DR,. PETERS'S AFRICAN EXPEDITION.* DR. PETERS'S volume is one of
the best books of African travel and adventure published during the past ten Years. It is true that the fiery little Doctor has an intense hatred of the English, which makes his general views as to the situation in Africa quite untrustworthy—he barks at the heels of our countrymen, whenever he comes across them, like an angry terrier—and that he has too much of the arrogant swash- buckler about him to make him quite persona grata to his readers. Still, after making every allowance for these defects in the hero and chronicler of the expedition, it is impossible not to admit that his book has a rare fascination. We may smile at the epic style in which Dr. Peters recounts his own deeds of prowess—he vaunts his own courage and derides the cowardice of other travellers, especially Englishmen, with a naiveté worthy of a Homeric hero—and we may feel disgust at his pedantic harshness, a harshness often amounting to positive cruelty ; but we cannot help applauding the energy and high resolve of the explorer. Englishmen may laugh at the boaster, and censure the tyrannical martinet, but they will not withhold their sympathy from a man who showed that mens aqua in arduis which they have a right to believe the special characteristic of their own race. The interest of the book as a whole is not a little increased by the unconscious self-portraiture of the author. The stirring events related are set off by a background characteristically German. A German is nothing if not a sentimentalist and a metaphysician. Dr. Peters is both. His book reflects the sentimental longings which the starry vault of heaven, the solitudes of the forest, and the majesty of the everlasting hills never fail to awaken in the typical Teutonic mind. But never far distant from Dr. Peters the poet is Dr. Peters the philosopher. At a moment of ex- treme peril he takes the opportunity of "delivering a short address to Herr von Tiedernann on Arthur Schopenhauer's negativity of the perception of pleasure," and disquisitions on the absolute and the eternal rise as naturally in his mind as quotations from Goethe or Schiller. No doubt the record of the address on "the negativity of the perception of pleasure" is inserted with a half-humorous intent, but that does not alter the fact that metaphysics and hard fighting have equal claims on Dr. Peters's regard.
Our readers will remember that Dr. Peters was sent out by a German committee to find Emin Pasha, but that he did not find him, owing to the fact that Emin had already left the Equatorial Provinces. This apparent failure does not, however, in the least take away from the success or interest of the ex- pedition. Dr. Peters, in the prosecution of his search, Marched from a point on the East Coast of Africa, first up the course * Now Light on Dark Africa: Lerng the Narrative of the German Emin Paoha Expedition. Related by Ur. Carl Peters. Translated from the Germ= by Duleken, Ph.D. With Engravings and map. London, New York, midi Hello Imo Ward, Look, and Co. 1891.
of the Tana River, then under Mount Kenia, then through the Masai highlands, and then by Lake Baringo to the northern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza. Dr. Peters next marched along the northern coasts of the lake, crossing the Nile, and passing through ITsoga and Uganda to Mengo, the capital of the latter kingdom. From the nearest point on the lake to Mengo, he took ship and navigated the lake—stopping on the way at many of the islands –till he reached its southern shores. From this point he marched to the coast settlements of the German East Africa Company, passing through Irgogo and the southern extremity of the huge district possessed by the Masai, whom he had encountered on his upward journey. This is the barest skeleton of Dr. Peters's route. In his book, the reader will find it filled up with a thousand curious and entertaining particulars. These particulars, too, are of special interest to Englishmen, as the countries traversed by Dr. Peters daring the greater part of hie wanderings have now definitely passed within the sphere of English influence. The fiery Doctor made treaties with the natives, annexing countries as one picks blackberries, and delivered speeches in which he assured his hearers that they must in future look upon the Germans as the only whites who counted for anything. Unfortunately, however, Dr. Peters, when he arrived at the coast, found that his flags had all been distributed in vain, and that the whole of his acquisitions had been resigned under the delimitation treaty which secured Heligoland for the Germans. Since Uganda is destined to pass under British control, we cannot do better than quote Dr. Peters's account of its inhabitants, the Waganda :—
"In the development of thoir intelligence, the Waganda un- doubtedly excel every other African nation. The missionaries have assured me of the fact, and I had occasion myself to remark with what quickness they caught up and assimilated ideas. In contrast to all other negro tribes, the Waganda feels the necessity of progress. Christianity has spread among this people with amazing rapidity, when once the superiority of the white race was understood; and in its train have come the arts of reading and writing. The missionaries of both confessions agree in their descriptions of the eagerness with which the Waganda presses forward to be taught. How utterly different from the morally and mentally degraded Uwangwana on the coast, or the stupid Usukuma and Mjammesi. In the Waganda there is fire, appreciativeness, and intelligence, and without question this tribe has a future before it. It is true that these advantages are accompanied by a number of faults. I never saw the simple im- pudence of which Emin Pasha complains. 'Other times, other manners ; ' and it certainly makes a difference whether you come to Mtesa as a private individual, or to Muanga et the head of an efficient military expedition ! On the whole, with Christianity there has come a greater respect for the white race which intro- duced it. The superiority of the white man, as I said before, has become clear to the Waganda, and they are eager to learn from us as much as possible. But their desire to hold a certain rank leads them to despise common unskilled labour, and, since they must live, they have recourse to begging or stealing. In a country where private property is entirely at the mercy of the ruler's caprice, the chief spur to honest solid acquisition is wanting, and the dangerous blessing afforded by the perennial banana, which, without demanding any cultivation to speak of, bestows everything necessary for the support of life, has naturally intensified the general inclination to idleness. These fortunate people only need to build houses, for which the reeds of the country supply a convenient material, and to weave their clothing stuffs, mbugo, from the bark of a certain wild fig-tree ; the rest of their time can then be wasted merrily in a dace far siente. The unripe banana, when dried, yields the finest white flour I have ever seen. I prefer the ugali (or broth) made with banana flour even to that made with wheat flour. Or again, the green banana may be roasted, and yields a dish not unlike potatoes baked in their skins ; while one variety of banana, when ripe, is boiled in the skin, and when it is afterwards peeled it makes a preserve which has exactly the taste of our stewed pears. For dessert a capital dish is afforded by the ripe banana, peeled, out in half, and baked in a pan with butter and sugar ; prepared in this way it is certainly quite equal to our European dish of apple cake or tart. There are other ways of cooking bananas, not to speak of the various effervescing drinks which are obtained from this fruit, from the light innings (tamo tame), which resembles champagne, to the heavy intoxicating varieties of pombe ! Truly, the gods could not have bestowed a more valuable gift on the countries on the northern shore of Lake Victoria than its vast banana groves, which afford an easy and pleasant means of subsistence to millions of people. But, as is said to be the case in the South Sea Islands, this gift of the too easy provision of the necessaries of life is attended with dangers not always overcome, even by the restless energy of this race. The traveller in Uganda must look well after his goods and chattels, especially at night, and will do well to harden himself against the begging of high and low. Unless he does this, be will not carry much away with him from this country."
Did space allow, we would willingly quote Dr. Peters's curious conjectures as to the origin of the Waganda. He believes them to be in some way descended from or connected with the ancient Egyptians. Certainly the thirty-three burial-mounds of their Kings, the custom of embalming, and the existence of ancient rock-excavations, lend colour to the conjecture. It is believed that in the oldest of the burial-mounds lie interred records of the dead Sovereigns that will explain the origin of the race. At present the Waganda cannot be induced to allow a search to be made ; but it is to be hoped. that in time they will grow less superstitious. They are rapidly adopting Christianity, and with the disappearance of the old religion will disappear the dread they now feel of disturbing in any way the sacred places of the race. Here is Dr. Peters's account of the more modern Royal tombs :— "These tombs are arranged in the following manner : On ap- proaching them from a distance the traveller thinks he sees pyramids before him, but in reality they are in the form of large cones, and are built of wood in Uganda fashion. On entering, the visitor finds himself in a dusky hall, supported by a row of columns. In the background of this hall is a painted curtain, before which are ranged the weapons and favourite movables of the deceased. On putting aside the curtain a dark area is entered, from which shafts and corridors have been excavated in the ground. In these passages textile stuffs, cowrie shells, and other articles of value, which in Uganda represent money, are heaped up. At the farthest extremity of these passages is deposited the coffin, with the em- balmed corpse of the dead person. It appears that the regular procedure for preserving the corpse is by drying it, and swathing it tightly in wrappings ; but the Waganda also told me that they understood the art of preserving the body from decomposition by injections into the blood. In front of the curtain twelve girls watch day and night on behalf of the one last departed ; at present,. therefore, for Mesa. From time to time all the great men of the land come to the dead man, with drums and fifes, to pay him a visit, as if he were alive."
We cannot leave Dr. Peters's book without noting some of the curious things which he observed by the way. He men- tions, for instance, that he came to a place where the natives on one bank of a broad river manage to communicate with those on the opposite side in a very remarkable manner. "They speak with voices hardly raised, and yet each side can perfectly hear what the other says." This is exactly the sort of story which, if met with in Herodotus or Marco Polo, would be universally regarded as a traveller's tale. Another curious thing noted by Dr. Peters is the true explanation of Bishop Hannington's murder. The Bishop was not killed because he was a Christian, but because he insisted on approaching Uganda from the East. The Waganda have an old prophecy according to which an expedition from the East is to "eat up" the land, and make an end of the dynasty of the Wakintu. Accordingly, the approach from the East has been strictly forbidden. We cannot take leave of the book before us without mentioning the excellent map which it contains, on which the important new geographical features noted by Dr. Peters are duly recorded. Taken as a whole, Dr. Peters's work is the most entertaining and readable of the many volumes devoted to the quest of Emin Pasha.
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