The Special Correspondent by Roger Pocock

Name: The Special Correspondent
Author: Roger Pocock

The Special Correspondent by Roger Pocock sketches the life of Henry M. Stanley, beginning with his origins as John Rowlands, a boy remembered from a workhouse school in Denbigh as lazy, disagreeable, secretive, and physically distinctive, with a strong trunk and disproportionately short legs. He ran away to sea and was landed in New Orleans, where a rich merchant named Henry M. Stanley adopted him as a son. The youth shed his Welsh identity and his mother's name, becoming a committed American. When his benefactor died and left him nothing, he passed two unrecorded years before the American Civil War gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his adopted patriotism by serving, remarkably, on both sides, first in the Confederate army and then in the federal navy. After proving himself a brave soldier, he distinguished himself as a special correspondent during an Indian campaign in the West, then joined the staff of the New York Herald, covering the Abyssinian War and the civil war in Spain. The Herald took the occasion to publicly deny that Stanley was Welsh, declaring Missouri his birthplace, while privately Stanley spent holidays with his mother and family in Wales. The narrative turns to Doctor Livingstone, then missing from the world's knowledge for years. Livingstone had discovered Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika and a mile-wide river called the Lualaba, which he believed to be the headwaters of the Nile. He was slowly dying of fever, nearly penniless, and repeatedly abandoned at critical moments by cowardly negro carriers who revolted or fled whenever he neared some new discovery. England was anxious about the fate of one of her greatest men, and various relief efforts had been attempted but delayed by expense and a lack of truly capable men to carry them out. Pocock notes bluntly that finding Livingstone would serve as a tremendous advertisement for whoever accomplished it, whether a patent-pill manufacturer, a soap maker, or a newspaper, and that all that was needed was unlimited money and a practical traveler vulgar enough to use the lost hero as copy. The New York Herald possessed both the money and, in Stanley, exactly the right man. Pocock is direct in stating that neither the Herald nor Stanley cared in the least about Livingstone's actual fate. The journal first sent Stanley on a lengthy journey through Asia Minor and Persia before he made his way to Zanzibar, and the longer Livingstone's rescue was delayed, the more valuable the eventual advertisement would be. Stanley found Livingstone at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika and, whatever his motives, had the grace to reverence, comfort, and succour a dying man. Stanley's account of the journey was widely promoted, while no alternative version existed because his white followers died on the expedition. The same pattern held for Stanley's subsequent feat of exploring the great lakes and descending Livingstone's river to the mouth of the Congo. His story was well exploited in print, while his white followers, having given their lives, left no competing account. In later expeditions, those that founded the Congo State and that aimed at the relief of Emin Pasha, some white men survived, and it is noted that they were rumoured not to have liked Stanley, though his negro followers adored him and served him across one journey after another. Pocock acknowledges that with unlimited financial backing and his own genuine merits as a traveller, Stanley did more than any other explorer to open the African continent and resolve its long-standing mysteries. It was not Stanley's fault, Pocock concedes, that Livingstone remained in the wilderness and died there, that the Congo Free State became the greatest scandal of modern times, or that Emin Pasha flatly refused to be rescued from his position governing the Soudan. Stanley lived to enjoy the rewards of his achievements. He abandoned any claim to being a native of Missouri and a freeborn American citizen, accepted a knighthood, and sat in the British parliament. Pocock closes his portrait with the dry observation that whether Stanley was acting as a Welshman or an American, a Confederate or a federal soldier, a Belgian subject or a Britisher, he always knew on which side his bread was buttered.

By Roger Pocock · First published 1900 · Genre: Biography, Historical Non-Fiction, Adventure · 941 words

First lines

A. D. 1870

A lady who remembers John Rowlands at the workhouse school in Denbigh tells me that he was a lazy disagreeable boy. He is also described as a "full-faced, stubborn, self-willed, round-headed, uncompromising, deep fellow. He was particularly strong in the trunk, but not very smart or elegant about the legs, which were disproportionately short. His temperament was unusually secretive; he could stand no chaff nor the least bit of humor."

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Genres

Biography — The work provides a detailed biographical account of Henry Morton Stanley's life, from his childhood in a Welsh workhouse through his career as an explorer and correspondent, tracing his personal development and major life events.
Historical Non-Fiction — The text presents factual historical events including the American Civil War, the search for Dr. Livingstone, African exploration, and colonial activities in the Congo, situating Stanley within significant historical contexts.
Adventure — The narrative encompasses Stanley's journeys across continents, explorations of African lakes and rivers, and dangerous expeditions, all hallmarks of adventure literature centered on exploration and discovery.
Travel Literature — The work documents Stanley's extensive travels through Asia Minor, Persia, East Africa, and the Congo, describing geographical discoveries and expedition routes that characterize travel narrative genres.

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The Special Correspondent is listed on Textopian as a novella by Roger Pocock, dated 1900 CE.

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Work type: Novella
Author: Roger Pocock
Date: 1900 CE
Language: English
Genres: Biography, Historical Non-Fiction, Adventure, Travel Literature, Journalism
Length: 941 words
Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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