The morning call., 1890-08-03
STANLEY'SLATESTB BOOK
Second Volume of the New Work,
Gin Darkest Africa"

a review of Volume of Stanley's latest
book appeared in last Sundays CALL. Vol
ume II opens with an account of the third
journey to the Nyanza, the privations and
sufferings of the rear column, the discomfort
Of the Zanzibaris, and Stanley's speeches in
tended to encourage and cheer them ON their
journey. These eXhortations, though some
what grotesque in their nature, make inter
esting reading, and one can imagine the
contortions Of the emaciated visage of some
half-starved negro as Stanley delivered
himself of the following: AYE, / see how
it has happened unto you. You lay on your
backs, rotting in camp, and have been
brooding and thinking until the jig
gers have burrowed into your brains,
and shaitan has caused you to dream
of evil and death. You be came hard
ened in mind and cruel 10 yourselves.
Instead of going to the little masters and
telling them of your griefs and fears you
have said, 'Mambu Kwa Mungu-it is Gods
trouble. Our masters don't care for us and
we don't care for them" The reply of Salim
was as follows: am not wise. l am but
youth and porter who for a little wage
has come to gather little money by carry
ing my load through pagan lands. What
strength have l freely give to the owner
of the caravan. Bitter things have hap
pened to US since you were away have
lost brother since / came here. You must
know, sir, that manioc and water is not
good for son of Adam. For some time we
have been thinking thai in every camp OF
ours there is nothing but graves and dying
and burying. There has been no meat, nor
salt, nor drippings, nor gravy. There has
been manioc, always manioc and no more.
But if the gullet be dry what will drive the
food down the passage. All have had
nothing but maniOc and therefore died. l
have spoken my say"
Among the many tribes described by
Stanley the most interesting are the forest
pigmes. "They vary in height from feet
TO feet 6 inches. A ful-grOwn adult may
weigh eighty pounds. They plant their
village camps at q distance of from two to
three miles around a tribe of agricultural
aborigines, the majority of whom are line
stalwart people. With their weapons. little
bows and arrows, the points of which are
covered thickly with poison, and spears
they kill elephants, buffalo and antelope.
They sink pits and cunningiy cover them
with light sticks and leaves, over which
they sprinkle earth to disguise from the I'M
suspecting animals the danger below them.
The pigmies arrange their dwellings, low
structures of the shape of an oval
figure cut lengthwise. The doors. are
from two to three feet high, placed
at the ends in a rough circle, the
center of which is left cleared for the resi-
ueDct OF the Culei anu HIS ldulllY, anu dS d
common. About 100 yards in advance OF
the camp, along every track leading out of
it, is placed the sentry-house, just large
enough for TWO little men, with the door
way looking up the track The women
perform all the work of collecting fuel and
provision. and cooking and the transport of
the goods of the community. The men
hunt and fight and smoke, and conduct the
tribal politics.
On January 10, 1890, Stanley arrived at
Cairo, where he remained fifty days, deyot-
ing his whole time to writing this work.
The foregoing excerpts will sufficiently in
dictate the style in which these volumes are
written, and while the short space of time
allotted to the work might seem to detract
from its literary merit, this is more than
c0nnterbalanced by the fact that it was
written while everything was fresh in the
mind of the author. "In Darkest Africa"
is a valuable contribution to our sources of
information about the Dark Continent and
should have an extensive sale. Sold only
by subscription by A. l.. Bancroft & Co.,
I'D Post ST