FORT BENI 133 



south, Beni has taken a secondary place. There is 

 a oarrison of about a hundred native soldiers, drilled 

 and trained by a Belgian sous-officier under the 

 command of one officer, who at the same time fills 

 the offices of chief of the post, magistrate of the 

 district, priest (for the purpose of marriages and 

 funerals), doctor, and all the other multifarious parts 

 which a white man fills in Africa. The post is well 

 laid out with wide roads planted with avenues of 

 papies, lemons, and guavas. There is a good 

 garden, which provides vegetables for the officers' 

 table, and a large plantation of castor-oil plants, 

 which provide fuel for their lamps and medicine 

 for the soldiers' children. The natives have been 

 taught to make exceedingly good bricks, of which 

 the officers' houses, stores, and soldiers' quarters 

 have been built. 



Standinof as it does some three hundred feet above 

 the Semliki, Fort Beni commands a fine view 

 across the valley towards Ruwenzori, of the open 

 country in the direction of Lake Albert Edward, 

 and of the great forest to the north and west. The 

 Semliki Valley may be roughly divided into three 

 parts of more or less equal length. Starting from 

 its outlet from Lake Albert Edward, it runs for 

 some forty miles or more through a fairly level 

 country of grass and scattered trees. Near Fort 

 Beni it enters a more hilly country, whose irregu- 

 larities cause occasional falls and rapids, and at the 

 same time it enters the forest, a continuation of the 



