What did henry morton stanley discover

Stanley was actually born John Rowlands in the Welsh county town of Denbigh in His teenage mother Elisabeth Parry registered the birth …. Shortly after his birth, Elisabeth abandoned the care of her son to his grandfather, but unfortunately he died just a few years later and so at the tender age of six, John Rowlands Jnr. It was also around this time that John Rowlands Snr.

Any parent left alive may have been just a little concerned at the reports of the day concerning the St. Apparently untroubled by such unsavoury goings-on, John Rowlands Jnr. At seventeen, John signed up as a cabin boy on board an American freighter and jumped ship shortly after it docked at New Orleans. There he invented a new identity for himself.

Henry morton stanley death

Henry Stanley was a wealthy local cotton merchant and John took his name claiming to be his adopted son, although it is unlikely that the two ever met. After being captured he quickly changed sides and enlisted in the Union Army. Perhaps preferring a life at sea he appears to have deserted the Union Army and joined the Federal Navy serving as a clerk on board the frigate Minnesota , before he eventually jumped that ship as well.

In the years that followed, Stanley toured the American Wild West, working as a freelance journalist, covering the many battles and skirmishes with the Native American Indians. Nothing had been heard of the great Scottish missionary-explorer for almost a year, when he was reported to be somewhere near Lake Tanganyika. Setting off on his quest, Stanley first stopped at Egypt to report on the opening of the Suez Canal.

Travelling through Palestine, Turkey and India he eventually arrived on the east coast of Africa near Zanzibar. In March , decked out in dazzling white flannels and mounted atop a thoroughbred stallion Stanley set out on his mile overland trek.