A VISIT TO STANLEY'S REAR-GUARD. CHAPTER I. ANTWERP TO BANANA. THE MICAWBER BUSINESS-THE SAO THOMÉ-DOWN THE SCHELDT— PASSENGERS FOR THE CONGO-LISBON-MADEIRA-S. VINCENT-BOLAMA-PRINCIPÉ-S. THOMÉ—SHOOTING EXCURSION-" PLENTY BIG BIRD" FIRST SIGHT OF THE LOWER GUINEA COAST BANANA CREEK-WAITING FOR THE HERON AT BANANA. WHY I went to the Congo is a question which I have often been asked since my return. I have never yet been able to answer it to my own satisfaction. Perhaps an innate desire for travel had something to do with it; and the opportunity coming, as it did, just when I was free from other engagements, gave a definite direction to my plans. The circumstances which led to my going are as follows: In the beginning of 1886, happening to be at Antwerp-where I had passed some weeks, like Mr A Micawber, waiting for something to turn up, in the shape of a vacant post as engineer on board any of the steamers frequenting that port,—I was one day accosted by Mr W. Best (since dead), who asked if I would go to the Congo. Upon my replying in the affirmative, he said he would send my application to Brussels, which he did. Accordingly, a few days later, I received notice, through the agents of the Etat du Congo, to present myself at their offices in Brussels on April 8th. It was past noon on the 9th before I finally left Brussels, with my contract signed, and written orders in my pocket to sail from Antwerp on the 15th of the same month in the Sao Thomé, a Portuguese steamer running from Hull, Antwerp, and Lisbon, to West African ports. I was to proceed with her to Banana Town, at the mouth of the Congo, and thence-by one of the steamers belonging to the Congo State-to Boma, some fifty miles up the river. I reached Antwerp at 4 P.M., and punctually, at 5 P.M., left for London via Harwich, in one of the Great Eastern Railway Company's splendid twinscrew boats. I duly arrived in London on the morning of Saturday, April 10th; and though I had a pretty busy time of it getting everything ready, managed to be back in Antwerp on the 14th, when, to my chagrin, I learnt that the departure of the Sao Thomé had, for various reasons, been postponed till the 17th. I had thus hurried DEPARTURE OF THE SAO THOMÉ. 3 over, only to wait two days in, to my mind, the most miserable of all earthly positions-viz., having everything packed and ready, and nothing left to do, yet unable to start, though in hourly expectation of the summons-circumstances under which it is impossible to turn one's mind to anything. I was further annoyed by hearing that the Sao Thomé was to remain sixteen days at Lisbon; and reflecting that I had hurried off without saying good-bye to many of my friends, when had I only known it in time-I might have spent two more weeks in England, and gone to Lisbon overland. At last, on April 17th, all was ready, the Sao Thomé was flying the blue-peter at the fore, and the Congo State flag (a five-rayed gold star on a blue ground) at the main; while aft was the somewhat more intricately designed flag of Portugal. This being the first boat of a regular service between Antwerp and the Congo, a great crowd collected to see her off. Going on a falling tide, we soon left the quay behind-past the docks and forts,-past the dykes holding back the river from the rich pasture-lands of Belgium, till, at Lille Fort, we enter Holland, and the country becomes, if possible, drearier and flatter than ever, while the lofty spire of Antwerp Cathedral gradually vanishes in the dim distance. It is a cold, cheerless day, and I soon dive below, and ransack my baggage for books and papers, but find myself too restless to |