494 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH. 



had retired, and that a detachment of marauders which 

 had remained behind had been defeated, and some of their 

 rifles taken. At last, on February 14, some messengers came 

 from Kabrega with long letters from Junker and Vita. And 

 now listen ! One of the servants of the Zanzibar merchants 

 came into Vita's hut towards evening on February 4, with one 

 of Kabrega's men, and, when the latter was not looking, he threw 

 down two notes before Vita, and then went off with his com- 

 panion. Vita took up the notes, and found that one of them 

 was directed to himself in Arabic, and the other addressed in 

 French, " A Monsieur le Voyageur dans cette mile." This he 

 immediately handed to Junker ; and what were the contents ? 

 A certain Mohammed Biri, an Egyptian, " ancien inter prete de 

 r Association Internationale pour V exploration de VAfrique" an- 

 nounced that he had arrived from Uganda the evening before 

 disguised as a trader, and that he had news for us all from 

 Egypt and the coast. He would be able to visit the gentle- 

 men and talk with them in a day or two. Dr. Fischer had 

 come as far as Usukuma (compare the news sent me] by 

 Kabrega given above), but the King of Uganda had refused 

 to let him pass through his territory, and so he had gone to 

 Manyuema. You may imagine Junker's anxiety when he read 

 the letter. He would no doubt have liked to send me further 

 details, but Kabrega sent on his men here the next morning. 

 So there is nothing for it but to wait patiently. Junker had 

 written on January 19 to Mr. Mackay in Uganda, asking for 

 porters ; from there too an answer may have arrived. I sent 

 off an officer to Junker and Vita early on the I 8th, under pre- 

 tence of sending ivory to Vita for the purchase of cloths, and 

 I am expecting the steamer to return from the lake to-day or 

 to-morrow. I wrote to Kabrega, begging him not to detain 

 the officer, and so we shall probably know how we stand in 

 about fifteen days. At any rate, there is a very good prospect 

 of at least getting our letters forwarded to you. Another mes- 

 senger from Lado came on the 1 6th; this time too it was 

 a Negro female slave who had escaped. According to her, 

 the Negroes had started off hurriedly from Jebel Lado be- 

 cause a man had brought news that troops and Danagla had 

 come up from the Bahr-el-Ghazal by steamer, and had laid waste 



