 CHAPTER 52 THE THROWSEN NORTH Meanwhile Franklin and Perry started on another expedition in the same month and year. While Perry's orders were to proceed from east to west, Franklin was to go from west to east with a chance if remote that they might meet. He was to go by Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Coppermine River, and then make his way by sea eastward along the coast. Franklin had made himself a name by work done in the Spitzbergen waters. He was to succeed in the end where others had failed in finding the north-west passage. The party selected for this work consisted of Captain Franklin, Dr. Richardson, a naval surgeon, two midshipmen, Beck and Hood, one of whom was afterwards knighted, and an English sailor named John Hepburn. Just a fortnight after Perry's start these five English explorers sailed on board a ship belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, but it was the end of August before they arrived at the headquarters of the Company. They were cordially received by the Governor, and provided with a large boat well-stored with food and arms. Amid a salute of many guns and much cheering, the little party, with some Canadian rowers started off for Cumberland House, one of the forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company. Six weeks hard travelling by rivers and lakes, now dragging the boats round rapids, now sleeping in buffalo robes on the hard ground, brought the party to the first stage of their journey. Snow was now beginning to fall, and ice was thick on the river, when Franklin resolved to push on to Lake Atabasca, that he might have more time to prepare for the coming voyage in the summer. During Richardson and Hood at the fort, he started off with back and the faceful Hepburn on 18th January, 1820, in the very heart of the Arctic winter. Friends at the fort had provided him with Indian snowshoes, turned up at the toes like the pro of a boat, with dogs ledges, furs, leather trousers, drivers and food for a fortnight. The snow was very deep, and the dogs found great difficulty in dragging their heavy burdens through the snow. But the record was good, at a distance of 857 miles was accomplished in 68 days, with the thermometer at 50 degrees below zero. The hardships endured are very briefly recorded. Provisions becoming scarce, dogs without food, except a little burnt leather, night miserably cold, tea throws in the tin pots before we could drink it. Lake Atabasca was reached on the 26th of March, and preparations for the voyage were pushed forward. Four months later they were joined by Richardson and Hood. This morning Mr. Beck and I had the sincere gratification of welcoming our long separated friends, Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes. This is a simple entry in Franklin's journal. Everything was now ready. Spring in these northern climates was enchanting. The trees quickly put on their leaves after the long, hard winter months, and the whole vegetable world comes forth with a luxuriance, no less astonishing than agreeable. At the same time clouds of mosquitoes and stinging sand flies made the nights horrible. On 18th July the little party in High Glee set forward in canoes rowed by Canadian boatmen, hoping to reach the Copper Mine River before winter sent in. But the difficulties of the way were great, provisions were scarce, the boatmen grew discontented, ice appeared early, and Franklin had to satisfy himself with wintering at a point five hundred and fifty miles from Lake Atabasca, which he called Fort Enterprise. Here there was prospect of plenty, for large herds of reindeer were grazing along the shores of the lake, and from their flesh pemican was made. But the winter was long and cheerless, and Franklin soon realized that there was not enough food to last through it. Though he dispatched the midshipmen black to Lake Atabasca for help, Beck's journey was truly splendid, and we cannot omit his simple summary. On the 17th of March he says, at an early hour we arrived at Fort Enterprise, having traveled about 18 miles a day. I had the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health after an absence of nearly five months, during which time I had traveled one thousand one hundred and four miles on snowshoes, and had no other covering at night than a blanket and deerskin, with the thermometer frequently at 40 degrees below zero, and sometimes two or three days without tasting food. By his courage and endurance he saved the whole party at Fort Enterprise. By June the spring was sufficiently advanced to set out for the Coppermine River, and on July there reached the mouse after a tedious journey of 334 miles. The real work of exploration was now to begin, and the party embarked in two canoes to sail along the southern coast of the Polar Sea, with the possibility always of meeting the ferry expedition. But the poor Canadian boatmen were terrified at the sight of the sea, on which they had never yet sailed, and they were with difficulty persuaded to embark. Indeed of the two crews, only the five Englishmen had ever been on the sea, and it has been well said that this voyage along the shores of the rock-bound coast of the Arctic Sea must always take rank as one of the most daring and hazardous exploits that have ever been accomplished in the interest of geographical research. The two canoes hugged the icy coast as they made their way eastward, and Franklin named the bays, headlands and islands for a distance of 555 miles, where a point he called Cape Ternigan marks his farthest limit east. Here is George IV, Coronation Gulf, Steadford with Islands, Hoods River, Bax River, Walthurst Inlet, named after the Secretary of State, and Perry Bay, after my friend Captain Perry now employed in the interesting research for a Northwest Passage. The short season for exploration was now over, rough weather and want of food turned them home, only half satisfied with their work. The worst part of their journey was yet to come. Perhaps never, even in the tragic history of Arctic exploration, had greater hardships been endured, that Franklin and his handful of men were to endure in their homeward way. On 22nd August the party left Point Ternigan, hoping by means of their newly discovered Hood River to reach Fort Enterprise. The ground was already covered with snow, and their food was reduced to one meal a day when they left the shores of the Arctic Sea for their long inland tramp. Needless to say the journey had to be performed on food, and the way was stony and barren. For the first few days nothing was to be found, save Lichen to eat, and the temperature was far below freezing point. An uncooked cow after six days of Lichen infused spirit into our starving party relates Franklin. But things grew no better, and as they proceeded sadly on their way starvation stared them in face. One day we hear of the pangs of hunger being stilled by pieces of singed hide mixed with Lichen. Another time the horns and bones of a dead deer were fried with some old shoes, and the putrid carcass of a deer that had died the previous spring was demolished by the starving men. At last things grew so bad that Franklin and the most vigorous of his party pushed on to fourth enterprise to get and send back food if possible to Richardson and Hood, who were now almost too weak and ill to get along at all. Bitter disappointment awaited them. At length says Franklin, we reached fourth enterprise, and to our infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate habitation. There were no provisions, no Indians. It would be impossible for me to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode and discovering how we had been neglected. The whole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate as for that of our friends in the rear whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place. A few old bones and skins of reindeer were collected for supper, and the worn out explorers sat round a fire made by pulling up the flooring of the rooms. It is hardly a matter of surprise to find the following entry in Franklin's journal. When I re-rose the following morning my body and limbs were so swollen that I was unable to walk more than a few yards. Before November arrived another tragedy happened. Hood was murdered by one of the party, almost mad with hunger and misery. One after another now dropped down and died, and death seemed to be claiming Franklin, Richardson, Beck and Hepburn, when three Indians made their appearance with some dried deer and a few tongs. It was not a moment too soon, the Indians soon got game and fish for the starving men, until they were sufficiently restored to leave Fort Enterprise and make their way to Moose Deer Island, where with the Hudson Bay officers they spent the winter recovering their health and strength and spirits. When they returned to England in the summer of 1822 they had accomplished 5,550 miles. They had also endured hardships and surpassed in the history of exploration. When Perry returned to England the following summer and heard of Franklin's sufferings he cried like a child. He must have realized better than anyone else what those sufferings really were, though he himself had fared better. While Franklin had been making his way to the Coppermine River, Perry on board the fury, accompanied by the heckler, started for Hudson's trade by which he was to penetrate to the Pacific as possible. Owing to bad weather the expedition did not arrive amid the icebergs till the middle of June. Towering 200 feet high the explorers counted 54 at one time before they arrived at Resolution Island at the mouth of Hudson's Strait. There were already plenty of well-known landmarks in the region of Hudson's Bay and Perry soon made his way to Southampton Island and Throeson Strait over which an angry discussion had taken place some hundred years before. He was rewarded by discovering a magnificent bay to which he gave the name of Duke of York's Bay. The discovery, however, was one of little importance as there was no passage. The winter was fast advancing, the navigable season was nearly over, and the explorers seemed to be only at the beginning of their work. The voyage had been dangerous, harassing and productive. They had advanced towards the Bering Strait, they had discovered 200 leagues of North American coast and they now prepared to spend the winter in these icebound regions. As usual Perry arranged both for the health and amusement of his men during the long arctic months. Even producing a joint of English roast beef for Christmas dinner preserved by wrapping the outside with salt and hanging it on deck covered with canvas. There were also eskimos in the neighborhood who proved a never-seizing source of interest. One day in April snow had been falling all night news spread that the eskimos had killed something on the ice. If the women, says Perry, were cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy re-eeked through the village. They ran into each other's hearts to communicate the welcome intelligence and actually hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight when the first burst of joy had at last subsided. The women crept one by one into the apartment where the seahorses had been conveyed. Here they obtained blubber enough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat for their children and themselves. Fresh cargoes were continually arriving, the principal part being brought in by the dogs and the rest by the men, who tied a song around their waist and dragged in a portion. Every lamp was now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of light and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while the cutting up of the walruses continued. For three solid hours the eskimos appeared to be eating walrus flesh. Indeed the quantity they continued to get rid of is almost beyond belief. It was not till early in July that the ship could be moved out of their winter's dock to renew their efforts toward a passage. They were not a little helped by eskimo charts, but old ice blocked the way, and it was the middle of August before Perry discovered the strait he called after his two ships, the strait of the fury and heckler, between Melville Peninsula and Cockburn Island. Confident that the narrow channel led to the polar seas, Perry pushed on till our progress was once more opposed by a barrier of the same impenetrable and hopeless ice as before. He organized land expeditions and reports. The opening of the strait into the polar sea was now so decided that I considered the principal object of my journey accomplished. September had come and once more the ships were established in their winter quarters. A second month in among the ice must have been a severe trial to this little band of English explorers. But cheerfully enough they built a wall of snow 12 feet high around the fury to keep out snowdrifts. The season was long and severe and it was August before they could get free from ice. The prospect of a third winter in the ice could not be safely faced and Perry resolved to get home. October found them at the Shetlands, all the bells of Lervik being set ringing and the town illuminated with joy at the arrival of men who had been away from all civilization for 27 months. On 14th November, 1828, the expedition arrived home in England. Still the restless explorer was launching to be off again. He was still fascinated by the mysteries of the Arctic regions, but on his third voyage we need not follow him, for the results were of no great importance. The fury was wrecked among the ice and Prince Regent's Islet and the whole party had to return on board the Hekla in 1825. Chapter 53 Franklin's Land Journey to the North The northern shores of North America were not yet explored and Franklin proposed another expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie River where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east and half to the west. Nothing doubted by his recent sufferings Franklin accepted the supreme command and amidst the foremost volunteers for service were his old friends back in Richardson. The officers of the expedition left England in February 1825 and traveling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland the following June. A month later they were at Fort Chippewan on the shores of Lake Atabasca and soon they had made their way to the banks of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. They decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake, but Franklin could never be here in action so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the Great River with a small party in order to prospect for the coming expedition. So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River as it was called that Franklin, injustice to his memory, named it the Mackenzie River after its eminent discoverer, which name it has borne ever since. In a little English boat with a fair wind and swift current, Franklin accomplished 312 miles in about 60 hours. The saltness of the water, the sight of a boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were encouraging signs. They had reached the polar sea at last, the sea in all its majesty, entirely free from ice, and without any visible obstruction to its navigation. On reaching the coast a silken union jack, worked by Franklin's dying wife, was unfurled. She had died a few days after he left England, but she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his country, only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at the polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze of these desolate shores, the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the king. You can imagine, says Franklin, with what heartfelt emotion I first saw it unfurled, but in a short time I derived great pleasure in looking at it. It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the weather in August was inconveniently warm. So on 5th September Franklin returned to winter quarters on the Great Bear Lake. During his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up to accommodate some 50 persons, including Canadian and Indian hunters with their wives and children. In honour of the commander it had been called Fort Franklin, and here the party of explorers settled down for the long months of winter. As the day shortened, says Franklin, it was necessary to find employment during the long evenings for those resident at the house, and a school was established from 7 to 9, for the air instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic attended by most of the British party. Sunday was day of rest, and the whole party attended divine service morning and evening. If on other evenings the men felt the time tedious, the whole was at their service to play any game they might choose, at which they were joined by the officers. Thus the men became more attached to us, and the hearts and feelings of the whole party were united in one common desire to make the time pass as agreeably as possible to each other, until the return of spring should enable us to resume the great object of the expedition. April brought warmer weather, though the ground was still covered with snow, and much boat-building went on. In May swans had appeared on the lake, then came geese, then ducks, then gulls, and singing birds. By June the boats were afloat, and on the 24th the whole party embarked for the Mackenzie river, and were soon making their way to the mouth. Here the party divided. Franklin on board the lion was a crew of six, accompanied by back on board the reliance, started westwards, while Richardson's party was to go eastwards, and survey the coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie river and the copper mine. On 7th July Franklin reached the sea, and with flags flying, the lion and the reliance sailed forth on the unknown seas, only to ground a mile from shore. Suddenly some three hundred canoes full of eskimos crowded towards them. These people had never seen a white man before, but when it was explained to them that the English had come to find a channel for large ships to come and trade with them, they raised the most deafening shout of applause. They still crowded round the little English boats, till at last, like others of their race, they began to steal things from the boats. When detected they grew furious and brandish knives, they tore the buttons of the men's coats, and for a time matters looked serious, till the English showed their firearms, when the canoes paddled away and the eskimos hid themselves. With a fair wind, the boats now sailed along the coast westward, till stopped by ice, which drove them from the shore. Dense fogs, stormy winds, and heavy rain made this polar navigation very dangerous, but the explorers pushed on till on 27th July, they reached the mouth of a broad river, which, being the most westerly river in the British dominions on this coast, and near the line of demarcation between Great Britain and Russia. I named it the Clarence, says Franklin, in honour of his royal highness, the Lord High Admiral. A box containing a royal medal was deposited here, and the Union Jack was hoisted amid hearty cheers. Still fogs and storms continued, the further west they advanced, the denser grew the fog, till by the middle of August winter seemed to have set in. The men had suffered much from the hard work of pulling and dragging the heavy birds, they also endured torments from countless forms of mosquitoes. There were now some 374 miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and only half way to Icy Cape, but Franklin, with all his courage and with all his enthusiasm, dared not risk the lives of his men farther. Return reef marks his farthest point west, and it was not till long after that he learned that Captain Beachy, who had been sent in the blossom, by way of bearing stride, had doubled Icy Cape, and was waiting for Franklin 160 miles away. On 21st September, Fort Franklin was reached after three months absence. Dr Richardson had already returned after a successful coast voyage of some 800 miles. When he had left Franklin, he had, on board the dolphin, accompanied by the Union, sailed along the unknown coast eastward. Like Franklin's party, his expedition had also suffered from fogs, gales, and mosquitoes, but they had made their way on, naming inlets, capes, and islands as they passed. Thus we find Russell Inlet, point busthurst, Franklin's Bay, Cape Perry, the Union and Dolphin Straits, named after the two little ships, where the dolphin was nearly wrecked between two masses of ice. They had reached Fort Franklin in safety, just before Franklin's party, and being too late to think of getting home this year, they were all doomed to another winter at the fort. They reached England on 26th September, 1827, after an absence of two years and a half. Franklin had failed to find the Northwest Passage, but he and Richardson had discovered a southern miles of North American coast, for which he was knighted and received the Perry's Geographical Society's Medal for the most important acquisition to geographical knowledge made during the year. It is a curious coincidence that the two Arctic explorers, Franklin and Perry, both arrived in England the same months from their warriors expeditions, and appeared at the Admiralty, within ten minutes of one another. End of Chapter 53 Chapter 54 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh Chapter 54 Perry's Polar Voyage Perry had left England, the preceding April, in an attempt to reach the North Pole by means of sledges over the ice. To this end he had sailed to Spitzbergen in his old ship, the Hekla, many of his old shipmates sailing with him. They arrived off the coast of Spitzbergen about the middle of May, 1827. Two boats had been specially built in England, covered with waterproof canvas and lined with felt. The Enterprise and Endeavour had bamboo masts and paddles, and were constructed to go on sledges drawn by reindeer over the ice. Nothing, says Perry, can be more beautiful than the training of the Lapland reindeer, with a simple collar of skin round his neck, a single trace of the same material attached to the sledge, and passing between his legs, and one rain fastened like a halter round his neck. This intelligent and docile animal is perfectly under the command of an experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the softest snow. Shaking the rain over his back is the only whip that is required. Leaving the Hekla in safe harbor on the Spitzbergen coast, Perry and James Ross, and a few of John Ross, the explorer, with food for two months, started off in their two bed slidges for the North. They made a good start, the weather was calm and clear, the sea smoothed the mirror, ballruses lay in herds on the ice, and steering to North, they made good progress. Next day, however, they were stopped by ice. Instead of finding a smooth level plain over which the reindeer could draw their sledges with ease, they found broken, rugged, and even ice, which nothing but the keen enthusiasm of the explorer could have faced. The reindeer were out-useless, and they had to be relengished. It is always supposed that they were eaten, but history is silent on this point. The little party had to drag their own boats over the rough ice. They travelled by night to save snow blindness, also that they could enjoy greater warmth during the hours of sleep by day. Perry describes the laborious journey. Being rigged for travelling, he says, we breakfasted upon warm cocoa and biscuit, and after stowing the things in the boats, we set off on our day's journey, and usually travelled about five and a half hours, then stopped an hour to dine, and again travelled five or six hours. After this, we halted for the night, as we called it, though it was usually early in the morning. Selecting the largest surface of ice, we happened to be near for hauling the boats on. The boats were placed close alongside each other, and the sails supported by bamboo masts placed over them as awnings. Every man then put on dry socks and four boots and went to supper. Most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which served to dry the awnings. We then concluded our day with prayers, and having put on our four dresses lay down to sleep, alone in the great ice desert. Progress was slow and very tedious. One day it took them four hours to cover half a mile. On first July, there was still laboring forward. A foot of soft snow on the ground made travelling very exhausting. Some of the hammocks of ice were as much as 25 feet above sea level. Nothing was to be seen but ice and sky, both often hidden by dense fog. Still the explorers pushed on, Perry and Ross leading the way, and the men dragging the birds ledges after. July the 12th was a brilliant day, with clear sky overhead, an absolute luxury. For another fortnight they persevered, and on 23 July they reached their farthest point north. It was a warm, pleasant day, with the thermometer at 36 and the shade. There were 172 miles from Spitzbergen, where the heckler lay at anchor. Our ensigns and pendants were displayed during the day, and severely, as we regretted not having been able, to hoist the British flag in the highest latitude to which we had aspired. We shall perhaps be excused in having felt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel considerably beyond that mentioned in any other well authenticated record. On 27 July they reluctantly turned to the south, and on 21 August they arrived on board the heckler after an absence of 61 days, every one of the party being in a good health. Soon after they sailed for England, and by a strange coincidence arrived in London at the same time as Franklin. Many an attempt was yet to be made to reach the north pole, till at last it was discovered by Peary, an American in 1909, end of chapter 54, chapter 55 of a book of discovery. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. A book of discovery by M. B. Singh, chapter 55, The Search for Timbukto. It is a relief to turn from the icy north to the tropical climate of Central Africa, where Munko Park had disappeared in 1805. The mystery of Timbukto and the nigger remained unsolved, though more than one expedition had left the coast of Africa for the mystic city, laying deep in that line hounded on inland. Notwithstanding disaster, death and defeat, a new expedition set forth from Tripoli to cross the great Sahara Desert. It was under Major Danham, Leutnant Clapperton and Dr. Oydney. They left Tripoli in March 1822. We were the first English travellers, says Danham, who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons and Christians and to wear our English dress. The buttons on our waistcoats and our watches caused the greatest astonishment. It was the end of November before they were ready to leave the frontier on their great desert journey. The long and forced stay in this unhealthy border town had undermined their health. Fever had reduced to Danham, Dr. Oydney was suffering from cough and pains in his chest. Clapperton was shivering with agieu, a state of health ill-calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey. Along as court of men and camels accompanied them into the merciless desert, with its burning heat and drifting sands, the Sea of Sahara as the old cartographer took call set. December found them still slowly advancing over the billowy sand, deeply impressed and horrified at the number of slave skeletons that lay about the wine-swept desert. The new year brought little relief. No wood, no water occurs constantly in Danham's journal. Desert is yesterday high sand hills. Still they persevered until, on 4th of February 1823, they were rewarded by seeing a sheet of water. The great lake charred, glowing with the golden rays of the sun in its strength. Was this, after all, the source of the niger? Its low shores were surrounded with reedy marshes and clumps of white water lilies. There were flocks of wild ducks and geese. Birds with beautiful plumage were feeding on the margin of the lake. Pelicans, cranes, immense white spoon-bills, yellow-legged blower, all were dwelling undisturbed in this peaceful spot. And this most remarkable lake lay 800 feet above the Atlantic, between the watersheds of Nile, Niger and Congo. But lake charred was not their goal. They must push on over new country, where no European had been before. A fortnight later they reached Kukawa, the capital of Borno, once a great Mohammedan empire. We were about to become acquainted with the people, who had never seen or scarcely heard of a European, says Denham, and to try it on ground, the knowledge and true situation of which had hitherto been wholly unknown. We advanced towards the town of Kukawa, in a most interesting state of uncertainty, whether we should find its chief at the head of thousands, or be received by him under a tree, surrounded by a few naked slaves. Their doubts were soon set at rest, by the sight of several thousand cavalry, drawn up in line. They were received by an Arab general, a negro of noble aspect, dressed in a figured silk robe, and mounted on a beautiful horse. They had passed from the region of hidden huts to one of great old cities, from the naked pagan to the cultivated follower of Mohammed, from superstition to mosques and schools, from ignorance to knowledge. The sheikh, who received the travelers in a small room with armed negroes on either side, asked the reason of their long and painful journey across the desert. To see the country answered the Englishman, and to give an account of its inhabitants, produce an appearance, as our Sultan was desirous of knowing every part of the globe. The sheikh's hospitality was overwhelming. He had huts built for them, which, says Dan Ham, were so crowded with visitors, that we had not a moment's peace, and the heat was insufferable. He sent presents of bullocks, camel loads, of wheat and rice, leather skins of butter, jars and honey. The market of Kukka was famous. It was attended by some 15,000 persons from all parts, and the produce sold there was astonishing. Here Clapperton and Dr. Oidne stayed all through the summer month, for both were ill, and Oidne was growing rapidly worse. Dan Ham, meanwhile, went off on exploring expeditions in the neighborhood. On 14th December, Clapperton and Oidne left to the friendly sheikh, and made their way to Kano. But the rough traveling proved too much for Oidne. Each day found him weaker, but he valiantly journeyed on. On 12th January, he ordered the camels to be loaded as usual, and he was dressed by Clapperton, but he was too ill to be lifted onto his camel, and a few hours later he died. Clapperton was now alone, and made a strange people, in a land he was too never trodden by European food, and very ill himself. But he reached Kano, the famous trading center of the houses, containing some 40,000 inhabitants. Here again the market impressed him deeply, so full was it of cosmopolitan articles from far distant lands. After a month's stay at Kano, now the capital of the northern province of Nigeria of that name, he set out for Sokoto, though very ill and weak at the time. He was assured of kind treatment by the Sultan. He arrived on 16th March, and to impress them with my official importance, I arrayed myself in my Leutnance coat, trimmed with gold lace, white trousers and silk stockings, and to complete my finery, I wore Turkish slippers and a turban. Crowds collected on his arrival, and he was conducted to the Sultan, who questioned him closely about Europe. I laid before him a present, in the name of his majesty, the king of England, consisting of two new blunderbuses, and embroidered on jacket, some scarlet breeches, gloves and cinnamon, gunpowder, razors, looking glasses, snuff boxes and compasses. Everything is wonderful, exclaimed the Sultan, but you are the greatest curiosity of all. What can I give that is acceptable to the king of England? Co-operate with his majesty in putting a stop to the slave trade, was Clapperton's answer. What? Have you no slaves in England? The Englishman replied, no. To which the Sultan answered, God is great, you are a beautiful people. But when Clapperton asked for leave in order to solve the mystery of the nigger, the Sultan refused, and he was obliged to return to Coca, where he arrived on 8th July. A week later he was joined by Denham. It was nearly eight months since we had separated, says Denham, and I went immediately to the hut where he was lodged. But so satisfied was I, that the sun-burned, sickly person that lay extended on the floor, rolled in a dark blue shirt, was not my companion, that I was about to leave the place, when he convinced me of my error by calling me by the name. Our meeting was a melancholy one, for he had buried his companion. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which I found Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke of returning to Sudan after the rains. But this was not to be, and a month later we find the two explorers turning homewards to Tripoli, where they arrived at the end of January. But with all his long traveling in Africa, Clapperton had not seen the nigger, and although the effects of his fever had not worn away, he spent but two months in England, before he was off again. This time he sailed to the Gulf of Guinea, and from a place on the coast near the modern Lagos, he started by a new and untried route to reach the interior of the Great Dark Continent. It was September 1825, when he left the coast with his companions. Before the months was over the other Europeans had died from the pestilential climate of Nigeria, and Clapperton, alone with his faithful servant Richard Lander, pushed on. At last he saw the great nigger near the spot where Mungo Park and his companions had perished. At Bussa they made out the tragic story of his end. They had descended the river from Timbuktu to Bussa, when the boat struck upon some rocks. Natives from the banks shot at them with arrows. The white men then, seeing all was lost, jumped into the river and were drowned. The nigger claimed its explorer in the end, and the words of Mungo Park must have accured to Clapperton as he stood and watched. Though I myself were half-dead, I would still persevere, and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the nigger. From Bussa Clapperton made his way to Kano on Sokoto, but on 13 April 1827, broken down by fever, he died in the arms of his faithful servant. With his master's papers and journal Lander made his way home, thus establishing for the first time a direct connection between Benin and Tripoli, the west coast and the north. Still the mouth of the nigger had not been found. This discovery was reserved for this very Richard Lander and his brother John. Just a year after the death of Clapperton, a young Frenchman Rene Canet, tempted by the offer of ten thousand francs offered by the French Geographical Society for the first traveller who should reach the mysterious city, entered Timbuktu 20 April 1829 after a year's journey from Sierra Leone. And from his pen we get the first direct account of the once important city. At length, he says, we arrived safely at Timbuktu, just as the sun was touching the horizon. I now saw this capital of the Sudan, to reach which had so long been the object of my wishes. To God alone did I confide my joy. I looked around and found that the sight before me did not answer my expectations. I had formed a totally different idea of the grandeur and wealth of it. The city presented nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses built of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all directions, but immense plains of quicksand of a yellowish-white color. The sky was a pale red as far as the horizon. All nature wore a dreary aspect, and the most profound silence prevailed. Not even the varbling of the bird was to be heard. The heat was oppressive, let the breath of air freshen the atmosphere. This mysterious city, which has been the object of curiosity for many ages, and of whose civilization, population, and trade with the Sudan such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is situated in immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation but stunted trees and shrubs, and has no other resources save its trade in salt. It is curious to note what the burst of interest was aroused in England at this time with regard to Timbuktu. Zachary wrote in 1829, In Africa, a quarter of the world, men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curled, and somewhere there unknown to public view, a mighty city lies called Timbuktu. While the same year, Tennyson's poem on Timbuktu won for him the prize at Cambridge University for the best poem of the year. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh, Chapter 56 Richard and John Blunder discover the mouth of the nigger. Blunder, the faithful attendant of the late Captain Clapperton, as he is called in his instructions, was burning to be off again to explore further the mysterious nigger. No pecuniary reward was to be his, he was a poor man, and just for the love of exploring the unknown he started off. He had inspired his brother with a desire to solve the great mystery. So on 22 February 1830 the two brothers arrived at Cape Coast Castle and made their way to Busa, which place they entered on 18th of June. Sitting on a rock overlooking the spot where Mungo Park had perished, the brothers resolved to set at rest forever the great question of the course and termination of the great nigger. It was 20th of September before preparations were completed for the eventful voyage from Busa to the mouth of the nigger. For provisions they took three large bags of corn and one of beans, a couple of foals, and two sheep to last a month, while the king added rice, honey, onions, and one hundred pounds of vegetable butter. Then in two native canoes the landers embarked on the great river, the dark water, as it was more often called, while the crowds who came down towards the riverside, to bid them farewell, nailed with uplifted hands, imploring for the explorers the protection of Allah and their prophet. It was indeed a perilous undertaking. Sunken reefs were an ever-present danger, while the swift current ran them dangerously near many jagged rocks. For nearly a month they paddled onward with their native guides in anxiety and suspense, never knowing what an hour might bring forth. On 7th of October a curious scene took place, when the king of the dark water came forth in all his pomp and glory, to see the white strangers who were paddling down the great river. Waiting under the shade of a tree, for the morning was very hot, the landers observed a large canoe paddled by twenty young black men, singing as they rode. In the center of the boat a mat awning was erected, and the boughs said four little boys, glad with neatness and propriety, while in the stern sat musicians with drums and trumpets. Presently the king stepped forth. He was cold black, dressed in an Arab cloak, hosed the trousers, and a cap of red clothes, while two pretty little boys, about ten years of age, acting as pages, followed him, each bearing a coaxed tail in his hand, to brush away flies and other insects. Six wives, jet-black girls, in neat country caps, edged with red silk, accompanied him. To make some impression on this pompous king, Lander hoisted the Union flag. When unfurled and waving in the wind, it looked extremely pretty, and it made our hearts glow with pride and enthusiasm, as we looked at the solitary little banner. I put on an old naval uniform coat, and my brother dressed himself in as grotesque and gaudy a manner, as our resources would afford. Our eight attendants also put on new white mohammedan robes. Other canoes joined in the royal procession, and the little flotilla moved down the river. Never did the British flag lead so extraordinary a squadron, remarked Lander. As the king of the dark water stepped on shore, the Englishman fired a salute, which frightened him not a little till the owner was explained. Having now exchanged their two canoes for one of a larger size, they continued their journey down the river. On 25th October they found the waters of the Niagara were joined by another large river, known today as the Benieu, the mother of waters flowing in from the east. After this the banks of the river seemed to grow hilly, and villages were few and far between. Our canoe passed smoothly along the Niagara, and everything was silent and solitary. No sound could be distinguished, save our own voices, and the plashing of the paddles was their a-house. The song of birds was not heard, nor could any animal whatever be seen. The banks seemed to be entirely deserted, and the magnificent Niagara to be slumbering in its own grandeur. One can imagine the feelings, says a modern writer, in such circumstances of the brothers, drifting they knew not wither, in intolerable silence and loneliness, on the bosom of a river, which had caused the death of so many men, who had endeavored to rest from it its secret. Two days later a large village appeared, and suddenly a cry rang through the air, hello, you Englishmen, you come here. It came from a little squinting fellow, dressed in an English soldier's jacket, a messenger from the chief of Bonnie, or the coast, buying slaves for his master. He had picked up a smattering of English from the Liverpool trading ships, which came to Bonnie for palm oil from the river. There was no longer any doubt that the mouse of the Niagara was not far off, and that the many mouse delta was well known to Europeans, under the name of the oil rivers, flowing into the bite of Benin. Lander pushed on, till he had puddled down the brass river, as one of the many branches was called, and when he heard the welcome sound of the surf on the beach. The mystery of the Niagara, after a lapse of 2,500 years since its existence, had been recorded by Herodotus, was solved at last. End of Chapter 56 Chapter 57 of A Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh Chapter 57 Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole The first attempt to discover the Northwest Passage by means of steam, instead of sail, was made by Captain Ross, who since his expedition in 1819 had been burning to set off again for the Arctic regions. The reward of 20,000 pounds, held out to the discoverer of a Northwest Passage, had been repealed. But an old friend, Felix Booth, decided to finance Ross, the government having refused. After examining various steamships advertised for sail, says Ross, a purchased the victory, which had been once employed as a packet. With food and fuel for 1,000 days, and accompanied by his nephew, James Ross, who had been with Perry on his recent polar voyage, he left England the end of May 1829, not to return for many a long year. Disasters soon began. The victory began to leak, her engines were defective, and there was nothing for it, but to heave up her paddles and thrust to sail. Sailing to the northward, they found the sea smooth, and the weather so warm, that they could dine without a fire, and with the skylights off. Entering Lancaster Sound, they sailed up Prince Regent's Inlet. They soon discovered the spot where the fury had been wrecked four years before, and abandoned by Captain Perry, with whom was James Ross, who now found the stores which had been safely hidden on that occasion. As they made their way up the inlet, strong currents and vast masses of ice, hard and solid as granite, more than once threatened them with destruction. Imagine, says Captain Ross, these mountains, hurled through a narrow strait by a rapid tide, meeting with the noise of thunder, breaking from each other's precipices huge fragments, till, losing their former equilibrium, they fall overhead long, lifting the sea around in breakers, and whirling it in eddies. Escaping these paddles, Ross entered a fine harbor. Here he landed, hoisted the colors, and took possession of the new land he had found, and drinking the king's health, called the land Buzia, after his patron. For the next two months, August and September, he carefully explored the coast of this newly discovered Buzia for some 300 miles, naming points and capes and islands, after friends at home and on board. Heavy squalls of snow and ever-thickening ice pointed out the necessity of winter quarters, and first October found the victory imprisoned by thick immovable ice. The prison door was shut upon us for the first time, says Ross sadly. Nothing was to be seen but one dazzling, monotonous extent of snow. It was indeed a dull prospect. Amid all its brilliancy, this land of ice and snow has ever been, and ever will be, a dull, dreary, hard-sinking, monotonous waste, under the influence of which the very mind is paralyzed. Nothing moves and nothing changes, but all is forever the same, cheerless, cold and still. The explorers little thought that this was to be their home for the next three years. They spent a fairly cheerful Christmas with mint spice and ice cherry brandy, taken from the stores of the fury, and early in 1830 the monotony was broken by the appearance of Eskimos. These were tremendously dressed up in furs, a shapeless mass, and Ross describes one as resembling the figure of a globe standing on two pins. They soon became friendly, taking the Englishmen to see their snow huts, drawing them charts of Boothia Gulf beyond Felix Harbor, while in exchange the explorers taught English to the little Eskimo children administered to their ailments, the ship's carpenter even making a wooden leg for one of the natives. So the long winter passed away. A few land journeys with sledges only ended in disappointment, but at last the vessel was free from ice, and joyfully they hoisted their sails. But worse disappointment was in store. She had sailed for three miles when they met a ridge of ice, and a solid sea forbade any further advance. In vain did they try to soar through the ice. November found the poor victory, hopelessly ice-bound, and her crew doomed to another winter in the same region. It was not till May that the journey across the land of Boothia to the west coast was possible. Ross and his nephew had been calculating the position of the North Magnetic Pole all the long winter, and with signs of spring they set forth. Our journey had a very new appearance. The mother of two Eskimos led the way with the staff in her hand, my sledge following with the dogs, and one of the children, guided by one of the wives with a child on her back. After a native sledge came that of Commander Ross, followed by more Eskimos. Many huts were made, as our burdens were heavy, the snow deep and the ice rough. After a fortnight's travelling passed the chain of Great Lakes, the women still guiding them, the Rosses, uncle and nephew, separated. James Ross now made for the spot where the magnetic pole was supposed to be. His own account shows with what enthusiasm he found it. We were now within fourteen miles of the calculated position of the magnetic pole, and now commenced a rapid march, and persevering with all our might, we reached the calculated place at eight in the morning on the first of June. I must leave it to others to imagine the elation of mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition. It almost seemed as if we had accomplished everything that we had come so far to see and to do, as if our voyage and all its labours were at the end, and that nothing remained for us but to return home and be happy for the rest of our days. Amid mutual congratulations, we fixed the British flag on the spot and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William IV. We had plenty of materials for building, and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude, and there which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact. Another fortnight found the successful explorers staggering back to the victory, with their great news after an absence of twenty-eight days. Science has shown that the magnetic pole revolves, and the draw scairn will not again mark its exact position for many a long year to come. By the end of August the ice had broken and the victory was once more in full sail, but the gales of wind drove her into harbour which she never left again. Despite their colossal efforts it soon became apparent that yet another winter would have to be passed in the frozen seas. The entries in Ross's journal became shorter and more despondent day by day. The sight of ice to us is a plague, a vexation, a torment, an evil, a matter of despair. Could we have skated it would not have been an amusement? We had exercised enough, and, worst of all, the ice which surrounds us, obstructed us, imprisoned us, annoyed us in every possible manner, had become odious to our sight. By October there was no open water to be seen. The hopeful did not hope more, and the despondent continued to despair. This was their third winter in the ice. Food was growing scarce. The meat was so hard-frozen that it had to be cut with a saw and saved in warm cacao. Snow blindness afflicted many of the men badly. At last came the summer of 1833, but the victory was still fast in her winter quarters, and all attempts to release her had failed. They now decided to abandon her and to drag their boats over the ice to the wreck of the fury, replenishing their stores and trusting to some whaler to take them home. We get a pathetic picture. The colors were hoisted, says Ross, and nailed to the mast. We drank a parting glass to our poor old ship, and having seen every man out, I took my own adieu of the victory in the evening. She had deserved a better fate. It was like parting with an old friend. On 23 April the weary explorers began dragging their boats, and the last month's provisions over the ice in the face of wind and snow. The journey was painful and distressing. They found barrows straight, full of impenetrable ice, and resolved to pass the winter on Fury Beach, which seemed almost like home to the half-starved men. Erecting a house, which they called Somerset House, they prepared for a fourth winter. For severity it was unequaled. The crew developed scurry, and all were suffering sorely when. In the following August the unfortunate party was rescued by the whaler, Isabella of Hull, once commanded by Captain Ross. It was the ship in which Ross had made his first arc to exploration. At first the mate refused to believe the story of these bare-like men. The explorers and Ross had been lost these two years. But almost frantic with delight, the explorers climbed on board the Isabella, to be received with the heartiest of cheers when their identity was disclosed. That we were a repulsive-looking people, none could doubt, says poor Ross, unshaven since I know not when. Dirty, dressed in rags of wild beasts, unstarved to the very bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with sores of the well dressed and well-fed men around us, made us all feel what we really were, as well as what we seemed to others. Then followed a wild scene of washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all intermingled. While in the midst of all there are questions to be asked and news from England to be heard. Long accustomed to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock, few of them could sleep that night in the comfort of the new accommodation. They were soon safely back in England, large crowds collecting to get a glimpse of Captain Ross. His own board's best end the account of his travels. On my arrival in London, he says, on the 20th of October, 1833, it became my first duty to repair to the Royal Palace of Twinser with an account of my voyage, and to lay at the feet of his Majesty, the British flag which had been hoisted on the magnetic pole. Chapter 58 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh Chapter 58 Flinders Names Australia We must now return to Australia, as yet so imperfectly explored, and take up the story of the young colony at Sydney. For seven years it thrived under the careful management of Governor Phillips, who was then replaced by one Hunter. With the new Governor from England arrived two young men, destined to distinguish themselves in the exploration of New South Wales. They were midshipmen Matthew Flinders and surgeon George Bass. The reading of Robinson Crusoe had created in young Flinders a passion for sea adventure, and no sooner had the reliance anchored in Sydney, harbour, than the two young friends resolved on an exploring expedition to the south. For there were rumours afloat that one demon's land did not join the main continent of New South Wales. Little enough help was forthcoming for the expedition, and the friends had to contend themselves with a little boat eight feet long, the Tom Thumb, and only a boy to help them. But with all the eager enthusiasm of youth, they sailed from Port Jackson on 25th of March 1796. It is impossible to follow all their adventures as they attempted to survey the coast. A storm on the 29th nearly swallowed up the little Tom Thumb and her plucky sailors. At ten o'clock says Flinders, the wind which had been unsettled and driving electric clouds in all directions burst out in a gale. In a few minutes the waves began to break, and the extreme danger to which this exposed our little bark was increased by the darkness of the night and the uncertainty of finding any place of shelter. Mr. Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was steering with an oar. A single wrung movement or moments in attention would have sent us to the bottom. After running near an hour in this critical manner, some huge breakers were distinguished ahead. It was necessary to determine what was to be done at once, for our bark could not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what appeared to be the extremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind, the mast and sail taken down, and the oars taken out. Pulling then towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, in three minutes we were in smooth water. A nearer approach showed us the beach of a well-shuttered cove, in which we anchored for the rest of the night. We thought providential cove a well-adapted name for the place. Important local discoveries were made by the young explorers, and their skill and courage earned for them a better equipment for further exploration. A whale boat, provisioned for six weeks, and a crew of six, were placed at the disposal of Bass in order that he might discover whether one demon's land was joined to the mainland, or whether there was a strait between. Cook had declared that there was no strait. Flinders now tells the story of his friend's triumphant success in finding the straits that now bear his name. He tells how Bass found the coast turning westward, exposed to the billows of a great ocean, of the low sandy shore, of the spacious harbour, which from its relative position to the his or two known parts of the coasts was called Port Western. His provisions were now at the end, and though he was keen to make a survey of his new discovery, he was obliged to return. This voyage of six hundred miles in an open boat, on dangerous and unknown shores, is one of the most remarkable on record. It added another three hundred miles of known coastline, and showed that the shores of New Holland were divided from one demon's land. So highly did the colonists appreciate this voyage of discovery, that the whale boat, in which Bass sailed, was long preserved as a curiosity. A small boat of twenty-five tons, provisioned for twelve weeks, was now put at the disposal of the two friends, Flinders and Bass, to complete the survey of one demon's land, and in October 1798 they sailed for the south, with gales and strong winds blowing across the channel, now known as Bass Strait. They made their way along the coast, the northern shores of one demon's land, till they found a wide inlet. Here they found a quantity of black swans, which they ate with joy, and also kangaroos, mussels and oysters. This inlet they called Port Dalrymple after the lead hydrographer to the Admiralty in England. On 9 December, still coasting onward, they passed Three Hammock Island, and then a whole cluster of islands, to which, in honour of His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, I gave the title of Hunter's Isles. And now a long swell was noticed from the south-west. It broke heavily upon a small reef, and upon all the western shores, but although it was likely to prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long wished-for discovery of a passage into the southern Indian Ocean. Calling the point where the island coast turned, Cape Grimm, they sailed along the western shores, their little boat exposed to the swell of the southern ocean. Sailing joyfully, from point to point, and naming them at will, the two explorers reached the extreme west, which they called South-West Cape. This had been already cited by one of Cook's party in 1773. South Cape and Tasman's head had been likewise charted as points at the extreme south of New South Wales. So the explorers sailed right round the island, on which Tasman had landed 156 years before, and after an absence of five months, they reached Sydney with their important news. Bass now disappears from the annals of exploration, but his friend Flinders went off to England, and found in our old friend Banks a powerful friend. He was given a stout North Country ship, his majesty's ship investigator, of 334 tons, with orders to return to New Holland and make a complete survey of the coast, and was off again in July 1801 with young John Franklin, his nephew, aboard. The investigator arrived at Cape Loiven in December, and anchored in King George Sound, discovered by Vancouver some ten years before. By the new year, he was ready to begin his great voyage round the Terra Australis, as the new country was still cold. Indeed, it was Flinders who suggested the name of Australia, for the tract of land hitherto called New Holland. His voyage can easily be traced on our maps today, voyaging westward through the Recherches group of islands. Flinders passed the low sandy shore to a cape he named Cape Passley, after his late admiral. High bleak cliffs now rose to the height of some 500 feet, for a distance of 450 miles. The great Australian bite, young Franklin's name, was given to one island. Investigator to another, Cape Catastrophe commemorated a melancholy accident, and the drowning of several of the crew. Kangaroo Island speaks for itself. Here they killed thirty-one dark brown kangaroos. The whole ship's company was employed this afternoon, skinning and cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful regale they afforded after four months' privation from almost any fresh provisions. Half a hundred weight of heads, four quarters and tails, were stewed down into soup for dinner, and as much stakes given to both officers and men as they could consume by day and night. In April 1802 a strange encounter took place, when suddenly there appeared a heavy-looking ship, without any top-gallant masts up, showing a fringe and sign. Flinders cleared his decks for action in case of attack, but the strangers turned out to be the French ship Legiograph, which, in company with the naturalist, had left France 1800 for exploration of the Australian coasts. Now it was well known that Napoleon had cast longing eyes upon the terror Australis. Indeed it is said that he took with him to Egypt a copy of Cook's voyages. Flinders, too, knew of this French expedition, but he was not specially pleased to find French explorers engaged on the same work as himself. The commanders met as friends, and, boarding the French explorer, told how he had landed also near Cape Louisville in May 1801, how he had given the names of his two ships to Cape Naturalist and Legiograph Bay, and was now making his way round the coast. Flinders little guessed at this time that the French were going to claim the south of New South Wales as French territory under the name of Terra Napoleon, though it was common knowledge that this discovery was made by Englishmen. Ah, Captain, said one of the French crew to Flinders, if we had not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at one demon's land, you would not have discovered this coast before us. When Bolden put in, at Port Jackson, a couple of months later, he inquired of the governor's extent of British claims in the Pacific. The whole of Tasmania and Australia are British territory, was the firm answer. After this encounter Flinders discovered and named Port Phillip, at the head of which stands the famous city of Melbourne today, and then made his way on to Port Jackson. He had managed his crew so well that the inhabitants of Port Jackson declared they were reminded of England by the fresh color of the men amongst the investigators ship's company. The Frenchmen had not fared so well. 150 out of 170 were down, with scurry, and had to be taken to the hospital at Sydney. Before the end of July, Flinders was off again, sailing northwards along the eastern coast of New South Wales. October found him passing the Great Barrier Reefs, and on the 21st he had reached the northernmost point Cape York. Three days of anxious steering took the investigator through Torres Strait, and Flinders was soon sailing into the Great Gulf of Carpentaria. Still hiking the coast he discovered a group of islands to the south of the Gulf, which he named the Wellesley Islands after General Wellesley, afterward Duke of Wellington. Here he found a wealth of vegetation, cabbage palm was abundant, nutmegs plentiful, and a sort of sandalwood was growing freely. He spent 105 days exploring the Gulf, then he continued his voyage around the west coast, and back to Port Jackson by the south. He returned after a year's absence with a sickly crew and a rotten shape. Indeed the investigator was incapable of further service, and Flinders decided to go back to England for another ship. As passenger on board the Port Boys, early in August 1802, he sailed from Sydney for the Torres Strait, accompanied by two returning transports. All went well for the first four days, and they had reached a spot on the coast of Queensland, when a cry of breakers ahead fell on the evening air. In another moment the ship was carried amongst the breakers and struck upon a coral reef. So sudden was the disaster that there was no time to warn the other ships closely following. As the Port Boys rolled over on her beam ends, huge seas swept over her, and the white foam leapt high. Then the mast snapped, water rushed in, and soon the Port Boys was a hopeless wreck. A few minutes later one of the transports struck the coral reef. She fell on her side, her deck facing the sweeping rollers, and was completely wrecked. The other transport escaped, sailed right away from the scene of disaster, and was never seen again by the crew of the Port Boys. The dawn of day showed the shipwrecked crew a sunbank, to which some ninety-four men made their way, and soon set sail-clothes tents on the barren shore. They had saved enough food for three months. Flinders as usual was the moving spirit. A fortnight later in one of the ship's boats, with twelve rovers and food for three weeks, he left Wreck Reef, amid ringing cheers to get help from Sydney, for the eighty men left on the sunbank. The reader says the hero of this adventure has perhaps never gone two hundred and fifty leagues at sea in an open boat or along a strange coast inhabited by savages. But if he recollect the eighty officers and men upon Wreck Reef, and how important was our arrival to their safety, and to the saving of the charts, journals, and papers of the investigator's voyage, he may have some idea of the pleasure we felt, particularly myself, at entering our destined port. Half-starved and shaven, deplorable indeed were the men, when they staggered into Sydney, and an involuntary tear started from the eye of friendship and compassion, when the governor learned how nearly Flinders and his friends had lost their lives. A few days later Flinders left Sydney for the last time, in a little home-built ship of twenty-nine tons, the Cumberland. It was the first ship ever built in the colony, and the colonists were glad it should be of use to the men who had done so much for their country. With all his papers and his beloved journals, Flinders put to sea, accompanied by a ship, to rescue the men left on Wreck Reef. Three months later, owing to the leaky condition of the ship, he landed at Mauritius. Here he was taken prisoner, and all his papers and journals were seized by the French. During his imprisonment, a French voyage of discovery was issued, Napoleon himself paying a sum of money to hasten publication. All the places discovered by Flinders, or Mansur Flinador, as the French called him, were called by French names. Fortunately before reaching Mauritius, Flinders had sent duplicate copies of his charts home, and the whole fraud was exposed. Flinders did not reach home till 1810. A lost tragedy awaited him. For he died in 1814, on the very day that his great book, The Voyage to Terra Australis, was published. Flinders was a true explorer, and as he lay dying he cried, I know that in future days of exploration my spirit will rise from the dead, and follow the exploring ship. End of Chapter 58 Chapter 59 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Sing. Chapter 59 Sturds Discoveries in Australia Since the days of Flinders, much discovery had been done in the great new island, continent of Australia. The Blue Mountains had been crossed, and the River Macquarie discovered and named after the governor of that name. But Sturds' famous discovery of the River Darling, and his descent of the Moray River, ranked amongst the most noteworthy of a bewildering number of lesser expeditions. Captain Sturt landed with his regiment, the 39th, at Sydney in the year 1827, to guard the convicts. His first impressions of Sydney are interesting. Cornfield and Orchard, he says, have supplanted wild grass and brush. On the ruins of the forest stands a flourishing town, and the stillness of that one's desert shore is now broken by the buckle and by the busy hum of commerce. It is not unusual to see, from 30 to 40 vessels from every quarter of the globe, riding at anchor at one time. Sir Dolph Darling, governor of New South Wales, soon formed a high opinion of Sturds' ability, and when an expedition was proposed into the interior for further exploration, he appointed him leader. There was a universal opinion in the colony, that in the middle of the unknown continent lay a large inland sea. Oxley had made his way to a shallow ocean of reeds, where the river Mackery disappeared. Natives spoke of large waters containing great fish. To open up the country, and to ascertain the truth of these rumors, were the objects of this new expedition, which left Sydney in November 1828. It consisted of Hamilton Hume, the first Australian-born explorer, two soldiers, eight convicts, fifteen horses, ten bullocks, and a small boat on a wheeled carriage. Across the roadless blue mountains they started, followed the traces of Oxley, who had died just a week before they started, and about Christmas time they passed his last camp, and began to break new ground. Through thickets of reeds and marshy swamps they pushed on. The river Mackery had entirely disappeared, but on 2 February, they suddenly found a large river, some 80 yards broad, enclosing an unbroken sheet of deep water. Our surprise and delight, sister, are better imagined than described. Our difficulties seemed at an end. The banks were too steep to allow of watering the cattle, but the men eagerly descended to quench a thirst, increased by the powerful sun. Never shall I forget their cry of amazement, nor the terror and disappointment, with which they called out, that the water was too salt to drink. Leaving his party, Sturt pushed on, but no fresh water was to be found, so he named the river The Darling, after the Governor, and returned, but not till he had discovered Brian Springs in the bed of the river, which accounted for its saltiness. Sturt had found no inland sea, but in The Darling he had discovered a main channel of the western watershed. He now proposed to follow the line of the Murrumbidji, a river of considerable size and impetuous current, and to trace it, if possible, into the interior. Several of his old party again joined him, and once more he rode out of Sydney on this new quest. The journey to the banks of the Murrumbidji lay through wild and romantic country, but as they journeyed farther, broad reed-belts appeared by the river, which was soon lost in a vast expanse of reeds. For a moment or two Sturt was as one stunned. He could neither sleep nor rest, till he had regained the river again. When at last he did, so he found the water was deep, the current rapid, and the banks high. But he turned on all hands to build the whale-boat, which he had designed at Sydney for the purpose. Early in January he rides home. I was checked in, my advance, by high reeds, spreading as far as the eye can reach. The Murrumbidji is a magnificent stream. I do not yet know its fate, but I have taken to the boats. Where I shall wander to, God only knows. I have little doubt, however, that I shall ultimately make the coast. By the 6th of January the boat was ready, and Sturt started on his memorable voyage. After passing the junction of the Lachalan, the channel gradually narrowed. Great trees had been swept down by the flogs, and navigation rendered very dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream, stronger the current. On a sudden the river took a general southern direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks, and at such a moment of excitement had little time to pay attention to the country through which we were passing. At last we found we were approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were carried into a broad and noble river. It is impossible to describe the effect upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on the large channel we had entered. The Murumbiji had joined the Great Murray River, as Sturt now called it, after Sir George Murray of the Colonial Department. To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now appeared in force on the banks of the river, threatening the white men with dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields. Firearms alone saved the little crew, and the rage of the natives was turned to admiration, as they watched the white men paddling on their Great River, while some seventy black men swam off to the boat like a parcel of seals. The explorers now found a new and beautiful stream flowing into the Murray from the north, on which the boat was now turned, natives anxiously following along the grassy banks, till suddenly a net stretched across this stream checked their course. Sturt instinctively felt he was on the river Darling again. I directed that the junior Jack should be hoisted, and we all stood up in the boat and gave three distinct cheers. The eye of every native was fixed upon that beautiful flag, as it waved over us in the heart of a desert. While they were still watching, Sturt turned the head of the boat, and pursued his way down the Great Murray River. Stormy weather at the end of January set in, though there were yet one hundred and fifteen miles from the coast, the river increased in breath, cliffs towed above them, and the water dashed like sea waves at their base. On the fifth of February they were cheered by the appearance of seagulls and a heavy swell up the river, which they knew must be nearing the sea. On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. Crossing to the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for them to reach the sea. They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but they could not pass. The thunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turn back and retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On half-rations and with hostile natives to Encounter, they must fight their way against wind and stream. And they did it. They reached the camp on the Murumbiji just seventy-seven days after leaving it, but to third this May it was deserted. The river too had risen in flood and poured its turbid waters with great violence. For seventeen days, says Sturt, we pulled against stream with determined perseverance, but in our short daily journeys we made a trifling way against it. The effects of severe toil were painfully evident. The men lost the muscular jerk with the oars. Their arms were nervous, their faces haggard, their persons emaciated, their spirits wholly spent. From sheer weariness they fell asleep at the oar. No murmur have ever escaped them. I must tell the captain tomorrow, said one, thinking that Sturt was asleep, that I can pull no more. But when the morrow came he said no word, but pulled on with his remaining strength. One man went mad. The lost ounce of flour was consumed when relief arrived, and the weary explorers at last reached Sydney with their great news. The result of this discovery was soon seen. In 1886 a shipload of English emigrants arrived off Kangaroo Island, and soon a flourishing colony was established at the mouth of the Moray River, the site of the new capital being called Adelaide, after the wife of William IV. After this sturt tried to cross Australia from south to north, but though he opened up a good deal of new country, he failed to reach the coast. He was rewarded by the president of the Royal Geographical Society, who described him as one of the most distinguished explorers and geographers of our age. The feat of crossing Australia from south to north, from shore to shore, was reserved for an Irishman called Burke in the year 1861. The story of his expedition, though, it was successful, is one of the saddest in the history of discovery. The party left Melbourne in the highest spirits. No expense had been spared to give them a good outfit. Camels had been imported from India with native drivers, and food was provided for a year. The men of Melbourne turned out in their hundreds to see the start of Burke with his four companions, his camels, and his horses. Starting in August 1860, the expedition arrived at Coopers Creek in November with half their journey done. But it was not till December that the party divided, and Burke with his companions, Willes, King and Gray, six camels and two horses, with food for three months, started off for the coast, leaving the rest at Coopers Creek to await their return in about three months. After hard going, they reached a channel with tidal waters flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria on 28th March. But they could not get a view of the open ocean because of bogey ground. They accomplished their task, but the return journey was disastrous. Short rations soon began to tell, for they had taken longer that they had calculated, and no food was to be found by the way. Gray was the first to fail and to die. Heavy rains made the ground impossibly heavy, and the camels sunk to the ground exhausted. Finally they had to be killed and eaten. Then the horses went. At long last the three weary men, and two utterly worn-out camels, dragged themselves to Coopers Creek, hoping to find their companions and the food they had left there four months ago. It was 21st of April. Not a soul was to be seen. King cried wills in utter despair. They are gone. As the awful truth flashed on them, Burke, their leader, threw himself on to the ground, realizing their terrible situation. They looked round. On a tree they saw the ward dig. In a bottle they found a letter. We leave the camp today, 21st of April, 1861. We have left you some food. We take camels and horses. Only a few hours ago the party had left Coopers Creek, and the explorers were too weak and tired to follow. They ate a welcome supper of oatmeal porridge, and then, after resting a couple of days, they struggled on their way. Three exhausted men, and two tired camels. Their food was soon finished, and they had to subsist on a black seed, like the natives, called Nardu. But they grew weaker and weaker, and the way was long. The camels died first, then wills grew too ill to walk, and there was nothing for it, but to leave him and push on for help. The natives were kind to him, but he was too far gone, and he died before help could arrive. Burke and King sadly pushed on without him, but a few days later Burke died, and in the heart of Australia the one white man, King, was left alone. It was not till the following September that he was found. Sitting in a hut that the blacks had made for him, he presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civilized being, except by the remnants of clothes on him. So, out of that gay party of explorers who left Melbourne in the summer of 1860, only one man returned to tell the story of success and the sadder story of suffering and disaster. End of Chapter 59 Chapter 60 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M.B. Singh Chapter 60 Ross Makes Discoveries in the Antarctic Seas Now, while explorers were busy opening up Australian inland, Ross was leaving the Australian waters for his voyage to the south. Four years after the return of the Ross Polar Expedition, Sir John Franklin had been made governor of one demon's land, where he was visited by the ships sent out from England on the first Antarctic Expedition under the command of Sir James Ross, who had returned to find himself famous for his discovery of the North Magnetic Pole. An expedition had been fitted out, consisting of the Erebus and the Terror, ships which later on made history, for did they not carry Sir John Franklin to his doom in the Arctic regions some years later. The ships sailed in the autumn of 1839 by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and excited great interest at Hobart Town, where the commanders Ross and Crossier were warmly received by the governor. In a bay afterwards called Ross Coe, the ships were repaired after the long voyage, while an observatory was built by the convicts under the personal supervision of Sir John Franklin. Interesting news awaited the explorers too at Hobart Town. Exploration had taken place in the southern regions by a French expedition under Darville and an American, Leutnant Wilkes, both of which had made considerable discoveries. Ross was somewhat surprised at this, for as he said, England had ever led the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the northern regions. But he decided to take a more easterly course, and if possible to reach the South Magnetic Pole. On 5th November 1840 the ships were off again, shaping their course for Auckland Island, 900 miles from Hobart Town. The island had been discovered in 1806 by Captain Brusto. He had left some pigs, whose rapid increase filled the explorers with surprise. Christmas Day found them still sailing south, with strong gales, snow and rain. The first iceberg was seen a few days later, and land on 11th January. It was a beautifully clear evening, says Ross, and we had a most enchanting view of the two magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks perfectly covered with eternal snow rose to elevations of 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean. These icy shores were unhospitable enough, and the heaviest surf breaking along its edge forbade any landing. Indeed a strong tide carried the ships rapidly and dangerously along the coast, among huge masses of ice. The ceremony of taking possession of these newly discovered lands, in the name of our most gracious sovereign Queen Victoria, was proceeded with. And on planting the flag of our country amid the hearty cheers of our party, we drunk to the house long life and happiness of Her Majesty, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert. The end of the months found them farther south than any explorer had sailed before. Everything was new, and they were suddenly startled to find two volcanoes, one of which was active, steam and smoke rising to a height of 2,000 feet above the crater, and descending as mist and snow. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror Ross called them, in memory of his two ships. They sailed on, but soon were stopped by a huge barrier of solid ice, like a great white wall, 1,000 feet sec, and 180 feet above sea level. They knew now they could get no further this season. They had reached a point 160 miles from the pole. Could they but have wintered here, inside of the brilliant burning mountain, and at so short a distance from the magnetic pole? They might easily have reached it the following spring, is all they sought, but reluctantly Ross had to turn. Few can understand the deep feelings of regret, with which I felt myself compelled to abandon the perhaps too ambitious hope I had so long cherished, of being permitted to plant a flag of my country on both magnetic poles of our globe. The whole of the great southern land they had discovered recedes the name of Queen Victoria, which name it keeps today. They had been south of the Antarctic Circle for 63 days, when they recrossed it, on 4th of March. A few days later they narrowly escaped shipwreck. An easterly wind drove them among some hundreds of icebergs. For eight hours, says Ross, we had been gradually drifting towards what the human eyes appeared inevitable destruction. The high waves and deep rolling of our ships rendered towing with boats impossible, and our situation was the more painful from our inability to make any effort to avoid the dreadful calamity that seemed to await us. The roar of the surf, which extended each way as far as we could see, and the dashing of the ice fell upon the ear with painful distinctness, as we contemplated the awful destruction that threatened in one short hour to close the world and all its hopes and joys and sorrows upon us forever. In this deep distress we called upon the Lord, and our cry came before him. A gentle air of wind filled our sails, hope again revived, and before dark we found ourselves far removed from every danger. April found them back again in one demon's land, and though Ross sailed again the following autumn into southern latitudes, he only reached a point some few miles farther than before, being again stopped by a great wall barrier of sick ice. After this he took his ship home by way of Cape Horn, and the shores of Old England came into view on the 2nd of September, 1843. After an absence of four years Ross was welcomed home, and honors were showered on him, including the award of the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris. Till then they had deemed that the austral earth, with a long unbroken shore, ran on to the pole Antarctic. For such was the old sea lower.