The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-08 00:00:00

MR. STANLEY IN AFRICA.

The Daily Telegraph of Monday published the follow-
iog . -

"We have had the pleasure to receive from M. J.
van Praet, chef du cabinet in the Ministre de la
Maison du Roi ' of the King of the Belgians, the fol.
lowing reassuring intelligence with regard to the health
of Mr. Stanley: Stanley has suffered from bilious
fever, but he has just written to us that he is now in
excellent health and spirits, having quite recovered his
strength.' "

The Daily Telegraph notices the above intelligence in a
leader, from which we make the following extracts :-
-

We publish this morning a special communication
from the Palace at IBrussels which will gladden the
hearts of all who are interested in the development
of Africa and the heroic labours to that end of Mr.
Henry Stanley. Of late there had been current
distressing rumours respecting the health of the
famous explorer. It was reported at one time that he
was incapacitated by disease, and at another that he
had even succumbed to this and the toils of his present
mission. Such ominous statements, however, were
happily contradicted by the publication of a letter from
Mr. Stanley announcing himself alive, and, if not quite
well, at least recovering from the malady which had
assailed him. To-day we are able to impart news
yet more decisive and cheering. Conscious of our
particular interest in the fortunes of Mr. Stanley,
the Minister of the Household to his Majesty the
King of the Belgians, M. van Praet, does us the
honour of conveying to the British public, through
these columns, the latest tidings received at the Palace.
By these we learn that, though Mr. Stanley has
suffered from an attack of bilious fever, he can write
with his own hand to his Royal friend that he is now
in excellent health and spirits, and has quite recovered
his strength. Better intelligence could not be shared
with all true well-wishers of the " Dark Continent,"
and their pleasure will be the greater when they
know how very severely ill the hero of the "Living-
stone River" has been. There was one day this year
when he lay so feeble, and apparently nigh to death,
that his European assistants, and the chiefs among
his native followers, were summoned to his bed-
side to take farewell of their leader, and receive
his last order. It is sufficiently certain that Mr.
Stanley would not have consented to such a sad
ceremony had not he himself felt his hitherto in-
domitable forces apparently failing. But they
were not exhausted, as we feared. The air of
Africa, so deadly to most pioneers of civilisation,
has become friendly and gentle for this man, to whom
she owes her best hopes of redemption from darkness.
His iron constitution threw off the fever, and even the
languor and weakness which must have followed it,
and settled upon any frame less inured to tropical
miasma. A sure and welcome sign of the completeness
of his recovery lies in the announcement that the great
traveller is now "in excellent spirits ;" for deadlier far,
and worse, than the sapping of a man's strength is the
subtle manner in which the fever of India or Africa steals
away his courage, and drops over the hopes and duties
of life a gloomy veil. Never had any faithful servant
of his age and race more need of courage and cheer
than Henry Stanley in his present undertaking.
Unlike the mass of explorers, who, having finished
their work of discovery, leave others to develsn its
fruit, this fearless traveller, after giving to science and
civilisation the fully-mapped-out channel of the mag-
nificent Congo, has himself undertaken the task of
utilising it for the world's commerce. The honour
which such an expedition reflects upon the public
spirit and munificence of the King of the Belgians is
only matched by that which the devotion of Mr.
Stanley sheds upon his past labours and present perils.
Fortunate it is in the highest degree that his Majesty
may still count upon the services of such an agent,
and that Africa either cannot or will not kill that
courageous friend whose name will be linked with her
annals when great cities rise along the Congo and
"the sad Sister" of the Continents has taken her
place in the march of humanity.
Mr. Stanley is not the man to talk much when cir-
cumstances demand work, and few outside the circle
of his friends, or of vigilant geographers, have per-
haps appreciated the importance of his present
labutirs. Briefly thsetibed, they joint to the accom-
plishment of a Herculean feat, which, by opening the
Congo, from its mouth to the inland lakes, will
endow commerca• with a water-way grander than
the Mississippi, and reaching to the very heart
of Africa. To do this he must establish a good
portage past the lower rapids and falls of the
river, on such well-chosen lines that the road
shall hereafter grow into a permanent link between
the high and low channels. He must plant stations,
organise labour, collect or bring up immense materials,
and finally convey the plates and machinery of his
vessels from the head of the Congo mouth to" Stanley
Pool," a place which will some day, probably, be as
populous and well-known as New Orrean.. To com-
prehend the difficulties of this enterprise we may
avail ourselves of the recent survey made by M. de
Brazzi in his journey last year from the Ogowe to
the Congo. He finds that "in a former geological
age an immense plateau at an elevation of more
than two thousand feet above the level of the sea
separated .the Upper Congo from the Atlantic; the
river wore a bed for itself through this plateau,
which at last, by the action or constant and con-
tinuous drainage, became furrowed into as many
valleys as there were torrents rushing down
into the great river. In following the line of
the Congo, therefore, it becomes necessary to
cross all these chains of mountains, which are
the remains of the ancient plateau," Of course,
a country cut into so many ravines has pre-
sented serious impediments, even though Mr.
Stanley is so strong in resources and well sup-
ported. He had no fswer than fourteen Europeans
at his orders, and the sum already expended under
his direction is set down at eighty thousand pounds,
while much more will be needed. But, given the
one condition of the preservation of the explorer's
health, we may coniidently hope at last to
hear that steam vessels are plying upon the upper
reaches of the "Livingstone" in correspondence with
those which easily pass from the Atlantic to the
foot of the Falls. Then will come Stanley's great and
exceeding reward, when commerce travels freely up
and down the splendid bosom of that inland stream
through which in the conduct of the Daily Telecaph,
and New York, Herald Expedition he made or forced
his way, crowning with glory one of the most romantic
and heroic efforts of modern adventure