ADVENTURES OF A WOMAN EXPLORER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 179, 15 July 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES OF A WOMAN EXPLORER.

MRS. ROBY, one of the most travelled woini-n in tho world, has returned to London from Central Africa. She Ls tl.e first white woman who has ever travelled ii- the wilds of Alri' a without a white escort. Of course, she has added largely to l>or records of adventure and exploration sic.ee she left London in October I'd* Sb" w'-i;t out then Lays tho ‘'Mirror") to Australia, h.wing engaged herself as a nurse maid for the voyage, in erd -r to study the problems of domestic service. From Australia she went to New 7.> aland and the South Sea Islands. and them-e to South Africa, arriving in Durban last May. From Durban she followed the route sin o taken by the i)uk‘> of Connaught in l-.is tour of South Africa, but continued right up to Equatorial Africa, and has seen more than 500 native villages am! traversed all the country in tho neighbourhood of the great lakes, espix ialiy making a study of native conditions in. the Congo State. Mrs. Roby is the wife of a distinguished American brain specialist, now residing ill Japan. Sim was born at Seville, and is a very beautiful woman. She has explored many districts in China where no white woman had ever been before, and lias been everywhere tn Japan, Australia and America. She •vas at Mukden during the RussoJapanese war. in boy’s clotht.s. heir women have seen and done so much ; but she is not a suffragette, and women's clubs bore her.

This journey through Central Africa,” said Mrs.' Roby, in London, to ‘■"The Daily Mirror,” is the most remarkable thing I have ever done. “ 1 had as few Ix-arers as possible. and for hundreds of miles was alone, except for mv bl ink bearers. I mean I had no white escort whatever. “ When my bearers bi-came mutinous T had to' deal with them unaided. I had a very good ‘boy’ named Thomas, who was faithful to me, and saved my j life when I had a bad attack of fever, and my temperature was 107 deg., by persistently pouring cold waG-r over rny head after letting down my hair. T was quite unconscious, and had given myself a dose of morphia in the hope that, if T was to die, I might pass away easily. T slept for five days. His , fare beamed when I opened my eyes. “ Al wavs when I was on the march T slent with mv guns loaded hv mv side i and a revolver undm- my pillow. Some- ! times the bearers were sulky and would i not put up my tent, so I had to .sleep I

' in a native hut, on my camp bedstead, placing fresh grass upon the bedstead, which 1 collected myself. “ There were so many lions alrout that the bearers would not march in ! tho moonlight, the best time for getting over the ground. In the. earlier . stages of my journey, soon after we. I left tho railway, tiro poor follows wm> | lingered behind on the mareh wore devoured bv lions.

“ Once’ I shot dead a leopard who was almut to enter my tent. That they might not bo tempted to rob me. 1 always sent my bearers half a mil-* away at night, either into a village or across a. thicket. T asked on arriving at every village if they had any native beer: where they bad it I bought a certain quantity for each of my men. and told them they must have no more.

“'Of eour.se T always wore men's clothes. When the native paths permitted I rode my bicycle, which a bearer carried for mo if the paths wore rough. Mv bath, too, was taken everywhere with me, and was a great comfort. T took a great many snapshots and taught Thomas how to take pictures, so that ho could photograph me.

“ T had throe attacks of fever, and the List was so bad that I had to make mv wav when I was convalescent from Lake Victoria Nyanzzi to Mombasa, and then on 23th February on a Messagories Maritimes steamer to Marseilles. Ono lock of my hair has turned grey but I am nearly well again now. After my last attack of fever at Victoria Nyanza I was ston" blind for twenty-four hours, and one eye remained blind nearly as far as Marseilles.

“ I found the Belgian officials venkind everywhere. I was given a special permit toshoot elephants, and used it. I killed a hippopotamus. I am looking forward to going out again in the autumn. I was not held up by the rainy season last year; no other woman explorer in Africa lias defied the rains. I have looked very carefully into things myself, and T am satisfied that what are called evidences of C’ongo mis-rule have bwn grossly misrepresented and exa" T orated.

“There are to bo seen more cases of multilation in North-Eastern Rhodesia than in the eastern part of the Congo State, as a matter of fart, but T believe that most of these mutilations, of which so much has been made, are simply tho result of inter-tribal war.”