Verney Lovett Cameron

Verney Lovett Cameron in 1878

Verney Lovett Cameron
(1844-1894)

Verney Lovett Cameron (born July 1, 1844 in Radipole near Weymouth ( Dorset ), † March 27, 1894 in Soulsbury (Leighton-Buzzard)) was an important British explorer of Africa. He was the first European to cross Central Africa from east to west. The distance of this crossing was about 5800 kilometers.

The son of a vicar entered the British Navy at the age of 13 and gained not only nautical but also linguistic knowledge by traveling in the Mediterranean, the West Indies and the Red Sea. At the age of 13, Cameron became a cadet in 1857 and a commander at 32 .

From Bagamoyo to Lake Tanganyika

1872 Cameron was by Sir Henry Bartle Frere appointed leader of the Livingstone-East Coast expedition of the London Royal Geographical Society was equipped and their task was that of Henry Morton Stanley retrieved traveler David Livingstone deliver new tools. Accompanied by a former sea mate, the naval doctor Dr. WE Dillon, Cameron left England on November 30, 1872 and traveled to Zanzibar via Cairo and Suez . In Aden , Cameron and Dillon met another traveling companion, the artillery lieutenant Cecil Murphy, who followed them to Zanzibar in February 1873.

Cameron and Dillon arrived in Zanzibar in January 1873. The simultaneous presence of Sir Bartle Frere was disadvantageous for the travelers: both Arabs and natives, who profited from the slave trade, suspected a connection between Bartle Frere's mission to suppress slavery and the expedition of Cameron, which, however, had nothing to do with the abolition of slavery had to do. Numerous resistance and excessive costs were the result; In addition, there was the rental of unsuitable porters and unreliable Askaris .

After Cameron had bought a dozen donkeys, he sailed on February 2, 1873 on two rented dhows with all companions, animals and goods to the opposite port city of Bagamoyo on the east coast of Africa. He returned to Zanzibar on February 11 to complete his equipment with tents, a portable boat and ammunition. In the meantime, Cecil Murphy from Aden had also arrived in Zanzibar.

Shortly before leaving for the interior of East Africa, Murphy had a fever attack. During this time, another traveling companion came along, Robert Moffat, a nephew of Livingstone's, who sold his sugar plantation in Natal when he heard of the expedition and hurried to Zanzibar as quickly as possible.

On March 28, 1873, accompanied by about 200 porters, the expedition set out from Bagamoyo to Lake Tanganyika . To prevent as many porters as possible from returning to Bagamoyo with stolen goods, Cameron and Dillon led most of the expedition to the village of Rehenneko, while Murphy and Moffat were to follow with the rest of the porters. Soon afterwards the rainy season began, which turned the Makata Plain into an almost impassable swamp. Even small rivers could only be crossed by swimming. Cameron developed a foot problem, Dillon had a fever.

On May 26th, the rest of the expedition came into view. But only one white man, Cecil Murphy, was with her; Moffat had succumbed to the influences of the climate on the way. The entire expedition now consisted of three Europeans, a guide who knew how to read and write, 35 askaris armed with rifles, 192 porters, six servants, cooks and shotgun carriers and three boys, as well as 22 donkeys, three dogs and a few women and slaves who were Had to accompany porters and askaris.

In early August 1873, near the village of Kwikurah in the Utakamah countryside, the expedition reached a homestead where Stanley and Livingstone had previously stayed. Violent attacks of fever with temporary blindness forced the travelers to take a convalescent stay. On October 20, a messenger brought the news of Livingstone's death and announced the arrival of servants who were on their way to the coast with the body of the deceased. Livingstone's body arrived a few days later, along with boxes, rifles, and instruments. Another, apparently particularly valuable box, however, was left in Udschiji on Lake Tanganyika.

The original purpose of the expedition had become obsolete. Still, Cameron decided to continue the trip to Lake Tanganyika to retrieve the box that had been left in Ujiji. Murphy decided to return to the east coast. An inflammation of the intestine caused Dillon to come with him, and on November 9, the two set off for Zanzibar with Livingstone's body. Only a few days later, on November 18, Dillon shot himself in a feverish delirium.

Cameron's health was also badly damaged at the time: he was emaciated to a skeleton from a fever, injured on his back from falling from a donkey and suffering from an eye infection, he continued his journey west. He was accompanied by about 100 servants and porters. On February 18, 1874, he reached Kawele, the capital of the Udschiji region on Lake Tanganyika, where he received Livingstone's box of papers and a map from a friendly Arab trader. He immediately dispatched this box to England.

Exploring the southern Lake Tanganyika

The "Betsy" on Lake Tanganyika

His geographic research began at Lake Tanganyika. The height of the lake above sea level was determined and the geographic position of Ujiji was determined. Then Cameron managed to rent a boat, which he provided with a Latin sail. He borrowed a second boat for supplies; the latter was named "Pickle", the larger first, its "flagship", "Betsy". With these boats he took astronomical measurements from March 13 to May 9, 1874, the southern half of Lake Tanganyika, which Burton , Speke and Livingstone had only partially explored. He drove along the coast over four degrees of latitude, for a length of 500 miles, and sent a detailed map to London, where it was received not only with enthusiasm and recognition by the Royal Geographical Society, but also a heated discussion about the origin of the Nile triggered. The cause of this discussion was Cameron's discovery that the lake spilled into the west-flowing Lukuga during floods , which was later confirmed by Stanley. This proved that Lake Tanganyika does not belong to the system of the Nile, as Burton claims, but to that of the Lualaba , which Cameron rightly assumed to be a headwaters of the Congo . In the hope of reaching the Congo via the Lualaba and driving on it to the Atlantic Ocean, it penetrated from Lake Tanganyika into the Lukuga, but was forced to turn back only five miles downstream by floating masses of vegetation.

From Lake Tanganyika to Benguela

Crossing over the Lowoi

His assumption that the Lualaba flows into the Congo was confirmed in Ujiji by Arab traders. Cameron then crossed Lake Tanganyika at the end of May 1874 and traveled, often following in the footsteps of Livingstone, to Nyangwe on the east bank of the Lualaba. The altitude of 450 meters measured here provided him with definitive proof that the Lualaba does not belong to the Nile system. In Nyangwe he met the uncrowned Arab king of Central Africa, the slave and ivory trader Tippu-Tip . After trying in vain to get canoes for the descent on the Lualaba, he joined Tippu-Tip after its camp in Kasongo, not far from the Lomami River .

Beyond the Lomami, he was forbidden to travel westward. Cameron had no choice but to dodge south along the right bank of the Lomami. In October 1874 he arrived in Kilemba, residence of the powerful ruler Kassongo and capital of the previously unknown Central African empire Urua , in which Arab traders from the east coast frequented Portuguese traders from the west coast. During a detour to the north in November 1874 he discovered the outflow-free Mohrja Lake, on which the residents lived above the water in thatched huts on stilts. Another detour took him south-east of Kilemba to the large Lake Kassali or Kikondscha through which the Lualaba flows. He could only explore this lake from a distance, from a hill; he was not allowed to step on the shores of the lake.

After he had finally given up his plan to reach the Congo downstream on the Lualaba, Cameron made the decision to cross all of Central Africa to the Atlantic Ocean on foot. His destination was the Portuguese port of Benguela . The employment of the slave trader José Alviz from Bihé, who agreed for a large sum of money to lead the expedition to the west coast within 68 days, was disastrous. Cameron had to wait four months in Kilemba, until February 1875, until Alviz was finally ready to leave. A rest of another three months was held in nearby Totela. Alviz calmly declared that he had to build a house for his ruler Kassongo. Cameron called him the biggest liar he'd ever met. He thus provoked a dramatic incident: while Alviz's companion, a mulatto named Kwarumba, organized several raids and slave hunts, his camp was set on fire. Cameron struggled to save his cards, notes, and diaries.

At the end of May 1875, only 10 days' march further, Lunga Mandi's, the capital of a sub-chief, was reached. Another three inactive weeks passed before Alviz was able to receive fifty women tied together with ropes from another slave hunter.

With numerous further stays, caused by the capture of runaway slaves and lengthy negotiations on the purchase of food, the countries Ussambi and Ulunda were passed. In Lovale, Cameron entered the watershed between the rivers flowing north into the Congo and the south-facing headwaters of the Zambezi , a 1500 m high plateau which Livingstone had crossed in 1854. Cameron was of the opinion that in the vicinity of the small Dilolo Lake the two-sided headwaters would approach each other so closely that a bifurcation would arise in the event of heavy rainfall .

The rainy season made the expedition difficult. An uninhabited desolate mountainous country was reached via open prairie land and rough granite passes. The skeletons of slaves driven to death in wooden yokes marked the way. Eventually the expedition was so exhausted that Cameron was forced to rush ahead with the strongest and most trustworthy men and get help from Benguela. Desperate, shortly before his destination, Cameron sent two people a letter asking for food from any person they found. Half-starved, exhausted and plagued by scurvy, he stood on November 7, 1875 with 57 companions at Catumbella, north of Benguela, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Only with the help of the Portuguese authorities did he manage to reach Benguela and have the porters who were left behind come to join him.

Cameron sent his companions back to the east coast of Africa on a sailing ship. He himself went to Madeira to restore his damaged health. In April 1876 he arrived in London.

• Cameron's travel route through Africa, shown on contemporary maps in "Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen"
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  From Bagamoyo to Lake Tanganyika (detail)

• 

  Cameron's shot of southern Lake Tanganyika

• 

  From Lake Tanganyika to Benguela

Results and honors

If not as sensational and popular in his results as after him, Stanley , Cameron achieved the more scientifically more valuable results on this bold traverse. Numerous astronomical localizations and 3718 height measurements, the most important result of which was the hydrographic affiliation of Lake Tanganyika, contributed significantly to the clarification of Central Africa. He was the first to explore the basin between Lake Tanganyika and Angola , determine the middle course of the Lomami and draw an itinerary from Nyangwe on the Lualaba over the headwaters of the southern Congo tributaries to the Atlantic Ocean. His diary contains a wealth of ethnographic, botanical and hydrographic observations.

Cameron's work Across Africa is a detailed account of this expedition. A multi-fold colored map is attached to the German edition Quer durch Afrika , which not only shows the course of the journey at a scale of 1: 4.8 million, but also has an elevation profile at the bottom showing the watershed of the inner-African river basins and the Represents the basin nature of the area between Lake Tanganyika and Angola.

On his return to London, Cameron was showered with ovations and honors. At a meeting of the British Royal Geographical Society, he was awarded the annual gold medal after completing a travel report. The Société de Géographie in Paris honored him with the large gold medal. In 1876 he attended the congress of travelers to Africa convened by King Leopold II of Belgium in Brussels.

More activities

From 1878 to 1879, Cameron toured Cyprus and the Tigris-Euphrates region to investigate the possibility of a rail link between India and the Mediterranean. The following year, the 2-volume work Our future highway appeared about this company . In 1882 he conducted research with Richard Francis Burton in the countries on the Gold Coast in West Africa. The Ankobra River was recorded with astronomical measurements and scientific collections were created.

Last years of life

From 1890 Cameron was concerned with the development of the European colonies in Africa. He was able to give relevant advice to British, Portuguese and Belgian companies that were founded with the sole aim of developing profit-oriented cross-border trade in inner Africa.

Verney Lovett Cameron died on March 27, 1894 after falling from a horse in Soulsbury.

Works

• Across Africa. (2 volumes, 1877). German: Across Africa . In two parts. Leipzig 1877.
• Our future highway (2 volumes, London 1880)
• Richard Francis Burton et al. Verney Lovett Cameron: To the Gold Coast for Gold. A personal narrative. (2 volumes, London 1883)

literature

• Petermann's messages

1875: Plate 10 (Cameron's photograph of southern Lake Tanganyika) .

1876: Cameron's journey through Africa and his latest map of the area west of Lake Tanganyika. The Congo River and its area. E. Behm: Verney Lowett Cameron's journey across Africa 1873-75.

• Globe. Illustr. Journal for country u. Ethnology: Volume 31 (1877), No. 20–24, Volume 33 (1878), No. 1–7
• Friedrich Embacher: Lexicon of trips and discoveries. Leipzig 1882, p. 68 f.
• Amand Freiherr v. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld: Africa. The dark part of the earth in the light of our time. Vienna (et al.) 1886, p. 173 ff.
• Dietmar Henze: Encyclopedia of the explorers and explorers of the earth. Graz 1978. Volume I, p. 483 ff.
• Kurt Kayser (ed.): The famous explorers and explorers of the earth. Cologne 1965, p. 105 f.

Web links

Commons : Verney Lovett Cameron  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Verney Lovett Cameron in the catalog of the German National Library