THREE YEARS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13857, 21 March 1907, Page 4

THREE YEARS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

A REMAKSABLE .JOURNEY. LIEUT. BOYD ALEXANDER'S s ADVENTURES. 1 Trans-African journeys are now for the ! most part matters of comparatively little . moment. There is almost a tourist route '1 from Mombassa via the Uganda Railway, tho Victoria Nyanza, Rutvenzori, and tho r Pygmy forest to the Congo, and thence by " that river to Matadi, where steamer c waits to take tho voyager 'to Antwerp. s And the Capo-to-Cairo route is becoming * hackneyed, and has been accomplished by < at least one lady (Miss ll'ary Hall). . 0 But to cross the continent from the West £ Coast to the Hod Sea through the heart of tho Soudan is quite another matter, and has beer, attempted by very few traveller. 2 Hitherto only one eciontilic observer lias t accomplished tho feat—Dr Gustav Nachti- I gal. Save for the howling wastes of tho •' Eastern Sahara, the Central Soudan is tlio c least known part of Africa—the still dark I Tcmnanfc of tho Continent. s There has just- passed through E?vnt, on 1 his return home, a. young British officer ) who has rivallod- if not surpassed, Nachti- i gal's achievement—Lieutenant Boyd Alex- i r.ndor, who. leaving England in tho early 1 spring of 1904-, has spont tho past throe ( years in a journey which bcfjau at the | mouth of the Niger and ended at Port | Soudan recently. It is a. remarkable J faot that the building of the railway by , which Lieutenant Alexander completed his . routo from the Atbara to tho H«1 Sea (tho , " Berbor-Suakin " line, 232 miles long) had j not been begun when ho started from tho West Coast. Tho expedition ha 6 , had many adventures and misadventures, and the story which (ho intrepid explorer will presently tell to the | Royal Gcograph.ica.l Rocicty will be as full of interest and incident as that of the Dtike of Ihe Abruzzi. Meantime, a brief . outline of the chief features of this - fine , piece ot work may be given. SINGULAR TOILETTES. When the expedition reached the Niger in March, 190 i. it consic-ied ot Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, of tho Rifle Brigade, his • brcrhor. Captain OUuid Alexander, of the Scots Guards, Captain G. B. Gosling, o( the Rifle Brigade, and Mr I'. A. Talbot, B.A. When Lieutenant Boyd Alexander reached the Nile ho was alone, liis brother and Captain Gisling having died of fever, while Talbot was obliged io return homo bv tho Bcinw and Niger after liuving arcom-, plifhed a. great deal of original survey work in Borun and in tho exploration of Lake Chad. The first year's work of ihe expedition was spent in the Eastern part of Northern Niioria. Captain Claud Alexander and Mr Talbot, despite illness and famine, mado an excellent survey of tho country, completing a. triangulation bot-ween Ibi. on tho Banue, and Lake Chad. The highest mountains were found to bo little over 5500 ft. Meantime Lieutenant. Boyd Alexander and Captain together with a Portuguese assistant named! Lopes,. devoted themselves chiefly to zoological work, nnd made an excellent colkction A pagan tribe, the Kachai, was met, among, whom the women adorn themselves with an orna- ' n'.ent tied on behind to resemble a tail. A SfX YEARS' PILGRIMAGE. With a couple of shallow-draught, steel boa Is Ihe Gondola River was explored, tho boats being afterwards taken to pieces and carried across cumtry to the Ri\er Komar'ngu, where they were once move utilised, r.if.utcnant Alexander navigating them down that river to Lake Chad On one occasion an altempl was made lo raid tho ■■mii, !>ni ill general the travellers met, .villi no hostility from the inhabitants. A picturesque incident was the relief of a. I'iravaii of TOO pilgrims on their way to Mecca—a six years' journey from Timbuktu, tho starting place—besieged in a- walled town by semi-Berber robber trilies fiom :ho Sahara borderland. These freoooo'.ors wore dispersed by Lieutenant Alexander, helped by a forre of archers. The first real disaster cecarral in November, 19M, y.i.ep Captain Claud Alexander died at Maifoni, a place south-vest, of Lake Chad, of enteric fever, tho result of overwork in heavy rains and scarcity of food. A gallant soldier, who had fought, with tlislinction in the Boer war (he was wounded at Belmont), his death was a great loss to tile expedition. ITe was but 26 years old. Undeterred by the death of his broth::!', Lieutenant ft. Alexander continued h>s journey. He and Mr Talbot made a careful survey ot Lake Chad, with the result of greatly altering the map of thai mysterious lake, which appears to be little better (ban a vast swamp with two largo "pools" of open water. Hero was found a race of liinid folk. Budduma. who build canoes of dried reed statics, tied together in layers, and in shape resembling Venetian gondolas. Jlosquitos swarmed in clouds.

BATTLING WITH TIIE .REED SWAMPS.

Mr Talbot, having left on his return Home via La.gos, Lieutenant Alexander and Caplnin (icslinr, after three month =' battling with the reed swamns ot Lake Chad. reached the monlh of the Shari on May 2D, 1905. Sickness ami desertion had greatly reduced the mmibers of Hie caravan, but Iho sled boars worn intact, arcl from the French officers in the Shari district. tho travellers received every pilaiitv. In .Tunc, 1905. a. start was matin frc-m Fort Laniv. a French post on the t-'iiari, for the Übangi River, the ronle being partly by water and partly overland. The next nine months wore spent in irivesliu'atintr the wafer system connecting the fvhari and the Übangi, and in making farther zoologim.l collections. Among other things n complete specimen of the okapi was procured on the Welle River. It was here that Lieutenant, Alexander was left to carry oil tho expedition alone, for on June 15. 1906, Captain Gosling (lied —a victim to blae': water fever. Having' crossed Ihe great equatorial forests, Lieutenant Alexander reached the Nile at Lai'o in December lesi, and thence made his way to Khartoum by the river. From tho Forcades monlh of the Nicrer. wlioro the journey was begun lo I'ort f-'nudin. where it ended, is a. distance by the route followed of over 3000 mile.-. Fully two-thirds of (his long' journey was in country, very li'He known—some of it never helore visited by anv Kuropoan.— and anion;' tribes, some Moslem, some pagan (and cannibal),, v.hose goodwill was almost invariably obtained bv mingled lirmn»ss and kindness. Its successful accomplishment places Lieutenant Boyd Alexander in the front rank of living African explorers. Ono of the most important rcsn'is obtained is a far morn ateurale knowledge of the navigable waterways connecting the Con jo basin with Nigeria, a matter "f great moment when I lie enor- ! mous cf'St of opening up the heart of Africa by railways is considered.—ral! • MilM Gillette.