The morning call., 1893-12-11
The DANGER OF CHANLER.

Of the probable death of William Astor
Chanler are untrue. Although the part
of Africa which he had undertaken
to explore is one of the widest and most
savage portions of the continent, so much
so that Captain Burton declared that no
white man had ever entered it without
feeling knife or spear, so many enor-
nous expeditions have penetrated to the
Victoria Nyanza of late years that the
natives must have become familiarized
with white skins. and acquainted with the
danger Of molesting their wearers Mr..
Chanler is young. being under twenty-six,
but he has spent some years in African
travel, and he possesses a powerful party
Of two hundred we'll armed Zanzbaris. The
chief danger f0r him and his Austrian
companion would seem TO spring rather
from the exhaustion Of his supplies than
from native attacks.
The mountain which he proposed to
climb is the well-known Mount Kenia,
which though it lies exactly under the
equator. is snowclad, being $4,000 feet
high. 1t is reproduction Of the snow
clad points of the Andes which surround
Quito. From this mountain two rivers
fow-one called the Tana. which empties
into the Indian Ocean on the Zanzibar
coast. tho other disem bOgues into the Vic
t0ria NyaDZa. Chanler started from Eng
land on June q, and worked his way up
the Tana toward his objective point. The
latest news Is that he stranded near the
base OF the mountain, and is waiting for
the arrival OF fresh supplies from the coast
It would seem that in case be is threat
ened with famine bis natural course would
be to descend the river, near the mouth
of which he would strike the German out
posts. His hunting experience Of last
surrounding Mount Kllimanjaro must
have taught him how lar he could live
upon the country.
He is on the edge of the least known part
of Africa. From the equator to Cape
Guardafui in II deg. north longitude, and
from the thirty-6fth to the fifteth deg. of
longitude stretches vast country which
is blank on the maps. 1t is known to be
pe0pled by tribes of Somalis ana Gallas,
Of whom nothing has been ascertained
but that they are fierce and repel invasion
by whites, and that in the Abyssinisn
and Egyptian markets the Gala
girls command higher prices than other
female slaves On one or two occasions
English engineers have landed to survey
the shore. but have been promptly attacked
and compelled to return 10 their vessels.
In all this country there is but one caravan
route used by the Arab slayers. 1t starts
from MagadoXo on the shor and has no
inland terminus. The slavers evidently
push inland as far as they dare aud then
hastily retreat TO the shore with their
booty. The traveller who explores this un-
known land will take high rank, and that
proba bly, is the aim which Mr.. Chanler
has set before himself.
The Somalls are pastoral people.
whose manners, so far as we are told of
them, resemble the manners of the shep-
herds VINO conquered Egypt during the
thirteenth dynasty and destroyed so many
monuments of early civilization. Indeed.
it is possible that the present inhabitants
of the unexplored northeastern corner of
Africa are the descendants Of that warlike
pastoral rare. Ii so, the exploration of
their country might lead to the discovery
of remains possessing an antiquity of 5000
or 1000 years. Such find would make
any mans fame.
Ii is greatly to Mr.. Chanler's credit that
at an age when most young men are devot-
ing their lives to frivolity he should be
risking his life in the pursuit of knowl-
edge. The Astor money, of which he pos
sesses share, could not be put to better
advantage. The mere ascent Of Mount
Kenia will merely crafty personal ambi-
tion, but a successful invasion OF the
Somali country might add materially to
the worlds acquaintance with an unknown
region. IL might do more. We are told
by Josephus that the gold which the Kings
OF Judea owned and which was so lavishly
displayed in the Tenn pie at Jerusalem came
from Africa. From what part of Africa
There is none, so far as we know. in the
valley of the Nile. Gold is found in the
gravel of the streams of Senegambia, and
it may be present on the opposite side OF
the country in the gravel Of the torrential
treams which take their rise In the Somali
Mountains. The country has large and
tempting possibilities.