Since 1883 the exploration of Africa has been carried out by a multitude of explorers. In the north the French have pushed south from Algeria and French explorers, prominent among whom was Marchand during 1896-98, crossed the continent from Loanga, in French Kongo, to Fashoda on the Nile, and Foureau, who, in 1900, crossed the Sahara from Algeria to Lake Tchad, have addedgreatly to our knowledge of the Sahara. Dr. Junker devoted several years to exploring the country between the basin of the Nile and the Kongo. Mr. Stanley, in his great journey across Africa in 1876, added largely to our knowledge of Lake Victoria and of Uganda, the country between Victoria and Lake Albert. After 1890 the work of the various international commissions, which traced the frontiers of the protectorates of the various European powers, added great ly to the topographical knowledge of Africa. Since the British occupation of Uganda, Colonel Lugard and many other officers have mapped the country between the coast and the lakes, Uganda itself and the country to the west. Italian and British explorers have added to our knowledge of Abyssinia and of the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea. Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie have been discov ered and explored by Count Teleki and Lieu tenant Von Hohnel from the south, while James, Donaldson Smith, Cavendish, Robeccht Bottego and others have explored Somaliland and ascertained that the Omo flows into Lake Rudolf. Gregory has investigated Mount Kenia; Meyer has ascended Kilima-Njaro; Baumann and other German explorers have visited the region to the west and south of that mountain, round by the south of Lake Vic toria and on to Lake Albert Edward. In 1894 Count Giitzen crossed from east to west, dis covered Lake Kivu to the south of Lake Albert Edward and a lofty active volcano near its shores, coming out by the Kongo. Many other Germans have been busy in German East Af rica, while in British Central Africa Johnston, Sharpe, Joseph Thomson and others have filled in many blanks, and British naval officers have charted Lake Nyassa.
The unique distinction of being the first white man to traverse Africa from south to north on foot fell to the lot of an undergradu ate of Cambridge University, Ewart Scott Grogan, who, in February 1898, started from Cape Town with one white companion and a few servants and 18 months later reached Cairo, having traveled the greater part of the distance with only the servants, as his white friend left him before the journey was half done. Mr. Grogan brought back a mass of ethnological information, having carefully in vestigated and described the various tribes with which he came in contact and cleared up a number of disputed geographical points. Consult 'From Cape to Cairo) (London 1900).
Several German explorers also traversed and mapped Damaraland and Namaqua land; Lugard explored the Uganda region; Gibbons and others traversed the Barotse country. The officials of the Kongo Free State laid open the courses of the numerous rivers that feed the main stream; Hinde found the Lukuga flowing into the Lualaba; Grenf ell and others established the connection of the Ubangi or Mobangi tributary on the north with the Malcua-Welle higher up, which had been explored by Junker and others. Under
the auspices of the Royal Niger Company, Joseph Thomson and others further explored the Niger; while the Benue and its tributaries and the German sphere in the south were actively explored by British, French and Ger man travelers.
All these three nationalities, moreover, were busy in the vast area between the Guinea coast and the great bend of the Niger. Prom inent among them was Binger, who contributed more than any single individual to our knowl edge of this region. The French occupation of Timbuktu led to the navigation and ex ploration of the upper and middle river by gunboats; while a French expedition followed the river from Timbuktu to its mouth. Mon teil crossed from Senegal to Lake Tchad and traversed the desert to Tripoli, and the Lake Tchad region was further explored by Lenfant and Loeffler (1902-04) and Alexander and Gosling (1904-05). French expeditions crossed from the Kongo to the Nile and all the river systems are now mapped in their main features. It may indeed be said that the pioneer exploration of Africa has been com pleted, and by 1910 good economic maps existed of all the colonies. What remains to be done is the filling up of the meshes between the vast network of explorers' routes, and this is a task which cannot be completed for many years.
International and Diplomatic Relations. — Early in the history of the United States American shipping trade in the Mediterranean suffered in common with the rest of commer cial navigation from the piracies of the Bar bary States. In 1784 Congress sought to safe guard American commerce by the negotiation of treaties. In 1787,. Thomas Barclay signed a favorable treaty with the Emperor of Mo rocco for a period of 50 years, giving the United States the most-favored nation privi leges, with consular representation. The treaty of 1797 with Tunis, like that of Morocco, was also favorable, and, with modifications in 1827, remained effective after the French occupation in 1881.
The treaties negotiated with Algiers in 1795 and with Tripoli in 1796 proved unreliable and expensive. Failing in their obligations, the American naval blockade of Tripoli in 1805, and of Algiers in 1815, led to new treaties of peace and friendship. By compulsion and an expenditure of nearly $3,000,000 the United States gained the commercial freedom of the Barbary shores for the world. See BARBARY Powzts, U. S. TREATIES AND WARS WITH THE.
While the slave trade early in the 19th cen tury was a subject of international discussion, and its suppression was advocated in the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, it was not until 1842 that the United States joined with Great Britain in a patrol of the west coast of Africa, which ended with the abolition of slavery in America in 1863.