RAIL INTO CENTRAL AFRICA.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 914, 16 January 1872, Page 3

RAIL INTO CENTRAL AFRICA.

(From the Malta Times.) While people are talking of a railway to India direct, to accomplish the passage from London to Calcutta in five days, the Viceroy of Egypt baa actually commenced one of the most gigantic undertakings aver attempted in his territory—that of connecting Upper and Lower Egypt by rail. At the terminal point of all ancient and modern conquest, where the mighty Persian and Roman invaders found the desert an impassable barrier, the Khedive, assisted by an army of English engineers and navvies, will unless stopped by the jealousy of the Sultan, drive an iron road and a team of iron horses, not only to the very confines of Nubia, but into the heart of Africa, opening up new fields for commerce, and perhaps bringing home Livingstone first-class. Twenty of the engineers for the above undertaking passed through Malta a few ■■ days ago on their way, and will be .followed by the remainder of the staff | ma short timo. When it is considered thut the line commencing at the I Second Cataract, is to be GOO miles 1 1'mg, some idea may be formed of the I amount of labor required to complete I the work. We learn that several I have been engaged to assist

as interpreters, or dragomans, and we should be delighted to hear that a few hundreds of tbe superabundant population of these Islands have found profitable employment in the same direction.