agement is known as "The
Battle of Ball's Run," although Ball did no running. As recently as 1915
one of the Forminiere prospectors, E. G. Decker, was killed by the
fierce Batshoks, the most belligerent of the Upper Kasai tribes. The
Ball-Mohun group, which was the first of many expeditions, remained in
the field more than two years and covered a wide area.

Up to this time gold and copper were the only valuable minerals that had
been discovered in the Congo and the Americans naturally went after
them. Much to their surprise, they found diamonds and thereby opened up
a fresh source of wealth for the Colony. The first diamond was found at
_Mai Munene_, which means "Big Water," a considerable waterfall
discovered by Livingstone. This region, which is watered by the Kasai
River, became the center of what is now known as the Congo Diamond
Fields and remains the stronghold of American engineering and financial
enterprise in Central Africa. On a wooded height not far from the
headwaters of the Kasai, these path-finding Americans established a post
called Tshikapa, the name of a small river nearby. It is the capital of
Little America in the jungle and therefore became the objective of the
second stage of my Congo journey.

[Illustration: A BELLE OF THE CONGO]

[Illustration: WOMEN OF THE BATETELAS]

III

Kinshassa is nearly a thousand miles from Tshikapa. To get there I had
to retrace my way up the Congo as far as Kwamouth, where the Kasai
empties into the parent stream. I also found that it was necessary to
change boats at Dima and continue on the Kasai to Djoko Punda. Here
begins the jungle road to the diamond fields.

Up to this time I had enjoyed the best facilities that the Congo could
supply in the way of transport. Now I faced a trip that would not only
try patience but had every element of the unknown, which in the Congo
means the uncomfortable. Fortunately, the "Lusanga," one of the
Huileries du Congo Belge steamers, was about to start for the Kwilu
River, which branches off from the Kasai, and the company was kind
enough to order it to take me to Dima, which was off the prescribed
itinerary of the vessel.

On a brilliant morning at the end of June I set forth. Nelson was still
my faithful servant and his smile and teeth shone as resplendently as
ever. The only change in him was that his appetite for _chikwanga_ had
visibly increased. Somebody had told him at Kinshassa that the Kasai
country teemed with can