New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-02
TIE NEW NILE PUZZLE.

Eleven DAYS have elapsed since the first
hdings Of Stanley's arrival on the AruWhlml
were received. and the discrepancies between
the accounts tecgraphed from the east and
west coasts are still unexplained. Apparent
". each message was a bare bulletin forwarded
to Zanzibar on the one hand and to the mouth
Of the Congo on the other, without details or
ANYTHING from Stanley's own hand. According
to one account the explorers had been separated
for eichtv-two DAYS and one was planning to
return to the other, whereas in the Congo dis-
patches they were represented as beng TO-
gether on the AruWhimi. This contradiction
will probably remain an interesting puzzle untll
| SANKEY'S correspondence, which has been de-
tanned at the Falls Station, is carried down the
| river. An official of the Congo State at Leo
| noIdville anticipates that there will be delay
If two months in forwarding the letters, but
Sir Francis dc Wnton expects to receive
earlier adyiccs For the present the tate OF
the explorers remains an interesting subject Oh
conjecture, with the chances strongly faVonng
the hopeful. view that both are safe.
Closer scrutiny Of the text Of the earliest
bulletins as supplied by the last European mail
reveals one or two details which escaped OBJ
servation when the dispatches were sent from
! London. In the first message received from
! Zanzibar the statement was made that Stanley
had arrived at Boualya on August II, and In
tended leaving ten days later presumably to
reioin Emn Pacha." The word presumably"
/ is an important one, since it indicates lack OF
positive information respecting Stanley's in
! tentions. Apparently, Tippoo lib, when his
courdcrs left the Falls Station for the east
IL Ia. Irps
starting for Wade,ai or some intermediate
point. but SurmSed that he intended to leJ0in
Emin. The presumption that he was return
ing to Wadelai may have arisen from mis-
conception Of the circumstances and hasty
reading Of SANKEY'S brief message. In any
event he had not declared Enthusiastically that
he was about to return to the Equatorial Prov
irces where he had left Emin. 1t is possible
that both explorers were on the march, Stanley
well in advance, and that supplies of food were
10 be taken back part of the way from Boualya
/ fer the use Of the main column under Emn.
The statement, moreover, that all the white
men of the expedition were in good health and
wanted nothing tends to show that the entire
relief expedition was on the march. There
were five whites with Stanley, and all would
not have been likely to accompany him II he
had left Wadela with the intention Of picking
I'D his rear guard and then returning to Emn.
lie reported to Tippoo lib that all were in
good health and thereby indicated that they
were with him, and that there was no inten-
ton on his part of going all the way to Wadelai.
The story brought to Suakim by the Greek
traveller from Khartoum merits no attention,
since he had been two months on the road.
As Lado was not reported to have been
capturcd until October l o. it was not strange
that he had heard nothing Of it at the Mahdps
capital when he set out for kaSsala at the end
cf that month Two months at least must have
elapscd before the news could reach Khartoum
if Lado was occupied at the date given by
Omar Saleh The full text, however, Of that
warriors letter to the Mahd with that of Os-
man Digna, tends to strengthen the suspicion
that the willy Arabs were attempting to de-
ceive General Grenfell and to delay the British
assault upon their trenches. If Emin and a
white traveller had been taken at Lado letters
from them W. uld have been forwarded by Omar
salch. or some other irrcfutable evidence, OF
heir capture would have been furnished. The
SAMPLES Of Snidcr ammunition. which could
not have come from either Emins or Stan
lev's men. but were undoubtedly a remnis-
rence Of the operations Of the Indian troops
near Suakm indicate trickery and deception
As.for the letter from the Khediye to Emin
delivered by Osman Digna to General Gren-
fell. il was not the original manuscript carried
by Stanley, but only copy, which might easily
have been made at Cairo by some traitor in
cousion with the Arabs. Lado may have been
occupied by the Mahdists in October, but it now
Al. II.
presumably he was already with Stanley in the
Congo Valley, and Osman Digna's fiction was
, a ruse to enable him to effect temporary truce
and to embOldcn his followers by assuring