On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ligenfc though simple race of people , is a pledge to Africa of future intercourse with Europe , and of comparative civilization . The most extraordinary circumstance announced by Dr . IiIVINGStoni : is the salubrity- of these vast countries . " Some of the districts of the interior are perfect sanatoria , and among the pure Negro family many diseases . — . _• -- . '_ _ -.
that affected the people of Europe are unknown . Small-pox and consumption have not been known for twenty years , and consumption , scrofula , cancer , and hydrophobia are seldom heard of . " So healthy are the natives , and so free from weakening taints , that pure-blooded Negroes from beyond the twentieth degree of south latitude are treasures in the Cuban or Brazilian market .
They are Drought down to the coast , men and women , in chains , and' far from being willing to quit their homes , are in most cases captured after a fierce and sanguinary battle with the tribe to which they belong . The traffic is becoming so difficult , and its profits so precarious , that numbers of the merchants are abandoning it for the culture of coffee , introduced by the Jesuits into Angola , and said to have been propagated by birds throughout the whole country , as spices are propagated in the East . Several fibrous substances of great strength , hitherto unknown to commerce—one of them resemblin flax
—were discovered by Dr . Livingstone , -who adds that the southern interior abounds in the sugar-cane , though the natives have no idea of sugar , with indigo , quinine , senna , ;\ vax , and honey , as well as with very fine iron ore , and malachite , from which copper ia extracted . " There are also coalfields , in working which gold is occasionally found . The people , indeed , have been washing gold from time immemorial , and arc doing so still . Near the Portuguese settlement at Tete there are no fewer than eleven
seams of coal , one of which is fifty-seven inches thick . The country is so fertile , that ia the gardens cultivated by the natives a constant process of sowing and reaping goes on all the year round . It likewise grows immense quantities of grain . " This picture will remind the leader acquainted with Eastern agriculture of the richest provinces of the richest island in the world , Java . Clearly , the poetical description of an African territory " whose soil is fire aad wind a flame , " does not apply to the regions discovered by Dr . Livingstone .
This great traveller deserves a monument , nnd will , probably , build one for himself . He will publish the record of'his wanderings , and that book will be a more enduring and appropriate memorial of liis unostentatious genius and simple heroism than any tablet , or statue , or emblem whatever . Bub lie has not yet completed the great work of his life . He is again preparing to carry the sympathies of civilization into the depths of Africa .
Untitled Article
PERSIA AND OUR NORTH-WEST tfltONTIJUIl . War lias been formally proclaimed against Persia by the Indian Government , acting under instructions from the Ministers of the Crown , and as formally accepted by the King of Kings . The grounds for this declaration of hostilities against our former ally and jproteg j are clearly enunciated in the official
document issued by the Governor-General in Council . The specific allegation in defence of this extreme measure ia the violation , on the part of the SitA , H , of a Convention concluded in 1853 between his Prime Minister and the English Ambassador . The Persian Government thereby pledged itself not to send any troops towards Herat , unless a hostile , demonstration in that direction were made by the Affghana or any other foreign
Power . It also engaged to abstain from interfering in the internal administration of that free city , and to waive all pretensions to the rights of suzeraiuty . Twelve months , however , have already elapsed since the articles of this agreement were first infringed by a notification in the Teheran official Gazette that an armed demonstration in the direction of Herat was necessitated by the occupation of Kandahar by Dost Ma . hommed . A . more flimsy pretext could hardly have been devised . Kandahar has all along been a feudatory of the Ameer , though
' ^^^^^^^^¦^^¦ WMMHHHHi followers of the Prophet / hate each other with as fervent a fanaticism as has ever been exhibited by the two great sections of Christendom . At Herat the Soonnees being the more numerous and powerful , ifc naturally happened that the Sheahs were oftentimes subjected to insult , and occasionally to persecution . To proteet his co-religionists is one of the professed motives of theSHAii for under r taking the siege of that city . "Unfortunately , the possession of that city is of too much importance to the independence of . ' . Central Asia as well as the security of our own fron-^^^^^^^^^^^
under the immediate government of his brothers . Like the " Western baron 3 in the olden time , these vassals frequently proved contumacious , and indeed seldom adhered to heir allegiance whenever the troubled state of public affairs favoured the assumption of independence . There can be no question as to the Ameer ' s right to reduce these refracto submission
, tier , to be abandoned to Persian caprice or Muscovite ambition . So long as Herat continues to be a free ci ty of Affghanistan , so long " will our north-west frontier be unassailable , provided that country remains on friendly terms with our Government . But so soon as Herat falls within the dominions of "Russianized Persia , it will become imperative utton the — — -j .-. — ¦¦»—• , « . p ^ f vvvujw Ai ^ i wyj , UUL 1 \ . f \ A . YJ \ JUL , V I 'V .
tory subjects , and to consolidate his power by ruling from frontier to frontier with an ' iron hand . The Persian Government , indeed , alleges that he intended to advance upon Herat in compliance with the suggestions of his " neighbours , " but this is a simple and gratuitous assertion , in support of which not the shadow of a proof
rulers of British India to form a new line of defence . The demonstration in the Persian Gulf cannot he considered as anything nioie than a point . I £ Persia were unsupported by any European power , it might probably prove as effective as in 1838 ; but it may now be accepted as a moral certainty that tlio court of Teheran acts in full confidence of
being-succoured and strengthened from . the north . It would be no arduous undertaking to transport a Russian auxiliary corps from Astrakan to Astra ~ b ad , and thence to march it upon Herat by way of JNleshed ; or to land it on the nearest point of the Caspian to , Teheran , and thence direct it on Bushire . In the latter case ' reinforcements could , certainly , be rapidly : despatched from Bombay , but not—as the anonymous pamphleteer welL observes—without temporarily denuding the line of the Itidus , and thereby weakening but *
frontier , and exposing it to the attack of an enterprising enemy . Supposing , however , that the British squadron , in tlie Persian G-uU were left to its own devices , and the allied forces proceeded direct to Herat , the whole of Affghauistan might be overrun and occupied before the Anglo-Indian army had been set in motion . It is said , indeed , that arms and money have beeu , or are about ' to be , forwarded to theKhan of Khiva and the friendly chieftains of Affghanistan . "We siucei'ely trust that this report is unfounded . We have hud something too much of
sn"bsidies in our past Avars . It is time that we relied solely on ourselves . For what is there to prevent these notable subsidiaries from turning against ourselves the very weapons we so fondly confided to their honour ? In all emergencies , safety is best secured by a happy audacity . Our coui'se ., then , is clear . We must advance our frontier so far as to enclose the mountain passes that lead from Aftghanistan into the plains of India . A river is ho line of defence . It is impossible to occupy its banks throughout its entire length
sidious counsels of Captain Vicovicii . That untoward circumstance was the source of many misfortunes both to the Affghans and to ourselves . Had an alliance at that time been formed between the Indian Government and the Ameer , historians would have been spared the ungrateful task of recording the evanescent triumphs and subsequent annihilation of a British army . But it is
usehas been adduced ; and the Indian Government distinctly repudiates the insiunation that it administered fuel to the Ameer ' s ambition . The Shaji ' s . army , however , in spite of friendly remonstrances and warnings , has for many months been engaged in prosecuting the siege of Herat , and probably by this time is in possession of that city . To permit such an infraction of Colonel Siceil ' s convention to pass unnoticed and Unpunished , would I ) e to invite insult and outrage from every petty Power on the outskirts of our Indian Empire , and even within its bosom . There remained no alternative but to declare
war , aud this is admitted by even the jealous journalists of France . Other reasons equally cogent may be advanced in justification of this measure . It was well said on the occasion of the former siege of Herat in 1 S 37-3 S , that Russia had opened her first parallel against our Indian Empire . To counteract the hostile influence
of that Power , the Indian Government instructed Captain , afterwards Sir Alexander Buknes , to open friendly relations with Dost Maiiommi 2 i > , and conciliate the good-will of the other AfYghan chiefs . It would be tedious , nor ia ifc necessary , to recapitulate the various causes that combined to render thab mission infructive , and which finally induced tho Ameer to turn a credulous ear to tho
inand military chronicles abound in instances of rivers being crossed almost in tho face of equal , and not unirequently of superior forces . The Indus is no insuperable barrier for a Europeaimed nrmy . Our advanced posts must hold the heads of tho passes . •' Establish a sufficiently largo military body at sonic point immediately above tho Bolan Pass , and-a second at Peshawur ; confide our dijriomatic relations along the entire frontier to one good and able mail , and then mark what would be the result
less to refer to tbo past unless to obtain a beacon to light our future path . Herat is the pivot on which turns the destiny of Aflfghauistari . It is , and , with rare intervals , ever has been , an Ail ' ghan city , into which , indeed , a Persian colony was introduced 'by J ^ ADiu SjrA . il . Within comparatively a few years after the death of that conqueror tho majority of theso settlers returned into their
own country . A sufficient number , hovvover , of Persian subjects have since continued to reside within the walls of Herat , to afford specious pretexts for interference on their bohalf , on the same principle that Russia has pleaded to justify her inteiventioa in the internal administration of Turkey . Tlio Persians and the Aftghans , though equally
The gates themselves would he closed and defended ; friendly relations would bo gradually extended throughout Afghanistan ; that vast tract of hilly country which lies between our frontier and tho presont ^ ositiou of tho Persian army , along tho line of Hc > ml-, would become our shield . Without assuming direct military control of the AfFghan and
Untitled Article
1 December 20 , 1856 ] THEJLEADER . 1213 - ¦ ' - ¦ - ¦ . ^ mmam^——^! I *^™ M ^ mw ^ m^^—¦¦¦ ¦ . ' " ' ¦ " ¦
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1856, page 1213, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2172/page/13/
-