Tailor
Henry M. Stanley’s New Mission — The Unfinished Task of Livingstone — The Commission of Mr. Stanley by the “Daily Telegraph” of London and the New York “Herald” to Command the New Expedition to Central Africa — Mr. Stanley’s Arrival at Zanzibar — Fitting Out his Expedition and Enlisting Many of his Old Captains and Chiefs — Sets Sail for the West Coast of the Zanzibar Sea and Towards the Dark Continent — Arrival at Bagamoyo — Completes his Forces and Takes Up his Line of March Inland — Incidents Attending his March to Mpwapwa.
Henry M. Stanley’s New Mission — The Unfinished Task of Livingstone — The Commission of Mr. Stanley by the “Daily Telegraph” of London and the New York “Herald” to Command the New Expedition to Central Africa — Mr. Stanley’s Arrival at Zanzibar — Fitting Out his Expedition and Enlisting Many of his Old Captains and Chiefs — Sets Sail for the West Coast of the Zanzibar Sea and Towards the Dark Continent — Arrival at Bagamoyo — Completes his Forces and Takes Up his Line of March Inland — Incidents Attending his March to Mpwapwa.
In April, 1874, while on his return from the Ashantee war, Mr. Stanley first received the news of the death of Dr. Livingstone, and that his body was then on its way to England.
Mr. Stanley says “The effect which this news had upon me, after the first shock had passed away, was to fire me with a resolution to complete his work—to be, if God willed it, the next martyr to geographical science; or if my life was to be spared, to clear up not only the secrets of the great river throughout its course, but also all that remained still problematic and incomplete of the discoveries of Burton and Speke, and Speke and Grant.
“The solemn day of the burial of my great friend arrived. I was one of the pall-bearers in Westminster Abbey, and when I had seen the coffin loweredinto the grave, and had heard the first handful of earth thrown over it, I walked away sorrowing over the fate of David Livingstone.”
From this time forward Mr. Stanley devoted his time assiduously in completing his literary labors and at the same time in studying up Africa, its geography, geology, botany and ethnology. He knew what had been accomplished by African explorers, and knew how much of the dark interior was still unknown to the world. Until late hours he sat, inventing and planning, sketching routes, laying out lengthy lines of possible exploration and noting many suggestions which the continued study of the subject created.
One day, while on a visit to the office of the “Daily Telegraph,” the subject of Livingstone and his unfinished work was broached, and after a brief talk on the subject between himself and the editor, Mr. Stanley wasasked:—
“Could you, and would you, complete the work? And what is there to do?”
Mr. Stanley replied: “The outlet of Lake Tanganyika is undiscovered. We know nothing scarcely—except what Speke has sketched out—of Lake Victoria; we do not even know whether it consists of one or many lakes, and therefore the sources of the Nile are still unknown. Moreover, the western half of the African continent is still a white blank.”
“Do you think you can settle all this, if we commission you?” asked the editor of the “Telegraph.”
“While I live, there will be something done. If I survive the time required to perform all the work, all shall be done.”
The matter was for the moment suspended, however, because Mr. Bennett, of the New York “Herald,” had prior claims on Mr. Stanley’s services.
A telegram was despatched to Mr. Bennett: “Would he join the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in sending Stanley out to Africa, to complete the discoveries of Speke, Burton, and Livingstone?” To which Mr. Bennett replied within twenty-four hours by the laconic answer: “Yes. Bennett.”
The new mission of Mr. Stanley was defined by the “Telegraph” through its columns “to be the completion of the work left unfinished by the lamented death of Dr. Livingstone; to solve, if possible, the remaining problems of the geography of Central Africa; and to investigate and report upon the haunts of the slave-trader.”... “He will represent the two nations whose common interest in the regeneration of Africa was so well illustrated when the lost English explorer was re-discovered by the energetic American correspondent. In that memorable journey Mr. Stanley displayed the best qualities of an African traveller; and with no inconsiderable resources at his disposal to reinforce his own complete acquaintance with the conditions of African travel, it may be hoped that very important results will accrue from this undertaking to the advantage of science, humanity, and civilization.”
On August 15, 1874, Mr. Stanley sailed from England for Zanzibar, where he arrived on the 21st day of September—just twenty-eight months after he had left there on his return from the search of Livingstone.
For many days after his arrival he was busily engaged in selecting the members of his new expedition and those who were to act as carriers and soldiers. Among those selected, he gave preference to such as had been with him on the Search Expedition, and had been despatched to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872. Out of these the chiefs were selected. And to these the customary presents had to be distributed. Ulimengo, or the “World,” the incorrigible joker and hunter in chief of the Search and Livingstone’s expeditions, was given a gold ring to encircle one of his thick black fingers, and a silver chain to suspend round his neck, which caused his mouth to expand gratefully. Rojab, who was soon reminded of the unlucky accident with Livingstone’s Journal in the muddy waters of the Mukondokwa, was endowed with a munificent gift which won him over to Mr. Stanley’s service beyond fear of bribery. Manwa Sera, the redoubtable ambassador of Speke and Grant to Manwa Sera—the royal fugitive distressed by the hot pursuit of the Arabs—the leader of his second caravan in 1871, the chief of the party sent to Unyanyembe to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872, and now appointed Chief Captain of the Anglo-American Expedition, was rendered temporarily speechless with gratitude because a splendid necklace had been suspended from his neck and a heavy seal ring placed upon one of his fingers. And thus Mr. Stanley proceeded to endow each one of his old followers with some suitable gift of such a character as would both please them and strengthen their attachment towards himself.
Mr. Stanley, in speaking of the usual preliminary deliberative palaver, or, as the Wangwana call it, “Shauri,” held before the final execution of all great enterprises,says:—
“The chiefs arranged themselves in a semicircle on the day of the Shauri, and I satà la Turquefronting them. ‘What is it, my friends? Speak your minds.’ They hemmed and hawed, looked at one another, as if on their neighbors’ faces they might discover the purport of their coming; but, all hesitating to begin, finally broke down in a loud laugh.
“Manwa Sera, always grave, unless hit dextrously with a joke, hereupon affected anger, and said, ‘You speak, son of Safeni. Verily, we act like children! Will the master eat us?’
“Wadi, son of Safeni, thus encouraged to perform the spokesman’s duty, hesitates exactly two seconds, and then ventures with diplomatic blandness andgraciosity: ‘We have come, master, with words. Listen. It is well we should know every step before we leap. A traveller journeys not without knowing whither he wanders. We have come to ascertain what lands you are bound for!’
“Imitating the son of Safeni’s gracious blandness, and his low tone of voice, as though the information about to be imparted to the intensely interested and eagerly listening group were too important to speak it loud, I described in brief outlines the prospective journey in broken Kiswahili. As country after country was mentioned of which they had hitherto but vague ideas, and river after river, lake after lake named, all of which I hoped with their trusty aid toexplore carefully, various ejaculations expressive of wonder and joy, mixed with a little alarm, broke from their lips; but when I concluded, each of the group drew a long breath, and almost simultaneously they uttered admiringly, ‘Ah, fellows, this is a journey worthy to be called a journey!’”
By 5 o’clock P. M. of the 12th of November, 224 men had responded to their names, and five of the Arab vessels, laden with thepersonnel, cattle, andmaterialof the expedition, were impatiently waiting, with anchor heaved short, the word of command. One vessel still lay close ashore, to convey Mr. Stanley and Frederick Barker—in charge of the personal servants—their baggage and the dogs.
A wave of the hand, and the anchors were hove up. With sails set they bore away westward to launch themselves into the arms of fortune. In the words of Mr. Stanley: “The parting is over! We have said our last words for years, perhaps forever, to kindly men! The sun sinks fast to the western horizon, and gloomy is the twilight that now deepens and darkens. Thick shadows fall upon the distant land and over the silent sea, and oppress our throbbing, regretful hearts as we glide away through the dying light towards the Dark Continent.”
OFF FOR THE HEART OF AFRICA.
OFF FOR THE HEART OF AFRICA.
On the 13th of November, Stanley reached Bagamoyo, situated on the mainland near the sea. On the morning of the 17th, five days after leaving Zanzibar, the expedition filed out from the town in the following order: Four chiefs, a few hundred yards in front; next the twelve guides, clad in red robes of Jobo, bearing the wire coils; then a long file 275 strong, bearing cloth,wire, beads, and sections of theLady Alice; after them thirty-six women and ten boys, children of some of the chiefs and boat-bearers, following their mothers and assisting them with trifling loads of utensils, followed by the riding asses, Europeans and gun bearers; the long line closed by sixteen chiefs who act as rearguard and whose duties are to pick up stragglers and act as supernumeraries until other men can be procured: in all 356 souls connected with the Anglo-American Expedition. The lengthy line occupied nearly half a mile of the path which is the commercial and exploring highway into the lake regions.
“In this manner,” says Stanley “we begin our long journey, full of hopes. There is noise and laughter along the ranks, and a hum of gay voices murmuring through the fields, as we rise and descend with the waves of the land and wind the sinuosities of the path. Motion had restored us all to a sense of satisfaction. We had an intensely bright and fervid sun shining above us, the path was dry, hard, and admirably fit for travel, and during the commencement of our first march nothing could be conceived in better order than the lengthy, thin column about to confront the wilderness.”
Stanley’s line of march strikes the valley of the Kingani River, and thence to Kikoka, where he makes his first halt. Resting the next day, he resumes the march on the third day for Rosako. This line is about thirty miles north of the most northerly route of any of the routes known to Stanley from the writings of other explorers. From Rosako he marched to Congorida, thence to Mfuteh, and westward of Mfuteh along thesouthern bank of the Wami some four miles. From this point his line diverges to Rubuti, a village on the Lugumbwa Creek. “Grand and impressive scenery meets the eye as we march to Makubika, the next settlement,” says Stanley, “where we attain an altitude of 2675 feet above the ocean. Peaks and knolls rise in all directions, for we are now ascending to the eastern front of the Kaguru Mountains. The summits of Ukamba are seen to the north, its slopes famous for the multitudes of elephants. The mountain characteristically called the ‘Back of the Bow,’ has a small, clear lake near it, and remarkable peaks or mountain crests break the sky-line on every side. Indeed, some parts of this great mountain range abound in scenery both picturesque and sublime.
“Between Mamboya and Kitangeh I was much struck by the resemblance that many of the scenes bear to others that I had seen in the Alleghanies. Water is abundant, flowing clear as crystal from numerous sources. As we neared eastern Kitangeh, villages were beheld dotted over every hill, the inhabitants of which, so often frightened by the inroads of the ever-marauding Wamasai, have been rendered very timid. Here, for the first time, cattle were observed as we travelled westerly from Bagamoyo.
A GHASTLY MONUMENT.
A GHASTLY MONUMENT.
“We crossed the plain on the 11th of December, and arrived at Tubugwé. It is only six miles wide, but within this distance we counted fourteen human skulls, the mournful relics of some unfortunate travellers, slain by an attack of Wahumba, from the northwest. I think it is beyond doubt that this plain, extending, as it does, from the unexplored northwest,and projecting like a bay into a deep mountain fiord southeast of our road, must in former times have been an inlet or creek of the great reservoir of which the Ugombo Lake, south of here, is a residuum. The bed of this ancient lake now forms the pastoral plains of the Wahumba and the broad, plain-like expanses visible in the Ugogo country.”
From Tubugwé, Stanley directed his march to Mpwapwa, on the banks of a small tributary of the Mukondokwa, which he reached on the 12th day of December, after a twenty-five day’s march from Bagamoyo.
Wild goat
Spends Christmas at Zingeh — The Rainy Season Sets In — Famine or Scarcity of Food — Half-Rations — Extortionate Chiefs Levy Blackmail — Arrival at Jiweni — Through Jungle to Kitalalo — The Plain of Salina — “Not a Drop of Water” — Bellicose Natives — Trouble with Many of his Followers — Valuable Services Rendered him by Frank and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker — Frequent Quarrels — The Trials of Stanley — Camp at Mtiwi — Terrible Rain Storm, and Sad Plight of Stanley and his People — Misled by his Guide, is Lost in a Wild of Low Scrub and Brush — Terrible Experiences — Starvation Impending — Sends for Relief to Suna in Urimi — The Welcome Meal of Oatmeal — A Singular Cooking Utensil — Death of Edward Pocock — The Weary March from the Warimi to Mgongo Tembe — The Beautiful Usiha — Reaches Victoria Nyanza February 27th, 1875 — Enters Kagehyi — Receives its Hospitalities — The End of a Journey of 720 miles in 103 days.
Spends Christmas at Zingeh — The Rainy Season Sets In — Famine or Scarcity of Food — Half-Rations — Extortionate Chiefs Levy Blackmail — Arrival at Jiweni — Through Jungle to Kitalalo — The Plain of Salina — “Not a Drop of Water” — Bellicose Natives — Trouble with Many of his Followers — Valuable Services Rendered him by Frank and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker — Frequent Quarrels — The Trials of Stanley — Camp at Mtiwi — Terrible Rain Storm, and Sad Plight of Stanley and his People — Misled by his Guide, is Lost in a Wild of Low Scrub and Brush — Terrible Experiences — Starvation Impending — Sends for Relief to Suna in Urimi — The Welcome Meal of Oatmeal — A Singular Cooking Utensil — Death of Edward Pocock — The Weary March from the Warimi to Mgongo Tembe — The Beautiful Usiha — Reaches Victoria Nyanza February 27th, 1875 — Enters Kagehyi — Receives its Hospitalities — The End of a Journey of 720 miles in 103 days.
The route of Stanley’s march from Mpwapwa took in Chunyu, Kikombo, Itumbi, Mpamira’s village, Lechumwa, Dudoma, and Zingeh, spending Christmas day at the latter place. The rainy season had set in and the condition of the explorer and his men was aught but agreeable, as appears by a letter written to a friend on Christmas day. He says, “It has been raining heavily the last two or three days, and an impetuous down-pour of sheet rain has just ceased. On the march, rain is very disagreeable; it makes the clayey path slippery, and the loads heavier by being saturated, while it half ruins the clothes. It makes us dispirited, wet and cold, added to which we arehungry—for there is a famine or scarcity of food at this season, and therefore we can only procure half-rations.”... “The natives have but little left. I myself have not had a piece of meat for ten days.”... “I weighed 180 pounds when I left Zanzibar, but under this diet I have been reduced to 134 pounds within thirty-eight days. The young Englishmen are in the same impoverished condition of body, and unless we reach some more flourishing country than Ugogo, we must soon become mere skeletons.
“Besides the terribly wet weather and the scarcity of food, we are compelled to undergo the tedious and wearisome task of haggling with extortionate chiefs over the amount of blackmail which they demand and which we must pay. We are compelled, as you may perceive, to draw heavy drafts on the virtues of prudence, patience and resignation, without which the transit of Ugogo under such conditions as above described, would be most perilous.”
The next camp westward of Zingeh was established at Jiweni, at an altitude of 3150 feet above sea-level. From here through a scrubby jungle to Kitalalo. From Kitalalo to the broad and almost level Salina, which stretches from Mizanza to the south of the track to the hills of Uyangwira, north. The greatest breadth of the plain of Salina is twenty miles, and its length may be estimated at fifty miles. The march across this plain was very fatiguing. Not a drop of water was discovered on the route, though towards the latter part of the journey a grateful rain-shower fell, which revived the caravan, but converted the plain into a quagmire.
“On approaching the Mukondoku district,” says Stanley, “we sighted the always bellicose natives advancing upon our van with uplifted spears and noisy show of war. This belligerent exhibition did not disturb our equanimity, as we were strangers and had given no cause for hostilities. After manifesting their prowess by a few harmless boasts and much frantic action, they soon subsided into a more pacific demeanor, and permitted us to proceed quietly to our camp under a towering baobab near the King’s village.”
In speaking, also, of his followers at this time, it appears that the explorer experienced considerable trouble with some of them. He pays great compliments for the invaluable services rendered him by Frank and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker in endeavoring to harmonize the large, unruly mob, with its many eccentricities and unassimilating natures.
“Quarrels were frequent,” he says, “sometimes dangerous, between various members of the expedition, and at such critical moments only did my personal interference become imperatively necessary. What with taking solar observations and making ethnological notes, negotiating with chiefs about the tribute moneys and attending to the sick, my time was occupied from morning till night. In addition to all this strain on my own physical powers, I was myself frequently sick from fever, and wasted from lack of proper, nourishing food; and if the chief of an expedition be thus distressed, it may readily be believed that the poor fellows depending on him suffer also.”
On the 1st of January, 1875, Stanley struck north, thus leaving for the first time the path to Unyanyembe,the common highway of East Central Africa. The next halt was made at Mtiwi, the chief of which was Malewa. “The last night spent at this place was a disturbed one,” says Stanley; “the flood-gates of heaven seemed literally opened for a period. After an hour’s rainfall, six inches of water covered our camp, and a slow current ran southerly. Every member of the expedition was distressed, and even the Europeans, lodged in tents, were not exempt from the evils of the night. My tent walls enclosed a little pool, banked by boxes of stores and ammunition. Hearing cries outside, I lit a candle, and my astonishment was great to find that my bed was an island in a shallow river, which, if it increased in depth and current, would assuredly carry me off south towards the Rufiji. My walking-boots were miniature barks, floating to and fro on a turbid tide seeking a place of exit to the dark world of waters without. My guns, lashed to the centre pole, were stock deep in water. But the most comical sight was presented by Jack and Bull, perched back to back on the top of an ammunition box, butting each other rearward, and snarling and growling for that scant portion of comfort.
“In the morning I discovered my fatigue cap several yards outside the tent, and one of my boots down south. The harmonium, a present for Mtesa, a large quantity of gunpowder, tea, rice and sugar, were destroyed. Vengeance appeared to have overtaken us. At 10 A. M. the sun appeared, astonished, no doubt, at a new lake formed during his absence. By noon the water had considerably decreased, and permitted us to march, and with glad hearts we surmounted theupland of Uyanzi, and from our busy camp, on the afternoon of January 4th, gazed upon the spacious plain beneath, and the vast broad region of sterility and thorns which we had known as inhospitable Ugogo.”
On the 6th of January, Stanley reached Kashongwa, a village situated on the verge of a trackless wild, peopled by a mixture of Wasukuma, renegade Wangwana, and Wanyamwezi. Informed here that he was but a two days’ march from Urimi, and having yet two days’ rations, he resumed the march under the guidance of one of these people, along a route that was said would bring him to Urimi the day after. The experiences of Stanley and his people during the following four days can be best conceived from a perusal of his own words.
“The next day we travelled over a plain which had a gradual uplift towards the northwest, and was covered with dense, low brush. Our path was ill-defined, as only small Wagogo caravans traveled to Urimi; but the guide assured us that he knew the road. In this dense brush there was not one large tree. It formed a vast carpet of scrub and brush, tall enough to permit us to force our way among the lower branches, which were so interwoven one with another that it sickens me almost to write of this day’s experience. Though our march was but ten miles, it occupied us as many hours of labor, elbowing and thrusting our way, to the injury of our bodies and the detriment of our clothing.
“We camped at 5 P. M. near another pool, at an altitude of 4350 feet above the sea. The next day, on the afternoon of the 8th, we should have reached Urimi, and, in order to be certain of doing so, marched fourteenmiles to still another pool at a height of 4550 feet above sea-level. Yet still we saw no limit to this immense brushfield, and our labors had, this day, been increased tenfold. Our guide had lost the path early in the day, and was innocently leading us in an easterly direction!
“The responsibility of leading a half-starved expedition—as ours now certainly was—through a dense brush, without knowing whither or for how many days, was great; but I was compelled to undertake it rather than to see it wander eastward, where it would be hopeless to expect provisions. The greater number of our people had consumed their rations early in the morning. I had led it northward for hours, when we came to a large tree to the top of which I requested the guide to ascend, to try if he could recognize any familiar feature in the dreary landscape. After a short examination, he declared he saw a ridge that he knew, near which, he said, was situate the village of Uveriveri. This news stimulated our exertions, and myself leading the van, we travelled briskly until 5 P. M., when we arrived at the third pool.
“Meantime Barker and the two Pococks, assisted by twenty chiefs, were bringing up the rear, and we never suspected for a moment that the broad track which we trampled over grass and through brush would be unperceived by those in rear of us. The Europeans and chiefs, assisted by the reports of heavily-loaded muskets, were enabled to reach camp successfully at 7 P. M.; but the chiefs then reported that there had not arrived a party of four men and a donkey boy who was leading an ass loaded with coffee. Of these,however there was no fear, as they had detailed the chief Simba to oversee them—Simba having a reputation among his fellows for fidelity, courage, and knowledge of travel.
“The night passed, and the morning of the 9th dawned, and anxiously I asked about the absentees. They had not arrived. But as each hour in the jungle added to the distress of a still greater number of people, we moved on to the miserable village of Uveriveri. The inhabitants consisted of only two families, who could not spare us one grain! We might as well have remained in the jungle, for no sustenance could be procured here.
“In this critical position, many lives hanging on my decision, I resolved to despatch forty of the strongest men—ten chiefs and thirty of the boldest youths—to Suna in Urimi, for the villagers of Uveriveri had of course given us the desired information as to our whereabouts. The distance from Uveriveri to Suna was twenty-eight miles, as we subsequently discovered. Pinched with hunger themselves, the forty volunteers advanced with the resolution to reach Suna that night. They were instructed to purchase 800 pounds of grain, which would give a light load of twenty pounds to each man, and urged to return as quickly as possible, for the lives of their women and friends depended on their manliness.
“Manwa Sera was also despatched with a party of twenty to hunt up the missing men. Late in the afternoon they returned with the news that three of the missing men were dead. They had lost the road, and, traveling along an elephant track, had struggled on tillthey perished of despair, hunger, and exhaustion. Simba and the donkey boy, the ass and its load of coffee, were never seen or heard of again.
“With the sad prospect of starvation impending over us we were at various expedients to sustain life until the food purveyors should return. Early on the morning of the 10th I travelled far and searched every likely place for game; but though tracks were numerous, we failed to sight a single head. The Wangwana also roamed about the forest—for the Uveriveri ridge was covered with fine myombo trees—in search of edible roots and berries, and examined various trees to discover whether they afforded anything that could allay the grievous and bitter pangs of hunger. Some found a putrid elephant, on which they gorged themselves, and were punished with nausea and sickness. Others found a lion’s den, with two lion’s whelps, which they brought to me. Meanwhile, Frank and I examined the medical stores, and found to our great joy we had sufficient oatmeal to give every soul two cupfuls of thin gruel. A ‘Torquay dress trunk’ of sheet-iron was at once emptied of its contents and filled with twenty-five gallons of water, into which were put ten pounds of oatmeal and four one-pound tins of ‘revalenta arabica.’ How the people, middle-aged and young gathered round that trunk, and heaped fuel underneath that it might boil the quicker! How eagerly they watched it lest some calamity should happen, and clamored, when it was ready, for their share. And how inexpressibly satisfied they seemed as they tried to make the most of what they received, and with what fervor they thanked ‘God’ for his mercies!”
On the 12th of January, Stanley reached Suna, where he halted four days. Owing to the deplorable condition of his people, but through the evident restlessness of the Warimi tribe at their presence, the insufficient quantity of food that could be purchased, and the growing importunings of the Wangwana to be led away from such a churlish and suspicious people, Stanley was sorely perplexed. He had now over thirty men on the sick list, and among them Edward Pocock, one of the young Englishmen, and who subsequently died. Owing to the sickness of temper from which the Warimi suffered, it became imperative that he should keep moving, if only two or three miles a day. Accordingly, on the 17th of January, he moved from his camp, the sick being carried in hammocks. Hundreds of the natives, fully armed, kept up with the caravan, on either side of its path.
“Never since leaving the sea were we weaker in spirit than on this day,” says Stanley. “Had we been attacked, I doubt if we should have made much resistance. The famine in Ugogo, and that terribly protracted trial of strength through the jungle of Uveriveri, had utterly unmanned us.”... “We are an unspeakably miserable and disheartened band; yet, urged by our destiny, we struggled on, though languidly. Our spirits seemed dying, or resolving themselves into weights which oppressed our hearts. Weary, harassed, and feeble creatures, we arrived at Chiwyu, four hundred miles from the sea, and camped near the crest of a hill, which was marked by aneroid as 5400 feet above the level of the ocean.”
Mangura, Izanjeh, and Vinyata, were the next placeswhich marked the route of Stanley’s expedition. At the latter place he made a halt of five days, meeting with no little hostility from the natives, some skirmishing, and suffering the loss of some of his people. On the morning of the 26th, just before daybreak, he resumed his interrupted journey. On the 27th, at dawn, he crossed the Leewumbu, and the whole of that day and the day following his route was through a forest of fine myombo, intersected by singular narrow plains, forming at that season of the year so many quagmires. On the 29th he entered Mgongo Tembe, and formed the acquaintance of the Chief Malewa. On the 1st of February, after a very necessary halt of two days at Mgongo Tembe, with an addition to his force of eight pagazis and two guides, and encouraged by favorable reports of the country in front, he entered Mangura in Usukuma, near a strange valley containing a forest of borassus palms, thence by way of Igira, through the magnificent plain of Luwamberri, and across the Itawa River on its western verge. On the 9th he crossed the Nanga ravine, and the next day arrived at the Seligwa, flowing to the Leewumbu, and, following its course for four miles, reached the hospitable village of Mombiti.
On leaving the Leewumbu—or the Monangah River, as it is also called—Stanley struck northerly across a pathless country seamed with elephant tracks, rhinoceros wallows, and gullies which contained pools of gray, muddy water, and on the morning of the 17th arrived at eastern Usiha. Usiha is the commencement of a most beautiful pastoral country, which terminates only in the Victoria Nyanza. From the summit of oneof the weird gray rock-piles which characterize it, one may enjoy that unspeakable fascination of an apparently boundless horizon. “On all sides,” says Stanley, “there stretches towards it the face of a vast circle replete with peculiar features, of detached hills, great crag-masses of riven and sharply-angled rock, and out-cropping mounds, between which heaves and rolls in low, broad waves a green, grassy plain, whereon feed thousands of cattle scattered about in small herds.”
On the morning of the 27th, five days later, Stanley had reached Gambachika, in North Usmau. This place is nineteen miles from the village of Kagehyi, his point of destination on Lake Victoria.
In speaking of his last day’s march, Stanley says: “The people were as keenly alive to the importance of this day’s march, and as fully sensitive to what this final journey to Kagehyi promised their weary frames, as we Europeans. They, as well as ourselves, looked forward to many weeks of rest from our labors and to an abundance of good food.
“When the bugle sounded the signal to ‘take the road,’ the Wanyamezi and Wangwana responded to it with cheers, and loud cries of ‘Ay indeed! ay indeed! please God!’ and their good will was contagious. The natives, who had mustered strongly to witness our departure, were effected by it, and stimulated our people by declaring that the lake was not very far off—‘but two or three hours’ walk.’
“We dipped into the basins and troughs of the land, surmounted ridge after ridge, crossed watercourses and ravines, passed by cultivated fields, andthrough villages smelling strongly of cattle, by good-natured groups of natives, until, ascending a long, gradual slope, we heard, on a sudden, hurrahing in front, and then we too, with the lagging rear, knew that those in the van were in view of the great lake!
“Presently we also reached the brow of the hill, where we found the expedition halted, and the first quick view revealed to us a long, broad arm of water, which a dazzling sun transformed into silver, some 600 feet below us, at a distance of three miles.”
In a short time the expedition had entered the village of Kagehyi, and Prince Kaduma, chief of Kagehyi, induced by one Sungoro, an Arab resident, proffered its hospitalities to the strangers. In summing up, during the evening of his arrival at this rude village on the Nyanza, the number of statute miles travelled by him, as measured by two rated pedometers and pocket watch, Stanley ascertained it to be 720. The time occupied—from November 17, 1874, to February 27, 1875, inclusive—was 103 days, divided into seventy marching and thirty-three halting days—an average of a little over ten miles a day.
Allegorical wet birds
Preparing theLady Alicefor Sea — Selects his Crew — The Start for the Circumnavigation of Lake Victoria — Afloat on the Lake — A Night at Uvuma — Barmecide Fare — Message from Mtesa — Camp on Soweh Island — An Extraordinary Monarch — Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda — Arrival at the Imperial Capital — Glowing Description of the Country — A Grand Mission Field — The Treachery of Bumbireh — Saved! — Refuge Island — Return to Camp at Kagehyi.
Preparing theLady Alicefor Sea — Selects his Crew — The Start for the Circumnavigation of Lake Victoria — Afloat on the Lake — A Night at Uvuma — Barmecide Fare — Message from Mtesa — Camp on Soweh Island — An Extraordinary Monarch — Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda — Arrival at the Imperial Capital — Glowing Description of the Country — A Grand Mission Field — The Treachery of Bumbireh — Saved! — Refuge Island — Return to Camp at Kagehyi.
The members of the expedition enjoyed their much-needed rest; and Stanley, after taking the necessary observations to ascertain the position of Kagehyi, and its altitude above the sea; to prepare paper, pens and ink for the morrow’s report to the journals which had dispatched him to this remote and secluded part of the world; to make calculations of the time likely to be occupied in a halt at Kagehyi, in preparing and equipping theLady Alicefor sea;—found that his own personal work had but begun.
Within seven days the boat was ready, and strengthened for a rough sea life. Provisions of flour and dried fish, bales of cloth, and beads of various kinds, odds and ends of small possible necessaries were boxed, and she was declared, at last, to be only waiting for her crew. From the young guides first selected by him at Bagamoyo, and who Kachéché, the detective, informed him were the sailors of the expedition, he made a list of ten sailors and a steersman, to whosefidelity he was willing to entrust himself and fortunes while coasting round the Victorian sea.
THE VICTORIA NYANZA.
THE VICTORIA NYANZA.
After drawing up instructions for Frank Pocock and Fred. Barker on a score of matters concerning the well-being of the expedition during his absence, and enlisting for them, by an adequate gift, the goodwill of Sungoro and Prince Kaduma, Stanley set sail on the 8th of March, 1875, eastward along the shores of the broad arm of the lake which he first sighted, and which henceforth is known, in honor of its first discoverer, as “Speke Gulf.”
Space will not permit us to follow the details of Stanley’s voyage around the lake. Sufficient to say it was accompanied with many interesting and thrilling adventures with the different tribes along its shores. The most of these tribes were of a savage and warlike character, and gave the explorer no little amount of trouble.
On the 29th of March he crossed Napoleon Channel and coasted along Uganda between numerous islands, the largest of which are densely populated. At Kiwa Island he rested for the day, and was received with the greatest cordiality by the chief, who sent messengers to the island of Keréngé, a distance of three miles, to purchase bananas and jars of maramba wine, for the guest, as he said, of theKabakaMtesa. “As it was the first time for twenty-two days that we had lived with natives since leaving Kagehyi we celebrated, as we were in duty bound, our arrival among friends,” says Stanley.
“The next day, guided and escorted by the chief, we entered Ukafu, where we found a tall, handsome,young Mtongoleh in command of the district, before whom the Chief of Kiwa Island made obeisance as before a great lord. The young Mtongoleh, though professing an ardent interest in us, and voluble of promises, treated us only to Barmecide fare, after waiting twenty-four hours. Perceiving that his courtesies, though suavely proffered, failed to satisfy the cravings of our jaded stomachs, we left him still protesting enormous admiration for us, and still volubly assuring us that he was preparing grand hospitalities in our honor.
“I was staggered when I understood in its full extent the perfect art with which we had been duped. ‘Could this be Central Africa,’ I asked myself, ‘wherein we find such perfect adepts in the art of deception?’ But two days ago the savagery of the land was intense and real, for every man’s hand was raised in ferocity against the stranger. In the land next adjoining we find a people agreeable, and professing the warmest admiration for the stranger, but as inhospitable as any hotel-keeper in London or New York to a penniless guest!”
Stanley it seems, however, had been premature in his judgment, as he subsequently discovered on arriving at a little village in the bay of Buka. Here the Mtongoleh invited them to his village, spread out before them a feast of new as well as clotted milk, mellow and ripe bananas, a kid, sweet potatoes, and eggs, and despatched a messenger instantly to theKabakaMtesa to announce the coming of a stranger in the land, declaring at the same time his intention not to abandon them until he had brought them face to facewith the great Monarch of Equatorial Africa, in whom, he smilingly assured them, they should meet a friend, and under whose protection they might sleep secure.
Mr. Stanley’s description of this land and its people is very graphic and interesting, and we quote: “My admiration for the land and the people steadily increased, for I experienced with each hour some pleasing civility. The land was in fit accord with the people, and few more interesting prospects could Africa furnish than that which lovingly embraces the bay of Buka. From the margin of the lake, lined by waving water-cane, up to the highest hill-top, all was verdure of varying shades. The light green of the elegant matete contrasted with the deeper tints of the various species of figs; the satin-sheeny fronds of the graceful plantains were overlapped by clouds of the pale foliage of the tamarind, while between and around all the young grass of the pastured hillsides spread its emerald carpet. In free, bold, and yet graceful outline the hills shut in the scene, swelling upward in full, dome-like contour, here sweeping round to enclose within its hollow a gorgeous plantain grove, there projecting boldly into abrupt, steep head-lands, and again receding in a succession of noble terraces into regions as yet unexplored by the white man. One village had a low, pebbly beach, that ran in a sinuous, light-grey line between a darker grey face of the lake and the living perennial green of a banana plantation. I imagine myself fallen into an estate which I had inherited by right divine and human; or at least I felt something akin to that large feeling which heirs of unencumbered broad lands may be supposed to feel, andattributed such an unusual feeling to an attack of perfect digestion, and a free, unclogged, and undisturbed liver.”
On the 2d of April, Stanley proceeded along the beautiful shore separating Buka Bay from Kadzi Bay, and halted about noon at the village of Kirudo, here experiencing hospitalities similar to those of the previous day.
Just as they were about to depart next morning they perceived six beautiful canoes, crowded with men, coming round a point, and these they were informed by their hospitable entertainer of Buka were theKabaka’speople. In the middle of the bay of Kadzi they encountered, and a most ceremonious greeting took place. The commander, a fine, lusty fellow of twenty or thereabout, sprang into Stanley’s boat, and kneeling before him, declared his errand in these words:
“TheKabakasends me with many salaams to you. He is in great hopes that you will visit him, and has encamped at Usavara, that he may be near the lake when you come. He does not know from what land you come; but I have a swift messenger with a canoe who will not stop until he gives all the news to theKabaka. His mother dreamed a dream a few nights ago, and in her dream she saw a white man on this lake in a boat coming this way, and the next morning she told theKabaka, and, lo! you have come. Give me your answer, that I may send the messenger.”
Receiving his instructions from Stanley, through Magassa, who acted as interpreter, the messenger immediately departed. Persuaded by Magassa to restfor a day that he might be shown the hospitality of the country, Stanley rowed to the village of Kadzi. Here Magassa was in his glory, as shown by his imperious commands given on arrival of the guests and escort:
“Bring out bullocks, sheep and goats, milk, and the mellowest of your choicest bananas, and great jars of maramba, and let the white man and his boatmen eat and taste of the hospitalities of Uganda. Shall a white man enter theKabaka’spresence with an empty belly? See how sallow and pinched his cheeks are! We want to see whether we cannot show him kindness superior to what the pagans have shown him.”
“A wonderful land!” thought Stanley, “where an entire country can be subjected to such an inordinate bully and vain youth as this Magassa at the mere mention of theKabaka’sname, and very evidently withKabaka’ssanction!”
The following day Stanley sallied from Kadzi Bay, with Magassa’s escort leading the way, and at 10 A. M. entered Murchison Bay, camping behind Soweh Island, on the east side of the bay.
Stanley’s account of his arrival at Usavara, and the reception accorded him by theKabakaand his people, is highly interesting and graphic. “Compared with our lonely voyage from our camp at Usukuma round all the bays and inlets of the much-indented coasts of the great lakes,” says Stanley, “the five superb canoes forming line in front of our boat, escorting us to the presence of the great potentate of Equatorial Africa, formed a scene which promised at least novelty, and a view of some extraordinary pomp and ceremony.”
“When about two miles from Usavara, we saw what we estimated to be thousands of people arranging themselves in order on a gently rising ground. When about a mile from shore, Magassa gave the order to signal our advance upon it with firearms, and was at once obeyed by his dozen musketeers. Half a mile off I saw that the people on the shore had formed themselves into two dense lines, at the ends of which stood several finely-dressed men, arrayed in crimson and black and snowy white. As we neared the beach volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. Magassa’s canoes steered outward to right and left, while 200 or 300 heavily-loaded guns announced to all around that the white man—whom Mtesa’s mother had dreamed about—had landed. Numerous kettle and bass drums sounded a noisy welcome, and flags, banners, and bannerets waved, and the people gave a great shout. Very much amazed at all this ceremonious and pompous greeting, I strode towards the great standard, near which stood a short young man, dressed in a crimson robe which covered an immaculately white dress of bleached cotton, before whom Magassa, who had hurried ashore, kneeled reverently, and turning to me begged me to understand that this short young man was theKatekiro. Not knowing very well who the ‘Katekiro’ was, I only bowed, which, strange to say, was imitated by him, only that his bow was far more profound and stately than mine. I was complexed, confused, embarrassed, and I believe I blushed inwardly at this regal reception, though I hope I did not betray my embarrassment.
“A dozen well-dressed people now came forward,and grasping my hand declared in the Swahili language that I was welcome to Uganda.”
Escorted to comfortable quarters, and after a somewhat extended interview with the head men who had received him, Stanley and his men were made the recipients of fourteen fat oxen, sixteen goats and sheep, a hundred bunches of bananas, three dozen fowls, four wooden jars of milk, four baskets of sweet potatoes, fifty ears of green Indian corn, a basket of rice, twenty fresh eggs, and ten pots of maramba wine. Kauta, Mtesa’s steward or butler, who accompanied the drovers and bearers of these provisions, fell upon his knees before Stanley, and said:
“TheKabakasends salaams unto his friend who has travelled so far to see him. TheKabakacannot see the face of his friend until he has eaten and is satisfied. TheKabakahas sent his slave with these few things to his friend that he may eat, and at the ninth hour, after his friend has rested, theKabakawill send and call for him to appear at the burzah.”
At the ninth hour, as designated, two of theKabaka’spages summoned Stanley and his men to meet him. “TheKabaka, a tall, clean-faced, large-eyed, nervous-looking, thin man, clad in a tarbush, black robe, with a white shirt belted with gold, shook my hands warmly and impressively,” says Stanley, “and, bowing not ungracefully, invited me to be seated on an iron stool. I waited for him to show the example, and then I and all the others seated ourselves.”
Stanley’s impression of this prince, as gathered from his correspondence, is of extreme interest to the civilized world, and more especially to the ChristianChurch. Mtesa impressed him as being an intelligent and distinguished man, who, if aided in time by virtuous philanthropists, would do more for Central Africa than fifty years of Gospel teaching, unaided by such authority, could do.
“I think I see in him the light that shall lighten the darkness of this benighted region—a prince well worthy the most hearty sympathies that Europe can give him. In this man I see the possible fruition of Livingstone’s hopes, for with his aid the civilization of Equatorial Africa becomes feasible. I remember the ardor and love which animated Livingstone when he spoke of Sekeletu. Had he seen Mtesa, his ardor and love for him had been tenfold, and his pen would have been employed in calling all men to assist him,” writes Stanley of this remarkable prince and ruler.
On the 15th of April, Stanley returned to Usavara, after having spent a fifteen days’ life at the Emperor’s Court at Rubaga.
The following extract of a letter, under date of April 14th, 1875, written and sent to the “Daily Telegraph” and “New York Herald” from this point, is a strong appeal for the establishment of a Christian Mission in Uganda: