Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/270

 Mr. Stanley, with whom he had more than once crossed swords on African affairs, carried out another scheme.

On 17 March 1888 Thomson set foot again on his chosen continent. On this occasion he elected to explore, on his own account, the Atlas mountains in Morocco. The difficulties thrown in his way were as great as any he had yet experienced. The escort provided by the Morocco authorities, under the pretence of protecting him, did everything to hamper and limit his movements. But Thomson overcame all obstruction. He reached Jebel Ogdimt, a height of 12,734 feet, and climbed 13,150 feet up Tizi-n-Tamjurt, but these explorations were brought to a close by a call from the British East African Company to enter their service. The company intended that he should go to the relief of Emin from the east coast, news of Stanley's expedition having been long looked for in vain. The proposal, however was not carried out.

In the controversies of 1888–9 with regard to the government policy of withdrawal from East Africa, Thomson took a keen interest and denounced in no measured terms what he considered the pusillanimity and treachery of the British authorities.

In 1890 he once more entered upon active service, this time in the interest of the British South African Company. He proceeded to Kimberley to receive instructions from Mr. Cecil Rhodes. Under those instructions his new explorations began at Quilimane. To circumvent the jealousy of the Portuguese was his foremost task. By pluck he passed in safety through their territory—goods and all—though at the last moment he just escaped with his life from a fusillade by native soldiers. The Shire being abandoned at Chilomo, Thomson's route ran northwards by Blantyre to join the Shire at Matopè, and then passed further northwards by water to Kota-Kota on the western shore of Lake Nyassa. With a caravan of 148 men he left Kota-Kota on 23 Aug. 1890. Marching west to the populous valley of the Loangwa, he made his first treaty with Kabwiré, chief of the Babisa. At Kwa Nansara (21 Sept.) the expedition was in the midst of a small-pox epidemic. Man after man dropped out of the march as they pushed forward to Lake Bangweolo. On 29 Sept. Thomson was attacked with cystitis and was obliged to be carried in a hammock. Happily two young Englishmen, Charles Wilson and J. A. Grant, who were with him proved excellent lieutenants. Threatened with desertion by his men, Thomson failed to penetrate beyond Kwa Chepo, where he found himself compelled to retrace his steps. When the expedition reached Blantyre (19 Feb. 1891) the leader found himself unable to proceed; Grant was entrusted with the documents to be delivered to the company; Wilson stayed behind, only to fall a victim to fever. The medical missionaries at Blantyre could do little more than alleviate the worst symptoms of Thomson's disease, and it was with difficuly he reached London on 18 Oct. 1891. The results of this mission were only partially divulged, the full report being still the private property of the company.

Thomson's health was permanently injured. In 1892, though weak and suffering, he visited the British Association, then holding its meeting in the university of Edinburgh; and in the latter part of the year he performed a considerable amount of literary work. On 22 Nov. he read a paper before the Royal Geographical Society, ‘To Lake Bangweolo and the Unexplored Region of British Central Africa.’ Shortly afterwards he was prostrated by disease of the lungs, following an attack of pneumonia, and he visited the Cape in search of health. First at Matjesfontein and then at Kimberley (where he was the guest of Mr. Rhodes) his vitality responded to the healing influences of the climate, and by December he was planning an expedition to Mashonaland. The expedition being postponed, Thomson again ventured home. Lung disease broke out once more. A visit (October–May) to Southern France did him little good. By the middle of May he was brought back to London, and there, in the house of Mr. S. W. Silver, he died 2 Aug. 1895. He was buried in Morton cemetery, Thornhill. A memorial, with a bust by Mr. Charles MacBride, was placed in 1897 near the village cross, opposite the school that the explorer had attended as a boy.

In physique, intellect, and morale, Thomson was an ideal explorer. At first sight he did not impress the observer as peculiarly muscular or robust; but there was an almost boyish ease in his gait, and his powers of endurance were often without parallel. Seventy miles was no infrequent record at the end of a day's march. While his work was mainly that of a geographical pioneer, yet in his most rapid passages through a country he had such a genius for observing that his notebooks were filled with material that most men would have taken months to collect. The first thing that appealed to his eye was the geological features of the country. No African explorer under similar circumstances ever made such extensive additions to the geological map of the continent. He laid down the master lines of structure over vast areas with an ease and accuracy which