human
Not pleasant-looking, gentlemen, said the skipper, coming up to them.
gpt
Not the sort of place where you would like to settle down and build a country house.
human
Why, it's horrible, cried Rodd.
gpt
But why should it be so muddy here, instead of being all nice clean sand?
human
Because it's the edge of a low swampy country, my lad, where great rivers come from inland and bring down the soil of thousands of miles.
gpt
But I always thought Africa was a sandy desert place where lions were roving about, and where Mungo Park went travelling to Timbuctoo and places like that.
human
Yes, my lad, said the skipper;
gpt
But we shan't want to stop long in a muddy river with banks like this, captain,
human
Don't you be in too great a hurry to judge, sir, said the skipper.
gpt
I have sailed up one or two of these rivers in my time, and when you get higher up you will find it very different: big forests with grand trees, rivers with fine water, and places beautiful enough for anything, such as will satisfy travellers who don't want ports and towns. You and the doctor, Mr Rodd, will be able to get some fine shooting up there, if you like, and fine fishing too. Do you want to get any birds of all the colours of the rainbow?
human
Why, of course!
gpt
Well, there you'll find them, sir--singing birds too, green and gold and scarlet and grey, and some with long tails, and some with short. Only, continued the skipper dryly, and with a grim smile at the two lads,
human
Oh, that's what you mean!
gpt
Of course, sir--them as you teaches to talk. Wicked 'uns, some of them, ready enough to learn anything the sailors teach them, but sulky as slugs when you want them to learn anything good.
human
But there are plenty of them, captain?
gpt
Thicker than crows at home, sir. Then what do you say to monkeys?
human
That I should like to see them alive in the forest.
gpt
Well, there you have them, sir; and you could come across plenty, if you went far enough, big as boys.
human
Ah, now you are telling travellers' tales, captain,
gpt
Nay, my lad, not I. I have seen them as big as boys, only not so tall, because their legs have all gone into arms. Little, short, crooked legs, they have got, as makes them squatty. But when they stand up their arms are so long that they nearly touch the ground. Big as boys? Why, they are bigger! I never saw boys with such big heads. And they all look as if they had been born old; wrinkled faces and long shaggy black hair.
human
Now, look here, captain, I don't mind you joking me, but don't play tricks with the Viscount here.
gpt
Not I, my lad. I am just telling you the honest truth, and you may believe me.
human
But where's the river where these things are?
gpt
We shall come across one of them before long, sir, said the skipper.
human
I expected to have found one that suited my book hours ago. I was very nearly going up that one just about dinner-time.
gpt
Oh, but that was only a little inlet,
human
Looked so to you, sir, but all along here the shore's full of inlets, as you call them; but they are deep water and go winding in and out, and perhaps open out into big sheets of water like lagoons, as they call them. But I am of opinion that if we don't turn into one to-night we shall do so some time to-morrow, and perhaps find just the sort of spot we want. It we don't we will go a bit farther south.
gpt
But take us up beyond all this horrible mangrove swamp,
human
You leave that to me, sir, said the skipper.
gpt
We have got a good bit of work to do with that brig, and I want to bring my lads out again, and the Count's too, well and hearty, not half of them eaten up with fever and t'other half sucked into dry skins by the mosquitoes. No, we shall have to sail right up to where it gets to be a forest and park-like country.
human
There'll be no towns?
gpt
No, sir, but we might come across a blacks' village, and if we do we can anchor somewhere on the other shore.