HOW I FOUND LIVINGSTONE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 568, 7 March 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW I FOUND LIVINGSTONE.

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Mr. Stanley’s narrative ofliissearch after and discovery of Livingstone is its full of romance and strange and perilous adventure as any fairy tale Of Arthurian legend: albeit the romance here is all fact, the hero no knight of the Hound Table, bnt that prosaic creature “ a special correspondent." and theimposer of the “quest” do god- like king, but the proprietor and editor of a New York Daily paper. Mr. Stanley makes light of his own share in the achievement- He was bound, no says, to be at the beck and call .of the journal he had the honor to serve, to proceed to any quarter olthe globe whenever the order Came. When the order did come he had only the alternative to go or to resign. This may be all very true, but readers of this book will bo no more likely to loric on its author merely in the light of a trustworthy and serviceable instrument than did, we take it, Mr. James Gordon Bennett himself. Doubtless he knew the metal of the man he had to deal with, the heroism that no danger could daunt, the happy combination of tact and firmness, amounting to genius in its way, which alone could have enabled to triumph over the obstacles and difficulties that beset bis path from first to last. It was a splendid work splendidly done, and whilst we rejoice in the triumphant issue which has c owned Mr. Stanley’s undertaking, it would ill become us to omit to offer our tribute of acknowledgment and pnisa to thuse qualities in him which have made success possible. It would be out of the question in the space at the command of any newspaper critic to attempt anything iu the nature of a detailed resume of such a book as this, extending to close upon seven hundred pages, nor could wo hope to make such a resume intelligible without the aid of the excellent inapi and plans which illustrate the work. To convey to our readers some general idea of the leading features of this strange and thrilling history is all that we shall venture on. ‘Wo all know by this time the tale of how the “ quest” was imposed, how Mr. Stanley was summoned by telegraph in Lot haste from Madrid to Baris; and then told to find Livingstone, to spend as much money as might be necessary in the work, but at all cost to find Livingstone, But Mr. James Gordon Bennett was an editor, and editor of a newspaper which he had resolved to make the new.-paper of the world ; so his special corres undent in Central Africa was to do a little business cn route. He was to go pretty well through the terra ve.teribus nota —visit the Suez Canal and the Nile, take a look at Jerusalem, Constantinople, and the graves iu the Crimea, thence over the Caucassus into Persia ; send an interesting letter about Persepolis, and see how the land lies as regards the Euphrates Valley Railway Then via Bagdad and Bombay to Zanzibar, the only starting point from which one con II hope to strike the trail of the lost explnrec. So it was not until Janu ary Gth, 1671, that Mr. Stanley arrived at Zanzibar, “ the Bagdad, the Ispahan, the Stamboul, if you like, of Fast Africa,"as he calls if. There his difficulties began with organising the search, expeditmn. Everything that the traveller in Eastern and Central Afiica is likely to want must be earned with him, and a large part ofl.is necessaries are the cloth, the beads, and the wire which shall pay for the services rendered, buy meat, mi Ik, and bread, and serve for “ honga ” or tri bate, to (he potentate through whose territories he may have to pass. Money is useless, and as neither waggons "or beasts of burden are to be hired his means of conveyance are restricted to miked negroes. But after much delav and vexation, all the initial difficulties were surmounted; (he “ pagazis ” or carriers, and the armed men to net as escort, were obtained, and on the 21st March Mr. Stanley left. Bagamoyo, the port on the mainhum from which his journey westward to Ujiji on the Tanganika was to commence. The whole expedition, and force numbered one hundred and ninety two souls, and as deputies, Mr. Stanley had two Englishmen, Shaw and Familiar, who had applied for permission to join him at Zanzibar, and a very useless pair of scoundrels they proved themselves And now began those toilsome wanderings of all bu■ eight months’ duration, which wore to lead to Livingstone. The route taken by Mr. Stanley had hitherto lieen un travel led by white men, and lay among tribes of uncouth and hai-l amis names, which it is hardly possible to fix in the memory—Wagogos, VVaroris, Wanyamwezis, WaseguhliAS, and Wasagarus—most of teem, however, kindly and well disposed to their visitors, and hardly any positively hostile except in getting every inch of “ doti ” or cloth that could be squeesed out of them as tribute. Before the expedition had proceeded far on its way a plague of stinging flies rendered life hideous, and (hen came an even more formidalie evil. The African rains commenced, and the valley of the M ika--11 river which lay in the route, and had to be crossed, was a mere swamp, —a sea of deep, clinging mud, Shaw was sick, writes Mr. Stanley, in describing the scene, and the whole duty nf driving the foundering caravan dcvlved upon myself. The Wanynmwesi donkeys stuck in the mire, as if

they were rooted to it. As fast as one was flogged from his stubborn position prone to the depths fell another, giving me a Sispyhean labour, which was maddening under pelting rain, assisted by such men as Bombay and Uleli, who could not for a whole skin’s sake stomach the storm and mire. L'wo hours of such a tisk enabled mo to drag my caravan over a savannah one mile and a half broad ; and barely had I finished congratulating myself over my success before I was halted by a deep ditch, which, filled with rainwater from the inundated savannahs, had become a considerable stream, breast deep, flowing swiftly into the Makata. Donkeys had to be uu oaded, led through a torrent, and loaded again on the other bank an operation which consumed a full hour. On the 23rd of June Kwik*ru was roacbed, which with the neighbour town Taborah appears to be the chief seat of the Arab settlement in Unyxnembe. This was a sort of half-way house between the coast and Ujiji, and here Mr. Stanley proposed to stay a while, and alow his followers to r’st and refresh themselves. But here his troubles waxed thick War broke oul between the Arabs of Unyanembe and a negro chief called Mirambo of Uyoweh, who with his alli“s possessed the districts through which lau the direct route to Ujiji, so that the passage was barred. As the Arabs made great protestations of their ability to boat Mirambo, and so open the road, Mr. Stanley determined to stay and help them with his own breech-loaders, and his followers’ muskets, as victory in such an enterprise would be the nearest way of getting at Livingstone, and besides, he felt he owed some return for the kindness and hospitality with which he had been received. But after one or two encounters, it became clear that Mirambo had much the best of it; if he was to lie beaten at all it would not be for months. So Mr. Stanley, who was during most of this time prostrate with intermittent fever, had to decide between giving up the expedition, as impossible for the time, and returning to the coast re infect a, or attempting to turn the flatk of the hostile territories, and so reach the Tanganikaand Ujiji. He vowed that nothing but death should turn him off his quest, and on the 20th September, weak and suffering as he was, and in spite of the remonstrances and all hut mutiny of his men, he broke forth from Unyanembe towards the south, hurried on to Ukononjo, then westward to Kawendi—we must perforce content ourselves with giving the barren results—then northward to Uvinza, then westward to Ujiji, and there on the 10th of November, 1871, the 239 th day from Bagamoyo on the coast, and the 51st day from Unyanembe, after enduring labour, danger, and sufferings which many a brave man would have held ample justification tor faint ing and turning back in his course—finis coronal opus. All of us know the story of the triumphant entry into Ujiji with guns firing salutes, and the American flag displayed, the greeting, “ Dr. Livingstone, I presume,” and the rest of it. But to feel what the scene was to Mr. Stanley, we mustread it as Mr. Stanley tells it iu these pages It is a true climax to the eventful drama, and is admirably brought before ns. For some weeks Mr Stanley remained as Dr Livingstone’s guest at Ujiji, and had heard from himan account ofhisexplorations in the Lake regions of Rua and Manyema, west of the Tanganika Lake, which had led him to entertain the confident belief that ho had discovered the true souice of the Nile in the river Chambesi, about lldeg. S. latitude. Upon this point, however, we shall not enter here, as it is treated of at length in those despatches of Dr. Livingstone’s which have been already published, and are probably familiar to such of our readers as are interested in the matter, while the uninitiated would be simply bewildered by a string of names of lakes and rivers, from which, without the accompanying maps they would get no idea whatever. The “ great master” and the “ little master,” as the natives called Livingstone and Stanley, spent part of their time in an expedition lourd the upper portion of Tanganika, in which, and by proving that the Rusizi River is an influent into the lake, not an affluent from it, they were able to set at rest a question which it seems has much exercised the souls of the Royal Geographical Society. On December 27, the friends left Ujiji for Unyanembe, sailing to the north of Tanganika by canoes for the first part of the journey At Unyanebe the Doctor would receive a large supp'y of the goods needful for his travels, and Mr. Stanley, hurrying down to the coast, would send him up a force of fifty or sixty faithful men well armed, and with the goods and this escort it was hoped that the work of exploration of the Lake Regions, already so near y achieved, might be brought to a successful issue. So on March 24, 1872, the parting came; Mr. Stanley goes eastward, after receiving from Livingstone’s hands his journal containing the full story of his explorations, and the conclusion they had led him to, and his despatches and letters. These precious documents had, however, a very narrow escape of coming to grief in the terrible Makata swamp. On the 13th of April, the Mukendukwa, a river that debouches into the plain of Makata, was reached in the homeward road. The river was swollen by heavy rains, for the Masika

or rainy season was at its height. It was too deep to ford in the middle ; but the travellers proceeded to cut down a tree, and so craurived that it should fall right across the stream The scene that followed is represented iu our engraving. “Over this fallen tree,” says Mr. Stanley. “ the men bestriding it, cautiously moved before them their bales and boxes; but one young fellow, named Rojab, whether through over-zeal or in sheer madnes- 1 , took up the Doctor’s box which contained his letters uud journal of his discoveries, on his head ( and started into the river I had been the first to arrive at the opposite bank, in order to superintend the crossing, when I caught sight of this man walking in he river with the most precious box of all on his head. Suddenly he fell into a deep hole, and th • man and box went almost out of sight; while I was iu an agony at the fate which threat ened the despatches. Foitunatoly he recovered himself and stood up; while 1 shouted to him with a loaded revol ver pointed at his head, ‘Look out; drop that box, and I’ll shoot you.’All the men halted in their work while they gazed on their comrade who was thus imperilled by bullet and flood. The man himself seemed to regard the pistol with the greatest awe, at: d after a few desperate efforts succeeded iu getting die box safely ashore.”

It is needless to recommend a book like this, which is certainly to be eagerly devoured by everyone who can get hold of it ; we will, therefore, only say that Mr. Stanley’s pen is as facile and flowing as his heart i- courageous, and that the story of his adventures, perils, and final triumph in his search after Livingstone suffers no drawback from any tedionsness or chuusi .ess in the telling.- -Graphic.