STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON, an English explorer; born near Denbigh, Wales, in 1840; name originally John Rowlands. When three years old he be came an inmate of the poorhouse at St. Asaph, where he made such progress in the school that he was employed as a teacher of other children at Mold, Flint shire, when he went away at the age of 13. Two years later he sailed as cabin boy on board a vessel bound for New Orleans, and in that city he found a friend in a merchant, who adopted him and gave him his own name, but died leaving no will. Young Stanley, left to his own resources, went to California, where he sought his fortune in the gold mines. When the Civil War broke out he became a soldier in the Confederate army. He was made prisoner, and sub sequently took service in the United States navy, becoming acting ensign on the ironclad "Ticonderoga." After the close of the war he became a newspaper correspondent, writing a series of letters from Crete and Asia Minor. When the English expedition was sent against King Theodore of Abyssinia in 1867 he accompanied it as commissioner of the New York "Herald." He made his repu tation as a correspondent by sending an account of Lord Napier's victory to Lon don before the official dispatches arrived. In 1868 he went to Spain to report the Carlist War for the same paper. He was called away from there in October, 1869, to go in search of Dr. David Livingstone in Africa, from whom no news had been received for more than two years, and who was reported to have been killed, but whom James G. Bennett, proprietor of the "Herald," believed to be still alive. He arrived at Zanzibar in January, 1871, where he organized a large expedition of 192 men, which he sent off in five parties.
His objctive point was Ujiji, which he reached, and found Livingstone, Nov. 10, 1871. After remaining with the veteran Scotch missionary and explorer four months he returned, Livingstone refus ing to give up his enterprise till he had completed his work. In 1874 he set out on a second African expedition for the "Herald" and London "Daily Telegraph." At Zanzibar he learned that Livingstone had died in the autumn on the shore of Lake Bangweolo. He reached Victoria Nyanza in February, 1875. He was the first to circumnavigate Victoria Lake, and discovered the Shimeeyu river. He reached England again in February, 1878. Then came the Belgian enterprise, out of which was developed the Free State of Kongo, with Stanley as its con ductor, with large means at his disposal. Near the close of 1886 Stanley, under the auspices of the Egyptian Government and of English societies and individuals, un dertook an expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha. For this purpose he left England in January, 1887, and returned in 1890, after escorting Emin Bey and a large troop of followers from the in terior to the coast. He wrote "How I Found Livingstone," "Through the Dark Continent," "Congo and the Founding of its Free State," "Congo and the Slave Trade," "In Darkest Africa," "Through South Africa," etc. He was made a D. C. L. of Oxford University in 1890, and the same year was married to Miss Doro thy Tennant in Westminster Abbey. In 1890-1891 he made a lecturing tour of the United States, and in 1895 was elected to Parliament. He died May 10, 1904.