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May 19, I860.] The Leader and Saturday A...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Eastjehn Alatlca. [Continued.] How Beaut...
this valley we ascended again . How splendid the whole landscape , with its rich variety of mountain , hill , and dale , covered by the most luxuriant vegetation ! I could have fancied myself on the Jura mo untains , near Basel , or in the region of Cannstatt , in the dear fatherland , s 6 beautiful was the country , so delightful the climate Our way" was across the bed of a mountain stream , over hill and dale through plantations of Indian corn and beans , past small herds of cattle belonging to the Teita , then along fields of sugar-cane and bananatill we descended into the valley , with its rich
pasture-, lands . What a pity that tin ' s luxuriant growth ot grass , year after Year must perish unused ! An immeasurable tract of the richest land ' stands here open to the Church of Christ . ' The meek shall inherit the earth . ' The destiny of these noble regions must be a great one . It was a lovely Sabbath morning which followed . It seemed to me as if Nature was celebrating with me the Sabbath . Mountains and all hills ; fruitful trees ; beasts and all cattle : creeping things , and flying fowl , with the varied melody of thensong , praised their Creator with me . "
It was upon this journey that Mr . Rebmann made the discovery of the snow-capped mountains of Equatorial Africa . On the day following the Sunday he has so graphically placed before us , he reached the village of a Teita chief , named Mains , whose guest lie remained till the next morning , and when parting his host presented him with the loving-cup , as for want of a better expression we must term what , had he been travelling oia horseback , might more properly have been called the stirrup-cup . It consisted of jon , a beverage prepared from the sugar-cane , which is probably similar to the tenera dulcis ah arundine succv . s , which , according to Lucan , the Hametic troops of Pompey delighted in . The ceremony had a semirelio-ious character , the -chief uttering a prayer for the welfare of his guestwhich is given at page 265 in the original , with an
interest-, ino- literal translation into English , and which expresses the following sentiment : . " This stranger came from his people to me , and said , ' Maina , let us talk ,. let us be friends . ' To him I replied , ' Let us converse cheerfully as -friends , and let us pray to Heaven together to bless the land , that the sickness now raging amongst us may be removed . Let this stranger see nothing hurtful by the way ; let him not be kept back by thorns nor by long grass ; let linn not meet with elephants and rhinoceroses ; shield him from enemies ! When he reaches the Jasrga land may the people of Jagga give him pleasure ! Spirits of my father and of my mother , guard him as he journies ! May this stranger again return to me , so that we majrejoice together . " There is so mueh _ jiatural piety and simplicity m strike the reader that
the words , that it cannot fail to as hopeful ,-when Christianityshall have-taken root amongst , these benighted people it will be upheld arid cherished by them , "On being first examined , " says the author of " Cosmos , " " phenomena appear to be isolated ; and it is only by the result of a multitude of observations , combined by reason , that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing between each . " The first discovery of the snow-capped mountains of Jagga will , in the opinion of the Missionaries of Rabbai Mpia , solve the question of the great inland seas , one of which , the Victoria Nyanza , or Lake Victoria , recently discovered by Captain Spekc , may in turn help to unravel the great geographical problem of the site of the sources of the Nile . Undev thlT ^ aTrtelflrttfir ^
journal his great discovery : — "In the midst of a great wilderness , full of wild beasts , such as rhinoceroses , elephants , and buffaloes , we slept beneath thorn bushes , quietly and securely under God ' s gracious protection . . In the early morning we discerned the mountains of Jagga more distinctly than ever ; and about ten o ' clock I fancied I saw the summit of one of them covered with a dazzlinffly white cloud . My guide called the white which I saw merely Beredi , cold ; but it was perfectly clear to mo that it could bo nothing else but snow , Resting for a while soon afterwards , under a tree , I road in the English Bible tho cxith Psalm , to which I came in the order of my reading , 'He hath showed his people the power of his works , that he may give them the heritage of tho heathen , ' and the promise made n lasting impression upon mo , in sight of the magnificent snow mountain .
" Tho whole-country round between Teitn ami . Jatrtra has a sublime character . To tho west was tho lofty Mount Kilimanjaro with its perennial snow '; to the south-west was tho massive and monotonous Ugano ; to tho north-west , the extended niountajnchnin of Kikumbalia ; and to the east , tho chains of the Teita mountains with their highest summit , called Vorugn , which with tho exception of Kilimanjaro , riso four thousand . to six thousand feet above the plain surrounding- them . We crossed tho river Immi nt seven in tho morning , nnrl tho nearer we approached tho mountains of Jagga tho richer was the vegetation . Hero and there
wo mot with largo and magnificent trees , such ns I had not seen since I loft tho coast , till nt last wo entered a nohlo valley , thickly grown over with grass which reached up to our middle . Abundant {) astnre-land for niousandfii of cattle ! Oh , Svhat a nohlo country ins God reserved for his people 1 Between four and-five in the afternoon wo reached the beautiful nnd sparkling rivorGonn , which has its source in tho snowy summit of Kilimanjaro . A great tree served ns a most unsatisfactory bi ' kl « 'o over it , and upon reaching the opposite bank I enjoyed a refreshing bath , the extromo coldness of tho water plainly allowing that' its source can pnly . bo in tho snow-mountain . "
Proceeding on his journey through a thick jungle , Mr . Rebmnnn reached tho little kingdom of Kiloma on tho following day . "I gazed , " ho sayti , " on tho lovely country which eeomed bursting
with plenteousness , and presented , in a comparatively small extent , the most striking contrasts . In our immediate vicinity was the beautiful river Gona , and on its banks , as well as on the foot of the mountains around , the richest vegetation of a perfect dark green of perpetual summer ; and when I raised my eyes I beheld , apparently only a few leagues distant , Kilimanjaro , covered With perpetual snow and ice . " / Rungua , king of Majame , the father of Mamkinga , once sent a large expedition to investigate the nature of the glittering substance on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro .
" He hoped it might prove to be silver , or something of the kind ; but only one of the party survived , and with frozen hands and feet announced to the king the melancholy fate of his companions , who had been destroyed not only by the cold , but by fear and terror ; for in their ignorance they ascribed the effects of the cold to evil spirits , and fled away only to meet with destruction in severer frost and cold . Bana Cheri , my intelligent guide , told me that he had seen the poor man , whose frost-bitten hands and feet were bent inwards by the cold , and that he had heard from his own lips the story of his adventures . "
Humboldt has well observed that narratives of distant travels , however occupied with the recital of hazardous adventures , •' can only be made a source of instruction where the traveller is acquainted with the condition of the science he would enlarge , and i . s guided by reason in his researches . " This discovery of snow-capped Kilimanjaro required other confirmation than the distant view of a white summit of the mountain , and the tale of native exploration . Dr . Livingstone has described a mountain in 12 deg . to 13 dag . S . lat . covered . with white stones , yet as there are snow-capped mountains in Equatorial America , why not in Equatorial Africa also , whatever mere theorists may say to the contrary , and why should not the white summit of Kilimanjaro be snow , though a mountain some twelve leagues distant has a crown of white stones ?
On a subsequent journey , Mr . Rebmumi slept at the base ' of the mountain , and " even by moonlight could make out the snow , " says Dr . Krapf . " He conversed with the natives in reference to the white matter upon the dome-like summit of the mountain , andhe was told " that when brought down in bottles it proved to bo nothing hut water . " Of the second show-capped mountain , Mount Kegma , discovered by Dr . Krapf on the 3 rd of December , 1840 , Puunu wa Kikandi , a native of Uembu , stated that his tribe lived near the white mouutaW and " that he had often been at the foot of it , but had not ascended it to any great altitude , on account of the Intense cold , and the white matter which rolled down . the . mountain with a o-reat noise , which last would seem to indicate the existence of glaciers . The people from Kikuyu confirmed these reports , and a Mnika from R ^ hbai also , who had been at Kikuyu , mentioned to me a mountain , " adds Dr . Krapf , " the summit of which was covered with a substance resembling white flour . "
A discovery no less important is also due to the missionaries' at Rabbai Mpia , but our limits are already exceeded , so that we must give it as condensed by Captain Speke , in his recent account ot jus discovery of tho Victoria Nyanza , the great lake of Central Ahica , illustrating , as it docs , Humboldt ' s favourite hypothesis-, " . tnat in ^ iTinjfosmTrtroi" ^^ isolated , may bo concealed the germ of a great discovery . " " I must call attention , " says Captain Speke , "to tho marked fact that the Church missionaries' residing for many yours at
Zanzibar , are the prime and first promoters of this discovery . I hey have been for years past doing their utmost , with simple sincerity , to Christianize this negro land , nnd promote a civilized and 1-tippy state of existence for these benighted beings . During their sojourn among these blackamoors , they heard from Arabs , and others ot many of the facts I have now stated , but only in a coniusea way , such as might be expected in information derived from an uiieuucated people . Amongst the more important disclosures made by tho Arabs was the" constant reference to a large hike or inland sea , which their caravans were in the habit of visiting . lb \ vas _ a
siivular thing that at whatever part of tho coast the missionaries arrived , , on inquiring from the travelling merchants who . ro they went to , they one and all stated to an inland sea , the dimensions ot which were such , that noboilv could give any estimate ot its length or width . The directions they travelled in pointed north-west , west , anil south-west , and their accounts seemed to indicate a single sheet of water extending from the Line down to 11 ( leg . b . lat ., a soa of about 810 miles in length , with an assumed breadth ot 30 O to 300 miles . In fact , from this great combination of testimony t
that water lay generally in a continuous line from tho Equaor up to 11 deg . S . lat ., and from not being able to gain information ot thero being any territorial separations to tho said water , they naturally , and , 1 may add , fortunately , created that monster slug of an inland sea which so much attracted the attention of tho geographical world in 1855-56 , and caused our being sent out to AlViou . Tho good that may . result from this little but happy accident , will . 1 trust / prove proportionately as large and iruittiil aa tho produce from the symbolical grain of mustard seed ; ami uououy knows or believes in this more fully than ono of tho duel promoter *
of this exciting investigation , Mr : ltebinann . Tho volume from which wo hnvo ' extracted so largely is henuli . ''ul ! y got up , and contains much curious information- upon tho races , religion , languages and resources of tho eastern portion ot lie great continent of Africa , thus forming a companion lo Dr . Livingstone '* nnrraUvo , without touching upon the tmme countries which ho visited .
May 19, I860.] The Leader And Saturday A...
May 19 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst .-. 47 o
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051860/page/15/
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