Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/397

 place only ten days earlier on his return from his long journey west of the lake to trace the course of the Lualaba and ascertain whether it flowed into the Nile. The missionary was 'reduced to the lowest ebb in fortune,' in very bad health, 'a mere ruckle of bones,' almost without followers and provisions. He was, however, still determined to pursue his discoveries, and declined Stanley's offer to escort him back to Zanzibar. The two explorers spent some weeks together on the lake, examined its northern shore, and arrived at Unyanyembe on 18 Feb. 1872. On 14 March Stanley began his journey to the coast, reaching Zanzibar fifty-four days afterwards. A fortnight later he was able to despatch to Unyanyembe a well-equipped caravan with which Livingstone set out on what proved to be the last of his explorations. Stanley returned to find himself famous. England and America rang with the story of his African adventures, which he proceeded to describe in detail in his book 'How I found Livingstone' (1872). But there was a good deal of jealousy of the young explorer, and a tendency among the high-priests of geographical orthodoxy to sneer at his enterprise as a piece of advertising journalism promoted by a newspaper which had become notorious for its sensationalism. Sir Henry Rawlinson [q.v.], president of the Royal Geographical Society, said that it was not Stanley who had discovered Livingstone, but Livingstone who had discovered Stanley; and some of the newspapers threw doubts upon the authenticity of the whole story of the expedition, and found 'something mysterious and inexplicable' in its leader's narrative. Stanley's own bearing did little to soften the prejudices of those who were determined to dislike him. He was quick of speech and temper, and he answered the aspersions cast upon him and his work with passionate directness. At the meeting of the geographical section of the British Association at Brighton he gave an account of his travels to a large and distinguished audience. In the discussion which followed Francis Galton [q. v. Suppl. II] and other eminent men of science showed little respect for either Stanley or Livingstone as geographical experts, and pointed out the weakness of the missionary's theory that the Lualaba was the source of the Nile. It was reserved for Stanley himself at a later period to demonstrate the erroneousness of this belief. But the attacks upon his friend as well as himself nettled him, and at this meeting and at other gatherings he hit back with a vigour that was sometimes indiscreet, and gave fresh opportunities for hostile criticism. These episodes created a prejudice against him in certain sections of the English press and London society which left traces for years. 'All the actions of my life,' he wrote long afterwards, 'and I may say all my thoughts since 1872, have been strongly coloured by the storm of abuse and the wholly unjustifiable reports circulated about me then. So numerous were my enemies that my friends became dumb.' But the authenticity of the journals he had brought home was certified by Livingstone's family; and in spite of the sneers of the geographers, Stanley received many gratifying proofs of recognition. He was entertained by the duke of Sutherland at Dunrobin Castle, and there presented to Queen Victoria, who sent him a gold snuff-box set with brilliants. His book was widely read and was a great pecuniary success, and so were the lectures which he delivered during the next few months to large audiences, first in England and then in America. In 1873 the 'New York Herald' commissioned him to accompany the British expedition against the Ashantis under Sir Garnet Wolseley. Stanley won the approval of the English officers by his conduct during the march to Kumassi. Lord Wolseley was struck by his courage. 'I had been,' he wrote (in his Story of a Soldier's Life, ii. 342) 'previously somewhat prejudiced against him, but all such feelings were slain and buried at Amoaful. Ever since I have been proud to reckon him amongst the bravest of my brave comrades; and I hope he will not be offended if I add him amongst my best friends also.' Stanley embodied his account of this, and the other British campaign which he had witnessed, in the vivacious pages of his book, 'Coomassie and Magdala,' published in 1874. On 25 Feb. of this year, on his way back from West Africa, he heard the news of Livingstone's death. 'May I be selected to succeed him,' he wrote in his diary, 'in opening up Africa to the shining light of Christianity!' He was anxious also to settle the great geographical problems left unsolved by Livingstone and by Speke, Burton, Grant, and Baker — that of the Lualaba and of the outlets and extent of the Great Lakes. It was to clear up some of these mysteries that Stanley undertook his next great expedition to equatorial Africa under a joint commission from the 'New York Herald' and the London 'Daily Telegraph.'