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THE LAST YEARS OF LIVINGSTONE.
37
they gone diagonally with the current, though that would
have been a distance of three miles, many of them would
have gained the shore. It was horrible to see one head
after another disappear, some calmly, others throwing their
arms high up towards the Great Father of all, and going
down. Some of the men who got canoes out of the crowd
paddled quick with hands and arms, to help their friends;
three took people in till they all sank together. One
man had clearly lost his head, for he paddled a canoe
which would have held fifty people straight up stream
nowhere. The Arabs estimated the loss at between four
and five hundred souls. Dugambe sent out some of
his men in one of the thirty canoes which the owners
in their fright could not extricate, to save the sinking.
One lady refused to be taken on hoard because she thought
that she was to be made a slave; but he rescued twenty-
one, and of his own accord sent them the next day home.
Many escaped and came to me, and were restored to their
friends. When the firing began on the terror-stricken
crowd at the canoes, Tagamalo’s band began their assault
on the people on the west of the river, and continued the
fire all day. I counted seventeen villages in flames, and
next day six. Dugambe’s power over the underlings is
limited, but he ordered them to cease shooting. Those in
the market were so reckless they shot two of their own
number. Tagamalo’s crew came back next day in canoes,
shouting and firing off their guns as if believing that they
were worthy of renown.
“ The next day, about twenty head-men fled from the