Lost Cities 17
Henry Musk married Charlotte Lane in 1824. They
lived in Exning, a small village in Suffolk, England. One
of their thirteen children was Eliza Musk, born in 1844.
Eliza Musk’s husband is unknown. She never married
since she kept her maiden name. What is known is that she
worked as a servant in London, but she had three children
while she was still living in Exning. One of these children
was Harry Musk, born in 1863. He worked as a bricklayer
before he moved to an area known today as South Africa.
As the first European, the Dutch Jan van Riebeeck
settled in a region known today as South Africa. He arrived
in 1652 and established the Cape Colony. The purpose
of the colony was to re-supply the ships from the Dutch
East India Company with fresh provisions, almost like a
charging station for electric vehicles.^75 As the Suez Canal
had not yet been constructed; ships had to sail around
the entire African continent to get to their destinations.
The risks involved with sailing around Africa was the
main reason why Christopher Columbus tried to find a
faster route by sailing west from Europe. Since Columbus
failed to find a shorter route, the Cape Colony became an
important region.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the British Empire
took control of the Cape Colony during the Napoleonic
Wars, and British immigrants began to move there. Most
emigrated from England because of financial reasons and
they chose between America and the Cape Colony as their
destination. “These are regions of possibility, and as we
drove along before our now friendly wind I could not but