Stanley's Story Through the Wilds of Africa: A Thrilling Narrative of His Remarkable Adventures, Terrible Experiences, Wonderful Discoveries and Amazing Achievements in the Dark Continent

Fifty years have hardly elapsed since Dr. Livingstone first entered the dark and benighted regions of South Africa as a missionary. Till then the country had been little less than a sealed book to the outside world, and the student of geography only knew its face as a blank and unknown void. History also stood silent, giving little information or evidence of what these hidden recesses in the Dark Continent might contain. What knowledge the world did have was limited to the coasts, and that only obtained through the prominence given it by the atrocious slave trade—at that time the leading feature of its commerce. But what a mighty change has been wrought since then! To-day, thanks to the missionary spirit, labors and exploits of Livingstone, who first planted the germs of Civilization and Christianity within her borders, as well as to the patient and persevering spirit of the bold and intrepid Stanley, upon whose shoulders so fitly fell the mantle of the dead Livingstone, we are in possession of a more comprehensive map of Africa. History, too, is no longer silent. Her pages now teem with marvellous accounts of the wonderful regions developed by these and other daring explorers—with the still more remarkable tales of the immeasurable wealth lying dormant and quietly awaiting the developing arms of Commerce. Geography and Science have also received a mighty impetus through the discoveries made by these fearless adventurers into the wilds of the Dark Continent; and to-day we are enabled to record the fact that a satisfactory solution to the great problems, which for ages have so much mystified the world, has been arrived at. The return of Stanley and his followers, with the fruits of their experiences and the light which they are able to throw upon the subject, will give to the literature of the world an addition of almost incalculable value. The expedition will take historic rank with the famous “retreat of the ten thousand” under Xenophon. As the tale unfolds, of the arduous toils and dangers encountered in the vast African wilderness, wonder at its success increases.

Though much has been done since Livingstone’s time to fill up the blanks of Central Africa’s physical geography, no expedition has ever returned with a richer harvest of discoveries than Stanley’s last. The almost impenetrable forest of the Aruwimi, probably the largest of African forests—extending over four hundred miles of latitude and longitude—with a dense jungle in all stages of decay, resounding with the murmurs of monkeys and chimpanzees, strange noises of birds and animals, and the crashes of troops of elephants rushing through the dark and tangled copse, is an obstacle that, once surmounted, gives us the hydrography of the greatest lake-system of the globe, adds to the giant mountains of geography the stately and snow-clad Ruwenzori, whose rocky peak towers eighteen or nineteen thousand feet above sea-level, and to the lakes the Albert Edward Nyanza, whence issues the mysterious stream which fertilizes Egypt and makes the valley of the Nile the most marvellous seat of human culture, art and science.

In Stanley’s Story the reader has presented a most thrilling narrative of the terrible experiences encountered, as well as a graphic account of these wonderful discoveries and the amazing achievements accomplished by Mr. Stanley during his career in Africa. The subject—one of unparalleled interest—is presented in the characteristic style of the writer, from thoroughly reliable information, data, and the official reports of Mr. Stanley himself. It favorably commends itself to every lover of geographical science, as well as to the admirer of the marvellous in life and nature. It has been prepared in a popular form, and at a price much lower than books of like character and value, and very much lower than others which claim to give the story of Stanley in Africa, but are simply compilations from the writings of the different explorers who have in times past essayed to traverse its vast interior, and failed. Stanley, however, has not failed. Fate has decreed otherwise. His story has been told. It is the only authentic story, as recorded in these pages, and the reader will find it not only interesting but highly entertaining and thoroughly instructive throughout.