It’s hard to imagine anybody who looks less like an explorer that the Victorian traveler, Mary Kingsley. But she was one of the world’s toughest and the most adventurous explorers. At a time when her friends were doing household chores and going to dances, Mary Kingsley was paddling up rivers in a canoe, eating snakes and poking hippopotamuses with her umbrella in West Africa.
Kingsley was the daughter of a travelling doctor from London. She loved hearing her father’s travel stories, but there was no question that she would accompany him on his travels as her mother was frequently unwell and needed to be cared for. Suddenly, though, her life changed when both of her parents died within six weeks of one another. With no family responsibilities, she decided to travel to West Africa, a place had always dreamed of visiting. She had two missions to complete while she was touring the continent: one was to meet the native people of West Africa, learn about their customs and religions and write a book about the subject. The other was to collect tropical fish and reptiles for the British museum.
Her father’s medical friends had warned her about tropical diseases and other dangers of travelling alone, but she ignored them and in 1893 she sailed to modern-day Sierra Leone on the first of her two long journeys to West Africa.
She lived for a while with the local people, who taught her how to fish with pineapple leaves. After she had learnt the necessary skills, she set off alone along the river in search of fish and reptiles. During her travels, she became the first woman to climb the active volcano Mount Cameroon, and the first white person to paddle up the Ogowe River and to cross the jungle to the Remboue River.
On her travels, she had to deal with extreme heat, tornadoes and various wild animals. Once, while she was canoeing along the Ogowe, she had an encounter with a crocodile. The crocodile was trying to climb into her canoe, so she hit it on the head with a paddle. Kingsley describes this and other similar encounters in her two books, Travels in West Africa and West African Studies, which she wrote when she returned from her travels. The books became bestsellers and are still in print today.
She collected eighteen species of reptile and sixty-five species of fish, two of which were previously unknown and were named after her. However, that was not her only legacy: she also became well-known for her attitude towards the African people. She was the first explorer to show proper respect to the African people and their culture, and helped to change European attitudes towards them
A fearless Traveller
It’s hard to imagine anybody who looks less like an explorer that the Victorian traveler, Mary Kingsley. But she was one of the world’s toughest and the most adventurous explorers. At a time when her friends were doing household chores and going to dances, Mary Kingsley was paddling up rivers in a canoe, eating snakes and poking hippopotamuses with her umbrella in West Africa.
Kingsley was the daughter of a travelling doctor from London. She loved hearing her father’s travel stories, but there was no question that she would accompany him on his travels as her mother was frequently unwell and needed to be cared for. Suddenly, though, her life changed when both of her parents died within six weeks of one another. With no family responsibilities, she decided to travel to West Africa, a place had always dreamed of visiting. She had two missions to complete while she was touring the continent: one was to meet the native people of West Africa, learn about their customs and religions and write a book about the subject. The other was to collect tropical fish and reptiles for the British museum.
Her father’s medical friends had warned her about tropical diseases and other dangers of travelling alone, but she ignored them and in 1893 she sailed to modern-day Sierra Leone on the first of her two long journeys to West Africa.
She lived for a while with the local people, who taught her how to fish with pineapple leaves. After she had learnt the necessary skills, she set off alone along the river in search of fish and reptiles. During her travels, she became the first woman to climb the active volcano Mount Cameroon, and the first white person to paddle up the Ogowe River and to cross the jungle to the Remboue River.
On her travels, she had to deal with extreme heat, tornadoes and various wild animals. Once, while she was canoeing along the Ogowe, she had an encounter with a crocodile. The crocodile was trying to climb into her canoe, so she hit it on the head with a paddle. Kingsley describes this and other similar encounters in her two books, Travels in West Africa and West African Studies, which she wrote when she returned from her travels. The books became bestsellers and are still in print today.
She collected eighteen species of reptile and sixty-five species of fish, two of which were previously unknown and were named after her. However, that was not her only legacy: she also became well-known for her attitude towards the African people. She was the first explorer to show proper respect to the African people and their culture, and helped to change European attitudes towards them
The help that you give to an organization or chearity - support
1.A person or company that gives money so that an event can happen-sponsor
2.A type of protest where people stop buying a product-boycott
3.A rule which says that people can't do something-ban
4.To go to a place at a certain time to see and talk to other people-meeting
5.A group of people who walk through a town to protest about something-marchers
6.A plan to fight something you don't agree with-collection
7.A piece of paper with a lot of people's names on. It asks the government or another organization to change something-petition
8.When a person puts information in the newspapers and on TV- publicize
9. When you say that you will do something that you do not have to do - volunteer