CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EXPEDITION.
Henry M. Stanley’s New Mission -- The Unfinished Task of Livingstone -- The Commission of Mr. Stanley by the “Daily Telegraph” of London and the New York “Herald” to Command the New Expedition to Central Africa -- Mr. Stanley’s Arrival at Zanzibar -- Fitting Out his Expedition and Enlisting Many of his Old Captains and Chiefs -- Sets Sail for the West Coast of the Zanzibar Sea and Towards the Dark Continent -- Arrival at Bagamoyo -- Completes his Forces and Takes Up his Line of March Inland -- Incidents Attending his March to Mpwapwa.
In April, 1874, while on his return from the Ashantee war, Mr. Stanley first received the news of the death of Dr. Livingstone, and that his body was then on its way to England.
Mr. Stanley says “The effect which this news had upon me, after the first shock had passed away, was to fire me with a resolution to complete his work--to be, if God willed it, the next martyr to geographical science; or if my life was to be spared, to clear up not only the secrets of the great river throughout its course, but also all that remained still problematic and incomplete of the discoveries of Burton and Speke, and Speke and Grant.
“The solemn day of the burial of my great friend arrived. I was one of the pall-bearers in Westminster Abbey, and when I had seen the coffin lowered into the grave, and had heard the first handful of earth thrown over it, I walked away sorrowing over the fate of David Livingstone.”
From this time forward Mr. Stanley devoted his time assiduously in completing his literary labors and at the same time in studying up Africa, its geography, geology, botany and ethnology. He knew what had been accomplished by African explorers, and knew how much of the dark interior was still unknown to the world. Until late hours he sat, inventing and planning, sketching routes, laying out lengthy lines of possible exploration and noting many suggestions which the continued study of the subject created.
One day, while on a visit to the office of the “Daily Telegraph,” the subject of Livingstone and his unfinished work was broached, and after a brief talk on the subject between himself and the editor, Mr. Stanley was asked:--
“Could you, and would you, complete the work? And what is there to do?”
Mr. Stanley replied: “The outlet of Lake Tanganyika is undiscovered. We know nothing scarcely--except what Speke has sketched out--of Lake Victoria; we do not even know whether it consists of one or many lakes, and therefore the sources of the Nile are still unknown. Moreover, the western half of the African continent is still a white blank.”
“Do you think you can settle all this, if we commission you?” asked the editor of the “Telegraph.”
“While I live, there will be something done. If I survive the time required to perform all the work, all shall be done.”
The matter was for the moment suspended, however, because Mr. Bennett, of the New York “Herald,” had prior claims on Mr. Stanley’s services.
A telegram was despatched to Mr. Bennett: “Would he join the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in sending Stanley out to Africa, to complete the discoveries of Speke, Burton, and Livingstone?” To which Mr. Bennett replied within twenty-four hours by the laconic answer: “Yes. Bennett.”
The new mission of Mr. Stanley was defined by the “Telegraph” through its columns “to be the completion of the work left unfinished by the lamented death of Dr. Livingstone; to solve, if possible, the remaining problems of the geography of Central Africa; and to investigate and report upon the haunts of the slave-trader.”... “He will represent the two nations whose common interest in the regeneration of Africa was so well illustrated when the lost English explorer was re-discovered by the energetic American correspondent. In that memorable journey Mr. Stanley displayed the best qualities of an African traveller; and with no inconsiderable resources at his disposal to reinforce his own complete acquaintance with the conditions of African travel, it may be hoped that very important results will accrue from this undertaking to the advantage of science, humanity, and civilization.”
On August 15, 1874, Mr. Stanley sailed from England for Zanzibar, where he arrived on the 21st day of September--just twenty-eight months after he had left there on his return from the search of Livingstone.
For many days after his arrival he was busily engaged in selecting the members of his new expedition and those who were to act as carriers and soldiers. Among those selected, he gave preference to such as had been with him on the Search Expedition, and had been despatched to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872. Out of these the chiefs were selected. And to these the customary presents had to be distributed. Ulimengo, or the “World,” the incorrigible joker and hunter in chief of the Search and Livingstone’s expeditions, was given a gold ring to encircle one of his thick black fingers, and a silver chain to suspend round his neck, which caused his mouth to expand gratefully. Rojab, who was soon reminded of the unlucky accident with Livingstone’s Journal in the muddy waters of the Mukondokwa, was endowed with a munificent gift which won him over to Mr. Stanley’s service beyond fear of bribery. Manwa Sera, the redoubtable ambassador of Speke and Grant to Manwa Sera--the royal fugitive distressed by the hot pursuit of the Arabs--the leader of his second caravan in 1871, the chief of the party sent to Unyanyembe to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872, and now appointed Chief Captain of the Anglo-American Expedition, was rendered temporarily speechless with gratitude because a splendid necklace had been suspended from his neck and a heavy seal ring placed upon one of his fingers. And thus Mr. Stanley proceeded to endow each one of his old followers with some suitable gift of such a character as would both please them and strengthen their attachment towards himself.
Mr. Stanley, in speaking of the usual preliminary deliberative palaver, or, as the Wangwana call it, “Shauri,” held before the final execution of all great enterprises, says:--
“The chiefs arranged themselves in a semicircle on the day of the Shauri, and I sat _à la Turque_ fronting them. ‘What is it, my friends? Speak your minds.’ They hemmed and hawed, looked at one another, as if on their neighbors’ faces they might discover the purport of their coming; but, all hesitating to begin, finally broke down in a loud laugh.
“Manwa Sera, always grave, unless hit dextrously with a joke, hereupon affected anger, and said, ‘You speak, son of Safeni. Verily, we act like children! Will the master eat us?’
“Wadi, son of Safeni, thus encouraged to perform the spokesman’s duty, hesitates exactly two seconds, and then ventures with diplomatic blandness and _graciosity_: ‘We have come, master, with words. Listen. It is well we should know every step before we leap. A traveller journeys not without knowing whither he wanders. We have come to ascertain what lands you are bound for!’
“Imitating the son of Safeni’s gracious blandness, and his low tone of voice, as though the information about to be imparted to the intensely interested and eagerly listening group were too important to speak it loud, I described in brief outlines the prospective journey in broken Kiswahili. As country after country was mentioned of which they had hitherto but vague ideas, and river after river, lake after lake named, all of which I hoped with their trusty aid to explore carefully, various ejaculations expressive of wonder and joy, mixed with a little alarm, broke from their lips; but when I concluded, each of the group drew a long breath, and almost simultaneously they uttered admiringly, ‘Ah, fellows, this is a journey worthy to be called a journey!’”
By 5 o’clock P. M. of the 12th of November, 224 men had responded to their names, and five of the Arab vessels, laden with the _personnel_, cattle, and _material_ of the expedition, were impatiently waiting, with anchor heaved short, the word of command. One vessel still lay close ashore, to convey Mr. Stanley and Frederick Barker--in charge of the personal servants--their baggage and the dogs.
A wave of the hand, and the anchors were hove up. With sails set they bore away westward to launch themselves into the arms of fortune. In the words of Mr. Stanley: “The parting is over! We have said our last words for years, perhaps forever, to kindly men! The sun sinks fast to the western horizon, and gloomy is the twilight that now deepens and darkens. Thick shadows fall upon the distant land and over the silent sea, and oppress our throbbing, regretful hearts as we glide away through the dying light towards the Dark Continent.”
On the 13th of November, Stanley reached Bagamoyo, situated on the mainland near the sea. On the morning of the 17th, five days after leaving Zanzibar, the expedition filed out from the town in the following order: Four chiefs, a few hundred yards in front; next the twelve guides, clad in red robes of Jobo, bearing the wire coils; then a long file 275 strong, bearing cloth, wire, beads, and sections of the _Lady Alice_; after them thirty-six women and ten boys, children of some of the chiefs and boat-bearers, following their mothers and assisting them with trifling loads of utensils, followed by the riding asses, Europeans and gun bearers; the long line closed by sixteen chiefs who act as rearguard and whose duties are to pick up stragglers and act as supernumeraries until other men can be procured: in all 356 souls connected with the Anglo-American Expedition. The lengthy line occupied nearly half a mile of the path which is the commercial and exploring highway into the lake regions.
“In this manner,” says Stanley “we begin our long journey, full of hopes. There is noise and laughter along the ranks, and a hum of gay voices murmuring through the fields, as we rise and descend with the waves of the land and wind the sinuosities of the path. Motion had restored us all to a sense of satisfaction. We had an intensely bright and fervid sun shining above us, the path was dry, hard, and admirably fit for travel, and during the commencement of our first march nothing could be conceived in better order than the lengthy, thin column about to confront the wilderness.”
Stanley’s line of march strikes the valley of the Kingani River, and thence to Kikoka, where he makes his first halt. Resting the next day, he resumes the march on the third day for Rosako. This line is about thirty miles north of the most northerly route of any of the routes known to Stanley from the writings of other explorers. From Rosako he marched to Congorida, thence to Mfuteh, and westward of Mfuteh along the southern bank of the Wami some four miles. From this point his line diverges to Rubuti, a village on the Lugumbwa Creek. “Grand and impressive scenery meets the eye as we march to Makubika, the next settlement,” says Stanley, “where we attain an altitude of 2675 feet above the ocean. Peaks and knolls rise in all directions, for we are now ascending to the eastern front of the Kaguru Mountains. The summits of Ukamba are seen to the north, its slopes famous for the multitudes of elephants. The mountain characteristically called the ‘Back of the Bow,’ has a small, clear lake near it, and remarkable peaks or mountain crests break the sky-line on every side. Indeed, some parts of this great mountain range abound in scenery both picturesque and sublime.
“Between Mamboya and Kitangeh I was much struck by the resemblance that many of the scenes bear to others that I had seen in the Alleghanies. Water is abundant, flowing clear as crystal from numerous sources. As we neared eastern Kitangeh, villages were beheld dotted over every hill, the inhabitants of which, so often frightened by the inroads of the ever-marauding Wamasai, have been rendered very timid. Here, for the first time, cattle were observed as we travelled westerly from Bagamoyo.
“We crossed the plain on the 11th of December, and arrived at Tubugwé. It is only six miles wide, but within this distance we counted fourteen human skulls, the mournful relics of some unfortunate travellers, slain by an attack of Wahumba, from the northwest. I think it is beyond doubt that this plain, extending, as it does, from the unexplored northwest, and projecting like a bay into a deep mountain fiord southeast of our road, must in former times have been an inlet or creek of the great reservoir of which the Ugombo Lake, south of here, is a residuum. The bed of this ancient lake now forms the pastoral plains of the Wahumba and the broad, plain-like expanses visible in the Ugogo country.”
From Tubugwé, Stanley directed his march to Mpwapwa, on the banks of a small tributary of the Mukondokwa, which he reached on the 12th day of December, after a twenty-five day’s march from Bagamoyo.