The Congo is undoubtedly the land of exaggerations.  Everything here is bigger or smaller than any where else.  If the elephants are the largest in the world the insects are the smallest and Enguetra is especially favoured by their attendance.  Millions of little beasts fall on one all day long.  Soup might here be called hexapoda bouillon and a glass of wine in a few minutes becomes a tincture of insects.  Butterflies are especially numerous and are of groat beauty.  They are so lazy or sleepy that one can nearly always pick them up with one’s fingers.  Ducks are not agile creatures on land but here they waddle slowly up to the butterflies and as often as not catch them in their beaks.

The native is a curious mixture of simplicity and cunning He is very fond of strong alcohol but does not care much for wine.  The mess boy here apparently stole some whisky and instead of filling the bottle up with water added red wine to the requisite amount.  Of course the colour led to instant detection and of course he knew nothing about it, but he lurched about violently as he waited at dinner and it was obvious the new European drink was acting rather forcibly.  It is very troublesome to have to lock up every bottle when travelling, yet it is absolutely necessary.  There is, however, I hear a patent lock which can be fixed over the cork and is easily fastened to the bottle.  This is worth remembering.

One day Chikaia slated that the Sultan of Enguetra intended to attack the Post that night and if he had done so it might have fared badly with us for we were only two white men with perhaps fifteen or twenty soldiers.  However, a heavy tornado broke and perhaps the warriors refused to face the storm for nothing happened.  The boys were very alarmed and did not hesitate to say so.  As the relationship between the Sultan and the State was not very satisfactory the report might have been true, otherwise it might well have been idle gossip.  War had then not been declared but the State soon after sent a force to occupy the district.

Chikaia, who is a Christian, formed a violent attachment to a woman who worked in the plantation here and asked to be allowed to marry her, although at the time she appeared to be the wife of a soldier with whom she was living.  Chikaia, however, said she was not legally married, so we investigated the case.  The supposed husband swore they were married, the woman swore they were not.  The man, however, in this case evidently lied for he said the ceremony took place at a certain Post and was conducted by a certain official.  Now only Commissaires of Districts and Missionaries can legalise marriages and the official named was neither.  After representing to Chikaia that the woman did not seem a very desirable wife, I gave my permission to his marriage, provided that the Catholic Missionaries, to which church he belonged, were willing to perform the ceremony for the woman was not a Christian.  The woman was very pleased