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The Last Expedition: Stanley's Mad Journey Through The Congo
Traces the nineteenth-century, three-year African expedition of Henry Morton Stanley, a journey that was launched with the official intention of rescuing jihad victim lieutenant Emin Pasha of the southern Sudan, in an account that reveals Stanley's secret agenda of territorial expansion and the brutal killings of thousands of Africans. 20,000 first printing.
355 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
July 31, 2014
The trip isn't bad enough - a 3000 mile walk in an equatorial climate with no food - the crew has to put up with Stanley! He is a nightmare of egotism, buck passing, cruel punishment, petty intrigue and verbal abuse. The men starve, yes to death, as he squirrels away food and metes out lashings that could kill a healthy man and do kill some in his malnourished and sickly crew. The authors (thankfully!) spare us graphic descriptions of the writhing, bleeding and other details of how the many died, making it possible for non-masochists to read the book to its end.
This trip was mismanaged from the git go in large and small ways. The route Stanley insists upon puts bravado over judgement. Each man had only a certain amount of weight to bring, so the doctor had to decide on whether to take medical supplies or his personal effects. Fortunately, Dr. Parke was a bigger man than Stanley.
Questions are suggested: Does one need to be a tyrant to make such a journey when desertion is an ever present possibility and there could be warring people and tribes at any turn? How DOES a leader blend a mix of people that include those who have paid to take the trip and those for whom the trip SEEMED TO guarantee a meal? By what criteria can this mission be called a success?
The issue of race is not explored, but there are some suggestive episodes. Stanley, they say, takes the word of the Zanzibaris before that of his officers. Was he an egalitarian? or was this just manipulative undercutting? They say he paid not only the surviving Africans, but also the families of the deceased. Paying surviving families is a dubious claim since tracking down families of the many who died on the trail would be impossible.
The self dealing that goes on today in the US seems to pale before that of Stanley. Should we take comfort in this? The book does not mention that between 1895 & 1900 he served in the House of Commons. Would today's politicians have behaved this badly in their pre-campaign lives? If so, c/would they spin it as successfully as Stanley obviously did in his lifetime?
The authors have obviously not just read, but studied the journals of the participants and other primary sources. They do a great job of putting it all together.
This trip was mismanaged from the git go in large and small ways. The route Stanley insists upon puts bravado over judgement. Each man had only a certain amount of weight to bring, so the doctor had to decide on whether to take medical supplies or his personal effects. Fortunately, Dr. Parke was a bigger man than Stanley.
Questions are suggested: Does one need to be a tyrant to make such a journey when desertion is an ever present possibility and there could be warring people and tribes at any turn? How DOES a leader blend a mix of people that include those who have paid to take the trip and those for whom the trip SEEMED TO guarantee a meal? By what criteria can this mission be called a success?
The issue of race is not explored, but there are some suggestive episodes. Stanley, they say, takes the word of the Zanzibaris before that of his officers. Was he an egalitarian? or was this just manipulative undercutting? They say he paid not only the surviving Africans, but also the families of the deceased. Paying surviving families is a dubious claim since tracking down families of the many who died on the trail would be impossible.
The self dealing that goes on today in the US seems to pale before that of Stanley. Should we take comfort in this? The book does not mention that between 1895 & 1900 he served in the House of Commons. Would today's politicians have behaved this badly in their pre-campaign lives? If so, c/would they spin it as successfully as Stanley obviously did in his lifetime?
The authors have obviously not just read, but studied the journals of the participants and other primary sources. They do a great job of putting it all together.
November 15, 2020
Unflinching account of the last “great” voyage of discovery into Africa based on all available contemporary written sources (book, diaries, letters). The authors largely keep to stating the facts and leave it to the reader to form their own judgement re. the deeds and misdeeds of the expedition and those whom they journeyed among.
Hardly anybody involved in this debacle came out a winner. Thousands perished or were killed and the survivors had their constitutions broken due to malnourishment and tropical diseases and their reputations sullied or destroyed.
People who wax nostalgically about “the good old days of old-fashioned Victorian high adventure complete with palatial tents, bath tubs, and champagne on ice carried by throngs of singing natives” should read this and have their romantic notions thoroughly corrected.
The book was well-written and hard to put down; I finished it only in the small hours.
Hardly anybody involved in this debacle came out a winner. Thousands perished or were killed and the survivors had their constitutions broken due to malnourishment and tropical diseases and their reputations sullied or destroyed.
People who wax nostalgically about “the good old days of old-fashioned Victorian high adventure complete with palatial tents, bath tubs, and champagne on ice carried by throngs of singing natives” should read this and have their romantic notions thoroughly corrected.
The book was well-written and hard to put down; I finished it only in the small hours.
January 10, 2026
Very interesting look into a lost period in time. The story is very compelling the execution does sometimes drag on a bit with every single minute detail wich I as a reader do not always care about. And maybe a big map of the route the expedition took could have helped with keeping track of where they are at what point. But with all that being said, I enjoyed it a lot.
June 28, 2024
The Hero is a concept deeply ingrained in Western culture and has been a constant driver in our narrative of history. Thus, for England Charles Gordon was touted as the hero who would restore order in the Sudan in 1884. (His official mandate was merely to observe and report back to Consul General Baring in Cairo). A year later he became the martyred hero of Khartoum.
Dr. Robert Felkin had merely to invoke Gordon's name in a letter to The Times of London in December 1886 to catalyze support for an expedition to rescue Emin Pasha, dubbed Gordon's “Last Lieutenant.” Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria, was under threat from the Mahdi's forces, now led by Khalifa Abdullah. The organizers of the so-called Emin Pasha Relief Expedition turned to yet another hero for the expedition's leadership – Henry Stanley, renowned explorer and savior of the saintly Dr. Livingston.
This book delves into the disparate personalitiees of Emin Pasha, Stanley and scores of actors connected with the horrific drama that unfolded across equatorial Africa over a three year time span. It is a highly readable and detailed narrative based on diaries, letters and contemporary writings. It points to the unreliability of Stanley's own account, In Darkest Africa.
Neither Stanley nor the organizers of the expedition had primarily humanitarian motives. Stanley had been employed by King Leopold II of Belgium for five years and was aware of Leopold's ambition to transform what was called the Congo Free State into a personal fiefdom. The British, led by William Mackinnon, hoped to establish a trade monopoly and were working to charter the IBEAC (Imperial British East Africa Co.). Stanley's goal was to extract Emin Pasha. Emin Pasha had merely asked for guns and ammunition and had explicitly declared his intent to remain in Equatoria in letters he had dispatched. Stanley, however, was confident he could persuade Emin Pasha to leave and accompany him to London. It would be a powerful display of his own heroism in "rescuing" Gordon's "last lieutenant."
These conflicting agendas had serious repercussions. From the outset Stanley chose to begin his march in West Africa at the mouth of the Congo River. This west to east route was longer than the east to west routes that had already been traversed. From the Congo River's mouth, the route would take them through the unexplored and inhospitable Iturbi Forest. This bizarre decision was no doubt influenced by Stanley's association with King Leopold.
Stanley repeatedly overcame obstacles with ingenuity and resourcefulness. However, neither he nor his lieutenants gave any thought to the sheer number of miscalculations nor their catastrophic consequences. The most serious problem was obtaining food. Stanley assumed they could barter for food with the natives and brought a supply of trinkets for this purpose. However, much of central Africa was in the midst of a famine and Stanley had warnings about this when the expedition first landed. The convoy resorted to looting villages along their route. The terrified natives fled, and his men occupied the emptied huts for the night and burned them in the morning when they departed, after taking any food they found. Eventually, the villagers would simply pack up their food and livestock and melt into the forest until the convoy had passed through. Stanley also imagined that they could hunt game to supplement their diets. However, no animals were to be seen. The authors point out: “Evidently, the sound of eight hundred men tromping through the jungle was something of a warning signal.” (p.77)
Stanley had organized the expedition on a military model. That model enabled him to enact a level of appalling brutality without restraint. Officers were subjected to verbal abuse and humiliation. Porters were nothing more than beasts of burden. James Jameson wrote of his duties in keeping the porters moving as “...not fit for any white man, but ought to be given to slave-drivers.” (p.70) The military model enabled a callous calculation of expected and acceptable losses. Any natives opposing him were “the enemy.” Stanley's leadership infected his officers with the mindset that the ends justified the means. For Stanley, that end meant speed at any cost. He needed to extract Emin Pasha before the Mahdi forces captured Equatoria in order to realize his goal of a triumphant grand tour.
This warped morality had lasting effects. William Stairs at one point noted the abysmal governance of central Africa under Leopold's agents which included the notorious slaver Tippu Tib. “...the state, as now constructed, is one huge mistake.” (p.93) Yet, having survived the ordeal, he led yet another expedition in 1891 – under the employ of King Leopold. Stanley's reliance on the very unreliable Tippu Tib would have fatal consequences.
The title The Last Expedition refers to more than Stanley's career. His expedition was the conclusion of a century of activities that opened up the continent. “In the decade that followed, during the so-called Scramble for Africa, that opportunity was ruthlessly exploited by a parade of nations, quasi-governmental enterprises, and individuals that continued well into the twentieth century, a parade whose malignant legacy haunts the continent to this day. Stanley was their point man and drum major. Bula Matari [his epithet] was more than a Breaker of Stones; he and his ilk broke Africa wide open, and no one has yet found a way to put it back together again.” (p.337)
My husband recommended this book to me when he learned I had read The White Nile.
Dr. Robert Felkin had merely to invoke Gordon's name in a letter to The Times of London in December 1886 to catalyze support for an expedition to rescue Emin Pasha, dubbed Gordon's “Last Lieutenant.” Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria, was under threat from the Mahdi's forces, now led by Khalifa Abdullah. The organizers of the so-called Emin Pasha Relief Expedition turned to yet another hero for the expedition's leadership – Henry Stanley, renowned explorer and savior of the saintly Dr. Livingston.
This book delves into the disparate personalitiees of Emin Pasha, Stanley and scores of actors connected with the horrific drama that unfolded across equatorial Africa over a three year time span. It is a highly readable and detailed narrative based on diaries, letters and contemporary writings. It points to the unreliability of Stanley's own account, In Darkest Africa.
Neither Stanley nor the organizers of the expedition had primarily humanitarian motives. Stanley had been employed by King Leopold II of Belgium for five years and was aware of Leopold's ambition to transform what was called the Congo Free State into a personal fiefdom. The British, led by William Mackinnon, hoped to establish a trade monopoly and were working to charter the IBEAC (Imperial British East Africa Co.). Stanley's goal was to extract Emin Pasha. Emin Pasha had merely asked for guns and ammunition and had explicitly declared his intent to remain in Equatoria in letters he had dispatched. Stanley, however, was confident he could persuade Emin Pasha to leave and accompany him to London. It would be a powerful display of his own heroism in "rescuing" Gordon's "last lieutenant."
These conflicting agendas had serious repercussions. From the outset Stanley chose to begin his march in West Africa at the mouth of the Congo River. This west to east route was longer than the east to west routes that had already been traversed. From the Congo River's mouth, the route would take them through the unexplored and inhospitable Iturbi Forest. This bizarre decision was no doubt influenced by Stanley's association with King Leopold.
Stanley repeatedly overcame obstacles with ingenuity and resourcefulness. However, neither he nor his lieutenants gave any thought to the sheer number of miscalculations nor their catastrophic consequences. The most serious problem was obtaining food. Stanley assumed they could barter for food with the natives and brought a supply of trinkets for this purpose. However, much of central Africa was in the midst of a famine and Stanley had warnings about this when the expedition first landed. The convoy resorted to looting villages along their route. The terrified natives fled, and his men occupied the emptied huts for the night and burned them in the morning when they departed, after taking any food they found. Eventually, the villagers would simply pack up their food and livestock and melt into the forest until the convoy had passed through. Stanley also imagined that they could hunt game to supplement their diets. However, no animals were to be seen. The authors point out: “Evidently, the sound of eight hundred men tromping through the jungle was something of a warning signal.” (p.77)
Stanley had organized the expedition on a military model. That model enabled him to enact a level of appalling brutality without restraint. Officers were subjected to verbal abuse and humiliation. Porters were nothing more than beasts of burden. James Jameson wrote of his duties in keeping the porters moving as “...not fit for any white man, but ought to be given to slave-drivers.” (p.70) The military model enabled a callous calculation of expected and acceptable losses. Any natives opposing him were “the enemy.” Stanley's leadership infected his officers with the mindset that the ends justified the means. For Stanley, that end meant speed at any cost. He needed to extract Emin Pasha before the Mahdi forces captured Equatoria in order to realize his goal of a triumphant grand tour.
This warped morality had lasting effects. William Stairs at one point noted the abysmal governance of central Africa under Leopold's agents which included the notorious slaver Tippu Tib. “...the state, as now constructed, is one huge mistake.” (p.93) Yet, having survived the ordeal, he led yet another expedition in 1891 – under the employ of King Leopold. Stanley's reliance on the very unreliable Tippu Tib would have fatal consequences.
The title The Last Expedition refers to more than Stanley's career. His expedition was the conclusion of a century of activities that opened up the continent. “In the decade that followed, during the so-called Scramble for Africa, that opportunity was ruthlessly exploited by a parade of nations, quasi-governmental enterprises, and individuals that continued well into the twentieth century, a parade whose malignant legacy haunts the continent to this day. Stanley was their point man and drum major. Bula Matari [his epithet] was more than a Breaker of Stones; he and his ilk broke Africa wide open, and no one has yet found a way to put it back together again.” (p.337)
My husband recommended this book to me when he learned I had read The White Nile.
Read
September 28, 2015This is the ideal book for anyone interested in Exploration. Stanley represents the end of the colonial explorer because of the intense and frightening stories brought back to England.
September 17, 2020
This is a well written and easy read account of the disastrous expedition led by Henry Stanley to ‘rescue’ Emin Pasha in Equatoria. The authors have taken all written accounts of the expedition and put them together. I have very mixed feelings about the people in the book, I went from feeling sorry for them one minute to disgust over their attitudes towards and treatment of the many different native tribes and at times each other, Parke being the exception. Stanley himself was just plain awful from finish to end. Even the Africans treatment of one another was sad. Despite this the book is hard to put down, you want to know what happens and in truth at the end you are left wondering how anyone did actually manage to survive. This is a good insight into a part of African history little known and helps give a little perspective to the tensions that are still alive today.
February 4, 2020
Mostly everyone remembers Stanley's most famous journey through Africa, to find Livingstone, even if it's only through cartoons or pop-culture references. (Dr. Livingstone, I presume?) But the details of that expedition, the rest of Stanley's trips to Africa, and the other terrible things that colonialism in general wrought are often lost, and that's a shame. The attitudes toward Africa as a whole, and Africans as "subhuman" is on full display here. The grab for power and for glory at the expense of all else is as well. It's illuminating and well written, but it's also really hard to read because of all the unpleasantness.
October 17, 2021
The final sentence reads "Bula Matari (Stanley) was more than a Breaker of Stones; he and his ilk broke Africa wide open, and no one has yet found a way to put it back together again." Isn't that the truth. Stanley was a cruel, pitiless egomaniac and The Last Expedition is full of cruelty, death, and destruction (of both the Indigenous population and his own entourage) as he made his way through central Africa. An excellent read.
June 18, 2022
I enjoyed the book. It made clear that the expedition was not about rescue at all. The political machinations were the real reason. Stanley doesn't come off well at all. There was probably noone better able to complete the effort at all but his self centered nature and the brutality are hard to imagine in today's world. The book provides a good basis for the end of African exploration and start of the exploitation of Africa
May 25, 2017
Stanley's last expedition to Africa. Was to "rescue" Emin Pasha" but really an excuse for colonization and setting up trading areas. Draws upon a variety of sources and is not complimentary of Stanley.
Read
July 4, 2022The star of the book: the Congo River, which takes on a life of its own in a vain attempt to stop colonialism in its tracks. A must-read, stomach-turning though it is. I can't bring myself to give it any stars because Stanley is unworthy of any.
November 1, 2024
This book exposes the darkness of the colonial soul, the hubris of the adventurers and the abuse of the indigenous people in their path.
A well-written and worthy read. I hope we are treated better when the aliens come to visit.
A well-written and worthy read. I hope we are treated better when the aliens come to visit.
November 17, 2020
If you are looking for a book that is absolutely loaded with an immense amount of suffering and misery this is your book.
October 11, 2021
Can't believe this is a true story
March 14, 2022
Interesting but frustrating because of the lack of citations. Hard to know the bases of some of the statements.
February 23, 2015
A page-turner about the epic Emin Pasha Relief Mission. One commenter below complained that the "characters" were interchangeable, which, while showing the ignorance of the reviewer, speaks to the utterly novel-like quality of the writing and the fantastical nature of what transpired during the expedition. Betrayal, cannibalism, starvation, rebellion, murder, illness, desertion, dirty dealing, slavery, political intrigue. And all of it a factual historical event that riveted the attention of Victorian England.
As a note of warning, if you carry a torch for the memory of Henry Morton Stanley, he of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" fame, you might want to steer clear of this tome. While the authors acknowledge Stanley's courage and determination, let's just say that they don't spare him on any other point.
As a note of warning, if you carry a torch for the memory of Henry Morton Stanley, he of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" fame, you might want to steer clear of this tome. While the authors acknowledge Stanley's courage and determination, let's just say that they don't spare him on any other point.
November 18, 2015
Henry Morton Stanley is most famous for his African search for missionary and explorer David Livingston and the reputed greeting, “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” The Last Expedition by Daniel Liebowitz and Charles Pearson describes the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, another expedition to “rescue” a European thought to be stranded in Africa. Stanley, whom the book presents as a self-centered, scheming, heartless braggart, led the expedition from the mouth of the Congo River across Africa to the Indian Ocean. Barely 200 of the 700 original expedition members returned. To a large extent, those who survived the trip did so by stealing food from natives. This is not a pleasant tale, but it does provide perspective. African atrocities are not new. Nowadays they are just being committed by different people.
July 31, 2016
Henry Morton Stanley reminds me of so many of the early adventurers. They had ambition, but the details foiled them in the end. The story provides a detailed description of efforts to assemble and carry out a rescue mission into the heart of Africa. Death, destruction, hunger, desertion, disloyalty, and ego are major themes. I really like histories detailing expeditions to chart new lands. To be the first, even if everything goes poorly, is irrefutable. This story, however, can't be measured based upon that standard. As a rescue, did the rescue occur? What was the cost for trying? Was it worth it? Each reader must answer these questions and is given all the information needed for insight.
October 26, 2010
Great read. Although Stanley and others can be admired for their tenacity, overcoming hardship, this pales compared to the appalling lives, deaths and terrible injustice that was done to the 'slaves' forced to be part of his entourage. Fascinating insight into the jungle of the Congo and the exploration of Africa as a whole. Needless to say Belgium doesn't come off to well in terms of its extraordindary callousness to its supposed subjects in the Congo.
June 26, 2007
You can't make this stuff up. These explorer stories are amazing in the ordeals they endured. Given how soft humankind is nowadays, I doubt any of us transported back to these times would have survived. How they did it is beyond me.
May 1, 2008
This book is about Stanley's journey through the Congo to save the Emin Pasha after a revolt took away his power. But the expedition lost more men and supplies through the choices Stanley made. A look into a great British Explorer that was a horrible man.
March 24, 2012
Obviously they did not have an editor, or had been told that the book had to be at least 300 pages. It reads more like a high school research paper with many extraneous facts. It would have been a better book if it
had been edited.
had been edited.
December 31, 2014
I enjoyed this book. The story itself was really interesting, and it pulled me along. My only complaint would be that so many of the characters were pretty much interchangeable for a good portion of the book--especially Stanley's fellow white explorers.
November 17, 2007
An interesting adventure story about Henry stanley's last voyage to Africa and the misadventures that he forced upon himself.
May 1, 2008
I found this book fascinating and learned so much about colonial Africa, the exploration of and the brutality that accompanied it
May 11, 2010
I loved this book. It was a fascinating look at a flawed man and the effect he had on his subordinates. Not to mention a look at Africa and it's people. So good!!
December 24, 2010
This book does a good job demonstrating how ludicrous imperialism was -- if it wasn't so tragic.
November 13, 2011
Read after “Dogs of God”, before detailed record keeping.
February 21, 2013
I thought this was an intriguing book. The first half of it could be slow going at times but once into it, I could not put it down.
September 3, 2013
A sobering account of African exploration/colonization. I read this shortly after reading King Leopold's Ghost
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews