h
game abounds, the grass being high enough to conceal antelopes and
everything else except elephants. After a walk through rough country and
water for six hours without success, I was glad to get into my hammock
and was jogged back home by perspiring natives, who took turns to carry
their burden and changed about every ten minutes. Altogether the hammock
is not comfortable, and it is obviously useless hunting here until the
grass is burnt. Next day, being very tired and stiff, I pass the time
looking through _Civilisation in Congoland_ again. Having now visited
many of the places mentioned in that book, the difficulties which beset
a writer who publishes a work on a country he has never seen, become
very apparent. In fact, it gives no more idea of the condition of the
Congo than a file of the Police News would convey an impression of
English civilisation. When one has visited some hundreds of villages and
seen perhaps a million of natives, most of whom seem cheerful and
contented, one marvels indeed how such absolutely false reports of the
condition of the country can have originated. On the other hand, it is
impossible to travel several thousands of miles in the Congo--especially
in the unfrequented parts--without constantly wondering what is the
extraordinary power which enables a few hundred white men, not only to
govern as many million blacks, but to open up and develop a country as
large as the continent of Europe, which a few years ago was absolutely
unknown.

We can dismiss at once the idea that the native is suppressed by
military despotism, for the Posts are isolated and the number of troops
in them merely sufficient to guard property and stores, that is to say,
to fulfil the duties of policemen in England. At any moment the
thousands of natives who live in or near the Posts, could overwhelm
these small forces long before help could arrive from the next
Government Station, in many cases a week's journey distant. The fact
that they do not do so, is at least negative evidence that the white men
do not ill treat the people. There is however, much positive evidence
that the native has, not only a great respect, but also an affection for
his new rulers, and it is not difficult to understand the reason, when
we compare his fate before the advent of the Europeans with his
condition at present.

In each village was a Chief or Chiefs, freemen and slaves who passed
their lives hunting and fighting other tribes. The so