DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL AFRICAA.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3154, 28 March 1879, Page 1

DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL AFRICAA.

The Edinburgh Courant of the 26th November devotes three or four column! to the narration of an interview had with Mr H> M. Stanley, upon the highly imported subject of Commercial Enterprise in Central Africa.. The explorer expressed himself "amazed at the want of consideration as to the.fiiture which Englishmen exhibit. All other nations seem to be awaking to it, and are 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 themselves there." With regard to the attempts already madetoopea»p trade, he remarked " So far as concerns the var^us businesses that hate been established on and west coasts of Africa; there is not pu« Pi 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, whp would be engaged in traffic, once they found themselves on the uplands of Africa, would fool 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, we can carry a railway without going through any swamp, and reach the high lands by an easy gradient. When the-railway company had found that their efforts were a success, a very small line might be constructed fromi the.south-western side of Lake Victoria down to Lake Tanganika, about 150 miles in a straight line. Steamers put on Lake Tanganika would jjiwe 329 miies more of water, and 200 miiee of railway from Lake Tanganika to Lake Nyassa would giro 360 miles more. Then '5 .little raifcoad; of about 50 miles would'en«hte us to make a semicircle Lakes and bsck_to Zanzibar..;; ?&the tlie objection, frequently rai. '«» Eurounsuitableness of, the climate : > are peans, and the disease? to>bich.the. ."'*« exposed* Mr Stanley^ observed:° Whaw has happened prejudicially to traWliers is the fever, accompanied often by hunger. The traveller, immediately on entering Africa, has to subdur^lSii "iails" 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 &>od whole. some provisions; but in Africa he can at present bave 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 wiih him—such as tea, coffee, flour, bread, wholesome, meals, and wines. Fever could then be easily reduced, and after the first few months of inoculation by the utmospherio influences of the interior the traveller would feel himself able to surmount the malaria." , «