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Show "OPHR" IN AFRICA DR. PETERS CONFIDENT HE HAS FOUND FAMOUS LAND. Weil-Known Explorer Brings Forward Many Arfjjments to Prove Claims of Dark Continent to Distinction. Dr. Carl Peters, so well known In connection with tho opening up of Africa, has started on a lecturing tour In Germany with two object In view first, to win recruits to tho cause of German expansion In the dark continent; becoud, to provo that he has found the famous gold land or Ophli The render who has forgotten whero the word "Ophlr" occurs will find It in the biblical books of Kings and Chronlcleb One thousand years bo-fore bo-fore Chrlbt King David ami the wise Solomon, his bon, sent to Ophlr shlp.t which biought back from thence gold and precious stones, Ivory nnd vnlu nble timber, which these magnificent rulcis I'luplojed In building their gorgeous gor-geous temples and palaces. Pcteis began to think of this subject sub-ject aftei he had discovered an old Flemish mnp or the eighteenth century cen-tury on which he saw tho word "Ophlr"' printed ncross ono or tho least-known dlstilcts or southern Central Cen-tral Afiica. The first thing that struck him was the similarity of the names Allien and Ophlr. Thero wns (list tho rnblc word Atlr (Ophlr), which when Latinized became Afer. It was an easy translation from Afer to Africa. He thought further nnd deeper nnd began to lead Chilstlan tradition. All pointed to South AM ilea. Tho ancient llteiatuic he rend made . Peters nlbo acquainted with the fact I that nt all ages since Solomo.1'3 tlmo J Ophlr had been sought In numerous 1 parts or the world In Arabia, Persia, I Mesopotamia, India; It had even been t bought In Ameilca, and there aro an-, dent Spanish lecoids which Btato I that nmong the early conqulstndores or Peru and Mexico were not a rew who believed that they had round not only El Dorado but Ophlr ns well. Suddeul) It occuired to Potcrs that t,ho famous gold land must bo In the neighborhood of Slmbabjo In southeast Africa. It wus an Inspiration. Ho was attacked for this bellcr, and ' theologians and others with n different theory cast on him tho repioach that he was not a Semitic scholar . t Rut he maintained that ho was I light. The ships of Solomon, he said, I passed thiough the Red bca and j skirted the const ot Africa until they .arrived at their port. And they certainly cer-tainly must hae biought bark mil-' mil-' lloiih In gold. j Only Ad lea could havo produced I that quantity of gold. Arabia and In-J In-J dlli hao neier pioduced gold In re-' markable quantities. In his descilptlon of tho Zambesi teirltory Peters bays he has seen In- numerable traces which compel him to believe that there and nowhero else was the land of Ophlr. Forsaken mines by the score nro there, and no , less than 75,000 places where gold has been dug at depths of from 30 to 40 I feet. Ruins of towns and villages, re-1 mains of temples nnd palaces speak eloquently of the past gloiles of tho region. They point moreover to Phoenician origin, Mighty terraces and towers raised by the hand ot man aro still traceable. These builders woro certainly cer-tainly of n race superior to tho negro. One still finds In the graves remnants or things which point to the worship of Hani. Hut Petera' weightiest aigumcnr is that In the Septuaglnt translation of tho Rlblo Ophlr Is called Sofala, anil tho Arabs to the present day call the Zambesi dlstilct Indifferently Sofala and "tho land of gold." |