Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-07-10
New African Explorations.

Africa has yielded up her greatest Sc
crets in recent years. There is no long
er any mystery about the sources of the
Nile: the Equatorial lakes have been
surveyed and mapped the Zambesi, chief
river of the Eastern Coast, has been trac-
ed almost to its sources, and the latest
puzzle of the geographers, the Lualaba,
the great river of the interior that ran
no man knew whittier, until Stanley
floated down its broad current, has been
identified with the Congo. The light
thrown into the depths of the Dark Con-
tinent by Livingstone, Cameron, Stanley
and many explorers of lesser fame, does
not, however, seem to have taken away
any of its destinations for adventurous
minds. Stanley himself is on the East
ern Coast, near the scenes of his first eX-
plOits, preparing for an expedition the
purpose of which has not been divulged.
A Belgian party is in the field, and its
first report came the other day from
Brussels; and now we have by the latest
transatlantic mails the account given by
Portuguese explorer, to the Royal
Geographical Society of Lisbon, of his
journey from st Paul de Loando to Trans
yaal and Natal. The purpose of these
recent efforts, it would seem, is to broad
en- the area of knowledge of South Afri-
Fca from ocean to ocean, and fill up the
wide gaps on the map between the mar
row strips of explored territory.
1t was with this end in view that Alex
ander Albert de Serpa Pinto, young
Portuguese traveller, set out, in March,
1878, from Billie, an interior trading post
belonging to his countrymen, in Ben
guela, on the West Coast. He had lain
i'll with meningitis for weeks at Billie,
and his companions, Captain Capello and
Lieutenant Sneus, supposing he would
not be able to go any further, left him in
the care of negro doctors, with just means
enough to get back to Europe in case he
should recover. The black physicians
applied leeches all over his body, which
nearly sucked him dry of blood, and
then covered him with great quantity
of small horns which they regarded as
amulets. In spite of this treatment he
got well; and learning that his comrades
had gone to the northeast, he set about
organizing an expedition to the south
east. His most important want was
arms, and this he supplied by gathering up
seventy -four disabled Snyder rifles which
Cameron had left in the country, i'm
provising forges and putting them in ord
er, and manufacturing 10000 cartridges.
His route led first up the Nourse River,
which he found was navigable above
the last falls. Then he crossed higl,
table lands to the main stream of the
/ Zambesi, called by the natives the great
est riverin the world In this march
he was escorted by an army or 400 men,
furnished by a powerful negro king,
whose daughter accompanied the expedi-
ton as Commander-in-C Chief of the forces.
Inc Amazon princess desired to marry
the explorer, but remembering that he
had wife in Portugal awaiting his re-
turn, he firmly refused the tlattering
offer.
In this region De Serpa Pinto found a
tribe as white as Europeans, with fea-
lures resembling those of the Hottentots
and with no hair on their heads. No
previous explorers encountered these
extraordinary people, and the description
given of them roads like the stories of
Baron Munchausen. In latitude 12o S.
longitude 15o E., large forests, formed
exclusively zof immense brakes, were
traversed. Many wild elephants were
seen, and jaglIars. Were unpleasantly
abundant. Like Stanley,the Portuguese
adventurer fought battle with the ma
tives. On the 9th of September, 1885, ,an