"
After many further difficulties, the explorers found their way back to
the coast, and thence to England. But their fame had gone before them,
and everywhere they were welcomed. And though it was Baker who was
awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society, all must have
felt that the honour belonged, not less, to his courageous wife.
[Sidenote: Mary Kingsley]
It may be said that Lady Baker was not alone in her journeys. On the
other hand, Mary Kingsley, another woman African traveller, led her own
expeditions. Moreover, her travelling was often done through territory
reeking with disease. At the age of twenty-nine she explored the Congo
River, and visited Old Calabar, and in 1894 ascended the mountain of
Mungo Mah Lobeh. After her return to England she lectured upon her
adventures. One more journey, this time not of exploration, was she to
make to the great African continent. In 1900 she volunteered as a nurse
during the war, and went out to the Cape. Here she was employed to nurse
sick Boer prisoners. But her work was done. Enteric fever struck her
down and, before long, the traveller had set out upon her last journey.
The names we have mentioned have been those of famous travellers--women
whose work is part of the history of discovery. But there are hundreds
of courageous women to-day, not perhaps engaged in exploration, but who,
nevertheless, are living in remote stations in the heart of Africa, in
the midst of the Australian "never-never," in the lonely islands of the
Pacific--women whose husbands, whose fathers, whose brothers are
carrying on the work of Empire, or the greater work of the gospel.
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