“We have at last entered the town. There are hundreds of people around me--I might say thousands without exaggeration, it seems to me. It is a grand triumphal procession. As we move they move. All eyes are drawn towards us. The expedition at last comes to a halt; the journey is ended for a time; but I alone have a few more steps to make.
“There is a group of the most respectable Arabs, and as I come nearer I see the white face of an old man among them. He has a cap with a gold band around it, his dress is a short jacket of red blanket cloth and pants. I am shaking hands with him. We raise our hats, and I say:--
And thus was the goal won after long and toilsome and dangerous journeyings, many hundred miles of them never before looked upon by the eye of white man. It was a triumph magnificently demonstrating the progress of humanity, science, and civilization; and it must be universally regarded as an achievement remarkably and most happily representative of the spirit of the age, since it was accomplished, not by the power and wealth of prince, or potentate, or government, but by the irrepressible enterprise of an AMERICAN NEWSPAPER.
The Great Explorer as a Companion -- His Missionary Labors -- The Story of His Latest Explorations -- The Probable Sources of the Nile -- Great Lakes and Rivers -- The Country and People of Central Africa -- A Race of African Amazons -- Slave Trade -- A Horrid Massacre -- The Discoverer Plundered.
Mr. Stanley, rather contrary, it would seem, to his expectations, found Dr. Livingstone an exceedingly companionable and agreeable gentleman. He had been led to suppose that the explorer of Africa was haughty and reserved in manner. Instead, he found him hospitable, most generous, and as open and unaffected as a child. He deferred reading his own letters, brought by Mr. Stanley, until he had the general news of the world during the long period in which he had been “lost.” Then, he read of home, and gave the commander of the “Herald” expedition an account of his explorations. The result of these interviews is contained in a letter dated at Bunder Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, December 26, 1871, from which we largely extract as follows:
“The goal was won. _Finis coronat opus._ I might here stop very well--for Livingstone was found--only the ‘Herald’ I know will not be satisfied with one story, so I will sit down to another; a story so interesting, because he, the great traveller, the hero Livingstone, tells most of it himself.