I Behave Exquisitely, And Am Quite
Lost In Admiration Of My Own Conduct, And Busily Deciding In My Own
Mind
Whether I shall wear one of those plain ring haloes, or a solid
plate one, a la Cimabue, when Mr.
Hudson says in a voice full of
reproach to Mr. Cockshut, "You have got mosquitoes here, Mr.
Cockshut." Poor Mr. Cockshut doesn't deny it; he has got four on
his forehead and his hands are sprinkled with them, but he says:
"There are none at Njole," which we all feel is an absurdly lame
excuse, for Njole is some ninety miles above Lembarene, where we now
are. Mr. Hudson says this to him, tersely, and feeling he has
utterly crushed Mr. Cockshut, turns on me, and utterly failing to
recognise me as a suffering saint, says point blank and savagely,
"You don't seem to feel these things, Miss Kingsley." Not feel
them, indeed! Why, I could cry over them. Well! that's all the
thanks one gets for trying not to be a nuisance in this world.
After dinner I go back on to the Move for the night, for it is too
late to go round to Kangwe and ask Mme. Jacot, of the Mission
Evangelique, if she will take me in. The air is stiff with
mosquitoes, and saying a few suitable words to them, I dash under
the mosquito bar and sleep, lulled by their shrill yells of baffled
rage.
June 8th. - In the morning, up at five. Great activity on beach.
Move synchronously taking on wood fuel and discharging cargo. A
very active young French pastor from the Kangwe mission station is
round after the mission's cargo. Mr. Hudson kindly makes inquiries
as to whether I may go round to Kangwe and stay with Mme. Jacot. He
says: "Oh, yes," but as I find he is not M. Jacot, I do not feel
justified in accepting this statement without its having personal
confirmation from Mme. Jacot, and so, leaving my luggage with the
Move, I get them to allow me to go round with him and his cargo to
Kangwe, about three-quarters of an hour's paddle round the upper
part of Lembarene Island, and down the broad channel on the other
side of it. Kangwe is beautifully situated on a hill, as its name
denotes, on the mainland and north bank of the river. Mme. Jacot
most kindly says I may come, though I know I shall be a fearful
nuisance, for there is no room for me save M. Jacot's beautifully
neat, clean, tidy study. I go back in the canoe and fetch my
luggage from the Move; and say good-bye to Mr. Hudson, who gave me
an immense amount of valuable advice about things, which was
subsequently of great use to me, and a lot of equally good warnings
which, if I had attended to, would have enabled me to avoid many, if
not all, my misadventures in Congo Francais.
I camped out that night in M. Jacot's study, wondering how he would
like it when he came home and found me there; for he was now away on
one of his usual evangelising tours.
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