Description

I had heard from passing caravans so many extremely favourable reports respecting Ugogo and its productions that it appeared to me a very Land of Promise, and I was most anxious to refresh my jaded stomach with some of the precious esculents raised in Ugogo... -from Chapter V "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Such was the greeting of Henry Stanley upon finding David Livingstone in deepest Africa... if we're to believe Stanley's own retelling of the event. In 1869, the New York Herald newspaper assigned Stanley, one of its overseas correspondents, to search for Livingstone, a Scottish missionary and explorer presumed lost on the Dark Continent, and Stanley, appearing to appreciate full well that his expedition was history in the making, made certain to solidify his own legend with this bombastic, romanticized, and thoroughly rip-roaring chronicle. From his entourage fit for royalty-the 2,000 porters were all paid for via his Herald expense account-to his daring exploits to find the source of the Nile with Livingstone in tow, this is armchair adventure at its most exciting. Even if it may not all be entirely true. Journalist and adventurer SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY (1841-1904) was born in Wales, emigrated to the United States as a young man, and returned to England late in life. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1895 to 1900.