118 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
already begin to furnish no inconsiderable amount of food 
both to the black and the white inhabitants of Léopoldville, 
and of course in future, together with the stock-breeding 
establishments. for goats, fowls, sheep, pigs, ducks, and 
pigeons, ought to completely nourish the station and its 
normal number of residents, so that only what may be 
termed “luxuries” need be introduced from Europe. 
There is no reason why many even of these should not be 
produced and prepared on the spot. The sugar-cane, for 
instance, is largely grown by the natives, and its pulp 
may in the simplest, most elementary way be boiled and 
strained down into a thick toffee-lke sugar, quite suitable 
for all ordinary sweetening purposes without further refine- 
ment. Then, as we know, coffee is indigenous to most 
parts of tropical Africa, and if it does not actually grow 
wild on the Congo, it would certainly yield on these 
fertile slopes around the Pool the finest results under 
cultivation. 
It is the food question that is the real difficulty of 
Congo exploration. Though the soil is richly productive, 
the natives grow only just enough to live upon in plenty 
themselves, but are not equal to a sudden drain on their 
resources. Mr. Stanley has long since understood the 
necessity of making his Expedition self-supporting, both — 
from the expense and difficulty of importing preserved 
provisions from Europe, and from the inability of the 
natives to adequately supply anything like the amount of 
food which is daily needed for the nourishment of each 
station, Consequently, almost before he built houses, he 
laid out gardens, he planted bananas, and commenced the 
cultivation of manioc, and whenever he made an inspec- 
tion of a newly-founded station or revisited an old one, 
his first care was the local husbandry. 
Léopoldville boasts of a convenient little harbour in 
front of the station, protected by a spit of woodland which 
projects into the Congo. Here all the falls are over, or, 
rather, following the course of the stream, have not yet 
begun—the first takes place close to Léopoldville, a little 
behind the station—so that navigation from this port is 
Pete es = uly ag iar 
