MR STANLEY'SMISSION.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2796, 30 January 1878, Page 2

MR STANLEY'SMISSION.

The Thirty-two Battltt.

(THOM THI DATtT TXUGBiVH, KOV. SI.)

(Continued.) TO THS EDITORS OF THB DAILY TKM- ! GRAPH AWD NEW YORK HBRALD.

Loanda, Wbbt Coast of Afmca, Septembers, 1877. We spent three days at this Tillage in marketing, an era of peace long to be remembered by as. We saw also four muskets here, and we augured from this fact that the peril* of our desperate Toy age were oTcr. It was a false augury, how- " erer. One day's run brought us to Urangi, a populous country, where there was one town about two miles long, and our friends introduced us to these people. The first introduction over, about 1C D large and small canoes appeared, began trading. One thing, after another disappeared. A man lost his mat and clothes; my cook lost a copper plate or dish; a gnu was snatched at, but recorered without, trouble. I arranged with the king that all trade must be done in the canoes. ' Everybody was then contented. Next day we began to prosecute bur Toyage, two natire canoes leading the way to introduce us to the tribes below. The 100 canoes that were employed in doing trade and Tisiting the day before, now contained neither women nor children, but men with muskets and spears. We, howerer, ' did not regard it as anything extrabrdi? nary, until our guides at a signal paddled fast away, and we were at once assaulted. " Form close line t" I shouted; and " Paddle slowly down riter dose to the island."

My boat's crew rested on their &U&, -'■:' •Uowed all the canoes to pass by, aad we - followed after them.. Two out of eaoh canoe, and two out of the boat, with my- ' self, maintained a running fight for two hours, until another tribe joined in the chase. The pirates of Urangi. returned, . but Mpakiwana took the fight up and maintained it, until we came to another tribe, and this tribe carried on the chase, charging furiously sometimes, then being repulsed, but endeavouring with admirable pertinacity to effect the capture of one of our canoes. Frequently we were all compelled to drop paddles and oars, and defend ourselves desperately.. At three p.m. the last of our enemies abandoned their designs, and we steered for the islands again. On the 14th of February we lost the island channels, and we were taken—too . late to return—along a current which bore us towards the right bank to the powerful tribe of Mangara, or Mangala, of which we had heara so much sometimes as Tery bad people, at other times as great traders. The fact that they pur- , sued trade caused us to imagine that we should be permitted to pass by quietly. We were wofully deceived. Respite the war drums and horns summoning the tribe to war, as it was near noon, and a bright sun shone, and there was suffi- - cient stretch of river to take a good observation, I would not lose such a splendid opportunity to fix the position of this im- - portant locality. I ascertained it be If. lat. ldeg. 16min. 50sec.; by account 21 - deg. E. long. I dosed my sextant, and put it away carefully, and then ■ prepared to receive the natives—if they came for war, with war; if they came for peace, with gifts. We cast loose from Obs Island, and started down stream. Sixty-three canoes of light, even elegant make, very soon approached. Some of the natives were gorgeous in brass decorations, and they wore head-dresiei of the skins of white goats, while skins of the same color hung down their shoulders like short mantles, the principal men having robes of crimson blanket cloth. We ceased rowing. When they were about 300 yards off T held a crimson cloth up to view in one hand, and a coil of brass wire in the other, and by signs offered it to them. My answer was from three t ,, muskets, a shower of ironstone slugs,'/" and four of my boat's crew and one in my: canoes sauk wounded. A fierce shout of exultation announced to the hundreds on the banks their first success. We formed

our usual close line, and allowed the canoes and boat te float down, erery rifle and rerolter being required here. The battle consisted of ballet* against slugs. We were touched frequently, boat and canoes pitted, but not perforated through. Dead shooting told in the end. Breechloaders, double-bar-relled elephant rifles, and Snidera prevailed against Brown Besses, though for two hoars our-fate was dubious. The battle lasted from iwelre o'clock to near sunset. We had floated down 10 miles during that time; but we had captured two canoes, swift as they were. We had moreover dropped anchor for an hoar, protecting a storming party, which took aTillage and burnt it. At sunset our people sang the song of triumph: the battle waf over. We continued floating down in the darkness until about eight o'clock, tod then camped on an island. This was the thirty-first fight, and the last but one. We clung to the island ehanneli for four days longer, unseen by any of the natires, for the rirer was rery wide—between fife and 10 miles. At a place called Ikengo, a great trading people, we found friends. We made blood brother* hood with many kings, and collected a

?ast deal of information. This tribo was one of the cleverest and tnos>t friendly of any we liad seen. Wo halted there three days with them. We met no armed force also to oppose us in the river below Ikengo, though a few canoes indulged in the customary little distraction of savage life by firing iron slugs at strangers ; but, as no one was hurt, we permitted them to hare their pleasures without regarding them. In the words of a dry humorist — one of my soldiers — "We ate more iron than grain." Six miles below the confluence of the river—called the Kwango by Europeans—and the main " Livingstone, we had our thirty-second fight. We proposed to halt in tlie woods and cook breakfast. We were collecting fuel to make a fire, when a quick succession of shots from the bush startled us and wounded six of our people. We had not the slightest idea that any tribe lived in that vicinity, for it seemed all forest. "We sprang to our arms, and a regular bush warfare began, and ended in a drawn battle, the two sides mutually separating with a little more respect for each other. The advnntage we gained was that of being permitted to stay in our camp unattacked.

I have stated this was our thirty-second fight, and last. So far as interchange of ballets between natives and ourselves went, this is true. But we have been many a time on the verge of fighting since. iHowever, diplomacy, vast patience, tact, fed stern justice saved us from many a severe conflict. Soon after quitting Nyangwe, I had issued ordersknowing the propensities of many of my people to take advantage of our strength— that whoever molested a native or appropriated anj thing without just return, would be delivered up to native law, the punishment of which would be certain death or eternal servitude. These orders were not always regarded. I had purchased several of my people who were guilty of theft from native power by extraordinary sacrifices of money, until we were almost bankrupt from this cause. The time came when it was necessary to place everybody on half-rations from our poverty. Yet the knowledge that we should be unable to make further sacrifice to save thieves did not restrain some from committing depredations on native property. These were surrendered to native law. When five men had been thus dealt with my people began to awake to the fact that I was really in earnest, and I heard no more complaints from the natives. j>

A terrible crime in the eyes of many natives below the confluence of the Kwango and the Congo was my taking notes. Six or seven tribes confederated together one day to destroy us, because I was " bad, very bad." I had bean seen making medicine on paper—writing. Such a.thing had never been heard of by the oldest inhabitant; it therefore must be witchcraft, and witchcraft must be punished with death. The white chief must instantly deliver his note-book (his medicine) to be burnt, or there would be war on the instant. Now my note-book was too valuable, it had cost too many lives and sacrifices, to be consumed at the caprice of savages. What was to be done P I had a small volume of Shakespeare, Chandos edition. It had been read and re-rend a dozen times, it had crossed Africa/ it had been my solace many a tedioui hour, but it must be sacrificed. It was delivered, exposed to the view of the savage warriors. "Is it this you want P " " Yes." "Is this the medicine that you are afraid of P " " Yes; burn it, burn it. It is bad, very bad; burn it."

M Oh, my Shakespeare," I said, " farewell ! " and poor Shakespeare was burnt. What a change took place in the faces of those angry, sullen natives! For a time it was like another jubilee. The country was eared; their women and little ones would not be visited by calamity. "Ah ! the white chief was so good, the embodiment of goodness, the best of all men." I now come to a tragic period, before which our running the gauntlet through the cannibal lands a thousand miles seems to me child's play. Our days of battle and our days of hanger may be forgotten as years of peace and Test may roll over our. heads, but our months of toil and wild energy in the lower cataracts never. For each day of that period has its own terrible : tale of narrow escapes, of severe injuries, of despair, and death. Nearly 1400 miles had been passed. The Livingstone became straightened by closemeeting up-rising banks of naked cliffs, or steep slopes of mountains fringed with tall woods, or piles above piles of naked craggy rock; and presently swept impetuously down in serpentine curves, heaving upward" in long lines of brown billows, sometimes as though ruffled by a tempest, or else with, a steep glassy fall, or else thundering down steep after steep, tossing its water upwards in hage waves, with their cresta dissolving in spray and mist; or at another bend boiling round isles of boulders, which disparted it into two branches with fearful whirlpools, with uprising whirling cauldrons ; and as the magnificent river varied its wild aspect, so it varied its thnnder, moan and plaint At one time the rush sounded like the swash of sea waves against aship's prow driven before aspanking breeze; at another time like a strong tide washing against piers and buttresses of bridges 3.at another it overwhelmed the senses, and filled the deep gulf with the roar of its fury; while far up on the -o^eight of the table-land, the timorous and superstitious Basundi, straying near the cliffy verge; stopped his ears against the dreadful clamour, and hurried away as from doom. While we were fighting our tragical way over the long series of falls along a distance of niore than 180 miles, which occupied us fire months, we lived as though wo were in a tunnel, subject at intervals to the thunderous crash' of pass•ing trains. Ah! so different it was from that soft, glassy flow of the river by the black forests oi Uregga and Korara, where a single tremulous wave was a rarity, when we glided day after day through the eerie wilds, in sweet, delicious musings, wheii our souls were thrilled at sight of the apparently impenetrable forests on either hand, when at misty morn, or humid eve, or fervid noon, wild nature breathes ever a soft stillness. To he continued.