men of the Middle Ages looking southward thought of regions occupied by hordes of savages and cannibals, good only to be captured as slaves. There were the Dem-Dem and Rem-Rem, and further east the Gnem-Gnem, as the old maps show. They little dreamed that one day these lands would be well-ordered colonies, Nigeria and the rest, with growing Christian churches and races capable of playing a full part in the world's life. In the days of which we write, the outlet of the heart of Central Africa was northward towards Spain or eastward towards Egypt. From north and east, too, came the inflow of new life. Portugal had already, however, in Sonni Ali's days, begun through the enterprise of King John II to make an approach. Later on, other countries of Europe began to press inward from the west and south to trade.
The romance of the desert and of the great fertile areas south of it met in Timbuktu, the city of the canoe and the camel. To it, borne up or down the great river or through numberless converging waterways, canoes brought products of agriculture and industry from the south. It was the mart to which the northern desert sent by camel its priceless riches of salt, its dates, its strange wild wares.
