The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-12-07
A HIGHER POWER.

Stanley Says 1t Guided Himself and His
Heroic Band In His Periious Search for
Emin.
New York, Dec. 5.-The Herald prints
q letter from Henry NJ. Stanley in
which, after detailing the geographical
discovery made by the expedition, the
explorer says:
"This has certainly been the most extraordi.
nary expedition have ever led into Africa. A
vertable divinity seems to have hedged US
while we 10 lrneyed l say II with all reverence.
II has impeiled us whittier II would effected its
own will, but, nevertheless, guided and protect
cd us.
"What can you make OF this, for instanoef
On August IL, 1887, all the officers OF the rear
column are united AZ Yambuya They have my
letter OF instructions before them, but instead
Of preparing for the morrow's march to follow
our track they decide to wait at Yambuya
which decision initiates the most awful season
any community OF men ever endured
In Africa or elsewhere. The results are
that three-quarters OF their force die OF slow
poison. Their commander is murdered and the
second officer dies soon after OF sickness and
grief. Another ollicer is wasted 10 skeleton
and obliged to return home A fourth Is sent
to wander aimlessly up and down the Congo,
and the survivor is found in such fearful pest
hole that We dare not describe its horror.
ION the same date, $50 miles away, the OF.
hcer OF the day leads 3S3 men OF the advanced
column into the bush, loses the path, and, all
| unconscious OF his whereabouts, every step he
| takes only leads him farther astray. His
people become frantic; his white companions,
vexed and irritated by the sense of evil around
| them can not devise any expedient to relieve
| him. They are surrounded by cannibals, and
poison tipped arrows thin their numbers,
| C1"A year later, on August IL, listen, horror
struck to the tale OF the last surviving offlcer
| OF the rear column Mt Banalya, and am told OF
nothing but death and disaster disaster and
death, death and disaster. i see nothing but
horrible forms OF men smitten with disease,
bloated disfgured and Scared, while the scene
| In the camp, infamous for the murder OF poor
| Barttelot barely four weeks before, is simply
| shocking.
Having saved Bonny out of the jaws Of
DEATH we arrive o second time at Albert Ny.
| ANA to find Emn Pasha and Jephson prison
| ers, in daily expectation OF their doom. Jeph'
| sons own letters will describe his anxiety. Not
| until both were in my camp and the Egyptian
| fugitives under our protection did begin Ia
see that was only carrying out higher plan
than mine. My own designs were constantly
| frustrated by unhappy circumstances. l en-.
deavored to steer my course as direct as possi'
BILE but there was an unaccountable influence at
| the helm.
Not one officer who was with me VIII fo-get
| the miseries he has endured yet every one that
started from his home, destined to march
with the advance column and share its
wonderful adventures, Is here to-day
| safe, sound and well. This is not due
| to me. Lieutenant Stairs was pierced
with a poisoned arrow like Others, but others
died and he lives. The poisoned tip came out
| from under his heart eighteen months after he
was pierced Jephson was four months pris.
oner with guards with loaded rifles around
him. That they did not murder him is not due
| to me.
"These officers have had to wade through as
many as seventeen streams and broad expanses
| OF mud and swamp In day. They have on
| dured a sun that scorched whatever 1t touched.
A multitude of impedments have rnfied theiI
| tempers and harassed their hours. They have
| been maddened with the agonies OF fierce fe.
| vers They have lived for months in an at
| mosphere that medical authority declared to be
| deadly They have faced dangers every day
| and their diet hes been all through what legal
| serfs would have declared to be infamous, and
| yet they live,
| THE vulgar will call il luck Unbelievers
| will call it chance, but deep down in each heart
| remains the feeling that OF verify there are
! more things IN Heaven and earth than are
dreamed in common philosophy"