Introduction 



By sir harry JOHNSTON 



SOME time in the autumn, perhaps the late autumn, 

 of 1920 I was frequenting the map rooms and library 

 of the Royal Geographical Society in London, in 

 connection with an elaborate map that was being compiled 

 to illustrate the extent of Africa covered by the twin famihes 

 of the Bantu and the Semi-Bantu languages. On one such 

 occasion, when leaving the building for the prosaic quest 

 of lunch, I encountered the Society's president. " Hullo ! 

 How fortimate ! Just going to write or telegraph to you, 

 when I found out where you were. We've got up at very short 

 notice a meeting to hear a paper from an extraordinary man 

 — Bams is his name — who's been exploring the regions you 

 and Sharpe used to know — Lake Edward, Ruwenzori, Congo 

 Forest, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika. I've just got hold 

 of Sharpe, though he's very soon starting for Liberia, and here 

 you are ! Wonderful, when most people are out of London ! 

 . . . No. It's not in our programme. But I couldn't 

 let such a chance slip. . . . Remarkable films of African 

 scenery, with wild beasts wandering about quite indifferent 

 to the operator or his native followers ; and really splendid 

 slides of stationary subjects. You simply must come. . . . 

 I shaU ask you and Sharpe to propose and second the vote 

 of thanks. You won't regret it." 



I did not : nor, I think, did any one in the large audience 

 that heard Mr. Barns, that saw Mrs. Bams, and that beheld 

 the truly wonderful pictures of their cinematograph or the 



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