On the beach were some fine elephant tusks which have been collected by the agents of the Societe Anonyme Belge.  When a native finds a pair of tusks in the territory of the company, the State takes one as a royalty and the company buys the other for a certain quantity of cloth.  This only represents a fraction of the value in Europe, but is gladly accepted by the native who has no use for it except to make war horns.  Indeed in the old days, the chiefs used to form a kind of fence round their huts by sticking the points in the ground, little thinking that in another part of the world, not even the millionaire of fiction ever constructed such an expensive railing.  Then the Arab slave raiders came and stole both the native women and the ivory, so that the white man who gives beautiful coloured cloth for these useless elephants’ tusks is regarded as a very generous trader.  In the afternoon the Flandre continued her journey threading her way between the numerous islands in Stanley Pool, and finally tied up to the bank of the island of Bamu which is French territory.  This island enjoys the distinction of being the only one in the Congo which has an owner, for all the rest are declared to be no man’s land by international treaty.  It is reputed to be full of game, and we go ashore to look for it, but return without seeing anything.  As the mosquitoes prevent all sleep in the cabin, we arrange to make up a bed on deck and obtain a better night’s rest, for it is comparatively cool here in the evening in the open.

I am very anxious to bathe next morning, but the captain strongly disadvises for the currents are very strong here, and the river is full of crocodiles.  In the midst of breakfast we are startled by the report that the ship is on fire, and smoke is seen to be issuing from the fore hatch, under which much of the wood used for fuel is stored.  None of the Europeans however, are more excited than the natives, who, leisurely and with due deliberation, hand up buckets of water.  Nothing indeed could make a native hurry.  The captain seems a trifle upset, and states that it may be necessary to run on a rock, and thus make a hole in the bows and flood the hold.  This seems to be rather a desperate remedy, but no one shows the slightest interest.  This appeared curious at the time; since however, it has transpired that fires in the holds are of common occurrence, and that as the ships are all of iron, they usually burn themselves out without harming anything.  Soon after however, the captain with an alarmed look, rushes up on deck and said that a terrible crime or a great mistake had been committed.  It appeared that by some error, our cases of beer and some others belonging to Commandant Sillye had been left on the beach at Kinshasa.  Immediately we anchored last night a native boatswain, or capita, was sent with six men in a canoe to fetch them and ought to have returned by midnight.  Nothing however, was heard of the boat until now when the