country, I cannot think, but he was exceedingly ill when
he got there, as may easily be imagined, and as soon as he
had sufficiently recovered, he came up to Cameroons, and
obtained his present appointment, after having been kept
and nursed up in the hospital there, to his considerable surprise
after his Congo experiences. He was not hopeful
about the future of that Congo railroad, or of that of
its directors. He quoted as. ■ one of the reasons for his.
. leaving it the doubt that it would ever be finished. Inexplicable
is man ! Why he should have cared whether it was
finished or not as long as it kept on paying him £1 a day, I
do not know. He had kept a diary of the accidents, which
averaged two a day, and usually took the form of something
going off the line, because the railway engines used were so
light as to be flighty, and not really powerful enough to take
up more than two trucks at a time, though always expected
to do so. The wages of the natives employed were from ir.
to ir. 6d. a d a y ; very high pay. The Chinamen imported
as navvies were an awful nuisance, always making palaver.
The Senegal men are dangerous, because the French
officials on the line always support them against other
white men, Senegalese being Frenchmen, just as Kruboys are
Englishmen.'
While I am getting this last news from Congo, the rain keeps
on; pouring down. I presently see one of my men sitting
right in the middle of the road on a rock, totally unsheltered,
and a feeling of shame comes over me in the face of this black
man’s aquatic courage. Besides, Herr von Lucke had said I
was sure to get half-drowned and catch an awful cold, so
there is no use delaying. Into the rain I go, and off we
start. I may remark I subsequently found that my aquatic
underling was drunk. I conscientiously attempt to keep dry,
by holding up an umbrella, knowing that though hopeless it
is the proper thing to do.
We leave the road about fifty yards above the hut, turning
into the unbroken forest on the right-hand side, and following
a narrow, slippery, muddy, root-beset bush-path that was a
comfort after the road. Presently we come to a lovely mountain
torrent flying down over red-brown rocks in white foam ;
exquisitely lovely, and only a shade damper than the^ rest^ o
thinns Seeing this I solemnly fold up my umbrella a
give it 'to Kefalla. My relations, nay, even Mrs. ;Ro^ ' °
blind to a large percentage of my imperfections, say the most
scathing things about my behaviour with regard to <
But really my conduct is founded on sound principles I
know from a series of carefully co^ f ed
carried out on the Devonshire Lynn, that I
a. river: on slippery stepping-stones; therefore knowi g
attempts to keep my feet out of water on y f
placing the rest of my anatomy violently m, I take ch g
Fate and wade. n
This particular stream, too, requires careful wad g,
rocks over which i f flows being arranged m M N
perilous confusion ; however all goes well, and getti g
other side I decide to “ chuck it,” as Captain Davieswould
say, as to keeping dry, for the rain, comes down heavier
thNowewe are evidently dealing with a foot-hillside but
the rain is too thick for one to see two yards in any djection
and we seem to be in a ghost-land forest, for the great pal
and red-woods rise up in the mist before us, and a e
the mist behind, as we pass on. The rocks which edge an
strew the path at our feet are covered with exquisite ferns
and mosses-all the most delicate shades of green imagm-
able and here and there of absolute gold colour, looking
as if some ray of sunshine had lingered too long playing
on the earth, and had got shut off from heaven by the mist,
and so lay nestling among the rocks until it might rejoin
^ The” 'path now becomes an absolute torrent/with mud-
thickened water, which cascades round one’s ankles m a
sportive way, and round one’s knees m the hollows in the
path Five seconds after abandoning the umbrella I am wet
through, but it is not uncomfortable at this temperature, something
like that of a cucumber frame with the lights on, 1 you
can clear your mind of all prejudice, as Dr. Johnson says, an
forget the risk of fever which saturation entails.
o _ , . i i t . _____ a— « n a o m c a n r P t r V