Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-10-05
"'Boys will be boys'-but not for long;
oh could we bear about us
This thought-how very soon our boys
VIII lea IN TO do without US"
Aero.. the African Continent.

Henry NJ. Stanley has emerged from the
African wilderness and made his appearance
on the west coast of the great tropical conti-
nent at the mouth of the Congo River. 1t is
about three years since he left Zanzibar on the
east coast, and during all that time he has been
exploring the heart of the great stronghold of
mystery and barbarism under the greatest of
difficulties and in the face of obstacles which
few men would have the courage, the energy
and the strength to overcome. His exploits
are as remarkable as any i'll the fascinating
annals of exploration in unknown lands and
the results seem to be among the most vau-
able attained in modern times. Two puzzling
questions of frst-class geographical import
ance appear to be definitely settled by his
indefatigable researches. He set himself the
task of ascertaining beyond question the
sources of the Nile, and tracing the river
known as the Lualaba to its outlet, thus COM
pleting the work begun by his great prede-
cessor, Livingstone He spent two seasons
among the Niyanzas, exploring their coasts
thoroughly, and ascertaining that the streams
by which they were fed furnished the waters
that poured from them through the Nile to the
Mediterranean Sea- Points previously left in
obscurity were cleared up, and the great Nile
problem was solved.
Having completed his task. Stanley thor
oughly explored Lake Tanganyika, and then
addressed himself to the perilous work of
tracing the Lualaba through a wide eXpanse of
territory utterly unknown to civilized man.
Two theories had prevailed regarding this
stream. Livingstone had believed it to be the
Nile, but some geographers who carefully
studied his work came to the conclusion that
it was more likely to be the far-off beginning
of the Congo. The Lualaba drained n basin
distinct from that of the sources of the Nile,
though Livingstone never discovered that fact.
Cameron, who acted on the theory that ii
was the head of the Congo, only penetrated
in his explorations to Nyangwe, which was
comparatively short distance from the source
of the stream. Stanley left that point about
the middle of last November. and for nearly
nine months was lost in the African wilder
ness. The story of his journey has just now
come to the London Telegraph and the New
York Herald. which sustain him in his work.
He fought his way through forests filed with
savage beasts and still more savage men, con-
tending against the climate, the obstacles
which nature placed in his way and the impla-
cable natives that resisted his progress at every
step, sometimes OH shore and sometimes on
the water, with his party rapidly diminishing
under the hardships and dangers of the jour
ney, until he proved that the river known as
the Lualaba where he started, and designated
by different name by every tribe through
whose territory it passed. was proved beyond
all question to be the Congo The three river
systems of Africa are now quite clearly de-
fined They are those of the Nile. the Fam
besi, and the Congo. The contributions of
Stanley to our knowledge of African geogra-
ply bid fair to be regarded in future as among
the most important if not the most important
of ALL made by any single explorer.