Down the Congo 



and the new hangars, and the hundred-and-one varied scenes 

 of native Ufe. All have flitted by between the islands and 

 round the bends of the far reaching Congo. Presently we 

 find ourselves opposite the landing stage at Kinshasa and 

 about to begin the hunt for sleeping accommodation (which 

 is one of the crying wants of the town, for the only good 

 hotel is always overflowing), but not finding it we have to 

 sleep aboard the Semois. 



In three days' time we are rattling our way to Matadi 

 Port and being shaken to bits in the antediluvian railway 

 carriages of this line. So bad are they that all the women 

 passengers were sick and the rest of us were tired out with 

 such an ordeal. 



The ss. Anversville lay waiting for us by the wharf at 

 Matadi and so we came to the western sea. Having entered 

 Africa on the east by the Zambezi delta we left it, after ten 

 years, by the Congo estuary. 



223 



