The Boy Travellers on the Congo / Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey with Henry M. Stanley "Through the Dark Continent"

THE BOY TRAVELLERS ON

THE CONGO

ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUTHS IN A JOURNEY WITH

HENRY M. STANLEY

"THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT"

By THOMAS W. KNOX

AUTHOR OF

"THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST" "IN SOUTH AMERICA" AND "IN RUSSIA"

"THE YOUNG NIMRODS" "THE VOYAGE OF THE 'VIVIAN'" ETC.

Illustrated

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1888

By THOMAS W. KNOX.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST. Five Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Chili; with Descriptions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and Voyages upon the Amazon and La Plata Rivers. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with Accounts of a Tour across Siberia, Voyages on the Amoor, Volga, and other Rivers, a Visit to Central Asia, Travels Among the Exiles, and a Historical Sketch of the Empire from its Foundation to the Present Time. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS ON THE CONGO. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey with Henry M. Stanley "Through the Dark Continent." Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE VOYAGE OF THE "VIVIAN" TO THE NORTH POLE AND BEYOND. Adventures of Two Youths in the Open Polar Sea. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50.

HUNTING ADVENTURES ON LAND AND SEA. Two Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

☞ Any of the above volumes sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price.

Copyright, 1887, by Harper & Brothers.—All rights reserved.

PREFACE

As indicated on the title-page, "The Boy Travellers on the Congo" is condensed from that remarkable narrative, "Through the Dark Continent," by one of the most famous explorers that the century has produced. The origin of the present volume is sufficiently explained in the following letter:

"Everett House, New York, December 1, 1886.

"My dear Colonel Knox,—It is a gift to be able to write to interest boys, and no one who has read your several volumes in the 'Boy Traveller' series can doubt that you possess this gift to an eminent degree. While reading those interesting and valuable books of yours, I have regretted that they were not issued in the time of my own youth, so that I might have enjoyed as a boy the treat of their perusal. Now, the Harpers desire a condensation of my two volumes, 'Through the Dark Continent,' to be made for young folks, but I have neither the time, nor the experience in juvenile writing, for performing the work. I suggest that you shall produce a volume for your series of 'Boy Travellers,' and assure you that it would delight me greatly to have you take your boys, who have followed you through so many lands, on the journey that I made from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo.

"There is too much in my work in its present form for their mental digestion; but, narrated in that chaste and forcible style which has proved so entertaining to them, they would certainly find the journey through Africa of exceeding interest when made in your company. By all means take Frank and Fred to the wilds of Africa; let them sail the equatorial lakes, travel through Uganda, Unyoro, and other countries ruled by dark-skinned monarchs, descend the magnificent and perilous Congo, see the strange tribes and people of that wonderful land, and repeat the adventures and discoveries that made my journey so eventful. You have my full permission, my dear friend, to use the material in any way you deem proper in adapting it to the requirements of the 'Boy Travellers.'

"Sincerely yours, as always,
Henry M. Stanley.
"To Colonel Thos. W. Knox."

The preparation of this book has been a double pleasure—first, to comply with the wishes of an old friend, and secondly, to carry the boys and girls of the present day to the wonderful region that, until very recently, was practically unknown. I have the fullest confidence that they will greatly enjoy the journey across equatorial Africa from the eastern to the western sea, and eagerly peruse every line of Mr. Stanley's narrative of discovery and adventure.

The portrait of Mr. Stanley is from a photograph taken early in 1886. The maps on the inside of the covers were specially drawn for this work, and the publishers, with their customary liberality, have allowed the use of wood-cuts selected from several volumes of African travel and exploration, in addition to those which originally appeared in "Through the Dark Continent."

In the hope that "The Boy Travellers on the Congo" will be as cordially received as were its predecessors in the series, the work is herewith submitted to press and public for perusal and comment.

T. W. K.
New York, May, 1887.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS

ON

THE CONGO.

[CHAPTER I.]

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN WITH STANLEY.—"THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT."—AN IMPROMPTU GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF STANLEY.—COMMENTS UPON HIM BY FRANK AND FRED.—HOW THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY WAS ORGANIZED.—READING STANLEY'S BOOK.—STANLEY'S DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND FOR ZANZIBAR.—JOINT ENTERPRISE OF TWO NEWSPAPERS.—PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION.—THE LADY ALICE.—BARKER AND THE POCOCKS.—ZANZIBAR.—PRINCE BARGHASH.—INHABITANTS OF ZANZIBAR.-THE WANGWANA.

At eight o'clock on the morning of December 15, 1886, the magnificent steamer Eider, of the North German Lloyds, left her dock in New York harbor for a voyage to Southampton and Bremen. Among the passengers that gathered on her deck to wave farewell to friends on shore was one whose name has become famous throughout the civilized world for the great work he has performed in exploring the African continent and opening it to commerce and Christianizing influences.

That man, it is hardly necessary to say, was HENRY M. STANLEY.

Near him stood a group of three individuals who will be recognized by many of our readers. They were Doctor Bronson and his nephews, Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson, whose adventures have been recorded in previous volumes.[1]

SANDY HOOK FROM NAVESINK LIGHT-HOUSE.

Slowly the great steamer made her way among the ships at anchor in the harbor. She passed the Narrows, then entered the Lower Bay, and, winding through the channel between Sandy Hook and Coney Island, was soon upon the open ocean. Near the Sandy Hook light-ship she stopped her engines sufficiently long to discharge her pilot, and then, with her prow turned to the eastward, she dashed away on her course at full speed. Day by day and night by night the tireless engines throbbed and pulsated, but never for a moment ceased their toil till the Eider was off Southampton, more than three thousand miles from her starting-point.

Doctor Bronson was acquainted with Mr. Stanley, and soon after the steamer left the dock the two gentlemen were in conversation. After a little while the doctor introduced his nephews, who were warmly greeted by the great explorer; he had read of their journeys in the far East and in other lands, and expressed his pleasure at meeting them personally.

As for Frank and Fred, they were overjoyed at the introduction and the cordial manner in which they were received. They thanked Mr. Stanley for the kind words he had used in speaking of their travels, which had been of little consequence compared with his own. Frank added that he hoped some day to be able to cross the African continent; the way had been opened by Mr. Stanley, and, with the facilities which the latter had given to travellers, the journey would be far easier of accomplishment than it was twenty or even ten years ago.

Then followed a desultory conversation, of which no record has been preserved; other passengers came up to speak to Mr. Stanley, and the party separated. As the steamer passed into the open ocean most of the people on deck disappeared below for the double reason that there was a cold wind from the eastward and—breakfast was on the table.

"What a charming man Mr. Stanley is!" Fred remarked, as soon as they had withdrawn from the group.

"Yes," replied his cousin, "and so different from what I expected he would be. He is dignified without being haughty, and friendly without familiarity. Before the introduction I was afraid to meet him, but found myself quite at ease before we had been talking a minute. I'm not surprised to hear how much those who know him are attached to him, nor at the influence he possesses over the people among whom his great work has been performed."

STANLEY IN ABYSSINIA.

"Just think what a career he has had," continued Frank. "After various adventures as a newspaper correspondent in Spain, Abyssinia, Ashantee, and other countries, he was sent by the editor of the New York Herald to find Dr. Livingstone in the interior of Africa. He found the famous missionary; but when he came back, and told the story of what he had done, a great many people refused to believe him, because they considered the feat impossible for a newspaper correspondent. He came out of Africa at the same point where he entered it, and it was said by some that he had never ventured farther than a few miles from the coast. This made him angry, and the next time he went on a tour of exploration in Africa he made sure that the same criticism would be impossible."

"Yes, indeed!" responded Fred. "He went into the African wilderness at Bagomoya, on the east side of the continent, and came out at the mouth of the Congo, away over on the other side. He descended that great river, which no white man had ever done before him, and passed through dangers and difficulties such as few travellers of modern times have known. And, besides—"

Before Fred could finish the sentence he had begun the Doctor joined them, and asked Frank where he had put the parcel of books that they had selected to read during the voyage.

"It is in our room," the youth replied, "and ready to be opened whenever we want any of the books. We will arrange our things this forenoon, and I will open the parcel at once."

"You selected Mr. Stanley's book, 'Through the Dark Continent,' I believe," Doctor Bronson continued, "and I think you had better bring that out first. Now that Mr. Stanley is with us, you will read it again with much greater interest than before."

The youths were pleased with the suggestion, which they accepted at once. Fred laughingly remarked that there might be danger of a quarrel between them as to who should have the first privilege of reading the book. Frank thought they could get over the difficulty by dividing the two volumes between them, but he admitted that the one who read the second volume in advance of the first would be likely to have his mind confused as to the exact course of the exploration which the book described.

MUSICIANS OF THE DARK CONTINENT.

Doctor Bronson said he was reminded of an anecdote he once heard about a man who always read books with a mark, which he carefully inserted at the end of each reading. He was going through the "Life of Napoleon" at one time, and for three evenings in succession his room-mate slyly set back the mark to the starting-point. At the end of the third evening he asked the reader what he thought of Napoleon.

"He was a most wonderful man," was the reply; "in three days he crossed the Alps three times with his whole army, and went the same way every time."

While the party were laughing over the anecdote Mr. Stanley came up, and said he wished to have a share in the fun. The Doctor repeated the story, and explained how it had been called to his mind.

"Well," said Mr. Stanley, "it would be very unfortunate for Masters Frank and Fred to get the story of the Dark Continent doubled up in the manner you suggest. I propose that they shall study it together, one reading aloud to the other, and, as the entire book is too much for the limited time of this voyage, they will be obliged to omit portions of chapters here and there. The readings can take place daily during the afternoon and evening, and the youth who is to read can devote the forenoon to selecting the parts of the chapters he will suppress and those which are to be given to the listeners. I will assist him in his selections from time to time, and, with due diligence, the book will be finished before we reach Southampton."

It was unanimously voted that the plan was an excellent one, and the boys immediately proceeded to carry it out. The volumes were brought forth, and Frank retired to a corner of the saloon to make a selection for the first afternoon's reading. Mr. Stanley sat with him a short time, marking several pages and paragraphs, and then went on deck, where he joined Doctor Bronson in a brief promenade. Meantime Fred busied himself with an examination of several other books of African travel; he was evidently familiar with their contents, as he ran through the pages with great rapidity, and marked numerous passages, with the evident intention of referring to them in the course of the time devoted to what we may call the public readings.

There was an intermission of labor towards the middle of the day, and at this time Frank and Fred made the acquaintance of two or three other youths of about their age. When the latter learned of the proposed scheme, they asked permission to be allowed to hear how the Dark Continent was traversed, and their request was readily granted. Consequently the audience that assembled in the afternoon comprised some six or eight persons, including Mr. Stanley and Doctor Bronson. Neither of the gentlemen remained there through the whole afternoon, partly for the reason that they were both familiar with the narrative and partly because they did not wish to seem otherwise than confident that the boys knew how to manage matters for themselves. This kind of work was not altogether new to Frank and Fred, as many of our readers are aware; and in all their previous experiences they had acquitted themselves admirably.

When everything was ready Frank began with the opening chapter of "Through the Dark Continent" and read as follows:

"While returning to England in April, 1874, from the Ashantee War, the news reached me that Livingstone was dead—that his body was on its way to England!

VILLAGE WHERE DR. LIVINGSTONE DIED.

"Livingstone had then fallen! He was dead! He had died by the shores of Lake Bemba, on the threshold of the dark region he had wished to explore! The work he had promised me to perform was only begun when death overtook him!

"The effect which this news had upon me, after the first shock had passed away, was to fire me with a resolution to complete his work, to be, if God willed it, the next martyr to geographical science, or, if my life was to be spared, to clear up not only the secrets of the Great River throughout its course, but also all that remained still problematic and incomplete of the discoveries of Burton and Speke, and Speke and Grant.

"The solemn day of the burial of the body of my great friend arrived. I was one of the pall-bearers in Westminster Abbey, and when I had seen the coffin lowered into the grave, and had heard the first handful of earth thrown over it, I walked away sorrowing over the fate of David Livingstone.

"Soon after this I was passing by an old book-shop, and observed a volume bearing the singular title of 'How to Observe.' Upon opening it, I perceived it contained tolerably clear instructions of 'how and what to observe.' It was very interesting, and it whetted my desire to know more; it led me to purchase quite an extensive library of books upon Africa, its geography, geology, botany, and ethnology. I thus became possessed of over one hundred and thirty books upon Africa, which I studied with the zeal of one who had a living interest in the subject, and with the understanding of one who had been already four times on that continent. I knew what had been accomplished by African explorers, and I knew how much of the dark interior was still unknown to the world. Until late hours I sat up, inventing and planning, sketching out routes, laying out lengthy lines of possible exploration, noting many suggestions which the continued study of my project created. I also drew up lists of instruments and other paraphernalia that would be required to map, lay out, and describe the new regions to be traversed.

"I had strolled over one day to the office of the Daily Telegraph, full of the subject. While I was discussing journalistic enterprise in general with one of the staff, the editor entered. We spoke of Livingstone and the unfinished task remaining behind him. In reply to an eager remark which I made, he asked:

"'Could you, and would you, complete the work? And what is there to do?'

"I answered:

"The outlet of Lake Tanganika is undiscovered. We know nothing scarcely—except what Speke has sketched out—of Lake Victoria; we do not even know whether it consists of one or many lakes, and therefore the sources of the Nile are still unknown. Moreover, the western half of the African continent is still a white blank.'

"'Do you think you can settle all this, if we commission you?'

"'While I live there will be something done. If I survive the time required to perform all the work, all shall be done.'

JAMES GORDON BENNETT.

"The matter was for the moment suspended, because Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, had prior claims on my services.

"A telegram was despatched to New York to him: 'Would he join the Daily Telegraph in sending Stanley out to Africa, to complete the discoveries of Speke, Burton, and Livingstone?' and, within twenty-four hours, my 'new mission' to Africa was determined on as a joint expedition, by the laconic answer which the cable flashed under the Atlantic: 'Yes; Bennett.'

"A few days before I departed for Africa, the Daily Telegraph announced in a leading article that its proprietors had united with Mr. James Gordon Bennett in organizing an expedition of African discovery, under the command of Mr. Henry M. Stanley. 'The purpose of the enterprise,' it said, 'is to complete the work left unfinished by the lamented death of Dr. Livingstone; to solve, if possible, the remaining problems of the geography of Central Africa; and to investigate and report upon the haunts of the slave-traders.... He will represent the two nations whose common interest in the regeneration of Africa was so well illustrated when the lost English explorer was rediscovered by the energetic American correspondent. In that memorable journey, Mr. Stanley displayed the best qualities of an African traveller; and with no inconsiderable resources at his disposal to reinforce his own complete acquaintance with the conditions of African travel, it may be hoped that very important results will accrue from this undertaking to the advantage of science, humanity, and civilization.'

"Two weeks were allowed me for purchasing boats—a yawl, a gig, and a barge—for giving orders for pontoons, and purchasing equipment, guns, ammunition, rope, saddles, medical stores, and provisions; for making investments in gifts for native chiefs; for obtaining scientific instruments, stationery, etc., etc. The barge was an invention of my own.

THE "LADY ALICE" IN SECTIONS.

"It was to be forty feet long, six feet beam, and thirty inches deep, of Spanish cedar three eighths of an inch thick. When finished, it was to be separated into five sections, each of which should be eight feet long. If the sections should be overweight, they were to be again divided into halves for greater facility of carriage. The construction of this novel boat was undertaken by Mr. James Messenger, boat-builder, of Teddington, near London. The pontoons were made by Cording, but though the workmanship was beautiful, they were not a success, because the superior efficiency of the boat for all purposes rendered them unnecessary. However, they were not wasted. Necessity compelled us, while in Africa, to employ them for far different purposes from those for which they had originally been designed.

"There lived a clerk at the Langham Hotel, of the name of Frederick Barker, who, smitten with a desire to go to Africa, was not to be dissuaded by reports of its unhealthy climate, its dangerous fevers, or the uncompromising views of exploring life given to him. 'He would go, he was determined to go,' he said.

"Mr. Edwin Arnold, of the Daily Telegraph, also suggested that I should be accompanied by one or more young English boatmen of good character, on the ground that their river knowledge would be extremely useful to me. He mentioned his wish to a most worthy fisherman, named Henry Pocock, of Lower Upnor, Kent, who had kept his yacht for him, and who had fine stalwart sons, who bore the reputation of being honest and trustworthy. Two of these young men volunteered at once. Both Mr. Arnold and myself warned the Pocock family repeatedly that Africa had a cruel character, that the sudden change from the daily comforts of English life to the rigorous one of an explorer would try the most perfect constitution; would most likely be fatal to the uninitiated and unacclimatized. But I permitted myself to be overborne by the eager courage and devotion of these adventurous lads, and Francis John Pocock and Edward Pocock, two very likely-looking young men, were accordingly engaged as my assistants.

CANDIDATES FOR SERVICE WITH STANLEY.

"Soon after the announcement of the 'New Mission,' applications by the score poured into the offices of the Daily Telegraph and New York Herald for employment. Before I sailed from England, over twelve hundred letters were received from 'generals,' 'colonels,' 'captains,' 'lieutenants,' 'mid-shipmen,' 'engineers,' 'commissioners of hotels,' mechanics, waiters, cooks, servants, somebodies and nobodies, spiritual mediums and magnetizers, etc., etc. They all knew Africa, were perfectly acclimatized, were quite sure they would please me, would do important services, save me from any number of troubles by their ingenuity and resources, take me up in balloons or by flying carriages, make us all invisible by their magic arts, or by the 'science of magnetism' would cause all savages to fall asleep while we might pass anywhere without trouble. Indeed, I feel sure that, had enough money been at my disposal at that time, I might have led 5000 Englishmen, 5000 Americans, 2000 Frenchmen, 2000 Germans, 500 Italians, 250 Swiss, 200 Belgians, 50 Spaniards, and 5 Greeks, or 15,005 Europeans, to Africa. But the time had not arrived to depopulate Europe, and colonize Africa on such a scale, and I was compelled to respectfully decline accepting the valuable services of the applicants, and to content myself with Francis John and Edward Pocock, and Frederick Barker—whose entreaties had been seconded by his mother.

"I was agreeably surprised also, before departure, at the great number of friends I possessed in England, who testified their friendship substantially by presenting me with useful 'tokens of their regard' in the shape of canteens, watches, water-bottles, pipes, pistols, knives, pocket-companions, manifold writers, cigars, packages of medicine, Bibles, prayer-books, English tracts for the dissemination of religious knowledge among the black pagans, poems, tiny silk banners, gold rings, etc., etc. A lady for whom I have a reverent respect presented me also with a magnificent prize mastiff named Castor, an English officer presented me with another, and at the Dogs' Home at Battersea I purchased a retriever, a bull-dog, and a bull-terrier, called respectively by the Pococks, Nero, Bull, and Jack.

"On the 15th of August, 1874, having shipped the Europeans, boats, dogs, and general property of the expedition, I left England for the east coast of Africa to begin my explorations."

Here Frank paused and informed his listeners that he would not read in full the chapter which followed, as they could not readily comprehend it without the aid of a map. "It contains," he said, "a summary of the history of the expeditions that have sought to find the sources of the Nile from the days of Herodotus to the present time, the accounts of the discoveries of the Central African lakes and of the Nile flowing from the northern end of Lake Victoria, together with a statement of the knowledge which Dr. Livingstone possessed concerning the Congo River and its course. At the end of the chapter Mr. Stanley repeats his proposal to solve the problems concerning the extent of Lakes Tanganika and Victoria, to find the outlet of the former, and determine whether the great river which Livingston saw was the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. And now we will see," continued the youth, "how Mr. Stanley entered the African continent on his great exploration."

With these words he referred again to the book, and read as follows:

"Twenty-eight months had elapsed between my departure from Zanzibar after the discovery of Livingstone and my rearrival on that island, September 21, 1874.

VIEW OF A PORTION OF THE SEA-FRONT OF ZANZIBAR, FROM THE WATER BATTERY TO SHANGANI POINT.

"The well-remembered undulating ridges, and the gentle slopes clad with palms and mango-trees bathed in warm vapor, seemed in that tranquil, drowsy state which at all times any portion of tropical Africa presents at first appearance. A pale-blue sky covered the hazy land and sleeping sea as we steamed through the strait that separates Zanzibar from the continent. Every stranger, at first view of the shores, proclaims his pleasure. The gorgeous verdure, the distant purple ridges, the calm sea, the light gauzy atmosphere, the semi-mysterious silence which pervades all nature, evoke his admiration. For it is probable that he has sailed through the stifling Arabian Sea, with the grim, frowning mountains of Nubia on the one hand, and on the other the drear, ochreous-colored ridges of the Arab peninsula; and perhaps the aspect of the thirsty volcanic rocks of Aden and the dry, brown bluffs of Guardafui is still fresh in his memory.

ZANZIBAR, FROM THE SEA.

"The stranger, of course, is intensely interested in the life existing near the African equator, now first revealed to him, and all that he sees and hears of figures and faces and sounds is being freshly impressed on his memory. Figures and faces are picturesque enough. Happy, pleased-looking men of black, yellow, or tawny color, with long, white cotton shirts, move about with quick, active motion, and cry out, regardless of order, to their friends or mates in the Swahili or Arabic language, and their friends or mates respond with equally loud voice and lively gesture, until, with fresh arrivals, there appears to be a Babel created, wherein English, French, Swahili, and Arabic accents mix with Hindi, and, perhaps, Persian.

RED CLIFFS BEHIND UNIVERSITIES MISSION, ZANZIBAR.

"In the midst of such a scene I stepped into a boat to be rowed to the house of my old friend, Mr. Augustus Sparhawk, of the Bertram Agency. I was welcomed with all the friendliness and hospitality of my first visit, when, three years and a half previously, I arrived at Zanzibar to set out for the discovery of Livingstone.

"With Mr. Sparhawk's aid I soon succeeded in housing comfortably my three young Englishmen, Francis John and Edward Pocock and Frederick Barker, and my five dogs, and in stowing safely on shore the yawl Wave, the gig, and the tons of goods, provisions, and stores I had brought.

VIEW FROM THE ROOF OF MR. AUGUSTUS SPARHAWK'S HOUSE.
Frank Pocock. Frederick Barker. A Zanzibar boy. Edward Pocock. Kalula.
Bull-terrier "Jack." "Bull." Retriever "Nero." Mastiff "Captain." Prize Mastiff "Castor."
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

"Life at Zanzibar is a busy one to the intending explorer. Time flies rapidly, and each moment of daylight must be employed in the selection and purchase of the various kinds of cloth, beads, and wire in demand by the different tribes of the mainland through whose countries he purposes journeying. Strong, half-naked porters come in with great bales of unbleached cottons, striped and colored fabrics, handkerchiefs and red caps, bags of blue, green, red, white, and amber-colored beads, small and large, round and oval, and coils upon coils of thick brass wire. These have to be inspected, assorted, arranged, and numbered separately, have to be packed in portable bales, sacks, or packages, or boxed, according to their character and value. The house-floors are littered with cast-off wrappings and covers, box-lids, and a medley of rejected paper, cloth, zinc covers, and broken boards, sawdust, and other débris. Porters and servants and masters, employees and employers, pass backward and forward, to and fro, amid all this litter, roll bales over, or tumble about boxes; and a rending of cloth or paper, clattering of hammers, demands for the marking-pots, or the number of bale and box, with quick, hurried breathing and shouting, are heard from early morning until night.

THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT ZANZIBAR.

"During the day the beach throughout its length is alive with the moving figures of porters, bearing clove and cinnamon bags, ivory, copal and other gums, and hides, to be shipped in the lighters waiting along the water's edge, with sailors from the shipping, and black boatmen discharging the various imports on the sand. In the evening the beach is crowded with the naked forms of workmen and boys from the 'go-downs,' preparing to bathe and wash the dust of copal and hides off their bodies in the surf. Some of the Arab merchants have ordered chairs on the piers, or bunders, to chat sociably until the sun sets, and prayer-time has come. Boats hurry by with their masters and sailors returning to their respective vessels. Dhows move sluggishly past, hoisting as they go the creaking yards of their lateen sails, bound for the mainland ports. Zanzibar canoes and 'matepes' are arriving with wood and produce, and others of the same native form and make are squaring their mat sails, outward bound. Sunset approaches, and after sunset silence follows soon. For as there are no wheeled carriages with the eternal rumble of their traffic in Zanzibar, with the early evening comes early peace and rest.

SEYYID BARGHASH.

"Barghash bin Sayid, the Sultan of Zanzibar, heartily approved the objects of the expedition and gave it practical aid. It is impossible not to feel a kindly interest in Prince Barghash, and to wish him complete success in the reforms he is now striving to bring about in his country. Here we see an Arab prince, educated in the strictest school of Islam, and accustomed to regard the black natives of Africa as the lawful prey of conquest or lust, and fair objects of barter, suddenly turning round at the request of European philanthropists and becoming one of the most active opponents of the slave-trade—and the spectacle must necessarily create for him many well-wishers and friends.

"The prince must be considered as an independent sovereign. His territories include, besides the Zanzibar, Pemba, and Mafia islands, nearly 1000 miles of coast, and extend probably over an area of 20,000 square miles, with a population of half a million. The products of Zanzibar have enriched many Europeans who traded in them. Cloves, cinnamon, tortoise-shell, pepper, copal gum, ivory, orchilla weed, india-rubber, and hides have been exported for years; but this catalogue does not indicate a tithe of what might be produced by the judicious investment of capital. Those intending to engage in commercial enterprises would do well to study works on Mauritius, Natal, and the Portuguese territories, if they wish to understand what these fine, fertile lands are capable of. The cocoa-nut palm flourishes at Zanzibar and on the mainland, the oil palm thrives luxuriantly in Pemba, and sugar-cane will grow everywhere. Caoutchouc remains undeveloped in the maritime belts of woodland, and the acacia forests, with their wealth of gums, are nearly untouched. Rice is sown on the Rufiji banks, and yields abundantly; cotton would thrive in any of the rich river bottoms; and then there are, besides, the grains, millet, Indian corn, and many others, the cultivation of which, though only in a languid way, the natives understand. The cattle, coffee, and goats of the interior await also the energetic man of capital and the commercial genius.

"Those whom we call the Arabs of Zanzibar are either natives of Muscat who have immigrated thither to seek their fortunes, or descendants of the conquerors of the Portuguese; many of them are descended from the Arab conquerors who accompanied Seyyid Sultan, the grandfather of the present Seyyid Barghash. While many of these descendants of the old settlers still cling to their homesteads, farms, and plantations, and acquire sufficient competence by the cultivation of cloves, cinnamon, oranges, cocoa-nut palms, sugar-cane, and other produce, a great number have emigrated into the interior to form new colonies. Hamed Ibrahim has been eighteen years in Karagwé, Muini Kheri has been thirty years in Ujiji, Sultan bin Ali has been twenty-five years in Unyanyembé, Muini Dugumbi has been eight years in Nyangwé, Juma Merikani has been seven years in Rua, and a number of other prominent Arabs may be cited to prove that, though they themselves firmly believe that they will return to the coast some day, there are too many reasons for believing that they never will.

A ZANZIBAR NURSE-MAID.

"The Arabs of Zanzibar, whether from more frequent intercourse with Europeans or from other causes, are undoubtedly the best of their race. More easily amenable to reason than those of Egypt, or the shy, reserved, and bigoted fanatics of Arabia, they offer no obstacles to the European traveller, but are sociable, frank, good-natured, and hospitable. In business they are keen traders, and of course will exact the highest percentage of profit out of the unsuspecting European if they are permitted. They are stanch friends and desperate haters. Blood is seldom satisfied without blood, unless extraordinary sacrifices are made. The conduct of an Arab gentleman is perfect. Impertinence is hushed instantly by the elders, and rudeness is never permitted.

"After the Arabs let us regard the Wangwana, or negro natives of Zanzibar, just as in Europe, after studying the condition and character of the middle-classes, we might turn to reflect upon that of the laboring population.

"After nearly seven years' acquaintance with the Wangwana, I have come to perceive that they represent in their character much of the disposition of a large portion of the negro tribes of the continent. I find them capable of great love and affection, and possessed of gratitude and other noble traits of human nature; I know, too, that they can be made good, obedient servants, that many are clever, honest, industrious, docile, enterprising, brave, and moral; that they are, in short, equal to any other race or color on the face of the globe, in all the attributes of manhood. But to be able to perceive their worth, the traveller must bring an unprejudiced judgment, a clear, fresh, and patient observation, and must forget that lofty standard of excellence upon which he and his race pride themselves, before he can fairly appreciate the capabilities of the Zanzibar negro. The traveller should not forget the origin of his own race, the condition of the Briton before St. Augustine visited his country, but should rather recall to mind the first state of the 'wild Caledonian,' and the original circumstances and surroundings of primitive man.

"Being, I hope, free from prejudices of caste, color, race, or nationality, and endeavoring to pass what I believe to be a just judgment upon the negroes of Zanzibar, I find that they are a people just emerged into the Iron Epoch, and now thrust forcibly under the notice of nations who have left them behind by the improvements of over four thousand years. They possess beyond doubt all the vices of a people still fixed deeply in barbarism, but they understand to the full what and how low such a state is; it is, therefore, a duty imposed upon us by the religion we profess, and by the sacred command of the Son of God, to help them out of the deplorable state they are now in. At any rate, before we begin to hope for the improvement of races so long benighted, let us leave off this impotent bewailing of their vices, and endeavor to discover some of the virtues they possess as men, for it must be with the aid of their virtues, and not by their vices, that the missionary of civilization can ever hope to assist them.

LADY OF ZANZIBAR READING AN ARABIC MANUSCRIPT.

"It is to the Wangwana that Livingstone, Burton, Speke, and Grant owe, in great part, the accomplishment of their objects, and while in the employ of those explorers, this race rendered great services to geography. From a considerable distance north of the equator down to the Zambezi and across Africa to Benguella and the mouth of the Congo, or Livingstone, they have made their names familiar to tribes who, but for the Wangwana, would have remained ignorant to this day of all things outside their own settlements. They possess, with many weaknesses, many fine qualities. While very superstitious, easily inclined to despair, and readily giving ear to vague, unreasonable fears, they may also, by judicious management, be induced to laugh at their own credulity and roused to a courageous attitude, to endure like stoics, and fight like heroes. It will depend altogether upon the leader of a body of such men whether their worst or best qualities shall prevail.

NATIVE WATER-CARRIER, ZANZIBAR.

"There is another class coming into notice from the interior of Africa, who, though of a sterner nature, will, I am convinced, as they are better known, become greater favorites than the Wangwana. I refer to the Wanyamwezi, or the natives of Unyamwezi, and the Wasukuma, or the people of Usukuma. Naturally, being a grade less advanced towards civilization than the Wangwana, they are not so amenable to discipline as the latter. While explorers would in the present state of acquaintance prefer the Wangwana as escort, the Wanyamwezi are far superior as porters. Their greater freedom from diseases, their greater strength and endurance, the pride they take in their profession of porters, prove them born travellers of incalculable use and benefit to Africa. If kindly treated, I do not know more docile and good-natured creatures. Their skill in war, tenacity of purpose, and determination to defend the rights of their elected chief against foreigners, have furnished themes for song to the bards of Central Africa. The English discoverer of Lake Tanganika and, finally, I myself have been equally indebted to them, both on my first and last expeditions.

"From their numbers, and their many excellent qualities, I am led to think that the day will come when they will be regarded as something better than the 'best of pagazis;' that they will be esteemed as the good subjects of some enlightened power, who will train them up as the nucleus of a great African nation, as powerful for the good of the Dark Continent, as they threaten, under the present condition of things, to be for its evil."

Here Frank paused and announced an intermission of ten minutes, to enable the reader to rest a little. During the intermission the youths discussed what they had heard, and agreed unanimously that the description of Zanzibar and its people and their ruler was very interesting.

HINDOO MERCHANT OF ZANZIBAR.

[CHAPTER II.]

TRANSPORTATION IN AFRICA.—MEN AS BEASTS OF BURDEN.—PORTERS, AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.—ENGAGING MEN FOR THE EXPEDITION.—A SHAURI.—TROUBLES WITH THE LADY ALICE.—AGREEMENT BETWEEN STANLEY AND HIS MEN.—DEPARTURE FROM ZANZIBAR.—BAGAMOYO.—THE UNIVERSITIES MISSION.—DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION.—DIFFICULTIES WITH THE PORTERS.—SUFFERINGS ON THE MARCH.—NATIVE SUSPENSION-BRIDGES.—SHOOTING A ZEBRA.—LOSSES BY DESERTION.

Before the reading was resumed, one of the youths asked if Zanzibar was the usual starting-point for expeditions for the exploration of Africa. Mr. Stanley was absent at the moment the question was asked, but the answer was readily given by Doctor Bronson.

"Zanzibar is the usual starting-point," said the Doctor, "but it is by no means the only one. Livingstone's expedition for exploring the Zambesi River set out from Zanzibar, and so did other expeditions of the great missionary. Burton and Speke started from there in 1856, when they discovered Lake Tanganika; and, four years later, Speke and Grant set out from the same place. Lieutenant Cameron, in his journey across Africa, made Zanzibar his starting point; and the expedition of Mr. Johnson to the Kilimandjaro Mountain was chiefly outfitted there, though it left the coast at Mombasa.

"Zanzibar," continued Doctor Bronson, "is the best point of departure for an inland expedition anywhere along the east coast of Africa, for the reason that it is the largest and most important place of trade. Its shops are well supplied with the goods that an explorer needs for his journey, and its merchants have a better reputation than those of other African ports. Everything in the interior of Africa must be carried on the backs of men, there being, as yet, no other system of transportation. Horses cannot live in certain parts of the interior of Africa, owing to the tsetse-fly, which kills them with its bites; and even were it not for this fly, it is likely that the heat of the climate would render them of little use. Occasionally, a traveller endeavors to use donkeys as beasts of burden, but these animals are scarce and dear, and of much less use than in other lands. Until Africa is provided with railways—and that will not be for a long while yet—the transportation must be done by men. Every caravan that leaves the coast for the interior of the continent requires a large number of porters; and the difficulty of obtaining them is one of the greatest annoyances to merchants and travellers."

NEGRO NURSE-MAID, ZANZIBAR.

One of the youths said he supposed it was because the demand was so great that there was not a sufficient number of men.

"Not at all," replied the Doctor. "There are plenty of men in Africa, but they are not particularly anxious to work. Their wants are few, and they can live upon very little; consequently they are not over-desirous to go on a journey of several hundred miles and carry heavy burdens on their shoulders or heads. Added to their laziness is a lack of a feeling of responsibility or of honor. After engaging to go on a journey they fail to appear at the appointed time, and whenever they are weary of their work they coolly drop their burdens at the side of the road and make off into the bushes. In the first few days of a journey a traveller is always deserted by many of his porters, and it is only when he gets far from the coast and has possibly entered an enemy's country that he can keep his men together. All travellers have the same story to tell, and they all agree that the Zanzibari porters are the most faithful of all in keeping their engagements, or, to say it better, the least unfaithful. For this reason, also, Zanzibar is a favorite starting-point for explorers. Frank will now read to us about the difficulties which Mr. Stanley encountered in outfitting his expedition."

A ZANZIBAR BRIDE.

Acting upon this hint, Frank opened the book and read as follows:

"It is a most sobering employment, the organizing of an African expedition. You are constantly engaged, mind and body; now in casting up accounts, and now travelling to and fro hurriedly to receive messengers, inspecting purchases, bargaining with keen-eyed, relentless Hindi merchants, writing memoranda, haggling over extortionate prices, packing up a multitude of small utilities, pondering upon your lists of articles, wanted, purchased, and unpurchased, groping about in the recesses of a highly exercised imagination for what you ought to purchase, and can not do without, superintending, arranging, assorting, and packing. And this under a temperature of 95° Fahr.

"In the midst of all this terrific, high-pressure exercise arrives the first batch of applicants for employment. For it has long ago been bruited abroad that I am ready to enlist all able-bodied human beings willing to carry a load. Ever since I arrived at Zanzibar I have had a very good reputation among Arabs and Wangwana. They have not forgotten that it was I who found the 'old white man'—Livingstone—in Ujiji, nor that liberality and kindness to my men were my special characteristics. They have also, with the true Oriental spirit of exaggeration, proclaimed that I was but a few months absent; and that, after this brief excursion, they returned to their homes to enjoy the liberal pay awarded them, feeling rather the better for the trip than otherwise. This unsought-for reputation brought on me the laborious task of selecting proper men out of an extraordinary number of applicants. Almost all the cripples, the palsied, the consumptive, and the superannuated that Zanzibar could furnish applied to be enrolled on the muster-list, but these, subjected to a searching examination, were refused. Hard upon their heels came all the roughs, rowdies, and ruffians of the island, and these, schooled by their fellows, were not so easily detected. Slaves were also refused, as being too much under the influence and instruction of their masters, and yet many were engaged of whose character I had not the least conception, until, months afterwards, I learned from their quarrels in the camp how I had been misled by the clever rogues.

WINDOW OF AN ARAB HOUSE, ZANZIBAR.

"All those who bore good characters on the Search Expedition, and had been despatched to the assistance of Livingstone in 1872, were employed without delay. Out of these the chiefs were selected: these were Manwa Sera, Chowpereh, Wadi Rehani, Kachéché, Zaidi, Chakanja, Farjalla, Wadi Safeni, Bukhet, Mabruki Manyapara, Mabruki Unyanyembé, Muini Pembé, Ferahan, Bwana Muri, Khamseen, Mabruki Speke, Simba, Gardner, Hamoidah, Zaidi Mganda, and Ulimengo.

COXSWAIN ULEDI, AND MANWA SERA, CHIEF CAPTAIN.
(From a Photograph.)

"All great enterprises require a preliminary deliberative palaver, or, as the Wangwana call it, 'Shauri.' In East Africa, particularly, shauris are much in vogue. Precipitate, energetic action is dreaded. 'Poli, poli!' or 'Gently!' is the warning word of caution given.

"The chiefs arranged themselves in a semicircle on the day of the shauri, and I sat à la Turque fronting them. 'What is it, my friends? Speak your minds.' They hummed and hawed, looked at one another, as if on their neighbor's faces they might discover the purport of their coming, but, all hesitating to begin, finally broke down in a loud laugh.

"Manwa Sera, always grave, unless hit dexterously with a joke, hereupon affected anger, and said, 'You speak, son of Safeni; verily we act like children! Will the master eat us?'

"Wadi, son of Safeni, thus encouraged to perform the spokesman's duty, hesitates exactly two seconds, and then ventures with diplomatic blandness and graciosity. 'We have come, master, with words. Listen. It is well we should know every step before we leap. A traveller journeys not without knowing whither he wanders. We have come to ascertain what lands you are bound for.'

"Imitating the son of Safeni's gracious blandness, and his low tone of voice, as though the information about to be imparted to the intensely interested and eagerly listening group were too important to speak it loud, I described in brief outline the prospective journey, in broken Kiswahili. As country after country was mentioned of which they had hitherto had but vague ideas, and river after river, lake after lake named, all of which I hoped with their trusty aid to explore carefully, various ejaculations expressive of wonder or joy, mixed with a little alarm, broke from their lips, but when I concluded, each of the group drew a long breath, and almost simultaneously they uttered, admiringly, 'Ah, fellows, this is a journey worthy to be called a journey!'

A MERCHANT OF ZANZIBAR.

"'But, master,' said they, after recovering themselves, 'this long journey will take years to travel—six, nine, or ten years.' 'Nonsense,' I replied. 'Six, nine, or ten years! What can you be thinking of? It takes the Arabs nearly three years to reach Ujiji, it is true, but, if you remember, I was but sixteen months from Zanzibar to Ujiji and back. Is it not so?' 'Ay, true,' they answered. 'Very well, and I assure you I have not come to live in Africa. I have come simply to see those rivers and lakes, and after I have seen them to return home. You remember while going to Ujiji I permitted the guide to show the way, but when we were returning who was it that led the way? Was it not I, by means of that little compass which could not lie like the guide?' 'Ay, true, master, true every word!' 'Very well, then, let us finish the shauri, and go. To-morrow we will make a proper agreement before the consul;' and, in Scriptural phrase, 'they forthwith arose and did as they were commanded.'

"Upon receiving information from the coast that there was a very large number of men waiting for me, I became still more fastidious in my choice. But with all my care and gift of selection, I was mortified to discover that many faces and characters had baffled the rigorous scrutiny to which I had subjected them, and that some scores of the most abandoned and depraved characters on the island had been enlisted by me on the expedition. One man, named Msenna, imposed upon me by assuming such a contrite, penitent look, and weeping such copious tears, when I informed him that he had too bad a character to be employed, that my good-nature was prevailed upon to accept his services, upon the understanding that, if he indulged his murderous propensities in Africa, I should return him chained the entire distance to Zanzibar, to be dealt with by his prince. He delivered his appeal with impassioned accents and lively gestures, which produced a great effect upon the mixed audience who listened to him, and, gathering from their faces more than from my own convictions that he had been much abused and very much misunderstood, his services were accepted, and as he appeared to be an influential man, he was appointed a junior captain with prospects of promotion and higher pay.

"Subsequently, however, on the shores of Lake Victoria it was discovered—for in Africa people are uncommonly communicative—that Msenna had murdered eight people, that he was a ruffian of the worst sort, and that the merchants of Zanzibar had experienced great relief when they heard that the notorious Msenna was about to bid farewell for a season to the scene of so many of his wild exploits. Msenna was only one of many of his kind, but I have given in detail the manner of his enlistment that my position may be better understood.

"The weight of a porter's load should not exceed sixty pounds. On the arrival of the sectional exploring boat Lady Alice, great were my vexation and astonishment when I discovered that four of the sections weighed two hundred and eighty pounds each, and that one weighed three hundred and ten pounds! She was, it is true, a marvel of workmanship, and an exquisite model of a boat, such, indeed, as few builders in England or America could rival, but in her present condition her carriage through the jungles would necessitate a pioneer force a hundred strong to clear the impediments and obstacles on the road.

TARYA TOPAN.

"I found an English carpenter named Ferris, to whom I showed the boat and explained that the narrowness of the path would make her portage absolutely impossible, for since the path was often only eighteen inches wide in Africa, and hemmed in on each side with dense jungle, any package six feet broad could by no means be conveyed along it. It was therefore necessary that each of the four sections should be subdivided, by which means I should obtain eight portable sections, each three feet wide. Mr. Ferris, perfectly comprehending his instructions, and with the aid given by the young Pococks, furnished me within two weeks with the newly modelled Lady Alice. Meantime I was busy purchasing cloth, beads, wire, and other African goods, the most of them coming from the establishment of Tarya Topan, one of the millionaire merchants of Zanzibar. I made Tarya's acquaintance in 1871, and the righteous manner in which he then dealt by me caused me now to proceed to him again for the same purpose as formerly.

"The total weight of goods, cloth, beads, wire, stores, medicine, bedding, clothes, tents, ammunition, boat, oars, rudders and thwarts, instruments and stationery, photographic apparatus, dry plates, and miscellaneous articles too numerous to mention, weighed a little over eighteen thousand pounds, or rather more than eight tons, divided as nearly as possible into loads weighing sixty pounds each, and requiring therefore the carrying capacity of three hundred men. The loads were made more than usually light, in order that we might travel with celerity, and not fatigue the people.

"But still further to provide against sickness and weakness, a supernumerary force of forty men were recruited at Bagamoyo, Konduchi, and the Rufiji delta, who were required to assemble in the neighborhood of the first-mentioned place. Two hundred and thirty men, consisting of Wangwana, Wanyamwezi, and coast people from Mombasa, Tanga, and Saadani, affixed their marks opposite their names before the American consul, for wages varying from two to ten dollars per month and rations, according to their capacity, strength, and intelligence, with the understanding that they were to serve for two years, or until such time as their services should be no longer required in Africa, and were to perform their duties cheerfully and promptly.

"On the day of 'signing' the contract each adult received an advance of twenty dollars, or four months' pay, and each youth ten dollars, or four months' pay. Ration money was also paid them from the time of first enlistment, at the rate of one dollar per week, up to the day we left the coast. The entire amount disbursed in cash for advances of pay and rations at Zanzibar and Bagamoyo was $6260, or nearly thirteen hundred pounds.

"The obligations, however, were not all on one side. Besides the due payment to them of their wages, I was compelled to bind myself to them, on the word of an 'honorable white man,' to observe the following conditions as to conduct towards them:

"1st. That I should treat them kindly, and be patient with them.

"2d. That in cases of sickness, I should dose them with proper medicine, and see them nourished with the best the country afforded. That if patients were unable to proceed, they should be conveyed to such places as should be considered safe for their persons and their freedom, and convenient for their return, on convalescence, to their friends. That, with all patients thus left behind, I should leave sufficient cloth or beads to pay the native practitioner for his professional attendance, and for the support of the patient.

"3d. That in cases of disagreement between man and man, I should judge justly, honestly, and impartially. That I should do my utmost to prevent the ill-treatment of the weak by the strong, and never permit the oppression of those unable to resist.

UNIVERSITIES MISSION AT MBWENNI, ZANZIBAR.

"That I should act like a 'father and mother' to them, and to the best of my ability resist all violence offered to them by 'savage natives, and roving and lawless banditti.'

"They also promised, upon the above conditions being fulfilled, that they would do their duty like men, would honor and respect my instructions, giving me their united support, and endeavoring to the best of their ability to be faithful servants, and would never desert me in the hour of need. In short, that they would behave like good and loyal children, and 'may the blessing of God,' said they 'be upon us.'

"How we kept this bond of mutual trust and forbearance will be best seen in the following chapters, which record the strange and eventful story of our journeys.

"The fleet of six Arab vessels which were to bear us away to the west across the Zanzibar Sea were at last brought to anchor a few yards from the wharf of the American Consulate. The Wangwana, true to their promise that they would be ready, appeared with their bundles and mats, and proceeded to take their places in the vessels waiting for them. As fast as each dhow was reported to be filled, the nakhuda, or captain, was directed to anchor farther off shore to await the signal to sail. By 5 p.m., of the 12th of November, 224 men had responded to their names, and five of the Arab vessels, laden with the personnel, cattle, and matériel of the expedition, were impatiently waiting, with anchor heaved short, the word of command. One vessel still lay close ashore, to convey myself, and Frederick Barker—in charge of the personal servants—our baggage, and dogs. Turning round to my constant and well-tried friend, Mr. Augustus Sparhawk, I fervently clasped his hand, and with a full heart, though halting tongue, attempted to pour out my feelings of gratitude for his kindness and long-sustained hospitality, my keen regret at parting, and hopes of meeting again. But I was too agitated to be eloquent, and all my forced gayety could not carry me through the ordeal. So we parted in almost total silence, but I felt assured that he would judge my emotions by his own feelings.

HAREM IN THE HOUSE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE SULTAN OF ZANZIBAR.

"A wave of my hand, and the anchors were hove up and laid within ship, and then, hoisting our lateen sails, we bore away westward to launch ourselves into the arms of Fortune. Many wavings of kerchiefs and hats, parting signals from white hands, and last long looks at friendly white faces, final confused impressions of the grouped figures of our well-wishers, and then the evening breeze had swept us away into mid-sea, beyond reach of recognition.

"TOWARDS THE DARK CONTINENT."

"The parting is over! We have said our last words for years, perhaps forever, to kindly men! The sun sinks fast to the western horizon, and gloomy is the twilight that now deepens and darkens. Thick shadows fall upon the distant land and over the silent sea, and oppress our throbbing, regretful hearts, as we glide away through the dying light towards the Dark Continent.

"Upon landing at Bagamoyo, on the morning of the 13th of November, we marched to occupy the old house where we had stayed so long to prepare the first expedition. The goods were stored, the dogs chained up, the riding asses tethered, the rifles arrayed in the store-room, and the sectional boat laid under a roof close by, on rollers, to prevent injury from the white ants—a precaution which, I need hardly say, we had to observe throughout our journey. Then some more ration money, sufficient for ten days, had to be distributed among the men, the young Pococks were told off to various camp duties, to initiate them to exploring life in Africa, and then, after the first confusion of arrival had subsided, I began to muster the new engagés.

"There is an institution at Bagamoyo which ought not to be passed over without remark, but the subject cannot be properly dealt with until I have described the similar institution, of equal importance, at Zanzibar: viz., the Universities Mission. Besides, I have three pupils of the Universities Mission who are about to accompany me into Africa—Robert Feruzi, Andrew, and Dallington. Robert is a stout lad of eighteen years old, formerly a servant to one of the members of Lieutenant Cameron's expedition. Andrew is a strong youth of nineteen years, rather reserved, and, I should say, not of a very bright disposition. Dallington is much younger, probably only fifteen, with a face strongly pitted with traces of a violent attack of small-pox, but as bright and intelligent as any boy of his age, white or black.

"The Universities Mission is the result of the sensation caused in England by Livingstone's discoveries on the Zambezi and of Lakes Nyassa and Shirwa. It was despatched by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the year 1860, and consisted of Bishop Mackenzie, formerly Archdeacon of Natal, and the Rev. Messrs. Proctor, Scudamore, Burrup, and Rowley. It was established at first in the Zambesi country, but was moved, a few years later, to Zanzibar. Several of the reverend gentlemen connected with it have died at their post of duty, Bishop Mackenzie being the first to fall, but the work goes on. The mission at Bagamoyo is in charge of four French priests, eight brothers, and twelve sisters, with ten lay brothers employed in teaching agriculture. The French fathers superintend the tuition of two hundred and fifty children, and give employment to about eighty adults. One hundred and seventy freed slaves were furnished from the slave captures made by British cruisers. They are taught to earn their own living as soon as they arrive of age, and are furnished with comfortable lodgings, clothing, and household utensils.

SCENE IN BAGAMOYO.

"'Notre Dame de Bagamoyo' is situated about a mile and a half north of Bagamoyo, overlooking the sea, which washes the shores just at the base of the tolerably high ground on which the mission buildings stand. Thrift, order, and that peculiar style of neatness common to the French are its characteristics. The cocoa-nut palm, orange, and mango flourish in this pious settlement, while a variety of garden vegetables and grain are cultivated in the fields; and broad roads, cleanly kept, traverse the estate. During the superior's late visit to France he obtained a considerable sum for the support of the mission, and he has lately established a branch mission at Kidudwe. It is evident that, if supported constantly by his friends in France, the superior will extend his work still farther into the interior, and it is therefore safe to predict that the road to Ujiji will in time possess a chain of mission stations affording the future European trader and traveller safe retreats with the conveniences of civilized life.[2]

"There are two other missions on the east coast of Africa: that of the Church Missionary Society, and the Methodist Free Church at Mombasa. The former has occupied this station for over thirty years, and has a branch establishment at Rabbai Mpia, the home of the Dutch missionaries, Krapf, Rebmann, and Erhardt. But these missions have not obtained the success which such long self-abnegation and devotion to the pious service deserved.

"On the morning of the 17th of November, 1874, the first bold step for the interior was taken. The bugle mustered the people to rank themselves before our quarters, and each man's load was given to him according as we judged his power of bearing burden. To the man of strong, sturdy make, with a large development of muscle, the cloth bale of sixty pounds was given, which would in a couple of months, by constant expenditure, be reduced to fifty pounds, in six months perhaps to forty pounds, and in a year to about thirty pounds, provided that all his comrades were faithful to their duties; to the short, compactly-formed man, the bead-sack, of fifty pounds' weight; to the light youth of eighteen or twenty years old, the box of forty pounds, containing stores, ammunition, and sundries. To the steady, respectable, grave-looking men of advanced years, the scientific instruments, thermometers, barometers, watches, sextant, mercury-bottles, compasses, pedometers, photographic apparatus, dry plates, stationery, and scientific books, all packed in forty-pound cases, were distributed; while the man most highly recommended for steadiness and cautious tread was intrusted with the carriage of the three chronometers, which were stowed in balls of cotton, in a light case weighing not more than twenty-five pounds. The twelve Kirangozis, or guides, tricked out this day in flowing robes of crimson blanket-cloth, demanded the privilege of conveying the several loads of brass-wire coils; and as they form the second advanced guard, and are active, bold youths—some of whom are to be hereafter known as the boat's crew, and to be distinguished by me above all others except the chiefs—they are armed with Snider rifles, with their respective accoutrements. The boat-carriers are herculean in figure and strength, for they are practised bearers of loads, having resigned their ignoble profession of hamal in Zanzibar to carry sections of the first Europe-made boat that ever floated on Lakes Victoria and Tanganika and the extreme sources of the Nile and the Livingstone. To each section of the boat there are four men, to relieve one another in couples. They get higher pay than even the chiefs, except the chief captain, Manwa Sera, and, besides receiving double rations, have the privilege of taking their wives along with them. There are six riding asses also in the expedition, all saddled, one for each of the Europeans—the two Pococks, Barker, and myself—and two for the sick; for the latter there are also three of Seydel's net hammocks, with six men to act as a kind of ambulance party.

WIFE OF MANWA SERA.
(From a Photograph.)

"At nine a.m. we file out of Bagamoyo in the following order: Four chiefs a few hundred yards in front; next the twelve guides, clad in red robes of Jobo, bearing the wire coils; then a long file of two hundred and seventy strong, bearing cloth, wire, beads, and sections of the Lady Alice; after them thirty-six women and ten boys, children of some of the chiefs and boat-bearers, following their mothers and assisting them with trifling loads of utensils, followed by the riding asses, Europeans, and gun-bearers; the long line closed by sixteen chiefs who act as rear-guard, and whose duties are to pick up stragglers, and act as supernumeraries until other men can be procured; in all, three hundred and fifty-six souls connected with the Anglo-American expedition. The lengthy line occupies nearly half a mile of the path which, at the present day, is the commercial and exploring highway into the lake regions.

"Edward Pocock acts as bugler, and he has familiarized Hamadi, the chief guide, with its notes, so that, in case of a halt being required, Hamadi may be informed immediately. The chief guide is also armed with a prodigiously long horn of ivory, his favorite instrument, and one that belongs to his profession, which he has permission to use only when approaching a suitable camping-place, or to notify to us danger in the front. Before Hamadi strides a chubby little boy with a native drum, which he is to beat only when in the neighborhood of villages, to warn them of the advance of a caravan, a caution most requisite, for many villages are situated in the midst of a dense jungle, and the sudden arrival of a large force of strangers before they had time to hide their little belongings might awaken jealousy and distrust.

"In this manner we begin our long journey, full of hopes. There is noise and laughter along the ranks, and a hum of gay voices murmuring through the fields, as we rise and descend with the waves of the land and wind with the sinuosities of the path. Motion had restored us all to a sense of satisfaction. We had an intensely bright and fervid sun shining above us, the path was dry, hard, and admirably fit for travel, and during the commencement of our first march nothing could be conceived in better order than the lengthy, thin column about to confront the wilderness.

A LEADING CITIZEN OF BAGAMOYO.

"Presently, however, the fervor of the dazzling sun grows overpowering as we descend into the valley of the Kingani River. The ranks become broken and disordered; stragglers are many; the men complain of the terrible heat; the dogs pant in agony. Even we ourselves, under our solah topees, with flushed faces and perspiring brows, with handkerchiefs ever in use to wipe away the drops which almost blind us, and our heavy woollens giving us a feeling of semi-asphyxiation, would fain rest, were it not that the sun-bleached levels of the tawny, thirsty valley offer no inducements. The veterans of travel push on towards the river, three miles distant, where they may obtain rest and shelter, but the inexperienced are lying prostrate on the ground, exclaiming against the heat, and crying for water, bewailing their folly in leaving Zanzibar. We stop to tell them to rest awhile, and then to come on to the river, where they will find us; we advise, encourage, and console the irritated people as best we can, and tell them that it is only the commencement of a journey that is so hard; that all this pain and weariness are always felt by beginners, but that by and by it is shaken off, and that those who are steadfast emerge out of the struggle heroes.

"Frank and his brother Edward, despatched to the ferry at the beginning of these delays, have now got the sectional boat Lady Alice all ready, and the ferrying of men, goods, asses, and dogs across the Kingani is prosecuted with vigor, and at 3.30 p.m. the boat is again in pieces, slung on the bearing-poles, and the expedition has resumed its journey to Kikoka, the first halting-place.

"But before we reach camp we have acquired a fair idea as to how many of our people are stanch and capable, and how many are too feeble to endure the fatigues of bearing loads. The magnificent prize mastiff dog Castor died of heat apoplexy within two miles of Kikoka, and the other mastiff, Captain, seems likely to follow soon, and only Nero, Bull, and Jack, though prostrate and breathing hard, show any signs of life.

"At Kikoka, then, we rest the next day. We discharge two men, who have been taken seriously ill, and several new recruits, who arrive at camp during the night preceding and this day, are engaged.

"As there are so many subjects to be touched upon along the seven thousand miles of explored lines, I propose to be brief with the incidents and descriptive sketches of our route to Ituru, because the country for two thirds of the way has been sufficiently described in 'How I Found Livingstone' and elsewhere.

THE EXPEDITION AT ROSAKO.

"At Rosako the route began to diverge from that which led to Msuwa and Simba-Mwenni, and opened out on a stretch of beautiful park land, green as an English lawn, dipping into lovely vales, and rising into gentle ridges. Thin, shallow threads of water, in furrow-like beds or in deep, narrow ditches, which expose the sandstone strata on which the fat, ochreous soil rests, run in mazy curves round forest clumps or through jungle tangles, and wind about among the higher elevations, on their way towards the Wami River. We followed this river for some distance, crossing it several times at fords where the water was about two and a half feet deep. At one of the fords there was a curious suspension-bridge over the river, constructed of llianes, with great ingenuity, by the natives. The banks were at this point sixteen feet high above the river, and from bank to bank the distance was only thirty yards; it was evident, therefore, that the river must be a dangerous torrent during the rainy season.

"On the 3d of December we came to the Mkundi River, a tributary of the Wami, which divides Nguru country from Usagara. Simba-Mwenni—the Lion Lord—owns five villages in this neighborhood. He was generous, and gratified us with a gift of a sheep, some flour, and plantains, accepting with pleasure some cloth in return.

"The Wa-Nguru are fond of black and white beads and brass wire. They split the lobes of their ears, and introduce such curious things as the necks of gourds or round disks of wood to extend the gash. A medley of strange things are worn round the neck, such as tiny goats' horns, small brass chains, and large, egglike beads. Blue Kaniki and the red-barred Barsati are the favorite cloths in this region. The natives dye their faces with ochre, and, probably influenced by the example of the Wanyamwezi, dress their hair in long ringlets, which are adorned with pendicles of copper, or white or red beads of the large Sam-sam pattern.

"Grand and impressive scenery meets the eye as we march to Makubika, where we attain an altitude of two thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet above the ocean. Peaks and knolls rise in all directions, for we are now ascending to the eastern front of the Kaguru Mountains. The summits of Ukamba are seen to the north, its slopes famous for the multitude of elephants. Farther inland we reached the spine of a hill at four thousand four hundred and ninety feet, and beheld an extensive plain, stretching northwest and west, with browsing herds of noble game. Camping on its verge, between a humpy hill and some rocky knolls, near a beautiful pond of crystal-clear water, I proceeded with my gun-bearer, Billali, and the notorious Msenna, in the hope of bringing down something for the Wangwana.

"The plain was broader than I had judged it by the eye from the crest of the hill whence we had first sighted it. It was not until we had walked briskly over a long stretch of tawny grass, crushed by sheer force through a brambly jungle, and trampled down a path through clumps of slender cane-stalks, that we came at last in view of a small herd of zebras. These animals are so quick of scent and ear, and so vigilant with their eyes, that, across an open space, it is most difficult to stalk them. But, by dint of tremendous exertion, I contrived to approach within two hundred and fifty yards, taking advantage of every thin tussock of grass, and, almost at random, fired. One of the herd leaped from the ground, galloped a few short, maddened strides, and then, on a sudden, staggered, kneeled, trembled, and fell over, its legs kicking the air. Its companions whinnied shrilly for their mate, and presently, wheeling in circles with graceful motion, advanced nearer, still whinnying, until I dropped another, with a crushing ball through the head—much against my wish, for I think zebras were created for better purpose than to be eaten. The remnant of the herd vanished.

VIEW FROM THE VILLAGE OF MAMBOYA.

"Billali, requested to run to camp to procure Wangwana to carry the meat, was only too happy, knowing what brave cheers and hearty congratulations would greet him. Msenna was already busy skinning one of the animals, some three hundred yards from me, when, turning my head, I made out the form of some tawny animal, that was advancing with a curious long step, and I recognized it to be a lion. I motioned to Msenna, who happened to be looking up, and beckoned him. 'What do you think it is, Msenna?' I asked. 'Simba

"The animal approached slowly, while I made ready to receive him with an explosive bullet from the elephant rifle. When within three hundred yards he paused, and then turned and trotted off into a bit of scrubby jungle, about eight hundred yards away. Ten minutes elapsed, and then as many animals emerged from the same spot into which the other had disappeared, and approached us in stately column. But it being now dusk I could not discern them very clearly. We both were, however, quite sure in our own minds that they were lions, or at any rate some animals so like them in the twilight that we could not imagine them to be anything else. When the foremost had come within one hundred yards I fired. It sprang up and fell, and the others disappeared with a dreadful rush. We now heard shouts behind us, for the Wangwana had come; so, taking one or two with me, I endeavored to discover what I felt sure to be a prostrate lion, but it could not be found.

"The next day Manwa Sera went out to hunt for the lion-skin, but returned after a long search with only a strong doubt in his mind as to its having been a lion, and a few reddish hairs to prove that it was something which had been eaten by hyenas. This day I succeeded in shooting a small antelope of the springbok kind.

"On the 12th of December, twenty-five days' march from Bagamoyo, we arrived at Mpwapwa.

OUR CAMP AT MPWAPWA.
(From a Photograph.)

"Mpwapwa has also some fine trees, but no forest; the largest being the tamarind, sycamore, cottonwood, and baobab. The collection of villages denominated by this title lies widely scattered on either side of the Mpwapwa stream, at the base of the southern slope of a range of mountains that extends in a sinuous line from Chunyu to Ugombo. I call it a range, because it appeared to be one from Mpwapwa; but in reality it is simply the northern flank of a deep indentation in the great mountain chain that extends from Abyssinia, or even Suez, down to the Cape of Good Hope. At the extreme eastern point of this indentation from the western side lies Lake Ugombo, just twenty-four miles from Mpwapwa.

"Desertions from the expedition had been frequent. At first, Kachéché, the chief detective, and his gang of four men, who had received their instructions to follow us a day's journey behind, enabled me to recapture sixteen of the deserters; but the cunning Wangwana and Wanyamwezi soon discovered this resource of mine against their well-known freaks, and, instead of striking east in their departure, absconded either south or north of the track. We then had detectives posted long before dawn, several hundred yards away from the camp, who were bidden to lie in wait in the bush until the expedition had started, and in this manner we succeeded in repressing to some extent the disposition to desert, and arrested very many men on the point of escaping; but even this was not adequate. Fifty had abandoned us before reaching Mpwapwa, taking with them the advances they had received, and often their guns, on which our safety might depend.

DETECTIVE AND ASSISTANTS.

"Several feeble men and women also had to be left behind, and it was evident that the very wariest methods failed to bind the people to their duties. The best of treatment and abundance of provisions daily distributed were alike insufficient to induce such faithless natures to be loyal. However, we persisted, and as often as we failed in one way we tried another. Had all these men remained loyal to their contract and promises, we should have been too strong for any force to attack us, as our numbers must necessarily have commanded respect in lands and among tribes where only power is respected.

"One day's march from Mpwapwa brought us to Chunyu—an exposed and weak settlement, overlooking the desert or wilderness separating Usagara from Ugogo. Close to our right towered the Usagara Mountains, and on our left stretched the inhospitable arm of the wilderness. Fifteen or twenty miles distant to the south rose the vast cluster of Rubeho's cones and peaks.

"The water at Chunyu is nitrous and bitter to the taste. The natives were once prosperous, but repeated attacks from the Wahehé to the south and the Wahumba to the north have reduced them in numbers, and compelled them to seek refuge on the hill-summits.

"On the 16th of December, at early dawn, we struck camp, and at an energetic pace descended into the wilderness, and at 7 p.m. the vanguard of the expedition entered Ugogo, camping two or three miles from the frontier village of Kikombo. The next day, at a more moderate pace, we entered the populated district, and took shelter under a mighty baobab a few hundred yards distant from the chief's village."

Here Frank announced that it was late in the afternoon, and he wished to take a promenade on deck. With the permission of his auditors he would postpone the narrative until evening. The proposal was accepted, but before the youth could retire he was warmly thanked by those whom he had so agreeably entertained.

AN AFRICAN BELLE.

[CHAPTER III.]

RETARDED BY RAINS AND OTHER MISHAPS.—GENERAL DESPONDENCY.—DEATH OF EDWARD POCOCK.—A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.—A LAND OF PLENTY.—ARRIVAL AT VICTORIA LAKE.—NATIVE SONG.—AFLOAT ON THE GREAT LAKE.—TERRIBLE TALES OF THE INHABITANTS.—ENCOUNTERS WITH THE NATIVES.—THE VICTORIA NILE.—RIPON FALLS.—SPEKE'S EXPLORATIONS.—THE ALEXANDRA NILE.—ARRIVAL AT KING MTESA'S COURT.—A MAGNIFICENT RECEPTION.—IN THE MONARCH'S PRESENCE.—STANLEY'S FIRST OPINIONS OF MTESA.

When the audience assembled in the evening Frank turned rapidly several pages of the book and said that Mr. Stanley's expedition was greatly retarded by the heavy rains which fell frequently and converted the ground into a water-soaked marsh, through which it was very difficult to proceed. Christmas day was a day of gloom, as everybody was wet and cold and hungry; the natives had little grain to sell, and the expedition was reduced to half-rations of food.

AN AFRICAN BLACKSMITH'S-SHOP.

Mr. Stanley wrote in his diary that he weighed one hundred and eighty pounds when he left Zanzibar, but his sufferings and lack of nourishing food had brought him down to one hundred and thirty-four pounds in thirty-eight days; and the young Englishmen that accompanied him were similarly reduced. In every new territory they entered they were obliged to pay tribute to the ruler, according to the custom of Africa, and the settlement of the question of tribute required a great deal of bargaining. There were frequent desertions of men, and in many instances they had not the honesty to leave behind them their loads and guns. At one place it was discovered that fifty men had formed a conspiracy to desert in a body, but the scheme was stopped by arresting the ringleaders and disarming their followers.

"Some twenty or more men were on the sick-list and too ill to walk," said Frank, "several were carried in hammocks, and others were left at the native villages, in accordance with the arrangements made at Zanzibar. The expedition halted four days at Suna, in the Warimi country, where grain was purchased at a high price, and the people seemed inclined to make trouble. The leader of the expedition was obliged to use a great deal of tact to conciliate the chiefs of this people, who are numerous and well-armed, so that an attack would have been no easy matter to resist. Edward Pocock was taken seriously ill at Suna, and carried in a hammock to Chiwyu—four hundred miles from the coast, and at an elevation of five thousand four hundred feet above the sea. In spite of all the attentions he received, he died soon after their arrival at the latter place. I will read Stanley's account of the burial of his faithful companion and friend:

FUNERAL OF EDWARD POCOCK: VIEW OF OUR CAMP.

"We excavated a grave, four feet deep, at the foot of a hoary acacia with wide-spreading branches; and on its ancient trunk Frank engraved a deep cross, the emblem of the faith we all believe in; and, when folded in its shroud, we laid the body in its final resting-place, during the last gleams of sunset. We read the beautiful prayers of the church-service for the dead, and, out of respect for the departed—whose frank, sociable, and winning manners had won their friendship and regard—nearly all the Wangwana were present, to pay a last tribute of sighs to poor Edward Pocock.

"When the last solemn prayer had been read, we retired to our tents, to brood, in sorrow and silence, over our irreparable loss."

"By the 21st of January," said Frank, "eighty-nine men had deserted, twenty had died, and there were many sick or disabled. Mr. Stanley would have been justified in fearing that he would be obliged to abandon his expedition and retreat to the coast. The loads were reduced as much as possible, every article that could in any way be spared being thrown out and destroyed. On the 24th the natives attacked the camp, but were driven back; and another battle followed on the 25th, with the same result. On the 26th the march was resumed, and the hostile region was left behind. New men were engaged at some of the villages, the weather improved, provisions were abundant, and in the early days of February the halting-places of the expedition presented a marked contrast to those of a month earlier.

AN AFRICAN LAMB.

"The country in which they were now travelling," Frank continued, "was a fertile region, with broad pastures, and occasional stretches of forest—a land of plenty and promise. The natives had an abundance of cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens, which they sold at low prices; they were entirely friendly to the travellers, and whenever the expedition moved away from its camps, it was urged to come again. Mr. Stanley gives the following list of prices, which he paid in this land of abundance:

"On the 26th of February it was reported that another day's march would bring them to the shore of the Great Nyanza, the Victoria Lake. I will now read you what Mr. Stanley says about this march, and his first view of the lake.

"On the morning of the 27th of February we rose up early, and braced ourselves for the long march of nineteen miles, which terminated at 4 p.m. at the village of Kagehyi.

"The people were as keenly alive to the importance of this day's march, and as fully sensitive to what this final journey to Kagehyi promised their wearied frames, as we Europeans. They, as well as ourselves, looked forward to many weeks of rest from our labors and to an abundance of good food.

"When the bugle sounded the signal to 'Take the road,' the Wanyamwezi and Wangwana responded to it with cheers, and loud cries of 'Ay indeed, ay indeed, please God;' and their good-will was contagious. The natives, who had mustered strongly to witness our departure, were affected by it, and stimulated our people by declaring that the lake was not very far off—'but two or three hours' walk.'

"We dipped into the basins and troughs of the land, surmounted ridge after ridge, crossed water-courses and ravines, passed by cultivated fields, and through villages smelling strongly of cattle, by good-natured groups of natives, until, ascending a long, gradual slope, we heard, on a sudden, hurrahing in front, and then we too, with the lagging rear, knew that those in the van were in view of the Great Lake! the lake which Speke discovered in 1858.

UNYAMWEZI PORTER.

"Frank Pocock impetuously strode forward until he gained the brow of the hill. He took a long, sweeping look at something, waved his hat, and came down towards us, his face beaming with joy, as he shouted out enthusiastically, with the fervor of youth and high spirits, 'I have seen the lake, sir, and it is grand!' Frederick Barker, riding painfully on an ass, and sighing wearily from illness and the length of the journey, lifted his head to smile his thanks to his comrade.

"Presently we also reached the brow of the hill, where we found the expedition halted, and the first quick view revealed to us a long, broad arm of water, which a dazzling sun transformed into silver, some six hundred feet below us, at the distance of three miles.

"A more careful and detailed view of the scene showed us that the hill on which we stood sloped gradually to the broad bay or gulf edged by a line of green, wavy reeds and thin groves of umbrageous trees scattered along the shore, on which stood several small villages of conical huts. Beyond these, the lake stretched like a silvery plain far to the eastward, and away across to a boundary of dark-blue hills and mountains, while several gray, rocky islets mocked us at first with an illusion of Arab dhows with white sails. The Wanyamwezi struck up the song of triumph:

"'Sing, O friends, sing; the journey is ended:
Sing aloud, O friends, sing to the great Nyanza.
Sing all, sing loud, O friends, sing to the great sea;
Give your last look to the lands behind and then turn to the sea.
"'Long time ago you left your lands,
Your wives and children, your brothers and your friends:
Tell me, have you seen a sea like this
Since you left the great salt sea?

"Chorus.

"'Then sing, O friends, sing; the journey is ended:
Sing aloud, O friends: sing to this great sea.
This sea is fresh, is good, and sweet;
Your sea is salt, and bad, unfit to drink.
This sea is like wine to drink for thirsty men;
The salt sea—bah! it makes men sick.'

"I have in the above (as literal a translation as I can render it) made no attempt at rhyme—nor, indeed, did the young, handsome, and stalwart Corypheus who delivered the harmonious strains with such startling effect. The song, though extemporized, was eminently dramatic, and when the chorus joined in it made the hills ring with a wild and strange harmony. Reanimated by the cheerful music, we flung the flags to the breeze, and filed slowly down the slopes towards the fields of Kagehyi.

"About half a mile from the villages we were surprised by seeing hundreds of warriors decked with feathered head-dresses and armed to the teeth, advancing on the run towards us, and exhibiting, as they came, their dexterity with bows and arrows and spears. They had at first been alarmed at the long procession filing down the hill, supposing we were bent on hostilities, but, though discovering their error, they still thought it too good an opportunity to be lost for showing their bravery, and therefore amused us with this by-play. Sungoro Tarib, an Arab resident at Kagehyi, also despatched a messenger with words of welcome, and an invitation to us to make Kagehyi our camp, as Prince Kaduma, chief of Kagehyi, was his faithful ally.

VIEW OF KAGEHYI FROM THE EDGE OF THE LAKE.
(From a Photograph.)

"In a short time we had entered the wretched-looking village, and Kaduma was easily induced by Sungoro to proffer hospitalities to the strangers. A small conical hut, about twenty feet in diameter, badly lighted, and with a strong smell of animal matter—its roof swarmed with bold rats, which, with a malicious persistence, kept popping in and out of their nests in the straw roof, and rushing over the walls—was placed at my disposal as a store-room. Another small hut was presented to Frank Pocock and Fred Barker as their quarters.

"In summing up, during the evening of our arrival at this rude village on the Nyanza, the number of statute miles travelled by us, as measured by two rated pedometers and pocket watch, I ascertained it to be seven hundred and twenty. The time occupied—from November 17, 1874, to February 27, 1875, inclusive—was one hundred and three days, divided into seventy marching and thirty-three halting days, by which it will be perceived that our marches averaged a little over ten miles per day. But as halts are imperative, the more correct method of ascertaining the rate of travel would be to include the time occupied by halts and marches, and divide the total distance by the number of days occupied. This reduces the rate to seven miles per diem.

"We all woke on the morning of the 28th of February with a feeling of intense relief. There were no more marches, no more bugle-calls to rouse us up for another fatiguing day, no more fear of hunger—at least for a season.

"At 9 a.m. a burzah, or levee, was held. First came Frank and Fred—now quite recovered from fever—to bid me good-morning, and to congratulate themselves and me upon the prospective rest before us. Next came the Wangwana and Wanyamwezi chiefs, to express a hope that I had slept well, and after them the bold youths of the expedition; then came Prince Kaduma and Sungoro, to whom we were bound this day to render an account of the journey and to give the latest news from Zanzibar; and, lastly, the princess and her principal friends—for introductions have to be undergone in this land as in others. The burzah lasted two hours, after which my visitors retired to pursue their respective avocations, which I discovered to be principally confined, on the part of the natives, to gossiping, making or repairing fishing-nets, hatchets, canoes, food-troughs, village fences, and huts, and on the part of our people to arranging plans for building their own grass-huts, being perfectly content to endure a long stay at Kagehyi.

FRANK POCOCK.
(From a Photograph taken at Kagehyi.)

"Though the people had only their own small domestic affairs to engage their attentions, and Frank and Fred were for this day relieved from duty, I had much to do—observations to take to ascertain the position of Kagehyi, and its altitude above the sea; to prepare paper, pens, and ink for the morrow's report to the journals which had despatched me to this remote and secluded part of the globe; to make calculations of the time likely to be occupied in a halt at Kagehyi, in preparing and equipping the Lady Alice for sea, and in circumnavigating the great 'Nianja,' as the Wasukuma call the lake.[3] It was also incumbent upon me to ascertain the political condition of the country before leaving the port and the camp, that my mind might be at rest about its safety during my contemplated absence. Estimates were also to be entered upon as to the quantity of cloth and beads likely to be required for the provisioning of the expeditionary force during my absence, and as to the amount of tribute and presents to be bestowed upon the King of Uchambi—of which Kagehyi was only a small district, and to whom Prince Kaduma was only a subordinate and tributary. In brief, my own personal work was but begun, and pages would not suffice to describe in detail the full extent of the new duties now devolving upon me.

AFRICAN ARMS AND ORNAMENTS.

"The village of Kagehyi, in the Uchambi district and country of Usukuma, became after our arrival a place of great local importance. It attracted an unusual number of native traders from all sides within a radius of twenty or thirty miles. Fishermen from Ukerewé, whose purple hills we saw across the arm of the lake, came in their canoes, with stores of dried fish; the people of Igusa, Sima, and Magu, east of us in Usukuma, brought their cassava, or manioc, and ripe bananas; the herdsmen of Usmau, thirty miles south of Kagehyi, sent their oxen; and the tribes of Muanza—famous historically as being the point whence Speke first saw this broad gulf of Lake Victoria—brought their hoes, iron wire, and salt, besides great plenty of sweet potatoes and yams.

"Within seven days the Lady Alice was ready, and strengthened for a rough sea-life. Provisions of flour and dried fish, bales of cloth and beads of various kinds, odds and ends of small possible necessaries were boxed, and she was declared at last to be only waiting for her crew. 'Would any one volunteer to accompany me?' A dead silence ensued. 'Not for rewards and extra pay?' Another dead silence: no one would volunteer.

"'Yet I must,' said I, 'depart. Will you let me go alone?'

"'No.'

"'What then? Show me my braves—those men who freely enlist to follow their master round the sea.'

"All were again dumb. Appealed to individually, each said he knew nothing of sea life; each man frankly declared himself a terrible coward on water.

"'Then what am I to do?'

"Manwa Sera said:

"'Master, have done with these questions. Command your party. All your people are your children, and they will not disobey you. While you ask them as a friend, no one will offer his services. Command them, and they will all go.'

VIEW NEAR VICTORIA LAKE.

"So I selected a chief, Wadi Safeni—the son of Safeni—and told him to pick out the elect of the young men. Wadi Safeni chose men who knew nothing of boat-life. Then I called Kachéché, the detective, and told him to ascertain the names of those young men who were accustomed to sea-life, upon which Kachéché informed me that the young guides first selected by me at Bagamoyo were the sailors of the expedition. After reflecting upon the capacities of the younger men, as they had developed themselves on the road, I made a list of ten sailors and a steersman, to whose fidelity I was willing to intrust myself and fortunes while coasting round the Victoria sea.

"Accordingly, after drawing up instructions for Frank Pocock and Fred Barker, on about a score of matters concerning the well-being of the expedition during my absence, and enlisting for them, by an adequate gift, the good-will of Sungoro and Prince Kaduma, I set sail on the 8th of March, 1875, eastward along the shores of the broad arm of the lake which we first sighted, and which henceforward is known, in honor of its first discoverer, as 'Speke Gulf.'

DWELLERS ON THE SHORE OF THE LAKE.

"The reluctance of my followers to venture upon Lake Victoria was due to what they had heard about it from Prince Kaduma's people. 'There were,' they said, 'a people dwelling on its shores who were gifted with tails; another who trained enormous and fierce dogs for war; another a tribe of cannibals, who preferred human flesh to all other kinds of meat. The lake was so large it would take years to trace its shores, and who then at the end of that time would remain alive?' Its opposite shores, from their very vagueness of outline, and its people, from the distorting fogs of misrepresentation through which we saw them, only heightened the fears of my men as to the dangers which filled the prospect."

"Mr. Stanley explored the shores of Speke Gulf," said Frank, after a short pause, "and then proceeded to follow the eastern shore of the great lake, which stretched out to the east and north apparently as limitless as the ocean. On the islands of Speke Gulf he found great numbers of crocodiles, and at almost every step he took among the reeds, on the shore of one of the islands, a huge crocodile rushed past him into the water. Hippopotami were numerous, some of them coming disagreeably near to his boat, and evidently desiring to make his acquaintance. The natives around the gulf were not hostile, but caused despondency in the hearts of Stanley's men by predicting that it would take him eight years to circumnavigate the lake.

"But on the shores of the lake itself the people showed signs of hostility, and came to the water's edge with their spears and shields. On such occasions the party kept away from land and parleyed at a safe distance. Once a war-canoe carrying some forty men armed with spears and slings came close alongside the Lady Alice; the men in the canoe were insolent and evidently wanted to fight. Before beginning, however, they exhibited their skill by throwing stones with their slings, and whenever they made good shots the strangers applauded and smiled. In fact, they had been smiling all the time since the canoe came alongside.

"When he considered the time had come to put an end to their insolence, Mr. Stanley drew his revolver and fired rapidly into the water in the direction where the last stone had been flung. The effect was ludicrous in the extreme, as none of the fellows had ever before heard the sound of a firearm. They sprang into the water and swam away for dear life, leaving their canoe in the hands of the strangers. They were finally coaxed back, but were more respectful in their demeanor.

"At another time," said Frank, "the natives came with a large fleet of canoes and attacked the Lady Alice, but were driven off without serious difficulty. Mr. Stanley's plan was, in fights of this sort, to use his large rifle with explosive shells, which he aimed just at the water-line of the canoes. The craft would thus be sunk or disabled, while the crew, who are all good swimmers, ran no risk of being drowned. Pursuit would thus be stopped, and the Lady Alice have plenty of time to escape.

THE "LADY ALICE" AT BRIDGE ISLAND, VICTORIA NYANZA.

"Without accident, the adventurous party reached the outlet of the lake and visited Ripon Falls, the head of the Victoria Nile, which flows into the Albert Nyanza. The latter lake is the source of the White Nile—the Nile of Egypt, and one of the historic rivers of the world."

VIEW OF THE BAY LEADING TO RUGEDZI CHANNEL FROM KIGOMA, NEAR KISORYA, SOUTH SIDE OF UKEREWÉ, COAST OF SPEKE GULF.
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

One of the youths asked how the Ripon Falls received that name.

"The name was given by Captain Speke, the first white man who ever saw the falls," replied Frank. "He may be called their discoverer, as the visit to the falls was made during his exploration of the Victoria Nyanza. At the time his expedition was fitted out, the Marquis of Ripon was the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and hence the name that Captain Speke gave to the falls."

"I suppose, then, that the Victoria Nyanza, or Victoria Lake, is the source of the Nile," another of Frank's auditors remarked.

Frank looked inquiringly at Doctor Bronson, who immediately came to the youth's assistance.

"For all practical purposes," said the Doctor, "Captain Speke's claim that he had discovered the source of the Nile when he found the stream which drained the lake, was a just one. But by common consent of geographers the source of a river is the brook or rivulet, however tiny, that rises farthest from its mouth. Adopting this as a rule, the source of the Nile was not the Victoria Lake itself, but its longest affluent, and this is a question not yet fully determined, though it is fairly well settled that the honor belongs to the Alexandra Nile, or Kagera River, which is certainly the longest affluent of the lake. The Kagera River flows from Alexandra Lake, which lies nearly due west from the southern end of Victoria Lake; the distance is about one hundred and fifty miles in a direct line, but much greater according to the African routes of travel."

"Did Mr. Stanley visit Alexandra Lake and find out what streams flowed into it?" one of the youths inquired, as Doctor Bronson paused.

"He was unable to do so," was the reply, "and no other traveller has yet completed the exploration. Some geographers think that the longest affluent of Lake Victoria will yet prove to be one of the streams coming in from the eastward, and having its source at the base of Mount Kilima-Njaro; but until this is shown to be an established fact, we may assume that the Alexandra Nile is the head of the great river of Egypt, as it certainly is the largest stream that flows into Victoria Lake."

VIEW OF RIPON FALLS FROM THE UGANDA SIDE.
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

"Are there any other falls on the Victoria Nile besides the Ripon Falls just mentioned?" was the next inquiry from the audience.

"There are several falls and rapids on the stream," the Doctor answered, "the most important being Murchison Falls, not far from where the Victoria Nile emerges into Albert Lake. Lake Albert is more than a thousand feet below the level of Lake Victoria, and therefore you may expect a rapid descent of the river that connects these two bodies of water.

DRESSED FOR COLD WEATHER.

"During the time that Egypt had partial control of the lake region of Central Africa, its government established a military station at Foueira, on the Victoria Nile, just above the Kuruma Falls. The river was explored from one end to the other, and it was ascertained that, though there were several places where for many miles the current was comparatively placid, there were so many falls and rapids that navigation was practically impossible. Consequently no use was made of the stream, and all expeditions through that region travel by land. Unless an expedition is sufficiently powerful to force its way, travellers avoid the villages and keep as much as possible in the wilderness, to escape the extortionate demands of its petty chiefs, who invariably demand a high tribute. Whatever they see they want, and it requires a great deal of diplomacy to escape from them without being stripped of everything of any value.

"But we are wandering from the route where we left Mr. Stanley," said Doctor Bronson, "and will now turn back to see where he went after visiting Ripon Falls. Frank will inform us."

Under this hint Frank continued:

"Where the lake narrows at the head of the Victoria Nile, or just above the falls, there is a V-shaped bay which is called Napoleon Channel. On the east of this channel is the country of Usoga, and on the west that of Uganda. The latter is the territory of the famous King Mtesa, or rather it was his territory at the time of Mr. Stanley's visit, as he has since died and left the kingdom to his son.

"Mr. Stanley found the people of Uganda friendly; and by one of the local chiefs he sent a message to the king to announce his coming. Then he waited at one of the islands until the chief returned with Mtesa's reply, which was that Stanley should come and see him. Escorted by a small fleet of war-canoes, commanded by a native named Magassa, he proceeded on his journey to Usavara, the port of Mtesa's capital, about ten miles farther inland. I will read Mr. Stanley's account of his reception.

"When about two miles from Usavara we saw what we estimated to be thousands of people arranging themselves in order on a gently rising ground. When about a mile from the shore Magassa gave the order to signal our advance upon it with firearms, and was at once obeyed by his dozen musketeers. Half a mile off I saw that the people on the shore had formed themselves into two dense lines, at the ends of which stood several finely-dressed men, arrayed in crimson and black and snowy white. As we neared the beach volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. Magassa's canoes steered outward to right and left, while two or three hundred heavily-loaded guns announced to all around that the white man had landed. Numerous kettle and bass drums sounded a noisy welcome, and flags, banners, and bannerets waved, and the people gave a great shout. Very much amazed at all this ceremonious and pompous greeting, I strode up towards the great standard, near which stood a short young man, dressed in a crimson robe, which covered an immaculately white dress of bleached cotton, before whom Magassa, who had hurried ashore, kneeled reverently, and turning to me begged me to understand that this short young man was the katekiro. Not knowing very well who the "katekiro" was, I only bowed, which, strange to say, was imitated by him, only that his bow was far more profound and stately than mine. I was perplexed, confused, embarrassed, and I believe I blushed inwardly at this regal reception, though I hope I did not betray any embarrassment.

THE VICTORIA NILE, NORTH OF RIPON FALLS, RUSHING TOWARDS UNYORO, FROM THE USOGO SIDE OF THE FALLS.
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

"A dozen well-dressed people now came forward, and grasping my hand declared in the Swahili language that I was welcome to Uganda. The katekiro motioned with his head, and amid a perfect concourse of beaten drums, which drowned all conversation, we walked side by side, and followed by curious thousands, to a courtyard, and a circle of grass-thatched huts surrounding a larger house, which I was told were my quarters.

RECEPTION BY KING MTESA'S BODY-GUARD AT USAVARA.

"The katekiro and several of the chiefs accompanied me to my new hut, and a very sociable conversation took place. There was present a native of Zanzibar, named Tori, whom I shortly discovered to be chief drummer, engineer, and general jack-of-all-trades for the kabaka (king). From this clever, ingenious man I obtained the information that the katekiro was the prime-minister or the kabaka's deputy, and that the titles of the other chiefs were Chambarango, Kangau, Mkwenda, Sekebobo, Kitunzi, Sabaganzi, Kauta, Saruti. There were several more present, but I must defer mention of them to other chapters.

"Waganda,[4] as I found subsequently, are not in the habit of remaining incurious before a stranger. Hosts of questions were fired off at me about my health, my journey and its aim, Zanzibar, Europe and its people, the seas and the heavens, sun, moon, and stars, angels and devils, doctors, priests, and craftsmen in general; in fact, as the representative of nations who 'know everything,' I was subjected to a most searching examination, and in one hour and ten minutes it was declared unanimously that I had 'passed.' Forthwith, after the acclamation, the stately bearing became merged into a more friendly one, and long, thin, nervous black hands were pushed into mine enthusiastically, from which I gathered that they applauded me as though I had won the honors of a senior wrangler. Some proceeded direct to the kabaka and informed him that the white man was a genius, knew everything, and was remarkably polite and sociable, and the kabaka was said to have 'rubbed his hands as though he had just come into the possession of a treasure.'

"The fruits of the favorable verdict passed upon myself and merits were seen presently in fourteen fat oxen, sixteen goats and sheep, a hundred bunches of bananas, three dozen fowls, four wooden jars of milk, four baskets of sweet potatoes, fifty cars of green Indian corn, a basket of rice, twenty fresh eggs, and ten pots of mararaba wine. Kauta, Mtesa's steward or butler, at the head of the drovers and bearers of these various provisions, fell on his knees before me and said:

"'The kabaka sends salaams unto his friend who has travelled so far to see him. The kabaka cannot see the face of his friend until he has eaten and is satisfied. The kabaka has sent his slave with these few things to his friend that he may eat, and at the ninth hour, after his friend has rested, the kabaka will send and call for him to appear at the burzah. I have spoken. Twi-yanzi-yanzi-yanzi!' (thanks, thanks, thanks).

"I replied suitably, though my politeness was not so excessive as to induce me to kneel before the courtly butler and thank him for permission to say I thanked him.

WAITING ORDERS.

"The ninth hour of the day approached. We had bathed, brushed, cleaned ourselves, and were prepared externally and mentally for the memorable hour when we should meet the foremost man of equatorial Africa. Two of the kabaka's pages, clad in a costume semi-Kingwana and semi-Kiganda, came to summon us—the Kingwana part being the long white shirt of Zanzibar, folded with a belt or band about the loins, the Kiganda part being the Sohari doti cloth depending from the right shoulder to the feet. 'The kabaka invites you to the burzah,' said they. Forthwith we issue from our courtyard, five of the boat's crew on each side of me, armed with Snider rifles. We reach a short, broad street, at the end of which is a hut. Here the kabaka is seated with a multitude of chiefs, Wakungu[5] and Watongoleh, ranked from the throne in two opposing kneeling or seated lines, the ends being closed in by drummers, guards, executioners, pages, etc., etc. As we approached the nearest group it opened and the drummers beat mighty sounds, Tori's drumming being conspicuous from its sharper beat. The foremost man of equatorial Africa rises and advances, and all the kneeling and seated lines rise—generals, colonels, chiefs, cooks, butlers, pages, executioners, etc., etc.

SEKEBOBO, CHIEF OF CHAGWÉ. POKINO, THE PRIME-MINISTER. MTESA, THE EMPEROR OF UGANDA. CHAMBARANGO, THE CHIEF.
OTHER CHIEFS.
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

"The kabaka, a tall, clean-faced, large-eyed, nervous-looking, thin man, clad in a tarbush, black robe, with a white shirt belted with gold, shook my hands warmly and impressively, and, bowing not ungracefully, invited me to be seated on an iron stool. I waited for him to show the example, and then I and all the others seated ourselves.

"He first took a deliberate survey of me, which I returned with interest, for he was as interesting to me as I was to him. His impression of me was that I was younger than Speke, not so tall, but better dressed. This I gathered from his criticisms, as confided to his chiefs and favorites.

"My impression of him was that he and I would become better acquainted, that I should make a convert of him, and make him useful to Africa—but what other impressions I had may be gathered from the remarks I wrote that evening in my diary:

DWARF AT THE KING'S COURT.

"'As I had read Speke's book for the sake of its geographical information, I retained but a dim remembrance of his description of his life in Uganda. If I remember rightly, Speke described a youthful prince, vain and heartless, a wholesale murderer and tyrant, one who delighted in fat women. Doubtless he described what he saw, but it is far from being the state of things now. Mtesa has impressed me as being an intelligent and distinguished prince, who, if aided in time by virtuous philanthropists, will do more for Central Africa than fifty years of gospel teaching, unaided by such authority, can do. I think I see in him the light that shall lighten the darkness of this benighted region; a prince well worthy the most hearty sympathies that Europe can give him. In this man I see the possible fruition of Livingstone's hopes, for with his aid the civilization of equatorial Africa becomes feasible. I remember the ardor and love which animated Livingstone when he spoke of Sekeletu; had he seen Mtesa, his ardor and love for him had been tenfold, and his pen and tongue would have been employed in calling all good men to assist him.'

"Five days later I wrote the following entry:

"'I see that Mtesa is a powerful emperor, with great influence over his neighbors. I have to-day seen the turbulent Mankorongo, King of Usui, and Mirambo, that terrible phantom who disturbs men's minds in Unyamwezi, through their embassies kneeling and tendering their tribute to him. I saw over three thousand soldiers of Mtesa nearly half civilized. I saw about a hundred chiefs who might be classed in the same scale as the men of Zanzibar and Oman, clad in as rich robes and armed in the same fashion, and have witnessed with astonishment such order and law as is obtainable in semi-civilized countries. All this is the result of a poor Muslim's labor; his name is Muley bin Salim. He it was who first began teaching here the doctrines of Islam. False and contemptible as these doctrines are, they are preferable to the ruthless instincts of a savage despot, whom Speke and Grant left wallowing in the blood of women, and I honor the memory of Muley bin Salim—Muslim and slave-trader though he be—the poor priest who has wrought this happy change. With a strong desire to improve still more the character of Mtesa, I shall begin building on the foundation-stones laid by Muley bin Salim. I shall destroy his belief in Islam, and teach the doctrines of Jesus of Nazareth.'

"It may easily be gathered from these entries that a feeling of admiration for Mtesa must have begun very early, and that either Mtesa is a very admirable man, or that I am a very impressionable traveller, or that Mtesa is so perfect in the art of duplicity and acted so clever a part, that I became his dupe."

Here Frank paused, and suggested that they would leave Mr. Stanley with the King of Uganda until the next day, when Fred would take up the reading during the afternoon and evening. As it was near the time for retiring, no one made any objection to adjournment, and in a very few minutes the members of the impromptu geographical society had dispersed.

[CHAPTER IV.]

PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF KING MTESA.—HIS RECEPTION OF MR. STANLEY.—A NAVAL REVIEW.—STANLEY'S MARKSMANSHIP.—THE KING'S PALACE.—RUBAGA, THE KING'S CAPITAL.—RECEPTION AT THE PALACE.—MEETING COLONEL LINANT DE BELLEFONDS.—CONVERTING MTESA TO CHRISTIANITY.—APPEAL FOR MISSIONARIES TO BE SENT TO MTESA.—DEPARTURE FOR USUKUMU.—FIGHT WITH THE NATIVES AT BUMBIREH ISLAND.—SUFFERINGS OF STANLEY AND HIS COMPANIONS ON LAKE VICTORIA.—A NARROW ESCAPE.—RETURN TO KAGEHYI.—DEATH OF FRED BARKER.—EMBARKING THE EXPEDITION.—KING LUKONGEH AND HIS PEOPLE.

It was Fred's turn to read on the second day of the voyage, and early in the morning he began his preparations. With the aid of Mr. Stanley he marked the portions of the chapters that he would read and those that could be omitted in view of the brief time at their disposal. At the opening of the afternoon session of his geographical society Fred announced that he would begin the day's work by reading the description of King Mtesa's personal appearance as Mr. Stanley has recorded it.

THE KING'S DINNER-DISH.

"In person Mtesa is tall, probably six feet one inch, and slender. He has very intelligent and agreeable features, reminding me of some of the faces of the great stone images at Thebes, and of the statues in the museum at Cairo. He has the same fulness of lips, but their grossness is relieved by the general expression of amiability blended with dignity that pervades his face, and the large, lustrous, lambent eyes that lend it a strange beauty, and are typical of the race from which I believe him to have sprung. His color is of a dark red-brown, of a wonderfully smooth surface. When not engaged in council he throws off unreservedly the bearing that characterizes him when on the throne, and gives rein to his humor, indulging in hearty peals of laughter. He seems to be interested in the discussion of the manners and customs of European courts, and to be enamoured of hearing of the wonders of civilization. He is ambitious to imitate, as much as lies in his power, the ways of the white man. When any piece of information is given him, he takes upon himself the task of translating it to his wives and chiefs, though many of the latter understand the Swahili language as well as he does himself."

"Mr. Stanley writes that the king treated him with great courtesy," said Fred, after a short pause, "and they evidently liked each other's acquaintance. One day the king invited him to witness a naval review on the waters of Murchison Bay, on which Usavara is situated; at a signal from Mtesa forty magnificent canoes, each rowed by thirty men, swept around a point of land and drew up in front of the shore where the king and his guest and attendants were stationed. The captain of each canoe was dressed in a white cotton shirt and a cloth head-cover, neatly folded turban fashion, while the admiral wore over his shirt a crimson jacket, profusely decorated with gold braid, and on his head the red fez of Zanzibar. Each captain, as he passed the king, seized shield and spear, and went through the performance of defence and attack by water.

"When the review was over the king asked Stanley, whom he called Stamlee, to show him how the white men could shoot. It was a heavy responsibility to be thus the representative of the shooting abilities of the whole white race, but there was no way of escaping it. A young crocodile was asleep on the rocks, and Stanley nearly severed its head from its body at the distance of one hundred yards with a three-ounce ball, an act which was accepted as conclusive proof that all white men are dead-shots.

"And now," said Fred, "I will read the account of Mr. Stanley's visit to Rubaga, the capital city of Uganda. It is about ten miles from Usavara, the place where Mr. Stanley met the king, as has just been described. His majesty was on a hunting excursion at Usavara at the time of the explorer's arrival; he was accompanied by his court, after the manner of the kings of other countries under similar circumstances.

"On the 10th of April the court broke up its hunting-lodges at Usavara, on Murchison Bay, and moved to the capital, whither I was strongly urged to follow. Mtesa, escorted by about two hundred musketeers and the great Wakungu and their armed retainers, travelled quickly; but owing to my being obliged to house my boat from the hot sun, I did not reach the capital until 1 p.m.

"The road had been prepared for his Imperial Majesty's hunting excursion, and was eight feet wide, through jungle and garden, forest and field. Beautiful landscapes were thus enjoyed of rolling land and placid lake, of gigantic tamarinds and gum-trees, of extensive banana groves and plantations of the ficus, from the bark of which the national dress, or mbugu, is made. The peculiar domelike huts, each with an attempt at a portico, were buried deep in dense bowers of plantains which filled the air with the odor of their mellow rich fruit.

FISH FOUND IN LAKE VICTORIA.
Sama-Moa, in the Nyassa tongue; round, open-mouthed, scaled, and pig-headed-looking creature, twenty inches long.

"The road wound upward to the summits of green hills which commanded exquisite prospects, and down again into the sheltered bosoms of woody nooks and vales and tree-embowered ravines. Streams of clear water murmured through these depressions, as they flowed towards Murchison Bay. The verdure was of a brilliant green, freshened by the unfailing rains of the equator; the sky was of the bluest, and the heat, though great, was tempered by the hill breezes, and frequently by the dense foliage overhead.

"Within three hours' march from Usavara, we saw the capital crowning the summit of a smooth, rounded hill—a large cluster of tall, conical grass huts, in the centre of which rose a spacious, lofty, barnlike structure. The large building, we were told, was the palace! the hill, Rubaga; the cluster of huts, the imperial capital!

"From each side of the tall cane fence enclosing the grass huts on Rubaga hill radiated very broad avenues, imperial enough in width. Arriving at the base of the hill, and crossing by a 'corduroy' road over a broad slimy ooze, we came up to one of these avenues, the ground of which was a reddish clay strongly mixed with the detritus of hematite. It gave a clear breadth of one hundred feet of prepared ground, and led by a gradual ascent to the circular road which made the circuit of the hill outside the palace enclosure. Once on the domelike height, we saw that we had arrived by the back avenue, for the best view of this capital of magnificent distances was that which was obtained by looking from the burzah of the palace, and carrying the eye over the broad front highway, on each side of which, as far as could be defined from the shadows of the burzah, the Wakungu had their respective courts and houses, embowered in gardens of banana and fig. Like the enclosure round the palace courts and quarters, each avenue was fenced with tall mateté (water cane) neatly set very close together in uniform rows. The by-streets leading from one avenue to another were narrow and crooked.

RUBAGA, THE CAPITAL OF THE KING OF UGANDA.

"While I stood admiring the view, a page came up, and, kneeling, announced that he had been despatched by the emperor to show me my house. Following him, I was ushered within a corner lot of the fenced square, between two avenues, into what I might appropriately term a 'garden villa' of Uganda. My house, standing in the centre of a plantain garden about one hundred feet square, was twenty feet long, and of a marquee shape, with a miniature portico or eave projecting like a bonnet over the doorway, and was divided into two apartments. Close by, about thirty feet off, were three domelike huts for the boat's crew and the kitchen, and in a corner of the garden was a railed space for our bullocks and goats. Were it not that I was ever anxious about my distant camp in Usukuma, I possessed almost everything requisite to render a month's stay very agreeable, and for the time I was as proud of my tiny villa as a London merchant is of his country-house.

"In the afternoon I was invited to the palace. A number of people in brown robes, or white dresses, some with white goat-skins over their brown robes, others with cords folded like a turban round their heads, which I heard were distinguishing marks of the executioners, were also ascending to the burzah. Court after court was passed until we finally stood upon the level top in front of the great house of cane and straw which the Waganda fondly term kibuga, or the palace. The space at least was of aulic extent, and the prospect gained at every point was also worthy of the imperial eyes of the African monarch.

"On all sides rolled in grand waves a voluptuous land of sunshine and plenty and early summer verdure, cooled by soft breezes from the great equatorial fresh-water sea. Isolated hill-cones, similar to that of Rubaga, or square tabular masses, rose up from the beautiful landscape to attract, like mysteries, the curious stranger's observation, and villages and banana groves of still fresher green, far removed on the crest of distant swelling ridges, announced that Mtesa owned a land worth loving. Dark, sinuous lines traced the winding courses of deep ravines filled with trees, and grassy extents of gently undulating ground marked the pastures; broader depressions suggested the cultivated gardens and the grain fields, while on the far verge of the horizon we saw the beauty and the charm of the land melting into the blues of distance.

"The drums sounded. Mtesa had seated himself on the throne, and we hastened to take our seats.

FLEET OF THE KING OF UGANDA, READY FOR WAR.

"Since the 5th of April, I had enjoyed ten interviews with Mtesa, and during all I had taken occasion to introduce topics which would lead up to the subject of Christianity. Nothing occurred in my presence but I contrived to turn it towards effecting that which had become an object to me, viz., his conversion. There was no attempt made to confuse him with the details of any particular doctrine. I simply drew for him the image of the Son of God humbling himself for the good of all mankind, white and black, and told him how, while he was in man's disguise, he was seized and crucified by wicked people who scorned his divinity, and yet out of his great love for them, while yet suffering on the cross, he asked his great Father to forgive them. I showed the difference in character between him whom white men love and adore, and Mohammed, whom the Arabs revere; how Jesus endeavored to teach mankind that we should love all men, excepting none, while Mohammed taught his followers that the slaying of the pagan and the unbeliever was an act that merited Paradise. I left it to Mtesa and his chiefs to decide which was the worthier character. I also sketched in brief the history of religious belief from Adam to Mohammed. I had also begun to translate to him the Ten Commandments, and Idi, the emperor's writer, transcribed in Kiganda the words of the Law as given to him in choice Swahili by Robert Feruzi, one of my boat's crew, and a pupil of the Universities Mission at Zanzibar.

AUDIENCE-HALL OF THE PALACE AT RUBAGA.

"The enthusiasm with which I launched into this work of teaching was soon communicated to Mtesa and some of his principal chiefs, who became so absorbingly interested in the story as I gave it to them that little of other business was done. The political burzah and seat of justice had now become an alcove, where only the moral and religious laws were discussed.

"Before we broke up our meeting Mtesa informed me that I should meet a white man at his palace the next day.

"'A white man, or a Turk?'

"'A white man like yourself,' repeated Mtesa.

"'No; impossible."

"'Yes, you will see. He comes from Masr (Cairo), from Gordoom (Gordon) Pasha.'

"'Ah, very well, I shall be glad to see him, and if he is really a white man, I may probably stay with you four or five days longer,' said I to Mtesa, as I shook hands with him, and bade him good-night.

"The 'white man,' reported to be coming the next day, arrived at noon with great éclat and flourishes of trumpets, the sounds of which could be heard all over the capital. Mtesa hurried off a page to invite me to his burzah. I hastened up by a private entrance. Mtesa and all his chiefs, guards, pages, executioners, claimants, guests, drummers, and fifers were already there, en grande tenue.

"Mtesa was in a fever, as I could see by the paling of the color under his eyes and his glowing eyeballs. The chiefs shared their master's excitement.

"'What shall we do,' he asked, 'to welcome him?'

"'Oh, form your troops in line from the entrance to the burzah down to the gate of the outer court, and present arms, and as he comes within the gate let your drums and fifes sound a loud welcome.'

WOODEN KETTLE-DRUM.

"'Beautiful!' said Mtesa. 'Hurry Tori, Chambarango, Sekebobo; form them in two lines just as Stamlee says. Oh, that is beautiful! And shall we fire guns, Stamlee?'

"'No, not until you shake hands with him; and, as he is a soldier, let the guards fire, then they will not injure any one.'

"Mtesa's flutter of excitement on this occasion made me think that there must have been a somewhat similar scene before my landing at Usavara, and that Tori must have been consulted frequently upon the form of ceremony to be adopted.

"What followed upon the arrival of the white man at the outer gate had best be told as an interlude by the stranger himself.

AFRICAN HATCHET, SPADE, AND ADZE.

"'At two o'clock, the weather having cleared up, Mtesa sent a messenger to inform me that he was ready to receive me. Notice is given in the camp; every one puts on his finest clothes; at last we are ready; my brave Soudanians look quite smart in their red jackets and white trousers. I place myself at their head; trumpets flourish and drums sound as we follow an avenue from eighty-five to a hundred yards wide, running direct north and south, and terminating at Mtesa's palace....

"'On entering this court, I am greeted with a frightful uproar; a thousand instruments, each one more outlandish than the other, produce the most discordant and deafening sounds. Mtesa's body-guard carrying guns present arms on my appearance; the king is standing at the entrance of the reception-hall, I approach and bow to him à la turque. He holds out his hand, which I press; I immediately perceive a sunburnt European to the left of the king, a traveller, whom I imagine to be Cameron. We exchange glances without speaking.

"'Mtesa enters the reception-room, and we follow him. It is a narrow hall about sixty feet long by fifteen feet wide, the ceiling of which, sloping down at the entrance, is supported by a double row of wooden pillars which divide the room into two aisles. The principal and central room is unoccupied, and leads to the king's throne; the two aisles are filled with the great dignitaries and chief officers. At each pillar stands one of the king's guard, wearing a long red mantle, a white turban ornamented with monkey-skin, white trousers and black blouse with a red band. All are armed with guns.

"'Mtesa takes his place on his throne, which is a wooden seat in the shape of an office arm-chair; his feet rest upon a cushion; the whole placed on a leopard's skin spread over a Smyrna carpet. Before the king is a highly-polished elephant's tusk, and at his feet are two boxes containing fetiches; on either side the throne is a lance (one copper, the other steel), each held by a guard; these are the insignia of Uganda; the dog which Speke mentions has been done away with. Crouching at the foot of the king are the vizier and two scribes.

"'Mtesa is dignified in his manner, and does not lack a certain natural air of distinction; his dress is elegant—a white couftan finished with a red band, stockings, slippers, vest of black cloth embroidered with gold, and a tarbouche with a silver plate on the top. He wears a sword with ivory-inlaid hilt (a Zanzibar weapon), and a staff.

"'I exhibited my presents, which Mtesa scarcely pretended to see, his dignity forbidding him to show any curiosity.

"'I address the traveller, who sits in front of me, on the left of the king: "Have I the honor of speaking to Mr. Cameron?"

"'Stanley. "No, sir; Mr. Stanley."

"'Myself. "M. Linant de Bellefonds, member of the Gordon-Pasha Expedition."

"'We bow low to each other, as though we had met in a drawing-room, and our conversation is at an end for the moment.

"'This meeting with Mr. Stanley greatly surprises me. Stanley was far from my thoughts; I was totally ignorant of the object of his expedition.

"'I take leave of the king, who meanwhile has been amusing himself by making my unlucky soldiers parade and flourish their trumpets. I shake hands with Mr. Stanley, and ask him to honor me with his presence at dinner.'

"Colonel Linant de Bellefonds having thus described our meeting, there remains but little for me to add.

"As soon as I saw him approaching the burzah, I recognized him to be a Frenchman. Not being introduced to him—and as I was then but a mere guest of Mtesa, with whom it was M. Linant's first desire to converse—I simply bowed to him, until he had concluded addressing the emperor, when our introduction took place as he has described.

HEAD OF A "MADOQUA"—SPECIES OF ANTELOPE.

"I was delighted at seeing him, and much more delighted when I discovered that M. Linant was a very agreeable man. I observed that there was a vast difference between his treatment of his men and the manner in which I treated mine, and that his intercourse with the Waganda was conducted after exactly opposite principles to those which governed my conduct. He adopted a half-military style which the Waganda ill brooked, and many things uncomplimentary to him were uttered by them. He stationed guards at the entrance to his courtyard to keep the Waganda at a distance, except those bearing messages from Mtesa, while my courtyard was nearly full of Watongolehs, soldiers, pages, children, with many a dark-brown woman listening with open ears to my conversation with the Waganda. In fact, my courtyard from morning to night swarmed with all classes, for I loved to draw the natives to talk, so that perfect confidence might be established between us, and I might gain an insight into their real natures. By this freer converse with them I became, it seemed, a universal favorite, and obtained information sufficient to fill two octavo volumes.

"M. Linant passed many pleasant hours with me. Though he had started from Cairo previous to my departure from Zanzibar, and consequently could communicate no news from Europe, I still felt that for a brief period I enjoyed civilized life. The religious conversations which I had begun with Mtesa were maintained in the presence of M. Linant de Bellefonds; when questioned by Mtesa about the facts which I had uttered, and which had been faithfully transcribed, M. Linant, to Mtesa's astonishment, employed nearly the same words, and delivered the same responses. The remarkable fact that two white men, who had never met before, one having arrived from the southeast, the other having emerged from the north, should nevertheless both know the same things, and respond in the same words, charmed the popular mind without the burzah as a wonder, and was treasured in Mtesa's memory as being miraculous.

"The period of my stay with Mtesa drew to a close, and I requested leave to depart, begging the fulfilment of a promise he had made to me that he would furnish me with transport sufficient to convey the expedition by water from Kagehyi in Usukuma to Uganda. Nothing loath, since one white man would continue his residence with him till my return, and being eager to see the gifts I told him were safe at Usukuma, he gave his permission, and commanded Magassa to collect thirty canoes, and to accompany me to my camp. On the 15th of April, then, escorted by Magassa and his Watongolehs, and also by M. Linant and ten of his Nubian soldiers, we left Rubaga and arrived at Usavara.

"In the evening I concluded my letters dated 14th of April, 1875, which were sent to the Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald, the English and American journals I represented here, appealing for a Christian mission to be sent to Mtesa.

"The appeal, written hurriedly, and included in the letter left at Usavara, was as follows:

"'I have, indeed, undermined Islamism so much here that Mtesa has determined henceforth, until he is better informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well as the Moslem Sabbath, and the great captains have unanimously consented to this. He has further caused the Ten Commandments of Moses to be written on a board for his daily perusal—for Mtesa can read Arabic—as well as the Lord's Prayer and the golden commandment of our Saviour, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This is great progress for the few days that I have remained with him, and, though I am no missionary, I shall begin to think that I might become one if such success is feasible. But, oh! that some pious, practical missionary would come here! What a field and harvest ripe for the sickle of civilization! Mtesa would give him anything he desired—houses, lands, cattle, ivory, etc.; he might call a province his own in one day. It is not the mere preacher, however, that is wanted here. The bishops of Great Britain collected, with all the classic youth of Oxford and Cambridge, would effect nothing by mere talk with the intelligent people of Uganda. It is the practical Christian tutor, who can teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand to anything, like a sailor—this is the man who is wanted. Such a one, if he can be found, would become the saviour of Africa. He must be tied to no church or sect, but profess God and his Son and the moral law, and live a blameless Christian, inspired by liberal principles, charity to all men, and devout faith in Heaven. He must belong to no nation in particular, but to the entire white race. Such a man, or men, Mtesa, Emperor of Uganda, Usoga, Unyoro, and Karagwé—an empire three hundred and sixty geographical miles in length, by fifty in breadth—invites to repair to him. He has begged me to tell the white men that, if they will only come to him, he will give them all they want. Now, where is there in all the pagan world a more promising field for a mission than Uganda? Colonel Linant de Bellefonds is my witness that I speak the truth, and I know he will corroborate all I say. The colonel, though a Frenchman, is a Calvinist, and has become as ardent a well-wisher for the Waganda as I am. Then why further spend needlessly vast sums upon black pagans of Africa who have no example of their own people becoming Christians before them? I speak to the Universities Mission at Zanzibar and to the Free Methodists at Mombasa, to the leading philanthropists and the pious people of England. "Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity—embrace it! The people on the shores of the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own generous instincts, and listen to them; and I assure you that in one year you will have more converts to Christianity than all other missionaries united can number. The population of Mtesa's kingdom is very dense; I estimate the number of his subjects at two millions. You need not fear to spend money upon such a mission, as Mtesa is sole ruler, and will repay its cost tenfold with ivory, coffee, otter-skins of a very fine quality, or even in cattle, for the wealth of this country in all these products is immense. The road here is by the Nile, or via Zanzibar, Ugogo, and Unyanyembé. The former route, so long as Colonel Gordon governs the countries of the Upper Nile, seems the most feasible."'

SHUGRANGU HOUSE, AN AFRICAN MISSION STATION, WITH GRAVE OF MRS. LIVINGSTONE.

"When the letters were written and sealed I committed them to the charge of Colonel Linant. My friend promised he would await my return from Usukuma; meanwhile he lent me a powerful field-glass, as mine, being considerably injured, had been given to Mtesa.

"The parting between M. Linant and myself I shall allow him to describe:

"'At 5 a.m. drums are beaten; the boats going with Stanley are collecting together.

"'Mr. Stanley and myself are soon ready. The Lady Alice is unmoored; luggage, sheep, goats, and poultry are already stowed away in their places. There is nothing to be done except to hoist the American flag and head the boat southward. I accompany Stanley to his boat; we shake hands and commend each other to the care of God. Stanley takes the helm; the Lady Alice immediately swerves like a spirited horse, and bounds forward lashing the water of the Nyanza into foam. The starry flag is hoisted, and floats proudly in the breeze; I immediately raise a loud hurrah with such hearty good-will as perhaps never before greeted the traveller's ears.

"'The Lady Alice is already far away. We wave our handkerchiefs as a last farewell; my heart is full; I have just lost a brother. I had grown used to seeing Stanley, the open-hearted, sympathetic man and friend and admirable traveller. With him I forgot my fatigue; this meeting had been like a return to my own country. His engaging, instructive conversation made the hours pass like minutes. I hope I may see him again, and have the happiness of spending several days with him.'"

One of the youthful auditors asked at this point what became of Colonel Linant de Bellefonds. Fred replied as follows to the inquiry:

"He remained about six weeks at Mtesa's court, looking for the return of Mr. Stanley. The latter was delayed in various ways, and finally Colonel Linant started on his return to Gondokoro, to report to his superior officer, Gordon Pasha. He had a severe battle with the natives of Unyoro; it lasted several hours, but he managed to escape and reach Gordon Pasha's headquarters. In the following August he was sent on an expedition among the Bari tribe, and, at a place called Labore, he and all the men accompanying him were killed. He was an efficient officer, and was greatly liked by those with whom he served.

WARRIORS OF THE UPPER NILE REGION.

"Mr. Stanley was greatly delayed on his return to Usukuma," Fred continued, "by the inefficiency of Magassa and his habits of procrastination. He did not assemble the required number of canoes which Mtesa had promised, and when Stanley sent him for more he returned without them. His whole course of action was one of duplicity, and caused a great deal of trouble and delay to the expedition. Stanley was not sufficiently powerful to force him to obey, and he was too far away from Mtesa's capital to inform the king of the bad conduct of his lieutenant.

"On the way down the coast Mr. Stanley explored the Alexandra Nile for a short distance. He reported it about five hundred yards wide at its mouth, and narrowed to a width of one hundred yards about two miles above. Its current was so strong that the Lady Alice breasted it with difficulty, and, after an ascent of three miles, the attempt to go farther was abandoned. In one place a depth of eighty-five feet was obtained with the sounding-line, and it was evident that the volume of water discharged by the river is very large. The people residing in the valley of the Alexandra Nile call it 'the mother of the river at Jinga,' or the Ripon Falls.

"At Bumbireh Island the expedition stopped to purchase food, of which they had run short, but the natives proved to be unfriendly. Bumbireh is about eleven miles long by two in width, and has a population estimated at four thousand, scattered in some fifty villages. Here is Mr. Stanley's account of his experiences at this island.

"At 9 a.m. we discovered a cove near the southeast end of the long island, and pulled slowly into it. Immediately the natives rushed down the slopes, shouting war-cries and uttering fierce ejaculations. When about fifty yards from the shore I bade the men cease rowing, but Safeni and Baraka became eloquent, and said, 'It is almost always the case, master, with savages. They cry out and threaten and look big, but you will see that all that noise will cease as soon as they hear us speak. Besides, if we leave here without food, where shall we obtain it?'

"The last argument was unanswerable, and though I gave no orders to resume their oars, four of the men impelled the boat on slowly, while Safeni and Baraka prepared themselves to explain to the natives, who were now close within hearing, as they came rushing to the water's edge. I saw some lift great stones, while others prepared their bows.

"We were now about ten yards from the beach, and Safeni and Baraka spoke, earnestly pointing to their mouths, and by gestures explaining that their bellies were empty. They smiled with insinuating faces; uttered the words 'brothers,' 'friends,' 'good fellows,' most volubly; cunningly interpolated the words Mtesa—the kabaka—Uganda, and Antari, King of Ihangiro, to whom Bumbireh belongs. Safeni and Baraka's pleasant volubility seemed to have produced a good effect, for the stones were dropped, the bows were unstrung, and the lifted spears lowered to assist the steady, slow-walking pace with which they now advanced.

RECEPTION AT BUMBIREH ISLAND, VICTORIA NYANZA.

"Safeni and Baraka turned to me triumphantly, and asked, 'What did we say, master?' and then, with engaging frankness, invited the natives, who were now about two hundred in number, to come closer. The natives consulted a little while, and several—now smiling pleasantly themselves—advanced leisurely into the water until they touched the boat's prow. They stood a few seconds talking sweetly, when suddenly, with a rush, they ran the boat ashore; and then all the others, seizing hawser and gunwale, dragged her about twenty yards over the rocky beach high and dry, leaving us almost stupefied with astonishment!

"Then ensued a scene which beggars description. A forest of spears was levelled; thirty or forty bows were drawn taut; as many barbed arrows seemed already on the wing; thick, knotty clubs waved above our heads; two hundred screaming black demons jostled with each other, and struggled for room to vent their fury, or for an opportunity to deliver one crushing blow or thrust at us.

"In the meantime, as soon as the first symptoms of this manifestation of violence had been observed, I had sprung to my feet, each hand armed with a loaded self-cocking revolver. But the apparent hopelessness of inflicting much injury upon such a large crowd restrained me, and Safeni turned to me, though almost cowed to dumbness by the loud fury around us, and pleaded with me to be patient. I complied, seeing that I should get no aid from my crew; but, while bitterly blaming myself for my imprudence in having yielded—against my instincts—to placing myself in the power of such savages, I vowed that, if I escaped this once, my own judgment should guide my actions for the future.

"I assumed a resigned air, though I still retained my revolvers. My crew also bore the first outburst of the tempest of shrieking rage which assailed them with almost sublime imperturbability. Safeni crossed his arms with the meekness of a saint. Baraka held his hands palms outward, asking, with serene benignity, 'What, my friends, ails you? Do you fear empty hands and smiling people like us? We are friends; we came, as friends, to buy food, two or three bananas, a few mouthfuls of grain or potatoes or muhogo (cassava), and, if you permit us, we shall depart as friends.'

"Our demeanor had a great effect. The riot and noise seemed to be subsiding, when some fifty new-comers rekindled the smouldering fury. Again the forest of spears swayed on the launch, again the knotty clubs were whirled aloft, again the bows were drawn, and again the barbed arrows seemed flying. Safeni received a push which sent him tumbling; little Kirango received a blow on the head with a spear-staff; Saramba gave a cry as a club descended on his back.

"I sprang up this time to remonstrate, with the two revolvers in my left hand. I addressed myself to an elder, who seemed to be restraining the people from proceeding too far. I showed him beads, cloth, wire, and invoked the names of Mtesa, and Antari their king.

"The sight of the heaps of beads and cloth I exposed awakened, however, the more deliberate passions of selfishness and greed in each heart. An attempt at massacre, they began to argue, would certainly entail the loss of some of themselves. 'Guns might be seized, and handled with terrible effect, even by dying men, and who knows what those little iron things in the white man's hands are?' they seemed to be asking themselves. The elder, whatever he thought, responded with an affectation of indignation, raised his stick, and to the right and left of him drove back the demoniac crowd. Other prominent men now assisted this elder, whom we subsequently discovered to be Shekka, the King of Bumbireh.

"Shekka then, having thus bestirred himself, beckoned to half a dozen men, and walked away a few yards behind the mass. Half the crowd followed the king and his council, while the other half remained to indulge their tongues on us, and to continually menace us with either club or spear.

HUT AND GRANARY ON THE ISLAND.

"The issue had surely arrived. There had been just one brief moment of agony when I reflected how unlovely death appears in such guise as that in which it then threatened me. What would my people think as they anxiously waited for the never-returning master! What would Pocock and Barker say when they heard of the tragedy of Bumbireh! And my friends in America and Europe!

"A messenger from the king and the council arrives, and beckons Safeni. I said to him, 'Safeni, use your wit.' 'Please God, master,' he replied.

"Safeni drew nearly all the crowd after him, for curiosity is strong in the African. I saw him pose himself. A born diplomatist was Safeni. His hands moved up and down, outward and inward; a cordial frankness sat naturally on his face; his gestures were graceful; the man was an orator, pleading for mercy and justice.

"Safeni returned, his face radiant. 'It is all right, master, there is no fear. They say we must stop here until to-morrow.'

"'Will they sell us food?'

"'Oh, yes, as soon as they settle their shauri.'

"While Safeni was speaking six men rushed up and seized the oars.

"Safeni, though hitherto politic, lost temper at this, and endeavored to prevent them. They raised their clubs to strike him. I shouted out, 'Let them go, Safeni.'

"'A loud cheer greeted the seizure of the oars. I became convinced now that this one little act would lead to others; for man is the same all over the world. If a man submit once, he must be prepared to submit again.

"The 'shauri' proceeded. Another messenger came, demanding five cloths and five fundo of necklaces. They were delivered. But as it was now near noon, and they were assured we could not escape, the savages withdrew to their nearest village to refresh themselves with wine and food.

"After the warriors had departed some women came to look at us. We spoke kindly to them, and in return they gave us the consoling assurance that we should be killed, but they said that if we could induce Shekka to make blood-brotherhood, or to eat honey with one of us, we should be safe. If we failed, there was only flight or death. We thanked them, but we would wait.

A WOMAN OF THE ISLAND.

"About 3 p.m. we heard a number of drums beaten. Safeni was told that if the natives collected again he must endeavor to induce Shekka with gifts to go through the process of blood-brotherhood.

"A long line of natives in full war costume appeared on the crest of the terrace, on which the banana grove and village of Kajurri stood. Their faces were smeared with black and white pigments. Almost all of them bore the peculiar shields of Usongora. Their actions were such as the dullest-witted of us recognized as indicating hostilities.

"Even Safeni and Baraka were astounded, and their first words were 'Prepare, master. Truly, this is trouble.'

"'Never mind me,' I replied, 'I have been ready these three hours. Are you ready, your guns and revolvers loaded, and your ears open this time?'

"'We are,' they all firmly answered.

"'Don't be afraid; be quite cool. We will try, while they are collecting together, the women's suggestion. Go frankly and smilingly, Safeni, up to Shekka, on the top of that hill, and offer him these three fundo of beads, and ask him to exchange blood with you.'

"Safeni proceeded readily on his errand, for there was no danger to him bodily while we were there within one hundred and fifty yards, and their full power as yet unprepared. For ten minutes he conversed with them, while the drums kept beating, and numbers of men bepainted for war were increasing Shekka's force. Some of them entertained us by demonstrating with their spears how they fought. Their gestures were wild, their voices were shrill and fierce, they were kindling themselves into a fighting fever.

"Safeni returned. Shekka had refused the pledge of peace. The natives now mustered over three hundred.

"Presently fifty bold fellows came rushing down, uttering a shrill cry. Without hesitation they came straight to the boat, and, hissing something to us, seized our Kiganda drum. It was such a small affair, we did not resist; still the manner in which it was taken completely undeceived us, if any small hope of peace remained. Loud applause greeted the act of gallantry.

"Then two men came down towards us, and began to drive some cows away that were grazing between us and the men on the hill. Safeni asked of one of them, 'Why do you do that?'

VILLAGE ENCLOSING CATTLE.

"'Because we are going to begin fighting presently, and if you are men, you may begin to prepare yourselves,' he said, scornfully.

"'Thanks, my bold friend,' I muttered to myself. 'Those are the truest words we have heard to-day.'

"The two men were retiring up the hill. 'Here, Safeni,' I said, 'take these two fine red cloths in your hand; walk slowly up after them a little way, and the minute you hear my voice run back; and you, my boys, this is for life and death, mind; range yourselves on each side of the boat, lay your hands on it carelessly, but with a firm grip, and when I give the word, push it with the force of a hundred men down the hill into the water. Are you all ready, and do you think you can do it? Otherwise we might as well begin fighting where we are.'

'Yes, Inshallah Master,' they cried out with one voice.

HEADS OF SPEARS.

"'Go, Safeni!'

"I waited until he had walked fifty yards away, and saw that he acted precisely as I had instructed him.

"'Push, my boys; push for your lives!"

"The crew bent their heads and strained their arms; the boat began to move, and there was a hissing, grinding noise below me. I seized my double-barrelled elephant rifle and shouted, 'Safeni! Safeni, return!'

"The natives were quick-eyed. They saw the boat moving, and with one accord they swept down the hill uttering the most fearful cries.

"My boat was at the water's edge. 'Shoot her into the lake, my men; never mind the water;' and, clear of all obstruction, she darted out upon the lake.

"Safeni stood for an instant on the water's edge, with the cloths in his hand. The foremost of a crowd of natives was about twenty yards from him. He raised his spear and balanced himself.

"'Spring into the water, man, head first,' I cried.

"The balanced spear was about to fly, and another man was preparing his weapon for a deadly cast, when I raised my gun and the bullet ploughed through him and through the second. The bowmen halted and drew their bows. I sent two charges of duck-shot into their midst, and the natives retreated from the beach on which the boat had lately lain.

"Having checked the natives, I assisted one of my men into the boat, and ordered him to lend a hand to the others, while I reloaded my big guns, keeping my eyes on the natives. There was a point about one hundred yards in length on the east, which sheltered the cove. Some of the natives made a rush for this, but my guns commanded the exposed position, and they were obliged to retire.

"The crew seized their rifles, but I told them to leave them alone, and to tear the bottom-boards out of the boat and use them as paddles; for there were two hippopotami advancing upon us open-mouthed, and it seemed as if we were to be crushed in the water after such a narrow escape from the ferocious people ashore. I permitted one of the hippos to approach within ten yards, and, aiming between his eyes, perforated his skull with a three-ounce ball, and the second received such a round that we were not molested by him.

"It was 5 p.m. We had only four bananas in the boat, and we were twelve hungry men. If we had a strong fair breeze, a day and a night would suffice to enable us to reach our camp. But if we had head-winds, the journey might occupy a month. Meanwhile, where should we apply for food? Fresh water we had in abundance, sufficient to satisfy the thirst of all the armies of the world for a century. But food? Whither should we turn for it?"

CENTRAL AFRICAN GOAT.

Fred paused a few moments while his auditors waited in breathless anxiety for the continuation of the story.

"At night a storm came on," said Fred, "and the Alice drifted helplessly, while her occupants, weakened by nearly fifty hours without food and drenched by the rain that fell in torrents, felt that they were about to 'die in the Nyanza' as they had been told to do by the cruel natives of Bumbireh. In the morning the storm abated, and they reached an uninhabited island which Mr. Stanley appropriately named Refuge Island. The men gathered bananas, cherries, and other fruits, while their leader shot some ducks, so that they had an abundant supper, which, you may be sure, was eagerly devoured. They remained two days at Refuge Island to rest and gain strength, and also to make oars to replace those lost at Bumbireh. Then they continued their voyage and reached their old camp at Kagehyi without further molestation or suffering.

"The party was welcomed most joyously by Frank Pocock and the men in camp, but the news that greeted the explorer was full of sadness. When he inquired for Fred Barker, young Pocock pointed to a cairn of stones near the shore, and in a low voice said Barker had died twelve days before, and was buried under the cairn. Several of the Zanzibaris had died, including three of the most trustworthy men of the expedition, while some of the worst spirits in the camp were on the verge of mutiny. The natives had continued friendly, and the camp was so well supplied with provisions that those who had preserved their health were in excellent condition.

CAIRN ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF FREDERICK BARKER:
MAJITA AND URURI MOUNTAINS IN THE DISTANCE, ACROSS SPEKE GULF.

"Mr. Stanley and those who accompanied him on the boat expedition were greatly reduced by their privations and exposure, Stanley weighing only one hundred and fifteen pounds, or sixty-three pounds less than when he left Zanzibar. Rest was imperative, and in Stanley's case it was accompanied by fever which reduced him to a weight of one hundred and eight pounds in a few days. On the fifth day he had conquered the fever by liberal doses of quinine, but found himself very weak and pale."

One of the youths asked what became of Magassa and his fleet of canoes.

"That was what worried Mr. Stanley," replied Fred, "and during the delirium of his fever he was constantly asking for the canoes. They never came, and it was necessary to obtain other boats or make the journey by land. After much bargaining and diplomacy twenty-one canoes were purchased from Lukongeh, King of Ukerewé, a large island which separates Speke Gulf from the waters of the lake. They were in poor condition, but, by much patching and calking, were made available for transporting the expedition to Refuge Island, where the boat party retreated after its encounter with the natives of Bumbireh.

"Mr. Stanley gives some interesting details concerning the king and people of Ukerewé.

"The king, Lukongeh, was a handsome, open-faced, light-colored man about twenty-seven years old; he is supposed to be endowed with supernatural power, and seizes every opportunity to heighten this belief. He is believed to be enabled to create a drought at pleasure, and to cause the land to be drenched with rain. It was fortunate that, since his accession to power, rain had been regular and copious in its season. The king had not been slow to point out this immense advantage which Ukerewé had gained since he succeeded his father; he was therefore beloved and feared.

AT THE LANDING-PLACE OF MSOSSI, KING LUKONGEH's CAPITAL.

"Aware of the value of a reputation as rain-maker, he was ambitious to add to it that of 'great medicine man,' and he besought me to impart to him some of the grand secrets of Europe—such as how to transform men into lions and leopards, to cause the rains to fall or cease, the winds to blow, and trees to produce fruit. Demands of this character are commonly made by African chiefs. When I stated my inability to comply with these requests, the king whispered to his chiefs:

"'He will not give me what I ask, because he is afraid that he will not get the canoes; but you will see when my men return from Uganda, he will give me all I ask.'

STOW-HOUSE FOR GRAIN.

"Many stories were current about the witchcraft practised by the people of Ukara Island, proving that those islanders have been at pains to spread abroad a good repute for themselves, that they are cunning, and, aware that superstition is a weakness of human nature, have sought to thrive upon it. Their power—according to the Wakerew—over the amphibiæ is wonderful. They had crocodiles which were trained to do anything they were told to do, and their king had a hippopotamus which came to him each morning to be milked!

WAKEREWÉ STOOL.

"Coils of brass wire are much coveted by the Wakerewé, for the adornment of their wives, who wear it in such numerous circlets round their necks as to give them at a distance an appearance of wearing ruffs. Wristlets of copper and brass and iron, and anklets of the same metal, besides armlets of ivory, are the favorite decorations of the men.

"Owing to the size of the expedition and the limited capacity of the canoes, it required two journeys of the flotilla to transport the entire party, with its baggage, from Kagehyi to Refuge Island. The work was safely accomplished, friendly terms were made with the natives in the vicinity; and now," said Fred, as he closed the book, "we will leave the entire party until we assemble again in the evening."

WAKEREWÉ DWELLING-HOUSE.

FISH-NETS.

WAKEREWÉ CANOES.

WAKEREWÉ WARRIOR.

STRANGE GRANITE ROCKS OF UZUI ISLAND, MIDWAY BETWEEN USUKUMA AND UKEREWÉ.
(From a Photograph by Mr. Stanley.)

[CHAPTER V.]

DEPARTURE FROM REFUGE ISLAND.—ARRIVAL IN UGANDA.—MTESA AT WAR.—STANLEY JOINS HIM AT RIPON FALLS.—A NAVAL BATTLE ON AN AFRICAN LAKE.—THE WAGANDA REPULSED.—CAPTURE OF A WAVUMA CHIEF.—STANLEY SAVES THE CHIEF'S LIFE.—HOW STANLEY BROUGHT THE WAR TO AN END.—HIS WONDERFUL MACHINE FOR DESTROYING THE WAVUMA.—RETIREMENT OF THE ARMY.—STANLEY'S RETURN TO HIS CAMP.—EXPEDITION TO MUTA NZEGE.—HOW IT FAILED.—THE EXPEDITION MARCHES SOUTHWARD.—IN KING RUMANIKA'S COUNTRY.—ARAB TRADERS IN AFRICA.—HAMED IBRAHIM.—KAFURRO AND LAKE WINDERMERE.—INTERVIEWS WITH KING RUMANIKA.—EXPLORING LAKE WINDERMERE.—AN UNHAPPY NIGHT.—IHEMA ISLAND.

When the party assembled in the evening Fred was promptly in his place and ready for work. By way of testing the memories of his auditors he asked them where they left Mr. Stanley's expedition at the end of the afternoon's reading.

"We left it at Refuge Island," replied one of the youths. "The canoes had made two journeys each way, between Kagehyi and Refuge Island, to bring up the men and baggage."

USUKUMA CANOE.

"Quite right," said Fred, "and at Refuge Island they remained for several days, negotiating for a peaceful passage by the island of Bumbireh. A search expedition, which was sent by King Mtesa to ascertain what had become of his friend 'Stamlee,' joined them, and together there was a sufficient number of canoes to carry the whole party to Uganda.

"But on arriving in Uganda," Fred continued, "Mr. Stanley found that Mtesa had gone to war with the Wavuma, who dwell on the farther shore of the lake, and beyond the Victoria Nile. He had marched to Usoga and fought a battle with the Wavuma, and was then preparing a naval expedition on a grand scale. Stanley was inclined to turn back when he heard this news, as he feared the delay which the war would cause. After due consideration he decided to go on, as the greater ease with which he could travel to the Muta Nzege would offset any delay caused by Mtesa's war.

ISLAND CALLED ELEPHANT ROCK.

"He found Mtesa with his army at Ripon Falls, on the Usoga side of the river. Warriors, women, camp-followers, and all numbered nearly two hundred and fifty thousand, and, besides, he had a flotilla of three hundred and twenty-five canoes, large and small. The enemy was in great strength, though less numerous. They had a strong position on an island, and everything promised a severely contested battle, with the chances in favor of Mtesa. The army remained several days at Ripon Falls after Stanley's arrival, and then marched to a point of land near Ingira, the island where the Wavuma had their stronghold. During the delay in camp the king and his guest were often together, and Stanley embraced the opportunity to renew his religious instruction of Mtesa. He made an abstract of the Scriptures, which were translated into Swahili, and thus the king had all the principal events of the Bible, from the Creation to the Crucifixion, in a language he could read. Finally the king declared that he would renounce the faith of Islam, and accept Christianity, as he believed its principles were the best.

"'Stamlee,' said Mtesa, as they parted, 'say to the white people when you write to them, that I am like a man sitting in darkness, or born blind, and that all I ask is that I may be taught how to see, and I shall continue a Christian while I live.'

MTESA'S CAMP INGIRA.

"The fleets of Mtesa and the Wavuma people had several encounters, but without any decisive results. Mr. Stanley thus describes one of these naval battles:

"The drums sounded from the water-side, and soon the beautiful canoes of Uganda appeared in view. The entire war-fleet of two hundred and thirty vessels rode gracefully on the calm gray waters of the channel.

"The line of battle was formed by Chambarango, in command of the right flank, with fifty canoes; Sambuzi, Mukavya, Chikwata, and Saruti, all sub-chiefs, were ranged with one hundred canoes, under the command of Kauta, the imperial steward, to form the centre; the left flank was in charge of the gallant Mkwenda, who had eighty canoes. Tori commanded a force of musketeers, and with his four howitzers was stationed on the causeway, which was by this time two hundred yards from the shore.

"In the above manner the fleet of vessels, containing some sixteen thousand men, moved to the attack upon Ingira. The centre, defended by the flanks, which were to menace the rear of the Wavuma should they approach near the causeway, resolutely advanced to within thirty yards of Ingira, and poured in a most murderous fire among the slingers of the island, who, imagining that the Waganda meant to carry the island by storm, boldly stood exposed, resolved to fight. But they were unable to maintain that courageous behavior long. Mkwenda then moved up from the left, and attacked with his musketeers the Wavuma on the right, riddling their canoes, and making matters specially hot for them in that quarter.

ONE OF THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLES BETWEEN THE WAGANDA AND THE WAVUMA, IN THE CHANNEL BETWEEN INGIRA ISLAND AND CAPE NAKARANGA.

"The Wavuma, seeing matters approaching a crisis, and not wishing to die tamely, manned their canoes, and one hundred and ninety-six dashed impetuously, as at first, from the rushes of Ingira with loud, shrill yells, and the Waganda lines moved backward to the centre of the channel, where they bravely and coolly maintained their position. As the centre of the Uganda line parted in front of the causeway and disclosed the hotly advancing enemy, Tori aimed the howitzers and fired at a group of about twenty canoes, completely shattering more than half of them, and, reloading one quickly, he discharged several bolts of iron three inches long among them with terrible effect. Before this cool bearing of the Waganda the Wavuma retired to their island again, and we saw numbers of canoes discharging their dead and wounded, and the Waganda were summoned to Nakaranga shore to receive the congratulations of the emperor and the applause of the vast multitude. Mtesa went down to the water's edge to express his satisfaction at their behavior.

SMALL CANOE.

"'Go at them again,' said he, 'and show them what fighting is.' And the line of battle was again formed, and again the Wavuma darted from the cover of the reeds and water-cane with the swiftness of hungry sharks, beating the water into foam with their paddles, and rending the air with their piercing yells. It was one of the most exciting and animating scenes I ever beheld. The Waganda distinguished themselves for coolness and method, and the Wavuma, as on a former occasion, for intrepidity and desperate courage."

VIEW OF THE COUNTRY NEAR MTESA'S CAMP.

"Mtesa did not make any progress in his war upon the Wavuma," said Fred, "and became very ill-natured in consequence. One day he captured a Wavuma chief, whom he proposed to burn to death. The man was bound to a stake, and fagots were piled around him ready to be lighted, when Stanley interfered. With great difficulty, and only upon the threat of going away immediately, he succeeded in persuading Mtesa not to carry out his intention. Mtesa had repeatedly asked Stanley's advice and assistance. Stanley was anxious to end the war, and continue his journey, and at the same time he wished to prevent bloodshed. So he proposed to the king that in return for granting his request to spare the life of the Wavuma chief he would build something that would strike terror to the Wavuma and force them to submit. Let us hear his story of what he did:

"'You must give me plenty of men to help me, and in three days I shall be ready,' I said to Mtesa. 'Meantime shout out to the Wavuma from the causeway that you have something which will be so terrible that it will finish the war at once.'

"'Take everybody, do anything you like; I will give you Sekebobo and all his men.'

"The next morning Sekebobo brought about two thousand men before my quarters, and requested to know my will. I told him to despatch one thousand men to cut long poles one inch thick, three hundred to cut poles three inches thick and seven feet long, one hundred to cut straight long trees four inches thick, and one hundred to disbark all these and make bark rope. Himself and five hundred men I wished to assist me at the beach. The chief communicated my instructions and urged them to be speedy, as it was the emperor's command, and himself accompanied me to the canoe fleet.

"I selected three of the strongest-built canoes, each seventy feet long and six and a half feet wide, and, after preparing a space of ground near the water's edge, had them drawn up parallel with one another, and four feet apart from each other. With these three canoes I began to construct a floating platform, laying the tall trees across the canoes, and lashing them firmly to the thwarts, and as fast as the seven-foot poles came I had them lashed in an upright position to the thwarts of the outer canoes, and as fast as the inch poles arrived I had them twisted in among these uprights, so that when completed it resembled an oblong stockade, seventy feet long by twenty-seven feet wide, which the spears of the enemy could not penetrate.

THE FLOATING FORTLET MOVING TOWARDS INGIRA.

"On the afternoon of the second day the floating fort was finished, and Mtesa and his chiefs came down to the beach to see it launched and navigated for a trial trip. The chiefs, when they saw it, began to say it would sink, and communicated their fears to Mtesa, who half believed them. But the emperor's women said to him: 'Leave Stamlee alone; he would not make such a thing if he did not know that it would float.'

"On receiving orders to launch it, I selected sixty paddlers, and one hundred and fifty musketeers of the body-guard to stand by to embark as soon as it should be afloat, and appointed Tori and one of my own best men to superintend its navigation, and told them to close the gate of the fort as soon as they pushed off from the land. About one thousand men were then set to work to launch it, and soon it was floating in the water, and when the crew and garrison, two hundred and fourteen souls, were in it, it was evident to all that it rode the waves of the lake easily and safely—

"'The invention all admired, and each how he
To be the inventor missed, so easy it seemed
Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought
Impossible'—

"and a burst of applause from the army rewarded the inventor.

"Several long blue Kaniki and white and red cloths were hoisted above this curious structure, which, when closed up all round, appeared to move of its own accord in a very mysterious manner, and to conceal within its silent and impenetrable walls some dread thing, well calculated to strike terror into the mind of the ignorant savage.

"At eight o'clock, on the morning of the 13th of October, the army was assembled at Nakaranga with unusual display, and it was proclaimed across the strait from the extremity of the causeway, that a terrible thing was approaching which would blow them into atoms if they did not make peace at once, and acknowledge the power of Mtesa; and I believe that they declared that all the Muzimus and the charms of Uganda were within, for I heard something said about Muzimu and Uganda. The old Mvuma chief was also placed in prominent view, and induced to urge them to accept the terms which Mtesa offered, viz., pardon to all, provided they went through the form of submission. After this announcement, which was made with all gravity, the awful mysterious structure appeared, while the drums beat a tremendous sound, and the multitude of horns blew a deafening blast.

"It was a moment of anxiety to me, for manifold reasons. The fort, perfectly defensible in itself against the most furious assaults by men armed with spears, steadily approached the point, then steered direct for the island of Ingira, until it was within fifty yards.

"'Speak,' said a stentorian voice, amid a deathly silence within. 'What will you do? Will you make peace and submit to Mtesa, or shall we blow up the island? Be quick and answer.'

"There was a moment's consultation among the awe-stricken Wavuma. Immediate decision was imperative. The structure was vast, totally unlike anything that was ever visible on the waters of their sea. There was no person visible, yet a voice spoke clear and loud. Was it a spirit, the Wazimu of all Uganda, more propitious to their enemy's prayers than those of the Wavuma? It might contain some devilish, awful thing, something similar to the evil spirits which in their hours of melancholy and gloom their imagination invoked. There was an audacity and confidence in its movements that was perfectly appalling.

"'Speak,' repeated the stern voice; 'we cannot wait longer.'

"Immediately, to our relief, a man, evidently a chief, answered, 'Enough; let Mtesa be satisfied. We will collect the tribute to-day, and will come to Mtesa. Return, O spirit, the war is ended!' At which the mysterious structure solemnly began its return back to the cove where it had been constructed, and the quarter of a million of savage human beings, spectators of the extraordinary scene, gave a shout that seemed to split the very sky, and Ingira's bold height repeated the shock of sound back to Nakaranga.

UGANDA WAR CANOE.

"Three hours afterwards, a canoe came from Ingira Island, bearing fifty men, some of whom were chiefs. They brought with them several tusks of ivory, which were delivered over to the charge of the steward. The old Mvuma chief was surrendered to his tribe, and thus the long war terminated on the evening of the 13th of October, 1875.

"Glad shouts from both sides announced all parties equally pleased. The same afternoon, the canoe fleet of Uganda, which had by this time been reduced to two hundred and seventy-five in number, was escorted as far as Jinja by twenty Wavuma canoes, and after it had departed and rounded Namagongo Point, releasing their late foe from all fear of treachery, the Wavuma canoes presented us with a peaceful exhibition of their dexterity, and gave us an opportunity of viewing them more distinctly than we had previously been able to do through the smoke of gunpowder."

WANGWANA HUT IN CAMP.

"As soon as peace was declared," said Fred, after a pause, "the king returned to his capital, and the army was dispersed. Mr. Stanley accompanied the king, and, after resting a few days, reminded Mtesa of his promise to give him a powerful escort to take the expedition to the Muta Nzege, a lake lying to the south of Albert Lake, and about two hundred miles west of Victoria Lake. Mtesa did as he had agreed, and sent an escort of about two thousand warriors under command of a general named Sambuzi. Escorted by several war-canoes, Stanley went to Dumo, where his camp had been established during the time the leader was absent with Mtesa in the war against the Wavuma. Frank Pocock had remained at the camp, and Stanley was greatly pleased to find everything in order and his men in excellent condition.

HUT AT JINJA.

"The men had built comfortable huts and were abundantly supplied with food. The natives all around them were friendly in obedience to the orders they received from the king; altogether the Zanzibaris were having such a good time that they were in no hurry to leave.

HEAD OF CENTRAL AFRICAN HARTEBEEST.

"On the seventh day after his return to Dumo, Stanley began his march towards the Katonga River, where he was to meet the Waganda escort under Sambuzi for the journey to Muta Nzege. He was obliged to halt several days at a place called Kikoma to wait for Sambuzi; the country was full of wild animals, and Stanley took advantage of the halt to shoot game to supply meat for the expedition. In five days he killed fifty-seven hartebeest, two zebra, and one water-buck. Lions and leopards were said to be abundant, but he did not get a shot at them.

THE CAMP OF THE EXPEDITION.

"On New Year's day, 1876, the expedition crossed the boundary between Uganda and Unyoro. The king of the latter country was at war with the Egyptians who had established themselves on Albert Lake, and it was very soon evident that he would oppose the invasion of his territory by Stanley's expedition. Mr. Stanley sent out scouts to ascertain the state of affairs, and their interviews with the natives showed that the latter intended to fight. A mission to the king failed to secure permission to proceed, but during the time required for the mission Stanley had reached a point only a few miles from the lake.

"Much of the country on the line of march was rough and picturesque, and Mr. Stanley names it the Switzerland of Africa. Mount Edwin Arnold is near the site of one of the camps of the expedition; it is estimated to be nine thousand feet above the level of the sea.

MOUNT EDWIN ARNOLD.

"The courage of the Waganda disappeared when there was a prospect of fighting, and in spite of all the arguments which Mr. Stanley advanced they determined to return to their own country. He reached the shore of the lake, but finding the king bent upon war, and the Waganda refusing to remain with him, he was forced to leave without making the desired exploration. He was bitterly disappointed at the failure of this part of his expedition, but there was no help for it."

"Did he go back to King Mtesa's capital," asked one of the listeners, "or continue his journey another way?"

MARCHING TOWARDS MUTA NZEGE: MOUNT GORDON-BENNETT IN THE DISTANCE.

"He went to the frontier of Uganda, but not to the capital," replied Fred. "There he parted with Sambuzi and decided to travel southward to Lake Tanganika with no other escort than his own men. Mtesa sent to him the offer of an escort of fifty thousand or one hundred thousand men to Muta Nzege, but after his experiences with Waganda soldiers he declined the offer with many thanks, and presents of cloth, beads, and other valuable things. Then he marched southward into Karagwé, the country of King Rumanika, where he was hospitably received. Here is his account of his reception:

GRASS-ROOFED HUT, UNYORO.