TWELVE THOUSAND MILES 17 



discuss this marvel of nature with me, and later, while 

 passing through the Strait of Messina, he came over to 

 ask some questions about my equipment. In this way 

 I became acquainted with Baron von Bhxen Finecke, 

 a Swedish nobleman who was returning to his farm 

 in Tanganyika after having just completed one of the 

 most thriUing journeys in the history of African adven- 

 ture. With Sir Charles Markham he had crossed the 

 dread wastes of the Sahara desert from Kano, Nigeria, 

 to Algiers on the Mediterranean Sea. 



During our many days on shipboard, after leaving 

 the strait and before our arrival at Mombasa, the 

 Baron and I studied all available maps, and from his 

 vast knowledge of Africa, gained by years of residence 

 on the Dark Continent, he gave me many items of 

 information that afterwards proved priceless. To- 

 gether we mapped a possible route across central 

 Africa from one ocean to the other. 



When I left the United States there were no plans 

 to cross Africa included in the itinerary, and even 

 during these discussions on the voyage to the East 

 Coast, I came to no definite conclusion. Later, how- 

 ever, it seemed the logical thing to do, in order suc- 

 cessfully to round out the work of the expedition. 



Investigations proved that there was no record of 

 a successful crossing from one ocean to the other. 

 There had been one or two partial crossings, commenc- 

 ing from near the West Coast, and made with very 

 light cars at the most favorable season of the year, 

 but no one had ever attempted the journey from 

 Mombasa westward to the Atlantic. 



One bright day we saw far off in the heat haze the 

 white tower of a Ughthouse, and I knew that we were 



