SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 16

SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM.

A NOTABLE CAREER. BIOGRAPHY BY ADMIRAL SIR ALBERT H. MARKHAM. (John Murra3'. 15/- net.)

' The name of Sir Clements R. Markham, X.C.8., F.R.S., lias been famiiiar to every lover of travel or student of geography for more than half a century. For over forty years he was actively connected with the Royal Geographical Society as hon. secretary or president, holding the latter office for twelve years, the longest terra on record. His latest undertaking in connection with that office, the promotion of the Scott Antarctic expedition, brought him into special prominence in the Southern Hemisphere, and probably none of the readers of this very interesting sketch of his life will enter more enthusiastically and sympathetically into the story of travel and adventure which it tells than the people of this Dominion.

The. range of Clements Markham's wanderings was an extraordinarily wide one. He started out ;:i life at the age ot fifteen as a naval cadet on H.M.s. Collingwood, the flagship of Sir George Seymour, the preliminary examination demanded by the regulations of that period (1844) being, he tells us, to write out the Lord's Prayer and be punched violently in the wind by a fat old doctor, who asked "if it hurt."

Three years were spent aboard the Collingwood on the Pacific Station, during which Markliam visited many countries and sailed 83,000 miles. lie enjoyed his life on board ship, and was a. general favourite on account of bis high spirits and his interest i:i everything that went on aboard or ashore: nevertheless, he took a strong distaste for the life of n naval officer, partly because of resentment aroused by what he regarded as unjust treatment from th« naval instructor, and partly owing to his aversion to the brutal punishments for small ofVcnccs which were customary nt that period. Later in life we find him agitating very effectually for the modification of these drastic laws. His sympathies were always strongly aroused on the side of the weak. While in Peru he became specially interested in the history of the Incas. who were so ruthlessly butchered by the Spanish conqueror Pizarro. The impulse then begotten to personally trace their liistory and examine the antiquities of Peru had a momentous influence on his after life.

When the Collingwood returned tn England Markham confided to his father his desire to leave the Navy, but was persuaded to continue his service with the Mediterranean squadron, and was appointed to the Sidon, an early steam frigate of doubtful stability, but a3 the vessel was paid off a year later Markham once more contemplated looking for other employment, when some of his Collingwood shipmates, who were about to join an expedition to the Arctic regions in search of Sir John Franklin, induced him to accompany them. His experiences aboard the Assistance not only gave him a practical acquaintance with the hardships of Arctic exploration, but made him a lifelong champion of such expeditions as tending to promote a spirit of adventure in the Navy. But, for himself, he had finally decided to leave the Navy. He was then 22 years of age, and, in the absence of any very definite inclination towards a professional career, he persuaded his father to give him £500 to carry out his long-cherished scheme of travel in Pent. He had already manifested a natur.il aptitude for literary composition, and after the return of the Polar expedition he wrote an account of the work accomplished, which was published in ]853 under the title "Franklin's Footsteps."

Markham's travels in Peru had much more practical and far-reaching consequences than th-ae contemplated when ho set out from Liverpool in August, 18f>2. While tracing the story of the Incas, he was impressed with the medicinal value of cinchona, and in later years he pressed upon the Government the adaptability of this plant for cultivation in India with such energy that he was entrusted with the command of an expedition to obtain plants in Peru and convey them to India. This commission, the execution of which was attended with almost insuperable difficulties, owing to the opposition of exporters of cinchona from Peru, he carried out with consummate judgment, encountering adventures, both amusing and sensational, in the execution of his tasK. He lived to see the fruits of his labours crowned by the creation of an industry which not only conferred great benefits on the fever-stricken natives of India, but yielded to the Government of that country a profit of £250.000.

Among the many services in -which ho was engaged during his long and busy career was that of geographer to the British expedition under Sir Robert Napier against King Theodore of Abyssinia, of which he wrote an account published in 1809. He was an industrious worker in many fields of geographical research, and contributed largely to the literature issued by the Hakluyt" Society including several translations" from the Spanish. He preserved hia inferest in young people to the end of his life, which was terminated tragically at the ripe age of 85 through shock caused by the ignition of the bedclothes when reading in bed by candlelight a hook printed in old Portuguese. Admiral Markham, tlie author of this biography, brings to iiis task not only the knowledge acquired in the conrse of a lifelong association but also a personal tympathy with the character and the pursuits which engrossed the subject of this interesting memoir.