MR STANLEY'S EXPLORATION.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2632, 15 June 1877, Page 3

MR STANLEY'S EXPLORATION.

. The New York Graphic is credited with the following "skit" on Mr Stanley's betters from Central Africa :— Old Etimbuster disputed our passage through his Kingdom. He demanded as the price of passage through his territory, 40,000 casks of rum and a'hundred white wives. I. was obliged to parley with the old fellow, and after six days of incessant palaver reduced his demands to a pint of gin and a worn out razor. " Yours are a wonderful people," said old Enmbuster, ' as Jte smacked his lips over the fee he ha i • exacted. His Cabinet, who were with I him, waited in vain for a drop. Earn- . buster noting sians of impatience among j them and divining the cause, had them killed on the spot. " Cabinets," he remarked, " must be taught to know their place. I always kill mine when they act contrary to my wishes, and salt them down. There is always plenty of good material at hand to form new Cabinets. Besides, my policy in this matter keeps down aspirants for my place." Eambuster has been a great fighter. He had lost all his limbs in battle, legs and arms he had none, nose and ears were bitten off, and one eye was gouged out. "My bones are whitening on many a battle-field," he 1 said once, proudly, " yet with one of your former great statesmen I can, with propriety, say, ' I still live.'" • He has recently conquered the neighbouring province Yum-yum, and annexed it to his own kingdom, having killed all the inhabitants and salted them down for the winter's provision. "Itis my way of living on the enemy," he remarked.'

He had heard of the duel. "I trust that the report that James G. is coming here is true," he said ; " I would marry him to my two eldest daughters and give him the Kingdom of Polo. Do you think he would like Polo ?" he asked. I told him that "my chief w.ould probably like Polo better than the girls." " And possibly better thanjiis father-in-law, too," said the mutilated old wretch. "Buthe need not fear me; I would confer on him complete and thorough matrimonial sovereignty. Besides, there is no mother-in-law ; I ate her six months ago. She was a rare woman; she was tender ; I fattened her up to 400 pounds. We still have some of her corned in the royal larder. Tell your chief that if he comes and marries into our family he can for a time live on his mother-in-law if not with her."