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ROSE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1890 z? ^ D I S 9 A 33 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety, by Rose Publishing Company, (Limited), at the Department of Agriculture. printed aneh-bound by Hunter, Rose & Company, Toronto. I w t] le n o PEEFACE. -«/:- HE work which the author here ventures to submit to the reader, was undertaken at the request of the publishers, with the view to sup- ply, in a compendious form and at a modest price, a popular account of Mr. Stanley's heroic labours 'p in the field of African exploration, with special refer- I ence to his recent expedition for the quest and suc- i cour of Emin Pasha, It has been the aim of neither I the author nor the publishers to forestall or inter- fere with the sale of Mr. Stanley's own work, " In Darkest Africa," which has just been given to the world. On the contrary, it is hoped that the little book which now appears may whet the appetite of readers for the exciting and enthralling narrative from Mr. Stan- ley's own pen. Nothing deserves to take the place, nothing could take the place, of the intrepid explorer's own account of his last wonderful journey, for the high IV PKEFACE. ethical and literary qualities of Mr. Stanley's narrative are as notable as were its author's endurance and hero- ism, while leading the Relief Expedition. To add, by the present volume, to the compilations which public interest in Mr. Stanley's work and career have called forth, may not seem a high literary or even an essential service, save that in these days of big books on small themes there may be room for a small book on a big theme. Nor perhaps, would the appearance of the present book be wholly justified, were it not that num- berless "Stanley compilations," chiefly from the other side of the line, are now flooding the Canadian market, some of which seek to make good a lack of assets by their pretentiousness and high price ; while in one or two in- stances they are disfigured by a New World chauvinism, which never tires of thrusting Mr. Stanley's American citizenship in the face of the reader, and by the more or less active prejudices of anti-British writers. From this, or from anything approaching it, it is hardly neces- sary to say, the present work is free ; while the compila- tion has been undertaken in the spirit not only of cordi- ality to the great modern Ulysses, but of positive admira- tion for him. The sources of the book are, in the main, Mr. Stanlev's graphic letters to the Press, and to members of the Emin narrative md liero- ipilations nd career r even an books on 3ok on a !e of the bat num- -he other market, by their r two in- uvinism, American more or ;. From ly neces- compila- 3f cordi- admira- PBEFAdK y Pasha Relief Committee, while yei ill Africa; his public speeches since his return to cMWmUmt, and the work of correspondents, interviewers, ml editorial writers, com- menting on his late marvelll exemplification of this fact. While representing the New York Herald in Missouri, some twenty years ago, Mr. Stanley was suddenly summoned to New York by its proprietor, Mr. J. Gordon Bennett, and at a day's notice was despatched to Abyssinia, to act as special correspondent in the war that had then broken out between England and King Theodore Here he had his first bit of luck, in being able to cable' news of the fall of Magdala a week ahead of the de- spatches sent by Lord Napier to the British Government Subsequently, he distinguished himself by his graphic accounts of the Cretan outbreak, and of the Carlist rismg m Spain. Later on, he represented The Herald in the Ashantee war, and by his dash and enterprise won fifolden opinions fro^m his approciative employer. Later still, when two Continents were agitated over the fate 10 THE DARK CONTINENT. V-1 of Livingstone, Stanley was startled at receiving Mr. Bennett's peremptory summons to Paris, to be instantly despatched on tLe seeming Will-o'-the Wisp expedition, to find the missing African missionary and explorer! That great feat accomplished, and surviving to tell the wonderful story, he was a second time sent out to Africa, to take up the now dead Livingstone's incompleted work,' and to astonisli the world with the brilliant record of his journey through the "Dark Continent." It wi^ be fresh in the memory of e\'ery reader what Stanley achieved in that wonderful march through Equatorial Africa. Not only did he clear up many matters which had long been a mystery to geographers, in regard to the great water-basins in the heart of the Continent, and give certitude to minds which had long been exercised over the true sources of the Nile; but he startled all Christendom with the announcements of the unity of the Lualaba and the Congo, and thrilled every reader with the narrative of his exciting and hazardous voyage over their j-^int waters. Escaping from the thousand- and-one perils of his journey, he revealed to the outer world the resources, almost passing belief, of that hitherto unknown Continent, and turned dizzy the head of com- merce with the amazing possibilities that lay before it in opening up the region. But great as was that enterprise, and well-deserving of the honours which rewarded it, Stanley has since added immensely to his laurels, by following up and giving practical effect to his earlier achievements. For a number of years he became engaged, at the instance of the Belgium Governmont, in opening up to trade the HTANLKYS LATf^JT TUIUMPH. 11 receiving Mr. be instantly sp expedition, and explorer, ng to tell the out to Africa, tnpleted work, ant record of . ' It wi^ be ^'hat Stanley jh Equatorial natters which regard to the )ntinent, and een exercised i startled all the unity of ev^ery reader rdous voyage he thousand- to the outer that hitherto lead of com- r before it in ell-deserving y has since ing up and ents. For a i instance of 3 trade the waters of the Congo, in placing steamers on the river, in constructing a railway to overcome its rapids and cata- racts, and in bringing almost the heart of the Continent within reach of the sea. He has also been instrumental in founding, and partially peopling with Europeans, a great Free State in the Congo basin, and in establishing communication far into the interior and up and down the west coast. In this great work he has had not only the aid of Belgium capital, but the hearty co-operation of King Leopold, and the practical encouragement and support of the whole Belgium people. What that enter- prising nation will gain by its generous recognition of the labours of the still young journalist and explorer, is almost beyond the range of fancy to conceive. In this conquest of a new Continent civilization will doubtless profit as well as Belgium, and the promised time be has- tened when a nation, as it were, shall be born in a day. But Stanley's achievements, wonderful as they have been, do not stop here. The eyes of the civilized world have once more been turned to Africa as the scene of further triumph on the part of the intrepid explorer. From the " Dark Continent " he has just emerged aa the rescuer of Emin Pasha, the governor of the abandoned Equatorial Province of the Egyptian Soudan, and brings with him a tale of further marvel, which could scarcely be enhanced had he come from the world of the dead. In this new relief-expedition we have the records of further heroic endeavour, of undaunted energy and pluck, and the overcoming of obstacles which no one of his own party believed surmountable. Once more Stan- ley comes to light again, having escaped ambush and IS THE DAltK (JONTINENT. open attack, the ravaiyanza; joined his forces to those of Emin Bey, whose piovince had been overrun by the Mahdists and whose work in the Soudan was done, and rescued him from a perilous position ; marched to the Victoria Nyanza; was taken violently ill and lay helpless for twenty-eight days, his life hanging in the balance ; re- organize., -i.ip. Tovces and "with Emin Bey and daughter, and several other whites, took up his march southward; 14 THE DARK CONTrNENT. i discovered an extension of the Victoria Nyanza toward the sonth-west, which brings the lake within 155 rniles of Lake Tanganyika; had a four days' figlit with the natives of Usukania ; and arrived at Mpwapwa on the 12th of hist November, with a force of 750 perisons, in- cluding 290 of Emin's men and sixty children. ' He reached Mpwapwa in fifty-Hve days from the Victoria Ny- anza and one hundred and eighty-eight days from the Albert Nyanza." The distance travelled in the interioi- of Africa by Mr. Stanley personally is estimated by him at 5,400 miles, of which all but 1,000 were on foot. The expedition occupied three years and rescued 3()0 persons at a cost of less than !? 150.000. "Perhaps," says a writer in the London 'Jimes, "the com; arison is not a strictly just one, but I cannot help recalling the fact that the Abyssinian expedition, in which I first met Mr. Stanley, occupied six months and rescued eight persons, at a cost to the British nation of forty millions of dol- lars ! " It is easy of course lo wiite, as it is easy to read, that the expedition took three years to accomplish its mission— the rescue of 300 souls at a cost of $150,000. But what do the words import? What mind can adequately realize, what imagination can well conceive, the aggregate of toil and suffering which was borne by the expedition in those 5,400 miles of weary and perilous travel through the darkest regions of the Dark Contin- ent ? In the within pages the attempt will be made to narrate anew the whole thrilling story— the results of which science and civilization await on tip-toe to wel- come from Mr. Stanley. STANLEY'S LATEST TRIUMPH. 15 From the threshold let us here take but a glance at what has been accomplished on the present mission. The details, which will appear in subsequent chapters, are of the most harrowing character. It is a tale of death, desertion, starvation, mutiny, bloody and hard contested lights, weary marches, and sickening disappoint- ments. The story is one of the most thrilling ever penned. The gallant explorer alone has the right to tell it in its full and exciting details. Here we may be per- mitted to give a rd-iume of it drawn partly from his pub- lished lettor.-. The interest with which these letters were read, following close upon the reports, again and again repeated, that Stanley had been killed, will be re- rtiembered. In difficulties he was, and menaced at all times by the greatest of dangers and the most serious of obstacles ; but dead he was not. Betrayed, deserted, and in constant jeopardy he appears to have been, and at- tacked by illness which brought him to the brink of the grave; but death has spared him, and he has now turned up again, with years of further usefulness seemingly still before him. The chief incidents of the marvellous story are these : — The expedition left Zanzibar at the end of February, 1887, landing at the mouth of the Congo on the 18th of March. Stanley had with him about seven hundred carriers, chiefly collected at Zanzibar by the notorious Tippoo Tib, Arab trader and slave dealer, who as ruler of the savages of the Manyema tribe on the Upper Congo had been appointed Governor of Stanley Falls. In charge of this force, under the chief of the expedition, and acting in various capacities, were eight Europeans 16 TFTR DARK CONTINENT, of wh.,„, ,t w,l be sufficient at present to note, were the young Canadian, Lieutenant W. G. Stairs, R,E Ma^r Barttelot, f r. M. Jephson, Mr. Jameson, and Dr Park From Banana Point, at tl,e mouth of the Con<,o the expedifaon proceeded up the river in a flotilla "of' five ^teamboats chartered by tho Congo State Government Ass.stanee was also g.ven by the Baptist Mission in the Congo terntory. Its first stopping-place was Boma, whieh Fr e sLtT T 't °' "'^ '°"'" ^d'"-«'™tion of the tion to M»; J™" """; "^"'^ ■'*" '"■™S'>' 'he expedi- t^ou to Matad,, a group of European settlements opposite Sver r/ ''u -n""" ™'"' "'""S *e south bank of the 7o8 mn!T " r"' ^'^"'^^ ^°°'- ^' Matadi, which .8 108 m,les from the ,,ea, the whole land force disem- barked o march to Stanley Pool, for it is well-nigh .mp„ss:ble for boats to stem the Livingstone Rapfds of the river. Before setting out on foot, the expedi t on was mustered, drilled, and placed under divirion- «1 commanders, and practised in the formation of en- campments. Every care was taken by the enermtic and thoughtful leader of the e.pedition'io ensu" dt" pline and to provide against the possibility of mutiny or other mishap Finally all were under way,_with 1200 loads of stores, including cloths for currency carried on men's heads,-for Manyanga, thence for Stan- ley Pool. From the latter point to the mouth of the Aruwimi consumed nearly two months, the whole expe- dltion proceeding by water. This part of the voyage was made under the disadvantage of defective means S transportation and a dearth of provisions. A two days' StANl.EY's tATKST TRtUMPrt. 17 sail up the Aruwimi brought the expedition to Yunibuya, at the foot of the rapids which here impede the naviga- tion of the river ; and at this point it was determined to form a depot of stores with a strong contingent to act as rearguard, while Stanley proceeded with the main body over the now perilous part of the journey. At Yambuya (nearly 1,400 miles from the sea) a halt was made for reinforcements, which Tippoo Tib, by agreement with the leader of the expedition, had promised to forward from Stanley Falls. This supreme rascal, Tippoo Tib, was unluckily to bQ the marplot of the expedition. Stanley's acquaintance with him had begun on the occasion of his famous des- cent, in 1883, of the Congo. Tippoo is an important personage in his own field, but to Europeans he is known to be cunning and rapacious. Professedly he owes his wealth to his dealings in the ivory trade, but he has a sinister reputation as a slave-dealer. For a monetary consideration the authorities of the Congo Free State had made a covenant with him to maintain its beneficent rule along the upper waters of the great river and its chief affluents. The compact was an experiment : it was thought politic to at least conciliate the Arab magnate and to en- deavour to enlist his co-operation. For the relief expedi- tion he engaged to provide Stanley with 600 porters to carry his stores to Wadelai, on the Nile, where Emin Pasha was supposed to have his headquarters, and to con- vey back, by way of the Congo, the stores of ivory which it was understood Emin wished to transport from his seat or government to the European market. The stock of ivory Emin had gathered was estimated at seventy-five IS TflE DARK CONTINENT. tons ; a,,,| the c«m-„,-« were to ho ,,aid SiOeacl, toacc.,,,,- V Yambuya; an.l the heroic lea.Ie,- of the expedite" fortify Yambuya. and lef t \h .-a . atd r«t ?" '^ -lor the c,,a.,e of Major Bartteh^a £" a In^ v.th ,ns.r„ct,o.,« to follow hi,„ as soon a» Tippoo ITd' turn up wrth his „„„ti„ge„t of porters. " °"" On the 28th of June, 1887, .Stanley s..-t out frn,„ Y„nhn ya w,th the advance column for the Albert Nvanlav' alh, a vdlage on its .s.mthcrn extrendty ,on,e 300 mi^ dn-ectly eastward, being the obi,.ctive point Thl ^4;:rL^:;:n:.,:::^t,:rSsi^tr'^^ ga e l|,e ,eg on through which the expedition was to t.avol was wholly unknown, save that it was renorlrd t! iterr' '^"""^^ '■"'■^■''•' -'J inhablrd by rtb , likely to prove hostile For a timp fl.n u "^ ,;a..Uve,y unobstrueted a^^^ ^^^C^,2 Z^ -It was soon found howevBi- ih.,, *i, . ■ . uortherlv , ,li. .' '*™'' "'"' ">e Aruw.rai took too no.the ly a d.reefon, and a course was then shaped east- ward through n,anioc fields and a teemin. popuWion of opposmgdwarfs. In passing through this reg^ re "en I e-Wv^d"- "■""«' " "" "'"'™' »-h ioTso i!„t|.i '^^^7^"'"=".: ^^y^ ^ writer, "that the natives co„K, ,„ve.,t to n,oIest and impede the advance of the Stanley's latest rmvufpu. 19 ach (oacconi- nd transport he reinforce- did not turn e expedition M'itli a small took care to ^•50 strong) fr. Jameson, ppoo should om Yambu- .'anza, Kav- e 300 miles Hie colutun ibcrdinatep, It was the g the river, is and bag- lion was to 'eported to by tribes was com- the river, took too aped east- ulation of I frequent !h loss of e natives ice of the 20 i jjii t I THE DARK CONTWENT. »ero not only severely Catedh T **"•'"«' '^^ ^^t ^ould ron,ai„ i„ tho'^fleTand'!^''''^'l''«"%the»pike, ;e are told, literally bri,t L wfi ? " P*">"V 'ras, ["ily hidden from Jght ol ih VT"""' "''"'y' "■'t- bank was again gabed and t ,e h ^^ """'^ ">«> ""- ■•equ,,,ition. The progress howl °"™ '"»™ P"' '» 'era and armed continCI ZT T ''""• "^ '^e p„r. '»d, and now through a^i^ ''""""' '°°'' "' "ay ofer- obstacles to progress tr? eta^o' dT"'" '"^^ "le procuring food. The ran To T . ,''^ *'"' ''"fio""y in °"3'y in this district, aSt'tle ' t" """"^ ■=»«»"- '^e expedi- nnfriendly and could „„. '' 'O"^ "je natives were Where obLnable thS:: e":;"";"' -" Provision, oo^t At an Arab stat^Hve fit ? ^^'™vaga„t. behind, disabled and unfit .' ^ "" '"^ ^ be left ;»ny more were lost to ' lll^'" ^ Journey As f ^ath. The month of Octobei wt ' '" « '''"°'' ""' "an awfd ^^^t^ „^ member If;hi''"'^'^P'>'-^o. black, will ever forget it " The A \''''?''"''"™' "^ite or waste the region through which tt?' " ''""'■ "''^'J '»id desolating raids in searfh frtves "t^. '""'' ''^ "■«■• ^'Pared by these ruthless forL had k ^T™' '"«' ''«™ by elephants, so that the irt • "" *^'"''^'"' dnw^ the distnct was a vast wilderness i a "ow holes were th sharp spikes, 'se who walked -rribJe; the feet entJy the .spikes 'grenous sores." pathway was, *rs, always art- "ly the river- 36 more put in >w^, as the por- i at rowing, its Way over- ' forest. The ' difficulty in Qost continu- sickness and » the expedi- natives were ^ provisions, extravagant. i to be left, 'urney. As sertion and eys phrase, n, white or »s, had laid d by their r had been 'en down 'ilderness. STANLEY'S LATEST TRIUMPH. 21 To such distress was the expedition reduced that it was systematically defrauded and plundered by the natives met with on the march ; while the most in the shape of food that could be gathered by the way was some wild fruits and an occasional handful of nuts. The effect of such privation was to render the men unfit to prosecute their journey and to all but wreck the expedition. When the plight of the whole party was most desperate, Ibwiri was fortunately reached, where the natives were more kindly and food was abundant. Here a halt was made for thirteen days to enable the forlorn and emaciated ex- pedition to recruit. There was yet, however, a long jouraey,of 126 miles, before the Nyanza could be reached, and some portion of the way was still through a dreary and well-nigh impenetrable forest. Of these forest journey ings, with the gloom that over- shadowed the party in endeavouring to probe the dense woods, we get a vivid picture in Stanley's own words, "Try and imagine," he writes, " some of these inconveni- ences. Take a thick Scottish copse, dripping with rain ; imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, nourished under the impenetrable shade of ancient trees, ranging from 100 to 180 feet high ; briars and thorns abundant ; lazy creeks meandering through the jungle, and some- times a deep affluent of a great river. Imagine this forest and jungle in all stages of decay and growth— old trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen prostrate ; ants and insects of all kind.s, sizes and colours murmuring around; monkeys and chimpanzees above; queer noises I of birds and animals; crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rush away ; dwarfs with poisoned arrows secure- 22 THE DARK CONTINENT. ^tondiDg poised, still a, l"d f '""'"*»'""■? »Pea™ "own upon you ;vory other I!. r-P'' ™'" P*««ri"e w.eh its dread oons.^ene , fX',. ZZ^" r'""""'''''' throughout the day and AjkT ? "^i's^'ery ; gloom <*» night . then. ir'ctfiiutrsS: ''f;° '?"="■«"■' ■ng the entire distance from P^ ., "'■"" '=="^"<'- («0 miles), you ^ijih^J';™"/-""' to Peterhead conveniences endured bvt.^fi. 1 """'^ "' •*e in- 5th, 1887." '^^ "' ^™"' ■'""« 28th to December wUh'^'hiT ::rl': '^r/"""''-^ picture, is the j„y %htof broad ty'2r!n:\:i;' '-«"' '>-'ed,ih^ distraught and eofeeb?ed° co In'' "rV"' '''"' "'^ IterallyyelledinatransDor/T^',- . P°°'' "»*s the merciful ciearin. "31/ tf'^'"'- On coming to h-'d never seen g"°; so l^^^'''' ^^^ S"^loy, "we The course was /ow due £ ' T?"""*'^ ^° '"^''y'" plateau from which wltll ' '"•>' o™"- »n elevated the placid .aim whlro " ' tad 7" ,"* '"' '°* "P™ the Albert Nyanza. ^ ""■ Seaming watera of t.ib„laron";atl>eI: L^'the tTa''"",'"'''' ""^ ■="? »' ence of African hospitalitv tr ""P'^^^^t experi- tjrHtoryof apowerfu nafve h^^"""^' through'the H.S villages were thicklv s'lL f ' "'"^"'^ ""^mboni, «f country through whW tie T- " *^''^'" *-'«h and the king posifively rets dV^'''tr '"<■ '° P«^^ ™y. . This is how StaC en fj? iffi'^t^ "^''' "' ^^ory ,s told i„ his „„„ word " pi *?*^'' *"•* *■>« wuius. from a Joncr ,+«^ n P* '"•' ^^^ and scoff -It the Zbte^ b„t ^ 7" "T '"^ '"" '° J^^ what they saw, somTny caller ^^^h '"d "'."'r pardon that I could not say a word Th'! ""^ ^'« ward." •'^ • -^"^^ was my re- lief fl''' -"i^^*' '^'P^'^' ^-e need not entering. .,,.},., ciatad.^ thej>erils eacauntered by the Kelief ' Ex;;dt Stanley's latest triumph. 25 tion. The subject will be more fully gone into in a sub- sequent narrative. Nor need ^e delay in summarizing the later events connected with the meeting with Emin Pasha, and the effort to induce him to leave with his fol- lowing foi the coast. Here is an epitome from a New York journal of the incidents co nected with this period in the history of the expedition : " The party were al- most beside themselves for joy when they saw the smooth waters of the Albert Nyanza from a plateau 5,200 feet above the sea, six miles from the cliff; but they were doomed to a bitter disappointment, for on reaching the shore they saw no signs of Emin's steamers. Evidently the couriers from Zanzibar had not reached him. The natives had received no word from him. They were not hostile, but they would furnish no supplies or boats. What was to be done ? The ammunition of the party was getting low, Wadelai was a long way off, the boat had been left at a point 190 miles distant. Stanley did not long hesitate. He marched back to Ibwiri, 126 miles, built a fort there and sent a party of thirty men back 64 miles after the boat. Then, leaving a garrison in the fort he pushed on again to the Lake, reaching there April 29th, 1888, 134 days after his first arrival. Meantime Emin Bey had received news that a white man had been seen at the south end of the lake, had come down in his steamer to find him, and had left a note asking him if he came again to the Lake to remain there until he could communicate with him. The same day he arrived, Emin's steamer was seen coming, and soon the two men were to- gether and remained together until May 2oth. " After much persuasion Stanley induced the Pasha to B 26 THB DARK CONTINFNT. ■I: leave his province, and. with his soldiers and their fnmi les, accompany him to the coast. When thi „nT I 1' wer« fif f ^ 'Ifmained, of whom but fifty-three who we. ,ert in c^pr^rn'rLr;^^::.^ ^,H,s surprise and disappointment were verV t Tt" He does not so far give us oven an outline of tliedisfter,' wl„oh decmated tl,e camp ; but he states that hT, in structions were not followed, and he inmlies alill .ure of those he left in charge. He h 7 om ofll" personal effects at Yambuya, and on arrivin. tl^e almost I find myself naked and deprived of even tv,„ P' of life in Afi-iM w. i, J"^ ' °' *™n 'he necessaries ot lite n Atiica. He had, however, he adds, two hat, four pair of boots, and a flannel jacket and wr^h ft stock ho proposed to return to thei:kf; Jj '^f^t' Evidently there was bad management at Yambuya " ' The return to the Lako was once more, and Ltun ately now with less difficulty, effected, kere StonW found, however, that he had a new problem to face ThI whole region of the Upper Nile was bv this !,:.%!'" -7. i«««^ in revolt. Kmin Pasha's garrison r;!;;,:; tny 11 nd their fnmi- lis understanrl- 20 men, many ?an his return ores, and take le found that 't of his rear- >ut fifty-three ot Vil.Ae fifty y in his terri- ;ent. of those en he return- ' very great. ' the disasters that his in- I a mild cen- some of his there almost id been sent " Thus," he [ sacrifice to 3er them up, i necessaries 3, two hats, I with this TOSS Africa • buya." nd fortiin- re Stanley face. The efused any STANLEY^S r.ATFST TRITTMPTr. 27 longer to obey their chief. Influenced by the fa.iatieisn, which had spread inland fn.m Khartoum, and egged m l.y Mohammedan intrigue. Emin's own troops had im- priHoned him. and with him Mr. Mounteney-Jephson one of Stanley's officers who had been left at Wadelai to anango for the departure of all for the const. Of this outbreak and the deposing of Emin, we shall give an account later on, as told by Lieut. Jcphson, an eye wit- ness of what occurred. Fortunately. Emin Pasha and Ml'. Jephson were able to get out of the disaffected region and retire.! to Kavilli, on the Albert Nyanza. Here Mr. Stardey in time arrived with all that was left of his ill-fated rearguard. Much time was now lost in inducing the Pasha to abandon his disorganized post and accept the succour that had been brought to him Emin was naturally loth to desert his people, even though they had ungratefully turned upon him. Stanlev saw, how- ever, that a temporizing policy would be iJst upon the l^gyptian mcendiaries. who wanted not only to get Emin wholly in their power but even to seize upon himself and loot his stores. Emin's indecision not only troubled Stanley but placed the whole expedition in peril A time was set for 'departure, but in the meanwhile the anxieties of the situation brought Stanley down with an attack of fever from which he suffered for twenty-eight days. On his recovery matters had got worse and a plot was ripe in the camp to seize the arms of the Zanzibaris and wreck the expedition. The conspiracy was checked only by Stanley's prompt action. Finally, Emin consented to march, and on the iOth April, 1889. the huge column of rescued and rescuer^' filed out of Kavilli on the long journey to the sea. The 28 THE DARK CONTINENT. column, some three miles long, numbered close upon 1500 souls. Of Erain's fugitives the number was 514 of whom 134 were men, 84 married women, 187 servants or slaves, 74 children above two years of age, and 35 in- fants m arms. The day's march was about ten miles The route followed to the coast was south-eastward skirtmg the head of Albert Edward Nyanza and the foot of Victoria Nyanza, thence, through the Usukuma and LTnyamwezi countries, to Bagamoyo and Zanzibar. The time consumed on the way wa^ 240 days, including a halt of twenty days at Msalala. At Msalala. despatches were forwarded, by express courier, with tidings of the expedition being on the way home. The news was re- ceived at the coast on the 2nd November, 1889 and was at once cabled to Europe. The expedition itself reached the sea on the 5th of December. The casualties were lamentably great on the march the expedition losing fully one half of its strength by desertion, disease and fatigue. The latter part of the journey was through territory nominally under the juris- diction of Germany. By Major Wissmann, the German official representative on the coast, Stanley was not only welcomed, but the way was made smoJth over the later stages of the journey, for the surviving members of the forlorn column. Very grateful to the 'leader of the ex- pedition must have been the welcome he received at the coast. There the cable brought him congratulations from Queen Victoria, from Emperor William of Ger- many, and from many notable African explorers and geographical societies. " My thoughts," said the Queen's despatch, "are with you and your brave followers, whose hardships and dangers are now at an end !" Stanley's STANLEY S LATEST TRIUMPH. 20 i close upon iber was 514, 187 servants ?e, and 35 in- ten miles, jfch-eastward, and the foot rsukuma and nzibar. The , including a a, despatches idings of the lews was re- 589, and was self reached the march, strength by part of the er the juris- the German '^as not only 'er the later bers of the of the ex- ived at the jratulations m of Ger- 'lorers and he Queen's vers, whose Stanley's own feelings found relief in the following words : " I feel," he writes from Mswa when nearing the coast and he could throw off the intolerable burdens of toil and anxiety he had long borne, "just like a labourer on a Saturday evening returning home with his week's work done, his week's wages in his pocket, and glad that to- morrow is the Sabbath." So closes an ever- memorable page in African history. Here we have simply outlined the story, leaving the de- tails for another chapter. Much is now being said of the decision of Emin Pasha to return to his old province, under German protection, from which he was manifestly unwilling to be rescued. As yet we do not knqw all the facts, but Emin's eagerness to get back to his abandoned post is only natural, and natural is it also that he should return under the aegis of his own nation. This does not lessen the feat which Stanley has accomplished, of break- ing through the leaguer which pressed equally upon rescued and rescuer, and bringing off all who cared to face the perils of the long and weariful journey to the coast. The calamity which befell Emin Pasha, on the day of rejoicing for the return of the expedition, has thrown a blight, though we trust only a temporary blight, on the success achieved. The whole story is one of strange accidents and tragical reverses ; this last mishap, grievous though it is, must be taken with the rest. The cloud we trust will pass away, but deliverance is not likely to be forgotten. Still less likely to be forgotten are the charac<^eristic qualities of the leader of the ex- pedition, whose high courage, unflinching resolution, and iron force of will, made it possible for the expedition to succeed. t I- « it CHAPTER II. STANLEY, THE RKSCVEil. /N the heart of the o-rp^if At • ™w world ha. of CL V "\''™"'""" ^ "P to civilisation and"o^ ^"' "^'^""^ ">"« to whom, pe,haD?ah„ T"'''"''- ^^e one ;nc>oMeU fo- ii^l^Zn^ltX^^ '^ '•egions of Equatorial Africa and ^^ " '^"'^ yl-n to trade, i, the daunLr ex„1 "^ " "''^ nowned wizard of travel „ ^"^/^P'orer and re- In thi. chapter. and^Tt^Zl^'r't^"'^- ' our narrative, we pronoae ;„ """^ "S farther with the life of thi., .oS:ZnT. "■ '"^ "^'^ *" with hi. recent memorable "xlitf' I" °°""'^'"'"' ^ « known of him for who „ ^ ' " '"" "'"» «'h»t Belief Expedition wa. nd" ^r'T'' ''^ ''"''" ^-''^ of the doin.. of »uch Cr^e , "h " T '^'"-'"^ ''''"' Gordon Pa»ha without feelL ti^Hh .^'^"'^^ ^"'^ type of men which nowadavs i, ''^ ^^""S to a extinct. " Tl,ev are " C ? """""''■' """""'J as the noblest of -the e'arw"^:; i'To" ""^ ""<" ""''ke confronted peril, „ot for'^^dc^v i Ir ?"' ''''''°'-'*'»' "''o were bom with the tU^^f''", ""'""y '"""^"^ they Iprwlv f'> ..i I , '"^^ heroin ,apf„..^..- _ , -^ •"^gciy to uxten.i the domain of iV.th . ; '^'i^''^'^' ^^ut ^J^ot iaith and pure worship. I i. i STANLEY, THE RESCUER. 31 n Continent a been opened ce. The one '^s, the age is off the dark ^^ng a new orer and re- a-nd Stanle^-. further with few facts in ' connection Jl also what ^'nin Pasha hardly read Stanley and -'Jong to a lourned as lot unhke 5fers, who ause tJiey )riso, but worship, The religious idea has been modified in the last three or four centuries, but some of the characteristics are the same. It still embraces belief in an Invisible Power, which works unceasingly in the world it created." Stanley's own words, at a speech recently made at Cairo, is an evidence of this. Over and over again, he exclaims, have I seen that a mysterious power guides human affairs. " The development of Henry M. Stanley from an ad- venturer into a hero, remains the grand feature of his last and greatest journey. The explorer was compelled to meet entirely new obstacles and defeated them all. It must be remembered, of course, that he is his own his- toriographer ; but there is no reason to suspect his per- fect veracity, and he obviously places strong restraint upon himself to keep down his natural bitterness of feel- ing." His letters reveal a wonderful power of descrip- tion, but it is a power we feel that is used truthfully, and not the effort merely of a vivid imagination. Take the letters forwarded on his last journey describing the march through the awful forest, — that living tomb to which the expe'dition was consigned for five whole months — and who can doubt that the account is drawn from the very life. The journey through it, observes a writer in the London Times, " at the end of which the poor blacks ' literally raced through the grass-land like wanton children,' is assuredly the crowning achieve- ment, not only of Mr. Stanley and his group of heroic followers, but of nineteenth century adventure." As we go through the wonderful narrative we are filled with admiration for the man who led, and the men who 32 T«E DAHK CONTINENT. achieved thp «■»«• "WhenT s^r'"'' *^P^d"io„ of«„„rf knpw *u ^*- Stanley left p„ i / modern iantc f "r" ""'- "-i' ne rl'^"^"^''^'' 'hat sera of the Congo routo- fi, "^■''' were the rl«„ '•eg.on, there w^, host e'trib? T ""^ ""''"o,™ fo^t" fever, and fami„e Thl ' '"'e^'^herous Arab, T ! that reirion nf a r • ^'^ ^^e time ? Tk , o**^"st ■■> *he life and care rof'^'"'V"r-' should be whetted With aceiaim "t-i ^^ '^^ i^ evervwhr. i. ., '-iaixu. -the secrpf /.f „ i^ '3^Wnere hai]pr7 editorial wrifpr ,•» rr ^^ ^"^^ renown " r.h ' ^^^ instinctive deJidit of m • , '' ''^<^ ^^^den. Jt l^-r^^e, in pe.ii,„, fj;',^ J/^^ ^» heroism, in persona «^ career which implies '" 7^'^^ ^"^'"ounted. J — , complete JzZi::'::T;'^:^^^^^^ ^^^^ '^"^pxumpt seizure and i '*^on of«>modem and. those who persuaded that ^ appeared too ^'ere the dan- mknown forest '"« Arabs, heat, *he Equatorial >o.ssibJe that a ' head against The whoie of 1 insurrection. * n would also fanaticism of 'Ptians, were ^sfc of Egypt. ad of a few and queJi ^ et all these ntirent has of it as de- be whetted nplish such here haiied bserves an idden. It 1 personal tnted. It immense - i^ureand STANLEY, THE Umnmt. 33 wise niiprovement of opportunity, They are the quali- ties which in other sphares of acitjvjty found States, baffle apparently resistless forces, and d*ttngo the course of liistory. Stanley has confronte/1 tJ(« almost boundless and unknown forests and jun^I««, the morasses and waters and mountains of a aontltwtii swarming with savage hostility, with pestilence, and a myriad nameless obstructions, in an impenetrable ^Umm and absolute sep- aration from all hope of communUfftyo/i or succour And upon hira alone, upon his health, nitrngth, intelligence spirit, nerve and persistence, not m)y hk own life but the lives of hundreds, the welfare oi' thousands, increased knowledge, and the progress of clvUlmtJon depended He has not failed. He has overco«t«, U is not a picnic from which he emerges, but he comes a conqueror from a tremendous and prolonged conrtlefc with what seemed invincible forces." The hardest task, perhaps, that explorer ever under- took IS now accomplished. Who k he that has achieved It ? Let us give a brief summary of what is known of his early career. Henry Moreland Stanley was born near Denbigh in Wales, in the year l«40,* Of his parents little IS known, save that they m not bear the name which, at a later date, their son H^wfwed j and that they left him, while still a child, a wttlf upon the world. Fortunately, until his thirteenth ymt'. he had the benefit of a fair education, though it wa« only such as charity could afford him. The follo wing ymr, after a brief ven- *From a biographical sketiili hv kli« i..-. '"I'htough the Dark Continent,' Magiirn, 1878, —'"■' Wfitvf, prefaced to Stanley's l'»l>uhr H Utim. Toronto ; John 15. 34 THE DARK CONTINENT. ture in teaching, in a neighbouring county, he shipped as a cahn-boy from Liverpool to New Orleans. There he met with a merchant who adopted him and whose name he assumed, though the strong impulses of his restless nature which had brought him across the Atlantic led him shortly afterwards to exchange a business life in ' New Orleans for a roving one in Arkansas. Here, doubt- less, he familiarized himself with the roughings of a life on prairie and in forest which inured him to hardship and steeled him in the presence of danger. Striking the i Mississippi in his wanderings, he companions himself with ? some boatmen on the river, and returns to New Orleans. Warmly received again by his adopted father, fortune was about to woo him to a well-to-do life and to com- ' fortable circumstances, when his patron died intestate, leaving him once more to his own resources and to a new career-. The Civil War now breaking out, and accident making him a resident of the South, he joined the Confederate army, but only to find himsell, at an early day, a prisoner at the North. Released on parole, and evidently caring more for action than for patriotic feeling, he takes service on board the iron-clad Ticonderoga, in the interest of the Union. Following his chequered career, we find him at the close of the war accepting an engagement with the New York Herald, as correspondent with the Cretans, who at this period were at war with the Turks. Re- crossing the Atlantic, he enters upon his new experience, but to quarrel with it, on account, it is said, of his dislike to the tactics of the insur':'ent leaders of Crete Af*"-= this, having a sort of roving commission from the Uemld, 1 STANLEY, THE RESCUER. 35 ty, he shipped as leans. There he and whose name s of his restless ™S -o.« the in»urreclri„% L'^^elr '^ «- fortunes of the Rov«l,-«f r. ,^, ' -"^re, lollowing the the ineidents of fhTe t ,Cf ' f ' r?"""^ ""™*- alert .ntelligenee l.ad hinf to give f „We T '"" account. It was at th;. .;, , , """"'" and viv d 'e.-sat Madrid,", t^l^ZZ'"'"' ''' l'^'''""- nett, proprietor of the ffeTlt '^^ """""on^. of Mr. Ben- tant business i" ' °'"' '" ^*™ »" ™por- terview ^ignificanTtytlTti : IL'ri''^ "'«'"'"- the unknown redon nnnf i^ 'he dark mission into pendent was no:Toutrhet:'' tithtr T^" words, the interview is end^d Ja q, , * "">*'« "* ling eo,nmission,-Drrw lltrl "''^ ''^ "^ ^'«''- the puT,ose, . but Au'lI „ ' 1, 'Tr '" ^'"""P""" mission accepted and wl h .t 'aconcially is the in the power of hull ! ' ^'""^'"' ""''. 'what is ^^^^ulZnluZT.::^-^ ""'"•I win do,-Stan,e, ATe'st:perd:„sirsta:r '■^^*"°'' --^ - taking to disler LivhL^^: i:\T™^'' '" ""O- been .„ „verwhel„.ing ZTZ 2 t T' 7"" ''*™ probably few would We bl;::77'^"°" "'^' onerous and perilous responsibjlitv S """'P' "* I the adventure tho'i--- ^ . "''y- S^"""" as was ' '"^" '"■ '"" »io»ent of accept- j igland, the young to report himself ', in the following afield— this time ere, following the )hically narrates K though often enthusiasm and inute and vivid ? his headquar- lons of Mr. Ben- Paris on impor- ide colloquy of , the night in- k mission into trusted corres- i little waste of ^ has his start- to accomplish ioncially is the that, • what is ^ do,' Stanley ition and re- ed in under- would have iplation that o accept its ious as was of accept- STANLET, Tiifc RESCUER. 87 ing the mission Stanley could but inadequately re- alize the life of hourly peril to which he had com- iniited himself, his great physical courage and intre- pid resolution were as impelling forces moving him onward to the accomplishment of his work. His brief parley with Mr. Bennett was wholly concerned with the cost of the expedition to the journal he represented, rather than with its personal risk to himself. On the latter score it seemingly never occurred to him to speak ; and so characteristic is the resource of the man that he never troubled his employer with a question about the outfit of the Expedition, but contented himself with learning what was required of him, and that the means were at his dis- posal to place his task in execution. Such an exalted idea also had he of the functions of journalism, that it never even occurred to him that this African mission was one more apt to the professional explorer's accomplish- ment than to that of the newspaper correspondent. And if it seemed other than a part of a Press- special's duty to search for and bring tidings of a lost man in whom the world was interested, it was the imposed addition to his instructions, of taking relief and succour to him. Said Mr. Bennett, " The old man may be in want, take enough with you to help him, should he require it." V7ith these brief verbal instructions, Stanley steps out of the luxurious surroundings of a Parisian hotel to be- wilder his head for a day or two with thoughts of the gigantic task he had undertaiken, and then he proceeded to give effect to his employer's commands. Cautioned against giving publicity, just then, to Mr, Bennett's scheme of a search for Livingstone, he is desired first to 38 ■fit DARK CONTWENT. "''" "f^'" places m v„„le to Af.= on such ,„„ttor, „f „„«,-/; °*' *"'' ^ ^Poit them as were tl«„ «£'^ r;-" '" connection Jit,. -n>m«H.ed, the„e 00^"::;' tT' '^"""^ the inauguration cf the Sue. f, 7' ■ ^ P*'"'""' «' opened; to pr„eoo,l up the Nile ?; ^'"' *'""" '» ^ Samuel Balcer's expediLn to Unl F '""^'"' "?<"' ^i.' ^eount Captain Warren" Ir '^'" '*" ™" ""d •'orusalen, ; then, tak^rconr';-'""';"^ °P"»"''"« at - '- wa,. to proceed'ea t:^,^'-",^^;™'' *» Crimea Persia into India • and (1 ^ *'"' C!auca™s and coast. FaithfuIIy-e'ettin T '°/^* the African -d duly repoUin^. ^^ZZaU.^f: ""'"""-■''-. !" the journey he°had sotr und 'I*' "''^ '''■»<>»'»t ■n January, 1S71. at ZanHlTr "" !'^"'' ^« ""'l him ^eat of "i;d:;rtr:iar:;;ra*f «>^ -- deal with in its own ptr'stl^ 7? "'"'" '"'er 0^ from his arduous and perUouf 1 ^'^ '"^'^ * >»•«£ rest •d'eness of banquetinilnd ov-t ""'. ^^''^ ■" "'» -b' inlara gits to^o™ rr^-f-'ey, however. Conim,3s,oner of the Hercdft i\. ""' "' Special Bntish military expedition S . ''"'°*'' ^^ither a (now Lord) WoWloy. Xt ^ ."I'' ""'''' ^'^ «-ne? *e Gold Coast of ifrleZlhV ''r''.''' ''''"™ ""ef on Kalkalli. As we do not tlh t„ ? n°™"' '''"^ Koffeo sonal experiences durint Th f "^ ''™ « his per- operations, it ^aycoZt"'""' "' ''"' ^-P^ition'^ yent„„t ™ reader to be referred to STANLEY, THE REHCUER. 3P I, and to repoit connection with ritere.st. Briefly io be present at ust about to bo ■eport upon Sir pfc ; to visit and operations at ind the Crimea ' Caucaaus and < the African commissions, -^as of moment ; we find him is preparations 'ed the great the heart of inating story halJ Jater on a brief rest afing at the ^y, however, s as Special whither a ^ Sir Garnet ive chief on ^ing Koffee ^n his per- ixpedition's referred to hiH book, " Coomassie and Mngdala, the Story of two ,- British Campaigns in Africa," which gives a further and agreeable insight into the character of the subject of our sketch. The campaign, not unlike that in Abyssinia, was a brief one, being marked , by the same celciity of movement and successful result. The field of operations presented many natural contrasts, and with these the necessiiy for oiher tactics and varied appliances. But in this feature of difference between the two expeditions Stanley must have again profited, for his keen-sighted observation must have found, in the means made use of to cut through the jungles to Coomassie, many sugges- tions of service to him in his subsequent exploiting on the (Jongo a»:d in cleaving a path for the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition through its interminable fdrests. His narra- tive of the Gold Coast Campaign reveals him ever obser- vant and indefatigable in collecting his material, and al- ways sprightly and vivacious in his descriptions. We now come to a maturer and more eventful period in Stanley's life, to the time when — Livingstone's work being finished and his bones laid to rest in Westminster Abbey — he offered to solve the triad of problems yet re- maining in the geography of Central Africa. Full of his great project and stimulated by the achievements of his illustrious exemplar, and still eager to add to his own, he incites the proprietary of two leading London and New York journals — the Telegraph and Herald — to commission an Anglo-American expedition to proceed with African exploration and to place him at its head^ The obifiots nf t.hfi now nnrlprfnlrinnr rfono^'pll"' -rtrar^a i-r, carry forward the incompleted work of Livingstone, but M I ■""'■ WBK CONTWENT, more spuciHcally (,•,., , ^■■«'»ria ^^a^i: and to t,!"""''" """ ''-"V of Lake "P™ ".e Nile .o„,.eo,,;':,'X ■""■•'' "'•""■ '' P»-iMe Jwg'.nyika, with a ;,■! "f^' '" '""y ""plore Ufce »V good-bye to hi, ftiZ, I, ^K ° "'" '° New York t„ ^■»">e„t, which. », it hets";: "■" •"" "' *-« ent r chanties, wha^ht t?:::-' -" "™-'-'^»^ smverf ^ "''" '^"'"^ from th! nf r"""""''""-^ a™ paved portraits of him th , ^ Photographs and en ri T^ "nasculine mind an7„>! ^ ^' "'^ "folate will ■■obust, hardy f:«„,. FlulT'' •^?'^"^™dowed wiTha '° ^"pp'e With it, tasksTnf :r/:r "^" '"» -'^ • J.'. I e survey of Laj,^ '/>'ht. if possible «''y exploi-e Lake "•/^« outlet and ^nk Westein half ■nhle the destina- e identified with tlie co-operation ^^ed to, and in- respective pro- '^e Expediticn • 1874, to Zan- *i-evious to his New York, to mittotwoim- ' house of the -r by the Lon- "ch we learn 'c from anoth- <^hese enter- "r picture of *» quoting— •nversational id %ure are >hs and en- red. These solute will, wed with a the worJd, s responsi- I .STANLEY, THE RESCUER. 41 l.ihti.'s and caroH, his was no life of cradled ease ■ and liLs portraits-particularly the later ones— indicate how ,-reat the strain has been on his mental and physical na- ture. But what the manner of the man, in speech and gesture, is, and what are his marvellous conversational powers, the close personal contact of the dinner-table at which Mr. Sala was a guest, in his words, provide us with a description. A journalist himself, and trained to study and describe the peculiarities of men, he thus photographs Stanley at the farewell dinner : " I never had set eyes on Henry M. Stanley before in my life, writes Mr. Sala, " and I own that I devoted at least three out of the four hours which I had the honour to pass m his company to devouring every word that he uttered, to staring at him, and to ' taking stock ' of his manner, his appearance, and his demeanour rren- erally He has himself with noble simplicity con- fessedthat in hi. . interview with Livingstone he acted in precisely the same manner that I did that ni.ht at the Golden Cross Hotel. I cou'd not keep my eyes off the man, or help drinking up every sentence that fell from his hp, because I wished (as he had wished when he took the last and memorable walk with Livingstone^ not to photograph-for photographs will iade-but to sketch and engrave his physical and intellectual image on the tablets of my memory, indelibly * » % He certainly poured out, while I listened to him so greedily, the most wonderful stream of reminis conce that I ever heard flow, changing the courso ot ms recoiiections from America to Abyssinia, from Spam to Zanzibar, from Paris to Ujiji, from London c 42 THE DARK CONTINENT. to tho Istlnm,., of Sue/ wif. ■^ versatility, and a focuniiitv 1-T ,T'' " ^"'"^"''h'. ■"«■ ' * I felt, goi„rhL ''''''' 'f'''"3' b^ldorod spending the even „f ^l, 'T";'. "^ ">°"«'> x had been MungoP„rk.MareoPoJo dC»t!-°p*'"''°»- "»" "-' possible I may never «eo hi „ ™ f„ . ? ""="• ■■"^'' '' i« o-- my faeultie, Ja,t I shall Ivfr' "' '"'"'« "'r ''Vs gesture of the little, n,obi i ' '^" "^'^ '™'' ""J Golden Cro,.s-the hue ;i":Tr" ™" ' »" ''^ «>o glancing eyes, hi,, flexile han 1. ,. '?" ""'' ''" '«"■• '>« •"••"mer in which he ,at Zj' " "'"""^^ ''^ *ore; the wonderful riv er of re.Its "e'r' .^ l"""'^" ^-"' "- b" t a dim recollection. 7/1™ it "'"" ''° ■'''■'' ^ have -" Vividly a, I can see my ow^ L'!" n ' ^'"' '^""^et mantelpiece now." -^ " '""o "> «ie mi.ror on my Har'■» P-- -nee the return of the EmXtii r''!-''."" '■"■ ^airo "■■^hes an interesting sketelf of n ^'^"^"■P"""""' f"-- lapse of ten years, whiclmalf ' "'''''''■■''■ "«»'■ the ^anHothepictur^lim ™^^;;™ted '-e as a pen! taken on Stanley's arrival at Su.f "■ ^''^ '^''"teh is "-■•y last. " Stanley," w Ues tl? " ^'""'"^'"■' '" ■'-- on the quarterdeck dressedt .t , r"?""*"'- ""'ood ■"""h slighter than thre '^.f? 'l'.'^' '''- %ure very »ost perfectly white haUh '» *'°' ''I' '^''"'-'"" ""d al- -■'"-its hard set i ps t7"« f '"» ''■•on.ed face, looked at him he soomed th "^ ^''^ "•««• ^' I '^ "'" ''"■'aliment ofphysij di si'! ''^> a voJubility^ '■ally bewildered "gli I had been '^■"soo, and that ton had been of since, and it is ^^»'e my days 'Vei> trait and 1 1 saw at the »fJ his hair, his he wore ; the '■etl forth that he said 1 have can recollect niin-or on my en<: paid to a '■fci'aiture. Jt Stanley's per- froni Cairo sedition, fur- er after the fo as a pon- 10 sketch is bar, in Jan- ent, "stood %ure very cut and al- onzed face, 'OS. As I 'f physical STANLEY, THE RESCUER, 43 ff 44 endui-anco and mental THE DARK CONTINENT thai ♦t"(i niental self-nnnf,.^) , t that .singular IT ^' T^ ^ '^^^^^^d " ever uuai, ,sino-n|;ii- t^o,.* , ' - as different tn h- I P^^<^-^'esenibIance Gordon and a.ptain B,„,„„ it ,Tl ""'er-General and the lips of B,„.t„„. Thoul '^'^■' "^ O"''"" »y.stici.s,n, the,, are ti,„o. who" t °TT"^ ''■*" ''•™' We that far-away Ji„u ,^|.', '"'"'%» eyes seem (o cha,.aete,.i.,tic„f g;,,:;';™' -- *o .„„st striking are tin.e, when Stanley'/n' , t'''"""'"™^'^"*' ">e>e would rather not <„,„,;,, '| ,, "f » J'O" feel that you account for his wonderful infl ' ' ^""^ ^^ho tion, hi. Ulent for realistC" UT'? 'T "' <'-«"?- .tand how impossilde it is to renr^T' ' Z'" '"'^ ""de^ own dramatic letters even M to d "' *' '"'''■ His of the 160 days' slow advan » ' /r"" "" """"^ thick underwood, in the imnene'trlT ■ ^'""'' 'h^ugh and murky forest, liable at a' " ".'^f ,<'°';' "^ » ^am'p unrelenting hidden enemies with no ,,^' ""^'^'^ of heard from Stanley's own mouth torrn"''' '""»' he too, with the account of Ne W^ s, "".^ "^'^J- So, ea«ng of diseased donkey^Xn rt™ ''™l'-"'« pounding of the bones to form a 1 t" '"'°'^^' 'he three small flsh amon^ fo„r 1^ , T"P' "-^ *™ion „f " ^ '""'"oaie addition to a 'e STANLEY, THE RESCUER. 45 diet of nuts and berries, and the drunken or child-like joy of officers and men as they emerged from the wilder- ness and revelled in a land of undulating grass-fireen slopes, with food and cattle in ahundance." Let us now proceed with our sketch that wc may re- alize tlie man once more in action. Ulysses-like, Stanley had seen adventure in many lands; and in many fields of peril he had sipped the wine of excitement and joyously tossed the cup of glee. But again was he about to enter dark Africa ; and its life of arduous toil was no longer to grant him mental exhilaration, or the physical play- time of iiere sport. Grave were to be the cares and ap- p;. ' ;.. the terrors of the coming future ; and the lees of ^■'■- ■• up of anxiety and despair were to be his now to drink. But heedless in thought, as yet, of the dire emergencies into which his new expedition was ere long to be plunged, we find our hero again at Zanzibar, brave of heart, and with high hopes of all that he was about to accomplish. There in November, 1874, he set on foot the expedition commemorated in the thrilling pao-es of " Through the Dark Continent," the expedition in which Stanley tracked the Congo for 1,.500 miles, from its source, in the Lualaba to the sea. " ' Through the Dark Continent,' is the Odyssey of African travel. No intel- ligent person can afford to say that he has not read it, for it is the book that first revealed to the world a vast continent from sea to sea, with the greatest of its lovely lakes; with its myriads of princes, powerful and puny; with its jumble of tongues and races; its vast vai-iety of habitations and modes of living ; its greatest river now tumbling to lower levels over cataracts, now crowded 46 '^'HE DARK CONTmENT. *■«' made the acouain ?^ ,"''""'■ ""«' Mr si , ' ""s rascal winr/""'^ ^W»o Tib Th- ^ ""'''■'' tlw ^ 1 '*''o 'iiinihed „f I,; J'"sdlustri- "'»' °f 0.... ,;a,rel donul^V''' ^^* C„„:>t ■ f ■"-"0-Ue io„,,ey. A 3 ??""-- '*tte stor^f ,C heuJ f . '^"^^ "^cidenta Th/a^ '^^^^ give a of h o ""'^^ ^"^^"«t 1877, when Bo '''''^°° ^^« «ot "« »'-- of an Africa. .X„ ""'■^ ""■-*- ■■'W^noss and feeding „" sTANi.Ey, THK mfMjvmi 47 advance guard of commerc« Jip the richly-freighted waters of the Congo. The naw Uiknim originated in an association of capitalists and j^hil/iuthropists, which had for its object the opening up oj' thy Congo Basin to civil- ization and trade. At the h«ft*l of the association was the King of the Belgians. KnvoyH irotn His Majesty in- tercepted Stanley at Marseilles, with overtures from the king and the company ; but Htttnlwy was in no humour then to be attracted towards thoJi*, " In his then frame of mind and body," writes M>', If, V, lleddall, "and with the memory of untold hardshif^w still vividly present, what wonder that such nmnUUmni plans awoke no re- sponse in his breast ! Stanley mtmmnded the project as a wise one, but for himself U wtid, * 1 am so sick and weary that I cannot think with imiktice of any sugges- tion that I should conduct it/ Hut Stanley the invalid, and Stanley re-invigorated by six months' rest and a brief pedestrian tour in Swit/erJaml, wore different beings. ' With restored health,' he immt\y mya, 'liberty became insipid and joyless; that luxury of lounging which hid appeared desirable to an ill-mi^ulftted and unhealtiiy fancy became unbearable. In amh a mood a letter frcni one of the Commissioners vminmiUig an interview, and appointing a meeting in Paris, wm very acceptable/' From this meeting, which (mm'm\ in August, 1878, Stanley dates the formation of " i\m ijrst enterprise to opcu up the rich region of tho Ctrngh," utilizing the ex- perience which he had gained Ui h\» daring descent of the river. Three months later, im was summoned to the palace at Brussels, and thcro tound, Immha the Kino- of the Belgians, a number of po|,Ie of note in the c^'om- 48 THE DARK CONTINENT. n^ercial world from England C and Holland, who had^ 1 1 ^^^^^^^ ^^'^"^e, Belgium the project they had in ZT ' '^ ""'^^- ^''^ ^il on -ine result of the Ponf^ " the ,,, «„jt™::: r "■° "'^--'-nof fund of one hundred thon^anddoil, '^^ "^ P^^'™in«ry »"d th,.s International Assoelh ™'' ^' """^ ™«ed hands of Mr. Stanley v ho wr-f."' "^'^ '"'« "■« able andJead a „e. exp d 'l '^f "™<=-ded to equip three years, he laboured eaer«tie!'l ^T ^"^ *<= "-^t known as the Congo FreeS L • ° '^""^ "hat is now ofthe Berlin ConfefenceTn FeK ' "'^' ''^ « ff<»"»-ai AeT hy. and piaeed unde, he Zf 7"'-^ '««5,was reeogni;ed pean Powers. The te,' ' ort elr'","'' ""^ «-' ^W free commerce and enterpS bv th r T^ ''^<"'=''''=<' to eweeds a million and a w ^ "'^ independent State defined boundaries, In^eiZT """• ^' '^'^ -^l'-' from native chiefs, numeroutT^ .''""'"' ""''«' treaty -now open to free navr^at :„'tl"^,,"'%«™g».-hii the nver, and a railway under con ! ^ «f ^**amers on cataracts and extend flcilitt o "d '"t'" ^™id the now ,s the scene on the mL 1 ^Z'' ^"'^ "hanged w.th stations for trade an"^"f T ' /"'--ay. dotted pmg the wealth of a 007/- . " facilities for tao ;hM: ha« taken place rBo:' cl^'"' '^^-att of the nver, is in i^elf not o^ '' ''^ "'<' ".outh ter for devout thankfuines, t'l T"'™' ■"■' " "at- had a hideous repute. For welf f° *''' P'a«e has has been the shippi„„.„„,r *"' ""'gh '^o oenturies it «-"nn.anity. w^h^rsj::.rrrj'--g--;f' naa caused to be STANLEY, THP] RESCUER. 49 brought here by his vile emissaries in the vast interior. Now tlie place is cleansed of the foul traffic, and for ;i thousand miles and moi-e of Congo's waters a patrol of steamers conserves human liberty and represses the vile trade. This is the boon Stanley has brought to dark Africa. Into the details of the Berlin Conference, which settled the area and jurisdiction of the Congo Free State and se- cured for it the recognition of the civilized nations of the worid, we cannot here enter. The matter will be subse- quently treated, along with the later facts in the explor- er's career. Thanks to Stanley, the future of the Congo Free State looks brighter to-day than it ever did. Already the nations are competing with each other for a share in the trade which the explorer has opened up on the mighty liver. Much may yet be done by his vast organizing faculty and tireless force, should be again con- sent to return to the scene or his triumphs. Great as are still the physical difficulties, the resources of Stanley backed by the nations, can accomplish much ; and we look to see the Congo ere long a noble highway for trade. With his fame, and with all he has achieved, civilization cannot surely fail to turn his toil as well as his experi- ence now to practical account. II f nil I. ; t If m rx CHAPTER III )UR readers do nr,^ the Dark Continent a'j "'""""^ '« ">" heart „) I Which Stanley brought "fhh ""f "^ "'^ »»«o„r "'iiitary intervenLn .t IT"?"™"""" »1 B^'l" «'h the interrogation " Who ■"'; ""• ^»' - * ^f d J 'he disguise of this uoi f ' ''"""■ ^'^^ha ?" • tt„. cognise a person of F, ^l'""' •""»« it & difficlty '' to *'"' "'"y ir>tJ., U>M. ^ *^*-' 1" ''sent writer do 'VED. ,^ ^'^ told that ^g 'ook h,m3elf to Turkey, ^h!'oZT TS """"■'""' he- ten years on the medicaUtafl „? ' *""' ^"^ 'he next e-'ended official tourl f Ht^^P^^-S hin. on\is In these eountries he picked 1' • ^^"^ "'"' ^™hia. 5 'he Turkish and Arrbl , ^ ""'•■'""^ knowledge h« patron died, ho p^f^.i^^^f % I" 1870, whe^n ''here his mother Tnd a ™' , ,°,"' '"'»">' a' Neisse year he proceeded to E^ypt and T''^' ^he next, Khedive under the name of D, T"'i""' service of the he was ordered to Teport h' T '^'"'"' ^''^'^''y General of the Soudan' at ZT '° "" «--«>- -a. sent to act a. chief inedical ^ffi"'"-- "f '""^ *-e Rovrnce of Egypt, „f „h'ch q *. '" ""^ ^"J^atorial «°vernor, A ,,uick eye fof ehJ ?" ^^'^ """> 'hen General Gordon from the o„teet T f' ""'' """'^ '«d 'he services of Dr. Emin a". . ? ^'"^ '^"' hy many important diplomatic „?• °"'™'''^'* ""^ with h- Professional servicet tZ'T'"' '^^'^ <« "'i'-ed tours of mspectioa through EMIN PASHA, THE RESCUED, 53 the districts which Gordon Paslia had annexed to Errypt and was still adminiHterin^^ with philanthropic enthusi- asm. Early in 1878 Gordon Pasha was appointed Cov- ernor-General of the whole Soudan, and on accepting this responsible and onerous post, which seven years afterwards led to calamitous results to himself, he ap- pointed Dr. Emin Surgeon-General and Governor of the Equatorial Province of Egypt, a region hitherto ^nven up to all sorts of misrule, aggravated by the lawlessness and inhumanity which are the invariable accompani- ments of I he slave trade. Within a few months after his appointment as Gover- nor, Emin Pasha revolutionised the administration of the region within his jurisdiction, and reduced the anarchic elements to some semblance of law and order. He laid an iron hand on the slave trade, weeded out the scum of villainy among the Egyptian soldiery, banished the cor- rupt and mercenary officials, established industries im- proved the finances of the district, and gave freedom and protection to legitimate trade. In all this he was his own executive, and with unparalleled courage and zeal he alone undertook, and for some ten year, has actively been engaged m, this great task. By degrees he extended the area of his sway southward, and through personal and friendly negotiation with the native chiefs has added large districts to his Province. Nor did he neglect his humanitarian impulses in connection with his special pro- fession, for in the midst of his administrative duties he was constantly to be found in the wards of the chief hos- plt te '"^^"""^ '" Pre.^eribing for the numerous 64 THE DAllK CONTrNENT. Il iiiiii ""1-1 tlK. euUivation „f cotton . ' """™ "■'"''""' -'"W oxp,.„-,„„,„, t^H ,"•.""'' """'--• variou, inter- '""-■to fo,.ei.„ to the V w''%7'''''" «.mcl ami sot tl,o example of 1 , ""'-"''"eel Oio ^onjmprove,! navigation co„"l"r''''';' "' ^""'''^ ^y "'« revolt of the Ma,!hi anT L »T"""'" "^ '^«2 came disaffeoto.! Aval,., fron^^ the l ' ,T '''"^ "'' "'" '"""« "f -■o„„,I that rascally Tophet Th r ""'' ^"'*'- '"^W"'^ Mohamn,c,kn horde wa fii.t di ° r,""""' '■"'' <" "'^'o «an garri.,„„., ;„ the a I,r C G, l^'fp"*'^'"'' ""' ^SyV ■•ovolt .spread northward and! ™""™' """> ">o -ne, w:th the famili r' e",:!':;": ' >">and on the Ale.^andria, the operation!! [ " "'°™l^a'-dment of clo-sing .seeno of tifoTr t aetT?,' ' ''r''' ^'''^'"' »"d "'O Tol-el-Kebir. Then Imf he H ''■*'""■ *" l""'^ o! Kn«land to reform E.ypt an ,d„ r'"- "" ''"' P"' "^ ■^"■"."Hted the oounlry the "''■''""''■*" "»» "'"'='' 't^ ealandtous los« of .pliant tvT r? ""' ®'""'"' '''"■ elo«e., with the battleff Ah, K ! < ". ^''^ '^'=<"«' "«' ^« untimely fate ;tKWto„m™,f^ "^° G^^do" from Soudan l.y British arras ' "" '=™"="»«on of the So„drnLl''?„Hir"^l T° ."''='"•""?. Emin Pa.,h» ,„^ u;, ■' '""■ """*— "P the Nile t'Ld: KMIN fA.SIIA, THE llESCtrEl). r,r, or .Wfoty, „,„! i ,„,„ {„,. „ „,„„ p,,„. ^^ oyally |M-„.,ecuto,l Oordon's ,vo,k. •. T.,o work tha 0„ -' lo., pauI lor w,tl, l,i» Wood," he „,ites in one of l.ls ie . te,., •■ r w, «tr.vo to cany on, if not wi„, .,i. ,„,,.,,. „ , , «on.,._, „,, according to l,i., intention, and witM^^ »P'nt. I an, now," l,c continues, « tl,c »olo ,„rviv in- n prosontotivo of (ior.I,-ua .V.udan staff f„ " " I i,„i,i :■ , "■'> ouuan stall. Lonsccinenlv I .old ,t my stem ,uty to oUow tl,e path wl i,-h he p.>.ntedo„t. Moroovu- ' am ,„rs„a,led ttat ll, „ , a ''t;' "";- f«^ "-e •■•^^^.es; .sooner or la t c" wd 1,0 inchncd within l,.c ever-widenin, ei,-clo of the Civilized wor (1. ♦. * # * «r, ^ ' "^ '" ^'"^ /n 1 D 1 YVhen my Jaiuentod cliiof ((.onion Pasha) conKdeJ to me the ovcight of this Pro vmee, he wrote • I nominate you in the eluse of p, ogress tttha C 7 "''::"" '■'''•"™'' ■" ■"«• Tl^c simple >n dst of tl r '. '" """•■''"""•" ™y-l' Lore in the .nidst of thousands of natives, with only a handful of ."on of my own, is a proof that I have to a certain cxte.^ succeeded, inasmuch as I am thoroughly trusted by tTo native population." In this eonneeti™ nothing can be nore commendable than E.nin Pashas rciation.srnot only w h the petty native chiefs of his own and Idjoining P ovinces, but with the ba,bar„„s Kings of Uganda and Unyoro, whose territories lie between Albert Nyan.a and Victoria Nyanza, and with whom in the dual interest of le iigion and commere : it is „f the utmost importance that u2 o"f"th f '; °" '"™'"^ '^™«- '="g'-'''s evac- uation of the Soudan and the reversion to anarchy of largo tracts of the countrv round Kharto-m i-d a, fa! «outh a.s Lado, made it expedient for Emin Pa.sha to re- I f I; i mm i-i;-. iij 56 THE DARK CONTINENT. treat with his followers fn Wo^ i • • , tance of the Alber Z.^za h !'' ^ " *°'' "" 1885, six month, after tCZot kZ . "''"f '" *''"^' of Gordon. At Waledai I,. f,^.''f '™™ and thedeath varying I,i, Vtay tW ' ^'""'^^'f"^ Ws headquarters . f'''e-%aniLdrth^B:rtru''''':,^"^ '° '■utary, with a further visit to R i „ ^ ^ """"""■" '"" witl, whom Emin had T / f "'"■''«''' °* ^nyoro, this time i.mt- commuZr ' T'''' ""'-"«• All %ypt, and in 1^0^; h hetr „: ,d'"h" "' °f ^"" without supplies his .r.M 7 ' ^^« people were while he hiS 'w^ otZ,:h "'" 71- ''°'''"^' northern stations attacked bvth!T ' '"^ '"'' Dongola) and other f«„!*,^-° """^^la natives of had fisen i^ Ivoit f nd 'T"'' °' ''" "''*'. -l-" with impunity ''"■' P'^^dering and murdering to s:ietrt.tho1:t Thi ^'™^'^"-^ °^ ^">"' ^-^a England, reached the" distil"' T!" ''"™™y "" his Coptic and E'yptian Mo ' ''"> """ ^'- "'«> torial Province oftlfe S u tSe Khel' ""^ "?""- questing aid to en«H» 1,- x K^hedive, and re- fall of Khartoum ^rd the ' Tf **" ""^ ?<»'• ^he cal misrule wS s" in aft «P ■ ''"'''™™ "'«' f""""- the Soudan, CoLd \he t "e ^f !"? *''",'"""'^°'-^ Emin and his followers The , " ozvdization for coast was unknown ,rn,, 'T^ '"'' "' ""=^' <^ "^e too full of haza™ and dffi ultv' '™''"'"'' '"^ ^"^ "- had it been familar t„ fm^ofanVo'r '' "''^V''"'' case he Jet it be known n! T T^ ^'' P^"^' ^^ any abandon his pe:ptd':«cra:!';lt: ^Tf -""^^ *» w.-w to mu,nage them in EMIN PA8HA, THE llESCUED. 57 able man was placed Th« n T i-emark- Britain and GerL„;;heiea?Z!!" '"^^'^^^ '' the friends of Afrio^n . .^ ^"^ ""'^'P^P^^'^ ^^J leiiut, 01 Atncan exploration crenei-aJIv h^.t-- i themselves and f,ho Fn^^iJcif t,«neiajiy, bestirred -ent also .nade a ^^^.^t^nmltHU^offXTTr — ;x:rMtr;r.zr' f -^^^^ e.pe.«o„ in .a.o. or .e rCr/r ^ '^^ '^'^ -:t;;a^;^ LTC:e eS 7^7 f ventured to make his way to fhT/ ! 1 ' '"^ "^^^ an^^a's kingdom of uJnl 1 • ^^'^' ^^'""^^ ^^^- o o '"'" oi Uganda, brinmnir word r^e v. • > a Russian, and Cantiin Pnoo+- i /:^'-/""Kei, by birth ----..na„iar.ir,f:r;:ct.^: r 11 , 1 1 ji 'i » i j 1 1 111 1 ! !li 58 THE DARK CONTINENT. Emin Pasha and his hemmed-in Egyptian garrison. The interruption was a serious one to Dr. Junker, as he was on the point of solving the problem of the Welle and crowning the results of many years' exploration. The real outlet of this great river has yet to be determin- ed, though most geographers who know the region are agreed in thinking that the Welle flows into the Mo- bangi, while the Mobangi joins the Congo on the North, a little below the line of the EquHbr. Readers of the literature of African travel will remember that this prob- lem of the course of the Welle is discussed in Dr. Schweinf urth's " Heart of Africa," in connection with the ..ountry of the cannibal Mombuttu. When the rising took place at Khartoum, the Italian, Casati, v^as engag- ed with his countryman Gessi Pasha, in the Bahr-el- Ghazal, as correspondent of L' Exploratore, an Italian geographical review. While pursuing scientific re- searches in the Welle Basin, Casati and Junker came to- gether at Bakangai, and later on they reached Lado, on the Nile, where they found refuge with Emin Pasha from the revolted Denka tribes who had taken service with the Mahdi. Dr. Junker, as we have related, attemp- ted the hazardous experiment of reaching the sea by way of Mtesa's kingdom, now ruled by Mwanga, his turbu- lent son, who put Bishop Hannington to death, and for- tunately he succeeded ; while Captain Casati remained at Wadel'ii with Emin Pasha. We are now in a position to see more clearly Emin's situation when Stanley came upon the scene with the oflfer to relieve him from Gordon's fate and conduct him and his people in safety to the sea. As we already M ! EMIN PASHA, THE JJESCUED. 59 :rison. The ', as he was I Welle and •ation. The e determin- i region are ito the Mo- L the North, iders of the it this prob- ssed in Dr. ion with the L the rising v^as engag- the Bahr-el- , an Italian cientific re- ser came to- ed Lado, on Emin Pasha aken service ited, attemp- 3 sea by way I, his turbu- ath, and for. remained at early Emin's jne with the and conduct s we already know, it was no light offer that was made him by the intrepid leader of the Relief P:xpedition; nor had the sacrifices been few that had enabled Stanley to brincr Emin succour. It was only after overcoming incredible difficulties that lay in the path, and suffering from famine, sickness and the attacks of swarming hordes of savages en route, that the meeting with Euiiu"took place and Stanley was at length able to break the long spell of silence and isolation which had for so many years en- shrouded the beleaguered governor. No doubt Euiin tried Mr. Stanley's patience very sorely after all ho had undergone for him when he refused to be succoured But aside from the fascination of the Soudau in the eyes' of the Governor, there was something finely heroic in his standing by duty, and his loyal fidelity to his people " Whether we regard the desperate heroism of Emin Pasha and his brave comrades in upholding the banner of civilization in the heart of Africa for years when completely cut off from assistance, or the stern determi nation of Mr. Stanley to accomplish their rescue, the mmd is lost in wondering admiration. Both were will ingly champions of humanity ; for that cause they risked their lives. What could be more exalted than the feel- ing which rendered Emin Pasha so obstinate in clin-inr. to the province that had been entrusted to his charcrel That, and that alone, was, he conceived, his dutv • so lono- as his motley array of soldiers remained faithf Jl 'to their salt, he refused to turn his back on Wadelai. Nor did he waver m his resolve until it became evident that the bulk of the garrison sympathised with the Mahdists and had no wish either to fight or to retreat. Then' 60 i! :!) THE DARK CONTINENT. !-^iH!f;ii at last, the German hero sorrowfully and reluctantly gave heed to the counsellings of the English hero who at the risk of his life, had overcome the awful perils of the Aruwimi wilderness to bring succour to Wadelai " Of this trying period to Stanley, and of the incidents that occurred while he waited for Emin Pasha to make up his mind to vacate his province on the Eonator the reader will natumlly seek for fuller information For- tunately, we are able to supply the details from the best source-that of Stanley himself, in a speech which he made in February last, at a banquet in Cairo -iven him by the Egyptian Government. Nowhere have we seen the case better put, than it is in tliis speech not only in regard to the general breakdown of Eo-yptian authority in the Soudan, but in the important matter of Stanleys overtures to Emin Pasha, and the peril to the whole expedition through his vacillation and the coler- ance of disaffection among his troops. The full story is told, from the period when Stanley '.st sets eyes on Emm to the period when, having take . matters into his own forceful hands, he deals oharply with sedition and prepares to march with the relieved ganlson to the coast. " In a very few days." says Mr. Stanley. " we had the pleasure of seeing the steamer Khedive coming towards our camp, and that night Emin Pasha and Captain Casati were in our camp. We were not long together before several of our previous conceptions of Emin and his prov- ince were corrected. Instead of seeing a tall and military figure, as we had been led to expect, Emin Pasha is of small size and wiry figure. The 1st b: had been -jL. in a state of revolt for munu ,„„„,, station, were in the reb.L L 7 T, " "'"^ ""'" talion of regular., only waito,i In '■"""""■ng bat- disloyalty, "and the irreL ^ ZZZl '" ''"''"' '''"" the raajority. We s,«„t 2<( ,|!I ' ° "'""■'°' S" with tl^is ti,ne I cnJeavouJed to ,1 ,Z ,• »1 . v' '"*' ''"''"« doing-whether we were t<, Z , ^^""" P™!"'^''^ pany to the sea, or wh t ,' l! , "if r!" ^^ "' •"' -»- people in Africa. H, invaHa'^ t /'r^ "J^^ "' my people go I go; where tl,„y „2 I ^7 r l"' asked Casati whether he was wIPIl. / ^' ^ *'""> sure of his company IlZXXiCa " '"' '""" I go ; if the Governor stay, ly ' H T""'"' ^"^ If the Governor stays we stav If' i. ""'"'''' ''i'^'"'' that was all I could get dltfg /,,»! ''"f ="°' ^°<' inclined to say whether Im Zld 1 IT' f" °"' '^^'"^ The Pasha could not ffive 1 , ^' "^ ''"P*''' *!* ""• among his people to git' ,;,£^ '";"' '^ :"'" »-- little by little I gathered tl'^ "pa t™'^"' , '^"' ™ employment. He loved hi, w 1 u„7 ^7"' «■•'' t.on. He was naturally indusW,^ Thfs,^:;:'^' """ n her more robust moods suflU „ J, T^ "^ "»'--o happy. If relegated to a =ofl !hlf ,' cS IT ^"'1^' hfewasnot worth living. I„ ''" "J" C""™, he thought ment was derived by a belief .1. ? however, .ontent- good. •^ ^''*' "'"' ''« was doing some "Perceiving th,t the bent of th«l'K.I,„' • . "Pon employment in Africa, .„d , ± Tt"" "''' definite answer, I said :-"««„ (wi T ? ^"' '"'"' thmgs. I offeryou the Oov'Z::^"'f .f " T "'"'^ 02 I THE DARK CONTINENT. :< '.' 'l: Ml , Mir 1 .1 ' !'';■ I 'I annum for the government of the countrj-. Give nv an ans^^'er ? Yoiv say you like work ; thcr.; i. your o{.por. tnnity. Or I will take you to some fair seciicn of terri- tory thai I know of, as lovely a land as tver oyos rested upon, where you may dwell in peace and never be troubled with Mahdist invasions and fractious tribes ; where you shall constantly U^ , comn unification with thr sea; where regular supplies shall be sent to yo-^ and your most secret, desn-es shall be gratifi „d to the full. \ ou shall ha vo hi<.li pay befitting your station and monry. ibr yo.u- troops °1 ^nvo no authority for this, but you must take my guar- ai ieo ii,at it shall be done as I say, and meantime I assume the responsibility. My first duty is to the Khe- dive, o^ cours. ; but his proposal that you should with- draw and accompany us I see you are unwilling to accept because you think your people would n,;t accompany you! Well, I did not come in a half-hearted n.anner to serve. I offer you your choice of the other two. I simply wish to serve you.' "For some secret, undefined reason the Pasha could give me no definite reply ; but as the long absence of news from Major Barttelot required that I should hasten to search for him, Emin was assured that as he could not answer suddenly to such propositions the interval of my absence could be employed by him in pondering upon them and coming to some resolution. I travelled back to the rear column to find it Vrecked, and afterwards re- turned to the Nyanza for the fourth time. The first news I heard on arrival was that Emin was a prisoner in his province, without soldiers or servants, bound hand and foot, and in i-»ovi] nf li.'c. ijfa p,,* — _„ if • , 1.! ^,..!i ,), ai„ iiie. ruv yuurseii m my place. ■^ EMIN PASHA, THE RESOUED. Gt^ Here I had been sent into the middle of Africa to relieve Emin, and I now found myself before a combination of rare mishaps. The end of all our ettbrts was to be told of the collapse of the province, the imprisonment of the Pasha, and the loss of my officer. I had already lost two good soldiers and hundreds of lives in this cause, and un- less we were extremely prudent it was likely more lives would be lost. The first thing to do was to find the con- ditions of bis imprisonment, and then to discover what assistance could be given him. It was reported to me that the Pasha was detained by his troops as a prisoner through his misplaced belief in his prestige with them that they would shortly restore him to his powei-. I was also told by my officer that there was no ground for such belief ; that the collapse was total and final. For many months I had waited for the answer whether the Euro- peans would stay in Africa or return with us to the sea. If the Pasha was a prisoner and could not inform me who was to receive the ammunition we had brought him, and could not say whether he declined the Khedive's invita- tion to return home or would remain where he was, then it would be necessary for me to destroy the ammunition and order a retreat. I wrote the Pasha to that effect. It was answered by the Pasha's appearance near our camp under very peculiar conditions. Soon after the revolt of the troops the insurrec- tionary Mahdists had invaded the province and cap- tured four stations and a large store of ammunition They had driven the troops wild with fear, and these had come to the conclusion that it would be better fn pn.^r favour with the Khalifa of Khartoum by capturincr the ;!'; II i\ I I ( .,) I 4mm 64 THE DARK CONTINENT. exped t on, and can, l.ono,,.- and glory from t,„ Mahdi than fo low the fortunos of their Governor. A ha nv pmspect truly for us, to be the .slave., or «yee, o(Z Mahd., when we had come into the interior of If L , Uh more ambrtiou., idea. Yo„ nrust remember thlt th people were permeated and saturated with treason and rebelhon, and that a great number of Arabi>s r, onle were wth them. They finally professed to believe' wl the Khed,ve had sent me, and that the instructions I had shown from h.m were really authentic. They were elevJr enough to perceive that if they now came to^ne my I questron wou . be, -But where is your Governor "wheTe « my ofhcer ? In order to have an interview with me they saw ,t was neces.,aT, to release their prisoners am beg the Pasha's pardon. Their idea now Z to come to my camp and avail thonrsolves of their knowledge of our promhedTo ■""°°™m' "' »"""•""!'>'■ The P^sha had promised to .orgive them and introduce them to ,„e He accompamed them to my camp; unfortunately, though my fnend Emm praised some of them highl a datk cloud of su.,picion had settled in my „,i„d. %Ve h„ard a great deal more than they suspected. We saw nmch hat was unsatisfactory, and we never had faith in ti"e 1. fessions for ,r,any good reasons. They told us that if wo would g,ve them a reasonable time they would collect the.r famrhes and soldiers, and would come back w Xl m3^'T\ r"" "" '''"''"' '"'■ "'^ SroU favour t Eflindma had done them. Any immature man would W been apt to believe them, they were so plausibrand apparently SO repfin^ant Af fhp t^-^s ' 1 ^"^- ^^ ^"^ xusiiiiH request area- EMIN PASHA, THE RESCUED. (55 sonabic time was promised them that they might embark their fa,mlie,s and reach our camp. The Pasha thou-^ht that 20 days were sufficient. They returned to Wad^Iai with he steamers, abstracting a Remington rifle as they departed. -^ " Thirty days passed, and then a big mail came from Wadela,. We hoard only of plots and oonspiracios, o( one party hemg against another, one elique against an- other, one day one goes up, the next day the other. We are told It IS lilce a seesaw between Fadla Mulla Bey at one end and Sehm Bey at the other; and that that was the condition of the Equatorial Province. I had waited 30 days, and then tlie Pasha, alway., faithfully believin. n h,s people, asked if I would e.xtend the time. I gav^ hun untd the 10th of April_,4 days more. On /pji ' =th_five days before we started-there was another at- tempt to serze nfles, n.ade at night, by the refugees in our ?„T 1 ?°^\T''""^ ^ f™"'" <"" ">at. while Emin Pasha beheved that all the people already in our eam« were a,.hf„l to Idm, there was .Lily on/on^manTvI .ng to go with h,m of all the 600 refugee.,. I then tahT.^h„ n°""''° ?^ °^" '"""'''• «»* ''■™' 'his time to.th I should g,ve orders, and whoever disobeyed them would be at once shot. There were no more IfTor ., a" eonsprraey or robbery of riHes for a tiu,e. On the dat prom,sed we marehe,. from the neighbourhood of ute owt 'to a" °" ,^' '"" ^'^' '"'«'■ -^ had to halt m^l „ ■ """^ '"r^'- '^'■^ halt lasted one month ™,e at a place only three days from the Nyanza. D„r- '"« *■■' """^ "y '^'"P ™ a perfect hotbed of sedition. n I s* ^\' III ! iriiii, , I ] .' ' , 66 THE DARK CONTINENT. Rill> vveic 'luiou, women rli.sappeared and collected at a rendezvous formed at our old camp on the Nyanza Th.^ugh too ill to do more than whisper a few instruction.s' I had callable officers. One of these, Lieutenant Stairs' was selected to capturo r'„. • one at this rendezvous. Among those captuiud was one Rehan, who was the in- stigator and leader of the malcontents. Rehan was tried patiently by a court ; the court gave its verdict of guilty, and as the court was inexorable that death should be the penalty, I signed the order consigning him to his fate This was the last trouble I had with these unfortunate people from the Equatorial Provinces." Thus closes a painful and distracting scene in the • drama of the time. The puijwse of the journey would, not have been crowne.;, on tlie contrary, the lims and objects of the lelief expedition would have been entirely frustrated, had Emin stayed behind in his territory. The disposition of many is to be impatient with tlie vacillat- ing Governor; but such forget that had Emin refused the proffered succour, he could not have done so short of courting death. A fairer and more sympathetic view of the circumstances may i i had from the following extract " with wi . h ^vc conclu this cl apter, from the pen of an editorial writer in the London Globe ;~" A poet in want of a ^^.-me for a tragic soliloquy need ask for no- thing more suggestive, thtvn Emin's reflections on quitting Africa. In the great venture ; hat led him there ibr good° he had embarked hi^ all of genius, energy, and hope! His devotion to h:, ork led him to rhnnge his \ery name in order to re ,ve ' traces of his Frankish origin. From Dr. Edward bchnitzer he became Emin, or ' the f m ■'■ EMIN PASHA, THE liESCUED. QJ Faithful One; and he, in „ „»„„„,. f,„ j y^ o..gm m h,s perfect ,y„,p,thy with his ntw oon.pat X H,s prevmce wa., >n a fngl,tf„l „t„te »he„ it ca.ne into «,e KheJivo. I„ th.ee or four yea,, ho had .odueod it to peace, conte„t„,ent,, and order; banished the slave dust '","n'VT'°"^ i"""'"'""' ''''™"""- -I in- uenctot £32,000 per a. '.,um into a surplus of £Hi)ni W en he eould no l„u„er hold it for t'he KhedtT held t on l„s own account against the slavers. He was .na hur way to become the Rajah Erooke of Central f Dr Fefr"" iTy'f " ^'""^- ' «'' -"olo hear tTe w. f ; '^''■"'""■g''' '»»'"«'l to be centred i^ he welfare of lus people and the advancement of .sci- ence, and no Idea of fame seemed to enter his mind ' It i '.tlvf 77 '=-''PO'""»t ''»andsonre surplus to the Governrnt """'""" '" ""^ " evlythi^'t^eat"' C' '=°"^' '^"'"^ ™'' ^'^'^ "' the/hade™ be ^inX'proTthrf d'^"" <"' ""'" t^e We of'assisLCf:::::;;^: :Tittri: '"' only when there was no longer rnvthin,,* l / """' when wo read to them the me slge that t^, -' *"' '-'i'h Mr. Stanley or never eww . ^ """' '**'" f^mthe Egyptian Goverrmelt'thatZr" ?"''"" n thoir „ii„„-.r-- J. T' ™°-""«y began to waver 7=""^'=" '" '"^- *'"<>■• ''Allows, what could they .Ji IILI I ! I -i: ,1 I li I II II 74 THE DARK CONTINENT. do ? They didn't wish to leave ; the Khalifa's forces were advancing up the Nile, they now had everything to gain and nothing to lose by turning against me. I do not blame them ; they are but Africans, and nothing else was to be expected of tliem." How misplaced was Emin Pasha's trust in his soldiery we have already seen. Not only were they averse to following him to the coast, they mutinied against and imprisoned him. Yet his heart ever went out to them, and he makes all sorts of excuses for their turnino- against him. He speaks enthusiastically of the commer- cial capabilities of his Province and says that it only wants good government. The uprising in the Soudan he ascribes not so much to religious fanaticism as to the im- patience of the tribes of the district with Egyptian mis- rule, " If some power," he observes, " in whom the tribes had coniideuce, would come — some power like England —which would take an interest in the welfare of the people instead of plundering and oppressing them, it would be welcomed with open arms." It would not be difficult, he thinks, to recover the whole country from the Mahdists and open it to civilization and trade. Tiiis he urgently calls upon European Governments to do. But we are getting away from the subject to which we had devoted this chapter — the characteristics of Stanley and Emin Pasha, as seen in action. In contrasting the two men, we are perhaps in danger of being intluenced by sectarian and national prejudice. The latter is appar- ently already at work in forecasting at least what Emin Pasha will now do. So far, he has been discreet enough to keep his own counsel, though it would seem that his m ^ lalifa's forces everything to 1st me. I do and nothinor n his soldiery ley averse to 1 against and out to them, .heir turning " the commer- that it only tie Soudan he as to the im- ilgyptian mis- om the tribes like England elfare of the iing them, it would not be jountry from trade. This its to do. ' to which we cs of Stanley ntrasting the ig influenced tter is appar- it what Emin 3reet enough 3601 iiiBit his EMIN, STANtJSy, AMU OOKDON. 75 German nationality has been worU^.i ut. . ,. future. If he keens hi. iLmT ^ • ^^ ^'' great service to hLnan y C, ''j:"^^ ^« '' f-^^er Province. But it must U ; ''^''"' *° ^'^ °^^ .ifts are those of :XU,r:ttT-''^'^^^ or active leader of men. Mom! f '"'"istrator become a convert to Mohann cZl' '' " f''^ ^^^° ^''' hardly be said to be in rZ't;:;:t 'TT ous entanglemontB, as well ashi. lZ,T ''"''8'" Egyptian G„ve™,;e„t, Lt u,'? 'f """■' """■ *<> route in any international i„„t, "'". "'"* ""'^ Africa. Upon this rent; T ^."''™ "'' Equatorial with favou?. as ta;::;: af,"t; „rr: "'r'^, '° '°°'' Of the Soudan. Stanley has Z^T^'T '^''^"^gh which this region exerci,! .Z,,, 2 '''"' '''^"'"'tion not spoken to%or„rd V: '•'?""■ ';t '" "^ viron,„ent, the tVvntian rl„ ! , " •^'"'' "'^ *'"'''• ™ %ypt.; while >^x:::^rt::'T' "■" -^ >--•. ^r than the Arab of the C/a < 7 Z """T """^"^ has ba«d a rrthei' \(ril,ln , . P"'"'' " "'iter .ween SUnley and Kni 'Sa'"'tf t*""' '=''""''^' ^- and doci.,ion notwithsta d :« 1 tm"":^ ""''"' privations he had undergone d 1!^^ f '"""''"'«' """^ ing» in what he calls Uhe^r,'' '■'''**''-'^J""'''^y- -.>l»n forest, swar,„i„g wth *:;'";"•""'• '-"">^>^^. and crafty undersized Ten . "u 1 "If'"*^ ''''™*'''^' hesitation and indecisi„ra 's, ." '"T' f '^"'^'^' hrooding from .lay to -lay o' „ 1 ' '^""'""™ a»»'et. of -to go, or not to .^o'and 1,., "T"*""" ''"'"'"™ -nti,„'ent of romantic 'fMditr:::;' ■"''', " '"''''^ -rxeo reoelled against him and b«tmy^ hiZ^' "'"" "*" I s*?" III II 76 THE DARK CONTINENT. But we pass on to a larger phase of this question — the characteristics of the leader of the Emin Relief Expedi- tion as seen in action. The contrast we desire to present now is that between Stanley and Gordon Pasha, a paral- lel which rises naturally in the mind when we recall the events in the Soudan which brought Gordon to his death and led to the beleaguering of his lieutenant, Emin Pasha. Since the return of the Relief Expedition, quite a con- troversy has raged in England over points of contrast be- tween the explorer and the hero of Khartoum, and we have been fortunate in lighting upon an im[!ortant con- tribution to the literature of the controversy. It comes from the Cairo correspondent of the London Times and is written manifestly from the best sources of informa- tion and with judgment and ability. The picture drawn of the two men is not only of interest in itself, but it throws a flood of light on the situation in the Soudan as well as on the character of Stanley " No two men," says the Times' Cairo correspondent : * " offer more extraordinary contrasts and resemblances than Gordon and Stanley. The men whom the one at- tracts are not generally those to whom the other is sym- pathetic ; but circumstances brought me continually across the path of each, and I am Catholic enough to profess an admiration for both, differing rather in kind than in de- gree. " I venture to think that both of them are very imper- fectly understood. The heroic death of Gordon has so impressed the imagination that it is hardly yet possible, 1 1.1 'F iM *From the London Time^, April 9th, 1890. EMIN, STANLEY, AND GOKDON. 77 Without incunmg odium, to spealc of him in tho col.l ter Mr. Stanley, o„ tho other hand, has not ,,erha„, had full justice done to hin,. The brilliancy of hi, lalt fea ., mdeed acknowledged, but Ih.re is a tendency to luid fault with every detail of it. We are told the route vasdl-chosen, the contract with Tippoo Tib a n,i,t«ko h,,, conduct has been arbitrary, and 1,'is letters are „ bad taste. And yet It is fair to ren,e,„ber that Stanley has succeeded m rescuing the garrison of the Equatorial P ovmces, and hat Gordon did not succeed in rescuin. the garrison at Khartoum. ° "It may be urged that there is no fair comparison be- tween the two task.s-that Gordon went alone and th,^ Stanley had British officers to assist him, and a natWe orceathis baek^ Gordon, however, had ' Stewart , h.m, reached Khartoum without opposition by a well- known route, and found there a native army which re- ce,ved him with enthusiasm, so that he was'^^ible d . cla e the city ■ as safe as Kensington-gardens.' Stanley on he other hand, had to reach his ob>etive point by a route absolutely unknown, and when after two years he arrived, ,t was only to And in open revolt the Prison he had come to rescue. •>= t,aiiison "I make this contrast with no desire to dim the .dorv t^Z'T"' 'r " ^"^"'■^" h-tory intl-'s^o^ pe.liapsany other century, but because-leavin.. aside Msh Lr?'™""' T ""'"'■'' 'hebesttraditlonT^f nrblio ;.h„ ." off'^'^i^^-there is a portion of the public^hoseemto co„.,ider that admiration „f Rianl"! a u^nsistoit with respect to the memory of Gordon "' < I > . '.l 'i ■ : :!i! f! i *i 1 1 ill I i 78 THE DARK CONTINENT. .41, " The world is not so rich in men of either type that wo need liesitate to give each his due, and perliaps even a superficial study of the contrasts of cliaracter they present will not be utterly useless. The totally dilferent way in which the two men set out on their not dissimilar expe- ditions is at once an index to their main characteristics. Each recognizes his duty when it comes, each obeys the call— but how differently ? " Gordon, asked whether he can save the garrisons of the Soudan, has no hesitation. He puts aside other work which he has to do, and after a hurried conference with the English Government starts for Khartoum. He hardly asks what his mission is. It is to save life, and that is enough. He has no question to ask, no calculation to make. It is not in his nature to weigh chances, to think over difhculties. He has been given the order. He will go and do his best. As for the means and the result, he leaves those in the hands of a higher Power, ' who guides rae and the wind.' At one moment on his route ho has an inspiration to imprison Zebehr, a little later to trust him absolutely. Only one thought possesses him— to reach his goal at Khartoum, to give courage to that panic- stricken city, and, when there, to save it or to lay down his life for it, as God may direct. " Compare with this the answer of Stanley when he is asked if he can rescue Emin. 'Englij^h people talk much, but sometinxis won't act. Find the means and I am ready.' ' How much money ? ' h© is asked, and he ■Mkes a few pencil calculations, ami hands in an esti- mate, which three years later |»roves to have been exact. Meanwhik he goes to America and oivas lectures. In EMIN VANLEY. AND GORDON. 79 Mi :4 H, ■ I 1 ^^^H 1 iHR ■■ H| 1 ^^B B HHl > ■ I :!" ■' 1 ii<;H! lliti,; 'ili'ljl!!! 80 THE DARK CONTINENT. the imddlo of these he is toJrl that the money is found • will he fulfil his promise ? He hLows no mm ,. hesitation than Gordon himself. He saciilices X8,000 to break his contract, crosses by the first steamer, and is ready But before he starts the exact object of the mission must be defined. Is it to rescue or only to relieve Emin ? The com- mittee and the public are in favour of the latter. A^^ain the pencil makes its calculation. Relief only will cost £20,000 annually; the Egyptian Government will" give £10,000 once for all. Has this difficulty been considered ? If so, he IS ready to relieve him, but it will be relief for one year. Finally it is agreed, after consultation with Cairo, that he is to offer Emin either relief or rescue at his own option, but with the understanding that if Emin chooses the former, the Egyptian Government incurs no furtlv,. responsibility. This settled, there remait-s the rouf . .Stanley is in favour of the Congo ; the Committee and puDuo urge Zanzibar. Stanley seems to give way order. JOO bags of rice to be sent to Mpwapwa in readi- ness for a start from Zanzibar. The Foreign Office re- ceives protests, and begs that if possible some other route may be chosen. The rice is recalled, at the price of Rs 5,000. Stanley convinces the Committee that the Concro route is the best, and everything thus arranged with busmess-hke precision, the expedition starts. "Not only thus, at the outset, but in every starre of these two pages of history is the contrast maintained Stanley's first danger is the power of Tippoo Tib as was Gordon's the power of Zebehr. Stanley has no hesita- tion ; he is not horrified by his reputation as a slave-deal- er, neither is he willing to confide the whole expedition 'w EMIN, STANLEY, AND GORDON. gj to his mercy. He neither ar.ests him nor trusts hin. In.fc ».-mg to pass through his territory, reco-'nti . power, and having no anthoritv to ti-ht him n II. contract with hin. for the .uuply of canL Tf "" assistance , it it ^ broken he is no .. r.fr *k u fore and >,as, at le.st, secured the „, . „ f ,';", ^t novolent neutrality untilho ha. got clea; of h l^t Having done so, and the contract, a.s he expectclCn : bu. .nes..hke way a lawyer at Zanzibar, and brin.^ a for ...al ac ,„„ for dau.age. Gordon was ,evcr aU^ v d to wo....nothave.bje::d\r:to'';;'itt;:;?rs process. o'"v «ji ? i ' ' ■" *'» -^^ -goition of the h:;d „r;;otid:t:e ll ik ^M Ei i '^ ■ kmI ^ ^^1 Bn 1^1 ^^^^^Hf It' ■■f 1 B l||{ I ^1 Bb t S '' l^^^^l B ^ 1 ^^^1 wP> w 1 BiyB^ ' ^1 ^^^^^w ^^^^1 ^^n ^H ^■1 9 ^^^^^^ 1 1 1 ^4 O^. \^t IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 I.I 2.2 lis M 1.8 1:25 111.4 11 1.6 rilUIUgl C1{J1UL> Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 * \ \ A ^"Wf -Hi hi m in 82 THE DARK CONTINENT. continually intervening in matters which to the majority of men would seem too trivial to necessitate such an ex- planation. In saying this lam aware of the kind of comments that have been made, with questionable taste, on some phrases of Stanley's sincerity as I always was of General Gordon's. It is when we note the way in which that fatalism which seems born of solitude manifests itself to the two men that we again see the contrast. " General Gordon said : — " ' I have often executed men, but never without the di- rect sanction of the Almighty. I placed the Bible on my knees, and prayed that if he saw fit to reverse my de- cision he would signify it to me. . . . On no single occasion was my decision reversed.' " And Mr. Stanley recounts : — " ' We were wifcbo.it food, starvation stared us in the face, lind I said, 'The Israelites were starving, and Moses struck the rock and it poured forth water, and the heavens rained manna ; Elijah was starving and he was fed by ravens ; Christ was ministered to by angels, but what angel will minister unto us ? ' At that moment .a guinea fowl rushed across the path at my feet ; my dog caught it, and we all ate flesh.' " Mr. Stanley's Providence satisfies his material wants ; General Gordon's Providence satisfies his conscience. "It will be admitted that neither of the two men whom I am comparing ever feared to face death. Let us see how they would meet it. The most trustworthy ac- count of Gordon's last minutes has become matter of his- tory, but it will bear repetition : — " When Gordon Iseard the rebels in the town, ho said, It is all finished ; to-day Gordon will be killed,' and EMIN, STANLEY, AND GORDON. gg went downstair,, followed by the four sergeant, who took the,r nfles with them. Ho toolc a clfair and^a down on the right of the Palace door, the foJserg ant stand.ng on his left. All at once a Sheikh gallopTup point of firing wh„n Gordon, seizing one of their rifles sa>d,. No need of rifles to-day; Gordon is to be killed •' t^^Mahdi t b ''"k'"" "■^' ""^ " ^- "J-«4- the Mahdi to bnng h.m alive. Gordon refused to <.o sayng he would die where he was, adding that no harm was to be done to the four sergeants, who had not fir^ n the rebels. The Sheikh repeated the order three ^mes, and each time Gordon gave the same answer After a few words, the Sheikh drew his sword Tnd rushmgup to Gordon, cut hi„ over the left sho'ulder rtiic'r'"' """ ''"''''" '" ''" '- "-"^ <"^-'"« no " How Mr. Stanley would have behaved under similar crcumstances, I can only gather from his own accol ot an mcdent in his earlier career • er'w .r^i°"^f "■"' "^^ ' """"* " "■ "^''^Paper report- er by the side of a man condemned to death for an atro- cious murder. He walked to the scaffold with per ect steadine»s without assistance, only looking very pale He was told to stand on the drop and he obeyed fc rope was put round his neck and'tightened, aXn wa *uggle. rhat scene made a gieat impression on me ."r'unht;? Tk"' """ "=""'^ that man do that give up his life without a struggle, without a ,„,„ without a final desperate attempt 2 You sa7he'had ^B iH B 1 ^■; H ^Hi H ^HB [ ^^^^1 ■ 1 1 flHi H ^^^ ^^Bi ^H ^|B; ^H ^^^^^^H ■ ^^^1 ^^H i H Hii ■ ■HE |H ^P^B^I -' ^^1 Ml' ■ jfflg; 9 MHH; - ^^1 ^H; )■ ^^■1 i fl ^Hi- 1 I 1 1, ;:.i 84 THE DARK CONTINENT. ■iii 'i 11 ' ii i no chance. Who knows, and what does he lose by iiKikit.,'^ an attempt ? He was pinioned ! What of that ? Cuu!,l ho not have even used his voice ? I tell you I would have struggled for life till the last second. Would I have walked to the scaffold ? No ; they should have carried mo ! They might have torn me to piec 3 if they liked, but I would have resisted. I would have appeal- ed to the crowd, done something, anything rather than die without a fight for life. I should have failed ? Of eourne 1 should have failed ; numbers would have been too wti'ong for me. What of that ? I should have done my boHt, Man ! I tell you, never give in.' " And whatever may be your opinion of Mr. Stanley, you feel that he is about the last man with whom you would like to have a death struggle. "Tliere is an impression that while Gordon was always undtily tender, Stanley is cruel and tyrannical ; that he 8hed» blood reedlesslyj and that the laws of his own camp are Draconian. " When Gordon was Governor-General in the Sou aan he had the power of life and death, but Ismail, who eould never fully trust any one (he trusted Gordon more thau he trusted any one else), sent him with a Judical OomniiHsion, who were nominally to try the prisoners. The Commission naturally used their position to sell their influence or to obtain delays, during which it was hoped that the Governor's gentle heart might be s( ften- @d. Two men were to be tri'id on a capital offence. Gordon had convincing proof of their guilt ; the com- mittee hesitated, and in reply to repeated requests for their sentence put it otf till ' to-morrow.' At last Gor- EMIN, STANLEY, AND GORDON. 85 don hanged the men, informed the Commissioners, and told them to take care that the sentence was in accord- ance with his execution of it. During his last days in Khartoum, Gordon suffered from unreasoning qualms of conscience, as in the case of the two Pashas executed for treason. Those qualms induced him to spare Faragh Pasha, and Faragh betrayed both Khartoum and Gordon. " Stanley can be severe, though in his whole career he has only executed four of his own followers, all in this last expedition. Gentle and humane as Gordon was, he held his own life so cheap that he was a dangerous man to thwart in his moments of excitement, and the contrition came often too late. The value that Stanley attaches to his own life has often appealed to him in favour of the lives of others ; but, if necessity forbids that appeal there is no contrition. Early in this expedition two Zan- zibaris were tried and convicted of selling rifles and am- munition to the slave-dealing enemy. This, in such an expedition, where everything depends on the superiority of its arms, is a capital offence of the very gravest nature, and the men were condemned to death. I will give the sequel as nearly as possible in Mr. Stanley's own words: Early one morning one of the two was brought on to the parade; all the men stood round in a crowd. I asked him if he had anything to say ; he was mute, I looked at the crowd ; they were mute too. One word from the man himself or from any of the onlookers, one appeal for mercy that would have enabled me to address the crowd, and I would have saved that man's life. It was the effect I wanted, not his life! Not a word was said. I gave the signal, and he swung coram populo. Still I U ' 11 IM i w 'i i' 1 1 1 r 1 1 !," 1 If ;<" 86 THE DARK CONTINENT. watched the crowd. There was no sign — content, dis- content, pity, or anger — only dull insensibility. I said to myself. This will not do, this is not the spirit re- quired to lead these men across Africa. 1 lay awake thinking all night ; the other man was to be hanged at 8. At dawn I sent for the Chief Sheikh of the Zanzi- baris. He came. I said, ' What is this thing you have done to me ? You promised me help, and you do noth- ing. Look ! I have sworn to take you all across Africa ; if you help me I can do it, if you don't I cannot ; if you sell arms to the enemy I must fail. I must stop it. Do you want me to kill these men ? I don't do it willingly! Answer ! ' The Sheikh replied that he would be glad if my Excellency could see the way to spare the remaining man. ' I ! No, yon ! You must save him. If you don't want him to die, tell me so, ask his life, promise me help, make all your people promise.' And then I told him to get the other sheikhs to say nothing to the people, but when I gave the signal, let them ask his life, but ask it really, as if they meant it. At 8 o'clock we were all there again round the tree ; the poor wretch had the rope round his neck. I ask if he had anything to say. Si- lence. I raised my hand to give the sign ; the sheikhs rushed forward, knelt at ray feet, and implored mercy. Immediately every man joined in, too. They wept, they wailed, they implored me. The culprit burst out crying. I said, " Good ; for your sakes I give his life." Then there was a shout, and they all rushed forward ; they fell at my feet, they screamed blessings, they swore they would follow me to the world's end. Ah! that was the spirit I wanted through the camp, and for two months I had nothing but absolute obedience. EMIN, STANLEY, AND GOltDON. 87 "And What," I asked, "about the other poor wretch who was not par.loned, but hanged ? " "'Ah! that was necessary, 0° I could not have nro dueod the effect. It was justice, and I could not have" given way unasked without giving the impression If woakness. No ! rigid justice finst, above all, but ^" er ed with mercy where you safely can ' ^ "Absolute devotion to duty, utter fearlessness perfect sincenty. and power in the governn.ent of n.en-t^!!se chaiacters of loth Gordon and Stanley, and vet in everv "With Gordon, duty before alj, but the duty was to .t pa t of that duty to do so, but in carryin.. them out he always submitted them in appeal to tie W , her authority. That higher authority was to him no fd I al»raet>on: ,t *as an ever-living Presence si»nifyTn' cla.ly a, commands through his eon.cience-a sensft ivf conseience, a ways nobly inspired, but liable to ,c on mi' ht ""r"" '"? *r '" "'""' '"^ °™ -"™- «a" s.bihty, for he served a higher Master to whom all thin™ were possible. Rescue the provinces of the So Z Why not If God willed ? Alone, or with help ? Alone (01- the Lord of Hosts was with hi,„ ! And .hen wh " ,t proved impossible, and he wa. told to save 1, msll and l.e garrison of Khartoum-no! for it is an order he deems dishonourable, and he refuses. n 'I, :! ! I 88 THE DARK CONTINENT. I il 1 ] 1 i 1 iii 1 i'l 1 •1 ! 1 il ,| 'li :j'rt § i m % \ I'f < " Admire the character as much as we may, we are forced to admit that it was a trying one with which to work out a complex problem in the nineteenth century. " With Stanley the sense of duty is no less strong, but it is the duty to his neighbour which is most prominently in his thoughts. Not that he will sacrifice any higher duty to that, but he will see that there is no conflict be- ween them. Believing in the action of a Supreme Power, but knowing that he cannot control it, he does not think it his duty to allow it to enter into his calcula- tions. Very loth to admit that there are limits to human possibility, he will yet accept no task that he sees to be humanly impossible. His actual orders, the exact limits of his discretion, must be absolutely understood and agreed to, both by himself and his employers, before he will consent to act. That done, and every possible arrangement made to provide for every contingencey that can be foreseen, he starts and will fulfil his duty to the letter at any sacrifice, his life included. " When he was administering the Congo State he de- termined never to push a mile forw^ard until he had thoroughly organized the mile he had left behind. An adventurer he might be, in the best sense of the term, but not when he was an administrator. He welcomed the news that Gordon was to be sent to join him until he received a letter from the latter. In that letter Gordon, fired with a noble enthusiasm, spoke of pushing onward north, south, and east. ' Together, please God, we will exterminate the slave-trade at its roots.' " ' I reckoned,' said Stanley, ' that it was time for me ' to git.' My orders ,!5sid nothing about exterminating the .slave-trade,' EMIN. STANLEY, AND OORDOy. 89 >veleo,„o.J death, Stanlev I /; *"" "'"•<'''■> «l">o.st " 'o '1- last, not .0 much " -f' ""'' *"' %•■* for (mlure. ""'='■ "> a™"' death a., to „void " Alike in their absolute sincerity „ . "ffer - greater contract in hel ^' "" ^""^ "">" """M society, with his eye, caat I f""""' '^"■'''on in f°'- 'ong in the f^ irL ^C o"'''"" '"»'''"»" ^- vousness and tin.idity A ,.™ ^ constitutional ner- ''»" as the least remarkaWe tT' ''°"''' ''"^ '•'^ff»>-ded f-embly. Alone withhtm the "=" ""■ '" ""^ "-age became in turns conflden^i ', ,"" """''''"''^ "'■anged. «"th merriment or assumfn lu 5/' ''"'«■• 'tinkling -Wch baffles descriptr^Zi tltf . '"^'^«" "">£ [^aveseen no portrait „,hLtSi:L'"r:St ^■•^tocalUnswJrs ^Uh n,e?'' """' """■^'''"'^ -ho declines answering otle "^Th " T' 1°»^«0"«and away with the impression 'that he hasT7 ™"°^ S°» 'hough not cordially, received K ™ """''toously, not of words. But L ^e ^ * ■""" «' action, but "■'7 him better. anX ZZ'- °' "■"' """^ ^«*^ "° '•-^abze that it is only his re^tanJ " "'''°'"<'''' "'"' ^ou overshadows his taknts as/n „ *7 " ^ '™™'^' ^hich »Ps, little more than what vo^h ^ "' **"■' ^'™' Po- "^ '" ^'^-^^ -ene rises before yo ^Jou 1 "" ^^"^^'« ; F you— you seem yourself ill flB: 1^1 B 1 1 1 ^^■i ' 1^1 ^^M; ■ ^B; ^^1 mm ■ B I m If » i I . ; j (| MM 90 THE DARK CONTINENT. to be an actor in tlic story while you listen to it, you are toiling through the forest, fighting with the tribes, rejoic- ing in the return to sun and green fields, or joining in the argument with Einin. Nor is it only mere description here and there is a veritable flash of eloquence, or a terse, nervous way of stating an original view on some well-worn subject, all interspersed with ready, appropri- ate anecdote from past experience, Stanley also possess- es that quality, invaluable to a good speaker, of being a good listener as well. Far from engrossing the conver- sation at a table, he does his best to draw out the more modest who would be content to listen, and a quiet argu- ment is nearly as necessary to his comfort as a cigar. " It is too soon yet to pronounce the final verdict on Gordon as a man of action. The sweetness of his per- sonal character and the pathos of his death have left a halo round his memory which obscures impartial judg- ment. " ' It is so much easier to worship Christ than to imi- tate him,' said Julian, and the same is true of Gordon. " It is so much easier to create an imaginary and idyllic Gordon, and to pass down to posterity a beautiful myth, than to study the actual Gordon, with all his strange contradictions only throwing into greater relief the real sterling worth of the man as he was. Whether the world gains by this easier method of writing history I doubt, but this I know, that Gordon himself, were he now living, would regard with equal contempt the well- meant caricatures of him drawn by his worshippers and the efforts to increase his fame at the expense of injus- tice to others." CHAPTER V. ^ THE RELIEF EXPEDITION SETS OUT. ^AVING seen somethinrr of ih w.th their chief charL'te L L; T"''''' ngufe in this antl «nK ' "" *'•« 'o «;° in a position to go on ^i ^r' "'"'P'^'-^' -» -^^y of the Rescue'of °Lt ^h Tt"" "' "'^ been narrated will it i, i,„ , '"" """' a'^ady ^ comprehend tl^'e s t,.-^^ ' ?*"' "'^ ^^"''''^ 'hfe division oftr ,bi r ""'* "^^^ -"'■ ^hy the expedition was' ea^le'r '" ""<'^""'"'' ■'""ght to accomplish iltle^ "^ "'"' "''•»' 't now to set out. Thl e,t , T'™ °" "''"'='^ '' i" of Emin Pasha and his neonl " 'C °""' *"'' ■""ef not there were, however, some ZZi' , .^.'"'" ^'"'^^ or undertaking the ..issio,^ wWeh 1 . "T ""'•''"*^ '" ^'^'^ m not.ced. Geographical rrstch?" "'' '^ '™"»tally "as hoped that the expedi Hnl f ""' °^ "'ese. It ■'has, to our knowled^ "t^/" "7"^ -ould add, as Tl.eg.-eat waterways, the vast LrA'^ ""'' *^ P^opio. ■"gWands and occasional „Tu„tefn T""- *^ """■^■'ous >'eg.on of forests, the nat,lT «'e™tions, the dense the native ra»- i, *' ^sources, the "):—. , races—all were expected ,. " ; '""^'o and ^pected, through the oper- ii I' J ill ifi iii. J* rJiJI:,,: I m •;f '!! If I : HI 92 XriK DARK CONTINENT. atioiiH f)f tlio cxjK'dition, to liu lietter known and the information recorded. Facts with ret;ai(l to tlie pros- poet of missionary work and the more tliorougli suppres- sion of the slave trade were also hoped to ho elicited throu« P'-actioe it i. futile to assert fo ° thTl '" '""""'"'™- ^'' sovereignty which would iceoT out f?" '""°'"" <" so'l "self," says a writer "h! u """'■'oP""- "The *l'o live upon it. jf ^ _™ "f .'^ f' well as savages occupant, the measure IfTv "'" '''""' '''"'I'orisinal «"eJ by its intrin ie eapa Jlit """r' '" "'"'='• " '» - '0 supply its want, Xf f' " "" '""'" -'""Se.^ other to have foreign su^erZ '"^ '" '"""' f°™ or r'-»*iil bolLnite'd and Ire i' T'""" ""»™ ''"'''^^"1- ;t ought not to be impossible " '^^."^^"''"''en. But I'enefit to the invader wUh an u "'""'' "'° """^^"ent ■"'tive. He has it in hTs favo„r """' '''™"'»»^ '» *«= ">■* lords, to solve the pro bZ; V '"^"»^»»t to his "nent ha, resources wh!ch it 1 " f"'^'' """ "-o con- "0"c but hhn. Jt is no """ ^''or permanently to ,'^-^«n«tion„f it:;:::,r;:^;'™h wait, omy^..^ --everywhere by >vhite "s-eUler^T'oirtt:':: THK DAllK CONTINENT. hiis European lieutenante ""'"'""'^'^ »' i^et us now revert in ih^ ^i • 18SC, when the mol elent totk'T ™°/"'^ "' "'^ >'»« Emin Pasha. News of tt pth Th % ""' ™'="°'"- »' nor of the Soudan was in „ , ^^yptian Govei- been brought to the eoast by Dr til "'""'^^ '""■ ^^ also reached England fmm M ICw ?"' '^.''»-'>''d dLe witratTw rjl.t'!;f%7'l^' *™"Sh corrTspon- eal officer to the S l'^'''.''''"8'>. '-"erly „'edi- Pasha's Cairns. intl!^fZZt7Zl "'" "''"''" ''" ity, before the GeograpM!!,.,'"*™'™''^'''''! human- Capital. TheCouncifonhaTq ?'^ "^ "'^ Scottish by sending a series of str!n ?'^ '"""^ ">^ ^t^ativo ■e.-gb.the„^o..ei rsi:rr"T rr r.""^" "■^- Society of Loudon followed ,,',if !■ " Geographical H=Hy to the perilous PZltXTET"'^'', P""" The movement for his relief tl,.„ '''"*/"'"' ^as placed, was advocated in B W 'm r '^ "™' ^""P^' ^"J Egypt. The Pasha?S„ Tf^::?"^' ^^ "' ^""^ "-^ Pion in Sir William MackT„lo„ ' '"k*""''^'"" ■='>"■»- to- of the British Indial^aTrvC.tn^c'"'"" ''"■^''- became chairman of an organi^atio"? TdS^n'o "'" oer, 1686, under the tiflo ^p ii, """^^ m Decern- Committee. BytheiLtt f , ^' ^'™'" Bey Relief i20,000wasato^« ated ::tb t "' ''" ""'^ ^""^ ^onated by the EgypirGotrm;:^^'^ O '"''''' actvoly got to work, and „„,> " -he ™^ ^"'""'iWoe B*sh foreign Office, and witl7he tUrcHpliL" m ^11 '.T.ll 'I if t I ., ' 'it, I 90 THE DARK CONTINENT. and practical aid of Leopold, King of the Belgians, and other friends of African exploration, Mr. Stanley's ser- vices were secured for the Relief Expedition and arrangements at once made for its despatch. After the funds had been provided and Mr. Stanley's offer to lead the expedition gratuitously had been ac- cepted, the great question arose as to the route to be taken. Three suggestions were debated: (1), the route from Mombasa through the Masai country, via Kilman- jaro ; (2^\ a caravan route directly eastward from Baga- moya and south of the Victoria Nyanza to the Muta Nziga ; and, (3), the water route of the Congo and the Aruwimi. Each route had its supporters, and all three presented elements of difficulty. Finally, deliberation settled upon the Congo as the most suitable, the chief ad- vantage of which was that it was already known, in part, to Stanley, and would have the benefit of the means of transport on the river generously offered by the King of the Belgians. Apparently, the advantages of a water- way traversable by steam were great, and no one can question King Leopold's good fjiith as President of the Congo Free State in pressing it upon the Committee, But its real practicability was little foreseen, else another route would doubtless have been chosen. When the Relief Committee had secured the necessary funds ana obtained the approval of the British authori- ties, Mr. Stanley had set out on a lecturing tour in the United States. From this he was, however, recalled, and by the close of the yoar 1886 we find him back in Lon- don, getting together his stores and organizing the expe- dition. An important and responsible task was that of i THE RELIEF EXPEDITION, SETS OUT. 97 selecting the European staff, who were to .n. h.in. The choice fell upon the foil ^^''rJ^^"3^ Maj r Barttelot of the 7th F ? "'"^ gentlemen: served in the \n A ^''''^'^'''' ^^ o^cer who had Canadi^^l' he Crtr^^"^^^^ ^^-"^ ^ Knglish ^olunteorTint r^' ^^Ptain Nelson, of the M^ntene,-i:;tn.r H;. :f ^^ ^:' ^^. Besides Mr. Stanley, tl.o lo^ul.,- JTlf ™"''^- H.ose seven member^ o hit s 'fT ^^P-^^'""". an.l of ohe Free State, who wr^tjnmr :it-t : :f:L;tL"°r '-' *'- j"- ^"- together with a mitrailleuse on a novel plan an,rr"fT the li „;:fe:;?t!:iar.:;r' ■" '^"'"'^^'«^^"<' - E.™^™s''ii:'sZy"'f'v'"" ''ft-" f"o-" visit to .ion --ived at'ikf:;,,f;:„'7;*'7^^- ""^ '''^' a few days to r„ir„ , "Y ' ^^"'o^ "ent on for Junker, who wa:henon°h"" u' '"'^'"™ -" ^r. Februa;., sLI fe/' ft Cai l Z's ""'■ ?" ^^ «*•> "'' tlio expedition reiehe 1 tT , I ' '""' °" "><> 22nd >^iban soMiorv and r,^ ! convey the party, with the Zan- The route .hl^rtastlhV'" TrV' '"^ '^^™«<'- Somalis,8inter|,reters0'.^7 ^'T'-"' **' «ouJ''"o'o, 13 nterprete, s, 023 ^anabans, and a large f oUow- Iriill WIS mil ■I: ^i! M'4'^' I P ■ 1, f "< OH THE DARK CONTINENT. \u^ of 'Pippoo Tib's jieople, with the Arab ivory-trader and MlaV(!-(lfalor himself. Tippo Tib, it will be recalled, is the I'lllf^r of the savage Manyeinas of the Upper Congo whom Livingstone found settled at Nyangwd on the Lualaba, tlfid who was useful to Stanley in his first famous descent of tlio Congo. With this important personage Stanley^ pttrtly at the British Consul's suggestion, made a com- pftct, in the name of the royal President of the Congo Free State, by which for a monetary consideration he was to give the expedition the right of way and to furnish it with a supply of GOO carriers from Stanley Falls to Wad- oltti, How Tippoo Tib failed in carrying out this agree- iiHMit and all but wrecked the expedition, we .shall learn later on. In the meanwhile Stanley trusts the rascal, is ploascd that he has gained his good-will, and confers on him the office and title of Governor of Stanley Falls. Ah this sinister personage figures largely in the after- history of the expedition, a few facts may be of interest to the reader. Tippoo Tib is half Arab, half- negro, his I'rtther being a Zanzibar Arab and his mother a Mrima woman. He is about 50 years of age, has short grisly hair and beard, and in his flowing white robes has a pa- triarchal look. He h a keen trader, with a great capacity for business, has a vivacious and rather courtly manner, and is energetic and decisive in his movements. He owns immense plantations on the Upper Congo, which are cultivated by thousands of slaves ; and his sway ex- tends over the whole Manyema district, where his num- erous caravans, with strong guards of armed blacks, may Ijo often met with. Hitherto he has been held in high repute by travellers as well as by natives, and Zanzibar r^-trader and called, is the /ongo whom .he Lualaba, lous descent -ge Stanley' lade a com- l the Congo ition he was M furnish it ills to Wad- j this agree- 3 sliall learn he rascal, is I confers on y Falls, n the after- e of interest If-negro, his er a Mrima short grisly es has a pa- eat capacity •tly manner, ments. He )ngo, which lis sway ex- re his nura- blacks, may leld in high tid Zanzibar THE iiELIEF EXPEDITION SETS OUT. 99 TIPIOO TIB. ^M J 100 THE DARK CONTINENT. P Jf!i ili! officials deemed him a man of his word. Naturally, Stan- ley was fain to propitiate the man and to bind him by covenants to assist the expedition as well as to uphold the authority of the Free State, on the vast stretches of the river, and to lend his aid in limiting, if not in sup- pressing, the slave trade. The agreement was worth making, and so far his fidelity to engagements had not been questioned. Unluckily, the leader of the expedition was ere long to have his own experience of the value of Tippoo's word. With ninety followers he embarked with the rest of the expedition — in all some cSOO souls — for .Banana Point, at the mouth of the Congo. The Expedition left Zanzibar on the 24th February, 1887, and after a brief call at the Cape, reachetl the Con- go on the 18th of March. Casting anchor in front of the French factory at Banana, a gay scene presented itself, the entire population, white and black, of the place turn- ing out to welcome the Madura with her motley human freight. In the harbour, fortunately, there was a consid- erable amount of shipping, and Stanley had little diffi- culty in transferring his party to the river boats in which to cover the short pa,ssage from the sea to Matadi, at the foot of the rapids. Here the Expedition was to disem- bark and march to Stanley Pool, above which the river is clear of obstacles to navigation. Within two days after the arrival at Banana Point, the transport flotilla had had begun the ascent of the river and reached Boma, seat of the local administration of the Free State and the chief emporium of trade on the Congo. In the fine roadstead of Boma a brief halt was made, then the voyage was re- sumed and night brought the whole Expedition to Matadi. THE RRLTKF EXPFnTTmv c,,.,^ r,Ai huinov SETS 0T7T. JQI Here tJioro i.s a L'roun nf u\, and Portug„o,cC„' in '■"'"''" »'="'«■»<'■'*''. a Dutch i» projected from tht pl^^t .i ™ " "f ''' •■"'■ ^ """V south side of the river oslf " p"'r " ™^ ^ "« Leopoldville. At Mitadi f„t f ^ ^°"'' " ''"'^ '"'y»"d barking the 800 p^,^;, ' ' " ,f ^ T.''""' '" •^"^'"- 1.500 packages, tho'„,i ai, e„ ^ .n^^P;!""™; Z''^ '"eir boat. Some portion of thlft P"""''''' "''"'1'=- organi.ation, ^o ex^t":;:,' "rr^^t'-'" '""' fee .n the formation of sale encampn^ente ^■■''°" a 1 i i ''■ R ill ill i:^!!*!! - * r, il /^ Ji chaptp:ii vr. THE START FOR THE INTERIOR. lialf-past four on the morning of the 25th of March, 1887, reve'dU was sounded in the camp at Matadi, and sliortly afterwards the cohimn began its first day's march into the in- terior. In the vanguard, we learn, were the Soudanese soldiery ; then followed the Somalis, the Zanziboris, and the porters with their loads; after which came Tippoo j'ib and his people, then the twelve sections of the whale-boat, borne by stout cai-riers ; the rear being brought up by a small fiock of merino sheep brought from the Cape for the uses of the Expedition. Stanley, astride a handsomely caparisoned donkey, with youths bearing the banners of the Expedition, led the column. Before him lay the journey of 2,000 miles, much of it leading into the unknown, and, being unknown, was full of peril and uncertainty. Even the march to Stanley Pool was beset with no little difficulty. On a former journey over the route six Europeans and over fifty na- tives succumbed to the hardships of the march. For centuries this part of Africa had baffled the efforts of travellers to penetrate it; to-day, thanks to Stanley, there are now twelve European stations on the route, 102 THE START Fen THE TNTERIOR. 103 to an elevation of ^oon f , , "™'''''- -Tlio land mos teamed by raviL, aZ , ?"" ""^ ""''■ "'"''= " '•' blocked by ZllZ' , V''"'''''-'' ''°''''"'- "'^ '"< The river be t a . "■; " '""'"S '"''yrinth „f graa,. altitude of nearly f tl, I^rfet 'trT °"r"' ^" in breadth from gooo to Tm , '''^""'' """<=" tracts the Congo nou!" i^ n T, ' ""'' "'"^'•'' '' "™- and seething nt:.";!;!" y ". ea" CZ'" \':'^?"»" ne and chafcrl Iw ,no • * ooulder.s in the chan- avan road, the fat^t H^/Z'l^' "'^ '^^ beinff ncreased hv f !.<. , ° toilsome ascents the Ifriea: :„. %"l ir:""-^"'' '"'"*"« glare of of g^ves of palm treTa d he pallb 7™'^'"'/''''''^ anas and other tropical fruit ''^"'''^"''^ '='™»" "f ban- onters a region destitn e „f t"°"' '"""'™'' *° «°1»""' -ntyear:itrdrrfrt'xi™ii"f;T''^^'"'"°' routes. The consm„„n„ proximity to the caravan 800 men. The eXT A? "■"*" ''™"^ '^ "" a™^ "f commercial resources of tlr: "Tn'' "^" ""''""^ «- described by a bIiI!! Ifh' ', ^^ ofh^mha^been State, and hi, aecoi^! T '" ""' ""'^ "^ ">« Free of the article oS for I! T"^ '"^ "' '" ""^ -'"- versiox., London": j!'c.'Nimm'o^*'"''^'' ^"'° ^'^'''^ Expedition." English M ■ i I ^^^^^nl I Hbb I' 1 ■1 1 1 aia 1| i 51. 104 THE DARK rONTTNKNT. "is a ^'athoriiig of beUvocii i^OO ami ;K)() salospooplc of both ■soxcs, with thoir variety uf ^rood.s (Huplayod either in bas- kets or spread out on banana leaves.a throng of purchasorH njeanwhilo ni()vin Pop- •;- the J^akon,. 'tribe T,;:°^/-' » "-t know';, '°';.«'' 'l;ey Co a eo„sidoIb%tL^- "=""="""-'». (inJia rubber), ivory and nakn „ir n° '" """"'tdwuc •"oMy froen,e„, evfrv 2^ ' i "'" ^^'^""^"^ are ';'» own chief. They ire doeile and T "ft' P'"''' "^'-g "•^'■■ouble to the whiteint drwIT''' «■""«'''- :';-'"us to trade, and are ap „ coDvT , "'" """^ ^'- 'ts and modes of work. ManvanT ° "'""'""' ^ab- cent. in this region, and it, afrSt rT^r '■"P""'""' tl'c Congo Government with larZ 1 i f °' '"'"'^hes a.e anxious to engage in its : = ;;'';';" °' P"'"''' -^o selves readily to the requiremllt t / ''f ■-' '"'"P' 'h*^'"- tlio caravan trade; in time t " „ 1- h "' '' "'"' "^^ »' sans and navvies. At present th "" ""P"'"" arti- bu«len. When the priottd ,,f, '' "! ''""P'^ •>«"'« of 'act, their condition win no do bt""'' """"""^ " ^'"".ed proved transport service In th '"""" ^'"> ">e im- audMr R„J T •'n the meanwhile Mr r„ i, ""• «ose Iroup, of the Kmin H..i; i r. '"«liam them excellent porters, "•'* Expedition, h'nd (i li :t 11 11 IH \y0 THK DAiiK CONTINENT. M ifrillil' ' 1 1 If'l 1 1 t 1 ! Lukuugii was leacbed by Stanley 'j» party on the 8th of April, and by the 21st, the column tiled into Stanley Pool. On the way no serious casualties occurred, the whole force being well ofticered and under the careful supervision of its competent chief. Kach European avail- able was told otr to the charge of one specitic duty or other, and held responsible for all that happened under his immediate command. The force was divided into four companies, each numbering about 200 men. The Zanzi- baris were committed to the care of Messrs Nelson, Stairs and Rose Troup; while the Soudanuso and Somalis were assigned to the control of Major Barttelot. When camp was formed each evening, discipline was relaxed for a time and all were allowed a little frolic. This put every- one in better humour for the toils of the coming day. Oc- casionally, when rivers had to be crossed the labour of tho task was considerable. On the whole this pjrtion of the journey was successfully accomplished. Of it, or rather of the incidents and manner of the march, Mr. Herbert Ward has sent to England a lively description, from which we make the following extract : " !-« the front of Stanley's line was a tall Soudanese warriftr, bearing the Gordon-Bennett yacht flag. Behind tht soldier, and astride a magnihcent mule, came tho great explorer. Following immediately in his rear were his personal servants, Somalis, with their braided w sc coats and white robes. The came Zanzibaris with their bl>\nke'S, water-bottles, ammunition-belts and guns; stalwarc Soudanese soldiery, with great hooded coats their rii'^ 'is ' eir backs, and innumerable straps and leather kits .>* anna their bodies ; Wagawali porters, bear- THE START FOR THE INTISU.OH. I07 their bodio Tied ,? ""I-, °"', ^'"^'^■' '=<"'«''''^'' ™J and there wast^ ,S"t7V'r''^'- ""■■" ea.ue „,„ng, and then" the ;o™ of Ti,:*; r'' '^'"'^ "ewashe strutted majestieali; onC .n hiT '"'° Arab robe»a„d largo turban, carryin. oTer hL ri,^ ,t , T -rh:frrr::dr^P^^^^^^^^^^ to Hud Mr. Tipnoo Til a hi„i ™"""""" ""I"'"""' huthe,,adaS;:e:::,^:::rd\:rLs:r"""^ a .hort ia., heav, tea,.! thie,.,, t^^ ^ t^witit ^J ''.^ lie was dressed in the usiM I A r. J- .1 ^" wiiite «i'nply than the r^^t nf ,h 7 , ^ '*'^^^' '^"^ 'no^'e "luicu ngure. Jlis restless ovpq o-,vo r,;.v resemblance to the negro's head with H^ ^ ^''''^' ago and earned him fk " .•;"^^^> stations some years ..^^^^ earned h.m the nickname of 'Nubian Black- lib i I ■ i 1 ,...j,,„..,, , 1 * t 1 1 i 1 .1;! I m t/ 108 THE DARK CONTINENT. The column continues its toilsome march ; though as yet Stanley wisely does not press forward, giving all ranks the opi)ortunity of settling down easily into har- ness and of becoming inured to the difficulties of the task. Another reason for the comparatively slow pro- m-ess yet made was that the rainy season was upon them and the roads were bad and the rivers flooded. At each unfordable streaui it took the column two days to cross. Moreover, some time was lost in endeavouring to lorago by the way, for Stanley was loth as yet to draw upon his stores of rice wherewith to feed his people. The scarcity of food in the district was, ere long, as we shall see, to give him much more anxiety. In the London Times of the 6th of June, 1887, appeared the first of Stanley's letters, after the expedition had set out inland on its march.' The letter is addressed to Sir William Mackinnon, the Chairman of the Relief Committee, and will be found of interest to the reader. Mr. Stanley writes from Lu- kungu, Congo River, and the date is April yth. He says : " We arrived here yesterday, after an intolerably slow journey from the Lower Congo. Nevertheless, we feel grateful that we have done so umch. This journey of one hundred and ten miles is performed, generally, by native carriers in nine or ten days ; it has occupied us fourteen days. The carriers only have their loads of sixty-five pounds each, with some native provisions. Our people have been loaded with similar weights, and then have to carry their rifles, ammunition, kit, and i-ations, making their load up to one hundred pounds each. Taken at their ease from Zanzibar, and from on board a com- THE START FOR THE INTERIOR. ]09 fortable ship, we had to make very short marches at first to mure them by degrees to the long tasks of Tnarching which lie before them. The poor baggage animals were also unht for several days to travel ; nor were we our- selves m any better state. But I had promised to leave the Lower Congo on the 27th, and in order to make our- selves as fit as possible for the journey we began the forward march on the 25th, two days previous, otherwise we shouM have been six days behind time. _ " We shall improve, as in other expeditions, our march- mg pace. Dady the marches will become longer, and the peop.e more fit, until even they will look back with sur- prise on the early days when they thought eight miles a ^itiguing jo,„.noy. Our extra loads of cloth, beads, and ammunition are being forwarded, with toler- able rapidity, by onr agents on the Lower Congo, and a few days after our arrival at Stanley Pool I hope to have all goods, officers, and men together. " I have no encouraging news from the Pool as vet I cannot tell whether there are any steamers ready. All rather tends to make me think that we have appeared while every vessel is in a very unfortunate state of un- preparedness. There are the Stanley, of the carrying capacity of two hundred men and four hundred loads ; the En Avant, thirty men and thirty loads ; two licditer. ^yegate capacity seventy men and seventy loadl; the' AJ A. are safe at Bangala station, five hundred miles up " Besides all these, there is the Baptist Mission steamer American Mission Steamer. Henry Reed, of similar .■', I I "^=3** 'ill 110 THE DARK CONTINENT, i,-H, '■;■ I carrying power. But the Peace, I am told, will not be loaned to us by the Baptist Committee of London ; and of the Henry Heed there is no certain sign as yet that we shall have the loan of her services. " But the worst news remains to be told. There are no provisions at the Pool. The traders and their work- men and followers have absorbed all the provisions the natives can raise, and the prices have run up to sheer famine rates. If prices are already so high what may they not amount to when the expedition — seven hundred and fift)- strong — has arrived to swell the numbers of those for whom food must be secured at all cost ? " Yet somehow, for the life of me, I cannot feel so gloomy as I no doubt ought to do. My men must not die for want of food, and I must not be detained at the Pool for any unreasonable period. " Four days by steamer up river there is a region of abundance, where thousands of people could be supplied. If there were any steamers ready it would be for the in- terest of the State, the missions, and the traders to assist me in getting this possible mob of hungry men away from the neighbourhood of their establishments. " One day's residence at the Pool will suffice to make explicit and clear what is extremely hazy in my mind, viz., How many days it will be before I can get away from the foodless region ? If I can only procure a suffici- ent number of men to carry the loads, I can march the rifle-armed members of the expedition almost as fast as the steamers can breast the stream. If I can lighten the heavily-weighted people of their loads I shall no doubt be able to prove what fast-goers they are. '' '.'i THE START FOR THE INTERIOR. m _ "In this state of doubt, HurinLse, aiui anxiety, calculat- ing and planningnightly after each march, I am likely to remain until I arrive at the Pool, when one view of the actual state of things there will enable me to tell you freely and frankly in my next letter what is and must be done by us. ' "I ought not to conclude without saying that none of our officers have suffered a day's sickness since thev left ii^urope in January. They work well, and endure Africa •^s If they were natives of the tawny and torrid continent surpassing all my expectations ; and with all they have to bear they are always gentlemen. "H.M. Stanley." The explorer's closing sentence recalls the regimen he prescribes for Europeans sojourning in Africa. From his extensive experience of the country he is well able to speak on the subject, and to speak authoritatively That experience goes to show that the white race cannot trans- fer itselt bodily and permanently to tropical African soil, with the hope Of survival. " The difficulty is not because it la white, but because its customs and environment are at variance with those which perpetuate life and conduce to labour under the Equator. Stanley's most melancholy chapters on hk previous journeyings are those which narrate the oozing-out of ambitions, the confessions of cowardice, and the shirking away of his white compan- ions, on the discovery that their civilized lives had been no school of preparation for healthful, energetic and use- tul existence in Equatorial Africa." He is severe on the use of intoxicants, deeming whiskey-drinking, brandy and soda indulgence, and all dallying with alcoholic M2 THE DARK COXTrNENT. If' t II i Sii,»iij,j' limiolM ttM in«Hniby and ihe pielude.s to a speedy grave. Hm'i^ ttro bin rules for the governance of white life on the Dark (Continent: — "Avoifl all unnecessary exposure to the sun. (Iimt'd against fogs, dews, exlialations, and night-chills, hy kindling fires. l*r, and halt for ill© day at 11 a.m. When halted, seek shelter and put on a heavier coat. Observe the strictest temperance. Don't indulge in fconiew or nostrums. A little quinine is the safest tonic. If thirHty, drop an acid powder in your drinking water, or tftko a wip of cold tea. Vm an umbrella when in the sun. , The best head dr©«H JM a cork helmet, or Congo cap. If ifi perspiration when wetted by rain or at a river rrONHJng, change your dress immediately. Uo on a march in very light clothing, and let it be of tlannol, with light russet shoes for the feet. When permanently stationed wear light clothing in order to avoid excessive perspii-ation when called on for mulden duty. Ill THE START FOR THE INTERIOR. II3 Don't fail to exercine freely. Have certain hours for It, morning and evening, if your work isin-doors Do not bathe in cold wate.-, especially after you are in the country for a time. Water below 85 o in temperature IS dangerous. Tropical fruits should be eaten only at breakfast Medicines, specially prepared for tropical diseases, can always be had of European druggists, and a supply should be on hand. The diseases of Central Africa are simple, consistino- of dysentryand three kinds of fever, agu., remittent, and bilious. Common ague is never fatal. It may be prevented, if one onserves the symptoms. The remittent fever is simply aggravated ague. It may last for several dnys. The bilious fever is often pernicious. Its severity de- pends on the hal)its of the patient, the amount of ex- posure which produced it, and the strength of the Consti- tution. It IS preventable, but not by brandy or excessive smoking, as many foolish people think." Dr. Martin, in his work on the " Influence of Tropical Uimates," also lays down a code M^hich is both interest- ing and valuable. 1. Care in diet, clothing and exercise are more essen- tial for the preservation of health than medical treat- ment. 2. The real way to escape disease is by observing strict temperance, and to moderate the heat by all pos- sible means. 3. After heat has inorbifically predisposed the body, 11 f fl ' i \i j tliif' ill ,«i 114 TlfE DARK CONTrNENT. the suddon influence of cold has the most hanoful effect on the human frame. 4. 'J'he great pliysiological rule for preserving liealth in hot climates is to keep the boaitial fainino in tlu; distrid, and secondly, that there would be some difficulty in get- tinjjf transport for tlie expedition up tlie (.'on<,'o. To meet the first difliculty, hunters were sent out to secure hip- popotan-.us moat, to 8ui)|)l('ment the carefully doled-out rations ; to meet the second, a pfoofl deal of coercion liad to be used, for the Missions were stran;Tely obdurate and averse to loanim,' or hiritiir out their river craft. Oidy by compulsion, backed by the authority of the local com- mandant of the Free State, was Stanley al»!e to impress a few boats into service, and after some five days delay to get away from tlie place. The embarkation was from Kinchassa, six nules above Leopoldville, and took place on the !}()th (if7\.j)ril. 'JMie flotilla consisted of tlie Kuglish mission steamer, the Pence, which was selected as Stanley's llaif-ship, atid took in tow the expedition whale-boat and a iroveiiiment launch; the three vessels collectively carrying 117 men and 100 loads. Next came the Shmley, towing tho hull of the steamer Florida (launched only the day before setting out), and carrying together ;30t men, oOO loads of baggage and goods, nine riding asses, and a Hock of goats. Lastly, there was the Henry Reed, which had in tow the hull of the A'h Acanf, and a Mission whale-boat, the former carrying 131 men, with 100 loads. Mr. Troup, with a small contingent, was left at Leopoldville, to sup- ervise the stores and maintain the chain of communica- tion. The first station on the route to the Aruwimi, which Jie expedition intended to occupy, was Bolobo, a popu- FROM STANLEY pool, i <> VAMIU'VA. ncorfcod to lio district, Ity in ^ot- To moot euro liip- (lolod-ont :M'(!ion liad I urate iind ift. Only local coin- to impress lav« di^'ay 117 ilcs aliovo nril. The liner, the ship, and (verrunent 117 men [f the hull lay before loads of Hock of eh had in hale -boat, Ir. Troup, le, to sup- imnnnica- ni, which ), a popu- 3 I . !■■'- \: ^U 118 THE DARK CONTINENT. lous centre, a few days' sail from Stanley Pool. Unfor- tunately, owing to mishaps to the steamers (the Peace losing her tiller and the Stanley going aground), Bolobo was not reached until the 8th of May. Here a camp was formed, under Messrs Ward and Bonney, with a detach- ment of 125 men. The injured steamers liaving been repaired, the flotilla once more set out, nothing notewor- thy occurring until the villages of the Bangola tribe were sighted in the beautiful island-labyrinths of the Upper Congo. The Bangola natives are represented "as a splendid race of men, above the average in height, singularly adroit in the manipulation of their canoes, and held in terror by the neighbouring people for their courage in war." At Bangola, where the expedition stayed three days, Stanley was most agreeably surprised at his reception. The place is now a prosjjcrous station of the Congo' Free State, with an orderly and well-drilled force in garrison, a peaceable community in and around the post, with well cultivated fields and smiling plenty. Here, ten years be- fore, Stanley had met a very different Teception, under very different conditions. In making good his passage on his memorable first trip down the Congo, it was with the Bangola warriors he had his fiercest conflict, " Twelve years,"says a writer from whom we have already quotei' * " have since elapsed, and in that interval the events that have transpired have completely modified the condition of the country and the disposition of its population to- wards strangers. A great settlement has risen in the midst of the Bangola villages ; the chiefs, who in 1877 ins- * Stanley's " Emin Pashft Expeditiou," by A. J, \V'.-\uteiR, Bmsaels. [This intelligent narrator is writing in 1889]. tigated the hostilities aTainsf qfo«i u tVie„d» and F'o/,-^* of tt wh te tan"^ ^^ """"° "'" liavo been abolished ■ ,».. f^ ' '"""'" >«»"fice>i -«o„,^ o.d::tt,^r„:rb;tztrr '^ a«.ay f,.o„. theirZm .^„a"th:c„ ""'""■ ' ''•"' ""'^^ it^ number, scarcely less than Tooo^" "f"^ ' =''»"' '» TippoTib'to'sJnf^"^:, t Zbr'r'/" **''"' ™ contingent of portewfor h' ? T ^'"' '° "■"''«' '"» Aruwimi distrS th. M '*»'^ J""™'^ ""■'"'g'' ">e f.rty soldier, ^l p n e ta' ZT\- f"'""' *"" aud was to return witr t! 7 '^"'''.'''""'f ■»> an escort, Aruwi,„i, nea "hid slnl ,'"" '° tho mouth of the .no'^h o^f^thf a™:;: -::svt •^r"' '» «■« '^- ">at is 'i'is in.portant ate ;,'broth:The «e": '^^^ ^ "' °' Ya.nbuya rapids, and ^ tho°pro o edX':;'' ."' 'f^ ontrenclied camn On tk P™P'"'«a 3"e of a strongly p.osperously a^dsof^ slT tr"^*"'' ''''<' «'™ Jays after his arriv.l h!° ! , " ^'^P^^ition. Three ."iber of eXta P:raR:H'';V°''""'"«'^''^^ '° '^ -g progress and t ie Wio ' !. ^h " v'"r "'""""'" " We are safelS here alw ■ L^" r*""^" '^"'P = timated time it ,s nit k T k !'? ' ''^^^ ''''''"«' ">« «s- ter. We are b, i „" ^f','"' " ""?" ^''™ ''-■' bet- busy at it I,ee7h«?.r ?"'"'"'"*°'P- Stairs is y ^ ^'=<' "-^tthe trench of the palisades is al. ■:' !.( W 11 I; 1! ff' I I 5 4 1 1'^: ■-■■* , 120 THK DAHK CONTrXKNT. ready sunk. Jameson is l)U.sy building hi.s house, which is to bo a store for jroods alsc . Nelson and Joplison are busy collecting,' fuel to load tlie Sfa de/j imd the Florida for the trip down river. The Heiiry Reed has not come in from Stanley Falls yet, but we expect her to-day or to-morrow. We shall have to dispatcli these boats with fuel as (]uii'kly as possible. " We captured this villa.i,'e by means of steamer whis- tles, which made such a hideous clamour that it served as a protection for the asHaultin<,' parties. We had talked tor three hours. Time was passing away ; the natives were obdurate, and put themselves in Achilles' man- ner, with poised spears and erected shields. The Zanzi- baris arriving at the top, eighty feet above the river found themselves in'quite in an empty village. " The night's grace we had given them had enabled the natives to clear out their valuables. Poor souls, we did not need them without a price. Every fowl and goat had vanished, but we have got a square mile of kassava gar- dens to feed our garrison. The huts are of a narrow di- ameter, of the candle-extinguisher type, formed in two rows on either side ot the street twenty feet wide. There are one hundred and ninety-four huts in this village, just enough to house the advance force comfortably. Below and above us are miles of smaller villages, fifteen, twenty and thirty huts in each, a background of dense bush, the front being the eighty feet blutf rising above the river. " Some natives have come in ; our^ scouts arrested about a dozen yesterday. They were all released with presents. " It appears to me as though this country was the re- sort of all the fragments of tribes for many degrees ">o Watunga, below ^Ir I "" """«» "elon.^i..^^ to are the Hatega ; above uTr b "" ' '"''''"' "><"" names prefixed witi, Ba.de,.„„7° ^"^ " '""« '''•" <=' P-Ple the ,„ore food, of eou ,0 '"^ ''T'" ^''^ """^ fve, at once with « „„|r "•„ ^ '''"""' ""■■ ™P- ;i"g'. I hope, of a futu .foaWe i"f "^ --0^— ad- '<-" wiJl e«rci,e patience w,/h T'°T- " '^^"''- retum they will be „ pro,nerou, . ' ■""" ^''""^ "" »I»P will be firmly .ZZ7 '""'"""^' """ f""""- ^ Ut^:z™s '° "" '"^ «°'"--«-. »'- for the Alberta Lake ml /l T, " "'" '"' ^» "«»' you I wonder whatl In , ]" ''""'' '' "" 't-" ""ay to «« J XI • ^^ ^'^ store for im ti, n- "'-r ^ good things be with vm, oi '^^ ^^^^r of all both." ""^^^ ^^ ^J^W and nmy he bless us 1 I .t i n' H ■iiii CHAPTER VIII. THE TRAGIC STORY OF THE YAMRUVA CAMP. )TANLEY, as we have seen, determined to form a strongly entrenched camp at Yambuya, and to push on up the Aruwimi with an advance column for Albert Nyanza and Wadelai. Up to this \^ time, nothina; was known of the Aruwimi, or of the region, one or two degrees north of the Equator, thi'ough which the expedition was now to proceed. Hence the precaution to form a depot, garrisoned by a strong rearguard, near the mouth of this great affluent of the Congo. In charge of the camp was Major Edmund Barttelot, with whom was associated Mr. J. S. Jameson. Messrs. Troup, Ward, and Bonny, on the completion of their assigned tasks, of bringing the stores up the Congo, were to report to Major Barttelot ; and when Tippoo Tib had furnished his prom- ised quota of porters from Stanley Falls, all were to set out on the Aruwimi to overtake Stanley and the advance truard en route for the Albert Nyanza. The rearguard under Major Barttelot's command consisted of 2o7 men. In thf. event of Tippoo Tib's carriers not arriving, Stanley had arranged with Barttelot that if he preferred moving on to staying at Yamlmya, he was to discard such stores as were indicated in his instructions and to proceed to 122 IVk CAMP. THE TRAGIC STORY OF mv VAxrm. '^i IHE \AMBlTyA CAArp. 123 Barttelot periodic dlpl:," '''"^- ^"^ '^ P^'"^ -"^ ■ts brave but not wa,-v J^ ? S™son, including of the rearguard a pXlTfof- ^" *'"' P^'eotiof high bluft-at Yambuv, R , ™ instructed on a with a„ inner Cee for ;''t'"°" *'' "''"'' ^""P' Europeans. Su round n.tt nit™ T' ''' ''"'^ "^ "» over which, at the marfn "^ ^ "'P ''•'^"'' «'*' dug 'i-hridge. Arour hrsroradTTh:^? " p™"'^' awa, s ,,„^ „„ ^^^^_. *ade the h H was cleared and delayed'^ftnil'i^'iT ^'\P'^y^<' f^'- ^o Stanley other ways the vel, I ™''""S'=°t of porters, fa Arab representative, Salem Jl M I ' ^ '' "'™''S'> "" hostile can,p alongside hat of Sr^Ba'tM !°™'" " was a constant menace to if « u . '^'" "«'»*. which »elliug food to the all T '°'*'"^ ""^ """^es and stores, and incItedT s„' T " ''"'^^ ™ "' '=^'"«« ".«tiny. This tre hty o„ the'Tf r?"^"'"™ '<> the garrison to the diit J. F"" '^'■»''^ '•'^<>'"=od pHvations, and evc^ tlCT.T^f^^, Z ' ^^^^^ duiit. Ah the months passed IvJn ^-omiuan- h.deserte. from the Xt'aro7trdt::1^ m- § jSIji iifi I ■I 'I 124 Sfanley and tli TKK DAT^K CONTIXENT. ik of the expedition. Sicki rongi :ne.s,s, on by tatmne and mental depression, lell upon the camp, and paralysed the energies of the European leaders. Mr. Jameson went off to Stanley Falls to en- deavour to bring Tippoo to a sense of his engagement with Stanley. He, however, fell ill of fever and died at Bano^ola. Mr Ward ventured down to the coast to com- raunicate with England. With him went forth Mr. Rose Troup, a helpless invalid. The charge of the rearguard, itself decimated by disease, was now narrowed to two men, Major Barttelot and Mr Bonny. The former, in despair, had gone to remonstrate with Tippoo, and to tell him that Mr. Ward had communicated news of the situ- ation to Europe and that it would go hard with the ras- cally Arab chief if he did not carr}^ out his bargain. This representation seems to have had effect, for Tippoo at last sent 400 porters, though, on their arriving at Yambuya, difficulties were raised about the loads they were to carry, a proceeding which heralded further dis- aster. This, alas 1 came about very speedily. On the 11th of June, 1888, a year after Stanley had set forth on the Aruwimi, what was left of the rearguard, under Major Barttelot and Mr. Biwny, was suffered to depart. The column had not been a week on the march when Major Barttelot, its leader, was assassinated by one of the Manyemas whom Tippoo Tib had furnished as a porter. The column now became demoralized, though its now sole commander, Mr. Bonny, tried his best to keep it to- gether. It had become so dispirited, however, and so enfeebled by death and desertion, that it hardly made >ickness, ell upon uropean s to en- asrement I died at to com- ^Ir. Rose arguard, I to two rmer, in d to tell the situ- the ras- bargain. r Tippoo Lving at ads they ther dis- s 11th of 1 on the 3r Major rt. The m Major I of the a porter, its now sep it to- and so lly made THE TRAGIC STOHY OF THE YAMBUYA CAMP. 125 ! 1 : |BH|< ''' ^H WM'i H nlH il ■ ni '1 ^H BilH ; ^H ^B ^PS (. ^^1 iHl ll ttM H llHi: ' 1^1 I ^H' 1 ■BbB ''• 1 120 THE DARK CONTINENT. m \i 'M : If any i)i'o;osphere and personally suffering the pan^s of hunger and privation. Such was the Ln who t p.te of chmate, in spite of hostilities, in spite of famine" m sp,te of 3,ckness, never wavered from his line of duty and devotion but faced all difficulties, resolved to over ome them t.ll his work was done. Who shall say that the age of kn.ght-errantry has passed away ? Other ^shave had theirXenophon, Godfrey de Boum„„. Marco Polo Columbus, Vasco, and Magellan; the nineteenth ;:exLr.''"'^' "^ '""'■'^- '^-^^ -« -^ "«- is not What the perils of the way were, and how providenti- j^^lly he was preserved to breast and overcome them, we know from Stanley's own fervent words. The following IS taken from a letter of his to his old employer, the pro pne^r of the New York Herald. Says' Mr. 'stan!:; rhis has certamly been the most extraordinary expedi- fonlhave ever led into Africa. A veritable divfnity s cms to have hedged ns. I .say it with all reverenct t has unpelled us whither it ..v„ulj, effected its own will- hut nevertheless guid-.d and protected us nZ^-'TI'T^" '"' "'"■ ^"^ '■""*"'■'' ' O" August 1 ', 1«8,, all the officers of the rear column are nniteS at Yan,bnya. They have my letter of instructions before them but .nstead of preparing for the morrow's march, to follow our tracKs, they decide to wait at Van.buya ■m ir i; i IMO TIIK DAHK CONTINKNT, which decision initiates tlio most awful .season any com- niunity of men ever endured in Africa oi- elsewhere. "The results are that three-(iuarters of tho.'w Un-co die of alow poison. Their conunander is murdered and the second ofHccr dies soon after of sickness and j^rief. An- other officer is wasted to a skeleton and oWi-rcd to re- turn liome. A fointh is sent to wander aimlessly up and down the Congo, and the survivor is found in such a fearful pesthole that we dare not describe its horrors. " On the same date, one hundred and fifty miles away, the officer of the day leads three hundred and thirty- three men of the advanced column into the bush, loses the path and all consciousness of his whereabouts, and every step he takes only leads him further astray. His people become frantic ; his white companions, vexed and irritated by the sense of evil around them, cannot devise any expedient to relieve him. They are surrounded by cannibals, and poison-dipped arrows thin their number, "Meantime, J, in command of the river colunui anxiously searching up and down the river in fciu- diffe.-- ent directions ; through forescs my scouts are seeking for them, but not until the sixth day was I successful in finding them. " Taking the same month and date in 1888, a year later, on August 17, I listen, horror struck, to the last surviving offi'cer of the rear column at Banalya, and am told of nothing but death and disaster, disaster and death death and disaster. I see nothing but horrible forms of men smitten with disease, bloated, disfigured and scarred ; while the scene in the camp, infamous for the murder of poor Barttelot barely four weeks before, is simply sickening. THE TIJAOIO S'lOHv OK THE YA MHUVA CAMP 131 "On the «ame day, six hundred miles west of this ca.np Jameson, .vorn out with fatigue, sickness and sor- row, breathes hi. last. On the next day, August 18. six hundred nules east. Emin Pasha and n.y officer. Jcplison. are sudden y surrounded by infuriate rel>els, who n'ermce hem with loaded rifles and instant death, but fortunately T7^ m\u "" -^ "'^^' ^''''" P^''^^"'^'-'^' ^^^^ J^^ivered to the Madh.sts. Having saved Bonny out of the jaws ot death we arrive a second time at Albert Nyan.a, to hnd Emm Pasha and Jephson prisor.ers in daily expect- ationcf their doom. " Jephson's own letters will describe his anxiety. Not until both were in my camp and the Egyptian fugitives under our protection did I begin to see that I was only carrying out a higher plan than mine. My own designs were constantly frustrated by unhappy circumstances." I endeavoured to steer my course as direct as possible, but there was an unaccountable influence at the helm I gave as much good-will to my duties as the strictest hon- our would compel. My faith that the purity of my motives deserved success was firm, but I have been con- scious that the issues of every effort were in other hands. _ JNot one officer who was with me will forget the mis- eries he has endured, yet every one that started from his home destined to march with the advance column and share its wonderful adventures is here to-day safe, sound and well. ''This is not due to me. Lieutenant Stairs was pierced with a poisoned e row like others, but others died and He Jives. The poison tip came out from under his heart eighteen months after he was pierced. Jephson was four 132 THE DARK CONTINENT. months a prisoner, witli guards with loaded rides aroiuul hmi. That they did not murder him is not (hie to me ihese officers have had to wade through as n.any as seventeen streams and broad expanses of mud and swamp m a day. They have endured a sun that scorched what- ever It toudied. A multitude of impediments have ruffled their tempers ami harassed their hours. They have been maddened with the agonies of fierce fevers Ihey have lived for months in an atmosphere that medi cal authority declared to be deadly. They have face • dangers every day, and their diet has been all throuc. what legal serfs would have declared infamous an abominable, and yet they live. "This is not due to me any more than the cour« > with which they have borne all that was imposed up.,a them by their surroundings or the cheery energy which they bestowed on their work, or the hopeful voices which rang in the ears of a deafening multitude of bucks and urged the poor souls on to their goal. " The vulgar will call it luck. Unbelievers will call it chance but deep down in each heart remains the feeling, that of verity there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in common philosophy. " I must be brief. Numbers of scenes crowd the mem ory . -Could one but sum them into a picture it would have a grand interest. The uncomplaining heroism of our dark followers, the brave manhood latent in uncouth dis- guise, the tenderness we have seen issuing from nameless entities the great love animating the ignoble, the sacri- fice made by the unfortunate for one more unfortunate, the reverence we have noted in barbarians, who, even as fles around due to me. I many as ind swamp ;hed what- lents have U's. They rce fevers that medi lave faeo II throu<<- mous an 6 courn ased up., a 'gy which ces which lacks and ^ill call it le feeling, md earth /he mem •uld have n of our 3uth dis- nameles.s he sacri- >rtunate. even 4s THE TRAOrc STORV OF TUK VAMBUYA CAMP. 138 ourselves, were inspired with nol.ieness and mcentives to diity-of all these we could speak if we would hut I leave that to the Herald correspondent, who, if he has eyes to see. will see much f ,r himself, and who. with his gtfts of composition, may present a very taking outline what has been done, and is now near ending, thanks l>e to God for ever and ever ! " 11^^ ri-^ CHAPTER IX. THE M,VUf'TI TIIUOUOII THE FOREST. IE now come to the dramatic incidents in con- nection with this memoiablo and arduous un- dertaking — tlie inarch througli tlie Ituri forests, Yarabuya to Kavalli. The route, we learn from a well-informed writer in the Illustrated London Neivs was divided into stages, each of which occupied many days of toilsome marching, often cutting a path through the forest, with long delays at iieveral places, so that the average movement of Mr. Stanley's advance column was little better than two miles and a fraction daily. " First stage, 184 English miles, from Yambuya in a direction north-east up the Aruwimi to l^lugw^'s villages, on the north bank of that river ; this is 124 hours' marching ; Banalya, the scene of the disaster to the rear column, is in this part of the route. " Second stage, 59 miles, from Mugwd's villages to Avi Sibba, villages on the south bank, where the conflict took place in which Lieutenant Stairs was wounded and five men killed with poisoned arrows. More correctly, the latter died of tetanus. 134 TIIR MARCH THROITOH THE PORERT. 135 "Tfiinl staoo, 39 miles, from Avi Sibba to the conflu- ence of the Nepoko, a hirge river from the north, with the Aruwijui. " Fourth stage, !»,'i miles, from the Nepoko conHuence, or Avi Jali, to the temporary Arab settlement of tlie notorious slave-doaier and ivory-hunter, Ugarrowa. " Fifth stage, 102 miles, by a new road opened in the following year, on the north bank— not the route of the first advance in 1887— to Fort Bodo, in Ibwiii, the depot station constructed by Mr. Stanley in 1888. " Sixth stage, 120 miles, from Fort Bodo to Kavalli, at the south end of Lake Albert Nynn/a. "These stages make tlie whole travelling distance from Yambuya to Kavalli 503 miles ; but the route first taken in October, 1887, went about fifty miles soutlivvard along the Aruwimi, above the Nepoko conlluence, whei-e the navigation of that river by the steel boat and canoes became imi)ossible, and Mr. Star' Jien, with the utmost difficulty and in peril of starvation, made his way to the Arab settlement of Kilonga-L(jnira, in North 'atitude 1 deg. min., whence he passed eastward to the rising ground of Ibwiri, 3000 ft. above the sea-level." With this itinerary before the reader he will be able, in some clearer fashion, to understand not only the route followed by the column, but to appreciate the long and toilsome journey, ;ind the obstacles the expedition had to overcome in this unexampled march to the heart of the " Dark Continent.'' In subsequent chapters we propose to deal a little moi-e in detail with the perils of the way, chiefly with the starvation experiences of the expedition, and its contact with the forest dwarfs. In choosing the V i 11 a ,l\ 136 THE DARK CONTINENT. t i ) >'i: Aruwimi route, the leader of tbe expedition bad been in- fluenced by the hope that he would be able to avoid the Arab traders who persistently entice the native porters to desert. Unhappily he was disappointed in this, for he did meet with Arab caravans, and the fear he dreaded was justified. On one occasion, after meeting with Arabs, twenty-six of Stanley's people deserted. Following upon this, came the dreadful experience of that " awful month," October, 1887, when the expedition had to make its way through a region desolated by Arab raiders, and in which, the reserve of provisions having been exhausted, the column had to subsist, for the most part, on wild fruit and fungus roots. So disastrous was this experience, that the expedition came nigh to utter wreck, the men being unable from emaciation and disease to carry their loads, or to defend themselves from the continuous at- tacks of their enemies. But the details will be better gathered from Mr. Stanley's own words. We extract the following from one of his letters : . " The advance column, consisting of 389 officers and men, set out from Yambuya June 28th, 1887. The first day we followed the river bank, marched twelve miles, and arrived in the large district of Yankondd. At our approach the natives set fire to their villages, and under cover of the smoke attacked the pioneers who were clear- ing the numerous obstructions they had planted b'^fore the first village. The skirmish lasted fifteen minutes. The second day we followed a path leading inland but trending east. We followed this path for five days through a dense population. Every art known to native minds for molesting, impeding, and wounding an enemy i^tiiii.. THE MARCH THROUGH THE FOREST. I37 of a man. Pereeivmg that the path wa., taking us too fa. from our course, we cut a north-easterly tmek and reached the river again on the oth of July."^ F™„' tht date unt, the 18th of October we followod'ihe lef b „ of the Aruwim,. After seventeen days continuous marehmg we halted one day for rest. On the twenty fourth day from Yambuya we lost twc ren by deslti n In the month of July we made fou .alts only On August 1st the first death occurred, which was from dys- entery ; so that for thirty-four days our course had been smgnlarly successful. But as we now entered a wilde " ness, which occupied us nine days in marching through IrrrVd tZ- *n\,*- ""'"P'^. »'^<1 -veral deaths occurred Ihe river at this time was of grc.H use to us ■ our boat and several canoes relieved the wearied and as during the first month, was still steady •'On August ISth we ai-rived at Avi-Sibba. The natives made a bold front; we lost five men through pois ned arrows; and to our great grief Lieutenant Stairs wa. wounJedjust below the heart; but, though he suffeTe" loth Mr. Jephson, m command of the land party, led his men inland became confused, and lost his way. We wel not reunited until the 21st. 'e weie " On August 25th we arrived in the district of Avi-Jali Opposite our camp was the mouth of the tributary Manyema belonging to the caravan of L'gairowwa, Iliue i- * 13S THE DARK CONTINENT. Uledi Balyuz, who turned out to be a former tent-boy of Speke's. Our misfortunes began from this date, for I had taken the Congo route to avoid Arabs, that they might, not tamper with my men and tempt them to desert by their presents. Twenty-six men deserted within three days of this unfortunate meeting. " On September 16th we arrived at a camp opposite the station of Ugarrowwa's. As food was very scarce, owing to his having devastated an immense region, we halted but one day near him. Such friendly terms as I could make with such a man I made, and left fifty-six men with him. All the Somalis preferred to rest at Ugarrowwa's to the continuous marching. Five Soudan- ese were also left. It would have been certain death for all of thera to have accompanied us. At Ugarrowwa's they might possibly recover. Five dollars a month per head was to be paid to this man for their food. "On September 18th we left Ugarrowwa's and on October 15th entered the settlement occupied by Kilonga- Longa, a Zanzibari slave belonging to Abed-ben-Salim,. an old Arab, whose bloody deeds are recorded in ' The Congo and the Founding of its Free State.' This proved an awful month to us ; not one member of the expedition, white or black, will ever forget it. The advance num- bered two hundred and seventy-three souls on leaving Ugarrowwa's, because out of three hundred and eighty- nine we had lost sixty-six men by desertion and death between Yambuya ar.d Ugarrowwa's, and we left sixty- s'x men in the Arab station. On reaching Kilonga- Longas we disco verea we iiad iusi mt^-iivc men wj m.^^- vation and desertion. We had lived principally on wild -boy of r I had T might, sert by Q three >site the i, owing I halted I could fifty-six rest at 3oudan- eath for •rowwa'a mth per and on Blilonga- n-Salim» in 'The a proved pedition, ce num- i leaving eighty- ad death ft sixty- Kilonga- T on wild 1 THE MARCH THROUGH THE FOREST. 139 fruit, fungi, and a large, flat, bean-shar^id nut The slaves of Abed-ben-Salim did their utmost to ruin the expedition short of open hostilities. They purchased rifles, ammunition, clothing, so that when we left their station we were beggared and our men were absolutely naked. We were so weak physically that we were unable to carry the boat and about seventy loads of goods ; we therefore left these goods and boat at Kilonga- Longas under Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson, the latter of whom was unable to march, and after twelve days march, we arrived at a native settlement called Ibwiri. Between Kilonga-Longa's and Ibwiri our con- dition had not imr roved. The Arab devastation had reached within a dies of Ibwiri-a devastation so complete that the.e was not one native hut standing between Ugarrowwa's and Ibwiri, and what had not been destroyed by the slaves of Ugarrowwa's and Abed- ben-Sahm the elephants destroyed, and turned the whole region into a horrible wilderness. But at Ibwiri we were beyond the utmost reach of the destroyers ; we were on virgin soil, in a populous region abounding with food Our suflferings from hunger, which began on the 31st of August, terminated on the 12th of November. Ourselves and men were skeletons. Out of 389 we now only num- bered 174, several of whom seemed to have no hope of lite left. A halt was therefore ordered for the people to recuperate. Hitherto our people were skeptical of what we told them, the suffering had been so awful, calamities so^numerous, the forest so endless apparently, that they rexused to believe that by-and-by we should see plains and cattle and the Nyanza and the white man Emin 140 THE DARK CONTINENT. # II ! Pasha. We felt as the gh we were dragging them along with ft chain round :;heii' necks. ' Beyond these raiders lies a country untt t I; I we stared us delight wholesome over the ding lines 8 equal to ad invad- 5 persons 6 wo had ft behind ) think of her there at day as aving the CHAPTER X. THE FOREST PYGMIES. \0 replete with interest is every account of the forest march furnisned by Mr. Stanley that the reader will doubtless be greedy to peruse all he has to say of this intensely dramatic period in the history of the expedition. In this chapter Mr. Stanley's narrative powers are seen at their best, and not the least remarkable characteristic of the account given is its clever literary style and vivid and impressive presentation. The interest in- u creases when the narrator passes from nature to humanity, and describes the contact of the column with the curious dwarf inhabitants of the mighty ' forest. The "talk" which is the subject of the present chapter is taken from Mr. Stanley's address (May 5, 1890), in the Albert Hall, London, before the Royal Geographical Society, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales in the chair. The address was worthy the occasion which called it forth, when, besides royalty, there were gathered to do honour to Mr. Stanley the most distinguished men in England, celebrities in literature, art, science and travel, with many notable personages in the social and political world. Mr. Stanley spoke as follows : 147 148 M!/!'i ^ I. ft : I . THE DARK CONTINENT. " t)ur lato joinney for the relief and rescue of Emin, the Governor of Kquatoria, was over 6,000 miles in length and occupied 987 days. Five hundred of those days vere passed in the great Central African forest, and for 487 days we lived or journeyed through grass lands. Let me guide you rapidly through this forest, and I promise not to mislead you. " Its greatest length is from near Kabambarrd, in South Manyuema, to Bagbomo, on the Welle-Makua, in W st Niam-Niam, 621 English miles; its average breadth is 517 miles, which makes a compact square area of 321,057 square miles. A serpentine line through the centre of this would represent our course. This enormous tract is thick set with trees, varying from 20 feet to 200 feet high, so close that the branches interlace one another and form an umbrageous canopy. It is absolutely impene- trable to sunshine. While the sun scorches and dazzles without, a little dust of white light flickering here and there only reveals the fact. Generally it was a mystical twilight, but on misty or rainy days the page of a book became unreadable. At night one fancied that the dark- ness was palpable and solid. The moon and stars were of no avail to us. As there are about 150 days of rain throughout the year, and almost every rainfall, except a drizzle, is preceded by squalls, storms, tempests, or torna- does, with the most startling thunder crashes and the most vivid flashes of lightning, you may imagine that the houseless traveller in such a region must endure much discomfort. " I have passed far more hours than T would like ^^ '">v spell-bound with wonder during various phases of exist- THE FOREST PYOMIES. 149 of Emin, ) miles in (i of those forest, and rass lands, est, and I d, in South 1, in W st l)readth is of 321,057 centre of IS tract is • 200 feet other and T impene- id dazzles here and L mystical >f a book the dark- iars were s of rain except a or torna- and the that the ire much ro +n ooTT of exist- ence within it. I have caught myself often unconsciously wondering at the strange resemblance to human life visible in the forest. It was represented here vciy faith- fully in all its youth, vigour, and deciepitude. There are trees prematurely aged and blanched, otiicrs were tumor- ous, others organically weak, others were hunchbacks, others suffered from poor nutrition, mar-, u.c pallid and shrunk from want of air and sunshin , many vere sup- ported by their neighbours because o' cons itutional infirmity, many are toppling one over ai. i']\er ^s though they were the incurables of a hospital, ai,d you wonder how they exist at all. Some are already dead, and lie buried in reeking composts of humus, some are bleached white by the palsying thunderbolt or shivered by the levin brand or quite decapitated, or some old veteran, born long before the siege of Troy, is decaying in core and vitals ; but the majority have the assurance of insol- ent youth, with all its grace and elegance of form, the mighty strength of prime life, and the tranquil pride of hoary aristocrats, or the placid endurance of ripe old age. All characters of humanity are represented here except the martyr and the suicide. Sacrifice is not within tree nature, and it may be that they only heard two Divine precepts : ' Obedience is better than sacrifice,' and ' Live and multiply.' " As there is nothing so distasteful to me as the mob of a race day, so there is nothing so ugly in forest nature as when I am reminded of it by the selfish rush toward the sky in a clearing the hour it is abandoned by the human owners. Hark, the bell strikes, the race is about to begin. I seem to hear the uproar of the rush, the in ' t , 102 THE DARK CONTINENT. orable scene on Calvaiy; that wrinkled iron wood, four feet in diameter, was an infant under the shelter of his old sire when the Tower of Babel was building. " And what office, if any, may one of these forest giants hold, whoso blossoming crown and globe of foliage rise so high above the herd ? Is it that of a watchman looking out for tidings ? Is ho the sire of the tribe ? Does it herald the dawn and the morning sun, and bid the trees unfold their buds, and shako their leaves for rejoicing ? Or has it gained such proud pre-eminence by its selfish and exuberant vitality ? But lo ! the storm approaches, there is fury and wrath, the thunderbolt falls, and the proud king lies prostrate, severed at the neck. You almost hear the cry of ' The King is dead, long live the King ! ' " Since T have made my map I have taken the trouble to measure the extent of the area covered by this forest, and I find it to be something like 224,000,000 acres. If WG allow each tree thirty feet around for sufficient space, and only forty-eight trees to the acre, we have the colossal figure of 10,752,000,000 as the total number. If we calculate the plants and saplings of the impene- trable undergrowth, we shall bo among the incalculable billions. " The longevity of the animal creation found in the rivers and shades of these aged woods is something worth glancing at. The elephant and the hippopotamus and the crocodile may boast f their 400 years of life, the tortoise a century, the buflfalo fifty years, the crows eagles, ibis, and touracos nearly a century, the pairot, the heron, and flamingo sixty years. From the chimpanzees, baboons, and monkeys, with which the forest abounds, is l<:^4k- THE FORFST PYGMIEK. 153 but a Step, according to Darwinism, to the nv^mv i.'u exist by the Father of L ^ '• ^ *'"'° '""""' '» begin,ig of the'ch LtUrerr^CT" ""'""' f'" ttr tihiah^'T "IT" ""> p^^™- ™^ described ho cap Le of flt "'^ ''«f<»-<' Christ, Herodotus moves while trywle'amfrn? "'"""'■""' ^"«'- the Ni,cr basinfanrhrrirr^itt:: L" ^^.ii 'rh::;;to::!d^^cr:r r ^^^^ about England. L .^^ "^a ^I ^^th century located the pygmies near the Equator of Ifril under the shadows of the Mountains of Z Mo n tlTl a year ago we found theTSe fev hlTb "".""^'^ iCr :h^- *\» "~ w^- »x:;r ine forest wh.oh wo have just been considering extends nght up to the base line of the Mountains of th! M^n £wrreat;=r-t byed the proud Pharaohs of M,y,.!Z^t:u^ i:rZ'Z''T"-'"''^T °^^'"'^'™' Nineveii:Persi and the Macedonian and Roman Empires, They ha™ IH THE DARK CONTINENT. i ;■' acfciiftUy beyn able to hold their lands for over fifty cen- turion, I have lately seen the wear and tear on the Pyramids of Egypt, and I can certify that the old Sphynx present)* a very be' tered appearance indeed ; but the pyg- mies appeared to me as bright, as fresh, and as young as the generation about which Homer sang. "You will therefore understand that I, who have always professed to love humanity in preference to beetles, was as much interested in these small creatures m Henry Irving might be in the personnel of the Lyceum- Near a place called Avetiko, on the Ituri river, our hungry men found the first male and female of the pygmies Hquatted in the mHst of a wild Eden peeling plantains. Vou can imagine what a shock it was to the poor little creatures at finding themselves suddenly surrounded by gigantie Soudanese six feet four inches in height, nearly double their own height and weight, and black as coal. But my Zanzibar^, always more tender-hearted than Soudanese, prevented the clubbed rifie and cutlasses from extinguishing their lives there and then, and brought them to nie as prizes in the same spirit as they would have brought a big hawk moth or mammoth longicorn for i'l^peetion. Aa they stood tremblingly before me I named the little man Adam and the miniature woman Eve, far more appropriate names in the wild Eden on the Ituri tlmn the Vukukuru and Akiokwa which they gave us. As 1 looked at them and thought how these repre- (»©nted the oldest people on the globe, my admiration would have gone to greater lengths than scoffing cynics would havf? exnected. Poor Greekish heroes and Jewish patiiarchs, how their glory paled befoie the ancient THE FOREST PYGMIES. jgg ancestry of these manikins ' Had Ad«.n i. assume a tragic pose, how ^ly he^n '^havr- ^Z '^ you may well look on us for i.l 1 T '^'''' ^^«' ing on the face of the ;fr h ZV ""'^ ^^^^^^ "^- have never been remov J f "^^1^"!^"^ P^'^^^val time Yusuf and Mesu Te T.t Wd ? ^T"' ^^^^- wild shades, from the NilJ F ! "^^ ^'^"^ ^^ *^««e ness, and, like th e 4n tt^^^^^^^^ '^ ^^^ Seaof Dark- and late.' ^ ^^ *^'' ^^'««<^' ^^ despise time unequalled horitaso On tt? . ""* P™""* ™« bulbs. In twelve Z,il?,.f"' ^T" ""'' P'""'*" hidden by the lux^rianrf 7™'f' " "■"'' ^'^ «'™«t unrivalled^ J^ralt^ur^ttrrb '™" ."' prove that in the forest an n.rVnf v! , ^^ ^^'^ *° a banaua X^J^SZ^^J^^^^ ^ uativos pa^de'art Ktntrof'':^ "'''' '"^ '^^^' In another manner they perform 1, ,1. "'=?"'"'"»'«• by warning them of thll7 ™'"ablo service to them iug them ^ d«t setrrt T'7 T' '^"^ and birds, and sunnlv !f-. ,'"™'^' '% also trap game leathers, a'nd meaTtaSltlro reTh;; t\ ^"'•^' -ere regarded somewhat's para.it" wt'^fi^^' ^voula D. more welcome than their vicinitv Wh r'""'^ and game, meat, peltry, and feathersi:t!r s^areTS Xy 158 THE DARK CONTINENT. the neighbourhood, the pygmies pack their household goods on their women's backs and depart elsewhere to attach themselves to some other plantation. A forest village consists of from 20 to 100 families of pygmies, and probably in that area between the Ihuru and Ituri rivers there are as many as 2,000 families living this nomadic and free life in the pei"petual twilight of tho great and umbrageous forest of Equatorial Africa." CHAPTER XL THE RETURN TO THE LAKE— STARVATION EXPERIENCES. )E have seen what was the sad state of things presented to Stanley's view on his way back from the Albert Nyanza for the relief of the rearguard. On meeting with its survivors at Bana- lya, a few days' march from the camp at Yambuya Stanley lost not a moment in re-organizing the shattered column, and at the same time took occa- sion to send letters to Stanley Falls to be forwarded with a cable despatch, to Europe. The latter was' read in the House of Commons, about the close of the year 1888, amid breathless silence, and allayed the apprehensions of the civilized world as to the fate of the expedition and its gallant leader. The com- munication, though necessarily brief, was sufficient to dispel the misgivings and uncertainty which had been felt in England, and indeed throughout Europe, for fifteen months previously. The despatch was as follows : "Letters from Stanley Falls, dated August 21, 1888, state that on the previous day a letter had been received from Stanley announcing that he was at Banalya, on the Aruwimi' He had left Emin Pa--: , eighty-two days previously in perfect health and ^,^Ai supplied with provisions He 159 160 THE DA^U TON rr.cj NT. II I li! ! i.i4&.i^^ti i I . imv} had retraced his steps ir. order to bring up his rear com- pany and their loads. He had arrived at Banalva on the 17th of August, ail J expected to start again "in ten days to rejoin Emin. All the white xv- ... , ^ncr to the expedition were well." The latter statement? as%e know now, was incorrect, for Barttelot had been mur- der6d, James P. had succumbed to disease, and Ward was mcapacitau ,1 and on the way home via the Concro The explanntioa of the despatch is that it had crone through Tippuo Tib's hands and dxd not directly come from Stanley. Though it did not tell anything of the mishaps and losses of the party, it conveyed at least the cheering announcement that its leader was yet alive and that the Relief Expedition had not sufiered a collapse Poor Barttelot's death weighed heavily on the mind of btanley Though brave and courageous, he was no leader and his fate, it would seem, had been the result of his' own rashness and impatience. After lingerino- for more than a year at Yambuya, Barttelot had at last got away with his reduced column and reached his flrst encimp- ment at Banalya. The dat- was the 18th July ];<88 Here IS the account which ... find in a German 'source of Barttelot s death. "The evening of his arrival, the camp, in Mr. Bonny's charge, v/as en feU -he porter, wei-e shouting, singing, and dancing according to their habit when they are on the march. Barttelr' uisjikinrr the uproar, gave orders for immediate s?' ,ce, and for the time his orders were obeyed ; but about ..r the boist- erous merriment broke out again, ex- .ra... as ever Furious that his directions should be thus set at defiance' fhP. majo^ rose and left his tent, and, notwithstanding ilLi TBI! BCTURN TO THE I.AKE. Ifij ten, of the bearers, A woman was singing and beldn. a drum m front of one of the hut,; he 'poke aigrittS her, and threatened her with pu„„hment. In !„!„ moment a shot was fired and the major foil dead It who hacl done the fatal act. He had resented the ven frreln r:^ "r''"'" '" "'^ ^'' ^^ raising "s gun he killed the white chief upon the spot ■• This wa . the unhappy story, supplemented by an accoun of Arab treachery, which had reduced the n^um" ber of the rearguard from 257 to 71 men, that Stanley was greeted with on his falling in at Banalya with Mr Stanley k„ ened to reorganize the can.p and at once set forth WHli it for the Nyanza. With the r .rguard contingent and the men he had extent in all, of 3«. n, and, with Mr. Bonny Stanley now sets out on what was to be a four mont, J jourty to Kavall, The route once more lay through the all but impenetrable forests and the devasLed wMernesses of which the Wambutti dwarfs were the so e Z^' Half the distance was aeco.nplished with little misW or difficulty. The road had now become familiar Whon the ^ravan had reached the Ihuru, „„t only waa tt attacked by a decimating epidemic of small-poj but mine set m, and weeks of intense privation folLed Matters becoming worse, Stanlev was obliged to er^Tt a camp in the forest and to des™,,.b .,),„ „Z. „u?.f * * ot his following on a foraging expedition. The trials of m Pf 1 J it 1 .' ' f i nr * ^^^ H 4 1 H Hi 1 H E; !■ 1 1 162 THE DARK CONTINENT. ? s this period will be best told in Mr. Stanley's own words. They arq taken from a letter addressed to Sir Wm. Mac- kinnon, Chairman of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition:— " Having gathered," writes Mr. Stanley, " such as were left of the rear column and such Manyemas as were willing of their own accord to accompany me, and entirely re-organized the expedition, we set off on our return to the Nyanza. You will doubtless remember that Mr. Mounteney-Jephson had been left v/ith Emin Pasha to convey my message to the Egyptian t oops, and that on or about July 26th both Emin Pasha and Mr. Jephson were to start from the Nyanza, with a sufficient escort and a number of porters, to conduct the officers and gar- rison of Fort Bodo to a new station that was to be erected near Kavalli on the south-west side of Lake Albert, by which I should be relieved of the necessity of making a fourth trip to Fort Bodo. Promise for promise had been made, for on my part I had solemnly promised that I should hurry towards Yambuya and hunt up the missing rear column, and be back again on Lake Alburt some ' time about Christmas, " I have already told you that the rear column was in a deplorable state — that out of tho one hundred and two members remaining I doubted whether fifty would live to reach the Lake ; but having collected a large number of canoes, the goods and sick men were transported in these vessels in such a smooth, expeditious manner that there were remarkably few casualties in the remnant of the rear column. But the wild natives, having repeatedly de- feated Ugarrowwa's raiders, and by this discoA^ered the extent of their own strength, gave us considerable THK RKTURN TO THE LAKE. 163 trouble, and inflicted considerable loss among our best men, who had always, of course, to bear the brunt of fighting and the fatigue of paddling. " However, we had no reason to be dissatisfied with the time wo had made, when progress by river became too tedious and difticult, and the order to cast off the canoes was given. This was four days' journey above Ugarrowwa's station, or about three hundred miles above Banalya. " We decided that as the south bank of the Ituri River was pretty well known to us, with all its intolerable scarcity and terrors, it would be best to try the north bank, though we should have to tra/erse for some days the despoiled lands, which had been a common centre for UgaiTowwa's and Kilonga-Long.i's bands of raiders. We were about one hundred and sixty miles from the grass- land, which opened a prospect of future feasts of beef, veal and mutton, with pleasing variety of vegetables, as well as oil and butter for cooking. Bright gossip on such subjects by those who had seen the Nyanza served as stimulants to the dejected, half-hearted survivors of the rear column. " On October 30th, having cast off the canoes, the land- march began in earnest, and we two days later discovered a large plantain plantation in charge of the Dwarfs. The people flung themselves on the plnntains to make as large a provision as possible for the dreaded wilderness ahead of us. The most enterprising always secured a fair share, and twelve hours later would be furnished With a week's provisions of plantain flour ; the feeble and indolent revelled for the time being on abundance of f ':'> 164 iiiii ivi 'i':i Jiilji THE DARK CONTINENT. roasted fruit, but always neglected providing for the tuture, and thus became victims to famine. " After moving from this place ten days passed before we reached another plantation, during which time we lost more men than we had lost between Banalya and IJgarrowwas. The small-pox broke out among the Manyema and their followers, and the mortality was terrible ; our Zanzibaris escaped this pest, however, owing to the vaccination they had uHergone on board the Madura. " We were now about four days' march above the con- fluence of the Ihuru and Ituri rivers, and within about a mile from the Ishuru. As there was no possibility of crossing this violent and large tributary of the Ituri or Aruwimi we had to follow its right bank until a crossin<. could be discovered. ^ "Four days later we stumbled across the principal village of a district called Andikumu, surrounded by the finest plantation of bananas and plantains we had yet seen, which all the Manyemas' habit of spoliation and destruction had been unable to destroy. Ther- our people after severe starvation during fourteen days gorged themselves to such an excess that it contributed greatly to lessen our numbers. Every twentieth indi- vidual suffered some complaint which entirely incapaci- tated him from duty. The Ihuru River was about four miles S.S.E. from this place, flowing from E.N.E. and about sixty yards broad, and deep, owing to the heavy ^ " From Andikumu a six-days' march northerly brought us to a^iother flourishing settlement, called Indeman, sitq. I' I. *^.. tHE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 165 ated about four hours' march from the river we supposed to be the Ihuru. Here I was considerably nonplussed by the grievous discrepancy between native accounts and my own observations. The natives called it the Ihuru River, and my instruments and chronometer made it very evi- dent that it could not be the Ihuru we knew. Finally after capturing some Dwarfs, we discovered that it was the right branch of the Ihuru River, called the Dui River. This agreeing with my own views, we searched and found a place where we could build a bridge across. Mr. Bonny and our Zanzibari chief threw themselves into the work, and in a few hours the Dui River was safely bridged,and we passed from Indeman into a district entirely unvisited by the Manyema. "In this new land, between right and left members of the Ihuru, the Dwarfs called Wambutti were very nu- merous, and conflicts between our rearguard and these crafty littk people occurred daily, not without harm to both parties. Such as we contrived to capture we com- pelled to iLow the path, but invariably, for some reason they clung to the E. and E.N.E. paths, whereas my route required a S.E. direction, because of the northing we had made in seeking to cross the Dui River. Finally, we fol- lowed elephant and game tracks on a S.E. course, but on December 9th we were compelled to halt for a forage in the middle of a vast forest at a spot indicated by my chart to^ be not more than two or three miles from the Ituru River, which many of our people had seen while we resided at Fort Bodo. " I sent one hundred and fifty rifles back to a settle- ment that was fifteen miles back on the route we had Mirr. n I 166 THE DARK CONTINENT. ■ i- r!i ■ h ■l 1 i'; come, while many Manyema followers also uiKleitook to follow theui. "I quote from my journal part of what I wrote on December 14th, the sixth day of the absence of the for- agers : Six days have transpired since our foragers left us. For the fir^^t four days time passed rapidly, I might say almost pleasantly, being occupied in re-calculating all my observations froni Ugarrowwa to Lake Albert and down to date, owing to a few discrepancies here and there, which my second and third visit and duplicate and triplicate observations enabled me to correct. My occu- pation then ended, I was left to wonder why the large band of foragers did not return. The fifth day, having distributed all the stock of flour in camp and killed the only goat we possessed, I was compelled to open the offi- cers' provision boxes and take a pound pot of butter, with two cupfuls of my flour, to make an imitation gruel] there being nothing else save tea, cofiee, sugar, and a pot of sago in the boxes. In the afternoon a boy died, and the condition of a majority of the rest was most disheart- ening; some could not stand, but fell down in the effort These constant sights acted on my nerves, until I began to feel not only moral but physical sympathy as well,'' as though weakness were contagious. Before night a Mahdi carrier died; the last of our Somalis gave signs of col- lapse ; the few Soudanese with us were scarcely able to move. " The morning of the Oth.~Day dawned ; we made the broth as usual— a pot of butter, abundance of water, a pot of condensed milk, a cupful of flour— for one hun- dred and thirty people. The chiefs and Mr. Bonny were THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. udoitook to 167 called to council. At my suggesting a reverse to the foragers of such a nature as to exdud^ our men from returning with news of such a disaster, they wer.. alto- gether unable to comprehend such a po^ibility ; they believed it possible that these one hundred and fifty men were searching for food, without which they would not return They were then asked to consider the supposi- tion that they were five days searching for food they haa lost the road perha])s, or, having no white i^der they had scattered to loot goats, and had entirely forgot- ten heir starving friends and brothers in camp; what would be the state of the one hundred and thirty people five days hence ? Mr. Bonny offered to stay with ten men m camp if I provided ten days' food for each per- son, while I would set out to search for the missing men Food to make a light cupful of gruel for ten men for ten days wa^ not difficult to procure, but the sick and feeble re- maining must starve unless I met with good fortune, and accordingly a stone of buttter-milk. flour and biscuits were prepared and handed over to the charge of Mr Bonny. ° "In the afternoon of the seventh day mustered every- body, besides the garrison of the camp, ten men Sadi the Manyema chief, surrendered fourteen of his men to doom ; Kibbo-bora, another chief, abandoned his brother • i^ undi. another Manyema chief, left one of his wives and a iit«e boy. We left twenty-six feeble, sick wretches, already past all hope, unless food could be brought to them within twenty-four houiu " In a cheery tone, thou^-h mv hearf, waq r^c.^^^ u^„..;.- 1 told the forty-three hunger-bitton people that I was U "-fi I flip " E &i| "I TJTO im THE DARK CONTINENT. ii going back to hunt up the missing men ; probably I i^botild meet them on the road, and if I did that they wewld be driven on the run with food to them, We fcrttVt'lled nine miles that after lOon, having passed several d«ad people on the road, and early on the eighth day of their absence from camp met them marching in an easy twithioti ; but when we were met the pace was altered to ir quiclc step, so that in twenty-six hours from leaving Starvfttlon Camp we were back with a cheery abundance around, gruel and porridge boiling, bananas boiling, pl?.n- tain« roasting, and some meat simmering in pots for soup. "This has been the nearest approach to absolute star- vatiofi in all my African experience. Twenty-one persons altogether succumbed in this dreadful camp. " Od December 17th the Ihuru River was reached in ihr@« hours, and having a presentiment that the garrison of Fort Bodo was still where I had left them, the Ihuru WM grossed the next day, and the two days following ; steering through the forest regardless of paths, we had the good fortune to strike the western angle of the Fort Bod© Plantations on the 20th. " My presentiment was true. Lieutenant Stairs and hi« garriaon were still in Fort Bodo — tifty-one souls out of Efty-nine — and never a word had been heard of Emin Fa«iba or of Mr. Mounteney Jephson during the seven months of my absence. Knowing the latter to be an energetic man, we were left to conjecture what had de- tained Mr. Jephson, even if the affairs of his province had detained the Pasha." A similar, or even worse, experience befell the expedi- iUm on its first breaking through the Ituri forests, in the •one persons THE RETUUN TO THK LAKE. Igg never-to-b. foro^otten month of October, 1887 On that occasion, Stanley's column had got to a region wh re no food was to oe found, and where the expedition wa L dread of com.ng to utter wreck by sickness, famine an^ the debihty and emaciation which the awful perils of e way had brought on. A provisional camp wa! ed those whose phght was most hopeless, and those of the column who had not succumbed were sent forth in Srof' Nd • ''t ^"^'"? ''' '^^"^^ borne the omit:: tie of Nelson s Starvation Camp," and an account of the horrors of the time has just been given us in the pages of Serilner's Magazine, for June' 1890 in Mr Stanley sown words. The account, we are told, will form part of a narrative of the march through the forest to appear m Mr. Stanley's forthcoming work " On the morning of October 6 [1887] we were 271 in mnnber, including white and black; since then two had died of dysentry, one from debility, four had deserted and one man was hanged. We had, therefore, 203 men ett. Out of this number 52 had been reduced to skele- tons-who, first attacked by ulcers, had been unable to torage, and who had wasted by their want ot economy rations which would have been sufficient to maintain them during the days that intervened of total want Ihese losses m men left me 211 still able to march • and as among these there were 40 men non- carriers, and as I imd 227 loads, It followed that when I needed carriage I had about 80 loads more than could be carried. Caplain Nelson, for the la^t two weeks had also suffered from a fJozen small ulcers. \- ^ whither, we knew not, for howlV^t ™' T '*'"' ™- think, seeking for food witl thf T Z" "" ''""^ '"^ us, and for those, no «.« b„„„ " j' T™. '?"<"''' «''"' had ieft behind at the bottom of "the h;;^;:^;^:/' ■1 ^ 1 i: 172 THE DARK CONTINENT, "As I looked at the poor men struggling wearily on- ward, it appeared to me as though a few hours only were noeded to insure our fate — one day, perhaps two days, and then life would ebb away. How their eyes searched the wild woods for the red berries of the phrynia, and the tartish, crimson and oblong fruit of the amoma ; how they rushed for the Hat beans of the forest, and gloated over their treasures of fungi ! In short, nothing was rejected in this severe distress to which we were reduced except leaves and wood. We passed several abandoned clearings, and some men chopped down ])ieces of banana, stalk, then searched for wild herbs to make potage ; the bastard jack fruit or the fenessi and other huge fruit became dear objects of interest us we struggled on. *' Return we could not, nor Continue where we were ; to shift our place Was to exchange one misery with another. And every day that came, came to decay A day's work in us." "On October 7th we began at 6.30 a.m. that funereal pace through the tracklcMS region on the crest of the forest uplands. We picked up fungi, and the matonga wild fruit, ivs we travelled, and after seven hours' march we rested for the day. At Jl a.m. we had halted for lunch at the ttsa*l hojw. Each officer had economized his rations of bauMHs. Two were the utmost I could spare lor my^lf. My comrades were also as rigkily strict and clo« in their diet, and a cup of sugarless tea closed the repast. We were fitting conversing about our prospects, ulSCUSSliig oU'O pix;L;aL;iiiL-,- ---i. -.. -ti ^.^^---.-.t: reaching some settlement on this d*y, or the next, aod m THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 173 the time that it would take then, to return; and they des,red to know whothe,-. in my p,„viou. African exped- ience I had encountered anything so grievous a, this «o ; not quite so bad as tliis,' I replied. • We have suflered, but not to such an extremity a, this. Thole nine days on the way into Ituru were wretched. On our fl«lit from Bumbirc we certainly suHered much hunger, and also while rtoating down the Congo to trace its TadTiitUe'^r'"'"!."" ■""'='' *" '' P''-^^ -l-™ had a httle ot something, and at least large hopes, and if hey die where are we ? The age of miracles is past, it the rock at Horeb for the thirsty Israelite.,. Of water we have enough and to .spare. Ehjah was fed by ravens forest n, V""""'.""' ''''"' '^ "»' " -™" i-^'l 'W^ forest. Chris was ministered unto by angels. I wonder If any one will unmster unto us.' Just then there was Litrl'^ >' ^'"^ "''"™S "•'""gh the air. Little Bandy, my fox-terrier, lifted up a foot and g.,.ed hfb J> • "", l"'™'',™'' ^'"-^^ *° '''■ «■"' ">at second the bird dropped beneath the jaws of Randy, who snapped attte pr,.e and held it fast in a vice as of iron. ^ Thea„7' T' ^ ^'""-'"■"'y "'^ gods are gracious. The age of miracles is not paat,' and my comrades were seen gaz ng ,„ delighted surprise at the bird, which was a fine fat guinea, owl. It was not long before the guinea fowl and the little doggie seemed to know that he had ^row„ m esteem with all men, and we enjoyed our prii each niui ius owii ieeiing's. ■• On the next dav , in order to relieve the boat-bearers of their hard work, Mr Jephson was requested to con>!.ct I m tit' mi « -It 1 1' ill il I' 'i' '';i 174 THE DARK CONTINENT. Ill il!i' the sections together ; and two hours after starting on the march wo came opposite an inhabited island. The advance scouts seized a canoe and bore straight on to the island, to snatch in the same unruly manner as Orlando, meat for the hungry, " ' What would you, unruly men ? ' " ' We would have meat ! Two hundred stagger in these woods and reel with faintness.' "The natives did not stand for further questions, but vanished kindly, and left their treasures of food. We received as our share two pounds of Indian corn and half a pound of beans. Altogether about twenty -five pounds of corn were discovere 1, which was distributed among the people, " In the afternoon ' a : lived a note from Mr. Jephson, who wjts behind with in?; boat: ' For God's sake, if you can get any food at village, send us some.' " I despatched an answer to Jephson to hunt up the wounded elephant that I had shot, and which had taken refuge on an island near him and, in reply to his anxious letter, a small handful of corn. " On October 9th one hundred men volunteered to go across the river and explore inland from the north bank, with a resolute intention not to return without food of some kind. I went up river with the boat's crew, and Stairs down river to strike inland by a little track, in the hope that it might lead to some village ; those who were too dispirited to go far wandered southward through the woods to search for wild fruit and forest beans. This last article was about four times the size of a large garden bean, encased in a brown leathery rind. At first we had THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 175 IS anxious contented (mrselves with merely skimming and boiling it, but this produced sickness of the sto/nach. An old woman captured on the island was seen to prepare a dish of these beans by skinning them and afterward scrapir the innner covering, and finally scraping them as would nutmegs. Out of this floury substance she made some patties for her captor, who shouted in ecstasies that they were good. Whereupon everybody bestirred them- selves to collect the beans, which were fairly plentiful. Tempted by a ' lady-finger' cake of this article that was brought to me, I ventured to try it, and found it suffi- ciently filling and about as palatable as a mess of acoras. Indeed, the flavour strongly remind, i me of the acorn! The fungi were of several varieties, some pure and per- fect mushrooms, others were of a less harmless kind ; but surely the gods protected the miserable human beings condemned to live on such things. Grubs were collected ; also slugs from the trees, caterpillars and white ants— these served for meat. The mabengu (nux vomica) fur- nished the dessert, with fenessi or a species of bastard jack fruit. " The following day some of the foragers from across the river returned bringing nothing, because they had dis- covered such emptiness on the north bank as we had found on the south bank; but 'Inshallah!' they said, ' we shall find food either to-morrow or the next day.' " In the morning, I had eaten my last grain of Indian corn, and my last portion of everything solid that was ob- tainable and leserved, and at noon the horrid pains of the atomach had to be satisfied with something. Some potato leaves brought me by Wadi Khamis, a headman, were IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT.3) fe «// ,^' •^ / = 1.25 2.2 lit I4£ 112.0 1.8 JA ill 1.6 nl A !__•_ i iiUUJglclpmc Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 l\ iV '^' ^ '^^1e.>^ '^ ^ <5^ 4.! .176 m THE^DARK CONTINENT. bruised fine and eoolcprl Tk «,**"' etomaoh ached from „ tr I^IZ'" T^ '"'l.^"" ""^ with his face aglow with ho„ornr-J k " ^'"""'"^ dozen fruit of the size anrf .„i f ""'' '"'""g'" "'^ » em.ttedamo3ti,llIanff , T"* * prize pear, which but the flnek had h.^ t .. f "'™ ^W^^ «>om, He had airltthra rf ''' ""' ^°^ "^^^'^ ^^d officors. flower, which had a ir ^r'f .""" "* *^' ""^ ^^^^ many 'thank; rl^Id" T*^^"^ '?»■' ■'^^t ''■ With grateful sense of Mne f tjT T'"' ""^ ' "^'^ " attacked me and 1 1 /° *° ''°'"'' '>°«'ever, a nausea cu lue, ana i was forced to sepk- m^r i, j m, ■ -ten'ab,etto1e:X1^'ro;Zr'^^"^-^'- "'^ German servant wJf }. .^iT , "^ ^ epitome. My b.vei, on Xt r'htdtr ".^"K t' '-;f Channel .ea he could ".r"*'^ ''"' ™ » """i flabby and disordZd! '™ ™'^ ">* ™ presented a more forest pears ^"'' "^P^"' *''»° 1>»'3 ^^en caused by the "Just at sunset the foragers of JM„ i n absence of thirtv.si,r Z Company, after an bank, bri„.in7s^"i„^"™' /PP*''"'^ f™" the north from despirl r :i^''.t:rth'° "" ''' ^""P^™^ two plantains each eo,!« T 'e """ ''"""'^^'^ ""'y put into stomach that wlwr"' """" °' ^'^ ^'"«". «- to satisfy. """"^ ''*"« "'q-i'-'^d eight pounds oiful mlus :h:^!„e.^™'"' f ^™-» '" d-wing fan- as; ^HE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 177 Fillet de bcouf en Chartreuse. Pat^ de volailles. a ]a LucuUus. Pe ites bouch^es, a„x huitres d'Oatende B^cassmes roties, k la Londres. "Another had sliown his An-rl. q solids such as : Anglo-Saxon procJivitie. for ^oast beef and potatoes unlimited. A weighty plum-pudding. «liog in the rapids We wtl 7 """' '"' '"''"'' ''"•«■ a canoe and saw one on t),„ „.i, , searched for four hundred yaXwTde ,„d t' "''' '"' "" '"« ""^ «g»inst the bert sw JmeVin t^"''™'>* «» *oo strong bility. «'™n>ers m their present state of de- w- situated I litl'TJZ Str"'V^"'' "■"«'' n.en volunteered, among wloml^J w "?f ""'• . ^'"■"^ P.o„eer, a grave .nan' faithl7 LT of t""?' "' ""^ once m many African U„^ ""•""" of much experi- -as to be .he';ri.e oTl ee" A^™'^, ',"""" ^» '^^ oity of Uladi, the coxswir^f ,k ?*°' ''^''^'' *■■« a'-da- his bold, high spi, t brr '«'™"'=«."as well as able man^ ^ ' ^'^ " '""st prudent and valu- 0fH 178 THE DARK CONTINENT. "These three men chose a small rapid for their venture, that they might obtain a footing now and then on the rocki^ At dusk two of them returned to grieve us with the news that Asmani had tried to swim with his Win- chester on his back, and had been swept by the strong current into a whirlpool, and was drowned. 'We were unfortunate in e\ory respect ; oui jhiefs had not returned, we were fearing for their fate, strong men deserted. Our rifles were rapidly decreasing in number. Our ammunition was being stolen. Feruzi, the next best man to Uledi aa a sailor, soldier, carrier, good man and true, was dying from a wound inflicted, on the head by a savage's knife. " The following day was also a halt. We were about to cross the river, and we were anxious for our six chiefs, one of whom was Rashid ben Omar, ' the father of the people,' as he was called. Equipped with only their rifles, accoutrements, and sufficient ammunition, such men ought to have travelled, in the week that had elp-^sed since our departure from Nelson's camp, over a hi 3d miles. If they, during that distance, could not discover the Manyema settlement, what chance had we, burdened with loads, with a caravan of hungry and despairing men who for a week had fed on nothing but two plantains, berries, wild fruit and fungi ? Our men had begun to suffer dearly during this protracted starvation. Three had died the day before. " Toward evening Jephson appeared with the boat, and brought a supply of Indian corn, which sufficed to give twelve cupfuls to each white. It was a reprieve from death for the Europeans. THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. H 179 "The next day, the 15th, having blazed trees around the camp, and having drawn broad arrows with charcoal for the guidance of the headmen when they should re- turn, the expedition crossed over to the north bank and camped on the uppei side of a range of hills. Feruzi Ali died of his wound soon after. "Our men were in such a desperately weak state that I had not the heart to command the boat to be discon- nected for transport ; as, had a world's treasure been spread out before them, they could not have exhibited greater power than they were willing to give at a word. I stated thfc case fairly to them thus : '"You see, my men, our condition in brief k this : We started from Yambuya 387 in number and took 237 loads with us. We had eighty extra carriers to provide for those who by the way might become weak and ailing. V\e left fifty-six men at Ug..rrowwa's Settlement, and fifty-two with Captain Nelson. We should have 271 left, but instead of that number we have only 200 to-day, including the chiefs who are absenf. Seventy-one have ei^ther died, been killed or deserted. But there are only 150 of you fit to carry anything, and therefore we cannot carry this boat any further. I say let us sink her here by the river side, and let us press on to get food for our- selves and those with Captain Nelson, who are wondering what has become of us, before we all die in these woods". You are the carriers of the boat— not we. Do you speak, what shall be done unto her ? ' "Many suggestions were made by the officers and men, but Uledi of 'Through the Dark Continent/ alwci-^s Uledi the ever faithful Uledi, spoke straight to the" purpose! 'f fr f f f . i I 180 THE DARK CONTINENT. ' Sir, my advice is this. You rro on w.'f }i th search for fhe Manyema and ? TJ ''''^''^" '""^ nf +1, -1 ^auyema, and 1 and my crew will work- ■ it was IrS":r r "'"f '^ ^" '" ">' 'he best, and "We separated at 10 «.m.,and in a short time I ha,l ,„v ^ey. 1 led the caravan northward thmnrvi. 4.u ^ , , forest, sheering a little to the Zl:^ tj^ ^^ usmg animal tracks when they served „^ p ^ ' piiiynium and fruit ^ the amnmnrv, ^. vo»i.a, besides the U.,. Vo^ZZ tTL^o^ln palpitated violently as we b'lfrt HLTw tS branrplai::. ™^ ^'"^'^^^ ^' '"^ i-.-edin/cr^^t': " Ah, it was a sad sight, unutterably .sad to see so fTst M '"""'''^"^r "'"^'^ ""-Sh «-^e„d,e: none knew, whom most believed did not know himself i name, ""t '" " ^""""^ ''^" »' ''""^ "' "'^^ady -What soon or late ! Therefore we pushed on and on, broke i''!i*il THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. Igj northwest, anrdesoenTn; IfaT^'r ""*^"^' '» clear s.™,,,™ehe/ol':'„/l:Xtr'''"^ "^ " sixty feet high, essayed to cirblbut " •"' ' '''' height, a branch or his strenrb ', , j ' °" «*"""S *»' headlong upon the Tea, tf ^ ^' 't''' *"•* *"> '"""ed waiting-o sei"e h f™ t slaT .""" ■"''° ""o ^-« were very serioudy iniuL T- ''^' T"' "^ ">«■» the hip and one <■ 1 "" ™' " ""'e la>»e in of a pa^;l the ehtt ™ "^"' "''"" "» *^" ^-P'-ned wiidt!r;far::s™t"dt^ amphitheatral glen and aTthTb H ' T °*"^ *° * ''''* deserted by the nrt,v!= 1 """^ '™'"' * cafflp j„st had thoughtitbe! r?ot tTb'V.'"" ''"^'^ *••»' 'h'^ treasures' Surely '„™ediv". W„,,p, attacked the CO ulL '''■"^-,'=°™™'' stung a man into hi,,h fever a, dT "T'"^' ""'' ciated condition there wrn« ^"« "" ""* *" <'»''- After a march of seven Z, .. ""' "' ""' "-'^^T- on the afternoon of the mh """'"'"'--"'y -» halted ::rttrr;c^Trn'--»^^^^^^^^^^^ ^«verineiess, tear of famish nff drovA no f^ u • the march at an early hour on fl. f i, ^ ^^^° about an hour and a ha f 1 ? ""^""'^^ ^^>^- ^^ iarge clearing. bTt the ^^^3 ro'dTnf T^'^^^ °^ ^ discern nothing further thL ;! it ;^^^^^^ Resting awhile to debate upon our ooZie l' Z T sonorous voice sinc^ino- in « in., ' ^®*^^ » -J a lusty hail andTn argum °f ^Th T, "' " ^"'^ oe some humour A« fi,- ^""^^nt with what appeared to would dare^X .o li tZt^ a^'dtivtrr^- Winchester rapiVin'the air T^f '° '"\' ««" " loaded musket! repealed thaTthe^t^rre t '"^^■ whom we had been so long seekinranl ? ""'.^"y™* echoes ceased their reverberations 1 T"^"^ ''"'' ">« "eyed its jo, h, long-co„t!:rrurr:lr '"^ "™™- '»" vaneTranlr^l^oTan"^ -^^^^^^^^^^^ to a little .ssuing lines of men and wom.n to t , ^ "'" ''*° nendly hails. We looked rtlri t ! Tf? -"/'* ".nv^g fleids, Indian corn, rice, swee-t -^otlZ; Z •i\ 186 THE DAIIK CONTINENT. ■| ;(.'■•; llllh beans The well-known sounds of Arab greeting and hospitable tenders of friendship burst upon our ears ; and our hands were soon chisped by lusty, huge fellows, who seemed to enjoy life in the wild, as much as they could have enjoyed it in their own lands. These came princi- pally from Manyema, though their no less stout slaves armed with percussion muskets and carbines, echoed Heartily their superiors' sentiments and professions "We were conducted up the sloping daring through fields of luxuriant grain, by troops of men and young- ster8.who were inexpressibly frolicsome in their joy at the new arrivals and dawning promise of a holiday On arriving at the village, we were invited to take our seats m deep shady verandas, where we soon had to answer to hosts of questions and congratulations. As the caravan filed past us to its allotted quarters, which men were appointed to show, numerous were the praises to God uttered by them for our marvellous escapes from the ternble wilderness that stretched from their settlement of Ipoto to the Basopo Cataract, a distance of 197 miles -praises in which, in our inmost hearts, each one of our sorely tried caravan most heartily joined. " We were now about to have a more intimate acquaint- ance with the morals of the Manyema, and to understand them betoer than we ever expected we should. " They had not heard a word or a whisper of our head- men whom we had despatched as couriers to obtain relief for Nelsons party, and as it was scarcely possible that a starving caravan would accomplish the distance between Nelsons, camp and 'Ipoto before six active and intelligent men, we began to fear that amom? thft lo«t m.r, „,. ^u!.,!,, THE HETCRN TO THE MKE. jgy have to number our Zanzibari chief, Th.' . , clear as far as tlio crossin,, nil / A ^" '™* «'»»' l"h- It was „,a,t p ZK T,t ^'"'"'^•" ""> «'«' continue up the r ver uudi I '"""^ """" ""<>"''> 'he aavagos of »o„e unut wu'^^l^ia::™ o^ " ^f^'' "^ never free from anxipf^r >. y/^^ge. Our minds were hi3 men. Thirteen d^ h r ""^ ""T'" '''='-^™ »<» parting. During this period tl.e'"^, ''''''"''' ''""' ""' than ours had biln. tT fo '^^ 'runTr' "'""' was around us Thn,. ^ , around them as it Tho most act"™ menlZ Z °t ' '°™ ^' ^ -« could employ thet an„ " ^ :' telY '°°* °^ ""'^ -one of tho forage „f Decembers d™:'":;™- "^ '"^ by land, or an hour by water R« J j , ^ * •'°''™''y on the crest of the hmlawf t^ '"°^ "'^™''<'<' -0. L, its^oL:^^^ - x: ba:k?JoriTdi:n e?m"rf *'r ^"^'^ -" '-- aixearsof compermTn It t' "'r. •"^'"'"''<'' S^™ xTd-"--™-'-™^^^^^^^^^ abil°Ll?e™'^:^,^" f/70 we suffered consider- - food, or else ^^^J^^l^Zlrj^rt "'' ^-Ir frorltmrr'lt'^!:-.^_?.'''--4an gotten their o«ioe, and the di^tivT^^^Xtlt li 1 i i! ll ;'lllii 188 THE DARK CONTINENT. yfi dainties, and affected to be deranged. Seriously, it was the natural resultof over-eating; corn mush,grits, parched corn, beans and meat, are solids requiring gastric juice, which, after being famished for so many days, was not in suffi- cient supply for the eager demand made for it. " The Manyema had about three hundred or four hun- dred acres under corn, five acres under rice, and as many under beans. Sugar-cane was also grown largely. They possessed about one hundred goats — all stolen from the natives. In their store-huts they had immense supplies of Indian corn, drawn from some village near the Ihuru, and as yet unshucked. Their banana plantations were well stocked with fruit. Indeed the condition of every- one in the settlement was prime. "It is but right to acknowledge that we were received on the first day with ostentatious kindness, but on the third day something of a strangeness sprang up between us. Their cordiality probably arose from a belief that our loads contained some desirable articles ; but un- fortunately, the first-class beads that would have sufficed for the purchase of all their stock of corn were lost by the capsizing of a canoe near Panga Falls, and the gold- braided Arab burnooses were stolen below Ugarrowwa, by deserters. Disappointed at not receiving the expected quantity of fine cloth or fine beads, they proceeded sys- tematically to tempt our men to sell everything they possessed, shirts, caps, daoles, waist-cloths, knives, belts, which, being their personal property, we had no objection. But the lucky owners of such articles, having been seen by others loss fortunate hugely enjoying varieties of suc- culent food, were the means of inspiring the latter to THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 189 envy, and finally to theft. The unthrifty and reckless men sold their ammunition, accoutrements, bill hooks ramrods, and finally their Remington rifles. Thus after escaping the terrible dangers of starvation and' such injuries as the many savage tribes could inflict on us we were in near peril of becoming slaves to the Arab slaves. "Despite entreaties for corn, we could obtain no more than two ears per man per day. I promised to pay triple price for everything received on the arrival of the rear column; but with these people a present possession is better than a prospective one. They .fessed to doubt that we had cloth, and to believe that we had travelled all this distance to fight them. We represented, on the other hand, that all we needed were six ears of corn per day during nine days' rest. Throe rifles disappeared. The headmen denied all knowledge of them. We were compelled to reflect that if it were true they suspected we entertained sinister intentions toward them, that surely the safest and craftiest policy would be to purchase our arms secretly, and disarm us altogether, when they could enforce what terms they pleased on us. " On the 21st six more rifles were abstracted. At this rate the expedition would be wrecked in a short time, for a body of men without arms, in the heart of a great forest, with a host of men to the eastward and a large body to the westward depending upon them, were lost beyond hope of salvation. Both advance and retreat were equally cut off, and no resource would be left but absolute submission to the chief who chose to assert him- self to be our master, or death. Therefore I proposed for It IIphI 1 ill |M ' wH^^H i 1 ■^^^^^H ifit ^1 ( 'I ) l. S V HtHI ;iiiiii!iiii!i I i I i li 190 THE DARK CONTINENT. my part to struggle against such a fate, and either to provoke it instantly, or ward it off by prompt action. " A muster was made, the five men without arms were sentenced to twenty-five lashes each and to be tied up After a considerable fume and fuss had been exhibited a man stepped up, as one was about to undergo punish- ment, and begged permission to speak. This man is innocent, sir. T have his rifle in my hut, I seized it last night from Juma (one of the cooks) son of Forkali, as he brought it to a Manyema to sell! It may be Juma stole it from this man. I know that all these men have pleaded that their rifles have been stolen by others v.hile they slept. It may be true as in this case.' Meantime Juma had flown, but was found later on hiding in the corn-fields. He confessed that he had stolen two, and had taken them to the informer to be disposed of for corn, or a goat, but it was solely at the instigation of the informer. It may have been true for scarcely one of them but was quite capable of such a course; but the story was lame, and unreasonable in this case and was rejected. Another now came up and recog- nized Juma as the thief who had abstracted his rifle, and having proved his statement, and confession having been made, the prisoner was sentenced to immediate execu- tion, which was accordingly carried out by hanging. " It now being proved beyond a doubt thaUhe Man- yema were purchasing our rifles at the rate of a few ears of corn per gun, I sent for the headmen, and made a formal demand for their instant restitution, otherwise they would be responsible for the consquences. They were inclined to be wrathy at first. They drove the THE HETIJHN TO THE LAKE. igj Za„;,ibari,, from the village out into the clearing, and hrthT ""7.P™P^«' "f » %ht, or, a. very probable, that the expedition was abont to be wrecked. Our men fch.: ir ' tT'^^'r'- """ """'y ''■•°'=™ i" spirit from what they had undergone were not to be relied on and as hey were ready to sell themselves for corn-there was Me c ance of our winning a victory in ease of I struggle. It requires fulness of stomach to be brave. At he same t.me death was sure to conclude us in any event for to remam qu,e.,cent under such circumstances tended' llTtr ™ "'"-"t appeal to arms. With those eleven rrfles, three housand rounds of ammunition had been sott No option presented itself to me than to be firm in my demand for the rifles ; it was reitentted under a threlt th.t I would proceed to take other means, and as a proof of It they had but to look at the body hanging fr^m a tree ; or if we proceeded to such extremities as putting to dea h one of our own men, they certainly ought t! know that we should feel ourselves perfectly prepared Z take vengeance on those who had really caused h^s death by keeping open doors to receive stolen property " After an hour's storming in their village they brought hvo rifles to me, and to my astonishment tinted out the s Hers of them Had it not been impolitic in the first place to drive things to the extreme, I should have de- clined receiving one of them back before all had been re urned, and could I have been assured of the aid "f flf y men I should have declared for a fight ; but iust at this juncture Uledi, the faithful coxswain of the iC^ stroae into camn hnnn-in"- ^o- — *v-i ^i i . . ' ihc. u V 1 "'•' ~",Y ° '*'' ^"^ ^0*^ was safe at the landing-place of Ipoto and of hi. discovery of the 192 THE DARK CONTINENT. II ^xmissmg chiefs in a starving and bewildered state four m. es from the settlement. This produced a re™"f perveraeness of human nature, I had some faithful fel lows, left me for the time speechless "Then the tale was told to Uledi and he undertook the business of eradicating the hostile feelings of the Man yema, and pleaded with me to let bygones\e bygone, ^ fte score that the dark days were ended, a^f happy days he was sure were in store for us ^^^ "'For surely, dear master,' he said,' • after the lon»e<,t witn us ( 1 thmk of how many lona ni.hts anrt d.-u days we pulled through in the old timfs when we pit d Africa together, and now let your heart b„ ,f Plo^ God we Shall ibrget our tLLe'sTir: lo^";""- TT1.J ™ P"'^^^'-^ Tdered to be bound until morning medi with his bold, frank way, sailed straight, in °tht were brought to me, apologies were made and accepted The com was distributed among the people, and we Inded this troublesome day, which had brough us aTLtb. verge of dissolution, in much greater coLnt thalt td have been hoped from its ominous commencement Our land-wandering chiefs, who were sent as heralds of our approach to Ipoto, arrived on Sunday the 23 d pa^hed to seek. Haggard.taf L* 'f^Ib ;L^:^^^^^^ teen days feeding on what the uninhabif.^ JIZZ THE RETURN To THE LAKE. 193 outlast, and struek i^ ^"''' ^"* """^ '■™«' ">- with the Itoi w hadTh ^^', r,^"'^ '^° '""fl-^-^^ down to the junction had f? °"°"''' '■>" *"'»"»'-y to the right bank 1. .r"!^"*"""*"'!"-™''! across hunger. "aWv TiTJ r, v' ""'''^ '*™''^'' f™» hadlnformod het of^.t'J f™"™'"'' ""=■» '" «■»«. had e ied Jt, tf cl^tr; ^'•"'°- ^^ '"^^ had penetrated a twenty da v.' ^n i ^ ^^'^ ^^ ba^Icets for No son" party "buT" '°/"'" ^ =°"P'^ "^ to my entreaty for a relief nartv n "™""''''« ^swr been speared to death bv I. M '""' """" ^<^ ^tealin'g corn LrtlVeM, ^rt Tk" "'"''"' "^ twentyhad been flogged tsteali^r ^'.'" ''""S^'^' had received two hSed "„ f, ^ T'''','''™■''"°'''^■■ attempting to steal Tf 1 i .1. " ""^ Manyeraa for ^ensib?y during these dTv'' T "'" "''"" ''^™ ^^"^^'d have bo'en settfed o^erZ^ "" '"'""'' »''"- »"" " ^ ''*<■ spoken and warned them wirt .n to 'endure, and cheer up' and lh7 ^ earnestness of settling all this but tL, t ^ ^ ''*"''' '™ «'ays for they-prefe r d th r f 1 7,f t' °' '"^ *""'■ wage, and work. Th: SlZ: ^te r-""\*° °" "hat they might e.pcct ofii^Zl^':%^:Z 194 THE DARK CONTINENT. dayawereover; all wehad to do was to march beyond the utmost reach of tho Manyema i^ids, when we shCld become as robust as they. Bah ! I might a3 well have addressed my appeals to tho trees of the foresZa u^Io wretches so sodden in despair. " The Manyema had promised me three several times by h.s day to send eighty men a. a relief party toZ sons camp ; but the arrival of Sangarameni and various arnrerer'"^ '"' ""'^ "''^ '^' ^'-'^«' '^^ " O" *he 12th tiring was heard on the other side of the nver, and under the plea that it indicated the arrival of ^o3tr:;t"""'-^"^'"-^^- ™ ««''"' P-ented "Ihe next day those who had fired arrived in camn and proved to be the Manyema knaves whom we hTd seen on October 2nd. Out of fifteen men. they Z tt one man from an arrow wound. They had wandered for ^^ ^TJ"^'" *" ^""^ ""^ ^''^^- tut having no other loads than provisions, these had lasted with Ln- omy for fifteen days, but for the last nine days they had subsisted on mushrooms and wild fruit. "On this evening I succeeded in drawing a contract and gettmg the three headmen to agree to th"e tZ^^ „»,, Inn f ^ '"™ ^ *'"' '•'="''■ °f Captain Nelson' with 400 ears of corn for his party " "To provide Captain Nelson and Surgeon Parke, and aU sick men unable to work in the fields, with provi ion. until our return from Lake Albert. "'The service of a guide from Ipoto to Ibwiri for which they were to be paid one bale and n l..if ^f ^'i„-- on the arrival of the rear column ' " " "" ^ " THE RETURN TO THE LAKE. 195 son two huX :Vfifty ^.ItTnr' ''^''""" ^''- two hundred and fiff. V f^'^ ^^ ^"^'an corn, and for quantity, a:!:/,'^';::"^'^^ ?°"«'" ''"°'■'- case purchased two blak^t!furf """"' '['>«' " dosing- of roses I obtained 'htt:,' s^htri ^T' "' °"" and bushels of corn for H,„ ' ' ' *""• ""^ ">o«s- "On the 26th Mr Mo ! '"?''"'' '■^''^™<' Parties. ney to NelsonC ^T I ^^rt tt h".^^ *»"■ duoe Mr. Jenhson', r.L . <^™<",ber 4. 1887. crossed over with tMrtv m"""'"^ "^ ''°'°^^^ ^«"'. ^"^ under my chlr- thTt T" """^ '"rty Zan^ibaris landing. The Text l„r„ '™"''"' "'"' """P^d «» -hedthe c^rjeVd^rdVe'r"''^ T" si-cH trcf . r -i-d " -"o-^^or- heads we had mali on ,r ; '^ ''" ''^"^ *"'' "^^w- had crossed terrsffl frih' tl'V^ '"^ ""''^^ ^ ' camps that ni<,ht Th„ „ , a ^ *""'"'''• "' O""- four'of our fo™ L m?r hes' Z " "'' T"'^ ""^^^ " had got his death-^nd 7\ ''^■"P^here Feruzi Ali a^' we passed through! 'ZZte'^ ™'^ '''""' b -uurmg the day we passed the 196 THE DAHK CONTINENT. died f of three of our men who had fallen down and died from h ,t^„^ji„„ . ^^^^ reminder of the m.sery through which we had so lafely gone. a3 it La Tu'"^ "' "■" ^''"> I started off as soon w.th the boat sections. All were passed by quick Iv to day and again the skeletons in the'road teftified to tht trials hrough which wo had passed. As I came dotn t .e b.ll rnto Nelson's camp, J a sound wasTard b„ tl e groans of two dying men in a hut close by The whole place had a deserted and woe-begone look T / c,u,etly round the tent and found NeTso ting h^^ ~i|xSg^fi;i=-:^ ray^td^;rdTnfno-:;^re^t;£ us and that we had been compelled to abandon him He had hved ch.efly upon fruits and fungi which l^s two boys had brought in from day to day Of he « I , men you left with him, only five rem'ained f whfrtr were m a dyrng state. All the rest had e ther d^r- iiim or were dead. ' "" ^— ^-^^ THE KETUBN To TM LAM. " He ha? himself given vnn .„ from death and desertion Tl^u'^T' "^ ">" ^^^' k'm, which I had carefX 111."" ""' ^"°'' ^^ ■'<>■" '■«'' one of the ehielcens t Tome^f ^h "" "*^' "■"> '^ ;to„ce; it was the fi„t noZZnl)" Tr'^ '^'^"^ "■-e-5£5H"^^^^^ «on=e days before we^ lefthi ' ?'' ^" ^'--y ■>«' to^ tent the whole time he had T,' l ^^ ''""'^ '«» the had had ten uleera on one foot , ^^'l ^' ""^ «»<= he from them in a great meast ' l,^" ^f "°^ ^'^<=overed 'I'ould bo able to march stwvn 'T^ """«'" ''' the return march. 1 1'; T,^' °'' *"= 8"* '-o began Manyema and Zanziblt but """'J '^' '""* *° the teen boxes of ammunitio ' a '' °''"S'<' 'o leave thir- buried, and ParkeXelf t'T? f ^^ '"""^^ ">- ^ "'Nelson did t^ l*t t *'*"'' "'»™ 'ater on. though he was much Icnok^r f\' "'''° ' ^''P^'=tod, On the return march recrtrtf' "' f ^"' '"'^• and made our wav „„ 1 I ^* "^'^ 'o«'<»' down «W road a dayslTrcZf^:;?^' "^ ^""^ ^'^^-^ ^"^ we passed more skeleton Tt T*" "*"?• ^ere again *ont^.rf ^^"^-^^^^^^^^^ '"^^ ■ He has alread/Victed „t wond'rful^^^^^ accomplished, marchmg, but he cannot it rrf^^." spite of the a nervous and hi<,hlv"t^l' S ^ " /"^''t. and is still i„ *»P will, I trust, s;t him'™ ±;'' V'' "° "'^ ''™'' "P again^ It is certain that !ifi'i'! 1^1 I It i I! ! ii; ,1 IfliliHi!' 198 THE DARK CONTINENT. in his state of health he could not have followed us in our wanderings in search of food ; he must have fallen by the way. I am, &c., &c., " ' (Signed) A. J. Mounteney- Jephson.' " The next day, after leaving Surgeon Parke to attend to his friend Nelson and twenty-nine men, we left Ipoto with our reduced force to strive once more with the hunger of the wilderness." '<*2* I I ii'iiiiii!ii' •W ^^H idi njHii ri||H U' mi 1 « In m iOO THE BARK CONTINFNT. Ifi to iet>«tfi to Ibwiri, on the Aruv^ mji, to establish a reserve depot at i'ort Bodo. This he does, and towards the end of April, 1888, he is once more at Kavalli, on the lake. Here ho now meets P^min, acconipanied hy Captain Casati, an Italian ottieer in the service of the Khedive. For twenty-five days, rescued and rescuer encamp together on the shores of the lake, Stanley occupying the time en- deavouring to induce the unyielding Emin to take advan- tage of the proffered relief and obey the Khedive's man- date, to abandon the menaced Province and make his way with Stanley to the coast. Leaving Emin to make up his mind and arrange for the abandonment of the Soudan, Stanley betakes himself to the weariful task of returning for his rearguard and bringing up to the Albert Nyanzn the whole of the re- lieving column. To expedite matters, Stanley loft Mr. Mounteney-Jephson with the Governor, while he himself retraced his steps to Yambuya. We have seen what were the chief incidents in this return trip to the mouth of the Aruwimi, and how undauntedly the leader of the expe- dition had overcome all oljstacles. He reached Kavalli for the third time in January, 1889, but only to find that Emiii's Egyptian troops had broken out in revolt and pl^,ced both Emin and Jephson under arrest. The vk'Wb, for a time, had a paralyzing effo t on Stanley, for i*: dashed to the ground his hopes of rescuing the Go^ oinor and of bringing him with his people to the sea. The mutiny was incited by the Mahdists, and what was to be *\e issue Stanley could hardly foresee. It had broken x. • i*<- Lahore, a northern station on the Nile, whither s'Jlvi ; uid J»iphson had gone to read to the garri- THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. 201 AND B0T8. i ill 202 THE DARK CONTINENT. son the Khedive's proclamation to withdraw from the Province. The arrest of the Governor and Stanley's lieu- tenant had taken place at Dufil^ on the 20th of August, 1888, For some time before this, Emin's authority had been declining, owing partly to disaffection in his follow- ing, incited, as we have said, by emissaries of the Mahdi, and partly to unwillingness to withdraw from the Pro- vince, particularly by any other route than that of the Nile. For many months, during Stanley's absence in search of his rearguard, nothing but chaos reigned in the Pasha's Provinces. On the approach of the Mahdists, to chaos was added despair, and the cowardly Egyptians fell back on successive stations until refuge was taken on an island in the Albert Nyanza, after which submission was made to Stanley, and then arose a ])rolonged discussion on the subject of evacuation. The incidents of this anxious time will be best given in the letters of Mr. Jeph- son to Mr. Stanley, embodied in one addressed by the latter to Sir William Mackinnon, of the Emin Relief Com- mittee. Says Mr. Stanley : " You can but imagine the intense surprise I felt while reading these letters by giving you extracts from them in Mr. Jephson's own words : — " DuriLE, November 7th, 1888. " Dear Sir, — I am writing to tell you of the position of affairs in this country, and I trust this letter will be de- livered to you at Kavalli in time to warn you to be careful. " On August 18th a rebellion broke out here, and the Pasha and I were made prisoners. The Pasha is a com- plete prisoner, but I am allowed to go about the station, THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. gOS but ray movements are watehpr! Th^ i. n- , got up by some half-do^ tltia^ offl " "S"?'^" and gradually others have iofn'ed 'omet'" T ?*'' tion, but most through fear Th„ u '° ' '"'""*- tion of those at Ub^r/Z'o never /T' "" '^"^P" have quietly given i„ to thiir ofaV, '"'' '" "' '"' ' • . , " When the Pasha and I were on our way to Ee»f i men, one an officer, Abdul Faal Effendi a^d tl,e„^ ', ? went about and told the people that t^lvK ""''■ and that you were onlv „„ T 7 ^ """' '^™ you, from Egypt ■ That the Ih '"^™"'"™-' ''"'' '"■'<1 "»* "omo Khedivf ani Nublr Pal? '"^ "' ''™"S''' f™» «>« »uu ixuoar rasna were foro-priVa. +1. 1 -j. untrue Khartoum had fallen and tha Th„ p' '.' ^"^ had made a plot to take them 7h! '''^ *""* y"" out of the couatrv 1,1 V Tk "'™'' *"'' '='^"*™ English. Such wor^ L r ™ °™'' "' ^'"^^ «« *•■» t.y such as this act^^l k" fi ^"°''"" '"" f"™'™' «<»"- -U was a — ifblltnTnTr :^rrd"' ''' soners, ^^^® "^'^cle pn- " The rebels then collected officers from ih ^-^ stations and held a large meetin^here o7et ^ T' measures they should ttlce, and all tCw^^^^^^^^^^ m the movement were so insulted and abused thaAT were obliged, for their own safetv fn «! ^^'^ was done. ThePash« 17/ ^' acquiesce in what were suspected o b i:;^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ -^o from their posts and ih^ T I. "" "^^'^ removed inthoirp,ar\rwrd::rrraf;;hit--r--' s in lions, but the officers were afraid to !f 204 THE DARK CONTINENT. i ", * f , put their plans into execution, as the soldiers said they would never permit any one to lay a hand on him. Plans were also made to entrap you when you retuined, and strip you of all you had. " Things were in this condition, when we were startled by the news that the Mahdi's people had arrived at Lado with three steamers and nine sandals and nuggers, and had established themselves on the site of the old station. Omar Sali, their General, sent up three peacock dervishes with a letter to the Pasha (a copy of this will follow, as it contains some interesting news), demanding the instant surrender of the country. The rebel officers seized them and put them in prison, and decided on war. After a few days the Mahdists attacked and captured Regaf, killino- five officers and numbers of soldiers, and taking many women and children prisoners, and all the stores and am- munition in the station were lost. The result of this was a general statiij)ede of people from the stations of Bidden, Kirri, and Muggi, who fled with their women and chil- dren to Labor^, abandoning almost everything. At Kirri the ammunition was abandoned, and was at once seized by the natives. The Pasha reckons that the Mahdists number about one thousand five hundred. " The officers and a large number of soldiers have re- turned to Muggi, and intend to make a stand against the Mahdists. Our position here is extremely unpleasant, for since the rebellion all is chaos and confusion. There is no head, and half a dozen conflicting orders are given every day, and no one obeys. The rebel officers are wholly unable to control the soldiers. THE CAMP AT KAVALLF. 205 "The Bai-is have joined the Mahflkf« it- ^u down hco wiH, a ,-L, „„thi; ^t::^:J '"^^ '=°'"^ (I rni now re : ^er uaded t .T'T "^'' ^^"' '^^ ^'^^ -- eciiiy persuaded that Khartoum has fallen and t h«f you have co.ne from the Khedive. '< 11 check for some time • but is if ,'= i.^ • ^^d-nuiscs in »'t. , out as It IS he is powerless to act, • I , ^ • • . . Pasha or to me, telling us what number of men vou uZ a letter to h.m might be confiscated. ' slilll'l"r "" ''"■'''" ''°' "■y^'^'f thinks 'there is the om eIp rd°';: T r:^"%P^--ded yo„com: their c^S^^ ;,i ' ,u7i " n ■"°" '° ^'' *<=■» -' »f ^■our camp strong " "" """ ""• ^™ '" »»''« If H If" ? 'Ji ^ iWif ,'ll(T I 206 THE DARK CONTINENT. " If we are not able to get out of the country, please remember me to my fi-iends, &c.— Yours faithfully, " A. J. Mounteney-Jephson. 'To H. M. Stanley, Esq., Commander of the Relief Expedition." " Wadelai, November 24th, 1888. "My messenger not having left Wadelai, I add this postscript, as the Pasha wishes me to send my former letter to you in its entirety. '••■.. " Shortly after I had written to you, the soldiers were Jed by then- officers to attemj^t to retake Regaf, but the Mahdists defeated them, and killed six officers and a larcre number of soldiers. Among the officers killed were some of the Pasha's worst enemies. The soldiers in all the stations were so panic-stricken and angry at what had happened, that they declared they would not attempt to fight unless the Pasha was set at liberty ; so the rebel officers were obliged to free him, and sent us to Wadelai where he is free to do as he pleases, but at present he' has not resumed his authority in the country; he is, I believe, by no means anxious to do so. We hope in a few days to be at Tunguru, a station on the Lake two days by steamer from N'sabe, and I trust when we hear of your arrival that the Pasha himself will be able to come down witJi mo to see j'ou. • ■ • • I " Our danger, as far as the Mahdists are concerned, is of course, increased by this last defeat, but our position THE CAMP AT KAVALU. 207 IS m one way bettor now, for we are further removed from them, and we have the option of retWnHf ' pJease, which wo had not before while w were plLl Wo hear that the Mahdists have sent stea„e7 Z to reinforcements it wiiuf:,, up wU? rLThr",;"' wm never etand against themj'and it Clii t .1:'::^ • • . , _ "Every one is anxiously looking for your arrLl fn the co..ng of the Mahdists has co^V^^oS^^^ possible to foresee what wmTap;': " "'"^^^ ^"■ "A. J. M. J." " TuNGURu, December 18th, 1888 start^d'^fr""'^^'.^''^ ""^'^^^^^) -* J-vingyet staited, I send a second postscript. We are now „f t guru. On November 25th the MnbHW """" DnfJl^ Qfo+- 11 . '^^ ^"® Mahdists surrounded our bo t (the ^,„^,, I wzrroT ; ''-''"' -Uuhle IS bemff rennynfa.i ... ^„„x __ , - , Ue Pasha .s unable to move hand or foot, as therL i^ 208 THE DARK CONTINENT, still a very strong party against him, and the officers are no longer in immediate fear of the Mahdists. " Do not on any account come down to Usate (my for- mer camp on the Lake, near Kavalli's Island), but make your camp ut Kavalli (on the plateau above). Send a letter directly you arrive there, and as soon as we hear of your arrival, I will come to you. I will not disguise the fact that you will have a difficult and dangerous work before you in dealing with the Pasha's people- I trust you will arrive before the Mahdists are reinforced, or our case will be desperate. " I son, yours faithfully, " A. J. Mounteney-Jephson. " You will doubtless remember that I stated to you, in one of my latest letters last year, 1888, that I know no more of the ultimate intentions of Emin Pasha than you at home know. He was at one time expressing himself as anxious to leave, at another time shaking his head, and dolorously exclaiming, 'I can't leave my people.' Finally I parted from him in May, 1888, with some- thing like a definite promise. 'If my people leave, I leave ; if my people stay, I stay.' Here, then, on January 16th, 1889,1 received this batch of letters and two notes from the Pasha himself confirm- ing the above, but not a word from either Mr. Jephson or the Pasha indicative of the Pasha's purpose. Did he still waver, or was he at last resolved ? With any other man than the Pasha or Gordon, one would imagine that, being a prisoner, and a fierce enemy hourly expected to give the coup mortel, he would gladly embrace the first e officers are THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. 209 chance to escape from a country given up by his Goverii- ment. But there was no hint in these letters what course the Pasha would follow. These hints of mine, how- ever, will throw light on my postscript, which here fol- lows, and on my state of mind after reading the letters. I wrote a formal letter, which might be read by any person, the Pasha. Mr. Jephson, or any of the rebels, and addressed it to Mr. Jephson, as requested ; but on a sep- arate sheet of paper I wrote a private postscript for Mr. Jephson's perusal. "Kavalli, Jan. 18th, 1889. "My Dear Jephson,~1 now send thirty rifles and three of Ravalli's men down to the Lake with my letters, with urgent instructions that a canoe should set ofi", and the bearers be rewarded. " I may be able to stay longer than six days here, per- haps for ten days. I will do my best to prolong my stay until you arrive without rupturing the peace. Our people have a good store of beads, cowries, and cloth, and I notice that the natives trade very readily, which will assist Kavalli's resources should he get uneasy under our prolonged visit. " Be wise, be quick, and waste no hour of time, and bring Buiza and your own Soudanese with you. I have read your letters half a dozen times over, but I fail to grasp the situation thoroughly, because in some import- ant details one letter seems to contradict the other. In one you say the Pasha is a close prisoner, while you are allowed a certain amount of liberty ; in the other you say that you will come to me as soon as you hear of our ar- rival here, and ' I trust,' you say, ' the Pasha will be able vm 210 THE DARK CONTINENT. 't ii I If* to accompany me.' Being prisoners, I fail to see how you could leave Tungura at all. All this is not very clear to us, who are fresh from the bush. "If the Pasha can come, send a courier on your arrival at our old camp on the Lake below here, to announce the tact, and I will send a strong detachment to escort him up to the plateau, even to carry him if he needs it I teel too exhausted after my thirteen hundred miles travel smce I parted from you last May, to go down to the Lake again. The Pasha must have some pity for me. " Don't be alarmed or uneasy on our account; nothing hostile can approach us within twelve miles without ray knowing it. I am in the thickest of a friendly popula- tion, and if I sound the war-note, within four hours I can have two thousand warriors to assist to repel any force disposed to violence. If it is to be a war of wits why then I am" ready for the cunningest Arab alive. " I wrote above that I read your letters half a dozen times, and my opinion of you varies with each reading bometimes I fancy you are half Mahdist or Arabist and then Eminist. I shall be wiser when I see you. "... Now don't you be perverse, but obey, and let my order to you be as a frontlet between the eyes, and all, with God's gracious help, will end well. " I want to help the Pasha somehow, but he must also help me, and credit me. If he wishes to get out of this trouble, I am his most devoted servant and friend but if he hesitates again I shall be plunged in wonder and per- plexity. I could save a dozen Pashas if they were will- ing to be saved. I would go on my knees to implore the Fasha to be sensible in his own case. He is wise enough [< "I THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. £11 loo'dM^r^'f '''"''' ^'' '^° '''''''''■ ^« kind and fnto th. r, 7 "'""^- '"'"'^' ^"* '' "^^ y^^ b« drawn into the-fatal fascination Soudan territory seems to havo for all Europeans of late years. As soon as they tou 1 ts ground they seem to be drawn into a whirlpoof which sucks them in and covers them with its waves. The only way to avoid it is to obey blindly, devotedly, and un- questioningly, all orders from the outside «J'J^'r'"''"T^r^^^' '^'^''^' Emin Pasha with this ammunition I he wishes to come out, the ammunition will enable him to do so ; if he elects to stay, it will be of service to him.' The Khedive said the same thin, and added 'But if the Pasha and his officers wish to^'stay. they do so on their own responsibility.' Sir Evelyn Bar- ing said the same thing in clear and decided woi'^ds, and here I a,„, after 4100 miles of travel, with the last instal- ment of relief. Let him who is authorised to take it, take It Oome; I am ready to lend him all my strenr^th and wit to assist him. But this time there must be^io hesitation, but positive yea or nay, and home we go. " Yours very sincerely, "Henry M. Stanley. " A. J. Mounteney-Jephson, Esq. "If you will bear in mind that on August 17th 1888 after a march of GOO miles to hunt up the rear colmnn I met only a miserable remnant of it, wrecked by the irre- solution of its officers, neglect of their promises, and in- difference to their written orders, you will readily under- stand why. after another march of 700 mile«, I was a little put out when I discovered that, instead of perform- riH' i 212 TFTE DAHK CONTINENT. III" [jp:>: ing tlicii- promise of conducting the garrison of Fort Bodo to the Nyanza, Mr. Jophson an«l Eniin Pa.slia had allowed themselves to be made prisoners on abou the very day they were expected by the garrison of Fort Bodo to reach them. It could not bo pleasant reading to find that in- stead of being able to relieve Em in Pasha, I was more than likely, by the tenor of these letters to lose one of my own officers, and to add to the number of the Euro- peans in that unlucky E(iuatorial Province. However, a personal interview with Mr. Jephson was necessary, in the first place, to understand fairly or fully the state of affairs. "On February Cth, 18S9, Mr. Jei)hson arrived in the afternoon at our camp at Kavalli on the plateau. "I was startled to hear Mr. Jephson, in plain undoubt- ing words, say, ' Sentiment is tlio Pasha's worst enemy ; no one keeps Emin Pasha back hut Emin Fasha himseb.' This is a summary of what Mr. Jephson had learned during nine months from May 25th, 1888, to February 6th, 1889. I gathered sufficiently from Mr. Jephson's verbal report to conclude that during nine months neither the Pasha, Signor Casati, nor any man in the Province, had arrived nearer any other conclusion than that which was told us ten months before. Thus — " The Pasha : ' If my people go, I go ; if they sta^, I stay.' " Signor Casati : ' If the Governor goes, I go ; if the Governor stays, I stay.' "The Faithful: 'If the Pasha goes, we go; if the Pasha stays, we stay,' " However, the diversion in our favour created by the Mahdists' invasion, and the dreadful slaughter they made THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. 213 of all thoy mot, inspinxl us with a hope that wo could get an answer at last — though Mr. Joph.son could only reply, 'I really cannot toll you what the Pii.sha means to do. He says he wishes to go away, hut will not make a move; no one will move. It is impossible to say what any man will do. Perhaps another advance by the Mah- dists would send them all pell-mell towards vou, to be again in esolute, and requiring several weeks' lA-st to con- sider again.' " In February I despatched a company to the Steam Ferry, with orders to Mr. Stairs to hasten with his column to Kavalli with a view to concentrate the Expedition ready for any contingency. Couriers were also despatched to the Pasha, telling him of our movements and inten- tions, and asking him to point out how we could best aid him. Whether it would be best for us to remain at Kavalli, or whether we should advance into the Province, and assist him at Mswa or Tunguru Island, where Mr. Jephson had left him. I suggested the simplest plan for him would be to seize a steamer and employ her in the transport of the refugees, who I heard were col'3cted in numbers at Tunguru, to my old camp on the Nyanza, or that, failing a steamer, he should march overland from Tunguru to Mswa, and send a canoe to inform me he had done so, and a few days after I could be at Mswa, with two hundred and fifty rides, to escort them to Kavalli. But the demand was for something positive, otherwise it would be my duty to destroy the ammunition and march homewards. "On the 13tli of February a native courier appeared in camp with a letter from Emin Pasha, with news which ft f |. > ft" If] It 1 h\ ^B -- r > 1 ^H^^^^H f 1* ^■J J ^^^H ki 1 1- it ■! if ■ i 214 THE DARK CONTINENT. electrified us. He was act mlly at anchor just below our plateau eamp. But hero i. the fomml letter :- " Camp, February 13th, 1889, " To Hemnj M. Stanley, Esq., commanding lielief Exve- a man : x^ i f^ " SiR,-In answer to your letter of the 7th imt., for wh.eh I hegto tender my best thanks, I have the honour with r. ''"".'" ^•'''"'""y.'" 3p,,n., I arrived here with my wo steamers, carrying a first lot of people de- ».rous to leave this country un.ler your escort. As soon as I have arranged for cover of my people, the steamships have to start for Mswa station, to bring on another lot of people awaiting transport. " With me there are some twelve officers anxious to see you, and only forty soldiers. They have come under n,y orders to request you to give them some time to bring heirbi-others-at least, such as are willing to leave-! from Wadelai, and I promised them to do my best to r nT m""^' '"''"^ '" ^-^ -'»* -w^ehanged you will be able to make them undergo whatever eofdi- Tn sLTf 'V'^^"'' "'""' *''^"- ^° """"g^ these I shall start from here with the officers for your eamp after having provided for the camp, and if you sendZ-' ners, I could avail me of some of them "I hope sincerely that the great difficulties you have had to undergo, and the great saerificos made by voir ex pedition m its way to assist us, may be rewarded by a full success in bringing out my peonle. The w„„ „f f^ samty which ovemm the country has subsided; a^id oi THE CAMl' AT KAVALLI. 215 ust below our r ;— t3TH, 1889, lielief Expe- 7th inst, for the honour arrived here •f people de- rt. As soon e steamships nother lot of i anxious to come under ime to bring 1 to leave — my best to ow changed, tever condi- rrange these your camp, )u send car- !8 you have de by your warded by a . .. ._.. jJl- ded, and of such people as are now coming with me we may be sure. " Signor Casati requests mo to give his best thanks for your kind remembrance of him. " Permit me to express to you once more my cordial thanks for whatever you have done for us until now, and believe me to be, Yours very faithfully, " Dr. Emin. During the interval between Mr. Jephson's arrival and the receipt of this letter, Mr. Jephson had written a pretty full report of all that he had heard from the Pasha. S.gnor Casati, and Egyptian soldiers, of all the principal events that had transpired within the last few years in the Equatorial Province. In Mr. Jephson's report, I come across such sentences as the following conclusions. I give them for your consideration : " And this leads me now to say a few words concern- ing the position of affairs in this country when I entered It on April 21st, 1888. The Ist Battalion, about seven hun- dred rifles, had long been in rebellion against the Pasha's authority, and had twice attempted to make him prison- er. The 2nd Battalion, about six hundred and fifty rifles though professedly loyal, was insubordinu-' 3, and almost unmanageable. The Pasha possessed only a semblance a mere rag, of authority, and if he required anythin- of importance to be done, he could no longer order, he was obliged to beg his officers to do it. " Now, when we were at N'sabe, in May, 1888, though '■'•-^•■- "^"•'^ i-uiiigs were a iittJe dilFicuit in his country, he never revealed to us the true state of things, Rp Hi ' ■ i- i ' ' ? V. ■' ■■-':[ ■-' tm ,lll, , y III ^■t1 216 THE DARK CONTINENT. which was actually desperate, and we had not the slight- est idea that any mutiny or discontent was likely to arise amongst his people. We thought, as most people in Europe and Egypt had been taught to believe by the Pasha's own letters and Dr. Junker's later representa- tions, that all his difficulties arose from events outside his countty, whereas, in point of fact, his real danger arose from internal dissensions; thus we were led to place our trust in people who were utterly unworthy of our confidence or help, and who, instead of being grate- ful to us for wishing to help them, have from the very first, conspired how to plunder the expedition and turn us adrift ; and had the mutineers, in their highly excited state, been able to prove one single case of injustice, or cruelty, or neglect of his people, against the Pasha, he would most assuredly have lost his life in this rebellion." I shall only worry you just now with one more quota- tion from Mr. Jephson's final report and summary : " As to the Pasha's wish to leave the country, I can say decidedly he is most anxious to go out with us, but under what condi lions he will consent to come out I can hardly understand. I do not think he quite knows him- self, his ideas seem to me to vary so much on the sub- ject ; to day he is ready to start up and go, to-morrow some new idea holds him back. I have had many con- versations with him about it, but have never been able to get his unchanging opinion on the subject. After this rebellion I remarked to him, ' I presume, now that your peopiy have deposed you, and put you aside, you do not consider that you have any longer an^' rftannnsibilitv or obligations concerning them j ' and he answered, ' Had THE CAMP AT KAVALLI. 217 they not deserted me, I should have felt bound to stand by them and hep them in any way I could; but now I consider I am absolutely free to think only of my own personal safety and welfare, and if I get (he chance™ shall go out regardless of everything.' ^And ^t oX'a few days before I left him he said to me, ■ I ifnow I am not in any way responsible for these people, but I cannot bear to go out myself first and leave any' one h "ebe hmd me who is desirous of quitting the co-ntry. It L mere sentiment, I know, and, perhaps, a sentim»tyou w^n sympathize with ; but my enemies at Wadelai won d erted to?.' T^^ *° *'" '""P'"*' ' ^°" ^0 ^' has de- serted you ! These are merely two examples of what «s, but I could quote numbers of things he has said all equally contradictory. Again, too, being somewhTt im pat ent after one of these unsatisfactory conversations, T u\, / " ""P^dition does reach any place nea.^ C ff fb"" *"'•■ ^'""'''^ '° ^"-' youandcar^ WIW T n/'' ^°" "'" <"• ■">•' *<- *"<='> be replied Well, I shall do nothing to prevent your doing that ' ft wrir^r ™ ^'^ '° -™ ■•- - --- "Before closing my report I must bear witness to the tact that, m my frequent conversations with allsorts -nd conditions of the Pasha's people. I heard, with hardlv Iny exceptions, only praise of his justice and gener^^yZ h. people, but I have heard it suggested th:* he did not hold his people with a sufflcientlv firm h„nd tio'n t."r:A'«r/ '"^ '■"^■•^'"''g P^o^ ;» our expedi. und in my next letter. Meantim< H you 1 111 ■f ft t 111 1^ 'i| iri 1 218 THE DABK CONTINENT. ! . 111! have the satisfaction to know that Emin Pasha after all is close to our camp, at the Lake shore ; that carriers have been sent to him to bring up his luggage, and assist his people. "Yours faithfully, Henry M. Stanley. "William Mackinnon, Esq., Chairman of the E. P. R. Committee." CHAPTER XIII. STANLEY'S ESTIMATE OF EM,N PA«„^ ,,.„ „^^ =? . HE SUFFERED IS QUEST OF IlIM. .HE labour.,, privation., and agonies endured have ten nofauhrrh ""!; ''"''^P"^' ^ - Toaresolt^teand intrfn-H "'"'f '^"^i-S involved. -red after the n>eotin/wil"th''eXv'e:":r:; th " hi3 Province anfr °/'"'"r ^"^ t" "'-'"■don The forbealee vvW rhltLf d !"' ''' '^■ dealing with a man s!l *'''.'"'""J *<> e«rcise in it had co.t t'o find hi " wou|7r "."? T ^»'-' ""- «" «aint. Yet since hi "etll t""' '"Sf ">« '^-"P^^ of » to this incident in he U to.! otl" ^*"''''''' '^'^^^""^ the experiences he had olV.J- • '^''P^'lition, and to and perverse indiffer!lA k ™P'"-*"'''^ searoh of his rear ley! "rf:rhrtrwit:?™f"^-M^'*'"^''^'^ ^■■- «'- I'ole, The name OS slur 'fK*''"" ''"' "^'"l P«* the faces and boS of Z ,'^''""'" ™ "^'"^ '» l-emgwh„,disflgur?d blZJ'''^™^ '"""^'"g ''™aa impelled by curio [;^^'t''t:'-X "" T"^''' '='''"»• from the forest land ast and wb "' '''"' ^""^ """^ terror they inspired bvtt.d.".^'"'' """'"'''' °' ""' There were six dead L f ""'""'''"l '" ">em. smitten living with their ft f "»" ""''""*''• ■""! 'he the dozen. OtWs v„" ^ '"?«*'' '" fr""' "' «« by fro,n dysentc." »J ™^ '?,*■" ^''» ""d *ring bone ™-,erawle^dabo^utldtirwi;l-rth:ir'^^^^^^^ 1' Nil 222 THE DARK CONTINENT. ii.., Iff i ■ welcome— a welcome to this charnel yard. Weak wearied, and jaded in body and mind, I scarcely know how I endured the first few hours. The ceaseless story of calamity vexed my ears, a deadly stench of disease hung in the air, and the most repellant sights moved and surged before my dazed oyes. I heard of murder and death, of sickness and sorrow, anguish and grief, and whei-ever I looked the hollow eyes of dying men met my own with such trusting, pleading regard, such far-away yearning looks, that it seemed to me if but one sob was uttered my heart would break. I sat stupefied under a suffocating sense of despondency, yet the harrowing story moved on in a dismal cadence that had nought else in it but death and disaster, disaster and death. A hundred graves at Yambuya— thirty-three men perishing aban- doned in the camp, ten dead on the road, about forty in the village about to yield the- feeble hold of life, deser- tions over twenty, rescued a passable sixty ! And of the gallant band of Englishmen ? 'Barttelot's gra a is but a few yards off, Troup went home a skeleton, Ward is some- where a wanderer, Jameson has gore to the Falls, I don't know why.' 'And you— you are the only one left?' 'The only one, sir.'" Such a passage as tliis would naturally prepare the reader for a violent outbreak of passion and resentment at the men whom he left in charge of the rearguard and who were in the main responsible for the state of things Stanley was confronted with when he returned to Yam- buya. But there is no trace of either passion or resent- ment in the account given us of the story in Mr. Stanley's volumes, On the contrary we find onlv an indulwni STANLEY'S ESTIMATE OF K«m P^SHA. 223 a" who aided him. ^ Th ,3 weU '^'T °' ""^ ^ffo^s of servation. of a reviewer of M?sJ„T"^'°"' '" ""^ *" deali,^ with the incide„C:„lt X^™ "rk, ""» the rear column. Savs fh^ r., • ^® ^^^<^^ of "Mr Q!f«»,i ' ^*^« the reviewer : loader. omer-lTrrat T" '"^ ""'""' »' *»» imity al„3„st supeSi " jtr'^T^ by a magnan- requirements of duty 3 ZZ-7^^""' "^ ""^ P'^i" pledging their faith o fdW hT °'t''^ *° ''™ ''f^ Wed indulgently 11^1?/^,' " ""' ''"''^"''-. ""-e -ature. He pays a hT»h ^K . ' "^'''=*'' »« '"■man '-Of the «Ta:d'ta:.l\tinfeinhar ^"'' ^'- C^r„:^re'd^?d?£T"^^^^^^^ able mystery of tleir eond„ . ''^^'"^^ '""^ '"^P'ie- hismindthft ■therlhrl ■"""""""""''''^''^^ "P°n influence or agenorat toitTJ?''""' "'^"«-»' tention. There is a dlllT *"■' '''"■^ '""=ost in- the conception „rd\tw^":°P7«"g "'"''' ^"P^-^ tainlyM."stanleyVea^erwiiJ ^ ""''^ »'"'' Cer- prehensible course w h ^u- Lh" ™" ''"''^ '"■=»"'- -ot been in the hear tofT '"''"'«» ce. They have Afnea, nor been ra^ed b^te f^ ^ "nTh "'• '""'''' oration to a noble mission t. n. '""'°"' "onse- !>" spirit sea,, with a sine and "''r'''-''^'g''fe where hearts will kindle with !> ™'*"' P™^«- Their record of inactWe and 1::' "17;", '^ ^^^ -" «.e ^0 «^d with an,a.em:„rtr^:t^rL^''^*^^-"' -I'-'d be so mcapable of human resentCnC " " *'"'"' 224 THE DARK CONTINENT. Ml! More striking still is Mr. Stanley's magnanimity when he comes to deal with the personality of Emin Pasha. In his work he devotes a whole chapter to him, and no one who reads it will say that justice has not been amply done to him. " Obviously two men more unlike," re- marks another reviewer, " have never been engaged in a contest with the savage forces of an untamed wilderness. Stanley, always the man of action, was resolute, courage- ous, prompt, far-sighted, imperturbable. Emin, the natur- alist and student, was gentle, learned, generous, cautious, irresolute, unsuspicious. It was long ere Stanley could penetrate the'real character of the man. While admir- ing him, and even being charmed with his presence, there remained something inexplicable. His irresolution was a thing the resolute Stanley could not understand. " Stanley's forbearance can be in part understood, per- haps, in the fact that he had set out to bring Emin home, and in that he had not failed. Somewhere in these vol- umes he tells us the dearest wish of his life has been to succeed in his under .^akings. In this particular under- taking he had wholly succeeded, Emin's indifference added vastly to his difficulties, but in the face of these his success becomes all the more impressive. Stanley himself says that ' the bigger the work the greater the joy in doing it.' He was reflecting at that time on the fatal irresolution of Barttelot and his friends. He added this further remark : ' That whole-hearted striving and wrestling with difficulty ; the laying hold with firm grip and level head and calm resolution of the monster, and tugging and toiling and wrestling at it, to-day, to-morrow, and the next until it is done ; it is the soldier's creed of 1' 'i f I STANLEY'S ESTIMATE OF EMIN PASITA. 225 forward, ever forward-it is tho man's faith that for this ask was he born. Don't think of the to-morrow's task, but what yc.u have to do to-day. and go at it. When it IS over rest tranquilly and sleep well.' So far as rewards could be conferred for the services he has rendered he says there are none that would not be utterly inadequate. fm'med ' ' """'^ ^' ^^' '^"*^' "''*^ ^^' ^'''^ P^^'" " To one like me," exclaims Mr. Stanley, " what are banquets ? A crust of bread, a chop., and a t p of fea " a .east to one who, for the best part of twenty-three years has not had the satisfaction of eating a shilling's worth of food a day. Receptions! they are the very honours I would wish to fly from, as I profess myself slow of speech, and nature has not fitted me with a dis- position to enjoy them. Medals ! I cannot wear them ; the pleasure of looking at them is even denied me by my continual absence. What then ? Nothino-" _ Another critic of Mr. Stanley's own vigol-ous narrative in dealing with the chapter devoted to Emin Pasha ob- serves that "although the relations of the rescuer 'and Zanzibar, Mr. Stanley makes a magnanimous attempt to do full justice to the man for whom he endured the labours, privations, and agonies of the three forest jour- r7reat Tl "'"' ""'"'' ^"' *'^ long and perilous retreat. Indecision, vacillation, an extraordinary optim- ism, and a credulous faith in the external show or affec- tation of ol.Jience are named among his besetting weak- nesses as a ruler in Equatorial Africa. There was too "tele punishing and too much forgiving. Emin's wasa J ir i r-i iW I 226 THE DARK CONTINENT. nature too prone to forgive whenever an inordinate self- esteem was gratified. These qualities of mind, with his scientific tastes and defective eyesight, unfitted him to be a commander of men in barbarous Africa. Emin was ungrateful to his rescuer, but he receives from a mag- nanimous soul so impartial a tribute as this : " ' The virtues and noble desires for which we must in strict justice commend the man are as great and as credit- able to him as those which we cannot attribute to him. Anj^ man striving for the sake of goodness to do what in him lies, to deserve the sweet approval of conscience, becomes armoured with a happy indifference of all else, and herein lies the Pasha's merit, and which made his company so grateful to us when the necessity for violent action ceased to vex him. We learned more of his cnar- acter from his manner than from words. That melancholy shake of the head, the uplifted hand, the composed calm gravity of features, the upturning eyes, and the little shrug seemed to say to us, ' What is the use ? You see I am resigned. I am adverse to violence ; let it be. Why force them ? ^'hey surely ought to have seen during these many years that I sought only their welfare. If they reject me, ought I to impose myself and my ideas on them against their will?' He never admitted so much, but we are free to construe these symptoms accord- ing to our lights. . . . " • • . Whatever may have boen our own views of what ought to have been done we have always a high respect for him. We cannot, at a moment when his own fate lies trembling on the balance, but admire him when we see him availing himself of every opportunity to STANLEY'S ESTIMATE OF EMIN PASHA. 227 increase his store of lacustrine shells, c/ tropic plants, eaf^er for the possession of a strange bird, witliout rerrard to its colour or beauty, as ready to examine with interest a new species of rat as he is in the measurements of a human skull. If a great hawk-moth or a strange longi- corn, or a typhlops be brought to him, he forthwith for- gets the court-martial th:it is to decide his sentence, and seems to be indifferent whether he is to be summoned to be shot by his soldiery or to be strapped on his angarep to be deported as a prize to the Khalifa at Khartoum. When we learn all this about him, and begin to under- stand him, though wondering at these strange vagaries of human nature, wr are only conscious that the man is worth every sacrifice on our part. " We cannot proceed by force to save him from him- self and rudely awake him out of his dream without his permission. His position forbids it— our commission does not require it. To us he is only an honoured guest expectant, to whom rudeness is out of place. Without request for help, we are helpless. "From our point of view we observe the Pasha serene and tranquil, encircled by wrangling rebels and yet all along apparently unconscious of the atmosphere of perfidy in which lie lives— at least more inclined to resignation than resistance. We feel that were we in his place, we would speedily upset every combination against us, and are confident that only one short resolute struggle is necessary to gain freedom and power. But regarding him absorbed in his delusion that the fawning obsequiousness of his perfidious followers and troops means devotion, and seeing him enmeshed by treachery it ":i M 228 THE DARK CONTINENT. and fraiul, and yet so cro.h.lou, as to believe this to be flJobty, we„,e.,t,uck ,I,„„b witl, an,„ze,„e„t „„.!„„ but urn o„,. eyes toward one anothe,-, questioning :„wo^ d.Mn,g. l„,.,twaH our „,i,f„rt„„e, that, J „hJZ vl rio^ratT '"" '"'"i° '" W".asen.,„-o, ou^ eo„! V et,on that h« ca:.e was hopeless, and that his people had east hnn off utterly. We eould not tell him that h ! men looked down on bin, with contempt as a "bird eo etor, that they thought he .showed more interes in beetks than m men ; that they only paid him the oi" aZatifaed"''''^ '"'""''' "'°^ "^°"«'" "^ ™ P'^^ t. d^T "1 ""'^ ^'"' " ™" "f """^ l"'^ Mr. Stanley todojust.ce to one .so markedly dirterent from himself m e3.sen ha ehameteristies as the serene, easy-going and contomplat.™ Governor of the Equatoriaf froWncos Ku„n lacked decision in great eu.ergencies. He cou d at la.t, betrayed by h,s credulous trust in his followers he consented to accompany his deliverer, his mind wl overshadowed with bitter regrets and cynical suspi.iZ M,. Stanley could not be in sympathy with so irresolute h,ghm,nded tolerance. . Ho r.cogni.cs an ideal'unlike his own, but after its own kind pure and noble "and essen .ally useful until the conditions of imperious necesty lequn^d gemus of another stamp. While Emin's people werefaithfu he was equal to the i*ah but when his ^drersrevotedhis usefulness as a Governor ceased, a Mr Stanley justly says, 'just as the cabinet-maker with tools may turn out finished wonrlwork >■■•« w'"- - ■ ■• can do nothing.' " " «-'• "vK ■•■..- w..uou. ^nem I CHAPTER XIV. ABANDONMENT OF THE SOUDAN. J la.5t, after long delays an.l wearied with the procastination of Emin, Stanley i, en. ab led to start with his double colu,r.n-the rescued and the rescuers-for the eoast. The getting uTde taking It had been arrived at partly by Stanley's indo^iteble resolution,partly .,. L direction L revolt of Emm's own troops. In spite of both, the Oovemor clung pertinaciously to his post until cir! eumstances backed by Stanley'., argu .ents ren. arwel'L f t^-"' r'" '°'*'"'' P'--- f»"e fi„„ii , • J^mins indecisivon was finally overcome, and though plots and conspiracy ."" still rife the energetic measures taken by Stanley so overawed the disaffected that evacuation was a'^d t. and the combined column, of 1.500 souls, set out^or the sea. The retreat began on the 10th of April, 1889 The column that marched out of Kavalli was inade up 'f 550 members of the relief expedition, with 350 native ear- ners enrolled from the district to assist in transport. the baggage. Of Emin's npnni^ *k_. r.. ^. !^ wnniAn " 1 a*? f 1 1 " ^T^""^ ""^^^ »f it, which time only can give Its associations with mc ^ong gathered to their fathers the builders and inhabiters now quite forgotten, appeal to a certain sympathy in the living. For its his- tory there IS a vague yearning; its age awakens some- thing like exultation that we little mortals can build such time-defying structures. But more powerful and higher IS that emotion which is raised at th, sight of a hoarv old mountain hke this of Ruwenzori, which we know to be countless thousands of years old. When we think how long it required the melted snow to carve out these ravines, hundreds of fathoms deep, through the rocky cone of the range, or the ages required to spread out the ddbris from Its sides and bosom to cover the Semliki Valley and the Nyanza plains, we are struck dumb at the immeasurableness of the interval between that age when Ruwenzori rose aloft into being; and in reply lo he stil , small voice which seems to ask. Where wa.t thou when the foundations of the world were laid ? De- clare If thou hast understanding,' we become possessed with a wholesome awe. and can but feel a cheerful faith that It was good for us to have seen it. " Another emotion is that inspired by the thought that in one of the darkest comers of the earth, shrouded bv perpe.uai mist, brooding under the eternal stormcloud; surrounded by darkness and mystery, there ha^ been Ij 232 THE DARK CONTINENT. ir •- T 8 it m I 'ipii hidden to this day a giant among mountains, the melting snow of whose tops has been for some fifty ce^turic! God tH r, P""'," °* ^=yP'- I"«8'- *" *ha ta God tl^e reverently inclined prin.al nations would have exalted this mountain, which from such a faraway region s cr ^nT A ■ ;T.T°"^'y '» '"- beneflltlnd sacred Nile. And this thought of the beneficent Nile crooked silver vein to where it disports and spreads ou 4^000 .mks away, where we beheld populous swarms of men-Arabs, Copts, Fellahs, Negroes, Turks, Greeks I a Hans, Frenchmen, English, Germans and Amer^lnf- busthng, jostling, or lounging; and we feel a pardonable ml "I r' •*'" '" "'°™ "^^» f-- 1"^ fl^'timoTha much of the sweet water they drink, and whose virtue now e°df ofT ' '""" '""" '""^ O^^P-d extensive snowbcds of Euwenzori or Ruwenjura-' the Cioud- " These brief-too brief-views of the sunerb Rain Creator or Cioud-King, as the Wakonju fond ;^teted LrasTb r 1- ■"°""*''"'' '" ""« S-- -"h a feei- ng as though a glimpse of celestial splendour waa ob- tamed While it lasted I have observed the rapt fa^es of whites and blacks set fixed and nplift.d in speechless wondertowardthatupperregionofcoldbrightnesslTp fee peace so high above mortal reach, so holily tranuuil and restful, of such immaculate and stainless purit'Ta thought and desne of expression were altogether too deep or utterance. What stranger contrast could there be than our own nether world of torrid temperature, otei- I'd ABANDONMENT OF THE SQi^I^AN. ,, - 233 stains of blood-red sin to f?T7« ™'' a'"™', deep in its pure white ta^'ent of s''^ ""''"°'"'" "'"'^ «'ad ads of dark mountniirr I ' ^"•"'""ied by myri- the throne ora™»,^i°:r \™<''"Sr-'^Wera before i-eribed anflnit^rd telri?, ."°'ir"'= '- -- supreme feeling are memo^Ki r L '"^ moments of of the mind trlZZZttXl::'^^ ^bs'-otion utter absorption in the Dre^!„™ f '^™"*' »°d i*^ indeseribabfe majesty CT ^ "°'''*"''^"" '""'"^'^ reverentially adm'^',tJor''M""''^ '* ™' <""y '<> Eternal. Never - . man ^ 'fi'/ri*''^ '""«« "^ '"^o 3uch moments, for no Z:te;h '3 e'lfrT """"^ he may have been at other timTlT I """^ ™°'«'" a little child filled wTh winder ! T'" ""^ ''^"'""^ "« what he has coneeivTd f„7 u, "^ --'^'-ence before had been -an^r ^ m^^I^^J^'T^- ^^ of any thought of this charactr n ""^n'gence the hours of sleeping and ™kW h^^T ''"'^^ •'^'"^*'' the imperious and fmminit :foettiero"f ""ff "^ which required unrelaxinr, '. .J°*™'''^ of each hour, It is tru^ we had tenToucS'lVtl. '°"""""^'''- themountcalledPis.ahofth»7, , * """^ '""^ spreading out on all sfd J b„t ""'r*' '"'"" "' '"'^^ miles; we had been elat^i into hvst:rirj: '""f ^' °^ months' immurement in the In^s "f% ?' '*'" *™ once again trod upon green LjtV' ^""'l "■"'- ^e unlimited views of o^r su^^^ "T^"* "P^" and varvinffl,in.f„™. . "f '"""""'^'"g'-inxuriant vales the long ^p^ing^aT^^mrr'""" "JT' "'"' ->"* s F g grass seemed to race and leap with glad- f a ii. t(i 234 THE DARK CONTINENT. ness before the cooling gale ; we had admired the broad sweep and the silvered face of Lake Albert, knewVe had reached, after infinite trials, the bourne and limit of our journeyings ; but the desire and involuntary act of wor- ship were never provoked, nor the emotions stirred so deeply, as when we suddenly looked up and beheld the skyey crests and snowy breasts of Ruwenzori uplifted into an inaccessible altitude, so like what our conceptions might be of i celestial castle, with dominating battle- ment, and leagues upon leagues of unscaleable walls." iti'-i ^ CHAPTER XV. THE MARCH TO T£1E SEA. Iwh^R*" '"""'^ ""'^'"- °"'J»«eally capped by the Ruwenzori, the expedition continue. until KLr:^:^edt„™'"^;''''^«-"^^ aait-pits supp^rt^t t^t:^t::t. end'::- thf^rN^- 'i^h^ zt '"' T- ■aako Albert KdwaH"td\h''"ll:trr u^uhi. uuring the earlier portions of ih\<. journey the caravan was molested hv fl.! .7 , \ ^ raiding Warasura tribe btttw .r' "^ '^' column, under the sternld It '^^^^^^^ «^ ^^^ ful leader, warded off serious trouble Tnd .h rT''" the high plateaux were found to h. l^"' "" frJo^^K. V>.-x ,, ««'« louna to be peaceable And Onfhl'v m"/"^ expedition suflered in other wav^s" On the highlands keen and searching winds ^evS 235 ' 236 THE DARK CONTINENT. which were extremely trying to even the most seasoned veterans of the column, while the less robust fell victims bv the score to the exposures of the march. In the month of July alone, the expedition lost no fewer than 141 of its numbers. At Msalala, a much-needed halt was made of twenty days to enable the wearied and fever- stricken force to recruit. In other respects the expedition at this time made many gains. It reaped much riches in the way of geo- crraphical discovery. At Kative, for instance, the problem of tlio real sources of the Nile found a new and definite solution. The Semliki river, on the banks of which the expedition had travelled from Kavalli, it was discovered, led up to the Muta Nzig^ situate a thousand feet above the Albert Nyanza. This lake, it was seen, is the abso- lute head-waters, on the west, of the Nile system, as the Victoria Nyanza is the reservoir, on the east, of that an- cient river. Another important discovery was made on the approach to Msalala, of an extension of the Victoria Nyanza southwestward, beyond what has hitherto been deemed the southern limits of that vast inland sea. This new discovery gives an additional area to the Lake of 6,000 square miles. At Msalala, Mr. Stanley communicated to Mr. Marston (of Sampson Low &, Co.), his London publisher, some account of these discoveries on the way to sea, including a riaumi of his travels. We take the liberty of quoting this letter. Now that we near the end of the work the expedition set out to accomplish, the letter is the last of the interesting series we shall transcribe in these pages. Qost seasoned t fell victims ch. In the 10 fewer than i-needed halt ed and fever- 8 time made 3 way of geo- !, the problem 7 and definite of which the IH discovered, id feet above 1, is the abso- lystem, as the t, of that an- was made on : the Victoria hitherto been