It was Stanley’s violent and cruel accounts of his voyage across Africa that drew Leopold to him; this undermines the possibility that Leopold was at all sincere in his professed humanitarian ambitions. Leopold recognized that he would need Henry Morton Stanley in order to colonize the Congo; thus, he enlisted the aid of Henry Shelton Sanford to persuade Stanley to travel to Belgium. As a savvy (and ruthless) politician, Leopold knew how to manipulate people into doing his bidding—indeed, he used Henry Sanford as a pawn, recognizing that Sanford was almost entirely dependent on him for his income.