January 24, 1890.] 



SCIENCE 



be unfair to pronounce judgment. One thing we . may say : we 

 know, from Mr. Werner's recently published " River Life on the 

 Congo," that before Major Barttelot left Yambuya to follow Stan- 

 ley it was known to Mr. Werner, to more than one Belgian officer, 

 to several natives, and to the Manyuema people with Barttelot, 

 that instructions had been given by Tippo-Tip to these last to 

 shoot Major Barttelot if he did not treat them well. Yet no one 

 ■cared to warn the major, and he was allowed to depart to his al- 

 most certain fate. The thing is too sickening to dwell upon. It 

 was at this stage that Stanley sent home his first letters, which 

 ■reached England on April i, 1889, twenty months after he started 

 from the Aruvimi, and over two years after he left England. The 

 relief was intense ; all sorts of sinister rumors had been floated, 

 and most people had given up the expedition for lost. 



Once more back through the weary forest, with the expedition 

 ■re-organized. A new route was taken to the north of the river 

 through a region devastated by the Arab slavers ; and here the 

 •expedition came near to starvation, but once more Fort Bodo was 

 reached, on Dec. 20. Here things were practically as Stanley had 



homeward march was comparatively free from trouble, and full of 

 interest ; and on Dec. 6 Mr. Stanley once more entered Zanzibar, 

 which he had left two years and ten months before. Such briefly 

 are some of the incidents of the rescue expedition ; let us now as 

 briefly sum up the geographical results. 



When Stanley left for Africa in January, 1887, there remained 

 one of the great problems of African hydrography still unsolved, 

 what is known as the problem of the Welle. Schweinfurth and 

 Junker had come upon a river at some points which seemed to 

 rise in the neighborhood of the Albert Nyanza, and appeared to 

 flow in a north-west direction. The favorite theory at the time 

 was that the river W^elle was really the upper course of the Shari, 

 which runs into Lake Chad far away to the north-west. But as 

 the Kongo and its great feeders on the north, and the lay of the 

 land in that direction, became better known, it began to be conjec- 

 tured that after all the Welle might send its waters to swell the 

 mighty volume of the great river. Stanley, I know, hoped that, 

 among other geographical work, he might be able to throw some 

 light on the course of this puzzling river. But, as we see now, the 



CENTRAL AFRICA, AFTER STANLEY. 



'left them ; there was no sign of Emin, though he had promised to 

 -come to the fort. The combined expedition marched onwards, 

 and Mr. Stanley, pushing on with a contingent, reached the lake 

 for the third time, on Jan. 18, only to learn that Emin and Jephson 

 had been made prisoners by Emin's own men ; the Mahdists had 

 attacked the station and created a panic, and all was disorganiza- 

 tion and vacillation. At last, however, the chief actors in this 

 ■strange drama were together again : and Mr. Stanley's account of 

 Emin's unstable purpose ; the long arguments with the Pacha to 

 persuade him to come to a decision ; the ingratitude and treachery 

 ■of the Egyptians ; the gathering of the people and their burden- 

 some goods and chattels preparatory to quitting the lake, — these 

 and many other details are fresh in our memories from Stanley's 

 own letters. But the main purpose of the expedition was accom- 

 ,plished, at however terrible a cost, and however disappointing it 

 was to find that after all Emin was reluctant to be " rescued." 

 When the start was made from Kavalli's, on April 10 last, fifteen hun- 

 •dred people in all were mustered. An almost mortal illness laid 

 Stanley low for a month shortly after the start, and it was May 8 

 before the huge caravan was fairly under way. Some fighting had 

 to be done with the raiders from Unyoro, but on the whole the 



cares and troubles that fell upon him prevented him going much 

 out of the way to do geographical work. While, however, Stanley 

 was cleaving his way through the tangled forest. Lieutenant 

 Van Gele, one of the Free State officers, proved conclusively 

 that the Welle was really the upper course of the Mobangi, one of 

 the largest northern tributaries of the Kongo. But another and 

 kindred problem Stanley was able to solve. Before his journey, 

 the mouth of the river Aruvimi was known ; the great naval bat- 

 tle which he fought there on his first descent of the river is one of 

 the most striking of the many striking pictures in the narrative of 

 that famous journey. But beyond Yambuya its course was a blank. 

 The river, under various names," Ituri " being the best known, led 

 him almost to the brink of the Albert Nyanza. One of its upper 

 contributories is only ten minutes' walk from the brink of the es- 

 carpment that looks down upon the lake. With many rapids, it is 

 for a great part of its course over five hundred yards wide, with 

 groups of islands here and there. For a considerable stretch it is 

 navigable, and its entire length, taking all its windings into account, 

 from its source to the Kongo, is eight hundred miles. One' of its 

 tributaries turns out to be another river which Junker met farther 

 north, and whose destination was a puzzle, the Nepoko. 



