The London “Advertiser” of the date last mentioned also published a long leading article upon the subject, beginning:
“In another column we publish the first letter from Dr. Livingstone which has been received in England. By the energy of the proprietor of the New York ‘Herald’ the great English traveller has been found and succored at a moment when he seemed to be upon his ‘last legs.’ In his own words, when Stanley arrived at Ujiji, ‘he thought he was dying upon his feet.’”
The London “Standard” of July 26th remarked with emphasis:
“All doubts concerning the bona fides of Mr. Stanley’s narratives of his adventures in Africa will now be laid at rest by the arrival of Dr. Livingstone’s letters. We shall, apparently, have to wait a little for the publication of the geographical despatches, as the report of an intended meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday for the purpose of hearing them read is unfounded. But it is satisfactory to feel that even the very faint suspicions cast on the authenticity of Mr. Stanley’s story are dissipated, and that we may absolutely rely upon the information which that gallant and triumphant traveller has brought home.”
The Manchester (England) “Guardian” of July 29th, in an elaborate article in criticism of the English authorities because they had not organized a successful expedition, and had given the great explorer just cause for complaint, says the subject is one “which can be matter of no agreeable examination for any Englishman.” And it concludes:
“Our magnificently equipped expedition did simply nothing; and it was reserved for Mr. Stanley, after his return to the coast, to organize a caravan with stores for Dr. Livingstone. ‘Before we left Zanzibar,’ says Mr. New, ‘a caravan numbering fifty-seven men was packed, signed, sealed, addressed, and despatched, like so many packets of useful commodities, to the service and succor of Dr. Livingstone.’ What says England to all this?”
The Leeds (England) “Mercury” of the date last mentioned remarks:
“The success of Mr. Stanley in his search for Dr. Livingstone is one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of newspaper enterprise. The expedition was an unprecedented one, and when it was first reported in this country there were few who did not laugh at it as a Yankee notion, conceived and started for the glorification of the New York ‘Herald’ and to gratify the vanity of Mr. James Gordon Bennett. The result has shown not only how little there was to laugh at, but how much there was to admire in such a project.”
The journals of continental Europe were not less emphatic in awarding unmixed praise to the successful expedition of the American journal, and Geographical Societies, from Italy to Russia, awarded gold medals to Mr. Stanley in recognition of his services in behalf of geographical knowledge.
Earl Granville, upon the receipt of Dr. Livingstone’s despatches, forwarded from Paris by Mr. Stanley, directed an official acknowledgment, which was as follows: