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Henry Morton Stanley's first African expedition was in 1871, on assignment for The New York (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/new-york) Herald to find Livingstone, who was assumed dead. Stanley's famous question upon finding him, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" made Stanley a household name in the explorer frenzy that followed Livingstone's journeys. Although not a scientist, Stanley was sent back out to answer the geographic questions left following Livingstone's death in 1873. Among these, Stanley set out in 1874 to circumnavigate the enormous Lake Victoria to see if it was a single body of water, and—more importantly—to see if it was the much-sought-after source of the Nile River. Stanley also planned to circumnavigate Lake Tanganyika (/places/africa/african-physical-geography/laketanganyika), to see if it was the source of the Nile, as Burton had suggested. Finally, Stanley planned to finish Livingstone's work of mapping the Lualaba River. Livingstone had theorized that the Lualaba, which flowed from Lake Bangweolo, was quite possibly the Nile itself. (Others thought that the Lualaba was the same as the Congo River, not the Nile.)

British missionary David Livingstone (/people/history/explorers-travelers-and-conquerorsbiographies/david-livingstone) (1813-1873), while partly on a quest to seek the elusive source of the Nile, discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls (/places/africa/african-physicalgeography/victoria-falls). Livingstone's expedition went on to discover parts of the main network of Africa's largest rivers, including the Congo, but his work remained unfinished, leaving many questions that Stanley would soon answer.

Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) and John Hanning Speke (/people/history/explorers-travelers-and-conquerors-biographies/john-hanning-speke) (18271864) explored part of Lake Victoria and a section of the Nile, and theorized that either Victoria or Lake Tanganyika (/places/africa/african-physical-geography/lake-tanganyika), southwest of Victoria, was the river's source

It took four months for Stanley to meet the banks of Tanganyika, but he circumnavigated it successfully in 51 days.

Verney Lovett

The Congo, as Stanley had now surmised that the Lualaba and the Congo were the same river, would have nearly 200 miles (320 km) of the most severe rapids he would encounter.

Stanley's journey also concluded what we know about the character of the Congo River: from its source, just south of Lake Tanganyika, the river begins as the Lualaba, heads southwestward to Lake Bangweolo, then turns north to the Zambia/Zaire border to Lake Mweru, where it becomes the Congo. The mighty river crosses the equator twice, placing it in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. After 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of a wild path through extreme landscapes, it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

Some of the latest and best authorities fix the foundation of Memphis by Menes at 4000 years B. C., and the building of the pyramids at 500 years later; the obelisk of Heliopolis and the tombs of Beni Hassan at 3000, all of which necessarily implies onie or two thousand years of previous consolidation to create an empire capable of such achievements.

Finally the Turks, under Sultan Selim, conquered Egypt in 1517, and hold it to this day.

wondrou

Its soil was trod by Abraham and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, as well as by Herodotus, Pythagoras and Plato. After the glories of the Pharaohs and the conquests of Cambyses, came those of Alexander. Then followed the Ptolemies, Anthony and Cleopatra, Pompey and Caesar and Augustus.

he Nile,

In the Soudan, negro blood begins to predominate. To these elements must be added 90,000 Circassians, Jews, Syrian s and Armenians, 40,000 Turks and about 100,000 Europeans; and in the deserts, 300,000 Bedouins who are of a type entirely different from all the rest, being nearly all of pure Arab blood

Mohammed Ali was born at Cavalla, in Macedonia, on the Gulf of Salonica, in 176

t Memlooks would soon treat him as they had done all his predecessors, he resolved to suiypress them. Suimmoned to the citadel of Cairo on the 1st of March, 1811, for a state ceremony, they repaired there on horseback, about 800 strong. The ouiter gate, Bab-el-azab, was closed on them, and the first inner gate al

, Mohammed Ali organized his army upon the European model, with the assistance of numerous French officers, and commenced all these reforms in civil as well as military matters which have placed Egypt so far ahead of other Mussulman countries. He died insane in 1849.

Ibrahim-Pasha, his son, exercised a short time the functions of regent, but died before his father. He was a great soldier, and twice-in 1832 and 1839-he would have driven the Sultan out of Constantinople had he not been stopped in the height of victory by the European power

r Mohammed Ali came Abbas-Pasha, a cruel tyrant, who died by violence in 1854; then Said-Pasha, and in 1863 Ismall-Pasha, the son of Ibrahim, who was forced to abdicate a year or two ago.

Ismagl-Pasha, the deposed Khedive, was once the most belauded of men, as he became afterwards the best abused; yet he might say, in the words of the French poet: " Wais je n'ai m6ritO Ni cet excbs d'honneur ni cette indignit6."

" Modern Egypt and its People.

Pompey's pillar, nearly 100 feet total height, the shaft being of a single piece of red Syenite granite, highly polished, 73 feet in length, was erected about the year 300 of our era, in honor of Diocletian, and had no more connection with Pompey the Great than Cleopatra's needles with Cleopat

Egypt should perish of hunger. Ismail's greatest error was in not tendering a compromise of 50 per cent. of his debL, which would have been accepted gladly, and 3 or 4 per cent. interest, instead of 12 and 14 and 20, which he had been paying for years.

His son, the present Khedive, has much less ability than his father, and is a mere figurehead, the consuls and commissioners having virtual control. The ex-Khedive and his sons are well educated for Orientals, and in their habits and mode of living, are quite European except as regards the hareem. They all speak French fluentl

Alexandria, or Iskanderia, as the Arabs call it, is the great seaport of Egypt, founded and named by Alexander 332 B.

The Arab quarters are inhabited by about 200,000 natives, and the European population amount to 60,000 more

Out of a debt of one hundred millions of pounds Egypt never realized over forty-five millions, and the suffering inflicted upon his people by excessive taxation was partly due to his extravagance,

They were originally at Heliopolis, but were brought to Alexandria under Tiberius. They bear the hieroglyphics of Thotmes III. (1500) and Rameses II. (Sesostris the Great), 1400 B.C.

The distance is 130 miles; time, four hours and a half, over a perfectly level country, for Cairo, 12 miles above the apex of the Delta, is only 40 feet above the sea level.

e "'New Hotel

emple, and you would not be astonished if from it issue the Caliph Haroun-al-Rasbid with his faithful Mesrour, or the very same three Calenders whose adventures are recorded in the "Arabian Nights," and I could vow that I have seen the very oil jars in which Ali-Baba's forty thieves were scalded to death. There are the same bazars, with the same little shops, mere recesses in the wall, where the merchant, sitting cross-legged, can reach without rising every shelf in his shop. There he sits all day smoking his chibook and wa

ge English horses and full of lovely, half-veiled, fair Circassian and Georgian women. Two mounted janizaries, with long pistols in their holsters and curved scimetars at their sides, gallop some twenty yards in front. Behind come four syces, in pairs, with cressets full of burDing light-wood, then two more syces with wands. At each side of the carriage rides a mounted eunuch, and a pair of them follow the carriage, and behind them, another couple of mounted janizaries. They pass you at full speed, the flashing of dark eyes mingling with that of diamon

. Just between the New Hotel and Shepherd's Hotel, in the most frequented part of the European quarter, stands a building whose history brings all the darkness of the Middle Ages in juxtaposition with modern civilization. It is a palace of Arab architecture, surrounded by a palm grove and enclosed within a lofty stone wall. In that palace, less than twenty-five years ago, lived the widowed daughter of Mohammed Ali-the widow of the famous Defterda

She was a beautiful and talented woman, but licentious and cruel

This princess whose power at couirt was very great, was one of the chief actors in the assassination of her nephew, Abbas-Pasha, in 185

. It is a small city in itself, three or four times more extensive than the Tower of London. It contains a vast palace, once inhabited by Mohammed Ali, and his tomb in the mosk, which he built of Oriental alabaster and whose minarets are miracles of architectural bol

! The unequalled moon of Egypt has just risen above the Mokattan range, and its silver light mingles with the fiery glow of departing day. As you now stand nothing lies before you but the tombs of the Caliphs and the Arab cemeteries scattered in dreary ravines of yellow sand

ore. I once had an orderly, a Copt Christian named Girgis, or George, about fifty-five years old. TIe said he had beeni more than twenty-five years in service and, having no friends to apply for his release, he did not know that he would ever be discharged.

Their white cotton uniforms (short tunics, baggy zouave trouisers, and gaiters over their substanitial army shoes) are well suited to the climate and make a very good appearance. They are exceedingly weell drilled upon the French system of tactics. The infantry are armed with the best American Remington rifles. The cavalry are extremely well mounted and equipped. The artillery are well organized and have several batteries of the best Krupp guns. The officers are thoroughly acquainted with the routine of service, but the best of them are utterly ignorant of the higher branches of military science. They, as well as their soldiers, understand perfectly all the details of military life.

In one word, they possess all thebest qualities of soldiers except one-the fighting quality. This probably is due in part to the oppression of centuries, the Egyptian people having beenl ruled bv a foreign conqueror for 2,400 y

The subordinate officers are hardly a shade better than the men, and the high Pashas think only of their ease and personal safety. At the battle of Guy Khoor, in Abyssinia, the Pashas and Colonels, with Prince Hassan at their head, led the flight before the fight had fairly begun, and when my gallant frienid General Dye, severely wounded, tried to stern the tide of the retreating troops, the soldiers said to hi

Egyptian army from a defeat as complete as that of Isandula, for the Abyssinians fight as desperately as the Zulus. It is true that two or three Arab officers of high rank fought bravely and were killed on the field, buit they were the exception. Ratib-Pasha, who commanded the army, saw his extreme right flank-one battalion and a battery, which he had imprudently left isolated about twelve hundred yards off-surrounded by a multitude of Abyssinians, who rushed for that ga

There are also large barracks, military schools, all the bureaus of the War Department, arsenals, vast magazines, workshops and a cannon foundry. Also the famous well of Joseph, 270 feet deep, so called, not from the Joseph of Scripture, but from Saladin, whose name was Yusu

The line-officers, nearly all natives, did not show any dislike to the Christian staff-officers, even if they felt it. When the financial difficulties culminated in 1878, the English and French comptrollers, who had virtually assumed the government, ordered a great reduction of the army and the discharge of all the foreign officers, which resulted in the practical abolition of the staff. There were now left in the army only two elements-the native or fellah, and the Turco-Circassian. The Turks have hitherto occupied nearly all the high positions, civil and military, for they still retain their prestige as the conquerors of Egypt.

The ex-Khedive, IsmaYl-Pasha, was a regular purchaser of twenty or thirty of them every year. It is the highest ambition of a Circassian girl to be sold to the Sultan or some of his chief officers. If she succeeds in becoming a favorite, her brothers hasten to sbare her fortunes by obtaining civil or military appointments. This accounts for there being so many Circassians in high places in Turkey and Egypt. Ratib-Pasha, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army under Ismail-Pasha, was a Cireassiani. (See Appendix A.) Until the close of the Abyssinian war, the Egyptian army seemed to be absolutely submissive to its Prince.

" Holy War,"

The most prominent were Generals Mott, Sibley, Loring, Stone, who held the rank of Pashas (Generals); Reynolds, Dye, Field, Long, Prout, Lockett, Ward, Purdy andl Mason, who ranked as Beys or Colonels

te. Several of my esteemed comrades in those expeditions-Campbell, Losche, Lamnson-left their bones in the deserts of the Soudan, and others returnied with impaired constitutions.

l Obeyad, the capital of Kordofan, after unspeakable sufferings. There I was joined by that talented and accomplished officer, Col. H. G. Prout, to whom I turned over the comnmand. The surgeon anw everybody else gave me up to die, and I thought my days had reached their term. But I began to mend slowly, and after six months I started back for Cairo.

El Obeyad from Suakim on the Red Sea, where I took a steamer for Suez and thence by rail to Cairo. All the Americans except Gen. Stone are now out of the Egyptian army, but I can assert with

They stop every two or three hundred yards while the discordant music strikes up and a hired male dancer goes through some absurd contortions

f Dr. Parsons, the American missionary, and they will never be hanged unless the United States send a squadron to require it. Our Secretary of State in his last report states that the demands of his department on this subject have been evaded.

On my second -expedition to Kordofan, one of the soldiers of my escort, rejoicing in the name of Abou-la-nane, came to me on the eve of our departure from Cairo, and stated that he had married a wife from a village far up the Nile. Would I permit him to take his wife on the boat and leave her at her village with her relatives; otherwise she would starve from misery in Cairo. This was probably a subterfuge, but I consented. Arriving at the village after several days, Abou-la-nane came and said that all his wife's relations were dead, and if she was left there she would starve more certainly than in Cairo. " Would his Excellency the Bey (that was myself) permit him to take her along?" I told him that if he did she would certainly surely die in the desert from the hardships we would

One night at Dongola, on the Upper Nile, after retreat, the whole camp was startled by the wails and moanings of Hafizah, the soldier's wife. He had become jealous of the attentions of the sergeant of artiller

The sentence was irrevocable. Fortunately theire were no witnesses, and he stoutly denied having used the triple formula, only the simple one. So they went before the cadi and got married again, and everything was altogether lovely. I may as well state here that my kitid treatment of Abou-la-nane and his wife was "bread cast on the waters." When in the heart of Kordofan, soldiers and servants were dying or prostrated by fevers, and I was at the point of death, this little weak, puny woman was never sick a day, and did all the coQking and washing at headquarters wheni no one else could be found to do it. When I was transported back to Cairo, Abou-la-nane was detailed as one of my escort, and he returned safely to Cairo with his wife. Another anecdote to illustrate inatrimonial customs: The house in which I dwelt the last four mnonths of my residence in Egypt was in Alexandria, just behind the English chuirc

" His Excellency Belhram Aga, Chief of the Eunuchs," rode past on a magnificent charger, the orders of the Osmanie and Medschidje glittering on his breast, followed by Ahmed Bey and a number of the adjutants of the Sultan. When he arrived at the gate of the palace, lambs were slaughtered before him as a token of welcome.

he Sultan sent across to his new official two symbols of office, a written document and a magnificent silver pastoral staff worked in relief, which is never handled by any but the Agas of the imperial hare

Mediterranean Sea.

fierce storms

Portugal’s exploring aims were largely commercial. The Portuguese wanted to find a sea route around Africa to the riches of Asia. Like other European powers, they wanted to trade directly in valuable Asian spices. The older trade routes to Asia were becoming increasingly blocked to them.

The Portuguese wanted to end Muslim control over northern Africa. That desire was one of several reasons why Portugal explored the continent in the 15th century. Spreading Christianity in Africa was another motive for Portuguese exploration, along with scientific curiosity. They also sought great wealth.

The Portuguese also wanted to establish trade with western Africa. Gold, ivory, and African slaves had long been traded across the Sahara to Muslims in the north.

By the time Henry died in 1460, his navigators had explored the coast as far south as Sierra Leone. For a time the Portuguese were busy fighting the Moroccans, and few exploring expeditions were sent out. John II became king of Portugal in 1481. Under John, the Portuguese once again began exploring Africa regularly

stone pillar

For the next 15 years, Livingstone was constantly on the move in the African interior. First, he ventured north of Cape Town into the Kalahari, a vast dry plain. By 1842 he had already traveled farther north in the Kalahari than any other European. In 1844 he traveled to Mabotsa to establish a mission station. Along the way he was mauled by a lion, and his left arm was injured. The following year Livingstone married Moffat’s daughter Mary. She accompanied him on many of his travels.

Modern exploration of the Nile basin began when Egypt conquered Sudan starting in 1821. As a result, the Egyptians learned more about the courses of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. A Turkish officer, Selim Bimbashi, led three expeditions between 1839 and 1842. Two of them reached the point in what is now South Sudan where rapids make navigation of the Nile difficult.

By April he was at Mikindani ready to start on his third and last African journey,

menagerie

which terminated in his death in May, I87

Bomba

Bomba

Livingstone's lack of discipline and the general " go as you please" nature of his last expedition shows that his former power of handling Natives had deserted him with his rapidly failing health. He was a sick man, unable to cope with the strenuous demands of travelling in equatorial Afnca under the conditions then prevailing. From here onwards his progress was slow and tedious, and space allows a summary only of the particulars of his route.

tsets

the particulars of his route. Nyas

and journeying rapidly back to the Coast informed the acting Consul General at Zanzibar that he had been murdered by Zulus, and that they had barely escaped with their lives

plodding

which he finally sighted on April ISt, and here temporarily broke down, being too ill with fever to move, falling down in fits of insensibility and sometimes suffering from temporary paralysis of the limbs,

Tanganyika

Ujiji,

It was at this juncture, almost sick unto death and in deepest depression, that Stanley reached him in October, I87I.

L;vingstone was mad with the idea of finding the Nile sources and obsessed with the idea that the Lualaba, which he had first reached in January, 867, must be the Upper Nil

source of the Blue Nile well

the explorer must be scientific, his expertise and accuracy in using the sextant and chronometer to determine exactly where it was he had been on the earth's surface being mirrored by the precision and accuracy of the descriptions and images he offered on his return.

Alejandro Malaspina

draughtsmen

distortion

ivory is white, opaque, and smooth, it is gently curved, and easily worked, and has what might be called 'spring'. Hard ivory, on the other hand, is translucent, glossy and of a heavier specific gravity than soft ivory; it is more subject to extremes of temperature and more difficult to carve.

first attempt to check the ivory trade. Both were appalled at the scale of destruction of t

In 1866, he embarked on what was supposed to be his last and greatest expedition: a quest to locate the fabled source of the Nile River.

s too. It was not just that Europeans now began to arrive in larger numbers, demand more and

ample,

Europeans,

omoted

to switch from

In the period of exploration the most notable visitors for the majority of East Africans were not the European explorers so much as other Africans and, more particularly, the Swahili and Arab traders from the coast and Zanzibar. By the late 1870s again, it might be argued, some sort of accommodation showed signs of being reached between these traders and many African

'Scientific geography' did, in fact, mean, more than anything, the recording of accurate observations for latitude, longitude and height on the basis of which satis? factory maps could be constructed. In this sense, the 'discovery' of a feature like the source of the Nile was indeed a discovery for it definitively established a scientific fact.

'scientific geo

appear to have been in the Society mainly because it was part of the fashionable London scene. Many such individuals may have joined because they considered their continental tours made them explorers but it seems reasonable to distinguish as a separate group the wealthy amateur travellers and big-game hunters who constitute 4 per cent of the sample. But much larger than all these groups except the scholars, bulks the servicemen, no less than 47 (23 per cent) of the sample being

out th

Clements Markha

r. There was in fact much more social and political cohesion in East African societies than most explorer

Although the British government moved to increase its control over East Africa for reasons that involve much wider considerations, the apparent need to improve law and order provided at least a very powerful justification. Indeed it was a necessary part of the process by which imperial objects could be achie

precursors. It is much more difficult to attempt an answer to the question of what Africans learned or thought they learned about Europeans during the period of exploration in East Africa. Obviously, first of all, the explorers' direct social and economic impact was slight. It is true that Captain Speke seems to have fathered a daughter in Buganda by one of the Kabaka's

Krapf was in a weak position and could not be more than a pawn but Speke, for example, had too large a following of reasonably well-organized porters to be taken entirely for granted. It was therefore possible for him to be a desirable ally for one side or the other in the war between the Tabora Arabs and Mnwya Sera; in the event, he tried to mediate in the dispute with some effect (Bridges, 1971). Stanley, who had an even more formidable caravan on his expeditions, and who, unlike all the other explorers, showed a willingness to act in a ruthless way, did frequently intervene as, for instance, in the war between Mirambo and the Arabs in 1

European explorers could, then, have a noticeable political effect although generally only in the short term. In the longer term, their special characteristics probably operated in different and less easily described ways. Early European visits to Buganda were marked by great questionings of the explorers on the place of Man in Society and in t

Amru soon undertook the conquest of the north of Africa; after his death, in 664~ the Egyptian Governor, Okba~ seized Eezzan, founded Kairwan, and advanced as far as the frontiers of Marocco, which, since 618, had belonged to the Visigoths of Spain. After the battle of Maluya, all Marocco, as far as Ceuta, fell into the hands of the Arabs. The Berbers, who at first opposed, in a short time nearly all adopted, Islamism, and, for the most part, the Arab language as well. Sixty- six years sufficed for the Arabs and Islam to subdue all the north of Africa, fl'om Egypt to the Atlantic.

within tile pale of Islam. The sovereigns of Sokoto extended their power over Adamawa, and the father of the present sultan, iY[allem Adama, founded a new Mohammedan kingdom on the ruins of several pagan States, of which the most important was Kokomi. When the work of destruction was accomplished, the conquerors began to colonise and reconstruct ; after having ravaged immense stretches of country they attempted to cultivate it afresh ; and in order to establish political unity, destroyed a great number of natives, so that the scattered States, once joined under their seeptre, became available for extensive commercial relations. Thus, the explorer Joseph Thomson writes in the Contem- porary .Review that in comparing the degraded populations of the Coast of Guinea and the banks of the Lower Niger with those of the Central Sudan, what he saw there gave him a very different impression from what he had expected to see. Although he was in the heart of Africa, in the midst of veritable Negroes, they were very different from those he had met in his travels. He found there large and well-built towns, well-clothed people, behaving with self-possessed dignity; and everywhere signs of an in- dustrious community, highly advanced in the path of civilisation, carry- ing on different trades; the various metals were worked, stuffs were spun and dyed, and the markets were thronged with people. Savage tribes had been transformed into semi-civilised nations l Fetichism, with its degrading superstitions, had disappeared before Islam, which had in- spired the Negroes with a new and vigorous life. Thomson adds that Islam reigns at the present day from the. Nile to the Atlantic, and from the Sahara as far as the sixth or even the fourth degree north of the Equator.

According to Paulitschke, Islam is making great progress amongst the Gallas. The great tribe of Day has embraced Islamism, while the Walashi and Garura have remained pagan. However this may be, the Arabs are found everywhere in Eastern Africa, either in colonies of a few families, or as travellers. They are to be met with in all the towns of any importance in Southern Africa as far as the colony of Natal and Cape Town. Nevertheless, they do not sensibly influence the population there.

nence than the

ivory was obtained in sufficient quantity from the coast to meet deman

carving. It was in keen demand in the Orient because of its superior quality and because it was less expensive than that from south-e

East African ivory is soft ivory and is ideal f

risk of native wars and the best seasons for travel were all available to the enterprising trade

ut, writing in the i84os, the missionary Krapf observed that, although the elephant was still found in some areas near the coast, ivory caravans were now making regular trips into Usagara, Masailand and the Kikuyu countries

so large that it required three stalwart Akamba tribesmen to carry it. The ivory trade was lucrative, and the Masai, despite their vaunted aloofness, were eager to share in it, and strove to drive the Waboni tribe from the southern bank of the Sabaki River, so that they could gain access to the port of Malindi with their ivory

As the century went on, caravans travelling

bigger and bigger, until by 1885 it was not u

porters in a single caravan. The ivory caravans

that of ship chandlering. Information as to t

own, and the supply of their needs led to a sy

he ivory trader had to know his ivory, which varies from hard to soft. On the whole, the ivory of East Africa is of the soft variety. The dividing line between soft and hard is the Congo border; west of this line it is hard, to the east it is soft, although there are variations within each region. Buyers maintained that soft ivory came from areas where water was scarce; for example coastal ivory from near Pangani and Mombasa was never as good as that from the dry, upland regions of the interior. Soft ivory is white, opaque, and smooth, it is gently curved, and easily worked, and has what might be called 'spring'. Hard ivory, on the other hand, is translucent, glossy and of a heavier specific gravity than soft ivory; it is more subject to extremes of temperature and more difficult to carve.

armlets

being softer and malleable, were highly prize

It was difficult to find a perfect match of tusks. These are seldo

for 'just as a man uses his right hand in preference to his lef

elephant works with a particular

Garden of Eden, in the Book of Genesis.

Sultan of Zanzibar.