WHITE WOMEN IN AFRICA

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1585, 15 April 1887, Page 4

WHITE WOMEN IN AFRICA

Quite a number of white men who are now in Central Africa have followed the advice of the celebrated explorer, Dr Barth, who many years ago expressed the opinion that th° traveller in Africa should take bis wife with him. He said the natives did not understand how a man could live without a partner, and that they would hold him in greater respect if he was accompanied by his wife. Dr Barth added that the people he met with south of the Sahara had nothing against him except that he was a bachelor. Dr Livingstone's wife shared the privations and dangers of some of his travels, and it was while they were makingalong journey together that she died snd was buried on the banks of the Zambesi. It is only recently, however, that white women have begun to accompany their husbands into the depths of Central Africa. If the young wife ot Mr Holub, the Austrian traeller, survives their great undertaking, she will have made a longer journey in Africa than most explorers. Nearly two years ago this brave young couple started from South Africa, intending to explore the Upper Zambesi and the Congo Valleys, and to go home, if possible, by way of the great lakes and the Nile. After Dr Holub returned to Austria, a few years ago, having earned a place in the first rank of African travellers by his seven years of work in the Zambesi reeion, he married the attractive and giftedyounglady who is now wandering with him anion? savage tribes. The entreaties of her friends could not turn her from her purpose to accompany her husbr.nd on his new explorations. About 30,000 dols. were raised to buy theirequipment. and when last heard from, two months ago, they and their band of porters were plunging into almost wholly unknown regions of the Upper Zambesi. Mrs Holub was in excellent health, but her husband has been suffering to some extent from fever. Last spring Lieutenant Yalche returned to Europe for a vacation after serving for three years on the Upper Congo. Soon after his retnrn he married a fair Beleian, and two months ago he and his bride started for the Congo, where he has enlisted in the service of the Free State. At last accounts they were at Stanley Pool in good health, and were about to start for Stanley Falls, 1200 miles from the sea, where they will reside.

One of the most extensile travelers on the Congo is the wife of the missionary Grenfell, who, with her child, accompanied Mr Grenfell on some of his long journies, during which he pushed his little steamer over :XHX) miles of the navigable waters of t he Cong j and its aifluents.

On an ialand in Lake Tanganyika, not far from Ujiji, where Stanley found Livingstone sick and almost destitute, live Mr and Mrs Hore, who are among the pioneer missionaries of the lake region. The unhealthiness of the mainland has driven them to tbis island, where they have a pretty mission station,and where Lieut. Gleerup, on his trip across the continent last year enjoyed the hospitalities of a white lady in Central Africa.

A carpenter named Burgslay, who is stationed at Luluaburg, far up the Kassai aillueLt of the Congo, whore he has very successfully opened a plantation on which he has raised big crops of rice, corn, manioc, and European vegetables, has expressed the wish, at the end of his term of service, to bring his wife and children, now in Germany, to Luluaburg, and devote himself to bis plantation and cattle raising. Two other employes of the Congo State, Von der Felson, the captain of one of the Bteamers, and Schneider, a gunmaker, whose terms of service have expired, have petitioned the Government for permission to settle on the Sauturn river to open plantations and raise cattle. Dr Wolf, to whom the petition was referred, has advised that it be granted, and has expressed the opinion that within certain limits selected emigrants from Europe may safely be allowed, and even encouraged to settle in the same region.— N.Y.Sun.