trade would be taken out of the hands of the Mohammedans, and would, instead of going to the east coast, go down the Congo to the Atlantic. The great country, which was then their hunting-ground for forays and slave-raiding, would thus be lost to them for ever. Anticipating this, they chose their moment well, at a time when the Free State was utterly unprepared for war. With the success of the Mahdi, in founding an empire from which he had ousted Europeans, before them, they were encouraged to hope that they might do likewise in the Congo Basin.

Their first move was to murder Hodister's expedition, together with the white men left in the two trading stations he had formed within their territory; they then murdered Em in Pasha, who was at the time a harmless traveller through their country, and under the protection of a