miles upriver in September of 1854.4 However,
Marche and de Compiègne penetrated far deeper,
encountering new peoples and mapping the
region for those who would follow, most notably
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzà, whom Marche
joined for another attempt upriver between
1875 and 1877.
The above-quoted issue of The Geographical
Magazine provides the following synopsis of its
coverage of the Marche–de Compiègne expedition,
a reasonable distillation of relevant parts
of de Compiègne’s presentation to the French
Geographical Society, as well as his two-volume
account that was to follow in October of 1875:5
The first article in this number is a résumé of the
Marquis de Compiègne and M. Marche’s journey
along the course of the Ogowai River in Central
Africa. This journey the marquis says was brought
to an untimely end, just as they were anticipating
success, owing to a combination of unfortunate
circumstances, among which may be mentioned
the death of a friendly chief, N’Combe, and the
hostility of his subjects, the extraordinary lowness
of the streams, wars between the native tribes,
and the ill health of the explorers. They started
in the early part of January 1874, and at about
200 miles from the mouth of the Ogowai, which
111
FIG. 4 (right):
Seven sculptures
collected during the
1874 Marche and de
Compiègne expedition
to the Ogooué River
and other locations.
From Louis-Alphonse-Henri
Victor du Pont (Marquis
de Compiègne), L’Afrique
Equatoriale: Okanda,
Bangouens, Osyéba, E. Plon et
Co., Paris, 1875, frontispiece.
Courtesy of the Ross Archive of
African Images, #180.
FIG. 5 (left):
Eleven early African
sculptures, most collected
during the 1874 Marche
and de Compiègne
expedition to the Ogooué
River and other locations.
From Alfred Marche, “Voyage au
Gabon et sur le fleuve Ogooué,
1875–1877.” Le Tour du Monde:
Nouveau Journal des Voyages,
Vol. XXXVI, No. 936e liv., Librarie
Hachette, Paris, 1878, p. 438.
Courtesy of the Ross Archive of
African Images, #1605.