any malcontent took it into his head to fire or to throw a spear, I was more likely to be missed. I was just returning the chiefs salute when my ass put his foot in a hole, and turning a complete somersault sent me flying. My boy, who was carrying a spare revolver, seeing everybody laughing at my discomfiture, promptly emptied it in their faces, which, though it stampeded the whole mass, luckily did not touch anybody. 1 noticed that in my subsequent gallops through the town everyone seemed to get out of my neighbourhood, having apparently urgent business inside the houses or behind the trees.

Just as things had begun to settle down, five officers arrived from Europe and proceeded to join the Commandant at Kasongo, where he was supposed to be preparing for an attack on Rumaliza, who had left Ujiji and had crossed