Abstract
THESE two welcome volumes from Mr. Stanley testify to the accelerated rate of events in these latter times. It is only twelve years since Livingstone died in the vain search for the sources of the Nile down by Lake Bangweolo, and under the belief that no river but the Nile could sweep past Nyangwe with such a breadth and volume as he found the Lualaba to have. He was not singular in cherishing such a belief ; many geographers believed, like him, that the Congo could not fetch such a sweeping circuit, and that the Lualaba must make its way northwards in spite of differences of level and some how add its waters to the Albert Nyanza. It is only eight years since Mr. Stanley dispersed the delusion, and solved the problem both of the Nile and the Congo ; it is justaboutsix years since he began operations as the agent of the International African Association. To judge from the narrative of his journey across the continent, there was no blacker part of the Black Continent than the river banks between Nyangwe and the Atlantic, and no more intractable people than many of the tribes through whom he and his men had to run the gauntlet. Yet already, almost solely by his exertions, this most unpromising region has become “A land of settled government,” at least on paper. It has engaged the continued attention of diplomatists from all the great States of the world for months, and is the subject of as many treaties as if it had been founded a century ago.
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The Congo 1 . Nature 32, 154–158 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032154b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032154b0