Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/300

 continent. The extent of navigable waterways presented by its affluents is also fur inferior to that of the Congo, while its basin yields to that of the great equatorial river in natural resources of all kinds. The regions included within the Zambese area of drainage enjoy a less copious rainfall, and consequently a less diversified vegetation, and are also on the whole less densely peopled, although in certain fertile districts the inhabitants are crowded somewhat closely together. Taken in their widest sense, the joint basins of the Zambese and Ku-Bango, with the other watercourses belonging geologically to the same area, have a superficial extent of about 800,000 square miles. But according to the most

trustworthy estimates the whole population can scarcely exceed four or five millions, and of this number not more than two thousand are Europeans, including even the maritime settlement of Quelimane. The long and devastating wars that have been waged in many districts of this region sufficiently explain the depopulation of these relatively fertile lands, which might easily support two hundred millions of inhabitants.

The eastern slope of the continent within the contiguous basins of the Zambese and Ku-Bango begins at a relatively short distance from the Atlantic seaboard. The farthest headstreams of the Ku-Bango, or Okovango, have their