HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



Then, northward ho ! for Mozambique, which we reached 

 without incident. Our stay here was limited to a 

 few short hours, which I rather regretted, for this old 

 centre of the slave trade is brimful of interest. There is 

 an ancient fort, with a fine old gateway and an obsolete 

 battery of muzzle-loading guns that crown all and pretend 

 to guard the harbour entrance. The queer old dhows, 

 that now do duty as lighters, grim relics of the past, 

 with their towering richly carved poops and forward 

 raking masts, by themselves lend to the place an old- 

 world atmosphere which at once impresses the stranger 

 who visits it for the first time. 



While here we dragged our anchor with the turn of 

 the tide and swung round and crashed into a large Portu- 

 guese troopship, the Lusitania — since wrecked off the Cape 

 of Good Hope — catching her right amidships with our 

 stern. Our officers and crew were all engaged with the 

 cargo and no one appeared to be on duty, but fortu- 

 nately one of the passengers and I were watching the cargo 

 being slung aboard, and gave the alarm in time for the 

 rope fenders to be put out from our craft. 



At Zanzibar another fellow and I, with a Swahili 

 boy, who rejoiced in the name of George Washington, as 

 guide, explored the Bazaar for ice cream, and after walking 

 for miles through a maze of winding closely-built streets 

 or passages that reeked of the lower-class Indian com- 

 munity, we succeeded in obtaining the object of our search. 

 We bought the ice-bucket full and ate it in the street, 

 seated at a little table on the pavement, outside the shop. 



Wireless telegraphy, with which the ship was equipped, 

 formed one of the features of the trip, and kept us in 

 touch with the world. After calling at Dar-es-Salaam 

 and Tanga, we headed for Kilindini, on the south side 

 of the island of Mombasa. The trip from Delagoa Bay 

 had occupied eleven days, and for an interesting sea trip 

 it is hard to beat. 



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