I.
Village _of_ N’sanda[2], August 4, 1877.
To[3] any Gentleman who speaks English at Embomma.
Dear[4] Sir,
I have arrived at[5] this place from Zanzibar with 115 souls, (S. 53, N. 9) men, women, and children. We are now in[6] a state of imminent starvation. We can buy[7] nothing from the natives, for they laugh at[8] our _kinds of_ cloth[9], beads, and wire. There[10] are no provisions in the country that may be purchased, except on market days, and starving people cannot afford to wait for these markets. I[11], therefore, have made bold to despatch three of my young men[12], natives[13] of Zanzibar, with (+nebst+) a boy named Feruzi, of the English mission at Zanzibar, with this letter.
I do not know you, but[14] I am told there (S. 104, N. 19) is an Englishman at (+in+) Embomma, and as you are a Christian and a gentleman, I beg you not to disregard my request. The boy Robert will be better able to describe our lone condition than I[15] can tell you in this letter. We are in _a state of_ the greatest distress; but if your supplies[16] arrive in time, I[17] may be able to reach Embomma within four days.
[1] +Anruf um Zusendung von Waren.+
[2] The village of N’sanda is three days’ journey from Embomma, or Boma, which is a small town on the Congo or Livingstone River at a distance of sixty-five English miles from the Atlantic, and, with regard to Stanley’s position, may be considered the van of civilisation in Africa, being the first place inhabited by Europeans.—For the full understanding of this letter, it may be useful to observe that it was written at the critical period when, at their journey home from the sources of the Nile, and almost at the end of all their troubles, the heroic travellers of more than 7000 miles through Equatorial Africa found themselves face to face with the grimmest of all enemies—starvation. Nearly forty men filled the sick list with dysentery, ulcers, and scurvy, and the number of victims of the latter disease was steadily increasing. For a considerable time the people had had no other food but a few ground-nuts and bananas, and were scarcely more than skin and bone. In this extremity Mr. Stanley determined to despatch four of his strongest and swiftest men with this letter to Embomma, where he was told there was one Englishman, one Frenchman, and three Portuguese. He then intended to follow these men as quickly as possible with the rest of his people, and to meet them and the expected supplies on the road to Boma, thus gaining at least one or two days, which might turn out to be of the greatest importance to his starving followers.
[3] Use the attributive construction, as explained in S. 48, N. 6.
[4] +Geehrt.+
[5] at this place = here.
[6] +dem Verhungern nahe sein.+
[7] ‘buy’, here = exchange, +ein´tauschen+.
[8] +über+, with Acc.
[9] Say ‘cloths, beads, and wires’.
[10] Say ‘Except on (+Außer an+) market days there are (+sind+) in the (+auf dem+) country no provisions to be got (+zu haben+) that we can buy, and if one hungers, one cannot possibly wait for (+auf+, with Acc.) these markets.
[11] Say ‘I venture (after which use the grammatical object, as explained in S. 51, N. 13) therefore to send (+ab´senden+), etc.
[12] +Leute.+
[13] +welche aus Zanzibar gebürtig sind.+
[14] +man sagt mir jedoch.+
[15] I can tell you = I can do.
[16] ‘supplies’, here = goods.
[17] I may be able = I can perhaps (see App. § 15).
_Section 147._
MR. H. M. STANLEY’S APPEAL FOR SUPPLIES.