The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-12-11
STANLEY AfriCanuS.

turles later, IN TINS same Africa, an IN l.
habitant of then undiscovered CONT
nent, by achievement grander than
bloody victory over an enemy, has
earned the title that was gratefully be-
slowed upon the general who destroyed
his country's implacable foe. Stanley
Africanus may not become an historic
title, but SANKEY'S name and fame will
henceforth be as inseparably associated
with Africa as Columbus with America.
1t is a notable circumstance that
Africa alone of all the great divisions
of the earth, within whose confines the
pyramids were, the Pharaohs ruled and
ancient civilization and culture had its
greatest development, should have APP
palled the courage or defed the restless
energy of the explorer till the closing
years of the nineteenth century. Be-
You'd the coast lines, dense obscurity had
shrouded the land since the creation
and given it the appellation of the Dark
Continent. In sight of its shores Co
lumbus sailed away across painless
waters to find new world, and a long
line of intrepid explorers revealed to
astonished Europe its vast extent and
amazing riches. 1t is a striking illus
tration of the doctrine of compensation
that America, after the lapse of four
hundred years, should herself provide
the man who should track the Nile to
its hidden sources and unveil the mys-
teres of Equatorial Africa.
Three years ago Stanley disappeared
in the wilds of the Congo on the west
coast. He has been reported dead, a
prisoner in the hands of the Mahdi,
and the subject of all the wild mice
turing the infinite difficulties of his
task and perls of his environment
could suggest. Those who knew him
best have steadfastly maintained their
belief in his survival and in the SUBJ
stantial success of his expedition. His
iron resolution, his unfailing resources,
were the grounds of the unfaltering
faith he inspired, and, in justification of
the confidence that singled him out for
leadership in this undertaking of rescue
and discovery, he energies from his long
seclusion on the eastern coast, having
in his train the heroic governor he
went out to rescue and bearing great
stores of knowledge of the mysterious
country he has traversed. Romance
and fiction "pale their Intellectual fires "
in the light of the story graphically out
lined in his thrilling letter to the Ne,C
York Herald. His brief record of
geographical discoveries, m 0untains
"robed in eternal snow" tempering a
torrid climate, grassy plains that would
make the cowboys of the West " mad
with envy" disclose new Arcadia in a
region where the imagination had seen
only turbid streams, tangled jungles and
pestilential swamps. Right under
the burning equator we fed on black
berries and bilberries and quenched
our thirst with crystal water fresh from
snow bedsp The " Arabian Nights -
must look to its laurels! What world
of "reminiscences, of unspeakable eXpe-
rience crowds the mind of the intrepid
explorer! How very tame and common
place becomes the humdrum life OF
civilization, and how many bold spirit
will be fired by SANKEY'S narrative to
pursue life of adventure in the Dark
Continent
Greater than everything else dis
closed in the history of the expedition
is the man Stanley. Death and dis
aster, disaster and DEATH" in endless
iteration, pursued him in his course tc
Emin's provinces. Then rebellion and
Emin's quixotic reluctance to leave his
people threatened to defeat the prime
object of the expedition. A less reso
lutte or resourceful man would have
given up in despair and sought the
shortest route out of the inhospitable
wilds, and the world would not have
blamed him. His allotment of thei
due need of honor to his associates, not
forgetting the devotion of his barbarian
auxiliares, bespeaks the generous man
His reluctant reference to his persona
agency in the glorious achievements hi
recounts discloses the modest man
His pous ascription of guidance to {
higher power and his devout and i'm
pressve thanksgiving "to God for
ever and ever" for what had beer
accomplished and his safe return t
civilization, reveal the highest traits o
true manliness. He is not only an il
lustrious explorer. He is most clio
quent preacher also. His fame is peren
NAL.