Having so happily accomplished his object for the sake of humanity, Stanley determined to pursue his journey in the interest of geographical science.

His object then was to gain a complete knowledge of Loualaba, of which he had only had a glimpse.
Cameron was then lost in the provinces of Central Africa, when, in November, 1874, Stanley quitted Bagamoga, on the eastern coast.
Twenty-one months after, August 24th, 1876, he abandoned Oujiji, which was decimated by an epidemic of smallpox.

In seventy-four days he effected the passage of the lake at N'yangwe, a great slave market, which had been already visited by Livingstone and Cameron.

Here he witnessed the most horrible scenes, practised in the Maroungou and Manyouema countries by the officers of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
Stanley then took measures to explore the course of the Loualaba and to descend it as far as its mouth.

One hundred and forty bearers, engaged at N'yangwe, and nineteen boats, formed the material and the force of his expedition.
From the very start he had to fight the cannibals of Ougouson.