Welsh Journals

return from Cuba, but such a step seemed inconceivable in view of the distance involved, notwithstanding the embalm-ment and the lead casket. Theoretically again, Mr Hope Stanley, a widower for the second time according to the Auto- biography, could have married once more and that his third wife was the one buried in that grave. All the earlier suspicions of Stanley's self-vaunted truthfulness were conclusively confirmed by Catherine B. Dillon in her article bearing the title 'From Wharf Waif to Knighthood', when she stated: On April 9, 1878, Frances Meller Stanley, who had returned from England at the end of the war, passed away in New Orleans at the age of 46. And then followed the final decisive sentence: She was the only Mrs Stanley the orphan whom her husband adopted ever knew, and since she was a native of England Frances Stanley died six months before Stanley's 'second father'; having survived eighteen years beyond the death that had been so convincingly and callously contrived for her in the Autobiography. Young Stanley's good relationship with his new father was not maintained for more than a few months. Its termination has not been adequately explained, and a repetition of the various theories propounded would be irrelevant at this stage. There must have been issues of major significance as Hope Stanley thereafter never permitted his adopted son's name to be mentioned in his presence. Furthermore, 'there was a determined effort by the relatives never to divulge the details of the quarrel between H. H. Stanley and the boy to whom he had given a home and a name'. Henry M. Stanley in his profound autobiographical dilemma must have decided to expunge the truth about this episode from his memory by the efficient, and expedient, process of burial. As a result Mrs Stanley's body was sent to St. Louis, but that cathartic step though emphatic was incomplete because her husband still remained as a reminder of the earlier emotional turbulence. Therefore, he too was summarily disposed of by being sent to Cuba, where 'he died suddenly'. For Stanley the catharsis was complete. He could now start life afresh unhindered by benevolence and without obligation to anyone. The mature Stanley could also start a new page in his Autobiography with his mind untrammelled by the real truth and by exquisitively painful memories of Orange Street, New Orleans. In this, as in many other situations, Stanley revealed not only his lack of awareness of the dividing line between fantasy and reality, but that he was fully prepared to distort and expunge the truth whenever it suited him. Stanley's propensity to give vein to his unbridled imagination only served to engender