AFRICA, one of the six grand divisions of the earth's surface, comprises the southwestera portion of the eastern continent. Its political divisions are, on the north, the Empire of Morocco; the French province of Algeria; the pashaliks of Tunis, Tripoli, and Barca, and the oasis of Fezzan, dependencies of the Turkish empire; Egypt, a viceroyalty of the Turkish empire, though in a state of quasi-independency. On the east, Nubia and Kordofan, dependencies of Egypt; Abyssinia, a collection of petty states under savage chieftains, a considerable number of which have recently become subject to the sway of the bold and capable Theodore, the chief of Amhara, who has taken the title of "King of the Kings of Ethiopia;" the conatries bordering on the gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, and stretching south westward for more than a thousand miles; these are inhabited by tribes of savages known by the names of Somauli, Wakuafi, Wanika, Galla, &c. &e. The names of the principal countries are: Adel, Ajan, Berbera, Żanguebar (which is a collection of several states), and Mozambique, the coast of which is held by the Portuguese. At different points of this long stretch of coast the Arabs have established themselves, and have reduced the native tribes to subjection, though others, as the Gallas, defy their authority and maintain an ascendency over the tribes of the interior. Of these interior tribes or their country little is known, the many attempts made by missionaries and explorers to penetrate to any considerable distance from the coast, having been, in most instances, repulsed by the savages, often with the loss of the lives of the explorers. On the Mozambique coast the Portuguese have maintained for many years an extended commerce, mainly in ivory and slaves. Dr. Livingstone has penetrated into the interior through this country, ascending the

VOL II-1

Zambezi to the Victoria Falls, and exploring a portion of the course of the Shire and the Rovuma as well as the lakes Nyassa and Nyanja. East of Mozambique, and separated from it by the Mozambique channel, is the great and populous island of Madagascar.

South Africa is composed of several states, part of them British colonies, and part in some sense dependencies of these. The Cape Colony is the oldest of these, and occupies the southern portion of the continent; above it, on the S. E., are Caffraria, Natal, and the Zulu country; and lying west of these and separated from them by the Kalamba mountains, the Orange river, and Transvaal Republics, composed mostly of Dutch settlers and their Hottentot or Bechuana dependents. On the west coast, north of the Orange river, and extending about 300 miles into the interior, is the Hottentot country, and lying between this and the Transvaal Republics, the land of the Bechuanas.

North of the Hottentot country, stretching northward for more than 1,500 miles, is the region long known as Lower Guinea, but really composed of numerous chieftaincies and some Portuguese colonies. These chieftaincies, beginning with the most southern, are Cimbebas and the country of the Damaras, Benguela, Angola a Portuguese colony, Congo, Loango, the region of the Gabün, country of the Calbongas, and Biafra. Between this and the eastern coast described above, lies a vast tract, varying in width from ten to twenty-eight degrees of longitude, and extending from nearly ten degrees above to sixteen degrees below the equator, almost wholly unexplored by Europeans. Along the eastern portion of it Dr. Livingstone has made some discoveries, but much of this has only been penetrated by him and his adventurous coadjutors.

From the gulf of Biafra the continent turns

sharply westward, and the coast line of Upper Guinea faces the south. This region, long known as the slave coast, is occupied by several native states, the largest being the Kingdom of Dahomey, the king of which has attained an evil notoriety by the vast number of human sacrifices immolated on his altars. North of this, and stretching in a belt of variable width across the continent to the confines of Nubia and Kordofan, is that region known formerly as Soudan and Nigritia, composed of numerous and constantly changing states, part of them Mohammedan and part pagan. The most important of these, beginning in the east, are Darfur, Waday, Bergoo, Kanem, Bornou, Adamawa, Houssa, Timbuctoo, Yoruba, and Bambarra.

Where the western coast of Africa begins again to turn-northward, is the little Republic of Liberia, and northwest of it the British colony of Sierra Leone, both settled in great part by free negroes, either from the United States or Great Britain, or recaptured Africans taken from slave ships, or, as in the case of a portion of the inhabitants of Liberia, native tribes who have become civilized. Lying between this and the Great Desert is the country of Senegambia named from its two great rivers, inhabited by several tribes of negroes and mixed races. France has a colony, St. Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal, and England a settlement, Bathurst, at the mouth of the Gambia. Between this country and the Empire of Morocco, and extending eastward to the confines of Egypt and Nubia, with but here and there a fertile oasis and grove of palms amid its vast wastes of sand, stretches the Great Desert of Sahara. Its oases are inhabited by tribes of Arab or half Arab origin, the Tuaregs, the Tibboos, &c., and its deserts are traversed by caravans and companies of Arab Bedouins, the exact counterparts of their brethren of Arabia. In another place (see GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS) will be found the results obtained, during 1862, by the numerous exploring parties who have penetrated into the unknown interior of this vast continent-peninsula. In the present article it is proposed to notice briefly a few of the important political events of the past year in the countries best known to the civilized world.

In Morocco the treaty of peace with Spain, of April 26, 1860 (see NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA, vol. xi, art. MOROCCO), by which the Emperor Sidi Mohammed agreed to pay to Spain an indemnity of 20,000,000 piastres (about $4,000,000, and to cede a district of territory around Melilla, valued at $37,500,000, had remained unfulfilled up to the summer of 1861. The indemnity had not been paid, and the Kabyles, or inhabitants of Rif, refused to obey the mandate of the emperor, and surrender their lands; and throughout Morocco, there were indications of insurrection, which the emperor lacked the power to suppress. Spain meantime held the important city of Tetuan in which she was authorized to con

tinue a garrison till the fulfilment of the treaty, and made preparations for its permanent occupation. Unwilling to relinquish this important post, Sidi Mohammed sent his brother Muley-el-Abbas, to treat with the Spanish Government for more favorable terms. He succeeded in negotiating a new treaty, in which the payment of three million douros within 5 months is guaranteed, and the payment of the remainder of the indemnity made a lien on the customs receipts, for the prompt payment of which the Queen of Spain is authorized to appoint an agent to receive a portion of the duties at each of the five ports of the empire. The Spaniards are to evacuate Tetuan when the first instalment of the indemnity is paid, the territory ceded by the former treaty being placed under their control prior to the evacuation. The Spanish missionaries are to be allowed to found a Mission House at Tetuan, and to be protected in their persons, their asylums, and the exercise of their worship throughout the empire. In January, 1862, a convention was concluded between the Sultan of Morocco and the British Government, by virtue of which the sultan obtained a loan of about half a million pounds sterling, at 5 per cent., at a discount of 17 per cent., reimbursable from the half of the revenue of the ports, at the rate of £38,000 per annum, to be collected by English officers resident at those ports. The amount of this loan was to be paid over to Spain as indemnity. This gives the British Government an influence in Morocco, which, with her possession of Gibraltar, enables her to hold the keys of the Mediterranean.

In Egypt, Mohammed Said Pasha, viceroy since 1854, and the wisest and most judicious ruler of Egypt in modern times, died in January, 1863. He had released the fellahs or cultivators of the soil, from the condition of serfs in which he found them, abolished the system of monopolies by which the government was the sole purchaser and vender of Egyptian products, and allowed the farmer to sell his crops in any market he chose; substituted a tax of 8 per cent. of the income, payable in money, for the old tax of one tenth, payable in kind, abrogated all internal excises, bestowed on the fellah the liberty of changing his residence at will, and allowed the judges of the provinces and districts to be elected by the people, as a measure of judicial reform. He had also made great reforms in the conscription, organization, and discipline of the army. The finances, which, on his accession to the viceroyalty, were in a deplorable state, are now in a better condition than those of any other oriental country. The debt is only 32 millions of dollars, the annual receipts about 8 millions of dollars beyond the ordinary expenditure, and the bonds of the government at par, with 8 per cent. interest, while the ordinary and legal interest of the country is 10 per cent.

There is undoubtedly a dark side to this picture. Bribery, corruption, and peculation,

which seem inseparable from all oriental governments, existed here also; and contractors were continually robbing the government. The worst feature in the administration of Said Pasha was his neglect and partial suppression of the schools of the viceroyalty, established with so much labor by his grandfather Mehemet Ali. His successor, Ismail Pasha, who is a warm advocate of education, will unquestionably remedy this great defect of his administration. In 1862 Said Pasha was obliged to resort to another loan of 8 millions of dollars, which was negotiated at 821 per cent. for 7 per cent. thirty years' bonds. The present debt of the viceroyalty is $33,250,000, of which about $17,000,000 is for bonds issued to the Company of the Canal of Suez. The imports of the country for 1861 were $13,396,308, and its exports $17,155,491, from the port of Alexandria alone, to which is to be added a small sum from other ports. In October, 1861, Egypt was visited by a terrible flood; the Nile breaking through the levees or dikes, which confined it in Upper Egypt, laid almost the whole of Lower Egypt under water, destroying the crops of maize and millet, and greatly injuring the cotton and sugar crops. The railroads and telegraph lines were also undermined and torn up, and a vast number of dwellings and animals destroyed. To the great joy of the people the flood subsided rapidly, and despite its destructiveness of property, greatly enhanced the yield and value of the crop of 1862.

The ship canal, intended to unite the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, by cutting through the Isthmus of Suez from Port Said to Suez, projected by M. Ferdinand Lesseps, and carried forward by the French, Egyptian, and Turkish Governments, is approaching completion. At the annual meeting of the canal company in May, 1862, M. Lesseps stated that it would undoubtedly be opened to canal-boat navigation by May, 1863, and to ships by the spring of 1866. The work has been one of great difficulty; it was found necessary to construct a fresh-water canal to connect with the Nile, as well as the ship canal, and to build piers, jetties, and breakwaters to protect shipping enter ing the canal from either sea; and in order to secure the opening of one of the ancient canals, the company were under the necessity of purchasing the entire estate of Waday, the property of El-Hamy Pasha, at a cost of about $400,000. The total expenditure to May, 1862, had been about $42,000,000, and nearly $30,000,000 would probably be required to complete it. Twenty-six thousand men were employed on the work, and M. Lesseps hoped to have 35,000 to 40,000 employed during the next year.

In Abyssinia, Theodore, "King of the Kings of Ethiopia" (see NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA, vol. xv, art. THEODORUS), has completely subdned Tigré, the most important of the Abyssinian States opposed to him, and having cut off the right hand and right foot of Négoussrèh, its king, that chief survived the mutilation but

three days. Theodore is now, without dispute, master of the whole of Abyssinia, and seems disposed to cultivate friendly relations and to introduce civilization and education into his domains.

Proceeding down the eastern coast of Africa, we find the next point of interest in the island of Madagascar. Ranavalona, Queen of the Hovas, the most considerable native tribe of the island, and a most bitter and ferocious persecutor of the Christian missionaries and native converts among the Hovas, died on the 16th of August, 1861, at her capital, Tananarive. Her only son, on her decease, ascended the throne, with the title of Radama II, king of Madagascar. He had been, during his mother's lifetime, friendly to the missionaries and the native Christians, and was regarded as himself a convert. On his accession to the throne he assured the delegations of the English and French Governments of his determination to maintain religious liberty, and the extension of commerce, agriculture, and the arts and sciences among his people. He caused the productions of Madagascar to be represented in the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, and has adopted as his intimate friend and counsellor M. Lambert, a French gentleman, with whom he had been on terms of friendship before his accession to the throne. Great jealousy is manifested by the French and English Governments of the influence exerted by one or the other over the young king, partly from the effect which the preponderating sway of one or the other might have on the colonies which each government possesses in the Indian Ocean, and partly from the fact that the one is the champion of Protestantism and the other of Catholicism in the East. At the latest accounts the French seemed to be gaining the advantage. Radama II was crowned in August, 1862.

South of Mozambique, in the northern part of the Zulu country and extending in the interior toward the Zambezi river, a series of German missionary colonies have been planted by the exertions of Pastor Harms of Hermannsburg in Hanover. The work was commenced in 1854. About 200 colonists have gone out, and they have ten or twelve stations, and have collected very considerable bodies of natives, who have become partially civilized. The movement is one of great promise.

Passing around the Cape of Good Hope and skirting the coast of Lower Guinea, where there have been no occurrences of political or social interest to call for notice, the Bight of Benin is worthy of attention, where, in August, 1861, the English Government took possession of the kingdom of Lagos, and in 1862 established themselves at Whydah, the two most important centres of the slave trade. This occupation not only promises to accomplish more than any previous measure for the overthrow of the slave trade, but opens a ready route of communication with Abbeokuta and the Yoruba country in the interior, a region

admirably adapted for the culture of cotton and the production of palm and cocoa oils.

The Republic of Liberia has made material progress within the past two years. The recognition of the republic by the United States Government and the appointment of a commissioner to represent it there, have been attended with beneficial results. The Republic has entered with great zeal upon the culture of cotton, coffee, sugar, and rice, and the quality of its productions, which are already exported in considerable quantities to England and the United States, is very superior. Within the past year a college fairly endowed, and with a course of instruction equal to that in most of the colleges in the United States, has been opened in Monrovia. Its president and professors are all men of color, and possess suitable qualifications for their several chairs.

The culture of cotton has received a remarkable impulse throughout Africa. Egypt exported in 1862 a much larger quantity than in any previous year; Liberia and Sierra Leone sent some very excellent long stapled cotton into market; the Yorubas and the tribes dwelling on the banks of the Quorra contributed a considerable quantity; some thousands of bales were sent from Kaffraria and the Cape Colony, and Dr. Livingstone, in his ascent of the Shue and Rovuma, found its cultivation already large and rapidly increasing. In the future, Africa promises to be a powerful rival to the United States for the cotton trade of the world.

AGRICULTURE. A condition of war is not usually considered favorable to agricultural progress; but except in those States which have formed the actual battle ground of the past year, the agricultural products of 1862 have been unusually large and profitable. In the Southern States the area devoted to the culture of cotton has been greatly diminished; corn and other cereals having taken its place in extensive districts, while many of the best cotton lands have been trampled by contending armies.

In the Northern States the crops of all descriptions have been abundant. The great export demand for the cereals in 1861, together with the demand for army consumption, led to the planting of a much greater breadth than usual; in winter wheat about 18 per cent. more

area was planted than the previous year, taking the whole country together, and in some of the largest wheat growing States the excess of area planted was much more than this; thus, Wisconsin had 67 per cent. more area than in 1861, Michigan 35 per cent., Ohio 18.7 per cent., while Illinois had only 14 per cent. The yield of winter wheat was 26 per cent. above that of 1861. Of spring wheat the increased area sown was about 23 per cent., but the crop was about 10 per cent. below the average, and perhaps a little more than that below the crop of 1861. Including both kinds of wheat the yield was probably about equal to that of 1861, and fully 10 per cent. above the average of the past five years. The crop of Indian corn was about equal to that of 1861, and 22 per cent. above the average of the past five years. The area planted was no greater than in 1861. Oats were an average crop; a larger area having been sown, but the yield to the acre being about one tenth less. The hay crop was slightly above the average, but the great demand for the army kept the price high, $30 per ton being the average price paid by Government in the winter of 1862-'3. Potatoes were slightly above the average. Fruits of all kinds were remarkably abundant, the apple crop being fully double that of ordinary years, and the peach crop nearly quadruple. Beans were largely above the average in their yield, as were also hops, tobacco, and clover seed. Sorghum was planted in much larger quantities than ever before, and the production of the syrup and sugar nearly doubled. But for the tendency of the seed to deteriorate by admixture with ordinary broom corn, &c., the yield would have been still greater.*

The autumn of 1862 developed the fact that there was again a great deficiency in the cereal crops of Western Europe, and that the export demand for American grains and flour would be nearly equal to that of the preceding year. The following table shows the exports of cereals from two of the principal ports in 1861 and 1862, as well as the receipts at Chicago, the largest of the lake ports, and at Boston. A large amount of grain was sent to Europe by way of the Welland canal and the St. Lawrence river; but the amount, as compared with that of the previous year, is not yet ascertainable.

Rec'd, 1862.

FLOUR

AND GRAINS.

Flour, bbls..

Wheat, bush.

862,552 2,054,988

Corn,

893,235+

Rye, Barley, Oats,

1,433,999 29,388 1,988,000 33,156

The exports of grain and flour, it will be seen by the above table, in 1862 were not quite

*These crop statistics have been compiled from the "Crop Reports" of the "American Agriculturist," to which our

acknowledgments are tendered.

+ Besides 31,672 barrels corn meal. Besides 50,149 barrels corn meal.

equal to those of 1861, but since the 1st of Jan. 1863, they have been much larger than in the same period of 1862, so that the total export of the crop of 1862 will probably fully equal that of 1861; the high rate of exchange has contributed materially to this result. The prices of breadstuffs at the beginning of the