Mr. Grenfell's steel steamer Peace was built in England, and when she was shipped to the Congo all her plates and pieces of machinery were taken apart and packed into eight hundred loads; for every bit of the vessel had to be carried on the backs of men around two hundred and thirty-five miles of cataracts to Stanley Pool, where the long caravan of black porters arrived without losing a load. Another Congo steamboat was not so fortunate, for its brass fittings were stolen while in transit, and transformed into neck ornaments for native women. It has been said that a pioneer in Africa should be able to build a boat or a house without a nail or a tool. Grenfell seems to be that kind of man. The engineers who had been sent to put the Peace together died of fever; so Grenfell trained natives in the art of riveting, and with their aid he put the eight hundred pieces together. When the Peace was launched there was not a leak. All of the parts had been placed where they belonged. She was seventy feet long, and under her wooden roof were a cabin and cook-room, with an engine amidships. Her twin screws drove her ten miles an hour, and in all respects she was well fitted for her work. So in 1884 Mr. Grenfell and his wife, with a crew of fifteen natives, set out to find favorable points for mission stations on the great unexplored tributaries that stretch away hundreds of miles north and south of the middle Congo.
We cannot describe here all the discoveries Grenfell made. He greatly changed our notions of the extent, direction, and importance of quite a number of rivers, chief among which were the Mobangi and Mongala north of the Congo, and the Bussera, Chuapa, Lulonga, and Lomami south of it. You may easily find these large rivers on the map, and they are Grenfell's greatest contribution to our knowledge of Africa.
Most of the tribes whom Grenfell met live away from the Congo, and had never heard of the world outside the districts they occupy. We can scarcely imagine the astonishment and even terror which the white man and his puffing river monster inspired as the Peace would suddenly round some river bend and pause at a village front. The natives did not always flee nor offer hostilities at once. Many stood motionless, as if rooted to the spot, with straining eyes, and hands over their wide-open mouths, a common practice among savages when they are greatly surprised. If one fled he was speedily followed by others. If one gathered his wits and began to poise his spear or bend his bow, others followed his example. Once a woman fell in spasms to the ground. One day, on the Ruki River, Grenfell surprised a party of fifty fisherwomen, who took one look at the wheezing Peace, and then sprang shrieking out of their boats, and swam, as a dog does, to the shore. A large crowd of men on an island in the Bussera saw the apparition, and rushed pell-mell for their boats, forgetting their paddles in their fright; and so, with frantic energy, they used their hands as paddles in their flight to the mainland. Grenfell was accompanied by the German explorer Von François on his ascent of some of the southern rivers, and sometimes the natives thought their white visitors came from the spirit world, and called to them, "We fear you because you are white ghosts."
GRENFELL AS HE SOMETIMES TRAVELLED WHEN ON SHORE.
On all such occasions there was nothing to do except to wait for the excitement to subside, very quietly displaying presents of beads, wire, and cloth, while anchored at a distance from the shore. Grenfell's interpreter would strain his lungs with shouting words of soothing and friendship. Sometimes he would cry "Ba, ba, ba," to indicate that he wished to buy goats, and he would exhibit trade goods to pay for them. On some island, in the night, while alarm drums were arousing the country for miles along the banks, Grenfell would kindle fires, and in the bright light display his presents to the best advantage. Once while a howling crowd were bending their bows, the Peace was sent at full speed within a rod of the shore, and a cloth full of beads and cowrie-shells was thrown among them. Before the astounded natives had recovered their wits, the Peace was again in mid-stream beyond the reach of arrows. This set the savages thinking, and they listened quietly when Grenfell shouted that he wished to buy fire-wood. They filled a canoe with wood, and tying to the boat a long rope made of vines, let it drift down stream to the steamer, where the canoe was emptied, and the beads which the explorers placed in it were hauled back to the shore. The ice was broken now, weapons were laid aside, and soon a dozen canoes pushed out from the shore with natives having wood or provisions to sell.
A DWARF OF THE CONGO FOREST.
All of Grenfell's blandishments failed sometimes, and he was fiercely attacked. Only one instance is recorded where he fired a gun, and then it contained only a blank cartridge. He proved the efficacy of unusual noises, for the explosion, reverberating along the forest-lined shores, sent the enemy scampering. A blast from the whistle was sometimes enough to turn pursuing canoes about face. The explorer did everything possible to protect his men, and not one of them was hurt. Wire netting completely covered the open sides of the vessel and caught many flying missiles, while others lodged in the wooden roof. A few natives in one village on the Bussera appeared to have seen or heard of guns, for Grenfell was much surprised when the very friendly people told him that they had intended to attack the vessel until they saw his firearms. One village that had accepted the explorer's presents on his ascent of the river, attacked him on his return because the river had risen meantime, a most uncommon thing at that season, they said, and ample proof that the white man was bad. The explorer found himself in a predicament on the last day he spent upon the Bussera, but Mrs. Grenfell helped him out of it. While the Peace was in shore, a party of warriors rushed to the bank with their weapons all ready to launch. In a moment Mrs. Grenfell had thrown among them a double handful of beads, and while the crowd were scrambling and fighting for the prizes, the Peace reached a safe distance. Usually an hour or two of waiting and conciliatory talk turned foes into friends. Sometimes, however, the alarm drums would notify the villages for miles around that an enemy was coming; and when Grenfell saw a throng of armed warriors waiting for him, and not a woman on the ground, he knew that trouble was brewing.
