AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE

KING ALBERT

AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE

BY

ISAAC F. MARCOSSON

AUTHOR OF "ADVENTURES IN INTERVIEWING," ETC.

NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD

MCMXXI

COPYRIGHT · 1921

BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT · 1921

BY JOHN LANE COMPANY

THE PLIMPTON PRESS

NORWOOD · MASS · U·S·A

To
THOMAS F. RYAN
WHO FIRST BEHELD THE VISION
OF AMERICA IN THE CONGO

FOREWORD

From earliest boyhood when I read the works of Henry M. Stanley and books about Cecil Rhodes, Africa has called to me. It was not until I met General Smuts during the Great War, however, that I had a definite reason for going there.

After these late years of blood and battle America and Europe seemed tame. Besides, the economic war after the war developed into a struggle as bitter as the actual physical conflict. Discord and discontent became the portion of the civilized world. I wanted to get as far as possible from all this social unrest and financial dislocation.

So much interest was evinced in the magazine articles which first set forth the record of my journey that I was prompted to expand them into this book. It may enable the reader to discover a section of the one-time Dark Continent without the hardships which I experienced.

I. F. M.

New York, April, 1921

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

King Albert Frontispiece
Groote Schuur facing page 28
General J. C. Smuts 44
Mr. Marcosson's Route in Africa 56
Cecil Rhodes 76
The Premier Diamond Mine 90
Victoria Falls 102
Cultivating Citrus Land in Rhodesia 110
The Grave of Cecil Rhodes 132
A Katanga Copper Mine 138
Lord Leverhulme 144
Robert Williams 144
On the Lualaba 150
A View on the Kasai 150
A Station Scene at Kongola 156
A Native Market at Kindu 162
Native Fish Traps at Stanley Falls 168
The Massive Bangalas 176
Congo Women in State