THE PIONEER OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 320, 28 November 1888, Page 5

THE PIONEER OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE

Somewhat tardy justice has been done to the memory of Lieutenant Woghorn, R.N., a man who in his day created not a littlo sensation. Lord Northbrook, on August )0, unveiled at Chatham a life-like statue in bronze, by Mr H. H. Armstead, of th« pioneer of the overland route to India. In addition to the local effort in the place of his birth, this movement has had the support of gentlemen who are in a sense representatives of those who havo benefited by the efforts of Lieutenant Waghorn. Lord , North brook was Firat Lord of the Admiralty when the memorial movement was initiated, and he gave the project his hearty concurrence, along with Earl Kimberley, who was then Secretary ot State for India. Tho India Council, tho Suez Canal Company, the Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Company, "M. de Lesseps, Lord Derby, tho Duke of Edinburgh, and others interested in the communications between the mother country and our Eastern possessions also subscribed. The story of Lieutenant Waghorn's life is romantic, and towards its close even tragic. Ho was born in the first year of the century, and, having displayed an early proclivity for the 6ea, was at the immature age of twelve placed as a midshipman on board one of her Majesty's ships ot war, in which he corvod nearly five years. His ability in seamanship was renuukab'e, for at the age of seventeen, (wo years earlier than the prescribed time, he passed in navigation tor lieutenant;, although he did not receive that rank till 184*2 after repeated applications. Ho was paid oft' at the end of 1817, and after a voyage to Calcutta on bourd a freetrader, was appointed in ISI9 to the pilot service in Bengal, in which he did duty till 1524, when on the outbreak of the war in Arracan he wns appointed to the command of the Honourable East India Company's cutter Matchless and a division of gunboat?. In this expedition he saw much »ci vice, in which lib exhibited great daring and skill, and received the warm commendation of his superior officers. Returning to Calcutta in 1827 ho communicated to the authorities plans which ho had formed lor steam communication between India and England, via the Cape. With ample recommendations ho pvocceded to England to promote hia idea, bub his proposals were received coldly and. in short, rejected. In October, 1529, Waghorn was commissioned by Lord Ellenborough, the President of the India Board, ( to proceed to India, through Egypt, with despatches to the Governor of Bombaj', and to report upon bhe practicability of the Red Sea navigation for the overland route. Having reached Suez he found that the •coainei he was ordered to join was nob there, but undaunted he proceeded down tho Red Sea in an open boat ■without chart or compass, reaching Juddah, a distance of G2O miles, in six and a half days. From thn point he secured means of reaching India, and was congratulated on his feat. The knowledge gained on this trip convince i him that this was tho route which should connect England to her great dependency, and from that time forward he devoted his whole energies to the achievement ot hib grand project. With no official aid he organised the overland route, building halting-places in the desert between Cairo and Sue/-, and established means of transits by which the voyage to India was very considerably shortened, and wholly divested of its terrors. More than this, he established alternathe routes through Europe by which riot only was time gained, but greater freedom and independence secured b\ this country. In these undertat ings his private resources were hopelessly crippled, and the authorities treated him in anything but a generous fashion. On the Bth of Juno, lo'l9. ho wrote :—: — The immediate origin and cause of my embarrassments was a forfeited promise on the part of the Treasury and the India House, whereby only four instead of six thousand pounds, relied on by me, were paid towards the Trieste route experiments in the winter of 18JG-7. when, singlenanded and despite unparalleled and wholly unforeseen difficulties, I eclipsed, in five trials out of six, the lonpr organised arrangements of the Jfrcnoh authorities, specially stimulated to all possible exertion, and supplied with unlimited means by M. Guizot. . . , Tho disappointment occasioned by the non-payment of the ri2.o iO has preyed incessantly upon me since; find now, a wreck alike almost in mind and body. I am sustained alone by tho hope that the annals of the Tusolvent Court will not have inscribed upon them the ' Pioneer of the Overland Route," because of obligations he incurred for the public by direction of the public authorities. This appeal was treated like many others, with cold disregard, and completely shattered in health and bruised in spirit Lieutenant Waghorn cped, only a few months !utei , on the 7th of January, 1850, at the premature age of forty-nine. His countrymen looked upon him as a man with a craze, out Al. de Lps&eps, with greator perspicacity, •aw the value of his idea, and from it, indeed, tho scheme of the Suez Canal jmanated. The illustrious Frenchman has frequently acknowledged his indebtedness* to Lieutenant Waghorn, and placed hia bust at the entrance of the Canal. I