Bolobo.
including its most picturesque parts, is only a microscopic
miniature of the Lower Congo; but we must
have the Rhine steamer, and its wine and food and
accommodations to he able to see it properly. The
Mississippi ? The Congo is one and a half times larger
than the Mississippi, and certainly from eight to ten
times broader. You may take your choice of nearly
a dozen channels, and you will see more beautiful vegetation
on the Congo than on the American river. The
latter lacks the palm and the calamus, while the former
has a dozen varieties of the palm. Besides, it possesses
herds of hippopotami, crocodiles innumerable ; monkeys
are gleefully romping on the islands and the main;
elephants are standing sentry-like in the twilight of the
dark forests by the river side; buffaloes red and black
are grazing on the rich grass plains; there are flocks
of ibis, black and white parrots, parroquets, and guinea-
fowl. The Mississippi is a decent greyish-coloured
stream, confined between two low banks, with here and
there a town of frame houses and brick. The Congo is
of a tea-colour on its left half, and on its right half it
is nearly chalky white. You take your choice, tea or
milk, red or Rhine wine. And as for the towns, why,
I hope the all-gracious Providence will bless our
labour, and they will come by-and-by ; meantime there
is room enough, and to spare, to stow the half of Europe
comfortably on its spacious borders. The Nile ? Ask
any of those gallant English soldiers who have tugged
their way among the Nile cataracts, what they think
of the Nile to spend a holiday upon. The Danube ?
Ah, it is not to be mentioned with the Congo for
scenery ! The Volga ? Still worse. The Amazon ? By
no means. You will have to ascend very far up the
Amazon before you will gee anything approaching
Congo scenery.
Well, you must admit then that if the Congo could
be seen from the deck of a commodious steamer, this
feeling of weariness which we have to contend against
now while ascending at this snail’s pace against the
current, because we have no room to move about,
would be replaced by a more grateful and a cheerier
mood.
At 5 p .m . we generally camp after an advance of
from twenty to thirty miles up river. Thirty miles
would be unusually good progress, because there is fuel
to he cut with, axes and saws, and it will take till nine
o clock at night to cut sufficient for next day’s steaming.
From 5 to 6.30 p .m . all hands excepting the
cooks are engaged in gathering wood, half-dead logs,
or dead trees, which have to be cut into portable'
sizes for transport to the camp. When darkness
alls a great fire is lit, under the light of which the
wood-choppers fall to and cut the. logs into foot lengths
for the boilers. The sound of smiting axes rings
through the dark grove, to be re-echoed by the opposite
; forest, and borne along the face of the river to a great
j distance. I t is varied by the woodman’s chant; a
I chorus is struck up, and under its stirring vocal notes a
inew impetus is given, and the axes are struck stirringly
|rapid. What a moral lesson for vapid-minded white
1883.
May 28.
Bolobo.