Death of Sir Henry M. Stanley.

1904

Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the most eminent of modern explorers, died May 10th, aged 63.

His career was like a chapter of romance. Born in Wales of parentage so lowly that he spent 10 years of his childhood in a poorhouse, he achieved world-wide fame as author and explorer, and became a knight and a member of the House of Commons. At the age of 15 he shipped as a cabin-boy to New Orleans, and was there adopted by a wealthy merchant, who gave him his name.

He served first in the Confederate and later in the Union army, and after the war became a newspaper writer and war correspondent.

In 1871 he was sent by the New York Herald to find Dr. David Livingstone, the English missionary, who had penetrated far into Africa, and from whom no tidings had been received for a long time. He organized an expedition, and penetrating inland from the eastern coast, found Livingstone at Ujiji.

In 1874, under the auspices of the New York Herald and the London Telegraph, he organized the "Anglo-American expedition," which, entering Africa from Zanzibar, emerged about three years afterward at the mouth of the Congo, having traversed the continent through trackless wildernesses, circumnavigated the great lake, the Victoria Nyanza, and explored the Congo.

In later expeditions he explored the Congo farther, and founded the Congo Free State; and relieved Emin Pasha, governor of Equatorial Africa, whose position had become precarious. He wrote several books and gave many lectures describing his travels. He was a contributor to The Companion. In 1895 he was elected to Parliament. — Youth's Companion.