258 DOWN THE CONGO TO THE COAST 



where there is at all events an appearance of business 

 activity, Boma has a painfully official aspect. There 

 are a few private trading firms, of which the most 

 important is the English firm of Hatton and Cookson, 

 but practically all the business is in the hands of the 

 State. 7^he number of officials in the place is about 

 200, and all of them seemed to be prodigiously busy, 

 but what their business is it would be hard to 

 say. In paying our debt to the State for the 

 Ponthierville Railway and the steamer fare to 

 Leopoldville, I interviewed nine officials in the 

 course of an afternoon, and was eventually referred 

 back to and paid the official I had visited first. 

 It was only through the kind offices of two Com- 

 mandants and one Judge that I obtained permission 

 to carry out of the country the ivory horn which 

 Commandant Moltedo had given me at Kasongo. 

 The most ludicrous piece of officialdom that I saw 

 was their regulation which requires time-expired 

 officers to call on the Governor-General in the 

 full uniform of Europe before leaving the country. 

 On a roasting afternoon, when the temperature 

 was 98° F. in the shade, I saw a weary little 

 party climbing up the steep hill to the Residency, 

 all of them buttoned up tight in thick black frock- 

 coats with stiff collars up to their chins. Half 

 of them were already invalids after their three 

 years' service in the Congo, and I should think 

 that that afternoon call must have put the finishing 

 touch to the rest of them. 



