Well, some people may wonder why have we called our project in redeeming the media this year the Henry Morton Stanley School of Christian Journalism. So tonight I want to introduce you to the man who's inspired this whole project, Henry Morton Stanley, who I call the greatest journalist of all time. Now, I've met a number of journalists in the last year. in different parts of the world, including in Australia and America and Europe. And I said, who would you call the greatest journalist of all time? Wow, gee. And I started thinking. And I come up to somebody we would know today. And I said, no, but of all time. And, you know, okay, somebody who broke the Watergate scandal. One achievement, okay. Give me someone who's achieved more than that, more than just one scandal, one big epic, and so on. And when I've come out with Henry Morton Stanley, I've had all these journalists agree. They said, yes, he must be the greatest journalist of all time. And we'll justify that statement now. Henry Morton Stanley was one of the greatest explorers of all time. And throughout his incredible life, which was packed with adventure and conflict, he served as a soldier, on opposite sides of the same wall. He served as a sailor, a journalist, an explorer, an empire builder, a statesman, author, politician, and lecturer, and finally he's even knighted by Queen Victoria, which is quite extraordinary. Stanley is most famous for having found missionary explorer Dr. David Livingston after he'd been out of contact with outside world for many years and was presumed dead. In fact, people had already published that Livingston had died. Shows you can't believe everything you read in newspapers. His calm and most understated of comments having crossed half the continent Dr. Livingston, I presume. I mean, with only two white people between the Limpopo River and the Nile, but it must have been one of the most famous statements in popular memory worldwide. A lot of people may know nothing else about Henry Morton Stanley, but they know that. They know that statement. Dr. Livingston, I presume. But there was a lot more to his life than that. Throughout his life, Henry Morton Stanley experienced brutality, cruelty, starvation, disease, poverty, affliction, treachery, betrayal. and ultimately great honor, great success and great wealth. Of all the great explorers of Africa, David Livingston and Henry Morton Stanley stand head and shoulders above all the rest. Stanley and Livingston were very different men, but both of them made spectacular contributions to the development of Africa. Stanley stands out as the only journalist who found an empire. I've asked a few journalists if they can think of another journalist who found an empire, and they're like, nope, they can't think of that. Even spoke to a person who's been training journalists in university in Australia for years, and he said, Stanley's the only one I can think of who meets all these requirements. Although his primary occupation was meant to be recording history, he's most famous for having made history. Stanley stands out as extraordinarily tough and persistent, a model of perseverance, keeping on, keeping on, never giving up. Yet before his 24th birthday, Stanley had a long track record of frustration and failure, defeat and desertion. I mean, he actually hadn't done much right and good before he turned 24. No one could have predicted how this extraordinary man would develop and rise above all others in his achievements, especially in bringing civilization to what the world called the Dark Continent. The life of Henry Morton Stanley is full of surprises. And the first surprise is he wasn't born with the name Henry Morton Stanley. He was baptized John Rowlands. That's believed to be the name of his father. Stanley was born in disgrace, the illegitimate child of 19-year-old Miss Elizabeth Perry. I'm sure. At the time, nobody thought they'd have a historical sign of, you know, this is where he was born and so on, because he was a throwaway kid. Shortly before his birth, shortly after his birth, which was recorded 28th of January, 1841 in the parish register, his mother abandoned him into the hands of her father, Moses Perry, therefore his grandfather, and ran off to London. Economic disaster had reduced this old gentleman to living with his sons in a small cottage and working in a butchery. When John was just four years old, his grandfather died. And his two uncles were unwilling to care for their illegitimate nephew. Of course, there's no such thing as an illegitimate child, but there are illegitimate parents. So he is taken by the hand and walked to a huge stone building surrounded by a massive iron fence. And at the door, John was astonished to be seized and dragged inside. The door slammed and he soon learned he was now an inmate of St. Asaph's Union Workhouse, an orphanage to confine unwanted children. This workhouse was to be Roland's home for the next nine years. No time was wasted for sympathy on the homeless and unwanted. The life in St. Asaph was described as hard and grim charity with a vengeance. The rigid routine began at 6 a.m. every morning and continued until 8 p.m. in the evening when they were locked into their Spartan dormitories. In between there was work. The boys swept the ground, scrubbed the floors, worked the fields, shivered in thin, inadequate clothes. The meager rations consisted of bread, gruel, rice, and potatoes in small rationed portions. Saturdays they were scrubbed. Sundays provided only relief with two services and no work. The schoolmaster was an ex-miner, James Francis, who having lost his hand in a mining accident had developed a vicious temper and a callous heart. James Francis apparently took savage pleasure in punching, caning, kicking, whipping, beating the children entrusted to his care. John Rowlands received his first flogging for failing to pronounce a word correctly. The institution averaged 30 boys at a time, averaging from five to 15 years. The curriculum was described as primitive. John vividly remembers the day when a young 11-year-old boy, Willie Roberts, strikingly handsome with curly hair, delicate face, was beaten to death. It was rumored that he was the illegitimate child of a nobleman. John saw his corpse in the dead house. Willie was covered with dark bruises and deep gashes. All were convinced that James Francis had murdered Willie Roberts. John recalled that he never missed his mother. He said he was even 12 years old before he even learned that every boy must have a mother. Even in this unforgiving, depressing environment, John managed to distinguish himself with his drawings, mostly of cathedrals, which when presented to the bishop earned him commendation and a Bible. John was selected to lead the workhouse boys' choir, and because of his exceptionally good memory, he was pronounced the most advanced pupil in St. Asaph by the school inspector. One man, who later remembered John, described Rowlands as stubborn, self-willed, uncompromising, unusually sensitive, particularly strong. When John was 15 years old, an event occurred that changed the whole direction of his life. Recalling it later, he observed, but for the stupid and brutal scene that brought it about, I might have eventually been apprenticed out at some trade or another and would have mildewed in Wales. The sadistic tyrant, James Francis, demanded to know who had scratched a certain table. When no one confessed, he seized a cane, announced that he had beat the entire school. They were all commanded to strip, but John refused to obey. Frances erupted in rage. How is this? Not ready yet? Strip, sir, this minute. I mean to stop this abominable and barefaced lying. I did not lie, sir. I know nothing of it. Silence her down with your clothes. Never again, John was determined. At that, Frances assailed and beat him mercilessly, lifting him up and throwing him against the bench with such force that he feared his spine had shattered. As Frances lay into him, John aimed a kick into the schoolmaster's face. breaking his glasses and knocking him unconscious as he fell backwards onto the stone floor. As horror swept over the school, John fled of a fence to his paternal grandfather, a prosperous Welsh farmer. After hearing his story, he ordered his grandson to leave and never come back. And his uncles were also hard-hearted. His cousin, Moses Owen, a schoolmaster in Bryanford, gave him some board and lodging, but his aunt, Mary, berated the cousin for taking John in. Moses Owen inspired John with his love for books and learning, but the other boys at school were merciless in teasing and bullying him as an outcast. I mean, children are often extremely cruel. Anyone who's a bit different and doesn't fit in normally is the one who gets picked on and bullied. After nine months of schooling, he was taken to Liverpool and placed under the care of another aunt, Mary Morris. There he was given a job as a storeman in a haberdashery. After two months he was fired and wandered the streets looking for opportunities of employment. One of the jobs led him to carry provisions to a Captain David Harding of the Windermere ship. The Captain spoke kindly to him and offered him a job as a seaman. Once on board and seasick, he learned that the captain's promise of him serving as a cabin boy was only a scheme to obtain cheap deckhands climbing up the rigging. Remember, to change the sails, you had to have some light character, normally a 12-year-old or something, would be running up and either tying it up or unfurling the mast's sails as needed. He experienced further abuse on board ship and at the first opportunity in New Orleans he jumped ship. As the sights and sounds of America fascinated John, he met a kind-looking gentleman at the front of a store. Do you want a boy, sir? The man was startled by the question. The businessman was Henry Hope Stanley, cultured, intelligent, prosperous, happily married, but without children. Although John Rolands was asking for work, the gentleman began to question him closely, and he determined to adopt John Rolands. He did want a boy. Mr. Stanley offered him and took him off for breakfast, followed by a haircut, knitted him out in decent clothes and employment as an apprentice to Mr. James Speak, a merchant. And so for the first time in his life, John was actually free. He had money in his pocket, he had a room and board, he had a good job, he began to add books to the Bishop's Bible that had been his only possession up till then. He started to construct bookcases in his room out of old packing boxes and he spent all his free time reading books. The beatings and rejections that he had experienced throughout his upbringing had made him something of a social outcast. He's hypersensitive and he's uncertain how to behave in any social context. The first friendship he developed was with Alice Heaton, a runaway girl of 16 years old who had fled from Liverpool. She had managed to disguise herself as a sailor boy long enough to reach America. When Mrs. Stanley fell ill, John left his job at the store and devoted every minute of his care to his patroness, the only woman that ever showed him any affection, he said. As Mr. Stanley was out of town business, John was the only person beside her as she died. Feeling dejected, John obtained temporary employment as an attendant for a sea sick captain, went onto the Mississippi River to find Henry Stanley in St. Louis. However, when he got there, his adopted father's already disappeared. John worked on a flat boat on the way back to New Orleans, which was an adventure avoiding sandbars and steamboats and storms and dangerous currents and whirlpools, which he said was a good preparation for his late adventures in the Congo River. In New Orleans, John was reunited with Mr. Stanley in the first tender action he ever experienced he was embraced by Mr. Stanley. The next day, Mr. Stanley declared, as you are wholly unclaimed without a parent, without a relation or a sponsor, I promise to take you for my son and to fit you for a mercantile career and feature you to bear my name, Henry Stanley. This is the beginning of what Stanley described as the golden period of my life. For the next two years, The Welsh boy was educated and mentored by this kind gentleman. His bride was his first toothbrush, his first nightshirt and his first suits. He was taught table manners and frequent bars and intelligent conversation. The young Stanley was expected to read constantly, often aloud, to discuss what he had read with his father. His father lectured him now on morality, faith, work, culture and customs. He taught his son how to think clearly, how to live uprightly. He taught him to be alert and to be observant. He would propose a hypothetical problem and challenge Henry to suggest the correct solution. Henry Stanley proved to have a phenomenal memory, and he soaked up all his teaching that was offered to him. One night in 1860, as they were traveling down the Mississippi River on a steamboat, Henry was on deck when he saw a man enter his father's cabin and threatened him with a knife. Henry left at the man grappled with him, putting the would-be robber and perhaps even murderer to flight, suffering just a gash in his coat. Business required the elder Stanley to travel to Cuba, and his last words to his young adopted son Henry was, hold fast to Christian principles and be fearless in all manly things. Working in Arkansas, young Henry was now laid low with malaria and fever. At about this time, war between the states was erupting and he received a parcel addressed by a feminine handwriting containing a pink petticoat. Stunned by the implication of cowardice, he took immediate action by joining the Confederate Army to resist the coming Yankee invasion. This is actually quite common in many of these wars where, like in England, a woman would send a white feather to a man that didn't sign up or volunteer. And apparently this is the kind of way that they would often shame a man into volunteering. In July 1861, Stanley joined other Confederate volunteers in Arkansas as they were issued flintlock muskets. Not very promising considering the Yankees on the other side had breech-loading rifles or actual cartridge rifles. and he embarked on a little steamboat bound for Little Rock. During his time in Little Rock he bought a Colt revolver and a Bowie knife. When the day came to march out, with the bands playing and the women cheering, Stanley was exuberant and he was eagerly looking forward to his first battle. Soon with aching shoulders, blistered feet, sweat-soaked body, he began to discard half the contents of his pack, learning the elementary rule of an infantryman, only carry what is absolutely essential. For the first nine months of his military service, Stanley's regiment marched across Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Good training for walking across Africa later. In April 1862, after marching for days in the rain, they arrived at what was to become the bloodiest battlefield on the American war between the states, Shiloh. Here the Yankees and the Confederates clashed. Confederate generals Johnson and Bucherhardt were about to throw 40,000 exhausted Confederate troops against 50,000 fresh Union soldiers under General Grant. Most of the Southerners were armed with old flintlock muskets, powder and shot, whereas Northerners had modern breech-loading rifles with cartridges. Soon Stanley's regiment, the 6th Arkansas Regiment, was ordered to march straight towards the center of the Union lines. The sound of musketry increased in volume and intensity, and artillery shells were soon flying overhead, bringing down branches and debris on the heads. Soon they could see nothing in front of them but the enemy, and the order was given fixed bayonets at the double quick march. The men in grey gave a great battle cry, they surged forwards, and as the blue figures began to flee before them, Stanley experienced the exhilaration of victory he thought the battle was won. Well actually it was only the beginning, there were mountains more behind those lines. Soon they encountered even more Yankees. Volleys of deadly fire tore through the grey ranks. The ground seemed to erupt beneath them. The roar of gunfire was so intense that he could barely make out any of the orders being shouted. The air was filled with flying metal. The sound of ricochets was all around. Here's a quote from him. The world seemed bursting into fragments, cannon and musket, shell and bullet lent their several intensities to the disrupting uproar. I liken the cannon with the deep bows to a roaring of a great herd of lions. The ripping, crackling musketry to the incessant yapping of terriers. The windy whisk of shells, the zipping mini bullets to the swoop of eagles and the buzz of angry wasps. All the opposing armies of grey and blue fiercely blazed at one another. After being exposed for a few seconds to this dreadful downpour, we heard the order, lie down men and continue firing. It did not seem possible that anyone could survive in the face of such a deadly barrage of lead. The command to dive for cover was given, Stanley saw many of the men around him mangled and mutilated by the bullets and the bombs. Then the officers ordered the men stand up and charge. The Confederates leapt to their feet, and with a great battle cry, surged forwards. Although pounded by artillery, decimated by rifle fire, the men in grey charged on and swept through a second Union regiment. Then Stanley was knocked to the ground, and when he had recovered his breath, he discovered the belt buckle was bent and cracked, and it stopped a Union bullet. But he was not injured. Many more charges were ordered, and time and again the Arkansas volunteers sent the Yankees reeling back in retreat. Then torrential rain fell upon the battlefield, and as they took stock of their situation, they realized there was barely 50 men left in their regiment. As another advance was ordered, Stanley found himself isolated, surrounded by Union troops who took him prisoner. He was startled by the wild-eyed hatred and fury of the Yankees, who cursed and threatened to bayonet him. He ended up in a boxcar shipped to Camp Douglas on the outskirts of Chicago. The camp was a disgusting disease factory. More like a great cattle pen where wounded and malnourished men were left to die in the filth. The prisoners were denied even the most basic of hygiene and medical needs. Fleas, flies, and rats infested the filthy barracks. He saw vast numbers of Prisoners debilitated, dying of dysentery, typhoid, fever, without the slightest aid from their heartless captors. The commissary, Mr. Shipman, persuaded Stanley, save your life by enlisting in the Union Army, which he did. But three days later, after his release from prison on the 4th of June, 1862, he came down with fever so severely that he was discharged for health reasons from the Union Army. He then walked to the coast and worked on farms and on a ship bound for Liverpool. Then he set out to find his mother, who told him she wanted nothing to do with him and dismissed him literally on the doorstep, didn't even let him in the house. His mother's cold hostility left him in such dark despair, even more than his abandonment as a child. Stanley then worked his way back across the ocean to find his adoptive father in Cuba. There he was devastated to learn that his father really had died two years earlier. Stanley's situation could hardly have been worse. He was homeless. He was penniless. He was without friends or relations. He was afflicted by parasites that he picked up in prison. He didn't even have a country. In fact, he could be shot as a deserter by either side at this stage. Stanley determined he had never again consciously seek or expect human affection. Stanley enlisted as a sailor, worked on merchant ships traveling the West Indies to Italy and Spain. He survived a shipwreck off Barcelona. On 19th of July, 1864, Stanley enlisted in the United States Navy in New York. The Navy records describe him as five feet, five inches in height with hazel eyes, dark hair, and birthplace England. I think the Americans have trouble telling the difference between Wales and England. He served on board the USS North Carolina and the USS Minnesota. As he was given the task of being the ship's writer, he kept the log and wrote reports on land and sea battles, some of which ended up being published in newspapers. His vigorous eyewitness accounts of action and his attention to detail were remarkable. And due to the positive comments he received and the success of having these reports published, Stanley began to think of being a journalist. 10 February 1865, Stanley deserted the U.S. Navy and became a roving reporter in the Wild West. It is remarkable that a man who throughout the rest of his life developed a reputation of being the most persistent and relentless of explorers, the man who never gave up, no matter what, against all odds in the face of all danger. that before he was 24 years old, Stanley had run away from school, jumped ship, deserted the Confederate cause by enlisting in the U.S. Army, changing sides, deserted the U.S. Navy in a time of war. All of these are capital offenses. No one at this stage of his life could have anticipated what he would accomplish later in life. He traveled to Missouri, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha. He built a flat bottom boat raft which capsized twice. He experienced some of the Indian wars. Then in July 1866, Stanley set out for Smyrna in Turkey. There he is betrayed by a treacherous guide into the hands of thieves who severely beat him, stole all his money and papers. After being arrested for not having his papers, Stanley wrote an account of the abuse he had experienced in the Orient at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Then returned to the United States, he joined the expedition into Indian country with General Winfield Hancock. Gettysburg film, or the, read the book, Killer Angels, or the Gods and Generals film. General Hancock is the Union side who is the friend of General Armistead. They were friends who studied at West Point together, and they fought in the Mexican War together, ended up fighting against one another. And both were shot and wounded at the same spot in the final part of the Battle of Gettysburg. So General Hancock, though, survived. And so he met up with him. He was impressed at how Hancock negotiated with the Comanche and Kiowa Indians in Nebraska and Kansas. He'd expected to see the Indians severely treated after the atrocities they'd committed against settlers. at British school where you got caned and whacked for mispronouncing something. So he was surprised to see how General Hancock sought peaceful negotiations and resolutions to extend civilization rather than punishing the savages, as the people would call them then. At one point, Stanley met Wild Bill Hickok and interviewed him. When he asked how many men he had killed, Wild Bill replied he had killed considerably over 100 white men to a certain knowledge. He had, I've never killed anyone without a good cause. One wonders what his standards were. Hickok and Stanley became friends, and when another man made an insulting remark to Stanley, Wilbur picked the man up and threw him over a billiard table. Stanley also reported on General William Sherman's dealings with the Indians in Omaha and Kansas. He reported that he learned a great deal about how to deal with primitive warriors from Hancock and Sherman. He noted that they dealt with them as both warriors and as children who must be taught and corrected. Stanley noted that he learned to do the same when dealing with savage tribes in Africa. They didn't have the benefit of the gospel as the Europeans and Americans had and therefore they needed to be dealt with with more consideration and thoughtfulness. While being the special correspondent to the Missouri Democrats, Stanley also contributed articles to the New York Herald, the New York Times, the Chicago Republican, and the Cincinnati Commercial. Despite frequenting bars and taverns where drunkenness was common, he remained true to his pledge of abstinence, except with one exception, which he said he bitterly repented of. So he said he only touched drink once. He also lived a very disciplined life and saved most of what he had earned. Hearing of the upcoming British war with Abyssinia, Stanley persuaded James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald to hire him as their special correspondent to Africa. So Stanley joined the British expeditionary force at the Red Sea port of Zula, Eritrea. King Theodora of Abyssinia had killed the former king and had provoked the kingdom into rebellion through his cruelty and tyranny. Then he antagonized the British Empire by assaulting the Consul Cameron and an English missionary stern. When envoys carried letters of protest from Queen Victoria, Theodora threw the envoys of the Queen into prison. You just couldn't do that. The English diplomats were being tortured and treated in the most horrendous ways and after unsuccessful attempts to ransom the prisoners, Britain declared war on King Theodora. In 1869 Britain dispatched an expedition of 12,000 troops of the Indian Army under Sir Robert Napier to secure the release of the hostres and to suitably punish King Theodora. And these are some of the pictures of one of these earliest wars to be documented by photography. It was a 400-mile march to Theodora's stronghold at Magala, Magdala. Stanley wrote to the colorful sight of English and Irish regiments of weather-beaten veterans in red coats, colorful regiments of Punjabs, sepoys, Indian cavalry, English sailors with rockets and horse-drawn artillery, elephants, camels, horses, and mules. And here you can see some of these Indian elephants being loaded with cannon and mortar and being taken through the mountains of Abyssinia. On the 9th of April, the Abyssinian expeditionary force arrived at Magdala, the fortress capital of Abyssinia. Apparently undaunted by the impregnable appearance of the stronghold perched on the top of Granite Mountain, the British military marched across the river and proceeded up the mountain. Theodore launched 3,500 well-armed warriors down the slopes in a wild charge against the British. Calmly, Napier ordered naval brigades to take their positions, action front. Naval brigade launched their rockets into the midst of the charging Abyssinians who were thrown into terror and confusion by these strange weapons. Then 300 men of the 4th were ordered forward and the command was given, commence firing. and here you can see the Magdala fortress looks very ominous as tough as anything to take you would think The British surged forward, the Abyssinians attempted a flanking movement but they were wiped out by the bayonets of the sepoys At the end of the day 560 dead Abyssinians were counted on the field but not a single British soldier had been lost although 32 had been wounded Theodora now terrified of the British firepower that he had witnessed destroying his best troops the previous day, attempted to appease the British by releasing all of his prisoners. Stanley noticed with surprise the lack of emotion expressed by both the captives who had endured years of torment. And the Liberators also seemed amazingly calm about the whole matter. All of this influenced his, as he racked his mind, as he was about to meet David Livingston, how do I approach him? You know, the American might run out there and hug him. What's the right thing? And so, because of his experience of how the British treat things, he decided to go for the cool, calm, reserved, understated approach of Dr. Livingston, I presume. And this is one of the reasons why he did that. The next morning, the British marched up the mountain and began an artillery barrage on the stronghold. This was followed by an assault, and soon British flags were hoisted on the walls and the bands were playing God Save the Queen. Theodora, the emperor of Abyssinia, then shot himself with his own pistol. And interestingly, you can see the picture here of a British soldier presenting arms, saluting the dead pagan king that they'd come to punish. Very British, that sort of thing. It's like when King Kishweo inflicted the worst defeat on the British at the Battle of East Nalanda when he was captured. They were ordered to present arms. And they saluted the Zulu king. It's a very British thing, this. So here's pictures of the tents in front of Magdala Fortress, the military encampments. And some of the men, some of these people looked like they hadn't had a bath or washed their clothes in a few weeks. And the officers. the military at that stage seemed to allow you to have beards which of course these days in the British Army you can only have a moustache and in the Navy you can only have a beard but otherwise you're clean-shaven there's no such thing as beards in the army with I think the exception of is it the sergeant major or is it the The soldier majors who are the beef eaters, the ones who guard the tower, they I think are the only British soldiers allowed to have a beard. but they are almost effectively retired. They're very senior regimental soldier majors. But anyway, at this stage, as you can see, some pretty serious mustaches, pretty serious beards. And these are some of the veterans of the Abyssinia campaign. Some pretty spectacular photographs for that time. And here the Indian Army lined up and I would not want to charge up that, that looks pretty ominous. The final bastion of the king which he thought was unassailable and you can see the kind of houses of the Abyssinians, the fortress at the top and this is the entrance to the king's stronghold just before the British decide to blow it up. Incredibly no British soldiers died in the final assault either. Two days later, Magdala was blown up by the engineers and on the 18th of April, 1868, the British Expeditionary Force started back to the coast. And thus, the modern crusade became numbered among past events. To be remembered of all men in all lands amongst the most wonderfully successful campaigns ever conducted in history, wrote the young Stanley. There was a time when journalists were more positive than they are now. When Stanley arrived in Suez, he had a story wired to London and then on to the New York Herald, and this is the first news story of the campaign to be published, and it established Stanley's reputation worldwide. He has made a journalist of the New York Herald, not just a stringer, but now he is a formal journalist with a $2,000 a year salary, which is super wealthy at that stage. Stanley's next assignment was to cover the rebellion in Spain, and from there he was tasked to find the great African explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingston. No word had been heard of Livingston since he last entered the Dark Continent on what became known as his third missionary journey. Like the Apostle Paul, he had three official missionary journeys. Stanley noted that the thing he hated most was waiting. The more tasks I received, the happier is my life. I want work so that there'll be no time for regrets and vain desires and morbid thoughts. In the end, Phil, books come in handy. Although Stanley loved absorbing knowledge, he admitted he also had a craze for action. Adrenaline junkie we'd call him today. He observed that his sufferings drove him to prove himself on a path to success. Stanley noted that by intense application to duty, by self-denial, he drove himself that I might do my duty thoroughly. Stern duty commands me. Stanley had come through the fires determined to succeed. No matter what the odds, he had a tenacious and insatiable desire to succeed. Of course, he had no parental love or anything like that in his background to fall back on. With his quick mind and his retentive memory, languages came easily to him. And he taught himself French, Swahili, some Arabic, dozens of African dialects. On the 27th of October, 1869, he received one of the most extraordinary assignments ever entrusted to a newspaper reporter, James Gornet Bennett. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., of the New York Herald, commissioned Stanley to go into Central Africa, learn anything and everything he could about Dr. David Levickson, and find him. But first, he told Stanley, go to cover the inauguration of the Suez Canal, and then proceed up the Nile and find out about Sir Baker's expedition. Then travel to Jerusalem and to Constantinople. Visit the Crimea, the Corcoids, Baghdad, and Persepolis. the capital that Queen Esther was in Persia. And after that go to India. Then go to Zanzibar and from there go and find Dr. David Livingston. And has there ever been a journalistic assignment to compare with this? Draw 1,000 pounds now. When you've gone through that, draw another 1,000. And when that's spent, draw another. When you finish that, draw another 1,000 and so on. But find Livingston. Now Stanley Bennett had this, Gordon Bennett had this feel for a story and he thought if we can find Livingston he says I think he's alive and if he's alive this will make the scoop of the century. Stanley declared he would do everything that a human being could possibly do and beyond that he would trust in God to enable him to do even more. Stanley Meadley that night set out on his whirlwind tour of the Middle East, opening up at the Suez Canal at Port Said, visited the Holy Place in Jerusalem, writing articles all the time, wiring them back home, of course. He walked the old battlefields of the Crimean War. He reported on the Russian civilizing mission in Baku. He went to the exotic bazaars of Tehran and Persia, to the ruins of Persepolis where Queen Esther once reigned and he did some graffiti there. Still visible today. He went to India and then off to Zanzibar in Africa. Throughout this incredible journey, Stanley was reading everything he could find out about Livingston and the other explorers of Africa. And so he arrived in Zanzibar, 6th of January, 1871. Despite the tremendous discoveries of Dr. David Livingston, the vast interior of Africa was still mostly unknown at this stage. Most of its mountains, lakes, rivers and forests were still unexplored. Most of the tribes inhabiting the interior of Africa were still unknown. Many maps at that time had words like unknown, unknown territory, literally across huge sections of the interior of Africa. Stanley immediately saw in Zanzibar that slaves and ivory were the primary export of Africa, being brought out of the interior by unscrupulous Arab traders. And they went together. They captured the slaves to carry the ivory of the elephants they shot back to the coast. The ivory and slavery went together. And these are some of the unscrupulous characters buying the ivory from these Arab slave traders. This is the kind of thing you would see at Zanzibar. The Arabs in Zanzibar regarded Africa as a source of unseemingly unlimited numbers of slaves and elephant tusks. In June 1856, Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke had set out from Zanzibar to find the source of the Nile River. When Burton had fallen sick, Speke had set out on his own and discovered and named Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile. Burton became Speak's bitter enemy and disputed his findings. Now, Burton was actually a pagan who was totally enamored with Islam and everything else, wrote about Arabian Nights and all this nonsense, where Speak was a Christian. Therefore, Speak set out to find with James Grant in a later expedition, 1860, to confirm that Lake Victoria was indeed the source of the Nile. Yes, he didn't have the right tools and equipment to scientifically measure the altitude and everything else on his first mission. Burton, Speak, Grant, and Baker had all established their reputations as African explorers. But the explorer that had superseded them all was Scottish missionary Dr. David Livingston. And here you can see Dr. David Livingston at the debate between Burton and Speak. Well, it was where the debate was meant to be held. Speak never turned up because he had shot himself by accident the day before. But Livingston was meant to be the chairman of this debate that never happened, over the source of the Nile. For over 20 years, David Livingston had walked across Africa from coast to coast, crossing the Kalahari Desert, discovering Lake Ngabi, Victoria Falls, one of the greatest cataracts in the world, Victoria Falls, discovered Lake Malawi, and many previously unknown features of the continent of Africa. Before David Livingston, most of the geographers were convinced that the interior of Africa was one huge desert. And Livingston is the one who points out, no, there's a lot of mountains, plateaus, rivers, lakes, swamps, savannah. It's by no means one big desert. Yes, I mean, how wrong could you be? David Livingston was a tireless crusade against the slave trade. At 52 years old, Livingston left England for the last time on his third missionary journey. He left on the 14th of August, 1865. Starting from Zanzibar, he proceeded to the mouth of the Rivuma River and went up to explore Lake Malawi. In December 1866, some deserters from his porters returned to Zanzibar with news that David Livingston was dead. They even said he'd been killed by Zulu. They were Zulu up around Malawi. In fact, I've met Zulus in Malawi. And so the poor Zulus were easy ones to blame because everyone knew the Zulus were absolutely brutal. And so it was believed, and the world mourned the passing of David Livingston, although some doubt the reports. It turned out later that deserters had, lied about him dying so that they got the British government to pay them out what they would have been paid by David Levickson because he had died on the journey. And meanwhile, they were just as it, and had even stolen a lot of his medical supplies, which they sold later. I mean, it was just total crime. When letters from David Livingston dated February 1867 and July 1868 were brought out into the interior, it created a sensation. Now, a word here needs to be given about the fact there was no postal service. People wrote letters, and then they would fold. Normally, the letter would make its own envelope. They weren't normally a separate envelope. They folded over the right and outside. mom and dad, Cape Town, that sort of thing. It would be addressed like the author of Amazing Grace. John Newton said, as a sea captain for 20-something years, he wrote letters to his wife every single week. and they all arrived. And the way it was posted is you'd pass an island, there's the post rock or tree trunk where you'd leave it there and the next person coming past going to the other side, oh, Mrs. Newton, Bristol. And they'd take it because they're going close to Bristol and the next people, St. Helena, someone else would take it. And he said, he numbered these letters and they all arrived. His wife got every letter, none went missing. So before the postal service, post was delivered on an honor system. Nobody paid for it. There was no postage stamps. There were no trained postmen. There were just, you know, whoever's going this way or that. And David Livingston sent letters this way, too. Extraordinary. So some people in Ontario, had brought out letters from David Livingston dated after the date that he's meant to have been murdered by the Zulu. So this created a sensation, and James Gordon Bennett believed it would be a tremendous news story, the scoop of the century, if this famous missionary explorer could be found and interviewed. His interest in Africa is really peaking. A lot of people are really interested. Livingston's amazing, and people have heard nothing from him, and they really, he was gold in a journalistic sense. Henry Morton Stanley was now only 29 years old when he began the expedition to find David Livingstone. He had never before led or organized an expedition. He had never been a leader or an employer of men. Yet his wide reading and his varied experiences had, and his travel, it all seemed to prepare him for this challenge. He spent over $20,000, U.S. dollars, on the expedition, including perching millions of beads, miles of winecloth. Why would you need that? As payment to cross tribal territories and to barter for food and other items in the interior. If we think that customs today is a product of the colonials, think again. Stanley and Livingston remind us that there always was payment to cross every single tribal barrier and every chief demolished this, that, and the other. That's why they had these long, of people carrying bags of cloth and beads and mirrors and knives and whatever else. They needed to trade, be able to cross those territories. He located six Africans who had served as explorers, Britain, speak and grant, including Maburuki and Bombay, who was made captain of the Askaris. By reading what the others did, he made up for his lack of experience by recruiting the people who had served and trained under previous explorers. Good strategy. Stanley purchased 20 donkeys, two boats, tents, vast quantities of food, medicine, clothing, arms, and ammunition. The supplies were packed in bales, bags, and boxes, each weighing no more than 30 kilograms, about the maximum you could expect a person to carry. As everything had to be carried by porters, and as supplies needed to last at least two years, great pains and foresight were shown every aspect of the preparation. Six tons of material needed to be carried into the interior. Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika was over 742 miles inland from the coast. This is the last location where Livingston had been heard from. This was Stanley's first target. Stanley recruited two other white men, 23 Askaris, Askaris like a soldier, 157 Pagadzis, they're the porters who carried the things, four chiefs to organize five additional men with duties like cook, Arabic interpreter, and so on. A total of 192 men. At the beginning, there were two horses and 27 donkeys. He should have paid attention to what Livingston and Burton pointed out, that no horses survive, tsetse flies, and all the rest that's in the Hintz land. So that didn't last long, sadly. His baggage was 116 loads. Weaponry was one shotgun. two carbines, four rifles, eight pistols, 24 flintlock muskets, two swords, two daggers, two axes, 24 hatchets, 24 long knives. Dangerous territory he's going into. At first the terrain was tough savanna. The climate was hot and humid. Temperatures were 128 degrees Fahrenheit. As the rainy seasons came, the river swelled, the animals and men bogged down marsh and mud. Every river crossing required much ingenuity and hard work. Tsetse flies, mosquitoes, every kind of insect afflicted the men and animals of the column. It was long before tabard. They didn't even have mosquito nets to compare with what we have. In the 13 months of the expedition, Stanley was laid low by fever on 23 occasions. Dysentery, smallpox, malaria and unknown fevers afflicted everyone on the expedition. The first casualty was one of the white team members, William Farquhar, who died early on the expedition. Every day presented new problems to be solved and Stanley soon learned that leadership requires discipline, organization, morale, motivation, conflict resolution and a lot of communication. Many of the men contracted as porters deserted, stole, or lost the goods they were carrying. It was a never-ending struggle to keep columns together to keep them moving forward. David Livingston's wife later died, well earlier actually died, in Mozambique because some of the porters, to lighten their load, emptied the medical trunk into the Zambezi River so when she came down to Malaria there was no quinine. I mean, it's that kind of thing, and this is what's behind this story. This chap's about to throw the box away and pretend that he lost it crossing the river. Stanley was not that kind of person to tolerate that. Every chief demanded tribute for the travelers to pass through the territory, yet despite many frustrations and delays, Stanley's column achieved a rapid advance. They went twice as fast as the columns of Burton and Speak, who were considered the veteran explorers at that stage. And this is his first expedition. He must have really been driving his men because they wouldn't go that speed normally. There was a battle at Morombo and most of his men were so frightened they refused to go any further. The other white men on the expedition sure now became demoralized and completely worthless at this point, to quote Stanley. Many men deserted the column and mutiny erupted. Here's the burial of Shaw. John William Shaw, who's buried in Tanzania. You can still see this metal cross in Tanzania. Stanley loaded both barrels of a shotgun, adjusted his revolvers for ready action, walked straight towards the rebellious men who had picked up their muskets in a threatening way. He raised the shotgun, aiming directly at the heads and commanded them to instantly drop their weapons. When Asmani did not obey, Stanley knocked him to the ground, and this way the mutiny was quelled. Take out the leader. Stanley compelled all those who would remain with him to swear a solemn promise to remain faithful under his command until he found David Livingston. And despite many of the troubles and starvation which plagued the expedition after that, the men remained faithful to this pledge. Then they met a native caravan coming from Ojiji. They spoke about a white man with gray hair who had just arrived at Ojiji. Not many gray-haired men walking around Africa at that time. Was he ever at Ojiji before, Stanley asked. Yes, he went away a long time ago. Now Stanley was overwhelmed with excitement and impatience. Stanley pulled out his new flannel suit. He had his Wellington boots polished, his helmet chalked. He folded a fresh pangi around it. On Friday the 10th of November 1871 on the 236th day of his expedition that's of the expedition departing Bagamoyo on the coast Stanley ordered the American flag unfurled. With his money leading with the American flag, Stanley ordered the guns to be fired to announce their arrival. Sort of like sending an SMS these days. Susie and Chuma, the faithful servants of Livingston, who he had rescued from slavery, met him on the path and ran back to inform David Livingston that a white man was coming with a strange flag to see them. As the only two white men in all of Equatorial Africa from the Zambezi to the Nile, Stanley walked deliberately towards the older man, took off his hat, and said, Dr. Livingston, I presume. And Livingston replied with a smile, yes. He lifted his cap, and then Stanley shook hands, declaring, I thank God, doctor, that I've been permitted to see you. And Livingston replied, I feel thankful that I'm here to welcome you. And Stanley then offered Livingston a packet of letters from his family and friends at home, expecting him to read them immediately. However, David Livingston put them to one side and said, waited for years for letters. I've been taught patience. I can surely afford to wait a few hours longer. Now, tell me, General Lewis, how is the world getting on? Well, you ask a journalist, well-traveled journalist. Stanley gave him an update on the opening of the Suez Canal. General Grant's now President of the United States. The Pacific Railroad across the continent of America has been completed. The Spanish Revolution has driven Queen Isabella from the Spanish throne. Prussia has defeated Denmark and France in war. Now, they were superpowers. and Prussia was nothing up until then. This is heralding a new superpower in Europe. The first transatlantic cable has been laid across the Atlantic, permitting immediate communication between North America and Europe. Diamonds have been discovered in South Africa. At this, David Livingston smiled and nodded and said, I wondered how long it would take them. And how did you know? In 1869 they discovered it, although there's a picture from 1873, and you can see the big big hole getting bigger and showing the elaborate pulley system pulling ore from the different claims and this was a monumental operation. You can see the Kimberley mine. Well, David Livingston then recounted early on in the 1840s when he was a missionary in the Kimberley area, Coroman is close to Kimberley. He saw these diamonds on the ground and he picked them up and threw them at the bush. Why didn't you sell them? I couldn't do that, said David Livingston. We're trying to win the twine of people to Christ. They hadn't even been evangelized, let alone discipled yet. If all the miners came in with all the vice of the cities, it would corrupt and destroy the Twana people before we'd even had the chance to evangelize them. No, no, we couldn't do that. You know, he had found the pearl of great price. He couldn't be distracted to diamonds. I mean, he could have been one of the richest people. He could have been wealthier than Cecil John Rhodes, if he had. But David Livingston, I mean, talk about Dulgerich, absolutely focused on his task. And he would not budge. And so Stanley said, well, why didn't you take some of them back to England and sell them in London? I couldn't do that. He said these were the biggest diamonds anyone had ever seen. So these would. They would have torn up every place, they knew where I came from. London Missionary, Saadi Kuraman. No, I couldn't allow myself to be distracted. What an incredible example of David Livingston kept this secret for something like 26 years. From his side, David Livingston then reported that Henry Morton Stanley had arrived at the most opportune time because Arab slavers had robbed him of all his supplies. He had nothing left, nothing. David Livingston was at his most desperate, sick, and destitute in his life. And the friendship which began so formally grew and deepened over the next four months while they were in daily contact. And Stanley later reported he was surprised and captivated by the courtesy, the dignity, the patience, and the high morals of Dr. David Livingston. This is significant because Stanley was a rugged, skeptical, cynical, person who said that as he went to find David Livingston, he had Livingston in his sights like a hunter has an elephant in his sights. He was going to take him down, this religious hypocrite in Africa that everyone looks up to. And so he came with a lot of prejudice against Livingston. But as he was reading his books and reading up on Africa, and as he was experiencing the reality of himself, his respect grew for him even before he met him. But when he met him, he knew this man's no hypocrite. He's the real thing. And later when he was being taunted, somebody was saying at a meeting in America, David Livingston, failed missionary, never had a convert, lost explorer. And Stanley responded, he wasn't lost, he knew exactly where he was. It's just that we didn't know where he was and he didn't want anyone to know where he was. And he says, and as for no converts, he said, I'm one of his converts. David Livingston actually did have converts, but David Livingston said he never had converts, because his standards were so high. Many of his converts, like Chief Sherlyn in Botswana, went back to having multiple wives. And for this reason, Livingston discounted him and all of his people, because they didn't break with polygamy. And so Livingston had a high standard, and he said, I have no converts in Africa. But the people in Africa, many of them said, well, I'm his convert. And Stanley was one of them, too. Writing of Livingston late in life, Stanley noted, lowly of spirit, meek in speech, merciful of heart, pure in mind, peaceful in act. During health or sickness, he was consistently noble, upright, pious, and manly in all the days of my companionship with him. Livingston's patience and perseverance impressed Stanley the most. Now, you can just see there's a real skill in writing. Stanley, by being a reader, despite not having much schooling, being a good reader made him a good writer. Stanley felt convicted of the fact that up until then he had tended to solve his problems by running away from his problems. However, this time he had succeeded in facing his difficulties boldly, and he overcame them. So Stanley was determined, I will never again run away from anything. Together, Stanley and Livingston undertook an expedition by boat across the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. And finally, when Stanley had to return, Livingston entrusted him with a box filled with his letters, diaries, scientific and geographical research, and other papers, I mean his last six years' worth of work. On the 14th of March, 1872, they parted. and this must have been hard for both of them. After resupplying Livingston with all of his trading goods he could need, he literally took all of his columns goods and he made two piles and half he left with Livingston. And he said when he was preparing for the journey, he decided to take far more than he had need because he's sure that Livingston would need resupplies and he got there. And he didn't know if he'd even want to talk to him. So he was thinking of a trading item, but, and anyway, Stephen Bennett was paying the bill. They marched in the rain. They trudged in mud up to their knees. They crossed innumerable rivers and streams. And finally, on the 6th of May, only 54 days after leaving Tabora, they reached Bagamoyo on the coast. I mean, his ears were back, so to speak. So you can see his route that he took to Ojiji and the route he took back, Tabora being a key post on the way there. There Stanley met Lieutenant William Hen, of the Royal Navy who was leading the Livingston Search and Relief Expedition. an hour late and a dollar short, so to speak, sent out by the Royal Geographic Society. And this expedition was abandoned before it began when they learned that the Americans had beaten them to it. And Stanley had walked 2,250 miles in 411 days. Twenty members of the expedition had died during this epic journey, including the only other whites on the journey. That's pretty typical of Stanley. When he goes on an expedition, all the white team members die. I mean, that's actually his track record. So he's phenomenally effective at being able to survive in Africa. And here you get the roots of Stanley and the roots of Livingston. Livingston had started at Zanzibar, gone down the coast, gone up the Rivuma River, gone around the southern point of Africa. Lake Malawi, Lake Nyasa. And then he went around Zambia a fair bit, ended up at Dijiji. He'd even gone into the Congo for a fairly short effort. That also shows Speke's path up to Lake Victoria. That gives you a bit of an idea. Most of this expedition taking place, of course, in Tanganyika, now Tanzania. Stanley was completely unprepared for the responses he would receive in Europe. the Paris Geographic cited Condemnum as an imposter. But many French newspapers held his achievements in extravagant terms comparing it to Napoleon's march through the Alps. The people in England responded to Stanley's exploits with intense interest and excitement, but the standard and the spectator expressed suspicions and misgivings over the genuineness of his report. Some claimed Stanley hasn't even been to Africa at all. Sensational stories, speculations abounded. The sudden fame and the unexpected suspicions and the vicious attacks upon his character and the unfair criticisms of David Livingston disillusioned Stanley and made him want to recoil from society even more. Stanley wrote that his belief that toil and generosity and devotion to duty and righteous living would receive recognition at the hands of my fellow creatures. He said this illusion was shattered. However, when Livingston's family confirmed the genuineness without question, the authenticity of the letters and the papers which Stanley had brought back, these are definitely David Livingston's calculations, his writings, sketches and all this. All charges of forgery were withdrawn and the Times and the Daily News and the Telegraph and Punch now declared Stanley a true hero, after having condemned him the week before. Lord Granville, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented Stanley with a gold box with five dozen diamonds as a gift from Her Majesty Queen Victoria in recognition of the prudence and zeal displayed by him in opening communications with Dr. Livingston. That's quite a reward. He was later received by Queen Victoria. He was also honored by the Royal Geographic Society and presented with a Victoria Medal and offered a public apology for their shameful conduct towards him. In Scotland, Stanley was awarded another medal and made an honorary citizen. The completion and publication of Stanley's book, How I Found Livingston in Central Africa, was achieved only three months after his arrival in Europe, but that's because he's making full notes all the way through his expedition. It later became an instant bestseller. Stanley now began to receive a flood of letters from strangers, relatives, and acquaintances from his early years who were suddenly affectionate towards this orphan whom they once had spurned. You know what they say? Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. And St. Asaph's workhouse even put up a statue for him. You know, talk about hypocrisy. Sailing into New York, Stanley was received with great fanfare and warm welcome by the entire staff of the Herald. The only person missing from the welcome was the proprietor who had sent him on the expedition, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who sat scowling up in his office. His reporter's fame had provoked a deep displeasure, and this developed into jealousy and later into hatred. As Stanley returned from other expeditions and achieved even greater exploits, Bennett's hatred lasted as long as Stanley lived. It's a shame that some people can't rejoice in the success and good fortune of others. Receptions, banquets, cheers and applause resounded throughout Stanley's triumphal procession throughout the United States. It was quite extraordinary considering he had fought for the Confederates, deserted from the Yankees. I mean, you know, under different circumstances they might be putting him in jail or shooting him. Dr. Livingston's elder brother, John, came to New York to thank Stanley personally for what he'd done for his brother. He was living up in Canada. Author Mark Twain praised Stanley extravagantly, saying, what he had achieved was greater than what Christopher Columbus had achieved. I mean, think about it, he said, all Columbus had to do was sail west and anywhere he would discover the continent. But he said, here was Stanley having to find one person in the middle of a vast continent. He said what Stanley has achieved was harder than what Columbus had. Which, you know, in America, you think how much Christopher Columbus was respected. That's extraordinary praise. When Bennett sent Stanley to cover the war in Spain, maybe hoping he'd get shot there, he found a welcome relief from the round of banquets and lectures and receptions and honors and controversy and criticism which had come at him relentlessly since his return from Africa. Then England embarked another military expedition to Africa, this time to punish the Ashantis who had massacred 600 British citizens. Major General Sir Garnet Walsley was in command of the expedition to what is today Ghana. The year was 1873, and Stanley wrote, the people are as barbarous, untutored, and superstitious, as wild in appearance, as naked in body, as filthy in their habits, as any tribe of savages I've ever seen. Not politically correct terminology by today's standards. Stanley obviously said things like he saw them. He described a grisly march encountering human sacrifices, severed heads on poles in every village they passed through. At Kumasi, Stanley located the killing fields of King Koffi of the Ashanti, a sacred grove where prisoners and slaves had been sacrificed. The terrible stench of decomposing corpses was overwhelming. Thirty or more decapitated bodies in the last stage of decomposition were immediately visible. Skulls were piled high, and Stanley calculated the grove contained the skulls of over 120,000 people. The British Army fought three battles against the Ashanti, but while nothing in Stanley's account of the expedition indicates that he took any personal share in the fighting, Lord Walsley's memoirs, by the way, Lord Walsley later became chief of the British Army, described Henry Stanley. A thoroughly good man, no noise, no danger ruffled his nerve. He looked as cool and self-possessed as if he had been at target practice. Time after time as I turned in his direction I saw him go down to a kneeling position to steady his rifle as he applied the most daring of the enemy with a never failing aim. The closed shut lips, the determined expression of his manly face told plainly, no danger could appall. The cool and flinching manliness gave fresh courage. I'd been previously somewhat prejudiced against him, but all such feelings were slain and buried at Amoeful. Ever since, I've been proud to reckon him among the bravest of my brave companions." Now this is from General Worsley, who fought in the Anglo-Zulu War amongst other places. I mean, this was a serious veteran. pompous British general as you could get. For him to give praise to an American journalist, it must have been pretty impressive. And he has the welcome home for the Ashanti expedition who, of course, were fighting against slavery in West Africa. Stanley published his accounts of the British military campaigns in Abyssinia and Ashanti under one book called Comasi and Magdala. It was while returning from the Ashanti war that Stanley heard of the death of Dr. David Livingston. He wrote, Dear Livingston, another sacrifice for Africa. His mission, however, must not be allowed to cease. Others must go forward and fill the gap. May I be selected to succeed him in opening up Africa to the light of Christianity. May Livingston's God be with me. May God direct me as he wills. I can only vow to be obedient and not to slacken. Stanley saw Africa as a challenge. Livingston as his example and inspiration. Stanley dedicated his life to serving Africa by developing Christianity and civilization throughout its vast and unexplored interior. On the 18th of April, 1874, Henry Morton Stanley was one of the pallbearers for the funeral of David Livingston. A year after he had died, it took that long to get his body to the coast and off to England at Westminster Abbey. Stanley was given the foremost position on the right and Jacob Wainwright on the left. One of the people rescued from slavery who had brought his body all the way to the coast and all the way to Westminster Abbey. Shortly after that, the Daily Telegraph of London and New York Herald united to fund an expedition to Central Africa under the leadership of Henry Stanley to complete the work left unfinished by the lamentable death of Dr. Livingston to solve, if possible, the remaining problems of the geography of Central Africa and to investigate and report upon the haunts of the slave traders. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Here marks the point in Ojiji, which our mission team's gotten to on Lake Tanzania, where David Livingston, under this mango tree, which then stood here, Henry Morton Stanley met David Livingston, 10th of November, 1871. So this is the first installment. I've only gotten barely halfway through this incredible life of Henry Mauden Stanley. What I'll deal with next week is even more incredible as he went all the way through the Congo, one of the greatest expeditions ever, and achieved more than any other explorer before him had done. So our website Henry Morton Stanley School of Christian Journalism and Facebook page will have links of these audios and videos and other articles. You'll see we've got lecture notes of previous false flags and the Catan, Forrest Mask and other reports. Turkish genocide, those lecture notes are on these websites. We've got various audios out there. It's disturbing to see that even Stanley statues being attacked these days. I mean, it's not enough for them to tear down other history. Den Baer, which honestly, does anyone know anyone more famous than Henry Morton Stanley who came from Den Baer? And yet you've got some, a poet, so-called, an author, who organized a campaign to tear down Stanley's statue from this town's only claim to fame. And this kind of destruction, why? It's a tourist attraction. It could only enhance the prestige of the town. There's a whole lot of great books on the British expedition to Abyssinia, but Henry Morton Stanley's is the most colorful, insightful, interesting, and exciting to read. I've also got the book How I Found Living in Central Africa by Henry Morton Stanley. Notice how this history book on world explorers put Henry Stanley and the European explorers of Africa with only his picture. I mean, he stands head and shoulders above all the other explorers. In fact, he achieved more than probably all of the others combined. Isn't it lovely the way they used to print books? I mean, you just think of the raised relief and putting the gilding in it and these kind of, the books they used to print and hand-sewn, they really lost. We've got copies in our reception area now behind glass museum piece of In Darkest African Through the Dark Continent by Henry Morton Stanley. The autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley. There's other books that we haven't acquired yet. Of course, I've written about Livingston and The Greatest Century of Missions. We set up the Livingston 200 website in 2013 to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dr. David Livingston. And it's got a lot of articles, links, picture gallery, links to museums, monuments, and the writings of Livingston. Our Livingston Fellowship website is dedicated to keeping Bibles, studies, sermons and links in other languages and a whole lot of digital library resources including Jesus films and gospel recordings, audios, a lot of good things that we are trying to make available to places all around. And our Dr. David Livingston Facebook page has had a surprising amount of traffic over the years. And we now have the Henry Morton Stanley one up too. So aside from the Frontline website and Facebook page, there's the Literature of Africa and a whole lot of others. So Reformation SA. Any questions? Any comments on the first installment on Henry Morton Stanley? in Wales, which is where he was born and brought up for better or worse. Well, he looks like he's a Jamaican, actually, to me. And what's it got to do with him, anyway? But there's some people who they can't make much or achieve much, but they can destroy. You know, it takes, what, seven years to build a World Trade Center, a few minutes to destroy it. It can take years to build a bridge. It doesn't take long to blow it up. It takes generations to build civilization. It doesn't take long to destroy it. In fact, you know, when they talk about evolution, you get the impression that evolution Everything's getting better and better. Well, in fact, we've got devolution more than evolution because you can get someone whose father's a heart transplant surgeon and the kid's a beach bum on drugs lying by the beach there, you know, or bergy. So you can go back to caveman level in one generation. It doesn't take long. But to reach great heights, it takes generations of hard work. And so right now we've got a lot of people around me who just want to destroy and pull down. I know there are a lot of people who criticize Henry Morton Stanley, but he achieved a phenomenal amount in his lifetime. And the interesting thing is while there's people today who are wanting to scream blue murder against Stanley, He was acclaimed in his lifetime as one of the greatest humanitarians on earth, that he had done more to fight the slave trade, to set captives free, to bring civilization, to double and triple people's life expectancies by bringing medicine and hospitals into the Congo and all this. And today they want to scream that he's the most evil man because he had something to do with colonialism. But in his lifetime, he was acclaimed by people all over the world as the greatest emancipator and liberator. Henry Stanley was named as the number one enemy of the slave trade in those years. Oh, sure, sure. He was the founder, as we look in next year, next week, the Congo Free State, which was one big slave trading target by the Arab slave traders coming in. I mean, he stopped them, and it's in just a few years. It was just an extraordinary achievement. And to think know-nothing people who have no understanding of the circumstances and conditions in which he operated can damn him to hell when they don't know his heart or what he went through or what he achieved even. And they don't care because it doesn't fit the narrative of the politically correct Hollywood or school textbook. He didn't owe anybody anything. It wasn't a feeling of guilt or anything. That was his conviction to do this kind of thing. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely extraordinary story. I mean, I had a pretty negative view of Henry Morton Stanley that, you know, he's some vicious person who just, you know, shot people for no reason and picked fights everywhere. But when I got to read his books, I'm like, wow, not at all. This is, you know, a stereotype we've got of him. He was a complex person, but he achieved a spectacular amount. Well, they ended the slave trade in Ghana and basically killed off slavery there. They stopped this lunatic who was massacring his own people in a reign of terror. So, you know, this would be considered something very commendable today. Here you've got countries willing to bomb other countries because they think that the leader's not very nice. But back then, this was considered, as he called them, he saw it as a crusade. And I think a lot of the soldiers might have seen it that way, that they were going to bring freedom, civilization, save lives. The British in the 19th century were particularly obsessed with ending the slave trade. And this was William Wilberforce, Foxwell Buxton, David Livingston, Samuel Baker, Dr. Kirk, they were all, you know, this preoccupied the British in the 19th century. as was documented in this, the Royal Navy versus the slave traders. It's going throughout the world to set the captives free. That is a very great civilizing mission. And to think that today, not saying that everything they did about it was right, but the point is there was a good intention at the heart of it. If anyone's got something to complain about how the British behaved in Africa, it's the Boers of South Africa. The British treated the Boers savagely and viciously. But the black people of Africa actually have a lot to thank the British for because the British generally gave far more blessings to most of Africa than they took out, especially Sudan, they can say that and so on. because they ended the slave trade of the Mahdi and Aulis in Sudan. And the main people who've got something to complain about would be the Boers. And the strange thing is when the Afrikaners gained control of South Africa, they didn't tear down the statues of Queen Victoria and Cecil Rhodes and Aulis and seek revenge. It's interesting how the Afrikaners have got a genuine grief for the British. were the most polite and restrained about it. And the people who should be thanking the British are the ones demanding reparations and tearing down the statues. It's quite bizarre. Yes, the British Empire did some bad things in Africa, but most of that was in South Africa. That was the empire's greatest time of shame in the 19th century is how they ended the century just for gold and diamonds. waging war against farmers. I mean, that was shameful. But I think what the British did for the people of Ghana, Nigeria, I've had Nigerians say to me, you know, the British came here because we asked them to. Our kings pleaded, come here to end the slave trade. And I've heard that in Zambia, too. Lusy people said, we pleaded with the British, come and make us a protectorate. They came and ended the slave trade in 1906. Western Zambia, Lusy land, set free from slavery and so on. So, extraordinarily, a lot of the stories, if you go to Swaziland and, well, we asked the British to come in and make us protected. Lesotho, we asked the British to come in and make us protected. Botswana, we asked the British to come and make us protected. Many parts of Africa, they were invited. So, this business of colonialism is very little understood. The Arabs as well. There's a lot of Arab abuse. But yes, generally speaking, the protection was from Arab Muslims or from other tribes. Yes. So, any other comments? It's incredible how the Lord can use any situations, like tragic events and everything for His good, furthering His Kingdom. I often wonder how men like this can go into, for example, Darkest Africa, or like that love or affection and whatnot, but because of his tragic childhood, he didn't seek that affection from you, instead himself. And so therefore he was free and able to go and do all the work that he did. It's incredible how the Lord used that tragedy. Now, that's an important and interesting point because when you think of people speak about the disadvantaged background, I mean, who had a more disadvantaged background than Henry Morton Stanley? I thought David Livingston was the most disadvantaged person I've ever come across before I read about Stanley because, Livingston at least had two parents who loved him. He had a father and a mother who loved him. Okay, he was brought up in a one-roomed home with a family of seven, five children, two parents in a 14-foot by 12-foot apartment, no running water, no electricity, you know, working full-time in a 14-hour day from six in the morning until eight at night every day for six days a week in the mill from age 10 on. Being whipped and beaten as part and parcel of work then was child labor was very normal. And I thought, well, gee, David Livingstone sounds poorer and more abused and more disadvantaged than anyone I've ever come across. And I've ministered in 36 countries. And I've been in some pretty bad areas. But then you learn of Stanley. Stanley didn't even have a mother who cared for him. Mary Slessor at least had a mother. I mean, she was also brought up as a working in the mills, and she had an abusive alcoholic father, and so only her mother really loved her. But Stanley was even poorer than Mary Slessor and David Livingston. And yet all of them got respected and honored by the British government, received by the Queen, Queen Victoria, and rose to the heights of success in their lifetime, showing that even this phenomenally class-rigid structure, I mean, Britain in the 19th century was a seriously rigid class structure, you would have thought. And yet these three, all born in the humblest of situations, Scotland for Mary Slessor and David Livingston, or Wales by Henry Morton Stanley, illegitimately in the case of Henry Morton Stanley, which was a huge stigma at that time, and very unfairly. I mean, how's the child to blame? And yet they all three rose to the heights, not just in spiritual, but even the world, showing that God's got his ways. I mean, like he lifted Joseph and Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. To a large extent, what you said is right, but it's not just your genes. It's not just your background or your upbringing. A lot of it's choice. Also there's God's grace and revelation of course breaking and converting people but they had choices and there's other people who've maybe had more advances who didn't achieve much It's like his very shocking abuse as a kid drove him to, whether it was to prove himself or whatever, but it led him to achieve things that no other human being could be imagined to. Who else could have done something like that? In the 19th century, this was really the toughest, roughest achievements possible. And you'll agree with me, I think, at the end of next week, What he achieved in the second half of his life was even more incredible than what he achieved in the first. So there's, what I take out of it too is all of these people achieved a lot, whether you're talking Mary Slessor, David Livingston, anyone, they were all readers. They read. which if you've got books and you love reading, you've got big advantage in the people with the big screens and all the quadraphonic surround sound or whatever. Let's face it, books are a gym for the mind. And your mind can, you can stretch your brain just like you can stretch your muscles. And there can be people who were not very strong as youth who later on rebuild their bodies and just through exercise manage to become physically strong. You can do the same with your mind. There's some people who've wasted their minds and are just saying, you know, Totally wasted my growing up. I mean, that's your testimony in your book too. You know, it's just only when the grace of God broke through. And so there's revelation and there's choice as well. And looking at this with Henry Morton Stanley, I just think, well, who amongst us has an excuse? We've got how many more advances over him? I mean, really. When you speak about disadvantaged backgrounds, sometimes it's the people with the most disadvantaged backgrounds who achieve the most. Witness Mary Slessor, David Levicks, and Henry Morton Stanley. I mean, those are just three phenomenal examples of the most deprived, disadvantaged backgrounds imaginable, and they achieved more than any of their contemporaries. Do they respect him or are they negative? But very important potters. Of course Lubumbashi used to be Senegal. That sounds like a bit of a communist prejudice. They often leave out the motivation. Because who could have paid him enough money to have done that? He risked his life. In fact, as you'll see on his next expedition, just about everyone who went with him died. I mean, it's just absolutely brutal, brutal. But do they still have Stanley Falls on the Congo River? Do they call it Stanley Falls? Have they renamed that too? Yeah. So do you know if they still have any statues to Stanley in Congo? So it might be in Lubumbashi. That should be interesting to see. Well, we'll get to the Congo next week. Next week it's overwhelmingly his work in the Congo, but this is the introduction, so to speak, of first installment.