The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-30 00:00:00

ROT AL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

Monday, at one o'clock, the anniversary meet-
ing of this society, which has of late been as-
suming a position commensurate with its great
objects, which are of universal interest, was held at
Burlington-house, Piccadilly. In the unavoidable
absence of Lord Ashburton, the president, Sir Ro-
derick Murchison was called to the chair. There
was a large attendance of members.

The accessions to the society since the last anni-
versary amount to the unprecedented number of
233 Fellows. During the same period the Council
have to record the decease of 30 ordinary members
and two corresponding—viz., the Chevalier Pedro
de Angelis, of Buenos Ayres, and M. Daussy, of
Paris. The society now comprises 1,510 Fellows
and 54 honorary and corresponding members.
Earl DE GREY had attended to receive, on
hehalf of Captain John Henning Speke, of the
Indian army, the Founder's Medal which has
been awarded to him for his eminent geo-
graphical discoveries in Africa, his prudence and
intrepidity as a traveller, and more especially for
the discovery of the great lake Victoria Nyanza,
as illustrated by the map constructed for the jour-
nal of the society ; and lastly, for the zeal with which
he undertook, and is now carrying out, at the in-
stance of the society, the determination of the
northern limits of the lake Victoria Nyanza, and
the possible souroes of the White Nile.
The CHAIRMAN having presented the medal in a
complimentary address,
Earl DE GREY expressed the very great pleasure
he:experienced in accepting on behalf of Captain
Speke that symbol of the high estimation in which
the Royal Geographical Society held the services
he had rendered, and was still rendering, to geo-
graphical science. He cordially and entirely con-
curred in the course which the society had taken
in awarding that medal to Captain Speke. As presi-
dent of the society last year, he had the gratifica-
tion of presenting a similar medal to Capt. Burton,
also an officer in the Indian army ; and connected as
he (Earl de Grey) was with the Indian-office, it was a
source of pleasure to him to think that officers of the
old Indian army were amalgamating with the rest
of the service without yielding any portion of the
glorious heritage which, as travellers and geo-
graphers, seemed to be peculiarly their own. (Ap- J
plause.)
The Duke of NEWCASTLE (to whom the Chair-
man presented the Patron's Gold Medal on behalf
of Mr. John M'Douall Stuart, for his very remark-
able explorations in the interior of Australia, and
particularly for his last successful journey from
South Australia to the waterparting of Northern
Australia, as illustrated by his own maps) Said it
afforded him great
Lord Ash
pleasure
atrot
eobey th e invitation
e rthat
President,
purpose, for two reasons—first, toattend f.
because he was
society, of unibolef thisme member,
important oc
anxious to testify his
entire concurrence in the ob-
jects
Imperial Govaenrd also
nment, and more especially of
which he was a
1 h
to express on behalf of
whrieohaheania
the department over
preside, their entire approval da
labours and exertions of that perseveringdB
awarded. Sir R. Murchison had
ytreh e honour to
pathy in the
and enter-
prising explorer to whom that
memorial had been
alluded to the
former exploits of Captain Sturt, the predecessor of
Mr. Stuart in that field of enterprise. Tir.
—e (the
Duke of Newcastle) was sure there was no man
who would feel less jealousy at the success of Mr.
Stuart than that eminent individual. Mr. Stuart
commenced his exploration under the auspices of Mr.
Chambers, who provided funds for that purpose. He
returned in August,
"0 -e
1859, from one of his expedi-
tions, having reason to believe he should eventually.
w
succeed in the object he had in
again with fresh means and appliances, Starting
rt ing
ulti-
mately succeeded in reaching a point 100 miles fur-
le
ther north than that to which 11r.1r. Gregory had
penetrated, when he was stopped by the hostility of
the natives. He had travelled a distance of 3,000
miles and undergone great hardships, having, for
instance, on one occasion passed 111 hours without
water, under a burning sun ; and, although he had
been driven back by the natives, he might fairly he
considered to have accomplished the object he had
at heart, which was to strike the north coast some-
where near Cambridge Gulf. It would be out of place
at that moment to raise any controversy`on such a sub-
ject, but the result of Mr. Stuart's exertions, and the
anticipations they held out for the future, convinced
him (the Duke of Newcastle) that the Government
had for the present done right in not forcing colo-
nisation on the northern shores of Australia. He
anticipated that those shores would now very soon
become peopled, though there might be some diffe-
rence of opinion as to the best means by which that
could be done. The last account of Mr. Stuart was
that he was about to start again, and the only cir-

cumstance which he (the Duke of Newcastle) re-
gretted in connection with the expedition, upon
which by this time Mr. Stuart must have entered,
was that he had gone alone, without scientific com-
panions. But he anticipated that Mr. Stuart would
be successful even without these companions, and
he should have great pleasure in transmitting the
society's medal to him, conscious as he was of the
eminent services which that gentleman had ren-
dered to geographical science, and to the colony
and his country at large. (Cheers.)
Sir R. MURCHISON said—As our respected and
noble president, who has truly the interests of
our body at heart, has been compelled to leave Lon-
don for the north of Scotland, on account of the
alarming illness of the noble chieftainess, his lady's
mother, whose loss, if it should :occur, will grieve
many a Highlander besides myself, I am unexpec-
tedly called upon to resume my old place as your
president. I regret his absence the more because I
feel certain that if Lord Ashburton had been pre-
sent he would have efficiently directed your atten-
tion to subjects of practical usefulness and import-
ance which are intimately connected with the pro-
gress of this society. Adverting to the death of the
Earl of Aberdeen, who was one of the fellows of the
society, and a great benefactor of it, Sir Roderick
said—This is not the place in which the higher
qualities and great characteristics of this distin-
guished statesman can be appropriately recorded.
It is not here that we are entitled to trace, as was
most eloquently done in a powerful daily journal,
the main features even of his career. The
enlargement of these topics must be left to the
pen of the historian. Nor are we capable of analys-
ing the merits of the antiquary, who at an early
period of his life obtained the cognomen of "the
Travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen"—the man
whose classic attainments and elegant appreciation
of the fine arts rendered him for sc many years a
chosen arbiter in all matters of good taste, whether
in architecture or sculpture, and constituted in him
an invaluable trustee of the British Museum.
(Hear, hear.) We may, however, in common with
many of our countrymen, declare that this accom-
plished nobleman conducted the foreign relations
of this country with such dignity, urbanity, and
good sense as to have earned for him the love of all
our allies, and the profound respect of even our
enemies. With a somewhat formal exterior, Lord
Aberdeen was endowed with a warmth of heart
and largeness of views which few but his intimate
friends could appreciate. In this assembly it
is, indeed, gratifying to make it known that the
oldest of his friends was one of our Fellows, who
still survives and continues to diffuse knowledge
and comfort around him. This is that learned
benevolent, and excellent man, Hudson Gurney,
who was the companion of Lord Aberdeen in the
year 1803, when they travelled from Paris into
southern climes, and who kept up an intimate cor-
respondence with him through life. Just as every
foreign Sovereign with whom he had intercourse
honoured Lord Aberdeen, our gracious Queen so
deeply felt his value as an enlightened, honest, and
firm friend ; that while during his life she gave
himsthe strongest proofs of her friendship, she also
honoured his obsequies with special marks of her
affection. (Hear, hear.) The feature, however, in
his truly liberal character which most distinctly con-
nects Lord Aberdeen with this society is that he was
the Prime Minister who upon my own representa-
tion perceived the desirableness of granting an an-
nual sum of money to maintain our society in per-
petuity, and in thus constituting it the map-office
of the nation. Admitting that no scientific body
could have stronger claims upon the consideration
of the Government, most willingly did he approve
of the motion of that honest economist, Joseph
Hume, at whose instigation the House of Commons
voted the grant which first enabled us to meet the
difficulties of a rising society, and which has since
been continued to us annually. I have often dwelt
on the good influence exercised under our pro-
sperity by the grant, as obtained upon the admi-
nistration of my illustrious and noble friend, for it
was the turning point of the great advance we were
destined to make; and although it be but a small
item in the many virtues of a great statesman, it
is one which will always endear the name of
Aberdeen to every geographer. (Hear, hear.)
Passing on, among other topics, to the exploration
of M. Du Chaillu in Western Equatorial Africa and
the," gorilla" district, Sir Roderick proceeded to say,
—Among the great desiderata which remained to
be worked out in South Africa, one of striking in-
terest, which was alluded to at our last anniversary,
has been answered by M. Du Chaillu, a Frenchman
by birth and education, and now a naturalised citi-
zen of New York. We have since had an opportu-
nity of hearing from the traveller himself an account
of his strange experience, of seeing his collection
of huge anthropoid apes, quadrupeds, reptilia, and
numerous birds, and of reading a detailed narrative
of his eventful wanderings. Livingstone was the
first to reveal to us the great and important
fact that the region of Central Africa, extending
northwards from the Cape Colony to 8 deg. of south
latitude, is a plateau—land occupiedby great lakes,
the waters of which, as previously suggested by
mvqPlf, would he forma to escape to the sea thrrmgh
gorges in subtending mountain chains of greater
altitude than the central watery plains. Du
Chaillu, on his part, has so extended his adventu-
rous explorations from the Western Coast north
and south of the Equator as to describe for the first
time the complicated river drainage near the coast,
which he has laid down on a map, and also to demon-
strate that a lofty wooded chain extends so far into
the heart of the continent as apparently to form a
band of separation between Northern and Southern
Africa. In many a tract to the north of this
lofty zone Mahomedanism has extended its sway;
but to the south of it, in these meridians, no green
flag of the Prophet has yet been unfurled, while a
few zealous missionaries, living on the coasts under
the Equator and on both sides of the mouth of the
river Gaboon have found centres whence to propa-
gate the gospel of Christ. It was in one of those
seats of the missionaries that young Du Chaillu,
taken thither by his father, who traded in the pro-
ducts of the country, first learnt the rudiments of
the native language of the adjacent tribes, and ob-
tained sufficient information to induce him on his
return to his adopted home to fit himself out with
presents, medicines, and arms, and then to enter
upon one of the boldest ventures which man ever
undertook. (Applause.) In vain had the mission-
aries and trading blacks dissuaded him from such
an undertaking by depicting to him the savage
character of the tribe of men (many of them canni-
bals) among whom he must trust himself, to say
nothing of the ferocity of the quadrupeds and the
impenetrable nature of the densely-wooded jungles
and forests he would have to traverse. An intense
love of natural history led him to plunge into these
hitherto unexplored wilds. The giant anthropoid ape
gorilla, specimens of which had a few years only been
for the first time brought to Europe by traders on the
coast, was known to flourish in all his pristine vigour
in the interior, and many a curious quadruped
and bird were described as being common to that
region. The die was, therefore, resolutely cast by
the young naturalist, and, with a few black car-
riers and canoes, and without one white attendant,
he dashed into thickets where no European had
ever put his foot. Gaining the goodwill of chief
after chief, and being at length considered by their
sable majesties as a white spirit whose wrath
might be fatal to them, and whom they therefore
propitiated, he has been enabled, not merely to de-
scribe the singular habits of these people, but also
to make a sketch map of the region, and to define
the course of the chief rivers, both before and

after they unite in a network of streams as they
approach the coast. When at the extreme eastern
point of his tour, the information he derived from

the natives led him to believe that the rocky and
densely wooded mountains really extended for so

great a- distance to the east that they might be very
well supposed to send out emhranchments into

those highlands north of the Uniayembe Lake of
Burton and Speke, which these authors called the
Mountains of the Moon. Including periods of re-

turn to his friends the missionaries on the coast,
and his voyages to and fro, he occupied nearly
four years in these arduous explorations, and got
together a greater quantity:of apes, quadrupeds, and
birds (many of them never before seen) than pro-
bably ever fell to the lot of any one traveller. It
is not
of thesenotourp animals,rovincehe but w
retoee knowstima h
t 3
tthaet, in therelative
opinion
the pre-existingpinionofsomeof the first zoologists of Europe
A ad
nemsace
rrhii
ip csat
i,
assocoAnls., D
convincedi
aat eCsihi aas Chaillu 1 u has not only added greatly
wnitet acquaintance with the fauna
b
of South Africa,has,
tbhye
mhistchlaetarheanhdaanimated
s
eye-
close an
ofhe proved
the habits of the gorilla
eeds ) Strikingly at-
imself to be their
successful assailant.
tractive and wonderfulAal
)sr ,c, i
povi a .
u
they all carry in themselves
stantial truthfulness. Of this no an
im
were his
who has formed
s descriptions,
press of sub-
the acquaintance of M. Du Chaillu, and looked into
his open countenance and met his bright and piercing
eye, can for a moment doubt. (Hear.) Aware that
the f4ithful description of a region so extrava-
gantly exuberant in many natural productions, and
inhabited by gigantic apes, and in one part by a
cannibal race, would probably he doubted by some
cavillers, M. Da Chaillu is quite prepared to meet
such objectors. He knows as well as we do that
many of the discoveries of Bruce in the last cen-
tury were repudiated and treated as fables. But,
with the advancement of geographical research,
the detractors of Bruce have had their own names
consigned to oblivion, while the wonderful and so-
called " travellers' tales" of the great Abyssinian
explorer have been verified by his followers. Know-
ledge
is indeed much more diffused than in the days 1

of Bruce, and to the honour of the contemporary
press, the narrative of M. Du Chaillu has met with