Produced by Mark C. Orton, Júlio Reis, Linda McKeown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net 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 [Illustration: KING ALBERT] 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