Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-09-12
LOST EXPLORERS.
Men Who Have Been Nlissed % LIVING
stone was.
The Boston Globe saws:

O1 Mun9O 18rK 16 an instance III point
That famous traveller sought the
source OF the Niger, as Livingstone
sought that of the Nile. It was dis
puted question between French and
English traders in Africa in those days,
when the country was almost wholly
unknown, whether the river Gambia or
the Senegal was the outlet of the Niger.
Many voyages were made up these
streams to determine the question, but
they did not le 4 to that river, or, the
great city Of Timbuctoo, which was be-
lieved to have been on it's banks. To
solve the problem whether the Niger
was only the upper part of the Nile, or
had it's outlet on the west coast of Al.
rica;' or took its rise in some great
marsh or lake in the centre OF the: con
tinent, was the object of Muugo Parks
enterprise. Tie expenses of his outfit
were betrayed by the African Associa-
tion, who induced this: young man, who
had been an assistant surgeon of an
East 1ndiaman, to enter upon the Ca
reer Of African exploration, in which he
lost his life.
Starting in 1895, he penetrated into
the interior the following year. He at
last found the object of his search at
Sego, the capital of Bon barra, in the
wide river .Joliba, after having been
robbed and imprisoned by the natives
on the way. Notwithstanding the cru
city and privations which he expert
enced in thus discovering the Niger, lie
pushed on till he had satisfied himself
that its mouth was on the west coast,
far south of the Gambia and Senegal.
Having done This much he returned
homes and it was not till the spring of
1905 that he agQll set out to find the
source OF the Niger. With about fifty
companions heltravetsed the Gambia
beyond any previous European explora.
tions, but such was the effect Of the
on his associates that by the
end of August three-fourths of them
had either died or abandoned the en-.
terprise. Park, however, would not
give up, and although his compan-
ions dwindled down to five he ex-
pressed his determination to persevere
in the journey, though he, was half
dead, and to die on the Niger rather
than live to see the failure of his plans.
His words were sadly fulfilled. He
lived to reach Timbuctoo, but in ven-
turing beyond it, down the river, his
little vessel was attacked by the army
of powerful native chief, to whom he
had sent propitiating present which
was appropriated by an Inferior leader
In endeavoring to escape by swimming
from their assailants, who opposed the
passage of the canoe, MungO Park and
all his companions were drowned, while
the blacks who remained on board
were killed. These facts were Elascer
taiued by q native guide. three months
afterwards, though they were not known
in England till five years later. This
is the same time that elapsed between
the report of Llvingstone's murder near
Lake Nyassa, and his discovery by
Stanley.
- THESMYsTERY OFF THE NIGER -
was destined to be fatal: to later. Afri.
can explorers. In 1922 Clapperton,
Denham and Oudency sought to pene-
trate, by way of Tripolis, the Great
Desert of Sahara and the Kingdom of
Bornou. Oudency died from disease
and privation, and Clapperton return
ed home with Denham, only to tempt
his fate again few months afterwards.
This time he started from the Gulf of
Guinea, with MANY other explorers,
but all of them persisted except he and
his, servant, Richard Lander. After
reaching the Niger by this new route,
Clapperton sank under the terrible
privations, which Lander survived.
Afterwards, however, lie, too, perished
in the 1ilds of Af1ca, escaping death
by malaria, which proved fatal to many
OF his companions, to meet it at the
hands of hostile natives, though not
until he and his brother had traced the
great river down to it's real outlet in
the Gulf of Guinea. Major Laing ais
lost his life after discovering the Niger.
The fate Of Capt. Cook, the indefa'
tigable voyager, who, in his explora
ti0ns, breasted alike the cold of the po'
lar regions and the heat of the tropics,
is familiar. to every schoolboy. His
death was the more lamentable. because
it arose from q mistaken idea of his in.
teiitions by the Sandwich Islanders,
who believed his landing with q few
men to compel, the restitution of some
stolen property, meant . war of exter
mination. The ferocity displayed b.
/ the natives. in the manner of his death
and their shocking mutilation of his re
mains, were the means of dong then
! greater injury than their general habit
would have otherwise occasioned.
Mystery still 'shrouds the fate O
Leichardt, the Australian explorer. O
whom nothing has been heard sine,
1848, though there is little doubt tina
death has long since overtaken him
The romance connected with the los
!; of La Perouse in the Pacific seas hal
/ the same element of mystery. A mel
ancholy interest attaches to the fate o
Allan Gardiner, the edevoted missionary
and explorer at Picton Island in 1851
His death from illness and starvation
was hardly less shocking than that o
his predecessor, John Williams, ut tn
! New Hebrides thirty five years before
which justified Sydney Smiths remarl
to . young missionary that the savage'
liked nothing better thnn bit of colo
clergyman; for the poor fellow wa
murdered and eaten by the natives
" AdOlph Scllagenweit' s murder, in 1857
bya ruthless Asiatic clliettaln, is les.
familiar than the memorable discover.
! by McC Clintock; two ears later, of par
Of the remains of Sir John franklin.
expedition aud the record of his deatl
in June, 1S47. The loss of Burke ant
Wills, with the affecting incidents o
the finding of their bodies in 1851, il
the wilds of Australia, adds another t.
the numerous catalogue of the famous
martyrs of exploration.
It is a noticeable fact that the peril.
of the Arctic regions have been far les
fatal to travellers than those of tn
tropics. Africa has been the grave O
many more explorers than tn
: ice and Snow of the poles. In view o
the dangers of these expeditions int
trackless wilds, which Providence ha
preserved for the habitations of viii,
beasts and scarcely less savage men, i
! is at least questionable whether th
benefits that they confer npon scienc
and humanity are, in our day, commen
surate with the sacrifices which ar
their inevitable result.
A MARBLE bust Of Lieut.. Gen. J E
B. Stuart, executed by Edward W. Val
entine, Virginia sculptor, il to b
placed in the State Library in the Vii
ginia Capitol.