The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-03-02
A Story Told by One of Stanley's
Arabs.

W uSi MI. CGtllSN, lne AlrlCdn eA
plorer, arrived at Cape Town, he was in
vited to deliver a lecture before tn,
Philosophical Society of that place. Ii
the course of the lecture Mr.. Stanle,
said that when he came to Nyangwe, tn,
outermost limit of previous exploration
he called all his Arabs together, anc
asked them, "What lies ahead of this
and why did not the other white mer
go forward9" Then the Arabs, one
after another, told him of the horrors
real and imaginary, which beset the
path of any bold adventurer who should
dare attempt TO explere this unknown
region. There are the biggest men in
the world, and there are the smallest
men in the world, up there. These
little men are just so high (about three
feet. No, they are only so Ugh (about
the length of mans army. They are,
altogether, the very worst people under
the sun. Why, they must be genii OF
devils. They have little bits of bows
and little bits of arrows, with lots of
little hicks in them, and in these hicks
they fix some deadly poison or other,
and the minute you get scratch with
one of these arrows it is all over, there
is nothing more of you. There are the
gorillas, more terrible. The way they
roar in the forests is awful. The forests
resound with it.
" As for the river, it goes toward a
big mountain, and then tumbles down,
down, down; and then, after it has
whirled itself about, it goes on down,
down again, and there is nothing left of
it. Oh, MASTER" said the man, that
forest goes from Nyangwe, and it goes
on north and north, and south and south,
all over the country, everywhere
Laughter. There is positively no end
to it. And in this forest all is dark: O.,
master in this forest you can't see the
sun anywhere. The trees are all matted
together. Then there are great enormous
snakes there. These snakes are, 0, SO
long, and then they hang on the boughs
as soon as you get near them they i'm
mediately pounce down upon you, and
there is no more Of you left. There are
leopards, very big, and they crouch
down on the branches of the trees, SO
that you can't see them, either. They
wait until poor wayfarer comes along,
and then Homl he is gone. There is
nothing left of him. Then as for the
ants, they are everywhere. They are
always at you. They bite your legs until
is it just like hot water.
And as for the dwarfs, they are
little things of about thirty inches. The
first thing you know when you get into
their country is that you hear pifi-pifl
in the air, and the next moment you
feel little bits of arrows striking all over
you like the quilts of porcupinc. If
you want to see one of my men who has
seen all this and done some fighting with
the dwarfs, | viii send him to you"
Well, go and find your man who can
tell the story of the dwarfs."
After little while the man is sent for
and comes to us. He is a fine-lookiDg
specimen of native of Zanzibar, and
very richly dressed. lie is man of
affable and polite demeanor. | ask him
to be seated. He salaams and sits down.
Then coffee is served to him, and he be-
gins something in this fashion:
You ask me to tell you of that
terrible fight we had with the dwarfs.
We started with several Arab chiefs,
and they all took their men and got
together, and made one expedition of
one hundred and ten guns. After going
five days we came TO Uzimba, and then
through the forest to Urega. For a
month we travelled on, and at length
crossed the Lualaba. There we entered
Ukusu until we came to the Lumani.
Next we entered Ukungu and passed
into Yakima.
"Next day we came into the dwarf
country. Then we made another adj
vance into the interior, another days
march. Prosperous and happy at the
prospect, we made another days march.
That was three-days journey into the
land of the dwarfs. Here we got right
into the center OF the dwarfs' country.
The king of the dwarfxs came up to us,
and we negotiated with him. All things
were going ON well, because we wanted
only ivory, and it was SO cheap and good
that we were quite happy. The first
notice we had of any disturbance was
one day when one of our women went
down to get water. We heard her
scream, and went to see what was the
matter. We saw there was an arrow in
her breast. We asked her who did it,
and she said one of them little men.
Then they all swarmed about us just
like bees. They began piff-paf' with
their bows and arrows. The war cries
of these little savages were perfectly
deafening. Although they were such
little men, they made the forests ring
with their cries. We were not prepared
for this attack, and began to pull down
the village in order to surround our
selves with palisade, SO that we might
have some defence against the arrows.
The battle began, and very dreadful il
was. There was no rest. 1t was shoot
ing day and night, and always clouds OF
arrows pouring in on us. These little
men foughtin relays, one troop relieving
the other. Just as soon as one troop was
tired they got another force to take theil
place. As they fought in relays day
and night, we got wearied out, and many
of us died of thirst, and most were
wounded. Then we had fred away al
our shot, although we had plenty Of
powder left, so we were obliged to put
beads and things into our guns and fire
them away at the savages. We were
quite shut up. Some of the boldest o.
us managed to get out and kill few o.
the little savages, but it was of no use
after all At last we held council O.
war, and we fancied that if we coult
get hold of the king of the dwarfs, i
would be all right. So dozen of tn.
boldest of us determined to try it, ant
we went into the woods and laid traI
for the king. One man went into on
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