The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-12
THE STANLEY CONTROVERSY.

The story of the rear guard, which was
left on the Aruwimi when Stanley pushed
forward to the Albert Nyanza. is horrible.
Nearly two out of three men died, and the
survivors were so enfeebled by famine and
disease that they were little better than
dead men when Stanley met them on his
return. Why was this? SANKEY'S orders
were that when Barttelot received the car
riers which Tippoo lib had promised he
should march in Stanley's track TO the lake.
In order to guide him Stanley blazed the
trees as he marched. TippOo lib never sent
The carriers. Consequently Barttelot never
marched. Tippoo lib had likewise cove
nanted TO supply the camp at Yambuya
with food. He never did so. Consequently
the men starved and died of hunger. Con-
seQuently, again, a state of diSatfect0n
amounting TO mutiny broke out, which led
to the Killing of Barttelot and the invading
of Jameson. Was this tragedy of errors
the fault of Stanley or of Barttelot?
Lieutenant Troup says it was SANKEY'S
fault for appointing so incompetent COM
mander rs Bartte eliot. But there was every
reason why Stanley should have trusted
his subordinate. Major BarttelOt was a
young man, full of energy and Yig0r. De-
spite his youth, he had risen TO high rank
in the Royal Engineers, picked corps COM
prising some of the smartest soldiers in En-
rope. BE had had some experience in eX-
pl0ration and in dealing with sayages. If
surh an officer could not be trusted with the
command of q small battalion, who could
1t seems that Barttelot was cursed with
quick and fiery temper, which brooked no
opposition. In the evaporation of his rage
at his forced inaction he was swift to use
the club, or the whip, or even the pistol, on
the wretched savageS who constituted his
| command. This was anerror OF judgment
which not unnatnraily led to his DEATH
But meek and long-snffering Christians
would have been out of place at Yambuya.
We cannot see that Stanley committed any
blunder in selecting Barttelot for the COM
mand of the rear guard, though possibly
Stairs might have filed the post to more
practical advantage.
These personal controversies sink into in
significance by the side of the discoveries
which the explorer is now preparing to mar
rate. No white man ever before trayersed
that dark forest which divides the water
shed of the South Atlantic from the water
shed of the Mediterranean. The country
has been peOpled from the beginning of his
tory-probably by the very races which are
IOu'4u LHtib tO-uhg. IL - HulI0 lihClS blldt
the ancestors of the warriors of the Uganda
and the Unyoro and the Manyema tribes
who marched under Stanley served in the
armies of Meroe in the wars against Egypt
before the pyramids were built; Herodotus
had heard all about the pigmies, whose de-
scendauts could not be restrained from pill
feriDg in Stanley's tents. Here are races OF
men of whose existence we have traces some
5000 years ago, and who loom up to-day,
! probably unchanged. During long inter-
val Of 5000 years they have lived and moved
aud had their being, have begotten children
and buried their dead, and nothing has ever
been heard about them They have gone
on multiplying under that equatorial sun,
and making war upon each other, like saw
ages as they were; but until Stanley came
no one knew what manner OF men they
were. They are revelation as startling as
Locke's hoax about the men in the moon.
Other explorers have had predecessors,
whose statements they confirmed or denied.
st aney mad virgin field. How well he has
| exploited it those who read his book and
hear his lectures will be enabled to say.