A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free StateDorman, Marcus R. P.
History
A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State
Dorman, Marcus R. P.
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Description and travel
On October 19th I had my first attack of fever, which was not severe and
soon yielded to phenacetin. It was however, rather a disappointment for
I had taken five grains of quinine regularly every day since arriving in
the Congo. The fever ran the same course that it used to do in India ten
years ago but as it only once appeared in England during that period, I
hoped it had gone for ever. Hundreds of mosquitoes hummed around with
the ambitious idea presumably of carrying the germs to some other
unfortunate.
[Illustration: THE RIVER NEAR BANZYVILLE.]
As we shall now leave the French frontier and travel altogether in State
territory we send the Senegalese escort down the river back to their
station at Mobaie. The sergeant who was in charge was a most responsible
man and was evidently held in great respect by the Chiefs of the French
villages through which we passed. One day a Chief was greatly
disturbed because two men from his village had migrated into State
territory. Although this is against the law it is apparently not a very
unusual occurrence. Generally these emigrants have committed some crime
and are fleeing from justice. One Chief, however, at Banzyville stated
he had left the State territory because he objected to working rubber
and had returned because he objected still more to paying the tax in the
French Congo. It is impossible indeed to say which side gains by this
emigration but it is very evident that it is not altogether one-sided
and not great enough to affect seriously the size of the population of
either the French or Free State Congo.
In Yakoma the people are paid chiefly by beads and salt and it is
interesting to watch the long string of workers filing to the office of
the Chef du Poste on Saturday, each one carrying a plate, a tin can or
some other receptacle in which to receive his wages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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