Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8. 1890 STANLEY'S RETURN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2323, 8 January 1890, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8. 1890 STANLEY'S RETURN.

News by the San Francisco mail gives us some very interesting particulars with reference to the great African explorer, relating that the " New York Herald " relief party met fctanley on the 29th November. He was accompanied by Emm Pasha, Oassato, Stairs, Jepbson, Dr Parker, Nelson and Bonney and 510 men women and children. All his European companions were well except Casaato whose constitution is, it is said, quite undermined by the hardships he has experienced. Even upon Stanley j himself, man of iron as he is, the strain has told, for while he is reported as looking hearty it is added that his hair is quite white. His forthcoming book, " How I relieved Emm," will be read with avidity, for it is sure to be full of " hair-breadth 'scapes and moving accidents by flood and field;" and meantime some faint idea of the tremendous experiences whioh he has gone through may be gathered from his letter from Mpwapwa to the British consulate at Zanzibar dated on November 14—just a fortnight before meeting the " Herald " relief party. In that letter he says :— We arrived yesterday, the 25th day from the Victoria Nyanza, and the 18 th day from the Albert Nyanza. We number altogether about 750 souls. At the last muster, three days ago, Emm Pasha's people numbered^ 294, of whom 59 were children, mostly the orphans of Egyptian officers. Since leaving the Victoria Nyanza we have lost 18 of the Pasha's people and one native of Zanzibar, who were killed while we-were parleying with hostile people. Every other expedition I have led has seen a lightening of our labors as we drew ne»r the sea, but I cannot say the same of this one. Our long string of hammock bearers tells a different tale, and until we place these poor things on shipboard there will be no rest for us. The worst of it is that we have no privilege of showing you at Zanzibar the full extent of our labors. After carrying some of them 1000 miles, fighting to right and left of the sick, driving the Masais from their prey over range after range of mountains, with every energy on the full strain, they slip through our hands, aud die in their hammocks. One lady, seventy-five years old, the mother of the Vakiel, died in this manner north of TJsakautna. South of the Victoria Nyanza we had a stirring time for four days. We had continuous fighting during the greater part of the daylight hours. The foolish natives took an unaccountable prejudice to Ernin Pasha's people. They insisted that they w«9 cannibals, and had gone to their country for no good. Talking to them was of no use, and any attempt to disprove drove them into a white hot rage." But, more suo, he has surmounted these, as he has time and again surmounted all, troubles »nd dangers, ana he brings back with him not only the great man to whose relief he was despatched and hundreds of Emm's people, but also stores of information of the highest scientific and commercial value, Among other things he has added greatly to what was previously known of the great lakes of the interior. He writes : — "We have made an unexpected dis covery of real value in Africa of the considerable extension of the Victorian Nyanza to the south-west. The utmost southerly reach of this extension is in 8. lat. 20deg. 47min,, which brings the Victorian sea within 105 miles only from Lake Tanganyika. I was so certain that this fact was known through the many voyages of the church missionaries at Uganda that I did not fell particularly moved by it. Mr Mackay } however, showed me the latest maps published by the Society, and I saw that no one had even a suspicion of it. On the road here I made a rough sketch of it, and I find that the area of the great lake is now increased by this discovory to 26,900 square miles, which is just about 1900 square miles larger than the reputed exaggerations of Captain Speke. Tbe coast line as drawn in the map reaily consists mainly of a series of large ! mountainous islands, many of which are well peopled, which overlap one another South of these islands is a large body of water. I bjive just discovered that Lake Urigi also, which Speke so slightly sketched, turns out to be a very respectable lake, with populated islands in it." This, however, is only one item of tbe wonderful budget of news which will be unfolded in his book, we may depend, and once more will this intrepid man prove tbe light-bringer to the dark continent, and the harbinger of its advance in civilisation. Well then may he be welcomed back, and richly does he deserve tjie honors wljich will, doubtless, be showered upon him. Of his safe arrival at Bagamoyo and afterwards at Zanzibar, we read that— " Stanley and Emm made their triumphal entry into Bagamoyo on Wednes day, Dee 4. the town was decorated with bunting, all tbe vessels in the roadstead were handsomely bedecked, and there was feasting on the men-of-war and on shore to welcome the travellers. Stanley and Emm arrived at Zanzibar on Friday, Dec 6, on board the German warship Sperber. Emm's people came oil board the British man-of-war. Era » brought with bim two hundred and eighty-three officers, soldiers and civil servants, and three women and children ; but neither he nor Stanley had a single tusk of ivory, all the latter being burnt, or deposited with native chiefs." The " London Times" says that both Stanley and Emm Bey will enter the service of the British East African Company, and that Stanley will undertake the administration of affairs. In j the opinion of that journal, he might be quite willing to become a British subject.