[Illustration:  BASOKO FROM THE RIVER.].

CHAPTER IX.

Ibembo to Stanley Falls.

The Delivrance a steamer built on the same lines as the Florida arrives at Ibembo on December 5th with a large cargo of cloth, clothes, beads, salt and other articles for barter, and also cases of food for the Europeans.  This is almost her last voyage up the Itimbiri this season, for soon the waters will have fallen so low that the river will be navigable only by canoes.  No time is wasted in the Congo State.  As soon as the cargo was discharged, the empty holds were filled with baskets of rubber and ivory and in less than twenty four hours after her arrival, the steamer was ready to depart.

Having arranged to travel by this boat, my baggage was soon on board, and we left Ibembo at midday on the 6th of December.  At first the river passes between the cliff fronting the plateau, on which the Mission stands and low lying forest on the opposite bank.  The cliff is red, and is evidently full of iron.  In a short time however, both banks become flat and are covered with forest broken at intervals by villages which are well arranged, clean and tidy.  Some of them are wood posts, and one is occupied by old soldiers, who have built themselves very good houses.  These veterans have no pension, but are given materials to form plantations, and also supply the steamers with wood at the usual rate.  They rarely, if ever, return to their native villages, which they left seven or ten years before as naked savages, for they are now smart civilised men and imitate the appearance and manners of the Europeans as closely as possible.

About 6 p.m. we reach the Post of Mandungu, situated on the right bank of the Itimbiri.  It is very well built and scrupulously tidy.  Behind is a high wooden stockade, and in front, along the river bank is a small wall broken by a kind of arbour, in which is a brass gun with the interesting inscription G.R.  III 1799.

On again at daybreak down the swiftly running stream.  The Itimbiri indeed, like its principal feeders, the Likati and Rubi, is rapidly falling, for the dry season has now commenced in earnest, and although thunder-storms are frequent, they are not accompanied by rain.  We stop at Moenge, a small post on the left bank of the river, for the mail, and then on again until the Congo is reached an hour before sunset.  The great river is still very full of water, which shows no signs at present of falling.  This is, only to be expected, for all the tributaries are now emptying themselves into the main stream, which is thus kept high for some weeks after they have commenced to fall.  We turn down the Congo and after passing some villages and a post of the S.A.B.  Trading Company, reach Bumba at sunset.