The Custom House arrangements, also, strike one as peculiar. An officer has to pay duty on his guns, ammunition, and even on his service revolver. After a short time, however, orders to proceed to Lusambo on the Sankuru reached me, and I accordingly took the next boat to Matadi, from which point the caravan route starts for Stanley Pool. As the river Congo for upwards of three hundred miles from Stanley Pool to Matadi consists of a series of cataracts, this part of the journey had to be done on foot, though matters will soon be facilitated by the railway, which is now well on its way.

Just below Matadi the scenery is magnificent; the mighty Congo — the second largest river in the world — has to force itself through a narrow gorge less than a mile wide, and known as the “Cauldron Infernal.