Stanley’s Lecture.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 2710, 19 January 1892, Page 4

Stanley’s Lecture.

( Continued.')

(By oor Waipokurau Correspondent.) My object in continuing this notice o£ Stanley’s Napier lecture is not to recapitulate the thrilling details of adventure and discovery, which have already been made known in various works on the Dark Continent, but to emphasise if possible some of the more salient points of the lecture and their bearing upon what will probably be the results, at no distant date, of all these perilous journeys, to undertake the leadership of which requires not only the courage of a lion, but the experience of a skilled navigator and geographer, the diplomacy of a statesman, the strategy of a general, the medical skill of a doctor, the calculation of a merchant, the perseverance of a Diogenes, and the patience of a Job. Notwithstanding that Stanley has proved himself to be possessed of all these qualities to an eminent degree he has been maligned by envious jealousy as a pirate and an impostor, and charged with the cruelty of a Nero. One of the penalties of greatness, I presume. "Certainly the closest scrutiny fails to discover any one of these characteristics either in voice, manner, or speech. The hearty laugh and the merry twinkle in the keen bluish-grev eye with which he greeted iny observation that he may be thankful he had had no such Royal patrons as had Raleigh and Columbus to deal with, for in their time he would likely have been hanged, indicated the indifference with which he can afford to regard his detractors, now especially that former differences of opinion have been in great part removed by subsequent investigation. The story of his march from Zanzibar to Ujiji in quest of Livmgtone is well known, but it was almost like a new version to hear from himself the manner in which he had to deal with the various black chiefs. The eastern half of Africa is ruled entirely by chiefs of villages and of small tribes, but along the western half considerable monarchies are met with. Central Africa, measuring 5000 miles from sea to sea, has plenty of room for black millions who never saw a white man until Livingstone and Stanley penetrated their dusky lines. On either side of the Continent for a distance of about 2000 miles gunpowder is now in use among the natives, but the deadly poisoned arrow is still the weapon of the central 1000. Strophanthine—from the strophanthus plant—is the name of the poison used, the slightest puncture from w’hich in any part of the body means instant death if the poison is wet, but if dry, injections of carbonate of ammonia are sometimes a good antidote. The pigmies are great adepts with the arrow—so yards being a sure distance. In justice to the Napier reporters, I may mention that I avail myself of the present occasion to introduce some facts which did not come out in the lecture, but which I elicited in a subsequent interview with the explorer. Each of the four great movements of Stanley in Africa resulted in a vast acquisition of new knowledge. Firstly he found Livingstone in the heart of a great Continent without a single turnpike to guide him. Secondly, he opened up 16,000 miles of navigable country when he traced the Congo to its source, besides establishing the paternity of the Nile in the great Snow Mountains of Ruwenzori. Then came the foundation of the Congo ]• ree State, which now recognises Belgian protection; and lastly, in 1887, aftes fighting his way through dense and dangerous forests, three times the area of New Zealand, he responded do the appeal of Emin Pasha to England for relief—“ Help us quickly ere we perish ** and Stanley was the man to help him at the imminent risk of his own life, with what result of course we all know, ahere seems to be an unpleasant mystery about Emin which possibly time will solve. In this last expedition Stanley lost 216 men by poisoned arrows and other contingencies. It is to Stanley that we owe th'e solution of four of the greatest problems in African exploration, viz. : The areas of the Victoria and Albert Lakes —29,000 and 27,000 square miles—the latter the size of Scotland • ,! thirdly, the problem of Lake Tanga- f nyika, to what river system did it Ij belong ? fourthly, what was that vast | river which Livingstone had discovered ? west of Tanganyika—the Lualaba—we.ose course was a mystery ? Stanley, as we know, solved tb problems ; and as a main result o' Vigorous and almost superhuma- *■ ertions and unparalleled dariny . 1 a.o now 57 missionary sta t ■’ e^" e Central Africa, 30 steamers 7 10M gate rivers unknown 14 - JOW navl ' A lar<re number of tr,> ,V- y ear ® a g°have been established. , ‘ n ? s . tatlons the Congo alone, V * J mploying, on l.eans, some of 'V ;rcantll ° ? U T°' of £SOOO a - lhe ™ -7 -ceivmg salaries words *• J ' j ear » w . . to use his own in the the s^ ks of civilisation, f OT r - form of rad ways, now being » ged across thf Dark Continent will eventually bring the Albert Nyanza with toe great black nations surrounding it u nder the benign influence of Christ ianity.’’