INTRODUCTION 



To old and young alike I trust that these pages may be 

 of interest and may serve to arouse some little sympathy 

 for my distant Congo friends, dusky though they be. 



My trip to that country was not undertaken solely 

 for pleasure, for I have some claims to be numbered 

 among the dozen or so of men who are styled " Elephant 

 Hunters," of whom few, if indeed any, have worked so 

 far into the Congo wilds as my friend and I in the 

 course of the journey set forth in the following pages. 



I hope I may be successful in giving some idea of the 

 enormous obstacles, the disappointments, and the dangers 

 which daily, nay, almost hourly, confront the hunter 

 and trader in the north-eastern Congo, i.e. the Lado 

 Enclave and the Luele District. 



Speaking collectively of the natives in Central Africa, 

 they regard us undoubtedly as a set of fools with some 

 queer ideas. Why does the white man hurry ? To- 

 morrow will follow to-day for certain, then why always 

 hurry ? They shake their heads at the hurrying man, 

 they cannot understand him, he is so utterly foreign to 

 them and their natures. You might argue with them for 

 weeks and months, but they would still shake their heads 

 and say, " The days come one after another, they are 

 all the same." It is hopeless to try and hurry a native. 

 They have no account of time ; the killing of an elephant 

 or the visit of the last white man will form the out- 

 standing feature of their calendar until something else 



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