American Missionary, Vol. XXXIV., No. 5, May 1880Various
Religion
American Missionary, Vol. XXXIV., No. 5, May 1880
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Father Carrie says: “Having just returned from a voyage through
the whole navigable portion of the Lower Congo, I take the
first opportunity of sending you the following particulars
concerning Mr. Stanley and his explorations. The party of the
great explorer is somewhat numerous. It consists, besides the
leader, of a superintendent, an engineer, a sea captain, several
mechanics, carpenters, etc., in all, twenty whites of different
nationalities--Belgians, Americans, English, Italians, and Danes. A
French naturalist, M. Protche, just come to Landana from Paris, and an
old member of the German expedition to Chinchoxo, near Landana, are
also about to join The ‘Society for the Investigation of the Upper
Congo,’ as this expedition terms itself.
“The blacks of the party consist of about one hundred men, Arabs
and natives from Sierra Leone and the Congo. The stores are very
considerable, comprising especially five small steamers and some
auxiliary craft, engines and trucks for land carriage, wooden houses
ready for erection, &c.
“Mr. Stanley, as I am informed by Mr. Greshoff, proposes to go up the
Congo to the Lualaba, where he hopes to meet his Arab friend Tibu-tin.
He will then explore the Western part of the Congo as well as the
countries near both of its banks, and will endeavor at the same time to
bring the ivory-trade to Emboma. When we arrived at Vivi (four or five
miles below the first cataract of the Yellala Falls), Mr. Stanley was
on his way across the mountains in the direction of the great village
of the same name, doubtless studying the start for his route to the
interior. M. Van Schandel, chief engineer of the expedition, told us
that the celebrated traveller habitually started on such excursions
without warning any one of his going or returning. Soon, however, Mr.
Stanley himself was announced; he returned tired to death and covered
with dust and perspiration.
“While waiting for the end of the rainy season, he is engaged in
firmly establishing his first station--the base of all his future
operations--and in maturing his plans for overcoming the gigantic
difficulties in his way.
“It is, indeed, a startling enterprise to traverse some two hundred
miles of precipitous, rocky mountains, piled up--so to speak--one on
the other, and almost without any intermediate passage, not only with
a numerous party, but a considerable weight of baggage, wooden houses,
trucks and steam vessels, which must be hoisted over heights of from
1,000 to 1,300 feet, with extremely abrupt rises; and this not once, or
twenty, or a hundred times, but on thousands of occasions.
“Happen what may, it will require some years’ work to reach the end
of this terrible chain of mountains at Stanley Pool, where the second
station is to be established.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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