SKETCH OF DR. GUSTAV NACHTIGAL. 695 



time in performing the duties of his scientific commissions, and in pre- 

 paring the narrative of his travels, his great work, " Sahara und Su- 

 dan," or " Experiences of Six Years of Travel in Africa " of which the 

 first volume was published in 1879, and the second, bringing up the 

 story to his departure from Bagirmi, in 1881 ; while the third is un- 

 finished. In 1882 Germany needed a diplomatic representative in 

 Tunis : Dr. Nachtisral was chosen as the most suitable man in the 

 nation to fill the position. After remaining there three years as con- 

 sul-general, a more important duty fell upon him also by the desig- 

 nation of the great Chancellor of the Empire that of going to the 

 west coast of Africa to superintend the planting of the German colo- 

 nies in the Togo country and the Cameroons. This was in May, 1884. 

 He was there attacked by the fever which seems to be the inevitable 

 doom of all white men who stay long on the Guinea coast. To get him 

 away, if possible, from this scourge, he was put upon the German cor- 

 vette Move and sent to sea. On board this vessel, a few miles out 

 from Cape Palmas, he died on the 20th of April of this year. His 

 body was brought ashore and buried at Cape Palmas. 



Dr. Nachtigal, says one of his German biographers, was one of the 

 "strong and enthusiastic representatives of German learning, uniting 

 with complete devotion to science a heart warmly inspired with the 

 idea of spreading abroad the power and civilization of the Fatherland ; 

 and he regarded it an object of life to press forward into unexplored 

 lands and ever to be adding new objects to scientific cognizance." 



" With Nachtigal," says Dr. Karl Mailer, in " Die Natur," " has 

 passed away one of the brightest stars of the literature of travel ; a 

 man who, treading in the footsteps of a Barth, was, like him, so happy 

 as to come back and contribute no little in his turn to our knowledge 

 of Central Africa. . . . With fifty-one years upon him, he still bore 

 the expectancy of a longer life, even though the old chest-disease he 

 had suffered from at home had not entirely passed away. For we had 

 learned to know and esteem him all the more highly because in spite 

 of his disease he was among the most active and most lively. His 

 fate," Dr. Miiller adds, " is a sad answer from West African Nature to 

 German colonizing ambitions." 



Everything living, said his friend Dr. Paul Gussfeldt, in a memo- 

 rial address, " seemed to arouse his sympathy. His love for animals 

 was particularly touching. I can hardly avoid a sorrowful laugh to- 

 day when I think of his contracted house in Berlin, which he shared 

 with a parrot and three little dogs as companions having equal rights. 

 . . . What to others seemed a legitimate hunter's shot, to him, who 

 himself had barely a hold on life, was murder. It is well known 

 that Nachtigal, during the whole course of his travels, never fired a 

 gun. The fact points out one of his strong characteristics. It shows 

 that neither necessity nor fearful peril, such as he was exposed to in 

 Bagirmi, could disturb the delicate stringing of his soul." 



