The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-15
n. DO cHAILLu IN EouA1ORlAL AFR!cA.


tries in England Is peculiar and very difficult.
II he returns home with nothing new or striking
TO relate, he Is voted bore, and his book has
no chance OF being read; if he has some won
ders TO unfold, connected with Geography, the
Natives, or Natural History, the fate of Abys-
synian Bruce too often awaits him; his nara.
ave being held up to scorn and ridicule, as a
tissue OF hgments.
ut was my lot, on the publication of my first
volume OF travels in Equatorial Africa, to meet
with reception of that sort from many persons
IN England and Germany, In fact had visited
country previously unexplored by Europeans
the wooded region bordering the Equator, IN
the interior Of Western Africa-and thus 1t was
my good fortune to observe the habits OF several
remarkable species OF animals found nowhere
else. Hence my narrative, describing unknown
animals was condemned. The novelty OF the
subject was too striking for some OF my crlucs;
and not only we're the accounts ! gave OF tue
animals and native tribes stigmatlzed as lalse,
but my journey into the interior itself was pro-
nounced a fiction.
4" Although hurt to the quick by these unfair
and ungenerous criticisms, / cherished no
malice towards my detractors, Tor knew the
time would come when the truth of all tnat was
essential in the statements which had been dis
puted would be made clear 1 was consoed,
besides. by the support OF many eminent men,
who refused to believe that my narrative and
observations were deliberate falsehoods. Max
ing no pretensions to intaIlibllity, any more
than other travellers, / was ready to acknoW-
ledge any mistake that might have fallen into,
rough notes. The only revenge cherished was
that OF better preparing myself for another
journey into the same region, providing myself
with instruments and apparatus which did not
possess on my hrst exploration, and thus being
enabled to vindicate my former accounts by
facts not to be Controyerted.
at is necessary, however, to inform my
English readers that most of the principal state
ments in my former book which were sneered
at by my critics, have been already amply con.
hrmed by other travellers in the same part of
africa, or by evidence which has reached
Nj. Du Chaillu's present volume is an itinerary
OF some three hundred miles in au easterly
direction from the mouth OF the river Fernand
Vaz, situated about three minutes to the south
et the equator. The objects of his Journey,
although hig record of IL does not partake of a
strictly technical character in any respect
whatever, We're scientific. He took great palms.
before starting on his expedition, to acquire
that special knowledge and that mastery over
instruments philosophical and artistic, which
should give hls researches the value of great lu-
teiltgence and absolute trustworthiness. We are
treated TO a little botany little geology, little
mythology, meteorology, and astronomy, and to
little more still OF geography zoology, and
ethnology. But about his principal objects in
the journey, of which the volume before us is
the chronicle, the traveller may be allo wed to
speak for himself:
1.-THE principal object had IN view in my last
journey, was to make known with more accu
racy than had been able to do in my former
Out, luG ROUSEupulCdl ltdLuIGS Ol buG COuuuY,
believing this to be the first duty of traIe Her
in exploring new regions. To enable me to do
this l went through q course of instruction in
the use OF instruments, TO enable me to fix posi-
tions by astronomical observations and compass
bearings, and to ascertain the attitudes of places.
learnt also how to compute my observations,
and test myself their correctness. It's for Others
to Judge of the results OF my endeavors in this
important department of a travellers work;
Can only say that / labored hard to make my
work as accurate as possible, and although /
was compelled, much to my sorrow, to abandon
photography and meteorological observations
through the loss OF my apparatus and instru
ments, was fortunately able to continue astro-
nomical observations nearly to the end of my
route.n ,.-..
NJ Du ChaiIlus' adventure terminated alb
ruptly in a disappointment and in retreat,
which. HlutGt{S nlltdndiS we could not help in
ITS earlier stages, comparing with that which
the immortal Ten Thousand accomplished under
the leadership OF Aenophon, the general and
historian of the difficult and dreary march TO
the seaboard OF the EuYine. Our traveller sci
out to pierce the continent OF Africa, and he
retired baffled, yet with honor, after ne had
done little more than, SO to say, scratch the
SKIN. Inspired, at the beginning, with tine
lofty ambition of reaching the Nile by au
approach from the west, he hoped to lOat
down to the Mediterranean on the bosom OF the
sacred aud yet almost lnviolable river.
Having enlisted the services OF small num-
ber of Commi men as body-guard, who were
fired by the thought that they were marching
from one tribe to another, who furnished MIN
with guides and porters, until the accidental
discharge OF a gun by one OF his sworn aud
faithful henChmen forced him to a retrOgraie
journey, when he had penetrated no further
than Mouaou-Kembo, in the land of the
Ashangos.
The great bugbear of human life IN Africa
the great thorn in the tesh OF the WayIarer VINO
would sojourn in the tents OF Ham, Is the
accursed aud omnipreseht fetishism, and the
everlasting dread OF witchcratt. Tue fears
raised by these supersttions-nOt to mention
that altempest OF smallpox swept of scores OF
victims at various places OF Nj. Du Chaillus
route, much to that good gentleman's disad
vantage-trequently became raging nuisance.
When q village came in sight there was need
OF no little diplomacy to accomplish the entry,
and to gain the goodwill OF the panic-strlcken
people. This was, however generally changed,
before long, into a feeling of hospitality, and of
desire to trade, as ardent as the previous re-
pugnance to INSTRUMENTATION. The char
acter that our author presently achieved tor
being q spirit, and vulnerable, valuable as it
was in many respects as an element of his
safety, had its drawbacks, in adding TO the diff
fculty of his first approaches to familiarity.
When thievlsh porters returned to their native
villages to die OF the arsenic which they had
wisely mingled with the salt, after having stolen
both from the stores Of the traveller iC was
only certified the more that "Chailiuu had
followed them to their homes with the vengeance
of his dreadful spells, with theiatal incantatons
OF his almighty Witchcran At one stage OF his
difficult progress, he began, indeed, "to dread
the sight of an inhabited place. Either tho
panic-stricken people" he says, "hy from me
or remain to bore me with their Unsuitable curl
osity, hckleness, greediness, and intoerabe din
Nevertheless, am Obliged to do all can thini
of to conciate them, for cannot do witnou
them-it being impossible TO travel withou
guides through this wilderness OIL forests, wher
the paths are so INTRICATE"
So things went on until, alter more than eigf
months travelling, M. Du Challlu hau succeeue