6 
Continuation of May llj/55 letter 
twirling a stick of harder wood in a softer piece underneath. It takes 
a little skill) but th^ produce a fire in no time. The farther one 
gets away from the cities the more real Africa you see, While we were 
here in Lwiro, from afternoon of the litth through morning of the l6th 
we had the opportunity of sitting in on a lecture given by Alain Bombard, 
the Frenchman who crossed the Atlantic in a rubber life raft with 
scarcely seven x three feet of space in side it. Lived on planktonic 
animals and fish he caught with nets and hook and line. He had quite 
naturally very little in the way of motion pictures but he did keep 
his audience, the station staff, and families, entertained for a couple 
of hours. I did not get much out of his discourse, but I had had a 
few words with him at lunch time earlier in the day. He speaks a very 
good English, and when I inquired for more real data on his exploit he 
said it had been typed out by the FVench government and that a copy 
was available in the French Babassy in Washington, gave me a card of 
introduction to the Naval attache there, to whom he wished to be 
reraonbered. He expects to attend a Navy conference in Washington in the 
Fall on survival at sea, and may go on a brief lecture tour at the time. 
On the 17th on our way back to Bukavu we stopped at Mulungu to see the 
INEAC station there. Mites on economic plants being our objective here. 
In fact the place proved so interesting under the guidance of the director. 
Dr. P, L. Hendrickx Baker wanted another day there. 
Chapin came down frcsn Lwiro for Bredo’s cocktail party on the 17th 
fl:^an 6 p.m. till we went home to dinner near nine in the absence of the 
governor we met the acting governor. Everybody of consequence politically 
is down Leopoldville way to see the King of all the Belgians who landed 
there on the l6th. This was a colony wide holiday, even up here. I 
understand that he's going pretty much all over the Congo and will be 
up here in the near future. 
