THE RELIEF OF EM IN PASHA .^63 



confusion and panic. One can readily imagine the effect of such an 

 experience upon the bare-footed and half-clothed Wangwana from 

 Zanzibar, and appreciate more fully the command Stanley must have 

 acquired over his men to have rallied them time after time, and induced 

 them to present an orderly front to their hidden assailants in the dense 

 jungle on either hand. 



From the 5th of July to the middle of October the expedition kept 

 by the bank of the Aruwimi. The river presented a noble aspect, vary- 

 ing in width from 500 to 900 yards, and dotted over with islets fre- 

 quently covered with a dense tropical growth. 



Despite the number of men who had been wounded by the peculiar 

 mode of defence adopted by the natives, as well as by their actual 

 attacks, the expedition marched on without actual loss till Augut ist. 

 On that day, however, the first death occurred, and in the next nine 

 days' march through a wilderness where food was unobtainable, sev- 

 eral members of Stanley's force succumbed to their injuries, and mat- 

 ters began to have a serious aspect. On August 13th, on arriving at 

 Avi-sheba, five men were killed by poisoned arrows, and Lieutenant 

 Stairs was badly wounded. Two days later, a number of men under 

 the command of Mr. Mounteney Jephson, lost their way, and until 

 the forces were united, six days later, the liveliest apprehensions were 

 entertained of their annihilation by the utterly savage natives. 



For a hundred and sixty days — from the end of June to the mid- 

 dle of November — Stanley and his followers hacked and hewed their 

 way through this deadly forest jungle. "Take," wrote that wonderful 

 man to his friend, Mr. Bruce, "take a thick Scottish copse, dripping 

 with rain; imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, nourished 

 under the impenetrable shade of ancient trees, ranging from 100 to 

 180 feet high; briars and thorns abundant; lazy creeks meandering 

 through the depths of the jungle, and sometimes a deep affluent of a 

 great river. Imagine this forest and jungle in all stages of decay and 

 growth — old trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen prostrate; 

 ants and insects of all kinds, sizes, and colors murmuring around; 

 monkeys and chimpanzees above ; queer noises of birds and animals ; 

 crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rushed away; dwarfs 

 with poisoned arrows securely hidden behind some buttress, or 



