On the arrival of the steamer at Southampton our friends said good-bye to Mr. Stanley, with many wishes for his success in his new journey to the Dark Continent. In response to their friendly words Mr. Stanley made cordial expression of his pleasure at having made their acquaintance, which he hoped to renew about a year later, if all should go well with him and his expedition.
Mr. Stanley remained about three weeks in England, busily occupied with preparations for his journey, and making a hasty trip to Brussels to confer with King Leopold, who placed the Congo fleet and the property of the Congo State generally at the explorer's disposal. The supplies, ammunition, and other material were shipped from England direct to the Congo, and Mr. Stanley proceeded to Zanzibar, by way of Cairo, to engage men for the expedition. What he accomplished there is best told in the following letter from his pen:
NATIVE WAR DANCE.
"On arriving at Zanzibar I found our agent, Mr. Mackenzie, had managed everything so well, with the good offices of Mr. Holmwood, the acting consul-general, that the expedition was almost ready for embarkation. The steamer Madura, of the British India Steam Navigation Company, was in the harbor, provisioned and watered for the voyage. The goods for barter and transport animals were on board. There were a few things to be done, however; such as arranging with the famous Tippu-Tib about our line of conduct towards one another. Tippu-Tib is a much greater man to-day than he was in the year 1877, when he escorted my caravan, preliminary to our voyage down the Congo. He has invested his hard-earned fortune in guns and powder. Adventurous Arabs have flocked to his standard until he is now an uncrowned king of the region between Stanley Falls and Tanganika Lake, commanding many thousands of men inured to fighting and wild equatorial life. If I discovered hostile intentions in him my idea was to give him a wide berth, for the ammunition I had to convoy to Emin Pasha, if captured and employed by him, would endanger the existence of the infant State of the Congo, and imperil all our hopes. Between Tippu-Tib and Mwanga, King of Uganda, there was only a choice of the frying-pan and the fire. It was with due caution that I sounded Tippu-Tib on the first day of my arrival, and I found him fully prepared for any eventuality, to fight or to be employed. I chose the latter, and we proceeded to business. You will please understand that his aid was not required to enable me to reach Emin Pasha, or to show the road to Wadelay, or Lake Albert, which is a region he knows nothing about. There are four roads available from the Congo; two of them were in Tippu-Tib's power to close, the remaining two were clear of his influence. But Dr. Junker informed me at our Cairo interview that Emin Pasha had about seventy-five tons of ivory with him. So much ivory would amount to £60,000, at eight shillings per pound. The subscription of Egypt to the Emin Pasha Relief Fund is large for her present state of depressed finances. In this ivory we have a possible means of recouping the sum paid out of her treasury, with a large sum left towards defraying expenses, and perhaps leaving a handsome balance. Why not attempt the carriage of this ivory to the Congo? Accordingly I wished to engage Tippu-Tib and his people to assist me in conveying this ivory. After a good deal of bargaining I entered into a contract with him, by which he agreed to supply six hundred carriers at £6 per loaded head each round trip, from Stanley Falls to Lake Albert and back. Thus, if each carrier carries seventy pounds weight of ivory, one round trip will bring to the fund £13,200 net at Stanley Falls.
BREED OF CATTLE IN EMIN PASHA'S PROVINCE.
"On the conclusion of this contract, which was entered into in the presence of the British consul-general, I broached another subject with Tippu-Tib in the name of his majesty, King Leopold. Stanley Falls station was established by me in December, 1883. Various Europeans have since commanded this station, and Lieutenant Wester, of the Swedish army, had succeeded in making it a well-ordered and presentable station. Captain Deane, his successor, however, quarrelled with the Arabs, and at his forced departure from the scene set fire to the station and blew up the Krupps. The object for which the station was established was the prevention of the Arabs from pursuing their devastating career below the falls—not so much by force as by tact, or, rather, the happy combination of both. By the retreat of the officers of the State from Stanley Falls the flood-gates were opened and the Arabs pressed down the river. Tippu-Tib being, of course, the guiding-spirit of the Arabs west of Tanganika Lake, it was advisable to see how far his aid might be secured to check this stream of Arabs from destroying the country. After the interchange of messages by cable with Brussels, on the second day of my stay at Zanzibar, I signed an engagement with Tippu-Tib by which he was appointed Governor of Stanley Falls, at a regular salary, paid monthly at Zanzibar to the British consul-general's hands. His duties will be principally to defend Stanley Falls in the name of the State against all Arabs and natives. The flag of the station will be that of the State. At all hazards he is to defeat and capture all persons raiding the territory for slaves, and to disperse all bodies of men who may be justly suspected of violent designs. He is to abstain from all slave-traffic below the falls himself, and to prevent all in his command from trading in slaves. In order to insure a faithful performance of his engagements with the State, a European officer is to be appointed Resident at the falls. A breach of any article in the contract being reported, the salary is to cease.
LADO, CAPITAL OF EGYPTIAN EQUATORIAL PROVINCE.
"Meantime, while I was engaged in these negotiations, Mr. Mackenzie had paid four months' advance wages to six hundred and twenty men and boys enlisted in the relief expedition, and as fast as each batch of fifty men was satisfactorily paid, a barge was hauled alongside, the men were duly embarked, and a steam-launch towed the barge to the transport. By three p.m. all hands were on board, and the steamer moved off to a more distant anchorage. By midnight Tippu-Tib and his people and every person connected with the expedition were on board, and at day-break next day, the 25th of February, the anchor was lifted, and we steamed away towards the Cape of Good Hope.
SCHOOLI WARRIOR, EGYPTIAN EQUATORIAL PROVINCE.
"So far there has not been a hitch in any arrangement. Difficulties have been smoothed as if by magic. Everybody has shown the utmost sympathy and been prompt with the assistance required. The officers of the expedition were kept fully employed from morning to evening at laborious tasks connected with the repacking of the ammunition for Emin Pasha's force. Letters were also sent by myself to Emin Pasha, acquainting him with our mission and the probable time of our arrival at Lake Albert, with directions as to the locality we should aim for. Tippu-Tib likewise sent couriers to Stanley Falls to acquaint his people of his departure by sea round the Cape to the Congo, with orders to concentrate in readiness at the falls."
