CHAPTER III. 



MY FIRST GORILLA. 



]T daybreak Thursday aroused me, and after a 

 cup of black coffee, prepared by his wife, we 

 took up our march through a vast plain, 

 broken here and there by clumps of palms lifting their 

 tall heads amidst fields of maize and corn. Through 

 the foliage we caught glimpses of hazy mountains far 

 away on the horizon. My guide said they were wooded 

 hills, the haunt of gorillas and elephants, where he had 

 always found plenty of game. 



Nothing can be more lovely than the African forests 

 early in the morning. We were threading narrow trails, 

 hardly disturbed by the bare feet of the native hunters, 

 between endless hedges of banana and young palm trees 

 covered with their golden and savory fruit ; while be- 

 tween their trunks we could see long stretches of green, 

 wavy grass, soft as velvet in the morning light. 



Soon the cultivation ceased, and the land for miles was 

 covered with pepper-plant and flowering tulip, filled with 

 brilliant paroquets that flew away with sharp notes at 

 our approach. On all sides of us, and within a space a 



