comes upon a new place
which seems extraordinarily familiar, so that he is almost convinced
that in a past state he has known it intimately, Alec suddenly found
himself at home in the immense distances of Africa. He felt a singular
exhilaration when the desert was spread out before his eyes, and
capacities which he had not suspected in himself awoke in him. He had
never thought himself an ambitious man, but ambition seized him. He had
never imagined himself subject to poetic emotion, but all at once a
feeling of the poetry of an adventurous life welled up within him. And
though he had looked upon romance with the scorn of his Scottish common
sense, an irresistible desire of the romantic surged upon him, like the
waves of some unknown, mystical sea.

When he returned to England a peculiar restlessness took hold of him. He
was indifferent to the magnificence of the bag, which was the pride of
his companions. He felt himself cribbed and confined. He could not
breathe the air of cities.

He began to read the marvellous records of African exploration, and his
blood tingled at the magic of those pages. Mungo Park, a Scot like
himself, had started the roll. His aim had been to find the source and
trace the seaward course of the Niger. He took his life in his hands,
facing boldly the perils of climate, savage pagans, and jealous
Mohammedans, and discovered the upper portions of that great river. On a
second expedition he undertook to follow it to the sea. Of his party
some died of disease, and some were slain by the natives. Not one
returned; and the only trace of Mungo Park was a book, known to have
been in his possession, found by British explorers in the hut of a
native chief.

Then Alec MacKenzie read of the efforts to reach Timbuktu, which was the
great object of ambition to the explorers of the nineteenth century. It
exercised the same fascination over their minds as did El Dorado, with
its golden city of Monoa, to the adventurers in the days of Queen
Elizabeth. It was thought to be the capital of a powerful and wealthy
state; and those ardent minds promised themselves all kinds of wonders
when they should at last come upon it. But it was not the desire for
gold that urged them on, rather an irresistible curiosity, and a pride
in their own courage. One after another desperate attempts were made,
and it was reached at last by another Scot, Alexander Gordon Laing. And
his success was a symbol of all earthly endeavours,