INTRODUCTION
M R. LIONEL DECLE, the author of this book, has
conferred upon me the honour of introducing him
to the British public. During the last three years he has
been heard from repeatedly. After his return from his
great African journey he came into notice as the champion
of the cause of Mr. Stokes, that unfortunate trader
who, it will be remembered, was so summarily hanged by
an official of the Congo State. He then became attached
to the P a ll M all Gazette, for which he wrote several
vigorous articles upon African events and politics, and
afterwards he represented the journal in Russia during
the last days of the late Czar and .the wedding of the
present Emperor. To students of African travels and
geography he is not so well known as this book shows
he deserves to be.
Mr. Decle, though domiciled in England, is a Frenchman
by birth and parentage, and comes from a good-
family. From his earliest youth he exhibited ah aptitude
for travel. At nine years old he was taken to Italy, and
a year later his parents1 took him to Egypt and- up the
Nile. Ih successive years he accompanied his people to
Belgium, Holland', Germany, Spain, Switzerland, until-he
had almost gone the round of Europe. When he Was
fourteen he first became fascinated -with- mountain climbing,
and by the time he was eighteen he had accomplished
several first ascents and climbed many of the highest
peaks of the Alps. It was during this period.-that he
acquired the art of observing, through his father’s-insistvii