MURDERED EXPLORER

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 827, 27 May 1910, Page 7

MURDERED EXPLORER

NEGLECTED WARNING.. By Telecraph—Press Association—Oopyrieht (Kcc. May 2G, 10.5 p.m.) London, May 26. In connection with tlio murder in Walai (in the French sphere) of Lieutenant Uoyd Alexander, the British explorer and naturalist, later news shows that ho lost- his life through quitting Abeshr (the capital of Wadai) for the native State of Darfiir (between Wadai and the. Egyptian Sudan) notwithstanding official warnings by the French that tiio journey was not safe. The body of Lieutenant Alexander lias been recovered and has been brought to Maifone, a- British post near Lake Chad. FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE. SAVED FUOM A LION. Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, of a Kentish family, a soldier and the son" of a soldier, retired from the Army (in which ho had held a commission in the Kifle Brigade) in 1907. Although only 37 years of age, ho was ono of the most notable of modern explorers, naturalists, and hunters. Before his great trans-African expedition of 190-1-07 (in which his brother and Captain Gosling died), ho had led (in 1807) a scientific expedition to the Cape do Verdo Islands, and in 1898-99 he explored the Zambesi and Kafue rivers. He took a prominent part in the subsequent fighting in Ashanti that led to the relief of Kumasi and broke the native power in Nigeria.. A scientific expedition to the mountainous island of Fernando Po, Gulf of Guinea, resulted in the successful ascent of Mount St. Isabel and the discovery of many new birds. Subsequent to his trans-African trip iiis attention was again given to the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, where he studied Sao Thome, Principe, and Annobon. A Cameroon Earthquake. Last year he proceeded to the Caraeroons (German Wcat Africa) and ascended tho Cameroon mountain, 13,300 ft. high, where there was a group of craters. He had not left the base when occurred a terrible earthquake, and during the first night orer 100 shocks. were' felt. T.he volcano burst into activity, and a stream of lava subsequently issued from the crater. Lieutenant Alexander states that while he was sitting in his tent at 8 p.m. on April 2C, there was a tremor of the ground, followed by a terrible shock which shook tho mountain. Other shocks followed, with terrific noises. Forest trees kent crashing down and snapping like matches, and the cries of the terrified monkeys in the trees added to the confusion. At 3 a.m., as the shocks grew worse, ho abandoned his camp. An hour after ho left, it was'covered with stones from the slopes above. Reaching Bula, he found the natives in consternation, though the older ones said they could remember an outbreak about 30 years before. The natives insisted that Lieutenant Alexander was the cause of the earthquake; that he went up to the top of" the mountain, fired into the crater, and moved to wrath the devil that dwells therein. This devil, according to them, is one-eyed, half man, half beast; and grass hangs down from his limbs. The Nioer-Nile Party. The great feat was the Niger-Nile expedition. The Gosling-Alexander expedition, as it left England in February, 1001, consisted of tho following;— 1. Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, of the Ritlo Brigade, leader. Ho was then 33 years of age. 2. Lieutenant Claud • Alexander, his brother, of the Scots Guards, who died of enteric near Lake Chad, six months after the expedition had started. 3 CaplaiiY Gosling, uf the- Rifle Brigade, who died in the 'territory of the Congo Ji'reo State, six months before tho end of tho expedition. 4. Sir. 11. A. Talbot, now an official of the Administration of Northern Nigeria, who accompanied the expedition as joint geographer with Lieutenant Claud Alexander, and who returned from Lake Chad with a completo map. Tho journey really began at Lokoja, in .Nigeria. Before reaching Lako Chad the party camo into conflict with a tribe called tho ilarghi. Mr. Talbot had to march into their village, where the young warriors had entrenched themselves behind.a stockade. They attacked with a shower of poisoned arrows. /Mr. lalbot saved tho lifo of one of his carriors, who was hit, by sucking the poison out of the wound. The stockade 'was taken, and tho expedition went on. Crossing Lake Chad. After the death of his brother and the departure of Mr. Talbot, Lieutenant Alexander and Captain Gosling mined to cross Lake Chad. Hitherto tho lako had been crossed, by one white man only, Major. Lenfant, who traversed one corner at its narrowest part. Lieutenant Alexander and Captain Gosling . attacked a more difficult task. The lako is extremely shallow, and mud banks abound in its channels. Its surface is covered with weeds ten to fifteen feet high, and through this lake.jungle the explorers had to cut their way, counting two miles a day as good progress. Tho lake was .infested with mosquitoes, and sometimes the explorers had to take refuge from them by passing the night standing up to their necks in tho water and defending their faces as best they could. When at last Lieutenant Alex- , ander had found the passage to the little island kingdom in the iake of the Buduma tribe, ho was welcomed by all the warriors drawn up in lines, and the chief of tho tribo honoured him with an obeisance, mounted him on a white horse, and foted him for three days. River Work in Steel Boais. ■ On the other side of Lake Chad Lieutcnaut Alexander and his companion explored, in steel boats, rivers, such as tho Shnira. and the Übanghi, and penetrated by means of these waterways into countries and among tribes hitherto unknown. Striking the caravan route from the South Sahara,- the explorers rescned from a native attack a party of Mohammedan pilgrims on their way to Alecca. Lieutenant Alexander, then sickening from blackwater fever, had a narrow oscapo from a lion in Congo forest. Having wounded the animal, ho followed it up, and suddenly came across it in the jungle. It sprang ut him, but his trusty servant and collector, Jose Lopez, shot at it as.it sprang. Lopez was with Lieutenant Alexander on his present expedition. / The Rare Okapi, It was Lopez who shot the okapi whose skin the explorer brought home with him. Tho okapi, the new animal of tho Congo forest discovered in 1901 by Sir Harry Johnston, is as big as a very large stag, has a neck like a deer, and ie striped on the haunches and legs, not .spotted like the giraffe; yet it is contended that its teeth and its horns prove it to bo a.close ally not of the deer, but of the giraffe. Lioutenant Alexander greatly wished to secure a living specimen, or, at any rato, to be the first white man to seo tho oknpi alive. But this specimen was snared in a native pit, and when Lopez found it, fearing it might escape, he shot it. Tlio authori.ties at South Kensington undertook to reconstruct the okapi. Pet Chimpanzees. Lieutenant Alexander, who specialised in ornithology, collected specimens of birds, and brought home with him nearly 10,000 skins. Captain Gosling hunted big game, and secured a very fine lion. From Lake Chad were taken several large specimens of the strange fish found in its waters. Captain Gosling also ol> tained a magnificent full-grown chimpanzee, and both he and Lieutenant A'lexander made pets of little chimpanzee; which thoj caught alive. Captain Gosliug christened his "Little Jlarv." He had found it with its arm broken, eet the limb, and Little Mary became a great favourite, until it full overboard while one of the boats. wae shooting rapids. "Ann," Lieutenant Alexander's' chimpanzee, survived to u happier fate. Klin arrived with tho explorer at l'nddington in li'o7, and was taken to the Besides hk two volumes, "Prom the Niger to tho Nile," Lieutenant Boyd Alexander wrote a number of papers in Ilia capacity ol ornithologist and naturaljet.