1906 - Exploration, Colonization

Exploration, Colonization

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, now 34, completes the first sea voyage through the Northwest Passage (see 1854); a veteran of the 1897-1899 Gerlache de Gomery expedition to the Antarctic, Amundsen skipped port 3 years ago to escape creditors trying to stop his Arctic expedition with six crewmen aboard the converted 47-ton herring sloop Gjöa, and his voyage around the northern Canadian coast to the Yukon has taken all this time (see Antarctic, 1911).

Explorer-mountaineer Luigi, duc d'Abruzzi, becomes the first European to scale the highest peaks in east Africa's Ruwenzori Range (see 1899). His expedition studies the geology, glaciology, and topography of the mountains, mapping them and giving names (some of them African, some European) to the major summits, glaciers, and passes (see 1909).

British Army veteran Col. Percy (Harrison) Fawcett, 39, arrives at La Paz, Bolivia, in June on a commission from the Royal Geographical Society to define the boundary between Bolivia and Brazil. Fawcett has served with the Royal Artillery in Ceylon and worked for the secret service in North Africa. He outfits the first of seven expeditions that he will make into the jungle and discovers the rigors of dealing with disease, hostile natives, poisonous insects, and snakes.