rdous work they still are doing for their
fellow men is honest, practical Christianity.

VI

OLD CALABAR

While I was up the Congo and the Kasai rivers, Mrs. Davis had
remained at Boma, and when I rejoined her, we booked passage home on
the _Nigeria_. We chose the _Nigeria_, which is an Elder-Dempster
freight and passenger steamer, in preference to the fast mail
steamer because of the ports of the West Coast we wished to see as
many as possible. And, on her six weeks' voyage to Liverpool, the
_Nigeria_ promised to spend as much time at anchor as at sea. On the
Coast it is a more serious matter to reserve a cabin than in New
York. You do not stop at an uptown office, and on a diagram of the
ship's insides, as though you were playing roulette, point at a
number. Instead, as you are to occupy your cabin, not for one, but
for six, weeks, you search, as vigilantly as a navy officer looking
for contraband, the ship herself and each cabin.

But going aboard was a simple ceremony. The Hotel Splendide stands
on the bank of the Congo River. After saying "Good-by" to her
proprietor, I walked to the edge of the water and waved my helmet.
In the Congo, a white man standing in the sun without a hat is a
spectacle sufficiently thrilling to excite the attention of all, and
at once Captain Hughes of the _Nigeria_ sent a cargo boat to the
rescue, and on the shoulders of naked Kroo boys Mrs. Davis and the
maid, and the trunks, spears, tents, bathtubs, carved idols, native
mats, and a live mongoos were dropped into it, and we were paddled
to the gangway.

"If that's all, we might as well get under way," said Captain
Hughes. The anchor chains creaked, from the bank the proprietor of
the Splendide waved his hand, and the long voyage to Liverpool had
begun. It was as casual as halting and starting a cable-car.

According to schedule, after leaving the Congo, we should have gone
south and touched at Loanda. But on this voyage, outward bound, the
_Nigeria_ had carried, to help build the railroad at Lobito Bay, a
deckload of camels. They had proved trying passengers, and instead
of first touching at the Congo, Captain Hughes had continued on
south and put them ashore. So we were robbed of seeing both Loanda
and the camels.

This line, until Calabar is reached, carries but few passengers,
and, except to receive cargo, the ship is not fully in commission.
During this first week she is painted, and holystoned, her carpets
are bea