Homeward Bound 269 



were not so well equipped as the Flandre. As the State looks 

 upon economy as of more importance than celerity in the despatch 

 of its goods and its agents, and there is not much room to spare 

 in the small steamers, a small craft in the shape of a lighter or 

 barge is sometimes attached alongside the vessels. We saw one 

 of these a few days out from Basoko. There were twelve passen- 

 gers, agents d'Etai, on board, and only nine available berths. 

 Three of them had to camp on the deck, which was not any too 

 spacious. 



Military stations on the upper Congo are so numerous that we 

 arrived at one daily, and we always met with a most cordial 

 reception. One day we anchored at Lisala, one of the great 

 depots for troops of which I have made mention in another place. 

 This large encampment occupies an elevated position on the right 

 bank of the Congo and commands a beautiful view of the broad 

 river and its maze of islands. 



Soon after leaving Lisala we passed the spot where, only a short 

 time previously, the Ville de Bruges, a thirty-five-ton steamer, 

 had been thrown on her beam ends by a hurricane which had 

 swept up the stream with terrific force. Nearly all on board lost 

 their lives, including six whites. Some of the Europeans suc- 

 ceeded in swimming to the banks, but were killed by the natives 

 who had flocked to the scene in the hopes of wreckage, and fell 

 victims to cannibalism. Only one white escaped, a Finn, and, 

 clinging to a plank, he was swept down the stream. Two days 

 later he was found on an uninhabited island, half crazy with 

 hunger and the perils through which he had passed. Unfor- 

 tunately the poor wretch understood no language but his own. 

 Thus the sole living witness of the catastrophe was unable to 

 give any account of it whatever. The wheel-house of this ill- 

 fated vessel still projected from the water, a dumb token of the 

 sad accident and a forcible reminder that even a harmless- 

 seeming trip on the Congo has its dangers. 



We, too, had our share of bad weather during the voyage. 

 It vented itself in torrential rains and tropical thunderstorms, 

 which burst down upon us from a serene sky with such force 



