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
History
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
Money is of no use in the heart of Africa. Goods of various kinds are
the only coin that can purchase what the traveler needs, or pay the
tribute that is exacted by the various tribes. He found that forty yards
of cloth per day would keep one hundred men supplied with food. Thus,
three thousand six hundred and fifty yards of cloth would support one
hundred men twelve months. Next to cloths, beads were the best currency
of the interior. Of these he purchased twenty sacks of eleven varieties
in color and shape. Next came the brass wire, of which he purchased
three hundred and fifty pounds, of about the thickness of telegraph
wire. Next came the provisions and outfit of implements that would be
needed--medicines, arms, donkeys, and last of all, men.
[Illustration: ZANZIBAR.
The capital of the island of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa.]
A man by the name of Shaw, a native of England, who came to Zanzibar as
third mate of an American ship, from which he was discharged, applied
for work, and was engaged by Stanley in getting what he needed together
and to accompany him on the expedition. He agreed to give him three
hundred dollars per annum, and placed him next in rank to Farquhar. He
then cast about for an escort of twenty men. Five who had accompanied
Speke, and were called "Speke's Faithfuls," among whom, as a leader, was
a man named Bombay, were first engaged. He soon got together eighteen
more men as soldiers, who were to receive three dollars a month. Each
was to have a flint-lock musket, and be provided with two hundred rounds
of ammunition. Bombay was to receive eighty dollars a year, and the
other "faithfuls" forty dollars.
Knowing that he was to enter a region of vast inland lakes, and that
much delay and travel might be avoided by the possession of a large
boat, he purchased one and stripped it of all its covering, to make the
transportation easier. He also had a cart constructed to fit the
goat-paths of the interior and to aid in transportation.
When all his purchases were completed and collected together, he found
that the combined weight would be about six tons. His cart and twenty
donkeys would not suffice for this, and so the last thing of all, was to
procure carriers, or pagosi, as they were called. He himself was
presented with a blooded bay horse by an American merchant at Zanzibar,
named Gordhue, formerly of Salem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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