u. I only have accommodations for eight people and am carrying forty."
I flashed my royal credentials on him and he yielded. I got the sofa, or
rather the bench called a sofa, in his cabin.

On the "Yser" I found Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Crane, both Southerners,
who were returning to the United States after eight years at service at
one of the American Presbyterian Mission Stations. With them were their
two youngest children, both born in the Congo. The eldest girl, who was
five years old, could only speak the Baluba language. From her infancy
her nurses had been natives and she was facing the problem of going to
America for the first time without knowing a word of English. It was
quaintly amusing to hear her jabber with the wood-boys and the firemen
on board and with the people of the various villages where we
stopped.

[Illustration: THE PARK AT BOMA]

[Illustration: A STREET IN MATADI]

The Cranes were splendid types of the American missionary workers for
they were human and companionable. I had found Cleveland of the same
calibre. Like many other men I had an innate prejudice against the
foreign church worker before I went to Africa. I left with a strong
admiration for him, and with it a profound respect.

Kinshassa looked good to me when we arrived after four days' travelling,
but I did not tarry long. I was relieved to find that I was in ample
time to catch the August steamer at Matadi. It was at Kinshassa that I
learned of the nominations of Cox and Harding for the Presidency,
although the news was months old.

The morning after I reached Stanley Pool I boarded a special car on the
historic narrow-gauge railway that runs from Kinshassa to Matadi. At the
station I was glad to meet Major and Mrs. Wallace, who like myself were
bound for home. I invited them to share my car and we pulled out. On
this railway, as on all other Congo lines, the passengers provide their
own food. The Wallaces had their servant whom I recognized as one of the
staff at Alberta. Nelson still held the fort for me. Between us we
mobilized an elaborate lunch fortified by fruit that we bought at one of
the many stations where we halted.

We spent the night at the hotel at Thysville high in the mountains and
where it was almost freezing cold. This place is named for General
Albert Thys, who was attached to the colonial administration of King
Leopold and who founded the Compagnie du Congo Pour le Commerce et
l'Industrie, the "Queen-Dowager