Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and MissionariesBoyd, James P. (James Penny)
History
Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and Missionaries
Boyd, James P. (James Penny)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
In reading of Stanley and studying the characteristics of his work one
naturally gravitates to the thought, that in all things respecting him,
the older countries of Europe are indebted to the genius of the newer
American institution. We cannot yet count upon the direct advantages of
a civilized Africa upon America. In a political and commercial sense our
activity cannot be equal to that of Europe on account of our remoteness,
and because we are, as yet, but little more than colonists ourselves.
Africa underlies Europe, is contiguous to it, is by nature situated so
as to become an essential part of that mighty earth-tract which the sun
of civilization is, sooner or later, to illuminate. Besides Europe has
a need for African acquisition and settlement which America has not.
Her areas are small, her population has long since reached the point
of overflow, her money is abundant and anxious for inviting foreign
outlets, her manufacturing centres must have new cotton and jute fields,
not to mention supplies of raw material of a thousand kinds, her crowded
establishments must have the cereal foods, add to all these the love
of empire which like a second nature with monarchical rulers, and the
desire for large landed estates which is a characteristic of titled
nobility, and you have a few of the inducements to African conquest and
colonization which throw Europe in the foreground. Yet while all these
are true, it is doubtful if, with all her advantages of wealth, location
and resource, she has done as much for the evangelization of Africa as
has America. No, nor as much for the systematic and scientific opening
of its material secrets. And this brings us to the initial idea of this
paragraph again. Though Stanley was a foreign waif, cast by adverse
circumstances on our shores, it seemed to require the robust freedom
and stimulating opportunities of republican institutions to awaken and
develop in him the qualities of the strong practical and venturesome
man he became. Monarchy may not fetter thought, but it does restrain
actions. It grooves and ruts human energy by laws of custom and by
arbitrary rules of caste. It would have repressed a man like Stanley, or
limited him to its methods. He would have been a subject of some dynasty
or a victim of some conventionalism. Or if he had grown too large for
repressive boundaries and had chosen to burst them, he would have become
a revolutionist worthy of exile, if his head had not already come to
the block. But under republican institutions his energies and ambitions
had free play. Every faculty, every peculiarity of the man grew and
developed, till he became a strong, original and unique force in the line
of adventure and discovery. This out-crop of manhood and character, is
the tribute of our free institutions to European monarchy. The tribute is
not given grudgingly. Take it and welcome. Use it for your own glory and
aggrandizement. Let crowned-heads bow before it, and titled aristocracy
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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