The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-14 00:00:00

Americans in Maximilian's Service.

Our last news from Mexico informs m that among
the Americans who have accepted official positipns under
Maximilian is " Senor M. P. Maury," not unknown to the
world in connection with science, who was at one time
a naval officer under the United States Government, and
who afterwards renounced his allegiance and violated his
oath to join the rebel service. A good record to an am-
bitious man is his stock-in-trade. In whatever branch of
the public service, or in whatever capacity in public life he
may have made himself conspicuous, if his record be
not genuine his character is likely to suffer. He may be a
hero or he may be a humbug, according as the truth of
history is made manifest.

There was a prevailing idea that Mr. Maury, formerly
lieutenant and subsequently commander in the United
States Navy, was entitled to certain credit for important
discoveries in the laws of currents, winds, and so forth.
Maury was in high official position as director of the
National Observatory in Washington, where ho had every
opportunity for obtaining information upon the subjects
whereof he treated. According to instructions issued by the
Navy Department, while Mr. Maury was at the head of the
Observatory, every naval officer and captain of a ship in the
merchant marine furnished to Mr. Maury all the observa-
tions which came within his experience of winds and tides
and currrents. Upon these data Mr. Maurry, lying quietly
in his seclusion in Washington for nearly eighteen years
that he was at the head of the National Observatory,
published a report and made a reputation by his theory on
winds and currents. The men who furnished the mate-
rials
got no credit. Maury, ex-commander of the United
States Navy, ex-President of the National Observatory,
and present official of Maximilian, gathered all the credit
into his own fold. It is now very well understood that
y erie
Maury had very little e to do with the practical operation
rlit
of those discoveries
which he advanced in connection atwith which his name is connected ;
and it is worth re
Ireland that many of the theories
and the submarie°nenn
lection with the Atlantic tele-
graph.ll,lavteau between Newfoundland
and the coast of
erroneous. For instance, beistl been subsequently proved
the water in the Atlantic Ocean le°rY
that the pressor© of
that the bed ofthe sea was a mustgrave extinguish life, and
could be found there, was upset, ybyrdt:hthat no vitality
experiments of
Colonel Tal. P. Schaffer, of Kentucky, Wheo
made
in northern latitudes, in the region of Iceland, and a voyage
soundings found molluscce, with all the evidences
of
He reported the fact to the British Goveanment, and they
life.
sent out explorers on the same route, who found plenty
of the mollusc tribe on their sounding lines, full of life
in the highest condition known to that low class of the
animal kingdom.
So much for Maury's graveyard theory. The survey
of the great Atlantic plateau was anticipated by Com-
modore Berryman, of the United States Navy, when the
Atlantic cable was first projected, and the information
which he obtained by experiment he communicated to the
British Government upon his arrival in England. For
this he was brought to task by Maury, and in like manner
all the labors of other United States officers were obsorbed
by the head of the National Observatory and placed to his
own credit. In fact, as far back as 1848 Colonel Sher-
burne had announced this Atlantic plateau, and arrived at
thei same conclusions which have since been established,
with the exception of Mau ' "graveyard" notion.
We see,
therefore, how easy it is, for a man in power to
manufacture are t •
pu ation upon the industry of others.
There were many
officers of the navy who would have
been willing to have assumed the position of Lieutenant
Maury, and fully as
was the lucky one, andcompetent to fulfil its duties ; but he
he has succeeded in obtaining a
name in naval scien, at the expense of others—a name,
however, which his recce
ereanitacareer has blotted all over with
infamy._New
York
ff.

Royal Geographical Society.

The opening meeting of this learned society for
the session 1865-66 took place last evening at Bur-
lington-house. The announcement' of a paper by
Mr. Baker, descriptive of his Central African explo-
rations, attracted a very crowded and distinguished
audience, including his Royal Highness the -Comte
de Paris, the Duke of Wellington, Lords Strang-
ford, Colchester, and Houghton, Lady Franklin,
Mr. Walpole, M.P., Mr. T. Baring, M.P., Mr.
Crawford, M.P., and others.
The usual formal preliminaries having been gone
through,
Sir R. MURCHISON, president of the society,
briefly introduced the business of the evening. He
said—Gentlemen, we reassemble for this session
under circumstances which must gladden the heart
of every geographer. As none of us can forget the
enthusiasm which greeted the lamented Speke and
his gallant associate Grant on their first appearance
in this hall after their successful exploitin tracing the
Nile to its mouth , from the great Lake Victoria Nyanza
in the heart of Equatorial Africa, so may we well re-
joice when we now welcome to his country that most
enterprising, skilful, and large-hearted traveller
Samuel Baker. This traveller has not only
verified many important points in the deductions of
his lamented precursor, but has discovered that the
Luta or Muta Nzige of Central Africa—sketched
out by Speke from native reports—is a deep and vast
rock basin, having a length of 260 miles, or about
a long as Scotland, exclusive of what may be its
southerly and unknown boundary, and that, unlike
the Victoria and most other African lakes, it is sub-
tended by high shores composed of hard granitic
rocks. Let me call your attention specially to one
or two only of the salient points in the conduct of
the man who is now happily among us, and who, by
his devotion to geographical science, has worked out,
entirely at his own cost, the grand addition to our
previous knowledge. (Cheers.) Distinguished as an
explorer in Ceylon and Upper Egypt, and particu-
larly in having determined the nature of the efflu-
ents of the Atbara, that great tributary of the Nile,
and in affixing many positions thereon, Mr. Samuel
Baker was no sooner made acquainted with the
perilous and exhausted condition in which Speke and
Grant were supposed to emerge from Equatorial
Africa, and also with the unforeseen disasters which
had befallen our envoy Petherick, who was com-
missioned to carry succour to the travellers—dis-
asters which would render him unable to assist
them—than, at his own cost, he fitted out an ex-
pedition, and, carrying with him adequate supplies,
was the first to relieve their wants. (Cheers.) It
was for this noble conduct, as well as for the gallant
and determined manner in which, undaunted by all
the dangers through which Speke and Grant had
struggled, he resolved to go forward into the
country of the Equatorial King Kamrasi, there to
work out that important portion of the course of the
Nile which was left undetermined, that we awarded
to him our Victoria Medal. The difficulties which
our travellers had to overcome immediately after
the departure of Speke and Grant were, indeed,
more than enough to paralyze the ardour and check
the energy of any man. For the natives whom he
had engaged to transport his provisions and goods
mutinied, and, separating into two parties, proceeded
to make razzias, or marauding forays, for the
ivory and slave traders, upon tribes at some distance
to the east. Being thus rendered wholly unable to
proceed direct towards the country he was bound to
examine, Baker followed up the lesser part of the
mutineers far away to the east, and by gifts, pro-
mises, and able management, contrived to win over
a sufficient number of these people to transport his
goods. This he effected the more readily after the
larger party of 104 persons had been to a man killed
by the brave natives of the Latooka tribe, who de-
fended their independence against these villanous
slave-hunters. I have here to announce, and with
a pleasure and gratification that will, I know, be
shared by every one in this assembly, that in all his
arduous and perilous travels our medallist was ac-
companied by Mrs. Baker—(cheers)—to whom, as
he himself has told me, much of his success is due,
and who, by her conduct, has shown what the wife
of a gallant explorer can accomplish in duty to her
husband. Well, indeed, may she be proud of him
who has won our highest honour, and who is now
welcomed home by us with such enthusiasm, and
with our warmest thanks. Following up the re-
searches of Speke, who had called the great higher
lake the Victoria Nyanza, in honour of ou r
gracious Sovereign, B:Lker has most appropriately
raised a lasting memorial of her Majesty's lamented
and enlightened Consort, by affixing to this second
great lake of the Nile the name of Albert Nyanza.
(Cheers.) Sir Roderick proceeded shortly to notice
the progress of the Baron von der Decken in Eastern
Africa, and, after mentioning other geographical
researches in Australia and Brazil, concluded by
calling upon Mr. Baker to make his promised com-
munication to the society.
Mr. BAKER, who was very warmly received, pro-
ceeded to read a paper descriptive of his operations in
Central Africa. He commenced, he said, in 1861
the preparation of an expedition in the hope of
meeting Speke and Grant's South African expedi-
tion. He employed the first year iu exploring all
the tributaries of the Nile, and descended the Blue
Nile to Khartoum, intending to confine himself to
the great White Nile, In Dec., 1862, he started
from Khartoum with a powerful force, embarked on
board three vessels, and including 29 animals of
transport—camels, horses, and asses. Pursuing his
course along the banks of one of the tributaries of
the great river, he entered upon a dreary waste of
water and reedy banks, where he soon lost his only
European attendant, who was killed by fever. The
remainder of the party safely reached Gondokoro,
lat. 4.55 N., where they awaited a trading company
with whom they hoped to travel southwards. Gon-
dokoro itself was a wretched place, being occupied
only occasionally by traders upon their journeys to
procure slaves and ivory. After a stay of 15 days
at this miserable place the firing of guns announced
some new arrivals, and he was told that a party had
arrived, among whom were two Englishmen, who
proved to be no others than Captains Speke and
Grant, clothed in humble rags, but with the glory
of success upon them. Upon that occasion Capt.
Speke told him that he was assured by the natives
that a large lake existed to the westward, which he
believed would be found to be a second source of
the Nile, and that he himself had traced the river
up to 2.20 N., when it diverged to the west, and
he was obliged to leave it. Accordingly he (Mr.
Baker) undertook to follow up the stream, and made
his arrangements to join a trading party going
southward. The trade along the White Nile really
consisted of cattle-stealing,slave-catching, and mur-
der, and the men whom he was obliged to engage at
Khartoum were of the vilest character. He applied
through the British Consul at Alexandria to the Egyp-
tian Government for a few few troops to escort him,
but the request was refused, although an escort was
granted to the Dutch ladies upon the request of the
French Consul. After Speke and Grant had left him
his men mutinied, and combined to prevent his pro-
ceeding into the interior, as the traders were appre-
hensive of some exposure of the slave trade carried
on by them. His 40 armed men threatened to fire
upon him, and the Turkish traders whom he in-
tended to accompany set off without him, and
forbad him to follow in their track. At that time,
besides the assistance of a devoted wife, he had but
one faithful follower. By means of diplomacy he
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intended to desert him at a place seven days distant
from Gondokoro, and to join the traders. It was
imperative that he should advance, and he followed
the trading party who had threatened to attack
him, and to excite the Elliara tribes through whom
he must pass against him. However, upon the
suggestion of Mrs. Baker, the chief of the trading
party was brought over, and on the 17th of March
they safely arrived in the Latooka country, 110
miles east of Gondokoro. That country was one
of the finest he had ever seen, producing ample
supplies of grain and supporting large 'herds. The
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