THE natives were with us that night, teUing wonderful
stories about
"big ships as large as islands filled with men," which
left no doubt
in our mind that this white man was Emin Pasha. The next
day's
march brought us to the chief Kavali, and after a while
he handed
me a note from Emin Pasha, covered with a strip of black
American oil-
cloth. The note was to the effect " that as there had
been a native rumor to
the effect that a white man had been seen at the south
end of the lake, he
had gone in his steamer to make inquiries, but had been
unable to obtain
reliable information, as the natives were terribly afraid
of Kabba-Rega,
King of Unyoro, and connected every stranger with him.
However, the
wife of the Nyamsassie chief had told a native ally of
his named Mogo
that she had seen us in Mrusuma (Mozamboni's country).
He therefore
begged me to remain where I was until he could communicate
with me."
The note was signed " (Dr.) Emin," and dated March 26th.
The next day, April 23d, Mr. Jephson was dispatched with
a strong force
of men to take the boat to the Nyanza. On the 26th the
boat's crew
sighted Mswa station, the southernmost belonging to Emin
Pasha, and
Mr. Jephson was there hospitably received by the Egyptian
garrison.
The boat's crew say that they were embraced one by one,
and that they
never had such attention shown to them as by these men,
who hailed
them as brothers.
On the 29th of April we once again reached the bivouac
ground occu-
pied by us on the 16th of December, and at 5 p.m. of
that day I saw the
Khedive steamer about seven miles away steaming up toward
us. Soon
after 7 p.m. Emin Pasha and Signor Cassati and Mr. Jephson
arrived at
our camp, where they were heartily welcomed by all of
us.
The next day we moved to a better camping-place, about
three miles
above Nyamsassie, and at this spot Emin Pasha also made
his camp ; we
were together until the 25th of May. On that day I left
him, leaving
Mr. Jephson, three Soudanese, and two Zanzibaris in his
care, and in
return he caused to accompany me three of his irregulars
and one hun-
dred and two Mahdi natives as porters.
Only Sixteen Men Out of Fifty-six.
Fourteen days later I was at Fort Bodo. At the fort were
Captain
Nelson and Lieutenant Stairs. The latter had returned
from Ugarrowwa's
twenty-two days after I had set out for the lake, April
2d, bringing with
him, alas! only sixteen men out of fifty-six. All the
rest were dead.
My twenty couriers whom I had sent with letters to Major
Barttelot had
safely left Ugarrowwa's for Yambuya on March 16th.
Fort Bodo was in a flourishing state. Nearly ten acres
were under
cultivation. One crop of Indian corn had been harvested,
and was in
the granaries; they had just commenced planting again.
On the 16th of June I left Fort Bodo with a hundred and
eleven Zan-
zibaris and a hundred and one of Emin Pasha's people.
Lieutenant
Stairs had been appointed commandant of the fort. Nelson
second in
command, and Surgeon Parke medical officer. The garrison
consisted
of fifty-nine rifles. I had thus deprived myself of all
my officers in order
that I should not be encumbered with baggage and provisions
and medi-
cines, which would have to be taken if accompanied by
Europeans, and
every carrier was necessary for the vast stores left
with Major Barttelot.
On the 24th of June we reached Kilonga-Longa's, and July
19th Ugar-
rowwa's. The latter station was deserted. Ugarrowwa,
having gathered
as much ivory as he could obtain from that district,
had proceeded down
river about three months before. On leaving Fort Bodo
I had loaded
every carrier with about sixty pounds of corn, so that
we had been able
to pass through the wilderness unscathed.
Passing on down the river as fast as we could go, daily
expecting to
meet the couriers who had been stimulated to exert themselves
for a
reward of ten pounds per head, or the Major himself leading
an army of
carriers, we indulged ourselves in these pleasing anticipations
as we
neared the goal.
On the 10th of August we overtook Ugarrowwa with an immense
flo-
tilla of fifty-seven canoes, and to our wonder our couriers
now reduced
to seventeen. They related an awful story of hair-breadth
escapes and
tragic scenes. Three of their number had been slain,
two were still
feeble from their wounds, all except five bore on their
bodies the scars
of arrow wounds.
A week later on August 17th, we met the rear column of
the expedi-
tion at a place called Bunalya, or, as the Arabs have
corrupted it
Unarya. There was a white man at the gate of the stockade
whom I at
first though was Mr. Jamieson, but a nearer view revealed
the features
of Mr. Bonny, who left the medical service of the army
to accompany
us.
" Well, my dear Bonny, where is the Major?"
" He is dead, sir ; shot by the Manyuema about a month
ago."
" Good God ! And Mr. Jamieson ?"
" He has gone to Stanley Falls to try and get some more
men from
Tipo-tipo."
" And Mr. Troup."
" Mr. Troup has gone home, sir, invalided."
" Hem ! well, where is Ward ?"
" Mr. Ward is at Bangala, sir."
" Heavens alive ! then you are the only one here ?"
" Yes, sir."
I found the rear column a terrible wreck. Out of two hundred
and
fifty-seven men there were only seventy-one remaining.
Out of seventy-
one only fifty-two on mustering them, seemed fit for
service, and these
mostly were scarecrows. The advance had performed the
march from
Yambuya to Bunalya in sixteen days, despite native opposition.
The
rear column performed the same distance in forty-three
days. Accord-
ing to Mr. Bonny, during the thirteen months and twenty
days that had
elapsed since I had left Yambuya, the record is only
one of disaster^
desertion, and death. I have not the heart to go into
the details, many
of which are incredible, and, indeed, I have not the
time, for, excepting-
Mr. Bonny, I have no one to assist me in re-organizing
the expedition.
Stanley Reported Dead.
There are still far more loads than I can carry, at the
same time articles
needful are missing. For instance, I left Yambuya with
only a short
campaigning kit, leaving my reserve of clothing and personal
effects in
charge of the officers. In December some deserters from
the advance
column reached Yambuya to spread the report that I was
dead. They
had no papers with them, but the officers seemed to accept
the report of
these deserters as a fact, and in January Mr. Ward, at
an officers' mess
meeting, proposed that my instructions should be canceled.
The only
one who appears to have dissented was Mr. Bonny. Accordingly,
my
personal kit, medicines, soap, candles, and provisions
were sent down the
Congo as " superfluities !" Thus, after making this immense
personal
sacrifice to relieve them and cheer them up, I find myself
naked and
deprived of even the necessaries of life in Africa. But,
strange to say,
they have kept two hats and four pairs of boots, a flannel
jacket, and I
propose to go back to Emin Pasha and across Africa with
this truly
African kit. Livingstone, poor fellow, was all in patches
when I met
him, but it will be the reliever himself who will be
in patches this time.
Fortunately, not one of my officers will envy me, for
their kits are in-
tact it was only myself that was dead.
I pray you to say that we were only eighty-two days from
the Albert
Lake to Banalya, and sixty-one from Fort Bodo. The distance
is not
very great it is the people who fail one. Going to
Nyanza we felt as
though we had the tedious task of dragging them ; on
returning each
man knew the road, and did not need any stimulus. Between
the Nyanza
and here we only lost three men one of which was by
desertion. I
brought a hundred and thirty-one Zanzibaris here, and
left fifty-nine at
Fort Bodo, total one hundred and ninety men out of three
hundred and
eighty-nine; loss, fifty per cent.
Immense Loss of Men.
At Yambuya I left two hundred and fifty-seven men, there
are only
seventy-one left, ten of whom will never leave this camp
loss over two
hundred and seventy per»cent. This proves that,
though the sufferings
of the advance were unprecedented, the mortality was
not so great as in
camp at Yambuya. The survivors of the march are all robust,
while the
survivors of the rear column are thin and most unhealthy-looking.
I have thus rapidly sketched out our movements since June
28th, 1887.
I wish I had the leisure to furnish more details, but
I cannot find the time.
I write this amid the hurry and bustle of departure,
and amid constant
interruptions. You will, however, have gathered from
this letter an idea
of the nature of the country traversed by us. We were
a hundred and
sixty days in the forest one continuous, unbroken,
compact forest.
The grass-land was traversed by us in eight days. The
limits of the
forest along the edge of the grass-land are well marked.
We saw it
extending northeasterly, with its curves and bays and
capes just like a
sea-shore. Southwesterly it preserved the same character.
North and
south the forest area extends from Nyangwe to the southern
borders of
the Monbuttu ; east and west it embraces all from the
Congo, at the
mouth of the Aruwimi, to about east longitude 29°-40°.
How far west
beyond the Congo the forest reaches I do not know. The
superficial
extent of the tract thus described totally covered
by forest is two
hundred and forty-six thousand square miles. North of
the Congo,
between Upoto and the Aruwimi, the forest embraces another
twenty
thousand square miles.
Between Yambuya and the Nyanza we came across five distinct
lan-
guages. The last is that which is spoken by the Wanyoro,
Wan-
yankori, Wanya, Ruanda, Wahha, and people of Karangwe
and Ukerewe.
The land slopes gently from the crest of the plateau
above the Nyanza
down to the Congo River from an altitude of five thousand
five hundred
feet to one thousand four hundred feet above the sea.
North and south
of our track through the grass-land the face of the land
was much broken
by groups of cones or isolated mounts or ridges. North
we saw no land
higher than about six thousand feet above the sea, but
bearing two hun-
dred and fifteen degrees magnetic, at the distance of
about fifty miles
from our camp on the Nyanza, we saw a towering mountain,
its summit
covered with snow, and probably seventeen or eighteen
thousand feet
above the sea. It is called Ruevenzori, and will probably
prove a rival
to Kilimanjaro. I am not sure that it may not prove to
be the Gordon
Bennett Mountain in Gambaragara, but there are two reasons
for doubt-
ing it to be the same first, it is a little too far
west for the position of
the latter as given by me in 1876; and, secondly, we
saw no snow on
the Gordon Bennett. I might mention a third, which is
that the latter is
a perfect cone apparently, while the Ruevenzori is an
oblong mount,
nearly level on the summit, with two ridges extending
northeast and
southwest.
I have met only three natives who have seen the lake toward
the
south. They agree that it is large, but not so large
as the Albert
Nyanza.
The Aruwimi becomes known as the Suhali about one hundred
miles
above Yambuya; as it nears the Nepoko it is called the
Nevoa; beyond
its confluence with the Nepoko it is known as the No-Welle;
three
hundred miles from the Congo it is called the Itiri,
which is soon
changed into the Ituri, which name it retains to its
source. Ten
minutes' march from the Ituri waters we saw the Nyanza,
like a mirror
in its immense gulf
What Shall be Done?
Before closing my letter let me touch more at large on
the
subject
which brought me to this land viz., Emin Pasha.
The Pasha has two battalions of regulars under him the
first, con-
sisting of about seven hundred and fifty rifles, occupies
Duffle, Honyu,
Lahore, Muggi, Kirri, Bedden, Rejaf ; the second battalion,
consisting
of six hundred and forty men, guard the stations of Wadelai,
Fatiko,.
Mahagi, and Mswa, a line of communication along the Nyanza
and Nile
about one hundred and eighty miles in length. In the
interior west of
the Nile he retains three or four small stations fourteen
in all. Besides
these two battallions he has quite a respectable force
of irregulars, sailors,
artisans, clerks, servants. "Altogether," he said, "if
I consent to go
away from here we shall have about eight thousand people
with us."
" Were I in your place I would not hesitate one moment
or be a
second in doubt what to do."
" What you say is quite true, but we have such a large
number of
women and children, probably ten thousand people altogether.
How
can they all be brought out of here ? We shall want a
great number of
carriers,"
" Carriers ! carriers for what," I asked.
" For the women and children. You surely would not leave
them,
and they cannot travel ? "
" The women must walk. It will do them more good than
harm.
As for the little children, load them on the donkeys.
I hear you have
about two hundred of them. Your people will not travel
very far the
first month, but litttle by little they will get accustomed
to it. Our Zan-
zibar women crossed Africa on my second expedition. Why
cannot
your black women do the same ? Have no fear of them ;
they will do
better than the men."
" They would require a vast amount of provision for the
road."
" True, but you have some thousands of cattle, I believe.
Those will
furnish beef The country through which we pass must furnish
grain
and vegetable food."
" Well, well, we will defer further talk till to-morrow."
Planning to Remove.
May 1St, 1888. Halt in camp at Nsabe. The Pasha came
ashore
from the steamer " Khedive " obout 1 p.m., and in a short
time we com-
menced our conversation again. Many of the arguments
used above
were repeated, and he said :
" What you told me yesterday has led me to think it is
best we should
retire from here. The Egyptians are very willing to leave.
There are of
these about one hundred men, besides their women and
children. Of these
there is no doubt, and even if I stayed here I should
be glad to be rid of
them, because they undermine my authority and nullify
all my endeavors
for retreat. When I informed them that Khartoum had fallen
and Gor-
don Pasha was slain, they always told the Nubians that
it was a concoc-
ted story, that some day we should see the steamers ascend
the river for
their relief But of the regulars who compose the first
and second bat-
talions I am extremely doubtful ; they have led such
a free and happy
life here that they would demur at leaving a country
where they have
enjoyed luxuries they cannot command in Egypt.
" The soldiers are married, and several of them have harems.
Many of
the irregulars would also retire and follow me. Now,
supposing tke reg-
ulars refuse to leave," you can imagine that my position
would be a diffi-
cult one. Would I be right in leaving them to their fate
? Would it not
be consigning them all to ruin ? I should have to leave
them their arms
and ammunition, and on returning all discipline would
be at an end.
Disputes would arise, and factions would be formed. The
more ambi-
tious would aspire to be chiefs by force, and from these
rivalries would
spring hate and mutual slaughter until there would be
none of them
left."
" Supposing you resolve to stay, what of the Egyptians
? " I asked.
" Oh ! these I shall have to ask you to be good enough
to take
with you."
" Now, will you, Pasha, do me the favor to ask Captain
Casati if we are
to have the pleasure of his company to the sea, for we
have been
instructed to assist him also should we meet ? "
Captain Casati answered through Emin Pasha :
" What the Governor Emin decides upon shall be the rule
of conduct
for me also. If the Governor stays, I stay. If the Governor
goes, I
go-
" Well, I see. Pasha, that in the event of your staying
your responsi-
bilities will be great."
A laugh. The sentence was translated to Casati, and the
gallant Cap-
tain replied : '
" Oh ! I beg pardon, but I absolve the Pasha from all
responsibility
connected with me, because I am governed by my own choice
entirely."
Thus day after day I recorded faithfully the interviews
I had with
Emin Pasha; but these extracts reveal as much as is necessary
for you
to understand the position. I left Mr. Jephson thirteen
of my Soudanese,
and sent a message to be read to the troops, as the Pasha
requested.
Everything else is left until I return with the united
expedition to the
Nyanza.
Within two months the Pasha proposed to visit Fort Bodo,
taking Mr.
Jephson with him. At Fort Bodo I have left instructions
to the officers
to destroy the fort and accompany the Pasha to the Nyanza.
I hope to
meet them all again on the Nyanza, as I intend making
a short cut to the
Nyanza along a new road.
NEXT: CHAPTER XXXVI.
STANLEY IN THE BOUNDLESS FOREST.
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