16 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



were by far the more satisfactory, resisting the trying condi- 

 tions of cUmate better. Of course, the photographs dealing 

 with the first part of the expedition have yielded the best 

 residts and hundreds of the later plates turned out worthless ; 

 but, personally, I am much surprised that any at all of these 

 have been rescued, remembering the length of time they had 

 to endure and the strange vicissitudes that they went through. 

 A large and heavy part of our equipment were the survey 

 instruments, including two theodolites and a telescope, which 

 needed most careful carrying. But heaviest item of all was 

 the ammunition, made up of 15,000 cartridges of all kinds. 



I must not close the list of our belongings without 

 making mention of two machines, with the utmost 

 gratitude for their invention, namely a gramophone and a 

 mincing-machine ; but I do not wish for one moment to 

 suggest, by mentioning both in the same breath, that they 

 performed similar functions ; they merely occurred to me 

 together, as being, each in its own way, triumphs of the 

 inventor's skill ; for the one carried for thousands of miles 

 from the fount at which it was filled charms to soothe the 

 savage breast of the explorer, while the other by a turn of 

 the handle charmed wild beasts into a form that was 

 pleasant and digestible. 



I also took out a phonograph, in the hopes of bringing 

 back interesting records of native languages and music. 

 The results were most satisfactory while out there ; but, 

 unfortunately, the cylinders got ruined by damp on their 

 way home. In my intercourse with the chiefs it had the 

 most wonderful effects. It invested me in their eyes with 

 the powers of the devil. On one occasion that I remember. 



