heir
working "on the chain." He begged the captain to liberate him, who of
course had not the power to do so even if he had wished, for the man had
been sentenced for a serious theft and was now on his way to a convict
settlement. The Chief therefore, told his son he was to give no trouble
to the authorities and tried to comfort him by saying he would see the
railway and Boma and the great ships which went to Europe. These
prisoners gave no trouble at all. They were fed on the same food as the
crew and did a certain amount of work, the only sign that they were
criminals, being the chain which bound them together.

On the 21st we reached Bumba and shipped a good deal of coffee. Here it
was necessary to give the _chicotte_ to one of the crew for continually
shirking work. He was given twenty five lashes, but it did not seem to
affect him physically or morally, for immediately afterwards he smiled,
rubbed himself and then slowly walked ashore to carry bags of coffee and
while his fellows were hastening to finish their task, he was
deliberately loitering about. Next time he will be dismissed and then he
will find it difficult to find employment.

On the following day we stopped at Dobo, one of the Posts of the Mongala
Company, which has been taken over by the State. The Company found it
was very difficult to make the people work and some serious charges of
cruelty were proved against the officials. The Bangala tribe are
however, very savage and only a short time ago a trader was killed and
his body cut up ready for eating when some troops arrived and rescued
it. The Government therefore, sent a punitive expedition into the
country.

There are very few villages on the river, and no signs that there have
ever been any, for the forest grows to the water's edge in an
uninterrupted line. At sunset we arrived at Lisala, which is a large
military training camp, well constructed and managed. In it about a
thousand savages are being converted into clean, smart-looking
soldiers.

Next day we passed the _Kintamo_., which was forcing its way up against
the stream with a cargo of rails directed to Stanleyville. On the 24th
we stopped at Mobeka, which is situated at the point where the Mongala
river runs into the Congo and was the chief post of the Mongala Company.
It is surrounded by a brick wall, except towards the river, and access
to the Post from the native village is through stout wooden gates. At
one place is a kind of watch