Now while Livingstone is struggling foot-sore, sick, dejected, almost deserted, back to Ujiji on the Lake Tanganyika, for rest, for medicine, for news from home, after he has been lost for five long years, and after repeated rumors of his death had been sent from Zanzibar to England, what is taking place in the outside world?
On October 16, 1869, Henry M. Stanley, a correspondent of the New York Herald, was at Madrid in Spain. On that date he received a dispatch from James Gordon Bennett, owner of the Herald, dated Paris. It read, “Come to Paris on important business.”
With an American correspondent’s instinct and promptitude, Mr. Stanley knocked at Mr. Bennett’s door on the next night.
“Who are you?” asked Bennett.
“Stanley,” was the reply.
“Yes; sit down. Where do you think Livingstone is?”
“I do not know sir.”
“Well, I think he is alive and can be found. I am going to send you to find him.”
“What! Do you really think I can find Livingstone? Do you mean to send me to Central Africa?”
“Yes, I mean you shall find him wherever he is. Get what news you can of him. And, may be he is in want. Take enough with you to help him. Act according to your own plans. But—find Livingstone.”