Give Water To
These Thirsty Deserts, And They Will Reply With Gratitude.
* The great deserts of Northern Africa, to about
the 170 N. lat., are supposed to have formed the
bottom of the Mediterranean, but to have been
upheaved to their present level.
The volcanic bombs
discovered in the Nubian Desert suggest, by their
spherical form, that the molten lava ejected by
active volcanoes had fallen from a great height
into water, that had rapidly cooled them, in the
same manner that lead shot is manufactured at the
present day. It is therefore highly probable that
the extinct craters now in existence in the Nubian
Desert were active at a period when they formed
volcanic islands in a sea--similar to Stromboli,
&c. &c.
This is the way to civilize a country: the engineer will alter
the hard conditions of nature, that have rendered man as barren
of good works as the sterile soil upon which he lives. Let man
have hope; improve the present, that his mind may look forward to
a future; give him a horse that will answer to the spur, if he is
to run in the race of life; give him a soil that will yield and
tempt him to industry; give him the means of communication with
his fellow-men, that he may see his own inferiority by
comparison; provide channels for the transport of his produce,
and for the receipt of foreign manufactures, that will engender
commerce: and then, when he has advanced so far in the scale of
humanity, you may endeavour to teach him the principles of
Christianity. Then, and not till then, can we hope for moral
progress. We must begin with the development of the physical
capabilities of a country before we can expect from its
inhabitants sufficient mental vigour to receive and understand
the truths of our religion. I have met with many Christian
missionaries, of various and conflicting creeds, who have
fruitlessly sown the seed of Christianity upon the barren soil of
Africa; but their labours were ill-timed, they were too early in
the field, the soil is unprepared; the missionary, however
earnest, must wait until there be some foundation for a
superstructure. Raise the level of the waters, and change the
character of the surrounding deserts: this will also raise the
intellectual condition of the inhabitants by an improvement in
the natural conditions of their country. . . . . . .
The first portion of our task was completed. We had visited all
the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia, including the great Blue Nile
that had been traced to its source by Bruce. The difficult task
still lay before us--to penetrate the unknown regions in the
distant south, to discover the White Nile source.* Speke and
Grant were on their road from Zanzibar, cutting their way upon
untrodden ground towards Gondokoro. Petherick's expedition to
assist them had met with misfortune, and we trusted to be able to
reach the equator, and perhaps to meet our Zanzibar explorers
somewhere about the sources of the Nile.
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