The price paid had indeed been great; he had lost his three English
companions and one hundred and seventy natives besides. But for years
and years to come, in many a home at Zanzibar, whither Stanley now
took his party by sea, the story of this great journey was told, and
all the men were heroes and the refrain of the natives was chanted
again and again--

"Then sing, O friends, sing: the journey is ended;
Sing aloud, O friends, sing to this great sea."

Stanley had solved the problem of the Congo River at last.

CHAPTER LXIX

NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE

The North-West Passage, for the accomplishment of which so many brave
lives had been laid down, had been discovered. It now remained for
some explorer to sail round the North-East Passage, which was known
to exist, but which, up to this time, no man had done.

Nordenskiold the Swede was to have this honour. Born in 1832 in Finland,
he had taken part in an Arctic expedition in 1861, which attempted
to reach the North Pole by means of dog-sledges from the north coast
of Spitzbergen. Three years later he was appointed to lead an
expedition to Spitzbergen, which succeeded in reaching the highest
northern latitude which any ship had yet attained. In 1870 his famous
journey to Greenland took place, and two years later he left Sweden
on another Polar expedition; but misfortunes beset the expedition,
and finally the ships were wrecked. The following year he commanded
a reconnoitring expedition. He passed Nova Zembla and reached the
mouth of the Yenisei. This was the first time that a ship had
accomplished the voyage from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus Nordenskiold
had gained considerable knowledge of the Northern Seas, and he was
now in a position to lay a plan of his schemes before King Oscar, who
had always interested himself in Arctic discovery. His suggestions
to the King are of singular interest.

"It is my intention," he says, "to leave Sweden in July 1878 in a steamer
specially built for navigation among ice, which will be provisioned
for two years at most. The course will be shaped for Nova Zembla, where
a favourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara
Sea. The voyage will be continued to the mouth of the Yenisei, which
I hope to reach in the first half of August. As soon as circumstances
permit, the expedition will continue its voyage along the coast to
Cape Chelyuskin, where the expedition will reach the