Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/294

Rh 272 AFRICA Cobbeih, the capital, is a merchant town, and contains about 6000 inhabitants. damaua. Fumbina or Adamaua is an extensive country south of Houssa and Bornu, under Foulah dominion. It consists of a large, fertile, and highly-cultivated valley, formed by the River Benue. Near Yola, the capital, the Benue receives the Faro, a large tributary coming from the south-west. This country was first visited by Dr Barth in 1851. Yola, the capital, lies in 8 50 N. lat, and 13 30 E. longitude. South of the belt of Negro states of the Soudan lies the great unknown region of Central Africa. On the east the unexplored area is bounded by the numerous states of the lake region made known by Burton, Speke, and Livingstone. Of these the chief are Unyamwesi, occupying the plateau south of the Victoria Lake, and east of Lake Tanganyika, with the capital town of Kaseh or Tabora, frequented by Arab traders from Zanzibar; Karague on the western side of the Victoria Nyanza; and Uganda, stretching round its north-western shores. In the interior, beyond Lake Tanganyika, Livingstone has recently made known the peoples of Manyuema laud, where &quot; there is no political cohesion ; not one king or kingdom. Each man is independent of every other.&quot; To the south of the unknown region are the powerful Negro kingdoms of the Muata Yanvo and of the Cazembe, occupying the whole of the interior between 6 and 1 2 S. lat. Kabebe, the capital of the former state, is believed to be in about lat. 8$., long. 23 30 E. of Greenwich; and Lunda, the chief town of the latter potentate, is in the Luapula valley, south-west of the Tanganyika Lake, and was visited by Livingstone in 1867-68. The Makololo kingdom, occupying the central basin of the Zambeze river, with the chief town of Linyanti, west of the Victoria Falls ; and that of Mosilikatse in the south-east, between the Zambeze and the Limpopo rivers, are the great remaining divisions of Central Africa. Besides these, however, innumerable petty kingdoms, chiefships, and tribes subdivide the vast populations of Negroland. ands. To Africa belong a considerable number of islands. The Madeiras, belonging to Portugal, lie off the north-west coast of Africa, at a -distance of about 360 miles. Madeira, the chief island, is about 100 miles in circuit, and has long been famed for its picturesque beauty, rich fruits, and fine climate, which, renders it a favourite resort of invalids. Wine is the staple produce. Funchal, the chief town, with 18,000 inhabitants, is a regular station for the West India mail steam-packets from Southampton, and the Brazilian sailing-packets from Falmouth. The Canaries, belonging to Spain, the supposed Fortunate Islands of the ancients, are situated about 300 miles south of Madeira. They are 1 3 in number, all of volcanic origin, Teneriffe being the largest. The latter is remarkable for its peak, which rises as a vast pyramidal mass to the height of 12,173 feet. The Cape Verde Islands, subject to Portugal, are a numerous group about 80 miles from Cape Verde. They obtained their name from the profusion of sea-weed found by the discoverers in the neighbouring ocean, giving it the appearance of a green meadow. They are also of volcanic origin. Fernando Po, a very mountainous forest- covered island, is in the Bight of Biafra. The British settlement of Clarence Town was established in 1827, but afterwards abandoned. The island now belongs to Spain. St Thomas, immediately under the equator, is a Portu guese settlement; as is also Prince s Island, in 2 N. lat. Annobon in 2 S. lat., belongs to the Spaniards. Ascension, a small, arid, volcanic islet, was made a British port on the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte at St Helena, and since retained as a station, at which ships may touch for stores. Green Hill, the summit of the island, rises to the height of 2840 feet. St Helena is a huge dark mass of rock, rising abruptly from the ocean to the height of 2692 feet. James Town is the only town and port. Madagascar, the largest island of Africa, and one of the Mada- largest in the world, is separated from the Mozambique gascar. coast by a channel of that name, about 250 miles wide. The area exceeds that of France. The high interior of the island is generally very fertile, with magnificent forests and fine pastures watered by numerous rivers, but a belt of hot^ swamp land with a deadly climate surrounds the coast. The inhabitants are diverse races of Negro, Arab, and Malay origin. The Ovahs, a people of the central provinces, are now dominant. The principal town, Antananarivo, has about 80,000 inhabitants. The French possess the islands of Saute Marie and Nos- sibe on the coast of Madagascar, and Mayotta island in the Comoro group. The Comoro isles, four in number, are in the north part of the Mozambique Channel, and inhabited by Arab tribes. Reunion or Bourbon, 400 miles east of Madagascar, is a colony of France, producing for export, coffee, sugar, cocoa, spices, and timber. Mauritius, ceded to the British by the French in 1814, is 90 miles north-east of Bourbon. The sugar-cane is chiefly cultivated. Port Louis, the capital, beautifully situated, has 75,000 inhabitants. Within the jurisdiction of the Governor of the Mauritius are the islands of Rodri guez, the Seychelles, and the Amarante islands. Socotra, a large island, east of Cape Jerdaffun, with an Arab and Negro population, has been known from early times; it belongs to the Imaum of Muscat. This island was long celebrated as producing the finest aloetic drug ; it is found still to produce a fine kind of aloe, though much of what passed as Socotrine aloes really came from India. Gums, tobacco, and dates are also exported. (K. j.) Note. The above article was completed before it was known with certainty that the saddest event in the history of African exploration had occurred. Dr Livingstone, to whom the article justly assigns &quot; the first place among African discoverers,&quot; died of dysentery near Lake Bang- weolo on the 4th of May 1873. The story of his latest discoveries, and of the rare devotion with which his native attendants carried his remains with them during an eight months march to the coast, belongs to a biographical notice. It is more fitting in this place to note, as some consolation for an almost irreparable loss, that Living stone s death seems to have given a powerful stimulus to the prosecution of the task he had so nearly completed. The expedition of Lieutenant Cameron, above referred to. is being carried out with a vigour and intelligence that give ample promise of a further limitation of the region of the unknown, if not of the complete solution of all out- standingproblems. In the springof 1 874 he had commenced a thorough exploration of Lake Tanganyika, which, from his professional experience as a hydrographical surveyor, is expected to lead to very valuable results. And the complete success of Stanley s first memorable mission in search of Livingstone warrants confident hopes in regard to a second expedition, also admirably organised and equipped, which has started under his direction.