THROUGH FRENCH UBANGI 45 



They are uot bound to attend natives, though they 

 are recommended to do so, and if they undertake 

 the work receive an extra yearly allowance of £60. 

 Medicines are provided free of charge in all cases. 



We dined out of doors, by the light of the moon, 

 and a tame kob came up and talked to us as a dog 

 would at home. We were a very merry party ; it was 

 two years since M. Bertaut had seen a woman, and 

 there were many jokes as to our presence, for all three 

 men had thought Captain Lancrenon was trying to 

 take them in when he said women were on the way 

 there. But since M. Bertaut had made certain that 

 we really were coming he had spent much time in 

 explaining to the Lamido a white man's point of view 

 about women, and was enchanted at the result, which 

 had far exceeded his utmost expectations. 



The station at Lere had been made in 1905, and 

 its occupants have had a hard time. The Govern- 

 ment only allows sixteen carriers to bring stores that 

 have to last for two years, and the Resident has had to 

 make the house and all the furniture. Luckily it is a 

 country where food is easily obtained, and service, too, 

 is cheap ; the two small boys, for instance, who w^aited 

 on us at table received a maximum wagfe of five francs 

 a-month. 



The progress in the settlement of the country is 

 remarkable, and the work very hard. M. Bertaut 

 hears and judges every case of justice that the natives 

 bring him, for which they pay no fee. The majority 

 are complaints brought by women against their hus- 

 bands, and are usually prompted by a desire to marry 

 someone else, for in no single case has any cruelty been 

 proved against the man. 



