15th July, 1871.—­The reports of guns on the other side of the Lualaba all the morning tell of the people of Dugumbe murdering those of Kimburu and others who mixed blood with Manilla.  “Manilla is a slave, and how dares he to mix blood with chiefs who ought only to make friends with free men like us”—­this is their complaint.  Kimburu gave Manilla three slaves, and he sacked ten villages in token of friendship; he proposed to give Dugumbe nine slaves in the same operation, but Dugumbe’s people destroy his villages, and shoot and make his people captives to punish Manilla; to make an impression, in fact, in the country that they alone are to be dealt with—­“make friends with us, and not with Manilla or anyone else”—­such is what they insist upon.

About 1500 people came to market, though many villages of those that usually come from the other side were now in flames, and every now and then a number of shots were fired on the fugitives.

It was a hot, sultry day, and when I went into the market I saw Adie and Manilla, and three of the men who had lately come with Dugumbe.  I was surprised to see these three with their guns, and felt inclined to reprove them, as one of my men did, for bringing weapons into the market, but I attributed it to their ignorance, and, it being very hot, I was walking away to go out of the market, when I saw one of the fellows haggling about a fowl, and seizing hold of it.  Before I had got thirty yards out, the discharge of two guns in the middle of the crowd told me that slaughter had begun:  crowds dashed off from the place, and threw down their wares in confusion, and ran.  At the same time that the three opened fire on the mass of people near the upper end of the marketplace volleys were discharged from a party down near the creek on the panic-stricken women, who dashed at the canoes.  These, some fifty or more, were jammed in the creek, and the men forgot their paddles in the terror that seized all.  The canoes were not to be got out, for the creek was too small for so many; men and women, wounded by the balls, poured into them, and leaped and scrambled into the water, shrieking.  A long line of heads in the river showed that great numbers struck out for an island a full mile off:  in going towards it they had to put the left shoulder to a current of about two miles an hour; if they had struck away diagonally to the opposite bank, the current would have aided them, and, though nearly three miles off, some would have gained land:  as it was, the heads above water showed the long line of those that would inevitably perish.