om _Justice Repressive (Etat Independant du
Congo)_ and is based on a Decree of 1896. Since then other Territorial
Courts have been or are about to be added.

[2] Some of the greater Chiefs and Sultans have the power to inflict the
death sentence.

CHAPTER II.

Banana to Leopoldville.

The amount of sand in the bath water on the morning of July 12th
indicated that we were approaching the mouth of a large river. The
Atlantic indeed, which had varied in colour from dirty green near the
English Channel to ultra marine at Teneriffe, was now of a fine amber
tint. As yet land was not in sight; it was comparatively cool and a
slight breeze was blowing. About midday the low lying coast of Central
Africa became visible as a dark line and half an hour afterwards a
simple break could be seen in this line which was the clearly defined
mouth of the Congo. On reference to the chart it became clear that
although the lower Congo forms a delta in some places twenty miles in
width, all the streams coalesce and flow through an opening not more
than five miles wide. On both sides the coast is low lying and well
wooded.

As we approach nearer, the northern point resolves itself into the
extremity of a peninsula, for one branch of the river turns northward
thus leaving a strip of land a few hundred yards wide. We pass through
the mouth of the river, thread our way between several buoys, turn up
this northern channel and arrive at an anchorage in which eight or nine
small ships are riding. As we take up our position a boat leaves the
shore flying the Congo Flag, a blue ground with a golden star in the
centre. Soon after we go ashore in a _dug out_. propelled by Kru boys to
the town of Banana, which is built on this sandy peninsula and is thus
guarded by sharks on one side and crocodiles on the other. We land at a
wooden pier used chiefly for loading canoes. On each side are
magnificent palms, some being more than fifty feet high and all bearing
many cocoa nuts at this season about half ripe. These palms are not
indigenous, but flourish here. The main highway of Banana is a path of
clean yellow sand about ten feet wide, shaded by an avenue of these
palms and crosses at intervals small tidal streams by rustic wooden
bridges. Many tropical trees and shrubs grow on each side of the avenue,
and in the bright sunshine the whole forms a very beautiful picture. It
is unfortunate that the effect reminds one somewhat forcibly of a
transf