by Adam Hochschild (Papermac, London, 2000, £ 12.00).

After reading this I can not see how one could refer to heroism in a book about this subject. Hochschild must refer to the initial explorers of the Congo because nearly everyone after that could only have caused the horror the natives in the 1890s and later had to endure. Leopold's greed was almost unquenchible and to that end he caused millions of natives to loose hands and their lives if they refused, or could not meet ridiculous quotas for raw and/or basically processed rubber. The descriptions will almost make you sick as you read them. For gaming purposes I will stick to the early explorers and conquest of the Congo.

Slave labor, bestial treatment of natives, Leopold's greed, British involvement, newspaper reporters, Reform movement what a combination to make a very good story that is hard to read at times but make interesting reading. I highly recommend this if you are interested in gaming the colonial Congo.

This is a good year for those of you interested in the Boxer Rebellion. First was a book by Diana Preston entitled Beseiged in Peking (Constable, 1999). I have not yet found this book near by, nothing much is near by to Saluda, sorry Roy, so I will have to go to mail order.