est. In the Congo all functionaries are called "Bula Matadi,"
which means "The Rock Breaker." It is the name originally bestowed on
Stanley when he dynamited a road through the rocks of the Lower Congo.
Franck, however, was a super "Bula Matadi." We had a special boat, the
"Baron Delbecke," a one hundred ton craft somewhat similar to the "Louis
Cousin" but much cleaner, for she had been scrubbed up for the journey.
The Minister, his military aide, secretary and doctor filled the cabins,
so I slept in a tent set up on the lower deck.

With flags flying and thousands of natives on the shore yelling and
beating tom-toms, we started down the Lualaba. The country between Kindu
and Ponthierville, our first objective, is thickly populated and
important settlements dot the banks. Wherever we stopped the native
troops were turned out and there were long speeches of welcome from the
local dignitaries. Franck shook as many black and white hands as an
American Presidential candidate would in a swing around the circle. I
accompanied him ashore on all of these state visits and it gave me an
excellent opportunity to see the many types of natives in their Sunday
clothes, which largely consist of no clothes at all. This applies
especially to the female sex, which in the Congo reverses Kipling's
theory because they are less deadly than the male.

At Lowa occurred a significant episode. This place is the center of an
immense native population, but there is only one white resident, the
usual Belgium state official. We climbed the hill to his house, where
thirty of the leading chiefs, wearing the tin medal which the Belgian
Government gives them, shook hands with the Minister. The ranking chief,
distinguished by the extraordinary amount of red mud in his wool and the
grotesque devices cut with a knife on his body, made a long speech in
which he became rather excited. When the agent translated this in French
to Franck I gathered that the people were indignant over the advance in
cost of trade goods, especially salt and calico. Salt is more valuable
than gold in the Congo. Among the natives it is legal tender for every
commodity from a handkerchief to a wife.

Franck made a little speech in French in reply--it was translated by the
interpreter--in which he said that the Great War had increased the price
of everything. We shook hands all round and there was much muttering of
"yambo," the word for "greeting," and headed for the boat.

Halfwa