Complete Works

Brussels early in 1925. Not knowing that they were mentioned in the diary, he ommitted to take names of particulars.
    “He seems to have been constantly unwell and one may compare “Heart of Darkness,” p.71: “I had a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshly, and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the least bit of shade or water.”
    of a high mountain. Very long descent. Then market place from where short walk to the bridge (good) and camp. V.G. Bath. Clear river. Feel well. Harou all right. 1st chicken, 2 p. [m.] No sunshine to-day.
    Wednesday, 2nd July. Started at 5:30 after a sleepless night. Country more open. Gently undulating hills. Road good, in perfect order. (District of Lukungu.) Great market at 9.30. Bought eggs and chickens. Feel not well to-day. Heavy cold in the head. Arrived at 11 at Banza Manteka. Camped on the market place. Not well enough to call on the missionary. Water scarce and bad. Camp9 place dirty. 2 Danes still in Company.
    Thursday, 3rd July. Left at 6 a.m. after a good night’s rest. Crossed a low range of hills and entered a broad, valley, or rather plain, with a break in the middle. Met an offer of the State inspecting. A few minutes afterwards saw at a camp3 place the dead body of a Backongo. Shot?1 Horrid smell.
    Crossed a range of mountains, running N.W. — S.E. by a low pass. Another broad flat valley with a deep ravine through the centre. Clay and gravel. Another range parallel to the first mentioned, with a chain of low foothills running close to it. Between the two came to camp on the banks of the Luinzono river. Camp9 place clean. River clear. Gov1 Zanzibari2 with register. Canoe. 2 Danes camp3 on the other bank. Health good.
    General tone of landscape gray-yellowish (dry grass) with reddish patches (soil) and clumps of dark green vegetation scattered sparsely about. Mostly in steep gorges between the high mountains or in ravines cutting the plain.3
    ‘Compare “Heart of Darkness,” p.71: “Once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform camping on the path ... was looking after the upkeep of the road, he declared. Can’t say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles further on, may be considered as a permanent improvement.”
    2Compare “Heart of Darkness,” p.71, in which he mentioned his meeting with a white man, who was accompanied by “an armed escort of lank Zanzibaris.”
    3ln “Heart of Darkness,” p.70, the country of the march is described as “a stamped-in network of paths spreading over the empty land, through long grass, through burnt grass, thickets, down and up hilly ravines, up and down stony hills ablaze with heat.”
    Noticed Palma Christi — Oil Palm. Very straight, tall and thick trees in some places. Name not known to me. Villages quite invisible. Infer their existence from calbashes [s/cj suspended to palm trees for the “Malafu.” Good many caravans and travellers. No women, unless on the market place.
    Bird notes charming. One especially a flute-like note. Another, kind of “boom” resembling [s/c] the very distant baying of a bound. Saw only pigeons and a few green parroquets. Very small and not many. No birds of prey seen by me.1
    Up to 9 a.m. sky clouded and calm. Afterwards gentle breeze from the Nn generally and sky clearing. Nights damp and cool. White mists on the hills up about half way. Water effects very beautiful this morning. Mists generally raising before sky clears.
    Distance 15 miles. General direction N.N.E. — S.S.W. Friday, 4th July Left camp at 6.a.m. after a very unpleasant night. Marching across a chain of hills and then in a maze of hills. At 8:15 opened out into an undulating plain. Took bearings of a break in the chain of mountains on the other side. Bearing N.N.E. Road passes through that. Sharp ascents up very steep hills not very high. The higher mountains recede sharply and show a low hilly country. At 9:30 market place. At 10 passed R. Lukanga and at 10:30 camped on the Mpwe R.
    To-day’s march. Direction N.N. E.1/2 — N. Dist®° 13 miles. Saw another dead body lying by the path in an attitude of meditative repose.2
    In the evening three women, of whom one albino, passed our camp; horrid chalky white with pink blotches; red eyes; red hair; features very negroid and ugly. Mosquitos. At night when the moon rose heard shouts and drumming in