spring hate and mutual slaughter until there would be none of them
left."
" Supposing you resolve to stay, what of the Egyptians ? " I asked.
" Oh ! these I shall have to ask you to be good enough to take
with you."
" Now, will you. Pasha, do me the favor to ask Captain Casati if we are
to have the pleasure of his company to the sea, for we have been
instructed to assist him also should we meet ? "
Captain Casati answered through Emin Pasha :
" What the Governor Emin decides upon shall be the rule of conduct
STANLEY FINDS EMIN PASHA. 751
for me also. If the Governor stays, I stay. If the Governor goes, I
go-
" Well, I see, Pasha, that in the event of your staying your responsi-
bilities will be great."
A laugh. The sentence was translated to Casati, and the gallant Cap-
tain replied :
" Oh ! I beg pardon, but I absolve the Pasha from all responsibility
connected with me, because I am governed by my own choice entirely."
Thus day after day I recorded faithfully the interviews I had with
Emin Pasha; but these extracts reveal as much as is necessary for you
to understand the position. I left Mr. Jephson thirteen of my Soudanese,
and sent a message to be read to the troops, as the Pasha requested.
Everything else is left until 1 return with the united expedition to the
Nyanza.
Within two months the Pasha proposed to visit Fort Bodo, taking Mr.
Jephson with him. At Fort Bodo I have left instructions to the officers
to destroy the fort and accompany the Pasha to the Nyanza. I hope to
meet them all again on the Nyanza, as I intend making a short cut to the
Nyanza along a new road.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
STANLEY IN THE BOUNDLESS FOREST.
The Route Taken by Stanley— A March Beset by Fatal Perils— Death Thins th€
Ranks — Bushes and Creepers— Most Extensive Forest Region in Africa — One
Hundred and Sixty Days in the Dense Woods — Loyal Blacks — Insects and
Monkeys — Dwarfs and Poisoned Arrows — Gloom by Day and Frightful Darkness
by Night — Sources of Moisture — Wild and Savage Aborigines — Short-lived
Vision of Beauty — Light at Last — The Expedition )n Raptures at the Sight of
Green Fields — Scene on a Derby Day — Wild With Delight — A Leprous Out-
cast — " Beauty and the Beast " — News of a Powerful Tribe — Frantic Multitude^
Fowls Plucked and Roasted — Skeletons Getting Fat — Back and Forth on the
Banks of the Aruwimi— Emin Pasha — "See, Sir, What a Big Mountain" — Lake
Albert Nyanza — Important Discoveries.
'TANLEY'S narrative in the preceding chapters shows that he
entered the Dark Continent from the mouth of the Congo on the
west coast, sailed up that river and finally entered its tributary,
the Aruwimi. There he established a station and proceeded over-
land with the object of reaching Wadelai, where Emin Pasha was sup-
posed to be located. A reference to the map of Central Africa, which
the reader has already had an opportunity of scanning, will show the
route that he took after leaving the river Aruwimi. It was in this part
of the journey especially that the greatest obstacles and dangers were
encountered. From the following narrative, related with all of Mr.
Stanley's masterly power, it seems surprising that any persons con-
nected with the expedition escaped with their lives. The bold ex-
plorers were beset by every kind of difficulty and peril. Death thinned
the ranks of the party, starvation threatened them, and it was only
with the greatest perseverance and courage, combined with painful
privations, that the final object was attained. Mr. Stanley's account is as,
follows :
Until we penetrated and marched through it, this region was entirely
unexplored and untrodden by either white or Arab, The difficulties
consisted of creepers ranging from one-eighth inch to fifteen inches in
diameter, swinging across the path in bowlines or loops, sometimes
massed and twisted together ; also of a low dense bush, occupying the
sites of old clearings, which had to be caived through before a passage
was possible. Where years had elapsed since the clearings had been
(752)
STANLEY IN THE BOUNDLESS FOREST. 753
abandoned, we found a young forest and the spaces between the trees
cnoked with climbing plants, vegetable creepers and tall plants. This
kind had to be tunnelled through before an inch of progress could be
made. The region traversed by us is probably the most extensive
forest region in all Africa, a region, moreover, resembling in many
respects the tropical forest region of South America.
While in England, considering the best routes open to the Nyanzo
[Albert), I thought I was very liberal in allowing myself two weeks
marcli to cross the forest region lying between the Congo and the grass
land, but you may imagine our feelings when month after month saw u:.
marching, tearing, plowing, cutting through that same continuous forest.
It took us one hundred and sixty days before we could say, " Thank
God, we are out of the darkness at last," At one time we were all —
whites and blacks — almost " done up." September, October, and half of
that month of November, 1887, will not be forgotten by us,
Battlingf with Death,
October will be specially memorable to us for the sufferings we
endured. Our officers are heartily sick of the forest, but the loyal
blacks, a band of one hundred and thirty, followed me once again into
the wild, trackless forest, with its hundreds of inconveniences, to assist
their comrades of the rear column. Try and imagine some -of these
inconveniences. Take a thick Scottish copse, dripping with rain;
imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, nourished under the
impenetrable shades of ancient trees, ranging from one hundred to one
hundred and eighty feet high ; briers and thorns abundant ; lazy creeks,
meandering through the depths of the jungle, and sometimes a deep
affluent of a great river. Imagine this forest and jungle in all stages of
decay and growth — old trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen pros-
trate ; ants and insects of all kinds, sizes, and colors murmuring around;
monkeys and chimpanzees above, queer noises of birds and animals,
crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rush away; dwarfs with
poisoned arrows securely hid"den behind some buttress or in some dark
recess ; strong brown-bodied aborigines with terribly sharp spears, stand-
ing poised, still as dead stumps; rain pattering down on you every other
day in the year; an impure atmosphere, with its dread consequences,
*"ever and dysentery ; gloom throughout the day, and darkness almo 5t
palpable throughout the night; and then, if you will imagine such a
forest extending the entire distance from Plymouth to Peterhead, you
will have a fair idea of some of the inconveniences endured by us from
June 28th to December 5th, 1887, and from June ist, 1888, to the present
48
764 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS.
date, to continue again from the present date till about December jotli,
1888, when I hope to say a last farewell to the Congo Forest.
A Desolate Wilderness.
Now that we have gone through and through this forest region, I
only feel a surprise that I did not give a greater latitude to my ideas
respecting its extent ; for had we thought of it, it is only what might
have been deduced from our knowledge of the great sources of moisture
iccessary to supply the forest with the requisite sap and vitality. Think
of the large extent of the South Atlantic Ocean, whose vapors are blown
during nine months of the year in this direction. Think of the broad
Congo, varying from one to sixteen miles wide, which has a stretch of
one thousand four hundred miles, supplying another immeasurable quan-
tity of moisture, to be distilled into rain, and mist, and dew, over this
insatiable forest ; and then another six hundred miles of the Aruwimi or
Ituri itself, and then you will cease to wonder that there are about one
hundred and fifty days of rain every year in this region, and that the
Congo Forest covers such a wide area.
Until we set foot on the grass land, something like fifty miles west of
the Albert Nyanza, we saw nothing that looked like a smile, or a kind
thought, or a moral sensation. The aborigines are wild, utterly savage,
and incorrigibly vindictive. The dwarfs — called Wambutti — are worse
still, far worse. Animal life is likewise so wild and shy that no sport is
to be enjoyed. The gloom of the forest is perpetual. The face of the
river, reflecting its black walls of vegetation, is dark and sombre. The
sky one-half of the time every day resembles a winter sky in England;
the face of Nature and life is fixed and joyless. If the sun charges
through the black clouds enveloping it and a kindly wind brushes the
masses of vapor below the horizon, and the bright light reveals our sur-
roundings, it is only to tantalize us with a short-lived vision of brilliancy
and beauty of verdure.
lAght at Last !
Emerging from the forest, finally, we all became enraptured. Like a
captive unfettered and set free, we rejoiced at sight of the blue cope of
heaven, and freely bathed in the warm sunshine, and aches and gloomy
thoughts and unwholesome ideas were banished. You have heard how
the London citizen, after months of devotion to business in the gaseous
atmosphere in that great city, falls into raptures at sight of the green
fields and hedges, meadows and trees, and how his emotions, crowding
on his dazed senses, are indescribable. Indeed, I have seen a Derby day
once, and I fancied then that I only saw madmen, for great, bearded^
(765)
756 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS.
hoary-headed fellows, though well dressed enough, behaved in a most
idiotic fashion, amazing me quite. Well, on this 5th of December we
became suddenly smitten with madness in the same manner. Had you
seen us you would have thought we had lost our senses, or that
*' Legion " had entered and taken possession of us. We raced with our
loads over a wide, unfenced field (like an English park for the softness of
its grass), and herds of buffalo, eland, roan antelope, stood on either hand
with pointed ears and wide eyes, wondering at the sudden wave of human
beings, yelling with joy, as they issued out of the dark depths of the
forest.
A Leprous Outcast.
On the confines of this forest, near a village which was rich in sugar
cane, ripe bananas, tobacco, Indian corn, and other productions of abo-
riginal husbandry, we came across an ancient woman lying asleep. I
believe she was a leper and an outcast, but she was undoubtedly ugly,
vicious, and old; and, being old, she was obstinate. I practised all kinds
of seductive arts to get her to do something besides crossly mumbling,
but of no avail. Curiosity having drawn toward us about a hundred of
our people, she fastened fixed eyes on one young fellow (smooth-faced
and good-looking), and smiled. I caused him to sit near her, and she
became voluble enough — beauty and youth had tamed the " beast." From
her talk we learned that there was a powerful tribe, called the Banzanza,
with a great king, to the northeast of our camp, of whom we might be
well afraid, as the people were as numerous as grass. Had we learned
this ten days earlier, I might have become anxious for the result, but it
now only drew a contemptuous smile from the people, for each one, since
he had seen the grass land and evidences of meat, had been transformed
into a hero.
We poured out on the plain a frantic multitude, but after an hour or
two we became an orderly column. Into the emptied villages of the open
country we proceeded, to regale ourselves on melon, rich-flavored bananas
and plantains, and great pots full of wine. The fowls, unaware of the
presence of a hungry mob, were knocked down, plucked, roasted, or
boiled ; the goats, meditatively browsing, or chewing the cud, were sud-
denly seized and decapitated, and the grateful aroma of roast meat grati-=
fied our senses. An abundance, a prodigal abundance, of good things,
had awaited our eruption into the grass land. Every village was well
stocked with provisions, and even luxuries long denied to us. Under
such fare the men became most robust, diseases healed as if by magic,
the weak became strong, and there was not a goee-goee or chicken-heart
STANLEY IN THE BOUNDLESS FOREST. 757
feft. Only the Babusesse, near the main Ituri, were tempted to resist the
invasion.
A Great River.
The main Ituri, at the distance of six hundred and eighty miles from
its mouth, is one hundred and twenty-five yards wide, nine feet deep, and
has a current of three knots. It appears to run parallel with the Nyanza.
Near that group of cones and hills affectionately named Mount Schwein-
furth, Mount Junker, and Mount Speke, I would place its highest source.
Draw three or four respectable streams draining into it from the crest of
the plateau overlooking the Albert Nyanza, and two or three respectable
streams flowing into it from northwesterly, let the main stream flow
southwest to near north latitude i°,give it a bow-like form north latitude
I'' to north latitude i° 50', then let it flow with curves and bends down
to north latitude i° 17' near Yambunya, and you have a sketch of the
course of the Aruwimi, or Ituri, from the highest source down to its
mouth, and the length of this Congo tributary will be eight hundred
miles. We have traveled on it and along its banks for six hundred and
eighty miles ; on our first march to the Nyanza for one hundred and
fifty-six miles along its banks or near its vicinity ; we returned to obtain
our boat from Kilonga-Longa's ; then we conveyed the boat to the
.Nyanza for as many miles again; for four hundred and eighty miles we
traversed its flanks or voyaged on its waters to hunt up the rear column
of the expedition ; for as many miles we must retrace our steps to the
Albert Nyanza for the third time. You will, therefore, agree with me
that we have sufficient knowledge of this river for all practical purposes.
On the 25th of May, 1888, Emin Pasha's Soudanese were drawn up in
line to salute the advancing column as it marched in file toward the Ituri
River from the Nyanza. Half an hour after we parted. I was musing
as I walked of the Pasha and his steamer when my gun-bearer cried, out,
" See, sir, what a big mountain ; it is covered with salt !" I gazed in
the direction he pointed out, and there sure enough —
" Some blue peaks in the distance rose, ,
And white against the cold white sky
I Shone out the crowning snows : "
or, rather, to be sure, a blue mountain of prodigious height and mass.
This, then, said I, must be the Ruwenzori, which the natives said had
something white, like the metal of my lamp, on the top.
Wlilte-capped Mountain.
I should estimate its distance to be quite fifty miles from where we
stood. Whether it is Mount Gordon Bennett or not I am uncertain.
758 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS.
Against the supposition is the fact that I saw no snow on the latter in
1876, that its shape is vastly different, and that Ruwenzori is a little too
far west for the position I gave of Gordon Bennett, and I doubt that
Gordon Bennett Mount, if its latitude is correct, could be seen from a
distance of eighty geographical miles in an atmosphere not very remark-
able for its clearness. I should say that the snow line seemed to be
about one thousand feet from the summit. There is plenty of room for
both Ruwenzori and Gordon Bennett in the intervening space between
Beatrice Gulf and the Albert Nyanza.
At the south and southwest of the Albert Nyanza there is no mystery.
A century (or perhaps more) ago, the lake must have been some twelve
or fifteen miles longer, and considerably broader opposite Mbakovia than
it is now. With the wearing away of reefs obstructing the Nile below
Wadelai, the lake has rapidly receded, and is still doing so to the aston-
ment of the Pasha (Emin), who first saw Lake Albert seven or eight
years. For, he says, " islands that were near the west shore have now
become headlands occupied by our stations and native villages."
Across the lake from Nyamsassie to Mbakovia, its color indicates
great shallowness, being brown and muddy like that of a river flowing
through alluvial soil. Some of this must, of course, be due to the Sem-
liki River, but while on board the Khedive steamer from Nyamsassie to
Nsabi, I noticed that the pole of the sounding-man at the bow constantly
touched from a mile to a mile and a half from shore. Near the south
end the steamer has to anchor about five miles from shore.
Important Discoveries.
At the southwest end, the plain rises from the edge of the lake one
foot in one hundred and eighty feet. The plain of the south end rises at
the same rate for about ten miles. A slight change then takes place as
the eastern and western walls of the table-land draw nearer, and debris
from their slopes, washed by rains and swept by strong winds, humus of
grass and thorn forest, have added to its height above the lake.
Natives say that south of this the plain slopes steeply to the level of the
uplands. A shoulder of the western wall prevented us from verifying
this, and still beyond must be left until we take our journey homeward.
I look upon this country lying between the Albert Nyanza and the
lake discovered by me in 1876 as promising curious revelations. Up to
this moment I am not certain to which river the last lake belongs — â–
whether to the Nile or the Congo. I believe to the latter, but what I am
sure of is that it has no connection with the Albert Nyanza.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
HORRORS OF STANLEY'S MARCH.
The ExpTorer Again Lost — Long and Painful Suspense^Welcome Despatch froiT^
Zanzibar— Wonderful March— Conspicuous Bravery — Stanley's Thrilhng Stor> -
Murder of Major Barttelot — Mission Church — "Outskirts of Blessed Civiliza
tion " — Vivid Word-painting — Stanley's Letter to a Friend — Movements of Jeph-
son — Stanley's History of His Journey — Letter to the Chairman of the Emin Re-
lief Fund— Rear Column in a Deplorable State — Land March Begun — Gathering
Stores for the March — Small pox — Terrible Mortality — Bridging a River — Crafty
and Hostile Dwarfs — Tracks of Elephants — Fighting Starvation — Stanley Returns
to Find the Missing Men — Making Friends with the Natives — Startling Letter
from Jephson — Emin a Prisoner — The Insurgents Reach Lado — Emin's Followers
Like Rats in a Trap— Stanley's Arrival Anxiously Awaited — Emin Clings to His
Province— Stanley's Letter to Jephson— Absurd Indecision — Letter from Emin —
. Desperate Situation— Emin's Noble Traits — Stanley's Letter to Marston — Recital
of Thrilling Events.
QFTER Mr. Stanley sent us the account of the first part of his
journey contained in the preceding chapters, he was again lost
to the world. There was silence for many months ; and there
was also anxious speculation concerning his fate, and many fears
that he and all others in his brave band had perished in the murky wilds
of the Congo. The long and painfnl suspense was finalb broken.
On October 24th, 1889, a cable dispatch was received from Captain
Wissmann, Imperial Commissioner of Germany to East Africa, stating
that reliable news had been received concerning Emin Pasha and Henry
M Stanley, Signer Casati and six Englishmen. They were all expected
to arrive at Mpwapwa at the latter part of November.
This dispatch was supplemented soon after by the following :
London, Nov. 4. — Mr. Mackinnon, the head of the Emin Relief Com-
mittee, has received a dispatch from Henry M. Stanley.
The explorer says : " I reached the Albert Nyanza from Banalaya, foi
the third time, in 140 days, and found that Emin and Jephson had both
been prisoners since the i8th of August, 1888, being the day after I made
the discovery that Barttelot's caravan had been wrecked.
" The troops in the Equatorial Province had revolted and shaken cf?
all allegiance. Shortly after the Mahdists invaded the province in full
ibrce.
" After the ^rst battle in May the stations yielded and a panic struck
(759)
760 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS.
the natives, who joined the invaders and assisted in the work of destruc*
tion.
" The invaders subsequently suffered reverses, and dispatched a steamer
•to Khartoum for reinforcements.
" I found a letter waiting for me near the Albert Nyanza exposing the
dangerous position of the survivors and urging the' immediate necessity
^f my arrival before the end of December, otherwise it would be too
ate.
" I arrived there on the i8th of January for the third time. From the
14th of February to the 8th of May I waited for the fugitives, and then
left the Albert Nyanza homeward bound."
This piece of news, assuring the world of Stanley's safety, was wel-
comed with acclamations, and further intelligence from the heroic
explorer was eagerly awaited. It soon came, and before we present to
the reader the graphic letters from Stanley and Emin, giving a full
account of the expedition, we give an outline of the wonderful march.
This march was beset by all manner of dangers, and only the most
daring bravery and perseverance — a bravery that did not count life dear
— could ever have brought the gallant band of travelers to the light of
civilization.
The Thrilling Story.
Mr. Stanley and his companions have now, to use his own words,
" reached the outskirts of blessed civilization," and the complete narrative
of the marvellous journey shows that in perils overcome, in labors and
privations endured, in adventures with savage foes, and in brilliant discov-
eries, this journey stands unparalleled and alone. Mr. Stanley writes to
his friend, Mr. Marston, and to the Emin Pasha Relief Committee; Emin
writes to his old friend Dr. Schweinfurth. Mr. Stanley's letters are of the
greatest interest. Emin Pasha's eyesight will not allow him to write
much, and there is a pathetic allusion to it in the exclamation in which
he abruptly concludes. Mr. Stanley writes with his accustomed vivacity
.^nd in his accustomed good spirits.
Stanley's letters and Emin's take up the story of the march and rescu<i
Vom the point at which it was left in the letters published earlier in 1889
and contained in the foregoing chapters. Stanley marched from Yam-
3uya on the Aruwimi to his first meeting with Emin at the Albert Nyanza.
After a fortnight's rest, he returned from the Albert Nyanza to his start-
ing-point, to collect his rear-guard and stores, only to find that Major
Barttelot had been murdered in his absence, and that the station was
little better than a ruin. His letters published in April, 1889, were
HORRORS OF STANLEY'S MARCH. 76]
written under the influence of this sore discouragement, and when he
was setting forward again to effect his junction with Emin for thfc laA
time. During his absence, disaster had overtaken Emin, as it previously
overtook Major Barttelot, and Stanley arrived at the very ruoment to
save the German explorer from utter ruin. His arrival on this occasion
at the Albert Nyanza marks, as he reminds us, his third journey across z
terrible region — a region of well-nigh impenetrable forest, peopled with
'.he dwarfs and cannibals previously described. He made one journey tc
the Albert to discover Emin ; a second journey back to Yambuya ; a
third, and last one, forward to the Albert once more, to save Emin's life.
His present letters, after recapitulating some of the particulars
of the earlier ones, take up the story of the march, from the
period of the second junction with Emin. One is writen from the Vic-
toria Nyanza on the 3d September, 1889. The travellers were then well
advanced on their journey towards the East Coast. They had travelled
many hundreds of miles to the southern shore of the larger lake, and they
had at length seen a mission church, surmounted by a cross, which
showed them that they had " reached the outskirts of blessed civiliza-
tion."
Stanley's Vivid Word-painting-.
Mr. Stanley is delightfully himself in the letter to Mr. Marston.
He writes of the ages that have gone by since they met, and ol
the " daily thickening barrier of silence " that has crept between
them in the meanwhile. A man who is writing from the heart
of Africa is, in a sense, as one who is writing from the dead. It must
seem to him as though he had passed the portals, and had joined those
literary characters who spend their time in inditing " letters from the
other world." How hard to think of the ordered bustle of city life as
common to the same sphere with " vicious, man-eating savages, and
crafty undersized men " of the forest glades. Civilization seen from,