Very few people in the 19th Century ever were involved in war like Henry Stanley. He fought in the American Indian wars, on both sides in the American Civil War, in the Ashante and the Abbysimian Campaigns with the British. Although usually a correspondent, few natives were familiar with this concept and a rifle was as important as a pencil. He also observed some Greek wars.

Stanley discovered Livingstone in the early 1870's and became an overnight sensation. In my opinion, his greatest feat was his 1874-1877 exploration of the Congo which I will describe in this article and then give a short bibliography and wargame ideas.

He left Zanzibar in 1874 with several hundred Arab porters. The trip was sponsored by two newspapers. He had thousands of applicants for white officers but he only took a few with him. They all died of disease and drowning as Africa was a death sentence for most whites.

The first destination was Lake Tongayika and Victoria. They were attacked by the Wanyaturu tribe in their thousands and made the mistake of splitting into five 10-man groups, one of which was almost wiped out. Finally, they aggressively defeated the tribe with presumably hundreds of dead natives. After a smallpox epidemic, they arrived at the last Arab trading post and met the famous slaver Tippu Tib.

Tippu told them that even the illustrious explorer Cameron and Livingstone himself were never able to go beyond this point. A few Arabs had and had to fight pygmies and vicious cannibals before running back. Tib agreed to accompany Stanley a hundred miles or so with hundreds of his well armed arab trained natives.

Line of Skulls

They stopped at a village and the natives had lines of "Soko" skulls. They said these were tasty gorillas but it was discovered by Stanley when he returned to England that the skulls were human. Stanley got on his boat, the "Lady Alice," and his entourage rode large canoes. They then encountered the vicious Wabware, Wasangore and filed teeth people. They were attacked by natives wherever they went. Some rode crocodile boats - large canoes hung with crocodiles. The native battle cries varied as he went down the river from "uh-hu" to "Bo-bo" to "Ya ha ha".

Even though Stanley always had his interpreters ask for friendship the natives always instantly attacked yelling "Nyama" (Meat). The Aruwimi cannibals at Stanley Falls attacked with 2,000 men and the situation was always desperate as Stanley only had 40 riflemen in his 150 person expedition.

Before he hit the Congo, he had gone around Lake Victoria and Lake Tangayika and helped the King of Uganda with a battle. He fought 32 battles on the Congo. One of his most difficult was against the Boagolas who had muskets. If they hadntt fired slugs with poor powder, he would have been killed. He crossed the Livingstone Falls with onehalf of his party dead and with all three whites, he arrived on the West coast in 1877.

Stanley's hair had turned white by age 36. His book was sensational although "Bula Nafari" (The Rock Breaker) was berated by liberals who thought he should have reasoned with the natives who wanted to eat him. In defense of the natives, he did meet the Kankore tribe who although living in this jungle, did not eat human flesh and he made friends with them. Stanley himself, a Welshman, did recall that his ancestors took heads in their ancient warfare and did not take a condescending attitude for his time to the savages he met.

I regard Stanley as one of the bravest and most interesting people that ever lived. He was also a brilliant writer and had risen from a brutal orphanage to make his mark on the world. He personified the words adventure and explorer. His methods were severe but so were his enemies and I will not judge him but remember him.

Through the Dark Continent by Stanley.
Stanley, the Man who Dared by Byron Farewell.

WARGAMING STANLEY'S TRIP

The natives are Zulus by Essex, Minifig, and Stone Mountain. Tin Soldier makes Masais and ancient numidians could be another tribe. Fuzzies could be a tribe as could Maoris by Frontier. Although these are not quite right for Congo head hunters, they look just fine in 15mm and there is no question which side they represent. Ancient Libyans would be good as well. Stanley and his men are well represented by any colonial figure in a Pith helmet.

Afghans or Mahdists are fine as Arab rifles. Essex makes very nice figures carrying packs such as Arabs and Minifigs has Udibe boys also good as porters from the Congo. My "Lady Alice" is a Frontier ACW launch and canoes can be found from several 15mm manufacturers. Any simple Colonial rules will do but since Stanley was never wounded in any of his battlers "double sixes" would be required even to graze him.

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com