A review of The Last Expedition – Stanley’s Mad Journey
through the Congo by Daniel Liebowitz and Charles Pearson, W. W. Norton,
NY, 2005.
The popular facts - In 1886 word began to spread that
Emin Pasha, a German national who was the governor of Equatoria Province of
Egyptian Sudan, was under siege by Mahdi jihadists who in 1885 had executed
British Governor General Charles Gordon and stuck his head on a pole in
Khartoum. The British public was outraged by this atrocity so rallied to support
the relief of Gordon’s last remaining lieutenant. Because the Mahdists controlled the Nile, an overland
expedition was conceived designed to resupply Emin Pasha and to offer him an
escape from the marauding jihadists. The best-known explorer of Africa, Henry
Morton Stanley, was designated to lead the expedition.
It began to go wrong from the beginning. The major decision that backfired was
Stanley’s bullheaded determination to approach Equatoria from the west, that is
starting at the Atlantic Ocean. The shorter alternative was from the east along
the slave caravan trails from Zanzibar. Stanley’s
iron will prevailed and the column of nearly a thousand men – nine Europeans,
some Sudanese soldiers, some Somali fighters and hundreds of Zanzibari porters,
augmented by hundreds of African carriers – both hired and enslaved – began the
2000-mile journey from the mouth of the Congo River, up the river and its Aruwimi
tributary. They hacked through hundreds of miles of oppressive, dank, dark, wet
jungle to Lake Albert. Beginning in March 1887, they sought to transport
hundreds of tons of ammunition, weaponry, and supplies as well as an eighty-foot-long
metal boat. Materiel was divided into sixty-pound loads carried by men. Those who
survived the rigors of the journey finally arrived at the Lake in December 1887.
The going was hell. Rivers became impassable. The Ituri
jungle was impenetrable, and native tribes, including pygmies, cannibals, and
indigenous slavers, were hostile. Harassment and conflict plagued the column. Food
ran out and little was available. Men starved, were wounded, weakened, and became
susceptible to disease. Hundreds died. Stanley badgered and berated his
officers. He brutalized slackers and laggards, and had thieves and deserters
hung. Given the almost insurmountable obstacles, it is amazing that the column
crept onwards, seemingly empowered by Stanley’s unbending will.
Upon finally reaching Lake Albert, the southernmost part of
Equatoria, Stanley and Emin Pasha finally met.
Each privately recognized the irony of Pasha rescuing Stanley rather
than the other way around. However, Pasha
exercised diminishing control over his Egyptian troops who, at first, refused
to believe that their sovereign the Khedive of Egypt had abandoned them. Secondly, they opted to rebel against Pasha
and his so-called savior Stanley. Pasha was a weak, indecisive administrator
and while he dithered, Stanley returned into the forest to reclaim what was
left of his rear column and supplies. That took a year!
Finally, back at Lake Albert Stanley set a deadline and
Pasha realized he had no option. He had to leave. Another huge column set out for
Zanzibar. This column moved excruciatingly slowly as well but did not suffer
from the horrors of the jungle. Twelve hundred miles later on December 4, 1889,
they arrived at Bagamoyo, on the Indian Ocean coast across from Zanzibar
Island. There during a joyful welcoming
dinner celebration, Emin Pasha unwittingly stepped out of a second story window
and smashed his head on the stones below. (Pasha survived but never left Africa).
Stanley, who had more than enough of the dithering gentle soul, left him and
returned to a tumultuous reception in England.
Reality – The authors of this book recount the facts
of the expedition but reveal the maneuvering, the backbiting, the antagonisms,
the politics, the scheming, the betrayals, the bravery, the motives, the
competence, the incompetence, and the character of all involved. The first
narrative of the expedition was Stanley’s best seller In Darkest Africa. In
that book Stanley painted himself as hero and protagonist without peers.
In fact, Stanley was aloof, selfish, and haunted by his humble origins. He was
motivated by the prospects for fame and fortune. He focused on results. He
had no friends or colleagues on the expedition, only subordinates.
Later publications of letters, diaries and memoirs by his
British companions cast considerable doubt on Stanley’s version of events,
especially his leadership and management styles. The authors of the book used the
various accounts of the expedition throughout the saga to paint an authentic portrait
of the expedition, of its people, of the hardships, and of the decisions made
and not made. Especially revealing are
the roles that Stanley’s British subordinates played. Indeed, without them –
and Stanley gave them little credit in his opus – the expedition would not have
survived. Major Barttelot, William
Bonny, James Jameson, Arthur Jephson, Dr. Parke, Lt. Stairs, Herbert Ward, and
even notorious Arab slaver Tippu Tib, all played important roles in the
expedition’s various fortunes. Consequently, The Last Expedition
provides contemporary readers with an accurate recitation of the reality of the
expedition to rescue Emin Pasha. It is terrific readable history!
Afterword – Readers will note various citations, not
just from Stanley, but from others mentioned above, employed to underline
points in the text. Indeed, as the authors later explain, in the years after
the expedition was completed, the contrasting points of view provided fodder
for Britian’s popular press. The sanctimonious anti-Stanley hoopla certainly
tarnished his reputation but could not refute the fact that he was the 19th
century’s most intrepid explorer.
