The sun., 1901-09-29
LAST or THE AFRICAN PIONEERS.

A man well known to all g~ogi aphers
Of the last generation died In Stuttgart
on Aug u. aged ~ year.. The contribu-
tion which J. Erhard' made 10 the modern
exploration of Africa was rs valuable a.
IL was unique He lived for twenty wears
on the eastern edge Of equatorial Africa.
He never travelled far inland. be- va- In
no scnse an explorer. be- was prominent
in the field of geography only once in his
life AMI may almost be called an armchair
geographer 'm' the map he made of the
lake region Of central Africa before any
white man had ever h.--n within 500 mules
Of IL stimulated curiosity and exploratory
real and helped to starr tho bail that never
stopped rolling ill all the grrat secrets
Of Africa had been revealed
Irhardt was the comrade Of Rebnsnn
and Krapf founders Of tho missionary
station a. Rahai near the little port Of Nom
hasa. now politically part Of British
Ia. Africa kebmann and krapf b"gan
their wori, In isi6, Erhardl Joining them
three wears later. Tho Young Germans
wcr. Ia the service OF the English church
Missionary Society and all Of them be-
came famous for their contributions TO
geography R.hmann discovered kIi-
nanjaro. thu highest mountain IN Africa,
In is4s, and krapf revealed keuia, the $40
ond hishest mountain, In ists. Roth "i-
plorer. said that the mountains they
had found wore perpetual caps OF snow.
These statements were not believed by
british g-ographers and the explorers
were discr,.ciited In the debates Of the Royal
Geographical society
While his companions eyplorei parts Of
tho unknown Interior Erhardts talent
for linguistic studies led him TO devote
all the time he could spare from his ms
sionary work 90 the task ~ mastering
tire cN,ast language. In few year. h~
became very proficient IN the Use Of snfns
Of the native tongues and this acoulrenent
finally enabled him 60 make his remarkable
contribution 20 the mapping Of Africa.
lie became acquainted at Rshai and other
towns with large number Of men who
we're la the caravan service spending
much Of their time hund reds 81 miles IN the
interior where they procured ivory or
slaves and took them down 20 the coast
They told the missionary of great lake
far inland which wa 80 vide that they
could not sre across II and extending for
hundreds ~ miles north and south
Fihartlt collected the testimony % hun
drecis Of Arabs, Suaheh and other with re-
Hhf1 N0 'Fhe EftaN tahs's Nv fNHtlliNiNE
their evidence he reached the conclusion
that IL took more travel from the sea 20
reach the north than the south end Of the
lake ard that consequently N. north end
was farther from Tho sea and the lake "N-
tendei ia a general northwest and south
ga: direction. BY cvllating many reports
h. obtained a rough idea OF a." distance ~
the lake from the sea IN different la'itutcs
but In all the stories he sifted he did not
hear Of more than one lake tip fact being
that some Of the information related Co
Victoria Nyanza. some ~ u 10 Tanganvika
and som. 20 Nya--a
Erhardt- frst report on the great lake
appeared m tho CliLch inieihgsncsr IN
1855. ard IN the following wear his .Shaus-
tive analvsi- uf the evidence he had "a h''rad
proving the - istsnCe Of th. LAX" and 70"
tentative map T." had prepared uf o. .rr
IIhlshed Ia pe'srnuRN's NIetiunV'' and
the Proceedings of the RoVsl Geogra piiical
Society Later discoveries proved TINT
Erhardt indicated the general position Vi
the lake region with approumate accuracy.
Tis Information, however, was rec~iV'd
with fnnch incr"iuhty. hut HIS map VA
the fral. dsciSive influence that l'S to the
fitting out uf the eNucditioI of Burton and
Spoke, who discovered Victoria Nvanya
and TangRuvika and In less than a hall
century after FrhRrft Rad hascd his
NJ ~ n vas, region solclv upon native
,rports ucarly every corner Of Africa had
been eNftlBr,1