story short, the natives seized the oars, and, thinking
the boat was now in their power, they retired to make their plans.
Meanwhile Stanley commanded his crew to tear the bottom boards up for
paddles, and, pushing the boat hastily into the water, they paddled
away, their commander firing the while with his elephant rifle and
explosive bullets. They were saved.

On 6th May the circumnavigation was finished and the _Lady Alice_ was
being dragged ashore in Speke Gulf with shouts of welcome and the waving
of many flags. But sad news awaited him. He could see but one of his
white companions.

"Where is Barker?" he asked Frank Pocock.

"He died twelve days ago," was the melancholy answer.

Stanley now took his whole expedition to Uganda, and after spending
some months with the King he passed on to Lake Tanganyika, crossing
to Ujiji, where he arrived in May 1876. Here five years before he had
found Livingstone.

"We launched our boat on the lake and, circumnavigating it, discovered
that there was only a periodical outlet to it. Thus, by the
circumnavigation of the two lakes, two of the geographical problems
I had undertaken to solve were settled. The Victoria Nyanza had no
connection with the Tanganyika. There now remained the grandest task
of all. Is the Lualaba, which Livingstone had traced along a course
of nearly thirteen hundred miles, the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo?
I crossed Lake Tanganyika with my expedition, lifted once more my
gallant boat on our shoulders, and after a march of nearly two hundred
and twenty miles arrived at the superb river. Where I first sighted
it, the Lualaba was fourteen hundred yards wide, pale grey in colour,
winding slowly from south and by east. We hailed its appearance with
shouts of joy, and rested on the spot to enjoy the view. I likened
it to the Mississippi as it appears before the impetuous, full-volumed
Missouri pours its rusty brown water into it. A secret rapture filled
my soul as I gazed upon the majestic stream. The great mystery that
for all these centuries Nature had kept hidden away from the world
of science was waiting to be solved. For two hundred and twenty miles
I had followed the sources of the Livingstone River to the confluence,
and now before me lay the superb river itself. My task was to follow
it to the ocean."

Pressing on along the river, they reached the Arab city of Nyangwe,
having accomplished three hundred and thirty-eight miles in
forty-three days. A