Stanley now desired to return to Africa to determine geographical problems left unsolved by the deaths of Livingstone and Speke, and the discovery by Sir Samuel Baker of Albert Nyanza, a lake then reputed to extend illim itably in a southerly direction. A fund was raised by Lord Burn ham, Gordon Bennett and others for an Anglo-American expedi tion under Stanley's command. This expedition lasted from Oc tober 1874 to August 1877 and accomplished more than any other single exploring expedition in Africa. Politically the journey led to the foundation of the Congo State and to the partition of the hitherto unappropriated regions of Africa between the states of western Europe. Stanley started from the east coast and reached the ocean again at the mouth of the Congo, having demonstrated the identity of that river with Livingstone's Lualaba by navigating its course from Nyangwe—the point at which both Livingstone and Lovett Cameron had turned aside.
Of the three white men who accompanied him all died during the journey; Stanley himself was prematurely aged. The dis covery of the course of the Congo, though the greatest, was but one of many geographical problems solved during this memorable expedition. The part played by the Kagera in the Nile system, the unity and approximate area of Victoria Nyanza, the true length and area of Tanganyika and the whereabouts of its outlet, and the discovery of a new lake, Dweru, which at the time Stanley believed to be a branch of Albert Nyanza, are some of the other discoveries made by Stanley at this time. The story of the expedition was given at length in Through the Dark Continent (London, 1878). Stanley's letters from Uganda and his call for missionaries to go to the court of Mtesa met with an immediate response and proved the first step in bringing the region of the Nile sources under the protection of Great Britain. Commercially the discovery of a navigable waterway penetrating the heart of Africa, was of paramount importance, a fact which was grasped by Leopold II., king of the Belgians, who sent commissioners to intercept Stanley at Marseilles, when he was on his way back to England, with proposals to return to the Congo, proposals which Stanley, much needing rest, put aside for the time. In November, 1878, Stanley went to Brussels and entered into the schemes of the Belgian king.
A Comite d'etudes du Haut Congo was formed and Stanley was entrusted with the leadership of the new expedition. Stanley reached the Congo in August 1879, and the work he accomplished there in the ensuing five years enabled the comae, which had meantime changed its name to that of Asso ciation internationale du Congo, to obtain the recognition of America and Europe to its transformation into an independent state
Congo Free State") under the sovereignty of King Leopold. Stanley described his labours in The Congo and the
Founding of its Free State (London, 1885). For the political as pects of the question see AFRICA (§ 5) and CONGO FREE STATE.
He was restricted by the enterprise of the French traveller de Brazza, who, reaching Stanley Pool by a more northern route, placed the neighbouring districts on the north bank of the Congo under French protection (188o). Stanley returned to Europe in the middle of 1884 and attended the Berlin Conference of 1884 1885, which dealt with African affairs, acting as technical adviser of the American plenipotentiaries.
Stanley now became interested in the schemes of Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Mackinnon for es tablishing a British protectorate in East Equatorial Africa, and it was believed that this object could be furthered at the same time that relief was afforded to Emin Pasha (q.v.), governor of the Equatorial Province of Egypt, who had been isolated by the Mandist rising of 1881-1885. Stanley agreed to conduct an expedition, nominally in the service of the khedive of Egypt, for the relief of Emin. He decided to go by way of Zanzibar and the Congo State. He left Europe in January 1887 and at Zan zibar entered into an agreement with Tippoo Tib, the chief of the Congo Arabs, appointing him governor of Stanley Falls station on behalf of the Congo State, and making another arrangement with him to supply carriers for the expedition. On June 15, Yambuya, on the lower Aruwimi, was reached, and here Stanley left his rear guard under command of Major E. M. Barttelot and Mr. J. S. Jameson. On the 28th Stanley and the advance-guard started for Albert Nyanza, "and until Dec. 5, for 16o days, we marched through the forest, bush and jungle, without ever having seen a bit of greensward of the size of a cottage chamber floor. Nothing but miles and miles, endless miles of forest." Starvation, fever, the hostility of the tribes, were daily incidents of this terrible march, during which Stanley lost nearly 50% of his men. On Dec. 13, Albert Nyanza was reached, and after some delay communication was opened with Emin, whO came up the lake from the Nile in a steamer. Disquieted by the non-arrival of his rearguard, Stanley retraced his steps, and on Aug. 17, 1888, a short distance above Yambuya, found that Tippoo Tib had broken faith, that Barttelot had been murdered, that Jameson (who soon after wards died of fever) was absent at Stanley Falls, and that only one European, William Bonny, was left in the camp.