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at all. It is not necessary to confute insinuations which nobody now pretends to believe; but we do not deny that the volume was open to adverse criticism, and that the narrative involved contradictions which it was difficult to explain. There was a confusion of dates, and also a confusion of journeys, which made it difficult to explain some points of the narrative, and certainly the most was made of these discrepancies and mistakes. We who had examined Mr. Du Chaillu's original journals never doubted for a moment the main truth of his narrative, although we saw that, owing to the manipulation of a literary hand in preparing his book in America, his published work mixed together separate journeys, and betrayed a strangely involved chronology. It was on these grounds that the maps drawn up by Dr. Barth and Dr. Petermann in 1862 moved all the positions of the places he had visited much nearer the coast than he had fixed them, so as to reduce greatly the length of his routes. We all know how the accounts of the gorilla were discredited by those who had never an opportunity of witnessing the animal's habits, as only one or two stuffed specimens had reached the museums of Europe. Some writers asserted that Mr. Du Chaillu had never seen the animal alive, and that the specimens he brought or sent to England had been purchased by him from natives on the coast. Several naturalists declared that the habits he ascribed to the strange brute-such as that of beating its breast violently when enraged-were contrary to all experience of the ape tribe, and incredible. Mr. Du Chaillu was the first to make known to geographers the existence of the Fans, a cannibal tribe, who in recent times, have rapidly made their way from the interior, urged by the thirst for trade and European commodities, and have now actually reached the coast. But their very existence was denied; and the statement that some of the native African harps had strings made of vegetable fibre was declared to be false.

Under such imputations Mr. Du Chaillu was unwilling to rest, and he resolved to confute his opponents by the logic of facts, that is, by undertaking another journey into the interior of Africa and furnishing himself with materials to prove conclusively the substantial truth of his former narrative. It is impossible not to admire the courage and enterprise he has shown, and we think also that he deserves the highest credit for the forgiving and generous tone in which he speaks of his assailants. He says in his Preface to the new work which we propose to review,—

Although hurt to the quick by these unfair and ungenerous criticisms I cherished no malice towards my detractors, for I knew the

time would come when the truth of all that was essential in the statements which had been disputed would be made clear; I was consoled besides by the support of many eminent men, who refused to believe that my narrative and observations were deliberate falsehoods. Making no pretensions to infallibility, any more than other travellers, I was ready to acknowledge any mistake that I might have fallen into, in the course of compiling my book from my rough notes. The only revenge I cherished was that of better preparing myself for another journey into the same region, providing myself with instruments and apparatus which I did not possess on my first exploration, and thus being enabled to vindicate my former account by facts not to be controverted.'

The result, as regards the establishment of Mr. Du Chaillu's character for veracity, has been most satisfactory; and we set so high a value on the character of every man who labours to enlighten the world, as to deem this one gain not dearly purchased by the heavy losses and bitter disappointments in which Mr. Du Chaillu's second expedition has ended.

Meanwhile Dr. Petermann had made the amende honorable with regard to the position of the places which Mr. Du Chaillu had formerly visited; for, in 1862, a French Government expedition, under Messrs. Serval and Griffon Du Bellay, explored the Ogobai River, and not only proved the truth of the traveller's general account of it, but showed that the Ashira Country was not far from the longitude which he had assigned to it.* Dr. Petermann, on receiving the French map, reconstructed his own as Mr. Du Chaillu had originally laid it down. As to the Fans, Captain Burton confirmed his statement, after having actually travelled amongst them; and the French officers proclaim that their cannibal appetites are only too well authenticated, adding the fact of their recent apparition and migration towards the seacoast. In his second expedition, Mr. Du Chaillu was not only able to observe the gorilla in the woods, but he obtained several fine specimens from the natives, and one of them he shipped for England alive, but unfortunately it died on the passage. He sent to England harps with vegetable strings, and they of course speak for themselves. In his former travels he had described a new kind of otter-like animal to which the name of Potamogale velox was given; and he brought home with him its skin, which was all that he was then able to procure. It was asserted that the animal which owned the skin did not belong to the order under which

* In an article on Le Gabon in Le Tour du Monde' (1865), p. 278, Dr. Griffon Du Bellay says of Mr. Du Chaillu, Ce que je puis affirmer, c'est que son livṛe contient beaucoup de détails d'une parfaite exactitude, et plus d'une peinture de mœurs réellement prises sur le vif.'

otters

otters are classed, and was a rodent; but Mr. Du Chaillu was fortunate enough to have his conjecture entirely established by the Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh moreover, he obtained in his last journey several specinens of the Potamogale, and they entirely confirm his opinion. He has answered the doubts and insinuations which were so unscrupulously thrown upon his claims as a discoverer in Natural History, by adding to the Fauna of Africa at least eighty new species. But the best vindication of all is the series of carefully-made solar and lunar observations-amounting to several hundreds-which he has brought home, and committed to the officers of Greenwich Observatory, by whom they have been reduced and tested with the most satisfactory results; so that the principal points of his journey are now laid down on the map with unerring accuracy. Here is enough, and more than enough, to justify the countenance and encouragement which Mr. Du Chaillu received at first from such a geographer as Murchison, and such a naturalist as Owen. As in all similar cases, the stones wantonly, if not maliciously, thrown at an unknown man, have helped to raise the pedestal of his subsequent fame; and were Mr. Du Chaillu less generous than he is, he could afford to forgive the detractors who have goaded him to new efforts, and made him as accurate as he was already earnest in his work.

These feelings may be traced in Mr. Du Chaillu's statement of his objects in this second journey:

I had also a strong desire to fix with scientific accuracy the geographical position of the places I had already discovered, and to vindicate by fresh observations, and the acquisition of further specimens, the truth of the remarks I had published on the ethnology and natural history of the country. Beyond this there was the vague hope of being able to reach in the far interior some unknown western tributary of the Nile, and to descend by it to the great river, and thence to the Mediterranean.'

He took great pains to qualify himself for the successful prosecution of his task. Owing to the absence of all scientific instruments on his former journey, he had laid down the positions of places by compass bearings only, and this made it the more difficult to defend himself against attacks on his accuracy. But he now prepared himself by going through a course of instruction in the use of instruments, and the mode of taking astronomical observations. He also took lessons in the art of photography, providing himself with an ample store of materials in order to bring back faithful sun-pictures of the scenery, natives, and animals of the unknown regions he intended to explore-all of which, as we shall see in the sequel, were unfortunately lost.

Vol. 122.-No. 244.

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He freighted a small schooner called the Mentor, and sailed in her from England for the coast of Africa on the 6th of August, 1863. He reached the mouth of the Fernand Vaz River on the 10th of October, and it is interesting to see how warmly he was welcomed by the African Chiefs whom he had formerly known. One of them who came on board hugged him in his greasy arms and exclaimed

'Are you Chaillie, or are you his spirit? Have you come from the dead? Tell me quick, for I don't know whether I am to believe my own eyes; perhaps I am getting a fool.'

But now came the first of a series of misfortunes which Mr. Du Chaillu had to endure, and which brought his expedition at last to a disastrous end. One of the causes which have shut out explorers from this part of the African coast is the want of harbours, and the savage surf that fringes the shore. The whole breadth of the mouth of the river was one uninterrupted line of breakers, through which it was necessary to land the cargo in native boats. In one of them he placed all his scientific instruments and many other valuable articles, and, accompanied by the Captain, embarked himself in the canoe, which was soon swamped by the waves. It was with some difficulty that their lives were saved by the negroes, who, as Mr. Du Chaillu says, 'swam under me and buoyed me up with their own bodies.' But all the astronomical instruments were spoilt by the salt-water, and with them went the power of effecting the principal object of the journey. We can hardly imagine a more bitter disappointment than this. However, there was no help for it, and all that he could do was to send to England for a second set of instruments, and to wait patiently until it arrived.

The region which Mr. Du Chaillu was about to explore lies between the first and second degrees of south latitude, and he intended to proceed eastward across the continent in almost a straight line from the coast. He says:

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Equatorial Africa from the western coast, as far as I have been, is covered with an almost impenetrable jungle. The jungle begins where the sea ceases to beat its continual waves, and how much further this woody belt extends further explorations alone will be able to show. From my furthest point it extended eastward as far as my eyes could reach. I may say, however, that near the banks of a large river running from a north-east direction towards the south-west prairie lands were to be seen according to the accounts the Ashangos had received.'

The difficulties which beset the traveller who tries to penetrate into the interior are almost insuperable. Independently of the

harbourless

harbourless and surf-bound coast, the deadly climate, and the hostility of savage tribes, there is the supposed necessity of carrying an immense quantity of presents to propitiate the different African chiefs. A white man must literally buy his way with goods as he proceeds, and he becomes, of course, poorer as he advances, so that it seems as if he must at last necessarily stop when he is farthest from the coast, and when it is most essential to satisfy the rapacity of the natives. Perhaps the most prudent course would be not to carry presents at all, as they only excite the cupidity of the negroes. And Mr. Du Chaillu was kindly treated by the natives on his return when he had lost everything. For the transport of goods there are no beasts of burden; neither horses nor camels nor asses nor oxen. The only domesticated animals are goats and fowls, and the only carriers of loads are the blacks themselves. They use for this purpose long narrow baskets called otaitais, which rest on the back, and are secured to the head and arm of the bearer by straps made of strong plaited rushes. Mr. Du Chaillu's baggage required at starting not fewer than a hundred porters, and infinite was the trouble and difficulty he had with the various relays which succeeded each other in his march. But he was fortunate in his body-guard of ten negroes, of the Commi tribe on the coast, who behaved admirably throughout, and to whom his return in safety was entirely owing. He says:

'I chose for my body-guard ten faithful negroes, some of whom had accompanied me on my former journey. It was on these men that my own safety among the savage and unfriendly tribes we might expect to meet with in the far interior depended. I knew I could thoroughly rely upon them, and that come what might they would never hurt a hair of my head.'

While waiting for the arrival of fresh instruments from England, Mr. Du Chaillu made several excursions in the neighbourhood of the coast. The most important of these were to the wooded country which lies to the south-east of Cape St. Catherine, and which he believes is the head-quarters of the gorilla or the district in which he exists in the greatest number, but where he is wildest and most difficult to get near.' Here suddenly one morning he came upon a party of four of these brutes.

They were all busily engaged in tearing down the larger trees. One of the females had a young one following her. I had an excellent opportunity of watching the movements of the impish-looking band. The shaggy hides, the protuberant abdomens, the hideous features of these strange creatures whose forms so nearly resemble man made up a picture like a vision in some morbid dream. In destroying a tree they first grasped the base of the stem with one of their feet, and then with their powerful arms pulled it down, a matter 2 E 2

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