The fable of the Tortoise
and the Hare is peculiarly applicable to travellers over wide and unknown
tracts. It is a very high merit to accomplish a long exploration without
loss of health, of papers, or even of comfort.
Physical Strength of Leader.--Powerful men do not necessarily make the
most eminent travellers; it is rather those who take the most interest in
their work that succeed the best; as a huntsman says, "it is the nose
that gives speed to the hound." Dr. Kane, who was one of the most
adventurous of travellers, was by no means a strong man, either in health
or muscle.
Good Temper.--Tedious journeys are apt to make companions irritable one
to another; but under hard circumstances, a traveller does his duty best
who doubles his kindliness of manner to those about him, and takes harsh
words gently, and without retort. He should make it a point of duty to do
so. It is at those times very superfluous to show too much
punctiliousness about keeping up one's dignity, and so forth; since the
difficulty lies not in taking up quarrels, but in avoiding them.
Reluctant Servants.--Great allowance should be made for the reluctant
co-operation of servants; they have infinitely less interest in the
success of the expedition than their leaders, for they derive but little
credit from it. They argue thus:--"Why should we do more than we
knowingly undertook, and strain our constitutions and peril our lives in
enterprises about which we are indifferent?" It will, perhaps, surprise a
leader who, having ascertained to what frugal habits a bush servant is
inured, learns on trial, how desperately he clings to those few luxuries
which he has always had.
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