Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/208

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GAB—GYZ

Central Asia. Africa. Abys- sinia. 194 GEOG reached the summits of the passes leading to Tibet and ‘ Yarkanil. Our relations with Afghanistan led to further exploration. In 1840 Lieuteiiaiits Abbott, Conolly, and Shakespear visited Khiva, and in 1841 Colonels Stoddart and Conolly were murdered at Bokhara, while Ehlred Pottinger gallantly defended llerat. Sir Alexander Burnes had previously made his reniarkable journey from Cabul to Bokhara and back through Persia, and in 1838 Lieutenant Wood of the Indian Navy discovered the source of the Oxus. Butakoff and other Russian officers, in 1848 and subsequent years, surveyed the sea of Aral, and Middendorf made ex- tensive explorations and discoveries in Siberia. After the Afghan war it was long before any progress was made in the exploration of Central Asia, but through the opening of the treaty ports in China and the navigation of the Yangtsze a considerable increase was made in our knowledge of the Celestial Empire. In 1869 Mr R. B. Shaw and Mr Haywood reached the cities of Yarkand and Kashgar, mid Mr Shaw published a most graphic account of the physical aspects of Eastern Turkestaii. In the previous year Mr Ney Elias surveyed the Yellow River of China, and afterwards made a journey through a previously unknown portion of western _Iongolia ; and during 1866-68 the distinguished French geographer Lieutenant Garnier surveyed the course of the great Cambodian river. The Russians, ineanwhile, in their advance into Central Asia, had enabled scientific travellers like F edcheiiko and others to explore Khokand and the northern part of the Painir, and the l110"0 adventurous Prjewalski made important ourneys through Mongolia and to the frontiers of Tibet. Colonels Walker and Mont- goinerie, of the great Trigonoinetrical Survey of India, organized a system of training native explorers, who made journeys across the Paniir and to the upper waters of the Oxus. as well as through the previously unknown parts of Tibet. In the last mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Kashgar, Captain Trotter of the Trigonometrical Survey of India formed one of the staff. He did much valuable ex- ploriug work on the Paniir table-land, and verified the work of Lieutenant Wood at the source of the Oxus. In 1845 M31. Hue and Gabet travelled through Tibet; and in western China the French missionaries have since done use- ful geographical work. English diplomatic oflicers have found their way from the south-western provinces of China into Burniali, and Baron Richthofen has made very exten- sive exploring journeys through the Chinese empire. The most important journey across Arabia in the present cen- tury was made by Mr W. Gifford Palgrave in 1863. Geographical discoverers of the 19th century have had a great Work to do in Africa. D’Aiiville and his successors cleared off all that was uncertain on the map, all that had come from the information given by Duarte Lopez to Pigafetta, and from Lee Africanus, and left a great blank. James Bruce and Mungo Park, Clapperton and Tuckey, merely touched the edges or penetrated in single lines across the vast unknown area. But they have been followed by many others, and now great progress has been made. In 183] Monteiro and Gamitta were sent by the Portuguese Government, in the footsteps of La Cerda, to the _capital of Cazembe ; while, in 1849 and 1843-47, Ladislaus Magyar and Graca explored some of the southern afiluents of the Congo. Riippell (1838), Harris (1843), and Dr Beke (1840), Lefebvre and Dillon (1839-43), Ferret and Galinier (18-17) improved the existing know- ledge of Abyssinia, to which a further important contribu- tion was made by the expeditionary field force sent in 1867- 68 to enforce the release of English captives ; and progress was made, under the auspices of the Egyptian Government, in exploring the White Nile above Khartoum. In 1849 the discoveries of Deiiham and Clapperton were followed up by Richardson, Overweg, and Barth, who, like their pre- -’tA1’HY [rnoonnss or Discovnnv. decessors, went from Tripoli to Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan. The two first died in Africa, but Dr B-.ii'tli returned home with a rich harvest of results. IIe reacliul Kouka the capital of B.)rnou, on Lake Tcliad, and in 1851 he visited the south side of that lake, and advanced some distance to the eastward. In 1852 he was at Saccatoo, where Clapperton died, whence he crossed the Niger and eventually reached Tiiiibiictoo. After a stay of some months Dr Barth left Tinibiictoo in .larch 1854, and got back to Tripoli in the end of 1855, being the sole survivor of his party. Dr Vogel, in 1853-57, followed up the dis- coveries iii the direction of Lake Tcliad, and fell a victim to science; and the researches of 1)r Baikie in 1854 sup- plemented the work of the Laiiders in the lower part of the course of the Niger. Dr Baikie also explored 250 miles of the river Chadda or Beniie. On the eastern coast of Africa, the niissionaries Rebniann and Krapf ascertained the existence of the snowy peaks of Keiiia and Kilimanjaro near the equator, and collected reports touching the equatorial lakes in the interior. This led to the expedition of Captain Burton in 1857, who, ac- Burt coiiipanied by Captain Speke, landed opposite to Zanzibar, and, advancing westward, discovered Lake Tanganyika. Captain l3urton’s admirable description of the region between the coast and the great lake he had discovered is one of the most valuable contributions to African descriptive geography. His companion, Captain Speke, made an ex- cursion northwards to the southern coast of a lake which he judged to be a main source of the Nile. In this belief lie again set out in 1860 to attempt the achievenient of a journey from Baganioyo, opposite Zanzibar, to the Nile. This great enterprise was crowned with success. Speke traced out the western shore, and visited the northern outlet, of the Victoria Nyanza, the main reservoir of the Vhite Nile. He then marched northwards to Gondokoro and descended the Nile. He had heard of a second great Nile reservoir, which Sir Samuel Baker discovered in 1864, and named the Albert Nyanza. The Bahr el Ghazal and other western feeders of the Nile were visited by Consul Petherick, and explored in 1868-71 by Dr Schweinfurth, whose work ranks with that of Burton as a record of Af l'1Ca1l discovery. The travels of Dr Livingstone in Soiithei-ii Africa also added considerably to our knowledge of the geography of that continent. In 1848 he started from Cape Colony, visited Lake Ngaiiii in 1849, and eventually reached the Portuguese town of St Paul Loanda in 1855. Thence he marched across the continent, discovering the great falls and a considerable part of the course of the Zanibesi. In his second expedition he proceeded up the Zainbesi and its tributary the Shire, and discovered the Lake Nyassa. On his third and last expedition he landed on the east coast at the mouth of the Rovunia, and made his way thence to Lake Nyassa. The great traveller then followed in the foot- steps of Dr Lacerda and Monteiro to the Cazenibe’s capital, and thence to Lake Tanganyika. Froni Ujiji, on that lake, he made his way westward to the river Lualaba (the upper course of the Congo), and returning in a destitute condition to Ujiji, he was there succoiired by Mr Stanley. Finally he once more started, and died in the midst of his dis- coveries among the remoter sources of the Congo. ant Cameron's expedition in 1873 had for its main object the siiccoiir of Livingstone, but the news of the great travellcr’s death was received at Unyanyeinbe. Cameron then continued his march by a new route to Ujiji, and completed the survey of the southern half of Lake Tan- gaiiyika, discovering the Liikuga outlet. Thence he ad- vanced westward across the Manyuema country to Living- stone’s furthest point at Nyangwe, crossed the Lualaba, and traversed the whole width of the African continent, .' p (-1. Livii stout

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