The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-08-21
A Trip Up the Congo.

ing letter written to r. "A. wagner
of The Reporter. office by DR.; u: =:
here last January for a four year
stay as a missionary at .Monieka,
Africa. sDr. Jaggard was for many
years a missionary in Africa before
coming to Leon:
Three weeks of almost drifting
down the west coast of Africa 1t !; ! h i "a
and interest in life out Of all the
passengers. And well it might, for
there had been only one stop Of two
days at Dakar to take on coal and
cargo from U. s. A., and having
been under the sun and out OF slgnt
OF GIL land 49, most Of the shps
for diversion. On. the downward
same sam ID direction as the prevailing
wind and at about the same rate OF
speed so that sometimes 1t IS hard
job to find cool spot on deck Eel or or a
Portable. But one day at noon the
exciting notice Of only 200 miles
from Banana was posted on the
bulletin board. Banana is the state
and trading post 1T the. mouth Of
the Congo. This notice >, 9ro tHgi1
usual state Of liveliness. To some
it meant the job of packing up, q
job that always requires. great
deal of wisdom and patience. For
to start with the trunks are all full
to the limit, and with every oppor-
tunity and every stop few more
proposition to get them all slowed
away. Also the list of everything in
you possession needs to be completed
for the convenience of the customs
officers. He may want to know the
how and the why of everything and
the cost.
Next morning we went on deck to
behold just what we expected 20 see
Banana lay right out there to our
left, and we were SO near that the
tender with the native crew who
were to discharge cargo, was about
ready to put out to meet us. The
us to 60 on to Bona the capital Of
Congo Beige. and about SO miles up
the river, without unloading cargo
into liters. Sometimes the water is
SO low that it is impossible for the
ocean steamers to get over the sand
Charging cargo into liters and then
towing them up with her. Fetish
Rock is large rock out on a prom,
itory and to the early natives had
some superstitious traditions con-
nected with it. Once the steamer
stopped here to discharge cargo and
some Of the passengers went ashose
back to the boat with very excit-
ing tale that they had been very
successful and had killed a buffalo:
To prove the story they exhibited
the tail of buffalo which they had
brought along. with them. Of course
next day native came aboard wit.
an officer to demand, pay, for his
COW which had been killed the day
before by these hunters. So the ex-
citement of the buffalo hunt assum-
ed different aspect:
When the tender had been made
fast and the. ladder lowered, the ma
tives began to scramble up the lad
der and each one tried to be first.
But after a little the rush was fin
ished and they. seemed to see how
much time could be consumed by the
boarding process. The solution was
thisthe first were tryiPg to to get &c s to
the best place on deck to sleep, and
the best places to hang their rolls
or packs of earthly belongings, OF
course each had his two or three
"buddies" and be was looking out
for them and nd the asst G Pms bu daG
when he got aboard. These natives
have to sleep on deck and it is very
interesting to watch them getting
fixed for the night A mat of native
material, usually grass, rolled into
a roll serves as cOntalner or the
and at night serves as a bed when
spread out on the deck. So after
work is finished at about 10 o'clock,
he unrOlls his mat and straightenS
out his extra clothes. laying them
yout in proper shape for pressing,
and lays down on them and pulling
his blanket clear up over ms h lsa1
his stuff is safe from thieves. There
are so many of them that the deck
space is limited to just what one can
cover with his mat or blanket.
With these on board t MSs steamer 9Se
tell unless one was familiar with
and many islands are present. All
Is densely wooded and is very. low
laying. At high water much OF the
land is covered with, water, but as
we approach Bona, the hills appear
rows and deepens. Here we attend
ed to our characterization papers.
Every person entering the Congo
registers and tells all about his an
cestry, occupation and where ne in,
tends to reside, eLc. Also we CTleu
to do what was necessary with our
guns. Every gun is also registered
and stamped with its registry num-
her and you can't get any ammuni-
ton into the country f k9ra gun which hdsr
you must get your license to carry
that gun. and also license dcan to hunt NJ
were told that all necessary things
could be attended to at Bona and
SO we started out loaded with our
firearms. We declared them and
the ammunition we had and paid the
l2% duty on the cost, and as we
trotted clear across the town to an
other official to get our Licenses s we
but when told by that official that
he could do nothing for us and that
we would have to attend to that at
the port of landing, we were still
warmer. But there was nothing else
to do for they held the handle Of the
whip. At Matadi we spent most of
Sunday forenoon tending to it, or
rather waiting for our turn in the
line.
- rh dicny1-