14 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER

could be handled easily enough ; she contained only what was absolutely indispensable, and all I asked of her was

that she should carry us safely to our goal.

It would not do for me to embark alone to descend the

Niger. The next thing was, therefore, to choose my crew. Of all the lucky chances which marked the course of our

trip, and contributed to its success, there was one for which I ought to have been more grateful to Providence than I was, and that was, that He gave me just the companions who went with me.

All who know from experience what the sun of Africa

is, who are aware of the combined effects of illness and

privations, such as the want of sufficient nourishment, of

perpetual danger, of never-ceasing responsibility, who have themselves suffered from working with uncongenial companions, whose worst faults come out under the stress

of suffering and fatigue, who know what the unsociability

of the tropics often is, will realize the force of what I have said.

We started five companions, we returned five friends :

that is the most astonishing part of what we did !

thirst of those who joined me, who shared all my hard-

ships as well as my success, was Xaval Ensign, now Lieutenant Baudry.

One of those who had laboured in the vineyard from

the first, M. Baudry had begged me to take him with me, should the chance ever occur, long before my expedition was decided on. He happened to be in Paris at the time,

for, like myself, he was about to start for the Sudan on Staff duty. He too had been bitten by the Colonial

tarantula, causing a serious illness, only to be cured by an actual journey to the colonies. A few minutes after the

decision of the Under Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs

the matter was settled : he was to go with me.