|The Missionary as Explorer.| The names of Krapf and Rebmann are associated not only in heroic missionary labors but in important linguistic work and most valuable geographic discoveries. When they declared that there existed in the center of Africa snow-capped mountains and an inland sea, they were laughed at, but as a result exploring expeditions were sent out to discover that what the missionaries claimed was true. The American poet Bayard Taylor, struck by the marvelous variety of temperature and verdure upon Mt. Kilimanjaro, whose base was surrounded by tropical forests and whose summit was wrapped in snow, celebrated it in verse.
“Hail to thee, monarch of African mountains,
Remote, inaccessible, silent and lone--
Who, from the heart of the tropical fervors,
Liftest to heaven thine alien snows,
Feeding forever the fountains that make thee
Father of Nile and creator of Egypt!
I see thee supreme in the midst of thy co-mates,
Standing alone ’twixt the earth and the heavens,
Heir of the sunset and herald of morn.