Then each of the eight volunteers was asked to say a few words to the friends who were taking leave of them.

Mr.Mackay, the young engineer, was the last to speak.

Looking round on those who were sending him out, he said: 'There is one thing which my brethren have not said, and which I want to say.

I want to remind the Committee that within six months they will probably hear that one of us is dead.' There was a great silence in the room as he spoke these startling words.
'Yes,' he went on, 'is it at all likely that eight Englishmen should start for Central Africa and all be alive six months after?
One of us at least--it may be I--will surely fall before that.

But what I want to say is this, when the news comes do not be cast down, but send some one else immediately to take the vacant place.' Mr.Mackay was not wrong.