Stanley's Story; Or, Through the Wilds of Africa: A Thrilling Narrative of His Remarkable Adventures, Terrible Experiences, Wonderful Discoveries and Amazing Achievements in the Dark ContinentFeather, A. G., Col.
History
Stanley's Story; Or, Through the Wilds of Africa: A Thrilling Narrative of His Remarkable Adventures, Terrible Experiences, Wonderful Discoveries and Amazing Achievements in the Dark Continent
Feather, A. G., Col.
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
These quotations from Dr. Livingstone’s letters of this important period
of his life will be appropriately concluded with his letter of thanks to
the editor of the “Herald”:
“UJIJI, ON TANGANYIKA, }
“EAST AFRICA, November, 1871.}
“JAMES GORDON BENNETT, Esq., Jr.:--
“MY DEAR SIR--It is in general somewhat difficult to write to one we
have never seen--it feels so much like addressing an abstract idea--but
the presence of your representative, Mr. H. M. Stanley, in this distant
region takes away the strangeness I should otherwise have felt, and in
writing to thank you for the extreme kindness that prompted you to send
him, I feel quite at home.
“If I explain the forlorn condition in which he found me you will easily
perceive that I have good reason to use very strong expressions of
gratitude. I came to Ujiji off a tramp of between four hundred and five
hundred miles, beneath a blazing vertical sun, having been baffled,
worried, defeated and forced to return, when almost in sight of the end
of the geographical part of my mission, by a number of half-caste Moslem
slaves sent to me from Zanzibar, instead of men. The sore heart made
still sorer by the woful sights I had seen of man’s inhumanity to man
reached and told on the bodily frame and depressed it beyond measure. I
thought that I was dying on my feet. It is not too much to say that
almost every step of the weary sultry way was in pain, and I reached
Ujiji a mere ‘ruckle’ of bones.
“There I found that some five hundred pounds sterling worth of goods
which I had ordered from Zanzibar had unaccountably been entrusted to a
drunken half-caste Moslem tailor, who, after squandering them for
sixteen months on the way to Ujiji, finished up by selling off all that
remained for slaves and ivory for himself. He had “divined” on the Koran
and found that I was dead. He had also written to the Governor of
Unyanyembe that he had sent slaves after me to Manyema, who returned and
reported my decease, and begged permission to sell off the few goods
that his drunken appetite had spared. He, however, knew perfectly well,
from men who had seen me, that I was alive, and waiting for the goods
and men; but as for morality, he is evidently an idiot, and there being
no law here except that of the dagger or musket, I had to sit down in
great weakness, destitute of everything save a few barter cloths and
beads, which I had taken the precaution to leave here in case of extreme
need. The near prospect of beggary among Ujijians made me miserable. I
could not despair, because I laughed so much at a friend who, on
reaching the mouth of the Zambezi, said that he was tempted to despair
on breaking the photograph of his wife. We could have no success after
that. Afterward the idea of despair had to me such a strong smack of the
ludicrous that it was out of the question.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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