As we review the past, we delight to see how the various movements, which, at the time, seem to be wholly disconnected, move on in converging lines, and how, finally, those movements come together to produce some sublime result. During this centennial period we have been looking back over the past history of our nation, and at the same time over the past history of Europe, and we have found these two histories blended all the way through. From the time of the Crusades, and the awakening of the spirit of enterprise, and the creating of that great restlessness throughout Europe which led to the spirit of exploration and discovery, down through the subsequent periods, during which our country was colonized, we see everywhere how movements on this side of the water and movements on the other side were playing together. * * * * * * * * * And now we stand at another period, and we see two continents, lying side by side across the same ocean. We have heard God’s voice saying, “Let my people go,” and this has been followed by God’s providence breaking off the fetters of an oppressed race and bidding them go forth into a land of freedom. And we have seen, in connection with this, God calling His people to labor and lift up these brethren to a higher intelligence, to a purer, faith, to a nobler aspiration, and to a grander enterprise; and we have seen these efforts fruiting most wonderfully. And all the time that this has been going on, away off there across the ocean, in that new continent hitherto unexplored, Baker, Livingstone and Stanley, with untiring industry, have been prosecuting their work; and “the great dark continent” is being made a light continent in one respect—light to our knowledge, only that something greater and grander may follow. Are these lines parallel—the lines of God’s movements in America and the lines of God’s movements in Africa? They _converge_; and, in the distance, these lines on which God is moving will come to their focus, and we shall see there on African soil sublime results, of which these here on American soil give to us but the prophecy. * * * * * THE UPPER NILE BASIN. COL. H. G. PROUT, LATE OF THE KEHDIVE’S STAFF, EGYPT. In what I have to say I shall not try to give any large picture of African travel or life; I shall try only to give some accurate notions of a limited area.