er well-authenticated
record." On 27th July they reluctantly turned to the south, and on
21st August they arrived on board the _Hecla_ after an absence of
sixty-one days, every one of the party being in good health. Soon after
they sailed for England, and by a strange coincidence arrived in London
at the same time as Franklin.

Many an attempt was yet to be made to reach the North Pole, till at
last it was discovered by Peary, an American, in 1909.

CHAPTER LV

THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU

It is a relief to turn from the icy north to the tropical climate of
Central Africa, where Mungo Park had disappeared in 1805. The mystery
of Timbuktu and the Niger remained unsolved, though more than one
expedition had left the coast of Africa for the "mystic city" lying
"deep in that lion-haunted inland." Notwithstanding disaster, death,
and defeat, a new expedition set forth from Tripoli to cross the great
Sahara Desert. It was under Major Denham, Lieutenant Clapperton, and
Dr. Oudney. They left Tripoli in March 1822. "We were the first English
travellers," says Denham, "who had determined to travel in our real
character as Britons and Christians, and to wear our English dress:
the buttons on our waistcoats and our watches caused the greatest
astonishment." It was the end of November before they were ready to
leave the frontier on their great desert journey. The long enforced
stay in this unhealthy border town had undermined their health; fever
had reduced Denham, Dr. Oudney was suffering from cough and pains in
his chest, Clapperton was shivering with ague--a state of health
"ill-calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey." A long
escort of men and camels accompanied them into the merciless desert,
with its burning heat and drifting sands--"the Sea of Sahara" as the
old cartographer calls it. December found them still slowly advancing
over the billowy sand, deeply impressed and horrified at the number
of slave skeletons that lay about the wind-swept desert. The new year
brought little relief. "No wood, no water," occurs constantly in
Denham's journal. "Desert as yesterday; high sandhills." Still they
persevered, until, on 4th February 1823, they were rewarded by seeing
a sheet of water, "the great Lake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays
of the sun in its strength." Was this, after all, the source of the
Niger? Its low shores were surrounded with reedy marshes and clumps
of white water-lilies, there were flocks