2 2: à se croire ... Afrique: '(enough) to (make one) believe himself in the very heart of (cf. 5 7) Africa.' à = assez pour; cf. c'est à mourir de rire, 'it's enough to make you die with laughter'; also 6 14, 21 16.
2 3: bien entendu: 'of course'; lit. 'well (heard) understood.'
2 5: arbos gigantea: Latin, = arbre géant 'giant tree.'--tenait à l'aise dans: 'easily found room in.'
2 6:pot de réséda: 'mignonette pot.' Pot de fleurs = 'flower pot' Logically we should expect, and in a dealer's catalogue we find, pot à fleurs, cf. une tasse à café 'a coffee cup,' une tasse de café 'a cup of coffee.' Daudet in speaking of this same mignonette pot uses pot à réséda in "Tartarin sur les Alpes," p. 358.--c'est égal: 'all the same'.
2 7: déjà: lit. 'already'; 'anyhow,' 'nevertheless'.
2 8: s'en retournaient: cf. s'en aller 17 4, s'en revenir 53 11.
2 10: je dus éprouver: 'I must have experienced.' Devoir is difficult to translate because the corresponding English auxiliaries (must, ought) are defective. The following are the most usual translations: je dois aller I must go, I ought to go, I should go, I have to go, I am to go. je devais aller I had to go, I was to go (cf. 18 2) I should have gone, I must have gone (cf. 16 26). je dus aller I had to go (cf. 67 7), I must have gone (cf. 40 4). je devrai aller I shall have to go je devrais aller I should go, I ought to go, I should have to go. j'ai dû aller I had to go, I have had to go, I must have gone Cf. notes to 43 20, 29.
2 11: mirifique: a mock-heroic synonym for merveilleux.--bien autre: bien in its common intensive use, 'quite.' Bien frequently adds to a passage a shade of meaning which can be rendered in English only by a complete remodeling of the sentence, e.g. je veux bien 'I have no objection,' 'I consent.' When autre is preceded by bien or tout, it usually carries the idea of superiority.
2 14: ouvrant de plain-pied sur le baobab: 'opening on a level with the baobab'; there was no step. Plain='flat.'
2 18: carabines: 'rifles.' carabine is the French word for "rifle", fusil is the general term (gun) and is applied particularly to the shotgun The English word "rifle" is sometimes used in French for a rifle having a long barrel. With carabine cf. English "carbine," a short-barreled rifle. Translate here 'carbines, rifles.'