Encyclopedic task completed.(Encyclopedia of Exploration 1850 to 1940: Continental Exploration)(Book review)

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 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 (1827-65). 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 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 ...