I.

Banza M’Buko, August 6, 1877.

Messrs. A. Da Motta Veiga and J. W. Harrison, Embomma, Congo River.

Gentlemen,

I (S. 115, N. 1) have received your welcome letter, but better _than all_, and[2] more welcome, are your supplies. I am unable to express _just_ at present how grateful I feel. At the sight of (+von+) the stores exposed[3] to our hungry eyes—at the sight of (+von+) the rice, the fish, _and_ the rum, and[4] for me—wheaten bread, butter, sardines, jam, peaches, grapes, beer (ye[5] gods! just think of it—three bottles pale ale[6]!), besides tea and sugar, we (App. § 14) are all so over-joyed and confused that we cannot restrain[7] ourselves from falling to and[8] enjoying this sudden bounteous store. I beg you will charge[9] our apparent want of (+an+) thankfulness to our greediness. If we do not thank you sufficiently in words, rest assured we[10] feel what volumes could not describe.

For the next twenty-four hours we shall be too busy eating and drinking to think of anything else much; but I may say that the people[11] will cry out joyfully, while[12] their mouths are full of rice and fish: “Verily, our master has found the sea and his brothers, but we did not believe him until[13] he showed us the rice and the pambe (rum). We did not believe there[14] was any end to the great river; but God be praised for ever, for we shall see white people[15] to-morrow, and our wars[16] and troubles will be over!”[17]

[1] +Anzeige von dem Empfange+; ‘supplies’, here +Warensendung+, f.

[2] Insert the adverb +noch+ here.

[3] It was exposed to my eyes, +es war vor meinen Augen ausgebreitet+; ‘hungry’, here +gierig+.

[4] +und — des für mich bestimmten Weißbrots+; the article, in the Gen. case, must be repeated before each of the following nouns.

[5] ye — it = +o sehet, Ihr Götter+.

[6] +Weißbier.+

[7] +bezwingen+; from falling to, +zuzugreifen+.

[8] +und diese uns so schnell und großmütig zugesandten Vorräte zu verzehren.+

[9] I beg you will charge this to his greediness, +ich bitte Sie, dies seiner Eßbegierde zur Last legen zu wollen+.

[10] we — describe = we feel more than could (App. § 33, and S. 2, N. 1) be described to you through (+durch+) volumes.

[11] +Leute.+

[12] Say ‘while their mouth is still filled with rice and fish’.

[13] +ehe.+

[14] Say ‘the great river had (see App. § 29) ever (+je+) an end’.

[15] +Menschen.+

[16] +Kämpfe und Beschwerden.+

[17] This letter, on the morning of the 7th of August, was despatched to Boma, the caravan following slowly, and reaching Boma on the 9th of August 1877, the 999th day from the date of their departure from Zanzibar. The expedition then embarked on board a steamer at Boma, and, on the 11th, descended the river Congo. After steaming northward from the mouth of the Congo for a few hours, the vessel entered the fine bay of Kabinda, on the southern shores of which the native town of that name in the county of Nyoyo is situate. The Expedition, after a stay of eight days at Kabinda, was kindly taken on board the Portuguese gunboat ‘Tamega’ to San Paulo de Loanda. Here they were treated with the utmost hospitality by the Portuguese and the officers of the English navy, who offered the Expedition a passage to Cape Town in H.M.S. ‘Industry’, Commander R. C. Dyer. The Cape of Good Hope was reached on the 21st of October. Here a telegram from the Lords of the British Admiralty was received, authorising the Commodore Francis William Sullivan to prepare H.M.S. ‘Industry’ for the reception of the Expedition and to convey them to Zanzibar, the end of their journey. On the 6th of November H.M.S. ‘Industry’ was equipped and ready for her voyage to Zanzibar, which was reached on the 20th of the same month. By this time the sick had, all but one, recovered, and had improved so much in appearance that few persons ignorant of what they had been, could have supposed that these were the living skeletons that had reeled from sheer weakness through Boma.

_Section 150._

MR. STANLEY’S LETTER (continued).