EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF MR. STANLEY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 16

EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF MR. STANLEY.

After the long and anxious silence extending from June of 1875, ■we are rejoiced to announce that copious despatches ha,ve reached us from the leader of the ♦ Daily Telegraph' and the ' New York Herald' expedition. Mr. Stanley's first letter is dated July 29, 1875, from Mahyiga, Island, in the Victoria Lake, and relates his voyage from King Mtesa's territory back to the camp a-t Kagehyi, in the course of which his party narrowly escaped massacre by the treacherous natives of Bambireli. Escaping by the greatest skill and courage, the explorer encountered several storms on the lake, but arrived safely at his camp, after remarkable adventures. The second despatch, dated Aug. 15, 1875, from Dumo, in Uganda, narrates a visit to the island of Ukerewe, and the voyage of the entire expedition in canoes to Uganda, with the severe punishment inflicted by Mr. Stanley upon the savages of Bambireli, for their murderous treachery. A third letter, under date of January 18, 1876, written from Kawunga, on the frontiers of Unyoro, describes how our joint commissioner marched from King Mtesa's capital across country to the Albert Nyanza at the head of his own force and 2,000 spearmen of Uganda, pitching his army on the shores at Unyampaka. The incidents recounted in the first two despatches are of unequalled interest, and all three contain particulars of the highest geographical and. ethnological value. On the 18th of January Mr. Stanley arrived again at King Mtesa's, having twice made his way through the country of Kabba Rfiga, and visited but not navigated the Albert. Hence it was that Gessi, who sailed on that lake in the following April, heard nothing of our commissioner. But Mr. Stanley has been the first to investigate the intervening land, which he describes, including the remarkable mountain Gambaragara, and a strange tribe of pale-faced people who live on its cold uplands. Mr. Stanley has christened the large inlet of the Albert -where he was camped, " Beatrice Gulf," after her Royal Highness the Princess Beatrice, and he has collected much material about the lake. Yet another despatch, dated March 26, 1876, from Kaf urro, in Central Africa, relates the final departure from Uganda, the exploration of the Kagera river, and of Speke's " Lake Windermere," as well as of the Hot Springs of Karagwe ; and encloses a sketch-map of the only portion of the Victoria Nyanza omitted in the earlier part. Another letter, under date April 24, 1876, from Übagwe, in Unyauiwezi, recounts the further exploration of the inter-lacustrine lands, and Mr. Stanley's southward march towards Ujiji, whence he proposed to revisit the Albert by way of Tanganyika -, and the spot from which this last despatch comes was within

fifteen days of Ujiji, which place no doubt Mr. Stanley safely reached last month, with men and means enough to solve the great problem which he will find still left open for Ms undaunted courage and splendid gifts as a traveller. He spea/fcs of his white companion Frank Pocock as well, and of his own health as unimpaired .