March 31, 1892] 



NATURE 



507 



TWO BOOKS OF AFRICAN TRAVEL. 



Travels in Africa during the Years 1879-83. By Dr. 

 Wilhelm Junker. Translated from the German by 

 A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. (London : Chapman and 

 Hall, 1891.) 



My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa. By 

 Hermann von Wissmann. Translated from the German 

 by Minna J. A. Bergmann. (London : Chatto and 

 Windus, 1 891.) 



THE first of these two books deals with a part of the 

 period during which the late Dr. Junker carried on 

 his second series of explorations in Central Africa. On 

 his return to St. Petersburg in September 1878, after his 

 first journey to the Egyptian Sudan, he had no intention 

 of paying another visit to that region. Nevertheless, 

 within a year he was hard at work preparing for a similar 

 expedition, and on October 10, 1879, he found himself on 

 board the steamer which took him to Alexandria. With 

 as little loss of time as possible he made for Khartum, 

 whence he started by the Is?nailia, on January 31, 1880, 

 for Meshra Er-Req, on the Bahr el-Ghazal. This part 

 of the journey was made extremely tedious by the 

 " sudd," or grass-barriers, through which the steamer had 

 to force its way. The vegetation of which " sudd " is 

 composed grows luxuriantly in back-waters ; and great 

 masses of it are brought by winds or by flood-waters into 

 the river. These masses may either drift harmlessly with 

 the currents, or coalesce into formidable barriers. Some- 

 times they become so compact that a steamer cannot 

 penetrate them, and they must be broken up by special 

 apparatus. This is especially the case in the Bahr el-Jebel. 

 In the Bahr el-Ghazal the barriers are troublesome enough, 

 but are not of quite so tough a texture. 



At Meshra Er-Req Dr. Junker met Gessi Pasha, who 

 was at that time Governor of all the Equatorial Provinces- 

 The two men had a warm regard for one another ; and 

 after a little delay, due to Gessi's numerous engagements, 

 they made an excursion together to Dem Soliman, the 

 most important of the Arab settlements visited by Dr. 

 Junker in the negro lands. Here they parted, never to 

 see one another again, for Gessi died about two years 

 afterwards at Suez. From Dem Soliman Dr. Junker 

 travelled in a south-easterly direction to the territory of 

 Ndoruma, a native chief, who, although rather fickle, was 

 of considerable service to him. In this territory, on the 

 banks of the Werra, Dr. Junker established a station 

 called Lacrima, where he remained about two months. 

 He then proceeded southward, crossing the Welle, and 

 residing some time with Prince Mambanga, from whose 

 territory he went eastward to Tangasi. Before the end 

 of 1880 he was back at Lacrima, which he had left in 

 charge of his companion, Bohndorff. In the course of 

 1881 Dr. Junker travelled among several different tribes, 

 arriving about the end of the year at the domain of 

 Prince Bakangai from Hawash station. At this point the 

 narrative stops, to be continued, no doubt, in another 

 volume, although on this point nothing is said either by 

 the translator or by the publishers. 



So many changes have taken place since 1881 in the 

 regions visited by Dr. Junker that his account of the 

 mutual relations of the native tribes is now, of course, 

 out of date ; but that does not in any way diminish the i 

 NO. I I 70, VOL. 45] 



value of his descriptions of their permanent charac- 

 teristics. He had a remarkable power of winning the 

 confidence and respect of the people, and thus had many 

 opportunities of forming a trustworthy estimate of their 

 intellectual and moral faculties. Upon the whole, the 

 impression they produced upon him was not unfavourable. 

 He seems to have been especially pleased with some 

 aspects of the character of the Mangbattus, his observa- 

 tion of whom enabled him to say that the " tender side" 

 of negro feeling had been called in question unjustly. 

 The women of this tribe hold a relatively high position. 

 They are allowed to take part with the men in public 

 gatherings, and some of them were occasionally able to 

 act as Dr. Junker's interpreters. The Mangbattus have 

 a decidedly artistic faculty, which they display most 

 effectively in the making of iron weapons. They have a 

 kind of knife which seemed to Dr. Junker " unsurpassed 

 for the beauty and originality of its numerous forms " ; 

 and their spear-heads " present an amazing variety of 

 types in the size and shape of the barbs, teeth, and tips.'' 

 They also " display surprising technical skill in the artistic 

 treatment of diverse wooden utensils and earthenware 

 vessels, which, as in all these negro lands, are turned out 

 without the aid of the potter's wheel." Dr. Junker's 

 geographical observations relate to a comparatively 

 small area, but their thoroughness gives them a unique 

 place in the literature of African exploration ; and 

 naturalists will read with interest everything he has to 

 say about the flora and fauna of the districts he traversed. 



Scientifically, Major Wissmann's book is of less im- 

 portance than Dr. Junker's. It records his experiences 

 during his second journey through Africa, which was 

 undertaken in 1886, when he was still in the service of 

 the King of the Belgians. His instructions were to open 

 various parts of the interior of the Congo State ; to investi- 

 gate, and, as far as possible, counteract, the proceedings of 

 slave-hunters ; and to report on the countries bordering 

 the Congo State towards the south-east. He made in the 

 first instance for the Bashilange country, where he re- 

 mained for some time, exploring the region and settling 

 various political affairs. In November he left Luluaburg 

 at the head of a caravan consisting of 900 persons, who 

 accompanied him eastward to the neighbourhood of 

 Nyangwe, on the Upper Congo, whence they were taken 

 back to their native country by Lieutenant Le Marinel. 

 At Nyangwe Major Wissmann was detained by Zefu, 

 Tippu Tib's son, but ultimately he was allowed to depart, 

 and reached the east coast by Lakes Tanganyika and 

 Nyassa, and the River Shire. 



The most important parts of the work are those re- 

 lating to the outrages committed by the infamous slave- 

 hunters ; but there are also a good many valuable passages 

 in which the author embodies the results of ethnographical 

 study. Among other peoples described by him are the 

 dwarfs whom he met in the primaeval forest. They re- 

 minded him of portraits he had seen of Bushmen. They 

 were " of a brown-yellowish colour, or rather light yellow, 

 with a brown shadowing." Their demeanour was " timidly 

 modest," and he had to be careful not to touch them, as 

 they were always ready to take to their heels. An agree- 

 able impression was made by the rounded figures, fresh 

 complexions, and graceful, easy, quiet movements of the 

 young, but the old " might literally be called painfully 



