but repulsive apes and cannibals possess the gloomy shade of the vast wilderness. Near the eastern portion of this expanse the great explorer of Africa is at this time engaged in traversing that now most interesting portion of the globe whence spring the sources of the Nile. Still farther north, and extending nearly across the continent, we see an immense territory crowded with a commercial, trading people, whose cities have been noted for ages through the reports of caravans which have brought their goods and gold across the great desert to the Mediterranean sea. On the right of the desert we find Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt. The desert itself is seen to have many oases, stately mountains, and in places a growth of singular trees. Its caravans are sometimes submerged by the terrible simoon; but the robbers of the desert are more cruel and destructive than the winds and sands. On the north of Sahara we see the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, where in ancient times the great rival of Rome exercised supreme authority, which was doubtless wrested from Carthage in a calamity to mankind. To the westward of this famous seat of ancient empire, the French now have a numerous and prosperous colony. Still farther westward and looking out upon the pillars of Hercules, live the remnants of that singular people who once possessed a large part of Spain, and whose melancholy fate has been rendered wonderfully interesting to the intelligent of all lands by the great and tender genius of our American Irving. The descendants of the old possessors of Granada, the builders of the Alhambra, may now be found in northwestern Africa, and penetrating deeply into the regions of the Desert, with little to suggest the ancient taste, and culture, and warlike prowess. With the exception of Liberia, and the English, Portuguese, Dutch, and French colonies, and of late some of the Bakwains who have become Christianized, the people of whom we are taking this rapid view are devoted to polygamy. As it exists throughout nearly the whole of the vast continent it is both a social and a political institution. Of all these people, perhaps those only who are actually progressive are the Bakwains, under Sechele, the Makololo, under Sekeletu, successor to the greatest of South African chieftains, Sebituane, some of the colonists of extreme South Africa, and a province or two of central West Africa. [Illustration: A NARROW ESCAPE.]