The New York herald., 1876-11-29
stanley, the Bam birehs and the Fellows
OF the Royal Geographical Society.

Ssu n1ey, the Ba m D 1rchs ana the FeliOwe
OF the Royal Geographical Society.
One of the Fellows of the Royal Geo
graphical Society has undoubtedly sue
ceeded in winning some notoriety in
England by his attack upon Henry NJ. Stan
ley, now in Central Africa. Although
defeated as much by the good sense of the
members as by technical objection raised
to the introduction of his condemnatory
resolutions, Mr.. Hyndman, F. r. G. S.,
Is one of those individuals mot to be
put down." and renews the assault on
the absent explorer in the columns of Lon
don journal. Whether this ultra philan-
thropist's views represent the opinion of
large number of his fellow countrymen
or not we cannot say, but we sincerely hope
for the credit of English consistency that
they do not. Viewed from Mr. Hyndmans
standpoint, and at safe distance from
Bambireh, strong case can undoubtedly be
made out against Mr.. Stanley. But when
we look at the question with the solitary
explorers eyes, and from the uncertain
refuge of a frail canoe on the stormy Vic
toria Nyanza, then Mr.. Hyndman's virtuous
indignation becomes supremely ridiculous
In the prosecution of his arduous under
taking, work surrounded with peril, in
region far from the friendly white mans
aid and peopled by savages who do not
hesitate to destroy villages and desolate
large districts in order to secure few of
their own race for the Arab slave traders,
Mr.. Stanley has been forced by the supreme
law of self-preservation to kill several ma
tives as punishment for their attacks and
to deter the survivors from repeating them.
There is no difference in the motive that
induced the British commanders in India
to blow their unfortunate Sepoy prisoners
from the cannon's mouth and that which
actuated Stanley in firing his elephant rifle
into canoe full of bloodthirsty savages. If
Mr.. Hyndman believes that the first act can
be justified on the grounds of stern neces-
sity, surely he must more readily grant that
the second was infinitely less tainted with
sternness while more justifable on the
grounds of necessity. If small but we'll
equipped Indian army, acting under the or
ders Of q civilized government, found it ad-
visable to strike terror into the hearts Of q
large hostile population by such a barbarous
expedient as blowing prisoners from the
cannon's mouth, how much less blanable
is the dernier resort Of an individual whose
position is rendered desperate by its
isolation Does Mr.. Hyndman imagine
that Stanley has returned to the Afri-
can jungles in order to afford the Royal
Geographical or any other society an
opportunity to spout oulogistic obituary
speeches about him as martyr to science
No, he has gone to solve the mystery of the
Nile and the Congo, and has wisely resolved
that if the BAN birehs, the amiable cannibals,
for whom the ''arm-chair geographer" Mr..
Hyndman is SO solicitous, undertake to kill
him and plunder his truin they will not sue
ceed if he can help it. If he acted other
wise he would be unfit for his mission in
the field, and worthy only of seat beside
Mr.. Hyndman, listening to his goody, goody
stories about the gentle Bambirehs.