EXPERIENCES ON THE CONGO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2444, 10 March 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

EXPERIENCES ON THE CONGO.

In the October Blackwood "An English Ktifjineer" gives some interesting sketches of life on the great African river which Mr Stanley's expedition to the relief of Ernin Pasha has agwin invested with

absorbing interest. He shows that voyag- [ ing up the Congo is not unattended with danger. He says: — Having landed the woodcutters and made everything right, we then—tho 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 there are no cabins. Our sleeping places were at the stem of the boat—the captain's being farthest aft; our mosquito curtains were fastened up to her sides ; and our camp-mattresses reached right across lier, as she is only about six feet in the beam. Captain D was in high spirits, and kept playing tunes on a melodeon we had with us, talking in tho intervals of his home at Brussels, and his delight at soon seeing it again. Presently he poured out three glasses of Portuguese wine, and handed one to Lieutenant Dhanis, and the other (under the mosquito curtain) to me. I tasted it and passed it out again, with the remark, " Its too strong; put some Congo in it." He added a little water, and said, "Hang it, man, it's pure water!" and I never heard him speak again, for soon after I turned over and went to sleep, with the strains ot " Myosotis " —which I had asked him to play—ringing in my ears. Next morning, instead of being callod by him as usual, I slept on till roused by Lieutenant Dhanis, who caine

into me with a white scared face, asking,

"Where is tho captain?" "I don't know," 1 replied. "I believe he's in the Congo, suid Dhanis. Of course I was up

likoashot. Sure enough there was the captain's bed—his clothes, boots, hat, all

lying beside it; his mosquito curtain un

torn showed that nothing unusual had taken place, and he could not have got ashore without awakening either Dluinis or myself, as the boat was anchored with hoi.' bow to the bank. We questioned the

ien, but none had seen or heard anything

save occasional sphnhes in the water— which no one on ths Congo ever heed?, as the crocodiles and hippopotami may be heard splashing- all night long. How it happened will never be known till the Day of Judgment; wo could only come to I lie conclusion that he had got up in the night, fallen over the stern of the boat, and gone down (being uuable to swim) without a cry—perhaps never even rising to the surface a second time, as the current is very strong. Wo searched the sandbanks for miles down tho river, and promised large rewards to the natives for finding the captain's body or any traces of him, but in vain. The sea may, but the Upper Congo never gives up its dead. A BED OP POWJMiIt KEGS. Among tbo engineer's experiences, sleeping for a month on kegs of gunpowder is not the least characteristic :

Two now houses were being built"., in one of which I was to take up my quarter*; but till they were finished I was forced to make myself at home ill the gun-room, while Lieutenant Dhanis was relegated to the provision store. For more than a month I slept on a bed formed of two planks, supported at either end 011 a barrel which, 011 examination, T found to contain charges of powder for the two mountain Krupp guns; while boxes of cartridges, cans of turpentine, and every variety of explosive were in closo proximity. Rending in bed was of course out of the question, 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—l could see 110 advantage in a change of quarters, and thanked him, but remained where I was and went to sleep. NOIHrNti LAKGHK THAN A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE. Life in one of the upper stations, says, the writer, is very montonous, and drink is scarce. Wine was issued at the rate of half a bottle per man per day. Each man had to send his " boy" to the store with his bottle every other day, and of course, there was a rush for the big bottles. The storekeeper, instructed by the chief, refused everything larger than a champagnc bottle ; and as the second officer in charge of the station superintended the issuing of rations in person, there was no chance for any man to get more than his share. This did not please the engineers, who decided, at a council held in the mess room off the Stanley, that half a bottle per day was not enough, and forthwith a collection of empty bottles began to accumulate in the engineers' store, and experiments were instituted to find out whether the capacity of anyone of them exceded that of the rest, but with very unsatisfactory results. At last someone suggested the device of blowing out the bulge in the bottom of the bottle, so as to leave it nearly flat. No sooner said than done. Not only was the bottom flattsned, but it was found possible by means of heat to stretch the bcttle itself, so that, though it appeared very little larger than an ordinary champagne bottle, it would hold nearly half as much again. The trick remained undiscovered till the engineers bad all finished their term of service, when the ingenious deviser of the same, being the last to depart for Europe, left his bottle to the second in command, with a hint to keep his eye 3 open for the future. ■ A ROYAL TOI'ER. The cl ief and natives of Bangala are described in a lively fashion : —The Baugalas are a line race physically, being tall, powerful, aud splendidly formed. The chief of Iboko, when I arrived, wasati old man over eighty—his age was reported hy Rome to be eighty-fonv, by otliers eighty-six—-who bad iostoue eyem battle

and possessed fifty wives. He was Over six feet high, with a fine, well-developed figure, and but for his dirty white hair and all riveiled skin would have passed for a man of half his age. He was much at-

tached to Captain Coquilhat (named " Mwafa" or tlie "Eagle by the natives,) and never undertook anything without consulting him. The scene juat alter our arrival at Bangala, when ''Lβ Roi dee Bangalas" being announced as we were all sittiug over our after-dinner ccffee, Mata Bvvyki entered, wearing his royal hat of leopard-skin and attended by several of his wives, and enfolded Captain Coquilhat, gold-spangled uniform and all, in an ample bear's hug was really worth seeiDg. Having released " Mwafa" his Majesty made the circuit of the table to shake hands with the rest of us, and then ordered '■ mesdaines les aauvages" to bring in the mclafa (palm-wine,) which he thereupon helped the company to drink. He was a tremendous toper, consuming quantities of that comparatively iuoouous beverage which would have killed him ten times over had it been anything stronger and more civilised. His death, which took place some three months after I first saw him, was an occasion of great excitement among the Bangalas. As it is their custom on the death of a chief to kill and eat as many men as the deceased had wives—one to be supplied by the parents of each wife—the whole town was anticipating a big feed ; but, alas? how uncertain are the joys of life ! That big feed never came off; for the officer ia command, hearing of Mnta Bwki's death, prepared a coffin lined with red cloth, and, telling the B:ingalar that, as the late king hud been " a big friondof the white men," the "Mindeli" would bury him with appropriate honours, had him safely boxed, nailed up and buried 7ft. deep before anyone could interfere. The disappointment, was great, for it ia the custom to out the dead man in two lengthwise, make up an entire corpse with half of him and half of one of the men killed at the funeral, and bury this. The remaining half is made into a ntew with manioc and bananus, and eateu along , with the rest of the sacrifice!!.

FrGUT WITH AST ARAB VILLAGE. Occasionally the engineer and his party had skirmishes with the Arab*. Higher up we came across an Arab eucamprnont, anil were saluted with a shower of shot j but ™»s wo were quite out of [range it took no effect, and being in haste to reach the Falls we reserved our reply for a future occasion and passed on. Wo had now got beyond the forest-covered plain, arid shortly after passing the Arabs camo to a village as yet untouched by them, whero Captain Coquilhat stopped to buy goats and fowls, and on leaving made the chief a present of cloth and beads. Two days after this we steamed round tho last bend in the river and came in sight of Kiusi Katini, or Wan a l'ussari—the Island on which Stanley Falls Station once stood— when our worst fears we r e at once realised. The blue Hag with the golden star no longer floated above it, and blackened patches of ground were all that remained to show where the "white man's house had been. Owing to the shallow water and rapids we could only take the boat within 500 yards of the station ; and, besides, we did not know the strength of the Arabs, who had now begun to " pot " away at us from both sides of the river, while our force consisted only of Captain Coquilhat, myself an 130 Accra soldiers. Tliey opened fire long before wo were within range J but we soon let them have enough, and they disappeared behind trees, whence they kept up a pretty hot fire, while all we could do was to watch till a bead or arm emerged and then " draw a bead on it." We had about reached the middle of the village (which like all the native towns, had a long river frontage) when the man at the wheel got a shot (apparently) through the jaws, and letting go, fell to the bottom of the boat with a tremendous outcry. The boat swung round, end on to the shove, and received a raking fire fore and aft, which wounded (.'apt. Coquilhat and twel :e others, and would have been still more destructive had not our commander seized the helm and brought her round again. Wc had too many men disabled to attempt storming the village (which, as nearly as we could judge, contained about 200 Arabs), so after firing a few more rounds nf cartridge as a parting salute, we steamed away. None of our men wen: killed, and the wounds received wore not very serious : indeed, the man at tho wheel, as I found to my great disgust when lie came to me to get his chin dressed, had nothing the matter with it except that the skin was scratched by a splinter of lead. Wo had no means of knowing the loss of the Arabs ; but I am certain that several were killed and a good many wounded.