St. Landry democrat., 1890-01-18
STANLEY SAFE.
Arrival OF the Great Explorer and His
Party at Bagamoyo.

VbYAGER HlMSELc In a LA' ,,.,, ro
esTHE HERALD.
A correspondent of the NJ york Hon.
aid, writing from Msuws' Nov 70 says
Mr.. Stanley has , apded me- the fol.
lowing letter:
To the Editor o. the New York Herald.
The Herald cor, espondent. who found rs
during our g Us halt at Msuwah, five days
from the &C asst, has made it point that |
should w'fite to you.
l beg yon to believe tina. 1 should be
most willing to do so if knew what sub
jeet would be particularly gratifying to
you. But IS the Hcra2d correspondent
cannot suggest subject, you will, perhaps,
consider that it would be scarcely fair to
expect me to know matters your readers
would be most interested in.
l find it the most convenient to ina CINE
you able to tell my friends much that l
should like to say to them.
First of ell, / am in perfect health and
feel like laborer of a Saturday evening
returning nome with his weeks work done,
his weeks wages in his pocket and glad
that tomorrow is the Sabbath.
Just about three years ago while lectur-
ing in New England message came from
under the sea bidding me to hasten and
take commission to relieve Emin Pasha
at Wadelai; but IS people generally do
with faithful pack-horses, numbers OF
little trifes odds and ends, are piled on
over and above the proper burden. Twenty
various little commissions were added to
the principal one, each requiring due care
and thought. Well, looking back over
what has been accomplished, see no Tes-
son for any hearts discomfort. We can
say we shirked no task, and that good viii
aided by steady effort enabled US to CON-
plete every little job as well as circum-
stances permitted.
over and above the happy ending of our
appointed duties we have not been unfor
tunate in geographical discoveries. The
Aruwimi is now known from it's source to
it's bouche. The great Congo forest, COW
ering as large an area as France and the
Iberian peninsular, we can now certify to
be an absolute fact. The mountains of the
moon, this time, beyond the least doubt,
have been located, and Ruwenzori, the
"Cloud King" robed in eternal snow, has
been seen and it's tanks explored and some
of it's shoulders assembled Mounts Gordon
Bennett and Mackinnon Cones being but
giant centres warding off the approach to
the inner area of the ftCloud King"
On the southeast of the range the con-
nections between the Albert Edw ard
Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza has been
discovered and the extent of the former
lake is now known for the first time,
Range after range Of mountains has been
travelled, separated by such tracts of pas
ture land as would make your cowboys
out west mad with envy.
And right under the burning equator
we have fed on blackberries and quenched
our thirst with crystal water fresh from
snow beds. We have also been able to
add nearly six thousand square miles of
water to Victoria Nyapza. Our ma uralist
will expatiate upon the new species of
animals, birds and plants he has discov-
cred.
Our surgeon will tell of the climate and
it's amenities. 1t will take us all we know
how to say what new store of knowledge
has been gathered from this unexpected
field Of discoveries. always suspected
that in the central regions between the
equatorial lakes something worth seeing
would be found, but l was not prepared
for such harvest of new facts. This has
certainly been the most extraordinary ex-
petition l have ever led into Africa. A
veritabie divinity seems to have hedged
us while we journeyed. say it with all
reverence. It has impelled US whittier it
would, effected it's own will, but neverthe-
less guided and protected US.
What can you make of this, for in
stance? On Aug, II, 1887, all the officers
of the rear column are united at Yambuya.
They have my letter of instructions before
them, but instead of preparing for the
morrow's march, TO follow our track, they
decide to wait at Yambuya, which decis-
ion initiates the most awful season any
community OF men ever endured in Africa
or elsewhere.
The results are that three-quartefs of
theirtforce die of slow poison. Their COM
mander is murdered and the second officer
dies soon after of sickness and grief. An
other officer is wasted to a skeleton and
obliged to return home. A fourth is sent
to wander aimlessly up and down the Con-
go and the survivor is found in such q
fearful pest-hole that we dare not describe
its Horrors.
On the same date, $50 miles away, the
officer of the day leads 333 men of the ad-
vxnced column into the bush, loses the
path and all consciousness of his where
aboats, and every step he takes only leads
him further astray. His people become
frantic. His white companions, vexed and
irritated by the sense of the evil around
them, cannot devise any expedient to re-
lieve him. They are surrounded by can
nibals, and poison tipped arrows thin their
numbers.
Meantime I, in command Of the river
column. am anxiously searching up and
down the river in four different directions
through forests my scouts are seeking for
them, but not until the sixth day was l
successful in finding them.
Taking the same month at the same date
in 1886, year later on Aug. II, listen,
horror stricken, to the tale Of the last sur
viving officer of the rear column at Ban
alya and am told of nothing but death and
disaster. see nothing but horrible forms
Of men smitten with disease, bloated, dis
figured, SCARED, and while the scene in
the camp, infamous for the murder of poor
Barttlelot, barely four weeks before, is
simply sickening. On the same day, 600
miles west of this camp, jameson, worn
cut with fatigue, sickness and sorrow,
breathes his last.
On the next day, Aug, IS, 900 miles east,
Emin Pasha and my officer, Jephson, are
suddenly surrounded by infuristed rebels,
who menace them with loaded rifles and
instant death. but fortunately they reient
and only make them prisoners to be deliv-
cred to the Mahdists.
Having saved Bonny out Of the jaws Of
death, we arrived the second time at Al
bert Nyanza, to find Emin Pasha nd
Jephson prisoners in daily expectation Of
their doom. Jephson's own letters will
describe his anxiety. Not until both were
in my camp and the Egyptian fugitiyes
under our protection did begin to see that
/ was only carving ont q higher plan than