Perilous Explorations.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 29, 18 August 1887, Page 4

Perilous Explorations.

It will be remembered that about a year ago Emil Holub, the African explorer, endeavoured to reach the region of the large lakes through Southern Africa, and that in the autumn of last year news reached Europe that the expedition failed, the natives having attacked the camp. Herr Helub ana his wife, who had accompanied him on his travels, with great difficulty succeeded in making their escape, and he has recently sent to the Nieue Freie Presse an interesting account of the catastrophe. He says that he had after great difficulty succeeded in reaching the territory of the Maschukulumbe. In this part of Africa it is impossible to obtain porters who are willing to give their services for the whole of the journey. The negroes are unwilling to leave the territory of their own tribe, and, as the villages are independent and more often than not in a state of open hostility with their neighbors, itis often necessary to change porters three or four times a day. Some men whom Herr Holub had engaged from the Matokas left him as soon as the expedition had reached the territory of the Maschukulumbe. They feared an attack from this tribe, which had from the first shown great hostility against the whites, and which Herr Holub regards as the very scum of the negro race. When he reached the country to the north of Suenge he had lost half of his 70 bales of goods. He determined to rest a little on this region, but it was unfortunate for him that he did so, as some of the Maschukulumbe perfidiously informed him,that a Portugese trader was within a few hours march, and that he

would do well to go and meet him and make arrangements for reaching the Mankvu territory. Her Holub, leaving his encampment in charge of two blacks who had remained faithful to him, and of two white men, Messrs Fehete and Sollner, started to meet this supposed Portugese trader, but when he had gone some distance and could bear no tidings of him he began to suspect that he had been betrayed, and harried back to his encampment. On the way back he met Herr Fehete and the two blacks, who had fled from the encampment, which had been attacked during his absence and Herr Sollner killed. The small band, finding it impossible to return to the encampment,. had to travel upwards of 400 miles in order to reach the Zambesi, without any baggage or ammunition, and Herr Holub had lost all his equipments and the natural history collections which he had got together at so much cost and labour. After enduring terrible privations he and his wife, with their scanty band of followers, succeeded in reaching the territory of the Matokas, not being able to march more than seven miles a day. Herr Holub was suffering from fever, and, to make matter worse, the King of the Matokos, at first received him very badly at Mapanze, and refused to give him any assistance. But he changed his mind, and so Herr Holub was able to continue his route, and soon after, at the mouth of the Tchobe, he got news of the presence of three English travellers, from whom he obtained further relief 'and whom he asked to forward to Europe this narrative of his sufferings.

One morning, when the Schnaebcle incident had not yet reached its crisis, the doorkeeper at the Ministry of War in Paris was surprised by the sudden arrival of a visitor in the most agitated mid dishevelled state. With his hat in his hand, his coat open, his clothes splashed with mud, this stranger rushed into the vestibule of the War Office and, throwing himself exhausted into a chair, managed to faintly gasp, ** n me '” The attendant, unable to guess his visitor's meaning asked for an explanation, and after regaining his breath, the stranger exclaimed, " You want to know what I desire, eh? Well, I am from Bordeaux, and I have just invented a new rifle—a marvellous one, let me assure you—and I want it to be used in the next war. Tell me, then—oh, tell me,‘am lin time P