Camp was pitched in Undussuma to give the sick more careful attention and the exhausted ones time to recuperate. A severe epidemic of smallpox broke out there. Emin also had much to endure. His left eye was at last entirely blinded and an injury to his knee, to which at first he paid no attention, became inflamed, owing to the great dampness (it was the rainy season) and caused him much pain. Besides this he suffered from constant insomnia so that he grew very weak and could hardly move about. He was confined to his tent day and night, the prey of gnawing solicitude and racking his brain to find some reason for rescuing something where there was nothing to rescue. One morning the Pasha invited Stuhlmann for an interview. He stated to him that a longer stay in that place would involve the death of all by smallpox and that isolation was impossible. It was his duty to remove the well ones at once. Stuhlmann must start homewards with them while he would follow after with the sick when they recovered. Stuhlmann refused to leave the Pasha, who was sick himself and in need of help, but Emin threw all his authority into the scales. As his superior he must be obeyed and he gave Stuhlmann a written order by which he could justify himself before the world and to his own conscience. So they divided men, weapons, munition, and supplies. Emin kept thirty-eight people, a part of them women and children, while Stuhlmann led one hundred and thirty-three to the coast and as a matter of fact saved them. On the tenth of December, in the early morning, Stuhlmann departed with a sad heart. “I hope,” said Emin, “to see you again in a month. If I am overcome by force and cannot come, remember me to my child.” Only a handshake, a last wave of the hand, and they parted, never to meet again. After Stuhlmann’s departure Emin’s health improved somewhat, but many of the sick died. The natives had fled because of the pest and thus supplies could not be procured and there was great suffering from hunger. Dissatisfaction, drunkenness, and disorder prevailed and Emin had to resort to the lash. The Soudanese were again the worst offenders. In all his troubles Emin always found consolation in his scientific observations, which he entered daily in his diary, notwithstanding his impaired sight. As the sick were now recovering Emin began planning to resume the journey and he succeeded in inducing Ismaili, an Arab, to accompany him to the Congo and procure the necessary porters.