COTTAGE WHERE HENRY M. STANLEY WAS BORN _to face_ 4 FYNNON BEUNO 42 HENRY M. STANLEY, AGED 15 52 “CRAIG FAWR” FROM THE FARM 54 HENRY M. STANLEY, AGED 17 140 HENRY M. STANLEY, AGED 20 167 HENRY M. STANLEY, 1872 264 _Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co., Regent St., London._ DOCTOR LIVINGSTONE 282 _Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co., Regent St., London._ HENRY M. STANLEY AND HIS ZANZIBARIS, 1877 330 HENRY M. STANLEY, 1882 336 _Photograph By Messrs. Thomson, New Bond St., London._ HENRY M. STANLEY, 1885 348 _Photograph By Messrs. Elliott & Fry, Baker St., London._ FAC-SIMILE OF A LETTER BY SIR HENRY M. STANLEY 378 HENRY M. STANLEY AND HIS OFFICERS, 1890 390 HENRY M. STANLEY, ON HIS RETURN FROM AFRICA, 1890 409 _Photograph by Mrs. Frederic W. H. Myers._ DOROTHY STANLEY 423 _Photograph by Mrs. Frederic W. H. Myers._ IN THE VILLAGE CHURCHYARD, PIRBRIGHT 516 MAP OF AFRICA SHOWING STANLEY’S JOURNEYS _at end_ _By Messrs. Stanford, London._ INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY There is no reason now for withholding the history of my early years, nothing to prevent my stating every fact about myself. I am now declining in vitality. My hard life in Africa, many fevers, many privations, much physical and mental suffering, bring me close to the period of infirmities. My prospects now cannot be blasted by gibes, nor advancement thwarted by prejudice. I stand in no man’s way. Therefore, without fear of consequences, or danger to my pride and reserve, I can lay bare all circumstances which have attended me from the dawn of consciousness to this present period of indifference. I may tell how I came into existence, and how that existence was moulded by contact with others; how my nature developed under varying influences, and what, after life’s severe tests, is the final outcome of it. I may tell how, from the soft, tender atom in the cradle, I became a football to Chance, till I grew in hardihood, and learned how to repel kicks; how I was taught to observe the moods and humours of that large mass of human beings who flitted by me.