Keeping up appearances
Article Abstract:
Explorers were usually concerned about what they wore, especially when meeting important dignitaries in remote regions. Samuel Baker once wore full Highland dress to meet a Central African despot because his other clothes were in tatters. Hugh Clapperton, eager to impress the natives of Kano, who had never seen a European, put on a British naval officer's uniform and marched into town. No one looked at him. Richard and John Lander were ridiculed by locals as they searched for the Niger river's course because they were outlandishly dressed in giant straw hats and Turkish trousers.
Publication Name: Geographical Magazine
Subject: Petroleum, energy and mining industries
ISSN: 0016-741X
Year: 1997
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The search for the source
Article Abstract:
The search for the source of the Nile river in Africa reached obsessive and mythological proportions for European explorers from the 15th to 19th centuries. Ancient civilizations theorized as to the source of the river, but the Portuguese were the first explorers to set out in earnest. The Spaniard Pedro Paez found the source of the Blue Nile in 1618, but the source of the White Nile was undiscovered until the 19th century. In 1858, British officer John Hanning Speke correctly posited that Lake Victoria was the source of the world's longest river.
Publication Name: Geographical Magazine
Subject: Petroleum, energy and mining industries
ISSN: 0016-741X
Year: 1995
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