ACROSS EAST AFRICAN GLACIERS.*
KILIMANJARO, the highest summit in Africa, has long been an object of the highest interest to men of science and to mountain-climbers. The first European to see it, as far at least as we know, was Johann Rebmann, a German mis- sionary in the service of the Church Missionary Society. On May 11th, 1848, he writes in his diary : " This morning at 10 o'clock we obtained a clearer view of the mountains of Jagga, the summit of one of which was covered by what looked like a beautiful white cloud," On a second expedition, he came within a few miles of Kibo, the higher of the moun- tain's two summits ; a third journey had to be cut short owing to sickness and the want of supplies. Dr. Krapf, Rebmann's colleague, again visited the region, and satisfied himself as to the snows that covered the mountain-top. He reported the height at 12,500 ft. This modest estimate brought upon him an attack from an English geographer of some note, Mr. W. Des- borough Cooley. A snow-capped mountain in Equatorial Africa was pronounced to be a delusion, produced by the missionary's vivid fancy. Indeed, Mr. Cooley went so far as to declare the thing impossible per se, nor was he satisfied when another traveller, the Baron von der Decken, confirmed the observations of Rebmann and Krapf. As the Baron estimated the height of the peak at 20,000 ft., the last 3,000 of which were covered with snow, Mr. Cooley's scepticism had no longer any excuse. Von der Decken did not himself reach a greater altitude than 14,000 ft. Here he was en- countered by a snowstorm which the incredulous Cooley roundly denied had fallen. In 1871, an attempt to ascend the summit was made by Mr. Charles New. He did not, however, reach further than 13,000 ft. A second journey two years afterwards ended disastrously. The traveller was robbed by the chief of the district, and died on his way to the coast. Mr. Joseph Thomson visited the district in 1883, and Mr. H. H. Johnston, whose account of his proceedings is severely criticised by D. Meyer, in the following year. In 1887, two Hungarian explorers ascended Kibo to a height of 15,800 ft. Dr. Meyer met them on their way back, when on his first visit * Across East African Glaciers ; on Account of rho Bra Ascent of Kilimanjaro. By Dr. Hann Moyer. Translated from the German by°. li. S.Cakier. London George Philip and Sen. is91. to the mountain. He got as far as the ice-cap which forms the summit. This means an altitude of 18,000 ft.
The traveller who attempts the ascent of an African moun- tain has no convenient base of operations, such as Chamouni, to fall back upon. If he fails one year, he will probably have to wait another year before ho can make a second trial. This was the case with Dr. Meyer. He returned to Europe, and there organised a second expedition. This started from Zanzibar in August. It was a. deplorable failure, but through no fault, it should be said, of Dr. Meyer. " All our European equipment, with the goods intended to last a caravan of 230 men for two years, were lost." The explorer was not dis- heartened. After another visit to Europe, he made a third effort in 1889. This is the subject of the profoundly interesting volume which he has now given to the world. The expedition was on a less ambitious scale than that of the year preceding. Yet the preparations were of sufficient magnitude. Dr. Meyer gives the text of the agreement which he entered into with Siwa Haji, a well-known Indian merchant of those parts. From this we learn something of the magnitude and cost of the preparations for African travel. Siwa Haji was to provide two head-men and sixty-two porters, each of whom was to carry a load of sixty pounds. This represents about a ton and three-quarters. The payment for each man was to be eleven dollars per month, and three months' pay amounted to a sum of more than I:400. A further sum has to be added for food and medicine, which the traveller was to furnish, and yet another amount for tolls for right-of-way. The expedition seems to have taken about three months and a half, starting in the beginning of September and returning to the coast about the middle of December.
The narrative begins with a remarkable and interesting description of the details of African travel, the events of the daily march and the nightly halt. The travellers seem to have fared well. Their cuisine was fairly good, and certainly more varied than what a sailor has to content himself with when his voyage is extended beyond a few days. The supply of alcoholic drinks was very small,—two bottles of brandy, two of claret, and two of port. One of these last was brought back. Taveta, which lies on the outskirts of the Kilimanjaro region, was reached on September 17th. "A shady paradise," Dr. Meyer calls it, created by the Lumi River, which, rising in the Mawenzi Mountains, flows through Lake Lipe. But it was not without its drawbacks, and after a halt of four days, the caravan started again. Moji, the Capital of a little State of the same name, where there is a station of an English Mission and another of the German East African Company, was the halting-place. Here the King of Mandara was interviewed, a fine-looking savage, to judge from Dr. Meyer's description, but a regular thief. At Moji, Kilimanjaro is in full sight, the foot of the Kibo peak being about thirteen miles distant. Here is Dr. Meyer's description of it :- " A more sublime spectacle could not be imagined than that on which we gazed entranced, as, that evening, the clouds parted and the mountain stood revealed in all its proud serenity. The south- west side of the great ice-dome blushed red in the splendour of the setting sun, while farther to the east the snows of the summit lay in deep-blue shadow. Hero and there the glistening, mysterious mantle was pierced by jagged points of dark-brown rock, as spots flock the ermine of a king. And surely never monarch wore his royal robes more royally than this monarch of African mountains, Kilimanjaro. His foot rests on a carpet of velvety turf, and through the dark-green forest the steps of his throne roach downward to the earth, where man stands awestruck before the glory of his majesty. Art may have colours rich enough to fix one moment of this dazzling splendour, but neither brush nor pen can portray the unceasing play of colour—the wondrous purples of the summit deepening as in the Alpine afterglow ; the dull greens of the forest and the sepia shadows in the ravines and hollows, growing ever darker as evening steals on apace ; and last, the gradual fading away of all, as the sun sets, and over every- thing spreads the grey cloud-curtain of the night. It is not a picture, but a pageant—a king goes to his rest."
What may be called the permanent camp was pitched at a height of 9,400 ft. From this Dr. Meyer, with his friend Herr Purtscheller, set out with six followers. A temporary camp was established about 5,000 ft. higher. From this five of the natives were sent back. The two travellers with one native, Mwini by name, remained. The ascent itself was to be attempted by the Europeans alone. At 2.30 a.m. on October 3rd they started, and reached the ice-cap about 10. The first; glacier, named the "Ratzel Glacier" by the explorers, was crossed in two hours and a half. The altitude was now- 18,700 ft. "At last, towards 2 o'clock, we found ourselves. close to the top. A few more steps in eager anticipation and the secret of Kibo lay unveiled before us—at our feet yawned a gigantic crater with precipitous walls, occupying the entire- summit of the mountain."
But Kibo was not yet conquered. Its loftiest elevation lay on the left, on the southern rim of the crater, and this it was impossible to reach under an hour and a half. This, if the climbers had had thought to attempt it, would have meant bivouacking for the night, and for this they were wholly un- prepared. Nothing, therefore, remained but to descend. A little before 7, they reached the halting-place, where Mwini was ready with a roaring fire and a meal. Another spot,. nearer the ice-cap, had to be selected. This was found at an altitude of 15,260 ft. :—
" There was, of course, nothing with which to make a fire, but everlasting flowers still grow in abundance, and Mwini gathered groat bunches of them wherewith to line our rocky eyrie. In our• sleeping sacks and with plenty of blankets, wo passed on the whole a tolerably comfortable night, in Spite of a temperature of 10° Fahr. At three in the morning we awoke, in capital trim for our climb to the summit."
The lower end of the Ratzel Glacier was reached shortly after dawn, and the crater-rim at 8.45 :— " Our further progress presented no particular difficulty apart from the weathered surface of the ice and snow, to which by this time we had become pretty well accustomed. Passing a curiously, shaped detached wall of ice about 20ft. in height, after a gradual ascent of an hour and a half, we reached the foot of the three rocky pinnacles, which wo found to consist solely of loose blocks.. These we climbed, one after the other, in a leisurely and systematic fashion, and found by the aneroid that the central one of the- three attained an altitude of 19,700 ft., overtopping the others by some forty or fifty feet. I was the first to set foot on the cul- minating peak, which we reached at half-past ten o'clock. Taking out a small German flag, which I had brought with mo for the purpose in my knapsack, I planted it on the weather-beaten lava summit with three ringing cheers, and in virtue of my right as its first discoverer christened this hitherto unknown and unnamed mountain peak—the loftiest spot in Africa and in the German Empire—Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak. Then we gave three cheers more for the Emperor, and shook hands in mutual congratulation."
An Englishman can hardly help regretting that the honour did not fall to an Englishman, but we are bound to acknow- ledge that it could not have been more worthily won. Bold, persevering, and ready of resource, Dr. Meyer is at the same time furnished with the scientific knowledge and the habit of intelligent observation that enable him to make a profitable use of his opportunities. His book is a fascinating narrative of travel, and a valuable contribution to geographical and scientific knowledge. It is really complete in its way. At the same time, great praise is due to the enterprise and taste of the publishers, who have done their part most admirably.
The more we admire the courage and capacity of Dr. Meyer, the more we regret the tone of his utterances when he comes to discuss the "commercial prospects" of the German possessions in Africa (Kilimanjaro is within the German- " zone of influence," which Dr. Meyer clearly holds to mean absolute lordship). He says frankly, perhaps the word should. be cynically : " The system of compulsory labour in vogue in the Philippine Islands might be introduced with advantage." " We must work," he adds, with really wonderful effrontery, " and why not the Negro also ?" Work—but for whom ?' For German capitalists at home and German adventurers. abroad i As for the distinction which he seeks to make between " compulsory labour " and slavery, it is a fraud.. This language gains a sinister significance when we think of recent proceedings in German Africa, and makes us think that, whatever resolutions Congresses may pass, there is very little sincerity among European nations on the subject of slavery. Of Spain and Portugal it is needless to speak ;. Holland notoriously holds back ; the French flag is known to cover a vast amount of slave-traffic ; and here is a foremost German explorer declaring for " compulsory labour." How about Queensland and the labour traffic of the South Seas some one will ask.
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