Henry M. Stanley, while standing on the stage of the Academy of Music, in the city of Philadelphia, on December 11th, 1886, lecturing on his experiences in the Congo, received a cable despatch calling him to England to take charge of the expedition to Wadelai, Emin’s headquarters, near Lake Albert Nyanza. He immediately returned to England, and in a short time the arrangements were completed with the committee having the matter in charge.
There was much discussion as to the route to be taken, most authorities favoring that overland from Zanzibar. But Mr. Stanley determined upon the Congo, and he described the character of the expedition as follows:
“The expedition is non-military—that is to say, its purpose is not to fight, destroy, or waste; its purpose is to save, to relieve distress, to carry comfort. Emin Pasha may be a good man, a brave officer, a gallant fellow deserving of a strong effort of relief; but I decline to believe, and I have not been able to gather from any one in England, an impression that his life, or the lives of the few hundreds under him, would overbalance the lives of thousands of natives, and the devastation of immense tracts of country which an expedition strictly military would naturally cause. The expedition is a mere powerful caravan, armed with rifles for the purpose of insuring the safe conduct of the ammunition to Emin Pasha, and for the more certain protection of this people during the retreat home. But it also has means of purchasing the friendship of tribes and chiefs, of buying food and paying its way liberally.”
Mr. Stanley went from England to Egypt, where he stopped for a time at Cairo, completing his arrangements with the Egyptian Government. At the railway station, just before leaving for the wilderness, he had a farewell conversation with his friend Colonel John Colborne, a veteran of the Egyptian army in the Soudan. Speaking of some current rumors that he intended to seize Emin’s province as a British possession, he said: “The province is not worth taking, at least in the present state of affairs. The difficulty of transport from either coast is too great, and the expense, also, to give a return for money. As long as the Nile is closed the Central provinces will never pay, and it will be years before it is open again. Yes, the Central African provinces would be valuable enough were river communication free. On the east side there is no sufficiently navigable river, the presence of the tsetse fly prevents the employment of bullocks and horses, the ground is unsuited for camels, and the African elephant has never been tamed, so the only means of transport is by the Wapagari, or native porters, and a precious slow and expensive means it is, too. For any large trade purposes it would be utterly inadequate; besides, the only present trade is in ivory and ebony—you know what I mean by that, I suppose?—and ivory is getting scarcer. Of course, if the Nile were open, there might be a splendid and most remunerative trade in gum, hides, beeswax, india-rubber; anything, too, I believe, could be cultivated to perfection in these provinces, and probably the natives would soon learn, when once they got to appreciate the benefit of trading, to grow cotton, tea, perhaps coffee, rice, and the cinchona plant. Some parts are suited well for one kind of plant, other parts for another. Thus, cotton would grow nearer the coasts, whereas tea and coffee and the cinchona plant could be cultivated on the slopes. But, as I said before, the true transit for trade is by the Nile.”
In the course of further conversation he said, “Do you know that the Nile itself could be turned off with comparative ease? The Victoria Nyanza is on a plateau like an inverted basin. It could be made to trickle over at any point. The present King of Uganda is fond of his liquor. Waking up any morning after drinking too much ‘mwengi’ (plantain wine) over night, he might have what is called ‘a head on him,’ and feel in a very bad temper. He might then take it into his head to turn off the Nile. He might do this by ordering a thousand or so natives to turn out and continue to drop stones across the Ripon Falls at the top till they were blocked. To do this would be quite possible. I calculate this could be done by the number of men I mention in nine months, for the falls are very narrow. True, the effect of this could be counteracted in a year or so by reservoirs and dykes; but meanwhile the population of Egypt would be starved. His father, King Mtesa, once actually contemplated doing this—not with a view of creating mischief, but because he wanted to water some particular tract of land, and for this purpose to make the lake dribble over it.”
Concerning his own immediate work, Mr. Stanley talked at some length. “Tell them at home,” he said, “that my mission is purely pacific. Does any one think I am going to wade through blood to get at Emin? If I succeeded, what would be the consequence? News would be brought to the King, ‘Stanley is coming with an army of thirty thousand men’—you know how figures increase when estimated by savages—and what would be the consequence? ‘Ho! is he indeed?’ the King would say; ‘I’ll teach him to bring an army into my country. Chop off the heads of the missionaries.’ And,” added Mr. Stanley, speaking quite excitedly, “what, I should like to know, is the value of Emin’s life in comparison with that of the lives of such noble men as Mackay, Lichfield, Père Loudel, and Frère Delmonce? Does any one think I would sacrifice them for the sake of Emin?”
STANLEY QUELLING A MUTINY.
On reaching Zanzibar he found that his agents had already recruited a force of six hundred men for the expedition, and that Tippu-Tib, who had escorted his caravan in 1877, when the first descent of the Congo was made, was waiting for him. Tippu-Tib was the Zobehr of the Upper Congo, commanding two of the best roads from the river to Wadelai. He agreed to supply six hundred carriers at thirty dollars a man; and as Emin was reported by Dr. Junker to have seventy-five tons of ivory, the expenses of the expedition might be largely defrayed by the return of the Zanzibaris to the Congo with their precious loads. Tippu-Tib was also offered the position of Governor at Stanley Falls at a regular salary. He consented to accompany Mr. Stanley on these terms. The steamer set out on February 25th for the mouth of the Congo with about seven hundred men of the expedition, reaching its destination in four weeks. He was then twelve hundred and sixty-six miles from Aruwimi, whence he was to march four hundred miles through an unknown country to Emin’s capital. It was as late as April 26th before he could leave Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, and it was not until the second week in June that the explorer himself was at Aruwimi, much delay having been caused by defective transportation.
He left men at Stanley Falls with instructions to rebuild the storehouses, to open negotiations with the tribes, and to provide convoys of provisions for the relief expedition. A rearguard was left at Yambuya, and the advance column passed on to the limits of navigation, whence the overland march was taken up. Few difficulties were encountered apart from the natural obstacles presented by a country very difficult to traverse. About July 25th the expedition had ascended the River Aruwimi as far as an elevated tract of country forming a portion of the Mabodi district. At this distance from its confluence with the Congo the river became very narrow, being no longer navigable, and Mr. Stanley was compelled for several days to have all the provisions and munitions for the use of the expedition, as well as those intended for the revictualling of Emin Pasha’s garrison, carried on the men’s backs. The quantity of rice was so large that each man had to bear a double burden. The rafts which had been employed to convey the heavy baggage were left behind, and only the steel whale-boat brought from the camp at the foot of the Aruwimi rapids was carried past the narrows and again launched in the river, Mr. Stanley greatly congratulating himself that he had brought it, owing to the amount of water which, according to the inhabitants of that part of the country, the expedition would have to cross before reaching the Albert Nyanza. Mr. Stanley calculated that once arrived at the summit of the table-lands which shape the basin of the Aruwimi he would be able to halt for two days, in order to rest his men and establish a fresh camp, garrisoned like that at Yambuya, by twenty men and a European officer. The population of the country through which Mr. Stanley was then travelling was considerable, but the people were much scattered. The district was tranquil, the agitation prevalent in the neighborhood of Stanley Falls not having spread to that part of the country.