The gorgeous narratives of Gordon Cumming in the "fifties" were one of the causes which led to an interest in African exploration.

Many a lad has had his imagination fired and his career determined by the exploits of Gordon Cumming, which are now, however, almost forgotten.

Mr.F.C.Selous has in our time surpassed even Gordon Cumming's exploits, and has besides done excellent work as guide for the successive expeditions into South Africa.
Thus, practically within our own time, the interior of Africa, where once geographers, as the poet Butler puts it, "placed elephants instead of towns," has become known, in its main outlines, by successive series of intrepid explorers, who have often had to be warriors as well as scientific men.

Whatever the motives that have led the white man into the centre of the Dark Continent--love of adventure, scientific curiosity, big game, or patriotism--the result has been that the continent has become known instead of merely its coast-line.
On the whole, English exploration has been the main means by which our knowledge of the interior of Africa has been obtained, and England has been richly rewarded by coming into possession of the most promising parts of the continent--the Nile valley and temperate South Africa.

But France has also gained a huge extent of country covering almost the whole of North-West Africa.