250 DOWN THE CONGO TO THE COAST 



far as the uncertainties of travel went, our journey 

 came to an end. We spent a very pleasant week 

 with the chief of the district, Commandant Van der 

 Creuyssen, under whose kindly rule Ponthierville 

 has less of the appearance of the military post, and 

 more of the appearance of a colonial settlement than 

 any other place that I saw in the Congo. He had 

 established a school — a very primitive one, it is true 

 — for orphan children, and he encouraged the people 

 to become carpenters and gardeners, ideas which 

 never seem to enter the heads of the ordinary 

 officials, as they certainly do not enter into the pro- 

 gramme of the State. 



During our stay at Ponthierville I spent an inter- 

 esting day at the copper mines at Bamanga, about 

 twenty miles down the falls, or, rather, cataract. The 

 ore is exceedingly rich in copper, and Dr. David, 

 the Swiss engineer in charge of the works, was very 

 sanguine of the success of the mines. Not the least 

 pleasing part of the place was the evident healthi- 

 ness and the apparent contentment of the native 

 labourers, men taken from the surrounding district, 

 who presented a striking contrast to the half-starved 

 wretches that we had seen higher up the river. Dr. 

 David lent me twenty of them to reinforce my crew 

 in going upstream again, and we went up the cataract 

 as if it had been still water. The moon rose, and 

 they began to sing when we came out into the open 

 water above the rapids, and my last voyage in a Congo 

 canoe was a pleasure which I shall not quickly forget. 



