The Prospective Civilization of Africa [pp. 171-191]

TIHE PROSPECTIVE CIVILIZATION OF AFRICA.
traverses without a very strongly armed and numerous retinue;
but now "any man may pass there without any weapon at all."
The great work now especially engaging the attention of
missionaries and traders in these parts is the establishment of
a regular route, supported by stations, and conducted along
rivers or roads, from the mouth of the Zambesi to the northern
end of Lake Tanganyika, a distance of more than I400 miles.
The line, as far as Lake Nyassa, is already laid down and in
operation. It commences at the Kongoni mouth of the Zambesi, ascends the Zambesi, and then its tributary, the Shir6, to
the Murchison Falls, 300 miles from the coast, and passes thence
by sixty-five miles of road, already made, to Livingstonia, on the
southern shore of the Nyassa. The Nyassa itself is navigated
by a small steamer, the Ilala, which belongs to the Free Kirk
Livingstonia Mission. It is liable to severe storms, but has a
sufficient number of safe harbors on either side. Its northern
end is found to be distant from Lake Tanganyika not more than
220 or 230 miles. The intermediate tract is for the most part
a high table-land, abundantly watered by small streams, but without rivers; and here it is proposed to make a road. Ultimately
there is good hope that a railway may bridge the space, for iron
is abundant in the shape of brown hematite, "very hard and
compact," and existing "in solid beds four or five feet thick;"
and coal of a good quality has been found near the northern end
of the Nyassa on the west coast, at about the point from which
the road, or railway, would naturally start. At present the design is to make an ordinary road, with stations at Maliwanda
and Mambwe, and to place a steamer on Lake Tanganyika, thus
opening up to commerce and missionary exertion the entire
territory between the eastern coast and the "heart of Africa,"
or the great central lake region, whence all the main rivers arise.
At the present moment the primary need of Africa is the
need of roads. Omitting from consideration Algeria, Lower
Egypt, and British Caffraria, there is scarcely more than a single
road in the entire continent. The first requisite, for communication, for safety, for trade, even for access, is the formation and
maintenance of recognized routes-by water, where possible;
where impossible, by land-between the coast and the interior.
The roads should be so laid out as to give place readily to tram
I89