The Adventures of a Wonderful Man.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 309, 8 June 1889, Page 4

The Adventures of a Wonderful Man.

ONE OF STANLEY’S LETTER.

In a letter dated 4th September, to Mr A. L, Bruce, of Edinburg, (son-in-law of Dr Livingstone), Mr Stanley writes “ It took us 160 days before we could say ‘ Thank God, we are out of the darkness at last 1’ At one time we were all—whites and blacks—almost ‘ done up. ’ September, October and half of the month of November, 1887, will not be forgotten by us. October will be specially memorable to us for the sufferings we endured. Our officers are heartily sick of the forest; but the loyal blacks—a band of 130—followed me once again into the wild, tracklsss forest, with its hundreds of inconveniences, to assist their comrades of the rear column.

TRY ANO tMAGINE some of these inconveniences, Take a thick Scottish copse, dripping with rain; Imagine this copse to be a more undergrowth, nourished under the impenetrable shade of ancient trees, ranging from 100 to 180 feet high; briars and thorns abundant; lazy creeks, meandering through the depths of the jungle; and sometimes a deep affluent of a great river. Imagine this forest and jungle in all stages of decay and growth—old trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen prostrate, ants and insects of all kinds, sizes and colors, murmuring around ; monkeys and chimpanzees above, queer noises of birds and animals, crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rush away ; dwarfs with poisoned arrows securely hidden behind some buttress or in some dark recess; strong, brown bodied aborigines with terribly sharp spears, standing poised, still as dead stump* ; rain patter, iog down on your head every other day in the year; an impure atmosphere, with it* dread consequences, fever and dysentery ; gloom throughout the day, and darkness almost pulpable throughout the night; and then if you will imagine such a forest extending the entire distance from Plymouth to Peterhead, you will have a fair idea of some of the inconveniences endured by us from the 28th June to sth December, 1887, and from Ist June, 1888, to the present date, to continue again from the present date till about 10th December, 1888, when I hope then to say a last farewell to the Congo Forest. Until we set foot upon the grassland, something like 50 miles west of the Albert Nyauza, we saw

XiTHINO THAT LOOKED A SMILE, a kind thought, or a moral sensation. Th* aborigines are wild, utterly savage and incorrigibly vindictive. The dwarfs—called Wambutti—are worse still, far worse. Animal life is likewise so wild and shy that no sport is to be enjoyed. The gloom of the forest is perpetual. The face of the river, reflecting its black walls of vegetation, is dark and sombre, The sky one-half of the time every day resembles a wintry sky in England : the face of nature and life is fixed and joyless, If the sun charges through ths black clouds enveloping it, and a kindly breeze brushes the masses of vapor below the horizon, and the bright light reveals our surroundings, it is only to tantalise us with a short-lived vision of brilliancy and beauty of verdure. Emerging from the forest finally, we all becameenralured. likes captive unfettered end set free, we rejoiced at the sight of the blue cope of heaven, and freely bathed in the warm suusuine, and aches and gloomy thoughts and unwholesome ideas banished. You have heard how the London citizen, after months of devotion to business in the gaseous atmosphere of that great city, falls into rapture at sight of the green fields and hedges, meadows and trees, and how his emotions, crowding on his dazed senses, are indescribable. Indeed, I have seen a Derby day once, and I fancies then that I only saw madmen, for great bearded, hoary heeded fellows, though well dressed enough,

BEHAVED IN A MOST IDIOTIC FASHION, amazing me quite. Well, on this Sth December, we became suddenly smitten with madness in the same manner. Had you seen us you would have thought we hud lost our senses, or that ‘ Legion ’ had entered and taken possession of us. We raced with our loads over a wide uufeoced field (like an English park for the softness of its grass), and herds of buffalo, viand, roan antelope, stood on either side wnn pointed ears and white eyes, wondering at the sudden wave of human beings, yelling wiith joy, as they issued out of the dark depths ot the forest. We poured out on the plain a frantic multitude ; but after an hour or two we became an orderly column. Into the emptied villages of the open country, we proceeded to regale ourselves on melon, ricuflavored oananas and plantains and igreat pots full of wine. The lewis, uuaware of the presence of a hungry mob wete knocked down, plucked, roasted or boiled; the goats meditatively browsing or chewing the cud, were suddenly seized and decapitated and. the grateful aroma of roast meat grail, tied our senses. AN ABUNDANCE, A PRODIGAL ABUNDANCE, of good things had awaited oor eruption into the grassland. Every village was well stocked with provisions, and oven luxuries long denied to us. Under such fare the men became most robust, diseases hailed as if by magic, the weak became strong, and there was not a ' goee goes ' or chicken heart left. Only the Labusesse, neat the main Ituri, were tempted to resist the invasion. Between the Ituri and the Nyauza, however, the fighting was sharp and almost continuous to the edge of the lake. The Bareggu made the most fierce and obstinate resistance to us. For three days in succession they poured down the hills on our flank and rear, Having learned that there was no hope ot satisfying them except by a hasty withdrawal, we simply pressed on and fronted tha n on each occasion with smoking Remingtons until the waste tract along the Nyauza gave us a breathing spell,"