January 22, 1955 
Mr. Eric Thornton-Dailly 
Post Office Box 188 
Bukavu , Kivu, Belgian Congo 
Dear Mr. Thornton: 
I have been wanting to write you ever since Mr. Mark Evans spoke 
so enthusiastically of your services to his party during their three 
weeks in the Congo this past year. Dr. James B. Chapin, whom I have 
known from years back, and whom you know well since he has taken up 
residence in your part of the world, tells me that the American Auto- 
mobile Association has had some contact with you regarding my contem- 
plated trip, M-litoUjjh )fk have had to make several substantial changes 
in the itinerary which they originally furnished us, in order to gain 
time for collecting. The Association will arrange our transportation 
to the Congo and return, by ship in part and by air, also the plane 
flights from Leopoldville to Stanleyville, and from Costermansville 
(Bukavu) to Juba, as well as the trip down the Nile to Cairo and thence 
home* 
Inasmuch as the AAA seems either directly or through some agent 
to have been in touch with you, you may well have planned a considerable 
part of their itinerary, and may again be called on to make further 
representations regarding the places we now want to visit. Be as it 
may, we shall have about two months or a little more for the entire 
trip. We want to leave New York on the Belgian-African Line as near 
the first of April as possible, hoping to arrive in Matadi about the 
middle of the month, and from there out spend either iiS or perhaps only 
30 days in the Congo, from Leopoldville (Matadi) to Bukavu. Flying 
from Bukavu to Juba we must make one of two boats down the Nile, May 
15 or May 29. Making the former would limit our Congo stay to 30 days; 
making the latter would permit the iip day tour as outlined. This, most 
of us would prefer. ¥e must be back in the states not later than June 
21, and indeed one of us before June 10. He would have to fly home from 
Bukavu . 
The itinerary we have worked out here in consultation with Dr. 
Roger Coustry of the Belgian Bnbassy is enclosed. As you will see the 
first 7 days are the same for either itinerary. From Stanleyville out 
there is the longer i;5 day haul by way of Buta and Cangala na Bodio to 
