After the Belgian operations on the Uelle and Lualaba, the Arabs became seriously alarmed. They perceived not only their nefarious method of livelihood at stake, but their very existence as a coherent fighting force was also threatened. In dread at this prospect, the Arabs resolved to precipitate matters, and took the offensive. It is not easy to see what other conclusion they could have reached, for the Belgians had now concerted practical measures which rendered their raids upon Negro villages no longer possible, while such Negro chiefs as had hitherto been amenable to Arab influence had been either alienated or killed off in fair fight. A tax on ivory, too, imposed by the Congo Government in 1891, though moderate in amount and perfectly just in its incidence, was bitterly resented by them. It was clear, therefore, that the only hope for the Arabs lay in recovering the country which the Belgians had wrested from them; and as with every day that passed their chances of doing this became more remote, they resolved to stake all that was left to them upon one desperate effort. [Illustration: Camp of Bangalas, Stanleyville.] The first practical proof of this intention came upon the Belgians somewhat as a surprise. M. Hodister, acting on behalf of the Belgian Society of the Upper Congo, a company of merchant adventurers, had founded two stations on the river Lomami. In this act, M. Hodister was held by the Congo Administration to have exceeded the range permitted him, Lieutenant Le Marinel, the Belgian officer commanding that region, having foreseen danger in pressing so closely upon the Arabs, a contingency with which he was not as yet prepared to deal. But the opportunity of striking a blow afforded by Hodister’s precipitate act was too inviting to be neglected, and the Arabs promptly seized it. The blow fell March 15, 1892, near Riba Riba, on the Congo, the Arabs murdering Hodister and his ten white companions. It was not a fight; it was a massacre. Elated by their success, the Arabs next proceeded to burn the factories belonging to the Belgian Society of the Upper Congo, and to kill their inmates; so that, for the moment, the collapse of Belgian power in that section of the country was complete.