240 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NH^E 



that account, and when in my conversation with him I 

 asked him to gat his people to catch me rats and small animals 

 in the forest, though he stared at me in blank astonishment, 

 he kept a grave face. Not so his followers who, when he 

 turned and communicated to them my wishes, could hardly 

 contain themselves for laughter. I was then no " Bula 

 Matadi,'' come to collect rubber, the only thing they thought 

 a white man ever did in their country. The name " Bula 

 Matadi " (hewer of stone) was first of all given by the Congo 

 natives to Stanley on account of his forceful will ; now it is 

 applied to all white men. 



The chief showed me the book given to him by the Congo 

 Government ; the cover bore his name and that of his 

 village and tribe, and inside was a printed table of the taxes 

 payable by him to the Government ; these took the form of 

 so many hours of labour each month, and so much food-stuff 

 or palm oil, whichever his district yielded. 



At each village I came to, large numbers of wooden cala- 

 bashes full of cooked plantains and green vegetables were 

 ready for my " boys," and so overdone was the native 

 hospitality that at last, much to their disappointment, I 

 had to refuse it, for it began to tell upon some of the " boys," 

 who took to sleeping off their surfeits by the wayside. 



All the chiefs I met with had two or three soldiers, armed 

 with converted flint-locks, of which there must be a large 

 number in the country. The men have in them the making 

 of good soldiers and show a ready appreciation in the way 

 they handle their rifles when saluting the white man. It 

 follows, of course, that powder and caps are the best trade 

 goods for this country ; the latter are strictly forbidden, but 



