1883.
July 31,
Léopoldyille.
occupy Kwamouth station. I t consisted of Lieutenant
Pagels, a Swedish officer, and a small garrison for that
place.
Two days later a courier canoe arrived from Kim-
poko station, with letters from Mons. Amelot, imploring
instant relief. He had had a misunderstanding with
the natives, and some shooting had happened, wherein
two or three of the natives had fallen.
Naturally, I hurried to Kimpoko, and found that
G-ambiele and all the natives had fled, and my presentiment
concerning unfortunate Kimpoko was verified.
Unable to induce the natives to return, I ordered the
half-built station to be destroyed, and conveyed the
garrison down to Leopoldville.
The prospects were most disheartening ; eternal and
ever-brewing troubles at Y iv i; two stations destroyed
within a few days of each other; two Europeans and
eleven coloured men belonging to another station
drowned ! But the end had not yet arrived.
On the 21st of August, a courier canoe arrived from
Boloho with a note saying that unfortunate Bolobo—
never to be built Bolobo—was burnt to the ground
with all the goods belonging to it, as well as the 150
loads recently stored there for the Upper Congo stations
Ban gala and Stanley Falls.
Fortunately the flotilla, which had been beached for
repairs, was now in perfect order for a long voyage,
and I was only waiting for an overland caravan, of the
near approach of which we had notice, to have started.
The danger to these houseless people at Bolobo, however,
spurred us to immediate movement, and on the
22nd of August we accordingly departed from Leopoldville,
with ten tons of miscellaneous goods, and a crew
and passenger list numbering fifty men. After fifty-
seven hours’ steaming we arrived in view of Bolobo on
the 29th August. The En Avant being a few miles
ahead of the Royal and A.I. A.
As the En Avant steamed by the shore I observed
the usual crowds of spectators darkening it. Mungolo,
Ibaka’s favourite village, poured out its bronze-bodied
people great and small. Next Biangala, perched on the
slope of the hill which separated the Lower from the
Upper Bolobo. Next in order appeared the villages
of Ururu, Mongo, Manga, Yambula, and Lingenji, and,
finally, without a single incident, we arrived at the
landing-place of the ruined station, the blackened site
of which we saw looked desolate enough.
I told the engineer to keep steam at three atmospheres
until the other steamers had actually arrived,
and I was listening to the reports of the burning of
the station, when a messenger came from Ibaka, the
senior chief, saying that Itimba and Biangala had fired
on the two steamers. The news was so astonishing
that I could scarcely credit the fa c t; for in the Royal
¡were three natives of Bolobo, who had borne to me the
news of the destruction by fire of the station, and had
¡been brought back by us. I had also passed by the
shore, and the people had waved their hands and greeted
fos at several places, while the chief of the station had
reported that he was on terms of friendly intimacy with
Bolobo.