By Tom Barton

2 Aug, 2002

Page 13

DENBIGH'S most famous export will go under the hammer next month, as the artefacts collected during a lifetime of exploration are sold to collectors.

The sale, including one of the first maps of Africa's River Congo, once belonged to Denbigh-born Henry Morton Stanley - a workhouse boy who rose to international fame as a journalist, explorer and MP.

Potential big earners at London auctioneers Christie's include the map, illustrated by Stanley, which is expected to fetch up to pounds 15,000, and a cushion that travelled with the explorer twice across Africa.

A note from Stanley's wife which is attached to the pillow - expected to go for between pounds 3,000 and pounds 5,000 - reads: 'He had affection for this old cushion.'

The explorer - originally christened John Rowlands - is best remembered for uttering the famous words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume', having crossed Africa in search of the missing missionary.

But his beginnings were much more humble.

An illegitimate child, he was disowned by his parents and sent at the age of six to the St Asaph Union Workhouse, where he lived in harsh conditions for 10 years, before leaving North Wales to follow his own American dream.

The 17-year-old hitched a ride from Liverpool as a cabin-boy on a packet ship bound for New Orleans, jumping ship at the end of the three month journey to seek his fortune.

There he met Henry Hope Stanley, who took him on as a clerk and provided the inspiration for the explorer's new name, abandoning that of his hated father.

After several years as a soldier, Stanley turned his hand to journalism, travelling around the Wild West before covering the British campaign in Abyssinia.

Here the cub reporter achieved a coup, filing his article before any more experienced journalists - and off the back of this success was sent to Africa to search for Dr David Livingstone, who had been out of contact for several years. Ten months and $ 20,000 later, Stanley and his party found the missionary in the town of Ujiji, in what is now Tanzania.

The auction features several pieces from Stanley's journeys - included Dr Livingstone's sextant that was donated to him by the missionary's widow.

The explorer eventually settled down in the UK, and was elected to Parliament in 1892 for the seat of North Lambeth.

* The collection will go on display at Christie's, King's Street, London, on September 18, and will be auctioned on September 24.