H.M.Stanley.

Otago Witness, Issue 1981, 11 February 1892, Page 40

H.M .Stanley.

Like most Dunedin folk, I made a bee line to the Garrison Hall to meet bufr heard but little new. We were told in ons lecture that Dr Livingstone when asked if h« would circumnavigate Lake Tanganyika said, with youthful exuberance, " Richard is himself again," which is new to me, and I wonder that such a remark was' not made still more immortal than it is, bj being preserved in the eternal pages of Stanley's boolf, "How I Found Livingstone." In his lecture on the "Rescue of Emm Pasha" ho told us that there are SCOO miles of navigable waters' above the rapids, where the Congo breaks through the barrier near the west coast ; that there are 45 stations on the river ; that thero are nearly -1000 police in the Congo Free State culled from the Bangala tribe alone; that 30 steamers breast its waters; that the income of the State is about LI 50,000 a year, made ap largely however of moneys from the private purse ot the King of the Belgians and from Belgian Government grants ; that the railway front Yivi to Stanley Pool Is to cost about a million and a-balf, and to be finished in 1895. His remarks on Emm Pa3ha and the officers of the rear guard were to my mind most unmanly. He even seemed by a rertarb, or two to hint that General Gordon was H despot that no man of spirit or independence could work with, Men as good as Stanley have shown that the misfortunes of the rear column were partly unavoidable, and partly the fault of Stanley, though It is likely that men who would have disregarded orders and have risen to an emergency would hare minimised the disastrous effects of Tippo Tib's treachery. *

The first time I went I was disappointed, so I went a second time to satisfy myself, but I was disappointed again. He is a great man, and has done good exploring work, bnfc I cannot love him as I love Livingstono or Thompson, for lie had what they had not — unlimited command of convenience.*, even luxuries, and he pushed his way with bullet?, not with Bibles, though he says ha is deeply religious. Livingstone had religion, and he had his Bible ; but as far as I c.vi recollect he never took a native's life, nor did Thompson, who travelled through the terrible Masai land. They have 6hown us that white man's civilisation does not necessarily mean that the bullet must accompany the Bible. Perhaps I have an antipathy to Stanley, and perhaps I am wrong in thinking that the quest of Emm was more a commercial than a humanitarian expedition, but I do not like him— l do not love him. Already his death is anticipated in th« bills advertising his wares. They are headed "From a Welsh Hut to Westminster Abbey." He may deserve what is anticipated, but I think that posterity will largely discount the estimation in which he is held at present.