nary and
Grammar which included the Parables of Christ, the Miracles, the
Epistles to the Romans in paraphrase. He also prepared a Catechism based
on the Shorter and Child's Catechisms. This gave the workers in the
field a definite instrument to employ, and it has been a beneficent
influence in shaping the lives and morals of the natives.

One phase of the labours of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission
discloses the bondage of the Congo native to the Witch Doctor. The
moment he feels sick he rushes to the sorcerer, usually a bedaubed
barbarian who practices weird and mysterious rites, and who generally
succeeds in killing off his patient. More than ninety per cent of the
pagan population of Africa not only acknowledges but fears the powers of
the Witch Doctor. Only two-fifths of one per cent are under Christian
medical treatment. The Presbyterian Missionaries, therefore, from the
very outset have sought to bring the native into the ken of the white
physician. It is a slow process. One almost unsurmountable obstacle lies
in the uncanny grip that the "medicine man" wields in all the tribes.

It is largely due to the missionaries that the practice of handshaking
has been introduced in the Congo. Formerly the custom was to clap hands
when exchanging greetings. The blacks saw the Anglo-Saxons grasp hands
when they met and being apt imitators in many things, they started to do
likewise. One of the first things that impressed me in Africa was the
extraordinary amount of handshaking that went on when the people met
each other even after a separation of only half an hour.

VI

I had originally planned to leave Africa at St. Paul de Loanda in
Portuguese West Africa, where Thomas F. Ryan and his Belgian associates
have acquired the new oil wells and set up still another important
outpost of our overseas financial venturing. But so much time had been
consumed in reaching Tshikapa that I determined to return to Kinshassa,
go on to Matadi, and catch the boat for Europe at the end of August.

There were two ways of getting back to Kabambaie. One was to go in an
automobile through the jungle, and the other by boat down the Kasai.
Between Kabambaie and Djoko Punda there is practically no navigation on
account of the succession of dangerous rapids. Since my faith in the
jitney was still impaired I chose the river route and it gave me the
most stirring of all my African experiences. The two motor boats at
Tshikapa were out of c