The record-union., 1891-03-18
SFANLEY'S LECTURE.
A Graphic Recital of His Adventures
and Discoveries.
The Great Explorer is Deeply In.
eresting Tnlker-A Prophecy
Concerning Africa.

A very large and thoroughly represent
ative audience assembled at the Metro
politan Theater last evening to hear the
great explorer, Henry M. Stanley, re-
count the. story OF his twenty years of
travel, peril and suffering, privation, toll
and triumph in equatorial Africa.
Upon the stage with Mr.. Stanley were
Speaker Coombs, Mayor Comstock, Rev.
Mr.. Herrick, Rev. Mr.. Silcox and wife,
and Judge Armstrong. When Mr.. Stan
ley appeared he was greeted by hearty
applause long continued. He was intro
duced by Speaker Coombs in a graceful
and well-delivered speech, which the au-
dience approved with all its compliments
by warm applause.
Without preface or introduction Mr..
Stanley plunged into his subject, begin
ming with his call to exploration by Mr..
Bennett in 1869, his discharge of some
predatory travel and observation, and his
departure from Zanzibar January, 1871,
upon his first expedition. In deliberate
manner, with faultlesS enunciation feel
ing tones and graphic diction, he told the
story ofhis search for Livingstone and its
success. His second expedition was
the Geographical Society of England, by
which he was abused and denounced for
his relation fthe Livingstone search and
ms geographical report, which was
declared to be impossible of truth.
He set out in October, 1874, to settle four
great disputed questions: The source and
course of the great river on whose head
waters Livingstone died; the true charac-
ter of Victoria NyanZa, concerning which
Burton and Speke were contradictory be-
yond reconciliation; whether Albert Ny
ANA was an illimitable stretch of water
as Baker believed he saw it; did Tangan
yika belong to the Nile or the Congo?
These four questions he solved, estab-
fishing the truth of his discoveries so en-
phatically that the geographical disput-
ants of the nations were compelled to
yield their points and confess their error.
This portion of his lecture was by far the
most interesting and held the audience in
rapt attention and perfect silence, broken
only by bursts of sincerest applause.
His next expedition was undertaken
under call by King Leopold, with the
idea of making of practical value the dis
coveries on the Congo, the establishment
OF stations, the building of towns and the
laying of the foundations of the Congo
Free State, and the placing upon the
upper Congo of steam vessels, and COM
pleting highway between the lower and
the upper Congo.l In January, 1879, he
entered upon his third great undertaking,
and the splendid achievement that re-
suited is familiar history.
His fourth and last adventure, and the
most perilous, tragic and eventful of all,
began when he started to rescue Emin
Pasha and Captain Cassetti from the peril
that beset them in their Egyptian prov
lnce, of which the former had been made
Governor-General. OF that expedition
up the Congo, through the great forest,
two and third times greater in area than
the State of California, the perils that in
vested his party, their starvation, sick
ness, loss by death, their battles with
pigmies and wild beasts and reptiles,
their repulse by Emin, and the final res
cue of that misguided man, the reading
public is fully informed.
But no reading of Stanley's story can
more interest than his recital of his ex-
plorations. 1t has been said that he is no
orator-perhaps not in the matters of
studious finish, of lofty periods, of brill
liant language and of flashing wit. But he
is an orator, if depth of feeling, graphic
description, telling recital, dramatic word
painting, genuine humor, the most cut
ting sarcasm and the ability to hold an
audience of seven hundred people in rapt
and unbroken attention for nearly two
hours, are any evidences of art as a
speaker.
Mr.. Stanley compared with hundred
or more lecturers of high repute, we class
as one OF the most effective. He is fault
less in his English, magnificent in the
sweep OF his fancy, almost amazing in the
ease with which he carries his hearers
over vast stretches of country. over great
period of time, along unbroken ways in
desert and forest by the hundreds of
miles to sentence, and yet with such an
art that the hearer is perfectly content
Of n Nho
of feeling with which he tells his story,
the ease of his manner, the distinctness
OF his enunciation, the vivid rapidity of
his description of scenes, countries, peo-
pie, contests, battles and the feats of adj
venture among hostile tribes, cannibals.
treacherous allies, and the most awful of
swampy forests not before trodden by
the foot of a white man, justify the YER
dict that Mr.. Stanley is successful lee
turer in the fullest sense of the word
Whoever has read "How / found Liv-
ingstone' and the two volumes "On the
Congo" and his latest book on equatorial
Africa, and heard Mr.. Stanley in the lee
ture referred to, will agree with us that
the volumes are given new interest, and
that the reading in no respect lessened
the pleasure of hearing the story told by
the explorer.
Something of which the books cannot
convey any adequate idea, the hearing.
OF Stanley make clear-the capacity of
the man for the works he undertook. his
fitness to command the natural equip
ment with which he is invested for pre-
cisely the perilous tasks he undertook.
Nor can the reading of his volumes con-
vey to the reader, intensely interesting as
are the pages of the books, as true an idea
of all that exploration in the Dark Con
tinent involves and means, as Mr.. Stan
ley's graphic recitlls as lie tells his story.
and his Zanzibar servant stands behind
him and indicates silently the points
upon the great map as the speaker refers
to them. a.
In the REcoRD-UNIoN of January 26th
will be found very full synopsis of Mr..
Stanley's lecture, filling nearly four
columns. Were it reported in full it
would fill page of this journal. Any
briefer synopsis than we have already
published would be unfair both to Mr..
Stanley and the reader, when it is con-
sidered that the recital covers period of
more than twenty years of adventurous
life.
Mr.. Stanley concludes his lecture with
the expression that Africa is no
longer a dark continent in the sense
of its being mystery. 1t will never
be continent to be peopled as has
been this by the white races; but it is the
ideal locality for the black races; it is il
limitable in its varied richness; it is so
full of promise to civilization and COM
oil.