The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-10-03

Rus way 1TOih thc East 10 the YES
Const iu the Face OF Dense Forests nnt
savage Tribes .-- Suffering Incredible
Hnrdships.
From the New York Herald
After nearly twelve months of anxious
suspense, during which the gravest fears
were. entertained for the safety of the
gallant African explorer, the welcome
news has at length come that Henry NJ.
Stanley, the special commissioner of the
New York Herald and tie London Daily
telegraph has arrived OIL the west coast
OF Africa after a terrible journey across
the continent along the line of the Lua-
laba otherwise the Congo river.
Stanley's dispatch is dated from En-
bona, Congo river, west coast of Africa,
August 10, and informs us that he ~
rived at that point on August 8 from
Zanzibar with only lis souls, the entire
party in an awful condition after their
long and terrible journey through the
heart of the African continent. After
an arduous march of many days through
a country filled with difficulties, and
being compelled to transport on the
shoulders of his men every pound of
provisions and other stores necessary for
the transcontinental journey, and besides
carrying in a similar amer the sections
of the Lady Alice exploring boat and the
arms and ammunitions of his party,
Stanley found himself brought to a stand
by immense tracts of dense forests,
through which all attempts at progress
were futile. Finding that he could not
advance along the line he had first III
tended to follow. Stanley crossed the
Lualaba and continued his journey along
the left bank of the river, passing
through the district known as northeast
Ukusu. On this route he ~endeavored
to find an outlet westward, but the jun
gle was so dense, and the fatigues OF the
march so harassing, that it seemed i'm
possible for him to succeed in passing
the tremendous barrier of the forest.
To add to the horrors of his position in
these Central African wilds Stanley
found himself opposed at every step by
the hostile carnibul natives. The saw
ages filed the woods, and day and night
poured flights of poisoned arrows on his
party, which killed and fatally wounded
many of his men. From every tree and
rock along the route the deadly missiles
winged their fatal course, and the heavily
laden bearers fell dead under their loads
in the dark forest. Only now and then
could Stanley and his men reply to this
silent fire with their rifles, for the saw
ages kept under the densest cover and
rarely exposed themselves.
Stanley march through these cannibal
regions soon became almost hopeless.
There was no cessation to the fighting
day or night. An attempt at camping
merely concentrated the savages and
rendered their fire more deadly. The
advance was q success sion Of changes in
rude diminishing order by m advance
guard, whose duty it was to clear the
road for the main body. A ear guard
covered in like manner the retreat, for,
although advancing against one enemy,
the movement was q retreat from an-
other. All SANKEY'S efforts to appease
the savages were unavailing. They
would listen to no o%vertures, disregard
ed all signals of fl, endship and of mild
ness of intention and refused to be paci-
fed with gifts. The patient behavior
of SANKEY'S men they regarded as COW
ardice, so that no course remained open
to the explorer but to fight his way on
ward and with as little loss rs possible.
To render Stanley's position still more
d~eplorable his escort of 140 natives,
whom he had engaged for the service at
Nyangwe, refused to proceed further on
the journey and deserted him. They
were so overawed by the terrors of the
forest and the continuous struggle that
they believed destruction was certain to
overtake the whole party, and p~rudently
resolved not to be destroyed. Finding
that his ranks were thinned by the de-
sertion of the Nyangwe men the hostile
natives concentrated for n grand attack
on Stanley, with the object of complete
ly crushing him. It became necessary,
therefore, to organize a desperate re-
sistance, which was happily successful
so far that it repulsed the savages for
the time being and gave the explorer a
chance to reconsider his plans and make
arrangements to adapt them to his try
ing situation.
There was only one way to escape
from the hapless position in which STAN
ley now found himself, unless he &C
cepted the alternative of returning to
Nyangwe and abandoning the grand
work which he had undertaken. This
was to make use of canoes. With the
Lady Alice rs q last reliance, and good
canoes for the party, Stanley concluded
that he could advance with a better pros
pect of success than in any other way.
Although he had a decided advantage
over the savages on the water Stanley
still found that each days advance was
but q repetition of the struggle of the
day previous. 1t was desperate fighting
all the time while pushing down the
river with might and main. Fortunately
it was still the rifle against the bow, but
then the bow was covered by the dense
woods and the rifle was exposed in the
open canoe. In the midst of these sue
cessive struggles SANKEY'S journey Oh
the river was interrupted by o series of
great cataracts, not far apart from each
other and Just north and south Of the
equator. To pass these obstacles he had
to cut his way through over thirteen
miles of dense forest and drag his eigh-
teen canoes and the exploring boat Lady
Alice overland. This enormous labor
entailcl the most exhausting efforts, and
the men had frequently to abandon the
AK and drag-ropes for their rifles to de-
fen | themselves against the continuous
assaults of the hostile natives. After
passing the cataracts Stanley and his
party hal o long breathing pause from
the toll Of draggingthei boats throughthe
forest. They were also comparatively
secure from attack and took measures to
recruit their exhausted strength before
again cncountering the dangers Of the
journey westward.
Although fighting his way continuously
Stanley did not neglect the objects of
his journey, and found opportunity to
note all the interesting changes and
physical characteristics of the route.
In order to avoid the struggles with
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