362 THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA 



of the river guard, Stanley plunged into the great forest of the Aru- 

 wimi on the 28th of June, with a force of about four hundred men. 



Month after month rolled by, but no voice came out of the still- 

 ness to speak of his progress or safety. As time went on, and the sus- 

 pense became more acute, expectation gave way to disappointment, and 

 disappointment to misgiving and doubt. Now and again rumors came 

 through native channels — rumors of famine and disease, fighting, 

 defeat, capture — rumors even of death. They came to the east coast 

 and the west, and thence were sent to Europe. They filtrated through 

 the Soudan and reached Egypt. The Khalifa and his fanatical lieu- 

 tenants seized them and converted them into reports of Mahdist tri- 

 umphs. Emin was defeated, and he and Stanley captured! The 

 clouds thickened, and the continuing silence deepened the gloom which 

 hung over the equatorial province. Where was Stanley during all 

 these months? It was not vmtil 1889 that the answer came in letters' 

 from the long-vanished traveler. 



On leaving his rear-guard entrenched at Yambuya, Stanley, with 

 the main body of the expedition, followed the bank of the Aruwimi, 

 and very soon made acquaintance with that native hostility which was 

 to dog his steps almost to the very end. For, at their approach to the 

 first town of importance, the natives, warned by the loud beating of 

 their watchman's drum, set fire to their frail huts, and withdrew into 

 ambush in the forest, there to await the passing of the advancing 

 strangers. Now the approach to these towns in the river valley was 

 in itself a glaring example of the subtleties of savage warfare, for 

 the path w^as honey-combed with shallow pits, which were filled witl 

 splinters, so sharply pointed as practically to be skewers, and hidden 

 from the sight of all but the most experienced by a light layer of leaves 

 and branches. To add to the deception, these approaches were cleared 

 by the forest people for some hundred yards or so, and formed — what 

 is so unusual in Central Africa — a wnde and direct avenue to the vil- 

 lage. The real approach would be narrow and tortuous, making a 

 wide detour, and the apparently direct path all the more alluring. 

 And then, with a fine sense of strategic warfare the natives woutd 

 pour their poisoned arrows and spears upon the expedition at the 

 very moment when the discovery of the hidden pits had thrown it into 



