With such a redoubtable fighter as Gongo Lutete to contend with, it was clear to Lieut. Dhanis that no time must be lost. Believing, with von Moltke, that the best defence against your enemy is to attack him, Dhanis moved against Lutete without delay, and brought him to battle on the 23d of April, and again on the 5th and 9th of May. The first two engagements were undecisive. The third proved a hard fight. At first the fortunes of the day were all in favour of the Arabs; and when his native auxiliaries turned and fled it seemed impossible for Lieut. Dhanis to gain the victory. But that very circumstance, so disconcerting in itself, saved the Belgians. As the Arabs advanced, they shouted: “Do not fire! These are natives; make them prisoners.” It was a fatal command. The Belgians rallied, and received their foes with such a tremendous fusillade that they were thrown into confusion and took refuge in flight. Gongo Lutete surrendered unconditionally to Lieut. Dhanis, and professed himself henceforth a faithful vassal of the Congo State. He was an able man, probably the most intelligent of the Negro race in the country, and certainly the best acquainted with the wily Arab and his ways; so, after some hesitation, his overtures of friendship were accepted. The force which Gongo Lutete had commanded being now at the disposal of the Belgians, its first employment under its new masters was the establishment of a new post on the Lomami, at Gandu, on the route to Nyangwe and Kassongo. [Sidenote: Arab Treachery.] Meanwhile Sefu, son of Tippo Tip, had not been inactive. With cunning worthy of his father, he had no sooner returned from Stanley Falls to Kassongo than he made war upon the station there and seized it. Two Belgian officers, Lieutenants Lippens and De Bruyn, were also captured by him, to whom he confided the comforting assurance that he only refrained from putting them to death because he hoped to find them useful as hostages in his negotiations with the Congo Government. Sefu had for his ally Munie Moharra, chief of Manyema, a powerful Arab leader. Between them they raised a formidable force, which they hastened to employ against the Belgians. Before doing so, however, they stated the terms upon which they would make peace. As these terms included, among other provisions, handing over to them Gongo Lutete and the establishment of a new frontier to be indicated by them, there was really nothing for the Belgians to consider. Their terms being, of course, refused, the Arabs marched from Nyangwe and Kassongo in the direction of the Lomami. Their exact numbers are not known; but notwithstanding the defection of Gongo Lutete and his following, it is certain that they were very numerous.