STANLEY, Sir HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). An Afric•:ua explorer. lie was born at Denbigh, Wales, the son of John Rowlands, who died when the boy was two years old. When sixteen years old he worked his way on a sailing vessel to New• Orleans, where he found employment in the office of a merchant, named Stanley, who be came his friend. For this reason the youth changed his name to that of his benefactor. He nlisted in the Confederate Army and in the bat tle of Shiloh (1862) was taken prisoner, but man aged to escape and soon after returned to his 11 elsh home. In 1863 he went to New York, en listed in the Federal Navy, was assigned to the flagship Ticonderoga, and soon became secretary to the admiral. For gallantry in swimming 500 yards under fire to fix a •line to a Confederate steamer lie was made an officer. After the war he left the navy and in 1867 acted as newspaper correspondent in one of the Indian campaigns in the West. In 1868 he was sent by the New York IG•ralcl to Abyssinia with the British expedition under Sir Robert Napier. In 1869 the Herald dispatched Stanley to find David Livingstone (q.v.) in Central Africa. After spending a year in traveling through various countries of the East, Stanley started from Zanzibar February 5, 1871, with about 200 men, and on November 10th met the feeble and almost helpless Living stone at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika (q.v.), nursed him back to better health, and, as he de clined to return to Europe, gave him the supplies needed to continue his explorations. After taking part with Livingstone in an exploration of the northern end of Lake Tanganyika, Stanley re turned to Europe in 1872, and in 1873 was sent by the Herald to West Africa to report the Brit ish campaign against the Ashantis.
In 1874 Stanley determined to take up the exploration of Africa where Livingstone had left it. The New York Herald and the London Doily Telegraph shared the expense of fitting out this expedition. On November 12, 1874, Stanley left Bagamoyo, near Zanzibar, with 356 men in his caravan, including three young white men. Stanley's first great work was a boat survey of the coasts of the Victoria Nyanza (q.v.). He also
spent some time with the Waganda on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza. To the west of the Vic toria Nyanza Stanley discovered the Nitta Nzige (Lake Albert Edward), one of the head reservoirs of the Nile. He found that the Kagera or Alexandra Nile. rising near Lake Tanganyika, was the most important feeder of the Victoria Nyanza. Arriving at Tanganyika (I876), he sought in vain for its outlet, the fact being that the level of the lake was then so low that no water was passing through the Lill:11ga into the Congo (q.v.). his expedition had been greatly enfeebled by fever and smallpox, but lie pushed westward to Nyangwe, on the Lualaba, which Livingstone and Cameron had visited. Stanley determined to make his way down the great river, and in November, 1876, embarked on the perilous journey. He was frequently at tacked by cannibals, thousands of whom some times pursued him in canoes, and if it had not been for his guns his expedition would undoubt edly have perished. After a voyage of over 1500 miles, in the course of which he twice crossed the equator, he emerged on the Atlantic coast, having lifted the veil that had hitherto hung over the Congo. which was thus shown to be the same river as the Lualaba. On August 9, 1877, the party marched into Boma. on the lower Coto, 999 days after leaving Zanzibar, having traveled over 7000 miles, Besides his three white companions Stanley lost 170 of his porters. In the spring of 1879 Stanley sailed again for Africa under the auspices of the Africa International Association (q.v.), and began five years of inces sant toil, founding his stations from Vivi, on the lower Congo, to Stanley Falls, about 1300 miles up the river, making treaties with 450 native chiefs, carrying all his supplies and steamboats in sections on the heads of men 235 miles around the rapids of the lower Congo, building station houses, and planting gardens. The years ]S85 and 1886 were a period of comparative rest for the explorer, who had now been the recipient of honors from learned societies all over the world and was the most distinguished of living ex plorers.