It was not until September of the following year that Lieutenant Cambier, accompanied by Lieutenant Wautier and Dr. Dutrieux, ventured to move forward. On the occasion of his second attempt he started from Bagamoyo. His difficulties, if not so great as on his previous journey, would have daunted any ordinary mortal. His native carriers gave great trouble, continually deserting or threatening to desert him, while crossing the Mgonda-Mkali desert. However, after passing through infinite danger and difficulty, Cambier succeeded in reaching the territory of Mirambo, and prospered so well in his efforts to secure the friendship and assistance of that powerful chief that the two entered into a treaty of alliance, and went through the strangely barbarous ceremony of taking the oath of blood; after which, according to African superstition and custom, they became brothers. This was the first example of a Belgian officer and a native chief taking the oath of blood. It was entered into by Cambier only after he had informed himself that it was a ceremony the sanctity of which the Negro race held to be inviolable, and was therefore exactly suited to his purpose. [Illustration: A Saddle Ox, Kassai.] [Illustration: European Travelling in the Uelle District.] The object of the expedition was to found a station on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Having been provided with some necessary supplies by his newly made “blood brother,” M. Cambier was about to resume his journey, of which another hundred and fifty miles remained, when he learned with consternation of the death of M. Wautier, the able lieutenant to whom he had entrusted the difficult task of keeping open his communications with the coast, who had succumbed to the climate after prolonged exposure to torrential rain. M. Wautier was the third Belgian who had lost his life in the cause of African exploration. His place was taken by M. Bryon, a Swiss traveller of much experience, who rendered good and faithful service. But though so near to his destination, M. Cambier’s difficulties were by no means ended. As before, it was his carriers who made the trouble. They were insubordinate, quarrelled among themselves, and deserted in great numbers, on the slightest provocation, and often for none at all. Finally, however, on August 12, 1879, Karema, on Lake Tanganyika, was reached in safety, and the first station of the International Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Central Africa established by the Belgian Committee. The site chosen for the station was about five thousand acres of land, very healthfully situated, which Cambier obtained by treaty with a local chief. Thus through difficulty and danger, by the expenditure of energy, money, and of life itself, was the object of the first Belgian expedition successfully accomplished, and M. Cambier set out to return to Belgium. When he reached the coast he was surprised to meet a second expedition, of whose existence he knew nothing, which