This river was called by the Portuguese the Zaire. They appear to have made no attempt to trace its course beyond the rapids which stop navigation from the sea.
France acquired, as stations for her ships on the voyage to and from India, settlements in Madagascar and the neighbouring islands. The first settlement was made in 1642.
The Association, in 1831, was merged in the Royal Geographical Society.
The Mamelukes, whom the Turks had overthrown in the 16th century, had regained practically independent power.
In imitation of the British example, an American society founded in 1822 the negro colony (now republic) of Liberia.
The first territorial acquisition made by Great Britain in this region was in 1851, when Lagos Island was annexed.
As early as 1848 an Arab from Zanzibar journeying across the continent had arrived at Benguella.
Another great traveller of this stamp was Wilhelm Junker, who spent the greater part of the period 1875-1886 in the east central Sudan.
Specially appointed to consider West African affairs.
See the tables in Behm and Wagner's Bevolkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1872).
in 1887 this society united with the German Colonial Society, an organization founded in 1882. The united society took the title of the German Colonial Company.
At this period negotiations between Great Britain and Italy had begun but were not concluded.
This association, formed in 1878 by a union of associations primarily intended for the exploration of Africa, ceased to exist in 1891.
VI. EXPLORATION AND SURVEY SINCE 1875
In giving the history of the partition of the continent, the later work of exploration, except where, as in the case of de Brazza's expeditions, it had direct political consequences, has of necessity not been told. The results achieved during and after the period of partition may now be indicated. Stanley's great journey down the Congo in 1875-1876 initiated a new era in African exploration. The numbers of travellers soon became so great that the once marvellous feat of crossing the continent from sea to sea became common. With increased knowledge and much ampler means of communication trans-African travel now presents few difficulties. While d'Anville and other cartographers of the 18th century, by omitting all that was uncertain, had left a great blank on the map, the work accomplished since 1875 has filled it with authentic topographical details. Moreover surveys of high accuracy have been made at several points. As the work of exploration and survey progressed journeys of startling novelty became impossible—save in the eastern Sahara, where the absence of water and boundless wastes of sand render exploration more difficult, perhaps, than in any other region of the globe. Within their respective spheres of influence each power undertook detailed surveys, and the most solid of the latest accessions to knowledge have resulted from the labours of hard-working colonial officials toiling individually in obscurity. Their work it is impossible here to recognize adequately; the following lines record only the more obvious achievements. The relation of the Congo basin to the neighbouring river systems was brought out by the journeys of many travellers. In 1877 an important expedition was sent out by the Portuguese government under Serpa Pinto, Brito Capello and Roberto
Work in the Congo.
Ivens for the exploration of the interior of Angola. The first named made his way by the head-streams of the Kubango to the upper Zambezi, which he descended to the Victoria Falls, proceeding thence to Pretoria and Durban. Capello and Ivens confined their attention to the south-west Congo basin, where they disproved the existence of Lake Aquilunda, which had figured on the maps of that region since the 16th century. In a later journey (1884- 1885) Capello and Ivens crossed the continent from Mossamedes to the mouth of the Zambezi, adding considerably to the knowledge of the borderlands between the upper Congo and the upper Zambezi. More important results were obtained by the German travellers Paul Pogge and Hermann von Wissmann, who (1880-1882) passed through previously unknown regions beyond Muata Yanvo's kingdom, and reached the upper Congo at Nyangwe, whence Wissmann made his way to the east coast. In 1884-1885 a German expedition under Wissmann solved the most important geographical problem relating to the southern Congo basin by descending the Kasai, the largest southern tributary, which, contrary to expectation, proved to unite with the Kwango and other streams before joining the main river. Further additions to the knowledge of the Congo tributaries were made at the same time by the Rev. George Grenfell, a Baptist missionary, who (accompanied in 1885 by K. von Francois) made several voyages in the steamer ``Peace,'' especially up the great Ubangi, ultimately proved to be the lower course of the Welle, discovered in 1870 by Schweinfurth.
In East as in West Africa operations were started by agents of the Belgian committee, but with less success than on the Congo.
Opening up East Africa.
The first new journey of importance on this side was made (1878-1880) on behalf of the British African Exploration Committee by Joseph Thomson, who after the death of his leader, Keith Johnston, made his way from the coast to the north end of Nyasa, thence to Tanganyika, on both sides of which he broke new ground, sighting the north end of Lake Rukwa on the east. In 1882-1884 the French naval lieutenant Victor Giraud proceeded by the north of Nyasa to Lake Bangweulu, of which he made the first fairly correct map. North of the Zanzibar-Tanganyika route a large area of new ground was opened in 1883-1884 by Joseph Thomson, who traversed the whole length of the Masai country to Lake Baringo and Victoria Nyanza, shedding the first clear light on the great East African rift-valley and neighbouring highlands, including Mounts Kenya and Elgon. A great advance in the region between Victoria Nyanza and Abyssinia was made in 1887-1889 by the Austrians, Count Samuel Teleki and Lieut. Ludwig von Hohnel, who discovered the large Basso Norok, now known as Lake Rudolf, till then only vaguely indicated on the map as Samburu. At this time Somaliland was being opened up by English and Italian travellers. In 1883 the brothers F. L. and W. D. James penetrated from Berbera to the Webi Shebeli; in 1892 Vittorio Bottego (afterwards murdered in the Abyssinian highlands) started from Berbera and reached the upper Juba, which he explored to its source. The first person, however, to cross from the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean was an American, A. Donaldson Smith, who in 1894-1895 explored the headstreams of the Webi Shebeli and also explored the Omo, the feeder of Lake Rudolf.
In the region north-west of Victoria Nyanza the greatest additions to geographical knowledge were made by H. M. Stanley in his last expedition, undertaken for the relief of Emin Pasha. The expedition set out in 1887 by way of the Congo to carry supplies to the governor of the old Egyptian Equatorial province. The route lay up the Aruwimi, the principal tributary of the Congo from the north-east, by which the expedition made its way, encountering immense difficulties, through the great equatorial forest, the character and extent of which were thus for the first time brought to light. The return was made to the east coast, and resulted in the discovery of the great snowy range of Ruwenzori or Runsoro, and the confirmation of the existence of a third Nile lake discharging its waters into the Albert Nyanza by the Semliki river. A further discovery was that of a large bay, hitherto unsuspected, forming the south-west corner of the Victoria Nyanza.
Great activity was also displayed in completing the work of earlier explorers in North and West Africa. Morocco was in
Expeditions in North and West Africa.
1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld, a Frenchman who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed the Atlas and supplied the first trustworthy information as to the orography of many parts of the chain. In 1887-1889 Louis Gustave Binger, a French officer, made a great journey through the countries enclosed in the Niger bend, and in 1890-1892 Col. P. F. Monteil went from St Louis to Say, on the Niger, thence through Sokoto to Bornu and Lake Chad, whence he crossed the Sahara to Tripoli. Meantime explorers had been busy in the region between Lake Chad, the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo. The Sanga, one of the principal northern tributaries of the Congo, was reached from the north by Lieut. Louis Mizon, a French naval officer, who drew the first line of communication between the Benue and the Congo (1890-1892). In 1890 Paul Crampel, who in the previous year had explored north of the Ogowe, undertook a great expedition from the Ubangi to the Shari, but was attacked and killed, with several of his companions, on the borders of the Bagirmi. Several other expeditions followed, and in 1806 Emile Gentil reached the Shari, launched a steamer on its waters and pushed on to Lake Chad. Early in 1900 Lake Chad was also reached by F. Foureau, a French traveller, who had already devoted twelve years to the exploration of the Sahara and who on this occasion had crossed the desert from Algeria and had reached the lake via Air and Zinder.
The last ten years of the 19th century also witnessed many interesting expeditions in east Central Africa. In 1891 Emin
Lakes and mountains of Equatorial Africa.
Pasha, accompanied by Dr F. Stuhlmann, made his way south of Victoria Nyanza to the western Nile lakes, visiting for the first time the southern and western shores of Albert Edward. Stuhlmann also ascended the Ruwenzori range to a height of over 13,000 ft. In the same year Dr O. Baumann, who had already done good work in Usambara, near the coast, started on a more extended journey through the region of steppes between Kilimanjaro and Victoria Nyanza, afterwards exploring the headstreams of the Kagera, the ultimate sources of the Nile. In the steppe region referred to he discovered two new lakes, Manyara and Eiassi, occupying parts of the East African valley system. This region was again traversed in 1893-1894 by Count von Gotzen, who continued his route westwards to Lake Kivu, north of Tanganyika, which, though heard of by Speke over thirty years before, had never yet been visited. He also reached for the first time the line of volcanic peaks north of Kivu, one of which he ascended, afterwards crossing the great equatorial forest by a new route to the Congo and the west coast. Valuable scientific work was done in 1893 by Dr J.W. Gregory, who ascended Mount Kenya to a height of 16,000 ft. In 1893-1894 Scott Elliot reached Ruwenzori by way of Uganda, returning by Tanganyika and Nyasa, and in 1896 C. W. Hobley made the circuit of the great mountain Elgon, north-east of Victoria Nyanza. In 1899 Mount Kenya was ascended to its summit by a party under H. J. Mackinder. The exploration of Mount Kilimanjaro has been the special work of Dr Hans Meyer, who first directed his attention to it in 1887.
The region south of Abyssinia proper and north of Lake Rudolf, being largely the basin of the Sobat tributary of the Nile, was traversed by several explorers, among whom may be mentioned Capt. M. S. Wellby, who in 1898-1899 explored the chain of small lakes in south-east Abyssinia, pushed on to Lake Rudolf, and thence traversed hitherto unknown country to the lower Sobat. Donaldson Smith crossed from Berbera to the Nile by Lake Rudolf in 1899-1900, and Major H. H. Austin commanded two survey parties between the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Lake Rudolf during 1899-1901. Meantime in south Central Africa the Barotse country had been partly made known by the missionary F. Coillard, who settled there in 1884, while the middle and upper Zambezi basin were scientifically explored and mapped by Major A. St H. Gibbons and his assistants in 1895-1896 and 1898-1900. In the same period the Congo-Zambezi watershed was traced by a Belgian officer, Capt. C. Lemaire, who had ascended one of the upper tributaries of the Kasai.
In the early years of the 19th century the first recorded crossing of Africa took place. That crossing and all subsequent crossings had been made either from west to east or east to west. The first journey through the whole length of the continent was accomplished in the two last years of the century when a young Englishman, E. S. Grogan, starting from Cape Town reached the Mediterranean by way of the Zambezi, the central line of lakes and the Nile. Other travellers followed in Grogan's footsteps, among the first, Major Gibbons.
Additions to topographical knowledge were made from about 1890 onwards by the international commissions which traced
Work of international commissions and surveying parties.
the frontiers of the protectorates of the European powers. On several occasions the labours of the commissions disclosed errors of importance in the maps upon which international agreements had been based. Among those which yielded valuable results were the Anglo-French commission which in 1903 traced the Nigerian frontier from the Niger to Lake Chad, and the Anglo-German commission which in 1903-1904 fixed the Cameroon boundary between Yola, on the Benue, and Lake Chad. These expeditions and French surveys in the same region during 1902-1903 resulted in the discovery that Lake Chad had greatly decreased in area since the middle of the 19th century. In 1903 a French officer, Capt. E. Lenfant, succeeded in establishing the fact of a connexion between the Niger and Chad basins. Subsequently Lenfant explored the western basin of the Shari, determining (1907) the true upper branch of that river.
In East Africa a German-Congolese commission surveyed (1901-1902) Lake Kivu and the volcanic region north of the lake, R. Kandt making a special study of Kivu and the Kagera sources, while the Anglo-German boundary commission of 1902-1904 surveyed the valley of the lower Kagera, and fixed the exact position of Albert Edward Nyanza. Much new information concerning the border-lands of British East Africa and Abyssinia between Lake Rudolf and the lower Juba was obtained by the survey executed in 1902-1903 by a British officer, Captain P. Maud.
While political requirements led to the exact determination of frontiers, administrative needs forced the governments concerned to take in hand the survey of the countries under their protection. Before the close of the first decade of the 20th century tolerably accurate maps had been made of the German colonies, of a considerable part of West Africa, the Algerian Sahara and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, mainly by military officers. A British naval officer, Commander B. Whitehouse, mapped the entire coastdine of Victoria Nyanza. Government and railway surveys apart, the chief points of interest for explorers during 1904-1906 were the Ruwenzori range and the connexion of the basin of Lake Chad with the Niger and Congo systems. Lieut. Boyd Alexander was the leader of a party which during the years named surveyed Lake Chad and a considerable part of eastern Nigeria, returning to England via the Shari, the Ubangi and the Nile. Two members of the party, Capt. Claud Alexander and Capt. G. B. Gosling, died during the expedition. The Ruwenzori Mountains proved a great source of attraction. Sir H. H. Johnston had in 1900 ascended beyond the snow-line to 14,800 ft.; in 1903 Dr J. J. David had reached from the west to a height he believed to exceed 16,000 ft.; and in the same year Capt. T. T. Behrens, of the Anglo-German Uganda boundary commission, fixed the highest summit at 16,619 ft. During 1904-1906 some half-dozen expeditions were at work in the region. That of the duke of the Abruzzi was the most successful. In the summer of 1906 the duke or members of his party climbed all the highest peaks, none of which reaches 17,000 ft., and determined the main lines of the watershed. Major Powell-Cotton, a British officer who had previously done good work in Abyssinia and British East Africa, spent 1905-1906 in a detailed examination of the Lado enclave and the country west of Ruwenzori and Albert and Albert Edward lakes. This expedition was specially fruitful in additions to zoological knowledge.
Archaeological research, stimulated by the reports of Thomas Shaw, British consular chaplain at Algiers in 1719- 1731, by James Bruce's exploration, 1765-1767, of the ruins in Barbary, and by the French conquest of Egypt in 1798, has been systematically carried out in North Africa since the middle of the 19th century (see EGYPT and AFRICA, ROMAN.) In South Africa the first thorough examination of the ruins in Rhodesia was made in 1905, when Randall-MacIver demonstrated that the great Zimbabwe and similar buildings were of medieval or post-medieval origin. (F. R. C.)
VII. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The eagerness with which the nations of western Europe partitioned Africa between them was due, as has been seen, more to the necessities of commerce than to mere land hunger. Yet, except in the north and south temperate regions, the commercial intercourse of the continent with the rest of the world had been until the closing years of the 19th century of insignificant proportions. In addition to slaves, furnished by the continent from the earliest times, a certain amount of gold and ivory was exported from the tropical regions, but no other product supplied the material for a flourishing trade with those parts. To their Asiatic and European invaders the Africans indeed owed many creature comforts—the introduction of maize, rice, the sugar cane, the orange, the lemon and the lime, cloves, tobacco and many other vegetable products, the camel, the horse and other animals—but invaluable to Africa as were these gifts they led to little development of commerce. The continent continued in virtual isolation from the great trade movements of the