o
you think was the result? Why, only to find that all the world
disbelieved my story. [Laughter.] Dear me! If I were proud of anything,
it was that what I said was a fact ["Good!"]; that whatever I said I
would do, I would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many a good
man had done before, as my predecessors had done, to lay my bones
behind. That's all. [Loud cheering.] I was requested in an off-hand
manner--just as any member of the Lotos Club here present would
say--"Would you mind giving us a little resume of your geographical
work?" I said: "Not in the least, my dear sir; I have not the slightest
objection." And do you know that to make it perfectly geographical and
not in the least sensational, I took particular pains and I wrote a
paper out, and when it was printed, it was just about so long
[indicating an inch]. It contained about a hundred polysyllabic African
words. [Laughter.] And yet "for a' that and a' that" the pundits of the
Geographical Society--Brighton Association--said that they hadn't come
to listen to any sensational stories, but that they had come to listen
to facts. [Laughter.] Well now, a little gentleman, very reverend, full
of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions and cuneiform
characters, wrote to "The Times" stating that it was not Stanley who had
discovered Livingstone but that it was Livingstone who had discovered
Stanley. [Laughter.]

If it had not been for that unbelief, I don't believe I should ever have
visited Africa again; I should have become, or I should have endeavored
to become, with Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the
Lotos Club. [Laughter.] I should have settled down and become as steady
and as stolid as some of these patriots that you have around here, I
should have said nothing offensive. I should have done some "treating."
I should have offered a few cigars and on Saturday night, perhaps, I
would have opened a bottle of champagne and distributed it among my
friends. But that was not to be. I left New York for Spain and then the
Ashantee War broke out and once more my good-luck followed me and I got
the treaty of peace ahead of everybody else, and as I was coming to
England from the Ashantee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my
hands at the Island of St. Vincent, saying that Livingstone was dead. I
said: "What does that mean to me? New Yorkers don't believe in me. How
was I to prove that what I have said is true? By George! I will go and