Book 6: (December 10, 1914 to March 6, 1915)
Diaries List
[NOTE]: {"BIRDS RECEIVED"}
Natives of the Congo consider the hippo about the best meat
there is. Even the Bangwana, nominally Muhabedan eat it, tho they
refuse pigs and elephant, and Kalonga justifies this course as
follows. The hippo living in the water counts as a fish. Were
one to be killed on land, it might be considered as the brother
of the pig; but not otherwise. It seems to be a widespread superstition
that rain must fall the day a hippo is cut up. Rain falls so often
anyhow that it may just as well as not on that day too. The giant
elephant-shrew, if Kuma is right, makes a round flattened nest
of dry leaves, sunk in a slight hollow in the ground. If, the
shrew, when away from home, is caught in a rain, according to
the same authority, he then returns and tears the nest to pieces,
angered by the fact that it did not follow him out and protect
him from the rain. Our boys from the Uele had a very appropriate
word to say when one of them yawned. "Ngonde!" (=crocodile).
[NOTE]:
Dec. 10, Stanleyville-Yanonge-Isangi. Dec. 11, Isangi, Basoko-Bamonbou-Wood
post on N. bank. Dec. 12, Bumba-anchored in mid stream. Dec. 13,
Lie-wood post. Dec. 14, N. Anvers, Ekaturaka. Dec. 15, Coquilhatville.
Dec. 16, Coq.-Wangata-Wood post. Dec. 17, Irebu-Lukolela. Dec.
18, Lukolela-Bolobo. Dec. 19, Bolobo-Kwamouth-Kunzulu. Dec. 20,
Kunzulu-Kinshassa.
DATE: Dec. 10, 1914
LOCALITY: Stanleyville-Yanonge-Isangi
Left Stanleyville about 7:30 this morning, on the steamer "Roi
Albert". Stopped for a short time at Yanonge, the post that
has so long been in the charge of a Negro, Badjoko. Mr. Bailleux,
agronomy, in 1921, says Badjoko is still there. Arrived late in
the afternoon at Isangi, where we spent the night. For a long
way below Stanleyville the river is comparatively narrow, with
high banks and rather few islands. The native villages, appearing
as lines of huts running parallel to the stream, are numerous,
and there seems to be no virgin forest left anywhere. The water
is of course very high, few birds are noticed, especially water-birds,
of which some of the very commonest species, such as the snake-bird,
are lacking.
DATE: Dec. 11, 1914
LOCALITY: Isangi-Basoko-Bamonbou
Stopping for the night at a small wood-post. Shores covered for
the most part with a dense tangled forest, but trees not particularly
tall. At the wood post where we spent the night, in spite of the
ground being nearly on a level with the river (now) the forest
was of a good sort, with rather open undergrowth. Here we heard
the call of the large bluish Halcyon (with black scapulars) and
one of the passengers shot a very young example of the chestnut-headed
Halcyon badius. Numbers of driver ant were crossing a path, and
had attracted some birds, among them an Alethe (woosnami?) which
I shot, as well as the Bleda with yellow-spotted tail. The rufous-tailed
Bleda was heard in the vicinity, as well as one of the larger
"ant-thrushes", that with white patches in the tail,
I believe.
Book 6: Page 2
DATE: Dec. 12, 1914
LOCALITY: Yambinga-Bumba
Stopped at Yambinga, and at Bumba (towards one o'clock) anchored
for night in mid-stream. Shores generally forested, but sometimes
extensive patches of grass, including elephant-grass, about villages
and post. Below Bumba, on right bank, some flat, grassy patches,
dotted with large termite mounds and oil-palms. The forest, too,
contains quantities of oil-palms (raphia palms) and stout rattan
palms, which add much to the attractiveness of the view from the
steamer. Water-birds not numerous. No snake-birds or cormorants,
nor even gray pratincoles seen. Some of the birds observed today
are as follows: Butorides, rather common. Scopus, 2 (1 with nest).
Hagedashia, several. Gypohierax, rather common. Actitis hypoleucus,
common. Alcedo guentheri 2. Corythornis, rather common. Ceryle
maxima, several. C. rudis, several. Halcyon senegalensis, heard.
Merops (pink breast, dusky back), 15, 30. Melittophagus (small
green back), several. Ceratogymna, 3. Bycanistes (small sp.),
15. Lophoceros (blackish), a few. Dark blue swallows, and gray
riverside flycatcher, also noticed. The nest of Scopus seen this
morning was in the fork of a large tree on an island. It was not
yet complete, and entirely open on top; one of the birds standing
on the rim. (See Illustration)
A nest of Gypohierax was likewise observed; a large rough mass
of sticks in a big cottonwood, with one of its owners standing
on it, while numbers of weavers (Hyphantornis c. bobudorffi) had
their nests in the branches all about. These rose-breasted bee-eaters
were the same we collected on our trip up the river in 1909. The
voice is rather loud, but hoarser than any other bee-eater I know.
("chick-k"). A little way above Bumba, the captain tells
me, the river is 58 kilometers wide -this is the broadest part.
DATE: Dec. 13, 1914
LOCALITY: Lie
Passed Lie, tied up for night at a wood-post. Birds seen: Ardea
goliath, 2. Tantalus ibis, 1 ad. Lapwings (xiphidiopterus albiceps),
2. Small egret, 1. Rose-breasted Bee-eater, several small flocks.
ATE: Dec. 14, 1914
LOCALITY: Nouvelle Anvers-Ekaturaka
Passed Nouvelle Anvers, stopped for night at native village,
Ekaturaka. Lapwings (xiphidopterus albiceps), 9. Dissoura, 1-2
and nest? Rose-breasted Bee-eaters. Ardea goliath, 3.
DATE: Dec. 15
LOCALITY: Coquilhatville
Arrived at Coquilhatville at 3pm, stopped there for night. Guyon
reported in jail here, for shooting another white man with Albini
rifle.
Book 6: Page 3
DATE: Dec. 16
LOCALITY: Coquilhatville-Wangata
By canoe (about 3/4 hour). Saw 1 Pseudochelidon flying about
with swallows. Here the steamer was loading copal. Stopped for
night at a wood-post. Here at dusk we heard the loud calling of
a few Lampribis rara!! Today we saw the first snake-bird (Anhinga)
since leaving Stanleyville also some small gray Pratincoles (Glareola
n. emini), which are not common at this season along the Congo.
DATE: Dec. 17
LOCALITY: Irebu-Lukolela
Stopped a short time at Irebu and another post a little further
down, reached Lukolela at 5pm. Here I set off at once to look
for the red Colobus monkeys we saw in 1909, and succeeded in shooting
two, in forest just above station. This bit of forest has the
same high trees and open undergrowth as that of the Ituri, etc.
The raphia palm so common along the banks of Congo in the forest
region differs from those of the Uele and Ituri in having a tall
trunk like an oil palm, tho they may be recognized sometimes by
their hanging bunch of fruit, like that of the wine-palm. The
leaves, which are much used for roofing resemble those of the
oil-palm in general proportions, and have not the long stout stem
of the other species of Raphia I knew in Nepoko and Mangbetu country.
DATE: Dec. 18
LOCALITY: Lukolela-Bolobo
Today we begin to come out of the forest zone, seeing occasional
patches of open grass country studded with bushes, a very pleasant
view, but cut up by stretches of dark forest. Arrived at Bolobo
very late in the afternoon, after a light shower, but I walked
out with Dr. Girling a little way behind the Mission, and was
struck by the general resemblance of the country with the open
parts of the Uele. Many of the birds, too, were the same, and
their familiar voices were most agreeable. Dr. Girling asked me
to dinner, afterwards showing me thru the hospital, and made us
a present of a number of flat skins of mammals from this region,
including the small yellow Manis, and clawed Otter. There is a
very wide stretch of water at Bolobo, it is one of the places
surely where the Congo looks its broadest. Altho the color of
the water at Stanleyville never struck me as unusual -simply the
ordinary dirty green stuff, along the middle of its course, about
Coquilhatville, etc, it is very brown, almost the color of weak
coffee as one looks at it in the shallows. Some of the birds seen
today from the steamer were: Least bittern (brownish sp.), 1 male.
Egrets, 2. Snake-bird. Pink-breasted Bee-eater, 40.
DATE: Dec. 19
LOCALITY: Bolobo-Kwamouth-Kunzulu
Spent some time ashore at Kwamouth in early afternoon. The bushes
are sparser and most stunted than is usual in the Uele, and the
grass still short. But the birds are strikingly similar. The yellow-backed
Coliuspasser macroura, a sort of widow-bird, is molting, it is
evidently the early part of the rainy season here, corresponding
to the month of May, perhaps, in the Uele. At Kunzulu, a new Italian
agricultural colony, late in the afternoon I made an unsuccessful
attempt to
Book 6: Page 4
find partridges, a few of which could be heard calling. There
were places here where the bush was higher, sometimes even small
trees. Heard Scoptelus calling. Numbers of pink-breasted Bee-eaters
flew over, but this was the last place we saw them. An egret and
snake-birds were seen from the steamer.
DATE: Dec. 20
LOCALITY: Stanley Pool-Kinshassa
Steamed down the comparatively narrow part of the Congo known
as the channel, still a mile or more wide, thru the Stanley Pool,
and reached Kinshassa early in the afternoon. Tho there are patches
of woods still, the high tropical forest is clearly finished.
The low flat islands in the Pool have many fan-palms (Borassus)
growing on them, but they are all short, no beautiful tall examples
as one may see in parts of the Uele. In all this trip down from
Stanleyville I did not catch sight of a single hippo or crocodile,
nor did any of the other passengers. This was doubtless because
of the very high water. Near Lie, N. Anvers, etc, where the banks
are low, the native villages and wood-posts were often partially
or even completely flooded, tho it did not seem to worry the inhabitants
much. They could tie their canoes to their door-posts. No skimmers
or pelicans were noticed on this voyage -likely for the same reason.
DATE: Dec. 21
LOCALITY: Leopoldville
Walked over to Leopoldville about noon. Saw Mr. Howell on the
way, and visited Commdt. Moulaert at Leo. Coming back toward dark,
we heard the low wailing call, several times repeated, of the
small brown-spotted rail (Sarothrura elegans), which shows that
its range is fairly wide. Stayed tonight on the steamer but moved
next morning to the Congo Trading Co., a Belgian concern in spite
of its name. Since we passed in 1909, Kinshassa has grown amazingly.
Where formerly there was almost nothing but a state post and a
depot of the SAB there is now a large and important town, with
hotels, a bank, quantities of magazines, steamboats, and a European
barber. To the north side are the very extensive installations
of the "Compagnie Mbila" (Lever Bros) and back inland,
a little further away, the wireless station. Leopoldville shows
but slight signs of growth in comparison.
DATE: Dec. 22
LOCALITY: Thysville
Left this morning by the railroad for Thysville. The old first-class
cars are now run as 2nd class. In the new 1st class wagons there
are double seats, facing each other in pairs, but the slight difference
in comfort is not worth the difference in price, between 200 and
70 francs. Our locomotive burned oil, so the travelling was decidedly
clean compared to what it used to be, and traveling in 3rd class,
as some missionaries do, and other white passengers for short
distances, has lost its terrors save for rain, which is apt to
blow into the open car. Stops for water of course were frequent,
but what a pleasant sort of travel this seems when one is coming
out of the Congo and utterly unused to such conveniences. We arrived
at Thysville in the middle of the afternoon, so after getting
a place at the hotel I had time to take a good walk with Wawe,
the boy who is going down with me. A little climbing up and down
hill here is sufficient to make one realize at once the difficulties
of building a railroad thru such a country; and what a poor country
it seems
Book 6: Page 5
compared to the Eastern parts of the Congo we knew. Grass and
bush country, usually occupying elevated situations alternates
with thick but low wooded tracts. Natives seem few and uninteresting.
A pipe line for crude-oil, lying on the surface of the ground,
follow the line of the rails.
DATE: Dec. 24
LOCALITY: Matadi
Reached Matadi in the latter part of the afternoon, in a rain,
cloudy and showery weather during these two days made our journey
not unpleasant for we were fairly cool and comfortable all the
way. During the second day the country becomes more barren and
open, with the bare red earth showing in spots all over many of
the hills. A few rocky cliffs were seen, but conical or rounded
dirt covered elevations were the rule. Near Matadi there is a
conspicuous high conical rocky eminence known as the "Pic
Cambier", called by natives "Mongo", and near it
some other high rocky hills with more rounded tops, one of which
I visited later. Put up with most of the other passengers from
the train at Schadde's Hotel.
DATE: Dec. 25
LOCALITY: Matadi
It was a most interesting sight this morning -the black population
of Matadi going to the church, diagonally across the street from
our hotel. Never in the Congo had I seen such dress. The men,
I suppose they were mostly clerks and the like, with well creased
clothes, white collars, glistening shoes, and hats and everything
else to match, and their consorts in gowns and often high-heeled
shoes, but seldom with hats, generally brilliant cloths covering
the hair. All this recalled vividly Mr. Lang's description of
what he had seen outside a Negro church in New York. Fashion is
undoubtedly invading the Congo, and has already conquered Boma
and Matadi, but progress on the upper river is slow, and I am
glad to remember seeing but one pair of high-heeled shoes at Stanleyville.
Went out this afternoon to a small hill close to town, where there
were white-rumped swifts and streak-breasted swallows flying about,
and found under a rocky ledge excrement of hyrax, within 100 yards
of the railway track.
DATE: Dec. 26
LOCALITY: Matadi
Went out late in afternoon to some hills E. of Matadi. Saw a
hoopoe.
DATE: Dec. 27
LOCALITY: Matadi
Left Matadi at 2 in the afternoon, visited the hill called "Loadi"
about 2 hrs. walk S., and not far from the so-called Pic Cambier.
On the rocks on tho summit two hyraxes were found and shot (an
adult and an immature female) but I was rather disappointed in
finding practically no hill birds as one would have seen in the
Uele in such a favorable place. There were apparently no rock-thrushes,
or warblers, or larks, etc, peculiar to the spot. The rock was
some sort of dark granite,
Book 6: Page 6
but covered in exposed places with a light gray lichen, which
was matched pretty well by the light pelage of the hyraxes. There
were a few aloes, in places, and a spiky vertical plant which
I am told is Sanseveira and contains a useful fibre. (Has been
planted at Kalamu - near Boma). Much of the soil on the lower
hills is red and ferruginous, with pebbles of lenfonite and blocks
of white quartz are often very plentiful -whence no doubt the
name of Crystal Mts. The grass grows in tussocks, and fortunately
for me is not yet high, there are scattered bushes, and along
gullies very dense scrub, while down along brooks there are woods
whence come the voices of some common forest birds. Towards evening
the partridges call loudly and a Cossypha raises its beautiful
voice, often imitating -like its congeners- the notes of its feathered
neighbors. We came back in the twilight fortunately -for on our
way out the sun had been burning hot, and beating on my back took
all the starch out so that after reaching the top of the hill,
after many short halts, I had to sit down for a while almost exhausted.
DATE: Dec. 28
Late in the afternoon we took a walk on some of the lower nearby
hills, where a male bush-buck was seen running off; and after
sundown a bat-catching hawk (Machaerorhamphus) flew over.
DATE: Dec. 29
LOCALITY: Boma
Went down to Boma on the "Wall", a slow little steamer,
built on the lines of an ocean -going vessel, but of small size,
and old, dating from 1889. She is said to have belonged to a Portuguese
company, to have been sunk and abandoned, then raised for the
Congo State by an engineer named Wall. All along both sides of
the stream, down as far as Boma there are everywhere high hills,
but few cliffs or peaks. Natives are scarce, and we saw only one
or two small native canoes. Large water-birds few or absent, Gypohierax
of course much in evidence. Arriving at Boma towards 3 o'clock
I found Mr. Gremot an old friend from the Uele, applied to the
Adjoin Superieur for lodgings, and was shown to a house on the
eastern edge of the town (Avenue de la Colonie -in reality a railway
track). Just in front of it was a broad papyrus swamp, now flooded
by the water from the river, and on some flat-topped hills beyond
the lodgings of the police, small brick houses, and the village
of the workmen, constructed as usual in the lower Congo, mainly
of old packing boxes, their tin linings, and cast off bits of
galvanized corrugated roofing. Back of the house rose the elevation
known as the "plateau" where are situated the Governor's
residence and the dwellings of all the important functionaries
of Boma.
DATE: Dec. 30 to Jan. 30
LOCALITY: Boma
From Dec. 30 to Jan. 30 I stayed at Boma, waiting for the S.S.
Bomu, expected at first early in the month, then the 12th, later
the 16, and arriving eventually on the 18th. After this she spent
10 days unloading cargo at Matadi, came down to Boma again on
the 29th and left the following day. She was due back in Liverpool
on Feb. 26! Mr. H.D. Campbell, an American Missionary we met in
1909, is U.S. Deputy Consul in the absence of Mr. H. MacBride,
M. Fucks, Gouverneur General, was at Boma, and granted me an audience
on Jan. 6. M. Drousie, with whom we came out on the "Leopoldville"
in 1909 is Directeur de l'Agriculture, and has now 2 boys, one
4 1/2 yrs. and the baby only a few months old. During the month
of January, then, I spent my spare time collecting
Book 6: Page 7
birds, having brought my old shotgun with me in case of such
an enforced delay. Notes on the birds will be found in the Bird
Catalogue. The number of specimens was increased to 6240, and
the number of species to about 600. A few interesting birds escaped
me, including a guinea fowl, a hornbill, resembling Lophoceros
faciatus but brawnier above and with red? bill (L. melanoleucos),
a large red and black barbet, and a gray-horned owl. The guinea
fowl was rare, I only saw a single flock of 5 or 6 in the hills
NE of Boma; they were spotted, evidently of the genus Numida,
and seemed to have considerable blue about the side of the head.
The hawk Machaerorhamphus was seen on 4 or 5 different evenings
flying about over the "plateau". To the NE of Boma I
did not get beyond the "plaine de Lokandu" about 8 miles,
supposed to be a good place for antelopes, a wide flat grassy
plain, evidently very swampy at the end of the rainy season, but
now quite dry; encircled by hills. To the northward of Boma I
used to go to the reservoir of the River Kalamu, which supplies
water to Boma (4 miles) and sometimes a little farther up in the
hills. Along the road one passed the agricultural station of "Kalamu",
where extensive groves of rubber trees, Hevea and Manihot, as
well as some leguminous mimosa-like tree have been planted, and
give attractive shelter to not a few birds. Still I found the
variety of birds rather unsatisfactory. Birds of prey were very
few, Bustards unknown, Pigeons, doves, and plantain-eaters anything
but numerous, Hornbillsreduced to a single species, Woodpeckers
scarce, and the number of species of passerine birds decidedly
limited as compared with the regions where we had previously collected.
For example, I did not see a single Cuckoo-shrike, Drongo, Oriole,
Titmouse, or White-eye. The general barren monotony and dryness
of the country accounts for a great deal. Tho it was now supposed
to be the rainy season we had only 2 or 3 light rains all the
time I was at Boma, and all the smaller brooks as a rule were
quite dry and grass in places still dry enough to burn, and yet
the whole region was infested with the most voracious mosquitoes,
which would attack even in the middle of the day, out on the hills,
far from any water. At night, about the house, I can only compare
it with the very worst parts of New Jersey, and had not a part
of the verandah been screened off with wire netting, I should
have had to take refuge in bed. Fortunately the majority of these
mosquitoes seem not to carry fever. Boma and Matadi have a well-deserved
reputation among the Congolese for intolerable heat. While up-country
I used to wonder if it was true but now I have no longer the slightest
doubt, at least as far as the present season is concerned, tho
the weather is said to be cooler towards July. The sun beats down
unmercifully, there is seldom any shade worth speaking of, and
I sweated as never before. The hilly nature of the country, where
one is always climbing up or down, increases the discomfort. The
ground is usually red and stony, often strewn with quartz, sometimes
even large boulders, but the bed-rock is a dark granite, showing
frequently on the hills. As I have said the vegetation is far
from luxuriant, usually coarse grass growing in tussocks, with
scattered bushes and some trees, but generally far more open than
in the Uele. At times there are woods in the hollows, but open
grassy lowlands are also very common I saw a few patches of elephant-grass,
but found extensive papyrus, swamps only near the river Baobabs
are numerous -I do not remember seeing any, by the way, above
Kinshassa "Faux dattiers" are rather common along streams,
their yellow fruit, when thornily ripe having a taste very like
a true date. They are tapped here by the blacks and give what
is considered good palm-wine. Antelopes are more common than I
would have expected, bush-buck and reed-buck at least. Roan antelope
are said to be fairly common along the railway, near Thysville
and Kimpese for example, and water-buck are said to occur even
near Boma. The nearest place where elephant are found is north
of the river higher up, towards Matadi. Runways of Thrynomys with
little heaps of thick grass stalks cut diagonally are found everywhere
in the high grass, this animal being called "Zibizi"
in Fiote, and "Simbiliki" in Bangala of the Middle Congo.
It is of course hunted by the Negroes, but a fresh specimen in
good condition is difficult to obtain. The only monkey I saw,
and I only saw them once, 4 or 5 together, was a small gray one
like that of Faradje, etc. It runs off in the grass in the very
same fashion, climbing up on a bush perhaps to have a lookback,
and then vanishing for good. In the Mayumbe of course, where there
is forest, monkeys are said to be more common. In all the time
I was at Boma I never saw a single squirrel of any kind, tho I
should have expected at least a ground-squirrel. Neither did I
see a burrow of an Orycteropus, nor any sign of Hyena or
Book 6: Page 8
Jackal. Buffalo are said to be numerous in the "Bas Congo"
where they are called "Pakaspa". At Leopoldville I saw
a boy carrying a large bundle of yellow-necked fruit-bats (Eidolon
helvum), dead and dying, but at Boma I never saw or heard any
fruit bats. A small species of Chaerephon cristatus, Allen. with
a tuft of hair on the membrane running across the forehead between
the ears, spent the day in cracks about the ceilings of the verandahs,
and at twilight numbers of small bats were in the habit of feeding
about open places in the papyrus swamp. I shot a few and found
that they were very similar to the "papyrus-bat" of
Faradje (Nycteris). They surely spent the day in the papyrus too.
The large lizard (Agama colonorum) of which the males become rusty
orange-red on the head and base of tail, and blue-black on body
and limbs, was of course very common at Boma, as at Matadi. There
was also a striped, brown Mabuia, and another large striped ground-lizard,
which we found at Leopoldville in 1909. Gray geckos climbed the
walls of my house at night, hiding in cracks ordinarily during
the day, tho I have seen them out too, and once even sitting in
the sun -without having been disturbed. Quantities of ill-smelling
dried fish are brought into the Congo by the Wall and other steamers,
for the natives about Boma catch comparatively few fish, mostly
cat-fish (of various genera) and minnows. There are said to be
important fisheries at Mossamedes, the product of which goes as
far north as Loango.
DATE: Jan. 30, 1915 (To Feb. 19)
LOCALITY: Left Boma, 11am, on the Elder Dempster SS Bornu, Capt.
Nelson.
3200 tons, maximum speed about 9 1/2 knots, 4 first-class cabins
and only 1 or2 second class, also to be occupied by "chief
cabin" passengers. Of black deck-passengers we had a number
about 20 for Accra, and a few for Sierra Leone, "mundele
ndombe" and the like, a few with wives and children. Their
trunks and other baggage, with those of the Gold-Coast men who
worked cargo littered the forward deck. The distance down to Banana
was covered in about 3 1/2 hours. After living Boma the country
quickly becomes more level, with many borassus palms, there are
flat islands, and farther on (from Katalla down) the shores are
wooded (ie. with mangrove). We saw many cormorants, some snake-birds,
a flock of pelicans (on a sandy part of an island), some herons,
cattle herons, a large egret, and some large ducks or geese. After
lying a couple of hours inside Banana point, a low sandy spit,
covered with houses and coconut palms, we streamed out of the
mouth of the Congo, and the next morning found ourselves off Landana,
where we rolled at anchor in a slight bay, nearly half a mile
from the beach. (Jan. 31) The Portuguese post, where there was
a Resident (Da Gama), Commissaire Maritime and a Doctor was built
on a hill which sloped down toward the southerly side of the bay
and then broke off in a steep bluff of half hardened gray sand
and clay, hardening below into gray rocks which run out to a point.
Here it is that fossils of mollusks, fish, reptiles, and even
mammals are to be found. Behind this hill on the next slope was
situated a Catholic Mission, and off to the left, as we looked
shoreward, behind a sandy beach, were the white buildings of English,
Portuguese and (1) German trading-companies. There too ran the
dirty little River Shiloango, bordered with mud and mangroves,
up which small steamers run towards the Mayumbe. (Feb. 1) Here
the Bornu stayed 3 days, loading palm-oil and palm-kernels. The
palm kernels, in burlap-sacs, were brought off in the ship's surf
boats, manned by the ship's men from Tabu and S. Leone, and the
oil, in hogsheads tied to a long cable, was towed off by the launch,
and hoisted up from the water. Few oars were used in the boats;
they were mostly propelled with wide 3 pointed paddles, which
come from the gold-coast (Accra, Schundi, Tabu). [See drawing].
Except for the tallying everything is done by blacks. They run
even the launch, tie the slings, run the steam-winches, and stow
away below. But we only loaded from 60 to 80 tons a day. Until
we left Fernando Po -I may say- the rumble of steam-winches was
almost continuous save for the middle of the night. We awoke in
the morning, damp with perspiration, amid the commotion of lowering
surf-boats and launch (with derrick) and getting off hatches,
and the loading often went on by electric light until 9 o'clock,
after which there were hatches to be put on again. Even at sea,
on our way to the
Book 6: Page 9
next port, there seemed to be always something in or around 1
of our 5 hatches that needed mechanical aid. At Landana we went
ashore twice, and the resident amused us with some most audacious
lies about elephant-hunting and guns -a 16 bore shotgun that carried
120yds and a 22 automatic that would kill at 1200! These people
on the coast take everybody for greenhorns. (Feb. 2, 3) We left
Landana on the night of the second, and arrived al Loango the
next morning, anchoring about a mile and a half from shore. During
the night, besides the single phosphorescent animals that are
commonly seen close to the side of the ship, there were large
round or crescentic phosphorescent patches on the water, 5 to
10 yards in diameter, often very numerous, say at every 30 or
50 yards. This we did not see again. Tho there was little cargo
for us, some oil and kernels, we waited till the afternoon of
the 4th for clearance papers (Feb. 4, 5, 6). The next day was
spent steaming northward, with the low coastline always in sight,
and on the morning of the 6th we came into the harbor of Cape
Lopez, a wide bay, into one side of which flows the Ogowe River.
The land here is all low and flat, largely forested, and the trading-houses,
and a few government buildings scattered along near the beach,
where there are numerous coconut palms. There is no surf, and
the beach is littered with logs, for lumber is the principal export.
These logs, of a light red wood, some 20 feet long, are floated
down the river, roughly squared on the beach here, and fastened
on a long iron cable running thru a ring on a spike driven into
the middle of our side. [See drawing]. Long rafts of them are
towed alongside by our launch, the spikes are puled out, and the
logs, sometimes 2 at a time, hoisted aboard and lowered into the
hold. Many of these logs seem badly split and weathered. Ebony
in smaller pieces, 3 or 4 ft long, is brought off in the surf-boats.
This does not float, and if it drops out of the sling, is lost.
In some of the groves of coconut palms there were numbers of large
fruit-bats hanging in half dozens from the mid-ribs of the leaves,
and not in the least shy. In one place I suppose there were 40
or 50, and I was able to shoot one with a Flobert rifle a Frenchman
loaned me. It was an adult male, with shoulder pouches; these
were drawn in so that the white hair did not show at all. The
brown hair about them was moist, but had practically no odor.
the larynx was rather small. There were 3 small Norwegian whaling
steamers anchored in the harbor, but the larger vessels where
they boiled down and stored the oil had gone home, and no hunting
was being done for the present. A few other small vessels, including
a river sternwheeler, an ancient dismantled gunboat, and some
launches were lying about, and a small English coasting steamer
came in before we left. One afternoon the ship's passengers and
some officers went ashore and played a game of football against
the residents (i.e. traders), winning by 2 to 1. At 11 o'clock
on the night of the 11th we left C. Lopez, and next morning were
in the Gabim River, off Libreville. A little cargo was taken on,
including kernels and piassava; and we went ashore and walked
thru part of the town, up to the Post-Office to read the latest
news of the German submarines, who had got busy since our departure
from the Congo, sinking 2 steamers only 18 miles from Liverpool.
At the market, where quantities of plantains kwang as palm nuts
and other produce, and fish both dried and fresh were on sale,
I bought a pelican (P. rufescens) for 2 francs. Mr. Millington,
a passenger who came aboard here, recited a verse about the pelican:
"A very strange bird is the pelican, His mouth'll hold more
than his belly can, He can take in his beak, Enough fish for a
week, But I don't understand how the h-he can". Early next
morning we moved a little up-river to Owenda Point, to load logs,
as at C. Lopez. The tide here ran extremely strong, 4 to 5 miles
an hour. We stayed 2 days, went ashore and visited the small French
post on a hill, where they were building some very fine houses
of a sort of limonite or bog iron-ore, and went in swimming. All
along the coast, even up to Dakar, the natives go far out in their
canoes, which frequently carry large sails. Here we went ashore
in one (without the sail), and it was a fine canoe, but hardly
to be called steady. One morning a Frenchman on his way to Libreville
in a small boat came alongside and offered to sell us a live female
brush-buck. He only wanted 30 francs! He had also pieces of an
"Ibis rose", which he insisted was a flamingo, and the
skin of the back of an egret with its long plumes. Egrets seem
to be common in the middle and lower Congo -in certain places-
and all along the west coast, Landana, Gaboon, etc; and many plumes
were for sale even at Dakar. Everybody is anxious to get them,
and their supposed protection in the Congo is absolutely imaginary
I have never heard anybody express the slightest feeling
Book 6: Page 10
against killing them, altho the fact that the feathers are excluded
from the U.S. is becoming known. On the 15th we were back at Libreville,
and left the following morning. Loaded more piassava, and small
logs of ebony and camwood. Ashore at the market we saw a very
large soft-shelled turtle (20 inches length of carapace) dark
grayish green above, whitish below. On the evening of the 16th
we were stopped by the British gunboat Dwarf, who inquired where
we came from, were going, and who was aboard. At 11 at night the
French gunboat Surprise fired a blank shot to tell us to stop,
played her search-light on us for at least 20 minutes and finally
sent an officer aboard to tell us to go ahead. This was off the
coast of Spanish Guinea, where they were of course watching for
Spanish vessels from Ferando Po, etc, that might be carrying cargo
for the Germans in the Kamerun. The Surprise was the ship that
bombarded and took Coco Beach, sinking one or two German gunboats,
and not escaping, herself, without a loss of several men, from
the guns on shore. Surprise later sunk in harbor of Funchal, I
believe, by a German submarine. The next morning, Feb. 17, we
entered the mouth of the Kamerun River where there were anchored
a couple of British passenger ships, 2 colliers, and a French
cruiser. Up the river we could make out various other craft lugged
in raising the ships sunk by the Germans in a vain attempt to
block the channel. But Duala was bombarded and captured by a British
cruiser, and while we were at anchor one of the prizes, the Haus
Woermann, came down. There being no cargo for us up at Duala we
left at one o'clock, and before six were in the harbor of Santa
Isabel, Fernando Po. The weather was hazy, and Kamerun Mount not
to be seen; the outlines of Clarence Peak, on the island showed
nevertheless. Strangely enough, Fernando Po is said to be more
unhealthy than Duala; yet as we shirted the coast it seemed to
mount steeply from the water, clothed with tall forest-groups
of houses in their clearings appearing as small white spots. The
small round harbor of Sta. Isabel, protected on one side by a
steep rock cliff, elsewhere by steep sloping banks and rocky islands,
with the clean white administrative buildings overlooking it,
and the great mountain behind, as one looks from the steamer,
present a most inviting appearance, and the next morning we were
able to spend an hour ashore. Queer gray crabs flattened themselves
on the upright walls of the quay like spiders, and the water there
was so clear that one could look right down to the bottom and
watch the schools of minnows, flashing with silver now and again,
as one or more turned and showed their sides. An inclined road,
with a track for a small locomotive led up to the town, a level
well-made road running round the harbor-front, but the town extending
much farther back than we had time to go. But green bulbuls (Andropadus)
were gushing with continued chatter from some second-growth, and
scores of swifts flying about a house where they were nesting
beneath the balcony. Negroes, soldiers and workmen, seemed over-fond
of walking on the narrow sidewalk; and would barely get out of
one's way, but the market building was deserted save for a single
butcher's stall. There were two small German merchant steamers
anchored in the bay, as well as a couple of small Spanish craft,
and a few other steamers occupied at sheltered cove not far off.
At 11 o'clock we left Fernando Po, and today for the first time
saw the deep blue of the real ocean, for which of course a sunny
sky is quite as necessary as great depth. Up to this time the
sea had always looked dull greenish, being of course relatively
shallow, with many rivers emptying into it. We also noticed a
few flying fish, the first of the voyage, and but very few were
noticed afterwards either. Feb. 19 was passed at sea, one "Portuguese
Man-of-War" all I saw during the voyage being observed. Late
in the afternoon, after following the coast a short distance,
we anchored off Accra, where almost all our black deck-passengers
took their departure, arrayed in their finest new clothes, really
well-dressed, no top-hats, nor many white clothes either, sun-hats
being the only useless object noticeable. Numerous surf-boats
came out to take them off, propelled by the curious short, broad,
3-pointed paddles our own crew were using, and which seem to come
from the Gold Coast, not being used for example in the Gaboon.
[See drawing]. The blade is often painted white and time is kept
with a very peculiar low grunting chant, "iiiiiiiii, ya ha!;
iiiiiiii, ya ha!" Our passengers finally got all their boxes,
parrots and other baggage into the boats, only one rolled-up mattress
getting into the water, where it floated buoyantly; and then they
followed too. We bid good-bye to this town so productive of Negro
talent in carpentry, clerking, and other useful pursuits.
Book 6: Page 11
[Loose note]:
Aug. 29. Uele comes to me with a 50 centime piece. "Give
me a different one", he says. "This Mungwana wants one
with the woman's head (King Albert), not that with the whiskers
(K. Leopold)". When the new pieces with King Albert's head
were first introduced many natives began to refuse the old ones.
"The Old Bula Matadi is dead, his money is no more good".
At Medje I was once surprised to see a soldier promenading in
white clothes, wearing black spectacles; but the other day a most
serious looking friend of Joseph's from Stanleyville appeared
here, dressed all in white, and wearing in addition to assuredly
superfluous sun helmet a pair of spectacles with colorless lenses.
"Why do you wear glasses?" I asked, surprised that the
natives of Stanleyville could already enjoy the benefit of the
oculist's skill; "Have you trouble with your eyes?".
"No", he replied calmly, "my eyes are alright,
that’s for the sun!" At Niangara Consul Ernst gave an
exhibition of moving pictures. One of the films showed trained
elephants. Naturally each time an elephant came into the foreground
he suddenly increased tremendously in size, and this was always
greeted with resounding cheers by the large audience of natives.
Especially was this true of an elephant that emerged from a tank
after a dive; so the next day I questioned one of our workmen
as to why the elephant suddenly grew to such enormous proportion.
The answer was quickly given, "They put medicine into the
water". Another film showed the agonies of a young man on
smoking his first cigar. At the beginning he was shown puffing
out voluminous clouds of white smoke. Afterwards a Negro woman
was recommitting the experience. "Yes", she said, "I
could smell the smoke, and it was very bad tobacco". Boyr
courrier, arriving at Arebi says "Musungu aji kubia, na Zambi
na sanduku na mbele". Both lightening and rainbows are considered
as animals by Negroes, the latter being identified by natives
about Niangara in the Kilima, a terrible beast that lives in the
waters of rivers. As a joke, we once asked Malle, a rather young
Logo chief what the skins of these two animals looked like, and
how we might procure them, as we had already most of the other
animals of the region. To our surprise he turned to an elderly
counselor, and after a grave inquiry, replied in a most serious
tone that they had never yet seen any skins. The hematite axes
found in the Uele are universally held by natives to be the axes
of the thunder-animal, which come down to earth when the lightning
strikes. As the vast majority are slightly chipped or broken,
they often explain that if not broken the ax. returns on high,
but injured ones stay in the ground. Pere Britzen tells a native
legend exactly like "the Hare and the Tortoise". The
Great Blue Plantain-eater (Kulukulu, wabali name) and the Tortoise
(Kulu) agree to run a race; at each stage of the journey the Plantain-eater
calls loudly kulu, kulu-kulu, and is always greeted by a tortoise.
(Other side of loose page): A porter from Vankerckhovenville on
the road to Faradje was curiously examining the long-handled farming
tool of the Logo, when some Logo women passed by, wearing nothing
but the usual belt and cord. Asked his opinion, he replied that
this was not good, for if a woman wears no clothes, "njala
na ye asala yo te". A story often heard in the Uele is that
of the native who was asked how he could eat such stinking meat.
The reply was short "we don't eat the smell". Profanity
being the most common portion of the European languages addressed
to the blacks, it is not surprising that they should add few of
these words to their vocabulary. Still one is a little struck,
when a boy in a native village trying to spin a top, gives vent
to his feelings in a vehement "Gott verdumme!" Once
while working in a Logo village 2 days from Faradje, a printed
sheet of paper, that served to wrap my bird-skins fell to the
ground, 2 young natives were standing by, and one of them picking
up the paper, pretended to read it to his companion. Of course
he managed to hold it upside down, and this is what he read "Nom
de Dieu, Sale Bete!" Kapinda=carpenter, Fai (=file) Ama (=hammer)
Saw Neli (=nail) Palangi (=plank) {Rabu} Pileni=plane. Native
description of giant elephant-shrew, "body of a red pig,
nose of an elephant, tail of a giant rat; not a mouse, but a real
animal". Baranga, admiring a gecko he had just caught, remarked
"His eyes are just like gilt tacks". Schweinfurth's
name in the Bomokandi was "Badekbwe", the last syllable
meaning leaves, and Ba father. ="the great cutter of leaves".
Mr. Lang, while trying to photograph rhinos, with Matari, and
some other natives, was once approached to within 4 paces by 3
rhinos. the unburned stalks of grass prevented him from getting
the picture and Matari finally grew so nervous that he shot at
the beasts, sending them thundering off to one side. A porter
who had bravely stood behind Mr. Lang now asked "why didn't
you kill them with that?", pointing to the
Book 6: Page 12
camera. when Mr. Lang explained that this was only a machine
for taking pictures, the native replied with evident agitation.
"ah, if I had known it, I wouldn't have stood like that!"
Kasongo, describing the crowds of people that assembled at Stanleyville
to greet Prince Albert, emphasized graphically their numbers "There
wasn't even room to spit!". In spite of the superstition
of the Negro, it is often remarkable how little interest he shows
in some of nature's most imposing phenomena. thus the comet of
1910, at Medje, aroused scarcely any interest and certainly no
fear; while an earthquake (Garamba July 9, 1912) was scarcely
even spoken about a day later.
[NY World Telegram, Mar. 31, 1941]:
News article: 12 Perish at Sea Fleeing 'Raider'. British Ship
Mistaken for Nazi by Crew. By the Associated Press. BOSTON, March
31. - Her flag at half mast and one lifeboat missing, the Belgian
freighter Ville de Liege reached Boston today with a story of
the death of 12 crew members who mistook a British patrol ship
for a German raider, launched the lifeboat and perished when their
craft was swamped. Members of the crew and officers told how their
vessel was halted in mid-Atlantic at 4am last Monday by a warning
shot from a British warship. A dozen of the crew, panic-stricken
and expecting further shots from the craft they thought to be
an enemy, piled into a lifeboat, lowered it and cut loose. The
warship, using the blinker system of communication, established
the Ville de Liege's identity, ordered her on her way and departed,
unaware of the panic that had driven 12 of her crew over-side.
[incomplete article].
Diaries List
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