A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State

Navigation is not easy here, for a reef runs parallel to the coast and the channel between, is neither broad nor deep. The town is built on the shores of a bay and faces an island strongly fortified. The whole colony is being rapidly developed a railway runs to St. Louis and roads are being constructed across the desert towards Timbuktu and the northern coasts. A flourishing industry in palm oil is carried on and Dakar is also an important military center. Several of the officers however, were engaged in the peaceful pursuit of fishing at the end of the breakwater when we arrived. At Dakar, Commandant and Madame Sillye come on board. The former has served for ten years in the Congo and is now taking out ten horses purchased in Senegambia, from which he hopes to breed.