THE RELIEF OF EMIN PASHA 
363 
confusion and panic. One can readily imagine the effect of such an 
experience upon the bare-footed and half-clothed Wangwana from 
Zanzibar, and appreciate more fully the command Stanley must have 
acquired over his men to have rallied them time after time, and induced 
them to present an orderly front to their hidden assailants in the dense 
jungle 011 either hand. 
From the 5th of July to the middle of October the expedition kept 
by the bank of the Aruwimi. The river presented a noble aspect, vary¬ 
ing in width from 500 to 900 yards, and dotted over with islets fre¬ 
quently covered with a dense tropical growth. 
Despite the number of men who had been wounded by the peculiar 
mode of defence adopted by the natives, as well as by their actual 
attacks, the expedition marched on without actual loss till Augut 1st. 
On that day, however, the first death occurred, and in the next nine 
days' march through a wilderness where food was unobtainable, sev¬ 
eral members of Stanley's force succumbed to their injuries, and mat¬ 
ters began to have a serious aspect. On August 13th, on arriving at 
Avi-sheba, five men were killed by poisoned arrows, and Lieutenant 
Stairs was badly wounded. Two days later, a number of men under 
the command of Mr. Mounteney Jephson, lost their way, and until 
the forces were united, six days later, the liveliest apprehensions were 
entertained of their annihilation by the utterly savage natives. 
For a hundred and sixty days—from the end of June to the mid¬ 
dle of November—Stanley and his followers hacked and hewed their 
way through this deadly forest jungle. “Take," wrote that wonderful 
man to his friend, Mr. Bruce, “take a thick Scottish copse, dripping 
with rain; imagine this copse to be a mere undergrowth, nourished 
under the impenetrable shade of ancient trees, ranging from 100 to 
180 feet high; briars and thorns abundant; lazy creeks meandering 
through the depths of the jungle, and sometimes a deep affluent of a 
great river. Imagine this forest and jungle in all stages of decay and 
growth—old trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen prostrate; 
ants and insects of all kinds, sizes, and colors murmuring around; 
monkeys and chimpanzees above; queer noises of birds and animals; 
crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rushed away; dwarfs 
with poisoned arrows securely hidden behind some buttress, or 
