Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: Cinq semaines

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:50:39 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Having just completed recuperation after hospital for the last few weeks I
have had time to crawl back through previous pages of the Forum. Terry
Harpold's query of 5th June interested me (re the authenticity of the names
listed at the Royal Geographical Society toasting session). Checking in a
history of African exploration text at least a third are well known
explorers in the full sense, as opposed to travellers. The list also
includes some missionaries, who were not necessarily explorers in a
scientific sense. For example, Moffat was a missionary and in fact married
David Livingstone's daughter Mary.There are also some surprising omissions,
notably Stanley.
As Bill Butcher has commented, there are some spelling mistakes. A
significant one is Thompson (sic) which should be Thomson i.e. a Scot rather
than an Englishman. He is of interest to my department here at Glasgow
University. He was the explorer companion of Keith Johnston (another Scot)
who were sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society to explore a route
across modern day Tanzania to the Central African Lakes.Unfortunately
Johnstone caught a disease and died in the interior and was buried by
Thomson who took over leadership of the expedition.A colleague of mine will
soon be setting off on a third expedition to try to find Johnstone's grave
in the course of his research on this expedition.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Fri 11 Jul 2003 - 13:52:05 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$