EXPLOFJITIORS

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HENRY M. STANLEY.

(From a photograph taken recently in London).

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GREAT EXPLORATIONS

IN THE

WILDS OF AFRICA,

INCLUDING

SIR SAMUEL BAKER'S EXPEDITION

WITH A FORCE OF NEARLY TWO THOUSAND MEN TO SUPPRESS THE SLAVE

TRADE ;

LIEUT. CAMERON'S "ACROSS AFRICA,"

WITH THESE TRAVELERS* MARVELOUS ACCOUNTS OF FIGHTING THE NATIVES,

HUNTING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, ELEPHANT AND LION,

AND

HENRY M. STANLEY'S

STORY OF HTS LAST AND G REATEST WORK AND EXPLORATIONS IN ORGAN- IZING AND BRINGING INTO THE FAMILY OF NATIONS

THE CONGO FREE STATE,"

\VITH ITS OWN GOVERNMENT AND ITS OWN FLAG, AND THUS OPENING TO

THE COMMERCE OF THE WORLD THE PRODUCTS OF FORTY-FIVE

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE— ONE OF THE GRANDEST CONQUESTS

EVER WON FOR CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY

— WITH A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF

"CHINESE" GORDON IN AFRICA.

THE WHOLE CAREFULLY EDITED BY

HON. J. T. HE ABLE Y, B.B.,

Author of " Napoleon ami his Marshals." " Washington and his Generals," " Sacred .Mountains," etc., etc.

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED.

TORONTO, ONT. PUBLISHED BY A. H. HOVEY & CO., 10 KING STREET EAST.

R. A. H. MORROW, GENERAL AflFNT, ST. JOHN, N. B. 1886.

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INTEODUCTION.

ALL explorations in Africa in former years were made by travelers simply to gratify curiosity or from a desire to penetrate bej^ond lines reached by other men. All the results they desired or expected to achieve were amusement and fame. But in later years they have as- sumed an entirely different aspect. From Livingstone, who first began to open up the "dark continent," to Cameron and Stanley, who pierced its very heart, all the explorations have tended to one great end — the civilization and Christianization of the vast population that inhabits it. No matter what the ruling motives may have been in each — whether, as in Livingstone, to introduce Christianity ; or, in Baker, to put a stop to the slave trade; or, in Stanley, to unlock the mystery of ages — the tendency has been the same : to brino- Africa into the family of continents instead of beino- the earth's " pariah ;" to throw light on this black spot of our planet, and make those who inhabit it practically and morally what they are really — a portion of the hu- man race.

The men who have contributed most to this great end are those whose explorations are traced in this volume. As in all books of travel there is much that is merely persoual, and a great deal, though necessary to accurate geography and natural science, }7et is of no interest to the ordinary reader, one is able to curtail them without in any way lessening their intrinsic value. So, also, the incidents and adventures of any special interest may be groped together without all those minute details that go to make up a daily journal. In fact, the great draw- back to the interest one takes in a book of travels, is, those tedious details that go so far toward making it up. What the traveller thinks worthy of recording, is not

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8 INTRODUCTION.

always what the reader deems worthy of perusal. There are always meteorological observations,geological theories, dissertations on language and ethnological questions and statistics, that may be more or less valuable, and yet possess little interest to the general reader. All these may be left out or results alone given, without not only not injuring the book, but really adding to its interest.

We have acted on this theory in giving in one volume the contents of seven. In doing this, we have endea- vored to leave out nothing of real value to the general reader, but, on the contrary, to make the narrative, by being more consecutive and direct, more interesting. The truth is, the trouble is not to make a large book of travels, but a compact, racy, and readable one. The tendency alwa}*s is to expand too much — to spread a little matter over a large space. The works of the travelers mentioned in this volume cover different ground, and hence each one possesses an interest pecu- liar to itself, while all tend to the same end. A person, therefore, who reads the narrative of only one, gets but a partial idea of what has been going on in Africa for the last few years. It is desirable to know all, and yet few can buy all the expensive books of the various trav- elers. We have in this work endeavored to meet that want, so that one, at a moderate expense, can acquaint himself with all that has been lately achieved in Africa, as well as obtain a thorough knowledge of the habits and customs of the various people and tribes that in- habit that continent.

Acknowledgment is due and is hereby tendered to Messrs Scribner & Co. for their kind permission to draw from Mr. Stanley's first volume, "How I found Living- stone." Also to Messrs. Macmillan & Co., who have kindly permitted us to extract from Sir Samuel Baker's book " Ismailia."

J. T. HEADLEY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE I. STANLEY'S EXPEDITION TO FIND LIVINGSTONE.

PAGE

How Republican institutions develop character — Webster, Clay, Lincoln, Grant, and Stanley — The latter a native cf Wales — Educated in a poor-house — Becomes a teacher — Ships as a cabin-boy to New Orleans — Adopted by a merchant and takes his name — Lives in the Arkansas forest — Given up as dead by his adopted father — Returns on board a Mississippi flat- boat — Death of his father without making a will — Life with the miners and Indians — Enters the Confederate army — Is taken prisoner — Enlists in the United States navy — Goes to join the Cretans to fight against Turkey — Robbed by brigands — Travels — Visits his native place — Gives the children of the Poor-house a dinner — Makes an address — Herald correspond- ent in the war between England and Abyssinia — Beats the Government messenger — Sent to Spain as war correspondent — Receives a startling telegram from Mr. Bennett to come to Paris — Hasty departure — Affectionate parting with children — Singular interview with Mr. Bennett — Accepts the leadership of an expedition to find Livingstone — His peculiar fitness for the undertaking — His remarkable qualities as exhibited in this and his last march across Africa . . 21

CHAPTER II.

'The Dark Continent" — Description of it — Difficulties of exploring it — Hatred of white men — The first real encroachment made by a missionary — Description of the portion to be explored — Its articles of commerce — Its future destiny 37

10 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER m.

PAGE

Outlines of Livingstone's explorations during a period of nearly thirty years — First exploration — Crosses the Continent from west to east — His second expedition — The last — His supposed death — Sympathy for him — Indifference of the British Govern- ment to his fate — Bennett's bold resolution to send Stanley after him . . 43

CHAPTER IV.

Stanley's search for Livingstone'— Lands at Zanzibar — Organizes his expedition — The start — Stanley's feelings — The march — Its Difficulties — Men sick — Delays — Meeting with a chief — Dialogue on the burial of a horse — Loss of his bay horse — Sickness and desertion — Terrible travelling — A hospitable chief — A gang of slaves — African belles — Aludicrous spectacle — A queer supersti- tion— Punishment of a deserter — A ludicrous contrast — A beauti- ful country — News from Livingstone — A walled town — Stanley attacked with fever. . 50

CHAPTER V.

The rainy season sets in — Disgusting insects — The cook caught steal- ing— His punishment and flight — The march — Men dispatched after the missing cook — Their harsh treatment by the Sultana of the wallel town — A hard march — Crossing the Makata river — The rainy season ended — Five miles of wading — An enchant- ing prospect — Reaches his third caravan, and finds it de- moralized— Shaw, its -leader, a drunken spendthrift — Delays the march — Stanley's dispatch to him — Lake Ugombo — Scene between Stanley and Shaw at breakfast : the latter knocked down — Attempt to murder Stanley — Good advice of an Arab Sheikh— A feast— Farquhar left behind 64

CHAPTER VI.

Three of his caravans meet — A waterless desert traversed — Stanley down with the fever — A land of plenty and of extortion — A populous district — A modern Hercules — Au African village — Stanley curbs his temper for economy's sake — A good Sultan — News from one of his caravans — Curious natives — Flogged by Stanley into proper behaviour — Salt Plains — Stanley stops to doctor himself — A curious visit from a chief — A noble African tribe — A mob — Quarrel over the route to be taken — Settled by Stanley — A merry march — Condensation of Stanley's account of the character of the country and the tribes of Central Africa. 77

CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTEE VII.

PAGE

Eeception in Unyanyembe — His house — Eeports of the chiefs of his caravans — A feast — Luxurious living of the Arabs — Arab country — War against Mirambo, in which Stanley becomes an ally — 5s taken sick — Bombay thrashed — Stanley joins the Arab army — Capture of Mirambo's stronghold — Villages laid waste — Mirambo's revenge — Arabs defeated and Stanley left alone — Is sick — Final departure— His Indomitable will and courage — A touching extract from his journal — Deserters — Shaw, the last white man, left behind — Corpses on the road — Mollifies a sullen chief — Strong medicine — A ludicrous scene — The paradise of hunters — A right royal hunt 96

CHAPTEE VIII.

A beautiful picture — A mutiny —Narrow escape of Stanley — Saved by his prompt courage — Swift punishment of the leaders of the mutiny — Exciting news from Ujiji— Difficulties in the way — Ee- solves to go round the next village — Stealthy marching — A new danger — Vain attempt to stop a woman screaming — Eapid marching — Stanley startled by the sound of waves bursting in rocky caverns — An unexpected danger — Narrow escape — The end approaches — Hurrah Ill

CHAPTEE IX.

View of the Tanganika— First sight of Ujiji— The American flag — Livingstone's servants— Dr. Livingstone, I presume — The meet- ing— Livingstone's letter-bag — A budget of news — Bringing new life — The cook's excitement — Livingstone's deplorable condition — The dream realized 118

CHAPTEE X.

Eest at Ujiji — Stanley's love for Livingstone the best eulogium on his own character — The night — The morning interview — Life with Livingstone — Survey the Tanganika together —Livingstone accompanies Stanley to Unyenyembe — The long march — Life in the place — Preparations for parting — The last breakfast — The last sad farewell — Stanley's homeward march — Its perils — Inundations — Makata swamp — Terrible marching — Stanley sends off for relief — Its arrival — Bagornayo reached at last — Noisy entrance — Stanley's joy — It is suddenly dashed— Cruel conduct.of the press — start for home 130

12 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI. SIR SAMUEL BAKER'S EXPEDITION UP THE NILE.

PAGB

The expedition of the Khedive of Egypt to suppress the slave trade — Sir Samuel W. Baker placed at the head of it — Extent of the slave trade — Outfit of the expedition — Preparations on a grand scale — The army — The rendezvous at Khartoum — Failure on the part of the Khedive — The expedition starts — Obstacles met — Cutting channels for the fleet — Slow, toilsome work — A hip- popotamus charges the vessel — Men become sick— Baker shoots a hippopotamus — A crocodile killed — The expedition perman- ently stopped — Discouragements 141

CHAPTER XII.

Baker's heroic wife — A slaver caught — A sickening spectacle — Free- dom— Description of the camp — A cargo of slaves discovered — Slaves freed — Wholesale matrimony — Exploring the White Nile —A new start — A new lake — The White Nile reached at last — A fierce night attack by a hippopotamus — A thrilling scene — Oondokoro at last reached 151

CHAPTER XIII.

The country formally taken possession of — War at last— A night at- tack on a native vi lage — Disaffection in the army — Attacked by crocodiles — An old man-eater killed — A campaign against the enemy — The army proposes to return home — Baker obtains corn and restores subordination — The army greatly reduced — A fight — Target-shootiug at men « 160

CHAPTER XIV.

Vessels leave for Khartoum with the invalids — Abdullah's villainy — Exploring the Wuite Nile B frien.hy tribe — Interview with the Sheikh — Sorcery and Talismans — Mn^ic — An elephant hunt — Its moral effects — Scramble for the flesh — The tribes seek peace — Elephants enter the fort — A wild scene — Elephants gathering fruit — An adventure with a hippopotamus — The coun- try at peace — Baker resolves to start south 176

CONTENTS. 13

CHAPTER XV.

PAGE

The determination to advance — A desperate position— Soldiers draw the carts to Lahore — A beautiful country — The future capital of Africa — Beaches Fatiko — Power of music over the natives — Grotesque dancing of naked women — Starts for Unyoro— beauti- ful country depopulated — Proclaims peace — Livingstone 187

CHAPTER XVI.

The start — Exodus of the white ants— A great luxury— A beautiful country— Masindi— King Abba Rega— His walk and appearance —The interview— Buffoons— Queer result of a lecture on the slave trade — A station commenced — Planting vegetables — The king's visit— Magnetic battery— Photographs— A curious inter- view—Formal annexation of the country — Sends off a part of his force — Commerce established — Vegetables planted — Dark omens — A druukea king— Asks after Livingstone— A fort built 196

CHAPTER XVH.

The troops poisoned— A sudden attack — The town set on fire— A sad spectacle — Baker discouraged — A perilous position — Feara of Abdullah — Hypocrisy of Abba Rega— Presents pass between him and Baker — Treachery — A narrow escape — Baker's quart- ers set on fire — A second attack — The neighboring villages set on fire —Forethought of Baker's wife — Preparations to start for ftionga 204

CHAPTER XVIII.

The start— The station fired— The march— The country aroused — An ambuscade — Howarte speared — Second day's march — A sharp fight — -Stripped for the race— Constant fighting — Eating the enemy's liver— Foweera at last reached — Interview with the king— His appearance— Baker offers to make him ruler over the territory of Abba Rega — A treaty made— Senled by drinking each others' blood — Baker resolves to return to Fatiko — Arrival of messengers with bad news — The return — The wife compelled to walk— Arrival at Fatiko— Treachery— The attack— The flight and pursuit — The victory — Baker turns surgeon ,". 212

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIX.

PAGE

Arrival of cannibals — Children devoured — Small-Pox disperses them — A grand hunt — The modes of conducting it by nets and fire — The result — Life at Fatiko — A second hunt — Killing a lion — A woman's rights meeting — A happy community, in which neither religious dogmas or law cases enter — News from Liv- ingstone— King Mtesa — Arrival of reinforcements — Bad military conduct — Baker writes out a set of rules for Abdullah and starts for home — Releases captive women and children — An expres- sion of gratitude not asked for — Kissed by a naked beauty — Concluding remarks — A missionary's outfit — Official report — A handsome tribute to his wife — Africa's future . . . 223

CHAPTER XX. LIEUTENANT CAMERON'S EXPEDITION.

Its origin — Change of leaders — Difficulties at the outset — Start — A tall and manly race — Naked savages — News from Living- stone— A Methuselah — The country improved — Unyanyembe reached — Occupies Stanley's house — A slave auction — Sick- ness and discouragements — A stunning blow — Livingstone dead — Death of Dillon — Despondent thoughts — A desperate resolve — Crossing the Lugungwa — Ujiji 236

CHAPTER XXI.

Cameron pushes on to the Lualaba, and resolves to follow it to the sea — It has no connection with the Nile system — No canoes to be had — Tipo-tipo — Handsome women — Inquisitiveness of the women — Stopped by a ruse — Interview with King Kasougo — Resolves to visit some curious lakes — Attacked by the natives — Contracts with a slave-trader to take him to the coast — Explora- tions of lakes — Houses built in the lakes — Description of Kasongo and his character and habits — His harem — The rules that govern it — The religion of the country — A curious bridal ceremony — Floating islands — The Congo route abandoned 248

CHAPTER XXII.

The Departure — Character of the Caravan — Horrible ceremonies at the Burial of a Chief of Urua — Start of the Caravan — Its bad

CONTENTS. 15

PAGE

conduct — Joined by a slave- gang — Its sorrowful appearance — The camps of the caravan — Dreary marching — Appearance of the country — Naked women dressing their hair elaborately — Arrival at Alvez village — The luxury of Coffee, Onions and Soap — Beduced state of Cameron's men— Beaches a Portuguese trader's house — A festival — A lascivious dance — Beautiful scenery — Interview with King Kongo — Cameron's sufferings begin — Desperate condition — A forced march to the sea with a few men — First sight of the sea — His welcome — His danger- ous sickness — Visit to the Consul at Loanda — Men sent to Zanzibar — His return home — The slave trade 256

CHAPTEB XXIII. STANLEY'S LAST GBEAT EXPEDITION.

Stanley thinks of Africa and Livingstone's unfinished work — Deter- mines to complete it — Takes a boat of his own along — At Zan- zibar again — Starts for the interior — Takes a new route — The country passed through — Deserted by his guides — Loses the path — A painful march — Starvation and death — A gloomy pros- pect— Two young lions killed and made into broth — A trunk used for a kettle — A painful spectacle — Men sent off for food at last return — Joy of the camp — The march — A new type of natives — Naked beauty — Sickness and death — Death of Ed- ward Pocoke — His burial — Stanley's letter to his father — A man murdered — Itwru reached — A populous plain — Intercourse with the people — A magic doctor 273

CHAPTEB XXIV.

The camp — View from it — Hostile demonstrations — A three days' fight — A massacre — A modern Sodom — A terrible vengeance — Twenty-one of the expedition killed — A complete ruin — Provis- ions obtained — The march resumed — Only a hundred and ninety-four men left out of three hundred with which he started — A gloomy outlook — Mistaken for Mirambo — The Nyanza reached at last — A description of the country he had passed through 285

CHAPTEB XXV.

Mustering his force — The death-roll— Selecting a crew of eleven men, he sets sail — Leaves the camp in charge of Pocoke and

16 CONTENTS.

PAGE

Barker — " Speke's Bay" — Coasting northward — Shimeeyu River— A large island — Description of the shores and people — Strange stories told him — A lonely channel — Superstition of the natives — " Bridge Island " — Under the equator— Stanley looked upon as a being from another world — Fleeing from hippopotami — Treachery — A narrow escape — Three-quarters of the lake thoroughly explored 295

CHAPTER XXVI.

Stanley the first white man that ever sailed round Victoria Nyanza — Establishes the southern source of the Nile — Treachery of the natives — Stanley's revenge — A hostile fleet scattered by him — Three men killed — Two singular islands — The Ripon falls — The Nile — Curious inlets — Mtesa, king of Uganda — His reception of Stanley — Imposing ceremonies — A noble native monarch — His capital — His army and large territory— Half converted to Christianity by Stanley — Anxious to have missionaries sent to his country — Stanley's mode of sending them and the kind of men they should be — A mission established and broken up — False statements in the papers about it corrected 303

CHAPTER XXVII.

Stanley continues his explorations — Drunken natives — A suspicious reception — A peaceful night — A wild waking up — A startling spectacle — Hurried departure — Magas?a's fleet — Lack of food — A fearful storrn — Bumbireh Island— A bright prospect — Stanley entrapped — In deadly peril — A crowd of demons — A fearful night — Prompt action — Barely saved— Swift and terrible revenge — A frightful storm — Refuge Island — A grateful camp — Provi- sions secured — Another storm — A staunch boat — Steering for camp — His joyful greeting — Excitement of the men — The secret of the men's affection for him. . . . 310

CHAPTER XXVHI.

The work accomplished — Feelings of satisfaction — Pocoke's report — A narrow escape for the expedition — Death of Barker— Sweet repose — Pleasant memories — Future anticipations — Waiting for Magassa — Resolves to return to Uganda by land — Is prevented — Sends to the king of Ukerewe — His request granted — Visits him — The interview — Royal hospitality — A stratagem — Stanley starts for Uganda — A new camp — Keturn to the old one — Conspirators foiled — Refuge Island 325

CONTENTS. 17

CHAPTER XXIX

A rest — Resolves to punish theBiwnbireh — Sets sail — Message to the people of Bumbireh — Imprisons the king of Iroba — The king of Bumbireh injchains — Arrival of Mtesa's canoes — Hostility of the natives — Moves on Bumbireh — The savages expecting him — Plan of battle — The battle — Killed and wounded — Rejoicing over the victory — The natives completely subdued — Stanley gives them a lecture — Effect of the victory on the neighboring tribes — His losses — Prepares to start for the Albert Nyanza — Size of the Victoria Nyanza — Muta Nzienge — Is it and the Albert one lake — Stanley's journal and map do not agree — Mtesa at war — Stanley aids him — Uganda — Abba Rega once more — Baker's and Stanley's journal agree — Stanley asks for fifty thousand men — Mtesa gives him two thousand 335

CHAPTER XXX.

Force of the expedition to Albert Nyanza — Its start — First march — Through hostile Unyoro — The encampment — Mount Gambara- gara — Its summit occupied by white people — Live on a rock in the middle of a lake — Their origin — Other strange tribes — The march — Frightened people — The lake reached without opposi- tion— A miserable failure — The reason of it — Stanley's feelings — The return — Report to Mtesa — His wrath— Liberal offers — Wonders of the country — A generous, peaceful king — Lake Windermere — Source of the Nile — Absurd theories — The hot springs of Mtagata 343

CHAPTER XXXI.

Back to Ujiji — Pleasant Associations — The Mystery of Tanganika — No Outlet — Cameron's Expedition — Thinks he Discovers the Outlet — Doubts of Stanley — The Lake constantly Rising — Stanley starts to examine for himself — Bags two Zebras — A whole village Massacred — Reaches Cameron's Outlet — Ex- plores it thoroughly — Declares Cameron to be Mistaken — The Future Outlet — Livingstone's Influence — The Small-pox in Camp — Desertion of his Men — PromptMeasures — Crosses the Tanganika — More Desertions — People of Manyema — Singu- lar Custom ; ... 359

CHAPTER XXXII.

Livingstone at Nyangwe — Remembrance of him by the natives — "The Good Man" — His troubles here awaken Stanley's pity —

18 CONTENTS.

PAGE

A magnificent country — Glowing description of it — Ruined by slavery — Tno slave trade — Its character — Ebony skeletons — Horrible sights — The traders — M8de of capture — Faithlessness of the Prince of Zanzibar — Extracts from Stanley's journal — A depopulated country — The way to stop the traffic 368

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Stanley meets Tipo-tipo, the friend of Cameron — Learns all about Cameron's movements — Stanley warned not to go on — Fearful stories — Contracts with Tipo-Tipo to escort him sixty camps — Self-reliance of Stanley — Women an obstacle in the way of advancing — Nyangwe — Its market — A lively scene — The two chiefs — A large harem — The original inhabitants — Strength of the expedition 380

CHAPTER XXXIV.

The great march begins — Gloomy prospects — March through a dense forest — Axes used to clear the way — A Village in the forest — Superiority of the inhabitants — The men disheartened — Slow marching — Discontent — Difficulties increase — Tipo-tipo wishes to be released from his engagement — People that smelt iron-ore — A row of skulls as an ornament for the village — Hunting Sokos — The Cannibals — Naked women — The Lua- laba reached — Not to be left again — The natives crossing the river 387

CHAPTER XXXV.

Congo changed to Livingstone — Frightened Natives — the March — Deserted villages — The land party lost — Stanley's anxiety

a dash on the natives, one man killed — Uledi dispatched

after the missing party — The Lost Found — The March — A Floating Hospital— Passing rapids — Tipo-Tipo wishes to turn back — A queer village — Increasing sickness — The dead every day thrown into the river — A fight — Marching on — A desperate fight of two days — A successful stratagem — Tipo-tipo resolves to leave — Stanley's speech to his men — Christmas day — A frolic

A boat race — The parties separate — A touching farewell — A

sad day — Stanley tries to arouse the men 394

CONTENTS. 19

CHAPTEE XXXVI.

A common fate binding all — " We want to eat you" — The home of the Hippopotamus — The persuasive eloquence of tbe cannibal prisoners — A novel sensation — A peaceful tribe — the cannibals prevent a fight — A sudden attack — A successful stratagem — An- other fight — A hard carry around the falls — An advanced tribe — River full of Islands — Magnificent scenery — Stanley's ex- pedition— A grand barbecue — A necessary fight — Night work — Seventy-eight hours' incessant toil — Passing the rapids— A lost man — A thrilling spectacle - Great daring — Lost men — A fearful night — Rescue in the morning — Brave Uledi — A carry round the falls — A brilliant manoeuvre — In a net — Man meat — Another fight — The Congo starts for the sea— Another fight — A deserted village — Around the falls — Muskets — A. fight — Home of the Hippopotami — A new war-cry — Astonishment of the natives at seeing a white man — More enemies — Stanley's speech — A fight — Three hundred and fifteen muskets against forty-four — Starving — Friendly savages — Abundant provisions — Death and burial of a chieftain's wife— A friendly tribe — Beautiful women — Serpents in camp — The last and fiercest fight — Stanley Pool — Friendly chiefs — Curious interview with King Itisi — A general peace 404

CHAPTEE XXXVH.

Tribal differences — What is the cause of them — The Congo Tribes — The cannibals left behind — Change of scenery — Livingstone Falls — A wild stretch of water — Carrying boats over land — Exhausting, slow work — A canoe lost — Stanley falls thirty feet — Eocky falls — A fearful sight — Kalulu over the falls — A canoe shoots the Kalulu Falls in safety — A third canoe shoots the falls and disappears — Soudi's strange story — More rapids — '. Difficulties increase — Narrow escape of Stanley — Joy at his de- liverance— Four cataracts in sight — Strange music — Less than a mile a day — The big cataract — Scaling a mountain one thousand feet high — Astonishment of the natives 422

CHAPTEE XXXVin.

Last instructions — A magnificent forest — Stanley thinks of dug- outs at home — Eesolves to build canoes — The first tree felled — Two canoes finished — The boats and expedition moving over- land— Arabs stealing — Redeeming a captive held for theft — Canoes over the mountain — Best — Third canoe built — Dispirit- ing news — Native superstition — A narrow escape — Launching

20 CONTENTS.

PAGE

of the third canoe — Eains— Eise of the river— Storms — The expedition moves over the mountain — Frank takes the canoes by the river — Mowwa Falls — A terrific scene — Passing the Mowwa Falls— Uledi caught in theft— His sentence— A touch- ing scene — Atonement — Forgiveness— Christian principles in heathens — A strange superstition— The natives demand that Stanley's note-book be burned up — A painful dilemma — A successful stratagem — Shakespeare burned —Frank's last night with Stanley 432

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Elevated from the place of servant to that of friend — Proposes to toss up to determine whether they shall follow the Lualaba to the sea or not — Chance decides they shall — Pocoke's shoes become worn out in the forest — Is made lame — Passage of the Mowwa Falls — Stanley's peril — Pocoke's fatal self-will— His death — The sight that stunned Stanley — A gloomy night for him — Pocoke's character .. 441

CHAPTER XL.

Stanley mourning for his friend — A mutiny— Sadness of Stanley — Return of the deserters — Boats carried over a hill — The carpenter carried over the falls— Stanley runs the Mbelo Falls — Miraculous escape— Feeling of his people— The end of the chasm One mile and a quarter a day for eight months— The Arabs steal, and are made prisoners — Arabs left in slavery for stealing — F alls of Isingila reached — Stanley resolves to leave the river — The Lady Alice abandoned— The march for Boma— Uledi slaps a king in the face— Stanley sends a letter to Boma — The messengers depart — He moves on — Meets an enemy who be- comes a friend — A glad surprise — Food in abundance -Luxuries for Stanley — A song of triumph — Stanley's feelings, as shown by his letter— Reach Boma— The reaction— Stanley offered a steamer home— Prefers to stand by his Arabs— Reception at Cape Town— Zanzibar reached— Joy of the Arabs — An affecting scene — Farewell to Stanley 449

CHAPTER XLI.

The great eighteen hundred mile journey down the Lnalaba — Dis- couraged by timid Arabs at Nyangwe — Forward in spite of all — Terrible tribes of cannibals dispute the way — The mid« African plateau — Perils and difficulties in the region of the cataracts — Among the friendly natives — A land of large towns and ivory temples — The basin, watersheds, trend and length of the mighty river 454

CHAPTER I.

HENRY M. STANLEY.

How Republican Institutions Develop Character — Webster, Clay, Lin- coln, Grant and Stanley— The Latter a Native of Wales — Educated in a Poor-House—Becomes a Teacher — Ships as a Cabin-boy to New Orleans — Adopted by a Merchant and takes his Name — Lives in the Arkansas Forest — Given up as Dead by his Adopted Father — Returns on Board a Mississippi Flat-Boat — Death of his Father without making a Will — Life with the Miners and Indians — Enters the Confederate Army — Is taken Prisoner— Enlists in the United States Navy — Goes to join the Cretans to Fight against Turkey — Robbed by Brigands — Travels — Visits his Native Place — Gives the Children of the Poor-House a Dinner — Makes an Address — Herald Correspondent in the War between England and Abyssinia — Beats the Government Messenger — Sent to Spain as War Correspondent — Receives a Startling Telegram from Mr. Bennett to come to Paris — Hasty Departure — Affectionate Parting with Children — Singular Interview with Mr. Bennett — Accepts the Leadership of an Expedi- tion to find Livingstone — His peculiar Fitness for the Undertaking — His Remarkable Qualities as Exhibited in this and His last March across Africa.

STANLEY is one of those characters that forcibly illustrate the effect of Republican institutions in developing a strong man. Despotism cannot fetter thought — that is free everywhere — but it can and does restrain its outworking into practical action. The former do not make great strong men, they allow those endowed by nature with extraordinary gifts, free scope for action. This fact never had, perhaps, a more striking illustration than in the French Revolution. The iron frame-work of despotism had rested so long over the heads of the people that it had become rusted in its place, and no individual force or strength could rend it asunder. But when the people, in their fury, shattered it into frag- ments, there was exhibited the marvelous effects of in- dividual character. A lieutenant of artillery vaulted to 3

22 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

the throne of France and made marshals and dukes and kings of plebeians. A plebeian himself, he took to his plebeian bed the daughter of the Cresars. He took base- born men and pitted them against nobles of every de- gree, and the plebeians proved themselves the better men. Thus, no matter how despotic he became, he and his marshals and new-made kings were the most terrible democracy that could be preached in Europe. The mighty changes that were wrought, simply show what results may be expected when the whole world shall be thus set free and every man be allowed to strike his best and strongest blow. When the race is thus let loose on the planet we inhabit, we shall see the fulfill- ment of that prophecy, "a nation shall be born in a day." The same truth is apparent in our own country, though its exhibitions are not so sudden and startling. In- deed they could not be, because this freedom of action has no restraints to break through, and hence no violent effort is required. Every man grows and expands by degrees without let or hindrance. In a despotism, Web- ster would probably have taught school in a log school- house all his days, and the "mill boy of the sloshes" never made the great forum of a nation ring with his words of eloquence, nor the "rail-splitter" been the fore- most man of his time, nor the tanner-boy the president of the republic. Republican institutions never made any of those men, they simply allowed them to make themselves. Stanley is the latest and most extraordinary example of this. It is folly to point to such men as he as a stimulus to youthful ambition, to show what any man may become. No amount of study or effort can make such a boy or man as he was and is. The energy, daring, self-confidence, promptness and indomitable will were born in him, not acquired. The Latin proverb, "Poeta nascitur, nonfit" the poet is born, not made, is not truer of the poet than of a character like him. His characteristics may be pointed out for the admiration of others, his good qualities made a lesson to teach youth how perseverance, and determination, and work will

vSTANLEY's BIRTHPLACE AND REAL NAME. 23

elevate a man whatever may be his walk in life. A man born with a combination of qualities like Stanley's, must have room given him or he will make room. He has such a surplus of energy and will-power that it must have scope and field for action. A despotism could not have repressed him. He would either have become a wanderer or adventurer in strange lands, or he would have headed a revolution, vaulted to power or to a scaffold, as others have done before him.

But although Stanley developed his whole character under free institutions, he was not born under them, being a native of Wales. He was born near Denbigh, in 1840. His parents' name was Rowland. At three, he was sent to the poor-house at St. Asaph, to get an edu- cation. Here the poor, unpromising lad remained till he had finished such an education as this institution could furnish, and then sought employment as a teacher; and for a year was employed as such at Mold, Flintshire. But now the strong instincts of his nature began to show themselves. He felt that a school-teacher's life, how- ever honorable and useful, could not be his, and, with his scant earnings, shipped as cabin-boy in a ship bound for New Orleans. Arriving in safety, he began to look about for employment. By what lucky chance it hap- pened we do not know, but he fell into the hands of a merchant named Stanley, who became so attached to the frank, energetic, ambitious youth that he finally adopted him and gave him his name. Thus the Welsh boy Rowland became the American youth Stanley. Fortune had certainly smiled on him, and his future seemed secure. As the partner and eventually heir of his benefactor, as he doubtless would become, fortune, ease, and a luxurious life lay before him. But even here, so pleasantly situated and cared for, the same rest- less spirit that has since driven him over the world, ex- hibited itself, and he wandered off into the wilds of Arkansas, and ia his log-cabin on the banks of the Wichita River, with the pine-trees moaning above him, he dwelt for a long time, among the strange, wild dreams

2-i I X I'LORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

of imagination and daring youth. His adopted father mourned him as dead, never expecting to behold him again. But he made his way to the Mississippi, and going on board a flat-boat, became the companion of the rough western characters to be found on these boats, and slowly floated down to New Orleans, and was re- ceived by his overjoyed father as one risen from the dead.

But just here, fortune, which seemed to have had him in her special care, took another step forward by appar- ently deserting him. His adopted father suddenly died without making his will. His place and prospective heirship both disappeared together, and the curtain was let down between him and a pleasant successful future. Doubtless that father intended to provide for his adopted son, but now all the property went to the natural legal heirs, and he was once more thrown upon the world. In the delirium of an African fever, tossing in his ham- mock, far from the haunts of civilization, there came back to him an episode of his life at this point. We learn that impelled by his roving disposition, he wan- dered away among the California miners, and at last among the Indians, and sat by their council fires. He seemed destined to see every phase of human life, to be- come acquainted with the roughest characters, to prepare him for the wildest of all men, the African savage. This kind of life also toughened and hardened the fibre of the youth, so that he settled down into the man with a constitution of iron, without which he could not have endured the trials he has since undergone, and still re- tain his health and physical powers unworn. At this time a new field opened before him. The civil war broke out, and being a Southern man, he enlisted in the Confederate army. This was a kind of service just adapted to his peculiar character, one in which a man with the courage, daring, energy, promptness and in- domitable will that he possessed, was sure to win fame and promotion. But before he had time to exhibit these qualities, fate, that seemed against him to human

HIS MILITARY SERVICES. 25

eyes, again advanced a step toward future success by causing him to be taken prisoner b}^ the Union troops. As a prisoner he was worthless, and the Union cause really having his sympathies, he proposed to enlist in the Northern army. Whether the military authorities were afraid of this sudden conversion, or not daring to give too much freedom of action to one who showed by his whole bearing and language, that there was no undertaking too daring for him to attempt, we are not told, but they put him where he would probably have little chance to show what stuff he was made of, and he was placed on the iron-clad ship Ticonderoga. It is said, he was released as a prisoner and volunteered to enlist in the navy. Be that as it may, though totally unfit for service of any kind on board of a man-of-war, he soon became acting ensign. At the close of the war he looked about for some field of active service, and what little war he had seen seemed to fit his peculiar character, and hearing that the Cretans were about to attempt to throw off the Turkish yoke, he resolved to join them. He proceeded thither with two other Americans, after hav- ing first made an engagement with the New York Herald as its correspondent. Disgusted, it is said, with the in- surgent leaders, he abandoned his purpose, and having a sort of roving commission from Mr. Bennett, he deter- mined to travel in the East. But he and his fellow- travellers were attacked by Turkish brigands, and robbed of all their money and clothing. They laid their com- plaint before Mr. Morris, our minister at Constantinople, who in turn laid it before the Turkish Government. At the same time he advanced them funds to supply their wants and they departed. After various journeyings he finally returned to England. Here a strong desire seized him to visit the place of his nativity in Wales, the house where he was born, and the humble dwelling where he received the first rudiments of his education at St. Asaph. One can imagine the feelings with which this bronzed young man, who had travelled so far and wide, entered the quiet valley from which he had departed so long ago

26 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

to seek his fortune. It speaks welj for his heart, that his sympathies turned at once toward the poor-ho useof which he had been an inmate in his childhood. Remem- bering that the greatest boon that could have been con- ferred at that time on him would have been a good, gen- erous dinner, he resolved to give those poor children one. One would like to have been present at it. The daring young adventurer in the presence of those simple, won- der-struck children would make a good subject for a picture. We venture to say that Mr. Stanley enjoyed that unobtrusive meal in that quiet Welsh valley more than he has ever since enjoyed a banquet with nobles and princes; and as the shadows of life lengthen he will look back on it with more real pleasure. He addressed them, giving them a familiar talk, telling them that he was once one of their number, accompanying it with good advice, saying for their encouragement, and to stimulate them to noble endeavors, that all he had been in the past and all he hoped to be in the future, he should at- tribute to the education he had received in that poor-house.

This was a real episode in his eventful life, and, though it doubtless soon passed away in the more stirring scenes on which he entered, yet the remembrance of it still lin- gers around that quiet, retired Welsh valley, and, to- day, the name of Stanley is a household word there, and the pride and glory of its simple inhabitants. And as time goes on and silvers those dark hairs, and the "almond-tree flourishes" and "desire fails, because man goeth to his long home," he, too, will remember it as one of those green oases he once longed to see and found in the arid desert.

In 1867, then twenty-seven years of age, he returned to the United States and, in the next year, accompanied the English army in its campaign against Theodore, King of Abyssinia, set on foot to revenge the wrongs the latter had committed against the subjects and represen- tatives of the British government. He went as corres- pondent of the New York Herald, and gave a vivid and clear account of the painful march and skirmishes up to

BEATING THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 27

the last great battle in the king's stronghold, where, with a gallant dash, the fortress was taken, the king killed and the war ended. With that promptness in acting, which is one of his chief characteristics, he at once dis- patched the news of the victory and the ending of the campaign to London, beating the governmental dispatches sent by the commander-in-chief, so that one morning the readers of the London newspapers knew that of which the government was ignorant. This, of course, was a genuine surprise. A young American newspaper cor- respondent, without a vessel at his command, had never- theless, by his enterprise, beat the governmental messen- ger, and steady old conservative England was disgusted to find its time-honored custom reversed, which was that the government should first give notice of successes to the public, leaving to newspaper correspondents to fill up the minor details. But an enterprising young Ameri- can had furnished the important news, leaving the British government the secondary duty of supplying these details. Notwithstanding the admiration of the enterprise that had accomplished this great feat, there was a ludi- crous aspect to the affair, in the position in which it placed official personages, that raised a quiet laugh on both continents. His letters contain the best history of that expedition that has ever been written. This was still another onward step in the great work before him, of which he, as yet, had no intimation. The next year, 1868, he returned to the United States, and in the follow- ing year was sent by the Herald into Spain, to follow the fortunes of the civil war there, as correspondent. Like everything else that he undertook, he performed his duties more than faithfully. Exposure, danger, hardships, nothing interfered when there was a prospect of acquiring valuable information. It mattered not to him whether he was on the margin or in the vortex of battle — he never thought of anything but the object be- fore him and toward which he bent all his energies. His letters from the seat of war not only gave the best description of the battles fought and of the -military

28 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRIf'A.

position of affairs, l»ut, also, of the political state of the kingdom. But while he was here, considering himself fixed down for an indefinite period, for Spain is prover- bial for the protracted duration of its civil wars, Mr. Bennett, in Paris, was planning an expedition to go in search of Dr. Livingstone, buried, alive or dead, some- where in the heart of Africa. The sympathies of every- body were enlisted in his fate, yet the British govern- ment, though he had done so much to enhance the fame of his native country, refused to stir a step toward ascertaining his fate or relieving him if in want or bondage. The Royal Geographical Society, ashamed of the apathy and indifference of the government, had started a subscription to raise funds from private sources to defray the expenses of an expedition to go in search of him. In the meantime this American editor, scorning alike state patronage or private help, conceived the bold project of finding him himself. Looking round for a suitable leader to command an expedition, his eyes rested on Stanley in Spain. And here should be noted the profound sagacity of Mr. Bennett in selecting such a leader for this desperate expedition, that was to go no one knew where, and end no one knew at what point. Most people thought it was a mammoth advertisement of the New York Herald, nothing more. If he was in earnest, why did he not select some one of the many African explorers who were familiar with the regions of Central Africa, and had explored in the vicinity of where Livingstone was by the best judges, supposed to be, if alive? Men, for instance, like Speke, Baker, Bui-ton, Grant and others. This certainly would have given eclat to the expedition, and, if it failed in its chief object, would unquestionably furnish new facts for the geogra- pher and the man of science. But to send one who made no pretensions to science, no claims to be a meteorologist, botanist, geologist, or to be familiar with astronomical calculations, all ol which are indispensable to a great explorer, seemed absurd. But Mr. Bennett had no intention of making new scientific or geographi-

MR. BENNETT'S PROFOUND SAGACITY. 29

cal discoveries. He had but one object in view — to find Dr. Livingstone — and on the true Napoleonic system of selecting the best man to accomplish a single object, he, with Napoleonic sagacity, fixed on Stanley. The cele- brated men who would have given greater distinction to the enterprise would, doubtless, divide up their time and resources between scientific research and the chief object of the expedition, and thus cause delays that might de- feat it ; or, with more or less of the martinet about them, push their researches only to a reasonable extent and be content with reports instead of personal investigation. But he wanted a man who had but one thing to do, and not only that, but a man who would accomplish the errand on which he was sent or die in the attempt. This was to be no mere well-regulated expedition, that was to turn back when all reasonable efforts had been made. It was one that, if desperate straits should come, would resort to desperate means, and he knew that with Stanley at its head this would be done. He knew that Stanley would fetch out Livingstone, dead or alive, or leave his bones to bleach in the wilds of Africa. The latter was comparatively young, it was true ; had always accompanied, never led, expeditious. He knew nothing of Africa, how an expedition should be organiz- ed or furnished ; it mattered not. Bennett knew he had resources within himself — nerves that never flinch, courage that no amount of danger could daunt, a will that neither an African fever nor a wasted form could break down, and a resolution of purpose that the pre- sence of death itself could not shake, while, to complete all, he had a quickness and accuracy of judgment in a perilous crisis, followed by equally quick and right action, which would extricate him out of difficulties that would overwhelm men who had all his courage, will and energy, but were slower in coming to a decision. This latter quality is one of the rarest fcver found even in the strongest men; to think quick and yet think right; to come to a right decision as if by impulse, is a power few men possess. To go swift and yet straight as* the can-

30 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

non ball or lightning's flash, gives to every man's actions tenfold power. In this lay the great secret of Napo- leon's success. The campaigns were started, while those of others were under discussion, and the thunder and tumult of battle cleared his perceptions and judgment so that no unexpected disaster could occur that he was not ready to meet. This quickness and accuracy of thought and action is one of the prominent character- istics of Stanley, and more than once saved his life and his expedition.

On the 16th day of October, 1869, as he was sitting in his hotel at Madrid, having just returned from the car- nage of Valencia, a telegram was handed him. The thunder of cannon and tumult of battle had scarce ceased echoing in his ear when this telegram startled him from his reverie, " Come to Paris on important business." In a moment all was hurry and confusion, his books and pictures were packed, his washed and unwashed clothes were stowed away, and in two hours his trunks were strapped and labeled "Paris." The train started at 3 o'clock, and he still had some time to say good-bye to his friends, and here by mere accident comes out one of the most pleasing traits of his character. Of the friends he is thus to leave, he merely refers to those of the American legation, but dwells with regret on the fare- well he must give to two little children, whom he calls his "fast friends." Like a sudden burst of sunlight on a landscape, this unconscious utterance reveals a heart as tender as it is strong, and increases our interest in the man quite as much as in the explorer. At 3 o'clock he was thundering on toward Paris ready, as he said, to go to the batile or the banquet, all the same. His interview with Mr. Bennett reveals the character of both these men so clearly that we give it in Stanley's own words :

" At 3 p.m. I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night. I went straight to the ' Grand Hotel,' and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's room.

FIND LIVINGSTONE. 31

" 'Come in,' I heard a voice say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed.

"'Who are you ?' he asked.

"'My name is Stanley,' I answered.

"'Ah, yes, sit down; I have important business on hand for you.'

" After throwing over his shoulders his robe de chambre, Mr. Bennett asked : ' Where do you think Livingstone is?'

" ' I really do not know, sir.'

" 'Do you think he is alive ?'

" 'He may be, and he may not be,' I answered.

" 'Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going to send you to find him.'

"'What,' said I, 'do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone ? Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?'

" 'Yes ? I mean that you shall go and find him, wherever you hear that he is, and get what news you can of him ; and, perhaps ' — delivering himself thought- fully and deliberately — ' the old man may be in want. Take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Of course, you will act according to your own plans, and you will do what is 'best — BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE ! '

" Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to central Africa to search for a man whom I, in com- mon with most other men, believed to be dead : ' Have you considered seriously the great expense you are liable to incur on accouut of this little journey ?'

" 'What will it cost ?' he asked, abruptly.

"'Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost between £3,000 and £5,000, and I fear it cannot be done under £2,500.'

" 'Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now, and when you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when that is spent draw another thousand, and when you have finished that draw another thousand and so on — but FIND LIVINGSTONE !'

32 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

" Surprised, but not confused, at the order, for I knew that Mr. Bennett, when he had once made up his mind, was not easily drawn aside from his purpose, I yet thought, seeing it was such a gigantic scheme, that he had not quite considered in his own mind the pros and cons of the case, I said : ' I have heard that should your father die you would sell the Herald, and retire from business.'

"'Whoever told you so is wrong, for there is not money enough in the United States to buy the New York Herald. My father has made it a great paper, but I mean to make it a greater. I mean, that it shall be a newspaper in the true sense of the word; I mean, that it shall publish whatever news may be useful to the world, at no matter what cost.'

" 'After that,' said I, ' I have nothing more to say. Do you mean me to go straight on to Africa to search for Dr. Livingstone ?'

"'No; I wish you to go to the inauguration of the Suez Canal first, and then proceed up the Nile. I hear Baker is about starting for Upper Egypt. Find out what you can about his expedition, and, as you go up, describe, as well as possible, whatever is interesting for tourists, and then write up a guide— a practical one — for Lower Egypt ; tell us about what is worth seeing, and how to see it.

" 'Then you might as well go to Jerusalem; I hear that Captain Warren is making some interesting dis- coveries there. Then visit Constantinople, and find out about the khedive and the sultan.

"'Then — let me see — you might as well visit the Crimea and those old battle-grounds. Then go across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. I hear there is a Russian expedition bound for Khiva. From thence yon may get through Per sia to India ; you could write an interesting letter from Persepolis.

" 'Bagdad will be close on your way to India ; suppose you go there and write up something about the Eu- phrates Valley Railway. Then, when you have come to

A FALSE CHARGE. 33

India, you may go after Dr. Livingstone. Probably you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar ; but, if not, go into the interior and find him, if alive. Get what news of his discovery you can ; and if you find that he is dead, bring all possible proofs you can of his being dead. That is all. Good-night, and God be with you.'

'" Good-night, sir,' I said, 'what is in the power of human nature I will do; and on such an errand as I go upon God will be with me.'

" I lodged with young Edward King, who is making such a name in New England. He was just the man who would have delighted to tell the journal he was engaged upon what young Mr. Bennett was doing, and what errand I was bound upon. I should have liked to exhange opinions with him upon the probable results of my journey, but dared not do so. Though oppressed with the great task before me, I had to appear as if only going to be present at the Suez Canal. Young King followed me to the express train bound for Marseilles, and at the station we parted — he to go and read the newspapers at Bowles's Reading-room, I to Central Africa and — who knows ? There is no need to recapitu- late what I did before going to Central Africa."

He started on his travels, and we hear of him first in Constantinople, from our minister there, Mr. Morris, who had relieved him and his companions when plundered by Turkish brigands. One of Mr. Stanley's traveling companions who had been robbed with himself, accused him of dishonesty in a published letter regarding the money our minister had advanced. It is not necessary to go into this accusation or a refutation of it now, it is sufficient to say that Mr. Morris declared the whole charge false, and as the shortest and most complete refu- tation of such a charge, we give Mr. Morris's own views of Mr. Stanley :

"The uncouth young man whom I first knew had grown into a perfect man of the world, possessing the appearance, the manners and the attributes of a perfect

34 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

gentleman. The story of the adventures which he had gone through and the dangers he had passed during his absence, were perfectly marvelous, and he became the lion of our little circle. Scarcely a day passed but he was a guest at my table, and no one was more welcome, for I insensibly grew to have a strong attachment for him myself." In speaking further on of his projected travels, he said he advised him to go to Persia, which Stanley suddenly came to the conclusion to follow out. " He therefore," he says, " busied himself in procuring letters of introduction to the Russian authorities in Caucasus, in Georgia and in other countries through which he would have to pass."

This is quite enough to put to rest the scandal, that at one time produced quite a sensation, that Stanley had cheated him and misappropriated the funds advanced by him. No explanations are required after this indorse- ment by Mr. Moms himself.

Of this long and hazardous journey, the columns of the Herald gave all the principal details. There is no- thing in them that illustrates the peculiar characteris- tics of Stanley any more or even so much as his subse- quent acts, hence his brief summary of this tour, that seems to have had no definite object whatever, except to give the correspondent of the Herald something to do, until the proper moment to start on the expedition for Livingstone, is, perhaps, the best account that could be given, so far as the general reader is concerned. All we can say is, it seems a very roundabout way in which to commence such an expedition.

" I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in Baker's expedition, at Philie, and was the means of preventing a duel between him and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight Mr. Higgin- botham with pistols, because Mr. Higginbotham resented the idea of being taken for an Egyptian through wearing a fez cap. I had a talk with Captain Warren at Jerusa- lem, and descended one of the pits with a Serjeant of engineers to see the marks of Tyrian workmen on the

A WELCOME EVERYWHERE. 35

foundation-stones of the Temple of Solomon. I visited the mosques of Stamboul with the minister resident of the United States, and the American consul general. I travelled over the Crimean battle-grounds with King- lake's glorious books for reference. I dined with the widow of General Liprandi, at Odessa. I saw the Ara- bian traveler, Palgrave, at Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the civil governor of the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian embassador while at Teheran, and wherever I went through Persia I received the most hospitable welcome from the gentlemen of the Indo- European Telegraph Company; and following the ex- ample of many illustrious men, I wrote my name upon one of the Persepolitan monuments. In the month of August, 1870, I arrived in India."

In completing this sketch of Mr. Stanley's character, it is only necessary to add that his after career fully justified the high estimate Mr. Bennett placed on his ex- traordinary qualities. These were tested to their utmost extent in his persistent, determined search after the man he was sent to find. But we believe that Livingstone, when found, with whom Stanley passed some months, exerted a powerful influence on the character which we have attempted to portray. Stanley was comparatively young, full of life and ambition, with fame, greater probably than he had ever anticipated, now within his reach. Yet, here in the heart of Africa, he found a man well on in years, of a world-wide fame, yet apparently indifferent to it. This man who had spent his life in a savage country, away from home and all the pleasures of civilized society, who expected to pass the remnant of his days in the .same isolated state, was looking beyond this life. He was forgetting himself, in the absorbing purpose to benefit others. Fame to him was nothing, the welfare of a benighted race everything. This was a new revelation to the ambitious young man. Hitherto he had thought only of himself, but here was a man, earnest, thoughtful, sincere, who was living to carry out a great idea — no less than the salvation of a continent —

36 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

nay more than this, who was working not for himself, but for a Master, and that Master, the God of the universe. He remained with him in close companion- ship for months, and intimate relations with a man borne up by such a lofty purpose, inspired by such noble feelings, and looking so far away beyond time for his reward, could not but have an important influence on a man with Stanley's noble and heroic qualities. It was a new revelation to him. He had met, not a success- ful, bold explorer, but a Christian, impelled and sustain- ed by the great and noble idea of regenerating a race and honoring the God of man and the earth. We say such a lengthened companionship of a man of this char- acter could not but lift him on to a higher plane, and in- spire him with a loftier purpose than that of a mere ex- plorer.

But while this expedition brought out all the peculiar traits we have spoken of, his last expedition developed qualities which circumstances as yet, had not yet ex- hibited. When he emerged on the Atlantic coast with his company he was hailed with acclamations, and a British vessel was placed at his disposal in which to re- turn home. But the ease and comfort offered him, and the applause awaiting him were nothing compared with the comfort and welcome of the savage band that had for so long a time been his companions and his only re- liance in the perils through which he had passed. True, they had often been intractable, disobedient and trust- less, but still they had been his companions in one of the most perilous marches ever attempted by man, and with that large charity that allowed for the conduct of these untutored, selfish animals of the desert, he forgot it all, and would do nothing, think of nothing, till their wants were supplied and their welfare secured. He would see them safe back to the spot from which he took them, and did, before he took care of himself. A noble nature there asserted itself, and we doubt not that every one of those ignorant, poor savages would go to the death for that brave man to whom their own welfare was so dear.

MANTLE OF LIVINGSTONE MAY FALL UPON STANLEY. 37

From this brief sketch of Mr. Stanley's career and character, one might, without presumption, predict that what he had done for Africa, great as it is, may be only the beginning of what he proposes to do.

The mantle of Livingstone may fall upon his shoulders, and the ambition of the explorer give way to the higher impulse of redeeming this benighted country, and these two names become as closely linked with the civilized, Christianized Africa of the future, as that of Columbus with America. Having laid open to the world the great work to be done there, let us hope he will be the great leader in performing it.

CHAPTER II.

The Dark Continent " — Description of it — Difficulties of Exploring it — Hatred of White Men — The First Real Encroachment made by a Missionary — Description of the Portion to be Explored — Its Articles of Commerce — Its Future Destiny.

ALL there was of civilization in the world was found at one time in Africa. Art and science had their home there, while now it is the most benighted and bar- barous portion of the earth and is, not inaptly, called " the dark continent." With a breadth at the equator of four thousand five hundred miles, with the exception of thin lines of sea-coast on each side, this vast space was as much unknown as the surface of a distant planet. The Barbary States and Egypt, on the Mediterranean and Red Seas, some Portuguese settlements on the Indian Ocean, the English and Dutch colonies of South Africa, a few trading ports and the English and American colo- nies in Guinea, constituted Africa, so far as the know- ledge of the civilized world went. And yet beyond these outer rims lay real Africa, and there lived -its vast 4

38 EXPLORATIONS TN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

population. That it was fertile was well-known, for out of its mysterious bosom flowed magnificent rivers, the Congo being ten miles wide at its mouth. That it con- tained a mighty population was equally apparent, for in two centuries it yielded forty millions of slaves, which were distributed over the world. Slave hunters here and there pierced a little way into this unknown region, and faint echoes came now and then out of this vast solitude, but they were echoes only, and Africa rested amid the continents a mystery and a riddle that seemed likely never to be solved. The vast Desert of Sahara on the north, stretching down to the equator, presented an impenetrable barrier to explorers entering from that direction, while along the eastern and western coasts they were beaten back by savage tribes or fell victims to the diseases of the country. Matted forests, wild beasts and venomous reptiles were added to the other obstacles that beset their path, so that only now and then an adventurous explorer got beyond the outer rim of the continent.

The Nile, piercing to the equator, seemed the most natural avenue by which to enter this region, but the slave hunters by their cruelty, and the petty wars they had engendered among the various tribes, made the pres- ence of a white man in their midst the occasion of hostile demonstrations. The lofty mountains and broad rivers that came out of this vast unknown region added to the mysterious interest that enveloped it. Though certain death awaited the daring traveler who endeavored to penetrate far into the interior, fresh victims were found ready to peril their lives in the effort to solve the mys- tery of Central Africa. The path of these travelers, when traced on the map, appears like mere punctures of the great continent. Missionary effort could only effect a lodgment along the coast, while colonies remained sta- tionary on the spot where they were first planted.

Although holding the entire southern portion, the English colony could make but little headway against the tribes that confronted them on the north. The most

AN EFFECTUAL BAR TO ENTERPRISE. 39

adventurous men urged not by curiosity or desire of knowledge, but cupidity, penetrated the farthest into the interior, but, instead of throwing light on those dark places, they made them seem more dark and terrible by the miserable naked and half-starved wretches they brought out to civilization, to become more wretched still by the life of slavery to which they were doomed.

Hence it could not be otherwise than that the name of white man should be associated with everything re- volting and cruel, and that his presence among these wild barbarians should awaken feelings of vengeance. A white man, to those inland tribes, represented wrong and cruelty alone. The very word meant separation of wives, and husbands, and families, and carried away to a doom whose mystery only enhanced the actual horrors that really awaited them. Hence the white man's rapa- city and cruelty put an effectual bar to his curiosity and enterprise. The love of knowledge and physical science was thwarted by the love of sin and wrong, and the civilized world, instead of wondering at the ignorance and barbarity that kept back all research and all benevo- lent effort, should wonder that any one bearing the slightest relationship to the so-called outside civilized world, should have been allowed to exist for a day where these wronged, outraged savages bore sway.

It is singular that the first real encroachment on these forbidden regions was not made by daring explorers either for adventure or geographical knowledge, or to extend commerce, but by a poor missionary, whose sole object was to get the Gospel introduced among these un- counted millions of heathen. Livingstone broke the spell that hung over tropical Africa, and set on foot movements that are to work a change in the continent more important and momentous than the imagination of man can at present conceive.

But, before entering on the explorations of the last thirty years, which are destined to work such a change in the future history of Africa, we wish to give a clear, definite idea of the region embraced in these explora-

40 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

tions, and which is yet but partially unveiled, and on the development and management of which the future of Africa turns. The names used by these explorers are not, for the most part, found on our maps, and hence the reader is left very much in the dark respecting the terri- tory over which he is carried by the explorer. We en- deavored, a little farther back, to give a general idea of the map of Africa, as showing its partially civilized and barbarous portions, as well as the known and unknown parts of the continent. We will not give the more scientific divisions, but would say that it is the more tropical regions of Africa that give birth to its largest rivers — is covered by its most magnificent forests — is crossed by its loftiest mountains, and where dwell its teeming millions. And this is the unknown part of the continent and the central point toward which all ex- plorers press.

This tropical Africa extends from about ten degress above to ten degrees below the equator, and from ten to thirty-five east longitude, or in round numbers, nearly a thousand miles above and below the equator, or two thousand or more east and west between these parallels of latitudes. With an ordinary map before him, and with Zanzibar on the east and Congo on the west, as great landmarks, the reader will get a very clear idea of the ground aimed at and touched, or pierced and crossed by recent explorers, and the thorough final exploration of which will unlock not only the hidden mystery of Africa, but open all there is of interest to both the Christian and commercial world. That to the former there is a field to be occupied that will tax the self- sacrifice and benevolence of the Christian world, there can be no doubt ; while to the commercial world a field of equal magnitude and importance will be laid open. From the mere punctures into the borders of this un- known land, and the two slight trails recently made across it, there is no doubt that from sixty to one hundred millions of men are here living in the lowest and most degraded condition of heathenism, while the

A NEW ROUTE DISCOVERED. 41

country is burdened with those articles which the com- mercial world needs, and can make of vast benefit to man.

A glance at the map will reveal what a vast territory remains to be explored and what a mighty population exists there, and yet to come into contact with the civil- ized worJd. It is probable that that unexplored region between the equator and the great Desert of Sahara will reveal greater wonders than have yet been discovered.

Previous to Livingstone, most of the expeditions hav- ing Central Africa for their objective point, made the Nile their guide. Mungo 3 'ark went up the Niger, on the west coast, in the beginning of the present century, and some twenty years later Denham and Clapperton started from Tripoli and, crossing the Great Desert, reached Lake Tschad, nearly a thousand miles north of the equator, and worked west to the Niger, and so to the coast of Guinea. Other explorers have visited this region, comprising the central part of Northern Africa, but the equatorial region was sought by following up the Nile. The western coast had been the scene of so much cruelty by slave traders, that the powerful tribes in the interior were so hostile to white men that they would not allow them to enter their country. It was left to Dr. Livingstone to discover a new route to tropi- cal Africa and make an entering wedge that is likely to force open the whole country.

What little has been traversed reveals untold wealth waiting the enterprising hand of commerce to bring forth to civilization. A partial list of the products of this rich country will show what a mine of wealth it is destined to be : sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, oil palm, tobacco, spices, timber, rice, wheat, Indian corn, India rubber, copal, hemp, ivory, iron, copper, silver, gold and various other articles of commerce are found here, and some of them in the greatest profusion.

Thus it will be seen that this vast continent, which from creation seemed destined only to be the abode of wild beasts and reptiles, and man as wild and savage as

42 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

the animals amid which he dwelt, and when brought into contact with civilization to become more debased, if possible, by the bondage in which he was kept, con- tains almost everything that civilization needs, and in the future, which now seems near, will be traversed by railroads and steamboats, and the solitudes that have echoed for thousands of years to the howl of wild beasts, and yells of equally wild men, will resound with the hum of peaceful industry and the rush and roar of com- merce. The miserable hut will give way to commodious habitations, and the disgusting rites of heathenism to the worship of the true God. Reaching to the temper- ate zones, north and south, it presents every variety of climate and yields every variety of vegetation. What effect the great revolution awaiting this continent will have on the destiny of the world, none can tell. But he would be considered a mad prophet who would predict one-half of the changes that the discovery of the Ameri- can continent, less than four hundred years ago, has wrought. That the Creator of these continents of the earth had some design in letting this, nearly, fourth part of our planet remain in darkness and mystery and savage debasement till now, and then, by the effort of one poor missionary, cause it to be thrown open to the world, none can doubt.

HIPPOPOTAMI AT HOME.

DK. DAVID I.IYIXCSTONK.

CHAPTER III.

Outlines of Livingstone's Explorations During a Period of nearly Thirty Years — First Exploration — Crosses the Continent from West to East — His Second Expedition — The Last — His Supposed Death — Sympathy for Him — Indifference of the British Government to his Fate — Bennett's bold Resolution to send Stanley after him.

WE do not design to give an account of the many explorations of Africa, from Mungo Park down, which have been made to gratify curiosity, or the spirit of adventure, or for fame, or even in the interest of science, or to increase our geographical knowledge, but confine ourselves to those only which have had for their great end the destruction of the slave trade and the re- generation of Africa. As Livingstone originated this philanthropic spirit, and lifted the expeditions to explore Central Africa to a higher plane than they had ever before occupied, till finally they became national, and hence have assumed an importance they never before possessed, it is not only proper but necessary to a full understanding of these explorations, that a brief account or outline of his Herculean labors should be given.

He was born in 1815, so that if alive now he would be near his threescore and ten. Educated as a physician and designing, originally, to make this profession an entering wedge to his career as a missionary in China, he having changed his purpose, embarked at the age of twenty-five as a missionary to South Africa, intending to spend his life among the wild tribes that bordered on the English settlements there. This very simple and by no means extraordinary step fixed his destiny, and, to all human appearances, has changed the destiny of Africa ; and though he is dead, the movement he started will go on widening and deepening, controlling the fate of millions, till time shall end. He located himself

44 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

among a tribe in the Baknona country, over which a noted and able chieftain named Sechele ruled with arbi- trary power. For nine years he labored and explored in this section of the country, learning the various dia- lects and customs and manners of the people, and thus preparing himself unconsciously for the greater work before him.

Nine years after, he went to Cape Town, and entered on his missionary labors. It must be borne in mind that, though at this time, the tribes that Livingstone visited and dwelt among were strangers to white men, yet they had little of the hatred of the stranger that characterized the tribes of Central Africa. They had never been so heavily cursed by the slave hunter or trader, and hence had less occasion for animosity and suspicion. The missionary, with his wife and children, trusted themselves fearlessly to the generosity of these savage chiefs, many of whom in intelligence, sagacity and magnanimity, resembled Red Jacket, Tecumseh and others among our Indian tribes. They were received with distinguished hospitality and treated with royal generosity.

About this time his explorations of the African conti- nent began. Two travelers having arrived at his station, he started with them to visit Lake Ngami, a sheet of water between one and two hundred miles in circumfer- ence, that had never before been visited by a white man. They set out on the 1st of June, and arrived on its solitary shores on the 1st of August, having been two months on the route, and everywhere treated with kindness. His chief object in visiting the lake was to see a great chief, Sekeletu, who was said to live some hundred and fifty miles beyond it. Livingstone was received and entertained by him cordially. Con- sulting with this able and generous chief, Livingstone determined to push west to the coast, and in November, 1853, the two, with quite a train and numerous guides, set out, and, thanks to the precautions and orders of Sekeletu, were received by the various tribes through

IN SIGHT OF INONGO. 45

which they passed with great hospitality. For three months he toiled onward across rivers and through swamps, his only companions being wild barbarians, who, notwithstanding their idolatrous worship and heathenish rites, treated this solitary white man, who had put himself completely in their power, as an honor- ed guest, The Inongo Valley, on which he now entered, was under the sway of the Portuguese, though several hundred miles from the Atlantic. The scenery through which he had passed had been tame and uninteresting, with nothing to alleviate the monotony of the way but the curious customs and wild antics of the savages through whose territory he passed. But he was filled with rapture when he came in sight of Inongo, lying in a beautiful valley below him. He thus describes it :

" It is about one hundred miles broad, clothed with dark forest, except where the light green grass covers meadow-lands on the Inongo River, which here and there glances in the sun as it wends its way to the north. The opposite side of this great valley appears like a range of lofty mountains, and the descent into it about a mile, which, measured perpendicularly, may be from one thousand to twelve hundred feet. Emerging from the gloomy forest of Loanda, this magnificent prospect made us all feel as if a weight had been lifted from our eyelids. A cloud was passing across the middle of the valley, from which rolling thunder pealed, while above all was glorious sunlight. It was one of those scenes which, from its unexpectedness and great contrast to all that has gone before, makes it seem more like a vision than a reality, and one wonders that so mutih beauty and loveliness was created only for wild beasts or wilder men to gaze upon."

He reached Loanda in April, having made the journey to the coast from the Mokololo district in four months. He now took the bold determination to cross the conti- nent, from west to east. It must be remembered that this daring expedition was undertaken nearly a quarter of a century ago, without the companionship of a single

46 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

white man. It is true, he crossed the southern portion of Africa, yet he started some two hundred miles north of where Cameron recently came out. Instead of work- ing northerly, his course lay somewhat to the south- east. For a year he was now locked up in these un- known wilds, and reaching the water-shed of the continent, he discovered the Zambezi, in the heart of Africa, and traced it down to its mouth. The results of this remarkable expedition have been long given to the world. But it will be seen at a glance that this formed, as it were, a base line for all his future explorations, and gave that impetus to explorations of the continent which are fast laying it open to the civilized world.

This brief summary gives a very inadequate idea of Mr. Livingstone's labors in Africa up to this time. He had now been sixteen years among its wild tribes, acting as missionary, statesman and scientific explorer. He had wrought marvelous changes among them, and started them forward toward civilization.

He now returned to England, reaching there on the 12th of December, where the story of his wonderful career was received with great admiration by people of every class. He published an extended account of his work and explorations in Africa, which was warmly received on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having fairly launched his book in the world, he now determined to return to Africa, but not, as before, alone. He did not go out as a missionary, but as consul to Killimane, with the understanding that his duties were in no wayvto conflict with his explorations. We do not design to give an account of the second expedition, which, among other things, before it ended, shed new light on the sources of the Nile and the waters that flow east into the Indian Ocean.

He left in 1858, and was gone some four years. He then returned to England. In the meantime, stimulated by his success and fame, sevei^al expeditions started up the Nile, by which the vast lake, or, as it might be termed, inland sea system around and beyond the head

THE ENGLISH PEOPLE AROUSED. 47

waters of the Nile was brought to light, as well as all the diabolical cruelties of the slave trade, which was carried on by Egypt and the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of Africa. Livingstone, by his vivid des- criptions of its horrors, and loud and righteous outcry against it, had aroused the English people, and created such a public sentiment that the English government felt compelled to move in the matter; so that while Livingstone was preparing for a third expedition, or rather continuing this last, which had only been inter- mitted (for his researches up the Zambezi and Raverna Rivers were preparatory to his great undertaking to ex- plore the sources of the Nile and the great lake region, near which he was to die), a movement was on foot to suppress the slave trade in Africa. England and the United States having declared it piracy, and kept their cruisers on the west cpast of Africa, had effectually suppressed it there. If, therefore, it could be suppressed by way of Egypt, the Portuguese settlements alone on the east coast could carry it on, and hence its doom be sealed, and this curse of centuries to Africa be ended. There was but one way to do this, to enlist the sympa- thies, or at least secure the co-operation of the khedive of Egypt in the great undertaking. No matter whether his claims were founded in justice or not, no one had a better one to the vast unknown regions of tropical Africa than he. Certainly no one had the power to enforce that claim as well as he.

The khedive is the most intelligent ruler that Egypt ever had, of liberal principles, and in sympathy with all the great improvements going on in the civilized world. Though the plan was obnoxious to a great por- tion of his subjects who lived by the slave trade, he at once entered into it and agreed to stop, with her assist- ance, the traffic in human beings throughout his king- dom. Livingstone at the time was not where he could hear of this first great result of his exposure of the iniquities of the slave trade in Africa. He was swal- lowed up in the wilds of that continent; in fact, was by

48 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

most men supposed to be dead, and his body moulder- ing, unburied, on the field of his last great exploration. He had been three years absent from England. Deter-

THE KHEDIYE OF EGYPT.

mined to explore the great water-shed of Central Africa, he had sailed for Zanzibar in August, 1865, and thence, in March of the next year, with a small band, composed of Sepoys and others, left that island, and in the last of the month strjick inland, proceeding by the River Rohenna, He was heard from, from time to time, until at last the leader of his Johanna men, arrived at Zanzibar and reported that he had been killed almost at the outset of his journey. The particulars of his death were related with great minuteness of detail — how the fight commenced, and that after Livingstone

LIVINGSTONE REPORTED DEAD. 49

had shot two of the natives, he was struck from behind and shot dead. The news was received with feelings of gloom and sorrow throughout the civilized world. This brave, true-hearted Christian man, whom all the native chiefs who knew him had learned to love, had at last fallen by the hand of those he came to benefit. • But at length there came letters from him, dated far in advance of the place where it is said he was murdered. Time passed on, and at long intervals faint echoes came out of the African solitudes, of a white man toiling all alone in those desolate regions. At length came another re- port that the news ol Livingstone's previous death was false, for he had recently been killed. But the former false rumor caused this to be discredited, and sympathy was again aroused for this undaunted solitary English- man, and wonder was expressed that his government would do nothing to relieve him. At length, Mr. Bennett, of the Herald, determined, at his own expense, to find this daring explorer if he was alive, and if dead, bring his bones out to hisfriends. He fitted out,as we have seen, an expedition at the cost of $25,000, and placed Stanley at its head, second only to Livingstone for dar- ing, perseverance, and indomitable will. At first he inclined to ascend the Nile and push forward in the direction toward which it was known that Livingstone had determined to push his researches, but finding that Baker was to move in that direction, he at last decided to proceed to Zanzibar, and taking the direction in which Livingstone had gone, three years before, follow him up till he found him or the spot where he died, or was killed.*

"The full Life-History of Livingstone and bis Explorations may be had of the Publishers of this volume, in one large 8vo volume of 800 pages, beautifully illustrated, price $3.50. Will be sent to any address post-paid on receipt of price.

CHAPTER IV.

Stanley's Search for Livingstone — Lands at Zanzibar — Organizes his Expedition — The Start — Stanley's Feelings — The March — Its Diffi- culties— Men Sick — Delays — Meeting with a Chief — Dialogue on the Burial of a Horse — Loss of his Bay Horse — Sickness and Deser- tion— Terrible Travelling — A Hospitable Chief — A Gang of Slaves — African Belles — A Ludicrous Spectacle — A Queer Superstition — Punishment of a Deserter — A Ludicrous Contrast — A Beautiful Country — News from Livingstone — A Walled Town — Stanley at- tacked with Fever.

WE have seen in a former chapter how suddenly Mr. Stanley was recalled from Spain, to take charge of an expedition to go in search of Livingstone — how he was sent to see Baker, who was about to go in toward him from the north, and how he was sent east first. But the time came at last to enter upon his work in earnest, and he sailed from Bombay, on the 12th of October, for Zanzibar.

On board the barque was a Scotchman, named Far- quhar, acting as first mate. Taking a fancy to him, he was engaged to accompany him on his expedition to find Livingstone.

Nearly three months later, on the 6th of January, he landed at Zanzibar, one of the most fruitful islands of the Indian Ocean, rejoicing in a sultan of its own. It is the great mart to which come the ivory, gum, copal, hides, etc., and the slaves of the interior. Stanley im- mediately set about preparing for his expedition. The first thing to decide upon, was :

"How much money is required? How many pigeons as carriers ? How many soldiers ? How much cloth ? How many beads ? How much wire ? What kinds of cloth is required for the different tribes ? "

After trying to figure this out by himself, from the books of other travellers, he decided to consult an Arab

GOODS THE ONLY COIN. 51

merchant, who had fitted out several caravans for the interior. In a very short time he obtained more infor- mation than he had acquired from books in his long three months' voyage from India.

Money is of no use in the heart of Africa. Goods of various kinds are the only coin that can purchase what the traveller needs, or pay the tribute that is exacted by the various tribes. He found that forty yards of cloth would keep one hundred men supplied with food per day. Thus, three thousand six hundred and fifty yards of three different kinds of cloths would support one hundred men twelve months. Next to cloths, beads were the best currency of the interior. Of these he pur- chased twenty sacks of eleven varieties in color and shape. Next came the brass wire, of which he pur- chased three hundred and fifty pounds, of about the thickness of telegraph wire. Next came the provisions and outfit of implements that would be needed — medi- cines and arms, and donkeys, and, last of all, men.

A man by the name of Shaw, a native of England, who came there as third mate of an American ship, from which he was discharged, applied for work, and was engaged by Stanley in getting what he needed together, and to accompany him on his expedition. He agreed to give him $300 per annum, and placed him next in rank to Farquhar. He then cast about for an escort of of twenty men. Five who had accompanied Speke, and were called "Speke's Faithfuls," among whom, as a leader, was a man named Bombay, were first engaged. He soon got together eighteen more men, as soldiers, who were to receive $3 a month. Each was to have a flint-lock musket, and be provided with two hundred rounds of ammunition. Bombay was to receive $80 a year, and the other five faithfuls $40.

Knowing that he was to enter, and, perhaps, cross a region of vast inland lakes, much delay and travel might be avoided by a large boat, and so he purchased one and stripped it of all its covering, to make the transpor- tation easier. He also had a cart constructed to

52 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

fit the goat-paths of the interior and to aid in trans- portation.

When all his purchases were completed and collected together, he found that the combined weight would be about six tons. His cart and twenty donkeys would not suffice for this, and so, the last thing of all, was to pro- cure carriers, or pagosi, as they were called. He hiinsdf was presented with a blooded hay horse, by an American merchant, at Zanzibar, named Gordhue, formerly of Salem, Mass.

On the 4th of February, or twenty-eight days from his arrival at Zanzibar, Mr. Stanley's equipment was completed, and he set sail for Bagomayo, twenty-five miles distant on the mainland — from which all the cara- vans started for the interior, and where he was to hire his one hundred and forty or more pogasis or carriers. He was immediately surrounded with men who attempt- ed in every way to fleece him, and he was harassed, and betrayed, and hindered on every side. But, at length, all difficulties were overcome — the goods packed in bales weighing seventy-two pounds — the force divided into five caravans, and in six weeks after he entered Bagomayo he was ready to start. The first caravan had departed February 18th; the second, February 21st; the third, February 25th; the fourth, on March llth, and the last on March 21st. All told, the number com- prised, in all the caravans connected with the " Herald Expedition," was one hundred and ninety.

It was just seventy-three days after Stanley landed at Zanzibar, that he passed out of Bagomayo, with his last caravan, on his bay horse, accompanied by twenty- eight carriers and twelve soldiers, under Bombay, while his Arab boy, Selim, the interpreter, had charge of the cart and its load.

Out through a narrow lane, shaded by trees, they passed, the American flag flying in front, and all in the highest spirits. Stanley had left behind him the quar- reling, cheating Arabs, and all his troubles with them. The sun speeding to the west, was beckoning him on ;

STARTING IN HIGH SPIRITS. 53

his heart beat high with hope and ambition ; he had taken a new departure in life, and with success would come the renown he so ardently desired. He says, " loveliness glowed around me ; I saw fertile fields, riant vegetation, strange trees ; I heard the cry of cricket and pewit, and jubilant sounds of many insects, all of which seemed to tell me, ' you are started.' What could I do but lift up my face toward the pure, glowing sky, and cry, ' God be thanked ? ' '

The first camp was three miles and a half distant. The next three days were employed in completing the preparations for the long land journey and for meeting the Masike, now very near, and on the 4th, a start was made for Unyanyembe, the great half-way house, which he resolved to reach in three months.

The road was a mere foot-path, leading through fields in which naked women were at work, who looked up and laughed and giggled as they passed. Passing on, they entered an open forest, abounding in deer and antelope. Reaching the turbid Kingemi, a bridge of felled trees was soon made ; Stanley, in the meantime amusing himself with shooting hippopotami, or rather shooting at them, for his small bullets made no more impression on their thick skulls than peas would have done. Crossing to the opposite shore, he found the traveling better. They arrived at Kikoka, a distance of but ten miles, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, having been compelled to unload the animals during the day, to cross the river and mud pools. This was slow marching, and at this rate of speed it would take a long time to reach the heart of Africa. The settlement was a collection of rude huts. Though bound to the same point that Speke and Burton had reached, Ujiji, Stanley took a different route from them, and one never traveled by a white man before. On the 27th, he left this place and moved westward, over a rolling, monotonous country, until they came to Rosako, the province of Ukwee. Just be- fore his departure the next morning, Magonga, the lead- er of the fourth caravan, came up and told him that

5

54 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

three of his carriers were sick, and asked for some medicine. He found the three men in great terror, be- lieving they were about to die, and crying out like children, " Mama, mama." Leaving them, with orders to hurry on as soon as possible, he departed. The country everywhere was in a state of nature except in the neighborhood of villages. Sheltered by the dense forests, he toiled on, but was so anxious about the fourth caravan left behind that, after marching nine miles, he ordered a halt and made a camp. It soon swarmed with insects, and he set to work to examine them and see if they were the tsetse, said to be fatal to horses in Africa. Still waiting for the caravan, he went hunting, but soon found himself in such an impenetrable jungle and swamp, filled with alligators, that he resolved never to make the attempt again. The second and third days passing without the arrival of the caravan, he sent Shaw and Bombay back after it, who brought it up on the fourth day. Leaving it to rest in his own camp, he pushed on five miles to the village of Kingaru, set in a deep, damp, pestiferous-looking hollow, surrounded by pools of water. To add to the gloominess of the scene, a pouring rain set in, which soon filled their camping- place with lakelets and rivulets of water. Toward even- ing the rain ceased, and the villagers began to pour in with their vendibles. Foremost was the chief, bringing with him three measures' of matama and half a measure of rice, which he begged Stanley to accept. The latter saw through the trickery of this meagre present, in offer- ing which the chief called him the "rich sultan." Stanley asked him why, if he was a rich sultan, the chief of Kingaru did not bring him a rich present, that he might give him a rich one in return. " Ah," replied the blear- eyed old fox, "Kingaru is poor, there is no matama in the village, I can give but a yard of cloth," which v^ould be equivalent to his present. Foiled in his sharp prac- tice the chief had to be content with this.

On the 1st of April, he lost his gray horse. The burial of the carcass, not far from the encampment, raised

A TERRIBLE COMMOTION. 55

a terrible commotion in the village, and the inhabitants assembled in consultation as to how much they must charge him for burying a horse in their village without permission, and soon the wrinkled old chief was also at the camp, and the following dialogue took place, which is given as an illustration of the character of the people with whom he was to have a year's trading intercourse :

White Man — "Are you the great chief of Kingaru ? "

Kingaru — " Huh-uh — yes."

W. M.— "The great, great chief?"

Kingaru — " Huh-uh — yes."

W. M. — How many soldiers have you ?"

Kingaru— "Why?"

W. M. — " How many fighting men have you ?"

Kingaru — " None."

W. M. — " Oh ! I thought you might have a thousand men with you, by your going to fine a strong white man who has plenty of guns and soldiers two doti for bury- ing a dead horse."

Kingaru (rather perplexed) — "No; I have no soldiers. I have only a few young men."

W. M. — " Why do you come and make trouble, then ?"

Kingaru — "It was not I; it was my brothers who said to me, ' Come here, come here, Kingaru, see what the white man has done ! Has he not taken possession of your soil, in that he has put his horse into your ground without your permission ? Come, go to him and see by what right ! Therefore have I come to ask you who gave you permission to use my soil for a burying- ground ?"

W. M. — " I want no man's permission to do what is right. My horse died ; had I left him to fester and stink in your valley, sickness would visit your village, your water would become unwholesome, and caravans would not stop here for trade ; for they would say, ' This is an unlucky spot, let us go away.' But enough said; I understand you to say you do not want him buried in your ground ; the error I have fallen into is easily put right. This minute my soldiers shall dig him out again

56 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

and cover up the soil as it was before, and the horse shall be left where he died." (Then shouting to Bom- bay). " Ho, Bombay, take soldiers with jeinbes to dig my horse out of the ground; drag him to where he died and make everything ready for a march to-morrow morning."

Kingaru, his voice considerably higher and his head moving to and fro with emotion, cries out, "Akuna, akuna, Bana " — no, no, master. " Let not the white man get angry. The horse is dead and now lies buried ; let him remain so, since he is already there, and let us be friends again."

The matter had hardly been settled, when Stanley heard deep groans issuing from one of the animals. On enquiry, he found that it came from the bay horse. He took a lantern and visited him, staying all night, hoping to save his life. It was in vain — in the morning he died, leaving him now without any horse, which reduced him to donkey riding. Three days passed, and the lag- ging caravan had not come up. In the meantime, one of his carriers deserted, while sickness attacked the camp, and out of his twenty -five men, ten were soon on the sick list. On the 4th, the caravan came up, and on the following morning was dispatched forward, the leader being spurred on with the promise of a liberal reward if he hurried to Unyanyembe. The next morning, to rouse his people he beat an alarm on a tin pan, and before sunrise they were on the march, the villagers rushing like wolves into the deserted camp to pick up any rags or refuse left behind. The march of fifteen miles to Imbike showed a great demoralization in his men, many of them not coming up till nightfall. One of the carriers had deserted on the way, taking with him a quantity of cloth and beads. The next morning, before starting, men were sent in pursuit of him. They made that day, the 8th, but ten miles to Msuwa. Though the journey was short, it was the most fatiguing one of all. As it gives a vivid description of the difficulties experi- enced in traveling through this country, we quote his own language :

COMING TO GRIEF. 57

"It was one continuous jungle, except three inter- jacent glades of narrow limits, which gave us three breathing pauses in the dire task of jungle-traveling. The odor emitted from its fell plants was so rank, so pungently acrid, and the miasma from its decayed vege- tation so dense, that I expected every moment to see myself and men fall down in paroxysms of acute fever. Happily this evil was not added to that of loading and unloading the frequently falling packs. Seven soldiers to attend seventeen laden donkeys, were entirely too small a number while passing through a jungle ; for while the path is but a foot wide, with a wall of thorny plants and creepers bristling on each side, and projecting branches darting across it, with knots of spiky twigs, stiff as spike-nails, ready to catch and hold anything above four feet in height, it is but reasonable to sup- pose that donkeys, standing four feet high, with loads measuring across, from bale to bale, four feet, would come to grief.

" This grief was of frequent recurrence here, causing us to pause every few minutes for re-arrangements. So often had this task to be performed, that the men got perfectly discouraged, and had to be spoken to sharply before they set to work. By the time I reached Msuwa, there was nobody with me and the ten donkeys I drove but Mabruk, the Little, who, though generally stolid, stood to his work like a man. Bombay and Uledi were far behind with the most jaded donkeys. Shaw was in charge of the cart, and his experiences were most bitter, as he informed me he had expended a whole vocabulary of stormy abuse known to sailors, and a new one which he had invented ex tern/pore. He did not arrive until two o'clock next morning, and was completely worn out. Truly, I doubt if the most pious divine, in traveling through that long jungle, under those circumstances, with such oft-recurring annoyances, Sisyphean labor, could have avoided cursing his folly for coming hither."

A halt was made here, that men and animals might recuperate. The chief of this village was " a white man

58 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

in everything but color," and brought him the choicest mutton. He and his subjects were intelligent enough to comprehend the utility of his breach-loading guns, and by their gestures illustrated their comprehension of the deadly effects of those weapons in battle.

On the 10th, somewhat recuperated, the caravan left this hospitable village, and crossed a beautiful little plain, with a few cultivated fields, from which the tillers stared in wonder at the unwonted spectacle it presented. But here Stanley met one of those sights common in that part of the world, but which, it is to be hoped, will soon be seen no more. It was a chained slave gang, bound east. He says the slaves did not appear in the least to be down-hearted, on the contrary, they were jolly and gay. But for the chains, there was no difference between master and slave. The chains were heavy, but as men and women had nothing else to carry, being entirely naked, their weight he says could not have been insup- portable. He camped at 10 a.m., and fired two guns, to show they were ready to trade wi-th any of the natives in the region. The halting place was Kisemo, only twelve miles from Msuwa, which was the centre of a populous district, there being no less than five villages in the vicinity, fortified by stakes and thorny abattis, as formidable in their way, as the old fosse and draw- bridge of feudal times. " The belles of Kisemo," he says, " are of gigantic posterioral proportions," and are " noted for their variety in brass wire, which is wound in spiral rings round their wrists and ankles, and for the varieties of style which their hisped heads exhibit ; while their poor lords obliged to be contented with dingy, torn clouts and split ears, show what wide sway Asmodeus holds over this terrestial sphere — for it must have been an unhappy time when the hard besieged husbands gave way before their hotly-pressing spouses. Besides these brassy ornaments on their extremities, the women of Kisemo frequently wear lengthy necklaces, which run in rivers of colors down their black bodies." But a more comical picture is seldom presented than that of one of

'-c 2 PC

d

THE BELLES OF KISEMO. 61

those highly-dressed females, " with their huge posterior development, while grinding out corn. This is done in a machine very much like an old fashioned churn, except the dasher becomes a pestle and the churn a mortar. Swaying with the pestle, as it rises and falls, the breast and posteriors correspond to the strokes of the dasher in a droll sort of sing-song, which give to the whole exhi- bition the drollest effect imaginable."

A curious superstition of the natives was brought to light here by Shaw removing a stone while putting up his tent. As he did so, the chief rushed forward, and putting it back in its place, solemnly stood upon it. On being asked what was the matter, he carefully lifted it, pointed to an insect pinned by a stick to the ground, which he said had been the cause of a miscarriage of a female of the village.

In the afternoon the messengers came back with the deserter and all the stolen goods. Some of the natives had captured him and were about to kill him and take the goods, when they came up and claimed both. He was given up, they being content with receiving a little cloth and beads in return. Stanley, with great sagacity, caused him to be tried by the other carriers, who con- demned him to be flogged. They were ordered to carry out their own sentence, which they did amid the yells of the culprit.

Before night a caravan arrived, bringing, among other things, a copy of the Herald, containing an account of a presidential levee in Washington, in which the toilets of the various ladies were given. While engrossed in read- ing in his tent, Stanley suddenly became aware that his tent-door was darkened, and looking up, he saw the chiefs daughters gazing with wondering eyes on the great sheets of paper he was scanning so closely. The sight of these naked beauties, glittering in brass wire and beads, presented a ludicrous contrast to the elabor- ately-dress belles of whom he had been reading in the paper, and made him feel, by contrast, in what a differ- ent world he was living.

62 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

On the 12th, the caravan reached Munondi, on the Ungerangeri River. The country was open and beauti- ful, presenting a natural park, while the roads were good, making the day's journey delightful. Flowers decked the ground, and the perfume of sweet-smelling shrubs tilled the air. As they approached the river, they came upon fields of Indian corn and gardens filled with vegetables, while stately trees lined the bank. On the 14th, they crossed the river and entered Wakami territory. This and the next day the road lay through a charming country. The day, following, they marched through a forest between two mountains rising on either side of them, and on the 16th reached the territory of Wosigahha. As he approached the village of Muhalleh he was greeted with the discharge of musketry. It came from the fourth caravan, which had halted here. Here also good news awaited him. An Arab chief, with a caravan bound east, was in the place, and told him that he had met Livingstone at Ujiji, and had lived in the next hut to him for two weeks. He described him as looking old, with long, gray moustache and beard, just recovered from illness, and looking very wan. He said, moreover, that he was fully recovered, and was going to visit a country called Monyima. This was cheering news, indeed, and filled his heart with joy and hope. The valley here, with its rich crops of Indian corn, was more like some parts of the fertile west than a desert country. But the character of the natives began to change. They became more insolent and brutal, and accompanied their requests with threats.

Continuing their journey along the valley of the river, they suddenly, to their astonishment; came upon a walled town containing a thousand houses. It rose before them like an apparition with its gates and towers of stone and double row of loop holes for musketry. The fame of Stanley had preceded him, being carried by the caravans he had dispatched ahead, and a thousand or more of the inhabitants came out to see him. This fortified town was established by an adventurer famous for his kidnap-

A WALLED TOWN. 63

ping propensities. A barbaric orator, a man of powerful strength, and of cunning address, he naturally acquired an ascendency over the rude tribes of the region, and built him a capital, and fortified it and became a self- appointed sultan. Growing old, he changed his name, which had been a terror to the surrounding tribes, and also the name of his capital, and just before death, bequeathed his power to his eldest daughter, and named the town the Sultana, in her honor, which it still bears. The various women and children hung on the rear of Stanley's caravan, filled with strange curiosity at sight of this first white man they had ever seen, but the searching sun drove them back one by one, and when Stanley pitched his camp, four miles farther on, he was unmolested. He determined to halt here for two days to overhaul his baggage and give the donkeys, whose backs had become sore, time to recuperate. On the second day, he was attacked with the African fever, similar to the chills and fever of this country. He at once applied the remedies used in the Western States — namely, powerful doses of quinine, and in three days he pronounced himself well again.

CHAPTER V.

The Rainy Season sets in — Disgusting Insects — The Cook Caught Steal- ing— His Punishment and Flight — The March — Men Dispatched after the Missing Cook — Their Harsh Treatment by the Sultana of the Walled Town — A Hard March — Crossing the Makata River — The Rainy Season Ended — Five Miles of Wading — An Enchanting Prospect — Reaches His Third Caravan, and Finds it Demoralized — Shaw, its Leader, a Drunken Spendthrift— Delays the March — Stanley's Dispatch to Him — Lake Ugombo — Scene between Stanley and Shaw at Breakfast, the Latter Knocked Down— Attempt to Murder Stanley — Good Advice of an Arab Sheikh — A Feast — Far- quhar Left Behind.

HE had now traveled one hundred and nineteen miles in fourteen marches, occupying one entire month lacking one day, and making, on an average, four miles a day. This was slow work. The rainy season now set in, and day after day it was a regular down-pour. Stanley was compelled to halt, while disgusting insects, beetles, bugs, wasps, centipedes, worms and almost every form of the lower animal life, took possession of his tent, and gave him the first real taste of African life.

On the fifth morning (the 23rd of April), he says the rain held up for a short time, and he prepared to cross the river, now swollen and turbid. The bridge over which he carried his baggage was of the most primitive kind, while the donkeys had to swim over. The passage occupied five hours, yet was happily accomplished with- out any casualties.

Reloading his baggage and wringing out his clothes, he set out — leaving- the river and following a path that led off in a northerly direction.

With his heart made more light and cheerful by being on the march and out of the damp and hateful valley, made still more hateful by the disgusting insect life that filled his tent, he ascended to higher ground, and passing with his caravan through successive glades, opening one

PUNISHMENT FOR PILFERING. 65

after another between forest clumps of trees hemmed in distantly by isolated peaks and scattered mountains. "Now and then," he says, "as we crested low eminences, we caught sight of the blue mountains, bounding the horizon westerly and northerly, and looked down on a vast expanse of plain which lay between. At the foot of the lengthy slope, well watered by bubbling springs and mountain rills, we found a comfortable Khembi with well-made huts, which the natives call Simbo. It lies just two hours, or five miles, north-west from the Ungerengeri crossing."

We here get incidentally the rapidity with which he traveled, where the face of the country and the roads gave him the greatest facilities for quick marching, two " hours or five miles," he says, which makes his best time two miles and a half an hour. In this open, beauti- ful country no villages or settlements could be seen, though he was told there were many in the mountain inclosures, whose inhabitants were false, dishonest and murderous.

On the morning of the 24th, as they were about to leave Simbo, his Arab cook was caught, for the fifth time, pilfering, and it being proved against him, Stanley ordered a dozen lashes to be inflicted on him as a punish- ment, and Shaw was ordered to administer them. The blows being given through his clothes, did not hurt him much, but the stern decree that he, with his donkey and baggage, shouid be expelled from camp and turned adrift in the forests of Africa, drove him wild and, leaving donkey and everything else, he rushed out of camp and started for the mountains. Stanley, wishing only to frighten him, and, having no idea of leaving the poor fellow to perish at the hands of the natives, sent a couple of his men to recall him. But it was of no use, the poor, frightened wretch kept on for the mountains, and was soon out of sight altogether. Believing he would think better of it and return, his donkey was tied to a tree near the camping-ground, and the caravan started for- ward, and passing through the Makata Valley, which

66 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

afterward became of sorrowful memory, it halted at Rehenneko, at the base of the Usagara Mountains, six marches distant. This valley is a wilderness, covered with bamboo, and palm, and other trees, with but one village on its broad expanse, through which the harte beast, the antelope and the zebra roam. In the lower portions, the mud was so deep that it took ten hours to go ten miles, and they were compelled to encamp in the woods when but half-way across. Bombay with the cart did not get in till near midnight, and he brought the dolorous tale, that he had lost the property tent, an axe, besides coats, shirts, beads, cloth, pistol and hatchet and powder. He said he had left them a little while to help lift the cart out of a mud-hole and during his absence they disappeared. This told to Stanley at midnight roused all his wrath, and he poured a perfect storm of abuse on the cringing Arab, and he took occasion to overhaul his conduct from the start. The cloth if ever found, he said, would be spoiled, the axe, which would be needed at Ujiji to construct a boat, was an irreparable loss, to say nothing of the pistol, powder and hatchet, and, worse than all, he had not brought back the cook, whom he knew there was no intention to abandon, and he then and there told him he would degrade him from office and put another man in his place, and then dis- missed him, with orders to return at daylight and find the missing property. Four more were dispatched after the missing cook; Stanley halted here three days to wait the return of his men. In the meantime, provisions ran low, and though there was plenty of game, it was so wild that but little could be obtained — he being able to secure but two potfuls in two days' shooting — these were quail, grouse and pigeons. On the fourth day, becoming exceedingly anxious, he dispatched Shaw and two more soldiers after the missing men. Toward night he returned, sick with ague, bringing the soldiers with him, but not the missing cook. The soldiers reported that they had marched immediately back to Simbo, and having searched in vain in its vicinity for the missing

BEFORE THE SULTANA. 67

man, went to the bridge over the river to inquire if he had crossed there. They were told, so they said, that a white donkey had crossed the river in another place driven by some Washensi. Believing the cook had been murdered by those men, who were making off with his property, they hastened to the walled town and told the warriors of the western gate that two Washensi must have passed the place with a white donkey, who had murdered a man belonging to the white man. They were immediately conducted to the sultana, who had much of the spirit of her father, to whom they told their story. " The sultana demanded of the watchmen of the towers if they had seen the two Washensi with the white donkey. The watchmen answered in the affirm- ative, upon which she at once dispatched twenty of her musketeers in pursuit to Muhalleh, who returned before night, bringing with them the two Washensi and the donkey, with the cook's entire kit. The sultana, who is evidently possessed of her father's energy, with all his lust for wealth, had my messengers, the two Washensi, the cook's donkey and property at once brought before her. The two Washensi were questioned as to how they became possessed of the donkey and such a store of Kisunga clothes, cloth and beads ; to which they an- swered that they had found the donkey tied to a tree with the property on the ground close to it ; that seeing no owner or claimant anywhere in the neighborhood, they thought they had a right to it, and accordingly had taken it with them. My soldiers were then asked if they recognized the donkey and property, to which questions they unhesitatingly made answer that they did. They further informed Her Highness that they were not only sent after the donkey, but also after the owner, who had deserted their master's service ; that they would like to know from the Washensi what they had done with him. Her Highness was also anxious to know what the Washensi had done with the Hindi, and accordingly, in order to elicit the fact, she charged them with murdering him, and informed them

68 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

she but wished to know what they had done with the body.

" The Washensi declared most earnestly that they had spoken the truth, that they had never seen any such man as described ; and if the sultana desired, they would swear to such a statement. Her Highness did not wish them to swear to what in her heart she believed to be a lie, but she would chain them and send them in charge of a caravan to Zanzibar to Lyed Burghosh, who would know what to do with them. Then turning to my sol- diers, she demanded to know why the Musungu had not paid the tribute for which she had sent her chiefs. The soldiers could not answer, knowing nothing of such con- cerns of their master's. The heiress of Kisabenga, true to the character of her robber sire, then informed my trembling men that, as the Masungu had not paid the tribute, she would now take it ; their guns should be taken from them, together with that of the cook ; the donkey she would also take, the Hindi's personal clothes her chiefs should retain, while they themselves should be chained until the Musungu himself should return and take them by force.

" And as she threatened, so was it done. For sixteen hours, my soldiers were in chains in the market-place, exposed to the taunts of the servile populace. It chanced the next day, however, that Sheikh Thani, whom I met at Kingaru, and had since passed by five days, had arrived at Simbamwenni, and proceeding to the town to purchase provisions for the crossing of the Makata wild- erness, saw my men in chains and at once recognized them as being in my employ. After hearing their story, the good-hearted sheikh sought the presence of the sul- tana, and informed her that she was doing very wrong — a wrong that could only terminate in blood. ' The Musungu is strong,' he said, ' very strong. He has got ten guns which shoot forty times without stopping, car- rying bullets half an hour's distance ; he has got several guns which carry bullets that burst and tear a man in pieces. He could go to the top of that mountain and

REPOKT MY POWER. 69

kill every man, woman and child before one of your soldiers could reach the top. The road will then be stopped, Lyed Burghosh will march against your country, the Wadoe and Wakami will come and take revenge on what is left ; and the place that your father made so strong will know the Waseguh ha no more. Set free the Musungu's soldiers ; give them their food and grain for the Musungu ; return the guns to the men and let them go, for the white man may even now be on his way here.

" The exaggerated report of my power, and the dread picture sketched by the Arab sheikh, produced good effect, inasmuch as Kingaru and the Mabrukis were at once released from durance, furnished with food sufficient to last our caravan four days, and one gun with its ac- coutrements and stock of bullets and powder, was returned, as well as the cook's donkey, with a pair of spectacles, a book in Malabar print and an old hat which belonged to one whom we all now believe to be dead. The sheikh took charge of the soldiers as far as Simbo ; and it was in his camp, partaking largely of rice and ghee, that Shaw found them, and the same bountiful hospitality was extended to him and his companions."

Stanley was now filled with keen regrets that he had punished the cook in the manner he did, and mentally resolved that no matter what a member of his caravan should do in the future he would never drive him out of camp to perish hy assassins. Still he would not yet believe that he was murdered. But he was furious at the treatment of his soldiers by the black Amazon of Limbamwanni, and the tribute she exacted, especially the seizure of the guns, and if he had been near the place would have made reprisals. But he had already lost four days, and so, next morning, although the rain was coming down in torrents, he broke camp and set forth. Shaw was still sick, and so the whole duty of driving the floundering caravan devolved upon himself. As fast as one was flogged out of the mire in which he had stuck, another would fall in. It took two hours to cross

70 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

the miry plain, though it was but a mile and a half wide. He was congratulating himself on having at last got over it, when he was confronted by a ditch which the heavy rains had converted into a stream breast deep. The donkeys had all to be unloaded, and led through the torrent, and loaded again on the farther side. They had hardly got under way when they came upon another btream so deep that it could not be forded, and over which they had to swim and float across their baggage. The}7 then floundered on until they came to a bend of the river, where they pitched their camp, having made but six miles the whole day. This River Makata is only about forty feet in width in the dry season, but at this time was a wide, turbid stream. Its shores with its matted grass, decayed vegetable matter, reeking mists, seemed the very home of the ague and fever. It took live hours to cross it the next morning. The rain came down in such torrents that traveling became impossible, and the camp was pitched. Luckily this proved the last day of the rainy season.

It was now the 1st of May, and the expedition was in a pitiable plight. Shaw was still sick, and one man was down with the small pox. Bombay, too, was sick, and others complaining. Doctoring the sick as well as he knew how, and laying the whip lustily on the backs of those who were shamming, Stanley at length got his caravan in motion and began to cross the Makata plain, now a swamp thirty-five miles broad. It was plash, plash, through the water, in some places three or four feet deep, for two days, until they came in sight of the Rudewa River. Crossing a branch of this stream, a sheet of water five miles broad stretched out before the tired caravan. The men declared it could not be crossed, but Stanley determined to try, and after five hours' of the most prostrating effort reached dry ground, but his animals began to sicken from this day on, while Stanley himself was seized with the dysentery, caused by his exposure, and was brought to the verge of the grave. The expedition seemed about

DEBAUCHERIES OF FARQUHAB. 71

to end there on the borders of the Makata swamp. On the 4th, they came to the important village of Re- henneko, the first near which they had encamped since entering the district of Usagara. It was a square, com- pact village, surrounded by a mud wall and composed of cane-topped huts, and containing about one thousand inhabitants. The air was pure and the water as clear as crystal, coming from the mountain, on the very top of which the village is situated. They rested here four days to recruit. On the 8th, they started forward and began to ascend the mountain. Having reached the summit of the first range of hills, Stanley paused to sur- vey the enchanting prospect. The broad valley of Ma- kata stretched out before him, laced with streams spark- ling in the sun, while over it waved countless palm- trees, and far away, blue in the distance, stretched a mighty range of mountains. " Turning our faces west," he says, " we found ourselves in a mountain world, fold rising above fold, peak behind peak, cone jostling cone ; away to the north, to the west, to the south, the moun- tain tops rolled away like so many vitrified waves, not one adust or arid spot was visible in all this scene." The change from the pestilential swamps, through which they had been so long floundering, was most grateful, but the animals suffered greatly, and before they reached their first camping-ground, two had given out. The 9th they descended into the valley of Mukondokno, and there struck the road traversed by Speke and Burton in 1817. Reaching the dirty village, Kiora, Stanley iound there his third caravan, led by Farquhar. By his de- bauchery on the way he had made himself sick and brought his caravan into a sad condition. As he heard Stanley's voice, he came staggering out of his tent, a bloat- ed mass of human flesh that never would have been recog- nized as th*e trim mate of the vessel that brought Stanley from India. After he examined him as to the cause of his illness, he questioned him about the condition of the property intrusted to his care. Not able to get an in- telligent answer out of him, he resolved to overhaul liis

72 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

baggage. On examination, he found that he had spent enough for provisions on which to gormandize to have lasted eight months, and yet he had been on the route but two and a half months. If Stanley had not overtaken him, everything would have been squandered, and of all the bales of cloth he was to take to Unyan- yembe not one bale would have been left. Stanley was sorely puzzled what to do with the miserable man. He would die if left at Kiora ; he could not walk or ride far, and to carry him seemed well-nigh impossible.

On the llth, however, the two caravans started for- ward, leaving Shaw to follow with one of the men. But he lagged behind, and had not reached the camp when it was roused next morning. Stanley at once dispatched two donkeys, one for the load that was on the cart and the other for Shaw, and with the messenger the follow- ing note: "You will, upon the receipt of this order, pitch the cart into the nearest ravine, gully or river, as well as all the extra pack saddles; and come at once, fot God's sake, for we must not starve here" After waiting four hours, he went back himself and met them, the carrier with the cart on his head, and Shaw on the donkey, apparently ready, at the least jolt, to tumble off. They, however, pusRed on, and arrived at Madete at 4 o'clock. Crossing the river about three, and keep- ing on, they, on the 14th, from the top of a hill, caught sight of Lake Ugenlo. The outline of it, he says, re- sembles England without Wales. It is some three miles long by two wide, and is the abode of great numbers of hippopotami, while the buffalo, zebra, boar and antelope come here by night to quench their thirst. Its bosom is covered with wild fowl of every description. Being obliged to halt here two days on account of the deser- tion of the cooper, with one of the carbines, he explored the lake. Two more donkeys died here.

The deserter having returned of his own free will, the caravan started forward, cursed by the slow progress of the peevish, profane and violent Shaw. The next day, at breakfast, a scene occurred that threatened serious

SOMETHING WRONG. 73

consequences. When Shaw and Farquhar took their places, Stanley saw by their looks that something was wrong. The breakfast was a roast quarter of goat, stewed liver, some sweet potatoes, pancakes and coffee. "Shaw," said Stanley, " please carve and serve Farquhar." Instead of doing so, he exclaimed in an insulting tone, "What dog's meat is this?" "What do you mean?" demanded Stanley. "I mean," replied the fellow, "that it is a downright shame the way you treat us," and then complained of being compelled to walk and help himself, instead, as he was promised, have servants to wait upon him. All this was said in a loud, defiant tone, inter- luded with frequent oaths and curses of the "damned expedition," etc. When he had got through, Stanley, fixing his black, resolute eye on him, said : " Listen to me, Shaw, and you, Farquhar, ever since you left the coast, you have had donkeys to ride. You have had servants to wait upon you; your tents have been set up for you; your meals have been cooked for you; you have eaten with me of the same food I have eaten ; you have received the same treatment I have received. But now all Farquhar's donkeys are dead; seven of my own have died, and I have had to throw away a few things, in order to procure carriage for the most important goods. Farquhar is too sick to walk, he must have a donkey to ride ; in a few days all our animals will be dead, after which I must have over twenty more pagosis to take up the goods or wait weeks and weeks for car- riage. Yet, in the face of these things, you can grumble, and curse, and swear at me at my own table. Have you considered well your position ? Do you realize where you are ? Do you know that you are my servant, sir, not my companion?"

" Servant, be " said he.

Just before Mr. Shaw could finish his sentence he had measured his length on the ground.

" Is it necessary for me to proceed further to teach you ? " said Stanley.

" I tell you what it is, sir/' he said, raising himself up,

74 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OP AFRICA.

" I think I had better go back. I have had enough, and I do not mean to go any farther with you. I ask my discharge from you."

"Oh, certainly. What — who is there ? Bombay, come here."

After Bombay's appearance at the tent-door, Stanley said to him: "Strike this man's tent," pointing to Shaw; " he wants to go back. Bring his gun and pistol here to my tent, and take this man and his baggage two hun- dred yards outside of the camp, and there leave him."

In a few minutes his tent was down, his gun and pistol in Stanley's tent, and Bombay returned to make his report, with four men under arms.

"Now go, sir. You are at perfect liberty to go. These men will escort you outside of camp, and there leave you and your baggage."

He walked out, the men escorting him and carrying his baggage for him.

After breakfast Stanley explained to Farquhar how necessary it was to be able to proceed ; that he had had plenty of trouble, without having to think of men who were employed to t'hink of him and their duties; that, as he (Farquhar) was sick, and would be probably unable to march for a time, it would be better to leave him in some quiet place, under the care of a good chief, who would, for a consideration, look after him until he got well. To all of which Farquhar agreed.

Stanley had barely finished speaking before Bombay came to the tent-door, saying : " Shaw would like to speak to you.''

Stanley went out to the door of the camp, and there met Shaw, looking extremely penitent and ashamed. He commenced to ask pardon, and began imploring to be taken back, and promising that occasion to find fault with him again should never arise.

Stanley held out his hand, saying: "Don't mention it, my dear fellow. Quarrels occur in the best of fami- lies. Since you apologize, tljere is an end of it."

FARQUHAR LEFT. 75

On the 16th of May the little caravan started off again, and after a inarch of fifteen miles, camped at Matamombo, in a region where monkeys, rhinocerse, sceinlaks and antelopes abounded. The next day's march was through an interminable jungle, and extended fifteen miles. Here he came upon the old Arab sheikh, Thani, who gave him the following good advice : "Stop here two or three days, give your tired animals some rest, and collect all the carriers you can ; fill your insides with fresh milk, sweet potatoes, beef, mutton, ghee, honey, beans, matama, maderia, nuts, and then, Inshalla! we shall go through Ugogo without stopping anywhere." Stanley was sensible enough to take this advice. He at once commenced on this certainly very prodigal bill of fare for Central Africa. How it agreed with him after the short trial of a single day, may be inferred from the following entry in his diary :

" Thank God ! after fifty-seven days of living upon matama porridge and tough goat, I have enjoyed with unctuous satisfaction a real breakfast and a good dinner."

Here upon the Mpwapwa, he found a place to leave the Scotchman, Farquhar, until he should be strong enough to join him at Unyanyembe. But when he pro- posed this to the friendly chief, he would consent only on the condition that he would leave one of his own men behind to take care of him. This complicated matters, not only because he could not well spare a man, but because it would be difficult to find one who would con- sent to undertake this difficult task. This man, whom Stanley had thought would be a reliable friend and a good companion in his long, desolate marches, had turned out a burden and a nuisance. His wants were almost endless, and instead of using the few words in the lan- guage of the natives to make them known, he would use nothing but the strongest Anglo-Saxon, and when he found he was not understood, would fall to cursing in equally good round English oaths, and if the aston- ished natives did not understand this, relapsed into regular John Bull sullenness. When, therefore, Stanley

76 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

opened up the subject to Bombay, the latter was horrified. He said the men had made a contract to go through, not to stop by the way ; and when Stanley, in despair, turned to the men, they one and all refused absolutely to remain behind with the cursing, unreasonable white man — one of them mimicking his absurd conduct so completely, that Stanley himself could not help laughing. But the man must be left behind, and somebody must take care of him; and so Stanley had to use his authority, and notwithstanding all his protestations and entreaties, Sako, the only one who could speak English, was ordered to stay behind.

Having engaged here twelve new carriers, and from the nearest mountain summit obtained an entrancing view of the surrounding region for a hundred miles, he prepared to start, but not before, notwithstanding the good milk it furnished, giving Mpwapwa a thorough malediction for its earwigs. " In my tent," he says, " they might be counted by thousands ; in my slung cot by hundreds ; on my clothes they were by fifties ; on my neck and head they were by scores. The several plagues of locusts,fleas and lice sink into utter insignifi- cance compared with this damnable one of earwigs." Their presence drove him almost insane. Next to these come the white ants, that threatened in a short time to eat up every article of baggage.

He now pushed on toward the Ugogo district, famous for the tribute it exacted from all caravans.

CHAPTER VI.

Three of his caravans meet — A waterless desert traversed — Stanley down with, the fever — A land of plenty and of extortion — A populous district — A modern hercules — An African village — Stanley curbs his temper for economy's sake — A good sultan — News from one of his caravans — Curious natives — Flogged by Stanley into proper be- havior— Salt plains — Stanley stops to doctor himself — A curious visit from a chief — A noble African tribe — A mob — Quarrel over the route to be taken — Settled by Stanley — A merry march — Conden- sation of Stanley's account of the character of the country and the tribes of Central Africa.

ON the 22nd of May, the two other caravans of Stan- ley joined him, only three hours' march from Mpwap- wa, so that the one caravan numbered some four hundred souls — but not too large to insure a safe transit through dreaded Ugogo. A waterless desert, thirty miles across, and which it would take seventeen hours to traverse, now lay before them. On the way, Stanley was struck down with fever, and, borne along in a hammock, was indifferent to the herds of giraffes, and zebras, and ante- lopes that scoured the desert plain around him. The next morning the fever left him, and, mounting, he rode at the head of his caravan, and at 8 A. M. had passed the sterile wilderness and had entered the Ugogo district. He had now come into a land of plenty, but one also of extortion. The tribute that all passing caravans had to pay to the chiefs or sultans of this district was enormous. At the first village the appearance of this white man caused an indescribable uproar. The people came pour- ing out, men and women, naked, yelling, shouting, quar- reling and fighting, making it a perfect babel around Stanley, who became irritated at this unseemly demon- stration. But it was of no use. One of his men asked them to stop, but the only reply was " shut up" in good native language. Stanley, however, was soon oblivious of their curiosity or noise — heavy doses of quinine to check a chill sent him off into a half doze. The next

77

78 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

day, a march of eight miles brought him to the sultan of the district. Report did not exaggerate the abundance of provisions to be found here. Now came the pay of tribute to the exorbitant chief. After a great deal of parley, which was irritating and often childish, Stanley satisfied the sultan's greed, and, on the 27th of May, shook the dust of the place from his feet and pushed westward. As he passed the thickly-scattered villages and plenteous fields, filled with tillers, he did not wonder at the haughty bearing of the sultan, for he could com- mand force enough to rob and destroy every caravan that passed that way. Twenty-seven villages lined the road to the next sultan's district, Matomhiru. This sultan was a modern hercules, with head and shoulders that belonged to a giant. He proved, however, to be a much more reasonable man than the last sultan, and, after a little speechifying, the tribute was paid and the caravan moved off toward Bihawena. The day was hot, the land sterile, crossed with many jungles, which made the march slow and difficult. In the midst of this deso- late plain were the villages of the tribe, their huts no higher than the dry, bleached grass that stood glimmer- ing in the heat of the noon-day sun. Here he was visited by three natives, who endeavored to play a sharp game upon him, which so enraged Stanley that he would have flogged them with his whip out of camp, but one of his men told him to beware, for every blow would cost three or four yards of cloth. Not willing to pay so dearly to gratify his temper he forbore. The sultan was moderate in his demands, and from him he received news from his fourth caravan, which was in ad vunce, and had had a fight with some robbers, killing two of them. It was only eight miles to the next sultan. The water here was so vile that two donkeys died by drinking of it, while the men could hardly swallow it. Stanley, nervous and weak from fever, paid the extravagant tributes demanded of him, without altercation. From here to the next sultan was a long stretch of forest, filled with elephants, rhinoceros, zebras, deer, etc. But they

THKASHING A NATIVE. 79

had no time to stop and hunt. At noon they had left the last water they should find until noon the next day, even with sharp marching, and, hence, no delay could be permitted. The men without tents bivouacked under the trees, while Stanley tossed and groaned all night in a paroxysm of fever, but his courage in no way weak- ened. At dawn the caravan started off through the dark forest, in which one of the carriers fell sick and died.

At 7 A. M. they drew near Nyambwa, where excellent water was found. The villagers crowded round them with shouts and yells, and finally became so insolent that Stanley grabbed one of them by the neck and gave him a sound thrashing with his donkey- whip. This enraged them, arid they walked backward and forward like angry tom-cats, shouting, "Are the Wagogo to be beaten like slaves ?" and they seemed, by their ferocious manner de- termined to avenge their comrade, but the moment Stan- ley raised his whip and advanced they scattered. Finding that the long lash, which cracked like a pistol, had a wholesome effect, whenever they crowded upon him so as to impede his progress, he laid it about him without mercy, which soon cleared a path.

The Sultan Kimberah was a small, queer and dirty old man, a great drunkard, and yet the most powerful of all the Ugogp chiefs. Here they had considerable trouble in arranging the amount of tribute, but at length every- thing was settled and the caravan passed on, and emerging from the corn-field, entered on a vast salt plain, contain- ing a hundred or more square miles, from the salt springs of which the Wagogo obtained their salt. At Mizarza, the next cam ping- place, Stanley was compelled to halt and doctor himself for the fever which was wearing him to skin and bones. Early in the morning he began to take his quinine, and kept repeating the doses at short intervals until a copious perspiration told him he had broken the fever which had been consuming him for fourteen days. During this time, the sultan of the district, attracted by Stanley's lofty tent, with the American flag floating above it, visited him. He was so astonished at

80 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

the loftiness and furnishings of the tent, that in his surprise he let fall the loose cloth that hung from his shoulders and stood stark naked in front of Stanley, gaping in mute wonder. Admonished by his son — a lad fifteen years old — he resumed his garb and sat down to talk. Stanley showed him his rifles and other fire-arms, which astonished him beyond measure.

The 4th of June, the caravan was started forward again, and after three hours' march, came upon another district, containing only two villages, occupied by pas- toral Wahumba and Wahehe. These live in cow-dung cone huts, shaped like Tartar tents.

"The Wahumba, so far as I have seen them, are a fine and well-formed race. The men are positively handsome, tall, with small heads, the posterior parts of which project considerably. One will look in vain for a thick lip or ffat nose amongst them ; on the contrary, the mouth is exceedingly well cut, delicately small ; the nose is that of the Greeks, and so universal was the peculiar feature, that I at once named them the Greeks of Africa. Their lower limbs have not the heaviness of the Wagogo and other tribes, but are long and shapely, clean as those of an antelope. Their necks are long and slender, on which their small heads are poised most gracefully. Athletes from their youth, shepherd bred, and intermarrying among themselves, thus keeping the race pure, any of them would form a fit subject for a sculptor who would wish to immortalize in marble an. Antrinus, a Hylas, a Daphnis, or an Appolo. The women are as beautiful as the men are handsome. They have clear ebon skins, not coal black, but of an inky hue. Their ornaments consist of spiral rings of brass pendant from the ears, brass ring collars about the neck, and a spiral cincture of brass wire about their loins, for the purpose of retaining their calf and goat skins, which are folded about their bodies, and depending from the shoulder, shade one half of the bosom, and fall to the knees.

"The Wahehe might well be styled the Romans of Africa.

A MOB. 81

"Resuming our march, after a halt of an hour, in four hours more we arrived at Mukondoku proper.

"This extremity of Ugogo is most populous. The villages which surround the central tembe, where the Sultan Swaruru lives, amount to thirty-six. The people who nocked from these to see the wonderful men whose faces where white, who wore the most wonderful things on their persons, and possessed the most wonderful weapons ; guns which 'bum-bummed' as fast as you could count on your fingers, formed such a mob of howling savages, that I, for an instant, thought there was some^ thing besides mere curiosity which caused such a commotion, and attracted such numbers to the roadside. Halting, I asked what was the matter, and what they wanted, and why they had made such a noise ? One burly rascal, taking my words for a declaration of hos- tilities, promptly drew his bow, but as prompt as he had fixed his arrow my faithful Winchester with thirteen shots in the magazine was ready and at my shoulder, and but waited to see the arrow fly to pour the leaden messengers of death into the crowd. But the crowd vanished as quickly as they had come, leaving the burly Thersites, and two or three irresolute fellows of his tribe, standing within pistol range of my leveled rifle. Such a sudden dispersion of the mob which, but a moment before, was overwhelming, caused me to lower my rifle and indulge in a hearty laugh at the disgraceful flight of the men-destroyers. The Arabs, who were as much alarmed at their boisterous obtrusiveness, now came up to patch up a truce, in which they succeeded to every- body's satisfaction.

"A few words of explanation, and the mob came back in greater numbers than before; and the Thersites who had been the cause of the momentary disturbance were obliged to retire abashed before the pressure of public opinion. A chief now came up, whom I afterwards learned was the second man to Swaruru, and lectured the people upon their treatment of the 'white strangers.' " The tribute-money was easily settled here. On the

82 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

7th of June, the route was resumed. There were three roads leading to Uyanzi. and which of the three to take caused long discussion and much quarrelling, and when Stanley settled the matter and the caravan started off on the road to Kiti, an attempt was made to direct it to another road, which Stanley soon discovered and pre- vented only by his prompt resort to physical argu- ments.

At last, they reached the borders of Uyanzi, glad to be clear of the land of Ugogo, said to be flowing with milk and honey, but which proved to Stanley a land of gall and bitterness. The forest they entered was a welcome change from the villages of Ugogo, and two hours after leaving them, they came, with^ the merry sound of horns, to a river in a new district. Continuing on, they made the forest ring with cheers, and shouts. and native songs. The country was beautiful, and the scenery more like cultivated England in former times than barbaric Africa.

Passing thus merrily on, they had made twenty miles by five o'clock. At one o'clock next morning, the camp was roused, and by the light of the moon the march was resumed, and at three o'clock arrived at a village to rest till dawn. They had reached a land of plenty and fared well. Kiti was entered on the 10th of June, where cattle and grain could be procured in abundance.

A valley fifteen miles distant was the next camp, and a march of three hours and a half brought them to another village, where provisions were very cheap.

They were now approaching Unyanyembe, their first great stopping-place,, and where the term of service of many of Stanley's men expired. They marched rapidly now — to-day through grain fields, to-morrow past burnt villages, the wreck of bloody wars.

At last, with banners flying and trumpets and horns blowing, and amid volleys of small arms, the caravan entered Unyanyembe.

Of the three routes from the coast to this place, Stanley discarded the two that had before been travelled by Speke

ADMIRABLE MISSION SITES. 83

and Burton and Grant and chose the third, with the originality of an American, and thus saved nearly two hundred miles' travel.

Mr. Stanley, after reaching this first great objective point, goes back and gives a general description of the regions he has traversed. To the geographer, it may be of interest, but not to the general reader. But the following, taken from his long account, will give the reader a clear idea of the country traversed and of its inhabitants. Beginning with Wiami River, emptying into the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar, he says :

" First it appears to me that the Wiami River is avail- able for commerce, and by a little improvement, could be navigated by light-draft steamers near to the Usagara Mountains, the healthy region of this part of Africa, and which could be reached by steamers in four days from the coast, and then it takes one into a country where ivory, sugar, cotton, indigo and other productions can be obtained."

" Four days by steamer bring the missionary to the healthy uplands of Africa, where he can live amongst the gentle Wasagara without fear or alarm ; where he can enjoy the luxuries of civilized life without fear of being deprived of them, amid the most beautiful and picturesque scenes a poetic fancy could imagine. Here is the greenest verdure, purest water ; here are valleys teeming with grain-stalks, forests of tamarind, mimosa, gum-copal tree ; here is the gigantic moule, the stately mparamnsi, the beautiful palm ; a scene such as only a tropic sky covers. Health and abundance of food are assured to the missionary ; gentle people are at his feet, ready to welcome him. Except civilized society, noth- ing that the soul of man can desire is lacking here.

" From the village of Kadetamare a score of admirable mission sites are available, with fine health-giving breezes blowing over them, water in abundance at their feet, fertility unsurpassed around them, with docile, good- tempered people dwelling everywhere, at peace with each other and all travellers and neighbors.

84- EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

" As the passes of the Olympus unlocked the gates of the Eastern empires to the hordes of Othman ; so the passes of the Mukondokwa may admit the Gospel and its beneficent influences into the heart of savage Africa.

" I can fancy old Kadetamare rubbing his hands with glee at the sight of the white man coming to teach his people the words of the ' Molungu ' — the Sky Spirit ; how to sow, and reap, and build houses ; how to cure their sick, how to make themselves comfortable — in short, how to be civilized. But the missionary, to be successful, must know his duties as well as a thorough sailor must know how to reef, hand and steer. He must be no kid-glove, effeminate man, no journal writer, no disputatious polemic, no silken stole and chasuble-loving priest — but a thorough, earnest laborer in the garden of the Lord — a man of the David Livingstone, or of the Robert MofFatt stamp.

" The other river, the Rufiji, or Ruhwha, is a still more important stream than the Wiami. It is a much longer river, and discharges twiceas much water into the Indian Ocean. It rises near some mountains about one hundred miles south-west of Nbena. Kisigo River, the most northern and most important affluent of the Ruhwha, is supposed to flow into it near east longitude thirty-five degrees; from the confluence to the sea, the Ruhwha has a length of four degrees of direct longitude. This fact, of itself, must prove its importance and rank among the rivers of East Africa.

" After Zanzibar, our debut into Africa is made via Bagomayo. At this place we may see seven different tribes ; yet it would be a difficult task for any person, at mere sight of their dresses or features, to note the differ- ences. Only by certain customs or distinctive marks, such as tattooing, puncturing of the lobes of the ears, ornaments, wearing the hair, etc., which would appear, at first, too trivial to note, could one discriminate between the various tribal representatives. There are certainly differences, but not so varied or marked as thejt, are reported.

THE PURE BARBARIANS. 85

" The Wasawahili, of course, through their intercourse with semi-civilization, present us with a race, or tribe, influenced by a state of semi-civilized society, and are, consequently, better dressed and appear to better advan- tage than their more savage brethren farther west. As it is said that underneath the Russian skin lies the Tar- tar, so it may be said that underneath the dish-dasheh, or shirt of the Wasawahili, one will find the true bar- barian. In the street or bazaar he appears semi- Arabized ; his suavity of manner, his prostrations and genuflexions, the patois he speaks, all prove his contact and aifinity with the dominant race, whose subject he is. Once out of the coast towns, in the Washensi villages, he sheds the shirt that had half civilized him, and appears in all his deep blackness of skin, prognathous jaws, thick lips —the pure negro and barbarian. Not keenest eye could detect the difference between him and the Was- hensi, unless his attention had been drawn to the fact that the two men were of different tribes.

" The next tribe to which we are introduced are the Wakwere, who occupy a limited extent of country between the Wazaramo and the Wadoe. They are the first representatives of the pure barbarian the traveler meets, when but two days' journey from the sea-coast. They are a timid tribe and a very unlikely people to commence an attack upon any body of men for mere plunder's sake. They have not a very good reputation among the Arab and Wasawahili traders. They are said to be exceedingly dishonest, of which 1 have not the least doubt. They furnished me with good grounds for believ- ing these reports while encamped at Kingaru, Hera and Irnbiki. The chiefs of the more eastern part of Ukwere profess nominal allegiance to the Dwians and the Mrima. They have selected the densest jungles wherein to establish their villages. Every entrance into one of their valleys is jealously guarded by strong wooden gates, seldom over four and a half feet high, and so narrow, sometimes, that one must enter sideways.

" These jungle islets which in particular dot the extent

86 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

of Ukwere, present formidable obstacles to a naked enemy. The plants, bushes and young trees which form their natural defence, are generally of the aloetic and thorny species, growing so dense, interlaced one with the other, that the hardiest and most desperate robber would. not brave the formidable array of sharp thorns which bristle everywhere.

" Some of these jungle islets are infested with ban- ditti, who seldom fail to take advantage of the weakness of a single wayfarer, more especially if he be a Mgwana — a freeman of Zanzibar, as every negro resident of the island of Zanzibar is distinguished by the Washensi natives of the interior.

" I should estimate the population of Ukwere, allow- ing about one hundred villages to this territory (which is not more than thirty miles square), at not more than five thousand souls. Were all these banded together under the command of one chief, the Wakwere might become a powerful tribe.

" After the \V akwere we come to the Wakami, a rem- nant of a once grand nation, which occupied the lands from the Ungerengeri to the Great Makata River. Fre- quent wars with the Wadoe and Waseguhha have reduced them to a narrow belt of country, ten rectilinear miles across, which maybe said to be comprised between Kiva Peak and the stony ridge bounding the valley of the Ungerengeri on the east, within a couple of miles from the east bank of the river.

" They are as numerous as bees in the Ungerengeri Valley. The unsurpassed fertility has been a great inducement to retain for these people the distinction of a tribe. By the means of a spy-glass one may see, as he stands on the top of that stouy ridge looking down into the fair valley, clusters of brown huts visible amid bosky clumps, fullness and plenty all over the valley, and may count easily over a hundred villages.

"From Ukami, we pass Southern Udoe, and find a warlike, fine-looking people, with a far more intelligent cast of features, and a shade lighter than the Wakami

PICTURESQUE FOREST SCENERY. 87

and Wakwere — a people who are full of traditions of race, a people who have boldly rushed to war upon the slightest encroachment upon their territories, and who have bravely defended themselves against the Waseguhha and Wakami, as well as against nomadic marauders from Uhumba.

" Udoe, in appearance, is amongst the most picturesque countries between the sea and Nyanyembe. Great cones shoot upward above the everlasting forest, tipped by the light, fleecy clouds, through which the warm, glowing sun darts its rays, bathing the whole in sunlight, which brings out those globes of foliage, which rise in tier after tier to the summit of the hills, colors which would mock the most ambitious painter's efforts at imitation. Udoe first evokes the traveller's love of natural beauty after leaving the sea, her roads lead him up along the sharp spines of hilly ridges, whence he may look down upon the forest-clad slopes, declining on either side of him into the depths of deep valleys, to rise up beyond into aspiring cones which kiss the sky, or into a high ridge with deep, concentric folds, which almost tempt one to undergo much labor in exploring them for the provoking air of mystery in which they seem to be enwrapped.

" What a tale this tribe could relate of the slave-trader's deeds. Attacked by the joint forces of the Waseguhha from the west and north, and the slave-traders of Whinde and Saadani from the east, the Wadoe have seen their wives and little ones carried into slavery a hundred times, and district after district taken from their country and attached to Useguhha. For the people of Uaeguhha were hired to attack their neighbors, the Wadoe, by the Whiride slave-traders, and were also armed with muskets and supplied with amunition by them, to effect large and repeated captures of Wadoe slaves. The people of this tribe, especially women and children, so superior in physique and intelligence to the servile races by which they were surrounded, were eagerly sought for as con- cubines and domestics by the lustful Mohammedans. " This tribe we first note to have distinctive tribal

88 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

marks — by a line, punctures extending lengthwise on each side of the face, and a chipping of the two inner sides of the two middle teeth of the upper row.

" The arms of this tribe are similar to the arms of the Wakami and Wakwere, and consist of a bow and arrows, a shield, a couple of light spears or assegais, a long knife, a handy little battle-axe and a club with a large knob at the end of it, which latter is dexterously swung at the head of an enemy, inflicting a stunning and some- times a fatal blow.

" Emerging from the forest of Mikeseh, we enter the territory of the Waseguhha, or Wasegura, as the Arabs wrongly call this country. Useguhha extends over two degrees in length, and its greatest breadth is ninety geo- graphical miles. It has two main divisions, that of South- ern Useguhha, from Uruguni to the Wiami River, and Northern Useguhha, under the chieftain Moto, from the, Wiami River to Umagassi and Usumbara.

" Mostly all the Waseguhha warriors are armed with muskets, and the Arabs supply them with enough ammu- nition, in return for which they attack Waruguru, Wadoe and Wakwenni, to obtain slaves for the Arab market, and it is but five years since the Waseguhha organized a successful raid into the very heart af the Wasagara Mountains, during which they desolated the populated part of the Makata plain, capturing over five hundred slaves. Formerly wars in this country were caused by blood feuds between different chiefs ; they are now en- couraged by the slave buyers of the Mirma, for the purpose of supplying these human chattels for the market of Zanzibar. The Waseguhha are about the most thorough believers in witchcraft, yet the professors of this dark science fare badly at their hands. It is a very common sight to see cinereous piles on the roadside, and the waving garments suspended to the branches of trees above them, which mark the fate of the unfortunate ' Wagaua' or medicine man. So long as their predictions prove correct and have a happy culmination, these pro- fessors of the magic art are regarded with favour by the

THE MAGIC ART. 89

people ; but if an unusual calamity overtakes a family, and they can swear that it is the result of the magician's art, a quorum of relentless inquisition is soon formed, and a like fate to that which overtook the 'witches' in the dark days of New England surely awaits him.

" Enough dead wood is soon found in their African forests, and the unhappy one perishes by fire, and, as a warning to all false professors of the art, his loin-cloth is hung up to a tree above the spot where he met his doom.

" In Southern Usagara, the people are most amiable ; but in the north, in those districts adjacent to the Wahumba, the people partake of the ferocious character of their fierce neighbors. Repeated attacks from the kidnappers and robbers on the south-west, west and north, have caused them to regard strangers with suspicion ; but after a short acquaintance they prove to be a frank, amiable and brave people. Indeed, they have good cause to be distrustful of the Arabs of Zanzi- bar. Mbumi, Eastern Usagara, has been twice burned down, within a few years, by the Arabian kidnappers.

" The Wasagara, male and female, tattoo the forehead, bosom and arms. Besides inserting the neck of a gourd in each ear — which carries his little store of tobacco, and lime, which he has obtained by burning land shells — he carries quite a number of primitive ornaments around his neck, such as two or three snowy cowrie-shells, carved pieces of wood, or a small goat's horn, or some medicine consecrated by the medicine man of the tribe, a fund of red or white beads, or a string of copper coins, and sometimes small brass chains, like a cheap Jack watch-chain. These things they have either made them- selves or purchased from Arab traders for chickens or goats. The children all go naked ; youths wear a goat or sheep-skin ; grown men and women, blessed with progeny, wear domestic or a loin-cloth of Kaniki, or a barsati, which is a favorite colored cloth in Usagara; chiefs wear caps such as are worn by the Arabs.

" Next on our line of march, appears the Wagoo-o, a powerful race, inhabiting the region west of Usagara' to

90 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

Uyanzi, which is about eighty miles in breadth and about one hundred in length.

" The traveler has to exercise great prudence, discretion and judgment in his dealings with them. Here he first heard the word ' houga' after passing Limboinweiini, a word which signifies tribute, though it formerly meant a present to a friend. Since it is exacted from him. with threats, that if it is not paid they will make war on him, its best interpretation would be, 'forcibly extorted tribute or toll.'

" Naturally, if the traveler desires to be mulcted of a large sum, he will find the Wagogo ready to receive every shred of cloth he gives them. Moumi will demand sixty cloths, and will wonder at his own magnanimity in asking such a small number of cloths from a great white man. The traveler, however, will be wise if he permits his chief men to deal with them, after enjoining them to be careful, and not commit themselves too hastily to any number.

" They are, physically and intellectually, the best of the races between Unyamwezi and the sea. Their color is a rich dark brown. There is something in their frontal aspect almost leonine. Their faces are broad and intelli- gent. Their eyes are large and round. Their noses are flat, and their mouths are very large ; but their lips, though thick, are not so monstrously thick as those our exaggerated ideal of a negro has. For all this, though the Mgogo is a ferocious man, capable of proceeding to any length upon the slightest temptation, he is an attrac- tive figure to the white traveler. He is proud of his chief, proud of his country, sterile and unlovable though it be ; he is proud of himself, his prowess, his weapons and his belongings ; he is vain, terribly egotistic, a bully, and a tyrant, yet the Mgogo is capable of forming friend- ships, and of exerting himself for friendship's sake. One grand vice in his character, which places him in a hostile light to travelers, is his exceeding avarice and greed for riches ; and if the traveler suffers by this, he is not likely to be amiably disposed toward him.

THE CHARACTER OF THE MGOGO. 91

" This sturdy native, with his rich complexion, his lion front, his menacing aspect, bullying nature, haughty, proud and quarrelsome, is a mere child to the man who will devote himself to the study of his nature, and not offend his vanity. He is easily angered, and his curi- osity is easily aroused. A traveler with an angular disposition is sure to quarrel with him — but, in the pres- ence of this rude child of nature, especially when he is so powerful, it is to his advantage and personal safety to soften those angles of his own nature. The Kigogo ' Rob Roy ' is on his native ground, and has a decided advantage over the white foreigner. He is not brave, but he is, at least, conscious of the traveler's weakness, and he is disposed to take advantage of it, but is pre- vented from committing an act because it is to his advantage to keep the peace. Any violence to a traveler would close the road ; caravans would seek other ways, and the chiefs would be deprived of much of their revenues.

" The Mgogo warrior carries as his weapons a bow and a sheaf of murderous-looking arrows, pointed, pronged and barbed ; a couple of light, beautifully-made assegais ; a broad, sword-like spear, with a blade over two feet long; a battle-axe, and a rungu or knob-club. He has also a shield, painted with designs in black and white, oval-shaped, sometimes of rhinoceros, or elephant, or bull-hide. From the time he was a toddling urchin he has been familiar with his weapons, and by the time he was fifteen years old he was an adept with them.

"He is armed for battle in a very short time. The messenger from the chief darts from village to village, and blows his ox-horn, the signal for war. The warrior hears it, throws his hoe over his -shoulder, enters his house, and in a few seconds issues out again, arrayed in war-paint and full fighting costume. Feathers of the ostrich, or the eagle, or the vulture nod above his head ; his long crimson robe streams behind him, his shield is on his left arm, his darting assegai in his left hand, and his ponderous man-cleaver — double-edged and pointed,

92 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

heading a strong staff — is in his right hand ; jingling bells are tied around his ankles and knees ; ivory wris- lets are on his arms, with which he sounds his approach. With the plodding peasant's hoe he has dropped the peasant's garb, and is now the proud, vain, exultant warrior — bounding aloft like a gymnast, eagerly sniffing the battle-field. The strength and power of the Wagogo are derived from their numbers.

Though caravans of the Wagogo are sometimes found passing up and down the Unyamwezi road, they are not so generally employed as the Wanyamwezi in trade. Their villages are thus always full of warriors. Weak tribes, or remnants of tribes are very glad to be admitted under their protection. Individuals of other tribes, also, who have been obliged to exile themselves from their own tribes, for some deed of violence, are often found in the villages of the Wagogo. Wanyamwi are also fre- quently found in this country. Indeed, these latter people are like Scotchmen ; they may be found almost everywhere throughout Central Africa, and have a knack of pushing themselves into prominence.

As in Western Usagara, the houses of the Wagogo are square, arranged around the four sides of an area — to which all the doors open. The roofs are all flat, on which are spread the grain, herbs, tobacco and pumpkins. The back of each department is pierced with small holes for observation and for defence.

"The dwelling is a fragile affair as constructed in Ugogo ; it merely consists of a line of slender sticks daubed over with mud, with three or four strong poles planted at intervals to support the beams and rafters, on which rests the flat clay roof. In Uyanzi, the dwelling is a formidable affair, because of the abundance of fine trees, which are cut down and split into rails three or four inches thick.

The house is divided into apartments, separated from each other by a wall. Each apartment may contain a family of grown-up boys and girls, who form their beds on the floor, out of dressed hides. The father of the

MODE OF BUKIAL. 93

family, only, has a fixed cot, made of ox-hide, stretched over a frame, 'or of the bark of a tree. The floor is of tamped mud,* and is exceedingly filthy, smelling strongly of every abomination. In the corners, suspended to the rafters, are the fine, airy dwellings of black spiders of a very large size, and other monstrous insects.

The Wagogo believe in the existence of a God, or sky spirit, whom they call Mulungu. Their prayers are generally directed to him when their parents die. A Mgogo, after he has consigned his father to the grave, collects his father's chattels together, his cloth, his ivory, his knife, his hoe, his bows and arrows, his spear and his cattle, end kneels before them, repeating a wish that Mulungu would increase his worldly wealth, that he would bless his labors and make him successful in trade. They venerate, and often perform a dance in honor of the moon.

The following conversation occurred between Stanley and a Mgogo trader :

" ' Who do you suppose made your parents ?"

" ' Why, Mulungu, white man.'

" ' Well, who made you ?'

" ' If God made my father, God made me, didn't He ?'

" ' That's very good. Where do you suppose your father has gone to, now that he is dead ?'

" ' The dead die,' said he, solemnly, ' they are no more. The sultan dies, he becomes nothing — he is then no better than a dead dog ; he is finished, his words are finished — there are no words from him. It is true,' he added, seeing a smile on my face, ' the sultan becomes nothing. He who says other words is a liar. There.'

" ' But then he is a very great man, is he not ?'

" ' While he lives only — after death he goes into the pit, and there is no more to be said of him than any other man.'

" ' How do you bury a Mgogo ?'

" ' His legs are tied together, his right arm to his body, and his left is put under his head. He is then rolled on his left side in the grave. His cloth he wore during his

94 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

life is spread over him. We put the earth over him, and put thorn-bushes over it, to prevent the hyena from getting at him. A woman is put on her right side in a grave apart from the man.'

" ' What do you do with the sultan, when he is dead ?"

" ' We bury him, too, of course ; only he is buried in the middle of the village, and we build a house os^er it. Each time they kill an ox, they kill before his grave. When the old sultan dies, the new one calls for an ox, and kills it before his grave, calling on the Mulungu to witness that he is the rightful sultan. He then distrib- utes the meat in his father's name.'

" ' Who succeeds the sultan ? Is he the eldest Son ?'

" ' Yes, if he has a son ; if childless, the great chief next to him in rank. The msagira is the next to the sultan, whose business it is to hear the cause of complaint, and convey it to the sultan, who, through the sultan, dispenses justice, he receives the honga, carries it to the sultan, places it before him, and when the sultan has taken what he wishes, the rest goes to the msagiri. The chiefs are called manya-para ; the msagiri is the chief many a- para.'

" ' How do the Wagogo marry ?'

" ' Oh, they buy their women ?'

" ' What is a woman worth ?'

" ' A very poor man can buy his wife from her father for a couple of goats.'

" 'How much has the sultan got to pay ?'

" ' He has got to pay about one hundred goats, or so many cows, so many sheep and goats, to his bride's father. Of course, he is a chief. The sultan would not buy a common woman. The father's consent is to be obtained, and the cattle have to be given up. It takes many days to finish the talk about it. All the family and friends of the bride have to talk about it before she leaves her father's house.'

" ' In cases of murder, what do you do to the man that kills another ?'

" ' The murderer has to pay fifty cows. If he is too

THEIR CODE OP JUSTICE. 95

poor to pay, the sultan gives permission to the murdered man's friends or relatives to kill him. If they catch him, they tie him to a tree, and throw spears at him — one at a time first ; they then spring on him, cut his head off, then his arms and limbs, and scatter them about the country.'

" ' How do you punish a thief?'

'If he is found stealing, he is killed at once, and nothing is said about it. Is he not a thief?'

' But, suppose you do not know who the thief is ?' ' ( If a man is brought before us accused of stealing, we kill a chicken. If the entrails are white, he is innocent ; if yellow, he is guilty.'

"'Do you believe in witchcraft?' " ' Of course we do, and punish the man with death who bewitches cattle or stops rain.'

"Sacrifices of human life as penalty for witchcraft and kindred superstitions — indeed for many trivial offences — are painfully numerous among nearly all the tribes. "Next to Ugogo is Uyanzi, the Hot Field. "Uyanzi is at present very populous. Along the northern route water is plentiful enough, villages are. frequent and travelers begin to perceive that the title is inappropriate. The people who inhabit the country are Wakimbu from the south. They are good agriculturists, and are a most industrious race. They are something like the Wasagara in appearance, but do not obtain a very high reputation for bravery. Their weapons consist of light spears, bows and arrows, and battle-axes. Their tembes are strongly made, showing considerable skill in the art of defensive construction. Their bomas are so well made, that one would require cannon to effect an entrance, if their villages were at all defended. They are skillful, also, in constructing traps for elephants and buffaloes. A stray lion or leopard is sometimes caught by then." .

CHAPTER VII.

Reception in Unyanyembe — His House — Reports of the Chiefs of his Caravans — A Feast — Luxurious Living of the Arabs — Arab Country — War against Mirambo, in which Stanley becomes an Ally — Is taken Sick — Bombay Thrashed — Stanley joins the Arab Army — Capture of Mirambo's Stronghold — Villages laid waste — Mirambo's Revenge — Arabs Defeated and Stanley Left Alone — Is Sick — Final Departure — His Indomitable Will and Courage — A Touching Extract from his Journal — Deserters — Shaw, the last White Man, left Behind — Corpses on the Road — Mollifies a Sullen Chief — Strong Medicine — A Ludicrous Scene — The Paradise of Hunters — A Right Royal Hunt.

O TANLEY received a noiseless ovation in Unyanyem- kj be as he walked with the governor of his house. Sol- diers and men, by the hundreds, hovered round their chief, staring at him, while the naked children peered be- tween the legs of the parents. Tea was served in a silver tea-pot,and a sumptuous breakfast furnished, which Stan- ley devoured only as a hungry man can, who has been shut up for so many months in the wilds of Africa. ' Then pipes and tobacco were produced, and amid the whiffs of smoke, came out all the news that Stanley had brought from Zanzibar, while the gratified sheikh smoked and listened. When Stanley took his leave to look after his men his host accompanied him to show him the house he was to occupy while he remained. It was com- modious and quite luxurious after his long life in a tent. All the caravans had arrived, and he received the re- ports of the chief of each, while the goods were unpacked and examined. One had had a fight with the natives and beaten them, another had shot a thief, and the fourth had lost a bale of goods. On the whole, Stanle}r was satisfied and thankful there had been co more serious misfortunes. Food was furnished with lavish prodigality, and while he was surfeiting himself, he ordered a bullock to be slain for his men, now reduced to twenty-five in number.

96

THE A.RAB CHIEFS VISIT STANLEY. 97

On the second day of his arrival, the chief Arabs of Tabna came to visit him. This is the chief Arab settle- ment of Central Africa, and contains a thousand huts and about five thousand inhabitants. The Arabs are a fine, handsome set of men, and, living amid rich pastures, raise large herds of cattle and goats, and vegetables of all kinds, while their slaves bring back in caravans from Zanzibar, the luxuries of the East, not only coffee, spices, wines and salmon, etc., but Persian carpets, rich bedding, with elegant table service. Some of them sport gold watches and chains. Each one keeps as many concubines as he can afford — the size of his harem being limited only by his means.

These magnates from Tabna, after finishing their visit, invited Stanley to visit their town and partake of a feast they had prepared for him. Three days after, escorted by eighteen of his men, he returned the visit. He arrived in time to attend a council of war which was being held, as to the best manner of asserting their rights against a robber-chief named Mirambo. He had carried war through several tribes and claimed the right to waylay and rob Arab caravans. This must be stopped, and it was resolved to make war against him in his stronghold. Stanley agreed to accompany them, taking his caravan a part of the way and leaving it until Mirambo was de- feated, and the way to Ujiji cleared.

Returning to Unyanyembe, he found the caravan which had been made up to carry supplies to Livingstone on November 1st, 1870. Having gone twenty-five miles from Zanzibar, to Bagomayo, it had stayed there one hundred days, when, hearing that the English consul was coming,had started off in affright just previous to Stanley.

Whether owing to his great change in diet or some other cause, Stanley was now stricken down with fever, and for a week tossed in delirium. Selim, his faithful servant, took care of him. When he had recovered, the latter was seized with it.

But by the 29th of July, all the sick had recovered, and the caravan was loaded up for Ujiji. But Bombay

98 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

was absent and they had to wait from eight o'clock till two in the afternoon, he stubbornly refusing to leave his mistress. When he arrived and was ordered to his place he made a savage reply. The next moment Stanley's cane was falling like lightning on his shoulders. The poor fellow soon cried for mercy. The order "March" was then given, and the guide, with forty armed men behind him, led off, with flags streaming. At first in dead silence, they moved on, but soon struck up a mon- otonous sort of chorus, which seemed to consist mostly of "Hoy, Hoy," and was kept up all day. The second day, he arrived at Masangi, where he was told the Arabs were waiting for him at Mfuto, six hours' march distant. The next morning, he arrived at the place where the Arab army was gathered, numbering in all two thousand two hundred and twenty-five men; of these, fifteen hundred were armed with guns. With banners flying and drums beating, they, on the 3rd of August, marched forth, but in a few hours, Stanley was stricken down with fever. The next day, however, the march was resumed, and at eleven o'clock, Zimbize, the stronghold of the enemy, came in view. The forces quickly surrounded it. A general assault followed and the village was captured, the inhab- itants fleeing towards the mountains, pursued closely by the yelling Arabs. Only twenty dead bodies were found within. The next day, two more villages were burned, and the day after, a detachment of five hundred strong scoured the country around, carrying devastation and ruin in their path. At this critical period of the cam- paign, Stanley was again taken down with fever, and while he lay in his hammock, news came that the detach- ment of five hundi'ed men had been surprised and killed. Mirambo had turned and ambushed them, and now the boasting of the morning was turned into despondency. The women made the night hideous with shrieks and lamentations over their slain husbands. The next day there was a regular stampede of the Arabs, and when Stanley was able to get out of his tent only seven men were left to him — ail the rest had returned to Mfuto, and

REPORT OF FARQUHAR'S DEATH. 99

soon after to Tabna, twenty-five miles distant. It was plain that it was useless to open the direct road to Ujiji, which lay through Mirambo's district. In fact, it seemed impossible to get there at all, and the only course left open was to return to the coast and abandon the project of reaching Livingstone altogether. But what would Livingstone do locked up at Ujiji ? He might perhaps go north and meet Baker, who was moving, with a strong force, southward. But he was told by a man that Living- stone was coming to Nyano Lake toward the Tanganika, on which Ujiji is situated, at the very time it was last reported he was murdered. He was then walking, dressed in American sheeting, having lost all his cloth in Lake Leemba. He had a breech-loading double-barreled rifle with him and two revolvers. Stanley felt that he could not give up trying to reach him, now it was so probable that he was within four hundred miles of him. On the 13th, a caravan came in from the east and re- ported Farquhar dead at the place where he had left him. Ten days after, Mirambo attacked Tabna and set it on fire- Stanley, at this time, was encamped at Kwihara, and in sight of the burning town. The re- fugees came pouring in, and Stanley, finding the men willing to stand by him, began to prepare for defense, and counting up his little force, found he had one hun- dred and fifty men. He was not attacked, however, and five days after, Mirambo retreated. The Arabs held councils of war, and urged Stanley to become their ally, but he refused, and finally took the bold resolution of organizing a flying caravan, and by a southern route and quick marching, reach Ujiji. This was August 27th, and the third month he had been in Unyanyembe. Having got together some forty men in all, he gave a great banquet to them prior to their departure, but an attack of fever caused him to postpone it But, on the 20th of September, though too weak to travel, he mus- tered his entire force outside the town, and found that, by additional men which the Arabs had succeeded in securing, it now numbered fifty-four men. When all

100 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

was ready, Bombay was again missing, and when found and brought up, excused himself, as of old, by saying he was bidding his "misses" good-bye. As he seemed in- clined to pick a quarrel with Stanley, the latter not being in the most amiable mood, and wishing to teach the others a lesson, gave him a sound thrashing.

Soon, everything being ready, the word "march" passed down the line, and Stanley started on his last desperate attempt to push on to Ujiji — not much farther than from Toronto to Montreal as the crow flies — but by the way he would be compelled to go, no one knew how far, nor what time it would take to reach it. But Stanley had good reason to believe that Livingstone was alive, and from the reports he could get of his movements, must this time be at or near Ujiji, and therefore to Ujiji he was determined to go, unless death stopped his pro- gress. He had been sent on a mission, and although the conditions were not that he should surmount impossi- bilities, he would come as near to it as human effort could approach. Though sick with fever, and with that prostration and utter loss of will accompanying it, he, nevertheless, with that marvelous energy that is never exhibited except in rare exceptional characters, kept his great object in view. That never lost its hold on him under the most disastrous circumstances — neither in the delirium of fever nor in the utter prostration that fol- lowed it. This tenacity of purpose and indomitable will ruling and governing him, where in all other men it would have had no power, exhibit the extraordinary qualities of this extraordinary man. We do not believe that he himself was fully aware of this inherent power, this fixedness of purpose that makes him different from all other men. No man possessing it is conscious of it any more than an utterly fearless man is conscious of his own courage. The following touching extract from his journal at this time lets in a flood of light on the character and the inner life of this remarkable man:

"About 10 p.m., the fever had gone. All were asleep in the tembe but myself, and an unutterable loneliness

STANLEY'S TENACITY OF PURPOSE. 101

came on as I reflected on my position, and my intentions, and felt the utter lack of sympathy with me in all around. Even my own white assistant, with whom I had striven hard, was less sympathizing than my little black boy Kalulu. It requires more nerve than I possess to dispel all the dark presentiments that come upon the mind. But, probably, what I call presentiments are simply the impress on the mind of the warnings which these false-hearted Arabs have repeated so often. This melancholy and loneliness which I feel, may probably have their origin from the same cause. The single candle which barely lights up the dark shade which fills the corners of my room, is but a poor incentive to cheer- fulness. I feel as though I were imprisoned between stone walls. But why should I feel as if baited by these stupid, slow-witted Arabs, and their warnings and croakings ? I fancy a suspicion haunts my mind, as I write, that there lies some motive behind all this.

" I wonder if these Arabs tell me all these things to keep me here, in the hope that I may be induced another time to assist them in their war against Mirambo! If they think so, they are much mistaken, for I have taken a solemn, enduring oath — an oath to be kept while the least hope of life remains in me — not to be tempted to break the resolution I have formed, never to give up the search until I find Livingstone alive, or find his dead body; and never to return home without the strongest possible proofs that he is alive or that he is dead. No living man or living men shall stop me — only death can prevent me. But death — not even this; I shall not die —I will not die — I cannot die!

"And something tells me, I do not know what it is — perhaps it is the everliving hopefulness of my own na- ture; perhaps it is the natural presumption born out of an abundant and glowing vitality, or the outcome of an over- weening confidence in one's-self — anyhow and everyhow, something tells me to-night I shall find him, and — write it larger — FIND HIM! FIND HIM! Even the

102 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

words are inspiring. I feel more happy. Have I uttered a prayer ? I shall sleep calmly to-night."

There is nothing in this whole terrible journey so touching, and revealing so much, as this extract from his journal does. It shows that he is human, and yet far above common human weakness. Beset with difficul- ties, his only white companion dead or about to be left behind, the Arabs themselves and the natives telling him he cannot go on, left all alone in a hostile country, his men deserting him, he pauses and ponders. To make all these outer conditions darker, he is smitten down with fever that saps the energies, unnerves the heart and fills the imagination with gloomy forebodings, and makes the soul sigh for rest. It is the lowest pit of despond-' ency into which a man may be cast. He feels it, and all alone, fever worn and sad, he surveys the prospect before him. There is not a single soul on which to lean — not a sympathizing heart to turn to while fever is burning up his brain, and night, moonless and starless, is setting down around him. He would be less than human not to feel the desolation of his position, and for a moment sink under this accumulation of disastrous circumstances. He does feel how utterly hopeless and sad is his condition; and all through the first part of this entry in his journal, there is something that sounds like a mournful refrain — yet, at its close, out of his gloomy surroundings, up from his feverish bed speaks the brave heart in trumpet tones, showing the indomit- able will that nothing can break, crying out of the all- enveloping gloom,, "no living man or living men shall stop me — only death can prevent me." There spoke one of the few great natures God has made. The closing- words of that entry in his journal ring like a bugle-note from his sick-bed, and foretell his triumph.

But, at last, they were off. Shaw, the last white man left to Stanley, had been sick, and apparently indifferent whether he lived or died ; but all, after a short march, became enlivened, and things looked more promising. But Stanley was again taken sick with the fever ; the

TWENTY MEN DESERT. 103

men began to be discouraged. Staggering from his sick- bed, he found that twenty of his men had deserted. Aroused at this new danger, h.3 instantly dispatched twenty men after them, while he sent his faithful fol- lower, Selim, to an Arab chief to borrow a long slave- chain. At night, the messengers returned with nine of the missing men. Stanley then told them that he had never used the slave-chain, but nrw he should on the first deserters. He had resolved to go to Ujiji, where he believed Dr. Livingstone was, and being so near the accomplishment of the mission he was sent on, he was ready to resort to any measures rather than fail. Deferr- ing the use of the chain at present, he started forward and encamped at Iresaka. In the morning, two more men were missing. Irritated but determined, this reso- lute man halted, sent back for the fugitives, caught them, and when brought back, flogged them severely and chained them. Notwithstanding this severe treatment, the next morning another man deserted, while, to add to his per- plexities and enhance the difficulties that surrounded him, a man who had accompanied him all the way from the coast asked to be discharged, while several others of the expedition were taken sick and unable to proceed; and it seemed, notwithstanding the resolute will of the leader, that the expedition must break up. But, fortun- ately, that evening men who had been in caravans to the coast entered the village where they were encamped, with wondrous stories of what they had seen on the coast, which revived the spirits of all, and the next morn- ing they started off, and after three hours' march through the forest came to Kigandu. Shaw, the last white man now left to him, between real and feigned sickness, had become such a burden, that he determined to leave him behind, as the latter had often requested to be.

That night, the poor wretch played on an old accordion "Home, Sweet Home," which, miserable as it was, stirred the depths of Stanley's heart, now about to be left alone amid Arabs and natives in the most desperate part of his undertaking. But it could not be helped — speed was

104- KXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

now everything on this new route, or Mirambo would close it also. !So on the morning of the 27th, he ordered the horn to sound "get ready," and Shaw being sent back to Kwihara, set off on his southern unknown route to Ujiji with his caravan, and entered the dark forests and pressed rapidly forward, and in seven hours reached the village of Ugunda, numbering two thousand souls. It was well fortified against the robber, Mirambo. Around the principal village, some three thousand square acres were under cultivation, giving them not only all the provisions they wanted for their own use,but also enough for passing caravans, besides furnishing carriers for those in want of them. On the 28th, they arrived at a small village well supplied with corn, and the next day reached Kikuru, a place impregnated with the most deadly of African fevers. Over desert plains, now sheering on one side to avoid the corpse of a man dead from the small- pox, the scourge of Africa, and now stumbling on a skel- eton, the caravan kept on till they came to the cultivated fields of Manyara. A wilderness one hundred and thirty- five miles in extent stretched out before them from this place, and Stanley was inclined to be very conciliatory toward the chief of the village, in order to get provisions for the long and desperate march before him. But the chief was very sullen and wholly indifferent to the pre- sents the white man offered him. With adroit diplomacy, Stanley sent to him some magnificent royal cloths, which so mollified the chief that abundant provisions were soon sent in, followed by the chief himself with fifty warriors bearing gifts quite equal to those which Stanley sent him, and they entered the tent of the first white man they had ever seen. Looking at him for some time in silent surprise, the chiefs burst into an incontrollable fit of laughter, accompanied with snapping their fingers. But when they were shown the sixteen-shooters and revolvers their astonishment knew no bounds, while the double-barreled guns, heavily charged, made them jump to their feet with alarm, followed by convulsions of laughter. Stanley then showed 'them his chest of medi-

mm *

ft

~

X

uf

THE HUNTER'S PARADISE. 107

cine, and finally gave them a dose in the form of brandy. They tasted it, making wry faces, when he produced a bottle of concentrated ammonia, saying it was for snake bites. One of the chiefs asked for some of it. It was suddenly presented to his nose, when his features under- went such indescribable contortions that the other chiefs burst into convulsions of laughter, clapped their hands, pinched each other and went through all sorts of ludicrous gesticulations. When the chief recovered himself, the tears in the meanwhile rolling down his cheeks, he laughed and simply said, " strong medicine." The others then took a sniff and went off into paroxysms of laughter.

Wednesday, October 4th, found them traveling toward the Gombe River. They had hardly left the waving corn-fields, when they carne in sight of a large herd of zebras. Passing on, the open forest resembled a mag- nificent park, filled with buffalo, zebra, giraffe, antelope and other tropical animals, (see illustrations) while the scenery on every side was entrancing. These noble animals, coursing in their wild freedom through those grand, primeval forests, presented a magnificent sight. Stanley, thoroughly aroused, crept back to his camp, which had been pitched on the Gombe River, and pre- pared for- a right royal hunt. He says :

" Here, at last, was the hunter's paradise ! How petty and insignificant appeared my hunts after small antelope and wild boar ; what a foolish waste of energies, those long walks through damp grasses and thorny jungles. Did I not well remember my first bitter experience in African jungles, when in the maritime region? Butthis — where is the nobleman's park that can match this scene? Here is a soft, velvety expanse of young grass, grateful shade under close, spreading clumps, herds of large and varied game browsing within easy rifle-shot. Surely I must feel amply compensated now for the long southern detour I have made, when such a prospect as this opens to the view ! No thorny jungles and rank-smelling swamps are to daunt the hunter, and to sicken his aspir-

108 EXPLORATIONS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

ations after true sport. No hunter could aspire after a nobler field to display his prowess.

" Having settled the position of the camp, which over- looked one of the pools found in the depression of the Gombe Creek, I took my double-barreled smooth bore, and sauntered off to the park-land. I first sighted a fine troop of Elands with their heads down feeding on the tall grass. But before I arrived near enough to fire, a large leopard sprangupon the neck of one and frightened the whole troop away atarapidpace. Soon after emerging from behind a clump, tnreefine, plump spring-bok were seen browsing on the young grass just within one hundred yards. I knelt down and fired ; one unfortunate ante- lope bounded forward instinctively and fell dead. Its companions sprang high into the air, taking leaps about twelve feet in length, as if they were quadrupeds prac- tising gymnastics, and away they vanished, rising up like India-rubber balls, until a knoll hid them from my view. My success was hailed with loud shouts by the soldiers, who came running out from the camp as soon as they heard the reverberation of the gun, and my gun- bearer had his knife at the throat of the beast, uttering a fervent 'Bismillah'as he almost severed the head from the body.

"Hunters were now directed to proceed east and north to procure meat, because in each caravan it generally happens that there are fundi whose special trade is to hunt for meat for the camp. Some of these are experts in stalking, but often find themselves in dangerous pos- itions, owing to the near approach neccessary before they can fire their most inaccurate weapons with any certainty.

"After luncheon, consisting of spring-bok steak, hot corn-cake and a cup of Mocha coffee, I strolled toward the south-west, accompanied by Kalulu and Majwara, two boy gun-bearers. The tiny perpusilla started up like rabbits from me as I stole along through the under- brush ; the honey-bird hopped from tree to tree chirping its call, as if it thought 1 was seeking the little sweet treasure, the hiding place of which it only knew ; but,

SHOOTING A ZEBRA. 109

no! I neither desired perpusilla nor the honey. I was on the search for something great this day. Keen-eyed fish-eagles and bustards poised on trees above the sinu- ous Goinbe thought, and probably with good reason, that I was after them-, judging by the ready flight with which both species disappeared as they sighted my approach. Ah, no! nothing but harte beest, zebra, giraffe, eland and buffalo this day.

"After following the Gombe's course for about a mile, delighting my eyes with long looks at the broad and lengthy reaches of water, to which I was so longa stranger, I came upon a scene which delighted the innermost recesses of my soul ; five, six, seven, eight, ten zebras switching their beautiful striped bodies, and biting one another, within about one hundred and fifty yards. The scene was so pretty, so romantic, never did I so thoroughly realize that I was in Central Africa. Mine they were, without money and without price ; yet, knowing this, twice I dropped my rifle, loath to wound the royal beasts, but — crack ! and a royal one was on his back, battling the air with his legs. Ah, it was such a pity ! but hasten, draw the keen, sharp-edged knife across the beautiful stripes which fold around the throat, and — what an ugly gash ! it is done, and I have a superb animal at my feet. Hurrah ! I shall taste of zebra to-night.

" I thought a spring bok and zebra enough for one day's sport, especially after a long march. The Gonibe, a long stretch of deep water, winding in and out of green groves, calm, placid, with lotus leaves resting lightly on its surface, all pretty, picturesque, peaceful as a summer's dream, looked very inviting for a bath. I sought out the most shady spot under a wide-spreading mimosa, from which the ground sloped smooth as a lawn to the still, clear water. I ventured to undress and had already stepped to my ankles in the water, and had brought my hands together for a glorious dive, when my attention was attracted by an enormously long body which shot