Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1888-03-03
PARTS OF THE WORLD YET UN-
VISITED BY TRAVELLERS.


.Asiatic Tribes Whose Land is Almost
Sealed Book TO the White Man--sahara
Lands - South America - Tho Polar
Regions.
1t is likely that within the next twenty or
thirty years oil the areas that are still wholly
unknown, except perhaps within the polar
circles, win have yielded their secrets TO
daring explorers. Inhospitable tribes now
rear more barriers thnn nature does TO retard
the progress of discovery. While geograpbers
have for years disputed over the conundrum
whether the great Sanoe river of Thibet is
the headquarters Of the Brahmaputra or of
the Irrawadi rivers, the fierce little Mishmi
tribe has guarded the secret, killed the adj
penturcrs who dared to intrude among their
mountains and left tbs geographers to
wTangle. It was only last year that their
country was crossed at last, and it is now
evident that the Brahmaputra is q thousand
miles longer than some authorities admitted
A little northeast of India is Kafristan.
whose lovely valleys are densely peopled by
tribes that are physically among the hand
soonest of Asiaties. Their country is almost
sealed book to us, for only one white man,
Mr.. McNair, has succeeded in crossing their
threshold About four years ago. staining
his skin with walnut juice and in the guise of
an Indian doctor, be pushed some way into
the country until the suspicious natives be-
came so inquisitive that he thought it pru-
dent to retreat. No scientific traveller has
ever reached Lhasa, the capital of Thibet
and the Rome of the Buddhists, or pene-
trated far into southern Thibet, though many
notable attempts have been made. Recently
Prejevalsky has tried twice ip vain to reach
Lhasa, and last year Mr.. McCauley, after
elaborate preparations and after he had
spent year in getting the permission of the
Chinese and Thibetan authorities to visit
Lhasa, was finally turned back before he had
crossed the frontier. The only reason that
the southern half of Thibet and n large part
of Napaul and the Himalayas are not white
space or a mere tumble on our maps, is that
native Indians have been trained to the
work of exploration by the Indian survey
and sent north to travel as mendicants or
merchants They can rarely carry with
them scientific instruments larger than a
compass, and their work, though very valu-
able, is far from being thorough and salts
factory. SO fearful is the Indian survey
will be discovered that their own friends do
not know where they are SENT and their
names are not connected with their explora-
tions until after they have retired from ac-
tive service.
\ Similar impediments embarTass the trav-
e1er in all parts of Mohammedan Africa
Grandly as Barth, Rohlfs, Nachtigal. LEM
and a half dozen others have served the
cause of geography in the Sahara desert, our
knowledge of that mountainous and elevated
region is anything but thorough and ade-
quate He truly takes his life in his hand
who ventures among the Tuaregs and other
fierce nomads of the Sahara. Unless he can
talk Arabic like a native, and can skillfully
assume the guise of Mohammedap, he is al
most certain 10 meet the fate of Mile. Time
and Lieut.. Palat DR.. Krause, wishing to
enroll his name among the half dozen white
men who have reached Timbuctoo, attempted
to attain the town from the south. When
within 100 miles of his goal he was stopped
and bluntly informed that he might go ON
20 the holy city if he would become Mo-
hammedan. More scrupulous than some
other explorers he declined to become q dis
ciple of the Prophet, and was therefore COM
PEELED to turn back.
The great basin of the Congo has been
more prolific of geographical surprises with
in the past five years than any other part of
the world in this century. And yet the work
there has only begun. In this vast area
there has been very little exploration except
along the water courses, and even the river
banks haversor the most part received only
a cursory and preliminary survey Wiss-
mann is now crossing the continent from
sea to sea, across the southern part of the
Congo basin; Kund and Tappenbeck have
made a short journey overland from river
TO river, but generally speaking the vast
regions between the rivers are still almost
wholly unknown
1t is not difficult to see ono etod reason
vehy South America has been comparatively
neglected by travellers, while, on the other
hand, Africa has been running over with
them. Neither Commerce, science nor mis-
sdonary ardor have seen in South America
the same promise Of rich rewards that have
s1lured them to the uplandS Of inner Africa.
Still such journeys as DR.. Won Steinen and
his comrades recently made on the great
Xingu tributary of the Amazon, when they
discovered curious and wholly unknown
tribes and other things of much interest,
show that these regions are fine field for the
explorer.
The Brazilians know less of large part of
their empire than they might easily learn of
Nova Zembla, and IN Ecuador and some
other states Whymper and other travellers
say that the government maps are hopelessly
Inaccurate. The best and most interesting
explorations in South America are now car
ried on by the Argentine Republic. Among
their pampas ana cordilleras, in the valleys
of Patagonia and on the grassy plains of
Terra del Fuego. these researches, now in
full progress, have been prolific of geographic
cal sensation. Good, honest exploration up
sets hundreds of theories an@ fancitul stories
that have come to be accepted facts
1t is in the lofty regions of inner Asia that
the greatest works OF discovery still remain