CHAPTER XVIIL 
Stani^ky's Absorbing Interest in Livingstone's Explora¬ 
tions—His Resolve to Find a Path prom Sea to Sea— 
Description op the Congo Region—Once the Most 
Famous Kingdom op Aprica —A King Glorious in Trink¬ 
ets—People Prostrating T:tem;selves Bepore Their 
Monarch—The Whims op a Despot—Taxes Levied on 
Furniture—Killing Husbands to Get Their Wives— 
Strange and Savage Customs —A Nation Famous as Ele¬ 
phant Hunters and Men Stealers. 
TJENRY M. STANLEY thought, and the world thought so too, 
^ ^ that his mission was to complete, as far as possible, the mar¬ 
vellous discoveries which Livingstone had attempted to make. The 
young hero never dreamed, however, that the path he blazed out 
would, in part, be traversed by an Ex-President of the United 
States. Stanley having been once in the wilds of Africa, and hav¬ 
ing learned by actual observation the great fertility of the soil, the 
channels of commerce which might be opened, the importance of 
bringing the country into close relations with other parts of the 
world, the moral needs of the savage races whose history has been 
lost in oblivion and whose future it is impossible as yet to determine, 
thought he would discover, if possible, the sources of the Nile, open 
new avenues in a land almost unknown, and, having found Livings¬ 
tone, the lost explorer, he resolved to find a path from sea to sea. 
In this marvellous undertaking we are now to trace him. He 
is the same strong, heroic soul that he was on his first expedition; 
the same enterprising man, possessed of the same iron will, the same 
abounding energy and perseverance, the same tact in dealing with 
hostile tribes, and the same unswerving resolution to accomplish his 
object at any cost. 
Before we begin his journey, it will be interesting to the reader 
to have some account of the Congo region through which Stanley 
274 
