Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/184

 published: 1. 'Are we better than our Fathers?' 1872. 2. 'The Position of the Priest ordered by the Rubrics in the Communion Service interpreted by themselves,' 1876. 3. 'Elementary Education: Some Account of its Rise and Progress in England,' 1895.

 GRENFELL, GEORGE (1849–1906), baptist missionary and explorer of the Congo, born at Ennis Cottage, Trannack Mill, Sancreed, near Penzance, on 21 Aug. 1849, was son of George Grenfell of Trannack Mill, afterwards of Birmingham, by his wife Joanna, daughter of Michael and Catherine Rowe of Botree, Sancreed. Grenfell shared with Francis Wallace Grenfell, first baron Grenfell, and William Henry Grenfell, first baron Desborough, a common ancestor in Paskow Greinfield (1658). Educated at a branch of King Edward's school, Birmingham, Grenfell was apprenticed to Messrs. Scholefield & Goodman, a hardware and machinery firm in Birmingham. The loss of an eye in early life in no way impaired his energy. Though his parents were anglicans he soon joined Heneage Street baptist chapel, where he was admitted to membership by baptism on 7 Nov. 1864. Influenced by the lives of David Livingstone [q. v.] and Alfred Saker (1814r-1880), the 'Apostle of the Cameroons,' Grenfell, in September 1873, entered the Baptist (Ilollege, Stokes Croft, Bristol, and on 10 Nov. 1874 the Baptist Missionary Society accepted him for work in the Cameroons under Alfred Saker. The two arrived there in January 1875. Grenfell's earliest work consisted in following the Yabiang river up to Abo and in discovering the lower course of the Sanaga river as far as Edea.

Grenfell, who moved to Victoria, Cameroons, in 1877, continued to explore the rivers inland, especially the Wuri, and in 1878 made an ascent of the Mongo ma Loba mountain. On 5 Jan. 1878 he was instructed to undertake pioneer work with the Rev. T. J. Comber up the Lower Congo. After the discoveries in 1877 of Sir Henry Morton Stanley [q. v. Suppl. II], Mr. Robert Arthington of Leeds had offered 1000l. to the Baptist Missionary Society for such work. A preliminary expedition, with the help of the (Dutch) Afrikaansche Handels - Vereeniging, preceded Grenfell and Comber's arrival at San Salvador on 8 Aug. 1878. Received there by the King of Kongo, Dom Pedro V or Ntolela, they pushed on to the Makuta country, but at Tungwa the chief forbade their proceeding towards the Upper Congo. Soon Grenfell co-operated with Comber and others in starting mission stations at Musuko, Vivi, Isangila, and Manyanga in July 1881, and so to Stanley Pool. On 28 Jan. 1884, in a small steel 'tender,' twenty-six feet long, Grenfell set out to survey the Congo up to the Equator at a point 18° long. E., passing the mouth of the Kwa river and visiting Bolobo, Lukolela, and Irebu, and inspecting the confluence of the Mubangi and the Congo. He now made his headquarters at Arthington, near Leopoldville, and on 13 June 1884 he successfully launched at Stanley Pool the Peace, a river steamer, with seven water-tight compartments of Bessemer steel, which was built by Messrs. Thomycroft, at Chiswick, at Mr. Arthington's cost, and under Grenfell's supervision, in 1882. It was constructed to draw only eighteen inches when carrying six tons of cargo, and to take to pieces at the cataracts.

On 7 July 1884 the Peace started on her first voyage of discovery, taking Grenfell and Comber along the Kwa, Kwango, and Kasai rivers. On the second Peace expedition (13 Oct. 1884) 'he was unquestionably the first to prove the independent status of the Mubangi'; discovered the Ruki or Black river; navigated the Ikelemba ; found himself in contact with actual cannibals in the Bangala region; ascended the Itimbiri or Rubi river up to 2° 50′ N. lat.; visited Tippoo Tib (Tipu-Tipu) at Stanley Falls on 24 Dec. 1884 ; and followed the Mubangi for 200 miles up to what have since been called] Grenfell Falls, 4° 40′ N. lat., 'by far the most northerly point yet reached in the exploration of the Congo basin' (Sir, G. Grenfell and the Congo, pp. 116, 127). On the third voyage of the Peace (2 Aug. 1885) Grenfell was accompanied by his wife,