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Chargement... Into the Unknown: The Tormented Life and Expeditions of Ludwig Leichhardt (2011)par John Bailey
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Ludwig Leichhardt is undoubtedly Australia's most fascinating early explorer. Born and educated in Prussia in the early 19th century, Leichhardt felt shackled by the narrow expectations of his family and the highly regimented society of his birth. He was a polymath, a man fascinated by the natural world and everything in it and he longed for adventure and exploration. Australia was then almost completely unknown and unexplored apart from the colonies clustered on its coastline - the interior of the continent a vast and mysterious blank. It was a country and a time ripe for amateur naturalists and explorers, and Leichhardt took up the challenge. His expeditions were to begin in triumph, then dwindle into acrimony, despair and misery before finally ending in disappearance, death and one of the great enduring mysteries of the 19th century. John Bailey, acclaimed author of Mr Stuart's Track, has written a masterful biography of this strange, brilliant, difficult, driven and tormented man. Alive with the period, the details of early exploration, the experience of the harsh Australian landscape and the quirks of personality and character that both made Leichhardt such a success and then eventually destroyed him, Into the Unknown offers a true insight into this most intriguing of men. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)919.4042092History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography of and travel in Australasia, Pacific Ocean islands, Atlantic Ocean islands, Arctic islands, Antarctica and on extraterrestrial worlds Australia TravelClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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The disappearance without trace of Leichhardt's 1848 expedition is one of the enduring mysteries of Australian history,and the author is clever in beginning the book with a brief account of that expedition. Read it and you will find it difficult not to carry on reading the whole book, such is the skill behind the kind of narrative history John Bailey writes.
Of course, the greatest event of Leichhardt's life was not that final ill-fated expedition of 1848, but his triumphant overland journey of1844-45. Making extensive use of diaries and published accounts, Bailey recreates all the struggles, setbacks, infighting and sheer exhausting hard work of that trip. The decision to rely so heavily on Leicchardt's words is a wise one, since Leichhardt himself is an observant and passionate writer. This is a full account of a life, not just the expeditions in Australia, and what emerges from this study of Leichhardt's life is that the character of the man is just as great a mystery as his fate. Although highly intelligent, widely read and a skilled scientist, Leichhardt clearly had great difficulties being a leader of men on the three expeditions he led. So it is no surprise that Bailey focuses as much attention on the interpersonal problems that plagued the expeditions as he does on the physical challenges, such as heat, hunger and disease.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a clear picture of just how epic the challenges were for men of determination such as Leichhardt. Seemingly simple setbacks such as horses or cattle wandering off during the night could become interminably long sagas as the expeditioners tracked their lost animals for days or even weeks, halting all progress on their journey, all the while consuming supplies and succumbing to ill health and sickness. I was almost nauseous when reading the detailed accounts of the failed second expedition's encounter with constant rain and sickness, to which all men on the journey succumbed at one time or another.The author surmises such sickness was caused by unsanitary slaughtering and cooking practices, as the following graphic passage illustrates -
"Leichhardt's party was camped on a patch of mud surrounded by the strewn bones and rotting flesh of slaughtered animals. Over time the carcasses mounted up into what Leichhardt described at Charleys Creek as a 'charnel house of killed goats and sheep'. Flies and maggots swarmed over strips of exposed meat. Dogs roamed the camp and nearby was a diarrhoea-ridden latrine. The entrails of sheep and goats, resrved for the dogs, were packed in sacks ans stored next to meat for human consumption. At the call for supper men often walked directly from the toilet or from tending their horses and cattle without a thought to washing their hands. preparing food over an open fire meant the meat was often undercooked. Flies were a constant accompaniment to any meal. In short, the camp was a perfect breeding environment for the salmonella bacteria." (p.286) ( )