Jephson's Narrative

Mr. A. J. Mounteney-Jephson has made a fascinating contribntion to the fast growingmassof equatorial Aírican literatura. His book is all the more valuablo nnd in teresting becanse ho bad nothing to do with the events whicli have oaused sucli a painful controversy between Stanley and some of his lieutenants. Mr. Jephson saw what they dld not see, and his oceasional references to Maj. Barttelot and others are all the more valuable on that account. When Stanley and Emin Pasha met at Nyumassie in Í88S the latter askcd for a picked officer to go with him through his province, make a report thereon and assist him in conclucting his people to the coast. Stanley ehoNe Mr. Jephson for thia work; he did it well and observed carefully, and the result nppears in his book entitled "Emin Pasha and the Rebellion at the Equator." Only a few weeks since Sir Richard Burlón, oneof the old and famous African exploréis, died, and there were many before him; bnt they and all the Pon rthagenian and Phcenieian visitors and traders were too soon. Af riea'g day for developinent had not come. Now Europe is bent upon civilizing and developing the Dark Continent, and so the Stanley epoch is more important than all before it. Mr. Jephson speaks rather highly of the unfortunate Maj. Barttelot, and expresses the opinión that the true history of the rear guftrd and that famous or infamous camp at Yambuya wlll never be known. In thia he i.s probably mistaken, as too many are involved for anything to be kept secret. His opinión of Emin as goveruor of the equatorial province is decidedly low - in fact, he bluntly saysthat the governor often acted without common sense. In emergencies, however, he was very brave. It is a little singular that Mr. Stanley read the proof of Mr. Jephson's book and introduced it to the public with a favorable preface without contradicting some of the statements about Maj. Barttelot. This and all the other accounts will be widely resul, for the eivilized world seenis to feel that we are now begiuning the actual redepiption of África.