Thursday August 10, 1922

Matadi

Luggage just before leaving Matadi.

We have secured seats on tomorrows train and therefore spent morning and afternoon reorganising our luggage and getting it conveyed by the mission boys from the store shed to the railway station. 

Only a minimum is allowed in the limited accommodation of passengers carriages – all the big luggage has to go in the luggage van either of our train or the one before – or after: sometimes very much after! Regulations on baggage are just now going through a transition period: the freight for stuff going with the passenger is much more expensive than before, but what is left may not be delivered for 6 weeks or 2 months. Thus we were in somewhat of a dilemma between the calls of economy and of convenience.

Some of our luggage at Matadi station.

We finally compromised; taking 87 packages with us and leaving 28 unessential ones to follow. Even so the nett weight was 3,200 kilos (2kilos – 1lb approx) which filled a whole luggage van (as high as an English rail average size luggage van) and part of one other. If a firm engages a whole van they pay £80. We however, by not asking for a van paid less than £40 for a van and a bit! But that’s what happens out here!

The mission site at Matadi is just outside, but in fill view of the town a little further down the Congo and has a river frontage (except that the state claim 15 yards from the waters edge for itself if necessary.)

The river spears out of Matadi into a kind of lake surrounded by magnificent mountain scenery. 

Just opposite this is a little native village with a native path going away over the hill into the interior. In the distance looking up river we can just see the hill on which H.M Stanley camped before his great march into the interior. The road-way he made up from the beach to the top of the hill – though overgrown – can still be made out, even in the distance.

In the foreground is the modern town of Matadi which has arisen since Stanley’s time.

It has a good sized landing stage where ocean ships can berth. The river here widens out into a kind of pool and gives plenty of room for ships to turn under their own steam. Standing on the ship coming up the river she seemed to fill most of the space between the banks – yet as we look at her now lying close up to the side she seems a mere speck: quite insignificant and puny to how she appeared in the early hours of yesterday morning

Wednesday August 9, 1922

A lovely moon tonight on Congo waters: just ahead, low – almost over the boat. Waters are all lit up – banks shadowed in dark. Bush fires here and there, in the east a lurid red light but alone all the soft light speaks of calm and peace. Chirps and squeaks of animals on the bank. Tonight is our last night on the ship.

We left Boma at 6.0am for the two hours journey up the river to Matadi. This bit of our of our voyage was in many ways the most interesting so far: the early morning light, the calm, slowly flowing river and low hills – sometimes tree covered on either bank. Gradually the country becomes wilder – trees are fewer – the hills are higher their sides steeper and they rise much nearer the waters edge.

By the end of our first hour we are indeed in a wonderful land. The river is narrow (and must be very deep) the hills are mountainous now and rise right from the waters edge. As we look inland mountain rises above mountain as far as the eye can see. The country is quite wild: a few small trees and bushes in the lowlands – coarse grass and vegetation cling to the mountain sides or else brave the rock face standing gaunt and rugged in the grey light.

It is a land where every prospect pleases and the boats slow progress seems much too fast: the river winds its way in and out among the mountains – now showing in a long stretch ahead of us like some great lake – now turning sharply to the right or left – or so concealing its turn that it seems we must run against yonder mountain – or turn back for there seems no way out until we get quite close up to the bend and a new vista opens out before us.

Just below me on the fore deck a native is sweeping up the rubbish which littered the ship at Boma. He is dressed in a red shirt and trousers and a very old English frock coat quite green with age. He looks an odd figure beside these great mountains of his own country -  a picture of too great a part of Africa: that part to whom civilisation has bequeathed just so much of its possessions as it did not want – just its old dirty clothes.

Where the river makes its greatest curves it has worn away the outside bank and so broadened itself into a great ( and shallower) sheet of water at two of these curves especially the great volume of water swirls round with such force as to set up circular currents which at times become very marked. The larger and more famous one is quite near Matadi and is known as the Devils Cauldron. When the river is high this is a strong circular whirlpool of considerable size – a death trap to any canoe which gets out of control and a danger to a small ship. A steamer would be little affected, but we keep well to the outside – and Matadi comes into view as we round this last bend. A pleasing sight from this distance is the little town at the foot of the great hills.

The Portuguese sailors came up this river sometime around 1482 – long before the days of steamship: they must have been wonderfully skilled in manipulating their little sailing boats to get them right up beyond the site where Matadi now is – passing the Devils Cauldron and all the other difficulty’s of the river until the rapids barred their way.

Mission boat crew at Matadi

We moored alongside Matadi landing stage just after 8.0am and spent most of the morning getting ourselves and our baggage off the ship. We passed all our hand luggage etc. through the customs and went to the Mission House by boat for a meal and rest. returning in the afternoon to the large new customs house near the pier to get all our large baggage through customs. We are not allowed to touch it until this has been done and as it takes some time to transfer everybody’s stuff from the ship to the “Douane” we made good use of the time by eating and sleeping!

We “paraded” after dinner with keys and screwdrivers very much in evidence and wore on our faces a beseeching look as if we were dying to open and unpack everything for the customs officers!! One member of the party even went so far as to unscrew two screws of one of his packing cases and that did the trick: the customs officer before whom we had made our declarations – and incidentally to whom we had paid over 1000 francs as a party – came along and said he would pass the whole 115 cases unopened and unexamined. These we stored in a large shed until they could be put on the railway. 

The staff ordinarily stationed at Matadi were home on furlough. Rev.Gaylon was in charge, he and Christie Davies came down to Matadi to welcome and conduct the party up to Kinshasa.

We spent a most delightful evening  feeling we had “something attempted, something done” retiring in good time after yarning, telling and hearing a larger collection of funny stories than – I think – I have ever heard at one sitting anywhere else.   

Tuesday August 8, 1922

Chapter 2. The river journey.

The ship was moored at Boma pier by the time we had breakfast and it was not long after that meal that we set foot for the first time in Congo.

 Boma is the present capital (Kinshasa is to be the new capital city) and the boat stays here for 24 hours which gave us the opportunity for a walk on land and a visit to the local post office for a number of things; one or two official and business calls and finally a visit to the British Consulate.

But the great thing today was our introduction to Congo and impressions just crowed in all day – too numerous and too new to be recorded all at once – they will come gradually in subsequent pages.

Up to now our life has changed so gradually that each days new things could be dealt with fairly easily but today everything is so new and so different: so many things come into view all at once; so much is suggested from casual observations, so much can be deduced that I will leave a fuller description of impressions until these have been made deeper and more reliable by more extended observation and better conclusions can be reached by longer experience.

Nearly everything is different form the European standpoint: but not so very different from what I had expected from reading and hearing the experiences of others, but the fact of being here and receiving all these strange scenes through all my senses at the same time instead of through one sense at a time – such as the ear in hearing the noises of the Congo – or the eye in studying peculiarities – this is the thing that gives the feeling of “strangeness” even to the things one expected to find and does find as much as they were expected.

Already problems begin to show themselves

and solutions which seemed possible 

in Europe now begin to dissolve altogether!

It is strange how on matters which we are in “familiar” grounds. If we saw a goat or cat or dog we invariably called it a “Congo” goat, cat, dog etc. A banana tree, a mango grove or an orange tree being essentially tropical never received the label “Congo” because in our little experience it has never been anything else! How easy it is to live in a small world by failing to use the gift of imagination: already our travels have shown that.

Tips:

10 shillings or Belgian Equivalent to cabin steward, same to table steward.

5 shillings to bath steward.

Nominal sum to Band and deck steward.

Note for others:
- Customs dues are paid on board before Matadi: Bring plenty of money.
- At Boma visit British Consul for (voluntary) registration taking British passort with you.
- Customs declaration done on board after Banana. Any examination is made at Matadi – a detailed list of contents of each box, preferably in French is here very useful. 

Monday August 7, 1922

The Congo River

Awoken by a long blast on the ships system. Jumped out of bed and looked through my porthole.

[My porthole seems to me quite wondrous by now: through it I have seem so many new things, I took this photo of it out of a kind of gratitude to it!]

We were in smooth – I must say – very muddy water which was slowly flowing by – and there across the water was Congo LAND. Flat – covered with trees: a very tangle of trees and undergrowth and ivy – and here and there a little bit of sandy bank. Two or three tree-covered islands were near by.

This was the CONGO at last.

We stopped just a little way up the river and took on a pilot and then sailed up to the place where the ship discharges a quantity of coal. This makes the boat draw less water – a necessity in these shallows near the rivers mouth.

We are now at anchor quite near the left bank of the Congo River some hour and a half’s journey below Boma. All the Luggage has been brought form the hold and makes a litter on the decks. Aft there is much noise from the ship’s tackle unloading coal into a barge alongside – and hardly less noise from the Africans doing the work. These Africans were taken on board for the purpose of getting up the luggage to the decks and of discharging the coal:

They will be working all night.

This morning we underwent various formalities connected with landing and made our declarations for purposes of custom excise etc. Belgian officials seem to have no idea of method or organisation. Everything was muddled through with many times the inconveniences that need have been and with much waste of time which could easily have been avoided with a little forethought and arrangement.

However, we are through all our formalities satisfactorily and are now enjoying our surroundings. Just across the water – on the bank are palm trees falling over each other – a mass of undergrowth filling up the space between the tall trees between which run great thick strands of the tropical African ivy. Beyond we can see some hills: the particular ones we are near seem very like English ones: just the kind one sees in Somerset only rather burnt. I suspect they look familiar to others from other parts of the world just as much as to us.

We are really on Africa’s flat “edge” beyond Matadi we shall start rising up into the great inland plateau.

It has been rather a cloudy day but there was a beautiful pink colouration in the west which showed as the sun went down. After the very brief twilight – the full moon rose out of a bank of cloud in the east  along the dark bank of trees coming to the waters edge - a great round ball, bright orange in colour as it shone through a thin layer of cloud. Faintly the colour was reflected in the Congo waters as a pale, delicate path of glory, inviting us to follow its direction east, into the very heart of Africa and promising us a bright successful journey tonight into the dark continent waiting for the dawn.   

Sunday August 6, 1922

Lat: 3° 40’S. Lang 5° 55’E. 302 miles traveled.

Yesterday we began to prepare our lists and declaration forms etc. for the Customs officers who come aboard tomorrow, so we really feel we are nearing our ocean journeys end.

We are quite out of sight of land and shall not  reach the coast for another 12 hours – even steaming at 12 miles (knots) per hour, yet all afternoon and evening we have been keeping a very intent look out on the waters for the least change of colour. The waters of the Congo are so vast and enter the ocean with such haste that the current is carried out to sea for nearly 200 miles. At 150 miles from its mouth, the Congo water can easily be recognised by the change in colour of the ocean water from blue and green to yellow: so that we can actually be in Congo waters whilst still in the ocean and beyond sight of land.

During the afternoon some brushwood from the Congo forest washed by the boat and later some seeds: these may have come 100’s of miles for all we know – perhaps from the very heart of Africa: a bit of the Congo coming out to meet us. 

Saturday August 5, 1922

Lat: 0° 36’S. Lang 4° 56’E. 285 miles traveled.

I forgot to mention the Ladies’ Baptism ceremony yesterday. This approaches more to the church of England ceremony as the men’s did to the custom of the people called Baptists.

Each candidate was led up to Neptune’s representative and sprayed with a scent spray from the front and from behind – at the same moment the ships Captain (when no one of the candidates could suspect such a thing) neatly and deftly slipped a little lump of ice down their necks! He, looking perfectly innocent and seraphic when they turned round. It was most beautifully done and caused much amusement. 

We have had a perfect day today as regards weather. Blue sky, blue sea and a lovely cool breeze. In fact this evening it was too cold to sit in the wind so we sought the protected side pf the promenade deck to sit down.

Just before sunset we passed a small Spanish Island  - used as a convict settlement: Annobon Island, - which really consisted of one huge rock. The side towards us was sheer perpendicular rock towering hundreds of feet almost direct from the sea. The highest peak of the Island was lost in grey and white edged cloud. The whole picture was softened by blue haze to which detail was lost, leaving only the gaunt, rugged outline silhouetted against the sky.

Just to the right of the Island the sun was setting lighting up the sky with a wonderful path of glory. And the sun went down and the stars came out and another great sight revealed itself: Moonlight at sea.

The moon is two days from the full and nearly overhead. It is quite light enough to see by – but it is few who would to do that one would think (and yet hardly anyone comes from the saloon or cabins to see.)

The moon was a clear as clear can be. Fluffy clouds come over it now and again making the picture more wonderful. The white foam shows up brilliantly against the dark sea, but one can just make out that exquisite green edging to the waves – so clear by day but so softened and delicate by moonlight as to be almost mysterious.

I watched for quite a long time on a deserted deck – others tucked into bed: I had to use a Jaeger rug it was so fresh.

Byron was much influenced by water –

In his “Stanzas for Music” he is completely

Under its spell.

The be none of Beauty’s daughters with a

Magic like to thee,

And like music on the waters is thy sweet voice

To me.

When, as if its sound were causing the charmed

Ocean’s pausing,

The waves lie still and gleaming, and the lull’d

Winds seem dreaming.

And the midnight moon is weaving her bright

Chain o’er the deep,

Whose breast is gently heaving as an infant’s

Asleep:

So the spirit bows before thee to listen and

Adore thee

With a full but soft emotion like the swell of

Summer ocean.

Friday August 4, 1922

Lat 1° 59’ N. Long: 0° 57’ E. 325 Miles traveled.

Today we passed from the northern hemisphere to the southern and celebrated the crossing of the line with all the form and ceremony of maritime tradition inherited from the long unknown past. We had a day of tremendous fun and enjoyment:

 About 10.am King Neptune and his court appeared from somewhere and sat enthroned on the aft deck to preside over the initiation ceremonies for all the novices who had not passed this way hithertofore (with the exception of the Roman Catholic Priests, who looked on but would take no part). Pink or blue starch paste acted as soap which was freely administered prior to the Barbers operations with a huge (wooden) razor. The barbers chair was at the edge of a large sea water bath, 10 feet square and deep of warm water, into which the candidate was tipped as soon as the barber had finished. A ships hose added to the fun both of the candidate in the bath and the onlookers outside. Exit was made from the bath from the bath by which ever side was most convenient – but the water was so nice and the hose so refreshing that many delayed their exit for the purpose of prolonging their enjoyment.

 Great mirth was produced when some candidate tried to pull in with him some member of Neptune’s court!

The ships captain acted as a Sergeant-at-arms or MC to see no limits were overstepped – but there was nothing the most conservative person could take exception to. I could hardly say this mornings ceremony was restricted to the male novices! When all had been duly baptised, Neptune’s court proceeded to turn upon each other and carry through the ceremony on one another. Finally Neptune himself was literally thrown in – I suppose this was the door by which he returned to his domains!

“The Baptism of the Equator” is a very ancient custom. I have not been able to find any plausible account of its meaning or origin. It is practiced most especially on British ships or by British Officered ships and is essentially a British tradition. Beyond that, details are lost in antiquity.

The ships of this Belgian line always carried English Officers (one or more) until a few months ago and that explains the thoroughness of the Belgian ships company in carrying out the ritual. Besides there are practically always Englishmen travelling on these boats who enjoy maintaining a national tradition. A Portuguese passenger was at pains to impress on his fellow travelers that this sort of thing was never done on his nations boats!

A Belgian passenger approached on of the Roman Catholic Priests and said: “The Protestant Reverends don’t mind taking their share in all this; why don’t you?” “Ah” – said he “Ce n’est pas possible” and considered the question closed!  

In this connection it is interesting to note how British customs and procedure in practically all maritime matters has set the precedent for the worlds shipping. Not only in such lesser matters as crossing the line ceremonies, but in the way ships of almost every (certainly European) nation are run on the technical and administrative side. It is British customs and procedure nearly every time. I mentioned these boats had English Officers until quite recently and I understand the same is true of many other nations as well.

Of course there are “local variations” in the ritual, under consideration the details were slightly different from those practiced in the Royal Navy – but they are unimportant except to the scientific investigator – and as the beautiful certificate say with which each candidate was afterwards presented – “Our baptism is valid for all time and all places – with Neptune’s seal upon it, it must be so.

                Personally I felt very much at home – being as I was a Baptist in Bath!