Encyclopedia of Exploration Vol IV: review (click here to return to list of reviews)
ENCYCLOPEDIC TASK COMPLETED
By Milton Osborne
Encyclopedia of Exploration 1850 to 1940: Continental Exploration.
By Raymond John Howgego;
Hordern House Rare Books, 2008. $295.
The literary undertaking that the distinguished critic, Alberto Manguel, described as ‘The definitive reference book for anyone interested in the history of travel', has now been brought to a triumphant conclusion in its fourth volume devoted to continental exploration from 1850 to 1940. As its seemingly tireless author, Raymond John Howgego, notes in his helpful and succinct ‘Introduction', the period covered in this volume differs greatly from those covered in its three predecessors. Well before the end of the nineteenth century it ‘had become a relatively simple matter for an explorer to disembark at his destination, assemble an expedition, and then to disappear for an indefinite period into the mountains, deserts or jungles of his or her choice'. This said, it was during the period covered by Howgego's final volume that some of the best-known and most heroic examples of expeditionary travel took place. So this volume, as might be expected, details the feats of such familiar names as Livingstone, Burton and Baker, in relation to Africa, and Sturt, Mitchell and Burke and Wills in Australia. Less familiar to many Australian readers will be the names of explorers of the American West and the South American continent, while the attention given to French explorers in Asia, a group so frequently omitted in English-language anthologies dealing with exploration, is both justified and very welcome.
One of the great pleasures in this, as in previous volumes, is the detail that the author provides on individuals whose names will be unfamiliar to many readers. Take, for example, the entry on Catherine Fanny de Bourboulon (1859-1965). Born Fanny MacLeod in Scotland, she was educated in the United States and married a French diplomat in 1851 and in the same year travelled with him to China. Eight years later, when it was time to return to Europe, the couple chose to make their way back on horseback through Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow, a journey of 12,000 kilometres. In the best Victorian tradition Fanny memorialised this journey in both words and pen and ink sketches in her diary, which was ultimately published in the Paris journal, Le Tour du Monde. Or, to pluck another little-known name from the volume, consider the entry for Harry Hamilton Johnston (1858-1927), who tried, but failed, to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, yet who contributed substantially to broader African exploration. As with so many other entries, Howgego includes information about Johnston which make him more than a two-dimensional character. Not only was he given to ‘obstinacy and pig-headedness', he lacked financial acumen and at the end of his life he maintained himself through writing that included several fictional ‘pot-boilers'.
Although, as Howgego points out in the ‘Introduction', much of the continental United States had already been explored by the middle of the nineteenth century, it is striking, nevertheless, to read the entries that make clear how much detailed work remained to be done in the years that followed as part of the government-sponsored ‘Great Surveys'. Exploration could still be a hazardous business involving not only resistance to western expansion from Native Americans but also the opposition to Federal authority from Mormons, aspects reflected in an entry such as that dealing with John Williams Gunnison (1812-1853), who was killed in controversial circumstances with members of his party by Paiute hunters in October 1853.
As an Australian reader I feel abashed by the realisation that so many of the explorers of my own country were not known to me before consulting this volume. While Sturt, Kennedy, Burke and Wills, and others, were familiar names, I knew nothing of the achievements of Peter Egerton Warburton, a former officer in the East India Company's army who became Commissioner of Police in Adelaide in 1853. With a passion for exploration he made several expeditions into the interior of the continent, including from Alice Springs to the northwest of the continent in 1873, a journey made across the Great Sandy Desert that he commenced at the age of sixty.
Once again in the completion of this volume author has scanned thousands of pages of sources to produce this meticulous compendium. The product of fifteen years of research, the entries also reflect Howgego's own passion for travel. While the four volumes of the Encyclopedia are a god-send to armchair travellers, the author has himself visited many of the most distant locations that had fascinated those about whom he writes. At a total for the four volumes of some 3.7 million words devoted to more than 4,500 individual entries, this is the largest single-authored work to have been published originally in the English language. Its scholarly apparatus is admirable, with detailed bibliographic references and carefully documented cross-referencing of articles.
In reviews of the previous three volumes of the Encyclopedia in this journal I have observed that it is a matter for pride that an Australian publisher has produced such an important reference work, and the point is worth making again. Another reason for pride is the quality of the production, with sturdy binding, silk ribbon page markers, and appropriate pictorial colour dustjackets for each volume. As a reflection of changing technologies, it is interesting to note the reference at the beginning of this, and previous volumes, asking for corrections or additions to be signalled to the author by way of a dedicated website, which is www.explorersencyclopedia.com.
Milton Osborne, an adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Asian Studies, the Australian National University, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, has written extensively on the exploration of the Mekong River. His latest book, Phnom Penh: A Cultural and Literary History, with a Foreword by William Shawcross, is due for release in Australia in May.