and the company buys the other for a certain quantity of cloth. This
only represents a fraction of the value in Europe, but is gladly
accepted by the native who has no use for it except to make war horns.
Indeed in the old days, the chiefs used to form a kind of fence round
their huts by sticking the points in the ground, little thinking that in
another part of the world, not even the millionaire of fiction ever
constructed such an expensive railing. Then the Arab slave raiders came
and stole both the native women and the ivory, so that the white man who
gives beautiful coloured cloth for these useless elephants' tusks is
regarded as a very generous trader. In the afternoon the _Flandre_
continued her journey threading her way between the numerous islands in
Stanley Pool, and finally tied up to the bank of the island of Bamu
which is French territory. This island enjoys the distinction of being
the only one in the Congo which has an owner, for all the rest are
declared to be no man's land by international treaty. It is reputed to
be full of game, and we go ashore to look for it, but return without
seeing anything. As the mosquitoes prevent all sleep in the cabin, we
arrange to make up a bed on deck and obtain a better night's rest, for
it is comparatively cool here in the evening in the open.

I am very anxious to bathe next morning, but the captain strongly
disadvises for the currents are very strong here, and the river is full
of crocodiles. In the midst of breakfast we are startled by the report
that the ship is on fire, and smoke is seen to be issuing from the fore
hatch, under which much of the wood used for fuel is stored. None of the
Europeans however, are more excited than the natives, who, leisurely and
with due deliberation, hand up buckets of water. Nothing indeed could
make a native hurry. The captain seems a trifle upset, and states that
it may be necessary to run on a rock, and thus make a hole in the bows
and flood the hold. This seems to be rather a desperate remedy, but no