Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/507

 GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 416 land and its multitudinous inhabitants. Few African regions now remain where the whites dare not venture, and where their reputation for ruthless cruelty still lingers, caused by the part they formerly played in the slave-trade, by which the progress of the Negro has been retarded for ages. As peaceful travellers they now fearlessly penetrate into the very heart of the continent, and the pioneers of scientific exploration have already revealed the sources of the Nile, the Congo, and the Zambese. The European has himself put aside the old deep-rooted prejudice that slavery is the normal condition and inevitable destiny of the Negro race. He deigns now to look on the African as a fellow-man, and in return the African draws nearer to us and begins to regard us as his best friends. It may still be repeated in academic discussions that the natives of the " Dark Continent " are doomed to an everlasting childhood, incapable of expanding to man's estate. But the facts are there to refute the assumption, and to attest the progress already made during the short space of half a century — a progress wiiich, all things con- sidered, may perhaps be considered as relatively superior to that achieved by Europe herself in the course of two thousand years. Certain populations, such as the Basutos, who were till recently an,thropopha gists, have already outstripped in material culture and public instruction many of the laggard members of the European world. Whites and blacks, heretofore alien and hostile races, hence- forth understand that all alike belong to a common human family. %m- ^^