s with
feathers. Then the next day we were all hauled before a court and
judged, and having all been found guilty were condemned to be shaved
and bathed publicly at four. Meantime the Italians, is it not the
picture of them, had organized a revolution against the Tribunal, with
the object of ducking them. They went into this as though it were a
real conspiracy and had signs and passwords. At four o'clock, in turn
they sat us on the edge of the great tank on the well deck and splashed
us over with paste and then tilted us in. I tried to carry the
Frenchman who was acting as barber, with me but only got him half in.
But Milani, one of the Italians, swung him over his head plumb into the
water. The Frenchman is a rich elephant hunter who is not very
popular. When the revolution broke loose we all yelled "A bas le
Tribunal" "Vive la Revolution!" and there was awful rough house. I
made for the Frenchman and went in with him and nearly drowned him, and
everybody was being thrown into the tank or held in front of a fire
cross. After dinner there was a grand ceremony, the fourth, in which
certificates were presented by an Inspecteur d'Etat who is on board,
and is a Deputy Governor of a district. Then there was much champagne
and a concert and Cecil and I sat with the Captain, the Bishop, in his
robes and berretta and the two inspectors and they were very charming
to both of us.

DICK.

Compagnie Belge Maritime Du Congo.

S. S. February 13th, 1907.

DEAR MOTHER:

We reached Banana yesterday morning, and the mouth of the Congo, and as
the soldier said when he reached the top of San Juan Hill, "Hell! well
here we are!" Banana looks like one of the dozen little islands in the
West Indies, where we would stop to take on some "brands of bananas,"
instead of the port to a country as big as Europe. We went ashore and
wandered around under the palm trees, and took photos, and watched some
men fishing in the lagoons, and we saw a strange fish that leaps on the
top of the water just as a frog jumps on land. It is certainly hot.
Milani and I went in swimming in the ocean, and got finely cool. Then
we paddled the canoe back to the ship to show the blacks how good we
were, and got very hot, and the blacks charged us a franc for the
voyage. To-morrow we will be in Boma, the capital, which is much of a
place with shops and a lawn tennis court.

BOMA, February 15th.

Boma is more or less laid out and contains the