The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-05-29
orr OF THE FOREST.
The Lonely March of Stanley and His
Men In Mid-Afsica.

The Lonely March of Stanley and His
Men In Mid-Afsica.
Henry N. Stanley in Scrihners.
One afternoon, after terrible struggle
through q suffocating wilderness OF arums.
amomums and bush, We came to a dark,
amphitheatricai glen, and at the bottom
found camp just deserted by natives.
and in such hot haste that they had
thought it best not to burden themselves
with their treasures. Surely some divinity
provided for US always in the most stress
full hours. Two bushels OF Indian corn and
a bushel of beans awaited us is in this
camp My poor donkey from Zanzibar
showed symptoms of surrender. Arums
every day since June % were no tit food Tor
a dainty Zanzibar animal, therefore to end
his misery shot him.
The meat was as carefully shared as
though il were the finest venison. for the
wild and famished mob threatened to defy
discipline. When the meat was fairly
served a free fight took place over the skin.
The bones were taken up and crushed.
and the hoofs were boiled for hours. There
was nothing left of my faithful animal but
the spilled blood and the hair. A peck of
hyenas could not have made q more thor
ough disposal of him.
No more gloomy spot could have been
selected for camp than that sandy ter
race encompassed by rocks and hemmed
in narrowly by those dark woods which
rose from the rivers edge 10 a height OF
600 feet, with the never ceasing uproar
which was created by the Srithing and tor
tured stream and the twin caiaracts which
ever rivaled each others thunder.
The imagination shoulders atthe position
of those crippled men who were doomed
to remain inactive. TO listen every moment
to the awful sound Of that irreconc,la able
fury of wrathfui waters and the monoton-
Gus and continuous roar of plunging rivers:
to watch the leaping waves coiling and
twisting into uprising columns rs they
ever wrestled for mastery with each other
and were dashed In white fragments of
foam far apart by the ceaseiess force OF the
driven currents; TO gaze at the dark, re-
ientless woods, spreading upward and
around, standing perpeiually fixed in dull
green. mourding over past ages. past times
and past generations.
Then think OF the night with its paIpabfe
blackness. the dead, black shadows OF the
wooded hills, the eternal sound of fury.
that ceaseless boom OF the cataracts, the
indefinite forms born OF nervousness, that
misery engendered by loneliness and the
creeping sense OF abandonment; then will
be understood something of the true posi-
ton of those poor men and OF us. tradging
up those wooded slopes to gain the crest OF
the forest upland to tramp on and on
whittier we know not, for how long time
we dared not think - seeking food with a
double responsibility weighing US down.
for these trustful. brave fellows with US
were no less brave and t-ustiu. than those
whom We had left behind at the bottom OF
the horrible canyon.
Resting awhile TO debate on our course
We heard . sonorous voice singing IN
language that none OF rs knew. I fired nv
Winchester rapidly IN the air. A response
oy heavily loaded muskets revealed 10 US
that we had found the Aanyema whom se
had been so long seeking. Scarcely had
the echoes ceased their reyerberafions be-
fore the caravan revealed It's joy by long
continued hurraghs. We descended tue
slope OF the clearing 30 the little valley.
and from the sides of the opposite Store
were seen lines Of men and women who
welcomed US with friendly halls
Upon arrival sf the village We had to
answer hosts Of questions AMI receive con-
gratriations- As the caravan Esed past 20
its allotted quarters numerous we're the
praises TO God uttered BY them for our
marvellous escape from the terrible wilder
ness that stretched froFs their settlement
OF fpoto 10 the sasapo cataract. distance
OF 80 miles. praises in which IN our in
most hearts each one OF our sorely tried
varavAn joined.