Tales of an intrepid traveller
Muhammad Abdul Hai goes exploring with a nature lover
The final journey of John Muir which he undertook just three years before his death is narrated in this book in inspiringly lyrical prose. The author, in a letter to one of his friends, said that God realized His ideas in his creation of nature which reveals itself both physically and spiritually. John Muir observed everything with scientific precision and made equally precise descriptions of them with amazing artistic excellence. The eloquence that came cascading down from his pen brought about an aesthetic, ecological and spiritual value to the wilderness. The book as a collection of journals and letters made available to readers in printed form almost a hundred years after they were written, and before that, these invaluable writings of excellent literary merit languished almost to the point of getting lost forever. Michael P. Branch did a great service to readers worldwide by collecting, compiling and editing all these, or else the world would have lost one of the greatest treasures of a born traveller. Once the book came to the kiosks of American cities, readers found for the first time something that was a combination of travel experience, observation of nature and aesthetic consummation of God's realization that manifested itself in nature. John Muir, an accomplished man of multi-dimensional excellence from Scotland to the Wisconsin prairies in 1849, and from then on, his interest to understand and appreciate God's pervading beauty in nature, developed rapidly. At the age of twenty-nine, Muir embarked on his first "a thousand miles walk" from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico. Having left the University of Wisconsin which he used to call the University of Wilderness, he went on walking amidst nature for botanical and geographical studies. The book contains one of the finest and precise descriptions of his ecstasy whenever he came across a rare species in the Amazonian forest or in the African jungles. There was something of a spiritual enlightenment far deep into Muir's soul. When he was a youth, an accident almost made him blind. Then he wrote, "God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons". His dream of travelling over a long distance now became a resolve. Hence his determined devotion made him do a phenomenal performance. Readers will find him, in his book, not only as a naturalist or an environmentalist, but also as a man who is spiritually enlightened. It was August 1911 when John Muir, at the age of seventy-three, left Brooklyn, New York, and began his historical eight-month, 40,000 mile voyage to South America and Africa. He first travelled to the Amazon, then down the Atlantic coast and across the continent to Argentina. From there, he sailed east and travelled to central Africa. He sailed on the Nile's water, went to India and Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) and finally travelled back to New York where he survived only for three years before his illustrious life came to an end. While going through the book, the readers will be able to see nature the way the author has seen, and at times they will also find the narrative mysterious and lovely, with a distinctive look, feel, and even a smell that will keep interest alive until they read the concluding lines. The book puts its readers into the epic yet an untiring journey across the rainforests of the Amazonian basin, along the snow-cold glaciers, down to the vast dry expanses of Africa. Although John Muir's health was not quite supportive of such a perilous journey at the age of seventy-three, his long cherished desire continued to impel him into fulfilling the last yet most important mission of his life. Needless to say, the accomplishment was done all by him, although his friends and relatives were always there to give him the necessary backup. So the journals and letters are a record of the experience of a man of wisdom, of an elderly man capable of fair judgment. Hence John Muir's Last Journey should be able to inspire retired old people into utilizing their free time in doing something which might make them worth remembering. Young people will find the description of nature interesting which may also lead them to undertake similar missions that will make them worthy people. So readers, wish you all a pleasant reading.
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