On Monday October 10th we prepare to continue our journey up river.  We shall now require six or seven canoes, as they are not so large as the ones lower down and our crews, servants, escort and camp followers total up to nearly two hundred.  Captain Auita sends a few State capitas with us and Captain Meilleur lends us some French soldiers belonging to the 1st Senegalese Tirailleurs, a splendid set of fellows, very smart in their khaki uniforms.  We can, therefore, land with impunity on either side of the river, i.e. in the French or the State Congo, and be able to communicate with the Chiefs, for it will be rather difficult perhaps to feed so many people.

Next day we start amid the most terrific din.  Each of the seven canoes carries one or two tom-toms and some have also native bells.  All the capitas and most of the paddlers shout orders to each other which no one regards, even if they hear them, while the friends of the paddlers howl farewells from the beach.  At length however, the baggage is arranged and the little fleet starts in single file, for each canoe hugs the bank.  Before half an hour had elapsed my canoe struck a rock and stuck on it.  Fortunately we were not travelling faster than two miles an hour, or a hole would have been made in the bottom.  As it was, it was necessary for half the crew to go overboard, stand on the rock, and lift the canoe off.  Never was a ship so speedily lightened, and in a few moments we were once more afloat.

The river now passes through a kind of gorge not more than half a mile wide and continues between hills clad with long grass but after an hour or two, it widens out again and the banks become low.  The heat is great and the unceasing blows on the tom-tom within three feet of one’s ears are very annoying, but if it is stopped, the crew no longer keep good time, and the boat, therefore, travels very slowly.  The singing, on the other hand, is by no means unpleasant.  One of the crew sings a solo, a kind of recitative, the words being an extempore criticism, as a rule, of the white passenger, and then the whole join in chorus in perfect harmony.  The music is now wild and weird, now passionate and joyful, but always natural.  There is nothing of the catch penny type of ditties, which become popular in England and America, in these savage African songs, nor are they in the least like Chinese or Indian music.  The instruments are rudimentary; simple zithers, rattles, bells and a kind of guitar, but it is probable that all these, except the bells, have been introduced by the Europeans or Arabs.

On we creep slowly until we reach the island of Ya which belongs to the State.  All the other islands, except Bamu, being no man’s land.  Here we land at a large village and while the boys are arranging the camp, we see that our party are all fed.  The Chiefs are requested to provide food, and soon nearly two hundred women appear, each with a wooden vessel containing a ration of kwanga, palm oil, salad, bananas, plantains, fish, meat, or a general mixture.  These they deposit on the ground and stand at attention each behind the meal she has prepared.  The sergeants and capitas distribute the rations among the soldiers and paddlers, and at an order of the Chief, the whole crowd disappears into the huts.  Then we eat our dinner, consisting of the usual chicken and eggs, have a game of two-handed bridge and turn in.