184 TEE CONGO.
resolved to have an honourable burial. When a chief
died the body was enveloped in thousands of yards of
cloth, and interred with protracted ceremonies. Kegs of
gunpowder were consumed in the volleys fired over the
grave •, slaves were massacred, and the soil was saturated
with the blood; his favourite wives were strangled, and
their bodies laid alongside. He, friendless, sick, and
dying, pined for this honour, and crept by night to
apply the destructive torch to Bula Matari s houses.
Although he was arrested while flyiug from the scene,
nothing could be done to avert or check the catastrophe.
Being thatched with grass baked crisp by the tropic
sun, the fire fiend rushed up to the sky, and was
glutted only when a few crimson embers marked the
site of our unfortunate station. To avoid the bursting
shells the garrison had to fly to the saw-pits, and to
the hollows by the river-side. During the excitement
the prisoner fled, to die in the forest beyond Bolobo,
satisfied, no doubt, with the honours he had won by
his mad freak.
But however this second destruction may have been
caused, this third event during the administration of
the chief of the station appeared to prove that a
sinister influence, affected Bolobo, which probably
might be averted by a judicious change of masters. ^
Lieutenant Liebrechts, who, while at Leopoldville,
seemed to be a sufferer from chronic debility, so that he
was inelastic in movement, pallid of face, and infirm
of step, had been transferred in September to Bolobo.
We half expected to hear that he was among the missing,