respite of five days, on condition that all the ivory that had been taken from Lippens should be delivered up to us. This they also complied with, and brought an additional present of some thirty magnificent tusks, praying us to wait another four or five days. The Commandant assumed a magnanimous pose and gave way to their supplications, casually remarking that he supposed Sefu wanted to finish the fortifications of Kasongo. To this, he said, he had no objection, as he wished to teach his soldiers how to take a properly-fortified town.

All this was the more amusing as, during the time these negotiations were proceeding, we had not more than thirty or forty available men at our disposal. In this affair Omari, an old soldier of Stanley's, was the chief ambassador; he protested all the time that he loved the white man, and