Undoubtedly there will be a rich harvest of information concerning the country lying between the Congo and Lake Albert Edward, and also between the lakes and the coast. I think Stanley was right in his decision to go around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Congo rather than to push his heavily-laden caravan through the mountains and the hostile country between the lakes and the Zanzibar coast. Not one of the least advantages of the trip will be the fact that he has brought Emin Bey back with him to civilization, where it is hoped that this learned, enthusiastic and successful student of the races and the natural history of the country in which he has so long been a voluntary exile will be content to remain and give to the world some of the valuable stores of knowledge, to obtain which came so near costing him his life.
The Boston Transcript, in a late issue, says:
An experience like that which Stanley went through in Africa, and of which he sends the world a graphic and harrowing account, is well calculated to awaken all the latent piety in a brave man’s nature. Men who war with nature and with barbarous peoples, and who pass through narrow escapes and dreadful emergencies, are always the last to assert that they themselves performed the wonders which they witness. Stanley has pretty well established a claim to greatness in this last African venture of his, and it is not strange to those who have read history to find him exclaiming, with many other men of great force and genius: “There was a Divinity that hedged me about.”
Captain O’Kane, Commander of the U. S. Steamer Boston, says:
I consider Mr. Stanley’s expedition a marvellous one, and his successful arrival at the coast an achievement of which the world—and particularly America—may be proud.
Mr. Stanley has now opened to civilizing influences the last important unexplored region of the world, and all future ages will applaud and honor him for it.
Stanley on arriving at Cairo, Egypt, on January 14th, met with a great and notable reception at the station from Sir Evelyn Baring, General Sir Francis Grenfell, Acting United States Consul Grant, and others. He went to the Khedive’s palace in state, and made an official call on him lasting half an hour, and was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Medjidich, a very distinguished honor. He also here received an officer bearing a special letter of congratulation from King Leopold of Belgium.
“Throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, and the same may be said of Europe and the rest of the civilized world, the name of Stanley is on every tongue. On the streets, in the clubs, wherever men congregate, the one theme of conversation is Stanley, his wonderful achievements and his modesty, as illustrated in his letter to the ‘Herald,’ which is on all sides held to be a masterpiece and to stamp its author as a truly great man.”—London Cablegram to N. Y. Herald.
The Worshipful Company of Turners, of London, at a banquet held on the evening of December 5th, received the following telegram from the King of the Belgians:
I understand you will, as Master for the second year of the Worshipful Company of Turners, propose at their annual dinner the health of your illustrious honorary member, Mr. Henry M. Stanley. Let me, as an honorary member of the Worshipful Company, a title I am proud to possess, assure you beforehand how cordially and gladly I join the Turners in all their expressions of admiration of the unparalleled and heroic services rendered by our friend Stanley to science and civilization in that vast continent, in the discovery of which he has taken so great a share.