In this condition these people were found by Uledi and Kachéché who had returned from Embomma with relief in the shape of provisions, forwarded through bearers, rapidly despatched by the proprietors of the English factory into whose hand Stanley’s letter had fallen. And it may be readily imagined what a change was wrought in the camp by the timely arrival of these provisions. [Illustration: REPELLING THE ATTACK OF THE PIRATICAL BANGALA.] As to Stanley, he speaks for himself: “With profound tenderness Kachéché handed to me the mysterious bottles, watching my face the while with his sharp detective eye as I glanced at the labels, by which the cunning rogue read my pleasure. Pale ale! Sherry! Port wine! Champagne! Several loaves of bread--wheaten bread, sufficient for a week. Two pots of butter. A packet of tea! Coffee! White loaf sugar! Sardines and salmon! Plum pudding! Currant, gooseberry, and raspberry jam! “The gracious God be praised forever! The long war we had maintained against famine and the siege of woe were over, and my people and I rejoiced in plenty! It was only an hour before we had been living on the recollections of the few peanuts and green bananas we had consumed in the morning; but now, in an instant, we were transported into the presence of the luxuries of civilization. Never did gaunt Africa appear so unworthy and so despicable before my eyes as now, when imperial Europe rose before my delighted eyes and showed her boundless treasures of life, and blessed me with her stores.” On the 9th August, 1877, the 999th day from the date of his departure from Zanzibar, he prepared himself to greet the van of Civilization. He was met on the road by an escort of Europeans, residents of Boma, who accorded him a gracious welcome to the town. Three little banquets were given him, and he was generously toasted by everybody. On the 11th, at noon, the expedition embarked on the _Kabinda_, an English steamer, for the town of Kabinda. “A few hours later,” says Stanley, “and we were gliding through the broad portal into the ocean, the blue domain of Civilization! “Turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty river on whose brown bosom we had endured so greatly, I saw it approach, awed and humbled, the threshold of the water immensity, to whose immeasurable volume and illimitable expanse, awful as had been its power and terrible as had been its fury, its flood was but a drop. And I felt my heart suffused with purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, and who had enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, and to trace its mightiest river to its ocean bourne.” The expedition, after a stay of eight days at Kabinda, was kindly taken on board the Portuguese gunboat _Tamega_ to San Paulo de Loanda. From thence through the kindness and courtesy of the English officers of the Royal Navy, who had placed H. M. S. _Industry_ at Stanley’s disposal, the expedition was given passage to Cape Town.