Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

ing during five days, perished from thirst. Two men who accompanied him were saved."

A letter from Georgetown to the London Times says: "The award of the international tribunal appointed under the treaty of Washington to delimit the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela has given unqualified satisfaction throughout the colony. It is recognized that England has gained by having the dispute referred to arbitration, and that, had Venezuela accepted Great Britain's offer, she would have gained more territory than the Paris tribunal has awarded her. The boundary, as fixed by the tribunal, practically follows the Schomburgk

line."

Europe.-Lake Trasimene, in central Italy, which for centuries has been a source of disease by reason of having no adequate outlet, is now drained by a canal completed in March, 1898, and formally opened Sept. 27 of the same year. The lake, which is about 50 square miles in extent, and surrounded by hills with olive groves and castles, had no discharge for its waters except an artificial channel, supposed by some to

but it was not until 1896 that the work was actually begun. At the lake end the canal is 800 feet above sea level and 30 feet wide, with sloping sides, discharging into a trapezoidal basin 48 feet long. It is carried under the hill and village of San Savino del Lago by a tunnel more than 3,000 feet long. The waters are finally turned into the little river Caina, a tributary of the Tiber. With the lake kept at the level intended, 2,470 acres of arable land will be reclaimed. The work cost 658,565 Italian lire.

Recent bathymetrical surveys of the Italian lakes show that Como is the deepest, its maximum depth being 1,345 feet; that of Maggiore is 1,220; Garda, 1,134; Lugano, 944; Isso, 820. Como is only surpassed in Europe by Hornisdalsvand, 1,593 feet, and Mjösen, 1,476 feet, in Norway.

Asia. A journey across central Asia has been made by German travelers for the first time. Prof. Futterer and Dr. Holderer arrived at Shanghai in February, having been seven months on the route. They brought with them fine zoölogical and geological collections.

The upper valley of the Yarkand has been vis

ited by Capt. Deasy, who has explored a territory only in part examined heretofore by Russian and English travelers. Although provided with a passport from Chinese authorities, Capt. Deasy found his progress so obstructed that part of his proposed route had to be abandoned.

A Dutch missionary, Mr. Rijuhart, who was stationed in Tibet, undertook a journey to Lhasa, accompanied by his wife and their infant son. It ended disastrously, the child having died from the hardships of the journey and the party having been attacked by Tibetans. The men fled, leaving Mr. Rijuhart and his family alone. He recrossed a river they had just passed to obtain assistance, as there were tents on the opposite bank, but did not return. His wife waited several days, and then made her way with great difficulty to Chinese territory, uncertain whether Mr. Rijuhart was dead or a prisoner. In 1898 Mr. Gaedertz, a German engineer, made a journey in the Chinese province of Shantung. From the temple-crowned summit of the YoShan a sea of mountains could be seen southward. It is proposed to construct a railway through the region traversed by Mr. Gaedertz, who was engaged by a Hamburg syndicate to examine the proposed route. There are large towns on the route. Chau-Tsun is a city of 50,000 inhabitants, and the center of the silk trade of the province. Po-Shan is in the coal district, and has pottery, glass, and iron works.

Mount Kinabalu, in North Borneo, was ascended in April by H. T. Burls, who gives the height as 12,043 feet. In crevices of the rock on the summit small pellucid quartz crystals were found, and Mr. Burls conjectured that large specimens of the kind had given rise to the legend that there was a great diamond at the top, guarded by a dragon, which had devoured so many Chinamen in search of the diamond that the mountain received the name Kina Balu, meaning "Chinese widow."

Mr. R. P. Cobbold returned in the spring from a thirteen months' journey in the Pamirs, during which he was arrested and detained for three weeks by the Russians, and finally escorted by Cossacks across the Chinese frontier. Mr. Cobbold visited several districts never before explored by Englishmen.

K. T. Stoepel ascended the main northern peak of Mount Morrison, in Formosa, in December, 1898. The mountain group is called in Japanese Niitakayama-"the new high mountain"-but by the natives Pataquan.

66

Africa. The agreement between France and England defining the spheres of interest of the two powers in eastern Africa draws, according to the London Times of March 23, a line running roughly north and south, and pledges England not to acquire either territory or political influence west of this line, and France not to acquire them to the east of it. The line begins on the northern frontier of the Congo State at the watershed of the Congo and the Nile, and follows that watershed to 11° north. From this point to 15° north it is to be traced by a mixed commission between Darfur and Wadai, leaving the former to England and the latter to France. The northern section of the line is traced in the French note from north to south, instead of being continued from the northern frontier of Darfur. It is described as beginning at the intersection of the sixteenth degree east of Greenwich with the tropic of Cancer, a point near the southern frontier of Tripoli. It is to be drawn southeast until it cuts the twenty-fourth degree east of Greenwich, and it is then to follow that de

gree until it reaches the northern border of Darfur. A glance at the map will show that by this arrangement the whole of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and all the old provinces of Egypt west of the Nile fall within the British sphere that is, we hold free from French pretensions for the future the entire basin of the upper Nile right up to the great lakes. That is the result which we have sought to obtain throughout the negotiations, and we appear to have obtained it in the amplest way. The report of Sir William Garstin on the portions of this territory immediately south of Khartoum will cause neither surprise nor disappointment to those who have taken the pains to make themselves moderately acquainted with previous accounts of this part of the Soudan. The country about the White Nile is for a great distance a pestilential swamp, and it may be doubted whether even the genius and perseverance of the Anglo-Egyptian engineers will be able to improve it materially within a generation. Beyond the points which he reached lie other portions of the Soudan of a less unpromising character, but, speaking generally, Sir William Garstin is probably not far wrong when he says that at present it can be of no practical advantage to a civilized power if by practical advantage material advantage is intended. But it was not for the sake of material advantages that we were determined to acquire the upper part of the Nile basin. Political and military considerations of an imperative kind gave us no choice in the matter. The Nile is Egypt, and Egypt is the Nile,' and it was vital to us as the trustees of Egypt to hold the Nile from the sea to the great lakes."

This gives England a continuous line through eastern Africa, except for that part south of the equator where the Congo State and the German possessions meet. An agreement has been made by which Germany grants to the African Transcontinental Telegraph Company the right to carry across its territory the line intended to connect Cape Town with Cairo.

The railway to Khartoum was to be ready for travel in December. The line through East Africa from north to south can now be carried, like the telegraph, mainly through British territory.

A German steamer has been sent to Lake Tanganyika.

In connection with the agreement concerning Samoa some doubtful boundaries in Africa were settled, given as follow: "Further articles of the agreement provide for the demarcation of the frontier in the Hinterland of German Togoland and the British Gold Coast colony, and for the renunciation of German extraterritorial rights in Zanzibar, to take effect when other nations have also given up their extraterritorial rights in that dependency. The neutral zone of Salaga in West Africa has been a bone of contention between Germany and England since the square block of territory was provisionally declared neutral in 1888. The agreement now arrived at appears to secure for England the largest slice of the zone and the territory of Gambaga north of it."

Mr. W. Willcocks wrote from Cairo Sept. 18: "Egypt is experiencing one of the worst floods of the century, and that branch of the river which leaves the great equatorial lakes seems to have failed completely. This branch (let us call it the White Nile) is completely closed by the sudd, and the waters are wandering over the immense swamps which stretch from latitude 7° to latitude 10°. The failure of this supply in the summer of 1900 will be serious." He says the waters that leave the great lakes are estimated

never to fall below 18,000 cubic feet a second, while the discharge at Assuan, in spite of the additions of surface and subsoil waters from the Gazelle, the Sobat, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, has within the past twenty-five years twice fallen as low as 7,000 cubic feet a second. After passing Lado the White Nile splits up into numerous branches, which lose themselves in the swamps. The swamps vanquish the Nile.

The work of building a great Nile reservoir above Assuan, to which the consent of the Khedive was obtained in 1898, was begun Feb. 12, 1899, when the corner stone was laid. It will be more than a mile long and 80 feet wide at the base, and the top will be 90 feet above low-water mark. It will be pierced with 180 sluices for the regulation of the waters, and will raise the level of the river for 140 miles above the first cataract. The reservoir will be done, it is estimated, in two years, but subsidiary works will be required before the whole plan is carried out. A large area will be added to the productive lands of lower Egypt.

Capt. Wellby, who is exploring eastern Africa in the vicinity of Lake Rudolf, has found that the Oms flows into that lake, and a small river called Ruzi flows into the stream called Juba. He traveled north about midway between the lake and the Nile through a fine wooded country abounding in game. The Turkana were found to be a fine race, many of them approaching 7 feet in height. They wear their hair in a matted mass hanging down the back to the waist, and carry in it their tobacco and various small articles-presumably in the hair bag, such as is worn by some other African tribes.

Mount Kenia was ascended this year by Mr. H. J. Mackinder, reader in geography at Oxford. The summit was reached at the third attempt, and was found to be more than 17,000 feet high. Fifteen glaciers, two very large, were discovered. The height of the mountain has been estimated at 19,000 feet.

Col. J. R. L. Macdonald was in command of an exploring expedition that left England in June, 1897, for operations in the neighborhood of Uganda. The work had to be abandoned for nine months when the Uganda protectorate was threatened by the revolt of the Soudanese troops, and the whole strength of the expedition was turned in to the support of the Government. In May, 1898, after the loss of 33 per cent. of the Europeans, 60 per cent. of the escort, 43 per cent. in transport, and 15 per cent. in Swahilis, the expedition was reorganized. Meantime some work had been done in Uganda toward rectify. ing and filling out the maps. Lake Choga was found to be much larger than had been supposed and to be one of the minor reservoirs of the Nile. A large lake-Mpologoma-was heard of, but not visited, east of Choga. Major H. H. Austin had charge of a column to explore the vicinity of Lake Rudolf. Col. Macdonald advanced with another column into Karamojo, west of Lake Rudolf and the unknown regions beyond, which were a blank on the map. Mount Debasien is described as a magnificent rocky mountain rising to several well-marked peaks, the highest of which is 9,700 feet above the sea. Mount Moroto rises 10,000 feet.

The Karamojo people are of great stature, and have the reputation of being very warlike. Col. Macdonald says: "The women have perhaps more latitude allowed them than in most African tribes, as marriage is not merely a matter of barter. If the girl objects to marrying her suitor, her refusal is absolute and settles the matter. The

women are decently clothed in skins, but the men wear no clothing, unless the extraordinary felted head dress, which hangs low over their shoulders, is classed as clothing. A Karamojo warrior, with his felted hair bag decked with ostrich feathers, his iron collar and ivory bangles, is a very striking sight. He carries two spears, which can be used either for throwing or stabbing, a knobkerry, and a very small, light shield made of hide. Many also wear a small circular wrist knife, with which terrible wounds can be inflicted in a rough and tumble. The cutting edges of the knife and of the spearheads are carefully protected by ingenious sheaths made of leather."

Later the explorers went to Latuka, still farther west, passing through a mountainous region with peaks rising 6,000 to 10,000 feet.

An account is given in The Geographical Journal of Mr. Weatherly's latest expedition to Bangweolo (or, as he says it should be, Bangweulu). He went to the Johnston falls on the Luapula, and thence to the northwest corner of Bangweulu. About 10 miles northwest of the last three rivers -the Mwampanda, the Lifubu, and the Liposori

meet in a great marsh, called Kasamba. These three rivers appear to unite in one, which flows into the lake, which, according to Mr. Weatherly's measurements, is 43 miles long. He surveyed Lake Kampolombo 3 to 4 miles across, which has connected with it a lakelet, Kangwena, and opposite its northern half is Chifungwe, a narrow sheet of water. On the voyage down the Luapula the explorer saw the Mumbotuta falls, which, he says, have never before been visited by a white man. "They are due to a great fault cutting the river diagonally, and the mad chaos of the foaming water, the thunder of which can be heard 8 or 9 miles on a still night, is an indescribably grand sight." The greater part of the Luapula above the Johnston falls is quite unnavigable for craft of any size, by reason either of sand banks or its shallowness and rapid current. The Johnston falls are a succession of rapids and cataracts, known to the natives as Mambilima.

Steps have been taken to preserve the inscription that was cut into the tree that marked the place where Dr. Livingston died. After the intelligence was received in London that the tree was so decayed that it must soon fall, Mr. R. Codrington was deputed to visit the site of Chitambo's village and bring away the section of the tree bearing the inscription. The journey appears to have been rather difficult. A folding boat enabled Mr. Codrington to cross the Loangwa, the Molembo, and the Lohombo. Near Chilenga he crossed the Muchinga range, the path leading to a height of 4,950 feet. The tree, which is of the kind called mpembu, was found to be hollow and too old to produce seeds. The inscription has been partly effaced by borers. It stands:

[blocks in formation]

Peters ancient ruins were found by Leonard Puzey near the Muira, a southern affluent, in Portuguese territory. They consisted mainly of great circular walls, rising in places where they were least broken to a height of 12 to 15 feet. Dr. Peters says: "The whole of the ruin is built after the general ancient Semitic pattern. The cyclopean wall skirts the hill about halfway between the bottom and the top; on the top of the buildings the hoarding place and likely the temple were standing. The remains of a ground wall along the edge of the top lead me to believe that a second wall formerly ran around the platform itself. To explore the ruin properly it will be necessary to send a scientific expedition with a proper outfit for such excavations. The débris has to be removed, and this, I am sure, will take considerable time. Why the old conquerors chose this spot for their fort is easy to see. The Muira touches the bottom of the hill, so water was handy. A second river we have discovered at the back of the ruin. From the top they had an outlook over the wide plain before them, while they had the bulk of the Fura massive at their back. From their own fort they commanded the plain as well as the mountain. I have called the hill on which the ruin stands after its discoverer, Puzey Hill.'"

Besides gold, Dr. Peters claims to have discovered mica, saltpeter, and diamonds in a district practically uninhabited at an altitude of 8.000 feet, and, he believes, easily capable of culti vation. He thinks Fura and Ophir are forms of the same name, and that this may be the Ophir of Scripture.

Major Gibbons, who ascended the Zambesi, found some inaccuracies in existing maps of the region. Mr. J. E. Moore, another explorer, found the greatest depth of Lake Nyassa to be 430 fathoms. Near the junction of the Lulua and Kasai rivers Mr. Verner, an American missionary, found a series of lakes, formed by the expansion of tributary rivers. He named one Lapsley pool, after the founder of the mission, and another after United States Senator Morgan, who was United States representative in Brussels when the Congo State was recognized. Dr. Cureau has surveyed the Nile-Congo watershed. M. Wauters has completed a map of the Congo State. Herr Von Elpons, commandant of the German station at Langenburg, ascended Mount Rungwe, the highest summit of the region northwest of Lake Nyassa, the height of which he found to be 10,200 feet.

Albert B. Lloyd, an English traveler, spent three weeks in 1898 in the forest in the heart of Africa inhabited by the pygmies described by Du Chaillu and Stanley. For the first five days he was without sight of a pygmy; but suddenly he became aware of their presence by mysterious movements among the trees, which he at first attributed to monkeys. Finally he came to a clearing and stopped at a village where there was a great number of the pygmy people. "They told me," he says, "that unknown to me they had been watching me for five days, peering through the growth of the forest. They appeared very much frightened, and even when speaking covered their faces." Such was their timidity that it was difficult to get good photographs; but Mr. Lloyd finally succeeded in obtaining a considerable number, showing the little people both singly and in groups. The measurements made by Mr. Lloyd show not one over 4 feet in height. The men have long beards, reaching halfway down the chest. "They are," adds Mr. Lloyd, "fairly intelligent. I had a long talk with

a chief, who conversed intelligently about their customs in the forest and the number of the tribesmen. Both men and women, except for a tiny strip of bark, were quite nude. The men were armed with poisoned arrows. The chief told me the tribes were nomadic, and never slept two nights in the same place." Most of these people have the normal negro features, some to an exaggerated degree, although the color is described as inclining rather to various shades of brown and red, or chocolate, than black.

The Ngoko, a western branch of Sauga river, which forms a part of the boundary between German and French territory in western Africa, was explored this year by Dr. Pleyn. The Ngoko is formed by the junction of the Bumba and the Ja, respectively 100 and 150 yards wide at the confluence. The Bumba is a swift stream, with rapids and a fall, which stopped the progress of the explorers. It is in about 2° 30′ north latitude and 14° 30' east longitude. Ascending the Ja, the larger stream, Dr. Pleyn found at first a few small villages; then for four days he passed through an uninhabited country. Wooded hills bordered the river, some of them rising 2,000 feet above it. Then a lakelike expansion of the river was reached, and above it a narrow gorge with several rapids. Up to this point the stream is navigable for large river steamers. Above it not even the canoes could be used; but the river was examined to some distance above, where it again broadened to about 150 yards. Rubber abounds in the forests that cover the country, and elephants are numerous. They are hunted by wandering tribes, but the resident population is very scanty.

The Committee on Colonial Agriculture in Berlin sent a mission in charge of Herr Schlechter to West Africa to study the cultivation of the rubber plant in that region. He found that the forests where it once abounded in Lagos now show but few of the trees, and he believes that its day is over there unless measures are taken by the authorities to preserve it. He collected seeds for introduction into the Cameroons.

M. Perregaux has made explorations in Ashanti. A singular story, given in dispatches from West Africa to the French Cabinet Council, is given in the London Times of Sept. 20, 1899, an abstract of which follows: " Capt. Voulet, of the French marines, who had acted with Capt. Chanoine, a son of Gen. Chanoine, Minister of War in the Brisson Cabinet, in the Gurunsi-Mossi country in 1897, desired to explore with his former comrade the country between Say and Lake Chad assigned to France by the last agreement with England. They were authorized to undertake this expedition in July, 1898. In October they were at Jenne, in the Massina country. From this point Capt. Chanoine started to cross the region inclosed in the great bend of the river, while Capt. Voulet descended the stream by way of Timbuctoo. The parties met at Sansanne Hausa, about 90 miles above Say, early in January, and, after spending two months in reorganizing their forces, they left for Lake Chad in March. A lieutenant attached to the mission, named Peteau, lodged charges of cruelty against the officers in command with the French authorities, and a preliminary inquiry was directed. The details have not been made public, but a primafacie case against Capt. Voulet and Capt. Chanoine appears to have been made out to the satisfaction of the French resident and the commandant of the eastern Soudan. As a result of the inquiry, Col. Klobb was directed to proceed from Kayes, where he was then stationed, to join the

mission, take over the command, investigate the charges, and, if these were proved, to place Capt. Voulet and Capt. Chanoine under arrest. In the execution of these orders Col. Klobb, who was accompanied by a young lieutenant named Meunier and a small escort, marched to Sinder, on the Niger. On July 10 he received news of the mission, and dispatched four men of his escort with a message to its chiefs. The message was delivered on the evening of July 12, and on the following morning Capt. Voulet, according to the account of the survivors, sent the messengers back to Col. Klobb with a letter, bidding them at the same time inform the colonel that he was about to move to the next village to obtain water. Col. Klobb showed the letter to Lieut. Meunier, and at once sent a second communication to Capt. Voulet, who received it on the evening of July 13. Capt. Voulet immediately called his native noncommissioned officers together and told them that the colonel was coming to set free the prisoners he had given his men. He asked them whether they would obey the colonel or fire upon him. They said they would take their orders from the captain, and then went among their men and instructed them to fire when they got the command. Capt. Voulet sent a second letter and a third, in which he declared that he would not give up his command; that he had 600 rifles under his orders; and that he would treat his superior officer as an enemy if he continued to advance. Col. Klobb gave orders that if the mutineers fired their fire was not to be returned. When the two forces were about 150 yards apart, Capt. Voulet being the only officer present with the mutineers, he called out to Col. Klobb that he knew well enough who was before him and that there was no mistake, but that he would fire if the colonel advanced. The colonel answered that he would advance, but that in no circumstances would he fire, and he repeated his orders to this effect in the hearing of Voulet. The chief of the mutineers formed up his men and ordered them to fire three volleys and then to fire independently. Col. Klobb and Lieut. Meunier were both wounded-the latter fatally-at the first discharge. The second volley killed the colonel, but not until he had again forbidden his men to return the fire and ordered the survivors to report at the nearest French post. Capt. Voulet seems to have completed his butchery by a bayonet charge. Happily, the bush was at hand, and the native escort of the murdered officers knew how to avail themselves of it. By Aug. 3 the survivors had made their way back to Garu, on the Niger, where they were met by Lieut. Cornu, whose dispatch has just reached Paris."

The cruelties charged against Voulet and Chanoine, which led to the sending of Col. Klobb, are so horrible as to be almost past belief. Following is a part of the statement credited to an officer who had left their mission: "On Jan. 8, 1899, a native who was met by some soldiers declared that he did not know the road toward the east. He was brought before Capt. Voulet, who ordered his head to be cut off. Reconnoitering parties sent out on the night of Jan. 8 were ordered to capture his village, kill all the natives who resisted, bring away the rest as captives, and take the heads. On the morning of Jan. 9 a reconnoitering party returned to camp with 250 oxen, 500 sheep, 28 horses, and 80 prisoners. Some of the soldiers having been killed or wounded, Capt. Voulet said that an example must be made. He ordered 20 women, mothers with young children and babes, to be killed with lances at

a few hundred yards from the camp. Their bodies were afterward found by the post commander at Say. On the same day a soldier who had expended 124 cartridges in a skirmish had his brains blown out, by order of Capt. Voulet, for having wasted his ammunition. On Jan. 13 the mission burned Sansanne-Hausa, a city of 10,000 inhabitants and an active commercial center. On the 14th 3 spahis, a regular soldier, and 2 auxiliaries charged a native, who, in defending himself, wounded the regular. The auxiliaries, being armed only with lances, did not dare to pursue the native. For this negligence they were shot without trial as soon as they returned to camp, by order of Capt. Chanoine. An entire village was burned. At Libore, on the 17th, 2 prisoners were brought in and taken before Capt. Voulet, who ordered them to be shot. At the same time 2 soldiers brought 2 freshly cut hands to the chief of the mission. From that time forward the practice of cutting off the hands of the massacred natives became general. All the men who brought these sanguinary evidences of murder to the officers' mess table were rewarded. On the 24th Capt. Chanoine lost by surprise 6 spahis killed in an engagement. Pursuing the aggressors, he came across the inhabitants of a neighboring village, who had taken refuge in the brushwood. He made 20 prisoners, cut off the heads of 10 of them and had them stuck on poles. During the march of the mission Sergeant-Major Laury and some of the soldiers armed with staves struck those who did not march quickly. The carriers, recruited by chance, were in many cases old and feeble. Some fell out, and the soldiers cut off their heads. Sometimes Sergeant-Major Laury executed them himself with his revolver. All these acts were committed in a peaceful country where the inhabitants were not hostile to the mission."

A journey by M. Fourneau through the less known lands of French Congo led from Wesso, on the upper Sauga, Feb. 14, 1899, to the Gabun, June 10, through at first a sparsely populated, swampy region abounding in elephants; afterward through a wilderness, where rubber trees were abundant, and among villages of the Bakotas. They reached the divide between the Congo and Ogowé systems, examined the Mambili, an affluent of the Mossaka, the Ivindo, the Abombe, the Jadie, the Niona, and the Bokowe. M. Fourneau favors the establishment of a rapidtransit route from the Gabun either to the Sauga by way of the valley of the Jadie or to the Mossaka by way of the valley of the Mambili.

The

A journey across the Sahara south of Algeria was undertaken by F. Foureau as explorer and Count Lamy as military commander, and at last accounts was proceeding successfully, though fears for its safety had been entertained. expedition consisted of 180 Algerian soldiers, besides the officers, and carried 1,000 camels. From southern Algeria the way led by Temassinin, across the Tassili plateau, the western portion of which is 5,700 feet in height. The region is essentially volcanic. The divide between Atlantic and Mediterranean waters is 4,690 feet high. The route by way of the Air oasis, which was taken by the expedition, is said not to have been traversed before since 1849, when it was taken by Barth. At last accounts the explorers had reached Lake Chad.

Dr. F. Weisgerber has made a journey through the interior of Morocco, visiting places rarely or never seen by Europeans; and Dr. Theodor Fischer explored the valley of the Tensift river in Morocco, heretofore almost unknown.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »