After the exciting narrative which has been hurriedly
outlined in this introduction, Mr. Decle proceeds to give a
summary of his impressions upon what he has seen, but
each reader must determine for himself whether he renders
a fair and judicious judgment upon administrations and
individuals. He confesses to having expressed himself
here and there with a too great candour, and it may be
that he has been a little inconsiderate, it being true, as he
says, that most travellers find it easier to find fault in men
and things than to discover their good qualities. However,
if administrations and individuals do mot mind the criticism
the reader is benefited by the candour of the critic. Mr.
Decle’s honesty of intention is unquestionable, and therefore
we are enabled to see the reverse side of things from
one who has no personal interest to serve. We must also
be lenient to youth and overlook the impulsiveness of a
generous temper. Otherwise if we harshly blame, we
shall lose more than we gain, and we would rather,, as
seekers after truth, hear a sincere witness give his testimony
in his own way than not at all. Besides, Mr. Decle
is as frank about his own acts as he is with regard to the
acts of others.
The book now published is really a prose kinetospope,
which faithfully translates the spirit rather than the details
of three years’ travels. From the Cape to Mombasa the
long extent of country glides by the reader without giving
him any fatigue or sense of weariness. The easy style
enables us to see the natives without anger or disgust,
though we are often aware that they must be trying and
sometimes dangerous. No page is dull, there is scarcely
one paragraph we wish to skip. It is all so refreshingly
frank and related so simply. One adventure follows
another so rapidly, the dangerous situations in which he
is so often found lead us on to see what will eventually
become of him. The lack of small details makes us sometimes
imagine that he has an aptitude for misadventure,
and we are often persuaded that he is beyond hope of
xxiv
salvation. But the style is natural to the writer; his art
is the outcome of his own artlessness. His touch is light,
his language clear and idiomatic, his tastes are simple, and
the result is one of the brightest books of travel we have
ever read. The ideal German would have exhausted
volumes in elaborating the minutiae of such a journey as
Mr. Decle so successfully accomplished.
The author’s remark that “ things have changed enormously
ever since Mr. Stanley’s great journey, and that
Africa is in the rapidest state of transition,” is confirmed
by the even greater changes that have taken place in the
Dark Continent since he passed through—brief as the
time has been. For Bulawayo is now connected by rail
with Cape Town ; great waterworks have been established
in the city and its neighbourhood. Bulawayo is great
for its brQad avenues and wide streets, its several brick
churches, its handsome edifices, its club, its scores'of villas
and populous suburbs, its grand public pleasaunce, and its
newsboys who run through the streets crying out the
titles of the daily newspapers.
Salisbury is not the town that Mr. Decle knew; its
population now numbers as many thousands as it then
did hundreds. Two railways are approaching the town,
the farms in the neighbourhood are flourishing, and the
mines are in a forward state of development.
Even Portuguese Tete has improved, being now the
head of the Zambezi navigation. Every point touched
by the traveller between Bulawayo and Mombasa would
require to be described anew to do justice to it. The
overland telegraph has reached Blantyre, the steamers
afloat on the Nyasa are larger and more numerous, the
transport is perfected, the slave trade has been totally
extinguished, and the advance of Nyasaland has been
phenomenal since 1893.
The shores of Lake Tanganika also bear evidences of the
changes Africa has witnessed of late years. The West
Coast is studded with military stations and great mission
XXV