W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS.

New York City, Feb. 1, 1915.




[Illustration: The Physical Geography of Africa]




I AFRICA

"Behold!
The Sphinx is Africa. The bond
Of Silence is upon her. Old
And white with tombs, and rent and shorn;
With raiment wet with tears and torn,
And trampled on, yet all untamed."

MILLER


Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. Its
very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influence. It is the
"Ethiopia" of the Greek, the "Kush" and "Punt" of the Egyptian, and the
Arabian "Land of the Blacks." To modern Europe it is the "Dark Continent"
and "Land of Contrasts"; in literature it is the seat of the Sphinx and