A TERRIBLE JOURNEY 7 



and to clear new fields for cultivation. The dry 

 season is not only the cold, but also the healthy 

 season in Africa, for the absence of water in small 

 streams and pools means the absence of malarial 

 mosquitoes which breed in them. 



Both the Portuguese Steamship Lines sailing 

 to Angola start from Lisbon, and after calling at 

 Madeira, San Vincent, and occasionally the more 

 southern Portuguese islands of San Thome and 

 Principe, visit the Angolan ports of Cabinda, 

 Loanda, Lobito Bay, and Mossamedes. Owing 

 to the rush of Portuguese passengers to Angola, 

 it had been impossible to secure a passage from 

 Lisbon to that colony, so I sailed for Madeira in 

 the Edinburgh Castle on 1st May, there to await 

 the Portuguese ships, and hope for a vacant berth. 



On the voyage I met Yule, who in 1907, at 

 Broken Hill, had one day lifted me from the 

 hammock which had carried me, often delirious, 

 through hundreds of miles of bush from Lake 

 Banguelo in Central Africa. This terrible journey 

 happily ended in the kindly hands of Yule and 

 his friends, the first white men seen for many 

 weeks. Yule, who was now working at Elizabeth- 

 ville in the Congo, was returning there from short 

 leave in England, to hard Mother Africa, who, 

 though she often punishes her children, can always 

 call them back to her again. 



On my arrival at Funchal, Madeira, all my guns 

 and stores for Angola were placed in bond in 

 the Custom-House a convenient and economical 

 arrangement, effected rapidly by the Customs 

 officials of the port. 



