"
Next morning I left for Leopoldville in a boat much larger than the
_Deliverance_, but with none of her cheer or good-fellowship. This
boat was run by the black wife of the captain. Trailing her velvet
gown, and cleaning her teeth with a stick of wood, she penetrated to
every part of the steamer, making discipline impossible and driving
the crew out of control.
I was glad to escape at Kinchassa to the clean and homelike bungalow
and beautiful gardens of the only Englishman still in the employ of
the State, Mr. Cuthbert Malet, who gave me hospitably of his scanty
store of "Scotch," and, what was even more of a sacrifice, of his
precious handful of eggs. A week later I was again in Boma, waiting
for the _Nigeria_ to take me back to Liverpool.
Before returning to the West Coast and leaving the subject of the
Congo, I wish to testify to what seemed to me the enormously
important work that is being done by the missionaries. I am not
always an admirer of the missionary. Some of those one meets in
China and Japan seem to be taking much more interest in their own
bodies than in the souls of others. But, in the Congo, almost the
only people who are working in behalf of the natives are those
attached to the missions. Because they bear witness against Leopold,
much is said by his hired men and press agents against them. But
they are deserving of great praise. Some of them are narrow and
bigoted, and one could wish they were much more tolerant of their
white brothers in exile, but compared with the good they do, these
faults count for nothing.
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