The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-01-11
The Man Who First Explored the
WiIds Of British Guiana.
GREAT PEAKS WERE LOCATED
Sckomburgk, at the Risk of Life and
II. alth, Went Through Mazes
OF Great Rivers.


told of the forwarding to Secretary Of
State Olney of book containing the
memoirs of Explorer Robert Herman
Schomburgk, whose boundary line be-
tween Venezuela and British Guiana
Great Britain has taken as a basis for
all her claims. AS the book is destined
to play an important part in the great
controversy the Star-Sayings searched
through the public libraries of the city,
finally discovered the book, and now
for the first time by any paper in the
United States publishes a synopsis OF
his report.
The entire book is devoted TO the re-
port made by Schomburgk but prin-
cipally TO his description of the natural
history of British Guiana. The me-
moirs take up the first rs pages, and are
not by any means as clear in their de-
| scription of the boundaries established
| by him between Venezuela and British
Guiana as one might wish. In fact, in
one portion of them he admits as much,
! and says II will be a good thing for the
people living in that country when
government survey shall be esta blished.
From these memoirs which appear in
the ninth volume of Jardines Natural
lists Library the Star-Sayings has COM
piled these facts, and taken the follow
ing quotations. The memoirs were evil
IDENTIFY written by Mr. Schomburgk
himself. although they are not written
in the first person. In starting out the
memoirs say:
Toward the close of the year 1884 the
council of the Royal Geographical So
ciety of London, desiring to promote
the noble science for which they were
united, to stimulate discovery and to
assist in the exploring of regions known
scarcely beyond the darkness of savage
life resolved on sending out an eXpe-
dition to the interior of British Guiana
for the twofold purpose of investigat-
ing thoroughly the physical and astro-
nominal geography of that almost end
less tract of country and of connecting
the lines of positions which might be
ascertained with those of the Baron
Humboldt, on the Upper Orinoco"
Schomburgk, with his party, accord
ingly started out on the 21st of Septem-
Der, 1886, from Georgetown, and, coast
ing around the peninsulas, reached the
entrance of the Essequibo river, which
discharges itself into the sea by an out
let nearly 20 miles wide, and which river
he has made his base of operations.
This river Schomburgk evidently be-
IeNtu anu bilOWb " Dc 6Oly III ID IL
ish Guiana, with it's tributaries extend
ing to Venezuela, and he explored II
thoroughly. His memoirs then con-
tinue:
FIRST EXPLORATIONS.
Having explored the River Essequi
DO to 81 degrees north, and the River
Rupununi to 2% degrees north latitude
Mr.. Schomburgk now considered 1t de
I sirable to make choice of some other o
: the great rivers of Guiana, hoping tina
as he pursued the stream toward it
: source he might be able to penetrat
: into the interior toward the Sierra AGA
rari mountains, and at the same tim
i investigate the capability of the ada
y cent country for colonization. For thi
>. purpose, therefore, the Cortenyn wa
u selected. On the 18th of December 1885,
: he quilted Demarara for Berbce. H
s. assembled this river for three days and
:, half, when he was forced to return, an
on the 25thof November, after a time o
lie waiting, attempted the ascent of tn
Berbice. 1t was on this trip that he dis
IS covered the wonderful lily, the Vic
l. toria Regis. After many days of har
II work the party were finally forced t
III STOP and, taking an astronomical OF
>, servation, discovered that they had al
m rived at a parallel with the junction G
g the Essequibo and Rupununi.
lie ut was now resolved to cross over in
m southwest direction to the Essequib'
"a In three hours and a half the broa
- Essequibo was seen rolling before then
W. 1t was hailed as the sight of an old az
quaintance, and the huts which the tray
TX elers had erected months ago were foun
s; standing. The result of this passae
In from the Berbice to the Essequibo is
Importance to geographers. The short pc
ar Tod which 1t required to cross from nv,
to river establishes undeniably, as ha
tn been justly observed before, that Il
course of the river Berbice was more
the westward than is laid down on any
r. our maps, and it is probably the first tin
- that the Berbice had been assembled fro
"a its mouth to degrees IS minutes nor
latitude. The next point of consequent
is the non-existence of the river Deme
ara between the Berbice and Essequib
a On the map the source of the river d
I'd merara is about 30 miles south of that
or Berbice. but, in his opinion, it rises
1874 the mountain chain between degrees
ss, minutes and degrees 40 minutes north.
UP TO THE MOUNTAINS.
In the second part of the memoirs L
writer says: Upward of five months hi
passed away since he returned from I
"a expedition to the river Berbice, during I
Ias greater part of which Mr.. Schomburl
his had been laid up with a severe attack
yellow fever. On the 18th of Septemb,
1897, he quilted Georgetown. and saili
up the broad expanse of the Essequi
ne soon reached Ampa, 80 miles up on
=" eastern shore. Continuing on and ascen
H. ing the Ruppununi in a western direct