EXPERIENCES ON THE CONGO.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 6962, 16 January 1888, Page 5

EXPERIENCES ON THE CONGO.

In the October Blackwood" An English Engineer " gives soline interesting sketches of life on the great African river which Mr Stanley's expedition to the relief of Emm Pasha has again invested with absorbing ——rest. He shows that voyaging up the Congo is not unattended with dauger. He says:—

Having landed the woodcutters and made everything right, we then—the captain, Lieutenant Dhanis and myself—sat down to dinner, and soon after it was over I turned iv, being very tired. I Bhould explain that there are no cabins. Our sleeping places were at the stern of the boat—the captain's being farthest aft; our mosquito curtains were fastened up to her sides; and our camp-mattresses reached right across her, as she is only about 6ft In the beam. Captain D was in high spirits, and kept playing tunes on a melodeon we had with us, talking in the intervals of his home at Brussels, and his delight at soon seeing it again. Presently he poured out three glasses of Portuguese wine, and banded one to Lieutenant Dhanis, and the other (under the mosquito curtain) to mc. I tasted it and passed it out again, with the remark, " It's too strong; put some Congo in it." Ho added a little water, and said, "Hang iti, man, it's pure water I" and I never heard him speak again, for soon after I turned over and went to sleep, with the strains of ••Myosotis"— which I had asked him to play—ringing in my ears. Next morning, instead of being called by him as usual, I slept on till roused by Lieutenant Dhanis, who came to mc with a white scared face, asking, " Where is the captain I" " I don't know,' I re plied. " I believe he's in the Congo," said Dhanis. Of course I waa up like a shot Sare enough there was the captain s bed—his clothes, boots, hat, all lying beside it; his mosquito curtain untorn showed that nothing nnusual had —_en place, and he could not have got ashore without awakening either Dhanis or myself, as the boat was anchored with her bow to tbe bank. We questioned the men, bat none had seen or heard anything Mve my"*-*'*-*- I '-- ■plaaha* ia the *-__*.

—which no one on the Congo ever" heeds, as the crocodiles and hippopotami may be heard splashing all night long. How it happened will never he known till the Day of Judgment; we could only como to the conclusion that he had got up in tho night, fallen over the stern of the boat, and gone down (being unable to swim) without a cry—perhaps never even rising to the surface a second time, as the curicuc is very strong. We searched tho .sandbanks for miles down the river, and promised large rewards to tho natives foi finding the captain's body or any traces o! him, but in vain. The sea may ; but the Upper Congo never gives up its dead. A BED OF POWT—— KEGB. Among the engineer's experiences, sleep* ing for a month on keers of gunpowder is not the least characteristic:— Two new houses were being built. In one of which I was to take up my quarters; but till they wero finished I was forced to make myself at home in the gun-room, while Lieutenant Dhanls was relegated to the provision store. For more than a month I slept on a bed formed of two planks, supported at either end on a barrel which, on examination, I found to contain charges of powder for the two mountain Krupp guns; while boxes of cans of turpentine, and every variety of explosive were In close proximity. Reading in bed was of course out of tho question, and even taking a light into the room would have been a hazardous experiment had I not made myself acquainted with the position of tho various items. Indeed, one night while a regular tropical thunderstorm was raging. Captain Coquilhat rushed In, in a state of the greatest alarm, entreating mo to come and share his room, as he feared I might be shot by the Igniting of the cartridges. But as the danger waa about the same in any part of the station—since tho barrels of powder would have blown tho whole building into the middle of tlie Congo—_ could see no advantage in a change ol quarters, and thanked him, but remained where I was and went to sleep. NOTHING . LAUGHR THAN A C_i_PAG—B BO*—l—. Life In one of the upper stations, says the writer, is very monotonous, and drink ia scare— Wino was issued at tho rate of half a bottle per man pen- day. Each man had to send his " boy" to the store with his bottle every other day, and. of course* there was a rush for the big bottles. Tin storekeeper, instructed by the chief, re< fused everything larger than a ch_mpagut bottle; and as the aecond officer in cuargf of the station superintended the issuing ol rations in person, there was no chanci for any man to get more than his share. This did not please the engineers, who decided, at a council held in the mess room off the Stanley, that hall a bottle per eiay was not enough, and forthwith a collection of empty bottles began to accumulate in the engineers* store, and experiments wero instituted to find out whether the capae-ity of any one of them exceeded that of the rest, but with very unsatisfactory results. At last some-one suggested the device of blowing out the bulge in the bottom of the bottle, so as to leave it nearly llat. No sooner" said than done. Not only was the bottom flattened, but it was found possible by means of heat to slightly stretch the bottle itself, so that, though it appeared very little larger than an ordinary champagne bottle, it wonld hold nearly half as much again. Tho trick remained undiscovered till the engineers had all —_shed their term of service, when the ingenious deviser of the same, being the last to depart for Europe, left his bottle to tho second in command, with a hint to "keep his eyes open for the future. .

A ROYAL TOPEB. The chief and natives of Bang—a axe described in a lively fashion :—The Baagalas are a fine race physically, being tail, powerful, and splendidly formed. Th*s chief of looko, when I arrived, was an ol* man over eighty—his age was reported by some fro be eighty-four, by others eightysix—who had lost one eye in battle and possessed fifty wives. He was over six Feet high, with a fine, well - developed figure, and but for his dirty white hair and shrivelled skin would have passed tot a man of half, his age. Ho was much attached to Captain Coquilhat. (named "'Mwaf a "or the "Eagle" dv the natives*, and never undertook anything without consultinghim. The scene justafter ourarrival at Bangala- when, "Leßol dcs Bangalas " being announced as we were all sitting over our after-dinner coffee, Mata Bwykl entered, wearing his royal hat of leopardskin and attended by several of his wives, and enfolded Captain Coquilhat, goldspangled' uniform and all, In an ample bear's hug—was really wort— seeing. Having released "Mwfa." hia Majesty made the circuit Of the table to shake hands with the rest of us, and then ordered "mesdames les sauvafres" to bring in the melafa (palm-wine), which he thereupon helped the company to drink. He was a tremendous toper, consuming quantities of that comparatively innocuous beverage which would havo killed him ten times over had it been anything stronger and more ciyilised. His death, which took place some three months* after I first saw him, waa an occasion of great excitement among the Bangalas. As it is their custom on tho death of a chief to kill and eat as many men as the deceased had wives—ono to ba supplied by the parents of each wife—the. whole town was anticipating a big feeds but, alas I how uncertain aro the joys oi life! That big feed never came off; foe the officer in command, hearing of Mata Bwki's death, prepared a coffin lined with red cloth, and, telling the Bangalas that, as the late king had been " a big friend of the white men," the "Mindeli" would bury him with appropriate honors, had him safely boxed, nailed up and buried 7f& deep before anyone could Interfere. Tho disappointment was great, for it is tho custom to cut the dead man in two lengthwise, make up an entire corpse with hall of him aud half of one of the men Idlied at the funeral, and bury thia. The re-Gain-ing half Is made Into a stew with m_lloo and bananas, and eaten along with ths rest of the sacrifices.

FIGHT -WITH AN ARAB VH-AGK. Occasionally the engineer and hlsparty* had skirmishes with the Arabs. .Higher up we came across an Arab encamping—t, and were saluted with a shower of shott but as we were quite out of range It too* no effect, and being in baste to reach the Falls we reserved our reply for. a futurt occasion and passed on. We had now gow I—yond the forest-covered plain, andshortly after passing the Arabs came to. a vlllaga as yet untouched by them, where Captain. Coquilhat stopped to buy goats and fowls,, and on leaving made the chief a present _ cloth and beads. Two days after this wa steamed round the last bend in the river and came in sight of Kiusi Kathii, or Warn* Russari—the island on which Stanley Paha, Station once stood—when our worst feart were at once realised. The blue flag with the golden star no longer floated above it* andiilackened patches of ground were all that remained to show where tho ***whita man's house" had been. Owing to the shallow water and rapids we could only take the boat within 600 yards of tho. station; and, besides, we cud not knowthe strength of the Arabs, who had nowbegun to " pot" away at us from both si dos, of the river, while our force consisted only of Captain Coquilhat, myself ana 80 Accra soldiers. They opened, fire long before we were within ranges but we soon let them havo enough, and they disappeared behind trees, whencethev kept up a pretty hot fire, while all wo could do was to watch till a head or arm emerged and then " draw a bread on It.' We had about reached the middle of tha village (which, like all the native towns, had a long river frontage) when the man at the wheel got a shot through the jawa, and letting go, fell to* the bottom of the boat with a irememdoua outcry. The boat swung round, end on ten to the shore, and received a raking fire tore and aft, which wounded Captain Coquilhat. and twelveothera, and would have beenstlll more destructive had not our commander seized the helm and brought her round, again. We had too many men disabled, to attempt storming the village (which, as nearly as we coda judge, contained about 200 Arabs), so after firing a few more rounds of cartridge aa a parting sulute we steamed away. None of our men were killed, and the wounds received were not very serious; indeed, the man at the. wheel, as I found to my great disgust* when became to mc to get his chin dressed, had nothing the matter with it except that the skin was scratched by a splinter of lead. We had no means of knowing tho loss of the Arabs: but I am certain that several were killed and a good many wounded.

Some of the supper rooms and nocturnal rende-vou- in the neighborhood of tha Grand Opera, Paris, are gaining an unenviable notoriety. One day the dead body of a young man was found in tho lavatory of one of these establishments. He was a student in chemistry of German parentage, named Sc—ll. and had been carousing in the cafe with one of its frequenters. After having drained the cup of falsa pleasure to its dregs, he went to , the place when his body waa found aw?