To lighten the work of preparation for departure and to compensate for his refusal to show himself in the provinces, Stanley granted Emin’s request that an officer of the expedition might go back with him. Jephson was selected for this by no means easy position, and a letter was given him to the Khedive and his minister which read: “I am sending you one of my officers with instructions to read this to you. I am going back to bring my people and goods and settle upon the Nyanza. In a few months I shall be here again to listen to what you may purpose. If you say ‘We go to Egypt’ I will take them by a safe route. If you say ‘We will not leave the country,’ then I shall say farewell to you and go back with my own to Egypt.” Stanley made two other propositions. In case he and his people decided not to go back to Egypt he (Stanley) would go with him and his people to the northeastern corner of Victoria Lake, establish a residence there and a chain of stations to Mombasa—a plan which would certainly be frustrated by the hostility of the natives. At last Stanley offered to incorporate the Equatorial Provinces with the Congo Free State, provided an unbroken union could be secured to the west coast. The fate which attended the rescue expedition was sufficiently eloquent to spare a reply to either proposition. So Stanley took his way back through the gloomy forest and left Emin making preparations for his departure. Chapter X The Mutiny