132 THE SEMLIKI VALLEY 



with a loss of forty-six killed. He showed us a 

 small hole in the river bank, the grave (so he said) 

 of the forty-six, so there could be no doubt whatever 

 of the truth of his story ! The survivors did not 

 come to avenge their dead that night, and except 

 for the challenge of a sentry when a wandering 

 water-buck came too close to the camp, we slept in 

 peace at the Lumi River. 



To the north of the Lumi River the character of 

 the country changes somewhat; the acacias diminish 

 in number, and tall borassus palms are conspicuous. 

 The gentle undulations of the Upper Semliki Valley 

 become steep hills with rocky slopes, not unlike 

 parts of Unyoro, with streams in the valleys 

 bordered with strips of forest, outliers of the great 

 Congo Forest. After twelve or fifteen miles we 

 descended again into the valley, crossed the Semliki 

 in big dug-out canoes to its left bank, and climbed 

 up a steep slope to the Belgian post, Fort Beni, 

 where we were greeted by our friend Lieutenant 



B , and were installed in a comfortable brick 



house, which seemed almost palatial after our cramped 

 quarters of the last few months. Fort Beni was 

 established about twelve years ago as an eastern 

 frontier post of the Congo State, and it was expected 

 that it would become a place of some importance ; 

 but the unruly habits of the natives who live between 

 it and the nearest Congo waters have never been 

 cured, and with the establishment of the new posts 

 at Irumu in the Ituri district and at Rutshuru to the 



