Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/268

Rh 246 AFRICA [PROGRESSIVE iie Eug- ih and rench. fricaa socia- iscovenes the 19th ntuiy. icerda. Drnc- Hill. ickcy.
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.tchic. jnliani, apper- n, and idney. and to complete the circumnavigation of Africa. The dis covery of America and the West India islands gave rise to that horrid traffic in African negroes, which has since been suppressed; but this traffic has been the means of acquiring a more extended and accurate knowledge of that part of the coast which lies between the rivers Senegal and the Cameroons, as well as of the manners and character of the people who inhabit this extended line of coast. With the English and French settlements in Africa began a systematic suivey of the coast, and portions of the interior. The uncertainty and confusion that prevailed in the geo graphy of the interior of Africa induced a few learned and scientific individuals to form themselves into an association for promoting the exploration of Inner Africa, This society was formed in London in 1788, and under its auspices im portant additions were made to the geography of Africa by Houghton, Mungo Park, Hornemann, and Burckhardt. Repeated failures, however, at length discouraged the asso ciation from engaging other missionaries, and it subse quently merged in the Royal Geographical Society in 1831. During the last sixty years more has been done to make us acquainted with the geography of Africa than during the whole of the 1700 previous years, since Ptolemy, taken together. With Mungo Park, strictly speaking, commences the era of unceasing endeavours to explore the interior. Mungo Park proceeded in 1795 from the river Gambia on the west coast, to the Joliba (commonly called Niger), traced this river as far as the town of Silla, explored the intervening countries, determined the southern confines of the Sahara, and returned in 1797. In 1805 this adven turous traveller embarked on a second journey in the same regions, for the purpose of descending down the river Joliba to its mouth. This journey added little to the discoveries already made, and cost the traveller his life. He is ascer tained to have passed Timbuktu, and to have reached Boussa, where he was killed by the natives. In 1798 Dr Lacerda, a scientific Portuguese traveller, who had already acquired fame through his journeys in Brazil, made the first great journey in South-Eastern Africa, inland from Mozambique, and reached the capital of the African king, known as the Cazembe, in whose country he died. Hornemann, in 1796-98, penetrated from Cairo to Mur- zuk, and transmitted from that place valuable information respecting the countries to the south, especially Bornu. He then proceeded in that direction, but it is supposed that he soon afterwards perished, as no accounts of his fur ther progress have ever reached Europe. The first actual crossing of the continent that has been recorded was ac complished between the years 1802 and 1806, by two Pom- beiros or mercantile traders in the employment of the Por tuguese, who passed from Angola eastward through the territories of the Muata Hianvo and the Cazembe, to the possessions on the Zambeze. In 1816 an expedition was sent out by the English Government, under the command of Captain Tuckey, to the river Congo, which was at that time believed to be the lower course of the Joliba. This Avas a disastrous undertaking, and the geographical addi tions were but slight, the river having been ascended a distance of only 280 miles. In 1819 Lyon and Ritchie penetrated from Tripoli to Murzuk, and a little distance beyond that place. In 1822 Denhain, Clapperton, and Oudney set forth from Tripoli in the same direction, crossed the Great De sert, and reached, on the 4th February 1823, the great lake Tsad or Chad. The surrounding countries were explored as far as Sakatu in the west, and Mandara in the south. This journey was altogether one of the most successful and im portant into the interior. Oudney died in Bornu, but Clap perton undertook a second journey from the coast of Guinea, crossed the Kawara, and arrived at Sakatu, at which place he also died. His servant, Richard Lander, returned to Eng land, after having explored a part of the adjoining regions. Major Laing succeeded in reaching Timbuktu from Tri- Laing. poli, but was murdered on his return in the desert. In 1827 and 1828 Caillie set out from the Rio Nunez Cuillio. on the western coast, reached Timbuktu, and returned from that place through the Great Desert to Marocco. A second Portuguese journey was undertaken in 1830 from Mozam bique to the Cazembe s dominions, and Major Monteiro, the leader of the expedition, more fortunate than his pre decessor Dr Lacerda, was enabled to complete a map of the country traversed, and to bring back a complete account of this portion of the interior. The termination of the Joliba, Kawara, or Niger, remained Landers. in obscurity till 1830, when it was ascertained by Lander and his brother, who succeeded in tracing the river from Yaouri down to its mouth. They embarked on a second expedition, which sailed in 1832, for the purpose of ascend ing the Kawara as far as Timbuktu. But only Rabba was reached, and the general results of the expedition were most disastrous. The great Niger expedition, similar to the foregoing, Niger ex consisted of three steam-vessels, and was despatched by the pedition. Government in 1841, under Captain Trotter. It proved a failure, and resulted in a melancholy loss of life. In the region between the Kawara and the coast, Mr Bum an, Duncan, one of the survivors of the Niger expedition, made some additions to our geographical knowledge by his journey to Adafoodia, in 1845-46. This enterprising traveller met with an untimely death in a second attempt in the same region for the purpose of reaching Timbuktu. The preceding journeys were confined chiefly to the East- northern and western portions of the continent. A much African greater number of travellers explored the regions drained traveUt r by the Nile, the salubrity of which, particularly of Abyssinia, is so infinitely greater than that of Western Africa, that among the many explorers of the former, a very small proportion have died as compared with the im mense loss of life in Western Africa. Among the most distinguished of the earlier East African travellers are Bruce (1768-73), Browne (1793), who reached Darfur, Burckhardt (1814), Cailliaud (1819), and more recently Riippel (1824-25), Russegger (1837), D Abbadie (1838- 44), Beke (1840-44), D Arnaud and Werne on the White Nile (1840-42), and Brim Rollet (1845^. Though the Dutch settlement in South Africa was South- founded as early as 1650, not much information of the African interior of that portion of the continent was gained till the me end of the 18th century, when a series of journeys was com menced by Sparrmann, and followed up by Vaillant, Barrow, Trotter, Somerville, Lichtenstein, Burchell (1812), Camp bell, Thomson, Smith, Alexander (1836-37), and Harris. A station of the Church Missionary Society was estab- Momljns lished near Mombas, in about 4 S. lat. on the east coast mission, of Africa, in 1845, and the zealous missionaries in charge of it began to make exploring journeys into the interior. Thus, early in 1849, the Rev. Mr Rebmann discovered the great snow-clad mountain of Kilima-njaro, rising on the edge of the inland plateau ; and his companion, Dr Krapf, taking a more northerly route, came in sight of a second huge mountain named Kenia,also snow-clad, though directly beneath the equator. Frequent reports reached these mis sionaries of vast lakes in the interior beyond the mountains they had discovered, and their information awakened a great interest in this region at home. About this time an embassy, for the purpose of conclud ing commercial treaties with the chiefs of Northern Africa, as far as Lake Chad, by which the legitimate trade of these countries should be extended and the system of slavery Riclv.iril- abolished, was originated by Mr James Richardson, who son -