out
a suitable route for a railway through the Sahara to connect the French
possessions in the north and south. It was not the first time that the
Colonel had travelled in the Sahara, and he knew the Tuaregs well.
Therefore he was on his guard. Everything seemed most promising. The
Frenchmen mapped parts of the Sahara which no European had ever
succeeded in reaching before--even the great German traveller, who had
crossed the Sahara in all directions, had not been there. The most
dangerous tracts were left behind, and the Tuaregs had offered no
resistance: indeed some of their chiefs had been friendly. In the last
letters which reached France, Flatters expressed a hope that he would be
able to complete his task without further trouble, and to advance even
to the Sudan.

Then the blow fell. The expedition was suddenly attacked at a well, and
succumbed after a heroic defence against superior numbers. Most of the
Frenchmen were cut down. Part of the caravan attempted to reach safety
by hurrying northwards on forced marches, but was overtaken and
annihilated. Many brave Frenchmen have met the same fate as Flatters in
the struggle for dominion over the Sahara.

If we travelled, as we have lately imagined, on swift-footed dromedaries
in a huge circuit from Timbuktu through the Sudan, the Libyan desert,
and the land of the Tuaregs, we should at last come to Morocco, "The
Uttermost West," as this last independent Sultanate in Africa is called.
Morocco is the restless corner of Africa, as the Balkan Peninsula is of
Europe, Manchuria of Asia, and Mexico of North America--in South America
all parts are unsettled.

III

NORTH AMERICA

THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD

Now we must say farewell to Africa. We have in front of us the Straits
of Gibraltar, little more than six miles broad, the blue belt that
connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, the sharply defined
boundary which separates the black continent from the white.

We have but a step to take and we are in Spain. Here, also, a dying echo
from the splendid period of Arab rule reaches our ears. We are reminded
that twelve centuries have passed away since the Prophet's chosen people
conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The sons of Islam were a thorn in the
sides of the Christians. Little by little they were forced back
southwards. Only Cordova and Granada still remained in the possession of
the Arabs, or Moors as they were called, and when Ferdinand the Catholi