460 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



his men to push the boat again into the water with all possible 

 speed. This scheme succeeded so well that the boat was out in 

 the lake before the natives could reach the water. A fight now 

 took place that was very lively for a time. Stanley fired his 

 Reilley rifle four times and killed five men. A shot-gun loaded 

 with buck-shot was brought to bear on them next, by which 

 several more were slain. This served to stop their attempts to 

 reach the boat by wading, but others quickly manned a half-dozen 

 canoes and shot out from shore to continue the battle. Two of 

 these canoes Stanley sunk with the shell-bullets from his Reillev 

 gun. In the midst of the fight two monster hippopotami were 

 observed advancing with wide-open mouths upon the Lady Alice, 

 their anger having no doubt been excited by the booming of fire- 

 arms. Stanley shot one through the brain when it was hardly 

 more than a yard distant, and so badly wounded the other that it 

 sank and retreated. The result of these two shots seemed to 

 produce a panic among the natives, for they immediately relin- 

 quished the attack and the canoes were put back to shore with 

 great energy. It was a narrow escape. 



At the end of fiftv-seven days the circumnavigation of Victoria 

 N'yanza was completed, the distance being 1,000 miles. As the 

 boat came in sight of the camp at Kagehyi, a joyful shout was 

 sent up, and when they landed Stanley was raised upon the 

 shoulders of several men and carried triumphantly around the 

 camp, while salutes were fired from all the muskets. This joyful 

 return was sadly marred, however, by news of the death of 

 Frederick Barker, who had died twelve days before. Six other 

 members of the expedition had also fallen victims to dysentery 



