Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1888 — STANLEY AND TIPPOO TIB. [ARTICLE]

STANLEY AND TIPPOO TIB.

Relations Subsisting Between the « Explorer . and the Former SlaveTrader. New York Tribune. Major Barttelot, commanding the little garrison at the mouth of the Aruwimi, has written a letter to a friend in London, expressing grave apprehension of disaster, but the facts on which he bases his judgment have not been revealed. Mr. Ward, one of his assistants, will soon arrive in England with dispatches from the post containing the latest news from the upper Congo. •- Mr. Stanley landed at that point and entered upon his perilous enterprise. Since July no direct information has been received from him. Deserters from his column reported him to be alive early in October. On Nov. 2 Emin sent dispatches from Lake Albert, stating that no tidings of the expedition had been received. Mr. Stanley has confidently expected to reach Wadelai during October, and the protracted delay, as well as the lack of decisive information, alike tend to excite grave alarm.

The only conjectures which have been formed respecting the cause of delay or possible disaster have indicated treachery on the part of Mr. Stanley’s ally, Tippoo Tib. This is the mercenary chief and slave-trader who escorted the explorer’s caraven across country to upper Congo in 1877, when he made his famous descent of the river. He is the most powerful chief known in the region between Lake Tanganyika and Stanley Falls. He was probably responsible for the assault upon the European station at the latter, point which preceded Mr. Stanley’s return to the Congo valley. Tippoo Tib resembled in his authority over native races and in his character and occupation Zobehr r whom General Gordon was anxious to have as an ally at Khartoum. Mr. Stanley knew that fie could do nothing without Tippoo Tib and thought that he could purchase the slave-trader’s support by giving large bribes to him and by investing him with supreme authority at Stanley Falls. The two men met in Ranzibar early last year and made a bargain. Tippob Tib accepted the office of Governor at the Falls, agreeing to defend the station against Arabs and blacks, and being promised a handsome salary from the Congo Free State. He also signed a contract for supplying 600 carriers who were to accompany Mr. Stanley to Wadelai and to transport Emin’s large stock Of ivory to the Congo.

• When Mr. Stanley’s expedition ascended the Congo, Tippo Tib went to the Falls and took charge of the station, with the title of Governor. He was expected to send provisions and men to the upper Aruwimi while the column was on the march. The messages received by Major Barttelot from the expedition in July stated that supplies and reinforcements were urgently needed. Tippoo Tib commanded two of the four approaches to Wadelai, and apparently was able to send supplies to the Aruwimi valley, but neglected to hold to his agreement. If disaster has overtaken Mr. Stanley his Zobehr will probably be held responsible for it, since through inaction or treachery on his part the progress of the expedition has been retarded and its rescources crippled and exhausted. Tippo Tib was willing; white in Zanzibar, to agree to abstain from slave-traffic at Stanley Falls and to take arms against slave-raiders. It is probable that when he arrived at the station and asserted his authority as Governor, the instincts of the old slave-hunter revived. Possibly he ascertained that he could make more money in the slave trade than he could by supplying Mr. Stanley with provisions and transporting Mr. Emin’s seventy-five tons of ivory across country to Congo. At any event this is as plausible an explanation as can be offered for his treachery by which the success of the relief expedition has been imperiled.