On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    this valley we ascended again . How splendid the whole landscape , with its rich variety of mountain , hill , and dale , covered by the most luxuriant vegetation ! I could have fancied myself on the Jura mountains , near Basel , or in the region of Cannstatt , in the dear fatherland , so beautiful was the country , so delightful the climate Our way was across the bed of a mountain stream , over hill and dale through plantations of Indian corn and beans , past small herds of cattle belonging to the Teita , then along fields of sugar-cane and banana , till we descended into the valley , with its rich pasturelands . What a pity that this luxuriant growth o ? grass , year after year must perish unused ! An immeasurable tract of the richest land ' stands here open to the Church of Christ , ' The meek shall inherit the earth- ' The destiny of these noble regions must be a great one . It was a lovely Sabbath morning which followed . It seemed to me as if Nature was celebrating with me the Sabbath . Mountains and all hills ; fruitful trees ; beasts and all cattle : creeping things , and flying fowl , with the varied melody of their song , praised their Creator with me . "

    It was upon this journey that Mr . Rebmann made the discovery of the snow-capped mountains of Equatorial Africa . On the day following the Sunday he has so graphically placed before us , he reached the village of a Teita chief , named Maina , whose guest lie remained till the next morning , and when parting his host presented him with the loving-cup , as for want of a better expression we must term what , had he been travelling on horseback , might more properly have been called the stirrup-cup . It consisted of jofi , a beverage prepared from the sugar-cane , which is probably similar to the ienera dulcis ah aruncline succus , which , according to Lucan , the Hametie troops of Pompey delighted in . The ceremony had a semireligious character , the chief uttering- a prayer for the welfare of his the inalwith interest

    guest , which is given at page 265 in orig , an - ing literal translation into English , and which expresses the following sentiment : " This stranger came from his people to me , and said , ' Maina , let us talk , let us be friends . ' r lo him I replied , ' . Let us converse cheerfully as friends , and let us pray to Heaven together to bless the land , that the sickness now raging amongst us may be removed . Let this stranger see nothing hurtful by the way ; let him not be kept back by thorns nor by long grass ; let him not meet with elephants and rhinoceroses ; shield him from enemies ! When he reaches the Jagga land may the people of Jagga give him pleasure ! Spirits of my father and of my mother , guard him as he journies ! May this stranger again return to me , so that we ^ may Tnueli natural and licity

    rejoice together . " -There is-so piety simp m the words , that ifc cannot fail to strike , the reader as hopeful , that when Christianity shall have taken root amongst these benighted people it will be-upheld and cherished by them . " On being first examined , " says the author of " Cosmos , " " all phenomena appear to be isolated ; and it is only by the result of a multitude of observations , combined by reason , that we arc able to trace the mutual relations existing between each / ' The first discovery of the snow-capped mountains of Jagga will , in the opinion of the Missionaries of Rabbai Mpia , solve the question of the great inland seas , one of which , the Victoria-Nyanza , or Luke Victoria , recently discovered by Captain Spoke , may in turn help to unravel the _ greafc ffeosratmical problem of the site of the sources of the Nile . Under

    thedate ofWie' Tlih dr ^ Tayrl ^^ rMlciSebinimii-i-ecords-itr-s journal his great discovery : ¦—¦ " In the midst of a great wilderness , full of wild beasts , such as rhinoceroses , elephants , and buffaloes , we slept beneath thorn bushes / quietly and securoly under G od ' s gracious protection . In the early morning we discerned the mountains of Jagga more distinctly than ever ; and about ten o ' clock I fancied I saw the summit of one of them covered with a dazzlingly white cloud . My guide called the white which I saw merely Bercdi , cold ; but it was perfectly clear to me that it could be nothing else but snow . Resting for a while soon afterwards , under a tree , I rend in the English Bible the cxith Psalm , to which I came in the order of my reading , 'He . hath , showed his people the power of his works , that ho may give them the heritage- of the heathen , ' and / the promiso made a lasting impression upon mo , in sight of the magnificent snow mountnin inoiinuun

    . . " The whole country round between Teita aiul Jajrga has a sublimo character . To the west was the lofty Mount Kilimanjaro with its perennial snow ; to the south-west was tho massive and monotonous Ugaiio ; to the north-west , the extended mountainchain of Kikumbalia ; and to the east , tho chains of tho li'itft mountains with their highest summit , called Voruga , whurh with the exception of Kilimanjaro , riso four thousand to six thousand feet above the plain surrounding them . We crossed the river Lumi at seven in tho morning , and the nearer wo approached the and thero

    mountains of Jagga tho richer was tho vegetation . Here we mot with largo and magnificent trees , such as I had not seen since I loft the coast , till at last wo entered a noble valley , thickly grown over with graas which reached up to our middle . Abundant past uro . ' land for thbiwanirls of eattlo ! OK , what a ribblo country hoe God reserved for his peoplol Between four and live in the afternoon wo rcaohod tho beautiful and « parkling river Gona , whioh has its sourcb in tho snowy summit of Kilimanjaro . A great trco served aa a most unsatisfactory bridge , over it , and upon reaching the opposite bank I enjoyed a refreshing bath , tho oxtnsme coldness of the wator plainly showing that its source can only , bo in tho snow-mountain . " Proceeding oil his journey through a thick jtuiglo , Mr . Robmann reached tho littlo kingdom of Kilomn on the following day . "I gazed , " lie says , " on tho lovely country which seemed bursting

    with plenteousness , and presented , in a comparatively snvill extent , the mosfc striking contrasts . In our immediate vicinity was the beautiful river Gona , and on its banks , as Well as on the foot of the mountains around , the richest vegetation of a perfect dark green of perpetual summer ; and when I raised my eyes I beheld , apparently only a few leagues distant , 'Kilimanjaro ! , covered with perpetual snow and ice . " Rung-ua , king of Majame , the father of Mamkingn , once sent a large expedition to investigate the nature of the glittering substance on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro . " He hoped it might prove to be silver , or something of the kind ; but onlv one of the party survived , and with frozen hand :,- and feet announced to the king the melancholy fate of his companions , who had been destroyed not only by the cold , but by fear and terror ; for in their ignorance they ascribed the effects of the cold to evil spirits , and'fled away only to" meet with destruction in severer frost and cold . Bana * Cheri , my intelligent guide , told me that he had seen the poor man , whose frost-bitten hands and feet were bent inwards by the cold , and that he had heard from his own lips the story of his adventures . ' *

    Humboldt has well observed that narratives of distant travels , however occupied with the recital of hazardous adventures , " only be made a source of instruction where the traveller is acquainted with the condition of tho science he wo uld enlarge , and i . s guided by reason in his researches . " This discovery of snow-capped Kilimanjaro required other confirmation than the distant view of a white summit of the mountain , and the tale of t native exploration . Dr . Livingstone has described a mountain in 12 deg . to 13 cle £ . S . lat , covered with white stones , yet as there are snow-capped mountains in Equatorial America , why not in Equatorial Africa also , whatever mere theorists may say to the contrary , and why should not the white summit of Kilimanjaro be snow , though a mountain some twelve leagues distant has a crown of white stones ?

    • On a subsequent journey , Mr . Rebmann slept at the baso of the mountain , and " even by moonlight could make out the snow , " says Dr . Krapf . " He conversed with the natives in reference to . the white matter upon the dome-like summit of the mountain , and he was told that when brought down in bottles it proved to bo nothing but water " Of the second snow-capped mountain , Mount Kegma , discovered by Dr . Krapf on the 3 rd of December , 18-10 , Kumii wa Kikandi , a native of Uembu , stated that his tribe livedi mv the white mountain , - and " that he had often been sit the foot of it , but had lTot ascended it to any great altitude , on account of tire intense cold and the white matter which rolled down the mountain with a great noise , which last would seem to indicate the existence oi glaciers . The people from Kikuyu confirmed these reports , and a ¦ Mnika from R-ibbai also , who had been at Kikuyu , mentioned ; to me a mountain , " adds ' Dr . Krapf , " the summit of which was covered

    with a substance resembling white flour . A discovery no less important is also due to the missionaries at Rabbai Mpia , but our limits , are already exceeded , so that we must give it as condensed by Captain Speke , in his recent account of his discovery of the Victoria Nyan za , the great , lake . of Central Africa , illustrating , as it does , Humboldt ' s favourite hypothesis , * that in tire ~ o 1 ^ m ^ atioTrof ^ henome ^^^ isolated , may be concealed the germ of a great discovery . " I must call attention , " says Captain Speke , " to the marked fact that the Church missionaries residing for many . yours at Zanzibar , are the prime and first promoters of this discovery , x hey have been for years past doing their utmost , with simple sincerity , to Christianize this negro land , and promote a . civilized and happy thuir sojourn

    state of existence for these benighted beings . During ¦ among these blackamoors , they heard from Arabs and others ot many of tho facts I have now stated , but only in a . confused way , such as might bo expected in information derived from an uncreated people . Amongst tho more important disclosures made by the Arabs was the constant reference to a large hike- or inhmd sea , which their caravans were in the habit of visiting . It was a singular thing that at whatever part of the coast the inisaionanes arrived , on inquiring from the travelling merchants whero they went t . o , they ono and all ¦ stated to an inland sea , the dimensions of which were such , that nobody could give any estimate of its-length or width . The directions " they travelled in pointed north-west , west , and south-west , and their accounts seemed to indicate a smgle sheet of water extending from tho Lino down to M deg . b . lat ., a sea of about 810 miles in length , with an assumed breadth ot 200 combination of

    to 300 miles . In fact , from this great testimony that water lay generally in a continuous lino from the Lquator up to M deg . S . hit , and from not bdng able to gam information ot thero being any territorial sepnnitions to the said water , they naturally , and , I may add , fortunately , created that monster slug of an inland sea which so much attracted the attention ot tho geographical world in 1855-50 , nnd caused our being sent out to Africa . The good that ... may result from tins little but happy accident , will , 1 trust , prove proportionately ns largo and fruitful as S procluco from the symbolical ffrtun of muetard seed ; , nnd nobody knows or believes in this more fully than one oi the chief prutuoteis of this exciting investigation , Mr . JUebmaun . Tho volume from which wo have extractod so largely is beautifully got up , nnd contains much curious information upon tho races , religion , language ^ and resources of , the custom por . ti . Mioi the great continent of Africa , thus forming u companion to Dr . Livingstone ' s narrative , without touching upon tho same countues which ho visited .

    Untitled Article

    May 19 , I 860 . } The-Leader and Saturday Analyst . 475

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 475, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2348/page/15/