Leaving De Wouters in command at Nyangwe, Dhanis now marched on Kassongo. It was a bold venture, for while the Arabs had sixty thousand men, and held four “bomas,” Dhanis disposed of only three hundred regular troops and two thousand auxiliaries. On April 22, Doorme had the good fortune, at the beginning of the fight, to rush an important fort which commanded the Arab rear. The Arabs were greatly perturbed by this circumstance, and fought with less than their usual valour. Before two hours had passed, Kassongo was in the hands of the Congo State troops, with vast quantities of valuable spoil. The triumph of civilisation over savagery was complete, the only jarring note in Belgian ears being confirmation of the murder of Emin Pasha a month before.[17]
Hospital, New Antwerp.
The White Man’s Cemetery, Stanleyville.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] A nephew of Hamed-ben-Mohamed, better known as Tippo Tip,—i. e., “winking the eye,”—an Arab slave merchant, invested with the government of Stanley Falls by King Leopold, at the instance of Stanley, he having, in consideration of a monthly salary, bound himself to repress all slave-hunting and slave-dealing below the Falls.
[17] For amplified accounts of the Arab wars, see The Congo State, by D. C. Boulger; Le mouvement géographique, by A. J. Wauters, 1884-1898; Rapport de Baron Dhanis sur la campagne arabe dans le Manyéma, 1895; The Fall of the Congo Arabs, by Dr. Sidney L. Hinde.
CHAPTER XVI
BELGIAN CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE ARABS
(Concluded)
An Arab Traitor.