zabethville and the steamer that took me to Europe three months
later.

At the garden party Monsieur Franck made a graceful speech in which he
said that the real missionaries of African civilization were the wives
who accompanied their husbands to their lonely posts in the field. What
he said made a distinct impression upon me for it was not only the truth
but it emphasized a detail that stands out in the memory of everyone who
visits this part of the world. I know of no finer heroines than these
women comrades of colonial officials who brave disease and discomfort to
share the lives of their mates. For one thing, they give the native a
new respect for his masters. All white women in the Congo are called
"mamma" by the natives.

The use of "mamma" by the African natives always strikes the newcomer as
strange. It is a curious fact that practically the first word uttered by
the black infant is "mamma," and in thousands of cases the final
utterance of both adult male and female is the same word. In northern
Rhodesia and many parts of the Congo the native mother frequently refers
to her child as a "piccannin" which is almost the same word employed by
coloured people in the American South.

Stanleyville's social prestige is only equalled by her economic
importance. It is one of the great ivory markets of the world. During
the last two years this activity has undergone fluctuations that almost
put Wall Street to the blush.

During the war there was very little trafficking in ivory because it was
a luxury. With peace came a big demand and the price soared to more than
200 francs a kilo. The ordinary price is about forty. One trader at
Stanleyville cleaned up a profit of 3,000,000 francs in three months.
Then came the inevitable reaction and with it a unique situation. In
their mad desire to corral ivory the traders ran up the normal price
that the native hunters received. The moment the boom burst the white
buyers sought to regulate their purchases accordingly. The native,
however, knows nothing about the law of demand and supply and he holds
out for the boom price. The outcome is that hundreds of tons of ivory
are piled up in the villages and no power on earth can convince the
savage that there is such a thing as the ebb and flow of price. Such is
commercial life in the jungle.

Northeast of Stanleyville lie the most important gold mines in the
Colony. The precious metal was discovered accidentally some years ago in
the