IN THE LAND OF THE GORILLA. 



The Gaboon was found to resemble an arm of the sea, with its strong salt tides 

 and sluggish current. On the right bank was the French fort, somewhat beyond a 

 village of English factories, and behind these, on a hill clothed in bright green 

 vegetation, was the American mission, including church, school and houses. 



On the left bank rose the town of King William, sometimes called Roi Denis. 

 It is built of bamboo and is the metropolis of Gaboon. Here the four gorilla- 

 hunters landed to arrange their hunt in the adjoining jungles for that extraordinary 

 creature which has never yet been seen on this side of the Atlantic. 



When the party came ashore, three of them were so ill that they were compelled 

 to take to their beds at once. The section of the Dark Continent visited by them 

 is one of the most pestilential regions of the globe. The very ground exhales 

 disease, and sea captains have told me that the sickening odor of the malarious 

 swamps can be noticed while scores of miles from land. 



Jack Harvey was the only one that was entirely well. The Texan seemed to be 

 climate-proof, though his naturally vigorous constitution, his active life and his 

 freedom from bad habits doubtless had much to do with his immunity, and besides 

 he had taken the precaution to dose himself and his companions with a preparation 

 of quinine before leaving ship. 



The American missionary at King William was the good Samaritan to those 

 who needed his kind offices. He insisted on the folks taking up their quarters at 

 his house, and he and his wife could not have been kinder to their own children 

 than they were to the comparative strangers. 



But the utmost they could do was not enough to save the Englishmen. Both 

 succumbed, after having braved all other forms of danger, and were buried in that 

 far-off land, thousands of miles from the dear ones at home, victims to the deadly 

 climate that has claimed its hundreds of thousands. 



For days and nights Bob Marshall hovered on the verge of death ; but, thanks 

 to Providence and good nursing, he pulled through, and, to the delight of Jack, 

 finally became his old, lively, high-spirited self again. 



Supposing his ardor had departed, the Texan offered to send him home and 

 prosecute the task without him. But, as you may suppose, the young man would 

 not hear of such a thing. 



" I came here to hunt gorillas," was his characteristic reply, " and I'll do it or 

 die." 



" I don't think you'll die after what you've stood. You ain't a tenderfoot any 

 longer." 



" All I ask is that you will get me a chance." 



The friends made their preparations as thorough as possible, and within the 

 following week attended one of those singular ceremonies known in that country 

 as a gorilla dance. 



It was at a village on the borders of the immense jungle into which they 

 intended to plunge in quest of the marvelous animal for which I stand ready to-day 

 to pay almost any sum of money. 



