DOWN THE CONGO TO THE ATLANTIC. 
429 
camp, and that on the sixth day we should embark, and 
begin our journey down the river to the ocean — or to 
death. 
Said I : “ Into whichever sea this great river empties, 
there shall we follow it. You have seen that I have 
saved you a score of times, when everything looked 
black and dismal for us. That care of you to which you 
owe your safety hitherto, I shall maintain, until I have 
seen you safe and sound in your own homes, and under 
your own palm-trees. All I ask of you is, perfect trust 
in whatever I say. On your lives depends my own ; if 
I risk yours, I risk mine. As a father looks after his 
children, I will look after you. It is true we are not so 
strong as when the Wanyaturu attacked us, or when we 
marched through Unyoro to Muta Nzige, but we are of 
the same band of men, and we are still of the same spirit. 
Many of our party have already died, but death is the 
MONSTER CANOE. 
end of all ; and if they died earlier than we, it was the 
will of God, and who shall rebel against His will ? It 
may be, we shall meet a hundred wild tribes yet, who, 
for the sake of eating us, will rush to meet and fight us. 
We have no wish to molest them. We have moneys' 
with us, and are, therefore, not poor. If they fight us, 
we must accept it as an evil, like disease, which we can- 
not help. We shall continue to do our utmost to make 
friends, and the river is wide and deep. If we fight, we 
fight for our lives. It may be that we shall be distressed 
by famine and want. It may be that we shall meet with 
many more cataracts, or find ourselves before a great 
lake, whose wild waves we cannot cross with these 
canoes ; but we are not children, we have heads and 
arms, and are we not always under the eye of God, who 
will do with us as He sees fit ? Therefore, my children, 
make up your minds, as I have made up mine, that, as 
