Far Land of Ophir! Mined for gold By lordly Solomon of old, Who sailing northward to Perim Took all the gold away with him, And left a lot of holes; Vacuities that bring despair To those confiding souls Who find that they have bought a share In marvellous horizons, where The Desert terrible and bare Interminably rolls.
Great Island! Made to be the bane Of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Peninsula! Whose smouldering fights Keep Salisbury awake at nights; And furnished for a year or so Such sport to M. Hanotaux.
Vast Continent! Whose cumbrous shape Runs from Bizerta to the Cape (Bizerta on the northern shore, Concerning which, the French, they swore It never should be fortified, Wherein that cheerful people lied).
[Illustration ** The Negus, the Sultan facing us and a third man with his back towards us.]
Thou nest of Sultans full of guile, Embracing Zanzibar the vile And Egypt, watered by the Nile (Egypt, which is, as I believe, The property of the Khedive):-- Containing in thy many states Two independent potentates, And one I may not name. (Look carefully at number three, Not independent quite, but he Is more than what he used to be.) To thee, dear goal, so long deferred Like old Æneas--in a word To Africa we came.
We beached upon a rising tide At Sasstown on the western side; And as we touched the strand I thought--(I may have been mistook)-- I thought the earth in terror shook To feel its Conquerors land.
In getting up our Caravan We met a most obliging man, The Lord Chief Justice of Liberia, And Minister of the Interior; Cain Abolition Beecher Boz, Worked like a Nigger--which he was-- And in a single day Procured us Porters, Guides, and kit, And would not take a sou for it Until we went away.[4]
But when we went away, we found A deficit of several pound.
[Illustration ** Large well-dressed African man doffing his hat to our traveller, who is holding his hat in deference.]
We wondered how this fellow made Himself so readily obeyed, And why the natives were so meek; Until by chance we heard him speak, And then we clearly understood How great a Power for Social Good The African can be. He said with a determined air: “You are not what your fathers were; Liberians, you are Free! Of course, if you refuse to go--” And here he made a gesture so.