16 



CHAPTER 11. 



GARUA AND THE NORTH KAMERUN, 

 (SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 14.) 



Garua lies on the west bank of the Benue, and as we 

 approached the quay was busy as a Liverpool dock. 

 One small Niger Company steamboat was alongside the 

 wharf, and men were hurrying to and from her, for she 

 had only just come, and her goods were being un- 

 loaded : the last stores, together with those from our 

 boat, that would be received that season. No more 

 steamboats would attempt the passage of the upper 

 Benue for another eight or nine months, for the water 

 was falling fast, and each day sandbanks recently sub- 

 merged became more and more visible. 



The shore was black with men busied in the construc- 

 tion and repair of steel canoes, for a French officer was 

 expected to take over a consignment of wires that had 

 come for the new telegraph line between Fort Lamy 

 and Bangui, on the way to Fort Archambault, and he 

 had to arrange for their transport. They were to be 

 taken up the Benue, the Mao Bulo, and so to Lere, in 

 these canoes, and but few days remained when there 

 would be sufficient water to make this route possible. 



In the foreground women stood knee -deep in the 



