his little daughter, von François, a German explorer, and eight native children from the mission schools. This time his object was to explore the affluents of the Congo from the east and the south — the Lulongo, the Maringa, and the Busira or Juapa, on which he found dwarf tribes (the Batwa).
His fourth journey (24 Feb. 1886), in company with Baron von Nimptsch, of the Congo Free State, and Wissmann, the German explorer, took him up the main stream of the Kasai, thence up the Sankuru, the Luebo, and the Lulua (careful notes being taken of the Bakuba and Baketo tribes), and so back to the Congo and on to Stanley Falls. On the fifth voyage (30 Sept. 1886) he passed up the Kwa and the Mtini to Lake Leopold II, and on the sixth (December 1886), with Holman Bentley, he explored the Kwango up to the Kingunji rapids. In all these journeys he made exact observations, which were published in 1886 by the Royal Geographical Society, and together with his chart of the Congo Basin gained for him the founder's medal of the society in 1887.
During his furlough he was received by King Leopold at Brussels in July 1887. Hearing (9 Aug.) of the death of Comber, he returned at once to the Congo and was busily occupied on the Peace in supplying the needs of the mission stations. But in September 1890 the Congo Free State, in spite of protest, impounded the vessel for operations against the Arabs. Grenfell came home and after long negotiations the Peace was restored, an indemnity being declined. A second steamer, the Goodwill, also made by Messrs. Thornycroft, was launched on the Upper Congo, December 1893.
On 13 Aug. 1891, Grenfell, who had received the Belgian order of Leopold (chevalier), was invited to be Belgian plenipotentiary for the settlement with Portugal of the frontier of the Lunda, and was allowed by the Baptist Missionary Society to accept the offer. On 17 Nov. 1892 Grenfell and his wife reached Mwene Puto Kasongo, the headquarters on the Kwango of the brutal Kiamvo, with whom they had a peaceful interview. Below the Tungila he met Senhor Sarmento, the Portuguese plenipotentiary, and after inspecting the rivers of the Lunda district the party reached St. Paul de Loanda (partly by railway) on 16 June 1893, the delimitation being agreed upon during July. He was made commander of the Belgian order of the Lion and received the order of Christ from the king of Portugal.
From 1893 to 1900 Grenfell remained chiefly at Bolobo on the Congo, where a strong mission station was established. After a visit to England in 1900, he started for a systematic exploration of the Amwimi river, and by November 1902 had reached Mawambi, about eighty miles from the western extreme of the Uganda protectorate. Between 1903 and 1906 he was busy with a now station at Yalemba, fifteen miles cast of the confluence of the Aruwimi with the Congo. Meanwhile he found difficulty in obtaining building sites from the Congo Free State, which accorded them freely to Roman catholics. He grew convinced of the evil character of Belgian administration, in which he had previously trusted. In 1903 King Leopold despatched at Grenfell's entreaty a commission of inquiry, before which he gave evidence, but its report gave him little satisfaction. Grenfell died after a bad attack of blackwater fever at Basoko on 1 July 1906. His salary never exceeded 180l. a year. Grenfell was twice married: (1) On 11 Feb. 1876, at Heneage Street baptist chapel, Birmingham, to Mary Hawkes, who died, after a premature confinement, at Akwatown on the Cameroon river on 10 Jan. 1877; (2) in 1878, at Victoria, Cameroons, to Rose Patience Edgerley, a West Indian. His eldest daughter, Patience, who, after being educated in England and at Brussels, returned to the Congo as a teacher, died of hæmaturic fever at Bolobo on 18 March 1899.
A memorial tablet was unveiled in Heneage Street baptist chapel, Birmingham, on 24 September 1907.
Grenfell was an observant explorer (cf. Bentley, Pioneering on the Congo, ii 127-128) and an efficient student of native languages. He promoted industrial training, and gave every proof of missionary zeal.
[The Times, 1 Aug. 1906; Sir Harry Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo, 1908, 2 vols.; George Hawker, Life of George Grenfell, 1909 (portraits); W. Holman Bentley, Life on the Congo (introduction by G. Grenfell), 1887; Shirley J. Dickins, Grenfell of the Congo, 1910; Lord Mountmorres, The Congo Independent State, 1906, pp. 110 ff.]
GRENFELL, HUBERT HERBERT (1845–1906), expert in naval gunnery, born at Rugby on 12 June 1845, was son of Algernon Grenfell, a clerk, by his wife Maria Guerin Price.
Joining the navy as a cadet on 13 Dec. 1859, when fourteen, Grenfell passed out first from the Britannia, and gained as sub-lieutenant the Beaumont Testimonial in
