Explorers From England

"[I]f I ever travel again, I shall trust to none but natives, as the climate of Africa is too trying to foreigners."

"The expedition had now performed its functions. I saw that old father Nile without any doubt rises in the Victoria Nyanza, and as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief."

"The gruff hippopotamus is ... found wherever there is water to float him; whilst the shy giraffe and zebra affect all open forests and plains where the grass is not too long; and antelopes, of great variety in species and habits, are found wherever man will let them alone and they can find water. The lion is, however, rarely heard — much more seldom seen. Hyenas are numerous, and thievishly inclined. Leopards, less common, are the terror of the villagers. Foxes are not numerous, but frighten the black traveller by their ill-omened bark."

"The prowling, restless elephant, ... though rarely seen, leaves indications of his nocturnal excursions in every wilderness, by wantonly knocking down the forest-trees. The morose rhinoceros, though less numerous, are found in every thick jungle. So is the savage buffalo, especially delighting in dark places, where he can wallow in the mud and slake his thirst without much trouble."

"The children play At hide and seek About the monument To Speke. And why should the dead Explorer mind Who has nothing to seek And nothing to find?"

"I profess accurately to describe naked Africa—Africa in those places where it has not received the slightest impulse, whether for good or evil, from European civilisation."

"To say a negro is incapable of instruction, is a mere absurdity; for those few boys who have been educated in our schools have proved themselves even quicker than our own at learning; whilst, amongst themselves, the deepness of their cunning and their power of repartee are quite surprising, and are especially shown in their proficiency for telling lies most appropriately in preference to truth, and with an off-handed manner that makes them most amusing."

"It has been said, and with more than element of truth, that the least important part of education is the acquisition of knowledge. The facts of nature, as such, have intense fascination for the nature-lover, yet the value of a mere knowledge of facts may easily be over-estimated. Facts are really s, the value of which lies in the uses to which they may be put. Of far deeper importance, therefore, than the mere committing of facts to memory, is the acquisition of correct habits of study. Habits, that is, of patient and accurate observation, and of clear and logical interpretation and correlation of the facts observed. Facts may be forgotten, but habits remain."

"Each has two (sometimes three or more) thin flat ..., at the base of each of which is a swollen part, lined with hairs and containing a single seed. The seed is covered by a thin brown testa. If you scrape away the testa you will find the inside, consisting, as in the , of a , two s, and a very minute plumule. The cotyledons are green and long and narrow, and are coiled into a sort of ball ...; they too contain a store of food."

"and factors, though frequently of great importance, are usually indirect in their action, influencing plants by modifying more direct factors. Thus s influence . Local differences of or affect , light, wind and drainage. Associated plants modify light and for each other. , s, etc., exert a far-reaching influence on the chemical and physical characters of the soil, and so on."

"... ' is widely spread over the north temperate and colder regions of the . In Great Britain it is a common plant, being found in the whole of 's 112 counties, ... whilst its altitudinal range is from the coast to some 2,700 above sea-level.... Itself a characteristic plant of the drier parts of marshes and s, ... the habitat of ' is usually where the is considerable rather than excessive. It prefers soils with a high water capacity, such as or . Provided that its needs in respect to soil moisture are satisfied, it will grow almost anywhere: at the edges of marshes and rivers; in the damper parts of meadows; in roadside ditches; on the sea-coast; ... in damp hollows between sand-dunes; ... and even in woods, if the shade is not too dense. ... It readily colonizes moist ground which has been recently disturbed; and hence frequently establishes itself at the foot of railway embankments, &c."

"During our march the simoom was fearful, and the heat so intense that it was impossible to draw the guncases out of their leather covers, which it was necessary to cut open. All woodwork was warped; ivory knife-handles were split; paper broke when crunched in the hand, and the very marrow seemed to be dried out of the bones. The extreme dryness of the air induced an extraordinary amount of electricity in the hair and in all woollen materials. A Scotch plaid laid upon a blanket for a few hours adhered to it, and upon being withdrawn at night a sheet of flame was produced, accompanied by tolerably loud reports."

"Jaguars are very common on the cattle plains, and the great sport is not to shoot them, but to lasso them on horseback. Two men take part, keeping the roped beast between them. It requires good mounts and considerable dexterity with the lasso, but given these it is not nearly so dangerous a sport as it sounds."

"No Government inspector who valued his skin would venture into the rubber country and send back an honest report. The arm of vengeance was long, and in the Montaña life was very cheap. For instance, a judge was sent to the Acre to get evidence of the particularly brutal murder of an Austrian, and found that powerful people on the rivers were involved. Had he told what he knew, he would never have left there alive. It was prudent to say nothing, to return safely to the Altiplano with a nice gift of 'hush money' and to close the case by paying a small compensation to the relatives. Who can blame him?"

"To the Munares of dead mens heads made bv Abdulla Ckaun [’Abdull’ah Khān] are added since our comeinge this way by Furzand Ckaun [Farzand Khān] about 60 more with 35 or 40 heads a peece, lately killed."

"Here is a Hindooe Dewra ruinated, it seems by Moores envieing its beautie, adorned on the outside with the best Carved worke that I have seene in India, verie spacious and high, yett not a handbreadth from the foote to the topp but was Curiously wrought with the figures of men and weomen etts. their fabulous stories. Now the said Edifice is defaced by the throwing downe the Copulaes, Arches and pillars thereof, breaking the Armes, Leggs and Noses of the said images…"

"If I have failed in discovering a Continent it is because it does not exist."

"New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that it joyns neither to Africa, Asia, or America."

"Neere Etaya [Etāwa] there was a new Munare a makeinge with a great heape of heads lyeing by them, ready to bee immortered."

"After we had been here a little while, the Men began to be familiar, and we cloathed some of them, designing to have had some service from them for it: for we found some Wells of Water here, and intended to carry 2 or 3 barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to carry to the Canaos, we thought to have made these men to have carry'd it for us, and therefore we gave them some Cloathes; to one an old pair of Breeches, to another a ragged Shirt, to a third a Jacket that was scarce worth owning; which yet would have been very acceptable at some places where we had been, and so we thought they might have been with these People. We put them on, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us; and our Water being filled in small long Barrels, about 6 gallons in each, which were made purposely to carry Water in, we brought these our new Servants to the Wells, and put a Barrel on each of their Shoulders for them to carry to the Canao. But all the signs we could make were to no purpose, for they stood like Statues, without motion, but grinned like so many monkeys, staring one upon another: For these poor Creatures seem'd not accustomed to carry Burdens: and I believe that one of our Ship Boys of 10 Years old, would carry as much as one of them. So we were forced to carry our Water ourselves; and they very fairly put the Cloaths off again, and laid them down, as if the Cloaths were only to work in. I did not perceive that they had any liking to them at first; neither did they seem to admire anything that we had."

"A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World (1700)"

"From what I have said of the Natives of New-Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquillity which is not disturb'd by the Inequality of Condition: The Earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff &c., they live in a warm and fine Climate and enjoy a very wholesome Air. ... In short they seem'd to set no Value upon any thing we gave them, nor would they ever part with any thing of their own for any one article we could offer them; this in my opinion argues that they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of Life and that they have no superfluities."

"The study of Cook is the illumination of all discovery."

"It is rare to find a man so representative of his period as was Peter Mundy. In an age when curiosity was the outstanding characteristic of intelligent Englishmen, curiosity was the ruling passion of this life. ... His insatiable appetite for information, his eye for detail, his desire for accuracy, would have made him in modern times a first-rate scientist. ... True to his period, also, was his heartlessness ... he was more interested in the appearances of things than their implications in the lives of human beings. ... But if he was unfeeling, he was by no means insensitive; each strange item in the surprising world he had inherited is described with a spontaneous brilliance seldom to be found in modern writing."

"... I Doe allsoe conffesse thatt Many things are Misplaced, as some First that should bee last, and soe to the Contrary; allsoe some things therin mought bee better lefftt outt and others omitted Were better in there place. Thus For Matter and phrase. All this allsoe I could Mend, and When I had Don, even begin againe, butt, as I said, the phrase is sutable to the Matter. Yett, however, lett this one thing breed some better liking off itt, Thatt I have endeavoured to com as Near the truth off the Matters Discribed as possibly I could attain unto by my owne experience or the Most probablest Relation off others."

"I whose ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go ..."

"Voyage to New Holland in the Year 1699 (2 parts: 1703, 1709)"

"From Buckever hither were above 200 Munaries' [mīnār, pillar], with heads mortered and plaistered in, leaveinge out nothing but their verie face, some 30, some 40, some more some lesse. This was Abdula Ckauns exploit (whoe is now Governour of Puttana), by the kings Order. For this way was soe pestered with Rebbells and Theeves, that there was noe passinge; soe that the Kinge sent Abdulla Ckaun, with 12,000 horse and 20,000 foote to suppresse them, whoe destroyed all their Townes', tooke all their goods, their wives and children for slaves, and the cheifest of their men, causeing their heads to bee cutt of and to be immortered as before [depicted]."

"For the aborigins of Australia, and to a lesser extent for the Maori of New Zealand, the Cook expedition was the beginning of a catastrophe from which they have never fully recovered."

"The Inhabitants of this Country are the miserablest People in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for Wealth are Gentlemen to these; who have no Houses and skin Garments, Sheep, Poultry, and Fruits of the Earth, Ostrich Eggs, &c. as the Hodmadods have: And setting aside their human Shape, they differ but little from Brutes. They are tall, strait-bodied, and thin, with small long Limbs. They have great Heads, round Foreheads, and great Brows. Their Eye-lids are always half closed, to keep the Flies out of their eyes: they being so troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from coming to ones Face; and without the assistance of both Hands to keep them off, they will creep into ones Nostrils; and Mouth too, if the Lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy being thus annoyed with these Insects, they do never open their Eyes, as other People: And therefore they cannot see far; unless they hold up their Heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them."

"Sire, To whom can the Missionary Society so properly dedicate these first-fruits of their labours as to Your Majesty, by whose order the voyages of discovery were first undertaken, which have brought into view the numerous islands dispersed over the Pacific Ocean? The reports made concerning them attracts the general attention of European nations; and Your Majesty's subjects felt themselves peculiarly interested, whether their views led them to confider these discoveries as tending to enlarge the bounds of science, or as opening a field of commercial speculation. A nobler object, Sire, has engaged the attention of the Missionary Society, who, believing CHRISTIANITY to be the greatest blessing ever imparted to mankind, desired to communicate that inestimable gift, with all its happy effects, to these unenlightened regions."

"India, you know, hath ever been famed for affording convenient places of accommodation to the traveller, who, at the distance of eight or ten miles, seldom fails meeting with a public lodging, or a reservoir of water, where he may perform his ablutions, and quench his thirst. As the greater part of the inhabitants of India, from a simplicity of life, and the clement state of their climate, have but few superfluous wants, a slight defence against the sun and rain, a small portion of clothing, with plain food, constitute a large share of their real ones. In Upper India, the economy of Karawan Serah, or, as it is usually called, the Serauce, is conducted by better regulations, and its conveniences more sensibly felt, than in the southern parts of India. An inclosed area, the interior sides of which contain small apartments, fronting inwards with a principal gateway, is appropriated, in every village of note, to the use of travellers. The stationary tenants of the Serauce, many of them women, and some of them very pretty, approach the traveller on his entrance, and in alluring language describe to him the various excellencies of their several lodgings. When the choice is made (which is often perplexing, so many are the inducements thrown out on all sides of him) a bed is laid out for his repose – a smoaking pipe is brought, and the utensils cleaned, for preparing his repast. The necessary sum is delivered into the hands generally of a girl, who procures the materials and dresses his meal in a most expeditious man-ner. For two domestics and myself, the horse and his keeper, the whole of my daily expenditure amounted to a sum, which as you will not credit, I will not venture to note; and on days when I was inclined to feast, the addition of two or three pence procured a sumptuous fare, with the accompaniment of a sauce, which an alderman over his callipash might sigh for."

"The Rohillas, especially the lower classes, were, with but few exceptions, the only sect of Mahometans in India who exercised the profession of husbandry; and their improvements of the various branches of agriculture, were amply recompensed by the abundance and superiour quality of the production of Rohilcund."

"Hindostan was overthrown by a fierce race of men, who in their rapid course of conquest, exerted the most furious efforts in leveling every monument of worship and taste. They massacred the priests and plundered the temples, with a keenness and ferocity, in which their first chiefs might have gloried. A people thus crushed, groaning under the load of oppression, and dismayed at the sight of incessant cruelties, must soon have lost the spirit of science, and the exertion of genius; especially as the fine arts, were so blended with their system of religion, that the persecution of the one, must have shed a baneful influence on the existence of the other. To decide on, or affix, the character of the Hindoo, from the point of view in which he is now beheld, would, in a large degree, be similar to the attempt of conveying an exact idea of ancient Greece, from the materials now presented by the wretched country.…"

"When this empire, its polished people, and the progress which science had made amongst them, are attentively considered; when, at the same period, a retrospective view is thrown on the states of the European world, then immersed in, or emerging from, ignorance and barbarity, we must behold Hindostan with wonder and respect; and we may assert without forfeiting the claims of truth and moderation, that, however far the European world now out-strips the nations of the East, the followers of Brimha in the early period of life, were possessed of a fund amply stored with valuable materials of philosophy and useful knowledge. The humane mind will naturally feel a sense of sorrow and pity for a people, who have fallen from so conspicuous a height of glory and fortune, and who probably have contributed to polish and exalt the nations, who now hold them in subjection."

"The capacious space which Hindostan occupies on the face of the globe, the advantages it derives from soil and climate, and from its numerous rivers, some of them of the first class of magnitude, may be adduced as reasonable arguments of its having been peopled at a more early period of time than Egypt, which does not possess the like local benefits. If the degree of perfection which manufactures have attained, be received as a criterion to judge of the progress of civilization, and if it be also admitted as a test of deciding on the antiquity of a people, who adopt no foreign improvements, little hesitation would occur, in bestowing the palm of precedence on Hindostan, whose fabrics of the most delicate and beautiful contexture, have been long held in admiration, and have hitherto stood unrivalled. Let me conclude this comparative view, with observing, and I trust dispassionately, that when we see a people possessed of an ample stock of science of well digested ordinances, for the protection and improvement of society – and of a religion whose tenets consist of the utmost refinement, and variety of ceremony – and, at the same time, observe amongst other Asiatic nations, and the Egyptians of former times, but partial distributions of knowledge, law, and religion – we must be led to entertain a supposition, that the proprietors of the lesser, have been supplied from the sources of the greater fund…"

"On the following day we rode to Islamabad, and on this occasion visited some remarkable remains in its vicinity, on the top of the low ridge or platform formerly noticed, and which is called Karawe Matan. The summit of this was for the most part perfectly level, and commonly a mile in breadth, and according to the report of the people of the country, was formerly the site of a large city, the capital of Kashmir. Scattered over the ground, indeed, we found fragments of mortar and bricks, but no relics of any note till we came to the end of the mound, where, at a distance of about two miles from Islamabad, stood the ruins we were in quest of. These from their elevated situation were widely conspicuous, and were of very remarkable extent and character. Like most of the architectural remains in Kashmir, they are termed Khana Panduwa, a house or palace of the Pandus. They consisted of a main building in the center of an open space, surrounded by a wall. The central structure was composed of a body and two small wings, the former about fifty-six feet long by twenty-six feet wide, running east and west, and twenty-eight feet high, was divided into two chambers of different dimensions; the western face comprised a large, lofty, arched portal, with four carved pilasters, two on each side; the eastern front had a wide recess, occupied by a false doorway, with an ornamental arch, and on the sides of which were pilasters; similar recesses decorated the northern and southern ends: opposite to these extremities also were the two wings or chambers, connected formerly by a colonnade with the center. They were built with massive walls, but the interior was not above six feet square. On the inside of the enclosing wall formerly extended a series of columns, forming a sort of portico all round, and a series of small chambers or cells ran along its outer face. The whole was constructed of stones of immense size and weight, embellished with elaborate sculpture. The roofs had generally fallen in, but where remaining, were of large flat slabs of stone. The walls were for the most part entire, their massiveness having resisted not only time and earthquakes, but the assaults of man: one of the rulers of Kashmir, Sultan Hamadan, is said to have attempted in vain to undermine the edifice, or to destroy it by fire. It is fortunate he was not acquainted with the use of gunpowder. In its present condition the palace of the Pandus is a precious specimen of ancient art, and deserves a foremost place amongst the remains of Hindu antiquity."

"The heddes of all those (of who sort soever thei were) which were killed in the daie, should be cutte off from their bodies and brought to the place where he incamped at night, and should there bee laied on the ground by eche side of the waie ledying into his owne tente so that none could come into his tente for any cause but commonly he muste passe through a lane of heddes which he used ad terrorem...[It brought] greate terrour to the people when thei sawe the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kindsfolke, and freinds..."

"An interesting psychological case, with the symptoms of disturbed personality that often go with men of mark, not at all the simple Elizabethan seaman of Froude's Victorian view. He was passionate and impulsive, a nature liable to violence and cruelty – as came out in his savage repression of rebels in Ireland – but also intellectual and visionary, a questing and original mind, with the personal magnetism that went with it. People were apt to be both attracted and repelled by him, to follow his leadership and yet be mistrustful of him."

"We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!"

"The men of war could not be maintained without their churls and calliackes, old women and those women who milked their Creaghts (cows) and provided their victuals and other necessaries. So that the killing of them by the sword was the way to kill the men of war by famine."

"Gilbert's campaign was utterly relentless, the main plank of his strategy being to spread such terror through the Irish people that they wilted in the face of his advancing troops. Thus, without having to rely on the artillery normally needed in siege warfare, Gilbert obtained the surrender of nearly forty castles in the Kerry area in just three weeks. Gilbert himself fought with great personal bravery, but the terror conducted by his forces was deliberate, systematic, gruesome and undertaken with relish — as in their practice of severing the heads of dead corpses and placing them neatly on the ground, their faces visible, to form a corridor leading to Gilbert's tent. Thus, when his enemies came to discuss the terms of their surrender, they were confronted with the decapitated heads of their ‘dead fathers, brothers, children, kinsfolk and friends’."

"Gilbert’s actions provoked the outbreak, in June 1569, of the first of the Desmond rebellions, led by the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond, who controlled much of Munster. Sidney ordered Gilbert to pursue the rebel leader James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a devout Catholic who resented the incursions of Elizabeth’s Protestant troops. Although Fitzgerald evaded capture by retreating into the hills and conducting a guerrilla war, Gilbert — now governor of Munster — pursued a policy of devastating the lands of the Desmonds. In December 1569 Sidney awarded Gilbert his knighthood, surrounded by the bloody corpses of his victims at an enemy camp that his troops had just decimated."

"In November 1578 Gilbert had made an attempt to sail to America, but was forced back by severe storms. He eventually established a colony in Newfoundland in June 1583, but drowned on the voyage home, when his ship went down in heavy seas. It was said that Gilbert had last been seen on deck reading Thomas More’s Utopia. But in the end Gilbert would not be remembered for his learning or his courage or his imagination, but for setting the brutal pattern of English colonial rule in Ireland."

"Handsome, learned, headstrong and vain, the Elizabethan adventurer Humphrey Gilbert was a brutal English conquistador who sought to establish Ireland as an English colony, terrorizing men, women and children, sometimes creating a ghoulish pathway of bodyless heads to his own tent."

"In 1562 Gilbert gained his first experience of warfare, serving under the earl of Warwick at the siege of Le Havre. He served under his mentor Sidney in Ireland in 1565, and returned there in 1569 as governor of the province of Ulster. He went on to plan an extensive English colonial settlement around Baltimore, near Cork, in the southern province of Munster, as part of the Elizabethan policy of replacing the independent Irish feudal lords with ‘lord presidencies’, military governors loyal to Elizabeth, a policy accompanied by the confiscation of land from local clans."

"“To Oude (Ajodhya) from thence are 50 c.: a citie of ancient note, and of a Potan king, now much ruined, the castle built foure hundred yeeres agoe. Heere are also the ruines of Ramchand(s) castle and houses, which the Indians acknowled(g)e for the great God, saying that he tooke flesh upon him to see the tamasha of the world. In these ruines remayne certain Bramenes, who record the names of all such Indians as wash themselves in the river running thereby: which custome, they say, hath continued foure lackes of yeeres (which is three hundred ninetie foure thousand and five hundred yeeres before the world’s creation). Some two miles on the further side of the river is a cave of his with a narrow entrance, but so spacious and full of turnings within that a man may well loose himselfe there, if he take not better heed, where it is thought his ashes were buried. Hither resort many from all parts of India, which carry from hence in remembrance certaine grains of rice as blacke as gun-powder, which they say have beene reserved ever since. Out of the ruines of this castle is yet much gold tryed. Here is great trade, and such abundance of Indian asse-horne that they make hereof bucklers and divers sorts of drinking cups. There are of these hornes, all the Indians affirime, some rare of great price, no jewell comparable, some esteeming them the right unicorns horne.”"

"Here [at Ayodhya] are also the ruins of Ranichand[s] castle and houses, which the Indians acknowledge for the great God, saying that he took flesh upon him to see the tamasha of the world."

"But with the passing of time, a peasant became a tribal and from tribal a beast. William Finch, writing at Agra about 1610 C.E., describes how Jahangir and his nobles treated them - during Shikar. A favourite form of sport in Mughal India was the Kamargha, which consisted in enclosing a tract of country by a line of guards, and then gradually contracting the enclosure until a large quantity of game was encircled in a space of convenient size. “Whatever is taken in this enclosure” (Kamargha or human circle), writes Finch, “is called the king’s shikar or game, whether men or beasts… The beasts taken, if man’s meat, are sold… if men they remain the King’s slaves, which he sends yearly to Kabul to barter for horses and dogs: these being poor, miserable, thievish people, that live in woods and deserts, little differing from beasts.”"

"William Finch writing at Agra in about 1610 says that “in hunting the men of the jungle were on the same footing as the beasts” and whatever was taken in the game was the king’s shikar (or game), whether men or beasts."