The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-01 00:00:00

THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society was held in London, on Monday, in the Hall
of the University of London, Burlington-gardens,
under the presidency of Sir Rutherford Alc,ock, K.C.B.
The Royal (Founder's) -Medal, which had been
awarded to Baron Richthofen for his travels and ex-
plorations in China, was presented (on his behalf) to
Count Munster, the German Ambassador, who ex-
pressed a hope that England and Germany might
always try to be foremost in the promotion of civili-
sation and geographical knowledge.
The Victoria or Patron's Medal was -presented to
Captain Henry Trotter, RE., for his services to
geography, in having conducted the survey operations
of the late Mission to Eastern Turkistan, under Sir
Douglas Forsyth, which resulted in the connection of
the Trigonometrical Survey of India with the Russian
Surveys from Siberia; and for having further greatly
improved the map of Central Asia by uniting his own
work on the Upper Oxus, with the exploration of the
Mullah and Havildar further to the west, so as to give
for the first time a nearly continuous delineation of
the course of the river, from its sources in the Pamir
Lakes to the frontiers of Balkh.
Sir Rutherford Alcock stated that the Council had
unanimously resolved that Mr. H. M. Stanley should
receive the thanks of the Society, and should be
elected a corresponding member. In the course of
the proceedings, the President reviewed the progress
of geographical disco7ery during the past year, and
also announced, amid cheers, that a fresh African
exploring expedition would at once be organized to
explore the country lying between the caravan road
now constructing between Dar-es-Salaam (a few miles
south of Zanzibar) and the northern end of Lake
Nyanza. He also congratulated the Society on the
choice of the Earl of Dufferin as his successor.

The annual dinner of the Society was held in the
evening at Willis's Rooms. Amongst those present
were Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir Garnet Wolseley,
Sir George Nares, RN., Admiral Milne, Lord
Tenterden, Mr. IL M. Stanley, Colonel Grant,
Captain Trotter, Sir D. Forsyth, and Mr. Paigrave,
&c., &c.
Captain Burnaby, in reply to the toast of his health,
said it gave him very great pleasure to meet so many
distinguished members of the Royal Geographical
Society, of which all travellers, and indeed all English-
men, had thorough reason to be proud. When he con-
sidered the vast, tracts of country which had been
opened to them by the exertions of Livingstone and
his friend Stanley, the important discoveries of Sir
Samuel Baker, by Cameron, and by the untiring
energy of Colonel Gordon—better known as Chinese
Gordon—who had been for the last three years
engaged in exploration in perhaps one of the most
unhealthy climates in the world, and that all these
gentlemen belonged to the Royal Geographical
Society, he felt indebted to them for the honour of
being invited to be a guest. In his opinion the society
was the pioneer of Christianity, of commerce, and of
civilisation, its members not only keeping the public
at home informed of what was going on thousands of
miles from these shores, but also in many instances
conferring inestimable boons upon the savages of dis-
tant regions, by putting a stop in so great a degree to
the slave trade of Central Africa. He felt unworthy
of being their guest, for he must needs confess that
he was a mere ordinary traveller (laughter) who
just travelled for his own pleasure. To him
there was indescribable pleasure in being right
away from beaten tracks, far from railways, post-
offices, and telegraphs for he had never been
in any country without' finding that there was some-
thing to be learned from the inhabitants. Such ex-
perience on ordinary travellers like himself enlarged
their minds, smoothed their insular prejudices, and
enabled them to discover that people who differed
from them in religion, in habit, and customs were not
quite as bad as some statesmen who wrote pamphlets
and stayed at home would have them believe. (Hear,
hear.) Circassians and Bashi-Bazouks were not so
black as they were painted, and even in Central Africa
he had discovered that the negro had a sort of soft
place in his heart, if one only knew how to strike it on
the right chord, exemplifying the sentence placed
under a world-renowed picture, "One touch of
Nature makes the whole world kin." (Cheers.)