Certain it is that he endured more labours and overcame more
geographical difficulties than any other African traveller either
before or after him; yet it is also sure that, on account of the
defective natural-historical education of the author, and the
indiscreet partisanship for the natives against the settlers, his
works have spread many false views concerning South Africa."
This, I doubt not, will be the verdict of posterity. See
"Anthropologia," in which are included the Proceedings of the
London Anthropological Society (inaugurated 22 January, 1873. No.
1, October, 1873. London: Bailliere, Tindall, and Co.) The Review
(pp. 89-102), bears the well-known initials J. B. D., and it is
not saying too much that no man in England is so well fitted as
Dr. Davis to write it. I quote these passages without any feeling
of disrespect for the memory of the great African explorer. Truth
is a higher duty even than generous appreciation of a heroic
name, and the time will come when Negrophilism must succumb to
Fact.
Chapter XVII.
Concluding Remarks.
I have thus attempted to trace a picture of the Congo River in
the latter days of the slave-trade, and of its lineal descendant,
"L'Immigration Africaine.
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