Europeans
in Africa.
Bateké, and Babari do I hear the slightest whisper of
dissatisfaction.
Finally comes the last trial of his abilities. The
sectional steamer Le Stanley for the Upper Congo
has arrived. By a fatal accident to Captain Anderson
we are deprived of that officer’s invaluable services.
Captain Hanssens is appointed to a mission requiring
certain abilities which eminently distinguish him alone.
Therefore Lieutenant Valcke is selected for the serious
task of transporting the vessel overland to Stanley
Pool. With sufficient power such a task is by no means
difficult; it is the exasperating tedium of operations
which include the transport of the sections piece by
piece, the oft-repeated marching and counter-marching,
the painful care of the countless miscellanea attached
to the steamer (the loss of a single atom of which
might lead to grave consequences), which, united with
many other troublesome manoeuvres, make the responsibilities
attaching to the work most onerous. That
he was not unequal even to this mission is proved by
his arrival with the steamer halfway, at last accounts,
to Stanley Pool. He is still very young, but thé
qualities that have marked him are neither common
nor usual ; and no doubt this well-deserved recognition
of such merits as he has developed will spur him on in
a career which to-day abounds with hope.
Lieutenants Yangele and Coquilhat are a pair of
most promising young officers of the Belgian army,
who haye employed their “ leave” manfully. . Few
officers in Belgium will ever be called upon to dis