60 



HERE PETERMANN. 



Our course was to economize life and money for 

 the great task of exploring the Lake Regions. 

 This was duly explained by me to the Koyal 

 Geographical Society, and no African traveller 

 would have required the explanation. But a cer- 

 tain Herr Augustus Petermann, of Gotha, could 

 not resist the temptation 'of taunting me with 

 having hesitated to face dangers through which 

 the missionaries had passed, ' weapoued only 

 with their umbrellas.' This gentleman from 

 Germany had visited England, and had created 

 for himself the title of ' Physical Geographer to 

 the Crown': when, however, no salary was the 

 result, he returned to his native land, declaring 

 that the Crown niust take its geography without 

 physic. His style of settling geographical ques- 

 tions, for instance in the ' Skizze ' before alluded 

 to (note 1, chap, v.), seems to be simply striking 

 a mean between the extremes of the disputants. 

 The process reminds one of a Bombay savan, 

 locally famed, who, having collected every ob- 

 servation published upon the disputed longitude 

 of that port, added them all, divided them by the 

 number of the items, and produced his meridian. 

 As a reward for Herr Petermann's * zealous and 

 enlightened services as a writer and cartographer 

 in advancing geographical science,' that is to 



