Victorian Explorer: The African Diaries of Captain William G Stairs, 1887-1892

John Kendle is a professor of history at St. John’s College,
University of Manitoba.

This volume presents the diaries kept by Captain William G. Stairs
during the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1887–89) and the Katanga
Expedition (1891–92). Stairs was the second-in-command to the renowned
Henry Stanley, who commanded both the relief expedition and the second
undertaking. These carefully edited diaries provide an invaluable
picture of the environmental, economic, demographic, and social
conditions of Central and East Africa in the late 19th century.

Stairs, a young Haligonian who had joined the Royal Engineers in 1885,
was exhilarated by the opportunity to be part of the initial relief
expedition. However, his once high estimation of Stanley plummeted after
they reached Africa. Contrary to current historical mythmaking, the
diaries reveal Stanley to have been selfish, narrow, and disorganized.

The two diaries provide shocking insights into the racial, class, and
religious assumptions of the day. Also conveyed by the diaries is the
appalling harshness of the undertakings. The loss of life to disease
(there is an excellent appendix by the editor entitled “Disease,
Hygiene and Nutrition”), as well as to the resistant Africans, was
extraordinarily high. Neither expedition was particularly successful.
Stairs suffered from acute malaria on both trips and died just short of
his 29th birthday.

Editor Janina M. Konczacki of Mount Saint Vincent University provides a
useful introductory profile on both Stairs and the two expeditions.