Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-12-09
The Romantic Story Of MademOiselle
Time


number of the "Gartenlaube' contains an
interesting and romantic sketch, by VIM
Cent?, of Mile. Time, the female explor-
er, whose tragical death this year was a
real loss to science This remarkable wo-
man vas the daughter of an English mer-
chant and OF a Dutch lady of good family
attached to the court of the present Queen
OF Holland. Her father dying when she
was only five years old, she was left heiress
to a considerable property; and as, more.
over, her personal attractions were great,
she had no lack of suitors when she grew
up, and those of the best birth and quail
ty. But to all she turned deaf ear What
could be the reasoS
"Rumor, incredzlous that the fair-haired
beauty could be insensible to the universal
passion. whispered that she nourished
hopeless love to some unattainable prince,
and that it was this which subsequently,
drove her, despairing. into the wilderness.
However that may be. two barons are said
in the eagerness of their suit, to have fol-
lowed her to Khartum. Her earliest de-
veloped tastes were those of an Amazon
She delighted in tanning horses, and
sought nature in its most savage aspects.
Her first journey of any length was to the
North Pole. The Queen of Holland gave
her introductions to many courts of Eu-
rope, but she was bent on visiting the
East, and made her first expedition there
when In her eighteenth year. She then
Travelled Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, and
seems at once to have succumbed to the
fascination which those regions have exer-
cised over the minds of European women
az well as men. But it was not the love of
rule which she sought to crafty, like Lady
Hester Stanhope; nor was it the gasping
desire for health, and the simple human
sympathies which bound her to the East,
like Lady Duff Gordon's; her passion was
to solve the problem of Nile discovery.
For this she resolved to turn African to the
best of her power; adopted the Egyptian
lress, surrounded herself with African
'ervants, and engaged a eunuch for her
protection.
"The nitive tribes of the interior imag-
ined her to be a lovely white shining daugh-
ter of the Sultan of Sultans, who, spending
freely with both hands, and winning all
hearts. came the whole way from Stamboul
to visit the inhospitable further limits of
her empire" And such is the legend
which probably will be handed down
among them for as many generations as are
yet to pass until the sanguine dreams of
future civilization may have their fulfil
ment. M. Cent? became acquainted with
this singular damsel errant on her return
from her great expedition into the territory
of the Gazelle River, on which expedition
she had the misfortune of losing her mother
ana aunt, who in their devotion had fol-
lowed her adventurous steps. Her
physician, DIR. Steudner, had also
died from the effects of the climate;
and Mile. Time, bereaved and dissipated,
retraced her steps to Cairo. But she as
sured NJ. Cent? that nothing should induce
her to return to Europe, and she rejected
the solicitations of her stepbrother, who
actually came from England to Cairo to
escort her back. Her desire and intention
was to build herself residence either at
Cairo or on the Nile island of Rhoda; and
she was very busily occupied with archi.
tectural plans of a strange fantastic char
acter when Nj. Cent? met her for the last
time IN the Egyptian capital. Her plans
of settling there did not meet with en-
couragement from the Egyptian govern
ment. and 1T was in consequences of her
inability to procure the land necessary for
her purposes that she departed in her own
steam vessel to visit the African coasts of
the Mediterranean. While on this voyage
she put in Mt Civita Vecchia, whence she
natives by her retinue of black depend
ants. Her project now was to journey from
Tripoh to TimbuctOo for which she en-.
deavored to obtain the assistance and COM
panionship of the experienced African trav-
eler, Gerard Rohlf, then in Rome; but he
had just been engaged to accompany the
English expedition to Abyssinia. 1t was
in the wild regions of the Sahara, between
Mourzouk and Chat, that Mile. Time met
her fate. She had intended to remain at
or near Chat till the following autumn,
previously to prosecuting her longer Jour-
ney as far as to the territories of the Sultan
of Bournou, living out in tents all the time
in hope of recovering her strength. cas-
ual quarrel between some camel drivers of
the savage tribe of the Tuaric and her own
Dutch servants one morning brought her
to the scene of action, when q javelin was
thrust through her rom behind.
'The actual addition to their knowledge
which African geographers owe to Mile
Time, Was made in her expedition to the
Gazelle river. They succeeded in ascer-
tanning the position of the watershed which
marks off the basin of the Western Upper
Nile in this direction, and obtained vague
cognizance of central African inland sea,
possibly larger than Lake Nyanza, situa-
ted at about the third degree of north lati-
tude.
IN. Gentz's account of his visit to Mile.
Time, at Cairo, is picturesque and charac-
teristic. When he asked his way to her
abode he was directed by the donkey boys,
who all kne " her well as the Dutch Count
ess, who made her dwelling almost hos
pital for their animals when wounded or
sick. The housei itself was ruinous from with
out; through tortuous passages the visitor
found himself in a court with three palm
trees in it: donkeys summing themselves
on stone steps, negro slaves, boys and girls
lying on the ground, big women from the
Soudan, adornirg themselves with bits OF
broken window glass, long haired Nubisn
hounds and an old, white haired Barber,
who acted as porter. The lady dressed in
oriental mourning habit, and wearing an
expression of deep sadness on her counten-
ance, occupied a twilight saloon which had
been an ancient harem, with marble floor
and quaint eastern furniture. Her most
interesting accessories, however, were the
eighteen ethnographical specimens, chill
dren of different tribes Of the interior, who
had voluntarily followed her in order to es-
cape from the doom of slavery to their ma
tive homes.
s'It was told me (says the narrator) by q
missionary who had met Mile. Time in
the interior of Africa, that she had Cften
taken up severely wounded slave on the
animal on which she had been riding, and
proceeded herself for hours long on foot,
wading through deep marshes. Mile.
Time was very compassionate. While ]
drew (he continues, speaking of his inter.
view with her at Cairo), she sst in Arabian
fashion, looking on the ground, and was
never tired of telling me her experiences.
The great marshy tracts of the Upper Nile
regions had recalled the memories of her
Dutch home. Again had the endless green
fats on which her childish eye rested risen
bsfore her minds eye. But she often felt
that she had more than enough of green,
and turned with longing to the thought Of
the yellow, parched up deserts of Sahara
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