WESTWARD ALONG THE CONGO TO THE ATLANTIC.
Surveys Lake Tanganyika -- Settles the Question of the River Luguka --
An Outbreak of Small-pox and Fever in Ujiji -- Causes Stanley to
Depart -- Pushes his way along the Right Bank of the Lualala to the
Nyangwe -- Overland Through Uregga -- Brought to a Stand-still by an
Impenetrable Forest -- Crosses over to the Left Bank -- Northeast
Uskusa -- Dense Jungles -- Opposed and Harassed by Hostile Savages --
Assailed Night and Day -- The Progress of the Expedition almost
Hopeless -- Deserted by Forty of his Porters -- Takes to the River as
the only Chance to Escape -- Pass the Cataracts by Cutting a Road
through Thirteen Miles of Dense Forest for the Passage of the _Lady
Alice_ and the Canoes -- Almost Incessantly Fighting the Savages --
Threatened with Starvation -- Three Days without Food -- Meet with a
Friendly Tribe with whom they Barter for Supplies -- Many Falls and
Furious Rapids -- Again Attacked by a more Warlike Tribe, armed with
Firearms -- Almost Starved and Worn-Out with Fatigue, reaches Isangila
-- Leaves the River -- Terrible Sufferings of his People -- Relief
from Embomma -- Reach Embomma -- Kabinda and Londa -- Sail for Cape of
Good Hope -- Thence Return by Steamer to Zanzibar -- Close of the
Expedition.
Here Stanley fitted together and launched his exploring boat, the _Lady
Alice_, in which he had already rendered such excellent service to the
cause of geographical science on Lake Victoria Nyanza, and commenced his
survey of Lake Tanganyika. Starting from Ujiji, he made a complete
circumnavigation of the lake, and verified many observations of that
portion which he had previously visited and explored in company with Dr.
Livingstone.
Stanley, in the course of this survey, settled the question of the river
Luguka, which Cameron had conjectured was the outlet of Lake Tanganyika
towards the west, and into the system of lakes which form the head
waters of the Lualala, or Lomame of Livingstone. According to Stanley,
Cameron was both right and wrong with regard to the character of the
Luguka River. When Stanley saw it, it was only a creek, running inland
through a deep depression, which extended westward for a great distance.
But the lake, by constantly increasing its area and raising in level,
will eventually, in Stanley’s opinion, find an outlet through the Luguka
River.
The outbreak of small-pox and fever in the Ujiji district, however,
obliged Stanley to make preparations for an immediate departure. With
his followers he pushed his way along the right bank of the Lualala to
the Nyangwe. This was the most northerly point reached by Cameron, when
the latter attempted to solve the mystery of the Congo and its identity
with the main drainage line of the Lualala basin.
The party travelled overland through Uregga, and after an arduous march
of many days through a country filled with many difficulties, being
compelled to transport every pound of supplies of all kinds on the
shoulders of his men, and even to carry along in a similar manner the
exploring boat, the _Lady Alice_, in sections, Stanley at last found
himself brought to a standstill, further progress being rendered utterly
impracticable owing to the extreme density of the forest. He then
crossed over to the left bank, and continued his journey, passing
through Northeast Uskusa; but here the difficulties were scarcely less
than those encountered on the other side. The jungles were still so
dense and the fatigues of the march, owing to the obstacles to be
overcome, so harassing, that it seemed impossible to break through the
tremendous barrier of the forest. The horrors of his position were still
further augmented by the party being opposed at every step by the
hostile cannibal savages, who filled the woods and poured into the
devoted little band flights of poisoned arrows, killing and wounding
many of their number. Every attempt to propitiate them, or even to
retaliate and drive them off, was of no avail, as the natives kept under
cover. Even the famous “elephant” gun, which it will be remembered
Stanley found so useful as a “propitiator” in the earlier stages of his
journey from Zanzibar, was now powerless.
There was no cessation of the fighting, which was kept up day and night,
any attempt at camping merely having the effect of concentrating the
enemy and of rendering their fire more deadly. The march was a
succession of charges in rude skirmishing order by an advance guard
engaged in clearing the road for the main body, while a rear guard in
like manner covered the retreat. In fact, the progress of the party soon
became almost a hopeless task.
To increase still further his troubles, and render his position more
deplorable, the porters whom Stanley had engaged from Nyangwe, one
hundred and forty in number, deserted in a body, being so panic-stricken
by the terrors of the forest and fatal effects of the fighting that they
firmly believed the entire party were doomed to destruction. No sooner
did the hostile savages become aware of this defection, and that the
ranks of Stanley’s party had been so materially thinned, than they
made a grand charge upon them, expecting to completely crush them. But
Stanley organized a desperate resistance, and after a severe and bloody
struggle succeeded in driving them off for a short time, sufficient to
allow him to adopt measures for an escape from their critical situation.
[Illustration: STANLEY FIGHTING HIS WAY ALONG THE LUALALA, OR CONGO
RIVER.]
There was but one way of escape, and that was to take to the river. With
the _Lady Alice_ as a last reliance, and good canoes for the party,
Stanley thought they would have a much better chance to elude their
savage foes, and to make some advance toward their destination.
Although Stanley found that he had now a decided advantage, still the
day’s progress was but a repetition of the previous day’s struggle. The
fighting continued to be as desperate as ever while pushing down the
river, and before many days he encountered a fresh and most formidable
obstacle in finding the river interrupted by a series of great cataracts
not far apart, and just north and south of the equator. In order to pass
these the expedition was compelled to cut a road through thirteen miles
of dense forest, and to drag the canoes and the _Lady Alice_ overland.
This enormous labor entailed the most exhausting efforts, and the men
had frequently to lay down the axe and drag ropes and seize their rifles
to defend themselves against the furious onslaught of their savage
enemy, who still relentlessly pursued them.
At last, however, the passage of the cataract was accomplished, and the
party again embarked on the river, enjoying a long breathing pause and
comparative security from attack.
Notwithstanding the incessant fighting which he had to go through,
Stanley still lost no opportunity of noting the interesting changes and
physical characteristics of the route, so cool and self-possessed was he
under difficulties which would have daunted most men. At two degrees of
north latitude he notes that the course of the Lualala swerved from its
almost northerly course to the northwestward, to the westward, and then
to the southwestward, developing into a broad stream, varying in width
from two to ten miles, and studded with islands.
To avoid the savage enemy, who was still in pursuit, Stanley’s little
fleet passed between these islands, taking advantage of the cover.
In this way they succeeded in making a progress of many miles without
being molested; but being cut off from supplies in the middle of this
great river, they were threatened with starvation. For three whole days
they were absolutely without food of any kind; and at last, driven
desperate, Stanley determined to make for the mainland, preferring to
die at the hands of the enemy, if need be, rather than from hunger on
the river.
By the singular good fortune which seems to have always attended him, he
found a tribe of natives who were acquainted with trade, and who were
willing to sell the provisions so sorely needed.
At this place the river was called “Ikuta ya Congo,” and thence forward
the name Lualala disappears, being replaced as the river approaches the
Atlantic by the name of “Kwango” and “Zoure.”
[Illustration: STANLEY’S FOLLOWERS SEEKING SUPPLIES.]
Rested and refreshed, Stanley resumed his journey from this point,
following the left bank of the river; but in three days after leaving
the friendly village he found himself in the country of a powerful tribe
whose warriors were armed with muskets, and who disputed his passage,
refusing all attempts at conciliation. Here for the first time since
leaving Nyangwe, Stanley found himself opposed to an enemy of equal
footing as to arms. No sooner was his approach discovered than the enemy
manned fifty-four canoes and put off from the bank of the river to
attack him. For twelve miles down the river the battle raged, and though
the expedition came out of the conflict with comparatively small loss,
considering the severity of the combat, it was an escape rather than a
victory. This was the last save one of thirty-two attacks upon Stanley’s
party after leaving Nyangwe.
The Lualala, or Congo, as it runs through the great basin which lies
between 16° and 17° east longitude, has an uninterrupted course of over
700 miles, with magnificent affluents, especially on the southern side.
Thence, clearing the broad belt of mountains between the great basin of
the Atlantic Ocean, the river descends about thirty falls and furious
rapids, to the great river between the falls of Yellala and the
Atlantic.
Stanley’s losses during this long and terrible journey across the
continent were fearfully severe. From Isangila, which he had reached on
July 31, 1877, Stanley left the river, as the object of the journey had
been attained--the connection of the great river of Livingstone with
that of the Congo of Tuckey.
The announcement of this fact--the abandonment of the river--gave great
delight to Stanley’s people. “At sunset,” says Stanley, “we lifted the
brave boat, after her adventurous journey across Africa, and carried
her to the summit of some rocks about five hundred yards north of the
fall, to be abandoned to her fate. Three years before Messenger of
Teddington had commenced her construction; two years previous to this
date she was coasting the bluffs of Usongora on Lake Victoria; twelve
months later she was completing her last twenty miles of
circumnavigation of Lake Tanganyika, and on the 31st July, 1877, after a
journey of nearly 7000 miles up and down broad Africa, she was consigned
to her resting-place above Isangila cataract, to bleach and to rot to
dust!”
* * * * *
“A wayworn, feeble, and suffering column were we,” says Stanley, “when,
on the 1st of August, we filed across the rocky terrace of Isangila and
sloping plain, and strode up the ascent to the table-land. Nearly forty
men filled the sick list with dysentery, ulcers, and scurvy, and the
victims of the latter disease were steadily increasing. Yet withal I
smiled proudly when I saw the brave hearts cheerily respond to my
encouraging cries. A few, however, would not believe that within five or
six days they should see Europeans. They disdained to be considered so
credulous, but at the same time they granted that the ‘master’ was quite
right to encourage his people with promises of speedy relief.
“So we surmounted the table-land, but we could not bribe the wretched
natives to guide us to the next village. Ever and anon, as we rose above
the ridged swells, we caught a glimpse of the wild river on whose bosom
we had so long floated, still white and foaming, as it rushed on
impetuously seaward through the sombre defile.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF THE BOATS NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF THE
ARUWIMI AND THE LIVINGSTONE RIVERS.]
“An hour afterwards we were camped on a bit of level plateau to the
south of the villages of Ndambi Mbongo. A strong healthy man would reach
Embomma in three days. Three days! Only three days off from food--from
comforts--luxuries even! Ah me!
“The next morning we lifted our weakened limbs for another march. And
such a march!--the path all thickly strewn with splinters of
suet-colored quartz, which increased the fatigue and pain. The old men
and the three mothers, with their young infants born at the cataracts of
Massassa and Zinga, and another near the market town of Manyanga, in the
month of June, suffered greatly. Then might be seen that affection for
one another which appealed to my sympathies, and endeared them to me
still more. Two of the younger men assisted each of the old, and the
husbands and fathers lifted their infants on their shoulders and
tenderly led their wives along.
“Up and down the desolate and sad land wound the poor, hungry caravan.
Bleached whiteness of ripest grass, grey rock-piles here and there,
looming up solemn and sad in their greyness, a thin grove of trees now
and then visible on the heights and in the hollows--such were the scenes
that with every uplift of a ridge or rising crest of a hill met our
hungry eyes. Eight miles our strength enabled us to make, and then we
camped in the middle of an uninhabited valley, where we were supplied
with water from the pools which we discovered in the course of a
dried-up stream.”
The experiences of the third day were but a repetition of the previous
one, and by the close of that day they had reached the settlement of
Nsanda. Here, through the aid of the chief, who furnished him with two
messengers to accompany Uledi and Kachéché to Embomma, as bearers,
Stanley wrote and sent a letter asking for immediate relief in the shape
of food. On the 5th the expedition resumed its march, and at 3 o’clock
P. M. covered a further distance of twelve miles, reaching the village
of Mbinda. On the 6th, they were aroused for a further effort and at 9
o’clock A. M. reached Banza Mbuko.
“Ah! in what part of all the Japhetic world would such a distressed and
woeful band as we were then have been regarded with such hard,
steel-cold eyes?” writes Stanley. “Yet not one word of reproach issued
from the starving people; they threw themselves upon the ground with an
indifference begotten of despair and misery. They did not fret nor
bewail aloud the tortures of famine, nor vent the anguish of their
pinched bowels in cries, but with stony resignation surrendered
themselves to rest under the scant shade of some dwarf acacia or sparse
bush. Now and then I caught the wail of an infant and the thin voice of
a starving mother, or the petulant remonstrance of an elder child; but
the adults remained still and apparently lifeless, each contracted
within the exclusiveness of individual suffering.”
In this condition these people were found by Uledi and Kachéché who had
returned from Embomma with relief in the shape of provisions, forwarded
through bearers, rapidly despatched by the proprietors of the English
factory into whose hand Stanley’s letter had fallen. And it may be
readily imagined what a change was wrought in the camp by the timely
arrival of these provisions.
[Illustration: REPELLING THE ATTACK OF THE PIRATICAL BANGALA.]
As to Stanley, he speaks for himself: “With profound tenderness Kachéché
handed to me the mysterious bottles, watching my face the while with his
sharp detective eye as I glanced at the labels, by which the cunning
rogue read my pleasure. Pale ale! Sherry! Port wine! Champagne! Several
loaves of bread--wheaten bread, sufficient for a week. Two pots of
butter. A packet of tea! Coffee! White loaf sugar! Sardines and salmon!
Plum pudding! Currant, gooseberry, and raspberry jam!
“The gracious God be praised forever! The long war we had maintained
against famine and the siege of woe were over, and my people and I
rejoiced in plenty! It was only an hour before we had been living on the
recollections of the few peanuts and green bananas we had consumed in
the morning; but now, in an instant, we were transported into the
presence of the luxuries of civilization. Never did gaunt Africa appear
so unworthy and so despicable before my eyes as now, when imperial
Europe rose before my delighted eyes and showed her boundless treasures
of life, and blessed me with her stores.”
On the 9th August, 1877, the 999th day from the date of his departure
from Zanzibar, he prepared himself to greet the van of Civilization. He
was met on the road by an escort of Europeans, residents of Boma, who
accorded him a gracious welcome to the town. Three little banquets were
given him, and he was generously toasted by everybody.
On the 11th, at noon, the expedition embarked on the _Kabinda_, an
English steamer, for the town of Kabinda. “A few hours later,” says
Stanley, “and we were gliding through the broad portal into the ocean,
the blue domain of Civilization!
“Turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty river on whose brown
bosom we had endured so greatly, I saw it approach, awed and humbled,
the threshold of the water immensity, to whose immeasurable volume and
illimitable expanse, awful as had been its power and terrible as had
been its fury, its flood was but a drop. And I felt my heart suffused
with purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, and who had
enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, and to trace
its mightiest river to its ocean bourne.”
The expedition, after a stay of eight days at Kabinda, was kindly taken
on board the Portuguese gunboat _Tamega_ to San Paulo de Loanda. From
thence through the kindness and courtesy of the English officers of the
Royal Navy, who had placed H. M. S. _Industry_ at Stanley’s disposal,
the expedition was given passage to Cape Town.
On arriving at Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 21st of October,
Stanley was agreeably surprised by a most genial letter, signed by
Commodore Francis William Sullivan, inviting him to the Admiralty House
as his guest, and who, during the entire stay of the party at the Cape,
extended the most hearty courtesy and hospitality. He had also made
preparations for transporting the entire expedition to Zanzibar, when a
telegram from the Lords of the British Admiralty was received
authorizing him to provide for the transmission of Stanley’s followers
to their homes.
[Illustration: STANLEY RETURNING TO THE COAST.]
On the 6th of November, H. M. S. _Industry_ was fully equipped and ready
for her voyage to Zanzibar. Fourteen days later the palmy island of
Zanzibar hove into sight, and in the afternoon the steamer was bearing
straight for the port.
Of the return home, and the final scene which closed this wonderful
expedition, we must let Stanley speak: “As I looked on the Wangwana, and
saw the pleasure which now filled every soul, I felt myself amply
rewarded for sacrificing several months to see them home. The sick had
all but one recovered, and they had improved so much in appearance that
few, ignorant of what they had been, could have supposed that these were
the living skeletons that had reeled from sheer weakness through Boma.
“The only patient who had baffled our endeavors to restore her to health
was the woman Muscati, unfortunate Safeni’s wife. Singular to relate,
she lived to be embraced by her father, and the next morning died in his
arms, surrounded by her relatives and friends. But all the others were
blessed with redundant health--robust, bright, and happy.
“And now the well-known bays and inlets and spicy shores and red-tinted
bluffs of Mbwenni enraptured them. Again they saw what they had often
despaired of seeing: the rising ridge of Wilezu, at the foot of which
they knew were their homes and their tiny gardens; the well-known
features of Shangani and Melindi; the tall square mass of the Sultan’s
palace. Each outline, each house, from the Sandy Point to their own
Ngambu, each well-remembered bold swell of land, with its glories of
palm and mango-tree, was to them replete with associations of by-gone
times.
“The ship was soon emptied of her strange passengers. Captain Sullivan,
of the _London_, came on board and congratulated me on my safe arrival,
and then I went on shore to my friend Mr. Augustus Sparhawk’s house.
“Four days of grace I permitted myself to procure the thousands of
rupees required to pay the people for their services. Messages had also
been sent to the relatives of the dead, requesting them to appear at Mr.
Sparhawk’s, prepared to make their claims good by the mouths of three
witnesses.
“On the fifth morning the people--men, women, and children--of the
Anglo-American Expedition, attended by hundreds of friends, who crowded
the street and the capacious rooms of the Bertram Agency, began to
receive their well-earned dues. The women, thirteen in number, who had
borne the fatigues of the long, long journey, who had transformed the
stern camp in the depths of the wilds into something resembling a
village in their own island, who had encouraged their husbands to
continue in their fidelity despite all adversity, were well rewarded.
“The children of the chiefs who had accompanied us from Zanzibar to the
Atlantic, and who, by their childish, careless prattle, had often
soothed me in mid-Africa, and had often caused me to forget my
responsibilities for the time, were not forgotten. Neither were the
tiny infants--ushered into the world amid the dismal and tragic scenes
of the cataract lands, and who, with their eyes wide open with wonder,
now crowed and crooned at the gathering of happy men and elated women
about them--omitted in this final account and reckoning.
[Illustration: TRANSPORTING THE SECTIONS OF THE BOAT.]
“The second pay-day was devoted to hearing the claims for wages due the
faithful dead. Poor faithful souls! With an ardor and a fidelity
unexpected, they had followed me to the very death. True, negro nature
had often asserted itself; but it was, after all, but human nature. They
had never boasted that they were heroes; but they exhibited truly heroic
stuff while coping with the varied terrors of the hitherto untrodden and
apparently endless wilds of broad Africa.
“The female relatives filed in. With each name of the dead, old griefs
were remembered. The poignant sorrow I felt--as the fallen were named
after each successive conflict in those dark days, never to be forgotten
by me--was revived. Sad and subdued were the faces of those I saw--as
sad and subdued as my own feelings. With such sympathies between us we
soon arrived at a satisfactory understanding. Each woman was paid
without much explanation required--one witness was sufficient. Parents
and true brothers were not difficult to identify. The settlement of the
claims lasted five days, and then--the Anglo-American Expedition was no
more.”
On the 13th of December, Stanley sailed from Zanzibar for Aden, on board
the British India Steam Navigation Company’s steamer _Pachumba_. His
late followers had all left their homes early in the morning that they
might be certain to arrive in time to witness his departure. Mr. Stanley
says of them: “When I was about to step into the boat, the brave,
faithful fellows rushed before me and shot the boat into the sea, and
then lifted me up on their heads and carried me through the surf into
the boat. We shook hands twenty times twenty I think, and then at last
the boat started. I saw them consult together, and presently saw them
rush down the beach and seize a great twenty-ton lighter, which they
soon manned and rowed after me. They followed me thus to the steamer,
and a deputation of them came on board, headed by the famous Uledi, the
coxswain; Kachéché, the chief detective; Robert, my indispensable
factotum; Zaidi, the chief, and Wadi Rehani, the storekeeper, to inform
me that they still considered me as their master, and that they would
not leave Zanzibar until they received a letter from me announcing my
safe arrival in my own country. I had, they said, taken them round all
Africa to bring them back to their homes, and they must know that I had
reached my own land before they would go to seek new adventures on the
Continent, and--simple, generous souls!--that if I wanted their help to
reach my country they would help me!
“They were sweet and sad moments, those of parting. What a long, long
and true friendship was here sundered! Through what strange vicissitudes
of life had they not followed me! What wild and varied scenes had we not
seen together. What a noble fidelity these untutored souls had
exhibited! The chiefs were those who had followed me to Ujiji in 1871;
they had been witnesses of the joy of Livingstone at the sight of me;
they were the men to whom I trusted the safeguard of Livingstone on his
last and fatal journey, who had mourned by his corpse at Mullala, and
borne the illustrious dead to the Indian Ocean.
[Illustration: THE FACE OF A WANGWANA.]
“And in a flood of sudden recollection, all the stormy period here ended
rushed in upon my mind--the whole panorama of danger and tempest through
which these gallant fellows had so staunchly stood by me--these gallant
fellows now parting from me. Rapidly, as in some apocalyptic vision,
every scene of strife with Man and Nature through which these poor men
and women had borne me company, and solaced me by the simple sympathy of
common suffering, came hurrying across my memory: for each face before
me was associated with some adventure or some peril, reminded me of some
triumph or of some loss. What a wild, weird retrospect it was, that
mind’s flash over the troubled past! So like a troublous dream!
“And for years and years to come, in many homes in Zanzibar, there will
be told the great story of our journey, and the actors in it will be
heroes among their kith and kin. For me, too, they are heroes--these
poor ignorant children of Africa--for, from the first deadly struggle in
savage Iturue to the last staggering rush into Embomma, they had rallied
to my voice like veterans, and in the hour of need they had never failed
me. And thus, aided by their willing hands and by their loyal hearts,
the expedition had been successful, and the three great problems of the
Dark Continent’s geography had been fairly solved.”