A
We have all heard tales of lone, heroic explorers, but what about the local individuals who guided
and protected European explorers in many different parts of the globe? Or the go-betweens –
including interpreters and traders – who translated the needs and demands of explorers into a
language that locals could understand? Such questions have received surprisingly little attention in
standard histories, where European explorers are usually the heroes, sometimes the villains. The
Hidden Histories of Exploration exhibition at Britain’s Royal Geographical Society in London sets out
to present an alternative view, in which exploration is a fundamentally collective experience of work,
involving many different people. Many of the most famous examples of explorers said to have been
‘lone travellers’ – say, Mungo Park or David Livingstone in Africa – were anything but ‘alone’ on their
travels. They depended on local support of various kinds – for food, shelter, protection, information,
guidance and solace – as well as on other resources from elsewhere.
B
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) seeks to record this story in its Hidden Histories project, using
its astonishingly rich collections. The storage of geographical information was one of the main
rationales for the foundation of the RGS in 1830, and the Society’s collections now contain more
than two million individual items, including books, manuscripts, maps, photographs art-works,
artefacts and film – a rich storehouse of material reflecting the wide geographical extent of British
interest across the globe. In addition to their remarkable scope and range, these collections contain
a striking visual record of exploration: the impulse to collect the world is reflected in a large and
diverse image archive. For the researcher, this archive can yield many surprises: materials gathered
for one purpose – say, maps relating to an international boundary dispute or photographs taken on a
scientific expedition – may today be put to quite different uses.
C
In their published narratives, European explorers rarely portrayed themselves as vulnerable or
dependent on others, despite the fact that without this support they were quite literally lost.
Archival research confirms that Europeans were not merely dependent on the work of porters
soldiers translators, cooks, pilots, guides, hunters and collectors: they also relied on local expertise.
Such assistance was essential in identifying potential dangers poisonous species, unpredictable
rivers, uncharted territories – which could mean the difference between life and death. The
assistants themselves were usually in a strong bargaining position. In the Amazon, for example
access to entire regions would depend on the willingness of local crew members and other assistants
to enter areas inhabited by relatively powerful Amerindian groups. In an account of his journey
across South America published in 1836, William Smyth thus complained of frequent desertion by
his helpers: without them it was impossible to get on.
D
Those providing local support and information to explorers were themselves often not ‘locals’. For
example, the history of African exploration in the nineteenth century is dominated by the use of
Zanzibar as a recruiting station for porters, soldiers and guides who would then travel thousands of
miles across the continent. In some accounts, the leading African members of expedition parties –
the ‘officers’ or ‘foremen’ – are identified, and their portraits published alongside those of European
explorers.
E
The information provided by locals and intermediaries was of potential importance to geographical
science. How was this evidence judged? The formal procedures of scientific evaluation provided one
framework. Alongside these were more ‘common sense’ notions of veracity and reliability,
religiously-inspired judgments about the authenticity of testimony, and the routine procedures for
cross-checking empirical observations developed in many professions.
F
Given explorers’ need for local information and support, it was in their interests to develop effective
working partnerships with knowledgeable intermediaries who could act as brokers in their dealings
with local inhabitants. Many of these people acquired far more experience of exploration than most
Europeans could hope to attain. Some managed large groups of men and women, piloted the
explorers’ river craft, or undertook mapping work. The tradition was continued with the Everest
expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s, which regularly employed the Tibetan interpreter Karma Paul. In
Europe, exploration was increasingly thought of as a career; the same might be said of the non-
Europeans on whom their expeditions depended.
G
These individuals often forged close working relationships with European explorers. Such
partnerships depended on mutual respect, though they were not always easy or intimate, as is
particularly clear from the history of the Everest expeditions depicted in the Hidden Histories
exhibition. The entire back wall is covered by an enlarged version of a single sheet of photographs of
Sherpas taken during the 1936 Everest expedition. The document is a powerful reminder of the
manpower on which European mountaineering expeditions depended, and also of the importance of
local knowledge and assistance. Transformed from archive to wall display, it tells a powerful story
through the medium of individual portraits – including Karma Paul, veteran of previous expeditions,
and the young Tensing Norgay, 17 years before his successful 1953 ascent. This was a highly charged
and transitional moment as the contribution of the Sherpas, depicted here with identity tags round
their necks, was beginning to be much more widely recognised. These touching portraits encourage
us to see them as agents rather than simply colonial subjects or paid employees. Here is a living
history, which looks beyond what we already know about exploration: a larger history in which we
come to recognise the contribution of everyone involved.
