From these different quotations, taken from Mr. Stanley’s recent book, we have a right to infer, that the interests of missions were prominent in his mind throughout his journey. Indeed, his book indicates that he was not only governed by a desire to complete the explorations commenced by Dr. Livingstone, but also to further the missionary endeavors of that godly man. This was evidenced first on his arrival at Uganda on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza, where he wrote the following: “A barbarous man is a pure materialist, he is full of cravings for possessing something that he cannot describe. My experience and study of the pagan, prove to me, that if a missionary can show the poor materialist that religion is allied with substantial benefits and improvement of his degraded condition, the task will be rendered comparatively easy. The African, once brought in contact with the European, becomes docile and imbued with a vague hope that he may also rise in time to the level of this superior being who has challenged his admiration. He comes to him with a desire to be taught, and, seized with an ambition to aspire to a higher life, becomes docile and tractable.” “I find them,” he says, elsewhere, “capable of great love and affection, and possessed of gratitude and other traits of human nature. I know, too, that they can be made good, obedient, industrious, enterprising, true and moral—that they are in short, equal to any other race or color on the face of the globe in all the attributes of manhood.”
King Mtesa, the despotic ruler over 2,000,000 of people, appeared to Mr. Stanley the most desirable object for his first efforts. “Mtesa has impressed me,” he says, “as being an intelligent and distinguished prince, who, if aided by philanthropists, will do more for Central Africa than fifty years of gospel teaching, unaided by such authority, can do. I think I see in him the light that shall lighten the darkness of this benighted region. In this man I see the possible fruition of Livingstone’s hopes, for with his aid the civilization of equatorial Africa becomes feasible.” Mr. Stanley further informs us how he followed up his convictions: “Since the 5th of April, I had enjoyed ten interviews with Mtesa, and during all, I had taken occasion to introduce topics which would lead up to the subject of Christianity. Nothing occurred in my presence, but I contrived to turn it towards effecting that which had become an object to me, viz., his conversion. There was no attempt made to confuse him with the details of any particular doctrine. I simply drew for him the image of the Son of God humbling himself for the good of all mankind, white and black, and told him how, while He was in man’s disguise, He was seized and crucified by wicked people who scorned his divinity, and yet, out of His great love for them, while yet suffering on the cross, He asked His great Father to forgive them. I had also begun to translate to him the Ten Commandments, and Idi, the Emperor’s writer, transcribed in Kiganda the words of the Law, as given to him in choice Swahili by Robert Feruzi, one of my boat’s crew, and a pupil of the Universities’ Mission at Zanzibar.”
“The religious conversations which I had begun with Mtesa, were maintained in the presence of M. Linant de Bellefonds, who, fortunately for the cause I had in view, was a Protestant. For, when questioned by Mtesa, about the facts which I had uttered, and which had been faithfully transcribed, M. Linant, to Mtesa’s astonishment, employed nearly the same words, and delivered the same responses. The remarkable fact that two white men, who had never met before, one having arrived from the south-east, the other having emerged from the north, should nevertheless both know the same things, and respond in the same words, charmed the popular mind without the burzah as a wonder, and was treasured in Mtesa’s memory as being miraculous. As the result of these conversations, Mtesa, who can read Arabic, caused the Ten Commandments of Moses to be written on a board for his daily perusal, as well as the Lord’s Prayer and the command of the Saviour, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’”
The encouragement given to Mr. Stanley by his success with Mtesa, caused him to send forth his famous appeal, resulting in the establishment of a mission station at Uganda by the Church Missionary Society of London. He seems, also, to have pursued his work during his stay of several months with Mtesa. Meanwhile, an opportunity was afforded him of testing the genuineness of Mtesa’s conversion. The Wavuma were waging fearful warfare upon Mtesa, during which, his scouts succeeded in capturing one of their principal chiefs. Mtesa was in high glee, and caused to be gathered a large quantity of fagots with which to burn his prisoner. “Now, Stamlee,” he said, “you shall see how a chief of Uvuma dies. He is about to be burnt. The Wavuma will tremble when they hear the manner of his death.” “Ah! Mtesa,” I said, “have you forgotten the words of the good Book, which I have read to you so often—If thy brother offend thee, thou shalt forgive him many times,—Love thy enemies,—Do good to them that hate you?” “Shall this man not die, Stamlee? Shall I not have blood for him, Stamlee?”—“No, Mtesa, no more blood; you must stop this pagan way of thinking. It is not Mtesa the good. It is not Mtesa the Christian. It is the savage; I know you now.” “Stamlee, Stamlee, wait a short time and you shall see.” “An hour afterward, I was summoned by a page to his presence, and Mtesa said: ‘Stamlee will not say Mtesa is bad now, for he has forgiven the Mvuma Chief, and will not hurt him.’”
Mr. Stanley, however, though he had translated for Mtesa the Gospel of St. Luke entire, prepared for him an abridged Bible, selected a site for a church, and detailed the boy Dallington—a pupil of the Universities’ Mission at Zanzibar—to remain at Uganda and serve as a missionary, did not feel that he had provided sufficiently for the spiritual wants of his convert. “A few months’ talk,” he says, “about Christ and His blessed work on earth, though sufficiently attractive to Mtesa, is not enough to eradicate the evils which thirty-five years of brutal, sensuous indulgence have stamped on the mind. This, only the unflagging zeal, the untiring devotion to duty, and the paternal watchfulness of a sincerely pious pastor, can effect. And it is because I am conscious of the insufficiency of my work, and his strong evil propensities, that I have not hesitated to describe the real character of my ‘convert.’ The grand redeeming feature of Mtesa, though founded only on self-interest, is his admiration for white men. By his remarks, he proved he had a very retentive memory, and was tolerably well posted in his articles of belief. At night I left him, with an earnest adjuration to hold fast to the new faith, and to have recourse to prayer to God, to give him strength to withstand all temptations that should tend to violate the Commandments written in the Bible.”
Mr. Stanley’s long intercourse with the tribes of the interior enabled him to discover many traits of character that indicate the aptitude of the negro to receive religious truth. On one occasion, he had dwelt a long while in giving account of great works of art and science, commerce, agriculture, and material wealth; when he turned to the discussion of the grand themes of Scripture and Divinity, the interest in the latter subject was so intense that Mr. Stanley determined to devote himself, with renewed energy, to the promulgation of the doctrines of the Christian faith, discovering—what others had learned before—that the negro has a remarkable appreciation of the things of religion. He gives an incident, which occurred at Mowa Falls, on the Livingstone River, that displayed a quality of heart very suggestive to those interested in the salvation of the pagan.
Uledi, the faithful coxswain who had dared every danger, and proved dutiful and faithful for years and months, having robbed the Expedition of a quantity of beads, a council of chiefs was called, and the question was submitted as to what his punishment should be. One of the most reliable and steady men replied, “Well, master, it is a hard question. Uledi is like our elder brother, and to give our voice for punishing him, would be like asking you to punish ourselves; yet, master, for our sakes beat him only just a little.” Mr. Stanley then inquired of Shumari, who was Uledi’s brother, what punishment he should meet to the thief. “Ah, dear master,” Shumari said, “it is true Uledi has stolen, and I have scolded him often for it. I have never stolen. I am but a boy. Uledi is my elder. But please, master, as the chiefs say he must be flogged, give me half of it, and, knowing it is for Uledi’s sake, I shall not feel it.” “Now, Saywa, you are his cousin. What do you say?” Young Saywa advanced and said, “The master is wise. All things that happen he writes in a book. Perhaps, if the master will look in his book, he may see something in it about Uledi—how he has saved many men, whose names I cannot remember, from the river; how he worked harder on the canoes than any three men; how he has been the first to listen to your voice always. Uledi is my cousin. If, as the chiefs say, Uledi should be punished, Shumari says he will take half of the punishment; then, give Saywa the other half, and set Uledi free. Saywa has spoken.” It would seem that persons with such instincts as these indicated above, would readily come to appreciate and accept the sacrifice of Him by whose stripes we are healed.
A thorough perusal of Mr. Stanley’s “Through the Dark Continent” can hardly fail to arouse in the hearts of those yearning to heal “that open sore of the world,” sympathy and fellowship with him. He had his imperfections, and met with obstacles which brought them sharply into view; but the good he accomplished will be the longest remembered. His noble self-denial, after reaching the West Coast, as seen in his fidelity to his pagan followers, indicates characteristics worthy of profound admiration. Instead of leaving their conduct round the Cape of Good Hope to Zanzibar to the charge of others, and rushing on himself, to receive the plaudits of the proudest courts of the civilized world, he quietly and patiently cared for all their wants, for weary months, returning them to their homes and friends, and rewarding them with the liberality of a father’s affection, which will be lovingly remembered among the tribes from whence his servants came, long after his rich and costly gifts of material things have perished.
All this will be worth something yet to the cause of missions. “When we were gliding,” he says, “through the broad portals [of the Congo] into the ocean, turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty river, I felt my heart suffused with the purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, and who had enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, and to trace its mightiest river to its ocean bourn.” That gratitude, we believe, is shared by a mighty host of the followers of Him who shall have dominion from sea to sea—who are already echoing the last words of Mr. Stanley’s book—Laus Deo, Laus Deo.