Henry M. Stanley; a record of his early life and struggles; his career in the Confederate army, in the United States navy, and as a war correspondent in Abyssinia; how he found Livingstone, traced the course of the Congo, and founded the Congo Free State, with a full account of his latest and greatest achievement, the rescue of Emin bey

Front matter

TU Life of

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Chapter I. Boyhood And Eakly Manhood

The true story of the life of Henry Morton Stanley reads like a romance, and is another example of that truth which is more interesting than fiction. The man known the world over as Stanley was born in 18i0, at Denbigh , Wales. His real name is John Rowland. His parents were so poor that when the boy was three years old he was taken in charge by the parish of St. Asaph, and was reared in an almshouse. He remained in the almshouse until he had received as good an

PI education as that institution could give, which having awakened a desire to know still more, he accepted a situation as a school-teacher at Mold, in Flintshire, hoping that circumstances would so shape themselves that, at a later period, he might be able to finish his education. He remained at Mold one year, at the end of which time he felt that he was not called to be a school-teacher. Having received the amount due him, and succeeding in obtaining a situation as cabinboy on board a ship bound for New Orleans, he embarked for the New World, in which he hoped to earn a better living than that which he could obtain at home, and at the same time gratify the strong instincts of his nature. Soon after his arrival he was fortunate in obtaining the friendship of a gentleman named Stanley, who, having been drawn toward the frank Welsh boy, gave him employment. As days resolved themselves into weeks and months, and his employer and friend found that his confidence had not been misplaced, he adopted young Eowland, and

BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. H

bestowed upon him his own name. With plenty of means to be had for the asking, the youth tramped around the Southwest, and spent considerable time among the Indians. Doubtless he gained some ideas about savages there which were of great use to him in after years. His foster-father died without making a will, and this left the young man poor again.

Says one of his many biographers, Professor Packard : " While thus engaged in schooling himself, though unconsciously, to his great work, the civil war broke out in the United States. Here a new field presented itself to him. The South had for a long time been his home, and he had been educated among circumstances which would naturally lead him to accept the views of the South. To a certain extent he did believe them ; and as the life of a soldier was in keeping with his nature, he enlisted in the Confederate army. The roaming life of the army he loved ; and instead of shrinking from danger when it presented itself, he rather courted it, and the story of his connection with the ' Lost Cause ' was one of courage and daring. In addition to these, he possessed those qualities which lead to success and fame. In carrying out one of his bold projects, he was taken prisoner by the Union troops, and the South lost him forever. His prison was the iron-clad Ticonderoga. His manliness and courage won the admiration of the commander of the vessel, who after a time released him upon the condition that he should join the American navy. A sailor's life was not exactly suited to his nature, and consequently he was not adapted to it ; yet, nevertheless, his conduct was such that he was soon raised to the position of acting ensign.

" When at last the war was over, and peace came again to our beloved land, he was discharged from service, and as his nature demanded something to do, he began to look about for some congenial field of labor. At this time the Cretans were struggling for independence, determined to throw off the yoke of Turkish oppression, and be free from its tyrannical rule. Having by chance learned the fact, Stanley resolved to join the Cretans, and assist them in their efforts to become a nation.

"Securing a situation as correspondent of The New York Herald, in company with two Americans, he sailed for the island of Crete. Having reached his destination, he first sought to learn 'the lay of the land,' and, in so doing, became so disgusted with the leaders of the rebellion, their mode of conducting it, and their treatment of prisoners, that he abandoned his original intention, and resolved to travel in the East. The commission which he had received from Mr. Bennett, the proprietor of the Herald, allowed him to roam wherever his inclinations led him. Under this broad license he had a wide field of adventure and travel before him.

"At this time, Stanley had passed through more, and witnessed more, than most men do in a lifetime ; and yet he had seen but little more than twenty-five years. In 1867 he returned to the United States, where he was warmly received by Mr. Bennett. Soon after this the English government sent out an expedition against the king of Abyssinia, who had committed grievous wrongs upon the subjects and representatives of Her Majesty. Here again Stanley saw a field of usefulness, the nature of which was congenial to his tastes. He therefore joined the expedition, retaining his situation as correspondent of the Herald. His letters, as published in the Herald, present a succinct account of the campaign, its battles, and the final victory. One of the peculiar traits of Stanley's character is his ability to overcome seeming impossibilities ; and where many men would have paused, he has pushed onward.

"When the final battle had been fought, and the British troops had succeeded in winning the victory — when peace w r as at last restored, and the forces of Britain were triumphant — he at once sent the glad news to one of the dailies of London, where it w r as received and published before the arrival of the official dispatches. Stanley's letters are considered the best history of the campaign which has as yet been written.

" After the absence of one year, Stanley returned to the United States in 1868. Mr. Bennett was one of those men wiio recognize talent wherever they see it. When, therefore, he saw the ability and the peculiar characteristic of Stanley, he felt sure that he had found just the man that he had been seeking for a long time ; and the letters which Stanley sent from time to time to the Herald, confirmed this opinion. Having need of a correspondent in Spain, w T hich was at this time convulsed with a civil war, he at once sent Stanley to that country. In his new situation he displayed that same promptness, energy, and faithfulness which had previously marked his career. Being constantly • upon the field, his letters always contained the latest news ; and the papers containing them were eagerly sought after, since they presented a correct aspect of the situation of Spanish affairs."

His successful performance of all that had been entrusted to him thus far disclosed his fitness for the greater work to which he was soon to be appointed.

David Livingstone, a Scotch missionary and explorer, had been engaged for thirty years in opening Central Africa to the light. His success had placed his name among the most famous in the record of the present century. But in 1870 he had been for two years buried in the heart of the African continent, and the world had come to think that he was dead. In that year the enterprise of the editor of The New York Herald suggested a search expedition. Young Stanley — then thirty years of age — was placed in command, and after nine months of vigorous and perilous research came upon the brave explorer on the shores of Lake Tanganika.

" Henry M. Stanley, 5 ' says a recent writer, " could say in all modesty the other day that he believed the mantle of Livingstone had fallen upon his shoulders. These two names will be forever linked in the story of the awakening of

Africa from her sleep of ages. It can be said in general of Stanley's books that though his earliest ventures in the literature of exploration are full of graphic power, his writings have shown a steady and rapid advance in felicity of description and in fulness and accuracy of statement. In the intervals between his journeys in Africa, Stanley put forth every effort to acquire the scientific equipment which would impart to his labors in the field an enduring value. The result is that he became one of the most competent geographers as well as the greatest explorer of the age. It was a remarkable feat he achieved when, chased by thousands of enemies down the Congo, he mapped the course of the great river for 1500 miles so accurately, that his delineation of its channel in Tlirougli the Dark Continent is to all intents and purposes, the map of the Congo to-day. The longitudes he was able to take were not quite accurate, but his map, considering the circumstances under which it was made, has been more and more the wonder of geographers as our i

knowledge of the Congo has grown ; and what a prince of explorers that famous work shows Stanley to be ! Through the Dark Continent is the Odyssey of African travel. No intelligent person can afford to say that he has not read it, for it is the book that first revealed to the world a vast continent from sea to sea, with the greatest of its lovely lakes ; with its myriads of princes, powerful and puny ; with its jumble of tongues and races ; its vast variety of habitations and modes of living ; its greatest river now tumbling to lower levels over cataracts, now crowded with verdant islands, sea-like in breadth, and navigable for over a thousand miles at a stretch. Livingstone prepared the way, but Stanley opened the door through which the world saw T millions of people in the Congo Valley of whom it had never heard."

The records of his first journey to the heart of Africa are contained in the book entitled, How I Found Livingstone, and this episode in his career appropriately forms the second chapter of this biography.

One cannot read the actions of the heroes, Henry M. Stanley and Charles Gordon, without feeling that they belong to a type of men which is sometimes mourned as extinct. They are not unlike the noblest -of the early navigators and explorers, who confronted peril, not for glory, nor entirely because they were born with the thirst for heroic enterprise, but largely to extend the domain of faith and pure worship. The religious idea has been modified in the last three or four centuries, but some of the characteristics are the same. It still embraces belief in an Invisible Power, which works unceasingly in the world it created.

The development of Henry M. Stanley from an adventurer into a hero, remains the grand feature of his last and greatest journey. The explorer was compelled to meet entirely new obstacles, and defeated them all. It must be remembered, of course, that he is his own historiographer ; but

20 HEKRY M. STANLEY.

there is no reason to suspect his perfect veracity, and he obviously places strong restraint upon himself to keep down his natural bitterness of feeling.

A very curious letter, says Mr. Theodore Child, in which Henry M. Stanley gives his views on love and the ladies generally, has fallen into my hands. The letter is dated from Jermyn Street, London, where Stanley lived before his departure for his last trip intojhe heart of the Dark Continent, and it is dated August 1, 1884. He says :

" For the life of me I cannot sit still a moment when anything approaching to love comes upon the tapis. I have lived with men, not women, and it is the man's intense ruggedness, plainness, directness, that I have contracted by sheer force of circumstances.

" Poets and women appear to me to be so soft, so very unlike (at least, what I have seen,) the rude type of mankind, that one soon feels by talking to them that he must soften his speech, and drawl, or affect a singular articulation, lest offence be taken when none was intended. Hence men are seldom sincere to women or poets. Have you ever thought of how you looked when speaking to a woman ? If my recollection serves me right, I have seen you talk with such an affected softness that I cannot compare the manner of it to anything better than that of a strong man handling a baby — tenderly, gingerly. So ! But my pen is carrying me away. I wish to say, my dear friend, that I am absolutely uncomfortable when speaking to a woman, unless she is such a rare one that she will let me hear some common sense. The faci^ is, I can't talk to women. In their presence I am just as much of a hypocrite as any other man, and it galls me that I must act and be affected, and parody myself for no earthly reason but because I think, with other men, that to speak or act otherwise would not be appreciated. It is such a false position that I do not care to put myself into it."

Stanley then goes on to qualify his strictures by saying that there is one lady, a friend of the poet to whom he writes, to whom he can speak, because " after the first few minutes of strangeness have gone she soon lets you know that chaff won't do. Therefore," he adds, " please say a hearty friend wishes her daily enjoyment of her life."

v As we have seen, before Stanley was known as an explorer he served as the Herald correspondent in two British campaigns, directed, one against the Asljantees, and the other against King Theodore of Abyssinia. He brilliantly improved this opportunity to record two grand successes gained by British soldiers in East and West Africa, and the volume in which he told the story is called Coomassie and Magdala : the Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa. With stern eloquence and graphic power he describes that memorable march when the unseasoned British army waded for one hundred and forty miles through deadly swamps, or scrambled through the thick jungly forests on their way to attack Coomassie. General Fever and General

Forest, the Malagasy say, are the commanders who defend their capital. It was much the same with the chief town of Ashantee, and the strongest fell victims to the malaria that brooded everywhere. At length the fever-stricken column reached Coomassie, and the town was theirs after five days' hard frighting. Stanley describes the alacrity with which the British, their work accomplished and Coomassie in ashes, fled for their lives to the sea.

The scene and conduct of the other campaign affords a stricking contrast— a lofty and salubrious region of wonderful wildness and grandeur, a march into the heart of Abyssinia that bristled with interesting incidents, the storming of Magdala, a town planted on a crag 10,000 feet above the sea. The book presents a brilliant picture of these two campaigns, and Stanley's humor breaks forth upon the smallest provocation — a quality he does not display in such abundant measure in his later writings.

In the peaceful conquest of Africa now in progress, says a writer in the Fortnightly Review, Great Britain has borne the greater part of the burden — her sons were among the first to enter the Unknown. Of Scotsmen alone, we may mention James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveler ; Mungo Park, the discoverer of the Niger ; Colonel James Augustus Grant, the discoverer (with Speke) of the Victoria Nyanza ; Joseph Thomson and Keith Johnston ; and, the greatest of all African travelers, Dr. Livingstone, who, between 1840 and 1873, discovered the great Lakes Nyassa, Tanganika, Bangweolo, and the Lualaba (Upper Congo). Dr. Eobert Moffat, Livingstone's fatherin-law, also deserves mention in the same honorable field of missionary enterprise. Dr. Livingstone showed us how Africa was to be overcome and civilized, and Christian missions have sprung up in his track. But Dr. Livingstone's method has latterly been discarded in favor of an easier and more profitable "Plan of Campaign." We iio longer care so much for the spiritual awakening of Africa, or, if we have awakened its semibarbarian inhabitants, it is only to lay upon them the curse of Adam— toil ; not toil to evolve the higher capacities of the natives, but toil to enrich the taskmaster. Their confidence in Europeans has first been gained by the work and example of our missionaries, who have taught them to trade, to till the soil, to gather the fruits of the earth, and to live in peace and contentment. Close on the heels of the missionary— if we omit the explorer, who penetrates everywhere, but rests nowhere — comes the irresponsible, individual trader. To him the native is an instrument for his special use ; he is his carrier in a land where no other beast of burden can be employed, his laborer where no other laborers can be introduced. With gin and gunpowder the individual trader buys the land, if not the souls, of its native owners. Wherever he settles the native degenerates. On the West Coast of Africa this degeneration, arising out of contact with Europeans, is specially observable. The great trading companies, on the other hand, rigidly restrict or entirely prohibit the

26 HEISRY M. STANLEY.

sale of ardent liquors to the natives, with the most beneficial results. It is these trading companies which now are bent upon the partition of Africa into " spheres of interest/' just as two or more doctors may divide off a village or town into districts for their special practice ; their Governments do not always go with them, and, unless committed to a course of protection, are very unwilling to accept responsibility. On the West Coast we have the Eoyal Niger Company, which for years has been steadily, though quietly, establishing itself on the Niger and Benue ; in 1886 it obtained a royal charter, conveying sovereign rights over the whole of the Niger from Timbuktu, and of the Benue from Yola, extending on both banks for thirty miles inland. On the great lakes and in the Zambesi zone, we have the African Lakes Company ; and only the other day two new companies were formed ; the British and the German East African Associations. It is now proposed to form a new (British) Trading Company to tap the riches of the Eastern Soudan, from the Red Sea littoral.

Spain and Portugal, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, divided the world between them— at least on paper ; the Pope, to whom the matter was referreed as arbitrator, drew the dividing line on the other side of the world, somewhere in the longitude of the Philippines. In spite of this convenient arrangement, however, the United States, Australia, and India belong to neither Power ; it clearly was not binding on third parties. We have mentioned this case to illustrate a principle that is entirely overlooked by those who wish to gain something in the " scramble " for Africa. The rightful owners of the land, being for the most part barbarians, are treated unjustly ; they sign away their birthright for a mess of pottage ; too often they lay their necks under the Juggernaut car of Commercial Progress. The " spheres of influence" are delimitated in too hopeful a spirit ; they in some places clash with the interests of third parties. The map of Central and Southern Africa is now neatly partitioned off into British, French, German, Portuguese, and Congo Independent State spheres of influence. It is a paper warfare, and it is wonderful what " a scrap of paper " can do.

Let us briefly consider the position of affairs. Africa, as we all know, is a vast plateau continent, with an area of over eleven million English square miles in extent. Its general elevation varies from 1000 to 4000 feet above the sea level ; the higher lands and mountains (roughly speaking) fringe the seaboard, and on the Ked Sea and at the Cape they fall in sheer heights close to the water's edge. There are ports all round the coast, but the only proper access to the interior is by the great water-ways. The continent, from the point of view of commerce, can therefore best be divided into basins or zones : (1) The Niger ; (2) the Chad and Shari ; (3) the Zambesi ; (4) the Nile ; (5) the Congo ; (6) remaining area. We leave altogether out of account the Mediterranean coast.

BOYHOOD A^D EARLY MANHOOD. 29

Of these, the Niger zone appears to be the most important. The Royal Niger Company have, it is true, the French and Germans to compete against ; but they are so firmly established that they may now safely be left to their own resources : they tap the rich, populous and civilized States of the Central Soudan, and have concluded treaties by which an immense area is placed under their sovereignty. The Chad-Shari zone may, for these reasons, also be left out of account. Were the other commercial companies as firmly established as the Eoyal Niger Company, there would be no Central African question to day ; they could be left to safeguard their own interests without calling for Government protection.

In the Zambesi zone a very different state of affairs exists. The Portuguese authorities have been established on the Sofala and Mozambique coasts for centuries. The only access to the great lakes is by way of the Zambesi, and the Zambesi mouths are in the hands of the Portuguese, who sit at the receipt of custom, and collect all the dues they can impose upon merchandise. Their prohibitive tariffs, political inaction, destroy trade. From Cape Delgado to Delagoa Bay they hold undisputed sway. Their colonial policy has been to gather where they have not sowed, and instead of developing the country and elevating its" inhabitants, it has had quite a contrary effect ; foreign enterprise and native emancipation have been crippled by its exactions and immorality. In spite of this, the African Lakes Company, of Glasgow, have established a trade-route from the mouths of the Zambesi to the head of Lake Tanganika. They have a steamer running regularly on the Nyassa Lake, and a portage (the Stevenson road) from the latter to the former lake. If a steamer were placed upon Tanganika, one of the best and quickest routes into Central Africa would be established. The missionaries on the lakes give constant work to the company, and its trade could be immensely increased if only the country were under a settled and active government. At the present moment this trade-route is closed. The Arab slave-raiders have swept the shores of Tanganika, blocked the Stevenson road, and occupied the country to the north of the Nyassa. They have destroyed the villages of the Wa-Nkonde, killed or captured hundreds of men, women and children, and have given out that in future they intend to occupy the land, and exact tribute (which is their idea of occupation) from all who return there,, even from Europeans.

This, then, w^as the region to be conquered for civilization by the indomitable energy of one white man. "It is safe to say that no other explorer of Africa, America, or any other part of the world, has ever accumulated on a single journey such wealth of materials, enriching at once so many fields of science, and so replete with romantic, picturesque, and thrilling incidents as fell to Stanley's lot on the memorable journey he has described in Through the Dark Continent.

" It was his good fortune to see at its best the powerful kingdom of Uganda, and few parts of Africa were more interesting or more worthy of Stanley's brilliant pen-pictures than M'Tesa's domain on the shores of Lake Victoria before all the nftseries of a prolonged civil war had befallen its once happy people. How full of strange and even tragical adventures were the long boat voyages around the wooded shores of Lakes Victoria and Tanganika, and how full of life and variety were the scenes and people the explorer met among the ten tribes who dwell along Tanganika's nine hundred miles of coast line ! It is in this book that Stanley makes us well acquainted with Tippoo Tib, whom he regarded as the most remarkable man he had met in Africa, and who has since become so rich and powerful. Tippoo Tib and two hundred of his men helped Stanley start down the unknown Congo from Nyangwe, where both Livingstone and Cameron were defeated in their purpose to descend the mysterious river. Twenty of the dusky favorites of the great trader's harem went with him on this journey, his first trip down the river, which he was soon after to bring completely under his control for a distance of three hundred and fifty miles. The Arabs and half-castes from Zanzibar had been long deterred by stories of cannibals and fierce dwarfs from venturing further down the river, and their descent to Stanley Falls would perhaps have been delayed several years if Stanley had not pioneered the way."

It is extremely interesting after reading some of Stanley's powerful descriptions of fights for life with Congo cannibals to compare with them the native versions of the same occurrences, which they are very glad to give to all who wish to hear them. Take, for instance, Stanley's account of his thirty-first fight on the terrible river, the last but one, and the hardest battle of all, when a fleet of sixty-three great Bengal a war-canoes came out to exterminate the strangers, who numbered only forty-four guns. It was two hours before the Snider muskets won the victory, and three hearty cheers rang over the flood as the foe retreated to the shore. Here is a part of the description of this battle given by Chief Muele to Captain Coquilhat awhile ago.

"We had not the slightest idea that such beings as white people existed. One day, when the sun stood right above our heads, we saw" a fleet of strangely formed canoes quietly passing in front of our villages. We were astonished to see that the men were covered with white cloths, and it seemed very singular, for the richest men we knew wore only a little rag of banana fiber, and we saw two men as white as our pottery clay, who seemed to be chiefs. Our alarm drums sounded, and we crowded the canoes, and started out for a fight. As we approached them, we saw that one man had straight gray hair, and his eyes were the color of the water. He stood up, and held toward us a red cloth and some brass wire. The other white man aimed his weapon at us, and the older man talked to him rapidly in a language we did not understand. We thought their actions boded us no good, and so we opened the battle, and it was the most terrible we ever fought.

'Our spears fell fast among them, and we kiUed some, and their bodies lay half over the sides of their canoes. But, oh, what fetich gave their weapons such wonderful power ? Their bullets, made of a gray metal we had never seen before, hit women and old men who were following the combat from the shore. The walls of our huts were pierced, and goats in the fields dropped dead of their wounds. As for us, who were on the water, our shields were pierced as though they had been bananas. Many of us were killed and wounded, and others were drowned, for holes were knocked in some canoes, which filled and sank. Still we fought desperately, and followed the white beings some distance below our villages, but they finally escaped us, and raised loud cries of triumph as we ended the pursuit."

An insight into the character and influence of Stanley is revealed by an incident which occurred during the descent of the Congo. He had had much trouble with his men, on account of their inherent propensity to steal, the results of which brought upon the expedition much actual disaster. At last Stanley doomed the next man caught stealing to death. His grief and distress were unbounded when the next thief, detected in a case of peculiar flagrancy, was found to be Uledi, the bravest, truest, noblest of his dusky followers. Uledi had saved one hundred lives, his own among the number. He had performed acts of the most brilliant daring, always successful, always daring, always kind. Must Uledi die ? He called all his men around him in a council. He explained to them the gravity of Uledi's crime. He reminded them of his stern decree, but said he was not hard enough to enforce it against Uledi. His arm was not strong enough to lift the gun that would kill Uledi, and he would not bid one of them to do what he could not do himself. But some punishment, and a hard one, had to be meted out. What should it be ? T^ie council must decide. They took a vote. Uledi must be flogged.

When the decision was reached, Stanley standing, Uledi crouching at his feet, and the solemn circle drawn closely around them, one man, whose life Uledi had saved under circumstances of frightful peril, stood forth, and said : " Give me half the blows, master." Then another said in the faintest accents, while tears fell from his eyes : " Will the master give his slave leave to speak ?"