The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-12-11
StanIey's March.

Great praise 10 henry NJ cldhleS Oh |
the 4th instant-a week ago to-day-he |
looked out on the Indian ocean. He had |
crossed 1.-THE Dark Continent" at the |
Equatorial line, had made geographical dis
coveries of the first importance and rescued |
Emin Pacha from conspiracy and death.
1t is a wonderful story. Graphic and i'm |
pressive is the brief resume which Stanley |
himself sent to the NeD York Herdd
1t was in December of the year 1856 that |
the great explorer was called to England |
from America, where he was giving lectures,
by Sir William Maclkinnon, president of the
British East Africa Company, to take charge |
of an expedition under the patronage of the
company and the Khedive of Egypt to sue
cor Emin Pacha, governor of the Equatorial |
province of the Soudan, which Gordon had |
conquered The northern provinces of the
Soudan had revolted and passed under the |
sway of the Mahdi, whose victorious career
down the Nile had ended in the siege
and conquest Of Khartoum and the massacre
Of the heroic Gordon and his army. Emin /
Pacha was maintaining a precarious footing
in the Equatorial province, but was in i'm
minent danger of being overwhelmed and
was not war-like. He was to carry sup
plies to Emin and offer him an escort to
civilization, if he wished to leave the perls
of his position. We may easily infer from
the facts that the explorer was anxious to
make new discoveries as well as to relieve
Emin. 1t was natural that he should have
an ambition to locate and map the lake
river and mountain that he, first of white
men, saw and to let light in other directions
into tn mysterious recesses of the Dark
Continent. 1t is probable that this motive
of discovery caused Stanley, in opposition
to the views of other explorers, to choose
the longer route to Albert Nyanza by way
of the Congo river.
1t is intensely interesting to trace the eX-
plorer's course from early in 1887 till now.
From England he went to Cairo, and thence
to Zanzibar. Here the expedition, composed
of about six hundred men, most of whom
were Zanzbari was organized. From Fan
zibar the company sailed around Cape Good
Hope to the Congo on the west coast.
Stanleys ostensible reason for taking this
longer route was that he preferred to rely
on a river-road to his destination, which was
Wadelai, at the outlet of Albert Nyanza,
where Emin, if alive, was supposed to be.
Late in June he arrived at Yambuya, a
short distance up the Aruwimi river. Here
he left force of two hundred fifty-seven
men under Major Barttelot, as a rear guard,
that should bring forward supplies as soon
as transportation could be secured. The
main force pushed on up the Aruwimi.
Hard fighting began at once, and from
DEATH disease and desertion the number of
men fell off very rapidly. But following
the Aruwimi to its source, the eyes of the
bold traveller were gladdened on December
IA, 1887, with sight of the upper waters of
the Albert Nyanza. At the outlet of the
lake was Emin 1t seemed far safer to de-
scend it in boats. But the natives would
not supply them, and rather than make the
march through the forests Stanley went
back one hundred ninety miles to Kelou-
golonga, on the Aruwimi, and brought up
his own boats, which he had left there.
Meanwhile he had sent courier to Emin
announcing his arrival, and, on returning,
the two intrepid adventures met at Kaval-
lis, April %, 1855. Did they now turn
seward? No; their real difficulties had
only begun. Emin could not make up his
mind to return with Stanley. His fears had
been allayed somewhat, and his interest in
the province was so strong that he was will
ing to encounter great danger rather than
leave it. For month he was undecided
Then Stanley, while Emin was making up
his mind, resolved to see what had become
OF the rear guard, left at Yambuya, some
six hundred miles down the Aruwimi from
L
two forces had parted company. Stanley
and his men accordingly began to retrace
their weary way to the Aruwimi, thence
down that stream, and had retraversed
nearly every mile of the painful six hundred
before vestige of the rear guard was dis
covered. AT Banalya, only about fifty
miles from the station at Yambuya, the
remnant of this force, reduced from two
hundred fifty-seven to seventy-one men,
was met. Barttelot had been murdered,
and the relief force had failed to accomplish
its purpose. Whether it was bad manage
ment or too great odds that overpowered
this detachment is not very evident vet.
But the undaunted Stanley soon began to
push his way again to Albert Nyanza. Not
satisfied to traverse a route that he knew to
he safe, but had now come to be familiar, he
left the river at Ugarrowa and took an over
land route from that point to the lake, har-
assed by hostile Arabs and Wambutti
dwarfs, who stripped the country of means
of subsistence as effectually as possible
But on January Q, 1885, he had again
reached the vicinity of Albert, only to find
that Emin and his companion Jephson,
had been taken captive by Selim Bey, EN-
ms chief officer, who had rebelled Here
was new difficulty to meet The rebel
chief had met an approaching Mahdist
army and repulsed it. In the confusion ex-
isting Stanley believed the two prisoners
could escape, and he sent word to them to
make the attempt, meanwhile organizing
an army of two thousand friendly Arabs
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