In African Forest and Jungle

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

When the raft was ready, Rogala put upon it the "precious box," Ndova, and Andekko, and then crossed to the island. Ndova was very much afraid of the water, and clung to Rogala, who, after landing the box, the monkey, and the dog, came back for me.

An exclamation of joy arose involuntarily to my lips as I landed. How lovely was the blue sky, in the midst of which transparent white clouds were moving slowly! How cheerful was the sunshine! It felt so good to tread upon the soft white sand, to be in a place where there was not a tree, not even a blade of grass. In a word, the island was beautifully bare of vegetation. I was so tired of trees and of the forests. I rolled in the sand, lay on my back, and looked at the blue sky.

"We will remain on this island for a few days," I said to Rogala, "and to-morrow we will build a shelter for ourselves. During the day we will go into the forest to hunt and seek food. In the evening we will return to the island."

"When the raft was ready Rogala, Ndova, and Andekko crossed to the island."

We crossed the river again on our raft, leaving Andekko and Ndova in possession of the island.

We collected building material, cut poles and sticks, gathered large leaves to be used instead of slates or shingles for roofing, and for walls wide pieces of bark; also much firewood. After a few trips all our material was landed on the island.

First I measured the ground, and decided that the house should be about ten feet long and seven feet wide. We planted sticks about one foot apart, reaching a height of about five feet above the ground. Then we fastened the bark along these sticks, and left an opening to be used as a door, and made a few loopholes so that we could fire from them in case we were attacked by the natives. I always took great precautions, though I was not afraid of the people. My guns, rifles, a certain amount of ammunition were always near my bed. I slept dressed and with my shoes on. "Always be ready in case of a sudden attack," I said to Rogala, and he replied: "You are right, Oguizi."

Then we placed a beam upon two big forked sticks to support the roof, and covered our roof with the large leaves, arranging them on the top of one another just like shingles. We also built a platform in case we should need it for smoking meat.

Then I walked all over the island, and discovered buried in the sand a number of turtle's eggs, to my great joy, for turtle's eggs are very good to eat. There were so many of them that we should not have starved had we remained quite a while on the island, for not only did we find many eggs but we captured a number of turtles. When I returned from my tour of investigation, Rogala was talking to his idol.