STANLEY'S TALE OF LIVINGSTONE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1329, 1 November 1872, Page 2

STANLEY'S TALE OF LIVINGSTONE.

Before a brilliant audience at Brighton, including the cream of London scientific circles, and, at the head of all, the Imperial. Family of France, Mr Stanley, the discoverer of. Livingstone, gave a most interesting and animated account of his . great enterprise. His opening remarks were extempore, and were "characterised by :, a rollicking good nature, mixed, with. a strain of sententious talk that' won the;sympathy of his hearers; In this style; ; - and before proceeding to read the paper ? which. he had prepared for the Geographical Society, " A

Mr Stanley: said— " I consider myself { in the light of a troubadour, to ; relate' "to :' J you the tale of an old man who is tramping onward to discover the source pf the ' . Nileftb^tellyou that I found tjiat old man at Ujiji ; to tell you of his woes and " sufferings, and how he bore his misfpr- V ttfnes. Before I started for Central Africa I knew nothing of that great broad ' tract in the centre of the African con.v*** tinenfc My duty led me to the fields of journalism ; my duty carried me faraway . from Central Africa. If I had ever. ' '. dreamt that I should visit the heart of Africa I should have smiled, at myself! Jflow., while I was follqwing my duties at r; Madrid, I received a telegram to come to ; Paris on important business. I went, and I found Mr James Gordon Bennett , the younger, of the Neiv York Herald, I found him in bed. 1 knocked at his door. He said, 'Come in,' and then demanded my name. 'My name is Stanley. ' ' Oh ! you are the man I want. Do you know where Livingstone is V •'- 1: „ declare to you Ido not.' (Laughter!:) '.i. fDo you suppose he ia alive V 'I really' don't know.' ' What do you th}n£ of IF V I replied, 'It passes all my cotnprehen-r sion.' (Laughter.) * Well, I think he is" • alive, and I want you to find him.' ri (Laughter.) I thought it was a most gigantic task, but I dared not say 'Ifa', to! Mr Bennett. I answered, 'If yon, send me. 'to Central Africa I shall go there.' (Loud cheers.) He said, ' Well, - go. I believe he is alive, and you can find him.' I said, 'Mr Bennett, have you the least idea how much that little journey will cost? (Laughter.) TJhe' ,V . Burtonand Speke expedition cost between- • "-. L3OOO and L4OOO ; are you ready to incur \'-'- --that expense V. Mr Bennett responded— wr : ' Draw LIOOO, and when that is finished, '.' draw another L 100 0; when that is.dqne.,-, draw another, LI 000 j and when you, haye" got rid of that draw another a.nd another.' ' . : (Cheera.) When I was in such a position ... , what" was Itodo ?' I saw he was deter- ".-,' mined I should go and find Dr Living- ', stone, and I knew he would take no a,p.<v . : logics or excuses, so I said, *Wh»i ■ -;' it is open to poor hum^n nature to ds~' I will do,.' ..ibid yon gqqd nigbi.'., (Laughter "and cheers.} Sfow, ladies a^c( ii ' gentlemen, J had never read an,y b,oflk on Central Africa, an.d indeed . I. thpught Dr Livingstone a myth. I knew books and newspapers had said much of him, arid V that all peqple gloried in him ; yet % h>4 a donb.t of his being alivb.' Before J started on my mission I had to give at, description of the opening pf the Sues Canal, and then I had to visit the vast ■..'.'. temple of Solomon underground. (Mr ,~.m Stanley then mentioned other duties he ?■- --had to discharge, which included journeys to the Dead Sea, Caucasus, Persia, Bagdad, the Euphrates Valley, - and other places.) When L reached Zanzibar I began to study books on Central Africa, and to draw up an estimate of the cost of : - my expedition in search of Dr Livingstone; I first put it dowg aj|oo#aoK i : but I l^ad %o. inpre.asp i<; several 'timei ' until it reached 20, OOQdojs," Mr Stanley |hen related the difljculty he hftd in learn» ..-.-.■■ ing the names of the ourrenpy among the natives in trading, and iow he asked every Arab he met whether a white man • had been seen in the country, and the .>; conflicting information he received on the subject. One said he saw one at TJjiji, and he was very fat and fond of rice. Another said a white, man ; had been wounded when he was engaged in hunt^ ing, When I got to Unyany^mbft-^tt^ ._ great central' depots of the ', Arabs— l asked the governor where the 'fat man' was. He said he lived at Ujiji somewhere, and is, 'a great eater of butter,' V (Laughter.) I thought that wan gqpdnews. J said_, ?Do you think he is aliye ?• . -.; f Oh ! great' master, I'd'orft say he : alive; because there had been war there.' He said he had divined on the Koran, and found Livingstone was dead. Now, my. next point was Ujiji from. Unyanyetnbe. \ had never be^n in jSfore | there we^e no railroads, no telegraphs, no balloons, and there was a war raging in the country. First, I must cut 'VI niy way through this war country. We went on for two days, but on the third . day we made a most disgraceful retreat. (Laughter.) All my men deserted me. I made my way to the campß of the Arabs, and I said, 'There is a war going ony arid it is between the Arabs and the natives. I will find my own way to Living's.tan.c,* Qne of them said, 'Oh I great masier, you must riot dp that. Tmust write to the consul, and say that you are obstinate—that you are going to get killed.' > ' All right,' said I, ' there are jungles. If one way is closed, we can try another. .If that is closed, we can try another i and so on. I want to go to Ujni.' Soqntheß3rq September last year I started, and went directly south until I came to the frontier of the adjoining oountry, and when I oame to the corner of it I found there was another war there. In fact I was going straight into it. 1 had to' so ud north now, and came to the salt pans of ? which Burton speaks. In crossinc'the' ' river, I had guch little incidentsfaa a crqcodile eating o^e of, ffiWSv (LxughW) I came next , to : a land notorious for its robbers. I did not know thi3, s and one night I called a council of my principal men. I told them I could

not stand this tribute-taking. Thoy asked, 'What will you do, master?' I said, <Tho thing is to go into the jungle, and make direct west.' At the dead of the night we went into the bambco jungle, and on the fourth day we stood on tho last hill ; we had crossed the last stream, and had traversed the last plain, we had climbed the last mountain, and Ujiji lay embowered in the palms beneath us. (Cheers.) Now it is ouatomary in Africa to make your presence known by Bhouting and firing guns. We fired our guns as only exuberant hearts can do. I said, ' I suppose I shall not find the white man here. We must go on to Conga, and away to the Atlantic Ocear, but we must find this white man.' So wo were firing away, shouting, blowing horns, beating drums ; all the people came out, and the great Arabs from Muscat came out. Hearing we were from Zanzibar, and were friendly, and brought news of their relatives, they welcomedus; and while we were travelling down, the steep hill to this little town, I heaid a voice saying, 'Good morning, sir.' (Loud cheers and laughter.) I turned and said sharply, ' Who the mischief are you V 'I am the servant of Dr Livingstone, sir.' I said, ' What ! is Dr Livingstone here V * Yes, he is here; I saw him just now.' I said, 'Do you mean to say Dr Livingstone is here?' 'Sure.' ' Go and tell him I am coming.' (Laughter and cheers.]) Do you think it possible for me to describe my emotions as I walked down those few hundred yards? Thi3 man, David Livingstone, that I believed to be a myth, was in front of me a few varda. 1 confess to you that were it not for certain feelings of pride, J should bavp turned over a summersault. (Laughter.) But | was ineffably happy. I had found jivingatone ; my work ended ;it is only a march home quick ; carry the news to

the first telegraph station, and so give the ffetrord to the world. (Cheers.) A great many people gathered around us. My attention was directed to the head of the exhibition where a group of Arabs was standing, and in the centre of this group a pale, careworn, grey-bearded old man, dressed in a red shirt, with a crimson joho, with a gold band round his cap ; an old tweed pair of pants ; his shoes looking the worse for wear. ' Who is this old man V I ask myself. ?Is it Livingstone ?' Yes, it is ; no, it is not ; yes, it is. ( Dr Livingstone,' l presumed. 'Yes.' (Loud oheers.) Now, it would nev§r have done, in the presence of the grave Arabs who wh.o stood there stroking their beards, for two white men to kick up their heels. Vol the Arabs must be attended to. They would carry the story that we were children— fools ; so we walked side by side into the verandah. There we sat— the pan— the myth— and I. This was the. man; and wLat a woeful tale of calamities that wrinkled face, those grey hairs in his beard, those silver lines in his hair— what a woeful tale they told. -Now we begin to. talk— l don't know about what. I know we talk, and by and bye come plenty pf /presents from the Arabs. We eat and"' talk 1 and whether Livingstone eats most or I eat most, I cannot tell. I tell him many things. He asks, 'Do you know such and suoh a one ?' ' Yes.' •flow is he? 1 'Dead/ 'Oh,oh!-and is such a one alive and well V ' Thanks

be to God.' 'And what are they all doing in Europe now ?' ' Well, the French are kicking up a fuss, and the Prussians are aroang Paris, and the world is turned topsy-turvy.' It is all matter of wonder for Livingstone. He soon turned in to read his letters ; and who shall stand bethis man and the outer world. I should like to say a great deal more to you* but I want you to find out one thing, and that is— l want you to find out what this man Livingstone was — what was his; character— that this man can ■land the fatigues, brave the dangers and sufferings of Central Africa? What is there in him which makes him go on while others turn back ? What is it in

him, who has discovered so many lakes / and rivers and streams, passed over so many virgin countries, and through so »- many forests, that wakes him say, 'It is not enough?' This is what I want to know. I asked him if he had been up to the Lake Tanganyika yet. There is a great deal said about that. He said the central line of drainage absorbed all his means. I proposed to him w? should go there, with my men and material and make a pleasure party of it. He said, • ♦I am your man;' I said, ' They think that we should go there.' * Very well; \ it shall be done to-morrow ;' and tomorrow we went. Now, it is about what Livingstone and myself discovered at the northern end of Lake Tanganyika that the Royal Geographical Society has requested me to* read you a formal paper," „ (Cheers.) Mr Stanley then read his paper, from which we must make quotations at another time,