High Adventure

[Antipatros]

Virgin Oceanic is not the only bid to reach the very deepest part of the ocean: National Geographic and filmmaker James Cameron are also mounting an attempt.

James Cameron to Dive to Ocean's Deepest Point
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Cameron Dive First Attempt in Over 50 Years
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Long Way Down: Mariana Trench
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Sounding the Deepest Spot on Earth
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Expedition website: deepseachallenge.com

[Antipatros]

Frank S. Marryat, Borneo and the Indian Archipelago (1848)

With drawings of costume and scenery

http://www.archive.org/details/borneoin ... 00marrrich

INTRODUCTION

I wish the readers of these pages to understand that it has been with no desire to appear before the public as an author that I have published this Narrative of the Proceedings of Her Majesty's ship Samarang during her last Surveying Cruise.

During the time that I was in the ship, I made a large collection of drawings, representing, I hope faithfully, the costumes of the natives and the scenery of a country so new to Europeans. They were considered, on my return, as worthy to be presented to the public, as being more voluminous and more characteristic than drawings made in haste usually are.

I may here observe, that it has been a great error on the part of the Admiralty, considering the great expense incurred in fitting out vessels for survey, that a little additional outlay is not made in supplying every vessel with a professional draughtsman, as was invariably the case in the first vessels sent out on discovery. The duties of officers in surveying vessels are much too fatiguing and severe to allow them the time to make anything but hasty sketches, and they require that practice with the pencil without which natural talent is of little avail; the consequence is, that the engravings, which have appeared in too many of the Narratives of Journeys and Expeditions, give not only an imperfect, but even an erroneous, idea of what they would describe.

A hasty pencil sketch, from an unpractised hand, is made over to an artist to reduce to proportion; from him it passes over to the hand of an engraver, and an interesting plate is produced by their joint labours. But, in this making up, the character and features of the individual are lost, or the scenery is composed of foliage not indigenous to the country, but introduced by the artist to make a good picture.

In describing people and countries hitherto unknown, no description given by the pen will equal one correct drawing. How far I may have succeeded must be decided by those who have, with me, visited the same places and mixed with the people delineated. How I found time to complete the drawings is explained by my not doing any duty on board at one time, and at another by my having been discharged into the hospital-ship at Hong Kong.

It was my intention to have published these drawings without letter-press, but in this I have been overruled. I have therefore been compelled to have recourse to my own private journal, which certainly was never intended for publication. As I proceeded, I found that, as I was not on board during the whole of the time, it would be better, and make the work more perfect, if I published the whole of the cruise, which I could easily do by referring to the journals of my messmates.

I would gladly mention their names, and publicly acknowledge their assistance; but, all things considered, I think it as well to withhold them, and I take this opportunity of thanking them for their kindness.

FRANK S. MARRYAT.

[Antipatros]

Fiji, Papua New Guinea...

H. Wilfrid Walker, Wanderings Among South Sea Savages and in Borneo and the Philippines (1910)

http://www.archive.org/details/wanderin ... 00walkrich

PREFACE

In a book of this kind it is often the custom to begin by making apologies. In my case I feel it to be a sheer necessity. In the first place what is here printed is for the greater part copied word for word from private letters that I wrote in very simple language in Dayak or Negrito huts, or in the lonely depths of tropical forests, in the far-off islands of the Southern Seas. I purposely made my letters home as concise as possible, so that they could be easily read, and in consequence have left out much that might have been interesting. It is almost unnecessary to mention that when I wrote these letters I had no thought whatever of writing a book. If I had thought of doing so, I might have mentioned more about the customs, ornaments and weapons of the natives and have written about several other subjects in greater detail. As it is, a cursory glance will show that this book has not the slightest pretence of being "scientific." Far from its being so, I have simply related a few of the more interesting incidents, such as would give a general impression of my life among savages, during my wanderings in many parts of the world, extending over nearly a score of years. I should like to have written more about my wanderings in North Borneo, as well as in Samoa and Celebes and various other countries, but the size of the book precludes this. My excuse for publishing this book is that certain of my relatives have begged me to do so. Though I was for the greater part of the time adding to my own collections of birds and butterflies, I have refrained as much as possible from writing on these subjects for fear that they might prove tedious to the general reader. I have also touched but lightly on the general customs of the people, as this book is not for the naturalist or ethnologist, nor have I made any special study of the languages concerned, but have simply jotted down the native words here used exactly as I heard them. As regards the photographs, some of them were taken by myself while others were given me by friends whom I cannot now trace. In a few cases I have no note from whom they were got, though I feel sure they were not from anyone who would object to their publication....

[Antipatros]

E. Alexander Powell, Where the Strange Trails Go Down (1921)

Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China

http://www.archive.org/details/wherestr ... 00powerich

It is a curious thing, when you stop to think about it, that, though of late the public has been deluged with books on the South Seas, though the shelves of the public libraries sag beneath the volumes devoted to China, Japan, Korea, next to nothing has been written, save by a handful of scientifically-minded explorers, about those far-flung, gorgeous lands, stretching from the southern marches of China to the edges of Polynesia, which the ethnologists call Malaysia. Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China, the Malay States, the Straits Settlements, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Borneo, Sulu . . . their very names are synonymous with romance; the sound of them makes restless the feet of all who love adventure. Sultans and rajahs . . . pirates and head-hunters . . . sun-bronzed pioneers and white-helmeted legionnaires . . . blow-guns with poisoned darts and curly-bladed krises . . . elephants with gilded howdahs . . . tigers, crocodiles, orang-utans . . . pagodas and palaces . . . shavenheaded priests in yellow robes . . . flaming fire-trees . . . the fragrance of frangipani . . . green jungle and steaming tropic rivers . . . white moonlight on the long white beaches . . . the throb of war-drums and the tinkle of wind-blown temple-bells. . . .

But it is not for all of us to go down the strange trails which lead to these magic places. The world's work must be done. So, for those who are condemned by circumstance to the prosaic existence of the office, the factory, and the home, I have written this book. I would have them feel the hot breath of the South. I would convey to them something of the spell of the tropics, the mystery of the jungle, the lure of the little, palm-fringed islands which rise from peacock-colored seas. I would introduce to them those picturesque and hardy figures -- planters, constabulary officers, consuls, missionaries, colonial administrators -- who are carrying civilization into these dark and distant corners of the earth. I would have them know the fascination of leaning through those "magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn."

I had planned, therefore, that this should be a light-hearted, care-free, casual narrative. And so, in parts, it is. But more serious things have crept, almost imperceptibly, into its pages.... That is why it is a melange of the frivolous and the serious, the picturesque and the prosaic, the superficial and the significant. If, when you lay it down, you have gained a better understanding of the dangers and difficulties which beset the colonizing white man in the lands of the Malay, if you realize that life in the eastern tropics consists of something more than sapphire seas and bamboo huts beneath the slanting palm trees and native maidens with hibiscus blossoms in their dusky hair, if, in short, you have been instructed as well as entertained, then I shall feel that I have been justified in writing this book.

E. ALEXANDER POWELL.
York Harbor, Maine,
October first, 1921.

[Typhoon]

Virgin Oceanic is not the only bid to reach the very deepest part of the ocean: National Geographic and filmmaker James Cameron are also mounting an attempt.

. . .

Expedition website: deepseachallenge.com

As someone observed, Cameron is attempting to reach a place where fewer men [Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh] have visited than have walked on the moon.

[Typhoon]

Fiji, Papua New Guinea...

H. Wilfrid Walker, Wanderings Among South Sea Savages and in Borneo and the Philippines (1910)

http://www.archive.org/details/wanderin ... 00walkrich

PREFACE

In a book of this kind it is often the custom to begin by making apologies. In my case I feel it to be a sheer necessity. In the first place what is here printed is for the greater part copied word for word from private letters that I wrote in very simple language in Dayak or Negrito huts, or in the lonely depths of tropical forests, in the far-off islands of the Southern Seas. I purposely made my letters home as concise as possible, so that they could be easily read, and in consequence have left out much that might have been interesting. It is almost unnecessary to mention that when I wrote these letters I had no thought whatever of writing a book. If I had thought of doing so, I might have mentioned more about the customs, ornaments and weapons of the natives and have written about several other subjects in greater detail. As it is, a cursory glance will show that this book has not the slightest pretence of being "scientific." Far from its being so, I have simply related a few of the more interesting incidents, such as would give a general impression of my life among savages, during my wanderings in many parts of the world, extending over nearly a score of years. I should like to have written more about my wanderings in North Borneo, as well as in Samoa and Celebes and various other countries, but the size of the book precludes this. My excuse for publishing this book is that certain of my relatives have begged me to do so. Though I was for the greater part of the time adding to my own collections of birds and butterflies, I have refrained as much as possible from writing on these subjects for fear that they might prove tedious to the general reader. I have also touched but lightly on the general customs of the people, as this book is not for the naturalist or ethnologist, nor have I made any special study of the languages concerned, but have simply jotted down the native words here used exactly as I heard them. As regards the photographs, some of them were taken by myself while others were given me by friends whom I cannot now trace. In a few cases I have no note from whom they were got, though I feel sure they were not from anyone who would object to their publication....

I thought I knew what hot and humid felt like until I spent some time trekking through a Borneo rain forest . . .

[Antipatros]

J.P. Ferrier, Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan, and Beloochistan (1857)

With historical notices of the countries lying between Russia and India

Trans. William Jesse; ed. Henry Danby Seymour

http://www.archive.org/details/caravanj ... 00ferrrich

In the spring of the year 1845, after a stay of sixteen months at Bagdad, I decided upon trying my fortune beyond Persia, in the countries yet imperfectly known of Central Asia. I did not conceal from myself the risk I was about to run in undertaking a journey which the majority of Orientals with whom I had conversed respecting it considered as likely to end fatally for me. To justify their apprehensions, they referred to the recent deaths of Stoddart and Conolly, setting before me the most fearful pictures of the cruelty of the Afghans, who, having recently escaped from the short-lived dominion of the British rule, were wholly devoid of pity for all Europeans on whom they could lay their hands. I saw nothing, however, in these representations to induce me to alter my determination, and feeling prepared for whatever might happen, and sure that my resolution would not fail me, I said to myself, like the Mahomedans, "What is written, is written: we cannot struggle against destiny; may mine be accomplished."

Fearing that my intention to pass through the states of Mohamed Shah, the King of Persia, might become known, and thus create serious difficulties and even dangers (for I had been obliged to leave that country by order of the government, in consequence of intrigues against me), I gave out that I was returning to France by Mosul, and obtained from Nejib Pasha, the governor of Bagdad, a boyourdi, or passport, to travel in that direction. Having divested myself of my European habiliments, and assumed a light Arab costume, I addressed myself to a man attached to a caravan, with whom I agreed to hire his mules for one tomaun as far as Kermanshah, and quitted Bagdad at sundown on the 1st of April, 1845.

I had scarcely left the gates of the city ere I met with my first annoyance. For more than a year I had had in my service an Armenian named Ivan, whom I had previously known at Teheran; he was a strong fellow, sharp and intelligent, but a consummate scoundrel, and an unparalleled boaster. This fellow had travelled amongst the Turcomans with the unfortunate Nasseli Florès, who was assassinated by the Emir of Bokhara; he had also visited Herat and some of the neighbouring provinces, and it was this that induced me to keep him in my service, although I was aware that he was a dangerous man, a wrangler, obstinate, and a greedy thief. However, as I should have found the same vices in any other Persian servant, though perhaps in a less degree, but without his useful qualities, I gave up the idea of dismissing him, which I had thought of doing, persuaded that if he did not kill me himself, he would certainly not let any one else do so.

I was on the point of leaving the city by the gate of Mosul, and in the act of mounting a half-laden mule, when, as I have said, my troubles commenced, for Ivan introduced me to half-a-dozen of his creditors, who declared they would not allow him to leave till he had paid their bills, amounting to five tomauns. I sent them all to the devil, and left Ivan to settle with them; but as he was in possession of the secret of my journey, which I could not conceal from him, he took for granted I should not dare to be very hard upon him, and that on no account would I leave him in Bagdad, where he might divulge my projects. This was indeed the fact, but I did not wish to appear to give way at the first specimen of his knavery, so I mounted my beast, and left, pursued by the disappointed creditors, one of whom hung on by my bridle, another by my pack, while a third seized the tail of the innocent beast I rode, stopped me short, and reduced me to the sad necessity of letting fall a shower of blows upon them to rid myself of their importunities. Grumbling and growling they speedily withdrew, and I was not sorry to hear them bestowing upon Ivan, and with usury, the drubbing they had received from me. But before he could come up to entreat me to help him out of this dilemma, half his beard was gone, and thinking he had received sufficient punishment I made terms with his creditors, he giving them up a gun, and I advancing him two and a half tomauns. We now started by a magnificent Eastern moonlight, and crossed the desert plains, which on all sides surround the city of the Caliphs....

[Antipatros]

Sir George Scott Robertson, The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush (1900)

http://www.archive.org/details/kfirsofhinduku00robeuoft

In October 1889 I found myself, for the second time, the official guest of the Mehtar of Chitrál at the fort which constitutes the capital of that country. The previous year had seen me at the same place in a similar capacity. In those days Chitrál was very little known, and the Europeans who had visited it could be counted on the fingers. The people and the country were alike interesting—the former for their picturesque light-heartedness, the latter for its magnificent scenery, and both for their freshness and novelty. But it was not only the Chitrális themselves that had excited my curiosity and interest, for at the Mehtar's capital, on my first visit, I had seen several Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, and had heard many tales of their strange manners and customs. The people of Káfiristán had first excited my curiosity during the Afghan war of 1879-80, and seeing them now in the flesh, my interest in them became so intensified, that the desire to see them in their own homes was irresistible. I had accordingly asked the Government of India to be allowed to make an attempt to enter the Káfir country, and the permission was accorded me while actually on my way to Chitrál for the second time.

It should be mentioned that the only previous European who had attempted to enter Káfiristán was General (then Colonel) Lockhart, when in command of a Mission to examine the Hindu-Kush passes in 1885-86. He had penetrated into the upper part of the Bashgul Valley, and remained there for a few days; but jealousies having broken out amongst the Kafir headmen, he had been compelled to leave the country and return to Chitrál.

As soon as permission had been granted me to make an attempt to get into Káfiristán and study its people, my line of action had at once been decided upon, and by the time Chitrál was reached, the details of the plan had arranged themselves in my mind. Lockhart's experiences, and his partial failure, had convinced me that the great danger to my enterprise lay in exciting the jealousy of the Káfir tribesmen one for the other. It also seemed well for me not to follow in Lockhart's footsteps, and try to visit the tribe which inhabits the upper part of the Bashgul Valley, but to make a fresh departure, and see if the famous Kám tribe would not accept me as a visitor. There were peculiar inducements to lead me to try to get into the Kám country. The Chitrális declared that those people and the Wai tribe were the fiercest and most intractable of all the Káfir tribes, while of those two the Kám were the most to be dreaded for their military prowess. It also happened that at that time the Kám were on the best of terms with the Mehtar of Chitrál, and acknowledged his suzerainty, which, if only a nominal submission on their part, was nevertheless very convenient for my plans. The Mehtar of Chitrál, on his part, was desirous of showing the extent of his power over the Káfirs, and on my applying to him for help, assured me that there would be no difficulty about my going to Kámdesh, under his auspices, for a few days....

[Antipatros]

Joseph Thomson, Travels in the Atlas and Southern Morocco (1889)

A narrative of exploration

http://www.archive.org/details/travelsinatlasso00thom

In introducing this book to the reader, little need be said. It is nothing more than what it pretends to be — a Personal Narrative of Exploration. It does not claim to be a book on Morocco, and consequently may appear in many respects to be very defective. To write such a book was originally my ambition when I turned my attention to that remarkable country, but the abrupt and premature conclusion of my travels has made me perforce alter my intention, and devote myself to recording only something of what we saw and experienced in the parts in which we travelled. It has, moreover, been as much my object to sketch pictures as to chronicle facts. For the same reason this book has been made a personal narrative, with its inevitable frequent use of the first person singular or plural....

[Antipatros]

M.W. Hilton-Simpson, Among the Hill-folk of Algeria (1921)

Journeys among the Shawía of the Aurès Mountains

http://www.archive.org/details/amonghillfolkofa00hilt

To the reader of guide books, of railway time-tables, and of the advertisements of tourist agencies it may appear almost absurd that a traveller should pretend to have anything new to say about a range of wild and barren hills whose western spurs are visible to the naked eye of the visitor to one of the most popular tourist resorts of the whole world; Biskra, the oasis on the fringe of the Algerian Sahara, whose hotels are thronged each winter by hosts of seekers after sunshine and a dry climate.

It may indeed seem incredible to these visitors, as they wander around Biskra's crowded market, or lounge in the beautiful garden of the Chateau Landon, that less than one hundred miles away, amid and beyond the ranges of barren rocks, whose glorious coloration at sunset fills them with wonder and almost with awe as they gaze to the north-east from the oasis, there are to be found to this day many villages in which a European woman has never been seen, and a white race of natives very many of whose arts and crafts, customs and beliefs have never been described in print.

Nevertheless it is a fact that during our three winters spent in the fastnesses of the Aures mountains, for such is the name of the hills to which I have referred, my wife has been the first European woman to be seen by the stay-at-home inhabitants of many a remote village, natives who do not wander to the great centres of civilization, and that we have been enabled to elicit a considerable amount of information as to the manners and customs of the fair-haired Berbers of the hills which has hitherto remained unknown to European students of native life....

The present volume, far from attempting to discuss at length the various ethnographical problems presented by the Berbers, constitutes an endeavour to answer some of the innumerable questions as to their life and as to the conditions under which journeys in the hills can be carried out that have been put to us by passing travellers at Biskra, El Kantara, and elsewhere, each time we have come down from the Aures to rest; questions which show clearly that many a visitor to Algeria would gladly learn more of the life of its natives than a stay in a tourist centre can reveal to him, and that there are many who would undertake expeditions among the hill-folk were they aware of the conditions prevailing in the mountains....

[Antipatros]

Godfrey Thomas Vigne, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan (1840)

And of a residence at the court of Dost Mohamed; with notices of Runjit Sing, Khiva, and the Russian expedition. With illus. from drawings made by the author on the spot

http://www.archive.org/details/personal ... 00vignuoft

The important events which have lately taken place in Afghanistan determined me to publish my Travels in that country, in a first and separate volume ; and to reserve, for a subsequent work, those parts of my manuscript which relate to Kashmir, Great and Little Tibet, the mountain-banks of the Indus, and Alpine India north of the Punjab.

I have made my remarks without the smallest regard to party considerations....

Godfrey Thomas Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo... (1842)

...the countries adjoining the mountain-course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, north of the Panjab

Vol. 1: http://www.archive.org/details/travelsinkashmir01vign
Vol. 2: http://www.archive.org/details/travelsinkashmir02vign

The late lamented Sir Alexander Burnes, in a letter dated Kabul, l6th September, 1841, wrote to me thus:— "I look out with great anxiety for your map and book relating to Cashmere and Gilghit, &c., by far the most interesting portion of your wanderings, and which will fill up a great blank." I have done my best in furtherance of the objects he alludes to.

I have, of course, embodied my travels in one continued narrative, without unnecessary reference to the numbers of times and variety of seasons I have visited the same places. I have, for instance, three times crossed the mountains from the Panjab to Iskardo in Little Tibet, and have necessarily passed through Kashmir in my way....

[Antipatros]

Viscount Milton and W.B. Cheadle, The North-West Passage by Land (1866)

Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains.

http://www.archive.org/details/northwestpassag00milt

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The following pages contain the narrative of an Expedition across the Continent of North America, through the Hudson's Bay Territories, into British Columbia, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. The expedition was undertaken with the design of discovering the most direct route through British territory to the gold regions of Cariboo, and exploring the unknown country on the western flank of the Rocky Mountains, in the neighbourhood of the sources of the north branch of the Thompson River.

The Authors have been anxious to give a faithful account of their travels and adventures amongst the prairies, forests, and mountains of the Far West, and have studiously endeavoured to preserve the greatest accuracy in describing countries previously little known. But one of the principal objects they have had in view has been to draw attention to the vast importance of establishing a highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the British possessions; not only as establishing a connection between the different English colonies in North America, but also as affording a means of more rapid and direct communication with China and Japan. Another advantage which would follow — no less important than the preceding — would be the opening out and colonisation of the magnificent regions of the Red River and Saskatchewan, where 65,000 square miles of a country of unsurpassed fertility, and abounding in mineral wealth, lies isolated from the world, neglected, almost unknown, although destined, at no distant period perhaps, to become one of the most valuable possessions of the British Crown.

The idea of a route across the northern part of the Continent is not a new one. The project was entertained by the early French settlers in Canada, and led to the discovery of the Rocky Mountains. It has since been revived and ably advocated by Professor Hind and others, hitherto without success.

The favourite scheme of geographers in this country for the last three centuries has been the discovery of a North-West Passage by sea, as the shortest route to the rich countries of the East. The discovery has been made, but in a commercial point of view it has proved valueless. We have attempted to show that the original idea of the French Canadians was the right one, and that the true North-West Passage is by land, along the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan, leading through British Columbia to the splendid harbour of Esquimalt, and the great coal-fields of Vancouver Island, which offer every advantage for the protection and supply of a merchant fleet trading thence to India, China, and Japan....

[Antipatros]

George Fletcher Moore, Diary of Ten Years' Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia (1884)

And also a descriptive vocabulary of the language of the aborigines

http://www.archive.org/details/diaryoft ... 00mooriala

In the year 1828, the British Government being anxious, for political reasons, to establish a colony on the West side of Australia, issued public notices, offering large tracts of land, on certain conditions, to any who would proceed to, and settle on, that district before the end of the year 1830. Attracted by the hope of obtaining possession of a good estate, and feeling that the prospect of success at the Irish Bar was but remote and uncertain, I applied to the Government on the subject of some official appointment, if I should go to the Colony as an emigrant. The answer was to the effect, that any appointment made here now might clash with the proceedings of Governor Stirling; but if I chose to go out at my own risk and expense, they would give me a favourable letter of introduction to the Governor. On this encouragement, I made up my mind to go at once.

My friends were doubtful as to the prudence of such a hazardous step, but I reconciled them to it by a solemn promise that I would keep them fully informed, by each available opportunity in my power, of every incident and circumstance of my position and life there, whether good or bad, and leave them to judge of my success or failure. This was the cause of the "Diary or Journal" hereinafter contained. It was written solely for the information and satisfaction of my father, brothers, sisters, and immediate friends in this country. It was commenced soon after my embarcation from Dublin, and was a great source of relief and consolation to myself during the voyage, as well as through all the difficulties, dangers, labours, and eventful incidents, for the space of ten years in the colony, until my first return home on leave of absence. It was not continued ^fter that time....

W.H. Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Van Diemen's Land (1834)

During the years 1830, 1831, 1832, and 1833

http://www.archive.org/details/excurson ... 00bretrich

An inherent propensity to wander, and, not improbably, some slight wish to secure a share in the golden prospects held out to all persons emigrating to the Australian Colonies, induced me, once more to encounter the perils of the deep, and to bid adieu, for a time, to those luxuries and comforts so much prized by all who love a life of tranquillity.

A sojourn in the Colonies, however it may have gratified my roving propensities, and afforded much real interest and- amusement, has certainly tended to dispel some of the bright illusions with which the high-flown accounts of not a few writers on the subject had previously possessed my mind. It must be obvious to every impartial person, who has had an opportunity of judging from actual observation of the capabilities of the Colonies, that most of the works hitherto published are calculated to excite in the emigrant expectations which, unless through some singularly lucky circumstance, can never be realized: in addition to which, they certainly convey but little of that practical information so necessary to all who intend establishing themselves in those distant regions.

It is with this conviction that I have been induced to offer to the public the substance of my note-book, trusting that it will be found to convey an impartial and correct, though brief and unvarnished account, of the actual state of things in this portion of the globe....

[Antipatros]

Alfred Searcy, By Flood and Field (1912)

Adventures ashore and afloat in North Australia

http://www.archive.org/details/byfloodf ... 00seariala
http://www.archive.org/details/byfloodf ... 00searuoft

As I never read a preface unless it be as an afterthought, and only then if brevity has been observed, it would be inconsistent on my part to do more than state that this book is the outcome of a desire, in the first place, to draw attention to the wonderful and varied resources of that portion of our Island Continent known as the Northern Territory; and, in the second, to set down for the delectation of young and old some of my adventures during strenuous years spent in that much-neglected portion of the great British Empire....

In 1824 the British Government founded a settlement on Melville Island, and subsequently others on the mainland; but they were not a success, and the last one was abandoned in 1849.

In 1864 the South Australian Government attempted to form a settlement at Escape Cliffs, but it, too, proved a costly failure.

The present capital of the Northern Territory, Port Darwin, may be said to have been first settled in 1869. As the name "Northern Territory" does not convey an adequate idea of the situation of the territory so named, I will give, as briefly as possible, the fuller information needed.

The Northern Territory, then, is the northern portion of the Australian Continent that was annexed to South Australia by Royal Letters Patent in 1863. It is bound on the north by the Arafura Sea, or Indian Ocean; on the south by the 26th parallel of latitude; on the east by the 138th meridian of east longitude, and on the west by the 129th meridian of east longitude. This vast region contains approximately 531,400 square miles, or 340,096,000 acres; about equal in area to that of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy combined. It is nearly four-and-a-half (4½) times the size of the United Kingdom; while in some of the cattle stations two Yorkshires could be dropped.

The coast, of which there is a line of 1,200 miles, is for the most part low and flat, bounded by sandy beaches at intervals, but generally by mud flats and mangroves....

Elsie R. Masson, An Untamed Territory: the Northern Territory of Australia (1915)

http://www.archive.org/details/untamedt ... 00massuoft

The material for this book was collected in the Northern Territory during the years 1913 and 1914. I am deeply indebted to the Administrator of the Northern Territory and Mrs. Gilruth, who made it possible for me to study life in Darwin, and also to see something of the more outlying parts of the Territory, such as the country round the Darwin to Pine Creek Railway Line, the Daly River, the Alligator River, and the northern coast as far as the Roper River in the Gulf of Carpentaria....

[Antipatros]

The frontispiece and vignette to this volume are both taken from photographs of Messrs Shepherd & Bourne of Calcutta and Simla, who sent up an expedition into Spiti, and have provided the public with many admirable photographs of Himalayan scenery, all, or most of which, are obtainable in London. The frontispiece represents a view in the Shigri Valley, or Valley of Glaciers, looking down the Chandra river, near to where my first camp in that valley was pitched; but the snow has been brought down a little lower by the lithographer, in order to represent the scene as it was when I saw it; and the figure of a yak, along with something like my tent, have been added to the foreground.

Andrew Wilson, The Abode of Snow (1875)

Observations on a journey from Chinese Tibet to the Indian Caucasus, through the upper valleys of the Himalaya

http://www.archive.org/details/abodeofs ... 00wilsuoft

I have heard of an American backwoodsman who, on finding some people camping about twenty miles from his log cabin, rushed back in consternation to his wife and exclaimed, "Pack thee up, Martha — pack thee up! it's getting altogether too crowded hereabouts." The annoyance which this worthy complained of is very generally felt at present; and, go almost where he may, the lover of peace and solitude will soon have reason to complain that the country round him is becoming "altogether too crowded." As for the enterprising and exploring traveller who desires to make a reputation for himself by his explorations, his case is even worse. Kafiristan, Chinese Tibet, and the very centre of Africa, indeed remain for him; but, wherever he may go, he cannot escape the painful conviction that his track will ere long be trodden ground, aud that the special correspondent, the trained reporter, will soon try to obliterate his footsteps. It was not so in older times. The man who went out to see a strange country, if he were fortunate enough to return to his friends alive, became an authority on that country to the day of his death, and continued so for generations afterwards if he had only used his wits well. An accurate description of a country usually stood good for a century or two at least, and for that period there was no one to dispute it; but the Khiva of 1872 is fundamentally different from the Khiva of 1875; and could we stand to-day where Burton, half-blinded, first beheld Lake Tanganyika, or where Speke stood sublimely alone a few years ago at Murchison Falls, when he was accomplishing the heroic feat of passing (for the first time in authentic history) from Zanzibar to Cairo, through the ground where the Nile unquestionably takes its rise, we should probably see an English steamboat, with Colonel Gordon, or one of his officers, on board, moving over the waters of Central Africa. For the change in the relations of one country with another, which has been effected by steam as a means of propulsion, is of a most radical kind; and it proceeds so rapidly, that by the time the little girls at our knees are grandmothers, and have been fired with that noble ambition to see the world which possesses the old ladies of our own day, it will be only a question of money and choice with them as to having a cruise upon the lakes of Central Africa, or going to reason with the Grand Lama of Tibet upon the subject of polyandry.

Such a process, however, will always leave room for books of travel by those who are specially qualified either to understand nature or describe mankind; and there are regions of the world, the natural conformation of which will continue to exclude ordinary travellers until we have overcome the difficulty of flying through the air. Especially are such regions to be found in the Himalaya — which, according to the Sanscrit, literally means "The Abode of Snow" — and indeed in the whole of that enormous mass of mountains which really stretches across Asia and Europe, from the China Sea to the Atlantic, and to which Arab geographers have given the expressive title of "The Stony Girdle of the Earth." It is to the loftiest valleys and almost the highest peaks of that range that I would conduct my readers from the burning plains of India, in the year 1873, in the hope of finding themes of interest, if not many matters of absolute novelty. I have had the privilege of discoursing from and on many mountains — mountains in Switzerland and Beloochistan, China and Japan — and would now speak

"Of vales more wild and mountains more sublime."...

[Antipatros]

Arnold Henry Savage Landor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Henry_Savage_Landor

A. Henry Savage-Landor, Corea or Cho-sen (1895)

The land of the morning calm

http://www.archive.org/details/coreaorc ... 00landrich
HTML: http://www.archive.org/download/coreaor ... 3128-h.htm

In this book I have sought to present the reader with some dry facts about Corea and the Coreans. I have attempted to describe the manners and customs of the people as accurately as possible from the impressions which my visit to their country left upon me, but of course I do not claim that these personal opinions expressed are absolutely infallible. My sojourn extended over several months, and I never during all that time neglected any opportunity of studying the natives, giving my observations as they were made a permanent form by the aid both of pen and of brush....

A. Henry Savage-Landor, Alone with the Hairy Ainu (1893)

Or, 3800 miles on a pack saddle in Yezo and a cruise to the Kurile islands

http://www.archive.org/details/alonewithhairyai00land

This book is not meant as a literary work, for I am not and do not pretend to be a literary man. It is but a record — an amplified log-book, as it were — of what befell me during my solitary peregrinations in Hokkaido, and a collection of notes and observations which I hope will prove interesting to anthropologists and ethnologists as well as to the general public.

Without any claim to infallibility I have tried to take an open-minded and sensible view of everything I have attempted to describe; in most cases, however, I have given facts without passing an opinion at all, and all I have said I have tried to express as simply and plainly as possible, so as not to give rise to misunderstandings.

There are a few points which I want to make quite clear.

First, that I went to Hokkaido entirely on my own account and for my own satisfaction. Next, that I accomplished the whole journey (some 4200 miles, out of which 3800 were ridden on horseback and on a rough pack-saddle) perfectly alone. By alone I mean that I had with me no friends, no servants, and no guides. My baggage consisted of next to nothing, so far as articles for my own convenience or comfort were concerned. I carried no provisions and no tent.

I am endowed with a very sensitive nature, and I pride myself in possessing the gift of adaptability to an extreme degree, and this may partly explain why and how I could live so long with and like the Ainu, whose habits and customs, as my readers will see, are somewhat different to ours.

When I go to a country I do my best to be like one of the natives themselves, and, whether they are savage or not, I endeavour to show respect for them and their ideas, and to conform to their customs for the time being. I make up my mind that what is good for them must be good enough for me, and though I have occasionally had to swear at myself for "doing in Ainuland as the Ainu does," especially as regards the food, I was not much the worse for it in the end. I never use force when I can win with kindness, and in my small experience in Hokkaido and other countries I have always found that real savages in their simplicity are most "gentleman-like" people. With few exceptions they are good-natured, dignified, and sensible, and the chances are that if you are fair to them they will be fair to you. Civilised savages and barbarians I always found untrustworthy and dangerous.

The Island of Yezo, with the smaller islands near its coast, and the Kurile group, taken together, are called "the Hokkaido." The Hokkaido extends roughly from 41" to 51° latitude north, and between 139° and 157° longitude east of Greenwich....

[Antipatros]

Edward Pellew, sans Hornblower:

Edward Osler, The Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth (1835)

http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofad ... 00oslerich

The following Memoir has been undertaken with the sanction of Lord Exmouth's elder and only surviving brother, whose recollections, and a correspondence which extends over more than fifty years, in which Lord Exmouth communicates his views and motives without reserve, have supplied the chief materials for a personal history. On points of service, officers who were prominently engaged have given every assistance; and the whole has been completed by a reference to documents in the public offices.

The example, like the services, of an eminent public man, belongs to his country. The author has therefore felt it a duty to make this work accessible to all, by compressing it within the smallest compass. Few letters are necessary to illustrate a life so crowded with incident: and the most simple narrative of Lord Exmouth's actions is best calculated to display his character.

Abraham V. Salamé, A Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers in the year 1816 (1819)

Under the command of the Right Hon. Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth

http://www.archive.org/details/narrativeofexped00sala

[Antipatros]

Commodore Matthew C. Perry, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856)

Performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by order of the government of the United States

Francis L. Hawks, ed.

Vol. 1: http://www.archive.org/details/narrativeofexpe01perr

Viewed in any of its aspects, the Empire of Japan has long presented to the thoughtful mind an object of uncommon interest. And this interest has been greatly increased by the mystery with which, for the last two centuries, an exclusive policy has sought to surround the institutions of this remarkable country. The curiosity of Christendom has been on the alert; and the several votaries of various pursuits have naturally longed to add more to the little that is known of this self-isolated Kingdom.

The political inquirer, for instance, has wished to study in detail the form of government, the administration of laws, and the domestic institutions, under which a nation systematically prohibiting intercourse with the rest of the world has attained to a state of civilization, refinement, and intelligence, the mere glimpses of which so strongly invite further investigation.

The student of physical geography, aware how much national characteristics are formed or modified by peculiarities of physical structure in every country, would fain know more of the lands and the seas, the mountains and the rivers, the forests and the fields, which fall within the limits of this almost terra incognita.

The naturalist asks, what is its geology, what are its flora and fauna?

The navigator seeks to find out its rocks and shoals, its winds and currents, its coasts and harbors.

The man of commerce asks to be told of its products and its trade, its skill in manufactures, the commodities it needs, and the returns it can supply.

The ethnologist is curious to pry into the physical appearance of its inhabitants; to dig, if possible, from its language the fossil remains of long buried history; and in the affiliation of its people to supply, perchance, a gap in the story of man's early wanderings over the globe.

The scholar asks to be introduced to its literature that he may contemplate in historians, poets, and dramatists, (for Japan has them all,) a picture of the national mind....

Volume 2 consists of various scientific papers on Japan; volume 3 of Observations on the Zodiacal Light.

Robert Tomes, The Americans in Japan (1857)

An abridgement of the Government narrative of the U. S. Expedition to Japan, under Commodore Perry

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924008787677

The acquisition of California brought the United States closer to Asia. This nearer approach naturally suggested the advantage of cultivating a more intimate intercourse with Eastern nations. Among these was Japan, a country which, by the strange policy of its people, had been excluded for centuries from relationship with the rest of the world.

Japan not only offered in its natural resources and the skilful industry of its inhabitants, which had been so highly extolled by travellers, an attraction to the commercial enterprise of the United States, but in its peculiar isolation a provocative of the proverbial inquisitiveness of Americans. Apart, too, from the interest which attached to Japan on its own account, attention was fixed upon that country in consequence of its lying directly in the course from California to China, and its reputed possession of coal, upon which the development of our intercourse with the Chinese and other Eastern nations, by means of steam-navigation, depended.

The obvious advantages of establishing friendly relations with the Japanese became naturally a subject of reflection and discussion with many. Among these, Commodore Perry was early distinguished for the warmth of his interest in the question of opening Japan to commercial intercourse; and to him is due the credit of having proposed to the government the expedition, as to him belongs the honor of the successful result, which it is the purpose of this book to narrate....

[Antipatros]

More Low Colonialism than High Adventure, but an interesting and important historical incident nonetheless.

Congratulations, Ibrahim. You've managed to combine mindless political correctness with implicit bigotry against both Americans and Japanese. As a misanthrope, I find that inspiring.

[Antipatros]

Copper Canyon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Canyon

Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barranca del Cobre) is a group of canyons consisting of six distinct canyons in the Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. The overall canyon system is larger and portions are deeper than the Grand Canyon in neighboring Arizona. The canyons were formed by six rivers which drain the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara (a part of the Sierra Madre Occidental). All six rivers merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty into the Sea of Cortez. The walls of the canyon are a copper/green color which is where the name originates....

Copper Canyon traditional inhabitants are the Tarahumara or Rarámuri....

Frederick Schwatka, In the Land of Cave and Cliff Dwellers (1893)

http://www.archive.org/details/inlandofcaveclif00schw

Preface

This book records in a popular way the adventures, researches, and other doings of two expeditions sent into Northern Mexico in the years 1889 and 1890, the patron of the first being America and of the other The Herald, both Chicago publications. The story is told, however, as if it were a continuous undertaking, to make it more succinct and interesting; the public probably being uninterested in the business details, which did not vary from the usual details of that nature.

In this light the Mexican expedition easily divides itself into three quite distinct trips, the first from Deming, N.M., southward into the northwestern part of the State of Chihuahua; the second through the central part of the State of Sonora; and the third and most important from the city of Chihuahua, in the State of the same name, westward into the Sierra Madre range, that forms the boundary between the States of Sonora and Chihuahua on the northern part of the travels, and Durango and Sinaloa on the southern.

None of the travels can be strictly called exploration, although often alluded to as such in the American press, yet there were a few interesting and important facts disclosed by the researches that almost amounted to discoveries in the light of the very little that was generally known regarding them. This was especially true of the living cliff and cave dwellers found abiding in the Northern Mexican Sierra Madres, the knowledge of whose existence was seemingly confined to the native peons and laborers but little above them in the scale of intelligence, on the one side, and an exceedingly few intelligent Mexicans and foreigners, mostly engaged in mining, on the other, who either did not care to give the world any accounts of these strange beings or who had interests in keeping everything regarding this rich country as secret as possible. Quite a long residence, off and on, in our own Southwest country had somewhat familiarized me with the dwellings and relics of the cliff and cave dwellers of that region, and, in common with the general opinion, I believed they belonged to a race wholly extinct, and with no direct or indirect living representatives, at least on the North American continent. Even when the first living cliff dwellers were found in Mexico I believed they were isolated cases of depraved savages having acquired ancient dwellings, as the very lowest order of our own people occasionally seek similar habitations on the outskirts of towns and cities. But I was certainly not prepared to believe that this singular and savage race was so extensively distributed and so distinct from all others in its characteristics; and this belief was undoubtedly universal, as shown in the comments elicited by the discovery. Whether there are any relations existing between the extinct cliff and cave dwellers of our own country and those now existing in Mexico is a technically scientific question that I was not prepared to investigate, both because the discovery was wholly unexpected, and (still more important) because destitute of a sufficient knowledge of the subject to do so. Had I been able to overcome both obstacles, however, I could have done no more than to leave the subject in the shape of an incomplete theory at the best, as all similar ethnological discussions have been left; and I doubt if this would have added to or subtracted from the more definite purpose of being the first to consider them in any light whatsoever. Such information as I obtained regarding this most curious people and their strange country is related in the following pages.

Frederick Schwatka.

[Antipatros]

This is also not high adventure, but fascinating nonetheless, in my opinion. Mexican tourism has suffered from the drug cartel war and a series of well-publicised attacks on tourists. Still, Guanajuato is only 574 miles from Urique, Copper Canyon -- practically next door -- and certainly not stereotypical Mexico....

Guanajuato, Guanajuato

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanajuato,_Guanajuato

Guanajuato is a city and municipality in central Mexico and the capital of the state of the same name. It is located in a narrow valley, which makes the streets of the city narrow and winding. Most are alleys that cars cannot pass through, and some are long sets of stairs up the mountainsides. Many of the city’s thoroughfares are partially or fully underground. The historic center of the city has numerous small plazas and colonial-era mansions, churches and civil constructions built using pink or green sandstone.

The origin and growth of the city resulted from the discovery of mines in the mountains surrounding it. The mines were so rich that the city was one of the most influential during the colonial period. One of the mines, La Valenciana, accounted for two-thirds of the world’s silver production at the height of its production....

In the 18th century, it was the world’s leading silver extraction center, making it the richest city in Mexico for much of the early colonial period. The production of the La Valenciana mine alone affected the world economy, and made the Counts of Valencianas one of the most powerful families in New Spain. The city was one of the richest and most opulent in New Spain in the 18th century. This wealth is manifested in its civil and religious architecture. The colonial architecture includes some of the best Baroque and Churrigueresque examples in the New World — such as the Valenciana, Cata, and La Compañia Churches, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato. Most constructions from this time are of pink or green sandstone. In the churches, the Baroque altars were gilded with gold from local mines....

Guanajuato in Black & White

Photos taken Winter 2010

http://www.archive.org/download/Guanaju ... toInBW.wmv

Mrs. Peter M. Myers, A City of Dreams (Guanajuato) (1908)

http://www.archive.org/details/cityofdr ... 00myerrich

After a sleep of a hundred years, Guanajuato is "waking up," an American resident of Mexico City said to me one day, and I tried to think what the old place would be like "waked up". Guanajuato — away up in the mountains, sleeping on the hillsides, the most dreamily picturesque city on all the North American continent — waking up! It was like hearing ill tidings of a friend, for the waking up process does not help quaint old Mexican cities, at least not for the idler or artist, or even for the every day tourista. On a former visit there were threatening signs of commercialism, and knowing what American capital and hustle and bustle can do for one of these drowsy places, I hurried away to Guanajuato, as one friend might fly to another in distress....

Because it is so hidden away in the hills, few travelers into Mexico realize the proximity of Guanajuato, or that it is a city of sixty thousand people, and was once one of the most famous mining camps of the world. It is historic, too, and so old that its history can hardly be traced, though there are many stories and traditions in regard to its origin. Certainly its reason for beginning was in the rich ores stored away in the surrounding mountains. Comparatively few tourists find their way here, as it is twenty miles from the main line of railway, but the heart of the traveler must be dead indeed if it fails to be rejoiced by a few days in this charmingly queer Old place. It is built in a barranca — one of many in a labyrinth of mountains — and as the city grew it had of necessity to climb the steep hills, and economise in room even to inches, compelling narrowest streets and flat roofs. Of course there is much of Spain about it, and somewhat of Italy too, but it resembles a Syrian city more than any other, and world-wide travelers say that certain parts of Guanajuato might be almost reproductions of Bethlehem, while others might be Jerusalem itself. The houses are of mud bricks, many of them not even plastered over, and the washing of many rains has given them a look of crumbling age which might carry them back to the time when the bright shining of a star guided wise men to a Bethlehem manger. There is a distinct flavor of the Orient about it all, and if camels and turbaned riders should come into the picture it would not seem over-strange. As in the far East, the flat roofs serve far beyond shelter; they are the yard, the veranda, the balcony, the mirador, the place of retreat and the meeting place of friends. Its winding little thoroughfares can hardly be called streets, except in the business part; they are mostly narrow paths, and in a few places it is possible even to reach across and touch the opposite wall. These little streets meander aimlessly up the mountains, playing hide and seek with one another and giving at every turn the most exquisite bits for the brush of an artist. There is no such thing as walking on a level in Guanajuato. It is up or down, usually in a most decided manner, and crossing from one street to another is often by a stairway of cobble stones. The houses cling to the rocks, and overhang the ledges, and the zigzagging little by-ways lead from one delight to another. Cameras may not catch these pictures, and as yet no artist has been able to faithfully reproduce them. The one who can do so will make himself forever dear to all lovers of art.

One's pen may run riot with adjectives and enthusiasm, and yet give no real pictures of Guanajuato, so illusive are they....

[Typhoon]

BBC | James Cameron back on surface after deepest ocean dive

Hollywood director James Cameron has returned to the surface after plunging nearly 11km (seven miles) down to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

He made the solo descent in a submarine called Deepsea Challenger, taking over two hours to reach the bottom.

He spent more than four hours exploring the ocean floor, before a speedy ascent back to the surface.

His craft was kitted out with cameras so he could film the deep in 3D.

"It was absolutely the most remote, isolated place on the planet," Mr Cameron told BBC News.

"I really feel like in one day I've been to another planet and come back."

Virgin Oceanic is not the only bid to reach the very deepest part of the ocean: National Geographic and filmmaker James Cameron are also mounting an attempt.

James Cameron to Dive to Ocean's Deepest Point
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Cameron Dive First Attempt in Over 50 Years
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Long Way Down: Mariana Trench
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Sounding the Deepest Spot on Earth
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Expedition website: deepseachallenge.com

[Antipatros]

James Cameron Breaks Solo Dive Record
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http://deepseachallenge.com/video/james ... ve-record/

[Antipatros]

If Henry Savage Landor's story is to be fully believed, then alongside it the adventures of most of his rivals pale into insignificance. This colourful individual had first set his sights on Lhasa while passing through China in 1891. In his memoirs — characteristically entitled Everywhere — he recounts: 'I had been told of the terrible trials one had to endure to reach it. The natives of Tibet were fanatically barbarous. A white man going into that country had no chance of coming back alive. All that gave me an invincible desire to visit that strange country.'

That this grandson of the cantankerous Victorian poet Walter Savage Landor was born with more than a normal streak of perversity in him was something that he would hardly have denied. Typically he tells us: 'It was, in my day, impossible to penetrate into Tibet from the south through India. Strong guards were placed on the principal Himalayan passes. It was from there that I made up my mind to enter.' Headstrong and arrogant like his grandfather (who is alleged once to have thrown his cook out of the window), he chose to make a living by seeking out the world's more outlandish spots and writing about his adventures there. His undoubted talents as an artist and photographer he used to dramatic effect in illustrating books which enjoyed a considerable public. Tibet — remote, forbidden and thoroughly mysterious — was tailor-made for Henry and his readers.

His is a most extraordinary tale, and the reader must make up his own mind whether to believe all, or merely some of it. There can be no question that the broad outlines are true, as will become evident later. But for the details, always lurid and frequently bizarre, one has to rely upon his own written narrative….

--Peter Hopkirk, Trespassers on the Roof of the World (1982), at 114-115.

A.H. Savage Landor, In the Forbidden Land (1909)

An account of a journey into Tibet, capture by the Tibetan lamas and soldiers, imprisonment, torture and ultimate release.

http://archive.org/details/inforbiddenlanda00savauoft

Hastily written, and when the author was in broken health from wounds and tortures endured in the Forbidden Land, this book was not intended as a literary effort, but merely as an unvarnished record of a journey of exploration taken in Tibet in the year 1897.

The following were the geographical results of the expedition:

First. The discovery of the two principal sources of the Brahmaputra River, never before visited by white man.

Second. Fixing the position of the highest peaks of what has lately been described as the "new Trans-Himalaya" range. The first description of the geographical importance, or non-importance, of this so-called new range.

Third. The solution of the geographical controversy regarding a supposed connecting stream between the lakes Mansarowar and Rakastal in Tibet. The author's contention that no visible communication exists has since been proved correct by later explorers....

During the journey an area of 12,500 square miles, in Tibet proper, was surveyed and mapped. It is a satisfaction to the author to find his map of that country copied, even traced, by later explorers.

The illustrations are from the author's own photographs for the first portion of the journey. For the latter part of the journey the illustrations are from sketches also taken by the author. The torture scenes are of course drawn from memory

A.H. Savage Landor, Tibet & Nepal (1905)

Painted & described by A. Henry Savage Landor

http://archive.org/details/tibetnepal00landiala

[Antipatros]

But one heartrending tale still remains to be told — that of Charles Rijnhart, the youngest of all Tibetan travellers. He was only eleven months old when his missionary parents set out for Lhasa in the spring of 1898. Of all the attempts by westerners to reach the holy capital, theirs was perhaps the most foolhardy. Certainly it was the most heroic.

When Dutch-born Petrus Rijnhart and his Canadian wife Susie set their hearts on getting there it seems likely that they were unaware of the mishandling which Savage Landor had suffered only a few months earlier. Otherwise they might have thought twice, particularly as they had a young baby who obviously could not be left behind. For at that time they were living in a remote area of the Chinese-Tibetan borderlands, cut off from all news of the outside world. This newly-wed couple, not sent by any missionary society but financed by the donations of friends and from their own savings, had left home in the autumn of 1894. Their first goal was the remote but famous monastery of Kumbum where, six years earlier, William Rockhill had spent a month, disguised as a pilgrim, before making his unsuccessful attempt to reach Lhasa.

Their arrival in the region had coincided with the Moslem uprising of 1895. Susie Rijnhart was a doctor, and she and her husband had endeared themselves to the local people by treating the wounded as well as victims of smallpox and diphtheria. The abbot of Kumbum monastery, fearing for their safety, had invited them to move into the lamasery. Here the Rijnharts had set up a small medical centre, sharing months of terror with the inhabitants whose friendship and confidence they thus managed to win. But Lhasa was really their goal, and before long they felt the call to move on. They transferred their base to the village of Tankar, some twenty-five miles to the north-west and astride the great caravan route to Lhasa. Here, in addition to the Chinese and Tibetan they already spoke, they learned Mongolian. Here, too, their only child Charles was born.

The Rijnharts' plan was to move once more, this time as near as possible to Lhasa, settle there for a year of medical and evangelical work, and only then try to reach the holy city. Their Tibetan friends had warned them that although they might safely venture to within a day's march of the capital, they must not try to enter it because, as Europeans, they would defile it. But the Rijnharts were determined to reach Lhasa, though they confided this to no one. 'We knew,' wrote Susie Rijnhart in her remarkable account of their experiences, With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple, 'that if ever the gospel were proclaimed in Lhasa, someone would have to be the first to undertake the journey, to meet the difficulties, to preach the first sermon, and perhaps never return to tell the tale .... ' The message of Christ, she added, could hardly be preached in the Buddhist stronghold 'without some suffering, some persecution, nay without tears and blood'. Before their journey was finished, the Rijnharts would suffer all these. They had lived on the edge of Tibet long enough to realise the grave risks they were taking, not merely with the authorities in Lhasa but more immediately with the bandits who roamed the lawless region through which they must first pass. One could be excused for wondering whether the Rijnharts were not bent on martyrdom….

—Peter Hopkirk, Trespassers on the Roof of the World (1982), at 137-138.

Dr. Susie Carson Rijnhart, With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple (1901)

Narrative of four years' residence on the Tibetan border, and of a journey into the far interior

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ ... etans.html