ke!" Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under
promontories and overhanging wooded banks. By the single word "Peace!"
the interpreter could often check parties of warriors, but others
answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh, and their showers of
arrows and assegais had to be met with a volley of rifle bullets.

The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly tribe warned the
travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the roar of which they would
shortly hear. The flotilla glided along the right bank, and all listened
for the expected thunder. Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and
hurled their assegais; then the war-drums were heard again, and a large
number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.). The warriors had painted
one half of their bodies white and the other red, with broad black
stripes, and looked hideous. Their howls and horn blasts betokened a
serious attack. By this time Stanley's boats were out in the middle of
the stream in order of battle, with the shields placed along the
gunwales to protect the non-combatants. A canoe 80 feet long rowed
straight for Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley. Then
it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not turn in
time. Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to save themselves by
swimming to land, and as the other boats vanished the expedition could
go on towards the falls.

Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild commotion over
the barriers in its bed. The natives thought that this was just the
place to catch the strangers, and Stanley had to fight his way step by
step, sometimes on land and sometimes on the river. In quiet water
between the various falls the men could row, but in other places paths
had to be cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled
over land. Often they had to fight from tree to tree. Once the savages
tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large net, and lost eight
of their own men for their trouble. These captives were tattooed on the
forehead and had their front teeth filed to a point. Like all the other
people in the country, they were cannibals, and were eager for human
flesh.

One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the equator, and
the great river turned more and more towards the west, so that it
evidently could not belong to the Nile. Here the party passed the
seventh and last fall, where the brown water hurled itself in mad fur