Part 7 (1/2)

All these political delimitations were naturally accompanied by explorations, partly scientific, but mainly political. Major Serpa Pinto twice crossed Africa in an attempt to connect the Portuguese settlements on the two coasts. Similarly, Lieutenant Wissmann also crossed Africa twice, between 1881 and 1887, in the interests of the Congo State, though he ultimately became an official of his native country, Germany. Captain Lugard had investigated the region between the three Lakes Nyanza, and secured it for Great Britain.

In South Africa British claims were successfully and successively advanced to Bechuana-land, Mashona-land, and Matabele-land, and, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a railway and telegraph were rapidly pushed forward towards the north. Owing to the enterprise of Mr. (now Sir H. H.) Johnstone, the British possessions were in 1891 pushed up as far as Nya.s.sa-land. By that date, as we have seen, various treaties with Germany and Portugal had definitely fixed the contour lines of the different possessions of the three countries in South Africa. By 1891 the interior of Africa, which had up to 1880 been practically a blank, could be mapped out almost with as much accuracy as, at any rate, South America. Europe had taken possession of Africa.

One of the chief results of this, and formally one of its main motives, was the abolition of the slave trade. North Africa has been Mohammedan since the eighth century, and Islam has always recognised slavery, consequently the Arabs of the north have continued to make raids upon the negroes of Central Africa, to supply the Mohammedan countries of West Asia and North Africa with slaves.

The Mahdist rebellion was in part at least a reaction against the abolition of slavery by Egypt, and the interest of the next few years will consist in the last stand of the slave merchants in the Soudan, in Darfur, and in Wadai, east of Lake Chad, where the only powerful independent Mohammedan Sultanate still exists. England is closely pressing upon the revolted provinces, along the upper course of the Nile; while France is attempting, by expeditions from the French Congo and through Abyssinia, to take possession of the Upper Nile before England conquers it. The race for the Upper Nile is at present one of the sources of danger of European war.

While exploration and conquest have either gone hand in hand, or succeeded one another very closely, there has been a third motive that has often led to interesting discoveries, to be followed by annexation. The mighty hunters of Africa have often brought back, not alone ivory and skins, but also interesting information of the interior. The gorgeous narratives of Gordon c.u.mming in the ”fifties” were one of the causes which led to an interest in African exploration. Many a lad has had his imagination fired and his career determined by the exploits of Gordon c.u.mming, which are now, however, almost forgotten. Mr. F. C. Selous has in our time surpa.s.sed even Gordon c.u.mming's exploits, and has besides done excellent work as guide for the successive expeditions into South Africa.

Thus, practically within our own time, the interior of Africa, where once geographers, as the poet Butler puts it, ”placed elephants instead of towns,” has become known, in its main outlines, by successive series of intrepid explorers, who have often had to be warriors as well as scientific men. Whatever the motives that have led the white man into the centre of the Dark Continent--love of adventure, scientific curiosity, big game, or patriotism--the result has been that the continent has become known instead of merely its coast-line.

On the whole, English exploration has been the main means by which our knowledge of the interior of Africa has been obtained, and England has been richly rewarded by coming into possession of the most promising parts of the continent--the Nile valley and temperate South Africa. But France has also gained a huge extent of country covering almost the whole of North-West Africa. While much of this is merely desert, there are caravan routes which tap the basin of the Niger and conduct its products to Algeria, conquered by France early in the century, and to Tunis, more recently appropriated. The West African provinces of France have, at any rate, this advantage, that they are nearer to the mother-country than any other colony of a European power; and the result may be that African soldiers may one of these days fight for France on European soil, just as the Indian soldiers were imported to Cyprus by Lord Beaconsfield in 1876. Meanwhile, the result of all this international ambition has been that Africa in its entirety is now known and accessible to European civilisation.

[_Authorities:_ Kiepert, _Beitrage zur Entdeckungsgeschichte Afrikas_, 1873; Brown, _The Story of Africa_, 4 vols., 1894; Scott Keltie, _The Part.i.tion of Africa_, 1896.]

CHAPTER XII

THE POLES--FRANKLIN--ROSS--NORDENSKIOLD--NANSEN

Almost the whole of the explorations which we have hitherto described or referred to had for their motive some practical purpose, whether to reach the Spice Islands or to hunt big game. Even the excursions of Davis, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin in pursuit of the north-west pa.s.sage, and of Barentz and Chancellor in search of the north-east pa.s.sage, were really in pursuit of mercantile ends. It is only with James Cook that the era of purely scientific exploration begins, though it is fair to qualify this statement by observing that the Russian expedition under Behring, already referred to, was ordered by Peter the Great to determine a strictly geographical problem, though doubtless it had its bearings on Russian ambitions. Behring and Cook between them, as we have seen, settled the problem of the relations existing between the ends of the two continents Asia and America, but what remained still to the north of _terra firma_ within the Arctic Circle? That was the problem which the nineteenth century set itself to solve, and has very nearly succeeded in the solution. For the Arctic Circle we now possess maps that only show blanks over a few thousand square miles.

This knowledge has been gained by slow degrees, and by the exercise of the most heroic courage and endurance. It is a heroic tate, in which love of adventure and zeal for science have combated with and conquered the horrors of an Arctic winter, the six months'

darkness in silence and desolation, the excessive cold, and the dangers of starvation. It is impossible here to go into any of the details which rendered the tale of Arctic voyages one of the most stirring in human history. All we are concerned with here is the amount of new knowledge brought back by successive expeditions within the Arctic Circle.

This region of the earth's surface is distinguished by a number of large islands in the eastern hemisphere, most of which were discovered at an early date. We have seen how the Nors.e.m.e.n landed and settled upon Greenland as early as the tenth century. Burrough sighted Nova Zembla in 1556; in one of the voyages in search of the north-east pa.s.sage, though the very name (Russian for Newfoundland) implies that it had previously been sighted and named by Russian seamen. Barentz is credited with having sighted Spitzbergen. The numerous islands to the north of Siberia became known through the Russian investigations of Discheneff, Behring, and their followers; while the intricate network of islands to the north of the continent of North America had been slowly worked out during the search for the north-west pa.s.sage. It was indeed in pursuit of this will-of-the-wisp that most of the discoveries in the Arctic Circle were made, and a general impetus given to Arctic exploration.

It is with a renewed attempt after this search that the modern history of Arctic exploration begins. In 1818 two expeditions were sent under the influence of Sir Joseph Banks to search the north-west pa.s.sage, and to attempt to reach the Pole. The former was the objective of John Ross in the _Isabella_ and W. E. Parry in the _Alexander_, while in the Polar exploration John Franklin sailed in the _Trent_.

Both expeditions were unsuccessful, though Ross and Parry confirmed Baffin's discoveries. Notwithstanding this, two expeditions were sent two years later to attempt the north-west pa.s.sage, one by land under Franklin, and the other by sea under Parry. Parry managed to get half-way across the top of North America, discovered the archipelago named after him, and reached 114 West longitude, thereby gaining the prize of 5000 given by the British Parliament for the first seaman that sailed west of the 110th meridian. He was brought up, however, by Banks Land, while the strait which, if he had known it, would have enabled him to complete the north-west pa.s.sage, was at that time closed by ice. In two successive voyages, in 1822 and 1824, Parry increased the detailed knowledge of the coasts he had already discovered, but failed to reach even as far westward as he had done on his first voyage. This somewhat discouraged Government attempts at exploration, and the next expedition, in 1829, was fitted out by Mr. Felix Booth, sheriff of London, who despatched the paddle steamer _Victory_, commanded by John Ross.

He discovered the land known as Boothia Felix, and his nephew, James C. Ross, proved that it belonged to the mainland of America, which he coasted along by land to Cape Franklin, besides determining the exact position of the North Magnetic Pole at Cape Adelaide, on Boothia Felix. After pa.s.sing five years within the Arctic Circle, Ross and his companions, who had been compelled to abandon the _Victory_, fell in with a whaler, which brought them home.

We must now revert to Franklin, who, as we have seen, had been despatched by the Admiralty to outline the north coast of America, only two points of which had been determined, the embouchures of the Coppermine and the Mackenzie, discovered respectively by Hearne and Mackenzie. It was not till 1821 that Franklin was able to start out from the mouth of the Coppermine eastward in two canoes, by which he coasted along till he came to the point named by him Point Turn-again. By that time only three days' stores of pemmican remained, and it was only with the greatest difficulty, and by subsisting on lichens and sc.r.a.ps of roasted leather, that they managed to return to their base of operations at Fort Enterprise. Four years later, in 1825, Franklin set out on another exploring expedition with the same object, starting this time from the mouth of the Mackenzie river, and despatching one of his companions, Richardson, to connect the coast between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; while he himself proceeded westward to meet the Blossom, which, under Captain Beechey, had been despatched to Behring Strait to bring his party back. Richardson was entirely successful in examining the coast-line between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; but Beechey, though he succeeded in rounding Icy Cape and tracing the coast as far as Point Barrow, did not come up to Franklin, who had only got within 160 miles at Return Reef. These 160 miles, as well as the 222 miles intervening between Cape Turn-again, Franklin's easternmost point by land, and Cape Franklin, J. C. Ross's most westerly point, were afterwards filled in by T. Simpson in 1837, after a coasting voyage in boats of 1408 miles, which stands as a record even to this day. Meanwhile the Great Fish River had been discovered and followed to its mouth by C. J. Back in 1833. During the voyage down the river, an oar broke while the boat was shooting a rapid, and one of the party commenced praying in a loud voice; whereupon the leader called out: ”Is this a time for praying? Pull your starboard oar!”

Meanwhile, interest had been excited rather more towards the South Pole, and the land of which Cook had found traces in his search for the fabled Australian continent surrounding it. He had reached as far south as 71.10, when he was brought up by the great ice barrier. In 1820-23 Weddell visited the South Shetlands, south of Cape Horn, and found an active volcano, even amidst the extreme cold of that district. He reached as far south as 74, but failed to come across land in that district. In 1839 Bellany discovered the islands named after him, with a volcano twelve thousand feet high, and another still active on Buckle Island. In 1839 a French expedition under Dumont d'Urville again visited and explored the South Shetlands; while, in the following year, Captain Wilkes, of the United States navy, discovered the land named after him. But the most remarkable discovery made in Antarctica was that of Sir J. C. Ross, who had been sent by the Admiralty in 1840 to identify the South Magnetic Pole, as we have seen he had discovered that of the north. With the two s.h.i.+ps _Erebus_ and _Terror_ he discovered Victoria Land and the two active volcanoes named after his s.h.i.+ps, and pouring forth flaming lava, amidst the snow. In January 1842 he reached farthest south, 76. Since his time little has been attempted in the south, though in the winter of 1894-95 C. E.

Borchgrevink again visited Victoria Land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTH POLAR REGION--WESTERN HALF.]

On the return of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ from the South Seas the government placed these two vessels at the disposal of Franklin (who had been knighted for his previous discoveries), and on the 26th of May 1845 he started with one hundred and twenty-nine souls on board the two vessels, which were provisioned up to July 1848.

They were last seen by a whaler on the 26th July of the former year waiting to pa.s.s into Lancaster Sound. After penetrating as far north as 77, through Wellington Channel, Franklin was obliged to winter upon Beechey Island, and in the following year (September 1846) his two s.h.i.+ps were beset in Victoria Strait, about twelve miles from King William Land. Curiously enough, in the following year (1847) J. Rae had been despatched by land from Cape Repulse in Hudson's Bay, and had coasted along the east coast of Boothia, thus connecting Ross's and Franklin's coast journeys with Hudson's Bay. On 18th April 1847 Rae had reached a point on Boothia less than 150 miles from Franklin on the other side of it. Less than two months later, on the 11th June, Franklin died on the _Erebus_.

His s.h.i.+ps were only provisioned to July 1848, and remained still beset throughout the whole of 1847. Crozier, upon whom the command devolved, left the s.h.i.+p with one hundred and five survivors to try and reach Back's Fish River. They struggled along the west coast of King William Land, but failed to reach their destination; disease, and even starvation, gradually lessened their numbers.

An old Eskimo woman, who had watched the melancholy procession, afterwards told M'Clintock they fell down and died as they walked.

By this time considerable anxiety had been roused by the absence of any news from Franklin's party. Richardson and Rae were despatched by land in 1848, while two s.h.i.+ps were sent on the attempt to reach Franklin through Behring Strait, and two others, the _Investigator_ and the _Enterprise_, under J. C. Ross, through Baffin Bay. Rae reached the east coast of Victoria Land, and arrived within fifty miles of the spot where Franklin's two s.h.i.+ps had been abandoned; but it was not till his second expedition by land, which started in 1853, that he obtained any news. After wintering at Lady Pelly Bay, on the 20th April 1854 Rae met a young Eskimo, who told him that four years previously forty white men had been seen dragging a boat to the south on the west sh.o.r.e of King William Land, and a few months later the bodies of thirty of these men had been found by the Eskimo, who produced silver with the Franklin crest to confirm the truth of their statement. Further searches by land were continued up to as late as 1879, when Lieutenant F. Schwatka, of the United States army, discovered several of the graves and skeletons of the Franklin expedition.

Neither of the two attempts by sea from the Atlantic or from the Pacific base, in 1848, having succeeded in gaining any news, the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, which had previously attempted to reach Franklin from the east, were despatched in 1850, under Captain R. Collinson and Captain M'Clure; to attempt the search from the west through Behring Strait. M'Clure, in the _Investigator_, did not wait for Collinson, as he had been directed, but pushed on and discovered Banks Land, and became beset in the ice in Prince of Wales Strait. In the winter of 1850-51 he endeavoured unsuccessfully to work his way from this strait into Parry Sound, but in August and September 1851 managed to coast round Banks Land to its most north-westerly point, and then succeeded in pa.s.sing through the strait named after M'Clure, and reached Barrow Strait, thus performing for the first time the north-west pa.s.sage, though it was not till 1853 that the _Investigator_ was abandoned. Collinson, in the _Enterprise_, followed M'Clure closely, though never reaching him, and attempting to round Prince Albert Land by the south through Dolphin Strait, reached Cambridge Bay at the nearest point by s.h.i.+p of all the Franklin expeditions. He had to return westward, and only reached England in 1855, after an absence of five years and four months.

From the east no less than ten vessels had attempted the Franklin sea search in 1851, comprising two Admiralty expeditions, one private English one, an American combined government and private party, together with a s.h.i.+p put in commission by the wifely devotion of Lady Franklin. These all attempted the search of Lancaster Sound, where Franklin had last been seen, and they only succeeded in finding three graves of men who had died at an early stage, and had been buried on Beechey Island. Another set of four vessels were despatched under Sir Edward Belcher in 1852, who were fortunate enough to reach M'Clure in the _Investigator_ in the following year, and enabled him to complete the north-west pa.s.sage, for which he gained the reward of 10,000 offered by Parliament in 1763. But Belcher was obliged to abandon most of his vessels, one of which, the _Resolute_, drifted over a thousand miles, and having been recovered by an American whaler, was refitted by the United States and presented to the queen and people of Great Britain.

Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Franklin remains have not yet been discovered, though Dr. Rae, as we have seen, had practically ascertained their terrible fate. Lady Franklin, however, was not satisfied with this vague information. She was determined to fit out still another expedition, though already over 35,000 had been spent by private means, mostly from her own personal fortune; and in 1857 the steam yacht _Fox_ was despatched under M'Clintock, who had already shown himself the most capable master of sledge work. He erected a monument to the Franklin expedition on Beechey Island in 1858, and then following Peel Sound, he made inquiries of the natives throughout the winter of 1858-59. This led him to search King William Land, where, on the 25th May, he came across a bleached human skeleton lying on its face, showing that the man had died as he walked. Meanwhile, Hobson, one of his companions, discovered a record of the Franklin expedition, stating briefly its history between 1845 and 1848; and with this definite information of the fate of the Franklin expedition M'Clintock returned to England in 1859, having succeeded in solving the problem of Franklin's fate, while exploring over 800 miles of coast-line in the neighbourhood of King William Land.

The result of the various Franklin expeditions had thus been to map out the intricate network of islands dotted over the north of North America. None of these, however, reached much farther north than 75.

Only Smith Sound promised to lead north of the 80th parallel. This had been discovered as early as 1616 by Baffin, whose farthest north was only exceeded by forty miles, in 1852, by Inglefield in the _Isabel_, one of the s.h.i.+ps despatched in search of Franklin.

He was followed up by Kane in the _Advance_, fitted out in 1853 by the munificence of two American citizens, Grinnell and Peabody. Kane worked his way right through Smith Sound and Robeson Channel into the sea named after him. For two years he continued investigating Grinnell Land and the adjacent sh.o.r.es of Greenland. Subsequent investigations by Hayes in 1860, and Hall ten years later, kept alive the interest in Smith Sound and its neighbourhood; and in 1873 three s.h.i.+ps were despatched under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Nares, who nearly completed the survey of Grinnell Land, and one of his lieutenants, Pelham Aldrich, succeeded in reaching 82.48 N. About the same time, an Austrian expedition under Payer and Weyprecht explored the highest known land, much to the east, named by them Franz Josef Land, after the Austrian Emperor.