It is due to them that Europe and the
United States know the truth about the Congo. They were the first to
bear witness, and the hazardous 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.
Pages:
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115