[Edward James]. English explorer of African wilds, identified with Stanley’s later journeys. After persistent application, in 1883 he joined Stanley at Leopoldville, on the Lower Congo, and, being filled with indomitable courage and an instinctive love of adventure, by his own choice was assigned to the wildest district in the country, with the object of establishing a new station, remaining for three years, until the Congo Free State was founded. Having successfully performed this arduous task, he returned to England, remaining, however, but a few months, when he joined the Sanford exploring expedition, establishing himself one hundred miles beyond his former station. During this experience he dwelt among the most savage cannibalistic tribes and murderous Arab slave-dealers without a single white companion. Again he returned to England in 1889, and shortly after visited America on a lecturing tour. In 1890 he conducted an expedition to Alaska, penetrating into an unknown interior, with but a single companion, his packhorses being furnished with snowshoes, and the trip marked by many exciting incidents, afterward described in the Century Magazine, September 1892. His final journey was undertaken in the interests of that periodical, Mr. Glave, in May 1893, sailing for Zanzibar in order to traverse Central Africa by way of the Great Lakes and the Congo. After incredible hardships the young explorer neared the mouth of that river, when, at the missionary station of Underhill, he was stricken with fever, to which he shortly succumbed, dying in May 1895. Thus ended a career replete with manly daring, and no less with exalted endeavor, it being Mr. Glave’s paramount object to enlighten the civilized world regarding the iniquities of the African slave trade. He was a man of rare sweetness and nobility of nature, eliciting the most implicit trust from his native followers, and from Stanley the warmest friendship and admiration.
