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botanical experimental garden, which we had the pleasure of 
inspecting in the company of its director. It serves scientific 
and practical aims jointly. Amongst its numerous products may 
be mentioned rubber, gutta-percha, cocoa, tea, vanilla, coca, 
patchouli, and other articles. It was a visit of especial interest 
for our botanist, and a pleasure to us laymen to see amongst 
the thousands of plants the producers of such old and familiar 
articles of common household use as tea, vanilla, and, if you 
like, patchouli. 
Next day we reached Irebu, a great military depot. Eight 
hundred black soldiers were being drilled into shape at the 
time of our visit. We had the pleasure there, long denied us, 
of dining in the company of a lady, Madame Jeauniaux, wife 
of the Commander of the military depot. After dinner we 
had a regular concert—songs with harmonium accompaniment. 
It quite stirred us to hear German songs sung in a very pretty 
voice by a lady, especially after having had nothing better in 
the way of music than our hoarse old gramophone for a year. 
On the following morning we left on our four days’ voyage 
to Leopoldville, the terminus of our steamer journey. These 
passed quickly, as the scenery was always changing. We only 
passed small posts at this part of the Congo, the duty of whose 
occupants is to look after the maintenance of the telegraphic 
connection. This duty is a very severe one, for the lines to be 
controlled are of great length and extend over many miles of 
fever-laden swamps. The officials are constantly compelled to 
take exhausting journeys in order to repair the damages inflicted 
by the elephants, or otherwise. 
After passing the mouth of the Kasai, one of the largest 
tributaries of the Congo, we crossed Stanley Pool on the 24th, 
a great water basin of two hundred square kilometres. Heavy 
fog lay on the water and forced us to anchor again. When the 
sun’s rays at last pierced the vapour, the white houses of Brazza¬ 
ville were gleaming in the distance from the northern shore, and 
those of Leopoldville from the southern. Not wishing to miss 
the opportunity of seeing the capital of a French colony, I had 
