regulation half litre of red wine, a kind of claret which is quite
drinkable and some native coffee which had a delicate and fine aroma,
but was badly made.

The captain--as indeed are nearly all the officers of the river
steamers--was a Scandinavian and spoke English very well. He explained
that the ship was not very clean or inviting-looking, which was the
truth, but as the lower deck was lumbered up with the horses of
Commandant Sillye and was swarming with natives, it was only to be
expected.

Then to bed, but not to sleep, for the boys to save themselves trouble,
had not fixed the mosquito net properly. In my innocence I merely
ordered them to do it and had not stood by and watched. It is indeed
necessary always to see that the native does as he is told, for the
moment one's back is turned, he is eating if there is anything rotten
enough at hand to tempt him and if not, he quietly goes to sleep. Even
these State servants who speak the native language and also a kind of
French, really live the lives of animals, for they eat, drink, and sleep
if left alone and only work when they are shown how, and watched all the
time.

The result was that I spent a most horrible night, for the mosquitoes
were terribly hostile and evidently recognised a new European with some
healthy blood. In the morning, my head, which I had had shaved in the
Congo fashion, was covered with large bumps and face, neck, hands and
wrists were all blotches. It was therefore with little appetite that I
sat down to a breakfast of bread, dutch cheese, curious tinned butter
and weak coffee without milk. Little however, did I think then that in
six short months a Congo steamer would seem like a first class hotel, so