Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/169

 structed the way; that the season was sickly, and a large part of his followers died long before he could have reached Emin Pacha.

The reports of his capture, and of his safe return to the Aruvimi River, are known to all. These may or may not be true. Although we have not heard from Stanley for a year and a half, yet it by no means follows that he is dead; for Livingstone, Stanley, and other explorers have been lost for a longer time, and have afterward found their way back to the coast. No man has greater knowledge of the country through which his route lay, or of the character of the natives, or the best manner of dealing with them. Emin Pacha was encamped quietly for nearly two years at Wadelai; and Stanley, in like manner, may have been compelled to remain at some inland point and raise his own provisions.

It is impossible to prophesy the future of any country, much less that of Africa, where the physical features have left so marked an impression upon its inhabitants, and where the animal life is so different from that of the other continents. It is rather by differentiating Africa from other countries that we obtain any data from which to form an opinion of its future.

Africa, as we have seen, is surrounded by a fringe of European settlements. What effect will these settlements have upon Africa? Will the European population penetrate the interior, and colonize Africa? Will it subjugate or expel the Africans, or will they fade away like the Indians of our country? If colonization by Europeans fail, will the African remain the sole inhabitant of the country as barbarian or civilized?

Egypt is now controlled by the English, but its climate is too unhealthy, and its surrounding too unfavorable, for Englishmen; and we may safely assume that their occupation will be temporary, or, if permanent, not as colonists. They will remain, as in India, foreigners and rulers, until the subjugated people rise in their power and expel them, and return to their old life. The English rule, though possibly beneficial to Egypt, is hated by the natives, who demand Egypt for the Egyptians.

Leaving Egypt, we pass an uninhabitable coast, until we come to the French colonies of Algiers. It is nearly sixty years since