page_title: Emin Pasha Relief Expedition
section_title: Up the Congo
hierarchical_section_title: Emin Pasha Relief Expedition / Up the Congo
caption_attribution_description: English: Map depicting the Route of H.M. Stanley to rescue Emin Pasha
context_page_description: The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886 to 1889 was one of the last major European expeditions into the interior of Africa in the nineteenth century, ostensibly to the relief of Emin Pasha, General Charles Gordon's besieged governor of Equatoria, threatened by Mahdist forces. The expedition was led by Henry Morton Stanley and came to be both celebrated for its ambition in crossing "darkest Africa", and notorious for the deaths of so many of its members and the disease unwittingly left in its wake.
context_section_description: The expedition left Zanzibar on 25 February and arrived at Banana at the mouth of the Congo on 18 March. Their arrival was somewhat unexpected, because a telegraph cable had broken and local officials had received no instructions. Chartered steamers brought the expedition to Matadi, where the carriers took over, bringing some 800 loads of stores and ammunition to Leopoldville on the Stanley Pool. Progress was slow, since the rainy season was at its height, and food was short - a problem that was to be persistent throughout the expedition (the area along the route rarely had spare food for 1,000 hardworking men, as it was a subsistence economy).
  On 21 April, the expedition arrived at Leopoldville. King Leopold had promised a flotilla of river steamers, but only one  worked: the Stanley. Stanley requisitioned two (Peace and Henry Reed) from missionaries of the Baptist Mission and the Livingstone Inland Mission, whose protests were overridden, as well as the Florida, which was still under construction and so used as a barge.  Even these were insufficient, so many of the stores were left at Leopoldville and more at Bolobo.  At this point, Stanley also announced the division of the expedition: a "Rear Column" would encamp at Yambuya on the Aruwimi, while the "Advance Column" pressed on to Equatoria.
  The voyage up the Congo started 1 May and was generally uneventful. At Bangala Station, Barttelot and Tippu Tib continued up to Stanley Falls in the Henry Reed, while Stanley took the Aruwimi to Yambuya. The inhabitants of Yambuya refused permission to reside in their village, so Stanley attacked and drove the villagers away, turning the deserted village into a fortified camp. Meanwhile, at Stanley Falls, Tippu Tib attempted to acquire carriers, but he believed that Stanley had broken his part of their agreement by leaving ammunition behind, and Barttelot came to Yambuya with only an indefinite promise that carriers would arrive in several weeks.
caption: The expedition route between the Upper Congo river and Bagamoyo
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