CHAPTER IX
SOUTH-WEST AFRICA
Royal Geographical Society-Ch. J. Andersson-Cape Town-Walfish Bay-Reach I)amara Land-Hans-Negotiations with Namaqua chiefs-Revs. Rath and Hahn-Wagons brought up
T RAVELLERS of the present generation need
some effort of imagination to put themselves
into the mental positions of those who were living in
1849. Blank spaces in the map of the world were
then both large and numerous, and the positions of
many towns, rivers, and notable districts were un
trustworthy. The whole interior of South Africa and
much of that of North Africa were quite unknown to
civilised man. Similarly as regards that of the great
continent of Australia. The unknown geography of
the North Polar regions preserved some of the earlier
glamour attached to the possibility of finding a navi
gable North-West passage from England to China,
which ins., ectio1 of the glrfl e $l)ow,,; to he fitr shorter
than that roucid the Carpe. The South Polar region ns
had only been touched here and there. The geography
of Central Asia was in great confusion, the true
position of many places familiar in ancient history
being most uncertain, while vast areas remained
wholly unexplored, in the common sense of that
word. It was a time when the ideas of persons
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