STANLEY'S JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA 347 



ing nations in a befitting manner, no expense or care being spared to 

 make the expedition one of lasting advantage to science, humanity 

 and civihzation. In a word Stanley was to seek to complete the great 

 work which Livingstone, Burton, Speke and Grant had be^un. 



Of this expedition, which lasted for three years, during most of 

 which time Stanley was lost to sight in Central Africa, we can deal 

 here only with its most signal portion,, that in which the explorer took 

 up the work of Livingstone on the Lualaba and carried on to com- 

 pletion, in tracing the course of that great and mysterious river to its 

 outlet in the ocean of the remainder of his work, that having to do 

 with his exploration of the great African lakes, this, though replete 

 with interest, can only be dealt with here in rapid abstract. 



His first important achievement, after a journey in which he 

 had to fight his way through an army of savages, was the circumnavi- 

 gation of the Victoria Nyanza, which he accomplished by the aid of 

 a boat brought for the purpose. In this he had many adventures, and 

 at times had to fight his way through hordes of savage boatmen. 

 Finally, landing on the coast of Uganda, his troubles came to an end, 

 Mtesa, the king of that semi-civilized country, receiving him with the 

 most cordial hospitality. In his intercourse with this friendly African 

 monarch, Stanley laid the foundations of the later Christian work in 

 that country, by converting Mtesa from Islamism to Christianity. 



Stanley's work on the Victoria Nyanza was to fix its area at 

 twenty-one thousand square miles and prove that its sole outlet was 

 over the Ripon Falls. The hostility of the natives prevented him from 

 investigating the other lakes of that vicinity, and after a study of the 

 Alexandra Nile, which he found to be the principal feeder of the Vic- 

 toria Lake, he made his way to Lake Tanganyika, reaching Ujiji May 

 27, 1876, nearly two years after his original outset. This lake he 

 also circumnavigated and studied, and finally, near the end' of August, 

 he began his journey to the Lualaba, intending to take up the work 

 exactly where Livingstone had laid it down. 



As he advanced, with an enfeebled body of men — for fever and 

 small-pox had played havoc with those left at Ujiji — the vegetation 

 increased in luxuriance and the country in beauty. The wooded hills 

 and forested plains were filled with animal life and everywhere the 



