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STANLEY'S ADVENTURES IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA:
A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley
into the Heart of the Dark Continent.
Covering
Stanley's Expedition to Find Livingstone, His Crossing the Continent and
Exploration of the Congo from Its Headwaters to the Ocean, His
Establishment of the Congo Free State, and His Last Great
Achievement--the Discovery and Deliverance of Emin Pasha.
by
HON. J. T. HEADLEY,
Author of "_Napoleon and his Marshals_," "_Washington and his
Generals_," "_Sherman and his Campaigns_," "_Farragut and our Naval
Commanders_," "_Sacred Mountains_," "_Life of General Grants_," _etc._
and
WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON,
Author of "_The Saga of the Mistletoe_," "_Landmarks_," "_Facts
and Fancies of Evolution_," "_The Age of Commonplace_,"
"_The Johnstown Flood_," _etc._
Illustrated.
Edgewood Publishing Co.
1890.
Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1890,
By Walter J. Brooks,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.
[Illustration: HENRY M. STANLEY.]
STANLEY'S WONDERFUL ADVENTURES IN "THE DARK CONTINENT."
PREFACE.
For centuries Africa has been "the dark continent" of our globe. The
sea-washed edges of this immense tract have been known time immemorial.
Egypt, at its northeastern corner, is the oldest of the governments of
the earth; while the nations skirting the Red and the Mediterranean seas
were actors in the earliest recorded history. But Africa as a whole has
been an unknown land.
That it was a fertile land, was demonstrated by the treasures brought
from its depths by those mighty rivers, the Nile, the Niger and the
Congo. That it was populous, was proven by the fact that its native
tribes had furnished to the world without, forty millions of slaves in
the period of two centuries. Both the slave-hunter and the slave told
wondrous tales of the inner depths of the land, but these were mere
hints as to the actual facts of the case. Africa remained a mystery and
a riddle, that seemingly were never to be penetrated.
For many years explorations in Africa were made simply to gratify
curiosity, or from a desire to penetrate beyond lines reached by other
men. All the results desired or expected were amusement or fame. But in
later years African explorations have assumed an entirely different
aspect. From Livingstone, who first began to open up "the dark
continent," to Cameron and Stanley who pierced its very heart, all
explorations have tended to one great end--the civilization and
Christianization of the vast population that inhabits it. No matter
what the ruling motive may have been in each case, whether, as in
Livingstone, to introduce Christianity; or, in Baker, to put a stop to
the slave trade; or, in Stanley, to unlock the mystery of ages, still
the tendency has been the same: to bring Africa into the family of
continents instead of being the earth's "pariah;" to throw light on this
black spot of our planet, and make those who inhabit it practically and
morally, what they are really, a portion of the human race.
Mungo Park, Denham and Clapperton made explorations of considerable
value early in the present century, but Livingstone with thirty years of
toil in Africa was the real pioneer of successful work. In 1840, at the
age of twenty-five, he embarked as a missionary to South Africa, thus
entering the land where he lived and died, and which he never left save
on two brief visits to his native land.
After Livingstone's last return to Africa, circumstantial reports of his
death were received. These were subsequently contradicted and other
reports of death came. He wrote but few letters and some of these failed
to reach their destination; his fate, therefore, remained in painful
uncertainty until Bennett sent Stanley to discover him, dead or alive.
This commission led to the two expeditions of Stanley, the thrilling
events of which are narrated in this volume.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
HENRY M. STANLEY.
Stanley's birth-place--Early roving--Extensive travels--Correspondent
in Abyssinia--The lost Dr. Livingstone--Bennett's confidence
in Stanley--Stanley's marching orders--His interview with Bennett--Off
to his work--En route for Africa--Stanley meets Livingstone--Stanley's
extreme measures, 17
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA.
Inaccessibility of Africa--Extent of Africa--Products of the land, 42
CHAPTER III.
STANLEY'S SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE.
Preparations for the march--The start inland--Wretched
surroundings--Death of the horses--Jungle travel--The belles of
Kisemo--News of Livingstone--African fever, 49
CHAPTER IV.
WILD EXPERIENCES.
Slow marching--Irreparable losses--The sultana's judgment--Deliverance
from difficulties--In a pitiable plight--New burdens--Incipient
mutiny--Forgiveness--Murderous attempt--A man left behind, 68
CHAPTER V.
TRIALS BY THE WAY.
Down with fever--Strange tribes--A cowardly mob--The country
described--What Africa may be--Tribes of Africa--Marks and
weapons--African ornamentation--A nobler tribe--Warriors
armed--Filthy homes--Social customs--Agriculture, 93
CHAPTER VI.
ADVENTURES IN GREAT VARIETY.
Chiefs of Tabna--Fighting with Mirambo--A Flying caravan--
Despondency--Triumph--Shaw left--The hunter's paradise--On the
hunt--Crocodiles, 128
CHAPTER VII.
THE END APPROACHES.
Mutinous conduct--News of a white man--Hastening to Ujiji--A
screaming woman--A narrow escape, 150
CHAPTER VIII.
STANLEY MEETS LIVINGSTONE.
Ujiji in sight--The village entered--The doctor at hand--The lost
found--Opening his mail--Talking and eating--A long talk--Ambition
satisfied, 161
CHAPTER IX.
STANLEY'S HOMEWARD MARCH.
Sweet converse--Livingstone's surprise--Homeward bound--Parting
with Livingstone--Tribute to Livingstone--Passing the swamps--Again
at Zanzibar, 180
CHAPTER X.
STANLEY'S SECOND EXPEDITION.
Journeying inland--Lost in the jungle--Lion soup--Plenty of
food--Edward Pocoke's death--Letter of condolence--Burial of
Pocoke--Magic doctor, 197
CHAPTER XI.
PRESSING TOWARD THE INTERIOR.
A hostile surprise--A battle--A massacre--Summary retribution--Confident
amid perils--Immense table-lands--Geological history, 216
CHAPTER XII.
EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA.
Getting to work--Journal of the explorations--Navigating the
lake--A narrow escape--Review of the route, 231
CHAPTER XIII.
EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA.
Source of the Nile--King Mtesa--Royally entertained--The needed
missionary--Wild justice, 243
CHAPTER XIV.
EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA.
A night surprise--Narrow escape--In a storm--A welcome sight--A
treacherous trick--A critical moment--Terrible recompense--A
night tempest--Again in the storm, 256
CHAPTER XV.
AN INTERVAL OF REST.
Proposals to abandon camp--Rest after toil--Stanley's
day-dreams--Seeking canoes--The king's strategy--Treachery
thwarted, 277
CHAPTER XVI.
PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLORATIONS.
Organizing an attack--Terrible punishment--Completely subdued--New
schemes--The Albert Nyanza--Military escort, 291
CHAPTER XVII.
THE EXPEDITION TO ALBERT NYANZA.
Snow-capped mountains--A strange race--Toward the Albert Nyanza--A
miserable failure--The inglorious return--Mtesa's friendship--Lakes
of Karagwe--Sources of the Nile--Exploring the
Kagera--An African village--Bead currency, 304
CHAPTER XVIII.
EXPLORATIONS OF LAKE TANGANIKA.
Cameron's outlet--A wholesale massacre--Where is the
outlet?--Difficulties in the way--Curious customs, 331
CHAPTER XIX.
NYANGWE AND ITS HISTORY.
A beautiful region--The slave trade--Slave pens--Hunting the
slaves--How to stop it, 345
CHAPTER XX.
ORGANIZING A NEW EXPEDITION.
Stanley's new purposes--Napoleonic spirit--An escort
secured--African markets--Tipo-Tipo's army, 356
CHAPTER XXI.
THROUGH THE FORESTS.
The start--Discouraging progress--Wonders of the forest--Soko
skulls, 368
CHAPTER XXII.
FLOATING DOWN THE CONGO.
Terrible suspense--Drifting downward--A stratagem--Departure of
Tipo-Tipo--A mournful scene, 379
CHAPTER XXIII.
DESCENT OF THE CONGO.
Beset by cannibals--Beautiful scenery--Zaidi in peril--Stanley as
a strategist--Seeking man-meat--Battling onward--Portuguese
muskets--Chased again--Famine at hand--Hospitable
entertainment--"Stanley pool"--Brotherly proceedings, 390
CHAPTER XXIV.
AMONG THE CATARACTS.
Wild surroundings--Terrible rapids--Soudi's marvelous escape--Narrow
escape of Stanley--Cluster of cataracts--Canoes on mountain
tops, 419
CHAPTER XXV.
EXPERIENCES BY THE WAY.
Canoe building--A terrific pass--Trial for theft--Touching
scene--Unexpected dilemma--A merry evening, 435
CHAPTER XXVI.
DEATH OF FRANK POCOKE.
Pocoke's value to Stanley--Stanley in peril--Drowning of
Pocoke--Stanley in grief--Pocoke's character, 448
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE COMPLETED WORK.
Incipient mutiny--In despair--A perilous moment--Brightening
prospects--Captured for stealing--Word to the outside
world--A starving company--Greeted by friends--Approaching
Zanzibar--Home again--Stanley's crowning honor, 460
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FRUITS OF VICTORY.
Stanley called to Brussels--A conference concerning the Congo
region--A company organized--At the mouth of the Congo--Up the
river--Locating stations--Making treaties--Difficulties
surmounted--Stanley Pool reached, 484
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CONGO FREE STATE.
Treaty concerning the new realm--Area of the Congo
basin--Peculiarities of the river--Its volume--Scenery on the
Congo--Climate--Commercial advantages--Stanley's fame, 494
CHAPTER XXX.
EMIN, THE LAST OF THE SOUDAN HEROES.
History of Emin Pasha--In Egyptian service--Efficient work--Lost
to the world--Betrayal of Gordon--Popular demand for Emin's
rescue--The "Emin Relief Committee," 500
CHAPTER XXXI.
STANLEY TO THE RESCUE.
Stanley in America--Recalled to Europe--Back to Africa--His
escort--Disposition of his forces--Into the wilderness--Distressing
reports--Forged dispatches--Disaster elsewhere--Good news
from Stanley, 505
CHAPTER XXXII.
STANLEY AND EMIN.
Emin's forces--His hesitation--His delays--Discussions on the
subject--Hopes of success, 511
CHAPTER XXXIII.
IN THE HEART OF AFRICA.
Stanley heard from--Hidden again--Further news--A barrier of
silence--Summary of incidents--Advance contested--Unholy
regions--Providence or luck--Seriously ill--Promises
kept--Surroundings changed--Sublime scenery--Officers in
doubt--Further news--Emin and his people arrive, 518
CHAPTER XXXIV.
FORWARD MARCH.
The grand muster--Moving--In camp--Great expectations--Route
of the advance--Supplies forwarded--Arrival at Mpwapwa--Early
arrival of the expedition--Losses by the way--Much
fighting--Dangers everywhere, 526
CHAPTER XXXV.
ON THE COAST AT LAST.
Met by journalists--Emin described--Royal entertainments--Emin's
accident--Congratulations--Return messages--Rejoicings
everywhere, 534
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
HENRY M. STANLEY (Frontispiece).
Zanzibar, 51
Ceremonies of the Queen's Court, 79
Shooting Hippopotami near Lake Ugenlo, 83
Execution for Witchcraft, 111
African Warriors and Warfare, 117
Waste of Human Life, 125
A Council of War, 131
Spring-bok Browsing, 145
Stanley Meeting Livingstone, 169
Village on Tanganika Lake, 185
Burial of Edward Pocoke, 211
Reception of Mtesa's Body-guard, 247
A Treacherous Assault, 265
Stanley's Dash Across Unyoro, 305
Hot Springs of Mtagata, 323
Setting out to Cross Lake Tanganika, 339
Scene in Camp at Nyangwe, 359
Natives Hunting Sokos, 375
Fighting our Way Around, 395
Boat Fight with the Savages, 409
Death of Kalulu, 425
Drowning of Frank Pocoke, 455
Shooting the Rapids, 467
Emin Pasha, 515
CHAPTER I.
HENRY M. STANLEY.
Stanley is one of those characters which forcibly illustrate the effect
of republican institutions in developing strong men. Despotism cannot
fetter thought--that is free everywhere--but it can and does restrain
its outworking into practical action. Free institutions do not make
great men, but they allow those endowed by nature with extraordinary
gifts free scope for action. This fact never had, perhaps, a more
striking illustration than in the French Revolution. The iron frame-work
of despotism had rested so long over the heads of the people that it had
become rusted in its place, and no individual force or strength could
rend it asunder. But when the people, in their fury, shattered it into
fragments, there was exhibited the marvelous effects of individual
character. A lieutenant of artillery vaulted to the throne of France and
made marshals and dukes and kings of plebeians. A plebeian himself, he
took to his plebeian bed the daughter of the Caesars. He took base-born
men and pitted them against nobles of every degree, and the plebeians
proved themselves the better men. In other words, he put men against
titles, and the tiles went down before the men. Thus, no matter how
despotic he became, he and his marshals and new-made kings were the most
terrible democracy. The mighty changes that were then wrought show what
results may be expected when the whole world shall be thus set free, and
every man be allowed to strike his best and strongest blow. When the
race is thus let loose on the planet we inhabit, we shall see the
fulfillment of that prophecy, "a nation shall be born in a day."
The same truth is apparent in our own country, though its exhibitions
are not so sudden and startling. Indeed they could not be, because this
freedom of action has no restraints to break through, and hence no
violent effort is required. Every man grows and expands by degrees
without let or hindrance. In a despotism, Webster would probably have
taught school in a log school-house all his days, and the "mill-boy of
the slashes" never would have made the forum of a nation ring with his
eloquence, nor the "rail-splitter" have become the foremost man of his
time, nor the "tanner-boy" the president of the republic. Republican
institutions never made any of those men--they simply allowed them to
make themselves.
Stanley is among the latest and most extraordinary examples of this. It
is folly to point to such men as he, as a stimulus to youthful ambition.
No amount of study or effort can make such a boy or man as he was and
is. The energy, daring, self-confidence, promptness and indomitable will
were born in him, not acquired. The Latin proverb, _Poeta nascitur, non
fit_, "the poet is born, not made," is not truer of the poet than of a
character such as his. His peculiarities may be pointed out for the
admiration of others, his good qualities may teach youth how
perseverance, and determination, and work will elevate a man, whatever
be his walk in life. One born with a combination of qualities like
Stanley's, must have room given him or he will make room. He has such an
abundance of energy and will-power that they must have scope for action.
A despotism could not have repressed him. He would either have become a
wanderer or adventurer in strange lands, or he would have headed a
revolution and vaulted to power or to a scaffold, as others had done
before him.
But although Stanley developed his character under free institutions, he
was not born under them, he being a native of Wales. He was born near
Denbigh, in 1840. His father's name was Rowland. When three years old,
he was sent to the poor-house at St. Asaph, to get an education. Here
the poor, unpromising lad remained till he had finished such an
education as this institution could furnish, and then he sought
employment as a teacher, and for a year was employed as such at Mold,
Flintshire. But the strong instincts of his nature then began to show
themselves. He felt that a school-teacher's life, however honorable and
useful, could not be his, and, therefore, with his scant earnings, he
shipped as cabin-boy in a vessel bound for New Orleans. Having arrived
in safety, he began to look about for employment. By what lucky chance
it happened we do not know, but he fell into the hands of a merchant
named Stanley, who became so attached to the frank, energetic, ambitious
youth, that he finally adopted him and gave him his name. Thus the Welsh
boy Rowland, became the American youth Stanley.
Fortune had certainly smiled on him, and his future seemed secure. As
the partner, and eventually heir of his benefactor, as he doubtless
would become, fortune, ease and a luxurious life lay before him. But
even here, so pleasantly situated and cared for, the same restless
spirit that has since driven him over the world, exhibited itself, and
he wandered off into the wilds of Arkansas, and in his log-cabin on the
banks of the Wichita River, with the pine-trees moaning above him, he
dwelt for a long time, among the strange, wild dreams of his imaginative
and daring youth. His adopted father mourned him as dead, never
expecting to behold him again. But the youth made his way to the
Mississippi, and going on board a flat-boat, became the companion of the
rough western characters to be found on these boats, and slowly floated
down to New Orleans and was received by his overjoyed father as one
risen from the dead.
But just here, fortune, which seemed to have had him in her special
care, took him another step forward by apparently deserting him. His
adopted father suddenly died without making his will. His place and
prospective heirship both disappeared together, and the curtain was let
down between him and a pleasant, successful future. Doubtless that
father intended to provide for his adopted son, but now all the property
went to the natural legal heirs, and he was once more thrown upon the
world. In the delirium of an African fever, tossing in his hammock, far
from the haunts of civilization, there came back to him remembrances of
his life at this point. We learn that impelled by his roving disposition
he wandered away among the California miners, and at last among the
Indians, and sat by their council fires. He seemed destined to see every
phase of human life, to become acquainted with the roughest characters,
to prepare him for the wildest of all men, the African savage. This kind
of life also toughened and hardened the fibre of the youth, so that he
settled down into the man with a constitution of iron, without which he
could not have endured the trials he has since undergone, and still
retain his health and physical powers unworn.
At this time a new field opened before him. The civil war broke out,
and being a Southern man, he enlisted in the Confederate army. This was
a kind of service just adapted to his peculiar character, one in which a
man with the courage, daring, energy, promptness and indomitable will
that he possessed, was sure to win fame and promotion. But before he had
time to exhibit these qualities, fate, that seemed against him to human
eyes, again advanced him a step toward success by causing him to be
taken prisoner by the Union troops. As a prisoner he was worthless, and
the Union cause really having his sympathies, he proposed to enlist in
the Northern army.
Whether the military authorities were afraid of this sudden conversion
or not daring to give too much freedom of action to one who showed by
his whole bearing and language, that there was no undertaking too daring
for him to attempt, we are not told, but they put him where he would
probably have little chance to show what stuff he was made of, and he
was placed on the iron-clad ship Ticonderoga. It is said, he was
released as prisoner and volunteered to enlist in the navy. Be that as
it may, though totally unfit for service of any kind on board of a
man-of-war, he soon became acting ensign.
At the close of the war he looked about for some field of active
service, and what little war he had seen seemed to fit his peculiar
character, and hearing that the Cretans were about to attempt to throw
off the Turkish yoke, he resolved to join them. He proceeded thither
with two other Americans, after having first made an engagement with the
New York _Herald_, as its correspondent. Disgusted, it is said, with the
insurgent leaders, he abandoned his purpose, and having a sort of roving
commission from Mr. Bennett, he determined to travel in the East. But he
and his fellow-travelers were attacked by Turkish brigands, and robbed
of all their money and clothing. They laid their complaint before Mr.
Morris, then our minister at Constantinople, who in turn laid it before
the Turkish government, and at the same time advanced them funds to
supply their wants.
After various journeyings Stanley returned to England. Here a strong
desire seized him to visit the place of his nativity in Wales, the house
where he was born, and the humble dwelling where he received the first
rudiments of his education at St. Asaph. One can imagine the feelings
with which this bronzed young man, who had traveled so far and wide,
entered the quiet valley from which he had departed so long ago to seek
his fortune. It speaks well for his heart, that his sympathies turned at
once toward the poor-house of which he had been an inmate in his
childhood. Remembering that the greatest boon that could have been
conferred at that time on him would have been a good, generous dinner,
he resolved to give those poor children one. The daring young
adventurer, in the presence of those simple, wonderstruck children,
would have made a noble subject for a picture. We venture to say that
Mr. Stanley enjoyed that unobtrusive meal in that quiet Welsh valley
more than he has ever enjoyed a banquet with nobles and princes; and as
the shadows of life lengthen he will look back on it with more real
pleasure. He addressed the little ones of the Institution, giving them a
familiar talk, telling them that he was once one of that household,
accompanying his words with good advice, saying for their encouragement,
and to stimulate them to noble endeavors, that all he had been in the
past and all he hoped to be in the future, he attributed to the
education which was begun in that poor-house.
This was a real episode in his eventful life, and, though it doubtless
soon passed away in the more stirring scenes on which he entered, yet
the remembrance of it still lingers around that quiet, retired Welsh
valley, and, to-day, the name of Stanley is a household word there, and
is the pride and glory of its simple inhabitants. And as time goes on
and silvers those dark hairs, and the "almond-tree flourishes" and
"desire fails because man goeth to his long home," he, too, will
remember it as a green oasis he once longed to see and found in the arid
desert.
In 1867, when he was twenty-seven years of age, he returned to the
United States and, in the next year, accompanied the English army in
its campaign against Theodore, king of Abyssinia, which was set on foot
to revenge the wrongs this tyrant had committed against the subjects and
representatives of the British government. Stanley went as correspondent
of the New York _Herald_, and gave a vivid and clear account of the
painful march and skirmishes up to the last great battle in the king's
stronghold, where, with a gallant dash, the fortress was taken, the king
killed and the war ended. With that promptness in acting, which is one
of his chief characteristics, he at once dispatched the news of the
victory and the ending of the campaign to London, outstripping the
government dispatches sent by the commander-in-chief, so that one
morning the readers of the London newspapers knew that of which the
government was ignorant. This, of course, was a genuine surprise. A
young American newspaper correspondent, without a vessel at his command,
had, nevertheless, by his enterprise, beaten the government messenger,
and steady old conservative England was disgusted to find its
time-honored custom reversed, which was that the government should first
give notice of successes to the public, leaving to newspaper
correspondents to fill up the minor details. But an enterprising young
American had furnished the important news, leaving the British
government the secondary duty of supplying these details.
Notwithstanding the admiration of the enterprise that had accomplished
this great feat, there was a ludicrous aspect to the affair, in the
position in which it placed official personages, that raised a quiet
laugh on both continents. Stanley's letters contain the best history of
that expedition that has been written. This was still another onward
step in the great work before him, of which he, as yet had no
intimation.
The next year, 1868, he returned to the United States, and in the
following year was sent by the _Herald_ into Spain, to follow the
fortunes of the civil war there, as correspondent. Like everything else
that he undertook, he performed his duties more than faithfully.
Exposure, danger, hardships, nothing interfered when there was a
prospect of acquiring valuable information. It mattered not to him
whether he was on the margin or in the vortex of battle--he never
thought of anything but the object before him and toward which he bent
all his energies. His letters from the seat of war not only gave the
best description of the battles fought and of the military position of
affairs, but, also, of the political state of the kingdom. But while he
was here, considering himself fixed down for an indefinite period, for
Spain is proverbial for the protracted duration of its civil wars, Mr.
Bennett, in Paris, was planning an expedition to go in search of Dr.
Livingstone, buried, alive or dead, somewhere in the heart of Africa.
The sympathies of everybody were enlisted in his fortunes, yet the
British government, though he had done so much to enhance the fame of
his native country, refused to stir a step toward ascertaining his fate,
discovering his whereabouts, or relieving him if in want.
The Royal Geographical Society, ashamed of the apathy and indifference
of the government, had started a subscription to raise funds from
private sources to defray the expenses of an expedition to go in search
of him. In the meantime this American editor, scorning alike state
patronage or private help, conceived the bold project of finding him
himself. Looking around for a suitable leader to command an expedition,
his eye rested upon Stanley in Spain. And here should be noted the
profound sagacity of Mr. Bennett in selecting such a leader for this
desperate expedition, that was to go no one knew where, and end no one
knew how.
Most people thought it was a mammoth advertisement of the New York
_Herald_, nothing more. If he was in earnest why did he not select some
one of the many African explorers who were familiar with the regions of
Central Africa, and had explored in the vicinity of where Livingstone
was, by the best judges, supposed to be, if alive? Men, for instance,
like Speke, Baker, Burton, Grant and others. This certainly would have
given great eclat to the expedition, and, if it failed in its chief
object, would unquestionably have furnished new facts for the geographer
and the man of science. But to send one who made no pretensions to
science, no claims to be a meteorologist, botanist, geologist, or to be
familiar with astronomical calculations, all of which are indispensable
to a great explorer, seemed absurd.
But Mr. Bennett had no intention of making new scientific or
geographical discoveries. He had but one object in view--to find Dr.
Livingstone--and on the true Napoleonic system of selecting the best man
to accomplish a single object, he, with Napoleonic sagacity, fixed on
Stanley. The celebrated men who would have given greater distinction to
the enterprise would, doubtless, divide up their time and resources
between scientific research and the chief object of the expedition, and
thus cause delays that might defeat it; or, with more or less of the
martinet about them, push their researches only to a reasonable extent
and be content with reports instead of personal investigation. But he
wanted a man who had but one thing to do, and not only that, but a man
who would accomplish the errand on which he was sent or die in the
attempt. This was to be no mere well-regulated expedition, that was to
turn back when all reasonable efforts had been made. It was one that, if
desperate straits should come, would resort to desperate means, and he
knew that with Stanley at its head this would be done. He knew that
Stanley would fetch out Livingstone, dead or alive, or leave his own
bones to bleach in the depths of Africa. Stanley was comparatively
young, it was true, and had always accompanied, never led, expeditions.
He knew nothing of Africa, or how an expedition should be organized or
furnished--it mattered not. Bennett knew he had resources within
himself--nerves that never flinch, courage that no amount of danger
could daunt, a will that neither an African fever nor a wasted form
could break down, and a resolution of purpose that the presence of death
itself could not shake, while, to complete all, he had a quickness and
accuracy of judgment in a perilous crisis, followed by equally quick and
right action, which would extricate him out of difficulties that would
overwhelm men who had all his courage, will and energy, but were slower
in coming to a decision.
This latter quality is one of the rarest ever found even in the
strongest men; to think quick and yet think right, to come to a right
decision as if by impulse, is a power few men possess. To go swift and
yet straight as the cannon ball or lightning's flash, gives to any man's
actions tenfold power. In this lay the great secret of Napoleon's
success. His campaigns were started, while those of others were under
discussion, and the thunder and tumult of battle cleared his preceptions
and judgment so that no unexpected disaster could occur that he was not
ready to meet. This quickness and accuracy of thought and action is one
of the prominent characteristics of Stanley, and more than once saved
his life and his expedition.
On the 16th day of October, 1869, as he was sitting in his hotel at
Madrid, having just returned from the carnage of Valencia, a telegram
was handed him. The thunder of cannon and tumult of battle had scarce
ceased echoing in his ear when this telegram startled him from his
reverie: "Come to Paris on important business." In a moment all was
hurry and confusion, his books and pictures were packed, his washed and
unwashed clothes were stowed away, and in two hours his trunks were
strapped and labeled "Paris." The train started at 3 o'clock, and he
still had some time to say good-bye to his friends, and here by mere
accident comes out one of the most pleasing traits of his character. Of
the friends he is thus to leave, he merely refers to those of the
American legation, but dwells with regret on the farewell he must give
to two little children, whom he calls his "fast friends." Like a sudden
burst of sunlight on a landscape, this unconscious utterance reveals a
heart as tender as it is strong, and increases our interest in the man
quite as much as in the explorer. At 3 o'clock he was thundering on
toward Paris, ready, as he said, to go to the battle or the banquet, all
the same. His interview with Mr. Bennett reveals the character of both
these men so clearly that we give it in Stanley's own words:
"At 3 P. M. I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne a few
hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night. I went
straight to the 'Grand Hotel,' and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's
room.
"'Come in,' I heard a voice say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed.
"'Who are you?' he asked.
"'My name is Stanley,' I answered.
"'Ah, yes, sit down; I have important business on hand for you.'
"After throwing over his shoulders his _robe de chambre_, Mr. Bennett
asked: 'Where do you think Livingstone is?'
"'I really do not know, sir.'
"'Do you think he is alive?'
"'He may be, and he may not be,' I answered.
"'Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going to
send you to find him.'
"'What,' said I, 'do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone? Do you
mean me to go to Central Africa?'
"'Yes; I mean that you shall go and find him, wherever you hear that he
is, and get what news you can of him; and, perhaps'--delivering himself
thoughtfully and deliberately--'the old man may be in want. Take enough
with you to help him, should he require it. Of course, you will act
according to your own plans, and you will do what is best--but FIND
LIVINGSTONE!'
"Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to Central Africa
to search for a man whom I, in common with most other men, believed to
be dead: 'Have you considered seriously the great expense you are liable
to incur on account of this little journey?'
"'What will it cost?' he asked abruptly.
"'Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost between L3,000 and
L5,000, and I fear it cannot be done under L2,500.'
"'Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now,
and when you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when
that is spent draw another thousand, and when you have finished that
draw another thousand, and so on--but FIND LIVINGSTONE!'
"Surprised, but not confused, at the order, for I knew that Mr. Bennett,
when he had once made up his mind, was not easily drawn aside from his
purpose, I yet thought, seeing it was such a gigantic scheme, that he
had not quite considered in his own mind the pros and the cons of the
case, I said: 'I have heard that, should your father die, you would sell
the _Herald_, and retire from business.'
"'Whoever told you so is wrong, for there is not money enough in the
United States to buy the New York _Herald_. My father has made it a
great paper, but I mean to make it a greater. I mean, that it shall be a
newspaper in the true sense of the word; I mean that it shall publish
whatever news may be useful to the world, at no matter what cost.'
"'After that,' said I, 'I have nothing more to say. Do you mean me to go
straight on to Africa to search for Dr. Livingstone?'
"'No; I wish you to go to the inauguration of the Suez Canal first, and
then proceed up the Nile. I hear Baker is about starting for Upper
Egypt. Find out what you can about his expedition, and, as you go up,
describe, as well as possible, whatever is interesting for tourists, and
then write up a guide--a practical one--for Lower Egypt; tell us about
whatever is worth seeing, and how to see it.
"'Then you might as well go to Jerusalem; I hear that Captain Warren is
making some interesting discoveries there. Then visit Constantinople,
and find out about the khedive and sultan.
"'Then--let me see--you might as well visit the Crimea and those old
battle-grounds. Then go across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. I hear
there is a Russian expedition bound for Khiva. From thence you may get
through Persia to India; you could write an interesting letter from
Persepolis.
"'Bagdad will be close on your way to India; suppose you go there and
write up something about the Euphrates Valley Railway. Then, when you
have come to India, you may go after Dr. Livingstone. Probably you will
hear by that time that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar; but, if
not, go into the interior and find him, if alive. Get what news you can;
and if you find that he is dead, bring all possible proofs you can of
his being dead. That is all. Good-night, and God be with you.'
"'Good-night, sir,' I said, 'what is in the power of human nature I will
do; and on such an errand as I go upon, God will be with me.'
"I lodged with young Edward King, who is making such a name in New
England. He was just the man who would have delighted to tell the
journal he was engaged upon what young Mr. Bennett was doing, and what
errand I was bound upon. I should have liked to exchange opinions with
him upon the probable results of my journey, but dared not do so. Though
oppressed with the great task before me, I had to appear as if only
going to be present at the Suez Canal. Young King followed me to the
express train bound for Marseilles, and at the station we parted--he to
go and read the newspapers at Bowles's Reading-room, I to Central Africa
and--who knows? There is no need to recapitulate what I did before going
to Central Africa."
He started on his travels, and we hear of him first in Constantinople,
from our minister there, Mr. Morris, who had relieved him and his
companions when plundered by Turkish brigands. One of Mr. Stanley's
traveling companions who had been robbed with himself, accused him, in a
published letter, of dishonesty regarding the money our minister had
advanced. It is not necessary to go into this accusation or a refutation
of it now. It is sufficient to say that Mr. Morris declared the whole
charge false, and as the shortest and most complete refutation of such a
charge, we give Mr. Morris's own views of Mr. Stanley:
"The uncouth young man whom I first knew had grown into a perfect man of
the world, possessing the appearance, the manners and the attributes of
a perfect gentleman. The story of the adventures which he had gone
through and the dangers he had passed during his absence, were perfectly
marvelous, and he became the lion of our little circle. Scarcely a day
passed but he was a guest at my table, and no one was more welcome, for
I insensibly grew to have a strong attachment for him myself." In
speaking further on of his projected travels, he said he advised him to
go to Persia, which Stanley suddenly came to the conclusion to follow
out. "He therefore," he says, "busied himself in procuring letters of
introduction to the Russian authorities in the Caucasus, in Georgia and
in other countries through which he would have to pass."
This is quite enough to put to rest the scandal, which at one time
produced quite a sensation, that Stanley had cheated Mr. Morris and
misappropriated the funds advanced by him. No explanations are required
after this indorsement.
Of this long and hazardous journey, the columns of the _Herald_ gave all
the principal details. There is nothing in them that illustrates the
peculiar characteristics of Stanley more than, or even so much as, his
subsequent acts, hence his brief summary of this tour, that seems to
have had no definite object whatever, except to give the correspondent
of the _Herald_ something to do, until the proper moment to start on the
expedition for Livingstone, is, perhaps, the best account that could be
given, so far as the general reader is concerned. All we can say is, it
seems a very roundabout way in which to commence such an expedition.
"I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in Baker's
expedition, at Philae, and was the means of preventing a duel between him
and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight Mr. Higginbotham with
pistols, because Mr. Higginbotham resented the idea of being taken for
an Egyptian through wearing a fez cap. I had a talk with Captain Warren
at Jerusalem, and descended one of the pits with a sergeant of engineers
to see the marks of Tyrian workmen on the foundation-stones of the
Temple of Solomon. I visited the mosques of Stamboul with the minister
resident of the United States, and the American consul-general. I
traveled over the Crimean battle-grounds with Kinglake's glorious books
for reference. I dined with the widow of General Liprandi, at Odessa. I
saw the Arabian traveler, Palgrave, at Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the
civil governor of the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian
embassador while at Teheran, and wherever I went through Persia I
received the most hospitable welcome from the gentlemen of the
Indo-European Telegraph Company; and, following the example of many
illustrious men, I wrote my name upon one of the Persepolitan monuments.
In the month of August, 1870, I arrived in India."
In completing this sketch of Mr. Stanley's life and character, it is
necessary only to add that his after career fully justified the high
estimate Mr. Bennett had placed on his extraordinary qualities. These
were tested to their utmost extent in his persistent, determined search
after the man he was sent to find. But we believe that Livingstone, when
found, with whom Stanley passed some months, exerted a powerful
influence on the character which we have attempted to portray. Stanley
was comparatively young, full of life and ambition, with fame, greater
probably than he had ever anticipated, now within his reach. Yet, here
in the heart of Africa, he found a man well on in years, of a world-wide
fame, yet apparently indifferent to it.
This man who had spent his life in a savage country, away from home and
all the pleasures of civilized society, who expected to pass the
remnant of his days in the same isolated state, was looking beyond
_this_ life. He was forgetting himself, in the absorbing purpose to
benefit others. Fame to him was nothing, the welfare of a benighted race
everything. This was a new revelation to the ambitious young man.
Hitherto he had thought only of himself, but here was a man, earnest,
thoughtful, sincere, who was living to carry out a great idea--no less
than the salvation of a continent--nay more than this, who was working
not for himself, but for a Master, and that Master, the God of the
universe. He remained with him in close companionship for months, and
intimate relations with a man borne up by such a lofty purpose, inspired
by such noble feelings, and looking so far away beyond time for his
reward, could not but have an important influence on a man with
Stanley's noble and heroic qualities. It was a new revelation to him. He
had met, not a successful, bold explorer, but a Christian, impelled and
sustained by the great and noble idea of regenerating a race and
honoring the God of man and the earth. Such a lengthened companionship
with a man of this character could but lift Stanley to a higher plane,
and inspire him with a loftier purpose than that of a mere explorer.
But while this expedition brought out all the peculiar traits we have
spoken of, yet his later expedition developed qualities which
circumstances had not previously shown. When from this he emerged on
the Atlantic coast with his company, he was hailed with acclamations and
a British vessel was placed at his disposal in which to return home. But
the ease and comfort offered him, and the applause awaiting him, were
nothing compared with the comfort and welfare of the savage band that
had for so long a time been his companions and his only reliance in the
perils through which he had passed. True, they had often been
intractable, disobedient and trustless, but still they had been his
companions in one of the most perilous marches ever attempted by man,
and with that large charity that allowed for the conduct of these
untutored, selfish animals of the desert, he forgot it all and would do
nothing, think of nothing, till their wants were supplied and their
welfare secured. He would see them safe back to the spot from which he
took them, and did, before he took care of himself. A noble nature there
asserted itself, and we doubt not that every one of those poor ignorant
savages would go to the death for that brave man to whom their own
welfare was so dear.
In this sketch of Mr. Stanley, as it appears to us from the record of
his life, we have omitted to notice those faults which are incident to
poor human nature, in whatever person it is enshrined. But perhaps this
is as good a place as any to notice the charge brought against him by
some persons in the English press, of having killed natives, not in
self-defense but to carry out his explorations; they asserting that
neither for fame nor science, nor for any other motive, had a man a
right to take the life of his fellow-man. Without going into an argument
on this point, or bringing forward the circumstances of this particular
case, leaving that to be explained in the narrative, as it will appear
in subsequent pages, we wish simply to say that the philanthropy and
Christianity, in behalf of which the charge is made, is pure Pharisaism.
Those writers asserted that life should be taken only in self-defense.
But in their eyes it is right, from mere covetousness to seize territory
in India, and thus provoke the rightful owners to rise in defense of
their own, which act converts them into assailants that must be killed
in self-defense.
But this man having passed through friendly territory, suddenly finds
himself stopped by hostile savages, who declare that he must retrace his
three months' journey and turn back, not because they are to be
despoiled of their land, or wronged in their persons, but from mere
savage maliciousness and hate. Mr. Stanley quietly insists on continuing
his journey, desiring no conflict, but finding them determined to kill
him and break up his expedition, he anticipates their movements and
shoots down some of them, and lo, these writers who defend the slaughter
of tens of thousands of men in India, so that England may enjoy her
wholesale robbery, nay, who threaten Europe with bloody war at the mere
hint that others may want to share her unjust possessions--these writers
call on the English people to refuse to give Stanley a public reception,
because he killed a half-dozen savages who wanted to kill him. He should
have waited, they say, till they fired the first shot; as he did not his
conduct should be investigated by the philanthropic subjects of Her
Majesty the Queen.