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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SOU-STE |
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STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON (184o-1904) , British explorer of Africa, discoverer of the course of the Congo, was born at Denbigh, Wales, on the loth of June 1840.1 His parents were named Rowlands or Rollant, and his father, who died in 1843, was the son of a small farmer. John Rowlands, by which name Stanley was baptized, was brought up first by his maternal grandfather, and after his death was boarded out by his mother's brothers at half a crown a week. In 1847 he was taken to the St Asaph Union workhouse, where he was noted for his activity and intelligence. The schoolmaster at the workhouse, James Francis (who eventually died in a madhouse), was a tyrant of the Squeers type, and in May 1856, Rowlands, of ter giving Francis a thrashing, ran away from school. He sought out his paternal grandfathera well-to-do farmerwho refused to help him. A cousin, however, who was master of a national school at Brynford, took him in as a pupil teacher. But within a year he was sent to Liverpool, where he lived with an uncle who was in straitened circumstances. The lad, after working at a haberdasher's and then at a butcher's shop, engaged himself as a cabin boy on a sailing ship bound for New Orleans, in which city he landed early in 1859. There he obtained a situation through the good offices of a merchant named Henry Morton Stanley, who subsequently adopted the lad as his son, designing for him a mercantile career. To this end young Stanley (as he was henceforth known) was sent to a country store in Arkansas. The merchant shortly afterwards died, without having made further provision for his protege.When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Stanley enlisted in the Confederate army; he was taken prisoner at the battle of Shiloh (April 1862), and after two months' experience of the hardships of Camp Douglas, Chicago (where the prisoners of war were confined), he obtained release by enrolling in the Federal artillery. In less than a month he was discharged as unfit. In November 1862 he returned to Liverpool " very poor, in bad health and in shabby clothes," and made his way to Denbigh, but was turned away from his mother's door. This incident deeply affected him. Naturally of a sensitive, affectionate nature, henceforth he practised strong self-suppression and reserve. For a livelihood he took to the seawas wrecked off Barcelonaand in August 1864 enlisted in the United States navy. According to an apparently authentic story2 he obtained promotion for swimming 500 yds. and tying a rope to a captured steamer, while exposed to the shot and shell of a battery of ten guns. After the war he crossed the plains to Salt Lake City, Denver, and other parts, acquiring a reputation as a vivid descriptive writer for the press. 1 This is the usually accepted date, but from Stanley's Auto-biography it would appear that the year of his birth was 1842. 2 See C. Rowlands, Henry M. Stanley, p. 1o2. there to determine geographical problems left unsolved by the deaths of Livingstone and Speke, and the discovery by Sir Samuel Baker of Albert Nyanza, a lake then reputed to extend illimitably in a southerly direction. Finally, Sir Edward Lawson (afterwards Lord Burnham), the editor and proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, to whom Stanley had communicated his desires, and Sir Edwin Arnold
Leopold II., king of the Belgians, who sent commissioners to intercept Stanley at Marseilles, when he was on his way back to England, with proposals to return to the Congo, proposals which Stanley, much needing rest, put aside for the time. Approached again in the summer of 1878 Stanley lent a more favour-able ear to Leopold 's suggestions. Efforts made by the explorer in the autumn to arouse British merchants to the importance of the Congo basin were unavailing, and in November Stanley went to Brussels and committed himself to the schemes of the king of the Belgians. A Comite d'etudes du Haut Congo was formed and Stanley was entrusted with the leadership of the new expedition, which was, in his own words, " to prove that the Congo natives were susceptible of civilization and that the Congo basin was rich enough to repay exploitation." Stanley reached the Congo in August 1879, and the work he accomplished there in the ensuing five years enabled the Comite, which had meantime changed its name to that of Association internationale du Congo, to obtain the recognition of America and Europe to its transformation into an independent state (" The Congo Free State ") under the sovereignty of King Leopold. Stanley described his labours in The Congo and the Founding of its Free State (London, 1885), a book which throws valuable light on the manner in which the promoters of that enterprise set to work, and the object at which, from the beginning, they aimed. For the political aspects of this question see AFRICA ( 5) and CONGO FREE STATE. Here it is only necessary to indicate what Stanley actually accomplished on the Congo. At the outset the area of his activities wasrestricted by the enterprise of the French traveller de Brazza, who, reaching Stanley Pool by a more northern route, placedSeptember and October 188othe neighbouring districts on the north bank of the Congo under French protection. De Brazza's journey was directly inspired by Stanley's discoveries, and thus early had those discoveries led to international rivalries. Not-withstanding this check Stanley, without much trouble with the natives, founded stations for his association along the banks of the river as high up as Stanley Falls. A more difficult task was the making of a road through the cataract region and the carrying over it in sections of four small steamers, all of which were launched on the middle river. This road-making exploit earned for Stanley from the natives the name of Bula Matari, the rock-breaker, the all-powerfula fit description of the man who allowed no obstacles to turn him from the achievement of his purpose. Stanley returned to Europe in the middle of 1884 and attended the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, which dealt with African affairs, acting as technical adviser of the American plenipotentiaries. While in Germany he lectured in various cities on the benefits which would result from the opening up of Central Africa, and found the Germans more alive than the British to the great interests at stake. The revelation of what the Association internationale had done intensified the struggle among the powers for the possession of African territory. Stanley did not return to the Congo on the recognition of the Free State but took up his residence in London. With James F. Hatton, a leading Manchester merchant, he promoted the Royal Congo Railway Company to connect Stanley Pool with the lower river, but the scheme at the time came to nought, partly owing to the indifference of English capitalists and partly in consequence of a clause inimical to British interests in the charter which King Leopold proposed to grant the company.Though still an American citizen Stanley's interests and ambitions were becoming distinctly British, his sympathies in that direction being joined to a personal loyalty to the king of the Belgians). A desire to serve both parties was one of the leading motives in his next African adventure. Stanley had become deeply interested in the schemes of Mr (afterwards Sir) William Mackinnon, chairman of the British India Steam Navigation Company, for establishing a British protectorate in East Equatorial Africa, and it was believed that this object could be furthered at the same time that relief was afforded to Emin Pasha (q.v.), governor of the Equatorial Province of Egypt, who had been isolated by the Mandist rising of 1881-1885. Stanley agreed to conduct an expedition, nominally in the service of the khedive of Egypt, for the relief of Emin. The major part of the funds needed was supplied by a committee, of which Mackinnon was chairman. Instead of choosing the direct route via Zanzibar or Mombasa, Stanley decided to go by way of the Congo, as thereby he would be able to render services to the infant Congo State, then encountering great difficulties with the Zanzibar Arabs established on the upper Congo. Stanley left Europe in January 1887 and at Zanzibar entered into an agreement with Tippoo Tib, the chief
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1 Of the later policy pursued in the Congo State Stanley wrote, in 1896, that it was " erring and ignorant." To go back to the Congo " would be to disturb a moral malaria injurious to the reorganizer " (Autobiography, p. 537). Nothing but miles and miles, endless miles of forest." Starvation, fever, the. hostility of the tribes, were daily incidents of this terrible march, during which Stanley lost nearly 5o% of his men. On the 13th of December Albert Nyanza was reached, and after some delay communication was opened with Emin, who came down the lake from the Nile in a steamer, the two chiefs meeting on the 29th of April 1888. Disquieted by the non-arrival of his rearguard, Stanley retraced his steps, and on the 17th of August, a short distance above Yambuya, found that Tippoo Tib had broken faith, that Barttelot had been murdered, that Jameson (who soon afterwards died of fever) was absent at Stanley Falls, and that only one European, William Bonny, was left in the camp. Collecting those who survived of the rearguard Stanley for the third time traversed the primeval forest, and in January 1888 all that was left of the expedition was assembled at Albert Nyanza. Of 646 men with whom he entered the Congo, but 246 remained. In April the return journey to Zanzibar by way of Uganda was begun, Emin reluctantly accompanying Stanley. On this homeward journey Stanley discovered Ruwenzori (the Mountains of the Moon), traced the course of the Semliki River, discovered Albert Edward Nyanza and the great south-western gulf of Victoria Nyanza. During his stay in the Congo forests he had also obtained much information concerning the pygmy tribes. As to the political results of the expedition, Stanley's proposals to Emin to hold the Equatorial Province for the Congo State or to move nearer Victoria Nyanza and enter the service of Mackinnon's British East Africa Company had not been accepted, but he concluded agreements with various chiefs in the lake regions in favour of Great Britain, agreements which were handed over to the East Africa Company. Zanzibar was reached on the 6th of December 1889 and the expedition was at an end. Stanley's account of it, In Darkest Africa, was published (in six languages) in 189o. Returning to England, Stanley was received with much hondur, among the many distinctions conferred upon him 'being the degrees of D.C.L. from Oxford and of LL.D. from Cambridge and from Edinburgh. On the 12th of July 1890 he married a lady whose graceful work as an artist was well known, Miss Dorothy Tennant, second daughter of Mr Charles Tennant, sometime M.P. for St Albans. Later in the year he visited the United States, where he made a pilgrimage to the places where his youth had been spent, and in 18911892 went to Australia and New Zealand on lecturing tours. On his return he was renaturalized as a British subject, andat the solicitation of his wifehe stood at the general election in the summer of 1892 as candidate for North Lambeth in the Liberal Unionist interest
In geographical discoveries Stanley accomplished more than any other explorer of Africa, with which continent his name is indissolubly connected. Notwithstanding his frequent conflicts with Arabs and negroes, he possessed in extraordinary degreethe power of managing native races; he was absolutely fearless and ever ready to sacrifice either himself or others to achieve his object. His books differ widely from the ordinary books of travel. Stanley had a gift of dramatic narrative, and his power of portraiture was remarkable. Curiously, the least successful of his works was the only one which he cast in the form of fiction, My Kalulu, Prince, King and $lave. Another volume from his pen, My Dark Companions and their Strange Stories (1893), is a valuable contribution to folklore.The Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, ed. by his wife, Dorothy Stanley, appeared in 1909. Henry M. Stanley, the Story of his Life . . (London, n.d. [1872]), by C. Rowlands, contains, notwithstanding many inaccuracies, valuable information concerning his family and early career. The following books may also be consulted: Mrs J. S. Jameson, Story of the Rear Column of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (189o) ; W. G. Barttelot, The Life of Edmund Musgrave Barttelot . . . (189o); H. Erode, Tippoo Tib, the Story of his Career in Central Africa (1907). (F. R. C.) End of Article: STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON (184o-1904) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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