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diff --git a/5760-8.txt b/5760-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..403b0b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/5760-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6550 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 +by Richard F. Burton +(#19 in our series by Richard F. Burton) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 + +Author: Richard F. Burton + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5760] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 27, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: Latin1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TWO TRIPS TO GORILLA LAND AND THE CATARACTS OF THE CONGO *** + + + + + +Scanned by JC Byers, (www.wollamshram.ca/1001) +Proofread by the volunteers of the Distributed Proofreaders site. +(http://charlz.dns2go.com/gutenberg/) + + + Two Trips to + + Gorilla Land + + and + the Cataracts of the Congo. + + By + + Richard F. Burton. + + In Two Volumes + + Vol. I. + + London: 1876 + + + + + +"Quisquis amat Congi fines peragrare nigrantes, +Africć et Ćthiopum cernere regna, domus, +* * * * * * * +Perlegat hunc librum." + Fra Angelus de Map. Piccardus. + +"Timbuctoo travels, voyages to the poles, +Are ways to benefit mankind as true +Perhaps as shooting them at Waterloo."--Don Juan. + + + +Trieste, Jan. 31, 1875. My Dear Sir George, + +Our paths in life have been separated by a long interval. Whilst +inclination led you to explore and to'survey the wild wastes of +the North, the Arctic shores and the Polar seas, with all their +hardships and horrors; my lot was cast in the torrid regions of +Sind and Arabia; in the luxuriant deserts of Africa, and in the +gorgeous tropical forests of the Brazil. But the true traveller +can always appreciate the record of another's experience, and +perhaps the force of contrast makes him most enjoy the adventures +differing the most from his own. To whom, then, more +appropriately than to yourself, a discoverer of no ordinary note, +a recorder of explorations, and, finally, an earnest labourer in +the cause of geography, can I inscribe this plain, unvarnished +tale of a soldier-traveller? Kindly accept the trifle as a token +of the warmest esteem, an earnest of my thankfulness for the +interest ever shown by you in forwarding my plans and projects of +adventure; and, in the heartfelt hope that Allah may prolong your +days, permit me to subscribe myself, + +Your sincere admirer and grateful friend, RICHARD F. BURTON. + +Admiral Sir George Back, D.C.L., F.R.S., +Vice-Pres. R.G.S., &c. + + + + + +Preface. + + + +The notes which form the ground-work of these volumes have long +been kept in the obscurity of manuscript: my studies of South +America, of Syria and Palestine, of Iceland, and of Istria, left +me scant time for the labour of preparation. Leisure and +opportunity have now offered themselves, and I avail myself of +them in the hope that the publication will be found useful to +more than one class of readers. The many who take an interest in +the life of barbarous peoples may not be displeased to hear more +about the Fán; and the few who would try a fall with Mister +Gorilla can learn from me how to equip themselves, whence to set +out and whither to go for the best chance. Travelling with M. +Paul B. du Chaillu's "First Expedition" in my hand, I jealously +looked into every statement, and his numerous friends will be +pleased to see how many of his assertions are confirmed by my +experience. + +The second part is devoted to the Nzadi or lower Congo River, +from the mouth to the Yellala or main rapids, the gate by which +the mighty stream, emerging from the plateau of Inner Africa, +goes to its long home, the Atlantic. Some time must elapse before +the second expedition, which left Ambriz early in 1873, under +Lieutenant Grandy, R. N., can submit its labours to the public: +meanwhile these pages will, I trust, form a suitable introduction +to the gallant explorer's travel in the interior. It would be +preposterous to publish descriptions of any European country from +information gathered ten years ago. But Africa moves slowly, and +thus we see that the results of an Abyssinian journey (M. Antoine +d'Abbadie's "Géodésic d'Ethiopie," which took place about 1845, +are not considered obsolete in 1873. + +After a languid conviction during the last half century of owning +some ground upon the West Coast of Africa, England has been +rudely aroused by a little war which will have large +consequences. The causes that led to the "Ashantee Campaign," a +negro copy of the negroid Abyssinian, may be broadly laid down as +general incuriousness, local mismanagement, and the operation of +unprincipled journalism. + +It is not a little amusing to hear the complaints of the public +that plain truth about the African has not been told. I could +cite more than one name that has done so. But what was the +result? We were all soundly abused by the negrophile; the +multitude cared little about reading "unpopular opinions;" and +then, when the fulness of time came, it turned upon us, and rent +us, and asked why we had not spoken freely concerning Ashanti and +Fanti, and all the herd. My "Wanderings in West Africa" is a case +in point: so little has it been read, that a President of the +Royal Geographical Society (African section of the Society of +Arts Journal, Feb. 6, 1874) could state, "If Fantees are cowardly +and lazy, Krumen are brave;" the latter being the most notorious +poltroons on the West African seaboard. + +The hostilities on the Gold Coast might have been averted with +honour to ourselves at any time between 1863 and 1870, by a +Colonial Office mission and a couple of thousand pounds. I need +hardly say what has been the case now. The first steps were taken +with needless disasters, and the effect has been far different +from what we intended or what was advisable. For a score of years +we (travellers) have been advising the English statesman not to +despise the cunning of barbarous tribes, never to attempt +finessing with Asiatic or African; to treat these races with +perfect sincerity and truthfulness. I have insisted, and it is +now seen with what reason, that every attempt at deception, at +asserting the "thing which is not," will presently meet with the +reward it deserves. I can only regret that my counsels have not +made themselves heard. + +Yet this ignoble war between barbarous tribes whom it has long +been the fashion to pet, this poor scuffle between the +breechloader and the Birmingham trade musket, may yet in one +sense do good. It must perforce draw public attention to the West +Coast of Africa, and raise the question, "What shall we do with +it?" My humble opinion, expressed early in 1865 to the Right +Honourable Mr. Adderley, has ever been this. If we are determined +not to follow the example of the French, the Dutch, the +Portuguese, and the Spaniards, and not to use the country as a +convict station, resolving to consume, as it were, our crime at +home, we should also resolve to retain only a few ports and +forts, without territory, at points commanding commerce, after +the fashion of the Lusitanians in the old heroic days. The export +slave-trade is now dead and buried; the want of demand must +prevent its revival; and free emigration has yet to be created. +As Mr. Bright rightly teaches, strong places and garrisons are +not necessary to foster trade and to promote the success of +missions. The best proof on the West African Coast is to be found +in the so-called Oil Rivers, where we have never held a mile of +ground, and where our commerce prospers most. The great "Tribune" +will forgive my agreeing in opinion with him when he finds that +we differ upon one most important point. It is the merchant, not +the garrison, that causes African wars. If the home authorities +would avoid a campaign, let them commit their difficulty to a +soldier, not to a civilian. + +The chronic discontent of the so-called "civilized" African, the +contempt of the rulers if not of the rule, and the bitter hatred +between the three races, white, black, and black-white, fomented +by many an unprincipled print, which fills its pocket with coin +of cant and Christian charity, will end in even greater scandals +than the last disreputable war. If the damnosa licentia be not +suppressed--and where are the strong hands to suppress it?--we +may expect to see the scenes of Jamaica revived with improvements +at Sierra Leone. However unwilling I am to cut off any part of +our great and extended empire, to renew anywhere, even in Africa, +the process of dismemberment--the policy which cast off Corfu--it +is evident to me that English occupation of the West African +Coast has but slightly forwarded the cause of humanity, and that +upon the whole it has proved a remarkable failure. + +We can be wise in time. + +Richard F. Burton. + +P.S.--Since these pages were written, a name which frequently +occurs in them has become a memory to his friends--I allude to W. +Winwood Reade, and I deplore his loss. The highest type of +Englishman, brave and fearless as he was gentle and loving, his +short life of thirty-seven years shows how much may be done by +the honest, thorough worker. He had emphatically the courage of +his opinions, and he towered a cubit above the crowd by telling +not only the truth, as most of us do, but the whole truth, which +so few can afford to do. His personal courage in battle during +the Ashanti campaign, where the author of "Savage Africa" became +correspondent of the "Times," is a matter of history. His noble +candour in publishing the "Martyrdom of Man" is an example and a +model to us who survive him. And he died calmly and courageously +as he lived, died in harness, died as he had resolved to die, +like the good and gallant gentleman of ancient lineage that he +was. + + + + + +Contents of Vol. I. + +Chapter I. Landing at the Rio Gabăo (Gaboon River).--le + Plateau, the French Colony +Chapter II. The Departure.--the Tornado.--arrival at "The + Bush" +Chapter III. Geography of the Gaboon +Chapter IV. The Minor Tribes and the Mpongwe +Chapter V. To Sánga-Tánga and Back +Chapter VI. Village Life in Pongo-Land +Chapter VII. Return to the River +Chapter VIII. Up the Gaboon River +Chapter IX. A Specimen Day with the Fán Cannibals +Chapter X. To the Mbíka (Hill); the Sources of the Gaboon.-- + Return to the Plateau +Chapter. XI. Mr., Mrs., and Master Gorilla +Chapter XII. Corisco.--"Home" to Fernando Po + + + + + + PART I. + + The Gaboon River and Gorilla Land. + + + +"It was my hint to speak, such was my process; +And of the cannibals that each other eat, +The anthropophagi, and men whose heads +Do grow beneath their Shoulders."–Othello. + + + + + + Part I. + + Trip to Gorilla Land. + + Chapter I. + +Landing at the Rio Gabăo (Gaboon River).--le Plateau, the French + Colony. + + + +I remember with lively pleasure my first glance at the classic +stream of the "Portingal Captains" and the "Zeeland interlopers." +The ten-mile breadth of the noble Gaboon estuary somewhat dwarfed +the features of either shore as we rattled past Cape Santa Clara, +a venerable name, "'verted" to Joinville. The bold northern head, +though not "very high land," makes some display, because we see +it in a better light; and its environs are set off by a line of +scattered villages. The vis-a-vis of Louis Philippe Peninsula on +the starboard bow (Zuidhoeck), "Sandy Point" or Sandhoeck, by the +natives called Pongára, and by the French Péninsule de Marie- +Amélie, shows a mere fringe of dark bristle, which is tree, based +upon a broad red-yellow streak, which is land. As we pass through +the slightly overhung mouth, we can hardly complain with a late +traveller of the Gaboon's "sluggish waters;" during the ebb they +run like a mild mill-race, and when the current, setting to the +north-west, meets a strong sea-breeze from the west, there is a +criss-cross, a tide-rip, contemptible enough to a cruizer, but +quite capable of filling cock-boats. And, nearing the end of our +voyage, we rejoice to see that the dull down-pourings and the +sharp storms of Fernando Po have apparently not yet migrated so +far south. Dancing blue wavelets, under the soft azure sky, plash +and cream upon the pure clean sand that projects here and there +black lines of porous ironstone waiting to become piers; and the +water-line is backed by swelling ridges, here open and green- +grassed, there spotted with islets of close and shady trees. +Mangrove, that horror of the African voyager, shines by its +absence; and the soil is not mud, but humus based on gravels or +on ruddy clays, stiff and retentive. The formation, in fact, is +everywhere that of Eyo or Yoruba, the goodly region lying west of +the lower Niger, and its fertility must result from the abundant +water supply of the equatorial belt. + +The charts are fearful to look upon. The embouchure, well known +to old traders, has been scientifically surveyed in our day by +Lieutenant Alph. Fleuriot de Langle, of La Malouine (1845), and +the chart was corrected from a survey ordered by Capitaine Bouët- +Willaumez (1849); in the latter year it was again revised by M. +Charles Floix, of the French navy, and, with additions by the +officers of Her Britannic Majesty's service, it becomes our No. +1877. The surface is a labyrinth of banks, rocks, and shoals, +"Ely," "Nisus," "Alligator," and "Caraibe." In such surroundings +as these, when the water shallows apace, the pilot must not be +despised. + +Her Majesty's steam-ship "Griffon," Commander Perry, found +herself, at 2 P.M. on Monday, March, 17, 1862, in a snug berth +opposite Le Plateau, as the capital of the French colony is +called, and amongst the shipping of its chief port, Aumale Road. +The river at this neck is about five miles broad, and the scene +was characteristically French. Hardly a merchant vessel lay +there. We had no less than four naval consorts "La Caravane," +guard-ship, store-ship, and hospital-hulk; a fine transport, "La +Ričge," bound for Goree; "La Recherche," a wretched old sailing +corvette which plies to Assini and Grand Basam on the Gold Coast; +and, lastly, "La Junon," chef de division Baron Didelot, then one +of the finest frigates in the French navy, armed with fifty +rifled sixty-eight pounders. It is curious that, whilst our +neighbours build such splendid craft, and look so neat and natty +in naval uniform, they pay so little regard to the order and +cleanliness of their floating homes. + +After visiting every English colony on the West Coast of Africa, +I resolved curiously to examine my first specimen of our rivals, +the "principal centre of trade in western equatorial Africa." The +earliest visit--in uniform, of course--was to Baron Didelot, +whose official title is "Commandant Supérieur des Établissements +de la Côte d'Or et du Gabon;" the following was to M. H. S. +L'Aulnois, "Lieutenant de Vaisseau et Commandant Particulier du +Comptoir de Gabon." These gentlemen have neat bungalows and +gardens; they may spend their days ashore, but they are very +careful to sleep on board. All the official whites appear to have +a morbid horror of the climate; when attacked by fever, they +"cave in" at once, and recovery can hardly be expected. This year +also, owing to scanty rains, sickness has been rife, and many +cases which began with normal mildness have ended suddenly and +fatally. Besides fear of fever, they are victims to ennui and +nostalgia; and, expecting the Comptoir to pay large profits, they +are greatly disappointed by the reverse being the case. + +But how can they look for it to be otherwise? The modern French +appear fit to manage only garrisons and military posts. They will +make everything official, and they will not remember the protest +against governing too much, offered by the burgesses of Paris to +Louis le Grand. They are always on duty; they are never out of +uniform, mentally and metaphorically, as well as bodily and +literally. Nothing is done without delay, even in the matter of +signing a ship's papers. A long procčs-verbal takes the place of +our summary punishment, and the gros canon is dragged into use on +every occasion, even to enforce the payment of native debts. + +In the Gaboon, also, there is a complication of national +jealousy, suggesting the mastiff and the poodle. A perpetual war +rages about flags. English craft may carry their colours as far +up stream as Coniquet Island; beyond this point they must either +hoist a French ensign, or sail without bunting--should the +commodore permit. Otherwise they will be detained by the +commander of the hulk "l'Oise," stationed at Anenge-nenge, some +thirty-eight to forty miles above Le Plateau. Lately a Captain +Gordon, employed by Mr. Francis Wookey of Taunton, was ordered to +pull down his flag: those who know the "mariner of England" will +appreciate his feelings on the occasion. Small vessels belonging +to foreigners, and employed in cabotage, must not sail with their +own papers, and even a change of name is effected under +difficulties. About a week before my arrival a certain pan- +Teutonic Hamburgher, Herr B--, amused himself, after a copious +breakfast, with hoisting and saluting the Union Jack, in honour +of a distinguished guest, Major L--. report was at once spread +that the tricolor had been hauled down "with extreme indignity;" +and the Commodore took the trouble to reprimand the white, and to +imprison "Tom Case," the black in whose town the outrage had been +allowed. + +This by way of parenthesis. My next step was to request the +pleasure of a visit from Messrs. Hogg and Kirkwood, who were in +charge of the English factories at Glass Town and Olomi; they +came down stream at once, and kindly acted as ciceroni around Le +Plateau. The landing is good; a reef has been converted into a +jetty and little breakwater; behind this segment of a circle we +disembarked without any danger of being washed out of the boat, +as at S'a Leone, Cape Coast Castle, and Accra. Unfortunately just +above this pier there is a Dutch-like jardin d'été--beds of dirty +weeds bordering a foul and stagnant swamp, while below the +settlement appears a huge coal-shed: the expensive mineral is +always dangerous when exposed in the tropics, and some thirty per +cent. would be saved by sending out a hulk. The next point is the +Hotel and Restaurant Fischer--pronounced Fi-cherre, belonging to +an energetic German-Swiss widow, who during six years' exile had +amassed some 65,000 francs. In an evil hour she sent a thieving +servant before the "commissaire de police;" the negress escaped +punishment, but the verandah with its appurtenances caught fire, +and everything, even the unpacked billiard-table, was burnt to +ashes. Still, Madame the Brave never lost heart. She applied +herself valiantly as a white ant to repairing her broken home, +and, wonderful to relate in this land of no labour, ruled by the +maxim "festina lente," all had been restored within six months. +We shall dine at her table d'hôte. + +Our guide led up and along the river bank, where there is almost +a kilometre of road facing six or seven kilometres of nature's +highway--the stream. The swampy jungle is not cleared off from +about the Comptoir, and presently the perfume of the fat, rank +weeds; and the wretched bridges, a few planks spanning black and +fetid mud, drove us northwards or inland, towards the neat house +and grounds of the "Commandant Particulier." The outside walls, +built in grades with the porous, dark-red, laterite-like stone +dredged from the river, are whitewashed with burnt coralline and +look clean; whilst the house, one of the best in the place, is +French, that is to say, pretty. Near it is a cluster of native +huts, mostly with walls of corded bamboo, some dabbed with clay +and lime, and all roofed with the ever shabby-looking palm-leaf; +none are as neat as those of the "bushmen" in the interior, where +they are regularly and carefully made like baskets or panniers. +The people appeared friendly; the men touched their hats, and the +women dropped unmistakably significant curtsies. + +After admiring the picturesque bush and the natural avenues +behind Le Plateau, we diverged towards the local Pčre-la-Chaise. +The new cemetery, surrounded by a tall stone wall and approached +by a large locked gate, contains only four tombs; the old burial +ground opposite is unwalled, open, and painfully crowded; the +trees have run wild, the crosses cumber the ground, the +gravestones are tilted up and down; in fact the foul Golgotha of +Santos, Săo Paulo, the Brazil, is not more ragged, shabby, and +neglected. We were shown the last resting-place of M. du Chaillu +pere, agent to Messrs. Oppenheim, the old Parisian house: he died +here in 1856. + +Resuming our way parallel with, but distant from the river, we +passed a bran-new military storehouse, bright with whitewash. +Outside the compound lay the lines of the "Zouaves," some forty +negroes whom Goree has supplied to the Gaboon; they were +accompanied by a number of intelligent mechanics, who loudly +complained of having been kidnapped, coolie-fashion. We then +debouched upon Fort Aumale; from the anchorage it appears a +whitewashed square, whose feet are dipped in bright green +vegetation, and its head wears a dingy brown roof-thatch. A +nearer view shows a pair of semi-detached houses, built upon +arches, and separated by a thoroughfare; the cleaner of the two +is a hospital; the dingier, which is decorated with the brown- +green stains, the normal complexion of tropical masonry, lodges +the station Commandant and the medical officers. Fronting the +former and by the side of an avenue that runs towards the sea is +an unfinished magazine of stone, and to the right, as you front +the sun, lies the garden of the "Commandant du Comptoir," choked +with tropical weeds. Altogether there is a scattered look about +the metropolis of the "Gabon," which numbers one foot of house to +a thousand of "compound." + +Suddenly a bonnet like a pair of white gulls wings and a blue +serge gown fled from us, despite the weight of years, like a +young gazelle; the wearer was a sister of charity, one of five +bonnes sśurs. Their bungalow is roomy and comfortable, near a +little chapel and a largish school, whence issue towards sunset +the well-known sounds of the Angelus. At some distance down +stream and on the right or northern bank lies a convent, and a +house superintended by the original establisher of the mission in +1844, the bishop, Mgr. Bessieux, who died in 1872, aged 70. There +are extensive plantations, but the people are too lazy to take +example from them. + +Before we hear the loud cry ŕ table, we may shortly describe the +civilized career of the Gaboon. In 1842, when French and English +rivalry, burning hot on both sides of the Channel, extended deep +into the tropics and spurned the equator, and when every naval +officer, high and low, went mad about concluding treaties and +conquering territory on paper, France was persuaded to set up a +naval station in Gorilla-land. The northern and the southern +shore each had a king, whose consent, after a careless fashion, +was considered decorous. His Majesty of the North was old King +Glass[FN#1] and his chief "tradesman," that is, his premier, was +the late Toko, a shrewd and far-seeing statesman. His Majesty of +the South was Rapwensembo, known to the English as King William, +to the French as Roi Denis. + +Matters being in this state, M. le Comte Bouët-Willaumez, then +Capitaine de Vaisseau and Governor of Senegal, resolved, coűte +que coűte, to have his fortified Comptoir. Evidently the northern +shore was preferable; it was more populous and more healthy, +facing the fresh southerly winds. During the preliminary +negotiations Toko, partial to the English, whose language he +spoke fluently, and with whom the Glass family had ever been +friendly, thwarted the design with all his might, and, despite +threats and bribes, honestly kept up his opposition to the last. +Roi Denis, on the other hand, who had been decorated with the +Légion d'Honneur for saving certain shipwrecked sailors, who knew +French well, and who hoped to be made king of the whole country, +favoured to the utmost Gallic views, taking especial care, +however, to place the broad river between himself and his white +friends. M. de Moleon, Capitaine de Frégate, and commanding the +brig "Le Zčbre," occupied the place, Mr. Wilson[FN#2]("Western +Africa," p. 254) says by force of arms, but that is probably an +exaggeration. To bring our history to an end, the sons of Japheth +overcame the children of Ham, and, as the natives said, "Toko he +muss love Frenchman, all but out of (anglicč 'in') his heart." + +As in the streets of Paris, so in every French city at home and +abroad, + + "Verborum vetus interit ćtas," + +and an old colonial chart often reads like a lesson in modern +history. Here we still find under the Empire the Constitutional +Monarchy of 1842-3. Mount Bouët leads to Fort "Aumale:" Point +Joinville, at the north jaw of the river, faces Cap Montagnies: +Parrot has become "Adelaide," and Coniquet "Orleans" Island. +Indeed the love of Louis-Philippe's family has lingered in many a +corner where one would least expect to meet it, and in 1869 I +found "Port Saeed" a hot-bed of Orleanism. + +The hotel verandah was crowded with the minor officials, the +surgeons, and the clerks of the comptoir, drinking absinthe and +colicky vermouth, smoking veritable "weeds," playing at dominoes, +and contending who could talk longest and loudest. At 7 P.M. the +word was given to "fall to." The room was small and exceedingly +close; the social board was big and very rickety. The clientčle +rushed in like backwoodsmen on board a Mississippi floating- +palace, stripped off their coats, tucked up their sleeves, and, +knife in one hand and bread in the other, advanced gallantly to +the fray. They began by quarrelling about carving; one made a +sporting offer to découper la soupe, but he would go no farther; +and Madame, as the head of the table, ended by asking my +factotum, Selim Agha, to "have the kindness." The din, the heat, +the flare of composition candles which gave 45 per cent. less of +light than they ought, the blunders of the slaves, the +objurgations of the hostess, and the spectacled face opposite me, +were as much as I could bear, and a trifle more. No wonder that +the resident English merchants avoid the table-d'hôte. + +Provisions are dear and scarce at the Gaboon, where, as in other +parts of West Africa, the negro will not part with his animals, +unless paid at the rate of some twenty-two or twenty-three +shillings for a lean goat or sheep. Yet the dinner is copious; +the employés contribute, their rations; and thus the table shows +beef twice a week. Black cattle are imported from various parts +of the coast, north and south; perhaps those of the Kru country +stand the climate best; the Government yard is well stocked, and +the polite Commodore readily allows our cruizers to buy bullocks. +Madame also is not a "bird with a long bill;" the dinner, +including piquette, alias vin ordinaire, coffee, and the petit +verre, costs five francs to the stranger, and one franc less pays +the déjeuner a la fourchette--most men here eat two dinners. The +soi-disant Médoc (forty francs per dozen) is tolerable, and the +cassis (thirty francs) is drinkable. I am talking in the present +of things twelve years past. What a shadowy, ghostly table d'hôte +it has now become to me! + +After dinner appeared cigar and pipe, which were enjoyed in the +verandah: I sat up late, admiring the intense brilliancy of the +white and blue lightning, but auguring badly for the future,-- +natives will not hunt during the rains. A strong wind was blowing +from the north-east, which, with the north-north-east, is here, +as at Fernando Po and Camaronen, the stormy quarter. A "dry +tornado," however, was the only result that night. + +My trip to Gorilla-land was limited by the cruise upon which +H.M.S.S. "Griffon" had been ordered, namely, to and from the +South Coast with mail-bags. Many of those whom I had wished to +see were absent; but Mr. Hogg set to work in the most business- +like style. He borrowed a boat from the Rev. William Walker, of +the Gaboon Mission, who kindly wrote that I should have something +less cranky if I could wait awhile; he manned it with three of +his own Krumen, and he collected the necessary stores and +supplies of cloth, pipes and tobacco, rum, white wine, and +absinthe for the natives. + +My private stores cost some 200 francs. They consisted of +candles, sugar, bread, cocoa, desiccated milk, and potatoes; +Cognac and Médoc; ham, sausages, soups, and preserved meats, the +latter French and, as usual, very good and very dear. The total +expenditure for twelve days was 300 francs. + +My indispensables were reduced to three loads, and I had four +"pull-a-boys," one a Mpongwe, Mwáká alias Captain Merrick, a +model sluggard; and Messrs. Smoke, Joe Williams, and Tom Whistle- +-Kru-men, called Kru-boys. This is not upon the principle, as +some suppose, of the grey-headed post-boy and drummer-boy: all +the Kraoh tribes end their names in bo, e.g. Worebo, from "wore," +to capsize a canoe; Grebo, from the monkey "gre" or "gle;" and +many others. Bo became "boy," even as Sipahi (Sepoy) became Sea- +pie, and Sukhani (steersman) Sea-Coney. + +Gaboon is French, with a purely English trade. Gambia is English, +with a purely French trade; the latter is the result of many +causes, but especially of the large neighbouring establishments +at Goree, Saint Louis de Sénégal, and Saint Joseph de Galam. +Exchanging the two was long held the soundest of policy. The +French hoped by it to secure their darling object,--exclusive +possession of the maritime regions, as well as the interior, +leading to the gold mines of the Mandengas (Mandingas), and +allowing overland connection with their Algerine colony. The +English also seemed willing enough to "swop" an effete and +dilapidated settlement, surrounded by more powerful rivals--a +hot-bed of dysentery and yellow fever, a blot upon the fair face +of earth, even African earth--for a new and fresh country, with a +comparatively good climate, in which the thermometer ranges +between 65° (Fahr.) and 90°, with a barometer as high as the heat +allows; and where, being at home and unwatched, they could +subject a lingering slave-trade to a regular British putting- +down. But, when matters came to the point in 1870-71, the +proposed bargain excited a storm of sentimental wrath which was +as queer as unexpected. The French object to part with the +Gaboon, as the Germans appear inclined to settle upon the Ogobe +River. In England, cotton, civilization, and even Christianity +were thrust forward by half-a-dozen merchants, and by a few venal +colonial prints. The question assumed the angriest aspect; and, +lastly, the Prussian-French war underwrote the negotiations with +a finis pro temp. I hope to see them renewed; and I hope still +more ardently to see the day when we shall either put our so- +called "colonies" on the West Coast of Africa to their only +proper use, convict stations, or when, if we are determined upon +consuming our own crime at home, we shall make up our minds to +restore them to the negro and the hyaena, their "old +inhabitants." + +At the time of my visit, the Gaboon River had four English +traders; viz. + +1. Messrs. Laughland and Co., provision-merchants, Fernando Po +and Glasgow. Their resident agent was Mr. Kirkwood. + +2. Messrs. Hatton and Cookson, general merchants, Liverpool. +Their chief agent, Mr. R.B.N. Walker, who had known the river for +eleven years (1865), had left a few days before my arrival; his +successor, Mr. R.B. Knight, had also sailed for Cape Palmas, to +engage Kru-men, and Mr. Hogg had been left in charge. + +3. Messrs. Wookey and Dyer, general merchants, Liverpool. Agents, +Messrs. Gordon and Bryant. + +4. Messrs. Bruford and Townsend, of Bristol. Agent, Captain +Townsend. + +The resident agents for the Hamburg houses were Messrs. Henert +and Bremer. + +The English traders in the Gaboon are nominally protected by the +Consulate of Sao Paulo de Loanda, but the distance appears too +great for consul or cruizer. They are naturally anxious for some +support, and they agitate for an unpaid Consular Agent: at +present they have, in African parlance, no "back." A Kruman, +offended by a ration of plantains, when he prefers rice, runs to +the Plateau, and lays some fictitious complaint before the +Commandant. Monsieur summons the merchant, condemns him to pay a +fine, and dismisses the affair without even permitting a protest. +Hence, impudent robbery occurs every day. The discontent of the +white reacts upon his clients the black men; of late, les Gabons, +as the French call the natives, have gone so far as to declare +that foreigners have no right to the upper river, which is all +private property. The line drawn by them is at Fetish Rock, off +Pointe Française, near the native village of Mpíra, about half a +mile above the Plateau; and they would hail with pleasure a +transfer to masters who are not so uncommonly ready with their +gros canons. + +The Gaboon trade is chronicled by John Barbot, Agent-General of +the French West African Company, "Description of the Coast of +South Guinea," Churchill, vol. v. book iv. chap. 9; and the chief +items were, and still are, ivory and beeswax. Of the former, +90,000 lbs. may be exported when the home prices are good, and +sometimes the total has reached 100 tons. Hippopotamus tusks are +dying out, being now worth only 2s. per lb. Other exports are +caoutchouc, ebony (of which the best comes from the Congo), and +camwood or barwood (a Tephrosia). M. du Chaillu calls it the +"Ego-tree;" the natives (Mpongwe) name the tree Igo, and the +billet Ezígo. + + + + + + Chapter II. + + The Departure.--the Tornado.--arrival at "The Bush." + + + +I set out early on March 19th, a day, at that time, to me the +most melancholy in the year, but now regarded with philosophic +indifference. A parting visit to the gallant "Griffons," who +threw the slipper, in the shape of three hearty cheers and a +"tiger," wasted a whole morning. It was 12.30 P.M. before the +mission boat turned her head towards the southern bank, and her +crew began to pull in the desultory manner of the undisciplined +negro. + +The morning had been clear but close, till a fine sea breeze set +in unusually early. "The doctor" seldom rises in the Gaboon +before noon at this season; often he delays his visit till 2 +P.M., and sometimes he does not appear at all. On the other hand, +he is fond of late hours. Before we had progressed a mile, +suspicious gatherings of slaty-blue cloud-heaps advanced from the +north-east against the wind, with a steady and pertinacious +speed, showing that mischief was meant. The "cruel, crawling sea" +began to rough, purr, and tumble; a heavy cross swell from the +south-west dandled the up-torn mangrove twigs, as they floated +past us down stream, and threatened to swamp the deeply laden and +cranky old boat, which was far off letter A1 of Lloyd's. The +oarsmen became sulky because they were not allowed to make sail, +which, in case of a sudden squall, could not have been taken in +under half an hour. Patience! Little can be done, on the first +day, with these demi-semi-Europeanized Africans, except to +succeed in the inevitable trial of strength. + +The purple sky-ground backing the Gaboon's upper course admirably +set off all its features. Upon the sea horizon, where the river +measures some thirty miles across, I could distinctly see the +junction of the two main branches, the true Olo' Mpongwe, the +main stream flowing from the Eastern Ghats, and the Rembwe +(Ramboue) or south-eastern influent. At the confluence, tree- +dots, tipping the watery marge, denoted what Barbot calls the +"Pongo Islands." These are the quoin-shaped mass "Dámbe" (Orleans +Island) alias "Coniquet" (the Conelet), often corrupted to +Konikey; the Konig Island of the old Hollander,[FN#3] and the +Prince's Island of the ancient Briton. It was so called because +held by the Mwáni-pongo, who was to this region what the Mwáni- +congo was farther south. The palace was large but very mean, a +shell of woven reeds roofed with banana leaves: the people, then +mere savages, called their St. James' "Goli-patta," or "Royal +House," in imitation of a more civilized race near Cape Lopez. +The imperial islet is some six miles in circumference; it was +once very well peopled, and here ships used to be careened. The +northern point which starts out to meet it is Ovindo (Owëendo of +old), alias Red Point, alias "Rodney's," remarkable for its fair +savannah, of which feature more presently. In mid-stream lies +Mbini (Embenee), successively Papegay, Parrot--there is one in +every Europeo-African river--and Adelaide Island. + +Between Ovindo Point, at the northern bend of the stream, stand +the so-called "English villages," divided from the French by +marshy ground submerged during heavy rains. The highest upstream +is Olomi, Otonda-naga, or town of "Cabinda," a son of the late +king. Next comes Glass Town, belonging to a dynasty which has +lasted a century--longer than many of its European brethren. In +1787 a large ship-bell was sent as a token of regard by a Bristol +house, Sydenham and Co., to an old, old "King Glass," whose +descendants still reign. Olomi and Glass Town are preferred by +the English, as their factories catch the sea-breeze better than +can Le Plateau: the nearer swamps are now almost drained off, and +the distance from the "authorities" is enough for comfort. Follow +Comba (Komba) and Tom Case, the latter called after Case Glass, a +scion of the Glasses, who was preferred as captain's "tradesman" +by Captain Vidal, R.N., in 1827, because he had "two virtues +which rarely fall to the lot of savages, namely, a mild, quiet +manner, and a low tone of voice when speaking." Tom Qua Ben, +justly proud of the "laced coat of a mail coach guard," was +chosen by Captain Boteler, R.N. The list concludes with Butabeya, +James Town, and Mpira. + +These villages are not built street-wise after Mpongwe fashion. +They are scatters of shabby mat-huts, abandoned after every +freeman's death; and they hardly emerge from the luxuriant +undergrowth of manioc and banana, sensitive plant and physic nut +(Jatropha Curcas), clustering round a palm here and there. Often +they are made to look extra mean by a noble "cottonwood," or +Bombax (Pentandrium), standing on its stalwart braces like an old +sea-dog with parted legs; extending its roots over a square acre +of soil, shedding filmy shade upon the surrounding underwood, and +at all times ready, like a certain chestnut, to shelter a hundred +horses. + +Between the Plateau and Santa Clara, beginning some two miles +below the former, are those hated and hating rivals, Louis Town, +Qua Ben, and Prince Krinje, the French settlements. The latter is +named after a venerable villain who took in every white man with +whom he had dealings, till the new colony abolished that +exclusive agency, that monopoly so sacred in negro eyes, which +here corresponded with the Abbánat of the Somal. Mr. Wilson (p. +252) recounts with zest a notable trick played by this "little, +old, grey-headed, humpback man" upon Captain Bouët-Willaumez, and +Mr. W. Winwood Reade (chap, xi.) has ably dramatized "Krinji, +King George and the Commandant." On another occasion, the whole +population of the Gaboon was compelled by a French man-o-war to +pay "Prince Cringy's" debts, and he fell into disfavour only when +he attempted to wreck a frigate by way of turning an honest +penny. + +But soon we had something to think of besides the view. The +tumultuous assemblage of dark, dense clouds, resting upon the +river-surface in our rear, formed line or rather lines, step upon +step, and tier on tier. While the sun shone treacherously gay, a +dismal livid gloom palled the eastern sky, descending to the +watery horizon; and the estuary, beneath the sable hangings which +began to depend from the cloud canopy, gleamed with a ghastly +whitish green. Distant thunders rumbled and muttered, and flashes +of the broadest sheets inclosed fork and chain lightning; the +lift-fire zigzagged in tangled skeins here of chalk-white +threads, there of violet wires, to the surface of earth and sea. +Presently nimbus-step, tier and canopy, gradually breaking up, +formed a low arch regular as the Bifröst bridge which Odin +treads, spanning a space between the horizon, ninety degrees +broad and more. The sharply cut soffit, which was thrown out in +darkest relief by the dim and sallow light of the underlying sky, +waxed pendent and ragged, as though broken by a torrent of storm. +What is technically called the "ox-eye," the "egg of the +tornado," appeared in a fragment of space, glistening below the +gloomy rain-arch. The wind ceased to blow; every sound was hushed +as though Nature were nerving herself, silent for the throe, and +our looks said, "In five minutes it will be down upon us." And +now it comes. A cold blast smelling of rain, and a few drops or +rather splashes, big as gooseberries and striking with a blow, +are followed by a howling squall, sharp and sudden puffs, +pulsations and gusts; at length a steady gush like a rush of +steam issues from that awful arch, which, after darkening the +heavens like an eclipse, collapses in fragmentary torrents of +blinding rain. In the midst of the spoon-drift we see, or we +think we see, "La Junon" gliding like a phantom-ship towards the +river mouth. The lightning seems to work its way into our eyes, +the air-shaking thunder rolls and roars around our very ears; the +oars are taken in utterly useless, the storm-wind sweeps the boat +before it at full speed as though it had been a bit of straw. +Selim and I sat with a large mackintosh sheet over our hunched +backs, thus offering a breakwater to the waves; happily for us, +the billow-heads were partly cut off and carried away bodily by +the raging wind, and the opened fountains of the firmament beat +down the breakers before they could grow to their full growth. +Otherwise we were lost men; the southern shore was still two +miles distant, and, as it was, the danger was not despicable. +These tornadoes are harmless enough to a cruiser, and under a +good roof men bless them. But H.M.S. "Heron" was sunk by one, and +the venture of a cranky gig laden ŕ fleur d'eau is what some call +"tempting Providence." + +Stunned with thunder, dazzled by the vivid flashes of white +lightning, dizzy with the drive of the boat, and drenched by the +torrents and washings from above and below, we were not a little +pleased to feel the storm-wind slowly lulling, as it had cooled +the heated regions ahead, and to see the sky steadily clearing up +behind, as the blackness of the cloud, rushing with racer speed, +passed over and beyond us. The increasing stillness of the sea +raised our spirits; + + "For nature, only loud when she destroys, + Is silent when she fashions." + +But the storm-demon's name is "Tornado" (Cyclone): it will +probably veer round to the south, where, meeting the dry clouds +that are gathering and massing there, it will involve us in +another fray. Meanwhile we are safe, and as the mist clears off +we sight the southern shore. The humbler elevation, notably +different from the northern bank, is dotted with villages and +clearings. The Péninsula de Marie-Amélie, alias "Round Corner," +the innermost southern point visible from the mouth, projects to +the north-north-east in a line of scattered islets at high tides, +ending in Le bois Fétiche, a clump of tall trees somewhat +extensively used for picnics. It has served for worse purposes, +as the name shows. + +A total of two hours landed me from the Comte de Paris Roads upon +the open sandy strip that supports Denistown; the single broad +street runs at right angles from the river, the better to catch +the sea-breeze, and most of the huts have open gables, a practice +strongly to be recommended. Le Roi would not expose himself to +the damp air; the consul was not so particular. His majesty's +levée took place in the verandah of a poor bamboo hut, one of the +dozen which compose his capital. Seated in a chair and ready for +business, he was surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, who listened +attentively to every word, especially when he affected to +whisper; and some pretty women collected to peep round the +corners at the Utangáni (white man). [FN#4] + +Mr. Wilson described Roi Denis in 1856 as a man of middle +stature, with compact frame and well-made, of great muscular +power, about sixty years old, very black by contrast with the +snow-white beard veiling his brown face. "He has a mild and +expressive eye, a gentle and persuasive voice, equally affable +and dignified; and, taken altogether, he is one of the most king- +like looking men I have ever met in Africa," says the reverend +gentleman. The account reminded me of Kimwere the Lion of +Usumbara, drawn by Dr. Krapf. Perhaps six years had exercised a +degeneratory effect upon Roi Denis, or perchance I have more +realism than sentiment; my eyes could see nothing but a petit +vieux vieux, nearer sixty than seventy, with a dark, wrinkled +face, and an uncommonly crafty eye, one of those African organs +which is always occupied in "taking your measure" not for your +good. + +I read out the introductory letter from Baron Didelot--the king +speaks a little French and English, but of course his education +ends there. After listening to my projects and to my offers of +dollars, liquor, and cloth, Roi Denis replied, with due gravity, +that his chasseurs were all in the plantations, but that for a +somewhat increased consideration he would attach to my service +his own son Ogodembe, alias Paul. It was sometime before I found +out the real meaning of this crafty move; the sharp prince, sent +to do me honour, intended me to recommend him to Mr. Hogg as an +especially worthy recipient of "trust." Roi Denis added an +abundance of "sweet mouf," and, the compact ended, he +condescendingly walked down with me to the beach, shook hands and +exchanged a civilized "Au revoir." I reentered the boat, and we +pushed off once more. + +Prince Paul, a youth of the Picaresque school, a hungry as well +as a thirsty soul and vain with knowledge, which we know "puffeth +up," having the true African eye on present gain as well as to +future "trust," proceeded: "Papa has at least a hundred sons," +enough to make Dan Dinmont blush, "and say" (he was not sure), "a +hundred and fifty daughters. Father rules all the southern shore; +the French have no power beyond the brack and there are no +African rivals,"--the prince evidently thought that the new-comer +had never heard of King George. Like most juniors here, the youth +knew French, or rather Gaboon-French; it was somewhat startling +to hear clearly and tolerably pronounced, "M'sieur, veux-tu des +macacques?" But the jargon is not our S'a Leone and West-coast +"English;" the superior facility of pronouncing the neo-Latin +tongues became at once apparent. It is evident that European +languages have been a mistake in Africa: the natives learn a +smattering sufficient for business purposes and foreigners remain +without the key to knowledge; hence our small progress in +understanding negro human nature. Had we so acted in British +India, we should probably have held the proud position which now +contents us in China as in Western Africa, with factories and +hulks at Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi, and Madras. + +From Comte de Paris Roads the southern Gaboon shore is called in +charts Le Paletuvier, the Mangrove Bank; the rhizophora is the +growth of shallow brackish water, and at the projections there +are fringings of reefs and "diabolitos," dangerous to boats. +After two hours we crossed the Mombe (Mombay) Creek-mouth, with +its outlying rocks, and passed the fishing village of Nenga-Oga, +whence supplies are sent daily to the Plateau. Then doubling a +point of leek-green grass, based upon comparatively poor soil, +sand, and clay, and backed by noble trees, we entered the Mbátá +River, the Toutiay of the chart and the Batta Creek of M. du +Chaillu's map. It comes from the south-west, and it heads much +nearer the coast than is shown on paper. + +Presently the blood-red sun sank like a fire-balloon into the +west, flushing with its last fierce beams the higher clouds of +the eastern sky, and lighting the white and black plume of the +soaring fish-eagle. This Gypohierax (Angolensis) is a very wild +bird, flushed at 200 yards: I heard of, but I never saw, the +Gwanyoni, which M. du Chaillu, (chapter xvi.) calls Guanionian, +an eagle or a vulture said to kill deer. Rain fell at times, +thunder, anything but "sweet thunder," again rolled in the +distance; and lightning flashed and forked before and behind us, +becoming painfully vivid in the shades darkening apace. We could +see nothing of the channel but a steel-grey streak, like a +Damascus blade, in a sable sheathing of tall mangrove avenue; in +places, however, tree-clumps suggested delusive hopes that we +were approaching a region where man can live. On our return we +found many signs of population which had escaped our sight during +the fast-growing obscurity. The first two reaches were long and +bulging; the next became shorter, and Prince Paul assured us +that, after one to the right, and another to the left, we should +fall into the direct channel. Roi Denis had promised us arrival +at sunset; his son gradually protracted sunset till midnight. +Still the distance grew and grew. I now learned for the first +time that the boat was too large for the channel, and that oars +were perfectly useless ahead. + +At 8 P.M. we entered what seemed a cul de sac; it looked like +charging a black wall, except where a gleam of grey light +suggested the further end of the Box Tunnel, and cheered our poor +hearts for a short minute, whilst in the distance we heard the +tantalizing song of the wild waves. The boughs on both sides +brushed the boat; we held our hands before our faces to avoid the +sharp stubs threatening ugly stabs, and to fend off the low +branches, ready to sweep us and our belongings into the deep +swirling water. The shades closed in like the walls of the +Italian's dungeon; until our eyes grew to it, the blackness of +Erebus weighed upon our spirits; perspiration poured from our +brows, and in this watery mangrove-lane the pabulum vitć seemed +to be wanting. After forcing a passage through three vile +"gates," the sheet-lightning announced a second tornado. We +sighed for more vivid flashes, but after twenty minutes they +dimmed and died away, still showing the "bush"-silhouette on +either side. The tide rushed out in strength under the amphibious +forest--all who know the West Coast will appreciate the position. +It was impossible to advance or to remain in this devil's den, +the gig bumped at every minute, and the early flood would +probably crush her against the trees. So we dropped down to the +nearest "open," which we reached at 9.30 P.M. + +After enduring a third tornado we grounded, and the crew sprang +ashore, saying that they were going to boil plantains on the +bank. I made snug for the night with a wet waterproof and a strip +of muslin, to be fastened round the mouth after the fashion of +Outram's "fever guard," and shut my lips to save my life, by the +particular advice of Dr. Catlin. The first mosquito piped his "Io +Pćan" at 8 P.M.; another hour brought legions, and then began the +battle for our blood. I had resolved not to sleep in the fetid +air of the jungle; time, however, moved on wings of lead; a dull +remembrance of a watery moon, stars dimly visible, a southerly +breeze, and heavy drops falling from the trees long haunted me. +About midnight, Prince Paul, who had bewailed the hardship of +passing a night sans mostiquaire in the bush, and whose violent +plungings showed that he failed to manage un somme, proposed to +land and to fetch fire from l'habitation. + +"What habitation?" + +"Oh! a little village belonging to papa." + +"And why the ---didn't you mention it?" + +"Ah! this is Mponbinda, and you know we're bound for Mbátá!" + +Nothing negrotic now astonishes us, there is nought new to me in +Africa. We landed upon a natural pier of rock ledge, and, after +some 400 yards of good path, we entered a neat little village, +and found our crew snoring snugly asleep. We "exhorted them," +refreshed the fire, and generously recruited exhausted nature +with quinine, julienne and tea, potatoes and potted meats, pipes +and cigars. So sped my annual unlucky day, and thus was spent my +first jungle-night almost exactly under the African line. + +At 5 A. M. the new morning dawned, the young tide flowed, the +crabs disappeared, and the gig, before high and dry on the hard +mud, once more became buoyant. Forward again! The channel was a +labyrinthine ditch, an interminable complication of over-arching +roots, and of fallen trees forming gateways; the threshold was a +maze of slimy stumps, stems, and forks in every stage of growth +and decay, dense enough to exclude the air of heaven. In parts +there were ugly snags, and everywhere the turns were so puzzling, +that I marvelled how a human being could attempt the passage by +night. The best time for ascending is half-flood, for descending +half-ebb; if the water be too high, the bush chokes the way; if +too low, the craft grounds. At the Gaboon mouth the tide rises +three feet; at the head of the Mbátá Creek, where it arrests the +sweet water rivulet, it is, of course, higher. + +And now the scene improved. The hat-palm, a brab or wild date, +the spine-palm (Phśnix spinosa), and the Okumeh or cotton-tree +disputed the ground with the foul Rhizophora. Then clearings +appeared. At Ejéné, the second of two landing-places evidently +leading to farms, we transferred ourselves to canoes, our boat +being arrested by a fallen tree. Advancing a few yards, all +disembarked upon trampled mud, and, ascending the bank, left the +creek which supplies baths and drinking water to our destination. +Striking a fair pathway, we passed westward over a low wave of +ground, sandy and mouldy, and traversed a fern field surrounded +by a forest of secular trees; some parasite-grown from twig to +root, others blanched and scathed by the fires of heaven; these +roped and corded with runners and llianas, those naked and +clothed in motley patches. At 6.30 A.M., after an hour's work, +probably representing a mile, and a total of 7 h. 30 m., or six +miles in a south-south-west direction from Le Plateau, we left +the ugly cul de sac of a creek, and entered Mbátá, which the +French call "La Plantation." + +Women and children fled in terror at our approach--and no wonder: +eyes like hunted boars, haggard faces, yellow as the sails at the +Cape Verdes, and beards two days long, act very unlike cosmetics. +A house was cleared for us by Hotaloya, alias "Andrew," of the +Baráka Mission, the lord of the village, who, poor fellow! has +only two wives; he is much ashamed of himself, but his excuse is, +"I be boy now," meaning about twenty-two. After breakfast we +prepared for a sleep, but the popular excitement forbade it; the +villagers had heard that a white greenhorn was coming to bag and +to buy gorillas, and they resolved to make hay whilst the sun +shone. + +Prince Paul at once gathered together a goodly crowd of fathers +and mothers, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, cousins and +connections. A large and loud-voiced dame, "Gozeli," swore that +she was his "proper Ngwe," being one of his numerous step mas, +and she would not move without a head, or three leaves, of +tobacco. Hotaloya was his brother; Mesdames Azízeh and Asúnye +declared themselves his sisters, and so all. My little stock of +goods began visibly to shrink, when I informed the greedy +applicants that nothing beyond a leaf of tobacco and a demi verre +of tafia would be given until I had seen my way to work. +Presently appeared the chief huntsman appointed by Roi Denis to +take charge of me, he was named Fortuna, a Spanish name corrupted +to Forteune. A dash was then prepared for his majesty and for +Prince Paul. I regret to say that this young nobleman ended his +leave-taking by introducing a pretty woman, with very neat hands +and ankles and a most mutine physiognomy, as his sister, +informing me that she was also my wife pro temp. She did not seem +likely to coiffer Sainte Cathérine, and here she is. + +The last thing the prince did was to carry off, without a word of +leave, the mission boat and the three Kru-boys, whom he kept two +days. I was uneasy about these fellows, who, hating and fearing +the Gaboon "bush," are ever ready to bolt. + +Forteune and Hotaloya personally knew Mpolo (Paul du Chaillu), +and often spoke to me of his prowess as a chasseur and his +knowledge of their tongue. But reputation as a linguist is easily +made in these regions by speaking a few common sentences. The +gorilla-hunter evidently had only a colloquial acquaintance with +the half-dozen various idioms of the Mpongwe and Mpángwe (Fán) +Bakele, Shekyani, and Cape Lopez people. Yet, despite verbal +inaccuracies, his facility of talking gave him immense advantages +over other whites, chiefly in this, that the natives would deem +it useless to try the usual tricks upon travellers. + +Forteune is black, short, and "trapu;" curls of the jettiest +lanugo invest all his outward man; bunches of muscle stand out +from his frame like the statues of Crotonian Milo; his legs are +bandy; his hands and feet are large and patulous, and he wants +only a hunch to make an admirable Quasimodo. He has the frank and +open countenance of a sportsman--I had been particularly warned +by the Plateau folk about his skill in cheating and lying. +Formerly a cook at the Gaboon, he is a man of note in his tribe, +as the hunter always is; he holds the position of a country +gentleman, who can afford to write himself M.F.H.; he is looked +upon as a man of valour; he is admired by the people, and he is +adored by his wives--one of them at once took up her station upon +the marital knee. Perhaps the Nimrod of Mbátá is just a little +henpecked--the Mpongwe mostly are--and I soon found out that +soigner les femmes is the royal road to getting on with the men. +He supplies the village with "beef," here meaning not the roast +of Old England, but any meat, from a field-rat to a hippopotamus. +He boasts that he has slain with his own hand upwards of a +hundred gorillas and anthropoid apes, and, since the demand arose +in Europe, he has supplied Mr. R.B.N. Walker and others with an +average of one per month, including a live youngster; probably +most, if not all, of them were killed by his "bushmen," of whom +he can command about a dozen. + +Forteune began by receiving his "dash," six fathoms of "satin +cloth," tobacco, and pipes. After inspecting my battery, he +particularly approved of a smooth-bored double-barrel (Beattie of +Regent Street) carrying six to the pound. Like all these people, +he uses an old and rickety trade-musket, and, when lead is +wanting, he loads it with a bit of tile: as many gorillas are +killed with tools which would hardly bring down a wild cat, it is +evident that their vital power cannot be great. He owned to +preferring a charge of twenty buckshot to a single ball, and he +received with joy a little fine gunpowder, which he compared +complimentarily with the blasting article, half charcoal withal, +to which he was accustomed. + +Presently a decently dressed, white-bearded man of light +complexion announced himself, with a flourish and a loud call for +a chair, as Prince Koyálá, alias "Young Prince," father to +Forteune and Hotaloya and brother to Roi Denis,--here all +tribesmen are of course brethren. This being equivalent to +"asking for more," it drove me to the limits of my patience. It +was evidently now necessary to assume wrath, and to raise my +voice to a roar. + +"My hands dey be empty! I see nuffin, I hear nuffin! What for I +make more dash?" + +Allow me, parenthetically, to observe that the African, like the +Scotch Highlander, will interpose the personal or demonstrative +pronoun between noun and verb: "sun he go down," means "the sun +sets" and, as genders do not exist, you must be careful to say, +"This woman he cry too much." + +The justice of my remark was owned by all; had it been the height +of tyranny, the supple knaves would have agreed with me quite as +politely. They only replied that "Young Prince," being a man of +years and dignity, would be dishonoured by dismissal empty- +handed, and they represented him as my future host when we moved +nearer the bush. + +"Now lookee here. This he be bad plábbá (palaver). This he be +bob! I come up for white man, you come up for black man. All +white man he no be fool, 'cos he no got black face!" + +Ensued a chorus of complimentary palaver touching the infinite +superiority of the Aryan over the Semite, but the point was in no +wise yielded. At last Young Prince subsided into a request for a +glass of rum, which being given "cut the palaver" (i.e. ended the +business). I soon resolved to show my hosts, by threatening to +leave them, the difference between traders and travellers. Barbot +relates that the Mpongwe of olden time demanded his "dassy" +before he consented to "liquor up," and boldly asked, "If he was +expected to drink gratis?" The impertinence was humoured, +otherwise not an ivory would have found its way to the factory. +But the traveller is not bound to endure these whimsy-whamsies; +and the sooner he declares his independence the better. Many +monkeys' skins were brought to me for sale, but I refused to buy, +lest the people might think it my object to make money; moreover, +all were spoilt for specimens by the "points" being snipped off. + +I happened during the first afternoon to show my hosts a picture +of the bald-headed chimpanzee, Nchígo Mbúwwe (Troglodytes +calvus), here more generally called Nchígo Mpolo, "large +chimpanzee," or Nchígo Njúe, "white-haired chimpanzee." They +recognized it at once; but when I turned over to the cottage +("Adventures," &c., p. 423), with its neat parachute-like roof, +all burst out laughing. + +"You want to look him Nágo (house)?" asked Hotaloya. + +"Yes, for sure," I replied. + +Forteune set out at once, carrying my gun, Selim followed me, and +the rear was brought up by a couple of little prick-eared curs +with a dash of the pointer, probably from St. Helena: the people +will pay as much as ten dollars for a good dog. They are never +used in hunting apes, as they start the game; on this occasion +they nearly ran down a small antelope. + +The path led through a new clearing; a field of fern and some +patches of grass breaking the forest, which, almost clear of +thicket and undergrowth, was a charming place for deer. The soil, +thin sand overlying humus, suggested rich crops of ground-nuts; +its surface was everywhere cut by nullahs, now dry, and by +brooks, running crystal streams; these, when deep, are crossed by +tree-trunks, the Brazilian "pingela." After twenty minutes or so +we left the "picada" (foot-path) and struck into a thin bush, +till we had walked about a mile. + +"Look him house, Nchígo house!" said Hotaloya, standing under a +tall tree. + +I saw to my surprise two heaps of dry sticks, which a schoolboy +might have taken for birds' nests; the rude beds, boughs, torn +off from the tree, not gathered, were built in forks, one ten and +the other twenty feet above ground, and both were canopied by the +tufted tops. Every hunter consulted upon the subject ridiculed +the branchy roof tied with vines, and declared that the Nchigo's +industry is confined to a place for sitting, not for shelter; +that he fashions no other dwelling; that a couple generally +occupies the same or some neighbouring tree, each sitting upon +its own nest; that the Nchígo is not a "hermit" nor a rare, nor +even a very timid animal; that it dwells, as I saw, near +villages, and that its cry, "Aoo! Aoo! Aoo!" is often heard by +them in the mornings and evenings. During my subsequent +wanderings in Gorilla land, I often observed tall and mushroom- +shaped trees standing singly, and wearing the semblance of the +umbrella roof. What most puzzles me is, that M. du Chaillu +("Second Expedition," chap, iii.) "had two of the bowers cut down +and sent to the British Museum." He adds, "They are formed at a +height of twenty to thirty feet in the trees, by the animals +bending over and intertwining a number of the weaker boughs, so +as to form bowers, under which they can sit, protected from the +rains by the masses of foliage thus entangled together, some of +the boughs being so bent that they form convenient seats." Surely +M. du Chaillu must have been deceived by some vagary of nature. + +The gorilla-hunter's sketch had always reminded me of the Rev. +Mr. Moffat's account of the Hylobian Bakones, the aborigines of +the Matabele country. Mr. Thompson, a missionary to Sherbro ("The +Palm Land," chap. xiii), has, however, these words:--"It is said +of the chimpanzees, that they build a kind of rude house of +sticks in their wild state, and fill it with leaves; and I doubt +it not, for when domesticated they always want some good bed, and +make it up regularly." + +Thus I come to the conclusion that the Nchígo Mpolo is a vulgar +nest-building ape. The bushmen and the villagers all assured me +that neither the common chimpanzee, nor the gorilla proper +(Troglodytes gorilla), "make 'im house." On the other hand, Mr. +W. Winwood Reade, writing to "The Athenćum" from Loanda (Sept. 7, +1862), asserts,--"When the female is pregnant he (the gorilla) +builds a nest (as do also the Kulu-Kamba and the chimpanzee), +where she is delivered, and which is then abandoned." And he thus +confirms what was told to Dr. Thomas Savage (1847): "In the wild +state their (i.e. the gorillas') habits are in general like those +of the Troglodytes niger, building their nests loosely in trees." + + + + + + Chapter III. + + Geography of the Gaboon. + + + +Before going further afield I may be allowed a few observations, +topographical and ethnological, about this highly interesting +section of the West African coast. + +The Gaboon country, to retain the now familiar term, although no +one knows much about its derivation, is placed, by old travellers +in "South Guinea," the tract lying along the Ethiopic, or South +Atlantic Ocean, limited by the Camarones Mountain-block in north +latitude 4°, and by Cabo Negro in south latitude 15° 40' 7", a +sea-line of nearly 1,200 miles. The Gaboon proper is included +between the Camarones Mountains to the north, and the +"Mayumba,"properly the "Yumba" country southwards, in south +latitude 3° 22',--a shore upwards of 400 miles long. The inland +depth is undetermined; geographically we should limit it to the +Western Ghats, which rarely recede more than 60 miles from the +sea, and ethnologically no line can yet be drawn. The country is +almost bisected by the equator, and by the Rio de Gabăo, which +discharges in north latitude 0° 21' 25" and east longitude 9° 21' +23"; and it corresponds in parallel with the Somali-Galla country +and the Juba River on the east coast. + +The general aspect of the region is prepossessing. It is a +rolling surface sinking towards the Atlantic, in parts broken by +hills and dwarf chains, either detached or pushed out by the +Ghats; a land of short and abnormally broad rivers, which cannot, +like the Congo, break through the ridges flanking the Central +African basin, and which therefore are mere surface drains of the +main ranges. The soil is mostly sandy, but a thin coat of rich +vegetable humus, quickened by heavy rains and fiery suns, +produces a luxuriant vegetation; whilst the proportion of area +actually cultivated is nothing compared with the expanse of bush. +In the tall forests, which abound in wild fruits, there are +beautiful tracts of clear grassy land, and the woods, clear of +undergrowth, resemble an English grove more than a tropical +jungle. Horses, which die of the tsetse (Glossina morsitans) in +the interior of North Guinea, and of damp heat at Fernando Po, +thrive on its downs and savannahs. The Elais palm is rare, +sufficing only for home use. The southern parts, about Cape Lopez +and beyond it, resemble the Oil River country in the Biafran +Bight: the land is a mass of mangrove swamps, and the climate is +unfit for white men. + +The Eastern Ghats were early known to the "Iberians," as shown by +the Sierra del Crystal, del Sal, del Sal Nitro and other names, +probably so called from the abundance of quartz in blocks and +veins that seam the granite, as we shall see in the Congo +country, and possibly because they contain rock crystal. Although +in many places they may be descried subtending the shore in lumpy +lines like detached vertebrć, and are supposed to represent the +Aranga Mons of Ptolemy, they are not noticed by Barbot. Between +the Camarones River and Cape St. John (Corisco Bay), blue, +rounded, and discontinuous masses, apparently wooded, rise before +the mariner, and form, as will be seen, the western sub-ranges of +the great basin-rim. To the north they probably anastomose with +the Camarones, the Rumbi, the Kwa, the Fumbina north-east, and +the Niger-Kong mountains.[FN#5] + +They are not wanting who declare them to be rich in precious +metals. Some thirty years ago an American super-cargo ascended +the Rembwe River, the south-eastern line of the Gaboon fork, and +is said to have collected "dirt" which, tested at New York, +produced 16 dollars per bushel. All the old residents in the +Gaboon know the story of the gold dust. The prospector was the +late Captain Richard E. Lawlin, of New York, who was employed by +Messrs. Bishop of Philadelphia, the same house that commissioned +the chasseur de gorilles to collect "rubber" for them, and who +was so eminently useful to the young French traveller that the +scant notice of his name is considered curious. + +Great would be my wonder if the West African as well as the East +African Ghats did not prove auriferous; both fulfil all the +required conditions, and both await actual discovery. The +Mountains of the Moon, so frequently mentioned by M. du Chaillu +and the Gaboon Mission, are doubtless the versants between the +valleys of the Niger and the Congo. Lately Dr. Schweinfurth found +an equatorial range which, stretching northwards towards the Bahr +el Ghazal, was seen to trend westward. According to Mr. Consul +Hutchinson ("Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians," p. +250), the Rev. Messrs. Mackey and Clemens, of the Corisco Mission +"explored more than a hundred miles of country across the Sierra +del Crystal Range of Mountains" --I am inclined to believe that a +hundred miles from the coast was their furthest point. We shall +presently travel towards this mysterious range, and there is no +difficulty in passing it, except the utter want of a commercial +road, and the wildness of tribes that have never sighted a +traveller nor a civilized man. + +The rivers of our region are of three kinds; little surface +drains principally in the north; broad estuaries like the Mersey +and many streams of Eastern Scotland in the central parts, and a +single bed, the Ogobe, breaking through the subtending Ghats, and +forming a huge lagoon-delta. Beginning at Camarones are the Boroa +and Borba Waters, with the Rio de Campo, fifteen leagues further +south; of these little is known, except that they fall into the +Bight of Panari or Pannaria. + +According to Barbot (iv. 9), the English charts give the name of +Point Pan to a large deep bight in which lies the harbour-bay +"Porto de Garapo" (Garápa, sugar-cane juice?); and he calls the +two rounded hillocks, extending inland from Point Pan to the +northern banks of the Rio de Campo, "Navia." The un-African word +Panari or Pannaria is probably a corruption of Páo de Nao, the +bay north of Garapo, and "Navia." + +These small features are followed by the Rio de Săo Bento, +improperly called in our charts the St. Benito, Bonito, Bonita, +and Boneto; the native name is Lobei, and it traverses the Kombi +country, --such is the extent of our information. The next is the +well-known Muni, the Ntambounay of M. du Chaillu, generally +called the Danger River, in old charts "Rio de Săo Joăo," and +"Rio da Angra" (of the bight); an estuary which, like most of its +kind, bifurcates above, and, receiving a number of little +tributaries from the Sierra, forms a broad bed and empties itself +through a mass of mangroves into the innermost north-eastern +corner of Corisco Bay. This sag in the coast is formed by Ninje +(Nenge the island?), or the Cabo de Săo Joăo (Cape St. John) to +the north, fronted south by a large square-headed block of land, +whose point is called Cabo das Esteiras--of matting (Barbot's +Estyras), an article of trade in the olden time. The southern +part receives the Munda (Moondah) river, a foul and unimportant +stream, which has been occupied by the American missionaries. + +We shall ascend the Gaboon estuary to its sources. South of it, a +number of sweet little water-courses break the shore-line as far +as the Nazareth River, which debouches north of Urungu, or Cape +Lopez (Cabo de Lopo Gonsalvez), and which forms by anastomosing +with a southern river the Ogobe (Ogowai of M. du Chaillu), a +complicated delta whose sea-front extends from north to south, at +least eighty miles. Beyond Cape Lopez is an outfall, known to +Europeans as the Rio Mexias: it is apparently a mesh in the net- +work of the Nazareth-Ogobe. The same may be said of the Rio +Fernăo Vaz, about 110 miles south of the Gaboon, and of yet +another stream which, running lagoon-like some forty miles along +the shore, has received in our maps the somewhat vague name of R. +Rembo or River River. Orembo (Simpongwe) being the generic term +for a stream or river, is applied emphatically to the Nkomo +branch of the Gaboon, and to the Fernăo Vaz. + +The Ogobe is the only river between the Niger and the Congo which +escapes, through favouring depressions, from the highlands +flanking the great watery plateau of Inner Africa. By its plainly +marked double seasons of flood at the equinoxes, and by the time +of its low water, we prove that it drains the belt of calms, and +the region immediately upon the equator. The explorations of +Lieutenant Serval and others, in "Le Pionnier" river-steamer, +give it an average breadth of 8,200 feet, though broken by sand- +banks and islands; the depth in the main channel, which at times +is narrow and difficult to find, averages between sixteen and +forty-eight feet; and, in the dry season of 1862, the vessel ran +up sixty English miles. + +Before M. du Chaillu's expeditions, "the rivers known to +Europeans," he tells us in his Preface ("First Journey," p. iv.), +"as the Nazareth, Mexias, and Fernam Vaz, were supposed to be +three distinct streams." In 1817 Bowdich identified the "Ogoowai" +with the Congo, and the Rev. Mr. Wilson (p. 284) shows us the +small amount of knowledge that existed even amongst experts, five +years before the "Gorilla book" appeared. "From Cape Lopez, where +the Nazareth debouches, there is a narrow lagoon running along +the sea-coast, and very near to it, all the way to Mayumba. This +lagoon is much traversed by boats and canoes, and, when the +slave-trade was in vigorous operation, it afforded the Portuguese +traders great facilities for eluding the vigilance of British +cruizers, by shifting their slaves from point to point, and +embarking them, according to a preconcerted plan." + +M. du Chaillu first proved that the Ogobe was formed by two +forks, the northern, or Rembo Okanda, and the southern, or Rembo +Nguye. The former is the more important. Mr. R.S.N. Walker found +this stream above the confluence to be from 1,800 to 2,100 feet +wide, though half the bed was occupied by bare sand-banks. Higher +up, where rocks and rapids interfered with the boat-voyage, the +current was considerable, but the breadth diminished to 600 feet. +The southern branch (also written Ngunië) was found in Apono Land +(S. lat. 2°), about the breadth of the Thames at London Bridge, +700 feet. In June the depth was ten to fifteen feet, to which the +rainy season added ten. + +M. du Chaillu also established the facts that the Nazareth river +was the northern arm of the Delta, and that the Fernăo Vaz +anastomosed with the Delta's southern arm. + +The only pelagic islands off the Gaboon coast are the Brancas, +Great and Little; Corisco Island, which we shall presently visit; +Great and Little Elobi, called by old travellers Mosquito +Islands, probably for "Moucheron," a Dutchman who lost his ship +there in 1600. The land about the mouths of the Ogobe is a mass +of mangrove swamps, like the Nigerian Delta, which high tides +convert into insular ground; these, however, must be considered +terra firma in its infancy. The riverine islands of the Gaboon +proper will be noticed as we ascend the bed. + +Pongo-land ignores all such artificial partitions as districts or +parishes; the only divisions are the countries occupied by the +several tribes. + +The Gaboon lies in "Africa-on-the-Line," and a description of the +year at Zanzibar Island applies to it in many points.[FN#6] The +characteristic of this equatorial belt is uniformity of +temperature: whilst the Arabian and the Australian deserts often +show a variation of 50° Fahr. in a single day, the yearly range +of the mercury at Singapore is about 10°. The four seasons of the +temperates are utterly unknown to the heart of the tropics--even +in Hindostan the poet who would sing, for instance, the charms of +spring must borrow the latter word (Buhar) from the Persian. If +the "bull" be allowed, the only rule here appears to be one of +exceptions. The traveller is always assured that this time there +have been no rains, or no dries, or no tornadoes, or one or all +in excess, till at last he comes to the conclusion that the Clerk +of the Weather must have mislaid his ledger. Contrary to the +popular idea, which has descended to us from the classics, the +climate under the Line is not of that torrid heat which a +vertical sun suggests; the burning zone of the Old World begins +in the northern hemisphere, where the regular rains do not +extend, beyond the tenth as far as the twenty-fifth degree. The +equatorial climate is essentially temperate: for instance, the +heat of Sumatra, lying almost under the Line, rarely exceeds 24° +R.= 86° Fahr. In the Gaboon the thermometer ranges from 65° to +90° Fahr., "a degree of heat," says Dr. Ford, "less than in many +salubrious localities in other parts of the world." + +Upon the Gaboon the wet seasons are synchronous with the vertical +suns at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. "The rainy season of a +place within the tropics always begins when the sun has reached +the zenith of that place. Then the tradewinds, blowing regularly +at other seasons, become gradually weaker, and at length cease +and give way to variable winds and calms. The trade-wind no +longer brings its regular supply of cooler, drier air; the rising +heats and calms favour an ascending current" (in the sea-depths, +I may add, as well as on land), "which bears the damp air into +the upper regions of the atmosphere, there to be cooled, and to +occasion the heavy down-pour of each afternoon. The nights and +mornings are for the most part bright and clear. When the sun +moves away from the zenith, the trade-winds again begin to be +felt, and bring with them the dry season of the year, during +which hardly ever a cloud disturbs the serenity of the skies. + +"Between the tropical limits and the equator, however, the sun +comes twice to the zenith of each place. If now, between the +going and coming of the sun, from the Line to its furthest range, +a sufficient pause intervenes, or if the sun's temporary distance +from the zenith is great enough, the rainy season is divided into +two portions, separated by a lesser dry season. Closer to the +tropical lines, where the sun remains but once in the zenith, the +rainy season is a continuous one." + +Such is the theory of the "Allgemeine Erdkunde" (Hahn, +Hochstetter and Pokorny, Prague, 1872). An explanation should be +added of the reason why the cool wind ceases to blow, at the time +when the air, heated and raised by a perpendicular sun, might be +expected to cause a greater indraught. We at once, I have said, +recognize its correctness at sea. The Gaboon, "in the belt of +calms, with rain during the whole year," has two distinctly +marked dry seasons, at the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes. The +former or early rains (Nchangyá?) are expected to begin in +February, with violent tornadoes and storms, especially at the +full and change, and to end in April. The heavy downfalls are +mostly at night, possibly an effect of the Sierra del Crystal. I +found March 28th (1862) very like damp weather at the end of an +English May; April 6th was equally exceptional, raining from dawn +to evening. During my trip to Sánga-Tánga and back (March 25th to +29th) we had frequent fogs, locally called "smokes," and almost +daily tornadoes, sometimes from the south-east, whilst the +lightning was dangerous as upon the Western prairies. After an +interval of fiery sun, with occasional rain torrents and +discharges of electricity, begin the Enomo (Enun?), the "middle" +or long dries, which last four months to September. The "Enomo" +is the Angolan Cacimbo, meaning cool and cloudy weather, when no +umbrella is required, and when the invariably grey sky rarely +rains. Travellers are told that June and July are the cream of +the year, the healthiest time for seasoned Europeans, and this +phantom of a winter renders the climate more supportable to the +northern constitution. + +During the "middle dries," when the sun, retiring to the summer +solstice, is most distant, land winds and sea breezes are strong +and regular, and the people suffer severely from cold. In the +Gaboon heavy showers sometimes fall, July being the least subject +to them, and the fiery sun, when it can disperse the clouds, +turns the soil to dust. At the end of September appear the +"latter rains," which are the more copious, as they seldom last +more than six hours at a time. It is erroneous to assert that +"the tract nearest the equator on both sides has the longest +rainy season;" the measure chiefly depends upon altitude and +other local conditions. + +The rainy seasons are healthier for the natives than the cold +seasons; and the explorer is often urged to take advantage of +them. He must, however, consult local experience. Whilst +ascending rivers in November, for instance, he may find the many +feet of flood a boon or a bane, and his marching journeys are +nearly sure to end in ulcerated feet, as was the case with poor +Dr. Livingstone. The rains drench the country till the latter end +of December, when the Nángá or "little dries" set in for two +months. The latter also are not unbroken by storms and showers, +and they end with tornadoes, which this year (1862) have been +unusually frequent and violent. Thus we may distribute the twelve +months into six of rains, vernal and autumnal, and six of dry +weather, ćstival and hibernal: the following table will show the +sub-sections:-- + +Early December to early February, the "little dries;" February to +early April, the "former," early or spring rains; May to early +June, the variable weather; June to early September, the Cacimbo, +Enomo, long or middle dries; September to early December, the +"latter rains." + +Under such media the disease, par excellence, of the Gaboon is +the paroxysm which is variously called Coast, African, Guinea, +and Bullom fever. Dr. Ford, who has written a useful treatise +upon the subject,[FN#7] finds hebdomadal periodicity in the +attacks, and lays great stress upon this point of +chronothermalism. He recognizes the normal stages, preparatory, +invasional, reactionary, and resolutionary. Like Drs. Livingstone +and Hutchinson, he holds fever and quinine "incompatibles," and +he highly approves of the prophylactic adhibition of chinchona +used by the unfortunate Douville in 1828. Experience in his own +person and in numerous patients "proves all theoretical +objections to the use of six grains an hour, or fifty and sixty +grains of quinine in one day or remission to be absolutely +imaginary." He is "convinced that it is not a stimulant," and +with many apologies he cautiously sanctions alcohol, which should +often be the physician's mainstay. As he advocated ten-grain +doses of calomel by way of preliminary cathartic, the American +missionaries stationed on the River have adopted a treatment +still more "severe"--quinine till deafness ensues, and half a +handful of mercury, often continued till a passage opens through +the palate, placing mouth and nose in directer communication. Dr. +Ford also recommends during the invasion or period of chills +external friction of mustard or of fresh red pepper either in +tincture or in powder, a good alleviator always procurable; and +the internal use of pepper-tea, to bring on the stages of +reaction and resolution. Few will agree with him that gruels and +farinaceous articles are advisable during intermissions, when the +patient craves for port, essence of beef, and consomme; nor can +we readily admit the dictum that in the tropics "the most +wholesome diet, without doubt, is chiefly vegetable." Despite +Jacquemont and all the rice-eaters, I cry beef and beer for ever +and everywhere! Many can testify personally to the value of the +unofficinal prescription which he offers in cases of severe +lichen (prickly heat), leading to impetigo. It is as follows, and +it is valuable:-- + +Cold cream. . . . . . . . . . 3j. +Glycerine . . . . . . . . . . 3j. +Chloroform . . . . . . . . .3ij. +Oil of bitter almonds . . gtt. x. + + + + + + Chapter IV. + + The Minor Tribes and the Mpongwe. + + + +The tribes occupying the Gaboon country may roughly be divided +into two according to habitat--the maritime and those of the +interior, who are quasi-mountaineers. Upon the sea-board dwell +the Banôkô (Banaka), Bapuka, and Batanga; the Kombe, the Benga +and Mbiko, or people about Corisco; the Shekyani, who extend far +into the interior, the Urungu and Aloa, clans of Cape Lopez; the +Nkommi, Commi, Camma or Cama, and the Mayumba races beyond the +southern frontier. The inner hordes are the Dibwe (M. du +Chaillu's "Ibouay"), the Mbúsha; the numerous and once powerful +Bákele, the Cannibal Fán (Mpongwe), the Osheba or 'Sheba, their +congeners, and a variety of "bush-folk," of whom little is known +beyond the names. Linguistically we may distribute them into +three, namely, 1. the Banôkô and Batanga; 2. the Mpongwe, +including the minor ethnical divisions of Benga, and Shekyani; +the Urungu, the Nkommi, the Dongas or Ndiva, and the Mbúsha, and +3. the Mpongwe and the tribes of the interior. Lastly, there are +only three peoples of any importance, namely, the Mpongwe, the +Bákele, and the Fán. + +The Mpongwe, whom the French call "les Gabons," are the +aristocracy of the coast, the Benga being the second, and the +Banôkô and Bapuka ranking third. They are variously estimated at +5,000 to 7,000 head, serviles included. They inhabit both sides +of the Gaboon, extending about thirty-five miles along its banks, +chiefly on the right; on the left only seawards of the Shekyani. +But it is a wandering race, and many a "mercator vagus" finds his +way to Corisco, Cape Lopez, Batanga, and even Fernando Po. The +two great families on the northern river bank are the Quabens and +the Glass, who style themselves kings and princes; the southern +side lodges King William (Roi Denis) near the mouth, and the +powerful King George, about twenty-five miles higher up stream. +There are also settlements scattered at various distances from +the great highway of commerce to which they naturally cling, and +upon the Coniquet and Parrot Islands. + +Barbot (iv. 9) describes the "Gaboon blacks" as "commonly tall, +robust, and well-shaped;" they appeared to me rather below the +average of West Coast size and weight. Both sexes, even when +running to polysarcia, have delicate limbs and extremities, and +the features, though negroid, are not the negro of the +tobacconist's shop: I noticed several pyramidal and +brachycephalic heads, contrary to the rule for African man and +simiad. In the remarkable paper read (1861) by Professor Busk +before the Ethnological Society, that eminent physiologist proved +that the Asiatic apes, typified by the ourang-outang, are +brachycephalic, like the Mongolians amongst whom they live, or +who live amongst them; whilst the gorillas and the African +anthropoids are dolichocephalic as the negroes. The Gaboon men +are often almost black, whilst the women range between dark brown +and cafe au lait. The beard, usually scanty, is sometimes bien +fournie, especially amongst the seniors, but, whenever I saw a +light-coloured and well-bearded man, the suspicion of mixed blood +invariably obtruded itself. It is said that during the last +thirty years they have greatly diminished, yet their habitat is +still that laid down half a century ago by Bowdich, and all admit +that the population of the river has not been materially +affected. + +The Mpongwe women have the reputation of being the prettiest and +the most facile upon the West African coast. It is easy to +distinguish two types. One is large-boned and heavy-limbed, +hoarse-voiced, and masculine, like the "Ibos" of Bonny and New +Calabar, who equal the men in weight and stature, strength and +endurance, suggesting a mixture of the male and female +temperaments. Some of the Gaboon giantesses have, unlike their +northern sisters, regular and handsome features. The other type +is quasi-Hindú in its delicacy of form, with small heads, oval +faces, noses ŕ la Roxolane, lips sub-tumid but without +prognathism, and fine almond-shaped eyes, with remarkably thick +and silky lashes. The throat is thin, the bosom is high and well +carried, or, as the admiring Arab says, "nejdá;" the limbs are +statuesque, and the hands and feet are Norman rather than Saxon. +Many Europeans greatly admire these minois mutins et +chiffonés.[FN#8] + +Early in the present century the Mpongwe braided whiskers and +side curls, tipping the ends with small beads, and they plaited +the front locks to project like horns, after the fashion of the +present Fán and other wild tribes. A custom noticed by Barbot, +but apparently obsolete in the days of Bowdich, was to bore the +upper lip, and to insert a small ivory pin, extending from nose +to mouth. The painting and tattooing were fantastic and +elaborate; and there was a hideous habit of splitting either lip, +so as to "thrust the tongue through on ceremonial occasions." A +curious reason is given for this practice. "They are subject to a +certain distemper very common there, which on a sudden seizes +them, and casts them into fits of so long a continuance, that +they would inevitably be suffocated, if by means of the split at +their upper lip they did not pour into their mouths some of the +juice of a certain medicinal herb, which has the virtue of easing +and curing the diseased person in a very short time." + +All these things, fits included, are now obsolete. The men shave +a line in the hair like a fillet round the skull, and what is +left is coiffe au coup de vent. The head-dress is a cap, a straw +hat, a billy cock, or a tall silk "chimney pot," the latter +denoting a chief; he also sports in full dress a broad coat, +ending in a loin cloth of satin stripe or some finer stuff, about +six feet long by four and a half broad; it is secured by a +kerchief or an elastic waist belt; during work it is tucked up, +but on ceremonial occasions it must trail upon the ground. The +lieges wear European shirts, stuffed into a waist-cloth of +cheaper material, calico or domestics; This Tángá, or kilt, is, +in fact, an article of general wear, and it would be an airy, +comfortable, and wholesome travelling costume if the material +were flannel. The ornaments are necklaces of Venetian beads, the +white pound, and the black and yellow seed: Canutille or bugles +of various patterns are preferred, and all are loaded with +"Mengo," Grígrís (which old travellers call "gregories"), or +talismans, chiefly leopards' teeth, rude bells, and horns. The +Monda are hunting prophylacteries, antelope horns filled with +"fetish" medicines, leopard's hair, burnt and powdered heart +mixed with leaves, and filth; the mouths are stopped with some +viscid black stuff, probably gum. They are often attached to rude +bells of iron or brass (Igelenga, Ngenge, Nkendo, or Wonga), like +the Chingufu of the Congo regions and the metal cones which are +struck for signals upon the Tanganyika Lake. + +A great man is known by his making himself a marvellous "guy," +wearing, for instance, a dingily laced cocked hat, stuck athwart- +ships upon an unwashed night-cap, and a naval or military +uniform, fifty years old, "swearing" with the loin-cloth and the +feet, which are always bare. + +The coiffure of the <Greek> is peculiar and +elaborate as that of the Gold Coast. These ladies seem to have +chosen for their model the touraco or cockatoo,--they have never +heard of "Kikeriki,"--and the effect is at first wondrously +grotesque. Presently the eye learns to admire pretty Fanny's +ways; perhaps the pleureuse, the old English corkscrew ringlet, +might strike the stranger as equally natural in a spaniel, and +unnatural in a human. Still a style so peculiar requires a +toilette in keeping; the "king" in uniform is less ridiculous +than the Gaboon lady's chignon, contrasting with a tight-bodied +and narrow-skirted gown of pink calico. + +The national "tire-valiant" is a galeated crest not unlike the +cuirassier's helmet, and the hair, trained from the sides into a +high ridge running along the cranium, not unfrequently projects +far beyond the forehead. Taste and caprice produce endless +modifications. Sometimes the crest is double, disposed in +parallel ridges, with a deep hollow between; or it is treble, +when the two lines of parting running along the mastoids make it +remarkably like bears' ears, the central prism rises high, and +the side hair is plaited into little pig-tails. Others again +train four parallel lines from nape to forehead, forming two +cushions along the parietals. The crest is heightened by padding, +and the whole of the hair is devoted to magnifying it,--at a +distance, some of the bushwomen look as if they wore cocked hats. +When dreaded baldness appears, rosettes of false hair patch the +temples, and plaits of purchased wigs are interwoven to increase +the bulk: the last resources of all are wigs and toupets of +stained pine-apple fibre. The comb is unknown, its succedaneum +being a huge bodkin, like that which the Trasteverina has so +often used as a stiletto. This instrument of castigation is made +of ivory or metal, with a lozenge often neatly carved and +ornamented at the handle. The hair, always somewhat "kinky," is +anointed every morning with palm-oil, or the tallow-like produce +of a jungle-nut; and, in full dress, it is copiously powdered +with light red or bright yellow dust of pounded camwood, redwood, +and various barks. + +The ears are adorned with broad rings of native make, and, near +the trading stations, with French imitation jewellery. The neck +supports many strings of beads, long and short, with the +indispensable talismans. The body dress is a Tobe or loin-cloth, +like that of the men; but under the "Námbá," or outer wrapper, +which hangs down the feet, there is a "Siri," or petticoat, +reaching only to the knees. Both are gathered in front like the +Shukkah of the eastern coast, and the bosom is left bare. Few +except the bush-folk now wear the Ibongo, Ipepe, or Ndengi, the +woven fibres and grass-cloths of their ancestry; amongst the +hunters, however, a Tángá, or grass-kilt, may still be seen. The +exposure of the upper person shows the size and tumidity of the +areola, even in young girls; being unsupported, the mammae soon +become flaccid. + +The legs, which are peculiarly neat and well turned, are made by +art a fitting set-off to the head. It is the pride of a Mpongwe +wife to cover the lower limb between knee and ankle with an +armour of metal rings, which are also worn upon the wrists; the +custom is not modern, and travellers of the seventeenth century +allude to them. The rich affect copper, bought in wires two feet +and a half long, and in two sizes; of the larger, four, of the +smaller, eight, go to the dollar; the brass are cheaper, as 5: 4; +and I did not see iron or tin. The native smiths make the +circles, and the weight of a full set of forty varies from +fifteen to nineteen pounds. They are separate rings, not a single +coil, like that used by the Wagogo and other East African tribes; +they press tightly on the limb, often causing painful chafes and +sores. The ankle is generally occupied by a brass or iron chain, +with small links. Girls may wear these rings, of which the +husband is expected to present a considerable number to his +bride, and the consequence is, that when in full dress she +waddles like a duck. + +Commerce and intercourse with whites has made the Mpongwe, once +the rudest, now one of the most civilized of African tribes; and, +upon the whole, there is an improvement. The exact Barbot (iv. 9) +tells us "the Gaboon blacks are barbarous, wild, bloody, and +treacherous, very thievish and crafty, especially towards +strangers. The women, on the contrary, are as civil and courteous +to them, and will use all possible means to enjoy their company; +but both sexes are the most wretchedly poor and miserable of any +in Guinea, and yet so very haughty, that they are perfectly +ridiculous ... They are all excessively fond of brandy and other +strong liquors of Europe and America ... If they fancy one has +got a mouthful more than another, and they are half drunk, they +will soon fall a-fighting, even with their own princes or priests +... Their exceeding greediness for strong liquors renders them so +little nice and curious in the choice of them, that, though mixed +with half water, and sometimes a little Spanish soap put into it +to give it a froth, to appear of proof by the scum it makes, they +like it and praise it as much as the best and purest brandy." +Captain Boteler remarks, in 1827: "The women do not speak +English; though, for the sake of what trifles they can procure +for their husbands, they are in the habit of flocking on board +the different vessels which visit the river, and will permit them +to remain; and the wives are generally maintained in clothing by +the proceeds of their intercourse with the whites." He further +assures us, that mulatto girls thus born are not allowed to +marry, although there is no such restriction for the males; and +elsewhere, he concludes, that never having seen an infant or an +adult offspring of mixed blood, abortion is practised as at +Delagoa and Old Calabar, where, in 1862, I found only one child +of mixed blood. If so, the Mpongwe have changed for the better. +Half-castes are now not uncommon; there are several nice "yaller +gals" well known on the river; and the number of old and sick +speaks well for the humanity of the tribe. + +Devoted to trade and become a people of brokers, of go-betweens, +of middle-men, the Mpongwe have now acquired an ease and +propriety, a polish and urbanity of manner which contrasts +strongly with the Kru-men and other tribes, who, despite +generations of intercourse with Europeans, are rough and +barbarous as their forefathers. The youths used to learn English, +which they spoke fluently and with tolerable accent, but always +barbarously; they are more successful with the easier neo-Latin +tongues. Their one aim in life is not happiness, but "trust," an +African practice unwisely encouraged by Europeans; so Old Calabar +but a few years ago was not a trust-river," and consequently the +consul and the gunboat had little to do there. Many of them have +received advances of dollars by thousands, but the European +merchant has generally suffered from his credulity or rapacity. +In low cunning the native is more than a match for the stranger; +moreover, he has "the pull" in the all-important matter of time; +he can spend a fortnight haggling over the price of a tooth when +the unhappy capitalist is eating his heart. Like all the African +aristocracy, they hold agriculture beneath the dignity of man and +fit only for their women and slaves; the "ladies" also refuse to +work at the plantations, especially when young and pretty, +leaving them to the bush-folk, male and female. M. du Chaillu +repeatedly asserts (chap xix.) "there is no property in land," +but this is a mistake often made in Africa. Labourers are hired +at the rate of two to three dollars per mensem, and gangs would +easily be collected if one of the chiefs were placed in command. +No sum of money will buy a free-born Mpongwe, and the sale is +forbidden by the laws of the land. A half-caste would fetch one +hundred dollars; a wild "nigger" near the river costs from thirty +to thirty-five dollars; the same may be bought in the Apinji +country for four dollars' worth of assorted goods, the "bundle- +trade" as it is called; but there is the imminent risk of the +chattel's running away. A man's only attendants being now his +wives and serviles, it is evident that plurality and domestic +servitude will extend-- + + "Far into summers which we shall not see;" + +in fact, till some violent revolution of society shall have +introduced a servant class. + +The three grades of Mpongwe may be considered as rude beginnings +of caste. The first are the "Sons of the Soil," the "Ongwá ntye" +(contracted from Onwana wi ntye), Mpongwes of pure blood; the +second are the "Mbámbá," children of free-men by serviles; and +lastly, "Nsháká," in Bákele "Nsháká," represents the slaves. M. +du Chaillu's distribution (chap, iii.) into five orders, namely, +pure, mixed with other tribes, half free, children of serviles, +and chattels, is somewhat over-artificial; at any rate, now it is +not generally recognized. Like the high-caste Hindu, the nobler +race will marry women of lower classes; for instance, King +Njogoni's mother was a Benga; but the inverse proceeding is a +disgrace to the woman, apparently an instinctive feeling on the +part of the reproducer, still lingering in the most advanced +societies. Old travellers record a belief that, unlike all other +Guinea races, the Mpongwe marries his mother, sister, or +daughter; and they compare the practice with that of the polished +Persians and the Peruvian Incas, who thus kept pure the solar and +lunar blood. If this "breeding-in" ever existed, no trace of it +now remains; on the contrary, every care is taken to avoid +marriages of consanguinity. Bowdich, indeed, assures us that a +man may not look at nor converse with his mother-in-law, on pain +of a heavy, perhaps a ruinous fine; "this singular law is founded +on the tradition of an incest." + +Marriage amongst the Mpongwe is a purely civil contract, as in +Africa generally, and so perhaps it will some day be in Europe, +Asia, and America. Cślebs pays a certain sum for the bride, who, +where "marriage by capture" is unknown, has no voice in the +matter. Many promises of future "dash" are made to the girl's +parents; and drinking, drumming, and dancing form the ceremony. +The following is, or rather I should say was, a fair list of +articles paid for a virgin bride. One fine silk hat, one cap, one +coat; five to twenty pieces of various cottons, plain and +ornamental; two to twenty silk kerchiefs; three to thirty jars of +rum; twenty pounds of trade tobacco; two hatchets; two cutlasses; +plates and dishes, mugs and glasses, five each; six knives; one +kettle; one brass pan; two to three Neptunes (caldrons, the old +term being "Neptune's pots"), a dozen bars of iron; copper and +brass rings, chains with small links, and minor articles ad +libitum. The "settlement" is the same in kind, but has increased +during the last forty years, and specie has become much more +common.[FN#10] + +After marriage there is a mutual accommodation system suggesting +the cicisbeo or mariage ŕ trois school; hence we read that wives, +like the much-maligned Xantippe, were borrowed and lent, and that +not fulfilling the promise of a loan is punishable by heavy +damages. Where the husband acts adjutor or cavaliere to his +friend's "Omantwe"--female person or wife--and the friend is +equally complaisant, wedlock may hardly be called permanent, and +there can be no tie save children. The old immorality endures; it +is as if the command were reversed by accepting that misprint +which so scandalized the Star Chamber, "Thou shalt commit +adultery." Yet, unpermitted, the offence is one against property, +and Moechus may be cast in damages ranging from $100 to $200: +what is known in low civilization as the "panel dodge" is an +infamy familiar to almost all the maritime tribes of Africa. He +must indeed be a Solomon of a son who, sur les bords du Gabon, +can guess at his own sire; a question so impertinent is never put +by the ex-officio father. The son succeeds by inheritance to his +father's relict, who, being generally in years, is condemned to +be useful when she has ceased to be an ornament, and, if there +are several, they are equally divided amongst the heirs. + +Trading tribes rarely affect the pundonor which characterizes the +pastoral and the predatory; these people traffic in all things, +even in the chastity of their women. What with pre-nuptial +excesses, with early unions, often infructuous, with a virtual +system of community, and with universal drunkenness, it is not to +be wondered at if the maritime tribes of Africa degenerate and +die out. Such apparently is the modus operandi by which Nature +rids herself of the effete races which have served to clear the +ground and to pave the way for higher successors. Wealth and +luxury, so generally inveighed against by poets and divines, +injure humanity only when they injuriously affect reproduction; +and poverty is praised only because it breeds more men. The true +tests of the physical prosperity of a race, and of its position +in the world, are bodily strength and the excess of births over +deaths. + +Separation after marriage can hardly be dignified on the Gaboon +by the name of divorce. Whenever a woman has or fancies she has a +grievance, she leaves her husband, returns to "the paternal" and +marries again. Quarrels about the sex are very common, yet, in +cases of adultery the old murderous assaults are now rare except +amongst the backwoodsmen. The habit was simply to shoot some man +belonging to the seducer's or to the ravisher's village; the +latter shot somebody in the nearest settlement, and so on till +the affair was decided. In these days "violent retaliation for +personal jealousy always 'be-littles' a man in the eyes of an +African community." Perhaps also he unconsciously recognizes the +sentiment ascribed to Mohammed, "Laysa bi-zányatin ilia bi záni," +"there is no adulteress without an adulterer," meaning that the +husband has set the example. + +Polygamy is, of course, the order of the day; it is a necessity +to the men, and even the women disdain to marry a "one-wifer." As +amongst all pluralists, from Moslem to Mormon, the senior or +first married is No. 1; here called "best wife:" she is the +goodman's viceroy, and she rules the home-kingdom with absolute +sway. Yet the Mpongwe do not, like other tribes on the west +coast, practise that separation of the sexes during gestation and +lactation, which is enjoined to the Hebrews, recommended by +Catholicism, and commanded by Mormonism--a system which partly +justifies polygamy. In Portuguese Guinea the enceinte is claimed +by her relatives, especially by the women, for three years, that +she may give undivided attention to her offspring, who is rightly +believed to be benefited by the separation, and that she may +return to her husband with renewed vigour. Meanwhile custom +allows the man to co-habit with a slave girl. + +Polygamy, also, in Africa is rather a political than a domestic +or social institution. A "judicious culture of the marriage tie" +is necessary amongst savages and barbarians whose only friends +and supporters are blood relations and nuptial connections; +besides which, a multitude of wives ministers to the great man's +pride and influence, as well as to his pleasures and to his +efficiency. When the head wife ages, she takes charge of the +girlish brides committed to her guardianship by the husband. I +should try vainly to persuade the English woman that there can be +peace in households so constituted: still, such is the case. +Messrs. Wilson and Du Chaillu both assert that the wives rarely +disagree amongst themselves. The sentimental part of love is +modified; the common husband becomes the patriarch, not the +paterfamilias; the wife is not the mistress, but the mčre de +famille. The alliance rises or sinks to one of interest and +affection instead of being amorous or uxorious, whilst the +underlying idea, "the more the merrier," especially in lands +where free service is unknown, seems to stifle envy and jealousy. +Everywhere, moreover, amongst polygamists, the husband is +strictly forbidden by popular opinion to show preference for a +favourite wife; if he do so, he is a bad man. + +But polygamy here has not rendered the women, as theoretically it +should, a down-trodden moiety of society; on the contrary, their +position is comparatively high. The marriage connection is not +"one of master and slave," a link between freedom and serfdom; +the "weaker vessel" does not suffer from collision with the pot +de fer; generally the fair but frail ones appear to be, as +amongst the Israelites generally, the better halves. Despite the +Okosunguu or cow-hide "peacemaker," they have conquered a +considerable latitude of conducting their own affairs. When poor +and slaveless and, naturally, when no longer young, they must +work in the house and in the field, but this lot is not singular; +in journeys they carry the load, yet it is rarely heavier than +the weapons borne by the man. On the other hand, after feeding +their husbands, what remains out of the fruits of their labours +is their own, wholly out of his reach--a boon not always granted +by civilization. As in Unyamwezi, they guard their rights with a +truly feminine touchiness and jealousy. There is always, in the +African mind, a preference for descent and inheritance through +the mother, "the surer side,"--an unmistakable sign, by the by, +of barbarism. The so-called royal races in the eight great +despotisms of Pagan Africa--Ashanti, Dahome, and Benin; Karagwah, +Uganda, and Unyoro; the Mwátá yá Nvo, and the Mwátá Cazembe-- +allow the greatest liberty even to the king's sisters; they are +expected only to choose handsome lovers, that the race may +maintain its physical superiority; and hence, doubtless, the +stalwart forms and the good looks remarked by every traveller. As +a rule, the husband cannot sell his wife's children whilst her +brother may dispose of them as he pleases--the vox populi +exclaims, "What! is the man to go hungry when he can trade off +his sister's brats?" + +The strong-minded of London and New York have not yet succeeded +in thoroughly organizing and popularizing their clubs; the belles +sauvages of the Gaboon have. There is a secret order, called +"Njembe," a Rights of Woman Association, intended mainly to +counterbalance the Nda of the lords of creation, which will +presently be described. Dropped a few years ago by the men, it +was taken up by their wives, and it now numbers a host of +initiated, limited only by heavy entrance fees. This form of +freemasonry deals largely in processions, whose preliminaries and +proceedings are kept profoundly secret. At certain times an old +woman strikes a stick upon an "Orega" or crescent-shaped drum, +hollowed out of a block of wood; hearing this signal, the +worshipful sisterhood, bedaubed, by way of insignia, with red and +white chalk or clay, follow her from the village to some remote +nook in the jungle, where the lodge is tiled. Sentinels are +stationed around whilst business is transacted before a vestal +fire, which must burn for a fortnight or three weeks, in the awe- +compelling presence of a brass pipkin filled with herbs, and a +basin, both zebra'd like the human limbs. The Rev. William Walker +was once detected playing "Peeping Tom" by sixty or seventy +viragos, who attempted to exact a fine of forty dollars, and who +would have handled him severely had he not managed to escape. The +French officers, never standing upon ceremony in such matters, +have often insisted upon being present. + +Circumcision, between the fourth and eighth year, is universal in +Pongo-land, and without it a youth could not be married. The +operation is performed generally by the chief, often by some old +man, who receives a fee from the parents: the thumb nails are +long, and are used after the Jewish fashion:[FN#10] neat rum with +red pepper is spirted from the mouth to "kill wound." It is +purely hygienic, and not balanced by the excisio Judaica, Some +physiologists consider the latter a necessary complement of the +male rite; such, however, is not the case. The Hebrews, who +almost everywhere retained circumcision, have, in Europe at +least, long abandoned excision. I regret that the delicacy of the +age does not allow me to be more explicit. + +The Mpongwe practise a rite so resembling infant baptism that the +missionaries have derived it from a corruption of Abyssinian +Christianity which, like the flora of the Camarones and +Fernandian Highlands, might have travelled across the Dark +Continent, where it has now been superseded by El Islam. I +purpose at some period of more leisure to prove an ancient +intercourse and rapprochement of all the African tribes ranging +between the parallels of north latitude 20° and south latitude +30°. It will best be established, not by the single great family +of language, but by the similarity of manners, customs, and +belief; of arts and crafts; of utensils and industry. The baptism +of Pongo-land is as follows. When the babe is born, a crier, +announcing the event, promises to it in the people's name +participation in the rights of the living. It is placed upon a +banana leaf, for which reason the plantain is never used to stop +the water-pots; and the chief or the nearest of kin sprinkles it +from a basin, gives it a name, and pronounces a benediction, his +example being followed by all present. The man-child is exhorted +to be truthful, and the girl to "tell plenty lie," in order to +lead a happy life. Truly a new form of the regenerative rite! + +A curious prepossession of the African mind, curious and yet +general, in a land where population is the one want, and where +issue is held the greatest blessing, is the imaginary necessity +of limiting the family. Perhaps this form of infanticide is a +policy derived from ancestors who found it necessary. In the +kingdom of Apollonia (Guinea) the tenth child was always buried +alive; never a Decimus was allowed to stand in the way of the +nine seniors. The birth of twins is an evil portent to the +Mpongwes, as it is in many parts of Central Africa, and even in +the New World; it also involves the idea of moral turpitude, as +if the woman were one of the lower animals, capable of +superfetation. There is no greater insult to a man, than to point +at him with two fingers, meaning that he is a twin; of course he +is not one, or he would have been killed at birth. Albinos are +allowed to live, as in Dahome, in Ashanti, and among some East +African tribes, where I have been "chaffed" about a brother +white, who proved to be an exceptional negro without pigmentum +nigrum. + +There is no novelty in the Mpongwe funeral rites; the same system +prevails from the Oil Rivers to Congo-land, and extends even to +the wild races of the interior. The corpse, being still sentient, +is accompanied by stores of raiment, pots, and goats' flesh; a +bottle is placed in one hand and a glass in the other, and, if +the deceased has been fond of play, his draught-board and other +materials are buried with him. The system has been well defined +as one in which the "ghost of a man eats the ghost of a yam, +boiled in the ghost of a pot, over the ghost of a fire." The +body, after being stretched out in a box, is carried to a lonely +place; some are buried deep, others close to the surface. There +is an immense show of grief, with keening and crocodiles' tears, +perhaps to benefit the living by averting a charge of witchcraft, +which would inevitably lead to "Sassy" or poison-water. The wake +continues for five days, when they "pull the cry," that is to +say, end mourning. If these pious rites be neglected, the +children incur the terrible reproach, "Your father he be hungry." +The widow may re-marry immediately after "living for cry," and, +if young and lusty, she looks out for another consort within the +week. The slave is thrown out into the bush--no one will take the +trouble to dig a hole for him. + +The industry of the Mpongwe is that of the African generally; +every man is a host in himself; he builds and furnishes his +house, he makes his weapons and pipes, and he ignores division of +labour, except in the smith and the carpenter; in the potter, who +works without a wheel, and in the dyer, who knows barks, and who +fixes his colours with clay. The men especially pride themselves +upon canoe-making; the favourite wood is the buoyant Okumeh or +bombax, that monarch of the African forest. I have seen a boat, +45 feet 10 inches by 5 feet 11 inches in beam, cut out of a +single tree, with the Mpáno or little adze, a lineal descendant +of the Silex implement, and I have heard of others measuring 70 +feet. These craft easily carry 10 tons, and travel 200 to 300 +miles, which, as Mr. Wilson remarks, would land them, under +favourable circumstances, in South America. Captain Boteler found +that the Mpongwe boat combined symmetry of form, strength, and +solidity, with safeness and swiftness either in pulling or +sailing. And of late years the people have succeeded in launching +large and fast craft built after European models. + +The favourite pleasures of the Mpongwe are gross and gorging +"feeds," drinking and smoking. They recall to mind the old woman +who told "Monk Lewis" that if a glass of gin were at one end of +the table, and her immortal soul at the other, she would choose +the gin. They soak with palm-wine every day; they indulge in rum +and absinthe, and the wealthy affect so-called Cognac, with +Champagne and Bordeaux, which, however, they pronounce to be +"cold." I have seen Master Boro, a boy five years old, drain +without winking a wineglassful of brandy. It is not wonderful +that the adults can "stand" but little, and that a few mouthfuls +of well-watered spirit make their voices thick, and paralyze +their weak brains as well as their tongues. The Persians, who +commence drinking late in life, can swallow strong waters by the +tumbler. + +Men, women, and children when hardly "cremnobatic," have always +the pipe in mouth. The favourite article is a "dudheen," a well +culotté clay, used and worn till the bowl touches the nose. The +poor are driven to a "Kondukwe," a yard of plantain leaf, +hollowed with a wire, and charged at the thicker end. The "holy +herb" would of course grow in the country, and grow well, but it +is imported from the States without trouble, and perhaps with +less expense. Some tribes make a decent snuff of the common trade +article, but I never saw either sex chew--perhaps the most +wholesome, and certainly the most efficacious form. The smoking +of Lyámbá, called Dyámbá in the southern regions, is confined to +debauchees. M. du Chaillu asserts that this Cannabis sativa is +not found wild, and the people confirm his statement; possibly it +has extended from Hindostan to Zanzibar, and thence across the +continent. Intoxicating hemp is now grown everywhere, especially +in the Nkommi country, and little packages, neatly bound with +banana leaves, sell on the river for ten sous each. It is smoked +either in the "Kondukwe" or in the Ojo. The latter, literally +meaning a torch, is a polished cow-horn, closed at the thick end +with wood, and banded with metal; a wooden stem, projecting from +the upper or concave side, bears a neat "chillam" (bowl), either +of clay or of brown steatite brought from the upper Gaboon River. +This rude hookah is half filled with water; the dried hemp in the +bowl is covered with what Syrians call a "Kurs," a bit of metal +about the size of half-a-crown, and upon it rests the fire. I at +once recognized the implement in the Brazil, where many slave- +holders simply supposed it to be a servile and African form of +tobacco-pipe. After a few puffs the eyes redden, a violent cough +is caused by the acrid fumes tickling the throat; the brain, +whirls with a pleasant swimming, like that of chloroform, and the +smoker finds himself in gloriâ. My Spanish friends at Po tried +but did not like it. I can answer for the hemp being stronger +than the Egyptian hashísh or the bhang of Hindostan; it rather +resembled the Fasúkh of Northern Africa, the Dakha and Motukwane +of the southern regions, and the wild variety called in Sind +"Bang i Jabalí." + +The religion of African races is ever interesting to those of a +maturer faith; it is somewhat like the study of childhood to an +old man. The Jew, the high-caste Hindú, and the Guebre, the +Christian and the Moslem have their Holy Writs, their fixed forms +of thought and worship, in fact their grooves in which belief +runs. They no longer see through a glass darkly; nothing with +them is left vague or undetermined. Continuation, resurrection, +eternity are hereditary and habitual ideas; they have become +almost inseparable and congenital parts of the mental system. +This condition renders it nearly as difficult for us to +understand the vagueness and mistiness of savage and unwritten +creeds, as to penetrate into the modus agendi of animal instinct. +And there is yet another obstacle in dealing with such people, +their intense and childish sensitiveness and secretiveness. They +are not, as some have foolishly supposed, ashamed of their tenets +or their practices, but they are unwilling to speak about them. +They fear the intentions of the cross-questioner, and they hold +themselves safest behind a crooked answer. Moreover, every +Mpongwe is his own "pontifex maximus," and the want, or rather +the scarcity, of a regular priesthood must promote independence +and discrepancy of belief. + +Whilst noticing the Fetishism of the Gaboon I cannot help +observing, by the way, how rapidly the civilization of the +nineteenth century is redeveloping, together with the "Religion +of Humanity" the old faith, not of Paganism, but of Cosmos, of +Nature; how directly it is, in fact, going back to its oldergods. +The UNKNOWABLE of our day is the Brahm, the Akarana-Zaman, the +Gaboon Anyambía, of which nothing can be predicated but an +existence utterly unintelligible to the brain of man, a something +free from the accidents of personality, of volition, of +intelligence, of design, of providence; a something which cannot +be addressed by veneration or worship; whose sole effects are +subjective, that is, upon the worshipper, not upon the +worshipped. Nothing also can be more illogical than the awe and +respect claimed by Mr. Herbert Spencer for a being of which the +very essence is that nothing can be known of it. And, as the idea +grows, the several modes and forms of the UNKNOWABLE, the Hormuzd +and Ahriman of the Dualist, those personifications of good and +evil; the Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, creation, preservation, and +destruction; the beginning, the middle, and the end of all +things; the Triad, adored by all Triadists under some +modification, as that of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, father, mother, +and son, type of the family; or Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, the +three great elements; these outward and visible expressions lose +force and significance, making place for that Law of which they +are the rude exponents. The marvellous spread of Spiritualism, +whose god is the UNKNOWABLE, and whose prophet was Swedenborg, is +but the polished form of the Mpongwe Ibambo and Ilogo; the +beneficent phantasms have succeeded to the malevolent ghosts, the +shadowy deities of man's childhood; as the God of Love formerly +took the place of the God of Fear. The future of Spiritualism, +which may be defined as "Hades with Progress," is making serious +inroads upon the coarse belief, worthy of the barbarous and the +middle ages, in an eternity of punishment, easily expressed by +everlasting fire, and in ineffable joys, which no one has ever +successfully expressed. The ghosts of our childhood have now +become bonâ fide objective beings, who rap, raise tables, display +fireworks, rain flowers, and brew tea. We explain by "levitation" +the riding of the witch upon the broom-stick to the Sabbath; we +can no longer refuse credence to Canidia and all her spells. And +the very vagueness of the modern faith serves to assimilate it +the more to its most ancient forms, one of which we are studying +upon the Gaboon River. + +The missionary returning from Africa is often asked what is the +religion of the people? If an exact man, he will answer, "I don't +know." And how can he know when the people themselves, even the +princes and priests, are ignorant of it? A missionary of twenty +years' standing in West Africa, an able and conscientious student +withal, assured me that during the early part of his career he +had given much time to collecting and collating, under +intelligent native superintendence, negro traditions and +religion. He presently found that no two men thought alike upon +any single subject: I need hardly say that he gave up in despair +a work hopeless as psychology, the mere study of the individual. + +Fetishism, I believe, is held by the orthodox to be a degradation +of the pure and primitive "Adamical dispensation," even as the +negro has been supposed to represent the accursed and degraded +descendants of Ham and Canaan. I cannot but look upon it as the +first dawn of a faith in things not seen. And it must be studied +by casting off all our preconceived ideas. For instance, Africans +believe, not in soul nor in spirit, but in ghost; when they +called M. du Chaillu a "Mbwiri," they meant that the white man +had been bleached by the grave as Dante had been darkened by his +visit below, and consequently he was a subject of fear and awe. +They have a material, evanescent, intelligible future, not an +immaterial, incomprehensible eternity; the ghost endures only for +awhile and perishes like the memory of the little-great name. +Hence the ignoble dread in East and West Africa of a death which +leads to a shadowy world, and eventually to utter annihilation. +Seeing nought beyond the present-future, there is no hope for +them in the grave; they wail and sorrow with a burden of despair. +"Ame-kwisha"--he is finished--is the East African's last word +concerning kinsman and friend. "All is done for ever," sing the +West Africans. Any allusion to loss of life turns their black +skins blue; "Yes," they exclaim, "it is bad to die, to leave +house and home, wife and children; no more to wear soft cloth, +nor eat meat, nor "drink" tobacco, and rum." "Never speak of +that" the moribund will exclaim with a shudder; such is the ever- +present horror of their dreadful and dreary times of sickness, +always aggravated by suspicions of witchcraft, the only cause +which their imperfect knowledge of physics can assign to death-- +even Van Helmont asserted, "Deus non fecit mortem." The peoples, +who, like those of Dahome, have a distinct future world, have +borrowed it, I cannot help thinking, from Egypt. And when an +African chief said in my presence to a Yahoo-like naval officer, +"When so be I die, I come up for white man! When so be you die, +you come up for monkey!" my suspicion is that he had distorted +the doctrine of some missionary. Man would hardly have a future +without a distinct priestly class whose interest it is to teach +"another and a better,"--or a worse. + +Certain missionaries in the Gaboon River have detected evidences +of Judaism amongst the Mpongwe, which deserve notice but which +hardly require detailed refutation. 1. Circumcision, even on the +eighth day as amongst the Efik of the old Calabar River; but this +is a familiar custom borrowed from Egypt by the Semites; it is +done in a multitude of ways, which are limited only by necessity; +the resemblance of the Mpongwe rite to that of the Jews, though +remarkable, is purely accidental. 2. The division of tribes into +separate families and frequently into the number twelve; but this +again appears fortuitous; almost all the West African people have +some such division, and they range upwards from three, as amongst +the Kru-men, the Gallas, the Wakwafi,and the Wanyika.[FN#11] 3. +Exogamy or the rigid interdiction of marriage between clans and +families nearly related; here again the Hindu and the Somal +observe the custom rigidly, whilst the Jews and Arabs have ever +taken to wife their first cousins. 4. Sacrifices with blood- +sprinkling upon altars and door-posts; a superstition almost +universal, found in Peru and Mexico as in Palestine, preserved in +Ashanti and probably borrowed by the Hebrews from the African +Egyptians. 5. The formal and ceremonial observance of new moons; +but the Wanyamwezi and other tribes also hail the appearance of +the lesser light, like the Moslems, who, when they sight the +Hilal (crescent), ejaculate a short prayer for blessings +throughout the month which it ushers in. 6. A specified time of +mourning for the dead (common to all barbarians as to civilized +races), during which their survivors wear soiled clothes (an +instinctive sign of grief, as fine dresses are of joy), and shave +their heads (doubtless done to make some difference from every- +day times), accompanied with ceremonial purifications (what +ancient people has not had some such whim?). 7. The system of +Runda or forbidden meats; but every traveller has found this +practice in South as in East Africa, and I noticed it among the +Somal who, even when starving, will not touch fish nor fowl. +Briefly, external resemblances and coincidences like these could +be made to establish cousinhood between a cockney and a cockatoo; +possibly such discovery of Judaism dates from the days about +1840, when men were mad to find the "Lost Tribes," as if they had +not quite enough to do with the two which remain to them. + +The Mpongwe and their neighbours have advanced a long step beyond +their black brethren in Eastern Africa. No longer contented with +mere Fetishes, the Egyptian charms in which the dreaded ghost +"sits,"[FN#12] meaning, is "bound," they have invented idols, a +manifest advance toward that polytheism and pantheism which lead +through a triad and duad of deities to monotheism, the finial of +the spiritual edifice. In Eastern Africa I know but one people, +the Wanyika near Mombasah, who have certain images called +"Kisukas;" they declare that this great medicine, never shown to +Europeans, came from the West, and Andrew Battel (1600) found +idols amongst the people whom he calls Giagas or Jagas, meaning +Congoese chiefs. Moreover, the Gaboon pagans lodge their idols. +Behind each larger establishment there is a dwarf hut, the +miniature of a dwelling-place, carefully closed; I thought these +were offices, but Hotaloya Andrews taught me otherwise. He called +them in his broken English "Compass-houses," a literal +translation of "Nágo Mbwiri," and, sturdily refusing me +admittance, left me as wise as before. The reason afterwards +proved to be that "Ologo he kill man too much." + +I presently found out that he called my pocket compass, "Mbwiri," +a very vague and comprehensive word. It represents in the highest +signification the Columbian Manitou, and thus men talk of the +Mbwiri of a tree or a river; as will presently be seen, it is +also applied to a tutelar god; and I have shown how it means a +ghost. In "Nágo Mbwiri" the sense is an idol, an object of +worship, a "medicine" as the North-American Indians say, in +contradistinction to Munda, a grigri, talisman, or charm. Every +Mpongwe, woman as well as man, has some Mbwiri to which offerings +are made in times of misfortune, sickness, or danger. I +afterwards managed to enter one of these rude and embryonal +temples so carefully shut. Behind the little door of matting is a +tall threshold of board; a bench lines the far end, and in the +centre stands "Ologo," a rude imitation of a human figure, with a +gum-torch planted in the ground before it ready for burnt +offerings. To the walls are suspended sundry mystic implements, +especially basins, smeared with red and white chalk-mixture, and +wooden crescents decorated with beads and ribbons. + +During worship certain objects are placed before the Joss, the +suppliant at the same time jangling and shaking the Ncheke a rude +beginning of the bell, the gong, the rattle, and the instruments +played before idols by more advanced peoples. It is a piece of +wood, hour-glass-shaped but flat, and some six inches and a half +long; the girth of the waist is five inches, and about three more +round the ends. The wood is cut away, leaving rude and uneven +raised bands horizontally striped with white, black, and red. Two +brass wires are stretched across the upper and lower breadth, and +each is provided with a ring or hinge holding four or five strips +of wire acting as clappers. + +This "wicker-work rattle to drive the devil out" (M. du Chaillu, +chap, xxvi.) is called by the Mpongwe "Soke," and serves only, +like that of the Dahomans and the Ashantis (Bowdich, 364) for +dancing and merriment. The South American Maraca was the sole +object of worship known to the Tupi or Brazilian "Indians." +[FN#13] + +The beliefs and superstitions popularly attributed to the Mpongwe +are these. They are not without that which we call a First Cause, +and they name it Anyambia, which missionary philologists consider +a contraction of Aninla, spirit (?), and Mbia, good. M. du +Chaillu everywhere confounds Anyambía, or, as he writes the word, +"Aniambié," with Inyemba, a witch, to bewitch being "punga +inyemba." Mr. W. Winwood Reade seems to make Anyambía a +mysterious word, as was Jehovah after the date of the Moabite +stone. Like the Brahm of the Hindus, the god of Epicurus and +Confucius, and the Akárana-Zaman or Endless Time of the Guebres, +Anyambia is a vague being, a vox et prćterea nihil, without +personality, too high and too remote for interference in human +affairs, therefore not addressed in prayer, never represented by +the human form, never lodged in temples. Under this "unknown God" +are two chief agencies, working partners who manage the business +of the world, and who effect what the civilized call +"Providence." Mbwírí here becomes the Osiris, Jove, Hormuzd or +Good God, the Vishnu, or Preserver, a tutelar deity, a Lar, a +guardian. Onyámbe is the Bad God, Typhon, Vejovis, the Ahriman or +Semitic devil; Shiva the Destroyer, the third person of the Aryan +triad; and his name is never mentioned but with bated breath. +They have not only fear of, but also a higher respect for him +than for the giver of good, so difficult is it for the child- +man's mind to connect the ideas of benignity and power. He would +harm if he could, ergo so would his god. I once hesitated to +believe that these rude people had arrived at the notion of +duality, at the Manichaeanism which caused Mr. Mill (sen.) +surprise that no one had revived it in his time; at an idea so +philosophical, which leads directly to the ne plus ultra of +faith, El Wahdaníyyeh or Monotheism. Nor should I have credited +them with so logical an apparatus for the regimen of the +universe, or so stout-hearted an attempt to solve the eternal +riddle of good and evil. But the same belief also exists amongst +the Congoese tribes, and even in the debased races of the Niger. +Captain William Alien ("Niger Expedition," i. 227) thus records +the effect when, at the request of the commissioners, Herr Schon, +the missionary, began stating to King Obi the difference between +the Christian religion and heathenism: + +"Herr Schön. There is but one God. + +"King Obi. I always understood there were two," &c. + +The Mpongwe "Mwetye" is a branch of male freemasonry into which +women and strangers are never initiated. The Bakele and Shekyani, +according to "Western Africa" (Wilson, pp. 391-2), consider it a +"Great Spirit." Nothing is more common amongst adjoining negro +tribes than to annex one another's superstitions, completely +changing, withal, their significance. "Ovengwá" is a vampire, the +apparition of a dead man; tall as a tree, always winking and +clearly seen, which is not the case with the Ibámbo and Ilogo, +plurals of Obambo and Ologo. These are vulgar ghosts of the +departed, the causes of "possession," disease and death; they are +propitiated by various rites, and everywhere they are worshipped +in private. Mr. Wilson opines that the "Obambo are the spirits of +the ancestors of the people, and Inlâgâ are the spirits of +strangers and have come from a distance," but this was probably +an individual tenet. The Mumbo-Jumbo of the Mandengas; the Semo +of the Súsús; the Tassau or "Purrah-devil" of the Mendis; the +Egugun of the Egbas; the Egbo of the Duallas; and the Mwetye and +Ukukwe of the Bakele, is represented in Pongo-land by the Ndá, +which is an order of the young men. Ndá dwells in the woods and +comes forth only by night bundled up in dry plantain +leaves[FN#14] and treading on tall stilts; he precedes free adult +males who parade the streets with dance and song. The women and +children fly at the approach of this devil on two sticks, and +with reason: every peccadillo is punished with a merciless +thrashing. The institution is intended to keep in order the +weaker sex, the young and the "chattels:" Ndá has tried visiting +white men and missionaries, but his visits have not been a +success. + +The civilized man would be apt to imagine that these wild African +fetishists are easily converted to a "purer creed." The contrary +is everywhere and absolutely the case; their faith is a web woven +with threads of iron. The negro finds it almost impossible to rid +himself of his belief; the spiritual despotism is the expression +of his organization, a part of himself. Progressive races, on the +other hand, can throw off or exchange every part of their +religion, except perhaps the remnant of original and natural +belief in things unseen--in fact, the Fetishist portion, such as +ghost-existence and veneration of material objects, places, and +things. I might instance the Protestant missionary who, while +deriding the holy places at Jerusalem, considers the "Cedars of +Lebanon" sacred things, and sternly forbids travellers to gather +the cones. + +The stereotyped African answer to Europeans ridiculing these +institutions, including wizard-spearing and witch-burning is, +"There may be no magic, though I see there is, among you whites. +But we blacks have known many men who have been bewitched and +died." Even in Asia, whenever I spoke contemptuously to a Moslem +of his Jinns, or to a Hindu of his Rákshasa, the rejoinder +invariably was, "You white men are by nature so hot that even our +devils fear you." + +Witchcraft, which has by no means thoroughly disappeared from +Europe, maintains firm hold upon the African brain. The idea is +found amongst Christians, for instance, the "reduced Indians" of +the Amazonas River; and it is evidently at the bottom of that +widely spread superstition, the "evil eye," which remains +throughout Southern Europe as strong as it was in the days of +Pliny. As amongst barbarians generally, no misfortune happens, no +accident occurs, no illness nor death can take place without the +agency of wizard or witch. There is nothing more odious than this +crime; it is hostile to God and man, and it must be expiated by +death in the most terrible tortures. Metamorphosis is a common +art amongst Mpongwe magicians: this vulgar materialism, of which +Ovid sang, must not be confounded with the poetical Hindu +metempsychosis or transmigration of souls which explains +empirically certain physiological mysteries. Here the adept +naturally becomes a gorilla or a leopard, as he would be a lion +in South Africa, a hyena in Abyssinia and the Somali country, and +a loup-garou in Brittany.[FN#15] + +The poison ordeal is a necessary corollary to witchcraft. The +plant most used by the Oganga (medicine man) is a small red +rooted shrub, not unlike a hazel bush, and called Ikázyá or +Ikájá. Mr. Wilson (p. 225) writes "Nkazya:" Battel (loc. cit. +334) terms the root "Imbando," a corruption of Mbundú. M. du +Chaillu (chap. xv.) gives an illustration of the "Mboundou leaf" +(half size): Professor John Torrey believes the active principle +to be a vegeto-alkali of the Strychnos group, but the symptoms do +not seem to bear out the conjecture. The Mpongwe told me that the +poison was named either Mbundú or Olondá (nut) werere--perhaps +this was what is popularly called "a sell." Mbundú is the +decoction of the scraped bark which corresponds with the "Sassy- +water" of the northern maritime tribes. The accused, after +drinking the potion, is ordered to step over sticks of the same +plant, which are placed a pace apart. If the man be affected, he +raises his foot like a horse with string-halt, and this convicts +him of the foul crime. Of course there is some antidote, as the +medicine-man himself drinks large draughts of his own stuff: in +Old Calabar River for instance, Mithridates boils the poison-nut; +but Europeans could not, and natives would not, tell me what the +Gaboon "dodge" is. According to vulgar Africans, all test-poisons +are sentient and reasoning beings, who search the criminal's +stomach, that is his heart, and who find out the deep hidden sin; +hence the people shout, "If they are wizards, let it kill them; +if they are innocent, let it go forth!" Moreover, the detected +murderer is considered a bungler who has fallen into the pit dug +for his brother. Doubtless many innocent lives have been lost by +this superstition. But there is reason in the order, "Thou shalt +not suffer a witch to live," without having recourse to the +supernaturalisms and preternaturalisms, which have unobligingly +disappeared when Science most wants them. Sorcery and poison are +as closely united as the "Black Nightingales," and it evidently +differs little whether I slay a man with my sword or I destroy +him by the slow and certain torture of a mind diseased. + +The Mpongwe have also some peculiarities in their notions of +justice. If a man murder another, the criminal is put to death, +not by the nearest of kin, as amongst the Arabs and almost all +wild people, but by the whole community; this already shows an +advanced appreciation of the act and its bearings. The penalty is +either drowning or burning alive: except in the case of a chief +or a very rich man, little or no difference is made between +wilful murder, justifiable homicide, and accidental manslaughter- +-the reason of this, say their jurists, is to make people more +careful. Here, again, we find a sense of the sanctity of life the +reverse of barbarous. Cutting and maiming are punished by the +fine of a slave. + +And now briefly to resume the character of the Mpongwe, a nervous +and excitable race of negroes. The men are deficient in courage, +as the women are in chastity, and neither sex has a tincture of +what we call morality. To commercial shrewdness and eagerness +they add exceptional greed of gain and rascality; foreign rum and +tobacco, dress and ornaments, arms and ammunition have been +necessaries to them; they will have them, and, unless they can +supply themselves by licit, they naturally fly to illicit means. +Yet, despite threats of poison and charges of witchcraft, they +have arrived at an inkling of the dogma that "honesty is the best +policy:" the East African has never dreamed it in the moments of +his wildest imagination. Pre-eminent liars, they are, curious to +say, often deceived by the falsehoods of others, and they fairly +illustrate the somewhat paradoxical proverb: + + "He who hates truth shall be the dupe of lies." + +Unblushing mendicants, cunning and calculating, their obstinacy +is remarkable; yet, as we often find the African, they are at the +same time irresolute in the extreme. Their virtues are vivacity, +mental activity, acute observation, sociability, politeness, and +hospitality: the fact that a white man can wander single-handed +through the country shows a kindly nature. The brightest spot in +their character is an abnormal development of adhesiveness, +popularly called affection; it is somewhat tempered by capricious +ruffianism, as in children; yet it entitles them to the gratítude +of travellers. + +The language of the Mpongwe has been fairly studied. T. Edward +Bowdich ("Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee," London, +Murray, 1819) when leaving the West Coast for England, touched at +the Gaboon in a trading vessel, and visited Naango (King George's +Town), on Abaaga Creek, which he places fifty miles up stream. He +first gave (Appendix VI.) a list of the Mpongwe numerals. In 1847 +the "Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M." Gaboon Mission, Western +Africa, printed a "Grammar of the Mpongwe Language, with +Vocabularies" (New York,Snowden and Pratt, Vesey Street), perhaps +a little prematurely; it is the first of the four dialects on +this part of the coast reduced to system by the American +Missionaries, especially by the Rev. Mr. Leighton Wilson, the +others being Bakele, Benga, and Fán. + +In 1856, the same gentleman, who had taken the chief part in the +first publication, made an able abstract and a comparison with +the Grebo and Mandenga tongues ("Western Africa," part iv. chap. +iv.). M. du Chaillu further abridged this abridgement in his +Appendix without owning his authority, and in changing the +examples he did all possible damage. In the Transactions of the +Ethnological Society of London (part ii. vol. i. new series), he +also gave an abstract, in which he repeats himself. A +"vocabulaire de la langue Ponga" was printed in the "Mémoires de +la Société Ethnologique," tome ii., by M. P. H. Delaporte. + +The other publications known to me are:-- + +1. The Book of Proverbs, translated into the Mpongwe language at +the mission of the A. B. C. F. M., Gaboon, West Africa. New York. +American Bible Society, instituted in the year MDCCCXVI. 1859. + +2. The Books of Genesis, part of Exodus, Proverbs, and Acts, by +the same, printed at the same place and in the same year. + +The missionary explorers of the language, if I may so call them, +at once saw that it belongs to the great South African family +Sichwáná, Zulu, Kisawahíli, Mbundo (Congoese), Fiote, and others, +whose characteristics are polysyllabism, inflection by systematic +prefixes, and an alliteration, the mystery of whose reciprocal +letters is theoretically explained by a euphony in many cases +unintelligible, like the modes of Hindú music, to the European +ear.[FN#16] But they naturally fell into the universally accepted +error of asserting "it has no known affinities to any of the +languages north of the Mountains of the Moon," meaning the +equatorial chain which divides the Niger and Nile valleys from +the basin of the Congo. + +This branch has its peculiarities. Like Italian--the coquette who +grants her smiles to many, her favours to few--one of the easiest +to understand and to speak a little, it is very difficult to +master. Whilst every native child can thread its way safely +through its intricate, elaborate, and apparently arbitrary +variations, the people comprehend a stranger who blunders over +every sentence. Mr. Wilson thus limits the use of the accent: +"Whilst the Mandenga ("A Grammar of the Mandenga Language," by +the Rev. R. Maxwell Macbriar, London, John Mason) and the Grebo +("Grammar," by the Right Rev. John Payne, D.D. 150, Nassau +Street, New York, 1864), distinguish between similar words, +especially monosyllables, by a certain pitch of voice, the +Mpongwe repel accent, and rely solely upon the clear and distinct +vowel sounds." But I found the negative past, present, and future +forms of verbs wholly dependent upon a change of accent, or +rather of intonation or voice-pitch, which the stranger's ear, +unless acute, will fail to detect. For instance, Mi Taund would +mean "I love;" Mi taundá, "I do not love." The reverend linguist +also asserts that it is almost entirely free from guttural and +nasal sounds; the latter appeared to me as numerous and +complicated as in the Sanskrit. Mr. Wilson could hardly have had +a nice ear, or he would not have written Nchígo "Ntyege," or +Njína "Engena," which gives a thoroughly un-African distinctness +to the initial consonant. + +The adjectival form is archaically expressed by a second and +abstract substantive. This peculiarity is common in the South +African family, as in Ashanti; but, as Bowdich observes, we also +find it in Greek, e.g. <Greek> , "heresies of +destruction" for destructive. Another notable characteristic is +the Mpongwe's fondness for the passive voice, never using, if +possible, the active; for instance, instead of saying, "He was +born thus," he prefers, "The birth that was thus borned by him." +The dialect changes the final as well as the initial syllable, a +process unknown to the purest types of the South African family. +As we advance north we find this phenomenon ever increasing; for +instance in Fernando Po; but the Mpongwe limits the change to +verbs. + +Another distinguishing point of these three Gaboon tongues, as +the Rev. Mr. Mackey observes, is "the surprizing flexibility of +the verb, the almost endless variety of parts regularly derived +from a single root. There are, perhaps, no other languages in the +world that approach them in the variety and extent of the +inflections of the verb, possessing at the same time such rigid +regularity of conjugation and precision of the meaning attached +to each part." It is calculated that the whole number of tenses +or shades of meaning which a Mpongwe radical verb may be made to +express, with the aid of its auxiliary particles, augmentatives, +and negatives--prefixes, infixes, and suffixes--is between twelve +and fifteen hundred, worse than an Arabic triliteral. + +Liquid and eminently harmonious, concise and capable of +contraction, the Mpongwe tongue does not deserve to die out. "The +genius of the language is such that new terms may be introduced +in relation to ethics, metaphysics, and science; even to the +great truths of the Christian religion." + +The main defect is that of the South African languages generally- +-a deficiency of syntax, of gender and case; a want of vigour in +sound; a too great precision of expression, rendering it clumsy +and unwieldy; and an absence of exceptions, which give beauty and +variety to speech. The people have never invented any form of +alphabet, yet the abundance of tale, legend, and proverb which +their dialect contains might repay the trouble of acquiring it. + + + + + + Chapter V. + + To Sánga-Tánga and Back. + + + +My objects in visiting Mbátá, the reader will have understood, +were to shoot a specimen or specimens of the gorilla, and, if +possible, to buy or catch a youngster. Even before landing, the +pilot had assured me that a "baby" was on sale at the Comptoir, +but on inquiry it proved to have died. I was by no means sanguine +of success--when the fight is against Time, the Old Man usually +wins the day. The short limits of my trip would not allow me to +wander beyond the coast and the nearer riverine regions, where +frequent villages and the constant firing of muskets have taught +all wild animals that flight is their only defence; thus, besides +being rare, they must be shy and timid, wary and knowing, "like +an old hedgehog hunted for his grease." The first glance at the +bush suggested, "Surely it is impossible to find big game in such +a land of farms and plantations." + +Those who have shot under such circumstances will readily +understand that everything depends upon "luck;" one man may beat +the forest assiduously and vainly for five or six weeks; another +will be successful on the first day. Thus whilst I, without any +fault of my own, utterly failed in shooting a gorilla, although I +saw him and heard him, and came upon his trail, and found his +mortal spoils, another traveller had hardly landed in the Gaboon +before he was so fortunate as to bring down a fine anthropoid. + +However, as man cannot command success, I was obliged to content +myself with doing all in my power to deserve it. I offered five +dollars, equalling the same number of sovereigns in England, to +every huntsman for every fair shot, and ten dollars for each live +ape. I implicitly obeyed all words of command, and my factotum +Selim Agha was indefatigable in his zeal. Indeed "luck" was dead +against us during the whole of my stay in Gorilla-land. We ran a +fair risk of drowning in the first day's voyage; on the next +march we were knocked down by lightning, and on the last trip I +had a narrow escape from the fall of a giant branch that grazed +my hammock. + +My first "bush" evening was spent in palm-wine, rum, and wassail; +one must begin by humouring Africans, under pain of being +considered a churl; but the inevitable result is, that next day +they will by some pretext or other shirk work to enjoy the +headache. That old villain, "Young Prince," becoming very fou, +hospitably offered me his daughter-in-law Azizeh, Forteune's +second wife; and he was vigorously supported by the Nimrod +himself, who had drawn a horizontal line of white chalk above the +eyebrows, a defence against the Ibambo, those bad ghosts that +cause fevers and sickness. Forteune then hinted that perhaps I +might prefer his daughter--"he be piccanniny; he be all same +woman." Marchandise offerte a le pied coupé, both offers were +declined with, Merci, non! Sporting parties are often made up by +the Messieurs du Plateau, I had been told at the Comptoir; but +such are the fascinations of les petites, that few ever progress +beyond the first village. There was, consequently, wonder in the +land as to what manner of utangáni this one might be. + +It is only fair to own that the ladies endured with great +philosophy the spretć injuria formć, and made no difference in +their behaviour on account of their charms being unappreciated. +Azízeh was a stout and sturdy personage of twenty-five, with +thick wrists and ankles, a very dark skin, and a face rendered +pleasing by good humour. And Azízeh was childless, a sad reproach +in these lands, where progeny forms a man's wealth and a woman's +honour. + +The next day was perforce a halt, as had been expected; moreover, +rains and tornadoes were a reasonable pretext for nursing the +headache. The 21st was also wet and stormy, so Nimrod hid himself +and was not to be found. Then the balivernes began. One Asini, a +Mpongwe from the Plateau, offered to show me a huge gorilla near +his village; in the afternoon he was confronted with "Young +Prince," and he would have blushed scarlet if he could. But he +assured me plaintively that he must lie to live, and, after all, +la prudence des souris n'est pas celle des chats. Before dark, +Forteune appeared, and swore that he had spent the day in the +forest, he had shot at a gorilla, but the gun missed fire--of +course he had slept in a snug hut. + +This last determined me to leave Mbátá; the three Kru-men had +returned; one of them was stationed in charge of the boat, and +next morning we set out at 6 A.M. for Nche Mpolo, the +headquarters of "Young Prince." The well-wooded land was devoid +of fetor, even at that early hour; we passed Ndagola, a fresh +clearing and newly built huts, and then we skirted a deep and +forested depression, upon whose further side lay our bourne. It +promised sand-flies, the prime pest of this region; a tall +amphitheatre of trees on a dune to the west excluded the sea- +breeze, and northwards a swampy hollow was a fine breeding place +for M. Maringouin. + +Nche Mpolo lies some three miles nearly due south of Mbátá; the +single street contains fourteen cottages and two palaver houses. +We were received with distinction by "Young Prince's" daughter, a +huge young woman, whose still huger mamma was from Cape Lopez. +She placed mats upon the bamboo couch under the verandah, brought +water to wash our feet, and put the kettle on that we might have +tea. The sun was fiery and the day sultry; my companions +complained of fatigue after a two hours' walk, and then busied +themselves ostentatiously in cleaning their muskets, in +collecting provisions, and in appointing certain bushmen to meet +us on the morrow. Before dark Hotaloya returned to his village, +declaring that he could find no bed at his papa's. Probably the +uxorious youth had been ordered home by his pet wife, who had +once lived with a European trader, who spoke a few words of +English, and who cooked with peculiar skill,--the solid merits of +a "superior person." + +At dawn on the 23rd we set out for the southern bush, Selim, +Forteune, and a carrier Kru-man--to carry nothing. We passed +through a fresh clearing, we traversed another village (three +within five miles!), we crossed a bad bridge and a clear stream +flowing to the south-east, and presently we found ourselves deep +in the dew-dripping forest. The leaves no longer crackled crisp +under foot, and the late rains had made the swamps somewhat +odorous. After an hour of cautious walking, listening as we went, +we saw evident signs of Mister Gorilla. Boughs three inches in +diameter strewed the ground; the husks of Ntondo or Ibere (wild +cardamom) had been scattered about, and a huge hare's form of +leaves lay some five yards from the tree where Forteune declared +that Mistress and Master Gorilla had passed the night, +Paterfamilias keeping watch below. A little beyond we were shown +a spot where two males had been fighting a duel, or where a +couple had been indulging in dalliance sweet; the prints were 8 +inches long and 6 across the huge round toes; whilst the hinder +hand appeared almost bifurcate, the thumb forming nearly a half. +This is explained in the "Gorilla Book" (chap, xx.): "Only the +ball of the foot, and that thumb which answers to our great toe, +seem to touch the ground." + +Presently we came upon the five bushmen who had been appointed to +meet us. They were a queer-looking lot, with wild, unsteady eyes, +receding brows, horizontal noses, and projecting muzzles; the +cranium and the features seemed disposed nearly at a right angle, +giving them a peculiar baboon-like semblance. Each had his water- +gourd and his flint-gun, the lock protected by a cover of +monkey's skin or wild cow's hide, whilst gibčcieres and +ammunition-bags of grass-cloth hung from their shoulders. There +were also two boys with native axes, small iron triangles, whose +points passed through knob-sticks; these were to fell the trees +in which our game might take refuge, and possibly they might have +done so in a week. A few minutes with this party convinced me +that I was wilfully wasting time; they would not separate, and +they talked so loud that game would be startled a mile off. I +proposed that they should station me in a likely place, form a +circle, and drive up what was in it--they were far above acting +beaters after that fashion. So we dismissed them and dispersed +about the bush. My factotum shot a fine Mboko (Siurus +eborivorus), 2 ft. 2 in. total length: the people declare that +this squirrel gnaws ivory, whence its name. I had heard of it in +East and Central Africa, but the tale appeared fabulous: here it +is very common, half a dozen will be seen during the day; it has +great vitality, and it will escape after severe wounds. The +bushmen also brought a Shoke (Colubus Satanas), a small black +monkey, remarkably large limbed: the little unfortunate was +timid, but not vicious; it worried itself to death on the next +day. They also showed me the head of the Njíwo antelope, which M. +du Chaillu (chap, xii.) describes as "a singular animal of the +size of a donkey, with shorter legs, no horns, and black, with a +yellow spot on the back."[FN#17] + +In the afternoon Selim went to fetch my arsenical soap from +Mbátá, where I had left it en Fitiché: as long as that "bad +medicine" was within Hotaloya's "ben," no one would dare to +meddle with my goods. Forteune walked in very tired about sunset. +He had now added streaks of red to the white chalk upon his face, +arms, and breast, for he suspected, we were assured, witchcraft. +I told him to get ready for a march on the morrow to the Shekyáni +country, lying south-east, but he begged so hard, and he seemed +so assured of showing sport, that the design was deferred, and +again "perdidi diem." + +Monday the 24th was a Black Monday, sultry and thundery. We went +to the bush, and once more we returned, disgusted by the +chattering of the wild men. As we discussed our plans for moving, +Forteune threw cold water upon every proposal. This puzzled me, +and the difficulty was to draw his secret. At last Kángá, a black +youth, who, being one of the family, had attached himself +uninvited to the party, blurted out in bad French that the +Shekyáni chief, to whose settlement we were bound, had left for +the interior, and that the village women would not, or rather +could not, give us "chop." This was a settler to my Mpongwe +friends. Nimrod, however, declared that some bushmen had lately +seen several gorillas in the direction of Sánga-Tánga, two +marches down coast from Mbátá, and about half-way to Cape Lopez. +I did not believe a word of his intelligence; the direction is +south-west instead of south-east, towards the sea instead of into +the forest. But it was evidently hopeless to seek for the "ole +man" in these parts, and I had long been anxious to see Sánga- +Tánga; we therefore agreed nem. con. to set out before dawn on +the next day. + +But the next day dawned, and the sun rose high, and the world was +well heated and aired before the bushmen condescended to appear. +After a two hours' battle with the sand-flies we set off at 7.35 +A.M., Forteune, Hotaloya, and Kángá at the head of the +musketeers, one of them also carrying an axe; sixteen guns form a +strong party for these regions. The viol (nchámbí) was not +allowed to hang mute in Mbata's halls, this instrument or the +drum must never be neglected in African travel; its melody at the +halt and the camp-fire are to the negro what private theatricals +are to the European sailor half fossilized in the frozen seas. +Our specimen was strung with thin cords made from the fibre of a +lliana; I was shown this growth, which looked much like a +convolvulus. The people have a long list of instruments, and +their music, though monotonous, is soft and plaintive: Bowdich +gives a specimen of it ("Sketch of Gaboon," p. 449), and of a +bard who seems to have been somewhat more frenzied than most +poets. Captain Allen (iii. 398) speaks of a harp at Bimbia +(Camarones) tightly strung with the hard fibre of some creeping +plant. The Bákele harp (M. du Chaillu, chap, xvi.) is called +Ngombi; the handle opposite the bow often has a carved face, and +it might be a beginning of the article used by civilized Europe-- +Wales for instance. + +The path plunged westward into the bush, spanned a dirty and +grass-grown plantation of bananas, dived under thorn tunnels and +arches of bush, and crossed six nullahs, Neropotamoi, then dry, +but full of water on our return. The ant-nests were those of +Yoruba and the Mendi country; not the tall, steepled edifices +built by the termites with yellow clay, as in Eastern Africa, but +an eruption of blue-black, hard-dried mud and mucus, resembling +the miniature pagodas, policeman's lanterns, mushrooms, or +umbrellas one or two feet high, here single, there double, common +in Ashanti and Congo-land. Like most of their congeners, the +animals die when exposed to the sun. The "Bashikouay" and +Nchounou (Nchu'u) of M. du Chaillu are the common "driver-ant" of +West Africa (Termes bellicosa). It is little feared in the +Gaboon; when its armies attack the mission-houses, they are +easily stopped by lighting spirits of turpentine, or by a strew +of quicklime, which combines with the formic acid. The different +species are described in "Palm Land" and "Western Africa" (pp. +369-373), from which even the account of the "tubular bridge" is +taken--Mr. Wilson less sensationally calls it what it is, a "live +raft." The most common are the Nkázeze, a large reddish and fetid +ant, which is harmless to man; the Njenge, a smaller red species, +and the Ibimbízí, whose bite is painful. + +We passed the mortal remains of a gorilla lashed to a pole; the +most interesting parts had been sold to Mr. R. B. N. Walker, and +were on their way to England. I was shown for the first time the +Ndámbo, or Ndambié (Bowdich, "Olamboo"), which gives the india +rubber of commerce; it is not a fat-leaved fig-tree (Ficus +elastica of Asia) nor aeuphorbia (Siphonia elastica), as in South +America, but a large climbing ficus, a cable thick as a man's leg +crossing the path, and "swarming up" to the top of the tallest +boles; the yellow fruit is tart and pleasant to the taste. In +1817 the style of collecting the gum (olamboo) was to spread with +a knife the glutinous milk as it oozed from the tree over the +shaved breast and arms like a plaister; it was then taken off, +rolled up in balls to play with or stretched over drums, no other +use being known. The Rev. Mr. Wilson declares (chap. ii.) that he +"first discovered the gum elastic, which has been procured, as +yet, only at Corisco, Gabun, and Kama." In 1854, Mr. Thompson (p. +112) found it in the Mendi country, near Sherbro; he describes it +as a vine with dense bark, which yields the gum when hacked, and +which becomes soft and porous when old. The juice is milk-white, +thick, and glutinous, soon stiffening, darkening, and hardening +without aid of art. I should like to see the raw material tried +for making waterproofs in the tropics, where the best vulcanized +articles never last. The Ndámbo tree has been traced a hundred +miles inland from the Liberian Coast; that of the Gallinas and +Sherbro is the best; at St. Paul's River it is not bad; but on +the Junk River it is sticky and little prized. The difficulty +everywhere is to make the negro collect it, and, when he does, to +sell it un-adulterated: in East Africa he uses the small branches +of the ficus for flogging canes, but will not take the trouble +even to hack the "Mpira" tree. + + +At a brook of the sweetest water, purling over the cleanest and +brightest of golden sands, we filled the canteens, this being the +last opportunity for some time. Forest walks are thirsty work +during the hot season; the air is close, fetid, and damp with +mire; the sea-breeze has no power to enter, and perspiration +streams from every pore. After heavy rains it is still worse, the +surface of the land is changed, and paths become lines of dark +puddles; the nullahs, before dry, roll muddy, dark-brown streams, +and their mouths streak the sea with froth and scum. Hardly a +living object meets the eye, and only the loud, whirring flight +of some large bird breaks the dreary silence. The music of the +surf now sounded like the song of the sea-shell as we crossed +another rough prism of stone and bush, whose counter-slope fell +gently into a sand-flat overgrown with Ipomaa and other bright +flowering plants. After walking about an hour (equal to 2.50 +miles) between south and south-west, we saluted the pleasant +aspect of <Greek> with a general cheer. Northwards lay +Point Ipizarala, southways Nyonye, both looking like tree-clumps +rising from the waves. I could not sufficiently admire, and I +shall never forget the exquisite loveliness of land and sea; the +graceful curve of the beach, a hundred feet broad, fining +imperceptibly away till lost in the convexity of waters. The +morning sun, half way to the zenith, burned bright in a cloudless +sky, whilst in the east and west distant banks of purple mist +coloured the liquid plain with a cool green-blue, a celadon tint +that reposed the eye and the brain. The porpoise raised in sport +his dark, glistening back to the light of day, and plunged into +the cool depths as if playing off the "amate sponde" of the +Mediterranean; and sandpipers and curlews, the latter wild as +ever, paced the smooth, pure floor. The shoreline was backed by a +dark vegetable wall, here and there broken and fronted by single +trees, white mangroves tightly corded down, and raised on stilted +roots high above the tide. Between wood and wave lay powdered +sandstone of lively yellow, mixed with bright white quartz and +débris of pink shells. Upon the classic shores of Greece I should +have thought of Poseidon and the Nereids; but the lovely scene +was in unromantic Africa, which breeds no such visions of + + "The fair humanities of old religion." + +Resuming our road, we passed the ruins of an "Olako," the khámbí +of East Africa, a temporary encampment, whose few poles were +still standing under a shady tree. We then came upon a blockaded +lagoon; the sea-water had been imprisoned by a high bank which +the waves had washed up, and it will presently be released by +storms from the south-west. Near the water, even at half-ebb, we +find the floor firm and pleasant; it becomes loose walking at +high tide, and the ribbed banks are fatiguing to ascend and +descend under a hot sun and in reeking air. A seine would have +supplied a man-of-war in a few hours; large turtle is often +turned; in places young ones about the size of a dollar scuttled +towards the sea, and Hotaloya brought a nest of eggs, which, +however, were too high in flavour for the European palate. The +host of crabs lining the water stood alert, watching our +approach, and when we came within a hundred yards they hurried +sideways into the safer sea--the scene reminded me of the days +when, after "tiffin," we used to "már kankrás" on the Clifton +Sands in the Unhappy Valley. + +Presently we came to a remarkable feature of this coast, the +first specimen of which was seen at Point Ovindo in the Gaboon +River. The Iberian explorers called them "Sernas," fields or +downs, opposed to Corôas, sand-dunes or hills. They are clearings +in the jungle made by Nature's hand, fenced round everywhere, +save on the sea side, by tall walls of dark vegetation.; +averaging perhaps a mile long by 200 yards broad, and broken by +mounds and terraces regular as if worked by art. These prairies +bear a green sward, seldom taller than three feet, and now ready +for the fire,--here and there the verdure is dotted by a tree or +two. It is universally asserted that they cannot be cultivated; +and, if this be true, the cause would be worth investigating. In +some places they are perfectly level, and almost flush with the +sea; in others they swell gently to perhaps 100 feet; in other +parts, again, they look like scarps and earth-works, remarkably +resembling the lower parasitic craters of a huge volcano; and +here and there they are pitted with sinks like the sea-board of +Loango. These savannahs (savánas) add an indescribable charm to +the Gaboon Coast, especially when the morning and evening suns +strike them with slanting rays, and compel them to stand out +distinct from the setting of eternal emerald. The aspect of the +downs is civilized as the banks of the Solent; and the coast +wants nothing to complete the "fine, quiet old-country picture in +the wilds of Africa" but herds of kine grazing upon leas shining +with a golden glory, or a country seat, backed by the noble +virgin forest, such a bosquet as Europe never knew. + +After another hour's walk, which carried us about three miles, we +sighted in one of these prairillons a clump of seventeen huts. A +negro in European clothes, after prospecting the party through a +ship's glass, probably the gift of some slaver, came down to meet +us, and led the way to his "town." Finding his guest an +Englishman, the host, who spoke a few words of French and +Portuguese, at once began to talk of his "summer gîte" where +pirogues were cut out, and boats were built; there were indeed +some signs of this industrie, but all things wore the true +Barracoon aspect. Two very fine girls were hid behind the huts, +but did not escape my factotum's sharp eyes; and several of the +doors were carefully padlocked: the pretty faces had been removed +when he returned. This coast does an active retail business with +Săo Thomé and the Ilha do Principe,--about Cape Lopez the "ebony +trade" still, I hear, flourishes on a small scale. + +During our halt for breakfast at the barracoon, we were visited +by Petit Denis, a son of the old king. His village is marked upon +the charts some four miles south-south-east of his father's; but +at this season all the royalties, we are assured, affect the sea- +shore. He was dressed in the usual loin-wrap, under a broadcloth +coat, with the French official buttons. Leading me mysteriously +aside, he showed certificates from the officials at Le Plateau, +dating from 1859, recommending him strongly as a shipbroker for +collecting émigrants libres, and significantly adding, les nčgres +ne manquent pas. Petit Denis's face was a study when I told him +that, being an Englishman, a dozen negroes were not worth to me a +single "Njína." Slave cargoes of some eight to ten head are +easily canoed down the rivers, and embarked in schooners for the +islands: the latter sadly want hands, and should be assisted in +setting on foot a system of temporary immigration. + +At 10.45 A.M. we resumed our march. The fiery sun had sublimated +black clouds, the northeast quarter looked ugly, and I wished to +be housed before the storm burst. The coast appeared populous; we +met many bushmen, who were perfectly civil, and showed no fear, +although some of them had probably never seen a white face. All +were armed with muskets, and carried the usual hunting talismans, +horns and iron or brass bells, hanging from the neck before and +behind. We crossed four sweet-water brooks, which, draining the +high banks, flowed fast and clear down cuts of loose, stratified +sand, sometimes five feet deep: the mouths opened to the north- +west, owing to the set of the current from the south-west, part +of the great Atlantic circulation running from the Antarctic to +the equator. Those which are not bridged with fallen trees must +be swum during the rains, as the water is often waist-deep. Many +streamlets, shown by their feathery fringes of bright green palm, +run along the shore before finding an outlet; they are excellent +bathing places, where the salt water can be washed off the skin. +The sea is delightfully tepid, but it is not without risk,--it +becomes deep within biscuit-toss, there is a strong under-tow, +and occasionally an ugly triangular fin may be seen cruizing +about in unpleasant proximity. As our naked feet began to +blister, we suddenly turned to the left, away from the sea; and, +after crossing about 100 yards of prairillon, one of the +prettiest of its kind, we found ourselves at Bwámánge, the +village of King Lángobúmo. It was then noon, and we had walked +about three hours and a half in a general south-south-west +direction. + +His majesty's hut was at the entrance of the village, which +numbered five scattered and unwalled sheds. He at once led us to +his house, a large bamboo hall, with several inner sleeping rooms +for the "Harím;" placed couch, chair, and table, the civilization +of the slave-trade; brought wife No. 1 to shake hands, directed a +fowl to be killed, and, sitting down, asked us the news in +French. As a return for our information, he told us that the +Gorilla was everywhere to be found, even in the bush behind his +town. The rain coming down heavily, I was persuaded to pass the +night there, the king offering to beat the bush with us, to +engage hunters, and to find a canoe which would carry the party +to Sánga-Tánga, landing us at all the likely places. I agreed the +more willingly to the suggestion of a cruize, as my Mpongwe +fashionables, like the Congoese, and unlike the Yorubans, proved +to be bad and untrained walkers; they complained of sore feet, +and they were always anticipating attacks of fever. + +When the delicious sea-breeze had tempered the heat, we set out +for the forest, and passed the afternoon in acquiring a certainty +that we had again been "done." However, we saw the new guides, +and supplied them with ammunition for the next day. The evening +was still and close; the Ifúrú (sandflies) and the Nchúná (a red +gad-fly) were troublesome as usual, and at night the mosquitoes +phlebotomized us till we hailed the dawn.[FN#18] A delightful +bath of salt followed by fresh water, effectually quenched the +fiery irritation of these immundicities. + +Wednesday, as we might have expected, was wasted, although the +cool and cloudy weather was perfection for a cruize. As we sat +waiting for a boat, a youth rushed in breathless, reporting that +he had just seen an "ole man gorilla" sitting in a tree hard by. +I followed him incredulously at first, but presently the crashing +of boughs and distant grunts, somewhat like huhh! huhh! huhh! +caused immense excitement. After half a day's hard work, which +resulted in nothing, I returned to Bwámánge, and met the "boat- +king," whose capital was an adjacent settlement of three huts. He +was in rags, and my diary might have recorded, Reçu un roi dans +un trčs fichu état. He was accompanied by a young wife, with a +huge toupel, and a gang of slaves, who sat down and stared till +their eyes blinked and watered. For the loan of his old canoe he +asked the moderate sum of fifteen dollars per diem, which finally +fell to two dollars; but there was a suspicious reservation anent +oars, paddles and rudder, mast and sail. + +Meanwhile the sanguine Selim compelled his guide to keep moving +in the direction of the gorilla's grunt, and explaining his +reluctance to advance by the fear of meeting the brute in the +dark. Savage Africa, however, had as usual the better of the +game, and showed his 'cuteness by planting my factotum in mud +thigh-deep. After dark Forteune returned. He had fired at a huge +njína, but this time the cap had snapped. As the monster was +close, and had shown signs of wrath, we were expected to +congratulate Nimrod on his escape. Kindly observe the neat +gradations, the artistic sorites of Mpongwe lies. + +At 7.30 A.M. on the next day the loads were placed upon the +crew's heads, and we made for the village, where the boat was +still drawn up. The "monoxyle" was full of green-brown rain +water, the oar-pins were represented by bits of stick, and all +the furniture was wanting. After a time, the owner, duly +summoned, stalked down from his hut, and began remarking that +there was still a "palaver" on the stocks. I replied by paying +him his money, and ordering the craft to be baled and launched. +It was a spectacle to see the bushmen lying upon their bellies, +kicking their heels in the air, and yep-yep-yeping uproariously +when Forteune, their master, begged of them to bear a hand. Dean +Presto might have borrowed from them a hint for his Yahoos. The +threat to empty the Alugu (rum) upon the sand was efficacious. +One by one they rose to work, and in the slowest possible way +were produced five oars, of which one was sprung, a ricketty +rudder, a huge mast, and a sail composed half of matting and half +of holes. At the last moment, the men found that they had no +"chop;" a franc produced two bundles of sweet manioc, good +travelling food, as it can be eaten raw, but about as nutritious +as Norwegian bark. At the last, last moment, Lángobúmo, who was +to accompany us, remembered that he had neither fine coat nor +umbrella,--indispensable for dignity, and highly necessary for +the delicacy of his complexion, which was that of an elderly +buffalo. A lad was started to fetch these articles; and he set +off at a hand-gallop, making me certain that behind the first +corner he would subside into a saunter, and lie down to rest on +reaching the huts. + +Briefly, it was 9 A.M. before we doubled Point Nyonye, which had +now been so long in sight. With wind, tide, and current dead +against us, we hugged the shore where the water is deep. The surf +was breaking in heavy sheets upon a reef or shoal outside, and +giving ample occupation to a hovering flock of fish-eating birds. +Whilst returning over water smooth as glass I observed the +curious effect of the current. Suddenly a huge billow would rear +like a horse, assume the shape of a giant cobra's head, fall +forward in a mass of foam, and subside gently rippling into the +calm surface beyond; the shadowy hollow of the breakers made them +appear to impinge upon a black rock, but when they disappeared +the sea was placid and unbroken as before. This is, in fact, the +typical "roller" of the Gaboon coast--a happy hunting ground for +slavers and a dangerous place for cruizers to attempt. As the +sea-breeze came up strong, the swell would have swamped a +European boat; but our conveyance, shaped like a ship's gig, but +Dalmatian or Dutchman-like in the bows, topped the waves with the +buoyancy of a cork, and answered her helm as the Arab obeys the +bit. To compact grain she added small specific gravity, and, +though stout and thick, she advanced at a speed of which I could +hardly believe her capable. + +Past Nyonye the coast forms another shallow bay, with about ten +miles of chord, in every way a copy of its northern neighbour-- +the same scene of placid beauty, the sea rimmed with opalline +air, pink by contrast with the ultramarine blue; the limpid ether +overhead; the golden sands, and the emerald verdure--a Circe, +however, whose caress is the kiss of death. The curve is bounded +south by Point Dyánye, which appeared to retreat as we advanced. +At 2 P.M., when the marvellous clearness of the sky was troubled +by a tornado forming in the north-east, we turned towards a +little inlet, and, despite the heavy surf, we disembarked without +a ducking. A creek supplied us with pure cold water, a spreading +tree with a roof, and the soft clean shore with the most +luxurious of couches--at 3 P.M. I could hardly persuade myself +that an hour had flown. + +As we approached Dyánye, at last, a village hoisted the usual big +flag on the normal tall pole, and with loud cries ordered us to +land. Lángobúmo, who was at the helm, began obeying, when I +relieved him of his charge. Seeing that our course was unaltered, +a large and well-manned canoe put off, and the rest of the +population walked down shore. I made signs for the stranger not +to approach, when the head man, Angílah, asked me in English what +he had done to offend me, and peremptorily insisted upon my +sleeping at his village. All these places are looking forward to +the blessed day when a trader, especially a white trader, shall +come to dwell amongst the "sons of the soil," and shall fill +their pockets with "trust" money. On every baylet and roadstead +stands the Casa Grande, a large empty bungalow, a factory in +embryo awaiting the Avatar; but, instead of attracting their +"merchant" by collecting wax and honey, rubber and ivory, the +people will not work till he appears. Consequently, here, as in +Angola and in the lowlands of the Brazil, it is a slight to pass +by without a visit; and jealousy, a ruling passion amongst +Africans, suggests that the stranger is bound for another and +rival village. They wish, at any rate, to hear the news, to +gossip half the night, to drink the Utangáni's rum, and to claim +a cloth for escorting him, will he, nill he, to the next +settlement. But what could I do? To indulge native prejudice +would have stretched my cruize to a fortnight; and I had neither +time, supplies, nor stomach for the task. So Lángobúmo was +directed to declare that they had a "wicked white man" on board +who e'en would gang his ane gait, who had no goods but weapons, +and who wanted only to shoot a njína, and to visit Sánga-Tánga, +where his brother "Mpolo" had been. All this was said in a +sneaking, deprecating tone, and the crew, though compelled to ply +their oars, looked their regrets at the exceedingly rude and +unseemly conduct of their Utangáni. Angílah followed chattering +till he had learned all the novelties; at last he dropped aft, +growling much, and promising to receive me at Sánga-Tánga next +morning--not as a friend. On our return, however, he prospected +us from afar with the greatest indifference; we were empty- +handed. There has been change since the days when Lieutenant +Boteler, passing along this shore, was addressed by the canoe- +men, "I say, you mate, you no big rogue? ship no big rogue?" + +At 5 P. M. we weathered Point Dyánye, garnished, like Nyonye, +with a threatening line of breakers; the boat-passage along shore +was about 400 yards wide. Darkness came on shortly after six +o'clock, and the sultry weather began to look ominous, with a +huge, angry, black nimbus discharging itself into the glassy +livid sea northwards. I suggested landing, but Lángobúmo was +positive that the storm had passed westwards, and he objected, +with some reason, that in the outer gloom the boat might be +dashed to pieces. As we had not even a stone for an anchor, the +plea proved, valid. We guided ourselves, by the fitful flashes of +forked and sheet lightning combined, towards a ghostly point, +whose deeper blackness silhouetted it against the shades. +Suddenly the boat's head was turned inland; a huge breaker, +foaming along our gunwales, drove us forwards like the downwards +motion of a "swing-swong," and, before we knew where we were, an +ugly little bar had been crossed on the top of the curling scud. +We could see the forest on both sides, but there was not light +enough to trace the river line; I told Hotaloya to tumble out; +"Plenty shark here, mas'r," was the only answer. We lost nearly +half an hour of most valuable time in pottering and groping +before all had landed. + + +At that moment the rain-clouds burst, and in five minutes after +the first spatter all were wet to the skin. Selim and I stood +close together, trying to light a match, when a sheet of white +fire seemed to be let down from the black sky, passing between us +with a simultaneous thundering crash and rattle, and a sulphurous +smell, as if a battery had been discharged. I saw my factotum +struck down whilst in the act of staggering and falling myself; +we lay still for a few moments, when a mutual inquiry showed that +both were alive, only a little shaken and stunned; the sensation +was simply the shock of an electrical machine and the discharge +of a Woolwich infant --greatly exaggerated. + +We then gave up the partie; it was useless to contend against +Jupiter Tonans as well as Pluvialis. I opened my bedding, drank a +"stiffener" of raw cognac, wrapped myself well, and at once fell +asleep in the heavy rain, whilst the crew gathered under the +sail. The gentlemen who stay at home at ease may think damp +sheets dangerous, but Malvern had long ago taught me the perfect +safety of the wettest bivouac, provided that the body remains +warm. At Fernando Po, as at Zanzibar, a drunken sailor after a +night in the gutter will catch fever, and will probably die. But +he has exposed himself to the inevitable chill after midnight, he +is unacclimatized, and both places are exceptionally deadly--to +say nothing of the liquor. The experienced African traveller +awaking with a chilly skin, swallows a tumbler of cold water, and +rolls himself in a blanket till he perspires; there is only one +alternative. + +Next day I arose at 4 A.M., somewhat cramped and stiff, but with +nothing that would not yield to half a handful of quinine, a cup +of coffee well "laced," a pipe, and a roaring fire. Some country +people presently came up, and rated us for sleeping in the bush; +we retorted in kind, telling them that they should have been more +wide-awake. Whilst the boat was being baled, I walked to the +shore, and prospected our day's work. The forest showed a novel +feature: flocks of cottony mist-clouds curling amongst the trees, +like opals scattered upon a bed of emeralds; a purple haze banked +up the western horizon, whilst milk-white foam drew a delicate +line between the deep yellow sand and the still deeper blue. Far +to the south lay the Serna or prairillon of Sánga-Tánga, a +rolling patch, "or, on a field vert," backed by the usual dark +belt of the same, and fronted by straggling dots that emerged +from the wave--they proved to be a thin line of trees along +shore. We were lying inside the mouth of the "Habanyaá" alias the +Shark River, which flows along the south of a high grassy dome, +streaked here and there with rows of palms, and broken into the +semblance of a verdure-clad crater. According to the people the +Nkonje (Squalus) here is not a dangerous "sea-tiger" unless a man +wear red or carry copper bracelets; it is caught with hooks and +eaten as by the Chinese and the Suri Arabs. The streamlet is a +favourite haunt of the hippopotamus; a small one dived when it +sighted us, and did not reappear. It was the only specimen that I +saw during my three years upon the West African Coast,--a great +contrast to that of Zanzibar, where half a dozen may be shot in a +single day. The musket has made all the difference. + +At 6 A.M. on Friday, March 28, the boat was safely carried over +the bar of Shark River, and we found ourselves once more hugging +the shore southwards. The day was exceptional for West Africa, +and much like damp weather at the end of an English May; the grey +air at times indulged us with a slow drizzle. After two hours we +passed another maritime village, where the farce of yesterday +evening was re-acted, but this time with more vigour. Ignorant of +my morning's private work, Hotaloya swore that it was Sánga- +Tánga. I complimented him upon his proficiency in lying, and poor +Lángobúmo, almost in tears, confessed that he had pointed out to +me the real place. Whereupon Hotaloya began pathetically to +reproach him for being thus prodigal of the truth. Núrya, the +"head trader," coming down to the beach, with dignity and in +force told me in English that I must land, and was chaffed +accordingly. He then blustered and threatened instant death, at +which it was easy to laugh. About 10 A.M. we lay off our +destination, some ten miles south of Dyánye Point. It was a +beautiful site, the end of a grassy dune, declining gradually +toward the tree-fringed sea; the yellow slopes, cut by avenues +and broken by dwarf table-lands, were long afterwards recalled to +my memory, when sighting the fair but desolate scenery south of +Paraguayan Asuncion. These downs appear to be a sea-coast raised +by secular upheaval, and much older than the flat tracts which +encroach upon the Atlantic. We could now understand the position +of the town which figures so largely in the squadron-annals of +the equatorial shore; it was set upon a hillock, whence the eye +could catch the approaching sail of the slaver, and where the +flag could be raised conspicuously in token of no cruiser being +near. + +But the glory had departed from Sánga-Tánga (Peel-White? Strip- +White?); not a trace of the town remained, the barracoons had +disappeared, and all was innocent as upon the day of its +creation. A deep silence reigned where the song of joy and the +shrieks of torture had so often been answered by the voice of the +forest, and Eternal Nature had ceased to be disturbed by the +follies and crimes of man. + +Sánga-Tánga was burned down, after the fashion of these people, +when Mbango, whom Europeans called "Pass-all," King of the +Urungu, who extend up the right bank of the Ogobe, passed away +from the sublunary world. King Pass-all had completed his +education in Portugal: a negro never attains his highest +potential point of villany without a tour through Europe; and +thus he rose to be the greatest slave-dealer in this slave- +dealing scrap of the coast. In early life he protected the +Spanish pirates who fled to Cape Lopez, after plundering the +American brig "Mexico:" they were at last forcibly captured by +Captain (the late Admiral) Trotter, R.N.; passed over to the +United States, and finally hanged at Boston, during the +Presidency of General Jackson. Towards the end of his life he +became paralytic, like King Pepple of Bonny, and dangerous to the +whites as well as to the blacks under his rule. The people, +however, still speak highly of him, generosity being a gift which +everywhere covers a multitude of sins. He was succeeded by one of +his sons, who is favourably mentioned, but who soon followed him +to the grave. I saw another, a boy, apparently a slave to a +Mpongwe on the coast, and the rest of the family is scattered far +and wide. Since Pass-all's death the "peddlers in human flesh and +blood" have gone farther south: men spoke of a great depot at the +Mpembe village on the banks of the Nazareth River, where a +certain Ndábúliya is aided and abetted by two Utangáni. Now that +"'long-sea" exportation has been completely suppressed, their +only markets must be the two opposite islands. + +South of Sánga-Tánga, lay a thin line of deeper blue, Fetish +Point, the eastern projection of Cape Lopez Bay. From Mbango's +Town it is easy to see the western headland, Cape Lopez, whose +low outliers of sand and trees gain slowly but surely upon the +waters of the Atlantic. I deferred a visit until a more +favourable time, and--that time never came. + +Cape Lopez is said to have considerable advantages for developing +trade, but the climate appears adverse. A large Catholic mission, +described by Barbot, was established here by the Portuguese: as +in the Congo, nothing physical of it remains. But Mr. Wilson is +rather hard when he asserts that all traces have disappeared-- +they survive in superior 'cuteness of the native. + +Little need be said about our return, which was merrier than the +outward bound trip. Wind, tide, and current were now in our +favour, and we followed the chords, not the arcs, of the several +bays. At 9.30 P.M. we gave a wide berth to the rollers off Point +Nyonye and two hours afterwards we groped through the outer +darkness into Bwámánge, where the good Azízeh and Asúnye, who +came to receive us, shouted with joy. On the next day another +"gorilla palaver," when a large male was reported to have been +shot without a shadow of truth, detained me: it was the last +straw which broke the patient camel's back. After "dashing" to +old King Lángobómo one cloth, one bottle of absinthe, two heads +of tobacco, and a clay pipe, we set out betimes for the fifteen +miles' walk to Mbátá. Various obstacles delayed us on the way, +and the shades of evening began to close in rapidly; night +already reigned over the forest. Progress under such +circumstances requires the greatest care; as in the streets of +Damascus, one must ever look fixedly at the ground, under penalty +of a shaking stumble over cross-bars of roots, or fallen branches +hidden by grass and mud. And the worst of these wet walks is +that, sooner or later, they bring on swollen feet, which the +least scratch causes to ulcerate, and which may lame the +traveller for weeks. They are often caused by walking and sitting +in wet shoes and stockings; it is so troublesome to pull off and +pull on again after wading and fording, repeated during every few +hundred yards, that most men tramp through the brooks and suffer +in consequence. Constant care of the feet is necessary in African +travel, and the ease with which they are hurt--sluggish +circulation, poor food and insufficient stimulants being the +causes--is one of its deplaisirs. The people wash and anoint +these wounds with palm oil: a hot bath, with pepper-water, if +there be no rum, gives more relief, and caustic must sometimes be +used. + +We reached Mbátá at 6.15 P.M., and all agreed that two hours of +such forest-walking do more damage than five days along the +sands. + +Since my departure from the coast, French naval officers, +travellers and traders, have not been idle. The Marquis de +Compičgne, who returned to France in 1874, suffering from +ulcerated legs, had travelled up the Fernăo Vaz, and its +tributary the highly irregular Ogobai, Ogowaď, or Ogowé (Ogobe); +yet, curious to remark, all his discoveries arc omitted by Herr +Kiepert. His furthest point was 213 kilometres east of "San +Quita" (Sankwita), a village sixty-one kilometres north (??) of +Pointe Fétiche, near Cape Lopez; but wars and receding waters +prevented his reaching the confluence where the Ivindo fork +enters the north bank of the Ogobe. He made observations amongst +the "Kamma" tribe, which differs from the Bakele and other +neighbours. M. Guirold, commanding a cruiser, was also sent to +the estuary of the Rembo or Fernăo Vaz, into which the Mpungule +(N'poulounay of M. du Chaillu?), ascended only by M. Aymčs, +discharges. The explorers found many shoals and shifting sands +before entering the estuary; in the evening they stopped at the +Ogobe confluence, where a French seaman was employed in custom- +house duties. M. de Compičgne, after attending many palavers, was +duly upset when returning to the ship. + +On the Fernăo Vaz there are now (1873) five factories, each named +after some French town: Paris Factory, however, had fallen to +ruins, the traders having migrated 150 miles higher up the Kamma +River. Here a certain drunken kinglet, "Rampano," breaks +everything he finds in the house, and pays damages when he +returns to his senses. On March 31st there was a violent quarrel +between the women of two settlements, and the "reguli" embarked +with all their host, to fight it out; Rampano was the victor, and +after the usual palaver the vanquished was compelled to pay a +heavy fine. M. du Chaillu's descriptions of the country, a park +land dotted with tree-mottes, are confirmed; but the sport, +excepting hippopotamus, was poor, and the negroes were found +eating a white-faced monkey--mere cannibalism amongst the coast +tribes. The fauna and flora of the Ogobe are those of the Gaboon, +and the variety of beautiful parrots is especially remarked. + +On January 9, 1874, M. de Compičgne passed from the Fernăo Vaz +through the Obango Canal into the Ogobe, which, bordered by +Fetish rocks, flows through vast forests; his object was to study +the manners and customs of the Kammas, a more important tribe +than is generally supposed, far outnumbering the Urungus of the +coast. Their country is large and contains many factories, the +traders securing allies by marrying native women. The principal +items of import are dry goods, guns, common spirits, and American +tobacco; profits must be large, as what costs in France one franc +eighty cents, here sells for ten francs' worth of goods. The +exports are almost entirely comprised in gum mastic and ivory. At +the factory of Mr. Watkins the traveller secured certain figures +which he calls "idols"--they are by no means fitted for the +drawing-room table. He also noticed the "peace of the household," +a strip of manatus nerve, at times used by paterfamilias. + +Mr. R. B. N. Walker, who made sundry excursions between 1866 and +1873, also wrote from Elobe that he had left the French +explorers, MM. de Compičgne and Marche, on the Okanda River which +M. du Chaillu believes to be the northern fork of the Ogobe. +Their letters (Feb. 12, 1874) were dated from Osse in the Okanda +country, where they had made arrangements with the kinglet for a +journey to the "Otjebos," probably the Moshebo or Moshobo +cannibals of the "Gorilla Book." The rocks, shoals, and stony +bottom of the Ogobe reduced their rate of progress to three miles +a day, and, after four wearisome stages, they reached a village +of Bákele. Here they saw the slave-driving tribe "Okota," whose +appearance did not prepossess them and whose chief attempted +unsuccessfully to stop the expedition. They did not leave before +collecting specimens of the language. + +Further eastward, going towards the country of the Yalimbongo +tribe, they found the Okanda River, which they make the southern +fork, the Okono being the northern, descending from the +mountains; here food was plentiful compared with Okota-land. The +active volcano reported by Mr. R. B. N. Walker, 1873, was found +to bear a lake upon the summit--which, in plutonic formations, +would suggest an extinct crater. East of the Yalimbongo they came +upon the Apingis, whom M. du Chaillu, after two visits, also +placed upon the southern fork of the Ogobe. The tribe is +described as small in stature, of mild habits, and fond of +commerce; hence their plantations on the north or right bank of +the river are plundered with impunity by the truculent "Oshieba" +(Moshebo or Moshobo?). Further east the river, after being +obstructed by rapids, broadens to a mile and becomes navigable-- +they were probably above the "Ghats." It is supposed to arise +south in a lakelet called Tem or N'dua. A Bákele village was seen +near Ochunga, a large riverine island; and thence they passed +into the country of the mountaineer Okandas. They are described +as fine men, but terrible sorcerers; their plantations of banana +and maize are often plundered by the "Oshieba," the latter being +now recognized as a kindred tribe of the Pahouin (Fán). + + + + + + + Chapter VI. + + Village Life in Pongo-land. + + + +The next day was perforce a halt. Forteune and his wives did not +appear till 9 A.M., when it was dead low water. I had lent Nimrod +a double-barrelled gun during the march, and he was evidently +anxious to found a claim upon the protracted usufruct. "Dashes" +also had to be settled, and loads made up. The two women to whose +unvarying kindness all my comfort had been owing, were made happy +with satin-stripe, cassis, and the inevitable nicotiana. In an +unguarded moment my soft heart was betrayed into giving a bottle +of absinthe to the large old person who claimed to be Forteune's +mamma. Expecting nothing, had nothing been offered she would not +have complained; the present acted upon her violently and +deleteriously; she was like the cabman who makes mauvais sang +because he has asked and received only twice his fare; briefly, +next morning she was too surly to bid us adieu. + +When giving Forteune his "dash," I was curious to hear how he +could explain the report about the dead gorilla shot the night +before last: the truth of the old saying, "a black man is never +fast for an excuse," was at once illustrated; the beast had been +badly wounded, but it had dragged itself off to die. And where +was the blood? The rain had washed the blood away! + +Nimrod seemed chagrined at the poor end of so much trouble, but +there was something in his look and voice suggesting a suppressed +thought--these people, like the English and the Somal, show their +innermost secrets in their faces. At last, I asked him if he was +now willing to try the Shekyani country. He answered flatly, +"No!" And why? + +Some bushmen had bewitched him; he knew the fellow, and would +quickly make "bob come up his side:" already two whites had +visited him with a view of shooting gorillas; both had failed; it +was "shame palaver!" + +This might have been true, but it certainly was not the whole +truth. I can hardly accept M. du Chaillu's explanation, that the +Mpongwe, who attack the beasts with trade muskets and pebbles, +will not venture into the anthropoid's haunts unless certain of +their white employer's staunchness. What could that matter, when +our Nimrod had an excellent weapon in his hand and a strong party +to back him? Very likely Forteune was tired with walking, and +five dollars per shot made the game not worth the candle. Again, +perhaps the black diplomatist feared to overstock the market with +Njinas, or to offend some regular customer for the sake of an +"interloper." In these African lands they waste over a monkey's +skin or a bottle of rum as much intrigue as is devoted to a +contested election in England. + +I then asked the guide if my staying longer would be of any use? +He answered with a simple negative. Whilst the Utángáni remained +the Mbunji (spell) would still work, but it would at once be +broken by our departure, and he would prove it by sending down +the first-fruits. This appeared to me to be mere Mpongwe +"blague," but, curious to say, the sequel completely justified +both assertions. He threw out a hint, however, about certain +enemies and my "medicine," the arsenical soap; I need hardly say +that it was refused. + +When the palaver ended and the tide served, a fierce tornado +broke upon us, and the sky looked grisly in the critical +direction, north-east. Having no wish to recross the Gaboon River +during a storm blowing a head wind, I resolved to delay my +departure till the morrow, and amused myself with drawing from +the nude a picture of the village and village-life in Pongo-land. + +The Mpongwe settlements on the Gaboon River are neatly built, but +without any attempt at fortification; for the most part each +contains one family, or rather a chief and his dependants. In the +larger plantation "towns," the abodes form a single street, +ranging from 100 to 1,000 yards in length; sometimes, but rarely, +there are cross streets; the direction is made to front the sea- +breeze, and, if possible, to present a corner to storm-bearing +Eurus. An invariable feature, like the arcaded loggie of old +Venetian towns, is the Námpolo, or palaver-house, which may be +described as the club-room of the village. An open hangar, like +the Ikongolo or "cask-house" of the trading places, it is known +by a fire always kept burning. The houses are cubes, or oblong +squares, varying from 10 to 100 feet in length, according to the +wealth and dignity of the owner; all are one-storied, and a few +are raised on switch foundations. Most of them have a verandah +facing the street, and a "compound" or cleared space in the rear +for cooking and other domestic purposes. The walls are built by +planting double and parallel rows of posts, the material being +either bamboo or the mid-rib of a wine-giving palm (Raphia +vinifera); to these uprights horizontal slats of cane are neatly +lashed by means of the never-failing "tie-tie," bast-slips, +runners, or llianas. For the more solid buildings thin "Mpávo," +or bark slabs, are fitted in between the double posts; when +coolness is required, their place is taken by mats woven with the +pinnated leaves of sundry palms. This is a favourite industry +with the women, who make two kinds, one coarse, the other a neat +and close article, of rattan-tint until it becomes smoke-stained: +the material is so cheap and comfortable, that many of the +missionaries prefer it for walls to brick or boarding. The +windows are mere holes in the mats to admit light, and the doors +are cut with a Mpáno (adze) from a single tree trunk, which would +be wilful waste if timber were ever wanting. The floor is +sometimes sandy, but generally of hard and level tamped clay, to +which the European would prefer boarding, and, as a rule, it is +clean--no fear of pythogenie from here! The pent-shaped roof of +rafters and thatch is water-tight except when the host of rats +disturb it by their nocturnal gambols. + +Rich men affect five or six rooms, of which the principal +occupies the centre. The very poor must be contented with one; +the majority have two. The "but" combines the functions of hall, +dining-room, saloon and bachelor's sleeping quarters. The "ben" +contains a broad bed for the married, a standing frame of split +bamboo with mats for mattresses; it is usually mounted on props +to defend it from the Nchu'u or white ants, and each has its +mosquito bar, an oblong square, large enough to cover the whole +couch and to reach the ground; the material is either fine grass- +cloth, from the Ashira country, a light stuff called "Mbongo," or +calico and blue baft from which the stiffening has been washed +out. It is far superior to the flimsy muslin affairs supplied in +an Anglo-Indian outfit, or to the coarse matting used in Yoruba. +Provided with this solid defence, which may be bought in any +shop, one can indulge one's self by sleeping in the verandah +without risk of ague or rheumatism. The "ben" always displays a +pile of chests and boxes, which, though possibly empty, testify +to the "respectability" of the household. In Hotaloya's I +remarked a leather hat-case; he owned to me that he had already +invested in a silk tile, the sign of chieftainship, but that +being a "boy" he must grow older before he could wear it. The +inner room can be closed with a strong door and a padlock; as +even the window-hole is not admitted, the burglar would at once +be detected. Except where goods are concerned, the Mpongwe have +little respect for privacy; the women, in the presence of their +husbands, never failed to preside at my simple toilette, and the +girls of the villages would sit upon the bedside where lay an +Utangání in almost the last stage of déshabillé. + +The furniture of course varies; a rich man near the river will +have tables and chairs, sofas, looking-glasses, and as many +clocks, especially "Sam Slicks," as love or money can procure. +Even the poorest affect a standing bedstead in the "ben," plank +benches acting as couches in the "but," a sufficiency of mats, +and pots for water and cooking. A free man never condescends to +sit upon the ground; the low stool, cut out of a single block, +and fancifully carved, is exactly that of the old Egyptians +preserved by the modern East Africans; it dates from ages +immemorial. The look of comparative civilization about these +domiciles, doubtless the effect of the Portuguese and the slave +trade, distinguishes them from the barbarous circular huts of the +Kru-men, the rude clay walls of the Gold Coast, and the tattered, +comfortless sheds of the Fernandian "Bube." They have not, +however, that bandbox-like neatness which surprises the African +traveller on the Camerones River. + +The only domestic animals about these villages are dogs, poultry, +and pigeons (fine blue rocks): I never saw in Pongo-land the +goats mentioned by M. du Chaillu. The bush, however, supplies an +abundance of "beef," and, as most South Africans, they have a +word, Isángú (amongst the Mpongwes), or Ingwámbá (of the Cape +Lopez people), to express that inordinate longing and yearning +for the stimulus of meat diet, caused by the damp and depressing +equatorial climate, of which Dr. Livingstone so pathetically +complains. The settlements are sometimes provided with little +plots of vegetables; usually, however, the plantations are +distant, to preserve them from the depredations of bipeds and +quadrupeds. They are guarded by bushmen, who live on the spot +and, shortly before the rains all the owners flock to their +farms, where, for a fortnight or so, they and their women do +something like work. New grounds are preferred, because it is +easier to clear them than to remove the tangled after-growth of +ferns and guinea grass; moreover, they yield, of course, better +crops. The plough has not yet reached Pongo-land; the only tools +are the erem (little axe for felling), the matchet (a rude +cutlass for clearing), the hoe, and a succedaneum for the dibble. +After the bush has been burned as manure, and the seed has been +sown, no one will take the trouble of weeding, and half the +surface is wild growth. + +Maize (Zea mays) has become common, and the people enjoy "bútás," +or roasted ears. Barbot says that the soil is unfit for corn and +Indian wheat; it is so for the former, certainly not for the +latter. Rice has extended little beyond the model farms on the +north bank of the river; as everywhere upon the West African +Coast, it is coarser, more nutritious, and fuller flavoured than +the Indian. The cereals, however, are supplanted by plantains and +manioc (cassava). The plantains are cooked in various ways, roast +and boiled, mashed and broiled, in paste and in balls; when +unripe they are held medicinal against dysentery. The manioc is +of the white variety (Fatropha Aypim seu utilissima), and, as at +Lagos, the root may be called the country bread: I never saw the +poisonous or black manioc (Fatropha manihot), either in East or +in West Africa, and I heard of it only once in Unyamwezi, Central +Africa. Yet it is mentioned by all old travellers, and the sweet +harmless variety gives very poor "farinha," Anglicč "wood meal." + +The vegetables are "Mbongwe" (yams), koko or Colocasia esculenta, +Occras (Hibiscus esculentus), squashes (pumpkins), cucumbers, +beans of several sorts, and the sweet potato, an esculent +disliked by Englishmen, but far more nutritious than the +miserable "Irish" tuber. The ground-nut or peanut (Arachis +hypogaea), the "pindar" of the United States, a word derived from +Loango, is eaten roasted, and, as a rule, the people have not +learned to express its oil. Proyart (Pinkerton, xvi. 551) gives, +probably by misprint, "Pinda, which we call Pistachio." "Bird- +peppers," as the small red species is called, grow wild in every +bush; they are wholesome, and the people use them extensively. +Tomatoes flourish almost spontaneously, and there is a bulbless +native onion whose tops make excellent seasoning. Sugar-cane will +thrive in the swamps, coffee on the hill-slopes: I heard of, but +never saw ginger. + +The common fruits are limes and oranges, mangoes, papaws, and +pineapples, the gift of the New World, now run wild, and +appreciated chiefly by apes. The forest, however, supplies a +multitude of wild growths, which seem to distinguish this section +of the coast, and which are eaten with relish by the people. +Amongst them are the Sángo and Nefu, with pleasant acid berries; +the Ntábá, described as a red grape, which will presently make +wine; the olive-like Azyigo (Ozigo?); the filbert-like Kula, the +"koola-nut" of M. du Chaillu ("Second Expedition," chap, viii.), +a hard-shelled nux, not to be confounded with the soft-shelled +kola (Sterculia); and the Aba, or wild mango (Mango Gabonensis), +a pale yellow pome, small, and tasting painfully of turpentine. +It is chiefly prized for its kernels. In February and March all +repair to the bush for their mango-vendange, eat the fruit, and +collect the stones: the insides, after being sun-dried, are +roasted like coffee in a neptune, or in an earthern pot. When +burnt chocolate colour, they are pounded to the consistency of +thick honey, poured into a mould, a basket lined with banana +leaves, and set for three days to dry in the sun: after this the +cake, which in appearance resembles guava cheese, will keep +through the year. + +For use the loaf is scraped, and a sufficiency is added to the +half-boiled or stewed flesh, the two being then cooked together: +it is equally prized in meat broths, or with fish, dry and fresh; +and it is the favoured kitchen for rice and the insipid banana. +"Odika," the "Ndika" of the Bákele tribes, is universally used, +like our "Worcester," and it may be called the one sauce of +Gorilla-land, the local equivalent for curry, pepper-pot, or +palm-oil chop; it can be eaten thick or thin, according to taste, +but it must always be as hot as possible. The mould sells for +half a dollar at the factories, and many are exported to +adulterate chocolate and cocoa, which it resembles in smell and +oily flavour. I regret to say that travellers have treated this +national relish disrespectfully, as continentals do our "plomb- +boudin:" Mr. W. Winwood Reade has chaffed it, and another Briton +has compared it with "greaves." + +At "Cockerapeak," or, to speak less unpoetically, when Alectryon +sings his hymn to the dawn, the working bees of the little hive +must be up and stirring, whilst the master and mistress enjoy the +beauty-sleep. "Early to bed, and early to rise," is held only fit +to make a man surly, and give him red eyes, by all wild peoples, +who have little work, and who justly hold labour an evil less +only than death. Amongst the Bedawin it is a sign of Shaykh-dom +not to retire before dawn, and I have often heard the Somal +"palavering" after midnight. As a rule the barbarian enjoys his +night chat and smoke round the fire all the more because he +drinks or dozes through the better part of the day. There is a +physical reason for the preference. The absence of light +stimulus, and the changes which follow sunset seem to develope in +him a kind of night-fever as in the nervous temperament of +Europe. Hence so many students choose the lamp in preference to +the sun, and children mostly clamour when told at 8 o'clock to go +to bed. + +Shortly after sunrise the young ones are bathed in the verandah. +Here also the mistress smooths her locks, rumpled by the night, +"tittivates" her macaw-crest with the bodkin, and anoints her +hair and skin with a tantinet of grease and palm oil. Some, but +by no means all, proceed for ablution to the stream-side, and the +girls fetch water in heavy earthen jars, containing perhaps two +gallons; they are strung, after the Kru fashion, behind the back +by a band passing across the forehead. When we meet them they +gently say "Mbolo!" (good morning), or "Oresa" (are you well)? At +this hour, however, all are not so civil, the seniors are often +uncommonly cross and surly, and the mollia tempora fandi may not +set in till after the first meal--I have seen something of the +kind in England. The sex, impolitely said to have one fibre more +in the heart and one cell less in the brain, often engages in a +violent wordy war; the tornado of wrath will presently pass over, +and leave clear weather for the day. In the evening, when the +electric fluid again gathers heavily, there will be another +storm. Meanwhile, superintended by the mistress, all are occupied +with the important duty of preparing the morning meal. It is +surprising how skilful are these heaven-born cooks; the excellent +dishes they make out of "half-nothing." I preferred the cuisine +of Forteune's wives to that of the Plateau, and, after finding +that money was current in the village, I never failed to secure +their good offices. + +The Mpongwe breakfast is eaten by the women in their respective +verandahs, with their children and friends; the men also gather +together, and prefer the open air. This feed would not only +astonish those who talk about a "free breakfast-table," with its +silly slops and bread-stuffs; it would satisfy a sharp-set +Highlander. In addition to yams and sweet potatoes, plantains, +and perhaps rice, there will be cooked mangrove-oysters fresh +from the tree, a fry, or an excellent bouillabaisse of fish; +succulent palaver sauce, or palm-oil chop; poultry and meat. The +domestic fowl is a favourite; but, curious to say, neither here +nor in any part of tropical Africa known to me have the people +tamed the only gallinaceous bird which the Black Continent has +contributed to civilization. The Guinea fowl, like the African +elephant, remains wild. We know it to be an old importation in +Europe, although there are traditions about its appearing in the +fourteenth century, when Moslems sold it to Christians as the +"Jerusalem cock," and Christians to Moslems as the "bird of +Meccah." It must be the Greek meleagris, so called, says Ćlian, +from the sisters who wept a brother untimely slain; hence the +tears upon its plume, suggesting the German Perl-huhn, and its +frequent cries, which the Brazilians, who are great in the +language of birds, translate Sto fraca, sto fraca, sto fraca (I'm +weak). The Hausa Moslems make the Guinea fowl cry, "Kilkal! +kilkal!" (Grammar by the Rev. F. J. Schön, London, Salisbury +Square, 1862). It is curious to compare the difference of ear +with which nations hear the cries of animals, and form their +onomatopoetic, or "bow-wow" imitations. For instance, the North +Americans express by "whip-poor-will" what the Brazilians call +"Joăo-corta-páo." The Guinea fowl may have been the "Afraa +avis;"but that was a dear luxury amongst the Romans, though the +Greek meleagris was cheap. The last crotchet about it is that of +an African traveller, who holds it to be the peacock of Solomon's +navies, completely ignoring the absolute certainty which the +South-Indian word "Tukkiim" carries with it. + +The Mpongwe will not eat ape, on account of its likeness to +themselves. But they greatly enjoy game; the porcupine, the +ground-hog (an Echymys), the white flesh of the bush pig +(Cricetomys), and the beef of the Nyáre (Bos brachyceros); this +is the "buffalo" or "bush-cow" of the regions south of Sierra +Leone, and the empacassa of the Congo-Portuguese, whose +"empacasseirs" or native archers, rural police and auxiliaries +"of the second line," have as "guerra preta" (black militia) won +many a victory. Their numbers in Angola have amounted to 30,000, +and they aided in conquest like the Indian Sipahi (sepoy) and the +Tupi of the older Brazil. Now they wear the Tánga or Pagne, a +waist cloth falling to the knee, and they are armed with trade +muskets and cartridge-boxes fastened to broad belts. Barbot calls +the Nyare a buffalo, and tells us that it was commonly shot at +Sandy Point, where in his day elephants also abounded. Captain +Boteler (ii. 379) well describes a specimen, which was killed by +Dr. Guland, R.N., as exactly resembling the common cow of +England, excepting that its proportions are far more "elegant." + +This hearty breakfast is washed down with long drinks of palm +wine, and followed by sundry pipes of tobacco; after which, happy +souls! all enjoy a siesta, long and deep as that of Andine +Mendoza; and they "kill time" as well as they can till evening. +The men assemble in the club round the Námpolo-fire, where they +chat and smoke, drink and doze; those who are Agriophagi or +Xylobian Ćthiopians, briefly called hunters, spend their days +much like the race which Byron declared + + "Merely born + To hunt and vote, and raise the price of corn." + +The Pongo venator is up with the sun, and, if not on horseback, +at least he is on the traces of game; sometimes he returns home +during the hours of heat, when he knows that the beasts seek the +shady shelter of the deepest forests; and, after again enjoying +the "pleasures of the chase," he disposes of a heavy dinner and +ends the day, sleep weighing down his eyelids and his brains +singing with liquor. What he did yesterday that he does to-day, +and what he does to-day that he shall do to-morrow; his +intellectual life is varied only by a visit to town, where he +sells his choice skins, drinks a great deal too much rum, and +makes the purchases, ammunition and so forth, which are necessary +for the full enjoyment of home and country life. At times also he +joins a party of friends and seeks some happier hunting ground +farther from his campagne. + +Meanwhile the women dawdle through the day, superintending their +domestic work, look after their children's and their own +toilette, tend the fire, attend to the cooking, and smoke +consumedly. The idle sit with the men at the doors of their huts; +those industriously disposed weave mats, and, whether lazy or +not, they never allow their tongues and lungs a moment's rest. +The slaves, male and female, draw water, cut fuel, or go to the +distant plantations for yams and bananas; whilst the youngsters +romp, play and tease the village idiot--there is one in almost +every settlement. Briefly, the day is spent in idleness, except, +as has been said, for a short time preceding the rains. + +When the sun nears the western horizon, the hunter and the slaves +return home, and the housewife, who has been enjoying the +"coolth" squatting on her dwarf stool at her hut-door, and +puffing the preparatory pipe,--girds her loins for the evening +meal, and makes every one "look alive." When the last rays are +shedding their rich red glow over the tall black trees which hem +in the village, all torpidity disappears from it. The fires are +trimmed, and the singing and harping, which were languid during +the hot hours, begin with renewed vigour. The following is a +specimen of a boating-song: + + (Solo.) "Come, my sweetheart!" + ( Chorus.) "Haste, haste!" + (Solo) 'How many things gives the white man?' + (Chorus chants all that it wants.) +(Solo) 'What must be done for the white man?" + (Chorus improvises all his requirements) +(Solo) "How many dangers for the black girl?" + (Chorus) "Dangers from the black and the white man!" + +The evening meal is eaten at 6 P.M. with the setting of the sun, +whose regular hours contrast pleasantly with his vagaries in the +northern temperates. And Hesperus brings wine as he did of old. +Drinking sets in seriously after dark, and is known by the +violent merriment of the men, and the no less violent quarrelling +and "flyting" of the sex which delights in the "harmony of +tongues." All then retire to their huts, and with chat and song, +and peals of uproarious laughter and abundant horseplay, such as +throwing minor articles at one another's heads, smoke and drink +till 11 P.M. The scene is "Dovercourt, all speakers and no +hearers." The night is still as the grave. and the mewing of a +cat, if there were one, would sound like a tiger's scream. + +The mornings and evenings in these plantation-villages would be +delightful were it not for what the Brazilians call immundicies. +Sandflies always swarm in places where underwood and tall grasses +exclude the draughts, and the only remedy is clearing the land. +Thus at St. Isabel or Clarence, Fernando Po, where the land-wind +or the sea-breeze ever blows, the vicious little wretches are +hardly known; on the forested background of mountain they are +troublesome as at Nigerian Nufe. The bite burns severely, and +presently the skin rises in bosses, lasting for days with a +severe itching, which, if unduly resented, may end in +inflammatory ulcerations--I can easily understand a man being +laid up by their attacks. The animalcules act differently upon +different constitutions. While mosquitoes hardly take effect, +sand flies have often blinded me for hours by biting the +circumorbital parts. The numbers and minuteness of this insect +make it formidable. The people flap their naked shoulders with +cloths or bushy twigs; Nigerian travellers have tried palm oil +but with scant success, and spirits of wine applied to the skin +somewhat alleviate the itching but has no prophylactic effect. +Sandflies do not venture into the dark huts, and a "smudge" keeps +them aloof, but the disease is more tolerable than the remedy of +inflaming the eyes with acrid smoke and of sitting in a close +box, by courtesy termed a room, when the fine pure air makes one +pine to be beyond walls. After long endurance in hopes of +becoming inoculated with the virus, I was compelled to defend +myself with thick gloves, stockings and a muslin veil made fast +to the hat and tucked in under the shirt. After sunset the +sandflies retire, and the mosquito sounds her hideous trump; as +has been said, however, Pongo-land knows how to receive her. + + + + + + Chapter VII. + + Return to the River. + + + +Early on the last morning in March we roused the Kru-men; they +were eager as ourselves to leave the "bush," and there was no +delay in loading and the mission-boat. Forteune, Azízeh, and +Asúnye were there to bid me God-speed, and Hotaloya did not fail +to supply a fine example of Mpongwe irresolution. + +That "sweet youth" had begged hard during the last week that I +would take him to Fernando Po; carpenters were wanted for her +Majesty's consulate, and he seemed to jump at the monthly pay of +seven dollars--a large sum in these regions. On the night before +departure he had asked me for half a sovereign to leave with his +wives, and he made me agree to an arrangement that they should +receive two dollars per mensem. In the morning I had alluded to +the natural sorrow which his better semi-halves must feel, +although the absence of groaning and weeping was very suspicious, +and I had asked in a friendly way, "Them woman he make bob too +much?" + +"Ye', sar," he replied with a full heart, "he cry too much." + +When the last batch had disappeared with the last box I walked up +to him, and said, "Now, Andrews, you take hat, we go Gaboon." + +Hotaloya at once assumed the maudlin expression and insipid +ricanement of the Hindú charged with "Sharm kí bát" (something +shameful). + +"Please, mas'r, I no can go--Nanny Po he be too far--I no look my +fader (the villain had three), them boy he say I no look 'um +again!" + +The wives had won the day, and words would have been vain. He +promised hard to get leave from his papa and "grand-pap," and to +join me after a last farewell at the Plateau. His face gave the +lie direct to his speech, and his little manśuvre for keeping the +earnest-money failed ignobly. + +The swift brown stream carried us at full speed. "Captain +Merrick" pointed out sundry short cuts, but my brain now refused +to admit as truth a word coming from a Mpongwe. We passed some +bateaux pecheurs, saw sundry shoals of fish furrowing the water, +and after two hours we were bumping on the rocks outlying Mombe +Creek and Nenga Oga village. The passage of the estuary was now a +pleasure, and though we grounded upon the shallows of "Voileliay +Bay," the Kru-men soon lifted the heavy boat; the wind was fair, +the tide was ebbing, and the strong current was in our favour. We +reached Glass Town before midday, and after five hours, covering +some twenty-two direct geographical miles, I found myself with +pleasure under the grateful shade of the Factory. It need hardly +be described, as it is the usual "bungalow" of the West African +shore. + +Twelve days had been expended upon 120 miles, but I did not +regret the loss. A beautiful bit of country had been added to my +mental Pinacothek, and I had satisfied my mind to a certain +extent upon that qućstio, then vexata, the "Gorilla Book." Even +before my trip the ethnological part appeared to me trustworthy, +and, if not original, at any rate borrowed from the best sources. +My journey assured me, from the specimen narrowly scrutinized, +that both country and people are on the whole correctly +described. The dates, however, are all in confusion: in the +preface to the second edition, "October, 1859," became "October, +1858," and we are told that the excursions were transposed for +the simple purpose of taking the reader from north to south. As +in the case of most African travels, when instruments are not +used, the distances must be reduced: in chapter xii. the Shekyani +villages are placed sixty miles due east of Sánga-Tánga; whereas +the map shows twenty. Mr. W. Wimvood Reade declares that the +Apingi country, the ultima Thule of the explorer, is distant from +Ngumbi "four foot-days' journey;" as MM. de Compičgne and Marche +have shown, the tribe in question extends far and wide. Others +have asserted that seventy-five miles formed the maximum +distance. But many of M. du Chaillu's disputed distances have +been proved tolerably correct by MM. Serval and Griffon du +Bellay, who were sent by the French government in 1862 to survey +the Ogobe. A second French expedition followed shortly +afterwards, under the charge of MM. Labigot and Touchard; and +finally that of 1873, like all preceding it, failed to find any +serious deviation from fact. + +The German exploring expedition (July 25, 1873) confirms the +existence of M. du Chaillu's dwarfs, the Obongo tribe, scoffed at +in England because they dwell close to a fierce people of +Patagonian proportions. The Germans report that they are called +"Babongo," "Vambuta," and more commonly "Bari," or "Bali;" they +dwell fourteen days' march from the mouth of the Luena, or River +of Chinxoxo. I have not seen it remarked that these pygmies are +mentioned by Andrew Battel Plinian at the end of the sixteenth +century. "To the north-east of Mani Kesoch," he tells us, "are a +kind of little people called Matimbas, who are no bigger than +boys twelve years old, but are very thick, and live only upon +flesh, which they kill in the woods with bows and darts." Of the +Aykas south of the Welle River, discovered by Dr. Schweinfurth, I +need hardly speak. It is not a little curious to find these +confirmations of Herodotean reports about dwarfish tribes in the +far interior, the Dokos and the Wabilikimo, so long current at +Zanzibar Island, and so long looked upon as mere fables. + +Our departure from Mbátá had broken the spell, and Forteune did +keep his word; I was compelled in simple justice to cry +"Peccavi." On the very evening of our arrival at Glass Town the +youth Kángá brought me a noble specimen of what he called a +Nchígo Mpolo, sent by Forteune's bushmen; an old male with brown +eyes and dark pupils. When placed in an arm-chair, he ludicrously +suggested a pot-bellied and patriarchal negro considerably the +worse for liquor. From crown to sole he measured 4 feet 10 3/4 +inches, and from finger-tip to finger-tip 6 feet 1 inch. The +girth of the head round ears and eyebrows was 1 foot 11 inches; +of the chest, 3 feet 2 inches; above the hip joints, 2 feet 4 +inches; of the arms below the shoulder, 2 feet 5 inches; and of +the legs, 2 feet 5 inches. Evidently these are very handsome +proportions, considering what he was, and there was a suggestion +of ear lobe which gave his countenance a peculiarly human look. +He had not undergone the inhuman Hebrew-Abyssinian operation to +which M. du Chaillu's gorillas had been exposed, and the +proportions rendered him exceedingly remarkable. + +That interesting anthropoid's career after death was one series +of misfortunes, ending with being stuffed for the British Museum. +My factotum sat up half the night skinning, but it was his first +coup d'essai. In a climate like the Gaboon, especially during the +rains, we should have turned the pelt "hairy side in," filled it +with cotton to prevent shrinking, and, after painting on arsenic, +have exposed it to the sun: better still, we should have placed +it on a scaffolding, like a defunct Congo-man, over a slow and +smoky fire, and thus the fatty matter which abounds in the +integuments would have been removed. The phalanges of the hands +and feet, after being clean-scraped, were restored to their +places, and wrapped with thin layers of arsenicated cotton, as is +done to small animals, yet on the seventh day decomposition set +in; it was found necessary to unsew the skin, and again to turn +it inside out. The bones ought to have been removed, and not +replaced till the coat was thoroughly dry. The skinned spoils +were placed upon an ant-hill; a practice which recalls to mind +the skeleton deer prepared by the emmets of the Hartz Forest, +which taught Oken that the skull is(?) expanded vertebrć. We did +not know that half-starved dogs and "drivers" will not respect +even arsenical soap. The consequence of exposing the skeleton +upon an ant-hill, where it ought to have been neatly cleaned +during a night, was that the "Pariah" curs carried off sundry +ribs, and the "parva magni formica laboris" took the trouble to +devour the skin of a foot. Worse still: the skull, the brain, and +the delicate members had been headed up in a breaker of trade +rum, which was not changed till the seventh day. It was directed +to an eminent member of the old Anthropological Society, and the +most interesting parts arrived, I believe, soft, pulpy, and +utterly useless. The subject seems to have been too sore for +mentioning --at least, I never heard of it again. + +The late Dr. John Edward Gray, of the British Museum, called this +Nchígo Mpolo, from its bear-like masses of breast-pile, the +"hairy Chimpanzee" (Troglodytes vellerosus). After my return home +I paid it a visit, and could only think that the hirsute one was +considerably "mutatus ab illo." The colour had changed, and the +broad-chested, square-framed, pot-bellied, and portly old bully- +boy of the woods had become a wretched pigeon-breasted, lean- +flanked, shrunk-linibed, hungry-looking beggar. It is a lesson to +fill out the skin, even with bran or straw, if there be nothing +better--anything, in fact, is preferable to allowing the +shrinkage which ends in this wretched caricature. + +During my stay at Glass Town I was fortunate enough to make the +acquaintance of the Rev. Messrs. Walker and Preston, of the +Baraka Mission. The head-quarter station of the American Board of +Foreign (Presbyterian) Missions was established on the Gaboon +River in 1842 by the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, afterwards one of +the secretaries to the Society in New York. He had left the best +of memories in "the River," and there were tales of his having +manumitted in the Southern United States a small fortune of +slaves without a shade of compulsion. His volume on West Africa, +to which allusion has so often been made, contains a good bird's- +eye of the inter-tropical coast, and might, with order, +arrangement, and correction of a host of minor inaccuracies, +become a standard work. + +I have already expressed my opinion, founded upon a sufficiently +long experience, that the United States missionary is by far the +best man for the Western Coast, and, indeed, for dangerous +tropical countries generally. Physically he is spare and hard, +the nervous temperament being more strongly developed in him than +in the bulbous and more bilious or sanguine European. He is +better born, and blood never fails to tell. Again, he generally +adopts the profession from taste, not because il faut vivre. He +is better bred; he knows the negro from his childhood, and his +education is more practical, more generally useful than that of +his rivals. Moreover, I never yet heard him exclaim, "Capting, +them heggs is 'igh!" Lastly he is more temperate and moderate in +his diet: hitherto it has not been my fate to assist in carrying +him to bed. + +Perhaps the American missionary carries sobriety too far. In +dangerous tropical regions, where there is little appetite and +less nutritious diet, where exertion of mind and body easily +exhaust vitality, and where "diffusible stimulants" must often +take the place of solids, he dies first who drinks water. The +second is the man who begins with an "eye-opener" of "brandy- +pawnee," and who keeps up excitement by the same means through +the day. The third is the hygienic sciolist, who drinks on +principle poor "Gladstone" and thin French wines, cheap and +nasty; and the survivor is the man who enjoys a quantum suff. of +humming Scotch and Burton ales, sherry, Madeira, and port, with a +modicum of cognac. This has been my plan in the tropics from the +beginning, when it was suggested to me by the simplest exercise +of the reasoning faculties. "A dozen of good port will soon set +you up!" said the surgeon to me after fever. Then why not drink +port before the fever? + +I have said something upon this subject in "Zanzibar City, +Island, and Coast" (i. p. 180), it will bear repetition. Joseph +Dupuis justly remarks: "I am satisfied, from my own experience, +that many fall victims from the adoption of a course of training +improperly termed prudential; viz. a sudden change of diet from +ship's fare to a scanty sustenance of vegetable matter (rejecting +even a moderate proportion of wine), and seclusion in their +apartments from the sun and atmosphere." + +An immense mass of nonsense, copied in one "authority" from +another, was thrown before the public by books upon diet, until +the "Physiology of Common Life" (George Henry Lewes) discussed +Liebig's brilliant error in considering food chemically, and not +physiologically. The rest assume his classification without +reserve, and work from the axiom that heat-making, carbonaceous +and non-nitrogenous foods (e.g. fat and sugars), necessary to +support life in the arctic and polar regions, must be exchanged +for the tissue-making, plastic or nitrogenous (vegetables), as we +approach the equator. They are right as far as the southern +temperates, their sole field of observation; they greatly err in +all except the hot, dry parts of the tropics. Why, a Hindoo will +drink at a sitting a tumbler of glí (clarified butter), and the +European who would train for wrestling after the fashion of +Hindostan, as I attempted in my youth, on "native" sweetmeats and +sugared milk, will be blind with "melancholia" in a week. The +diet of the negro is the greasiest possible, witness his "palm- +oil chop" and "palaver sauce;" his craving for meat, especially +fat meat, is a feeling unknown to Europe. And how simple the +reason. Damp heat demands almost as much carbon as damp or dry +cold. + +Return we to the Baraka Mission. The name is a corruption of +"barracoon;" in the palmy days of the trade slave-pens occupied +the ground now covered by the chapel, the schoolroom, and the +dwelling-house, and extended over the site of the factory to the +river-bank. The place is well chosen. Immediately beyond the +shore the land swells up to a little rounded hill, clean and +grassy like that about Sánga-Tánga. The soil appears poor, and +yet around the mission-house there are some fine wild figs, one a +huge tree, although not a score of years old; the bamboo clump is +magnificent, and the cocoas, oranges, and mangoes are surrounded +by thick, fragrant, and luxuriant quickset hedges of well-trimmed +lime. + +A few words concerning the banana of this coast, which we find so +flourishing at Baraka. An immense god-send to the Gaboon, it is +well known to be the most productive of all food, 100 square +yards of it giving annually nearly 2,000 kilogrammes of food far +more nutritious than the potato. Here it is the musa sapientum, +the banana de Soâ Thomé, which has crossed over to the Brazil, +and which is there known by its sharper leaves and fruit, softer +and shorter than the indigenous growth. The plant everywhere is +most vigorous in constant moist heat, the atmosphere of a +conservatory, and the ground must be low and wet, but not swampy. +The best way of planting the sprouts is so to dispose them that +four may form the corners of a square measuring twelve feet each +side; the common style is some five feet apart. The raceme, which +appears about the sixth to the tenth month, will take sixty days +more to ripen; good stocks produce three and more bunches a year, +each weighing from twenty to eighty pounds. The stem, after +fruiting, should be cut down, in order to let the others enjoy +light and air, and the oftener the plants are removed to fresh +ground the better. + +The banana, when unripe, is white and insipid; it is then baked +under ashes till it takes a golden colour, and, like a cereal, it +can be eaten as bread. A little later it is boiled, and becomes a +fair vegetable, tasting somewhat like chestnuts, and certainly +better than carrots or turnips. Lastly, when softer than a pear, +it is a fruit eaten with milk or made into beignets. I have +described the plantain-cider in "Lake Regions of Central Africa" +(ii. 287). The fruit contains sugar, gum, and acids (malic and +gallic); the rind, which is easily detached when ripe, stains +cloth with ruddy grey rusty colour, by its tannin, gallic, and +acetic acids. + +The Baraka Mission has had several out-stations. One was at a +ruined village of Fán, which we shall presently pass on the right +bank of the river. The second was at Ikoi, a hamlet distant about +fifteen (not twenty-five) miles, upon a creek of the same name, +which enters the Gaboon behind Point Ovindo, and almost opposite +Konig Island. A third is at Anenge-nenge, vulgň Inenge-nenge,-- +"nenge" in Mpongwe, and anenge in Bákele, meaning island,-- +situated forty (not 100) miles up the main stream; here a native +teacher still resides. The Baraka school now (1862) numbers +thirty scholars, and there are twelve to fifteen communicants. +The missionaries are our white "labourers;" but two of them, the +Revs. Jacob Best and A. Bushnell, are absent in the United States +for the benefit of their health. + +My first visit to the Rev. William Walker made me regret my +precipitate trip to Mbátá: he told me what I now knew, that it +was the wrong line, and that I should have run two or three days +up the Rembwe, the first large influent on the southern bank of +the Gaboon. He had come out to the River in 1842, and had spent +twenty years of his life in Africa, with occasional furloughs +home. He greatly interested me by a work which he was preparing. +The Gaboon Mission had begun its studies of the many native +dialects by the usual preparatory process of writing grammars and +vocabularies; after this they had published sundry fragmentary +translations of the Scriptures, and now they aimed at something +higher. After spending years in building and decorating the +porticoes of language, they were ambitious of raising the edifice +to which it is only an approach; in other words, of explaining +the scholarship of the tongue, the spirit of the speech. + +"Language," says the lamented Dr. O.E. Vidal, then bishop +designate of Sierra Leone,[FN#19] "is designed to give expression +to thought. Hence, by examining the particular class of +composition"--and, I may add, the grammatical and syntactical +niceties characterizing that composition--"to which any given +dialect has been especially devoted, we may trace the direction +in which the current of thought is wont to flow amongst the tribe +or nations in which it is vernacular, and so investigate the +principal psychical peculiarities, if such there be, of that +tribe or nation." And again he remarks: "Dr. Krap was unable to +find any word expressing the idea of gratitude in the language of +all the Suaheli (Wásawahílí) tribes; a fact significant enough as +to the total absence of the moral feeling denoted by that name." +Similarly the Mpongwe cannot express our "honesty;" they must +paraphrase it by "good man don't steal." In time they possibly +may adopt the word bodily like pús (a cat), amog (mug), kapinde +(carpenter), krus (a cross), and ilepot (pot). + +Such a task is difficult as it is interesting, the main obstacle +to success being the almost insuperable difficulty of throwing +off European ideas and modes of thought, which life-long habit +has made a second nature. Take the instance borrowed from Dr. +Krap, and noticed by a hundred writers, namely, the absence of a +synonym for "gratitude" amongst the people of the nearer East. I +have explained the truth of the case in my "Pilgrimage," and it +will bear explanation again. The Wásawahíli are Moslems, and the +Moslem view everywhere is that the donor's Maker, not the donor, +gives the gift. The Arab therefore expresses his "Thank you!" by +"Mamnún"--I am under an obligation (to your hand which has passed +on the donation); he generally prefers, however, a short +blessing, as "Kassir khayr' ak" (may Allah) "increase thy weal!" +The Persian's "May thy shadow never be less!" simply refers to +the shade which you, the towering tree, extend over him, the +humble shrub. + +Another instance of deduction distorted by current European +ideas, is where Casalis ("Etudes sur la langue Séchuana," par +Eugčne Casalis, part ii. p. 84), speaking of the Sisuto proverbs, +makes them display the "vestiges of that universal conscience to +which the Creator has committed the guidance of every intelligent +creature." Surely it is time to face the fact that conscience is +a purely geographical and chronological accident. Where, may we +ask, can be that innate and universal monitor in the case of a +people, the Somal for instance, who rob like Spartans, holding +theft a virtue; who lie like Trojans, without a vestige of +appreciation for truth; and who hold the treacherous and cowardly +murder of a sleeping guest to be the height of human honour? And +what easier than to prove that there is no sin however infamous, +no crime however abominable, which at some time or in some part +of the world has been or is still held in the highest esteem? The +utmost we can say is that conscience, the accident, flows +directly from an essential. All races now known to the world have +a something which they call right, and a something which they +term wrong; the underlying instinctive idea being evidently that +everything which benefits me is good, and all which harms me is +evil. Their good and their evil are not those of more advanced +nations; still the idea is there, and progress or tradition works +it out in a thousand different ways. + +My visits to Mr. Walker first gave me the idea of making the +negro describe his own character in a collection of purely +Hamitic proverbs and idioms. It appeared to me that, if ever a +book aspires to the title of "l'Africain peint par lui-męme," it +must be one in which he is the medium to his own spirit, the +interpreter to his own thoughts. Hence "Wit and Wisdom from West +Africa" (London, Tinsleys, 1856), which I still hold to be a step +in the right direction, although critics, who possibly knew more +of Cornhill than of Yoruba, assured me that it was "rather a +heavy compilation." Nor can I yet see how the light fantastic toe +can show its agility in the sabots of African proverbs. + + + + + + Chapter VIII. + + Up the Gaboon River. + + + +Detestable weather detained me long at the hospitable factory. +Tornadoes were of almost daily occurrence --not pleasant with 200 +barrels of gunpowder under a thatched roof; they were useful +chiefly to the Mpongwe servants of the establishment. These model +thieves broke open, under cover of the storms, a strong iron safe +in an inner room which had been carefully closed; they stole my +Mboko skin, and bottles were not safe from them even in our +bedrooms. + +My next step was to ascend the "Olo' Mpongwe," or Gaboon River, +which Bowdich ("Sketch of Gaboon") calls Oroöngo, and its main +point Ohlombopolo. The object was to visit the Fán, of whose +cannibalism such curious tales had been told. It was not easy to +find a conveyance. The factory greatly wanted a flat-bottom iron +steamer, a stern-wheeler, with sliding keel, and furnaces fit for +burning half-dried wood--a craft of fourteen tons, costing +perhaps Ł14 per ton, would be ample in point of size, and would +save not a little money to the trader. I was at last fortunate in +securing the "Eliza," belonging to Messrs. Hatton and Cookson. +She was a fore-and-aft schooner of twenty tons, measuring 42 feet +6 inches over all and put up at Bonny Town by Captain Birkett. +She had two masts, and oars in case of calms; her crew was of six +hands, including one Fernando, a Congoese, who could actually box +the compass. No outfit was this time necessary, beyond a letter +to Mr. Tippet, who had charge of the highest establishments up +stream. His business consisted chiefly of importing arms, +ammunition, and beads of different sorts, especially the red +porcelain, locally called Loangos. + +On April 10, a little before noon, I set out, despite thunder and +lightning, rain, sun, torrential showers, and the vehemently +expressed distaste of my crew. The view of the right bank was no +longer from afar; it differs in shape and material from the +southern, but the distinction appears to me superficial, not +extending to the interiors. Off Konig Island we found nine +fathoms of water, and wanted them during a bad storm from the +south-east; it prevented my landing and inspecting the old Dutch +guns, which Bowdich says are remains of the Portuguese. Both this +and Parrot Island, lying some five miles south by west, are +masses of cocoas, fringed with mangroves; a great contrast with +the prairillon of the neighbouring Point Ovindo. At last, worn +out by a four-knot current and a squall in our teeth, we anchored +in four fathoms, about five miles south-east of Konig. + +From this point we could easily see the wide gape of the Rembwe, +the south-eastern influent, or rather fork, of the Gaboon, which +rises in the south-western versant of some meridional chain, and +which I was assured can be ascended in three tides. The people +told me when too late of a great cavity or sink, which they +called Wonga-Wonga; Bowdich represents it to be an "uninhabited +savannah of three days' extent, between Empoöngwa and Adjoomba +(Mayumba). I saw nothing of the glittering diamond mountains, +lying eastward of Wonga-Wonga, concerning which the old traveller +was compelled to admit that, "when there was no moon, a pale but +distinct light was invariably reflected from a mountain in that +quarter, and from no other." It has now died out--this +superstition, which corresponds with the carbuncle of Hoy and +others of our Scoto-Scandinavian islands. + +Resuming our cruize on the next day, we passed on the right a +village of "bad Bákele," which had been blown down by the French +during the last year; in this little business the "king" and two +lieges had been killed. The tribe is large and important, +scattered over several degrees north and south of the equator, as +is proved by their slaves being collected from distances of +several weeks and even months. In 1854 Mr. Wilson numbered them +at 100,000. According to local experts they began to press down +stream about 1830, driven ŕ tergo by their neighbours, the +Mpángwe (Fán), even as they themselves are driving the Mpongwes. +But they are evidently the Kaylee or Kalay of Bowdich (p. 427), +whose capital, "Samashialee," was "the residence of the king, +Ohmbay." He places them in their present habitat, and makes them +the worst of cannibals. Whilst the "Sheekans" (Shekyani) buried +their dead under the bed within the house, these detestable +Kaylees ate not only their prisoners, but their defunct friends, +whose bodies were "bid for directly the breath was out of them;" +indeed, fathers were frequently seen to devour their own +children. Bowdich evidently speaks from hearsay; but the Brazil +has preserved the old traditions of cannibalism amongst the +Gabőes. + +The Bákele appeared to me very like the coast tribes, only +somewhat lighter-coloured and wilder in look, whilst they again +are darker-skinned than their eastern neighbours from the inner +highlands. Their women are not so well dressed as the "ladies" of +the Mpongwe, the chignon is smaller, and there are fewer brass +rings. The men, who still cling to the old habit of hunting, +cultivate the soil, practise the ruder mechanical arts, and trade +with the usual readiness and greed; they asked us a leaf of +tobacco for an egg, and four leaves for a bunch of bananas. +Missionaries, who, like Messrs. Preston and Best, resided amongst +them for years, have observed that, though a mild and timid +people, they are ever involved in quarrels with their neighbours. +I can hardly understand how they "bear some resemblance to the +dwarfish Dokos of the eastern coast," seeing that the latter do +not exist. + +The Dikele grammar proves the language, which is most closely +allied to the Benga dialect, to be one of the great South African +family, variously called Kafir, because first studied amongst +these people; Ethiopic (very vague), and Nilotic because its +great fluvial basin is the Zambezi, not the Nile. As might be +expected amongst isolated races, the tongue, though clearly +related to that of the Mpongwe and the Mpangwe, has many salient +points of difference; for instance, the liquid "r" is wholly +wanting. According to Mr. T. Leighton Wilson, perhaps one word in +two is the same, or obviously from the same root; consequently +verbal resemblances are by no means striking. The orthography of +the two differs materially, and in this respect Dikele more +resembles the languages of the eastern coast than its western +neighbour, at the same time less than the Fiote or the Congoese. +It has a larger number of declensions, and its adjectives and +pronouns are more flexible and complicated. On the other hand, it +possesses few of the conjugations which form so conspicuous a +feature in the tongues of the Lower River, and, reversing the +usage of the Mpongwe, it makes very little use of the passive. + +Running the gauntlet of cheer and chaff from the noisy inmates of +the many Bákele villages, and worried by mangrove-flies, we held +our way up the muddy and rapidly narrowing stream, whose avenues +of rhizophoras and palms acted as wind-sails; when the breeze +failed the sensation was stifling. Lyámbá (Cannabis sativa) grew +in patches upon the banks, now apparently wild, like that about +Lagos and Badagry. Not till evening did the tide serve, enabling +us to send our papers for visa on board the guard-ship "L'Oise," +where a party of young Frenchmen were preparing for la chasse. A +little higher up stream are two islets, Nenge Mbwendi, so called +from its owner, and Nenge Sika, or the Isle of Gold. The Mpongwe +all know this name for the precious metal, and the Bakele appear +to ignore it: curious to say, it is the Fante and Mandenga word, +probably derived from the Arabic Sikkah, which gave rise to the +Italian Zecca (mint) and Zecchino. It may have been introduced by +the Laptots or Lascar sailors of the Senegal. M. du Chaillu +("Second Expedition," chap. iii.) mentions "the island Nengué +Shika" on the Lower Fernăo Vaz River; and Bowdich turns the two +into Ompoongu and Soombea. The third is Anenga-nenga, not Ninga- +ninga, about one mile long from north to south, and well wooded +with bush and palms; here the Gaboon Mission has a neat building +on piles. The senior native employé was at Glass Town, and his +junior, a youth about nineteen, stood ŕ la Napoléon in the +doorway, evidently monarch of all he surveyed. I found there one +of the Ndiva, the old tribe of Pongo-land, which by this time has +probably died out. We anchored off Wosuku, a village of some +fifty houses, forming one main street, disposed north-east-- +south-west, or nearly at right angles with the river. The +entrance was guarded by a sentinel and gun, and the "king," +Imondo, lay right royally on his belly. A fine plantation of +bananas divides the settlement, and the background is dense bush, +in which they say "Nyáre" and deer abound. The Bákele supply +sheep and fowls to the Plateau, and their main industry consists +in dressing plantain-fibre for thread and nets. + +We now reach the confluence of the Nkonio or north-eastern, with +the Mbokwe, or eastern branch, which anastomose to form the +Gaboon; the latter, being apparently the larger of the two, +preserves the title Mpolo. Both still require exploration; my +friend M. Braouezzec, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, who made charts of +the lower bed, utterly failed to make the sources; and the Rev. +Mr. Preston, who lived seven months in the interior, could not +ascend far. Mr. W. Winwood Reade reached in May, 1862, the rapids +of the Nkomo River, but sore feet prevented his climbing the +mountain, which he estimates at 2,000 feet, or of tracing the +stream to its fountain. Mr. R.B.N. Walker also ascended the Nkomo +for some thirty miles, and found it still a large bed with two +fathoms of water in the Cacimbo or "Middle dries." In M. du +Chaillu's map the Upper Nkomo is a dotted line; according to all +authorities, upon the higher and the lower river his direction is +too far to the north-east. The good Tippet declares that he once +canoed three miles up the Mbokwe, and then marched eastward for +five days, covering a hundred miles--which is impossible. He +found a line of detached hills, and an elevation where the dews +were exceedingly cold; looking towards the utterly unknown +Orient, he could see nothing but a thick forest unbroken by +streams. He heard from the country people traditions of a Great +Lake, which may be that placed by Tuckey in north latitude 2°-3°. +The best seasons for travel are said to be March and November, +before and after the rains, which swell the water twelve feet. + +About Anenge-nenge we could easily see the sub-ranges of the +great Eastern Ghats, some twenty miles to the north-east. Here +the shallows and the banks projecting from different points made +the channel dangerous. Entering the Mbokwe branch we were +compelled to use sweeps, or the schooner would have been dashed +against the sides; as we learned by the trees, the tides raise +the surface two to three feet high. After the third hour we +passed the "Fán Komba Vina," or village of King Vina. It stood in +a pretty little bay, and the river, some 400 feet broad, was +fronted, as is often the case, by the "palaver tree," a glorious +Ceiba or bombax. All the people flocked out to enjoy the sight, +and my unpractised eye could not distinguish them from Bákele. +Above it, also on the right bank, is the now-deserted site where +Messrs. Adams and Preston nearly came to grief for bewitching the +population with "bad book." + +Five slow hours from Anenge-nenge finally placed us, about +sunset, at Mayyán, or Tippet Town. The depôt lies a little above +the confluence of the Mbokwe and the Londo, or south-eastern fork +of the latter. A drunken pilot and a dark and moonless night, +with the tide still running in, delayed us till I could hardly +distinguish the sable human masses which gathered upon the Styx- +like stream to welcome their new Matyem--merchant or white man. +Before landing, all the guns on board the steamer were double- +loaded and discharged, at the instance of our host, who very +properly insisted upon this act of African courtesy--"it would be +shame not to fire salute." We were answered by the loudest howls, +and by the town muskets, which must have carried the charges of +old chambers. Mr. Tippet, an intelligent coloured man from the +States, who has been living thirteen years on the Gaboon, since +the age of fourteen, and who acts as native trader to Mr. R.B.N. +Walker, for ivory, ebony, rubber, and other produce, escorted me +to his extensive establishment. At length I am amongst the man- +eaters. + + + + + + Chapter IX. + + A Specimen Day with the Fán Cannibals. + + + +At 5 a.m. on the next day, after a night with the gnats and rats, +I sallied forth in the thick "smokes," and cast a nearer look +upon my cannibal hosts. And first of the tribal name. The Mpongwe +call their wild neighbours Mpángwe; the Europeans affect such +corruptions as Fánwe, Panwe, the F and P being very similar, +Phaouin and Paouen (Pawen). They call themselves Fán, meaning +"man;" in the plural, Bafan. The n is highly nasalized: the +missionaries proposed to express it by "nh" which, however, +wrongly conveys the idea of aspiration; and "Fan," pronounced +after the English fashion, would be unintelligible to them. + +The village contains some 400 souls, and throughout the country +the maximum would be about 500 spears, or 4,000 of both sexes, +whilst the minimum is a couple of dozen. It is pleasantly +situated on the left bank of the Mbokwe River, a streamlet here +some 50 feet broad, whose water rises 6 feet 10 inches under the +tidal influence. The single street, about half a mile long, is +formed by two parallel rows of huts, looking upon a cleared line +of yellow clay, and provided with three larger sheds--the palaver +houses. The Fán houses resemble those of the Mpongwe; in fact, +the tribes, beginning at the Camarones River, build in much the +same style, but all are by no means so neat and clean as those of +the seaboard. A thatch, whose projecting eaves form deep shady +verandahs, surmounts walls of split bamboo, supported by raised +platforms of tamped earth, windows being absent and chimneys +unknown; the ceiling is painted like coal tar by oily soot, and +two opposite doors make the home a passage through which no one +hesitates to pass. The walls are garnished with weapons and nets, +both skilfully made, and the furniture consists of cooking +utensils and water-pots, mats for bedding, logs of wood for seats +and pillows, and lumps of timber or dwarf stools, neatly cut out +of a single block. Their only night-light--that grand test of +civilization--is the Mpongwe torch, a yard of hard, black gum, +mixed with and tightly bound up in dried banana leaves. According +to some it is acacia; others declare it to be the "blood" of the +bombax, which is also used for caulking. They gather it in the +forest, especially during the dries, collect it in hollow +bamboos, and prepare it by heating in the neptune, or brass pan. +The odour is pleasant, but fragments of falling fire endanger the +hut, and trimming must be repeated every ten minutes. The sexes +are not separated; as throughout intertropical Africa, the men +are fond of idling at their clubs; and the women, who must fetch +water and cook, clean the hut, and nurse the baby, are seldom +allowed to waste time. They are naturally a more prolific race +than those inhabiting the damp, unhealthy lowlands, and the +number of the children contrasts pleasantly with the "bleak +house" of the debauched Mpongwe, who puts no question when his +wife presents him with issue. + +In the cool of the morning Fitevanga, king of Mayyán, lectured me +upon the short and simple annals of the Fán. In 1842 the first +stragglers who had crossed the Sierra del Crystal are said to +have been seen upon the head waters of the Gaboon. I cannot, +however, but suspect that they are the "Paämways" of whom Bowdich +("Sketch of Gaboon," p. 429) wrote in the beginning of the +century, "All the natives on this route are said to be cannibals, +the Paämways not so voraciously as the others, because they +cultivate a large breed of dogs for their eating." Mr. W. Winwood +Reade suspects them to be an offshoot of the great Fulah race, +and there is nothing in point of dialect to disprove what we must +at present consider a pure conjecture. "The Fulah pronouns have +striking analogies with those of the Yoruba, Accra, Ashantee, and +Timmanee, and even of the great Kaffir class of dialects, which +reaches from the equator to the Cape," wrote the late learned E. +Norris, in his "Introduction to the Grammar of the Fulah +Language" (London: Harrison, 1854). + +According to the people of the upper river the Fán were expelled +by the Bati or Batti--not "Bari" as it has been written-from +their ancient seats; and they are still pushing them seawards. +The bushmen are said to live seven to ten short marches (seventy +to a hundred miles) to the east, and are described by Mr. Tippet, +whom they have visited, as a fine, tall, slender, and light- +skinned people, who dress like the Fán, but without so much +clothing, and who sharped the teeth of both sexes. Dr. Barth +heard of the Bati, and Herr Petermann's map describes them[FN#20] +as "Pagans, reported to be of a white colour, and of beautiful +shape, to live in houses made of clay, to wear cloth of their own +making, and to hold a country from which a mountain is visible to +the south-west, and close to the sea." The range in question may +be the Long Qua (Kwa), which continues the Camarones block to the +north-east, and the Batis may have passed south-westward from +Southern Adamáwa. + +The Fán were accompanied in their seaward movement by the Osheba +or 'Sheba, the Moshebo and Moshobo of M. du Chaillu's map. They +are said to be a tribe of kindred blood and warlike tastes, +speaking a remarkably guttural tongue, but intelligible to the +Mpángwe. They too were doubtless pressed forward by the Inner +Bati, who are.also affected by the Okáná, the Yefá, and the +Sensobá. The latter are the innermost known to my negro +informants, and their sheep and goats have found their way to the +Gaboon: they are doughty elephant-hunters, and they attack the +Njína, although they have no fire-arms. The Mpangwe deride the +savagery of these races, who have never heard of a man riding a +horse or an ass, which the Mpongwes call Cavala and Buro burro). +The names of these three races, which are described as brave, +warlike, and hospitable to strangers, will not be found on any +map; indeed the regions east of the Gaboon belong to the great +white blot of inter-tropical Africa, extending from north +latitude 7 degrees to south latitude 5 degrees. Major de Ruvignes +heard also of a tribe called Lachaize (Osheba?) which excels the +Fán in strength and courage as much as the latter do the coast +tribes: a detachment of them had settled near one of the chief +Mpángwe towns, "Mboma." Some days after his arrival he saw +several of these people, and describes them as giants, compared +with the negro races to which his eye was accustomed. The general +stature varied from six feet to six feet four inches; their +complexion was a light café au lait; their hair was ornamented +with cowries, strung so thickly as to suggest a skull-cup, whilst +long streamers of elephants' tails, threaded with the Cypraea and +brass rings, hung down from the head behind the ears, covering +the nape of the neck. All these, we may observe, are Congo +customs. In their manufacture of iron, dug by themselves, they +resemble the cannibals. + +The Fán have now lodged themselves amongst the less warlike, +maritime, and sub-maritime tribes, as the (Ashantis) Asiante +lately did in Fante-land; now they visit the factories on the +estuary, and wander as far as the Ogobe. In course of time, they +will infallibly "eat up" the Bákele, as the latter are eating up +the Mpongwe and Shekyani. They have their own names for +neighbouring tribes: the Mpongwe, according to Bowdich, called +the Shekyani, and the inner tribes "Boolas, a synonym of Dunko in +Ashantee;" hence, probably, the "Bulous" of Mr. Hutchinson (p. +253), "a tribe on the Guergay Creek, who speak a different +language from the Mpongwes." The Fán call the Mpongwes, Báyok; +the Bákele, Ngon; the Shekyani, Besek; and the Gaboon River, +Aboka. The sub-tribes of cannibals, living near my line of march, +were named to me as follows:--1. The Lálá (Oshebas?), whose chief +settlement, Sánkwí, is up the Mbokwe River; 2. their neighbours, +the Esánvímá; 3. the Sánikiya, a bush tribe; 4. the Sákulá, near +Mayyán; 5. the Esobá, about Fakanjok; 6. the Esonzel of the Ute, +or Autá village; 7. the Okola, whose chief settlement is Esámási; +and 8. the Ashemvon, with Asya for a capital. + +From M. du Chaillu's illustrations (pp. 74, 77) I fully expected +to see a large-limbed, black-skinned, and ferocious-looking race, +with huge mustachios and plaited beards. A finely made, light- +coloured people, of regular features and decidedly mild aspect, +met my sight. + +The complexion is, as a rule, chocolate, the distinctive colour +of the African mountaineer and of the inner tribes; there are +dark men, as there would be in England, but the very black are of +servile origin. Few had any signs of skin-disease; I saw only one +hand spotted with white, like the incipient Morphetico (leper) of +the Brazil. Many, if bleached, might pass for Europeans, so +"Caucasian" are their features; few are negro in type as the +Mpongwe, and none are purely "nigger" like the blacks of maritime +Guinea and the lower Congoese. And they bear the aspect of a +people fresh from the bush, the backwoods; their teeth are +pointed, and there is generally a look of grotesqueness and +surprise. When I drank tea, they asked what was the good of +putting sugar in tobacco water. The hair is not kinky, +peppercorn-like, and crisply woolly, like that of the Coast +tribes; in men, as well as in women, it falls in a thick curtain, +nearly to the shoulders, and it is finer than the usual +elliptical fuzz. The variety of their perruquerie can be rivalled +only by that of the dress and ornament. The males affect plaits, +knobs, and horns, stiff twists and upright tufts, suddenly +projecting some two inches from the scalp; and, that analogies +with Europe might not be wanting, one gentleman wore a queue, +zopf, or pigtail, bound at the shoulders, not by a ribbon, but by +the neck of a claret bottle. Other heads are adorned with single +feathers, or bunches and circles of plumes, especially the red +tail-plumes of the parrot and the crimson coat of the Touraco +(Corythrix), an African jay; these blood-coloured spoils are a +sign of war. The Brazilian traveller will be surprised to find +the coronals of feathers, the Kennitare (Acangátara) of the Tupí- +Guarani race, which one always associates with the New World. The +skull-caps of plaited and blackened palm leaf, though common in +the interior, are here rare; an imitation is produced by tressing +the hair longitudinally from occiput to sinciput, making the head +a system of ridges, divided by scalp-lines, and a fan-shaped tuft +of scarlet-stained palm frond surmounts the poll. I noticed a +fashion of crinal decoration quite new to me. + +A few hairs, either from the temples, the sides or the back of +the head, are lengthened with tree-fibres, and threaded with red +and white pound-beads, so called by Europeans because the lb. +fetches a dollar. These decorations fall upon the breast or back; +the same is done to the thin beard, which sprouts tufty from both +rami of the chin, as in the purely nervous temperament of Europe; +and doubtless the mustachios, if the latter were not mostly +wanting, would be similarly treated. Whatever absurdity in hair +may be demanded by the trichotomists and philopogons of Europe, I +can at once supply it to any extent from Africa--gratis. +Gentlemen remarkable by a raie, which as in the Scotch terrier +begins above the eyes and runs down the back, should be grateful +to me for this sporting offer. + +Nothing simpler than the Fán toilette. Thongs and plaits of goat, +wild cat, or leopard skin gird the waist, and cloth, which is +rare, is supplied by the spoils of the black monkey or some other +"beef." The main part of the national costume, and certainly the +most remarkable, is a fan of palm frond redolent of grease and +ruddled with ochre, thrust through the waist belt; while new and +stiff the upper half stands bolt upright and depends only when +old. It suggests the "Enduap" (rondache) of ostrich-plumes worn +by the Tupi-Guarani barbarians of the Brazil, the bunchy caudal +appendages which made the missionaries compare them with pigeons. +The fore part of the body is here decked with a similar fan, the +outspread portion worn the wrong way, like that behind. The +ornaments are seed-beads, green or white, and Loangos (red +porcelain). The "bunch" here contains 100 to 120 strings, and up +country 200, worth one dollar; each will weigh from one to three, +and a wealthy Fán may carry fifteen to forty-five pounds. The +seed-bead was till lately unknown; fifteen to twenty strings make +the "bunch." There is not much tattooing amongst the men, except +on the shoulders, whilst the women prefer the stomach; the +gandin, however, disfigures himself with powdered cam-wood, mixed +with butter-nut, grease, or palm oil--a custom evidently derived +from the coast-tribes. Each has his "Ndese," garters and armlets +of plaited palm fibre, and tightened by little cross-bars of +brass; they are the "Hibás" which the Bedawin wear under their +lower articulations as preservatives against cramp. Lastly, a +Fetish horn hangs from the breast, and heavy copper rings +encumber the wrists and ankles. Though unskilful in managing +canoes--an art to be learned, like riding and dancing, only in +childhood--many villagers affect to walk about with a paddle, +like the semi-aquatic Kru-men. Up country it is said they make +rafts which are towed across the stream by ropes, when the +swiftness of the current demands a ferry. The women are still +afraid of the canoe. + +All adult males carry arms, and would be held womanish if they +were seen unweaponed. These are generally battle-axes, spears +cruelly and fantastically jagged, hooked and barbed, and curious +leaf-shaped knives of archaic aspect; some of the latter have +blades broader than they are long, a shape also preserved by the +Mpongwe. The sheaths of fibre or leather are elaborately +decorated, and it is chic for the scabbard to fit so tight that +the weapon cannot be drawn for five minutes; I have seen the same +amongst the Somal. There are some trade-muskets, but the "hot- +mouthed weapon" has not become the national weapon of the Fán. +Bows and arrows are unknown; the Náyin or cross-bow peculiar to +this people, and probably a native invention, not borrowed, as +might be supposed, from Europe, is carried only when hunting or +fighting: a specimen was exhibited in London with the gorillas. +The people are said sometimes to bend it with the foot or feet +like the Tupí Guaranís, the Jivaros, and other South Americans. +Suffice it to remark of this weapon, with which, by the by, I +never saw a decent shot made, that the détente is simple and +ingenious, and that the "Ebe" or dwarf bolt is always poisoned +with the boiled root of a wild shrub. It is believed that a graze +is fatal, and that the death is exceedingly painful: I doubt both +assertions. Most men also carry a pliable basket full of bamboo +caltrops, thin splints, pointed and poisoned. Placed upon the +path of a bare-footed enemy, this rude contrivance, combined with +the scratching of the thorns, and the gashing cuts of the grass, +must somewhat discourage pursuit. The shields of elephant hide +are large, square, and ponderous. The "terrible war-axe" is the +usual poor little tomahawk, more like a toy than a tool. + +After a bathe in the muddy Mbokwe, I returned to the village, and +found it in a state of ferment. The Fán, like all inner African +tribes, with whom fighting is our fox-hunting, live in a chronic +state of ten days' war, and can never hold themselves safe; this +is the case especially where the slave trade has never been heard +of. Similarly the Ghazwah ("Razzia") of the Bedawin is for +plunder, not for captives. Surprises are rare, because they will +not march in the dark. Battles are not bloody; after two or three +warriors have fallen their corpses are dragged away to be +devoured, their friends save themselves by flight, and the weaker +side secures peace by paying sheep and goats. On this occasion +the sister of a young "brave" had just now been killed and +"chopped" by the king of Sánkwí, a neighbouring settlement of +Oshebas, and the bereaved brother was urging his comrades with +vociferous speeches to "up and arm." Usually when a man wants +"war," he rushes naked through his own village, cursing it as he +goes. Moreover, during the last war Mayyán lost five men to three +of the enemy; which is not fair, said the women, who appeared +most eager for the fray. All the youths seized their weapons; the +huge war-drums, the hollowed bole of a tree fringed with Nyáre +hide, was set up in the middle of the street; preparations for +the week of singing and dancing which precedes a campaign were +already in hand, and one war-man gave earnest of blood-shed by +spearing a goat the property of Mr. Tippet. It being our interest +that the peace should be kept till after my proposed trip into +the interior, I repaired to the palaver-house and lent weight to +the advice of my host, who urged the heroes to collect ivory, +ebony, and rubber, and not to fight till his stores were filled. +We concluded by carrying off the goat. After great excitement the +warriors subsided to a calm; it was broken, however, two days +afterwards by the murder of a villager, the suspected lover of a +woman whose house was higher up the Mbokwe River; he went to +visit her, and was incontinently speared in the breast by the +"injured husband." If he die and no fine be paid, there will be +another "war." + +I made careful inquiry about anthropophagy amongst the Fán, and +my account must differ greatly from that of M. du Chaillu. The +reader, however, will remember that Mayyán is held by a +comparatively civilized race, who have probably learned to +conceal a custom so distasteful to all their neighbours, white +and black; in the remoter districts cannibalism may yet assume +far more hideous proportions. Since the Fán have encouraged +traders to settle amongst them, the interest as well as the +terrors of the Coast tribes, who would deter foreigners from +direct dealings, has added new horrors to the tale; and yet +nothing can exceed the reports of older travellers. + +During my peregrinations I did not see a single skull. The +chiefs, stretched at full length, and wrapped in mats, are buried +secretly, the object being to prevent some strong Fetish medicine +being made by enemies from various parts of the body. In some +villages the head men of the same tribe are interred near one +another; the commonalty are put singly and decently under ground, +and only the slave (Máká) is thrown as usual into the bush. Mr. +Tippet, who had lived three years with this people, knew only +three cases of cannibalism; and the Rev. Mr. Walker agreed with +other excellent authorities, that it is a rare incident even in +the wildest parts--perhaps opportunity only is wanted. As will +appear from the Fán's bill of fare, anthropophagy can hardly be +caused by necessity, and the way in which it is conducted shows +that it is a quasi-religious rite practised upon foes slain in +battle, evidently an equivalent of human sacrifice. If the whole +body cannot be carried off, a limb or two is removed for the +purpose of a roast. The corpse is carried to a hut built +expressly on the outskirts of the settlement; it is eaten +secretly by the warriors, women and children not being allowed to +be present, or even to look upon man's flesh; and the cooking +pots used for the banquet must all be broken. A joint of "black +brother" is never seen in the villages: "smoked human flesh" does +not hang from the rafters, and the leather knife-sheaths are of +wild cow; tanned man's skin suggests only the tannerie de Meudon, +an advanced "institution." Yet Dr. Schweinfurth's valuable +travels on the Western Nile prove that public anthropophagy can +co-exist with a considerable amount of comfort and, so to speak, +civilization--witness the Nyam-Nyam and Mombattu (Mimbuttoo). The +sick and the dead are uneaten by the Fán, and the people shouted +with laughter when I asked a certain question. + +The "unnatural" practice, which, by the by, has at different ages +extended over the whole world, now continues to be most prevalent +in places where, as in New Zealand, animal food is wanting; and +everywhere pork readily takes the place of "long pig." The damp +and depressing atmosphere of equatorial Africa renders the +stimulus of flesh diet necessary. The Isángú, or Ingwánba, the +craving felt after a short abstinence from animal food, does not +spare the white traveller more than it does his dark guides; and, +though the moral courage of the former may resist the +"gastronomic practice" of breaking fast upon a fat young slave, +one does not expect so much from the untutored appetite of the +noble savage. On the eastern parts of the continent there are two +cannibal tribes, the Wadoe and the Wabembe; and it is curious to +find the former occupying the position assigned by Ptolemy (iv. +8) to his anthropophagi of the Barbaricus Sinus: according to +their own account, however, the practice is modern. When weakened +by the attacks of their Wákámbá neighbours, they began to roast +and eat slices from the bodies of the slain in presence of the +foe. The latter, as often happens amongst barbarians, and even +amongst civilized men, could dare to die, but were unable to face +the horrors of becoming food after death: the great Cortez knew +this feeling when he made his soldiers pretend anthropophagy. +Many of the Wadoe negroids are tall, well made, and light +complexioned, though inhabiting the low and humid coast regions-- +a proof, if any were wanted, that there is nothing unwholesome in +man's flesh. Some of our old accounts of shipwrecked seamen, +driven to the dire necessity of eating one another, insinuate +that the impious food causes raging insanity. The Wabembe tribe, +occupying a strip of land on the western shore of the Tanganyika +Lake, are "Menschenfresser," as they were rightly called by the +authors of the "Mombas Mission Map." These miserables have +abandoned to wild growth a most prolific soil; too lazy and +unenergetic to hunt or to fish, they devour all manner of +carrion, grubs, insects, and even the corpses of their deceased +friends. The Midgán, or slave-caste of the semi-Semitic Somal, +are sometimes reduced to the same extremity; but they are ever +held, like the Wendigo, or man-eaters, amongst the North American +Indians, impure and detestable. On the other hand, the Tupi- +Guaranís of the Brazil, a country abounding in game, fish, wild +fruits, and vegetables, ate one another with a surprising relish. +This subject is too extensive even to be outlined here: the +reader is referred to the translation of Hans Stade: old +travellers attribute the cannibalism of the Brazilian races to +"gulosity" rather than superstition; moreover, these barbarians +had certain abominable practices, supposed to be known only to +the most advanced races. + +Anthropophagy without apparent cause was not unknown in Southern +Africa. Mr. Layland found a tribe of "cave cannibals" amongst the +mountains beyond Thaba Bosigo in the Trans-Gariep Country.[FN#21] +He remarks with some surprise, "Horrible as all this may appear, +there might be some excuse made for savages, driven by famine to +extreme hunger, for capturing and devouring their enemies. But +with these people it was totally different, for they were +inhabiting a fine agricultural tract of country, which also +abounded in game. Notwithstanding this, they were not contented +with hunting and feeding upon their enemies, but preyed much upon +each other also, for many of their captures were made from +amongst the people of their own tribe, and, even worse than this, +in times of scarcity, many of their own wives and children became +the victims of this horrible practice." + +Anthropophagy, either as a necessity, a sentiment, or a +superstition, is known to sundry, though by no means to all, the +tribes dwelling between the Nun (Niger) and the Congo rivers; how +much farther south it extends I cannot at present say. On the +Lower Niger, and its branch the Brass River, the people hardly +take the trouble to conceal it. On the Bonny and New Calabar, +perhaps the most advanced of the so-called Oil Rivers, +cannibalism, based upon a desire of revenge, and perhaps, its +sentimental side, the object of imbibing the valour of an enemy +slain in battle, has caused many scandals of late years. The +practice, on the other hand, is execrated by the Efiks of Old +Calabar, who punish any attempts of the kind with extreme +severity. During 1862 the slaves of Creek-town attempted it, and +were killed. At Duke-town an Ibo woman also cut up a man, sun- +dried the flesh, and sold it for monkey's meat--she took +sanctuary at the mission house. Yet it is in full vigour amongst +their Ibo neighbours to the north-west, and the Duallas of the +Camarones River also number it amongst their "country customs." +The Mpongwe, as has been said, will not eat a chimpanzee; the Fán +devour their dead enemies. + +The Fán character has its ferocious side, or it would not be +African: prisoners are tortured with all the horrible barbarity +of that human wild beast which is happily being extirpated, the +North American Indian; and children may be seen greedily licking +the blood from the ground. It is a curious ethnological study, +this peculiar development of destructiveness in the African +brain. Cruelty seems to be with him a necessary of life, and all +his highest enjoyments are connected with causing pain and +inflicting death. His religious rites--a strong contrast to those +of the modern Hindoo--are ever causelessly bloody. Take as an +instance, the Efik race, or people of Old Calabar, some 6,000 +wretched remnants of a once-powerful tribe. For 200 years they +have had intercourse with Europeans, who, though slavers, would +certainly neither enjoy nor encourage these profitless horrors; +yet no savages show more brutality in torture, more frenzied +delight in bloodshed, than they do. A few of their pleasant +practices are-- + +The administration of Esere, or poison-bean; + +"Egbo floggings" of the utmost severity, equalling the knout; + +Substitution of an innocent pauper for a rich criminal; + +Infanticide of twins; and + +Vivisepulture. + +And it must be remembered that this tribe has had the benefit of +a resident mission for the last generation. I can hardly believe +this abnormal cruelty to be the mere result of uncivilization; it +appears to me the effect of an arrested development, which leaves +to the man all the ferocity of the carnivor, the unreflecting +cruelty of the child. + +The dietary of these "wild men of the woods" would astonish the +starveling sons of civilization. When will the poor man realize +the fact that his comfort and happiness will result not from +workhouses and almshouses, hospitals and private charities, but +from that organized and efficient emigration, so long advocated +by the seer Carlyle? Only the crassest ignorance and the +listlessness born of misery and want prevent the able-bodied +pauper, the frozen-out mechanic, or the weary and ill-clad, the +over-worked and under-fed agricultural labourer, from quitting +the scenes of his purgatory, and from finding, scattered over +earth's surface, spots where he may enjoy a comparative paradise, +heightened by the memory of privations endured in the wretched +hole which he pleases to call his home. But nostalgia is a more +common disease than men suppose, and it affects none more +severely than those that are remarkable for their physical +powers. A national system of emigration, to be perfect, must not +be confined to solitary and individual hands, who, however +numerous, are ever pining for the past. The future will organize +the exodus of whole villages, which, like those of the Hebrides +in the last century, will bear with them to new worlds their +Lares and Penates, their wives, families, and friends, who will +lay out the church and the churchyard after the old fashion +familiar to their youth, and who will not forget the palaver- +house, vulgarly called pothouse or pub. + +Few of these Lestrigons lack fish, which they catch in weirs, +fowl, flesh of dogs, goats, or sheep; cattle is a luxury yet +unknown, but the woods supply an abundance of Nyáre and other +"bush-beef." They also have their special word for the meat- +yearning. Still in the semi-nomadic stage, they till the ground, +and yet depend greatly upon the chase. They break their fast +(kidiashe) at 6 A.M., eat a mid-day meal (amos), and sup +(gogáshe) at sunset, besides "snacks" all through the day when +they can find material. They are good huntsmen, who fear neither +the elephant (nyok), the hippopotamus (nyok á mádzim), frequent +in the rivers of the interior, the crocodile, nor the gorilla +(njí). It is generally asserted--and the unfortunate Douville re- +echoed the assertion--that the river-horse and the crocodile will +not live together; the reason is, simply, that upon the seaboard, +where these animals were first observed, the crocodile prefers +the fresh water of the river, the hippopotamus the brackish water +at its mouth. In the interior, of course, they dwell together in +amity, because there is nothing for them to quarrel about. + +The banana, planted with a careless hand, supplies the staff of +life, besides thatch, fuel, and fibre for nets and lines: when +they want cereals, maize, holcus, and panicum will grow almost +spontaneously. The various palm-trees give building materials, +oil, wine, and other requisites too numerous to mention. The +"five products of the cow" are ignored, as in the western +hemisphere of yore: one of the most useful, however, is produced +by the Nje or Njeve, a towering butyraceous tree, differing from +that which bears the Shea butternut. Its produce is sun-dried, +toasted over a fire, pounded and pressed in a bag between two +boards, when it is ready for use. The bush, cut at the end, is +fired before the beginning, of the rains, leaving the land ready +for yams and sweet potatoes almost without using the hoe. In the +middle dries, from June to September, the villagers sally forth +en masse for a battue of elephants, whose spoils bring various +luxuries from the coast. Lately, before my arrival, they had +turned out to gather the Aba, or wild mango, for Odika sauce; and +during this season they will do nothing else. The Fán plant their +own tobacco, which is described as a low, spreading plant, and +despise the imported weed; they neither snuff nor chew. All +manufacture their own pipe-bowls, and they are not ignorant of +the use of Lyamba or Hashish. They care little for sugar, +contrary to the rule of Africa in general, but they over-salt all +their food; and they will suck the condiment as children do +lollipops. Their palm oil is very poor, as if they had only just +learned the art of making it. + +After the daily siesta, which lasted till 3 P. M., Mr. Tippet +asked me to put in an appearance at a solemn dance which, led by +the king's eldest daughter, was being performed in honour of the +white visitor. A chair was placed in the verandah, the street +being the ballroom. Received with the usual salutation, +"Mboláne," to which the reply is "An," I proceeded to the +external study of Fán womanhood. Whilst the men are tall and +élancés, their partners are usually short and stout, and, + +"Her stature tall, I hate a dumpy woman," + +is a matter of taste upon which most of us agree with his +lordship. This peculiar breadth of face and person probably +result from hard work and good fare, developing adipose tissue. I +could not bring myself to admire Gondebiza, the princess royal,-- +what is grotesque in one sex becomes unsightly in the other. Fat, +thirty, and perhaps once fair, her charms had seen their prime, +and the system of circles and circlets which composed her +personnel had assumed a tremulous and gravitating tendency. She +was habited in the height of Fán fashion. Her body was modestly +invested in a thin pattern of tattoo, and a gauze-work of oil and +camwood; the rest of the toilette was a dwarf pigeon-tail of fan- +palm, like that of the men, and a manner of apron, white beads, +and tree bark, greasy and reddened: the latter was tucked under +and over the five lines of cowries, which acted as cestus to the +portly middle, "big as a budget." The horns of hair, not unlike +the rays of light in Michael Angelo's "Moses," were covered with +a cap of leaves, and they were balanced behind by a pigtail +lashed with brass wire. Her ornaments were sundry necklaces of +various beads, large red and white, and small blue and pink +porcelains; a leaf, probably by way of amulet, was bound to a +string round the upper arm; and wrists and ankles were laden with +heavy rings of brass and copper, the parure of the great in Fán- +land. The other ballerine were, of course, less brilliantly +attired, but all had rings on their arms, legs, and ankles, +fingers, and toes. A common decoration was a bunch of seven or +eight long ringlets, not unlike the queues de rat, still affected +by the old-fashioned Englishwoman; these, however, as in the men, +were prolonged to the bosom by strings of alternate red and white +beads. Others limited the decoration to two rats' tails depending +from the temples, where phrenologists localize our "causality." +Many had faces of sufficient piquancy; the figures, though full, +wanted firmness, and I noticed only one well-formed bosom. The +men wore red feathers, but none carried arms. + +The form of saltation suggested Mr. Catlin's drawings. A circular +procession of children, as well as adults, first promenaded round +the princess, who danced with all her might in the centre, her +countenance preserving the grand sérieux. The performers in this +"ging-a-ring" then clapped hands with prolonged ejaculations of +o-o-o-oh, stamped and shuffled forwards, moving the body from the +hips downwards, whilst H. R. H. alone stood stationary and +smileless as a French demoiselle of the last century, who came to +the ball not to causer but to danser. At times, when King +Fitevanga condescended to show his agility, the uproar of +applause became deafening. The orchestra consisted of two men +sitting opposite each other,--one performed on a caisson, a log +of hollowed wood, four feet high, skin-covered, and fancifully +carved; the other on the national Anjyá, a rude "Marimba," the +prototype of the pianoforte. It is made of seven or eight hard- +wood slats, pinned with bamboo tacks to transverse banana trunks +lying on the ground: like the grande caisse, it is played upon +with sticks, plectra like tent-pegs. Mr. W. Winwood Reade +("Savage Africa," chap, xiii.) says: "The instrument is also +described by Froebel as being used by the Indians of Central +America, where, which is still more curious, it is known by the +same name--'marimba.'" Of course they borrowed the article and +the name from the negroes: most tribes in Africa have their own +terms for this universal instrument, but it is everywhere +recognized by the African who knows Europeans as "marimba." Thus +Owen tells us (p. 308) "that at the mouth of the Zambesi it is +called 'Tabbelah,'" evidently the Arabic "Tablah" Another +favourite instrument is a clapper, made of two bamboos some five +feet long, and thick as capstan bars,--it is truly the castanet +en grand. + +Highly gratified by the honour, but somewhat overpowered by the +presence and by that vile scourge the sandfly, I retired after +the first review, leaving the song, the drum, and the dance to +continue till midnight. Accustomed to the frantic noises of +African village-life in general, my ears here recognized an +excess of bawl and shout, and subsequent experience did not +efface the impression. But, in the savage and the barbarian, +noise, like curiosity, is a healthy sign; the lowest tribes are +moping and apathetic as sick children; they will hardly look at +anything, however strange to them. + +The rest of my day and week was devoted to the study of this +quaint people, and the following are the results. Those who have +dealings with the Fán universally prefer them in point of honesty +and manliness to the Mpongwe and Coast races; they have not had +time to become thoroughly corrupt, to lose all the lesser without +gaining anything of the greater virtues. They boast, like John +Tod, that they ne'er feared the French, and have scant respect +for (white) persons; indeed, their independence sometimes takes +the form of insolence. We were obliged to release by force the +boy Nyongo, and two of Mr. Tippet's women who had been put "in +log"--Anglicč, in the stocks. They were wanted as hostages during +the coming war, and this rude contrivance was adopted to insure +their presence. + +Chastity is still known amongst the Fán. The marriage tie has +some significance, the women will not go astray except with the +husband's leave, which is not often granted. The men wax wroth if +their mothers be abused. It is an insult to call one of them a +liar or a coward; the coast-tribes would merely smile at the soft +impeachment; and assure you that none but fools--yourself +included by implication--are anything else. Their bravery is the +bravery of the savage, whose first object in battle is to +preserve his only good, his life: to the civilized man, +therefore, they appear but moderately courageous. They are fond +of intoxication, but are not yet broken to ardent spirits: I have +seen a single glass of trade rum cause a man to roll upon the +ground and convulsively bite the yellow clay like one in the +agonies of the death-thirst. They would do wisely to decline +intercourse with Europeans; but this, of course, is impossible-- +there is a manifest destiny for them as for their predecessors. +The vile practice of the white or West Coast is to supply savages +with alcohol, arms, and ammunition; to live upon the lives of +those they serve. The more honourable Moslems of the eastern +shores do not disgrace themselves by such greed of gain. + +The Fán are cunning workers in iron, which is their wealth. Their +money is composed of Ikíá, dwarf bars shaped like horse-fleams, a +coinage familiar to old travellers in West Africa, and of this +Spartan currency a bundle of ten represents sixpence. "White +man's Ikíá" would be silver, for which the more advanced Mpongwe +have corrupted the English to "solove." An idea exists on the +Lower River that our hardware is broken up for the purpose of +being made into spear-heads and other weapons. Such is not +generally the case. The Wamasai, the Somal and the Cape Kafirs-- +indeed, all the metal-working African barbarians--call our best +Sheffield blades "rotten iron." They despise a material that +chips and snaps, and they prefer with ample cause their native +produce, charcoal-smelted, and tempered by many successive +heatings and hammerings, without quenching in water. Nor will +they readily part with it when worked. The usual trade medium is +a metal rod; two of these are worth a franc if of brass, while +three of copper represent two francs. There is a great demand for +beads and salt, the latter especially throughout the interior. + +Thus ended my "first impressions" amongst the Fán cannibals. + + + + + + Chapter X. + +To the Mbíka (Hill) ; the Sources of the Gaboon.----return to the + Plateau. + + + +Not yet despairing of a shot at or of capturing a "poor +relation," I persuaded Mr. Tippet to assemble the lieges and +offer them double what was proposed at Mbátá. No one, however, +appeared sanguine of success, the anthropoid keeps his distance +from the Fán. A trip to the interior was suggested, first up the +Mbokwe, and finally arranged for the Londo River. Information +about the country was, as usual, vague; one man made the stream +head two days off, the other a few hours, and Mr. Tippet's mind +fluctuated between fifty and one hundred miles. + +The party was easily assembled, and we set out at 7 A.M. on April +14th. I and Selim had the dignity of a "dingy" to ourselves: Mr. +Tippet out of a little harem of twenty-five had chosen two wives +and sundry Abigails, his canoe, laden with some fifteen souls, +was nearly flush with the water. The beauties were somewhat +surly, they complained, like the sluggard, of too early waking +and swore that they would do nothing in the way of work, industry +being essentially servile Anne Coombe (Ankombe, daughter of Qua +ben), was a short, stout, good humoured lass, "'Lizer" (Eliza), I +regret to say, would not make the least exertion, and, when +called, always turned her back. + +After dropping three miles down the Mbokwe River, we entered the +Londo influent: some three miles further on it fines down from a +width of eighty feet to a mere ditch, barred with trees, which +stop navigation. We landed on the left bank and walked into the +palaver-house of Fakanjok or Pakanjok, the village of a Fán head +man, called by Mr. Tippet "John Matoko." It was old, dirty and +tattered, showing signs of approaching removal. Out of the crowd +of men and women who nearly sat upon us, I had no difficulty in +hiring eight porters, thereby increasing our party to twenty-five +souls. These people carry on the shoulder, not as Africans always +should do, on the head: they even cross the fallen trunks which +act as rickety bridges, with one side of the body thus heavier +than the other. + +The bush-path began by wheeling westward, as though we were +returning to Anenge-nenge; thence it struck south-eastwards, a +rhumb from which it rarely deviated. Though we were approaching +the sub-ranges of the Sierra del Crystal, the country was very +like that about Mbátá; streamlets flowing to the Mbokwe, wet +yellow soil forming slippery muds, unhealthy as unpleasant in the +morning sunshine; old and new clearings and plantations, mostly +of bananas, mere spots in the wide expanse of bush, and deserted +or half-inhabited villages. Shortly after noon we came to a +battle-field, where the heroes of Tippet-town had chanced to fall +in with their foes of Autá, a settlement distant eight or nine +miles. Both armies at once "tree'd" themselves behind trunks, and +worked at long bowls, the "bushmen," having only one gun and two +charges, lost four of their men, and the victors, who had no time +to carry off the slain, contented themselves with an arm or two +by way of gigot. + +Probably the memory of this affair, which is still to be settled, +unfavourably impressed my escort. After a total of some two hours +(six miles) we arrived at a large "Oláko" or breakwind, a half- +face of leafy branches, and all insisted upon a long rest. I +objected, and then "palaver came up." We were at last frankly +told that the villages ahead were hostile, that we could not +proceed further in this direction, and that the people of +Fakanjok had thought my only object was to sight from afar a +golden prairie and a blue range beyond. The latter is known to +the French as "Tem," from a hillock crowned with a huge red- +trunked tree of that name. + +Opposition was useless, so we turned back some twenty minutes to +a junction, and took the south-eastern instead of the eastern +line. Here the country was higher and drier, more hilly and +gravelly, the aneroid showing some 900 feet (29.11); it would be +exceptionally healthy in any but the rainy season. Before the +afternoon had well set in, a camping ground had been chosen in +the tall, thin forest, near the confluence of two dwarf streams, +whose vitreous waters, flowing over fine sand and quartz pebbles, +were no small recommendation. As the cooking proceeded, frowning +brows relaxed, and huge fires put to flight ill temper and the +sandfly. I had proposed lashing my hammock to one of the tree- +stumps, which are here some ten feet tall, the people, who swing +themselves for the purpose of felling, declare the upper wood to +be softer than below. "Public opinion," however, overruled me, +and made it fast to two old trunks. The night was a succession of +violent tornadoes, and during one of the most outrageous the +upper half of a "triste lignum," falling alongside of and grazing +my hammock, awoke me with its crash. + +Next morning, when the rain had somewhat abated, I set out, by a +path whose makers were probably the ape and the squirrel-hunter, +in the direction of a rise, which the people called Mbika --The +hill. After a total of some two miles and a half, we found a +clearing upon the summit, but, although I climbed up a tree, the +bush was dense enough to conceal most of the surroundings. +According to the Fán, the Nkomo rises on the seaward or western +face of this Mbíká, whilst the Mbokwe, springing from its eastern +counterslope, runs south-west of the Massif and joins the former. +The one-tree hill known as "Tem" appeared a little to the north +of west: to the north-east we could see a river-fork, but none +knew its name. + +Our return was enlivened by the inspection of an elephant-kraal, +where a herd had been trapped, drugged, and shot during the last +season. As the walls were very flimsy, I asked why the animals +did not break loose; the answer was that the Ngán (Mganga or +Fetishman) ran a line of poison vine along its crest, and that +the beasts, however wild, would not attempt to pass through it. +The natives showed me the liana which they described, still lying +on the poles of the broken corral. Mr. Preston, of the Gaboon +Mission, who first noticed it, and Mr. Wilson, who gives an +illustration of the scene (p. 363), declares that the creeper is +drawn around the herd when browsing; that as long as the animals +are unmolested they will not dash through the magic circle, and +that the fence of uprights is constructed outside it. The same +tale is told of all the wild elephant-hunters in the interior, +the Báti the Okáná, the Yefá, and the Sensobá. + +Arrived at Tippet-town, I gave my "dashes," chiefly brass and +copper rods, bade an affectionate farewell, and then dropped down +stream without further ceremony. I had been disappointed a second +time in re gorilla, and nothing now remained but a retreat, which +time rendered necessary. The down-stream voyage was an easy +matter, and it need hardly be said far less unpleasant than the +painful toil up. From the Sanjika village on the Gaboon, the +"Tem" hill was seen bearing due east (Mag.) and the Mbíká 92°. +Behind them were glimpses of blue highland, rising in lumpy and +detached masses to the east; these are evidently sub-ranges of +the western Ghats, the Sierra del Crystal, which native +travellers described to me as a serrated broken line of rocky and +barren acicular mountains; tall, gravelly, waterless, and lying +about three days' journey beyond the screen of wooded hill. It is +probably sheltered to some extent from the damp sea-breeze, and +thus to the east there would be a "lee-land," dry, healthy and +elevated, which, corresponding with Ugogo on the Zanzibar- +Tanganyika line, would account for the light complexions of the +people. Early on the morning of Thursday, April 17th, the "Eliza" +was lying off Mr. R. B. N. Walker's factory, and I was again +received with customary hospitality by Mr. Hogg. + +These two short trips gave me a just measure of the comparative +difficulties in travelling through Eastern and Western Africa, +and to a certain extent accounted for the huge vacuum which +disfigures the latter, a few miles behind the seaboard. The road +to Unyamwezi, for instance, has been trodden for centuries; the +people have become trained porters; they look forward annually to +visiting the coast, and they are accustomed to the sight of +strangers, Arabs and others. If war or blood-feud chance to close +one line, the general interests of the interior open another. But +in this section of Africa there is no way except from village to +village, and a blood-feud may shut it for months. The people have +not the habit of dealing with the foreigner, whom they look upon +as a portent, a walking ghost, an ill-omened apparition. +Porterage is in embryo, no scale of payment exists; and no dread +of cutting off a communication profitable to both importer and +exporter prevents the greedy barbarian plundering the stranger. +Captain Speke and I were fortunate in being the first whites who +seriously attempted the Lake Region; our only obstacles were the +European merchants at Zanzibar; the murder of M. Maizan, although +a bad example to the people, had been so punished as to render an +immediate repetition of the outrage improbable. I say immediate, +for, shortly after our return, the unfortunate Herr Roscher was +killed at the Hisonguni village, near the Rufuma River, without +apparent reason. [FN#22] + +But M. du Chaillu had a very different task, and as far as he +went he did it well. His second expedition, in which an +accidental death raised the country against him, was fortunately +undertaken by a man in the prime of youth and strength; otherwise +he must have succumbed to a nine hours' run, wounded withal. In +East Africa when one of Lieutenant Cameron's "pagazis" happened +to kill a native, the white man was mulcted only in half his +cloth. + +On the other hand, I see no reason why these untrodden lines +should be pronounced impossible, as a writer in the "Pall Mall" +has lately done, deterring the explorer from work which every day +would cover new ground. The Gaboon is by no means a bad point de +départ, whence the resolute traveller, with perseverance (Anglicč +time), a knowledge of the coast language, and good luck might +penetrate into the heart (proper) of Africa, and abolish the +white blot which still affronts us. His main difficulty would be +the heavy outlay; "impecuniosity" to him would represent the +scurvy and potted cat of the old Arctic voyager. But if he can +afford to travel regardless of delays and expense, and to place +depots of cloth, beads, and other "country-money" at every +hundred miles, Mpongwe-land would be one of the gateways to the +unknown regions of the Dark Continent. Moreover, every year we +hear some new account of travellers coming from the East. +Unfortunately men with Ł5,000 to Ł20,000 a year do not "plant the +lance in Africa," the old heroic days of the Spanish and +Portuguese exploring hidalgos have yet to dawn anew. We must now +look forward to subsidies from economical governments, and whilst +the Germans and Italians, especially the former, are so liberally +supported and adequately rewarded, Englishmen, as in the case of +the gallant Lieutenant Cameron, run the risk of being repudiated, +left penniless in the depths of Negro-land. + + + + + + Chapter XI. + + Mr., Mrs., and Master Gorilla. + + + +The reader will kindly bear in mind, when perusing my notes upon +the gorilla, that, as in the the case of the Fán cannibalism +described by the young French traveller, my knowledge of the +anthropoid is confined to the maritime region; moreover, that it +is hearsay, fate having prevented my nearer acquaintance with the +"ape of contention." + +The discovery must be assigned to Admiral Hanno of Carthage, who, +about B. C. 500, first in the historical period slew the +Troglodytes, and carried home their spoils. + +The next traveller who described the great Troglodytes of +equatorial Africa was the well-known Andrew Battel, of Leigh, +Essex (1589 to 1600); and his description deserves quoting. "Here +(Mayombo) are two kinds of monsters common to these woods. The +largest of them is called Pongo in their language, and the other +Engeco "(in the older editions "Encęgo" evidently Nchigo, whilst +Engeco may have given rise to our "Jocko"). "The Pongo is in all +his proportions like a man, except the legs, which have no +calves, but are of a gigantic size. Their faces, hands, and ears +are without hair; their bodies are covered, but not very thick, +with hair of a dunnish colour. When they walk on the ground it is +upright, with their hands on the nape of the neck. They sleep in +trees, and make a covering over their heads to shelter them from +the rain. They eat no flesh, but feed on nuts and other fruits; +they cannot speak, nor have they any understanding beyond +instinct. + +"When the people of the country travel through the woods, they +make fires in the night, and in the morning, when they are gone, +the Pongos will come and sit round it till it goes out, for they +do not possess sagacity enough to lay more wood on. They go in +bodies, and kill many negroes who travel in the woods. When +elephants happen to come and feed where they are, they will fall +on them, and so beat them with their clubbed fists (sticks?) that +they are forced to run away roaring. The grown Pongos are never +taken alive, owing to their strength, which is so great that ten +men cannot hold one of them. The young Pongos hang upon their +mother's belly, with their hands clasped about her. Many of the +young ones are taken by means of shooting the mothers with +poisoned arrows, and the young ones, hanging to their mothers, +are easily taken." + +I have italicized the passages which show that the traditions +still preserved on the coast, about the Pongo and the Chimpanzee, +date from old. Surely M. du Chaillu does grave injustice to this +good old Briton, who was not a literary man, by declaring his +stories to be mere travellers' tales, "untrue of any of the great +apes of Africa." Battel had evidently not seen the animal, and +with his negro informants he confounds the gorilla and the +"bushman;" yet he possibly alludes to a species which has escaped +M. du Chaillu and other modern observers. + +Mr. W. Winwood Reade ("Savage Africa," chap, xix.) has done good +service by reprinting the letter of a Bristol trader on the west +coast of Africa, first published by Lord Monboddo ("Origin and +Progress of Language," vol. i. p. 281, 1774 to 1792). Here we +find distinct mention of three anthropoid apes. The first is the +"Impungu" (or pongo?), which walks upright, and is from seven to +nine feet high. The second is the "Itsena," evidently the Njína, +Njí, Nguyla, or gorilla; and thirdly is the "Chimpenza," our +Chimpanzee, a word corrupted from the Congoese Kampenzy, +including the Nchígo, the Kulu-Kamba, and other Troglodytes. I +have heard of this upright-walking Mpongo at Loango and other +places on the west coast of Africa, where the Njína is familiarly +spoken of, and it is not, methinks, impossible, that an ape even +larger than the gorilla may yet be found. + +James Barbot ("A Voyage to Congo River," Churchill, vol. v. p. +512,) tells us in 1700 that the "kingdom of Angola, or Dongo, +produces many such extraordinary apes in the woods; they are +called by the blacks Quojas morrow, and by the Indians Orang- +outang, that is satyrs, or woodmen. . . . This creature seems to +be the very satyr of the ancients, written of by Pliny and +others, and is said to set upon women in the woods, and sometimes +upon armed men." Amongst these animals he evidently includes the +chimpanzee, as may be seen by his reference to the Royal +Exchange, London. + +In 1776 the philosophical Abbé Proyart, in his excellent "History +of Loango," tells us (vide the chapter upon animals) that "there +are in the forests baboons four feet high; the negroes affirm +that, when they are hard pushed, they come down from the trees +with sticks in their hands to defend themselves against those who +are hunting them, and that very often they chase their pursuers. +The missionaries never witnessed this singularity." According to +the people, gorillas five or six feet tall have been seen as +lately as 1840 at "Looboo Wood," a well-known spot which we shall +presently sight, about three miles inland from the centre of +Loango Bay. + +And now the long intervals between travellers' accounts wax +shorter. The well-known writer, Bowdich, before quoted, +published, in 1819, his hearsay description of the "Ingena," +garnished with the usual native tales. I had the honour of +receiving an account of his discovery from his widow, the late +Mrs. Lee, who was held the "mother of African travellers," and +whose energy and intelligence endured to the last,--if memory +serves me, she referred to some paper upon the subject, written +by herself about 1825. Towards the end of 1846, the Rev. Mr. +Wilson, founder of the Gaboon Mission, and proto-grammarian of +its language, obtained two skulls, which were followed by +skeletons, fragmentary and perfect. He sent No. 1, measuring, +when alive, 5 ˝ feet in height, and 4 feet across the shoulders, +to the "Natural History Society" of Boston. He evidently has a +right to boast that he was "the first to call the attention of +naturalists to the 'Njena.'" His colleague, Dr. Thomas Savage, +and Professor Jeffries Wyman called the new animal by the old +name of gorilla, suffixing it to the "Troglodytes" which Geoffrey +de Saint-Hilaire, reviving Linnaeus, had proposed in 1812. In +1847, Dr. Savage published in the "Journal of Natural History" +(Boston) the result of his careful inquiries about the "Engé-ena" +and the "Enche-eko." In 1852, this information was supplemented +by Dr. Ford, also of the Gaboon Mission, with a "Paper on the +Gorilla," published in the "Transactions of the Philadelphian +Academy of Sciences." + +M. du Chaillu first had the honour of slaying the gorilla in its +native wilds. I saw his trophies in the United States in 1859; +and the sensation which they subsequently created in London +(1861-1862) is too recent to require notice. Unfortunately the +specimens were mutilated and imperfect. Mr. R. B. N. Walker, +agent of Messrs. Hatton and Cookson at the Gaboon River, was the +first to send home a young specimen bodily, stowed away in +spirits; two boiled skeletons of large grey animals, whose skins +I saw at the factory, and rum-preserved brains, intestines, and +other interesting parts, which had vainly been desired by +naturalists. Mr. W. Winwood Reade spent five active months in the +Gorilla country in 1862: Major Levison also visited the river, +but their hunting was as unsuccessful as mine; whilst, in 1863, +Major (now Colonel) De Ruvignes is reported to have been more +fortunate. Since that time gorillas have been killed by the +French chasseur. + +The young Troglodyte has often been captured. The usual mode is +to fell the tree, and during the confusion to throw a cloth over +its head; the hands are then pinioned behind, and a forked stick +is fastened under the chin to prevent the child biting. I should +prefer, for trapping old as well as young, the way in which bears +are caught by the North American backwoodsman,--a hollowed log, +with some fruit, plantains for instance, floating in a quant. +suff. of sugar, well sugared and narcotized. + +Concerning the temper of these little captives, there are heroic +differences of opinion. Mr. Ford records the "implacable +desperation" of a juvenile which was brought to the Mission. It +was taken very young, and kept four months, and many means were +used to tame it; but it was so incorrigible, that it bit me an +hour before it died." Yet, in face of this and other evidence, +Mr. W. Winwood Reade, writing to the "Athenaeum" (September 7, +1862), asserts that "the young gorilla in captivity is not +savage." "Joe Gorilla," M. du Chaillu's brat, was notoriously +fierce and unmanageable. The Rev. Mr. Walker, of Baraka, had a +specimen, which he describes as a very tractable pupil; and my +excellent friend Major Noeliy White, better known as "Governor +White," of Corisco Island, brought to Fernando Po a baby Njina, +which in its ways and manners much resembled an old woman. Mr. R. +B. N. Walker became the happy godfather of two youngsters, who +were different in disposition as Valentine and Orson. One, which +measured 18 inches high, and died in 1861, was so savage and +morose, that it was always kept chained; the other, "Seraphino," +was of angelic nature, a general favourite at the Factory: it +survives, in a photograph taken by the French Commandant of the +Comptoir, as it sat after breakfast on godpapa's lap. At first it +was confined, but it soon became so tame and playful, that the +cage was required only at night. It never bit, unless when +teased, and its only fault was not being able to avoid the +temptation of eating what disagreed with it--in fact, it was sub- +human in some points, and very human in others. All died in +direct consequence of dysentery, which even a milk diet could not +prevent. Perhaps the best way to send home so delicate an animal +would be to keep it for a time in its native forest; to accustom +it to boiled plantains, rice, and messes of grain; and to ship it +during the fine season, having previously fitted up a cabin near +the engine-room, where the mercury should never fall below 70 +°(Fahr.). In order to escape nostalgia and melancholy, which are +sure to be fatal, the emigrant should be valeted by a faithful +and attached native. + +The habitat of the gorilla has been unduly limited to the left +banks of the Gaboon and Fernao Vaz rivers, and to the lands lying +between north latitude 2°, and south latitude 2°,--in fact, to +the immediate vicinity of the equator. The late Count Lavradio +informed me that he had heard of it on the banks of the lower +Congo River (south latitude 9°), and the "Soko," which Dr. +Livingstone identifies with the Gorilla, extends to the Lualaba +or Upper Congo, in the regions immediately west of the Tanganyika +Lake. His friends have suggested that the "Soko" might have been +a chimpanzee, but the old traveller was, methinks, far above +making the mistake. The Yorubans at once recognize the picture; +they call the anthropoid "Nákí;" and they declare that, when it +seizes a man, it tears the fingers asunder. So M. du Chaillu +(chapter vi.) mentions, in the Mpongwe report, that the Njina +tears off the toe-nails and the finger-nails of his human +captives. We should not believe so scandalous an assertion +without detailed proof; it is hardly fair to make the innocent +biped as needlessly cruel as man. It is well known to the natives +of the Old Calabar River by the name of "Onion." In 1860, the +brothers Jules and Ambroise Poncet travelled with Dr. Peney to Ab +Kúka, the last of their stations near the head of the Luta Nzige +(Albert Nyanza) Lake, and Dr. Peney "brought back the hand of the +first gorilla which had been heard of" ("Ocean Highways," p. 482- +-February, 1874). The German Expedition (1873) reports Chicambo +to be a gorilla country; that the anthropoid is found one day's +journey from the Coast, and that the agent of that station has +killed five with his own hand. Mr. Thompson of Sherbro ("Palm +Land," chap, xiii.) says of the chimpanzee: "Some have been seen +as tall as a man, from five to seven feet high, and very +powerful." This is evidently the Njína, the only known anthropoid +that attains tall human stature; and from the rest of the +passage,[FN#23] it is clear that he has confounded the chimpanzee +with the Nchigo-mpolo. + +The strip of gorilla-country visited by me was an elevated line +of clayey and sandy soil, cut by sweet-water streams, and by +mangrove-lined swamps, backed inland by thin forest. Here the +comparative absence of matted undergrowth makes the landscape +sub-European, at least, by the side of the foul tropical jungle; +it is exceptionally rich in the wild fruits required by the huge +anthropoid. The clearings also supply bananas, pine-apple leaves, +and sugar-cane, and there is an abundance of honey, in which, +like the Nchígo, the gorilla delights. The villages and the +frequent plantations which it visits to plunder limit its +reproduction near the sea, and make it exceedingly wary and keen +of eye, if not of smell. Even when roosting by night, it is +readily frightened by a footstep; and the crash caused by the +mighty bound from branch to branch makes the traveller think that +a tree has fallen. + +The gorilla breeds about December, a cool and dry month: +according to my bushmen, the period of gestation is between five +and six months. The babe begins to walk some ten days after +birth; "chops milk" for three months and, at the end of that time +may reach eighteen inches in height. M. du Chaillu makes his +child, "Joe Gorilla," 2 feet 6 inches when under the third year: +assuming the average height of the adult male at 5 feet to 5 feet +6 inches, this measurement suggests that, according to the law of +Flourens, the life would exceed thirty years. I saw two +fragmentary skins, thoroughly "pepper and salt;" and the natives +assured me that the gorilla turns silver-white with age. + +It is still a disputed point whether the weight is supported by +the knuckles of the forehand, like the chimpanzee, or whether the +palm is the proper fulcrum. M. du Chaillu says ("First +Expedition," chap, xx.), "the fingers are only lightly marked on +the ground;" yet a few pages afterwards we are told, "The most +usual mode of progression of the animal is on all-fours and +resting on the knuckles." In the "Second Expedition" (chap, ii.) +we read, "The tracks of the feet never showed the marks of toes, +only the heels, and the track of the hands showed simply the +impressions of the knuckles." + +The attack of the gorilla is that of the apes and the monkeys +generally. The big-bellied satyr advances to the assault as it +travels, shuffling on all-fours; "rocking" not traversing; +bristling the crest, chattering, mowing and displaying the +fearful teeth and tusks. Like all the Simiads, this Troglodyte +sways the body to and fro, and springs from side to side for the +purpose of avoiding the weapon. At times Quasimodo raises himself +slightly upon the dwarfed "asthenogenic," and almost deformed +hind limbs, which look those of a child terminating the body of a +Dan Lambert: the same action may be seen in its congeners great +and small. The wild huntsmen almost cried with laughter when they +saw the sketches in the "Gorilla Book,"[FN#24] the mighty +pugilist standing stiff and upright as the late Mr. Benjamin +Caunt, "beating the breast with huge fists till it sounded like +an immense bass drum;" and preparing to deal a buffet worthy of +Friar Tuck. They asked me if I thought mortal man would ever +attempt to face such a thing as that? With respect to drumming +with both forehands upon the chest, some asserted that such is +the brute's practice when calling Mrs. Gorilla, or during the +excitement of a scuffle; but the accounts of the bushmen differ +greatly on this point. In a hand-to-hand struggle it puts forth +one of the giant feet, sometimes the hinder, as "Joe Gorilla" was +wont to do; and, having once got a hold with its prehensile toes, +it bites and worries like any other ape, baboon, or monkey. From +this grapple doubtless arose the old native legend about the +gorilla drawing travellers up trees and "quietly choking them." +It can have little vitality, as it is easily killed with a bit of +stone propelled out of a trade musket by the vilest gunpowder, +and the timid bushmen, when failing to shoot it unawares, do not +fear to attack it openly. As a rule, the larger the Simiad, the +less sprightly it becomes; and those most approaching man are +usually the tamest and the most melancholy--perhaps, their +spirits are permanently affected by their narrow escape. The +elderly male (for anthropoids, like anthropoi, wax fierce and +surly with increasing years) will fight, but only from fear, when +suddenly startled, or with rage when slightly wounded. Moreover, +there must be rogue-gorillas, like rogue-elephants, lions, +hippopotami, rhinoceros, and even stags, vieux grognards, who, +expelled house and home, and debarred by the promising young +scions from the softening influence of feminine society, become, +in their enforced widowerhood, the crustiest of old bachelors. At +certain seasons they may charge in defence of the wife and +family, but the practice is exceptional. Mr. Wilson saw a man who +had lost the calf of his leg in an encounter, and one Etia, a +huntsman whose left hand had been severely crippled, informed Mr. +W. Winwood Reade, that "the gorilla seized his wrist with his +hind foot, and dragged his hand into his mouth, as he would have +done a bunch of plantains." No one, however, could give me an +authentic instance of manslaughter by our big brother. + +The modifications with which we must read the picturesque pages +of the "Gorilla Book" are chiefly the following. The Gorilla is a +poor devil ape, not a "hellish dream-creature, half man, half +beast." He is not king of the African forest; he fears the Njego +or leopard and, as lions will not live in these wet, wooded, and +gameless lands, he can hardly have expelled King Leo. He does not +choose the "darkest, gloomiest forests," but prefers the thin +woods, where he finds wild fruits for himself and family. His +tremendous roar does not shake the jungle: it is a hollow apish +cry, a loudish huhh! huhh! huhh! explosive like the puff of a +steam-engine, which, in rage becomes a sharp and snappish bark -- +any hunter can imitate it. Doubtless, in some exceptional cases, +when an aged mixture of Lablache and Dan Lambert delivers his +voce di petto, the voice may be heard for some distance in the +still African shades, but it will hardly compare with the howling +monkeys of the Brazil, which make the forest hideous. The eye is +not a "light grey" but the brown common to all the tribe. The +Gorilla cannot stand straight upon his rear quarter when +attacking or otherwise engaged without holding on to a trunk: he +does not "run on his hind legs;" he is essentially a tree ape, as +every stuffed specimen will prove. He never gives a tremendous +blow with his immense open paw; doubtless, a native legend found +in Battel and Bowdich; nor does he attack with the arms. However +old and male he may be, he runs away with peculiar alacrity: +though powerfully weaponed with tigerish teeth, with "bunches of +muscular fibre," and with the limbs of Goliah, the gorilla, on +the seaboard at least, is essentially a coward; nor can we be +surprised at his want of pluck, considering the troubles and +circumstances under which he spends his harassed days. Finally, +whilst a hen will defend her chicks, Mrs. Gorilla will fly, +leaving son or daughter in the hunter's hands. + + + + + + Chapter XII. + + Corisco--"Home" to Fernando Po. + + + +On April 22nd, after some five weeks in the Gaboon River, I found +myself once more in her Majesty's steam-ship "Griffon," which had +returned from the south coast, bound for Corisco (Gorilla +Island?) and Fernando Po. It was "going-away day," when +proverbially the world looks prettier than usual, and we enjoyed +the suggestive view of the beaded line which, seen from the sea, +represents the Sierra del Crystal. The distance from Le Plateau +to the Isle of Lightning was only thirty-five miles, from the +nearest continent ten, and before the evening tornado broke from +the south-east, here the normal direction, we were lying in the +roads about two miles from the landing-place. The anchorage is +known by bringing Mbánya (Little Corisco), the smaller and +southern outlier in a line between Laval Islet and the main +island. + +The frequent coruscations gave a name to Corisco, which the +natives know as Mange: it was called, says Barbot, "'Ilha do +Corisco,' from the Portuguese, because of the violent horrid +lightnings, and claps of thunder, the first discoverers there saw +and heard there at the time of their discovery." There is still +something to be done in investigating the cause of these +electrical discharges. Why should lofty Fernando Po and low-lying +Corisco suffer so much, when Zanzibar Island, similarly situated, +suffers so rarely? Again, why is Damascus generally free from +thunder-storms when Brazilian Sâo Paul, whose site is of the same +altitude and otherwise so like, can hardly keep the lightning out +of doors? The immunity of Zanzibar Island can hardly be explained +by the popular theory; neither it nor Fernando Po, which suffers +greatly from thunder-storms, lies near the embouchure of a great +river, where salt and fresh water may disturb electrical +equilibrium. I shall say more upon this point when in the Congo +Regions (chap. xii.). + +The position of Great Corisco (north latitude 0° 55' 0") is at +the mouth of a well-wooded bay, which Barbot (iv. 9) calls Bay of +Angra, i.e. Bight of Bight. He terms the southern or Munda stream +Rio de Angrta, or Angex, whilst the equally important Muni +(Danger) becomes only "a little river" without name. The modern +charts prefer Corisco Bay. It measures some forty miles from +north to south by half that depth, and its position causes the +rains, which are synchronous with those of the Gaboon, to be much +more copious and continuous. They last nine months out of twelve, +and in March, 1862, the fall was 25 inches, the heaviest +remembered it had filled the little island valleys, and made the +paths lines of canal. + +Next morning we were visited by the Rev. Mr. Mackey, the senior +of the eight white men who inhabit this piece of land--a proper +site for Robinson Crusoe--where, as the Yankee said of Great +Britain, you can hardly stretch yourself without fear of falling +overboard. He kindly undertook to be our guide over the interior, +and we landed on the hard sand of the open western beach: here at +times a tremendous surf must roll in. We struck into the bush, +and bent towards the south-west of the islet, where stands the +monarch of cliffs, 80 feet high. The maximum length is three +miles by about the same breadth, and the circumference, including +the indentations, may be fifteen. The surface is rolling composed +of humus and clay, corallines and shelly conglomerates based on +tertiary limestone and perhaps sandstone; dwarf clearings +alternate with tracts of bush grass, and with a bushy second +growth, lacking large trees. The only important wild productions +pointed out to us were cardamoms, the oil palm (Elais +Guincensis), and an unknown species of butter-nut. The centre of +the island was a mass of perennial pools, fed, they say, by +springs as well as rains, one puddle, adorned with water lilies +and full of dwarf leeches which relish man's life, extended about +a hundred yards long. In fact, the general semblance of Corisco +was that of a filled up "atoll," a circular reef still growing to +a habitable land. Here only could I find on the west coast of +Africa a trace of the features which distinguished the Gorilla +island of 2,300 years ago. + +At South Bay we came upon a grassy clearing larger than usual, +near a bright stream; its pottery and charred wood showed the +site of the Spanish barracoon destroyed by the British in 1840. +During the last seven years the "patriarchal institution" has +become extinct, and the old slavers who have at times touched at +the island, have left it empty-handed. Corisco had long been +celebrated for cam-wood, a hard and ponderous growth, yielding a +better red than Brazil or Braziletto, alias Brazilete +(Brasilettia, De Cand.) one of the Eucćsalpinieć, a congener of +C. Echinata, which produces the Brazil-wood or Pernambuco-wood of +commerce. In 1679, the Hollander Governor-General of Minas sent +some forty whites to cultivate "Indian wheat and other sort of +corn and plants of Guinea." The design was to supply the Dutch +West Indian Company's ships with grain and vegetables, especially +bananas, which grow admirably; I heard that there are fifteen +varieties upon this dot of dry land. Thus the crews would not +waste time and money at Cape Lopez and the Portuguese islands. +The Dutch colonists began by setting up a factory in a turf +redoubt, armed with iron guns, "the better to secure themselves +from any surprise or assault of the few natives, who are a sort +of wild and mischievous blacks." The plantation was successful, +but the bad climate and noxious gases from the newly turned +ground, combined with over-exertion, soon killed some seventeen +out of the forty; and the remainder, who also suffered from +malignant distempers, razed their buildings and returned to the +Gold Coast. When the Crown of Spain once more took possession of +Fernando Po, it appointed a Governor for Corisco, but no +establishment was maintained there. To its credit be it said, +there was not much interference with the Protestant mission; +public preaching was forbidden pro formâ in 1860, but no notice +was taken of "passive resistance." + +The native villages, exactly resembling those of the Gaboon, are +all built near the strip of fine white sand which forms the +shore, and upon the sweet water channels which cut deep into the +limestones. They are infested with rats, against whose +depredations the mango trees must be protected with tin ruffs; +yet there are six kinds of reptilia upon the island, including +the common black snake and cobras, from six to seven feet long: +these animals, aided by the dogs, which also persecute the +iguanas, have prevented rabbits breeding. In Barbot's time (1700) +there were only thirty or forty inhabitants, who held the north- +eastern point about a league from the wooding and watering +places. "That handful of blacks has much ado to live healthy, the +air being very intemperate and unwholesome; they are governed by +a chief, who is lord of the island, and they all live very +poorly, but have plenty enough of cucumbers, which grow there in +perfection, and many sorts of fowl." In 1856 the Rev. Mr. Wilson +reckons them at less than 2,000, and in 1862 I was told that +there were about 1,100, of whom 600 were Bengas. In look, dress, +and ornaments they resemble the Mpongwe, but some of them have +adopted the Kru stripe, holding a blue nose to be a sign of +freedom. They consider themselves superior to the "Pongos," and +they have exchanged their former fighting reputation for that of +peaceful traders to the mainland and to the rivers Muni and +Mundah. They live well, eating flesh or fish once a day, not on +Sundays only, the ambition of Henri Quatre: at times they trap +fine green turtle in seines, but they do not turn these "delicate +monsters." + +Mr. Wilson numbered the whole Benga tribe at 8,000, but Mr. +Mackey reduced the figure to half. Besides Corisco they inhabit +the two capes at the north and south of the bay. The language is +used by other tribes holding the coast northward for a hundred +miles or more, and probably by the inner people extending in a +northerly direction from Corisco Bay: the same, with certain +modifications, is also spoken at Săo Bento, Batanga, and perhaps +as far north as the Camarones River. On the other hand, the +tribes occupying the eastern margin of Corisco Bay, such as the +Mbiko, Dibwe, and Belengi, cannot understand one another, and the +tongues of the southward regions differ even more from the Benga. +Yet all evidently belong to the great South African family. + +Mr. Mackey, who explored Corisco Island in 1849, assures us that +scarcely any of the older inhabitants were born there; they came +from the continent north or north-east of the bay, gradually +forcing their way down. The characteristic difference of the +Benga, the Bákele, and the Mpongwe dialects is as follows: "The +Mpongwes have a great partiality for the use of the passive +voice, and avoid the active when the passive can be used. The +Bákele verb delights in the active voice, and will avoid the +passive even by a considerable circumlocution. The Benga takes an +intermediate position in this respect, and uses the active and +passive very much as we do in English." + +The Corisco branch of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions +was established by the Rev. James S. Mackey in 1850. It made as +much progress as could be expected, and in 1862 it numbered 110 +scholars and 65 communicants; the total of those baptized was 80, +and 15 had been suspended. The members applied themselves, as the +list of their publications shows, with peculiar ardour to the +language, and they did not neglect natural history and short +explorations of the adjoining interior. They had sent home +specimens of the six reptilia, the six snails and land shells, +the seventy-five sea shells, and the 110 fishes, all known by +name, which they collected upon the island and in the bay. It is +to be presumed that careful dredging will bring to light many +more: the pools are said to produce a small black fish, local as +the Proteus anguineus of the Styrian caves, to mention no other. + +I was curious to hear from Mr. Mackey some details about the Muni +River, where he travelled in company with M. du Chaillu. It still +keeps the troublous reputation for petty wars which made the old +traders dignify it with the name of "Danger." The nearest Falls +are about thirty miles from Olobe Island, and the most distant +may be sixty-five. Of course we had a laugh over the famous +Omamba or Anaconda, whose breath can be felt against the face +before it is seen. + +Late in April 24th I returned the books kindly lent to me from +the mission library, shook hands with my kind and hospitable +entertainers at the mission house, mentally wishing them speedy +deliverance from Corisco, and embarked on board the "Griffon." We +quickly covered the "great water desert" of 160 miles between the +Gorilla Island and Fernando Po, and at noon on the next day I +found myself once more "at home." + + + + + +[FN#1] Paul B. du Chaillu, Chap. III. "Explorations and +Adventures in Equatorial Africa." London: Murray, 1861. + +[FN#2] Rev. J. Leighton Wilson of the Presbyterian Mission, +eighteen years in Africa, "Western Africa," &c. New York. +Harpers, 1856. + +[FN#3] Barbot, book iv. chap. 9. + +[FN#4] This word is the Muzungu of the Zanzibar coast, and +contracted to Utángá and even Tángá it is found useful in +expressing foreign wares; Utangáni's devil-fire, for instance, is +a lucifer match. + +[FN#5] "Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains," vol. ii. chap. +i. London: Tinsleys, 1863. + +[FN#6] See "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast," vol. i. chap. v +sect. 2. + +[FN#7] "Observations on the Fevers of the West African Coast." +New York: Jenkins, 1856. A more valuable work is the "Medical +Topography, &c. of West Africa," by the late W.F. Daniell, M.D., +1849. Finally, Mr. Consul Hutchinson offered valuable suggestions +in his work on the Niger Expedition of 1854-5 (Longmans, 1855, +and republished in the "Traveller's Library"). + +[FN#8] M. du Chaillu ends his chapter i. with an "illustration +of a Mpongwe woman," copied without acknowledgment from Mr. +Wilson's "Portrait of Yanawaz, a Gaboon Princess." + +[FN#9] Everywhere on the lower river "hard dollars" are highly +valued. The Spanish, formerly the favourite, and always worth 4s. +2d., command only a five-franc piece at Le Plateau; moreover, the +"peseta," like the shilling, is taken as a franc. + +[FN#10] "The British Jews," by the Rev. John Mills. London: +Houlston and Stoneman, 1853. + +[FN#11] For further details see "Zanzibar City, Island, and +Coast," vol. ii. chap. iv. + +[FN#12] See "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast," vol. ii. chap. +v. + +[FN#13] See part ii. chap. xxii. "Hans Stade," translated by Mr. +Albert Tootal, annotated by myself, and published by the Hakluyt +Society, 1874. + +[FN#14] Captain Boteler (v. ii. p. 374) gives a sketch of the +"Fetiche dance, Cape Lopez," and an admirable description of Ndá, +who is mounted on stilts with a white mask, followed by negroes +with chalked faces. + +[FN#15] See "Zanzibar, City, Island, and Coast," vol. i. chap. +vii. + +[FN#16] I have discussed this subject in my "Zanzibar," vol. i. +chap. xi. + +[FN#17] M. du Chaillu's description of the animal is excellent +(p. 282), and the people at once recognized the cut. + +[FN#18] I did not see the Iboko, which M. du Chaillu (chap, +xvi.) calls the "boco;" but, from the native description, I +determined it to be the tsetse. He names the sandfly (chap, xvi.) +"igoo-gouai." His "ibolai" or "mangrove fly" is "owole" in the +singular, and "iwole" in the plural. The wasp, which he terms +"eloway," is known to the Mpongwe people as "ewogoni." + +[FN#19] "Introductory Remarks to a Vocabulary of the Yoruba +Language." Seeleys, Fleet Street, London. + +[FN#20] Hutchinson's "Ten Years' Wanderings, p. 319. + +[FN#21] "Journal of the Ethnological Society," April, 1869. + +[FN#22] "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast," vol. ii. chap. ii. + +[FN#23] See chap. ii. + +[FN#24] First Edition, Illustration VI. (p. 71), and XLIII. (p. +297). + + + + + +End of Volume 1 of Two Trips to Gorilla Land. + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TWO TRIPS TO GORILLA LAND AND THE CATARACTS OF THE CONGO *** + +This file should be named 5760-8.txt or 5760-8.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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