by Tim Jeal
The king knew that his colony's very existence would be at risk if Tippu were to capture the guns and ammunition that Stanley meant to transport to Emin. Indeed, if that happened the Arab would be in a position to capture all Leopold's stations before he had the resources to expel the 3,000 Arab-Swahili currently on the Upper Congo. Stanley had therefore suggested to Leopold that, since Tippu was `in actual possession of the Falls', he might be neutralized if `recognized as chief or Governor at a nominal salary with a view to using him as a buffer against the hordes above him'. Doing deals with slave traders was certainly undesirable but, for the present, nothing else could be done to stop the new generation of Arab-Swahili slavers pressing down the Congo to Stanley Pool if they wished.
At their first negotiating session, Stanley tried to bluff Tippu into thinking that he would offer his entire arsenal and all his 700 men to the king as soldiers, if he (Tippu) refused to make a peace agreement. If he did refuse, he would have to fight not only Stanley but the king's men too. But, promised Stanley, if Tippu chose peace he would be made Governor of Stanley Falls and paid a salary. Although this offer irritated the Arab (who already controlled the Falls), he did not want to fight all the Europeans on the river. So, after several days of prevar ication, he grudgingly agreed to fly the Free State's flag over Stanley Falls, to accept a resident secretary appointed by the State, and, most important of all, to stop his people raiding for slaves below the Falls. One of Stanley's enticements was to offer Tippu himself, with twenty of his wives and eighty-five of his servants, free transport by sea and river to Stanley Falls, via the Cape and the Congo.37
Before leaving Zanzibar, Stanley made a second agreement intended to obtain from the Arab the services of boo porters when the expedition reached the Upper Congo. These men would be expected to accompany Stanley to Wadelai to carry to safety the immense cache of ivory that Emin was said to have accumulated - worth a staggering £6o,ooo, according to Wilhem Junker. Besides a share of the proceeds of the ivory, Tippu Tip was to be paid $r,ooo for providing the men.38
On 2.4 February 11887, the entire expedition sailed from Zanzibar for the Congo. It consisted of 805 people - nine Europeans, 623 Wangwana, ninety-six followers of Tippu Tip, sixty Sudanese, thirteen Somalis, two Syrians and two central Africans. One of these last was a teenage boy, Baruti, whom de Winton had brought back to England from the Congo as a servant and had passed on to Stanley to be taken home to his family. Henry was not sorry to be parting with him, since on one occasion he had dangled his housekeeper's baby over the banisters in order to force her to give him some treat from the larder.39
The first test for Stanley and his officers occurred only hours from Zanzibar, when a fight broke out below decks between the Sudanese and the Wangwana. Taking Jephson, Jameson and Nelson with him, Stanley ran to the scene. Jameson likened the affray to `an "Inferno" by Gustave Dore'. Some men had spears, and others sticks and iron bars, and were already inflicting head wounds. Into this melee leapt Stanley, with the Sudanese screaming to him to save them from being murdered by the Wangwana. According to Jephson, Stanley imposed his authority swiftly, promising justice and protection to the Sudanese and forcing back the Wangwana. By then, ten arms had been broken, and numerous cuts and contusions suffered.4° This shipboard incident was the first indication to Stanley that these Wangwana might not measure up to the standard of the men who had served him so well in the past, and to whose selection he had devoted so much of his time on previous visits. Unfortunately, he had had too many other things to do on Zanzibar. So, this time, his boo Wangwana were selected for him by Mackinnon's agent, Edmund Mackenzie of Smith Mackenzie & C0.4' Most would turn out to be the slaves of various well-known Zanzibar trading houses. An appalled Stanley only discovered when he reached the Pool that no more than 115 o of these carriers were free men.42 Only one of his former `captains', the incomparable Uledi, would be with him on his new mission.
But whatever its flaws and failings, when the expedition sailed up the Congo, and disembarked in late March for the zoo-mile overland march past the cataracts, the column made a brave show, with the pennant of the New York Yacht Club being carried at its head. (Unaccountably, Stanley had agreed to satisfy what he called the yachtingmad James Gordon Bennett Jr's `ridiculous whim' to have this flag borne across Africa.) Towards the end of the month, Herbert Ward saw this fluttering emblem coming towards him in the distance, carried by a tall Sudanese soldier.
Behind him, astride of a fine henna-stained mule, whose silver plated trappings shone in the morning sun, was Mr Henry M. Stanley, attired in his famous African costume [Norfolk jacket, matching knickerbockers and his famous flat-topped `Stanley' hat] ... immediately in his rear were his personal servants, Somalis with their curious braided waistcoats and white robes. Then came Zanzibaris with their blankets, water-bottles, ammunition, belts and guns. Stalwart Sudanese soldiers with dark-hooded coats, their rifles on their backs ... and Zanzibari porters bearing iron-bound boxes of ammunition, to which were fastened axes and shovels ... At one point a steel whale-boat was being carried in sections, suspended from poles ... donkey's heavily laden with sacks of rice were next met with, and a little further on the women of Tippu Tip's harem, their faces partly concealed and their bodies draped in gaudily coloured cloths; then at intervals along the line of march an English officer ... then several large horned African goats ... [next] the renowned Tippu Tip ... in his flowing Arab robes of dazzling whiteness, and carrying over his left shoulder a richly-decorated sabre ... behind him several Arab sheiks ... As the procession filed along the narrow rugged path ... its unbroken line extended over a distance of probably four miles.43
The reality of this picturesque spectacle was that, with few beasts of burden because of the tsetse fly, porters carrying an immense weight of weaponry and trade goods were as inclined as ever to desert and steal, unless stern discipline was maintained. A rifle or a sack of brass wire would be enough `capital' to start a new life.
Barttelot was given command of the Sudanese, while Stanley's other young officers were made commanders of about rzo Wangwana each. From the moment the officers were landed with their men near Vivi, their ideas about the romance of life in Africa underwent some painful revisions. Jephson felt angry with Stanley for having `written [in his books] flowery descriptions of King's palaces, court pages ... when the only "king" [Jephson saw] was a dirtily clothed youth seated in the door of a small hut ...'. When Jephson said this, he was reproved as `a pessimist ... who can see but little to admire either in the country or in the character of the natives'.44
However, corporal punishment, rather than Stanley's romanticism, caused most trouble between him and his officers. Barttelot felt that in any conflict between a white man and a black man, Stanley would always side against his fellow whites .41 The others believed much the same. Ill-feeling arose because the officers felt that Stanley was hypocritical on the issue. Many times he told them to protect the interests of the whole column by not allowing `confirmed stragglers ... to skulk among the reeds or cool themselves in groves at a distance from the road', leaving the long line of carriers to wait on the stifling path, without a scrap of shade. To make sure Boo people got in to camp each day at a reasonable hour, and to save their food supply by stopping thefts, Stanley recommended that `a few cuts of the cane' should routinely be given to those lagging in the rear, `for frequently these dawdlers lag purposely behind for such intentions'.46 But when his officers followed his advice and chastised malingerers, Stanley invariably rebuked them for brutality, despite the fact that when he himself supervised rearguard duty with his Somali bodyguards, `he laid his stick about the lazy ones and the Somalis whacked away too'.47 So when Major Barttelot, whose Sudanese rarely obeyed him, was severely admonished by Stanley for `striking, punching & throwing men into the river', he felt aggrieved.
Ten days later, Nelson, whom Stanley considered good-natured, hit a man on the legs and cut him badly. Stanley explained as calmly as he could that abrasions on the sh
ins and calves often turned into lifethreatening ulcers. If he must hit a man in future, it should be on the back. Nelson took the advice well. Not so Barttelot, who that same day `punched a man under an eye and opened a big gash'. Stanley told him to get his headmen to use a switch on his men's backs, and not to go for them himself `with fists, shin strokes, or jabbing at people with a spiked staff'. Barttelot countered that Stanley often lost his temper with individual men and laid into them. Stanley denied this, saying: `I sometimes affect a great rage, or I taunt them with irony, but I don't pitch into them like a pugilist. Besides, I speak their dialect perfectly.'48
But given the terrible arguments that soured expeditions such as Burton and Speke's journey to Lake Tanganyika, and Livingstone's Zambezi Expedition, the rows occurring during the first months of the Emin Pasha expedition do not seem particularly severe. And this was despite the fact that by zo April, towards the end of the land journey to Leopoldville, most of the party had had fever several times, and they had been travelling in the rains for three weeks, with everyone slipping and falling into the mud. So it was surprising there had been no really serious fallings out. Dr Parke inadvertently allowed nineteen rifles to be stolen and sold under his nose: a horrifying loss, yet Stanley (who thought Parke `one of the best fellows alive') only raged at him briefly before making up over a drink and cigars.49 Jameson, though thinking that Stanley was often unfair to his friend Barttelot, considered that `Mr Stanley, when he throws off his reserve, is one of the most agreeable of men', adding: `I cannot help admiring him immensely for his great strength of will and power of overcoming dif- ficulties.'s°
At this time Stanley was facing a grave crisis. In Paris in late January, en route for Zanzibar via Brindisi, he had met his old friend Anthony Swinburne. This meeting is recorded in a series of photographs, showing Swinburne, Stanley, Baruti and Hoffman together at the Hotel Meurice.si Swinburne, who was returning to the Congo from furlough in England, told Stanley how he and Henry Sanford (whose ivory trading company he now ran from the Pool) had been let down by Leopold's failure to provide promised river transport for the ivory. Swinburne had warned Stanley about the depleted state of the king's flotilla, and hinted that he himself might lend Stanley his company's steamer, the Florida.5z However, none of this had prepared Stanley for what his former subordinate, Louis Valcke, told him at Boma in late March.53
When insisting that Stanley use the Congo route, Leopold had promised that the Congo Free State would `place at the disposal of the expedition the whole of its naval stock'. Stanley had therefore expected to be able to depend, for the transport of his large expedition, not only on the State's largest steamer, the Stanley, but also on the three smaller steamers that had been in service when he had been in charge. S4 Valcke explained that the Stanley was damaged, the En Avant had no engine, and the Royal was `altogether rotten'. By r April Stanley knew that both the missionary steamers were upstream some where and likely to be denied him. At this dreadful moment, the loyal Swinburne - although knowing that his boss, Henry Sanford, would be furious if he lent the unfinished Florida as a barge - confirmed that he would do so. She could now be towed by the Stanley when she had been repaired. Although it was widely known on the river that Swinburne had an African mistress, by whom he had a daughter, Stanley's warm feelings towards his twenty-nine-year-old former secretary remained unaffected. `Swinburne has behaved nobly all through this business of getting from Stanley Pool,' he wrote after the Florida had been handed over for forty-five days.55
For six weeks before reaching the Pool, Stanley had lived with the very real possibility that he might be unable to move his Boo people any further east than Leopoldville. `Help us quickly, or we perish,' the Pasha had implored, and Henry was haunted by his words." The delay that the lack of steamers now seemed certain to cause would increase the likelihood of Emin being cut down like Gordon, after his ammunition ran out.
As Stanley faced probable failure, it was painful for him to recall the praise showered on him before he left. He had stayed at Sandringham with the Prince of Wales, having been presented with the Freedom of the City of London.57 Never before had he enjoyed the esteem of the British establishment. Nor would he again, it seemed.
TWENTY-THREE
A Fateful Decision
Stanley made a very difficult decision on zz April 11887, which would come to haunt him for the rest of his life. He was still at Leopoldville when he noted in his diary that since he had too few steamers to take his entire party and its stores eastwards along the Upper Congo in one trip, he might have to split his expedition in two. He reasoned that if he were to set up a staging post at Yambuya, on the Aruwimi river, 11,ioo miles to the east, he would be able to leave behind there a Rear Column of several hundred men to look after the bulk of his stores. Meanwhile, a smaller, unencumbered Advance Column would be freed to march eastwards at once from Yambuya to try to find Emin above Lake Albert. Unless this split was adopted, the march from Yambuya to Emin's position would be delayed by two months - which was the time it would take the Stanley to make the round trip to Leopoldville to collect the stores and men left behind there, and return to the Aruwimi. If Emin Pasha should be overwhelmed in the meantime, the first question Stanley imagined being asked was why he had not split his expedition.
Stanley improved his prospects by persuading a reluctant William Bentley of the Baptist mission at Leopoldville to lend him his steamer, the Peace; and soon afterwards, Lieutenant Liebrichts, the Belgian governor at Stanley Pool, commandeered for him on behalf of the Congo Free State the Livingstone Inland Mission's steamer, the Henry Reed. Liebrichts had feared there would be starvation in Leopoldville unless Stanley's Boo people were able to proceed upriver.'
At last, on i May, Henry assembled his little fleet of three steamers for the i,11oo-mile journey upstream from Stanley Pool to the Aruwimi. The Stanley towed the Florida, both vessels having 1168 men on board. The Henry Reed towed the En Avant and the expedition's steel portable boat, carrying a combined total of 11311 people, while the Peace also towed two boats containing a further 1135 persons.' Taking boo people upstream in a single journey was better than anything Stanley had envisaged a couple of weeks earlier, but he would still need to send the Stanley back for 11311 men left at Bolobo and for the men guarding the stores at Leopoldville. The steamer's return trip to Yambuya (even carrying fewer men than anticipated) would take two months, so Stanley's rationale held good for leaving part of the expedition at Yambuya, while he led an advance party eastwards.
On r r May Stanley had a long talk with the capable Lieutenant Stairs about whom to place in command at Yambuya. In Stairs's opinion, Major Barttelot's seniority in the army meant that no one else could lead a detached column. Recalling Barttelot's harshness towards Africans, Stanley asked Stairs whether he would be prepared to stay with the major to steady him. Stairs said he would rather be sent home. Henry therefore suggested Jephson as Barttelot's second-incommand, but Stairs told him that two `hot-heads' should never be put together. The right men to stay with the major, said Stairs, were Jameson, Ward, Troup and Bonny.' Stanley evidently agreed, since these were the men he chose to leave. Barttelot was furious on learning he was to protect stores, rather than have the honour of rescuing Emin Pasha.4
Henry remained on edge after his decision, which is probably why he had his worst row yet with his officers as they steamed eastwards. It arose from that most frequent cause of dissension: his officers' treatment of the Wangwana.5 Early on the morning of May zo, when the flotilla was about a third of the way to Yambuya, two lines of Wangwana came to their leader to complain about `the way they were being treated by the little masters, especially by Mr Jephson'. If irritated by anything, `the little masters struck all around as if everyone had done wrong. They clutched people by the throat and half-choked them, or they struck with their fists or sticks ... but yesterday they had behaved worse than ever ...[and] had ended up pitching all their food, bananas, bread, everything - overboard.' Just then, Stanley spott
ed Stairs and called him over. The young officer explained that the men had been ordered to cut wood, but had looted a local village for food instead. The Wangwana denied all this, and when Henry chose to believe them, Stairs took it as a personal insult. Stanley then chronicled a long list of complaints about earlier beatings that had already been made to him, `individually and collectively' from the donkey boys right up to the headmen.
At this charged moment, Mounteney Jephson appeared. Stanley was on board ship, and Jephson was ashore, so their conversation had to be conducted with raised voices.
`Mr Jephson, these men have come to complain against you and others for beating them, and throwing all their food overboard. Will you tell me what you know of the matter?'
As Stanley recorded in his diary: `Jephson calmly looked towards me and said: "You are not to shout at me in that way, sir! "'6
At this point Stanley completely lost his temper. To be faced by someone of Jephson's age and class demanding politeness, while failing to answer his reasonable questions, was unendurable.
`You damned son of a sea-cook, God damn you - you come here with a lie in your mouth, you damned puppy. You are tyrants,' he roared at both young men.7 Jephson's charge that the Wangwana were Stanley's `dear pets' enraged him even more. `All are dear to me,' he cried, `who do their duty, sir, and the Zanzibaris have quite satisfied me on this, and on previous expeditions.' He then told Jephson and Stairs that they were sacked, and shouted: `You don't even know how to treat native chiefs when they come here with their little presents.'
The last straw for Henry was his suspicion that Jephson, Parke and Stairs were all in cahoots, laughing at him behind his back. He was entirely wrong. Stairs had no time for Jephson, and thought Parke a fool. Nor was Bonny in cahoots with anyone. He despised Barttelot, whom he thought unstable and the worst possible person to be placed in charge of the Sudanese! He thought Ward selfish, greedy and a fantasist. Meanwhile, Ward and Troup detested both Bonny and Barttelot.9