The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-02-18
HEROES OF SCIENCE.
Wen Who Have Braved Death in the Pursuit
of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS That Ought to
Live While Civilization Lasts.

of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS That Ought to
Live While Civilization Lasts.
One evening few years ago a
schooner dropped anchor in an un-
known bay on the east coast of New
Guinea. A boat put off from the
vessel, landed man and put his
portmanteau on the beach and put
back again. The schooner at once
sailed away, leaving that solitary
figure on the beach in the darkness.
No white man had ever visited that
savage coast before and no man in
spired by a less lofty purpose would
thus have ventured among the utterly
unknown savages of Astolabe Bay.
The man was DR.. Miklucho Maclay,
the Russian ethnologist, and his
burning zeal to add to human kncwl-
edge led him, like many other heroes
of science, to torgo all comfort and
hazard his life. When the natives
next morning found the white man
sitting on the beach, they thought
the strange object had dropped from
the sky. They nearly killed him in
their experiments to determine
whether he was a god. They i'm
prisoned him in a hut and watched
him day and night. They nearly
starved him because a god should
not require food. They tied him to
tree and shot arrows close to his
head and neck, because, if he were
god, he should not be frightened.
Two of the arrows inflicted severe
flesh-wounds upon the helpless cap
tive. Then they pressed their spears
against his teeth to make him open
his mouth, and in many other savage
ways sorely tested his temper, cour-
age and strength. At last they de-
cided that he had dropped from the
moon and that he was not a god be-
cause his wounds bled and he needed
food, but they voted him a good
fellow and grew daily more and more
fond of him because he was always
cheerful, however much they annoy
ed him, and many of their sick soon
recovered under his skilful care.
For two years DR.. Maclay lived
among these savages, feeling amply
repaired tor all his terrible sacrifices
by the wealth of scientific facts he
was able to collect. Money could
not have tempted him thus to jeop-
ardize his life and give up every
civilized comfort, but the facts he
gathered were needed to complete
his long studies among the races of
the Western Pacific, and with the
ardor of the born devotee of science
he was eager to make any sacr flee
that would yield him the knowledge
he sought.
While DR.. Maclay, the only scien-
tihc man who has travelled extern
sively in the Western Pacific, is to-
day at work in his Russian home,
preparing for publication the large
additions he has made to ethnologi-
cal knowledge, another learned and
modest man in Germany is writing
the story of his seven years wander
ings in Central Africa. DR.. Junker
also is an ethnologi>t and his con-
suming desire to enrich the science
he loves has led him to make almost
unexampled sacrifices. A man of
means, he has born the entire cost
of his explorations in Africa. With
all the luxuries of civilized life at his
command, he has turned his back
upon everything that makes life a
pleasure to most men and plunged
into the depths of Africa, where he
has lived for seven years among the
Mann MAN, the Monbuttu and other
tribes of the Welle- Makua and Upper
Nile basins. No brilliant scheme of
adventure was part of his plan. He
was content to play a humble role
and to patiently devote himself to
the thorough study of compara-
lively small area. Dr.. Junker is
probably the only scientific man who
has thus far selected a field in Africa
for the purpose Of attempting ex-
haustive studies there, and who has
made that field his home year after
year, completely y cut off from con
genial human companionship, living
in native straw huts, and subsisting
| wholly on native food, including
fried ants and similar daintieS of
African cookery. Yet we know that
in his utter loneliness and isolation
DIR. Junker FUND exquisite pleasure
in studying all the new and wonder
full phases of nature which in this
savage land were unfolded to his
gaze; and we feel that this patient,
modest man-trudging through the
wilds of Africa with his little caravan,
going everywhere unarmed, sooth-
ing suspicious natives with the music
OF his accordion, making wonderful
maps on which every hill and rivulet
are noted, collecting scores of valu-
able facts for the benefit of the civil
lied races-has wellwon a place
among the unselfsh heroes ofscience.
The arduous tolls and manifold dep
rivations of these years in Africa
have left their marks in the deep
lines that turrow his strong face.
Like most of the world" said
Henry M. Stanley to the writer last
winter, Il thought Livingstone a
poor, visionary enthusiast until l met