420 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



of slaves, and having loaded themselves with everything they thought 

 valuable, prepared to return by the same road they had gone. When they 

 had arrived opposite to where the ambush party was lying on each side the 

 road, Mirambo gave the signal, and the forest thieves rose as one man, and 

 each taking hold of his man, speared him, and cut off his head. Not an Arab 

 escaped, but some of the slaves managed to save themselves, and bring the 

 news to us at Zimbizo," The Arab soldiers, slaves, and women and chil- 

 dren, fled pell-mell to Unyanyembe, and Mr. Stanley, who was suffering from 

 another attack of fever, found himself left to fight the enemy, or make his 

 way out of danger as best he could. At a meeting of the chief Arabs, 

 Mr. Stanley told them that he was satisfied, having seen their mode of 

 fighting, that they would not conquer Mirambo in a year. "I am a white 

 man," he said, " accustomed to wars after a different style. I know some- 

 thing about fighting, but I never saw people run away from an encampment 

 like ours at Zimbizo for such cause as you had." 



Mr. Stanley turned back three days journey to Kwihara, and determined 

 to await the attack of Mirambo there, if he should venture on such a course. 

 He determined to fight the enemy, if fight he must, on his own account, and 

 trust to the chapter of accidents to being able to maintain his ground, and 

 march on to Ujiji. " A fortlet was rapidly constructed, in which all our arms 

 and effects were placed, and a lofty bamboo was procured, and planted on 

 the roof of our fortlet ; and the American flag was run up, where it waved 

 joyously and grandly, an omen to all fugitives and their hunters. Then 

 began the work of ditch-making and digging rifle pits all around the court 

 or enclosure. The strong clay walls were pierced in two rows for the 

 muskets ; the great door was kept open, with materials ready close at hand 

 to barricade it when the enemy came in sight; watchmen were posted on the top 

 of the house ; every pot in the house was filled with water ; provisions were 

 collected sufficient to stand a siege of a month's duration ; the ammunition 

 boxes were unscrewed, and when I saw the three thousand bright metallic 

 cartridges for the American carbines, I laughed within myself at the idea that, 

 after all, Mirambo might be settled with American lead, and all this furore of 

 war be ended without much trouble. 



" Before six p.m., I had one hundred and twenty-five muskets, and stout 

 fellows who had enlisted from the fugitives; and the house, which only looked 

 like a fortlet at first, became a fortlet in reality, impregnable and untakeable. 

 All night we stood guard ; the suburbs of Tabora were in flames ; all the 

 Wanyamwezi and Wangwana houses were destroyed ; and the fine house of 

 Abid-bin-Sulermain had been ransacked, and then committed to the flames. 

 Mirambo boasted that ' to-morrow ' Kwihara should share the fate of Tabora, 

 and there was a rumour that that night the Arabs were going to start for the 

 coast. But the morning came, and Mirambo departed, with the ivory and 



