The record-union., 1896-01-28

passage up it was about eight or nine
knots.
A HAZARDOUS VOYAGE.
TO enter the mouth of this wild torrent
from the turbulent basin below the yes
sci steams abruptly up to a bold cliff,
towering into the clouds. until the bow
is almost in contact with it, when she
is suddenly sheered to starboard, at
right angles to her course and forced
into the bowling, raging flood. At this
critical moment two able men stand at
the wheel. the sturdy pilot, mate. and
captain on the bridge, and breathless
watch the trembling bow as it labors TO
divide that fierce, wild current with its
iron stem.
AS she hurls aside the angry, curling
surf, foaming with frenzy, it lashes her
steel ribs with the fury of demon.
Net q word from any lip except the
pilots order to the wheel and the quar-
termasters prompt reply. For the time
the dangers of the sea are forgotten,
the follies of life foregone and every one
looks in stolid silence upon the present
scene, for in the depths of that mad pit
turks death in every swirl.
Happily the suspense is not prolonged,
for the distance is not far, and when
the slow bell rings there is sigh of
sweet relief from every breast. The bold
Captain Murray, who took the first
steamer through this awful pass, will
never realize the dangers he incurred.
Such courage as one must have to try
the fortunes of ship in such place
few men possess. Losing control of her
course for one moment in this pass
vesse' of any size would be as helpless
as chip and swept away like bubble
in tie wind. She might escape from
wreck and drift upright into the chan
mel below, but the chances are that she
would perish on the rocks that line the
bed of this mighty mother of waters"
The course of the river is so winding
that every view of 1t looks like a trou-
| bled lake hemmed in on all sides by a
range Of high bluffs. In approaching
the gorge one cannot see any exit from
the wall of rocky bluffs until within the
| whirlpool, not five hundred feet below
the mouth of the awful canyon through
which the ship must pass
THE GRAVE OF GLAvE.
Just on the hill above this sea of death
sleep the last remains of poor, dear
Glave, who had thus near completed
his arduous journey across the conti-
nent. Faithful boy He had faced the
perils of the jungle under the burnil..
suns of the equator, wrestled with the
mountains of Arctic ice and braved the
seas of both hemispheres, but now, in
the hour of triumph, the cold hand of
death smote him in the noontide of a no.
bic manhood and the hands of strangers
laid him to rest in this dreary spot 1t
| is not, however, a lone grave for near
him sleep many of his own countrymen
and the sons of other lands. Near by it
is the mission to which the grounds be-
| long, and in it all their dead are laid
away
| l could but sigh as ! passed the place
to see how nature has sighted it. Over
| it she has not even spread her green
mantle nor trailed feeble cinquefoil
How I wished that I could bear his
| brave young body to his sorrowing
| friends, that it might find a resting
place more worthy of the man!
| The Congo native is a clever canoe
man. and many of the stories told of his
skill in that line sound like fairy tales
But have had accounts from perfectly
trustworthy sources of some feats of
that kind.
| l shall take the liberty of quoting Rev.
Mr. Reid an old and popular missionary
from New York He has lived here
many years under the auspices of the
American Alliance. This gentleman
| tells me that he has seen the natives
come over the Yellalla Falls in the
Congo. These falls consist of a long
series of low, irregular steps or benches
of rock, extending for about two miles,
giving total fall of three or four hun
dred feet in that distance. over this
rough inclined bed the vast volume
OF the Congo pours with such fury that
its roaring is heard for many miles
away. and it foams and froths like the
surf on a rocky beach. All through
these wild rapids are huge rocks, jut-
ting their craggy heads UP through the
| petu1ant waters. Compared to this
place, the rapids above Niagara Falls
are tame and silent.
THE NATIVE CANOISTS.
Down through this awful canyon the
stolid natives venture in their long ca
noes, loaded with ivory How any craft
can live in such a current no mortal can
| explain: but the fact remains that they
do. In coming down this reckless chute
all the men stand up in the canoes. One
sturdy man, with an eye like an eagle,
stands in the bow to guide it off the
sharp rocks. Another able man, placed
in the stern with long paddle, steers
it, while the others row as they are told.
They do not come head on as it is
called, but steer obliquely over the
higher ones, turning first one way and
then the other
How any man first learned the route
so as to pilot a canoe down such chan
mel of destruction is more than any man
can tell. If a canoe should capsize in
its journey down this bowling rapid the
best swimmer in the world would be
dashed into mass of pulp before he
could tell his name In a few instances
such has been the fate of the bravest.
The Congo people all stand up in row.
ing a canoe They use a paddle of pc
culiar model having a long handle with
an oval blade. They are fearless in the
water. for only such men would ever
challenge the perils of this treacherous
river.
The population of this place is a study
for the ethnologist which no other place
on earth can equal 1t is chiefly Of
negroes, representing tribes from every
part o. Africa from Sierra Leone to the
Cape. and from the coast to the Nyanza.
l doubt if any man ever saw such a con-
gress of tribes in all the world I cannot
undertake to name them.
A GORILLA MAN.
Such a conglomerate mass OF human
ity inspires a train of singular thoughts.
Darwin conld have written a whole IL