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It was by this time growing late in the afternoon, and as I was anxious to obtain possession of my unfortunate countrymen and leave Matadi's rather dangerous neighbourhood before nightfall, we watched the proceedings in the town narrowly and with a great deal of interest.
They consisted of the Sapphire's late second and third lieutenants, one midshipman, nine marines, and sixteen seamen; one midshipman, three marines, and two seamen having died of fever during the time that they had been in Matadi's hands.
It was evident that my endeavour to excite Matadi's curiosity had been completely successful; for no sooner was the gig out of the water than a large canoe was launched, into which Matadi and three or four other negroes presumably subordinate chiefs scrambled, when she was at once shoved off and, paddled by twenty natives, brought to within about twenty yards of the schooner, that being considered, I suppose, about the shortest distance within which it would be safe to approach us.
Matadi's "town" was situate, as Lobo had informed us, on the south bank of the stream, on the sloping side of a hill that rose rather steeply from the water's edge; the scenery of this part of the river being totally different from that of the mouth; the change occurring gradually, but becoming quite decided about the point where the chain of islands is left behind on the traveller's upward way.
And not to dwell unduly upon incidents that were exciting enough to us, although the recital of them would prove of but little interest to the reader in this way we contrived to creep up the river the hundred and twelve miles or so that were necessary to bring us to Matadi's town having passed, and with some difficulty avoided, two whirlpools on the way, reaching our destination about two bells in the afternoon watch on the fifth day after leaving Banana Creek.
Matadi's town was situate, as I have said, upon the sloping hillside that constituted the south bank of the river, and consisted of some four or five hundred buildings arranged with tolerable regularity on either side of two broad streets or roads that crossed each other at right angles, their point of intersection being a spacious square, in the centre of which stood a circular structure with a high-peaked, pointed roof of thatch, that Lobo informed me was the fetish-house.
"Not traders' chop, Bula Matadi's chop." "Him no missionary steamer, him Bula Matadi steamer." The town of Matadi is of importance as the place where, owing to the rapids, passengers and cargoes are reshipped on the railroad to the haut Congo. It is a railroad terminus only, and it looks it.
Then, during the night, a light southerly air sprang up, freshening towards morning into a spanking breeze that soon became half a gale of wind, and under its welcome impulse although we found it rather shy with us in some of the narrowest and most intricate parts of the navigation we contrived to complete the descent of the remaining portion of the river on our second day out from Matadi's town, arriving off the mouth of Banana Creek about an hour before sunset.
Say that the goods to be paid as ransom are aboard the schooner, and that they consist of guns, beads, brass wire, beautiful printed calicoes, suitable for the adornment of any African king's wives; handsome red coats with resplendent brass buttons and gorgeous worsted epaulettes, admirably calculated to set off Matadi's own kingly figure; and superb blankets, red, blue, green in fact, all the colours of the rainbow.
"I presume," answered he, "that, if still alive, as you say, they are where I last heard of them; namely, at Matadi's village; a place on the south bank of the Congo, about one hundred miles, or rather more, from its mouth. But why do you take such a profound interest in them?" he asked.
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