AN ABORTIVE START IJ

He has been my comrade in happy and in dreary hours. Together we suffered from the events which kept us imprisoned, so to speak, in the French Sudan for nearly two years before we could really make a start. He adopted

my ideas, he made them his own, and set to work immediate-

ly to carry them into action. It is but just that I should speak of him first of all in these terms of praise, for always

and everywhere I was secure of his help and co-operation.

We made up the rest of our party at St. Louis, for Baudry and I were at first the only two white men in the expedition. We had to choose eight Senegal coolies, one of whom was a non-commissioned officer lent to us by the

naval authorities. I knew that I should be able to engage any number of brave and sturdy fellows, faithful to the death down there, and so it proved.

The grave question of the choice of a native interpreter

still remained to be solved. I had my man in my mind, but I did not know whether I could secure him. I lost no

time in asking the authorities at Senegal to place Mandao

Osmane at my disposal.

I had known and learnt to value Mandao on the Niger

flotilla ; he and his family had already rendered more devoted services to France than I could count. Well-read,

intelligent, very brave, very refined, and very proud, Mandao was the type of an educated negro. He would have been a valuable assistant and a trusted friend to

us. I knew that it was his great ambition to be decorated

like his father, who had been one of General Faidherbe's

most valued auxiliaries. He was to die on the field of

honour, killed during the Monteil expedition.

If some inquirer asks you, "What is the first thing to do

to prepare for an exploring expedition to Central Africa ? " answer without hesitation, " Buy some of the things which

are being sold off in Paris." And this is why. The usual