The breaking up of Gondwana Land is usually considered to have been caused by a series of blocks of country being let down by faulting with the consequent formation of the Indian Ocean. Other blocks, termed horsts, remained unmoved, the island of Madagascar affording a striking example. In the African portion Ruwenzori is regarded by some geologists to be a block mountain or horst.

In Jurassic times 1he sea gained access to East Africa north of Mozambique, but does not appear to have reached far beyond the foot-plateau except in Abyssinia.

The Cretaceous seas appear to have extended into the central Saharan regions, for fossils of this age have been discovered in the interior. On the west coast Cretaceous rocks extend continuously from Mogador to Cape Blanco. From here they are absent up to the Gabun river, where they commence to form a narrow fringe as far as the Kunene river, though often overlain by recent deposits. They are again absent up to the Sunday river in Cape Colony, where Lower Cretaceous rocks (for long considered to be of Oolitic age) of an inshore character are met with. Strata of Upper Cretaceous age occur in Pondoland and Natal, and are of exceptional interest since the fossils show an intermingling of Pacific types with other forms having European affinities. In Mozambique and in German East Africa, Cretaceous rocks extend from the coast to a distance inland of over 100 m.

Except in northern Africa, the Tertiary formations only occur in a few isolated patches on the east and west coasts. In northern Africa they are well developed and of much interest. They contain the well-known nummulitic limestone of Eocene age, which has been traced from Egypt across Asia to China. The Upper Eocene rocks of Egypt have also yielded primeval types of the Proboscidea and other mammalia. Evidences for the greater extension of the Eocene seas than was formerly considered to be the case have been discovered around Sokoto. During Miocene times Passarge considers that the region of the Zambezi underwent extreme desiccation.

The effect of the Glacial epoch in Europe is shown in northern Africa by the moraines of the higher Atlas, and the wider extension of the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Ruwenzori, and by the extensive accumulations of gravel over the Sahara.

The earliest signs of igneous activity in Africa are to be found in the granites, intrusive into the older rocks of the Cape peninsula, into those of the Transvaal, and into the gneisses and schists of Central Africa. The Ventersdorp boulder beds of the Transvaal may be of early palaeozoic age; but as a whole the palaeozoic period in Africa was remarkably free from volcanic and igneous disturbances. The close of the Stormberg period (Rhaetic) was one of great volcanic activity in South Africa. Whilst the later Secondary and Tertiary formations were being laid down in North Africa and around the margins of the rest of the continent, Africa received its last great accumulation of strata and at the same time underwent a consecutive series of earth-movements. The additional strata consist of the immense quantities of volcanic material on the plateau of East Africa, the basalt flows of West Africa and possibly those of the Zambezi basin. The exact period of the commencement of volcanic activity is unknown. In Abyssinia the Ashangi traps are certainly post-Oolitic. In East Africa the fissure eruptions are considered to belong to the Cretaceous. These early eruptions were followed by those of Kenya, Mawenzi, Elgon, Chibcharagnani, and these by the eruptions of Kibo, Longonot, Suswa and the Kyulu Mountains. The last phase of vulcanicity took place along the great meridional rifts of East Africa, and though feebly manifested has not entirely passed away. In northern Africa a continuous sequence of volcanic events has taken place from Eocene times to latest Tertiary; but in South Africa it is doubtful if there have been any intrusions later then Cretaceous.

During this long continuance of vulcanicity, earth-movements were in progress. In the north the chief movements gave rise to the system of latitudinal folding and faulting of the Moroccan and Algerian Atlas, the last stages being represented by the formation of the Algerian and Moroccan coast-outline and the sundering of Europe from Africa at the Straits of Gibraltar. Whilst northern Africa was being folded, the East African plateau was broken up by a series of longitudinal rifts extending from Nyasaland to Egypt. The depressed areas contain the long, narrow, precipitously walled lakes of East Africa. The Red Sea also occupies a meridional trough.

Lastly there are the recent elevations of the northern coastal regions, the Barbary coast and along the east coast. (W. G.*)

III. ETHNOLOGY In attempting a review of the races and tribes which inhabit Africa, their distribution, movements and culture, it is advisable that three points be borne in mind. The first of these is the comparative absence of natural barriers in the interior, owing to which intercommunication between tribes, the dissemination of culture and tribal migration have been considerably facilitated. Hence the student must be prepared to find that, for the most part, there are no sharp divisions to mark the extent of the various races composing the population, but that the number of what may be termed "transitional'' peoples is unusually large. The second point is that Africa, with the exception of the lower Nile valley and what is known as Roman Africa (see AFRICA, ROMAN), is, so far as its native inhabitants are concerned, a continent practically without a history, and possessing no records from which such a history might be reconstructed. The early movements of tribes, the routes by which they reached their present abodes, and the origin of such forms of culture as may be distinguished in the general mass of customs, beliefs, &c., are largely matters of conjecture. The negro is essentially the child of the moment; and his memory, both tribal and individual, is very short. The third point is that many theories which have been formulated with respect to such matters are unsatisfactory owing to the small amount of information concerning many of the tribes in the interior.

The chief African races.

Excluding the Europeans who have found a home in various parts of Africa, and the Asiatics, Chinese and natives of India introduced by them (see section History below), the population of Africa consists of the following elements: —the Bushman, the Negro, the Eastern Hamite, the Libyan and the Semite, from the intermingling of which in various proportions a vast number of "transitional'' tribes has arisen. The Bushmen (q.v.), a race of short yellowish-brown nomad hunters, inhabited, in the earliest times of which there is historic knowledge, the land adjoining the southern and eastern borders of the Kalahari desert, into which they were gradually being forced by the encroachment of the Hottentots and Bantu tribes. But signs of their former presence are not wanting as far north as Lake Tanganyika, and even, it is rumoured, still farther north. With them may be classed provisionally the Hottentots, a pastoral people of medium stature and yellowish-brown complexion. who in early times shared with the Bushmen the whole of what is now Cape Colony. Though the racial affinities of the Hottentots have been disputed, the most satisfactory view on the whole is that they represent a blend of Bushman, Negroid and Hamitic elements. Practically the rest of Africa, from the southern fringe of the Sahara and the upper valley of the Nile to the Cape, with the exception of Abyssinia and Galla and Somali-lands, is peopled by Negroes and the "transitional'' tribes to which their admixture with Libyans on the north, and Semites (Arabs) and Hamites on the north-east and east, has given rise. A slight qualification of the last statement is necessary, in so far as, among the Fula in the western Sudan, and the Ba-Hima, &c., of the Victoria Nyanza, Libyan and Hamitic elements are respectively stronger than the Negroid. Of the tracts excepted, Abyssinia is inhabited mainly by Semito-Hamites (though a fairly strong negroid element can be found), and Somali and Galla-lands by Hamites. North of the Sahara in Algeria and Morocco are the Libyans (Berbers, q.v.), a distinctively white people, who have in certain respects (e.g. religion) fallen under Arab influence. In the north-east the brown-skinned Hamite and the Semite mingle in varied proportions. The Negroid peoples, which inhabit the vast tracts of forest and savanna between the areas held by Bushmen to the south and the Hamites, Semites and Libyans to the north, fall into two groups divided by a line running from the Cameroon (Rio del Rey) crossing the Ubangi river below the bend and passing between the Ituri and the Semliki rivers, to Lake Albert and thence with a slight southerly trend to the coast. North of this line are the Negroes proper, south are the Bantu. The division is primarily philological. Among the true Negroes the greatest linguistic confusion prevails; for instance, in certain parts of Nigeria it is possible to find half-a-dozen villages within a comparatively small area speaking, not different dialects, but different languages, a fact which adds greatly to the difficulty of political administration. To the south of the line the condition of affairs is entirely different; here the entire population speaks one or another dialect of the Bantu Languages (q.v..) As said before, the division is primarily linguistic and, especially upon the border line, does not always correspond with the variations of physical type. At the same time it is extremely convenient and to a certain extent justifiable on physical and psychological grounds; and it may be said roughly that while the linguistic uniformity of the Bantu is accompanied by great variation of physical type, the converse is in the main true of the Negro proper, especially where least affected by Libyan and Hamitic admixture, e.g. on the Guinea coast. The variation of type among the Bantu is due probably to a varying admixture of alien blood, which is more apparent as the east coast is approached. This foreign element cannot be identified with certainty, but since the Bantu seem to approach the Hamites in those points where they differ from the Negro proper, and since the physical characteristics of Hamites and Semites are very similar, it seems probable that the last two races have entered into the composition of the Bantu, though it is highly improbable that Semitic influence should have permeated any distance from the east coast. An extremely interesting section of the population not hitherto mentioned is constituted by the Pygmy tribes inhabiting the densely forested regions along the equator from Uganda to the Gabun and living the life of nomadic hunters. The affinities of this little people are undecided, owing to the small amount of knowledge concerning them. The theories which connected them with the Bushmen do not seem to be correct. It is more probable that they are to be classed among the Negroids, with whom they appear to have intermingled to a certain extent in the upper basin of the Ituri, and perhaps elsewhere. As far as is known they speak no language peculiar to themselves but adopt that of the nearest agricultural tribe. They are of a dark brown complexion, with very broad noses, lips but slightly everted, and small but usually sturdy physique, though often considerably emaciated owing to insufficiency of food. Another peculiar tribe, also of short stature, are the Vaalpens of the steppe region of the north Transvaal. Practically nothing is known of them except that they are said to be very dark in colour and live in holes in the ground, and under rock shelters.

Principal ethnological zones.

Having indicated the chief races of which in various degrees of purity and intermixture the population of Africa is formed, it remains to consider them in greater detail, particularly from the cultural standpoint. This is hardly possible without drawing attention to the main physical characters of the continent, as far as they affect the inhabitants. For ethnological purposes three principal zones may be distinguished; the first two are respectively a large region of steppes and desert in the north, and a smaller region of steppes and desert in the south. These two zones are connected by a vertical strip of grassy highland lying mainly to the east of the chain of great lakes. The third zone is a vast region of forest and rivers in the west centre, comprising the greater part of the basin of the Congo and the Guinea coast. The rainfall, which also has an important bearing upon the culture of peoples, will be found on the whole to be greatest in the third zone and also in the eastern highlands, and of course least in the desert, the steppes and savannas standing midway between the two. As might be expected these variations are accompanied by certain variations in culture. In the best-watered districts agriculture is naturally of the greatest importance, except where the density of the forest renders the work of clearing too arduous. The main portion therefore of the inhabitants of the forest zone are agriculturists, save only the nomad Pygmies, who live in the inmost recesses of the forest and support themselves by hunting the game with which it abounds. Agriculture, too, flourishes in the eastern highlands, and throughout the greater part of the steppe and savanna region of the northern and southern zones, especially the latter. In fact the only Bantu tribes who are not agriculturists are the Ova-Herero of German South-West Africa, whose purely pastoral habits are the natural outcome of the barren country they inhabit. But the wide open plains and slopes surrounding the forest area are eminently suited to cattle-breeding, and there are few tribes who do not take advantage of the fact. At the same time a natural check is imposed upon the desire for cattle, which is so characteristic of the Bantu peoples. This is constituted by the tsetse fly, which renders a pastoral life absolutely impossible throughout large tracts in central and southern Africa. In the northern zone this check is absent, and the number of more essentially pastoral peoples, such as the eastern Hamites, Masai, Dinka, Fula, &c., correspondingly greater. The desert regions yield support only to nomadic peoples, such as the Tuareg, Tibbu, Bedouins and Bushmen, though the presence of numerous oases in the north renders the condition of life easier for the inhabitants. Upon geographical conditions likewise depend to a large extent the political conditions prevailing among the various tribes. Thus among the wandering tribes of the desert and of the heart of the forests, where large communities are impossible, a patriarchal system prevails with the family as the unit. Where the forest is less dense and small agricultural communities begin to make their appearance, the unit expands to the village with its headman. Where the forest thins to the savanna and steppe, and communication is easier, are found the larger kingdoms and "empires'' such as, in the north those established by the Songhai, Hausa, Fula, Bagirmi, Ba-Hima, &c., and in the south the states of Lunda, Kazembe, the Ba-Rotse, &c.

But if ease of communication is favourable to the rise of large states and the cultural progress that usually accompanies it, it is, nevertheless, often fatal to the very culture which, at first, it fostered, in so far as the absence of natural boundaries renders invasion easy. A good example of this is furnished by the history of the western Sudan and particularly of East and South-East Africa. From its geographical position Africa looks naturally to the east, and it is on this side that it has been most affected by external culture both by land (across the Sinaitic peninsula) and by sea. Though a certain amount of Indonesian and even aboriginal Indian influence has been traced in African ethnography, the people who have produced the most serious ethnic disturbances (apart from modern Europeans) are the Arabs. This is particularly the case in East Africa, where the systematic slave raids organized by them and carried out with the assistance of various warlike tribes reduced vast regions to a state of desolation. In the north and west of Africa, however, the Arab has had a less destructive but more extensive and permanent influence in spreading the Mahommedan religion throughout the whole of the Sudan.

The characteristic African culture.

The fact that the physical geography of Africa affords fewer natural obstacles to racial movements on the side most exposed to foreign influence, renders it obvious that the culture most characteristically African must be sought on the other side. It is therefore in the forests of the Congo, and among the lagoons and estuaries of the Guinea coast, that this earlier culture will most probably be found. That there is a culture distinctive of this area, irrespective of the linguistic line dividing the Bantu from the Negro proper, has now been recognized. Its main features may be summed as follows:—-a purely agricultural life, with the plantain, yam and manioc (the last two of American origin) as the staple food; cannibalism common; rectangular houses with ridged roofs; scar-tattooing; clothing of bark-cloth or palm-fibre; occasional chipping or extraction of upper incisors; bows with strings of cane, as the, principal weapons, shields of wood or wickerwork; religion, a primitive form of fetishism with the belief that death is due to witchcraft; ordeals, secret societies, the use of masks and anthropomorphic figures, and wooden gongs. With this may be contrasted the culture of the Bantu peoples to the south and east, also agriculturists, but in addition, where possible, great cattle-breeders, whose staple food is millet and milk. These are distinguished by circular huts with domed or conical roofs; clothing of skin or leather; occasional chipping or extraction of lower incisors; spears as the principal weapons, bows, where found, with a sinew cord, shields of hide or leather; religion, ancestor-worship with belief in the power of the magicians as rain-makers. Though this difference in culture may well be explained on the supposition that the first is the older and more representative of Africa, this theory must not be pushed too far. Many of the distinguishing characteristics of the two regions are doubtless due simply to environment, even the difference in religion. Ancestor-worship occurs most naturally among a people where tribal organization has reached a fairly advanced stage, and is the natural outcome of patriotic reverence for a successful chief and his councillors. Rain-making, too, is of little importance in a well-watered region, but a matter of vital interest to an agricultural people where the rainfall is slight and irregular.

Within the eastern and southern Bantu area certain cultural variations occur; beehive huts are found among the Zulu-Xosa and Herero, giving place among the Bechuana to the cylindrical variety with conical roof, a type which, with few exceptions, extends north to Abyssinia. The tanged spearhead characteristic of the south is replaced by the socketed variety towards the north. Circumcision, characteristic of the Zulu-Xosa and Bechuana, is not practised by many tribes farther north; tooth-mutilation, on the contrary, is absent among the more southern tribes. The lip-plug is found in the eastern area, especially among the Nyasa tribes, but not in the south. The head-rest common in the south-east and the southern fringe of the forest area is not found far north of Tanganyika until the Horn of Africa is reached.

In the regions outside the western area occupied by the Negro proper, exclusive of the upper Nile, the similarities of culture outweigh the differences. Here the cylindrical type of hut prevails; clothing is of skin or leather but is very scanty; iron ornaments are worn in profusion; arrows are not feathered; shields of hide, spears with leather sheaths are found and also fighting bracelets. Certain small differences appear between the eastern and western portions, the dividing line being formed by the boundary between Bornu and Hausaland. Characteristic of the east are the harp and the throwing-club and throwing-knife, the last of which has penetrated into the forest area. Typical of the west are the bow and the dagger with the ring hilt. The tribes of the upper Nile are somewhat specialized, though here, too, are found the cylindrical hut, iron ornaments, fighting bracelets, &c., characteristic of the Sudanese tribes. Here the removal of the lower incisors is common, and circumcision entirely absent.

Throughout the rest of the Sudan is found Semitic culture introduced by the Arabized Libyan. Circumcision, as is usual among Mahommedan tribes, is universal, and tooth-mutilation absent; of other characteristics, the use of the sword has penetrated to the northern portion of the forest area. The culture prevailing in the Horn of Africa is, naturally, mainly Hamito-Semitic; here are found both cyhnddcal and bee-hive huts, the sword (which has been adopted by the Masai to the south), the lyre (which has found its way to some of the Nilotic tribes) and the head-rest. Circumcision is practically universal.

As has been said earlier, the history of Africa reaches back but a short distance, except, of course, as far as the lower Nile valley and Roman Africa is concerned; elsewhere no records exist, save tribal traditions, and these only relate to very recent events. Even archaeology, which can often sketch the main outlines of a people's history, is here practically powerless, owing to the insufficiency of data. It is true that stone imple. ments of palaeolithic and neolithic types are found sporadically in the Nile valley, Somaliland, on the Zambezi, in Cape Colony and the northern portions of the Congo Free State, as well as in Algeria and Tunisia; but the localities are far too few and too widely separated to warrant the inference that they are to be in any way connected. Moreover, where stone implements are found they are, as a rule, very near, even actually on, the surface of the earth; nothing occurs resembling the regular stratification of Europe, and consequently no argument based on geological grounds is possible.

The lower Nile valley, however, forms an exception; flint implements of a palaeolithic type have been found near Thebes. not only on the surface of the ground, which for several thousand years has been desert owing to the contraction of the river-bed, but also in stratified gravel of an older date. References to a number of papers bearing on the discussion to which then discovery has given rise may be found in an article by Mr H. R. Hall in Man, 1905, No. 19. The Egyptian and also the Somali land finds appear to be true palaeoliths in type and remarkably similar to those found in Europe. But evidence bearing on the Stone age in Africa, if the latter existed apart from the localities mentioned, is so slight that little can be said save that from the available evidence the palaeoliths of the Nile valley alone can with any degree of certainty be assigned to a remote period of antiquity, and that the chips scattered over Mashonaland and the regions occupied within historic times by Bushmen are the most recent; since it has been shown that the stone flakes were used by the medieval Makalanga to engrave their hard pottery and the Bushmen were still using stone implements in the 19th century. Other early remains, but of equally uncertain date, are the stone circles of Algeria, the Cross river and the Gambia. The large system of ruined forts and "cities'' in Mashonaland, at Zimbabwe and elsewhere, concerning which so many ingenious theories have been woven, have been proved to date from medieval times.

Origin and spread of the racial stocks.

Thus while in Europe there is a Stone age. divided into periods according to various types of implement disposed in geological strata, and followed in orderly succession by the ages of Bronze and Iron, in Africa can be found no true Stone age and practically no Bronze at all. The reason is not far to seek; Africa is a country of iron, which is found distributed widely throughout the continent in ores so rich that the metal can be extracted with very little trouble and by the simplest methods. Iron has been worked from time immemorial by the Negroid peoples, and whole tribes are found whose chief industry is the smelting and forging of the metal. Under such conditions, questions relating to the origin and spread of the racial stocks which form the population of Africa cannot be answered with any certainty; at best only a certain amount of probability can be attained.

Five of these racial stocks have been mentioned: Bushman, Negro, Hamite, Semite, Libyan, the last three probably related through some common ancestor. Of these the honour of being considered the most truly African belongs to the two first. It is true that people of Negroid type are found elsewhere, principally in Melanesia, but as yet their possible connexion with the African Negro is little more than theoretical, and for the present purposes it need not be considered.

The origin of the Bushman is lost in obscurity, but he may be conceived as the original inhabitant of the southern portion of the continent. The original home of the Negro, at first an agriculturist, is most probably to be found in the neighbourhood of the great lakes, whence he penetrated along the fringe of the Sahara to the west and across the eastern highlands southward. Northerly expansion was prevented by the early occupation of the Nile valley, the only easy route to the Mediterranean, but there seems no doubt that the population of ancient Egypt contained a distinct Negroid element. The question as to the ethnic affinities of the pre-dynastic Egyptians is still unsolved; but they may be regarded as, in the main, Hamitic, though it is a question how far it is just to apply a name which implies a definite specialization in what may be comparatively modern times to a people of such antiquity.

The Horn of Africa appears to have been the centre from which the Hamites spread, and the pressure they seem to have applied to the Negro tribes, themselves also in process of expansion, sent forth larger waves of emigrants from the latter. These emigrants, already affected by the Hamitic pastoral culture, and with a strain of Hamitic blood in their veins, passed rapidly down the open tract in the east, doubtless exterminating their predecessors, except such few as took refuge in the mountains and swamps. The advance-guard of this wave of pastoral Negroids, in fact primitive Bantu, mingled with the Bushmen and produced the Hottentots. The penetration of the forest area must certainly have taken longer and was probably accomplished as much from the south-east, up the Zambezi valley, as from any other quarter. It was a more peaceful process, since natural obstacles are unfavourable to rapid movements of large bodies of immigrants, though not so serious as to prevent the spread of language and culture. A modern parallel to the spread of Bantu speech is found in the rise of the Hausa language, which is gradually enlarging its sphere of influence in the western and central Sudan. Thus those qualities, physical and otherwise, in which the Bantu approach the Hamites gradually fade as we proceed westward through the Congo basin, while in the east, among the tribes to the west of Tanganyika and on the upper Zambezi, "transitional'' forms of culture are found. In later times this gradual pressure from the south-east became greater, and resulted, at a comparatively recent date, in the irruption of the Fang into the Gabun.

The earlier stages of the southern movement must have been accompanied by a similar movement westward between the Sahara and the forest; and, probably, at the same time, or even earlier, the Libyans crossing the desert had begun to press upon the primitive Negroes from the north. In this way were produced the Fula, who mingled further with the Negro to give birth to the Mandingo, Wolof and Tukulor. It would appear that either Libyan (Fula) or, less probably, Hamitic, blood enters into the composition of the Zandeh peoples on the Nile-Congo watershed. These Libyans or Berbers, included by G. Sergi in his "Mediterranean Race,'' were active on the north coast of Africa in very early times, and had relations with the Egyptians from a prehistoric period. For long these movements continued, always in the same direction, from north to south and from east to west; though, of course, more rapid changes took place in the open country, especially in the great eastern highway from north to south, than in the forest area. Large states arose in the western Sudan; Ghana flourished in the 7th century A.D., Melle in the 11th, Songhai in the 14th, and Bornu in the 16th.

Meanwhile in the east began the southerly movement of the Bechuana, which was probably,spread over a considerable period. Later than they, hut proceeding faster, came the Zulu-Xosa ("Kaffir'') peoples, who followed a line nearer the coast and outflanked them, surrounding them on the south. Then followed a time of great ethnical confusion in South Africa, during which tribes flourished, split up and disappeared; but ere this the culture represented by the ruins in Rhodesia had waxed and waned. It is uncertain who were the builders of the forts and "cities,'' but it is not improbable that they may be found to have been early Bechuana. The Zulu-Xosa, Bechuana and Herero together form a group which may conveniently be termed "Southern Bantu.',

Finally began a movement hitherto unparalleled in the history of African migration; certain peoples of Zulu blood began to press north, spreading destruction in their wake. Of these the principal were the Matabele and Angoni. The movement continued as far as the Victoria Nyanza. Here, on the border-line of Negro, Bantu and Hamite, important changes had taken place. Certain of the Negro tribes had retired to the swamps of the Nile, and had become somewhat specialized, both physically and culturally (Shilluk, Dinka, Alur, Acholi, &c.). These had blended with the Hamites to produce such races as the Masai and kindred tribes. The old Kitwara empire, which comprised the plateau land between the Ruwenzori range and Kavirondo, had broken up into small states, usually governed by a Hamitic (Ba-Hima) aristocracy. The more extensive Zang (Zenj) empire, of which. the name Zanzibar (Zanguebar) is a lasting memorial, extending along the sea-board from Somaliland to the Zambezi, was also extinct. The Arabs had established themselves firmly on the coast, and thence made continual slave-raids into the interior, penetrating later to the Congo. The Swahili, inhabiting the coast-line from the equator to about 16 deg. S., are a somewhat heterogeneous mixture of Bantu with a tinge of Arab blood.

In the neighbourhood of Victoria Nyanza, where Hamite, Bantu, Nilotic Negro and Pygmy are found in close contact, the ethnic relations of tribes are often puzzling, but the Bantu not under a Hamitic domination have been divided by F. Stuhlmann into the Older Bantu (Wanyamwezi, Wasukuma, Wasambara, Waseguha, Wasagara, Wasaramo, &c.) and the Bantu of Later Immigration (Wakikuyu, Wakamba, Wapokomo, Wataita, Wachaga, &c.), who are more strongly Hamitized and in many cases have adopted Masai customs. These peoples, from the Victoria Nyanza to the Zambezi, may conveniently be termed the "Eastern Bantu.''

Turning to the Congo basin in the south, the great Luba and Lunda peoples are found stretching nearly across the continent, the latter, from at any rate the end of the 16th century until the close of the 19th century, more or less united under a single ruler, styled Muata Yanvo. These seem to have been the most recent immigrants from the south-east, and to exhibit certain affinities with the Barotse on the upper Zambezi. Among the western Baluba, or Bashilange, a remarkable politico-religious revolution took place at a comparatively recent date, initiated by a secret society termed Bena Riamba or "Sons of Hemp,'' and resulted in the subordination of the old fetishism to a cult of hemp, in accordance with which all hemp-smokers consider themselves brothers, and the duty of mutual hospitality, &c., is acknowledged. North of these, in the great bend of the Congo, are the Balolo, &c., the Balolo a nation of iron-workers; and westward, on the Kasai, the Bakuba, and a large number of tribes as yet imperfectly known. Farther west are the tribes of Angola, many of whom were included within the old "Congo empire,'' of which the kingdom of Loango was an offshoot. North of the latter lies the Gabun, with a large number of small tribes dominated by the Fang who are recent arrivals from the Congo. Farther to the north are the Bali and other tribes of the Cameroon, among whom many primitive Negroid elements begin to appear. Eastward are the Zandeh peoples of the Welle district (primitive Negroids with a Hamitic or, more probably, Libyan strain), with whom the Dor trine of Nilotes on their eastern border show certain affinities; while to the west along the coast are the Guinea Negroes of primitive type. Here, amidst great linguistic confusion, may be distinguished the tribes of Yoruba speech in the Niger delta and the east portion of the Slave Coast; those of Ewe speech, in the western portion of the latter; and those of Ga and Tshi speech, on the Gold Coast. Among the last two groups respectively may be mentioned the Dahomi and Ashanti. Similar tribes are found along the coast to the Bissagos Islands, though the introduction in Sierra Leone and Liberia of settlements of repatriated slaves from the American plantations has in those places modified the original ethnic distribution. Leaving the forest zone and entering the more open country there are, on the north from the Niger to the Nile, a number of Negroids strongly tinged with Libyan blood and professing the Mahommedan religion. Such are the Mandingo, the Songhai, the Fula, Hausa, Kanuri, Bagirmi, Kanembu, and the peoples of Wadai and Darfur; the few aborigines who persist, on the southern fringe of the Chad basin, are imperfectly known.

Peculiar conditions in Madagascar.

The island of Madagascar, belonging to the African continent, still remains for discussion. Here the ethnological conditions are people were the Hova, a Malayo-Indonesian people who must have come from the Malay Peninsula or the adjacent islands. The date of their immigration has been line subject of a good deal of dispute, but it may be argued that their arrival must have taken place in early times, since Malagasy speech, which is the language of the island, is principally Malayo-Polynesian in origin, and contains no traces of Sanskrit. Such traces, introduced with Hinduism, are present in all the cultivated languages of Malaysia at the present day.The Hova occupy the table-land of Imerina and form the first of the three main groups into which the population of Madagascar may be divided. They are short, of an olive-yellow complexion and have straight or faintly wavy hair. On the east coast are the Malagasy, who in physical characteristics stand halfway between the Hova and the Sakalava, the last occupying the remaining portion of the island and displaying almost pure Negroid characteristics.

Though the Hova belong to a race naturally addicted to seafaring, the contrary is the case respecting the Negroid population, and the presence of the latter in the island has been explained by the supposition that they were imported by the Hova. Other authorities assign less antiquity to the Hova immigration and believe that they found the Negroid tribes already in occupation of the island.

As might be expected, the culture found in Madagascar contains two elements, Negroid and Malayo-Indonesian. The first of these two shows certain affinities with the culture characteristic of the western area of Africa, such as rectangular huts, clothing of bark and palm-fibre, fetishism, &c., but cattle-breeding is found as well as agriculture. However, the Negroid tribes are more and more adopting the customs and mode of life of the Hova, among whom are found pile-houses, the sarong, yadi or tabu applied to food, a non-African form of bellows, &c., all characteristic of their original home. The Hova, during the 19th century, embraced Christianity, but retain, nevertheless, many of their old animistic beliefs; their original social organization in three classes, andriana or nobles, hova or freemen, and andevo or slaves, has been modified by the French, who have abolished kingship and slavery. An Arab infusion is also to be noticed, especially on the north-east and south-east coasts.

It is impossible to give a complete list of the tribes inhabiting Africa, owing to the fact that the country is not fully explored. Even where the names of the tribes are known their ethnic relations are still a matter of uncertainty in many localities.

The following list, therefore, must be regarded as purely tentative, and liable to correction in the light of fuller information:-

AFRICAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION LIBYANS (North Africa, excluding Egypt) Berbers, including— Kabyles Mzab Shawia Tuareg LIBYO-NEGROID TRANSITIONAL Fula (West Sudan) Tibbu (Central Sudan) HAMITES (East Sudan and Horn of Africa) Beja, including— Ababda Hadendoa Bisharin Beni-Amer Hamran Galla Somali Danakil (Afar) Ba-Hima, including— Wa-Tussi Wa-Hha Wa-Rundi Wa-Ruanda HAMITO-SEMITES Fellahin (Egypt) Abyssinians (with Negroid admixture) HAMITO-NEGROID TRANSITIONAL Masai Wa-Kuafi NEGROID TRIBES West Sudan Central Sudan Eastern Tukulor Songhai Fur Kargo Wolof Hausa Dago Kulfan Serer Bagirmi Kunjara Kolaji Leybu Kanembu Tegele Tumali Mandingo, including— Kanuri Nuba Kassonke Tama Yallonke Maba Zandeh Tribes Soninke Birkit (Akin to Nilotics, but Bambara Massalit probably with Fula Vei Korunga element) Susu Kabbaga Azandeh (Niam Niam) Solima &c. Makaraka Malinke Mundu Mangbettu Probably also— Ababwa Mossi Mege Borgu Abisanga Tombo } Mabode{ probably Gurma } Momfu { with Pygmy Gurunga } { element Dagomba } Probably with Mandingan element Allied are— Mampursi } Banziri Languassi Gonja } Ndris Wia-Wia &c. } Togbo Awaka &c. NEGROES West African Tribes Tribes of Tshi and Ga Tribes of Yeruba speech, including—- speech, including— Khabunke Balanta Ashanti Yoruba Bagnori Safwi Ibadan Bagnum Denkera Ketu Felup, including— Bekwai Egba Ayamat Nkoranza Jebu Jola Adansi Remo Jigush Assin Ode Vaca Wassaw Illorin Joat Ahanta Ijesa Karon Fanti Ondo Banyum Angona Mahin Banjar Akwapim Bini Fulum Akim Kakanda Bayot Akwamu Wari &c. Kwao Ibo Bujagos Ga Efik Biafare Andoni Landuman Tribes of Ewe speech, Kwa Nalu including— Ibibio Baga Ekoi Sape Dahomi Inokun Bulam Eweawo Akunakuim Mendi Agotine Munshi Limba Krepi Ikwe Gallina Avenor Timni Awuna Pessi Agbosomi Gola Aflao Kondo Ataklu Bassa Krikor Kru Geng Grebo Attaldoami Awekwom Aja Agni Ewemi Oshiu Appa Central Negroes Eastern Negroes Bolo Pure Nilotics Yako Shilluk Tangala Nuer Kali Dinka Mishi Jur (Diur) Doma Mittu Mosgu, including— Jibbeh Mandara Madi Margi Lendu Logon Alur (Lur) Gamergu Acholi Keribina Abaka Kuri Golo &c. Nilotics with affinity Nilotics with Affinity with Masai with Zandeh tribes Latuka Dor (Bongo) Bari NEGRO-BANTU NILOTIC-BANTU TRANSITIONAL TRANSITIONAL Bali Ba-Kwiri Ja-Luo Ba-Kossi Abo Ba-Ngwa Dualla Ba-Nyang Bassa PYGMY TRIBES Ngolo Ba-Noko Central Arica Ba-Fo Ba-Puko Akka Ba-Kundu Ba-Koko Ja-Mbute Isubu Ba-Bongo Ashango &c. BANTU NEGROIDS Western Central Eastern Ogowe Luba-Lunda Group Lacustrians Ashira Ba-Luba, including— Ba-Nyoro Ishogo Ba-Songe Ba-Toro Ashango Wa-Rua Wa-Siba Bakalai Wa-Guha Wa-Sinja Nkomi Katanga Wa-Kerewe Orungu Ba-Shilange (with Wa-Shashi Mpongwe Ba-Kete element) Wa-Rundi Oshekiani Ba-Iro Benga Ba-Lunda Ba-Ganda Ininga Probably connected Ba-Soga Galao are— Ba-Kavirondo, Apingi Manyema including— Okanda Ba-Kumu Awaware Osaka Wa-Regga Awarimi Aduma Ba-Rotse, including— Awakisii Mbamba Ma-Mbunda &c. Umbete Ma-Supia Bule Ma-Shukulumbwe Bane Ba-Tonga Bantu of Recent Yaunde and probably Immigration Maka Va-Lovale Bomone Wa-Kikuyu Kunabembe Tribes of the Congo Wa-Kamba Fang (recent immigrants bend Wa-Pokomo from the Congo group) Ba-Kessu Wa-Duruma Ba-Tetela Wa-Digo Ba-Songo Mino Wa-Giriama Ba-Kuba Wa-Taita Ba-Kongo, Ba-Lolo Wa-Nyatura including— Ba-Kuti Wa-Iramba Mushi-Kongo Ba-Mbala Wa-Mbugwe Mussorongo Ba-Huana Wa-Kaguru Kabinda Ba-Yaka Wa-Gogo { possible Ka-Kongo Ba-Pindi Wa-Chaga { Masai Ba-Vili Ba-Kwese { element Ma-Yumbe &c. Ba-Lumbo Older Bantu Ba-Sundi Tribes of the Congo Wa-Nyamwezi, Ba-Bwende bank including— Ba-Lali Wa-Genia Wa-Sukuma }Trans- Ba-Kunya Ba-Soko Wa-Sumbwa }itional Ba-Poto Wa-Nyanyembe }to Mobali Wa-Jui }Bantu Mogwandi Wa-Kimbu }of Na-Ngala{ Connected Wa-Kanongo }recent Ba-Bangi{ with Zandeh Wa-Wende }immi- { group }gration Wa-Buma Ba-Nunu Wa-Gunda Ba-Loi Wa-Guru Ba-Teke Wa-Galla Wa-Pfuru Wa-Sambara Wa-Mbundu Wa-Seguha Wa-Mfumu Wa-Nguru Ba-Nsinik Wa-Sagara Ma-Wumba Wa-Doe Ma-Yakalia Wa-Khutu &c Wa-Sarmo Wa-Hehe TRANSITIONAL Wa-Bena FROM CENTRAL Wa-Sanga TO SOUTHERN Wa-Swahili (with Arab BANTU elements) Amoela Connected are— Ganguela Wa-Kisi Kioko Wa-Mpoto } Minungo Ba-Tonga } Imbangala Ba-Tumbuka } Ba-Achinji Wa-Nyika } Golo Wa-Nyamwanga } Akin to Hollo A-Mambwe } Luba- &c. Wa-Fipa } Lunda Mbunda peoples, Wa-Rungu } group including— A-Wemba } Bihe A-Chewa } Dembo A-Maravi } Mbaka Ba-Senga } Ngola Ba-Bisa } Bondo A-Jawa (Yaos) Ba-Ngala Wa-Mwera Songo Wa-Gindo Haku Ma-Konde Lubolo Ma-Wia Kisama Ma-Nganja &c. Ma-Kua SOUTHERN BANTU (South and South-East Africa) Ba-Nyai } Ama-Zulu, including— Ma-Kalanga, } Affinity Ama-Swazi including } with Ama-Tonga Mashona } Bechuana Matabele Ba-Ronga } Angoni Ba-Chuana, Ma-Gwangwara including— Ma-Huhu Ba-Tlapin Ma-Viti Ba-Rolong Ma-Situ Ba-Ratlou Ma-Henge Ba-Taung &c. Ba-Rapulana Ama-Xosa, including— Ba-Seleka Ama-Gcaleka Ba-Hurutsi Ama-Hahebe Ba-Tlaru Ama-Ngqika Ba-Mangwato Ama-Tembu Ba-Tauana Ama-Pondo Ba-Ngwaketse &c. Ba-Kuena Ova-Herero &c. Ova-Mpo HAMITO-BANTU BUSHMEN BUSHMEN TRANSITIONAL Hottentots, } including— } S. W. Namaqua } Africa Koranna } TRIBES IN MADAGASCAR MALAYO-INDONESIANS BANTU-NEGROIDS Hova Sakalava, including— Betsileo (slight Bantu admixture) Menabe Milaka HOVA-BANTU Ronandra TRANSITIONAL Mahafali &c. Malagasy, including— Bestimisaraka Antanosi Antambahoaka Antsihanaka Antaimoro Antanala Antaifasina Antaisara Antaisaka &c.

IV. HISTORY

The origin and meaning of the name of the continent are discussed elsewhere (see AFRICA, ROMAN.) The word Africa was applied originally to the country in the immediate neighbourhood of Carthage, that part of the continent first known to the Romans, and it was subsequently extended with their increasing knowledge, till it came at last to include all that they knew of the continent. The Arabs still confine the name Ifrikia to the territory of Tunisia.

Phoenician and Greek colonization.

The valley of the lower Nile was the home in remotest antiquity of a civilized race. Egyptian culture had, however, remarkably little direct influence on the rest of the continent, a result due in large measure to the fact that Egypt is shut off landwards by immense deserts. If ancient Egypt and Ethiopia (q.v.) be excluded, the story of Africa is largely a record of the doings of its Asiatic and European conquerors and colonizers, Abyssinia being the only state which throughout historic times has maintained its independence. The countries bordering the Mediterranean were first exploited by the Phoenicians, whose earliest settlements were made before 1000 B.C. Carthage, founded about 800 B.C., speedily grew into a city without rival in the Mediterranean, and the Phoenicians, subduing the Berber tribes, who then as now formed the bulk of the population, became masters of all the habitable region of North Africa west of the Great Syrtis, and found in commerce a source of immense prosperity. Both Egyptians and Carthaginians made attempts to reach the unknown parts of the continent by sea. Herodotus relates that an expedition under Phoenician navigators, employed by Necho, king of Egypt, c. 600 B.C., circumnavigated Africa from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, a voyage stated to have been accomplished in three years. Apart from the reported circumnavigation of the continent, the west coast was well known to the Phoenicians as far as Cape Nun, and c. 520 B.C. Hanno, a Carthaginian, explored the coast as far, perhaps, as the Bight of Benin, certainly as far as Sierra Leone. A vague knowledge of the Niger regions was also possessed by the Phoenicians.

Meantime the first European colonists had planted themselves in Africa. At the point where the continent approaches nearest the Greek islands, Greeks founded the city of Cyrene (c. 631 B.C..) Cyrenaica became a flourishing colony, though being hemmed in on all sides by absolute desert it had little or no influence on inner Africa. The Greeks, however, exerted a powerful influence in Egypt. To Alexander the Great the city of Alexandria owes its foundation (332 B.C.), and under the Hellenistic dynasty of the Ptolemies attempts were made to penetrate southward, and in this way was obtained some knowledge of Abyssinia. Neither Cyrenaica nor Egypt was a serious rival to the Carthaginians, but all three powers were eventually supplanted by the Romans. After centuries of rivalry for supremacy1 the struggle was ended by the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C. Within little more than a century from that date Egypt and Cyrene had become incorporated in the Roman empire. Under Rome the settled portions of the country were very prosperous, and a Latin strain was introduced into the land. Though Fezzan was occupied by them, the Romans elsewhere found the Sahara an impassable barrier. Nubia and Abyssinia were reached, but an expedition sent by the emperor Nero to discover the source of the Nile ended in failure. The utmost extent of geographical knowledge of the continent is shown in the writings of Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), who knew of or guessed the existence of the great lake reservoirs of the Nile and had heard of the river Niger. Still Africa for the civilized world remained simply the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The continual struggle between Rome and the Berber tribes; the introduction of Christianity and the glories and sufferings of the Egyptian and African Churches; the invasion and conquest of the African provinces by the Vandals in the 5th century; the passing of the supreme power in the following century to the Byzantine empire—all these events are told fully elsewhere.

In the 7th century of the Christian era occurred an event destined to have a permanent influence on the whole continent.

North Africa conquered by the Arabs.

Invading first Egypt, an Arab host, fanatical believers in the new faith of Mahomet, conquered the whole country from the Red Sea to the Atlantic and carried the Crescent into Spain. Throughout North Africa Christianity well-nigh disappeared, save in Egypt (where the Coptic Church was suffered to exist), and Upper Nubia and Abyssinia, which were not subdued by the Moslems. In the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries the Arabs in Africa were numerically weak; they held the countries they had conquered by the sword only, but in the 11th century there was a great Arab immigration, resulting in a large absorption of Berber blood. Even before this the Berbers had very generally adopted the speech and religion of their conquerors. Arab influence and the Mahommedan religion thus became indelibly stamped on northern Africa. Together they spread southward across the Sahara. They also became firmly established along the eastern sea-board, where Arabs, Persians and Indians planted flourishing colonies, such as Mombasa, Malindi and Sofala, playing a role, maritime and commercial, analogous to that filled in earlier centuries by the Carthaginians on the northern sea-board. Of these eastern cities and states both Europe and the Arabs of North Africa were long ignorant.

The first Arab invaders had recognized the authority of the caliphs of Bagdad, and the Aghlabite dynasty—founded by Aghlab, one of Haroun al Raschid's generals, at the close of the 8th century—ruled as vassals of the caliphate. However, early in the 10th century the Fatimite dynasty established itself in Egypt, where Cairo had been founded A.D. 968, and from there ruled as far west as the Atlantic. Later still arose other dynasties

Appearance of the Turks.

such as the Almoravides and Almohades. Eventually the Turks, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453, and had seized Egypt in 1517, established the regencies of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli (between 1519 and 1551), Morocco remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under the Sharifan dynasty, which had its beginnings at the end of the 13th century. Under the earlier dynasties Arabian or Moorish culture had attained a high degree of excellence, while the spirit of adventure and the proselytizing zeal of the followers of Islam led to a considerable extension of the knowledge of the continent. This was rendered more easy by their use of the camel (first introduced into Africa by the Persian conquerors of Egypt), which enabled the Arabs to traverse the desert. In this way Senegambia and the middle Niger regions fell under the influence of the Arabs and Berbers, but it was not until 1591 that Timbuktu—a city founded in the 11th century—became Moslem. That city had been reached in 1352 by the great Arab traveller Ibn Batuta, to whose journey to Mombasa and Quiloa (Kilwa) was due the first accurate knowledge of those flourishing Moslem cities on the east African sea-boards. Except along this sea-board, which was colonized directly from Asia, Arab progress southward was stopped by the broad belt of dense forest which, stretching almost across the continent somewhat south of 10 deg. N., barred their advance as effectually as had the Sahara that of their predecessors, and cut them off from knowledge of the Guinea coast and of all Africa beyond. One of the regions which came latest under Arab control was that of Nubia, where a Christian civilization and state existed up to the 14th century.

For a time the Moslem conquests in South Europe had virtually made of the Mediterranean an Arab lake, but the expulsion in the 11th century of the Saracens from Sicily and southern Italy by the Normans was followed by descents of the conquerors on Tunisia and Tripoli. Somewhat later a busy trade with the African coast-lands, and especially with Egypt, was developed by Venice, Pisa, Genoa and other cities of North Italy. By the end of the 15th century Spain had completely thrown off the Moslem yoke, but even while the Moors were still in Granada, Portugal was strong enough to carry the war into Africa. In 1415 a Portuguese force captured the citadel of Ceuta on the Moorish coast. From that time onward Portugal repeatedly

Spain and Portugal invade the Barbary States.

interfered in the affairs of Morocco, while Spain acquired many ports in Algeria and Tunisia. Portugal, however, suffered a crushing defeat in 1578 at al Kasr al Kebir, the Moors being led by Abd el Malek I. of the then recently established Sharifan dynasty. By that time the Spaniards had lost almost all their African possessions. The Barbary states, primarily from the example of the Moors expelled from Spain, degenerated into mere communities of pirates, and under Turkish influence civilization and commerce declined. The story of these states from the beginning of the 16th century to the third decade of the 19th century is largely made up of piratical exploits on the one hand and of ineffectual reprisals on the other. In Algiers, Tunis and other cities were thousands of Christian slaves.

But with the battle of Ceuta Africa had ceased to belong solely to the Mediterranean world. Among those who fought there was

Discovery of the Guinea coast—Rise of the slave trade.

one. Prince Henry "the Navigator,'' son of King John I., who was fired with the ambition to acquire for Portugal the unknown parts of Africa. Under his inspiration and direction was begun that series of voyages of exploration which resulted in the circumnavigation of Africa and the establishment of Portuguese sovereignty over large areas of the coast-lands. Cape Bojador was doubled in 1434, Cape Verde in 1445, and by 1480 the whole Guinea coast was known. In 1482 Diogo Cam or Cao discovered the mouth of the Congo, the Cape of Good Hope was doubled by Bartholomew Diaz in 1488, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama, after having rounded the Cape, sailed up the east coast, touched at Sofala and Malindi, and went thence to India. Over all the countries discovered by their navigators Portugal claimed sovereign rights, but these were not exercised in the extreme south of the continent. The Guinea coast, as the first discovered and the nearest to Europe, was first exploited. Numerous forts and trading stations were established, the earliest being Sao Jorge da Mina (Elmina), begun in 1482. The chief commodities dealt in were slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The discovery of America (1492) was followed by a great development of the slave trade, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost exclusively confined to Mahommedan Africa. The lucrative nature of this trade and the large quantities of alluvial gold obtained by the Portuguese drew other nations to the Guinea coast. English mariners went thither as early as 1553, and they were followed by Spaniards, Dutch, French, Danish and other adventurers. Much of Senegambia was made known as a result of quests during the 16th century for the "hills of gold'' in Bambuk and the fabled wealth of Timbuktu, but the middle Niger was not reached. The supremacy along the coast passed in the 17th century from Portugal to Holland and from Holland in the 18th and 19th centuries to France and England. The whole coast from Senegal to Lagos was dotted with forts and "factories'' of rival powers, and this international patchwork persists though all the hinterland has become either French or British territory.

Southward from the mouth of the Congo2 to the inhospitable region of Damaraland, the Portuguese, from 1491 onward, acquired influence over the Bantu-Negro inhabitants, and in the early part of the 16th century through their efforts Christianity was largely adopted in the native kingtom of Congo. An irruption of cannibals from the interior later in the same century broke the power of this semi-Christian state, and Portuguese activity was transferred to a great extent farther south, Sao Paulo de Loanda being founded in 1576. The sovereignty of Portugal over this coast region, except for the mouth of the Congo, has been once only challenged by a European power, and that was in 1640-1648, when the Dutch held the seaports.

Neglecting the comparatively poor and thinly inhabited regions of South Africa, the Portuguese no sooner discovered than they coveted the flourishing cities held by Arabized peoples between Sofala and Cape Guardafui. By 1520 all these Moslem

The Portuguese in East Africa and Abyssinia.

sultanates had been seized by Portugal, Mozambique being chosen as the chief city of her East African possessions. Nor was Portuguese activity confined to the coast-lands. The lower and middle Zambezi valley was explored (16th and 17th centuries), and here the Portuguese found semi-civilized Bantu-Negro tribes, who had been for many years in contact with the coast Arabs. Strenuous efforts were made to obtain possession of the country (modern Rhodesia) known to them as the kingdom or empire of Monomotapa, where gold had been worked by the natives from about the 12th century A.D., and whence the Arabs, whom the Portuguese dispossessed, were still obtaining supplies in the 16th century. Several expeditions were despatched inland from 1569 onward and considerable quantities of gold were obtained. Portugal's hold on the interior, never very effective, weakened during the 17th century, and in the middle of the 18th century ceased with the abandonment of the forts in the Manica district.

At the period of her greatest power Portugal exercised a strong influence in Abyssinia also. In the ruler of Abyssinia (to whose dominions a Portuguese traveller had penetrated before Vasco da Gama's memorable voyage) the Portuguese imagined they had found the legendary Christian king, Prester John, and when the complete overthrow of the native dynasty and the Christian religion was imminent by the victories of Mahommedan invaders, the exploits of a band of 400 Portuguese under Christopher da Gama during 1541-1543 turned the scale in favour of Abyssinia and had thus an enduring result on the future of North-East Africa. After da Gama's time Portuguese Jesuits resorted to Abyssinia. While they failed in their efforts to convert the Abyssinians to Roman Catholicism they acquired an extensive knowledge of the country. Pedro Paez in 1615, and, ten years later, Jeronimo Lobo, both visited the sources of the Blue Nile. In 1663 the Portuguese, who had outstayed their welcome, were expelled from the Abyssinian dominions. At this time Portuguese influence on the Zanzibar coast was waning before the power of the Arabs of Muscat, and by 1730 no point on the east coast north of Cape Delgado was held by Portugal.

It has been seen that Portugal took no steps to acquire the southern part of the continent. To the Portuguese the Cape of

English and Dutch at Table Bay—Cape Colony founded.

Good Hope was simply a landmark on the road to India, and mariners of other nations who followed in their wake used Table Bay only as a convenient spot wherein to refit on their voyage to the East. By the beginning of the 17th century the bay was much resorted to for this purpose, chiefly by English and Dutch vessels. In 1620, with the object of forestalling the Dutch, two officers of the East India Company, on their own initiative, took possession of Table Bay in the name of King James, fearing otherwise that English ships would be "frustrated of watering but by license.'' Their action was not approved in London and the proclamation they issued remained without effect. The Netherlands profited by the apathy of the English. On the advice of sailors who had been shipwrecked in Table Bay the Netherlands East India Company, in 1651, sent out a fleet of three small vessels under Jan van Riebeek which reached Table Bay on the 6th of April 1652, when, 164 years after its discovery, the first permanent white settlement was made in South Africa. The Portuguese, whose power in Africa was already waning, were not in a position to interfere with the Dutch plans, and England was content to seize the island of St Helena as her half-way house to the East3. In its inception the settlement at the Cape was not intended to become an African colony, but was regarded as the most westerly outpost of the Dutch East Indies. Nevertheless, despite the paucity of ports and the absence of navigable rivers, the Dutch colonists, freed from any apprehension of European trouble by the friendship between Great Britain and Holland, and leavened by Huguenot blood, gradually spread northward, stamping their language, law and religion indelibly upon South Africa. This process, however, was exceedingly slow.

During the 18th century there is little to record in the history of Africa. The nations of Europe, engaged in the later half of the

Waning and revival of interest in Africa.

century in almost constant warfare, and struggling for supremacy in America and the East, to a large extent lost their interest in the continent. Only on the west coast was there keen rivalry, and here the motive was securance of trade rather than territorial acquisitions. In this century the slave trade reached its highest development, the trade in gold, ivory, gum and spices being small in comparison. In the interior of the continent—Portugal's energy being expended—no interest was shown, the nations with establishments on the coast "taking no further notice of the inhabitants or their land than to obtain at the easiest rate what they procure with as little trouble as possible, or to carry them off for slaves to their plantations in America'' (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., 1797). Even the scanty knowledge acquired by the ancients and the Arabs was in the main forgotten or disbelieved. It was the period when—

Geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures filled their gaps, And o'er unhabitable downs Placed elephants for want of towns.

(Poetry, a Rhapsody. By Jonathan Swift.)

The prevailing ignorance may be gauged by the statement in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica that "the Gambia and Senegal rivers are only branches of the Niger.'' But the closing years of the 18th century, which witnessed the partial awakening of the public conscience of Europe to the iniquities of the slave trade, were also notable for the revival of interest in inner Africa. A society, the African Association,4 was formed in London in 1788 for the exploration of the interior of the continent. The era of great discoveries had begun a little earlier in the famous journey (1770-1772) of James Bruce through Abyssinia and Sennar, during which he determined the course of the Blue Nile. But it was through the agents of the African Association that knowledge was gained of the Niger regions. The Niger itself was first reached by Mungo Park, who travelled by way of the Gambia, in 1795. Park, on a second journey in 1805, passed Timbuktu and descended the Niger to Bussa, where he lost his life, having just failed to solve the question as to where the river reached the ocean. (This problem was ultimately solved by Richard Lander and his brother in 1830.) The first scientific explorer of South-East Africa, Dr Francisco de Lacerda, a Portuguese, also lost his life in that country. Lacerda travelled up the Zambezi to Tete, going thence towards Lake Mweru, near which he died in 1798. The first recorded crossing of Africa was accomplished between the years 1802 and 1811 by two half-caste Portuguese traders, Pedro Baptista and A. Jose, who passed from Angola eastward to the Zambezi.

Although the Napoleonic wars distracted the attention of Europe from exploratory work in Africa, those wars nevertheless

Effects of the Napoleonic wars—Britain seizes the Cape.

exercised great influence on the future of the continent, both in Egypt and South Africa. The occupation of Egypt (1798-1803) first by France and then by Great Britain resulted in an effort by Turkey to regain direct control over that country,5 followed in 1811 by the establishment under Mehemet Ali of an almost independent state, and the extension of Egyptian rule over the eastern Sudan (from 1820 onward). In South Africa the struggle with Napoleon caused Great Britain to take possession of the Dutch settlements at the Cape, and in 1814 Cape Colony, which had been continuously occupied by British troops since 1806, was formally ceded to the British crown.

The close of the European conflicts with the battle of Waterloo was followed by vigorous efforts on the part of the British government to become better acquainted with Africa, and to substitute colonization and legitimate trade for the slave traffic, declared illegal for British subjects in 1807 and abolished by all other European powers by 1836. To West Africa Britain devoted much attention. The slave trade abolitionists had already, in 1788, formed a settlement at Sierra Leone, on the Guinea coast, for freed slaves, and from this establishment grew the colony of Sierra Leone, long notorious, by reason of its deadly climate, as "The White Man's Grave.''6 Farther east the establishments on the Gold Coast began to take a part in the politics of the interior, and the first British mission to Kumasi, despatched in 1817, led to the assumption of a protectorate over the maritime tribes heretofore governed by the Ashanti.

An expedition sent in 1816 to explore the Congo from its mouth did not succeed in getting beyond the rapids which bar the way to the interior, but in the central Sudan much better results were obtained. In 1823 three English travellers, Walter Oudney, Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton, reached Lake Chad from Tripoli—the first white men to reach that lake. The partial exploration of Bornu and the Hausa states by Clapperton, which followed, revealed the existence of large and flourishing cities and a semi-civilized people in a region hitherto unknown. The discovery in 1830 of the mouth of the Niger by Clapperton's servant Lander, already mentioned, had been preceded by the journeys of Major A. G. Laing (1826) and Rene Caillie (1827) to Timbuktu, and was followed (1832-1833) by the partial ascent of the Benue affluent of the Niger by Macgregor Laird. In 1841 a disastrous attempt was made to plant a white colony on the lower Niger, an expedition (largely philanthropic and antislavery in its inception) which ended in utter failure. Nevertheless from that time British traders remained on the lower Niger, their continued presence leading ultimately to the acquisition of political rights over the delta and the Hausa states by Great Britain.7 Another endeavour by the British government to open up commercial relations with the Niger countries resulted in the addition of a vast amount of information concerning the countries between Timbuktu and Lake Chad, owing to the labours of Heinrich Barth (1850-1855), originally a subordinate, but the only surviving member of the expedition sent out.

Meantime considerable changes had been made in other parts of the continent, the most notable being—the occupation of Algiers by France in 1830, an end being thereby put to the piratical proceedings of the Barbary states; the continued expansion southward of Egyptian authority with the consequent additions to the knowledge of the Nile; and the establishment of independent states ((Orange Free State and the Transvaal) by Dutch farmers (Boers) dissatisfied with British rule in Cape Colony. Natal, so named by Vasco da Gama, had been made a British colony (1843), the attempt of the Boers to acquire it being frustrated. The city of Zanzibar, on the island of that name, founded in 1832 by Seyyid Said of Muscat, rapidly attained importance, and Arabs began to penetrate to the great lakes of East Africa,8 concerning which little more was known (and less believed) than in the time of Ptolemy. Accounts of a vast inland sea, and the discovery in 1848-1840, by the missionaries Ludwig Krapf and J. Rebmann, of the snow-clad mountains of Kilimanjaro and Kenya, stimulated in Europe the desire for further knowledge.

At this period, the middle of the 19th century, Protestant missions were carrying on active propaganda on the Guinea

The era of great explorers.

coast, in South Africa and in the Zanzibar dominions. Their work, largely beneficent, was being conducted in regions and among peoples little known, and in many instances missionaries turned explorers and became pioneers of trade and empire. One of the first to attempt to fill up the remaining blank spaces in the map was David Livings tone, who had been engaged since 1840 in missionary work north of the Orange. In 1849 Livingstone crossed the Kalahari Desert from south to north and reached Lake Ngami, and between 1851 and 1856 he traversed the continent from west to east, making known the great waterways of the upper Zambezi. During these journeyings Livingstone discovered, November 1855, the famous Victoria Falls, so named after the queen of England. In 1858-1864 the lower Zambezi, the Shire and Lake Nyasa were explored by Livingstone, Nyasa having been first reached by the confidential slave of Antonio da Silva Porto, a Portuguese trader established at Bihe in Angola, who crossed Africa during 1853-1856 from Benguella to the mouth of the Rovuma. While Livingstone circumnavigated Nyasa, the more northerly lake, Tanganyika, had been visited (1858) by Richard Burton and J. H. Speke, and the last named had sighted Victoria Nyanza. Returning to East Africa with J. A. Grant, Speke reached, in 1862, the river which flowed from Victoria Nyanza, and following it (in the main) down to Egypt, had the distinction of being the first man to read the riddle of the Nile. In 1864 another Nile explorer, Samuel Baker, discovered the Albert Nyanza, the chief western reservoir of the river. In 1866 Livingstone began his last great journey, in which he made known Lakes Mweru and Bangweulu and discovered the Lualaba (the upper part of the Congo), but died (1873) before he had been able to demonstrate its ultimate course, believing indeed that the Lualaba belonged to the Nile system. Livingstone's lonely death in the heart of Africa evoked a keener desire than ever to complete the work he left undone. H. M. Stanley, who had in 1871 succeeded in finding and succouring Livingstone, started again for Zanzibar in 1874, and in the most memorable of all exploring expeditions in Africa circumnavigated Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, and, striking farther inland to the Lualaba, followed that river down to the Atlantic Ocean—reached in August 1877—and proved it to be the Congo. Stanley had been preceded, in 1874, at Nyangwe, Livingstone's farthest point on the Lualaba, by Lovett Cameron, who was, however, unable farther to explore its course, making his way to the west coast by a route south of the Congo.

While the great mystery of Central Africa was being solved explorers were also active in other parts of the continent. Southern Morocco, the Sahara and the Sudan were traversed in many directions between 1860 and 1875 by Gerhard Rohlfs, Georg Schweinfurth and Gustav Nachtigal. These travellers not only added considerably to geographical knowledge, but obtained invaluable information concerning the people, languages and natural history of the countries in which they sojourned.9 Among the discoveries of Schweinfurth was one that confirmed the Greek legends of the existence beyond Egypt of a pygmy race. But the first discoverer of the dwarf races of Central Africa was Paul du Chaillu, who found them in the Ogowe district of the west coast in 1865, five years before Schweinfurth's first meeting with the Pygmies; du Chaillu having previously, as the result of journeys in the Gabun country between 1855 and 1859, made popular in Europe the knowledge of the existence of the gorilla, perhaps the gigantic ape seen by Hanno the Carthaginian, and whose existence, up to the middle of the 19th century, was thought to be as legendary as that of the Pygmies of Aristotle.

In South Africa the filling up of the map also proceeded apace. The finding, in 1869, of rich diamond fields in the valley of the Vaal river, near its confluence with the Orange, caused a rush of emigrants to that district, and led to conflicts between the Dutch and British authorities and the extension of British authority northward. In 1871 the ruins of the great Zimbabwe in Mashonaland, the chief fortress and distributing centre of the race which in medieval times worked the goldfields of South-East Africa, were explored by Karl Mauch. In the following year F. C. Selous began his journeys over South Central Africa, which continued for more than twenty years and extended over every part of Mashonaland and Matabeleland. (F. R. C.)

V. PARTITION AMONG EUROPEAN POWERS

In the last quarter of the 19th century the map of Africa was transformed. After the discovery of the Congo the story of exploration takes second place; the continent becomes the theatre of European expansion. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless wildernesses, marked out the possessions of Germany, France, Great Britain and other powers. Railways penetrated the interior, vast areas were opened up to civilized occupation, and from ancient Egypt to the Zambezi the continent was startled into new life.

Before 1875 the only powers with any considerable interest in Africa were Britain, Portugal and France. Between 1815 and 1850, as has been shown above, the British government devoted much energy, not always informed by knowledge, to western and southern Africa. In both directions Great Britain had met with much discouragement; on the west coast, disease, death, decaying trade and useless conflicts with savage foes had been the normal experience; in the south recalcitrant Boers and hostile Kaffirs caused almost endless trouble. The visions once entertained of vigorous negro communities at once civilized and Christian faded away; to the hot fit of philanthropy succeeded the cold fit of indifference and a disinclination to bear the burden of empire. The low-water mark of British interest in South Africa was reached in 1854 when independence was forced on the Orange River Boers, while in 1865 the mind of the nation was fairly reflected by the unanimous resolution of a representative House of Commons committee:10 "that all further extension of territory or assumption of government, or new treaty offering any protection to native tribes, would be inexpedient.'' For nearly twenty years the spirit of that resolution paralysed British action in Africa, although many circumstances—the absence of any serious European rival, the inevitable border disputes with uncivilized races, and the activity of missionary and trader—conspired to make British influence dominant in large areas of the continent over which the government exercised no definite authority. The freedom with which blood and treasure were spent to enforce respect for the British flag or to succour British subjects in distress, as in the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-68 and the Ashanti war of 1873, tended further to enhance the reputation of Great Britain among African races, while, as an inevitable result of the possession of India, British officials exercised considerable power at the court of Zanzibar, which indeed owed its separate existence to a decision of Lord Canning, the governor-general of India, in 1861 recognizing the division of the Arabian and African dominions of the imam of Muscat.

It has been said that Great Britain was without serious rival. On the Gold Coast she had bought the Danish forts in 1850 and acquired the Dutch, 1871-1872, in exchange for establishments in Sumatra. But Portugal still held, both in the east and west of Africa, considerable stretches of the tropical coast-lands, and it was in 1875 that she obtained, as a result of the arbitration of Marshal MacMahon, possession of the whole of Delagoa Bay, to the southern part of which England also laid claim by virtue of a treaty of cession concluded with native chiefs in 1823. The only other European power which at the period under consideration had considerable possessions in Africa was France. Besides Algeria, France had settlements on the Senegal, where in 1854 the appointment of General Faidherbe as governor marked the beginning of a policy of expansion; she had also various posts on the upper Guinea coast, had taken the estuary of the Gabun as a station for her navy, and had acquired (1862) Obok at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

In North Africa the Turks had (in 1835) assumed direct control of Tripoli, while Morocco had fallen into a state of decay though retaining its independence. The most remarkable change was in Egypt, where the Khedive Ismail had introduced a somewhat fantastic imitation of European civilization. In addition Ismail had conquered Darfur, annexed Harrar and the Somali ports on the Gulf of Aden, was extending his power southward to the equatorial lakes, and even contemplated reaching the Indian Ocean. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, had a great influence on the future of Africa, as it again made Egypt the highway to the East, to the detriment of the Cape route.

Any estimate of the area of African territory held by European nations in 1875 is necessarily but approximate, and varies chiefly

The division of the continent in 1875.

as the compiler of statistics rejects or accepts the vague claims of Portugal to sovereignty over the hinterland of her coast possessions. At that period other European nations—with the occasional exception of Great Britain—were indifferent to Portugal's pretensions, and her estimate of her African empire as covering over 700,000 sq. m. was not challenged.11 But the area under effective control of Portugal at that time did not exceed 40,000 sq. m. Great Britain then held some 250,000 sq. m., France about 170,000 sq. m. and Spain 1000 sq. m. The area of the independent Dutch republics (the Transvaal and Orange Free State) was some 150,000 sq. m., so that the total area of Africa ruled by Europeans did not exceed 1,271,000 sq. m.; roughly one-tenth of the continent. This estimate, as it admits the full extent of Portuguese claims and does not include Madagascar, in reality considerably overstates the case.

Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, Tunisia and Tripoli were subject in differing ways to the overlordship of the sultan of Turkey, and with these may be ranked, in the scale of organized governments, the three principal independent states, Morocco, Abyssinia and Zanzibar, as also the negro republic of Liberia. There remained, apart from the Sahara, roughly one half of Africa, lying mostly within the tropics, inhabited by a multitude of tribes and peoples living under various forms of government and subject to frequent changes in respect of political organization. In this region were the negro states of Ashanti, Dahomey and Benin on the west coast, the Mahommedan sultanates of the central Sudan, and a number of negro kingdoms in the east central and south central regions. Of these Uganda on the north-west shores of Victoria Nyanza, Cazembe and Muata Hianvo (or Yanvo) may be mentioned. The two last-named kingdoms occupied respectively the south-eastern and south-western parts of the Congo basin. In all this vast region the Negro and Negro-Bantu races predominated, for the most part untouched by Mahommedanism or Christian influences. They lacked political cohesion, and possessed neither the means nor the inclination to extend their influence beyond their own borders. The exploitation of Africa continued to be entirely the work of alien races.

The causes which led to the partition of Africa may now be considered. They are to be found in the economic and political

Causes which led to partition.

state of western Europe at the time. Germany, strong and united as the result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, was seeking new outlets for her energies —new markets for her growing industries, and with the markets, colonies. Yet the idea of colonial expansion was of slow growth in Germany, and when Prince Bismarck at length acted Africa was the only field left to exploit, South America being protected from interference by the known determination of the United States to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, while Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain already held most of the other regions of the world where colonization was possible. For different reasons the war of 1870 was also the starting-point for France in the building up of a new colonial empire. In her endeavour to regain the position lost in that war France had to look beyond Europe. To the two causes mentioned must be added others. Great Britain and Portugal, when they found their interests threatened, bestirred themselves, while Italy also conceived it necessary to become an African power. Great Britain awoke to the need for action too late to secure predominance in all the regions where formerly hers was the only European influence. She had to contend not only with the economic forces which urged her rivals to action, but had also to combat the jealous opposition of almost every European nation to the further growth of British power. Italy alone acted throughout in cordial co-operation with Great Britain.

It was not, however, the action of any of the great powers of Europe which precipitated the struggle. This was brought about by the ambitious projects of Leopold II, king of the Belgians. The discoveries of Livingstone, Stanley and others had aroused especial interest among two classes of men in western Europe, one the manufacturing and trading class, which saw in Central Africa possibilities of commercial development, the other the philanthropic and missionary class, which beheld in the newly discovered lands millions of savages to Christianize and civilize. The possibility of utilizing both these classes in the creation of a vast state, of which he should be the chief, formed itself in the mind of Leopold II. even before Stanley had navigated the Congo. The king's action was immediate; it proved successful; but no sooner was the nature of his project understood in Europe than it provoked the rivalry of France and Germany, and thus the international struggle was begun.

Conflicting ambitions of the European powers.

At this point it is expedient, in the light of subsequent events, to set forth the designs then entertained by the European powers that participated in the struggle for Africa. Portugal was striving to retain as large a share as possible of her shadowy empire, and particularly to establish her claims to the Zambezi region, so as to secure a belt of territory across Africa from Mozambique to Angola. Great Britain, once aroused to the imminence of danger, put forth vigorous efforts in East Africa and on the Niger, but her most ambitious dream was the establishment of an unbroken line of British possessions and spheres of influence from south to north of the continent, from Cape Colony to Egypt. Germany's ambition can be easily described. It was to secure as much as possible, so as to make up for lost opportunities. Italy coveted Tripoli, but that province could not be seized without risking war. For the rest Italy's territorial ambitions were confined to North-East Africa, where she hoped to acquire a dominating, influence over Abyssinia. French ambitions, apart from Madagascar, were confined to the northern and central portions of the continent. To extend her possessions on the Mediterranean littoral, and to connect them with her colonies in West Africa, the western Sudan, and on the Congo, by establishing her influence over the vast intermediate regions, was France's first ambition. But the defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia and the impending downfall of the khalifa's power in the valley of the upper Nile suggested a still more daring project to the French government—none other than the establishment of French influence over a broad belt of territory stretching across the continent from west to east, from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Aden. The fact that France possessed a small part of the Red Sea coast gave point to this design. But these conflicting ambitions could not all be realized and Germany succeeded in preventing Great Britain obtaining a continuous band of British territory from south to north,while Great Britain, by excluding France from the upper Nile valley, dispelled the French dream of an empire from west to east. King Leopold's ambitions have already been indicated. The part of the continent to which from the first he directed his energies was the equatorial region. In September 1876 he took what may be described as the first definite step in the modern partition of the continent. He summoned to a conference at Brussels representatives of Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia, to deliberate on the best methods to be adopted for the exploration and civilization of Africa, and the opening up of the interior of the continent to commerce and industry. The conference was entirely unofficial. The delegates who attended neither represented nor pledged their respective governments. Their deliberations lasted three days and resulted in the foundation of "The International African Association,'' with its headquarters at Brussels. It was further resolved to establish national committees in the various countries represented, which should collect funds and appoint delegates to the International Association. The central idea appears to have been to put the exploration and development of Africa upon an international footing. But it quickly became apparent that this was an unattainable ideal. The national committees were soon working independently of the International Association, and the Association itself passed through a succession of stages until it became purely Belgian in character, and at last developed into the Congo Free State, under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold. At first the Association devoted itself to sending expeditions to the great central lakes from the east coast; but failure, more or less complete attended its efforts in this direction, and it was not until the return of Stanley, in January 1878, from his great journey down the Congo, that its ruling spirit, King Leopold, definitely turned his thoughts towards the Congo. In June of that year, Stanley visited the king at Brussels, and in the following November a private conference was held, and a committee was appointed for the investigation of the upper Congo.

Stanley's remarkable discovery had stirred ambition in other capitals than Brussels. France had always taken a keen interest

The struggle for the Congo.

in West Africa, and in the years 1875 to 1878 Savorgnan de Brazza had carried out a successful exploration of the Ogowe river to the south of the Gabun. De Brazza determined that the Ogowe did not offer that great waterway into the interior of which he was in search, and he returned to Europe without having heard of the discoveries of Stanley farther south. Naturally, however, Stanley's discoveries were keenly followed in France. In Portugal, too, the discovery of the Congo, with its magnificent unbroken waterway of more than a thousand miles into the heart of the continent served to revive the languid energies of the Portuguese, who promptly began to furbish up claims whose age was in inverse ratio to their validity. Claims, annexations and occupations were in the air, and when in January 1879 Stanley left Europe as the accredited agent of King Leopold and the Congo committee, the strictest secrecy was observed as to his real aims and intentions. The expedition was, it was alleged, proceeding up the Congo to assist the Belgian expedition which had entered from the east coast, and Stanley himself went first to Zanzibar. But in August 1879 Stanley found himself again at Banana Point, at the mouth of the Congo, with, as he himself has written, "the novel mission of sowing along its banks civilized settlements to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to remould it in harmony with modern ideas into national states, within whose limits the European merchant shall go hand in hand with the dark African trader, and justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves shall be overcome.'' The irony of human aspirations was never perhaps more plainly demonstrated than in the contrast between the ideal thus set before themselves by those who employed Stanley, and the actual results of their intervention in Africa. Stanley founded his first station at Vivi, between the mouth of the Congo and the rapids that obstruct its course where it breaks over the western edge of the central continental plateau. Above the rapids he established a station on Stanley Pool and named it Leopoldville, founding other stations on the main stream in the direction of the falls that bear his name.

Meanwhile de Brazza was far from idle. He had returned to Africa at the beginning of 1880, and while the agents of King Leopold were making treaties and founding stations along the southern bank of the river, de Brazza and other French agents were equally busy on the northern bank. De Brazza was sent out to Africa by the French committee of the International African Association, which provided him with the funds for the expedition. His avowed object was to explore the region between the Gabun and Lake Chad. But his real object was to anticipate Stanley on the Congo. The international character of the association founded by King Leopold was never more than a polite fiction, and the rivalry between the French and the Belgians on the Congo was soon open, if not avowed. In October 1880 de Brazza made a solemn treaty with a chief on the north bank of the Congo, who claimed that his authority extended over a large area, including territory on the southern bank of the river. As soon as this chief had accepted French protection, de Brazza crossed over to the south of the river, and founded a station close to the present site of Leopoldville. The discovery by Stanley of the French station annoyed King Leopold's agent, and he promptly challenged the rights of the chief who purported to have placed the country under French protection, and himself founded a Belgian station close to the site selected by de Brazza. In the result, the French station was withdrawn to the northern side of Stanley Pool, where it is now known as Brazzaville.

The activity of French and Belgian agents on the Congo had not passed unnoticed in Lisbon, and the Portuguese government saw that no time was to be lost if the claims it had never ceased to put forward on the west coast were not to go by default. At varying periods during the 19th century Portugal had put forward claims to the whole of the West African coast, between 5 deg. 12' and 8 deg. south. North of the Congo mouth she claimed the territories of Kabinda and Molemba, alleging that they had been in her possession since 1484. Great Britain had never, however, admitted this claim, and south of the Congo had declined to recognize Portuguese possessions as extending north of Ambriz. In 1856 orders were given to British cruisers to prevent by force any attempt to extend Portuguese dominion north of that place. But the Portuguese had been persistent in urging their claims, and in 1882 negotiations were again opened with the British government for recognition of Portuguese rights over both banks of the Congo on the coast, and for some distance inland. Into the details of the negotiations, which were conducted for Great Britain by the 2nd Earl Granville, who was then secretary for foreign affairs, it is unnecessary to enter; they resulted in the signing on the 26th of February 1884 of a treaty, by which Great Britain recognized the sovereignty of the king of Portugal "over that part of the west coast of Africa, situated between 8 deg. and 5 deg. 12' south latitude,'' and inland as far as Noki, on the south bank of the Congo, below Vivi. The navigation of the Congo was to be controlled by an Anglo-Portuguese commission. The publication of this treaty evoked immediate protests, not only on the continent but in Great Britain. In face of the disapproval aroused by the treaty, Lord Granville found himself unable to ratify it. The protests had not been confined to France and the king of the Belgians. Germany had not yet acquired formal footing in Africa, but she was crouching for the spring prior to taking her part in the scramble, and Prince Bismarck had expressed, in vigorous language, the objections entertained by Germany to the Anglo-Portuguese treaty.