January' 24, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



51 



north and south, which poured their voluminous tribute into the 

 main stream ; and the impulse he gave has continued. The blank 

 has become a network of dark lines, the interspaces covered with 

 the names of tribes and rivers and lakes. 



Such then, briefly, is what Stanley did for the map of Africa dur- 

 ing his great and ever-memorable journey across the continent. 

 Once more Mr. Stanley has crossed the continent, in the opposite 

 direction, and taken just about the same time in which to do so. 

 Discovery was not his main object this time, and therefore the re- 

 sults in this direction have not been so plentiful. Indeed, they 

 could not be ; he had left so comparatively little to be done. But 

 the additions that he has made to our knowledge of the great blank 

 are considerable, and of high importance in their bearing on the 

 hydrography, the physical geography, the climate, and the people 

 of Central Africa. 



Let us rapidly run over the incidents of this, in some respects, 

 the most remarkable expedition that ever entered Africa. Its first 

 purpose, as we know, was to relieve, and if necessary bring away, 

 Emin Pacha, the governor of the abandoned Equatorial Province 

 of the Egyptian Sudan, which spread on each side of the Bahr-el- 

 Jebel, the branch of the Nile that issues from the Albert Nyanza. 

 Here it was supposed that he and his Egyptian officers and troops, 

 and their wives and children, were beleaguered by the Mahdist 

 hordes, and that they were at the end of their supplies. Emin 

 Pacha, who as Eduard Schnitzer was born in Prussian Silesia, and 

 educated at Breslau and Berlin as a physician, spent twelve years 

 (1864-1876) in ihe Turkish service, during which he travelled over 

 much of the Asiatic dominions of Turkey, indulging his strong 

 tastes for natural history. In 1876 he entered the service of Egypt, 

 and was sent up to the Sudan as surgeon on the staff of Gordon 

 Pacha, who at that time governed the Equatorial Province. In 

 1878, two years after Gordon had been appointed governor-gen- 

 eral of the whole Sudan, Emin Effendi (he had Moslemized him- 

 self) was appointed governor of the Equatorial Province, which he 

 found completely disorganized and demoralized, the happy hunt- 

 ing-ground of the slave-raider. Within a few months Emin had 

 restored order, swept out the slavers, got rid of the Egyptian scum 

 who pretended to be soldiers, improved the revenue, so that in- 

 stead of a large deficit there was a considerable surplus, and 

 established industry and legitimate trade. Meantime the Mahdi 

 had appeared, and the movement of conquest was gathering 

 strength. It was not, however, till 1884 that Emin began to fear 

 danger. It was in January of that year that Gordon went out to 

 hold Khartoum ; just a year later both he and the city fell before 

 the Mahdist host. Emin withdrew with his officers and depend- 

 ents, numbering probably about fifteen hundred, to Wadelai, in the 

 south of the province, within easy reach of Albert Nyanza. 



Rumors of the events in the Sudan after the fall of Khartoum 

 reached this country ; but no one outside of scientific circles 

 seemed to take much interest in Emin till 1886. Rapidly, how- 

 ever, Europe became aware what a noble stand this simple savant, 

 who had been foisted into the position of governor of a half- savage 

 province, was making against the forces of the Mahdi, and how 

 he refused to desert his post and his people. Towards the au- 

 tumn of 1886 public feeling on the subject rose to such a height 

 that the British Government, which was held to blame for the 

 position in the Sudan, was compelled to take action. Our repre- 

 sentative at Zanzibar, as early as August of that year, instituted in- 

 quiries as to the possibility of a relief expedition, but in the end, in 

 dread of international complications, it was decided that a govern- 

 ment expedition was impracticable. In this dilemma. Sir (then 

 Mr.) William Mackinnon, chairman of the British India Steam 

 Navigation Company, whose connection with East Africa is of old 

 standing, came forward and offered to undertake the responsibility 

 of getting up an expedition. 



The Emin Pacha Relief Committee was formed in December, 

 1 886, and government did all it could to aid, short of .taking the 

 actual responsibility. Mr. H. M. Stanley generously offered his 

 services as leader, without fee or reward, giving up many lucrative 

 engagements for the purpose. No time was lost. The sum of ;/^20,ooo 

 had been subscribed, including ^10,000 from the Egyptian Govern • 

 ment. Mr. Stanley returned from America to England in the end 

 of December ; by the end of January he had made all his prepara- 



tions, selecting nine men as his staff, including three English 

 officers and two surgeons, and was on his way to Zanzibar, which 

 was reached on Feb. 21. On the 25th the expedition was on board 

 the " Madura," bound for the mouth of the Kongo, by way of the 

 Cape : nine European officers, sixty-one Sudanese, thirteen Soma- 

 lis, three interpreters, 620 Zanzibaris, the famous Arab slaver and 

 merchant, Tippo-Tip, and 407 of his people. 



The mouth of the Kongo was reached on March 18 ; there the 

 expedition was transshipped into small vessels, and landed at Ma- 

 tadi, the Ifmit of navigation on the lower river. From Matadi 

 there was a march of 200 miles, past the cataracts to Stanley Pool, 

 where the navigation was resumed. The troubles of the expedi- 

 tion began on the Kongo itself. 



The question of routes was much discussed at the time of or- 

 ganizing the expedition, the two that found most favor being that 

 from the east coast through Masai-land and round by the north of 

 Uganda, and that by the Kongo. Into the comparative merits of 

 these two routes we shall not enter here. For reasons which were 

 satisfactory to himself, — and no one knows Africa better, — Mr. 

 Stanley selected the Kongo route ; though had he foreseen all that 

 he and his men would have to undergo he might have hesitated. 

 As it was, the expedition, which it was thought would be back in 

 England by Christmas, 1887, only reached the coast in November, 

 1889. But the difficulties no one could have foreseen, the region 

 traversed being completely unknown, and the obstacles encountered 

 unprecedented even in Africa. Nor, when the goal was reached, 

 was it expected that months would be wasted in persuading Emin 

 and his people to quit their exile. Not the keenest-eyed of African 

 explorers could have foreseen all this. 



Want of sufficient boat accommodation, and a scarcity of food 

 almost amounting to famine, hampered the expedition terribly on 

 Its way up the Kongo. The mouth of the Aruvimi, the real start- 

 ing-point of the expedition, some 1,500 miles from the mouth of 

 the Kongo, was not reached by Mr. Stanley and the first contingent 

 till the beginning of June, 1887. The distance from here in a 

 straight line to the nearest point of the Albert Nyanza is about 450 

 miles ; thence it was believed communication with Emin would be 

 easy, for he had two steamers available. But it was possible that a 

 detour would have to be made towards the north so as to reach 

 Wadelai direct, for no one knew the conditions which prevailed in 

 the country between the Aruvimi mouth and the Albert Nyanza. 

 As it was, Mr. Stanley took the course to the lake direct, but with 

 many a circuit and many an obstruction, and at a terrible sacrifice 

 of life. An intrenched camp was established on a bluff at Yam- 

 buya, about fifty miles up the left bank of the Aruvimi. Ma"jor 

 Barttelot was left in charge of this, and with him Dr. Bonny, Mr. 

 Jameson, Mr. Rose Troup, Mr. Ward, and 257 men ; the rear 

 column was to follow as soon as Tippo-Tip provided the contingent 

 of five hundred natives which he had solemnly promised. Although 

 the whole of the men had not come up, yet every thing seemed in 

 satisfactory order ; explicit instructions were issued to the officers 

 of the rear column; and on June 28, 1887, Mr. Stanley, with a 

 contingent consisting of 389 officers and men, set out to reach 

 Emin Pacha. The officers with him were Captain Nelson, Lieu- 

 tenant Stairs, Dr. Parke, and Mr. Jephson. 



Five miles after leaving camp the difficulties began. The expe- 

 dition was face to face with a dense forest of immense extent, 

 choked with bushy undergrowth, and obstructed by a network of 

 creepers through which a way had often to be cleaved with the 

 axes. Hostile natives harassed them day after day ; the paths 

 were studded with concealed spikes of wood ; the arrows were 

 poisoned ; the natives burned their villages rather than have deal- 

 ings with the intruders. Happily the river, when it was again 

 struck, afforded relief, and the steel boat proved of service, though 

 the weakened men found the portages past the cataracts a great 

 trial. It was fondly hoped that here at least the Arab slaver had 

 not penetrated ; but on Sept. 16 two hundred miles from Yambuya, 

 making 340 miles of actual travel, the slave camp of Ugarowwa 

 was reached, and here the treatment was even worse than when 

 fighting the savages of the forest. The brutalities practised on 

 Stanley's men cost many of them their lives. A month later the 

 camp of another Arab slaver was reached, Kilinga Longa, and 

 there the treatment was no better. These so-called Arabs, whose 



