Report from darkest Africa (1887-1889) (Thomas Heazle Parke).

IN the prefatory letter to his great book In Darkest Africa, Henry Morton Stanley wrote' . . . it is with unqualified delight that I acknowledge the priceless services of my friends Stairs, Jephson, Nelson and Parke, four men whose devotion to their several duties were as perfect as human nature is capable of.' These four men alone of his eleven European officers on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, apart from hypochondriacal William Bonney the assistant surgeon, finally reached the east coast of Africa with him after an epic crossing of the continent. Bonney somehow did not measure up to Stanley's exacting standards, and although undergoing hardships equal to any of the others, failed to receive honourable mention. As for the other four, who include Thomas Heazle Parke, surgeon to the expedition, although Stanley's grammar may not be perfect, his sentiments were unmistakable. Emin, who among his several aliases included that of Eduard Schnitzer, M.D., had been appointed Governor ofthe Equatorial Province ofthe Sudan by Gordon in 1878. He filled this post with great resource, but after the revolt of the Mahdi against Egypt in 1883, he was completely cut off from the outside world. His position had certain strategic advantages. His three thousand troops were mostly local levies, who disliked the Arabs even more than their own Egyptian officers, and he was protected by the great swamps from the horsemen of the Emirs. He gradually withdrew his troops to the south towards Lake Albert and what is now Uganda. With typical German genius, Emin became wholly self-sufficient, he planted fields of maize, vegetables, cotton and medicinal herbs; the cotton was woven into cloth, honey was substituted for sugar, and beeswax made into candles. News of his continued resistance gradually reached the outside world. Pride in colonial achievement burned strongly in Britain and was fanned by public resentment at Gladstone's failure to move with sufficient resolution to the rescue of Gordon at Khartoum. A vast public subscription was raised for 'The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition' and Henry Morton Stanley was given its command. Stanley was very fortunate in his surgeon. Parke was a young Irishman in the Army Medical Department, and the holder of an Irish Conjoint Diploma. He had seen active service in the Tel-el-Kebir campaign of 1882, for which he was twice decorated. He had been in charge of the Army Cholera Hospital at Helouan near Cairo in 1883, where he experimented with the intravenous infusion of saline solution in the treatment of the disease. In 1885 he was in medical charge of the Naval Brigade at Abu Klea, where of five officers he alone was unhurt. For his services on the Nile expedition he received two clasps. In January 1887, Parke was living a very pleasant service life in Alexandria, where