STANLEY'S HOMEWARD MARCH.
Rest and repose were now enjoyed to the full by Stanley. His long
struggles, his doubts and fears, his painful anxiety were over, and the
end toward which he had strained with such unflagging resolution, the
most disheartening circumstances, and which at times seemed to recede
the more as he pressed forward, was at last reached. The sweet repose,
the calm satisfaction and enjoyment which always come with the
consciousness of complete success, now filled his heart, and he felt as
none can feel but he who has at last won a long and doubtful battle. It
was complete rest, the entire fruition of his hopes; and as he sat down
there in the heart of Africa, beside Livingstone, he was doubtless for
at least the first few days, the happiest man on the globe, and well he
deserved to be. The goal was won, the prize secured, and for the time
being his utmost desires were satisfied. Why should he not be happy?
His intercourse with Livingstone for the next four months will be marked
by him as the brightest portion of his eventful life. Independent of all
he had undergone to find this remarkable man, the man himself enlisted
all his sympathies and awakened his most extravagant admiration and
purest love, and a more charming picture can hardly be conceived than
these two men, walking at sunset along the beach of the wild and lonely
lake of Tanganika, talking over the strange scenes and objects of their
strange, new world, or recalling home and friends far away amid all the
comforts and luxuries of civilization. The man whom Stanley had at last
found was almost as new and startling a revelation to him as the country
in which he had found him. Simple, earnest, unselfish--nay, unambitious,
so far as personal fame was concerned, borne up in all his sufferings
and trials by one great and noble purpose, and conquering even savage
hate by the power of goodness alone, he was an object of the profoundest
interest. And no greater eulogium on the innate goodness and nobleness
of Stanley's nature could be given than he unconsciously bestowed on
himself by the deep attachment, nay, almost adoration, he expresses for
this lonely, quiet, good man. He fastens to him at once, and casting off
old prejudices and rejecting all former criticisms of his character, he
impulsively becomes his champion, and crowns him the prince of men.
The talk between them at their first meeting in this far-off land, was
long and pleasant, and when the good-night was given, it was with
strange feelings that Stanley turned into his allotted sleeping place
in a regular bed. After all the toils and almost unnatural excitement of
the day, he soon sank into profound slumber. The next morning he awoke
with a start, and looked about him for a moment in a dazed way. He was
not on the ground, but in a bed; a roof, not a tent, was above him,
while not a sound broke the stillness save the steady, monotonous roar
of the surf beating on the shore. As he lay and listened, strange
thoughts and varied emotions chased each other in rapid succession
through his heart. At length he arose and dressed himself, intending
before breakfast to take a stroll along the shore of the lake. But the
doctor was up before him and met him with a cordial "Good-morning," and
the hope that he had rested well.
Livingstone had sat up late reading the news that Stanley had brought
him from the outside world, from which he had heard nothing for years.
"Sit down," said the venerable man, "you have brought me good and bad
news," and then he repeated, first of all, the tidings he had received
from his children.
In the excitement of the day before, the doctor had forgotten to inquire
of Stanley the object of his coming, or where he was going, and the
latter now said: "Doctor, you are probably wondering why I came here."
"It is true," was the reply, "I have been wondering."
That wonder was increased when Stanley said: "I came after you, nothing
else."
"After me!" exclaimed the now utterly bewildered man.
"Yes," said Stanley, "after you. I suppose you have heard of the New
York _Herald_?"
"Yes," said the doctor.
"Well, Mr. Bennett, son of the proprietor, sent me, at his own expense,
to find you."
Poor Livingstone could hardly comprehend the fact that an American, and
a stranger, should expend $25,000 to find him, a solitary Englishman.
Stanley lived now some four months in the closest intimacy with
Livingstone. Removed from all the formalities of civilized life--the
only two in that far-off land who could converse in the English
language, and who were of the same lineage and faith--their relations of
necessity became very intimate. All restraint was thrown off, and this
noble man poured into the astonished ears of Stanley all he had thought,
prayed for, endured and suffered for the last long five years. It was a
new revelation to his hearer. It opened up a new world; gave him a new
and loftier conception of what human nature is capable of attaining, and
he says: "I had gone over battle-fields, witnessed revolutions, civil
wars, rebellions, emeutes and massacres; stood close to the condemned
murderer to record his last struggles and last sighs; but never had I
been called to record anything that moved me so much as this man's woes
and sufferings, his privations and disappointments, which were now
poured into my ear. Verily did I begin to believe that 'the gods above
us do with just eyes survey the affairs of men.' I began to recognize
the hand of an overruling Providence."
After resting for a week, during which time Stanley became thoroughly
acquainted with Livingstone and learned to respect and love him more and
more, the former asked the doctor if he would not like to explore the
north end of the Tanganika Lake and among other things, settle the
question whether the Rusizi River flowed _into_ or _out_ of the lake.
The doctor gladly consented, and they set off in a canoe manned by
sixteen rowers. The weather was fine, the scenery charming, and it
seemed like floating through a fairyland. Day after day they kept
on--landing at night on the picturesque shores, undisturbed, except in
one or two instances, by the natives. The luxuriant banks were lined
with villages, filled with an indolent, contented people. With no wants
except food to eat, and the lake full of fish, they had nothing to
stimulate them to activity or effort of any kind.
[Illustration: VILLAGE ON TANGANIKA LAKE]
Islands came and went, mountains rose and faded on the horizon, and it
was one long holiday to our two explorers. As the rowers bent steadily
to their oars and the canoe glided softly through the rippling waters,
they spent the time in admiring the beautiful scenery that kept
changing like a kaleidoscope, or talking of home and friends and the
hopes and prospects of the future. A hippopotamus would now and then
startle them by his loud snort, as he suddenly lifted his head near the
boat to breathe, wild fowl skittered away as they approached, a sweet
fragrance came down from the hill-sides, and the tropical sky bent soft
and blue above them. The conventionalities of life were far away and all
was calm and peaceful, and seemed to Stanley more like a dream than a
reality. They were thus voyaging along the coast twenty-eight days,
during which time they had traversed over three hundred miles of water.
But at last the time came for Stanley to turn his footsteps homeward. He
tried in vain to prevail on Livingstone to go home with him, but the
latter, though anxious to see his children, resolutely refused, saying
that he must finish his work. He, however, concluded to accompany
Stanley as far as Unyanyembe, to meet the stores which had been
forwarded to that place for him from Zanzibar. On the 27th of December,
therefore, they set out by a new route. Nothing occurred in the long
journey of special interest, except the shooting of a zebra or a
buffalo, the meeting of a herd of elephants or giraffes, or a lion. It
was a tedious and toilsome journey, during which Stanley suffered from
attacks of fever, and Livingstone from lacerated feet. They were
fifty-three days on the march, but at last Unyanyembe was reached.
Stanley once more took possession of his old quarters. Here both found
letters and papers from home, brought by a recent caravan, and once more
they seemed put in communication with the outside world. Being
well-housed and provided with everything they needed, they felt
thoroughly comfortable.
The doctor's boxes were first broken open, and between the number of
poor articles they contained and the absence of good ones which had been
abstracted on the way, they proved something of a disappointment.
Stanley then overhauled his own stores, of which there were seventy-four
loads, the most valuable of which he intended to turn over to
Livingstone. These also had been tampered with; still many luxuries
remained, and they determined to have their Christmas dinner over again.
Stanley arranged the bill of fare, and it turned out grandly. But now he
saw that he must begin to prepare for his return to the coast, and so he
left Livingstone to write up his journal and to finish the letters he
was to send home. In overhauling the stores and making up the packages
he should need on his return route, he was able to select and turn over
to the doctor two thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight yards of
cloth, nine hundred and ninety-two pounds of assorted beads, three
hundred and fifty pounds of brass wire, besides bed, canvas boat,
carpenters' tools, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, cooking utensils and
various other articles of use, making in all about forty loads. These,
with the doctor's personal stores, made Livingstone quite a rich man for
Central Africa--in fact, he had a four years' supply.
At length the letters were all written, the loads strapped, and the next
day fixed for Stanley to turn his face homeward and Livingstone his to
the heart of Africa. At night the natives gave a great dance as a
farewell compliment, and a wild, weird dance it was. Bombay wore a
water-bucket on his head, while each carried or wore something grotesque
or dangerous. The first was a war dance, and when it ended, a second and
different one was started, accompanied by a chorus or song chanted in a
slow, mournful tone, of which the burden was "Oh-oh-oh, the white man is
going home."
That night as Stanley lay and pondered on the morrow, when he should see
the "good man" for the last time, he was filled with the keenest sorrow.
He had grown to love him like a father; and to see him turn back alone
to the savage life he must encounter in his great work, seemed like
giving him over to death.
It was a sad breakfast to which the two sat down next morning. But it
was over at last and the parting hour came.
"Doctor," said Stanley, "I will leave two men with you for a couple of
days, lest you may have forgotten something, and will wait for them at
Tura; and now we must part--there is no help for it--good-bye."
"Oh," replied Livingstone, "I am coming with you a little way; I must
see you off on the road;" and the two walked on side by side, their
hearts burdened with grief.
At last Stanley said: "Now, my dear doctor, the best friends must part,
you have come far enough, let me beg of you to turn back."
Livingstone stopped and, seizing Stanley's hand, said: "I am grateful to
you for what you have done for me. God guide you safe home and bless
you, my friend."
"And may God bring you safe back to us all, my friend," replied Stanley,
with a voice choked with emotion. "_Farewell._"
They wrung each other's hands in silence for a minute, and then Stanley
turned away to hide his tears, murmuring: "Good-bye, doctor; dear
friend, good-bye."
He would not have been the man he is, not to have been overcome at this
parting; alas, to be, as it proved, a final parting, so far as concerns
meeting again in this life. But this was not all--the doctor's faithful
servants would not be forgotten, and rushing forward, they seized
Stanley's hands and kissed them for their good master's sake. The stern
and almost tyrannical man, that neither danger nor suffering could
move, completely broke down under this last demonstration and could
recover himself only by giving the sharp order, MARCH! and he almost
drove his men before him, and soon a turn in the path shut out
Livingstone's form forever. Yes, forever, so far as the living, speaking
man is concerned, but shut out _never_ from Stanley's life. That one man
fixed his destiny for this world, and who knows but for the eternal
ages? No wonder that he said, long after, "My eyes grow dim at the
remembrance of that parting. For four months and four days I lived with
him in the same house, or in the same boat, or in the same tent, and I
never found a fault in him. I am a man of a quick temper, and often
without sufficient cause, I dare say, have broken ties of friendship;
but with Livingstone I never had cause of resentment, but each day's
life with him added to my admiration of him."
The caravan marched wearily back, meeting with nothing eventful till it
entered the Ugogo territory, where, owing to a misunderstanding on the
part of the natives, who got it into their heads that Stanley meant to
pass them without paying the accustomed tribute, a fight seemed
inevitable. Had it occurred, it is doubtful whether he or Livingstone's
papers would ever have been heard of again. But Stanley had seemed from
his infancy a child of destiny, and escaped here, as everywhere, by the
skin of his teeth. It was a constant succession of toilsome, painful
marches, even when the natives were friendly, while there was often a
scarcity of provisions. To secure these he, at last, when on the borders
of the wilderness of Marenga Mkali, dispatched three men to Zanzibar,
with a request to the consul there to send them back with provisions.
These messengers were told not to halt for anything--rain, rivers or
inundations--but push right on. "Then," says Stanley, "with a loud,
vigorous hurrah, we plunged into the depths of the wilderness which,
with its eternal silence and solitude, was far preferable to the
jarring, inharmonious discord of the villages of the Wagogo. For nine
hours we held on our way, starting with noisy shouts the fierce
rhinoceros, the timid quagga and the herds of antelopes, which crowd the
jungles of this broad Salina. On the 7th, amid a pelting rain, we
entered Mpwapwa, where my Scotch assistant, Farquhar, had died."
In twenty-nine days they had marched three hundred and thirty-eight
miles. Twelve miles a day, including stoppages and delays, was in such a
country rapid marching--nay, almost unparalleled; but Stanley had turned
his face homeward and could stand no African dilly-dallying on the way.
We cannot go into the details of this homeward march,--to-day startled
by a thousand warriors, streaming along the war-path,--to-morrow on the
brink of a collision with the natives, the end of which no one could
foresee, but the caravan pressed on until they came to the neighborhood
of the terrible Makata swamps, that Stanley had occasion so well to
remember. Heavy rains had set in, swelling all the streams and
inundating the plains, so that the marching was floundering through
interminable stretches of water. Now swimming turbulent rivers--now
camping in the midst of pestiferous swamps, and all the time drenched by
the rain, that fell in torrents--they struggled on until, at last, they
came to the dreaded Makata swamp itself. The sight that met them here
was appalling, but there was no retreat, and for long hours they toiled
slowly through, sometimes up to their necks in water, sometimes
swimming, and where it was shallow sinking in deep mire. They thus
fought their way on, and at last, weary, worn and half-starved, came to
the Makata River. But no sooner were they over this, than a lake six
miles wide stretched before them. The natives warned him against
attempting to cross it; but nothing could stop him now, and they all
plunged in.
He says: "We were soon up to our armpits, then the water shallowed to
the knee, then we stepped up to the neck and waded on tiptoe, until we
were halted on the edge of the Little Makata, which raced along at the
rate of eight knots an hour." Fierce and rapid as it was, there was no
course left but to swim it, and swim it they did. For a whole week they
had been wading and swimming and floundering through water, till it
seemed impossible that any one could survive such exposure, but, at last
they came to dry ground and to the famous walled city of the Sultana
Limbamwanni, which we described in his upward journey. But the heavy
rains that had inundated the whole country, had so swollen the river,
near the banks on which it was situated, that the water had carried away
the entire front wall of the town, and some fifty houses with it. The
sultana had fled and her stronghold had disappeared. All along the route
was seen the devastating power of the flood as it swept over the
country, carrying away a hundred villages in its course. The fields were
covered with debris of sand and mud, and what was a paradise when he
went in was now a desert. With the subsidence of the water the
atmosphere became impregnated with miasma, and the whole land seemed
filled with snakes, scorpions, iguanas and ants, while clouds of
mosquitoes darkened the air till life became almost intolerable. At
last, on May 2d, after forty-seven days of incessant marching, and
almost continual suffering, they reached Rosako, where, a few minutes
after, the three men he had sent forward arrived, bringing with them a
few boxes of jam, two of Boston crackers, and some bottles of champagne;
and most welcome they were after the terrible journey through the Makata
Valley. The last great obstacle (a ferry of four miles across a watery
plain) being surmounted, the caravan approached Bagomayo, and in their
jubilant excitement announced its arrival by the firing of guns and
blowing of horns, and with shouting hurrahs till they were hoarse. The
sun was just sinking behind the distant forests, from which they had
emerged and which were filled with such terrible associations, when they
entered the town, and sniffed with delight the fresh sea-breeze that
came softly stealing inland. The putrid air of the swamps, the poisonous
miasma that enveloped the entire country, were left far behind with want
and famine, and no wonder the heart was elated and their bounding joy
found expression in exultant shouts.
Happy in having once more reached civilization; happy in the thought of
his triumphant success; and still more happy in the joy that he believed
the good news he brought would give to others, Stanley's heart was
overflowing with kindness to all, and the world seemed bright to him.
But, in a moment it was all dashed on opening the papers at Zanzibar.
Scarcely one had a kind word for him; on the contrary, he found nothing
but suspicion, jealousy and detraction, and even charges of fabricating
the whole story of having found Livingstone. He was stunned at this
undeserved cruel reception of his declaration, and the faith in the
goodness of human nature, with which Livingstone had inspired him,
seemed about to give way before this evidence of its meanness and
littleness. He could not comprehend how his simple, truthful,
unostentatious story could awaken such unkind feelings, such baseless
slanders. It was a cruel blow to receive, after all that he had endured
and suffered. No wonder he wrote bitter words of the kid-glove
geographers, who criticized him, and the press that jeered at him. But
he has had his revenge, for he has triumphed over them all.
He immediately set to work to organize a caravan to send off to
Livingstone the things he had promised, and then started for home.