NA TURE 



297 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1878 



MR. STANLEY 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER spoke the truth on Thursday 

 night last in St. James's Hall when he told Mr. 

 Stanley that the Prince of Wales might be regarded as the 

 spokesman of the nation when he addressed the great ex- 

 plorer in warm words of welcome and admiration. Not 

 for many years has there been so much excitement in 

 London as there was on Thursday in connection with the 

 wild rumours on the state of affairs in the East ; it seemed 

 as if people could not possibly have a shred of attention 

 to bestow on any other matter, but nearly two hours 

 before the time at which the meeting of the Geographical 

 Society was to commence the doors of St. James's Hall 

 were besieged by an eager crowd ; and many hundreds, if 

 not thousands, had to he left out in the distribution of tickets. 

 The welcome which Mr. Stanley received could not pos- 

 sibly have been more enthusiastic. Inviewof the many hard 

 words that have been spoken of Mr. Stanley's conduct 

 under certain trying circumstances, the sight on the plat- 

 form of the stately figure and genial face of the venerable 

 missionary and explorer, Dr. Moffat, father-in-law of 

 Livingstone, was exceedingly gratifying, showing, as we 

 think it did, that so humane and experienced an "African '' 

 as he does not consider that Mr. Stanley has greatly sinned. 



That Mr. Stanley should be received with all the 

 enthusiasm of hero-worship by the civilised world is just 

 what might have been expected. It is seldom, however, 

 that a hero receives the glory due to his heroism so 

 promptly as Mr. Stanley has done, especially when that 

 glory has been earned in the field of exploration. Hitherto 

 it has only been through the tardy medium of a book that 

 the public at home have learned of an explorer's work ; 

 but in Mr. Stanley's case we have been able to watch his 

 progress step by step by means of the eagerly-looked-for 

 letters he sent home from the heart of Africa, like spec- 

 tators watching the progress of an assault against a 

 hitherto impregnable stronghold. Thus when Stanley 

 emerged once more into "the light of common day" the 

 very first white man at Emboma into whose hands that 

 memorable appeal for help came knew at once that one 

 of the greatest deeds of all time had been accomplished. 



The exact grade to be allotted to Mr. Stanley among 

 the dii majores of explorers must be left to a 

 future generation, but this we may be sure of that 

 when the man and his work shall stand clearly out 

 against the " azure of the past," when all the accidental 

 circumstances that accompanied the ever-memorable 

 journey shall have been forgotten, Mr. Stanley will take 

 his place among the foremost of pioneer explorers, as 

 one of the greatest benefactors to humanity and science. 

 He, indeed, has shown that there is work in the world for 

 many generations of men of science, and it will be long 

 after the region has been opened up to commerce ere science 

 will have obtained an adequate knowledge of its treasures. 



Mr. Stanley has been termed " the Bismarck of African 

 exploration ; " as Bismarck has united into one great 

 empire the fragmentary states of Germany, so has Stanley 

 by the work he has accomplished united into one great 

 whole the disjecta membra of African exploration. But 

 the likeness between the two men extends further than 

 Vol. XVII.— No. 433 



this ; in the one case as in the other there has been a 

 well-defined purpose carried out by means of a clear and 

 cool head, firm nerve, unflinching will, and (perhaps more 

 important than all) an iron constitution. 



What then has Mr. Stanley done to justify the 

 enthusiasm with which he has been universally received 

 by high and low, by learned and unlearned ? 



One of the most remarkable characteristics of his work 

 is the unprecedented rapidity with which it was accom- 

 plished, considering the rich harvest of results. As he 

 told his followers at Zanzibar he meant to do, he shot 

 across the continent like an arrow. In two years and a 

 half, with many zigzags and subsidiary explorations, 

 Africa was crossed from Bagamoyo to the mouth of the 

 Congo. The great work of the expedition, the exploration 

 of the Lualaba from Nyangwe to the sea occupied only 

 five months ; looking at it in all its aspects, no explorer 

 ever did so great a work in anything like|2he time. 



For thousands of years has the Nile been a mystery 

 which civilised humanity has never ceased to seek to 

 penetrate ; no other geographical problem, not even the 

 pole itself, has had such a fascination for Europe. Many 

 and many a life has been sacrificed in the attempt to find 

 the source of the sacred stream, and it was in seeking 

 this goal that Livingstone wandered away south to find 

 " the fountains of Herodotus," only to find a grave on 

 the marshy shore of Lake Bangweolo. The glory of 

 virtually settling the problem has remained to Living- 

 stone's discoverer and pupil, Stanley. In his march 

 northwards from Ugogo to Lake Victoria Nyanza, the 

 explorer came upon a river which flows into the south of 

 that lake, the river Shimeeyu, about 350 miles long, which 

 may be regarded as one of the most remote, if not the most 

 remote, of the sources of the old Nile. Further, into the 

 west side of the lake flows Speke's Kitanguld river, which 

 Mr. Stanley has re-baptised the Alexandra Nile ; this 

 river the latter explored with much thoroughness while 

 staying at the court of the gentle Rumanika. He found 

 it to be a broad lake-river, giving off many lagoons, one 

 of them Speke's Lake Windermere, and having its source 

 in Speke's Lake Akanyaru (now the Alexandra Nyanza) 

 which again has, Mr. Stanley believes, a river of con- 

 siderable length flowing into its west side, and another 

 coming from the south, having its origin on the east of 

 Lake Tanganyika. Here then, no doubt, we have the 

 ultimate sources of the Nile, which have been sought for 

 since history began. Mr. Stanley, we believe, has vir- 

 tually set the question at rest, though we are sure he will 

 willingly share the credit of the discovery with Speke, 

 whose geographical instinct was astonishing, and the 

 essential accuracy of whose discoveries have been 

 throughout confirmed by his successor. 



For the first time we have, through Mr. Stanley's ex- 

 ploration, an approximately accurate idea of the outline 

 and extent of Lake Victoria Nyanza. Any map of Africa 

 published two years ago shows this lake in a triangular 

 shape, with an offshoot in its north-east comer. Mr. 

 Stanley has broadened it out into an irregular square, 

 with a coast-line of about 1,000 miles in length, studded 

 with islands, many of them inhabited, and its shores 

 peopled by many different tribes. 



The geography of the region between Victoria Nyanza 

 and Albert Nyanza may now be plotted with considerable 



