Excerpt from Europe in Africa, the Nineteenth Century Hile one morning preparing to begin this sketch of Europe in Africa, my eye fell upon the column of Situations Wanted in a local morning paper, and I read the advertisement of a young Swiss who desired a position as Valet and interpreter, concluding with the words: NO objection to Africa. Such an announcement could not have been possible in 1822, the year when the reminiscences contained in this series of papers on the nineteenth century may be said to begin. South Africa was then only a field for missionary labors, or the watering station for great merchantmen upon their way to India; West Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa were known only to the Portuguese and slave traders. The Africa that borders on the Mediterranean had severed its connection with Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, and had sunk into that state of semi-barbarism which com bines the vices of civilization with those of savagery. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.