THE FIRST CROSSING OF AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 28 September 1907, Page 3

THE FIRST CROSSING OF AFRICA.

THE THRILLING STORY OF STAN-1 LEV'S JOURNEY UP THE CONGO, i On November 17th, 1874, there set out from Bagamayo, a village on the , African mainland immediately opposite Zanzibar, an exploring expedition conlifting of 350 persons. Their intention was to march right across the unknown hjserior of the continent from east to west. In command was Mr Henry Morton Stanley, a journalist, representing jointly the London Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald.

Beside* Stanley, there were but three other white men wth the expedton.nnd these. three occupied only very subordinate positions. Two of them were Kentish boatmen, brothers, named Frank and Edward Pocock. The third was an ax-hotel clerk named Frederick Baker, whom Stanley had picked up in London. It will be seen, therefore, that it was a one-man expedition. Indeed as a matter of fact none of the other three Europeans lived to complete the journey. The blacks were mostly porters, the *trcngcst that could be found, for they had to carry on their heads for some tacnsanda of miles not only bales >,i cloth, brass rods, beads, and so on, for trading purposes, as well as provisions and medical stores, but also the sections of a forty-foot boat which had been brought out from England. This boat was called the Lady Alice, and it was Stanley'* intention to we it in order to navigate to its mouth, wherever tint might be, the great and mysterious Livingstone river, or Lualaba, as it was then more generally called. WHERE DID IT LEAD TO? This river was at that time the standing puzzle of Central African geography. Many people held that it must be identical with the Congo. But against this was the fact tnat the Lualaba, according to native reports, flowed northward, and ever northward.

Did it than, asked the puzzled theorists, debouch into some vast inland seat Possibly. That it did not flow into the Mediterranean was certain. But might there not be another Mediterranean south of the Sahara to receive its waters T Or did it,, after flowing far to the north so far as to be out of the ken or knowledge of the tribes living on-its upper waters, bend south by west, and so teach the Atlantic, after allt This latter was the correct solution of the problem, of course, as a glance at the map shows. But neither Stanley nor anybody else was aware of it for certain at the time, for the simple reason that no white men had ever followed its course. From Lake Tanganyika on the east to Boma on the west, all that part of Africa comprised its basin, a million square miles, was dead white on the maps. Into this vast white, unexplored region, the adventurers were now about to advance. Few amongst those who saw them set out to make the plunge expected that they would ever emerge again.

And, indeed, it seemed as if, even at the beginning, the expedition was doomed to destruction. For early in January, 1873, at a distance of only a few hundred miles from the coast, it lost its way in the. uninhabited wilderness of Uververi, with the result that 11 men died outright of starvation. THE GREAT FIGHT WITH FEVER. The weakened survivors, on emerging, were attacked by the fierce Wanyaturu, who slew twenty-three of them. Altogether, during that one terrible month, no fewer than thirty-eight members of the expedition lost their lives, amongst the dead being Edward Pocock, who succumbed to typhus. A few weeks later Frederick Baker died of jungle fever, leaving Stanley alone with Frank Pocock, two white men among many millions of black, bloodthirsty savages. ..Both of them suffered much, too, at this stage of the journey from fever and hanger, for they were traversing the malarial maritime belt, and proper food was almost unobtainable. Stanley, who had weighed 1801b when he set oat, was reduced to 1341b within 38 days. 'Pocock was a "walking skeleton."

Host of the native followers were >n no better condition, and during the first six weeks no fewer than 93 of them deserted. However, after the passage of the low-lying and pestiferous coast region had been accomplished, a change for the better ensued. Out of the swamps and jungles the party reached the great central plateau, an open clear, grassy country,, studded all over with villages, and densely populated with a contented and comparatively peaceful population. The cattle were in enormous numbers, and cheap, and bananas and other fruit could be purchased in any desired quantities for a handful of beads.

This delightful region extended practically all the way to Lake Victoria, upon which the expedition, now in the best of health and spirits, embarked. The vast inland fresh-water sea was circumnavigated for the first time, a voyage of nearly two thousand miles; and then an overland march was made to I'jiji, on Lake Tanganyika. This was also circumnavigated, again for the first time, and following upon this exploit the expedition struck west into the absolutely unknown interior of the continent, and embarked in due course upon the mysterious river "LuaÜba."

Whither was it to lead them? As a matter of fact, after a journey of 1436 miles, to Boma, and thence to tbe Atlantic Ocean. But this they did not know. And most certainly they never expected to follow it so far north ss was actually the ease. Neither did they expect to meet the difficulties they did from cauibals, and cataracts, and the continual attacks of the fierce tribes, who dwelt along its banks. From » place called Tubanda to tbe first meeting with the river, and for some little distance down its course, Stanley's expedition was accompanied by an Arab chieftain, the afterwards famous Tippoo Tib, with 250 of his own armed retainers. But Tippoo would not go beyond a certain point. He was afraid.

POT SHOTS WITH POISONED ABBOWS. Miahinatic forests, peopled with savage dwarfs, cannibals all of them, whose one delight it was to take pot shots at the trayllers with poisoned arrows as they passed by, appalled him. He had never in all his travels been in such a land before, he told Stanley, and he wanted no more of it. And in truth there was some excuse for the wily Arab; a good deal of reason in what he said. Fighting from being only sporadic, had now become continual. Every step of their journey was disputed. And in addition smallpox had broken out, and was decimating equally both Stanley's men and Tippoo's.. Thirty-eight of the latter's escort died of the disease, and forty-five j of the former's; eighty-three men in all, and the smell of the infection could

be detected in the .heavy, still air at a distance of a mile and a halt from the camps.

But Stanley would go on no matter what came of it The fascination of the river wag upon him. The mysterious river. Was it really the Congo, or was it the Niger or the Nile! Was it destined to bear him on its waters to an appalling death and an unknown grave hi some uncharted wilderness, or to fame and a resting-place j'mongst the great ones of the earth in \Y-tn-.in-iter Abbey t He did not know, iiut he was going to find out. So Tippoo Tib's wiUl warriors san» them their death chants as they paddled away into the unknown in their boats anil canoes, and the river took up the chorus. "Bend to your oars, my children." cried Stanley, fthere lies the road to Zanzibar," and he pointed due north, the direction in which the river flowed But his followers smiled wanly, and responded feebly; and that very dav the expedition waa attacked from "both banks by flotillas of armed cannibals, who shouted as they saw the strangers, Meat; meat! Ah! ha! We shall hare plenty of meat! 80-bo-bo! 80-bo-bo-bo-o !"

These were no mere bogey cries. The tribes were cannibal tribes, every onej of them. To them the members of the expedi-i lion wer merely game, just as elephants were game, or buffaloes, or antelope. Whenever they landed, which was not often, the voyagers found the streets' of the native villages decorated with desiccated heads of the eaten, laid in rows, chimpanzees, or gorillas, alternating with human skulls—a sickening tight. The mighty, mile-wide river was their refuge, luckily; but it also proved a splendid, aqueous, stalking-ground for their foes. From every village, at every bend, sharp-prowel canoes shot out in response to the banging of the multitudinous war-drums and the braying of the innumerable war horns. ATTACKED Ef CANOES. At times they were assailed by regular armadas of monster war canoes, each canoe propelled by 80 rowers, forty on each aide, and each bearing besides W raised, platforms, at lUm and stem,

its quota of savage warriors, But the ts]iiliiion, luckily fur itself, had now pen... ... ,1 to a region beyond the zone ot !'"• .uiiis. The savages had only bows and arrows and spears. And tiiest are no match for breach-loading

Nevertheless, many members of the e::;< h'.W-n were killed. Arrows, es-p-.t;.!:;■■ !.i?uued arrows, have a knack ..; ■!.. _i i.i ir work quickly when they do - r : aome, and the great broad, »!:> .. ; T'' ! d spears, sharp as razors, in!.' t, 1 shocking wounds. In one attack, made by the piratical Bangalas with no fewer Ihan sixty-three canoe*, a man was cut clean in halves by one of these weapons used seimitar-wise. But it was not only the cannibals that thinned the ranks of the explorers; there were the cataracts. One of these alone—that of Kalulu— drowned six men. Another was responsible for the death of poor Frank Pocock, the last white survivor of the expedition, excepting, of course, Stanley himself.

He was too lame from ulcers of the feet to be able to march along the river bank, and the canoe in which he was swept over the Massassa Falls, below Stanley Pool, and smashed to pieces. Two more of the faithful blacks, too, perished in this same disaster. Stanley, who was marching on ahead by land, broke down utterly when the news was conveyed to him. It seemed too hard, too cruel. For by this time the expedit'non had reached a point on

the lower river whence Boma was within measurable distance. And he had to set his heart on bringing this one white companion of his weary years of wanderings back to civilisation and his home once more^ A few weeks later a wayworn, feeble, and suffering column marched into the native village of Nsanda, 31 miles distant from Boma. It consisted of 115 souls, men, women, and children, for some of the porters had brought their wives and little ones with them. Only 115 out of the 356 that had set out from Bagamayo on November 17th, 1874. And this was August 4th, 1877. They had been travelling, therefore, two years eight months, and some odd days, and had lost during the journey 241 souls, 173 by death, the rest through desertion, or by being lost in the jungle. A wonderful journey, surely. A terrible journey. And now the end was in sight. At Boma were white people, and a letter sent on in advance by Stanley quickly brought succour to the disease-stricken and starving explorers. On August 12th they reached the Congo's mouth and the Atlantic Ocean, having journeyed in all, by land, lake, and river, a distance of 7158 English statute miles.—Pearson's Weekly.