Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1889-07-12
STANLEY IN AFRICA.
His Recent Journeys Have Thrown Much
Light Upon the Map of That Continent.

Mr.. Stanley's recent journeys be-
tween the Congo and the Nile have
partly filled with geographical details
one of the largest of the white spaces
still remaining on the maps of Africa.
Scarcely any journey of the same
length has been more prolific of inter-
esting facts. Again we are impressed
with the magnificent distances in the
dark continent. Stanley travelled on
or along a second-class tributary of
the Congo almost in the exact distance
between this city and Detroit, says the
New York Sun. He found this Aru-
Niles waters, to be as long as the
Rhine. Our small scale maps give
only vague notions of the great water
ways that are merely Congo afilue nts.
aud perhaps many persons who have
often examined the maps do not real
iza at first that the Mobangi. the larg-
est atfluent of the Congo, is iive-sixtns
as long as the Danube. the second
greatest river in Europe. and that
other Congo tributaries are as long or
longer than the Rhine.
Mr.. Stanley's report to the Royal
Geographical society enables us TO
trace the entire course of the Aruwimi
from its sources TO its mouth. shows
us at least four tributaries of consider
able Importance. and throws much
light upon the ethnology Of this large
region between the Congo and the
Mite: He has shown that the Nepoko
river instead of being the upper course
of the Aruwimi as Junger who discov-
cred il supposed. is only tributary.
Unfortunately the Aruwimi. wide aud
deep as it is for hundreds of miles, can
never be useful for steam navigation.
though Stanley in his steel boat,
twenty-eig ght feet long. followed its
tortuous course for n great distance.
From the slopes where II rises To its
mouth the river falls about $500
feet. and particularly in its upper
course it is impeded by many rapids
and cataracts.
1t is evident now that Stanley chose
the most difficult route he could pos
sibly have taken to reach the Nile,
and yet he has said nothin. of the al
most impenetrable forest with its
dense mass of twisted aud matted uu-
dergrowtn. which leads us to suppose
that this northeastern section OF the
great African woods presents greater
difficulties than have been found in
other parts of it In this same forest,
$40 miles south. Stanley travelled for
ten days during his journey down the
Congo. Above our heads" he wrote,
.'was an everlasting roof of foliage"
Through the tangle OF verdure every
man had to sprawl. crawl. and scram-
IL 4 n
thu aea sudaret IL aud thea declared
they could go no further aud Stanley
struck for the river. The forest
crosses the Congo ut its great northern
bend and its southern boundary,
which is formed. by the Sankuru
river. is as distinctly defined As the
eastern edge. which Stanley describes
as being abruptly succeeded by lovely
prairies. IL was into this southern
edge of the forest. 40 miles southeast
of the place where Stanley last entered
1t, that Wissmann plunged with a
caravan of Loo men in 1886. lie had
hoped To push through the mighty
virgin forest To the Congo. but the
scarcity of food and the almost impen-
etrable character Of the region COM
PEELED him to give up his plan Of ex-
ploring new country. In twelve days
he was south again on the road he had
travelled over :he savannas some yeau
before.
jus, as the region that defeated
Wissmann had been penetrated hun
dreds of miles by little Congo steam
ers. So the Aruwimi helped Stanley to
get thruugh the northern forest. In
the 400 miles he travelled to reach the
Arab settlement Of kilonga- Longa. all
but Hfiv miles was made on the river
ar along its banks. Without his steel
boat aud fleet OF canoes it is not likely
he would have reached the Nile at all.
He cluny To the water AS the only
means of progress and his heart sank
within him as he found the river TAX
ing him far north of his proposed
course. He determined not to cross
the line of ? degrees north latitude
and was happy. indeed. when the river
turned again toward the southeast,
and he did not leave it until the catA-
racts became so numerous aud the
current so rapid that the stream was
no longer available.
The people he met were found to
belong to the great family of Bantu
tribes. who. with the dwarfs that are
scattered among them in several large
districts. inhabit the whole Of Central
Africa south of the Welle Mskua.
Though great dialectic differences are
found they have much in common in
their speech, and Stanley's party were
able imperfectly to understand the
wild and hostile natives they met.
Many parts Of the river were thickly
populated. clusters of villages lining
the river banks for miles. and the pre-
vailing style of hut was found to be
the candle-extihguisher type. which is
far more common among negro tribes
further north than among the Bantus
of the Congo basin. On the upper
Aruwimi the explorer saw huts unlike
any heretofore described in Africa.
though they bear some resemblance to
the tembes in Ugogo and the dwellings
of the Nasal. The huts are connected
one with another. so that a village Is
like long low hut, sometimes even
400 yards long. These huts border
both sides of the streets, which varies
from twenty to sixty feet in width.
Stanley confirms Emin Pasha's state
ment that Albert Nyanza has been
rapidly receding of late years. and he
attributes it to the wearing away of tho
reefs in the Nile. which impede navi-
CATION for many miles below the lake.
In much the same way the remarkable
fall in the waters of Lake Tanganyika
has been attributed to the breaking
away of the compact vegetation in the
Lukuga river which is supposed to
have long impeded the outflow from
the lake. Stanley's discovery that the
Aruwimi rises within a few miles of
Albert Nyanza is interesting. We now
know that from the Welle Makua hun
dreds of miles south to Tanganyika
the fountains of the Nile and Congo
waters spring from the soil almost
within sight of one another, and then,
for many hundreds of miles south and
west. the head springs of the Congo
and Zambesi systems are brought into
similar juxtaposition.