he could, and, taking Commandant Lothaire and some men from Bangala with him, followed the Arabs, who had fled from the Falls up the river. After some severe fighting and many skirmishes, he cleared the river, and its neighbourhood, of Arabs and their hordes as far as Nyangwe, where he arrived a day after I left for N'Gandu.

Meanwhile we at N'Gandu had received several despatches from the front at the same time — the sum-total of which amounted to this: that the attacks on the forts of Rumaliza had failed; that during a fortnight's severe fighting Commandant Ponthier had been killed; and that the supplies of ammunition had nearly run out. A powerful auxiliary chief, named Kitumba Moya, half an hour after hearing of the execution of Gongo, had gone over to the Arabs with six hundred guns. His example was naturally