When the steamer arrived at Wadelai, the people crowded to the shore and expressed their joy in loud and enthusiastic shouts. It was like the triumph of a conqueror. The magistrates in white clothes overwhelmed him with expressions of devotion and hand kissing. Honored by the troops, greeted with the thunder of artillery, and overcome with surprise at the cordiality of his welcome, Emin made his way to his residence where he received the congratulations of the officers. They were a faint-hearted, fickle people, however, and if the rebel government had been introduced in the morning, they would have welcomed it with the same enthusiasm. Chapter XI The Tragedy at Jambuja While Emin was thus daily exposed to the danger of death, either at the hands of the Mahdists or his own people, the relief expedition was also near destruction more than once. It seems almost incredible that Stanley should have taken the same route through the dreadful forest in which he had wandered for six months, at the cost of losing half his people. When he left half of his force with six hundred carriers in Jambuja, on the banks of the Aruwimi, under command of Major Bartelot, it was with the expectation that Tippoo Tib, the famous Arab merchant, would speedily furnish transportation and enable them to reach the Albert Nyanza. But Stanley had been out of the forest for months and not one of Major Bartelot’s men had appeared. A year had passed since he left them and now he asked himself the question, “Why do they not come? Have they suffered some calamity, perhaps sickness, revolt of the people, or destruction by the natives? Perhaps they have all perished, and these two hundred and seventy-nine men and the supplies of every kind promised to Emin are all gone.” These questions tormented the leader and no satisfactory answer came to quiet him. After leaving the sick and incapacitated in Fort Bado, under the care of Dr. Parke, he plunged again into that dark, gloomy forest, that cruel wilderness, from which his people had but just escaped. At last, on the seventeenth of August (1888) the expedition, after finding several canoes on the river, came to a great bend of the Aruwimi at Benalja and observed upon the opposite bank a village with a strong enclosure. White costumes were visible, and looking through the field glass Stanley saw a red flag, upon which was a white crescent and star, the Egyptian symbols. Stanley sprang to his feet shouting, “The major, boys! Row faster!” Loud cries and hurrahs followed and the canoes shot swiftly ahead. When within hearing distance he called to some men upon the shore: “What people are you?” “We are Stanley’s people.” They rowed ashore and Stanley sprang out and addressed a European officer: “Well, Bonney, how are you? Where is the major?” “The major is dead, sir.” “Dead! Good God! How did he die? Of fever?” “No, sir, he was shot.” “By whom?”