Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark ContinentHeadley, Joel Tyler
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Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent
Headley, Joel Tyler
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
Of this long and hazardous journey, the columns of the _Herald_ gave all
the principal details. There is nothing in them that illustrates the
peculiar characteristics of Stanley more than, or even so much as, his
subsequent acts, hence his brief summary of this tour, that seems to
have had no definite object whatever, except to give the correspondent
of the _Herald_ something to do, until the proper moment to start on the
expedition for Livingstone, is, perhaps, the best account that could be
given, so far as the general reader is concerned. All we can say is, it
seems a very roundabout way in which to commence such an expedition.
"I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in Baker's
expedition, at Philæ, and was the means of preventing a duel between him
and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight Mr. Higginbotham with
pistols, because Mr. Higginbotham resented the idea of being taken for
an Egyptian through wearing a fez cap. I had a talk with Captain Warren
at Jerusalem, and descended one of the pits with a sergeant of engineers
to see the marks of Tyrian workmen on the foundation-stones of the
Temple of Solomon. I visited the mosques of Stamboul with the minister
resident of the United States, and the American consul-general. I
traveled over the Crimean battle-grounds with Kinglake's glorious books
for reference. I dined with the widow of General Liprandi, at Odessa. I
saw the Arabian traveler, Palgrave, at Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the
civil governor of the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian
embassador while at Teheran, and wherever I went through Persia I
received the most hospitable welcome from the gentlemen of the
Indo-European Telegraph Company; and, following the example of many
illustrious men, I wrote my name upon one of the Persepolitan monuments.
In the month of August, 1870, I arrived in India."
In completing this sketch of Mr. Stanley's life and character, it is
necessary only to add that his after career fully justified the high
estimate Mr. Bennett had placed on his extraordinary qualities. These
were tested to their utmost extent in his persistent, determined search
after the man he was sent to find. But we believe that Livingstone, when
found, with whom Stanley passed some months, exerted a powerful
influence on the character which we have attempted to portray. Stanley
was comparatively young, full of life and ambition, with fame, greater
probably than he had ever anticipated, now within his reach. Yet, here
in the heart of Africa, he found a man well on in years, of a world-wide
fame, yet apparently indifferent to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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