254 DOWN THE CONGO TO THE COAST 



upper deck where the passengers live by day, and a 

 table at which they consume the not very luxurious 

 food provided by the State. Passengers who are 

 not State agents pay for their meals a daily sum, 

 which ensures, I should imagine, a very substantial 

 profit to the State.* The officers and engineers are 

 almost without exception Scandinavians, who can 

 talk a certain amount of English. A fluent captain 

 may be heard addressing his crew in a barbarous 

 mixture of Swedish, French, English, and Bangalla, 

 which might be expected to bewilder the uneducated 

 native, but the tone of his voice is generally a suffi- 

 cient indication of his meaning. The lower deck is 

 a crowded chaos of wood for the engines, native 

 passengers, soldiers on their way from one post to 

 another, and parrots and monkeys on their way to 

 Europe. 



Progress is not very rapid, as the steamer is 

 always stopping at a wood post to take in more 

 fuel, or at a State post to load cargo. We took 

 as much cargo as we could carry, more than loo 

 tons, in the first seven days after leaving Stanleyville; 

 about 15 tons of it was elephants' tusks ; there was a 

 small quantity of palm kernels, and the rest of it 

 was rubber, which is loaded in large wicker baskets, 

 each holding about 80 pounds. It is impossible to 

 travel during the night, and at sunset the steamer 

 makes for the next village, if there is one in sight, 

 or, as more often happens, for the nearest point 

 * See Appendix. 



