Abstract
IN a private letter from Mr. H. M. Stanley, published yesterday, he says that when he reached Cairo he found that all the political authorities and experts there were opposed to the idea of his taking the Congo route. They thought that as the Expedition was to be armed with several hundred Remingtons and a machine-gun of the latest invention it was to be an offensive force, conducted after strict military rules, and that Mr. Stanley would therefore meet with no insuperable difficulties either by the Karagwé or by the Masai route. On this point he undeceived them, and he also showed that if serious righting were necessary his men would be wholly unable to meet great masses of native warriors. Besides, the probable result of a struggle with Uganda would be that Mr. Mackay, the missionary, and the French Bishop and Père, now in Mwanga's power, would be murdered. The total length of each land journey is given by Mr. Stanley as follows:—Congo route: Mataddi to Stanley Pool, 235 English miles; Stanley Falls to Lake Albert, 360 English miles—total 595 English miles. Karagwé route: Zanzibar to Lake Albert, 950 English miles. Masai route: viâ Taveta, Kenia, and Turkan, 925 English miles. Mr. Stanley also calculates the length of the various routes by days, assuming that only an average of six miles could be made daily. Congo route: land journeys, 99 days; Zanzibar to Congo, by steamer, 20 days; Lower Congo, by steamer, 3 days; Upper Congo, by steamer, 35 days. Total, 157 days. Karagwé route: land journey, 156 days. Masai route: land journey, 154 days.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 35, 353–354 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/035353b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035353b0