Chapter 7 Meeting Stanley

As the carriage entered the prosperous area of ​​the port, there were more and more two-story Greek-style buildings on both sides of the road, and more and more carriages on the cobblestone road, silently keeping a distance from the royal convoy with great style.

The convoy stopped in front of a hotel with a garden turntable surrounded by bricks and stones in front of the door. The doorman in a red suit hurriedly trotted from the front of the hotel to the door of the carriage, opened the door, leaned forward, and said, "Welcome, sir, how can I help you?"

"I will receive a distinguished guest in your hotel today, and prepare a good seat for me," Constantine said.

"Will you wait here to bring the guests?" The doorman said with a smile.

"Yes"

"Then I will lead the way for you, sir"

"Okay"

After that, the doorman held the door with both hands and stood aside. When Constantine and Nina got off the carriage, he trotted to the front and stretched out his right hand to invite them.

Nina hugged Constantine's arm with both hands and looked at the scene in the hotel curiously.

When they arrived at the front desk, a middle-aged man in a black uniform trotted over with sweat on his forehead and took over the position of the doorman. The doorman leaned forward and whispered a few words to the middle-aged man's ear.

Then the middle-aged man bowed and said, "Welcome to our hotel. I am the front desk manager of the hotel. You can tell me if you have any requests. Do you need us to send a carriage to the dock to welcome your distinguished guest here?"

"Yes, it is a gentleman named Stanley. According to the plan, he will take the cruise ship from London to Piraeus Port this morning," Constantine ordered.

While speaking, the manager led Constantine and his party to a box, opened the two box doors and said, "Sir, this is the best box in our hotel. Sitting in this box, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Sunshine Coast and the busy scene of the dock." While speaking, he opened the black silk curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the box with a "clatter", and then opened the window.

Seagulls were flying in the distance, and ships were coming and going with long whistles. The fishy sea breeze blew in, wrapped the curtains and made a rustling sound.

Curious baby Nina ran to the window, leaned out of the window, excitedly waved her hands towards the distant coast, and shouted loudly.

After the manager finished speaking, he carefully looked at Constantine's expression, and saw that he didn't look impatient, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Constantine looked around. The furnishings in the box were not very gorgeous, but they were simple and quaint. In front of the French window, two brown sofas surrounded a reception table. He was quite satisfied and nodded to the manager.

The manager turned and left, and the four knights were divided into two rows to guard the door of the box.

Then the manager turned and left.

Constantine sat on the sofa, quietly waiting for Stanley's arrival, thinking about Stanley's affairs in his mind.

Stanley became famous for his search for the British explorer and missionary David Livingstone.

In 1868, Stanley accepted a commission from a Paris newspaper to find Mr. David Livingstone, who had been lost in central Africa for two years. Was David Livingstone still alive? Public opinion in Europe and the United States at the time was very concerned.

In 1871, Stanley's expedition team came to Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa (on the Indian Ocean coast). This man was very scheming and concealed his whereabouts from the public in order to get exclusive news.

The expedition team set out from the coast of present-day Tanzania and traveled for 8 months before finally finding Livingstone in Ujiji on the shore of Lake Tanganyika.

Stanley and Livingstone's encounter began with a short question that was famous in the history of exploration. Stanley stepped forward into a clearing in the jungle, where Livingstone was sitting. Stanley extended his hand and said, "I guess you are Dr. Livingstone?"

After finding Livingstone, Stanley kept it a secret and wrote a book in England, "How I Found Livingstone", taking the opportunity to hype himself.

This book caused a sensation.

After Livingstone died of illness in 1873, Stanley regarded himself as Livingston's successor.

In 1877, Stanley successfully reached the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean and became the first European to complete the entire line from the source of the Congo River (the Indian Ocean coast of Africa) to the estuary (the Atlantic coast). Later, he wrote a book, "Across the African Continent", which recorded this expedition in detail. The book describes a lot of information about the geography, politics, economy, customs and people of the Congo River Basin.

There is no doubt that this book, which details southern Africa, caused a sensation.

It is not difficult to find from Stanley's past deeds that this is a person who can seize opportunities keenly and is quite scheming and wise.

No wonder he can stand out from a large number of adventurers.

This series of events also attracted the attention of George I and Constantine. Constantine believed that Mr. Stanley, a veteran who had been engaged in African exploration for a long time, must be very familiar with the geographical and cultural conditions of Africa and was the best choice for implementing the African plan.

At Constantine's insistence, George I ordered the Greek ambassador to the UK to contact this famous African adventure expert and buy Stanley's time for 5 years at a price of 10,000 francs before the King of Belgium, who also had ambitions for Africa.

At that time, a worker worked hard for a year and got a salary of about 30-50 francs. There is no doubt that 10,000 francs was a generous reward for an individual.

They reached an agreement. According to the "contract", Stanley would work for George and Constantine in Congo for 5 years. Without the prior consent of the two, no news would be announced and no report meetings would be held.

Stanley has been implementing this plan since 1879, 1882.

Stanley took the large sum of money given by Constantine, recruited a group of desperate men from Europe, promised generous rewards, and went to Africa in a mighty manner.

It has been almost four years, and Constantine needs a result.

Constantine, who was thinking, suddenly heard footsteps coming from the door. It seemed that the guests were coming.

With a creak, the door was opened, and a man in his forties, wearing a beige suit, a yellow round hat, and bronze skin on his face and shirt collar, with bright eyes, two fluffy mustaches on his mouth, and a face full of flesh, walked in with a red suitcase in his left hand and a cane in his right hand.

A fierce breath came towards him.

This was the first time the two had met. Before that, they had only contacted each other through letters and telegrams.

Constantine stood up and extended his right hand to Stanley. Stanley put down the suitcase in his hand and shook hands with each other.

"Welcome to Greece, Mr. Stanley," Constantine greeted. He still respected this key figure in the realization of the African plan.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Your Excellency the Duke," Stanley replied.

Constantine's title was the Duke of Sparta. Yes, it was the Spartan warriors who were full of tendons and flesh, the earliest **** Greek city-state of Athens, which advocated force, had a tough folk style, and was rich in tendons.

This custom was passed down from Britain, similar to the British crown prince who usually holds the title of Prince of Wales.

To be honest, for a ruthless person like Stanley who was born in the lower class of Britain and fought bravely to achieve career success, he really didn't look down on Constantine, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and didn't know the suffering of the people.

As long as he thought about how much suffering he had endured in the barbaric, ignorant and uncivilized Africa, how many times he had been in danger of his life, and how he had to risk his life to fight for a career, while the guy in front of him had everything he had when he was born, and he would never be able to achieve it in his lifetime.

Thinking of this, Stanley felt indignant.