into the Bathurst plains. In 1828-29 Captain
Sturt increased the knowledge of the interior by tracing
the course of the two great rivers Darling and Murray.
In 1848 the German explorer Leichhardt lost his life
in an attempt to penetrate the interior northward;
but in 1860 two explorers, named Burke and Wills,
managed to pass from south to north along the east
coast; while, in the four years 1858 to 1862, John
M’Dowall Stuart performed the still more difficult
feat of crossing the centre of the continent from
south to north, in order to trace a course for the
telegraphic line which was shortly afterwards erected.
By this time settlements had sprung up throughout
the whole coast of Eastern Australia, and there only
remained the western desert to be explored. This
was effected in two journeys of John Forrest, between
1868 and 1874, who penetrated from Western Australia
as far as the central telegraphic line; while, between
1872 and 1876, Ernest Giles performed the same feat
to the north. Quite recently, in 1897, these two
routes were joined by the journey of the Honourable
Daniel Carnegie from the Coolgardie gold fields in
the south to those of Kimberley in the north.
These explorations, while adding to our knowledge
of the interior of Australia, have only confirmed the
impression that it was not worth knowing.
[Authorities: Rev. G. Grimm, Discovsry and
Exploration of Australia (Melbourne, 1888); A.
F. Calvert, Discovery of Australia, 1893; Exploration
of Australia, 1895; Early Voyages to Australia,
Hakluyt Society.]
CHAPTER XI
EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA: PARK—LIVINGSTONE—STANLEY
We have seen how the Portuguese had slowly coasted
along the shore of Africa during the fifteeenth century
in search of a way to the Indies. By the end
of the century mariners portulanos gave a rude
yet effective account of the littoral of Africa, both
on the west and the eastern side. Not alone did
they explore the coast, but they settled upon it.
At Amina on the Guinea coast, at Loando near the Congo,
and at Benguela on the western coast, they established
stations whence to despatch the gold and ivory, and,
above all, the slaves, which turned out to be the
chief African products of use to Europeans. On
the east coast they settled at Sofala, a port of Mozambique;
and in Zanzibar they possessed no less than three ports,
those first visited by Vasco da Gama and afterwards
celebrated by Milton in the sonorous line contained
in the gorgeous geographical excursus in the Eleventh
Book—
“Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind.”
—Paradise Lost,
xi. 339.