The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

Lady Explorers of the Nile,

At the meetiog of the Historic Snit ty, on Thursday, Mr.
M'Quie presiding, Mr. J. A. Tinne, F.R, G. S., read a paper
on " Geographical Researches and Discoveries in Central
Africa, by three Dutch ladies." The paper was illustrated
by valuable unpublished maps, prepared for the occusii,n,
arid kindly lent by the Geographical Society. On rising,
Mr. Tirane was greeted with loud applause. He said the
three Dutch ladies, who wire his sisters, left the Hague in
July, 1861, for the purpose of visiting the Nilo and the
countries adjacent to it, having previously visited Egypt
twice, in 1856 and in 1858. They arrived at Alexandria,
wintered at Cairo, and proceeded up the Nile on the 9th of
January, 1862. They had a large party with them, which
included a strong guard of soldiers, and they also had a
quantity of stores. The first point of interest was their
journey across the desert of Nubia, which, to their astonish-
Nent, they found to be a romantic country, furnishing a
plentiful supply of herbs, and not destitute of water. They
visited, in the course of their passage through the desert,
Mr A. Melly's tomb, at Gagee. Mc Melly, who was a Liver-
pool merchant, died in the desert in 1851 whilst visiting the
country with his family. Proceeding onward to Khartum,
the party traversed the Blue Nile, which they considered the
reverse of pretty, and thence to the White Nile, with which
they were delighted. They found it a beautiful ornamented
water, richly wooded. An interesting incident was here re-
lated of the redemption of several slaves by the ladies. The
travellers selected a station at the foot of a chain of moun-
tains called the D'Jehel limeys, in which to pass the sum-
mer season. It was on the east bank of the White Nile.
Here they remained till the 7th July, at which date they
proceeded up the river. The youngest lady of the party was
everywhere taken to be the daughter of the Sultan, and in
several countries the people entreated her to become their
queen. The party next made an excursion up the Sobat
River, returning to the Nile to Lake No, beyond which they
found the river abounding in splendid vegetation, but the
navigation was dangerous. On Sept, 4 they arrived at St.
Croix, a station of Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries.
The band of missionaries originally consisted of 30 mem-
bers ; only three remained at the time of the visit, and on the
return of the party down the river these three came away.
One of the ladies roads an excursion into the interior fur
8 days, and found the country exceedingly beautiful, and
was delighted with everything she saw. On the 15th Sep•
lember they resumed their journey up the river, the scenery
improving as they advanced. The next stopping place was
Gondokoro, which abounded with more magnificent scenery
than any they had yet witnessed. They had been informed
that above this point the river was not navigable. They,
however, attempted to pass on further, but after 5 hours'
labour they found it impracticable and turned back. They
mentioned that the people living in the neighbourhood ridi-
culed the iha of there being but one source of the Nile.
They would have gone across the country, but abandoned
the attempt on account of the amount of marauding that was
being carried on. One of the ladies suffered very much from
exposure to the sun. On the 22d October they commenced
the return journey, and arrived at Khartum in Novembc r,
1862, The sail down the river, occupied 170 hours, being
only about one-half the time occupied in the voyage up.
They remained at Khartum until February 1863, refitting.
They started again in that month with restored health, after
spending a cold winter, sometimes stormy, but the weather
always bracing, At this time the ladies were joined by a
Dutch gentleman named Baron D'Ablaing, and two scien-
tific Germans—Dr.T, Von Hengliu and Dr. Steudner. They
purposed ascending a great western tributary of the Nile, the
Bhazal, and so proceeding as far as possible southwestward.
On Feb. 5 they again arrived at Lake No and set forth up the
Bhazal, where they were astonished at the number of ani-
mals, birds, and fishes that abounded on every hand. They
next disembarked at Lake Bek, where they found 35 trading
vessels waiting for cargoes. One of the German gentlemen
purposed on March 25 to find a suitable champ sign between
this point and the mountains of Casing°. Both the Ger-
mans, however, fell sick, and one of them, Dr Steudner,
died on April 10 of fever. There were many other delays,
so that it was May 12 before the party was prepared to ad-
vance. At that time they had a very large retinue, in-
cluding 120 soldiers, in their service. During the absence
of the German gentlemen the ladies were visited by Mr
Petherick, the late British Consul at Khartum, and his wife,
who were greatly dejected at the ill-health they had met with
in their search for Capts. Spoke and Grant. In their letters
to him (Mr Tinne) the ladies requested him to take every
opportunity that might present itself to relieve the minds
of the people in this country from the unfavourable opinions
with which Mr. Petherick was regarded, Captains Spoke
and Grant, they said, had been prejudiced against him by
man whose nephew he had caused to be apprehended for slave
trade. The ladies went forward on May 17, at which time
the surviving Dutch gentleman, Dr. T. Von Heuglin, was
too ill to be removed, and the Dutch gentleman and Mr.
Petheriek remained behind to take care of him, A succes-
sion of severe storms and cold brought on fever in one of
the ladies, and for some time she lay at the point of death.
At the same time the soldiers mutinied, and troubles ac-
cumulated, but at the date of the last advices, the 2d of
July, 1863, they were induced to proceed further into the
country, which was still described as exceedingly beautiful,
and surprising all the expectations of the party. In many
places they had been received with the greatest hospitality,
but they had suffered a great deal from imposition and ex-
tortion, and also from the climate, which told considerably
upon their healths. Mr Tinne resumed his seat amid loud
applause. A discussion followed, in the course of which
Mr P. B M'Quie thanked Mr Tinne for the observations he
had made respecting Mr Petherick. He said that that
gentleman's reports and accounts were now in the posses-
sion of the Royal Geographical Society, and would be pub-
lished ehortly. They would free Mr Petherick from the
charges which had been made against him. The Govern-
ment had chosen to abolish the consulate of Khartum with-
out any reasonable grounds, and also to identify Mr Pethe-
rick with the slave trade, but it would be found that for the
charge there was no foundation whatever.