NEWS OF STANLEY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 880, 11 January 1889, Page 31

NEWS OF STANLEY.

From an English exchange of November 9th we take the following news respecting the intrepid traveller H. M. Stanley r—At last, through Reuter s agent at Zanzibar, we have some intelligence concerning Stanley. It is nearly a year old, but, such as ’ it is, it is better than nothing; It does not tell us anything about where Mr Stanley is now, for it left him at the end of last November within what his followers estimated at about forty or fifty. days’ march from Wadelai. The news is brought by couriers who have reached Zanzibar from Tabora, a place about 200 miles drio south of Lake Victoria Nyanza and rather riiore than the same distance due east of the nearest point of Lake Tanganyika. These couriers report that towards the end of last November certain detachments of Arabs trading from Tabora in the regions between Lake Albert Nyanza and Lake Mrita Nzige encountered the rear guard 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 Monbuttu couritry, and apparently not far from the head waters of the Aruwimi. Mr Stanley hiriiself was not seen by these traders, as he was stated to be two days’ march ahead of the rear gnard 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 force had been reduced by sickness and casualties to about 250 men. Forty of the men had been drowned in the crossing of a great river running from east to west. The expedition was then traversing a very difficult country, full of forests and swamps and intersected by many rivers. When the Arabs encountered it,’ it had only been five days on the march after a halt of three weeks, caused by the illness of Mr Stanley. Other causes had also contributed to delay the progress of the expedition, Buch a 3 the hostility of the tribes, ■ with which Mr Stanley had frequently been compelled to fight in order to procure supplies, the extreme difficulty of the country, which often made it impossible to march more than a mile aud a quarter in the day, and. the halts which the leader had made in the hope that reinforcements might reach him from the Congo. Mr Stanley had, it appears, decided to alter his route, so as to avoid, if possible, the swamps and unhealthy region which lay immediately in front of him. Instead of advancing, as he originally intended, in a north-easterly directfon, so as to strike the upper eud of Lake Albert Nyanza, and then make north for Wadelai, he had resolved to travel north and then march due east

when he had approximately reached the latitude of Wadelai. His expectation was that 40 or 50 days would suffice for the completion of the journey, and the Arabs appear to have been of opinion that he would be able to do this notwithstanding the losses he had sustained and the difficulties he had encountered.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE MEANTIME ? “Tabora,” says the Times in a leading article, “ is more than 600 miles in a straight line from the point where Mr Stanley’s expedition was, according to this story, encountered nearly a year ago, and about 400 miles in a straight line from the coast opposite Zanzibar. If it had taken nearly a year for this news to reach the coast, it is not altogether surprising that later intelligence is still wanting. The last direct news from Emin Pasha himself is more than a year old. The local troubles in Unyoro, the district which intervenes between Uganda and the southern end of the Albert Nyanza, are not unlikely to have been intensified by the recent disturbances on the coast of Zanzibar. The correspondent whose communication The Times printed yesterday on ‘The position in East Africa ’ went so far as to say :— ‘ A cordon of hostile chiefs has been drawn right across the country to the south of Wadelai, and as a result no message has reached us from Emin since November last year. The Zanzibar telegram professing to give nows up to April last was, as is well known, concocted at Zanzibar by certain enemies of Mr Stanley and of the British East African Company.’ If this be so, and if the story now brought from Tabora is authentic, it is not necessary to take for granted that Mr Stanley was disappointed in his expectation of reaching Wadelai by the beginning of this year. The Tabora story is consistent in nearly all its details with the accounts brought by deserters from Mr Stanley’s expedition to Major Barttelot’s camp at Yambunga in April.' The Yambunga deserters told their story in April, and the Tabora couriers have told theirs in November, but it is not easy to determine which is the earlier story of the two. If the Tabora story is to be credited, we learn that, eleven months ago, Mr Stanley was considerably more than half way between the mouth of the Aruwimi and Wadelai, and expected to complete his journey by the beginning of this year. Whether he did complete his journey or not, and what has become of him since, is still a matter of pure conjecture. But if it be true that traders have actually passed within the last 32 months between Sanga and Tabora, and have since reached Zanzibar, it is almost certain that they must have crossed the line of Mr Stanley’s route, or at any rate have come very near to the spot which, whether now alive or dead; he must have reached ; and it is hardly

possible that if he were dead they should not have heard rumours of his fate.’