"If, Then, The Lower Animals And Plants Of This Vast Country Have Gone
On Unchanged For A Very Long Period, May We Infer That Its Human
Inhabitants Are Of Like Antiquity?
If so, the Negro may claim as old a
lineage as the Caucasian or Mongolian races.
In the absence of any
decisive fact, I forbear, at present, to speculate on this point; but
as, amid the fossil specimens procured by Livingstone and Kirk, there
are fragments of pottery made by human hands, we must wait until some
zealous explorer of Southern Africa shall distinctly bring forward
proofs that the manufactured articles are of the same age as the fossil
bones. In other words, we still require from Africa the same proofs of
the existence of links which bind together the sciences of Geology and
Archaeology which have recently been developed in Europe. Now, if the
unquestioned works of man should be found to be coeval with the remains
of fossilized existing animals in Southern Africa, the travelled
geographer, who has convinced himself of the ancient condition of its
surface, must admit, however unwillingly, that although the black man is
of such very remote antiquity, he has been very stationary in
civilization and in attaining the arts of life, if he be compared with
the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Red Indian of America, or even with
the aborigines of Polynesia." ("The most remarkable proof of the
inferiority of the Negro, when compared with the Asiatic, is, that
whilst the latter has domesticated the elephant for ages, and rendered
it highly useful to man, the Negro has only slaughtered the animal to
obtain food or ivory.")
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BLACK ANTELOPE.
We continued our voyage down the Nile, at times scudding along with a
fair wind and stream, when a straight portion of the river allowed our
men respite from the oars. This was the termination of the dry season,
in this latitude 7 degrees (end of March); - thus, although the river
was nearly level with the banks, the marshes were tolerably firm, and in
the dryer portions the reeds had been burnt off by the natives. In one
of these cleared places we descried a vast herd of antelopes, numbering
several thousands. The males were black, and carried fine horns, while
the females were reddish-brown and without horns. Never having shot this
species, I landed from the boat, which I ordered to wait in a sheltered
nook, while, accompanied by the boy Saat and Richarn, I took the little
Fletcher 24 rifle and commenced a stalk.
The antelopes did not evince their usual shyness, and with a tolerable
amount of patience I succeeded in getting within about 120 paces of two
splendid black bucks that were separated from the herd; - a patch of
half-burnt reeds afforded a good covering point. The left-hand buck was
in a good position for a shoulder shot, standing with his flank exposed,
but with his head turned towards me. At the crack of the rifle he sprang
upon his hind legs, - gave two or three convulsive bounds, and fell.
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