Our fellow-citizens on other continents

A ‘contagious’ obsession could occur in Karlovac itself; this is where the Požega-born Dragutin Lerman together with Napoleon Lukšić set on to join Stanley’s expedition to Congo in exploration of the streams of the eponymous river.

Somewhat later they were also joined by the Karlovac-born Janko Mikić. Three young men, two of whom weren’t even twenty, set out to Africa in 1882 - that is 17 years before the Brothers Seljan. However, we should go back even further. The star which guided the skilled artist and craftsman Jakov Šašel before he settled in Karlovac was a missionary star; in 1853 he joined the missionary Ignacijo Knoblecher and travelled to Egypt, Nubia and Sudan - Šašel would say, to the Orient.