The times., 1900-12-26
LIFE IN DARKEST AFRICA
A Young Americans Experience in
the Tropical Wilderness.
W ininm stamps CHERRY Spent seven
Nenrs Among the Natives and Had
Good Tlme-Made His Way
Through Pluck. Energy. and Good
Trade-Expericnces on the Congo.

| W lllldIH Stamps NneTTN lives III q
OF Chicago when he is at home. Since he
reached manhood, however, he has spent
| most of his life in the depths of Africa.
| He made his first visit 30 that continent
in 1889, when he was still almost boy,
1 and lived there for three years. He start
| ed on his second visit in 1896 and after
| four years sojourn In the far interior he
| returned to his native land about the first
Of this month
The conditions under which he has lived
| in Africa are most unusual. He has gone
alone among native tribes whose food he
/ has shared and whose friendship and help
1 fulness he has secured by unfailing tact
and good nature. For many months at a
| time he has not seen white face nor has
a white man been within scores of miles
of the regions where he was hunting, sur
veying, mapping and studying the va
rious barbarous peoples among whom he
! lived. He has taken very little money or
/ equipment. but has managed to live some
how or other as he went along. He has
enjoyed splendid health among the savan-
mas and jungles of the far interior of
/ tropical Africa. He comes home now the
| picture of health though deprived for
| years of the comforts and of many things
| that are regarded as the necessaries of
! life. Sometimes he has not even had
| tent to protect him against the tropical
| rains. At such times his bed has been
the drenched earth and his roof the
| spreading branches of tree; he has lived
| on the game he killed and on the manioc
and other vegetables he bought from the
natives with the meat he had to sell them.
His story is almost unique in the annals
OF African travel. It is paralleled per-
haps. only by that of Mr.. Arnot, the Brit
ish missionary, who travelled hundreds of
miles TO the scene of his missionary la
bors in the far upper Congo country, de-
pending entirely for support upon his gun
and the assistance the natives gave him
in exchange for his medical services.
Very little has been published about
Cherry's adventures and the really good
work he has done for he has taken very
modest view Of his doings and has never
seemed TO court publicity. Mr.. Stanley
and other Africanists, however. have
known of his career in Africa and their
attitude toward him shows that they rec
ognize his aptitude for pioneering in the
trying climate and amid the wild nature
and barbarous peoples of the Continent
still so little known.
Young Cherry had thoroughly learned
the trade of a machinist when in 1883.
the impulse seized him to go to the mys-
terious land which so many were talking
about. The story: of Stanleys wonderful
descent of the Congo and of the founding
of the Congo Free State was in every
body's mouth. II was nothing but his
trade that gave him reasonable ground o
believe that he might make his way there.
He went TO the Congo practically without
money. He had no friends there no let
tiers of introduction no influence tLat
would open way for him among the
white pioneers. All he had was an un-
limited amount of pluck, good American
energy and frst-rate trade and he had
faith to believe that he was going TO get
on we'll. He had other qualifications also,
such good habits. common sense and a
knack OF doing things and getting to his
goal somehow or other; all of which was
very fair equipment for African SER
Vice even If he had no beads or brass
to pay his way in land where tray
cling is many times as expensive as it
is in this country.
When ne reached the Congo. he found
that thousands of porters were carrying
little pieces Of steamboats, on their backs
all the way to Stanley Pool where 1t was
necessary to riyet these fragments to-
gether TO make river craft for them. Here
was plenty of work TO the hand of any
master mechanic or machinist who had a
.
on the ground found himself very well
core though an unbidden, craftsman. He |
assisted in putting steamers together for |
cne of the trading companies while he was |
waiting for opportunity to get further .
inia1d. He had sought employment In !
Africa merely as means of seeing the !
country and its primitive people. and so I
he embraced the first opportunity to get /
into the heart OF the continent. The !
steamers he helped to put together made |
long journeys up the main river and its |
tributaries and they needed repairs now |
and then and machinists to do the tinker
ing.
His Trip to Stanley Falls.
So Cherry found the way open at last for |
trips to Stanley Falls. 800 miles farther up |
the river, and also in other directions. |
and his hearts desire was finally fulfilled |
when the opportunity came to ascend the |
newly discovered Sanga affiuent, one of |
the largest northern tributaries of the |
Congo. whose headwaters are pushed so
far toward the Sahara that the natives |
long ago heard of the wonderful horses
that the Soudanese ride. Cherry lived a
long time on the upper Sanga and was
with the whites who pushed up one of its
tributaries into the German colony of
Cameroons. He met the strange tribes
who were now made known for the first
time and he collected great deal of in
formation and also large amount OF ma
terial illustrating the native arts and
modes of life.
After three years Of this life in the
dockyards and on the rivers of the Congo
system Cherry while still in his early
twenties came home with his large col
lection of museum material which has
long been on exhibition in Chicago. He
had learned how TO live in that bad eli
mate He had violated none of the rules
of hygiene he found it essential TO OBJ
serve He was fully convinced moreover,
that he could travel anywhere among the
natives in safety and at very small cost;
that in fact, he could pay his way as he
went along by doing them good turns as
for the food and other favors
received from them.
Cherry had an idea that the way TO sim
plify the problem of Congo development
was to domesticate the African elephant
and use him as a transport animal. He |
believed this might be done, though the
small attempts in that direction had rot
When he returned to the Con-
90 in 1896 to spend there. as it turned out,
four very eventfui years. he had his plans
all formed for going to the upper San
ga. where there are elephants in abund
ance. and devoting most of his time TO the
work of catching and tanning the young
animals. AS he intended tc spend years
in the country he needed an ample sup
ply OF guns and ammunition. But 1t Is
the nneXpected that always happens in
Africa and this time ii encountered the |
Young man on the threshold OF his Afri-
can tourney for the Congo State Govern
ment seemed to suspect from the size |
OF his armament that he intended to