by my preparations, and detained still fur-seeming ease. However, I looked after ther, on my return to Matadi, owing to the local chief's failure to fulfil his promise of procuring the necessary carriers. Vivi Station the native town from which it takes its name is mentioned by Captain Tuckey as Banza Bibbi-is now, like Léopoldville, a thing of the past. Its situation, on the corner of a jutting hill, which at first seemed eminently healthy, has been found to be the reverse; cold winds blow with extreme force down the confined gorge of the Congo, at the entrance to which it is placed; and chills are, on that river, as fruitful a source of fever as malaria. Matadi has taken the place of Vivi, so far as a starting-point was necessary for the caravan road, and the buildings of the station have mostly been transferred bodily to Boma. them as sharply as I could, having been warned that they would attempt to practise on the ignorance of a mundeli* new to the country; and accordingly, it was not long before I saw a burden cast down, and its bearer afflicted with a most conspicuous and demonstrative shivering fit. I had to walk up to him and remonstrate' by means of the long staff which every white man in the country carries, and which certainly, on every application, effected a marvellous cure. It was the only thing I could do at the time, as I had no power to stop their pay; and had I yielded, and allowed them to rest, they would have remained on the spot till their provisions were consumed, and then decamped, leaving their loads and me alone in the wilderness. My first care after securing my stores We did not march above ten miles on consisting of two boxes of "chop" (the the first day. I made the mistake of walktechnical name for all provisions out here),ing at the head of my caravan, which, from cooking utensils, tent, camp-bed, and lantern was to get rid of all European trunks and portmanteaus, and have my worldly goods made up into packs of some sixty pounds each; sixty-five pounds is the regulation load for a pagazi, but it is better to be on the safe side, and the Lighter the load, the less chance is there of its being suddenly dropped-most likely in some inconvenient place, such as the middle of a stream. I had some things soaked and spoiled in this way. At last my men were mustered -seven carriers, and two native soldiers to serve as escort, besides my interpreter and gunbearer, a Zanzibari who had crossed Africa with Stanley. We started at 7 A. M. on the 10th of June, 1886, and then my sorrows began. Two other white men, a Swede and a German, started at the same time, with their respective carriers, but owing to the nature of the country we soon got separated, and had to shift each for himself. The so-called road was a path about nine inches wide, bounded on either side by a dense jungle of cane-like grass that was never lower than my shoulders, and sometimes rose to a height of sixteen or twenty feet. After leaving Matadi, it passes over two hills, which looked to me almost vertical; indeed it does not deserve the name of a path, being only the bed of a torrent, which affords the pedestrian the pleasant exercise of hopping from one huge boulder to another. It was a marvel to me how the carriers contrived to keep their footing; but they walked bolt upright, carrying their loads on their heads with the nature of the path, had to proceed in single file; and, as a consequence, had every now and then to walk back, say a quarter of a mile, to cure an attack of sickness somewhere in the rear. By the time I caught sight of the Livingstone inland mission station at Palaballa, it was 5 P.M., and I was so exhausted with heat and thirst, that I left to the soldiers the task of bringing up stragglers, and made for the house at once, where I received a hearty welcome. By 6.30 my carriers had not arrived- - this was serious, as my tent, bedding, and "chopboxes were in their hands. I had tea with the missionary and his wife, but they had not a room in the house to offer me, and I was fain to seek the hospitality of the black potentate of the district, one Nozo, who has built a hut, rather more elaborate than most of the dwellings in those parts, for the entertainment of travelling whites. His Majesty presented me with the key, and ordered one of his subjects to show the way with a lantern. I found two beds, but only one of them furnished with a mosquito-curtain, and that occupied by one of my companions of the morning so that I was forced to make myself as comfortable as I could in the other. By 6.30 the next morning, the men had dropped in by twos and threes, having lain down to sleep here and there by the roadside, and I got them all started an hour later. This time, taught by experience, I made them all walk in front of me so that no one could be taken ill with • White man. of the world entirely, so to speak; for, though I had my wish in being appointed to the Upper Congo, I had just heard from Dhanis, who was going with me to Bangala, that we were only to have a mail once in six months. out getting directly under my feet,-keep- | not without a sigh of regret at going out ing my interpreter close beside me with my rifle and revolver. I was greatly disappointed, however, in my hopes of shooting, as, with the exception of a couple of good-sized birds, and a distant view of two elephants (which it was no use at tempting to stalk, as I had just broken the spring of my rifle), I saw nothing worth wasting cartridges at. I reached Léopoldville in about three weeks, without any adventures more exciting than a difference of opinion with my carriers (which was ultimately arranged in a satisfactory manner) at the crossing of the Inkissi River and an attack of fever, which delayed me four or five days. At Léopoldville I received orders to go to Bangala on board the A. I. A. (Association Internationale Africaine), a launch of ten tons, to which I was appointed as engineer. She had lately been repaired and greatly improved by the engineer of the State, who had transferred to her the engine and boiler of the old Royal, now reduced to the rank of a lighter. Her speed had been much increased, and a sun-deck put up from stem to stern, which enabled us to travel with a great degree of comfort during the heat of the day. This work was done under great difficulties for want of tools, the nearest lathe being at Boma. The small turning was executed by means of a drilling-machine, while the larger articles had to be chipped and filed true by hand. The En Avant was just then out of water undergoing like repairs; and should Stanley return to the Congo now, he would hardly know his steamers for the same boats in which he ascended the river to found the Free State. Every one on the Congo rises early, breakfast being served at 6 A.M., after which all proceed to their work till 11, when lunch is ready. After lunch comes the siesta, and till 2 P.M. the station is as quiet as the city of London on Sunday. At 2 we turn to again till 5.30. Dinner comes on at 6 P.M. And thus the routine goes on day after day, varied only by the arrival and departure of caravans or steamers. I was kept pretty busy; but owing to a delay of the caravan in bringing up stores for Bangala, I did not start for the latter place till nearly a month after my arrival at Léopoldville, and in this time I contrived to visit Kinchassa, and have a look at Stanley Pool-a splendid sheet of water for pleasure-sailing, if any one out here had time for that. At last all the stores arrived, and I left Léopoldville on the morning of July 18th, The captain of the A. I. A. had been nearly three years on the Congo, and was well up in all "dodges "for getting along; so we not only made good progress, but managed to be very comfortable, on the whole. He had only five months more to stay in the country, and talked nearly every day of his return home. Poor fellow, he was never to see his home again! The little A. I. A. was heavily loaded, so I was very glad to find that we only had one passenger, Lieutenant Dhanis; the rest of the officers appointed to the upper river were to follow next day by the Stanley (a stern-wheeler, and the largest steamer owned by the State on the Upper Congo). The crew consisted of Captain D- and myself, nine Zanzibaris, and two boys. We also had four native passengers, but these remained for ward with the crew. Our voyage was very pleasant as far as Bolobo, where the river widens and the banks become level. Here the many intricate channels and shifting sandbanks, as well as floating islands and loose trees, make navigation a hard task even for Mark Twain's Mississippi pilot. No lead-line is used, but a native is sta tioned in the bows of the boat with a twenty-foot pole, with which he feels for soundings; and unless accurate measure ments are wanted for purposes of survey, this method answers well enough. all was going smoothly, and the unassisted efforts of the fireman and greaser were sufficient to keep the engine right, I amused myself with "hippo" shooting; but though I killed more than one, they sank, and could not be recovered. I thought myself sure of one which was standing in the shallows, and indeed mor tally wounded him, but he sprang into deep water and disappeared at once. When We had been out about six days, when we stopped for the night not far from Lu kolela. As wood is the only fuel used in these steamers, a party of men (who rest by day) are sent ashore every night to cut the next day's supply, while the boat is anchored till morning. Having landed the woodcutters, and made everything right, we then-the captain, Lieutenant Dhanis, and myself-sat down to dinner, and soon after it was over I turned in, being very tired. I should explain that 3 2 My first view of Bangala was not enchanting. All I could see before me in the dusk of an African evening when I stopped the boat was a steep mud-bank, with a house of the same material at the top. I was tired, hungry, and ready to fall asleep on my feet, and it was not particularly cheering to find that not a spare room was to be had in the station; however, I slept soundly enough, in spite of the mosquitoes, wrapped in my blanket, on a native mat under the mess-room table. He The Stanley arrived next day, bringing, among other officers, Captain Coquilhat, under whose orders, as chief of Bangala station, I was to be for the future. was warmly welcomed by the Bangalas, with whom he is a great favorite, and who got up a grand dance and malafu-drinking that night in his honor. Three days after, the steamer left for Stanley Falls, and it was then only that I really had time to look round and gain a better impression of the station than I had re there are no cabins in the A. I. A. Our | Dhanis and myself being both new to the We were compelled at length to proceed, as we had orders to reach Bangala before the Stanley, but should have been unable to do so had we not had on board a Zanzibari who was well acquainted with the river, and able to act as pilot, tion, and even taking a light into the room would have been a hazardous experiment had I not made myself acquainted with the position of the various items. Indeed, one night while a regular tropical thunderstorm was raging, Captain Coquilhat rushed in, in a state of the greatest alarm, entreating me to come and share his room, as he feared I might be shot by the igniting of the cartridges. But as the danger was about the same in any part of the station-since the barrels of powder would have blown the whole building into the middle of the Congo — I could see no advantage in a change of quarters, and thanked him, but remained where I was, | for miles on either side of the river. and went to sleep. The Even in the dry season this land is a Captain Coquilhat was the founder of swamp, so that Bangala, standing between the station in 1883, and the house does Lukolela and Mobeka, is practically cut him great credit, considering the limited off from communication with other places means at his disposal, for it has success- except by water. As an instance of the fully resisted all the attacks of the natives continual change to which an alluvial the cannibal river pirates, whose fleet plain, with a large river flowing through of war canoes tried to bar Stanley's pas-it, is subject, I may mention that on my sage in 1877. It is built of "wattle and return from a trip to Léopoldville, after an daub," the woven branches supported by absence of three or four weeks, I found firm upright posts, being plastered over that about an acre of land had been sliced with the clay of the country, which be-off one of the banks by the current. comes extremely hard when baked in the sun, and renders the whole fireproof. The ceiling is formed of logs laid right across from wall to wall, with an eight-inch layer of clay spread all over them, and over all is a roof of palm leaves, supported on pillars standing at a distance of eight feet from the walls, and forming a verandah all round. This roof can be set on fire and burnt right off —indeed, I believe this has happened without injuring the rest of the building in the slightest degree; and thus the great native weapon – fire is rendered harmless. The windows are small, iron-barred, and placed very high; and so long as ammunition lasted, three or four white men could hold the place against all the tribes on the Congo. The two doors are the weak point, but could, in case of need, be defended by the mountain Krupp guns. The new houses have been built on the same principle, but are stronger and better in every way, as the chief of the station was well supplied with tools, and had a working force of sixty men, whereas Captain Coquilhat planned and executed the original building with ten men, half-adozen axes, and one saw. station itself stands on some high ground in the middle of the native town of Iboko. It is the healthiest post on the Congo, and will, I believe, improve still further as the rice-fields behind it are extended, and the rank tropical vegetation cleared away. Mountain rice flourishes here, and so, I believe, would Indian rice, if sown on some of the higher islands, which are only covered to the depth of three or four inches during the rains, though more or less swampy all the year round. Life in one of the up-river stations is very monotonous. There is, of course, plenty of hard work, as in all new countries, but it soon acquires a certain sameness, particularly when, as is the case at Bangala, one is confined to the station, or at least the village, from one month's end to another. As there are seldom more than three white men at Bangala, without counting myself, who, being attached to the steamer, and frequently sent on trips up and down river, enjoy more variety, the chief of the station is, so to speak, að scriptus gleba, and cannot leave the place; while of other two officers who were there with me for some time, one had not been outside the station in six months, and the "December 31, 1886. I have plenty other only indulged in the daily recreation to do, as the station is but half finished; of inspecting the rice crops, and shooting a circular saw is coming up by the Stan- hawks while doing so. There is so much ley; bricks are being made, and twelve work to do that, even for those who are Bangalas employed by the State bring in not tied to the spot, shooting, the only a big log of mahogany every day. These practicable amusement of the country, is are piled in the station-yard to season, and unavailable more especially elephantwhen the saw is set going, the two mud-hunting, which, to be successful, requires houses now here will come down, and four at least a month.* So that when the consmaller ones of brick and plank will be tents of the last mail have been exhausted, built in their places, and every man will have a house to himself." Bangala, as I have already stated, is situated in the middle of the plain which extends from Stanley Falls to Bolobo. The Congo is here choked with constantly shifting sandbanks and islands, which are under water every rainy season; indeed, the low shores between Bolobo and Lukolela, and also between Mobeka and Upoto, are flooded * Elephants are always on the travel, eating as they go, and a man who sets out to follow their tracks is weeks. There are elephants in the cataract region, considered lucky if he comes up with them in three between Vivi and Stanley Pool, but the natives do not hunt them, buying their ivory from tribes farther inwas told that the elephants, knowing that the annual At Lukungu (on the road to Léopoldville), I grass-fires destroy their food, never see a light by night without making for it, and attempting to tread it out if possible; and was warned for this reason never to keep a light in my tent, or let my carriers make their fire too land. work, eat, and sleep is the routine of our remained undiscovered till the engineers of the State; and at the two mission stations some six white men, with their servants and native workmen, whose numbers I do not know. At Kinchassa, seven miles distant, is another State station with two or three white men, a Dutch trading-house with two, and another mission station with At the time of my first arrival in the four or five. Opposite Kinchassa is the country, a like difficulty was anticipated in French station of Brazzaville, with at least a certain station (which I will not name), three or four more, and their workmen and owing to a scarcity of carriers, and the servants. All these have to be supported chief thought it better to put every one on by goats, fowls, etc., purchased from the short allowance. Among other rations, natives, and naturally the supply gave out Portuguese wine was issued at the rate of under so enormous a drain- the people half a bottle per man per day. Each man of the district having taken no pains to had to send his "boy" to the store with provide supplies to meet this extra dehis bottle every other day, and, of course, mand. At last things reached such a there was a rush for the big bottles. The pitch that work had to be stopped, and the storekeeper, instructed by the chief, re- men sent out with supplies of beads, cloth, fused everything larger than a champagne- and brass wire, to scour the country in bottle; and as the second officer in charge search of food. Some of them have told of the station superintended the issuing of me how they would watch the natives prerations in person, there was no chance for paring their manioc (which is a work of any man to get more than his share. time, as it has to be steeped for some This did not please the engineers, who weeks after digging to get rid of the poidecided, at a council held in the mess- sonous juice), track them to their huts, room of the Stanley, that half a bottle per and watch day and night outside the doors day was not enough; and forthwith a till the chikwanga was baked and ready, collection of empty bottles began to accu- when they would at once begin to bargain mulate in the engineers' store, and experi- for it. The whites fared somewhat better. ments were instituted to find out whether as long as the supplies of tinned goods the capacity of any one of them exceeded from Europe lasted; but at length they that of the rest, but with very unsatisfac- too began to give out, and every one tory results. At last some one suggested was prophesying a return to the good the device of blowing out the bulge in the old days of chikwanga and yam, when a bottom of the bottle, so as to leave it small caravan arrived and staved off the nearly flat. No sooner said than done. evil day. Not only was the bottom flattened, but it was found possible by means of heat to stretch slightly. the bottle itself, so that, though it appeared very little larger than an ordinary champagne-bottle, it would hold nearly half as much again. The trick As far as provisions go, Bangala is pretty well off at present; but should a large station like Léopoldville, besides trading and mission settlements, be established here, the same difficulty would soon arise, as the natives live mostly on dried fish, manioc, and bananas. They do not, as a rule, eat goats or fowls themselves, and would not, I conclude, care to take the trouble of breeding them in sufficient numbers to supply a flourishing European colony. Rice has so far proved a success -one pound producing in eighteen months enough to sow three acres; and it |