IN DARKEST AFRICA
OR THE
QUEST, RESCUE, AND RETREAT OF EMIN
GOVERNOR OF EQUATORIA
BY
HENRY M. STANLEY
WITH TWO STEEL ENGRAVINGS, AND ONE HUNDRED AND
FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I
"I will not cease to go forward until I come to the place where the two
seas meet, though I travel ninety years."--Koran, chap, xviii., v. 62.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1890
[_All rights reserved_]
Copyright, 1890, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Press of J. J. Little & Co.,
Astor Place, New York.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
------
Page
Prefatory Letter to Sir William Mackinnon, Chairman of the Emin Pasha
relief expedition
1
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Khedive and the Soudan--Arabi Pasha--Hicks Pasha's defeat--The Mahdi
--Sir Evelyn Baring and Lord Granville on the Soudan--Valentine Baker
Pasha--General Gordon: his work in the Upper Soudan--Edward Schnitzler
(or Emin Effendi Hakim) and his Province--General Gordon at Khartoum:
and account of the Relief Expedition in 1884 under Lord Wolseley--Mr. A.
M. Mackay, the missionary in Uganda--Letters from Emin Bey to Mr.
Mackay, Mr. C. H. Allen, and Dr. R. W. Felkin, relating to his
Province--Mr. F. Holmwood's and Mr. A. M. Mackay's views on the proposed
relief of Emin--Suggested routes for the Emin Relief Expedition--Sir Wm.
Mackinnon and Mr. J. F. Hutton--The Relief Fund and preparatory details
of the Expedition--Colonel Sir Francis De Winton--Selection of officers
for the Expedition--King Leopold and the Congo Route--Departure for
Egypt
11
CHAPTER II.
EGYPT AND ZANZIBAR.
Surgeon T. H. Parke--Views of Sir Evelyn Baring, Nubar Pasha, Professor
Schweinfurth and Dr. Junker on the Emin Relief Expedition--Details
relating to Emin Pasha and his Province--General Grenfell and the
ammunition--Breakfast with Khedive Tewfik: message to Emin
Pasha--Departure for Zanzibar--Description of Mombasa town--Visit to the
Sultan of Zanzibar--Letter to Emin Pasha sent by messenger through
Uganda--Arrangements with Tippu-Tib--Emin Pasha's Ivory--Mr. MacKenzie,
Sir John Pender, and Sir James Anderson's assistance to the Relief
Expedition
49
CHAPTER III.
BY SEA TO THE CONGO RIVER.
The Sultan of Zanzibar--Tippu-Tib and Stanley Falls--On board s.s.
_Madura_--"Shindy" between the Zanzibaris and Soudanese--Sketches of my
various Officers--Tippu-Tib and Cape Town--Arrival at the mouth of the
Congo River--Start up the Congo--Visit from two of the Executive
Committee of the Congo State--Unpleasant thoughts
67
CHAPTER IV.
TO STANLEY POOL.
Details of the journey to Stanley Pool--The Soudanese and the
Somalis--Meeting with Mr. Herbert Ward--Camp at Congo la Lemba--Kindly
entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Richards--Letters from up river--Letters to
the Rev. Mr. Bentley and others for assistance--Arrival at
Mwembi--Necessity of enforcing discipline--March to Vombo--Incident at
Lukungu Station--The Zanzibaris--Incident between Jephson and Salim at
the Inkissi River--A series of complaints--The Rev. Mr. Bentley and the
steamer _Peace_--We reach Makoko's village--Leopoldville--Difficulties
regarding the use of the Mission steamers--Monsieur Liebrichts sees Mr.
Billington--Visit to Mr. Swinburne at Kinshassa--Orders to, and duties
of, the officers
79
CHAPTER V.
FROM STANLEY POOL TO YAMBUYA.
Upper Congo scenery--Accident to the _Peace_--Steamers reach
Kimpoko--Collecting fuel--The good-for-nothing _Peace_--The _Stanley_ in
trouble--Arrival at Bolobo--The Relief Expedition arranged in two
columns--Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson chosen for command of Rear
Column--Arrival at Equator and Bangala Stations--The Basoko villages:
Baruti deserts us--Arrival at Yambuya
99
CHAPTER VI.
AT YAMBUYA.
We land at Yambuya villages--The _Stanley_ leaves for Equator
Station--Fears regarding Major Barttelot and the _Henry Reed_--Safe
arrival--Instructions to Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson respecting the
Rear Column--Major Barttelot's doubts as to Tippu-Tib's good faith--A
long conversation with Major Barttelot--Memorandum for the officers of
the Advance Column--Illness of Lieutenant Stairs--Last night at Yambuya:
statements as to our forces and accoutrements
111
CHAPTER VII.
TO PANGA FALLS.
An African road--Our mode of travelling through the forests--Farewell to
Jameson and the Major--160 days in the forest--The Rapids of
Yambuya--Attacked by natives of Yankonde--Rest at the village of
Bahunga--Description of our march--The poisoned Skewers--Capture of six
Babali--Dr. Parke and the bees--A tempest in the forest--Mr. Jephson
puts the steel boat together--The village of Bukanda--Refuse heaps of
the villages--The Aruwimi river scenery--Villages of the Bakuti and the
Bakoka--The Rapids of Gwengweré--The boy Bakula-Our "chop and
coffee"--The islands near Bandangi--The Baburu dwarfs--The unknown
course of the river--The Somalis--Bartering at Mariri and Mupé--The
Aruwimi at Mupé--The Babé manners, customs, and dress--Jephson's two
adventures--Wasp Rapids--The chief of the Bwamburi--Our camp at
My-yui--Canoe accident--An abandoned village--Arrival at Panga
Falls--Description of the Falls
134
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM TANGA FALLS TO UGARROWWA'S.
Another accident at the Rapids--The village of Utiri--Avisibba
settlement--Enquiry into a murder case at Avisibba--Surprised by the
natives--Lieutenant Stairs wounded--We hunt up the enemy--The poisoned
arrows--Indifference of the Zanzibaris--Jephson's caravan missing--Our
wounded--Perpetual rain--Deaths of Khalfan, Saadi, and others--Arrival
of caravan--The Mabengu Rapids--Mustering the people--The Nepoko
river--Remarks by Binza--Our food supply--Reckless use of
ammunition--Half-way to the Albert Lake--We fall in with some of
Ugarrowwa's men--Absconders--We camp at Hippo Broads and Avakubi
Rapids--The destroyed settlement of Navabi--Elephants at Memberri--More
desertions--The Arab leader, Ugarrowwa--He gives us information--Visit
to the Arab settlement--First specimen of the tribe of
dwarfs--Arrangements with Ugarrowwa
171
CHAPTER IX.
UGARROWWA'S TO KILONGA-LONGA'S.
Ugarrowwa sends us three Zanzibari deserters--We make an example--The
'Express' rifles--Conversation with Rashid--The Lenda river--Troublesome
rapids--Scarcity of food--Some of Kilonga-Longa's followers--Meeting of
the rivers Ihuru and Ituri--State and numbers of the Expedition--Illness
of Captain Nelson--We send couriers ahead to Kilonga-Longa's--The sick
encampment--Randy and the guinea fowl--Scarcity of food--Illness caused
by the forest pears--Fanciful menus--More desertions--Asmani
drowned--Our condition in brief--Uledi's suggestion--Umari's climb--My
donkey is shot for food--We strike the track of the Manyuema and arrive
at their village
211
CHAPTER X.
WITH THE MANYUEMA AT IPOTO.
The ivory hunters at Ipoto--Their mode of proceeding--The Manyuema
headmen and their raids--Remedy for preventing wholesale
devastations--Crusade preached by Cardinal Lavigerie--Our Zanzibar
chiefs--Anxiety respecting Captain Nelson and his followers--Our men
sell their weapons for food--Theft of rifles--Their return
demanded--Uledi turns up with news of the missing chiefs--Contract drawn
up with the Manyuema headmen for the relief of Captain Nelson--Jephson's
report on his journey--Reports of Captain Nelson and Surgeon Parke--The
process of blood brotherhood between myself and Ismaili--We leave Ipoto
236
CHAPTER XI.
THROUGH THE FOREST TO MAZAMBONI'S PEAK.
In the country of the Balessé--Their houses and clearings--Natives of
Bukiri--The first village of dwarfs--Our rate of progress increased--The
road from Mambungu's--Halts at East and West Indékaru--A little storm
between "Three o'clock" and Khamis--We reach Ibwiri--Khamis and the
"vile Zanzibaris"--The Ibwiri clearing--Plentiful provisions--The state
of my men; and what they had recently gone through--Khamis and party
explore the neighbourhood--And return with a flock of goats--Khamis
captures Boryo, but is released--Jephson returns from the relief of
Captain Nelson--Departure of Khamis and the Manyuema--Memorandum of
charges against Messrs. Kilonga-Longa & Co. of Ipoto--Suicide of
Simba--Sali's reflections on the same--Lieutenant Stairs
reconnoitres--Muster and reorganisation at Ibwiri--Improved condition of
the men--Boryo's village--Balessé customs--East Indenduru--We reach the
outskirts of the forest--Mount Pisgah--The village of Iyugu--Heaven's
light at last; the beautiful grass-land--We drop across an ancient
crone--Indésura and its products--Juma's capture--The Ituri river
again--We emerge upon a rolling plain--And forage in some villages--The
mode of hut construction--The district of the Babusessé--Our Mbiri
captives--Natives attack the camp--The course of the Ituri--The natives
of Abunguma--Our fare since leaving Ibwiri--Mazamboni's Peak--The east
Ituri--A mass of plantations--Demonstration by the natives--Our camp on
the crest of Nzera Kum--"Be strong and of a good courage"--Friendly
intercourse with the natives--We are compelled to disperse them--Peace
arranged--Arms of the Bandussuma
255
CHAPTER XII.
ARRIVAL AT LAKE ALBERT AND OUR RETURN TO IBWIRI.
We are further annoyed by the natives--Their villages fired--Gavira's
village--We keep the natives at bay--Plateau of Unyoro in view--Night
attack by the natives--The village of Katonza's--Parley with the
natives--No news of the Pasha--Our supply of cartridges--We consider our
position--Lieutenant Stairs converses with the people of Kasenya
Island--The only sensible course left us--Again attacked by
natives--Scenery on the lake's shore--We climb a mountain--A rich
discovery of grain--The rich valley of Undussuma--Our return journey to
Ibwiri--The construction of Fort Bodo
319
CHAPTER XIII.
LIFE AT FORT BODO.
Our impending duties--The stockade of Fort Bodo--Instructions to
Lieutenant Stairs--His departure for Kilonga-Longa's--Pested by rats,
mosquitoes, &c.--Nights disturbed by the lemur--Armies of red
ants--Snakes in tropical Africa--Hoisting the Egyptian flag--Arrival of
Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson from Ipoto--Report of their stay with
the Manyuema--Lieutenant Stairs arrives with the steel boat--We
determine to push on to the Lake at once--Volunteers to convey letters
to Major Barttelot--Illness of myself and Captain Nelson--Uledi captures
a Queen of the Pigmies--Our fields of corn--Life at Fort Bodo--We again
set out for the Nyanza
350
CHAPTER XIV.
TO THE ALBERT NYANZA A SECOND TIME.
Difficulties with the steel boat--African forest craft--Splendid capture
of pigmies, and description of the same--We cross the Ituri River--Dr.
Parke's delight on leaving the forest--Camp at Bessé--Zanzibari wit--At
Nzera-Kum Hill once more--Intercourse with the natives--"Malleju," or
the "Bearded One," being first news of Emin--Visit from chief Mazamboni
and his followers--Jephson goes through the form of friendship with
Mazamboni--The medicine men, Nestor and Murabo--The tribes of the
Congo--Visit from chief Gavira--A Mhuma chief--The Bavira and Wahuma
races--The varying African features--Friendship with Mpinga--Gavira and
the looking-glass--Exposed Uzanza--We reach Kavalli--The chief produces
"Malleju's" letter--Emin's letter--Jephson and Parke convey the steel
boat to the lake--Copy of letter sent by me to Emin through
Jephson--Friendly visits from natives
373
CHAPTER XV.
THE MEETING WITH EMIN PASHA.
Our camp at Bundi--Mbiassi, the chief of Kavalli--The Balegga
granaries--Chiefs Katonza and Komubi express contrition--The kites at
Badzwa--A note from Jephson--Emin, Casati and Jephson walk into our camp
at old Kavalli--Descriptions of Emin Pasha and Captain Casati--The
Pasha's Soudanese--Our Zanzibaris--The steamer _Khedive_--Baker and the
Blue Mountains--Drs. Junker and Felkin's descriptions of Emin--Proximity
of Kabba Rega--Emin and the Equatorial Provinces--Dr. Junker's report of
Emin--I discuss with Emin our future proceedings--Captain Casati's
plans--Our camp and provisions at Nsabé--Kabba Rega's treatment of
Captain Casati and Mohammed Biri--Mabruki gored by a buffalo--Emin Pasha
and his soldiers--My propositions to Emin and his answer--Emin's
position--Mahomet Achmet--The Congo State--The Foreign Office despatches
393
CHAPTER XVI.
WITH THE PASHA--_continued_.
Fortified stations in the Province--Storms at Nsabé--A nest of young
crocodiles--Lake Ibrahim--Zanzibari raid on Balegga villages--Dr. Parke
goes in search of the two missing men--The Zanzibaris again--A real
tornado--The Pasha's gifts to us--Introduced to Emin's officers--Emin's
cattle forays--The _Khedive_ departs for Mswa station--Mabruki and his
wages--The Pasha and the use of the sextant--Departure of local
chiefs--Arrival of the _Khedive_ and _Nyanza_ steamers with
soldiers--Made arrangements to return in search of the rear-column--My
message to the troops--Our Badzwa road--A farewell dance by the
Zanzibaris--The Madi carriers' disappearance--First sight of
Ruwenzori--Former circumnavigators of the Albert Lake--Lofty twin-peak
mountain near the East Ituri River--Aid for Emin against Kabba Rega--Two
letters from Emin Pasha--We are informed of an intended attack on us by
chiefs Kadongo and Musiri--Fresh Madi carriers--We attack Kadongo's
camp--With assistance from Mazamboni and Gavira we march on Musiri's
camp which turns out to be deserted--A phalanx dance by Mazamboni's
warriors--Music on the African Continent--Camp at Nzera-kum
Hill--Presents from various chiefs--Chief Musiri wishes for peace
418
CHAPTER XVII.
PERSONAL TO THE PASHA.
Age and early days of Emin Pasha--Gordon and the pay of Emin Pasha--Last
interview with Gordon Pasha in 1877--Emin's last supply of ammunition
and provisions--Five years' isolation--Mackay's library in
Uganda--Emin's abilities and fitness for his position--His linguistic
and other attainments--Emin's industry--His neat journals--Story related
to me by Shukri Agha referring to Emin's escape from Kirri to Mswa--Emin
confirms the story--Some natural history facts related to me by
Emin--The Pasha and the Dinka tribe--A lion story--Emin and "bird
studies"
422
CHAPTER XVIII.
START FOR THE RELIEF OF THE REAR COLUMN.
Escorted by various tribes to Mukangi--Camp at Ukuba village--Arrival at
Fort Bodo--Our invalids in Ugarrowwa's care--Lieut. Stairs' report on
his visit to bring up the invalids to Fort Bodo--Night visits by the
malicious dwarfs--A general muster of the garrison--I decide to conduct
the Relief force in person--Captain Nelson's ill-health--My little
fox-terrier "Randy"--Description of the fort--The Zanzibaris--Estimated
time to perform the journey to Yambuya and back--Lieut. Stairs'
suggestion about the steamer _Stanley_--Conversation with Lieut. Stairs
in reference to Major Barttelot and the Rear Column--Letter of
instructions to Lieut. Stairs
452
CHAPTER XIX.
ARRIVAL AT BANALYA: BARTTELOT DEAD!
The Relief Force--The difficulties of marching--We reach Ipoto--Kilonga
Longa apologises for the behaviour of his Manyuema--The chief returns us
some of our rifles--Dr. Parke and fourteen men return to Fort
Bodo--Ferrying across the Ituri River--Indications of some of our old
camps--We unearth our buried stores--The Manyuema escort--Bridging the
Lenda River--The famished Madi--Accidents and deaths among the
Zanzibaris and Madi--My little fox-terrier "Randy"--The vast clearing of
Ujangwa--Native women guides--We reach Ugarrowwa's abandoned
station--Welcome food at Amiri Falls--Navabi Falls--Halt at Avamburi
landing-place--Death of a Madi chief--Our buried stores near Basopo
unearthed and stolen--Juma and Nassib wander away from the Column--The
evils of forest marching--Conversation between my tent-boy, Sali, and a
Zanzibari--Numerous bats at Mabengu village--We reach Avisibba, and find
a young Zanzibari girl--Nejambi Rapids and Panga Falls--The natives of
Panga--At Mugwye's we disturb an intended feast--We overtake Ugarrowwa
at Wasp Rapids and find our couriers and some deserters in his camp--The
head courier relates his tragic story--Amusing letter from Dr. Parke to
Major Barttelot--Progress of our canoe flotilla down the river--The
Batundu natives--Our progress since leaving the Nyanza--Thoughts about
the Rear Column--Desolation along the banks of the river--We reach
Banalya--Meeting with Bonny--The Major is dead--Banalya Camp
468
CHAPTER XX.
THE SAD STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
Tippu-Tib--Major E. M. Barttelot--Mr. J. S. Jameson--Mr. Herbert
Ward--Messrs. Troup and Bonny--Major Barttelot's Report on the doings of
the Rear Column--Conversation with Mr. Bonny--Major Barttelot's letter
to Mr. Bonny--Facts gleaned from the written narrative of Mr. Wm.
Bonny--Mr. Ward detained at Bangala--Repeated visits of the Major to
Stanley Falls--Murder of Major Barttelot--Bonny's account of the
murder--The assassin Sanga is punished--Jameson dies of fever at Bangala
Station--Meeting of the advance and rear columns--Dreadful state of the
camp--Tippu-Tib and Major Barttelot--Mr. Jameson--Mr. Herbert Ward's
report
498
-----------------------
APPENDIX.
Copy of Log of Rear Column
527
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
_STEEL ENGRAVING._
PORTRAIT OF HENRY M. STANLEY _Frontispiece_
(From a Photograph by Elliot & Fry, 1886.)
_FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS_
Facing
page
GROUP--MR. STANLEY AND HIS OFFICERS. 1
THE STEEL BOAT "ADVANCE" 80
IN THE NIGHT AND RAIN IN THE FOREST 146
THE FIGHT WITH THE AVISIBBA CANNIBALS 174
THE RIVER COLUMN ASCENDING THE ARUWIMI RIVER WITH THE
"ADVANCE" AND SIXTEEN CANOES. 184
WOODEN ARROWS OF THE AVISIBBA 180
"THE PASHA IS COMING" 196
THE RELIEF OF NELSON AND SURVIVORS AT STARVATION CAMP 250
GYMNASTICS IN A FOREST CLEARING 258
IYUGU; A CALL TO ARMS 286
EMERGING FROM THE FOREST 292
FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH MAZAMBONI'S PEOPLE. VIEW FROM NZERA
KUM HILL 306
THE SOUTH END OF THE ALBERT NYANZA, DEC. 13, 1887 324
SKETCH-MAP: "RETURN TO UGARROWA'S." BY LIEUTENANT STAIRS 365
EMIN AND CASATI ARRIVE AT LAKE SHORE CAMP 396
A PHALANX DANCE BY MAZAMBONI'S WARRIORS 438
MEETING WITH THE REAR COLUMN AT BANALYA 494
_OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS_
PORTRAIT OF EMIN PASHA 18
" CAPTAIN NELSON 39
" LIEUTENANT STAIRS 40
" WILLIAM BONNY 41
" A. J. MOUNTENEY JEPHSON 42
" SURGEON PARKE, A. M. D. 50
" NUBAR PASHA 51
" THE KHEDIVE TEWFIK 55
" TIPPU-TIB 68
MAXIM AUTOMATIC GUN 83
LAUNCHING THE STEAMER "FLORIDA" 96
STANLEY POOL 100
BARUTI FINDS HIS BROTHER 109
A TYPICAL VILLAGE ON THE LOWER ARUWIMI 112
LANDING AT YAMBUYA 113
DIAGRAM OF FOREST CAMPS 130
MARCHING THROUGH THE FOREST 135
THE KIRANGOZI, OR FOREMOST MAN 137
HEAD-DRESS--CROWN OF BRISTLES 160
WASPS' NESTS 164
FORT ISLAND, NEAR PANGA FALLS 168
PANGA FALLS 169
VIEW OF UTIRI VILLAGE 172
LEAF-BLADED PADDLE OF AVISIBBA 174
A HEAD-DRESS OF AVISIBBA WARRIORS 178
CORONETED AVISIBBA WARRIOR--HEAD-DRESS 179
CASCADES OF THE NEPOKO 193
VIEW OF BAFAIDO CATARACT 202
ATTACKING AN ELEPHANT IN THE ITURI RIVER 203
RANDY SEIZES THE GUINEA FOWL 224
KILONGA LONGA'S STATION 234
SHIELDS OF THE BALESSÉ 256
VIEW OF MOUNT PISGAH FROM THE EASTWARD 281
VILLAGES OF THE BAKWURU ON A SPUR OF PISGAH 283
A VILLAGE AT THE BASE OF PISGAH 284
CHIEF OF THE IYUGU 285
PIPES OF FOREST TRIBES 290
SHIELDS OF BABUSESSÉ 299
SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE EAST ITURI 304
SHIELD OF THE EDGE OF THE PLAINS 317
VIEW OF THE SOUTH END OF ALBERT NYANZA 318
CORN GRANARY OF THE BABUSESSÉ 328
A VILLAGE OF THE BAVIRI: EUROPEANS TAILORING 345
GREAT ROCK NEAR INDÉTONGA 348
EXTERIOR VIEW OF FORT BODO 349
INTERIOR VIEW OF FORT BODO 351
PLAN OF FORT BODO AND VICINITY, BY LIEUTENANT STAIRS 354
THE QUEEN OF THE DWARFS 368
WITHIN FORT BODO 371
ONE OF MAZAMBONI'S WARRIORS 384
KAVALLI, CHIEF OF THE BABIASSI 389
MILK VESSEL OF THE WAHUMA 392
THE STEAMERS "KHEDIVE" AND "NYANZA" ON LAKE ALBERT 426
VIEW OF BANALYA CURVE 493
PORTRAIT OF MAJOR BARTTELOT 499
" MR. JAMESON 501
_MAP_
A MAP OF THE GREAT FOREST REGION, SHOWING THE ROUTE OF THE
EMIN PASHA RELIEF EXPEDITION FROM THE RIVER CONGO TO
VICTORIA NYANZA. BY HENRY M. STANLEY.
_In Pocket._
[Illustration: GROUP OF MR. STANLEY AND OFFICERS.]
IN DARKEST AFRICA.
PREFATORY LETTER
My Dear Sir William,
I have great pleasure in dedicating this book to you. It professes to be
the Official Report to yourself and the Emin Relief Committee of what we
have experienced and endured during our mission of Relief, which
circumstances altered into that of Rescue. You may accept it as a
truthful record of the journeyings of the Expedition which you and the
Emin Relief Committee entrusted to my guidance.
I regret that I was not able to accomplish all that I burned to do when I
set out from England in January, 1887, but the total collapse of the
Government of Equatoria thrust upon us the duty of conveying in hammocks
so many aged and sick people, and protecting so many helpless and feeble
folk, that we became transformed from a small fighting column of tried
men into a mere Hospital Corps to whom active adventure was denied. The
Governor was half blind and possessed much luggage, Casati was weakly and
had to be carried, and 90 per cent. of their followers were, soon after
starting, scarcely able to travel from age, disease, weakness or infancy.
Without sacrificing our sacred charge, to assist which was the object of
the Expedition, we could neither deviate to the right or to the left,
from the most direct road to the sea.
You who throughout your long and varied life have steadfastly believed in
the Christian's God, and before men have professed your devout
thankfulness for many mercies vouchsafed to you, will better understand
than many others the feelings which animate me when I find myself back
again in civilization, uninjured in life or health, after passing through
so many stormy and distressful periods. Constrained at the darkest hour
to humbly confess that without God's help I was helpless, I vowed a vow
in the forest solitudes that I would confess His aid before men. A
silence as of death was round about me; it was midnight; I was weakened
by illness, prostrated with fatigue and worn with anxiety for my white
and black companions, whose fate was a mystery. In this physical and
mental distress I besought God to give me back my people. Nine hours
later we were exulting with a rapturous joy. In full view of all was the
crimson flag with the crescent, and beneath its waving folds was the
long-lost rear column.
Again, we had emerged into the open country out of the forest, after such
experiences as in the collective annals of African travels there is no
parallel. We were approaching the region wherein our ideal Governor was
reported to be beleaguered. All that we heard from such natives as our
scouts caught prepared us for desperate encounters with multitudes, of
whose numbers or qualities none could inform us intelligently, and when
the population of Undusuma swarmed in myriads on the hills, and the
valleys seemed alive with warriors, it really seemed to us in our dense
ignorance of their character and power, that these were of those who
hemmed in the Pasha to the west. If he with his 4000 soldiers appealed
for help, what could we effect with 173? The night before I had been
reading the exhortation of Moses to Joshua, and whether it was the effect
of those brave words, or whether it was a voice, I know not, but it
appeared to me as though I heard: "Be strong, and of a good courage, fear
not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God He it is that doth go
with thee, He will not fail thee nor forsake thee." When on the next day
Mazamboni commanded his people to attack and exterminate us, there was
not a coward in our camp, whereas the evening before we exclaimed in
bitterness on seeing four of our men fly before one native, "And these
are the wretches with whom we must reach the Pasha!"
And yet again. Between the confluence of the Ihuru and the Dui rivers in
December 1888, 150 of the best and strongest of our men had been
despatched to forage for food. They had been absent for many days more
than they ought to have been, and in the meantime 130 men besides boys
and women were starving. They were supported each day with a cup of warm
thin broth, made of butter, milk and water, to keep death away as long as
possible. When the provisions were so reduced that there were only
sufficient for thirteen men for ten days, even of the thin broth with
four tiny biscuits each per day, it became necessary for me to hunt up
the missing men. They might, being without a leader, have been reckless,
and been besieged by an overwhelming force of vicious dwarfs. My
following consisted of sixty-six men, a few women and children, who, more
active than the others, had assisted the thin fluid with the berries of
the phrynium and the amomum, and such fungi as could be discovered in
damp places, and therefore were possessed of some little strength, though
the poor fellows were terribly emaciated. Fifty-one men, besides boys and
women, were so prostrate with debility and disease that they would be
hopelessly gone if within a few hours food did not arrive. My white
comrade and thirteen men were assured of sufficient for ten days to
protract the struggle against a painful death. We who were bound for the
search possessed nothing. We could feed on berries until we could arrive
at a plantation. As we travelled that afternoon we passed several dead
bodies in various stages of decay, and the sight of doomed, dying and
dead produced on my nerves such a feeling of weakness that I was
well-nigh overcome. Every soul in that camp was paralysed with sadness
and suffering. Despair had made them all dumb. Not a sound was heard to
disturb the deathly brooding. It was a mercy to me that I heard no murmur
of reproach, no sign of rebuke. I felt the horror of silence of the
forest and the night intensely. Sleep was impossible. My thoughts dwelt
on these recurring disobediences which caused so much misery and anxiety.
"Stiff-necked, rebellious, incorrigible human nature, ever showing its
animalism and brutishness, let the wretches be for ever accursed! Their
utter thoughtless and oblivious natures and continual breach of promises
kill more men, and cause more anxiety, than the poison of the darts or
barbs and points of the arrows. If I meet them I will--" But before the
resolve was uttered flashed to my memory the dead men on the road, the
doomed in the camp, and the starving with me, and the thought that those
150 men were lost in the remorseless woods beyond recovery, or surrounded
by savages without hope of escape, then do you wonder that the natural
hardness of the heart was softened, and that I again consigned my case to
Him who could alone assist us. The next morning within half-an-hour of
the start we met the foragers, safe, sound, robust, loaded, bearing four
tons of plantains. You can imagine what cries of joy these wild children
of nature uttered, you can imagine how they flung themselves upon the
fruit, and kindled the fires to roast and boil and bake, and how, after
they were all filled, we rode back to the camp to rejoice those
unfortunates with Mr. Bonny.
As I mentally review the many grim episodes and reflect on the
marvellously narrow escapes from utter destruction to which we have been
subjected during our various journeys to and fro through that immense and
gloomy extent of primeval woods, I feel utterly unable to attribute our
salvation to any other cause than to a gracious Providence who for some
purpose of His own preserved us. All the armies and armaments of Europe
could not have lent us any aid in the dire extremity in which we found
ourselves in that camp between the Dui and Ihuru; an army of explorers
could not have traced our course to the scene of the last struggle had we
fallen, for deep, deep as utter oblivion had we been surely buried under
the humus of the trackless wilds.
It is in this humble and grateful spirit that I commence this record of
the progress of the Expedition from its inception by you to the date when
at our feet the Indian Ocean burst into view, pure and blue as Heaven
when we might justly exclaim "It is ended!"
What the public ought to know, that have I written; but there are many
things that the snarling, cynical, unbelieving, vulgar ought not to know.
I write to you and to your friends, and for those who desire more light
on Darkest Africa, and for those who can feel an interest in what
concerns humanity.
My creed has been, is, and will remain so, I hope, to act for the best,
think the right thought, and speak the right word, as well as a good
motive will permit. When a mission is entrusted to me and my conscience
approves it as noble and right, and I give my promise to exert my best
powers to fulfil this according to the letter and spirit, I carry with me
a Law, that I am compelled to obey. If any associated with me prove to me
by their manner and action that this Law is equally incumbent on them,
then I recognize my brothers. Therefore it is with unqualified delight
that I acknowledge the priceless services of my friends Stairs, Jephson,
Nelson and Parke, four men whose devotion to their several duties were as
perfect as human nature is capable of. As a man's epitaph can only be
justly written when he lies in his sepulchre, so I rarely attempted to
tell them during the journey, how much I valued the ready and prompt
obedience of Stairs, that earnestness for work that distinguished
Jephson, the brave soldierly qualities of Nelson, and the gentle, tender
devotion paid by our Doctor to his ailing patients; but now that the long
wanderings are over, and they have bided and laboured ungrudgingly
throughout the long period, I feel that my words are poor indeed when I
need them to express in full my lasting obligations to each of them.
Concerning those who have fallen, or who were turned back by illness or
accident, I will admit, with pleasure, that while in my company every one
seemed most capable of fulfilling the highest expectations formed of
them. I never had a doubt of any one of them until Mr. Bonny poured into
my ears the dismal story of the rear column. While I possess positive
proofs that both the Major and Mr. Jameson were inspired by loyalty, and
burning with desire throughout those long months at Yambuya, I have
endeavoured to ascertain why they did not proceed as instructed by
letter, or why Messrs. Ward, Troup and Bonny did not suggest that to move
little by little was preferable to rotting at Yambuya, which they were
clearly in danger of doing, like the 100 dead followers. To this simple
question there is no answer. The eight visits to Stanley Falls and
Kasongo amount in the aggregate to 1,200 miles; their journals, log
books, letters teem with proofs that every element of success was in and
with them. I cannot understand why the five officers, having means for
moving, confessedly burning with the desire to move, and animated with
the highest feelings, did not move on along our tract as directed; or,
why, believing I was alive, the officers sent my personal baggage down
river and reduced their chief to a state of destitution; or, why they
should send European tinned provisions and two dozen bottles of Madeira
down river, when there were thirty-three men sick and hungry in camp; or,
why Mr. Bonny should allow his own rations to be sent down while he was
present; or, why Mr. Ward should be sent down river with a despatch, and
an order be sent after him to prevent his return to the Expedition. These
are a few of the problems which puzzle me, and to which I have been
unable to obtain satisfactory solutions. Had any other person informed me
that such things had taken place I should have doubted them, but I take
my information solely from Major Barttelot's official despatch (See
Appendix). The telegram which Mr. Ward conveyed to the sea requests
instructions from the London Committee, but the gentlemen in London
reply, "We refer you to Mr. Stanley's letter of instructions." It becomes
clear to every one that there mystery here for which I cannot conceive a
rational solution, and therefore each reader of this narrative must think
his own thoughts but construe the whole charitably.
After the discovery of Mr. Bonny at Banalya, I had frequent occasions to
remark to him that his goodwill and devotion were equal to that shown by
the others, and as for bravery, I think he has as much as the bravest.
With his performance of any appointed work I never had cause for
dissatisfaction, and as he so admirably conducted himself with such
perfect and respectful obedience while with us from Banalya to the Indian
Sea, the more the mystery of Yambuya life is deepened, for with 2,000
such soldiers as Bonny under a competent leader, the entire Soudan could
be subjugated, pacified and governed.
It must thoroughly be understood, however, while reflecting upon the
misfortunes of the rear-column, that it is my firm belief that had it
been the lot of Barttelot and Jameson to have been in the place of, say
Stairs and Jephson, and to have accompanied us in the advance, they would
equally have distinguished themselves; for such a group of young
gentlemen as Barttelot, Jameson, Stairs, Nelson, Jephson, and Parke, at
all times, night or day, so eager for and rather loving work, is rare. If
I were to try and form another African State, such tireless, brave
natures would be simply invaluable. The misfortunes of the rear-column
were due to the resolutions of August 17th to stay and wait for me, and
to the meeting with the Arabs the next day.
What is herein related about Emin Pasha need not, I hope, be taken as
derogating in the slightest from the high conception of our ideal. If the
reality differs somewhat from it no fault can be attributed to him. While
his people were faithful he was equal to the ideal; when his soldiers
revolted his usefulness as a Governor ceased, just as the cabinet-maker
with tools may turn out finished wood-work, but without them can do
nothing. If the Pasha was not of such gigantic stature as we supposed him
to be, he certainly cannot be held responsible for that, any more than he
can be held accountable for his unmilitary appearance. If the Pasha was
able to maintain his province for five years, he cannot in justice be
held answerable for the wave of insanity and the epidemic of turbulence
which converted his hitherto loyal soldiers into rebels. You will find
two special periods in this narrative wherein the Pasha is described with
strictest impartiality to each, but his misfortunes never cause us to
lose our respect for him, though we may not agree with that excess of
sentiment which distinguished him, for objects so unworthy as sworn
rebels. As an administrator he displayed the finest qualities; he was
just, tender, loyal and merciful, and affectionate to the natives who
placed themselves under his protection, and no higher and better proof of
the esteem with which he was regarded by his soldiery can be desired than
that he owed his life to the reputation for justice and mildness which he
had won. In short, every hour saved from sleep was devoted before his
final deposition to some useful purpose conducive to increase of
knowledge, improvement of humanity, and gain to civilization. You must
remember all these things, and by no means lose sight of them, even while
you read our impressions of him.
I am compelled to believe that Mr. Mounteney Jephson wrote the kindliest
report of the events that transpired during the arrest and imprisonment
of the Pasha and himself, out of pure affection, sympathy, and
fellow-feeling for his friend. Indeed the kindness and sympathy he
entertains for the Pasha are so evident that I playfully accuse him of
being either a Mahdist, Arabist, or Eminist, as one would naturally feel
indignant at the prospect of leading a slave's life at Khartoum. The
letters of Mr. Jephson, after being shown, were endorsed, as will be seen
by Emin Pasha. Later observations proved the truth of those made by Mr.
Jephson when he said, "Sentiment is the Pasha's worst enemy; nothing
keeps Emin here but Emin himself." What I most admire in him is the
evident struggle between his duty to me, as my agent, and the friendship
he entertains for the Pasha.
While we may naturally regret that Emin Pasha did not possess that
influence over his troops which would have commanded their perfect
obedience, confidence and trust, and made them pliable to the laws and
customs of civilization, and compelled them to respect natives as
fellow-subjects, to be guardians of peace and protectors of property,
without which there can be no civilization, many will think that as the
Governor was unable to do this, that it is as well that events took the
turn they did. The natives of Africa cannot be taught that there are
blessings in civilization if they are permitted to be oppressed and to be
treated as unworthy of the treatment due to human beings, to be despoiled
and enslaved at will by a licentious soldiery. The habit of regarding the
aborigines as nothing better than pagan _abid_ or slaves, dates from
Ibrahim Pasha, and must be utterly suppressed before any semblance of
civilization can be seen outside the military settlements. When every
grain of corn, and every fowl, goat, sheep and cow which is necessary for
the troops is paid for in sterling money or its equivalent in necessary
goods, then civilization will become irresistible in its influence, and
the Gospel even may be introduced; but without impartial justice both are
impossible, certainly never when preceded and accompanied by spoliation,
which I fear was too general a custom in the Soudan.
Those who have some regard for righteous justice may find some comfort in
the reflection that until civilization in its true and real form be
introduced into Equatoria, the aborigines shall now have some peace and
rest, and that whatever aspects its semblance bare, excepting a few
orange and lime trees, can be replaced within a month, under higher,
better, and more enduring auspices.
If during this Expedition I have not sufficiently manifested the reality
of my friendship and devotion to you, and to my friends of the Emin
Relief Committee, pray attribute it to want of opportunities and force of
circumstances and not to lukewarmness and insincerity; but if, on the
other hand, you and my friends have been satisfied that so far as lay in
my power I have faithfully and loyally accomplished the missions you
entrusted to me in the same spirit and to the same purpose that you
yourself would have performed them had it been physically and morally
possible for you to have been with us, then indeed am I satisfied, and
the highest praise would not be equal in my opinion to the simple
acknowledgment of it, such as "Well done."
My dear Sir William, to love a noble, generous and loyal heart like your
own, is natural. Accept the profession of mine, which has been pledged
long ago to you wholly and entirely.
Henry M. Stanley.
To Sir William Mackinnon, Bart.,
of Balinakill and Loup,
in the County of Argyleshire,
The Chairman of the Emin Pasha Relief Committee.
&c. &c. &c.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Khedive and the Soudan--Arabi Pasha--Hicks Pasha's defeat--The
Mahdi--Sir Evelyn Baring and Lord Granville on the Soudan--Valentine
Baker Pasha--General Gordon: his work in the Upper Soudan--Edward
Schnitzler (or Emin Effendi Hakim) and his province--General Gordon
at Khartoum: and account of the Belief Expedition in 1884, under Lord
Wolseley--Mr. A. M. Mackay, the missionary in Uganda--Letters from
Emin Bey to Mr. Mackay, Mr. C. H. Allen, and Dr. R. W. Felkin, relating
to his Province--Mr. F. Holmwood's and Mr. A. M. Mackay's views on
the proposed relief of Emin--Suggested routes for the Emin Relief
Expedition--Sir Wm. Mackinnon and Mr. J. F. Hutton--The Relief Fund and
Preparatory details of the Expedition--Colonel Sir Francis De
Winton--Selection of officers for the Expedition--King Leopold and the
Congo Route--Departure for Egypt.
Only a Carlyle in his maturest period, as when he drew in lurid colours
the agonies of the terrible French Revolution, can do justice to the long
catalogue of disasters which has followed the connection of England with
Egypt. It is a theme so dreadful throughout, that Englishmen shrink from
touching it. Those who have written upon any matters relating to these
horrors confine themselves to bare historical record. No one can read
through these without shuddering at the dangers England and Englishmen
have incurred during this pitiful period of mismanagement. After the
Egyptian campaign there is only one bright gleam of sunshine throughout
months of oppressive darkness, and that shone over the immortals of
Abu-Klea and Gubat, when that small body of heroic Englishmen struggled
shoulder to shoulder on the sands of the fatal desert, and won a glory
equal to that which the Light Brigade were urged to gain at Balaclava.
Those were fights indeed, and atone in a great measure for a series of
blunders, that a century of history would fail to parallel. If only a
portion of that earnestness of purpose exhibited at Abu-Klea had been
manifested by those responsible for ordering events, the Mahdi would soon
have become only a picturesque figure to adorn a page or to point a
metaphor, and not the terrible portent of these latter days, whose
presence blasted every vestige of civilization in the Soudan to ashes.
In order that I may make a fitting but brief introduction to the subject
matter of this book, I must necessarily glance at the events which led to
the cry of the last surviving Lieutenant of Gordon for help in his close
beleaguerment near the Equator.
To the daring project of Ismail the Khedive do we owe the original cause
of all that has befallen Egypt and the Soudan. With 5,000,000 of
subjects, and a rapidly depleting treasury, he undertook the expansion of
the Egyptian Khediviate into an enormous Egyptian Empire, the entire area
embracing a superficial extent of nearly 1,000,000 square miles--that is,
from the Pharos of Alexandria to the south end of Lake Albert, from
Massowah to the western boundary of Darfur. Adventurers from Europe and
from America resorted to his capital to suggest the maddest schemes, and
volunteered themselves leaders of the wildest enterprises. The staid
period when Egyptian sovereignty ceased at Gondokoro, and the Nile was
the natural drain of such traffic as found its way by the gentle pressure
of slow development, was ended when Captains Speke and Grant, and Sir
Samuel Baker brought their rapturous reports of magnificent lakes, and
regions unmatched for fertility and productiveness. The termination of
the American Civil War threw numbers of military officers out of
employment, and many thronged to Egypt to lend their genius to the modern
Pharaoh, and to realize his splendid dreams of empire. Englishmen,
Germans, and Italians, appeared also to share in the honours that were
showered upon the bold and the brave.
While reading carefully and dispassionately the annals of this period,
admiring the breadth of the Khedive's views, the enthusiasm which
possesses him, the princely liberality of his rewards, the military
exploits, the sudden extensions of his power, and the steady expansions
of his sovereignty to the south, west, and east, I am struck by the fact
that his success as a conqueror in Africa may well be compared to the
successes of Alexander in Asia, the only difference being that Alexander
led his armies in person, while Ismail the Khedive preferred the luxuries
of his palaces in Cairo, and to commit his wars to the charge of his
Pashas and Beys.
To the Khedive the career of conquest on which he has launched appears
noble; the European Press applaud him; so many things of grand importance
to civilization transpire that they chant pæans of praise in his honour;
the two seas are brought together, and the mercantile navies ride in
stately columns along the maritime canal; railways are pushed towards the
south, and it is prophesied that a line will reach as far as Berber. But
throughout all this brilliant period the people of this new empire do not
seem to have been worthy of a thought, except as subjects of taxation and
as instruments of supplying the Treasury; taxes are heavier than ever;
the Pashas are more mercenary; the laws are more exacting, the ivory
trade is monopolised, and finally, to add to the discontent already
growing, the slave trade is prohibited throughout all the territory where
Egyptian authority is constituted. Within five years Sir Samuel Baker has
conquered the Equatorial Province, Munzinger has mastered Senaar, Darfur
has been annexed, and Bahr-el-Ghazal has been subjugated after a most
frightful waste of life. The audacity manifested in all these projects of
empire is perfectly marvellous--almost as wonderful as the total absence
of common sense. Along a line of territory 800 miles in length there are
only three military stations in a country that can only rely upon camels
as means of communication except when the Nile is high.
In 1879, Ismail the Khedive having drawn too freely upon the banks of
Europe, and increased the debt of Egypt to £128,000,000, and unable to
agree to the restraints imposed by the Powers, the money of whose
subjects he had so liberally squandered, was deposed, and the present
Khedive, Tewfik, his son, was elevated to his place, under the tutelage
of the Powers. But shortly after, a military revolt occurred, and at
Kassassin, Tel-el-Kebir, Cairo, and Kafr Dowar, it was crushed by an
English Army, 13,000 strong, under Lord Wolseley.
During the brief sovereignty of Arabi Pasha, who headed the military
revolt, much mischief was caused by the withdrawal of the available
troops from the Soudan. While the English General was defeating the rebel
soldiers at Tel-el-Kebir, the Mahdi Mohamet-Achmet was proceeding to the
investment of El Obeid. On the 23rd of August he was attacked at Duem
with a loss of 4500. On the 14th he was repulsed by the garrison of
Obeid, with a loss, it is said, of 10,000 men. These immense losses of
life, which have been continuous from the 11th of August, 1881, when the
Mahdi first essayed the task of teaching the populations of the Soudan
the weakness of Egyptian power, were from the tribes who were indifferent
to the religion professed by the Mahdi, but who had been robbed by the
Egyptian officials, taxed beyond endurance by the Government, and who had
been prevented from obtaining means by the sale of slaves to pay the
taxes, and also from the hundreds of slave-trading caravans, whose
occupation was taken from them by their energetic suppression by Gordon,
and his Lieutenant, Gessi Pasha. From the 11th of August, 1881, to the
4th of March, 1883, when Hicks Pasha, a retired Indian officer, landed at
Khartoum as Chief of the Staff of the Soudan army, the disasters to the
Government troops had been almost one unbroken series; and, in the
meanwhile, the factious and mutinous army of Egypt had revolted, been
suppressed and disbanded, and another army had been reconstituted under
Sir Evelyn Wood, which was not to exceed 6000 men. Yet aware of the
tremendous power of the Mahdi, and the combined fanaticism and hate,
amounting to frenzy, which possessed his legions, and of the
instability, the indiscipline, and cowardice of his troops--while
pleading to the Egyptian Government for a reinforcement of 5000 men, or
for four battalions of General Wood's new army--Hicks Pasha resolves upon
the conquest of Kordofan, and marches to meet the victorious Prophet,
while he and his hordes are flushed with the victory lately gained over
Obeid and Bara. His staff, and the very civilians accompanying him,
predict disaster; yet Hicks starts forth on his last journey with a body
of 12,000 men, 10 mountain guns, 6 Nordenfelts, 5500 camels, and 500
horses. They know that the elements of weakness are in the force; that
many of the soldiers are peasants taken from the fields in Egypt, chained
in gangs; that others are Mahdists; that there is dissension between the
officers, and that everything is out of joint. But they march towards
Obeid, meet the Mahdi's legions, and are annihilated.
England at this time directs the affairs of Egypt with the consent of the
young Khedive, whom she has been instrumental in placing upon the almost
royal throne of Egypt, and whom she is interested in protecting. Her
soldiers are in Egypt; the new Egyptian army is under an English General;
her military police is under the command of an English ex-Colonel of
cavalry; her Diplomatic Agent directs the foreign policy; almost all the
principal offices of the State are in the hands of Englishmen.
The Soudan has been the scene of the most fearful sanguinary encounters
between the ill-directed troops of the Egyptian Government and the
victorious tribes gathered under the sacred banner of the Mahdi; and
unless firm resistance is offered soon to the advance of the Prophet, it
becomes clear to many in England that this vast region and fertile basin
of the Upper Nile will be lost to Egypt, unless troops and money be
furnished to meet the emergency. To the view of good sense it is clear
that, as England has undertaken to direct the government and manage the
affairs of Egypt, she cannot avoid declaring her policy as regards the
Soudan. To a question addressed to the English Prime Minister in
Parliament, as to whether the Soudan was regarded as forming a part of
Egypt, and if so, whether the British Government would take steps to
restore order there, Mr. Gladstone replied, that the Soudan had not been
included in the sphere of English operations, and that the Government was
not disposed to include it within the sphere of English responsibility.
As a declaration of policy no fault can be found with it; it is Mr.
Gladstone's policy, and there is nothing to be said against it as such;
it is his principle, the principle of his associates in the Government,
and of his party, and as a principle it deserves respect.
The Political Agent in Egypt, Sir Evelyn Baring, while the fate of Hicks
Pasha and his army was still unknown, but suspected, sends repeated
signals of warning to the English Government, and suggests remedies and
means of averting a final catastrophe. "If Hicks Pasha is defeated,
Khartoum is in danger; by the fall of Khartoum, Egypt will be menaced."
Lord Granville replies at various times in the months of November and
December, 1883, that the Government advises the abandonment of the Soudan
within certain limits; that the Egyptian Government must take the sole
responsibility of operations beyond Egypt Proper; that the Government has
no intention of employing British or Indian troops in the Soudan; that
ineffectual efforts on the part of the Egyptian Government to secure the
Soudan would only increase the danger.
Sir Evelyn Baring notified Lord Granville that no persuasion or argument
availed to induce the Egyptian Minister to accept the policy of
abandonment. Cherif Pasha, the Prime Minister, also informed Lord
Granville that, according to Valentine Baker Pasha, the means at the
disposal were utterly inadequate for coping with the insurrection in the
Soudan.
Then Lord Granville replied, through Sir Evelyn Baring, that it was
indispensable that, so long as English soldiers provisionally occupied
Egypt, the advice of Her Majesty's Ministers should be followed, and that
he insisted on its adoption. The Egyptian Ministers were changed, and
Nubar Pasha became Prime Minister on the 10th January, 1884.
On the 17th December, Valentine Baker departed from Egypt for Suakim, to
commence military operations for the maintenance of communication between
Suakim and Berber, and the pacification of the tribes in that region.
While it was absolutely certain in England that Baker's force would
suffer a crushing defeat, and suspected in Egypt, the General does not
seem to be aware of any danger, or if there be, he courts it. The
Khedive, fearful that to his troops an engagement will be most
disastrous, writes privately to Baker Pasha: "I rely on your prudence and
ability not to engage the enemy except under the most favourable
conditions." Baker possessed ability and courage in abundance; but the
event proved that prudence and judgment were as absent in his case as in
that of the unfortunate Hicks. His force consisted of 3746 men. On the
6th of February he left Trinkitat on the sea shore, towards Tokar. After
a march of six miles the van of the rebels was encountered, and shortly
after the armies were engaged. It is said "that the rebels displayed the
utmost contempt for the Egyptians; that they seized them by the neck and
cut their throats; and that the Government troops, paralysed by fear,
turned their backs, submitting to be killed rather than attempt to defend
their lives; that hundreds threw away their rifles, knelt down, raised
their clasped hands, and prayed for mercy."
The total number killed was 2373 out of 3746. Mr. Royle, the excellent
historian of the Egyptian campaigns, says: "Baker knew, or ought to have
known, the composition of the troops he commanded, and to take such men
into action was simply to court disaster." What ought we to say of
Hicks?
We now come to General Gordon, who from 1874 to 1876 had been working in
the Upper Soudan on the lines commenced by Sir Samuel Baker, conciliating
natives, crushing slave caravans, destroying slave stations, and
extending Egyptian authority by lines of fortified forts up to the
Albert Nyanza. After four months' retirement he was appointed
Governor-General of the Soudan, of Darfur, and the Equatorial Provinces.
Among others whom Gordon employed as Governors of these various provinces
under his Vice-regal Government was one Edward Schnitzler, a German born
in Oppeln, Prussia, 28th March, 1840, of Jewish parents, who had seen
service in Turkey, Armenia, Syria, and Arabia, in the suite of Ismail
Hakki Pasha, once Governor-General of Scutari, and a Mushir of the
Empire. On the death of his patron he had departed to Niesse, where his
mother, sister, and cousins lived, and where he stayed for several
months, and thence left for Egypt. He, in 1875, thence travelled to
Khartoum, and being a medical doctor, was employed by Gordon Pasha in
that capacity. He assumed the name and title of Emin Effendi Hakim--the
faithful physician. He was sent to Lado as storekeeper and doctor, was
afterwards despatched to King Mtesa on a political mission, recalled to
Khartoum, again despatched on a similar mission to King Kabba-Rega of
Unyoro, and finally, in 1878, was promoted to Bey, and appointed Governor
of the Equatorial Province of _Ha-tal-astiva_, which, rendered into
English, means Equatoria, at a salary of £50 per month. A mate of one of
the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, called Lupton, was promoted to the
rank of Governor of the Province of Bahr-el-Ghazal, which adjoined
Equatoria.
[Illustration: EMIN PASHA.]
On hearing of the deposition of Ismail in 1879, Gordon surrendered his
high office in the hands of Tewfik, the new Khedive, informing him that
he did not intend to resume it.
In 1880 he accepted the post of Secretary under the Marquis of Ripon, but
resigned it within a month.
In 1881 he is in Mauritius as Commandant of the Royal Engineers. In about
two months he abandons that post to proceed to the assistance of the Cape
authorities in their difficulty with the Basutos, but, after a little
experience, finds himself unable to agree with the views of the Cape
Government, and resigns.
Meantime, I have been labouring on the Congo River. Our successes in that
immense territory of Western Africa have expanded into responsibilities
so serious that they threaten to become unmanageable. When I visit the
Lower Congo affairs become deranged on the Upper Congo; if I confine
myself to the Upper Congo there is friction in the Lower Congo.
Wherefore, feeling an intense interest in the growth of the territory
which was rapidly developing into a State, I suggested to His Majesty
King Leopold, as early as September, 1882, and again in the spring of
1883, that I required as an associate a person of merit, rank, and
devotion to work, such as General Gordon, who would undertake either the
management of the Lower or Upper Congo, while I would work in the other
section, as a vast amount of valuable time was consumed in travelling up
and down from one to the other, and young officers of stations were so
apt to take advantage of my absence. His Majesty promised to request the
aid of General Gordon, but for a long time the replies were unfavourable.
Finally, in the spring of 1884, I received a letter in General Gordon's
well-known handwriting, which informed me I was to expect him by the next
mail.
It appears, however, that he had no sooner mailed his letter to me and
parted from His Majesty than he was besieged by applications from his
countrymen to assist the Egyptian Government in extricating the
beleaguered garrison of Khartoum from their impending fate. Personally I
know nothing of what actually happened when he was ushered by Lord
Wolseley into the presence of Lord Granville, but I have been informed
that General Gordon was confident he could perform the mission entrusted
to him. There is a serious discrepancy in the definition of this mission.
The Egyptian authorities were anxious for the evacuation of Khartoum
only, and it is possible that Lord Granville only needed Gordon's
services for this humane mission, all the other garrisons to be left to
their fate because of the supposed impossibility of rescuing them. The
Blue Books which contain the official despatches seem to confirm the
probability of this. But it is certain that Lord Granville instructed
General Gordon to proceed to Egypt to report on the situation of the
Soudan, and on the best measures that should be taken for the security of
the Egyptian garrisons (in the plural), and for the safety of the
European population in Khartoum. He was to perform such other duties as
the Egyptian Government might wish to entrust to him. He was to be
accompanied by Colonel Stewart.
Sir Evelyn Baring, after a prolonged conversation with Gordon, gives him
his final instructions on behalf of the British Government.
A precis of these is as follows:--
1. "Ensure retreat of the European population from 10,000 to 15,000
people, and of the garrison of Kartoum."[A]
2. "You know best the when and how to effect this."
3. "You will bear in mind that the main end (of your Mission) is
the evacuation of the Soudan."
4. "As you are of opinion it could be done, endeavour to make a
confederation of the native tribes to take the place of Egyptian
authority."
5. "A credit of £100,000 is opened for you at the Finance
Department."
Gordon has succeeded in infusing confidence in the minds of the Egyptian
Ministry, who were previously panic-stricken and cried out for the
evacuation of Khartoum only. They breathe freer after seeing and hearing
him, and according to his own request they invest him with the
Governor-Generalship. The firman, given him, empowers him to evacuate the
respective territories (of the Soudan) and to withdraw the troops, civil
officials, and such of the inhabitants as wish to leave for Egypt, and if
possible, after completing the evacuation (and this was an absolute
impossibility) he was to establish an organized Government. With these
instructions Lord Granville concurs.
I am told that it was understood, however, that he was to do what he
could--do everything necessary, in fact, if possible; if not all the
Soudan, then he was to proceed to evacuating Khartoum only, without loss
of time. But this is not on official record until March 23rd, 1884, and
it is not known whether he ever received this particular telegram.[B]
General Gordon proceeded to Khartoum on January 26th, 1884, and arrived
in that city on the 18th of the following month. During his journey he
sent frequent despatches by telegraph abounding in confidence. Mr. Power,
the acting consul and _Times_ correspondent, wired the following
despatch--"The people (of Khartoum) are devoted to General Gordon, whose
design is to save the garrison, and for ever leave the Soudan--as
perforce it must be left--to the Soudanese."
The English press, which had been so wise respecting the chances of
Valentine Baker Pasha, were very much in the condition of the people of
Khartoum, that is, devoted to General Gordon and sanguine of his success.
He had performed such wonders in China--he had laboured so effectually in
crushing the slave-trade in the Soudan, he had won the affection of the
sullen Soudanese, that the press did not deem it at all improbable that
Gordon with his white wand and six servants could rescue the doomed
garrisons of Senaar, Bahr-el-Ghazal and Equatoria--a total of 29,000 men,
besides the civil employees and their wives and families; and after
performing that more than herculean--nay utterly impossible
task--establish an organized Government.
On February 29th Gordon telegraphs, "There is not much chance of
improving, and every chance is getting worse," and on the 2nd of the
month "I have no option about staying at Khartoum, it has passed out of
my hands." On the 16th March he predicts that before long "we shall be
blocked." At the latter end of March he telegraphs, "We have provisions
for five months, and are hemmed in."
It is clear that a serious misunderstanding had occurred in the drawing
up of the instructions by Sir Evelyn Baring and their comprehension of
them by General Gordon, for the latter expresses himself to the former
thus:--
"You ask me to state cause and reason of my intention for my
staying at Khartoum. I stay at Khartoum because Arabs have shut us
up, and will not let us out."
Meantime public opinion urged on the British Government the necessity of
despatching an Expedition to withdraw General Gordon from Khartoum. But
as it was understood between General Gordon and Lord Granville that the
former's mission was for the purpose of dispensing with the services of
British troops in the Soudan, and as it was its declared policy not to
employ English or Indian troops in that region, the Government were
naturally reluctant to yield to the demand of the public. At last,
however, as the clamour increased and Parliament and public joined in
affirming that it was a duty on the country to save the brave man who had
so willingly volunteered to perform such an important service for his
country, Mr. Gladstone rose in the House of Commons on the 5th August to
move a vote of credit to undertake operations for the relief of Gordon.
Two routes were suggested by which the Relief Expedition could approach
Khartoum--the short cut across the desert from Suakim to Berber, and the
other by the Nile. Gordon expressed his preference for that up the Nile,
and it was this latter route that the Commanding General of the Relief
Expedition adopted.
On the 18th September, the steamer "Abbas," with Colonel Stewart
(Gordon's companion), Mr. Power, the _Times_ correspondent, Mr. Herbin,
the French Consul, and a number of Greeks and Egyptians on
board--forty-four men all told--on trying to pass by the cataract of Abu
Hamid was wrecked in the cataract. The Arabs on the shore invited them to
land in peace, but unarmed. Stewart complied, and he and the two Consuls
(Power and Herbin) and Hassan Effendi went ashore and entered a house, in
which they were immediately murdered.
On the 17th November, Gordon reports to Lord Wolseley, who was then at
Wady Halfa, that he can hold out for forty days yet, that the Mahdists
are to the south, south-west, and east, but not to the north of
Khartoum.
By Christmas Day, 1884, a great part of the Expeditionary Force was
assembled at Korti. So far, the advance of the Expedition had been as
rapid as the energy and skill of the General commanding could command.
Probably there never was a force so numerous animated with such noble
ardour and passion as this under Lord Wolseley for the rescue of that
noble and solitary Englishman at Khartoum.
On December 30th, a part of General Herbert Stewart's force moves from
Korti towards Gakdul Wells, with 2099 camels. In 46 hours and 50 minutes
it has reached Gakdul Wells; 11 hours later Sir Herbert Stewart with all
the camels starts on his return journey to Korti, which place was reached
January 5th. On the 12th Sir Herbert Stewart was back at Gakdul Wells,
and at 2 P.M. of the 13th the march towards Abu Klea was resumed. On the
17th, the famous battle of Abu Klea was fought, resulting in a hard-won
victory to the English troops, with a loss of 9 officers and 65 men
killed and 85 wounded, out of a total of 1800, while 1100 of the enemy
lay dead before the square. It appears probable that if the 3000 English
sent up the Nile Valley had been with this gallant little force, it would
have been a mere walk over for the English army. After another battle on
the 19th near Metammeh, where 20 men were killed and 60 wounded of the
English, and 250 of the enemy, a village on a gravel terrace near the
Nile was occupied. On the 21st, four steamers belonging to General Gordon
appeared. The officer in command stated that they had been lying for some
weeks near an island awaiting the arrival of the British column. The 22nd
and 23rd were expended by Sir Chas. Wilson in making a reconnaissance,
building two forts, changing the crews of the steamers, and preparing
fuel. On the 24th, two of the steamers started for Khartoum, carrying
only 20 English soldiers. On the 26th two men came aboard and reported
that there had been fighting at Khartoum; on the 27th a man cried out
from the bank that the town had fallen, and that Gordon had been killed.
The next day the last news was confirmed by another man. Sir Charles
Wilson steamed on until his steamers became the target of cannon from
Omdurman and from Khartoum, besides rifles from a distance of from 75 to
200 yards, and turned back only when convinced that the sad news was only
too true. Steaming down river then at full speed he reached Tamanieb when
he halted for the night. From here he sent out two messengers to collect
news. One returned saying that he had met an Arab who informed him that
Khartoum had been entered on the night of the 26th January through the
treachery of Farag Pasha, and that Gordon was killed; that the Mahdi had
on the next day entered the city and had gone into a mosque to return
thanks and had then retired, and had given the city up to three days'
pillage.
In Major Kitchener's report we find a summary of the results of the
taking of Khartoum. "The massacre in the town lasted some six hours, and
about 4000 persons at least were killed. The Bashi Bazouks and white
regulars numbering 3327, and the Shaigia irregulars numbering 2330, were
mostly all killed in cold blood after they had surrendered and been
disarmed." The surviving inhabitants of the town were ordered out, and as
they passed through the gate were searched, and then taken to Omdurman
where the women were distributed among the Mahdist chiefs, and the men
were stripped and turned adrift to pick a living as they could. A Greek
merchant, who escaped from Khartoum, reported that the town was betrayed
by the merchants there, who desired to make terms with the enemy, and not
by Farag Pasha.
Darfur, Kordofan, Senaar, Bahr-el-Ghazal, Khartoum, had been possessed by
the enemy; Kassala soon followed, and throughout the length and breadth
of the Soudan there now remained only the Equatorial Province, whose
Governor was Emin Bey Hakim--the Faithful Physician.
Naturally, if English people felt that they were in duty bound to rescue
their brave countryman, and a gallant General of such genius and
reputation as Gordon, they would feel a lively interest in the fate of
the last of Gordon's Governors, who, by a prudent Fabian policy, it was
supposed, had evaded the fate which had befallen the armies and garrisons
of the Soudan. It follows also that, if the English were solicitous for
the salvation of the garrison of Khartoum, they would feel a
proportionate solicitude for the fate of a brave officer and his little
army in the far South, and that, if assistance could be rendered at a
reasonable cost, there would be no difficulty in raising a fund to effect
that desirable object.
On November 16, 1884, Emin Bey informs Mr. A. M. Mackay, the missionary
in Uganda, by letter written at Lado, that "the Soudan has become the
theatre of an insurrection; that for nineteen months he is without news
from Khartoum, and that thence he is led to believe that the town has
been taken by the insurgents, or that the Nile is blocked "; but he
says:--
"Whatever it proves to be, please inform your correspondents and
through them the Egyptian Government that to this day we are well,
and that we propose to hold out until help may reach us or until we
perish."
A second note from Emin Bey to the same missionary, on the same date as
the preceding, contains the following:--
"The Bahr-Ghazal Province being lost and Lupton Bey, the governor,
carried away to Kordofan, we are unable to inform our Government of
what happens here. For nineteen months we have had no communication
from Khartoum, so I suppose the river is blocked up."
"Please therefore inform the Egyptian Government by some means that
we are well to this day, but greatly in need of help. We shall hold
out until we obtain such help or until we perish."
To Mr. Charles H. Allen, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, Emin Bey
writes from Wadelai, December 31, 1885, as follows:--
"Ever since the month of May, 1883, we have been cut off from all
communication with the world. Forgotten, and abandoned by the
Government, we have been compelled to make a virtue of necessity.
Since the occupation of the Bahr-Ghazal we have been vigorously
attacked, and I do not know how to describe to you the admirable
devotion of my black troops throughout a long war, which for them
at least, has no advantage. Deprived of the most necessary things
for a long time without any pay, my men fought valiantly, and when
at last hunger weakened them, when, after nineteen days of
incredible privation and sufferings, their strength was exhausted,
and when the last torn leather of the last boot had been eaten,
then they cut away through the midst of their enemies and succeeded
in saving themselves. All this hardship was undergone without the
least _arrière-pensée_, without even the hope of any appreciable
reward, prompted only by their duty and the desire of showing a
proper valour before their enemies."
This is a noble record of valour and military virtue. I remember the
appearance of this letter in the _Times_, and the impression it made on
myself and friends. It was only a few days after the appearance of this
letter that we began to discuss ways and means of relief for the writer.
The following letter also impressed me very strongly. It is written to
Dr. R. W. Felkin on the same date, December 31, 1885.
* * * * *
"You will probably know through the daily papers that poor Lupton,
after having bravely held the Bahr-Ghazal Province was compelled,
through the treachery of his own people, to surrender to the
emissaries of the late Madhi, and was carried by them to
Kordofan."
"My province and also myself I only saved from a like fate by a
stratagem, but at last I was attacked, and many losses in both men
and ammunition were the result, until I delivered such a heavy blow
to the rebels at Rimo, in Makraka, that compelled them to leave me
alone. Before this took place they informed us that Khartoum fell,
in January, 1885, and that Gordon was killed."
"Naturally on account of these occurrences I have been compelled to
evacuate our more distant stations, and withdraw our soldiers and
their families, still hoping that our Government will send us help.
It seems, however, that I have deceived myself, for since April,
1883, I have received no news of any kind from the north."
"The Government in Khartoum did not behave well to us. Before they
evacuated Fashoda, they ought to have remembered that Government
officials were living here (Equatorial Provinces) who had performed
their duty, and had not deserved to be left to their fate without
more ado. Even if it were the intention of the Government to
deliver us over to our fate, the least they could have done was to
have released us from our duties; we should then have known that we
were considered to have become valueless."
* * * * *
"Anyway it was necessary for us to seek some way of escape, and in
the first place it was urgent to send news of our existence in
Egypt. With this object in view I went south, after having made the
necessary arrangements at Lado, and came to Wadelai."
* * * * *
"As to my future plans, I intend to hold this country as long as
possible. I hope that when our letters arrive in Egypt, in seven or
eight months, a reply will be sent to me _viâ_ Khartoum or
Zanzibar. If the Egyptian Government still exists in the Soudan we
naturally expect them to send us help. If, however, the Soudan has
been evacuated, I shall take the whole of the people towards the
south. I shall then send the whole of the Egyptian and Khartoum
officials _viâ_ Uganda or Karagwé to Zanzibar, but shall remain
myself with my black troops at Kabba-Rege's until the Government
inform me as to their wishes."
This is very clear that Emin Pasha at this time proposed to relieve
himself of the Egyptian officials, and that he himself only intended to
remain until the Egyptian Government could communicate to him its wishes.
Those "wishes" were that he should abandon his province, as they were
unable to maintain it, and take advantage of the escort to leave Africa.
In a letter written to Mr. Mackay dated July 6th, 1886, Emin says:--
"In the first place believe me that I am in no hurry to break away
from here, or to leave those countries in which I have now laboured
for ten years."
* * * * *
"All my people, but especially the negro troops, entertain a strong
objection against a march to the south and thence to Egypt, and
mean to remain here until they can be taken north. Meantime, if no
danger overtakes us, and our ammunition holds out for sometime
longer, I mean to follow your advice and remain here until help
comes to us from some quarter. At all events, you may rest assured
that we will occasion no disturbance to you in Uganda."
"I shall determine on a march to the coast only in a case of dire
necessity. There are, moreover, two other routes before me. One
from Kabba-Rega's direct to Karagwé; the other _viâ_ Usongora to
the stations at Tanganika. I hope, however, that I shall have no
need to make use of either."
* * * * *
"My people have become impatient through long delay, and are
anxiously looking for help at last. It would also be most desirable
that some Commissioner came here from Europe, either direct by the
Masai route, or from Karagwé _viâ_ Kabba-Rega's country, in order
that my people may actually see that there is some interest taken
in them. I would defray with ivory all expenses of such a
Commission."
"As I once more repeat, I am ready to stay and to hold these
countries as long as I can until help comes, and I beseech you to
do what you can to hasten the arrival of such assistance. Assure
Mwanga that he has nothing to fear from me or my people, and that
as an old friend of Mtesa's I have no intention to trouble him."
In the above letters we have Emin Bey's views, wherein we gather that his
people are loyal--that is they are obedient to his commands, but that
none of them, judging from the tenour of the letters, express any
inclination to return to Egypt, excepting the Egyptians. He is at the
same time pondering upon the routes by which it is possible to
retreat--elsewhere he suggests the Monbuttu route to the sea; in these
letters he hints at Masai Land, or through Unyoro, and west of Uganda to
Usongora, and thence to Tanganika! If none of the black troops intended
to follow him, he certainly could not have done so with only the Egyptian
officials and their families.
From the following letters from the Consul-General, F. Holmwood, to Sir
Evelyn Baring, dated September 25th and September 27th, we gather Mr.
Holmwood's views, who, from his position and local knowledge, was very
competent to furnish information as to what could be done in the way of
the proposed relief.
"In Emin's letters to me he only reports his situation up to 27th
February, 1886, when he proposed evacuating his province by
detachments, the first of which he proposed to despatch at the
close of the rains toward the end of July; but both Dr. Junker and
Mr. Mackay inform me that they have since heard from Emin that the
majority of the 4000 loyal Egyptian subjects who have remained
faithful to Egypt throughout, and have supported him in the face of
the constant attacks from the Mahdi's adherents, aggravated by an
imminent danger of starvation, refuse to leave their country, and
he had therefore determined, if he could possibly do so, to remain
at his post, and continue to protect Egyptian interests till relief
arrived."
* * * * *
"Were Uganda freed from this tyrant (Mwanga), the Equatorial
Province, even should the present elementary system of
communication remain unmodified, would be within eight weeks' post
of Zanzibar, and a safe depôt on the Albert Nyanza would provide a
base for any further operations that might be decided upon."
"Dr. Junker states that the country to the east of the Ripon
Falls[C] has proved impracticable, and that Emin has lost many
troops in endeavouring to open communication through it. If such be
the case the alternative line by which Dr. Fischer tried to relieve
Junker, and which I believe he still recommends, could not be
relied on for turning Uganda and its eastern dependency, and the
well-known route _viâ_ Uganda would be the only one available for
an Expedition of moderate size."
* * * * *
"As far as I am able to judge, without making any special
calculation, I consider that 1200 porters would be the smallest
number that would suffice, and a well-armed guard of at least 500
natives would be necessary."
* * * * *
"General Matthews, whom I had consulted as to the force necessary
for the safety of the Expedition, is of opinion that I have formed
far too low an estimate, but after weighing the testimony of many
experienced persons acquainted with Uganda, I must adhere to my
opinion that 500 native troops armed with modern rifles and under
experienced persons, would, if supplemented by the irregular force,
fully suffice."
An American officer of the Khedivial Government writes to Mr. Portal, and
suggests that communication with Emin might be opened by the Zanzibar
Arabs, but that to send stores and ammunition to him was impossible; that
the Arabs might manage for his passage, though his safest line of retreat
was westward to reach the Congo.
Mr. Fred Holmwood, in his despatch to the Foreign Office of September
23rd, 1886, writes that, "had it not been for the dangerous attitude of
the King of Uganda, the question of relieving Emin would have been merely
one of expenditure to be settled at Cairo; but under present
circumstances, many other serious considerations are involved in it which
will have to be referred to Her Majesty's Government."
"I would call attention to the account contained in Mr. Mackay's letter
regarding the alternative route to Wadelai which Dr. Fischer endeavoured
to take and, I believe, still recommends. If this statement be correct,
any attempt to turn Uganda or its Eastern dependency by this unexplored
line would probably fail."
Mr. A. M. Mackay writes from Uganda, May 14th, 1886:--
"From Dr. Junker's letter you will have seen that Emin Bey has had
the good fortune to have secured the loyalty of the people he
governs. Emin seems to have learned Gordon's secret of securing the
affection of his subjects, and has bravely stuck to them. There can
be no doubt at all but that had he been anxious to leave he would
with a few hundred of his soldiers have easily made a dash for the
coast either through the Masai Land or this way, asking no
permission from Mwanga (King of Uganda) or anyone else. He knows
that there is no power here able to stop him. In fact years ago he
wrote me that it would be nothing to him to storm this wretched
village and drive off the cattle."
"But what would be the fate of thousands of people who have
remained loyal on the Upper Nile? Dr. Junker speaks of thousands.
They do not want to be taken out of their own fertile country, and
taken to the deserts of Upper Egypt."
"Dr. Emin is on all hands allowed to be a wise and able Governor.
But he cannot remain for ever where he is, nor can he succeed
himself, even should the Mahdi's troops leave him undisturbed in
the future. His peculiar position should be taken advantage of by
our country, which undertook to rescue the garrisons of the
Soudan."
* * * * *
"Mwanga's action with respect to the letters forwarded him for Dr.
Emin, was as disrespectful as possible to the British Government
which had received with such kindness his father's envoys. We asked
him merely to forward the letters in the first place until he
should receive word from Emin as to whether or not he was prepared
to come this way, but he detained your packet altogether."
In Mr. Mackay's letter to Sir John Kirk, June 28th, 1886, he says:--
"Dr. Fischer's difficulties would also only really begin after
Kavirondo, as he then had the country of the dreaded Bakedi to
cross, and Dr. Junker tells me that whole parties of Dr. Emin's
soldiers have been repeatedly murdered by them."
Dr. Fischer, it will be remembered, was engaged to proceed to Equatoria
in search of Dr. Junker by that traveller's brother, and chose the road
_viâ_ East coast of the Victoria Lake. Arriving at the N.E. corner of the
Lake he returned to the coast.
Mr. Mackay proceeds:--
"Dr. Junker is living here with us. He brought me a letter from
Emin Bey dated the 27th January (1886). He then proposed sending
his people at once this way--some 4000--in small detachments. This
policy would be fatal. He also asked me to go to meet him with a
view to bringing here two steamers which otherwise he would have to
abandon. One of them he meant for the King, and the other for the
mission."
"Since then, however he finds that his people, officers and men,
refuse to leave the Soudan, hence he is prepared to remain some
years with them provided only he can get supplies of cloth, etc."
Mr. Mackay always writes sensibly. I obtained a great deal of solid
information from these letters.
Naturally he writes in the full belief that Emin's troops are loyal. We
all shared in this belief. We now see that we were grossly misled, and
that at no time could Emin have cut his way to the coast through Uganda
or any other country with men of such fibre as his ignorant and stolid
Soudanese.
Mr. Joseph Thomson, in a letter to the _Times_, suggested a route through
the Masai Land, and proposed to be responsible for the safe conduct of a
Relief Expedition through that country.
Mr. J. T. Wills suggested that the Mobangi-Welle would prove an excellent
way to Emin.
Mr. Harrison Smith expressed himself assured that a way by Abyssinia
would be found feasible.
Another gentleman interested in the African Lakes Company proposed that
the Expedition should adopt the Zambezi-Shire-Nyassa route, and thence
_viâ_ Tanganika north to Muta Nzige and Lake Albert, and a missionary
from the Tanganika warmly endorsed it, as not presenting more
difficulties than any other.
Dr. Felkin, in the 'Scottish Geographical Magazine,' after examining
several routes carefully, came to the conclusion that a road west of Lake
Victoria and Karagwé, through Usongora to Lake Albert, possessed some
advantages over any other.
Early in October, 1886, Sir William Mackinnon and Mr. J. F. Hutton,
ex-President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, had spoken with me
respecting the possibilities of conveying relief to Emin, with a view to
enable him to hold his own. To them it seemed that he only required
ammunition, and I shared their opinion, and they were very earnest in
their intention to collect funds for the support he required. But many of
their friends were absent from town, and they could not decide alone what
should be done without consultation. We discussed estimates and routes,
and Mr. Hutton informs me that the rough estimate I furnished him then
exceeds by £500 the actual cost of the Expedition.
As for routes, I intimated to them that there were four almost equally
feasible.
The first, _viâ_ Masai Land, was decidedly objectionable while carrying a
vast store of ammunition which absolutely must reach Emin. Mr. Thomson
had tried it, and his account of the extremities to which he was driven
on returning from the Lake Victoria, for want of water and grain, were
extremely unfavourable. In proceeding to the lake his people were
dispirited, and deserted in such numbers that he was obliged to return a
short distance, to Kilima Njaro, leave his camp there, and proceed with a
few men back to the coast to recruit more men. In case of a pressing
necessity like this it would be extremely unwise to return a mile after
commencing the march. The tendency of the Zanzibaris to desert also was
another disadvantage, and desertion of late from East Coast Expeditions
had assumed alarming proportions owing to the impunity with which they
could decamp with rifles and loads, and the number of opportunities
presented to them. Many of the Zanzibaris had become professional
advance-jumpers, and the greater the expedition the greater would be the
loss in money, rifles and stores.
The second, _viâ_ Victoria Nyanza and Uganda, which was naturally the
best, was rendered impossible for a small expedition because of the
hostility of Uganda. Even this hostility could be avoided if there were
any vessels on Lake Victoria capable of transporting across the lake such
an expedition as was needed. The danger of desertion was just as imminent
on this as on the first.
The third was _viâ_ Msalala, Karagwé and Ankori, and Unyoro and Lake
Albert. Immense loss of men and goods would assuredly follow any attempt
from the East Coast. Fifty per cent. loss was unavoidable, and no
precautions would avail to prevent desertion. Besides, Karagwé was
garrisoned by the Waganda, and no expedition could pass through that
country without persistent hostility from the Waganda. If fortunate
enough to force our way through Karagwé, we should have to reckon with
the Wanyankori, who number 200,000 spears, and if introduced to them by
fighting the Karagwé natives the outlook would be dismal in the extreme.
As for going through any country west of Karagwé to avoid the Waganda
that would be impossible, except at a cost that I did not suppose the
subscribers would contemplate paying.
"The whole question resolves itself into that of money. With money enough
every route is possible; but as I understand it, you propose to subscribe
a moderate amount, and therefore there is only one route which is safely
open for the money, and that is the Congo. This river has the
disadvantage of not having enough transport vessels in its upper portion.
I would propose then to supplement the Upper Congo flotilla with fifteen
whale-boats, which will take an Expedition to within 200 miles, at least,
of the Albert Nyanza. A heavy labour will be carrying the whale-boats
from the Lower Congo to the Upper, but we can easily manage it by sending
agents at once there to prepare carriers. There is one thing, however,
that must be done--which is to obtain the sanction of King Leopold.
"But it may be we are rather premature in discussing the matter at all.
You know I am aware of many projects mooted, and much 'talk' has been
expended on each and this may end in smoke--collect your funds, and then
call upon me if you want me. If you do not require me after this
exposition of my views, let Thomson take his Expedition through the Masai
Land, and put me down for £500 subscription for it."
As the middle of November drew near, Sir William Mackinnon requested me
to write him a letter upon the subject that he might show it to his
friends, who would soon be returning to town.
A few days after the despatch of the letter, I sailed for America, and on
arrival at New York, the lecture "Tour," as it is called, commenced. But
on the 11th December, the fifteenth day after arrival, I received the
following:--
"London.
"Your plan and offer accepted. Authorities approve. Funds provided.
Business urgent. Come promptly. Reply.
"Mackinnon."
A reply was sent from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, for thus far the lecture
tour had reached, as follows:--
Just received Monday's cablegram. Many thanks. Everything all
right. Will sail per _Eider_ 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. If good
weather and barring accidents arrive 22nd December, Southampton. It
is only one month's delay after all. Tell the authorities to
prepare Holmwood (Consul General) Zanzibar, and Seyyid Barghash
(Prince of Zanzibar). Best compliments to you.
"Stanley."
My agent was in despair--the audiences were so kind--the receptions were
ovations, but arguments and entreaties were of no avail.
I arrived in England the day preceding Christmas, and within a few hours
Sir William Mackinnon and myself were discussing the Expedition.
Of course, and without the least shade of doubt, I was firmly convinced
that the Congo River route was infinitely the best and safest, provided
that I should get my flotilla of whale-boats, and the permission of King
Leopold to pass through his territory with an armed force. I knew a route
from the East Coast, and was equally acquainted with that from the West
Coast. From the furthest point reached by me in 1876, along the East
Coast road, the distance was but 100 miles to Lake Albert--from Yambuya
Rapids the distance was 322 geographical miles in an air line to the
lake. Yet to the best of my judgment the Congo route was preferable. We
should have abundance of water--which was so scanty and bad along the
Eastern route; food there must be--it was natural to expect it from my
knowledge that unsurpassed fertility such as the Upper Congo regions
possesses would have been long ago discovered by the aborigines, whereas
we knew from Thomson, Fischer, and Hannington's experiences that food and
water was scanty in Masai Land; then again, that wholesale desertion so
frequent on the East Coast would be avoided on the West Coast.
Yet notwithstanding they admitted that I might be right, it was the
opinion of the Committee that it would be best to adopt the Eastern
route.
"Very good, it is perfectly immaterial to me. Let us decide on the
East Coast route, _viâ_ Msalala, Karagwé, Ankori, and Unyoro. If
you hear of some hard-fighting, I look to you that you will defend
the absent. If I could drop this ammunition in Emin's camp from a
balloon I certainly would do so, and avoid coming in contact with
those warlike natives, but it is decided that the means of defence
must be put into Emin's hands, and you have entrusted me with the
escort of it. So be it."
A Relief Fund was raised, the subscriptions to which were as follows:--
£
Sir William Mackinnon, Bart. 2,000
Peter Mackinnon, Esq. 1,000
John Mackinnon, Esq. 300
Baroness Burdett-Coutts 100
W. Burdett-Coutts, Esq. 400
James S. Jameson, Esq. 1,000
Countess de Noailles 1,000
Peter Denny, Esq., of Dumbarton 1,000
Henry Johnson Younger, Esq., of the
Scottish Geographical Society 500
Alexander L. Bruce, Esq., of the
Scottish Geographical Society 500
Messrs. Gray, Dawes & Co., of London 1,000
Duncan Mac Neil, Esq. 700
James F. Hutton, Esq., of Manchester 250
Sir Thos. Fowell Buxton 250
James Hall, Esq., of Argyleshire 250
N. McMichael, Esq., of Glasgow 250
Royal Geographical Society, London 1,000
Egyptian Government 10,000
------
£21,500[D]
In order to increase the funds and create a provision against
contingencies, I volunteered to write letters from Africa, which the
Committee might dispose of to the press as they saw fit, and accept
whatever moneys that might receive as my contribution to it.
The estimate of time required to reach Emin Pasha, after a careful
calculation, was formed on the basis that whereas I travelled in 1874-5 a
distance of 720 miles in 103 days, therefore:--
1st route.--By Masai Land, march to Wadelai and return to coast
14 months. Reserve for delays 4 months = 18 months.
2nd route.--By Msalala, Karagwé, Ankori, and Usongora to Lake
Albert. Land march to and return 16 months, delays
4 months = 20 months.
3rd route.--_Viâ_ Congo.
Zanzibar to Congo 1 mth. = 1st April, 1887
Overland route to Stanley Pool 1 " = 1st May "
By steam up the Congo 1-1/2 " = 15th June "
Halt 25th " "
Yambuya to Albert Nyanza 3 mths = 25th Sept., 1887
Halt 9th Jan., 1888
Albert Nyanza to Zanzibar,
land march 8 " = 8th Sept. "
Delays 3-1/2 " = 18 months.
The actual time, however, occupied by the Expedition is as follows:--
Arrive at Congo 18th Mar., 1887
" " Stanley Pool 21st Apr. "
" " Yambuya 15th June "
Halt at Yambuya 28th " "
Albert Nyanza 13th Dec. "
Return to Fort Bodo 8th Jan., 1888
Halt while collecting convalescents 2nd Apr. "
The Albert Nyanza, 2nd time 18th " "
Halt until 25th May "
Fort Bodo again 8th June "
Banalya 90 miles from Yambuya 17th Aug. "
Fort Bodo again 20th Dec. "
Albert Nyanza, 3rd time 26th Jan., 1889
Halt near Albert Nyanza until 8th May "
March to Zanzibar, 1400 miles, 6 months. 6th Dec. "
So that we actually occupied a little over 10-1/2 months from
Zanzibar to the Albert Nyanza, and
from the Nyanza to the Indian Ocean. 6 "
Halt at the Albert 1-1/2 "
-------
18 "
I was formally informed by letter on the 31st of December, 1886, that I
might commence my preparations.
The first order I gave in connection with the Expedition for the relief
of Emin Bey was by cable to Zanzibar to my agent, Mr. Edmund Mackenzie,
of Messrs. Smith, Mackenzie & Co., to engage 200 Wanyamwezi porters at
Bagamoyo to convey as many loads of rice (= 6 tons) to the missionary
station at Mpwapwa, which was about 200 miles east of Zanzibar, the cost
of which was 2,700 rupees.
The second order, after receiving the consent of His Highness the Seyyid
of Zanzibar, was to enlist 600 Zanzibari porters, and also the purchase
of the following goods, to be used for barter for native provisions, such
as grain, potatoes, rice, Indian corn, bananas, plantains, etc.
Yards.
400 pieces (30 yards each) of brown sheeting 12,000
865 " (8 " " ) of kaniki 6,920
99 " (8 " " ) handkerchiefs 792
80 " (8 " " ) tanjiri 640
214 " (8 " " ) dabwani 1,712
107 " (8 " " ) sohari 856
27 " (8 " " ) subaya 216
121 " (8 " " ) Barsati 968
58 " (24 " " ) Kunguru 1,392
48 " (8 " " ) ismaili 384
119 " (8 " " ) kikoi 952
14 " (4 " " ) daole 56
27 " (4 " " ) jawah 108
4 " (24 " " ) kanga 96
4 " (24 " " ) bindera 96
58 " (8 " " ) rehani 464
6 " (30 " " ) joho 180
24 " (4 " " ) silk kikoi 96
4 " (4 " " ) silk daole 96
24 " (4 " " ) fine dabwani 96
13 " (4 " " ) sohari 52
3 " (30 " " ) fine sheeting 90
24 long shirts, white
24 " " brown -------
Total yards 27,262
Also 3,600 lbs. of beads and 1 ton of wire, brass, copper, iron.
The third order was for the purchase of forty pack donkeys and ten riding
asses, which necessitated an order for saddles to match, at an expense of
£400.
Messrs. Forrest & Son received a design and order for the construction
of a steel boat 28 ft. long, 6 ft. beam, and 2 ft. 6 in. deep. It was to
be built of Siemens steel galvanized, and divided into twelve sections,
each weighing about 75 lbs. The fore and aft sections were to be decked
and watertight, to give buoyancy in case of accident.
From Egypt were despatched to Zanzibar 510 Remington rifles, 2 tons of
gunpowder, 350,000 percussion caps, and 100,000 rounds Remington
ammunition. In England the War Office furnished me with 30,000 Gatling
cartridges, and from Messrs. Kynoch & Co., Birmingham, I received 35,000
special Remington cartridges. Messrs. Watson & Co., of 4, Pall Mall,
packed up 50 Winchester repeaters and 50,000 Winchester cartridges. Hiram
Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim Automatic Gun, donated as a gift one of
his wonderful weapons, with shield attached mounted on a light but
effective stand.
We despatched to Zanzibar 100 shovels, 100 hoes, for forming breastworks,
100 axes for palisading the camp, 100 bill-hooks for building zeribas.
Messrs. Burroughs & Welcome, of Snowhill Buildings, London, the
well-known chemists, furnished gratis nine beautiful chests replete with
every medicament necessary to combat the endemic diseases peculiar to
Africa. Every drug was in tablets mixed with quick solvents, every
compartment was well stocked with essentials for the doctor and surgeon.
Nothing was omitted, and we all owe a deep debt of gratitude to these
gentlemen, not only for the intrinsic value of these chests and excellent
medicines, but also for the personal selection of the best that London
could furnish, and the supervision of the packing, by which means we were
enabled to transport them to Yambuya without damage.
Messrs. John Edgington & Co., of Duke Street, London, took charge of our
tents, and made them out of canvas dipped in a preservative of sulphate
of copper which preserved them for three years. Notwithstanding their
exposure to three hundred days of rain, for the first time in my
experience in Africa I possessed a tent which, after arrival at Zanzibar
in 1889, was well able to endure two hundred days more of rain.
Messrs. Fortnum & Mason, of Piccadilly, packed up forty carrier loads of
choicest provisions. Every article was superb, the tea retained its
flavour to the last, the coffee was of the purest Mocha, the Liebig
Company's Extract was of the choicest, and the packing of all was
excellent.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN NELSON.]
I need not enumerate what else was purchased. Four expeditions into
Africa, with my old lists of miscellanea before me, enabled me to choose
the various articles, and in Sir Francis de Winton and Captain Grant
Elliott I had valuable assistants who would know what magazines to
patronize, and who could check the deliveries.
Colonel Sir Francis de Winton was my successor on the Congo, and he gave
me gratuitously and out of pure friendship the benefit of his great
experience, and his masterly knowledge of business to assist me in the
despatch of the various businesses connected with the expedition,
especially in answering letters, and selecting out of the hundreds of
eager applicants for membership a few officers to form a staff.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT STAIRS.]
The first selected was Lieutenant W. Grant Stairs, of the Royal
Engineers, who had applied by letter. The concise style and directness of
the application appealed strongly in his favour. We sent for him, and
after a short interview enlisted him on condition that he could obtain
leave of absence. Lord Wolseley kindly granted leave.
[Illustration: MR. WILLIAM BONNY.]
The next was Mr. William Bonny, who, having failed in his epistolary
ventures on former expeditions, thought the best way was to present
himself in person for service in any capacity. The gentleman would not
take a mild negative. His breast was covered with medals. They spoke
eloquently, though dumb, for his merits. The end of it was Mr. Bonny was
engaged as medical assistant, he having just left service in a hospital
of the A.M.D.
The third was Mr. John Rose Troup, who had performed good service on the
Congo. He was intimate with Swahili, the vernacular of Zanzibar. He was
not dainty at work, was exact and methodical in preserving accounts. Mr.
Troup was engaged.
[Illustration: MR. A. J. MOUNTENEY JEPHSON.]
The fourth volunteer who presented himself was Major Edmund Musgrave
Barttelot, of the 7th Fusileers. He was accompanied by an acquaintance of
mine who spoke highly of him. What passed at the interview will be heard
later on. After a few remarks he was also engaged.
The fifth was Captain R. H. Nelson, of Methuen's Horse, fairly
distinguished in Zulu campaigns. There was merit in his very face.
Captain Nelson agreed to sign the articles of enlistment.
Our next volunteer was Mr. A. J. Mounteney Jephson, inexperienced as yet
in foreign travel, and quite unaccustomed to "roughing" in wilds. On some
members of the Committee Mr. Jephson made the impression that he was
unfitted for an expedition of this kind, being in their opinion of too
"high class." But the Countess de Noailles made a subscription in his
favour to the Relief Fund of £1,000, an argument that the Committee could
not resist, and Mr. Jephson signed the articles of agreement with
unshaken nerves. Poor young Jephson! he emerged out of Africa after
various severe trials which are herein related.
One of the latest to apply, and when the list was about to be closed, was
Mr. James S. Jameson. He had travelled in Mashona and Matabele lands in
South Africa to collect trophies of the wild chase, to study birds, and
to make sketches. He did not appear remarkably strong. We urged that, but
he as quickly defended his slight appearance, and argued that as he had
already spent a long time in Africa his experience disproved our fears.
Besides, he was willing to subscribe £1,000 for the privilege of
membership, and do faithful and loyal service, as though it was
indispensable for the Expedition to employ him. Mr. Jameson was firm, and
subscribed to the articles.
We were in the full swing of preparations to meet the necessities of the
overland march from Zanzibar, east to the Victoria Nyanza, when, as will
be shown by the tenor of the following letter, it became necessary to
reconsider our route.
"Palais de Bruxelles,
"7th January, 1887.
"Dear Mr. Stanley,
"The Congo State has nothing to gain by the Expedition for the
relief of Emin Pasha passing through its territory. The King has
suggested this road merely so as to lend your services to the
Expedition, which it would be impossible for him to do were the
Expedition to proceed by the Eastern coast. According to your own
estimate, the Expedition proceeding by the Eastern coast would
occupy about eighteen months. His Majesty considers that he would
be failing in his duty towards the State were he to deprive it of
your services, especially as the latter will be certainly needed
before the expiration of this lapse of time.
"If the Expedition proceeds by the Congo the State will promise to
show it all good will. The State likewise gratuitously places at
the disposal of the Expedition the whole of its naval stock,
inasmuch as will allow the working arrangements of its own
administration, which it is, above all, desirous of ensuring, as
you know. The _Stanley_ is the largest steamer on the Upper Congo.
We are forwarding a second one by the mail of the 15th inst., and
we will hasten as much as possible the launching of this steamer at
Stanley Pool; she will be a valuable and much-needed adjunct to our
flotilla. In the meanwhile the mission steamer _Peace_ would no
doubt gratuitously effect certain transports.
"Should the Expedition desire it, we would facilitate the
recruiting of Bangala; we are very pleased with the latter, as they
are excellent soldiers, and do not fear the Arabs like the
Zanzibaris.
"You will have remarked that the official documents, published this
week in Berlin, limit the territory of Zanzibar to a narrow strip
of land along the seashore. Beyond this strip the entire territory
is German. If the Germans allow the Expedition to cross their
territory, the Zanzibaris would be precisely as on the Congo, on
foreign soil.
"With kind regards, I am, dear Mr. Stanley,
"Yours very truly,
"Comte de Borchgrave."
That this was not a light matter to be hastily decided will be evident by
the following note which was sent me by Sir William Mackinnon:--
"Western Club, Glasgow,
"_January 4th, 1887_.
"My dear Stanley,
"I had a pleasant short letter from the King showing how anxious he
is the Congo route should be taken, and how unwilling to allow a
break in the continuity of your connection with the Congo State, as
he considers you a pillar of the State. He asks me to banish(?) any
divergent sentiments, and get all parties to agree to the Congo
route. I have explained fully all that has been done and is doing,
and the difficulties in the way of cancelling existing engagements,
and get the authorities, home and Egyptian and the Sultan of
Zanzibar, to acquiesce in making such a change. I also mentioned
the great additional charge involved by sending 600 men, even if
the Sultan should consent to their going from Zanzibar to the Congo
and bringing them back.
"I promised, however, to ascertain whether all interested in the
present arrangements would agree in taking the Congo route."
* * * * *
In my diary of January 5th I find written briefly the heads of businesses
despatched this day.
As suggested by Mackinnon, who has been written to by King Leopold upon
the subject of the Congo route, I saw Sir Percy Anderson, and revealed
the King's desire that the Expedition should proceed _viâ_ Congo. I was
requested to state what advantages the Congo route gave, and replied:--
1st. Certainty of reaching Emin.
2nd. Transport up the Congo River by state steamers to a point 320
geographical miles from Lake Albert.
3rd. Allaying suspicion of Germans that underlying our acts were
political motives.
4th. Allaying alleged fears of French Government that our Expedition
would endanger the lives of French Missionaries.
5th. If French Missionaries were endangered, then English Missionaries
would certainly share their fate.
6th. Greater immunity from the desertion of the Zanzibaris who were
fickle in the neighbourhood of Arab settlements.
Lord Iddesleigh writes me that the French ambassador has been instructed
to inform him that if the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition proceeds by a
route east of the Victoria Nyanza it will certainly endanger the lives of
their Missionaries in Uganda. He suggests that I consider this question.
Visited Admiralty, inquired of Admiral Sullivan respecting the
possibility of Admiralty supplying vessel to carry Expedition to Congo.
He said if Government ordered it would be easy, if not, impossible.
Wrote to the King urging him to acquaint me how far his assistance would
extend in transport on the Upper Congo.
_January 8th._--Received letters from the King. He lays claim to my
services. Offers to lend whole of his naval stock for transport except
such as may be necessary for uses of administration. Wired to Mackinnon
that I felt uneasy at the clause; that it was scarcely compatible with
the urgency required. Colonel de Winton wrote to the same effect.
Effects of Expedition are arriving by many cuts.
De Winton worked with me until late in the night.
_January 9th, 1887._--Colonel J. A. Grant, Colonel Sir F. de Winton, and
myself sat down to consider His Majesty's letter, and finally wrote a
reply requesting he would graciously respond with greater definiteness
respecting quantity of transport and time for which transport vessels
will be granted as so many matters depend upon quick reply, such as hire
of Soudanese, detention of mail steamer for shipment of ammunition, etc.
We therefore send special messenger.
_January 10th, 1887._--De Winton visited Foreign Office and was promised
as soon as possible to attend to the detention of mail steamer and
Government transport round the Cape of Good Hope.
Messrs. Gray, Dawes & Co. write Postmaster-General willing to detain
Zanzibar mail steamer at Aden to wait _Navarino_, which sails from London
on the 20th with the ammunition and officers. I overtake _Navarino_ at
Suez after settling matters of Expedition in Egypt.
_January 12th._--Answer arrived last night. Meeting was called by
Honourable Guy Dawnay, Colonel Sir Lewis Pelly, Colonel Sir F. de Winton
and self. The answer as regards Congo route being satisfactory was
decided upon, and this has now been adopted unanimously.
Was notified at 2 P.M. by the Earl of Iddesleigh that he would see me at
6 P.M. But at 3.13 P.M. the Earl died suddenly from disease of the
heart.
_January 13th._--Foreign office note received from Sir J. Pauncefote
transmitting telegram from Sir E. Baring, also letters concerning
Admiralty transport. No help from Admiralty.
Goods arriving fast. Will presently fill my house.
Went down with Baroness Burdett-Coutts to Guildhall, arriving there 12.45
P.M. I received Freedom of City of London, and am called youngest
citizen. Afterwards lunched at Mansion House, a distinguished party
present, and affair most satisfactory.
Telegraphed to Brussels to know if Friday convenient to King. Reply, "Yes
at 9.30 a.m."
_January 14th._--Crossed over Channel last night towards Brussels _viâ_
Ostend to see King Leopold. Saw King and gave my farewell. He was very
kind. Left for London in evening at 8 P.M.
Telegram arrived from Sandringham requesting visit.
_January 15th._--Sir Percy Anderson requested interview.
Mr. Joseph Thomson at this late hour has been writing to Geographical
Society wanting to go with Expedition.
Arranged with Ingham to collect Congo carriers. He goes out shortly.
Telegraphed Zanzibar to recall rice carriers from Mpwapwa. This will cost
2,500 rupees more.
Wrote some days ago to the donor of the _Peace_ Mission Steamer on the
Congo requesting loan of her for the relief of Emin Pasha. Received the
following quaint reply:--
"Leeds, _January 15th, 1887_.
"Dear Mr. Stanley,
"I have much regard for you personally, although I cannot, dare
not, sanction all your acts.
"I am very sorry if I cannot give assent to your request; but I
fully believe you will be no sufferer by the circumstance of not
having the s.s. _Peace_. Yesterday I was able to come to a
decision.
"Mr. Baynes, of the Baptist Missionary Society, Holborn, will, he
hopes, make to you any communication he judges proper. If you have
any reverential regard for 'the Man of Sorrows,' the 'King of
Peace' may He mercifully preserve and save your party.
"I have no doubt of the safety of Emin--till his work is done. I
believe he will be brought through this trial in perfect safety.
God seems to have given you a noble soul (covers for the moment, if
on your sad sin and mistakes), and I should like you should 'repent
and believe the Gospel'--with real sense, and live hereafter in
happiness, light, and joy--for ever. _Here_ delay in you is more
dangerous than delay for Emin.
"Your faithful friend,
"(Signed) Robert Arthington."
_January 16th._--Colonel J. A. Grant offered to arrange with Mr. J. S.
Keltie, Editor of _Nature_, to discuss Mr. Thomson's offer.
Letters accumulate by scores. All hands employed answering.
_January 17th._--Wrote Sir Percy Anderson would call Wednesday 2 P.M.
Correspondence increases.
Mr. Joseph Thomson's offer discussed. Mr. J. S. Keltie is to write to
him privately--decision of committee.
Arranged with G. S. Mackenzie about Zanzibar matters. He despatched two
telegrams. General Brackenbury wrote about coal being furnished requiring
Treasury sanction.
_January 18th._--Worked off morning's business.
Travelled to Sandringham with Colonel de Winton to see His Royal
Highness. With African map before us gave short lecture to their Royal
Highnesses respecting route proposed to reach Emin Pasha. Had a very
attentive audience.
_January 19th._--Sir William Mackinnon mustered his friends at the
Burlington Hotel at a farewell banquet to me.
Have said "good-bye" to a host of friends to-day.
_January 20th._--The S.S. _Navarino_ sailed this afternoon carrying goods
of Expedition and officers. Lieutenant Stairs, Captain Nelson, and Mr.
Mounteney Jephson. Mr. William Bonny started from my rooms with black boy
Baruti to Fenchurch Station at 8 a.m. Arriving there he leaves Baruti
after a while and proceeds to Tower of London! He says that returning to
station at 2 P.M. he found boat had gone. He then went to Gray, Dawes &
Co., shipping agents, and is discouraged to find that the matter cannot
be mended. Baruti found deserted in Fenchurch Station, very hungry and
cold. Colonel J. A. Grant finds him and brings him to me.
_January 21st._--Dispatch Mr. Bonny by rail to Plymouth to overtake a
steamer bound for India and instruct him to debark at Suez with boy and
await me.
Left London at 8.5 P.M. for Egypt. Quite a crowd collected to take a
final shake of the hands and to bid me a kindly "God speed."
-----
[A] No. 2 clashes with No. 3 somewhat. Khartoum and the
Soudan are not synonymous terms. To withdraw the
garrison of Khartoum is an easy task, to evacuate the
Soudan is an impossibility for a single person.
[B] This is the only clearly worded despatch that I have
been able to find in the Blue Book of the period.
[C] This route would be through Masai Land.
[D] See Appendix for full statement of Receipts and
Expenditure.