Gy ” = * Se aie pad snr (NRE NSS: L, pers ~~ cage RTA gat | FP — gm 1K ae iS ‘\ i IEE QUENT ge 57 eC ae i Ne ; bs Yi by PR wt “ul Mi, i Nees Sete ‘5 ole eS ee ed ee tt re rine sy a FUE Ae PWS - Sia wi wine eae Mr. J. S. JAM N. ESO THE STORY OF fh REAR COLUMN OF THE EMIN PASHA EELIER EXPEDITION BY THE LATE JAMES SYAMESON NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITION EDITED BY Mrs. JAMES S. JAMESON ILLUSTRATED BY C. WHYMPER FROM THE AUTHOR’S ORIGINAL SKETCHES WITH NEW MAP AND FAC SIMILE LETTER FROM TIPPU TIB NATURAL HISTORY APPENDIX: BIRDS, BY R. R. BOWDLER SHARPE, F.Z. S. COLEOPTERA, BY H. w. BATES, F.R.S. LEPIDOPTERA, RHOPALOCERA anp HETEROCERA BY OSBERT SALVIN, F.R.S., F. DU CANE GODMAN, F.R.S., H. DRUCE, F.L.S. Authorized Edition NEW YORK UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY SUCCESSORS TO JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 150 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE C3: CONTENTS, PAGER rSMORPUGEUSTHATIONS Mos.) et se Owe ee le ix PULTE MDN OLE RE ot Ae vole Liiciay jisdele yee), siastes telat aol’ «RAL SERELGH G8) Bop estat Mees seem ie Came Pea here mee ee mar XV MME EC TION GG Grech sic sia, ba) Me's 86 oe, we! ae XKVU CHAPTER I. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS, Joming Stanley and Orficers of the Expedition.—Zanzibar.— Tippu-Tib. —War between Soudanese and Zanzibaris, — Stories about Tippu-Tib.—Cape Town.—Buying dogs.— Stanley refuses carrier for Jameson’s collecting-things and big rifle-—Banana Point ew arene Rivet ik ta es his Sieh eres) Cake bad CHAPTER II. DIARY.—JOURNEY UP THE CONGO. 1887.—March 19th to April 30th. Boma.—Ango-Ango.— Mpalaballa Mission Station.—March to Congo da Lemba.—Banza Manteka.—Day’s march resembling slave-driving.—Kuilu River.—March to Vombo.—Stanley doing rear-guard.—Barttelot sent on with Soudanese.—Sick chief. — Lutété. — Kindness of the missionaries.—Stanley settling a row.—Inkissi River.—Thief.—Stanley’s punish- ment of chiefs. — Off to shoot hippo. — Difficulty about steamers.—Kinshassa.— Ward joins the Expedition .. .. 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. THE UPPER CONGO. May \st to June 7th. Start up the Upper Congo.—Scenery on the Pool.—Spiders’ webs. —Mswata.— Bula Matadi.—Man proposes, and God disposes. -—Bolobo.—Buffalo hunt.—Jameson is informed that he is to be left at Yambuya.—Looting.—Lukulela.—Scenes with PAGE Stanley.— Equator Station.—Dine with Mr. Glave.—Uranga. » —Bangala.—Houssas eaten by natives.—Fever.—Upoto.— Stanley’s distrust of his oiticers))c.)) vs el Meter al ers CHAPTER IV. OCCUPATION OF YAMBUYA, June 8th to July 31st. Letter to Mrs. Jameson.—Pass burning villages.—Arrival at Aru- wimi River.—Conical-shaped huts.—Occupation of Yambuya. —Arrival of the Henry Reed.—Stanley’s letter of instruc- tions.— Re-packing bales for Emin.—Barttelot made “ blood- brother” with native chief.—Rations for six months.— “Beggars must not be choosers.”—Stanley’s departure.— Building boma.— Extraordinary flight of butterflies —Palaver with natives.—‘‘ Collecting” captives.— Natives capture Omari. — Woman escapes.— Uselessness of chiefs.—Gum-copal CHAPTER V. YAMBUYA CAMP. July 27th to December 31st. Letter to Mrs. Jameson.—No news of Tippu-Tib.—Promise to protect natives.—Reported arrival of Tippu’s men.—Return of deserter from Stanley’s party.—His statement.—Arrival 34 60 CONTENTS. Vv PAGE of the Stanley.—Raid on the natives by Tippu-Tib’s people. —Final departure of the Stanley.—First visit of Tippu-Tib’s Arabs to Yambuya Camp.—Bonny crosses river to native village.—Abdullah punished for stealing an axe.—Jameson and Ward start for Stanley Falls.—Natives offer to make them princes.—Yalisula.—Arrival at the Falls.—Received by Tippu-Tib.—He explains non-arrival of men.—Native wrestling-match.—Jameson makes Tippu present of big rifle. —Return to Yambuya.—Soudanese punished for theft.— Selim bin Mahommed.—Arabs shoot down natives.—Dis- appointing news from Tippu-Tib.—Rumours of Stanley’s return.—Barttelot and Troup start for Falls—A man pos- sessed by a devil.—Deserter’s story.—Bonny’s surgical skill, —The Major returns—Omaha.—Report of a white man coming down river.—Fresh disappointment.—Jaundice.— Arabs try to prevent trade with natives.—Burgari Mahom- med steals meat from Ward’s house.—Living skeletons.— . Three dreams.—Ungungu captured by Arabs.—Christmas Day.—Fresh trouble between Arabs and natives UAE, LOU CHAPTER VI. YAMBUYA CAMP, 1888.—January 1st to February 13th, New Year's Day.—Natives return with captured Arab.—Barttelot and Jameson have palaver with natives.—Natives consult the oracles and inspect white men.—More reports from Stanley’s deserters.— Assad Farran sees a whale.—Visit from Arab Venuses.—Sobarus Pogge. beetle.—Dead bodies floating down river.— Wretched state of Zanzibaris in camp.—One fifth of entire force lost.—Goliath beetle.—Conversation with Selim Mahommed.—Probable dangers to Mr. Stanley’s force from death and desertion.—Arabs attack natives.—Arabs fight among themselves.—Natives steal canoes from -Arabs.— Anniversary of Jameson’s wedding.—More raids on the natives.—Burgari Mahommed at large.—Natives eat cap- tured Arabs.—Burgari captured, and shot .. .. .- «- 177 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. KASSONGO. February 14th to April 26th. PAGE Start with the Major for Stanley Falls.—Meet a number of men from Kassongo.—Singatini.—Interview with Nzige.—No news of Stanley—Hunting for game in the jungle.—Letter from Yambuya Camp.—Shock of earthquake.—Anxious waiting.—Sketching regarded as sorcery by Mahommedans. —Fever.—Letter from Troup.—Barttelot arranges to send Jameson to Kassongo.—Letter to Mrs. Jameson.—Start for Kassongo.— Yankéwé. — Wild-looking natives.— Wamanga Rapids.—Meet men from Kassongo.—Kibongé.—Jameson writes to Stanley.—Kapruta.—Assad Farran hunts for onions. — Kasuku.— Kindness of Arab chief. — Poisoned arrows.—Riba-Riba.—Shooting hippos.—Three great chiefs. Tippu-Tib’s names.—Dangerous natives.—Head men fear a night attack.—Quanga.—Nyangwé.—Kindness of Arabs.— Arrival at Kassongo.—Tippu-Tib.—Fertile country.—Salem Masudi.—Tippu agrees to provide men.— Sketching.— Jameson writes to Mr. Mackinnon.—Letter to Mrs. Jameson. —Arab customs.—Conversation with Tippu-Tib.— Muni Katom ba...) jse5 sic, ams eaten Be ta eet aol enone ae eee CHAPTER VIII. RETURN TO YAMBUYA. April 27th to June 10th. Start back for Yambuya.—Delay at starting-point on the river.— Thirty-four of Tippu’s men run away.—Tippu and Cameron. —Chiefs arrive to bid farewell to Tippu-Tib.—Mirésa.— Tippu’s conversation in SwahiliicTwo canoes sunk.—A narrow escape.—Assad Farran’s uselessness.— Riba-Riba.— Wacusu dance.—Cannibals.—Conversation with Tippu.— CONTENTS. vil PAGE Muni Somai.—Kibongé.—Chimpanzees.—Tippu’s account of a journey with Stanley.—Stanley Falls.—Barttelot’s inter- view with Tippu-Tib.—Start for Yambuya.—Troup sends in application to be sent home.—Hard at work reducing loads, —Caps turn out to be bad.—Letter to Mrs. Jameson .. .. 277 CHAPTER IX. THE LAST MARCH. June 11th to August 8th. Final start from Yambuya Camp.—Manyémas loot the Camp.— Abdullah’s village.—Muni Somai has trouble with Manyémas. Fourteen men desert.—Jameson returns to Yambuya in search of missing loads.—-Selim Mahommed guarantees to recover loads and rifles.—More desertions.—Small-pox.— Muni Somai goes in search of deserters, and is fired at.— Theft of beads.—Trouble with the Muniaparas.—A long day of disaster.—Major Barttelot returns to Stanley Falls, leaving Jameson in command.—Fresh trouble with Manyémas.— Jameson arrives at Ujéle-—Takes over command from Bonny. —Muni Somai utterly useless as a commander.—Mquan- gandy.—Letters from Barttelot ordering whole force to pro- ceed to Unaria.— War amongst head men.—A night fusillade. — Bonny loses his way.—Muni Haméla hands over to Jameson 40,000 Enfield caps.—News of Major Barttelot’s death.—Arrival at Unaria.—Interview with three head Manyémas.—Jameson offers reward for Sanga’s arrest.— Jameson proceeds to Stanley Falls.—Finds the Manyémas camped in forest.—Meets Muni Somai.—Nasoro Masudi warns Jameson that Manyémas have threatened to shoot him.—Aruival at Stanley Falls.—Interview with Tippu.— Muni Somai tried and convicted of desertion.—Letter to Andrew Jameson.—Letter to Mrs. Jameson.—Rachid declines to accompany Jameson.—Tippu volunteers to do so for £20,000.—Trial and death of Sanga.—Jameson determines to go to Bangala in order to obtain reply from Committee.— Moz Stanley silettes tadameson., .. sae) ss’ +s. «» 808 Vill CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. LAST SCENES. August 9th to August 18th. PAGE Last Journey.—Mr. Ward’s diary—Death .. .. .. o- «. 367 Apprnpices I.-XI. tre A ierattee ; oe eek Reon lee Facsimile of Agreement written by Mr. Jameson forms Appendix IX. Facsimile of Tippu-Tib’s letter faces translation on page 391. NATURAT—HIstoRY APPENDIX . 56.0 (cn Poe ie ee ee eee EXpLanation oF Map or Upper Conco.. .. .. .. .. 453-455 Map or River Congo, trom Stanley Falls to Kassongo (end of volume), LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Portrait of the late Jamus S. JAMESON Seen Frontispiece | White or Square-mouthed Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus).. .. xi Slave Girl 9 Peter’s Fetish 10 Boma a 11 Ango-Ango ..... 12 Mission Road near Mualahalle 14 Native Justice oe 22 Native Method of Bisd-cueiae be 23 Ivory War Horn .. 34 Diagram of Spiders’ Webs 36 Head of Native of Mswata .. a7 Kwamouth +U Fisherman’s Hut .. 46 Tattooing 58 Shields : oe OS Native of Upoto 59 Native Village 60 Native Chief in top hea 62 Spears and Shield , 66 Tattooing 66 Entrenched Chai Mean ‘Siroct 69 Rapids, from the Camp 80 Idol Bene Se Ss 84 Water Pot, emia bis 85 Native Jar : 92 Wataku Box. : : 96 Yambuya. es laine dogent river fom Madionched ean 98 Plan of Entrenched Camp, Yambuya 101 Bell and Musical Instrument ; 106 Matajabu e ie Native enking howls) 112 Chief’s Grave, Yaweeko LZ Stanley Falls 12] x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ANC HAM PION sci." jars ete ialeievhptaver Unrest tere! yamete Singatini Tere taiele Weer aoa vek ee) eiamametsee caly oe vee Bilephamtsiead 27 (bess rab vtevert, (aie miele eels Yambau ee s Selim bin Mahomed oe Pease ih antes ri |: A Native of the Upper Gourd oak nahin intent Rane Sucking-Fish Sole CCR Yambuya Palisade Pattern on inside of Dish Native Stool, Yambuya Starving Zanzibari War-Knife, Upoto PU Siecle aren obs Native Method of Bindeatonine, Dae Ai ey be 2s Mr. Jameson, drawn a H. Ward My Home a ieeatate ne Tattooing Cowrie Head- Ania) ue War-Knife from Lumami Rican Sis Wataku Pottery .. Tattooing : se A Glimpse across aa iver teu eteghir ete SLOOP UNLN Veh ol Gall Cys ect ead) edinwies piney biG. Slave Girl .. Od Mone: pater armesese tev My Friend “ eae i es LSE an g “ Curry-Eyes ’ A Savage et his ease My Bow Paddle Oh eee ats Wamanga Rapids AN a ROP Ana ed lt Kibongé $6 26 Native of ay iano ‘A long shove, and a strong shove, and up ah goes ‘‘ And down she comes with a run” Knife from sates Mankitlayie es) |: SW rae iets Wagania Village, near ‘Kasdonee: Landing-place, Kassongo .. .. Wouble Drom and Striker (ne. pes teks Wanper Money a irae) ele) eve eke I aSSOMeO) MPN.) Yee, Vhisouiexen pete aol Road to Ujiji MES ce Native of Unyanembi %.. 25) on LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. x] PAGH Drummer and Dancer of Quemba PIN wey e/a e174 () | Lanmnlng=] DEIN OF Ue Nee ee oe 2) «Fa Eee a a e708 ‘TjpeReS SO) O37 a Ce SUIe ES aA eit Cech I Lee eR SO Rs Rf Wagania Huts... acre Maes aver ac Jamul k Jan) 2G ** Nothing like Tndependente” -\5, UROL PaO ERO ae me eer a MativeuVomanine Market ccs clay iain fers oe, we ED Sacror lippualibis Gum-bearers. 0 se 6s fe. ae fe | OL Longa-Longa NORE eevee nals fe roe remate aval Wevays estes Ok AD MIMI SOMA ha ener Tene cer alc Ce IN an ee DOB Assimene .. PA oer rarer rns 6c tieirar t eo. DOT Bunch of Pieabains se Cea Ri talaa mara Lite thew toe SOO A New Way of oe Gietens Srretonl rail UP aee y sdchst pp ove taptanss eSOHE River Scene... BA vena lima e Nach h VeRO Major Barttelot coned on he old Dean ah Meltes WR eles teste bare LO Pieetamvor line of Maren soe Se eee ee ke OD Native of Upper Congo SR SU ee NaNO Ae oe res a 19 8 A Canoe Journey . au SESW vagsca ene aDsaro OV The House in eich Mr. Fas ameson died e Baneola ST en eee ey cea 174 9) The Last Journey RM ere PP aa ONS DemPRE eat gt allen: crue v0 endo EAIOROST ADIN OL) GRAVE! Oates Gy) Vet. Moke is! ae sel ke) ee) OLE PRPC MNISO Mii Ut MGek sitter) Avg i's grey! ate aia eis | OLO Se ROCHIMO RD ISAS Mss Weer Eoghan ee oe Ue ea a) AO SESE UOMO LD eye crcl nel sles cme Welanl, a aie) we OMS yy ere, SOD e WHITE oR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS, J Z ° f the late A) ion o rd, F and Wa Rowl together with the larger port by Mr = fe} es} 3 = ~ Oo ce 58 oO 8 n qo ae So 8 a © 5 5 ar (Gy) “AR o | EY co EDITOR'S NOTE. ee 2 eee TueEsz letters and diaries were not originally intended for pub- lication ; but it has been thought that they may be read with interest by many, and that, having regard to the accusations recently made against the leaders of the Rear Column, it is desirable that they should be published in what is practically their original form, with only such alterations as their private nature required. _ In the preparation of this work, I have throughout had the advantage of the constant advice and sympathetic help of my brother-in-law, Mr. ANprew JAMESON. I have received much kindness from Mr. Hersertr Warp, who sealed and sent home those of Mr. Jameson’s diaries and papers which he brought with him to the coast, and gave me several interesting sketches of his own for insertion in this volume. A still deeper debt of gratitude is due to him for the tender solicitude with which he nursed my husband during those last hours at Bangala. I wish further to express my hearty thanks to several of my husband’s friends who have rendered me valuable assistance by preparing the scientific parts of this book, contained in the Appendices. To Mr. R. Bownier SHarps, F.Z.S., I am indebted both for a sketch of Mr. Jameson’s career as a naturalist, and for his very valuable paper on the birds of the Aruwimi; and X1V EDITOR'S NOTE. to Messrs. H. W. Bares, F.R.S., Ospzrr Satvin, F.BS., F. DuCane Gopman, F.R.S., and Herserr Daves, F.Z.S., my thanks are most deservedly due for the care they have bestowed upon the Entomological portion of the Appendices. It is a matter of deep regret that only a remnant of the collec- tions made by Mr. Jameson on the Aruwimi ever reached my hands. The Rev. J. M. Ropwettz has kindly rendered the translation of the Arabic letter from Tippu-Tib, and the Rev. Canon J. J. CarmicuaEL, LL.D., has merited my warmest thanks for his valuable help. Finally, I would acknowledge the artistic skill with which Mr. Cuartes WuyMPer has reproduced the spirit of my husband’s sketches, and the attention and courtesy shown me throughout by Mr. R. H. Porter in the publication of this book. ETHEL JAMESON. December 12th, 1890. PREFACE. “LET THERE BE LIGHT.” (Mr. Stanley's motto for ‘In Darkest Africa.’) “‘ Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse, steals trash: ’tis something, nothing ; ’*T was mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands ; But he, that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.” Never was the truth of these lines more vividly illustrated than in the case of the writer of this Diary. The dream of his early life was to add his name to the long roll of those who have striven for some good and useful object. At length the occasion offered itself, as he believed, in the Expedition in which he lost his life; to join it he sacrificed his wealth, his home, his family joys and comfort, to live “laborious days,” and find some scope for the pent-up energies within him. He went to his work with a strong zeal and lofty sense of right, did his duty with unselfish heroism in the face of treacheries and overwhelming difficulties, and died a martyr to the cause for which he had so nobly laboured. What is his reward? He is sought to be made the scapegoat of his Commander’s ill- judgment and neglect! Charges of disobedience, disloyalty, forgetfulness of promises, desertion, cruelty, cowardice, and murder are brought against him, on the authority of discredited liars, by a man who is driven to his wits’ end to sustain his Xvi PREFACE. reputation against serious imperative accusations. The charges are brought against Jameson when he is in his grave, when the common usage of humanity suggests silence, and when a man of a noble and honourable cast of nature would altogether prefer to lie under an unjust suspicion rather than asperse and defame the voiceless dead. This, however, is not the course which Mr. Stanley has followed. Lest any tinge of discredit should rest on his own fame, he has striven to destroy that of others who are powerless to reply. Upon his remarkable Expedition into Central Africa there rests one dark blot—the disastrous fate of his Rear-Guard, and Mr. Stanley is not a man to admit that he can make mistakes: no blame of any sort can be allowed to sully his record; if the Rear-Guard was wrecked, it was, of course, because his skilful plans and careful orders were neglected and disobeyed; no statement, however desperate and imaginary, will be kept back if only it serve to sustain his egotistical demands upon the credulous admiration of his readers; and so, apparently unconscious of the possibility of contradiction, and fully con- scious of the fact that the men whom he defames are dead, he casts the whole weight of blame upon their helpless heads. The first answer to Mr. Stanley’s charges comes from Captain Walter Barttelot; and it is a crushing one. His reply to this is a flood of malevolent gossip as wicked as it is unproven, in which good care is taken to make the least serious charges against the living, the gravest and most defamatory against the dead. The amount of reliance that can be placed upon Mr. Stanley’s accuracy 1s an easy question to determine. He suffers even abnormally from that shortness of memory which is, according to a well-known proverb, said to be characteristic of a certain class of people. Thus, on November 8th, 1890, he denies the truth of statements respecting the Rear-Guard made by himself in a book published in the month of June of that self-same year. In Volume J. of ‘In Darkest Africa,’ page 478, after giving a history of all the information he could get from Mr. Bonny, he says, “I have never’ obtained further light from Mr. Bonny, though at every leisure hour it was a constant theme” (and indeed, from all accounts, it ap- pears that Stanley spared no pains to get from him all he g PREFACE. XVil knew). In the beginning of Vol. II. we find an account of the examination of witnesses from amongst the survivors of the Camp at Yambuya, and the conclusions arrived at are plainly stated—the deaths at Yambuya were due to the manner in which the men cooked their food, among the members of the garrison there were many thieves, and punish- ments were numerous, but were never inflicted except on those who deserved them. All this appears in the month of June 1890. Then Captain Walter Barttelot’s book is published, and Mr. Stanley must needs mend his hand, and so on the 8th of November, 1890, he comes forth with fresh allegations against his officers, and tells a tale quite different from that which he had already published in ‘ In Darkest Africa.’ His first statement about the November story casts the gravest doubt upon it, for he says he heard it all at Yambuya in August 1888 (Banalya, a place ninety miles from Yambuya, must be what is meant, as Mr. Stanley never returned to Yambuya, but the mistake, whether intentional or not, is very convenient for him, and, curious to say, he has not yet corrected it). A considerable part of the November story comes from the lips of Mr. Bonny, but if Mr. Stanley heard it all in August 1888, how could he, although omitting all mention of it in ‘In Darkest Africa,’ write that he had inserted therein all he had heard from Mr. Bonny ? Was, then, the statement published November 8th, 1890, that which was told him by Bonny in August 1888, or was it not? If it was, then the above statement by Mr. Stanley on the subject, published in ‘In Darkest Africa,’ was not true; if it was not the story told him in 1888, then Mr. Stanley’s account of the real reasons which led him to condemn his officers, given in the most public and final mauner, is absolutely false. On the second horn of this dilemma Mr. Stanley is inexorably fixed, for Mr. Bonny, in his statement to the ‘ Times,” declares that he told these things to Stanley for the first time on Sunday, October 26th, 1890, and not at Banalya, on the Congo, in August 1888. That is to say, the only justification which Mr. Stanley, when put on his defence, produces for the condemnation of his officers in 1888, is hearsay evidence procured by him in 1890. b xviii PREFACE. It is worth while to expatiate a little upon this bold attempt of Mr. Stanley’s to mislead people into believing that the evidence upon which he grounded his charge was obtained from a general inquiry into the matter made by him upon the Congo in 1888, and not upon the particular evidence of three witnesses obtained in 1890. For instance, he talks on this wise when in- troducing to public notice his charges of November 8th, 1890 :— “The sentence of my report with which Mr. Barttelot finds fault, and in which I censure the commander of the Rear Column, was written in August 1888, two days after I had met Mr. Bonny and the emaciated remnant of the Rear Column. On learning then the details of what had transpired during my absence, I wrote that the irresolution of the officers, the neglect of their promises, and their indifference to the written orders I gave them, had caused this woful collapse. You ask me to justify that censure. It will probably be the best way, in order to satisfy any legitimate interest in this question, to tell the story as I heard it at Yambuya, because in that way the public will better understand the shocking effect it had on me when, hastening to their relief, I was met by the following reve- lations*. And here comes the point. ‘You will find im the log of my book ‘In Darkest Africa,’ even in its abridged form, that the men of the Rear Column came forward to present their complaints; and much of the following information I obtained from Mr. Bonny, the Zanzibaris, the Arabs, and the Man- yéma.” Then follow the statements which Stanley says were at that time made to him, the very first of them being the poisoning story, with which Mr. Bonny’s most exciting state- ment has since made us familiar. But alas! for the accu- racy of Mr. Stanley, Bonny informs us that he told Stanley that tale on Sunday, October 26th, 1890, two years and two months after the date which Mr. Stanley fixes for its first recital. The fact is that Stanley deliberately endeavours to lead the public to believe that the evidence upon which he bases his foulest charges against the officers of the Rear-Guard was obtained by him in August 1888, when, beyond yea or nay, * The italics are my own.—A. J. PREFACE. 1X he never got it till October 1890, so far as Bonny is concerned, and Assad Farran only made his statement to him in Cairo in March of the same year. In respect of the cannibal story, a reader of Mr. Stanley’s statement of November 8th, 1890, would conclude that at Yam- buya in 1888, an eye-witness of the scene drew up a statement in his own handwriting in the presence of witnesses; that this statement was shown to Mr. Stanley there, and is the one he publishes; that the evidence taken on the subject by the Congo Free State authorities was also shown to him there, and that these facts were the principal reasons for the letter which he says he wrote to Jameson, but which has never since been seen, or even heard of, until now mentioned by Mr. Stanley himself. On the 10th November, 1890, however, he publishes another statement, in which he tells us that Bonny told him the story, that a Zanzibari who had been at Stanley Falls corroborated it, and that he was told the Congo Free State authorities intended arresting Jameson. Where has the eye-witness gone to, and the evidence taken by the authorities which he relied on before? The eye-witness in this second statement is revealed in Assad Farran, and the evidence taken before the authorities dwindles to the story told him about their intentions. But how do the two statements look when read together? Was not the first a plain attempt to make it appear that evidence obtained at a subsequent date was tendered to him at Yambuya, and does the second statement not show that Stanley’s real “‘ witnesses ” were Bonny and Assad Farran ? Does not Stanley publish the story Assad Farran tells him in 1890, and Bonny vouch for the truth of it, only placing it all in the mouth of Jameson himself? It is absolutely necessary to nail Mr. Stanley to names and dates. He wants the public now to believe, contra his own already expressed statement, contra the inexorable logic of proven facts, that he was acquainted in August 1888 with all the charges of his outrageous indictment of November 8th, 1890, and that he then obtained the proofs of them from various witnesses among the survivors of the Rear-Guard, from Bonny, Arabs, Zanzibaris, and Manyéma, and that, on the information 62 xx PREFACE, obtained in those two days of inquiry, he wrote his condemnation of his officers. &Thad a grandmother, she had a donkey, And when that donkey looked her in the face, His face was sad, and you are sad, my public.” In the enthusiasm of an evanescent hero-worship the British public sinks occasionally for a time below the level of its average sagacity It gazes with a sweet confiding affection upon the masculine idol of its temporary adoration; but woe to him who would presume upon the constancy of that love; it is too fickle and fastidious to have time or temper for lovers’ quarrels and their proverbial results. By an inevitable reaction, it is certain soon to become as suspicious and exacting as it was once full of loud and intolerant confidence; the more so, if it comes to think that there is any attempt to trifle with its amiable credulity. This is what Mr. Stanley will soon begin to feel. The idea is already abroad that he is seeking to delude the public judgment, especially in the way of insinuating that he is embarrassed by the number of his witnesses, when, in point of fact, he has produced but three—Bonny, Assad Farran, and Saleh ben Osman, his own Zanzibari servant. That it is perfectly possible for Mr. Stanley to produce many more witnesses of the type of Saleh ben Osman no one can doubt who is acquainted with the real nature of native evidence of this description ; and if the Congo Free State authorities had any wish to adopt his peculiar line of conduct, it is equally certain the application of the “ questioning”’ system would be attended with satisfactory results. But in what a light does all this place the author of ‘In Darkest Africa’! Is it the pure light which shines round a man striving to make the truth known? or is it the baneful gleam of those darksome shades in which Mr. Stanley tells us a vast crop of lying is germinated ? He deals with his evidence like the Irish planners of an alibi, He changes the date to suit the necessities of his case; with an astounding unfairness, he condemns his officers first, and tries them afterwards. Having failed in his efforts at the time and on the spot to obtain from Bonny and the coloured witnesses PREFACE. xx! sufficient condemnatory evidence against those whom he had deserted and misled, he strove to work up a case against them by straining the obvious sense and purport of his orders; by twisting and misrepresenting the writings of Barttelot and Jameson, so as to condemn them, if possible, out of their own mouths, then silenced for ever; and even by daring to break open the seals upon Jameson’s private diary and papers. Never, in the history of slander, were charges so inju- rious as those levelled against the officers dependent upon - more worthless testimony. It is incomprehensible how any man, with the barest respect for his reputation, could make use of such instruments as two of Mr. Stanley’s witnesses. Assad Farran, the prime concocter of these shameless inven- tions, is a man who (as he himself puts it) would, if he were only questioned enough, “give all the information his examiners wanted ;”’ a man who, when he was asked by the Secretary of the Emin Pasha Relief Committee, Mr. Mac- Dermott, why he had told stories about the officers which he admitted were exaggerated and incorrect, replied “ that he thought Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson had not treated him well, that he had been sent away without clothes or food, and his feeling was bad;” and then he added, “that when those to whom he made his statement on the Congo kept questioning, questioning, and would not let him alone, he had to say all they wanted him to say.” This is the man who, in March 1890, first told Mr. Stanley some of the stories which that gentleman stated he heard on the Congo in 1888. Nor is Saleh ben Osman, Mr. Stanley’s Zanzibari servant, a more reliable witness than the pitifully discredited Assad Farran. The statement of this worthy, who does not pretend to be an eye-witness of anything, is translated by Mr. Glave, and is a most extraordinary document, bearing its own refutation on its face. At the best it is a mere ré- chauffé of what he had heard concerning these events from Zanzibaris, Arabs, Manyémas, and Soudanese, and if the in- formation derived at first hand from such witnesses is unreli- able, what does it become when filtered through the head of a Zanzibari servant two years after he had heard the tales he tells ? XXll PREFACE. No one knows better than Mr. Stanley the utter untrust- worthiness of these Zanzibaris, and the ease with which they may be made to say anything by “ questioning, questioning.” ven his own character is not safe in their hands, for he is accused by one of the tribe of ordering a live baby to be drowned in the Congo (vide page 111 in Diary), and the Zanzibari who made this statement had no apparent motive for telling a lie, which can hardly be asserted about Mr. Stanley’s most useful witness. Mr. Stanley is certainly unfortunate in being placed in a position where he must stake his credit on the veracity of such men as these. He has only produced three witnesses at the best: two of them have been proved unworthy of the slightest belief, and the third, his piéce de résistance, Mr. Bonny, is far from being as satisfactory as the cause of justice would require. Bonny is an ex-sergeant of the Army Hospital Corps, and was a paid servant of Mr. Stanley’s, who styles himself his employer. Our trust in his accuracy of recollection and in- telligent appreciation of facts is somewhat enfeebled, when we remember that Mr. Stanley informs us how Bonny told him that Barttelot, in view of his possible death, had left to him (Bonny) the succession in command over Jameson, an absurd misapprehension, to say the least of it, complicated moreover by a most unpleasant controversy respecting the genuineness of certain orders produced by Bonny, and the alleged suppression of those he was bound to obey. There seems to be a certain amount of inaccuracy about Mr. Bonny. He is unable to adhere to one story, even in the case of such an important incident as that of Major Barttelot’s murder, and varies his description of it, and the circumstances attending it, some three or four times in most vital particulars. But all the same, we are requested to believe that Mr. Bonny is a rare being, gifted with a sym- pathetic attractiveness that draws towards him the inmost confidences of all those with whom he comes in contact. According to Mr. Stanley’s account, he must have been “ father- confessor ”’ to all in the Camp, for to him, without any sigillum confessionis, men appear to have confided the darkest records and intentions of their lives. PREFACE. XX1ll The terrible Barttelot reveals to him his intention to poison Selim Mahommed ; tells him that he is getting his brother so to take care of Troup that he will tell no tales at home; imparts to him plots to start expeditions independent of Stanley, and at last even begs of him a medical certificate and leave to retire from the Expedition ! No conditions of existence such as those which apply to ordinary human beings seem able to make such things credible ; and if reliance is to be placed on this part of Stanley’s case, it can only be justified by a belief in some intense magnetic or hypnotic influence exercised by Bonny on those around him. With all the elaboration, care, and publicity which Mr. Stanley has given to the evidence of these three witnesses, he has failed to produce a statement from their mouths which justifies his charge that “ the Rear Column was wrecked by the irresolution, the neglect of promises, and the indifference to written orders of the officers he left in command of it,” and he has not lightened in the slightest degree the load of blame under which he himself at present lies. One turns, as in search of a great relief, from this story of self-seeking, unfairness, and deception, to the record of - a noble and unselfish life. It must indeed be a strongly prejudiced mind that can read this Diary without being impressed by the sense of the immediate presence of a gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature, keen and true of observation, quick-willed and suggestive, with a pleasant humour and a gallant heart. A man’s diary is a self-revela- tion. His true personality is as certain to present itself continually as the refrain in a theme of music. No man lies to himself, when night after night, as his work is done, he sits down to write out the story of his life from day to day; and the life which Jameson reveals to us in his Diary is one whose keynote is duty, kindliness, and hard work. “ Little did I think,” he writes to Mrs. Jameson a fortnight before his death, “ when I spoke to you of my feelings of duty, that I should ever be placed in such a position as | now am, in which all that I feel for you and for our little ones cries out against XX1V PREFACE. what I must do as an officer of this Expedition. With one word or even a show of weakness on my part, I could stop the whole Expedition, which seems fated to meet with nothing but reverses, and return to you. But God knows such a thought never entered my heart, although I could easily defend such an action on my part. ‘The first thing that flashed across my brain on finding myself so placed was your father’s favourite text, ‘ Know, O man, that to know and love justice and do the thing that is right, that shall bring a man peace at the last ;” and you will see what a help every word in that verse has been to me now.” On the same day he writes to his brother, “ Whatever happens to me, old man, I tried to do my duty to this blessed Expedition ; and many a time, when I have thought of Ethel and home, I would have liked to chuck the whole thing up when there were plenty of officers to take my place.” A brave resolve to go through with what he had undertaken sustained him to the last in the face of dreadful odds. The neglect and unfairness of the Commander of the Expedition—who, as he says, “it is evident takes the word of the Zanzibaris before that of the white men,’’—the cruelty, dishonesty, treachery, and . falsehood of the Arabs with whom he had to deal, the miserable conditions of existence growing worse from day to day, the hope deferred, the bitter consciousness that the slanderer was at work to defame his honour,—however these irons cut into his soul, they dimmed not that gallant sense of duty, which most touchingly displayed itself as a ruling passion, strong in death, when, as he breathed his last, with husky voice he answered to the taintly-heard roll of the drums, ‘“ They are coming ; they are coming. Let us stand together.” Numerous and suggestive also are the indications of his kindliness of heart in his anxieties about the sick people in the Camp—African and English, and the grief he so evidently feels at being utterly unable to give them the help they so sorely need. His pity for the natives, too, and the efforts that both he and Barttelot made to save them from the Arabs; the regret he expresses at the inevitable punishments and floggings, all indicate a kind, helpful, and unselfish nature. “ Poor PREFACE. XXV old Derrier Moussa, a Somali,” he writes, “ who has been our cook for the greater part of our journey, died to-day. He has been ill for a long time. It is horrible to watch these men slowly dying before your face, and not be able to do anything for them.” “Poor Alexander, one of the Soudanese inter- preters, died to-day ; he has been ill for a long time.” “It is a sad, sad sight to see men dying round you every day, and not be able to put out a hand to save them. Without a single fight we have lost close upon seventy men out of our small force, and there are many more who, I am sorry to say, will never leave that Camp. And now good night and good-bye. Kiss the little ones for me, and may God have you all in his safe keeping.” As to the flogging, he writes—‘“‘ Two sentries, who deserted their post last night, were flogged this morning. It is sickening, this continual flogging, but there is no help for it;” and again— Went the rounds last night. No sentries asleep, so no flogging this morning, thank goodness.” The Diary abounds with indications of a vigorous, capable, and unflinching personality. His determination and skill in working with and managing the Arabs, particularly displayed in his politic negotiations with Tippu-Tib, by which at last he obtained the carriers he required—his interview with Muni Katomba at Kassongo—his ungrudging labours at Yambuya before the last start from that home of misery—his unmur- muring endurance of toil and hunger in the march through the forest to Banalya—his fearless return march to Stanley Falls in the face of great dangers—his untiring efforts to secure another Arab commander to come with him—his splendid offer to pledge his fortune for the sake of the Expedition—his unflinching refusal to depart from the route which Stanley had ordered him to follow—his declaration that Barttelot, when he was murdered, was carrying out Stanley’s orders, and that he meant to do the same—all of which acts show how he rose to the occasion of a great crisis: these are the doings of a competent and sagacious man, worthy of the part to which he had been appointed and of the praise of which his Commander has most selfishly and ungenerously sought to rob him. XXvl PREFACE. Amidst all the toils and changes of camp-life Jameson found time to gratify his love of natural history and to employ his valuable powers of observation. Unhappily, a large part of his valuable collection was lost when the camp he had just marched from was looted by the Arabs, in whose charge it was left. There is no doubt that, if he had been possessed of more opportunity and had his life been spared, he would have con- tributed largely to the scientific results of the Expedition. All noble lives are instinct with a purpose. They read the secret of their destiny, and find no rest until they work it out, wherever it may lead. Results they fear not, although it be their fate, as that of many gone before, to “ perish in the wilderness.” ANDREW JAMESON. D:ublin, Vecember 1Uth, 1890. ——<——_—— ee > —————— INTRODUCTION. James Sxiico Jamuson was born on the 17th of August, 1856, at the Walk House, Alloa, Clackmannanshire. His father, Andrew Jameson, was a son of John Jameson, of Dublin. He held agencies for some estates in Scotland, and was a man of great cultivation and refinement, possessed of both literary and scientific tastes. His wife, Margaret, daughter of James Cochrane, of Glen Lodge, Sligo, died a few days after the birth of their third son, James. At a very early age the tastes of the child foretokened those which were to form the ruling interest of his after-life, viz. those for travel and natural history in all its branches. When quite a small boy, between four and five years old, his grand- mother once found him, at a late hour of the night, poring over a map, which, strangely enough, was the map of Africa. She asked him why he had not gone to bed, as it was some hours past his usual time. “Oh, grandmamma! ” he said, “I want to learn all about these strange countries, for I mean to be a big traveller some day.” In 1867 Jameson was sent to Dreghorn, a boarding-school near Edinburgh, under Mr. Dalgleish, of which, in after-life, he always spoke as “ an ideal school for boys.” Dreghorn lies at the foot of the Pentland hills, surrounded by woods. Through the beautiful park flows a stream which then held many a trout; and here it was that Jameson first developed those instinctive tastes for natural history, love for all animals, and keen interest in their habits, which formed such a marked trait in his character, even in childhood. Many are the treasures which even in those early days were XXVlll INTRODUCTION. accumulated, and which formed the nucleus of his later valuable collection. Speaking of his childhood, his aunt, Mrs. Burd, writes :— ‘He knew every bird and live thing in the neighbourhood and their habits; and his joy and pride when he found a Roseate Tern is a thing not to be forgotten. Ido not think he knew what the word fear meant.” He had long been anxious to procure some young Choughs which had built their nest high up on the cliffs at the back of Glen Lodge. At last he devised a plan by laying three ladders together, and, at the risk of his neck, succeeded in reaching the nest and bringing down four little ones. He took the greatest trouble in preparing their food, making it as like what he thought their mother would give them as possible, and even feeding them with a match which he shaped likeher bill. He kept them in his own room, so that he might hear them the moment they cried for food, which was usually about five in the morning, and he refused to go on a shooting expedition to which he had long looked forward, until one of his cousins promised faithfully to take charge of and feed them at the same early hour. He kept them for about three weeks, putting them, in the day- time, in a pheasant-box on the lawn. But, alas! on the very night of his return from his shooting, a Bedlington named “ Peachem ” got at the box and killed them all! The boy was dreadfully grieved, and retired to his own room for some time. When asked by his uncle whether he had “given Peachem a good licking,” he replied, “No; why should I hurt the poor brute and make him miserable as well as myself? It’s only his nature, and he knew no better.” Small traits of this kind were an early indication of the kind and gentle nature which, in later life, so fascinated all who knew him. Upon quitting Dreghorn, he went to the Internationa) College at Isleworth, until, m 1873, he began reading for the army. ‘This, however, he abandoned in 1877, when he started on the first of his travels to Ceylon, Calcutta, Singapore, and Borneo. From Borneo he returned with a fine collection of birds, butterflies, and beetles. INTRODUCTION. KX1X At the close of 1878 he went out again,—this time to South Africa,—in search of big game. After a few weeks’ hunting on the borders of the Kalahari Desert, where he obtained excellent sport in the veldt belonging to the chief Montsioa, he returned to Potchefstroom, to com- mence preparations for a more extensive trip into the Zambesi District. The town was at this time in a general state of excitement, owing to the presence of some 700 disaffected Boers, who, fully armed, were camped just outside the town, blocking the road to Pretoria, and stopping all the mails. Their latest act of audacity had been to seize and detain a special despatch sent by Colonel Tucker, of the 80th Regt., then quartered in the town, to Sir Garnet Wolseley. Upon hearing of this, Jameson at once offered to ride to Pretoria with a second despatch. His offer was accepted, and he started - that night bearing the important document, with power to shoot anyone who might attempt to detain him. The next morning he encountered a party of about sixty Boers, who stopped and closely questioned him. Having allayed their suspicions, Jameson rode on, making no pause and taking no rest until he reached Pretoria, and safely delivered the despatch to Sir Garnet Wolseley. Having completed his outfit, he now started for the interior, leaving Zeerust as the last civilized town on his route. From here he trekked along the Great Marico River, where he had excellent fishing, up to the Crocodile or Limpopo River, meeting with large game in great abundance. At Shoshong he was jomed by Mr. H. Collison, who had been hunting in Africa for four years; and at this place he also heard from Mr. F. C. Selous, the well-known African hunter, who pro- mised to join the party at Gubuluwayo. Pushing on, therefore, through the “Great Thirst-Land,” Jameson arrived at Um- ganin, where he made acquaintance with Lo Bengula, King of the Matabeles, who received the travellers with great cordiality, granting them willing permission to hunt in his country. His friendly behaviour towards Jameson was on this, as on all subsequent occasions, unvarying. Mr. Selous having joined them, they now took leave of the XXX INTRODUCTION. King, who sent with them an induna to guard their waggons and property ; and the party proceeded into Mashona Land, where they obtained splendid shooting. In July, Selous and Jameson started for six weeks’ hunting in the Fly Country, and were able to demonstrate the junction of the two rivers, the Umvuli and the Umnyati*. In connexion with this shooting-expedition of 1879, the following letter from J. M. Sadleir, Esq., will not be without interest to the reader :— Easton Neston, Towcester, . November 29, 1890. My pEAR JAMESON, .... 1 must say I can never forget your brother’s kindness to me in Africa. I send you the particulars. In the month of April, 1879, I was travelling from Durban, Natal, up country. I was taken ill with dysentery at Colenzo. When I had been bad for a fortnight, and was lying in a shed attached to the hotel, your brother, who was trekking to the Zambesi, found me. He at once went back to his camp and brought Dr. Sketchly, one of his party, who attended to me for some days, till I could be moved. Jameson then had a hammock slung for me in one of his waggons, and took me up country with him, till I was strong enough to go back to Durban. To his treatment and care alone I believe I owe my Mites Very sincerely yours, J. M. Savieir. Andrew Jameson, Esq. In the spring of 1881, Jameson returned to England, bringing with him a fine collection of large heads, as well as birds, butterflies, beetles, flowers, and grasses. In the following year he went out to the Rocky Mountains with his brother, Mr. John A. Jameson. In the Crazy Mountains, and near the upper waters of the Musselshell in Eastern Montana, they shot several hear, wapiti, buffalo, deer, and antelope. * See ‘Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,’ June 1881. F. C. Selous. INTRODUCTION. XxX& In 1883 they went through the Crow Reservation, Montana Territory, on to the North Fork of the Stinking Water, in search of sheep, of which they obtained thirty-six, besides several buffalo, bears, wapiti, &c. In 1884 Jameson travelled through Spain and Algeria; and upon his return in 1885 he married Ethel, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Marion Durand, R.E., K.C.S.1., C.B. Two years Jater,in January 1887, the attention and sym- pathy of all England were attracted to the Expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha—Gordon’s worthy lieutenant and friend— which was on the eve of departure for Africa, under the com- mand of Mr. H. M. Stanley. The scheme was one which could not fail to appeal most strongly to Jameson’s chivalrous nature; moreover, it promised almost boundless scope for the exercise of his special talent for natural history research. He at once volunteered his services to Mr. Stanley, who readily accepted them. The following words are taken from a letter written on January 22, 1887, by him to Lady Durand :— «. ... Why all'the ambitions of my lifetime should have been concentrated at this time, with a seemingly prosperous issue, I know not; but I assure you that I did not accept the position without weighing well all there was for and against it. Ever since my childhood I have dreamt of doing some good in this world, and making a name which was more than an idle one. My life has been a more or less selfish one, and now springs up the opportunity of wiping off a little of the long score standing against me. Do not blame me too much. . . . | must thank you for your generous kind-hearted MasneS: 5.7 | A sadder tale than that contained in these diaries has seldom been told; for, strive as he would to lighten its hopeless misery, even Jameson’s bright and dauntless spirit was weighed down by the wretchedness of the position in which he was placed; and, had it not been for the sincere friendship which arose between Edmund Musgrave Barttelot and himself, the tale would have b: en sadder still. XXXll INTRODUCTION. The letters and diaries graphically describe his share in the Expedition, speaking more powerfully than any panegyric could do for the single-hearted, loyal, and courageous spirit in which he met all difficulties and bore every hardship and bitter dis- appointment, as he saw his dearest hopes, one after the other, shattered by the exigencies of a position in which the revolting duties of a slave-driver were forced upon him; whilst every opportunity for scientific work was ruthlessly withdrawn. AIEEE a OE SCM LLIN SA ai tu atic Bae ae ae a i) ey be SENIOR ule ISIE ce SERA Tae We only add a few words, written by one who knew and appreciated him :— “ His character was one which it was impossible to know without loving—unselfish and generous, pure-hearted and brave; a rare combination of manly strength and courage with the most tender sweetness and gentleness of spirit. Seldom, if ever, has such an instance been known to me of utter forget- fulness of self and thoughtfulness for others, at all times and under all circumstances.” | CHAPTER If. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. Joining Stanley and Officers of the Expedition.—Zanzibar.—Tippu-Tib.— War between Soudanese and Zanzibaris.—Stories about Tippu-Tib.— Cape Town.—Buying dogs.—Stanley refuses carrier for Jameson s collecting-things and big rifle—Banana Point. UntiL the start up the Congo, on March 19th, 1887, Jameson kept no regular diary. The following extracts are taken from letters to his wife :— SUS. Peshawur. Red Sea. February 1887.—. . . I met Stanley at Suez, with the black troops, awaiting the MNavarino, which had not yet come through the Canal. He advised me to go on to Aden, where I should meet Major Barttelot, who is one of the staff. We have got Dr. Parke as doctor to the Expedition, who went through the Soudanese War and behaved splendidly... . SS. Oriental. Aden. February 10th—... I have met Barttelot, and like him very much indeed. He is to have command of the black troops, as he speaks their language and has seen a good deal of them in Egypt. We are going to have a charming night of it. Another British- India boat has just arrived, and they will be all night transhipping their cargo on to our steamer. ‘lo-morrow B 1887. February. Red Sea. 1887. Feb. 10. Aden. 2 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. we go into the outer harbour to await the arrival of the Navarino. ...I have just tried to spear an enormous cockroach with my pen, but he escaped me! February 12th.—The Navarino has turned up at last, and we start some time to-day. Stanley and the whole party are here. February \ith—Jephson is in my cabin; he is a volunteer, having joined the Expedition on the same. terms as myself. Stairs has been teaching us mapping, and we all get on, so far, capitally together, and I think we are likely to go on well, as each man will have his own particular duties to attend to.... The trying part of this Expedition will be the want of news from home. However, I am sure to get letters from you on our arrival at the Congo. S.S. Madura. Zanzibar. February 23rd—... At last we are on board the steamer which is to take us to the Congo. At Lamu I landed with Dr. Parke at daybreak, and we spent a few hours in quest of game, succeeding, after long walking under a hot sun, in shooting three birds—a species of partridge. We saw a good many gazelle, but did not get any 1 made a sketch of the village. Next day we stopped at Mombasa, but I had no time to go on shore. Yesterday we arrived here; and I must say I was agreeably surprised with the whole place—town, har- bour, and people. The streets are only about five feet wide; but the windows and doors are all carved in dif- ferent designs, and the effect of the black carved wood against the pure white building is very picturesque. I wish I had time to etch some of them, or even to make rough sketches. This morning we got up at 5 aM. and went on shore to the powder-magazine, where we remained at work until 6.30 Pm. I don't think I ever put in a harder twelve hours’ work; but it does one good. We packed 4,500 lbs. of powder in EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 3 special cases which came out from home, besides a lot of work with caps. To-morrow evening we are all dining at the British Consulate, and next morning (thank goodness!) we sail for the Congo. We have sixty-one donkeys on board, and the braying that they keep up at night is dreadful. One starts it, and the others prolong the chorus in different keys ad infinitum. To-morrow morning 600 Zanzibaris are coming on board ; then we get at least 600 more at the Congo, which, with the Soudanese troops, will make a good lot of men. Goodness knows how we are going to feed them all, for they seem a hungry set!... February 25th—I am not going to keep a diary until I start up the Congo, that all the time that I can give to writing may be given to you. So I shall write every day, and send it all from the Cape when we call there.... At Lamu, of which I spoke in my last letter, there are the remains of a great battle, the whole shore being covered with bones and skulls. Some of our party gathered very good specimens. I believe the fight was one between the Arabs and the natives. Mombasa—a quaint old town, full of old Portuguese ruins—possesses a pretty and almost land- locked harbour. Off the Island of Pemba we fished with land-lines over the stern of the steamer, and caught a number of fish, small, but of the most beau- tiful colours—some bright red, others barred with blue, silver, and brown—a kind of bream or sea-perch, I think.... The Sultan’s Palace at Zanzibar is a won- derful structure, quite square, with an enormous cor- rugated iron roof, about four stories high—quite the ugliest building I have ever seen, looking very like an immense doll’s house. Imagine my surprise when I heard that the famous Tippu-Tib was coming with us round to the Congo and on to Emin Bey. Six hundred of his fighting men are to meet us at Stanley Falls. After dinner, at the Consulate, we were all introduced to Tippu-Tib, who is a fine old Arab, very lively, and a thorough old gentleman. B2 1887. Feb. 23. Zanzibar. 1887. Feb, 25. Zanzibar. “ STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. We started to-day at daybreak. ‘Tippu-Tib has about 20 wives on board, and, including wives, 90 followers altogether. They have all been more or less sea-sick, with the exception of his interpreter. It was most amusing to see old Tippu led off by the interpreter and taken below, trying to walk straight, and make jokes—his man in fits of laughter. War broke out this morning between the Soudanese and the Zan- zibaris. It was not until some damage had been done to both sides that order was restored. I was standing by the main hatch with Mr. Stanley, when his servant ran up to him, and said the niggers in the fore- hold were killing one another. Mr. Stanley, Nelson, Jephson and I ran forward, and the sight that met our eyes was exactly like an “ Inferno” by Gustave Doré. They all had great clubs, and were fighting like demons. We went down and drove the Zanzibaris into one place and the Soudanese into another; but it took some time to disarm them and get them to cool down. I took an iron bar from a man who had broken one man’s arm, and the finger of another. These, and a large number of broken heads, con- stituted the results of the fight. All has been quiet since. February 26th.—Busy all day, making vocabulary of Swahili language, which the Zanzibaris and Somalis all speak. The Somalis are twelve picked men, pro- cured at Aden; they are to be armed with Winchester rifles, for Stanley’s special guard—splendid fellows, and they all speak English. In the afternoon I had to find out, and write down, the names of the 117 men who have been placed under my charge. I have one splendid boy amongst them, who is my interpreter, and whom I am going to teach to skin birds; he is one of the most intelligent little chaps I have ever seen. ‘To-day some of those troublesome Soudanese soldiers attempted to take liberties with some of Tippu-Tib’s wives; in consequence there has been a row, and a special sentry placed over their apartments. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 8 After dinner Mr. Stanley told us a few stories about Tippu-Tib. It seems that at one time he borrowed about £4,000 from the Rothschild of Zanzibar, and started into the interior with a good many followers to trade for ivory. After some time he came to a very large native town, enclosed within double palisades. The town was so large that, if a gun was fired off at any point in the outer circle, it could not be heard at an opposite point in the same circle. The king kept all his ivory and wives within the inner palisade, and there were 10,000 warriors guarding him in the outer circle. After keeping Tippu for a long time in his town, the king gave an order that, should any of his men catch Tippu alone outside, they should kill him. One day he left the town by himself, and on his way back he met two of the king’s men, who began to shoot at him with bows and arrows. He ran for the gate of the town, but just as he reached it an arrow struck him in the leg and brought him down; he got up again and running towards his own camp, he shouted out to his people to bring him his gun. He was again struck and knocked down, but his wife managed to give him his gun, with which he shot both of the king’s men. The shots roused the king’s warriors, and brought all Tippu’s men running into his camp. ‘They first shot down a number of the natives, and when about one hundred of them had mustered, Tippu ordered them to rush for the gate of the big town, and to fire all together as the warriors came on. ‘This they did, and burned the houses nearest to them. The fight lasted three days, by which time they had burned all the outer circle of the town. They then proceeded to fire through the inner palisade, until they had decimated the people gathered inside; then they made a rush, seized and beheaded the king, and captured all the ivory and women. ‘Tippu next went to all the smaller towns in the kingdom and collected enormous quan- tities of ivory, which he afterwards sold at the coast for £40,000. He became king of a whole country, entirely through his own cunning. He once came to 1887. Feh. 26 At sea. 6 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. a strange country, where he was told that the king had been taken away years before, with his little son, and that the natives had long expected his return. Having asked numerous questions of every native he met, without saying who he was, Tippu-Tib at length said to one man, “ Had your king not such and such coloured eyes?” The man said, “Yes.” Tippu then exactly described the king, until the native said, “‘ Why, that is the very man!”—when Tippu told him he was the son who had gone away with the old king, and that he was to go and tell all the people. This he at once did, when they came to him with presents of all kinds: and to make a long story short, he is king of that country at the present time. ‘The following is a specimen of his cruelty :—He was once attacked by a tribe, of whom he succeeded in making some prisoners. He knew he would be attacked by them again, so he killed all the captives, and having cut them up small, he put them in large pots to boil, mixing up bananas and all sorts of things, until a rich savoury aroma arose from the pots. When he was attacked by the natives, he pretended to retreat, and watched his enemies—who had found the pots on the fire—set to and ravenously eat up their own people. March 2nd.—...'This morning Mr. Stanley read to me Tennyson's ‘ Ulysses.’. . . All the spare time I had to-day I was reading the ‘ Light of Asia.’. . . Stanley savs he has got a copy with him, too. He gave us all the most lovely little medicine-chests to-day. March 3rd.—Out of the tropics at last, and the weather is decidedly cooler. ... Not an item of interest, again! The only things which seem to change at all on board are the horrible smells from the crowd of natives; and they only change in so far that they are at times much worse than at others... . March Tth—...1 have heard the real story from Stanley as to how he got Tippu-Tib to come with us. Before leaving England, he heard that ‘Tippu was in _ EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. a ee Zanzibar. He at once telegraphed that he particularly wished to see him, and to keep him at any price until his arrival. When Stanley saw him at Zanzibar, Tippu first said he would stop our going in at all; so Stanley assured him that we were quite willing and prepared to fight him, but that he had better take care what he was about. He then gave him the choice of fighting us and taking the consequences, or of helping us and being made Governor of Stanley Falls, under the King | of the Belgians. Next day Tippu-Tib said he would accept the latter ; and Stanley telegraphed the same to Belgium, and received a reply confirming the appoint- ment. ‘The night we dined at the British Consulate, Tippu-Tib signed an agreement to help us in every way, and was made Governor. He is not going with us further than Stanley Falls himself, but is sending his head men with us, and 600 fighting-men. We expect to reach Emin Bey in July; so that, if we come back down the Congo, we ought to be home in no time. A more definite time than this I cannot give you: I wish fonGod I could!... March 8th.—Atrrived in Simon’s Bay... . March 9th—Lady Hunt-Grubbe and her daughters came with the Governor and inspected the ship, and showed great interest in Tippu-Tib and especially in his wives. Reached Cape Town about 7 o'clock. March 10tha—Went on shore with Jephson and Nelson to buy a lot of things and to get dogs.... Had a delicious breakfast on shore, ...and searched all the morning for dogs. We collected a very curious lot, consisting of bull-dogs, bull-terriers, fox-terriers, a Bedlington, and several unknown species. Mr. Stanley bought the two fox-terriers—one for himself, and one as a present for Tippu-Tib. Jephson and I secured the two large bull-terriers, and tossed up for them. ‘The large brindled one fell to me, and a horribly low white one to Jephson. They are about the two most ruffianly- looking dogs I have ever seen. 1887 Mar. 7 At sea 8 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. March 11th.—...'The deck is quite lively with all the dogs; but the increase of insects of the carnivorous species is much to be deplored. ... March 13th—A donkey died: the first death on board, with the exception of a few goats.... March 14th-—A Zanzibari died to-day, and was con- signed to the deep. It is horrible the way the natives neglect their sick, or any one of them who is hurt. Busy most of the day in packing musket-caps into new boxes for Emin Pasha.... March 15th.—Jephson, disgusted with the low habits and appearance of his dog, flung him overboard in the dead of the night, with a furnace-bar attached to him. Alas! poor Bill, his life on board was a short and any- thing but a merry one. March 16th.—Another Zanzibari died to-day, of in- flammation of the lungs. March 17th.—You cannot tell what real joy your letter and telegram brought me at the Cape. I could hardly believe my eyes when they brought them to me! ... One thing that makes one sad is knowing that, after a time, it will be hard to send you any letters or news.... To add to my cheerfulness, Mr. Stanley informed me yesterday that he would not give me a man either to carry my collecting-things, or my big rifle and its ammunition. This is a bright look-out for me, who came to collect, and shoot meat for the Expedition. Mr. Stanley was present when I was speaking to De Winton about my big rifle, and advised me to take shells for it. I have, however, reduced my wearing-apparel and my bedding to so little that I can take most of my collecting-things ; and some of the other fellows have been good enough to offer to carry some of them for me. I have reduced myself to one spare coat besides the one on my back, one pair of boots on and one pair packed, one blanket, and all the rest on the same scale. Thus, at the expense of all my own EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. g personal comfort, I can take my collecting-things—or at least some of them. All this certainly takes a good deal of the gilt off the trip to me; but though I must say I was rather mad at first, 1 am now making the best of a bad business. I have had to give or throw away every ounce of my tobacco; but the empty tins will come in beautifully for “ bugs” and small bird- skins. ...I shall take the big rifle on shore, and hire men myself to carry it, whenever we have to go overland, until we reach Stanley Falls, where I hope to get a couple of men from ‘Tippu-Tib to carry it on to Wadelai. .. . March 18th |Banana Point]—... We start up the river to-morrow; and as we begin to put everything on board at daybreak, I shall have no time to write to you in the morning, and must make up my mind to say ‘Good-bye ;” for this is at last the great start of the Expedition: God knows, I can hardly pluck up courage to say it! StAvE Girt. 1887. Mar. 19. Congo. Perer’s FerisH. CHAPTER ILI. DIARY. Marcu 19ruH to Aprit 30TH. Boma.—Ango-Ango.-—Mpalaballa Mission Station——March to Congo da Lemba.-—Banza Manteka.—Day’s march resembling slave-driving.— Kuilu River.—March to Vombo.—Stanley doing rear-guard.—Barttelot sent on with Soudanese.—Sick chief.—Lutété.—Kindness of the mis-. sionaries.— Stanley settling a row.—lInkissi River.—Thief.—Stanley’s punishment of chiefs.—Otf to shoot hippo.—Difficulty about steamers. —Kinshassa.— Ward joins the Expedition. March 19th, 1887.—Started up the Congo at last in the Dutch Co.’s steamer Mieman, Nelson, myself, and 232 men. We were the first to stant. Next came the British Congo Co.’s steamer Albuquerque with cargo, and Dr. Parke and his company. Mr. Stanley follows in the Portuguese steamer Serpa Pinto, with about 300 men and the donkeys, and Major Barttelot and Jephson bring up the rear in another steamer with the remainder of the men. The view as far as Kishanga is very limited, as the banks are covered with dense tropical DIARY. i vegetation, and the high land at the back is only now and again visible. After Kishanga the river opens out, with beautiful undulating country on either side, and we pass numerous large grass-covered islands. ‘The English Mission Station appears on the sky-line of the uplands on the right, immediately after entering the river. A good fresh breeze blowing from the sea all day prevented one feeling the heat. At Mataba, the river opens out grandly. Here the banks are low, discovering beautiful undulating grassy country at the back. Anchored at Alligator River at one o'clock. From the top deck of the steamer we could see nearly twenty miles of country on every side. We lay opposite Peter's Fetish, a beautiful rock, partially covered with trees. Boma. March 20th.—Passed Bora, the principal town (?) of the Congo Free State. It consists of a few factories or trading-houses, Dutch, French, Belgian, and Por- tuguese, also a French and English Mission. It is very prettily situated, and in a more flourishing condition of things may, I suppose, become a big place. ‘There 1s a large, beautiful pool above Boma, after which the river runs between high barren hills on both sides, for although they appear brilliantly verdant, the hard 1887 \ Mar. 19. Congo. 1887. Mar. 20. Ango- Ango. 12 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. red rock betrays itself on every square yard. Arrived at Ango-Ango at 2.40. Mr. Stanley passed at 5 o'clock in the Serpa Pinto for Matadi, and shouted out a message which I could not understand. Sent a mes- senger overland to him. ‘The answer arrived at 10 P.M. to have everything ready to shiv on board the Serpa Pinto at 7 o'clock next morning, and Parke and Nelson to walk with their men overland. March 21st—Stayed at the Dutch House with Mr. Cramer, who gave Nelson and myself beds, and the best of everything. Parke and Nelson started for Matadi. The Serpa Pinto steamed past about 10 o’clock without stopping, leaving Mr. Walker and myself with the cargo on shore looking after her! A little later the Por- tuguese gunboat came up with Barttelot on board, and took off most of the cargo. ‘Then Jephson came down from Matadi in the //eron, and took off the remainder with my men. Arrived at Matadi about 5 o'clock, having had nothing to eat all day, and then had to tow AncGo-ANGO, up the cargo in a lighter to Stanley, who was at the Portuguese Factory. I tramped back in the dark, thoroughly disgusted with everyone and everything, to get my first square meal that day. Visions of sketching &c. are rapidly fading. [-e] eseg| ‘vVITIVaVIVdW UVEN AvOY NOISSIT DIARY. 115} March 22nd.—Hard at work all day breaking open cases and making up loads. Slept in the Portuguese House. ‘They are very kind to us, and feed and “ drink” us right royally. March 23rd.—The cry is still we break open cases and make up loads. Had a grand parade of men and distributed Remington rifles, with which I hope they won't shoot us, and spears, which from their rottenness are comparatively harmless, half of them being already without heads. March 24th.—Marched about three quarters of a mile over to the Congo State Station. They gave us breakfast, but after that left us entirely to ourselves. Had some practice with the Maxim gun, which worked wonderfully well. Mr. Walker left for the Mposo River, with the iron boat, in order to put it together. March 25th.—Marched to the Mposo River, over one of the worst roads I have ever seen, up and down masses of cinder-like rock and. broken quartz: my donkey fell three times, and it was lucky I did not attempt to ride him; I very nearly shot him in simple disgust. Found the boat not put together, and when we did get it in the river, it took us hours to cross, pulling it backwards and forwards on a rope. ‘This miserable little river is scarcely more than thirty yards wide. March 26th.—Marched to Mpalaballa Mission Station. Went ahead of most of my men, and had a de- lightful walk. The road much better than yesterday, and the country very pretty indeed. Shot a Whydah finch, black, with yellow shoulders. Myr. Clarke, the head of the Mission, and the ladies treated us with the greatest hospitality. March 27th.—Remained all day at Mpalaballa, waiting for men with loads from Matadi. Met Mr. Ingham, who is one of our staff, and came out here straight from England, coming down with native carriers to carry our loads up country, which are far in excess of the number 1887. Mar. 22 Matadi. 1887. Mar. 27. Mpala- balla. 14 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. of the Zanzibaris. He gave us a very bad account of the condition of the steamers on the Upper Congo The country round here is very beautiful, but without any game, although bird and insect life seem to be on the increase. I was very busy all day sorting loads, and parading men. March 28th.—Marched to Massam Mankengi. The path seems to be made to cut the soles off one’s boots, and the donkeys do nothing but tumble up the hills, or tumble down them. The order was given this morning that we were to march in the rear of the men, and assist them with their loads, so good-bye to all chances of collecting. March 29th—Marched to the deserted native village of Congo da Lemba, which, until burnt by the Congo Free State, was a flourishing native town. ‘The Congo Free State people have burnt the huts and driven away the natives from nearly every village on the road, consequently there is not a scrap of food to be obtained for love or money. They say that the natives inter- fered with their carriers on the road. The work we are doing is not fit for any white man, but ought to be given to slave-drivers. It is all very nice for Mr. Stanley, who rides ahead straight on to the next camp, where we arrive hours afterwards, having done nothing all day but kick lazy carriers, and put the loads on to the heads of those who choose to fling them down. On arriving in camp one has to go over all the loads to see that they are correct, then stack them and interview the men about the loads that have gone wrong; so that it is dark before one has even time to wash. I have given up all hopes of collecting, although I have seen many birds, and especially butterflies, that I should dearly like to have obtained. March 30th.—Rained nearly all morning, so did not start until late for the Lufu River. ‘The Bembezi River was in flood, and having got all the men and loads over, we found Mr. Stanley had gone on miles DIARY. 15 ahead. We eventually pulled up in the dark, in the middle of a tropical forest, the men throwing down their loads, and going to sleep in every direction. Dr. Parke was in the front of the column, Stairs and myself in the centre, next came Jephson and Barttelot, Nelson bringing up the rear-guard. The column being over a mile long, when it became dark some of the most advanced had reached camp. Stairs and Parke soon gave it up as hopeless, and bolted for camp. I, finding myself deserted, lit my lantern and only piece of candle, and struck out for camp also, leaving the men hopelessly lost in the bush to make the best of the night. Shortly after arriving in camp (where Mr. Stanley regaled us with rice, biscuit, tea and brandy, and the latter was very acceptable, as I had waded the river and been soaking wet for hours), Barttelot and Jephson turned up, but Nelson slept in the wood, in the camp belonging to a man who was bringing up things for the Sanford Expedition. In consequence of this night, some of the loads were lost, and several of the men bolted. I slept on the ground in Mr. Stanley’s tent, on my waterproof—about as hard a bed as IT ever had. From this you will observe what a splendid expedition it is for a naturalist. It is some- times very hard to think of all the glory of relieving Emin Bey. March 31st—Having got the men and the loads out of the wood, we started amidst much grumbling from the men, who had had nothing to eat, and marched to the Lufu River. Here there is a ford, and also a curious old swinging bridge of native construction, with large gaps in it every few yards, and a deep drop into the river if one fell. A couple of miles further on we camped. Mr. Stanley here behaved to me in a way which was utterly undeserved, and which I did not expect from him. On passing the Lufu River he was attacked with acute dysentery, and although he was apparently all right again in the evening, he was weak, and had to be 1887, Mar. 30, Lufu River. 1887. Mar. 31. Lufu R. 16 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. carried from the river tothe camp. When there I went to him to report that one of my men had deserted with his gun on the march, and at the same time said I was very sorry to hear that he had been so ill. He turned round very sharply and said, “No wonder. I have only you to thank for it. I have had nothing but tea for two days, whilst you have had meat for your breakfast yesterday, and I consider you are entirely to blame for my illness.” I may here state that I had volunteered to take over the cooking and ration arrangements for a week, as no one else seemed inclined to look after them, and before we really could often get nothing to eat. The facts about his having had no meat for two days are the following :—The evening before leaving Congo da Lemba I sent a messenger to ask him if I should kill a goat or the four fowls which were in camp, as there was no meat. ‘The message sent back by his own servant, William, was, “Save the goat and kill the four fowls, if they will be enough for to-night.” I killed the fowls, and they were quite enough, for some of the other officers had some in the morning. Jephson, Stairs, and I breakfasted next morning in my tent on a tin of sardines, the last but one that I had, so that Mr. Stan- ley’s taunt that I had meat when he had none falls to the ground. ‘That morning it rained for hours, and he would not say whether we were to march or remain, so that it was utterly impossible to kill any meat. He then ar- ranged his march, so that in the middle of the night the goats were left in the wood, and he marched again next morning before they were out of it. He then turns round and says that it is entirely my fault that he is ill. Altogether I think the whole business is a very thank- less job, and the moment this week is over the cooking arrangements may go to the devil for all I care. April 1st.—Marched to the American Mission Station, Banza Manteka, a beautifully situated spot, standing high and surrounded by wooded valleys, brilhant with tropical verdure. ‘The water here is worse than any I have seen, too dirty to wash in. DIARY. 17 I obtained a number of good butterflies out of the Mission garden. After dinner a fearful thunderstorm came on, and blew in the end of the officers’ tent. From the door of mine, which was snug and dry, I had a beautiful view of all the fun, in the middle of which a whole pile of ammunition-boxes fell down, to add to the confusion. April 2nd.—In the morning we had a general parade of all the men, and Mr. Stanley addressed each com- pany in turn, and I noticed that all the lazy blackguards, who had given us the most trouble, were foremost in shouting out all sorts of fine things about going on to the end of the world with him! After this came a drenching storm of rain, and then we marched six or seven miles across the valley and camped. April 3rd.—Had an awful day’s work. Had to 20 with Barttelot as rear-guard. Started at 6 a.m., and did not get into camp near the Kuilu River until nearly 6 p.m. I had nothing to eat the whole day but the fifth part of a tin of sardines, and did not sit down for more than a quarter of an hour. ‘The work was truly sickening, as every twenty yards one had to stop to put a load on a man’s head who had flung it down, and very likely give him a good dose of stick before he would go on. There was no rest upon getting into camp either, for I had to go over all my loads, stack them, and send out men to find those who had not come in. ‘The work must greatly resemble slave- driving. I succeeded in shooting a swallow, which is the same as the small South-African one, and a_ bee-eater which is new to me. Both were skinned by the light of a small‘ piece of candle, and the skins are worthless, as two days elapsed before I had a chance of drying them. April 4th.—Marched on to the Kuilu River, a muddy rapid stream, which we had to cross, ten men at a time, in an old dug-out canoe. Such is the great road of the Congo Free State! This morning, in trying for the C 1887. April 1. Banza Manteka. (‘The town of mud.”) 1887. April 4. Kuilu River. 18 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN, first time to ride my donkey across a muddy marsh, he fell and was nearly drowned, precipitating me into the mud (the blackest I ever have seen), which filled my saddle-bags containing my collecting-things! larly in the march we crossed a lovely clear trout-suggestive stream, running over and between ridges of pure lime- stone, which, says Mr. Stanley, is about the only lime- stone we shall see in the whole country. April d5th.—Still at the Kuilu River—from 6 a.m. to early in the afternoon still getting men, loads, and donkeys across. April 6th.—Marched to Mwembi. On reaching the top of a hill, I found all the baggage and tents lying on the side of the road, the men being about a quarter of a mile off in a native garden, pulling up manioc, and seizing whatever they could. No shouts on my part or from the chiefs could bring them back, so, taking up a good stick, I ran down the hill towards them, and having waded through a swamp for about 150 yards, I met the first man trying to sneak back. I applied my stick, and he made such a row that all the others decamped, and when I regained the top of the hill, I found all the tents and baggage gone on. On arrival at Mwembi, the news was brought to us that one of our chiefs had been shot dead, and one of Tippu-Tib’s men shot in the hand by some of the natives of a village which they had been looting. Went to bed dead beat. April Tth—Marched to Vombo, quite the quickest march we have done, owing to a good level road, and Mr. Stanley doing rear-guard with some of his Somalis himself. How he did lay his stick about the lazy ones, and the Somalis whacked away too. It was a sight for sore eyes to see the lame, the sick, the halt, and the blind running with their loads, as if they were feathers ; and I was delighted to see some of my men catch it hot, after I had been told by Mr. Stanley himself not to strike them. The march was otherwise uninteresting, DIARY. 19 over a high plateau, covered with long rank grass,| which cut off any view of the land. Camped in an old native village amongst palms, and collected a small number of butterflies. April 8th.—M arched from Vombo to Lukungu Station. | The road lay through beautiful country, affording glimpses on both sides of valleys filled with tropical vegetation. Shortly after leaving camp a severe thunderstorm came on. Barttelot and I were doing rear-guard, with Stanley a little ahead of us. We both saw one of the lightning flashes strike the side of a hill, about 150 yards off, and a small cloud of dust and smoke immediately floated away from the spot. It wasa severe march, as some of the hills were bad, and the wet made them worse. Stairs had to shoot his donkey, as his boy led it badly down a steep place, and it broke its leg. I was getting intensely annoyed with the carriers, who, since Mr. Stanley went ahead, had done nothing but sit down, and was generally down on my luck towards the end of the march, when I saw Parke seated under a tree. He gave me a drink of my own whiskey, thirteen years old, and then everything changed to a brighter hue; but it also lent strength to my arm, when, within a mile from camp, I found all the men had flung down their loads, and gone off looting in the native gardens. I seized a large stick and went for them. It was more than I could bear to be stopped within sight of camp, at the end of along march. [I laid about me, and soon had them all in camp. April 9th.—Barttelot was sent on in the afternoon with the Soudanese, and all the worst men in camp, all by himself, to be always one day ahead on the road to the Pool. It looks strange on Mr. Stanley’s part to send him by himself with the very worst and most rebellious lot in camp, who will not move a yard so long as they know that all the food is behind them. Barttelot has done a lot of work which he need not have done, as it was beyond his actual duties, and it seems a poor return for it all. C2 1887. April 7. Vombo. 1887. April 10 Kimbam- wanga. 20 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. April 10th.—After sending Jephson’s men to Many- anga to meet him and bring the boat on to Lutété, we marched to Kimbamwanga, where our advanced guard ran into Barttelot’s rear-guard, already proving that it was wrong to send him ahead. ‘This morning Mr. Stanley placed me in a very false position with my men. Just as we were starting, I told him that one of my chiefs was very ill indeed, and that I did not think he could o on. He told me not to bring him any reports of the kind, that he would not listen to them, and that his orders were for all the sick to go on, and that I was to see that they did so. I only said, ‘ Very well, sir.” I behaved very cruelly in making the man get up, amidst the murmurs of all the chiefs, and then driving him on. In a few yards he fell down, and could not get up. Mr. Stanley, on passing, recognized him, and went up to see how he was. He called to Dr. Parke to come to him, and told him that, as he was a good man, we must not lose him; gave him medicine then, and left more with him, at the same time telling one of the officers of the State to look after him, get him into a hut, and do everything he could for him. Of course all the men now look upon me as a brute, and Mr. Stanley as a sort of guardian-angel, although I was only carrying out his own orders. My dog Bull ran away back to the Station at Lukungu, and, poor beast, | am not sorry, for there he will be well looked after, and in camp I could not get him enough to eat. April 11th.—Marched to the Mpwka River; a short march, brought to a close by the river itself being in full flood, with only an old rickety wicker-bridge, a few feet wide, over which to cross. We felled two trees; but of course they both fell in the wrong direction, as every- thing does in this beastly country! By the time the donkeys were swum over it was nearly dark. The wood was too thick to put up the big tent, which is the worst and most useless of its kind I have ever seen in my life. Stairs and Nelson slept in part of it which they put up. As it promised to be a fine night, Parke and I slept in DIARY. 21 our Ashantee hammocks. Before retiring, we killed a magnificent specimen of a centipede in Stairs’ tent. I was sleeping soundly when, towards morning, down came a fearful thunder-plump, and before I could get my waterproof sheet over me it wetted all my bedding and myself; the rest of the night was not pleasant. Saw two splendid kingfishers, and many beautiful butterflies on the river; but it made me quite sick not to havea moment to collect anything. Got a beautiful shell- packed spider with horns on the back, the same that I have seen in Borneo; but I lost it in the confusion of the next camp. April 12th—Did a good long march over beautiful country to Lutété, where we found Jephson, who had got in before us from Manyanga. He gave me the most glowing account of the birds and insects on the river, which made my mouth water. Barttelot stayed with us, aS half his men had gone on to Lutété, and the other half were so far behind that they were too late to go on. ‘The whole idea of his going ahead with these men is a perfect farce. The march lay over beautiful country gradually rising all the way, the highest hill we climbed being 500 feet, measured by Stairs from the creek at its foot. From this point there was a lovely view down to the Congo on one side, to Lutété on another, and behind us to the Mpwka River. One of the Somalis died this morning, and several others are very bad indeed. April 13th.—Had a very easy day. Marched to Lutété, the English Baptist Mission Station, beautifully situated, standing very high, and I should say quite healthy. ‘The missionaries received us with kindness, but did not ask us to feast with them; I suppose we were rather a rough-looking lot. Personally, I must say I am not so “ genteel” looking as when I left town, being of a kind of brick-colour, with an untrimmed beard of no great length, of a colour to match. One of the men was to-day placed in chains for stealing pota- toes. Poor Barttelot has a terribly rough time of it 1887. April 11. Mpwka River. 1887. April 18. Lutété. 22 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. with the Soudanese, as he cannot get them along at any price. It is a splendid sight to see Mr. Stanley settle arow. ‘To-day some of the Soudanese and Zanzibaris began fighting about a cooking-pot, and awoke Mr. Stanley, who was asleep. He seized a stick, ran in, and whacked away right and left, giving one fellow a regular facer with his fist, and, in less time than it takes to write this, there was perfect quiet ! April 14th.—Had a long march; but the men did it splendidly. Made an early start, and camped at Nzungi. Bonny lost two of the pack-donkeys at Lutété, but turned up about 5 oclock in the evening with them, Mr. Stanley’s orders to him being that he need not turn up at all unless he found them! Bonny suspects the missionaries of having hidden them ; for, when he was left behind, they asked him to breakfast, and inquired how long he would wait for the donkeys. He replied, probably three or four days, that all his boys would be with him, and that the DIARY. 23 missionaries would have to find them in everything, as joe F Mr. Stanley had left them nothing. Two of the mis- a a sionaries then went out, and returned in about an hour et with the two donkeys, saying that as they were taking a stroll they heard one of them bray in response to one belonging to the station. Bonny, however, thinks that the prospect of keeping him and his boys for three or four days produced the donkeys. April 15th.—Marched to the Inkissi River. It is now quite a pleasure to see the men walk along cheerily with their loads. Ourroad lay for a long distance close to the banks of the Congo. Some of the glimpses of the river were very beautiful. I would give anything to have time to make a sketch, no matter how rough, of some of them. ‘The foliage is gorgeous in colouring. Some of the palms bear a bright scarlet flower, growing in great clusters down the centre of each branch. About half-an-hour from here we passed a dead native tied upright to a pole, by the side of the path. Mr. Stanley says it is the body of a thief, put up thus as a warning to others, and that he was executed by the natives themselves. The body was there when Mr. Stanley camped in the same place three or four years ago, and is mentioned in his book on the Congo Free State. The natives here have a curious method of catching birds by hanging long ropes, formed of 1887. April 15. Inkissi River. 24 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. creepers, from the trees on the edge of the forest to poles stuck up in the ground about 15 or 20 yards off. Hanging from these ropes are numbers of snares, made from finer creepers, in which the birds are caught as they fly past. April 16th.—All day long crossing the Inkissi River. I luckily got across early with all my men, and hada glorious time amongst the butterflies, getting some magnificent ones, though I daresay the more insig- nificant, which I did not fail to catch also, will turn out to be the rarest, as is usually the case. Last night was a horrible one. We slept in a deserted native hut which looked waterproof, and retired with fond hopes of a good night; but about four hours before daylight it began to pour, and poured on until 7 oclock. ‘The water came in through the roof just above my head and shoulders in torrents; and although I had an umbrella up, and two coats over me, I was drenched and all my bedding, which, by the bye, con- sists of one blanket and a waterproof sheet with some grass under it. April 17th.—Had along march. I had to do rear- guard, but now that the Zanzibaris go so well, it is not nearly so tedious or heart-breaking a business as it used to be. The birds all seem to be in bad plumage for skinning, as most of the feathers are still in the quill, and they make the most horribly bare-looking skins. April 18th.—Marched to Nkalama. ‘There is a most beautiful waterfall just below camp, where the Mpwka falls into the Congo. The Congo itself is remarkable for the masses of bare, black, horribly forbidding rocks which abound on either shore, and crop up here and there in reefs all over the river. Shot a warbler, the skin of which I saved. I found out that one of the ammunition-boxes carried by my company had been DIARY. 25 lost to-day, so I reported the matter to Mr. Stanley after sending back two chiefs all along the road to look for it. Mr. Stanley ordered the whole company to fall in, and then made each man take a load from the heap of loads brought in. He asked the chief who had received the loads in camp to recognize those of the men who had brought in theirs. He did not remember seeing one unfortunate man, so Mr. Stanley fixed upon him as the man who had lost the box, although he is really one of my best carriers, and swore he brought in his box, and showed Mr. Stanley the tree he cut down to keep the boxes off the ground. Mr. Stanley then called the Somalis, and gave all my chiefs, with the ex- ception of the one who had received the loads in camp, fifty cuts each with a stick, whilst they were held down on the ground. He then gave to the man, whom he accused of having lost the box, a hundred lashes, asking him several times during the beating where the box was, —the man each time still swearing that hzs box was in camp. He then chained and padlocked the chiefs all together, and accused me of losing three boxes of ammu- nition (which I flatly denied), and told me that in ’77 it would have been death*, and if it happened again we must part. If this sort of thing is to go on, and he speaks to me again as he did to-day before the men, I should not be sorry if we did part, for I certainly will not keep my temper again. Afterwards I went to his tent, and asked him to explain his statement that I had lost three boxes of ammunition; and this he utterly failed to do. He said, ‘‘ You have three times reported to me boxes lost.” I then told him that the last time was only two days ago, when Dr. Parke and [ had explained the matter to him, and Parke had handed over to me the box missing from my loads; and the only other time I had reported a load lost, I had also reported to him its recovery. If he goes on much more like this, I shall get sick of the whole thing. He has failed to * 1877 was the date of Mr. Stanley’s return journey ‘Through the Dark Continent.’— Ep. 1887. April 18. Congo River. 26 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. 1887. find out the man who lost the box, and has degraded ee 'S. three of my chiefs, who were simply the best men I have Rive, ever seen. They are to carry loads to-morrow, and I don’t know how to fill their places. I heard from Stairs to-day that at present the Stanley is the only steamer ready to take us up the Congo from the Pool. The English Mission has refused the use of its steamer, and the American Mission is awaiting in- structions. This is the magnificent fleet of steamers placed at Mr. Stanley’s disposal for ninety days by the King of the Belgians!! April 19th.—This morning Mr. Stanley succeeded in breaking up my company, I think for good. He made my chiefs, all chained together as they were, carry loads of ammunition, and made new chiefs, picking out two of the worst men amongst them. We marched on to the Luila River, and having crossed it, camped just above it. April 20th.—Marched to Makoko’s village. Here, thank Heaven, Tippu-Tib interceded on behalf of my chiefs with Mr. Stanley, and he ordered them to be unchained. I at once gave them back their rifles, and made chiefs of them again. Old Makoko, the chief here, is an extraordinary-looking object, possessing what the Americans call a chin-whisker, which he has divided into two, making each division into a ringlet. His old visage is wrinkled and of a perfect chocolate hue. Parke is very seedy with dysentery. April 2\st.—Arrived at Leopoldville, which is a pretty spot, looking right up the Pool, the views of which are rather too peaceful from this end to please me, and not what I had expected. April 22nd.—Very busy until midday making out returns of men, rifles, hoes, axes, spades, billhooks, loads, &c. for Mr. Stanley. Then Major Barttelot came and told me I could start off at once and try and kill some hippos, for there were no more rations in DIARY. 2 camp forthe men. I got my things together as quickly as possible, and of course, in my excitement and eager- ness, forgot the two most important things—food and a mosquito curtain! Such small details as these were quite secondary as compared to hippopotami. I trusted to getting some biscuits and tinned stuff at the Dutch trading-house, higher up the Pool, where I had to call for my big rifle; but, on arriving there, found neither rifle nor edibles, but a most acceptable drink of very excellent cognac. I was in a fine big canoe with ten Bangalas to paddle me, and camped some distance above Kinshassa on the river-bank. Never did I spend a more miserable night. My boy had forgotten my waterproof; the rain came down in torrents; and I was wet through before retiring to bed in my tent, and passed the whole night in this soaking condition. Sleep I could not, for the mosquitoes were in thousands; and next morning I was a perfect wreck. April 25rd.—Ii started at daybreak; and although I shot two hippos, I only succeeded in getting one of them, as the Bangala, whom I left to watch the first one rise, went sound asleep, and let it float down the Congo. I returned in triumph, however, with the meat to camp. The Bangalas are the greatest savages I ever came across, and about the most difficult to manage. They simply do nothing except when it suits their fancy, although they are splendid men when they do work. On returning to Leopoldville, I heard of great rows going on about the steamers. It appears that, after all, the missionaries had refused to lend the Henry Reed, as one of them (the engineer) was going down to the coast to be married. (This steamer, with the Peace and the Stanley, are the only three available to take us up the river.) They had taken away some parts of the machinery to render her useless, so Mr. Stanley sent down a guard of Soudanese under Major Barttelot to the Mission House, with orders that if the pieces were not given up, the house was to be searched, and a second guard under Jephson to take 1887. April 23. Leopold- ville. 1887. April 28. Stanley Pool. 28 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. charge of the steamer. Then the chief of the station, Mr. Liebrichts, said that Mr. Stanley was wrong in acting as he had, but that he could make it all right, as the State has the power of taking the Mission steamers whenever they are required; so he removed the Soudanese, replacing them by his own guards. ‘The missionary who was going to be married, said he had considered the whole matter over with God, as Mr. Stanley says, ‘“‘even to the third watch,” and that he could not lend her. April 24th.—This morning I hear the matter about the steamer is satisfactorily arranged; and Mr. Walker goes as engineer, the steamer being lent under protest, although very well paid for. Meat is so badly wanted that I am off again up the Pool to shoot more hippos. This time, however, I am not going without food or a mosquito curtain. Mr. Liebrichts is sending one of the officers of the State also, as he wants meat for the men of the station. Mr. Stanley has the mails intercepted before reaching Leopoldville, so that the missionaries cannot receive unfavourable advice about lending their steamers. April 25th—The Free State officer started this morning in the large canoe, leaving me the small one, out of which it was simply impossible to shoot. His pro- position was that, when we saw hippos, one of us should go to the other side of them, that they might be driven from one canoe to the other. I did not quite see this, as the river is narrow between the islands, and I thought of the bullets that would be flying about when one rose between us; so shortly after starting I took a line of my own, and soon shot one, more by good luck than good guidance, as the moment I raised the rifle to fire, over went the canoe on one side. I unfortunately lost this hippo, as I shot it in a rapid current between two islands, and it was carried down before rising. I had a tiresome wait on a sandbank in a scorching sun for four hours; but no hippo came up. I shot another later, and it did not rise before dark; so we lost it also. DIARY. 29 April 26th—Got up with a distinct touch of fever, and very shaky; but as I saw some hippos not far off, and succeeded in making some natives lend me a big canoe for the promise of meat, I started off after them, and with the very first shot killed a large cow stone dead—she just opened her jaws and sank. I then struck another, which came up, but I had shot it too far forward, and so it could not keep under water. This one gave me a lot of trouble, charging the canoe over and over again; and although I stopped it each time with a bullet in the head, it was not until the fifth time that I killed it. The way that the Bangalas shouted, and darted round and round him in the canoe, was great fun. Went on shore to wait for the hippos to rise; and while the natives were cutting them up I began a letter home. Extract from a letter to Mrs. Jameson, dated April 26th :—* On a sandbank in the middle of Stanley Pool, cutting up a hippopotamus just killed... . . This is the first chance of writing to you I have had since leaving Banana. It is a cloudy day and cool, so I am writing whilst waiting for a canoe from Leopoldville to take away the meat. I had rather a sharp touch of fever this morning at daybreak, the first I have had, although everyone else has been ill. Stanley has had a bad attack of dysentery, Parke is very ill with it, and Jephson, Stairs, and Nelson have all had fever, while Barttelot has had nothing but bad headaches, and your husband has been in splendid health! There was little or no food for our 700 or 800 men at Leopoldville, so they have sent me to kill meat for them. I have shot a lot of hippos, and would have shot a number more if I had had my big rifle. I got it forwarded from Ango- Ango by the Dutch House, as Stanley would not give me carriers for it. I am shooting with an express of Barttelot’s, which, although a good gun, is no weapon for hippopotami. The march from Matadi was one of the most disgusting pieces of work I have ever had to do, until the latter part, when the men marched 1887. April 26. Stanley Pool. 30 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. ree better. A lot of slave-drivers of the old days would ae have done it much better, for that—slave-driving—is Pool. what it often resolved itself into. (There is a big hippo in the middle of the river looking at me, but I will not try to shoot him as I have not canoes enough to carry the meat.) I have no letters from you later than the one dated February 3rd; the Portuguese mail having broken down, we are without any news, and it is awfully disheartening. The sport and natural-history part of this Expedition is a regular farce, and I can see very little hope of its being any better later on. This is very tiring work to be at so long, sleeping in a swamp at night, and, after shooting a hippo, remaining for three or four hours on a sandbank in a blazing sun, until he rises to the surface, and two hours more, while the superbly lazy, though savage, natives cut it up. I have never been in a country where I believe there is more to be collected. The birds and insects are lovely, but with the work one has to do it is impossible to get anything. All my lovely dreams have been very roughly knocked on the head. I will give you a specimen of a day’s work on the march. Barttelot and I started one day as rear-guard a little after 6 a.m., and did not reach camp until after 6 P.M., with not a quarter of an hour’s rest all day. Nothing but beating niggers with a stick, and lifting their loads on to their heads, and day after day the same disgusting work. It must take a great deal of glory to make up for it all. Iam keeping a diary 1oriyou 2)... “Wednesday, 27th.—Still on this sandbank; the canoes have not arrived. When I finished writing yesterday, I went and lay for over an hour in the sun to try and get that big hippo that I told you was looking at me. At last he got up on a bank, and I shot him through the heart, although it was a very long shot. It brought on the fever twice as bad, and I had a very bad time of it all yesterday and last night. . . . It seems years since I left home, and the want of all news from you makes it seem much longer. I am very shaky this morning, so I will lie down fora little... . EXTRACT FROM LETTER. ail “8 p.m. The Camp, Leopoldville—lI arrived here safely a few hours ago; the canoes turned up at noon. ititevrever has quite left me. |... A moment ago a perfect tornado of thunder, lightning, rain, and wind came on, and I had to jump up and make the tent right. Thank Heaven, I am not on that sandbank! The natives here seem very much like those of the Mashona country. They have the same kind of ‘pianos’ *, and there is a great similarity of language, but they are not nearly so far advanced in agriculture. The Bangalas who were with me in the canoe came from higher up the river, and are the people whom Stanley fought. ‘They have never forgiven him for killing the brother of their chief. They are cannibals, and file all their teeth into points. ‘They told me that one of their chiefs, who was very rich, is now quite poor from buying nice, fat, young women to eat; this I know to be a fact. The price of one is from three to four hundred kantakas (short brass rods, which are the money of the country). They eat all those whom they kill in battle. They remove the inside, stuff them with bananas, and roast them whole over a big fire. I can believe anything of them from the little I have had to do with them. The Pool is full of lovely birds, many of which I know to be very rare. We have all had one or two rather disagreeable moments with Mr. Stanley, but I think they are over for the present. I cannot help admiring him immensely for his great strength of will and power of overcoming difficulties ; but there are some points in his character which I cannot admire. I will give you an instance. One day, whilst talking to Dr. Parke, he told him that he had heard that two of the boxes of provisions had been opened by the white men—meaning the officers. Dr. Parke asked him who told him. He replied, some of his Zanzibaris. Parke then told him that the only two cases opened were opened to get out arrowroot and milk for himself (Stanley), when he had dysentery, and that he could not understand his listening to tales about the officers from * See sketch on page 106.—Eb. 1887. April 27. Leopold: ville. 1887. April 27. Leopold- ville, 32 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. the niggers. He had a row with Stairs in exactly the same way. Stairs’ donkey broke its leg *, and he had to shoot it. I saw the broken leg myself. When he reported the matter, Mr. Stanley informed him that he had been told that the leg was not broken, and that he shot it in a rage; and when asked who had told him, said, “Some of Tippu-Tib’s people.” Stairs then gave him areal good piece of his mind on the subject. It is impossible for any one calling himself a gentleman, and an officer, to stand this sort of thing. The fact is, this is the first time Stanley has ever had gentlemen to deal with on an expedition of this sort.” DIARY (continued). April 27th.—Airived at camp about 5 o’clock. The meat had nearly all gone bad, and the voyage down the Pool, in a hot sun, with the stinking meat, was anything but pleasant in the condition I was in. I was greatly amused with the Bangalas’ method of buying fish from the natives. I landed one day on a sandbank to wait for a hippo to rise, and I noticed all the Bangalas going off to the shore, where there were three native canoes full of fish. I asked my boy where they were going. He replied, “To buy fish.” The Bangalas suddenly made a rush at the canoes, upset the natives from out of them, beat them with their paddles, and returned loaded with cooking-pots, young crocodile ready cut up, fish, native bread, and water-bottles made of gourds. I saw some very fine darters, larger than any I saw in South Africa. Shot a spur-winged plover, with beautiful bright orange wattles and pale lemon- ereen coloured legs. April 28th.—Marched to Kinshassa. Dined with Mr. Greshoff, who gave us the best of everything. April 29th.—I saw the natives bringing in a num- ber of fish exactly lke our barbel—scales, beard, * See Diary, April 8th. DIARY. 33 mouth, tail, and everything. After dinner Mr. Gres- hoff showed us a beautiful chart of the Kwanga River, which led to Mr. Stanley producing Dr. Junker’s map (his original one), which he has kindly lent him, also a skeleton map of the country between Stanley Falls and Wadelai, ready to fill in all the unknown country. We had a long conversation about natives, geography, &c., and I spent quite one of the pleasantest evenings since I started. Mr. Stanley, when he throws off his reserve, is one of the most agreeable of men and full of infor- mation. April 30th.—Two hundred men went off under Nelson and Stairs to try and get the Florida into the water, as the slips, on which she was, had broken down when they tried to launch her. Mr. Greshoff very kindly filed my large silver flask with spirits of wine for beetles*. This will be invaluable to me for collecting on the march. In about three hours’ time the men returned, having successfully launched the florida. About 3 o'clock the Stanley and Henry Reed came round from Kinshassa, followed by the Peace from Leopoldville, and by our iron boat, which has been christened the Advance. Before dark we had them all loaded, and ready for the men and donkeys to be put on board in the morning. Just as we were finishing, Ward and Troup turned up in a canoe from Leopold- ville. Mr. Stanley has decided to take Ward with him; he was originally in the employ of the State, later on in the Sanford Expedition, and has now joined Mr. Stanley. Mr. Troup was formerly in the Free State service. * This flask (containing beetles), with the bulk of Jameson’s colleo- tion, never reached England,—Ep. 1887. April 29. Kinshassa 1887. May 1. Upper Congo. 34 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. tip Nor wal Wor Horn wSSS Q S & i == : ee ; Bic ee Pe ai CHAPTER III. May Ist To JUNE 7TH. Start up the Upper Congo.—Scenery on the Pool.—Spiders’ webs.— Mswata. —Bula Matadi—Man proposes, and God disposes.—Bolobo.— Buffalo hunt.—Jameson is informed that he is to be left at Yambuya.—Looting. —Lukulela—sScenes with Stanley.—Equator Station.—Dine with Mr. Glave. — Uranga. — Bangala.—Houssas eaten by natives.—Fever.— Upoto.—Stanley’s distrust of his officers. Sunday, May 1st—At last we have made our final start up the Upper Congo, and on a lucky day. The Henry Reed went first with Tippu-Tib, all his people, and Bonny and Walker on board, towing two whale-boats full of men. We came next in the Stanley, towing the Florida. Towing is not the right word, as both the Henry Reed and the Stanley are stern paddle-wheel steamers; they have to make both boats fast alongside. Stairs, Nelson, Jephson and myself, the Captain, engi- neer, and 168 men, with three donkeys, made up our number. Next came the Peace with Mr. Stanley, his servant William, and Ward on board. We steamed on to Kimpoko, where the American Mission is (Bishop Taylor’s). We landed all the men to cut wood for the DIARY. 390 steamer, and finished by moonlight. My head has been very bad ever since that dose of fever, and, although desperately hungry, I cannot enjoy food. I saw two beautiful large black-backed terns on the Pool, the only ones I have ever seen; but I did not get a shot at them. The scenery on the Pool is completely spoilt by the numbers of low sandy islands, covered with long rank grass, upon which the hippos feast, and where I found large colonies of pigeons and numbers of small herons. May 2nd.—Mr. Walker and Bonny turned up while we were at dinner, and complained bitterly of the man- ners and customs of Tippu-Tib and his people on the Henry Reed, their ways not being European ways. The upper end of the Pool is much finer than the lower; the hills are higher, and the vegetation more luxuriant. Perhaps for the first time you realize what a splendid river the Congo is, as you see it in one grand } unbroken stream, not inclosed by rocks as below, but flowing between beautifully wooded hills, their sides | covered with tropical forests right down to the water’s edge, and their tops with bright green grass, and small clumps of trees dotted here and there. At the end of the Pool are some sandstone cliffs, which, with the morning sun upon them, look exactly like the cliffs of Dover, and are named after them. May 3rd.—Passed a very large crocodile, numbers of large geese, and several white eagles with brown wings and tail. Saw a nightjar, apparently larger than the Mosambicus, but same colouring, and plenty of elephant-tracks for the first time. We stayed just below the Black River for the night. We could see large and small fish rising at insects all day; I feel sure they would take the fly. It is very disappointing for a sportsman to pass through a country that looks as if it ought to abound with game, and then see nothing but a few old elephant-tracks and crocodiles. May 4th.—At some places to-day I should say the D2 1887. May 1. Stanley Pool. 1887. May 4. Congo River. 36 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. river was quite a mile and a half wide. The hills are much lower, and on the right-hand bank the forest grows only along the water's edge. The landscape is altogether much tamer. Saw a beautiful pure white heron (about the size of our common English one), many spur-winged plover, hornbills, and geese. ‘There DraGRam oF Sprpers’ WEBS. is almost a total absence of swifts and swallows, which is curious, as the Lower Congo abounded with different kinds. Saw a few guinea-fowl, of the common species, and not the crested variety I expected to see. Ele- phant-tracks again abounded in the forest, which is full of giant creepers. In it I noticed a curious colony of spiders. There were four trees at equal distances, forming a square, and near to the top of each a spider had attached one corner of his web, so that it hung from the four corners just like a blanket. About a foot below this one was another exactly similar, and again a third below it, and so on to within a few feet of the DIARY. 37 sround. ‘There were at least six or eight webs. Each spider took up his station at the centre point of his web, which was a thicker part than the rest, and cup- shaped. Between these suspended webs were others upright, connecting them, so as to catch anything flying between. Enormous quantities of ants, of every size and description, swarmed in the forest, and made it anything but a pleasure to walk therein. In the night the men started off to some manioc plantations a long way from the steamer, and returned loaded with roots; and the noise with which the others in camp greeted them was enough to waken the dead. For nearly the whole of the night they did nothing but shout, cook, and eat. May 5th.—Reached Mswata at 9.30 a.M., where we found Barttelot and Parke flourishing. Their tent was pitched right in the centre of the main street of the town, if it may so be called, and amidst quantities of bananas. The old chief was most friendly and anxious to see “ Bula Matadi,” as all the natives call Mr. Stanley. The meaning of the name is “ Stone-breaker,” and it was given him whilst at Vivi. One of the Zanzibaris was trying to break a large rock, and striking it in the wrong direction. Stanley noticed the lay of the cleavage and took the hammer, sending the stone flying in pieces with one blow. This so astonished the natives that they at once called him Bula Matadi, and he is universally known all over the country by this name and no other. Mswata in Stanley’s time was one of the Congo State stations, but, like many others, has been abandoned. The chief has the same mark of 1887. May 4, Congo River. 1887. May 5. Mswata. 38 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. distinction as old Makoko, namely a chin-whisker, divided into two curls. ‘They divide their hair into two long tails, one on each side of tle forehead, bending outwards, exactly in the shape of buffalo horns, and sometimes have one in the middle also. The number of these horns is evidently a sign of the degree of rank of the wearer, the greatest swells having the largest number. I went for a stroll through a lovely forest, full of small streams, at the back of the town, and got a glorious lot of new butterflies. This is the first place where I have noticed a decided change in the butterflies from those of the Lower Congo, some of them being very beautiful. Barttelot and Parke are to march to Kwamouth. ‘They dined with us, and we spent a very pleasant evening. Mr. Stanley sent for Stairs after dinner, and told him we were to go on straight to Bolobo with as little delay as possible, and there to ask the chief's leave to land our men for a few days, as the last time Stanley was there he was fired upon, and they had to burn down the town. Whilst it was a Free State station and Mr. Liebrichts was in command, they had no palavers, and burnt the town both times; so no wonder the natives don’t like the white man. Mr. Stanley says, if they refuse to let us land, we must occupy one of the islands opposite to the town, and await his arrival. He thinks it is about even chances that we have a row. May 6th.—Never came a saying more true than did the old one to-day, “‘ Man proposes, and God disposes.” We were hours ahead of both the other steamers, boasting by how far we should beat the Peace up to the Falls, if we were allowed to go ahead, all sitting in the top deck-house with the Captain, when there came a violent bump, then another, and another, and we were stuck fast on the top of a rock, with the water pouring into three compartments, through about five holes in our bottom, and we three or four hundred yards well out in the river! Luckily the Zanzibaris behaved splendidly, sitting perfectly still and doing as DIARY. | og they were told. With the aid of buckets we could just keep the water from gaining, but could not get it down. Upon sounding, we found ourselves on the top of a large flat rock, with not more than three feet of water on any partofit. Luckily the orida, which was fastened alongside with 168 men on board, numerous loads and donkeys, was drawing so little water that she did not touch. The holes were all in the afterpart of the forward compartments; and, as she is built in nine water-tight compartments, as long as we could keep the water from gaining and the steamer from bumping, we were safe. We shifted the whole of the cargo into the stern, and dropped two anchors. Just then a thunder- storm came up, with a strong breeze; she at once swung round, and we started the engine full speed astern; with one more bump we swung clear right into the deep water, breaking one anchor, and leaving the other with a lump of chain on the rock. Then we went full speed ahead up-stream, and baled away with the buckets, as our lives depended upon it. We ran both boats on to a sandy beach on the mainland, half a mile above the scene of our disaster. That puff of wind just came in time, and saved us. Had we sunk, probably the Florida would have been wrecked too. In any case most of the ammunition, and all the European provisions and stuff to buy food, would have been lost in the Stanley. I thanked God, not once but a good many times, that we got out of it as well as we did. The view passing Kwamouth is very pretty. The Kwa, which is really only the mouth of the Kassai River (which runs into it), is the largest tributary of the Congo, being navigable for over 400 miles. May Tth—Up at daylight, but very sleepy. The Henry Reed appeared in the mirage, down river, about 8.30 4.M., so we sent our pilot off in a canoe, to warn them about the rock, as they were steering straight for it. Much later we saw the Peace going along close in to the opposite shore; we signalled, and the Henry feed whistled, and they came across to us. Mr. Stanley, 1887. May 6 Congo River. 1887. May 7. Congo River. 40. STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. of course, was rather annoyed at our disaster, and told the Captain he had no business to come over to this side of the river, but he replied that this side was the course marked on his chart, and explained to him by Captain Anderson, the late commander of the Stanley, and that the missionaries also used the same course. Mr. Stanley then took in hand the directions for patching up the steamer, and the Captain and the three engineers carried them out. We first of all removed all the cargo, and swung her round side on to the beach, then dug a trench with hoes right under her to the largest of the holes. A plate was passed through the water on to the outside and screwed on by bolts. Little hopes of starting to-morrow. Mr. Stanley said to-day that every day of delay cost the Expedition £25 in wages to the men alone. KwaMoutH. May 8th.—Mr. Stanley, the Captain, and engineers worked away until about 8 o’clock at the leaks with a good deal of success. May 9th.—Loading up the Stanley ready for a start in the morning. Mr. Stanley and the engineers finished DIARY. 4] putting the plates on by 11 o’clock; the former left for Bolobo at 12.30. May 10th.—To-day the scenery became very beau- - tiful. The river widened to about four miles, and was dotted all over with small islands covered with tropical foliage. At the back of every sandbank or island, in the still water, the heads of the hippopotami could be seen moving up and down, or their long backs just above the water resting on the banks. Numbers of geese were wading on the shores, while large black and white eagles soared from island to island, and ever and again gorgeous bee-eaters and kingfishers darted out of the forest, the bee-eaters hawking away, then tumbling over and floating away to another tree, their colours glittering in the sun. The kingfishers would dart out, hover for a moment over the water, then ap- parently dive into it, to return to their perch, and sit pensively gazing down at the river below them. Large cranes stood solemnly on the banks, absorbed in the contemplation of some deep and momentous subject. Then a heavy thunderstorm passed over us, in the midst of which the far shore stood out in bright sunlight, with a background of exquisite mountains and valleys, and one longed for the skill of an artist to give to the people at home an idea of this magnificent river. The villages of brown huts, embedded in the gorgeous green of the plantains, with giant trees towering all around them, the canoes lying on the sandy beach, with the fishing-nets hung out to dry, here and there a native with spear in hand—all these scenes furnished splendid subjects for the artist—who is not with us! May 11th.—Arrived at Bolobo, which is prettily situated, looking over one of the broadest parts of the river. Found fresh buffalo-tracks to-day, and for the. first time saw the crested guinea-fowl which I expected” to meet. The natives here paint themselves in an ex- traordinary fashion, some having a black band across the forehead with white lines drawn over and under the eyes. Others have long white lines running down 1887. May 9. Congo River, 1887. May ll. Bolobo. - 42 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN. the shoulders and arms, and the same down the forehead and nose. Some of the lines are blue and yellow for a variety. The knives and axes are very fine, but they will not part with them. Their spears resemble the Mashona spears. Their guns are old flint-muskets. May 12th—The Henry Reed arrived with the Peace in tow. Mr. Stanley came to the officers’ tent in the afternoon, and had a long chat with us. He 1s going to reorganize all the companies, and only take on the best men, leaving the bad ones here with Major Barttelot to come on when the Stanley returns down the river. Had to go off very early to cut wood for the Stanley. , May 13th.—We are are all going to be put on short rations now; + ounce of tea a day for each man, and everything else in proportion. Major Barttelot is to come on to the entrenched camp after all, and Ward is to be left here. I feel very sorry for him, as up to the very last moment he thought he was going on. Mr. Bonny is also being left here. Good news! Mr. Stanley has given me leave to start at daybreak to-morrow for a buffalo hunt, and get meat for the men. May 14th.—After about three and a half hours’ walk- ing, [came upon one of the most lovely valleys for game I think I have ever seen or dreamt of, and in any other country but this it would simply swarm.