” Though the ocean steamers go up to Matadi regularly, they have never yet succeeded in getting soundings in this gorge. It is probably only a matter of time for one of these boats to break its steering-gear or other machinery, and for a fearful catastrophe to take place. Matadi — as its name in the native language implies, meaning “ stone “ — is a bare, arid, rocky plateau, where the heat is intense.

After a week's futile waiting here (during which time I was supplied with neither house, bed, nor tent, but had to sleep in my overcoat on the veranda of the commissary's house), I, in company with three officers since dead, was given a few dozen porters to carry my baggage, and we started on the caravan road. A caravan, as most people know, is a number of people travelling together for