DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL AFRICA.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1574, 6 March 1879, Page 4

DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL AFRICA.

The "Edinburgh Courant" of tho 26;,h November devotes three or four columns to tho narration of an interview had with Mr H. M. Stanley, upon the highly important subject of Commercial Enterprise in Central Africa. Tho explorer expressed himself "amnzed at tho want of consideration as to the future which Englishmen exhibit. All other nations seem to be awaking to it, and aro doing their utmost to obtain a foothold in Africa; but England, that can supply the world with the products of its manufactures, is waiting for other people to plant themsolves there." With regard to the attempts already made to open up trade, he remarked, " So far as concerns the various businesses that have been established on the east and west coasts of Africa, there is not one of them that has a gloomy prospect before them. But my idea is that a railway from Zanzibar to Lake Victoria would give Africa a stimulus that cannot be measured ; and the Europeans, who would be engaged in traffic, once they found themselve on the uplands of Africa, would feel different altogether from the travellers who have been compelled to wade through miles of swamps. A new route having been discovered by myself in the last journey, wo can carry a railway without going through any swamp, and reach tho high lauds by an easy gradient. When the railway company had found that their efforts were a success, a very small line might, be constructed from the south-western side of Like Victoria down to Lake'Tanganika, about 150 miles in a straight line. Sloamers put on Lake langanika would give 329 miles more of water, and 200 miles of railway from Lake Tanganika to Lake Nyassa would give 360 miles more. Then a little railroad of about 50 miles would enable us to make a semicircle from the mouth of the Zambesi to Lakes Nyassa, Tanganika, and Victoria, and back to Zunzibar." In reply to the objection, frequently raised, as to the unsuitableness of the climate to Europeans, and the diseases to which they are exposed, Mr Stanley observed : "What has happoned prejudicially to travellers is the fever, accompanied often by hunger. The traveller, immediately on entering Africa, has to subdue his wants and tastes, and compel himself to subsist on the rude products used by the natives. No matter what the traveller may have been in his own country, he could always command a certain quantity of good wholesome provisions ; but in Africa he can at present have absolutely none of them. Neither can they be taken from England, the cost of carriage being so great But when the railway is established the white man will be able to take his luxuries along with him — such as tea, coffee, flour, bread, wholesome meats, and wines. Fever could then be easily reduced, and after the first few months of inoculation by the atmospheric influences of the interior the traveller would feel himself able to surmount the malaria."