The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1913-02-22

Africa is today and mas
- been in the past, re-
claimed for civilization almost entire
ly by men in their early twenties. 1t
is the land OF golden opportunity for
youth.
Captain Ewart Scott Grogan made
his remarkable journey when still a
Cambridge university undergraduate.
1t was his way of spending a vacation
and, IL we are to believe popular
rumor, also his way of winning q
very charming and beautiful wife. l
have heard 1t said that Grogan was
told by the lady who is now his wife
that before she would consent to mar
ry him he must come to her having
done that which no other man had
been able to accomplish. And out. of
this romantic dare grew a remarkable
achievement.
1t seems only fitting that woman
should be the guiding spirit Of such
an undertaking Men will attempt
much for the love of woman. His
tory alone proves this. And in har-
venture. ttheitle' weather We the t battered red
British flag;edkich Grogan carried
throughout Ms journey, was accepted
by her late Majesty Queen Victoria
/ met Grogan for the first time In
Nairobi. British East Africa, early in
1904-that is to say. some six years
after his historic tramp through the
Ozark Continent" He Is a tall. clean
cut English gentleman. remarkably
handsome and with dark hair and
clean-shaven face. He is fully six
feet high and splendidly proportioned.
He does not look the part of the great
explorer. Had not known otherwise,
/ should have set him down as an
English country squire-a gentleman
without doubt. but scarcely tanner
of the wilds.
Later I got to know him well. for
he has taken up land In East Africa
and interested himself In the develop
ment of the country. He has built
fine stone house on lovely knoll
overlooking Nairobi. and here he now
lives with his wife and family.
Grogan first saw Africa during the
Matabele war. Rhodesia was then
young. The railway had only reached
Mafeking. and his experiences during
this initial venture were not such as
to leave him with any keen desire to
repeat the experiment. But the un-
quenchable spirit of the veldt was up
on him, and In comfortable England
these trials sank into the misty obi
WON of the past; so that in a short
twelve months he again started out
for Africa's inhospitable shores. But
this time his purpose was inspired by
the wish to conquer Africa in a new
way.
The stupendous Undertaking.
Accompanied by Arthur Henry
5harp. Grogan landed. in the end of
February. 1898. at Beira, a port of
Portuguese East Africa. and set out
to march from Rhodesia to Cairo. via
the zambesi. Chiperone. Lake Nyassa.
Karonga, Tanganyika. Dusisi Valley,
Albert Edward Lake. Katwe, Toro.
Mboga. Semilild Valley. Albert Nyan-
"a. Upper Nile. Wadelai. Kero, Abu-
Kuka. Bohr. Dinkaland. Nuerland. the
Sobat River. and thence to Cairo by
way of Khartum.
On glancing at the map OF Africa
you will realize in part what a stu
pendous undertaking this was. 1t is
civilization which has made such rapid
progress through the hint.rland but
what must 1t have been in those early
days, sans railway. sans steamer. sans
food, sans comfort? Moreover, re-
member that not only had they to
face dangers innumerable from wild
animals. but also from the natives.
who had not yet come to accept the
power and majesty Of the white pres
ence. Sickness, hardships. terrors, all
these had to be faced and overcome
The journey to Karonga was less
exciting than the later stages. 1t con-
sisted of nothing more difficult than
close calls with lions. buffalo and
rhinoceri.
At Ujiji, which is the historic point
of Stanley's meeting with Livingstone,
they found on the foreshore grue-
some array Of grinning skulls. relics
of the days of Arab predominance. to-
remind all travellers that Ujiji was
once the heart of the great slave
raiding ulcer of the past
eluffing the Natives.
They had made up their minds to
take the perilous and unknown route
to Uganda via Lake Kivu. and with
one hundred and fifty native follow
ers and an escort Of six totally mex
perienced natives with old rifles they
set out on the adventurous second
stage of the sgreat journey.
For days and days after leaving
UNI they Fad to travel along the
single of a. small lake. Often they
had to wade up to their middles in