432 AFRICA SPEAKS 



tumbled almost at his feet, pushing several small 

 trees to the ground which pinned him where he lay. 

 It took forty men some time to cut down the trees 

 and pry him loose from this prison, and, although 

 seriously hurt, he was thankful to be ahve. 



During our days in Kaduna awaiting Jones' recovery, 

 I spent the time in collecting information about the 

 roads to Lagos, and in making a trip to Zaria. After 

 sending a few dozen wires and talking to everyone 

 available, I came to the conclusion that it would be 

 absolutely impossible to motor from Kaduna to Jebba, 

 which hes on the western side of the Niger River. 

 The rains had been almost continuous in the district 

 for some time and the many tributaries of the Niger 

 were of flood proportions and these had to be crossed. 

 The crude bridges had all been washed away and the 

 lowlands were deep under water. It looked hke a 

 hopeless task, especially as I had only one truck left 

 and no way of knowing how long it would hold to- 

 gether. Considering these things, and the fact that 

 the members of the expedition were in bad shape 

 physically, I concluded the best method would be to 

 transport everything by rail from Kaduna to Jebba. 



Removing an axle from the truck, I proceeded by 

 train to Zaria, there to install it in the disabled truck, 

 which I later drove back to Kaduna. Someone with 

 a genius for writing comic operas should make this 

 railroad journey to Zaria. The station masters are 

 black, as are the conductors and everyone else. There 

 are three classes of passengers: first, second, and 

 third. First class is for whites only, and, as I was the 

 only hght-complexioned passenger, they had to haul a 

 special coach for my benefit. 



