10 AFRICA SPEAKS 



When I received the bill I could not help thinking 

 of the httle old lady and her ideas of high prices, for 

 the two rooms cost us the enormous sum of two dollars 

 fifty cents a day I 



Sometime in the past the Belgians won and still 

 hold the world's championship for "red tape," but 

 after calUng on one prince and several ministers, I was 

 given a letter to the Grovernor General of the Belgian 

 Congo. The minister who presented it smiled and 

 shook hands, so I took for granted that everything was 

 all right. 



At Antwerp we found our home for several weeks 

 w^aiting in the form of one ship of eight thousand eight 

 hundred tons, saiUng under the name of *'P. D. Adolph 

 Woemiann"; home port, Hamburg; principal cargo, 

 steel rails and cold beer. We were delayed here one 

 day while they completed the loading of rails which 

 were[being shipped to Portuguese East Africa. When 

 a German boat sails, they let the natives and the 

 entire countryside know that a great event is in prog- 

 ress. So at Antwerp we pulled away with a band 

 playing at full steam. Streamers were flung about, 

 and the whistle blew blast after blast until even these 

 staid old burghers stopped to see what was going on. 



The trip down the river Schelde from Antwerp to 

 the open sea is one of beauty and interest, for as you 

 leave the city and wind your way down the torturous 

 chamiel many different views of the ancient place 

 present themselves, with the beautiful cathedral dom- 

 inating the picture. As the river narrows toward 

 its mouth, it seemed as though the ship were saihng 

 in the air, for the fields on either side slope down- 

 wards — some places at leastfifteen feet from the dikes — 



