Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 146.djvu/174

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156
The Critical Position of Europeans in Central Africa.
[July 1889.

Stanley "intends forcing his way with Emin through Masailand to Mombasa," which is our expectation again confirmed almost in so many words. But it appears that Tippoo Tip has "met with Stanley," and had announced his intention of being in Zanzibar in November. This is not good news. There can now be no doubt whatever, as has been shown above, of the cruel treachery of the Governor of Stanley Falls; and we would again earnestly urge that public attention should be given without delay to the simple and truthful narrative of Mr Werner in chapters ix., x., xi., and xiii. of the volume quoted above. We can hardly believe that Tippoo will venture into Zanzibar of his own free will, placing the barrier of Wissmann's military operations on land and of the joint-blockade at sea between him and his happy hunting-grounds. Bat it is just possible that he might carry bravado so far, and the public opinion of Zanzibar regarding slavery is exceedingly debased in comparison with that of Britain. It is therefore of the most urgent importance that his true character and deeds should be fully known, in order to his being brought to justice. He is supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Congo Free State, in which case he could be handed over to its authorities. It is probable, however, that his ill-starred relations to that State have ceased by this time (see pp. 147, 148, supra), in which case it would fall to the British representatives at Zanzibar to take action against the man who gave orders for the murder of Major Barttelot.

Unless some great disaster has befallen the caravan, Stanley and Emin must now be far on their way to us. What is quite certain is, that another large tract of country, where Europeans have not been since 1861 and 1862, when Speke and Grant followed the Nile out of the inland sea which creates it—the country between the Nile and Kavirondo—has been crossed; and thus Stanley will have to tell us fully, what we partly know from his letters, of the way from the Congo to the Albert Lake, of the adventures he has met with between the Albert Lake and the Victoria, and of his march through Masailand—an immense addition to our knowledge.