124 THOMAS J. COMBER. 
colleagues down below, one or two of which showed 
things were not going altogether straight, and then I 
had a heap of dear home letters by my side to read. 
I soon got some coffee, and ‘ set to ’ at my delightful 
task— yours, Sid^s, a scrap from Percy, two from Carrie, 
the usual batch from Kilburn, Mr. Rickards, Emmie, 
Sallie and Charlie’s, such a letter from Mr. Baynes, 
Grenfell, &c. — it was a treat and no mistake. Three 
hours of steady, delightful reading ; and such letters 
— especially of Mr. Baynes. My blood tingled, I felt 
my hair tending to stand on end, and, although it was 
a cool day, I perspired so profusely that I was con- 
stantly mopping, and had to change shirt and singlet 
in the middle, and again directly after reading 
through. I ’m sure it wasn’t the coffee I was drinking 
which made me so perspire ; ’twas the letters. Then 
the nervous and mental effect of thern was very 
strange. They almost made me seedy, and I had to 
put them altogether aside for a time and lie down. 
But, oh ! it was a glorious mail, and was partly my 
Christmas ‘ good-tidings.’ ” 
A few weeks before this date, the Congo band was 
strengthened by the addition of two new missionaries 
— Mr. Moolenaar and Mr. Hughes — who were shortly 
followed by Mr. Grenfell bringing a third in the per- 
son of Mr. Doke. The latter two brethren were 
entrusted with the precious cargo, the which 
steamer had been built by Messrs. Thornycroft, and 
constructed in sections for overland transport. As 
the onerous labour of carrying up this vessel to the 
Pool was under the superintendence of Mr. Grenfell, 
an account of the way in which this transport was 
effected does not properly belong to these pages. It 
will, however, be readily understood that during the 
time the eight hundred loads were being conveyed to 
their destination, the transit was a matter of no small 
anxiety to Mr. Comber. What he thought of the 
memorable achievement, so successfully performed by 
Mr. Grenfell, may be, seen from the terms in which he 
