HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



in the many little reminiscences that he gave me on the 

 first evening spent at Kampala as we slowly essayed the 

 stiff climb to the mission. 



The next three days we spent in arranging the various 

 boxes and loads to be borne by our carriers to the Congo. 

 This was no joke, each boy's load must weigh not more 

 than sixty-five pounds. It is reckoned tha: a boy 

 carrying this amount should travel fifteen miles a day. 

 Tents, folding chairs, washstands, baths, kit-bags, boxes, 

 beads, hoes, americani — a sort of cheese-cloth — all had 

 to be packed and weighed. Numbering each box, by 

 the way, saves an enormous amount of trouble, and a 

 good deal of bad language. If, when packing, you make 

 a list of the contents and put a number or mark on the 

 load, you need only turn up your store sheets when you 

 require, say, a tin of pea flour, to find the number of the 

 case containing what you require. In the daytime we 

 left the headman, Mpala, together with the cook or 

 " pishi," to watch the tents during our absence from camp. 

 Twenty-eight porters had gone ahead to Hoima with 

 the heavier loads under the charge of Salem Bega, a 

 deputy headman. 



In my opinion a great many people lose half the 

 pleasure of a hunting trip in Central Africa by having 

 the game brought to their tent doors, as one may say, 

 in return for a fixed fee. There is also a considerable 

 amount of pleasure to be derived from getting together 

 you own equipment, which is missed if you put yourself 

 entirely in the hands of a company who deal with you 

 in a commercial spirit. One aristocratic " safari " even 

 carried its own electric light plant ! I certainly advocate 

 obtaining one's carriers and personal boys through the 

 agency of a trading company, who always have on hand 

 a list of boys suitable for and experienced in work con- 

 nected with a safari. The uninitiated sportsman should 

 pay great attention to this. Elsewhere I have given an 



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