468 LIFE OF DA VI D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



and injustice on the part of the white settlers have let loose the wild and savage 

 passions of the Redskins. We find room for an abbreviated account of a 

 desperate Indian foray reported by Mr. Stanley. A band of Sioux Indians 

 made a raid upon the railway, near Fort Kearney, over two hundred miles to 

 the west of Omaha. They met a gang of telegraph repairers, and slew and 

 scalped them — James Thomson, an Englishman, escaping with his life. This 

 is Thomson's account of it, as reported by Mr. Stanley : — 



" He (the Indian) took out his knife and stabbed me in the neck, and 

 then, making a twirl round his fingers with my hair, he commenced sawing 

 and hacking away at my scalp. Though the pain was awful, and I felt dizzy 

 and sick, I knew enough to keep quiet. After what seemed to be half-an- 

 hour, he gave the last finishing touch to the scalp on my left temple, and as it 

 still hung a little, he gave it a jerk. I just thought then that I should have 

 screamed my life out. I can't describe it to you ; it just felt as if the whole 

 head was being taken right off. The Indian then mounted and galloped away, 

 but as he went he dropped my scalp within a few feet of me, which I managed 

 to get and hide. . . Drs. Peck and Moore, of this city (Omaha)," says Mr. 

 Stanley, "will endeavour to reset the scalp on his head, and they are confident 

 they can do it well. As he is a strong man, it is expected that he will recover 

 health and strength." There is something horrible, and yet humorously 

 grotesque, in the securing of his own scalp, by the half -dead Englishman ! 



On his return to New York, he received the appointment of travelling 

 correspondent to the New York Herald, at a salary of £600 a-year, and his 

 first important commission was to accompany the forces under Sir Robert (now 

 Lord Napier) for the relief of the English captives, detained by Bang Theodore 

 at Magdala. As Mr. Stanley has recently published his account of this brilliant 

 campaign, we will not allude to it further than to mention, that his energetic 

 character enabled him to obtain a happy superiority, not only over his fellow- 

 correspondents, but over the English Government itself, as he sent important 

 intelligence to his paper, which reached England via New York, a few days 

 earlier than the official intelligence sent by the Commander-in-chief. 



On his return to England from Abyssinia, he spent several weeks with 

 his relatives in Wales, before starting for Spain, to give an account of the 

 revolution which resulted in the flight of Queen Isabella. He was at Madrid, 

 as we have seen, when Mr Gordon Bennet sent for him to Paris, for the pur- 

 pose of despatching him in search of Dr. Livingstone. As Mr. Stanley himself 

 has informed us, he was present at the opening of the Suez canal, visited the 

 more important places of interest in Palestine, and marched right across Asia 

 Minor into India, landing in Bombay in September of 1869. 



His old friend, Mr. E. Joy Morris, saw him at Constantinople, previous 

 to his starting on his famous journey to Bombay. Mr. Morris gave him letters 

 of introduction to such merchants as he knew on his route, and also recom- 



