garden, the whole of that sterile country inclosed within
the great western bend of the Nile towards Dongola
would be embraced in the system of irrigation, and
the barren sands that now give birth to the bitter
melon of the desert (Cucumis colocynthis), would
bring forth the water-melon, and heavy crops of
grain. The great Sahara is desert, simply because
it receives no rainfall; give it only water, and the
sand will combine with the richer soil beneath, and
become productive. England would become a desert,
could it be deprived of rain for three or four years;
the vegetation would wither and be carried away
by the wind, together with the lighter and more
friable portions of the soil, which, reduced to dust,
would leave the coarser and more sandy particles
exposed upon the surface; but the renewal of rain
would revivify the country. The deserts of Egypt
have never known rain, except in the form of an
unexpected shower, that has passed away as suddenly
as it arrived, even that slight blessing awakens
ever-ready nature, and green things appear upon
the yellow surface of the ground, that cause the
* The great deserts of Northern Africa to about the 17° N. lat.
are supposed to have formed the bottom of the Mediterranean, but
to have been upheaved to their present level. The vplcanic bombs
discovered in the Nubian Desert, suggest by their spherical form,
that the molten lava ejected by active volcanos had fallen from a
great height into water, that had rapidly cooled them; in the same
manner that lead shot is manufactured at the present day. It is
therefore highly probable that the extinct craters now in existence
in the Nubian Desert were active at a period when they formed
volcanic islands in a sea—similar to Stromboli, &c, &o.
traveller to wonder how their seeds could germinate
after the exposure for so many months in the burning
sand. Give water to these thirsty deserts, and they
will reply with gratitude.
This is the way to civilize a country : the engineer
will alter the hard conditions of nature, that have
rendered man as barren of good works as the sterile
soil upon which he lives. Let man have hope; improve
the present, that his mind may look forward to
a future; give him a horse that will answer to the spur
if he is to run in the race of life; give him a soil that
will yield and tempt him to industry; give him the
means of communication with his fellow-men, that he
may see his own inferiority by comparison; provide
channels for the transport of his produce, and for the
receipt of foreign manufactures, that will engender
commerce : and then, when he has advanced so far in
the scale of humanity, you may endeavour to teach
him the principles of Christianity. Then, and not
till then, can we hope for moral progress. We must
begin with the development of the physical capabilities
of a country before we can expect from its inhabitants
sufficient mental vigour to receive and understand the
truths of our religion. I have met with many Christian
missionaries, of various and conflicting creeds,
who have fruitlessly sown the seed of Christianity
upon the barren soil of Africa; but their labours were
ill-timed, they were too early in the field, the soil is
unprepared; the missionary, however earnest, must
wait until there be some foundation for a super