STANLEY AND EMIN BEY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 242, 3 January 1889, Page 2

STANLEY AND EMIN BEY.

EMIN BEY SUPPOSED TO BE AT LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA. AWAITING STANLEY’S ARRIVAL. London, Jan. 1. It is rumored that Emin Bey has reached Lake Victoria Nyanza,. the deposition ot Muanga, King of Uganda, having opened a line of retreat. Emin is supposed to be awaiting Stanley on the shores of the lake.

The Aruwimi river takes its rise in Central Africa, N.W. of Lake Albert Nyanza It runs for some distance in a Westerly direction and then almost due South, aud falls into the Congo some distance below Stanley Falls. Curiously enough (says a contemporary) Stanley is now reported to be pretty much iu the same district as he was a little over twelve mouths ago. He was then within what his followers estimated as forty or fifty days’ march from Wadelai. The news which was a year in reaching England, where it was published on 3rd Nov. last, was brought by couriers who have reached Zanzibar from Tabora, a place about 200 miles due south of Lake Victoria Nyanza, aud rather more than the same distance due east of the nearest point of Lake Tanganyika. These couriers reported that towards the end of last November certain detachments of Arabs trading from Tabora in the regions botweeu Lake Albert Nyanza and Lake MutaNzige, encountered the rearguard of Mr Stanley’s expedition at a point west of the Albert Nyanza and south-east of Sanga, which is a station on the confines of the Moubuttu country, and apparently not far from the head waters of the Aruwimi. Air Stanley himself was not seen by these traders, as he was stated to bo two days' march ahead of tho rearguard encountered by them. But he was reported to be in good health, though he had previously suffered from fever, together with many of his companions. One of the white men who accompanied him was reported to be dead, and his f orce had been reduced by sickness and casualties to about 250 men. The expedition was then traversing a very difficult country, .full of forests aud swamps, and intersected by many rivers. When the Arabs encountered it, it had only been five days on the march after a halt ot three weeks caused by the illness of Mr Stanley. Other causes had also contributed to delay the progress of the expedition, such as tha hostility of the tribes wit 1 which Mr Stanley had frequently been eompelled to fightjin order to procure supplies, the extreme difficulty ot the country, which often made it impossible to march more than a mile and a quarter in the day, and the halts which the leader hud madj in the hope that reinforcements might reach him from the Congo. Mr titauley had, it appears, decided to alter his route, so as to avoid, it possible, the swamps aud unhealthy region which lay immediately in front of him. Instead of advancing, as he originally intended, iu a northeasterly direction, so os to strike tha upper end of Lake Albert Nyanza, and then make north for Wadelai, ho had resolved to travel north and then march due east when he bud approximately reached tha latitude of Wadelai. His expectation was that forty or fifty days would suffice for tbe completion of the journey, aud the Arabs appear to have been of opinion that he would be able to do this, notwithstanding the tosses he had sustained and the difficulties ho had encountered. The last direct news from Emin i‘a»ha himself was more than a year old. Emin’s usual method or commuuication with Europe was through Uganda at the northern end of the Victoria Nyanza, aud it is known from the latest accounts received from him, as well as from independent sources (adds the Times) that communication by this means was likely to be cut off iu cousequeuce of local troubles in Unyoro, the diet net which ’intervenes between Uganda and the southern eud of the Albert Nyanza. ’’ Commenting on the position disclosed by these reports The Times of November 3rd last made the following remarks, which will be read with interest at the present time :—“ It is thus more easy to account for the absence of news oa the hypothesis that Air Stanley is still alive than ou the hypothesis that ho is dead. If he has reached Wadeli he would, at any rate, be in comparative safety so loug as his forces were united with those of Emin. What he would do next, however, can only be matter for conjecture. It seems certain that the route by which ho travelled would be c osed to his return with diminished aud disheartened forces. The local troubles iu Unyoro, and the uneasiness spread throughout Uganda by tbe disturbances on the coast would close the southern exit towards Zanzibar. There remain the alternatives of bis staying with Emin until the situation became clearer, or ot bis endeavoring to make his way to the northward. The latter would be an arduous undertaking, but it might in the circumstances present fewer apparent difficulties than any other course that might be open to him. It might be many months before we received any news of an expedition starling from Wadelai in the spring, and it is quite impossible to say whether such an expedition would rc-appear on the Mediterranean or on the Atlantic. We can only await in patience, and in such confidence as is inspired by the absence of unfavorable rumors as well as by Mr Htaniey’a unrivalled African experience.''