“As to Pasha’s wish to leave the country, I can say decidedly he is most anxious to go out with us; but under what conditions he will consent to come I can hardly understand. I do not think he knows himself. His ideas seem to me to vary much on the subject. To-day he is ready to start up and go; to-morrow some new idea holds him back. I have had many conversations with him about it, but have never been able to get his unchanging opinion on the subject. After this rebellion I remarked to him: ‘I presume now that your people have deposed you, and put you aside, you do not consider that you have any longer any responsibility or obligations concerning them,’ and he answered: ‘Had they not deserted me I should have felt bound to stand by them and help them in any way I could, but now I consider I am absolutely free to think only of my own personal safety and welfare; and if I get a chance I shall go out regardless of everything.’ And yet only a few days before I left him he said to me: ‘I know I am not in any way responsible for these people, but I cannot bear to go out myself first and leave anyone here behind me who is desirous of quitting the country. It is mere sentiment, I know, and perhaps a sentiment you will not sympathize with, but my enemies at Wadelai would point at me and say to the people, “You see he has deserted you.”’ These are merely two examples of what passed between us on the subject of his going out with us, but I could quote numbers of things he has said all equally contradictory. Being somewhat impatient after one of these unsatisfactory conversations, I said: ‘If ever the expedition does reach any place near you I shall advise Mr. Stanley to arrest you and carry you off, whether you will or not,’ to which he replied: ‘Well, I shall do nothing to prevent you doing that.’ It seems to me that if we are to have him we must save him from himself. Before closing my report I must bear witness to the fact that, in my frequent conversations with all sorts and conditions of the Pasha’s people, I heard with hardly any exception only praise of his justice and generosity to his people. But I have heard it suggested that he did not hold his people with a sufficiently firm hand.”
In answer to Emin’s request, Stanley supplied him with carriers and successfully aided him in bringing up his luggage and that of his European companions.
Stanley in referring to the dangers which had menaced him, and the many thrilling incidents that had crowded themselves, one upon another, to this point of time, to say nothing of the innumerable perplexities, says:—“There is virtue you know even in striving unyieldingly, in hardening the nerves, and facing these overclinging mischances without paying too much heed to the reputed danger. One is assisted much by knowing that there are no other coups, and the danger somehow, nine times out of ten, diminishes. The rebels of Emin Pasha’s government relied on their craft and on the wiles of the Heathen Chinee, and it is rather amusing to look back and note how punishment has fallen upon them. Was it Providence or luck? Let those who love to analyze such matters reflect. Traitors without the camp and traitors within were watching, and the most active conspirator was discovered, tried, and hanged. The traitors without fell afoul of one another and ruined themselves. If not luck, then it is surely Providence in answer to good men’s prayers. Far away our own people, tempted by extreme wretchedness and misery, sold our rifles and ammunition to our natural enemies, the Manyema, the slave-traders’ true friends, without the least grace in either bodies or souls. What happy influence was it that restrained me from destroying all those concerned in it? Each time I read the story of Captain Nelson’s sufferings I feel vexed at my forbearance, and yet again I feel thankful, for a higher power than man’s severely afflicted the cold-blooded murderers by causing them to feed upon one another a few weeks after the rescue and relief of Nelson and Parkes. The memory of those days at times hardens and again unmans me. With the rescue of Pasha, poor old Casati, and those who preferred Egypt’s fleshpots to the coarse plenty of the province near Nyanza, we returned, and while we were patiently waiting the doom of the rebels was consummated.
“Since that time of anxiety and unhappy outlook I have been at the point of death from a dreadful illness. The strain had been too much, and for twenty-eight days I lay helpless, tended by the kindly and skillful hands of Surgeon Parkes. Then little by little I gathered strength, and ordered the march for home. Discovery after discovery in that wonderful region was made. Snowy ranges of the Ruevenzori (Cloud King or Rain-Creator), the Semliki River, the Albert Edward Nyanza, the plains of Noongora, the salt lakes of Kative, the new peoples Wakonju, great mountain dwellers of a rich forest region; the Awamba, the fine-featured Wazonira, the Wanyoro bandits, then the Lake Albert Edward tribes and the shepherd races of the Eastern Uplands, then the Wanyankori, besides the Wanyaruwamba and the Wazinya, until at last we came to a church whose cross dominated a Christian settlement, and we knew that we had reached the outskirts of blessed Civilization. We have every reason to be grateful, and may that feeling be ever kept within me. Our promises as volunteers have been performed as well as though we had been specially commissioned by the Government.
“We have been all volunteers, each devoting his several gifts, abilities, and energies to win a successful issue for the enterprise. If there has been anything that sometimes clouded our thoughts it has been that we were compelled by the state of Emin Pasha and his own people to cause anxieties to our friends by serious delay. At every opportunity I have endeavored to lessen these by despatching full accounts of our progress to the committee, that through them all interested might be acquainted with what we were doing. Some of my officers also have been troubled in thought that their Government might not overlook their having overstayed their leave; but the truth is, the wealth of the British treasury could not have hastened our march without making ourselves liable to impeachment for breach of faith, and the officers were as much involved as myself in doing the thing honorably and well. I hear there is great trouble, war, etc., between the Germans and Arabs of Zanzibar. What influence this may have on our fortune I do not know, but we trust nothing to interrupt our march to the sea, which will be begun in a few days.”
Stanley had been greatly hindered also by the suspicions of the natives. “It has been current talk in the provinces,” he says, “that we were only a party of conspirators and adventurers; that the letters of the Khedive and Nubar Pasha were forgeries concocted by the vile Christians, Stanley and Casati, assisted by the Mohammedan, Emin Pasha.”
It had also been generally doubted, after Stanley’s expedition had started, whether Emin Pasha might, after all, be in want of aid. On September 28th, 1887, this doubt was fully confirmed by a letter from him, dated April 17th of the same year, which represented him as saying: “I have passed twelve years here, and have succeeded in re-occupying nearly every station in the country which General Gordon entrusted to me. I have won the confidence of the people, sowing the seed of a splendid future civilization. It is out of the question to ask me to leave. All I want England to do is to make a free tradeway to the coast.” The various references to Emin in the recent letters of Stanley clearly show that the German was far from ready at first to accept Stanley’s escort to the east coast of Africa. And the letter of Emin Pasha to the President of the Emin Relief Committee, thanking the subscribers to the fund and the members of the fund for their generous help, which “saved a handful of forlorn ones from destruction,” conclusively establishes the fact that the acceptance of Stanley’s escort was but a compulsory matter at the last moment.
On the 12th of April, Stanley having somewhat recovered from his severe illness, and preparations having been fully completed for the march to the Indian Ocean, the united expedition left Kavalli on the Albert Nyanza. Of the experiences of the expedition on the homeward march, Lieutenant W. G. Stairs, in a letter under date Usambiro Mission Station, Victoria Nyanza, August 30th, 1889, says:
“I wrote you last from Yambuya. Our starvation periods, fighting, fevers and other trials would occupy pages. Directly on leaving Yambuya some had a bad fever. Then we got into countries without food, and lost men at a terrible rate. The natives shot a great many. When, on December 16th, 1887, we reached Albert Nyanza we had one hundred and seventy out of four hundred and fourteen men that left Yambuya. We could not then connect with Emin, and had to return one hundred and twenty miles west of Albert Nyanza. Here we built a strong fort, and I started back to a place two hundred and twenty-eight miles down the river to bring up our sick.
“Meantime Stanley and two of our officers went east to the lake and connected with the Pasha. Then our return march to Yambuya commenced. April 12th the united expedition left Kavallis on the Albert for the Indian Ocean. Our numbers were then one thousand one hundred and seventy-five. Now, on reaching here, Ursalala, we have about six hundred and seventy.