20 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER

At the end of a month Baudry and I were quite knocked up. Bolard alone continued indefatigable. But

we had bought twenty-seven thousand francs' worth of merchandise, which was all piled up in the basement of the Pavilion de Flore. Such an extraordinary heap it made ;

bales of calico on top of cavalry sabres, Pelion on Ossa.

We received several distinguished visitors there, too. M. Grodet, just appointed Governor of the French Sudan, came to see us, and was very amiable, seeming to take a great interest in what we were doing. Quantum niutata . . .

Next came the packing, which was anything but an

easy task. An explorer ought to be also an experienced packer of the very first rank. No package must exceed 55 lbs. in weight. To begin with, all the luggage must

be absolutely water-tight, easily handled, and of a regular geometrical shape, so as to be stowed away in our hold without much difficulty. Then the various articles making up each package must be so arranged as not to get damaged by rubbing against each other or shifting about. Lastly, and this was the greatest difficulty of all,

the bales must be made up so that we could easily get out what we wanted without constantly opening them all.

And what a responsibility the whole thing was !

Then we had certain things with us which were sure to

strike the imagination of the natives, notably Baudry 's bicycle, some Geissler's vacuum tubes, and an Edison phonograph — the cinematograph was not then invented. Our instrument was, in fact, one of the first which had been seen even in France. It would repeat the native songs, and I relied on it to interest the chiefs and the

literati, for to amuse them would, I hoped, make them forget their hostile designs.

I'or weapons the Minister of War gave us ten Lebel