MYSTERY OF THE DARK CONTINENT,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2085, 21 May 1907, Page 3

MYSTERY OF THE DARK CONTINENT,

THE LOST BOER TREK. In South Africa to-day is being discussed the advisability of ’an expedition to discover the lost Boer trek which was' marked out into the unknown and was swallowed up half' a century ago. What occurred to the vast caravan from the time it started on its journey is one of the mysteries of i the Dark Continent, and the numerous Dutch Boers connected with the voyageurs still speculate on —their 'fate.

The trek, consisting of a large number of families, went north, taking a course that would bring them through the present Rhodesia. The older natives there speak of white people having journeyed through their country many years ago; but tliero is no record of tho Boers having been opposed during their passage.

The intention of the emigrants was to make for the lakes, Tanganyika being roughly about two months’ trek away, and it is probable that they got into the country of-lie Masai, since the natives about of the Masai, like the Matabele, speak of a caravan having journeyed through their region in'-the days ? of their'fathers. ''

Mr. Rhodes took a very considerable interest in this mystery of tjie veldt, and one of tho ambitions of his life was to have the missing families traced, and, if they were willing to return, restored to their, friends in tho Transvaal.

To this end in 1899 |he fitted out an expedition tq be led by Adrian Hofmeyer, tho pro-British clergyman, who had been removed from the Dutch Church in Capetown for political reasons. Owing, to the unrest that preceded the war, tho. expedi-

tion only reached tho neighborhood of .Crocodile Pool, and thus ended tho only uttompt over made to find tho lost families.

Perhaps tho late Sir Homy StanI loy came near to finding \tlio flj-ok. lln conversation with tho . prosont 'writer ho said that when leading tho Emin Pasha oxjjedition to tlio coast and when skirting west of tlio Mountains of tho Moon, ho was informed by sovoral distinct parties of Arabs that to the south-west of Lako Albort Edward Nj-anza was a largo lako sovorai days’ march in circumference, called Lake Ozo. Tho lako, which is unknown to geographers, is about threo - marchos in from the fringo of the groat forest, and near it are tho descendants of white men loading a pastoral life. It is possible that an attemjjt to discover tho settlement reported by the Arabs will soon bo mado; and should tho pooplo turn out to bo tho descendants of tho Dutch families that wont out into tho unknown to got ns far as possible Horn tho British flag, ono of tho mysteries of the Dark Continent will be cleared up.— Daily Express.