Stanley had insisted on speed and had…

Stanley had insisted on speed and had left for Lake Albert on June 28.

The Advance Column, originally expecting to take two months, had been unprepared for the extreme difficulties of travel through the Ituri forest and does not reach the lake until December; only one hundred and sixty-nine of the three hundred and eighty-nine who had set out from Yambuya are still alive.

The trees of the forest are so tall and dense that little light reaches the floor (thus the phrase "darkest Africa"), food is scarcely to be found, and the local Pygmies take the expedition for an Arab raiding party, shooting at them with poisoned arrows.

The expedition stops at two Arab settlements, Ugarrowwa's and Ipoto, in each case leaving more of their equipment behind in exchange for food.

The forest eventually gives way to grassland, and on December 13, the expedition is looking down on Lake Albert.

However, Emin is not there, and the locals have not seen a European in many years.