on approaching the loopholed wall he again narrowly escaped being killed. The place, however, capitulated when I came up with about a dozen men. He had just taken five white Arab prisoners, one of whom was, I believe, a very large merchant at Zanzibar, named Said-ben-Halfan. Kasongo was a much finer town than even the grand old slave capital Nyangwe. During the siege of Nyangwe, the taking of which was more or less expected, the inhabitants had time to carry off all valuables, and even furniture, to places of safety.

At Kasongo, however, it was different. We rushed into the town so suddenly that everything was left in situ. Our whole force found new outfits, and even the common soldiers slept on silk and satin mattresses, in carved beds with silk mosquito curtains. The room I took possession of was eighty feet long and