seventy or eighty marched with reversed arms to the cemetery after the buglers sounding the Last Post and lined up opposite the grave.  The order was given to present arms, the coffin was lowered, each person present threw a handful of earth into the grave and all was over.  Far into the night, however, one could hear the mournful dirge the soldiers were chanting for their dead comrade.  Hunting here is difficult although game abounds, the grass being high enough to conceal antelopes and everything else except elephants.  After a walk through rough country and water for six hours without success, I was glad to get into my hammock and was jogged back home by perspiring natives, who took turns to carry their burden and changed about every ten minutes.  Altogether the hammock is not comfortable, and it is obviously useless hunting here until the grass is burnt.  Next day, being very tired and stiff, I pass the time looking through Civilisation in Congoland again.  Having now visited many of the places mentioned in that book, the difficulties which beset a writer who publishes a work on a country he has never seen, become very apparent.  In fact, it gives no more idea of the condition of the Congo than a file of the Police News would convey an impression of English civilisation.  When one has visited some hundreds of villages and seen perhaps a million of natives, most of whom seem cheerful and contented, one marvels indeed how such absolutely false reports of the condition of the country can have originated.  On the other hand, it is impossible to travel several thousands of miles in the Congo—­especially in the unfrequented parts—­without constantly wondering what is the extraordinary power which enables a few hundred white men, not only to govern as many million blacks, but to open up and develop a country as large as the continent of Europe, which a few years ago was absolutely unknown.

We can dismiss at once the idea that the native is suppressed by military despotism, for the Posts are isolated and the number of troops in them merely sufficient to guard property and stores, that is to say, to fulfil the duties of policemen in England.  At any moment the thousands of natives who live in or near the Posts, could overwhelm these small forces long before help could arrive from the next Government Station, in many cases a week’s journey distant.  The fact that they do not do so, is at least negative evidence that the white men do not ill treat the people.  There is however, much positive evidence that the native has, not only a great respect, but also an affection for his new rulers, and it is not difficult to understand the reason, when we compare his fate before the advent of the Europeans with his condition at present.