FROM TENERIFFE TO CAPE LOPEZ 17 
mostly in very bad condition, and the lot of the poor 
beasts of burden which are at the mercy of the negroes 
is terrible ; I have never seen such overworked horses 
and mules as here. On one occasion when I came on 
two negroes who were perched on a cart heavily laden 
with wood which had stuck in the newly mended street, 
and with loud shouts were belabouring their poor beast, 
I simply could not pass by, but compelled them to 
dismount and to push behind till the three of us got the 
cart on the move. They were much disconcerted, but 
obeyed without replying. “ If you cannot endure to 
see animals ill-treated, don’t go to Africa ! ” said the 
lieutenant to me when I got back. “ You will see 
plenty of that kind of horror here.” 
At this port we took on board a number of Senegalese 
tirailleurs with their wives and children. They lay 
about the foredeck, and at night crept, head and all, 
into big sacks, as they had to sleep in the open. The 
wives and children were heavily loaded with charms, 
enclosed in little leather bags, even the babies at the 
breast not being exempt. 
The shores of Africa I had pictured to myself as 
desert, and when, on the way to Konakri, the next 
place of call to Dakar, we put in towards the coast, I 
was surprised to see nothing but magnificently green 
woods coming down right to the water’s edge. With 
my telescope I could see the pointed huts of the negro 
villages, and rising between us and them, like a cloud, 
the spray of the waves on the bar ; the sea, however, 
was fairly calm, and the coast, so far as I could see, was 
flat. 
“ A shark ! A shark ! ” I rushed from the writing 
saloon, and was shown a black triangular object 
