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
Whether the military authorities were afraid of this sudden conversion
or not daring to give too much freedom of action to one who showed by
his whole bearing and language, that there was no undertaking too daring
for him to attempt, we are not told, but they put him where he would
probably have little chance to show what stuff he was made of, and he
was placed on the iron-clad ship Ticonderoga. It is said, he was
released as prisoner and volunteered to enlist in the navy. Be that as
it may, though totally unfit for service of any kind on board of a
man-of-war, he soon became acting ensign.
At the close of the war he looked about for some field of active
service, and what little war he had seen seemed to fit his peculiar
character, and hearing that the Cretans were about to attempt to throw
off the Turkish yoke, he resolved to join them. He proceeded thither
with two other Americans, after having first made an engagement with the
New York _Herald_, as its correspondent. Disgusted, it is said, with the
insurgent leaders, he abandoned his purpose, and having a sort of roving
commission from Mr. Bennett, he determined to travel in the East. But he
and his fellow-travelers were attacked by Turkish brigands, and robbed
of all their money and clothing. They laid their complaint before Mr.
Morris, then our minister at Constantinople, who in turn laid it before
the Turkish government, and at the same time advanced them funds to
supply their wants.
After various journeyings Stanley returned to England. Here a strong
desire seized him to visit the place of his nativity in Wales, the house
where he was born, and the humble dwelling where he received the first
rudiments of his education at St. Asaph. One can imagine the feelings
with which this bronzed young man, who had traveled so far and wide,
entered the quiet valley from which he had departed so long ago to seek
his fortune. It speaks well for his heart, that his sympathies turned at
once toward the poor-house of which he had been an inmate in his
childhood. Remembering that the greatest boon that could have been
conferred at that time on him would have been a good, generous dinner,
he resolved to give those poor children one. The daring young
adventurer, in the presence of those simple, wonderstruck children,
would have made a noble subject for a picture. We venture to say that
Mr. Stanley enjoyed that unobtrusive meal in that quiet Welsh valley
more than he has ever enjoyed a banquet with nobles and princes; and as
the shadows of life lengthen he will look back on it with more real
pleasure. He addressed the little ones of the Institution, giving them a
familiar talk, telling them that he was once one of that household,
accompanying his words with good advice, saying for their encouragement,
and to stimulate them to noble endeavors, that all he had been in the
past and all he hoped to be in the future, he attributed to the
education which was begun in that poor-house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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