Congo is very bad for all kinds of food. Antelope,
killed in the early morning, is often rotten by the evening, and thus
the difficulty of obtaining fresh food is greatly increased. The
rapidity with which flesh decomposes is, perhaps, the reason why the
natives prefer it in that condition, for as it is so difficult to obtain
meat fresh, they may have acquired the taste for it rotten, just as some
civilised people train their palates to prefer game high. It is however,
very disgusting to see them eating. One day a carcase of a wild pig in a
highly decomposed condition was picked up by one of the paddlers on the
Ubangi. This was cut up and shared among the canoes and part of it fell
to my crew. Next day a most unpleasant smell accompanied us all the
forenoon and no one could detect the cause, in fact, none of the natives
noticed it. At lunch time however, the polemen produced a basket full of
rotten flesh which they had stored in the front part of the canoe and
thus given me the full benefit of it. As they commenced eating it raw,
it was rather too much and I promptly ordered them to the other end of
the boat where I could neither see nor smell them.

[Illustration: THE FORCE PUBLIQUE AT STANLEYVILLE.]

After travelling rapidly all day down stream, we tie up at sunset at
Yonanghe and ship some rubber. We start again at daybreak, but as the
wood in this part is both plentiful and good, the captain stops
frequently at the posts and takes a large amount on board. This is a
wise precaution, for lower down the wood is not so good and there is
less of it, while there are more steamers to be supplied. At most of the
villages the natives come to the beach with goods for sale, but the
price of curios is too great here to tempt me.

On the 20th we reach Basoko after running through a terrific tornado
with so much rain that for a time it was impossible to see the banks. It
is supposed to be the dry season here, so this storm is presumably an
exception. Every morning there is a fog on the river more or less dense,
which lasts for an hour or two after sunrise. During this period, it is
often necessary to steam dead slow, for it is impossible to see a boat's
length ahead.

A pathetic incident happened one day. We were transporting eight
prisoners to Boma and when we stopped these carried wood on to the
steamer. One of them was the son of the Chief of a large village at
which we stopped, who thus had the mortification of seeing his