The public waited with impatience for news from the great traveller himself. He had been so long lost in unknown and untrodden regions that they looked forward to a stirring narrative of new countries, new peoples, and strange adventures, equal to that with which he had treated them after his famous march across Africa in company with the Makololo men. A higher feeling than mere curiosity was at work in the public mind. The series of remarkable explorations in Africa, commencing with that of Livingstone in the south in 1849, and ending with the discovery of the Albert Nyanza Lake by Samuel Baker, had kept that vast continent constantly in the foreground as a scene of discovery, and the great explorer was known to be approaching the ground so recently travelled by Speke, Grant, Burton, and Baker, the great explorers of the north and east. The mysterious heart of Africa was fast giving up its secrets, and few doubted but that the indefatigable Livingstone would pass through the as yet unknown lands that lay between the country of Cazembe and the great lake region of Speke and Baker. The Nile, which had been a mystery since the earliest dawn of civilisation, had been traced further and further to the south, and Livingstone, who had passed far to the north of the watershed of the Zambesi, was in the line of march which, if successfully prosecuted, must solve the mystery of its source and its annual floods. How he was to be thwarted and turned aside through the bungling carelessness of those responsible for the sending of his supplies, and how death at last was to intervene between him and the full accomplishment of his work, were unthought of possibilities in the joy at finding that he was alive and well; but they were doomed within a few short years to be the subject of bitter reflection to many millions throughout the globe.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE

NEW YORK HERALD'S" EXPEDITION

IN SEARCH OF LIVINGSTONE-STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE AT UJIJI-EXPEDITION TO THE RUSIZI-ARRIVE AT UNYANYEMBESTANLEY BIDS THE GREAT TRAVELLER FAREWELL.

HE expedition of Mr. Stanley now claims our attention. In October 1869, Mr. James Gordon Bennet, the proprietor of the "New York Herald," was in Paris, and staying at the Grand Hotel, when he determined on attempting to succour Dr. Livingstone. Among his staff of travelling correspondents was a Mr. Henry M. Stanley, who had represented his newspaper during the campaign against King Theodore in Abyssinia, and it struck him that this was the man who could find the lost traveller, if he was alive. He telegraphed for him at Madrid, where he then was in the prosecution of his duties, and Mr. Stanley started immediately for Paris, which he reached on the following night, after Mr. Bennet had retired to his apartment. The interview which resulted had better be detailed in Mr. Stanley's own words:

"I went straight to the Grand Hotel and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennet's room. 'Come in!' I heard a voice say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennet in bed.

"Who are you?' he asked. 'My name is Stanley,' I answered.

'Ah, yes! sit down; I have important business on hand for you.'

"After throwing over his shoulders his robe-de-chambre,

Mr. Bennet asked, 'Where do you think Dr. Livingstone is?'-'I really do not know, sir.'

666 'Do you think he is alive?'-'He may be, and he may not be,' I answered.

"Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found; and I am going to send you to find him.'

666

"What!' said I, 'do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone? Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?' 'Yes; I mean that you shall go, and find him wherever you may hear that he is, and to get what news you can of him, and perhaps'-delivering himself thoughtfully-' the old man may be in want: take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Of course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think best-BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE.'

"Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to Central Africa to search for a man whom I, in common with almost all other men, believed to be dead, 'Have you considered seriously the great expense you are likely to incur on account of this little journey?'

"What will it cost?' he asked abruptly. 'Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost between £3000 and £5000, and I fear it cannot be done under £2500.'

"Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now; and when you have gone through that, draw another thousand; and when that is spent, draw another thousand; and when you have finished that, draw another thousand; and so on, but-FIND LIVINGSTONE.'"

After some further conversation Mr. Stanley asked if he was to go at once. Mr. Bennet answered, "No; I wish you to go to the inauguration of the Suez canal first, and then proceed up the Nile. . . . Then you might as well go to Jerusalem; I hear Captain Warner is making some interesting discoveries there. Then next to Constantinople, and find out about that trouble between the Khedive and

the Sultan. Then let me see you might as well visit the Crimea and those old battle-grounds. Then go across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea; I hear there is a Russian expedition bound for Khiva. From thence you may go through Persia to India; you could write an interesting letter from Perseopolis.

Bagdad will be close on your way to India; suppose you go there and write up something about the Euphrates Valley Railway. Then when you have come to India, you can go after Livingstone. Probably you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar; but if not, go into the interior and find him. If alive, get what news of his discoveries you can; and if you find he is dead, bring all possible proof of his being dead. That is all: good night, and God be with you."

Mr. Stanley carried out the programme Mr. Bennet chalked out for him, and chronicled the incidents of his journeyings in the "New York Herald," and arrived in India in the month of August 1870. He sailed from Bombay for the Mauritius on the 12th of October, and after touching at Mahe, an island of the Leychelles group, he, in company with William Lawrence Farquhar, mate, a Scotchman, and an Arab boy he had picked up to act as interpreter, sailed in an American whaling vessel bound for Zanzibar, which they reached on the 6th of January 1871. Captain Webb, the American Consul at Zanzibar, after hearing the nature of his mission, entertained him at his house, and did all he could to assist him in his preparations for the journey he had undertaken.

The Island of Zanzibar, which is distant from the mainland about forty miles, contains a population of about two hundred thousand inhabitants, one-half of whom are in the town of Zanzibar. The inhabitants consist of Arabs, Banyans, Mahommedans, Hindis, native Africans, and a considerable sprinkling of European merchants. The Arabs

are all engaged in the ivory, gum, copal, and slave trade, and most of them have wandered for years in the interior of Africa collecting the articles in which they trade, and are perfectly familiar with the regions which Dr. Livingstone and others have made known to us. It is no uncommon thing for an Arab trader to cross the continent from Zanzibar, Khiva, or Mozambique, to the west coast. They are a most reticent class, and although they have gone through adventures, and seen sights which would make the reputation of a European traveller, they make no allusion to their adventures. The Banyans are the most wealthy class, and it is with money furnished by them that two-thirds of the slave trade is carried on. These Banyans, as Dr. Living. stone has so frequently pointed out, are our fellow-subjects, and have hitherto carried on their detestable traffic in human flesh under the protection of the British flag. No wonder that Livingstone found it difficult to get letters to and from the coast, and found it next to impossible to get stores and articles of absolute necessity delivered in the interior. The voice of this prophet in the wilderness of Africa was pronouncing the death-knell of their trade, and was to be stopped at all hazards. He was too conspicuous a man, and stood too well with the native tribes to be slain with safety, but he might be starved out. Weary waiting and hope deferred might tire out the iron constitution, and break the lion heart, and to this they and their emissaries set themselves. But they had not calculated upon the resolute endurance and high courage of the man with whom they had to deal; and the very means they took to stop his voice made it tenfold more powerful when, through the aid of Mr. Stanley, its story of shame and horror penetrated to the ends of the earth.

Mr. Stanley gives an interesting account of the impedi menta he collected for his journey, after consulting with a grey-bearded old Sheikh and several Arab merchants he