PLATEAU OF THE PAGANS 405 



we had been passing through clouds of guinea fowl, 

 but now they were becoming so thick as to constitute a 

 nuisance. At dinner that night, Austin outhned a 

 plan he had perfected for a guinea-fowl canning fac- 

 tory. Jones wanted to know where he would get the 

 cans and other necessary items, and suggested that 

 swarms of the birds be driven with airplanes to fac- 

 tories along the seacoast. 



Late one afternoon we were surprised to find our- 

 selves approaching a large settlement, which proved 

 to be the town of Massenya, boasting five Frenchmen 

 and one Frenchwoman. We had dinner that night 

 with the administrator and breakfast the next morn- 

 ing with a young doctor and his wife, the first white 

 couple we had seen since leaving the mission on the 

 edge of the Ituri Forest. 



Trouble rode with us all the way from Massenya to 

 Fort Lamy, but a few things of interest varied the 

 monotony of our struggles over desert sands and 

 through swamps. We came to a village where the 

 Emir tried to sell us a baby elephant, the price being 

 reasonable enough — about twenty-five dollars — but 

 we were hundreds of miles from the coast and had no 

 way of supplying it with the proper food. We passed 

 through Mai Ache, the farthermost outpost of 

 the camel patrol, an Arabian style village, teeming 

 with horses and camels, all adorned with brightly- 

 colored trappings. 



Jones had ridden with me as a passenger for a while 

 and told me of his seafaring hfe; that this was his 

 first land cruise, and I had suggested the title for a 

 book — "An Able Seaman's Cruise across Africa in 

 the Good Ship 'Constant Grief." Later Pedley told 



