Title:  How I Found Livingstone

Author:  Sir Henry M. Stanley

Release Date:  February, 2004 [EBook #5157] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 18, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK, how I found Livingstone ***

This eBook was produced by Geoffrey Cowling.

How I found Livingstone. 
Travels, Adventures and Discoveries in Central Africa
including four months residence with Dr. Livingstone

by

Sir Henry M. Stanley, G.C.B.

Abridged

CHAPTER.  I.

Introductory.  My instructions to find and relieve Livingstone.

On the sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, I was in Madrid, fresh from the carnage at Valencia.  At 10 A.M.  Jacopo, at No.—­ Calle de la Cruz, handed me a telegram:  It read, “Come to Paris on important business.”  The telegram was from Mr. James Gordon Bennett, jun., the young manager of the `New York Herald.’

Down came my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the second floor; into my trunks went my books and souvenirs, my clothes were hastily collected, some half washed, some from the clothes-line half dry, and after a couple of hours of hasty hard work my portmanteaus were strapped up and labelled “Paris.”

At 3 P.M.  I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night.  I went straight to the `Grand Hotel,’ and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett’s room.

“Come in,” I heard a voice say.  Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed.  “Who are you?” he asked.

“My name is Stanley,” I answered.

“Ah, yes! sit down; I have important business on hand for you.”

After throwing over his shoulders his robe-de-chambre Mr. Bennett asked, “Where do you think Livingstone is?”

“I really do not know, sir.”

“Do you think he is alive?”

“He may be, and he may not be,” I answered.

“Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going to send you to find him.”

“What!” said I, “do you really think I can find Dr Livingstone?  Do you mean me to go to Central Africa?”

“Yes; I mean that you shall go, and find him wherever you may hear that he is, and to get what news you can of him, and perhaps” —­delivering himself thoughtfully and deliberately—­“the old man may be in want:—­take enough with you to help him should he require it.  Of course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think best—­but find Livingstone!”