Part 16 (1/2)
Now for the last stage of the Congo River trip Like so many of my other experiences in Africa it produced a surprise Oneere about two hundred ine, a rare sound in those parts I thought of aeroplanes and instinctively looked up Flying overhead toward Coquilhatville was a 300-horse power hydroplane containing two people Upon inquiry I discovered that it was one of four ers, mail, and express between Kinshassa and Coquilhatville
The caainst the Germans in East Africa proved the practicability of aeroplanes in the tropics The Congo is the first of the Central African countries to dedicate aviation to commercial uses and this precedent is likely to be extensively followed Fifteen hydroplanes have been ordered for the Congo River service which will eventually be extended to Stanleyville Only those who have endured the agony of slow transport in the Congo can realize the blessing that air travel will confer
I was naturally curious to find out just what the African native thought of the aeroplane Thesilence, everybody on the boat rushed to soht The blacks slapped each other on the shoulder, pointed at the hed and jabbered Yet whenBaluba if he did not think that the aeroplane was a wonderful thing the barbarian si” He summed up the native attitude toward his conqueror I believe that if a white ic or necrohtest surprise
[Illustration: A TYPICAL OIL PALM FOREST]
[Illustration: BRINGING IN THE PALM FRUIT]
At Kwao River, we entered the so-called ”Channel” From this point down to Stanley Pool the river is deep and the current is swift This means that for a brief tiround on a sandbank The whole country-side is changed Instead of the low and luxuriantly-wooded shores the banks beco hour Soon the land adjacent to the river es into foothills and these in turn taper off intoNo wonder Stanley went into ecstasies over this scenery He declared onas any he had seen in Wales or Scotland
In the ”Channel” another surprise awaits the traveller The round on either side of the river and the strong currents of air that sweep up the stream I can frankly say that I really suffered fro distance of the equator I did not feel comfortable until I had donned a heavy sweater
This sudden change in teo natives die under forty They are scantily clad, perspire freely, and lie out at night with scarcely any covering They go to sleep in a hurees lower The natural result is that half of them constantly have colds and the estion of the lungs vies with sleeping sickness as the ravager of Middle Africa, and especially certain parts of the Congo
Kinshassa is situated on Stanley Pool, a lake-like expansion of the Congo more than two hundred square miles in area It is dotted with islands Nearly one-third of the northern shore is occupied by the rocky formations that Stanley named Dover Cliffs They reland and with the sunlight on thenposts of Albion
More than one English service reotten a thrill of hoht of these hills
Stanley Pool has always been associated in my mind with one of the most picturesque episodes in Stanley's life He tells about it in his ain relates it in his Autobiography It deals with Ngalyema, as chief of the Stanley Pool District in the early eighties He deoods for the permission to establish a station here After the explorer had camped within ten miles of the Pool the old pirate pretended that he had not received the goods and sought to extort more
Stanley refused to be bullied, whereupon the chief threatened to attack him in force Let Stanley now tell the story, for it is an illustration of the way he coo native
I had hung a great Chinese gong conspicuously near the principal tent Ngalyema's curiosity would be roused All on, and in its shadoas a cool place where the warriors would gladly rest after a ten-mile march Other of rass, and in the bush round about the caalyema's arrival, the camp seemed abandoned except by myself and a few s a book, and appeared too lazy to notice anyone; but, suddenly looking up and seeingup and seized his hands, and affectionately bade him welcome, in the name of sacred fraternity, and offered hiely cold, and apparently disgruntled, and said:--
”Has notto this country?”
”Nay, it is Ngalyeotten the blood-bond which exists between us It is Ngalyeoods which I paid him What words are these of my brother?”
”Be warned, Rock-Breaker Go back before it is too late My elders and people all cry out against allowing the white o back before it be too late Go back, I say, the way you caalyeuments; but it was not easy to break faith and be uncivil, with plausible excuse His eyes were reaching round seeking to discover an excuse to fight, when they rested on the round, burnished face of the Chinese gong
”What is that?” he said
”Ah, that--that is a fetish”
”A fetish!+ A fetish for what?”
”It is a war-fetish, Ngalyehtest sound of that would fill this ery warriors; they would drop froround, from the forest about, from everywhere”
”Sho! Tell that story to the old woalyema My boy tells me it is a kind of a bell Strike it and let alyema, my brother, the consequences would be too dreadful!