There are two methods of exploring Africa. One is where an individual,
like a Livingstone, or a Schweinfurth, or a Dr. Junker, departs on his
journey alone. He joins some tribe as far in the interior, on the line
of exploration, as possible; lives with the tribe, adopting its habits
and manner of life, learning its language, making whatever explorations
he can; and, when the region occupied by such tribe has been fully
explored, leaves it for the next farther on. This plan requires time
and never-failing patience; but in this way large portions of Africa
have been explored. The other way, adopted by Cameron, Stanley,
Wissmann, and the Portuguese explorers, has been to collect a party of
natives, and at their head march across the continent.
"An immense outfit is required to penetrate this shopless land, and the
traveler can only make up his caravan from the bazaar at Zanzibar. The
ivory and slave-traders have made caravanning a profession, and every
thing the explorer wants is to be found in these bazaars, from a tin of
sardines to a repeating-rifle. Here these black villains the
porters--the necessity and despair of travelers, the scum of
slave-gangs, and the fugitives from justice from every
tribe--congregate for hire. And if there is any thing in which African
travelers are for once agreed, it is, that for laziness, ugliness,
stupidity, and wickedness, these men are not to be matched on any
continent in the world." Upon such men as these Stanley was obliged to
depend.
Though traveling in this way is more rapid than the other, it is very
expensive, and has many difficulties not encountered by the solitary
traveler. The explorer always goes on foot, following as far as
possible the beaten paths. A late traveler says: "The roads over which
the land-trade of equatorial Africa now passes from the coast to the
interior are mere footpaths, never over a foot in breadth, beaten as
hard as adamant, and rutted beneath the level of the forest-bed by
centuries of native traffic. As a rule, these foot-paths are
marvellously direct. Like the roads of the old Roman, they move
straight on through every thing,--ridge and mountain and valley,--never
shying at obstacles, nor anywhere turning aside to breathe. No country
in the world is better supplied with paths. Every village is connected
with some other village, every tribe with the next tribe, and it is
possible for a traveler to cross Africa without being once out of a
beaten track."
But if the tribes using these roads are destroyed, the roads are
discontinued, and soon become obstructed by the rapid growth of the
underbrush; or, if the route lies through unknown regions outside the
great caravan-tracks, the paths are very different from those described
by Mr. Drummond, for the way often lies through swamps and morass, or
thick woods, or over high mountain-passes, or is lost in a wilderness
of waters.
The great difficulty in these expeditions is to obtain food. As
supplies cannot be carried, they must be procured from the natives.
Very few tribes can furnish food for a force of six hundred men (the
number with Stanley); and when they have the food, they demand
exorbitant prices. Often the natives not only refuse food to the
famished travelers, but oppose them with such arms as they have; and
then it is necessary, in self-defence, to fire upon them.
The greatest difficulty the explorer meets comes either directly or
indirectly from the opposition of the slave-trader. Formerly the
slave-trader was not found in equatorial Africa; but, since the
explorer has opened the way, the slave-trader has penetrated far into
the interior, and is throwing obstacles in the way of the entry of
Europeans into Africa. When it was decided that Stanley should relieve
Emin Pacha, he was left to choose his route. He met Schweinfurth,
Junker, and other African travelers, in Cairo. They advised him to go
by his former route directly from Zanzibar to the Victoria Nyanza. The
dangers and difficulties of this route, and the warlike character of
the natives, he well knew. The route by the Kongo to Wadelai had never
been traveled, and he thought the difficulties could not be greater
than by the old route; and, beside, he proceeded much farther into the
interior by steamer on the Kongo, which left a much shorter distance
through the wilderness than by the Zanzibar route. On arriving at
Zanzibar, he made an arrangement with Tippo-Tip, the great Arab trader
and slave-dealer, for a large number of porters. They sailed from
Zanzibar to the Kongo, where Stanley arrived in February, 1887. He then
sailed up the Kongo, and arrived in June at the junction of the Aruvimi
with the Kongo, a short distance below Stanley Falls. Stanley believed
that the Aruvimi and the Welle were the same stream, and that by
following up this river he would be on the direct route to Wadelai.
Subsequent investigations have shown that he was mistaken. About the
1st of July he left the Kongo, expecting to reach Emin Pacha in
October, 1887. No definite information has been received from him from
that time to the present. He left Tippo-Tip in command at Stanley
Falls, and expected that a relief expedition would follow. There were
great delays in organizing this expedition, from the difficulty of
obtaining men, and it was thought that Tippo-Tip was unfaithful. The
men were finally procured, and the expedition left Aruvimi in June,
1888, under command of Major Barttelot. A day or two after they
started, Major Barttelot was murdered by one of his private servants.
The expedition returned to the Kongo, and was re-organized under Lieut.
Jamieson. He was taken ill, and died just as he was ready to start, and
no one has been found to take his place; and that relief expedition was
abandoned. Reports say that Stanley found the route more difficult than
he anticipated; heavy rainfall, rivers, swamps, and marshes obstructed
the way; that the season was sickly, and a large part of his followers
died long before he could have reached Emin Pacha.
The reports of his capture, and of his safe return to the Aruvimi
River, are known to all. These may or may not be true. Although we have
not heard from Stanley for a year and a half, yet it by no means
follows that he is dead; for Livingstone, Stanley, and other explorers
have been lost for a longer time, and have afterward found their way
back to the coast. No man has greater knowledge of the country through
which his route lay, or of the character of the natives, or the best
manner of dealing with them. Emin Pacha was encamped quietly for nearly
two years at Wadelai; and Stanley, in like manner, may have been
compelled to remain at some inland point and raise his own provisions.