession halts under a swinging sign bearing -the legend “Afrika Hotel.” The proprietor, a rotund, red-cheeked -German who looks as if he had stepped straight out of a Munich -beer-garden, escorts you pantingly up two—three—four flights of stone -stairs, lined on either side with strange native weapons and East -Coast curios, to a brick-floored cell under the roof, there being -more likelihood of catching an occasional breeze, he explains, near -the top. Wind in any form is as scarce in Zanzibar as rain is in the -Sahara, and when they do get a breath of air strong enough to stir the -window curtains it is as much of an event as a cyclone is in Kansas. -The furniture of the room, monastic in its simplicity, consists of -an iron bed, an iron table, an iron chair, and an iron washstand -supporting a tin bowl and pitcher, for anything which is not of metal -stands an excellent chance of destruction by the devastating swarms -of red ants. The bed is draped with a double thickness of mosquito -netting of so fine a mesh that the air within feels strained and -unnourishing, like milk that has been skimmed and watered, and the -heavy shutters are closed in a fruitless attempt to keep out some of -the stifling mid-day heat, though the proprietor, after glancing at -the thermometer, remarks that it isn't so hot after all, being only -120 in the shade. - -[Illustration: “Zanzibar has neither dock, jetty, nor wharf, -passengers and packages alike being disembarked in small boats and -carried through the surf on the shoulders of Swahili boatmen.” - -Illustration: The business portion of Zanzibar is a wilderness of -narrow streets and dim bazaars, hemmed in with tiny shops and wretched -dwellings, with here and there an ancient house dating from the -Portuguese occupation. - -THE GATEWAY TO EAST AFRICA. - -_Photograph by DeLord, Zanzibar._] - -You are advised to go to bed in the dark, as a light would attract the -mosquitoes, and never, never, under any circumstances, to get into bed -until you have assured yourself that there are no mosquitoes inside -the curtains, though the proprietor cheerfully adds: “But you can -only get fever from the black-and-white-striped ones.” Likewise, you -are solemnly warned never to go out of doors during the day without -a topée lest you die from sunstroke (I knew one man who took off his -helmet long enough to wave good-bye to a departing friend and was dead -in an hour in consequence); never to drink other than bottled water -(at two rupees the bottle) lest you die from typhoid; never to stay -out of doors after nightfall lest you contract malaria; never to put -on your boots without first shaking them out lest a snake or scorpion -have chosen them to spend the night in; never to return late at night -from the club without getting a policeman to escort you, lest a native -thug run a knife between your shoulder-blades; and never to put -your revolver under your pillow, where it cannot be reached without -attracting attention, but to keep it beside you in the bed, so that -you can shoot through the bedclothes without warning if you should -wake up to find an intruder in your room. - -The best and most interesting thing about the Afrika Hotel is its -bath, a forbidding, stone-floored room, totally devoid of furniture or -tub. It is separated from the sleeping-room by the hotel parlour, so -that lady callers unaccustomed to Zanzibar ways are sometimes a trifle -startled to see a gentleman whose only garment is a bath-towel pass -through the parlour with a hop-skip-and-jump on his way to the bath. -You clap your hands, which is the East Coast equivalent for pressing -a button, and in prompt response appears an ebony-skinned domestic -bearing on his head a Standard Oil can filled with water. Running -through a staple in the ceiling is a rope, and to the end of this rope -he attaches the can, hoisting it until it swings a dozen feet above -your head. Hanging from a hole in the side of the can is a cord. When -you are ready for your bath you stand underneath the can, jerk the -cord sharply, and the can empties itself over you like a cloudburst. -Then you clap your hands and wait until the Swahili brings more water, -when you do it all over again. - -The first thing the new arrival in Zanzibar does is to bathe and -put on a fresh suit of white linen, for to appear presentable in -the terrible humidity of the East Coast requires at least four -white suits a day; and the second thing he does is to call upon the -consul, a very homesick young gentleman, who is so glad to see any -one from “God's country” that he is only too eager to spend his -meagre salary in entertaining him. If it is drawing toward sunset -you will probably find him just starting for the golf club, which is -the rendezvous at nightfall for Zanzibar's European society, whose -chief recreations, so far as I could see, are golf, gambling, and -gossip. With a sturdy, khaki-clad Swahili, a brass American eagle on -the front of his fez, trotting between the shafts of the consular -'rickshaw (the Department of State refuses to appropriate enough -money to provide our representative with a carriage), and another -pushing behind, you whirl down the bright red highway which leads -to the suburb of Bububu; past the white residency from which the -British consul-general gives his orders to the little brown man who -is permitted to play at ruling Zanzibar; past the police barracks, -where, at sight of the eagle on the 'rickshaw coolies' fezes, the -sentry on duty shouts some unintelligible jargon, a bugle blares, -and a group of native constables spring into line and bring their -hands smartly to the salute as you pass; past the Marconi station on -the cliff, where the wireless chatters ceaselessly with Bagamoyo and -Kilindini and Dar-es-Salam; until you come to a sudden halt before -a bungalow, almost hidden in a wonderful tropic garden, whose broad -verandas overlook an emerald velvet golf course which stretches from -the highway to the sea. - -Playing golf in Zanzibar always struck me as one of the most -incongruous things I ever did. It seems as though one ought to devote -his energies to pirating or pearl-fishing or slave-trading in a -place with such a name. Moreover, there is such a continuous circus -procession passing along the highway—natives in _kangas_ of every -pattern and colour; Masai and Swahili warriors from the mainland; -Parsee bankers in victorias and Hindoo merchants in 'rickshaws; giant -privates of the King's African Rifles in bottle-green tunics and -blue puttees; veiled women of the Sultan's zenana out for an airing -in cumbersome, gaudily painted barouches, preceded and followed by -red-jacketed lancers on white horses; perhaps his Highness himself, a -dapper, discontented-looking young mulatto, whirling by in a big gray -racing-car—that it is quite out of the question to keep your eye on -the ball, and you play very bad golf in consequence. Another trouble -is that the caddies are all natives, and golf is discouraging enough -in itself without having to shout “Fore!” or ask for a mashie or a -putter in Swahili. - -After a perfunctory round or two you go back to the club-house -veranda, where the European society of Zanzibar is seated in cane -chairs, with the English illustrated weeklies, and tall glasses with -ice tinkling in them. The talk is the talk of exiled white folk -everywhere: the news contained in the Reuter's despatches which are -posted each evening on the club bulletin-board; the condition of the -ivory market; the prospects for big game-shooting under the new German -game laws; the favourites for the next day's cricket match, the next -week's polo game, or the next month's race meet; the latest books, the -newest plays—as gathered from the illustrated weeklies; what is going -to become of Smyth-Cunninghame's widow, whose husband has just died of -fever; is it true that Major Buffington has been transferred from the -“K. A. R.” to a line regiment; and is Germany really looking for war? - -That night the consul gives a dinner for you at the Zanzibar Club, -where you are served by bare-footed servants immaculate in crimson -turbans and white linen, and eat with solid silver from irreproachable -china, in a room made almost comfortable by many swinging punkahs. -After dinner you sit on the terrace in the dark, somewhere between -the ocean and the stars, and over the coffee and cigars you listen to -strange stories of “the Coast,” told by men who themselves played a -part in them. One man tells you what Stanley really said when, after -months in the jungle without seeing a white man's face, he finally -stumbled on the camp of Livingstone, and how, instead of rushing up -and throwing his arms around him and crying, “Saved at last, old -fellow; saved at last!” he lifted his helmet at sight of the gaunt, -fever-stricken man sitting in front of the tent, and said very -politely, just as he would if accosting a stranger on Fifth Avenue -or Piccadilly, “Doctor Livingstone, I believe?” Another, a wiry, -bright-eyed Frenchman, with a face tanned to the colour of mahogany, -tells of the days when the route from Tanganyika to the coast was -marked by the bleaching skeletons of slaves, and he points out to you, -across the house-tops, the squalid dwelling in which Tippoo Tib, the -greatest of all the slave-traders, died. A British commissioner, the -glow of his cigar lighting up his ruddy face, his scarlet cummerbund, -and his white mess jacket, relates in strictest confidence a chapter -of secret diplomatic history, and you learn how the German Foreign -Office shattered the British dream of an all-red Cape-to-Cairo -railway, and why England is so desirous of the Congo being placed -under international control. A captain of the King's African Rifles -holds you spellbound with a recital of the amazing exploits of the -American elephant poacher, Rogers, who, jeering at the attempts of -three governments to capture him, made himself, single-handed, the -uncrowned king of Equatoria. Then a Danish ivory-hunter breaks in, and -you hear all sorts of wild tales of life on safari, of ivory-trading -in the Lado Enclave, of brushes with the Uganda police south of -Gondokoro, and of strange tribal customs practised in the hinterland. -When the dawn begins to creep up out of the east, the Englishmen tell -the drowsy steward to bring them Scotch and sodas and the Frenchmen -order absinthes; then every one shakes hands with every one else -and you make your way back to your hotel through the narrow, silent -streets, returning the salute of the night constable sleepily. - -No visitor leaves Zanzibar without going to the cemetery. Like the -palace, and the stone ship built by a former sultan, it is one -of the show places of the city. I saw it under the guidance of a -gloomy English resident, who said that he always walked there every -evening “so as to get accustomed to the place before staying in it -permanently.” Leading me across the well-kept grass to two newly dug -graves, he waved his hand in a “take-your-choice; they're-both-ready” -gesture. “Two deaths to-day?” I queried. “Not yet,” said he, “but -we always keep a couple of graves ready-dug for Europeans. In this -climate, you know, we have to bury very quickly.” For in Zanzibar, as -all along the East Coast, the white man's hardest fight is with a foe -he can feel only as a poison in his burning veins, and can see only in -the dreams of his delirium—the deadly black-water fever. - -Though the streets in the outskirts of Zanzibar are wide, well -shaded, and excellently macadamised with some kind of bright-red soil -which recalls the roads outside of Colombo, in Ceylon, the business -portion of the town, where the natives chiefly live, is a labyrinth -of narrow streets and dim bazaars, hemmed in with tiny shops and -wretched dwellings, with here and there an ancient house dating -from the Portuguese occupation, impregnable as a feudal castle, its -massive doorways of exquisitely carved teakwood in sharp contrast -to the surrounding squalor. Every shop is open to the street, and -half of them, it seemed to me, are devoted to the sale of ivory -carvings, ostrich feathers, brassware, and silver-work, though the -Arab workmanship is in all cases poorly executed and crude in design. -The most typical things to be bought in Zanzibar are the quaint images -of African animals which the natives carve from the coarser grades of -ivory and which make charming, though costly, souvenirs. Nothing is -cheap in Zanzibar, or, for that matter, anywhere else in Africa, and -every purchase is a matter of prolonged and wearisome negotiation, -the seller fixing a fantastic price and lowering it gradually, as he -thinks discreet, his rock-bottom figure depending upon the behaviour -and appearance of the customer. - -Zanzibar is still the chief ivory market of the world, the supplies of -both elephant and rhino ivory, so I was assured by British officials, -steadily increasing rather than diminishing. A few years ago it -was feared that the supply of ivory would soon run out, but the -indiscriminate slaughter of elephants has been checked, at least in -British territory, by strict game laws rigidly enforced. Whether from -the laxity of its laws or the indifference of its officials, German -East Africa is still the ivory-hunter's paradise, the extermination -of elephants in that colony proceeding almost unchecked. When one -remembers that African ivory brings all the way from fifty dollars to -five hundred dollars per hundredweight in the open market, and that -the tusks of a full-grown elephant weigh anywhere from one hundred -to five hundred pounds, it will be seen that the ivory-hunter's -trade is a profitable though a hazardous one. Other ivory-hunters, -instead of going after the elephants themselves, spend their time in -journeying from village to village and bartering with the natives -for the stores of ivory—some of them the produce of centuries—which -most of them possess. Unless the trader knows his business, however, -the simple-minded natives will sell him the so-called “dead” ivory -from the bottom of the pile rather than the “live” ivory of elephants -recently killed, which, because of its greater elasticity and better -colour, commands a much higher price, and, I might add, forms but a -small part of the supply. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of half a -million pounds of ivory are shipped from Zanzibar each year to make -the toilet-articles and billiard-balls and piano-keys of the world. - -The population of Zanzibar is pretty evenly divided between Arabs -and Swahilis, with a considerable sprinkling of East Indians, who -play the same rôles of peddlers, petty tradesmen, and money-lenders -in the Orient that the Jews and Armenians do in the Occident. The -dress of the Swahili is as simple as it is striking: two lengths of -cotton cloth, called _kanga_, one draped about the waist and the other -about the shoulders, with an extra remnant twisted into a turban, -form the costume of men and women alike, though the Swahili women, -in addition to the _kanga_ proper, wear cotton pantalets resembling -those in fashion in ante-bellum days, edged at the ankles with neat -little frills, like those the chefs at fashionable restaurants put on -lamb chops. These _kangas_ are crudely stamped in an endless variety -of startling patterns, some of the more elaborate designs looking, -from a little distance, as though embroidered. The inventiveness of -the British, Belgian, and German designers must be sorely taxed, for -the fashions in East Africa change as rapidly as they do in Paris and -with as little warning, the _kangas_ stamped with card-pips—hearts, -diamonds, clubs, and spades—which were all the rage among Zanzibar's -dusky leaders of fashion for a time, suddenly giving place to those -bearing crude pictures of sailing-ships or Arabic quotations from the -Koran. One negro dandy whom I saw paraded the streets, the envied of -all his fellows, wearing a _kanga_ on which was printed, in endless -repetition, the British coat of arms and the loyal motto “God Save -the King!” while still another swaggered by in a garment sprinkled -over with the legend in letters six inches high “Remember the Maine!” -Though the important trade in cotton goods which we once had with East -Africa has long since passed into British and German hands, there is -a certain melancholy satisfaction in knowing that, so firmly does -the reputation of our cottons endure, the natives of all this region -still insist on the piece goods which they purchase, whether made in -Manchester or Dresden, bearing the stamp “American,” and will take no -other. - -The costumes of the Arabs, on the other hand, recall all the stories -of pirates and slave-traders which one associates with this romantic -coast, for the men, ignoring the law which prohibits the carrying of -arms, swagger insolently through the streets with dagger-filled sashes -and trailing scimiters, their white _jibbahs_ flapping about their -sandalled feet and their snowy turbans cocked rakishly. The dress of -the Arab women of Zanzibar resembles the costume of no other people, -its characteristic features being the immense, doughnut-shaped turbans -and the frilled, skin-tight trousers striped like barber-poles. - -[Illustration: ARAB WOMEN OF ZANZIBAR. - -“Their dress resembles the costume of no other people, its -characteristic features being the immense, doughnut-shaped turbans and -the frilled, skin-tight trousers striped like barber-poles.”] - -The universal medium of communication in Zanzibar and along the East -Coast is Swahili, this _lingua franca_ being generally used not only -between Arabs and natives, and between natives and Europeans, but -between Europeans themselves, the English, French, and Portuguese -traders who do business in German East Africa depending entirely upon -this mutually understood tongue for conversing with the Germans. I -remember once, in Dar-es-Salam, listening to an Englishman who knew no -French and a Frenchman who knew no English hold an animated political -argument, and later on bargain with the German hotel-keeper for -accommodations in the same outlandish tongue. - -I have always found that the farther people dwell from civilisation, -the more punctilious they are about observing its usages. That is why -English officials at remote and lonely stations in India invariably -put on evening clothes before they sit down to their solitary dinners, -and why the question of precedence is not taken nearly as seriously -in London or Paris or New York as it is in Entebbe or Sierra Leone. -One would quite naturally suppose that the Europeans dwelling in those -sun-scorched, fever-ridden, God-forsaken countries along the East -Coast would adopt the careless attitude of Kipling's homesick soldier, -who longed for a land “where there ain't no Ten Commandments and a man -can raise a thirst”; but, strangely enough, the exact opposite is the -case. There is plenty of drinking throughout Africa, it is true, for -the white men dwelling there will assure you that to exist in such a -climate a man must “keep his liver afloat,” but, though heavy drinking -is the rule, the man who so far loses control of himself as to step -beyond the bounds of decency is ostracised with a promptness and -completeness unheard of in more civilised places. This respect for the -social conventions was graphically illustrated by an unpleasant little -episode which occurred during my stay in Zanzibar. A young Englishman, -who had been rubber-prospecting in the wilds of the back country for -nearly a year, celebrated his return to civilisation, or what stands -out there for civilisation, by giving a stag dinner at the club. It -was rather a hilarious affair, as such things go, and when it broke -up at dawn every one had had quite as much to drink as was good for -him, while the youthful host had had entirely too much. In fact, he -insisted on winding up the jollification by smashing all the crockery -and glassware in sight, and, when the native steward remonstrated, -he tripped him up very neatly and sat on him. Some hours later, being -sober and very much ashamed of himself, he sent a check for the damage -he had done, together with a manly letter of apology, to the board of -governors, which promptly responded by demanding his resignation. Now, -to drop a man from a club in East Africa is equivalent to marooning -him on a desert island, for out there the club is invariably the -rendezvous of the respectable European society, the only place where -one can get a European book or newspaper to read or a well-cooked -meal to eat, and the scene of those dinners, dances, card parties, -charades, and other forms of amusement which help to make existence in -that region endurable. Not content with demanding his resignation and -thus closing to him the gateway to every decent form of recreation in -Zanzibar, the virtuous board of governors notified every other club on -the coast of its action, so that when business called the youngster to -Mombasa or Dar-es-Salam or Lourenço Marques, he found himself barred -from the privileges of the clubs in those places as well. But his -punishment did not end there, for, a few days after his escapade, two -club members to whom he nodded upon the street cut him dead, while -another, a man whom he had known intimately for years, answered his -greeting by remarking, as he raised his eyebrows, “Really, sir, I -don't think I have the pleasure of your acquaintance.” - -In the happy-go-lucky days before the reorganisation of our consular -service a profane and uncouth lumberman named Mulligan—the name will -do as well as another—was rewarded for certain political services -by being appointed consul at Zanzibar. At that time the American -consulate was in a building on the edge of the harbour and almost next -door to the Sultan's palace. Mulligan had not been in Zanzibar a week -before he began to complain that he was being robbed of his sleep by -the women of the royal harem, who chose the comparatively cool hour -just before sunrise in which to bathe on the sandy beach below the -consulate windows. Mulligan, after making numerous complaints without -receiving any satisfaction, openly announced that the next morning he -was disturbed he would take the law into his own hands. He did not -have to wait long for an opportunity, for, returning a few nights -later from an unusually late séance at the club, he had scarcely -fallen asleep when he was aroused by the shrieks of laughter of native -women bathing beneath his window. Springing out of bed, he caught up -a shot-gun standing in the corner, slipped in a shell loaded with -bird-shot, and, pushing the muzzle out of the window, fired at random. -The roar of the discharge was echoed by a chorus of piercing screams -and Arabic ejaculations of pain and terror, whereupon the consul, -satisfied that he had effectually frightened the disturbers of his -rest, returned to bed and to sleep. An hour later he was reawakened -by his excited vice-consul, who burst into the bedroom exclaiming, -“You'll have to get out of here quick, Mr. Consul! It won't be healthy -for you in Zanzibar after what happened this morning. There's a German -boat in the harbour and if you hurry you'll just about catch her! But -there's no time to spare.” “Now, what the devil have I got to get out -of here for, confound you?” demanded the consul, now thoroughly awake -and thoroughly angry. “Certainly not because I frightened a lot of -nigger wenches who were waking me up at four o'clock every morning -with their damned hullabaloo?” “Nigger wenches nothing!” exclaimed the -vice-consul, as he began to throw his chief's belongings into a trunk. -“When you let off that load of bird-shot this morning you peppered -the Sultan's favourite wife, and now the old man's fairly hopping -with rage and swears that he'll have your life even if you are the -American consul.” Forty minutes later ex-Consul Mulligan ascended the -gangway of a homeward-bound steamer, for those were the days before -the British protectorate, when the tyrannical sultans of Zanzibar were -laws unto themselves. - -The morning before I left I went with the consul to call on -his Highness Seyyid Ali bin Hamoud bin Mohammed, the Sultan of -Zanzibar.[3] The 'rickshaw stopped with a jerk in front of the -handsome iron gates of the palace; the guard turned out and presented -arms, while a negro bugler sounded a barbaric fanfare; an official in -white linen and much gold lace met us at the entrance and escorted -us up flight after flight of heavily carpeted stairs, until we -emerged, breathless and perspiring, on the breeze-swept upper -veranda of the four-story building, which, with its long piazzas -and its uncompromising architecture, looks more than anything else -like an American summer hotel. After a quarter of an hour spent in -smoking highly perfumed cigarettes, another official announced that -his Highness would receive us, and we were ushered into a small room -furnished like an office, where a pleasant-looking young negro of -twenty-six or so was sitting at an American roll-top desk dictating -letters to an English secretary. Like every one else, he was dressed -entirely in white linen, with a red tarboosh, gold shoulder-straps, -and pumps of white buckskin. Motioning us to be seated, he offered us -more of the perfumed cigarettes, inquiring, with an Eton accent, as to -the state of my health, when I arrived, what were my impressions of -Zanzibar, when I intended to leave, and where I was going. As we were -bowing ourselves out, after ten minutes of perfunctory conversation, -the Sultan's secretary sidled up and whispered: “His Highness expects -that you will give him the pleasure of staying to luncheon.” - -[3] Since this was written Sultan Ali bin Hamoud has abdicated in -favour of his cousin, Seyyid Khalifa. - -The luncheon was very much the same as one would get at Sherry's -or Claridge's or the Café de Paris, except that for our special -benefit a few native dishes with strange names and still stranger -flavours had been added to the menu. The wines were irreproachable -and the Hodeidah coffee and Aleppo cigarettes could have been had -nowhere west of Suez. My eye was caught by the magnificence of the -jewel-monogrammed cigarette-case which the Sultan constantly passed -to me, and I ventured to comment on it admiringly. “Do you like it?” -said he, with a pleased smile. “It is only a trifle that I picked up -last spring in Paris. Accept it from me as a little souvenir of your -visit to Zanzibar—really—please do.” Quite naturally I hesitated, as -who would not at accepting offhand a thing worth a couple of thousand -rupees. The Sultan looked disappointed. “It is not worthy of you,” he -remarked. “Some day I shall send you something more fitting,” and he -put it back in his pocket. All the rest of my stay in Zanzibar I kept -thinking how near I came to getting that magnificent case, and what a -story it would have made to tell at dinner tables over the camembert -and coffee; and it almost spoiled my visit. As I was leaving the -palace the military secretary inquired: “Why on earth didn't you take -the cigarette case when the Sultan offered it?” “Polite hesitation,” I -replied. “I was going to accept it in just a minute.” “In the East you -should accept first and hesitate afterward,” he answered. - -After luncheon I played billiards with the Sultan. He is a good -player, and it was no trouble at all to let royalty win gracefully. -The conversation turned on America. It seemed that the two Americans -whom his Highness most admired were Theodore Roosevelt and John Philip -Sousa; the one because he had visited Africa and proved himself a -real _shikari_; the other because he had immortalised the Sultan's -dominions in his _A Typical Tune of Zanzibar_. (It happened that a -month or so later I dined with Mr. Sousa in Johannesburg and told him -this incident, whereupon he offered to send the Sultan an autographed -copy of _El Capitan_. If he has forgotten to do it, this will serve to -remind him that the Sultan's address is still “The Palace, Zanzibar.”) -Incidentally his Highness mentioned that he was about to be married. -Later on the English secretary supplemented this by explaining that -his latest bride—he already had three wives—was the fifteen-year-old -daughter of a well-to-do merchant in the bazaars, with whom the -Sultan had been haggling regarding the price to be paid for the girl -for a year or more. After a time we strolled out on the breeze-swept -veranda. As I leaned over the railing I noticed something sticking up -out of the harbour and I pointed to it. “What is that, your Highness?” -I inquired. “A wreck,” he answered shortly. “A wreck! A wreck of -what?” I persisted. “The wreck of the Zanzibar navy,” he said, turning -away—and I suddenly recalled the story of the little gun-boat with -its negro crew that stood up to the great British cruiser and banged -away with its toy guns until it was sent to the bottom with every man -on board, and all at once I felt very sorry for this youth, whose -fathers held sway over a dominion as large as all that part of the -United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains, but which, thanks to -the insatiable land hunger of the European nations, has dwindled to a -territory scarcely larger than Rhode Island. - -That in the not far-distant future Zanzibar will again play a part -in the drama of international politics there is but little doubt. -The island's position adjacent to the mainland, from which it is -separated by a channel less than thirty miles wide, combined with -the advantages of its deep and roomy harbour, mark it naturally as -the chief entrepôt of all East Africa, and the gate through which the -interior of the continent is destined to be opened up to European -settlement and exploitation. Being almost equidistant—some two -thousand four hundred miles—from India, the Cape, and the Canal, and -controlling the lines of cable communication with Madagascar and -Mauritius, it affords a strategic position of immense importance as -a naval base in the contingency of closing the Suez Canal in time of -war. Germany has long had a greedy eye on Zanzibar, for the nation -that holds it controls, both strategically and commercially, Germany's -East African possessions and their capital of Dar-es-Salam. That -England would be willing to turn Zanzibar over to Germany in return -for the cession of a strip of territory through German East Africa -which would permit the completion of her long-dreamed-of, and at -present indefinitely interrupted, Cape-to-Cairo trunk line, there is -every reason to believe. So I trust that the little brown man in the -white-and-gold uniform will enjoy playing at sovereignty while he -may, for if that day ever comes to pass when the red banner on his -palace flagstaff is replaced with the standard of Germany, there will -pass into the pleasant oblivion of the Paris boulevards the last of -a long line of one-time powerful, oftentimes piratical, but always -picturesque rulers, the Sultans of Zanzibar. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE SPIKED HELMET IN AFRICA - - -The other day two suave, frock-coated gentlemen, seated at a -green-covered table in the Foreign Office in Berlin, by putting their -names to the bottom of a piece of parchment, caused a territory -almost as large as the State of Texas to become French, and another -territory, larger than the State of Oregon, to become German. About as -many people were affected, though not consulted, by that international -dicker—which has passed into history as the Morocco-Equatoria -Convention—as there are in the county of London. The lot of about -four-fifths of these people will doubtless be materially improved, and -in a few years, if they have any gratitude in their Moorish souls, -they will be thanking Allah for having given them French instead of -Sherifian justice. As for those Congolese blacks who compose the other -fifth, they will soon find, unless I am very much mistaken, that the -red-white-and-black flag stands for something very different from the -red-white-and-blue one, and that the stiff-backed, guttural-tongued -German officers in their tight-fitting uniforms will prove sterner -masters than the easy-going French _administrateurs_ in their topées -and white linen. - -Now the significance of that convention does not lie in its -ethics—which are very questionable; nor in the territory and -population and resources concerned—which are very great; but in the -fact that it brings within reasonable measure of fulfilment the -imperial dream which William II began dreaming some seven and twenty -years ago, and which he recently translated to the world in the -declaration “Germany's future lies oversea.” In those four words is -found the foreign policy of the Fatherland. The episode which began -with the sending of a war-ship to an obscure port of Morocco and ended -with Germany's acquirement of a material addition to her African -domain was not, as the world supposes, an example of the haphazard -land-grabbing so popular with European nations, but a single phase of -a vast and carefully laid scheme whose aim is the creation of a new -and greater Germany oversea—a _Deutschland über Meer_. - -To solve the problems with which she has been confronted by -her amazing increase in population and production, Germany has -deliberately embarked on a systematic campaign of world expansion -and exploitation. Finding that she needs a colonial empire in her -business, she is setting out to build one just as she would build a -fleet of dreadnoughts or a ship canal. The fact that she has nothing -or next to nothing to start with, does not worry her at all. What she -cannot obtain by purchase or treaty site will obtain by threats, and -what she cannot obtain by threats she stands perfectly ready to obtain -by going to war. Having once made up her mind that the realisation of -her political, commercial, and economic ambitions requires her to have -a colonial dominion, she is not going to permit anything to stand in -the way of her getting it. In other words, wherever an excuse can be -provided for raising a flagstaff, whether on an ice-floe in the Arctic -or an atoll in the South Pacific, there the German flag shall flutter; -wherever trade is to be found, there Hamburg cargo boats shall drop -their anchors, there Stettin engines shall thunder over Essen rails, -there Solingen cutlery and Silesian cottons shall be sold by merchants -speaking the language of the Fatherland. It is a scheme astounding -by its very vastness, as methodically planned as a breakfast-food -manufacturer's advertising campaign and as systematically conducted; -and already, thanks to Teutonic audacity, aggressiveness, and -perseverance, backed up by German banks, fleets, and armies, much -nearer realisation than most people suppose. - -In Morocco, East Africa, and the Congo; in Turkey, Persia, and -Malaysia; in Hayti, Brazil, and the Argentine; on the shores of all -the continents and the islands of all the seas, German merchants and -German money are working twenty-four hours a day building up that -oversea empire of which the Kaiser dreams. The activities of these -pioneers of commerce and finance are as varied as commerce and finance -themselves. Their guttural voices are heard in every market place; -their footsteps resound in every avenue of human endeavour. Their -holdings in Brazil are the size of European kingdoms, and so absolute -has their power become in at least two states—Santa Catharina and Rio -Grande do Sul—that the Brazilian Government has become seriously -alarmed. Their mines in Persia and China and the Rand rival the cave -of Aladdin. They are completing a trunk line across western Asia which -threatens to endanger England's commercial supremacy in India; in -Africa they are pushing forward another railway from the shores of the -Indian Ocean to the Great Lakes which will rival the Cape-to-Cairo -system in tapping the trade of the Dark Continent. They own the -light, power, and transportation monopolies of half the capitals of -Latin America. In China the coal mines and railways of the great -province of Shantung are in their hands. They work tea plantations in -Ceylon, tobacco plantations in Cuba and Sumatra, coffee plantations -in Guatemala, rubber plantations in the Congo, hemp plantations in -East Africa, and cotton plantations in the Delta of the Nile. Their -argosies, flying the house flags of the Hamburg American, the North -German Lloyd, the German East Africa, the Deutsche Levante, and a -score of other lines, carry German goods to German warehouses in the -world's remotest corners, while German war-ships are constantly aprowl -all up and down the Seven Seas, ready to protect the interests thus -created by the menace of their guns. - -Back of the German miners and traders and railway builders are the -great German banks, which, when all is said and done, are the real -exploiters of Germany's interests oversea. So completely are the -foreign interests of the nation in their hands that there is no reason -to doubt the story that the Emperor, when warned by the great bankers -whom he had summoned to a conference over the ominous Moroccan -situation that war with France would endanger, if not destroy, -Germany's oversea ambitions, turned to his ministers with the remark, -“Then, gentlemen, we must find a peaceable solution.” We of the West -have not yet awakened to a realisation of the magnitude of Germany's -foreign interests or to the almost sovereign powers which the banks -behind them exercise in certain quarters of the world—particularly in -that Latin America which we have complacently regarded as securely -within our own commercial sphere. In Asia Minor the Deutsche Bank not -only controls the great Anatolian Railway system but it is building -the Bagdad Railway—probably the most important of Germany's foreign -undertakings—these two German-owned systems providing a route by which -German goods can be carried over German rails to India more cheaply -than England can transport her own goods to her possessions in her own -bottoms. In one hand the Disconto Bank Gesellschaft holds the railway -and mining concessions of the Chinese province of Shantung, while with -the other it reaches out across the world to grasp the railway system -of Venezuela, it being to enforce certain claims of this bank that -the German gun-boat _Panther_—the same that occupied Agadir—bombarded -La Guayra in 1902 and as a consequence brought the relations of the -United States and Germany uncomfortably close to the breaking-point. -Seven German banks—the German-Asiatic Bank, the German-Brazilian -Bank, the German-Orient Bank, the German-Palestine Bank, the Bank -of Chile and Germany, the Bank of Central America, and the German -Overseas Bank—devote themselves exclusively to the exploitation of -foreign concessions, either owning or dominating enterprises of -every conceivable character in the regions denoted by their titles -or lending financial assistance to German subjects engaged in such -undertakings. - -A few years ago, when Germany was starting in the race for naval -supremacy, the Imperial Admiralty issued a review of Germany's oversea -interests for the purpose of impressing the Reichstag with the -necessity for dreadnoughts and then more dreadnoughts. Here are some -of the figures, taken from the list at random, and the more impressive -because they are from official sources and because, since they were -published, they have materially increased: - - North Africa $25,000,000 - Egypt 22,500,000 - Liberia 1,250,000 - Zanzibar 1,500,000 - Mozambique 2,750,000 - Madagascar 1,500,000 - British South Africa 337,500,000 - Turkey and the Balkans 112,500,000 - British India and Ceylon 27,500,000 - Straits Settlements 8,750,000 - China 87,500,000 - Mexico 87,500,000 - Venezuela and Colombia 312,500,000 - Peru and Chile 127,500,000 - Argentine 187,500,000 - Brazil 400,000,000 - -And this endless caravan of figures represents but a fraction of -Germany's transmarine interests, remember, for it does not include -her colonies on both coasts of Africa, in North China, and in the -South Seas. Now, if you will again glance over the above list of -Germany's foreign interests, you can hardly fail to be struck by the -fact that by far the greater part of them are in countries notorious -for the weakness and instability of their governments, as, for -example, China, Morocco, Turkey, Liberia, Mexico, and Venezuela; or -in countries which, though possessing stable governments, would not -be strong enough successfully to resist German aggression or German -demands. In regions where German settlers abound and where German -banks are in financial control it is seldom difficult for Germany -to find an excuse for meddling. It may be that a German settler is -attacked, or a German consul insulted, or a German bank has difficulty -in collecting its debts. So the slim cables carry a dash-dotted -message to the Foreign Office in Berlin; instantly the cry goes up -that in Morocco or China or Venezuela or Hayti German “interests” -are imperilled; and before the government of the country in question -realises that anything out of the ordinary has happened a cruiser with -a German flag drooping from her taffrail is lying off one of its coast -towns. Before the silent menace of that war-ship is removed, Germany -generally manages to obtain a concession to build a railway, or a -ninety-nine-year lease of a coaling-station, or the cession of a strip -of more or less valuable territory, and so goes merrily and steadily -on the work of building up a German empire oversea. - -But these interests, world-wide though they are, fail to satisfy -the German expansionist party whose prophet is the Kaiser. They -demand something more material than figures; they would see the -German flag floating over government houses instead of warehouses, -over fortifications instead of plantations. They would see more of -the map of the world painted in German colours. But Germany was late -in getting into the colonising game, so that wherever she has gone -she has found other nations already in possession. In North Africa -her prospectors and concession-hunters found the French too firmly -established to be ousted; the only territory left in South Africa over -which she could raise her flag was so arid and worthless that neither -England nor Portugal had troubled to include it in their dominions; -though she bullied China into leasing her the port of Kiauchau, the -further territorial expansion in the Celestial Empire of which she had -dreamed was halted by Russian jealousy and Japanese ambition; around -Latin America—the most enticing field of all—stretched the protecting -arm of the Monroe Doctrine. - -Now, these “Keep Off the Grass” signs with which she was everywhere -confronted did not improve Germany's disposition. They made her feel -abused and peevish, and whenever she saw a foreign flag flying over -some God-forsaken islet in the Pacific or a stretch of snake-infested -African jungle, she resented it deeply and said that she was being -denied “a place in the sun.” So when France despatched an expedition -to Fez in the summer of 1911 to teach the Moorish tribesmen proper -respect for French property and French lives, Germany seized on that -action as an excuse for occupying a Moroccan harbour and a strip of -the adjacent coast, on the pretext that her interests there were being -jeopardised, and flatly refused to evacuate it unless France gave -her something in return. I might mention, in passing, that Germany's -interests in Morocco are considerably more important than is generally -supposed, the powerful Westphalian firm of Mannesmann Brothers having -obtained from Sultan Abdul Aziz extensive mining, ranching, and -plantation concessions in that portion of his empire which the German -newspapers proceeded to prematurely dub “_West Marokko Deutsch_.” -The rich iron deposits in this region, when taken in conjunction -with the alarming decrease of the ore supply in the German mines and -the consequent shortage which threatens the German iron and steel -industry, undoubtedly provided one of the reasons underlying the -Kaiser's interference with the French programme in Morocco. - -France, knowing full well the enormous political and commercial value -of Morocco, and determined to complete her African empire by its -acquirement, after months of haggling, during which battle-ships and -army corps were moved about like chessmen, consented to compensate -Germany by ceding her a slice of the colony of French Equatorial -Africa, better known, perhaps, as the French Congo.[4] It was a good -bargain that France made, too, for she took an empire and gave a -jungle in exchange. But Germany made the better bargain, it seems -to me, for by agreeing to a French protectorate over Morocco she -obtained one hundred thousand square miles of African soil without -its costing her a foot of land or a dollar in exchange. From the -view-point of the world at large, Germany emerged from the Moroccan -imbroglio with a good-sized strip of equatorial territory, presumably -rich in undeveloped resources, certainly rich in savages, snakes, -and fevers, and, everything considered, of very doubtful value. But -to Germany this stretch of jungle land meant far more than that. It -was a territory which she had wanted, watched, and waited for ever -since she entered the game of colonial expansion. It is one of the -links—in many respects the most essential one—which she requires to -connect her scattered possessions in the Dark Continent and to bar the -advance of her great rival, England, to the northward by stretching an -unbroken chain of German colonies across Africa from coast to coast. -The acquisition of that piece of west-coast jungle marked the greatest -stride which Germany has yet taken in her march toward an empire -oversea. - -[4] Germany has given her new colony the official designation “New -Kamerun.” - -Heretofore Germany has been in much the same predicament as a boy who -tries to put a picture puzzle together when some of the pieces are -missing. In Germany's case the missing pieces were held by England, -France, Belgium, and Portugal, and they refused to give them up. If -you will open the family atlas to the map of Africa, you will see that -Germany's four colonies on that continent are so widely separated that -their consolidation is apparently out of the question. Northernmost -of all, and set squarely in the middle of that pestilential coast-line -variously named and noted for its slaves, its ivory, and its gold, -and aptly called “the rottenest coast in the world,” is the colony -of Togo. Approximately the size of Cuba and rich in native products, -it is so remote from the other German possessions that its only -value is in providing Germany with a _quid pro quo_ which she can -use in negotiating for some territory more desirable. In the right -angle formed by the Gulf of Guinea is the colony of Kamerun, a rich, -fertile, and exceedingly unhealthful possession about the size of -Spain. Though its hinterland reaches inland to Lake Tchad, it has -hitherto been destitute of good harbours or navigable rivers, being -barred from the Niger by British Nigeria and from the Congo, until -the recent territorial readjustment, by French Equatorial Africa. -Follow the same coast-line twelve hundred miles to the southward and -you will come to German Southwest Africa, a barren, inhospitable, -sparsely populated land, stretching from a harbourless coast as far -inland as the Desert of Kalahari. On the other side of the continent, -just south of the Equator, lies German East Africa, almost twice the -size of the mother country and the largest and richest of the Kaiser's -transmarine possessions. The combined area of these four colonies is -equal to that of all the States east of the Mississippi put together; -certainly a substantial foundation on which to begin the erection of -an empire, especially when it is remembered that French Africa, which -now comprises forty-five per cent of the continent, is for the most -part the work of but a single generation. - -When Monsieur Cambon and Herr von Kiderlein-Waechter put their pens to -the piece of parchment of which I have already spoken, the boundary of -the Kamerun was automatically extended southward almost to the Equator -and eastward some hundreds of miles to the Logone River, the apex of -the angle formed by the meeting of these new frontiers touching the -Congo River and thereby bringing the Kamerun into contact with the -Belgian Congo. In other words, Germany's great colonies on either -coast are no longer separated by French and Belgian territory, but -by Belgian alone—and Belgium, remember, is both weak and neutral. -Now, it is by no means beyond the bounds of possibility that Belgium -might consent to sell Germany either the whole or a portion of the -Congo, for the financial difficulties of that colony have been very -great, and it has never been able to pay its way, its wants having -been supplied at first by large gifts of money from King Leopold, -and more recently by loans raised and guaranteed by Belgium. This -unsatisfactory financial condition not having helped to popularise -the Congo with the thrifty Belgians, there is considerable reason to -believe that the Brussels Government would lend an attentive ear to -any proposals which Germany might make toward its purchase. England -might be expected, of course, to oppose the sale of the Congo to -Germany tooth and nail, it being the fear of just such an eventuality -which caused her to seize on the rubber atrocities as an excuse for -her vigorous and persistent advocacy of the internationalisation -of the Congo. Though France holds the reversionary rights to the -Congo, there are no grounds for believing that she would place any -serious obstacles in the way of its acquisition by Germany, for she -has given it to be understood that she intends devoting her energies -henceforward to the exploitation of her enormous possessions in North -Africa. Assuming, then—and these assumptions, believe me, are not -nearly so chimerical as they may sound—that the Belgian Government -should sell Germany all or a part of the Congo, Germany's possessions -would then stretch across the continent from coast to coast, -comprising all that is most worth having in Equatorial Africa. - -While we are about it, let us carry our assumptions one step farther -and take it for granted that Portugal could be induced to dispose -of her great west-coast colony of Angola, to which Germany already -possesses the reversionary rights. It is not only possible, but -probable, that a good round offer of money, or perhaps another Agadir -performance, based on some easily found pretext and backed up by -German war-ships in the Tagus, would induce the Lisbon Government -to hand over Angola, along with its fevers and its slavery, to the -Germans. Portugal is bitterly poor, its government is weak and -vacillating, and a long list of failures has left the people with -little stomach for colonisation. The Portuguese Republic has few -friends among the monarchical nations of Europe and could count on -scant aid from them in resisting Teutonic coercion. It is asserted -in diplomatic circles, indeed, that the ink on the Morocco-Equatoria -Convention was scarcely dry before the German minister in Lisbon had -opened secret _pourparlers_ with the Portuguese Foreign Office with -a view to the purchase of both Angola and the east-coast colony of -Mozambique.[5] The acquisition of Angola would supply Germany with the -final link needed to unite her colonies in East, West, and Southwest -Africa, thus giving her an African empire second in size only to that -of France. Far-fetched and far-distant as all this may sound, I have -but roughly sketched for you that imperial dream for whose fulfilment -the Kaiser and his people are indefatigably working and confidently -waiting. - -[5] Though commonly applied to the colony of Portuguese East -Africa, the name Mozambique belongs, strictly speaking, only to the -northernmost province of that possession. - -Very few people are aware that, as long ago as 1898, England and -Germany concluded a secret agreement which definitely provides for -the eventual disposition of Portugal's African possessions. Of its -true history and scope, however, little has ever leaked out. It grew -out of Joseph Chamberlain's restless and ambitious schemes for the -consolidation of British dominion in Africa. Appreciating, early in -the Boer War, that England's success in that struggle would largely -depend upon Germany remaining strictly neutral, that master statesman -proposed to the Berlin Government a plan the effect of which was to -divide the reversion of Angola and Mozambique between Great Britain -and Germany, inferentially leaving the former a free hand south of -the Zambezi. This was the famous Secret Treaty, the final text of -which was afterward signed by Lord Salisbury, and it was largely -in virtue of this agreement that England was free from German -interference during the Boer War. It is an interesting comment on the -ethics of international politics that this remarkable agreement was -concluded without any consultation of Portugal, the country the most -vitally concerned. Delagoa Bay is no longer as imperative a necessity -to England as it was in 1898, at which time it was the quickest way -to reach the Transvaal, and, on the other hand, the West Coast is -daily becoming more important for strategical and commercial reasons, -for the “Afro” railway, of which I have made mention in the chapter -on Morocco, will become in the near future the great highway between -Europe and South America, while the railway now being built between -Benguela (Lobito Bay) and the Katanga region will provide the easiest -and quickest means of communicating with Rhodesia and the Transvaal. -The terms of the Anglo-German Secret Treaty are of interest, however, -as indicating how that portion of the African continent lying south -of the Congo will be eventually parcelled out, and as showing the -framework on which is being slowly but surely constructed Germany's -African empire. - -The erection of such a German state across the middle of Africa would -have far-reaching results in more directions than one. In the first -place, it would end forever England's long-cherished ambition of -eventually linking up her Sudanese and South African possessions -and thus completing an “All Red” route from Cairo to the Cape. In -the second place, Germany is now in a position to build her own -transcontinental railway—from east to west instead of from north -to south—on German or neutral soil all the way, thus removing the -completion of the Cape-to-Cairo system, even under international -auspices, to a very distant day, and making Dar-es-Salam and Duala, -instead of Cape Town and Alexandria, the starting-points for those -highways of steel which are destined to open up inner Africa. - -It is surprising how little even the well-informed know of these -far places which Germany has taken for her own. Fertile spots as -any upon earth, covered with hard-wood forests and watered by many -rivers, when seen from the shade of an awning over a ship's deck -they are as alluring as the stage of a theatre set for a sylvan -opera. Go a thousand yards back from that smiling coast, however, -and the illusion disappears, for you find a country whose hostile -natives, savage beasts, and deadly fevers combine to make it deserving -of its title—“the white man's graveyard.” The statesmen of the -Wilhelmstrasse must have taken a long look into the future when they -raised the German flag over such lands as these. The returns they -have yielded thus far would have discouraged a man less sanguine -than William Hohenzollern. Though subsidised German steam-ships ply -along their coasts, though their forests resound to the clank and -clang of German railway-builders' tools, though the plantations of -government-assisted settlers dot the back country, though she has -spent on them thousands of lives and millions of marks, Germany's -only returns thus far have been a few annual tons of ivory, copra, -and rubber, some excellent but unprofitable harbours, and many lonely -stations where her sons contract fevers and pessimism. But I would -stake my life that this out-of-the-way, back-of-beyond, sun-blistered, -fever-stricken German Africa will be a great colony some day. - -From the care with which they are laid out, from the perfection of -their sanitary arrangements, from the substantiality of their public -buildings and official residences and their suitability to the -climatic conditions, the travellers who confine their investigations -to the coast are readily deceived into thinking that Tanga and -Bagamoyo and Dar-es-Salam and Swakopmund and Duala are the gateways -to rich and prosperous colonies. From the very outset, however, -the imperial government based its claim for popular support in its -colonial ventures upon the erroneous assumption that German colonies -would attract Germans, and that in this way the language of the -Fatherland would be spread abroad and eventually supplant that of -Shakespeare. The Germans, however, have stubbornly refused to go to -their own colonies, preferring those where English is the speech and -where there are fewer officials and more freedom. To-day, therefore, -you find the model German towns, so perfectly built that you feel as -though you were walking through a municipal exhibition, almost wholly -peopled by brass-bound, hide-bound officials, while the German traders -are carrying on thriving businesses under the English flag at Mombasa -and Zanzibar and Sierra Leone. - -Now, Germany has no one but herself to blame for this condition of -affairs, having brought it about by the short-sightedness of her -colonial policy and the harshness and incapacity of her officials. -Intending to found industrial colonies, she created military -settlements instead, administering and exploiting them, not as if they -were German lands, but as if they were an enemy's country. Nothing -emphasises more sharply the purely military character of Germany's -African colonies than the fact that there are seven soldiers or -officials to every German civilian. Dwelling in idleness, in one of -the most trying climates in the world, the officials seem to take a -malicious satisfaction in interfering with the civil population, thus -driving the traders—who form the backbone of every colony—to take up -their residence in English ports and so paralysing German trade. The -soldiers, for want of something better to do, are forever seeking -advancement by making unnecessary expeditions into the hinterland for -the purpose of “punishing” the natives, thus causing them to migrate -by wholesale into British, Belgian, and even Portuguese territory, so -that the German colonies are left without labour and the plantations -are consequently being ruined. - -The needless severity of Germany's colonial rule is graphically -illustrated by the fact that during 1911 there were 14,849 criminal -convictions in German East Africa alone, or one conviction to every -637 natives; while in the adjoining protectorate of Uganda, among the -same type of natives but under a British administration, the ratio -of convictions was only one in 2,047. There is not a town in German -East Africa where you cannot see boys of from eight to fourteen -years, shackled together by chains running from iron collar to iron -collar and guarded by soldiers with loaded rifles, doing the work of -men under a deadly sun. Natives with bleeding backs are constantly -making their way into British and Belgian territory with tales of -maltreatment by German planters, while stories of German tyranny, -brutality, and corruption—of some instances of which I was myself a -witness—form staple topics of conversation on every club veranda and -steamer's deck along these coasts. In German Southwest Africa the -dearth of labour, owing to the practical extermination of the Herero -nation in Germany's last “little war” in that colony, has become a -serious and pressing problem. In a single campaign—which cost Germany -five hundred million marks and the lives of two thousand soldiers, -and which could have been avoided altogether by a little tact and -kindness—half the total population of the colony was killed in -battle or driven into the desert to perish. That is why the builders -of the Swakopmund-Otavi Railway in German Southwest Africa—the -longest two-foot-gauge line in the world—have to send to Europe for -their labour. Until Germany makes a radical change in her methods -of colonial administration, and until she learns that traders and -labourers are more essential to a colony's prosperity than pompous -and domineering officials, her colonial accounts will continue to -stand heaviest on the debit side of the ledger. - -Successful colonial administration in Africa, as in all tropical -countries, is largely a matter of temperament, and the stolid sons of -the Fatherland seem, strangely enough, to be more quickly affected by -the demoralising climate and to be irritated more easily than either -the English or the French. The Englishman's sense of justice and the -Frenchman's sense of humour are their chief assets as successful -colonisers and rulers of alien peoples, but the German colonial -official, who is generally serious by nature and almost always -domineering as the result of his training, possesses neither of these -invaluable attributes and is heavily handicapped in consequence. It -is no easy task with which he is confronted, remember. The loneliness -and the privations of the white man's life, and the debility that -comes from the heat and the rains and the fevers, when combined with -the strain of governing and educating an inconceivably lazy, stubborn, -stupid, and intractable people, make the job of an African official -one of the most trying in the world. The loneliness and the climate -seem to grip a German as they never do an Englishman, and he becomes -irritable and ugly and unreasonably annoyed by trifles, so that when -a native fails to get out of his way quickly enough, or to salute him -with the punctiliousness which he considers his due, he flies into a -rage and orders the man to be flogged. The native goes back to his -village with a bleeding back and hatred in his heart, and, as likely -as not, a bloody, costly, and troublesome native uprising ensues. -The African native is, after all, nothing but an overgrown and very -aggravating child, and his upbringing is a job for school-teachers -instead of drill sergeants, and the sooner the imperial government -appreciates that fact the better. - -I went to German East Africa, which is the Kaiser's star colony, -expecting to be deeply impressed; I came away deeply disappointed. It -is only about fifty miles from Zanzibar across to Dar-es-Salam, the -capital of the colony, but the local steamer, which is the size of a -Hudson River tugboat and rolls horribly on the slightest provocation, -manages to use up the better part of a day in making the trip. Seen -from the steamer's deck, Dar-es-Salam presents one of the most -enchanting pictures that I know, and every one who goes ashore there -does so with high expectations. Imagine, if you can, a city of two -hundred thousand people, with the imposing, red-roofed schools and -churches and hospitals and barracks and municipal buildings of, say, -Düsseldorf, and the white-walled, broad-verandaed, bungalow dwellings -of southern California; with concrete wharves and cement sidewalks and -beautifully macadamised roads and many public parks: imagine all this, -I say, dropped down in the midst of a palm grove on one of the hottest -and unhealthiest coasts in the world—that is Dar-es-Salam. The hotel -is, barring the one at Kandy in Ceylon and another at Ancon in the -Canal Zone, the best and most beautiful tropical hostelry I have ever -seen, but, as it is owned and run by the government, for the benefit -of its officials, its manager, a blond, florid-faced, pompadoured -Prussian, was as independent as a hotel clerk in a city where a -presidential convention is going on. Just as in the other German -colonies, I found East Africa to be suffering from a severe attack -of militarism. I saw more sentries and patrols and guards during my -four days' stay in Dar-es-Salam than I did in Constantinople during -the Turkish Revolution. I was lulled to sleep by regimental bugles -and I was awakened by them again at daybreak, and I never set foot -out of doors without meeting a column of native soldiery, their black -faces peering out stolidly from beneath the sun-aprons, their spindle -shanks encased in spiral puttees, their feet rising and falling in the -senseless “parade step” in time to the monotonous “_rechts! links! -rechts! links!_” of the German sergeant. But what struck me most -forcibly about Dar-es-Salam was that it appeared to have no business. -Apparently the soldiers had frightened it away. The harbours of -Mombasa and Zanzibar and Beira and Lourenço Marques are alive with -steamers taking on or discharging cargo (and quite two out of three of -them fly the German flag), and their streets are lined with offices -and warehouses and “factories” (over the doors of many of which are -signs bearing German names), and their wharves are piled high with -bales of merchandise going to or coming from the four corners of the -earth; but in the harbour of Dar-es-Salam, as in all the other German -harbours I visited, the only vessels are white German gun-boats or -rusty German tramps; its streets are lined with government offices -instead of business offices; on its wharves are a few puncheons of -palm-oil, or other products of the bush, and nothing more. - -[Illustration: Warundi warriors. German East Africa. - -Illustration: Native infantry. German East Africa. A few years ago -these men were just such savages as those shown above. - -THE HAND OF THE WAR LORD IN GERMAN AFRICA.] - -However much the administration of the German colonies may be open -to criticism, and however slow they may have been in commercial -development, I have nothing but praise and admiration for the -accomplishments of their railway-builders. From Dar-es-Salam I -travelled inland by railway motor-car nearly to Kilamatinde, a -distance of three hundred and seventy miles, through one of the most -savage regions in Africa, over one of the best graded and ballasted -roadbeds I have ever seen. The line is now being pushed forward from -Kilamatinde toward Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, which it will reach, -so the chief engineer assured me, by the summer of 1914. From Ujiji, -which, by the way, is the place where Stanley discovered Livingstone, -a steamer service will be inaugurated to Albertville, on the Belgian -shore of the lake, whence a line is under construction to the -navigable waters of the Lualaba, which is one of the chief tributaries -of the Congo; while another line of steamers will ply between Ujiji -and Kituta, in northeastern Rhodesia, which point the British -Cape-to-Cairo system is approaching. By the close of 1914, in all -probability therefore, the traveller who lands at Dar-es-Salam will -be able to travel by train, with the passage across Lake Tanganyika -as the only interruption, to the Cape of Good Hope, or by train and -river steamer to the mouth of the Congo, and in perfect comfort and -safety all the way. As Walfish Bay, the only harbour in Southwest -Africa worthy of the name, belongs to England, the Germans, finding -themselves unable to buy it and appreciating that a harbourless colony -is all but worthless, promptly set to work and built themselves -artificial harbours at Swakopmund and at Lüderitz Bay, though at -appalling cost. That Germany is exceedingly anxious to acquire -Walfish Bay, and that she stands ready to make almost any reasonable -concession to obtain it, there is little doubt. The mere fact that -Walfish Bay is owned by England is a source of constant aggravation -to the Germans, for it lies squarely in the middle of their Southwest -African coast-line, its roomy roadstead and deep anchorage being in -sharp contrast to the German port of Lüderitz Bay, which is being -rapidly sanded up, and that of Swakopmund, a harbour on which the -Berlin Government has already thrown away several millions of marks. -Lüderitz Bay is already connected with the inland town of Keetmanshoop -by three hundred and fifty miles of narrow-gauge line, and plans are -now under consideration for pushing this southeastward so as to link -up with the South African system near Kimberley, while from Swakopmund -another iron highway, four hundred miles long, gives access to the -Otavi copper-mining country and will doubtless be extended, in the not -far-distant future, to the Rhodesian border, tapping the main line of -the Cape-to-Cairo system in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls. - -[Illustration: Mr. and Mrs. Powell travelling by railway motor-car in -German Africa. - -Illustration: A way-station on the line of the German East African -Railway. - -RAILROADING THROUGH A JUNGLE.] - -I have laid considerable stress upon the subject of railways, -because it seems to me that in them lies the chief hope of the German -colonies, for wherever the railway goes there goes civilisation. -Throughout the vast and potentially rich regions thus being opened -up by the locomotive the imperial government is pouring out money -unstintingly in the construction of roads, bridges, and reservoirs, -the sinking of artesian wells, the establishment of telegraph -lines and postal routes, the erection of schools and hospitals, in -furnishing trees to the planters and machinery and live-stock to the -farmers, and in assisting immigration. So, if keeping everlastingly at -it brings success, I cannot but feel that the day will come when these -officers and officials, these soldiers and settlers, these traders and -tribesmen, will find their places and play their parts in the Kaiser's -imperial scheme of a new and greater Germany over the sea. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -“ALL ABOARD FOR CAPE TOWN!” - - -In Bulawayo, which is in Matabeleland, stands one of the most -significant and impressive statues in the world. From the middle of -that dusty, sun-baked thoroughfare known as Main Street rises the -bronze image of a bulky, thick-set, shabbily clad man, his hands -clasped behind him, his feet planted firmly apart, as he stares in -profound meditation northward over Africa. Cecil John Rhodes was -the dreamer's name, and in his vision he saw twin lines of steel -stretching from the Cape of Good Hope straight away to the shores of -the Mediterranean; a railway, to use his own words, “cutting Africa -through the centre and picking up trade all the way.” - -If ever a man was a strange blending of dreamer and materialist, of -utopian and buccaneer, of Clive and Hastings with Hawkins and Drake, -it was Cecil Rhodes. In other words, he dreamed great dreams and let -no scruples stand in the way of their fulfilment. Having trekked over -nearly the whole of that vast territory that stretches northward -from the Orange and the Vaal to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, his -imagination saw in this fertile, sparsely settled country virgin soil -for the building up of a new and greater Britain. The predominance -of the British in Egypt and in South Africa, and the fact that the -territory under British control stretched with but a single break -from the mouths of the Nile to Table Bay, gave rise in the great -empire-builder's mind to the project of a trunk-line railway “from -the Cape to Cairo,” and under the British flag all the way. Though -Rhodes's dream of an “All Red” railway was rudely shattered by the -Convention of 1889, which allowed Germany to stretch a barrier across -the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Congo State, he never -abandoned the hope that a British zone would eventually be acquired -through German East Africa, either by treaty or purchase, even going -so far as to open negotiations with the Kaiser to this end on his own -initiative. - -It was a picturesque vision, said the men to whom he confided his -dream, but impractical and impossible, for in those days the line -from Alexandria to Assuan and another from Cape Town to Kimberley -practically comprised the railway system of the continent, and five -thousand miles of unmapped forest, desert, and jungle, filled with -hostile natives, savage beasts, and deadly fevers, lay between. But -the man who had added to the British Empire a territory greater -than France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy combined; who had -organised the corporation controlling the South African diamond -fields; who had put down a formidable native uprising by going unarmed -and unaccompanied into the rebel camp; and who was responsible, more -than any other person, for the Boer War, was not of the stamp which is -daunted by either pessimistic predictions or obvious obstacles. - -It was a slow and disheartening business at first, this building of -a railway with a soul-inspiring name. The discovery of the diamond -fields had already brought the line up to Kimberley; the finding -of gold carried it northward again to the Rand; the opening up of -Rhodesia led the iron highway on to Bulawayo, and there it stopped, -apparently for good. But Rhodes was undiscouraged. He felt that to -push the railway northward from Bulawayo to the southern shores of -Lake Tanganyika was an obvious and necessary enterprise—the actual -proof, as it were, of the British occupation. But the Boer War was -scarcely over, the national purse was drained almost dry, and even -the most optimistic financiers shrank from the enormous expense and -problematical success of building a railway into the heart of a savage -and unknown country. - -Finally Rhodes turned to the imperial government for assistance -in this imperial enterprise, for the man who had added Zululand, -Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Barotseland, and Nyasaland -to the empire felt that the empire owed him something in return. He -first laid his scheme before Lord Salisbury, then prime minister, who -said that nothing could be done until he had a closer estimate of -the expense. Returning to Central Africa, Rhodes had a flying survey -of the route made in double-quick time, and with the figures in his -pocket hastened back to London. This time the premier sent him to see -Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the chancellor of the exchequer. Hicks-Beach, -who was notorious for his parsimony in the expenditure of national -funds, was frigid and discouraging, but finally relaxed enough to say: -“Get a proper survey made of your proposed railway, with estimates -drawn up by responsible engineers, and if the figure is not too -unreasonable we will see what can be done.” Fortified with this shred -of hope, Rhodes again betook himself to the country north of the -Zambezi, and, after months of work, hardship, and privation, facing -death from native spears, poisonous snakes, and the sleeping-sickness, -his men weakened by malaria and his animals killed by the dreaded -tsetse-fly, he returned to England and presented his revised surveys -and estimates to the chancellor of the exchequer. That immaculately -clad statesman negligently twirled his eye-glass on its string as he -regarded with obvious disfavour the fever-sunken cheeks and unkempt -appearance of the pioneer. “Really, Mr. Rhodes,” he remarked coldly, -“I fear it is quite out of the question for her Majesty's government -to lend your scheme its countenance or assistance.” It is a pleasingly -human touch that as the indignant empire-builder went out of the -minister's room he slammed the door so that the pictures rattled on -the wall. - -After dinner that night Rhodes strolled over to see a friend of -Kimberley days, a Hebrew financier named Alfred Beit, in whom he found -a sympathetic listener. As Rhodes took his hat to go, Beit casually -remarked, “Look here, Rhodes, you'll want a start. Four and a half -million pounds is a big sum to raise. We'll do half a million of it, -Wernher [his partner] and I.” That meant success. Though ministers of -the Crown turned a cold shoulder to the great imperialist who came to -them with a great imperial enterprise, help came from two German Jews -who had become naturalised Englishmen. The next day the City brought -the total up to a million and a half, and within little more than a -fortnight the entire four and a half millions were subscribed, the -three names, Rhodes, Beit, and Wernher, being accepted by the man in -the street as sufficient guarantee of success. It was in this fashion -that Cecil Rhodes raised the money for another great stride in his -railway march northward. - -By 1904 the road had progressed as far as the Victoria Falls of -the Zambezi, where it crosses the river on a wonderful steel-arch -bridge—the highest in the world—its span, looking for all the world -like a frosted cobweb, rising four hundred and twenty feet above the -angry waters. “I want the bridge to cross the river so close to the -falls,” directed Rhodes, “that the travellers will have the spray in -their faces.” “That is impossible,” objected the engineers. “What you -ask cannot be done.” “Then I will find some one who can do it,” said -Rhodes—and he did. The bridge was built where he wanted it, and as -the Zambezi Express rolls out above the torrent the passengers have -to close the windows to keep from being drenched with spray. By 1906 -the rail-head had been pushed forward to Broken Hill, a mining centre -in northern Rhodesia; three years later found it at Bwana M'kubwa, on -the Congo border. Here the task of construction was taken up by the -Katanga Railway Company, and in February, 1911, freight and passenger -trains were in operation straight through to Elisabethville, in the -heart of the Belgian Congo, two thousand three hundred and sixteen -miles north of Cape Town and only two hundred and eighty miles from -the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. - -As you sit on the observation platform of your electric-lighted -sleeping-car, anywhere along that section of the “Cape-to-Cairo” -between Cape Town and the Zambezi, you rub your eyes incredulously -as you watch the rolling, verdure-clad plains stretching away to the -foot-hills of distant ranges, and note the entire absence of those -dense forests and steaming jungles which have always been associated, -in the minds of most of us, with Central Africa. The more you see of -this open, homely, rather monotonous country the harder it becomes -for you to convince yourself that you are really in the heart of that -mysterious, storied Dark Continent and not back in America again. - -And the illusion is completed by the people, for the only natives you -see are careless, happy, decently clad darkies who might have come -straight from the levees of Vicksburg or New Orleans, while on every -station platform are groups of fine, bronze-faced, up-standing fellows -in corded riding-breeches and brown boots, their flannel shirts open -at the neck, their broad-brimmed hats cocked rakishly—just such types, -indeed, as were common beyond the Mississippi twenty years ago, before -store clothes and the motor-car had spoiled the picturesqueness of our -own frontier. - -North of the Zambezi it is a different story, however, for there it is -frontier still, with many of a frontier's drawbacks, for the prices -of necessities are exorbitant and of luxuries fantastic; skilled -workmen can command almost any wages they may ask, and common labour -is both scarce and poor. The miner, the scientifically trained farmer, -and the skilled workman have rich opportunities in this quarter of -Africa, however, for the mineral wealth is amazing, much of the soil -is excellent, and civilisation is advancing over a great area with -three-league boots. - -For excitement, variety, and picturesqueness I doubt if the journey -through Barotseland and the Katanga district of the Congo can be -equalled on any railway in the world. It is true that the Uganda -Railway—which, by the way, does not touch Uganda at all—has been -better advertised, but in quantity of game and facilities for hunting -it the territory through which it runs is no whit superior to that -traversed by the “Cape-to-Cairo.” Stroll a mile up or down the Zambezi -from the railway bridge and you can see hippos as easily as you can -at the Zoo in Central Park; in Northwest Rhodesia herds of bush-buck, -zebras, and ostriches scamper away at sight of the train; and as you -lie in your sleeping-berth at night, while the train halts on lonely -sidings, you can hear the roar of lions and see the gleam of the -camp-fires by means of which the railway employees keep them away. -On one occasion, when our train was lying on a siding south of the -Zambezi, the conductor of the dining-car suddenly exclaimed, “Look -there, gentlemen—look over there!” His excitement was justified, for -from over a screen of bushes, scarcely a biscuit's throw away, a herd -of five giraffes craned their preposterous necks and peered at us -curiously. Once, when I was travelling through Northwest Rhodesia, -our engine struck a bull elephant which had decided to contest the -right of way. As the train was running at full speed, both engine and -elephant went off the track. Returning that way some days later, we -noted that the local station-master had scraped the gargantuan skull -to the bone, filled it with earth, and set it on the station platform -as a jardinière to grow geraniums in. He was an ingenious fellow. - -From the Cairo end, meanwhile, the northern section of the great -transcontinental system was being pushed steadily, if slowly, -southward. The difficulties of river transportation experienced by -the two Sudanese expeditions had proved conclusively that if the -Sudan was ever to be opened up to European exploitation it must be by -rail rather than by river. It was the Khalifa who was unconsciously -responsible for the rapid completion of much of the Sudanese section -of the “Cape-to-Cairo,” for, in order to come to hand-grips with him, -Kitchener and his soldiers pushed the railway down the desert to -Khartoum at record speed, laying close on two miles of track between -each sunrise and sunset. There it halted for a number of years; -but after the British had done their work, and Khartoum had been -transformed from a town of blood, lust, and fanaticism into a city -with broad, shaded streets, along which stalks law and order in the -khaki tunic of a Sudanese policeman, the railway-building fever, which -affects some men as irresistibly as the _Wanderlust_ does others, -took hold of Those Who Have the Say, and the line was again pushed -southward, along the banks of the Blue Nile, to Sennar, one hundred -and fifty-eight miles south of Khartoum. With the completion, in 1910, -of several iron bridges, it was advanced to Kosti, a post on the White -Nile, with the northern end of Lake Tanganyika some twelve hundred -miles away. - -That a few more years will see the northern section extending -southward, via Gondokoro, to Lake Victoria Nyanza, and the southern -section northward to Lake Tanganyika, there is little doubt. Indeed, -the plans are drawn, the routes mapped, the levels run, and on the -Katanga-Tanganyika section the railway-builders are even now at work. -But when the Victoria Nyanza has been reached by the one section, -and Tanganyika by the other, there will come a halt, for between the -two rail-heads there will still be six hundred miles of intervening -territory—and that territory is German. - -Unless, therefore, England can obtain, by treaty or purchase, a -railway zone across German East Africa, such as we have obtained -for the Canal across the Isthmus of Panama, it looks very much -as though there would never be an all-British railway from the -Mediterranean to the Cape, and as though the life dream of Cecil -John Rhodes would vanish into thin air. There are several reasons -why Germany is not inclined to give England the much-desired right -of way. First, because between the two nations a bitter rivalry, -political and commercial, exists, and the Germans feel that already -far too much of the continent is under the shadow of the Union Jack; -secondly, because the Germans are, as I have already mentioned in the -preceding chapter, themselves building a railway from Dar-es-Salam, -the capital of their east-coast colony, to Lake Tanganyika, and by -means of this line they expect to divert to their own ports the trade -of all that portion of inner Africa lying between Rhodesia and the -Sudan; thirdly, because it is unlikely in the extreme that England -would give Germany such a _quid pro quo_ as she would demand—as, -for example, the cession of Walfish Bay, the British port in German -Southwest Africa, or of the British protectorate of Zanzibar, or of -both; fourthly, because the Germans now have the British in just such -a predicament regarding the completion of the “Cape-to-Cairo” railway -as the British have the Germans regarding the completion of the Bagdad -railway. In other words, the only condition on which either country -will permit its rival's railway to be built through its territory is -internationalisation. - -That there will ever be an all-British railway from the Mediterranean -to the Cape seems to me exceedingly doubtful, for the political, -territorial, and financial obstacles are many, and not easily -to be disposed of; but that the not-far-distant future will see -the completion, under international auspices, of this great -transcontinental trunk line seems to me to be as certain as that the -locomotive sparks fly upward or that the hoar-frost on the rails -disappears before the sun. Rhodes always said that the success of such -a system must largely depend on the junctions to the east and west -coasts, which would affect such a line very much as tributary streams -affect a river. A number of such feeders are already in operation and -others are rapidly building. Beginning at the north, the main line -of the “Cape-to-Cairo” is tapped at Cairo by the railways from Port -Said and Suez; and at Atbara Junction, in the Sudan, a constantly -increasing stream of traffic flows in over the line from Port Sudan, -a harbour recently built to order on the Red Sea. The misnamed Uganda -Railway is in regular operation between Mombasa on the Indian Ocean -and Port Florence on the Victoria Nyanza, whence there is a steamer -service to Entebbe in Uganda. From Dar-es-Salam, the capital of German -East Africa, the Germans are rushing a railway through to Ujiji, on -the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the engineer-in-chief assuring me that -it would be completed and in operation by the summer of 1914. From -Beira, in Portuguese East Africa, the Beira, Mashonaland, and Rhodesia -Railway carries an enormous stream of traffic inland to its junction -with the main line at Bulawayo. Still farther south a line from the -Portuguese possession of Delagoa Bay connects with the main system -at Mafeking, on the borders of Bechuanaland, while Kimberley is the -junction for a line from Durban, in Natal, and De Aar for feeders from -East London and Port Elizabeth, in Cape of Good Hope. - -From Swakopmund, on the other side of the continent, a railway has -already been pushed nearly five hundred miles into the interior -of German Southwest Africa which will eventually link up with the -“Cape-to-Cairo” in the vicinity of the Victoria Falls, running through -German territory practically all the way. Still another line is being -built inland from Lobito Bay in Angola (Portuguese West Africa) to -join the transcontinental system near the Congo border, nearly half -of its total length of twelve hundred miles being completed. It is -estimated that by means of this line the journey between England and -the cities of the Rand will be shortened by at least six days. It -will be seen, therefore, that the “Cape-to-Cairo” system will have -eleven great feeders, eight of which are already completed and in -operation, while all of the remaining four will be carrying freight -and passengers before the close of 1914. - -When the last rail of the “Cape-to-Cairo” is laid, and the last spike -driven, its builders may say, without fear of contradiction, “In -all the world no road like this.” And in the nature of things it is -impossible that there can ever be its like again, for there will be -no more continents to open up, no more frontiers to conquer. It will -start on the sandy shores of the Mediterranean and end under the -shadow of Table Mountain. In between, it will pass through jungle, -swamp, and desert; it will zigzag across plains where elephants play -by day and lions roar by night; it will corkscrew up the slopes of -snow-capped mountains, meander through the cultivated patches of -strange inland tribes, stride long-legged athwart treacherous, -pestilential swamps, plough through the darkness of primeval forests, -and stretch its length across the rolling, wind-swept veldt, until it -finally ends in the great antipodean metropolis on the edge of the -Southern Ocean. On its way it traverses nearly seventy degrees of -latitude, samples every climate, touches every degree of temperature, -experiences every extreme. At Gondokoro, in the swamp-lands of -the Sudd, the red-fezzed engine-driver will lean gasping from his -blistered cab; at Kimberley, in the highlands of the Rand, he -will stamp with numbed feet and blow with chattering teeth on his -half-frozen fingers. - -The traveller who climbs into the Cape-to-Cairo Limited at the Quay -Station in Alexandria, in response to the conductor's cry of “All -aboard! All aboard for Cape Town!” can lean from the window of his -compartment as the train approaches Cairo and see the misty outlines -of the Pyramids, those mysterious monuments of antiquity which were -hoary with age when London was a cluster of mud huts and Paris was -yet to be founded in the swamps beside the Seine; at Luxor he will -pass beneath the shadow of ruined Thebes, a city beside which Athens -and Rome are ludicrously modern; at Assuan he will catch a glimpse -of the greatest dam ever built by man—a mile and a quarter long and -built of masonry weighing a million tons—holding in check the waters -of the longest river in the world; at Khartoum, peering through -the blue-glass windows which protect the passengers' eyes from the -blinding sun glare, he can see the statue of Gordon, seated on his -bronze camel, peering northward across the desert in search of the -white helmets that came too late; at Entebbe his eyes will be dazzled -by the shimmering waters of the Victoria Nyanza, barring Lake Superior -the greatest of all fresh-water seas; at Ujiji he will see natives -in German uniforms drilling on the spot where Stanley discovered -Livingstone. He will hold his breath in awe as the train rolls out -over the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi, for there will lie below him -the mightiest cataract in the world—an unbroken sheet of falling, -roaring, smoking water, two and a half times the height and ten times -the width of the American Fall at Niagara; at Kimberley he will see -the great pits in the earth which supply the women of the world with -diamonds; in the outskirts of Johannesburg he will see the mountains -of ore from which comes one-third of the gold supply of the world. And -finally, when his train has at last come to a halt under the glass -roof of the Victoria Terminal in Cape Town, with close on six thousand -miles of track behind it, the traveller, if he has any imagination and -any appreciation in his soul, will make a little pilgrimage to that -spot on the slopes of Table Mountain known as “World's View,” where -another statue of that same bulky, thick-set, shabbily clad man, this -time guarded by many British lions, stares northward over Africa. He -will take his stand in front of that mighty memorial and, lifting -his hat, will say: “You, sir, were a great man, the greatest this -benighted continent has ever known, and if one day it is transformed -into a land of civilisation, of peace, and of prosperity, it will be -due, more than anything else, to the great iron highway, from the -Nile's mouth to the continent's end, which is the fulfilment of your -dream.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE LAST STAND OF THE PIONEER - - -When the penniless younger son of the English society play is jilted -by the luxury-loving heroine, he invariably packs his portmanteau -and betakes himself to Rhodesia to make his fortune. Fifty years ago -he sought the golden fleece in California; thirty years ago he took -passage by P. & O. boat for the Australian diggings; ten years ago he -helped to swell the mad rush to the Yukon; to-day his journey's end -is the newest of the great, new nations—Rhodesia. He returns in the -fourth act, broad-hatted, bronzed, and boisterous, to announce that -he is the owner of a ten-thousand-acre farm, or a diamond field, or a -gold mine, or all of them, and that he has come home to find a girl -to share his farm-house on the Rhodesian veldt, where good cooking is -more essential in a wife than good clothes and a good complexion. - -Now, beyond having a vague idea that Rhodesia is a frontier country -somewhere at the back of beyond, there is only about one in every -fifty of the audience who has any definite notion where or what it -really is. Picture, then, if you can, a territory about the size -of all the Atlantic States, from Florida to Maine, put together, -with the dry, dusty, sunny climate of southern California and the -fertile, rolling, well-watered, and well-wooded surface of Indiana; -picture such a country dropped down in the heart of equatorial -Africa—that is Rhodesia. It lies a little above and to the right of -that speckled yellow patch on the map of Africa which was labelled -in our school geographies the Kalahari Desert. Bearing the name -of the great empire-builder is the whole of that region which is -bounded on the north by the Congo and the sleeping-sickness, on the -east by Mozambique and the black-water fever, on the west by Angola -and the cocoa atrocities, and on the south by the Transvaal and the -discontented Dutch. It is watered by the Limpopo, which forms its -southernmost boundary; by the Zambezi, which separates Southern -Rhodesia from the northeast and northwest provinces; and by the -innumerable streams which unite to form the Congo. - -When the railway which English _concessionaires_ are now pushing -inland from the coast of Angola to the Zambezi is completed, the front -door to Rhodesia will be Lobito Bay, thus bringing Bulawayo within -sixteen days of the Strand by boat and rail. At present, however, the -country must be entered through the cellar, which means Cape Town and -a railway journey of fourteen hundred miles; or by the side door at -Beira, a fever-stricken Portuguese town on the East Coast, which is -fortunate in being but a night's journey by rail from the Rhodesian -frontier and is, in consequence, the gateway through which British -jams, American harvesters, and German jack-knives are opening up inner -Africa to foreign exploitation. - -The Rhodesia-bound traveller who escapes landing at Beira in a basket -is fortunate, for it has a poorly sheltered harbour and neither dock, -jetty, nor wharf, so that in the monsoon months, when the great -combers come roaring in from the Indian Ocean mountain-high, there is -about as much chance of getting the steam tender alongside the rolling -liner as there is of getting a frightened horse alongside a panting -automobile. If a dangerous sea is running, the disembarking passenger -is put into a cylindrical, elongated basket, a sort of enlarged -edition of those used for soiled towels in the lavatories of hotels; a -wheezing donkey-engine swings it up and outward and, if the man at the -lever calculates the roll of the ship correctly, drops it with a thud -on the deck of the tender plunging off-side. - -Built on a stretch of sun-baked sand, between a miasmal jungle and the -sea, Beira is the hottest and unhealthiest place in all East Africa. -“It is one of the places that the Lord has overlooked,” remarked -a sallow-faced resident, as he took his hourly dose of quinine. -Even the paid-to-be-enthusiastic author of the steamship company's -glowing booklet hesitates at depicting this fever-haunted, sun-baked, -sand-suffocated seaport of Mozambique, contenting himself with the -noncommittal statement that “it is indescribable; it is just Beira.” -The town has but three attractions: a broad-verandaed hotel where -they charge you forty cents for a lemonade with no ice in it; a golf -course, laid out by a newly arrived Englishman, who died of sunstroke -the first day he played on it; and a trolley system which makes every -resident the owner of his own street-car. The heat in Beira being -too great to permit of walking—a shaded thermometer not infrequently -climbs to one hundred and twenty degrees; the streets being too deep -in sand for the use of vehicles; and the tsetse-fly killing off horses -in a few days, those European traders and officials who are condemned -to dwell in Beira get about in “trolleys” of their own. These -two-seated, hooded conveyances, which are a sort of cross between a -hand-car, a baby-carriage, and the wheeled chairs on the board walk at -Atlantic City, are pushed by half-naked and perspiring natives over -a track which extends from one end of the town to the other and with -sidings into every man's front yard. It struck me, however, that the -most interesting things in Beira were the corrugated-iron shanty and -the stretch of wooden platform which mark the terminus of the railway, -and from which, in answer to my anxious queries, I was assured that a -train departed twice weekly for Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia. I -used to sit on the veranda of the hotel and stare across the stretch -of burning sand at that wretched station as longingly as the small boy -stares at the red numeral on the calendar which indicates the Fourth -of July. - -A temperature of one hundred and eighteen degrees in my compartment of -the sleeping-car; miasma rising in cloud wreaths from the jungle; a -station platform, alive with slovenly Portuguese soldiers with faces -as yellow as their uniforms; helmeted, gaunt-cheeked traders and -officials, and cotton-clad Swahilis, comprised my last recollection -of Beira and the terrible East Coast. The next morning I awoke in my -compartment shivering, not from fever but from cold. Gone, as though -in a bad dream, were the glaring sands, the steaming jungle, and the -sallow, fever-racked men. Instead, my car window framed a picture of -rolling, grass-covered uplands, dotted here and there with herds of -grazing cattle and substantial, whitewashed farm-houses, while back -of all was the gray-blue of distant mountains. As I looked at the -transformed landscape incredulously, the train halted at a way-station -swarming with broad-hatted, flannel-shirted, sun-tanned men with -clean-cut Anglo-Saxon faces. A row of saddle-horses were tied to the -station fence, while their owners stamped up and down the platform -impatiently, awaiting the sorting of the infrequent mail from home; a -democrat wagon and a clumsy Cape cart were drawn up in the roadway; -and at a house close by a woman in a sunbonnet was feeding chickens. -“Where are we?” I inquired of the guard, as he passed through the -train. “We're just into Rhodesia now, sir,” said he, touching his -cap. “This is Umtali, in Mashonaland.” (Now, if I had asked that same -question of a brakeman on one of our own railways, he would probably -have answered, with the independence of his kind: “Can't you read -the sign on the station for yourself?”) “Surely there must be some -mistake,” I said to myself. “This cannot be Central Africa, for where -are the impenetrable jungles through which Livingstone cut his way, -the savage animals which Du Chaillu shot, and the naked savages with -whom Stanley alternately battled and bartered? This is not Africa; -this is our own West, with its men in corduroy and sombreros and its -women in gingham, with its open, rolling prairies and its air like -dry champagne.” Indeed, throughout my stay in Rhodesia I could not -rid myself of the impression that I was back in the American West -of thirty years ago, before the pioneer, the prospector, and the -cow-puncher had retreated before the advance of the railway, the -harvester, and the motor-car. - -The story of the taking and making of Rhodesia forms one of the -most picturesque and thrilling chapters in the history of England's -colonial expansion. About the time that the nineteenth century had -reached its turning-point, a strange tale, passing by word of mouth -from native kraal to native kraal, came at last to the ears of a -Scotch worker in the mission field of Bechuanaland. It was a tale of a -waterfall somewhere in the jungles of the distant north; a waterfall -so mighty, declared the natives, that the spray from it looked like -a storm cloud on the horizon and the thunder of its waters could -be heard four days' trek away. So the missionary, wearied with the -tedium of proselyting amid a peaceful people and restless with the -curiosity of the born explorer, set out on a long and lonely march to -the northward, through a country which no white man's eyes had ever -seen. It took him three years to reach the falls for which he started, -but when at last he stood upon the brink of the canyon and looked down -upon the waters of the Zambezi as they hurtled over four hundred feet -of sheerest cliff, he was so awed by their majesty and their beauty -that he named them after Victoria, the young English queen. Before he -left the missionary-explorer carved his name on the trunk of a near-by -tree, where it can be seen to-day; the name is David Livingstone. - -For a quarter of a century the regions adjacent to the Zambezi were -disturbed only by migratory bands of natives and marauding animals. -Then Stanley came with his mile-long caravan of porters, halting long -enough to explore and map the region, on his historic march from coast -to coast. In the middle eighties a young English prospector, trekking -through the country with a single wagon, found that for which he was -seeking—gold. Likewise he saw that its verdure-clad prairies would -support many cattle and that its virgin soil was adapted for many -kinds of crops; that it was, in short, a white man's country. Unarmed -and unaccompanied, he penetrated to the kraal of Lobenguela, the -chief of the warlike Matabele, who occupied the region, and induced -him to sign a treaty placing his country under British protection. -The price paid him was five hundred dollars a month and a thousand -antiquated rifles; cheap enough, surely, for a territory three times -the size of Texas and as rich in natural resources as California. A -year later the British South Africa Company, a corporation capitalised -at thirty million dollars, under a charter granted by the Imperial -Government, began the work of exploiting the concession; naming it, -properly enough, after Cecil John Rhodes, the lone prospector who, -with the vision of a prophet, had foreseen its possibilities and by -whose unaided efforts it had been obtained. Such was the first step in -Rhodes's policy of British expansion northward—a policy so successful -that in his own lifetime he saw the frontiers of British Africa pushed -from the Orange River to the Nile. - -To hand over a colonial possession, its inhabitants and its resources, -to be administered and exploited by a private corporation, sounds like -a strange proceeding to American ears. Imagine turning the Philippines -over to the Standard Oil Company and giving that corporation -permission to appoint its own officials, make its own laws, assess -its own taxes, and maintain its own military force in those islands. -That, roughly speaking, was about what England did when she turned -Rhodesia over to the chartered company. It should be remembered, -however, that, beginning when the European nations were entering -upon an era of economic exploration of hitherto virgin territories, -these chartered companies have played a large part in the history of -colonisation in general and in the upbuilding of the British Empire -in particular, though in the great majority of cases it was trade, -not empire, at which they aimed. Warned, however, by the fashion in -which the East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company abused their -power, the British Government keeps a jealous eye on the activities of -the Rhodesian _concessionaires_, their charter, while conferring broad -trading privileges and great administrative powers, differing from -earlier instruments in neither delegating sovereignty nor granting an -exclusive monopoly. - -The Rhodesia protectorate is the result of the consolidation of four -great native kingdoms: Mashonaland in the southeast, Matabeleland in -the southwest, Barotseland in the northwest, and in the northeast a -portion of the now separately administered protectorate of Nyasaland. -Practically the whole country is an elevated veldt, or plateau, -ranging from three thousand five hundred to five thousand feet above -sea-level; studded with granite kopjes which in the south attain to -the dignity of a mountain chain; well watered by tributaries of the -Congo, the Zambezi, and the Limpopo; and covered with a luxuriant -vegetation. Like California, _Southern_ Rhodesia has a unique and -hospitable climate, free from the dangerous heats of an African summer -and from cold winds in winter. Though the climate of nearly all of -Southern Rhodesia is suitable for Europeans, much of the trans-Zambezi -provinces, especially along the river valleys and in the low-lying, -swampy regions near the great equatorial lakes, reeks with malaria, -while in certain other areas, now carefully delimited and guarded by -governmental regulation, the tsetse-fly commits terrible ravages among -cattle and horses and the sleeping-sickness among men. The climate as -a whole, however, is characterised by a rather remarkable equability -of temperature, especially when it is remembered that Rhodesia extends -from the borders of the temperate zone to within a few degrees of -the equator. At Salisbury, the capital, for example, the mean July -temperature is 57.5° and for January 70.5°, the extremes for the year -ranging from 34° to 93°. It is a significant fact, however, that the -glowing prospectuses of the chartered company touch but lightly on -the climatic conditions which prevail north of the Zambezi, a region -from which, it struck me, the European settler who does not possess -a system that is proof against every form of tropical fever, a head -that is proof against sunstroke, and a mind which is proof against -that oftentimes fatal form of homesickness which the army surgeons -call nostalgia, is much more likely to go home in a coffin than in a -_cabine de luxe_. - -In mines of gold, of silver, and of diamonds Rhodesia is very rich; -agriculturally it is very fertile, for in addition to the native crops -of rice, tobacco, cotton, and india-rubber, the fruits, vegetables, -and cereals of Europe and America are profitably grown. The great -fields of maize, or “mealies,” as all South Africans call it, through -which my train frequently passed, constantly reminded me of scenes in -our own “corn belt”; but in the watch-towers which rise from every -corn-field, atop of which an armed Kaffir sits day and night to -protect the crops from the raids of wild pigs and baboons, Rhodesia -has a feature which she is welcome to consider exclusively her own. - -Though Rhodesia is distinctly a frontier country, with many of a -frontier's defects, her towns—Salisbury, Bulawayo, Umtali, and the -rest—are not frontier towns as we knew them in Butte, Cheyenne, -Deadwood, and Carson City. There are saloons, of course, but they -are not of the “gin palace” variety, nor did it strike me that -intoxication was particularly common; certainly nothing like what -it used to be during the gold-rush days in Alaska or in our own -West. This may be due to the fantastic prices charged for liquor—a -whiskey-and-soda costs sixty cent—and then again it maybe due to -the fact that most of the settlers have brought their families with -them, so that, instead of spending their evenings leaning over green -tables or polished bars, they devote them to cricket, gardening, or -a six-weeks-old English paper. Though nearly every one goes armed, -the streets of the Rhodesian towns are as peaceable as Commonwealth -Avenue, in Boston, on a Sunday morning. Indeed, the commandant of -police in Bulawayo assured me that he had had only one shooting affray -during his term of office. In Rhodesia, should a man draw his gun as -the easiest means of settling a quarrel, his companions, instead of -responding by drawing theirs, would probably call a constable and have -him bound over to keep the peace. Even the rights of the natives are -rigidly safeguarded by law, an American settler in Umtali complaining -to me most bitterly that “it's more dangerous for a white man to kick -a nigger down here than it is for him to kill one in the States.” Now, -all this was rather disappointing for one who, like myself, was on the -lookout for the local colour and picturesqueness and whoop-her-up-boys -excitement which one naturally associates with life on a frontier; -but I might have expected just what I found, for wherever the flag -of England flies, whether over the gold-miners of the Yukon, the -ivory-traders of Uganda, or the settlers of Rhodesia, there will be -found the deep-seated respect of the Englishman for English order and -English law. - -In my opinion the country club, more than any other single factor, has -contributed most to the making, socially and morally, of Rhodesia. -Though the American West is dotted with just such towns as Salisbury, -Bulawayo, Gwelo, and Umtali, with the same limitations, pitfalls, -and possibilities, the men's centre of interest, after the day's -work is over, is the saloon, the dance-hall, or the barber-shop -with a pool-room in the rear. They do things differently in central -Africa. In every Rhodesian town large enough to support one—and the -same is true of all Britain's colonial possessions—I found that a -“sports club” had been established on the edge of the town. Often -it was nothing but a ramshackle shed or cottage that had been given -a coat of paint and had a veranda added, but files of the English -newspapers and illustrated weeklies were to be found inside, while -from the tea tables on the veranda one overlooked half a dozen tennis -courts, a cricket ground, and a foot-ball field. It is here that -the settlers—men, women, and children—congregate toward evening, -to discuss the crop prospects, the local taxes, the latest gold -discoveries, and, above all else, the news contained in the weekly -mail from home. Why have not our own progressive prairie towns some -simple social system like this? It was in speaking of this very thing -that the mayor of Salisbury—himself an American-remarked: “In the -little, every-day things which make for successful colonisation of a -new country, you fellows in the States are twenty years behind us.” - -Living is expensive in Rhodesia, the prices of necessaries usually -being high and of luxuries ofttimes fantastic. To counterbalance -this, however, wages are extraordinarily high. It is useless to -attempt to quote wages, for the farther up-country a man gets the -higher pay he can command, so I will content myself with the bare -statement that for the skilled workman, be he carpenter, blacksmith, -mason, or wheelwright, larger wages are to be earned than in any part -of the world that I know. The same is true of the man who has had -practical experience in agriculture or stock-raising, there being a -steady demand for men conversant with dairying, cattle-breeding, and -irrigation. Let me drive home and copper-rivet the fact, however, -that in Rhodesia, as in nearly all new countries, where there is a -considerable native population to draw upon, there is no place for the -unskilled labourer. - -For the man with resource and a little capital there are many roads to -wealth in British Africa. I know of one, formerly a laundry employee -in Chicago, who landed in Rhodesia with limited capital but unlimited -confidence. Recognising that the country had arrived at that stage of -civilisation where the people were tired of wearing flannel shirts, -but could not afford to have white ones ruined by Kaffir washermen, -he started a chain of sanitary up-to-date laundries, and is to-day -one of the wealthy men of the colony. If you ever had to pay one -of his laundry bills you would understand why. Another American, -starting business as a hotel-keeper in Salisbury, soon perceived -that the people were ripe for some form of amusement other than that -provided by the cricket fields and saloons; so he built a string of -cinematograph and vaudeville theatres combined, and to-day, on the -very spot where Lobenguela's medicine-men performed their bloody -rites a dozen years ago, you can hear the whir of the moving-picture -machine and see on the canvas screen a military review at Aldershot -or a bathing scene at Asbury Park. Still another American whom I met -has increased the thickness of his wallet by supplying prospectors -and settlers with sectional houses which are easily portable and can -be erected in an hour. Taking the circular, conical-roofed hut of the -Matabele as his model, he evolved an affair of corrugated iron which -combines simplicity, portability, and practicability with a low price, -so that to-day, as you travel through Rhodesia, you will see these -American-made imitations of Kaffir huts dotting the veldt. - -Though Rhodesia has a black population of one million six hundred -thousand, as against twenty thousand whites, there has thus far been -no such thing as race troubles or a colour question, due in large -measure, no doubt, to the firm and just supervision exercised by -the British resident commissioners. Arms, ammunition, and liquor -excepted, natives and Europeans are under the same conditions. Land -has been set apart for tribal settlements, the mineral rights being -reserved to the company, but, if the native occupation is disturbed, -new lands must immediately be assigned, all disputes being ultimately -referrible to the British high commissioner. Those natives living -near the towns are segregated in settlements of their own, a native -under no circumstances being permitted to remain within the town -limits after nightfall, or to enter them in the day-time without a -pass signed by the commandant of police. Though possessing many of the -temperamental characteristics of the American negro, and in particular -his aversion for manual work, the Rhodesian native is, on the whole, -honest and trustworthy, a well-disciplined and efficient force of -native constabulary having been recruited from the warlike Barotse and -Matabele. - -[Illustration: MORE WORK FOR THE PIONEER. - -In the heart of the jungle in Northeastern Rhodesia near the Congo -border. This is the sort of country through which portions of the -“Cape-to-Cairo” railway will pass.] - -Highways of steel bisect Rhodesia in both directions. From Plumtree, -on the borders of Bechuanaland, the Rhodesian section of the -great Cape-to-Cairo system stretches straight across the country -to Bwana M'kubwa, on the Congo frontier, while another line, the -Rhodesia, Mashonaland, and Beira, links up, as its name indicates, -the transcontinental system with the East Coast. Though the -much-advertised Zambezi Express is scarcely the “veritable train de -luxe” which the railway folders call it, it is a comfortable enough -train nevertheless, with electric-lighted dining and sleeping cars, -the latter being fitted, as befits a dusty country, with baths. The -dining-car tariff is on a sliding scale; the farther up-country you -travel the higher the prices ascend. Between Cape Town and Mafeking -the charges for meals seemed to me exceedingly reasonable (fifty cents -for breakfast, sixty cents for luncheon, and seventy-five cents for -dinner); between Mafeking and Bulawayo they are only moderate; between -Bulawayo and the Zambezi they are high; and north of the Zambezi—when -you can get any food at all—the charges for it are exorbitant. When -the section to Lake Tanganyika is completed only a millionaire can -afford to enter the dining-car. It speaks volumes for the development -of British South Africa, however, that one can get into a sleeping-car -in Cape Town and get out of it again, six days later, on the navigable -head-waters of the Congo, covering the distance of nearly two thousand -five hundred miles at a total cost of eighty dollars—and much of it -through a country which has been opened to the white man scarcely a -dozen years. - -Just as every visitor to the United States heads straight for -Niagara, so every visitor to South Africa purchases forthwith a -ticket to the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi, the mighty cataract in -the heart of Rhodesia which is the greatest natural wonder in the -Dark Continent and, perhaps, in the world. The natives call the falls -_Mosi-oa-tunya_, which means “Thundering Smoke,” and you appreciate -the name's significance when your train halts at daybreak at a wayside -station, sixty miles away, and you see above the tree-tops a cloud of -smoky vapour and hear a low humming like a million sewing-machines. It -is so utterly impossible for the eye, the mind, and the imagination to -grasp the size, grandeur, and beauty of the Victoria Falls that it -is futile to attempt to describe them. If you can picture an unbroken -sheet of water forty city blocks in width, or as long as from the -Grand Central Station, in New York, to Washington Square, hurtling -over a precipice twice as high as the Flatiron Building, you will have -the best idea that I can give you of what the Victoria Falls are like. -They are unique in that the level of the land above the falls is the -same as that below, the entire breadth of the second greatest river in -Africa falling precipitately into a deep and narrow chasm, from which -the only outlet is an opening in the rock less than one hundred yards -wide. From the Boiling Pot, as this seething caldron of waters is -called, the contents of the Zambezi rush with unbridled fury through a -deep and narrow gorge of basaltic cliffs, which, nowhere inferior to -the rapids at Niagara, extends with many zigzag windings for more than -forty miles. My first glimpse of the falls was in the early morning, -and the lovely, reeking splendour of the scene, as the great, placid -river, all unconscious of its fate, rolls out of the mysterious depths -of Africa, comes suddenly to the precipice's brink, and plunges in one -mighty torrent into the obscurity of the cavern below, the rolling -clouds of spray, the trembling earth, the sombre rain-forest on the -opposite bank, and a rainbow stealing over all, made a picture which -will remain sharp and clear in my memory as long as I live. - -The Outer Lands are almost all exploited; the work of the pioneer and -the frontiersman is nearly finished, and in another decade or so we -shall see their like no more. Rhodesia is the last of the great new -countries open to colonisation under Anglo-Saxon ideals of government -and climatically suitable for the propagation of the Anglo-Saxon race. -Though the handful of hardy settlers who have already made it their -home speak with the burr of the shires instead of the drawl of the -plains; though they wear corded riding-breeches instead of leather -“chaps”; and stuff Cavendish into their pipes instead of rolling their -cigarettes from Bull Durham, they and the passing plainsmen of our own -West are, when all is said and done, brothers under their skins. - -With the completion of the Cape-to-Cairo trunk line and its subsidiary -systems to either coast, with the exploitation of the mineral -deposits which constitute so much of Rhodesia's wealth, and with the -harnessing of the great falls and the utilisation of the limitless -power which will be obtainable from them, this virgin territory in the -heart of Africa bids fair to be to the home and fortune seekers of -to-morrow what the American West was to those of yesterday, and what -northwestern Canada is to those of to-day. A few years more and it -will be a developed and prosperous nation. To-day it is the last of -the world's frontiers, where the hardy and adventurous of our race are -still fighting the battles and solving the problems of civilisation. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE COUNTRY OF BIG THINGS - - -The most significant thing I saw in South Africa was an old-fashioned -gabled, whitewashed house. The name of it is _Groote Schuur_, and it -stands in very beautiful grounds on the slopes of Table Mountain, -a mile or so at the back of Cape Town. That house was the home of -Cecil John Rhodes, who, more than any other man, was responsible -for the Boer War and for the resultant British predominance south -of the Congo, and in his will he directed that it should be used as -the official residence of the prime minister of that South African -confederation which his prophetic mind foresaw. The welding of the -Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State with the -British colonies of Natal and the Cape of Good Hope produced the great -antipodal commonwealth of which the empire-builder dreamed, but the -man who, as prime minister, dwells under _Groote Schuur's_ gabled -roof and directs the policies of the new nation is a member of that -Boer race which Rhodes hated and feared and whose political power he -firmly believed had been broken forever. Fortune never doubled in her -tracks more completely than when she made General Louis Botha, the -last leader of Boer troops in the field, the first prime minister of a -united South Africa. - -Strange things have happened in South Africa in the dozen years that -have passed since the musketry crackled along the Modder and the -Tugela, for the country that the world believed had been won for -good and all by British arms is being slowly but surely rewon by -Boer astuteness. Already the bonds which hold the new Union of South -Africa to the British Empire have become very loose ones. The man -who, as prime minister, is the virtual ruler of the young nation, is -a far-sighted and sagacious Dutchman, while seven out of the eleven -portfolios in his cabinet are held by men of the same race. The Union -not only makes its own laws and fixes its own tariffs, but the leading -Dutch organ of the country recently went so far as to urge that, in -case Great Britain should become engaged in a European war, it would -be possible and might be proper for South Africa to declare its -neutrality and take no part in it. Not only is the white population -of the Union overwhelmingly Dutch, but in many parts of the country -English is becoming merely a subsidiary tongue, while it is not at all -unlikely, in view of the bill recently passed by the Parliament making -Dutch compulsory in the schools, that the language of the Netherlands -will eventually become the predominant tongue throughout all South -Africa. Most suggestive of all, perhaps, the Orange River Colony, upon -entering the Union, promptly reverted to its old name of the Orange -Free State, which it bore before the war with England. Indeed, it may -sadly perplex the historians of the future to decide who won the Boer -War. - -If South Africa is to become a union in fact as well as in name its -people will have to face and solve the great national problems of -race and colour. Of these, the former are, if not the more important, -certainly the more pressing. Two of the four provinces of the Union, -remember, are British solely by right of conquest; a third is bound -by the closest ties of blood and tradition to the Dutch people; while -only one of the four is British in sentiment and population. Many -intelligent people with whom I talked, both in England and in Africa, -assured me that the formation of the Union was the first step toward -cutting the bonds which join South Africa to the mother country. While -most Englishmen scoff at any such suggestion, swaggeringly asserting -that they “have whipped the Dutch once and can do it again,” the -Dutch retort, on the other hand, that it took England, with all her -financial and military resources, four years, and cost her tens of -thousands of lives and millions of pounds, to conquer the two little -Boer republics, and that she would not have beaten them then if their -money had held out. Though there is certainly no love lost between the -English and the Boers, I think that the majority of the latter are -convinced that it is to their own best interests to be loyal to the -new government, in the direction of which they have, after all, the -greatest say. - -The attitude which the British Government has adopted in its treatment -of the Boer population since the close of the war has been remarkable -for its generosity and far-sightedness. In all its colonial history -it has done few wiser things than the recognition of the military, -as well as the civic, ability of General Botha. Not only is this -sagacious Dutchman, who led the forces of the embattled Boers until -dispersed by the tremendously superior might of England, and then -inaugurated a guerilla warfare by which the conflict was prolonged for -two years with victories which will go down in history as notable, -now prime minister of the new nation, but, early in 1912, he was -appointed to the rank of general in that very army which he so long -and so valorously defied. This is, I believe, an almost unprecedented -instance of the wise and politic exercise of imperial authority in -the strengthening of imperial power and can hardly fail to result in -increasing the loyalty of South Africa's Boer population. - -The men who planned and brought the Union into being have had to pick -their steps with care, and more than once their ingenuity has been -taxed to the utmost to avoid the outcropping of racial jealousies and -enmities. The white population of South Africa, you should understand, -consists of three classes: the Boers, which means simply “tillers of -the soil,” and which is the name applied by the South African Dutch -to themselves; the Colonials, or British immigrants, most of whom -have come out with the intention of returning to England as soon as -they have made their fortunes; and, lastly, the Africanders, men -whose fathers were British immigrants, but who were themselves born -and bred in South Africa and who have intermarried with the Boers -so often that it is almost impossible to draw the line between the -races. Given these three factions, therefore, with their different -customs, ideals, and aspirations, and it needs no saying that the -task confronting those who are responsible for the smooth working of -the governmental machinery is no easy one. The political jealousy -existing between Briton and Boer in South Africa to-day is comparable -only to that which existed between Northerners and Southerners during -reconstruction days. The racial antagonism which arose over the -location of the Federal capital, and which threatened at one time to -upset the whole scheme of federation, was only overcome by the novel -expedient of creating two capitals instead of one, Pretoria, the old -capital of the Transvaal, where Krüger held sway, being made the -residence of the Governor-General and the seat of the executive power, -while the Parliament sits in Cape Town. - -The Union Parliament consists of a Senate having forty members—eight -of whom are appointed by the Governor-General, the other thirty-two -being elected, eight by each province—and a House of Assembly with 121 -members chosen as follows: Cape of Good Hope 51, Natal 17, Transvaal -36, and Orange Free State 17. No voter is disqualified by race or -colour, but the members of Parliament must be English subjects of -European descent who have lived in the colony for at least five years. -Now, a very great deal, so far as the well-being of the native races -of South Africa are concerned, depends upon the interpretation that -is given to the words “European descent.” In Cuban society every -one who is not absolutely black is treated as white, whereas in the -United States every one who is suspected of having even a “touch of -the tar brush” is treated as black. Though the Federal constitution is -very far from giving the native races a standing equal to that of the -whites, intelligent government of the natives is promised by a clause -which provides that four of the Senate, out of a total of forty, shall -be appointed because of their special knowledge of the wants and -wishes of the coloured population. - -If the racial problem is the most pressing, the colour problem is by -far the most serious question before the people of South Africa, for -the blacks not only outnumber the whites four to one, but there is the -ever-present danger that rebellion may spring up among them without -the slightest warning. Apart from all other considerations, the very -numbers of the natives in South Africa form a dangerous element in -the problem, for there are close on five million blacks south of the -Limpopo as against a million and a quarter Europeans. If, in our own -South, where the blacks are only half as numerous as the whites, there -exists a problem of which no satisfactory solution has been offered, -how much more serious is the state of affairs in a country where a -handful of white men—themselves split into two camps by racial and -political animosities—are face to face with a vast, warlike, and -constantly increasing native population! In fact, the colour problem -which has arisen would be strikingly similar to that in our Southern -States were it not that there is a vast difference in type and -temperament between the South African native and the Southern darky. -The native races are three in number: the Bushmen, the aborigines -of South Africa, a race of pygmy savages of a very low order of -intelligence, who are fast becoming extinct; the Hottentots, a people -considerably more advanced toward civilisation but rapidly decreasing -from epidemics; and the Kaffirs, as the various sections of the great -Zulu race are commonly known, a warlike, courageous, and handsome -people who, since the British Government ended their inter-tribal -wars, are rapidly multiplying, having increased fifteen per cent -in the last seven years. Although the Europeans in South Africa -universally regard the Kaffirs with contempt, it is not altogether -unmixed with fear, for a nation of fighting men, such as the Zulus, -who organised a great military power, enacted a strict code of laws, -and held the white man at bay for a quarter of a century, will not -always remain in a state of subjection, nor will they tamely submit to -being driven into the wilderness north of the Zambezi, a solution of -the colour problem which has frequently been proposed. - -That the attitude of Great Britain toward the colour question in South -Africa is similar to that of the Northern States toward the same -problem in the South, while the attitude of the European settlers -is almost identical with that of the Southerners, is strikingly -illustrated by a case which recently occurred in South Africa, in -which a European jury found a native guilty of attempting to assault a -white woman, a crime as unknown under the old régime in South Africa -as it was in our own South before the Civil War. Though the judge -sentenced the man to death, the Governor-General promptly commuted -the sentence on the ground that the “fact of crime” had not been -established. Immediately a storm of protest and indignation arose -among the white population which swept the country from the Zambezi -to the Cape, the settlers asserting that if the decree of commutation -were to form a precedent, no white woman would be safe in South -Africa. The echoes of this controversy had not yet died away before -two other cases occurred which intensely aggravated the situation. -One was the case of a settler named Lewis, who shot a native for an -insult to his daughters, while the other was that of the Honourable -Galbraith Cole, a son of the Earl of Enniskillen, who killed a native -on the alleged charge of theft. Both men were tried by white juries -on charges of murder, and both were promptly acquitted, though Mr. -Cole, in spite of his acquittal, was deported from South Africa by the -government. As though to emphasise their colour prejudice, the lawyers -of the Union about this time took concerted action to prevent native -attorneys from practising among them. How, then, can the natives, who -form three fourths of the population of the new Union, and who are -far more children of the soil than the Europeans, be said to have -protection of their most elementary rights if they are to be debarred -from having men of their own colour and race to defend them, and if no -white jury can be trusted to do justice where a native is concerned? - -The imperial government deserves the greatest credit, however, for -the steps it has taken to preserve his lands to the native. In the -native protectorates and reservations of Basutoland, Swaziland, -Bechuanaland, Griqualand, Tembuland, and Pondoland the government has -reserved for the exclusive use and benefit of the natives territories -considerably larger than the combined area of our three Pacific-coast -States. Though these territories are under the control of British -resident commissioners, the native chiefs are allowed to exercise -jurisdiction according to tribal laws and customs in all civil matters -between natives, special courts having been established to deal with -serious civil or criminal matters in which Europeans are concerned. -Though certain small areas of land in these rich territories are held -by whites, the bulk of the country is reserved for the exclusive use -and benefit of the natives, and it is not at all likely that any more -land will be alienated for purposes of settlement by Europeans. (Could -anything be in more striking contrast to our disgraceful treatment of -the Indian?) Though South Africa has much in common with Canada, and -with Australia, and with our own Southwest, it is, when all is said -and done, a black man's country ruled by the white man, and it is upon -the justice, liberality, and intelligence of this rule that the peace -and prosperity of the young nation must eventually depend. - -Two great obstacles will always stand in the way of the white man -having an easy row to hoe in South Africa: the climate and the lack -of water. Though the climate of the uplands is pleasant and makes -men want to lead an outdoor life, I am not at all certain that it -tends to develop or maintain the keenness and energy characteristic -of dwellers in the north temperate zone. The climate of the coastal -regions is, moreover, distinctly bad, the sharply cold nights and the -misty, steaming days producing the coast fever, which is a combination -of rheumatism, influenza, dysentery, and malaria, and is very -debilitating indeed. The white man who intends to make his permanent -home in South Africa has, therefore, two alternatives: he can submit -to the exactions of the climate, take life easily, leave the black -bottle severely alone, and live a long but unprogressive life, or he -can exhaust his energies and undermine his health in fighting the -climate and die of old age at sixty. If the climate is not all that -is desirable for men, it is infinitely worse for animals, for every -disease known to the veterinarian abounds. Time and again the herds -of the country have been almost exterminated by the hoof-and-mouth -disease, or by the rinderpest, a highly contagious cattle distemper -which is probably identical with that “murrain” with which Moses -smote the herds of ancient Egypt and which helped to bring Pharaoh -to terms. In the low-lying regions along the East Coast, and in the -country north of the Limpopo it is necessary to keep horses shut up -every night until the poisonous mists and dew have disappeared before -the sun lest they contract the “blue-tongue,” a disease characterised -by a swollen, purplish-hued tongue which kills them in a few hours -by choking; while in certain other districts, especially in the -vicinity of the Zambezi and of the Portuguese territories, the deadly -tsetse-fly makes it impossible to keep domestic animals at all. - -The other great obstacle to the prosperity of South Africa is the -lack of water, for _less than one-tenth_ of the country is suitable -for raising any kind of a crop without water being led onto it—and -irrigation by private enterprise is out of the question, as even the -indomitable Rhodes was forced to admit. The government is fully alive -to the crying need for water, however, and a scheme for a national -system of irrigation is filling a large part of the Ministry of -Agriculture's programme. If carried out, this scheme will enormously -enlarge the area of tillage, for some of the regions now hopelessly -arid, such as the Karroo, have a soil of amazing fertility and need -only water to make them produce luxuriant crops. Were the rains of the -wet season conserved by means of the great tanks so common in India, -or were artesian wells sunk like those which have transformed the -desert regions of Algeria and Arizona, the vast stretch of the Karroo, -instead of being yellow with sand, might be yellow with waving corn. - -Though agriculture is, and probably always will be, the least -important of the country's great natural sources of wealth, the -development of rural industries is, thanks to governmental assistance, -steadily progressing. Roads and bridges are being built, experimental -farms organised on a large scale, the services of scientific experts -engaged, blooded live-stock imported, agricultural banks established, -and literature dealing with agricultural problems is being distributed -broadcast over the country. The exports of fruit are steadily -increasing; sugar is being grown on the hot lands of Natal and might -be grown all the way to the Zambezi; tea has lately been introduced -in the coastal regions and would probably also flourish in the north; -the tobacco of the Transvaal is as good a pipe tobacco as any grown, -and those who have become accustomed to it will use no other; with -the exception of the olive, which does not thrive, and of the vine, -which succeeds only in a limited area around Cape Town, nearly all -of the products of the temperate zone and of subtropical regions can -be grown successfully. Though South Africa unquestionably presents -many promising openings in farming, in fruit-growing, and in truck -gardening, it is folly for a man to attempt any one of them unless he -possesses practical experience, a modest capital, and a willingness -to work hard and put up with many inconveniences, for in no other -English-speaking country are the necessities of life so dear and so -poor in quality, nowhere is labour so unsatisfactory, and nowhere is -lack of comfort so general. - -South Africa's chief source of wealth is, and always will be, its -minerals. It was, strangely enough, the latest source to become -known, for nobody suspected it until, in 1867, a Boer hunter, his eye -caught by a sparkle among the pebbles on the Orange River, picked up -the first diamond. The diamonds found in that region since then have -amounted in value to nearly a billion dollars. Fifteen years after -the great diamond finds which sent the adventurers and fortune-seekers -of the world thronging to South Africa, came the still greater gold -discoveries on the Witwatersrand, or “The Rand,” as the reef of -gold-bearing quartz in the Transvaal is commonly called. The total -value of the gold production of the Rand for the twenty-five years -ending in June, 1910, was nearly one and a half billion dollars. But -though the Rand produces more gold than America and Australia put -together; though Kimberley has a virtual monopoly of the world's -supply of diamonds; though seams of silver, iron, coal, copper, and -tin are only waiting for capital and skill to unlock their treasures, -South Africa is, in the midst of this stupendous wealth, poor, for she -is as dependent on foreign sources for her food supply as England. In -other words, a region as large as all the States west of the Rocky -Mountains, in which flourish nearly all the products of every zone -from the Equator to the Pole, is unable to supply the wants of a white -population which is less than that of Connecticut. In California, on -the other hand, which is strikingly similar to South Africa in many -respects, the cultivation of the land kept pace with the production -of gold and eventually outstripped it. Until the mining industry of -South Africa is likewise put upon a solid agricultural foundation, the -country can never hope to be self-supporting. - -In many respects Johannesburg, the “golden city,” is the most -interesting place I have ever seen. In 1886 it was nothing but a -collection of miserable shanties. To-day “Joburg,” as it is commonly -called, is a city of a quarter of a million people, with asphalted -streets, imposing office buildings, one of the best street-railway -systems that I know, the finest hotel south of the Equator, and one -of the most beautiful country clubs in the world. It is a city of -contrasts, however, for you can stand under the _porte-cochère_ of -the palatial Carlton Hotel and hear the click of roulette balls, -the raucous scrape of fiddles, and the shouts of drunken miners -issuing from a row of gambling-hells, dance-halls, and gin palaces -still housed in one-story buildings of corrugated iron; a beplumed -and bepainted Zulu will pull you in a 'rickshaw, over pavements as -smooth and clean as those of Fifth Avenue, to a theatre where you -will have the privilege of paying Metropolitan Opera House prices to -witness much the same sort of a performance that you would find in a -Bowery music-hall; in the Rand Club you can see bronzed and booted -prospectors, fresh from the mining districts of Rhodesia or the -Congo, leaning over the bar, cheek-by-jowl with sleek, immaculately -groomed financiers from London and Berlin and New York. Johannesburg -is a spendthrift city, a place of easy-come and easy-go, for the -mine-workers are paid big wages, the mine-managers receive big -salaries, and the mine-owners make big profits, and they all spend -their money as readily as they make it. The English miner averages -five dollars a day, which he spends between Saturday night and Monday -morning in a drunken spree, while a native labourer will save enough -in a few months to keep him in idleness and his conception of comfort -for the rest of his life. - -There is pleasant society in Johannesburg and much hospitality to a -stranger. I took nearly a score of letters of introduction with me to -the Rand, but one would have done as well, for you present one letter, -and at the dinner which the man to whom it is addressed promptly gives -for you at the Rand Club or at the Carlton you will meet several of -the other people to whom you bear introductions. Through their club -life and their business relations the English and Americans in South -Africa are linked together in acquaintance like rings in a shirt of -chain-mail, so that if a man in Bulawayo or Kimberley or Johannesburg -gets to living beyond his income, or loses heavily at cards, or pays -undue attention to another man's wife, they will be discussing his -affairs in the club bars or on the hotel verandas of Cape Town and -Durban within a fortnight. I found that nearly all of the mines on -the Rand are managed by Americans, and that the mine-owners, who are -nearly all English or German, preferred them to any other nationality, -which struck me as being very complimentary to the administrative -and mechanical abilities of our people. One of these American -mine-managers drove forty miles in his motor-car so as to shake hands -with me, merely because he had learned in a roundabout way that I -came from the same part of New York State as himself, while another -fellow-countryman, who had made a great fortune during the Boer War -by contracting to wash the clothes of the British army, and received -war-time prices for his work, kidnapped me from the hotel where I was -staying, and landed me, baggage and all, in his home, and actually -felt affronted when I tried to leave after a week. - -Few places could be more unlike Johannesburg than Pretoria, the new -capital of the Union, only thirty miles away. It is as different -from the “golden city” as sleepy Bruges is from bustling Antwerp; as -Tarrytown, New York, is from Paterson, New Jersey. At first sight I -was surprised to find so English a town, but after I had strolled -in the shade of the wooden arcades formed by the broad verandas of -the shops I decided that the atmosphere of the city was Indian; the -rows of mud-bespattered saddle-horses tied to hitching-posts along -the main streets and the rural produce being sold from wagons in the -central market-place recalled our own West; but the substantial, -white-plastered houses, with their old-fashioned _stoeps_, their -red-brick sidewalks, and their prim and formal gardens, finally -convinced me that the town was, after all, Dutch. Every visitor to -Pretoria goes to see Krüger's house, the low, whitewashed dwelling -with the white lions on the _stoep_, where the stubborn old President -used to sit, smoking his long pipe and drinking his black coffee and -giving parental advice to his people. Across the way is the old Dutch -church where he used to hold forth on Sundays, with the gold hands -still missing from the clock-face on its steeple, for in the last days -of the South African Republic they were melted down and went to swell -the slender war-chest of the Boer army. In the cemetery hard by the -crafty, indomitable old man lies buried, while the hated flag against -which he fought so long flies over the capital where he collected his -guns and hatched his schemes of conquest, and within sight of his -black-marble tomb there are rising in brick and stone the great new -buildings which mark Pretoria as the capital of a united South Africa. - -Thirty miles northward across the veldt from Pretoria is the great -hole in the ground known as the Premier Diamond Mine, the newest and -potentially the richest of the South African diamond fields. Here, in -January, 1905, the surface manager, a Scotchman named McHardy, while -strolling through the pit during the noon hour, saw the sparkle of -what he at first took to be a broken bottle. Prying it loose with -his stick from the surrounding rubble, he found it to be a diamond -as large as a good-sized orange. This remarkable stone, which is -the largest diamond heretofore found, has since become known to the -world as the Great Cullinan, being named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, -one of the owners of the mine. It is a pure white stone, 4 by 2-1/4 -by 2 inches, weighing 3,025 carats, or 1.37 pounds, and worth in -the neighbourhood of a million dollars. As the surface cleavage -shows that it is undoubtedly a fragment of a much larger crystal, -one cannot but wonder what the original stone was like. The Great -Cullinan was immediately purchased by the Transvaal Government—or, -rather, the mine's share was purchased, for the government receives -sixty per cent of the value of all diamonds found—and presented to -King Edward. The question then arose of how so valuable a gem could -be transported to England in safety, for no sooner had its discovery -been announced than the criminals of the world began to lay their -plans to get possession of it. After many discussions and innumerable -suggestions and much newspaper comment, four men, armed to the teeth, -left the Premier Mine, carrying with them a red-leather despatch box. -Crossing the thirty miles of veldt to Pretoria under heavy escort, -they were conveyed in a private car to Cape Town; in the liner by -which they took passage to England a safe had been specially installed -and the red-leather despatch box was placed in it, two of the men -remaining on duty in front of it night and day. From Southampton a -special train took them up to London and a strong guard of detectives -and police surrounded them on their way to the bank at which the -diamond was to be delivered. When the despatch box was opened in the -presence of a group of curious officials it was found to contain -nothing more valuable than a lump of coal! The stone itself—and as -Sir Thomas Cullinan told me the story it is undoubtedly true—was -wrapped in cotton wool and tissue paper, put in a pasteboard box, -wrapped up in brown paper, and sent to England by parcels post, not -even the post-office authorities being given an inkling that it was -in the mails. I almost forgot to mention, by the way, that McHardy, -the discoverer of the great stone, was given a bonus of ten thousand -dollars, though it is a sad and peculiar commentary that within a year -his wife died, the bank in which he put the money failed, and his -house burned down. - -The diamonds are found in beds of clay, of which there are two -layers: a soft, yellow clay, lying on or near the surface, and a hard, -blue clay, lying deeper. These clays, which are usually covered by a -thin stratum of calcareous rock, are supposed to be the remains of -mud pits due to volcanic action, such as the boiling springs of the -Yellowstone. Imagine a great hollow, looking like a gigantic bowl, -perhaps half a mile in diameter and one hundred feet deep, enclosed -by a series of barbed-wire fences and filled by thousands of Kaffir -workmen, looking, from a distance, like a gigantic swarm of ants—such -was my first impression of the Premier Mine. The native labourers, -who work in three shifts of eight hours each, after cleaving the -“hard-blue” with their picks, load it onto trolley-cars, which are -attached to a cable and hauled to the surface of the pit, where it -is spread on mile-long fields and exposed for several months to -rain, wind, and sun so as to effect decomposition. The softened -lumps of earth, after being brought into still smaller fragments by -the pickaxe, are then sent to the mills, where they are crushed, -pulverised, washed, and finally sent to the “greaser” to get at the -stones. Until very recently men had to be employed to sort the washed -“concentrates” and pick out the diamonds. But they would miss some. -And the men had to be guarded lest they steal the gems. And detectives -had to be hired to watch the guards who watched the men. But one day -a mine employee named Kirsten happened to notice that the diamonds, -no matter how small or discoloured, always stuck to a greasy surface, -just as iron filings stick to a magnet, while the dirt and other -stones did not. That was the suggestion which led to the invention of -the “Kirsten greaser,” a series of sloping boards, heavily coated with -grease, which are gently agitated as the mud and slime containing the -diamonds are slowly washed over them, and which never fail to collect -the precious stones. - -At Kimberley, which is the only other diamond-producing district -of any importance in South Africa, the gem-bearing ground extends -over an area of but thirty-three acres, so that open mining has long -since given way to shafts, which have now been sunk to a depth of -two thousand five hundred feet, galleries being driven through the -producing ground at every forty-foot level, precisely as in a coal -mine. Kimberley has a romantic and picturesque history. In 1869 you -could not have found its name upon the map. In the following year -a Boer hunter, pitching his tent on the banks of the Orange River, -chanced to pick up a glittering stone from among the pebbles. The -news of his find making its way overland to Cape Town, the submarine -cables flashed it to every quarter of the globe, so that within a -twelvemonth adventurers and fortune-seekers had flocked there in -tens of thousands. By 1871 sixteen hundred claims, each thirty-one -feet square, were being worked, each man digging out the earth on -his own small plot, carrying it to one side, pulverising it by hand, -and sifting it for diamonds. The dirt from one claim would fall into -a neighbouring one, while some miners could not get their dirt out -at all without crossing another's property, so that quarrels and -lawsuits and shooting affrays soon began. About this time two quiet, -uncommunicative, shabbily clad men appeared at Kimberley and began to -buy up the various claims, until, before any one really appreciated -what was happening, the whole diamond industry of South Africa was -in their hands. Those men were Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato, -and the great amalgamation which their skill and shrewdness effected, -now known as the DeBeers Consolidated Mining Company, was one of the -greatest _coups_ in the history of finance. It is this corporation -which the women of the world have to blame for keeping up the price of -diamonds, for the first thing it did was to close the greater part of -the Kimberley mines, keeping just enough open to produce the amount of -stones which experience has proved that Europe and America are able to -take at a price high enough to leave a gratifying profit. Although, -as a result of this policy, the price of diamonds has been well -maintained, the population of Kimberley has been greatly reduced, the -one great corporation, with its comparatively small staff of employees -and its labour-saving machinery, having taken the place of the horde -of independent adventurers of the early days. - -It struck me that by far the most interesting sights, both at the -Kimberley and the Premier mines, were the so-called compounds, in -which the native labourers are confined, for the native who hires -out to work in a diamond mine must submit, during the term of his -contract, to as close confinement as a convict in a penitentiary; -he knows that he is in danger of being shot by the guards if he -attempts to escape; he is prepared to be searched daily with the same -minuteness which customs inspectors display in the case of a known -smuggler; and when his contract expires he has still to put up with -a fortnight's solitary confinement, in which emetics and cathartics -play an unpleasant part. The mine compounds are huge enclosures, -unroofed but covered with a wire netting to prevent anything being -thrown out over the walls. Around the interior of the wall are rows -of corrugated-iron huts, in which the natives live and sleep when -they are not at work, while the open space in the middle is used -for cooking, for washing, and for native games. The compounds are -surrounded by three lines of barbed-wire fence which are constantly -patrolled by armed sentries and illuminated at night by powerful -search-lights; every entrance is as jealously guarded as that of a -German fortress; and visitors are never admitted unless they bear a -pass signed by the administration and are accompanied by a responsible -official of the mine. Although the government—which, as I have already -remarked, takes sixty per cent of the mine's earnings—has made I. D. -B. (illicit diamond-buying) a penal offence with a uniform punishment -of twenty years at hard labour, and though the mining companies -maintain espionage systems which rival those of many Continental -governments, no employee, from director down to day labourer, ever -being free from scrutiny, millions of dollars' worth of diamonds are -smuggled out of the mines each year. To encourage honesty, ten per -cent of the value of any stone which a workman may find is given to -him if he brings it himself to the overseer, well over a quarter of a -million dollars being paid out annually on stones thus found. - -The compound of the Premier Mine contained, at the time of my visit, -something over twelve thousand natives, representing nearly every -tribe from Pondoland to the head-waters of the Congo. Here one sees -Zulus, Fingos, Pondos, Basutos, Bechuanas, Matabele, Mashonas, -Makalaka, and even Bushmen from the Kalahari country and Masai from -German East Africa, all attracted by the high wages, which range from -five to eight dollars a week. When the native's six-month contract -has ended, he takes his wages in British sovereigns—and his earnings -accumulate quickly because he can live on very little—goes home to his -own tribe, perhaps six weeks' journey away, buys a wife and a yoke -of oxen, and lives lazily ever after. Not all of the natives are of -so thrifty a turn of mind, however, for the company store holds many -attractions for them and they are heavy purchasers of camel's-hair -blankets, French perfumes, and imported cutlery, refusing almost -invariably to take anything but the best. - -I have tried to paint for you a comprehensive, though necessarily an -impressionistic, picture of this great new nation that has sprung up -so quickly in the antipodes, and to give you at least a rough idea of -what its people, its soil, its towns, its climate, its resources, and -its problems are like. That South Africa will always be a country of -great mineral wealth there is little doubt, for, when the supplies -of gold and diamonds are exhausted, copper, iron, and coal should -still furnish good returns. Likewise, it will always be a great -ranching country, for nearly all of its vast veldt is ideal, both in -climate and pasturage, for live-stock. It will probably never become a -manufacturing country, for coal is of poor quality, there is neither -water power nor inland waterways, and labour is neither good nor -cheap. If, as I have already remarked, government irrigation can be -introduced as successfully as it has been in our own Southwest, and -if the malaria which makes the rich coast-lands almost uninhabitable -can be exterminated as effectually as we have exterminated it on the -Isthmus of Panama, I can see no reason why South Africa should not -eventually become one of the great agricultural countries of the -world. Though many South Africans look forward to a day when the -natives will begin to retire to the country north of the Zambezi, and -when a large European population will till their own farms, by their -own labour, with the aid of government-assisted irrigation, I am -personally of the opinion that South Africa will never become at all -evenly populated, but that it will always bear a marked resemblance to -our Southwest, with large areas devoted to the raising of sheep and -cattle, with certain other areas irrigated for the raising of fruit, -and with its population centred for the most part in towns scattered -at long distances from one another, but connected by rapid railway -communications. - -Everything considered, South Africa is a country of big things—big -pay, big prices, big opportunities, big obstacles, big resources, -big rewards—and she needs young men to help her fight her battles and -solve her problems. So, if I were a youngster, with the sheep-skin of -a technical or agricultural school in my pocket, a few hundred dollars -in my purse, and a longing for fortune and adventure in my heart, -I think that I should walk into one of those steam-ship offices in -Bowling Green and book a passage for that land of which some one has -said, “Fortune knocks at a man's door once in most countries, but in -South Africa she knocks twice.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE FORGOTTEN ISLES - - -There can be no doubt about it: real cannibal kings are getting -scarce. Ever since, as a youngster, I read of Du Chaillu's adventures -among the man-eating natives of Equatoria, I had hankered to see a -real live cannibal in the flesh. But when, in later years, I made -inquiries about them from missionaries and traders and officials in -Senegal and Uganda and Nyasaland, I invariably received the reply: -“Oh, that's all over now; except among a few of the West Coast tribes, -cannibalism is a thing of the past.” So when the captain of the little -German cargo boat on which I was loitering up and down Africa's Indian -seaboard remarked at breakfast one morning that he had decided to put -in to Mahé, in the Seychelle group, and that I might care to pass the -time while he was taking on cargo by visiting the colony of cannibal -royalties who were in exile there, I felt that one of my boyhood -dreams was to be realised at last. - -Do you happen, by any chance, to have been to Mahé, in the Seychelles? -No? Of course not. Then you must picture an emerald island dropped -down in a turquoise sea. Peacock-coloured waves ripple on a silver -strand, and this loses itself almost immediately in a dense forest -of giant palms, which, mounting leisurely, dwindles and straggles -and runs out in a peak of bare blue rock, which disappears, in turn, -behind a great, low-hanging, purple heat cloud. To reach these -delectable isles one must have time and patience a-plenty, for they -lie far from the ocean highways and are visited by scarcely a dozen -vessels, all told, each year. Draw a line straight across the Indian -Ocean from Colombo to Zanzibar, and where that line intersects the -equator are the Seychelles, mere specks in that expanse of ocean. -Mahé, the largest of the group, is everything that a tropical island -should be, according to the story-books, even to its inaccessibility, -for, barring the French mail steamer which touches there every other -month on its way to Madagascar, and an occasional German freighter or -British tramp which drops in on its way from Goa to Kilindini, on the -chance of picking up a cargo of copra, it is as completely cut off -from the outside world as though it were in Mars. - -I rather imagine that they are the loneliest people in the world, -those score of men and women—English, French, and German—who -constitute the entire white population of the islands. That is why -they are so pathetically eager to welcome the rare visitors who come -their way. Indeed, until I went to Mahé I never knew what hospitality -really meant. When our anchor rumbled down under the shadow of the -Morne Seychellois, and the police boat—its crew of negroes, with their -flashing teeth and big, good-humoured faces, their trim, blue sailor -suits and broad-brimmed straw wide-awakes, looking like overgrown -children—had taken me ashore, I promptly found myself surrounded by -the entire European population. - -“I am the wife of the legal adviser to the Crown,” said a sweet-faced -little Irishwoman. “My husband and I would be so pleased if you would -come up to our bungalow for dinner. You can have no idea how good it -seems to see a white face again.” - -“Oh, I say, then you must promise to breakfast with me,” urged a tall -young Englishman in immaculate white linen, who, it proved, was the -superior judge of the colony. “You won't disappoint me, will you, -old chap? I'm dying to hear what's going on in the world. And if you -_should_ have any magazines or newspapers that you could spare——” - -But the government chaplain, wasting no time in words, fairly hustled -me into a diminutive dog-cart and, amid the reproaches of his -fellow-exiles, off we rattled behind the only horse on the island. The -padre was not to monopolise me for long, however, for the little group -of homesick exiles pursued us to his bungalow, where they settled me -in a long cane chair, thrust upon me cheroots and whiskey-and-sodas, -and listened breathlessly to the bits of world gossip for which I -ransacked the pigeon-holes of my memory for their benefit. The newest -songs, the most recent plays, the latest fashions, all the gossip of -Broadway and Oxford Street and the Avenue de l'Opéra—they hung on my -words with an eagerness that was pathetic. - -“I hope you'll pardon us,” apologised my host, “but it's so seldom -that we see a pukka white man out here that we quite forget the few -manners we have left in our eagerness to learn what is going on at -home—the little things, you know, that are not important enough to put -in the cables and that they never think to put in the letters. Until -you have lived in such a place as this, my friend, you don't know the -meaning of that word 'home.'” - -It is hot in the Seychelles; hot with a damp, sticky, humid, -enervating heat which is unknown away from the Line. They tell a -story in Mahé of an English resident who died from fever and went to -the lower regions. A few days later his friends received a message -from the departed. It said, “Please send down my blankets.” There are -days in an American midsummer when indoors becomes oppressive; it is -_always_ oppressive in the Seychelles, in January as in August, at -midnight as at noon. During the “hot season” it is overpoweringly so, -for you live for six months at a stretch in a bath of perspiration -and wonder whether you will ever know what it is to be cool again. -“There are six hundred minutes in every hour of the hot weather,” -the governor's wife remarked to me, “and not one of them bearable. -Although,” she added, “after the mercury in your bedroom thermometer -has climbed above one hundred and thirty, a few more degrees don't -much matter.” In her bungalow, for the greater part of the day, the -white woman in the Seychelles is as much a prisoner by reason of the -heat as is a Turkish woman in a harem from custom. Having neither -shopping, domestic duties, nor callers to occupy her, the only break -in the day's terrible monotony comes at sunset, when every one meets -every one else at the little club on the water-front which, with its -breeze-swept verandas and its green croquet lawns and tennis courts, -is the universal gathering-place between the hours of six and eight. -An afternoon nap is universal—if the flies will allow it. Flies by -day and mosquitoes by night are as wearing on European nerves as -the climate, the beds being from necessity so smothered in mosquito -netting that the air that gets within is as unsatisfactory as strained -milk. In the hot weather a punkah is kept going all night—this huge, -swinging fan, pulled by a coolie who squats in the veranda outside, -and who can go to sleep without ceasing his pulling, being as -necessary for comfort as a pillow—while, during the hottest nights, it -is customary to sleep unclad and uncovered, save for a sheet, which -the punkah-coolie, slipping in every hour, sprinkles with water. - -The white woman in this part of the world is an early riser. A cup of -tea is always served her when she is awakened, and as soon as she is -dressed comes _chota hazri_, or the little breakfast, consisting of -tea, toast, eggs, and fruit. The most is made of the cool hours of -the morning, for in the hot weather it is customary to “shut up the -bungalow” at about seven A. M., when the temperature is moderately low -compared with what it will rise to a few hours later. Every door and -window is closed and thereafter the greatest care is taken to make -entrances and exits as quickly as possible, for a door left open for -any length of time quickly raises the temperature. If kept carefully -closed, however, it is remarkable how cool the room keeps as compared -with the stifling heat without. - -Though a Seychellian bungalow is generally barn-like without and -barren within, its European mistress usually contrives to make its -rooms pretty and inviting, it being astonishing what marvels of -transformation can be accomplished by means of native mattings, Indian -printed curtains, and furniture of Chinese wicker, all effective and -ridiculously cheap. The kitchen is a detached building, erected as far -away from the bungalow as possible, and the white woman who knows when -she is well off seldom enters it. Once a month, however, she inspects -her cooking pots and pans, because, being made of copper, they have to -be periodically tinned or they become poisonous, almost as many lives -being lost in the tropics by the neglect of this simple precaution as -by failure to have every drop of drinking water boiled. As there is -no ice-making plant in the Seychelles, water is cooled for drinking -by being placed in a porous earthenware vessel and swung to and fro -in the heated atmosphere until, though still far from cool, it is a -little less tepid and nauseous. - -But the European residents are not the only exiles in the Seychelles, -nor, to my way of thinking, the ones most to be pitied, for of recent -years these islands, presumably because of their very remoteness, have -been turned into a political prison for those deposed cannibal kings -whose kingdoms have, on one excuse and another, been added to the -dominions of the British Crown. At present there are three political -prisoners of note on the island of Mahé—King Kabanga of Uganda, King -Assibi of the Gold Coast, and King Prempeh of Ashantee. Though all of -these ebony royalties were enthusiastic patrons of the cooking-pot, -King Prempeh is by far the most notorious and the most interesting -personality of the three, for it was his palace at Kumasi that was -built of the skulls and surrounded by a neat picket fence made from -the leg and arm bones of the people he and his tribesmen had eaten. -Hard by the palace was the ghastly “crucifixion grove” where the -victims were slaughtered and their bodies hung until sufficiently -gamy to suit the royal palate. Owing to an error of judgment in -selecting a British commissioner as the _pièce de résistance_ for -one of his feasts, an expedition was sent to Ashantee, the country -annexed to the British empire, and its ruler forced to exchange his -skull-walled palace in Kumasi for a four-roomed, tin-roofed cottage -in the outskirts of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles, where, -surrounded by the huts of the chieftains who accompanied him into -exile, he lives on the meagre pension granted him by the British -Government. - -Clad in the flaming cotton robe of red and yellow which is the West -African equivalent of royal ermine, worn over a pair of very soiled -pajamas, his Majesty received me on the veranda of his little dwelling -in the presence of the constable who guards him and who acts as -interpreter when the King's scanty store of English gives out. Now -I am not an entire stranger to the ways of the Lord's Anointed, but -this audience with Prempeh of Ashantee was one of the most memorable -experiences that I can recall. In the first place, the mercury had -crept up and up and up until it hovered in the neighbourhood of one -hundred and thirty degrees in the shade of the house; in the second -place, the sons of the King (he told me that he had forty-two in all) -had crowded into the tiny room until the place fairly reeked with the -smell of perspiration; in the third place, I was at a loss what to -talk to his Majesty about. The questions which one would like to ask a -cannibal king are obvious—whether he takes his meat rare or well done, -whether he prefers the tenderloin or the sirloin, whether he likes -white meat better than black—but Prempeh of Ashantee is not at all the -sort of person with whom one would feel inclined to take liberties, -and I was very far from being sure whether he would consider such -questions as liberties or not. After an awkward pause, during which -the King shuffled his feet uneasily and I wiped away rivulets of -perspiration, he said something in Ashantee—at least I suppose it was -Ashantee—to one of his attendants, who shortly returned with a tin -tray holding a bottle of whiskey, a siphon of lukewarm seltzer, and -a couple of very dirty glasses. After another long and uncomfortable -pause, the King asked me if I wouldn't have something to drink. Taking -it for granted that Prempeh's capacity for drink would be as _outré_ -as his choice of food, I poured his beer glass full to the brim with -whiskey, giving to myself the drink sanctioned by civilised custom. - -“In my country,” said the King, leaning forward and speaking in the -broken English which he had acquired from the government chaplain, -“bad men sometimes try to poison king, so king turn drinks other way -round,” and, suiting the action to the words, he turned the tray so -as to place before _me_ the beer-glassful of whiskey. I have never -been quite certain whether there was a twinkle in the eye of that -simple-hearted cannibal when he literally turned the table on me or -not. - -At the time of my visit to Prempeh he was in the throes of marital -unhappiness, the details of which he confided to me. It seems that for -several years past he had been endeavouring to gain admission to the -Church-of-England fold, arguing, plausibly enough, that such a proof -of his complete regeneration might result in inducing the British -Government to send him back to his home in Ashantee. Working on that -assumption, he had, not long before, asked the government chaplain -to confirm him, to which request that gratified but still somewhat -sceptical clergyman had replied: “I am sorry to say that what your -Majesty asks is at present impossible, as your Majesty's marital -affairs are not pleasing to the church.” - -So Prempeh, who had brought only twelve of his wives with him into -exile, thinking that the church held such a number to be incompatible -with his dignity,—for the workings of the West African mind are -peculiar, remember,—sent a message to the governor of the Seychelles -asking permission to take a maiden of Mahé for his thirteenth spouse, -and it was not until the indignant chaplain remonstrated with him -for his fall from grace that he grasped the fact that Christianity -demands of its converts the minimum instead of the maximum number of -wives. - -“So me ship three wives back Africa,” Prempeh explained to me in his -quaint West Coast English. “Now me have only nine. Nine wives not -many for great king. But if chappy [chaplain] not let me in church -with nine wives, then me ship them back Africa too, for me very much -homesick to see Ashantee.” - -Poor, deposed, exiled, homesick king, he will never again see that -African home for which he longs, I fear, for he cost England far too -much in lives and money. He came out on the veranda of his little -house to say good-by, and as I looked back, as my 'rickshaw boy drew -me swiftly down the road, he was still standing there waving to me—a -real, dyed-in-the-wool cannibal king, who has killed and eaten more -human beings, I suppose, than almost any man that ever lived. - - * * * * * - -Two days' steam southward from the Seychelles, and midway between the -island of Mahé and Diégo-Suarez, on the north coast of Madagascar, -lies the islet of Saint Pierre, whence comes much of the guano with -which we fertilise our flower-beds and gardens, and those giant -sea-turtles whose shells supply our women-folk with fans, combs, and -brooches. Here, on this half a square mile of sun-baked rock in the -middle of the Indian Ocean, the Scotch manager of the syndicate which -works the guano deposits lives the whole year round, during half of -which time he sees no human face, during the other half having the -company of a few score blacks who are brought over from Mahé under -contract to gather the rich deposits of guano. His only shelter a -wooden shack, his only companions the clouds of clamorous sea-fowl, -his only fresh food turtles and fish, his only communication with -the world two times a year when the workers come and go, I expected -to find him unshaven and slovenly, the most exiled of all exiles, -the loneliest of the lonely. I made up a bundle of two-months-old -newspapers and pictured the pleasure it would give him to learn the -news of that big, busy, teeming world which lay over there beyond the -rim of the Indian Ocean. I imagined that he would cling to my arm and -beg piteously for news from home, and I thought it quite possible that -he might weep on my shoulder. But when a crew of blacks had taken me -through the booming surf in a tiny native dugout, and I and my bundle -of newspapers had been hauled up an overhanging cliff at the end of -a rope, I found the poor exile whose lonely lot I had come to cheer -immaculate in white linen and pipe-clayed shoes and wholly contented -with the shade of a green palm, the murmur of a turquoise sea, a book -of Robert Burns's verses, and the contents of a large black bottle. - - * * * * * - -When De Lesseps, that lean Frenchman with the vision of a prophet -and the energy of a Parisian, drove his spade through the sands of -Suez and thereby shortened the sea-road from Europe to the East by -five thousand miles, he gave France her revenge on Saint Helena. -Ever since Clive won England her Indian empire, this obscure rock in -the South Atlantic had been a prosperous half-way house on the road -to the Farther East, its lonely islanders driving a roaring trade -with the winged fleets of war and commerce that stopped there long -enough to replenish their larders and refill their casks. But when the -completion of the Canal altered the trade routes of the world, the -tedious Cape journey was abandoned, the South Atlantic was deserted, -and Saint Helena was ruined. By the genius of one of her sons, France -had settled her score with that grim island, whose name still leaves a -bitter taste in the mouths of Frenchmen. - -He who would see the prison place of the great Emperor for himself -must be rich in time and patience, for the vessels that earn their -government subsidy by grudgingly dropping anchor for a few hours -in Jamestown's open roadstead are only indifferently good and very -far between. Scarcely larger than the island of Nantucket—or Staten -Island, if that conveys more meaning; almost midway between the -fever-haunted coasts of Angola and Brazil; sixteen days' steam from -Southampton Water and seven from Table Bay; its rockbound coasts as -precipitous and forbidding as the walls of the Grand Canyon; and with -a population less than that of many of New York's down-town office -buildings, Saint Helena possesses one attraction, nevertheless, which -more than repaid me for the long and arduous journey. That attraction -is a mean and lonely cottage, set on a bleak and barren hill. To stand -within the walls of that wretched dwelling and to stare out across -the wastes of ocean from that wind-swept hilltop, I travelled twenty -thousand miles, for on that distant stage was played the last act of -the mightiest tragedy of modern times. - -Loitering up and down the seven seas, I have seen many islands, but -none, that I can recall, that turns toward the seafarer a face at -once so gloomy and so forbidding. It needs no vivid imagination, no -knowledge of its history, to transform the perpendicular cliffs of -Saint Helena into the grim walls of a sea-surrounded prison. It is a -place so stern, so solemn, and so awesome that it makes you shiver in -spite of yourself. As I leaned over the rail of a Castle steamer, with -sunrise still an hour away and the Cross flaming overhead, and watched -the island's threatening profile loom up out of the night, I shuddered -in sympathy with that stern, cold man who came as a prisoner to these -same shores close on a century ago. - -From the view-points of safety and severity, the captors of the fallen -Emperor could not have chosen better. For the safe-keeping of a man -whose ambitions had decimated, bankrupted, and exhausted the people -of a continent, it was imperative that a prison should be found -whence escape or rescue would be out of the question by reason of its -very isolation and remoteness. Twelve hundred miles from the nearest -continental land, and that a savage and fever-infested wilderness; -with but a single harbour, and that so poor that landing there is -perilous except in the very best of weather; its great natural -strength increased by impregnable forts; its towering rocks commanding -a sea view of sixty miles in every direction, thus obviating the -possibility of a surprise attack, Saint Helena admirably fulfilled -the requirements for a prison demanded by a harassed, weakened, and -frightened Europe. - -Though those travellers who take passage by the slow and infrequent -“intermediate” steamers to the Cape are usually afforded an -opportunity of setting foot on Saint Helena's soil, the brief stay -which is made there permits of their doing little else. As the house -occupied by Napoleon stands in the very heart of the island and on -its highest point, and as the road which leads to it is so rough and -precipitous that those who hire one of the few available vehicles -generally walk most of the way out of pity for the horses, there is -rarely time for the traveller who intends proceeding by the same boat -to set eyes on the spot which gives the island its fame. I heard, -indeed, of scores of travellers who had chosen the discomforts of this -roundabout and tedious route for the express purpose of visiting the -house where Napoleon died, and who found, on arriving at Saint Helena, -that they would have time for nothing more than a hurried promenade in -the town. Nor are any efforts made by the indolent islanders to induce -travellers to stay over a steamer, for there are neither hotels nor -boarding-houses, and a visitor would have to depend for his bed and -board on the hospitality of some private family. - -The South Atlantic, her bosom rising and falling lazily under the -languorous influence of the tropic morning, had exchanged her sombre -night robe for a shimmering, sparkling garment of sun-flecked blue -before the sleepy-eyed quarantine officer had laboriously climbed -the port ladder; and the yellow flag at our masthead, fluttering -down, had signalled to the clamorous crews of negroes waiting eagerly -alongside that they could take us ashore. In the pitiless light of the -early morning the island looked even more forbidding than when the -harshness of its features was veiled by night. Naked slope and ridge -rose everywhere, and everywhere they were cut and cross-cut by equally -bare valleys and ravines, but not a house, not a tree, not a sign of -life, vegetable or animal, could we detect as we drew near. Even the -sea-birds seemed afraid to alight on those grim cliffs, darting in on -outspread wings as though to settle on them, only to wheel away with -frightened, discordant cries, the while an everlasting surf hurled -itself angrily against the smooth black rocks, voicing its impotence -in a sullen, booming roar. - -Approaching the shore, we were amazed to see that what had appeared -from the ship's deck to be a solid, perpendicular wall of rock was -split in the middle, as though by a mighty chisel, and in the cleft -thus formed nestled Jamestown, the island's capital, flanked on either -side by towering, fort-crowned cliffs which effectually conceal -it from the sea. Landing at the same stone water-stairs where the -captive Emperor had come ashore nearly a century before, we followed a -stone-paved causeway, bordered on the land side by a deep but empty -moat, over a creaking drawbridge, through an ancient portcullised -gateway, and so into a spacious square, shaded by many patriarchal -trees and dotted here and there with groups of antiquated cannon. -Bordering the square are the post-office, which does a thriving -business in the sale of the rare surcharged stamps of the islands when -the steamers come in; the custom-house, the law courts, the yellow -church of Saint James, and the castle, a picturesque and straggling -structure, begun by the first English governor in 1659, which is -used by the governor for his “town” residence, though his “country” -place is barely a mile away. The town itself is simply a mean and -straggling street, lined on either side by whitewashed, red-roofed, -green-shuttered houses which become less and less pretentious and more -and more scattered as you make your way up the ever narrowing valley -until it loses itself in the hills. If there is a more dead-and-alive -place than Jamestown I have yet to see it. A New Hampshire hamlet on a -Sunday morning is positively boisterous in comparison. Once a month, -however, when the British mail comes in, the town arouses itself long -enough to go down to the post-office and get the letters and the -papers—especially the illustrated weeklies—from that far-off place -which every islander, even though he was born and raised on Saint -Helena, refers to as “home.” - -From the very edge of the village square the cliff known as Ladder -Hill rises sheer, its great bulk throwing an ominous shadow over the -little town. It takes its name from the Jacob's ladder whose seven -hundred wooden steps will bring you, panting and perspiring, to the -fort and the wireless station which occupy the top. I suppose there -is no other such ladder in the world, it being, so I was proudly -assured by the islanders, nine hundred and ninety-three feet long and -six hundred and two feet high. Nor can I conceive of any other place -wanting such an accommodation, for those who use it are constantly in -danger of bursting their lungs going up or of breaking their necks -coming down. - -A biscuit's throw from the foot of the ladder, and facing the public -gardens, stands the sedate, old-fashioned house where Napoleon spent -the first few nights after his arrival on the island. It is a prim, -two-story residence, the sombreness of its snuff-coloured plaster -relieved by white stone trimmings and window-sills—just such a place, -in fact, as the British colonists built by the hundreds in our own New -England towns. By one of the most remarkable coincidences of which I -have ever heard, Napoleon was given the same bedroom which had been -occupied by the Duke of Wellington—then Sir Arthur Wellesley—on his -homeward voyage from India only a few years before. - -Leaving Jamestown in its gloomy, rock-walled ravine, we followed the -incredibly rough high-road which bumps and jolts and twists and turns -and climbs back and up onto the table-land which forms, as it were, -the roof of the island. The deeper we penetrated into the interior -the more luxuriant the vegetation became. The dry, barren, soilless, -lichen-coated rocks of the coast zone gave way to grassy valleys -abloom with English gorse and broom and dotted with the bright green -of willows and the dark green of firs, and these merged, in turn, into -a land of bamboos and bananas, of oranges and lemons and date-palms, -where the vegetation was so luxuriant and tropical as to give it -almost the appearance of a botanic garden. I know, indeed, of no other -place in the world where one can pass through three distinct zones -of vegetation in the course of an hour's drive, the first few miles -into the interior of Saint Helena being, so far as the scenery is -concerned, like a journey from the rocky, desolate shores of Labrador, -through the pine forests and fertile farm-lands of New England and New -York, and so southward into the essentially tropical vegetation of -lower Florida. - -The road wound on and on, uncovering new beauties at every turn. -Cheerful, low-roofed bungalows peeped out at us from gardens ablaze -with camelias, fuchsias, and roses; through the vistas formed by fig, -pear, and guava orchards we caught glimpses of prosperous-looking -stone farm-houses whose thick walls and high gables showed that they -dated from the Dutch occupation; passing above a tiny sylvan valley, -our driver pointed out the rambling Balcombe place, where the Emperor -lived for some weeks while Longwood was being prepared for his -occupancy, and in the box-bordered gardens of which he made quiet love -to his host's pretty daughter. In the same valley, not a pistol-shot -away, are the whitewashed, broad-verandaed quarters of the Eastern -Telegraph Company's force of operators—tennis-courts, cricket-fields, -and a swimming-pool set in a lawn of emerald velvet serving to make -the enforced exile of these young Englishmen, who relay the news of -the world between Europe and the Cape, a not unpleasant one. - -Steeper and steeper became the road; scantier and less luxuriant -the vegetation, until at last we emerged upon a barren, wind-swept -table-land. A farm-yard gate barred our road, but at the impatient -crack of the driver's whip a small brown maiden hastened from a -near-by lodge to open it, curtseying to us prettily as we rattled -through. Three minutes' drive across a desolate, gorse-covered moor, -and our driver pulled up sharply at a gate in a scraggy privet hedge -surrounding just such a ramshackle, weather-beaten farm-house as you -find by the hundreds scattered along the coast of Maine. “Longwood,” -he remarked laconically, pointing with his whip. Convinced that I -could not have heard aright, I asked him over again, for, despite -all the accounts I had read of the mean surroundings amid which the -Emperor ended his days, I could not bring myself to believe that this -miserable cottage, with its sunken roof and lichen-coated walls, could -have sheltered for more than half a decade the conqueror of Europe, -the master of the Tuileries and Fontainebleau and Versailles, the -man whose troopers had stabled their horses in every capital of the -Continent. - -Longwood House is an old-fashioned, rambling cottage, only one story -high, unless you count the quarters improvised for the members of the -Emperor's suite in the garret, which were lighted by means of small -windows cut in the shingle roof. The house is built in the form of a -T, the entrance, which is reached by four or five stone steps and a -tiny latticed veranda, being represented by the bottom of the letter, -while the dining-room, kitchens, and offices are represented by the -top. Originally the dwelling of a peasant farmer, at the time Napoleon -reached the island it was being used as a sort of shooting-box by the -lieutenant-governor, the present front of the house being hastily -added to form a reception-room for the Emperor. In addition to this -_salle de réception_, where you are asked to sign the visitor' book -by the old French soldier who is the official guardian of the place, -there is a drawing-room, a dining-room, the Emperor's study, his -bedroom, bath, and dressing-room—all small, ill-lighted, damp, and -cheerless. Practically the entire lower floor of the house was used -by Napoleon, the members of his _entourage_—marshals, ministers, and -courtiers, remember, who were accustomed to the life of the most -brilliant court in Europe—being accommodated in tiny, unventilated -cubby-holes directly under the eaves. With the exception of two -or three small pier-glasses, the house is now quite destitute of -furniture, though in other respects it is kept religiously as it -was in Napoleon's time, even the faded blue wall-paper, sprinkled -with golden stars, having been carefully preserved. On the walls -of the various rooms are notices in French and English indicating -the purposes to which they were put during the imperial occupancy. -Between two windows of the reception-room, where the Emperor's bed -was removed from his bedroom a few days before his death because -of the better light, stands a marble bust made from the cast taken -immediately after his death, which, barring the one made by Canova -during his life, is the only likeness of Napoleon admittedly correct. -Without the house is the small and unkept garden in which the Emperor -walked and sometimes worked, the arbour under which he spent so -many hours, and the cement-lined fish-pond which he built with his -own hands. Inside or out, there is not one suggestion of colour, of -comfort, or of cheer: it is a prison-house and nothing more. - -Near the bottom of the brown and windy hill on which Longwood stands -is Geranium Valley, which contains the tomb, or rather the cenotaph, -of the Emperor. It was by Napoleon's own wish that his body was buried -in this exquisite spot, close beside the spring at which he so often -used to drink and amid the wild geraniums of which he was so fond. The -famous willow-tree still overshadows the little grave-space, which is -enclosed by a high iron railing and a carefully trimmed hedge of box, -while masses of flowers give brightness to a spot hallowed by many -memories, for it was in this shady glen that the Emperor passed the -most peaceful hours of his exile and it was here that he rested for -twenty years until France brought him back in triumph to his final -resting-place under the great gilt dome of Les Invalides. - -[Illustration: Longwood House. “This miserable cottage, with its -sunken roof and lichen-coated walls, sheltered for more than half a -decade the conqueror of Europe.” - -Illustration: Looking northward across the Atlantic from Longwood. -“To stare out across the wastes of ocean from that wind-swept hilltop -I travelled twenty thousand miles.” - -THE PRISON PLACE OF A GREAT EMPEROR.] - -Both Longwood and the grave occupy the peculiar position of being -French territory in the heart of a British colony, for half a -century ago Queen Victoria presented the property to the French -nation, an official appointed by the French Government residing on and -caring for the place and showing it with mingled pride and sadness to -the few visitors who make their way to this one of the world's far -corners. It was an interesting but gloomy experience, that pilgrimage -to the prison place of the great Emperor, for it visualised for me, as -nothing else ever could do, the sordidness, the humiliations, and the -mental tortures which marked the last years of Napoleon. As my vessel -steamed steadily northward across the Atlantic, with the boulevards of -Paris not three weeks away, I leaned over the taffrail and, staring -back at the receding cliffs of that grim island, I seemed to see -the short, stoop-shouldered, gray-coated, cock-hatted figure of the -Emperor staring wistfully out across those leagues of ocean toward -France. - - * * * * * - -To locate the next of these “Forgotten Isles,” and the most completely -forgotten of all of them, you had better get out the family atlas and, -with a ruler and a pencil, do a little Morris-chair exploring. Draw -a line due south from Cape Verde, which is the westernmost point of -Africa, and another line due east from Cape San Roque, which is the -easternmost point in South America, and where those two lines meet, -out in the wastes of the South Atlantic, you will find a barren rock -which resembles, as, indeed, it is, an extinct and partially submerged -volcano. This rock, which is considerably smaller than its sister -island of Saint Helena, seven hundred miles away, is officially -designated by the British Government as H.M.S. “Ascension.” Entirely -under the control and jurisdiction of the Lords Commissioners of the -Admiralty, it is unique in that it is the only island in the world -which has the rating of a man-o'-war, being garrisoned, or rather -manned, by a detachment of sailors and marines, and being administered -in every respect as though it were a unit of the British navy. With -the exception of a dozen acres of vegetable garden, there is not a -single green thing on the island—grass, shrub, or tree. The island of -Saint Pierre, of which I made mention earlier in this chapter, is bad -enough, goodness knows, but it at least has a palm-tree. Ascension -hasn't even that. How they get men to go there is altogether beyond -my comprehension. If I had to take my choice between being sentenced -to exile on Ascension (which Heaven forbid!) or confinement in Sing -Sing, I rather think I should choose the prison. There are people on -Ascension, nevertheless, the population, which consists of officers, -seamen, and marines, together with a handful of cable operators and -a score of Kroo boys from Sierra Leone, numbering in all about one -hundred and thirty. There were also four women—relatives of the -officers—on the island when I was there. They had been there only -six months, I was told, yet when our vessel arrived not one of them -was on speaking terms with the others. Ascension, is, however, one -of the most flourishing “match factories” in the British empire, it -being safe to say that any unattached female, no matter what her -disqualifications, can get a husband in a week's stay on the island. -A young Englishman and his bride boarded our boat at Ascension. She -had been born and had spent all of her life on Saint Helena (which -is not exactly a roaring metropolis itself), and had married one of -the cable operators stationed at Ascension, who was taking her on -her first visit to the outside world. She told me that the event of -her life, her marriage excepted, had been going out to a vessel to -see a motor-car which was being transported to Cape Town. Here was -an educated and intelligent English girl who had come to womanhood -without ever having seen a railway train, a street-car, a building -over two stories high, or a crowd of more than five hundred people. -When we reached Teneriffe, in the Canaries, which is about as -somnolent a place as any I know, her husband took her ashore to see -the sights with keen anticipation. She rode on an electric car, she -took tea in a four-story hotel, she attended a moving-picture show—and -was brought back to the steamer suffering from violent hysterics. -A week later we reached Southampton, where she was so completely -prostrated by the roar and bustle of her first city that she had to go -to bed under medical attention. - -To those British officials and soldiers who are performing the -manifold duties of empire along Africa's fever-stricken West Coast, -the island of Ascension is a godsend, for an excellent sanatorium has -been built by the government on its highest point, and to it come -wasted, sunken-cheeked, fever-racked skeletons from all parts of -that coast of death to build up their strength before going back to -their work again. Not only is Ascension a coaling, cable, and health -station of considerable importance, but it is also the chief habitat -of the sea-turtle, which comes there in thousands between January -and May, to lay its eggs in the sand. After having seen the enormous -size these creatures attain, it is almost possible to believe some of -those fantastic yarns about his trained turtles with which Baron de -Rougemont set Europe gasping a few years back. During the year that I -visited Ascension more than two hundred turtles were captured, ranging -in weight from five hundred to eight hundred pounds apiece. Four of -the monsters, each weighing close to half a ton, were put aboard our -vessel, being sent by the officers of the garrison as a gift to his -Majesty the King. They must have had turtle soup at Buckingham Palace -for several days in succession after those turtles arrived. - - * * * * * - -It could not have been long after daybreak when a frousy-headed Greek -steward awoke me with an intimation that we were off Canea. The -evil-smelling mixture which was called coffee only by courtesy, and -which was really chicory in disguise, held no attraction for me, for, -through the port-holes of the dining-saloon I could see, rising from -a sapphire sea, the green-clad, snow-capped mountains of Crete, the -island of mythology and massacre. - -Our little steamer forged ahead at half-speed and the white town kept -coming nearer and nearer, until we could distinguish the caiques in -the harbour, and the queer, narrow houses with their latticed harem -windows which encircled it, and the white mosque with a palm-tree -silhouetted against its slender minaret, and even the crowd of ebony, -tan, and coffee-coloured humanity that fought for posts of vantage at -the water-stairs. It was a picture of sunshine and animation, of vivid -colours and strange peoples, such as one seldom sees except in some -gorgeously staged comic opera, and as I surveyed it sleepily from the -steamer's deck I had a momentary feeling that I was only an onlooker -at a play and that the curtain would go down presently and I should -have to go out into the drab, prosaic, humdrum world again. - -But even as this was in my mind a gun boomed out from a crumbling -bastion and five little balls ran up five flagstaffs which I had -already noticed standing all in a row on the uppermost ramparts -and had mistaken, naturally enough, for some new form of Marconi -apparatus. The five little balls broke out into five flags and the -morning breeze caught up their folds and held them straight out as -though for our benefit, so that we could make them out quite plainly. -Four of them were old friends that I had known on many seas—the Union -Jack and the Tricolour and the Saint Andrew's cross of Russia and -the red-white-and-green banner of Italy—but the fifth flag, which -flew somewhat higher than the others, was of unfamiliar design; but -the blood-red square of bunting, traversed by the Greek cross and -bearing in its upper corner the star of Bethlehem, told its own story -and I knew it for the flag of Crete. And I knew that there was deep -significance in the design of that unknown flag and in the position -of the four familiar ones that flew below it, for they signalled to -the world that the Turk had been driven out, never to return; that -Christianity had triumphed over Mohammedanism, and that the cross had, -indeed, replaced the crescent; that the centuries of massacre were now -but memories; that peace, in the guise of foreign soldiery, had, for a -time at least, found an abiding-place in Crete; and, most significant -of all, that the new flag with its single star would be upheld, if -necessary, by the mightiest array of bayonets and battle-ships in -Christendom. - -The island of Crete, which is about the size of Porto Rico, not -only occupies a very important strategical position, being nearly -equidistant from the coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, commanding -every line of communication in the eastern Mediterranean, and -being within easy striking distance of the Strait of Gibraltar, -the Dardanelles, and the Canal, but it is also one of the richest -agricultural regions in the world, or would be if the warring elements -among its population would permit the rattle of the harvester to -replace the rattle of the machine-gun. Ever since the Turks wrested -the island from the Venetians, close on two and a half centuries ago, -its history has been one of corruption, cruelty, and massacre. Almost -annually, for more than seventy years, the island Christians rose in -rebellion against their Turkish masters, and just as regularly the -Turks suppressed those rebellions with a severity which turned the -towns of the island into shambles and its fertile farm-lands into a -deserted wilderness. The cruelty which coupled the name of Turk with -execration in Armenia and Macedonia assumed such atrocious forms in -Crete that finally the great powers were aroused to action, and in -1898 the fleets of England, France, Italy, and Russia dropped anchor -in Suda Bay, the Turkish officials were forcibly deported, and a board -of admirals assumed control of the affairs of the unhappy island. -After a few months of martial government, during which the admirals -squabbled continuously among themselves, the intervening powers -proclaimed the island an autonomous state, subject to the Porte, but -paying no tribute, and ruled by a high commissioner to be appointed -by the King of the Hellenes. Though theoretically independent, it was -provided that all questions concerning the foreign relations of Crete -should be determined by the representatives of the powers, who would -also maintain in the island, for a time at least, an international -army of occupation. Recent events in the Balkans having resulted -in bringing about an agitation in Crete for annexation to Greece, -where a propaganda has long been vigorously carried on with that end -in view, the protecting powers have definitely announced that the -administration of the island will be continued by the “constituted -authorities” (this should read “_self_-constituted”) until the -question can be settled with the consent of Turkey. As things stand -at present, the withdrawal of the international troops from Crete -is about as distant as the withdrawal of the British garrisons from -Egypt. To tell the truth, each of the protecting powers is exceedingly -anxious to get the island for itself—England because it forms an -admirable half-way house between Gibraltar and the Canal; France -because its occupation would carry French influence into the eastern -end of the Mediterranean; Italy because it would serve as a connecting -link between the peninsula and Tripolitania; and Russia because it -would give her the command of the entrance to the Dardanelles—and -hence, though they will certainly never restore it to Turkey, they are -far from anxious to hand it over to Greece, to whom, after all, it -belongs historically, geographically, and ethnologically. As a result, -the Cretan question will probably disturb the chancelleries of Europe -for some years to come. - -As I strained my eyes across the sparkling waters in vain search for -signs of a hotel and breakfast, a boat flying the port-captain's flag -and manned by gendarmes—splendid, muscular fellows with high boots and -bare knees and baggy Turkish trousers, their keen brown faces peering -out from under their fluttering cap-covers—came racing out from shore. -As it came alongside the crew tossed oars with all the smartness of -man-o'-war's-men; the white-clad officer in the stern, who was very -stout and very stiffly starched, climbed the stairs gingerly, as -though fearful of injuring the faultless crease in his linen trousers, -and, after the exchange of ceremonious bows and laboured compliments -in French, informed me that the High Commissioner had placed the boat -at my disposal. There is always something peculiarly satisfying to the -soul about going ashore under official auspices, not only because of -the envious glances of your fellow-passengers who line the rail, but -because of the powerlessness of the customs officials to annoy you. - -Canea, which is the seat of government, is the most picturesquely -cosmopolitan place west of Suez. It has a mild and equable climate; -living is cheap and reasonably good; there is a large garrison of -foreign soldiery; there are no extradition treaties in force; and -trouble of one kind or another is always brewing. Like a magnet, -therefore, Canea has attracted the scum and offscourings of all the -Levant—needy soldiers of fortune, professional revolution-makers, -smooth-spoken gamblers and confidence men, rouged and powdered women -of easy virtue from east and west, Egyptian donkey-boys, out-at-elbows -dragomans who speak a score of tongues and hail from goodness knows -where—all that rabble of the needy, the adventurous, and the desperate -which follow the armies of occupation and are always to be found on -the fringe of civilisation. - -The foreign troops are quartered for the most part on the massive -Venetian ramparts which still surround the town, but all business -centres along the narrow, stone-paved quay bordering the harbour, and -in a straggling thoroughfare which, leaving the water-front through -a fine old gate still bearing the carven lion of Saint Mark, serves -as the vertebra for an amazing tangle of dim alleys and deafening -bazaars, in which all the products of the Levant are bought and sold -amid indescribable confusion. - -Canea is at its best at sunset, for it is not until then that the -town awakens to life. As the sun begins to sink behind the Aspra -Vouna, the streets, hitherto deserted, become thronged as though by -magic; the spaces before the cafés are packed with coffee-drinking, -nargileh-smoking humanity of all shades and of all religions; the -soldiers begin to appear in groups of twos and threes and fours; the -clerks in the shipping-offices put on white drill jackets, and sit -in chairs tipped back against their doors, and drink from tall, thin -glasses with ice tinkling in them, and the muezzin, brazen-throated, -appears on the balcony of his minaret, reminding one for all the world -of a Swiss cuckoo-clock as he pops out to chant his interminable call -to prayer: “Allahu il Allahu! Allahu Akbar! God is most great! Come to -prayer! There is no God but Allah! He giveth life and dieth not! Your -sins are great; greater is Allah's mercy! I extol his perfections! -Allahu il Allahu! Allahu Akbar!” - -It is such a scene as one marks with the white milestone of -remembrance that he may go back to it in memory in after years. -Picture, if you can, a stone-paved promenade bordering a U-shaped -harbour. In the harbour are many craft—all small ones, for it is too -shallow for the great steamers to enter. There are caiques with sails -of orange, of scarlet, and of yellow; schooners, grain-laden, from -Egypt and Turkey and Greece; fishing-boats with rakish lateen-sails -and great goggle eyes painted at their bows to ward off the evil eye, -and, so the sailors will tell you, to detect the fish. And along -the quayside, where the human stream wanders restlessly, there are -Greeks in tufted shoes and snowy fustanellas that make them look like -ballet-dancers; swarthy Turks in scarlet sashes and scarlet fezes, -wearing the unsightly trousers peculiar to their race; bare-kneed -Cretan highlanders, descendants in form and feature of the ancient -Greeks, swaggering along with insolent grace in their braided, -sleeveless jackets and high boots of yellow, untanned leather; -Algerians in graceful flowing burnooses and Egyptians with tarbooshes -and Arabs with turbans—now and then a mollah with scornful, intolerant -eyes and the green turban which marks the wearer as a descendant of -the Prophet—and brawny, coal-black negroes from Tripoli, from Nubia, -and from the Sudan. - -And then there are the soldiers: British Tommies, smart even in khaki, -boots shining, buckles shining, faces shining, swaggering along this -Cretan street and flourishing their absurd little canes precisely -as their fellows are doing all over the globe; French colonials, -swathed in blue puttees from ankle to knee and in red cummerbunds -from hip to chest, their misery completed by mushroom helmets so -large that nothing can be seen of the wearer but his chin; chattering -Italian _bersaglieri_, who strut about in cocks' feathers and crimson -facings when at home in the Corso or the Toledo or the Via Vittorio -Emmanuele, but out here must needs content their vanity with white -linen uniforms and green hackle in their helmets; sad-faced Russians, -uniformed as they would be in summer in Saint Petersburg or Moscow, -flat white caps, belted white smocks, trousers tucked in boots, -their good-humoured, ignorant faces stamped with all the signs of -homesickness, for their thoughts are far away in some squalid tenement -in the poor quarter of Warsaw perhaps, or in a peasant's cabin beside -the head-waters of the Volga. - -Though Canea is the seat of government, Candia—or Heraklian, the -classic name by which the Greeks prefer to call it—is the largest and -most important town on the island. Disregarding the advice of friends, -I went from Canea to Candia on a Greek coasting steamer. No one ever -takes a first-class passage on a Greek boat, for the second and third -class passengers invariably come aft and stay there, despite the -commands and entreaties of the purser, so a third-class ticket answers -quite as well as a first. Fortunately—or unfortunately, as you choose -to regard it—I had as fellow voyagers a company of British infantry, -which was being transferred to Candia after three years' service -in the western end of the island. The soldiers, who had managed to -smuggle aboard a considerable quantity of rum, quickly got beyond -the control of the boy lieutenant, just out of Sandhurst, who was in -command, and who, appreciating that discretion is the better part of -valour, especially where a hundred drunken soldiers are concerned, -wisely left them to their own boisterous devices and retreated with me -to the captain's quarters on the bridge, where we remained until we -sighted Candia's harbour lights and our anchor rumbled down inside the -breakwater. - -Were it not for the massive Venetian walls which surround it, Candia -would have almost the appearance of an Indian town, the similarity -being increased by its dark-faced, gaily dressed inhabitants and -by the British soldiers who throng its streets. A single broad, -stone-paved thoroughfare, lined in places with shade-trees and -surprisingly clean, winds like a snake from the harbour up the -hill, past rows of blackened ruins—grim reminders of the latest -insurrection—past square after square of white-walled, red-tiled -houses; through noisy bazaars where the turbaned shopkeepers squat -patiently in their doorways; past unkept marble fountains whose -stained carvings would make many a museum director envious; past -mosques with slender, graceful minarets and groups of filthy beggars -grovelling on their steps for alms; past the ornate, twin-domed Greek -cathedral, and so on to the ramparts where the British garrison is -quartered in yellow barracks that overlook the sea. - -But the real Crete is no more to be judged from glimpses of Canea -and Candia than America could be judged by visiting New York and -Chicago. It is in the picturesque mountain villages of the Sphakiote -range that the genuine, untamed, unmixed fighting Cretan is to be -found, for these dwellers on the slopes of Mount Ida, alone of all the -scattered branches of the great Hellenic family, have preserved in -form and feature the splendid physical characteristics of the ancient -Greeks. With the Governor of Candia for my guide, the mountain village -of Archanais as our destination, and with an escort of gendarmerie -clattering at our heels, we set out from Candia one morning before -the sun was over the walls, for we had forty miles of hard riding -between us and dinner, and roads in the Sphakiote country often -consist of nothing more than dried-up water-courses. For the first few -miles the road was crowded with peasantry bringing their produce to -market—droves of donkeys, wine-skin-laden; long strings of the sturdy, -shaggy native ponies tethered head to tail and tail to head, their -panniers filled with purple figs or new-dug potatoes; sullen-eyed -Turks driving rude native carts, their women-folk veiled to the eyes -and hiding even them in the presence of the _giaours_; chattering -Greeks with homespun rugs or bundles of the heavy native lace; now -and then a prosperous farmer, striding along with a peculiar rolling -walk, due to the round-soled boots affected by the islanders, carrying -a measure of potatoes or perhaps a pair of fowls in the baggy seat of -his enormous trousers. We passed a grass-grown Turkish cemetery where -the gilded tombstones, capped by carven fezes or turbans in the case -of men, and shells in that of women, blazed in the morning sunlight, -while, a little farther on, we halted for a few moments before the -tomb of a revered sheikh, almost hidden by the bits of cloth which the -passing faithful had torn from their garments and tied to it. - -Some half a dozen miles inland from Candia lie the ruins of Knossos, -the one-time palace of King Minos, a powerful monarch of the Mycenæan -age who is supposed to have ruled in Crete during that hazy era when -mythology ended and history began. The audience chamber and the royal -throne, which were old when the Pyramids were built, are still in -a perfect state of preservation, though these amazing evidences of -prehistoric grandeur are no more interesting than the marvellous -network of cellars and subterranean passages which underlie the -palace, many of them still lined, just as they were five thousand -years ago, with row upon row of mammoth earthen jars for the storage -of grain, of olives, and of wine in time of famine or siege. Many -eminent archæologists, by the way, maintain that it was from this -bewildering maze of corridors and passage-ways that the legend of the -Minotaur and the labyrinth, the scene of which was laid in Crete, -arose. Were Crete as easy of access as Egypt, these ruins of Knossos -would long since have taken rank with those which dot the banks of the -Upper Nile. - -Half a dozen hours of riding over an open, sun-baked country and later -through gloomy pine woods and mountain defiles, with an occasional -halt at a wayside _xenodocheion_ that the troopers of our escort might -refresh themselves with that nauseous-tasting fermentation of rice -known as _arrack_, which is the national drink of Greece, brought -us at last, hot, saddle-worn, and weary, into the village square -of Archanais. The demarch of the town, with a dozen or so of the -insurrectionist chieftains from the surrounding mountains, awaited our -coming beneath a hoary plane-tree that shaded half the village square. -Seats were placed for us beneath its grateful shade, and, with the -ceremony of which the Greeks are so fond, we were served with small -cups of Turkish coffee and with the inevitable _loukoum_, which is -a candy resembling “Turkish delight.” This formal welcome, which no -Cretan ever neglects, completed, we were escorted to the house of -the demarch, with whom we were to dine. It was a long, low-roofed, -homelike dwelling, red tiles above and white plaster beneath, and -surrounding it a garden ablaze with flowers. Met at the door by a -servant with a pitcher of chased brass, we proceeded to wash in the -open air, the domestic pouring the water over our hands in a steady -stream, according to the Cretan fashion. - -The dinner was beyond description. From a Cretan standpoint it was -doubtless a feast for the gods. I, being ravenous with hunger, asked -not the names of the strange dishes, but enjoyed everything that was -set before me as only a hungry man can. The meal began with ripe -olives and spiced meat chopped up with wheat grains and wrapped in -mulberry leaves; it passed on through a course that resembled fried -egg-plant but wasn't; through duck, stuffed with rice and olives -and cooked in oil, and a pudding that tasted as though it had been -flavoured with _eau de cologne_, concluding with small native melons, -which I have never seen equalled for flavour except in Turkestan, and, -of course, coffee and cigarettes. The meal lasted something over three -hours, and then, sitting cross-legged on the divan which ran entirely -around the room, the whole party dropped one by one to sleep. The one -recollection of Archanais which will always remain with me is that -of a roomful of swarthy-faced, black-moustached, baggy-trousered, -armed-to-the-teeth, overfed men, notorious revolutionists every one, -all sound asleep and all snoring like steam-engines. - -That night we rode down the mountains in the moonlight, the -snow-capped peaks looming luridly against the purple sky. The -moonbeams lighted up the ruined farmsteads which we passed and played -fitfully among the gnarled branches of the ancient olive-trees, giving -to the silent land an aspect of unutterable peace. The whole world -seemed sleeping and the hoofs of our horses rang loudly against the -stones. The road which had been white with dust in the morning was a -ribbon of silver now; the stately palm-trees stirred ever so gently -in the night breeze; the ruins of ancient Knossos grew larger in the -moonlight until all its ancient glory seemed restored; the crosses -on the Greek cathedral and the crescents on the slender minarets -seemed to raise themselves in harmony like fingers pointing toward -heaven; the great guns that frowned from the ramparts were hidden in -the shadows—all was silence, beauty, infinite peace, until, as we -walked our tired horses slowly across the creaking drawbridge into the -city, a helmeted figure stepped from the shadow of the walls, a rifle -flashed in the moonlight, and a harsh voice challenged: - -“Halt! Who goes there?” - - - - -INDEX - - - Abbas Hilmi II, 112. - - Abyssinia, 10. - - Africanders, 226. - - Agriculture in: French Africa, 24; - German Africa, 181; - Morocco, 32; - Rhodesia, 214; - South Africa, 234; - the Sudan, 128; - Tripolitania, 85-86. - - Ahaggar (Sahara), 24. - - Alexandria, bombardment of, 111. - - Algeria, 3, 9, 14, 16. - - Algerian hinterland, 57. - - Algiers, 10. - - Americans in: Rhodesia, 217-8; - the Transvaal, 237. - - Anglo-German secret treaty, 178-9. - - Angola, 177-8. - - Antanarivo, 9. - - Arab: justice, 75; - resistance to Italian rule, 98; - weddings, 78; - women, 77. - - Arabi Pasha, 110. - - Arabi's rebellion, 111. - - Archanais (Crete), 283. - - Artesian wells in the Sahara, 22. - - Ascension Island, 269. - - Ashantee, 254. - - Assuan dam, 123. - - Atlas Mountains, 31. - - Aujila oases, 88. - - - Bagirmi, 100. - - Barbary Coast, 8. - - Barka (Tripolitania), 87. - - Barnato, Barney, 243. - - Barotseland, 196. - - Beira (Port. East Africa), 206 _et seq._ - - Beit, Alfred, 193. - - Belgian Congo, 176-7; - communications in, 187; - reversion of, 177. - - Benghazi (Tripolitania), 84, 87. - - Berbers, 36. - - Bey of Tunis, 64. - - Big game in Rhodesia, 196. - - Biskra (Algeria), 60. - - “Blue tongue,” 232. - - Boers, 226. - - Bornu, 100. - - Botha, General Louis, 233 _et seq._ - - Bridge over the Zambezi, 194. - - British in: Egypt, 111 _et seq._; - South Africa, 223 _et seq._ - - British South Africa Company, 212. - - Broken Hill (Rhodesia), 194. - - Bulawayo (Rhodesia), 190. - - Bwana M'kubwa (Rhodesia), 194. - - - Candia (Crete), 280 _et seq._ - - Canea (Crete), 272 _et seq._ - - Cannibalism, 253. - - “Cape-to-Cairo” Railway, 190 _et seq._ - - Cape Town, 203, 227. - - Capitulations, privileges conferred by Ottoman, 113. - - Caravans, 17, 19, 91. - - Ceuta (Morocco), 47. - - Chartered companies, 212. - - Colomb-Bechar (Morocco), 8. - - Colour problem in South Africa, 226-8. - - Consuls, powers of, in Egypt, 114 _et seq._ - - Cost of living in Rhodesia, 217. - - Cotton culture in: Egypt, 124; - the Sudan, 142. - - Country clubs, beneficial effects of, in Rhodesia, 216. - - Crete, 272 _et seq._; - administration of, 275; - foreign troops in, 279-280; - hospitality in, 283-4; - insurrections in, 274. - - Crime in South Africa, 229. - - Crispi, 92. - - Cromer, Lord, 117. - - Cullinan, “The Great,” diamond, 239. - - Cyrenaica, 87. - - - Dahomey, 4, 9, 25. - - Dakar (Senegal), 11, 53. - - Dam at Assuan, 202. - - Dancing girls, 58 _et seq._ - - Dar-es-Salam (German East Africa), 185. - - DeBeers syndicate, formation of, 243. - - Delta of the Nile, 124. - - Derna, capture of, by Americans, 83. - - Desert: reclamation, 21; - transportation, 23. - - Diamond: fields at Kimberley, 242; - mining, 234 _et seq._ - - Dining-cars on “Cape-to-Cairo” Ry., 219. - - Diré-Dawah (Abyssinia), 10. - - Divorce: court in Tunis, 71; - in Algeria, 70. - - Djibouti (French Somali Coast), 9. - - Drainage project in Egypt, 124. - - Dutch in South Africa, 224. - - - Eaton's, Gen. William, capture of Derna, 83. - - Education in French Africa, 6. - - Egypt, 108 _et seq._; - army, 118; - education, 120; - future of, 141; - government, 111 _et seq._; - irrigation, 122; - justice, 113, 116; - Khedive, 112, 116, 117, 124; - land values in, 121. - - Egyptian Debt Commission, 112. - - El Araish (Morocco), 48. - - England's desire for railway zone in German Africa, 198. - - Execution in Tunis, 65. - - - _Fantasias_, 16. - - Fashoda: see _Kodok_. - - Fevers in East Africa, 152. - - Fez (Morocco), 9. - - Fezzan (Tripolitania), 84, 86. - - Flowers in Morocco, 33. - - Foreign Legion, 15. - - France's African army, 12-14. - - Franco-Spanish treaty, 46. - - French: Africa, 1 _et seq._; - colonial expansion, 1 _et seq._; - Congo (see _French Equatorial Africa_); - Equatorial Africa, 4; - Guinea, 4, 9; - Sahara, 5; - Somali Coast, 5; - sphere of influence, 2 _et seq._; - steamers, 11; - treatment of natives, 16, 42, 75. - - - German Africa, 165 _et seq._; - climate of, 180; - railways in, 179. - - German colonial expansion, 166; - desire for the Congo, 176 _et seq._; - desire for Zanzibar, 164; - East Africa, 175, 185-6; - trade of, 186; - interests in Morocco, 172. - - German militarism in Africa, 182, 186; - overseas banks, 168-170; - treatment of the natives, 182-4; - Southwest Africa, 175. - - Germany's foreign policy, 171-2; - oversea interests, 170. - - Golf in Zanzibar, 149. - - Gordon, General Charles George, 203. - - Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum, 140. - - Great Bend of the Niger, 9. - - “_Groote Schuur_,” the home of Cecil Rhodes, 223. - - Guano islands, 257. - - - Harbours: in French West Africa, 10; - in German Southwest Africa, 188. - - Harems, life in, 69 _et seq._ - - Hay's, Sir John Drummond, speech to Sultan of Morocco, 44. - - Heraklian. (See _Candia_.) - - Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, and Cecil Rhodes, 192. - - - Illicit diamond buying, 244. - - Irrigation in: Egypt, 122; - French North Africa, 21; - South Africa, 233; - Sudan, 21, 128. - - Ismail Pasha, 108 _et seq._ - - Italy in Africa, 80 _et seq._ - - Ivory Coast, 4, 9. - - Ivory: market in Zanzibar, 153; - trade, 153 _et seq._ - - - Jamestown (Saint Helena), 262-4. - - Jimini (Ivory Coast), 9. - - Jof (Sahara), 99 _et seq._ - - Johannesburg, 203, 235 _et seq._ - - - Kabyle marriage customs, 68. - - Kabyles, the, 65 _et seq._; - sale of their daughters by, 66. - - Kabylia (Algeria), 65. - - Kamerun, 173-6. - - Kamerun, New, 173-6. - - Kanem (French Sudan), 5, 9, 100. - - _Kangas_, 154. - - Karroo, the, 233. - - Katanga District (Belgian Congo), 195-6. - - Keetmanshoop (German Southwest Africa), 188. - - Khalifa, the, 20, 197. - - Khartoum, 138 _et seq._ - - King Assibi of the Gold Coast, 254. - - King Kabanga of Uganda, 254. - - King Minos of Crete, 282. - - King Prempeh of Ashantee, 254 _et seq._ - - Kitchener, Lord, of Khartoum, 112, 118. - - Knossos, ruins of, 282. - - Kodok (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 20. - - Kosti (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 198. - - Kourassa (French Guinea), 9. - - Krüger, President Paul, 238. - - Kufra Oases, 88, 99. - - Kumasi (Ashantee), 254. - - - Labor, demand for, in Rhodesia, 218. - - Lake No, 137. - - Lake Tanganyika, 187. - - Lake Tchad, 9. - - Language problem in South Africa, 224. - - Laraiche. (See _El Araish_.) - - Liberia, 3. - - Libya, 80 _et seq._ - - Livingstone, David, finding of, by Stanley, 151. - - Livingstone's discovery of Victoria Falls, 210. - - Lobenguela, 211. - - Lobito Bay Railway, 179, 201. - - “Longwood,” residence of Napoleon, 266. - - Lualaba River, 187. - - Lüderitz Bay (German Southwest Africa), 188. - - - Madagascar, 5, 9, 12. - - Mahé (Seychelles), 248 _et seq._ - - Majunga (Madagascar), 9. - - Mannesmann Brothers in Morocco, 173. - - Marchand, Major, and the Fashoda incident, 20. - - Marrakesh (Morocco), 30. - - Mashonaland, 209. - - Matabeleland, 190. - - Mauresque women, 67-69. - - Mauritania, 4. - - Méharistes, 18. - - Melilla (Morocco), 47. - - Meroe, Island of (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 138. - - Mineral resources of South Africa, 234. - - Mohammedanism, spread of, in Africa, 95 _et seq._ - - Moorish character, 38. - - Moors, the, 36. - - Morals of Europeans in East Africa, 157. - - Morocco, 27 _et seq._; - agriculture, 32; - climate, 33; - flowers, 33; - future of, 41, 54; - natural resources, 34; - railways projected in, 52; - slavery in, 51; - travel in, difficulties of, 35. - - Morocco City. (See _Marrakesh_.) - - Morocco-Equatoria Convention, 165. - - Mount Ida (Crete), 281. - - Mozambique, 178. - - Mulai-abd-el-Hafid, ex-Sultan of Morocco, 28. - - Mulai Youssef, Sultan of Morocco, 41. - - - Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena, 259 _et seq._ - - Natal, 234. - - Native: labor in South African mines, 243; - troops in French Africa, 13. - - Natives: treatment of Rhodesian, 218; - treatment of South African, 229. - - New Kamerun, 5, 173-6. - - Nikki (Dahomey), 9. - - Nile, the, 122; - as agent of prosperity, 21; - plan to divert the, 20. - - - Oases, Saharan, 24. - - Oasis of: Kaouer, 24; - Kufra, 88, 99; - Jof, 99 _et seq._; - Tuat, 52. - - Omdurman (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 126. - - Orange River Free State, 224. - - Otavi District (German Southwest Africa), 188. - - Ouled-Naïls, 56 _et seq._ - - - Papal assistance to Italy in taking of Tripolitania, 92. - - Parliament of Union of South Africa, 227. - - Port Florence (British East Africa), 200. - - Portugal in Africa, 177. - - Portuguese East Africa, 178. - - Premier Diamond Mine, 239. - - Pretoria (Transvaal), 238. - - - Race problem in South Africa, 225. - - Railway: “Afro,” 52, 179; - “Cape-to-Cairo,” 190 _et seq._; - Lobito Bay, 179, 201; - Otavi, 188; - Uganda, 200. - - Railways in: Abyssinia, 10; - Algeria, 8; - Central Africa, 190; - French Africa, 8; - German Africa, 179; - Morocco, 52; - Rhodesia, 219; - the Sahara, 8; - the Sudan, 131-3; - West Africa, 9. - - Rand, the, 235. - - Rejaf (Uganda), 137. - - Réunion, 12. - - Rhodes, Cecil John, 190 _et seq._, 211, 212. - - Rhodes Memorial near Cape Town, 203. - - Rhodesia, 205 _et seq._; - agriculture, 214; - climate, 209, 213-4; - cost of living in, 217; - country clubs in, 216; - future of, 222; - government, 212; - labour, demand for skilled, 217; - law and order in, 214; - natives, 218; - railways, 219; - resources, 214. - - Riff, the (Morocco), 46-48. - - Rinderpest, 232. - - Rogers, American adventurer, 151. - - - Sahara, 18, 21. - - Saint Helena, 258 _et seq._ - - Saint Pierre Island, 257. - - Salisbury, Lord, 192. - - Salisbury (Rhodesia), 213. - - Sand storms, 132. - - Sea turtles, 272. - - Sebu River (Morocco), 32. - - Senegal, 4. - - Senegambia, 25. - - Senussi, the sheikh, 99 _et seq._ - - Senussiyeh, Brotherhood of, 98 _et seq._ - - Seychelles, 248 _et seq._; - climate of, 251; - housekeeping in, 252-3. - - Sharef River (Morocco), 32. - - Sherifian dynasty, 42. - - Slavery in North Africa, 73. - - Sleeping-sickness, 213. - - Sobat River, 20. - - Sokoto (Nigeria), 100. - - South Africa, Union of, 223 _et seq._; - agriculture, 234; - colour problem in, 226-8; - diamond-mining, 234 _et seq._; - future of, 246; - language problem in, 224; - mineral resources of, 234; - need of irrigation in, 233; - race problem in, 225; - treatment of natives in, 228-231. - - Spanish sphere of influence in Morocco, 46. - - Sphakiote Mountains (Crete), 281. - - Stanley, Henry M., 151, 211. - - Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian, 126 _et seq._; - agriculture, 128; - future of, 141; - government, 127; - railways, 131-3. - - Sudd, the, 137. - - Suez Canal, 141. - - Sultan of Morocco, 41. - - Sultan of Turkey, 96. - - Sultan of Zanzibar, 160 _et seq._ - - Sus, the (Morocco), 46, 49. - - Swahili: language, 156; - race, 154. - - Swakopmund (German Southwest Africa), 188, 200. - - - Table Mountain (Cape of Good Hope), 203. - - Tamatave (Madagascar), 9. - - Tangier (Morocco), 10, 43, 54. - - Teneriffe (Canary Islands), 271. - - Tewfik Pasha, 110. - - Tibesti (Sahara), 24. - - Timbuktu (Upper Senegal-Niger Territories), 8, 9, 53. - - Tippoo Tib, 151. - - Tobruk (Tripolitania), 87. - - Togoland, 175. - - Tortoise shell from Saint Pierre, 257. - - Transvaal, 235. - - Treatment of women in North Africa, 74-79. - - Tripoli (Tripolitania), 84-89. - - Tripolitania, 80 _et seq._; - future of, 88, 105; - trade of, 91. - - Tsetse-fly, 208, 213. - - Tuaregs, 99. - - Tuat (Sahara), 52. - - Tunisia, 3. - - Tunisian justice, 64. - - Tunisian perfumery, 67. - - Turkish Sultan's influence in Africa, 96. - - - Uganda Railway, 200. - - Ujda (Morocco), 9. - - Ujiji (German East Africa), 187. - - Umtali (Mashonaland), 209. - - United States in Africa, 82 _et seq._ - - Upper Senegal-Niger Territories, 4. - - - Vasco da Gama, 143. - - Victoria (Seychelles), 254. - - Victoria Falls, 194, 210, 220 _et seq._ - - Victoria Nyanza, 198, 203. - - - Wadai, 5, 9, 100. - - Wady Haifa (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 137. - - Walfish Bay (German Southwest Africa), 188. - - Women of North Africa, 56 _et seq._ - - “World's View” (Cape of Good Hope), 203. - - - Zambezi River, 221. - - Zanzibar, 143 _et seq._; - climate, 146; - future of, 163; - German desire for, 164; - hotel accommodation in, 146-7; - ivory market in, 153; - natives of, 154; - Sultan of, 160 _et seq._; - tropical diseases in, 152. - - Ziban, the (Algerian Sahara), 57. - - Zulus, 229. - - -[Illustration: MAP OF AFRICA, SHOWING RAILWAYS AND SPHERES OF -INFLUENCE.] - - - - - ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ Transcriber's note: │ - │ │ - │ The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been │ - │ retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors, │ - │ which have been corrected. │ - │ │ - │ Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. │ - │ │ - │ Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant │ - │ form was found in this book; 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Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell</title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - - /* PAGE DIMENSIONS */ - @media screen - { - body { width:80%; max-width:45em; margin:auto; - text-align:justify; } - } - - body { width:80%; max-width: 80%; margin:auto; - text-align:justify; } - -div.body { max-width: 45em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; } - - - h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align:center; clear:both; } - - /*PARAGRAPHS */ - p { margin-top:.75em; - text-align:justify; - margin-bottom:.75em; - text-indent:1em; } - - div.chapter { page-break-before:always; - page-break-inside: avoid; } - - /* TEXT ALIGNMENT AND MARGINS */ - .ac { text-align:center; - text-indent:0em; } - .ar { text-align:right; } - .noindent { text-indent:0em; } - .p1 { margin-top:1em; } - .p2 { margin-top:2em; } - .p4 { margin-top:4em; } - - /* FONTS */ - .smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } - .x-smaller { font-size:70%; } - .smaller { font-size:83%; } - .larger { font-size:125%; } - .x-larger { font-size:150%; } - - /* DROP CAPS */ - p.drop-cap:first-letter { color:transparent; - visibility:hidden; - margin-left:-0.9em; } - - /* HORIZONTAL LINES */ - hr.chap { margin-top:5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - margin-left:20%; - margin-right:20%; - width:60%; } - /* Width=30% */ - hr.sect { margin-top:2em; - margin-bottom:2em; - margin-left:35%; - margin-right:35%; - width:30%; } - - - /* TABLES */ - table { margin-left:auto; - margin-right:auto; - width:100%; - border:0; - border-spacing:0px; - padding:2px; } - - .table1 { margin-left:auto; - margin-right:auto; - width:300px; - border:0; - border-spacing:0px; - padding:2px; } - - td.c1 { text-align:left; - vertical-align:top; - padding-right:0em; - padding-left:1.5em; - text-indent:-1.5em; - padding-top:0.2em; } - - td.c2 { text-align:right; - vertical-align:bottom; - padding-right:1em; - padding-left:1em; } - - /* IMAGES */ - img { max-width:100%; /* no image to be wider than - screen or containing div */ - height:auto; } /* keep height in proportion - to width */ - .figcenter { clear:both; - margin:auto; - text-align:center; - max-width:100%; - padding-top:1em; } - /* Image border */ - .bord img { padding:1px; - border:2px solid black; } - /* captions */ - .caption { font-size:.8em; - text-align:center; } - - img.drop-cap { float:left; - margin:0.1em 0.5em 0 0; } - - /* PAGINATION */ - .pagenum { text-indent:0; - position:absolute; - right:5%; - font-size:0.6em; - font-variant:normal; - font-style:normal; - text-align:right; - background-color:#FFFFE5; - border:1px solid; - padding:0.3em; } - /* FOOTNOTES */ - .footnote { margin-left:5%; - margin-right:10%; - font-size:0.9em; } - .footnote .label { right:85%; - text-align:right; - text-decoration:underline; - padding-right:0.5em; } - .fnanchor { vertical-align:super; - font-size:.8em; } - - /* Index */ - ul.index { list-style-type:none; - text-align:left; - padding:0; - margin:0; } - li.indx { margin-top:.5em; - padding-left:1.5em; - text-indent:-1.5em; } - li.ifrst { margin-top:2em; - padding-left:1.5em; - text-indent:-1.5em; } - li.isub2 { text-indent:-1.2em; - padding-left:2.4em; } - - /* TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES */ - .transnote { background-color:#F0FFFF; - color:black; - padding-bottom:1em; - padding-top:.3em; - margin-top:3em; - margin-left:10%; - margin-right:10%; - padding-left:2em; - padding-right:1em; - border:1px solid; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; - page-break-inside:avoid; } - - /* MEDIA-SPECIFIC FORMATTING */ - @media handheld { - body { margin:0; } - - img.drop-cap { display:none; } - - p.drop-cap:first-letter { color:inherit; - visibility:visible; - margin-left:0;} - .transnote { page-break-before:always; - margin-left:2%; - margin-right:2%; - margin-top:1em; - margin-bottom:1em; - padding:.5em; } - } - - hr.full { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Frontier, by E. Alexander (Edward -Alexander) Powell</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: The Last Frontier</p> -<p> The White Man's War for Civilisation in Africa</p> -<p>Author: E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell</p> -<p>Release Date: September 26, 2017 [eBook #55553]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST FRONTIER***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4>E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Christian Boissonnas,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="margin: 0 auto; background-color: #ccccff; width: auto;" cellpadding="10"> <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - <a href="https://archive.org/details/lastfrontierwhi00powe"> - https://archive.org/details/lastfrontierwhi00powe</a> - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<div class="body"><p> </p> - -<p class="ac noindent x-larger p4"><b>THE LAST FRONTIER</b></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<p class="ac noindent"><i>BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL</i><br /> -<br /> -THE LAST FRONTIER<br /> -<br /> -GENTLEMEN ROVERS<br /> -<br /> -THE END OF THE TRAIL<br /> -<br /> -FIGHTING IN FLANDERS<br /> -<br /> -THE ROAD TO GLORY<br /> -<br /> -VIVE LA FRANCE!<br /> -<br /> -ITALY AT WAR<br /> -<br /> -<i>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</i> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="frontis.jpg" id="frontis.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="600" height="347" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">A SANDSTORM PASSING OVER KHARTOUM.<br /> - <span class="smaller">“It approached at the speed of a galloping - horse—a great fleecy, yellowish-brown cloud which looked for all - the world like the smoke of some gigantic conflagration.”</span></div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<h1 > -THE LAST FRONTIER</h1> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE WHITE MAN'S WAR<br /> -FOR CIVILISATION IN AFRICA</p> - - -<p class="ac noindent smaller">BY</p> - -<p class="ac noindent"><span class="larger">E. ALEXANDER POWELL, - F.R.G.S.</span><br /> - <span class="x-smaller">LATE OF THE AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE - IN EGYPT</span></p> - -<p class="ac noindent p4 smaller"><i>WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE - ILLUSTRATIONS<br /> - AND MAP</i></p> - -<p class="ac noindent p4">NEW YORK<br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> -1919</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ac noindent"> - <span class="x-smaller smcap">Copyright, 1912, by</span><br /> - <span style="font-size:83%;">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</span></p> - -<div class="p4"> -<div class="figcenter"><a name="logo.jpg" id="logo.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/logo.jpg" width="98" height="100" - alt="Publisher's Logo" /> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ac noindent p4"> -<b>To</b><br /><br /> -MY CHEERFUL, UNCOMPLAINING<br /> -AND COURAGEOUS COMRADE ON THE<br /> -LONG AFRICAN TRAIL<br /><br /> -<b>MY WIFE</b> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> unknown lands -are almost all discovered. The -work of the explorer and the pioneer is nearly finished, -and ere long their stern and hardy figures will have -passed from the world's stage, never to return. In the -Argentine, in Mexico, and in Alaska store clothes and -stiff hats are replacing corduroys and sombreros; the -pack-mule is giving way to the motor-car. The earth -has but one more great prize with which to lure the -avaricious and the adventurous: Africa—mysterious, -opulent, alluring—beckons and calls.</p> - -<p>The conditions which exist in Africa to-day closely -parallel those which were to be found, within the memory -of many of us, beyond the Mississippi. In North -Africa the French are pushing their railways across the -desert in the face of Arab opposition, just as we pushed -our railways across the desert in the face of Indian opposition -forty years ago. As an El Dorado the Transvaal -has taken the place held by Australia, and California, -and the Yukon, in their turn. The grazing lands -of Morocco and the grain lands of Rhodesia will prove -formidable rivals to those of our own West in a much-nearer -future than most of us suppose. French and -British well-drillers are giving modern versions of the -miracle of Moses in the Sahara and the Sudan and converting -worthless deserts into rich domains thereby.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> - -<p>The story of the conquest of a continent by these -men with levels and transits, drills and dynamite, -ploughs and spades, forms a chronicle of courage, daring, -resource, and tenacity unsurpassed in history. They -are no idlers, these pioneers of the desert, the jungle, -and the veldt; they live with danger and hardship for -their daily mates; they die with their boots on from -snake-bite or sleeping-sickness or Somali spear; and -remember, please, they are making new markets and -new playgrounds for you and me. Morocco, Algeria, -Tripolitania, Equatoria, Rhodesia, the Sahara, the -Sudan, the Congo, the Rand, and the Zambezi ... -with your permission I will take you to them all, and you -shall see, as though with your own eyes, those strange -and far-off places which mark the line of the Last Frontier, -where the white-helmeted pioneers are fighting the -battles and solving the problems of civilisation.</p> - -<p class="ar"> -<span class="smcap">E. Alexander Powell.</span> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="AN_ACKNOWLEDGMENT" id="AN_ACKNOWLEDGMENT"></a> - AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">For</span> -assistance in the preparation of this book I am -grateful to many people. To the editors of <i>Collier's</i>, -<i>The Outlook</i>, <i>The Review of Reviews</i>, <i>The Independent</i>, -<i>The Metropolitan</i>, <i>Travel</i>, and <i>Scribner's</i> my thanks are -due for their permission to use such portions of this -volume as originally appeared in their magazines in the -form of articles. I also desire to acknowledge my -indebtedness to the Right Hon. James Bryce, O.M., for -permission to avail myself of certain data contained in -his admirable work on South Africa; to Charles K. -Field, Esq., editor of <i>The Sunset Magazine</i>, for the title -and introductory lines to Chapter V; to the Hon. F. C. -Penfield, former American Diplomatic Agent in Egypt, -from whose clear and comprehensive “Present-Day -Egypt” I have drawn portions of my account of the -complex administration of the Nile country; to J. Scott -Keltie, LL.D., F.R.G.S., author of “The Partition of -Africa” and editor of “The Statesman's Year-Book,” -for much valuable information obtained from those -volumes; and to Miss Isabel Savory, A. Sylva White, -Esq., S. H. Leeder, Esq., C. W. Furlong, Esq., and -Francis Miltoun, Esq., for suggestions derived from their -writings on African subjects. To the American diplomatic -and consular officials in Africa, and to missionaries -of many creeds and denominations, I am indebted -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> -for innumerable kindnesses and much valuable information. -At consulate and mission station alike, from -Cape Bon to Table Bay, I found the latch-string always -out and an extra chair at the table. I likewise take -this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the -courtesies shown me by H. H. Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive -of Egypt; H. R. H. Prince George of Greece, former -High Commissioner in Crete; H. H. Ali bin Hamoud -bin Mohammed, ex-Sultan of Zanzibar; H. E. the -French Minister of the Colonies; H. E. the Belgian -Minister of the Colonies; Sir Thomas Cullinan of the -Premier Diamond Mine, Pretoria; and to the officers -of the Imperial German East Africa Railways; the -Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesian Railways; and the -British South Africa Company.</p> - -<p class="ar"> -E. A. P. -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></h2> -</div> - -<table id="TOC-1" summary="CONTENTS"> - <tbody> - <tr> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2"><span class="x-smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#FOREWORD"><span class="smcap">Foreword</span></a></td> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2">vii</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#AN_ACKNOWLEDGMENT"> - <span class="smcap">An Acknowledgment</span></a></td> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2">ix</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<table id="TOC-2" summary="CONTENTS"> - <tbody> - <tr> - <td style="width:5%;"></td> - <td style="width:90%;"></td> - <td style="width:5%;"></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2"></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><span class="smaller">CHAPTER</span></td> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2"></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Third Empire</span></td> - <td class="c2">1</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Passing of the Peacock's Tail</span></td> - <td class="c2">27</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">Sirens of the Sands</span></td> - <td class="c2">56</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Italian “White Man's Burden”</span></td> - <td class="c2">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Land of Before-and-After</span></td> - <td class="c2">108</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">In Zanzibar</span></td> - <td class="c2">143</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Spiked Helmet in Africa</span></td> - <td class="c2">165</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td> - <td class="c1">“<span class="smcap">All Aboard for Cape Town!</span>”</td> - <td class="c2">190</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Last Stand of the Pioneer</span></td> - <td class="c2">205</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Country of Big Things</span></td> - <td class="c2">223</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td> - <td class="c1"><span class="smcap">The Forgotten Isles</span></td> - <td class="c2">248</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c2"></td> - <td class="c1"><a href="#INDEX"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></td> - <td class="c2">287</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -</div> - -<table id="ILLOS" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS"> - <tbody> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#frontis.jpg">A Sandstorm Passing Over Khartoum</a></td> - <td class="c2"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"></td> - <td class="c2"><span class="x-smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_016.jpg">“Through Dim Bazaars where Turbaned - Shopkeepers Squat Patiently in their Doorways”</a></td> - <td class="c2">17</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_026.jpg">The Troglodyte Town of Medenine, Southern - Tunisia</a></td> - <td class="c2">26</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_058a.jpg">Some Sirens of the Sands</a></td> - <td class="c2">58</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_070.jpg">Jewish Women in the Cemetery of Tunis</a></td> - <td class="c2">70</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_078.jpg">An Arab Bride Going to Her Husband</a></td> - <td class="c2">79</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_086.jpg">Sunrise on the Great Sands</a></td> - <td class="c2">87</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_110a.jpg">Work and Play in Black Man's Africa</a></td> - <td class="c2">110</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_118a.jpg">The Saviour of the Sudan and Some of - Those he Saved</a></td> - <td class="c2">118</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_128a.jpg">Strange People from Innermost Africa</a></td> - <td class="c2">129</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_146a.jpg">The Gateway to East Africa</a></td> - <td class="c2">146</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_156.jpg">Arab Women of Zanzibar</a></td> - <td class="c2">156</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_186a.jpg">The Hand of the War Lord in - German Africa</a></td> - <td class="c2">187</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_188a.jpg">Railroading Through a Jungle</a></td> - <td class="c2">188</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_218.jpg">More Work for the Pioneer</a></td> - <td class="c2">219</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#i_268a.jpg">The Prison Place of a Great Emperor</a></td> - <td class="c2">268</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#map_small.jpg">Map of Africa, Showing Railways and Spheres - of Influence</a></td> - <td class="c2"><i>At end of volume</i></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<p class="ac noindent x-larger"><b>THE LAST FRONTIER</b></p> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE THIRD EMPIRE</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-w.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap W" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">WE -have witnessed one of the most remarkable -episodes in the history of the world. In less -than a generation we have seen the French dream of an -African empire stretching without interruption from -the Mediterranean to the Congo literally fulfilled. -French imperialism did not end, as the historians -would have you believe, on that September day in -1870 when the third Napoleon lost his liberty and his -throne at Sedan. The echoes of the Commune had -scarcely died away before the French empire-builders -were again at work, in Africa, in Asia, in Oceanica, -founding on every seaboard of the world a new and -greater France. In the two-score years that have -elapsed since France's <i>année terrible</i> her neglected and -scattered colonies have been expanded into a third -empire—an empire oversea. She has had her revenge -for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine by forestalling Teutonic -colonial ambition in every quarter of the globe: in -China, in Australasia, in Equatoria, and in Morocco the -advance of the German <i>vorlopers</i> has been halted by the -harsh “<i>Qui vive?</i>” of the French videttes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> - -<p>Though thirty centuries have elapsed since Phœnicia -first began to nibble at the continent, it was not -until 1884 that the mad rush began which ended in -Africa's being apportioned among themselves by half a -dozen European nations with as little scruple as a gang -of boys would divide a stolen pie. This stealing of a -continent, lock, stock, and barrel, is one of the most -astounding performances in history. France emerged -from the scramble with a larger slice of territory than -any other power, a territory which she has so steadily -and systematically expanded and consolidated that to-day -her sphere of influence extends over <i>forty-five per -cent of the land area and twenty-four per cent of the population -of Africa</i>.</p> - -<p>So silently, swiftly, and unobtrusively have the -French empire-builders worked that even those of us -who pride ourselves on keeping abreast of the march -of civilisation are fairly amazed when we trace on the -map the distances to which they have pushed the Republic's -African frontiers. Did you happen to know that -the fugitive from justice who turns the nose of his camel -southward from Algiers must ride as far as from Milwaukee -to the City of Mexico before he can pass beyond -the shadow of the tricolour and the arm of the -French law? Were you aware that if you start from -the easternmost boundary of the French Sudan you -will have to cover a distance equal to that from Buffalo -to San Francisco before you can hear the Atlantic -rollers booming against the break-water at Dakar? -It is, indeed, not the slightest exaggeration to say that -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> -French influence is to-day predominant over all that -expanse of the Dark Continent lying west of the Nile -basin and north of the Congo—a territory one and a half -times the size of the United States—thus forming the -only continuous empire in Africa, with ports on every -seaboard of the continent.</p> - -<p>With the exception of the negro republic of Liberia -(on whose frontiers, by the way, France is steadily -and systematically encroaching), the little patches of -British and Spanish possessions on the West Coast, and -the German colonies of Kamerun and Togoland, France -has unostentatiously brought under her control that -enormous tract of African soil which stretches from the -banks of the Congo to the shores of the Mediterranean, -and from the Atlantic seaboard to the Valley of the Nile. -Algeria has been French for three-quarters of a century, -being regarded, indeed, as a part of France and not a -colony at all. Though the Bey of Tunis still holds perfunctory -audiences in his Palace of the Bardo, it is from -the French Residency that the protectorate is really -ruled. Though Tripolitania has passed under Italian -dominion, it is French and not Italian influence which is -recognised by the unsubjugated tribesmen of the hinterland. -And now, after years of intrigue and machinations, -which twice have brought her to the brink of war, -France, by one of the most remarkable diplomatic victories -of our time, has won the last of the world's great -territorial prizes and has set the capstone on her colonial -edifice by adding the empire of Morocco—under -the guise of a protectorate—to her oversea domain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> - -<p>On the West Coast the tricolour floats over the -colonies of Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, -Dahomey, Upper Senegal-Niger, and Mauritania (the -last named a newly organised colony formed from portions -of the Moroccan hinterland), the combined area -of these possessions alone being about equal to that of -European Russia.</p> - -<p>From the Congo northward to the confines of the -Anglo-Egyptian Sudan stretches the great colony of -French Equatorial Africa—formerly known as the French -Congo—the acquirement of which by Savorgnan de -Brazza, counterchecked the ambitious plans of Stanley -and his patron, King Leopold, thus forming one of the -most dramatic incidents in the scramble for Africa. -Though potentially the most valuable of the French -West African possessions, being enormously rich in -both jungle and mineral products, notably rubber, -ivory, and copper, France has taken surprisingly little -interest in this colony's development, and, as a result, -it has been permitted to fall into a state of almost pitiful -neglect. There are two causes for the backwardness -of French Equatorial Africa: first, its atrocious climate, -the whole territory being a breeding-ground for small-pox, -blood diseases, tropical fevers in their most virulent -forms, and, worst of all, the terrible sleeping-sickness; -second, the almost total lack of easy means of communication, -the back door through the Belgian Congo -being the only direct means of access to the greater part -of the colony, which was virtually cut in half by the -broad area lying between the southern boundary of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> -Kamerun and the equator and extending eastward -from the coast to the Ubangi River, which France ceded -to Germany in 1911 as a <i>quid pro quo</i> for being permitted -a free hand in Morocco, and which has been renamed -“New Kamerun.” Though the economic development -of this region must prove, under any circumstances, a -difficult, dangerous, and discouraging task, it can be accomplished -if the government will divert its attention -from its projects in North Africa long enough to make -Libreville a decent port, to provide adequate steamer -services on the great rivers that intersect the colony, -and to link up those rivers with each other and with the -coast by a system of railways.</p> - -<p>Lying on the northern frontier of French Equatorial -Africa, and separating it from the Sahara, is the great -Central African state of Kanem, with its organised -native government, its important commerce, and its -considerably developed civilisation, which was completely -subjugated by France in 1903, Wadai, its powerful -neighbour to the east, accepting a French protectorate -in the same year. In the centre of this ring of -colonies lie the million and a half square miles of the -French Sahara, which the experiments of the French -engineers have proved to be as capable of irrigation -and cultivation as the one-time deserts of our own -Southwest. Off the other side of the continent is the -great colony of Madagascar, the second largest island -in the world, in itself considerably larger than the -mother country; while the French Somali Coast forms -the sole gateway to Abyssinia and divides with the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> -British colony of Aden the control of the southern entrance -to the Red Sea. Everything considered, history -can show few parallels to this marvellous colonial -expansion, begun while France was still suffering from -the effects of the disastrous Prussian War, and quietly -carried on under the very eyes of greedy and jealous -neighbours.</p> - -<p>The territorial ambitions of most countries have -been blazoned to the world by many wars. It took England -two disastrous campaigns to win South Africa and -two more to conquer the Sudan; Russia learned the -same lesson in Manchuria at even a more terrible cost; -while Italy's insecure foothold on the Red Sea shore was -purchased by the annihilation of an army. Where -other nations have won their colonial possessions by -arms, France has won hers by adroitness. Always her -policy has been one of pacific penetration. Trace the -history of her African expansion and you will find no -Majuba Hill, no Omdurman, no Adowa, no Modder -River. Time and time again the accomplishments of -her small and unheralded expeditions have proved -that more territory can be won by beads and brass wire -than by rifles and machine-guns.</p> - -<p>Not long ago I asked the governor-general of Algeria -what he considered the most important factors in -the remarkable spread of French influence and civilisation -in North Africa, and he answered, “Public schools, -the American phonograph, and the American sewing-machine.” -The most casual traveller cannot but be -impressed by the thoroughness with which France has -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> -gone into the schoolmaster business in her African -dominions. She believes that the best way to civilise -native races is by training their minds, and she does not -leave so important a work to the missionaries, either. -In Algiers there is a government university with nearly -two thousand students and a faculty of one hundred -professors, while in more than eighteen hundred secondary, -primary, and infant schools the youth of Algeria, -irrespective of whether they believe in Christ, in -Abraham, or in Mohammed, are being taught how to -become decent and patriotic citizens of France. In -Tunisia alone there are something over fifteen hundred -educational institutions; all down the fever-stricken -West Coast, under the palm-thatched roofs of Madagascar -and the crackling tin ones of Equatoria, millions -of dusky youngsters are being taught by Gallic schoolmasters -that <i>p-a-t-r-i-e</i> spells “France,” and the meaning -of “<i>Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité</i>.” To these patient, -plodding, persevering men, whether they wear the white -linen of the civil service or the sombre cassocks of the -religious orders, I lift my hat in respect and admiration, -for they are the real pioneers of progress. If I had my -way, the scarlet ribbon of the Legion would be in the -button-hole of every one of them. We too may claim -a share in this work of civilisation, for I have seen a -band of savage Arab raiders, their fierce hawk-faces -lighted up by the dung-fed camp-fire, held spellbound -by the strains of a Yankee phonograph; and I have seen -the garments of a tribal chieftain of Central Africa being -fashioned on an American sewing-machine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> - -<p>“When the English occupy a country,” runs a saying -which they have in Africa, “the first thing they -build is a custom-house; the first thing the Germans -build is a barracks; but the first thing the French -build is a railway.” Nothing, indeed, is more significant -of the civilising work done by the French in these -almost unknown lands than the means of communication, -there being in operation to-day in French Africa -six thousand miles of railway, twenty-five thousand -miles of telegraph, and ten thousand miles of telephone. -Think of being able to buy a return ticket from Paris -to Timbuktu; of telegraphing Christmas greetings to -your family in Tarrytown or Back Bay or Bryn Mawr -from the shores of Lake Tchad; or of sitting in the -American consulate at Tamatave and chatting with a -friend in Antanarivo, three hundred miles away. Why, -only the other day the Sultan of Morocco, at Fez, sent -birthday congratulations to the President of France, at -Paris, by wireless.</p> - -<p>To-day one can travel on an admirably ballasted -road-bed, in an electric-lighted sleeping-car, with hot -and cold running water in your compartment, and with -a dining-car ahead, along that entire stretch of the Barbary -Coast lying between the Moroccan and Tripolitanian -frontiers, which, within the memory of our fathers, -was the most notorious pirate stronghold in the world. -A strategic line has been built six hundred miles southward -from the coast city of Oran to Colomb-Bechar, in -the Sahara, with Timbuktu as its eventual destination, -and, now that the long-standing Moroccan controversy -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> -has been settled for good and all, another railway is -already being pushed forward from Ujda, on the Algerian-Moroccan -border, and in another year or two the -shriek of the locomotive will be heard under the walls -of Fez the Forbidden. From Constantine, in Algeria, -another line of rails is crawling southward via Biskra -into the Sahara, with Lake Tchad as its objective, thus -opening up to European commerce the great protected -states of Kanem and Wadai. From Dakar, on the coast -of Senegal, a combined rail and river service is in operation -to the Great Bend of the Niger, so that one can now -go to the mysterious city of Timbuktu by train and river -steamer, in considerable comfort and under the protection -of the French flag all the way. In Dahomey, -within the memory of all of us a notorious cannibal -kingdom, a railway is under construction to Nikki, four -hundred miles into the steaming jungle; from Konakry, -the capital of French Guinea, a line has just -been opened to Kourassa, three hundred and fifty miles -from anywhere; while even the fever-stricken, voodoo-worshipping -Ivory Coast boasts two hundred miles or -so of well-built line with its rail-head already half-way -from the coast to Jimini. From Tamatave, the chief -seaport of Madagascar, you can go by rail to the capital, -Antanarivo, three hundred miles up into the mountains, -and, if you wish to continue across the island, government -motor-cars will run you down, over roads that -would make the Glidden tourists envious, to Majunga, -on the other side. From Djibouti, the capital of the -French Somali Coast, another railway has been pushed -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -as far up-country as Diré-Dawah, in Menelik's dominions -(fare sixty dollars for the round trip of two hundred -and fifty miles), thus diverting the lucrative trade of -Abyssinia from the British Sudan to the French marts -in Somaliland.</p> - -<p>France has more good harbours on the coasts of -Africa than all the other nations put together. Algiers, -with one of the finest roadsteads in the world, is now -the most important coaling-station in the Mediterranean -and a port of call for nearly all of the lines plying between -America and the Near East; by the construction -of a great ship-canal the French engineers have made -Tunis directly accessible to ocean-going vessels, thus -restoring the maritime importance of Carthage to her -successor; with Tangier under French control, a naval -base will doubtless eventually be constructed there -which will rival Toulon and will divide with Gibraltar -the control of the entrance to the Mediterranean. With -its entire western portion dominated by the great French -ports of Villefranche, Toulon, Ajaccio, Marseilles, Oran, -Algiers, and Bizerta, the Mediterranean is well on the -road to becoming, as Napoleon once prophesied, a -French lake.</p> - -<p>But, though good harbours are taken rather as a -matter of course in the Mediterranean, one hardly expects -to find them on the reef-bordered West Coast, -which is pounded by a ceaseless and merciless surf. -At all of the British, German, Spanish, and Portuguese -ports in West Africa, save one, you are lowered from -the steamer's heaving deck into a dancing surf-boat by -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> -means of a contrivance called the “mammy chair,” and -are taken ashore by a score of ebony giants who ply -their trident-shaped paddles madly in their desperate -efforts to prevent your being capsized. Alternately -scorched by the sun and soaked by the waves, you are -landed, about three times out of four, on a beach as -hot as though of molten brass. The fourth time, however, -your Kroo boys are not quite quick enough to -escape the crest of one of those mighty combers—and -you can thank your lucky stars if you get ashore at all. -This is the method by which every passenger and every -bale of merchandise is landed on the West Coast and -it is very dangerous and unpleasant and costly. But -when you come to the French port of Dakar, instead of -being dangled between sea and sky in a bo's'n's chair -and dropped sprawling into the bottom of a pitching -surf-boat, and being paddled frantically ashore by a -crew of perspiring negroes, you lounge in a cane chair -on an awning-covered deck while your vessel steams -grandly in, straight alongside a concrete wharf which -would do credit to the Hudson River, and a steam -crane dips down into the hold and lifts the cargo out, -a dozen tons at a time, and loads it on a waiting train -to be transported into the heart of Africa, and as you -lean over the rail, marvelling at the modernity and efficiency -which characterise everything in sight, you wonder -if you are really in the Dark Continent, or if you -are back in America again.</p> - -<p>But if the French harbours are amazingly good, the -French vessels which drop anchor in them are, for the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -most part, amazingly bad. The <i>Messageries Maritimes</i>, -a highly subsidised line which has a virtual monopoly -of the French colonial passenger trade, and -which is notorious for its we-don't-care-whether-you-like-it-or-not -attitude, has the worst vessels that I -know, bar none, and charges the most exorbitant fares. -If you wish to visit the Somali Coast, or Madagascar, -or Réunion, you will have to take this line, because there -is no other, but elsewhere along the coasts of Africa you -will do well to follow my advice and travel under the -British or the German flag.</p> - -<p>The struggle of the French colonial army to maintain -law and order along the vast reaches of France's -African frontiers forms one of the most thrilling and -romantic chapters in the history of colonial expansion. -Theirs has been a work of tact, rather than of force, for, -where England, Germany, Italy, and Belgium have used -the iron hand in dealing with the natives, France, more -farsighted, has seen the wisdom of hiding it within the -velvet glove. Always she has conciliated the Moslem. -She has safeguarded the privacy of his mosques and -harems; she has encouraged by government subsidies -his schools and universities; instead of desecrating the -tombs of his holy men, she has whitewashed them; the -burnooses of the great tribal and religious chieftains are -brilliant with French decorations; the native <i>mollahs</i> -and <i>cadis</i> are utilised as local magistrates in all except -the gravest cases or those involving a European. To -attempt to govern a country without those, or against -those, to whom it belonged, is a blunder of which France -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> -has never been guilty. It has been the consistent -policy of other European nations, on the contrary, -neither to trust the natives nor to treat them with any -degree of consideration. Hence the ominous unrest in -India; hence the ever louder murmur of “Egypt -for the Egyptians”! hence the refusal of the natives of -German East Africa to work on German-owned plantations -and their wholesale emigration from that colony; -hence the fact that no Italian official in Eritrea or -Benadir dares venture outside the town walls unarmed -and unescorted, nor will in Tripolitania for many years -to come. I have been assured repeatedly by North -African sheikhs that, should France become involved in -a European war, her native soldiery would volunteer -almost to a man. That England is far from certain -how her Egyptian and Sudanese troops would behave in -such a contingency is best proved by the formidable -British garrisons which she deems it wise to maintain -in the land of the Valley of the Nile.</p> - -<p>I am but reflecting the opinions of many highly -placed and intimately informed European officials in -North Africa when I assert that Germany's repeated interference -with the French programme in Morocco was -due as much to military as to political reasons, the Germans -using this means to hinder the expansion of that -mysterious <i>force noire</i> which has long been a bugaboo to -the War Office authorities in Berlin. Whether this was -the true reason or not for Germany's attitude in the -Moroccan business, no one knows better than the German -general staff that, in the event of war, the Republic -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> -would be able to advance a great black army to the -banks of the Rhine in thirty days—and that she would -not be deterred by the scruples which prevented her -utilising her African soldiery in 1870. It has been repeatedly -urged, indeed, that the numerical inferiority -of the annual French conscription, as compared with -that of Germany, be made up for by drafting a corps of -black troops drawn from French West Africa into the -continental army. France has already recruited very -close to twenty thousand native troops—which is the -strength of an army corps—in her West African possessions -alone, and as any scheme for drafting it into -Algeria, so as to enable the French troops stationed -there to be available elsewhere, would instantly arouse -the Arab population to revolt, it is highly probable that -this African army corps would, in case of war, be employed -on the European continent. Though France's -African army does not at present number much over -fifty thousand men—all well drilled, highly disciplined, -and modernly armed—the French drill-sergeants in -Africa are not idle and have limitless resources to draw -from. The population of the negro states under -French protection runs into many millions, and would -easily yield twenty per cent of fighting men, while -the acquisition of Morocco has added the Berbers, -that strange, warlike, Caucasian race, to the Republic's -fighting line. Nothing pleases the African as an occupation -more than soldiering, his native physique, courage, -and endurance making him, with amazingly little -training, a first-class fighting man. It is no great wonder, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> -then, that Germany looks askance at the formidable -army which her rival is building up so quietly but so -steadily on the other side of the Middle Sea.</p> - -<p>No small part in the winning of North Africa has -been played by the Foreign Legion—how the name -smacks of romance!—that picturesque company of adventurers, -soldiers of fortune, and ne'er-do-weels, ten -thousand strong, most of whom serve under the French -flag in preference to serving in their own prisons. In this -notorious corps the French Government enlists without -question any physically fit man who applies. It asks -no questions and expects to be told any number of lies. -It trains them until they are as hard as nails and as -tough as rawhide; it works them as a negro teamster -works a Kentucky mule; it pays them wages which -would cause a strike among Chinese coolies; and, when -the necessity arises, it sends them into action with the -assurance that there will be no French widows to be -pensioned. So unenviable is the reputation of the -Legionnaires that even the Algerian desert towns balk -at their being stationed in the vicinity, for nothing -from hen-roost to harem is safe from their depredations; -so they are utilised on the most remote frontiers -in time of peace and invariably form the advance guard -in time of war. It is commonly said that when the -Legion goes into action its officers take the precaution -of marching in the rear, so as not to be shot in the back, -but that is probably a libel which the regiment does not -deserve. Wherever the musketry is crackling along -France's colonial frontiers, there this Legion of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -Damned is to be found, those who wear its uniform being, -for the most part, bearers of notorious or illustrious -names who have chosen to fight under an alien flag because -they are either afraid or ashamed to show themselves -under their own.</p> - -<p>Several times each year it is customary for the commandants -of the French posts along the edge of the -Sahara to organise <i>fantasias</i> in honour of the Arab -sheikhs of the region, who come in to attend them, followed -by great retinues of burnoosed, turbaned, and -splendidly mounted retainers, with the same enthusiasm -with which an American countryside turns out to see -the circus. At one of these affairs, held in southern -Algeria, I could not but contrast the marked attentions -paid by the French officials to the native chieftains with -the cavalier and frequently insolent attitude invariably -assumed by British officials toward Egyptians of -all ranks, not even excepting the Khedive. Were a -French official to affront one of the great Arab sheikhs -as Lord Kitchener did the Khedive, when he exacted -an apology from his Highness for presuming to criticise -the discipline of the Sudanese troops, he would be -fortunate indeed if he escaped summary dismissal.</p> - -<p>At the <i>fantasia</i> in question luxuriously furnished -tents had been erected for the comfort of the native -guests; a champagne luncheon provided the excuse for -innumerable protestations of friendship; a series of -races with money prizes was arranged for the visitors' -horses; and, before leaving, the sheikhs were presented -with ornate saddles, gold-mounted rifles, and, in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -cases of the more important chieftains, with crosses of -the Legion of Honour. In return for this they willingly -agreed to capture and surrender certain fugitives from -justice who had fled into the desert; to warn the more -lawless of their tribesmen that the plundering of caravans -must cease; to furnish specified quotas of recruits -for the native cavalry; and to send in for sale to the -Remount Department a large number of desert-bred -horses. And, which is the most important of all, they -go back to their tented homes in the desert immensely -impressed with the power, the wealth, and the generosity -of France.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_016.jpg" id="i_016.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_016.jpg" width="600" height="419" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">“THROUGH DIM BAZAARS WHERE TURBANED SHOPKEEPERS - SQUAT PATIENTLY IN THEIR DOORWAYS.”<br /> - Here, in the native quarters of the remote towns of the Algerian - hinterland, the disciples of Pan-Islam find eager listeners to their creed - of Africa for the Africans.<br /> - <i>Photograph by Em. Frechon, Biskra.</i> - </div> -</div> - -<p>Not content with these periodic manifestations of -friendship, the French Government makes it a point occasionally -to invite the native rulers of the lands under -its control to visit France as the guests of the nation. -Escorted by French officers who can talk with them in -their own tongue, these colonial visitors in their outlandish -costumes are shown the delights of Montmartre -by night, they are dined by the President of the Republic -at the Élysée, they are given the freedom of -Paris at the Hôtel de Ville, and they finally return to -their own lands the friends and allies of France for the -rest of their lives. “It doesn't cost the government -much,” an official of the French Colonial Office once -remarked to me, <i>à propos</i> of a visit then being paid to -Paris by the King of Cambodia, “and it tickles the -niggers.”</p> - -<p>Straggling down here and there into the desert from -some of the North African coast towns go the trade -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> -routes of the caravans, and it is the protection of these -trade routes, traversing, as they do, a territory half -again as large as that of the United States, that is entrusted -to the twelve hundred <i>méharistes</i> composing -France's Saharan forces. By a network of small oasis -garrisons and desert patrols, recruited from the desert -tribes and mounted on the tall, swift-trotting camels -known as <i>méhari</i>, France has made the Saharan trade-routes, -if not as safe as Fifth Avenue or Piccadilly, certainly -very much safer for the lone traveller than lower -Clark Street, in Chicago, or the neighbourhood of the -Paris <i>Halles</i>. It has long been the fashion to hold up -the Northwest Mounted Police as the model for all -constabulary forces, just as it has been the fashion to -extol the English as the model colonisers, but, taking -into consideration the fewness of their numbers, the -vastness of the region which they control, and the character -of its climate and its inhabitants, I give the blue -ribbon to these lean, brown-faced, hard-riding camel-men -who have carried law and order into the furthermost -corners of the Great Sahara.</p> - -<p>Though comparatively unfertile, the Sahara vastly -influences the surrounding regions, just as the Atlantic -Ocean influences the countries which border on it. -Were commerce to be seriously interrupted upon the -Atlantic, financial hardships would inevitably result -in the countries on either side. So it is, then, with the -Sahara, which is, to all intents and purposes, an inland -ocean. Ever since the caravan of the Queen of Sheba -brought gifts to King Solomon, ever since Abraham -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -came riding down from Ur, it has been customary for -the nomad Arab rulers through whose territories the -desert trade routes pass to exact heavy tribute from the -caravan sheikhs, the Bilma trans-Saharan route alone -being plundered annually to the tune of ten million -francs until the coming of the French camel police. -Many of these great trade caravans, you will understand, -are literally moving cities, sometimes consisting -of as many as twelve thousand camels, to say nothing -of the accompanying horses, donkeys, sheep, and goats. -To outfit such a caravan often takes a year or more, -frequently at a cost of more than one million dollars, -the money being subscribed in varying sums by thousands -of merchants and petty traders dwelling in the -region whence it starts. It is obvious, therefore, that -the looting of such a caravan might well spell ruin for -the people of a whole district; and it is by her successful -protection of the caravan routes that France has earned -the gratitude of the peoples of all those regions bordering -on the Great Sahara. But the days of the caravan -trade are numbered, for the telegraph wires which already -stretch across the desert from the Mediterranean -coast towns to the French outposts in the Congo, the -Senegal, and the Sudan, are but forerunners to herald -the coming of the iron horse.</p> - -<p>France's path of colonial expansion in Africa has -been remarkably free from obstructions, for, barring the -Algerian campaign of 1830, and the German-created -incidents in Morocco, she has acquired her vast domain—close -on half the total area of the continent—at a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> -surprisingly low cost in money and lives. The only -time, indeed, when her African ambitions received a -serious setback was in 1898, at Fashoda (now known as -Kodok), on the White Nile, when the French explorer, -Major Marchand, yielded to the peremptory demand -of Lord Kitchener and hauled down the tricolour which -he had raised at that remote spot, thus losing to France -the whole of the Western Sudan and the control of the -head-waters of the Nile.</p> - -<p>There is an interesting bit of secret diplomatic history -in this connection. The story has been told me by -both French and British officials—and there is good -reason to believe that it is true—that the French Government -had planned, in case Marchand was able to -hold his position until reinforcements arrived, to divert -the waters of the White Nile, at a point near its junction -with the Sobat River, into the Sahara, an undertaking -which, owing to the physical characteristics of that -region, would, so the French engineers claimed, have -been entirely feasible. France would thus have accomplished -the twofold purpose of irrigating her desert -territory and of turning Egypt into a desert by diverting -her only supply of water; for this, remember, was in -those bitter, jealous days before the Anglo-French <i>entente</i>. -It was, indeed, the intelligence that the Khalifa -proposed, by doing this very thing, to bring Egypt to -her knees that caused the second Sudanese expedition -to be pushed forward so rapidly. (I should add that the -idea, once so popular in France, of turning the Sahara -into an inland sea, has been proven impracticable, if not -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -impossible.) It is safe to say that England's prime reason -for clinging so tenaciously, and at such heavy cost, -to the arid tract known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, is -to safeguard Egyptian prosperity by keeping control of -the head-waters of the Nile. To illustrate how completely -the Nile is the barometer of Egyptian prosperity, -I might add that the last time I was in Khartoum -the officials of the Sudanese Irrigation Service complained -to me most bitterly that they were being -seriously hampered in their work of desert reclamation -by the restrictions placed upon the quantity of water -which they were permitted to divert from the Nile, a -comparatively small diversion from the upper reaches -of the river causing wide-spread distress among the -Egyptian agriculturists a thousand miles down-stream.</p> - -<p>Because the map-makers from time beyond reckoning -have seen fit to paint the northern half of the African -continent a speckled yellow, most of us have been accustomed -to look upon this region as an arid, sun-baked, -worthless desert. But French explorers, French engineers, -and French scientists have proved that it is -very far from being worthless or past reclamation. -M. Henri Schirmer, the latest and most careful student -of its problems, says: “The sterility of the Sahara is -due neither to the form of the land nor to its nature. -The alluvium of sand, chalk, and gypsum which covers -the Algerian Sahara constitutes equally the soil of the -most fertile plains in the world. What causes the -misery of one and the wealth of the other is the absence -or the presence of water.” Now, an extensive series -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> -of experiments has proven that the Sahara, like the -Great American Desert, has an ample supply of underground -water, which in many cases has been reached -at a depth of only forty feet. There is, incidentally, -hardly a desert where the experiment has been tried, -whether in Asia, Africa, or America, where water has -not been found within two thousand feet of the surface. -Though usually not sufficient for agriculture, enough -has generally been found to afford a supply for cattle, -railroads, and mines. Three striking examples of what -can be accomplished by scientific well-drilling in arid -lands are the great wells of the Salton Desert, the flowing -wells at Benson, Arizona, and a supply of seven -hundred thousand gallons of water a day from the deep -wells on the mesa at El Paso, each of these supplies of -water being obtained from localities which were superficially -hopelessly dry.</p> - -<p>It should be borne in mind, in any discussion of -North Africa, that until the early '80's the Great American -Desert was as primitive, waterless, and sparsely -settled a region as the Sahara. Its scattered inhabitants -practised irrigation and agriculture very much as the -people of southern Algeria and Tunisia do to-day, and, -like them, they constructed buildings of unburnt brick -and stone. Though the Indian was able to find a -meagre sustenance upon the American desert, just as -the Arab does upon the African, it was of a kind upon -which the white man could not well exist. The unconquered -Apaches plundered wagon-trains and mail-coaches -just as the Tuareg occasionally plunders the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -Saharan trade caravans to-day, and the only white men -were the soldiers at scattered and lonely posts or desperadoes -flying from the law. There is, indeed, a -striking similarity between the conditions which prevail -to-day along France's African borders and those -which existed within the memories of most of us upon -our own frontier.</p> - -<p>Then the railways came to the American West, -just as they are coming to North Africa to-day, and the -desert was awakened from its lethargy of centuries by -the shriek of the locomotive. The first railroads to be -constructed were designed primarily as highways between -the Atlantic and the Pacific seaboards, with -hardly a thought of revenue from the desert itself. -But hard on the heels of the railway-builders followed -the miners and the cattlemen, so that to-day the iron -highway across the desert is bordered by prosperous -cities and villages, by mines and oil-derricks and ranches -and white farm-houses with green blinds, this one-time -arid region, which the wiseheads of thirty years ago -pronounced worthless, now yielding a wealth twice as -much per capita as that of any other portion of the -United States.</p> - -<p>What has already been accomplished in the American -desert, French brains, French energy, and French -machinery are fast accomplishing in the Sahara. -Thanks to the recent invention, by a non-commissioned -officer of France's African forces, of a six-wheeled motor-sledge -driven by a light but powerful aeroplane engine, -the problem of rapid communication in these desert -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -regions, which have hitherto been impassable to any -kind of animal or mechanical traction, has been solved. -As the new vehicle has proved itself capable of maintaining -a speed over sand dunes of twenty miles an -hour, it promises to be of invaluable assistance to the -French in their work of opening up the waste places. -Not only have French expeditions explored and charted -the whole of the unknown regions, but they have thoroughly -investigated the commercial possibilities of the -immense territories which have recently come under -their control. These investigations have shown that -the Sahara is very far from being the sandy plain, flat -as a billiard-table, which the pictures and descriptions -in our school geographies led us to believe, and which -the reports of those superficial travellers who had only -journeyed into the desert as far as Biskra, in Algeria, -or Ghadames, in Tripolitania, confirmed, but is, on the -contrary, of a remarkably varied surface, here rising -into plateaus like those of Tibesti and Ahaggar, there -crossed by chains of large and fertile oases, and again -broken into mountain ranges, with peaks eight thousand -feet high, greater than the Alleghanies and very -nearly as great as the Sierra Nevadas.</p> - -<p>An oasis, by the way, does not necessarily consist, -as the reading public seems to believe, of a clump of -palm-trees beside a brackish well, many of them being -great stretches of well-watered and cultivated soil, -sometimes many square miles in extent, and rich in fig, -pomegranate, orange, apricot, and olive trees. The oasis -of Kaouer, for example, with its one hundred thousand -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> -date-palms, furnishes subsistence for the inhabitants of -a score of straggling villages, with their camels, flocks, -and herds. There are said to be four million date-palms -in the oases of the Algerian Sahara alone, and to cut -down one of them is considered as much of a crime as -arson is in a great city, for its fruit is a sufficient food, -from its leaves a shelter can be made which will keep -out sun and wind and rain, and its shade protects -life and cultivation. Many date plantations and even -vineyards have flourished for several years past in -southernmost Algeria by means of water from below -the surface, while the chief of the French geodetic survey -recently announced that a tract in the very heart -of the Sahara, nine degrees in longitude by twelve degrees -in latitude, is already sufficiently watered for the -raising of grain. The reports of these expeditions and -commissions bear with painstaking thoroughness on -the productivity of the soil, the suitability of the climate, -the existence and accessibility of forest wealth, -the presence and probable extent of mineral veins, and -on transportation by road, rail, and river over all that -huge territory which comprises France's African empire.</p> - -<p>The story of French success in the exploration, the -civilisation, the administration, and the exploitation -of Africa is one of the wonder-tales of history. That -she has relied on the resources of science rather than -on those of militarism makes her achievement the -more remarkable, for where England's possessions have -largely been gained by punitive expeditions, France -has won hers by pacific penetration. Look at Senegambia -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -as it is now under French rule, and compare its -condition with what it was as Mungo Park describes -it at the end of the eighteenth century; contrast the -modernised Dahomey of to-day, with its railways, -schools, and hospitals, with the blood-soaked, cannibal -country of the early '60's; remember that Algeria has -doubled in population since the last Dey, by striking -the French consul with his fan, turned his country into -a French department—and you will have a bird's-eye -view, as it were, of what the French have accomplished -in the colonising field.</p> - -<p>If French Africa becomes in time a rich and prosperous -dominion—and I firmly believe that it will—it -is to her patient and intrepid pioneers of civilisation—-desert -patrols, railway-builders, well-drillers, school-teachers, -commercial investigators—that the thanks of -the nation will be due; for they are pointing the way -to millions of natives, on whose activities and necessities -the commercial development of Africa must eventually -depend. So I trust that those at home in France -will give all honour to the men at work in the Sahara, -the Senegal, and the Sudan or rotting in the weed-grown, -snake-infested cemeteries of the Congo and Somaliland; -men whose battles have been fought out in -steaming jungles or on lonely oases, far away from -home and friends and often from another white man's -help and sympathy; sometimes with savage desert -raiders, or in action against Hausa, Berber, or Moor; -but oftenest of all with an unseen and deadlier foe—the -dread African fever.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_026.jpg" id="i_026.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_026.jpg" width="600" height="371" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">THE TROGLODYTE TOWN OF MEDENINE, SOUTHERN TUNISIA.<br /> - Perhaps the strangest city in the world. The dwellings, known as rhorfas, - are built in the form of horseshoes to keep out thieves.<br /> - <i>Photograph by Soler, Tunis.</i> - </div> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE PASSING OF THE PEACOCK'S TAIL</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-a.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">AN -unaccustomed silence hung over the labyrinth -of court-yards, corridors, gardens, mosques, and -kiosks which compose the imperial palace in Fez. The -chatter of the harem women was hushed; the white-robed -officials of the household slipped through the -mosaic-paved passages like melancholy ghosts; even -the slovenly sentries at the gates, their red tunics over -their heads to protect them from the sun, seemed to -tread more softly, as though some great one lay dying. -Within the palace, in a room whose furnishings were a -strange jumble of Oriental taste and European tawdriness, -a group of men stood about a table. Certain of -them were tall and sinewy and swarthy, their white -burnooses, which enveloped them from their snowy -turbans to their yellow slippers, marking them unmistakably -as Moors. Of the others, whose clearer -skins showed them to be Europeans, some wore the -sky-blue tunics and scarlet breeches of the <i>chasseurs -d'Afrique</i>, some the braided jackets and baggy trousers -of the <i>tirailleur</i> regiments, some the simple white -linen of the civil administration, while across the chest -of one, a grizzled man with the épaulettes of a general -of division, slanted a broad scarlet ribbon. At the -table sat an old-young man, a man with an aquiline, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -high-bred nose, a wonderfully clear, olive skin, and a -fringe of scraggy beard along the line of his chin, a man -with a weak mouth and sensual lips and heavy-lidded, -melancholy eyes. The man with the scarlet ribbon unrolled -a parchment and, bowing, spread it upon the -table. One of the native dignitaries, with a gesture of -reverence which included heart and lips and head, -dipped a quill pen into an ink-well and tendered it to -the silent figure at the table. “Your Majesty will have -the goodness to sign here?” said the soldier, half-questioningly, -half-commandingly, as he indicated the place -with his finger. The man at the table gravely inclined -his head, reached for the pen, hesitated for a moment, -then slowly began to trace, from right to left, the strange -Arabic signature. “Inshallah! It is done!” he said, -and throwing down the pen he sunk his face into his -hands. “Vive la France!” said the general solemnly, -and “Vive la France!” echoed the officers around him. -Well might the one lament and the others rejoice, for, -with the final flourish of the Sultan's pen, Morocco had -ceased to exist as an independent nation and France -had added an empire to her dominions.</p> - -<p>“The world is a peacock,” says a Moorish proverb, -“and Morocco is the tail of it.” Now, however, -it has become the tail of the Gallic cock, for when, on -March the thirtieth, 1912, Sultan Mulai-abd-el-Hafid -signed the treaty establishing a French protectorate -over his country, Morocco entered upon a new phase -of its existence. With that act there ended, let us hope -for all time, a situation which on more than one occasion -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> -has threatened the peace of the world. Not since -the English landed in Egypt a third of a century ago -has an event occurred which so vitally concerns the -future welfare of Africa; not since the Treaty of Tilsit -has France won so decisive a diplomatic victory or -added so materially to her territorial possessions. By -the signing of that treaty France laid the final stone -in the mighty colonial structure which she has built -up in Africa, and opened to Christianity, civilisation, -and commerce the door of a region which has hitherto -been a synonym for mystery, cruelty, intolerance, and -fanaticism.</p> - -<p>Though scarcely forty hours of travel by train and -boat separate the departure platform at the Quai -d'Orsay station in Paris from the landing-beach at -Tangier, though its coast is skirted by the tens of thousands -of American tourists who visit the Mediterranean -each year, less is known of Morocco than of many regions -in central Asia or inner Africa. Though a few -daring travellers have made scattering crow's-feet upon -its map, there are regions as large as all our New England -States put together which are wholly unexplored. -It is almost the last of the unknown countries. As its -women draw their veils to hide their faces from the men, -so the Moors have attempted to draw a veil of mystery -and intolerance over the face of their country to hide it -from the stranger. What strange tribes, what ruins of -an earlier civilisation, what wealth in forests or minerals -lie behind its ranges can only be conjectured. Its maps -are still without the names of rivers and mountains and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -towns—though the rivers and mountains and towns are -there; the sole means of travel are on camels, mules, or -donkeys along the wild, worn paths, it being the only -country of any size in the world which cannot boast so -much as a mile of railway; its ports and the two highways -leading from the coast to its capitals, Fez and -Morocco City, were, until the coming of the French, -alone open to the traveller—and none too safe at that; -the foreigner who has the hardihood to stray from the -frequented paths is taking his life in his hands. Few of -the maps of Morocco are, so far as accuracy is concerned, -worth the paper they are printed on, being largely based -on unscientific material eked out by probabilities and -conjectures, there being less accurate information, in -fact, about a country larger than France, and only two -days' journey from Trafalgar Square, than there is about -Abyssinia or Borneo or Uganda. Even the names which -we have given to the country and its inhabitants are -purely European terms and are neither used nor recognised -by the people themselves, who call their country -<i>El Moghreb el Aska</i>, which means literally “Sunset -Land,” the term Morocco being a European corruption -of the name of one of its capitals, Marrakesh, or, as it -is known to foreigners, Morocco City. A land almost -as large as the State of Texas, with snow-capped mountain -ranges, navigable rivers, vast forests, a fertile soil, -an abundant water supply, and an ideal climate; a -land of walled cities and white villages, of domed -mosques and slender minarets, of veiled women and -savage, turbaned men; a land of strange peoples and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -still stranger customs; a land of mystery and fatalism, -of suspicion and fanaticism, of cruelty and corruption, -of confusion and contradiction—that is Morocco, where, -as an Arabic writer has put it, a wise man is surprised -at nothing that he sees and believes nothing that -he hears.</p> - -<p>This empire which has come under the shadow of -the tricolour is, above all else, a white man's country. -Unlike India and Tripolitania and Rhodesia and -the Sudan, Morocco is a country which is admirably -adapted for European colonisation, being blessed with -every natural advantage that creation has to offer. Its -only objectionable feature is its people. Lying at the -western gateway of the Mediterranean, where the narrowed -sea has so often proved a temptation to invasion, -its Atlantic ports within striking distance of the great -lanes of commerce between Europe and South America -and South Africa, Morocco occupies a position of enormous -strategic, political, and commercial importance. -The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas, which, -taken as a whole, has a higher mean elevation than that -of any other range of equal length in Europe, Africa, or -western Asia, attaining in places an elevation of nearly -fifteen thousand feet. Snow-clad, this mighty and isolated -wall rises so abruptly from the plain that it needs -but little stretch of the imagination to understand how -the ancients believed that on it rested the heavens—whence, -indeed, its name. Personally, the thing that -surprised me most in Morocco was the total absence -of desert. Either because of its proximity to the Sahara, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> -or because of its camels, or the two combined, I -went to Morocco expecting that I should find vast -stretches of sun-baked, yellow sand. As a matter of -fact, I found nothing of the kind. Traversed from east -to west, as I have already said, by the strongly defined -range of the Atlas, the greater part of its surface is really -occupied by rolling prairies, diversified by low hills, -and not at all unlike Ohio and Indiana. Though admirably -adapted to the growing of cereals, the strict -prohibition against the exportation of grain has naturally -resulted in discouraging the native farmers, so -that immense tracts of fertile land remain uncultivated. -The alluvial soil, which is remarkable for its richness, -frequently reaches a depth of fifteen feet and could be -brought to an almost incredible degree of productiveness -by the application of modern agricultural methods. -What greater praise can be given to any soil than to -say that it will bear three crops of potatoes in a single -year and that corn is commonly sown and reaped all -within the space of forty days?</p> - -<p>Unlike its neighbouring countries, Algeria, Tunisia, -and Tripolitania, Morocco does not lack for navigable -waterways, for it possesses several large rivers which -could be navigated for hundreds of miles inland, -though at present, owing to the apathy of the inhabitants, -and the unsettled condition of the regions along -their banks, they are used for neither traffic nor irrigation. -The chief of these is the Muluya, which, with its -tributary the Sharef, provides northeastern Morocco -with a valuable commercial waterway for a distance of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -more than four hundred miles. The most important -river of northwest Morocco is the Sebu, which empties -into the Atlantic, while in the central and western districts -the Kus, the Bu-Regreg, the Sus, and the Assaka -will, under the new régime, prove invaluable as means -of opening up the country.</p> - -<p>A very large number of people seem to be under the -impression that Morocco is unhealthy and suffers from -a sweltering heat. Nothing could be farther from the -truth. The climate is, as a matter of fact, extremely -healthful, malaria, the scourge of the other countries of -North Africa, being unknown. In the regions lying -between the central range of the Atlas and the sea the -thermometer seldom rises above ninety degrees or falls -below forty degrees, the mountain wall serving as a -protection from the scorching winds of the Sahara. -During the winter months the rains are so heavy and -frequent along the Atlantic coast that good pasturage -is found as far south as Cape Juby, while in the interior -the rivers frequently become so swollen that travel is -both difficult and dangerous. The unpleasantness of -the rains (and you don't know what discomfort is, my -friends, until you have journeyed in Morocco during -the rainy season) is more than compensated for by the -beauties of the spring landscape. For mile after mile -I have ridden across meadows literally carpeted with -wild flowers, whose varied and brilliant colours, combined -with the peculiar fashion in which each species -confined itself to its own area, gave the countryside the -appearance of a vast floral mosaic. After seeing these -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> -gorgeous natural combinations of colour—dark blue, -yellow, white, and scarlet, iris, marigolds, lilies, and -poppies—I no longer wondered where the Moors draw -the inspiration for that chromatic art of which they -left such marvellous examples in the cities of southern -Spain.</p> - -<p>Though the country has, unfortunately, become -largely deforested—for what Moor would ever think -of planting trees, which could only be of value to another -generation?—a wealth of timber still remains in -the more remote valleys of the Atlas, the pines and -oaks often attaining enormous size. Though Spanish -concessionaires are profitably working gold mines in -the Riff country, and the great German firm of Mannesmann -Brothers has acquired extensive iron-ore-bearing -properties in the Sus, and though large deposits of silver, -copper, lead, and antimony have been discovered at -various points in the interior, the mineral wealth of -Morocco is still a matter for speculation. It is not -likely to remain so long, however, for history has shown -that it is the miners who form the real advance-guard -of civilisation.</p> - -<p>To the stranger who confines his investigations to -the highways which connect the capitals with the coast, -Morocco gives the impression of being very sparsely -settled. This is due to the fact that the natives take -pains to avoid the highroads as they would the plague, -the continual passage of troops and of travellers, all of -whom practise the time-honoured custom of living on -the country and never paying for what they take, having -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -had the natural result of driving the inhabitants -into less travelled regions, though traders and others -whose business takes them into the back country find -that it is far more densely populated than most foreigners -suspect. Heretofore it has been possible for almost -any foreigner, by the judicious use of bakshish, to -obtain from the authorities an official order which required -the people living along the roads to supply food -both for him and his escort and fodder for their horses. -Now, this was a very serious tax, especially among a -people as poverty-stricken as the Moorish peasantry, -and as a result of it the heedless traveller often caused -much misery and suffering. But if the occasional traveller -proved so serious a burden, imagine what it meant -to these poor people when the Sultan himself passed, -for, able to move only with an army, without any commissariat -or transport, and feeding itself as it went, -he devastated the land of food and fodder as though he -was an invader instead of a ruler, sweeping as ruthlessly -across his empire as the Huns did across southern -Europe, and leaving his subjects to starve. Is it any -wonder, then, that the desperation of the wretched, -half-starved peasantry has vented itself in repeated -revolutions? The coming of the French is bound to -change this deplorable and demoralising state of affairs, -however, for, once assured of protection for their crops -and justice for themselves, the fugitive country folk -will quickly flock back and resume the cultivation of -their abandoned lands.</p> - -<p>One of the facts about Morocco that will probably -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> -surprise most people—I know that it surprised me—is -that the Berbers, who form fully two thirds of the population, -are a purely white race, as white indeed, barring -the tan which results from life under an African sun, -as we ourselves. Though the generic term Moor is -applied by Europeans to all the inhabitants of Morocco, -there are really four distinct racial divisions of the -population: the Berbers, who, being the earliest-known -possessors of the land, are the genuine Moroccans, and -are, when of unmixed blood, a very energetic and vigorous -people, indeed; the Arabs, who are the descendants -of the Mohammedan conquerors of the country -and possess to the full the Arab characteristics of arrogance, -indolence, and cruelty; the negroes, brought -into the country as slaves from Central Africa in an -influx extending over centuries, this admixture having -resulted in deteriorating both the Berbers and the Arabs, -the infusion of black blood showing itself in dark skins, -thickened lips, low foreheads, sensual tastes, and a -marked stupidity; and lastly, but by no means the -least important, the ubiquitous, persecuted, and persecuting -Jews. The Berbers dwell for the most part in -the mountains, while the Arabs, on the contrary, are -to be found only on the plains, it being the weak, sensual, -and intolerant amalgam produced by the fusion -of these two races, and tinctured with negro blood, which -forms the population of the Moorish cities and to which -the name “Moor” most properly belongs.</p> - -<p>Between the Moor of the mountains and the Moor -of the towns there is as wide a gulf as there is between -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> -the natives of Vermont and the natives of Venezuela. -The town Moor is sullen, suspicious of all strangers, -vacillating; the pride, but none of the energy, of his -ancestors remains. In his youth he is licentious in his -acts; in his old age he is licentious in his thoughts. -He is abominably lazy. He never runs if he can walk; -he never walks if he can stand still; he never stands if -he can sit; he never sits if he can lie down. The only -thing he puts any energy into is his talking; he believes -that nothing can be done really well without a hullabaloo. -The men of the mountains are cast in a wholly different -mould, however, from that of the men of the towns. -Fierce enemies and stanch friends, they like fighting -for fighting's sake. They are intelligent and industrious; -though fonder of the sword and the pistol than of the -plough and the hoe, their fertile mountain valleys are -nevertheless fairly well cultivated. They are a hardy, -warlike, and indomitable race and have never yet been -conquered. It is well to remember in any discussion -of these people that, through all the vicissitudes of their -history, they have never before had the flag of another -nation flying over them. All the successive invaders -of North Africa have been confronted with the problem -of subduing them, but always they have failed and have -gone back. Not only that, but once the Moors went -invading on their own account, crossing the Strait of -Gibraltar, conquering all southern Spain, holding it -for five hundred years, and leaving behind them the -architectural glories of Seville, of Cordova, and of -Granada to tell the story. Unless I am very much mistaken, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> -therefore, it will cost France many lives and -much money to make them amenable to her rule.</p> - -<p>The decadence of the Moors is primarily due to two -things: immorality and racial jealousies. They are -probably the most licentious race, in both thought and -act, in the world. Compared to them the inhabitants -of Sodom and Gomorrah were positively prudish. This -extreme moral degeneracy is in itself enough to ruin -the sturdiest people, but, as though it was not sufficient, -the two principal races, Arab and Berber, hate each -other as the Armenian hates the Turk, this racial antagonism -in itself making impossible the upbuilding of -a strong and united nation. In fact, the only thing -they have in common is their religion, which is the air -they breathe, and which, though incapable of producing -internal harmony, unites them in hostility to the -unbeliever.</p> - -<p>There is less public spirit in Morocco than in any -place I know. No Moor takes the slightest interest in -anything outside his personal affairs, and no one ever -plans for the future—other than to hope that he will -get a comfortable divan and his share of houris in Paradise. -The last thing that would occur to a Moor would -be to spend money on anything which will not bring -him in an immediate profit, so that, as a consequence, -trees are never planted, mines never worked, roads -never made, bridges never built. He does not want -civilisation. He does not believe in modern inventions -or improvements. What was good enough for his -father is good enough for him. Why lug in railways and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -telegraphs, and similar contrivances of the devil, then, -when things are good enough as they are?</p> - -<p>There is no cause for the other European nations -to envy France the obligations she assumed when she -declared a protectorate over Morocco. She has a long -and hilly road to travel before she can convert her latest -acquisition into a national asset. Before Morocco can -be thrown open to French settlers its savage and hostile -population will have to be as effectually subdued as were -the Indians of our own West. The tribes of southern -Morocco are especially hostile to the French occupation, -and many military experts believe that the protectorate -will never be enforced in those regions without -a long campaign and much shedding of blood, while one -eminent French general has openly asserted that it will -take at least a dozen years fully to subdue the country.</p> - -<p>Personally, I am a firm believer in the future of -Morocco and the Moors under the guidance and protection -of France. I have seen too much of what -France has accomplished in far less favoured regions, -and under far more discouraging conditions, to think -otherwise. Nothing illustrates the latent possibilities -of the Moorish character better than an experiment -which was made some years ago. At the request of the -Sultan, the British minister to Morocco asked his -government for permission to send a body of Moors to -Gibraltar for the purpose of being instructed in British -drill and discipline. The War Office acceding to the -request, two hundred Moors, selected at random from -various tribes throughout the empire, were sent to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -Gibraltar and remained there for three years, the men -being occasionally changed as they acquired a knowledge -of drill. They had good clothing given them, slept -in tents, and were allowed by the Sultan a shilling a day, -receiving precisely the same treatment as British soldiers. -During the three years they were stationed on -the Rock, there were only two cases in the police court -against them for dissolute conduct or disorder. The soldiers -of what civilised nation could have made such a -record? Colonel Cameron, under whose superintendence -they were placed, reported that they learned the -drill as quickly and as well as any Englishmen, and that -they were sober, steady, and attentive to their duties. -(The Moors, it should be remarked, are noted for their -abstemiousness, the precepts of the Koran which forbid -the use of spirits and tobacco being rigidly observed.) -This tends to show that Moors, living under a just and -humane government, and having, as these men had, -proper provision made for their livelihood, are not a -lawless or even a disorderly people, and that they are -capable of being transformed, under such a form of -government as France has established in Algeria and -Tunisia, into the splendid warriors which their ancestors -were in Spain. It was, as I think I have remarked -in the preceding chapter, the knowledge that France, in -acquiring Morocco, would obtain the material for a -formidable addition to her military forces which was, -it is generally believed, one of the motives that inspired -Germany's persistent opposition to a French protectorate.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> - -<p>Though the reins of Moorish power are already -firmly in the hands of the French Resident-General at -Fez, there is no reason to believe that the French expect, -for the present at least, to depose the Sultan, it -being to their interests, for obvious reasons, to maintain -the pleasant fiction that Morocco is still an independent -empire to which they have disinterestedly lent their -protection, In August, 1912, Sultan Mulai-abd-el-Hafid, -appreciating the emptiness of his title under the -French régime, abdicated in favour of his brother, -Mulai Youssef, who is known to be friendly to France. -The new Sultan, who is the seventeenth of the dynasty -of the Alides and the thirty-seventh lineal descendant -of Ali, uncle and son-in-law of the Prophet, is known to -his subjects as Emir-el-Mumenin, or Prince of True -Believers, and as such he exercises a spiritual influence -over his subjects which the French are far too shrewd to -disregard. The position of the Sultan of Morocco has, -indeed, become strikingly similar to that of his fellow-ruler -in the other corner of Africa, the Khedive of Egypt, -for, like him, he must needs content himself henceforth -with the shadow of power. Even if the imperial form -of government is permanently maintained (and this I -very much doubt, for it is characteristic of the Latin -races—as Taine puts it—that they always want to occupy -a “sharply defined and terminologically defensible -position”), its real ruler will be the Resident-General -of France, whose policies will be carried out by -French advisers in every department of the government -and whose orders will be backed up by French bayonets. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -So long as Mulai Youssef is content meekly to play the -part of a puppet, with French officials pulling the strings, -he will be permitted to enjoy all the honours and comforts -of royalty, but let him once give ear to sedition, -let him make the slightest attempt to undermine the -authority of the French régime, and he will find himself -occupying a sentry-guarded villa in Algiers near the -residences of the ex-Queen of Madagascar and the ex-King -of Annam, those other Oriental rulers who thought -to match themselves against the power of France.</p> - -<p>The Sherifian umbrella, which is the Moorish -equivalent of a crown, is hereditary in the family of the -Filali Sherifs of Tafilelt. Each Sultan is supposed, -prior to his death, to indicate the member of the imperial -family who, according to his conscientious belief, -will best replace him. This succession is, however, -elective, and all members of the Sherifian family are -eligible. It has generally happened that the late Sultan's -nominee has been elected by public acclamation at -noonday prayers the Friday after the Sultan's death, -as the nominee generally has obtained possession of the -imperial treasure and is supported by the body-guard, -from whose ranks most of the court officials are appointed. -I might add that all of the Moorish Sultans -in recent years have been so extremely bad that no successor -whom they could appoint, or who could appoint -himself, could by any possibility be worse. The present -Sultan knows scarcely half a dozen places in his -whole empire, and has spent most of his life in two of -them—Marrakesh and Fez—having held, up to the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -time of his accession to the throne, the important post -of Khalif of the latter city. The Moors never pray for -their sovereign to journey among them, for, so disturbed -has been the condition of the country for many years -past, and so numerous have been the pretenders to the -Sherifian throne, that recent Sultans have rarely ventured -outside the walls of their capitals with less than -thirty thousand followers behind them, so that when -they had occasion to pass through the territory of a -hostile tribe, as not infrequently happened, they fought -their way through, leaving ruin and desolation behind -them. Though both Mulai Youssef and his predecessors -have always resided at one or the other of the -two official capitals, the coast city of Tangier has heretofore -been the real capital of Morocco. Here lived the -diplomatic and consular representatives of the foreign -powers and, with a cynical disregard for the Moorish -Government and people, ran things between them. -Though considerations of safety doubtless entered into -the matter, the chief reason for making Tangier the diplomatic -capital was the extreme inconvenience to the -foreign legations of being obliged to follow the court in -its periodical migrations from one capital to the other. -Therefore the diplomatic folk remained comfortably in -Tangier—which, incidentally, can readily be overawed -by a war-ship's guns—and the Sultan appointed ministers -to treat with them there and thus carry on the -foreign business of the state. When questions of great -importance had to be negotiated special missions were -sent to the capital at which the Sultan happened to be -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -residing, the departure of these ambassadorial caravans, -with their secretaries, attachés, kavasses, servants, and -body-guards, not to mention the immense train of pack-mules -and baggage camels, providing a spectacle quite -as picturesque and entertaining as any circus procession. -That feature of Moorish life disappeared with the coming -of the French, however, for the foreign ministers -will doubtless shortly be withdrawn; and hereafter, -when any negotiations are to be conducted anent Morocco, -instead of a diplomatic mission having to make -a two-hundred-mile journey on horses or camels, the -ambassador at Paris of the power in question will -step into his motor-car and whirl over to the Ministry -of the Colonies in the Rue Oudinot.</p> - -<p>I know of nothing which gives so graphic an idea -of the amazing conditions which have heretofore prevailed -in Morocco, and to which the French are, thank -Heaven, putting an end, as the speech which a former -British minister, Sir John Drummond Hay, made some -years ago to the reigning Sultan, and which was, probably, -the most extraordinary address ever made by a -diplomatic representative to a foreign ruler.</p> - -<p>“Your Majesty has been so gracious as to ask me,” -said Sir John, looking the despot squarely in the eye, -“to express frankly my opinion of affairs in Morocco. -The administration of the government in Morocco is the -worst in the world. The government is like a community -of fishes; the giant fish feed upon those that are -small, the smaller upon the least, and these again feed -upon the worms. In like manner the vizier and other -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> -dignitaries of the court, who receive no salaries, depend -for their livelihood upon peculation, trickery, corruption, -and the money they extract from the governors -of provinces. The governors are likewise enriched -through peculation from tithes and taxes, and extortion -from sheikhs, wealthy farmers, and traders. A -Moor who becomes rich is treated as a criminal. -Neither life nor property is secure. Sheikhs and -other subordinate officials subsist on what they can -extort from the farmers and the peasantry. Then -again, even the jailers are not paid; they gain their -livelihood by taking money from prisoners, who, when -they are paupers, are taught to make baskets, which -are sold by the jailers for their own benefit. How can -a country, how can a people, prosper under such a -government? The tribes are in a constant state of -rebellion against their governors. When the Sultan -resides in his northern capital of Fez, the southern -tribes rebel, and when he marches south to the city of -Morocco, eating up the rebels and confiscating their -property, the northern tribes rebel. The armies of the -Sultan, like locusts, are constantly on the move, ravaging -the country to quell the revolts. Agriculture is destroyed, -the farmers and peasantry only grow sufficient -grain for their own requirements, and rich lands are -allowed to lie fallow because the farmers know the crops -would be plundered by the governors and sheikhs. -Thus it happens with cattle and horses. Breeding is -checked, since the man who may become rich through -his industry is treated as a criminal and all his possessions -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> -are taken from him, as in the fable the goose is -killed to get the golden eggs.”</p> - -<p>France, in pursuing her Moroccan adventure, will -do well to bear in mind two danger-spots: the Riff and -the Sus. Unless she treads carefully in the first she is -likely to become embroiled in a quarrel with Spain; -with the natives of the Sus she will probably have -trouble whether she treads lightly or not. Sooner or -later France is bound to come into collision with Spain, -for, with Morocco avowedly a French protectorate, I -fail to see how she can tolerate Spanish soldiers on its -soil. Spain, basing her pretensions on her expulsion -of the Moors from Granada in the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella, has always considered herself one of the -heirs of Morocco. In fact, a secret treaty was signed -between France and Spain in 1905 which distinctly -defined the respective spheres of influence of the two -powers in that country. By the terms of this treaty -Spain was acknowledged to have predominating interests -in those regions adjacent to the ports of Ceuta, -Melilla, and El Araish, as well as in the Riff, a little-known -and exceedingly mountainous district, believed -to be rich in minerals, which lies in the northwestern -corner of the empire, two days' journey eastward from -Tetuan. Spain distinctly engaged not to take any -action in the zone thus allotted to her other than to -proceed with its commercial exploitation, but it was -stipulated that, should the weakness of the Sherifian -government make the maintenance of the <i>status quo</i> -impossible, she should have a free hand in her sphere.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> - -<p>France, meanwhile, steadily continued her “pacific -penetration” of Morocco, pushing her Algerian railways -closer and closer to Morocco's eastern frontier, mobilising -troops at strategic points, and overrunning the Sultan's -dominions with “scientific” expeditions and secret -agents. Spain soon began to regard with envy and -impatience the subtle game which the French were so -successfully playing, but it was not until 1910 that she -found the opportunity and the excuse for which she had -been eagerly waiting. Some Spanish labourers, who -were working on a railway which was being laid from -Melilla to some mines a few miles distant, were attacked -by Riffian tribesmen and a number of the Spaniards -were killed. Spain jumped at the opportunity -which this incident afforded as a hungry trout jumps -at a fly, and a few days later a Spanish army was being -disembarked on Moroccan soil. A sharp campaign ensued -which ended in the temporary subjugation of the -Riffians and the occupation by Spain of a considerable -tract of territory extending from Ceuta eastward to -Cabo del Agua and southward as far as Seluan, thus -comprising practically all of Morocco's Mediterranean -seaboard. A Moorish envoy was sent to Madrid and, -after protracted negotiations, a convention was signed -which permitted Spain to establish a force of Moorish -gendarmerie, under Spanish officers, at Melilla, Aljucemas, -and Ceuta, for the maintenance of order in the -districts near those places. Until this force has shown -itself capable of maintaining order, the Spaniards assert -that they will remain in occupation of the territory they -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -now hold. Emboldened by her success in this adventure, -and greedy for further expansion, Spain, in June, -1911, sent a vessel to El Araish (Laraiche) on the Atlantic -coast, and a column was despatched from there to -Alcázar, which lies some twenty miles inland. The -region was apparently perfectly calm at the time, and -the reasons given by Spain for her action—that mysterious -horsemen had been seen upon the walls of Alcázar—appeared, -in France at least, to be mere pretensions and -raised a storm of indignation. As things now stand, -France has proclaimed a definite protectorate over the -whole of Morocco, an arrangement to which the Sultan -has consented. Despite that proclamation, however, -Spain continues to occupy a rich and extensive district -of the country with an army of forty thousand men. -By what means France will attempt to oust her—for -oust her she certainly will—is an interesting subject -for speculation and one which is giving both French -and Spanish diplomats many sleepless nights.</p> - -<p>A word, in passing, upon the region known as the -Riff. It is more discussed and less known than any -other quarter of Morocco. Nothing has been written -upon it except from hearsay and no European has penetrated -across its length and breadth, and this although -it is but two days' ride on horseback from Tetuan. -Situated in the very heart of the Great Atlas range, and -accessible only through narrow passes and over rough -mountain trails, this region has, from time beyond reckoning, -been the home and the refuge of that savage and -mysterious clan known as the Riffs. Their feudal chieftains -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> -live in great castles built of stone and lead much -the same lives as did the European nobles of the Middle -Ages. The passes giving access to the Riff are commanded -by hilltop forts impregnable to anything short -of modern artillery—and to get within range of them -the artillery would need to have wings. They are a -people rich in possibilities, are these Riffs, and one whom -it is wiser to conciliate than to fight, as France will -doubtless sooner or later learn. Brigands by nature, -farmers in a small way by occupation, disciples of the -vendetta, scorners of the law, suspicious of strangers, -their only courts the gun and dagger, the Riffs have -more in common with the mountaineers of the Blue -Ridge than any people that I know. They have nothing -in common with the other inhabitants of Morocco -except their dress, wearing the universal brown hooded -<i>jellab</i> and over it the toga-like white woollen <i>haik</i>, a -skull-cap of red or brown, a belt with pouches of gaily -coloured leather, and in it, always, a muzzle-loading -pistol and the vicious curved knife, while over the shoulder -slants the ten-foot-long Riff rifle, coral-studded, -brass-bound, ivory-butted, and almost as dangerous -to the man behind it as to the one in front. The Riffs -are fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and quite frequently red-haired, -and claim to be descended from the Romans, -which is no unreasonable assumption on their part, as -the Romans were adventuring in Morocco—they called -it Mauritania—long before Cæsar's day.</p> - -<p>The other danger-point in Morocco is the Sus, a -“forbidden” and unknown country through which only -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -a handful of European travellers have ever passed, all -in disguise and all in peril of their lives. The Sus -is the rich and fertile valley lying between the Great -Atlas and the Anti Atlas, and touching the Atlantic -coast at Agadir. It is said to be thickly populated; -it is believed to contain rich mines; it is fanatical to the -last degree. Its Berber inhabitants, who are separated -from the Arabs of the surrounding regions by a totally -distinct language known as the <i>Tamazight</i>, or Tongue of -the Free, though acknowledging the religious supremacy -of the reigning Sultan, have always maintained a -semi-independence, having never submitted to Moorish -rule nor paid tax nor tribute to the government of -Morocco. Twice within the last three or four decades -Moorish Sultans have invaded and attempted to conquer -the Sus, but each time they have been driven back -across the Atlas. The origin of the people of this region -is lost in the mists of antiquity. According to -the Koran its original inhabitants were natives of Syria, -where they proved themselves such undesirable citizens -that King David ordered them to be tied up in sacks -and carried out of the country on camels, since he -wished to see their faces no more. Arrived in the -vicinity of the Atlas Mountains, the leader of the caravan -called out in the Berber tongue “<i>Sus!</i>” which -means “Let down! Empty out!” So the exiled undesirables -were dumped unceremoniously out of their -sacks, and the country in which they found themselves, -and where they settled, is called the Sus to this day. -The people of the Sus have never liked the French, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -there is little doubt that they will oppose any attempt to -treat them as a province of Morocco, and consequently -subject to French control. It is obvious that France -will sooner or later be obliged to send an expedition into -the Sus for the purpose of asserting her power as well -as to counteract the German influence which is rapidly -gaining ground there, for the Sus, remember, is the -region where Germany's interests in Morocco are centred -and provided the excuse for sending her gun-boat -to Agadir and almost provoking a European war -thereby. Germany still retains her commercial interests -in the Sus Valley, and France will be obliged to -step gingerly indeed if she wishes to avoid stirring up -still another <i>affaire Marocaine</i>.</p> - -<p>If France accomplishes nothing more in Morocco -than the extermination of the slave trade she will have -performed a genuine service to humanity. Though -slavery has been abolished in every other quarter of -Africa, no attempt has ever been made by the European -powers to put a check upon the practice in Morocco. -Something over three thousand slaves, it is estimated, -are imported into Morocco every year, most of them -being brought by the terrible desert routes from Equatoria -and the Sudan, the trails of the slave caravans -being marked by the bleaching bones of the thousands -who have died on the way from heat, hunger, or exhaustion. -Many smug-faced people will assure you -that slavery has been wiped out in Africa—praise be to -the Lord!—but I can take you into half a dozen Moroccan -cities and show you slaves being auctioned to the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -highest bidder as openly as they were in our own South -fifty years ago. There is a large and profitable demand -for slaves, particularly girls and boys, in all of the -Moroccan cities, a young negress having a market value -of anywhere from eighty dollars to one hundred and -twenty dollars. Although, as I have already remarked, -the bulk of the slaves are driven across the Sahara by -the time-honoured method, exceptionally pretty girls -are often brought from West African ports in French -vessels as passengers and disposed of to wealthy Moors -by private sale. So great is the demand for young and -attractive women that girls are occasionally stolen -from Moorish villages, the slave-dealer laying a trail of -sweets, of which the native women are inordinately -fond, from the outskirts of the villages up to neighbouring -clumps of trees, behind which he conceals himself, -pouncing out upon his unsuspecting victims as they -approach. If France succeeds in stamping out the -slave trade in Morocco as effectually as she has in her -other African possessions, she will prove herself, as our -missionary friends would put it, the flail of the Lord.</p> - -<p>Of all France's ambitious projects for the exploitation -of North Africa in general, and the opening up of -Morocco in particular, the one which most appeals to -the imagination, and which, when executed, is likely -to be of the greatest benefit to the world, is her astounding -scheme for bringing South America a week nearer -to Europe by means of a railway from Tangier, in -Morocco, to Dakar, in Senegal. The route, as at present -planned, would run from Tangier, via Fez, to Tuat. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> -From Tuat the Sahara would be crossed and the Niger -gained at Timbuktu. Though about three hundred -miles of this section would lie through the most hopeless -desert country, it presents no great obstacle to -engineers, the Sudanese line from Wady Halfa to -Khartoum proving how easily the difficulties of desert -construction and lack of water can be overcome. The -third section would be from Timbuktu to Dakar, where -the French within the last few years have created a -magnificent naval port and commercial harbour. Already -Timbuktu and Dakar are in regular communication -by a mixed steamer and railway service, the journey -taking, when the Senegal is in flood, but five days. -As such a system would have, of necessity, to be independent -of the Niger and Senegal river services, which -are not always reliable, a line is now under construction -which will bring Timbuktu into direct rail communication -with Dakar, thus eliminating the difficulties and -uncertainties of river navigation. From Dakar to Pernambuco, -in Brazil, is less than fifteen hundred miles, -which could be covered by a fast steamer in three days. -There are already regular sailings between these ports, -but with the completion of this trans-African system -(and, believe me, it is far from being as chimerical as -it sounds, for the French do not let the grass grow under -their feet when they once get a clear right of way for -railway-building) ocean greyhounds will be placed in -service between Dakar and the South American ports, -it being estimated that the traveller who purchases -his ticket via Madrid, Gibraltar, and then over the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -Moroccan-Saharan system, can journey from Paris to -Rio de Janeiro in twelve days. It is obvious that in -some such scheme as this lies the future of the French -Sahara, as well as the enormously increased prosperity -of the Moroccan hinterland and of the Niger-Senegal -possessions, for it was just such a transcontinental -line, remember, which brought population and prosperity -to the desert regions of our own West.</p> - -<p>It is no light task to which France has pledged -herself in agreeing to effect the regeneration of an empire -so decrepit and decadent as Morocco, but that she -will accomplish it is as certain as that the leaves come -with the spring. The changes which the coming of the -French will effect in Morocco stretch the imagination -almost to the breaking-point. Already the wireless -crackles and splutters from a mast erected over the -French Residency in Fez. With the proclamation of -the protectorate the waiting railway-builders jumped -their rail-heads across the Moroccan border as homesteaders, -hearing the signal gun, jump their horses over -the border of newly opened lands. Two or three years -more and the traveller will be able to purchase through -tickets to Fez and Marrakesh as easily as he can now to -San Francisco or Milan. At Tangier, Rabat, El Araish, -Mogador, and Agadir harbours will be dredged, break-waters -built, and wharves constructed, while the filthy, -foul-smelling cities will be made as clean and sanitary -as Tunis and Algiers. Under French control Tangier, -with its ideal climate, its picturesque features, and its -splendid situation, will rival Cairo and the Riviera as -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> -a fashionable winter resort. The Moorish peasantry -will be permitted to till their farms in peace, undisturbed -by devastating armies, while the warlike Riffs -can have their fill of fighting in French uniforms and -under the French flag. This is no empty vision, remember. -Peace, progress, and prosperity are bound to -come to Morocco, just as they have come to those other -African regions upon which the Frenchman has set his -hand. Just how soon they come depends largely upon -the Moors themselves.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">SIRENS OF THE SANDS</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-z.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap Z" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">ZORAH-BEN-ABDALLAH was a perilously -pretty girl, judged by any standard that you -please. She was unveiled—a strange thing for an -Eastern woman—and the clearness of her <i>café-au-lait</i> -complexion was emphasised by carmine lips and by -blue-black hair, bewilderingly becoiffed and bewitchingly -bejewelled; her eyes Scherazade would have -envied. She was leaning from the window of a second-class -compartment in the ramshackle train which plies -between Constantine and Biskra and was quite openly -admiring the very tight light-blue tunic and the very -loose scarlet riding-breeches of my companion, a young -officer of <i>chasseurs d'Afrique</i> who was rejoining his -regiment at El-Kantara.</p> - -<p>“She's a handsome girl,” said I.</p> - -<p>“Not for an Ouled-Naïl,” said he, adjusting his -monocle and staring at her critically, very much as -though he were appraising a horse. “An Ouled-Naïl's -face is her fortune, you know, and in the Ziban, where -they come from, she wouldn't get a second look.”</p> - -<p>“She would get several second looks on Broadway,” -said I, taking another one myself. “I once -travelled twelve thousand miles to see some women not -half as pretty.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> - -<p>That is why I went to the Ziban, that strange and -almost unknown zone of oasis-dotted steppes in southernmost -Algeria. Hemmed in between the Atlas Mountains -and the Great Sahara, it forms the real Algerian -hinterland, a region vastly different in people, manners, -and customs from either the desert or the littoral. -Here, in this fertile borderland, where the red tarbooshes -and baggy trousers of the French outposts are -the sole signs of civilisation, is the home of the Ouled-Naïls, -that curious race, neither Arab, Berber, nor Moor, -the beauty of whose dusky, daring daughters is a staple -topic of conversation in every harem and native coffee-house -between the Pyramids and the Pillars of Hercules.</p> - -<p>Rather than that you should be scandalised later -on, it would be well for you to understand in the beginning -that the women of the Ouled-Naïl are, so far as -morality is concerned, as easy as an old shoe. It comes -as something of a shock, after seeing these petite and -pretty and indescribably picturesque women on their -native heath, or rather on their native sands, to learn -that from earliest childhood they are trained for a life -of indifferent virtue very much as a horse is trained for -the show-ring. But it is one of those conditions of -African life which must be accepted by the traveller, -just as he accepts as a matter of course the heat and the -insects and the dirt.</p> - -<p>Breaking home ties almost before they have entered -their teens, they make their way to Biskra, to -Constantine, and to Algiers, yes, and to Tripoli on the -east and to Tangier on the west, dancing in the native -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> -coffee-houses or in the harems of the rich and not infrequently -earning considerable sums thereby. The -Ouled-Naïl promptly converts all of her earnings that -she can spare into gold, linking these gold pieces together -into a sort of breastplate, not at all unlike that -jingling, glittering affair which Mary Garden wears in -her portrayal of <i>Salome</i>. When this golden garment -becomes long enough to reach from her slender, supple -neck to her still more supple waist, the Ouled-Naïl retires -from business, returns to the tents of her people -in the edge of the Great Sands, hides her pretty face -behind the veil common to all respectable Moslem -women, and, setting her daintily slippered feet on the -straight and narrow path of virtue, leads a strictly -moral life ever after.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_058a.jpg" id="i_058a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_058a.jpg" width="600" height="436" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Ouled-Naïl dancing-girls. “Petite, piquant, and - indescribably picturesque.”</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_058b.jpg" id="i_058b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_058b.jpg" width="600" height="441" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Women of the “Great Tents.” The wife and daughter of a - nomad sheikh of the Algerian Sahara.</div> -</div> - -<div class="caption p1">SOME SIRENS OF THE SANDS.</div> -</div> - - -<p>The peculiar dances of the Ouled-Naïls demand -many years of arduous and constant practice. A girl -is scarcely out of her cradle before, under the tutelage -of her mother, who has herself been a <i>danseuse</i> in her -time, she begins the inconceivably severe course of gymnastics -and muscle training which is the foundation -of their strange and suggestive dances. From infancy -until, scarcely in her teens, she bids farewell to the tent -life of the desert and sets out to make her fortune in -the cities along the African littoral, she is as carefully -groomed and trained as a colt entered at the county -fair. Morning, noon, and night, day after day, year -after year, the muscles of her chest, her back, her hips, -and her abdomen are developed and trained and suppled -until they will respond to her wishes as readily as -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -her slender, henna-stained fingers. Her lustrous, blue-black -hair is brushed and combed and oiled and brushed -again; she is taught to play the hautboy, the zither, -and the flute and to sing the weird and plaintive songs -the Arab loves; to make the thick, black native coffee -and with inimitable dexterity to roll a cigarette. By -the time she is thirteen she is ready to make her début -in the dance-hall of some Algerian town, whence, after -three or four or possibly five years of a life of indifferent -virtue, she returns, a-clank with gold pieces, to the -tented village from which she came, to marry some -sheikh or camel-dealer and to bear him children, who, -if they are boys, will don the white turban and scarlet -burnoose of the Spahis and serve in the armies of -France, or, if they are girls, will live the life of their -mother all over again. It will be seen, therefore, that -the profession is an hereditary one, which <i>all</i> the women -of the tribe pursue without incurring, so far as I could -learn, a hint of scandal or a trace of shame. It is a -queer business, and one to which no other country, so -far as I am aware, offers a parallel, for whereas the -geishas of Japan, the nautches of India, and the odalisques -of Turkey are but classes, the Ouled-Naïls are -a race, as distinct in features, language, and customs -as the Bedouin, the Nubian, or the Jew.</p> - -<p>That the men of the Ouled-Naïl (which, by the -way, is pronounced as though the last syllable were -spelled “Nile”) look upon the lives led by their sisters, -daughters, and sweethearts with much the same toleration -and approval that an up-State farmer shows for the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> -village maid who goes to the city to earn a living as a -waitress, a stenographer, or a shop-girl, is proved by a -little incident which Mr. S. H. Leeder, the English -author-traveller, tells of having once witnessed on the -station-platform at Biskra. A tall young tribesman of -the Ouled-Naïl, the son of a sheikh of some importance, -was leaving Biskra, to which town he had been paying a -short visit with his mother. He was taking back with -him one of his countrywomen, a dancing-girl named -Kadra, who had been a resident in the Rue Sainte, as -Biskra's Tenderloin is known, for two or three years, -and was quite celebrated for her beauty, with the intention -of marrying her. Here was this girl, after such -an amazing episode in her career, quietly dressed, veiled -to the eyes, and carefully chaperoned by the prospective -bridegroom's mother, returning to assume a position -of rank and consideration among her own people, -while several of her late companions, tears of sorrow at -the parting pouring down their unveiled and painted -faces, clung to and caressed her with every sign of childlike -affection. And such marriages, I have been assured -by French officials, are not the exception but the rule -in the Ziban. Never was the truth brought home to -me more sharply that “East is East, and West is West, -and never the twain shall meet” than in the land of the -Ouled-Naïls, where, unlike our own, it is never too late -to mend; not even for a woman.</p> - -<p>Barring the two who appeared in the production -of “The Garden of Allah,” the only genuine Ouled-Naïls -ever seen in the United States were those who, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -owing to the enterprise of some far-seeing showman, -were responsible for introducing that orgy of suggestiveness -known as the <i>danse du ventre</i> to the American public -at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, a dance which, -thanks to numerous but unskilled imitators, French, -Egyptian, and Syrian, spread from ocean to ocean under -the vulgar but descriptive nickname of “the houchee-kouchee.” -As a matter of fact, the <i>danse du ventre</i>, -as seen in the questionable resorts of our own country, -has about as much in common with the real dance of -the desert people, as performed on a silken carpet spread -before the tent of some nomad sheikh, as the so-called -“Spanish fandango” of the vaudeville stage has with the -inimitably beautiful and difficult dances to be seen at -Señor Otero's dancing-academy in Seville. The dance -of the Ouled-Naïls is the very essence of Oriental depravity. -It is the dance of the pasha's harem; it is the -dance of those native cafés which the European tourists -are always so eager to visit; it is the dance which every -little girl of the tribe is taught—long years before she -knows its meaning.</p> - -<p>Depraved though they are, the Ouled-Naïls never -depart in their dress from that which would be considered -perfectly proper and respectable even by Mr. -Anthony Comstock. The painters of every country -seem to have taken a peculiar delight in depicting Arab -dancing-girls as conspicuously shy of clothing, but, -picturesqueness aside, the décolleté gown of an American -woman would embarrass and shock these daughters -of the sands as much as it would all Moslems, for though -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> -they may be somewhat lacking in morals they are never -lacking in clothes. The women of the Ouled-Naïl are -considerably below the medium height and, owing to -the peculiar fashion in which their gaudy-hued tarlatan -skirts are bunched out around the waist and are shortened -to display their trim ankles and massive silver -anklets, they appear even smaller than they really are. -Their hands and feet are small and wonderfully perfect—if -one is able to overlook the nails stained crimson -with henna; arched eyebrows meet over eyes as big and -lustrous and melting as those of a gazelle; while their -wonderful blue-black hair, plaited into ropes and heavily -bejewelled—whether the “jewels” are genuine or -not is no great matter—is brought down over the ears -in the fashion which made Cléo de Mérode famous.</p> - -<p>But the really distinguishing feature of the Ouled-Naïl's -costume is her jewelry. She has so much of it, -in fact, that there is no gold to be had in Algeria. Ask -for napoleons instead of paper money at your bank in -Algiers and you will meet with a prompt</p> - -<p>“Impossible, m'sieur.”</p> - -<p>“But why is it impossible?” you ask.</p> - -<p>“Because we have no gold, m'sieur,” is the polite -response.</p> - -<p>“Where is it, then?” you inquire, scenting a robbery -or an anticipated run on the bank.</p> - -<p>“On the Ouled-Naïls, m'sieur,” the cashier courteously -replies.</p> - -<p>And he speaks the literal truth. Every centime -that a dancing-girl can beg, borrow, or earn goes toward -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -the purchase of massive silver jewelry, anklets, bracelets, -and the like, and these in turn are exchanged for -gold pieces—whether French napoleons, English sovereigns, -or Turkish liras she is not at all particular—which, -linked together in that golden armour of which -I have already spoken, envelops her lithe young body -from neck to hips. When her portable wealth has attained -to such dimensions it is usually the sign for the -Ouled-Naïl to retire from business, going to her desert -husband with her dowry about her neck.</p> - -<p>When it is remembered that the native quarters of -these towns in the edge of the Sahara are frequented by -savage desert tribesmen who know little and care less -about civilisation and the law, is it to be wondered at -that time and time again these unprotected girls are -done to death in the little rooms up the steep, dark -stairs for the sake of the gold which they display so -lavishly as part of their allurements? During my stay -in one of these Algerian towns an Arab, stealthily coming -up behind an Ouled-Naïl as she was returning one -night from the dance-hall through the narrow, deserted -streets, drove a knife between her shoulders and, snatching -the little fortune which hung about her neck, fled -with it into the desert. But the arm of the French law -is very long, reaching even across the sand wastes of the -Great Sahara, and months later, when he thought all -search for him had been abandoned, the fugitive felt -its grasp as he sat, cross-legged, in the distant bazaars of -Wadai. After that came the trial and the guillotine, -for in Algeria, as in the other lands which they have conquered, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -the French have taught the natives by such -grim object-lessons that punishment follows swift on the -heels of crime.</p> - -<p>Now, if that same crime had been committed fifty -miles to the eastward, across the Tunisian frontier, -the murderer would, in all likelihood, have gotten off -with thirteen months in jail—that is, if he was caught at -all. For, though the regency of Tunisia is French in -pretty much everything but name, it has been deemed -wise to maintain the fiction of Tunisian independence -by permitting the Bey a good deal of latitude so far as -the punishment of his own subjects is concerned, his -ideas of justice (<i>la justice du Bey</i> it is called, in contra-distinction -to <i>la justice française</i>, which is a very different -sort of justice indeed) usually working out in a -fashion truly Oriental. In Tunisia all death sentences -must be confirmed by the Bey in person, the condemned -man being brought before him as he sits on his gilt-and-velvet -throne in the great white palace of the Bardo. -In the presence of the sovereign the murderer is suddenly -brought face to face with the members of his -victim's family, for such things are always done dramatically -in the East. The Bey then inquires of the -family if they insist on the execution of the murderer, -or if they are willing to accept the blood-money, as it is -called, a sum equivalent to one hundred and forty dollars, -which in theory is paid by the murderer to the -relatives of his victims as a sort of indemnity if he is -allowed to escape with his life. If, however, he does -not possess so large a sum, as is frequently the case, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -the Bey makes it up out of his private purse. Nine -times out of ten, if the victim was a woman, the blood-money -is promptly accepted—and praise be to Allah -for getting it!—for in Africa women are plenty but gold -is scarce. In case the blood-money is accepted the -murderer's sentence is commuted to imprisonment for -twelve months and twenty-seven days, though just why -the odd twenty-seven I have never been able to learn. -But it may have been that it was an only son, or -a husband, or a chieftain of importance who was -murdered, and in such cases the relatives invariably -demand the extreme penalty of the law.</p> - -<p>“Do you insist on his blood?” inquires the Bey, a -portly and easy-going Oriental who has a marked aversion -to taking life, even in the case of murderers.</p> - -<p>“We do, your Highness,” replies the spokesman of -the family, salaaming until his tarboosh-tassel sweeps -the floor.</p> - -<p>“Be it so,” says the Bey, shrugging his shoulders. -“I call upon you to bear witness that I am innocent of -his death. May Allah the Compassionate have mercy -upon him! Turn him toward the gate of the Bardo,” -which last is the local euphemism for “Take him out -and hang him.” Five minutes later the wretch is -adorning a gallows which has been set up in the palace -gardens.</p> - -<p>Due north from the land of the Ouled-Naïls, and -hemmed in by the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas, -is the Grand Kabylia, a wild, strange region, peopled -by many but known to few. Whence the Kabyles came -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -nobody knows, though their fair complexions, red hair, -and blue eyes lead the ethnologists to suppose that they -are a branch of that equally white and equally mysterious -Berber race who occupy the Moroccan ranges of -the Atlas. Thirteen hundred years ago they came to -North Africa from out of the East, bringing with them a -civilisation and a culture and institutions distinctively -their own. Retreating into their mountain fastnesses -before that Arab invasion which spread the faith of the -Prophet over all North Africa, they have dwelt there -ever since, the French, who conquered them in the middle -of the last century only after heavy losses, having -wisely refrained from interference in their tribal laws -or customs, which remain, therefore, almost unmodified.</p> - -<p>Though the Kabyles, of all the Moslem races, treat -their women with the greatest respect, neither imprisoning -them in harems nor hiding them beneath veils and -swaddling-clothes, they share with the mountaineers of -the Caucasus the somewhat dubious distinction of selling -their daughters to the highest bidder. Between the -Circassians and the Kabyles there is, however, a distinction -with a difference, for, whereas the former sell their -daughters in cold blood and take not the slightest interest -in what becomes of them thereafter, the Kabyle -parent expects, even if he does not always insist, that -the man who purchases his daughter shall marry her. -A fine, upstanding Kabyle maiden of fifteen or thereabouts, -with the lines of a thoroughbred, the profile of a -cameo, and a skin the colour of a bronze statue, will -fetch her parents anywhere from eighty to three hundred -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -dollars, at least so I was told at Tizi-Ouzou, the -<i>chef-lieu</i> of the district, and the man who told me assured -me very earnestly that, the crops having been -bad, a girl could be bought very cheaply, and begged -me to think it over.</p> - -<p>Though the Mauresques of Algeria, the Jewesses of -Tunisia, and the fair-skinned beauties of Circassia combine -a voluptuous figure with an altogether exceptional -beauty of complexion and features, the women of Kabylia, -with their flashing teeth, their sparkling eyes, their -full red lips, their lithe, slender bodies, and their -haughty, insolent manners, suggest a civilisation older -and more sensuous, and entirely alien to our own. The -humblest peasant girl, grinding the family flour between -the upper and the nether stones in the doorway of a mud -hovel, possesses so marked a distinction of feature and -figure and bearing that it is not difficult to believe that -Cleopatra or Helen of Troy might well have come from -this same race.</p> - -<p>The approach of a Kabyle woman is heralded in -two ways: first, by a strong-scented perfume, which, -like the celebrated <i>parfum du Bey</i> of Tunis, is composed -of the blended scents of a score or more different kinds -of blossoms, the odour changing from carnation to rose, -to heliotrope, to violet, and so on every few minutes -(no, I didn't believe it either, until I tried it); and, secondly, -by the clink and jingle of the bracelets, anklets, -necklaces, and bijoux of gold, silver, turquoise, and coral -with which they are loaded down, and which sound, -when they move, like an approaching four-in-hand. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> -Good specimens of this Kabyle jewelry are becoming -increasingly difficult to obtain, by the way, and bring -high prices in the shops of Tunis and Algiers, being -eagerly sought after by collectors.</p> - -<p>Personally, I am quite unable to picture an admirer -making love to one of these insolent-eyed beauties, for -they are headstrong and hot of temper, and if the gentleman -happened to say the wrong thing he would very -probably find the <i>yataghan</i>, which every Kabyle maiden -carries, planted neatly between his shoulders. They -seem to be fond of cold steel, do these Kabyles, for at -the conclusion of a wedding ceremony the bridegroom, -walking backward, holds before him an unsheathed -dagger and the bride, following him, keeps the point of -it between her teeth. Another wedding custom of -Kabylia, no less strange, consists of the partial martyrdom -of the bride, who, clad in her marriage finery, -stands for an entire morning with her back to a stone -pillar in the village square, her eyes closed, her arms -close at her sides, and her only foothold the column's -narrow base, the cynosure of hundreds of curious eyes. -Despite the stern stuff of which the Kabyle women are -made, it is small wonder that the bride usually faints -before this peculiarly harrowing ordeal is over.</p> - -<p>As far removed from these half-savage women of -Ouled-Naïl and of Kabylia as a Philadelphia Quakeress -is from a Cheyenne squaw are those poor prisoner -women of whose pale, half-hidden faces the visitor to -the North African coast towns sometimes gets a glimpse -at the barred window of a harem, or meets at nightfall -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -hastening home from their sole diversion, the weekly -excursion to the cemetery. You can see them for yourself -any Friday afternoon if you will loiter without the -whitewashed gateway to the cemetery of Bou-Kabrin, -on the hill above Algiers, for they believe that on that -day—the Moslem Sabbath—the spirits of the dead re-visit -the earth, and hence their weekly pilgrimage to -the cemetery to keep them company. When the sun -begins to sink behind the Atlas these white-veiled -pyramids of femininity reluctantly begin to make their -way back through the narrow, winding lanes of the -native city, disappearing one by one through doors -which will not open for them until another Friday has -rolled around. Picture such a life, my friends: six -days a week encloistered behind jealously guarded doors -and on the seventh taking an outing <i>in the cemetery</i>!</p> - -<p>That many of these Mauresque women of the coast -towns are very beautiful—just as many others are exceedingly -ugly—there is but little doubt, though they -are so sheeted, shrouded, veiled, and draped from prying -masculine eyes that a man may know of their -beauty only by hearsay. I imagine that the dress of the -Mauresque woman was specially designed to baffle masculine -curiosity, for if Aphrodite herself were enveloped -in a white linen sheet from head to waist, and in enormous -and ridiculous pantaloons from waist to ankle, -she could go where she pleased without being troubled -by admirers. Not only is a Mauresque woman never -permitted to see a man—or rather, the man is not permitted -to see her, for despite all precautions she sometimes -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -manages to catch glimpses of people through the -lattices of her harem windows—but she may not receive -a visit from her father or brother without her husband's -permission. When she is ill enough to require -the services of a physician—and she has to be very ill -indeed before one is summoned—incredibly elaborate -are the preparations. All the women of her household -are ranged about the bed, while her servants hide her -under the bedclothes almost to the point of suffocation. -If her pulse has to be felt a servant covers her -hand and arm so carefully that only an inch or so of -her wrist is visible. If she has hurt her shoulder, or -back, or leg, a hole is made in the bedclothes so that the -doctor may just be able to see the injured place, and -nothing more. Should he have the hardihood to insist -on looking at her tongue, the precautions are still more -elaborate, the attendants covering the patient's face -with their hands and just leaving room between their -fingers so that her tongue may be stuck out. I know -a French physician in Tunis who told me that he was -once called to attend the favourite wife of a wealthy -Arab merchant, and that while he was conducting the -examination the lady's husband stood behind him with -the muzzle of a revolver pressed into the small of his -back.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_070.jpg" id="i_070.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_070.jpg" width="600" height="369" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">JEWISH WOMEN IN THE CEMETERY OF TUNIS.<br /> - “They believe that the spirits of the dead revisit the earth, and - hence the weekly pilgrimage to the cemetery to keep them company.”</div> -</div> - -<p>Always over the head of the Arab woman hangs the -shadow of divorce. Nowhere in the world does the law -so facilitate the separation of man and wife. If a man -grows weary of his wife's looks, of her temper, or of her -dress; if he wishes to replace her with another; or if -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -he is tired of married life and does not wish a wife at -all, he has but scant difficulty in getting rid of her, for -in North Africa a divorce can be had in fifteen minutes -at a total cost of a dollar and twenty cents. In theory, -either husband or wife may divorce the other by a simple -formality, without assigning any reason whatever. -As a matter of fact, however, actual divorce by the man -is rare, the Moslem husband usually preferring to get -rid of his wife by a process called repudiation, which -bears with great injustice and cruelty on the woman. -If he tires of her for any reason, or merely wishes -to replace her, he drives her away with the words -“Woman, get thee hence; take thy goods and go.” In -this case, although the husband is free to remarry, the -woman is not and can only obtain a legal release by -returning to the man the money which he paid for her. -The woman may apply to the courts for divorce without -her husband's consent only if she is able to prove -that he ill-treats or beats her <i>without sufficient reason</i>, if -he refuses her food, clothes, or lodging, or if she discovers -a previous wooing on her husband's part, all -previous betrothals, or even offers of marriage, whether -the other lady refused or accepted him, being considered -ground for divorce.</p> - -<p>The next time you happen to be in Tunis don't fail -to pay a visit to the divorce court. It is the most -Haroun-al-Raschidic institution this side of Samarkand. -A great hall of justice, vaulted and floored with marble -and strewn with Eastern carpets, forms the setting, -while husbands in turbans and lawyers in tarbooshes, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -white-veiled women and green-robed, gray-bearded -judges complete a scene which might have been taken -straight from the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. The women, -closely veiled and hooded, and herded like so many -cattle within an iron grill, take no part in the proceedings -which so intimately affect their futures, their interests -being left in the hands of a voluble and gesticulative -<i>avocat</i>. On either side of the hall is a series of alcoves, -and in each alcove, seated cross-legged on a many-cushioned -divan, is a gold-turbaned and green-robed -<i>cadi</i>. To him the husband states his case, the wife -putting in her defence—if she has any—through her -lawyer and rarely appearing in person. The judge -considers the facts in silence, gravely stroking his long, -gray beard, and then delivers his decision—in nine cases -out of ten, so I was told, in favour of the husband. -Should either party be dissatisfied, he or she can take -an appeal by the simple process of walking across the -room and laying the case before one of the judges -sitting on the other side, whose decision is final. A -case, even if appealed, is generally disposed of in less -than an hour and at a total cost of six francs, which -goes to show that the record for quick-and-easy divorces -is not held by Reno.</p> - -<p>It is characteristic of the Moslem view-point that -infidelity on the part of the husband is no cause for -divorce whatsoever, while infidelity on the part of the -wife, owing to the strict surveillance under which Moslem -women are kept and the prison-like houses in which -they are confined, occurs so rarely as to be scarcely -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> -worth mentioning. Should a Moslem woman so far -succeed in evading the vigilance of her jailers as to enter -into a liaison with a man, instead of a divorce trial there -would be two funerals. To put his wife and her paramour -out of the way without detection is a matter of -no great difficulty for an Arab husband, for if any one -disappears in a Mohammedan country the harem -system renders a search extremely difficult, if not, indeed, -wholly out of the question. In fact, it has happened -very frequently, especially in such populous -centres as Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo, -that a man has enticed his rival into his house, either -keeping him a prisoner for life or slowly killing him by -torture. Though the French authorities are perfectly -well aware of such occurrences, neither they in Algeria -and Tunisia nor the English in Egypt feel themselves -strongly enough intrenched to risk the outburst of -fanaticism which would inevitably ensue should they -violate the privacy of a harem.</p> - -<p>I am perfectly aware of the fact that it has become -the fashion among those travellers who confine their -investigations of African life to the lanes about Mustapha -Supérieur, to the <i>souks</i> of Tunis, and to the alleys -back of the Mousky, to pooh-pooh the idea that slavery -still exists in North Africa. As a matter of fact, however—though -this the European officials will, for reasons -of policy, stoutly deny—slavery not only exists -<i>sub rosa</i> in Algeria and Tunisia and in Egypt, but slave -markets are still openly maintained in the inland towns -of Morocco and Tripolitania, the French and Italian -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -occupations notwithstanding. When a wealthy Moslem -wants slaves nowadays he does not send traders to -Circassia or raiders to Uganda, but he applies to one of -the well-known dealers in Tetuan, or Tripoli, or Trebizond, -a marriage contract is drawn up, and all the -ceremonies of legal wedlock are gone through by proxy. -By resorting to these fictitious marriages and similar -subterfuges, the owner of a harem may procure as many -slaves, white, brown, or black, as he wishes, and once -they are within the walls of his house, no one can possibly -interfere to release them, for, the police being under -no conditions permitted to violate the privacy of a -harem, there is obviously no safeguard for the liberty, -or even the lives, of its inmates. As a result of this -system, a constant stream of female slaves—fair-haired -beauties from Georgia and Circassia, brown-skinned -Arab girls from the borders of the Sahara, and negresses -from Equatoria—trickles into the North African coast -towns by various roundabout channels, and, though -the European officials are perfectly well aware of this -condition of things, they are powerless to end it. The -women thus obtained, though nominally wives, are in -reality slaves, for they are bought for money, they are -not consulted about their sale, they cannot go away if -they are discontented, and their very lives are at the -disposal of their masters. If that is not slavery, I don't -know what is.</p> - -<p>In those cases where the European authorities have -ventured to meddle with native customs, particularly -those concerning a husband's treatment of his wife, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> -interference frequently has had curious results. A -wealthy Arab from the interior of Oran, starting on a -journey to the capital of that province, bade the wife -whom he adored an affectionate good-bye. Returning -several days before he was expected, he seized the smiling -woman, who rushed to greet him, tied her hands, -and dragging her into the street gave her a furious beating -in the presence of the astounded neighbours. No, -she had not been unfaithful to him, he said, between the -blows, nor had she been unkind. He not only was not -tired of her, so he assured the onlookers, but she was a -veritable jewel of a wife. Finally, when his arm grew -tired and he stopped to take breath, he explained that, -passing through a street in Oran, he had seen a crowd -following a man who was being dragged along by two -gendarmes. Upon inquiry he learned that he was being -taken to prison for having beaten his wife. Therefore -he had ridden home at top speed, without even waiting -to complete his business, so that he might prove to himself, -to his wife, and to his neighbours that he, at least, -was still master in his own house and could beat his wife -when he chose.</p> - -<p>And here is another incident which illustrates the -fashion in which the French administrators in Algeria -deal with those ticklish questions which involve Arab -domestic relations. A farmer and his wife were travelling -through the interior; he was on a donkey and she, of -course, on foot. Along came an Arab sheikh on horseback -and offered the woman a lift. She accepted, and -presently, growing confidential, admitted that she was -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -unhappily married and detested her husband. Her -companion proposing an elopement, she readily agreed. -Accordingly, when they came to a by-road, this Lochinvar -of the desert put spurs to his horse and galloped off -with the lady across his saddle-bow, paying no heed to -the shouts and protestations of the husband toiling -along in the dust behind. Though he succeeded in -tracing the runaway couple to the sheikh's village, the -husband quickly found that plans had been made -against his coming, for the villagers asserted to a man -that they had known the eloping pair for years as man -and wife and that the real husband was nothing but an -impudent impostor. Unable to regain his wife, he then -appealed to the French authorities of the district, who -were at first at somewhat of a loss how to act in the -circumstances, for the Europeans in North Africa are -always sitting on top of a powder barrel and a hasty or -ill-considered action may result in blowing them higher -than Gilderoy's kite. Finally, an inspiration came to -the <i>juge d'instruction</i> before whom the matter had been -brought. Placing the dogs of the real husband in one -room, and those of the pretended husband in another, -he confronted the woman with them both. Now, Arab -dogs are notoriously faithful to the members of their -own households and equally unfriendly toward all -strangers, so that though her own dogs fawned upon her -and attempted to lick her hand, those of the sheikh -snarled at sight of her and showed every sign of distrust. -The judge promptly ordered her to be returned -to her lawful husband—who, I fancy, punished her in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -true Arab fashion—and had the village placarded with -a notice in Arabic which read: “The testimony of one -dog is more to be believed than that of a townful of -Arabs.” To appreciate how much more effective than -any amount of fines or imprisonment this notice proved, -one must remember that the deadliest insult an Arab -can give another is to call him a dog.</p> - -<p>Perhaps it is because they live so far from the contaminating -influence of civilisation, or what stands for -civilisation in North Africa, that the lives of those women -who dwell beneath the black camel's-hair tents of the -Sahara are far freer and happier than those led by their -urban cousins. Which reminds me of a little procession -that I once met while riding through southern Algeria. -It consisted of an Arab, his wife, and a donkey. The -man strode in front, his rifle over his shoulder. Then -came the donkey, bearing nothing heavier than its -harness. In the rear trudged the wife, carrying the -plough. Though the Arab women may, and probably -do, till the fields yoked beside a camel, a donkey, -or an ox, their faces are unveiled and they are permitted -free intercourse with the men of their tribe. Even -among the nomad desert folk, however, women are -regarded with indifference and contempt, the Arabs -saying of a boy “It is a benediction,” but of a girl “It -is a malediction.” With the Arabs a woman is primarily -regarded as a servant, and long before a daughter -of the “Great Tents” has entered her teens she has been -taught how to cut and fit a burnoose, to sew a tent -cover, and to make a <i>couscous</i>, that peculiar dish of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -half-ground barley, raisins, honey, hard-boiled eggs, and -mangled fowl, stewed with a gravy in a sealed vessel, of -which the Arabs are so fond. By the time she is ten -her parents have probably received and accepted an -offer for her hand—and praise Allah for ridding them of -her!—and by the time she is twelve she is married and -a mother. When a match has been decided upon—and -it is by no means an uncommon thing for an unborn -child to become conditionally engaged—several days of -haggling as to the price which is to be paid for her ensue, -the bridegroom eventually getting her at a cost -of several camels, cattle, or goats, her value being based -upon her looks and the position of her parents. On -the day of the wedding the bride—on whose unveiled -face, remember, the bridegroom has never laid eyes—concealed -within a swaying camel-litter which looks -for all the world like a young balloon, preceded by a -band and accompanied by all her relatives, is taken -with much ceremony to her new home. When the -long-drawn-out marriage feast is over, the hideous -racket of the flutes and tom-toms ceases and the wedding -guests depart. Alone in her tent, the bride awaits -her husband, who will see her face for the first time. -Seating himself by her side, her husband makes her -take off, one by one, her necklaces, her rings, and -her anklets, so that, unadorned, she may be estimated -at her true worth. If, thus stripped of her finery, she -is not up to his expectations, the man may even at this -late hour declare the marriage off and send the girl back -to her parents. Should he be satisfied with his latest -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> -acquisition—for it is more than likely that he already -has three or four other wives—he produces a club, which -he places on the floor beside her, a custom whose significance -requires no explanation. An Arab husband -does not confine himself to a stick in regulating his -domestic affairs, however, for only a few months ago -the French authorities of Oran divested a desert sheikh -of the burnoose of authority because, in a fit of jealous -rage, he had cut off his wife's nose.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_078.jpg" id="i_078.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_078.jpg" width="600" height="370" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">AN ARAB BRIDE GOING TO HER HUSBAND.<br /> - “Followed by rejoicing relatives, the bride is taken to her - husband's home in a swaying camel litter which looks like a young balloon.”<br /> - <i>Photograph by Em. Frechon, Biskra.</i> - </div> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE ITALIAN “WHITE MAN'S BURDEN”</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-s.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap S" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">SINCE -the world began the arm of Italy has reached -out into the Mediterranean toward Africa, its finger -pointing straight at Tripoli. Phœnicians, Greeks, -Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Spaniards, and -Turks followed the suggestion of that finger in their -turn, but of them all only the Arab and the Turk remain. -In every case a colonial empire was the mirage -which beckoned to those land-hungry peoples from behind -the golden haze which hangs over the African -coast-line, and in every case their African adventures -ended in disappointment and disaster. After an interim -of centuries, in which the roads and ramparts and -reservoirs built along that shore by those primeval -pioneers have crumbled into dust, the troop-laden -transports of a regenerated Italy have followed in the -wake of those Greek galleys, those Roman triremes, and -those Spanish caravels. Undeterred by the recollection -of her disastrous Abyssinian adventure, Italy is -imbued with the idea, just as were her powerful predecessors, -that her commercial and political interests -demand the extension of her dominion across the Middle -Sea.</p> - -<p>Ever since the purple sails of Phœnicia first flaunted -along its coasts the history of Tripolitania has been one -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -of invasion and conquest. In the very dawn of history -the galleys of Greece dropped anchor off this shore, in -the belief that it was the Garden of the Hesperides, and -the vestiges of their colony of Cyrenaica lure the archæologists -to-day. The Greeks, who, because of its -three leagued cities of Oëa, Sabrata, and Leptis, named -their new possession Tripolis, just as Decapolis signified -the region of ten cities and Pentapolis of five, retreated -before Carthage's colonial expansion, and the -Carthaginians gave way in turn to the conquering -Romans, who included the captured territory within -their province of Africa and called it Regio Tripolitana—whence -the name it bears to-day. Christianity was -scarcely four centuries old when the hordes of fierce-faced, -skin-clad Vandals, sweeping down from their -Germanic forests, burst into Gaul, poured through the -passes of the Pyrenees, overran Spain, and, crossing -the Strait of Gibraltar, carried fire and sword and -torture from end to end of the Mediterranean. Before -another century had rolled around, however, Belisarius, -the great captain of Byzantium, had broken the Vandal -power forever, and the troubled land of Tripolitania -once again came under the shadow of the cross. Then -the wave of Arab conquest came, rolling across North -Africa, breaking upon the coasts of Spain, and not subsiding -until it reached the marches of France, supplanting -the feeble Christianity of the natives of all this region -with the vigorous and fanatical faith of Islam. -Though Ferdinand the Catholic, not content with expelling -the Moors from Spain, continued his crusade -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -against the infidel by capturing the Tripolitan capital, -the Knights of Saint John, to whom he turned the city -over, surrendered to the beleaguering Turks just as -the sixteenth century had reached its turning-point, -and Turkish it has remained, at least in name, ever -since.</p> - -<p>We of the West can never be wholly indifferent to -the fate and fortunes of this much-harassed land, for -our flag has fluttered from its ramparts and the bayonets -of our soldiers and the cutlasses of our sailors have -served to write some of the most stirring chapters of its -history. So feeble and nominal did the Turkish rule -become that the beginning of the last century found -Tripolitania little more than a pirate stronghold, ruled -by a pasha who had not only successfully defied, but -had actually levied systematic tribute upon, every sea-faring -nation in the world. It was not, however, until -the Pasha of Tripoli overstepped the bounds of our -national complaisance by demanding an increase in the -annual tribute of eighty-odd thousand dollars which -the United States had been paying as the price of its -maritime exemption that the American consul handed -him an ultimatum and an American war-ship backed it -up with the menace of its guns. Standing forth in picturesque -and striking relief from the tedium of the four -years' war which ensued was the capture by the Tripolitans -in 1803 of the frigate <i>Philadelphia</i>, which had -run aground in the harbour of Tripoli, and the enslavement -of her crew; her subsequent recapture and destruction -by a handful of blue-jackets under the intrepid -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -Decatur; and the heroic march across the desert to -Derna of General William Eaton and his motley -army.</p> - -<p>Eaton's exploit, like that of Reid and the <i>General -Armstrong</i> at Fayal, seems to have been all but lost in -the mazes of our national history. With the object of -placing upon the Tripolitan throne the reigning Pasha's -exiled elder brother, who had agreed to satisfy all the -demands of the United States, William Eaton, soldier -of fortune, frontiersman, and former American consul -at Tunis, recruited at Alexandria what was thought to -be a ridiculously insufficient expeditionary force for -the taking of Derna, a strongly fortified coast town six -hundred miles due west across the Libyan desert. With -a handful of adventurous Americans, some two-score -Greeks, who fought the Turk whenever opportunity -offered, and a few squadrons of Arab mercenaries—less -than five hundred men in all—he set out under the -blazing sun of an African spring. Though his Arabs -mutinied, his food and water gave out, and his animals -died from starvation and exhaustion, Eaton pushed -indomitably on, covering the six hundred miles of -burning sand in fifty days, carrying the city by storm, -and raising the American flag over its citadel—the -first and only time it has ever floated over a fortification -on that side of the Atlantic.</p> - -<p>A territory larger than all the Atlantic States, from -Florida to Maine, put together; a dry climate as hot in -summer and as cold in winter as that of New Mexico; -a surface which varies between the aridity of the Staked -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> -Plains and the fertility of the San Joaquin Valley of -California; so sparsely populated that its fanatic, turbulent, -poverty-stricken population averages but two -inhabitants to the square mile—that is Tripolitania. -Bounded on the west by Tunisia and the French and on -the east by Egypt and the English, the hinterland of the -regency stretches into the Sahara as far as the Tropic -of Cancer. Its eleven hundred miles of coast-line set -squarely in the middle of the north African littoral; its -capital almost equidistant from the Straits, the Dardanelles, -and the Suez Canal; and half the great ports -of the Mediterranean not twelve hours' steam away, the -strategical, political, and commercial position of Tripolitania -is one of great importance.</p> - -<p>Tripolitania, as the regency should properly be -called, or Libya, as the Italians have classically renamed -it, consists of four more or less distinctly defined divisions: -Tripoli, Fezzan, Benghazi, and the Saharan -oases. Under the Turkish régime the districts of -Tripoli and Fezzan have formed a vilayet under a <i>vali</i>, -or governor-general; Benghazi has been a separately -administered province under a <i>mutes-sarif</i> directly responsible -to Constantinople, while the oases have not -been governed at all. The district of Tripoli, which occupies -the entire northwestern portion of the regency, -is for the most part an interminable stony table-land, -riverless, waterless, and uninhabited save along the -fertile coast. The stretches of yellow sand which the -traveller sees from the deck of his ship are not, as he -fondly imagines, the edge of the Sahara, but merely -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> -sand dunes blown in by the sea, such as may be seen elsewhere -on the Mediterranean coast.</p> - -<p>Sloping from these coastal sand dunes up to the -barren interior plateau is a zone, averaging perhaps five -miles in width, of an altogether remarkable fertility, -for its deep ravines, filled with considerable streams -during the winter rains, continue to send down a supply -of subterranean water even during the dry season. -By means of countless wells, round and round which -blindfolded donkeys and oxen plod ceaselessly, the -water is drawn up into reservoirs and conducted thence -to the fields. In this coast oasis it is harvest-time all -the year round, for, notwithstanding the primitive -agricultural implements of the natives and their crude -system of irrigation, the soil is amazingly productive. -From April to June almonds, apricots, and corn are -gathered in; in July and August come the peaches; -from July to September is the vintage season, and the -Tripolitan grapes vie with those of Sicily; from July -to September the black tents of the nomad date and -olive pickers dot the fields, though the yellow date of -the coast is not to be spoken of in the same breath with -the luscious, mahogany-coloured fruit of the interior -oases; from November to April the orange groves are -ablaze with a fruit which rivals that of Jaffa; the early -spring sees the shipment of those “Malta potatoes” -which are quoted on the menus of every fashionable -hostelry and restaurant in Europe; while lemons are -to be had for the picking at almost any season of -the year.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> - -<p>Southward into the Sahara from the southern borders -of Tripoli stretches the province of Fezzan, its -inaccessibility, its prevalent malaria, and its deadly -heat having popularised it with Abdul-Hamid, of unsavoury -memory, as a place of exile for disgraced courtiers -and overpopular officials, presumably because -of the exceeding improbability of any of them ever -coming back. Artesian wells and scientific farming -have proved in other and equally discouraging quarters -of Africa, however, that the words “desert” and -“worthless” are no longer synonymous, so there is no -reason to believe that the agricultural miracles which -France has performed in Algeria and Tunisia on the one -hand, and England in Egypt and the Sudan on the -other, could not be successfully attempted by the Italians -in Fezzan. Arid and inhospitable as this region -appears to-day, it should be remembered that its Greek -and Roman colonists boasted of it as “the granary of -Europe.” What has been done once may well be done -again. All that this soil needs, after its centuries of -impoverishment and neglect, is decent treatment, and -any one who has seen those vineyards on the slopes of -Capri and those farmsteads clinging to the rocky hill-sides -of Calabria, where soil of any kind is so precious -that every inch is tended with pathetic care, will predict -a promising agricultural future for an Italian -Tripolitania. In its physical aspects, northern Tripolitania -resembles Europe much more than it does -Africa; its climate is no warmer than southern Italy -in summer and not nearly as unhealthy as the <i>Campagna -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -Romana</i>; while its soil, as I have already remarked, -holds great possibilities for patient, hardy, frugal, industrious -agriculturists of the type of those twenty -thousand Sicilians who are forced by poverty to emigrate -each year to America or the Argentine. Keeping -these facts in mind, one does not have to seek -far for the causes which underlay Italy's sudden aggression.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_086.jpg" id="i_086.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_086.jpg" width="600" height="430" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">SUNRISE ON THE GREAT SANDS.<br /> - For sheer majesty and grandeur, the only thing that is at all - comparable with a Saharan sunrise is daybreak in the Grand Cañon - of the Colorado.</div> -</div> - - -<p>Reaching Egyptward in the form of a mighty fist -is the peninsula of Barka, the Cyrenaica of the ancients, -officially known as the Mutessariflik of Benghazi, its -many natural advantages of climate, soil, and vegetation -making it the most favoured region in the regency, -if not, indeed, in all North Africa. While the climate -and vegetation of southern Tripoli and of Fezzan are -distinctly Saharan, the date-palm being the characteristic -tree, Benghazi is just as decidedly Mediterranean, -its fertile, verdure-clad uplands being covered with -groves of oak, cypress, olive, fig, and pine. Though -well supplied with rain and, as I have said, extremely -fertile, the Benghazi province, once the richest of the -Greek colonies, is now but scantily populated. Scattered -along its coasts are Benghazi, the capital, with an -inextricably mixed population and one of the worst -harbours in the world; Tobruk, which, because of its -excellent roadstead and its proximity to the Egyptian -frontier and the Canal, Germany has long had a covetous -eye on; and the insignificant ports of Derna and -Khoms, the lawless highlands of the interior being -occupied by hordes of warlike and nomadic Arabs -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> -who acknowledge no authority other than their tribal -sheikhs.</p> - -<p>South by east into the Libyan Desert straggle the -Aujila and Kufra chains of oases, marking the course -of the historic caravan route to Upper Egypt and presenting -the aspect of a long, winding valley, extending -from the Benghazi plateau almost to the banks of the -Nile. Underground reservoirs lie so near the surface of -the desert that all of these sand-surrounded islands have -water in abundance, that of Jof, for example, supporting -over a million date-palms and several thousand people, -together with their camels, horses, and goats.</p> - -<p>Such, in brief, bold outline, are the more salient -characteristics—climatic, agricultural, and geographical—of -the region which Italy has seized. Everything -considered, it was not such a long look ahead that the -Italian statesmen took when they decided to play their -cards for such a stake. Though neither soil nor climate -has changed since the days of Tripolitania's ancient -prosperity, centuries of wretched and corrupt -Turkish rule, with its system of absentee landlords and -irresponsible officials, has reduced the peasantry to the -same state of dull and despairing apathy in which -the Egyptian <i>fellaheen</i> were before the English came. -If Tripolitania is to be redeemed, and I firmly believe -that it will be, the work of regeneration cannot be done -by government railways and subsidised steam-ship lines -and regiments of brass-bound officials, but by patient, -painstaking, plodding men with artesian-well drilling -machines and steam-ploughs and barrels of fertiliser. It -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> -may well be, as the Italian expansionists enthusiastically -declare, that Tripolitania constitutes a “New -Italy” lying at the very ports of old Italy, but it is -going to take many, many millions of lire and much -hard work to make it worth the having.</p> - -<p>To those unaccustomed to the sights and sounds -and smells of the East, a visit to the town of Tripoli -is more interesting than enjoyable. Both its harbour -and its hostelry are so incredibly bad that no one ever -visits them a second time if he can possibly help it. -The harbour of Jaffa, in Palestine, is a trifle worse, if -anything, than that of Tripoli; but the only hotel I -know of which deserves to be classed with the Albergo -Minerva in Tripoli is the one next door to the native -jail in Aden. Picture a cluster of square, squat, stuccoed -houses, their tedious sky-lines broken by the minarets -of mosques and the flagstaffs of foreign consulates, -facing on a crescent-shaped bay. Under the sun of an -African summer the white buildings of the town blaze -like the whitewashed base of a railway-station stove at -white heat; the stretch of yellow beach which separates -the harbour from the town glows fiery as brass; while -the waters of the bay look exactly as though they -had been blued in readiness for the family washing. -Within the crumbling ramparts of the town is a network -of dim alleys and byways, along which the yashmaked -Moslem women flit like ghosts, and vaulted, trellis-roofed -bazaars where traders of two-score nationalities -haggle and gesticulate and doze and pray and chatter -the while they and their wares and the passing camels -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -smell to heaven. Scattered here and there among the -shops are native bakeries, in the reeking interiors of -which, after your eyes become accustomed to the darkness, -you can discern patient camels plodding round and -round and round, grinding the grain in true Eastern -fashion between the upper and the nether millstones.</p> - -<p>Follow the narrow Strada della Marina past the -custom-house, where the Italian sentry peers at you -suspiciously from beneath the bunch of cock's feathers -which adorns his helmet; past the odorous fish-market -and so into the unpaved, unlighted, foul-smelling quarter -of the Jews, and your path will be blocked eventually -by the sole remaining relic of Tripoli's one-time greatness, -the marble arch of triumph erected by the Romans -in the reign of Antoninus Pius, now half-buried in -débris, its chiselled boasts of victory mutilated, and its -arches ruthlessly plastered up, the shop of a dealer in -dried fish. In that defaced and degraded memorial -is typified the latter-day history of Tripolitania. Before -the Italian occupation disrupted the commerce of -the country and isolated Tripoli from the interior, by -long odds the most interesting of the city's sights were -the markets, which were held upon the beach on the -arrival of the trans-Saharan caravans, for they afforded -the foreigner fleeting but characteristic glimpses, as -though on a moving-picture screen, of those strange -and savage peoples—Berbers, Hausas, Tuaregs, Tubbas, -and Wadaians—who are retreating farther and -farther into the recesses of the continent before the -white man's implacable advance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> - -<p>All down the ages Tripoli has been the gateway -through which weapons, cutlery, and cotton have entered, -and slaves, ostrich feathers, and ivory have come -out of inner Africa by plodding caravan. Since the sons -of Ham first found their way across the wilderness of -Shur, this region has been the terminus of three historic -trade routes. The first of these runs due south -across the desert to Lake Tchad and the great native -states of Kanem, Sokoto, Bagirmi, and Wadai; the -second follows a southwesterly course across the Sahara -to the Great Bend of the Niger and the storied city of -Timbuktu; while the third, going south by east, long -carried British cottons and German jack-knives to the -natives of Darfur and the Sudan. Is it any wonder, -then, that, fired by the speeches of the expansionists in -the Roman senate, all Italy should dream of a day when -the red-white-and-green banner should float over this -gateway to Africa and endless lines of dust-coloured -camels, laden with glass beads from Venice and cotton -goods from Milan, should go rolling southward to those -countries which lie beyond the great sands? But, lost -in the fascination of their dream, the Italians forgot -one thing: modern commerce cannot go on the back -of a camel. No longer may Tripolitania be reckoned -the front door, or even the side door, to central Africa. -As the result of French and British encroachment and -enterprise, not only has nearly all of the Tripolitanian -hinterland been absorbed by one or the other of these -powers, but, what is of far more commercial importance, -they have succeeded in diverting the large and important -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> -caravan trade of which the Italians dreamed, and -which for centuries has found its way to the sea through -Tripoli, to their own ports on the Nile, the Senegal, and -the Niger, leaving to <i>Tripolitania Italiana</i> nothing but -its possibilities as an agricultural land.</p> - -<p>The statesmen who planned, and the soldiers and -sailors who executed, the seizure of Tripolitania, were -obeying a voice from the grave. Though the overwhelming -disaster to the Italians at Adowa in 1896, -when their army of invasion was wiped out by Menelik's -Abyssinian tribesmen, caused the political downfall of -Crispi, the greatest Italian of his time, his dream of -Italian colonial expansion, like John Brown's soul, -went marching on. With the vision of a prophet that -great statesman saw that the day was not far distant -when the steady increase in Italy's population and production -would compel her to acquire a colonial market -oversea. Crispi lies mouldering in his grave, but the -Italian Government, in pursuance of the policy which -he inaugurated, has been surreptitiously at work in -Tripolitania these dozen years or more.</p> - -<p>Never has that forerunner to annexation known as -“pacific penetration” been more subtly or more systematically -conducted. Even the Pope lent the government's -policy of African aggrandisement his sanction, -for is not the Moslem the hereditary foe of the -church, and does not the cross follow close in the wake -of Christian bayonets? Italian convents and monasteries -dot the Tripolitanian littoral, while cowled and -sandalled missionaries from the innumerable Italian -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -orders have carried the gospel, and the propaganda of -Italian annexation, to the oppressed and poverty-stricken -peasantry of the far interior. Under the guise -of scientists, Italian political and commercial agents -have been quietly investigating the problems and possibilities -of the regency from end to end, while the powerful -Banco di Roma, an institution backed with the -funds of the Holy See, through its branches in Tripoli -and Benghazi, has been systematically buying up arable -farm-lands from the impoverished peasantry at a few -lire the hectare, which quadrupled in value with the -landing of the first Italian soldier.</p> - -<p>Though prior to the war there were probably not two -thousand native-born Italians in the whole of Tripolitania, -the numerous Jews, in whose hands was practically -the entire trade of the country, were offered inducements -of one kind and another to become Italian subjects, Italy -thus laying a foundation for her claims to predominating -interests in that region. On the pretext that the Turkish -authorities had tampered with the foreign mail-bags, -Italy demanded and obtained permission to establish -her own post-offices at the principal ports, so that for -many years past the anomalous spectacle has been presented, -just as in other portions of the Turkish Empire, -of letters from a Turkish colony being franked with -surcharged Italian stamps. The most ingenious stroke, -however, was the establishment of numerous Italian -schools—and very good schools they are—where the -young idea, whether Arab, Maltese, or Jew, has been -taught to shoot—along Italian lines.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> - -<p>To those really conversant with the situation, -Italy's pretexts that the activities of her subjects resident -in Tripolitania had been interfered with and their -lives and interests seriously endangered sound somewhat -hollow. To tell the truth, Italians have had a -freer rein in the regency—and, incidentally, have caused -more trouble—than any other people. Italy's real -reasons for the seizure of Tripolitania were two, and -only two: first, she wanted it; and second, she could -get it.</p> - -<p>Now that she has Tripolitania in her grasp, however, -her task is but begun, for setting forward the hands -of progress by occupation of Moslem territory has ever -been a perilous proceeding. Though France shouldered -the white man's burden in Algeria with alacrity, she -paid for the privilege with just forty years of fighting; -it took England, with all the resources of her colonial experience -and her colonial army, sixteen years to conquer -the ill-armed Arabs of the Sudan, while the desperate -resistance of the Mad Mullah and his fanatic tribesmen -has compelled her practically to evacuate Somaliland; -overthrown ministries, depleted war-chests, and -thousands of unmarked graves in the hinterland bear -witness to the deep solicitude displayed for the cause of -civilisation in Morocco by both France and Spain; -Russia spent a quarter of a century and the lives of -ten thousand soldiers in forcing her beneficent rule on -the Moslems of Turkestan. Italy will be more fortunate -than her colonising neighbours, therefore, if she emerges -unscathed from her present Tripolitanian adventure, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> -for every page of the history of latter-day colonisation -proves that seizure of Moslem territory never ends with -a naval demonstration, a landing party, a staff with -a descending and an ascending flag, and the flash and -thunder of a national salute.</p> - -<p>When Italy pointed the noses of her transports -Tripoliward she committed the incredible blunder of underestimating -for a second time the resistance that she -would encounter. She made just such a mistake some -years ago in Abyssinia, and the plain of Adowa is -still sprinkled with the bleaching bones of her annihilated -army. The Italian agents in Tripolitania had -assured their government that, as a result of Turkish -oppression, corruption, and overtaxation, the Turks -were heartily disliked by the Tripolitanians—all of -which was perfectly true. But when they went on to -say that the Tripolitanians would welcome the expulsion -of the Turks and the substitution of an Italian régime, -they overshot the mark. In other words, the Tripolitanians -much preferred to be ill-treated by the Turks, -who are their coreligionists, than to be well-treated by -the Italians, who are despised unbelievers. The Italians, -having had no previous experience with Moslem -peoples, landed at Tripoli with every expectation of being -welcomed as saviours by the native population. It -is quite true that the natives gave the Italians an exceedingly -warm reception—with rifles and machine -guns. Here, then, were some sixty thousand Italian -soldiers, who had anticipated about as much trouble in -taking Tripolitania as we should in taking Hayti, instead -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -of being permitted to play the jaunty and picturesque -rôles of deliverers from oppression, being forced -to battle desperately for their lives against the very -people whom they had come to save and civilise. It -was a graphic instance of the workings of Mohammedanism. -How Kitchener and Cromer, those two grim men -who have had more experience than any other Europeans -in fighting and governing Mohammedans, must -have smiled to themselves when they read the Italian -statements that the taking of Tripolitania meant only -a campaign of a fortnight.</p> - -<p>To comprehend thoroughly the peculiar situation in -which Italy finds herself, you should understand that -the portly, sleepy-eyed, good-natured old gentleman -who theoretically rules Turkey under the title of Mohammed -V is, politically speaking, as much a dual personality -as Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde. As Sultan of Turkey, -or, to give him his proper title, Emperor of the -Ottomans, he is the nominal ruler of some twenty-four -millions of divided, discontented, and disgruntled Turkish -subjects—Osmanlis, Arabs, Syrians, Armenians, -Circassians, Bulgars, Greeks, Jews—and in that capacity -plays no great part in ordering the affairs of the -world. But Mohammed V is more than Sultan of -Turkey: he is likewise Successor of the Prophet, Commander -of the Faithful, and Caliph of all Islam, and -as such is the spiritual and temporal leader of the two -hundred and twenty millions who compose the Moslem -world. Nor is there any way of disassociating the two -offices. In making war on the Sultan of Turkey, therefore, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> -Italy automatically made war on the chief of all -Mohammedans, thus shaking her fist in the face not -alone of a nation but of a religion—and the most militant -and fanatical of all religions at that. There is not -a wearer of turban or tarboosh between the Gold Coast -and the China coast, be he Hausa, Tuareg, Berber, -Moor, Algerian, Tunisian, Tripolitanian, Egyptian, -Sudanese, Somali, Arab, Kurd, Turk, Circassian, Persian, -Turkoman, Afghan, Sikh, Indian, Malay, or Moro, -who does not regard Italy's aggression in Tripolitania -as an affront to himself and to his faith.</p> - -<p>Among all Moslems there is growing an ominous -unrest, a fierce consciousness that the lands which they -have for centuries regarded as their own are gradually -slipping from them, and a decision that they must fight -or disappear. On the Barbary coast, the Nile, the -Congo, the Niger, and the Zambezi they see the turbans -and the tarbooshes retreating before the white helmets' -implacable advance, and now they see even the Ottoman -throne, to them a great throne, shaking under the -pressure. Hence there is not a Moslem in the world -to-day who will remain indifferent to any action which -hints at the dismemberment of Turkey, for he knows -full well that the fate of the Ottoman Empire and the -political fortunes of Islam are inextricably interwoven.</p> - -<p>That Italy can hold the Tripolitanian coast towns -as long as her ammunition, her patience, and her public -purse hold out, no one acquainted with the conditions -of modern warfare will attempt to deny. Unless, however, -the militant section of Islam, of which this region -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> -is the very focus, can be induced to acquiesce in an -Italian occupation, the life of an Italian soldier who ventures -out of range of his war-ships' guns will not be -worth an hour's purchase. Hordes of fanatical, desert-bred -Arabs, inured to hardship, deadly sun, scanty -food, and dearth of water, mounted on swift camels and -as familiar with the trackless desert as the woodsman is -with the forest in which he works, ablaze with a religion -which assures them that the one <i>sure</i> way to paradise -is to die in battle with the unbelievers, can harass -the Italian army of occupation for years to come by a -guerilla warfare. Even though Turkey agrees to surrender -Tripolitania and to withdraw her garrisons from -that province, Italy will still have far from smooth sailing, -for the simple reason that she is not fighting Turks -alone, but Moslems, and, as a result of her ill-advised -slaughter of the Arabs, she has made the Moslem population -of Tripolitania permanently hostile. Most significant -of all, the Arab resistance to an Italian advance -into the interior of the country will be directed, controlled, -and financed by that sinister and mysterious -power known as the Brotherhood of the Senussiyeh.</p> - -<p>To American ears the word “Senussiyeh” doubtless -conveys but little meaning, but to the French <i>administrateurs</i> -in Algeria and Tunisia, and to the officers -of the Military Intelligence Department in Egypt and -the Sudan, it is a word of ominous import. Though the -Brotherhood of the Senussiyeh is, without much doubt, -the most powerful organisation of its kind in the world, -so complete is the veil of secrecy behind which it works -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> -that comparatively little is definitely known as to its -designs, ramifications, and resources. Briefly, it is a -secret Moslem society, organised about a century ago -by an Algerian dervish, Mohammed ben Ali ben Es -Senussi, from whom it takes its name; its object is the -restoration of the Mohammedan religion to its original -purity, austerity, and political power, the first step -toward which is the expulsion of the Christian from -Moslem lands; its initiated members, scattered throughout -the Mohammedan world, have been variously -estimated at from five to fifteen millions; the present -grand master of the order, Senussi Ahmed-el-Sherif, -the third of the succession, is admittedly a man of -exceptional intelligence, resource, and sagacity; his -monastic court at Jof, in the oasis of Kufra, five hundred -miles, as the camel goes, south of Benghazi and -about the same distance from the Nile, is the capital -of a power whose boundaries are the boundaries of -Islam.</p> - -<p>It is no secret that the growing power of the -Senussiyeh is causing considerable concern to the military -and political officials of those European nations -that have possessions in North Africa, for, in addition -to the three-hundred-odd <i>zawias</i>, or monasteries, scattered -along the African littoral from Egypt to Morocco, -the long arm of the order reaches down to the mysterious -oases which dot the Great Sahara, it embraces the -strange tribes of the Tibesti highlands, it controls the -robber Tuaregs and the warlike natives who occupy -the regions adjacent to Lake Tchad, and is, as the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -French and British have discovered, a power to be reckoned -with in the protected states of Kanem, Sokoto, -Bagirmi, Bornu, and Wadai.</p> - -<p>The organisation of the order is both strong and -simple. The <i>khuan</i>, or brothers, whose names are carefully -recorded in the books of the mother lodge at Jof, -owe unquestioning obedience to the <i>mokaddem</i>, or prefect, -in charge of the district to which they belong. -Each <i>mokaddem</i> has under his orders a corps of secret -agents, known as <i>wekils</i>, whose duty is to keep him constantly -in touch with all that is going on in his district -and to communicate his instructions to the brothers. -On Grand Bairam—the Mohammedan Easter—the -<i>mokaddems</i> meet in conclave at Jof, on which occasion -the spiritual and political condition of the order is discussed -and its course of action decided on for the ensuing -year. Above the <i>mokaddems</i>, and acting as an -intermediary between them and the veiled and sacred -person of the Senussi himself, is a cabinet of viziers, who, -by means of a remarkable system of camel couriers, are -enabled to keep constantly in touch with all the districts -of the order.</p> - -<p>At Jof, from which no European investigator has -ever returned, are centred all the threads of this vast -organism. There is kept the war-chest of the order, -constantly increased by large and small contributions -from true believers all over the world, for every member -of the Senussiyeh who has a total income of more than -twenty dollars a year must contribute two and one half -per cent of it to the order annually; there the Senussi -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> -has established depots of stores and war material and -factories for the manufacture, or rather the assembling, -of modern fire-arms; thither come to him from the obscure -harbours of the Tripolitanian coast cargoes of arms -and ammunition; thither flock pilgrims from North and -West Africa, from the Niger and from the Nile, to receive -his orders and to seek his blessing; there is centred -one of the most remarkable secret-service systems -in the world, its agents not alone in every corner of the -Mohammedan world, but likewise keeping their fingers -ever on the political pulse of Europe.</p> - -<p>A place better fitted for its purpose than Jof it -would be hard to imagine. Here, surrounded by inhospitable -desert, with wells a long day's camel-ride -apart, and the route known only to experienced and -loyal guides, the Senussi has been free to educate, drill, -and arm his disciples, to accumulate great stores of -arms and ammunition, and to push forward his propaganda -of a regenerated and reinvigorated Islam, without -any possibility of interference from the Christian -nations. There seems to be but little doubt that factories -have been erected at Jof for the assembling of -weapons of precision, the materials for which have been -systematically smuggled across the Mediterranean from -Greece and Turkey for years past. Strange as it may -sound, these factories are under the direction of skilled -engineers and mechanics, for so well laid are the plans -of the order that it annually sends a number of Moslem -youths to be educated in the best technical schools of -Europe. Upon completing their courses of instruction -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -they return to Jof, or other centres of Senussiyeh activity, -to place their trained services at the disposal of the -order, others being sent Europeward to be educated in -their turn. The Senussiyeh's military affairs are equally -well organised, the Arabs, than whom there is admittedly -no finer fighting material in the world, being instructed -along European lines, modified for desert warfare, -by veteran drill-masters who have learned their -trade in the native armies of England and France. -The nucleus of this mobile and highly effective force is, -so I am told by French officials in Africa, an admirably -mounted and equipped camel corps of five thousand -men which the Senussi keeps always on a war footing in -the Kufra oases. These facts in themselves prove definitely -that it would be no sporadic resistance, but a vast, -organised movement, armed with improved weapons, -trained by men who learned their business under European -drill-masters, and directed by a high intelligence, -with which Italy would have to reckon should she attempt -the hazardous experiment of an advance in the -real hinterland of Tripolitania.</p> - -<p>Let me make it perfectly clear that the grand master -of the Senussiyeh is a man of altogether exceptional -ability. Under his direction the order has advanced -with amazing strides, for he is a remarkable organiser -and administrator, two qualities rarely found among -the Arabs. The destruction of the Mahdi and of the -Khalifa, and the more recent dethronement of Abdul-Hamid, -resulted in bringing a large accession of force -to his standard by the extinction of all religious authority -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -in Africa except his own. Though the Sultan of -Turkey is, as I have said, the titular head of the Moslem -religion, and is venerated as such wherever praying-rugs -are spread, the chief of this militant order is undoubtedly -regarded by the average Mohammedan as the most -actively powerful figure, if not as the saviour, of Islam. -The first Senussi was powerful enough to excommunicate -the Sultan Abdul-Medjid from the order because of -his intimacy with the European powers; the father of -the present Khedive of Egypt was accustomed to address -the second Senussi in such terms as a disciple -would use to a prophet, while Abbas Hilmi II, the -reigning Khedive, a few years ago journeyed across the -Libyan desert to pay his respects to the present head -of the order.</p> - -<p>Those who are in a position to know whereof they -speak believe that the Senussiyeh would actively oppose -any attempt on the part of the Italians to occupy -the hinterland of Tripolitania, for it is obvious that such -an occupation would not alone bring the Christian in -dangerous proximity to the chief stronghold of the order, -but it would effectually cut off the supplies of arms and -ammunition which caravans in the pay of the Senussiyeh -have regularly been transporting to Jof from obscure -ports on the Tripolitanian coast. It has been the -policy of the Senussiyeh, supported by the Turkish -administration in Tripolitania, to close the regions -under its control to Christians, so it is scarcely likely -that it would do other than resist an Italian penetration -of the country, even in the face of a Turkish -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -evacuation. Though the order encouraged resistance -to the French advance in the Sudan, considering that -the extension of the French sphere of influence threatened -its own prestige in those regions, it has, as a rule, -refrained from displaying antagonism toward the rulers -of the adjoining regions. Aside from proselytism, the -Senussiyeh has performed a great work in the Sahara -in the colonisation and cultivation of the oases, the encouragement -of trade, the building of rest-houses, the -sinking of wells, and the protection of trans-Saharan -caravans.</p> - -<p>Stripped of the glamour and exaggeration with -which sensational writers and superficial travellers have -invested the subject, it is apparent that the Senussi -controls a very wide-spread and powerful organisation—an -organisation probably unique in the world. As -a fighting element his followers are undoubtedly far -superior to the wild and wretchedly armed tribesmen -who charged the British squares so valorously at -Abu Klea and Omdurman and who wiped out an Italian -army in the Abyssinian hills. Their remarkable -mobility, their wonderful powers of endurance, their -large supplies of the swift and hardy racing-camel -known as <i>hegin</i>, and their marvellous knowledge of this -great, inhospitable region, coupled with the fact that -they can always retreat to their bases in the desert, -where civilised troops cannot follow them, are all advantages -of which the Senussi and his followers are -thoroughly aware.</p> - -<p>Although the Senussi is, as I have shown, amply -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> -capable of causing the Italians serious trouble, it is very -unlikely that he will prove actively hostile if they refrain -from encroaching upon those remote regions which -he looks upon as his own. Italy will have her hands -full with the development of the coastal regions for -many years to come, so, if she is wise, she will leave the -interior of the country severely alone, recognise the -religious authority of the Senussi, and, if possible, effect -some such working agreement with him as England has -done with an equally dangerous neighbour, the Amir of -Afghanistan.</p> - -<p>From the glimpses which I have given you of the -inhospitable character of Tripolitania and the still more -inhospitable people who inhabit it, it will be seen that -Italy's task does not end with the ousting of the Turk. -She has set her hand to the plough, however, and started -it upon a long and arduous and very costly furrow, the -end of which no man can see. For a nation to have a -colony, or colonies, wherein she can turn loose the overflow -of her population and still keep them under her -own flag, is an undeniable asset, particularly when the -colony is as accessible from the mother country as Libya -<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> -(for we must accustom ourselves to the new name sooner -or later) is from Italy. But if Italy is to be a success as -a colonising nation she must school herself to do things -differently in Tripolitania from what she has in her other -African dependencies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a> - <a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> - The Italians have given their new possession the historic name of Libya.</p> -</div> - -<p>First and foremost, she must pick the men who are -to settle her new colony as carefully as she picks the men -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -for her <i>carabinieri</i>, choosing them with a view to their -intelligence, industry, energy, and sobriety, for to flood -Tripolitania with such a class of emigrants as every -vessel from Italy dumps on our hospitable shores is -but to invite disaster.</p> - -<p>Secondly, she must impress on these colonists the -imperative necessity of keeping on friendly terms with -the natives, who are, after all, the real owners of the -soil, and of obtaining their co-operation in the development -of the country. The Arab, remember, unlike the -negro, cannot be bullied and domineered with impunity, -Germany's African colonies providing significant examples -of the failures which invariably result from ill-treatment -of the native population.</p> - -<p>Thirdly, there must be no “absentee landlordism,” -the future of the colony largely depending, to my way -of thinking, upon frugal, hard-working peasant farmers, -owning their own farms, whose prosperity will thus -be indissolubly linked with that of the colony.</p> - -<p>Lastly, all local questions of administration should -be taken entirely out of the hands of Rome and left to -“the man on the spot,” for history is filled with the -chronicles of promising colonies which have been ship-wrecked -on the rocks of a highly centralised form of -government.</p> - -<p>If the Italians will take these things to heart, I believe -that their conquest of Tripolitania will prove, in -the end, for the country's own best good, contributing -to its peace and to the welfare of its inhabitants, native -as well as foreign, and that it will promote the opening -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> -up of the dark places to civilisation, if not to Christianity—for -the Moslem does not change his faith. When, -therefore, all is said and done, I cannot but feel that the -cross of the House of Savoy portends more good to -Africa in general, and to Tripolitania in particular, than -would ever the star and crescent.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE LAND OF BEFORE-AND-AFTER</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-t.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">THIS -is the story of how a handful of white men -jerked a nation out of the desert and the depths -of despair, as though by its collar, set it on its feet, and -taught it to play the game. It is the story of how -northeast Africa—a region which God had seemingly -forgotten—has been transformed into a prosperous and -self-respecting country by giving it two things which it -had always needed and had never known—justice and -water. It is the chronicle of a thirty years' struggle, -under disheartening conditions, against overwhelming -odds, and when you have finished it you will agree with -me, I think, that it is one of the wonder-tales of history. -It is a drama in which English officials and Egyptian -pashas and Arab sheikhs all have their greater or their -lesser parts, and it is as full of romance and intrigue -and treachery and fighting as any moving-picture play -that was ever thrown upon a screen.</p> - -<p>To my way of thinking, the rescue and rehabilitation -of the Nile country is the most convincing proof -of England's genius as a colonising nation. That you -may be able to judge, by comparison, what she has -accomplished, you must go back a third of a century or -so, to the days when Ismail Pasha—he with the brow of -a statesman and the chin of a libertine—still sat on the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> -throne of the Pharaohs, wielding an extravagant, vacillating, -and ineffectual rule over a region which stretched -from the Mediterranean seaboard southward to Uganda -and the sleeping-sickness, and from the Red Sea shore -westward until it lost itself in the sand wastes of the -Great Sahara. Of the one million three hundred and -fifty thousand square miles at that time included within -the Egyptian borders, less than five thousand were -cultivated land; the rest was yellow desert and nothing -more. The seven millions of blacks and browns who -composed the population were so poor that the dwellers -in the slums of Whitechapel were affluent when compared -to them; they lived, for the most part, in wretched -hovels of sun-dried mud scattered along the banks of -the Nile, maintaining a hand-to-mouth existence by -raising a low grade of cotton on a few feddans of land -which they irrigated by hand, at an appalling cost of -time and labour, with water drawn up in buckets from -the river. As a result of the <i>corvée</i>, or system of forced -labour on public works which prevailed, a large part of -the population was virtually in a state of slavery; the -taxes, which were unjustly assessed and incredibly exorbitant, -could only be collected with the aid of the -<i>kourbash</i>, as the terrible whip of rhino hide used by the -slave-dealers was known. Barring the single line of -ramshackle railway which connected Cairo with Alexandria -and with the Suez Canal, the only means of -transportation were the puffing river-boats and the -plodding caravans. The unpaid and ill-disciplined -army was a synonym for cowardice, as proved by its -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -defeats by the tribesmen of Abyssinia and the Sudan. -The Khedive was a profligate and a spendthrift; his -ministers and governors were cruel, dishonest, and -tyrannical; the national resources had been dissipated -in a veritable debauch of extravagance and corruption. -I doubt, indeed, if the sun ever shone on a more decadent, -demoralised, and discouraged nation than was -Egypt on that June day in 1879, when a cablegram -from Constantinople, addressed, significantly enough, -to “Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt,” brought the -Sultan's demand for his immediate abdication in favour -of his son Tewfik. Called to a heritage of bankruptcy -and wide-spread discontent, the new ruler, anxious -though he undoubtedly was to use his prerogatives -for his people's good, found himself forced to decide -between European intervention and native rebellion. -The question was decided for him, however, for, in the -spring of 1882, Arabi and his lawless soldiery broke -loose and overran the land.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_110a.jpg" id="i_110a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_110a.jpg" width="600" height="243" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Dance of Nuba women, Kordofan.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_110b.jpg" id="i_110b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_110b.jpg" width="600" height="265" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Shilluk warriors, Blue Nile.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_110c.jpg" id="i_110c.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_110c.jpg" width="600" height="319" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Bread-making in the Lado Enclave, Sudan.</div> -</div> - -<div class="caption p1">WORK AND PLAY IN BLACK MAN'S AFRICA.</div> -</div> - -<p>Whether this Arabi Pasha was at heart a patriot or -a plunderer is a question which has never been satisfactorily -decided, nor is it one which particularly concerns -us, although, if you ever happen to find yourself at -Kandy, in the hills of Ceylon, where he still lives in -exile, I would recommend you to call upon him, for he -will receive you with marked hospitality and will talk -to you quite frankly about those stirring events in which -he played so prominent a part. As this is a story of the -present, rather than of the past, suffice it to say that -Arabi, then an officer in the Egyptian army, instigated -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> -a military revolt which had as its object the ending -of European influence in the affairs of Egypt. So -rapidly did this propaganda of “Egypt for the Egyptians!” -spread among the lower classes of the population, -and so perilous became the position of foreigners -resident in the country, that, upon Alexandria being -captured and looted by the revolutionists, a British -squadron bombarded and partially destroyed that city, -while a British army, hurried from Malta for the protection -of the Canal, in which England held the dominating -interest, dispersed Arabi's forces at Tel-el-Kebir, -pushed on across the desert to Cairo, stamped out the -remaining embers of the revolt, and restored in a measure -the authority of the Khedive, though not without -taking the precaution of surrounding him with British -“advisers” and garrisoning his cities with British troops. -Such, in tabloid form, is the story of the beginnings of -British domination in the land of the Valley of the Nile.</p> - -<p>In view of the chaotic condition of the country, -England naturally decided that the only way to insure -the safety of her subjects, as well as of her great financial -and political interests in that region, was to continue -the military occupation of Egypt, for the time being at -least, and boldly to begin the task of its financial, -judicial, political, and military reconstruction. The -form of government which has resulted is, I suppose, -the most extraordinary in the history of nations.</p> - -<p>Nominally a province of the Turkish Empire, and -administered by a viceroy who theoretically derives his -power from the Turkish sovereign, Egypt is autonomous -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -(so far as Turkey is concerned), though it still pays -annual tribute of about three million five hundred thousand -dollars to the Sultan. Though the title “khedive” -means sovereign or king, without qualification or limitation, -the real ruler of Egypt is not his Highness Abbas -Hilmi II, but his Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul-General—at -present Lord Kitchener of Khartoum—who, -though officially Britain's diplomatic representative -in Egypt and nothing more, in reality exercises almost -unlimited authority and power. In other words, -England has assumed the position of a receiver for -Egypt's foreign creditors and has apparently made -the receivership—which has never been agreeable to -the khedivial government—a permanent one. Egypt's -situation might, indeed, be quite aptly compared to a -railway system which has been forced into bankruptcy -by the extravagant methods of its directors, and one of -whose largest creditors has become receiver with full -power to reorganise the system for its stockholders' and -its creditors' best good.</p> - -<p>Another feature of Egypt's complex form of government -is the International Debt Commission, which consists -of delegates from England, France, Germany, -Austria, Russia, and Italy, who are stationed at Cairo -for the purpose of keeping an eye on the national revenues -and periodically collecting a share of them, over -and above the actual running expenses of the government, -to pay the interest on the Egyptian bonds held -in those countries.</p> - -<p>To this administrative medley must be added the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> -complications caused by the Ottoman Capitulations—by -which fourteen foreign governments, including our -own, exercise almost sovereign rights in Egypt, the -International Tribunals, or “Mixed Courts,” in the -control of which Egypt has almost nothing to say, giving -them complete jurisdiction in all civil cases in which -aliens may be involved with each other or with Egyptians, -while the foreign consuls possess absolute authority -in criminal cases where their nationals are concerned.</p> - -<p>The Capitulations, many of which date back to the -early days of Turkish power, are nothing less than guarantees -to foreigners within the Ottoman dominions of -full and complete immunity from the laws governing -Turkish subjects. No reciprocal obligation was constituted -by a Capitulation (which, by the way, means -the instrument containing the terms of an agreement), -as it was intended to be a purely gratuitous concession -granted to Christians, by virtue of which they were -tolerated upon the soil of Islam. Though the Capitulations -were never regarded by the Turks as treaties—it -being obvious that the Commander of the Faithful, -who is likewise the Successor of the Prophet and the -Shadow of Allah, could never treat a Christian ruler as -an equal—they have all the character and force of -treaties nevertheless, inviolability of domicile, freedom -from taxation of every sort, and immunity from arrest -for any offence whatsoever being but items in the comprehensive -promise not to molest the foreigner. In -short, the Capitulations give to the nations possessing -them as complete jurisdiction over their citizens as -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -they exercise at home, the Egyptian Government being -powerless to lay so much as a finger on a foreigner who -breaks its laws.</p> - -<p>Should an American sailor, for example, become involved -in a drunken affray, as sometimes happens, and -wound or kill an Egyptian, the Egyptian police would -no more arrest him than they would the Khedive. -They would merely keep him under surveillance, meanwhile -notifying the American consul, who would despatch -his <i>kavasses</i>, as the armed guards which are attached—also -by virtue of the Capitulations—to the -various consulates are called, to effect the man's arrest. -He would then be tried by the consul, who possesses -magisterial powers, before a jury drawn from -American residents or tourists, and, if found guilty, -would be confined in one of the several consular prisons -which the United States maintains in the Turkish Empire, -although, if the sentence were a long one, he would -probably be sent to a prison in this country to serve -it out.</p> - -<p>Though the Egyptian police may be perfectly aware -that Georgios Miltiades runs a roulette game in the -back room of his café, and keeps a disorderly house up-stairs, -he can lounge in his doorway and jeer at them -with perfect safety for the simple reason that he is a -Greek subject, and therefore his café is as much on -Greek soil as though it were in the Odos Ammonia in -Athens, his consul alone possessing the right to enter it, -to cause his arrest, and to inflict imprisonment or fine.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding the fact that the importation of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> -hasheesh into Egypt is strictly prohibited, the government -making every effort to stamp out its use by the -natives, the Italian smuggler who drops anchor in -Alexandria harbour with a cargo of it aboard knows perfectly -well that the arm of the Egyptian law is not long -enough to reach him. If, however, he is caught by the -local police in the act of taking the contraband ashore, -it will be confiscated, though he himself can be arrested -and punished only by the Italian consular official resident -at that port.</p> - -<p>As a result of the privileges granted to foreigners -by the Capitulations, the consuls stationed in Egypt, as -well as in other parts of the Turkish Empire, are virtually -the governors of their respective colonies, possessing -powers which cause their wishes to be respected -and their orders obeyed. They are expected to keep a -watchful eye on the doings of their nationals, especially -those who keep saloons, dance-halls, or cafés; to settle, -either in or out of court, their quarrels and even their -domestic disputes; to inspect the sanitary condition of -their houses; to perform the marriage service for those -who prefer a civil to a religious ceremony; and to -attend to their burial and the administration of their -estates when they die. It is scarcely necessary to add -that, as a result of this anomalous state of affairs, there -is constant friction and frequent conflicts of authority -between the foreign consuls and the local authorities. -So jealously, indeed, do the foreign powers guard the -privileges conferred upon them by the Capitulations, -that Cairo can have no modern drainage system because -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -certain of the European governments refuse to give the -Egyptian sanitary inspectors permission to enter the -houses of their subjects.</p> - -<p>In matters of personal law, such as marriage, divorce, -guardianship, succession, and the like, foreigners -are, in general, subject to their own patriarchs or other -religious heads, while similar questions are decided for -the natives by the native courts known as <i>Mehkemmehs</i>, -which are presided over by the Cadis. In other matters -Egyptians are justiciable before the ordinary native -tribunals, which now consist of forty-six summary -courts having civil jurisdiction in matters up to two -thousand five hundred dollars in value and criminal -jurisdiction in offences punishable by a fine or by imprisonment -up to three years; seven central tribunals, -each of the chambers of which consists of three judges; -and a court of appeals at Cairo, about half of whose -members are European. Since its reorganisation, the -native Egyptian bench has won an enviable record for -honesty, energy, and efficiency, and would, if granted -complete jurisdictional powers, prove a great influence -for good in the land.</p> - -<p>So far as the Khedive is concerned, he has about as -much to say in the direction of the government as the -child Emperor of China had before the revolution put a -president in his stead. Not only is Abbas Hilmi surrounded -by English secretaries and advisers, without -whose permission he may scarcely change his mind, -but he is compelled to yield to England even in choosing -the members of his ministry, the one or two attempts -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -which he has made to assert his right to independence -of action in this respect having been met by England -with a military demonstration in the streets of his capital -which was not abated until the office was filled by -an Egyptian satisfactory to the British Consul-General.</p> - -<p>Some years ago, when that grim old statesman, -Lord Cromer, was still <i>deus ex machina</i> in Egypt, the -Khedive, emboldened by the rapid spread of the Nationalist -movement, which has for its slogan “Egypt -for the Egyptians!” flatly declined to give a cabinet -portfolio to a certain Egyptian politician whose appointment -had been urged by the British Consul-General and -who was notoriously a British tool. The following -morning Lord Cromer drove to the Abdin Palace and -demanded an audience with the Khedive. There were -no euphemisms employed in the interview which ensued.</p> - -<p>“I have come to obtain your Highness's signature -to this decree,” announced Lord Cromer, in the blunt -and aggressive manner so characteristic of him.</p> - -<p>“Suppose, my lord,” the Khedive asked quietly, -“that I decline to make an appointment which is not -for the good of Egypt—what then?”</p> - -<p>“Then, your Highness,” said Cromer menacingly, -“Ceylon.”</p> - -<p>“But suppose, my lord,” Abbas Hilmi again inquired, -his face pale with anger, “that I disregard your -threat to exile me to Ceylon and still refuse to sign this -commission?”</p> - -<p>Lord Cromer strode across the room to a window -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -which commanded a view of Abdin Square and threw -back the curtain. “Will your Highness look out of -this window before you give me a final answer?” he -asked.</p> - -<p>The Khedive stepped to the window and looked -down. There, drawn up in motionless ranks which -stretched from end to end of the great square, was a -brigade of British infantry, the Egyptian sun blazing -down on the rows of brown helmets, on the business-like -uniforms of khaki, and on the slanting lines of steel. -For five full minutes Abbas Hilmi stood in silence, -looking down on that grim display of power. Then he -turned slowly to Lord Cromer. “Give me the pen,” -he said.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_118a.jpg" id="i_118a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_118a.jpg" width="600" height="437" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">The real ruler of Egypt, His Excellency Field - Marshal Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, British Agent and Consul-General - in Egypt, inspecting a guard of honour upon his recent visit to the - battle-field of Omdurman.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_118b.jpg" id="i_118b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_118b.jpg" width="600" height="375" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">“Riflemen made from mud.” A march past of - Sudanese infantry.</div> -</div> - -<div class="caption p1">THE SAVIOUR OF THE SUDAN AND SOME OF THOSE HE SAVED.</div> -</div> - -<p>Here is another example of the harshness of the -attitude which England has seen fit to adopt in her -dealings with the Egyptian sovereign. In the days -when Lord Kitchener, fresh from his triumphs in -the Sudan, was still Sirdar of the Egyptian army, the -Khedive announced that he would utilise the occasion -of his approaching visit to Khartoum to review the -troops of the garrison. For hours the sinewy, brown-faced -soldiery marched and countermarched before the -Khedive on the field of Omdurman. The infantry in -their sand-coloured uniforms swept by with the swing -of veterans; the field batteries—the same that had -mown down the Mahdi's fanatic tribesmen—rumbled -by at a gallop; the camel corps, the riders swaying on -their strange mounts like vessels in a gale, paced past; -then the cavalry came, as fast as the horses could lay -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -foot to ground, lances levelled, the troopers cheering -like madmen, thundering past the reviewing party in a -whirlwind of colour and dust and noise. It was a fine -exhibition and one of which any commanding officer -might well have been proud, but the Khedive had received -his military education in Austria, where faultless -alignment and the ability to execute intricate parade -movements are reckoned among the first requisites of -a soldier; so when Lord Kitchener, the conqueror of the -Sudan and the maker of the Egyptian army, reined up -his charger before him, saluted, and perfunctorily asked, -“I trust that your Highness is satisfied with the discipline -and appearance of your forces?” Abbas Hilmi, -probably as much from a spirit of hostility to the English -as for any other reason, answered in a voice loud -enough to be heard by all around him, “They are a fine -body of men, Lord Kitchener, but I am far from satisfied -with their discipline.” Officers who witnessed this -incident have told me that Lord Kitchener was as -amazed as though he had received a slap in the face. -Within an hour his resignation as Sirdar was in the -hands of the Khedive, who as promptly accepted it. -But England could never permit her foremost soldier -to be so wantonly and so publicly affronted, for to do -so would be dangerously to impair her prestige among all -classes of Egyptians. So the cable flashed a message -from Downing Street to the British Agency in Cairo and -a few hours later the Khedive was peremptorily informed -that he could choose between apologising to -Lord Kitchener and requesting him to withdraw his -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> -resignation or of abdicating in favour of his brother. -Appreciating that it was wiser to apologise and keep his -throne than to remain stubborn and lose it, Abbas Hilmi -requested Kitchener to remain on as Sirdar—and he -himself remained on as Khedive.</p> - -<p>The men who really transact the business of the -Egyptian Government are not the holders of cabinet -portfolios, but the departmental under-secretaries, all of -whom are English, their plans being perfunctorily submitted -to their Egyptian chiefs for their approval, -though they would be used whether they received it -or not. The national revenues and expenditures are -controlled by an English financial adviser, without -whose permission the Khedive and his ministers cannot -spend so much as a piastre of government funds. Similarly, -the ministries of the interior, of justice, of communications, -and of agriculture are dictated by English -“advisers.” For upward of thirty years, in fact, the -Nile country has been more absolutely governed from -London than has India, or Canada, or Australia, or -South Africa, or any of the Crown colonies, and this despite -the fact that between England and Egypt there is -no tie that is officially recognised by any foreign power. -Now, thirty years is a considerable lapse of time anywhere, -particularly in the East, where men mature -rapidly, so that those who were children when the British -came are in the prime of life now. The fact that -in that interim England has had ample time to train -them for the duties of governmental administration, as -witness what we have accomplished among the Filipinos -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -in less than half that time, but that she has made little, -if any, effort to do so, is quite naturally taken by all -thinking Egyptians as a proof that there is no sincerity -back of her repeated assertions that she intends to turn -Egypt over to them as soon as they are fitted to administer -it. In fact, I have heard responsible British officials -assert that, to their way of thinking, the natives -were getting altogether too much education as it was, -and that the less they were taught to think the easier it -would be for England to hold the country. Frankly -stated, England's attitude toward the Egyptians has -been “You cannot go near the water until you know -how to swim.”</p> - -<p>Let it be perfectly clear, however, that nothing -is farther from my intention than to intimate that -British rule has not been beneficial to Egypt. No fair-minded -person who was familiar with the appalling condition -of the country and its people before the English -came, and with their present state of prosperity, would -cast so much as the shadow of a doubt on the wonderful -improvement which has been brought about. The -story of Egypt's rise from practical bankruptcy until -its securities are now quoted nearly as high as English -consols reads like a romance of the gold fields. During -the last few years the country has been experiencing a -land boom equal to that of southern California, property -in Alexandria having sold at the rate of one hundred -dollars a square yard; scientific irrigation, combined -with the completion of the great dam at Assuan, -has enormously enlarged the area of cultivation and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -has made Egypt the second greatest cotton-producing -country in the world; the national debt has been materially -reduced; and, most significant of all, Egypt's -European bondholders have consented to have the interest -on their bonds reduced from seven to three and -a half per cent. Life and property have been made as -safe in Port Said and Zagazig and the Fayoum as they -are in Yonkers or Salem or New Rochelle; slavery has -been abolished; official corruption has been rooted out; -forced labour for public works is no longer permitted; -an admirable system of railways brings the entire cultivated -area within reach of the coast; hospitals have -been established in all of the larger towns; while every -phase of the public health has been so closely watched -that the population of the country has actually doubled -in the thirty years since the English came.</p> - -<p>To my way of thinking, the most interesting chapter -in the history of present-day Egypt is that which -records the development of scientific irrigation. Northeast -Africa being practically rainless, its sole source of -water supply is the Nile, this mighty river created by -torrential rains in the mountains of Abyssinia and by -the overflow of equatorial lakes, and which is without -tributaries in Egypt proper, having an overflow which -varies with the seasons. For four months the flood -rushing seaward, which is known as “high Nile,” enriches -hundreds of square miles of what would otherwise -be arid and worthless land. Then come eight -months of low Nile, which, were it not for the genius -of an English engineer, would mean unwatered fields, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> -scanty crops, and probably famine. The British administrators, -appreciating from the very outset that -Egypt's entire future depended upon its agricultural -prosperity, and that this, in turn, depended upon the -<i>fellaheen</i> having an ample and steady supply of water -for their farms, set their engineers at the task of devising -some scheme for compelling the great river to pay -tribute to the land through which it passed instead -of wasting its fertilising waters in the Mediterranean. -Hence the great barrage at Assuan, suggested by Sir -William Willcocks, designed by Sir Benjamin Baker, -built by Sir John Aird, and financed by Sir Ernest -Cassel. A mile and a quarter long, containing a million -tons of stone and creating a reservoir three times -the area of the Lake of Geneva, this titanic barrier permits -the additional irrigation of one million six hundred -thousand acres of land. Though its cost was twelve -million five hundred thousand dollars, it has already -increased the earning power of Egypt fully thirteen -million dollars annually, so it will be seen that it more -than pays for itself to the country every twelvemonth. -The systematic liberation, during the burning summer -months, of the water thus conserved, means unfailing -prosperity for Egypt, for it is almost unbelievable, to -one who has not seen it with his own eyes, what agricultural -magic water can work in this naturally fertile -soil. As the regions capable of responding to irrigation -are almost boundless, and as the water supply is almost -inexhaustible, and as the engineers—and, what is far -more important, the financiers—have come to appreciate -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> -that the pregnant soil can be made to pay for the -cost of any reservoir, or series of reservoirs, which they -may construct, it is only reasonable to assume that the -great dam at Assuan is but the forerunner of many -others, so that eventually the Valley of the Nile will be -white with cotton and yellow with grain from the Delta -to the Sudd.</p> - -<p>But if Upper Egypt suffers from being too dry, -Lower Egypt suffers from being too wet. The prosperity -of the country, remember, depends almost entirely -upon its cotton crop, which has an approximate -value of one hundred million dollars annually, the -cotton fields covering some one million six hundred -thousand acres, most of which are in the Delta. That -this source of revenue may be increased, the Egyptian -Government has recently undertaken a huge drainage -project, which will, it is estimated, when completed in -1915, redeem a great tract of flooded and hitherto -worthless land, bringing a million additional acres under -cultivation, almost doubling the production of cotton, -and, incidentally, draining Lake Mariout, that historic -body of water disappearing forever.</p> - -<p>Agriculture and its attendant problems of irrigation -and fertilisation constitute the sole hobby and -amusement of the present Khedive, Abbas Hilmi II, -and, consequently, he is keenly interested in anything -that pertains to it, being a ready and liberal purchaser -of all improved types of agricultural machinery, which -he puts to practical use on the great estates which he -owns near Alexandria, in the Delta, and in the Western -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> -Desert. It so happened that, while I was the consular -representative of the United States at Alexandria, I received -a call one morning from the president of an American -concern engaged in the manufacture of agricultural -and well-drilling machinery who explained that he was -passing through Egypt and asked if it would be possible -for me to obtain him an audience with the Khedive. -The request was duly transmitted to the Grand Master -of Ceremonies, and shortly thereafter a reply reached -me naming the day and hour when his Highness would -receive my compatriot and myself at the palace of -Ras-el-Tin. Frock-coated and top-hatted, we drove to -the palace on the day appointed, were received by the -officials of the khedivial household, and shown into -the <i>salle de réception</i>, where Abbas Hilmi stood awaiting -us. After a cordial greeting—for the Khedive makes -no secret of his liking for Americans—he drew me down -beside him on a small sofa, motioning my companion -to take a chair opposite us.</p> - -<p>“It gives me particular pleasure,” I began, “to -present Mr. K—— to your Highness, particularly as -he is an authority on agricultural machinery—a subject -in which your Highness is, I know, considerably interested.”</p> - -<p>“Say, Khedive,” exclaimed my fellow-countryman, -suddenly leaning forward and emphasising every sentence -by waggling his finger under Abbas Hilmi's august -nose, “I've got the niftiest little proposition in -well-drilling machinery that ever struck this burg, and -if you don't jump at a chance to get in on the ground -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> -floor, then all I've got to say is that you're throwing -away the chance of your lifetime.”</p> - -<p>The Khedive, being, naturally, quite unaccustomed -to this form of verbal assault and still more unaccustomed -to having any one waggle a finger under his -nose, at first drew back haughtily; then the humour -of the situation dawned upon him, and, as the river -of talk which is one of the chief assets of the trained -American salesman flowed steadily on, he became interested -in spite of himself, now and then interjecting a -pertinent question, and terminating the audience by -giving the American an order for several thousand dollars' -worth of American machinery, which, the last I -heard of it, was giving excellent satisfaction on the -royal farms.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>If it is difficult to fix the exact legal status of Egypt, -it is still more difficult to explain that of the Sudan, -which is described in the official blue-books as “an -Anglo-Egyptian condominium.” Until 1882 the Sudan -was as much a part of Egypt proper as Florida is a part -of the United States, but in that year Egyptian rule was -interrupted by the revolt of the Mahdi, who, with his -successor the Khalifa, held the country for sixteen years -under a bloody and desolating tyranny. In 1896 an -Anglo-Egyptian army under Sir Herbert Kitchener began -operations for the recovery of the lost provinces, -and, on September 2, 1898, the overthrow of the Dervish -power was completed on the battle-field of Omdurman. -In the following year the pleasing farce was presented -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> -of a convention being signed by the British and -Egyptian Governments (or, in other words, by Lord -Cromer as the representative of England in Egypt and -by Lord Cromer as the virtual dictator of Egypt) which -provides for the administration of the territory south -of the twenty-second parallel of latitude by a governor-general -appointed by Egypt with the assent of England; -and which declares that the British and Egyptian flags -shall be used together; that laws shall be made by proclamation; -that no duties shall be levied on imports -from Egypt; and that slavery is prohibited. In view -of England's absolute domination of Egypt, it is obvious -that the term “condominium,” as applied to the -Sudan, is a euphemism for “British possession,” and -that England controls this great region as completely as -though her flag alone flew over it and King George's -picture ornamented its stamps.</p> - -<p>The name Sudan is short for Beled-es-Sudan, which -means the Land of the Blacks. Extending from the -southern frontier of Egypt to Uganda, a distance equal -to that from Saint Paul to New Orleans, and from the -shores of the Red Sea to the confines of the great central -African kingdom of Wadai, or as far as from Chicago to -Denver, the Sudan boasts an area three times that of -Texas. This area, prior to the Dervish oppression, had -a population estimated at eight and a half millions, but, -as a result of the wholesale massacres perpetrated by -the Mahdi and his followers, it has to-day less than two -and a half millions. Since the return of peace, however, -the Sudan is gradually recovering from the effects of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -Dervishes' barbaric rule, during which the whole country -was depopulated, wide tracts of land went out of -cultivation, and trade was largely abandoned.</p> - -<p>At present the poverty, the scanty population, and -the lack of irrigation in the Sudan form a striking contrast -to the wealth, the density of population, and the -high state of cultivation found in Egypt. But, though -it has been, until very recently, little better than an -abandoned estate, with practically no market value, -the money and labour which its British proprietors are -expending upon it are already beginning to produce -highly promising results. As a matter of fact, the agricultural -resources of this inland empire are hardly -guessed at, for the fact is too apt to be overlooked that, -beyond the sandy deserts which guard its northern -frontier, there exist extensive and fertile regions which, -in the provinces of Gezire and Sennar alone, are estimated -at fifteen millions of acres. Added to this, the -Sudan is particularly fortunate in possessing, in the Blue -and the White Nile, two great waterways which are -destined to prove invaluable as mediums of fertilisation -and transportation. There is, indeed, no room for -doubt that the Sudan is destined to be in time a great -agricultural centre, for cotton, wheat, and sugar-cane -are staple and give every promise of prolific crops—many -English experts prophesying that, when provided -with facilities for irrigation, it will supplant the United -States as the chief cotton-growing country of the world—while, -farther afield, there are excellent cattle ranges -and untold wealth in forest lands. But although much -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> -money has already been spent upon the Sudan, much -more will have to be spent before it can have more than -a speaking acquaintance with prosperity, for none of its -three great needs—population, irrigation, and transportation—can -be provided for nothing or in a hurry.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_128a.jpg" id="i_128a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_128a.jpg" width="600" height="520" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fighting-men of the Emir of Wadai. (“They are wearing - helmets and chain mail captured by their Saracenic ancestors from the - Crusaders. The quilted armour on the horses will turn anything short of - a bullet.”)</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_128b.jpg" id="i_128b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_128b.jpg" width="600" height="354" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">A gift from Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, to the - Sirdar of the Sudan. (The Sultan of Darfur is a semi-independent - and powerful native ruler of the Southwestern Sudan.)</div> -</div> - -<div class="caption p1">STRANGE PEOPLE FROM INNERMOST AFRICA.</div> -</div> - -<p>I was told so repeatedly by people in other and -more favoured parts of Africa that the Sudan was nothing -but a waste of sun-scorched sand, that I went there -as much to see if the description were a true one as for -any other reason. You don't have to search for romance -in the Sudan; it's there waiting for you when you arrive. -It met me on the station platform at Wady -Halfa, which is the first town across the Sudanese -frontier, in the form of a fair-haired, moon-faced, khaki-clad -guard on the Khartoum express, who spurned the -tip I proffered him to secure a compartment to myself -as insolently as the poor but virtuous heroine of the -melodrama spurns the villain's gold. He drew back as -though the silver I offered him were a rattlesnake in -working order and his face flushed a dull brick-red; -then, bowing stiffly from the waist, as a Prussian officer -does when he is introduced, he turned on his heel and -strode away. “I say, you got the wrong one that time, -old chap,” remarked an Englishman who had witnessed -the little incident and who, judging from his pith helmet -and riding-breeches, was of the country. “You -probably didn't know that you were offering a tip to a -former captain in his German Majesty's <i>garde du -corps</i>?” I remarked that a month before a former -general of division of the Bey of Tunis had accepted -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> -with marked gratitude a tip not half so large for showing -me through the Palace of the Bardo.</p> - -<p>“Well, this Johnnie won't,” was the reply. “He -may not have much money, but he's loaded to the gunwales -with pride. The story of his career sounds as if -it had served as a model for one of Ouida's novels. Refused -to marry the girl his parents had picked out for -him, so his father cut off his allowance and left him to -shift for himself. He sent in his papers, went to Algeria, -and enlisted—of all fool things!—in that regiment of -earth's hard cases called the Foreign Legion. It didn't -take him long to get all he wanted of that kind of soldiering, -so one day, when he was sent down to Oran in -charge of a prisoner, he swam out to a British steamer -lying in the harbour, worked his passage to Alexandria, -enlisted in a British cavalry regiment, took part in -Kitchener's campaign against the Khalifa, was wounded -in the shindy at Omdurman, and retired on a pension. -Now he wears a guard's uniform and carries a green -flag and walks up and down the platform shouting 'All -aboard for Khartoum!' And at home he would have a -coronet on his visiting-cards and spend his afternoons -swaggering along Unter den Linden. Extraordinary -what a man will do if he has to, isn't it? But you'll find -lots more of the same kind in the Sudan. It's no place -for idlers down here; every one works or gets out.”</p> - -<p>That struck me as a pretty promising introduction -to a country which, so I had been assured elsewhere, -had nothing more interesting to recommend it than sun -and sand, and it was with a marked rise in my anticipations -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> -that I saw my luggage stowed away in a compartment -of one of the long railway carriages, which -are painted white for the same reason that a man wears -a white suit in the tropics, which have windows of blue -glass to prevent the sun-glare from injuring the passengers' -eyes, and which are provided with both outside -and inside blinds in an attempt to keep out a little of -the heat. Looked at from any stand-point that you -please, the thirty hours' railway journey from Wady -Halfa to Khartoum is far from being an enjoyable experience, -for a light in your compartment means a -plague of flies, while any attempt to get air, other than -that kicked up by the electric fan, means suffocating dust. -It being too dark to read and too hot to sleep, the only -alternative is to sit in your pajamas, swelter, and smoke.</p> - -<p>Considering the obstacles it has had to overcome, -the Sudan government deserves great credit for the -railways it has built and the trains it operates. The -construction of the railway to Khartoum was undertaken -by General Kitchener in 1896, in order to support -the advance of his army, and, in spite of the difficulty -of laying a railway line across the sandy and stony surface -of the desert, the work was so energetically carried -on that the line advanced at the rate of a mile a day. -The most serious obstacle was, of course, the provision -of an adequate supply of water for the engines and workmen, -so a series of watering-stations was established, -at which wells, sunk to a depth of eighty feet or more, -tap the subterranean water. These stations are so far -apart, however, that to supply the engines it is necessary -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> -to attach two or more tank-cars to each train. Still -another difficulty is the shifting sand, which, during -the period of the <i>khamsin</i>, or desert wind, proves as disastrous -to railroading in the Sudan as snow does to the -railroads of our own Northwest, an inch of sand throwing -an engine from the rails far more effectually than a -yard of snow.</p> - -<p>It was my fortune, by the way, to encounter one of -the <i>huboubs</i>, or sand-storms, for which the Sudan is -famous. To give an adequate idea of it, however, is -as impossible as it is to describe any other overwhelming -phenomenon of nature. Far off across the desert -we saw it approaching at the speed of a galloping horse—a -great fleecy, yellowish-brown cloud which looked for -all the world like the smoke of some gigantic conflagration. -A distant humming, which sounded at first like -the drone of a million sewing-machines, gradually rose -into such a roar as might be made by a million motor-cars, -and then the storm was upon us. The sand poured -down as though shaken through a sieve; the landscape -was blotted out; the sun was obscured and there came -a yellow darkness, like that of a London fog; men and -animals threw themselves, or were hurled, to the ground -before the fury of the wind, while a mantle of sand, -inches thick, settled upon every animate and inanimate -thing. Then it was gone, as suddenly as it had come, -and we were left dizzy, bewildered, blinded, half-strangled, -and gasping for breath, amid a landscape -which was as completely shrouded in yellow sand as an -American countryside in winter is covered with snow. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -Under any circumstances a sand-storm is a disagreeable -experience, but out on the desert, where the traveller's -life frequently depends upon the plainness of the caravan -trails, it ofttimes brings death in its train.</p> - -<p>It is a gratifying compliment to American mechanical -skill that the running-time between Wady Halfa -and Khartoum has been shortened four hours by the -recent adoption of American locomotives, which run, -fittingly enough, over American-made rails. In the -construction of its trains the Sudan government has -avoided the irksome privacy of the European compartment -car and the unremitting publicity of the American -Pullman by designing a car which combines the best -features of both. The first-class cars on the Sudanese -express trains contain a series of coupés, each somewhat -roomier than the drawing-room in a Pullman sleeper and -each opening into a spacious corridor which runs the -length of the car. For day use there is one long cushioned -seat running crosswise of each compartment, -which at night forms the lower berth, the back of the -seat swinging up on hinges to form the upper. Each -coupé is provided with running water, a folding table, -two arm-chairs of wicker, and an electric fan, without -which last, owing to the almost incredible dust which a -train sets in motion, one would all but suffocate. At -several stations along the line are well-equipped baths, -at which the trains stop long enough for the passengers -hurriedly to refresh themselves.</p> - -<p>The mention of these railway baths recalls an incident -which seems amusing enough to relate. I once -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> -had as a fellow-passenger on the journey from Khartoum -northward a red-faced, white-moustached, choleric-tempered -English globe-trotter, who was constitutionally -opposed to the practice of tipping, which he took -occasion to characterise on every possible occasion as -“An outrage—a damnable outrage, sir!” Now, at -these wayside bath stations it has long been the accepted -custom to give the equivalent of five cents to the silent-footed -native who fills the tub, brings you your soap and -towels, and brushes your garments. But this the irascible -Englishman, true to his principles, refused to do, -still further unpopularising himself by loudly cursing the -cleanliness of the tub, the warmth of the water, the -size of the towels, and the slowness of the Sudanese -attendant. Five minutes before the time for the train -to leave the whistle gave due warning and the passengers -scrambled from the bath into their clothes, which -the native attendants were accustomed to brush and -leave outside the bath-room doors. Every one hurried -into his clothes, as I have remarked, except the anti-tipping -Englishman, who almost choked with blasphemy -when he found that his garments had mysteriously disappeared. -Though a hasty search was instituted, not -a trace of them could be found, the impassive Sudanese -stolidly declaring that they had seen nothing of the -effendi's missing apparel. The engine shrieked its final -warning and the laughing travellers piled aboard—all, -that is, but the Englishman, who rushed onto the platform -clad in a bath towel, only to retreat before the -shocked glances of the women passengers. My last -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> -impression of that God-forsaken, sun-blistered bath -station in the desert was the rapidly diminishing sound -of his imprecations as he continued his fruitless search -for his garments. There was no other train, I should -add, for three days. Weeks later I heard that his -clothes were eventually returned to him by a native, -who said that he had found them, neatly folded, underneath -a near-by culvert.</p> - -<p>Nowhere is the overpowering romance of the land -brought more vividly before you than in the dining-cars -or on the decks of the river steamers. The tall -young Englishman in flannels who sits opposite you at -table remarks casually that he is using a four months' -leave of absence to go up Gondokoro-way after elephant, -and a French marquis who is sitting near by, happening -to overhear the conversation, leans across to inquire -about the chances for sport on the Abyssinian frontier. -“You can't go across there, you know,” interrupts a -bimbashi, whose freckled Irish face looks strangely out -of place beneath the tarboosh which denotes an officer -in the Egyptian service. “The Hadendowas are on -the rampage again and the Sirdar has issued orders that -no one is to be permitted to cross into Menelik's territory -until things have quieted down. There's no use -your trying it, for the camel police are jolly well certain -to turn you back.” The bearded man in the ill-fitting -clothes, who would be taken almost anywhere -for a commercial traveller, is, you are told, one of the -most celebrated big-game shots in the world, and just -now is on his way to the Lado Enclave in search of a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -certain rare species of antelope for the Berlin museum. -The grizzled Egyptian officer sitting by himself—for -the British no more mingle socially with the Egyptians -than Americans do with negroes—once served under -Gordon, as the bit of faded blue ribbon on the breast -of his tunic denotes; the brown-faced Englishman in -riding-clothes, with the wrinkles about his eyes which -come from staring out across the sands under a tropic -sun, is a pasha and the governor of a province as large -as many a European kingdom, and farther up the -line he will get off the train and disappear into the -desert on one of his periodical tours of inspection, -perhaps not seeing another white face for three months -or more. It struck me that there was something particularly -fine and manly and self-reliant about these -young Englishmen who are acting as policemen and -judges and administrators and agricultural experts -rolled into one, out there at the Back of Beyond. -“It's only the hard work that makes it bearable,” -said one of them in answer to my question. “What -with the heat and the flies and the never-ending vista -of yellow sand and the lack of companionship, we -should die from sheer loneliness if we didn't work from -dawn until bedtime. Besides, every two years we get -long enough leave to go home.” (And oh, the caress -in that word home.) Then he asked me with pathetic -eagerness about the latest song-hits at the London -music-halls, and was this new Russian dancer at Covent -Garden as wonderful as the illustrated weeklies made her -out, and honestly, now, did I think the government was -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> -going to be such a bally ass as to give the Irish home -rule? That young man—he was twenty-four on his -last birthday, he told me—has charge of a province four -times as large as New York State, and in it he wields a -power which is a strange cross between the patriarchal -and the despotic. With a score or so of camel police he -maintains law and order among a population which, -until very recent years, were as savage and intractable -as the Sioux; he holds the high justice, the middle, and -the low; and he is, incidentally, a practical authority on -such varied subjects as wheat-growing, cotton-raising, -camel-breeding, fertilising, and irrigation. Nor would -I fail to call attention to the little-known but wonderful -work of a handful of British officers, who, working -continuously since 1898, in those fever-ridden swamps -near Lake No, have finally succeeded in removing the -last block of Sudd,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> -twenty-four miles long, thus making -the Nile a free, navigable waterway from Khartoum to -Rejaf, in Uganda, a distance of twelve hundred miles. -And these young men, remember, are but isolated examples -of the thousands, in Africa, in Asia, in America, -and in Oceanica, who are binding together Britain's -colonial empire.</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - <p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a> - <a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> - The name given to the dense masses of water plants which have - long obstructed the upper reaches of the Nile.</p> -</div> - -<p>Its discomforts notwithstanding, the railway journey -from Wady Halfa to Khartoum is filled with interest, -comparing not at all unfavourably with that other -remarkable desert journey by the Trans-Caspian railway -from Krasnovodsk to Samarkand. For two hundred -miles or more after leaving Wady Halfa we see -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> -through the blue glass of the windows nothing but endless -wastes of black rocks and orange sand. Then the -desert gives place to undulating sand-hills, and these in -turn to clusters of dom-palms, to fields of barley, to -conical acacias, and finally a fringe of palms announces -the proximity of the river. We pass in turn Gebel -Barka, the sacred mountain of the ancient Egyptians, -and, at its base, the ruins of Napata, once the capital -of an Ethiopian kingdom. A few miles south of Atbara, -which is the junction of the railway to Port Sudan, on -the Red Sea, we pass the so-called Island of Meroe, -with its score of pyramids, beside which the majestic -monuments of Egypt are but the creations of yesterday, -for this region, remember, was the cradle of the Egyptian -arts and sciences. In the settlements along the -banks we now begin to see the typical round straw huts -of Central Africa, with their pointed roofs and airy <i>recubas</i>, -or porches. The peoples change with the scenery, -the slender, tarbooshed Nubian giving way to the -fierce-faced, shock-headed Hadendowas, that savage -fighting-clan who hold the country between the Nile and -the Red Sea, and they, in turn, to the Kabbabish Bedouins, -those freebooters of the desert, who, perched high -on their lean white racing camels, were the terror of -every caravan in the days before the British came. The -cultivated patches become thicker, the signs of civilisation -grow increasingly frequent, the train rumbles across -a long iron bridge which spans the river, and slowing, -comes to a halt before a long, low station building on -which is the word “Khartoum.”</p> - -<p>Like another Phœnix, Khartoum has risen from its -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> -ashes on the site of that city which formed the funeral -pyre of the heroic Gordon. The name—“elephant's -trunk”—refers to the shape of the long peninsula on -which the city stands and which forms the point of -separation of the Nile into its Blue and White branches. -It is a brand-new city which the British engineers have -constructed; a city with a ground plan as mathematically -laid out and with streets as broad as Washington; -a city with pavements and sidewalks and gutters -and sewers and lighting facilities on the most modern -lines. As all the buildings are of a dust-coloured brick, -the business portion of the city has a certain air of substantial -permanence, but so uncompromising is the -architecture and so destitute of shade are the streets -that it looks more like a Russian penal settlement than -like an African capital. In the residential quarter, -however, the picturesque has not been sacrificed to the -utilitarian, for along the bank of the Blue Nile a splendid -boulevard—a sort of African Riverside Drive—has -been constructed, and here no business or commercial -trespass will be permitted, for from the Grand Hotel to -the Palace, a distance of a mile or more, it is lined with -the residences of the British officials, low-roofed, broad-verandaed -bungalows nestling in luxuriant gardens. -The thing that impresses one most about Khartoum -is the extraordinary width of its streets and diagonal -avenues and the frequency of its open circles, but the -British will tell you quite frankly that military considerations, -rather than beauty, guided them in planning it -and that a few field-guns, properly placed, can sweep the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> -entire city. There are two buildings in Khartoum which -seem to me to be more significant of the new era which -has begun for the Sudan than all the other features of -the city combined. One is the Gordon Memorial College, -built with the object of training the sons of the -Sudanese sheikhs and chieftains along those lines which -are best calculated to make for the future peace, progress, -and prosperity of the country. With his laurels as -the victor of Omdurman still fresh upon him, Lord -Kitchener appealed to his countrymen for one hundred -thousand pounds for the establishment of this institution, -which he felt that England owed to the memory of -Gordon, and, so prompt and general was the response, -the entire sum was subscribed within a few days. The -other building to which I referred is the recently completed -Anglican Cathedral, which stands as a recognition -of Gordon's great work as a missionary and as an -impressive exhibition of the advance of the Christian -faith. Could Gordon have returned to life on the occasion -of the consecration of this cathedral, and have seen -harmoniously gathered beneath its lofty roof religious -dignitaries of such different minds and faiths as the -Bishop of London, the Coptic Archbishop of Alexandria, -the Greek Patriarch of Abyssinia, and the Grand -Cadi and the Grand Mufti, the heads of the Mohammedan -community in the Sudan, he might well have exclaimed, -“I did not die in vain.”</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>I have now sketched for you the conditions which -prevailed in the Valley of the Nile before the English -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> -came and those which obtain there to-day. What -its future is to be depends wholly upon the action -of England. Were she to leave the country now, or -within the near future, she would leave it under conditions -which would soon result in chaos, and the good -that she has done would be largely lost. The extensive -schemes of irrigation upon which she has entered, and -upon which the prosperity of this whole region so largely -depends, could never be financed by an independent -Egypt, and the same is true of the question of transportation, -which is at the bottom of all the problems of -economic development in the Sudan.</p> - -<p>That England's position in the Nile country is -illegal and illogical her stanchest supporters do not -attempt to deny, but those who are really familiar with -Egyptian conditions and character will agree with me, -I think, that Egypt could suffer no greater calamity -than to have the English go. Not that I think that -there is the slightest probability of their doing so, for -Italy's aggression in Tripolitania, combined with the -attitude of the other members of the Triple Alliance, -has resulted in Britain strengthening, rather than relaxing, -her grip on Egypt and the Suez Canal. The -canal provides, indeed, the key to the entire Egyptian -situation, for upon her control of it depends England's -entire scheme of administration in India and the Farther -East. To withdraw her forces from Egypt would -be tantamount to leaving the gateway to her Eastern -possessions unguarded, and that, I am convinced, she -will never do. Two lesser, though in themselves important, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -reasons militate against her surrendering the -control of the Valley of the Nile. One is her hope of -eventually realising, in spite of German opposition, -Cecil Rhodes's dream of an “All Red” route from the -Cape to Cairo, of which Egypt and the Sudan would be -the northern links. The other is the belief that in the -scientific irrigation and cultivation of the fertile Nile -lands lie the means of freeing British manufacturers -from their dependence on American cotton. I am inclined -to believe, therefore, that in the not far-distant -future England will become convinced that candour is -a better policy than hypocrisy, and will frankly add -to her globe-girdling chain of colonial possessions the -whole of that vast region lying between the mouths of -the Nile and the swamps of the Sudd.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">IN ZANZIBAR</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-t.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">THERE -is no name between the covers of the atlas -more redolent of romance and adventure. Ever -since Livingstone entered the African jungle on his -mission of proselytism; ever since Stanley entered the -same jungle on his quest of Livingstone; and ever since -the railway-builders began to run their levels and lay -their rails along the trail blazed by them both, Zanzibar -has been the chief gateway through which Christianity, -civilisation, and commerce have entered the -Dark Continent. Though its area has been steadily -lessened by spoliation, treaty, and purchase, until the -sultanate, which once extended from Cape Guardafui to -Delagoa Bay and inland to the Great Lakes, has dwindled -to two coastwise islands in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar -the capital is still the most important place, politically -and commercially, in all East Africa, and one of -the most picturesque and interesting cities in the world.</p> - -<p>It bears the impress of the many kinds of men of -many nationalities—Arab sultans, slave-traders and -pirates, Portuguese merchants, European explorers, and -ivory-hunters—who have swaggered across the pages -of its history. Four hundred years ago Vasco da -Gama's exploring caravels dropped anchor in its harbour, -and the architecture of the city is still Portuguese; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -a century later the dhows of the piratical sultans of -Muskat swooped down, giving to Zanzibar an Arab dynasty, -a lucrative slave trade and the Arabic tongue; -then a British war-ship came, bringing with it British -law and order and decency, and, under the mask -of a “protectorate,” British rule. Though its golden -age ended with the extermination of the trade in “black -ivory,” it is still a place of considerable importance: -the end of several submarine cables, a port of call for -many steamship lines, a naval base within easy striking -distance of the German and Portuguese colonies -on the East Coast and guarding the lines of communication -between the Cape and the Canal, and the place of -export for the major portion of the world's supply of -copra, cloves, and ivory.</p> - -<p>Seen from the harbour, Zanzibar has little to commend -it. So uninviting, indeed, is the face that it turns -seaward, that the story is told of an American politician -sent there as consul, who, after taking one look from the -steamer's deck at the sun-baked town, with its treeless, -yellow beach and its flat-roofed, whitewashed houses, -refused to go ashore at all, from the next port at which -the steamer called cabling his resignation to Washington. -Though a city of something over one hundred -thousand people, with the major portion of the trade of -East Africa in its hands, Zanzibar has neither dock, jetty, -nor wharf, passengers and packages alike being disembarked -in small boats and carried through the surf -on the shoulders of Swahili boatmen. There are no -words in the language adequate to describe the scene -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> -which takes place on the beach bordering the harbour -when a mail steamer comes in. The passengers—white-helmeted -tourists; pompous, drill-clad officials; sallow-faced -Parsee merchants; chattering Hindoo artisans; -haughty, hawk-nosed Arabs; and cotton-clad Swahilis -from the mainland—are unceremoniously dumped with -their belongings on the sand, where they instantly become -the centres of shouting, pleading, cursing, struggling, -gesticulating, perspiring mobs of porters and -hotel-runners, from whose rough importunities they -are rescued only by the efforts of a dozen <i>askaris</i>, who -lay their rhinoceros-hide whips about them indiscriminately.</p> - -<p>When a poor imitation of order has been restored -and the luggage has been rescued and sorted, you start -for the hotel—there is only one deserving of the name—with -a voluble hotel-runner clinging to your arm as -though afraid you would break away, and followed -by a miniature safari of porters balancing trunks, hat-boxes, -kit-bags, gun-cases, bath-tubs, and the other impedimenta -of an African traveller on their turbaned -heads. Returning the ostentatious salute of the tan-coloured -sentry at the head of the water-stairs, you follow -your guide through a series of tortuous and narrow -alleys, plunge into the darkness of an ill-smelling tunnel, -and suddenly emerge, blinded with the sun-glare, into -a thoroughfare lined on either side with tiny, fascinating, -hole-in-the-wall shops, whose owners rush out and -offer you their silver, ivory, and ostrich-feather wares -vociferously.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> - -<p>Quite unexpectedly the procession halts under a -swinging sign bearing the legend “Afrika Hotel.” The -proprietor, a rotund, red-cheeked German who looks -as if he had stepped straight out of a Munich beer-garden, -escorts you pantingly up two—three—four flights -of stone stairs, lined on either side with strange native -weapons and East Coast curios, to a brick-floored cell -under the roof, there being more likelihood of catching -an occasional breeze, he explains, near the top. Wind -in any form is as scarce in Zanzibar as rain is in the -Sahara, and when they do get a breath of air strong -enough to stir the window curtains it is as much of an -event as a cyclone is in Kansas. The furniture of the -room, monastic in its simplicity, consists of an iron -bed, an iron table, an iron chair, and an iron washstand -supporting a tin bowl and pitcher, for anything which -is not of metal stands an excellent chance of destruction -by the devastating swarms of red ants. The bed is -draped with a double thickness of mosquito netting of -so fine a mesh that the air within feels strained and -unnourishing, like milk that has been skimmed and -watered, and the heavy shutters are closed in a fruitless -attempt to keep out some of the stifling mid-day heat, -though the proprietor, after glancing at the thermometer, -remarks that it isn't so hot after all, being only 120 -in the shade.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_146a.jpg" id="i_146a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_146a.jpg" width="600" height="410" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">“Zanzibar has neither dock, jetty, nor wharf, - passengers and packages alike being disembarked in small - boats and carried through the surf on the shoulders of Swahili boatmen.”</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_146b.jpg" id="i_146b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_146b.jpg" width="600" height="449" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">The business portion of Zanzibar is a wilderness - of narrow streets and dim bazaars, hemmed in with tiny shops and - wretched dwellings, with here and there an ancient house dating from - the Portuguese occupation.<br /> - <i>Photograph by DeLord, Zanzibar.</i></div> -</div> - -<div class="caption p1">THE GATEWAY TO EAST AFRICA.</div> -</div> - -<p>You are advised to go to bed in the dark, as a light -would attract the mosquitoes, and never, never, under -any circumstances, to get into bed until you have assured -yourself that there are no mosquitoes inside the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> -curtains, though the proprietor cheerfully adds: “But -you can only get fever from the black-and-white-striped -ones.” Likewise, you are solemnly warned never to -go out of doors during the day without a topée lest you -die from sunstroke (I knew one man who took off his -helmet long enough to wave good-bye to a departing -friend and was dead in an hour in consequence); never -to drink other than bottled water (at two rupees the -bottle) lest you die from typhoid; never to stay out -of doors after nightfall lest you contract malaria; never -to put on your boots without first shaking them out -lest a snake or scorpion have chosen them to spend the -night in; never to return late at night from the club -without getting a policeman to escort you, lest a native -thug run a knife between your shoulder-blades; and -never to put your revolver under your pillow, where it -cannot be reached without attracting attention, but to -keep it beside you in the bed, so that you can shoot -through the bedclothes without warning if you should -wake up to find an intruder in your room.</p> - -<p>The best and most interesting thing about the -Afrika Hotel is its bath, a forbidding, stone-floored -room, totally devoid of furniture or tub. It is separated -from the sleeping-room by the hotel parlour, so -that lady callers unaccustomed to Zanzibar ways are -sometimes a trifle startled to see a gentleman whose -only garment is a bath-towel pass through the parlour -with a hop-skip-and-jump on his way to the bath. You -clap your hands, which is the East Coast equivalent for -pressing a button, and in prompt response appears an -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> -ebony-skinned domestic bearing on his head a Standard -Oil can filled with water. Running through a staple -in the ceiling is a rope, and to the end of this rope he -attaches the can, hoisting it until it swings a dozen feet -above your head. Hanging from a hole in the side of -the can is a cord. When you are ready for your bath -you stand underneath the can, jerk the cord sharply, -and the can empties itself over you like a cloudburst. -Then you clap your hands and wait until the Swahili -brings more water, when you do it all over again.</p> - -<p>The first thing the new arrival in Zanzibar does is -to bathe and put on a fresh suit of white linen, for to -appear presentable in the terrible humidity of the East -Coast requires at least four white suits a day; and the -second thing he does is to call upon the consul, a very -homesick young gentleman, who is so glad to see any one -from “God's country” that he is only too eager to spend -his meagre salary in entertaining him. If it is drawing -toward sunset you will probably find him just starting -for the golf club, which is the rendezvous at nightfall -for Zanzibar's European society, whose chief recreations, -so far as I could see, are golf, gambling, and gossip. -With a sturdy, khaki-clad Swahili, a brass American -eagle on the front of his fez, trotting between the shafts -of the consular 'rickshaw (the Department of State -refuses to appropriate enough money to provide our -representative with a carriage), and another pushing -behind, you whirl down the bright red highway which -leads to the suburb of Bububu; past the white residency -from which the British consul-general gives -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> -his orders to the little brown man who is permitted -to play at ruling Zanzibar; past the police barracks, -where, at sight of the eagle on the 'rickshaw coolies' -fezes, the sentry on duty shouts some unintelligible -jargon, a bugle blares, and a group of native constables -spring into line and bring their hands smartly to the -salute as you pass; past the Marconi station on the -cliff, where the wireless chatters ceaselessly with Bagamoyo -and Kilindini and Dar-es-Salam; until you come -to a sudden halt before a bungalow, almost hidden in a -wonderful tropic garden, whose broad verandas overlook -an emerald velvet golf course which stretches from -the highway to the sea.</p> - -<p>Playing golf in Zanzibar always struck me as one -of the most incongruous things I ever did. It seems as -though one ought to devote his energies to pirating or -pearl-fishing or slave-trading in a place with such a -name. Moreover, there is such a continuous circus procession -passing along the highway—natives in <i>kangas</i> -of every pattern and colour; Masai and Swahili warriors -from the mainland; Parsee bankers in victorias and -Hindoo merchants in 'rickshaws; giant privates of the -King's African Rifles in bottle-green tunics and blue -puttees; veiled women of the Sultan's zenana out for -an airing in cumbersome, gaudily painted barouches, -preceded and followed by red-jacketed lancers on white -horses; perhaps his Highness himself, a dapper, discontented-looking -young mulatto, whirling by in a big -gray racing-car—that it is quite out of the question to -keep your eye on the ball, and you play very bad golf -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> -in consequence. Another trouble is that the caddies -are all natives, and golf is discouraging enough in itself -without having to shout “Fore!” or ask for a mashie -or a putter in Swahili.</p> - -<p>After a perfunctory round or two you go back to -the club-house veranda, where the European society of -Zanzibar is seated in cane chairs, with the English -illustrated weeklies, and tall glasses with ice tinkling -in them. The talk is the talk of exiled white folk everywhere: -the news contained in the Reuter's despatches -which are posted each evening on the club bulletin-board; -the condition of the ivory market; the prospects -for big game-shooting under the new German game laws; -the favourites for the next day's cricket match, the next -week's polo game, or the next month's race meet; the -latest books, the newest plays—as gathered from the -illustrated weeklies; what is going to become of Smyth-Cunninghame's -widow, whose husband has just died of -fever; is it true that Major Buffington has been transferred -from the “K. A. R.” to a line regiment; and is -Germany really looking for war?</p> - -<p>That night the consul gives a dinner for you at the -Zanzibar Club, where you are served by bare-footed servants -immaculate in crimson turbans and white linen, -and eat with solid silver from irreproachable china, in -a room made almost comfortable by many swinging -punkahs. After dinner you sit on the terrace in the -dark, somewhere between the ocean and the stars, and -over the coffee and cigars you listen to strange stories -of “the Coast,” told by men who themselves played a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> -part in them. One man tells you what Stanley really -said when, after months in the jungle without seeing a -white man's face, he finally stumbled on the camp of -Livingstone, and how, instead of rushing up and throwing -his arms around him and crying, “Saved at last, -old fellow; saved at last!” he lifted his helmet at sight -of the gaunt, fever-stricken man sitting in front of the -tent, and said very politely, just as he would if accosting -a stranger on Fifth Avenue or Piccadilly, “Doctor -Livingstone, I believe?” Another, a wiry, bright-eyed -Frenchman, with a face tanned to the colour of mahogany, -tells of the days when the route from Tanganyika -to the coast was marked by the bleaching skeletons of -slaves, and he points out to you, across the house-tops, -the squalid dwelling in which Tippoo Tib, the greatest -of all the slave-traders, died. A British commissioner, -the glow of his cigar lighting up his ruddy face, his -scarlet cummerbund, and his white mess jacket, relates -in strictest confidence a chapter of secret diplomatic -history, and you learn how the German Foreign Office -shattered the British dream of an all-red Cape-to-Cairo -railway, and why England is so desirous of the Congo -being placed under international control. A captain -of the King's African Rifles holds you spellbound with -a recital of the amazing exploits of the American elephant -poacher, Rogers, who, jeering at the attempts -of three governments to capture him, made himself, -single-handed, the uncrowned king of Equatoria. Then -a Danish ivory-hunter breaks in, and you hear all sorts -of wild tales of life on safari, of ivory-trading in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> -Lado Enclave, of brushes with the Uganda police south -of Gondokoro, and of strange tribal customs practised -in the hinterland. When the dawn begins to creep up -out of the east, the Englishmen tell the drowsy steward -to bring them Scotch and sodas and the Frenchmen -order absinthes; then every one shakes hands with -every one else and you make your way back to your -hotel through the narrow, silent streets, returning the -salute of the night constable sleepily.</p> - -<p>No visitor leaves Zanzibar without going to the -cemetery. Like the palace, and the stone ship built -by a former sultan, it is one of the show places of the -city. I saw it under the guidance of a gloomy English -resident, who said that he always walked there every -evening “so as to get accustomed to the place before -staying in it permanently.” Leading me across the -well-kept grass to two newly dug graves, he waved his -hand in a “take-your-choice; they're-both-ready” gesture. -“Two deaths to-day?” I queried. “Not yet,” -said he, “but we always keep a couple of graves ready-dug -for Europeans. In this climate, you know, we -have to bury very quickly.” For in Zanzibar, as all -along the East Coast, the white man's hardest fight is -with a foe he can feel only as a poison in his burning -veins, and can see only in the dreams of his delirium—the -deadly black-water fever.</p> - -<p>Though the streets in the outskirts of Zanzibar are -wide, well shaded, and excellently macadamised with -some kind of bright-red soil which recalls the roads outside -of Colombo, in Ceylon, the business portion of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> -town, where the natives chiefly live, is a labyrinth of -narrow streets and dim bazaars, hemmed in with tiny -shops and wretched dwellings, with here and there an -ancient house dating from the Portuguese occupation, -impregnable as a feudal castle, its massive doorways of -exquisitely carved teakwood in sharp contrast to the -surrounding squalor. Every shop is open to the street, -and half of them, it seemed to me, are devoted to the -sale of ivory carvings, ostrich feathers, brassware, and -silver-work, though the Arab workmanship is in all -cases poorly executed and crude in design. The most -typical things to be bought in Zanzibar are the quaint -images of African animals which the natives carve from -the coarser grades of ivory and which make charming, -though costly, souvenirs. Nothing is cheap in Zanzibar, -or, for that matter, anywhere else in Africa, and -every purchase is a matter of prolonged and wearisome -negotiation, the seller fixing a fantastic price and lowering -it gradually, as he thinks discreet, his rock-bottom -figure depending upon the behaviour and appearance -of the customer.</p> - -<p>Zanzibar is still the chief ivory market of the world, -the supplies of both elephant and rhino ivory, so I was -assured by British officials, steadily increasing rather -than diminishing. A few years ago it was feared that -the supply of ivory would soon run out, but the indiscriminate -slaughter of elephants has been checked, at -least in British territory, by strict game laws rigidly -enforced. Whether from the laxity of its laws or the -indifference of its officials, German East Africa is still -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> -the ivory-hunter's paradise, the extermination of elephants -in that colony proceeding almost unchecked. -When one remembers that African ivory brings all the -way from fifty dollars to five hundred dollars per hundredweight -in the open market, and that the tusks of a -full-grown elephant weigh anywhere from one hundred -to five hundred pounds, it will be seen that the ivory-hunter's -trade is a profitable though a hazardous one. -Other ivory-hunters, instead of going after the elephants -themselves, spend their time in journeying from village -to village and bartering with the natives for the stores -of ivory—some of them the produce of centuries—which -most of them possess. Unless the trader knows his -business, however, the simple-minded natives will sell -him the so-called “dead” ivory from the bottom of the -pile rather than the “live” ivory of elephants recently -killed, which, because of its greater elasticity and better -colour, commands a much higher price, and, I might -add, forms but a small part of the supply. Somewhere -in the neighbourhood of half a million pounds of ivory -are shipped from Zanzibar each year to make the toilet-articles -and billiard-balls and piano-keys of the world.</p> - -<p>The population of Zanzibar is pretty evenly divided -between Arabs and Swahilis, with a considerable -sprinkling of East Indians, who play the same rôles of -peddlers, petty tradesmen, and money-lenders in the -Orient that the Jews and Armenians do in the Occident. -The dress of the Swahili is as simple as it is striking: -two lengths of cotton cloth, called <i>kanga</i>, one draped -about the waist and the other about the shoulders, with -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> -an extra remnant twisted into a turban, form the costume -of men and women alike, though the Swahili -women, in addition to the <i>kanga</i> proper, wear cotton -pantalets resembling those in fashion in ante-bellum -days, edged at the ankles with neat little frills, like -those the chefs at fashionable restaurants put on lamb -chops. These <i>kangas</i> are crudely stamped in an endless -variety of startling patterns, some of the more -elaborate designs looking, from a little distance, as -though embroidered. The inventiveness of the British, -Belgian, and German designers must be sorely taxed, -for the fashions in East Africa change as rapidly as -they do in Paris and with as little warning, the <i>kangas</i> -stamped with card-pips—hearts, diamonds, clubs, and -spades—which were all the rage among Zanzibar's dusky -leaders of fashion for a time, suddenly giving place to -those bearing crude pictures of sailing-ships or Arabic -quotations from the Koran. One negro dandy whom -I saw paraded the streets, the envied of all his fellows, -wearing a <i>kanga</i> on which was printed, in endless repetition, -the British coat of arms and the loyal motto -“God Save the King!” while still another swaggered -by in a garment sprinkled over with the legend in letters -six inches high “Remember the Maine!” Though the -important trade in cotton goods which we once had with -East Africa has long since passed into British and German -hands, there is a certain melancholy satisfaction in -knowing that, so firmly does the reputation of our cottons -endure, the natives of all this region still insist on -the piece goods which they purchase, whether made in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> -Manchester or Dresden, bearing the stamp “American,” -and will take no other.</p> - -<p>The costumes of the Arabs, on the other hand, recall -all the stories of pirates and slave-traders which one -associates with this romantic coast, for the men, ignoring -the law which prohibits the carrying of arms, swagger -insolently through the streets with dagger-filled -sashes and trailing scimiters, their white <i>jibbahs</i> flapping -about their sandalled feet and their snowy turbans -cocked rakishly. The dress of the Arab women of Zanzibar -resembles the costume of no other people, its -characteristic features being the immense, doughnut-shaped -turbans and the frilled, skin-tight trousers -striped like barber-poles.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_156.jpg" id="i_156.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_156.jpg" width="600" height="430" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">ARAB WOMEN OF ZANZIBAR.<br /> - “Their dress resembles the costume of no other people, its - characteristic features being the immense, doughnut-shaped turbans and the - frilled, skin-tight trousers striped like barber-poles.”</div> -</div> - -<p>The universal medium of communication in Zanzibar -and along the East Coast is Swahili, this <i>lingua -franca</i> being generally used not only between Arabs and -natives, and between natives and Europeans, but between -Europeans themselves, the English, French, and -Portuguese traders who do business in German East -Africa depending entirely upon this mutually understood -tongue for conversing with the Germans. I remember -once, in Dar-es-Salam, listening to an Englishman who -knew no French and a Frenchman who knew no English -hold an animated political argument, and later on bargain -with the German hotel-keeper for accommodations -in the same outlandish tongue.</p> - -<p>I have always found that the farther people dwell -from civilisation, the more punctilious they are about -observing its usages. That is why English officials -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> -at remote and lonely stations in India invariably put -on evening clothes before they sit down to their solitary -dinners, and why the question of precedence is not taken -nearly as seriously in London or Paris or New York -as it is in Entebbe or Sierra Leone. One would quite -naturally suppose that the Europeans dwelling in those -sun-scorched, fever-ridden, God-forsaken countries along -the East Coast would adopt the careless attitude of -Kipling's homesick soldier, who longed for a land “where -there ain't no Ten Commandments and a man can raise -a thirst”; but, strangely enough, the exact opposite -is the case. There is plenty of drinking throughout -Africa, it is true, for the white men dwelling there will -assure you that to exist in such a climate a man must -“keep his liver afloat,” but, though heavy drinking is -the rule, the man who so far loses control of himself as -to step beyond the bounds of decency is ostracised with -a promptness and completeness unheard of in more -civilised places. This respect for the social conventions -was graphically illustrated by an unpleasant little -episode which occurred during my stay in Zanzibar. -A young Englishman, who had been rubber-prospecting -in the wilds of the back country for nearly a year, celebrated -his return to civilisation, or what stands out there -for civilisation, by giving a stag dinner at the club. It -was rather a hilarious affair, as such things go, and when -it broke up at dawn every one had had quite as much to -drink as was good for him, while the youthful host had -had entirely too much. In fact, he insisted on winding -up the jollification by smashing all the crockery and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> -glassware in sight, and, when the native steward remonstrated, -he tripped him up very neatly and sat on -him. Some hours later, being sober and very much -ashamed of himself, he sent a check for the damage he -had done, together with a manly letter of apology, to -the board of governors, which promptly responded by -demanding his resignation. Now, to drop a man from -a club in East Africa is equivalent to marooning him on -a desert island, for out there the club is invariably the -rendezvous of the respectable European society, the -only place where one can get a European book or newspaper -to read or a well-cooked meal to eat, and the scene -of those dinners, dances, card parties, charades, and -other forms of amusement which help to make existence -in that region endurable. Not content with demanding -his resignation and thus closing to him the gateway to -every decent form of recreation in Zanzibar, the virtuous -board of governors notified every other club on the -coast of its action, so that when business called the -youngster to Mombasa or Dar-es-Salam or Lourenço -Marques, he found himself barred from the privileges of -the clubs in those places as well. But his punishment -did not end there, for, a few days after his escapade, two -club members to whom he nodded upon the street cut -him dead, while another, a man whom he had known intimately -for years, answered his greeting by remarking, -as he raised his eyebrows, “Really, sir, I don't think I -have the pleasure of your acquaintance.”</p> - -<p>In the happy-go-lucky days before the reorganisation -of our consular service a profane and uncouth -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> -lumberman named Mulligan—the name will do as well -as another—was rewarded for certain political services -by being appointed consul at Zanzibar. At that time -the American consulate was in a building on the edge -of the harbour and almost next door to the Sultan's -palace. Mulligan had not been in Zanzibar a week -before he began to complain that he was being robbed -of his sleep by the women of the royal harem, who chose -the comparatively cool hour just before sunrise in which -to bathe on the sandy beach below the consulate windows. -Mulligan, after making numerous complaints -without receiving any satisfaction, openly announced -that the next morning he was disturbed he would take -the law into his own hands. He did not have to wait -long for an opportunity, for, returning a few nights -later from an unusually late séance at the club, he -had scarcely fallen asleep when he was aroused by the -shrieks of laughter of native women bathing beneath -his window. Springing out of bed, he caught up a shot-gun -standing in the corner, slipped in a shell loaded -with bird-shot, and, pushing the muzzle out of the window, -fired at random. The roar of the discharge was -echoed by a chorus of piercing screams and Arabic -ejaculations of pain and terror, whereupon the consul, -satisfied that he had effectually frightened the disturbers -of his rest, returned to bed and to sleep. An -hour later he was reawakened by his excited vice-consul, -who burst into the bedroom exclaiming, “You'll -have to get out of here quick, Mr. Consul! It won't be -healthy for you in Zanzibar after what happened this -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -morning. There's a German boat in the harbour and -if you hurry you'll just about catch her! But there's -no time to spare.” “Now, what the devil have I got -to get out of here for, confound you?” demanded the -consul, now thoroughly awake and thoroughly angry. -“Certainly not because I frightened a lot of nigger -wenches who were waking me up at four o'clock every -morning with their damned hullabaloo?” “Nigger -wenches nothing!” exclaimed the vice-consul, as he -began to throw his chief's belongings into a trunk. -“When you let off that load of bird-shot this morning -you peppered the Sultan's favourite wife, and now -the old man's fairly hopping with rage and swears that -he'll have your life even if you are the American -consul.” Forty minutes later ex-Consul Mulligan -ascended the gangway of a homeward-bound steamer, -for those were the days before the British protectorate, -when the tyrannical sultans of Zanzibar were -laws unto themselves.</p> - -<p>The morning before I left I went with the consul -to call on his Highness Seyyid Ali bin Hamoud bin -Mohammed, the Sultan of Zanzibar. -<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The 'rickshaw -stopped with a jerk in front of the handsome iron gates -of the palace; the guard turned out and presented arms, -while a negro bugler sounded a barbaric fanfare; an -official in white linen and much gold lace met us at the -entrance and escorted us up flight after flight of heavily -carpeted stairs, until we emerged, breathless and perspiring, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> -on the breeze-swept upper veranda of the four-story -building, which, with its long piazzas and its uncompromising -architecture, looks more than anything -else like an American summer hotel. After a quarter of -an hour spent in smoking highly perfumed cigarettes, -another official announced that his Highness would receive -us, and we were ushered into a small room furnished -like an office, where a pleasant-looking young -negro of twenty-six or so was sitting at an American -roll-top desk dictating letters to an English secretary. -Like every one else, he was dressed entirely in white -linen, with a red tarboosh, gold shoulder-straps, and -pumps of white buckskin. Motioning us to be seated, -he offered us more of the perfumed cigarettes, inquiring, -with an Eton accent, as to the state of my health, -when I arrived, what were my impressions of Zanzibar, -when I intended to leave, and where I was going. As -we were bowing ourselves out, after ten minutes of -perfunctory conversation, the Sultan's secretary sidled -up and whispered: “His Highness expects that you -will give him the pleasure of staying to luncheon.”</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - <p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a> - <a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> - Since this was written Sultan Ali bin Hamoud has abdicated in - favour of his cousin, Seyyid Khalifa. - </p> -</div> - -<p>The luncheon was very much the same as one would -get at Sherry's or Claridge's or the Café de Paris, except -that for our special benefit a few native dishes with -strange names and still stranger flavours had been added -to the menu. The wines were irreproachable and the -Hodeidah coffee and Aleppo cigarettes could have been -had nowhere west of Suez. My eye was caught by the -magnificence of the jewel-monogrammed cigarette-case -which the Sultan constantly passed to me, and I ventured -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> -to comment on it admiringly. “Do you like -it?” said he, with a pleased smile. “It is only a trifle -that I picked up last spring in Paris. Accept it from -me as a little souvenir of your visit to Zanzibar—really—please -do.” Quite naturally I hesitated, as who -would not at accepting offhand a thing worth a couple -of thousand rupees. The Sultan looked disappointed. -“It is not worthy of you,” he remarked. “Some day -I shall send you something more fitting,” and he put it -back in his pocket. All the rest of my stay in Zanzibar -I kept thinking how near I came to getting that magnificent -case, and what a story it would have made to tell -at dinner tables over the camembert and coffee; and -it almost spoiled my visit. As I was leaving the palace -the military secretary inquired: “Why on earth didn't -you take the cigarette case when the Sultan offered -it?” “Polite hesitation,” I replied. “I was going to -accept it in just a minute.” “In the East you should -accept first and hesitate afterward,” he answered.</p> - -<p>After luncheon I played billiards with the Sultan. -He is a good player, and it was no trouble at all to let -royalty win gracefully. The conversation turned on -America. It seemed that the two Americans whom his -Highness most admired were Theodore Roosevelt and -John Philip Sousa; the one because he had visited Africa -and proved himself a real <i>shikari</i>; the other because -he had immortalised the Sultan's dominions in his <i>A -Typical Tune of Zanzibar</i>. (It happened that a month -or so later I dined with Mr. Sousa in Johannesburg and -told him this incident, whereupon he offered to send the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> -Sultan an autographed copy of <i>El Capitan</i>. If he has -forgotten to do it, this will serve to remind him that the -Sultan's address is still “The Palace, Zanzibar.”) Incidentally -his Highness mentioned that he was about -to be married. Later on the English secretary supplemented -this by explaining that his latest bride—he already -had three wives—was the fifteen-year-old daughter -of a well-to-do merchant in the bazaars, with whom -the Sultan had been haggling regarding the price to be -paid for the girl for a year or more. After a time we -strolled out on the breeze-swept veranda. As I leaned -over the railing I noticed something sticking up out -of the harbour and I pointed to it. “What is that, -your Highness?” I inquired. “A wreck,” he answered -shortly. “A wreck! A wreck of what?” I persisted. -“The wreck of the Zanzibar navy,” he said, turning -away—and I suddenly recalled the story of the little -gun-boat with its negro crew that stood up to the great -British cruiser and banged away with its toy guns until -it was sent to the bottom with every man on board, -and all at once I felt very sorry for this youth, whose -fathers held sway over a dominion as large as all that -part of the United States lying west of the Rocky -Mountains, but which, thanks to the insatiable land -hunger of the European nations, has dwindled to a -territory scarcely larger than Rhode Island.</p> - -<p>That in the not far-distant future Zanzibar will -again play a part in the drama of international politics -there is but little doubt. The island's position adjacent -to the mainland, from which it is separated by a channel -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> -less than thirty miles wide, combined with the advantages -of its deep and roomy harbour, mark it naturally -as the chief entrepôt of all East Africa, and the gate -through which the interior of the continent is destined -to be opened up to European settlement and exploitation. -Being almost equidistant—some two thousand -four hundred miles—from India, the Cape, and the -Canal, and controlling the lines of cable communication -with Madagascar and Mauritius, it affords a -strategic position of immense importance as a naval -base in the contingency of closing the Suez Canal in -time of war. Germany has long had a greedy eye on -Zanzibar, for the nation that holds it controls, both -strategically and commercially, Germany's East African -possessions and their capital of Dar-es-Salam. -That England would be willing to turn Zanzibar over -to Germany in return for the cession of a strip of territory -through German East Africa which would permit -the completion of her long-dreamed-of, and at present -indefinitely interrupted, Cape-to-Cairo trunk line, -there is every reason to believe. So I trust that the -little brown man in the white-and-gold uniform will enjoy -playing at sovereignty while he may, for if that day -ever comes to pass when the red banner on his palace -flagstaff is replaced with the standard of Germany, there -will pass into the pleasant oblivion of the Paris boulevards -the last of a long line of one-time powerful, -oftentimes piratical, but always picturesque rulers, the -Sultans of Zanzibar.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE SPIKED HELMET IN AFRICA</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-t.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">THE -other day two suave, frock-coated gentlemen, -seated at a green-covered table in the Foreign -Office in Berlin, by putting their names to the bottom -of a piece of parchment, caused a territory almost as -large as the State of Texas to become French, and another -territory, larger than the State of Oregon, to become -German. About as many people were affected, -though not consulted, by that international dicker—which -has passed into history as the Morocco-Equatoria -Convention—as there are in the county of London. -The lot of about four-fifths of these people will -doubtless be materially improved, and in a few years, -if they have any gratitude in their Moorish souls, they -will be thanking Allah for having given them French -instead of Sherifian justice. As for those Congolese -blacks who compose the other fifth, they will soon find, -unless I am very much mistaken, that the red-white-and-black -flag stands for something very different from -the red-white-and-blue one, and that the stiff-backed, -guttural-tongued German officers in their tight-fitting -uniforms will prove sterner masters than the easy-going -French <i>administrateurs</i> in their topées and white -linen.</p> - -<p>Now the significance of that convention does not -lie in its ethics—which are very questionable; nor in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> -the territory and population and resources concerned—which -are very great; but in the fact that it brings -within reasonable measure of fulfilment the imperial -dream which William II began dreaming some seven -and twenty years ago, and which he recently translated -to the world in the declaration “Germany's future lies -oversea.” In those four words is found the foreign -policy of the Fatherland. The episode which began -with the sending of a war-ship to an obscure port of -Morocco and ended with Germany's acquirement of a -material addition to her African domain was not, as -the world supposes, an example of the haphazard land-grabbing -so popular with European nations, but a single -phase of a vast and carefully laid scheme whose aim is -the creation of a new and greater Germany oversea—a -<i>Deutschland über Meer</i>.</p> - -<p>To solve the problems with which she has been confronted -by her amazing increase in population and production, -Germany has deliberately embarked on a systematic -campaign of world expansion and exploitation. -Finding that she needs a colonial empire in her business, -she is setting out to build one just as she would build a -fleet of dreadnoughts or a ship canal. The fact that she -has nothing or next to nothing to start with, does not -worry her at all. What she cannot obtain by purchase -or treaty site will obtain by threats, and what she cannot -obtain by threats she stands perfectly ready to obtain -by going to war. Having once made up her mind -that the realisation of her political, commercial, and -economic ambitions requires her to have a colonial -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> -dominion, she is not going to permit anything to stand -in the way of her getting it. In other words, wherever -an excuse can be provided for raising a flagstaff, whether -on an ice-floe in the Arctic or an atoll in the South -Pacific, there the German flag shall flutter; wherever -trade is to be found, there Hamburg cargo boats shall -drop their anchors, there Stettin engines shall thunder -over Essen rails, there Solingen cutlery and Silesian -cottons shall be sold by merchants speaking the language -of the Fatherland. It is a scheme astounding -by its very vastness, as methodically planned as a -breakfast-food manufacturer's advertising campaign -and as systematically conducted; and already, thanks -to Teutonic audacity, aggressiveness, and perseverance, -backed up by German banks, fleets, and armies, much -nearer realisation than most people suppose.</p> - -<p>In Morocco, East Africa, and the Congo; in Turkey, -Persia, and Malaysia; in Hayti, Brazil, and the -Argentine; on the shores of all the continents and the -islands of all the seas, German merchants and German -money are working twenty-four hours a day building -up that oversea empire of which the Kaiser dreams. -The activities of these pioneers of commerce and finance -are as varied as commerce and finance themselves. -Their guttural voices are heard in every market place; -their footsteps resound in every avenue of human endeavour. -Their holdings in Brazil are the size of European -kingdoms, and so absolute has their power become -in at least two states—Santa Catharina and Rio -Grande do Sul—that the Brazilian Government has -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> -become seriously alarmed. Their mines in Persia and -China and the Rand rival the cave of Aladdin. They -are completing a trunk line across western Asia which -threatens to endanger England's commercial supremacy -in India; in Africa they are pushing forward another -railway from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the Great -Lakes which will rival the Cape-to-Cairo system in -tapping the trade of the Dark Continent. They own the -light, power, and transportation monopolies of half the -capitals of Latin America. In China the coal mines and -railways of the great province of Shantung are in their -hands. They work tea plantations in Ceylon, tobacco -plantations in Cuba and Sumatra, coffee plantations in -Guatemala, rubber plantations in the Congo, hemp -plantations in East Africa, and cotton plantations in -the Delta of the Nile. Their argosies, flying the house -flags of the Hamburg American, the North German -Lloyd, the German East Africa, the Deutsche Levante, -and a score of other lines, carry German goods to German -warehouses in the world's remotest corners, while -German war-ships are constantly aprowl all up and -down the Seven Seas, ready to protect the interests -thus created by the menace of their guns.</p> - -<p>Back of the German miners and traders and railway -builders are the great German banks, which, when -all is said and done, are the real exploiters of Germany's -interests oversea. So completely are the foreign interests -of the nation in their hands that there is no reason -to doubt the story that the Emperor, when warned -by the great bankers whom he had summoned to a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> -conference over the ominous Moroccan situation that -war with France would endanger, if not destroy, Germany's -oversea ambitions, turned to his ministers with -the remark, “Then, gentlemen, we must find a peaceable -solution.” We of the West have not yet awakened -to a realisation of the magnitude of Germany's foreign -interests or to the almost sovereign powers which the -banks behind them exercise in certain quarters of the -world—particularly in that Latin America which we -have complacently regarded as securely within our own -commercial sphere. In Asia Minor the Deutsche Bank -not only controls the great Anatolian Railway system -but it is building the Bagdad Railway—probably the -most important of Germany's foreign undertakings—these -two German-owned systems providing a route by -which German goods can be carried over German rails -to India more cheaply than England can transport her -own goods to her possessions in her own bottoms. In -one hand the Disconto Bank Gesellschaft holds the -railway and mining concessions of the Chinese province -of Shantung, while with the other it reaches out -across the world to grasp the railway system of Venezuela, -it being to enforce certain claims of this bank -that the German gun-boat <i>Panther</i>—the same that occupied -Agadir—bombarded La Guayra in 1902 and as -a consequence brought the relations of the United -States and Germany uncomfortably close to the breaking-point. -Seven German banks—the German-Asiatic -Bank, the German-Brazilian Bank, the German-Orient -Bank, the German-Palestine Bank, the Bank of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> -Chile and Germany, the Bank of Central America, and -the German Overseas Bank—devote themselves exclusively -to the exploitation of foreign concessions, -either owning or dominating enterprises of every conceivable -character in the regions denoted by their -titles or lending financial assistance to German subjects -engaged in such undertakings.</p> - -<p>A few years ago, when Germany was starting in the -race for naval supremacy, the Imperial Admiralty -issued a review of Germany's oversea interests for the -purpose of impressing the Reichstag with the necessity -for dreadnoughts and then more dreadnoughts. Here -are some of the figures, taken from the list at random, -and the more impressive because they are from official -sources and because, since they were published, they -have materially increased:</p> - -<table class="table1" id="GERMAN_INT" summary="GERMAN TRANSMARINE INTERESTS"> - <tbody> - <tr> - <td class="c1">North Africa</td> - <td class="c2">$25,000,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Egypt</td> - <td class="c2">22,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Liberia</td> - <td class="c2">1,250,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Zanzibar</td> - <td class="c2">1,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Mozambique</td> - <td class="c2">2,750,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Madagascar</td> - <td class="c2">1,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">British South Africa</td> - <td class="c2">337,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Turkey and the Balkans</td> - <td class="c2">112,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">British India and Ceylon</td> - <td class="c2">27,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Straits Settlements</td> - <td class="c2">8,750,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">China</td> - <td class="c2">87,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Mexico</td> - <td class="c2">87,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Venezuela and Colombia</td> - <td class="c2">312,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Peru and Chile</td> - <td class="c2">127,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Argentine</td> - <td class="c2">187,500,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Brazil</td> - <td class="c2">400,000,000</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<p>And this endless caravan of figures represents but a fraction -of Germany's transmarine interests, remember, for -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> -it does not include her colonies on both coasts of Africa, -in North China, and in the South Seas. Now, if you will -again glance over the above list of Germany's foreign -interests, you can hardly fail to be struck by the fact -that by far the greater part of them are in countries -notorious for the weakness and instability of their governments, -as, for example, China, Morocco, Turkey, -Liberia, Mexico, and Venezuela; or in countries which, -though possessing stable governments, would not be -strong enough successfully to resist German aggression -or German demands. In regions where German settlers -abound and where German banks are in financial control -it is seldom difficult for Germany to find an excuse -for meddling. It may be that a German settler is attacked, -or a German consul insulted, or a German bank -has difficulty in collecting its debts. So the slim cables -carry a dash-dotted message to the Foreign Office in -Berlin; instantly the cry goes up that in Morocco or -China or Venezuela or Hayti German “interests” are -imperilled; and before the government of the country -in question realises that anything out of the ordinary -has happened a cruiser with a German flag drooping -from her taffrail is lying off one of its coast towns. -Before the silent menace of that war-ship is removed, -Germany generally manages to obtain a concession -to build a railway, or a ninety-nine-year lease of a -coaling-station, or the cession of a strip of more or less -valuable territory, and so goes merrily and steadily on -the work of building up a German empire oversea.</p> - -<p>But these interests, world-wide though they are, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> -fail to satisfy the German expansionist party whose -prophet is the Kaiser. They demand something more -material than figures; they would see the German flag -floating over government houses instead of warehouses, -over fortifications instead of plantations. They would -see more of the map of the world painted in German -colours. But Germany was late in getting into the colonising -game, so that wherever she has gone she has -found other nations already in possession. In North -Africa her prospectors and concession-hunters found -the French too firmly established to be ousted; the -only territory left in South Africa over which she could -raise her flag was so arid and worthless that neither -England nor Portugal had troubled to include it in their -dominions; though she bullied China into leasing her -the port of Kiauchau, the further territorial expansion -in the Celestial Empire of which she had dreamed was -halted by Russian jealousy and Japanese ambition; -around Latin America—the most enticing field of all—stretched -the protecting arm of the Monroe Doctrine.</p> - -<p>Now, these “Keep Off the Grass” signs with which -she was everywhere confronted did not improve Germany's -disposition. They made her feel abused and -peevish, and whenever she saw a foreign flag flying over -some God-forsaken islet in the Pacific or a stretch of -snake-infested African jungle, she resented it deeply -and said that she was being denied “a place in the sun.” -So when France despatched an expedition to Fez in the -summer of 1911 to teach the Moorish tribesmen proper -respect for French property and French lives, Germany -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> -seized on that action as an excuse for occupying a -Moroccan harbour and a strip of the adjacent coast, on -the pretext that her interests there were being jeopardised, -and flatly refused to evacuate it unless France gave -her something in return. I might mention, in passing, -that Germany's interests in Morocco are considerably -more important than is generally supposed, the powerful -Westphalian firm of Mannesmann Brothers having -obtained from Sultan Abdul Aziz extensive mining, -ranching, and plantation concessions in that portion of -his empire which the German newspapers proceeded -to prematurely dub “<i>West Marokko Deutsch</i>.” The -rich iron deposits in this region, when taken in conjunction -with the alarming decrease of the ore supply in the -German mines and the consequent shortage which -threatens the German iron and steel industry, undoubtedly -provided one of the reasons underlying the -Kaiser's interference with the French programme in -Morocco.</p> - -<p>France, knowing full well the enormous political -and commercial value of Morocco, and determined to -complete her African empire by its acquirement, after -months of haggling, during which battle-ships and army -corps were moved about like chessmen, consented to -compensate Germany by ceding her a slice of the colony -of French Equatorial Africa, better known, perhaps, as -the French Congo.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> -It was a good bargain that France -made, too, for she took an empire and gave a jungle in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> -exchange. But Germany made the better bargain, it -seems to me, for by agreeing to a French protectorate -over Morocco she obtained one hundred thousand -square miles of African soil without its costing her a foot -of land or a dollar in exchange. From the view-point -of the world at large, Germany emerged from the Moroccan -imbroglio with a good-sized strip of equatorial -territory, presumably rich in undeveloped resources, -certainly rich in savages, snakes, and fevers, and, everything -considered, of very doubtful value. But to Germany -this stretch of jungle land meant far more than -that. It was a territory which she had wanted, watched, -and waited for ever since she entered the game of colonial -expansion. It is one of the links—in many respects -the most essential one—which she requires to -connect her scattered possessions in the Dark Continent -and to bar the advance of her great rival, England, -to the northward by stretching an unbroken chain of -German colonies across Africa from coast to coast. The -acquisition of that piece of west-coast jungle marked -the greatest stride which Germany has yet taken in her -march toward an empire oversea.</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - <p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a> - <a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> - Germany has given her new colony the official designation “New - Kamerun.” - </p> -</div> - -<p>Heretofore Germany has been in much the same -predicament as a boy who tries to put a picture puzzle -together when some of the pieces are missing. In Germany's -case the missing pieces were held by England, -France, Belgium, and Portugal, and they refused to give -them up. If you will open the family atlas to the map -of Africa, you will see that Germany's four colonies on -that continent are so widely separated that their consolidation -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> -is apparently out of the question. Northernmost -of all, and set squarely in the middle of that pestilential -coast-line variously named and noted for its -slaves, its ivory, and its gold, and aptly called “the -rottenest coast in the world,” is the colony of Togo. -Approximately the size of Cuba and rich in native products, -it is so remote from the other German possessions -that its only value is in providing Germany with a <i>quid -pro quo</i> which she can use in negotiating for some territory -more desirable. In the right angle formed by the -Gulf of Guinea is the colony of Kamerun, a rich, fertile, -and exceedingly unhealthful possession about the size -of Spain. Though its hinterland reaches inland to -Lake Tchad, it has hitherto been destitute of good harbours -or navigable rivers, being barred from the Niger -by British Nigeria and from the Congo, until the recent -territorial readjustment, by French Equatorial Africa. -Follow the same coast-line twelve hundred miles to -the southward and you will come to German Southwest -Africa, a barren, inhospitable, sparsely populated -land, stretching from a harbourless coast as far inland -as the Desert of Kalahari. On the other side of the -continent, just south of the Equator, lies German East -Africa, almost twice the size of the mother country -and the largest and richest of the Kaiser's transmarine -possessions. The combined area of these four colonies -is equal to that of all the States east of the Mississippi -put together; certainly a substantial foundation on -which to begin the erection of an empire, especially -when it is remembered that French Africa, which now -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> -comprises forty-five per cent of the continent, is for the -most part the work of but a single generation.</p> - -<p>When Monsieur Cambon and Herr von Kiderlein-Waechter -put their pens to the piece of parchment of -which I have already spoken, the boundary of the Kamerun -was automatically extended southward almost -to the Equator and eastward some hundreds of miles to -the Logone River, the apex of the angle formed by the -meeting of these new frontiers touching the Congo River -and thereby bringing the Kamerun into contact with the -Belgian Congo. In other words, Germany's great colonies -on either coast are no longer separated by French -and Belgian territory, but by Belgian alone—and Belgium, -remember, is both weak and neutral. Now, it is by -no means beyond the bounds of possibility that Belgium -might consent to sell Germany either the whole or a -portion of the Congo, for the financial difficulties of -that colony have been very great, and it has never been -able to pay its way, its wants having been supplied -at first by large gifts of money from King Leopold, and -more recently by loans raised and guaranteed by Belgium. -This unsatisfactory financial condition not having -helped to popularise the Congo with the thrifty -Belgians, there is considerable reason to believe that -the Brussels Government would lend an attentive ear -to any proposals which Germany might make toward -its purchase. England might be expected, of course, to -oppose the sale of the Congo to Germany tooth and nail, -it being the fear of just such an eventuality which caused -her to seize on the rubber atrocities as an excuse for her -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> -vigorous and persistent advocacy of the internationalisation -of the Congo. Though France holds the reversionary -rights to the Congo, there are no grounds for -believing that she would place any serious obstacles in -the way of its acquisition by Germany, for she has given -it to be understood that she intends devoting her energies -henceforward to the exploitation of her enormous -possessions in North Africa. Assuming, then—and these -assumptions, believe me, are not nearly so chimerical -as they may sound—that the Belgian Government -should sell Germany all or a part of the Congo, Germany's -possessions would then stretch across the continent -from coast to coast, comprising all that is most -worth having in Equatorial Africa.</p> - -<p>While we are about it, let us carry our assumptions -one step farther and take it for granted that Portugal -could be induced to dispose of her great west-coast -colony of Angola, to which Germany already possesses -the reversionary rights. It is not only possible, but -probable, that a good round offer of money, or perhaps -another Agadir performance, based on some easily -found pretext and backed up by German war-ships in -the Tagus, would induce the Lisbon Government to -hand over Angola, along with its fevers and its slavery, -to the Germans. Portugal is bitterly poor, its government -is weak and vacillating, and a long list of failures -has left the people with little stomach for colonisation. -The Portuguese Republic has few friends among the -monarchical nations of Europe and could count on -scant aid from them in resisting Teutonic coercion. It -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> -is asserted in diplomatic circles, indeed, that the ink on -the Morocco-Equatoria Convention was scarcely dry -before the German minister in Lisbon had opened secret -<i>pourparlers</i> with the Portuguese Foreign Office with a -view to the purchase of both Angola and the east-coast -colony of Mozambique.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The acquisition of Angola -would supply Germany with the final link needed to -unite her colonies in East, West, and Southwest Africa, -thus giving her an African empire second in size only to -that of France. Far-fetched and far-distant as all this -may sound, I have but roughly sketched for you that -imperial dream for whose fulfilment the Kaiser and -his people are indefatigably working and confidently -waiting.</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - <p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a> - <a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> - Though commonly applied to the colony of Portuguese East Africa, - the name Mozambique belongs, strictly speaking, only to the northernmost - province of that possession. - </p> -</div> - -<p>Very few people are aware that, as long ago as -1898, England and Germany concluded a secret agreement -which definitely provides for the eventual disposition -of Portugal's African possessions. Of its true -history and scope, however, little has ever leaked out. -It grew out of Joseph Chamberlain's restless and ambitious -schemes for the consolidation of British dominion -in Africa. Appreciating, early in the Boer War, -that England's success in that struggle would largely -depend upon Germany remaining strictly neutral, that -master statesman proposed to the Berlin Government -a plan the effect of which was to divide the reversion of -Angola and Mozambique between Great Britain and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> -Germany, inferentially leaving the former a free hand -south of the Zambezi. This was the famous Secret -Treaty, the final text of which was afterward signed -by Lord Salisbury, and it was largely in virtue of this -agreement that England was free from German interference -during the Boer War. It is an interesting comment -on the ethics of international politics that this -remarkable agreement was concluded without any consultation -of Portugal, the country the most vitally -concerned. Delagoa Bay is no longer as imperative a -necessity to England as it was in 1898, at which time -it was the quickest way to reach the Transvaal, and, -on the other hand, the West Coast is daily becoming -more important for strategical and commercial reasons, -for the “Afro” railway, of which I have made mention -in the chapter on Morocco, will become in the near -future the great highway between Europe and South -America, while the railway now being built between -Benguela (Lobito Bay) and the Katanga region will -provide the easiest and quickest means of communicating -with Rhodesia and the Transvaal. The terms of -the Anglo-German Secret Treaty are of interest, however, -as indicating how that portion of the African continent -lying south of the Congo will be eventually -parcelled out, and as showing the framework on which -is being slowly but surely constructed Germany's -African empire.</p> - -<p>The erection of such a German state across the middle -of Africa would have far-reaching results in more -directions than one. In the first place, it would end -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> -forever England's long-cherished ambition of eventually -linking up her Sudanese and South African possessions -and thus completing an “All Red” route from Cairo to -the Cape. In the second place, Germany is now in a -position to build her own transcontinental railway—from -east to west instead of from north to south—on -German or neutral soil all the way, thus removing the -completion of the Cape-to-Cairo system, even under -international auspices, to a very distant day, and making -Dar-es-Salam and Duala, instead of Cape Town and -Alexandria, the starting-points for those highways of -steel which are destined to open up inner Africa.</p> - -<p>It is surprising how little even the well-informed -know of these far places which Germany has taken for -her own. Fertile spots as any upon earth, covered -with hard-wood forests and watered by many rivers, -when seen from the shade of an awning over a ship's -deck they are as alluring as the stage of a theatre set for -a sylvan opera. Go a thousand yards back from that -smiling coast, however, and the illusion disappears, for -you find a country whose hostile natives, savage beasts, -and deadly fevers combine to make it deserving of its -title—“the white man's graveyard.” The statesmen -of the Wilhelmstrasse must have taken a long look -into the future when they raised the German flag over -such lands as these. The returns they have yielded -thus far would have discouraged a man less sanguine -than William Hohenzollern. Though subsidised German -steam-ships ply along their coasts, though their -forests resound to the clank and clang of German railway-builders' -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> -tools, though the plantations of government-assisted -settlers dot the back country, though she -has spent on them thousands of lives and millions of -marks, Germany's only returns thus far have been a few -annual tons of ivory, copra, and rubber, some excellent -but unprofitable harbours, and many lonely stations -where her sons contract fevers and pessimism. But I -would stake my life that this out-of-the-way, back-of-beyond, -sun-blistered, fever-stricken German Africa -will be a great colony some day.</p> - -<p>From the care with which they are laid out, from -the perfection of their sanitary arrangements, from the -substantiality of their public buildings and official residences -and their suitability to the climatic conditions, -the travellers who confine their investigations to the -coast are readily deceived into thinking that Tanga -and Bagamoyo and Dar-es-Salam and Swakopmund -and Duala are the gateways to rich and prosperous -colonies. From the very outset, however, the imperial -government based its claim for popular support in its -colonial ventures upon the erroneous assumption that -German colonies would attract Germans, and that in -this way the language of the Fatherland would be spread -abroad and eventually supplant that of Shakespeare. -The Germans, however, have stubbornly refused to go -to their own colonies, preferring those where English -is the speech and where there are fewer officials and -more freedom. To-day, therefore, you find the model -German towns, so perfectly built that you feel as though -you were walking through a municipal exhibition, almost -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> -wholly peopled by brass-bound, hide-bound -officials, while the German traders are carrying on -thriving businesses under the English flag at Mombasa -and Zanzibar and Sierra Leone.</p> - -<p>Now, Germany has no one but herself to blame for -this condition of affairs, having brought it about by the -short-sightedness of her colonial policy and the harshness -and incapacity of her officials. Intending to found industrial -colonies, she created military settlements instead, -administering and exploiting them, not as if they -were German lands, but as if they were an enemy's -country. Nothing emphasises more sharply the purely -military character of Germany's African colonies than -the fact that there are seven soldiers or officials to every -German civilian. Dwelling in idleness, in one of the -most trying climates in the world, the officials seem to -take a malicious satisfaction in interfering with the civil -population, thus driving the traders—who form the -backbone of every colony—to take up their residence in -English ports and so paralysing German trade. The -soldiers, for want of something better to do, are forever -seeking advancement by making unnecessary expeditions -into the hinterland for the purpose of “punishing” -the natives, thus causing them to migrate by wholesale -into British, Belgian, and even Portuguese territory, -so that the German colonies are left without labour -and the plantations are consequently being ruined.</p> - -<p>The needless severity of Germany's colonial rule -is graphically illustrated by the fact that during 1911 -there were 14,849 criminal convictions in German East -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> -Africa alone, or one conviction to every 637 natives; -while in the adjoining protectorate of Uganda, among -the same type of natives but under a British administration, -the ratio of convictions was only one in 2,047. -There is not a town in German East Africa where you -cannot see boys of from eight to fourteen years, shackled -together by chains running from iron collar to iron collar -and guarded by soldiers with loaded rifles, doing the -work of men under a deadly sun. Natives with bleeding -backs are constantly making their way into British -and Belgian territory with tales of maltreatment by -German planters, while stories of German tyranny, brutality, -and corruption—of some instances of which I was -myself a witness—form staple topics of conversation -on every club veranda and steamer's deck along these -coasts. In German Southwest Africa the dearth of -labour, owing to the practical extermination of the -Herero nation in Germany's last “little war” in that -colony, has become a serious and pressing problem. In -a single campaign—which cost Germany five hundred -million marks and the lives of two thousand soldiers, -and which could have been avoided altogether by a -little tact and kindness—half the total population of -the colony was killed in battle or driven into the desert -to perish. That is why the builders of the Swakopmund-Otavi -Railway in German Southwest Africa—the -longest two-foot-gauge line in the world—have to send -to Europe for their labour. Until Germany makes a -radical change in her methods of colonial administration, -and until she learns that traders and labourers are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> -more essential to a colony's prosperity than pompous -and domineering officials, her colonial accounts will continue -to stand heaviest on the debit side of the ledger.</p> - -<p>Successful colonial administration in Africa, as in -all tropical countries, is largely a matter of temperament, -and the stolid sons of the Fatherland seem, -strangely enough, to be more quickly affected by the -demoralising climate and to be irritated more easily -than either the English or the French. The Englishman's -sense of justice and the Frenchman's sense of -humour are their chief assets as successful colonisers -and rulers of alien peoples, but the German colonial -official, who is generally serious by nature and almost -always domineering as the result of his training, possesses -neither of these invaluable attributes and is heavily -handicapped in consequence. It is no easy task with -which he is confronted, remember. The loneliness and -the privations of the white man's life, and the debility -that comes from the heat and the rains and the fevers, -when combined with the strain of governing and educating -an inconceivably lazy, stubborn, stupid, and intractable -people, make the job of an African official one -of the most trying in the world. The loneliness and the -climate seem to grip a German as they never do an -Englishman, and he becomes irritable and ugly and -unreasonably annoyed by trifles, so that when a native -fails to get out of his way quickly enough, or to salute -him with the punctiliousness which he considers his -due, he flies into a rage and orders the man to be flogged. -The native goes back to his village with a bleeding back -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> -and hatred in his heart, and, as likely as not, a bloody, -costly, and troublesome native uprising ensues. The -African native is, after all, nothing but an overgrown -and very aggravating child, and his upbringing is a job -for school-teachers instead of drill sergeants, and the -sooner the imperial government appreciates that fact -the better.</p> - -<p>I went to German East Africa, which is the Kaiser's -star colony, expecting to be deeply impressed; I came -away deeply disappointed. It is only about fifty miles -from Zanzibar across to Dar-es-Salam, the capital of -the colony, but the local steamer, which is the size of a -Hudson River tugboat and rolls horribly on the slightest -provocation, manages to use up the better part of a -day in making the trip. Seen from the steamer's deck, -Dar-es-Salam presents one of the most enchanting pictures -that I know, and every one who goes ashore there -does so with high expectations. Imagine, if you can, -a city of two hundred thousand people, with the imposing, -red-roofed schools and churches and hospitals -and barracks and municipal buildings of, say, Düsseldorf, -and the white-walled, broad-verandaed, bungalow -dwellings of southern California; with concrete wharves -and cement sidewalks and beautifully macadamised -roads and many public parks: imagine all this, I say, -dropped down in the midst of a palm grove on one of the -hottest and unhealthiest coasts in the world—that is -Dar-es-Salam. The hotel is, barring the one at Kandy -in Ceylon and another at Ancon in the Canal Zone, the -best and most beautiful tropical hostelry I have ever -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> -seen, but, as it is owned and run by the government, -for the benefit of its officials, its manager, a blond, florid-faced, -pompadoured Prussian, was as independent as a -hotel clerk in a city where a presidential convention is -going on. Just as in the other German colonies, I found -East Africa to be suffering from a severe attack of militarism. -I saw more sentries and patrols and guards -during my four days' stay in Dar-es-Salam than I did in -Constantinople during the Turkish Revolution. I was -lulled to sleep by regimental bugles and I was awakened -by them again at daybreak, and I never set foot out of -doors without meeting a column of native soldiery, -their black faces peering out stolidly from beneath the -sun-aprons, their spindle shanks encased in spiral -puttees, their feet rising and falling in the senseless -“parade step” in time to the monotonous “<i>rechts! -links! rechts! links!</i>” of the German sergeant. But -what struck me most forcibly about Dar-es-Salam was -that it appeared to have no business. Apparently the -soldiers had frightened it away. The harbours of Mombasa -and Zanzibar and Beira and Lourenço Marques -are alive with steamers taking on or discharging cargo -(and quite two out of three of them fly the German flag), -and their streets are lined with offices and warehouses -and “factories” (over the doors of many of which are -signs bearing German names), and their wharves are -piled high with bales of merchandise going to or coming -from the four corners of the earth; but in the harbour -of Dar-es-Salam, as in all the other German harbours -I visited, the only vessels are white German gun-boats -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> -or rusty German tramps; its streets are lined with -government offices instead of business offices; on its -wharves are a few puncheons of palm-oil, or other -products of the bush, and nothing more.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_186a.jpg" id="i_186a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_186a.jpg" width="600" height="436" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Warundi warriors. German East Africa.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_186b.jpg" id="i_186b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_186b.jpg" width="600" height="445" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Native infantry. German East Africa. A few years ago - these men were just such savages as those shown above.</div> - -<div class="caption p1">THE HAND OF THE WAR LORD IN GERMAN AFRICA.</div> -</div> - -<p>However much the administration of the German -colonies may be open to criticism, and however slow -they may have been in commercial development, I have -nothing but praise and admiration for the accomplishments -of their railway-builders. From Dar-es-Salam -I travelled inland by railway motor-car nearly to Kilamatinde, -a distance of three hundred and seventy miles, -through one of the most savage regions in Africa, over -one of the best graded and ballasted roadbeds I have -ever seen. The line is now being pushed forward from -Kilamatinde toward Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, which -it will reach, so the chief engineer assured me, by the -summer of 1914. From Ujiji, which, by the way, is the -place where Stanley discovered Livingstone, a steamer -service will be inaugurated to Albertville, on the Belgian -shore of the lake, whence a line is under construction -to the navigable waters of the Lualaba, which is -one of the chief tributaries of the Congo; while another -line of steamers will ply between Ujiji and Kituta, -in northeastern Rhodesia, which point the British -Cape-to-Cairo system is approaching. By the close -of 1914, in all probability therefore, the traveller who -lands at Dar-es-Salam will be able to travel by train, -with the passage across Lake Tanganyika as the only -interruption, to the Cape of Good Hope, or by train -and river steamer to the mouth of the Congo, and in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> -perfect comfort and safety all the way. As Walfish -Bay, the only harbour in Southwest Africa worthy of -the name, belongs to England, the Germans, finding -themselves unable to buy it and appreciating that a -harbourless colony is all but worthless, promptly set -to work and built themselves artificial harbours at -Swakopmund and at Lüderitz Bay, though at appalling -cost. That Germany is exceedingly anxious to acquire -Walfish Bay, and that she stands ready to make almost -any reasonable concession to obtain it, there is little -doubt. The mere fact that Walfish Bay is owned by -England is a source of constant aggravation to the Germans, -for it lies squarely in the middle of their Southwest -African coast-line, its roomy roadstead and deep -anchorage being in sharp contrast to the German port -of Lüderitz Bay, which is being rapidly sanded up, and -that of Swakopmund, a harbour on which the Berlin -Government has already thrown away several millions -of marks. Lüderitz Bay is already connected with the -inland town of Keetmanshoop by three hundred and -fifty miles of narrow-gauge line, and plans are now under -consideration for pushing this southeastward so as to -link up with the South African system near Kimberley, -while from Swakopmund another iron highway, four -hundred miles long, gives access to the Otavi copper-mining -country and will doubtless be extended, in the -not far-distant future, to the Rhodesian border, tapping -the main line of the Cape-to-Cairo system in the neighbourhood -of the Victoria Falls.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_188a.jpg" id="i_188a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_188a.jpg" width="600" height="402" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Mr. and Mrs. Powell travelling by railway motor-car - in German Africa.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_188b.jpg" id="i_188b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_188b.jpg" width="600" height="476" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">A way-station on the line of the German - East African Railway.</div> - -<div class="caption p1">RAILROADING THROUGH A JUNGLE.</div> -</div> - -<p>I have laid considerable stress upon the subject of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> -railways, because it seems to me that in them lies the -chief hope of the German colonies, for wherever the -railway goes there goes civilisation. Throughout the -vast and potentially rich regions thus being opened up -by the locomotive the imperial government is pouring -out money unstintingly in the construction of roads, -bridges, and reservoirs, the sinking of artesian wells, the -establishment of telegraph lines and postal routes, the -erection of schools and hospitals, in furnishing trees to -the planters and machinery and live-stock to the farmers, -and in assisting immigration. So, if keeping everlastingly -at it brings success, I cannot but feel that the day -will come when these officers and officials, these soldiers -and settlers, these traders and tribesmen, will find their -places and play their parts in the Kaiser's imperial -scheme of a new and greater Germany over the sea.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">“ALL ABOARD FOR CAPE TOWN!”</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-i.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap I" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">IN -Bulawayo, which is in Matabeleland, stands one of -the most significant and impressive statues in the -world. From the middle of that dusty, sun-baked -thoroughfare known as Main Street rises the bronze -image of a bulky, thick-set, shabbily clad man, his hands -clasped behind him, his feet planted firmly apart, as -he stares in profound meditation northward over Africa. -Cecil John Rhodes was the dreamer's name, and in his -vision he saw twin lines of steel stretching from the Cape -of Good Hope straight away to the shores of the Mediterranean; -a railway, to use his own words, “cutting -Africa through the centre and picking up trade all the -way.”</p> - -<p>If ever a man was a strange blending of dreamer -and materialist, of utopian and buccaneer, of Clive and -Hastings with Hawkins and Drake, it was Cecil Rhodes. -In other words, he dreamed great dreams and let no -scruples stand in the way of their fulfilment. Having -trekked over nearly the whole of that vast territory that -stretches northward from the Orange and the Vaal to -the shores of Lake Tanganyika, his imagination saw in -this fertile, sparsely settled country virgin soil for the -building up of a new and greater Britain. The predominance -of the British in Egypt and in South Africa, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> -and the fact that the territory under British control -stretched with but a single break from the mouths of the -Nile to Table Bay, gave rise in the great empire-builder's -mind to the project of a trunk-line railway “from the -Cape to Cairo,” and under the British flag all the way. -Though Rhodes's dream of an “All Red” railway was -rudely shattered by the Convention of 1889, which allowed -Germany to stretch a barrier across the continent -from the Indian Ocean to the Congo State, he never -abandoned the hope that a British zone would eventually -be acquired through German East Africa, either by -treaty or purchase, even going so far as to open negotiations -with the Kaiser to this end on his own initiative.</p> - -<p>It was a picturesque vision, said the men to whom -he confided his dream, but impractical and impossible, -for in those days the line from Alexandria to Assuan and -another from Cape Town to Kimberley practically comprised -the railway system of the continent, and five -thousand miles of unmapped forest, desert, and jungle, -filled with hostile natives, savage beasts, and deadly -fevers, lay between. But the man who had added to -the British Empire a territory greater than France, Germany, -Austria-Hungary, and Italy combined; who had -organised the corporation controlling the South African -diamond fields; who had put down a formidable native -uprising by going unarmed and unaccompanied into -the rebel camp; and who was responsible, more than -any other person, for the Boer War, was not of the stamp -which is daunted by either pessimistic predictions or -obvious obstacles.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was a slow and disheartening business at first, -this building of a railway with a soul-inspiring name. -The discovery of the diamond fields had already brought -the line up to Kimberley; the finding of gold carried -it northward again to the Rand; the opening up of -Rhodesia led the iron highway on to Bulawayo, and -there it stopped, apparently for good. But Rhodes -was undiscouraged. He felt that to push the railway -northward from Bulawayo to the southern shores of -Lake Tanganyika was an obvious and necessary enterprise—the -actual proof, as it were, of the British occupation. -But the Boer War was scarcely over, the -national purse was drained almost dry, and even the -most optimistic financiers shrank from the enormous -expense and problematical success of building a railway -into the heart of a savage and unknown country.</p> - -<p>Finally Rhodes turned to the imperial government -for assistance in this imperial enterprise, for the man -who had added Zululand, Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, -Mashonaland, Barotseland, and Nyasaland to -the empire felt that the empire owed him something -in return. He first laid his scheme before Lord Salisbury, -then prime minister, who said that nothing could -be done until he had a closer estimate of the expense. -Returning to Central Africa, Rhodes had a flying survey -of the route made in double-quick time, and with -the figures in his pocket hastened back to London. -This time the premier sent him to see Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, -the chancellor of the exchequer. Hicks-Beach, -who was notorious for his parsimony in the expenditure -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> -of national funds, was frigid and discouraging, but -finally relaxed enough to say: “Get a proper survey -made of your proposed railway, with estimates drawn -up by responsible engineers, and if the figure is not too -unreasonable we will see what can be done.” Fortified -with this shred of hope, Rhodes again betook himself -to the country north of the Zambezi, and, after months -of work, hardship, and privation, facing death from -native spears, poisonous snakes, and the sleeping-sickness, -his men weakened by malaria and his animals -killed by the dreaded tsetse-fly, he returned to England -and presented his revised surveys and estimates to -the chancellor of the exchequer. That immaculately -clad statesman negligently twirled his eye-glass on its -string as he regarded with obvious disfavour the fever-sunken -cheeks and unkempt appearance of the pioneer. -“Really, Mr. Rhodes,” he remarked coldly, “I fear it is -quite out of the question for her Majesty's government -to lend your scheme its countenance or assistance.” -It is a pleasingly human touch that as the indignant -empire-builder went out of the minister's room he -slammed the door so that the pictures rattled on the -wall.</p> - -<p>After dinner that night Rhodes strolled over to see -a friend of Kimberley days, a Hebrew financier named -Alfred Beit, in whom he found a sympathetic listener. -As Rhodes took his hat to go, Beit casually remarked, -“Look here, Rhodes, you'll want a start. Four and a -half million pounds is a big sum to raise. We'll do half -a million of it, Wernher [his partner] and I.” That -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> -meant success. Though ministers of the Crown turned -a cold shoulder to the great imperialist who came to -them with a great imperial enterprise, help came from -two German Jews who had become naturalised Englishmen. -The next day the City brought the total up to -a million and a half, and within little more than a fortnight -the entire four and a half millions were subscribed, -the three names, Rhodes, Beit, and Wernher, being -accepted by the man in the street as sufficient guarantee -of success. It was in this fashion that Cecil Rhodes -raised the money for another great stride in his railway -march northward.</p> - -<p>By 1904 the road had progressed as far as the Victoria -Falls of the Zambezi, where it crosses the river on a -wonderful steel-arch bridge—the highest in the world—its -span, looking for all the world like a frosted cobweb, -rising four hundred and twenty feet above the angry -waters. “I want the bridge to cross the river so close -to the falls,” directed Rhodes, “that the travellers -will have the spray in their faces.” “That is impossible,” -objected the engineers. “What you ask cannot -be done.” “Then I will find some one who can do it,” -said Rhodes—and he did. The bridge was built where -he wanted it, and as the Zambezi Express rolls out above -the torrent the passengers have to close the windows to -keep from being drenched with spray. By 1906 the -rail-head had been pushed forward to Broken Hill, a -mining centre in northern Rhodesia; three years later -found it at Bwana M'kubwa, on the Congo border. -Here the task of construction was taken up by the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> -Katanga Railway Company, and in February, 1911, -freight and passenger trains were in operation straight -through to Elisabethville, in the heart of the Belgian -Congo, two thousand three hundred and sixteen miles -north of Cape Town and only two hundred and eighty -miles from the southern end of Lake Tanganyika.</p> - -<p>As you sit on the observation platform of your -electric-lighted sleeping-car, anywhere along that section -of the “Cape-to-Cairo” between Cape Town and -the Zambezi, you rub your eyes incredulously as you -watch the rolling, verdure-clad plains stretching away -to the foot-hills of distant ranges, and note the entire -absence of those dense forests and steaming jungles -which have always been associated, in the minds of -most of us, with Central Africa. The more you see -of this open, homely, rather monotonous country the -harder it becomes for you to convince yourself that you -are really in the heart of that mysterious, storied Dark -Continent and not back in America again.</p> - -<p>And the illusion is completed by the people, for the -only natives you see are careless, happy, decently clad -darkies who might have come straight from the levees -of Vicksburg or New Orleans, while on every station -platform are groups of fine, bronze-faced, up-standing -fellows in corded riding-breeches and brown boots, their -flannel shirts open at the neck, their broad-brimmed -hats cocked rakishly—just such types, indeed, as were -common beyond the Mississippi twenty years ago, before -store clothes and the motor-car had spoiled the -picturesqueness of our own frontier.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> - -<p>North of the Zambezi it is a different story, however, -for there it is frontier still, with many of a frontier's -drawbacks, for the prices of necessities are exorbitant -and of luxuries fantastic; skilled workmen can command -almost any wages they may ask, and common -labour is both scarce and poor. The miner, the scientifically -trained farmer, and the skilled workman have -rich opportunities in this quarter of Africa, however, -for the mineral wealth is amazing, much of the soil is -excellent, and civilisation is advancing over a great area -with three-league boots.</p> - -<p>For excitement, variety, and picturesqueness I -doubt if the journey through Barotseland and the -Katanga district of the Congo can be equalled on any -railway in the world. It is true that the Uganda Railway—which, -by the way, does not touch Uganda at all—has -been better advertised, but in quantity of game -and facilities for hunting it the territory through which -it runs is no whit superior to that traversed by the -“Cape-to-Cairo.” Stroll a mile up or down the Zambezi -from the railway bridge and you can see hippos as easily -as you can at the Zoo in Central Park; in Northwest -Rhodesia herds of bush-buck, zebras, and ostriches -scamper away at sight of the train; and as you lie in -your sleeping-berth at night, while the train halts on -lonely sidings, you can hear the roar of lions and see -the gleam of the camp-fires by means of which the -railway employees keep them away. On one occasion, -when our train was lying on a siding south of the -Zambezi, the conductor of the dining-car suddenly -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> -exclaimed, “Look there, gentlemen—look over there!” -His excitement was justified, for from over a screen of -bushes, scarcely a biscuit's throw away, a herd of five -giraffes craned their preposterous necks and peered at -us curiously. Once, when I was travelling through -Northwest Rhodesia, our engine struck a bull elephant -which had decided to contest the right of way. As the -train was running at full speed, both engine and elephant -went off the track. Returning that way some -days later, we noted that the local station-master had -scraped the gargantuan skull to the bone, filled it with -earth, and set it on the station platform as a jardinière -to grow geraniums in. He was an ingenious fellow.</p> - -<p>From the Cairo end, meanwhile, the northern section -of the great transcontinental system was being -pushed steadily, if slowly, southward. The difficulties -of river transportation experienced by the two Sudanese -expeditions had proved conclusively that if the Sudan -was ever to be opened up to European exploitation it -must be by rail rather than by river. It was the Khalifa -who was unconsciously responsible for the rapid -completion of much of the Sudanese section of the -“Cape-to-Cairo,” for, in order to come to hand-grips -with him, Kitchener and his soldiers pushed the railway -down the desert to Khartoum at record speed, laying -close on two miles of track between each sunrise and -sunset. There it halted for a number of years; but after -the British had done their work, and Khartoum had -been transformed from a town of blood, lust, and fanaticism -into a city with broad, shaded streets, along -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> -which stalks law and order in the khaki tunic of a Sudanese -policeman, the railway-building fever, which affects -some men as irresistibly as the <i>Wanderlust</i> does others, -took hold of Those Who Have the Say, and the line was -again pushed southward, along the banks of the Blue -Nile, to Sennar, one hundred and fifty-eight miles south -of Khartoum. With the completion, in 1910, of several -iron bridges, it was advanced to Kosti, a post on the -White Nile, with the northern end of Lake Tanganyika -some twelve hundred miles away.</p> - -<p>That a few more years will see the northern section -extending southward, via Gondokoro, to Lake Victoria -Nyanza, and the southern section northward to Lake -Tanganyika, there is little doubt. Indeed, the plans -are drawn, the routes mapped, the levels run, and on -the Katanga-Tanganyika section the railway-builders -are even now at work. But when the Victoria Nyanza -has been reached by the one section, and Tanganyika -by the other, there will come a halt, for between the two -rail-heads there will still be six hundred miles of intervening -territory—and that territory is German.</p> - -<p>Unless, therefore, England can obtain, by treaty -or purchase, a railway zone across German East Africa, -such as we have obtained for the Canal across the -Isthmus of Panama, it looks very much as though there -would never be an all-British railway from the Mediterranean -to the Cape, and as though the life dream of -Cecil John Rhodes would vanish into thin air. There -are several reasons why Germany is not inclined to give -England the much-desired right of way. First, because -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> -between the two nations a bitter rivalry, political and -commercial, exists, and the Germans feel that already -far too much of the continent is under the shadow of the -Union Jack; secondly, because the Germans are, as I -have already mentioned in the preceding chapter, themselves -building a railway from Dar-es-Salam, the capital -of their east-coast colony, to Lake Tanganyika, and by -means of this line they expect to divert to their own -ports the trade of all that portion of inner Africa lying -between Rhodesia and the Sudan; thirdly, because it is -unlikely in the extreme that England would give Germany -such a <i>quid pro quo</i> as she would demand—as, -for example, the cession of Walfish Bay, the British port -in German Southwest Africa, or of the British protectorate -of Zanzibar, or of both; fourthly, because the -Germans now have the British in just such a predicament -regarding the completion of the “Cape-to-Cairo” -railway as the British have the Germans regarding the -completion of the Bagdad railway. In other words, -the only condition on which either country will permit -its rival's railway to be built through its territory is -internationalisation.</p> - -<p>That there will ever be an all-British railway from -the Mediterranean to the Cape seems to me exceedingly -doubtful, for the political, territorial, and financial -obstacles are many, and not easily to be disposed of; -but that the not-far-distant future will see the completion, -under international auspices, of this great transcontinental -trunk line seems to me to be as certain as -that the locomotive sparks fly upward or that the hoar-frost -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> -on the rails disappears before the sun. Rhodes -always said that the success of such a system must -largely depend on the junctions to the east and west -coasts, which would affect such a line very much as -tributary streams affect a river. A number of such -feeders are already in operation and others are rapidly -building. Beginning at the north, the main line of the -“Cape-to-Cairo” is tapped at Cairo by the railways from -Port Said and Suez; and at Atbara Junction, in the -Sudan, a constantly increasing stream of traffic flows -in over the line from Port Sudan, a harbour recently -built to order on the Red Sea. The misnamed Uganda -Railway is in regular operation between Mombasa on -the Indian Ocean and Port Florence on the Victoria -Nyanza, whence there is a steamer service to Entebbe -in Uganda. From Dar-es-Salam, the capital of German -East Africa, the Germans are rushing a railway through -to Ujiji, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the engineer-in-chief -assuring me that it would be completed and in -operation by the summer of 1914. From Beira, in -Portuguese East Africa, the Beira, Mashonaland, and -Rhodesia Railway carries an enormous stream of traffic -inland to its junction with the main line at Bulawayo. -Still farther south a line from the Portuguese possession -of Delagoa Bay connects with the main system -at Mafeking, on the borders of Bechuanaland, while -Kimberley is the junction for a line from Durban, in -Natal, and De Aar for feeders from East London and -Port Elizabeth, in Cape of Good Hope.</p> - -<p>From Swakopmund, on the other side of the continent, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> -a railway has already been pushed nearly five -hundred miles into the interior of German Southwest -Africa which will eventually link up with the “Cape-to-Cairo” -in the vicinity of the Victoria Falls, running -through German territory practically all the way. Still -another line is being built inland from Lobito Bay in -Angola (Portuguese West Africa) to join the transcontinental -system near the Congo border, nearly half of its -total length of twelve hundred miles being completed. -It is estimated that by means of this line the journey -between England and the cities of the Rand will be -shortened by at least six days. It will be seen, therefore, -that the “Cape-to-Cairo” system will have eleven -great feeders, eight of which are already completed and -in operation, while all of the remaining four will be -carrying freight and passengers before the close of -1914.</p> - -<p>When the last rail of the “Cape-to-Cairo” is laid, -and the last spike driven, its builders may say, without -fear of contradiction, “In all the world no road like -this.” And in the nature of things it is impossible -that there can ever be its like again, for there will be -no more continents to open up, no more frontiers to -conquer. It will start on the sandy shores of the Mediterranean -and end under the shadow of Table Mountain. -In between, it will pass through jungle, swamp, -and desert; it will zigzag across plains where elephants -play by day and lions roar by night; it will corkscrew -up the slopes of snow-capped mountains, meander -through the cultivated patches of strange inland tribes, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> -stride long-legged athwart treacherous, pestilential -swamps, plough through the darkness of primeval forests, -and stretch its length across the rolling, wind-swept -veldt, until it finally ends in the great antipodean metropolis -on the edge of the Southern Ocean. On its way -it traverses nearly seventy degrees of latitude, samples -every climate, touches every degree of temperature, -experiences every extreme. At Gondokoro, in the -swamp-lands of the Sudd, the red-fezzed engine-driver -will lean gasping from his blistered cab; at Kimberley, -in the highlands of the Rand, he will stamp with -numbed feet and blow with chattering teeth on his -half-frozen fingers.</p> - -<p>The traveller who climbs into the Cape-to-Cairo -Limited at the Quay Station in Alexandria, in response -to the conductor's cry of “All aboard! All aboard for -Cape Town!” can lean from the window of his compartment -as the train approaches Cairo and see the misty -outlines of the Pyramids, those mysterious monuments -of antiquity which were hoary with age when London -was a cluster of mud huts and Paris was yet to be -founded in the swamps beside the Seine; at Luxor he -will pass beneath the shadow of ruined Thebes, a city -beside which Athens and Rome are ludicrously modern; -at Assuan he will catch a glimpse of the greatest dam -ever built by man—a mile and a quarter long and built -of masonry weighing a million tons—holding in check -the waters of the longest river in the world; at Khartoum, -peering through the blue-glass windows which -protect the passengers' eyes from the blinding sun -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> -glare, he can see the statue of Gordon, seated on his -bronze camel, peering northward across the desert in -search of the white helmets that came too late; at -Entebbe his eyes will be dazzled by the shimmering -waters of the Victoria Nyanza, barring Lake Superior -the greatest of all fresh-water seas; at Ujiji he will see -natives in German uniforms drilling on the spot where -Stanley discovered Livingstone. He will hold his -breath in awe as the train rolls out over the Victoria -Falls of the Zambezi, for there will lie below him the -mightiest cataract in the world—an unbroken sheet -of falling, roaring, smoking water, two and a half times -the height and ten times the width of the American Fall -at Niagara; at Kimberley he will see the great pits in -the earth which supply the women of the world with -diamonds; in the outskirts of Johannesburg he will see -the mountains of ore from which comes one-third of the -gold supply of the world. And finally, when his train -has at last come to a halt under the glass roof of the -Victoria Terminal in Cape Town, with close on six -thousand miles of track behind it, the traveller, if he -has any imagination and any appreciation in his soul, -will make a little pilgrimage to that spot on the slopes -of Table Mountain known as “World's View,” where -another statue of that same bulky, thick-set, shabbily -clad man, this time guarded by many British lions, -stares northward over Africa. He will take his stand -in front of that mighty memorial and, lifting his hat, will -say: “You, sir, were a great man, the greatest this benighted -continent has ever known, and if one day it is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> -transformed into a land of civilisation, of peace, and of -prosperity, it will be due, more than anything else, to -the great iron highway, from the Nile's mouth to the -continent's end, which is the fulfilment of your dream.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> -</p> - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE LAST STAND OF THE PIONEER</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-w.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap W" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">WHEN -the penniless younger son of the English -society play is jilted by the luxury-loving heroine, -he invariably packs his portmanteau and betakes -himself to Rhodesia to make his fortune. Fifty years -ago he sought the golden fleece in California; thirty -years ago he took passage by P. & O. boat for the Australian -diggings; ten years ago he helped to swell the -mad rush to the Yukon; to-day his journey's end is the -newest of the great, new nations—Rhodesia. He returns -in the fourth act, broad-hatted, bronzed, and -boisterous, to announce that he is the owner of a ten-thousand-acre -farm, or a diamond field, or a gold mine, -or all of them, and that he has come home to find a girl -to share his farm-house on the Rhodesian veldt, where -good cooking is more essential in a wife than good -clothes and a good complexion.</p> - -<p>Now, beyond having a vague idea that Rhodesia -is a frontier country somewhere at the back of beyond, -there is only about one in every fifty of the audience -who has any definite notion where or what it really is. -Picture, then, if you can, a territory about the size of all -the Atlantic States, from Florida to Maine, put together, -with the dry, dusty, sunny climate of southern -California and the fertile, rolling, well-watered, and well-wooded -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> -surface of Indiana; picture such a country -dropped down in the heart of equatorial Africa—that is -Rhodesia. It lies a little above and to the right of that -speckled yellow patch on the map of Africa which was -labelled in our school geographies the Kalahari Desert. -Bearing the name of the great empire-builder is the -whole of that region which is bounded on the north -by the Congo and the sleeping-sickness, on the east by -Mozambique and the black-water fever, on the west by -Angola and the cocoa atrocities, and on the south by the -Transvaal and the discontented Dutch. It is watered -by the Limpopo, which forms its southernmost boundary; -by the Zambezi, which separates Southern Rhodesia -from the northeast and northwest provinces; and -by the innumerable streams which unite to form the -Congo.</p> - -<p>When the railway which English <i>concessionaires</i> -are now pushing inland from the coast of Angola to the -Zambezi is completed, the front door to Rhodesia will -be Lobito Bay, thus bringing Bulawayo within sixteen -days of the Strand by boat and rail. At present, however, -the country must be entered through the cellar, -which means Cape Town and a railway journey of -fourteen hundred miles; or by the side door at Beira, a -fever-stricken Portuguese town on the East Coast, -which is fortunate in being but a night's journey by rail -from the Rhodesian frontier and is, in consequence, the -gateway through which British jams, American harvesters, -and German jack-knives are opening up inner -Africa to foreign exploitation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> - -<p>The Rhodesia-bound traveller who escapes landing -at Beira in a basket is fortunate, for it has a poorly sheltered -harbour and neither dock, jetty, nor wharf, so -that in the monsoon months, when the great combers -come roaring in from the Indian Ocean mountain-high, -there is about as much chance of getting the steam tender -alongside the rolling liner as there is of getting a -frightened horse alongside a panting automobile. If -a dangerous sea is running, the disembarking passenger -is put into a cylindrical, elongated basket, a sort of enlarged -edition of those used for soiled towels in the -lavatories of hotels; a wheezing donkey-engine swings -it up and outward and, if the man at the lever calculates -the roll of the ship correctly, drops it with a thud on -the deck of the tender plunging off-side.</p> - -<p>Built on a stretch of sun-baked sand, between a -miasmal jungle and the sea, Beira is the hottest and unhealthiest -place in all East Africa. “It is one of the -places that the Lord has overlooked,” remarked a sallow-faced -resident, as he took his hourly dose of quinine. -Even the paid-to-be-enthusiastic author of the steamship -company's glowing booklet hesitates at depicting -this fever-haunted, sun-baked, sand-suffocated seaport -of Mozambique, contenting himself with the noncommittal -statement that “it is indescribable; it is just -Beira.” The town has but three attractions: a broad-verandaed -hotel where they charge you forty cents for -a lemonade with no ice in it; a golf course, laid out by -a newly arrived Englishman, who died of sunstroke the -first day he played on it; and a trolley system which -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> -makes every resident the owner of his own street-car. -The heat in Beira being too great to permit of walking—a -shaded thermometer not infrequently climbs to one -hundred and twenty degrees; the streets being too deep -in sand for the use of vehicles; and the tsetse-fly killing -off horses in a few days, those European traders and -officials who are condemned to dwell in Beira get about -in “trolleys” of their own. These two-seated, hooded -conveyances, which are a sort of cross between a hand-car, -a baby-carriage, and the wheeled chairs on the board -walk at Atlantic City, are pushed by half-naked and -perspiring natives over a track which extends from one -end of the town to the other and with sidings into every -man's front yard. It struck me, however, that the most -interesting things in Beira were the corrugated-iron -shanty and the stretch of wooden platform which mark -the terminus of the railway, and from which, in answer -to my anxious queries, I was assured that a train departed -twice weekly for Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia. -I used to sit on the veranda of the hotel and stare -across the stretch of burning sand at that wretched -station as longingly as the small boy stares at the red -numeral on the calendar which indicates the Fourth -of July.</p> - -<p>A temperature of one hundred and eighteen degrees -in my compartment of the sleeping-car; miasma rising -in cloud wreaths from the jungle; a station platform, -alive with slovenly Portuguese soldiers with faces as -yellow as their uniforms; helmeted, gaunt-cheeked traders -and officials, and cotton-clad Swahilis, comprised -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> -my last recollection of Beira and the terrible East Coast. -The next morning I awoke in my compartment shivering, -not from fever but from cold. Gone, as though in -a bad dream, were the glaring sands, the steaming jungle, -and the sallow, fever-racked men. Instead, my -car window framed a picture of rolling, grass-covered -uplands, dotted here and there with herds of grazing -cattle and substantial, whitewashed farm-houses, while -back of all was the gray-blue of distant mountains. As -I looked at the transformed landscape incredulously, -the train halted at a way-station swarming with broad-hatted, -flannel-shirted, sun-tanned men with clean-cut -Anglo-Saxon faces. A row of saddle-horses were tied -to the station fence, while their owners stamped up and -down the platform impatiently, awaiting the sorting of -the infrequent mail from home; a democrat wagon and -a clumsy Cape cart were drawn up in the roadway; -and at a house close by a woman in a sunbonnet was -feeding chickens. “Where are we?” I inquired of the -guard, as he passed through the train. “We're just -into Rhodesia now, sir,” said he, touching his cap. -“This is Umtali, in Mashonaland.” (Now, if I had -asked that same question of a brakeman on one of our -own railways, he would probably have answered, with -the independence of his kind: “Can't you read the sign -on the station for yourself?”) “Surely there must be -some mistake,” I said to myself. “This cannot be -Central Africa, for where are the impenetrable jungles -through which Livingstone cut his way, the savage -animals which Du Chaillu shot, and the naked savages -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> -with whom Stanley alternately battled and bartered? -This is not Africa; this is our own West, with its men in -corduroy and sombreros and its women in gingham, with -its open, rolling prairies and its air like dry champagne.” -Indeed, throughout my stay in Rhodesia I could not rid -myself of the impression that I was back in the American -West of thirty years ago, before the pioneer, the -prospector, and the cow-puncher had retreated before -the advance of the railway, the harvester, and the -motor-car.</p> - -<p>The story of the taking and making of Rhodesia -forms one of the most picturesque and thrilling chapters -in the history of England's colonial expansion. About -the time that the nineteenth century had reached its -turning-point, a strange tale, passing by word of mouth -from native kraal to native kraal, came at last to the -ears of a Scotch worker in the mission field of Bechuanaland. -It was a tale of a waterfall somewhere in -the jungles of the distant north; a waterfall so mighty, -declared the natives, that the spray from it looked like a -storm cloud on the horizon and the thunder of its waters -could be heard four days' trek away. So the missionary, -wearied with the tedium of proselyting amid a -peaceful people and restless with the curiosity of the -born explorer, set out on a long and lonely march to -the northward, through a country which no white man's -eyes had ever seen. It took him three years to reach -the falls for which he started, but when at last he stood -upon the brink of the canyon and looked down upon the -waters of the Zambezi as they hurtled over four hundred -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> -feet of sheerest cliff, he was so awed by their majesty -and their beauty that he named them after Victoria, the -young English queen. Before he left the missionary-explorer -carved his name on the trunk of a near-by tree, -where it can be seen to-day; the name is David Livingstone.</p> - -<p>For a quarter of a century the regions adjacent to -the Zambezi were disturbed only by migratory bands of -natives and marauding animals. Then Stanley came -with his mile-long caravan of porters, halting long -enough to explore and map the region, on his historic -march from coast to coast. In the middle eighties a -young English prospector, trekking through the country -with a single wagon, found that for which he was -seeking—gold. Likewise he saw that its verdure-clad -prairies would support many cattle and that its virgin -soil was adapted for many kinds of crops; that it was, -in short, a white man's country. Unarmed and unaccompanied, -he penetrated to the kraal of Lobenguela, -the chief of the warlike Matabele, who occupied the -region, and induced him to sign a treaty placing his -country under British protection. The price paid him -was five hundred dollars a month and a thousand antiquated -rifles; cheap enough, surely, for a territory -three times the size of Texas and as rich in natural resources -as California. A year later the British South -Africa Company, a corporation capitalised at thirty -million dollars, under a charter granted by the Imperial -Government, began the work of exploiting the concession; -naming it, properly enough, after Cecil John -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> -Rhodes, the lone prospector who, with the vision of a -prophet, had foreseen its possibilities and by whose -unaided efforts it had been obtained. Such was the -first step in Rhodes's policy of British expansion northward—a -policy so successful that in his own lifetime -he saw the frontiers of British Africa pushed from the -Orange River to the Nile.</p> - -<p>To hand over a colonial possession, its inhabitants -and its resources, to be administered and exploited by -a private corporation, sounds like a strange proceeding -to American ears. Imagine turning the Philippines -over to the Standard Oil Company and giving that corporation -permission to appoint its own officials, make -its own laws, assess its own taxes, and maintain its -own military force in those islands. That, roughly -speaking, was about what England did when she turned -Rhodesia over to the chartered company. It should be -remembered, however, that, beginning when the European -nations were entering upon an era of economic exploration -of hitherto virgin territories, these chartered -companies have played a large part in the history of -colonisation in general and in the upbuilding of the -British Empire in particular, though in the great -majority of cases it was trade, not empire, at which they -aimed. Warned, however, by the fashion in which the -East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company -abused their power, the British Government keeps a -jealous eye on the activities of the Rhodesian <i>concessionaires</i>, -their charter, while conferring broad trading -privileges and great administrative powers, differing -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> -from earlier instruments in neither delegating sovereignty -nor granting an exclusive monopoly.</p> - -<p>The Rhodesia protectorate is the result of the consolidation -of four great native kingdoms: Mashonaland -in the southeast, Matabeleland in the southwest, -Barotseland in the northwest, and in the northeast a -portion of the now separately administered protectorate -of Nyasaland. Practically the whole country is -an elevated veldt, or plateau, ranging from three thousand -five hundred to five thousand feet above sea-level; -studded with granite kopjes which in the south attain -to the dignity of a mountain chain; well watered by -tributaries of the Congo, the Zambezi, and the Limpopo; -and covered with a luxuriant vegetation. Like California, -<i>Southern</i> Rhodesia has a unique and hospitable -climate, free from the dangerous heats of an African -summer and from cold winds in winter. Though the -climate of nearly all of Southern Rhodesia is suitable -for Europeans, much of the trans-Zambezi provinces, -especially along the river valleys and in the low-lying, -swampy regions near the great equatorial lakes, reeks -with malaria, while in certain other areas, now carefully -delimited and guarded by governmental regulation, -the tsetse-fly commits terrible ravages among cattle and -horses and the sleeping-sickness among men. The climate -as a whole, however, is characterised by a rather -remarkable equability of temperature, especially when -it is remembered that Rhodesia extends from the borders -of the temperate zone to within a few degrees of -the equator. At Salisbury, the capital, for example, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> -mean July temperature is 57.5° and for January 70.5°, -the extremes for the year ranging from 34° to 93°. It is -a significant fact, however, that the glowing prospectuses -of the chartered company touch but lightly on the -climatic conditions which prevail north of the Zambezi, -a region from which, it struck me, the European settler -who does not possess a system that is proof against every -form of tropical fever, a head that is proof against sunstroke, -and a mind which is proof against that oftentimes -fatal form of homesickness which the army surgeons -call nostalgia, is much more likely to go home -in a coffin than in a <i>cabine de luxe</i>.</p> - -<p>In mines of gold, of silver, and of diamonds Rhodesia -is very rich; agriculturally it is very fertile, for in -addition to the native crops of rice, tobacco, cotton, -and india-rubber, the fruits, vegetables, and cereals of -Europe and America are profitably grown. The great -fields of maize, or “mealies,” as all South Africans call -it, through which my train frequently passed, constantly -reminded me of scenes in our own “corn belt”; but in -the watch-towers which rise from every corn-field, atop -of which an armed Kaffir sits day and night to protect -the crops from the raids of wild pigs and baboons, -Rhodesia has a feature which she is welcome to consider -exclusively her own.</p> - -<p>Though Rhodesia is distinctly a frontier country, -with many of a frontier's defects, her towns—Salisbury, -Bulawayo, Umtali, and the rest—are not frontier towns -as we knew them in Butte, Cheyenne, Deadwood, and -Carson City. There are saloons, of course, but they -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> -are not of the “gin palace” variety, nor did it strike me -that intoxication was particularly common; certainly -nothing like what it used to be during the gold-rush -days in Alaska or in our own West. This may be due -to the fantastic prices charged for liquor—a whiskey-and-soda -costs sixty cent—and then again it maybe -due to the fact that most of the settlers have brought -their families with them, so that, instead of spending -their evenings leaning over green tables or polished bars, -they devote them to cricket, gardening, or a six-weeks-old -English paper. Though nearly every one goes -armed, the streets of the Rhodesian towns are as peaceable -as Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, on a Sunday -morning. Indeed, the commandant of police in Bulawayo -assured me that he had had only one shooting -affray during his term of office. In Rhodesia, should a -man draw his gun as the easiest means of settling a -quarrel, his companions, instead of responding by drawing -theirs, would probably call a constable and have him -bound over to keep the peace. Even the rights of the -natives are rigidly safeguarded by law, an American -settler in Umtali complaining to me most bitterly that -“it's more dangerous for a white man to kick a nigger -down here than it is for him to kill one in the States.” -Now, all this was rather disappointing for one who, like -myself, was on the lookout for the local colour and picturesqueness -and whoop-her-up-boys excitement which -one naturally associates with life on a frontier; but I -might have expected just what I found, for wherever -the flag of England flies, whether over the gold-miners -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> -of the Yukon, the ivory-traders of Uganda, or the settlers -of Rhodesia, there will be found the deep-seated -respect of the Englishman for English order and English -law.</p> - -<p>In my opinion the country club, more than any -other single factor, has contributed most to the making, -socially and morally, of Rhodesia. Though the American -West is dotted with just such towns as Salisbury, -Bulawayo, Gwelo, and Umtali, with the same limitations, -pitfalls, and possibilities, the men's centre of interest, -after the day's work is over, is the saloon, the -dance-hall, or the barber-shop with a pool-room in the -rear. They do things differently in central Africa. In -every Rhodesian town large enough to support one—and -the same is true of all Britain's colonial possessions—I -found that a “sports club” had been established -on the edge of the town. Often it was nothing but -a ramshackle shed or cottage that had been given a -coat of paint and had a veranda added, but files of the -English newspapers and illustrated weeklies were to be -found inside, while from the tea tables on the veranda -one overlooked half a dozen tennis courts, a cricket -ground, and a foot-ball field. It is here that the settlers—men, -women, and children—congregate toward -evening, to discuss the crop prospects, the local taxes, -the latest gold discoveries, and, above all else, the -news contained in the weekly mail from home. Why -have not our own progressive prairie towns some -simple social system like this? It was in speaking of -this very thing that the mayor of Salisbury—himself -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> -an American-remarked: “In the little, every-day -things which make for successful colonisation of a new -country, you fellows in the States are twenty years -behind us.”</p> - -<p>Living is expensive in Rhodesia, the prices of -necessaries usually being high and of luxuries ofttimes -fantastic. To counterbalance this, however, wages are -extraordinarily high. It is useless to attempt to quote -wages, for the farther up-country a man gets the higher -pay he can command, so I will content myself with the -bare statement that for the skilled workman, be he carpenter, -blacksmith, mason, or wheelwright, larger wages -are to be earned than in any part of the world that I -know. The same is true of the man who has had practical -experience in agriculture or stock-raising, there being -a steady demand for men conversant with dairying, -cattle-breeding, and irrigation. Let me drive home and -copper-rivet the fact, however, that in Rhodesia, as in -nearly all new countries, where there is a considerable -native population to draw upon, there is no place for -the unskilled labourer.</p> - -<p>For the man with resource and a little capital there -are many roads to wealth in British Africa. I know of -one, formerly a laundry employee in Chicago, who -landed in Rhodesia with limited capital but unlimited -confidence. Recognising that the country had arrived -at that stage of civilisation where the people were tired -of wearing flannel shirts, but could not afford to have -white ones ruined by Kaffir washermen, he started a -chain of sanitary up-to-date laundries, and is to-day -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> -one of the wealthy men of the colony. If you ever had -to pay one of his laundry bills you would understand -why. Another American, starting business as a hotel-keeper -in Salisbury, soon perceived that the people were -ripe for some form of amusement other than that provided -by the cricket fields and saloons; so he built a -string of cinematograph and vaudeville theatres combined, -and to-day, on the very spot where Lobenguela's -medicine-men performed their bloody rites a dozen -years ago, you can hear the whir of the moving-picture -machine and see on the canvas screen a military review -at Aldershot or a bathing scene at Asbury Park. Still -another American whom I met has increased the thickness -of his wallet by supplying prospectors and settlers -with sectional houses which are easily portable and can -be erected in an hour. Taking the circular, conical-roofed -hut of the Matabele as his model, he evolved -an affair of corrugated iron which combines simplicity, -portability, and practicability with a low price, so that -to-day, as you travel through Rhodesia, you will see -these American-made imitations of Kaffir huts dotting -the veldt.</p> - -<p>Though Rhodesia has a black population of one -million six hundred thousand, as against twenty thousand -whites, there has thus far been no such thing as -race troubles or a colour question, due in large measure, -no doubt, to the firm and just supervision exercised -by the British resident commissioners. Arms, ammunition, -and liquor excepted, natives and Europeans are -under the same conditions. Land has been set apart for -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> -tribal settlements, the mineral rights being reserved -to the company, but, if the native occupation is disturbed, -new lands must immediately be assigned, all -disputes being ultimately referrible to the British high -commissioner. Those natives living near the towns are -segregated in settlements of their own, a native under -no circumstances being permitted to remain within the -town limits after nightfall, or to enter them in the day-time -without a pass signed by the commandant of police. -Though possessing many of the temperamental characteristics -of the American negro, and in particular his -aversion for manual work, the Rhodesian native is, on -the whole, honest and trustworthy, a well-disciplined -and efficient force of native constabulary having been -recruited from the warlike Barotse and Matabele.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_218.jpg" id="i_218.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_218.jpg" width="399" height="600" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">MORE WORK FOR THE PIONEER.<br /> - In the heart of the jungle in Northeastern Rhodesia near the Congo - border. This is the sort of country through which portions of the - “Cape-to-Cairo” railway will pass.</div> -</div> - -<p>Highways of steel bisect Rhodesia in both directions. -From Plumtree, on the borders of Bechuanaland, -the Rhodesian section of the great Cape-to-Cairo -system stretches straight across the country to Bwana -M'kubwa, on the Congo frontier, while another line, -the Rhodesia, Mashonaland, and Beira, links up, as its -name indicates, the transcontinental system with the -East Coast. Though the much-advertised Zambezi -Express is scarcely the “veritable train de luxe” which -the railway folders call it, it is a comfortable enough -train nevertheless, with electric-lighted dining and -sleeping cars, the latter being fitted, as befits a dusty -country, with baths. The dining-car tariff is on a -sliding scale; the farther up-country you travel the -higher the prices ascend. Between Cape Town and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> -Mafeking the charges for meals seemed to me exceedingly -reasonable (fifty cents for breakfast, sixty cents for -luncheon, and seventy-five cents for dinner); between -Mafeking and Bulawayo they are only moderate; between -Bulawayo and the Zambezi they are high; and -north of the Zambezi—when you can get any food at all—the -charges for it are exorbitant. When the section -to Lake Tanganyika is completed only a millionaire -can afford to enter the dining-car. It speaks volumes -for the development of British South Africa, however, -that one can get into a sleeping-car in Cape Town and -get out of it again, six days later, on the navigable head-waters -of the Congo, covering the distance of nearly -two thousand five hundred miles at a total cost of -eighty dollars—and much of it through a country which -has been opened to the white man scarcely a dozen -years.</p> - -<p>Just as every visitor to the United States heads -straight for Niagara, so every visitor to South Africa -purchases forthwith a ticket to the Victoria Falls of the -Zambezi, the mighty cataract in the heart of Rhodesia -which is the greatest natural wonder in the Dark Continent -and, perhaps, in the world. The natives call the -falls <i>Mosi-oa-tunya</i>, which means “Thundering Smoke,” -and you appreciate the name's significance when your -train halts at daybreak at a wayside station, sixty miles -away, and you see above the tree-tops a cloud of smoky -vapour and hear a low humming like a million sewing-machines. -It is so utterly impossible for the eye, the -mind, and the imagination to grasp the size, grandeur, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> -and beauty of the Victoria Falls that it is futile to attempt -to describe them. If you can picture an unbroken -sheet of water forty city blocks in width, or as -long as from the Grand Central Station, in New York, -to Washington Square, hurtling over a precipice twice as -high as the Flatiron Building, you will have the best idea -that I can give you of what the Victoria Falls are like. -They are unique in that the level of the land above the -falls is the same as that below, the entire breadth of the -second greatest river in Africa falling precipitately into -a deep and narrow chasm, from which the only outlet -is an opening in the rock less than one hundred yards -wide. From the Boiling Pot, as this seething caldron of -waters is called, the contents of the Zambezi rush with -unbridled fury through a deep and narrow gorge of -basaltic cliffs, which, nowhere inferior to the rapids at -Niagara, extends with many zigzag windings for more -than forty miles. My first glimpse of the falls was in -the early morning, and the lovely, reeking splendour of -the scene, as the great, placid river, all unconscious of -its fate, rolls out of the mysterious depths of Africa, -comes suddenly to the precipice's brink, and plunges -in one mighty torrent into the obscurity of the cavern -below, the rolling clouds of spray, the trembling earth, -the sombre rain-forest on the opposite bank, and a rainbow -stealing over all, made a picture which will remain -sharp and clear in my memory as long as I live.</p> - -<p>The Outer Lands are almost all exploited; the work -of the pioneer and the frontiersman is nearly finished, -and in another decade or so we shall see their like no -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> -more. Rhodesia is the last of the great new countries -open to colonisation under Anglo-Saxon ideals of -government and climatically suitable for the propagation -of the Anglo-Saxon race. Though the handful of -hardy settlers who have already made it their home -speak with the burr of the shires instead of the drawl -of the plains; though they wear corded riding-breeches -instead of leather “chaps”; and stuff Cavendish into -their pipes instead of rolling their cigarettes from Bull -Durham, they and the passing plainsmen of our own -West are, when all is said and done, brothers under -their skins.</p> - -<p>With the completion of the Cape-to-Cairo trunk -line and its subsidiary systems to either coast, with the -exploitation of the mineral deposits which constitute so -much of Rhodesia's wealth, and with the harnessing of -the great falls and the utilisation of the limitless power -which will be obtainable from them, this virgin territory -in the heart of Africa bids fair to be to the home and -fortune seekers of to-morrow what the American West -was to those of yesterday, and what northwestern -Canada is to those of to-day. A few years more and it -will be a developed and prosperous nation. To-day it -is the last of the world's frontiers, where the hardy and -adventurous of our race are still fighting the battles and -solving the problems of civilisation.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE COUNTRY OF BIG THINGS</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-t.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">THE -most significant thing I saw in South Africa -was an old-fashioned gabled, whitewashed house. -The name of it is <i>Groote Schuur</i>, and it stands in very -beautiful grounds on the slopes of Table Mountain, a -mile or so at the back of Cape Town. That house was -the home of Cecil John Rhodes, who, more than any -other man, was responsible for the Boer War and for -the resultant British predominance south of the Congo, -and in his will he directed that it should be used as the -official residence of the prime minister of that South -African confederation which his prophetic mind foresaw. -The welding of the Boer republics of the Transvaal -and the Orange Free State with the British colonies -of Natal and the Cape of Good Hope produced -the great antipodal commonwealth of which the empire-builder -dreamed, but the man who, as prime minister, -dwells under <i>Groote Schuur's</i> gabled roof and directs -the policies of the new nation is a member of that Boer -race which Rhodes hated and feared and whose political -power he firmly believed had been broken forever. -Fortune never doubled in her tracks more completely -than when she made General Louis Botha, the last -leader of Boer troops in the field, the first prime minister -of a united South Africa.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> - -<p>Strange things have happened in South Africa in -the dozen years that have passed since the musketry -crackled along the Modder and the Tugela, for the -country that the world believed had been won for good -and all by British arms is being slowly but surely rewon -by Boer astuteness. Already the bonds which hold the -new Union of South Africa to the British Empire have -become very loose ones. The man who, as prime minister, -is the virtual ruler of the young nation, is a far-sighted -and sagacious Dutchman, while seven out of the -eleven portfolios in his cabinet are held by men of the -same race. The Union not only makes its own laws and -fixes its own tariffs, but the leading Dutch organ of the -country recently went so far as to urge that, in case -Great Britain should become engaged in a European -war, it would be possible and might be proper for South -Africa to declare its neutrality and take no part in it. -Not only is the white population of the Union overwhelmingly -Dutch, but in many parts of the country -English is becoming merely a subsidiary tongue, while -it is not at all unlikely, in view of the bill recently passed -by the Parliament making Dutch compulsory in the -schools, that the language of the Netherlands will -eventually become the predominant tongue throughout -all South Africa. Most suggestive of all, perhaps, -the Orange River Colony, upon entering the Union, -promptly reverted to its old name of the Orange Free -State, which it bore before the war with England. -Indeed, it may sadly perplex the historians of the future -to decide who won the Boer War.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> - -<p>If South Africa is to become a union in fact as well -as in name its people will have to face and solve the -great national problems of race and colour. Of these, -the former are, if not the more important, certainly the -more pressing. Two of the four provinces of the Union, -remember, are British solely by right of conquest; a -third is bound by the closest ties of blood and tradition -to the Dutch people; while only one of the four is -British in sentiment and population. Many intelligent -people with whom I talked, both in England and in -Africa, assured me that the formation of the Union was -the first step toward cutting the bonds which join South -Africa to the mother country. While most Englishmen -scoff at any such suggestion, swaggeringly asserting that -they “have whipped the Dutch once and can do it -again,” the Dutch retort, on the other hand, that it took -England, with all her financial and military resources, -four years, and cost her tens of thousands of lives and -millions of pounds, to conquer the two little Boer republics, -and that she would not have beaten them -then if their money had held out. Though there is -certainly no love lost between the English and the -Boers, I think that the majority of the latter are convinced -that it is to their own best interests to be loyal -to the new government, in the direction of which they -have, after all, the greatest say.</p> - -<p>The attitude which the British Government has -adopted in its treatment of the Boer population since -the close of the war has been remarkable for its generosity -and far-sightedness. In all its colonial history it has -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> -done few wiser things than the recognition of the military, -as well as the civic, ability of General Botha. Not -only is this sagacious Dutchman, who led the forces -of the embattled Boers until dispersed by the tremendously -superior might of England, and then inaugurated -a guerilla warfare by which the conflict was prolonged for -two years with victories which will go down in history -as notable, now prime minister of the new nation, but, -early in 1912, he was appointed to the rank of general -in that very army which he so long and so valorously -defied. This is, I believe, an almost unprecedented -instance of the wise and politic exercise of imperial authority -in the strengthening of imperial power and can -hardly fail to result in increasing the loyalty of South -Africa's Boer population.</p> - -<p>The men who planned and brought the Union into -being have had to pick their steps with care, and more -than once their ingenuity has been taxed to the utmost -to avoid the outcropping of racial jealousies and enmities. -The white population of South Africa, you -should understand, consists of three classes: the Boers, -which means simply “tillers of the soil,” and which is -the name applied by the South African Dutch to themselves; -the Colonials, or British immigrants, most of -whom have come out with the intention of returning -to England as soon as they have made their fortunes; -and, lastly, the Africanders, men whose fathers were -British immigrants, but who were themselves born and -bred in South Africa and who have intermarried with -the Boers so often that it is almost impossible to draw -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> -the line between the races. Given these three factions, -therefore, with their different customs, ideals, and aspirations, -and it needs no saying that the task confronting -those who are responsible for the smooth working -of the governmental machinery is no easy one. The -political jealousy existing between Briton and Boer in -South Africa to-day is comparable only to that which -existed between Northerners and Southerners during -reconstruction days. The racial antagonism which -arose over the location of the Federal capital, and which -threatened at one time to upset the whole scheme of -federation, was only overcome by the novel expedient -of creating two capitals instead of one, Pretoria, the -old capital of the Transvaal, where Krüger held sway, -being made the residence of the Governor-General and -the seat of the executive power, while the Parliament -sits in Cape Town.</p> - -<p>The Union Parliament consists of a Senate having -forty members—eight of whom are appointed by the -Governor-General, the other thirty-two being elected, -eight by each province—and a House of Assembly with -121 members chosen as follows: Cape of Good Hope -51, Natal 17, Transvaal 36, and Orange Free State 17. -No voter is disqualified by race or colour, but the members -of Parliament must be English subjects of European -descent who have lived in the colony for at least five -years. Now, a very great deal, so far as the well-being -of the native races of South Africa are concerned, depends -upon the interpretation that is given to the -words “European descent.” In Cuban society every -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> -one who is not absolutely black is treated as white, -whereas in the United States every one who is suspected -of having even a “touch of the tar brush” is treated as -black. Though the Federal constitution is very far -from giving the native races a standing equal to that of -the whites, intelligent government of the natives is -promised by a clause which provides that four of the -Senate, out of a total of forty, shall be appointed because -of their special knowledge of the wants and wishes -of the coloured population.</p> - -<p>If the racial problem is the most pressing, the -colour problem is by far the most serious question before -the people of South Africa, for the blacks not only -outnumber the whites four to one, but there is the ever-present -danger that rebellion may spring up among them -without the slightest warning. Apart from all other -considerations, the very numbers of the natives in -South Africa form a dangerous element in the problem, -for there are close on five million blacks south of the -Limpopo as against a million and a quarter Europeans. -If, in our own South, where the blacks are only half as -numerous as the whites, there exists a problem of which -no satisfactory solution has been offered, how much -more serious is the state of affairs in a country where a -handful of white men—themselves split into two camps -by racial and political animosities—are face to face with -a vast, warlike, and constantly increasing native population! -In fact, the colour problem which has arisen -would be strikingly similar to that in our Southern -States were it not that there is a vast difference in type -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> -and temperament between the South African native and -the Southern darky. The native races are three in -number: the Bushmen, the aborigines of South Africa, -a race of pygmy savages of a very low order of intelligence, -who are fast becoming extinct; the Hottentots, -a people considerably more advanced toward civilisation -but rapidly decreasing from epidemics; and the -Kaffirs, as the various sections of the great Zulu race -are commonly known, a warlike, courageous, and handsome -people who, since the British Government ended -their inter-tribal wars, are rapidly multiplying, having -increased fifteen per cent in the last seven years. Although -the Europeans in South Africa universally regard -the Kaffirs with contempt, it is not altogether unmixed -with fear, for a nation of fighting men, such as the -Zulus, who organised a great military power, enacted a -strict code of laws, and held the white man at bay for a -quarter of a century, will not always remain in a state of -subjection, nor will they tamely submit to being driven -into the wilderness north of the Zambezi, a solution of -the colour problem which has frequently been proposed.</p> - -<p>That the attitude of Great Britain toward the -colour question in South Africa is similar to that of the -Northern States toward the same problem in the South, -while the attitude of the European settlers is almost -identical with that of the Southerners, is strikingly -illustrated by a case which recently occurred in South -Africa, in which a European jury found a native guilty -of attempting to assault a white woman, a crime as unknown -under the old régime in South Africa as it was -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> -in our own South before the Civil War. Though the -judge sentenced the man to death, the Governor-General -promptly commuted the sentence on the ground -that the “fact of crime” had not been established. Immediately -a storm of protest and indignation arose -among the white population which swept the country -from the Zambezi to the Cape, the settlers asserting -that if the decree of commutation were to form a precedent, -no white woman would be safe in South Africa. -The echoes of this controversy had not yet died away -before two other cases occurred which intensely aggravated -the situation. One was the case of a settler -named Lewis, who shot a native for an insult to his -daughters, while the other was that of the Honourable -Galbraith Cole, a son of the Earl of Enniskillen, who -killed a native on the alleged charge of theft. Both -men were tried by white juries on charges of murder, -and both were promptly acquitted, though Mr. Cole, -in spite of his acquittal, was deported from South Africa -by the government. As though to emphasise their -colour prejudice, the lawyers of the Union about this -time took concerted action to prevent native attorneys -from practising among them. How, then, can the -natives, who form three fourths of the population of the -new Union, and who are far more children of the soil -than the Europeans, be said to have protection of their -most elementary rights if they are to be debarred from -having men of their own colour and race to defend -them, and if no white jury can be trusted to do justice -where a native is concerned?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> - -<p>The imperial government deserves the greatest -credit, however, for the steps it has taken to preserve -his lands to the native. In the native protectorates and -reservations of Basutoland, Swaziland, Bechuanaland, -Griqualand, Tembuland, and Pondoland the government -has reserved for the exclusive use and benefit of -the natives territories considerably larger than the combined -area of our three Pacific-coast States. Though -these territories are under the control of British resident -commissioners, the native chiefs are allowed to -exercise jurisdiction according to tribal laws and customs -in all civil matters between natives, special courts -having been established to deal with serious civil or -criminal matters in which Europeans are concerned. -Though certain small areas of land in these rich territories -are held by whites, the bulk of the country is reserved -for the exclusive use and benefit of the natives, -and it is not at all likely that any more land will be -alienated for purposes of settlement by Europeans. -(Could anything be in more striking contrast to our -disgraceful treatment of the Indian?) Though South -Africa has much in common with Canada, and with -Australia, and with our own Southwest, it is, when all -is said and done, a black man's country ruled by the -white man, and it is upon the justice, liberality, and intelligence -of this rule that the peace and prosperity of -the young nation must eventually depend.</p> - -<p>Two great obstacles will always stand in the way -of the white man having an easy row to hoe in South -Africa: the climate and the lack of water. Though the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> -climate of the uplands is pleasant and makes men want -to lead an outdoor life, I am not at all certain that it -tends to develop or maintain the keenness and energy -characteristic of dwellers in the north temperate zone. -The climate of the coastal regions is, moreover, distinctly -bad, the sharply cold nights and the misty, -steaming days producing the coast fever, which is a -combination of rheumatism, influenza, dysentery, and -malaria, and is very debilitating indeed. The white -man who intends to make his permanent home in South -Africa has, therefore, two alternatives: he can submit to -the exactions of the climate, take life easily, leave the -black bottle severely alone, and live a long but unprogressive -life, or he can exhaust his energies and undermine -his health in fighting the climate and die of old -age at sixty. If the climate is not all that is desirable -for men, it is infinitely worse for animals, for every disease -known to the veterinarian abounds. Time and -again the herds of the country have been almost exterminated -by the hoof-and-mouth disease, or by the -rinderpest, a highly contagious cattle distemper which -is probably identical with that “murrain” with which -Moses smote the herds of ancient Egypt and which -helped to bring Pharaoh to terms. In the low-lying -regions along the East Coast, and in the country north -of the Limpopo it is necessary to keep horses shut up -every night until the poisonous mists and dew have disappeared -before the sun lest they contract the “blue-tongue,” -a disease characterised by a swollen, purplish-hued -tongue which kills them in a few hours by choking; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> -while in certain other districts, especially in the vicinity -of the Zambezi and of the Portuguese territories, the -deadly tsetse-fly makes it impossible to keep domestic -animals at all.</p> - -<p>The other great obstacle to the prosperity of South -Africa is the lack of water, for <i>less than one-tenth</i> of the -country is suitable for raising any kind of a crop without -water being led onto it—and irrigation by private -enterprise is out of the question, as even the indomitable -Rhodes was forced to admit. The government is fully -alive to the crying need for water, however, and a -scheme for a national system of irrigation is filling a -large part of the Ministry of Agriculture's programme. -If carried out, this scheme will enormously enlarge the -area of tillage, for some of the regions now hopelessly -arid, such as the Karroo, have a soil of amazing fertility -and need only water to make them produce luxuriant -crops. Were the rains of the wet season conserved by -means of the great tanks so common in India, or were -artesian wells sunk like those which have transformed -the desert regions of Algeria and Arizona, the vast -stretch of the Karroo, instead of being yellow with -sand, might be yellow with waving corn.</p> - -<p>Though agriculture is, and probably always will -be, the least important of the country's great natural -sources of wealth, the development of rural industries is, -thanks to governmental assistance, steadily progressing. -Roads and bridges are being built, experimental farms -organised on a large scale, the services of scientific -experts engaged, blooded live-stock imported, agricultural -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> -banks established, and literature dealing with -agricultural problems is being distributed broadcast over -the country. The exports of fruit are steadily increasing; -sugar is being grown on the hot lands of Natal and -might be grown all the way to the Zambezi; tea has -lately been introduced in the coastal regions and would -probably also flourish in the north; the tobacco of the -Transvaal is as good a pipe tobacco as any grown, and -those who have become accustomed to it will use no -other; with the exception of the olive, which does not -thrive, and of the vine, which succeeds only in a limited -area around Cape Town, nearly all of the products of -the temperate zone and of subtropical regions can be -grown successfully. Though South Africa unquestionably -presents many promising openings in farming, in -fruit-growing, and in truck gardening, it is folly for a -man to attempt any one of them unless he possesses -practical experience, a modest capital, and a willingness -to work hard and put up with many inconveniences, -for in no other English-speaking country are the necessities -of life so dear and so poor in quality, nowhere is -labour so unsatisfactory, and nowhere is lack of comfort -so general.</p> - -<p>South Africa's chief source of wealth is, and always -will be, its minerals. It was, strangely enough, the -latest source to become known, for nobody suspected -it until, in 1867, a Boer hunter, his eye caught by a -sparkle among the pebbles on the Orange River, picked -up the first diamond. The diamonds found in that -region since then have amounted in value to nearly a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> -billion dollars. Fifteen years after the great diamond -finds which sent the adventurers and fortune-seekers -of the world thronging to South Africa, came the still -greater gold discoveries on the Witwatersrand, or -“The Rand,” as the reef of gold-bearing quartz in -the Transvaal is commonly called. The total value -of the gold production of the Rand for the twenty-five -years ending in June, 1910, was nearly one and a -half billion dollars. But though the Rand produces -more gold than America and Australia put together; -though Kimberley has a virtual monopoly of the -world's supply of diamonds; though seams of silver, -iron, coal, copper, and tin are only waiting for capital -and skill to unlock their treasures, South Africa is, in -the midst of this stupendous wealth, poor, for she is as -dependent on foreign sources for her food supply as -England. In other words, a region as large as all the -States west of the Rocky Mountains, in which flourish -nearly all the products of every zone from the Equator -to the Pole, is unable to supply the wants of a white -population which is less than that of Connecticut. In -California, on the other hand, which is strikingly similar -to South Africa in many respects, the cultivation of -the land kept pace with the production of gold and -eventually outstripped it. Until the mining industry -of South Africa is likewise put upon a solid agricultural -foundation, the country can never hope to be self-supporting.</p> - -<p>In many respects Johannesburg, the “golden city,” -is the most interesting place I have ever seen. In 1886 -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> -it was nothing but a collection of miserable shanties. -To-day “Joburg,” as it is commonly called, is a city of -a quarter of a million people, with asphalted streets, -imposing office buildings, one of the best street-railway -systems that I know, the finest hotel south of the Equator, -and one of the most beautiful country clubs in the -world. It is a city of contrasts, however, for you can -stand under the <i>porte-cochère</i> of the palatial Carlton -Hotel and hear the click of roulette balls, the raucous -scrape of fiddles, and the shouts of drunken miners issuing -from a row of gambling-hells, dance-halls, and gin -palaces still housed in one-story buildings of corrugated -iron; a beplumed and bepainted Zulu will pull you -in a 'rickshaw, over pavements as smooth and clean as -those of Fifth Avenue, to a theatre where you will have -the privilege of paying Metropolitan Opera House prices -to witness much the same sort of a performance that -you would find in a Bowery music-hall; in the Rand -Club you can see bronzed and booted prospectors, fresh -from the mining districts of Rhodesia or the Congo, -leaning over the bar, cheek-by-jowl with sleek, immaculately -groomed financiers from London and Berlin and -New York. Johannesburg is a spendthrift city, a place -of easy-come and easy-go, for the mine-workers are paid -big wages, the mine-managers receive big salaries, and -the mine-owners make big profits, and they all spend -their money as readily as they make it. The English -miner averages five dollars a day, which he spends -between Saturday night and Monday morning in a -drunken spree, while a native labourer will save enough -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> -in a few months to keep him in idleness and his conception -of comfort for the rest of his life.</p> - -<p>There is pleasant society in Johannesburg and -much hospitality to a stranger. I took nearly a score -of letters of introduction with me to the Rand, but one -would have done as well, for you present one letter, and -at the dinner which the man to whom it is addressed -promptly gives for you at the Rand Club or at the Carlton -you will meet several of the other people to whom -you bear introductions. Through their club life and -their business relations the English and Americans in -South Africa are linked together in acquaintance like -rings in a shirt of chain-mail, so that if a man in Bulawayo -or Kimberley or Johannesburg gets to living beyond -his income, or loses heavily at cards, or pays undue -attention to another man's wife, they will be discussing -his affairs in the club bars or on the hotel verandas of -Cape Town and Durban within a fortnight. I found -that nearly all of the mines on the Rand are managed -by Americans, and that the mine-owners, who are nearly -all English or German, preferred them to any other -nationality, which struck me as being very complimentary -to the administrative and mechanical abilities -of our people. One of these American mine-managers -drove forty miles in his motor-car so as to shake hands -with me, merely because he had learned in a roundabout -way that I came from the same part of New York -State as himself, while another fellow-countryman, who -had made a great fortune during the Boer War by contracting -to wash the clothes of the British army, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> -received war-time prices for his work, kidnapped me -from the hotel where I was staying, and landed me, -baggage and all, in his home, and actually felt affronted -when I tried to leave after a week.</p> - -<p>Few places could be more unlike Johannesburg -than Pretoria, the new capital of the Union, only thirty -miles away. It is as different from the “golden city” as -sleepy Bruges is from bustling Antwerp; as Tarrytown, -New York, is from Paterson, New Jersey. At first -sight I was surprised to find so English a town, but after -I had strolled in the shade of the wooden arcades formed -by the broad verandas of the shops I decided that the -atmosphere of the city was Indian; the rows of mud-bespattered -saddle-horses tied to hitching-posts along -the main streets and the rural produce being sold from -wagons in the central market-place recalled our own -West; but the substantial, white-plastered houses, with -their old-fashioned <i>stoeps</i>, their red-brick sidewalks, and -their prim and formal gardens, finally convinced me that -the town was, after all, Dutch. Every visitor to Pretoria -goes to see Krüger's house, the low, whitewashed -dwelling with the white lions on the <i>stoep</i>, where the -stubborn old President used to sit, smoking his long pipe -and drinking his black coffee and giving parental advice -to his people. Across the way is the old Dutch church -where he used to hold forth on Sundays, with the gold -hands still missing from the clock-face on its steeple, for -in the last days of the South African Republic they were -melted down and went to swell the slender war-chest of -the Boer army. In the cemetery hard by the crafty, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> -indomitable old man lies buried, while the hated flag -against which he fought so long flies over the capital -where he collected his guns and hatched his schemes of -conquest, and within sight of his black-marble tomb -there are rising in brick and stone the great new buildings -which mark Pretoria as the capital of a united -South Africa.</p> - -<p>Thirty miles northward across the veldt from Pretoria -is the great hole in the ground known as the Premier -Diamond Mine, the newest and potentially the -richest of the South African diamond fields. Here, -in January, 1905, the surface manager, a Scotchman -named McHardy, while strolling through the pit during -the noon hour, saw the sparkle of what he at first took -to be a broken bottle. Prying it loose with his stick -from the surrounding rubble, he found it to be a diamond -as large as a good-sized orange. This remarkable -stone, which is the largest diamond heretofore found, -has since become known to the world as the Great Cullinan, -being named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, one of the -owners of the mine. It is a pure white stone, 4 by 2¼ -by 2 inches, weighing 3,025 carats, or 1.37 pounds, and -worth in the neighbourhood of a million dollars. As -the surface cleavage shows that it is undoubtedly a -fragment of a much larger crystal, one cannot but wonder -what the original stone was like. The Great Cullinan -was immediately purchased by the Transvaal -Government—or, rather, the mine's share was purchased, -for the government receives sixty per cent of -the value of all diamonds found—and presented to King -Edward. The question then arose of how so valuable -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> -a gem could be transported to England in safety, for -no sooner had its discovery been announced than the -criminals of the world began to lay their plans to get -possession of it. After many discussions and innumerable -suggestions and much newspaper comment, four -men, armed to the teeth, left the Premier Mine, carrying -with them a red-leather despatch box. Crossing -the thirty miles of veldt to Pretoria under heavy escort, -they were conveyed in a private car to Cape Town; in -the liner by which they took passage to England a safe -had been specially installed and the red-leather despatch -box was placed in it, two of the men remaining on -duty in front of it night and day. From Southampton a -special train took them up to London and a strong guard -of detectives and police surrounded them on their way -to the bank at which the diamond was to be delivered. -When the despatch box was opened in the presence of a -group of curious officials it was found to contain nothing -more valuable than a lump of coal! The stone itself—and -as Sir Thomas Cullinan told me the story it is undoubtedly -true—was wrapped in cotton wool and tissue -paper, put in a pasteboard box, wrapped up in brown -paper, and sent to England by parcels post, not even -the post-office authorities being given an inkling that it -was in the mails. I almost forgot to mention, by the -way, that McHardy, the discoverer of the great stone, -was given a bonus of ten thousand dollars, though it is -a sad and peculiar commentary that within a year his -wife died, the bank in which he put the money failed, -and his house burned down.</p> - -<p>The diamonds are found in beds of clay, of which -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> -there are two layers: a soft, yellow clay, lying on or near -the surface, and a hard, blue clay, lying deeper. These -clays, which are usually covered by a thin stratum of -calcareous rock, are supposed to be the remains of mud -pits due to volcanic action, such as the boiling springs -of the Yellowstone. Imagine a great hollow, looking -like a gigantic bowl, perhaps half a mile in diameter and -one hundred feet deep, enclosed by a series of barbed-wire -fences and filled by thousands of Kaffir workmen, -looking, from a distance, like a gigantic swarm of -ants—such was my first impression of the Premier -Mine. The native labourers, who work in three shifts -of eight hours each, after cleaving the “hard-blue” -with their picks, load it onto trolley-cars, which are -attached to a cable and hauled to the surface of the pit, -where it is spread on mile-long fields and exposed for -several months to rain, wind, and sun so as to effect decomposition. -The softened lumps of earth, after being -brought into still smaller fragments by the pickaxe, are -then sent to the mills, where they are crushed, pulverised, -washed, and finally sent to the “greaser” to get at -the stones. Until very recently men had to be employed -to sort the washed “concentrates” and pick out -the diamonds. But they would miss some. And the -men had to be guarded lest they steal the gems. And -detectives had to be hired to watch the guards who -watched the men. But one day a mine employee named -Kirsten happened to notice that the diamonds, no matter -how small or discoloured, always stuck to a greasy -surface, just as iron filings stick to a magnet, while the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> -dirt and other stones did not. That was the suggestion -which led to the invention of the “Kirsten greaser,” a -series of sloping boards, heavily coated with grease, -which are gently agitated as the mud and slime containing -the diamonds are slowly washed over them, and -which never fail to collect the precious stones.</p> - -<p>At Kimberley, which is the only other diamond-producing -district of any importance in South Africa, -the gem-bearing ground extends over an area of but -thirty-three acres, so that open mining has long since -given way to shafts, which have now been sunk to a -depth of two thousand five hundred feet, galleries being -driven through the producing ground at every forty-foot -level, precisely as in a coal mine. Kimberley has -a romantic and picturesque history. In 1869 you could -not have found its name upon the map. In the following -year a Boer hunter, pitching his tent on the banks -of the Orange River, chanced to pick up a glittering -stone from among the pebbles. The news of his find -making its way overland to Cape Town, the submarine -cables flashed it to every quarter of the globe, so that -within a twelvemonth adventurers and fortune-seekers -had flocked there in tens of thousands. By 1871 sixteen -hundred claims, each thirty-one feet square, were being -worked, each man digging out the earth on his own -small plot, carrying it to one side, pulverising it by -hand, and sifting it for diamonds. The dirt from one -claim would fall into a neighbouring one, while some -miners could not get their dirt out at all without crossing -another's property, so that quarrels and lawsuits and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> -shooting affrays soon began. About this time two quiet, -uncommunicative, shabbily clad men appeared at Kimberley -and began to buy up the various claims, until, -before any one really appreciated what was happening, -the whole diamond industry of South Africa was in -their hands. Those men were Cecil John Rhodes and -Barney Barnato, and the great amalgamation which -their skill and shrewdness effected, now known as the -DeBeers Consolidated Mining Company, was one of -the greatest <i>coups</i> in the history of finance. It is this -corporation which the women of the world have to -blame for keeping up the price of diamonds, for the first -thing it did was to close the greater part of the Kimberley -mines, keeping just enough open to produce the -amount of stones which experience has proved that -Europe and America are able to take at a price high -enough to leave a gratifying profit. Although, as a -result of this policy, the price of diamonds has been -well maintained, the population of Kimberley has been -greatly reduced, the one great corporation, with its -comparatively small staff of employees and its labour-saving -machinery, having taken the place of the horde -of independent adventurers of the early days.</p> - -<p>It struck me that by far the most interesting sights, -both at the Kimberley and the Premier mines, were the -so-called compounds, in which the native labourers are -confined, for the native who hires out to work in a diamond -mine must submit, during the term of his contract, -to as close confinement as a convict in a penitentiary; -he knows that he is in danger of being shot by the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> -guards if he attempts to escape; he is prepared to be -searched daily with the same minuteness which customs -inspectors display in the case of a known smuggler; and -when his contract expires he has still to put up with a -fortnight's solitary confinement, in which emetics and -cathartics play an unpleasant part. The mine compounds -are huge enclosures, unroofed but covered with -a wire netting to prevent anything being thrown out -over the walls. Around the interior of the wall are rows -of corrugated-iron huts, in which the natives live and -sleep when they are not at work, while the open space -in the middle is used for cooking, for washing, and for -native games. The compounds are surrounded by three -lines of barbed-wire fence which are constantly patrolled -by armed sentries and illuminated at night by powerful -search-lights; every entrance is as jealously guarded -as that of a German fortress; and visitors are never admitted -unless they bear a pass signed by the administration -and are accompanied by a responsible official of the -mine. Although the government—which, as I have -already remarked, takes sixty per cent of the mine's -earnings—has made I. D. B. (illicit diamond-buying) -a penal offence with a uniform punishment of twenty -years at hard labour, and though the mining companies -maintain espionage systems which rival those of many -Continental governments, no employee, from director -down to day labourer, ever being free from scrutiny, -millions of dollars' worth of diamonds are smuggled out -of the mines each year. To encourage honesty, ten -per cent of the value of any stone which a workman -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> -may find is given to him if he brings it himself to the -overseer, well over a quarter of a million dollars being -paid out annually on stones thus found.</p> - -<p>The compound of the Premier Mine contained, at -the time of my visit, something over twelve thousand -natives, representing nearly every tribe from Pondoland -to the head-waters of the Congo. Here one sees -Zulus, Fingos, Pondos, Basutos, Bechuanas, Matabele, -Mashonas, Makalaka, and even Bushmen from the -Kalahari country and Masai from German East Africa, -all attracted by the high wages, which range from five -to eight dollars a week. When the native's six-month -contract has ended, he takes his wages in British sovereigns—and -his earnings accumulate quickly because he -can live on very little—goes home to his own tribe, perhaps -six weeks' journey away, buys a wife and a yoke of -oxen, and lives lazily ever after. Not all of the natives -are of so thrifty a turn of mind, however, for the company -store holds many attractions for them and they -are heavy purchasers of camel's-hair blankets, French -perfumes, and imported cutlery, refusing almost invariably -to take anything but the best.</p> - -<p>I have tried to paint for you a comprehensive, -though necessarily an impressionistic, picture of this -great new nation that has sprung up so quickly in the -antipodes, and to give you at least a rough idea of -what its people, its soil, its towns, its climate, its resources, -and its problems are like. That South Africa -will always be a country of great mineral wealth there -is little doubt, for, when the supplies of gold and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> -diamonds are exhausted, copper, iron, and coal should -still furnish good returns. Likewise, it will always be -a great ranching country, for nearly all of its vast -veldt is ideal, both in climate and pasturage, for live-stock. -It will probably never become a manufacturing -country, for coal is of poor quality, there is neither -water power nor inland waterways, and labour is neither -good nor cheap. If, as I have already remarked, government -irrigation can be introduced as successfully as -it has been in our own Southwest, and if the malaria -which makes the rich coast-lands almost uninhabitable -can be exterminated as effectually as we have exterminated -it on the Isthmus of Panama, I can see no reason -why South Africa should not eventually become -one of the great agricultural countries of the world. -Though many South Africans look forward to a day -when the natives will begin to retire to the country -north of the Zambezi, and when a large European population -will till their own farms, by their own labour, with -the aid of government-assisted irrigation, I am personally -of the opinion that South Africa will never become -at all evenly populated, but that it will always bear a -marked resemblance to our Southwest, with large areas -devoted to the raising of sheep and cattle, with certain -other areas irrigated for the raising of fruit, and with its -population centred for the most part in towns scattered -at long distances from one another, but connected by -rapid railway communications.</p> - -<p>Everything considered, South Africa is a country of -big things—big pay, big prices, big opportunities, big -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> -obstacles, big resources, big rewards—and she needs -young men to help her fight her battles and solve her -problems. So, if I were a youngster, with the sheep-skin -of a technical or agricultural school in my pocket, -a few hundred dollars in my purse, and a longing for -fortune and adventure in my heart, I think that I -should walk into one of those steam-ship offices in -Bowling Green and book a passage for that land of -which some one has said, “Fortune knocks at a man's -door once in most countries, but in South Africa she -knocks twice.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> -</div> - -<p class="ac noindent">THE FORGOTTEN ISLES</p> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/initial-t.jpg" - alt="Drop Cap T" /> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap noindent">THERE -can be no doubt about it: real cannibal -kings are getting scarce. Ever since, as a youngster, -I read of Du Chaillu's adventures among the man-eating -natives of Equatoria, I had hankered to see a real -live cannibal in the flesh. But when, in later years, I -made inquiries about them from missionaries and traders -and officials in Senegal and Uganda and Nyasaland, -I invariably received the reply: “Oh, that's all -over now; except among a few of the West Coast tribes, -cannibalism is a thing of the past.” So when the captain -of the little German cargo boat on which I was -loitering up and down Africa's Indian seaboard remarked -at breakfast one morning that he had decided -to put in to Mahé, in the Seychelle group, and that I -might care to pass the time while he was taking on cargo -by visiting the colony of cannibal royalties who were in -exile there, I felt that one of my boyhood dreams was to -be realised at last.</p> - -<p>Do you happen, by any chance, to have been to -Mahé, in the Seychelles? No? Of course not. Then -you must picture an emerald island dropped down in -a turquoise sea. Peacock-coloured waves ripple on a -silver strand, and this loses itself almost immediately -in a dense forest of giant palms, which, mounting leisurely, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> -dwindles and straggles and runs out in a peak of -bare blue rock, which disappears, in turn, behind a great, -low-hanging, purple heat cloud. To reach these delectable -isles one must have time and patience a-plenty, for -they lie far from the ocean highways and are visited by -scarcely a dozen vessels, all told, each year. Draw a -line straight across the Indian Ocean from Colombo to -Zanzibar, and where that line intersects the equator -are the Seychelles, mere specks in that expanse of -ocean. Mahé, the largest of the group, is everything -that a tropical island should be, according to the story-books, -even to its inaccessibility, for, barring the French -mail steamer which touches there every other month -on its way to Madagascar, and an occasional German -freighter or British tramp which drops in on its way -from Goa to Kilindini, on the chance of picking up a -cargo of copra, it is as completely cut off from the outside -world as though it were in Mars.</p> - -<p>I rather imagine that they are the loneliest people -in the world, those score of men and women—English, -French, and German—who constitute the -entire white population of the islands. That is why -they are so pathetically eager to welcome the rare visitors -who come their way. Indeed, until I went to Mahé -I never knew what hospitality really meant. When our -anchor rumbled down under the shadow of the Morne -Seychellois, and the police boat—its crew of negroes, -with their flashing teeth and big, good-humoured faces, -their trim, blue sailor suits and broad-brimmed straw -wide-awakes, looking like overgrown children—had -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> -taken me ashore, I promptly found myself surrounded -by the entire European population.</p> - -<p>“I am the wife of the legal adviser to the Crown,” -said a sweet-faced little Irishwoman. “My husband -and I would be so pleased if you would come up to our -bungalow for dinner. You can have no idea how good -it seems to see a white face again.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I say, then you must promise to breakfast -with me,” urged a tall young Englishman in immaculate -white linen, who, it proved, was the superior judge -of the colony. “You won't disappoint me, will you, -old chap? I'm dying to hear what's going on in the -world. And if you <i>should</i> have any magazines or newspapers -that you could spare——”</p> - -<p>But the government chaplain, wasting no time in -words, fairly hustled me into a diminutive dog-cart and, -amid the reproaches of his fellow-exiles, off we rattled -behind the only horse on the island. The padre was -not to monopolise me for long, however, for the little -group of homesick exiles pursued us to his bungalow, -where they settled me in a long cane chair, thrust -upon me cheroots and whiskey-and-sodas, and listened -breathlessly to the bits of world gossip for which I -ransacked the pigeon-holes of my memory for their -benefit. The newest songs, the most recent plays, the -latest fashions, all the gossip of Broadway and Oxford -Street and the Avenue de l'Opéra—they hung on my -words with an eagerness that was pathetic.</p> - -<p>“I hope you'll pardon us,” apologised my host, -“but it's so seldom that we see a pukka white man out -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> -here that we quite forget the few manners we have left -in our eagerness to learn what is going on at home—the -little things, you know, that are not important enough -to put in the cables and that they never think to put in -the letters. Until you have lived in such a place as this, -my friend, you don't know the meaning of that word -'home.'”</p> - -<p>It is hot in the Seychelles; hot with a damp, sticky, -humid, enervating heat which is unknown away from -the Line. They tell a story in Mahé of an English resident -who died from fever and went to the lower regions. -A few days later his friends received a message from the -departed. It said, “Please send down my blankets.” -There are days in an American midsummer when indoors -becomes oppressive; it is <i>always</i> oppressive in the -Seychelles, in January as in August, at midnight as at -noon. During the “hot season” it is overpoweringly -so, for you live for six months at a stretch in a bath of -perspiration and wonder whether you will ever know -what it is to be cool again. “There are six hundred minutes -in every hour of the hot weather,” the governor's -wife remarked to me, “and not one of them bearable. -Although,” she added, “after the mercury in your bedroom -thermometer has climbed above one hundred and -thirty, a few more degrees don't much matter.” In -her bungalow, for the greater part of the day, the -white woman in the Seychelles is as much a prisoner by -reason of the heat as is a Turkish woman in a harem -from custom. Having neither shopping, domestic duties, -nor callers to occupy her, the only break in the day's -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> -terrible monotony comes at sunset, when every one -meets every one else at the little club on the water-front -which, with its breeze-swept verandas and its green croquet -lawns and tennis courts, is the universal gathering-place -between the hours of six and eight. An afternoon -nap is universal—if the flies will allow it. Flies by day -and mosquitoes by night are as wearing on European -nerves as the climate, the beds being from necessity so -smothered in mosquito netting that the air that gets -within is as unsatisfactory as strained milk. In the hot -weather a punkah is kept going all night—this huge, -swinging fan, pulled by a coolie who squats in the veranda -outside, and who can go to sleep without ceasing -his pulling, being as necessary for comfort as a pillow—while, -during the hottest nights, it is customary to sleep -unclad and uncovered, save for a sheet, which the -punkah-coolie, slipping in every hour, sprinkles with -water.</p> - -<p>The white woman in this part of the world is an -early riser. A cup of tea is always served her when she -is awakened, and as soon as she is dressed comes <i>chota -hazri</i>, or the little breakfast, consisting of tea, toast, -eggs, and fruit. The most is made of the cool hours of -the morning, for in the hot weather it is customary to -“shut up the bungalow” at about seven <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, when -the temperature is moderately low compared with -what it will rise to a few hours later. Every door and -window is closed and thereafter the greatest care is -taken to make entrances and exits as quickly as possible, -for a door left open for any length of time quickly -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> -raises the temperature. If kept carefully closed, however, -it is remarkable how cool the room keeps as compared -with the stifling heat without.</p> - -<p>Though a Seychellian bungalow is generally barn-like -without and barren within, its European mistress -usually contrives to make its rooms pretty and inviting, -it being astonishing what marvels of transformation -can be accomplished by means of native mattings, Indian -printed curtains, and furniture of Chinese wicker, -all effective and ridiculously cheap. The kitchen is a detached -building, erected as far away from the bungalow -as possible, and the white woman who knows when she -is well off seldom enters it. Once a month, however, -she inspects her cooking pots and pans, because, being -made of copper, they have to be periodically tinned -or they become poisonous, almost as many lives being -lost in the tropics by the neglect of this simple precaution -as by failure to have every drop of drinking water -boiled. As there is no ice-making plant in the Seychelles, -water is cooled for drinking by being placed in -a porous earthenware vessel and swung to and fro in -the heated atmosphere until, though still far from cool, -it is a little less tepid and nauseous.</p> - -<p>But the European residents are not the only exiles -in the Seychelles, nor, to my way of thinking, the ones -most to be pitied, for of recent years these islands, presumably -because of their very remoteness, have been -turned into a political prison for those deposed cannibal -kings whose kingdoms have, on one excuse and another, -been added to the dominions of the British Crown. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> -At present there are three political prisoners of note on -the island of Mahé—King Kabanga of Uganda, King -Assibi of the Gold Coast, and King Prempeh of Ashantee. -Though all of these ebony royalties were enthusiastic -patrons of the cooking-pot, King Prempeh is by -far the most notorious and the most interesting personality -of the three, for it was his palace at Kumasi that -was built of the skulls and surrounded by a neat picket -fence made from the leg and arm bones of the people he -and his tribesmen had eaten. Hard by the palace was -the ghastly “crucifixion grove” where the victims were -slaughtered and their bodies hung until sufficiently -gamy to suit the royal palate. Owing to an error of -judgment in selecting a British commissioner as the -<i>pièce de résistance</i> for one of his feasts, an expedition was -sent to Ashantee, the country annexed to the British -empire, and its ruler forced to exchange his skull-walled -palace in Kumasi for a four-roomed, tin-roofed cottage -in the outskirts of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles, -where, surrounded by the huts of the chieftains who accompanied -him into exile, he lives on the meagre pension -granted him by the British Government.</p> - -<p>Clad in the flaming cotton robe of red and yellow -which is the West African equivalent of royal ermine, -worn over a pair of very soiled pajamas, his Majesty -received me on the veranda of his little dwelling in the -presence of the constable who guards him and who acts -as interpreter when the King's scanty store of English -gives out. Now I am not an entire stranger to the ways -of the Lord's Anointed, but this audience with Prempeh -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> -of Ashantee was one of the most memorable experiences -that I can recall. In the first place, the mercury had -crept up and up and up until it hovered in the neighbourhood -of one hundred and thirty degrees in the shade -of the house; in the second place, the sons of the King -(he told me that he had forty-two in all) had crowded -into the tiny room until the place fairly reeked with the -smell of perspiration; in the third place, I was at a loss -what to talk to his Majesty about. The questions -which one would like to ask a cannibal king are obvious—whether -he takes his meat rare or well done, whether -he prefers the tenderloin or the sirloin, whether he likes -white meat better than black—but Prempeh of Ashantee -is not at all the sort of person with whom one would -feel inclined to take liberties, and I was very far from -being sure whether he would consider such questions as -liberties or not. After an awkward pause, during which -the King shuffled his feet uneasily and I wiped away -rivulets of perspiration, he said something in Ashantee—at -least I suppose it was Ashantee—to one of his attendants, -who shortly returned with a tin tray holding -a bottle of whiskey, a siphon of lukewarm seltzer, and -a couple of very dirty glasses. After another long and -uncomfortable pause, the King asked me if I wouldn't -have something to drink. Taking it for granted that -Prempeh's capacity for drink would be as <i>outré</i> as his -choice of food, I poured his beer glass full to the brim -with whiskey, giving to myself the drink sanctioned by -civilised custom.</p> - -<p>“In my country,” said the King, leaning forward -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> -and speaking in the broken English which he had acquired -from the government chaplain, “bad men sometimes -try to poison king, so king turn drinks other way -round,” and, suiting the action to the words, he turned -the tray so as to place before <i>me</i> the beer-glassful of -whiskey. I have never been quite certain whether there -was a twinkle in the eye of that simple-hearted cannibal -when he literally turned the table on me or not.</p> - -<p>At the time of my visit to Prempeh he was in the -throes of marital unhappiness, the details of which he -confided to me. It seems that for several years past he -had been endeavouring to gain admission to the Church-of-England -fold, arguing, plausibly enough, that such a -proof of his complete regeneration might result in inducing -the British Government to send him back to his -home in Ashantee. Working on that assumption, he -had, not long before, asked the government chaplain to -confirm him, to which request that gratified but still -somewhat sceptical clergyman had replied: “I am sorry -to say that what your Majesty asks is at present impossible, -as your Majesty's marital affairs are not pleasing -to the church.”</p> - -<p>So Prempeh, who had brought only twelve of his -wives with him into exile, thinking that the church held -such a number to be incompatible with his dignity,—for -the workings of the West African mind are peculiar, remember,—sent -a message to the governor of the Seychelles -asking permission to take a maiden of Mahé for -his thirteenth spouse, and it was not until the indignant -chaplain remonstrated with him for his fall from grace -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> -that he grasped the fact that Christianity demands -of its converts the minimum instead of the maximum -number of wives.</p> - -<p>“So me ship three wives back Africa,” Prempeh -explained to me in his quaint West Coast English. -“Now me have only nine. Nine wives not many for -great king. But if chappy [chaplain] not let me in -church with nine wives, then me ship them back Africa -too, for me very much homesick to see Ashantee.”</p> - -<p>Poor, deposed, exiled, homesick king, he will never -again see that African home for which he longs, I fear, -for he cost England far too much in lives and money. -He came out on the veranda of his little house to say -good-by, and as I looked back, as my 'rickshaw boy -drew me swiftly down the road, he was still standing -there waving to me—a real, dyed-in-the-wool cannibal -king, who has killed and eaten more human beings, I -suppose, than almost any man that ever lived.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>Two days' steam southward from the Seychelles, -and midway between the island of Mahé and Diégo-Suarez, -on the north coast of Madagascar, lies the islet -of Saint Pierre, whence comes much of the guano with -which we fertilise our flower-beds and gardens, and those -giant sea-turtles whose shells supply our women-folk -with fans, combs, and brooches. Here, on this half -a square mile of sun-baked rock in the middle of the -Indian Ocean, the Scotch manager of the syndicate -which works the guano deposits lives the whole year -round, during half of which time he sees no human face, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> -during the other half having the company of a few -score blacks who are brought over from Mahé under -contract to gather the rich deposits of guano. His only -shelter a wooden shack, his only companions the clouds -of clamorous sea-fowl, his only fresh food turtles and -fish, his only communication with the world two times -a year when the workers come and go, I expected to find -him unshaven and slovenly, the most exiled of all exiles, -the loneliest of the lonely. I made up a bundle of two-months-old -newspapers and pictured the pleasure it -would give him to learn the news of that big, busy, -teeming world which lay over there beyond the rim of -the Indian Ocean. I imagined that he would cling to -my arm and beg piteously for news from home, and I -thought it quite possible that he might weep on my -shoulder. But when a crew of blacks had taken me -through the booming surf in a tiny native dugout, and I -and my bundle of newspapers had been hauled up an -overhanging cliff at the end of a rope, I found the poor -exile whose lonely lot I had come to cheer immaculate -in white linen and pipe-clayed shoes and wholly contented -with the shade of a green palm, the murmur of -a turquoise sea, a book of Robert Burns's verses, and -the contents of a large black bottle.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>When De Lesseps, that lean Frenchman with the -vision of a prophet and the energy of a Parisian, drove -his spade through the sands of Suez and thereby shortened -the sea-road from Europe to the East by five thousand -miles, he gave France her revenge on Saint Helena. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> -Ever since Clive won England her Indian empire, this -obscure rock in the South Atlantic had been a prosperous -half-way house on the road to the Farther East, its -lonely islanders driving a roaring trade with the winged -fleets of war and commerce that stopped there long -enough to replenish their larders and refill their casks. -But when the completion of the Canal altered the trade -routes of the world, the tedious Cape journey was abandoned, -the South Atlantic was deserted, and Saint -Helena was ruined. By the genius of one of her sons, -France had settled her score with that grim island, -whose name still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of -Frenchmen.</p> - -<p>He who would see the prison place of the great -Emperor for himself must be rich in time and patience, -for the vessels that earn their government subsidy by -grudgingly dropping anchor for a few hours in Jamestown's -open roadstead are only indifferently good and -very far between. Scarcely larger than the island of -Nantucket—or Staten Island, if that conveys more -meaning; almost midway between the fever-haunted -coasts of Angola and Brazil; sixteen days' steam from -Southampton Water and seven from Table Bay; its -rockbound coasts as precipitous and forbidding as the -walls of the Grand Canyon; and with a population less -than that of many of New York's down-town office -buildings, Saint Helena possesses one attraction, nevertheless, -which more than repaid me for the long and -arduous journey. That attraction is a mean and lonely -cottage, set on a bleak and barren hill. To stand within -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> -the walls of that wretched dwelling and to stare out -across the wastes of ocean from that wind-swept hilltop, -I travelled twenty thousand miles, for on that -distant stage was played the last act of the mightiest -tragedy of modern times.</p> - -<p>Loitering up and down the seven seas, I have seen -many islands, but none, that I can recall, that turns -toward the seafarer a face at once so gloomy and so forbidding. -It needs no vivid imagination, no knowledge -of its history, to transform the perpendicular cliffs of -Saint Helena into the grim walls of a sea-surrounded -prison. It is a place so stern, so solemn, and so awesome -that it makes you shiver in spite of yourself. As I -leaned over the rail of a Castle steamer, with sunrise -still an hour away and the Cross flaming overhead, and -watched the island's threatening profile loom up out of -the night, I shuddered in sympathy with that stern, -cold man who came as a prisoner to these same shores -close on a century ago.</p> - -<p>From the view-points of safety and severity, the -captors of the fallen Emperor could not have chosen -better. For the safe-keeping of a man whose ambitions -had decimated, bankrupted, and exhausted the people -of a continent, it was imperative that a prison should be -found whence escape or rescue would be out of the question -by reason of its very isolation and remoteness. -Twelve hundred miles from the nearest continental -land, and that a savage and fever-infested wilderness; -with but a single harbour, and that so poor that landing -there is perilous except in the very best of weather; its -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> -great natural strength increased by impregnable forts; -its towering rocks commanding a sea view of sixty miles -in every direction, thus obviating the possibility of a -surprise attack, Saint Helena admirably fulfilled the -requirements for a prison demanded by a harassed, -weakened, and frightened Europe.</p> - -<p>Though those travellers who take passage by the -slow and infrequent “intermediate” steamers to the -Cape are usually afforded an opportunity of setting foot -on Saint Helena's soil, the brief stay which is made there -permits of their doing little else. As the house occupied -by Napoleon stands in the very heart of the island and -on its highest point, and as the road which leads to it is -so rough and precipitous that those who hire one of the -few available vehicles generally walk most of the way -out of pity for the horses, there is rarely time for the -traveller who intends proceeding by the same boat to -set eyes on the spot which gives the island its fame. -I heard, indeed, of scores of travellers who had chosen -the discomforts of this roundabout and tedious route -for the express purpose of visiting the house where -Napoleon died, and who found, on arriving at Saint -Helena, that they would have time for nothing more -than a hurried promenade in the town. Nor are any -efforts made by the indolent islanders to induce travellers -to stay over a steamer, for there are neither hotels -nor boarding-houses, and a visitor would have to depend -for his bed and board on the hospitality of some private -family.</p> - -<p>The South Atlantic, her bosom rising and falling -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> -lazily under the languorous influence of the tropic morning, -had exchanged her sombre night robe for a shimmering, -sparkling garment of sun-flecked blue before the -sleepy-eyed quarantine officer had laboriously climbed -the port ladder; and the yellow flag at our masthead, -fluttering down, had signalled to the clamorous crews -of negroes waiting eagerly alongside that they could take -us ashore. In the pitiless light of the early morning -the island looked even more forbidding than when the -harshness of its features was veiled by night. Naked -slope and ridge rose everywhere, and everywhere they -were cut and cross-cut by equally bare valleys and -ravines, but not a house, not a tree, not a sign of life, -vegetable or animal, could we detect as we drew near. -Even the sea-birds seemed afraid to alight on those grim -cliffs, darting in on outspread wings as though to settle -on them, only to wheel away with frightened, discordant -cries, the while an everlasting surf hurled itself angrily -against the smooth black rocks, voicing its impotence -in a sullen, booming roar.</p> - -<p>Approaching the shore, we were amazed to see that -what had appeared from the ship's deck to be a solid, -perpendicular wall of rock was split in the middle, as -though by a mighty chisel, and in the cleft thus formed -nestled Jamestown, the island's capital, flanked on -either side by towering, fort-crowned cliffs which effectually -conceal it from the sea. Landing at the same -stone water-stairs where the captive Emperor had come -ashore nearly a century before, we followed a stone-paved -causeway, bordered on the land side by a deep -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> -but empty moat, over a creaking drawbridge, through -an ancient portcullised gateway, and so into a spacious -square, shaded by many patriarchal trees and dotted -here and there with groups of antiquated cannon. Bordering -the square are the post-office, which does a thriving -business in the sale of the rare surcharged stamps of -the islands when the steamers come in; the custom-house, -the law courts, the yellow church of Saint James, -and the castle, a picturesque and straggling structure, -begun by the first English governor in 1659, which is -used by the governor for his “town” residence, though -his “country” place is barely a mile away. The town -itself is simply a mean and straggling street, lined on -either side by whitewashed, red-roofed, green-shuttered -houses which become less and less pretentious and more -and more scattered as you make your way up the ever -narrowing valley until it loses itself in the hills. If -there is a more dead-and-alive place than Jamestown -I have yet to see it. A New Hampshire hamlet on a -Sunday morning is positively boisterous in comparison. -Once a month, however, when the British mail comes in, -the town arouses itself long enough to go down to the -post-office and get the letters and the papers—especially -the illustrated weeklies—from that far-off place -which every islander, even though he was born and -raised on Saint Helena, refers to as “home.”</p> - -<p>From the very edge of the village square the cliff -known as Ladder Hill rises sheer, its great bulk throwing -an ominous shadow over the little town. It takes -its name from the Jacob's ladder whose seven hundred -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> -wooden steps will bring you, panting and perspiring, -to the fort and the wireless station which occupy the -top. I suppose there is no other such ladder in the -world, it being, so I was proudly assured by the -islanders, nine hundred and ninety-three feet long and -six hundred and two feet high. Nor can I conceive of -any other place wanting such an accommodation, for -those who use it are constantly in danger of bursting -their lungs going up or of breaking their necks coming -down.</p> - -<p>A biscuit's throw from the foot of the ladder, and -facing the public gardens, stands the sedate, old-fashioned -house where Napoleon spent the first few nights -after his arrival on the island. It is a prim, two-story -residence, the sombreness of its snuff-coloured plaster -relieved by white stone trimmings and window-sills—just -such a place, in fact, as the British colonists built -by the hundreds in our own New England towns. By -one of the most remarkable coincidences of which I -have ever heard, Napoleon was given the same bedroom -which had been occupied by the Duke of Wellington—then -Sir Arthur Wellesley—on his homeward voyage -from India only a few years before.</p> - -<p>Leaving Jamestown in its gloomy, rock-walled ravine, -we followed the incredibly rough high-road which -bumps and jolts and twists and turns and climbs back -and up onto the table-land which forms, as it were, the -roof of the island. The deeper we penetrated into the -interior the more luxuriant the vegetation became. The -dry, barren, soilless, lichen-coated rocks of the coast -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> -zone gave way to grassy valleys abloom with English -gorse and broom and dotted with the bright green of -willows and the dark green of firs, and these merged, -in turn, into a land of bamboos and bananas, of oranges -and lemons and date-palms, where the vegetation was -so luxuriant and tropical as to give it almost the appearance -of a botanic garden. I know, indeed, of no other -place in the world where one can pass through three distinct -zones of vegetation in the course of an hour's -drive, the first few miles into the interior of Saint -Helena being, so far as the scenery is concerned, like -a journey from the rocky, desolate shores of Labrador, -through the pine forests and fertile farm-lands of New -England and New York, and so southward into the -essentially tropical vegetation of lower Florida.</p> - -<p>The road wound on and on, uncovering new beauties -at every turn. Cheerful, low-roofed bungalows -peeped out at us from gardens ablaze with camelias, -fuchsias, and roses; through the vistas formed by fig, -pear, and guava orchards we caught glimpses of prosperous-looking -stone farm-houses whose thick walls and -high gables showed that they dated from the Dutch -occupation; passing above a tiny sylvan valley, our -driver pointed out the rambling Balcombe place, where -the Emperor lived for some weeks while Longwood was -being prepared for his occupancy, and in the box-bordered -gardens of which he made quiet love to his -host's pretty daughter. In the same valley, not a -pistol-shot away, are the whitewashed, broad-verandaed -quarters of the Eastern Telegraph Company's force of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> -operators—tennis-courts, cricket-fields, and a swimming-pool -set in a lawn of emerald velvet serving to make the -enforced exile of these young Englishmen, who relay the -news of the world between Europe and the Cape, a not -unpleasant one.</p> - -<p>Steeper and steeper became the road; scantier and -less luxuriant the vegetation, until at last we emerged -upon a barren, wind-swept table-land. A farm-yard gate -barred our road, but at the impatient crack of the -driver's whip a small brown maiden hastened from a -near-by lodge to open it, curtseying to us prettily as we -rattled through. Three minutes' drive across a desolate, -gorse-covered moor, and our driver pulled up sharply -at a gate in a scraggy privet hedge surrounding just -such a ramshackle, weather-beaten farm-house as you -find by the hundreds scattered along the coast of Maine. -“Longwood,” he remarked laconically, pointing with -his whip. Convinced that I could not have heard -aright, I asked him over again, for, despite all the accounts -I had read of the mean surroundings amid which -the Emperor ended his days, I could not bring myself to -believe that this miserable cottage, with its sunken roof -and lichen-coated walls, could have sheltered for more -than half a decade the conqueror of Europe, the master -of the Tuileries and Fontainebleau and Versailles, the -man whose troopers had stabled their horses in every -capital of the Continent.</p> - -<p>Longwood House is an old-fashioned, rambling -cottage, only one story high, unless you count the -quarters improvised for the members of the Emperor's -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> -suite in the garret, which were lighted by means of -small windows cut in the shingle roof. The house is -built in the form of a T, the entrance, which is reached -by four or five stone steps and a tiny latticed veranda, -being represented by the bottom of the letter, while the -dining-room, kitchens, and offices are represented by -the top. Originally the dwelling of a peasant farmer, at -the time Napoleon reached the island it was being used -as a sort of shooting-box by the lieutenant-governor, -the present front of the house being hastily added to -form a reception-room for the Emperor. In addition -to this <i>salle de réception</i>, where you are asked to sign -the visitor' book by the old French soldier who is the -official guardian of the place, there is a drawing-room, -a dining-room, the Emperor's study, his bedroom, bath, -and dressing-room—all small, ill-lighted, damp, and -cheerless. Practically the entire lower floor of the house -was used by Napoleon, the members of his <i>entourage</i>—marshals, -ministers, and courtiers, remember, who were -accustomed to the life of the most brilliant court in -Europe—being accommodated in tiny, unventilated -cubby-holes directly under the eaves. With the exception -of two or three small pier-glasses, the house is -now quite destitute of furniture, though in other respects -it is kept religiously as it was in Napoleon's -time, even the faded blue wall-paper, sprinkled with -golden stars, having been carefully preserved. On the -walls of the various rooms are notices in French and -English indicating the purposes to which they were put -during the imperial occupancy. Between two windows -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> -of the reception-room, where the Emperor's bed was -removed from his bedroom a few days before his death -because of the better light, stands a marble bust made -from the cast taken immediately after his death, which, -barring the one made by Canova during his life, is the -only likeness of Napoleon admittedly correct. Without -the house is the small and unkept garden in which -the Emperor walked and sometimes worked, the arbour -under which he spent so many hours, and the cement-lined -fish-pond which he built with his own hands. Inside -or out, there is not one suggestion of colour, of comfort, -or of cheer: it is a prison-house and nothing more.</p> - -<p>Near the bottom of the brown and windy hill on -which Longwood stands is Geranium Valley, which -contains the tomb, or rather the cenotaph, of the -Emperor. It was by Napoleon's own wish that his -body was buried in this exquisite spot, close beside the -spring at which he so often used to drink and amid the -wild geraniums of which he was so fond. The famous -willow-tree still overshadows the little grave-space, -which is enclosed by a high iron railing and a carefully -trimmed hedge of box, while masses of flowers give -brightness to a spot hallowed by many memories, for -it was in this shady glen that the Emperor passed the -most peaceful hours of his exile and it was here that he -rested for twenty years until France brought him back -in triumph to his final resting-place under the great -gilt dome of Les Invalides.</p> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_268a.jpg" id="i_268a.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_268a.jpg" width="600" height="368" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Longwood House. “This miserable cottage, with its - sunken roof and lichen-coated walls, sheltered for more than half a - decade the conqueror of Europe.”</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter bord"><a name="i_268b.jpg" id="i_268b.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/i_268b.jpg" width="600" height="394" - alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Looking northward across the Atlantic from Longwood. - “To stare out across the wastes of ocean from that wind-swept hilltop - I travelled twenty thousand miles.”</div> - -<div class="caption p1">THE PRISON PLACE OF A GREAT EMPEROR.</div> -</div> - -<p>Both Longwood and the grave occupy the peculiar -position of being French territory in the heart of a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> -British colony, for half a century ago Queen Victoria -presented the property to the French nation, an official -appointed by the French Government residing on and -caring for the place and showing it with mingled pride -and sadness to the few visitors who make their way to -this one of the world's far corners. It was an interesting -but gloomy experience, that pilgrimage to the prison -place of the great Emperor, for it visualised for me, as -nothing else ever could do, the sordidness, the humiliations, -and the mental tortures which marked the last -years of Napoleon. As my vessel steamed steadily -northward across the Atlantic, with the boulevards of -Paris not three weeks away, I leaned over the taffrail -and, staring back at the receding cliffs of that grim -island, I seemed to see the short, stoop-shouldered, gray-coated, -cock-hatted figure of the Emperor staring wistfully -out across those leagues of ocean toward France.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>To locate the next of these “Forgotten Isles,” and -the most completely forgotten of all of them, you had -better get out the family atlas and, with a ruler and a -pencil, do a little Morris-chair exploring. Draw a line -due south from Cape Verde, which is the westernmost -point of Africa, and another line due east from Cape -San Roque, which is the easternmost point in South -America, and where those two lines meet, out in the -wastes of the South Atlantic, you will find a barren rock -which resembles, as, indeed, it is, an extinct and partially -submerged volcano. This rock, which is considerably -smaller than its sister island of Saint Helena, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> -seven hundred miles away, is officially designated by the -British Government as H.M.S. “Ascension.” Entirely -under the control and jurisdiction of the Lords Commissioners -of the Admiralty, it is unique in that it is -the only island in the world which has the rating of a -man-o'-war, being garrisoned, or rather manned, by a -detachment of sailors and marines, and being administered -in every respect as though it were a unit of the -British navy. With the exception of a dozen acres of -vegetable garden, there is not a single green thing on -the island—grass, shrub, or tree. The island of Saint -Pierre, of which I made mention earlier in this chapter, is -bad enough, goodness knows, but it at least has a palm-tree. -Ascension hasn't even that. How they get men -to go there is altogether beyond my comprehension. If -I had to take my choice between being sentenced to exile -on Ascension (which Heaven forbid!) or confinement -in Sing Sing, I rather think I should choose the prison. -There are people on Ascension, nevertheless, the population, -which consists of officers, seamen, and marines, -together with a handful of cable operators and a score of -Kroo boys from Sierra Leone, numbering in all about -one hundred and thirty. There were also four women—relatives -of the officers—on the island when I was there. -They had been there only six months, I was told, yet -when our vessel arrived not one of them was on speaking -terms with the others. Ascension, is, however, one -of the most flourishing “match factories” in the British -empire, it being safe to say that any unattached -female, no matter what her disqualifications, can get a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> -husband in a week's stay on the island. A young Englishman -and his bride boarded our boat at Ascension. -She had been born and had spent all of her life on Saint -Helena (which is not exactly a roaring metropolis itself), -and had married one of the cable operators stationed -at Ascension, who was taking her on her first -visit to the outside world. She told me that the event -of her life, her marriage excepted, had been going out to -a vessel to see a motor-car which was being transported -to Cape Town. Here was an educated and intelligent -English girl who had come to womanhood without ever -having seen a railway train, a street-car, a building over -two stories high, or a crowd of more than five hundred -people. When we reached Teneriffe, in the Canaries, -which is about as somnolent a place as any I know, her -husband took her ashore to see the sights with keen anticipation. -She rode on an electric car, she took tea -in a four-story hotel, she attended a moving-picture -show—and was brought back to the steamer suffering -from violent hysterics. A week later we reached Southampton, -where she was so completely prostrated by the -roar and bustle of her first city that she had to go to bed -under medical attention.</p> - -<p>To those British officials and soldiers who are performing -the manifold duties of empire along Africa's -fever-stricken West Coast, the island of Ascension is a -godsend, for an excellent sanatorium has been built by -the government on its highest point, and to it come -wasted, sunken-cheeked, fever-racked skeletons from all -parts of that coast of death to build up their strength before -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> -going back to their work again. Not only is Ascension -a coaling, cable, and health station of considerable -importance, but it is also the chief habitat of the sea-turtle, -which comes there in thousands between January -and May, to lay its eggs in the sand. After having seen -the enormous size these creatures attain, it is almost -possible to believe some of those fantastic yarns about -his trained turtles with which Baron de Rougemont set -Europe gasping a few years back. During the year that -I visited Ascension more than two hundred turtles were -captured, ranging in weight from five hundred to eight -hundred pounds apiece. Four of the monsters, each -weighing close to half a ton, were put aboard our vessel, -being sent by the officers of the garrison as a gift to his -Majesty the King. They must have had turtle soup at -Buckingham Palace for several days in succession after -those turtles arrived.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>It could not have been long after daybreak when -a frousy-headed Greek steward awoke me with an intimation -that we were off Canea. The evil-smelling -mixture which was called coffee only by courtesy, and -which was really chicory in disguise, held no attraction -for me, for, through the port-holes of the dining-saloon -I could see, rising from a sapphire sea, the green-clad, -snow-capped mountains of Crete, the island of mythology -and massacre.</p> - -<p>Our little steamer forged ahead at half-speed and -the white town kept coming nearer and nearer, until -we could distinguish the caiques in the harbour, and the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> -queer, narrow houses with their latticed harem windows -which encircled it, and the white mosque with a palm-tree -silhouetted against its slender minaret, and even -the crowd of ebony, tan, and coffee-coloured humanity -that fought for posts of vantage at the water-stairs. It -was a picture of sunshine and animation, of vivid colours -and strange peoples, such as one seldom sees except in -some gorgeously staged comic opera, and as I surveyed -it sleepily from the steamer's deck I had a momentary -feeling that I was only an onlooker at a play and that -the curtain would go down presently and I should have -to go out into the drab, prosaic, humdrum world again.</p> - -<p>But even as this was in my mind a gun boomed out -from a crumbling bastion and five little balls ran up five -flagstaffs which I had already noticed standing all in a -row on the uppermost ramparts and had mistaken, -naturally enough, for some new form of Marconi apparatus. -The five little balls broke out into five flags -and the morning breeze caught up their folds and held -them straight out as though for our benefit, so that -we could make them out quite plainly. Four of them -were old friends that I had known on many seas—the -Union Jack and the Tricolour and the Saint Andrew's -cross of Russia and the red-white-and-green banner of -Italy—but the fifth flag, which flew somewhat higher -than the others, was of unfamiliar design; but the blood-red -square of bunting, traversed by the Greek cross and -bearing in its upper corner the star of Bethlehem, told -its own story and I knew it for the flag of Crete. And -I knew that there was deep significance in the design -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> -of that unknown flag and in the position of the four -familiar ones that flew below it, for they signalled to the -world that the Turk had been driven out, never to return; -that Christianity had triumphed over Mohammedanism, -and that the cross had, indeed, replaced the -crescent; that the centuries of massacre were now but -memories; that peace, in the guise of foreign soldiery, -had, for a time at least, found an abiding-place in Crete; -and, most significant of all, that the new flag with its -single star would be upheld, if necessary, by the mightiest -array of bayonets and battle-ships in Christendom.</p> - -<p>The island of Crete, which is about the size of -Porto Rico, not only occupies a very important strategical -position, being nearly equidistant from the coasts -of Europe, Asia, and Africa, commanding every line of -communication in the eastern Mediterranean, and being -within easy striking distance of the Strait of Gibraltar, -the Dardanelles, and the Canal, but it is also one -of the richest agricultural regions in the world, or would -be if the warring elements among its population would -permit the rattle of the harvester to replace the rattle -of the machine-gun. Ever since the Turks wrested the -island from the Venetians, close on two and a half centuries -ago, its history has been one of corruption, cruelty, -and massacre. Almost annually, for more than seventy -years, the island Christians rose in rebellion against -their Turkish masters, and just as regularly the Turks -suppressed those rebellions with a severity which turned -the towns of the island into shambles and its fertile -farm-lands into a deserted wilderness. The cruelty -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> -which coupled the name of Turk with execration in -Armenia and Macedonia assumed such atrocious forms -in Crete that finally the great powers were aroused to -action, and in 1898 the fleets of England, France, Italy, -and Russia dropped anchor in Suda Bay, the Turkish -officials were forcibly deported, and a board of admirals -assumed control of the affairs of the unhappy island. -After a few months of martial government, during which -the admirals squabbled continuously among themselves, -the intervening powers proclaimed the island an autonomous -state, subject to the Porte, but paying no tribute, -and ruled by a high commissioner to be appointed by -the King of the Hellenes. Though theoretically independent, -it was provided that all questions concerning -the foreign relations of Crete should be determined by -the representatives of the powers, who would also maintain -in the island, for a time at least, an international -army of occupation. Recent events in the Balkans -having resulted in bringing about an agitation in Crete -for annexation to Greece, where a propaganda has long -been vigorously carried on with that end in view, the -protecting powers have definitely announced that the -administration of the island will be continued by the -“constituted authorities” (this should read “<i>self</i>-constituted”) -until the question can be settled with the consent -of Turkey. As things stand at present, the withdrawal -of the international troops from Crete is about -as distant as the withdrawal of the British garrisons -from Egypt. To tell the truth, each of the protecting -powers is exceedingly anxious to get the island for -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> -itself—England because it forms an admirable half-way -house between Gibraltar and the Canal; France -because its occupation would carry French influence -into the eastern end of the Mediterranean; Italy because -it would serve as a connecting link between the -peninsula and Tripolitania; and Russia because it would -give her the command of the entrance to the Dardanelles—and -hence, though they will certainly never restore -it to Turkey, they are far from anxious to hand it -over to Greece, to whom, after all, it belongs historically, -geographically, and ethnologically. As a result, the -Cretan question will probably disturb the chancelleries -of Europe for some years to come.</p> - -<p>As I strained my eyes across the sparkling waters -in vain search for signs of a hotel and breakfast, a boat -flying the port-captain's flag and manned by gendarmes—splendid, -muscular fellows with high boots and bare -knees and baggy Turkish trousers, their keen brown -faces peering out from under their fluttering cap-covers—came -racing out from shore. As it came alongside -the crew tossed oars with all the smartness of man-o'-war's-men; -the white-clad officer in the stern, who was -very stout and very stiffly starched, climbed the stairs -gingerly, as though fearful of injuring the faultless -crease in his linen trousers, and, after the exchange of -ceremonious bows and laboured compliments in French, -informed me that the High Commissioner had placed -the boat at my disposal. There is always something -peculiarly satisfying to the soul about going ashore under -official auspices, not only because of the envious -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> -glances of your fellow-passengers who line the rail, but -because of the powerlessness of the customs officials to -annoy you.</p> - -<p>Canea, which is the seat of government, is the most -picturesquely cosmopolitan place west of Suez. It has -a mild and equable climate; living is cheap and reasonably -good; there is a large garrison of foreign soldiery; -there are no extradition treaties in force; and trouble -of one kind or another is always brewing. Like a -magnet, therefore, Canea has attracted the scum and -offscourings of all the Levant—needy soldiers of fortune, -professional revolution-makers, smooth-spoken gamblers -and confidence men, rouged and powdered women of -easy virtue from east and west, Egyptian donkey-boys, -out-at-elbows dragomans who speak a score of tongues -and hail from goodness knows where—all that rabble of -the needy, the adventurous, and the desperate which -follow the armies of occupation and are always to be -found on the fringe of civilisation.</p> - -<p>The foreign troops are quartered for the most part -on the massive Venetian ramparts which still surround -the town, but all business centres along the narrow, -stone-paved quay bordering the harbour, and in a -straggling thoroughfare which, leaving the water-front -through a fine old gate still bearing the carven lion of -Saint Mark, serves as the vertebra for an amazing tangle -of dim alleys and deafening bazaars, in which all the -products of the Levant are bought and sold amid indescribable -confusion.</p> - -<p>Canea is at its best at sunset, for it is not until -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> -then that the town awakens to life. As the sun begins -to sink behind the Aspra Vouna, the streets, hitherto -deserted, become thronged as though by magic; the -spaces before the cafés are packed with coffee-drinking, -nargileh-smoking humanity of all shades and of all -religions; the soldiers begin to appear in groups of twos -and threes and fours; the clerks in the shipping-offices -put on white drill jackets, and sit in chairs tipped back -against their doors, and drink from tall, thin glasses with -ice tinkling in them, and the muezzin, brazen-throated, -appears on the balcony of his minaret, reminding one -for all the world of a Swiss cuckoo-clock as he pops -out to chant his interminable call to prayer: “Allahu -il Allahu! Allahu Akbar! God is most great! Come -to prayer! There is no God but Allah! He giveth life -and dieth not! Your sins are great; greater is Allah's -mercy! I extol his perfections! Allahu il Allahu! -Allahu Akbar!”</p> - -<p>It is such a scene as one marks with the white milestone -of remembrance that he may go back to it in memory -in after years. Picture, if you can, a stone-paved -promenade bordering a U-shaped harbour. In the -harbour are many craft—all small ones, for it is too -shallow for the great steamers to enter. There are -caiques with sails of orange, of scarlet, and of yellow; -schooners, grain-laden, from Egypt and Turkey and -Greece; fishing-boats with rakish lateen-sails and great -goggle eyes painted at their bows to ward off the evil eye, -and, so the sailors will tell you, to detect the fish. And -along the quayside, where the human stream wanders -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> -restlessly, there are Greeks in tufted shoes and snowy -fustanellas that make them look like ballet-dancers; -swarthy Turks in scarlet sashes and scarlet fezes, wearing -the unsightly trousers peculiar to their race; bare-kneed -Cretan highlanders, descendants in form and -feature of the ancient Greeks, swaggering along with -insolent grace in their braided, sleeveless jackets and -high boots of yellow, untanned leather; Algerians in -graceful flowing burnooses and Egyptians with tarbooshes -and Arabs with turbans—now and then a -mollah with scornful, intolerant eyes and the green -turban which marks the wearer as a descendant of the -Prophet—and brawny, coal-black negroes from Tripoli, -from Nubia, and from the Sudan.</p> - -<p>And then there are the soldiers: British Tommies, -smart even in khaki, boots shining, buckles shining, faces -shining, swaggering along this Cretan street and flourishing -their absurd little canes precisely as their fellows -are doing all over the globe; French colonials, swathed -in blue puttees from ankle to knee and in red cummerbunds -from hip to chest, their misery completed by -mushroom helmets so large that nothing can be seen of -the wearer but his chin; chattering Italian <i>bersaglieri</i>, -who strut about in cocks' feathers and crimson facings -when at home in the Corso or the Toledo or the Via -Vittorio Emmanuele, but out here must needs content -their vanity with white linen uniforms and green hackle -in their helmets; sad-faced Russians, uniformed as -they would be in summer in Saint Petersburg or Moscow, -flat white caps, belted white smocks, trousers -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> -tucked in boots, their good-humoured, ignorant faces -stamped with all the signs of homesickness, for their -thoughts are far away in some squalid tenement in the -poor quarter of Warsaw perhaps, or in a peasant's cabin -beside the head-waters of the Volga.</p> - -<p>Though Canea is the seat of government, Candia—or -Heraklian, the classic name by which the Greeks prefer -to call it—is the largest and most important town -on the island. Disregarding the advice of friends, I -went from Canea to Candia on a Greek coasting steamer. -No one ever takes a first-class passage on a Greek boat, -for the second and third class passengers invariably -come aft and stay there, despite the commands and -entreaties of the purser, so a third-class ticket answers -quite as well as a first. Fortunately—or unfortunately, -as you choose to regard it—I had as fellow voyagers -a company of British infantry, which was being transferred -to Candia after three years' service in the western -end of the island. The soldiers, who had managed -to smuggle aboard a considerable quantity of rum, -quickly got beyond the control of the boy lieutenant, -just out of Sandhurst, who was in command, and who, -appreciating that discretion is the better part of valour, -especially where a hundred drunken soldiers are concerned, -wisely left them to their own boisterous devices -and retreated with me to the captain's quarters on the -bridge, where we remained until we sighted Candia's -harbour lights and our anchor rumbled down inside the -breakwater.</p> - -<p>Were it not for the massive Venetian walls which -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> -surround it, Candia would have almost the appearance -of an Indian town, the similarity being increased by its -dark-faced, gaily dressed inhabitants and by the British -soldiers who throng its streets. A single broad, stone-paved -thoroughfare, lined in places with shade-trees and -surprisingly clean, winds like a snake from the harbour -up the hill, past rows of blackened ruins—grim reminders -of the latest insurrection—past square after square -of white-walled, red-tiled houses; through noisy bazaars -where the turbaned shopkeepers squat patiently in their -doorways; past unkept marble fountains whose stained -carvings would make many a museum director envious; -past mosques with slender, graceful minarets and groups -of filthy beggars grovelling on their steps for alms; past -the ornate, twin-domed Greek cathedral, and so on to -the ramparts where the British garrison is quartered in -yellow barracks that overlook the sea.</p> - -<p>But the real Crete is no more to be judged from -glimpses of Canea and Candia than America could be -judged by visiting New York and Chicago. It is in the -picturesque mountain villages of the Sphakiote range -that the genuine, untamed, unmixed fighting Cretan is -to be found, for these dwellers on the slopes of Mount -Ida, alone of all the scattered branches of the great -Hellenic family, have preserved in form and feature -the splendid physical characteristics of the ancient -Greeks. With the Governor of Candia for my guide, -the mountain village of Archanais as our destination, -and with an escort of gendarmerie clattering at our -heels, we set out from Candia one morning before the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> -sun was over the walls, for we had forty miles of hard -riding between us and dinner, and roads in the Sphakiote -country often consist of nothing more than dried-up -water-courses. For the first few miles the road was -crowded with peasantry bringing their produce to market—droves -of donkeys, wine-skin-laden; long strings -of the sturdy, shaggy native ponies tethered head to -tail and tail to head, their panniers filled with purple figs -or new-dug potatoes; sullen-eyed Turks driving rude -native carts, their women-folk veiled to the eyes and -hiding even them in the presence of the <i>giaours</i>; chattering -Greeks with homespun rugs or bundles of the heavy -native lace; now and then a prosperous farmer, striding -along with a peculiar rolling walk, due to the round-soled -boots affected by the islanders, carrying a measure -of potatoes or perhaps a pair of fowls in the baggy seat -of his enormous trousers. We passed a grass-grown -Turkish cemetery where the gilded tombstones, capped -by carven fezes or turbans in the case of men, and shells -in that of women, blazed in the morning sunlight, while, -a little farther on, we halted for a few moments before -the tomb of a revered sheikh, almost hidden by the bits -of cloth which the passing faithful had torn from their -garments and tied to it.</p> - -<p>Some half a dozen miles inland from Candia lie -the ruins of Knossos, the one-time palace of King Minos, -a powerful monarch of the Mycenæan age who is supposed -to have ruled in Crete during that hazy era when -mythology ended and history began. The audience -chamber and the royal throne, which were old when the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> -Pyramids were built, are still in a perfect state of preservation, -though these amazing evidences of prehistoric -grandeur are no more interesting than the marvellous -network of cellars and subterranean passages -which underlie the palace, many of them still lined, just -as they were five thousand years ago, with row upon row -of mammoth earthen jars for the storage of grain, of -olives, and of wine in time of famine or siege. Many -eminent archæologists, by the way, maintain that it -was from this bewildering maze of corridors and passage-ways -that the legend of the Minotaur and the -labyrinth, the scene of which was laid in Crete, arose. -Were Crete as easy of access as Egypt, these ruins of -Knossos would long since have taken rank with those -which dot the banks of the Upper Nile.</p> - -<p>Half a dozen hours of riding over an open, sun-baked -country and later through gloomy pine woods -and mountain defiles, with an occasional halt at a wayside -<i>xenodocheion</i> that the troopers of our escort might -refresh themselves with that nauseous-tasting fermentation -of rice known as <i>arrack</i>, which is the national drink -of Greece, brought us at last, hot, saddle-worn, and -weary, into the village square of Archanais. The demarch -of the town, with a dozen or so of the insurrectionist -chieftains from the surrounding mountains, -awaited our coming beneath a hoary plane-tree that -shaded half the village square. Seats were placed for -us beneath its grateful shade, and, with the ceremony -of which the Greeks are so fond, we were served with -small cups of Turkish coffee and with the inevitable -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> -<i>loukoum</i>, which is a candy resembling “Turkish delight.” -This formal welcome, which no Cretan ever -neglects, completed, we were escorted to the house of -the demarch, with whom we were to dine. It was a -long, low-roofed, homelike dwelling, red tiles above and -white plaster beneath, and surrounding it a garden -ablaze with flowers. Met at the door by a servant with -a pitcher of chased brass, we proceeded to wash in the -open air, the domestic pouring the water over our hands -in a steady stream, according to the Cretan fashion.</p> - -<p>The dinner was beyond description. From a Cretan -standpoint it was doubtless a feast for the gods. -I, being ravenous with hunger, asked not the names -of the strange dishes, but enjoyed everything that was -set before me as only a hungry man can. The meal -began with ripe olives and spiced meat chopped up with -wheat grains and wrapped in mulberry leaves; it passed -on through a course that resembled fried egg-plant but -wasn't; through duck, stuffed with rice and olives and -cooked in oil, and a pudding that tasted as though it -had been flavoured with <i>eau de cologne</i>, concluding with -small native melons, which I have never seen equalled -for flavour except in Turkestan, and, of course, coffee -and cigarettes. The meal lasted something over three -hours, and then, sitting cross-legged on the divan which -ran entirely around the room, the whole party dropped -one by one to sleep. The one recollection of Archanais -which will always remain with me is that of a roomful -of swarthy-faced, black-moustached, baggy-trousered, -armed-to-the-teeth, overfed men, notorious revolutionists -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> -every one, all sound asleep and all snoring like -steam-engines.</p> - -<p>That night we rode down the mountains in the -moonlight, the snow-capped peaks looming luridly -against the purple sky. The moonbeams lighted up -the ruined farmsteads which we passed and played fitfully -among the gnarled branches of the ancient olive-trees, -giving to the silent land an aspect of unutterable -peace. The whole world seemed sleeping and the hoofs -of our horses rang loudly against the stones. The road -which had been white with dust in the morning was -a ribbon of silver now; the stately palm-trees stirred -ever so gently in the night breeze; the ruins of ancient -Knossos grew larger in the moonlight until all its ancient -glory seemed restored; the crosses on the Greek -cathedral and the crescents on the slender minarets -seemed to raise themselves in harmony like fingers -pointing toward heaven; the great guns that frowned -from the ramparts were hidden in the shadows—all was -silence, beauty, infinite peace, until, as we walked our -tired horses slowly across the creaking drawbridge into -the city, a helmeted figure stepped from the shadow -of the walls, a rifle flashed in the moonlight, and a harsh -voice challenged:</p> - -<p>“Halt! Who goes there?”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> - <h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> -</div> - - -<ul class="index"> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Abbas Hilmi II, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Africanders, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Agriculture in: French Africa, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">German Africa, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Morocco, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">South Africa, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">the Sudan, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Tripolitania, <a href="#Page_85">85-86</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ahaggar (Sahara), <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Alexandria, bombardment of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Algeria, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, - <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Algerian hinterland, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Algiers, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Americans in: Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_217">217-8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">the Transvaal, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Anglo-German secret treaty, <a href="#Page_178">178-9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Angola, <a href="#Page_177">177-8</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Antanarivo, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Arab: justice, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">resistance to Italian rule, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">weddings, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">women, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Arabi Pasha, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Arabi's rebellion, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Archanais (Crete), <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Artesian wells in the Sahara, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ascension Island, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ashantee, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Assuan dam, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Atlas Mountains, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Aujila oases, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Bagirmi, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Barbary Coast, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Barka (Tripolitania), <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Barnato, Barney, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Barotseland, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Beira (Port. East Africa), - <a href="#Page_206">206</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Beit, Alfred, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Belgian Congo, <a href="#Page_176">176-7</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">communications in, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">reversion of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Benghazi (Tripolitania), <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, - <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Berbers, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Bey of Tunis, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Big game in Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Biskra (Algeria), <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> “Blue tongue,” <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Boers, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Bornu, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Botha, General Louis, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Bridge over the Zambezi, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> British in: Egypt, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">South Africa, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> British South Africa Company, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Broken Hill (Rhodesia), <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Bulawayo (Rhodesia), <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Bwana M'kubwa (Rhodesia), <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Candia (Crete), <a href="#Page_280">280</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Canea (Crete), <a href="#Page_272">272</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Cannibalism, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> “Cape-to-Cairo” Railway, - <a href="#Page_190">190</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Cape Town, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, - <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Capitulations, privileges conferred by Ottoman, - <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Caravans, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, - <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ceuta (Morocco), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Chartered companies, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Colomb-Bechar (Morocco), <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Colour problem in South Africa, <a href="#Page_226">226-8</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Consuls, powers of, in Egypt, - <a href="#Page_114">114</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Cost of living in Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Cotton culture in: Egypt, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">the Sudan, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Country clubs, beneficial effects of, in Rhodesia, - <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Crete, <a href="#Page_272">272</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">administration of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">foreign troops in, <a href="#Page_279">279-280</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">hospitality in, <a href="#Page_283">283-4</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">insurrections in, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Crime in South Africa, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Crispi, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Cromer, Lord, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Cullinan, “The Great,” diamond, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>. - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> -</li> - -<li class="indx"> Cyrenaica, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Dahomey, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, - <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Dakar (Senegal), <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, - <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Dam at Assuan, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Dancing girls, <a href="#Page_58">58</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Dar-es-Salam (German East Africa), <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> DeBeers syndicate, formation of, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Delta of the Nile, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Derna, capture of, by Americans, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Desert: reclamation, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">transportation, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Diamond: fields at Kimberley, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">mining, <a href="#Page_234">234</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Dining-cars on “Cape-to-Cairo” Ry., <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Diré-Dawah (Abyssinia), <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Divorce: court in Tunis, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">in Algeria, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Djibouti (French Somali Coast), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Drainage project in Egypt, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Dutch in South Africa, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Eaton's, Gen. William, capture of Derna, - <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Education in French Africa, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Egypt, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">army, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">education, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">government, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">irrigation, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">justice, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, - <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Khedive, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, - <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">land values in, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Egyptian Debt Commission, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> El Araish (Morocco), <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> England's desire for railway zone in German Africa, - <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Execution in Tunis, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> <i>Fantasias,</i> <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Fashoda: see <i>Kodok.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Fevers in East Africa, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Fez (Morocco), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Fezzan (Tripolitania), <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, - <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Flowers in Morocco, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Foreign Legion, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> France's African army, <a href="#Page_12">12-14</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Franco-Spanish treaty, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> French: Africa, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">colonial expansion, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Congo (see <i>French Equatorial Africa</i>);</li> -<li class="isub2">Equatorial Africa, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Guinea, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Sahara, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Somali Coast, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">sphere of influence, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">steamers, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">treatment of natives, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, - <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> German Africa, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">climate of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">railways in, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> German colonial expansion, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">desire for the Congo, <a href="#Page_176">176</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">desire for Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">East Africa, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, - <a href="#Page_185">185-6</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">trade of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">interests in Morocco, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> German militarism in Africa, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, - <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">overseas banks, <a href="#Page_168">168-170</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">treatment of the natives, <a href="#Page_182">182-4</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Southwest Africa, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Germany's foreign policy, <a href="#Page_171">171-2</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">oversea interests, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Golf in Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Gordon, General Charles George, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum, - <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Great Bend of the Niger, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> “<i>Groote Schuur ,</i>” the home of Cecil Rhodes, - <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Guano islands, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Harbours: in French West Africa, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">in German Southwest Africa, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Harems, life in, <a href="#Page_69">69</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Hay's, Sir John Drummond, speech to Sultan of Morocco, - <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Heraklian. (See <i>Candia.</i>)</li> - -<li class="indx"> Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, and Cecil Rhodes, - <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Illicit diamond buying, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Irrigation in: Egypt, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">French North Africa, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">South Africa, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Sudan, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ismail Pasha, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Italy in Africa, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Ivory Coast, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ivory: market in Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">trade, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> <i>et seq.</i> - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> -</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Jamestown (Saint Helena), <a href="#Page_262">262-4</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Jimini (Ivory Coast), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Jof (Sahara), <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Johannesburg, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, - <a href="#Page_235">235</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Kabyle marriage customs, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kabyles, the, <a href="#Page_65">65</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">sale of their daughters by, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kabylia (Algeria), <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kamerun, <a href="#Page_173">173-6</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kamerun, New, <a href="#Page_173">173-6</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kanem (French Sudan), <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, - <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> <i>Kangas ,</i> <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Karroo, the, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Katanga District (Belgian Congo), <a href="#Page_195">195-6</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Keetmanshoop (German Southwest Africa), - <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Khalifa, the, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, - <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Khartoum, <a href="#Page_138">138</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> King Assibi of the Gold Coast, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> King Kabanga of Uganda, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> King Minos of Crete, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> King Prempeh of Ashantee, - <a href="#Page_254">254</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Kitchener, Lord, of Khartoum, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, - <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Knossos, ruins of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kodok (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kosti (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kourassa (French Guinea), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Krüger, President Paul, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kufra Oases, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, - <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Kumasi (Ashantee), <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Labor, demand for, in Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lake No, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lake Tanganyika, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lake Tchad, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Language problem in South Africa, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Laraiche. (See <i>El Araish.</i>)</li> - -<li class="indx"> Liberia, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Libya, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Livingstone, David, finding of, by Stanley, - <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Livingstone's discovery of Victoria Falls, - <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lobenguela, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lobito Bay Railway, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, - <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> “Longwood,” residence of Napoleon, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lualaba River, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Lüderitz Bay (German Southwest Africa), - <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Madagascar, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, - <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mahé (Seychelles), <a href="#Page_248">248</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Majunga (Madagascar), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mannesmann Brothers in Morocco, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Marchand, Major, and the Fashoda incident, - <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Marrakesh (Morocco), <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mashonaland, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Matabeleland, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mauresque women, <a href="#Page_67">67-69</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mauritania, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Méharistes, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Melilla (Morocco), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Meroe, Island of (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), - <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mineral resources of South Africa, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mohammedanism, spread of, in Africa, - <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Moorish character, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Moors, the, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Morals of Europeans in East Africa, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Morocco, <a href="#Page_27">27</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">agriculture, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">climate, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">flowers, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">natural resources, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">railways projected in, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">slavery in, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">travel in, difficulties of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Morocco City. (See <i>Marrakesh.</i>)</li> - -<li class="indx"> Morocco-Equatoria Convention, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mount Ida (Crete), <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mozambique, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mulai-abd-el-Hafid, ex-Sultan of Morocco, - <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Mulai Youssef, Sultan of Morocco, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena, - <a href="#Page_259">259</a> <i>et seq.</i> - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> -</li> - -<li class="indx"> Natal, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Native: labor in South African mines, - <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">troops in French Africa, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Natives: treatment of Rhodesian, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">treatment of South African, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> New Kamerun, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, - <a href="#Page_173">173-6</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Nikki (Dahomey), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Nile, the, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">as agent of prosperity, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">plan to divert the, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Oases, Saharan, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Oasis of: Kaouer, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Kufra, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Jof, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Tuat, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Omdurman (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Orange River Free State, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Otavi District (German Southwest Africa), - <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ouled-Naïls, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Papal assistance to Italy in taking of Tripolitania, - <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Parliament of Union of South Africa, - <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Port Florence (British East Africa), - <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Portugal in Africa, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Portuguese East Africa, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Premier Diamond Mine, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Pretoria (Transvaal), <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Race problem in South Africa, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Railway: “Afro,” <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, - <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">“Cape-to-Cairo,” <a href="#Page_190">190</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Lobito Bay, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, - <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Otavi, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Uganda, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Railways in: Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Algeria, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Central Africa, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">French Africa, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">German Africa, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Morocco, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">the Sahara, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">the Sudan, <a href="#Page_131">131-3</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">West Africa, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rand, the, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rejaf (Uganda), <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Réunion, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rhodes, Cecil John, <a href="#Page_190">190</a> <i>et seq.</i>, - <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rhodes Memorial near Cape Town, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rhodesia, <a href="#Page_205">205</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">agriculture, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">climate, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, - <a href="#Page_213">213-4</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">cost of living in, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">country clubs in, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">government, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">labour, demand for skilled, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">law and order in, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">natives, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">railways, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">resources, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Riff, the (Morocco), <a href="#Page_46">46-48</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rinderpest, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Rogers, American adventurer, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Sahara, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Saint Helena, <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Saint Pierre Island, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Salisbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Salisbury (Rhodesia), <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sand storms, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sea turtles, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sebu River (Morocco), <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Senegal, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Senegambia, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Senussi, the sheikh, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Senussiyeh, Brotherhood of, - <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Seychelles, <a href="#Page_248">248</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">climate of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">housekeeping in, <a href="#Page_252">252-3</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sharef River (Morocco), <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sherifian dynasty, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Slavery in North Africa, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sleeping-sickness, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sobat River, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sokoto (Nigeria), <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> South Africa, Union of, - <a href="#Page_223">223</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">agriculture, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">colour problem in, <a href="#Page_226">226-8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">diamond-mining, <a href="#Page_234">234</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">language problem in, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">mineral resources of, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">need of irrigation in, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">race problem in, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">treatment of natives in, <a href="#Page_228">228-231</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Spanish sphere of influence in Morocco, - <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sphakiote Mountains (Crete), <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Stanley, Henry M., <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, - <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian, - <a href="#Page_126">126</a> <i>et seq. - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> -</i>;</li> - -<li class="isub2">agriculture, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">government, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">railways, <a href="#Page_131">131-3</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sudd, the, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Suez Canal, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sultan of Morocco, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sultan of Turkey, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Sultan of Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Sus, the (Morocco), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, - <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Swahili: language, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">race, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Swakopmund (German Southwest Africa), - <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Table Mountain (Cape of Good Hope), - <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tamatave (Madagascar), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tangier (Morocco), <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, - <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Teneriffe (Canary Islands), <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tewfik Pasha, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tibesti (Sahara), <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Timbuktu (Upper Senegal-Niger Territories), - <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tippoo Tib, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tobruk (Tripolitania), <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Togoland, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tortoise shell from Saint Pierre, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Transvaal, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Treatment of women in North Africa, - <a href="#Page_74">74-79</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tripoli (Tripolitania), <a href="#Page_84">84-89</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tripolitania, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, - <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">trade of, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tsetse-fly, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, - <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tuaregs, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tuat (Sahara), <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tunisia, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tunisian justice, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Tunisian perfumery, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Turkish Sultan's influence in Africa, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Uganda Railway, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ujda (Morocco), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ujiji (German East Africa), <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Umtali (Mashonaland), <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> United States in Africa, - <a href="#Page_82">82</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Upper Senegal-Niger Territories, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Vasco da Gama, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Victoria (Seychelles), <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Victoria Falls, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, - <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> Victoria Nyanza, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, - <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Wadai, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, - <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Wady Haifa (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Walfish Bay (German Southwest Africa), - <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Women of North Africa, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx"> “World's View” (Cape of Good Hope), <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> - - -<li class="ifrst"> Zambezi River, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_143">143</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">climate, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">future of, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">German desire for, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">hotel accommodation in, <a href="#Page_146">146-7</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">ivory market in, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">natives of, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> -<li class="isub2">Sultan of, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> -<li class="isub2">tropical diseases in, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Ziban, the (Algerian Sahara), <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"> Zulus, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> -</ul> - - -<div class="figcenter"><a name="map_small.jpg" id="map_small.jpg"></a> - <img src="images/map_small.jpg" - alt="Map of Africa" /> - <div class="caption">MAP OF AFRICA, SHOWING RAILWAYS AND SPHERES OF INFLUENCE.<br /> - Click<a href="images/map_large.jpg"> here</a> for larger map</div> -</div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="transnote p2"> - <h3>Transcriber's Note:</h3> - <ul> - <li>The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, - with the exception of apparent typographical errors, which have been - corrected.</li> - <li>Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.</li> - <li>Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant - form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.</li> - <li>Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs - 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