Lieutenant George Augustus Frederick Buxton. 199 



all the luxuries of civilized life ; and, unnatural and extraor- 

 dinary as it may appear, yet such is the fascination of the life 

 of the mountain hunter, that I believe not one instance could 

 be adduced of even the most polished and civilized of men, 

 who had once tasted the sweets of its attendant liberty and 

 freedom from every worldly care, not regretting the moment 

 when he exchanged it for the monotonous life of the settle- 

 ments, nor sighing and sighing again once more to partake 

 of its pleasures and allurements." 



The vast store of interesting information which Mr Rux- 

 ton gathered in the far west created a thirst for adven- 

 ture of the most daring kind. It was to Africa that he first 

 turned his attention, in order to add to our geographical 

 knowledge some of its unexplored and hitherto inacces- 

 sible lands. His conversations to those to whom he commu- 

 nicated his plans were of the most stirring and convincing 

 nature. The president of the Royal Geographical Society 

 has given us, in his anniversary address to that body in 1845, 

 his recollection of Mr Ruxton's conversation with him in 

 these words : — 



" To my great surprise I recently conversed with an ar- 

 dent and accomplished youth. Lieutenant Ruxton, late of the 

 89th regiment, who hasformed the daring project of traversing 

 Africa in the parallel of the southern tropic, and has actually 

 started for this purpose. Preparing himself by previous ex- 

 cursions on foot in North Africa and Algeria, he sailed from 

 Liverpool early in December last, in the * Royalist,' for 

 Ichaboe, now so well known for its guano. From this spot 

 he was to repair to Walwich Bay, at the mouth of the Ku- 

 isiss river, where we have already mercantile establishments. 

 The intrepid traveller had received from the agents of these 

 establishments such favourable accounts of the natives to- 

 wards the interior, as also of the nature of the climate, that 

 he has the most sanguine hopes of being able to penetrate to 

 the central region, if not of traversing it to the Portuguese 

 colonies of Mozambique. If this be accomplished (and there 

 are traditions of its having been done in former times by the 

 Portuguese), then, indeed, will Lieutenant Ruxton have ac- 

 quired a permanent name for himself among British travel- 



