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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


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LIVINGSTONE'S     LAST    JOURNEY. 


Pathfinders 

OF  THE  EMPIRE 

Travel   and  Adventure 
On  Continent  and  Ocean 


By 
JOHN     LEA 


LONDON:    CHARLES    H.   KELLY 


The  great  Empire  to  which  we  are  all  proud 
to  belong  is  the  largest  the  world  has  ever 
seen*  It  covers  one  fifth  of  the  earth^s  surface^ 
and  within  its  borders  dwell  400  million  inhabi- 
tants of  every  colour,  clime,  and  tongue.  This 
volume  recounts  some  of  the  heroic  deeds  of  the 
famous  men  who  helped  to  build  up  this  Empire, 
upon  which  the  sun  never  sets,  and  whose 
influence   reaches  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


(re  17'^ 


In  this  Volume 

You  can  Read  the  Story  of  - 

IN  SEARCH  OF  SPANISH  TREASURE. 

The    Daring  Exploits   of  Sir  Walter   Raleigh. 

ADRIFT  ON  THE  ICE-HAUNTED   SEA. 

How  Hudson  Died  in  the  Great  Lone  Land. 

THE   ADVENTURES  OF  A  FAMOUS  NAVIGATOR. 
How  Cook  Helped  to  Build  the  Empire. 

THROUGH  JUNGLE  AND  SWAMP  TO  THE  RIVER  NIGER. 

-The  Wonderful  Adventures  of   Mungo   Park. 

THROUGH  THE  BLUE  MOUNTAINS. 

Cutting  a  Mountain  Gateway  to  the  Green  Pastureland. 

IN   SEARCH  OF  THE  NORTH-WEST  PASSAGE. 
Sir  John  Franklin  in  the  Ice  King's  Grip. 

30,000  MILES  THROUGH   WILD   AFRICA. 

The  Adventures  of  a  Famous  Missionary  and   Explorer. 

FROM  ATLANTIC  TO  PACIFIC  BY  THE  ALL-RED  ROUTE. 

Making  the  Canadian   Pacific  Railway. 

FROM   KHARTOUM  TO  ALBERT  NYANZA. 

How  Baker  Discovered  the  Source  of  the  White  Nile. 

THE  BIRTHPLACE  OF  THE  NILE. 

How  Speke  Found  the  Secret  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza. 

THE  GREAT  'WHITE  CHIEF.' 

The  Man  who  Started  the  Cape  to  Cairo  Railway. 

THROUGH  THE  GREAT  WHITE  WILDERNESS. 
Scott's  Last  Journey  to  the  Pole. 


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1 


Captain  Cook's  Monument, 
Hyde  Park,  Sydney. 


Q 


In   Search   of 

Spanish  Treasure. 


The 

Daring 

Exploits 

of 

Sir  Walter 

Raleigh. 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


SIR    WALTER    RALEIGH. 

Walter  Raleigh  was  born  the  son  of  a 
Protestant  in  1552.  Little  if  anything  is  known 
of  his  early  boyhood.  He  entered  the  University 
of  Oxford  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  A  little  later 
we  find  him  a  soldier  in  France.  He  then  served 
the  Government  in  Ireland^  and  being  sent  to 
Court  with  dispatchest  won  the  favour  of  Queen 
Elizabeth*  He  was  made  a  knight  in  1584. 
After  many  adventurous  voyages,  and  military 
service  against  the  Spaniards,  he  fell  into  dis- 
grace, and  under  the  Government  of  James  I 
was  surrounded  by  enemies  eager  for  his  ruin. 
After  trial  on  a  false  charge  of  treason,  he  was 
beheaded  at  Westminster  on  October  29, 1618. 


In  Search  of  Spanish  Treasure. 

THE  shadows  of  a  March  evening  in  1595  had  fallen 
gently  over  the  island  of  Trinidad.  The  busy  harbour 
of  Port  of  Spain  showed  no  outward  sign  of  ap- 
proaching trouble,  though  inwardly  the  Spanish  Governor — 
Don  Antonio  de  Berreo — was  very  uncomfortable  concerning 
five  English  ships  which  had  been  lying  for  some  days  close  to 
his  landing  stages.  What  had  they  come  for?  Why  did  they 
stay  so  long?  If  the  captain  of  the  little  squadron  spoke  the 
truth,  they  had  no  other  object  than  to  rest  a  spell  before 
crossing  to  the  opposite  coast  to  look  for  gold-mines  in  Guiana. 
But  the  captain  in  question  was  master  Walter  Raleigh,  and 
in  the  ears  of  a  Spaniard  that  name  had  a  very  unmusical 
sound.  Don  Antonio  de  Berreo  felt  so  strongly  on  this  point, 
that  before  the  evening  of  which  we  speak  he  secretly  sent 
to  a  distant  part  for  a  fresh  supply  of  soldiers,  little  guessing 
that  directly  he  did  this  a  stealthy  native,  who  had  suffered 
much  cruelty  at  his  hands,  stole  on  board  one  of  the  English 
ships  and  warned  master  Raleigh  of  the  danger  he  was  in. 

A  Daring  Exploit. 

Never  was  there  a  captain  who  knew  better  how  to  take 
advantage  of  a  hint  like  this.  As  soon  as  darkness  had 
sutticiently  deepened,  one  hundred  men  were  cautiously 
landed.    With  a  suddenness    that   took   all   by   surprise,    the 


IN   SEARCH   OF  SPANISH  TREASURE 

clatter  of  arms  was  heard  in  the  town,  and  well-nigh  before 
the  first  echoes  had  died  away  the  garrison  was  overcome. 
But  this  was  not  enough.  The  Governor  himself  must  be 
made  a  prisoner,  and  the  Governor  was  seven  good  miles 
away,  in  the  new  capital  of  St.  Joseph,  which  he  had  built 
among  the  forests  in  the  mountains.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be 
lost,  or  news  of  what  had  taken  place  at  Port  of  Spain  might 
reach  the  capital. 

Raleigh  therefore  sent  forward  his  second  in  command 
with  sixty  men,  following  later  himself  with  forty  more.  It 
was  a  difficult  road  to  pursue,  dense  over-hanging  foliage 
casting  a  deeper  shadow  than  the  light  alone  would  give.  But 
the  captain  and  his  men  had  willing  guides ;  for  the  natives  of 
Trinidad  welcomed  with  joy  an  opportunity  of  ridding  them- 
selves of  a  tyrant  who  seemed  to  take  delight  in  torturing  them 
with  dreadful  inhumanity. 

At  last  the  walls  of  St.  Joseph  were  reached.  With  the 
first  volley  from  the  English  guns  the  defenders  laid  down 
their  arms,  and  at  break  of  day  Raleigh,  sword  in  hand, 
made  himself  master  of  the  town.  Antonio  de  Berreo  sur- 
rendered with  as  good  a  grace  as  possible. 

But  the  work  of  that  night  was  not  yet  ended.  In  the 
streets  and  prisons  of  St.  Joseph  the  English  found  too  many 
proofs  of  the  cruelty  of  the  Governor.  Several  Indian  chiefs, 
well-nigh  at  death's  door  from  the  tortures  they  had  been  sub- 
jected to,  were  set  at  liberty;  and  by  the  express  desires 
of  these  poor  people,  Raleigh  fired  the  town,  that  they  might 
see  in  ashes  a  place  where  they  had  suffered  so  much  distress. 

Then  the  conquerors,  with  their  captive,  returned  to  the 
harbour,  and  Don  Antonio  became  an  unwilling  member  of 
the  expedition  to  Guiana  on  the  opposite  coast  of  South 
America.  In  spite  of  all  this  man's  threats  while  on  board, 
Raleigh  continued  the  voyage ;  for  while  Berreo  was  with 
him  there  was  no  fear  of  the  danger  he  might  have  caused  if 
left  behind  in  Trinidad. 


D 


DOC 


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A    Daring    Exploit. 

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In  the  darkness  Raleigh  landed  a  force  at  Port  of  Spain,  in  Trinidad,  and  by  "a  sudden  attack 
overcame  the  garrison.  Hastening  to  St.  Joseph,  the  capital,  seven  miles  away,  he  made  himself 
master  of  the  town  at  daybreak,  took  the  Governor  prisoner,  and  burnt  the  town  to  the  ground  at 
ithe  express  wish  of  the  natives,  who  had  suffered  much  cruelty  from  the  Spaniards. 


IN    SEARCH    OF    SPANISH    TREASURE 

A  Vain  Search. 

We  cannot  follow  in  detail  the  search  for  the  gold-mine 
which  was  never  found,  beyond  simply  stating  that  for  a 
weary  while  Raleigh  explored  the  maze  of  waters  that  form  the 
mouth  of  the  great  river  Orinoco,  leaving  his  ships,  with 
Berreo  as  a  prisoner,  in  deeper  water  twenty  miles  from 
shore.  After  suffering  many  privations  and  disappointments, 
he  was   forced  to  return   home   to   England   and   confess   to 


The  Birthplace  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 

Queen  Elizabeth  that  the  great  expedition  had  come  back  with 
empty  pockets. 

Still  he  declined  to  lose  hope,  though  for  the  time  being 
thought  must  be  turned  to  other  matters. 

What  w^ent  before. 

The  youth  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  is  like  a  sun  that  rises 
behind  a  morning  mist.  It  is  only  dimly  seen  while  near  the 
horizon;  but  on  climbing  to  the  open  sky,  it  shines  with  a 
dazzling  brilliance.   We  only  know,  therefore,  that  our  hero 


IN   SEARCH   OF  SPANISH  TREASURE 


Exploring  the  Orinoco. 

was  born  at  Hayes  Barton,  East  Budleigh,  in  Devonshire, 
about  1552.  At  fourteen  years  of  age  he  was  a  student  in 
Oxford;  but  how  long  he  stayed  there,  or  how  he  behaved 
himself,  we  do  not  know.  But  the  sun  begins  to  rise  above 
the  mist  by  the  end  of  1569,  when  he  was  fighting  for  the 
Protestants  in  the  wars  of  France.  Eight  years  later  he  had 
become  known  to  the  great  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  entered  on 
that  career  which  was  to  make  him  one  of  the  most  famous 
of  Englishmen.  Yet  if  he  made  himself  useful  at  Court;  if 
he  amused  himself  writing  clever  poetry,  and  attended  to 
business  on  estates  which  the  Queen  had  given  him  in  Ire- 
land, he  also  listened  to  the  stories  of  the  wild  Western  sea, 
where  the  Spaniards  were  opening  mines  of  treasure.  Why 
should  England  not  do  the  same?  What  could  be  wiser 
than  to  send  out  ship-loads  of  English  men  and  women  to 
make   new   homes    on   the    coast     of     North     America?     In 


IN   SEARCH  OF  SPANISH  TREASURE 

dreams  of  this  kind  Raleigh  was  encouraged  by  his  half- 
brother,  Humphrey  Gilbert,  and  with  this  enterprising  young 
man  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  twice;  but  it  was  not  till  1584 
that  he  was  able  to  carry  out  his  cherished  plan.  In  that 
year  the  Queen  granted  him  a  charter  to  found  a  colony, 
and  on  April  27  a  small  fleet  set  sail  with  a  number  of  emi- 
grants on  board.  Had  Raleigh  been  able  to  accompany 
them,  they  might  have  been  more  fortunate;  but  even  as 
it  was,  108  of  them  made  a  settlement  at  Roanoke,  in  what 
was  afterwards  named  Virginia.  Though  the  place  was  aban- 
doned in  1586,  are  we  not  right  in  saying  that  this  experi- 
ment entitles  Raleigh  to  a  place  among  the  Empire- 
builders  ? 

Such  an  active  life  as  his  is  hard  to  follow  in  the 
short  space  we  have  here,  as  every  day  was  full  of  deeds ; 
so  we  will  hurry  on  to  say  that  among  the  fruits  of  his 
attempt  to  found  a  colony  was  the  introduction  of  the  potato 
into  the  British  Isles.  One  of  his  servants  brought  a  few 
specimens  home,  and  Raleigh  had  them  planted  on  his  Irish 
estates.    We  all  know  what  the  result  has  been. 

What  came  after. 

A  few  more  years  of  honour  and  prosperity,  and  then 
the  days  of  trouble  came.  Though  sometimes  in  disgrace 
with  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  was  never  in  favour  with  James  I. 
Accused  of  crimes  he  never  committed,  he  suffered  years  of 
imprisonment  in  the  Tower  of  London,  only  being  set  at 
liberty  at  last  because  the  King  thought  it  possible  that,  after 
all,  his  belief  in  the  gold  of  Guiana  might  be  justified.  There- 
fore in  1 61 6  he  went  again,  only  to  return  as  empty-handed 
as  before.  Meanwhile  his  enemies  had  been  plotting  his  ruin, 
and  four  months  after  landing  in  England  again  he  was 
condemned  to  death  on  an  old  and  false  charge  of  treason. 

He  died  at  the  hands  of  the  executioner  on  October  29, 
1 61 8,  in  Old  Palace  Yard,  Westminster. 


How 

Hudson  Died 
in  the 
Great 
Lrone  Land. 


ADRIFT  ON  THE 

ICE-HAUNTED 

SEA. 


HENRY     HUDSON 

Little  is  known  of  the  early  days  of  this  great 
explorer.  He  first  won  fame  by  making  a 
daring  voyage  in  the  year  1607  for  the  Muscovy 
Company  of  merchants  in  order  to  discover  an 
ocean  route  across  the  North  Pole.  A  year  or 
two  later,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company,  he  sought  a  passage 
through  the  frozen  seas  above  northern  Europe* 
Next  he  explored  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North 
America  from  Newfoundland  to  Florida,  in- 
cluding a  careful  survey  of  the  Hudson  River. 
In  1610  Sir  Dudley  Digges  furnished  him  with  a 
ship  to  search  for  a  North- West  passage,  and 
while  on  this  cruise  he  was  abandoned  by  his 
men  in  the  midst  of  Hudson's  Bay,  where  he 
was  last  seen  on  June  21, 1611. 


/SAY  (       '-^  \ 


CANADA  ^^ 


/?0K/^  SC07M 


Adrift  on  the  Ice=Haunted  Sea. 

A  STRANGE  scene  was  taking  place  on  an  ice-haunted  sea 
of  the  Arctic  regions.  Look  where  you  might,  desola- 
tion alone  was  to  be  seen.  No  human  dwelling,  no 
verdant  hills,  only  a  wild  and  rocky  shore,  and  vast  crystal 
bergs,  tossing  and  heaving  in  the  surging  sea,  that  had  only 
recently  been  released  from  the  iron  grip  of  winter.  It  was 
the  early  morning  of  June  21,  1611;  but  in  this  latitude  even 
summer  wears  a  forbidding  aspect,  and  to  the  little  knot  of 
discontented  sailors,  standing  on  the  deck  of  a  tiny  vessel  which 
was  picking  its  way  northward  among  the  threatening  fleet  of 
icebergs,  there  appeared  no  hope  of  escape  to  safer  waters. 

A  Mutiny. 

'  I  tell  you,'  said  one,  a  man  named  Greene,  '  the  master 
has  betrayed  us.  By  false  seamanship  he  has  brought  the 
Discovery  into  a  land-locked  bay.  The  trials  through  which 
we  have  passed,  the  deaths  of  our  brave  comrades,  and  all 
the  pains  of  our  starvation  are  upon  his  head.' 

'  I  am  with  you,'  cried  Wilson,  the  boatswain;  '  it  is  our 
right  to  mutiny  against  such  a  leader,  and  we  had  been  wiser 
to  do  so  long  ere  this.' 

'  Cast  him  adrift,'  put  in  a  third  savagely.  '  There  are  too 
many  mouths  for  the  food  we  have.  Seven  sickly  men  are  lying 
forward.  Their  days  are  likely  to  be  few.  Why  should  we, 
who  might  have  a  chance  of  life  if  we  shared  the  food  among 


ADRIFT    ON     THE     ICE=HAUNTED    SEA 

ourselves,  part  with  any  more  of  it  to  them  ?  Would  they  not 
make  a  fitting  crew/  he  added  bitterly,  '  for  the  captain  who 
has  brought  us  into  jeopardy? ' 

And  cruel  as  it  may  seem,  this  wicked  suggestion  was 
greeted  with  approval. 

'  They  shall  have  the  shallop,'  said  Wilson,  '  to  navigate 
at  will,  but  the  Discovery  shall  be  kept  under  our  own  control.' 

Thus  the  terrible  plot  was  laid,  and  almost  before 
each  man  had  learned  the  part  he  was  to  play  the  moment 
for  action  came.  As  Captain  Henry  Hudson  stepped  on  deck, 
little  suspecting  any  danger,  he  was  seized  from  behind  by 
two  of  the  mutineers,  and  in  spite  of  his  struggles  was 
securely  bound.  His  demands  for  an  explanation  were 
answered  with  savage  reproaches,  in  the  midst  of  which  he 
was  hustled  to  the  ship's  side  and  lowered  into  the  little  boat 
tossing  on  the  waves  below.  A  moment  later  his  son,  a  boy  of 
about  seventeen  years  old,  was  similarly  treated,  and  the  seven 
sick  men  quickly  followed.  Only  one  of  the  crew  showed  any 
disapproval  of  this  wicked  deed.  John  King,  the  carpenter, 
hastened  to  his  master's  aid,  but  was  soon  overpowered,  and 
of  his  own  accord  leapt  into  the  boat  where  Hudson  lay  bound, 
to  share  whatever  fate  might  befall  him.  A  fowling-piece,  a 
little  powder  and  shot,  and  a  small  quantity  of  meal  were 
thrown  to  the  castaways,  and -then  the  boat  was  cut  adrift.  A 
light  wind  filled  the  Discovery's  sails.  She  bore  away  to 
the  north.  A  short  time  only  had  elapsed  when  the  abandoned 
boat  was  no  more  than  a  speck  on  the  wide  waste  of  waters. 
Then  it  faded  from  sight  with  its  ten  doomed  beings,  never 
again  to  be  seen  by  human  eye. 

Yet  all  this  wickedness  was  of  no  avail,  for  not  a  ring- 
leader of  the  mutiny  lived  to  reach  home. 

A  Great  and  Courageous  Navigator. 

Such  was  the  end  of  Henry  Hudson,  one  of  England's 
greatest  navigators.    The  inland  sea  on  which  he  lost  his  life 


[— T  "^1-  —irii  ini — inr  inr  — ini  ir— i 

D  Lost  on  the  Wide  Waste  of  Waters,  d 


t. 


IOC 


IOC 


10CZ30C 


:30c 


DOC 


.tzQ 


Whilst  searching  for  the  North- West  passage,  Hudson  became  lost  in  the  bay  of  the  great  Lone 
Land.  Some  of  the  sailors  grew  discontented,  and  secretly  desired  to  cast  the  captain  adrift.  As 
Hudson  came  on  deck  one  morning  he  was  seized  from  behind  and  bound,  and  then  lowered  into  a 
boat,  to  be  quickly  followed  by  his  son  and  seven  sick  men.  The  mutineers  then  cut  the  boat  adrift 
and  sailed  away;  and  the  abandoned  sailors  were  never  seen  again  by  mortal  eye. 


ADRIFT    ON     THE     ICE=HAUNTED     SEA 


Dwellers 

in  the 

Wild  Waste. 


h£^-^^Biii^' 


Still  bears  his  name,  for  his  adventuring  sails  were  the  first  to 
traverse  its  icy  waters.  But  on  our  maps  Hudson's  Bay  is 
not  the  only  place  that  tells  us  of  his  explorations.  In  three 
short  years  he  had  made  no  less  than  six  notable  voyages, 
daring  in  every  instance  the  perils  of  the  frozen  zone,  and  all 
for  the  sake  of  finding  a  new  route  by  sea  to  the  eastern 
hemisphere,  that  British  or  Dutch  commerce  might  benefit. 
In  1607  it  was  thought  that  you  could  not  do  better  than 
sail  right  over  the  North  Pole  to  reach  the  East  Indies.  Hud- 
son boldly  went  to  see  if  this  were  so,  but  came  back  with 
the  story  of  a  wall  of  ice  that  no  ship  could  pass. 

Then  in  the  same  year  he  tried  to  sail  round  the  north 
of  Europe,  a  voyage  which  added  greatly  to  our  geo- 
graphical knowledge.  Two  more  efforts  were  made  in  vain 
in  the  same  direction;  and  then,  in  1609,  the  merchants  of 
Holland  engaged  him  to  take  a  ship  across  the  Atlantic  and 
see  if  he  could  find  a  passage  through  the  continent  of  North 
America.  Of  course  we  all  see  now  how  hopeless  such  an 
attempt  would  be;    but  by  looking  busily  for  one  thing,  we 


ADRIFT     ON     THE     ICE=HAUNTED     SEA 

sometimes  find  another;  and  Hudson  went  back  to  his  Dutch 
friends  with  the  story  of  a  magnificent  river  he  had 
explored.  Encouraged  by  his  report,  the  merchants  of  Hol- 
land quickly  made  a  settlement  at  the  mouth,  of  this  river, 
and  called  the  settlement  New  Amsterdam.  To-day  it  is  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  the  river  bears  the  navigator's  name. 

The  East  Voyage. 

Then  he  set  out  on  his  last  sad  voyage.  Among  the  people 
who  felt  convinced  that  the  proper  way  to  the  East  Indies 
lay  to  the  north  of  North  America  was  Sir  Dudley  Digges, 
and  this  gentleman  bought  and  fitted  out  the  little  Discovery, 
appointing  Henry  Hudson  as  her  commander.  She  sailed  from 
the  Thames  on  April  ii,  1610,  and  among  the  crew  was  the 
captain's  son  John,  a  boy  of  sixteen,  who  had  accompanied 
his  father  on  all  his  voyages.     After    encountering    terrible 


In  the  Ice-bound  Sea. 


ADRIFT    ON     THE    ICE=HAUNTED    SEA 

ice  in  the  straits  now  bearing  the  commander's  name,  the 
little  Discovery  entered  the  mouth  of  the  great  bay,  and 
steered  south-west,  hoping  the  path  lay  unobstructed  into  the 
southern  ocean.  But  the  rugged  shores  soon  drove  the  vessel 
farther  south,  till  she  was  brought  to  an  anchorage  in  the 
ice-bound  pocket  marked  on  the  maps  as  James  Bay.  Here 
a  winter  of  terrible  privations  led  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
mutiny  we  have  already  described. 

The  Origin  of  a  Famous  Company. 

It  was  during  this  fatal  winter,  however,  that  an  event 
took  place  which  was  to  prove  the  forerunner  of  a  great  and 
flourishing  trade.  One  day  a  wandering  Indian  visited  the 
castaways  and  was  presented  with  a  few  small  articles  in 
exchange  for  a  little  food.  The  next  day  he  came  again,  this 
time  bringing  a  quantity  of  animals'  skins  and  furs,  which  he 
was  quite  willing  to  part  with  as  payment  for  the  presents  he 
had  already  received.  It  was  these  furs  that  told  the  story  of 
the  commercial  value  of  the  frozen  regions  surrounding  Hud- 
son's Bay,  though  sixty  years  were  to  pass  before  a  company 
was  formed  in  England  for  exploiting  the  trade.  But  the  lost 
time  has  been  made  up  for  since.  The  romantic  story  of 
the  company  is  too  long  to  tell  now,  so  we  will  only  mention 
that  before  it  was  bought  up  by  the  Canadian  Government 
it  would  export  in  a  single  year  more  than  840,000  skins  of 
different  animals,  totaling  a  value  of  some  £700,000. 


The  Adventures  of  a 
Famous    Navigator, 


How 

Cook 

helped 

to  Build 

the 

Empire. 


Captain  Cook. 


CAPTAIN    COOK. 

James  Cook  was  born,  the  son  of  a  farm 
labourer,  at  Marton  in  Yorkshire,  in  1728.  At 
an  early  age  he  was  employed  to  scare  the  rooks 
from  a  farmer's  fields.  He  then  became  a  shop 
assistant  at  Staithes,  on  the  Yorkshire  coast; 
but  love  of  the  sea  quickly  made  him  seek  work 
at  a  shipowner's  in  Whitby.  In  this  man's  ser- 
vice he  made  several  voyages  to  the  Baltic.  In 
1755  he  joined  the  Navy,  and  rapidly  rose,  being 
made  a  captain  after  his  first  great  cruise  in  the 
Pacific.  All  nations  acknowledged  the  greatness 
of  his  work ;  and  though  England  was  at  war 
with  France  and  America  at  the  time,  both  these 
countries  issued  orders  to  their  sailors  that  when 
Captain  Cook  was  met  with  on  the  seas,  ^he 
must  be  allowed  to  go  upon  his  way  unmolested/ 


The  Adventures  of  a  Famous  Navigator. 

IT  was  the  morning  of  February  14,   1779. 
Surrounded   by   his   officers,  on  the  deck  of  the  Reso- 
lution,  Captain   James   Cook    was    making    preparations 
for  a   warhke   undertaking. 

A  short  distance  away  stretched  the  verdant  coast  of 
the  island  of  Hawaii,  upon  which  groups  of  natives  were 
talking  excitedly  together;  while  here  and  there  a  boat  would 
paddle  out  from  the  strand,  only  to  return  again  as  if  afraid 
to  venture  farther. 

Property   Stolen. 

Truth  to  tell,  the  men  who  plied  the  paddles  knew  that 
the  commander  of  the  two  great  English  ships  lying  in  the 
bay  had  given  orders  to  stop  any  native  boat  from  going 
down  the  coast  till  certain  property  stolen  from  the  ships  had 
been  given  back. 

'  We  must  not  allow  these  people,'  said  Captain  Cook, 
'  to  think  that  they  can  steal  from  us  without  being 
punished,  or  they  will  look  upon  us  as  so  weak  that  our  very 
lives  will  be  in  danger.  The  good  friendship  that  has  existed 
between  us  till  to-day  cannot  be  relied  upon.  I  shall  therefore 
make  my  way  to  the  village,  and  bring  back  the  king  and  his 
two  sons  to  hold  as  prisoners  till  our  property  is  restored. 
Let  all  our  men  be  armed  and  on  their  guard  while  I  am 
gone.' 

With  that  the  pinnace  was  lowered,  and,  accompanied  by 


ADVENTURES   OF   A   FAMOUS   NAVIGATOR 

a  lieutenant  and  nine  marines,  the  commander  steered  shore- 
wards.  As  he  stepped  on  land,  the  natives  threw  themselves 
on  their  faces  before  him  with  little  cries  of  friendly  wel- 
come and  loud  declarations  of  innocence. 

'  Lead  me  to  your  king's  house,'  was  Cook's  angry 
demand.  '  Bring  his  two  sons  to  me.  No  harm  shall  befall 
you  or  them.' 

The  order  was  obeyed  at  once,  and  the  little  party  was 
led  on  to  the  village,  greeted  respectfully  at  every  step  by 
fresh  natives. 

Unfriendly    Natives. 

Yet,  with  all  this  show  of  friendliness,  the  great  English 
sailor  felt  distrust.  He  saw  clearly  that  mischief  was  on  foot, 
and  knew  that  the  danger  would  grow  every  minute  if  he  did 
not  show  a  firm  front. 

The  old  king  and  his  two  sons,  all  of  whom  had  often 
been  treated  with  kindness  by  Captain  Cook,  willingly  sur- 
rendered themselves,  and  returned  at  once  with  the  little  band 
of  armed  men  to  the  shore.  But  what  a  change  had  taken 
place  when  the  spot  where  the  boat  was  moored  was  reached 
again.  Thousands  of  native  warriors  had  assembled.  They 
made  a  path  for  the  Englishmen  to  pass  between  them;  but 
before  the  boat  could  be  launched  a  dozen  swarthy  hands 
seized  the  old  king  and  his  sons. 

'  They  shall  not  go  to  the  ships,'  they  said. 

Cook  claimed  his  rights,  and  was  answered  with  inso- 
lence. A  gun  was  fired  to  overawe  the  excited  crowd;  but 
ere  its  echoes  could  die  away,  the  little  party  of  marines  was 
surrounded. 

Cook's   Last   Words. 

'Make  for  the  boats!'  rang  out  the  voice  of  the  com- 
mander. 

They   were   the   last   words  he  was  ever  heard  to  speak, 


CP' 


DDC 


HDC 


3nc 


3DC 


'S^ 


D    Captain   CooK's   Last  Words,    d 

v^^| igi-  nni  II II  inr  ini  \rJ 


While  on  a  voyage  in  the  Pacific,  Captain  Cook  discovered  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  other 
groups.  He  landed  at  Hawaii,  intending  to  survey  the  islands,  but  unfortunately  he  came  into 
conflict  with  the  natives,  w^ho  had  stolen  some  of  his  property.  *  Make  for  the  boats  ! '  cried  the 
Captain.  These  were  the  last  words  of  the  famous  navigator,  for  he  was  killed  before^,he  could  put 
off  from  the  shore. 


ADVEN  .  a:iE 


A 


S   NAVIGATOR 


for  in  a  moment 
a  short  but  ter- 
r  i  b  1  e  skirmish 
had  begun. 
Cook  was  the 
first  to  fall, 
struck  down  by  a 
heavy  club,  and 
stabbed  again 
and  again  by  a 
dozen  spears. 
The  few  surviv- 
ors only  escaped 
by  plunging  into 
the  sea  and 
swimming  to  a 
boat  sent  out 
from  one  of  the 
ships. 

It  is  strange  to 
have  to  describe 
thus  the  death  of 
a  man  whose 
whole  life  was 
spent  in  peaceful 
discoveries ;  who 
left  friendly 
memories  be- 
lind  him  where- 
ever  he  had  been 

on  his  marvellous  voyages,  and  even  in  the  island  of  Hawaii 

was  regretted  by  large  numbers  of  the  natives. 

How   he    Helped   to    Build   the   Empire. 

Let    us    see    in    what    way    Captain    Cook    assisted    in 


In  the  South  with  Captain  Cook. 


ADVENTUREC   OF  A   FAMOUS   NAVIGATOR 


A  Labrador  Harbour  in  Spring. 


building  the  British  Empire.  Perhaps  the  first  step  he  took  in 
this  direction  was  when  he  threw  off  the  uniform  of  a  ship's 
master  in  the  merchant  service,  and  presented  himself  before 
the  commander  of  a  British  man-of-war  to  volunteer  the  work 
of  a  common  sailor. 

The  manner  in  which  he  performed  these  duties  quickly 
won  promotion,  and  in  1759  we  find  him  giving  important 
help  toward  the  capture  of  Quebec,  not  with  gun  and  sword, 
but  with  compass  and  lead-line,  sounding  the  depths  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  constructing  accurate  maps  of  its  shores. 
For  eight  years  he  sailed  his  ship  in  and  out  of  the 
thousand  bays  on  the  icy  coasts  of  Newfoundland  and  Lab- 
rador, proving  himself  such  a  splendid  map-maker  that  al- 
most as  soon  as  the  task  was  completed,  the  Royal  Society 
of  England  were  glad  to  have  his  services  in  conducting  a 
voyage  to  the  sunny  islands  of  the  South  Pacific. 

Sailing  from  Plymouth  in  August  1768,  Cook  was  nearly 
three  years  away,   throwing   new  light  on  unknown  regions. 


ADVENTURES   OF   A   FAMOUS   NAVIGATOR 

He  explored  the  Society  Islands ;  he  sailed  his  ship  com- 
pletely round  New  Zealand,  and  through  the  straits  now 
bearing  his  name.  Steering  north-west,  he  visited  the  eastern 
shores  of  Australia,  naming  that  now  important  part  of  the 
Empire  New  South  Wales,  and  bringing  away  from  the  coast 
a  fund  of  information  valuable  to  those  who  shortly  left  Eng- 
land to  make  their  homes  there. 

Twice  more  did  this  greatest  of  all  navigators  spread 
his  sails  for  unknown  waters,  first  with  the  object  of  exploring 
the  Antarctic  land,  and  then  to  find  a  sea  passage  from 
Baffin's  Bay  into  the  Atlantic.  It  was  while  engaged  upon 
this  task  that  the  ice  king  of  the  north  drove  him  south- 
wards; and  to  make  use  of  the  time  till  summer  should  melt 
again  the  icy  barrier,  he  dropped  anchor  off  the  island  of 
Hawaii,  intending  to  carry  out  a  complete  survey  of  its 
shores.  We  have  seen  how  his  good  work  here  was  cut 
short. 

Though  Captain  Cook  was  not  a  soldier  nor  a  statesman, 
he  cut  more  paths  for  the  Empire's  expansion  than  many  of 
these  have  done. 


Raft  on  the  St.  Lawrence. 


The 

Wonderful 

Adventures 

of 

Mungo  Park. 


THROUGH  JUNGLE 
AND  SWAMP 

TO  THE 

RIVER  NIGER. 


Mungo  Park. 


MUNGO    PARK. 


Mungo  Park  was  born,  the  son  of  a  poor 
inttnctf  at  Foolshiels  in  Sclkirkshiret  on  Septem- 
ber 10, 1771.  Educated  for  a  doctor,  his  fondness 
for  scientific  study  led  to  his  introduction  to  Sir 
Joseph  Banks,  president  of  the  Royal  Society, 
who  obtained  for  him  the  post  of  assistant  surgeon 
on  board  the  'Worcester,^  East  Indiaman.  In 
this  ship  Park  travelled  to  Sumatra,  where 
he  made  many  botanical  discoveries.  In  1794 
he  was  appointed  by  the  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Discovery  in  Central  Africa  to  explore  the 
basin  of  the  Niger,  and  in  the  following  year  his 
daring  journey  to  this  region  added  greatly  to 
our  knowledge.  Setting  out  once  more  in  1805, 
he  met  his  death  at  Boussa,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
five. 


Through  Jungle  and  Swamp  to  the  River  Niger. 

THE  fierce  heat  of  the  African  sun  beat  mercilessly  down 
upon  the  desert;  and  if  the  natives  born  in  this 
tropical  region  panted  for  cooling  airs  and  refreshing 
water,  what  must  the  suffering  have  been  to  the  solitary 
white  man  who  stood  a  prisoner  among  them?  Many  hun- 
dreds of  miles  had  he  marched  through  unknown  jungle  and 
fever-haunted  swamps,  only  to  find  himself  at  last  robbed  of 
all  he  possessed,  and  made  captive  by  a  barbarous  chief — Ali 
the  Moor.  This  man  had  pitched  his  camp  at  Benaun  in  the 
western  Sudan,  when  he  heard  thiat  a  stranger,  come  to  ex- 
plore the  country,  wished  to  pay  a  friendly  call.  Soldiers  were 
sent  to  conduct  him  to  the  chief's  presence;  and  when  he 
came,  Ali,  who  was  busy  trimming  his  beard  with  a  pair  of 
scissors,  continued  his  occupation,  rudely  disregardful  of  his 
guest.  The  visitor's  heart  sank.  By  such  behaviour  he 
clearly  saw  that  the  help  he  had  hoped  to  receive  would  not 
be  given,  but  instead  every  difficulty  would  be  thrown  in  his 
way. 

Dismissed  from  the  tent,  he  was  handed  over  to  the  rabble 
of  the  camp,  and  these  lost  no  time  in  showing  their  spite 
and  barbarity.  They  stole  the  last  of  his  remaining  property; 
they  threatened  his  life;  they  denied  him  food;  and,  worst 
of  all,  they  dragged  from  his  side  a  negro  boy  servant,  who 
had  faithfully  attended  him  through  all  the  difficulties  of  his 
journey.    He  never  saw  the  boy  again. 

Fortunately,    through    ignorance    and    superstition,     his 


THROUGH  JUNGLE  AND   SWAMP 

persecutors  feared  to  rob  him  of  one  precious  treasure. 
This  was  a  small  pocket-compass.  The  fact  that  the  needle, 
do  what  they  might,  persisted  in  pointing  in  one  direction, 
filled  the  thieves  with  such  terror  that  they  restored  it  after 
keeping  it  a  very  short  time. 

Escape  from  Captivity. 

Such  was  the  position  in  which  Mungo  Park,  the  most 
courageous  of  explorers,  found  himself  in  the  month  of 
March,  1796.  He  had  set  out  from  England  ten  months 
before  on  the  dangerous  mission  of  discovering  the  head- 
waters of  the  mysterious  river  Niger.  Many  a  traveller  had 
preceded  him,  to  be  lost  for  ever,  victims  of  the  fever  jungle 
or  the  murderous  attack  of  savage  men.  But  such  dangers 
as  these  were  small  obstacles  in  the  path  of  Mungo  Park. 
Arrived  at  the  English  station  near  the  coast  of  Gambia,  he 
spent  nearly  six  months  in  the  careful  study  of  native 
languages,  and  making  many  other  equally  valuable  prepara- 
tions for  the  inland  journey.  A  long  and  severe  illness  in  the 
midst  of  these  labours  would  have  been  considered  sufficient 
excuse  by  most  men  for  giving  up  the  enterprise;  but  with- 
out waiting  for  complete  recovery,  Mungo  Park  turned  his 
face  to  the  wilderness  on  December  2,  1795,  bidding  farewell 
to  his  European  friends,  who  never  expected  to  see  his  face 
again. 

And  now  an  ever-growing  burden  of  trouble  had  ended 
in  captivity,  with  little  apparent  hope  of  accomplishing  his 
object.  Lying  in  a  miserable  reed  tent,  when  feebleness  and 
ill  health  made  it  impossible  to  do  the  tasks  which  his  perse- 
cutors had  been  wont  to  force  upon  him  with  lash  and  rod, 
he  was  not  allowed  the  consolation  of  sleep.  The  crowd 
would  torment  his  ears  with  abuse  and  uproar,  while  the 
guards  at  the  entrance  found  delight  in  menacing  him  with 
death,  by  rushing  upon  him  with  their  spears.  For  weeks  and 
months  this  cruelty  was  continued,  but  the  victim  was  armed 


^ 


JDC 


3DC 


incnDc 


IDC 


inc 


^ 


□    EXPLORING  THE  RIVER  NIGER.      □ 

Vn  ipi  -ilT  'HI — ini  ini-  ini  irV 


Mungo  Park  made  his  way  down  the  River  Niger,  intending  to  reach  the  sea.  For  more  than 
eleven  hundred  miles  he  traced  the  ever-growing  river ;  but  when  at  a  narrow  part  of  the  stream, 
disaster  met  the  party.  They  were  attacked  by  hostile  natives,  when  Mungo  Park  and  all  those 
w^ho  were  wth  him  w^ere  killed. 


THROUGH   JUNGLE   AND   SWAMP 


with  an  astonishing  patience.  Perhaps  the  story  of  no  explorer 
affords  a  better  example  of  the  value  of  patience  than  that 
of  Mungo  Park.    And  patience  won. 

Carried  far 
back  upon  his 
journey  to  a 
place  called 
Jarra,  he  was  al- 
lowed to  roam 
at  will  about  the 
camp,  and  from 
this  place, 
during  a  period 
of  war-like  ex- 
citement, h  e 
managed  to  es- 
cape with  his 
horse  in  the 
night-time,  step- 


Elephant-hunting  in  an  African  Forest, 


pmg  over  the  bodies  of  the  sleeping  sentries. 

To   the   Niger. 

What  mattered  now  all  the  suffering;  what  mattered  it 
now  that  his  garments  hung  in  rags,  that  his  body  was  emaci- 
ated by  hunger,  and  that  feebleness  made  every  step  an  agony  ? 
He  was  free. 

Turning  his  horse's  head  in  the  direction  of  the  Niger,  he 
rode  all  that  night  over  the  trackless  waste,  pressing  on  with 
utmost  speed  till  all  fear  of  recapture  was  past.  Through 
many  more  days  of  terrible  suffering  he  toiled;  and  when 
despair  had  well-nigh  taken  possession  of  even  his  dauntless 
heart,  he  entered  upon  a  land  of  kindly  people  and  fruit- 
ful soil.  At  last,  on  July  21,  1796,  accompanied  by  a  little 
band  of  travelling  natives,  he  saw  before  him  the  prosperous 
town  of   Segu,   and  beyond   it    the   glittering   waters   of   the 


TO   THE   RIVER. NIGER 

mighty  river.  '  I  hastened  to  the  bank,'  he  says,  '  and  having* 
drunk  of  the  water,  Hfted  up  my  fervent  thanks  in  prayer 
to  the  great  Ruler  of  all  things  for  having  thus  far  crowned 
my  endeavours  with  success.' 

Achievements  sweeten  hardships;  and  though  after  that 
day  Mungo  Park  found  many  sorrows,  they  were  not  quite  so 
hard  to  bear.  He  followed  the  banks  of  the  stream  for  more 
than  a  hundred  miles  toward  its    source;    he    embarked    in 


A  Native  African  Village. 

native  boats,  and  in  spite  of  dangerous  and  terrible  illnesseS; 
drifted  down  stream,  making  careful  geographical  notes  of  its 
course,  till  the  hostile  character  of  the  people  whose  country 
he  was  entering  compelled  him  to  abandon  further  progress. 

Home  Again. 

Thus  all  hope   of  reaching  the  unknown  mouth  of  the 
great  river  was  given  up  for  the  time  being,  and  Mungo  Park 


THROUGH  JUNGLE  AND   SWAMP 

began  the  long  tramp  of  six  hundred  miles  to  the  western 
coast  whence  he  had  set  out.  After  countless  perilous  ad- 
ventures with  wild  men  and  wild  beasts,  the  sea  was  reached. 
We  may  guess  that  his  subsequent  arrival  in  England  was 
hailed  with  astonishment.  Honours  were  thickly  poured 
upon  him,  not  only  by  those  in  whose  service  he  had  gone, 
but  by  various  learned  societies,  who  welcomed  with  joy  the 
treasures  of  knowledge  he  had  brought  back. 

To  the  Wilds  once  more  and — Death. 

For  eight  years  he  remained  at  home,  marrying  a  Scotch 
lady  and  settling  down  as  a  doctor  in  his  native  land.  Then 
he  went  again.  From  the  Gambian  coast  he  led  a  little  com- 
pany of  about  forty  men.  Alas,  only  nine  of  these  ever 
reached  the  town  of  Segu,  the  rest  falling  victims  to  fever 
by  the  way.  The  presents  which  Mungo  Park  now  gave  to 
the  king  of  Segu  induced  that  ruler  to  allow  a  boat  to 
be  built  in  which  the  explorer  intended  to  make  his  way 
down  stream  till  the  ocean  was  reached.  The  boat  was  built 
and  the  journey  was  started.  For  more  than  elevisn  hundred 
miles  the  voyagers  tracked  the  windings  of  the  ever-growing 
river,  but  at  a  point  scarcely  half  that  distance  from  the  end 
of  Iheir  pilgrimage  disaster  fell  upon  them. 

A  band  of  hostile  natives  waylaid  the  boat  at  a  point  where 
the  stream  grew  narrow,  on  its  way  between  high  banks  of 
rock.  Capture  or  death  was  now  certain,  and  as  the  boat 
rushed  toward  the  narrows,  Mungo  Park  and  his  companions 
leapt  into  the  stream.  One  of  their  number  was  taken  and 
killed,  the  rest  were  never  seen  again. 


Through    the 

Blue    Mountains 


Cutting  a 

Mountain 

Gateway 

to  the 

Green 

Pastureland. 


Gregory  Blaxland. 


GREGORY    BLAXLAND. 

Gregory  Blaxland  was  born  in  Kent,  England, 
in  1779.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  settled  as 
a  cattle-rancher  at  South  Creek,  New  South 
Wales.  He  died  there  on  January  U,  1853.  In 
recognition  of  his  services  to  the  colony,  a 
monument  has  been  erected  at  the  Land  Hall 
in  Sydney. 


Through  the  Blue  Mountains. 

ON  a  May  morning  in  1813  there  set  out  from  South 
Creek  Farm,  twenty  miles  west  of  the  town  of  Sydney, 
in  New  South  Wales,  a  party  of  travellers.  A  few 
neighbours  collected  together  to  bid  them  farewell;  and 
had  they  guessed  what  the  results  of  the  journey  would  be, 
it  is  probable  that  they  would  have  made  more  careful  note 
of  the  details  of  the  event :  but  the  record  is  sufficient  for  us 
to  form  some  idea  of  what  the  little  cavalcade  was  like. 

That  sturdy,  thick-set  farmer,  with  the  bronzed  face,  riding 
among  the  first  in  the  procession,  is  Mr.  Gregory  Blaxland. 
He  settled  in  the  colony  seven  years  ago,  but  has  long  been 
convinced  tbat  he  and  his  fellow  cattle-rearers  would  have  a 
much  better  chance  if  new  pasturage  could  be  found  beyond 
the  distant  Blue  Mountains  which  so  many  travellers  have 
declared  as  impassable.  Beside  him  rides  a  mere  youth  only 
twenty  years  of  age,  lately  come  out  from  England — Wil- 
liam Charles  Wentworth.  He  is  destined  to  become  a  great 
Australian  statesman,  but  at  the  present  moment  has  only  one 
desire,  to  scale  those  rugged  heights  toward  which  he  is 
riding,  and  find  fresh  fields  for  the  colony's  expansion.  The 
third  leader  of  the  party  is  Lieutenant  Lawson,  a  friend 
with  whom  Blaxland  has  often  talked  over  his  scheme  of 
exploration. 

The  rest   of  the   company  is  made  up  of  four  assistants. 


THROUGH    THE    BLUE    MOUNTAINS 

prepared  to  face  all  trials;  a  few  pack-horses  (to  carry  the 
tents,  a  store  of  provisions,  and  some  necessary  tools);  and 
quite  a  little  crowd  of  hunting  dogs,  that  from  the  very  start 
show  the  usual  eagerness  of  their  kind  when  '  out  for  a  walk.' 

A   Short  Journey  but   a   Long   Way. 

If  you  judge  the  journey  by  its  distance,  you  will  say 
that  the  one  we  are  '  bout  to  describe  is  scarcely  worthy  of 
notice,  for  it  is  little  aore  than  forty  miles  between  Mr. 
Gregory  Blaxland's  farm  and  the  land  of  promise  he  has  set 
out  to  find.  Yet  it  will  take  him  twenty-one  days  to  travel 
those  forty  miles,  for  the  stern  precipices  and  mist-filled  val- 
leys of  the  Blue  Mountains  will  make  the  path  a  difficult  one 
to  find;  while  the  dense  jungle  on  the  slopes  stands  like  an 
army  with  level  spears  that  seem  to  say : 

Beyond  us   lies  enchanted   land  I      Advance  no  farther  I 

It  was  indeed  a  lonely  country  that  the  travellers  entered 
as  soon  as  the  plains  were  left  behind.  Hitherto  those  who 
had  attempted  to  pass  the  Blue  Mountains  had  sought  a 
direct  path  through  them,  carrying  ropes  and  climbing-irons 
to  enable  them  to  scale  the  precipices  and  lower  themselves 
into  the  deep  chasms  with  which  the  range  abounds. 

But  Gregory  Blaxland's  idea  was  to  reach  the  top  of  the 
ridge  and  follow  its  windings  till  a  way  was  found  that  would 
allow  them  to  descend  into  the  country  beyond.  To  carry 
this  notion  out,  it  was  necessary  to  cut  a  path  through  the 
vast  and  terrible  jungle;  to  fight  their  way  forward  foot  by- 
foot,  almost  twig  by  twig,  till  the  land  of  promise  was  won. 

The  Axe   and   the   Jungle. 

We  can  better  realize  the  great  trials  of  that  journey  if 
we  remember  that,  though  they  left  the  eastern  plains  well 
clothed,  well  fed,  and  in  robust  health,  they  emerged  three 
weeks  later  on  the  western  slopes  of  the  mountains  in  a  state 


J ini  -ini  ini — i  ni inr  noi  ic— i 

D      Opening  the  Mountain  Gateway.      a 


t, 


IOC 


DOC 


30  CZI  oc 


30C 


DOC 


3CJ 


Many  brave  explorers  had  declared  that  the  Blue  Mountains  were  an  eternal  barrier  between 
New  South  "Wales  and  the  setting  sun.  But  Gregory  Blaxland  and  his  friends  drew  their  woodmen's 
axes  and  fell  upon  the  opposing  jungle.  After  weeks  of  arduous  labour,  they  succeeded  in  cutting  a 
gateway  through  the  almost  impenetrable  forest,  and  were  rewarded  by  a  vision  of  green  pastureland 
where  their  flocks  could  graze  in  plenty,  and  they  themselves  could  find  fresh  fields  for  their  colony's 
expansion. 


THROUGH    THE    BLUE    MOUNTAINS 

more  like  shadows  than  men.  Their  clothes  hung  in  tatters, 
their  boots  had  dropped  to  pieces,  their  food  was  gone,  their 
health  had  fallen  from  them  in  the  jungle,  and  so  feeble  were 
some  of  the  party  that  they  could  only  move  forward  at  all  by 


Zigzag  descent  of  the  Blue  Mountains. 

the  help  of  those  scarcely  better  off  than  themselves.  But 
what  mattered  all  this?  Upon  their  weary  sight  had  bu.rst  the 
vision  of  a  world  of  green  .meadow-land,  enough  to  fur^jish 
their  flocks  with  food  for  thirty  years  to  come. 

A  few  hours  more  of  exploration,  and  they  turned  to 
retrace  their  steps,  following  easily  now  the  well-cut  path 
which  on  the  outward  journey  had  often  cost  them  a  day's 
cruel  labour  for  every  two  miles. 

Welcome   News. 

The  good   news   was   received  with  joy.    The  cattle  that 


THROUGH    THE    BLUE    MOUNTAINS 

had  so  long  suffered  through  the  seasons  of  drought  were 
quickly  driven  over  the  hard-worn  path  into  the  land 
of  plenty. 

Year  by  year  the  new  province  was  developed,  and  the  bold 
pioneer  who  had  broken  open  the  mountain  gateway  with  his 
axe  lived  to  see  the  railway  scale  the  heights  to  carry  mer- 


A  Mountain  Road  in  Ne-w  South  "Wales. 

chandise  between  Sydney  and  the  flourishing  towns  now  scat- 
tered over  the  grassy  plains  he  had  discovered.  And  if  the 
locomotives  that  puff  and  pant  their  way  across  the  Blue 
Mountains  could  speak,  they  would  surely  say:  'No  wonder 
Gregory  Blaxland  found  the  task  a  hard  one!'  For  the 
engineers  have  been  obliged  to  make  the  line  go  up  the 
steep  slopes  in  a  number  of  zig-zag  curves,  so  that  many 
miles  have  to  be  travelled  right  and  left,  to  get  a  few  miles 
forward.    Some  of  the  angles  of  the  line  are  so  sharp  that  the 


THROUGH  THE  BLUE  MOUNTAINS 

engine,  which  at  one  moment  is  dragging  the  train  along 
one  side  of  the  angle,  has  to  reverse  steam  so  as  to  push  it 
up  the  next. 


Development. 

But  with  all  their  opposit 
failed  to  stop  the  growth  of  N 
land  and  young  Wentworth 
journey,  the  colony  covered  a  p 
miles  by  forty.  Its  present  are 
taining  127,000,000  acres  of 
sheep  which  browse  upon  this 
of  wool  valued  at  £13,000,000. 


ion,  the   Blue  Mountains  have 
ew  South  Wales.    When  Blax- 
set   out    on   their   memorable 
iece  of  land  measuring  eighty 
a  is  311,000  square  miles,  con- 
pasturage,   and  the  flocks  of 
domain  yield  a  yearly  harvest 


Flocks  of  sheep  in  the  green  pastureland. 


Sir  JOHN  FRANKLIN 

in   the 

Ice  King's 
Grip. 


In   Search 

of  the 

North=West 


Sir  John  Franklin. 


SIR    JOHN    FRANKLIN. 

Sir  John  Franklin  was  born  at  Spilsby  in 
Lincolnshire  in  1786*  He  entered  the  Navy  in 
1801,  and  was  present  at  the  battles  of  Copen- 
hagen and  Trafalgar.  Under  the  command  of 
his  cousin,  Captain  Flinders,  he  explored  a  large 
portion  of  the  western  Pacific,  and  made  his  first 
voyage  to  the  Arctic  regions  in  1818.  In  spite  of 
terrible  sufferings,  he  went  again  in  1825,  making 
important  discoveries,  for  which  he  received  the 
honour  of  knighthood.  From  1838  to  1843  he 
was  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Tasmania,  and 
shortly  after  returning  to  England  was  appointed 
to  the  command  of  the  *  Erebus  '  and  *  Terror  * 
He  died,  while  accomplishing  the  object  of  the 
expedition,  on  June  U,  1847. 


Ojc 


^^A '  --.,^         I  '^^en  AGoxf'^ 


In  Search  of  the  North- West  Passage. 

THE  little  village  of  Greenhithe  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames,  two  miles  from  Dartford,  was  in  a  state  of  ex- 
citement on  May  i8,  1845.  The  river  was  alive  with 
craft,  and  not  a  boat  among  them  failed  to  fly  some  coloured 
flag  in  honour  of  two  ships  lying  amid  stream,  evidently 
about  to  depart  upon  an  ocean  voyage.  Furthermore,  on  ac- 
count of  these  two  ships,  a  group  of  distinguished  people 
had  come  down  from  London,  and  were  now  taking  special 
interest  in  every  detail  above  and  helow  decks,  which  their 
sailor  friends  were  only  too  eager  to   explain. 

The   *  Erebus'   and   'Terror.* 

These  two  vessels  were  named  the  Erebus  and  Terror. 
They  had  lately  undergone  repairs  and  improvements,  after 
returning  from  a  cruise  in  the  icy  waters  of  the  South  Polar 
seas.  They  were  fitted  with  engines  and  screws  to  assist  the 
sails,  they  were  strengthened  with  additional  timbers  to  resist 
the  pressure  of  the  northern  ice,  and  they  were  provisioned 
with  enough  food  to  last  for  three  years.  With  such  advan- 
tages as  these,  who  can  wonder  that  every  man  looked  for- 
ward to  a  prosperous  voyage,  and  told  friends  with  a  smile 
of  confidence  that  this  time  the  long-sought  passage  round 
North  America  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Pacific 
would  be  found? 

'  Send  all  letters  that  you  wish  us  to  get,'  said  one,  '  to 


THE     NORTH=WEST     PASSAGE 

the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  we  will  call  for  them  as  we  sail 
south  from  Behring's  Straits,  after  taking  our  ships  through 
the   North-West   Passage.' 

Hopes   for  Success. 

Those  who  heard  this  cheerful  prophecy  had  little  doubt 
that  it  would  be  kept,  for  the  chief  commander  was  Sir  John 
Franklin,  a  sailor  of  renown,  and  a  courageous  explorer  who 
had  already  won  much  knowledge  of  the  realms  of  the  ice 
king. 

So  the  Erebus  and  Terror,  with  138  men  on  board,  sailed 
away,  and  in  less  than  seven  weeks  after  leaving  the 
Thames  dropped  anchor  off  the  west  coast  of  Greenland  in 
Davis  Strait.  At  this  point  a  transport-vessel  which  had  ac- 
companied them  from  England  trans-shipped  a  large  store  of 
provisions  into  Franklin's  ships  and  trimmed  its  sails  for  home 
again.  She  brought  back  five  sailors  whose  health  was  not 
equal  to  the  trials  of  Arctic  exploration,  and  she  also  returned 
with  a  mail-bag  full  of  hopeful  letters  from  those  who  '  went 
on.' 

The   Last  Farewell. 

Three  weeks  after  the  men  of  the  transport  had  bade  them 
farewell,  the  captain  of  a  whaling-ship,  cruising  in  Melville 
Bay,  far  up  beyond  the  Arctic  circle  in  Baffin's  Sea,  saw  the 
Erebus  and  Terror,  and  received  a  visit  from  one  of  Franklin's 
officers.  The  next  day  a  favourable  wind  wafted  them  from 
sight  beyond  the  western  horizon,  and  they  were  never  seen 
again  by  mortal  eye.  As  people  in  England  recalled  all  that 
Franklin  had  accomplished,  they  could  not  doubt  that 
he  would  bring  his  ships  home  again  safe  and  sound. 

A   Brave   Career 

At  the  early  age  of  fifteen  Franklin  had  fought  at  the 
battle    of    Copenhagen;    he    explored   the   Australian   coasts 


fcc 


rpi  lOr-  -iQi  r  I  I  I  — ini  ini  — ir—i 

D      In  the  Wild  White  Waste.      n 


DOC 


DOC 


D  I  I  C 


IOC 


DOC 


icU 


In  1845  Sir  John  Franklin  set  out  on  an  expedition  to  discover  a  passage  from  the'  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  way  of  North  America.  Twelve  years  passed  before  any  definite  news 
was  heard  of  the  courageous  explorers,  when  it  was  discovered  that  they  had  all  perished  upon  the 
snowy  wastes  in  the  Ice  King's  grip. 


THE     NORTH=WEST     PASSAGE 


Discovery  of  Franklin's  Relics. 


under  his  cousin's  command  in  the  same  year,  1801  ;  he  was 
shipwrecked  in  Torres  Straits,  but  was  back  in  England  in 
time  to  take  part  in  the  battle  of  Trafalgar.  Thirteen  years 
later  he  made  his  first  journey  into  the  Arctic  seas;  and  next 
led  an  overland  expedition  to  the  Copper-mine  River. 
Though  undergoing  great  privations  on  this  occasion,  he 
travelled  more  than  one  thousand  miles  on  foot.  The  Copper- 
mine River  was  reached  in  June  1821,  and  Franklin  journeyed 
down  it  to  the  Arctic  Sea,  where  he  explored  no  less  than  650 
miles  of  coast. 

Such  a  knowledge  surely  well  fitted  him  to  take  command 
of  the  expedition  which  the  British  Admiralty  planned  in 
1845  ^s  a  last  efifort  towards  discovering  a  passage  from  sea 
to  sea  above  North  America. 


THE     NORTH=WEST     PASSAGE 


But  the  letters  of  welcome  sent  to  the  Sandwich  Islands 
were  never  called  for.  Little  by  little  alarm  began  to  be  felt, 
and  relief  parties  left  England  early  in  1848.  These  were 
quickly  followed  by  others. 

Sad   News. 

Twelve  years,  however,  passed  away  before  any  definite 
trace  of  the  lost  explorers  was  found.  Then  a  small  steam- 
yacht,  called  the  Fox,  commanded  by  Captain  M'Clintock,  set 
sail  from  England  on  July  i,  1857.  She  returned  two  years 
later  with  the  whole  sad  story,  gathered  from  a  few  wan- 
dering natives,  and  relics  found  here  and  there  upon  the 
snowy  wastes.  Principal  among  the  latter  was  a  document 
discovered  in  a  rocky  cairn  built  on  a  snow  ridge,  along  which 
nine  years  before,  a  forlorn  party  from  the  Erebus  had  passed. 
On  this  paper  Captain  M'Clintock  read: 

'April  25,  1848.  H.M.  ships  Terror  and  Erebus  were  de- 
serted on  April  22,  five  leagues  from  this  place,  having  been 
beset  (by  ice)  since  September  12,  1846  .  .  .  Sir  John  Frank- 
lin died  on  June  it,  1847,  and  the  total  loss  by  deaths  in  the 
expedition  has  been  nine  officers  and  fifteen  men.' 

Then   followed   the   signatures   of    Captains   Crozier   and 
Fitzjames,    and   beneath   were 
added  the  words : 

'  Start  to-morrow,  26,  for 
Back's  Fish  River.' 

With  this  to  guide  him, 
M'Clintock  followed,  to  find  at 
intervals  upon  the  desolate  path 
sad  proofs  of  how  one  by  one 
the  starving  men  had  fallen 
and  died,  till  none  were  left  to 
push  on  for  help  they  hoped  to 
find  from  natives  at  the  Fish 

River.  Franklin's  Watch,  found  among  the  relics. 


THE    NORTH-WEST     PASSAGE 

Success  in   Spite   of  All. 

But  the  records  brought  back  by  the  Fox  contained  other 
information  as  well.  On  the  same  piece  of  paper  upon  which 
Captain  Crozier  told  of  the  death  of  his  commander,  there 
was  another  note  written  many  months  before  by  a  Lieutenant 
Gore.  It  described  a  sledge  journey  made  from  the  ships  to 
a  point  at  which  open  water  was  seen  to  the  westward,  and 
this  note  leaves  no  doubt  that  before  Sir  John  Franklin's 
death  a  North-West  Passage  was  discovered  —  barred  to 
him  by  twenty  short  miles  of  relentless  ice,  which  two  Arc- 
tic summers  had  unfortunately  failed  to  melt. 


Some  of  the  Relics  found. 


30,000  Miles  Through 
Wild  Africa. 


The 

Adventures 

of  a 

Famous 

Missionary 

and 

Explorer. 


David  Livingstone. 


DAVID   LIVINGSTONE. 

David  Livingstone  was  born  on  March  \9t  1813^ 
in  a  hwmble  cottage  eight  miles  from  Glasgow, 
At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  earning  his  own  living 
in  a  cotton  factofy^  employing  every  spare 
moment  for  the  improvement  of  his  knowledge, 
thus  fitting  himself  for  greater  tasks.  In  1838  he 
offered  his  services  to  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  and,  having  practised  as  a  doctor  in  a 
London  hospital,  he  was  sent  out  to  Africa  in 
1840.  Between  that  date  and  1873  he  returned 
home  only  on  two  occasions,  in  1857  and  1864. 

He  died  at  Chitambo  on  May  X,  1873,  and  his 
native  servants  carried  his  body  to  Zanzibar,  a 
difficult  journey  occupying  nine  months.  Thence 
it  was  brought  to  England,  and  laid  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  on  April  18, 1874, 


30,000  Miles  Through  Wild  Africa. 

IT  was  an  exciting  moment.  For  some  weeks  past  the 
natives  of  the  little  village  of  Mabotsa  had  been  troubled 

by  the  night  attacks  of  marauding  lions,  which  leapt  into 
their  cattle-pens  and  destroyed  numbers  of  their  cows.  Suc- 
cess had  made  them  so  bold  that  they  even  ventured  to  come 
in  the  daytime;  and  when  the  natives  found  this  to  be  the  case, 
they  said,  '  These,  are  no  common  lions,  but  bewitched  by 
our  enemy,  and  we  dare  not  go  out  to  hunt  them.' 

Fortunately  for  these  timid  people  help  was  near  at  hand, 
for  in  the  midst  of  their  trouble  a  white  man  arrived  at  the 
village  bringing  with  him  all  that  was  necessary  for  establish- 
ing a  mission  station  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Mabotsa,  near 
which  the  village  stood.  This  new  arrival  was  David  Living- 
stone. 

An   Exciting   Adventure. 

Hearing  the  wonderful  tale  of  the  four-footed  robbers, 
he  called  a  number  of  the  bravest  men  round  him  and  set 
out  to  attack  the  enemy.  And  now  the  exciting  moment 
had  come.  With  as  much  courage  as  they  could  muster,  the 
black  men,  armed  with  spears,  spread  themselves  into  a 
great  ring  surrounding  the  district  in  which  they  knew  the 
lions  were  hiding.  With  loud  shouts  and  clappings  of  hands 
they  gradually  drew  nearer  and  nearer  together,  ascending 
the  slope  of  a  little  hill  covered  by  trees  and  bushes.  And  on 


30.000   MILES  THROUGH   WILD  AFRICA 

this  hill  there  presently  appeared  a  large  lion,  sitting  on  a  soli- 
tary rock — the  better  to  view  the  approaching  foe.  David 
Livingstone,  with  a  native  companion,  standing  in  the  lower 
ground,  raised  his  gun;  but  before  he  could  shoot,  the  com- 
panion discharged  his  own  weapon.  The  shot  missed  its 
mark,  and  the  lion  bounded  away,  the  line  of  timid  hunters 
opening  to  let  him  pass.  Again  the  ring  was  formed,  but 
again  the  enemy  escaped,  and  the  expedition  seemed  likely 
to  end  in  defeat,  when  Livingstone  spied  a  lion  hiding  be- 
hind a  bush  thirty  yards  away. 

'  I  took  a  good  aim,'  he  says,  '  and  fired  both  barrels. 
The  men  called  out,  "He  is  shot!  he  is  shot!"  but  I  told 
them  to  wait  till  I  had  loaded  again.  When  in  the  act  of 
ramming  down  the  bullets,  I  heard  a  shout,  and,  looking  half 
round,  saw  the  lion  in  the  act  of  springing  upon  me.  He 
caught  my  shoulder  as  he  sprang,  and  we  both  came  to  the 
ground  together.  Growling  horribly  close  to  my  ear,  he  shook 
me  as  a  terrier  does  a  rat.  Turning  round  to  relieve  myself  of 
the  weight,  as  he  had  one  paw  on  the  back  of  my  head,  I  saw 
his  eyes  directed  to  Mebalwe,  who  was  trying  to  shoot  him  at 
a  distance  of  ten  or  fifteen  yards.  .  .  .  The  lion  immediately 
left  me,  and,  attacking  Mebalwe,  bit  him  in  the  thigh. 
Another  man  attempted  to  spear  the  lion  while  he  was  biting 
Mebalwe.  He  turned  at  once  upon  this  man,  gripping  him 
by  the  shoulder,  but  next  moment  fell  dead  from  the  wounds 
received  from  the  first  shot.' 

The  village  was  no  longer  plagued  by  the  nightly  visits, 
for  it  is  well  known  that  when  one  lion  of  a  marauding 
group  is  killed  the  rest  will  leave  the  neighbourhood. 

A  Brave  Explorer. 

Thus  did  David  Livingstone,  in  the  year  1843,  come  to 
this  remote  corner  of  Africa  and  rid  it  of  an  evil.  Who  would 
have  guessed  at  that  time  how  many  other  and  greater  evils 
he  would  remove — how  far,  single-handed,   he   would   carry 


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D      Livingstone's  Fight  with  the  Lion,     n 

l*-ii  ini-  ini  ini — ini  rnr—  ni  ir-*  I 


While  loading  his  gun,  Livingstone  looked  half  round,  and  saw  the  lion  in  the  act  of  springing 
at  him.  The  animal  caught  his  shoulder,  bore  him  to  the  ground,  and  shook  him  like  a  terrier  does 
a  rat.  He  then  turned  from  Livingstone,  and  attacked  his  servants ;  but  at  length  fell  dead  from  the 
wounds  he  received  from  the  first  shot. 


30,000   MILES  THROUGH   WILD   AFRICA 

the  light  through  the  'dark  continent,'  and  die  at  last  in  the 
midst  of  his  labours  ? 

The  scene  of  his  adventure  with  the  lion  would  now  be 
described  as  the  neighbourhood  of  Maf eking,  a  spot  just 
within  the  border  of  the  Transvaal. 

Sent*  out  by  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  1840, 
he  started  from  Algoa  Bay  on  the  long  march  to  Kuruman, 
in  Bechuana  Land,  the  most  northern  station  established 
at  that  time  by  Europeans.  From  this  point,  where  he  made  a 
close  study  of  native  languages,  he  lost  no  time  in  pushing 
farther  into  the  wilderness  in  search  of  a  suitable  place  for  a 
new  station.    This  he  finally  found  at  Mabotsa. 

To  follow  Livingstone  on  all  the  paths  he  trod  through 
the  unknown  continent  would  be  too  great  a  task  here;  but 
perhaps  we  may  overtake  him  at  a  few  of  the  points  where 
he  lingered  in  the  thirty  long  years  he  gave  to  Africa. 

Filling  in  the  Map. 

If  you  would  learn  at  a  glance  the  story  of  this  great 
and  brave  man's  labours,  look  at  a  map  of  Central  Africa 
published  before  1840,  and  then  at  one  issued  forty  years  later. 

Ever  seeking  for  new  horizons,  he  started  out  afresh  in 
1849,  ^^^  did  ^^ot  return-  to  the  outlying  station  till  Lake 
Ngami  and  a  portion  of  the  Zambesi  had  been  explored.  It 
was  like  peeping  into  an  enchanting  book,  and  he  could  not 
close  it  again  until  the  story  had  been  read.  So,  sending  his 
wife  and  children  back  to  England,  he  once  more  (attended 
by  a  few  natives)  sought  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi.  Here, 
entering  into  friendly  relations  with  a  native  chief,  he  under- 
took a  journey  on  the  latter's  account  to  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  it  was  while  returning  from  this  expedition  that  he 
visited  the  Victoria  Falls,  now  such  a  familiar  natural  wonder 
in  all  our  school  books. 

Then  followed  six  years  of  exploration  of  the  Shire  River 
up  to   Lake   Nyassa.     After  a    short    visit    to    England,    he 


30,000   MILES  THROUGH  WILD  AFRICA 


Livingstone  being  carried  by  his  faithful  attendants. 

returned  to  the  tropical  forests,  piercing  his  way  to  Lake 
Tanganyika,  and,  traversing  a  thousand  miles  of  unknown 
country,  he  discovered  Lake  Bangweolo.  In  spite  of  severe 
illness,  this  journey  was  continued  till  the  banks  of  the 
Lualaba  were  reached. 

Closing  Years. 

So  many  years  had  now  passed  since  the  civilized  world 
had   heard   of   him,   that    search  expeditions  were  sent  out. 


30,000   MILES  THROUGH   WILB   AFRICA 

and  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley,  the  leader  of  one  of  these,  found  him 
in  sore  need  of  help.  His  wants  relieved,  he  continued  his 
heavy  labours  until  one  May  morning  in  1873,  when  his  faith- 
ful native  servants  entering  his  hut  found  him  dead  at  his 
bedside  in  the  attitude  of  prayer. 

In  all  the  long  story  of  discovery  in  Africa,  no  name  is 
so  great  as  that  of  David  Livingstone,  the  man  who  won 
the  affections  of  its  people,  and  marched  alone  in  forty  years 
over  30,000  miles  of  unknown  paths. 


The  Victoria  Falls. 


From  Atlantic 
TO  Pacific 


Making  the 
Canadian 
Pacific 
Railway. 


BY  THE 

ALL-RED 
ROUTE. 


Lord  Strathcona. 


LORD   STRATHCONA. 

Donald  Alexander  Smith  was  born  at  Forres, 
in  Scotland,  in  1820,  and  died  on  January  21, 
1914*  He  went  to  Labrador  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  and  rapidly  rose  in  the  service  of  the 
Hudson^s  Bay  Company.  In  1869  he  prevented 
a  rebellion  without  the  use  of  arms.  He  planned 
and  carried  out  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway, 
completing  the  work  five  years  before  the  time 
allotted  for  it.  He  was  knighted  in  1886,  and 
made  a  peer  in  1897.  During  the  Boer  War  he 
armed  600  mounted  men  for  the  service  of  the 
Empire,  and  he  also  did  much  to  help  the  free 
hospitals  of  Canada  and  England. 


From    Atlantic    to    Pacific 

By  the  All=Red   Route. 

IF  an  inquisitive  eagle,  soaring  above  the  lonely  crags  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains   on   November  7,  1885,  had  looked 

down  upon  a  certain  spot  near  the  Columbia  River  and 
about  350  miles  from  Vancouver,  it  would  have  seen  a  very 
unusual  sight.  A  railway  train  had  come  to  a  standstill  at 
this  spot  to  allow  a  number  of  gentlemen  to  alight,  and 
these,  surrounded  by  a  great  concourse  of  working  men, 
had  gathered  together  to  see  one  among  them  perform  an 
action,  apparently  simple  and  uninteresting.  At  the  side  of 
one  of  the  shining  rails  was  an  iron  plate  with  a  hole  in  it, 
and  through  this  hole  a  spike  had  to  be  driven  which  would 
fasten  it  firmly  to   the  wooden  sleeper. 

Surely  it  was  not  necessary,  you  will  say,  for  all  these 
gentlemen  to  come  from  a  distance  to  do  what  any  one  of 
the  stalwart  workmen  could  have  done  with  the  greatest 
ease !  Ah,  but  it  was  a  very  s  pecial  spike,  the  last  of  millions 
that  had  been  driven  in  the  course  of  constructing  a  railway 
which  was  to  join  the  town  of  Montreal  with  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  by  so  doing — but  more  of  that  presently,  or  we 
shall  miss  seeing  the  ceremony. 

Driving   the   Last   SpiRe. 

There  were  no  flags  waving  their  bright  colours  in  that 
lonely  mountain  valley;   no  trumpets  to  sound  their  fanfares 


FROM    ATLANTIC    TO    PACIFIC 

of  triumph.  Yet  the  achievement  of  a  great  undertaking  was 
being  celebrated.  At  the  appointed  moment  the  spike  was 
placed  in  the  hole;  a  white-haired  gentleman  (Mr.  Donald 
Alexander  Smith),  wearing  a  silk  hat  and  long  black  coat, 
seized  a  heavy  hammer,  and  after  saying  a  few  words  to  his 
companions  about  the  value  of  the  railway  they  were  in  the 
act  of  completing,  he  '  drove  it  home.' 

What  ringing  blows  they  were !  It  is  scarcely  an  exag- 
geration to  say  that  they  echoed  all  through  the  British 
Empire.  The  shippers  of  Victoria,  British  Columbia,  heard 
them,  and  knew  that  they  meant  an  increase  in  the  carriage 
of  merchandise  through  their  town  to  and  from  Japan,  be- 
cause the  railway  would  lessen  the  distance  between  London 
and  Yokohama  by  many  hundreds  of  miles.  The  farmers  of 
Manitoba,  a  thousand  miles  away,  heard  them  too,  and  knew 
that  they  meant  a  larger  market  for  their  corn  and  fruit ;  and 
farther  away  still,  in  the  old  Canadian  cities,  the  merchants 
heard  them,  and  knew  that  commerce  in  the  great  western 
lands,  hitherto  unreached  by  railways,  would  grow  more  pros- 
perous. If  you  had  asked  all  these  people  what  the  hammer 
blows  said,  many  would  surely  have  replied,  '  Stand  fast, 
and  you  shall  win.' 

The   Road   that  led  to   Success. 

For  everybody  knew  that  before  that  spike  was  driven, 
long  years  of  labour,  disappointment,  hope,  and  doubt  had 
been  overcome  because  the  gentleman  who  swung  the  ham- 
mer had  stood  fast  to  his  purpose.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
realize  that  a  wonderful  road  must  be  followed  to  reach 
such  a  success  as  this ;  and  if  we  look  back  a  little,  we  shall 
find  that  Mr.  Donald  Smith's  road  was  wonderful  indeed. 

Bom  at  the  village  of  Forres,  in  Scotland,  in  1820, 
he  set  out,  while  still  a  boy,  for  the  snowy  solitudes  of 
Labrador,  to  earn  his  living  in  the  employ  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company.   At  the  loneliest  out-post  he  arrived,  friendless 


pi  trti —  ini  -r— 1 1  1 1  rJOl  ,  lOL  "'^'^ 

□       Driving    the    Last    Spike.      J 

v^i  inr-  ini  1 1  1 1  — ir>i  ini  irV 


The  white-haired  gentleman  seized  a  heavy  hammer,  and  drove  home  the  spike,  the  last 
of'  millions  that  had  been  used  in  making  the  great  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  which  is  more 
than  3,000  miles  in  length,  and  connects  the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific  Ocean. 


FROM    ATLANTIC    TO    PACIFIC 

and  poor,  after  a  journey  of  hundreds  of  miles  on  snow- 
shoes.  Who  could  have  imagined,  on  seeing  him  that  day, 
what  wonders  he  would  work  in  Canada;  that  upon  him 
would  largely  depend  the  rapid  spread  of  the  British  Empire 
over  the  vast  wastes  stretching  from  the  Eastern  settlements 


View  in  the  Rockies. 

on  the  St.  Lawrence  River  to  the  far-away  Pacific  Ocean? 
Yet  young  Donald  Smith  had  brought  with  him  from  Scot- 
land the  most  useful  tools  that  an  empire-builder  can 
possess:  love  of  duty,  honesty  in  dealing  with  others,  and 
determination. 

Rising  rapidly  in  the  service  of  the  Company,  he  became 
in  1868  the  chief  officer  in  North  America.  Shortly  after 
this  the  great  districts  over  which  he  ruled  were  transferred 
from  the  care  of  the  Company  to  the  Government,  and  the 
province  which  you  will  find  marked  on  the  map  as  Manitoba 
was  formed.  From  that  time  Mr.  Donald  "Smith  did  more 
than  any  man  to  spread  prosperity  through  the  far- 
stretching  prairies,  and  worked  with  such  energy  that  farms 
and  villages  and  towns  grew  up  as  if  by  magic,  where  but  a 
short   time   before   white   men  were  seldom  seen. 


BY    THE    ALL=RED    ROUTE 

At  last  there  came  a  day  when  the  settlers  in  British 
Columbia,  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  said  that  they 
were  willing  to  be  considered  as  part  of  Canada  if  a  railway 
could  be  made  between  them  and  Montreal,  a  distance  of 
nearly  3,000  miles.  The  task  was  begun,  but  it  was  found 
to  be  too  difficult,  and  quite  a  dark  shadow  of  disap- 
pointment was  falling  upon  the  Canadian  people,  when  Mr. 
Donald  Smith,  talking  the  matter  over  with  a  number  of 
gentlemen  as  courageous  as  himself,  undertook  to  build  the 
railway.  It  is  too  long  a  story  for  us  to  tell  here,  because  it 
was  nearly  3,000  miles  of  trouble  and  difficulty,  by  rocky 
wastes,  through  mighty  forests,  across  boundless  prairies, 
and  over  snow-capped  mountain  ranges;  but  it  was  done  at 
last,  as  we  have  already  seen. 

'Stand   Fast.' 

At  one  time  the  difficulty  was  so  great  that  a  message 
was  sent  to  Mr.  Donald  Smith  to  say  that  it  was  impossible 
to  go  on.  He  replied  by  telegraph  in  the  one  word 
'  Craigellachie,'  which  means  '  Stand  fast,'  and  the  shovel 
and  pickaxe  began  again.  Is  it  not,  therefore,  only  right 
and  proper  that  the  little  station  among  the  lonely  moun- 


Montreal,  from  Mount  Royal. 


FROM    ATLANTIC    TO    PACIFIC 

tains  where  that  last  spike  was   driven     (and    a   monument 
stands  there  to  record  the  fact)  is  known  as  Craigellachie  ? 

For  these  great  services  to  the  Empire  the  poor  boy  who 
set  out  from  Forres  in  1838  was  made  a  peer  of  the  realm 
in  1897,  under  the  title  of  Lord  Strathcona  and  Mount 
Royal. 


A  Scene  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


From   Khartoum 

to  the  Albert  Nyanza 


How  BaRer 
Discovered 
the  Source 
of  the 
White  Nile. 


Sir  Samuel  Baker. 


SIR    SAMUEL    BAKER. 

Samuel  White  Baker  was  born  in  1821,  He 
explored  the  Blue  Nile  and  traced  the  course  of 
the  White  Nile  from  Khartoum  to  the  Albert 
Nyanza  in  1864.  He  was  knighted  on  his  return 
to  England  from  this  journey ,  and  went  again  in 
1869,  spending  four  years  in  the  Uganda  country, 
suppressing  the  slave  trade,  and  bringing  the 
whole  region  under  the  control  of  the  British 
flag.  Back  in  England  by  October  9,  1873,  he 
lectured  before  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
two  months  later.  In  1879  he  made  a  valuable 
exploration  of  the  island  of  Cyprus. 

Sir  Samuel  Baker  was  the  author  of  many 
excellent  books  describing  his  travels.  He  died 
in  1893  at  the  age  of  seventy-two. 


From  Khartoum  to  the  Albert  Nyanza. 

EVERYTHING  was  in  readiness  except  the  weather. 
Servants  had  been  engaged,  tents  carefully  packed,  the 
line  of  route  chosen,  and  nothing  remained  to  be  done 
but  set  boldly  out  into  the  unknown  desert  in  search  of  the 
great  river  flowing  solemnly  by.  But  the  weather  was  in  a 
bad  humour,  and  two  persons  who  had  gone  to  much  trouble 
and  expense  to  make  the  arrangements  just  referred  to 
watched  the  sky  with  anxious  glances.  These  were  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Samuel  Baker,  and  the  place  in  which  King  Weather 
was  thus  keeping  them  prisoners  was  the  far-away  city  of 
Khartoum  on  the  river  Nile.  The  year  was  1862,  a  period  at 
which  the  continent  of  Africa  was  receiving  much  attention 
from  various  brave  explorers. 

Indeed,  while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Baker  were  fretting  at  their 
enforced  idleness,  interesting  though  uncertain  rumours 
reached  them  concerning  two  travellers,  who  had  set  out 
more  than  a  year  and  a  half  ago  from  Zanzibar  with  the  ob- 
ject of  striking  the  head-waters  of  the  Nile,  and  then  following 
the  stream  to  Khartoum  and  the  Mediterranean.  No  reliable 
news  had  been  received  of  these  travellers  since  they  dis- 
appeared into  the  wilderness,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine 
the  eagerness  with  which  Mr.  Baker  and  his  wife  waited 
the  chance  of  going  to  meet  them. 

A  New  Companion. 

Before  that  chance  came  another  companion  was  to  join 


FROM    KHARTOUM   TO    ALBERT    NYANZA 

them.  One  day,  while  sitting  at  tea,  a  small  Egyptian  boy  sud- 
denly presented  himself  before  them^.and  with  more  fervour 
than  the  greatest  explorer  had  ever  shown  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  join  the  expedition. 

'  But  my  arrangements  are  all  made/  said  Mr.  Baker. 
'  And  why  should  one  so  young  wish  to  leave  Khartoum  in 
search  of  danger  ? ' 

'  The  Mission  School  does  not  want  Saat/  replied  the 
boy.  '  The  Mission  School  say  he  is  a  thief,  and  it  is  not 
so.  There  may  be  many  who  are  thieves  in  the  Mission 
School,  but  Saat  is  not  one.' 

The  would-be  explorer  was  so  evidently  in  earnest  that 
Mr.  Baker  called  at  the  school,  where  he  was  informed  that 
Saat  was  in  truth  an  honest  boy,  wholly  mistaken  in  think- 
ing that  they  thought  him  a  thief.  So,  to  his  great  delight, 
Saat  was  engaged  to  accompany  the  expedition,  and  King 
■Weather — as  though  approving  of  this  arrangement — at  once 
put  on  a  smiling  face,  and  the  caravan  set  out. 

Saat's  Good  Service. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Mr.  Baker  that  he  listened  to 
the  pleadings  of  little  Saat,  for,  very  few  days  had  passed 
when  the  boy,  by  his  faithfulness,  saved  the  expedition  from 
disaster.  Lying  awake  at  night,  he  overheard  a  number  of  his 
fellow  servants  arranging  a  plot  for  the  murder  of  Mr.  Baker 
at  a  suitable  time  and  the  capture  of  all  his  property.  Little 
Saat  cautiously  told  his  story  at  dawn,  and  the  plotters  were 
surprised  by  having  their  arms  removed.  They  were  then 
dismissed  from  service,  and  the  march  was  continued  with- 
out them. 

A  Great  Undertaking. 

To  get  some  idea  of  the  journey  our  travellers  had 
undertaken  it  is  necessary  to  look  at  the  map;  and  when 
doing  so,  remember  that  the  Africa  of  those  days  was  not  the 


P' 


'■^ 


D       Tracing  the  Source  of  the  Nile.      Q 

I'-'i  II "  " !'•  II  "  'I  'I  — 1^^^ 


After  suffering  many  hardships  and  dangers,  Sir  Samuel  Baker  succeeded  in  tracing  the  White 
Nile  from  Khartoum  to  its  source,  which  he  named  the  Albert  Nyanza.  He  then  explored  the 
country  between  this  vast  sheet  of  water  and  the  larger  lake,  Victoria  Nyanza,  discovered  by 
Spcfce;  and  a  few  years  later  he  visited  the  Uganda  country,  suppressed  the  slave  trade,  and 
brought  the  whole  country  under  the  protection  of  the  British  flag. 


FROM    KHARTOUM   TO    ALBERT    NYANZA 


well-known  country  it  is  to-day.  Khartoum  was  a  native  town 
far  removed  from  civilization,  and  the  waters  of  the  Nile  were 
never  ploughed  by  pleasantly  furnished  steamers.  Small  and 
comfortless  native  craft  only  were  to  be  found  upon  its  tide; 

but  the  true  ex- 
p  1  o  r  e  r  never 
grumbles  over 
things  of  this 
sort.  Long 
desert  tramps 
and  occasional 
voyages  on  the 
broad  stream  of 
the  White  Nile 
at  last  brought 
the  party  to 
Gondokoro,  an 
unhealthy     little 

A  Steamboat  on  the  Nile.  village,        thoUgh 

of  great  importance  as  the  seat  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment,  and  a   centre   of  the  ivory  and  slave  trades. 

Resting  on  his  boat  at  this  unpleasant  place,  Mr.  Baker 
was  one  day  surprised  by  hearing  in  the  distance  the  sound  of 
guns  fired  in  rapid  succession.  At  the  same  time  a  number  of 
his  servants  came  running  towards  him  full  of  excitement  to 
say  that  they  had  met  two  white  men  who  had  '  walked  all 
the  way  from  the  sea.' 

Guessing  at  once  what  this  meant,  Baker  sped  off  to  meet 
the  new  arrivals,  and  we  can  imagine  his  delight  when  a  few 
minutes  later  he  was  shaking  hands  with  Messrs.  Speke  and 
Grant,  the  travellers  we  have  already  spoken  of.  We  can  only 
mention  a  small  portion  of  the  great  and  glorious  news  they 
gave  to  Mr.  Samuel  Baker.  The  main  source  of  the  Nile  had 
been  discovered — a  huge  lake  on  the  far-away  equator, 
which  they  had  named  Victoria  Nyanza. 


FROM    KHARTOUM   TO   ALBERT    NYANZA 


What  Was  Left  to  be  Done. 

'  But/  said  Captain  Speke,  '  I  regret  that  I  was  unable  to 
explore  a  second  lake  of  which  the  natives  told  me,  and 
which  perhaps  has  some  connexion  with  the  great  water 
system  that  feeds  the  Nile.' 

'  Then  you  have  left  something  for  me  to  do,'    was  the 
reply,    '  and  I  shall  continue 
my   expedition   with   all    the 
greater  vim  for  your  achieve- 
ment.' 

And   so   he   did.     Speke 
and  Grant  having  taken  their 


'^'^♦h. 


Photo  by'] 


The  Blue  Nile  at  Khartoum. 


[K.  Buchta. 


departure  on  the  way  to  the  Mediterranean,  Baker  pushed 
southward.  A  journey  of  175  miles,  during  which  he  and 
his  party  suffered  many  hardships  and  dangers,  brought  him 
in  sight  of  a  vast  sheet  of  water   that    sparkled   under   the 


FROM    KHARTOUM    TO   ALBERT    NYANZA 

tropic  sun  like  quick-silver.  He  named  it  the  Albert  Nyanza, 
and  spent  a  long  period  diligently  exploring  the  country 
between  it  and  the  still  greater  lake  which  Speke  had  dis- 
covered. It  is  sad  to  have  to  tell  that  on  the  return  journey 
to  Khartoum  the  faithful  little  servant  Saat  died  of  the  plague, 
and  was  buried  at  a  lonely  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
under  the  shade  of  a  clump  of  palm-trees. 

Rewards. 

For  the  services  rendered  to  the  Empire  by  this  famous 
journey,  Mr.  Baker  was  made  a  knight.  A  few  years  later 
he  returned  to  the  same  region  with  a  force  of  men,  com- 
pletely put  down  the  slave  trade,  and  placed  the  country 
under  the  protection  of  the  Egyptian  Government.  It  has 
flourished  exceedingly  since  those  days,  coming  more  directly 
under  British  management,  and  tlie  vast  continent  of  Africa 
has  no  more  beautiful  district  to  show  than  that  of  the 
Uganda  Protectorate. 


The  Great  Pyramid  and  Sphinx. 


How  Speke 
Found  the 
Secret  of  the 
Victoria 
Nyanza. 


THE  BIRTHPLACE 

OF  THE 

NILE. 


John  Manning  Sp-k-.. 


JOHN    HANNIlSlG    SPEKE. 

Speke  was  born  at  Jbrdans,  near  Ilminster, 
Somersett  in  1827.  He  joined  the  Army,  and 
served  in  the  Crimean  War.  Promoted  captain, 
he  went  in  1858  with  an  expedition  under  Captain 
Burton  to  look  for  the  lakes  in  equatorial  Africa, 
of  which  the  natives  only  had  spoken.  Tan- 
ganyika was  found  and  fully  explored.  Speke 
then  went  on  alone  and  reached  Victoria  Nyanza. 
This  he  visited  again  five  years  later,  discovered 
the  outlet  of  the  Nile  from  its  northern  shore, 
and  followed  the  stream  to  Gondokoro.  Here  he 
met  Baker,  and  gave  him  information  which 
led  to  the  discovery  of  Albert  Nyanza.  Speke 
returned  to  England  in  1864,  and  in  the  same 
year  met  his  death  by  a  gun  accident.  He  pub- 
lished several  interesting  accounts  of  his  travels. 


The   Birthplace  of  the   Nile. 

THROUGH  the  dense  jungles  and  fertile  plains  of  equa- 
torial Africa,  an  exploring  party,  led  by  an  English 
officer,  had  for  some  days  been  travelling  northwards 
from  the  district  of  Unyamyembe.  The  path  was  a  toilsome 
one,  gradually  rising  into  higher  country,  but  revealing  at 
every  step  more  and  more  beauty.  Captain  John  Hanning 
Speke,  the  leader  we  have  mentioned,  was  second  in  com- 
mand of  an  expedition  which  had  lately  thrown  much  light 
on  this  portion  of  the  Dark  Continent,  one  of  their  greatest 
triumphs  being  the  discovery  of  Lake  Tanganyika. 

A  Great  Discovery. 

But  after  this  event  the  head  of  the  expedition  (Captain 
Burton)  had  fallen  ill,  and  Speke  gained  permission  to  take 
a  few  men  in  search  of  a  still  vaster  lake  which  the  natives 
spoke  about  in  a  vague  uncertain  way.  Setting  out,  therefore, 
in  July  1858  from  the  little  village  where  his  chief  was  resting, 
the  young  officer  pushed  his  way  northwards;  and  though 
troubled  greatly  by  a  painful  affection  of  the  eyes  which  well- 
nigh  rendered  him  blind,  he  allowed  no  check  to  his  progress. 
At  last  the  goal  was  reached.  From  an  elevated  point  he  and 
his  companions  looked  forth  over  a  wide  waste  of  waters  with 
no  horizon  but  the  sky. 

How  much  more  wonderful  it  would  have  been  if  Captain 
Speke  had  realized  what  a  few  years  were  to  show — that  this 


THE   BIRTHPLACE   OF  THE   NILE 

vast  expanse  of  water/  which  he  named  the  Victoria  Nyanza, 
was  the  largest  fresh-water  lake  on  earth  except  Lake  Superior, 
and  that  its  area  was  more  than  equal  to  the  whole  of  Ireland, 
while  round  its  northern  shores  lay  the  most  beautiful  and 
productive  regions  of  equatorial  Africa ;  a  region  which  would 
become  a  protectorate  of  the  Empire  reached  by  railways  from 
the  coast,  and  growing  harvests  for  British  trade  to  deal  with. 
But  without  knowing  all  this  he  knew  quite  enough  to  tell  him 
that  he  had  made  a  discovery  of  great  importance ;  he  knew 
that  the  Victoria  Nyanza  lay  at  a  height  above  the  sea 
of  nearly  5,000  feet,  collecting  its  water  from  surrounding 
mountain  ranges  of  greater  altitude. 

The  Source  of  the  Nile. 

But,  best  of  all,  a  careful  study  of  the  matter  led  him  to 
believe  that  this  beautiful  lake  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Nile, 
which  so  many  travellers  had  searched  for  through  so  many 
centuries.  With  this  conviction  he  hurried  back  to  Un- 
yamyembe,  and  told  Captain  Burton  what  he  thought.  But  as 
Captain  Burton  declined  to  see  any  reason  in  his  arguments, 
Speke  set  out  for  England  to  tell  his  tale  to  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society.  Here  he  was  listened  to  with  more  interest, 
and  a  fresh  expedition  was  arranged  at  once. 

In  i860  Captain  Speke,  accompanied  by  a  military  friend 
named  James  Grant,  went  once  more  to  read  the  secret  of  the 
Victoria  Nyanza.  With  a  supply  of  scientific  instruments,  fire- 
arms, and  a  quantity  of  small  presents  for  the  various  native 
chiefs  who  might  otherwise  bar  the  way,  the  explorers  started 
from  the  mainland  opposite  Zanzibar,  and  through  unknown 
Africa  cut  a  new  path,  which  ended  two  years  later  at  Gondo- 
koro  ,on  the  Nile. 

That  long  journey  meant  much  for  the  British  Empire.  It 
gave  us  knowledge  of  the  beautiful  but  cruelly  governed 
dominions  of  King  Mtesa,  and  of  all  the  northern  shores 
of  the  great  lake,  and  it  showed  how  the  waters  of  the  baby 


[p^ 


DOC 


DOC 


3C=]Ol=IC 


30[ 


^ 


0     The   Birthplace  of  the  Nile,    d 

H-ii  mr-  nnr  ic^or^i  lOi  — ir>i  ir-*! 


Speke  started  from  the  mainland  near  Zanzibar,  and  made  his  way  through  unknown  Africa, 
and  after  two  years'  journey  reached  the  beautiful  lake  which  is  the  birthplace  of  the  Nile,  which 
many  travellers  had  searched  for  in  vain  for  hundreds  of  years. 


THE   BIRTHPLACE   OF  THE    NILE 

Nile  ripple  over  the  edge  of  this  huge  cup  in  a  cascade  twelve 
feet  high,  and  begin  their  journey  of  3,470  miles  to  the  Medit- 
erranean. 

An  Encounter  with  King  Mtesa. 

In  spite  of  the  presents  which  Captain  Speke  carried 
with  him,  he  often  found  his  path  obstructed  by  hostile  men, 
and  months  would  sometimes  pass  away  before  he  would 
be  allowed  to  pursue  the  journey.  It  is  a  story  that  every 
British  boy  and  girl  would  delight  to  read,  for  through  all  his 
trials  Speke  showed  a  patience  combined  with  firmness  which 
the  most  savage  of  the  chiefs  he  met  was  obliged  to  give  way  to 
in  the  end.  A  good  example  of  his  courage  is  the  incident 
which  took  place  when  he  approached  the  capital  of  Uganda, 
King  Mtesa's  country.  Speke  was  alone  at  the  time,  the 
two  travellers  having  parted  with  the  object  of  making  more 
extensive  investigations,  the  arrangement  being  that  they 
would  meet  again  later  at  a  certain  point  on  the  chosen  route. 

As  Speke  drew  near  to  Mtesa's  town  he  sent  an  inter- 
preter to  tell  the  king  of  his  approach,  and  to  ask  for  suitable 
shelter.  In  reply,  the  king  dispatched  his  '  chamberlain  '  (if 
such  a  savage  monarch  may  be  supposed  to  have  had  such  an 
ofBcial),  and  this  old  man  conducted  the  explorer  to  a  miser- 
able hut  some  distance  from  the  palace.  Speke's  anger  was 
roused  at  the  insult. 

'  Go  back  to  your  king,'  said  he,  '  and  tell  him  that  one 
who  comes  from  the  Great  White  Queen  must  be  treated  with 
more  respect.' 

The  chamberlain  meekly  did  as  he  was  told,  but  shortly 
returned  with  the  statement  that  King  Mtesa  was  not  inclined 
to  offer  better  lodgings  than  those  he  had  already  granted. 
Speke  saw  clearly  that  his  majesty  of  Uganda  was  putting  a 
cunning  test  upon  him.  A  man  of  less  determination  would 
have  given  way,  and  thus  made  himself  the  victim  of  a  tyrant. 
Instead  of  taking  such  an  unwise  course,  he  showed  greater 


TFfF    RTRTHPT  ACF,    OF    TTfF    NfT.E 

'S' m 


The  dominions  of  Mtesa  were  most  cruelly  governed,  his  subjects  being  in  constant  fear  of  their 
lives.    Here  we  see  Speke  stopping  the  tyrant  when  about  to  slay  one  of  his  slaves, 

anger  than  ever  (probably  more  than  he  felt),  and  told  the 
messenger  that  if  he  was  not  invited  to  suitable  lodgings  in 
the  palace  itself  before  the  sun  went  down,  Mtesa  should 
answer  for  it  to  the  Great  White  Queen  in  a  way  he  little 
expected. 

This  stern  message  had  its  effect,  and  not  only  was  Speke 


THE   BIRTHPLACE   OF  THE   NILE 

admitted  a  guest  at  the  royal  household,  but  when  the  king 
had  got  over  the  sulks  which  this  defiance  caused  he  became 
extremely  friendly.  The  visit,  however,  was  far  from  a  pleasant 
one;  for  no  crueller  man  ever  ruled  in  Africa  than  Mtesa, 
and  our  explorer  breathed  more  freely  when  the  road  was 
open  once  more  for  his  northern  journey. 

A  Sad  Ending. 

After  following  the  Nile  for  a  short  distance  from  Victoria 
Nyanza,  native  warfare  compelled  Speke  and  Grant  to  make 
a  detour ;  so  that  many  miles  were  traversed  before  the  river- 
bank  was  reached  again.  This  unfortunate  fact  led  Speke 
into  much  trouble  later  on ;  for  when  he  told  his  tale  in  Eng- 
land, those  who  doubted  its  correctness  said  that  the  river  he 
had  left  was  not  the  same  one  he  reached  farther  on.  So 
strong  became  the  dispute  that  arrangements  were  made  for 
a  discussion  in  public,  but  the  day  before  the  time  appointed 
Captain  Speke  met  with  a  fatal  accident.  At  his  home  in 
Somersetshire  he  had  gone  out  shooting  with  some  friends; 
and  when  he  was  in  the  act  of  climbing  a  stone  wall,  his  gun 
went  off,  the  charge  entering  his  chest.  A  monument 
now  marks  the  spot  where  this  sad  event  took  place. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  later  travellers  have  proved 
that  his  statements  were  correct  concerning  his  discovery 
of  the  source  of  the  Nile. 


The    Great 

•  White  iChief.' 


The  Man 
who 
started 
the   Cape 
to   Cairo 
Railway. 


Cecil  John  Rhodes. 


CECIL    JOHN    RHODES. 

Cecil  John  Rhodes  was  born  at  Bishcp*s  Stort- 
ford  on  July  5,  1854.  At  the  age  of  sixteen 
he  joined  his  elder  brother  in  Natal  at  a  cotton 
farm,  and  shortly  afterwards  went  to  Kimberley 
to  work  a  diamond  claim.  Great  wealth  was 
quickly  acquired,  and  he  was  able  to  gratify  his 
wish  of  taking  a  degree  at  Oxford  University, 
which  he  visited  from  Africa  during  several  years 
in  succession.  Rising  into  public  prominence, 
he  took  a  leading  place  in  South  African  politics, 
and  held  the  office  of  Premier  there  from  1890 
till  1896.  He  died  in  March,  1902,  leaving 
£6,000  000  in  various  bequests  to  the  public 
service. 


The  Great  *  White  Chief 

Who  Started  the  Cape  to  Cairo  Railway. 

A  LITTLE  party  of  horsemen  were  following  a  winding 
path  among  scattered  rocks  and  small,  parched 
bushes  in  the  direction  of  a  line  of  bold  hills,  the  sum- 
mits of  which  rose  against  the  sky,  about  two  miles  away. 
On  either  side  the  path  there  was  to  be  seen  at  intervals, 
tied  to  the  scanty  bushes,  fragments  of  white  cloth,  dang- 
ling motionless  in  the  hot  August  air  of  tropical  Africa;  and 
these  fragments  of  cloth,  properly  understood,  will  explain 
much  that  is  strange  about  the  company  of  travellers  we 
have  referred  to.  They  stand  as  a  sign  of  peace ;  an  assur- 
ance that  the  horsemen  in  question  may  pursue  their  way  to 
the  top   of  those  distant,  rocky  hills  without  fear  of  attack. 

Ending   a  War. 

In  accordance  with  this  promise,  the  leader  of  the  band 
rides  without  rifle  or  sword  at  his  side ;  yet  if  we  hurry  on  in 
advance,  to  see  what  awaits  him  on  the  summit  of  the  hills, 
we  shall  realize  the  courage  he  showed.  In  a  wilderness  of 
granite  boulders  that  crown  the  Matoppos,  a  large  army  of 
rebellious  Matabeles  had  taken  up  a  position  from  which  no 
cannon  or  bayonets  could  hope  to  dislodge  them.  Here  they 
were  lying  when  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  bade  the  army,  before 
which  they  had  retreated,  to  discontinue  the  attack,  for 
he  was  anxious  to  stop  the  war  by  peaceful  means. 


THE    GREAT    •  WHITE    CHIEF' 

With  this  object  he  set  out  from  Buluwayo,  one  July  day 
in  1896,  and  pitching  his  tent  miles  ahead  of  the  British  army, 
sent  word  to  the  chiefs  of  the  rebels  that  he  was  now  in  their 
power,  if  they  wished  to  imprison  or  kill  him.  The  answer, 
after  six  weeks  of  waiting,  was  an  invitation  to  visit  their 
camp,  unarmed,  and  hear  what  they  had  to  complain  of.  He 
went  at  once,  but  the  conference  was  delayed  for  a  week, 
and  thus  we  find  him  setting  out  again  on  August  28,  1896, 
accompanied  by  a  few  friends,  to  make  peace  without  the 
use  of  sword  or  rifle. 

Unruly   Warriors. 

Arrived  at  the  end  of  their  toilsome  journey,  the  horse- 
men found  themselves  in  a  wild  spot,  surrounded  by  huge 
masses  of  rock.  Here  a  number  of  native  chiefs  had  assem- 
bled to  receive  their  guest,  but  scarcely  had  Mr.  Rhodes  dis- 
mounted, when  from  behind  the  neighbouring  boulders  there 
sprang  a  host  of  armed  warriors,  who  rushed  toward  him 
with  spears  raised. 

His  friends  called  to  him  to  retreat,  but  instead,  he 
faced  the  enemy,  and  called  out  in  a  loud  voice: 

'  Go  back,  I  tell  you !  I  trusted  your  word !  Is  this  how 
you  keep  it  ? ' 

The  spears  were  lowered,  but  with  sullen  looks,  as 
Rhodes,  seating  himself  on  a  rock  close  to  the  company  of 
chiefs,  went  on : 

'  I  am  ashamed  of  you  all.  I  came  unarmed.  You 
promised  to  be  unarmed  as  well.  If  you  are  the  chiefs,  why 
do  you  let  your  young  men  behave  in  this  way?' 

'  We  are  sorry,'  said  the  chiefs;  '  our  young  men  have  in- 
deed acted  in  an  unruly  manner,  but  they  shall  listen  to  what 
the  "white  chief"   would  say.' 

'  I  come  to  hear  your  complaints,'  replied  Rhodes,  '  and 
if  you  have  suffered  any  injustice,  I  will  have  the  wrong  put 
right.' 


(?' 


3nc 


DDC 


DDC 


3DC 


^ 


D      Making  Peace  with  the  Matabele. 


Anxious  to  stop  the  war  with  the  Matabele^  Mr.  Rhodes  entered  their  camp  unarmed.  At 
first  the  natives  were  hostile  towards  him,  but  at  the  word  from  their  leaders  they  listened  to  what 
the  ^  white  chief  had  to  say.  Rhodes  promised  that  if  any  injustice  had  been  done^  the  wrong 
should  be  put  right ;  and  after  a  long  discussion,  peace  was  arranged,  to  signify  which  the  chiefs  laid 
their  spears  at  his  feet. 


THE     GREAT    *  WHITE     CHIEF* 


The  Victoria  Falls. 

Peace. 

The  words  were  received  with  dehght,  and  a  long  dis- 
cussion followed  by  the  aid  of  an  interpreter.  At  the  end, 
Rhodes  put  the  question:    'Is   it  to  be  peace  between  us?' 

And  for  answer  the  chiefs  cast  their  spears  at  his  feet, 
to  signify:    '  It  is  peace.' 

This  ended  the  last  trouble  in  Rhodesia  with  the  Mata- 
bele  nation,  and  well  might  Rhodes  afterwards  say,  in  refer- 
ring to  this  scene  among  the  Matoppo  Hills,  '  Such  a  day 
as  that  makes  life  worth  living.' 

Expanding   the   Empire. 

Yet  before  that  day  he  had  lived  many  which  were  to 
leave  a  mark  on  the  British  Empire.  Very  soon  after  his  first 
arrival  in  Africa,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  (in  1870),  he  had 
formed  the  ambition  to  see  the  great  continent  under  the  rule 
of  the  Union  Jack.  From  Cape  Colony  his  fancy  ever  wan- 
dered northwards,  longing  to  bring  fresh  provinces  into 
the  Empire ;  not  by  expelling  the  native  tribes,  but  by  placing 
them  under  British  laws.  Thus,  if  we  look  at  the  map 
of  Africa,  we  shall  see  the  progress  of  this  empire-builder 
towards  accomplishing  his  wish.  Bechuanaland,  to  the  west 
of  the  Orange  River  Colony;  Matabeleland,  north  of  the 
Transvaal;  and  Mashonaland,  extending  to  the  Zambesi 
river;  were  brought  under  the  flag  by  his  persistent  efl^ort; 
while  the  British  South  Africa   Company,  formed  at  his  sug- 


AND  THE  CAPE  TO  CAIRO  RAILWAY 


Making  the  Cape  to  Cairo  Railway. 


gestion,  pushed  forward  British  influence  to  the  southern 
shores  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  These  vast  regions  are  now  com- 
bined into  the  province  known  as  Rhodesia,  in  honour  of 
their  founder. 


A   Long   Railway. 

It  was  long  his  wish  to  see  a  continuous  railway  under 
British  rule  constructed  from  Cape  Town  to  Cairo,  a  distance 
of  5,700  miles,  and  during  his  life  he  did  much  to  plan  and 
build  this  railway,  laying  down  many  miles  in  Cape  Colony 
and  Rhodesia.  Since  his  death  the  work  has  gone  steadily 
forward,  and  it  is  possible  to  travel  from  Cape  Town  north- 
wards for  over  two  thousand  miles,  when,  after  passing 
through  the  now  famous  towns  of  Kimberley,  Mafeking, 
Buluwayo,     and    crossing    the    Zambesi  at  Victoria  Falls,  a 


THE     GREAT    'WHITE     CHIEF 


station  is  reached  at  a  spot  called  Broken  Hill  —  some    200 
miles  south  of  Chitambo,  where  David   Livingstone   died. 


Rhodes's   Funeral. 

Over  the  main  portion  of 
March  1902,  a  funeral  car.  It 
John  Rhodes,  who  had  died  a 
of  the  month.  From  Buluwayo 
its  way  by  road  to  the  summit 
which  we  have  already  spoke 
chief,'  as  the  natives  called  hi 
slab,  bearing   his   name,   mark 


this  railway  there  passed,  in 
bore   the   body   of   Mr.    Cecil 

t  Cape  Town  in  the  early  part 
station  this  funeral  continued 
of  those  wild  Matoppo  Hills  of 

n,   and   here   the   great   '  white 

m,  was  buried,  a  simple  granite 

ing  the  spot. 


The  Grave  of  Rhodes  in  the  Matoppo  Hills. 


THROUGH  THE 
GREAT  WHITE 


WILDERNESS. 


Scott's 

Last  Journey 
to  the 
Pole. 


Captain  Scott. 


CAPTAIN    SC^TT. 

Robert  Falcon  Scott  was  born  at  Devonport 
in  1868.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the 
British  Navy,  and  was  made  a  commander  in 
1900.  After  his  famous  voyage  to  the  Antarctic 
(1900-1904),  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Captain.  A  year  later  he  published  an  account 
of  the  *  Voyage  in  the  **  Discovery.*'  *  "When 
a  new  expedition  was  arranged  for,  after 
Shackleton's  explorations,  Scott  was  appointed 
to  lead  it.  He  left  England  in  June  1910 ;  made 
researches  for  more  than  a  year  in  the  Antarctic; 
reached  the  South  Pole  on  January  17, 1912 ;  and 
died  during  the  return  journey,  in  March  1912. 


Through  the  Great  White  Wilderness. 

A  WASTE  of  snow  and  ice :  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  a 
great    white    wilderness    with    the    dim    outlines    of 
mountains  on  the  northern  horizon,  but  in  the  south 
an   '  everlasting '   plain,  ending  only  at  the  distant  curtain  of 
the  sky. 

The    Farewell. 

On  January  3,  191 2,  nine  men,  dressed  in  the  furs  and 
wrappings  of  Arctic  travellers,  had  halted  with  two 
hand-drawn  sledges  in  this  pathless  waste;  for  the  time  had 
come  when  four  of  their  number  were  to  turn  back  toward 
the  far-off  sea-coast,  while  the  remaining  five  trudged  on 
into  the  unknown  south.  The  spot  at  which  they  were 
gathered  together  is  known  on  the  map  as  latitude  87.32 
south — and  this  means    150  miles  from  the  South  Pole. 

The  leader  gave  to  the  commander  of  the  returning 
party  all  accounts  he  had  so  far  written  of  the  progress  of 
the  expedition,  together  with  other  papers  concerning  the  men 
who  were  to  push  onward  with  him,  and  with  a  final  hand- 
shake all  round  the  last  goodbyes  were  said.  The  homeward 
party  began  the  long  tramp  of  nearly  800  miles  back  to 
their  winter  quarters;  their  five  friends  turned  their  faces 
south,  carrying  on  their  tiny  sledge  enough  provisions  to  last 
them  thirty  days.  The  names  of  this  little  band  who  carried 
our  Empire's  flag  into  such  unknown  regions  of  the  earth 
were — Captain    Robert    Falcon    Scott,  Dr.  E.  A.  Wilson,  Lieu- 


THE     GREAT    WHITE    WILDERNESS 

tenant  Bowers,   Captain  L.  E.  G.    Oatcs,    and    Petty   Officer 
Edgar  Evans. 

It  is  easy  to  guess  that,  after  the  parting,  those  who  were 
coming  home  looked  frequently  back  till  at  last  their  recent 
companions  appeared  as  no  more  than  tiny  black  specks  on 
the  white  and  boundless  plain.  Then  they  faded  from  mortal 
sight,   never  again  to  be  seen  alive. 

The   Beginning   of   the   Story. 

Before  we  tell  of  what  happened  after  they  passed  from 
sight  on  that  far-away  horizon,  suppose  we  take  a  glance  back 
at  the  beginning  of  the  story. 

For  some  hundreds  of  years  past,  brave  explorers  have 
tried  to  read  the  secrets  of  the  icy  world  surrounding  the 
South  Pole,  but  until  quite  recent  times  no  one  penetrated 
farther  than  the  great  ice  barrier  in  Ross  Sea  (named  after 
Admiral  Ross,  who  first  explored  it  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century).  In  1900  Scott  made  his  first  great  voyage  thither 
in  the  Discovery,  and  brought  back  to  his  country  a  world 
of  knowledge.  Six  years  later.  Lieutenant  Shackleton  (now 
Sir  Ernest)  led  a  party  over  the  great  ice-field,  through  the 
mountains  beyond,  until  a  point  was  reached  only  1 1 1  miles 
from  the  Pole,  thus  making  a  track  through  the  hitherto  un- 
trodden snow  for  others  to  follow  at  a  future  time. 

And  this  time  came  in  the  autumn  of  191 1,  when  Captain 
Scott,  who  had  left  England  in  June  1910,  set  out  from  his 
winter  quarters  on  the  shores  of  McMurdo  Sound,  Ross  Sea, 
for  his  long  march  to  the  Pole,  900  miles  away.  Sledges, 
drawn  by  dogs  and  ponies,  accompanied  him  for  a  great  dis- 
tance, conveying  stores  of  food  and  fuel.  At  every  sixty 
miles  depots  were  made,  each  holding  enough  of  these  neces- 
saries to  supply  him  and  his  men  on  the  return  march. 

One  by  one  the  sledges,  having  performed  their  duties, 
returned,  with  the  men  in  attendance,  to  McMurdo  Sound, 
carrying  sufficient  food  for  the  journey.    We  have  seen  how 


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Their    Last    Journey 


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On  January  3,  1912,  when  150  miles  from  the  South  Pole,  these  five  dauntless  men  bade 
farewell  to  their  friends,  who  had  to  return  to  the  sea-coast,  and  trudged  on  into  the  great  white 
wilderness.  This,  alas  1  was  their  last  journey ;  for  after  leaving  the  Pole,  they  were  overtaken  by 
the  Antarctic  winter,  and  perished  wh:n  only  eleven  miles  from  safety. 


THE    GREAT    WHITE    WILDERNESS 


Exploring  in  the  Bitter  South. 
Huge  mountains  of  ice  breaking  up  with  the  noise  of  thunder. 


the  exploring 
company  dwin- 
dled till  only 
nine  men  were 
left  by  the  time 
that  the  Pole  was 
150  miles  away. 
For  the  rest  of 
the  distance  Cap- 
tain Scott  carried 
his  own  neces- 
saries,  and 
among  these  no- 
thing was  more 
precious  than  a 
small  silk  Union 
Jack  presented 
by  Queen  Alex- 
andra to  be  un- 
furled in  the  icy 
winds  that  blow 
round  the  South 
Pole — the  first  to 
flutter  there. 
Alas !  this  honour 
was  to  be  denied 
to  the  coura- 
geous travellers, 
for  a  few  days 
after  parting 
from  their  friends 


they  came  upon  traces  in  the  snow  showing  that 

Some   one   else   had   come   before  them, 

crossing  the  mountains  at  another  point  than  the  pass  through 


THE    GREAT    WHITE    WILDERNESS 

which  they  had  marched.  At  last  on  January  17,  191 2,  they 
saw  far  ahead  a  small  black  speck  on  the  plain  in  the  region 
of  the  Pole.  It  was  a  tent  with  a  little  flag  flying  above  it, 
and  as  they  drew  nearer  they  found  it  to  be  the  flag  of  Nor- 
way. It  had  been  unfurled  there  just  one  month  before  by 
Captain  Roald  Amundsen  and  his  men,  who  had  performed  a 
wonderful  march  from  the  shore  of  Ross  Sea,  where  his  ship, 
the  Fram,  lay  anchored. 

The   Return. 

Scott  and  his  companions  remained  two  days  at  the  Pole, 
taking  scientific  photographs  and  making  observations.  Then 
they  started  on  the  long  journey  back.  Storm  and  misfor- 
tune soon  beset  their  way.    Before    the    great    plain    (which 


Fishing  Schooner  in  the  Ice  field. 


THE    GREAT    WHITE    WILDERNESS 

lies  at  an  altitude  of  8,000  feet)  could  be  recrossed,  Petty 
Officer  Evans  fell  ill,  and  died  on  February  17.  The  sur- 
vivors, continuing  the  journey,  climbed  the  long  Beardmore 
glacier,  made  valuable  collections  of  minerals  from  a  place 
known  a»  Buckly  Island,  and  commenced  the  march  across 
the  great  ice  cap  toward  the  sea.  That  march  they  were 
never  to  finish.  Pitiless  blizzards  blocked  their  way.  Tke 
Antarctic  winter  had  overtaken  them.  Captain  Oates  fell  ill, 
and  by  an  act  of  noble  self-sacrifice  walked  out  into  the 
storm  to  die  rather  than  delay  his  friends.  The  three  sur- 
vivors pressed  on,  and,  eleven  miles  from  safety,  pitched 
their  last  tent.  Imprisoned  in  this  for  eight  days  by  a  long- 
continued  storm,  Captain  Scott,  Lieutenant  Bowers,  and  Dr. 
Wilson  died;  the  last  record  being  made  by  the  gallant  leader 
on  March  29,  191 2. 

In  the  tent,  among  other  things,  was  found  thirty-five 
pounds'  weight  of  valuable  specimens  collected  from  the  re- 
mote south,  and  dragged  through  storm  and  ice  and  untold 
trials  by  these  dauntless  men.  Let  every  British  boy  re- 
member that  those  who  go  forth  for  the  honour  of  the 
Empire  must  go  armed  with  a  readiness  for  self-sacrifice. 


An  Eskimo  Dog. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


\\J»' 


WT 


RCC'P  LD 


LD  21A-50m-4,'59 
(A1724sl0)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley