AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
ADVENTURES IN INTERVIEWING
PEACE AND BUSINESS
S. O. S: AMERICAS'S MIRACLE IN FRANCE
THE BUSINESS OF WAR
THE REBIRTH OF RUSSIA
THE WAR AFTER THE WAR
LEONARD WOOD: PROPHET OF PREPAREDNESS
AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE
BY
ISAAC F. MARCOSSON
AUTHOR OF "ADVENTURES IN INTERVIEWING," ETC.
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
MCMXXI
COPYRIGHT · 1921 BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
COPYRIGHT · 1921 BY JOHN LANE COMPANY
THE PLIMPTON PRESS NORWOOD · MASS · U·S·A
To THOMAS F. RYAN WHO FIRST BEHELD THE VISION OF AMERICA IN THE CONGO
FOREWORD
From earliest boyhood when I read the works of Henry M. Stanley and books about Cecil Rhodes, Africa has called to me. It was not until I met General Smuts during the Great War, however, that I had a definite reason for going there.
After these late years of blood and battle America and Europe seemed tame. Besides, the economic war after the war developed into a struggle as bitter as the actual physical conflict. Discord and discontent became the portion of the civilized world. I wanted to get as far as possible from all this social unrest and financial dislocation.
So much interest was evinced in the magazine articles which first set forth the record of my journey that I was prompted to expand them into this book. It may enable the reader to discover a section of the one-time Dark Continent without the hardships which I experienced.
I. F. M.
NEW YORK, April, 1921
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. SMUTS 15
II. "CAPE-TO-CAIRO" 57
III. RHODES AND RHODESIA 103
IV. THE CONGO TODAY 139
V. ON THE CONGO RIVER 177
VI. AMERICA IN THE CONGO 225
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
King Albert Frontispiece
Groote Schuur facing page 28
General J. C. Smuts 44
Mr. Marcosson's Route in Africa 56
Cecil Rhodes 76
The Premier Diamond Mine 90
Victoria Falls 102
Cultivating Citrus Land in Rhodesia 110
The Grave of Cecil Rhodes 132
A Katanga Copper Mine 138
Lord Leverhulme 144
Robert Williams 144
On the Lualaba 150
A View on the Kasai 150
A Station Scene at Kongola 156
A Native Market at Kindu 162
Native Fish Traps at Stanley Falls 168
The Massive Bangalas 176
Congo Women in State Dress 176
Central African Pygmies 182
Women Making Pottery 190
The Congo Pickaninny 190
The Heart of the Equatorial Forest 198
Natives Piling Wood 204
A Wood Post on the Congo 204
Residential Quarters at Alberta 210
The Comte de Flandre 210
A Typical Oil Palm Forest 216
Bringing in the Palm Fruit 216
A Specimen of Cicatrization 220
A Sankuru Woman Playing Native Draughts 220
The Belgian Congo 224
Thomas F. Ryan 228
Jean Jadot 236
Emile Francqui 242
A Belle of the Congo 246
Women of the Batetelas 246
Fishermen on the Sankuru 254
The Falls of the Sankuru 254
A Congo Diamond Mine 260
How the Mines Are Worked 260
Gravel Carriers at a Congo Mine 266
Congo Natives Picking out Diamonds 266
Washing out Gravel 272
Donald Doyle and Mr. Marcosson 272
The Park at Boma 278
A Street in Matadi 278
A General View of Matadi 282
AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE
AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE