CHAPTER VIII. 
EVENTS AND PROCEEDINGS PREVIOUS TO REACHING 
STANLEY POOL. 
T he voyage out was exceptionally successful and 
pleasant : good weather, calm seas, specially 
beautiful nights, and splendid health nearly all 
the time. The Volta was exchanged for the 
Congo at Teneriffe, on which island six donkeys and 
a tiny foal were purchased for carrying purposes, 
and Mr. Comber had also hoped to have obtained 
there two cows. The little donkey being very 
lively and skittish, afforded some amusement. It had 
been bought for a dollar, and so was called “ Dollar.'' 
Mr. Comber would sometimes trot him aft " to see 
Mrs. Comber. It was just small enough to run 
through his legs without knocking him over. Besides 
the donkey live-stock, there were two dogs — a large- 
sized Newfoundland-retriever, and a good colley or 
shepherd's dog, with a particularly beautiful face. 
Whilst on board, Mr. Comber spent considerable time 
in reading up and practising in '' nautical astronomy," 
so that he might be able accurately to take the sun for 
latitude and longitude. To Mr. Baynes, the Secretary 
of the Society, he wrote off Sierra Leone : — We are 
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