THE CONGO AND

COASTS OF AFRICA

BY

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, F.R.G.S.

AUTHOR OF "SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE," "THE SCARLET CAR,"
"WITH BOTH ARMIES IN SOUTH AFRICA," "FARCES," "THE CUBAN
AND PORTO RICAN CAMPAIGNS"

ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
AND OTHERS

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK
1907

TO

CECIL CLARK DAVIS

MY FELLOW VOYAGER ALONG
THE COASTS OF AFRICA

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

R. Davis and "Wood Boys" of the Congo   Frontispiece

Mrs. Davis in a Borrowed "Hammock," The Local Means of Transport on the West Coast

A White Building, that Blazed Like the Base of a Whitewashed Stove at White Heat

The "Mammy Chair" is Like Those Swings You See in Public Playgrounds

A Village on the Kasai River

"Tenants" of Leopold, Who Claims that the Congo Belongs to Him, and that these Native People are there only as His Tenants

The Facilities for Landing At Banana, the Port of Entry to the Congo, are Limited

"Prisoners" of the State in Chains at Matadi

Bush Boys in the Plaza at Matadi Seeking Shade

The Monument in Stanley Park, Erected, Not to Stanley, but to Leopold

The Deliverance. The River Raced over the Deck to a Depth of Four or Five Inches. Between Her Cabin and the Wood-pile, were Stored Fifty Human Beings

The Native Wife of a Chef de Poste

English Missionaries, and Some of Their Charges

The Laboring Man Upon Whom the American Concessionaires Must Depend

Mr. Davis and Native "Boy," on the Kasai River

The Hippopotamus that Did Not Know He Was Dead

The Jesuit Brothers at the Wombali Mission

There, in the Surf, We Found These Tons of Mahogany, Pounding against Each Other

A Log of Mahogany Jammed in the Anchor Chains

The Palace of the King of the Cameroons

The Home of the Thirty Queens of King Mango Bell

The Mother Superior and Sisters of St. Joseph and Their Converts at Old Calabar

The Kroo Boys Sit, not on the Thwarts, but on the Gunwales, as a Woman Rides a Side Saddle