ental work on the Congo Free State and again relates it in his
Autobiography. It deals with Ngalyema, who was chief of the Stanley Pool
District in the early eighties. He demanded and received a large
quantity of goods for the permission to establish a station here. After
the explorer had camped within ten miles of the Pool the old pirate
pretended that he had not received the goods and sought to extort more.
Stanley refused to be bullied, whereupon the chief threatened to attack
him in force. Let Stanley now tell the story, for it is an illustration
of the way he combated the usury and cunning of the Congo native.

I had hung a great Chinese gong conspicuously near the principal
tent. Ngalyema's curiosity would be roused. All my men were hidden,
some in the steamboat on top of the wagon, and in its shadow was a
cool place where the warriors would gladly rest after a ten-mile
march. Other of my men lay still as death under tarpaulins, under
bundles of grass, and in the bush round about the camp. By the time
the drum-taps and horns announced Ngalyema's arrival, the camp
seemed abandoned except by myself and a few small boys. I was
indolently seated in a chair reading a book, and appeared too lazy
to notice anyone; but, suddenly looking up and seeing my "brother
Ngalyema" and his warriors, scowlingly regarding me, I sprang up and
seized his hands, and affectionately bade him welcome, in the name
of sacred fraternity, and offered him my own chair.

He was strangely cold, and apparently disgruntled, and said:--

"Has not my brother forgotten his road? What does he mean by coming
to this country?"

"Nay, it is Ngalyema who has forgotten the blood-bond which exists
between us. It is Ngalyema who has forgotten the mountains of goods
which I paid him. What words are these of my brother?"

"Be warned, Rock-Breaker. Go back before it is too late. My elders
and people all cry out against allowing the white man to come into
our country. Therefore, go back before it be too late. Go back, I
say, the way you came."

Speech and counter-speech followed. Ngalyema had exhausted his
arguments; but it was not easy to break faith and be uncivil, with
plausible excuse. His eyes were reaching round seeking to discover
an excuse to fight, when they rested on the round, burnished face of
the Chinese gong.

"What is that?" he