The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-05-29
Through the Dark Forest.

STANLEY IN THE DEPTHS OF AFRICA.
LONDON, May 2O-The speech delive
ed by Henry NJ. Stanley at the receptio
rendered to him by the Emin Reli'
Committee here was full Of thrillin
interest, especially his account of h
terrible journey through the heart of
tropical forest. Among other things, h
said SCI
Day after day, week after week, fror
dawn of morning to near eve, with
noon interval Of rest, we are urged 0
unrestingly. Step by step we gain on
miles, and penetrate deeper and deepe
| into that strange conservatory of na
! ture, the inner womb of a true tropics
forest. The warm vapers rise from
as from great fermenting vat, until s
dense are the exhalations in few day
| that only the flaming bolt can let in tn
sunlight on that imperious and endles
foliage above our heads.
After months unbroben march W
halt for rest, and for the first time at
tempt to question natives who hav
hitherto artfully eluded our efforts t
gain intelligence. We ask them if the,
know of any grass land lying East
North, or South of their district, ant
they reply in the negative in name
that seems to imply that we must b,
strange creatures to suppose that i
would be possible for any world to exis
save this illimitable forest world.
Taking a grass blade from the rive
bank-for only few struggling blade,
can be found-we hold it up to view
"What-no field, no limited stretch O
land with something like this growing?'
NO" they reply, shaking their heads
compassionately pitying our absurd
questions. "All like this" and they
wave their hands sweepingly to illus
trate that all the world was alike, moth
ing but trees, trees and trees'' Great
trees rising as high as arrows shot to-
wads the sky, uniting their crowns, In
terlacing their branches, pressing and
crowded one against the other until
neither sunbeam nor shaft of light NAV
penetrate it.
No sooner are these words heard by
our men than their imaginations con.
ceive the forest under the most oppres-
sive and forbidding aspect. Hitherto it
had been a tract of land of uncertain
extent, growing trees, which a few
weeks march would enable us to pierce
through, mere pleasant variation in
the experiences of an African journey
maker; but month had already elaps-
ed, and they now heard with their own
ears that the forest was without end.
The little religion they knew was
nothing more than legendary lore, and
in their memories there dimly floated a
story Of land that grew darker and
darker as, you travelled toward the end
Of the world, and drew nearer to the
place where great serpent lay supine
and coiled around the whole earth. All,
then, the ancients must have referred to
this, where the light is SO CHASTITY, where
the woods are endless, and are SO still
and solemn and gray, to this oppressive
loneliness, amid SO much life, which is so
chilling to the poor, distressed heart!
And the horror grows darker with
their fancies, the cold of early morning,
the eomfortless gray of the dawn, the
dead white mist, the ever dripping tears
OF the dew, the deluging rains, the APP.
palling thunder bursts and the rolling
echoes, and the wonderful play of the
dazzling lightning.
And when the night comes with its
thick palpable darkness, and they lie
cuddled in their little damp huts, and
they hear the tempest overhead, the
bowling of the wild winds, the grinding
and grooming OF storm-tossed trees, the
dread sounds OF falling giants, and the
shock of the trembling earth which
sends their hearts with fitfal leaps to
their Threats, and roaring and rush.
ing as OF mad, overwhelming sea-oh
then the horror is intensified.
Then they disappear into the woods
by twos and threes and skies, and after
the caravan has passed return by the
TRAIL some to reach Yambuya and upset
the young officers by their tales of woe
and war, some to fall sobbing under a
spear-thrust, some to wander and stray
in the dark mazes of the woods, hope
lessly lost, and some to be carved for the
canibal feast. And those who remain,
compelled to it by fears of greater dan
gers, mechanically march on, a prey to
dread and weakness, the scratch of a
thorn, the pnncture of pointed cane,
the bite OF an ant, the sting of wasp.
The smallest thing seves to start an Ill
GER, which presently become virulent
and eats its way to the bone, and the
man dies.
These sores are like an epidemic and
dozens are sufferers. Then the reckless
ness with which the men eat up their
stores of provisions What might have
lasted ten days is eaten up in two OF
three, and they starve the rest of the
time, for the places between the banana
plantations may be only days march
but they may be twenty days. But it re-
quires a calamity to teach blacks as well
as whites how to live.
On the eighty first day of the march
from Yambuya we come across a com
munity of ivory raiders from an Arat
station called Kibonge, on the Lualaba
We leave fifty-six of our sick people
with them to be boarded for money
Seventeen days later we leave Captain
Nelson with fifty-two men who are una
BILE to travel unless they get supply o.
food We select six of the most intelli
gent men and despatch them as ayan1
couriers to another Arab settlement te
obtain relief, but they lose Their way
and the expedition arrives after thirteer
days subsistence on fungi, wild fruit
and wood leaves at Kilonga Longa's, but
there is nine days further delay before
we can induce the british minded ivory
raiders to send off relief. Finally, aftel
twenty-five days privation at the camp
Mr.. Jephson reaches Capt. Nelson, t.
find only five skeletons surviving out OIL
fifty-two. Many have died, many have
deserted. many have been wandering fo
days in search of food and have not re
turned.
When we were well-nigh exhausted
with our troubles we reached Ibwiri