The Reawakeniiir/ : Scientific Exploration 239 



them, an old man, riding a long ten days' journey right across an abominable country, 

 just to wish me goodbye before I left. Andersson I have left behind as trader, and set 

 him up with my remaining provisions ifcc, on condition that he makes a good try, 

 straight;iway to reach the Lake, in this he will have I believe but little difficulty, as we 

 have already so fully explored the more difficult parts of the roads there. The Missionaries 

 go in a posse with 20 guns in another direction due north to the great river, at my request, 

 and now I am trying to find out where this river most nearly joins the sea, and if I can 

 arrange affairs so as to get a cruiser to take me there, which I do not think improbable, 

 I will make a fortnight excursion to it and then return home. I have an excellent 

 interpreter in my man Timboo and now knovving all the tribes adjacent to the river, 

 I shall have I think very little difficulty in getting the necessary information at St 

 Helena. To the Governor there I have a Government letter so I daresay that he will 

 stretch a point to help me in my scheme. I have traced a water communication from 

 a great lake if not the lake to the westward and so if I can only find out its mouth, 

 a great step will be gained towards opening a road to the interior. But you will be 

 tired of hearing about these things, which though they are my hobby, cannot be 

 expected to be yours. — So Douglas and Herman have both gone and got married ; if it 

 was not so late, I would have written to them to have offered my best congratulations. — 

 The missionaries here have a very funny way of getting married; when one wants a wife, 

 he writes to the President of the Society who turns the matter over in his mind and 

 picks out a likely young lady to suit him and packs her off. The most extraordinary 

 thing is, that the young ladies are quite willing to go, whether they have ever seen their 

 future spouse or not. 1 wife came out by this vessel for one of them. A middy on 

 board the " Grecian " told me that he had lately met a German missionary at Sierra 

 Leone who had had no less than thirteen wives. The climate killing the poor creatures 

 as fast as they came out. This Bluebeard was just married to his fourteenth. I shall 

 be very glad of a fortnight's rest at St Helena. Potatoes and bread T have been 

 worrying at ever since I have been on board. They taste so nice after living for such a 

 very long time on tough meat and hides, and a house with a roof to it and glass windows 

 will be a real luxury, right glad too I shall be to get on the back of a horse, after plodding 

 more than a hundred days' journeyings on that of an execrable ox. My saddle tree 

 and stirrups I shall keep and use them in England. I shall of course write to you again 

 from St Helena and so now. Goodbye and with my best love to every individual of the 

 family. Believe me. Ever your affectionate son, F. Galton. 



Galton reached England on April 5, 1852, two years after his 

 departure on the same day of the same month by the " Dalhousie." A 

 sketch map of hi.s route from Walfisch Bay to the interior had reached 

 the Royal Geographical Society two months earlier. The paper de- 

 scribing his journey was read on Feb. 23 and on April 26, 1852, 

 i.e. partly before and partly after his I'eturn. The {)reface to his Tropical 

 South Africa is dated April 27, 1853 — :a year later. During that 

 year he was awarded a gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 followed in 1854 by the silver medal of the French Geographical 



