CHAPTER XXII.

WESTWARD ALONG THE CONGO TO THE ATLANTIC.

Surveys Lake Tanganyika -- Settles the Question of the River Luguka -- An Outbreak of Small-pox and Fever in Ujiji -- Causes Stanley to Depart -- Pushes his way along the Right Bank of the Lualala to the Nyangwe -- Overland Through Uregga -- Brought to a Stand-still by an Impenetrable Forest -- Crosses over to the Left Bank -- Northeast Uskusa -- Dense Jungles -- Opposed and Harassed by Hostile Savages -- Assailed Night and Day -- The Progress of the Expedition almost Hopeless -- Deserted by Forty of his Porters -- Takes to the River as the only Chance to Escape -- Pass the Cataracts by Cutting a Road through Thirteen Miles of Dense Forest for the Passage of the _Lady Alice_ and the Canoes -- Almost Incessantly Fighting the Savages -- Threatened with Starvation -- Three Days without Food -- Meet with a Friendly Tribe with whom they Barter for Supplies -- Many Falls and Furious Rapids -- Again Attacked by a more Warlike Tribe, armed with Firearms -- Almost Starved and Worn-Out with Fatigue, reaches Isangila -- Leaves the River -- Terrible Sufferings of his People -- Relief from Embomma -- Reach Embomma -- Kabinda and Londa -- Sail for Cape of Good Hope -- Thence Return by Steamer to Zanzibar -- Close of the Expedition.

Here Stanley fitted together and launched his exploring boat, the _Lady Alice_, in which he had already rendered such excellent service to the cause of geographical science on Lake Victoria Nyanza, and commenced his survey of Lake Tanganyika. Starting from Ujiji, he made a complete circumnavigation of the lake, and verified many observations of that portion which he had previously visited and explored in company with Dr. Livingstone.

Stanley, in the course of this survey, settled the question of the river Luguka, which Cameron had conjectured was the outlet of Lake Tanganyika towards the west, and into the system of lakes which form the head waters of the Lualala, or Lomame of Livingstone. According to Stanley, Cameron was both right and wrong with regard to the character of the Luguka River. When Stanley saw it, it was only a creek, running inland through a deep depression, which extended westward for a great distance. But the lake, by constantly increasing its area and raising in level, will eventually, in Stanley’s opinion, find an outlet through the Luguka River.

The outbreak of small-pox and fever in the Ujiji district, however, obliged Stanley to make preparations for an immediate departure. With his followers he pushed his way along the right bank of the Lualala to the Nyangwe. This was the most northerly point reached by Cameron, when the latter attempted to solve the mystery of the Congo and its identity with the main drainage line of the Lualala basin.

The party travelled overland through Uregga, and after an arduous march of many days through a country filled with many difficulties, being compelled to transport every pound of supplies of all kinds on the shoulders of his men, and even to carry along in a similar manner the exploring boat, the _Lady Alice_, in sections, Stanley at last found himself brought to a standstill, further progress being rendered utterly impracticable owing to the extreme density of the forest. He then crossed over to the left bank, and continued his journey, passing through Northeast Uskusa; but here the difficulties were scarcely less than those encountered on the other side. The jungles were still so dense and the fatigues of the march, owing to the obstacles to be overcome, so harassing, that it seemed impossible to break through the tremendous barrier of the forest. The horrors of his position were still further augmented by the party being opposed at every step by the hostile cannibal savages, who filled the woods and poured into the devoted little band flights of poisoned arrows, killing and wounding many of their number. Every attempt to propitiate them, or even to retaliate and drive them off, was of no avail, as the natives kept under cover. Even the famous “elephant” gun, which it will be remembered Stanley found so useful as a “propitiator” in the earlier stages of his journey from Zanzibar, was now powerless.

There was no cessation of the fighting, which was kept up day and night, any attempt at camping merely having the effect of concentrating the enemy and of rendering their fire more deadly. The march was a succession of charges in rude skirmishing order by an advance guard engaged in clearing the road for the main body, while a rear guard in like manner covered the retreat. In fact, the progress of the party soon became almost a hopeless task.

To increase still further his troubles, and render his position more deplorable, the porters whom Stanley had engaged from Nyangwe, one hundred and forty in number, deserted in a body, being so panic-stricken by the terrors of the forest and fatal effects of the fighting that they firmly believed the entire party were doomed to destruction. No sooner did the hostile savages become aware of this defection, and that the ranks of Stanley’s party had been so materially thinned, than they made a grand charge upon them, expecting to completely crush them. But Stanley organized a desperate resistance, and after a severe and bloody struggle succeeded in driving them off for a short time, sufficient to allow him to adopt measures for an escape from their critical situation.

There was but one way of escape, and that was to take to the river. With the _Lady Alice_ as a last reliance, and good canoes for the party, Stanley thought they would have a much better chance to elude their savage foes, and to make some advance toward their destination.

Although Stanley found that he had now a decided advantage, still the day’s progress was but a repetition of the previous day’s struggle. The fighting continued to be as desperate as ever while pushing down the river, and before many days he encountered a fresh and most formidable obstacle in finding the river interrupted by a series of great cataracts not far apart, and just north and south of the equator. In order to pass these the expedition was compelled to cut a road through thirteen miles of dense forest, and to drag the canoes and the _Lady Alice_ overland. This enormous labor entailed the most exhausting efforts, and the men had frequently to lay down the axe and drag ropes and seize their rifles to defend themselves against the furious onslaught of their savage enemy, who still relentlessly pursued them.

At last, however, the passage of the cataract was accomplished, and the party again embarked on the river, enjoying a long breathing pause and comparative security from attack.

Notwithstanding the incessant fighting which he had to go through, Stanley still lost no opportunity of noting the interesting changes and physical characteristics of the route, so cool and self-possessed was he under difficulties which would have daunted most men. At two degrees of north latitude he notes that the course of the Lualala swerved from its almost northerly course to the northwestward, to the westward, and then to the southwestward, developing into a broad stream, varying in width from two to ten miles, and studded with islands.

To avoid the savage enemy, who was still in pursuit, Stanley’s little fleet passed between these islands, taking advantage of the cover.

In this way they succeeded in making a progress of many miles without being molested; but being cut off from supplies in the middle of this great river, they were threatened with starvation. For three whole days they were absolutely without food of any kind; and at last, driven desperate, Stanley determined to make for the mainland, preferring to die at the hands of the enemy, if need be, rather than from hunger on the river.

By the singular good fortune which seems to have always attended him, he found a tribe of natives who were acquainted with trade, and who were willing to sell the provisions so sorely needed.

At this place the river was called “Ikuta ya Congo,” and thence forward the name Lualala disappears, being replaced as the river approaches the Atlantic by the name of “Kwango” and “Zoure.”

Rested and refreshed, Stanley resumed his journey from this point, following the left bank of the river; but in three days after leaving the friendly village he found himself in the country of a powerful tribe whose warriors were armed with muskets, and who disputed his passage, refusing all attempts at conciliation. Here for the first time since leaving Nyangwe, Stanley found himself opposed to an enemy of equal footing as to arms. No sooner was his approach discovered than the enemy manned fifty-four canoes and put off from the bank of the river to attack him. For twelve miles down the river the battle raged, and though the expedition came out of the conflict with comparatively small loss, considering the severity of the combat, it was an escape rather than a victory. This was the last save one of thirty-two attacks upon Stanley’s party after leaving Nyangwe.

The Lualala, or Congo, as it runs through the great basin which lies between 16° and 17° east longitude, has an uninterrupted course of over 700 miles, with magnificent affluents, especially on the southern side. Thence, clearing the broad belt of mountains between the great basin of the Atlantic Ocean, the river descends about thirty falls and furious rapids, to the great river between the falls of Yellala and the Atlantic.

Stanley’s losses during this long and terrible journey across the continent were fearfully severe. From Isangila, which he had reached on July 31, 1877, Stanley left the river, as the object of the journey had been attained--the connection of the great river of Livingstone with that of the Congo of Tuckey.

The announcement of this fact--the abandonment of the river--gave great delight to Stanley’s people. “At sunset,” says Stanley, “we lifted the brave boat, after her adventurous journey across Africa, and carried her to the summit of some rocks about five hundred yards north of the fall, to be abandoned to her fate. Three years before Messenger of Teddington had commenced her construction; two years previous to this date she was coasting the bluffs of Usongora on Lake Victoria; twelve months later she was completing her last twenty miles of circumnavigation of Lake Tanganyika, and on the 31st July, 1877, after a journey of nearly 7000 miles up and down broad Africa, she was consigned to her resting-place above Isangila cataract, to bleach and to rot to dust!”

* * * * *

“A wayworn, feeble, and suffering column were we,” says Stanley, “when, on the 1st of August, we filed across the rocky terrace of Isangila and sloping plain, and strode up the ascent to the table-land. Nearly forty men filled the sick list with dysentery, ulcers, and scurvy, and the victims of the latter disease were steadily increasing. Yet withal I smiled proudly when I saw the brave hearts cheerily respond to my encouraging cries. A few, however, would not believe that within five or six days they should see Europeans. They disdained to be considered so credulous, but at the same time they granted that the ‘master’ was quite right to encourage his people with promises of speedy relief.

“So we surmounted the table-land, but we could not bribe the wretched natives to guide us to the next village. Ever and anon, as we rose above the ridged swells, we caught a glimpse of the wild river on whose bosom we had so long floated, still white and foaming, as it rushed on impetuously seaward through the sombre defile.

“An hour afterwards we were camped on a bit of level plateau to the south of the villages of Ndambi Mbongo. A strong healthy man would reach Embomma in three days. Three days! Only three days off from food--from comforts--luxuries even! Ah me!

“The next morning we lifted our weakened limbs for another march. And such a march!--the path all thickly strewn with splinters of suet-colored quartz, which increased the fatigue and pain. The old men and the three mothers, with their young infants born at the cataracts of Massassa and Zinga, and another near the market town of Manyanga, in the month of June, suffered greatly. Then might be seen that affection for one another which appealed to my sympathies, and endeared them to me still more. Two of the younger men assisted each of the old, and the husbands and fathers lifted their infants on their shoulders and tenderly led their wives along.

“Up and down the desolate and sad land wound the poor, hungry caravan. Bleached whiteness of ripest grass, grey rock-piles here and there, looming up solemn and sad in their greyness, a thin grove of trees now and then visible on the heights and in the hollows--such were the scenes that with every uplift of a ridge or rising crest of a hill met our hungry eyes. Eight miles our strength enabled us to make, and then we camped in the middle of an uninhabited valley, where we were supplied with water from the pools which we discovered in the course of a dried-up stream.”

The experiences of the third day were but a repetition of the previous one, and by the close of that day they had reached the settlement of Nsanda. Here, through the aid of the chief, who furnished him with two messengers to accompany Uledi and Kachéché to Embomma, as bearers, Stanley wrote and sent a letter asking for immediate relief in the shape of food. On the 5th the expedition resumed its march, and at 3 o’clock P. M. covered a further distance of twelve miles, reaching the village of Mbinda. On the 6th, they were aroused for a further effort and at 9 o’clock A. M. reached Banza Mbuko.

“Ah! in what part of all the Japhetic world would such a distressed and woeful band as we were then have been regarded with such hard, steel-cold eyes?” writes Stanley. “Yet not one word of reproach issued from the starving people; they threw themselves upon the ground with an indifference begotten of despair and misery. They did not fret nor bewail aloud the tortures of famine, nor vent the anguish of their pinched bowels in cries, but with stony resignation surrendered themselves to rest under the scant shade of some dwarf acacia or sparse bush. Now and then I caught the wail of an infant and the thin voice of a starving mother, or the petulant remonstrance of an elder child; but the adults remained still and apparently lifeless, each contracted within the exclusiveness of individual suffering.”

In this condition these people were found by Uledi and Kachéché who had returned from Embomma with relief in the shape of provisions, forwarded through bearers, rapidly despatched by the proprietors of the English factory into whose hand Stanley’s letter had fallen. And it may be readily imagined what a change was wrought in the camp by the timely arrival of these provisions.

As to Stanley, he speaks for himself: “With profound tenderness Kachéché handed to me the mysterious bottles, watching my face the while with his sharp detective eye as I glanced at the labels, by which the cunning rogue read my pleasure. Pale ale! Sherry! Port wine! Champagne! Several loaves of bread--wheaten bread, sufficient for a week. Two pots of butter. A packet of tea! Coffee! White loaf sugar! Sardines and salmon! Plum pudding! Currant, gooseberry, and raspberry jam!

“The gracious God be praised forever! The long war we had maintained against famine and the siege of woe were over, and my people and I rejoiced in plenty! It was only an hour before we had been living on the recollections of the few peanuts and green bananas we had consumed in the morning; but now, in an instant, we were transported into the presence of the luxuries of civilization. Never did gaunt Africa appear so unworthy and so despicable before my eyes as now, when imperial Europe rose before my delighted eyes and showed her boundless treasures of life, and blessed me with her stores.”

On the 9th August, 1877, the 999th day from the date of his departure from Zanzibar, he prepared himself to greet the van of Civilization. He was met on the road by an escort of Europeans, residents of Boma, who accorded him a gracious welcome to the town. Three little banquets were given him, and he was generously toasted by everybody.

On the 11th, at noon, the expedition embarked on the _Kabinda_, an English steamer, for the town of Kabinda. “A few hours later,” says Stanley, “and we were gliding through the broad portal into the ocean, the blue domain of Civilization!

“Turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty river on whose brown bosom we had endured so greatly, I saw it approach, awed and humbled, the threshold of the water immensity, to whose immeasurable volume and illimitable expanse, awful as had been its power and terrible as had been its fury, its flood was but a drop. And I felt my heart suffused with purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, and who had enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, and to trace its mightiest river to its ocean bourne.”

The expedition, after a stay of eight days at Kabinda, was kindly taken on board the Portuguese gunboat _Tamega_ to San Paulo de Loanda. From thence through the kindness and courtesy of the English officers of the Royal Navy, who had placed H. M. S. _Industry_ at Stanley’s disposal, the expedition was given passage to Cape Town.

On arriving at Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 21st of October, Stanley was agreeably surprised by a most genial letter, signed by Commodore Francis William Sullivan, inviting him to the Admiralty House as his guest, and who, during the entire stay of the party at the Cape, extended the most hearty courtesy and hospitality. He had also made preparations for transporting the entire expedition to Zanzibar, when a telegram from the Lords of the British Admiralty was received authorizing him to provide for the transmission of Stanley’s followers to their homes.

On the 6th of November, H. M. S. _Industry_ was fully equipped and ready for her voyage to Zanzibar. Fourteen days later the palmy island of Zanzibar hove into sight, and in the afternoon the steamer was bearing straight for the port.

Of the return home, and the final scene which closed this wonderful expedition, we must let Stanley speak: “As I looked on the Wangwana, and saw the pleasure which now filled every soul, I felt myself amply rewarded for sacrificing several months to see them home. The sick had all but one recovered, and they had improved so much in appearance that few, ignorant of what they had been, could have supposed that these were the living skeletons that had reeled from sheer weakness through Boma.

“The only patient who had baffled our endeavors to restore her to health was the woman Muscati, unfortunate Safeni’s wife. Singular to relate, she lived to be embraced by her father, and the next morning died in his arms, surrounded by her relatives and friends. But all the others were blessed with redundant health--robust, bright, and happy.

“And now the well-known bays and inlets and spicy shores and red-tinted bluffs of Mbwenni enraptured them. Again they saw what they had often despaired of seeing: the rising ridge of Wilezu, at the foot of which they knew were their homes and their tiny gardens; the well-known features of Shangani and Melindi; the tall square mass of the Sultan’s palace. Each outline, each house, from the Sandy Point to their own Ngambu, each well-remembered bold swell of land, with its glories of palm and mango-tree, was to them replete with associations of by-gone times.

“The ship was soon emptied of her strange passengers. Captain Sullivan, of the _London_, came on board and congratulated me on my safe arrival, and then I went on shore to my friend Mr. Augustus Sparhawk’s house.

“Four days of grace I permitted myself to procure the thousands of rupees required to pay the people for their services. Messages had also been sent to the relatives of the dead, requesting them to appear at Mr. Sparhawk’s, prepared to make their claims good by the mouths of three witnesses.

“On the fifth morning the people--men, women, and children--of the Anglo-American Expedition, attended by hundreds of friends, who crowded the street and the capacious rooms of the Bertram Agency, began to receive their well-earned dues. The women, thirteen in number, who had borne the fatigues of the long, long journey, who had transformed the stern camp in the depths of the wilds into something resembling a village in their own island, who had encouraged their husbands to continue in their fidelity despite all adversity, were well rewarded.

“The children of the chiefs who had accompanied us from Zanzibar to the Atlantic, and who, by their childish, careless prattle, had often soothed me in mid-Africa, and had often caused me to forget my responsibilities for the time, were not forgotten. Neither were the tiny infants--ushered into the world amid the dismal and tragic scenes of the cataract lands, and who, with their eyes wide open with wonder, now crowed and crooned at the gathering of happy men and elated women about them--omitted in this final account and reckoning.

“The second pay-day was devoted to hearing the claims for wages due the faithful dead. Poor faithful souls! With an ardor and a fidelity unexpected, they had followed me to the very death. True, negro nature had often asserted itself; but it was, after all, but human nature. They had never boasted that they were heroes; but they exhibited truly heroic stuff while coping with the varied terrors of the hitherto untrodden and apparently endless wilds of broad Africa.

“The female relatives filed in. With each name of the dead, old griefs were remembered. The poignant sorrow I felt--as the fallen were named after each successive conflict in those dark days, never to be forgotten by me--was revived. Sad and subdued were the faces of those I saw--as sad and subdued as my own feelings. With such sympathies between us we soon arrived at a satisfactory understanding. Each woman was paid without much explanation required--one witness was sufficient. Parents and true brothers were not difficult to identify. The settlement of the claims lasted five days, and then--the Anglo-American Expedition was no more.”

On the 13th of December, Stanley sailed from Zanzibar for Aden, on board the British India Steam Navigation Company’s steamer _Pachumba_. His late followers had all left their homes early in the morning that they might be certain to arrive in time to witness his departure. Mr. Stanley says of them: “When I was about to step into the boat, the brave, faithful fellows rushed before me and shot the boat into the sea, and then lifted me up on their heads and carried me through the surf into the boat. We shook hands twenty times twenty I think, and then at last the boat started. I saw them consult together, and presently saw them rush down the beach and seize a great twenty-ton lighter, which they soon manned and rowed after me. They followed me thus to the steamer, and a deputation of them came on board, headed by the famous Uledi, the coxswain; Kachéché, the chief detective; Robert, my indispensable factotum; Zaidi, the chief, and Wadi Rehani, the storekeeper, to inform me that they still considered me as their master, and that they would not leave Zanzibar until they received a letter from me announcing my safe arrival in my own country. I had, they said, taken them round all Africa to bring them back to their homes, and they must know that I had reached my own land before they would go to seek new adventures on the Continent, and--simple, generous souls!--that if I wanted their help to reach my country they would help me!

“They were sweet and sad moments, those of parting. What a long, long and true friendship was here sundered! Through what strange vicissitudes of life had they not followed me! What wild and varied scenes had we not seen together. What a noble fidelity these untutored souls had exhibited! The chiefs were those who had followed me to Ujiji in 1871; they had been witnesses of the joy of Livingstone at the sight of me; they were the men to whom I trusted the safeguard of Livingstone on his last and fatal journey, who had mourned by his corpse at Mullala, and borne the illustrious dead to the Indian Ocean.

“And in a flood of sudden recollection, all the stormy period here ended rushed in upon my mind--the whole panorama of danger and tempest through which these gallant fellows had so staunchly stood by me--these gallant fellows now parting from me. Rapidly, as in some apocalyptic vision, every scene of strife with Man and Nature through which these poor men and women had borne me company, and solaced me by the simple sympathy of common suffering, came hurrying across my memory: for each face before me was associated with some adventure or some peril, reminded me of some triumph or of some loss. What a wild, weird retrospect it was, that mind’s flash over the troubled past! So like a troublous dream!

“And for years and years to come, in many homes in Zanzibar, there will be told the great story of our journey, and the actors in it will be heroes among their kith and kin. For me, too, they are heroes--these poor ignorant children of Africa--for, from the first deadly struggle in savage Iturue to the last staggering rush into Embomma, they had rallied to my voice like veterans, and in the hour of need they had never failed me. And thus, aided by their willing hands and by their loyal hearts, the expedition had been successful, and the three great problems of the Dark Continent’s geography had been fairly solved.”