Lot Essay
Stanley returned from his 999 day trans-African expedition in January 1878. He was fêted throughout Europe and made a Corresponding Member of the Belgian Geographical Society on 12 June 1878. He met King Leopold of the Belgians in Brussels in June, and following talks in August, a committee of Belgian financiers and entrepreneurs, the 'AIA', voted to equip an expedition led by Stanley to set up an administration in the Congo. This led to the founding of the Congo Free State, by which Leopold acquired the Congo Basin.