Europe in Africa, the Nineteenth Century (Classic Reprint)

Hile one morning preparing to begin this sketch of Europe in Africa, my eye fell upon the column of Situations Wanted in a local morning paper, and I read the advertisement of a young Swiss who desired a position as Valet and interpreter, concluding with the words: NO objection to Africa.

Such an announcement could not have been possible in 1822, the year when the reminiscences contained in this series of papers on the nineteenth century may be said to begin.

South Africa was then only a field for missionary labors, or the watering station for great merchantmen upon their way to India; West Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa were known only to the Portuguese and slave traders. The Africa that borders on the Mediterranean had severed its connection with Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, and had sunk into that state of semi-barbarism which com bines the vices of civilization with those of savagery.

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