AN OCEAN STEAMER 257 



Dover Cliffs. After passing Brazzaville, the chief 

 station of the French Congo on the right bank, 

 we crossed over to Leopoldvilie, and came to the 

 end of our sixteen days' voyage from Stanley Falls. 



There is a railway from Leopoldvilie to Matadi, 

 a distance of 240 miles, but I was so much engrossed 

 with my mails of the last six months, which I had 

 found waiting for me at Leopoldvilie, that I can 

 remember but little of the journey, except that it 

 was exceedingly dusty and that the fare was exces- 

 sively high. The train stops for the night at a 

 place called Thysville, where the State passengers 

 are told off to quarters allotted to them, but the 

 accommodation for ' outsiders ' is scanty and in- 

 different. For the last few miles down to Matadi 

 the railway goes through a magnificent gorge, with 

 the Congo swirling along hundreds of feet below. 

 At Matadi we found the Elder Dempster s.s. Albert- 

 ville, called by courtesy and in virtue of a subsidy 

 the Belgian Mail, though there was nothing Belgian 

 about it except the flag. But, Belgian or English, 

 it mattered not at all so long as there were baths 

 on board, in which we could wallow from Banana 

 Point to the English Channel, and wash off some 

 of the grime of Africa. 



To wait while the ship finished loading at Banana, 

 and for reasons of State which I have mentioned 

 above, I went ashore at Boma, and stayed there 

 for two days. Like every other place in the Congo 

 Free State, with the possible exception of Matadi, 



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