,
on the Lower Congo, nearly two thousand miles away. My locks were not
shorn for seven weeks. I had to do what little trimming there was done
with a safety razor and it involved quite an acrobatic feat. Take
shaving. The water in most of the Congo rivers is dirty and full of
germs. More than once I lathered my face with mineral water out of a
bottle. The Congo River proper is a muddy brown. For washing purposes it
must be treated with a few tablets of permanganate of potassium which
colours it red. It is like bathing in blood.

Since my journey from Katanga onward was through the heart of Africa,
perhaps it may be worth while to tell briefly of the equipment required
for such an expedition. Although I travelled for the most part in the
greatest comfort that the Colony afforded, it was necessary to prepare
for any emergency. In the Congo you must be self-sufficient and
absolutely independent of the country. This means that you carry your
own bed and bedding (usually a folding camp-bed), bath-tub, food,
medicine-chest, and cooking utensils.

No detail was more essential than the mosquito net under which I slept
every night for nearly four months. Insects are the bane of Africa. The
mosquito carries malaria, and the tsetse fly is the harbinger of that
most terrible of diseases, sleeping sickness. Judging from personal
experience nearly every conceivable kind of biting bug infests the
Congo. One of the most tenacious and troublesome of the little visitors
is the jigger, which has an uncomfortable habit of seeking a soft spot
under the toe-nail. Once lodged it is extremely difficult to get him
out. These pests are mainly found in sandy soil and give the Negroes who
walk about barefooted unending trouble.

No less destructive is the dazzling sun. Five minutes exposure to it
without a helmet means a prostration and twenty minutes spells death.
Stanley called the country so inseparably associated with his name
"Fatal Africa," but he did not mean the death that lay in the murderous
black hand. He had in mind the thousand and one dangers that beset the
stranger who does not observe the strictest rules of health and diet.
From the moment of arrival the body undergoes an entirely new
experience. Men succumb because they foolishly think they can continue
the habits of civilization. Alcohol is the curse of all the hot
countries. The wise man never takes a drink until the sun sets and then,
if he continues to be wise, he imbibes o