African Exploration Research Articles

Agnes Arber, 1879-1960

Agnes Arber was born in 1879, the eldest child of a cultured family, whose members achieved distinction in different fields. Her father, Henry Robert Robertson, was an artist of Scottish extraction, whose father, a man of considerable botanical interests, also with gifts as an artist, had a private school at Slough. Her mother, Agnes Lucy Turner, was a descendant of Robert Chamberlain, who founded the china works of Chamberlain & Son at Worcester, and her mother’s relatives included John Davidson, the African explorer, and George Fownes, both of whom were Fellows of the Royal Society. Her brother, Donald Straun Robertson, M.A., F.B.A., was Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge and author of various books on classical subjects. Her sister, Janet Robertson, was a portrait painter. At an early age her mother inspired her with an interest in plants and her father gave her regular drawing lessons from the age of three until she went to school. This early training developed her powers of observation, and laid the foundation of the skill and artistry which later formed such a notable feature of her books and papers.

East African Explorers. Selected and introduced by Charles Richards and James Place. The World's Classics, Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. 356. 8s. 6d.

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Heinrich Barth and the Western Sudan

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to and to acknowledge work of Heinrich Barth?traveller, geographer, historian and linguist?whom Lord Rennell has described as perhaps greatest traveller there has ever been in Africa. As a centenary lecture it might have been given in either of two preceding years or in one that follows. Towards close of year 1855 Barth returned to this country after more than five years of extensive journeyings through Sahara and Western Sudan. In 1856 he was awarded Patron's Gold Medal by Royal Geographical Society. The following year he published first three volumes of journals of his travels, completing them in 1858 with two more volumes.1 In same year he addressed Royal Geographical Society. That these centenaries should pass unacknowledged would indeed be unfortunate; that they might do would not be sur? prising for, of major African explorers, there is no doubt that Heinrich Barth has been much neglected in this country. He deserves greater attention, at least equal to what has been given to other African explorers of nineteenth century. This paper attempts to make good neglect to some extent; it is not a definitive assessment of work of Heinrich Barth in Western Sudan but has been written to mark a centenary and to east some light on his character and achievements. Only source materials in English have been consulted. Barth's published journals are most important, and also some study has been made of Foreign Office papers relating to expedition in Public Record Office. These are to be found among papers of British Consulate at Tripoli which acted as intermediary between Barth in field and Foreign Office in London. Much work remains to be done on these papers, particularly on Barth's original dispatches from Western Sudan. Viewed in historical perspective it is clear that Barth's travels took place in parts of which European explorers had been penetrating for more than fifty years.2 By end of first half of nineteenth century Western Sudan was not almost totally unknown, as was interior of south-central which Livingstone was then proceeding to reveal. The African Association, formed in 1788 and amalgamated with Royal Geographical Society when latter was founded in 1830, had been respon? sible for promoting exploration in West and for encouraging British Govern? ment to give some support to this work. There were many names associated with these early expeditions; many were almost total failures, but there were several great jour? neys accomplished. Mungo Park in 1795-97 and in 1805 established direction of flow of River Niger, navigating a considerable part of its upper and middle sections, but losing his life during his second journey and therefore leaving no record of it. Laing, in 1822, penetrated to Timbuktu but failed to return. Denham, Clapperton and Oudney, 1822-5, crossed Sahara and discovered Lake Chad, proving it not to be the great sink of Africa into which Niger flowed. On this and on a subsequent journey (then accompanied by Richard Lander and penetrating inland from Badagry) Clapperton visited Kano and Sokoto, dying near latter place in 1827. ^n tnat Year and one following Frenchman, Rene Caille, penetrated to Timbuktu and re? turned across Sahara to tell tale of his travels. Of major significance was journey of Lander brothers in 1830 by canoe on Niger from Bussa to sea in

Arab Knowledge of the Niger's Course

Opening ParagraphIn the first half of the nineteenth century European knowledge of the course of the Niger was vague. Sir Taubman Goldie summed up the position when he said: ‘In 1819, only those interested in geographical research were familiar with the name of the Niger, or knew that its upper waters, down to Bussa, had been traced fourteen years before by a Scotchman, Mungo Park, the father of African exploration in modern times. It was only in 1831 that the lower waters of the Niger and their path from Bussa to the ocean were discovered by an equally great Englishman, Richard Lander.’ Up to 1831 it was thought that the great river of the Western Sudan, known to flow from west to east, continued across Africa to enter the Nile as a tributary in the region of the Sudd. Alternatively it was popularly supposed to be a tributary of the Congo. To such an extent had this popular idea been accepted that in 1816 the following instructions were issued to Captain Tuckey who, in 1818, led an expedition to explore the River Zaire or Congo. ‘Although the expedition, about to be undertaken for exploring the course of the river Zaire, which flows through the kingdom of Congo . . . was originally grounded on a suggestion of its being identical with the Niger, it is not to be understood, that the attempt to ascertain this point is by any means the exclusive object of the expedition.’

Some Recovered Relics of David Livingstone

That the general attitude towards Livingstone in the Victorian age was something much deeper than the homage due to a great ro s show by the way in which an extraordinary number of personal relics?letters, curios, sections of the tree beneath which his heart was buried in Ilala, and much else-? have been reverently preserved in homes all over the country. When it became widely known in about 1928 that the house where Livingstone was born, at Blantyre in Lanarkshire, had been converted into a place of pilgrimage, a steady stream of these household treasures began and the collection now on exhibition there is unsurpassed in the world. Though many of these relics, especially the manuscripts, have a considerable market value (a good Living? stone letter fetches at least ?50), payment has very rarely been suggested and almost every thing has been freely given. A collection of papers and maps recently and unexpectedly handed into the charge of the Blantyre Memorial Trust is, with the exception of that in the archives of the London Missionary Society, the most valuable known to exist. It includes five autograph field-maps of Livingstone's Central African explorations and one of his Trans-African journey (1866-73). The manuscripts include note-books, log books and a great amount of miscellaneous matter. A minor portion concerns the Zambezi expedition (1858-63) and the rest contains all that is known of the final seven-year journey among the Central African river basins (1866-73). It is on these last that Livingstone's third book 'The last journals' was based. The authenticity of this great mass of material was imme? diately apparent; it is all, or nearly all, in the explorer's characteristic handwriting. He used three distinct types of penmanship. The most common is that of a very rapid writer, letters imperfectly formed but in general easily legible; the second, which he uses in his diaries, is the same script but smaller and penned with the neatness almost of copper-plate. In the inscriptions of his maps on the other hand, he uses a type of lettering that has little in common with his usual style. Apart from the maps the chief interest of this collection lies in the large number of pocket note-books (5 xz X 3 xa inches) that contain the day by day records of the last journey. These make clear the Doctor's methods of recording and explain the accuracy and completeness of his observations. It was his invariable custom to carry in his pocket one of these small books and to jot down on the spot, or soon after, everything that caught his eye and interest. These notes are in pencil, blue or black, and to one or two of these books pencils are still attached. The notes are in general rough, not usually more than jottings, with little care shown as to language, but have all the vividness of first impres? sions. The books abound in thumb-nail sketches and small-scale maps. The Missionary was no artist, any more than he was a musician, and the pictures are crude, but they serve excellently the purpose for which they were intended. They illustrate tribal marks, the shapes of trees and plants and occasionally the outline of mountains. Faded leaves and flowers are found pressed here and there.

Hermann C. Vogel, 1842–1907

HERMANN CABL VOGEL, the German astronomer, was born at Leipzig on April 3,1842. He was the youngest son of Dr. Vogel, a well-known schoolmaster and a brother of Edouard Vogel (1829-56), the African explorer. From the University of Leipzig young Vogel entered Leipzig Observatory and assisted Zollner in researches on solar prominences. From 1870 until 1874 he was in charge of von Bülow's observatory at Bothkamp in Holstein, where he did spectroscopic work on the sun, the planets, stars and nebulae. When the German Government in 1874 founded the Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam, Vogel became one of the assistants, with Sporer and Lohse as colleagues. With Miiller he prepared a spectroscopic star catalogue containing particulars of 4,051 stars, and in 1887 with Schreiner began the measurement of the radial motion of stars. He took an active part in the work of the International Chart of the Heavens and in many ways furthered astronomical science. His honours included the Valz Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Draper Medal of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences and the Prussian Order of Merit. He died at Potsdam on August 14, 1907, leaving by his will 17,000 marks to the Berlin Academy of Sciences for the encouragement of research in astrophysics. He had been director of the Potsdam Observatory since 1882, and at his death he was succeeded by Schwarzschild.

Copper in the Katanga Region of the Belgian Congo

^ OPPER in Africa has had a relatively long history in comparison with African mineral development. Even before the coming of white man natives had dug, smelted, and used the copper obtained. The first African explorers noted the mineral richness of the Katanga. However, the basis for present development of copper mining was set in 1906. In that year the Mining Union of the Upper Katanga (Union Miniere du Haut Katanga) was formed and given the right to work an area of 7,776 square miles (15,000 Km2) until 1990. This concession contained all the known copper measures of the Belgian Congo. The company was also given a tin concession at that time. The story of copper exploitation in the Belgian Congo is a saga of the Mining Union of the Upper Katanga. The first operations on an industrial scale were not begun until 1911. Before the railroad reached Elizabethville a

Science News a Century Ago

The Steamship President THE Annual Register for 1839 records that on October 7, “Several thousand persons went to Lime-house to view the immense steamship the President, built by Messrs. Curling and Young for the British and American Steam Navigation Co., and intended to run between New York and London. The President is of greater power and tonnage than the British Queen (the former being of 600 horse power and 2,336 tons, the latter 500 horse power and 2,016 tons), and was built in the same dock, and not upon a slip; so that she had to be floated out of dock, and not launched. At high tide, however, which happened to be a low tide, there was not enough water to float her, and she remained fast aground aft. Mrs. Laird, wife of the African explorer and projector of Atlantic navigation by great steamships, performed the ceremony of christening, amidst the cheers of the multitudes on the banks and on the river. . . . On Monday the 9th, the water being sufficient, the President was floated into the river and towed to Blackwall.”

Portuguese Policy and Its Influence on Fifteenth Century Cartography

ON NE of the most striking anomalies in the cartography of the fifteenth century is the scarcity of map material bearing on African exploration, an anomaly only paralleled by the entire absence of maps of Portuguese origin prior to the year I500.1 A satisfactory explanation of this has long eluded the grasp of scholars. It is not that the Lusitanians were unaccustomed to map the newly found lands, for Azurara refers in his Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea to the use of such maps.2 The reason would seem to lie in the field of politics.

The Aeroplane in African Exploration

IT is often said that the aeroplane might be used for making extensive photographic maps of the lesser-known and unexplored regions of Africa. In spite of the lack of suitable machines and efflcient photo? graphic equipment, our experience during the East African campaign demonstrated the possibility and the difficulties of such work. Also it was proved that for making a first reconnaissance of a district, not previously mapped, the aeroplane carrying a well-trained observer gave better results within an hour than a ground party might do in a week. Air photographs give, by careful study, almost as much general information on the type of vegetation, occurrence of water, game, and human habitation as the explorer could obtain on the ground. Thick scrub, open bush, forest, elephant grass, and swamp are clearly differentiated in a good photograph. To know exactly how far and in what direction a patch of impenetrable bush or forest extended, and the exact whereabouts of the thin patches (if any), is information which would be of incalculable value to a prospecting party. The presence of water is in? dicated in the photograph by certain associations of vegetation, and the concentration of game-paths, which show up like the veins of a leaf, and signs of human habitation are recognized with ease. Almost any type of modern aeroplane with a water-cooled engine of at least 200 h.p. would take one to the requisite height; but during the daytime terrific air pockets or bumps are encountered in tropical Africa up to a height of 6000 feet, ld in cloudy weather higher even than this. To take a series of photographs under such conditions is an impossibility, and we had to do our photography in the early morning or late evening when the air is comparativestill. The light is not too good at this time, how? ever, and with the sun (ow in the sky objects on the ground east long and intensely black shadows. But with a good machine on a cloudless day still air would be reached in all probability at 7000 feet, and operations might be carried out ad day long. To connect two aero-photographs together each must overlap slightly and show at least twe bjects in common. As there are hundreds of square miles of African veldt which contain neither house, path, nor any definite object other than tr< i$ or bushes, it will be recognized what a difficult problem this is. One might take dozens of pictures over the bush or forest

Sir H. M. Stanley

THE death of Sir H. M. Stanley on Tuesday, at sixty-three years of age, deprives the world of a man of action, and geography of one of its greatest pioneer explorers. It can truly be said that he changed the map of Africa by the results of his expeditions, and his picturesque narratives created public interest in the problems of African exploration.

To the Mountains of the Moon 1

MR. J. E. S. MOORE has undoubtedly written an interesting and original book on the lake region of Central Africa, a book which in many respects deserves to rank with that remarkable pamphlet (it was little more in volume) by the late Prof. Drummond on Nyasaland (miscalled in this instance “Central” Africa). Prof. Drummond's journeys up and down the Zambezi-Shire and the length of Lake Nyasa, with a climb on to the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau superadded, were wholly unremarkable as a work of exploration, but Drummond contrived to see and put into pithy sentences what a legion of African explorers had seen but never expressed before. Drummond's little book should long remain a classic, and many of his expressions are quoted by the more modern African travellers with force, but without acknowledgment. Mr. Moore avows his indebtedness to Drummond on more than one occasion, but his own work is quite as original in its way, though perhaps dashed with a spite-fulness which was absent from Drummond's writings. Mr. Moore's book is a true account of what he has seen, but a partial one, that is to say, he has told no untruth, but he has left untold at least a third of the whole account. In order to be original, in order to counteract the rather wearisome optimism of most works of African travel written during the last ten years, he has been careful to insist on all the faults which a white man may legitimately find with the climate, soil and insalubrity of Central Africa. He deliberately ignores much that might be permanently attractive to the European settler, much that is profitable to European commerce, and much of the good that has been done by European pioneers, whether Government officials, missionaries or traders. It is a pity in some respects that Mr. Moore's work is not complete, that he should have striven so much after originality as to refrain from writing a perfectly balanced book conveying an impartial verdict. It is, perhaps, best and fairest to regard Mr. Moore's work as a “two-thirds” book, a description giving two-thirds of the whole truth and leaving the reader to supply the missing third from the many other publications describing East-Central Africa between the White Nile and the Zambezi which have appeared since 1890. There is no doubt that Mr. Moore is eminently readable; he is so interesting that his occasional descents into sheer flippancy and his carelessness in the spelling of names may easily be forgiven, except, perhaps, by those whose names are incorrectly spelt! By a curious fatality there is scarcely a single European surname or a native place-name of any importance in the whole book which is not incorrectly spelt. The illustrations supplied to the work consist of photographs and drawings, the latter singularly vivid if occasionally crude. Mr. Moore succeeds almost better than any other African traveller whom we know, able to use pen and brush, in giving an idea of the wonderful cloud effects to be seen in these African skies. We have stigmatised his black and white drawings as crude—as such they must appear to the ordinary European—yet in extenuation of their hard light and shade must be qudted the undeniable fact that there is something about the African atmosphere which gives these violent effects. A vivid (and the reviewer is able to say a truthful) picture is that facing p. 76—“Storm-clouds, Mountains and Bananas on the East Coast of Tanganyika.”

Disciples of Æsculapius

This biographical work will be welcomed by all who love to learn of the old masters in medicine and surgery, and of the work they did. It is written by one who had the happy faculty of telling what he had to tell in a pleasant manner whether by voice or by pen. As a preface or introduction, is given a brief biographical sketch of the author, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, by his daughter. He was born in 1828 and entered Anderson's College, Glasgow, as a student in 1845, having among his fellow students one who afterwards gained renown as an African explorer, Dr. David Livingstone. During these student days he had the privilege of being one of the first in his country to witness the use of an anesthetic in a surgical operation. In 1854, after having practiced in various parts of England for short periods under different men,

Joseph Thomson

BY the death of Mr. Joseph Thomson, we have to mourn one of the foremost of contemporary African explorers. His loss is all the more sad, as it comes in what ought to have been the prime of his manhood. When we remember what Thomson has done, what a part he played in the exploration of British East Africa and in securing for England her supremacy on the Niger, it is difficult to realise that he has done it all before the age of thirty-eight.

The Oxford Meeting of the British Association

WE regret to announce that Mr. W. H. White, C.B., will be unable, through ill-health, to give the evening lecture on “Steam Navigation at High Speeds,” announced for Thursday, August 9. The Council of the Association has secured the services of Dr. J. W. Gregory to fill his place, and we believe that the title of Dr. Gregory'lecture will be “Experiences and Prospects of African Exploration.”

Two African Explorers

Two African Explorers

Livingstone and the Exploration of Central Africa

THIS volume ranks with the best of the series to which it belongs—“The World's Great Explorers and Explorations.” Mr. Johnston realizes fully the splendour of Livingstone's achievements, and has succeeded admirably in bringing out their significance in the history of African exploration. He begins with two excellent general chapters dealing with the “natural history” and the “human history” of Central Africa; and afterwards he gives vivid accounts of all the various regions traversed by his hero. Thus the reader is enabled to form his own opinion as to the value of Livingstone's services. The strictly biographical part of the work is equally well done. All the world agrees that Livingstone was one of the noblest men who have ever devoted themselves to travel. This is felt strongly by Mr. Johnston, and he has been able to express his feeling effectively without extravagance and without any attempt at fine writing. The book will especially interest young readers, but may be studied with pleasure and profit by readers of any age. There are many good illustrations from photographs or drawings by the author, and seven maps by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein.

New books

Abstract The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English‐speaking Nations. Illustrated from the Antiquities discovered in Mounds, Cairns, and Bogs, as well as from the Ancient Sagas and Eddas. By Paul B. du Chaillu. With 1366 Illustrations, and Map. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1889. Price, 42s. Hindu‐Koh: Wanderings and Wild Sport on and beyond the Himalayas. By Major‐General Donald Macintyee, V.O. With Illustrations. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons. Pp. xx., 464. Price 21s. The River Karún: An Opening to British Commerce. By William Francis Ainswoeth, Ph.D., F.S.A., F.E.G.S. London: Wm. Allen and Co., 13 Waterloo Place, 1890. A Visit to the Azores; with a Chapter on Madeira. By Mrs. Charles Roudell. Pp. 197. London: Bickers and Son, 1889. H. M. Stanley, the African Explorer. By Arthur Montefiore, F.R.G.S. London : S. W. Partridge and Co., n.d. Pp. 160. Price 1s. 6d. One Man's Power: The Life and Work of Emin Pasha in Equatorial Africa. By the Rev. Henry W. Little, Author of Madagascar: its History and People; How to save Egypt, etc., etc., etc. With Portrait and Map. London: J. S. Virtue and Co., 1889. Pp. 112. Swiss Travel and Swiss Guidebooks. By W. A. B. Coolidge, Editor of The Alpine Journal. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889. Pp. 336. Price 10s. 6d. The Mount Pilatus Railway. By J. Hardmeyee. With 32 Illustrations. Zurich : Orell Füssli and Co., 1889. Price 1s.

Geographical Notes

WE regret to learn that the well-known African explorer, Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, died on April 24, on board the German gunboat Möve, off the west coast of Africa. Dr. Nachtigal was born at Eichstadt in 1834, and was trained to the medical profession. In 1862 he went to Algiers on account of his health, and in 1868 he started on his memorable journey into the heart of Africa, visiting the territories of Bornu, Baghirmi, Wadai, Darfur, Kordofan, emerging at Khartoum in 1874. This work placed Dr. Nachtigal in the front rank of African explorers. At the time of his death, it is well known, he was looking after the interests of Germany in connection with its recent annexations in West Africa.

Geographical Notes

THE Austrian African explorers, Prof. Frederick Paulitschke and Dr. Dominik Kammel von Hardegger, have returned from their expedition to Africa. They started from Trieste on December 30, 1884, and chiefly explored the interior of the Gallas country. The Austrian explorers have established meteorological stations at Harrar and Zeila, which will be looked after by the English Consuls Pitten and King. The collections they have brought with them, filling several cases, will constitute a very valuable addition to the Austrian Imperial Museum.