an officer was constantly on the watch, the foolish fellows in their attempts to shirk duty brought upon themselves extra work.  The cabins were unfurnished, for everyone carries his own bed on the Congo, and most also their own tent.  It was therefore necessary to unpack a bed.  Here was a difficulty.  All the bags and boxes were carefully numbered by the Army and Navy Stores and the invoice no doubt sent to my London address but I left before it arrived, and there was no possibility of discovering which number meant bed.  Seizing a likely looking bale, the boys unlace it, and find a part of a tent, and a second attempt brings to light another part of a tent.  It is now growing dark and a light is necessary, but in which of these seventy odd cases is the lamp?  Not knowing the native mind, I explain that it is necessary to hurry and find the bed before dark.  This evidently conveys no meaning at all to the boys, for in the first place it was not their bed and so it mattered nothing to them, and in the second, they had never hurried before in their lives, and could not do so now, even if they wished.  Lacing the first bales up slowly and deliberately, they open another and find a canvas bath and washhandstand.  These are at any rate useful, and encouraged by success we try again and come across hand-irons and starch.  At length we find a thing like a large concertina which is really a folding bed with pillows and blankets, complete.  By great good luck a mosquito curtain is then found and the steward kindly lends a candle.

Hot, sticky, tired and cross we prepare for our first meal on a Congo steamer.  It consisted of a soup of mystery, chicken, which had been washed in the river close to a group of natives bathing and a goat, killed an hour before dinner, whose flesh was thrown quivering into the pot.  However, there was some bread and tinned peaches and it was no use being fastidious in Central Africa.  This was washed down with the regulation half litre of red wine, a kind of claret which is quite drinkable and some native coffee which had a delicate and fine aroma, but was badly made.

The captain—­as indeed are nearly all the officers of the river steamers—­was a Scandinavian and spoke English very well.  He explained that the ship was not very clean or inviting-looking, which was the truth, but as the lower deck was lumbered up with the horses of Commandant Sillye and was swarming with natives, it was only to be expected.

Then to bed, but not to sleep, for the boys to save themselves trouble, had not fixed the mosquito net properly.  In my innocence I merely ordered them to do it and had not stood by and watched.  It is indeed necessary always to see that the native does as he is told, for the moment one’s back is turned, he is eating if there is anything rotten enough at hand to tempt him and if not, he quietly goes to sleep.  Even these State servants who speak the native language and also a kind of French, really live the lives of animals, for they eat, drink, and sleep if left alone and only work when they are shown how, and watched all the time.