steam communication between the French station near the
mouth of the Congo and his own station near Banza Noki or Embomma. The
"Livingstone Central African Company, Limited," with Mr. James
Stevenson, of Glasgow, as chairman, has constructed a road along the
Murchison Rapids, thus making the original route of Livingstone
available between Quilimane and the Nyassa district, and is doing much
more to advance Christian civilization. France, Belgium, Germany, and
Italy have all been active in promoting commercial schemes. A
magnificent proposal has been made, under French auspices, for a railway
across the Soudan. There is a proposal from Manchester to connect the
great lakes with the sea by a railway from the coast opposite Zanzibar.
Another scheme is for a railway from the Zambesi to Lake Nyassa. A
telegraph through Egypt has been projected to the South African colonies
of Britain, passing by Nyassa and Shire. An Italian colony on a large
scale has been projected in the dominions of Menelek, king of Shoa, near
the Somali land. Any statement of the various commercial schemes begun
or contemplated would probably be defective, because new enterprises are
so often appearing. But all this shows what a new light has burst on the
commercial world as to the capabilities of Africa in a trading point of
view. There seems, indeed, no reason why Africa should not furnish most
of the products which at present we derive from India. As a market for
our manufactures, it is capable, even with a moderate amount of
civilization, of becoming one of our most extensive customers. The voice
that proclaimed these things in 1857 was the voice of one crying in the
wilderness; but it is now repeated in a thousand echoes.

In stimulating African exploration the influence of Livingstone was very
decided. He was the first of the galaxy of modern African travelers, for
both in the Geographical Society and in the world at large his name
became famous before those of Baker, Grant, Speke, Burton, Stanley, and
Cameron. Stanley, inspired first by the desire of finding him, became
himself a remarkable and successful traveler. The same remark is
applicable to Cameron. Not only did Livingstone stimulate professed
geographers, but, what was truly a novelty in the annals of exploration,
he set newspaper companies to open up Africa. The _New York Herald_,
having found Livingstone, became hungry for new discoveries, and
enlisting a brother-in-arms, Mr. Edwin Arnol