PREFACE 



It is often complained that when a man has made 

 a journey, whether it is across the Channel, or a 

 mountain-range, or a continent, he thinks it his duty 

 on his return to chronicle his achievement in a 

 book. I confess that I have sometimes been of 

 those who complain, but I generally read the books, 

 rarely with little, often with great, enjoyment. Qui 

 s excuse s accuse is a proverb which applies particularly 

 to the writers of Prefaces, but I am assured, on no 

 less authority than that of Mr. Murray, that the 

 Preface or Apology at the beginning is as essential 

 a part of a book as the Index or Guide at the end. 



The idea of writing this book was first suggested 

 to me by my friend, the late Professor Alfred 

 Newton, of Cambridge. In a letter which reached 

 me on the Congo a few weeks before his death, he 

 wrote : ' I am rather like the poor girl in one of 

 Dickens's books who exclaimed that " Africa is a 

 beast," and accordingly have never been able to 

 take any real interest in the country, finding nearly 

 all African books of travel to be duller than any- 



