Cylchgronau Cymru

SIR HENRY M. STANLEY'S SCHOOLMASTER: THE VINDICATION OF JAMES FRANCIS By EMYR WYN JONES But this I say whatever character his works merit, others have a right to pass their judgment upon them, and to censure them if they be censurable, and to turn them into ridicule if they be ridiculous. If there were no such right, we should have no security for the exposition of error. Indeed, any person does a service to the public, who writes down any vapid or useless publication. It prevents the dissemination of bad taste by perusal of truth. Lord Ellenborough Quoted in Y Dysgedydd. Henry Morton Stanley's discovery in 1872 of Dr David Livingstone, who was 'lost* in Central Africa, brought the intrepid explorer, not yet thirty years of age, world-wide acclaim. Once the temporary initial phase of suspicion and criticism had been overcome, his remarkable achievement was applauded with enthusiasm in Britain and the United States of America. It must be recognised, and even emphasised, that the ardency of the response in North Wales was substantially tempered by Stanley's persistent, and indeed obstinate, reluctance to admit that he was a native of the Vale of Clwyd. Stanley's responses to the reports in the North Wales papers were not only undignified and intemperate; they were also designed to obscure the truth. He asserted that 'folk are so gullible', and the inform- ation published, incidentally true, was 'all that rot [and] the letter in the Rhyl Journal is all bosh I have never sung a Welsh song not knowing anything of the language.' The observations of the editor of the Journal about 'John Rowlands (yclept 'Stanley'),' when he set forth in detail the explorer's background and upbringing, were of the utmost interest.' The situation was even more inexplicable because Stanley had already indicated, when he came ashore at Dover two or three weeks previously, that 'he was about to bring out a book [recounting] the history of his life from the time he was three years old.' However, as is well known, more African expeditions followed, and Stanley's further successes were extensively recognised. In due course he was the recipient of manv civic and academic honours. Stanley's life-story as presented in his Autobiography remains an exceptionally colourful account of a triumph over adversity. He was born at Denbigh on 28 January 1841, baptised at St. Hilary's Church on 19 February 1841, and was given the name John Rowlands the same as his 1 Rhyl Journal, 22 June and 31 August 1872.