638 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 



without them, because he would be in the power of ten men, 

 unprincipled every way, who had determined on his death if he 

 should attempt to compel them to go. He could not take only 

 Susi, Chuma, and Gardner, and go. They loved him, were true 

 to him, would die for him, but they would certainly be called 

 on to do it, and it would be all that they could do. There was 

 one thing only : he would return immediately to Ujiji and seek 

 to fit himself up again with a better escort. 



When Dugumbe's party saw that he was determined to go back 

 they offered many things, but he took only a little gunpowder. 

 They made presents of beads, but he insisted on returning their 

 value in cloth ; he felt that all they had was the price of blood. 

 Dugumbe himself seemed very friendly and sent beads and cow- 

 ries for purchasing food on the journey, also two very fine large 

 Manyuema swords, and two equally fine spears. 



The poor sufferers, who had survived the dreadful war which 

 had been made on them, had found out fully that the white 

 man had a heart for them, and thronged him, begging him to 

 stay. Yes, those poor degraded people, so bloodthirsty them- 

 selves, cannibals, surrounded the one man in all that company 

 in whom dwelt the spirit of Christ, and begged him to stay 

 with them and help them find new homes. Oh, who shall dis- 

 trust the power of Christian kindness to control the most un- 

 bridled passions? What power on earth can take hold so 

 strongly on the hearts of men as the grace of God? But it 

 was impossible; the decision was taken; he would go immedi- 

 ately. It was hard, but his faith accepted it. He had experi- 

 enced too frequently, too steadily in his life, the goodness of God 

 to doubt that even this sorest of all his disappointments was 

 ordered graciously. Only very lately he had seen that hand. 

 The very thing which he had most desired for two months, 

 if he had obtained, would have been his destruction : he had 

 wanted a canoe ; only recently news had come that a party of 

 the traders who had gone down the river farther than the others, 

 came suddenly to tremendous falls, and several of the foremost 

 canoes were swept away. God had kept him back from that 

 peril : it was only one of many deliverances wrought against 

 his own blind will. He would trust God. And we shall soon 

 see how graciously God was drawing him back to Ujiji. We 



