eyville are very large ships. They
have plenty of deck room and many cabins. With their flat, raft-like
hull, their paddle-wheel astern, and the covered sun deck, they
resemble gigantic house-boats. Of one of these boats the
_Deliverance_ was only one-third the size, but I took passage on her
because she would give me a chance to see not only something of the
Congo, but also one of its great tributaries, the less travelled
Kasai. The _Deliverance_ was about sixty-five feet over all and drew
three feet of water. She was built like a mud-scow, with a deck of
iron plates. Amidships, on this deck, was a tiny cabin with berths
for two passengers and standing room for one. The furnaces and
boiler were forward, banked by piles of wood. All the river boats
burn only wood. Her engines were in the stern. These engines and the
driving-rod to the paddle-wheel were uncovered. This gives the
_Deliverance_ the look of a large automobile without a tonneau. You
were constantly wondering what had gone wrong with the carbureter,
and if it rained what would happen to her engines. Supported on iron
posts was an upper deck, on which, forward, stood the captain's box
of a cabin and directly in front of it the steering-wheel. The
telegraph, which signalled to the openwork engine below, and a
dining table as small as a chess-board, completely filled the
"bridge." When we sat at table the captain's boy could only just
squeeze himself between us and the rail. It was like dining in a
private box. And certainly no theatre ever offered such scenery, nor
did any menagerie ever present so many strange animals.

We were four white men: Captain Jensen, his engineer, and the other
passenger, Captain Anfossi, a young Italian. Before he reached his
post he had to travel one month on the _Deliverance_ and for another
month walk through the jungle. He was the most cheerful and amusing
companion, and had he been returning after three years of exile to
his home he could not have been more brimful of spirits. Captain
Jensen was a Dane (almost every river captain is a Swede or a Dane)
and talked a little English, a little French, and a little Bangala.
The mechanician was a Finn and talked the native Bangala, and
Anfossi spoke French. After chop, when we were all assembled on the
upper deck, there would be the most extraordinary talks in four
languages, or we would appoint one man to act as a clearing-house,
and he would translate for the others.

On the lower