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diff --git a/5891-0.txt b/5891-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8424b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/5891-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17774 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 5891 *** +Travels in West Africa (Congo Francais, Corisco and Cameroons) +by Mary H. Kingsley. + + + + +To my brother, C. G. Kingsley this book is dedicated. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE. +PREFACE TO THE ABRIDGED EDITION OF TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA. +INTRODUCTION. +CHAPTER I. LIVERPOOL TO SIERRA LEONE AND THE GOLD COAST. +CHAPTER II. FERNANDO PO AND THE BUBIS. +CHAPTER III. VOYAGE DOWN COAST. +CHAPTER IV. THE OGOWE. +CHAPTER V. THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWE. +CHAPTER VI. LEMBARENE. +CHAPTER VII. ON THE WAY FROM KANGWE TO LAKE NCOVI. +CHAPTER VIII. FROM NCOVI TO ESOON. +CHAPTER IX. FROM ESOON TO AGONJO. +CHAPTER X. BUSH TRADE AND FAN CUSTOMS. +CHAPTER XI. DOWN THE REMBWE. +CHAPTER XII. FETISH. +CHAPTER XIII. FETISH--(Continued). +CHAPTER XIV. FETISH--(Continued). +CHAPTER XV. FETISH--(Continued). +CHAPTER XVI. FETISH--(Concluded). +CHAPTER XVII. ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS. +CHAPTER XVIII. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(Continued). +CHAPTER XIX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(Continued). +CHAPTER XX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(Concluded). +CHAPTER XXI. TRADE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA. +CHAPTER XXII. DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA. +APPENDIX. THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM. + + + +PREFACE + + + +TO THE READER.--What this book wants is not a simple Preface but an +apology, and a very brilliant and convincing one at that. +Recognising this fully, and feeling quite incompetent to write such +a masterpiece, I have asked several literary friends to write one +for me, but they have kindly but firmly declined, stating that it is +impossible satisfactorily to apologise for my liberties with Lindley +Murray and the Queen's English. I am therefore left to make a +feeble apology for this book myself, and all I can personally say is +that it would have been much worse than it is had it not been for +Dr. Henry Guillemard, who has not edited it, or of course the whole +affair would have been better, but who has most kindly gone through +the proof sheets, lassoing prepositions which were straying outside +their sentence stockade, taking my eye off the water cask and fixing +it on the scenery where I meant it to be, saying firmly in pencil on +margins "No you don't," when I was committing some more than usually +heinous literary crime, and so on. In cases where his activities in +these things may seem to the reader to have been wanting, I beg to +state that they really were not. It is I who have declined to +ascend to a higher level of lucidity and correctness of diction than +I am fitted for. I cannot forbear from mentioning my gratitude to +Mr. George Macmillan for his patience and kindness with me,--a mere +jungle of information on West Africa. Whether you my reader will +share my gratitude is, I fear, doubtful, for if it had not been for +him I should never have attempted to write a book at all, and in +order to excuse his having induced me to try I beg to state that I +have written only on things that I know from personal experience and +very careful observation. I have never accepted an explanation of a +native custom from one person alone, nor have I set down things as +being prevalent customs from having seen a single instance. I have +endeavoured to give you an honest account of the general state and +manner of life in Lower Guinea and some description of the various +types of country there. In reading this section you must make +allowances for my love of this sort of country, with its great +forests and rivers and its animistic-minded inhabitants, and for my +ability to be more comfortable there than in England. Your superior +culture-instincts may militate against your enjoying West Africa, +but if you go there you will find things as I have said. + +January, 1897. + + + +PREFACE TO THE ABRIDGED EDITION OF TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA. + + + +When on my return to England from my second sojourn in West Africa, +I discovered, to my alarm, that I was, by a freak of fate, the sea- +serpent of the season, I published, in order to escape from this +reputation, a very condensed, much abridged version of my +experiences in Lower Guinea; and I thought that I need never explain +about myself or Lower Guinea again. This was one of my errors. I +have been explaining ever since; and, though not reconciled to so +doing, I am more or less resigned to it, because it gives me +pleasure to see that English people can take an interest in that +land they have neglected. Nevertheless, it was a shock to me when +the publishers said more explanation was required. I am thankful to +say the explanation they required was merely on what plan the +abridgment of my first account had been made. I can manage that +explanation easily. It has been done by removing from it certain +sections whole, and leaving the rest very much as it first stood. +Of course it would have been better if I had totally reformed and +rewritten the book in pellucid English; but that is beyond me, and I +feel at any rate this book must be better than it was, for there is +less of it; and I dimly hope critics will now see that there is a +saving grace in disconnectedness, for owing to that disconnectedness +whole chapters have come out without leaving holes. + +As for the part that is left in, I have already apologised for its +form, and I cannot help it, for Lower Guinea is like what I have +said it is. No one who knows it has sent home contradictions of my +description of it, or its natives, or their manners or customs, and +they have had by now ample time and opportunity. The only +complaints I have had regarding my account from my fellow West +Coasters have been that I might have said more. I trust my +forbearance will send a thrill of gratitude through readers of the +736-page edition. + +There is, however, one section that I reprint, regarding which I +must say a few words. It is that on the trade and labour problem in +West Africa, particularly the opinion therein expressed regarding +the liquor traffic. This part has brought down on me much criticism +from the Missionary Societies and their friends; and I beg +gratefully to acknowledge the honourable fairness with which the +controversy has been carried on by the great Wesleyan Methodist +Mission to the Gold Coast and the Baptist Mission to the Congo. It +has not ended in our agreement on this point, but it has raised my +esteem of Missionary Societies considerably; and anyone interested +in this matter I beg to refer to the Baptist Magazine for October, +1897. Therein will be found my answer, and the comments on it by a +competent missionary authority; for the rest of this matter I beg +all readers of this book to bear in mind that I confine myself to +speaking only of the bit of Africa I know--West Africa. During this +past summer I attended a meeting at which Sir George Taubman Goldie +spoke, and was much struck with the truth of what he said on the +difference of different African regions. He divided Africa into +three zones: firstly, that region where white races could colonise +in the true sense of the word, and form a great native-born white +population, namely, the region of the Cape; secondly, a region where +the white race could colonise, but to a less extent--an extent +analogous to that in India--namely, the highlands of Central East +Africa and parts of Northern Africa; thirdly, a region where the +white races cannot colonise in a true sense of the word, namely, the +West African region, and in those regions he pointed out one of the +main elements of prosperity and advance is the native African +population. I am quoting his words from memory, possibly +imperfectly; but there is very little reliable printed matter to go +on when dealing with Sir George Taubman Goldie, which is regrettable +because he himself is an experienced and reliable authority. I am +however quite convinced that these aforesaid distinct regions are +regions that the practical politician dealing with Africa must +recognise, and keep constantly in mind when attempting to solve the +many difficulties that that great continent presents, and sincerely +hope every reader of this work will remember that I am speaking of +that last zone, the zone wherein white races cannot colonise in a +true sense of the word, but which is nevertheless a vitally +important region to a great manufacturing country like England, for +therein are vast undeveloped markets wherein she can sell her +manufactured goods and purchase raw material for her manufactures at +a reasonable rate. + +Having a rooted, natural, feminine hatred for politics I have no +inclination to become diffuse on them, as I have on the errors of +other people's cooking or ideas on decoration. I know I am held to +be too partial to France in West Africa; too fond of pointing out +her brilliant achievements there, too fond of saying the native is +as happy, and possibly happier, under her rule than under ours; and +also that I am given to a great admiration for Germans; but this is +just like any common-sense Englishwoman. Of course I am devoted to +my own John; but still Monsieur is brave, bright, and fascinating; +Mein Herr is possessed of courage and commercial ability in the +highest degree, and, besides, he takes such a lot of trouble to know +the real truth about things, and tells them to you so calmly and +carefully--and our own John--well, of course, he is everything +that's good and great, but he makes a shocking fool of himself at +times, particularly in West Africa. + +I should enjoy holding what one of my justly irritated expurgators +used to call one of my little thanksgiving services here, but I will +not; for, after all, it would be impossible for me to satisfactorily +thank those people who, since my publication of this book, have +given me help and information on the subject of West Africa. Chief +amongst them have been Mr. A. L. Jones, Sir. R. B. N. Walker, Mr. +Irvine, and Mr. John Holt. I have not added to this book any +information I have received since I wrote it, as it does not seem to +me fair to do so. My only regret regarding it is that I have not +dwelt sufficiently on the charm of West Africa; it is so difficult +to explain such things; but I am sure there are amongst my readers +people who know by experience the charm some countries exercise over +men--countries very different from each other and from West Africa. +The charm of West Africa is a painful one: it gives you pleasure +when you are out there, but when you are back here it gives you pain +by calling you. It sends up before your eyes a vision of a wall of +dancing white, rainbow-gemmed surf playing on a shore of yellow sand +before an audience of stately coco palms; or of a great mangrove- +watered bronze river; or of a vast aisle in some forest cathedral: +and you hear, nearer to you than the voices of the people round, +nearer than the roar of the city traffic, the sound of the surf that +is breaking on the shore down there, and the sound of the wind +talking on the hard palm leaves and the thump of the natives' tom- +toms; or the cry of the parrots passing over the mangrove swamps in +the evening time; or the sweet, long, mellow whistle of the plantain +warblers calling up the dawn; and everything that is round you grows +poor and thin in the face of the vision, and you want to go back to +the Coast that is calling you, saying, as the African says to the +departing soul of his dying friend, "Come back, come back, this is +your home." + + M. H. KINGSLEY. +October, 1897. + + + +[NOTE.--The following chapters of the first edition are not included +in this edition: --Chap. ii., The Gold Coast; Chap. iv., Lagos Bar; +Chap. v., Voyage down Coast; Chap. vi., Libreville and Glass; Chap. +viii., Talagouga; Chap. xvi., Congo Francais; Chap. xvii., The Log +of the Lafayette; Chap. xviii., From Corisco to Gaboon; Chap. +xxviii., The Islands in the Bay of Amboises; Appendix ii., Disease +in West Africa; Appendix iii., Dr. A. Gunther on Reptiles and +Fishes; Appendix iv., Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera.] + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + +Relateth the various causes which impelled the author to embark upon +the voyage. + +It was in 1893 that, for the first time in my life, I found myself +in possession of five or six months which were not heavily +forestalled, and feeling like a boy with a new half-crown, I lay +about in my mind, as Mr. Bunyan would say, as to what to do with +them. "Go and learn your tropics," said Science. Where on earth am +I to go? I wondered, for tropics are tropics wherever found, so I +got down an atlas and saw that either South America or West Africa +must be my destination, for the Malayan region was too far off and +too expensive. Then I got Wallace's Geographical Distribution and +after reading that master's article on the Ethiopian region I +hardened my heart and closed with West Africa. I did this the more +readily because while I knew nothing of the practical condition of +it, I knew a good deal both by tradition and report of South East +America, and remembered that Yellow Jack was endemic, and that a +certain naturalist, my superior physically and mentally, had come +very near getting starved to death in the depressing society of an +expedition slowly perishing of want and miscellaneous fevers up the +Parana. + +My ignorance regarding West Africa was soon removed. And although +the vast cavity in my mind that it occupied is not even yet half +filled up, there is a great deal of very curious information in its +place. I use the word curious advisedly, for I think many seemed to +translate my request for practical hints and advice into an +advertisement that "Rubbish may be shot here." This same +information is in a state of great confusion still, although I have +made heroic efforts to codify it. I find, however, that it can +almost all be got in under the following different headings, namely +and to wit: - + +The dangers of West Africa. +The disagreeables of West Africa. +The diseases of West Africa. +The things you must take to West Africa. +The things you find most handy in West Africa. +The worst possible things you can do in West Africa. + +I inquired of all my friends as a beginning what they knew of West +Africa. The majority knew nothing. A percentage said, "Oh, you +can't possibly go there; that's where Sierra Leone is, the white +mans grave, you know." If these were pressed further, one +occasionally found that they had had relations who had gone out +there after having been "sad trials," but, on consideration of their +having left not only West Africa, but this world, were now forgiven +and forgotten. + +I next turned my attention to cross-examining the doctors. +"Deadliest spot on earth," they said cheerfully, and showed me maps +of the geographical distribution of disease. Now I do not say that +a country looks inviting when it is coloured in Scheele's green or a +bilious yellow, but these colours may arise from lack of artistic +gift in the cartographer. There is no mistaking what he means by +black, however, and black you'll find they colour West Africa from +above Sierra Leone to below the Congo. "I wouldn't go there if I +were you," said my medical friends, "you'll catch something; but if +you must go, and you're as obstinate as a mule, just bring me--" and +then followed a list of commissions from here to New York, any one +of which--but I only found that out afterwards. + +All my informants referred me to the missionaries. "There were," +they said, in an airy way, "lots of them down there, and had been +for many years." So to missionary literature I addressed myself +with great ardour; alas! only to find that these good people wrote +their reports not to tell you how the country they resided in was, +but how it was getting on towards being what it ought to be, and how +necessary it was that their readers should subscribe more freely, +and not get any foolishness into their heads about obtaining an +inadequate supply of souls for their money. I also found fearful +confirmation of my medical friends' statements about its +unhealthiness, and various details of the distribution of cotton +shirts over which I did not linger. + +From the missionaries it was, however, that I got my first idea +about the social condition of West Africa. I gathered that there +existed there, firstly the native human beings--the raw material, as +it were--and that these were led either to good or bad respectively +by the missionary and the trader. There were also the Government +representatives, whose chief business it was to strengthen and +consolidate the missionary's work, a function they carried on but +indifferently well. But as for those traders! well, I put them down +under the dangers of West Africa at once. Subsequently I came +across the good old Coast yarn of how, when a trader from that +region went thence, it goes without saying where, the Fallen Angel +without a moment's hesitation vacated the infernal throne (Milton) +in his favour. This, I beg to note, is the marine form of the +legend. When it occurs terrestrially the trader becomes a Liverpool +mate. But of course no one need believe it either way--it is not a +missionary's story. + +Naturally, while my higher intelligence was taken up with attending +to these statements, my mind got set on going, and I had to go. +Fortunately I could number among my acquaintances one individual who +had lived on the Coast for seven years. Not, it is true, on that +part of it which I was bound for. Still his advice was pre- +eminently worth attention, because, in spite of his long residence +in the deadliest spot of the region, he was still in fair going +order. I told him I intended going to West Africa, and he said, +"When you have made up your mind to go to West Africa the very best +thing you can do is to get it unmade again and go to Scotland +instead; but if your intelligence is not strong enough to do so, +abstain from exposing yourself to the direct rays of the sun, take 4 +grains of quinine every day for a fortnight before you reach the +Rivers, and get some introductions to the Wesleyans; they are the +only people on the Coast who have got a hearse with feathers." + +My attention was next turned to getting ready things to take with +me. Having opened upon myself the sluice gates of advice, I rapidly +became distracted. My friends and their friends alike seemed to +labour under the delusion that I intended to charter a steamer and +was a person of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. This not being +the case, the only thing to do was to gratefully listen and let +things drift. + +Not only do the things you have got to take, but the things you have +got to take them in, present a fine series of problems to the young +traveller. Crowds of witnesses testified to the forms of baggage +holders they had found invaluable, and these, it is unnecessary to +say, were all different in form and material. + +With all this embarras de choix I was too distracted to buy anything +new in the way of baggage except a long waterproof sack neatly +closed at the top with a bar and handle. Into this I put blankets, +boots, books, in fact anything that would not go into my portmanteau +or black bag. From the first I was haunted by a conviction that its +bottom would come out, but it never did, and in spite of the fact +that it had ideas of its own about the arrangement of its contents, +it served me well throughout my voyage. + +It was the beginning of August '93 when I first left England for +"the Coast." Preparations of quinine with postage partially paid +arrived up to the last moment, and a friend hastily sent two +newspaper clippings, one entitled "A Week in a Palm-oil Tub," which +was supposed to describe the sort of accommodation, companions, and +fauna likely to be met with on a steamer going to West Africa, and +on which I was to spend seven to The Graphic contributor's one; the +other from The Daily Telegraph, reviewing a French book of "Phrases +in common use" in Dahomey. The opening sentence in the latter was, +"Help, I am drowning." Then came the inquiry, "If a man is not a +thief?" and then another cry, "The boat is upset." "Get up, you +lazy scamps," is the next exclamation, followed almost immediately +by the question, "Why has not this man been buried?" "It is fetish +that has killed him, and he must lie here exposed with nothing on +him until only the bones remain," is the cheerful answer. This +sounded discouraging to a person whose occupation would necessitate +going about considerably in boats, and whose fixed desire was to +study fetish. So with a feeling of foreboding gloom I left London +for Liverpool--none the more cheerful for the matter-of-fact manner +in which the steamboat agents had informed me that they did not +issue return tickets by the West African lines of steamers. I will +not go into the details of that voyage here, much as I am given to +discursiveness. They are more amusing than instructive, for on my +first voyage out I did not know the Coast, and the Coast did not +know me and we mutually terrified each other. I fully expected to +get killed by the local nobility and gentry; they thought I was +connected with the World's Women's Temperance Association, and +collecting shocking details for subsequent magic-lantern lectures on +the liquor traffic; so fearful misunderstandings arose, but we +gradually educated each other, and I had the best of the affair; for +all I had got to teach them was that I was only a beetle and fetish +hunter, and so forth, while they had to teach me a new world, and a +very fascinating course of study I found it. And whatever the Coast +may have to say against me--for my continual desire for hair-pins, +and other pins, my intolerable habit of getting into water, the +abominations full of ants, that I brought into their houses, or +things emitting at unexpectedly short notice vivid and awful +stenches--they cannot but say that I was a diligent pupil, who +honestly tried to learn the lessons they taught me so kindly, though +some of those lessons were hard to a person who had never previously +been even in a tame bit of tropics, and whose life for many years +had been an entirely domestic one in a University town. + +One by one I took my old ideas derived from books and thoughts based +on imperfect knowledge and weighed them against the real life around +me, and found them either worthless or wanting. The greatest +recantation I had to make I made humbly before I had been three +months on the Coast in 1893. It was of my idea of the traders. +What I had expected to find them was a very different thing to what +I did find them; and of their kindness to me I can never +sufficiently speak, for on that voyage I was utterly out of touch +with the governmental circles, and utterly dependent on the traders, +and the most useful lesson of all the lessons I learnt on the West +Coast in 1893 was that I could trust them. Had I not learnt this +very thoroughly I could never have gone out again and carried out +the voyage I give you a sketch of in this book. + +Thanks to "the Agent," I have visited places I could never otherwise +have seen; and to the respect and affection in which he is held by +the native, I owe it that I have done so in safety. When I have +arrived off his factory in a steamer or canoe unexpected, +unintroduced, or turned up equally unheralded out of the bush in a +dilapidated state, he has always received me with that gracious +hospitality which must have given him, under Coast conditions, very +real trouble and inconvenience--things he could have so readily +found logical excuses against entailing upon himself for the sake of +an individual whom he had never seen before--whom he most likely +would never see again--and whom it was no earthly profit to him to +see then. He has bestowed himself--Allah only knows where--on his +small trading vessels so that I might have his one cabin. He has +fished me out of sea and fresh water with boat-hooks; he has +continually given me good advice, which if I had only followed would +have enabled me to keep out of water and any other sort of +affliction; and although he holds the meanest opinion of my +intellect for going to such a place as West Africa for beetles, +fishes and fetish, he has given me the greatest assistance in my +work. The value of that work I pray you withhold judgment on, until +I lay it before you in some ten volumes or so mostly in Latin. All +I know that is true regarding West African facts, I owe to the +traders; the errors are my own. + +To Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, I am deeply grateful for the +kindness and interest he has always shown regarding all the +specimens of natural history that I have been able to lay before +him; the majority of which must have had very old tales to tell him. +Yet his courtesy and attention gave me the thing a worker in any +work most wants--the sense that the work was worth doing--and sent +me back to work again with the knowledge that if these things +interested a man like him, it was a more than sufficient reason for +me to go on collecting them. To Mr. W. H. F. Kirby I am much +indebted for his working out my small collection of certain Orders +of insects; and to Mr. Thomas S. Forshaw, for the great help he has +afforded me in revising my notes. + +It is impossible for me even to catalogue my debts of gratitude +still outstanding to the West Coast. Chiefly am I indebted to Mr. +C. G. Hudson, whose kindness and influence enabled me to go up the +Ogowe and to see as much of Congo Francais as I have seen, and his +efforts to take care of me were most ably seconded by Mr. Fildes. +The French officials in "Congo Francais" never hindered me, and +always treated me with the greatest kindness. You may say there was +no reason why they should not, for there is nothing in this fine +colony of France that they need be ashamed of any one seeing; but I +find it is customary for travellers to say the French officials +throw obstacles in the way of any one visiting their possessions, so +I merely beg to state this was decidedly not my experience; although +my deplorable ignorance of French prevented me from explaining my +humble intentions to them. + +The Rev. Dr. Nassau and Mr. R. E. Dennett have enabled me, by +placing at my disposal the rich funds of their knowledge of native +life and idea, to amplify any deductions from my own observation. +Mr. Dennett's work I have not dealt with in this work because it +refers to tribes I was not amongst on this journey, but to a tribe I +made the acquaintance with in my '93 voyage--the Fjort. Dr. +Nassau's observations I have referred to. Herr von Lucke, Vice- +governor of Cameroon, I am indebted to for not only allowing me, but +for assisting me by every means in his power, to go up Cameroons +Peak, and to the Governor of Cameroon, Herr von Puttkamer, for his +constant help and kindness. Indeed so great has been the +willingness to help me of all these gentlemen, that it is a wonder +to me, when I think of it, that their efforts did not project me +right across the continent and out at Zanzibar. That this brilliant +affair did not come off is owing to my own lack of enterprise; for I +did not want to go across the continent, and I do not hanker after +Zanzibar, but only to go puddling about obscure districts in West +Africa after raw fetish and fresh-water fishes. + +I owe my ability to have profited by the kindness of these gentlemen +on land, to a gentleman of the sea--Captain Murray. He was captain +of the vessel I went out on in 1893, and he saw then that my mind +was full of errors that must be eradicated if I was going to deal +with the Coast successfully; and so he eradicated those errors and +replaced them with sound knowledge from his own stores collected +during an acquaintance with the West Coast of over thirty years. +The education he has given me has been of the greatest value to me, +and I sincerely hope to make many more voyages under him, for I well +know he has still much to teach and I to learn. + +Last, but not least, I must chronicle my debts to the ladies. First +to those two courteous Portuguese ladies, Donna Anna de Sousa +Coutinho e Chichorro and her sister Donna Maria de Sousa Coutinho, +who did so much for me in Kacongo in 1893, and have remained, I am +proud to say, my firm friends ever since. Lady MacDonald and Miss +Mary Slessor I speak of in this book, but only faintly sketch the +pleasure and help they have afforded me; nor have I fully expressed +my gratitude for the kindness of Madame Jacot of Lembarene, or +Madame Forget of Talagouga. Then there are a whole list of nuns +belonging to the Roman Catholic Missions on the South West Coast, +ever cheery and charming companions; and Frau Plehn, whom it was a +continual pleasure to see in Cameroons, and discourse with once +again on things that seemed so far off then--art, science, and +literature; and Mrs. H. Duggan, of Cameroons too, who used, whenever +I came into that port to rescue me from fearful states of starvation +for toilet necessaries, and lend a sympathetic and intelligent ear +to the "awful sufferings" I had gone through, until Cameroons became +to me a thing to look forward to. + +When in the Canaries in 1892, I used to smile, I regretfully own, at +the conversation of a gentleman from the Gold Coast who was up there +recruiting after a bad fever. His conversation consisted largely of +anecdotes of friends of his, and nine times in ten he used to say, +"He's dead now." Alas! my own conversation may be smiled at now for +the same cause. Many of my friends mentioned even in this very +recent account of the Coast "are dead now." Most of those I learnt +to know in 1893; chief among these is my old friend Captain Boler, +of Bonny, from whom I first learnt a certain power of comprehending +the African and his form of thought. + +I have great reason to be grateful to the Africans themselves--to +cultured men and women among them like Charles Owoo, Mbo, Sanga +Glass, Jane Harrington and her sister at Gaboon, and to the bush +natives; but of my experience with them I give further details, so I +need not dwell on them here. + +I apologise to the general reader for giving so much detail on +matters that really only affect myself, and I know that the +indebtedness which all African travellers have to the white +residents in Africa is a matter usually very lightly touched on. No +doubt my voyage would seem a grander thing if I omitted mention of +the help I received, but--well, there was a German gentleman once +who evolved a camel out of his inner consciousness. It was a +wonderful thing; still, you know, it was not a good camel, only a +thing which people personally unacquainted with camels could believe +in. Now I am ambitious to make a picture, if I make one at all, +that people who do know the original can believe in--even if they +criticise its points--and so I give you details a more showy artist +would omit. + + + +CHAPTER I. LIVERPOOL TO SIERRA LEONE AND THE GOLD COAST. + + + +Setting forth how the voyager departs from England in a stout vessel +and in good company, and reaches in due course the Island of the +Grand Canary, and then the Port of Sierra Leone: to which is added +some account of this latter place and the comeliness of its women. +Wherein also some description of Cape Coast and Accra is given, to +which are added divers observations on supplies to be obtained +there. + +The West Coast of Africa is like the Arctic regions in one +particular, and that is that when you have once visited it you want +to go back there again; and, now I come to think of it, there is +another particular in which it is like them, and that is that the +chances you have of returning from it at all are small, for it is a +Belle Dame sans merci. + +I succumbed to the charm of the Coast as soon as I left Sierra Leone +on my first voyage out, and I saw more than enough during that +voyage to make me recognise that there was any amount of work for me +worth doing down there. So I warned the Coast I was coming back +again and the Coast did not believe me; and on my return to it a +second time displayed a genuine surprise, and formed an even higher +opinion of my folly than it had formed on our first acquaintance, +which is saying a good deal. + +During this voyage in 1893, I had been to Old Calabar, and its +Governor, Sir Claude MacDonald, had heard me expatiating on the +absorbing interest of the Antarctic drift, and the importance of the +collection of fresh-water fishes and so on. So when Lady MacDonald +heroically decided to go out to him in Calabar, they most kindly +asked me if I would join her, and make my time fit hers for starting +on my second journey. This I most willingly did. But I fear that +very sweet and gracious lady suffered a great deal of apprehension +at the prospect of spending a month on board ship with a person so +devoted to science as to go down the West Coast in its pursuit. +During the earlier days of our voyage she would attract my attention +to all sorts of marine objects overboard, so as to amuse me. I used +to look at them, and think it would be the death of me if I had to +work like this, explaining meanwhile aloud that "they were very +interesting, but Haeckel had done them, and I was out after fresh- +water fishes from a river north of the Congo this time," fearing all +the while that she felt me unenthusiastic for not flying over into +the ocean to secure the specimens. + +However, my scientific qualities, whatever they may amount to, did +not blind this lady long to the fact of my being after all a very +ordinary individual, and she told me so--not in these crude words, +indeed, but nicely and kindly--whereupon, in a burst of gratitude to +her for understanding me, I appointed myself her honorary aide-de- +camp on the spot, and her sincere admirer I shall remain for ever, +fully recognising that her courage in going to the Coast was far +greater than my own, for she had more to lose had fever claimed her, +and she was in those days by no means under the spell of Africa. +But this is anticipating. + +It was on the 23rd of December, 1894, that we left Liverpool in the +Batanga, commanded by my old friend Captain Murray, under whose care +I had made my first voyage. On the 30th we sighted the Peak of +Teneriffe early in the afternoon. It displayed itself, as usual, as +an entirely celestial phenomenon. A great many people miss seeing +it. Suffering under the delusion that El Pico is a terrestrial +affair, they look in vain somewhere about the level of their own +eyes, which are striving to penetrate the dense masses of mist that +usually enshroud its slopes by day, and then a friend comes along, +and gaily points out to the newcomer the glittering white triangle +somewhere near the zenith. On some days the Peak stands out clear +from ocean to summit, looking every inch and more of its 12,080 ft.; +and this is said by the Canary fishermen to be a certain sign of +rain, or fine weather, or a gale of wind; but whenever and however +it may be seen, soft and dream-like in the sunshine, or melodramatic +and bizarre in the moonlight, it is one of the most beautiful things +the eye of man may see. + +Soon after sighting Teneriffe, Lancarote showed, and then the Grand +Canary. Teneriffe is perhaps the most beautiful, but it is hard to +judge between it and Grand Canary as seen from the sea. The superb +cone this afternoon stood out a deep purple against a serpent-green +sky, separated from the brilliant blue ocean by a girdle of pink and +gold cumulus, while Grand Canary and Lancarote looked as if they +were formed from fantastic-shaped sunset cloud-banks that by some +spell had been solidified. The general colour of the mountains of +Grand Canary, which rise peak after peak until they culminate in the +Pico de las Nieves, some 6,000 feet high, is a yellowish red, and +the air which lies among their rocky crevices and swathes their +softer sides is a lovely lustrous blue. + +Just before the sudden dark came down, and when the sun was taking a +curve out of the horizon of sea, all the clouds gathered round the +three islands, leaving the sky a pure amethyst pink, and as a good- +night to them the sun outlined them with rims of shining gold, and +made the snow-clad Peak of Teneriffe blaze with star-white light. +In a few minutes came the dusk, and as we neared Grand Canary, out +of its cloud-bank gleamed the red flash of the lighthouse on the +Isleta, and in a few more minutes, along the sea level, sparkled the +five miles of irregularly distributed lights of Puerto de la Luz and +the city of Las Palmas. + +We reached Sierra Leone at 9 A.M. on the 7th of January, and as the +place is hardly so much in touch with the general public as the +Canaries are {14} I may perhaps venture to go more into details +regarding it. The harbour is formed by the long low strip of land +to the north called the Bullam shore, and to the south by the +peninsula terminating in Cape Sierra Leone, a sandy promontory at +the end of which is situated a lighthouse of irregular habits. Low +hills covered with tropical forest growth rise from the sandy shores +of the Cape, and along its face are three creeks or bays, deep +inlets showing through their narrow entrances smooth beaches of +yellow sand, fenced inland by the forest of cotton-woods and palms, +with here and there an elephantine baobab. + +The first of these bays is called Pirate Bay, the next English Bay, +and the third Kru Bay. The wooded hills of the Cape rise after +passing Kru Bay, and become spurs of the mountain, 2,500 feet in +height, which is the Sierra Leone itself. There are, however, +several mountains here besides the Sierra Leone, the most +conspicuous of them being the peak known as Sugar Loaf, and when +seen from the sea they are very lovely, for their form is noble, and +a wealth of tropical vegetation covers them, which, unbroken in its +continuity, but endless in its variety, seems to sweep over their +sides down to the shore like a sea, breaking here and there into a +surf of flowers. + +It is the general opinion, indeed, of those who ought to know that +Sierra Leone appears at its best when seen from the sea, +particularly when you are leaving the harbour homeward bound; and +that here its charms, artistic, moral, and residential, end. But, +from the experience I have gained of it, I have no hesitation in +saying that it is one of the best places for getting luncheon in +that I have ever happened on, and that a more pleasant and varied +way of spending an afternoon than going about its capital, Free +Town, with a certain Irish purser, who is as well known as he is +respected among the leviathan old negro ladies, it would be hard to +find. Still it must be admitted it IS rather hot. + +Free Town its capital is situated on the northern base of the +mountain, and extends along the sea-front with most business-like +wharves, quays, and warehouses. Viewed from the harbour, "The +Liverpool of West Africa," {15} as it is called, looks as if it were +built of gray stone, which it is not. When you get ashore, you will +find that most of the stores and houses--the majority of which, it +may be remarked, are in a state of acute dilapidation--are of +painted wood, with corrugated iron roofs. Here and there, though, +you will see a thatched house, its thatch covered with creeping +plants, and inhabited by colonies of creeping insects. + +Some of the stores and churches are, it is true, built of stone, but +this does not look like stone at a distance, being red in colour-- +unhewn blocks of the red stone of the locality. In the crannies of +these buildings trailing plants covered with pretty mauve or yellow +flowers take root, and everywhere, along the tops of the walls, and +in the cracks of the houses, are ferns and flowering plants. They +must get a good deal of their nourishment from the rich, thick air, +which seems composed of 85 per cent. of warm water, and the +remainder of the odours of Frangipani, orange flowers, magnolias, +oleanders, and roses, combined with others that demonstrate that the +inhabitants do not regard sanitary matters with the smallest degree +of interest. + +There is one central street, and the others are neatly planned out +at right angles to it. None of them are in any way paved or +metalled. They are covered in much prettier fashion, and in a way +more suitable for naked feet, by green Bahama grass, save and except +those which are so nearly perpendicular that they have got every bit +of earth and grass cleared off them down to the red bed-rock, by the +heavy rain of the wet season. + +In every direction natives are walking at a brisk pace, their naked +feet making no sound on the springy turf of the streets, carrying on +their heads huge burdens which are usually crowned by the hat of the +bearer, a large limpet-shaped affair made of palm leaves. While +some carry these enormous bundles, others bear logs or planks of +wood, blocks of building stone, vessels containing palm-oil, baskets +of vegetables, or tin tea-trays on which are folded shawls. As the +great majority of the native inhabitants of Sierra Leone pay no +attention whatever to where they are going, either in this world or +the next, the confusion and noise are out of all proportion to the +size of the town; and when, as frequently happens, a section of +actively perambulating burden-bearers charge recklessly into a +sedentary section, the members of which have dismounted their loads +and squatted themselves down beside them, right in the middle of the +fair way, to have a friendly yell with some acquaintances, the row +becomes terrific. + +In among these crowds of country people walk stately Mohammedans, +Mandingoes, Akers, and Fulahs of the Arabised tribes of the Western +Soudan. These are lithe, well-made men, and walk with a peculiarly +fine, elastic carriage. Their graceful garb consists of a long +white loose-sleeved shirt, over which they wear either a long black +mohair or silk gown, or a deep bright blue affair, not altogether +unlike a University gown, only with more stuff in it and more folds. +They are undoubtedly the gentlemen of the Sierra Leone native +population, and they are becoming an increasing faction in the town, +by no means to the pleasure of the Christians. + +But to the casual visitor at Sierra Leone the Mohammedan is a mere +passing sensation. You neither feel a burning desire to laugh with, +or at him, as in the case of the country folks, nor do you wish to +punch his head, and split his coat up his back--things you yearn to +do to that perfect flower of Sierra Leone culture, who yells your +bald name across the street at you, condescendingly informs you that +you can go and get letters that are waiting for you, while he smokes +his cigar and lolls in the shade, or in some similar way displays +his second-hand rubbishy white culture--a culture far lower and less +dignified than that of either the stately Mandingo or the bush +chief. I do not think that the Sierra Leone dandy really means half +as much insolence as he shows; but the truth is he feels too +insecure of his own real position, in spite of all the "side" he +puts on, and so he dare not be courteous like the Mandingo or the +bush Fan. + +It is the costume of the people in Free Town and its harbour that +will first attract the attention of the newcomer, notwithstanding +the fact that the noise, the smell, and the heat are simultaneously +making desperate bids for that favour. The ordinary man in the +street wears anything he may have been able to acquire, anyhow, and +he does not fasten it on securely. I fancy it must be capillary +attraction, or some other partially-understood force, that takes +part in the matter. It is certainly neither braces nor buttons. +There are, of course, some articles which from their very structure +are fairly secure, such as an umbrella with the stick and ribs +removed, or a shirt. This last-mentioned treasure, which usually +becomes the property of the ordinary man from a female relative or +admirer taking in white men's washing, is always worn flowing free, +and has such a charm in itself that the happy possessor cares little +what he continues his costume with--trousers, loin cloth, red +flannel petticoat, or rice-bag drawers, being, as he would put it, +"all same for one" to him. + +The ladies are divided into three classes; the young girl you +address as "tee-tee"; the young person as "seester"; the more mature +charmer as "mammy"; but I do not advise you to employ these terms +when you are on your first visit, because you might get +misunderstood. For, you see, by addressing a mammy as seester, she +might think either that you were unconscious of her dignity as a +married lady--a matter she would soon put you right on--or that you +were flirting, which of course was totally foreign to your +intention, and would make you uncomfortable. My advice is that you +rigidly stick to missus or mammy. I have seen this done most +successfully. + +The ladies are almost as varied in their costume as the gentlemen, +but always neater and cleaner; and mighty picturesque they are too, +and occasionally very pretty. A market-woman with her jolly brown +face and laughing brown eyes--eyes all the softer for a touch of +antimony--her ample form clothed in a lively print overall, made +with a yoke at the shoulders, and a full long flounce which is +gathered on to the yoke under the arms and falls fully to the feet; +with her head done up in a yellow or red handkerchief, and her snowy +white teeth gleaming through her vast smiles, is a mighty pleasant +thing to see, and to talk to. But, Allah! the circumference of +them! + +The stone-built, white-washed market buildings of Free Town have a +creditably clean and tidy appearance considering the climate, and +the quantity and variety of things exposed for sale--things one +wants the pen of a Rabelais to catalogue. Here are all manner of +fruits, some which are familiar to you in England; others that soon +become so to you in Africa. You take them as a matter of course if +you are outward bound, but on your call homeward (if you make it) +you will look on them as a blessing and a curiosity. For lower +down, particularly in "the Rivers," these things are rarely to be +had, and never in such perfection as here; and to see again +lettuces, yellow oranges, and tomatoes bigger than marbles is a +sensation and a joy. + +One of the chief features of Free Town are the jack crows. Some +writers say they are peculiar to Sierra Leone, others that they are +not, but both unite in calling them Picathartes gymnocephalus. To +the white people who live in daily contact with them they are turkey +buzzards; to the natives, Yubu. Anyhow they are evil-looking fowl, +and no ornament to the roof-ridges they choose to sit on. The +native Christians ought to put a row of spikes along the top of +their cathedral to keep them off; the beauty of that edifice is very +far from great, and it cannot carry off the effect produced by the +row of these noisome birds as they sit along its summit, with their +wings arranged at all manner of different angles in an "all gone" +way. One bird perhaps will have one straight out in front, and the +other casually disposed at right-angles, another both straight out +in front, and others again with both hanging hopelessly down, but +none with them neatly and tidily folded up, as decent birds' wings +should be. They all give the impression of having been extremely +drunk the previous evening, and of having subsequently fallen into +some sticky abomination--into blood for choice. Being the +scavengers of Free Town, however, they are respected by the local +authorities and preserved; and the natives tell me you never see +either a young or a dead one. The latter is a thing you would not +expect, for half of them look as if they could not live through the +afternoon. They also told me that when you got close to them, they +had a "'trong, 'trong 'niff; 'niff too much." I did not try, but I +am quite willing to believe this statement. + +The other animals most in evidence in the streets are, first and +foremost, goats and sheep. I have to lump them together, for it is +exceedingly difficult to tell one from the other. All along the +Coast the empirical rule is that sheep carry their tails down, and +goats carry their tails up; fortunately you need not worry much +anyway, for they both "taste rather like the nothing that the world +was made of," as Frau Buchholtz says, and own in addition a fibrous +texture, and a certain twang. Small cinnamon-coloured cattle are to +be got here, but horses there are practically none. Now and again +some one who does not see why a horse should not live here as well +as at Accra or Lagos imports one, but it always shortly dies. Some +say it is because the natives who get their living by hammock- +carrying poison them, others say the tsetse fly finishes them off; +and others, and these I believe are right, say that entozoa are the +cause. Small, lean, lank yellow dogs with very erect ears lead an +awful existence, afflicted by many things, but beyond all others by +the goats, who, rearing their families in the grassy streets, choose +to think the dogs intend attacking them. Last, but not least, there +is the pig--a rich source of practice to the local lawyer. + +Cape Coast Castle and then Accra were the next places of general +interest at which we stopped. The former looks well from the +roadstead, and as if it had very recently been white-washed. It is +surrounded by low, heavily-forested hills, which rise almost from +the seashore, and the fine mass of its old castle does not display +its dilapidation at a distance. Moreover, the three stone forts of +Victoria, William, and Macarthy, situated on separate hills +commanding the town, add to the general appearance of permanent +substantialness so different from the usual ramshackledom of West +Coast settlements. Even when you go ashore and have had time to +recover your senses, scattered by the surf experience, you find this +substantialness a true one, not a mere visual delusion produced by +painted wood as the seeming substantialness of Sierra Leone turns +out to be when you get to close quarters with it. It causes one +some mental effort to grasp the fact that Cape Coast has been in +European hands for centuries, but it requires a most unmodern power +of credence to realise this of any other settlement on the whole +western seaboard until you have the pleasure of seeing the beautiful +city of San Paul de Loanda, far away down south, past the Congo. + +My experience of Cape Coast on this occasion was one of the hottest, +but one of the pleasantest I have ever been through on the Gold +Coast. The former attribute was due to the climate, the latter to +my kind friends, Mr. Batty, and Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Kemp. I was +taken round the grand stone-built houses with their high stone- +walled yards and sculpture-decorated gateways, built by the +merchants of the last century and of the century before, and through +the great rambling stone castle with its water-tanks cut in the +solid rock beneath it, and its commodious accommodation for slaves +awaiting shipment, now almost as obsolete as the guns it mounts, but +not quite so, for these cool and roomy chambers serve to house the +native constabulary and their extensive families. + +This being done, I was taken up an unmitigated hill, on whose summit +stands Fort William, a pepper-pot-like structure now used as a +lighthouse. The view from the top was exceedingly lovely and +extensive. Beneath, and between us and the sea, lay the town in the +blazing sun. In among its solid stone buildings patches of native +mud-built huts huddled together as though they had been shaken down +out of a sack into the town to serve as dunnage. Then came the +snow-white surf wall, and across it the blue sea with our steamer +rolling to and fro on the long, regular swell, impatiently waiting +until Sunday should be over and she could work cargo. Round us on +all the other sides were wooded hills and valleys, and away in the +distance to the west showed the white town and castle of Elmina and +the nine-mile road thither, skirting the surf-bound seashore, only +broken on its level way by the mouth of the Sweet River. Over all +was the brooding silence of the noonday heat, broken only by the +dulled thunder of the surf. + +After seeing these things we started down stairs, and on reaching +ground descended yet lower into a sort of stone-walled dry moat, out +of which opened clean, cool, cellar-like chambers tunnelled into the +earth. These, I was informed, had also been constructed to keep +slaves in when they were the staple export of the Gold Coast. They +were so refreshingly cool that I lingered looking at them and their +massive doors, ere being marched up to ground level again, and down +the hill through some singularly awful stenches, mostly arising from +rubber, into the big Wesleyan church in the middle of the town. It +is a building in the terrible Africo-Gothic style, but it compares +most favourably with the cathedral at Sierra Leone, particularly +internally, wherein, indeed, it far surpasses that structure. And +then we returned to the Mission House and spent a very pleasant +evening, save for the knowledge (which amounted in me to remorse) +that, had it not been for my edification, not one of my friends +would have spent the day toiling about the town they know only too +well. The Wesleyan Mission on the Gold Coast, of which Mr. Dennis +Kemp was at that time chairman, is the largest and most influential +Protestant mission on the West Coast of Africa, and it is now, I am +glad to say, adding a technical department to its scholastic and +religious one. The Basel Mission has done a great deal of good work +in giving technical instruction to the natives, and practically +started this most important branch of their education. There is +still an almost infinite amount of this work to be done, the African +being so strangely deficient in mechanical culture; infinitely more +so, indeed, in this than in any other particular. + +After leaving Cape Coast our next port was Accra which is one of the +five West Coast towns that look well from the sea. The others don't +look well from anywhere. First in order of beauty comes San Paul de +Loanda; then Cape Coast with its satellite Elmina, then Gaboon, then +Accra with its satellite Christiansborg, and lastly, Sierra Leone. + +What there is of beauty in Accra is oriental in type. Seen from the +sea, Fort St. James on the left and Christiansborg Castle on the +right, both almost on shore level, give, with an outcrop of sandy +dwarf cliffs, a certain air of balance and strength to the town, +though but for these and the two old castles, Accra would be but a +poor place and a flimsy, for the rest of it is a mass of rubbishy +mud and palm-leaf huts, and corrugated iron dwellings for the +Europeans. + +Corrugated iron is my abomination. I quite understand it has +points, and I do not attack from an aesthetic standpoint. It really +looks well enough when it is painted white. There is, close to +Christiansborg Castle, a patch of bungalows and offices for +officialdom and wife that from a distance in the hard bright +sunshine looks like an encampment of snow-white tents among the coco +palms, and pretty enough withal. I am also aware that the +corrugated-iron roof is an advantage in enabling you to collect and +store rain-water, which is the safest kind of water you can get on +the Coast, always supposing you have not painted the aforesaid roof +with red oxide an hour or two before so collecting, as a friend of +mine did once. But the heat inside those iron houses is far greater +than inside mud-walled, brick, or wooden ones, and the alternations +of temperature more sudden: mornings and evenings they are cold and +clammy; draughty they are always, thereby giving you chill which +means fever, and fever in West Africa means more than it does in +most places. + +Going on shore at Accra with Lady MacDonald gave me opportunities +and advantages I should not otherwise have enjoyed, such as the +hospitality of the Governor, luxurious transport from the landing +place to Christiansborg Castle, a thorough inspection of the +cathedral in course of erection, and the strange and highly +interesting function of going to a tea-party at a police station to +meet a king,--a real reigning king,--who kindly attended with his +suite and displayed an intelligent interest in photographs. Tackie +(that is His Majesty's name) is an old, spare man, with a subdued +manner. His sovereign rights are acknowledged by the Government so +far as to hold him more or less responsible for any iniquity +committed by his people; and as the Government do not allow him to +execute or flagellate the said people, earthly pomp is rather a +hollow thing to Tackie. + +On landing I was taken in charge by an Assistant Inspector of +Police, and after a scrimmage for my chief's baggage and my own, +which reminded me of a long ago landing on the distant island of +Guernsey, the inspector and I got into a 'rickshaw, locally called a +go-cart. It was pulled in front by two government negroes and +pushed behind by another pair, all neatly attired in white jackets +and knee breeches, and crimson cummerbunds yards long, bound round +their middles. Now it is an ingrained characteristic of the +uneducated negro, that he cannot keep on a neat and complete garment +of any kind. It does not matter what that garment may be; so long +as it is whole, off it comes. But as soon as that garment becomes a +series of holes, held together by filaments of rag, he keeps it upon +him in a manner that is marvellous, and you need have no further +anxiety on its behalf. Therefore it was but natural that the +governmental cummerbunds, being new, should come off their wearers +several times in the course of our two mile trip, and as they wound +riskily round the legs of their running wearers, we had to make +halts while one end of the cummerbund was affixed to a tree-trunk +and the other end to the man, who rapidly wound himself up in it +again with a skill that spoke of constant practice. + +The road to Christiansborg from Accra, which runs parallel to the +sea and is broad and well-kept, is in places pleasantly shaded with +pepper trees, eucalyptus, and palms. The first part of it, which +forms the main street of Accra, is remarkable. The untidy, poverty- +stricken native houses or huts are no credit to their owners, and a +constant source of anxiety to a conscientious sanitary inspector. +Almost every one of them is a shop, but this does not give rise to +the animated commercial life one might imagine, owing, I presume, to +the fact that every native inhabitant of Accra who has any money to +get rid of is able recklessly to spend it in his own emporium. For +these shops are of the store nature, each after his kind, and seem +homogeneously stocked with tin pans, loud-patterned basins, iron +pots, a few rolls of cloth and bottles of American rum. After +passing these there are the Haussa lines, a few European houses, and +the cathedral; and when nearly into Christiansborg, a cemetery on +either side of the road. That to the right is the old cemetery, now +closed, and when I was there, in a disgracefully neglected state: a +mere jungle of grass infested with snakes. Opposite to it is the +cemetery now in use, and I remember well my first visit to it under +the guidance of a gloomy Government official, who said he always +walked there every afternoon, "so as to get used to the place before +staying permanently in it,"--a rank waste of time and energy, by the +way, as subsequent events proved, for he is now safe off the Gold +Coast for good and all. + +He took me across the well-kept grass to two newly dug graves, each +covered with wooden hoods in a most business-like way. Evidently +those hoods were regular parts of the cemetery's outfit. He said +nothing, but waved his hand with a "take-your-choice,-they-are-both- +quite-ready" style. "Why?" I queried laconically. "Oh! we always +keep two graves ready dug for Europeans. We have to bury very +quickly here, you know," he answered. I turned at bay. I had had +already a very heavy dose of details of this sort that afternoon and +was disinclined to believe another thing. So I said, "It's +exceedingly wrong to do a thing like that, you only frighten people +to death. You can't want new-dug graves daily. There are not +enough white men in the whole place to keep the institution up." +"We do," he replied, "at any rate at this season. Why, the other +day we had two white men to bury before twelve o'clock, and at four, +another dropped in on a steamer." + +"At 4.30," said a companion, an exceedingly accurate member of the +staff. "How you fellows DO exaggerate!" Subsequent knowledge of +the Gold Coast has convinced me fully that the extra funeral being +placed half-an-hour sooner than it occurred is the usual percentage +of exaggeration you will be able to find in stories relating to the +local mortality. And at Accra, after I left it, and all along the +Gold Coast, came one of those dreadful epidemic outbursts sweeping +away more than half the white population in a few weeks. + +But to return to our state journey along the Christiansborg road. +We soon reached the castle, an exceedingly roomy and solid edifice +built by the Danes, and far better fitted for the climate than our +modern dwellings, in spite of our supposed advance in tropical +hygiene. We entered by the sentry-guarded great gate into the +courtyard; on the right hand were the rest of the guard; most of +them asleep on their mats, but a few busy saying Dhikr, etc., +towards Mecca, like the good Mohammedans these Haussas are, others +winding themselves into their cummerbunds. On the left hand was Sir +Brandford Griffiths' hobby--a choice and select little garden, of +lovely eucharis lilies mostly in tubs, and rare and beautiful +flowers brought by him from his Barbadian home; while shading it and +the courtyard was a fine specimen of that superb thing of beauty--a +flamboyant tree--glorious with its delicate-green acacia-like leaves +and vermilion and yellow flowers, and astonishing with its vast +beans. A flight of stone stairs leads from the courtyard to the +upper part of the castle where the living rooms are, over the +extensive series of cool tunnel-like slave barracoons, now used as +store chambers. The upper rooms are high and large, and full of a +soft pleasant light and the thunder of the everlasting surf breaking +on the rocky spit on which the castle is built. + +From the day the castle was built, now more than a hundred years +ago, the surf spray has been swept by the on-shore evening breeze +into every chink and cranny of the whole building, and hence the +place is mouldy--mouldy to an extent I, with all my experience in +that paradise for mould, West Africa, have never elsewhere seen. +The matting on the floors took an impression of your foot as a light +snowfall would. Beneath articles of furniture the cryptogams +attained a size more in keeping with the coal period than with the +nineteenth century. + +The Gold Coast is one of the few places in West Africa that I have +never felt it my solemn duty to go and fish in. I really cannot say +why. Seen from the sea it is a pleasant looking land. The long +lines of yellow, sandy beach backed by an almost continuous line of +blue hills, which in some places come close to the beach, in other +places show in the dim distance. It is hard to think that it is so +unhealthy as it is, from just seeing it as you pass by. It has high +land and has not those great masses of mangrove-swamp one usually, +at first, associates with a bad fever district, but which prove on +acquaintance to be at any rate no worse than this well-elevated +open-forested Gold Coast land. There are many things to be had here +and in Lagos which tend to make life more tolerable, that you cannot +have elsewhere until you are south of the Congo. Horses, for +example, do fairly well at Accra, though some twelve miles or so +behind the town there is a belt of tsetse fly, specimens of which I +have procured and had identified at the British Museum, and it is +certain death to a horse, I am told, to take it to Aburi. + +The food-supply, although bad and dear, is superior to that you get +down south. Goats and sheep are fairly plentiful. In addition to +fresh meat and tinned you are able to get a quantity of good sea +fish, for the great West African Bank, which fringes the coast in +the Bight of Benin, abounds in fish, although the native cook very +rarely knows how to cook them. Then, too, you can get more fruit +and vegetables on the Gold Coast than at most places lower down: +the plantain, {28} not least among them and very good when allowed +to become ripe, and then cut into longitudinal strips, and properly +fried; the banana, which surpasses it when served in the same +manner, or beaten up and mixed with rice, butter, and eggs, and +baked. Eggs, by the way, according to the great mass of native +testimony, are laid in this country in a state that makes them more +fit for electioneering than culinary purposes, and I shall never +forget one tribe I was once among, who, whenever I sat down on one +of their benches, used to smash eggs round me for ju-ju. They meant +well. But I will nobly resist the temptation to tell egg stories +and industriously catalogue the sour-sop, guava, grenadilla, +aubergine or garden-egg, yam, and sweet potato. + +The sweet potato should be boiled, and then buttered and browned in +an oven, or fried. When cooked in either way I am devoted to them, +but in the way I most frequently come across them I abominate them, +for they jeopardise my existence both in this world and the next. +It is this way: you are coming home from a long and dangerous +beetle-hunt in the forest; you have battled with mighty beetles the +size of pie dishes, they have flown at your head, got into your hair +and then nipped you smartly. You have been also considerably stung +and bitten by flies, ants, etc., and are most likely sopping wet +with rain, or with the wading of streams, and you are tired and your +feet go low along the ground, and it is getting, or has got, dark +with that ever-deluding tropical rapidity, and then you for your +sins get into a piece of ground which last year was a native's farm, +and, placing one foot under the tough vine of a surviving sweet +potato, concealed by rank herbage, you plant your other foot on +another portion of the same vine. Your head you then deposit +promptly in some prickly ground crop, or against a tree stump, and +then, if there is human blood in you, you say d--n! + +Then there are also alligator-pears, limes, and oranges. There is +something about those oranges I should like to have explained. They +are usually green and sweetish in taste, nor have they much white +pith, but now and again you get a big bright yellow one from those +trees that have been imported, and these are very pithy and in full +possession of the flavour of verjuice. They have also got the papaw +on the Coast, the Carica papaya of botanists. It is an insipid +fruit. To the newcomer it is a dreadful nuisance, for no sooner +does an old coaster set eyes on it than he straightway says, "Paw- +paws are awfully good for the digestion, and even if you just hang a +tough fowl or a bit of goat in the tree among the leaves, it gets +tender in no time, for there is an awful lot of pepsine in a paw- +paw,"--which there is not, papaine being its active principle. +After hearing this hymn of praise to the papaw some hundreds of +times, it palls, and you usually arrive at this tired feeling about +the thing by the time you reach the Gold Coast, for it is a most +common object, and the same man will say the same thing about it a +dozen times a day if he gets the chance. I got heartily sick of it +on my first voyage out, and rashly determined to check the old +coaster in this habit of his, preparatory to stamping the practice +out. It was one of my many failures. I soon met an old coaster +with a papaw fruit in sight, and before he had time to start, I +boldly got away with "The paw-paw is awfully good for the +digestion," hoping that this display of knowledge would impress him +and exempt me from hearing the rest of the formula. But no. "Right +you are," said he solemnly. "It's a powerful thing is the paw-paw. +Why, the other day we had a sad case along here. You know what a +nuisance young assistants are, bothering about their chop, and +scorpions in their beds and boots, and what not and a half, and +then, when you have pulled them through these, and often enough +before, pegging out with fever, or going on the fly in the native +town. Did you know poor B---? Well! he's dead now, had fever and +went off like a babe in eight hours though he'd been out fourteen +years for A--- and D---. They sent him out a new book-keeper, a +tender young thing with a dairymaid complexion and the notion that +he'd got the indigestion. He fidgeted about it something awful. +One night there was a big paw-paw on the table for evening chop, and +so B---, who was an awfully good chap, told him about how good it +was for the digestion. The book-keeper said his trouble always came +on two hours after eating, and asked if he might take a bit of the +thing to his room. 'Certainly,' says B---, and as the paw-paw +wasn't cut at that meal the book-keeper quietly took it off whole +with him. + +"In the morning time he did not turn up. B---, just before +breakfast, went to his room and he wasn't there, but he noticed the +paw-paw was on the bed and that was all, so he thought the book- +keeper must have gone for a walk, being, as it were, a bit too +tender to have gone on the fly as yet. So he just told the store +clerk to tell the people to return him to the firm when they found +him straying around lost, and thought no more about it, being, as it +was, mail-day, and him busy. + +"Well! Fortunately the steward boy put that paw-paw on the table +again for twelve o'clock chop. If it hadn't been for that, not a +living soul would have known the going of the book-keeper. For when +B--- cut it open, there, right inside it, were nine steel trouser- +buttons, a Waterbury watch, and the poor young fellow's keys. For +you see, instead of his digesting his dinner with that paw-paw, the +paw-paw took charge and digested him, dinner and all, and when B--- +interrupted it, it was just getting a grip on the steel things. +There's an awful lot of pepsine in a paw-paw, and if you hang, etc., +etc." + +I collapsed, feebly murmuring that it was very interesting, but sad +for the poor young fellow's friends. + +"Not necessarily," said the old coaster. So he had the last word, +and never again will I attempt to alter the ways of the genuine old +coaster. What you have got to do with him is to be very thankful +you have had the honour of knowing him. + +Still I think we do over-estimate the value of the papaw, although I +certainly did once myself hang the leg of a goat no mortal man could +have got tooth into, on to a papaw tree with a bit of string for the +night. In the morning it was clean gone, string and all; but +whether it was the pepsine, the papaine, or a purloining pagan that +was the cause of its departure there was no evidence to show. Yet I +am myself, as Hans Breitmann says, "still skebdigal" as to the +papaw, and I dare say you are too. + +But I must forthwith stop writing about the Gold Coast, or I shall +go on telling you stories and wasting your time, not to mention the +danger of letting out those which would damage the nerves of the +cultured of temperate climes, such as those relating to the youth +who taught himself French from a six months' method book; of the man +who wore brass buttons; the moving story of three leeches and two +gentlemen; the doctor up a creek; and the reason why you should not +eat pork along here because all the natives have either got the +guinea-worm, or kraw-kraw or ulcers; and then the pigs go and--dear +me! it was a near thing that time. I'll leave off at once. + + + +CHAPTER II. FERNANDO PO AND THE BUBIS. + + + +Giving some account of the occupation of this island by the whites +and the manners and customs of the blacks peculiar to it. + +Our outward voyage really terminated at Calabar, and it terminated +gorgeously in fireworks and what not, in honour of the coming of +Lady MacDonald, the whole settlement, white and black, turning out +to do her honour to the best of its ability; and its ability in this +direction was far greater than, from my previous knowledge of Coast +conditions, I could have imagined possible. Before Sir Claude +MacDonald settled down again to local work, he and Lady MacDonald +crossed to Fernando Po, still in the Batanga, and I accompanied +them, thus getting an opportunity of seeing something of Spanish +official circles. + +I had heard sundry noble legends of Fernando Po, and seen the coast +and a good deal of the island before, but although I had heard much +of the Governor, I had never met him until I went up to his +residence with Lady MacDonald and the Consul-General. He was a +delightful person, who, as a Spanish naval officer, some time +resident in Cuba, had picked up a lot of English, with a strong +American accent clinging to it. He gave a most moving account of +how, as soon as his appointment as Governor was announced, all his +friends and acquaintances carefully explained to him that this +appointment was equivalent to execution, only more uncomfortable in +the way it worked out. During the outward voyage this was daily +confirmed by the stories told by the sailors and merchants +personally acquainted with the place, who were able to support their +information with dates and details of the decease of the victims to +the climate. + +Still he kept up a good heart, but when he arrived at the island he +found his predecessor had died of fever; and he himself, the day +after landing, went down with a bad attack and he was placed in a +bed--the same bed, he was mournfully informed, in which the last +Governor had expired. Then he did believe, all in one awful lump, +all the stories he had been told, and added to their horrors a few +original conceptions of death and purgatory, and a lot of +transparent semi-formed images of his own delirium. Fortunately +both prophecy and personal conviction alike miscarried, and the +Governor returned from the jaws of death. But without a moment's +delay he withdrew from the Port of Clarence and went up the mountain +to Basile, which is in the neighbourhood of the highest native +village, where he built himself a house, and around it a little +village of homes for the most unfortunate set of human beings I have +ever laid eye on. They are the remnant of a set of Spanish +colonists, who had been located at some spot in the Spanish +possessions in Morocco, and finding that place unfit to support +human life, petitioned the Government to remove them and let them +try colonising elsewhere. + +The Spanish Government just then had one of its occasional fits of +interest in Fernando Po, and so shipped them here, and the Governor, +a most kindly and generous man, who would have been a credit to any +country, established them and their families around him at Basile, +to share with him the advantages of the superior elevation; +advantages he profoundly believed in, and which he has always placed +at the disposal of any sick white man on the island, of whatsoever +nationality or religion. Undoubtedly the fever is not so severe at +Basile as in the lowlands, but there are here the usual drawbacks to +West African high land, namely an over supply of rain, and equally +saturating mists, to say nothing of sudden and extreme alternations +of temperature, and so the colonists still fall off, and their +children die continuously from the various entozoa which abound upon +the island. + +When the Governor first settled upon the mountain he was very +difficult to get at for business purposes, and a telephone was +therefore run up to him from Clarence through the forest, and Spain +at large felt proud at this dashing bit of enterprise in modern +appliance. Alas! the primaeval forests of Fernando Po were also +charmed with the new toy, and they talked to each other on it with +their leaves and branches to such an extent that a human being could +not get a word in edgeways. So the Governor had to order the +construction of a road along the course of the wire to keep the +trees off it, but unfortunately the telephone is still an uncertain +means of communication, because another interruption in its +usefulness still afflicts it, namely the indigenous natives' habit +of stealing bits out of its wire, for they are fully persuaded that +they cannot be found out in their depredations provided they take +sufficient care that they are not caught in the act. The Governor +is thus liable to be cut off at any moment in the middle of a +conversation with Clarence, and the amount of "Hellos" "Are you +theres?" and "Speak louder, pleases" in Spanish that must at such +times be poured out and wasted in the lonely forests before the +break is realised and an unfortunate man sent off as a messenger, is +terrible to think of. + +But nothing would persuade the Governor to come a mile down towards +Clarence until the day he should go there to join the vessel that +was to take him home, and I am bound to say he looked as if the +method was a sound one, for he was an exceedingly healthy, cheery- +looking man. + +Fernando Po is said to be a comparatively modern island, and not so +very long ago to have been connected with the mainland, the strait +between them being only nineteen miles across, and not having any +deep soundings. {37} I fail to see what grounds there are for these +ideas, for though Fernando Po's volcanoes are not yet extinct, but +merely have their fires banked, yet, on the other hand, the island +has been in existence sufficiently long to get itself several +peculiar species of animals and plants, and that is a thing which +takes time. I myself do not believe that this island was ever +connected with the continent, but arose from the ocean as the result +of a terrific upheaval in the chain of volcanic activity which runs +across the Atlantic from the Cameroon Mountains in a SSW. direction +to Anno Bom island, and possibly even to the Tristan da Cunha group +midway between the Cape and South America. + +These volcanic islands are all of extreme beauty and fertility. +They consist of Fernando Po (10,190 ft.); Principe (3000 ft.); San +Thome (6,913 ft.); and Anno Bom (1,350 ft.). San Thome and Principe +are Portuguese possessions, Fernando Po and Anno Bom Spanish, and +they are all exceedingly unhealthy. San Thome is still called "The +Dutchman's Church-yard," on account of the devastation its climate +wrought among the Hollanders when they once occupied it; as they +seem, at one time or another, to have occupied all Portuguese +possessions out here, during the long war these two powers waged +with each other for supremacy in the Bights, a supremacy that +neither of them attained to. Principe is said to be the most +unhealthy, and the reason of the difference in this particular +between Principe and Anno Bom is said to arise from the fact that +the former is on the Guinea Current--a hot current--and Anno Bom on +the Equatorial, which averages 10 degree cooler than its neighbour. + +The shores of San Thome are washed by both currents, and the +currents round Fernando Po are in a mixed and uncertain state. It +is difficult, unless you have haunted these seas, to realise the +interest we take down there in currents; particularly when you are +navigating small sailing boats, a pursuit I indulge in necessarily +from my fishing practices. Their effect on the climate too is very +marked. If we could only arrange for some terrific affair to take +place in the bed of the Atlantic, that would send that precious +Guinea current to the place it evidently comes from, and get the +cool Equatorial alongside the mainland shore, West Africa would be +quite another place. + +Fernando Po is the most important island as regards size on the West +African coast, and at the same time one of the most beautiful in the +world. It is a great volcanic mass with many craters, and +culminates in the magnificent cone, Clarence Peak, called by the +Spaniards, Pico de Santa Isabel, by the natives of the island O +Wassa. Seen from the sea or from the continent it looks like an +immense single mountain that has floated out to sea. It is visible +during clear weather (and particularly sharply visible in the +strange clearness you get after a tornado) from a hundred miles to +seawards, and anything more perfect than Fernando Po when you sight +it, as you occasionally do from far-away Bonny Bar, in the sunset, +floating like a fairy island made of gold or of amethyst, I cannot +conceive. It is almost equally lovely at close quarters, namely +from the mainland at Victoria, nineteen miles distant. Its moods of +beauty are infinite; for the most part gentle and gorgeous, but I +have seen it silhouetted hard against tornado-clouds, and grandly +grim from the upper regions of its great brother Mungo. And as for +Fernando Po in full moonlight--well there! you had better go and see +it yourself. + +The whole island is, or rather I should say was, heavily forested +almost to its peak, with a grand and varied type of forest, very +rich in oil palms and tree-ferns, and having an undergrowth +containing an immense variety and quantity of ferns and mosses. +Sugar-cane also grows wild here, an uncommon thing in West Africa. +The last botanical collection of any importance made from these +forests was that of Herr Mann, and its examination showed that +Abyssinian genera and species predominated, and that many species +similar to those found in the mountains of Mauritius, the Isle de +Bourbon, and Madagascar, were present. The number of European +plants (forty-three genera, twenty-seven species) is strikingly +large, most of the British forms being represented chiefly at the +higher elevations. What was more striking was that it showed that +South African forms were extremely rare, and not one of the +characteristic types of St. Helena occurred. + +Cocoa, coffee, and cinchona, alas! flourish in Fernando Po, as the +coffee suffers but little from the disease that harasses it on the +mainland at Victoria, and this is the cause of the great destruction +of the forest that is at present taking place. San Thome, a few +years ago, was discovered by its surprised neighbours to be amassing +great wealth by growing coffee, and so Fernando Po and Principe +immediately started to amass great wealth too, and are now hard at +work with gangs of miscellaneous natives got from all parts of the +Coast save the Kru. For to the Kruboy, "Panier," as he calls +"Spaniard," is a name of horror worse even than Portugee, although +he holds "God made white man and God made black man, but dem debil +make Portugee," and he also remembers an unfortunate affair that +occurred some years ago now, in connection with coffee-growing. + +A number of Krumen engaged themselves for a two years' term of +labour on the Island of San Thome, and when they arrived there, were +set to work on coffee plantations by the Portuguese. Now +agricultural work is "woman's palaver," but nevertheless the Krumen +made shift to get through with it, vowing the while no doubt, as +they hopefully notched away the moons on their tally-sticks, that +they would never let the girls at home know that they had been +hoeing. But when their moons were all complete, instead of being +sent home with their pay to "We country," they were put off from +time to time; and month after month went by and they were still on +San Thome, and still hoeing. At last the home-sick men, in despair +of ever getting free, started off secretly in ones and twos to try +and get to "We country" across hundreds of miles of the storm- +haunted Atlantic in small canoes, and with next to no provisions. +The result was a tragedy, but it might easily have been worse; for a +few, a very few, were picked up alive by English vessels and taken +back to their beloved "We country" to tell the tale. But many a +canoe was found with a dead Kruboy or so in it; and many a one +which, floating bottom upwards, graphically spoke of madness caused +by hunger, thirst, and despair having driven its occupants overboard +to the sharks. + +My Portuguese friends assure me that there was never thought of +permanently detaining the boys, and that they were only just keeping +them until other labourers arrived to take their place on the +plantations. I quite believe them, for I have seen too much of the +Portuguese in Africa to believe that they would, in a wholesale way, +be cruel to natives. But I am not in the least surprised that the +poor Krumen took the Portuguese logo and amanha for Eternity itself, +for I have frequently done so. + +The greatest length of the island lies N.E. and S.W., and amounts to +thirty-three miles; the mean breadth is seventeen miles. The port, +Clarence Cove, now called Santa Isabel by the Spaniards--who have +been giving Spanish names to all the English-named places without +any one taking much notice of them--is a very remarkable place, and +except perhaps Gaboon the finest harbour on the West Coast. The +point that brings Gaboon anchorage up in line with Clarence Cove is +its superior healthiness; for Clarence is a section of a circle, and +its shores are steep rocky cliffs from 100 to 200 feet high, and the +place, to put it very mildly, exceedingly hot and stuffy. The cove +is evidently a partly submerged crater, the submerged rim of the +crater is almost a perfect semi-circle seawards--having on it 4, 5, +7, 8, and 10 fathoms of water save almost in the centre of the arc +where there is a passage with 12 to 14 fathoms. Inside, in the +crater, there is deeper water, running in places from 30 to 45 +fathoms, and outside the submerged rim there is deeper water again, +but rocky shoals abound. On the top of the shore cliffs stands the +dilapidated little town of Clarence, on a plateau that falls away +slightly towards the mountain for about a mile, when the ground +commences to rise into the slopes of the Cordillera. On the narrow +beach, tucked close against the cliffs, are a few stores belonging +to the merchants, where goods are placed on landing, and there is a +little pier too, but as it is usually having something done to its +head, or else is closed by the authorities because they intend doing +something by and by, the chances are against its being available for +use. Hence it usually comes about that you have to land on the +beach, and when you have done this you make your way up a very steep +path, cut in the cliffside, to the town. When you get there you +find yourself in the very dullest town I know on the Coast. I +remember when I first landed in Clarence I found its society in a +flutter of expectation and alarm not untinged with horror. +Clarence, nay, the whole of Fernando Po, was about to become so +rackety and dissipated as to put Paris and Monte Carlo to the blush. +Clarence was going to have a cafe; and what was going to go on in +that cafe I shrink from reciting. + +I have little hesitation now in saying this alarm was a false one. +When I next arrived in Clarence it was just as sound asleep and its +streets as weed-grown as ever, although the cafe was open. My idea +is that the sleepiness of the place infected the cafe and took all +the go out of it. But again it may have been that the inhabitants +were too well guarded against its evil influence, for there are on +the island fifty-two white laymen, and fifty-four priests to take +charge of them {44}--the extra two being, I presume, to look after +the Governor's conduct, although this worthy man made a most +spirited protest against this view when I suggested it to him; and +in addition to the priests there are several missionaries of the +Methodist mission, and also a white gentleman who has invented a new +religion. Anyhow, the cafe smoulders like a damp squib. + +When you spend the day on shore and when, having exhausted the +charms of the town,--a thing that usually takes from between ten +minutes to a quarter of an hour,--you apply to an inhabitant for +advice as to the disposal of the rest of your shore leave, you are +told to "go and see the coals." You say you have not come to +tropical islands to see a coal heap, and applying elsewhere for +advice you probably get the same. So, as you were told to "go and +see the coals" when you left your ship, you do as you are bid. +These coals, the remnant of the store that was kept here for the +English men-of-war, were left here when the naval station was +removed. The Spaniards at first thought of using them, and ran a +tram-way from Clarence to them. But when the tramway was finished, +their activity had run out too, and to this day there the coals +remain. Now and again some one has the idea that they are quite +good, and can be used for a steamer, and some people who have tried +them say they are all right, and others say they are all wrong. And +so the end of it will be that some few thousand years hence there +will be a serious quarrel among geologists on the strange pocket of +coal on Fernando Po, and they will run up continents, and raise and +lower oceans to explain them, and they will doubtless get more +excitement and pleasure out of them than you can nowadays. + +The history of the English occupation of Fernando Po seems often +misunderstood, and now and then one hears our Government reviled for +handing it over to the Spaniards. But this was unavoidable, for we +had it as a loan from Spain in 1827 as a naval station for our +ships, at that time energetically commencing to suppress the slave +trade in the Bights; the idea being that this island would afford a +more healthy and convenient spot for a naval depot than any port on +the coast itself. + +More convenient Fernando Po certainly was, but not more healthy, and +ever since 1827 it has been accumulating for itself an evil +reputation for unhealthiness which is only languishing just at +present because there is an interval between its epidemics--fever in +Fernando Po, even more than on the mainland, having periodic +outbursts of a more serious type than the normal intermittent and +remittent of the Coast. Moreover, Fernando Po shares with Senegal +the undoubted yet doubtful honour of having had regular yellow +fever. In 1862 and 1866 this disease was imported by a ship that +had come from Havana. Since then it has not appeared in the +definite South American form, and therefore does not seem to have +obtained the foothold it has in Senegal, where a few years ago all +the money voted for the keeping of the Fete Nationale was in one +district devoted by public consent to the purchase of coffins, +required by an overwhelming outbreak of Yellow Jack. + +In 1858 the Spanish Government thinking, presumably, that the slave +trade was suppressed enough, or at any rate to a sufficiently +inconvenient extent, re-claimed Fernando Po, to the horror of the +Baptist missionaries who had settled in Clarence apparently under +the erroneous idea that the island had been definitely taken over by +the English. This mission had received from the West African +Company a large grant of land, and had collected round it a +gathering of Sierra Leonians and other artisan and trading Africans +who were attracted to Clarence by the work made by the naval +station; and these people, with the English traders who also settled +here for a like reason, were the founders of Clarence Town. The +declaration of the Spanish Government stating that only Roman +Catholic missions would be countenanced caused the Baptists to +abandon their possessions and withdraw to the mainland in Ambas Bay, +where they have since remained, and nowadays Protestantism is +represented by a Methodist Mission which has a sub-branch on the +mainland on the Akwayafe River and one on the Qua Ibo. + +The Spaniards, on resuming possession of the island, had one of +their attacks of activity regarding it, and sent out with Don Carlos +Chacon, who was to take over the command, four Jesuit priests, a +secretary, a commissariat officer, a custom-house clerk, and a +transport, the Santa Maria, with a number of emigrant families. +This attempt to colonise Fernando Po should have at least done the +good of preventing such experiments ever being tried again with +women and children, for of these unfortunate creatures--for whom, in +spite of its being the wet season, no houses had been provided--more +than 20 per cent. died in the space of five months. Mr. Hutchinson, +who was English Consul at the time, tells us that "In a very short +time gaunt figures of men, women, and children might be seen +crawling through the streets, with scarcely an evidence of life in +their faces, save the expression of a sort of torpid carelessness as +to how soon it might be their turn to drop off and die. The +Portino, a steamer, carried back fifty of them to Cadiz, who looked +when they embarked more like living skeletons of skin and bone than +animated human beings." {47} I quote this not to cast reproach on +the Spanish Government, but merely to give a fact, a case in point, +of the deadly failure of endeavours to colonise on the West Coast, a +thing which is even now occasionally attempted, always with the same +sad results, though in most cases these attempts are now made by +religious but misinformed people under Bishop Taylor's mission. + +The Spaniards did not entirely confine their attention to planting +colonists in a ready-made state on the island. As soon as they had +settled themselves and built their barracks and Government House, +they set to work and cleared away the bush for an area of from four +to six miles round the town. The ground soon became overgrown +again, but this clearing is still perceptible in the different type +of forest on it, and has enabled the gardens and little plantations +round Clarence to be made more easily. My Spanish friends assure me +that the Portuguese, who discovered the island in 1471, {48a} and +who exchanged it and Anno Bom in 1778 to the Spaniards for the +little island of Catalina and the colony of Sacramento in South +America, did not do anything to develop it. When they, the +Spaniards, first entered into possession they at once set to work to +colonise and clear. Then the colonisation scheme went to the bad, +the natives poisoned the wells, it is said, and the attention of the +Spaniards was in those days turned, for some inscrutable reason, to +the eastern shores of the island--a district now quite abandoned by +whites, on account of its unhealthiness--and they lost in addition +to the colonists a terrible quantity of their sailors, in Concepcion +Bay. {48b} A lull then followed, and the Spaniards willingly lent +the place to the English as aforesaid. They say we did nothing +except establish Clarence as a headquarters, which they consider to +have been a most excellent enterprise, and import the Baptist +Mission, which they hold as a less estimable undertaking; but there! +that's nothing to what the Baptist Mission hold regarding the +Spaniards. For my own part, I wish the Spaniards better luck this +time in their activity, for in directing it to plantations they are +on a truer and safer road to wealth than they have been with their +previous importations of Cuban political prisoners and ready-made +families of colonists, and I hope they will send home those +unfortunate wretches they have there now, and commence, in their +expected two years, to reap the profits of the coffee and cocoa. +Certainly the chances are that they may, for the soil of Fernando Po +is of exceeding fertility; Mr. Hutchinson says he has known Indian +corn planted here on a Monday evening make its appearance four +inches above ground on the following Wednesday morning, within a +period, he carefully says, of thirty-six hours. I have seen this +sort of thing over in Victoria, but I like to get a grown, strong +man, and a Consul of Her Britannic Majesty, to say it for me. + +Having discoursed at large on the various incomers to Fernando Po we +may next turn to the natives, properly so-called, the Bubis. These +people, although presenting a series of interesting problems to the +ethnologist, both from their insular position, and their +differentiation from any of the mainland peoples, are still but +little known. To a great extent this has arisen from their +exclusiveness, and their total lack of enthusiasm in trade matters, +a thing that differentiates them more than any other characteristic +from the mainlanders, who, young and old, men and women, regard +trade as the great affair of life, take to it as soon as they can +toddle, and don't even leave it off at death, according to their own +accounts of the way the spirits of distinguished traders still +dabble and interfere in market matters. But it is otherwise with +the Bubi. A little rum, a few beads, and finish--then he will turn +the rest of his attention to catching porcupines, or the beautiful +little gazelles, gray on the back, and white underneath, with which +the island abounds. And what time he may have on hand after this, +he spends in building houses and making himself hats. It is only +his utterly spare moments that he employs in making just sufficient +palm oil from the rich supply of nuts at his command to get that rum +and those beads of his. Cloth he does not want; he utterly fails to +see what good the stuff is, for he abhors clothes. The Spanish +authorities insist that the natives who come into the town should +have something on, and so they array themselves in a bit of cotton +cloth, which before they are out of sight of the town on their +homeward way, they strip off and stuff into their baskets, showing +in this, as well as in all other particulars, how uninfluencible by +white culture they are. For the Spaniards, like the Portuguese, are +great sticklers for clothes and insist on their natives wearing +them--usually with only too much success. I shall never forget the +yards and yards of cotton the ladies of Loanda wore; and not content +with making cocoons of their bodies, they wore over their heads, as +a mantilla, some dozen yards or so of black cloth into the bargain. +Moreover this insistence on drapery for the figure is not merely for +towns; a German officer told me the other day that when, a week or +so before, his ship had called at Anno Bom, they were simply +besieged for "clo', clo', clo';" the Anno Bomians explaining that +they were all anxious to go across to Principe and get employment on +coffee plantations, but that the Portuguese planters would not +engage them in an unclothed state. + +You must not, however, imagine that the Bubi is neglectful of his +personal appearance. In his way he is quite a dandy. But his idea +of decoration goes in the direction of a plaster of "tola" pomatum +over his body, and above all a hat. This hat may be an antique +European one, or a bound-round handkerchief, but it is more +frequently a confection of native manufacture, and great taste and +variety are displayed in its make. They are of plaited palm leaf-- +that's all you can safely generalise regarding them--for sometimes +they have broad brims, sometimes narrow, sometimes no brims at all. +So, too, with the crown. Sometimes it is thick and domed, sometimes +non-existent, the wearer's hair aglow with red-tail parrots' +feathers sticking up where the crown should be. As a general rule +these hats are much adorned with oddments of birds' plumes, and one +chief I knew had quite a Regent-street Dolly Varden creation which +he used to affix to his wool in a most intelligent way with bonnet- +pins made of wood. These hats are also a peculiarity of the Bubi, +for none of the mainlanders care a row of pins for hats, except "for +dandy," to wear occasionally, whereas the Bubi wears his +perpetually, although he has by no means the same amount of sun to +guard against owing to the glorious forests of his island. + +For earrings the Bubi wears pieces of wood stuck through the lobe of +the ear, and although this is not a decorative habit still it is +less undecorative than that of certain mainland friends of mine in +this region, who wear large and necessarily dripping lumps of fat in +their ears and in their hair. His neck is hung round with jujus on +strings--bits of the backbones of pythons, teeth, feathers, and +antelope horns, and occasionally a bit of fat in a bag. Round his +upper arm are bracelets, preferably made of ivory got from the +mainland, for celluloid bracelets carefully imported for his benefit +he refuses to look at. Often these bracelets are made of beads, or +a circlet of leaves, and when on the war-path an armlet of twisted +grass is always worn by the men. Men and women alike wear armlets, +and in the case of the women they seem to be put on when young, for +you see puffs of flesh growing out from between them. They are not +entirely for decoration, serving also as pockets, for under them men +stick a knife, and women a tobacco pipe, a well-coloured clay. +Leglets of similar construction are worn just under the knee on the +right leg, while around the body you see belts of tshibbu, small +pieces cut from Achatectonia shells, which form the native currency +of the island. These shells are also made into veils worn by the +women at their wedding. + +This native coinage-equivalent is very interesting, for such things +are exceedingly rare in West Africa. The only other instance I +personally know of a tribe in this part of the world using a native- +made coin is that of the Fans, who use little bundles of imitation +axe-heads. Dr. Oscar Baumann, who knows more than any one else +about these Bubis, thinks, I believe, that these bits of +Achatectonia shells may have been introduced by the runaway Angola +slaves in the old days, who used to fly from their Portuguese owners +on San Thome to the Spaniards on Fernando Po. The villages of the +Bubis are in the forest in the interior of the island, and they are +fairly wide apart. They are not a sea-beach folk, although each +village has its beach, which merely means the place to which it +brings its trade, these beaches being usually the dwelling places of +the so-called Portos, {51} negroes, who act as middle-men between +the Bubis and the whites. + +You will often be told that the Bubis are singularly bad house- +builders, indeed that they make no definite houses at all, but only +rough shelters of branches. This is, however, a mistake. Shelters +of this kind that you come across are merely the rough huts put up +by hunters, not true houses. The village is usually fairly well +built, and surrounded with a living hedge of stakes. The houses +inside this are four-cornered, the walls made of logs of wood stuck +in edgeways, and surmounted by a roof of thatch pitched at an +extremely stiff angle, and the whole is usually surrounded with a +dug-out drain to carry off surface water. These houses, as usual on +the West Coast, are divisible into two classes--houses of assembly, +and private living houses. The first are much the larger. The +latter are very low, and sometimes ridiculously small, but still +they are houses and better than those awful Loango grass affairs you +get on the Congo. + +Herr Baumann says that the houses high up on the mountain have +double walls between which there is a free space; an arrangement +which may serve to minimise the extreme draughtiness of an ordinary +Bubi house--a very necessary thing in these relatively chilly upper +regions. I may remark on my own account that the Bubi villages do +not often lie right on the path, but, like those you have to deal +with up the Calabar, some little way off it. This is no doubt for +the purpose of concealing their whereabouts from strangers, and it +does it successfully too, for many a merry hour have I spent dodging +up and down a path trying to make out at what particular point it +was advisable to dive into the forest thicket to reach a village. +But this cultivates habits of observation, and a short course of +this work makes you recognise which tree is which along miles of a +bush path as easily as you would shops in your own street at home. + +The main interest of the Bubi's life lies in hunting, for he is more +of a sportsman than the majority of mainlanders. He has not any big +game to deal with, unless we except pythons--which attain a great +size on the island--and crocodiles. Elephants, though plentiful on +the adjacent mainland, are quite absent from Fernando Po, as are +also hippos and the great anthropoid apes; but of the little +gazelles, small monkeys, porcupines, and squirrels he has a large +supply, and in the rivers a very pretty otter (Lutra poensis) with +yellow brown fur often quite golden underneath; a creature which is, +I believe, identical with the Angola otter. + +The Bubis use in their hunting flint-lock guns, but chiefly traps +and nets, and, I am told, slings. The advantage of these latter +methods are, I expect, the same as on the mainland, where a +distinguished sportsman once told me: "You go shoot thing with gun. +Berrah well--but you no get him thing for sure. No, sah. Dem gun +make nize. Berrah well. You fren hear dem nize and come look him, +and you hab to go share what you done kill. Or bad man hear him +nize, and he come look him, and you no fit to get share--you fit to +get kill yusself. Chii! chii! traps be best." I urged that the +traps might also be robbed. "No, sah," says he, "them bian (charm) +he look after them traps, he fit to make man who go tief swell up +and bust." + +The Bubis also fish, mostly by basket traps, but they are not +experts either in this or in canoe management. Their chief sea- +shore sport is hunting for the eggs of the turtles who lay in the +sand from August to October. These eggs--about 200 in each nest-- +are about the size of a billiard-ball, with a leathery envelope, and +are much valued for food, as are also the grubs of certain beetles +got from the stems of the palm-trees, and the honey of the wild bees +which abound here. + +Their domestic animals are the usual African list; cats, dogs, +sheep, goats, and poultry. Pigs there are too, very domestic in +Clarence and in a wild state in the forest. These pigs are the +descendants of those imported by the Spaniards, and not long ago +became such an awful nuisance in Clarence that the Government issued +instructions that all pigs without rings in their noses--i.e. all in +a condition to grub up back gardens--should be forthwith shot if +found abroad. This proclamation was issued by the governmental +bellman thus: --"I say--I say--I say--I say. Suppose pig walk--iron +no live for him nose! Gun shoot. Kill him one time. Hear re! hear +re!" + +However a good many pigs with no iron living in their noses got +adrift and escaped into the interior, and have flourished like the +green bay-tree, destroying the Bubi's plantation and eating his +yams, while the Bubi retaliating kills and eats them. So it's a +drawn battle, for the Bubi enjoys the pig and the pig enjoys the +yams, which are of singular excellence in this island and celebrated +throughout the Bight. Now, I am told, the Government are firmly +discouraging the export of these yams, which used to be quite a +little branch of Fernando Po trade, in the hope that this will +induce the native to turn his attention to working in the coffee and +cacao plantations. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, for +the Bubi has shown continually since the 16th century that he takes +no interest in these things whatsoever. Now and again a man or +woman will come voluntarily and take service in Clarence, submit to +clothes, and rapidly pick up the ways of a house or store. And just +when their owner thinks he owns a treasure, and begins to boast that +he has got an exception to all Bubidom, or else that he knows how to +manage them better than other men, then a hole in that man's +domestic arrangements suddenly appears. The Bubi has gone, without +giving a moment's warning, and without stealing his master's +property, but just softly and silently vanished away. And if hunted +up the treasure will be found in his or her particular village-- +clothes-less, comfortable, utterly unconcerned, and unaware that he +or she has lost anything by leaving Clarence and Civilisation. It +is this conduct that gains for the Bubi the reputation of being a +bigger idiot than he really is. + +For West Africans their agriculture is of a fairly high description- +-the noteworthy point about it, however, is the absence of manioc. +Manioc is grown on Fernando Po, but only by the Portos. The Bubi +cultivated plants are yams (Dioscorea alata), koko (Colocasia +esculenta--the taro of the South Seas,) and plantains. Their farms +are well kept, particularly those in the grass districts by San +Carlos Bay. The yams of the Cordillera districts are the best +flavoured, but those of the east coast the largest. Palm-oil is +used for domestic purposes in the usual ways, and palm wine both +fresh and fermented is the ordinary native drink. Rum is held in +high esteem, but used in a general way in moderation as a cordial +and a treat, for the Bubi is, like the rest of the West African +natives, by no means an habitual drunkard. Gin he dislikes. {55} + +And I may remark you will find the same opinion in regard to the +Dualla in Cameroons river--on the undeniable authority of Dr. +Buchner, and my own extensive experience of the West Coast bears it +out. + +Physically the Bubis are a fairly well-formed race of medium height; +they are decidedly inferior to the Benga or the Krus, but quite on a +level with the Effiks. The women indeed are very comely: their +colour is bronze and their skin the skin of the Bantu. Beards are +not uncommon among the men, and these give their faces possibly more +than anything else, a different look to the faces of the Effiks or +the Duallas. Indeed the people physically most like the Bubis that +I have ever seen, are undoubtedly the Bakwiri of Cameroons Mountain, +who are also liable to be bearded, or possibly I should say more +liable to wear beards, for a good deal of the African hairlessness +you hear commented on--in the West African at any rate--arises from +his deliberately pulling his hair out--his beard, moustache, +whiskers, and, occasionally, as among the Fans, his eyebrows. + +Dr. Baumann, the great authority on the Bubi language says it is a +Bantu stock. {56} I know nothing of it myself save that it is harsh +in sound. Their method of counting is usually by fives but they are +notably weak in arithmetical ability, differing in this particular +from the mainlanders, and especially from their Negro neighbours, +who are very good at figures, surpassing the Bantu in this, as +indeed they do in most branches of intellectual activity. + +But the most remarkable instance of inferiority the Bubis display is +their ignorance regarding methods of working iron. I do not know +that iron in a native state is found on Fernando Po, but scrap-iron +they have been in touch with for some hundreds of years. The +mainlanders are all cognisant of native methods of working iron, +although many tribes of them now depend entirely on European trade +for their supply of knives, etc., and this difference between them +and the Bubis would seem to indicate that the migration of the +latter to the island must have taken place at a fairly remote +period, a period before the iron-working tribes came down to the +coast. Of course, if you take the Bubi's usual explanation of his +origin, namely that he came out of the crater on the top of Clarence +Peak, this argument falls through; but he has also another legend, +one moreover which is likewise to be found upon the mainland, which +says he was driven from the district north of the Gaboon estuary by +the coming of the M'pongwe to the coast, and as this legend is the +more likely of the two I think we may accept it as true, or nearly +so. But what adds another difficulty to the matter is that the Bubi +is not only unlearned in iron lore, but he was learned in stone, and +up to the time of the youth of many Porto-negroes on Fernando Po, he +was making and using stone implements, and none of the tribes within +the memory of man have done this on the mainland. It is true that +up the Niger and about Benin and Axim you get polished stone celts, +but these are regarded as weird affairs,--thunderbolts--and suitable +only for grinding up and making into medicine; there is no trace in +the traditions of these places, as far as I have been able to find, +of any time at which stone implements were in common use, and +certainly the M'pongwe have not been a very long time on the coast, +for their coming is still remembered in their traditions. The Bubi +stone implements I have seen twice, but on neither occasion could I +secure one, and although I have been long promised specimens from +Fernando Po, I have not yet received them. They are difficult to +procure, because none of the present towns are on really old sites, +the Bubi, like most Bantus, moving pretty frequently, either because +the ground is witched, demonstrated by outbreaks of sickness, or +because another village-full of his fellow creatures, or a horrid +white man plantation-making, has come too close to him. A Roman +Catholic priest in Ka Congo once told me a legend he laughed much +over, of how a fellow priest had enterprisingly settled himself one +night in the middle of a Bubi village with intent to devote the +remainder of his life to quietly but thoroughly converting it. Next +morning, when he rose up, he found himself alone, the people having +taken all their portable possessions and vanished to build another +village elsewhere. The worthy Father spent some time chivying his +flock about the forest, but in vain, and he returned home disgusted, +deciding that the Creator, for some wise purpose, had dedicated the +Bubis to the Devil. + +The spears used by this interesting people are even to this day made +entirely of wood, and have such a Polynesian look about them that I +intend some time or other to bring some home and experiment on that +learned Polynesian-culture-expert, Baron von Hugel, with them: -- +intellectually experiment, not physically, pray understand. + +The pottery has a very early-man look about it, but in this it does +not differ much from that of the mainland, which is quite as poor, +and similarly made without a wheel, and sun-baked. Those pots of +the Bubis I have seen have, however, not had the pattern (any sort +of pattern does, and it need not be carefully done) that runs round +mainland pots to "keep their souls in"--i.e. to prevent their +breaking up on their own account. + +The basket-work of the Bubis is of a superior order: the baskets +they make to hold the palm oil are excellent, and will hold water +like a basin, but I am in doubt whether this art is original, or +imported by the Portuguese runaway slaves, for they put me very much +in mind of those made by my old friends the Kabinders, from whom a +good many of those slaves were recruited. I think there is little +doubt that several of the musical instruments own this origin, +particularly their best beloved one, the elibo. This may be +described as a wooden bell having inside it for clappers several +(usually five) pieces of stick threaded on a bit of wood jammed into +the dome of the bell and striking the rim, beyond which the clappers +just protrude. These bells are very like those you meet with in +Angola, but I have not seen on the island, nor does Dr. Baumann cite +having seen, the peculiar double bell of Angola--the engongui. The +Bubi bell is made out of one piece of wood and worked--or played-- +with both hands. Dr. Baumann says it is customary on bright +moonlight nights for two lines of men to sit facing each other and +to clap--one can hardly call it ring--these bells vigorously, but in +good time, accompanying this performance with a monotonous song, +while the delighted women and children dance round. The learned +doctor evidently sees the picturesqueness of this practice, but +notes that the words of the songs are not "tiefsinnige" (profound), +as he has heard men for hours singing "The shark bites the Bubi's +hand," only that over and over again and nothing more. This agrees +with my own observations of all Bantu native songs. I have always +found that the words of these songs were either the repetition of +some such phrase as this, or a set of words referring to the recent +adventures or experiences of the singer or the present company's +little peculiarities; with a very frequent chorus, old and +conventional. + +The native tunes used with these songs are far superior, and I +expect many of them are very old. They are often full of variety +and beauty, particularly those of the M'pongwe and Igalwa, of which +I will speak later. + +The dances I have no personal knowledge of, but there is nothing in +Baumann's description to make one think they are distinct in +themselves from the mainland dances. I once saw a dance at Fernando +Po, but that was among Portos, and it was my old friend the Batuco +in all its beauty. But there is a distinct peculiarity about the +places the dances are held on, every village having a kept piece of +ground outside it which is the dancing place for the village--the +ball-room as it were; and exceedingly picturesque these dances must +be, for they are mostly held during the nights of full moon. These +kept grounds remind one very much of the similar looking patches of +kept grass one sees in villages in Ka Congo, but there is no +similarity in their use, for the Ka Congo lawns are of fetish, not +frivolous, import. + +The Bubis have an instrument I have never seen in an identical form +on the mainland. It is made like a bow, with a tense string of +fibre. One end of the bow is placed against the mouth, and the +string is then struck by the right hand with a small round stick, +while with the left it is scraped with a piece of shell or a knife- +blade. This excruciating instrument, I warn any one who may think +of living among the Bubis, is very popular. The drums used are both +the Dualla form--all wood--and the ordinary skin-covered drum, and I +think if I catalogue fifes made of wood, I shall have nearly +finished the Bubi orchestra. I have doubts on this point because I +rather question whether I may be allowed to refer to a very old +bullock hide--unmounted--as a musical instrument without bringing +down the wrath of musicians on my head. These stiff, dry pelts are +much thought of, and played by the artistes by being shaken as +accompaniments to other instruments--they make a noise, and that is +after all the soul of most African instrumental music. These +instruments are all that is left of certain bullocks which many +years ago the Spaniards introduced, hoping to improve the food +supply. They seemed as if they would have flourished well on the +island, on the stretches of grass land in the Cordillera and the +East, but the Bubis, being great sportsmen, killed them all off. + +The festivities of the Bubis--dances, weddings, feasts, etc.,--at +which this miscellaneous collection of instruments are used in +concert, usually take place in November, the dry season; but the +Bubi is liable to pour forth his soul in the bosom of his family at +any time of the day or night, from June to January, and when he +pours it forth on that bow affair it makes the lonely European long +for home. + +Divisions of time the Bubi can hardly be said to have, but this is a +point upon which all West Africans are rather weak, particularly the +Bantu. He has, however, a definite name for November, December, and +January--the dry season months--calling them Lobos. + +The Fetish of these people, although agreeing on broad lines with +the Bantu Fetish, has many interesting points, as even my small +knowledge of it showed me, and it is a subject that would repay +further investigation; and as by fetish I always mean the governing +but underlying ideas of a man's life, we will commence with the +child. Nothing, as far as I have been able to make out, happens to +him, for fetish reasons, when he first appears on the scene. He +receives at birth, as is usual, a name which is changed for another +on his initiation into the secret society, this secret society +having also, as usual, a secret language. About the age of three or +five years the boy is decorated, under the auspices of the witch +doctor, with certain scars on the face. These scars run from the +root of the nose across the cheeks, and are sometimes carried up in +a curve on to the forehead. + +Tattooing, in the true sense of the word, they do not use much, but +they paint themselves, as the mainlanders do, with a red paint made +by burning some herb and mixing the ash with clay or oil, and they +occasionally--whether for ju-ju reasons or for mere decoration I do +not know--paint a band of yellow clay round the chest; but of the +Bubi secret society I know little, nor have I been able to find any +one who knows much more. Hutchinson, {61} in his exceedingly +amusing description of a wedding he was once present at among these +people, would lead one to think the period of seclusion of the +women's society was twelve months. + +The chief god or spirit, O Wassa, resides in the crater of the +highest peak, and by his name the peak is known to the native. +Another very important spirit, to whom goats and sheep are offered, +is Lobe, resident in a crater lake on the northern slope of the +Cordilleras, and the grass you sometimes see a Bubi wearing is said +to come from this lake and be a ju-ju of Lobe's. Dr. Baumann says +that the lake at Riabba from which the spirit Uapa rises is more +holy, and that he is small, and resides in a chasm in a rock whose +declivity can only be passed by means of bush ropes, and in the wet +season he is not get-at-able at all. He will, if given suitable +offerings, reveal the future to Bubis, but Bubis only. His priest +is the King of all the Bubis, upon whom it is never permitted to a +white man, or a Porto, to gaze. Baumann also gives the residence of +another important spirit as being the grotto at Banni. This is a +sea-cave, only accessible at low water in calm weather. I have +heard many legends of this cave, but have never had an opportunity +of seeing it, or any one who has seen it first hand. + +The charms used by these people are similar in form to those of the +mainland Bantu, but the methods of treating paths and gateways are +somewhat peculiar. The gateways to the towns are sometimes covered +by freshly cut banana leaves, and during the religious feast in +November, the paths to the villages are barred across with a hedge +of grass which no stranger must pass through. + +The government is a peculiar one for West Africa. Every village has +its chief, but the whole tribe obey one great chief or king who +lives in the crater-ravine at Riabba. This individual is called +Moka, but whether he is now the same man referred to by Rogoszinsky, +Mr. Holland, and the Rev. Hugh Brown, who attempted to interview him +in the seventies, I do not feel sure, for the Bubis are just the +sort of people to keep a big king going with a variety of +individuals. Even the indefatigable Dr. Baumann failed to see Moka, +though he evidently found out a great deal about the methods of his +administration and formed a very high opinion of his ability, for he +says that to this one chief the people owe their present unity and +orderliness; that before his time the whole island was in a state of +internecine war: murder was frequent, and property unsafe. Now +their social condition, according to the Doctor's account, is a +model to Europe, let alone Africa. Civil wars have been abolished, +disputes between villages being referred to arbitration, and murder +is swiftly and surely punished. If the criminal has bolted into the +forest and cannot be found, his village is made responsible, and has +to pay a fine in goats, sheep and tobacco to the value of 16 pounds. +Theft is extremely rare and offences against the moral code also, +the Bubis having an extremely high standard in this matter, even the +little children having each a separate sleeping hut. In old days +adultery was punished by cutting off the offender's hand. I have +myself seen women in Fernando Po who have had a hand cut off at the +wrist, but I believe those were slave women who had suffered for +theft. Slaves the Bubis do have, but their condition is the mild, +poor relation or retainer form of slavery you find in Calabar, and +differs from the Dualla form, for the slaves live in the same +villages as their masters, while among the Duallas, as among most +Bantu slave-holding tribes, the slaves are excluded from the +master's village and have separate villages of their own. For +marriage ceremonies I refer you to Mr. Hutchinson. Burial customs +are exceedingly quaint in the southern and eastern districts, where +the bodies are buried in the forest with their heads just sticking +out of the ground. In other districts the body is also buried in +the forest, but is completely covered and an erection of stones put +up to mark the place. + +Little is known of all West African fetish, still less of that of +these strange people. Dr. Oscar Baumann brought to bear on them his +careful unemotional German methods of observation, thereby giving us +more valuable information about them and their island than we +otherwise should possess. Mr. Hutchinson resided many years on +Fernando Po, in the capacity of H. B. M.'s Consul, with his hands +full of the affairs of the Oil Rivers and in touch with the Portos +of Clarence, but he nevertheless made very interesting observations +on the natives and their customs. The Polish exile and his +courageous wife who ascended Clarence Peak, Mr. Rogoszinsky, and +another Polish exile, Mr. Janikowski, about complete our series of +authorities on the island. Dr. Baumann thinks they got their +information from Porto sources--sources the learned Doctor evidently +regards as more full of imagination than solid fact, but, as you +know, all African travellers are occasionally in the habit of pooh- +poohing each other, and I own that I myself have been chiefly in +touch with Portos, and that my knowledge of the Bubi language runs +to the conventional greeting form: --"Ipori?" "Porto." "Ke Soko?'" +"Hatsi soko": --"Who are you?" "Porto." "What's the news?" "No +news." + +Although these Portos are less interesting to the ethnologist than +the philanthropist, they being by-products of his efforts, I must +not leave Fernando Po without mentioning them, for on them the trade +of the island depends. They are the middlemen between the Bubi and +the white trader. The former regards them with little, if any, more +trust than he regards the white men, and his view of the position of +the Spanish Governor is that he is chief over the Portos. That he +has any headship over Bubis or over the Bubi land--Itschulla as he +calls Fernando Po--he does not imagine possible. Baumann says he +was once told by a Bubi: "White men are fish, not men. They are +able to stay a little while on land, but at last they mount their +ships again and vanish over the horizon into the ocean. How can a +fish possess land?" If the coffee and cacao thrive on Fernando Po +to the same extent that they have already thriven on San Thome there +is but little doubt that the Bubis will become extinct; for work on +plantations, either for other people, or themselves, they will not, +and then the Portos will become the most important class, for they +will go in for plantations. Their little factories are studded all +round the shores of the coast in suitable coves and bays, and here +in fairly neat houses they live, collecting palm-oil from the Bubis, +and making themselves little cacao plantations, and bringing these +products into Clarence every now and then to the white trader's +factory. Then, after spending some time and most of their money in +the giddy whirl of that capital, they return to their homes and +recover. There is a class of them permanently resident in Clarence, +the city men of Fernando Po, and these are very like the Sierra +Leonians of Free Town, but preferable. Their origin is practically +the same as that of the Free Towners. They are the descendants of +liberated slaves set free during the time of our occupation of the +island as a naval depot for suppressing the slave trade, and of +Sierra Leonians and Accras who have arrived and settled since then. +They have some of the same "Black gennellum, Sar" style about them, +but not developed to the same ridiculous extent as in the Sierra +Leonians, for they have not been under our institutions. The "Nanny +Po" ladies are celebrated for their beauty all along the West Coast, +and very justly. They are not however, as they themselves think, +the most beautiful women in this part of the world. Not at least to +my way of thinking. I prefer an Elmina, or an Igalwa, or a +M'pongwe, or--but I had better stop and own that my affections have +got very scattered among the black ladies on the West Coast, and I +no sooner remember one lovely creature whose soft eyes, perfect form +and winning, pretty ways have captivated me than I think of another. +The Nanny Po ladies have often a certain amount of Spanish blood in +them, which gives a decidedly greater delicacy to their features-- +delicate little nostrils, mouths not too heavily lipped, a certain +gloss on the hair, and a light in the eye. But it does not improve +their colour, and I am assured that it has an awful effect on their +tempers, so I think I will remain, for the present, the faithful +admirer of my sable Ingramina, the Igalwa, with the little red +blossoms stuck in her night-black hair, and a sweet soft look and +word for every one, but particularly for her ugly husband Isaac the +"Jack Wash." + + + +CHAPTER III. VOYAGE DOWN COAST. + + + +Wherein the voyager before leaving the Rivers discourses on dangers, +to which is added some account of Mangrove swamps and the creatures +that abide therein. + +I left Calabar in May and joined the Benguela off Lagos Bar. My +voyage down coast in her was a very pleasant one and full of +instruction, for Mr. Fothergill, who was her purser, had in former +years resided in Congo Francais as a merchant, and to Congo Francais +I was bound with an empty hold as regards local knowledge of the +district. He was one of that class of men, of which you most +frequently find representatives among the merchants, who do not +possess the power so many men along here do possess (a power that +always amazes me), of living for a considerable time in a district +without taking any interest in it, keeping their whole attention +concentrated on the point of how long it will be before their time +comes to get out of it. Mr. Fothergill evidently had much knowledge +and experience of the Fernan Vaz district and its natives. He had, +I should say, overdone his experiences with the natives, as far as +personal comfort and pleasure at the time went, having been nearly +killed and considerably chivied by them. Now I do not wish a man, +however much I may deplore his total lack of local knowledge, to go +so far as this. Mr. Fothergill gave his accounts of these incidents +calmly, and in an undecorated way that gave them a power and +convincingness verging on being unpleasant, although useful, to a +person who was going into the district where they had occurred, for +one felt there was no mortal reason why one should not personally +get involved in similar affairs. And I must here acknowledge the +great subsequent service Mr. Fothergill's wonderfully accurate +descriptions of the peculiar characteristics of the Ogowe forests +were to me when I subsequently came to deal with these forests on my +own account, as every district of forest has peculiar +characteristics of its own which you require to know. I should like +here to speak of West Coast dangers because I fear you may think +that I am careless of, or do not believe in them, neither of which +is the case. The more you know of the West Coast of Africa, the +more you realise its dangers. For example, on your first voyage out +you hardly believe the stories of fever told by the old Coasters. +That is because you do not then understand the type of man who is +telling them, a man who goes to his death with a joke in his teeth. +But a short experience of your own, particularly if you happen on a +place having one of its periodic epidemics, soon demonstrates that +the underlying horror of the thing is there, a rotting corpse which +the old Coaster has dusted over with jokes to cover it so that it +hardly shows at a distance, but which, when you come yourself to +live alongside, you soon become cognisant of. Many men, when they +have got ashore and settled, realise this, and let the horror get a +grip on them; a state briefly and locally described as funk, and a +state that usually ends fatally; and you can hardly blame them. +Why, I know of a case myself. A young man who had never been +outside an English country town before in his life, from family +reverses had to take a situation as book-keeper down in the Bights. +The factory he was going to was in an isolated out-of-the-way place +and not in a settlement, and when the ship called off it, he was put +ashore in one of the ship's boats with his belongings, and a case or +so of goods. There were only the firm's beach-boys down at the +surf, and as the steamer was in a hurry the officer from the ship +did not go up to the factory with him, but said good-bye and left +him alone with a set of naked savages as he thought, but really of +good kindly Kru boys on the beach. He could not understand what +they said, nor they what he said, and so he walked up to the house +and on to the verandah and tried to find the Agent he had come out +to serve under. He looked into the open-ended dining-room and shyly +round the verandah, and then sat down and waited for some one to +turn up. Sundry natives turned up, and said a good deal, but no one +white or comprehensible, so in desperation he made another and a +bolder tour completely round the verandah and noticed a most +peculiar noise in one of the rooms and an infinity of flies going +into the venetian shuttered window. Plucking up courage he went in +and found what was left of the white Agent, a considerable quantity +of rats, and most of the flies in West Africa. He then presumably +had fever, and he was taken off, a fortnight afterwards, by a French +boat, to whom the natives signalled, and he is not coming down the +Coast again. Some men would have died right out from a shock like +this. + +But most of the new-comers do not get a shock of this order. They +either die themselves or get more gradually accustomed to this sort +of thing, when they come to regard death and fever as soldiers, who +on a battle-field sit down, and laugh and talk round a camp fire +after a day's hard battle, in which they have seen their friends and +companions falling round them; all the time knowing that to-morrow +the battle comes again and that to-morrow night they themselves may +never see. + +It is not hard-hearted callousness, it is only their way. Michael +Scott put this well in Tom Cringle's Log, in his account of the +yellow fever during the war in the West Indies. Fever, though the +chief danger, particularly to people who go out to settlements, is +not the only one; but as the other dangers, except perhaps domestic +poisoning, are incidental to pottering about in the forests, or on +the rivers, among the unsophisticated tribes, I will not dwell on +them. They can all be avoided by any one with common sense, by +keeping well out of the districts in which they occur; and so I warn +the general reader that if he goes out to West Africa, it is not +because I said the place was safe, or its dangers overrated. The +cemeteries of the West Coast are full of the victims of those people +who have said that Coast fever is "Cork fever," and a man's own +fault, which it is not; and that natives will never attack you +unless you attack them: which they will--on occasions. + +My main aim in going to Congo Francais was to get up above the tide +line of the Ogowe River and there collect fishes; for my object on +this voyage was to collect fish from a river north of the Congo. I +had hoped this river would have been the Niger, for Sir George +Goldie had placed at my disposal great facilities for carrying on +work there in comfort; but for certain private reasons I was +disinclined to go from the Royal Niger Protectorate into the Royal +Niger Company's territory; and the Calabar, where Sir Claude +MacDonald did everything he possibly could to assist me, I did not +find a good river for me to collect fishes in. These two rivers +failing me, from no fault of either of their own presiding genii, my +only hope of doing anything now lay on the South West Coast river, +the Ogowe, and everything there depended on Mr. Hudson's attitude +towards scientific research in the domain of ichthyology. +Fortunately for me that gentleman elected to take a favourable view +of this affair, and in every way in his power assisted me during my +entire stay in Congo Francais. But before I enter into a detailed +description of this wonderful bit of West Africa, I must give you a +brief notice of the manners, habits and customs of West Coast rivers +in general, to make the thing more intelligible. + +There is an uniformity in the habits of West Coast rivers, from the +Volta to the Coanza, which is, when you get used to it, very taking. +Excepting the Congo, the really great river comes out to sea with as +much mystery as possible; lounging lazily along among its mangrove +swamps in a what's-it-matter-when-one-comes-out and where's-the- +hurry style, through quantities of channels inter-communicating with +each other. Each channel, at first sight as like the other as peas +in a pod, is bordered on either side by green-black walls of +mangroves, which Captain Lugard graphically described as seeming "as +if they had lost all count of the vegetable proprieties, and were +standing on stilts with their branches tucked up out of the wet, +leaving their gaunt roots exposed in midair." High-tide or low- +tide, there is little difference in the water; the river, be it +broad or narrow, deep or shallow, looks like a pathway of polished +metal; for it is as heavy weighted with stinking mud as water e'er +can be, ebb or flow, year out and year in. But the difference in +the banks, though an unending alternation between two appearances, +is weird. + +At high-water you do not see the mangroves displaying their ankles +in the way that shocked Captain Lugard. They look most respectable, +their foliage rising densely in a wall irregularly striped here and +there by the white line of an aerial root, coming straight down into +the water from some upper branch as straight as a plummet, in the +strange, knowing way an aerial root of a mangrove does, keeping the +hard straight line until it gets some two feet above water-level, +and then spreading out into blunt fingers with which to dip into the +water and grasp the mud. Banks indeed at high water can hardly be +said to exist, the water stretching away into the mangrove swamps +for miles and miles, and you can then go, in a suitable small canoe, +away among these swamps as far as you please. + +This is a fascinating pursuit. But it is a pleasure to be indulged +in with caution; for one thing, you are certain to come across +crocodiles. Now a crocodile drifting down in deep water, or lying +asleep with its jaws open on a sand-bank in the sun, is a +picturesque adornment to the landscape when you are on the deck of a +steamer, and you can write home about it and frighten your relations +on your behalf; but when you are away among the swamps in a small +dug-out canoe, and that crocodile and his relations are awake--a +thing he makes a point of being at flood tide because of fish coming +along--and when he has got his foot upon his native heath--that is +to say, his tail within holding reach of his native mud--he is +highly interesting, and you may not be able to write home about him- +-and you get frightened on your own behalf; for crocodiles can, and +often do, in such places, grab at people in small canoes. I have +known of several natives losing their lives in this way; some native +villages are approachable from the main river by a short cut, as it +were, through the mangrove swamps, and the inhabitants of such +villages will now and then go across this way with small canoes +instead of by the constant channel to the village, which is almost +always winding. In addition to this unpleasantness you are liable-- +until you realise the danger from experience, or have native advice +on the point--to get tide-trapped away in the swamps, the water +falling round you when you are away in some deep pool or lagoon, and +you find you cannot get back to the main river. Of course if you +really want a truly safe investment in Fame, and really care about +Posterity, and Posterity's Science, you will jump over into the +black batter-like, stinking slime, cheered by the thought of the +terrific sensation you will produce 20,000 years hence, and the care +you will be taken of then by your fellow-creatures, in a museum. +But if you are a mere ordinary person of a retiring nature, like me, +you stop in your lagoon until the tide rises again; most of your +attention is directed to dealing with an "at home" to crocodiles and +mangrove flies, and with the fearful stench of the slime round you. +What little time you have over you will employ in wondering why you +came to West Africa, and why, after having reached this point of +folly, you need have gone and painted the lily and adorned the rose, +by being such a colossal ass as to come fooling about in mangrove +swamps. + +Still, even if your own peculiar tastes and avocations do not take +you in small dug-out canoes into the heart of the swamps, you can +observe the difference in the local scenery made by the flowing of +the tide when you are on a vessel stuck on a sand-bank, in the Rio +del Rey for example. Moreover, as you will have little else to +attend to, save mosquitoes and mangrove flies, when in such a +situation, you may as well pursue the study. At the ebb gradually +the foliage of the lower branches of the mangroves grows wet and +muddy, until there is a great black band about three feet deep above +the surface of the water in all directions; gradually a network of +gray-white roots rises up, and below this again, gradually, a slope +of smooth and lead-grey slime. The effect is not in the least as if +the water had fallen, but as if the mangroves had, with one accord, +risen up out of it, and into it again they seem silently to sink +when the flood comes. But by this more safe, if still unpleasant, +method of observing mangrove-swamps, you miss seeing in full the +make of them, for away in their fastnesses the mangroves raise their +branches far above the reach of tide line, and the great gray roots +of the older trees are always sticking up in mid-air. But, fringing +the rivers, there is always a hedge of younger mangroves whose lower +branches get immersed. + +At corners here and there from the river face you can see the land +being made from the waters. A mud-bank forms off it, a mangrove +seed lights on it, and the thing's done. Well! not done, perhaps, +but begun; for if the bank is high enough to get exposed at low +water, this pioneer mangrove grows. He has a wretched existence +though. You have only got to look at his dwarfed attenuated form to +see this. He gets joined by a few more bold spirits and they +struggle on together, their network of roots stopping abundance of +mud, and by good chance now and then a consignment of miscellaneous +debris of palm leaves, or a floating tree-trunk, but they always die +before they attain any considerable height. Still even in death +they collect. Their bare white stems remaining like a net gripped +in the mud, so that these pioneer mangrove heroes may be said to +have laid down their lives to make that mud-bank fit for +colonisation, for the time gradually comes when other mangroves can +and do colonise on it, and flourish, extending their territory +steadily; and the mud-bank joins up with, and becomes a part of, +Africa. + +Right away on the inland fringe of the swamp--you may go some +hundreds of miles before you get there--you can see the rest of the +process. The mangroves there have risen up, and dried the mud to an +extent that is more than good for themselves, have over civilised +that mud in fact, and so the brackish waters of the tide--which, +although their enemy when too deep or too strong in salt, is +essential to their existence--cannot get to their roots. They have +done this gradually, as a mangrove does all things, but they have +done it, and down on to that mud come a whole set of palms from the +old mainland, who in their early colonisation days go through +similarly trying experiences. First the screw-pines come and live +among them; then the wine-palm and various creepers, and then the +oil-palm; and the debris of these plants being greater and making +better soil than dead mangroves, they work quicker and the mangrove +is doomed. Soon the salt waters are shut right out, the mangrove +dies, and that bit of Africa is made. It is very interesting to get +into these regions; you see along the river-bank a rich, thick, +lovely wall of soft-wooded plants, and behind this you find great +stretches of death;--miles and miles sometimes of gaunt white +mangrove skeletons standing on gray stuff that is not yet earth and +is no longer slime, and through the crust of which you can sink into +rotting putrefaction. Yet, long after you are dead, buried, and +forgotten, this will become a forest of soft-wooded plants and +palms; and finally of hard-wooded trees. Districts of this +description you will find in great sweeps of Kama country for +example, and in the rich low regions up to the base of the Sierra +del Cristal and the Rumby range. + +You often hear the utter lifelessness of mangrove-swamps commented +on; why I do not know, for they are fairly heavily stocked with +fauna, though the species are comparatively few. There are the +crocodiles, more of them than any one wants; there are quantities of +flies, particularly the big silent mangrove-fly which lays an egg in +you under the skin; the egg becomes a maggot and stays there until +it feels fit to enter into external life. Then there are "slimy +things that crawl with legs upon a slimy sea," and any quantity of +hopping mud-fish, and crabs, and a certain mollusc, and in the water +various kinds of cat-fish. Birdless they are save for the flocks of +gray parrots that pass over them at evening, hoarsely squarking; and +save for this squarking of the parrots the swamps are silent all the +day, at least during the dry season; in the wet season there is no +silence night or day in West Africa, but that roar of the descending +deluge of rain that is more monotonous and more gloomy than any +silence can be. In the morning you do not hear the long, low, +mellow whistle of the plantain-eaters calling up the dawn, nor in +the evening the clock-bird nor the Handel-Festival-sized choruses of +frogs, or the crickets, that carry on their vesper controversy of +"she did"--"she didn't" so fiercely on hard land. + +But the mangrove-swamp follows the general rule for West Africa, and +night in it is noisier than the day. After dark it is full of +noises; grunts from I know not what, splashes from jumping fish, the +peculiar whirr of rushing crabs, and quaint creaking and groaning +sounds from the trees; and--above all in eeriness--the strange whine +and sighing cough of crocodiles. + +Great regions of mangrove-swamps are a characteristic feature of the +West African Coast. The first of these lies north of Sierra Leone; +then they occur, but of smaller dimensions--just fringes of river- +outfalls--until you get to Lagos, when you strike the greatest of +them all: --the swamps of the Niger outfalls (about twenty-three +rivers in all) and of the Sombreiro, New Calabar, Bonny, San +Antonio, Opobo (false and true), Kwoibo, Old Calabar (with the Cross +Akwayafe Qwa Rivers) and Rio del Rey Rivers. The whole of this +great stretch of coast is a mangrove-swamp, each river silently +rolling down its great mass of mud-laden waters and constituting +each in itself a very pretty problem to the navigator by its network +of intercommunicating creeks, and the sand and mud bar which it +forms off its entrance by dropping its heaviest mud; its lighter mud +is carried out beyond its bar and makes the nasty-smelling brown +soup of the South Atlantic Ocean, with froth floating in lines and +patches on it, for miles to seaward. + +In this great region of swamps every mile appears like every other +mile until you get well used to it, and are able to distinguish the +little local peculiarities at the entrance of the rivers and in the +winding of the creeks, a thing difficult even for the most +experienced navigator to do during those thick wool-like mists +called smokes, which hang about the whole Bight from November till +May (the dry season), sometimes lasting all day, sometimes clearing +off three hours after sunrise. + +The upper or north-westerly part of the swamp is round the mouths of +the Niger, and it successfully concealed this fact from geographers +down to 1830, when the series of heroic journeys made by Mungo Park, +Clapperton, and the two Landers finally solved the problem--a +problem that was as great and which cost more men's lives than even +the discovery of the sources of the Nile. + +That this should have been so may seem very strange to us who now +have been told the answer to the riddle; for the upper waters of +this great river were known of before Christ and spoken of by +Herodotus, Pliny and Ptolemy, and its mouths navigated continuously +along by the seaboard by trading vessels since the fifteenth +century, but they were not recognised as belonging to the Niger. +Some geographers held that the Senegal or the Gambia was its +outfall; others that it was the Zaire (Congo); others that it did +not come out on the West Coast at all, but got mixed up with the +Nile in the middle of the continent, and so on. Yet when you come +to know the swamps this is not so strange. You find on going up +what looks like a big river--say Forcados, two and a half miles wide +at the entrance and a real bit of the Niger. Before you are up it +far great, broad, business-like-looking river entrances open on +either side, showing wide rivers mangrove-walled, but two-thirds of +them are utter frauds which will ground you within half an hour of +your entering them. Some few of them do communicate with other main +channels to the great upper river, and others are main channels +themselves; but most of them intercommunicate with each other and +lead nowhere in particular, and you can't even get there because of +their shallowness. It is small wonder that the earlier navigators +did not get far up them in sailing ships, and that the problem had +to be solved by men descending the main stream of the Niger before +it commences to what we in Devonshire should call "squander itself +about" in all these channels. And in addition it must be remembered +that the natives with whom these trading vessels dealt, first for +slaves, afterwards for palm-oil, were not, and are not now, members +of the Lo family of savages. Far from it: they do not go in for +"gentle smiles," but for murdering any unprotected boat's crew they +happen to come across, not only for a love of sport but to keep +white traders from penetrating to the trade-producing interior, and +spoiling prices. And the region is practically foodless. + +The rivers of the great mangrove-swamp from the Sombreiro to the Rio +del Rey are now known pretty surely not to be branches of the Niger, +but the upper regions of this part of the Bight are much neglected +by English explorers. I believe the great swamp region of the Bight +of Biafra is the greatest in the world, and that in its immensity +and gloom it has a grandeur equal to that of the Himalayas. + +Take any man, educated or not, and place him on Bonny or Forcados +River in the wet season on a Sunday--Bonny for choice. Forcados is +good. You'll keep Forcados scenery "indelibly limned on the tablets +of your mind when a yesterday has faded from its page," after you +have spent even a week waiting for the Lagos branch-boat on its inky +waters. But Bonny! Well, come inside the bar and anchor off the +factories: seaward there is the foam of the bar gleaming and wicked +white against a leaden sky and what there is left of Breaker Island. +In every other direction you will see the apparently endless walls +of mangrove, unvarying in colour, unvarying in form, unvarying in +height, save from perspective. Beneath and between you and them lie +the rotting mud waters of Bonny River, and away up and down river, +miles of rotting mud waters fringed with walls of rotting mud +mangrove-swamp. The only break in them--one can hardly call it a +relief to the scenery--are the gaunt black ribs of the old hulks, +once used as trading stations, which lie exposed at low water near +the shore, protruding like the skeletons of great unclean beasts who +have died because Bonny water was too strong even for them. + +Raised on piles from the mud shore you will see the white-painted +factories and their great store-houses for oil; each factory likely +enough with its flag at half-mast, which does not enliven the +scenery either, for you know it is because somebody is "dead again." +Throughout and over all is the torrential downpour of the wet-season +rain, coming down night and day with its dull roar. I have known it +rain six mortal weeks in Bonny River, just for all the world as if +it were done by machinery, and the interval that came then was only +a few wet days, where-after it settled itself down to work again in +the good West Coast waterspout pour for more weeks. + +While your eyes are drinking in the characteristics of Bonny scenery +you notice a peculiar smell--an intensification of that smell you +noticed when nearing Bonny, in the evening, out at sea. That's the +breath of the malarial mud, laden with fever, and the chances are +you will be down to-morrow. If it is near evening time now, you can +watch it becoming incarnate, creeping and crawling and gliding out +from the side creeks and between the mangrove-roots, laying itself +upon the river, stretching and rolling in a kind of grim play, and +finally crawling up the side of the ship to come on board and leave +its cloak of moisture that grows green mildew in a few hours over +all. Noise you will not be much troubled with: there is only that +rain, a sound I have known make men who are sick with fever well- +nigh mad, and now and again the depressing cry of the curlews which +abound here. This combination is such that after six or eight hours +of it you will be thankful to hear your shipmates start to work the +winch. I take it you are hard up when you relish a winch. And you +will say--let your previous experience of the world be what it may-- +Good Heavens, what a place! + +Five times have I been now in Bonny River and I like it. You always +do get to like it if you live long enough to allow the strange +fascination of the place to get a hold on you; but when I first +entered it, on a ship commanded by Captain Murray in '93, in the wet +season, i.e. in August, in spite of the confidence I had by this +time acquired in his skill and knowledge of the West Coast, a sense +of horror seized on me as I gazed upon the scene, and I said to the +old Coaster who then had charge of my education, "Good Heavens! what +an awful accident. We've gone and picked up the Styx." He was +evidently hurt and said, "Bonny was a nice place when you got used +to it," and went on to discourse on the last epidemic here, when +nine men out of the resident eleven died in about ten days from +yellow fever. Next to the scenery of "a River," commend me for +cheerfulness to the local conversation of its mangrove-swamp region; +and every truly important West African river has its mangrove-swamp +belt, which extends inland as far as the tide waters make it +brackish, and which has a depth and extent from the banks depending +on the configuration of the country. Above this belt comes +uniformly a region of high forest, having towards the river frontage +clay cliffs, sometimes high, as in the case of the Old Calabar at +Adiabo, more frequently dwarf cliffs, as in the Forcados up at +Warree, and in the Ogowe,--for a long stretch through Kama country. +After the clay cliffs region you come to a region of rapids, caused +by the river cutting its way through a mountain range; such ranges +are the Pallaballa, causing the Livingstone rapids of the Congo; the +Sierra del Cristal, those of the Ogowe, and many lesser rivers; the +Rumby and Omon ranges, those of the Old Calabar and Cross Rivers. + +Naturally in different parts these separate regions vary in size. +The mangrove-swamp may be only a fringe at the mouth of the river, +or it may cover hundreds of square miles. The clay cliffs may +extend for only a mile or so along the bank, or they may, as on the +Ogowe, extend for 130. And so it is also with the rapids: in some +rivers, for instance the Cameroons, there are only a few miles of +them, in others there are many miles; in the Ogowe there are as many +as 500; and these rapids may be close to the river mouth, as in most +of the Gold Coast rivers, save the Ancobra and the Volta; or they +may be far in the interior, as in the Cross River, where they +commence at about 200 miles; and on the Ogowe, where they commence +at about 208 miles from the sea coast; this depends on the nearness +or remoteness from the coast line of the mountain ranges which run +down the west side of the continent; ranges (apparently of very +different geological formations), which have no end of different +names, but about which little is known in detail. {80} + +And now we will leave generalisations on West African rivers and go +into particulars regarding one little known in England, and called +by its owners, the French, the greatest strictly equatorial river in +the world--the Ogowe. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE OGOWE. + + + +Wherein the voyager gives extracts from the Log of the Move and of +the Eclaireur, and an account of the voyager's first meeting with +"those fearful Fans," also an awful warning to all young persons who +neglect the study of the French language. + +On the 20th of May I reached Gaboon, now called Libreville--the +capital of Congo Francais, and, thanks to the kindness of Mr. +Hudson, I was allowed a passage on a small steamer then running from +Gaboon to the Ogowe River, and up it when necessary as far as +navigation by steamer is possible--this steamer is, I deeply regret +to say, now no more. As experiences of this kind contain such +miscellaneous masses of facts, I am forced to commit the literary +crime of giving you my Ogowe set of experiences in the form of +diary. + +June 5th, 1895.--Off on Move at 9.30. Passengers, Mr. Hudson, Mr. +Woods, Mr. Huyghens, Pere Steinitz, and I. There are black deck- +passengers galore; I do not know their honourable names, but they +are evidently very much married men, for there is quite a gorgeously +coloured little crowd of ladies to see them off. They salute me as +I pass down the pier, and start inquiries. I say hastily to them: +"Farewell, I'm off up river," for I notice Mr. Fildes bearing down +on me, and I don't want him to drop in on the subject of society +interest. I expect it is settled now, or pretty nearly. There is a +considerable amount of mild uproar among the black contingent, and +the Move firmly clears off before half the good advice and good +wishes for the black husbands are aboard. She is a fine little +vessel; far finer than I expected. The accommodation I am getting +is excellent. A long, narrow cabin, with one bunk in it and pretty +nearly everything one can wish for, and a copying press thrown in. +Food is excellent, society charming, captain and engineer quite +acquisitions. The saloon is square and roomy for the size of the +vessel, and most things, from rowlocks to teapots, are kept under +the seats in good nautical style. We call at the guard-ship to pass +our papers, and then steam ahead out of the Gaboon estuary to the +south, round Pongara Point, keeping close into the land. About +forty feet from shore there is a good free channel for vessels with +a light draught which if you do not take, you have to make a big +sweep seaward to avoid a reef. Between four and five miles below +Pongara, we pass Point Gombi, which is fitted with a lighthouse, a +lively and conspicuous structure by day as well as night. It is +perched on a knoll, close to the extremity of the long arm of low, +sandy ground, and is painted black and white, in horizontal bands, +which, in conjunction with its general figure, give it a pagoda-like +appearance. + +Alongside it are a white-painted, red-roofed house for the +lighthouse keeper, and a store for its oil. The light is either a +flashing or a revolving or a stationary one, when it is alight. One +must be accurate about these things, and my knowledge regarding it +is from information received, and amounts to the above. I cannot +throw in any personal experience, because I have never passed it at +night-time, and seen from Glass it seems just steady. Most +lighthouses on this Coast give up fancy tricks, like flashing or +revolving, pretty soon after they are established. Seventy-five per +cent. of them are not alight half the time at all. "It's the +climate." Gombi, however, you may depend on for being alight at +night, and I have no hesitation in saying you can see it, when it is +visible, seventeen miles out to sea, and that the knoll on which the +lighthouse stands is a grass-covered sand cliff, about forty or +fifty feet above sea-level. As we pass round Gombi point, the +weather becomes distinctly rough, particularly at lunch-time. The +Move minds it less than her passengers, and stamps steadily along +past the wooded shore, behind which shows a distant range of blue +hills. Silence falls upon the black passengers, who assume +recumbent positions on the deck, and suffer. All the things from +under the saloon seats come out and dance together, and play puss- +in-the-corner, after the fashion of loose gear when there is any sea +on. As the night comes down, the scene becomes more and more +picturesque. The moonlit sea, shimmering and breaking on the +darkened shore, the black forest and the hills silhouetted against +the star-powdered purple sky, and, at my feet, the engine-room +stoke-hole, lit with the rose-coloured glow from its furnace, +showing by the great wood fire the two nearly naked Krumen stokers, +shining like polished bronze in their perspiration, as they throw in +on to the fire the billets of red wood that look like freshly-cut +chunks of flesh. The white engineer hovers round the mouth of the +pit, shouting down directions and ever and anon plunging down the +little iron ladder to carry them out himself. At intervals he +stands on the rail with his head craned round the edge of the sun +deck to listen to the captain, who is up on the little deck above, +for there is no telegraph to the engines, and our gallant +commander's voice is not strong. While the white engineer is +roosting on the rail, the black engineer comes partially up the +ladder and gazes hard at me; so I give him a wad of tobacco, and he +plainly regards me as inspired, for of course that was what he +wanted. Remember that whenever you see a man, black or white, +filled with a nameless longing, it is tobacco he requires. Grim +despair accompanied by a gusty temper indicates something wrong with +his pipe, in which case offer him a straightened-out hairpin. The +black engineer having got his tobacco, goes below to the stoke-hole +again and smokes a short clay as black and as strong as himself. +The captain affects an immense churchwarden. How he gets through +life, waving it about as he does, without smashing it every two +minutes, I cannot make out. + +At last we anchor for the night just inside Nazareth Bay, for +Nazareth Bay wants daylight to deal with, being rich in low islands +and sand shoals. We crossed the Equator this afternoon. + +June 6th.--Off at daybreak into Nazareth Bay. Anxiety displayed by +navigators, sounding taken on both sides of the bows with long +bamboo poles painted in stripes, and we go "slow ahead" and "hard +astern" successfully, until we get round a good-sized island, and +there we stick until four o'clock, high water, when we come off all +right, and steam triumphantly but cautiously into the Ogowe. The +shores of Nazareth Bay are fringed with mangroves, but once in the +river the scenery soon changes, and the waters are walled on either +side with a forest rich in bamboo, oil and wine-palms. These forest +cliffs seem to rise right up out of the mirror-like brown water. +Many of the highest trees are covered with clusters of brown-pink +young shoots that look like flowers, and others are decorated by my +old enemy the climbing palm, now bearing clusters of bright crimson +berries. Climbing plants of other kinds are wreathing everything, +some blossoming with mauve, some with yellow, some with white +flowers, and every now and then a soft sweet heavy breath of +fragrance comes out to us as we pass by. There is a native village +on the north bank, embowered along its plantations with some very +tall cocoa-palms rising high above them. + +The river winds so that it seems to close in behind us, opening out +in front fresh vistas of superb forest beauty, with the great brown +river stretching away unbroken ahead like a broad road of burnished +bronze. Astern, it has a streak of frosted silver let into it by +the Move's screw. Just about six o'clock, we run up to the Fallaba, +the Move's predecessor in working the Ogowe, now a hulk, used as a +depot by Hatton and Cookson. She is anchored at the entrance of a +creek that runs through to the Fernan Vaz; some say it is six hours' +run, others that it is eight hours for a canoe; all agree that there +are plenty of mosquitoes. + +The Fallaba looks grimly picturesque, and about the last spot in +which a person of a nervous disposition would care to spend the +night. One half of her deck is dedicated to fuel logs, on the other +half are plank stores for the goods, and a room for the black sub- +trader in charge of them. I know that there must be scorpions which +come out of those logs and stroll into the living room, and goodness +only knows what one might not fancy would come up the creek or rise +out of the floating grass, or the limitless-looking forest. I am +told she was a fine steamer in her day, but those who had charge of +her did not make allowances for the very rapid rotting action of the +Ogowe water, so her hull rusted through before her engines were a +quarter worn out; and there was nothing to be done with her then, +but put a lot of concrete in, and make her a depot, in which state +of life she is very useful, for during the height of the dry season, +the Move cannot get through the creek to supply the firm's Fernan +Vaz factories. + +Subsequently I heard much of the Fallaba, which seems to have been a +celebrated, or rather notorious, vessel. Every one declared her +engines to have been of immense power, but this I believe to have +been a mere local superstition; because in the same breath, the man +who referred to them, as if it would have been quite unnecessary for +new engines to have been made for H.M.S. Victorious if those +Fallaba engines could have been sent to Chatham dockyard, would +mention that "you could not get any pace up on her"; and all who +knew her sadly owned "she wouldn't steer," so naturally she spent +the greater part of her time on the Ogowe on a sand-bank, or in the +bush. All West African steamers have a mania for bush, and the +delusion that they are required to climb trees. The Fallaba had the +complaint severely, because of her defective steering powers, and +the temptation the magnificent forest, and the rapid currents, and +the sharp turns of the creek district, offered her; she failed, of +course--they all fail--but it is not for want of practice. I have +seen many West Coast vessels up trees, but never more than fifteen +feet or so. + +The trade of this lower part of the Ogowe, from the mouth to +Lembarene, a matter of 130 miles, is almost nil. Above Lembarene, +you are in touch with the rubber and ivory trade. + +This Fallaba creek is noted for mosquitoes, and the black passengers +made great and showy preparations in the evening time to receive +their onslaught, by tying up their strong chintz mosquito bars to +the stanchions and the cook-house. Their arrangements being +constantly interrupted by the white engineer making alarums and +excursions amongst them; because when too many of them get on one +side the Move takes a list and burns her boilers. Conversation and +atmosphere are full of mosquitoes. The decision of widely +experienced sufferers amongst us is, that next to the lower Ogowe, +New Orleans is the worst place for them in this world. + +The day closed with a magnificent dramatic beauty. Dead ahead of +us, up through a bank of dun-coloured mist rose the moon, a great +orb of crimson, spreading down the oil-like, still river, a streak +of blood-red reflection. Right astern, the sun sank down into the +mist, a vaster orb of crimson, and when he had gone out of view, +sent up flushes of amethyst, gold, carmine and serpent-green, before +he left the moon in undisputed possession of the black purple sky. + +Forest and river were absolutely silent, but there was a pleasant +chatter and laughter from the black crew and passengers away +forward, that made the Move seem an island of life in a land of +death. I retired into my cabin, so as to get under the mosquito +curtains to write; and one by one I heard my companions come into +the saloon adjacent, and say to the watchman: "You sabe six +o'clock? When them long arm catch them place, and them short arm +catch them place, you call me in the morning time." Exit from +saloon--silence--then: "You sabe five o'clock? When them long arm +catch them place, and them short arm catch them place, you call me +in the morning time." Exit--silence--then: "You sabe half-past +five o'clock? When them long arm--" Oh, if I were a watchman! +Anyhow, that five o'clocker will have the whole ship's company +roused in the morning time. + +June 7th.--Every one called in the morning time by the reflex row +from the rousing of the five o'clocker. Glorious morning. The +scene the reversal of that of last night. The forest to the east +shows a deep blue-purple, mounted on a background that changes as +you watch it from daffodil and amethyst to rose-pink, as the sun +comes up through the night mists. The moon sinks down among them, +her pale face flushing crimson as she goes; and the yellow-gold +sunshine comes, glorifying the forest and gilding the great sweep of +tufted papyrus growing alongside the bank; and the mist vanishes, +little white flecks of it lingering among the water reeds and lying +in the dark shadows of the forest stems. The air is full of the +long, soft, rich notes of the plantain warblers, and the uproar +consequent upon the Move taking on fuel wood, which comes alongside +in canoe loads from the Fallaba. + +Pere Steinitz and Mr. Woods are busy preparing their respective +canoes for their run to Fernan Vaz through the creek. Their canoes +are very fine ones, with a remarkably clean run aft. The Pere's is +quite the travelling canoe, with a little stage of bamboo aft, +covered with a hood of palm thatch, under which you can make +yourself quite comfortable, and keep yourself and your possessions +dry, unless something desperate comes on in the way of rain. + +By 10.25 we have got all our wood aboard, and run off up river full +speed. The river seems broader above the Fallaba, but this is +mainly on account of its being temporarily unencumbered with +islands. A good deal of the bank we have passed by since leaving +Nazareth Bay on the south side has been island shore, with a channel +between the islands and the true south bank. + +The day soon grew dull, and looked threatening, after the delusive +manner of the dry season. The climbing plants are finer here than I +have ever before seen them. They form great veils and curtains +between and over the trees, often hanging so straight and flat, in +stretches of twenty to forty feet or so wide, and thirty to sixty or +seventy feet high, that it seems incredible that no human hand has +trained or clipped them into their perfect forms. Sometimes these +curtains are decorated with large bell-shaped, bright-coloured +flowers, sometimes with delicate sprays of white blossoms. This +forest is beyond all my expectations of tropical luxuriance and +beauty, and it is a thing of another world to the forest of the +Upper Calabar, which, beautiful as it is, is a sad dowdy to this. +There you certainly get a great sense of grimness and vastness; here +you have an equal grimness and vastness with the addition of superb +colour. This forest is a Cleopatra to which Calabar is but a +Quaker. Not only does this forest depend on flowers for its +illumination, for there are many kinds of trees having their young +shoots, crimson, brown-pink, and creamy yellow: added to this there +is also the relieving aspect of the prevailing fashion among West +African trees, of wearing the trunk white with here and there upon +it splashes of pale pink lichen, and vermilion-red fungus, which +alone is sufficient to prevent the great mass of vegetation from +being a monotony in green. + +All day long we steam past ever-varying scenes of loveliness whose +component parts are ever the same, yet the effect ever different. +Doubtless it is wrong to call it a symphony, yet I know no other +word to describe the scenery of the Ogowe. It is as full of life +and beauty and passion as any symphony Beethoven ever wrote: the +parts changing, interweaving, and returning. There are leit motifs +here in it, too. See the papyrus ahead; and you know when you get +abreast of it you will find the great forest sweeping away in a bay- +like curve behind it against the dull gray sky, the splendid columns +of its cotton and red woods looking like a facade of some limitless +inchoate temple. Then again there is that stretch of sword-grass, +looking as if it grew firmly on to the bottom, so steady does it +stand; but as the Move goes by, her wash sets it undulating in waves +across its broad acres of extent, showing it is only riding at +anchor; and you know after a grass patch you will soon see a red +dwarf clay cliff, with a village perched on its top, and the +inhabitants thereof in their blue and red cloths standing by to +shout and wave to the Move, or legging it like lamp-lighters from +the back streets and the plantation to the river frontage, to be in +time to do so, and through all these changing phases there is always +the strain of the vast wild forest, and the swift, deep, silent +river. + +At almost every village that we pass--and they are frequent after +the Fallaba--there is an ostentatious display of firewood deposited +either on the bank, or on piles driven into the mud in front of it, +mutely saying in their uncivilised way, "Try our noted chunks: best +value for money"--(that is to say, tobacco, etc.), to the Move or +any other little steamer that may happen to come along hungry for +fuel. + +We stayed a few minutes this afternoon at Ashchyouka, where there +came off to us in a canoe an enterprising young Frenchman who has +planted and tended a coffee plantation in this out-of-the-way +region, and which is now, I am glad to hear, just coming into +bearing. After leaving Ashchyouka, high land showed to the N.E., +and at 5.15, without evident cause to the uninitiated, the Move took +to whistling like a liner. A few minutes later a factory shows up +on the hilly north bank, which is Woermann's; then just beyond and +behind it we see the Government Post; then Hatton and Cookson's +factory, all in a line. Opposite Hatton and Cookson's there was a +pretty little stern-wheel steamer nestling against the steep clay +bank of Lembarene Island when we come in sight, but she instantly +swept out from it in a perfect curve, which lay behind her marked in +frosted silver on the water as she dropt down river. I hear now she +was the Eclaireur, the stern-wheeler which runs up and down the +Ogowe in connection with the Chargeurs Reunis Company, subsidised by +the Government, and when the Move whistled, she was just completing +taking on 3,000 billets of wood for fuel. She comes up from the +Cape (Lopez) stoking half wood and half coal as far as Njole and +back to Lembarene; from Lembarene to the sea downwards she does on +wood. In a few minutes we have taken her berth close to the bank, +and tied up to a tree. The white engineer yells to the black +engineer "Tom-Tom: Haul out some of them fire and open them drains +one time," and the stokers, with hooks, pull out the glowing logs on +to the iron deck in front of the furnace door, and throw water over +them, and the Move sends a cloud of oil-laden steam against the +bank, coming perilously near scalding some of her black admirers +assembled there. I dare say she felt vicious because they had been +admiring the Eclaireur. + +After a few minutes, I am escorted on to the broad verandah of +Hatton and Cookson's factory, and I sit down under a lamp, prepared +to contemplate, until dinner time, the wild beauty of the scene. +This idea does not get carried out; in the twinkling of an eye I am +stung all round the neck, and recognise there are lots too many +mosquitoes and sandflies in the scenery to permit of contemplation +of any kind. Never have I seen sandflies and mosquitoes in such +appalling quantities. With a wild ping of joy the latter made for +me, and I retired promptly into a dark corner of the verandah, +swearing horribly, but internally, and fought them. Mr. Hudson, +Agent-general, and Mr. Cockshut, Agent for the Ogowe, walk up and +down the beach in front, doubtless talking cargo, apparently +unconscious of mosquitoes; but by and by, while we are having +dinner, they get their share. I behave exquisitely, and am quite +lost in admiration of my own conduct, and busily deciding in my own +mind whether I shall wear one of those plain ring haloes, or a solid +plate one, a la Cimabue, when Mr. Hudson says in a voice full of +reproach to Mr. Cockshut, "You have got mosquitoes here, Mr. +Cockshut." Poor Mr. Cockshut doesn't deny it; he has got four on +his forehead and his hands are sprinkled with them, but he says: +"There are none at Njole," which we all feel is an absurdly lame +excuse, for Njole is some ninety miles above Lembarene, where we now +are. Mr. Hudson says this to him, tersely, and feeling he has +utterly crushed Mr. Cockshut, turns on me, and utterly failing to +recognise me as a suffering saint, says point blank and savagely, +"You don't seem to feel these things, Miss Kingsley." Not feel +them, indeed! Why, I could cry over them. Well! that's all the +thanks one gets for trying not to be a nuisance in this world. + +After dinner I go back on to the Move for the night, for it is too +late to go round to Kangwe and ask Mme. Jacot, of the Mission +Evangelique, if she will take me in. The air is stiff with +mosquitoes, and saying a few suitable words to them, I dash under +the mosquito bar and sleep, lulled by their shrill yells of baffled +rage. + +June 8th.--In the morning, up at five. Great activity on beach. +Move synchronously taking on wood fuel and discharging cargo. A +very active young French pastor from the Kangwe mission station is +round after the mission's cargo. Mr. Hudson kindly makes inquiries +as to whether I may go round to Kangwe and stay with Mme. Jacot. He +says: "Oh, yes," but as I find he is not M. Jacot, I do not feel +justified in accepting this statement without its having personal +confirmation from Mme. Jacot, and so, leaving my luggage with the +Move, I get them to allow me to go round with him and his cargo to +Kangwe, about three-quarters of an hour's paddle round the upper +part of Lembarene Island, and down the broad channel on the other +side of it. Kangwe is beautifully situated on a hill, as its name +denotes, on the mainland and north bank of the river. Mme. Jacot +most kindly says I may come, though I know I shall be a fearful +nuisance, for there is no room for me save M. Jacot's beautifully +neat, clean, tidy study. I go back in the canoe and fetch my +luggage from the Move; and say good-bye to Mr. Hudson, who gave me +an immense amount of valuable advice about things, which was +subsequently of great use to me, and a lot of equally good warnings +which, if I had attended to, would have enabled me to avoid many, if +not all, my misadventures in Congo Francais. + +I camped out that night in M. Jacot's study, wondering how he would +like it when he came home and found me there; for he was now away on +one of his usual evangelising tours. Providentially Mme. Jacot let +me have the room that the girls belonging to the mission school +usually slept in, to my great relief, before M. Jacot came home. + +I will not weary you with my diary during my first stay at Kangwe. +It is a catalogue of the collection of fish, etc., that I made, and +a record of the continuous, never-failing kindness and help that I +received from M. and Mme. Jacot, and of my attempts to learn from +them the peculiarities of the region, the natives, and their +language and customs, which they both know so well and manage so +admirably. I daily saw there what it is possible to do, even in the +wildest and most remote regions of West Africa, and recognised that +there is still one heroic form of human being whose praise has never +adequately been sung, namely, the missionary's wife. + +Wishing to get higher up the Ogowe, I took the opportunity of the +river boat of the Chargeurs Reunis going up to the Njole on one of +her trips, and joined her. + +June 22nd.--Eclaireur, charming little stern wheel steamer, +exquisitely kept. She has an upper and a lower deck. The lower +deck for business, the upper deck for white passengers only. On the +upper deck there is a fine long deck-house, running almost her whole +length. In this are the officers' cabins, the saloon and the +passengers' cabins (two), both large and beautifully fitted up. +Captain Verdier exceedingly pleasant and constantly saying "N'est-ce +pas?" A quiet and singularly clean engineer completes the white +staff. + +The passengers consist of Mr. Cockshut, going up river to see after +the sub-factories; a French official bound for Franceville, which it +will take him thirty-six days, go as quick as he can, in a canoe +after Njole; a tremendously lively person who has had black water +fever four times, while away in the bush with nothing to live on but +manioc, a diet it would be far easier to die on under the +circumstances. He is excellent company; though I do not know a word +he says, he is perpetually giving lively and dramatic descriptions +of things which I cannot but recognise. M. S---, with his pince- +nez, the Doctor, and, above all, the rapids of the Ogowe, rolling +his hands round and round each other and clashing them forward with +a descriptive ejaculation of "Whish, flash, bum, bum, bump," and +then comes what evidently represents a terrific fight for life +against terrific odds. Wish to goodness I knew French, for wishing +to see these rapids, I cannot help feeling anxious and worried at +not fully understanding this dramatic entertainment regarding them. +There is another passenger, said to be the engineer's brother, a +quiet, gentlemanly man. Captain argues violently with every one; +with Mr. Cockshut on the subject of the wicked waste of money in +keeping the Move and not shipping all goods by the Eclaireur, +"N'est-ce pas?" and with the French official on goodness knows what, +but I fancy it will be pistols for two and coffee for one in the +morning time. When the captain feels himself being worsted in +argument, he shouts for support to the engineer and his brother. +"N'est-ce pas?" he says, turning furiously to them. "Oui, oui, +certainement," they say dutifully and calmly, and then he, refreshed +by their support, dashes back to his controversial fray. He even +tries to get up a row with me on the subject of the English +merchants at Calabar, whom he asserts have sworn a kind of blood +oath to ship by none but British and African Company's steamers. I +cannot stand this, for I know my esteemed and honoured friends the +Calabar traders would ship by the Flying Dutchman or the Devil +himself if either of them would take the stuff at 15 shillings the +ton. We have, however, to leave off this row for want of language, +to our mutual regret, for it would have been a love of a fight. + +Soon after leaving Lembarene Island, we pass the mouth of the chief +southern affluent of the Ogowe, the Ngunie; it flows in +unostentatiously from the E.S.E., a broad, quiet river here with low +banks and two islands (Walker's Islands) showing just off its +entrance. Higher up, it flows through a mountainous country, and at +Samba, its furthest navigable point, there is a wonderfully +beautiful waterfall, the whole river coming down over a low cliff, +surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountains. It takes the Eclaireur +two days steaming from the mouth of the Ngunie to Samba, when she +can get up; but now, in the height of the long dry season neither +she nor the Move can go because of the sandbanks; so Samba is cut +off until next October. Hatton and Cookson have factories up at +Samba, for it is an outlet for the trade of Achango land in rubber +and ivory, a trade worked by the Akele tribe, a powerful, savage and +difficult lot to deal with, and just in the same condition, as far +as I can learn, as they were when Du Chaillu made his wonderful +journeys among them. While I was at Lembarene, waiting for the +Eclaireur, a notorious chief descended on a Ngunie sub-factory, and +looted it. The wife of the black trading agent made a gallant +resistance, her husband was away on a trading expedition, but the +chief had her seized and beaten, and thrown into the river. An +appeal was made to the Doctor then Administrator of the Ogowe, a +powerful and helpful official, and he soon came up with the little +canoniere, taking Mr. Cockshut with him and fully vindicated the +honour of the French flag, under which all factories here are. + +The banks of the Ogowe just above Lembarene Island are low; with the +forest only broken by village clearings and seeming to press in on +those, ready to absorb them should the inhabitants cease their war +against it. The blue Ntyankala mountains of Achango land show away +to the E.S.E. in a range. Behind us, gradually sinking in the +distance, is the high land on Lembarene Island. + +Soon we run up alongside a big street of a village with four high +houses rising a story above the rest, which are strictly ground +floor; it has also five or six little low open thatched huts along +the street in front. {96} These may be fetish huts, or, as the +captain of the Sparrow would say, "again they mayn't." For I have +seen similar huts in the villages round Libreville, which were store +places for roof mats, of which the natives carefully keep a store +dry and ready for emergencies in the way of tornadoes, or to sell. +We stop abreast of this village. Inhabitants in scores rush out and +form an excited row along the vertical bank edge, several of the +more excited individuals falling over it into the water. + +Yells from our passengers on the lower deck. Yells from inhabitants +on shore. Yells of vite, vite from the Captain. Dogs bark, horns +bray, some exhilarated individual thumps the village drum, canoes +fly out from the bank towards us. Fearful scrimmage heard going on +all the time on the deck below. As soon as the canoes are +alongside, our passengers from the lower deck, with their bundles +and their dogs, pour over the side into them. Canoes rock wildly +and wobble off rapidly towards the bank, frightening the passengers +because they have got their best clothes on, and fear that the +Eclaireur will start and upset them altogether with her wash. + +On reaching the bank, the new arrivals disappear into brown clouds +of wives and relations, and the dogs into fighting clusters of +resident dogs. Happy, happy day! For those men who have gone +ashore have been away on hire to the government and factories for a +year, and are safe home in the bosoms of their families again, and +not only they themselves, but all the goods they have got in pay. +The remaining passengers below still yell to their departed friends; +I know not what they say, but I expect it's the Fan equivalent for +"Mind you write. Take care of yourself. Yes, I'll come and see you +soon," etc., etc. While all this is going on, the Eclaireur quietly +slides down river, with the current, broadside on as if she smelt +her stable at Lembarene. This I find is her constant habit whenever +the captain, the engineer, and the man at the wheel are all busy in +a row along the rail, shouting overside, which occurs whenever we +have passengers to land. Her iniquity being detected when the last +canoe load has left for the shore, she is spun round and sent up +river again at full speed. + +We go on up stream; now and again stopping at little villages to +land passengers or at little sub-factories to discharge cargo, until +evening closes in, when we anchor and tie up at O'Saomokita, where +there is a sub-factory of Messrs. Woermann's, in charge of which is +a white man, the only white man between Lembarene and Njole. He +comes on board and looks only a boy, but is really aged twenty. He +is a Frenchman, and was at Hatton and Cookson's first, then he +joined Woermann's, who have put him in charge of this place. The +isolation for a white man must be terrible; sometimes two months +will go by without his seeing another white face but that in his +looking-glass, and when he does see another, it is only by a +fleeting visit such as we now pay him, and to make the most of this, +he stays on board to dinner. + +June 23rd.--Start off steaming up river early in the morning time. +Land ahead showing mountainous. Rather suddenly the banks grow +higher. Here and there in the forest are patches which look like +regular hand-made plantations, which they are not, but only patches +of egombie-gombie trees, showing that at this place was once a +native town. Whenever land is cleared along here, this tree springs +up all over the ground. It grows very rapidly, and has great leaves +something like a sycamore leaf, only much larger. These leaves +growing in a cluster at the top of the straight stem give an +umbrella-like appearance to the affair; so the natives call them and +an umbrella by the same name, but whether they think the umbrella is +like the tree or the tree is like the umbrella, I can't make out. I +am always getting myself mixed over this kind of thing in my +attempts "to contemplate phenomena from a scientific standpoint," as +Cambridge ordered me to do. I'll give the habit up. "You can't do +that sort of thing out here--It's the climate," and I will content +myself with stating the fact, that when a native comes into a store +and wants an umbrella, he asks for an egombie-gombie. + +The uniformity of the height of the individual trees in one of these +patches is striking, and it arises from their all starting fair. I +cannot make out other things about them to my satisfaction, for you +very rarely see one of them in the wild bush, and then it does not +bear a fruit that the natives collect and use, and then chuck away +the stones round their domicile. Anyhow, there they are all one +height, and all one colour, and apparently allowing no other +vegetation to make any headway among them. But I found when I +carefully investigated egombie-gombie patches that there were a few +of the great, slower-growing forest trees coming up amongst them, +and in time when these attain a sufficient height, their shade kills +off the egombie-gombie, and the patch goes back into the great +forest from which it came. The frequency of these patches arises +from the nomadic habits of the chief tribe in these regions, the +Fans. They rarely occupy one site for a village for any +considerable time on account--firstly, of their wasteful method of +collecting rubber by cutting down the vine, which soon stamps it out +of a district; and, secondly, from their quarrelsome ways. So when +a village of Fans has cleared all the rubber out of its district, or +has made the said district too hot to hold it by rows with other +villages, or has got itself very properly shelled out and burnt for +some attack on traders or the French flag in any form, its +inhabitants clear off into another district, and build another +village; for bark and palm thatch are cheap, and house removing just +nothing; when you are an unsophisticated cannibal Fan you don't +require a pantechnicon van to stow away your one or two mushroom- +shaped stools, knives, and cooking-pots, and a calabash or so. If +you are rich, maybe you will have a box with clothes in as well, but +as a general rule all your clothes are on your back. So your wives +just pick up the stools and the knives and the cooking-pots, and the +box, and the children toddle off with the calabashes. You have, of +course, the gun to carry, for sleeping or waking a Fan never parts +with his gun, and so there you are "finish," as M. Pichault would +say, and before your new bark house is up, there grows the egombie- +gombie, where your house once stood. Now and again, for lack of +immediate neighbouring villages to quarrel with, one end of a +village will quarrel with the other end. The weaker end then goes +off and builds itself another village, keeping an eye lifting for +any member of the stronger end who may come conveniently into its +neighbourhood to be killed and eaten. Meanwhile, the egombie-gombie +grows over the houses of the empty end, pretending it's a plantation +belonging to the remaining half. I once heard a new-comer hold +forth eloquently as to how those Fans were maligned. "They say," +said he, with a fine wave of his arm towards such a patch, "that +these people do not till the soil--that they are not industrious-- +that the few plantations they do make are ill-kept--that they are +only a set of wandering hunters and cannibals. Look there at those +magnificent plantations!" I did look, but I did not alter my +opinion of the Fans, for I know my old friend egombie-gombie when I +see him. + +This morning the French official seems sad and melancholy. I fancy +he has got a Monday head (Kipling), but he revives as the day goes +on. As we go on, the banks become hills and the broad river, which +has been showing sheets of sandbanks in all directions, now narrows +and shows only neat little beaches of white sand in shallow places +along the bank. The current is terrific. The Eclaireur breathes +hard, and has all she can do to fight her way up against it. Masses +of black weathered rock in great boulders show along the exposed +parts of both banks, left dry by the falling waters. Each bank is +steep, and quantities of great trees, naked and bare, are hanging +down from them, held by their roots and bush-rope entanglement from +being swept away with the rushing current, and they make a great +white fringe to the banks. The hills become higher and higher, and +more and more abrupt, and the river runs between them in a gloomy +ravine, winding to and fro; we catch sight of a patch of white sand +ahead, which I mistake for a white painted house, but immediately +after doubling round a bend we see the houses of the Talagouga +Mission Station. The Eclaireur forthwith has an hysteric fit on her +whistle, so as to frighten M. Forget and get him to dash off in his +canoe to her at once. Apparently he knows her, and does not hurry, +but comes on board quietly. I find there will be no place for me to +stay at at Njole, so I decide to go on in the Eclaireur and use her +as an hotel while there, and then return and stay with Mme. Forget +if she will have me. I consult M. Forget on this point. He says, +"Oh, yes," but seems to have lost something of great value recently, +and not to be quite clear where. Only manner, I suppose. When M. +Forget has got his mails he goes, and the Eclaireur goes on; indeed, +she has never really stopped, for the water is too deep to anchor in +here, and the terrific current would promptly whisk the steamer down +out of Talagouga gorge were she to leave off fighting it. We run on +up past Talagouga Island, where the river broadens out again a +little, but not much, and reach Njole by nightfall, and tie up to a +tree by Dumas' factory beach. Usual uproar, but as Mr. Cockshut +says, no mosquitoes. The mosquito belt ends abruptly at +O'Soamokita. + +Next morning I go ashore and start on a walk. Lovely road, bright +yellow clay, as hard as paving stone. On each side it is most +neatly hedged with pine-apples; behind these, carefully tended, +acres of coffee bushes planted in long rows. Certainly coffee is +one of the most lovely of crops. Its grandly shaped leaves are like +those of our medlar tree, only darker and richer green, the berries +set close to the stem, those that are ripe, a rich crimson; these +trees, I think, are about three years old, and just coming into +bearing; for they are covered with full-sized berries, and there has +been a flush of bloom on them this morning, and the delicious +fragrance of their stephanotis-shaped and scented flowers lingers in +the air. The country spreads before me a lovely valley encompassed +by purple-blue mountains. Mount Talagouga looks splendid in a soft, +infinitely deep blue, although it is quite close, just the other +side of the river. The road goes on into the valley, as pleasantly +as ever and more so. How pleasant it would be now, if our +government along the Coast had the enterprise and public spirit of +the French, and made such roads just on the remote chance of stray +travellers dropping in on a steamer once in ten years or so and +wanting a walk. Observe extremely neatly Igalwa built huts, people +sitting on the bright clean ground outside them, making mats and +baskets. "Mboloani," say I. "Ai! Mbolo," say they, and knock off +work to stare. Observe large wired-in enclosures on left-hand side +of road--investigate--find they are tenanted by animals--goats, +sheep, chickens, etc. Clearly this is a jardin d'acclimatation. No +wonder the colony does not pay, if it goes in for this sort of +thing, 206 miles inland, with simply no public to pay gate-money. +While contemplating these things, hear awful hiss. Serpents! No, +geese. Awful fight. Grand things, good, old-fashioned, long skirts +are for Africa! Get through geese and advance in good order, but +somewhat rapidly down road, turn sharply round corner of native +houses. Turkey cock--terrific turn up. Flight on my part forwards +down road, which is still going strong, now in a northerly +direction, apparently indefinitely. Hope to goodness there will be +a turning that I can go down and get back by, without returning +through this ferocious farmyard. Intent on picking up such an +outlet, I go thirty yards or so down the road. Hear shouts coming +from a clump of bananas on my left. Know they are directed at me, +but it does not do to attend to shouts always. Expect it is only +some native with an awful knowledge of English, anxious to get up my +family history--therefore accelerate pace. More shouts, and louder, +of "Madame Gacon! Madame Gacon!" and out of the banana clump comes +a big, plump, pleasant-looking gentleman, clad in a singlet and a +divided skirt. White people must be attended to, so advance +carefully towards him through a plantation of young coffee, +apologising humbly for intruding on his domain. He smiles and bows +beautifully, but--horror!--he knows no English, I no French. +Situation tres inexplicable et tres interessante, as I subsequently +heard him remark; and the worst of it is he is evidently bursting to +know who I am, and what I am doing in the middle of his coffee +plantation, for his it clearly is, as appears from his obsequious +bodyguard of blacks, highly interested in me also. We gaze at each +other, and smile some more, but stiffly, and he stands bareheaded in +the sun in an awful way. It's murder I'm committing, hard all! He, +as is fitting for his superior sex, displays intelligence first and +says, "Interpreter," waving his hand to the south. I say "Yes," in +my best Fan, an enthusiastic, intelligent grunt which any one must +understand. He leads the way back towards those geese--perhaps, by +the by, that is why he wears those divided skirts--and we enter a +beautifully neatly built bamboo house, and sit down opposite to each +other at a table and wait for the interpreter who is being fetched. +The house is low on the ground and of native construction, but most +beautifully kept, and arranged with an air of artistic feeling quite +as unexpected as the rest of my surroundings. I notice upon the +walls sets of pictures of terrific incidents in Algerian campaigns, +and a copy of that superb head of M. de Brazza in Arab headgear. +Soon the black minions who have been sent to find one of the +plantation hands who is supposed to know French and English, return +with the "interpreter." That young man is a fraud. He does not +know English--not even coast English--and all he has got under his +precious wool is an abysmal ignorance darkened by terror; and so, +after one or two futile attempts and some frantic scratching at both +those regions which an African seems to regard as the seats of +intellectual inspiration, he bolts out of the door. Situation +terrible! My host and I smile wildly at each other, and both wonder +in our respective languages what, in the words of Mr. Squeers as +mentioned in the classics--we "shall do in this 'ere most awful go." +We are both going mad with the strain of the situation, when in +walks the engineer's brother from the Eclaireur. He seems intensely +surprised to find me sitting in his friend the planter's parlour +after my grim and retiring conduct on the Eclaireur on my voyage up. +But the planter tells him all, sousing him in torrents of words, +full of the violence of an outbreak of pent-up emotion. I do not +understand what he says, but I catch "tres inexplicable" and things +like that. The calm brother of the engineer sits down at the table, +and I am sure tells the planter something like this: "Calm +yourself, my friend, we picked up this curiosity at Lembarene. It +seems quite harmless." And then the planter calmed, and mopped a +perspiring brow, and so did I, and we smiled more freely, feeling +the mental atmosphere had become less tense and cooler. We both +simply beamed on our deliverer, and the planter gave him lots of +things to drink. I had nothing about me except a head of tobacco in +my pocket, which I did not feel was a suitable offering. Now the +engineer's brother, although he would not own to it, knew English, +so I told him how the beauty of the road had lured me on, and how I +was interested in coffee-planting, and how much I admired the +magnificence of this plantation, and all the enterprise and energy +it represented. + +"Oui, oui, certainement," said he, and translated. My friend the +planter seemed charmed; it was the first sign of anything +approaching reason he had seen in me. He wanted me to have eau +sucree more kindly than ever, and when I rose, intending to bow +myself off and go, geese or no geese, back to the Eclaireur, he +would not let me go. I must see the plantation, toute la +plantation. So presently all three of us go out and thoroughly do +the plantation, the most well-ordered, well-cultivated plantation I +have ever seen, and a very noble monument to the knowledge and +industry of the planter. For two hot hours these two perfect +gentlemen showed me over it. I also behaved well, for petticoats, +great as they are, do not prevent insects and catawumpuses of sorts +walking up one's ankles and feeding on one as one stands on the long +grass which has been most wisely cut and laid round the young trees +for mulching. This plantation is of great extent on the hill-sides +and in the valley bottom, portions of it are just coming into +bearing. The whole is kept as perfectly as a garden, amazing as the +work of one white man with only a staff of unskilled native +labourers--at present only eighty of them. The coffee planted is of +three kinds, the Elephant berry, the Arabian, and the San Thome. +During our inspection, we only had one serious misunderstanding, +which arose from my seeing for the first time in my life tree-ferns +growing in the Ogowe. There were three of them, evidently carefully +taken care of, among some coffee plants. It was highly exciting, +and I tried to find out about them. It seemed, even in this centre +of enterprise, unlikely that they had been brought just "for dandy" +from the Australasian region, and I had never yet come across them +in my wanderings save on Fernando Po. Unfortunately, my friends +thought I wanted them to keep, and shouted for men to bring things +and dig them up; so I had a brisk little engagement with the men, +driving them from their prey with the point of my umbrella, +ejaculating Kor Kor, like an agitated crow. When at last they +understood that my interest in the ferns was scientific, not +piratical, they called the men off and explained that the ferns had +been found among the bush, when it was being cleared for the +plantation. + +Ultimately, with many bows and most sincere thanks from me, we +parted, providentially beyond the geese, and I returned down the +road to Njole, where I find Mr. Cockshut waiting outside his +factory. He insists on taking me to the Post to see the +Administrator, and from there he says I can go on to the Eclaireur +from the Post beach, as she will be up there from Dumas'. Off we go +up the road which skirts the river bank, a dwarf clay cliff, +overgrown with vegetation, save where it is cleared for beaches. +The road is short, but exceedingly pretty; on the other side from +the river is a steep bank on which is growing a plantation of cacao. +Lying out in the centre of the river you see Njole Island, a low, +sandy one, timbered not only with bush, but with orange and other +fruit trees; for formerly the Post and factories used to be situated +on the island--now only their trees remain for various reasons, one +being that in the wet season it is a good deal under water. +Everything is now situated on the mainland north bank, in a +straggling but picturesque line; first comes Woermann's factory, +then Hatton and Cookson's, and John Holt's, close together with a +beach in common in a sweetly amicable style for factories, who as a +rule firmly stockade themselves off from their next door neighbours. +Then Dumas' beach, a little native village, the cacao patch and the +Post at the up river end of things European, an end of things +European, I am told, for a matter of 500 miles. Immediately beyond +the Post is a little river falling into the Ogowe, and on its +further bank a small village belonging to a chief, who, hearing of +the glories of the Government, came down like the Queen of Sheba--in +intention, I mean, not personal appearance--to see it, and so +charmed has he been that here he stays to gaze on it. + +Although Mr. Cockshut hunted the Administrator of the Ogowe out of +his bath, that gentleman is exceedingly amiable and charming, all +the more so to me for speaking good English. Personally, he is big, +handsome, exuberant, and energetic. He shows me round with a +gracious enthusiasm, all manner of things--big gorilla teeth and +heads, native spears and brass-nail-ornamented guns; and explains, +while we are in his study, that the little model canoe full of Kola +nuts is the supply of Kola to enable him to sit up all night and +work. Then he takes us outside to see the new hospital which he, in +his capacity as Administrator, during the absence of the +professional Administrator on leave in France, has granted to +himself in his capacity as Doctor; and he shows us the captive chief +and headmen from Samba busily quarrying a clay cliff behind it so as +to enlarge the governmental plateau, and the ex-ministers of the ex- +King of Dahomey, who are deported to Njole, and apparently +comfortable and employed in various non-menial occupations. Then we +go down the little avenue of cacao trees in full bearing, and away +to the left to where there is now an encampment of Adoomas, who have +come down as a convoy from Franceville, and are going back with +another under the command of our vivacious fellow passenger, who, I +grieve to see, will have a rough time of it in the way of +accommodation in those narrow, shallow canoes which are lying with +their noses tied to the bank, and no other white man to talk to. +What a blessing he will be conversationally to Franceville when he +gets in. The Adooma encampment is very picturesque, for they have +got their bright-coloured chintz mosquito-bars erected as tents. + +Dr. Pelessier then insists on banging down monkey bread-fruit with a +stick, to show me their inside. Of course they burst over his +beautiful white clothes. I said they would, but men will be men. +Then we go and stand under the two lovely odeaka trees that make a +triumphal-arch-like gateway to the Post's beach from the river, and +the Doctor discourses in a most interesting way on all sorts of +subjects. We go on waiting for the Eclaireur, who, although it is +past four o'clock, is still down at Dumas' beach. I feel nearly +frantic at detaining the Doctor, but neither he nor Mr. Cockshut +seem in the least hurry. But at last I can stand it no longer. The +vision of the Administrator of the Ogowe, worn out, but chewing Kola +nut to keep himself awake all night while he finishes his papers to +go down on the Eclaireur to-morrow morning, is too painful; so I say +I will walk back to Dumas' and go on the Eclaireur there, and try to +liberate the Administrator from his present engagements, so that he +may go back and work. No good! He will come down to Dumas' with +Mr. Cockshut and me. Off we go, and just exactly as we are getting +on to Dumas' beach, off starts the Eclaireur with a shriek for the +Post beach. So I say good-bye to Mr. Cockshut, and go back to the +Post with Dr. Pelessier, and he sees me on board, and to my immense +relief he stays on board a good hour and a half, talking to other +people, so it is not on my head if he is up all night. + +June 25th.--Eclaireur has to wait for the Administrator until ten, +because he has not done his mails. At ten he comes on board like an +amiable tornado, for he himself is going to Cape Lopez. I am +grieved to see them carrying on board, too, a French official very +ill with fever. He is the engineer of the canoniere and they are +taking him down to Cape Lopez, where they hope to get a ship to take +him up to Gaboon, and to the hospital on the Minerve. I heard +subsequently that the poor fellow died about forty hours after +leaving Njole at Achyouka in Kama country. + +We get away at last, and run rapidly down river, helped by the +terrific current. The Eclaireur has to call at Talagouga for planks +from M. Gacon's sawmill. As soon as we are past the tail of +Talagouga Island, the Eclaireur ties her whistle string to a +stanchion, and goes off into a series of screaming fits, as only she +can. What she wants is to get M. Forget or M. Gacon, or better +still both, out in their canoes with the wood waiting for her, +because "she cannot anchor in the depth," "nor can she turn round," +and "backing plays the mischief with any ship's engines," and "she +can't hold her own against the current," and--then Captain Verdier +says things I won't repeat, and throws his weight passionately on +the whistle string, for we are in sight of the narrow gorge of +Talagouga, with the Mission Station apparently slumbering in the +sun. This puts the Eclaireur in an awful temper. She goes down +towards it as near as she dare, and then frisks round again, and +runs up river a little way and drops down again, in violent +hysterics the whole time. Soon M. Gacon comes along among the trees +on the bank, and laughs at her. A rope is thrown to him, and the +panting Eclaireur tied up to a tree close in to the bank, for the +water is deep enough here to moor a liner in, only there are a good +many rocks. In a few minutes M. Forget and several canoe loads of +beautiful red-brown mahogany planks are on board, and things being +finished, I say good-bye to the captain, and go off with M. Forget +in a canoe, to the shore. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWE. + + + +The Log of an Adooma canoe during a voyage undertaken to the rapids +of the River Ogowe, with some account of the divers disasters that +befell thereon. + +Mme. Forget received me most kindly, and, thanks to her ever +thoughtful hospitality, I spent a very pleasant time at Talagouga, +wandering about the forest and collecting fishes from the native +fishermen: and seeing the strange forms of some of these Talagouga +region fishes and the marked difference between them and those of +Lembarene, I set my heart on going up into the region of the Ogowe +rapids. For some time no one whom I could get hold of regarded it +as a feasible scheme, but, at last, M. Gacon thought it might be +managed; I said I would give a reward of 100 francs to any one who +would lend me a canoe and a crew, and I would pay the working +expenses, food, wages, etc. M. Gacon had a good canoe and could +spare me two English-speaking Igalwas, one of whom had been part of +the way with MM. Allegret and Teisseres, when they made their +journey up to Franceville and then across to Brazzaville and down +the Congo two years ago. He also thought we could get six Fans to +complete the crew. I was delighted, packed my small portmanteau +with a few things, got some trade goods, wound up my watch, +ascertained the date of the day of the month, and borrowed three +hair-pins from Mme. Forget, then down came disappointment. On my +return from the bush that evening, Mme. Forget said M. Gacon said +"it was impossible," the Fans round Talagouga wouldn't go at any +price above Njole, because they were certain they would be killed +and eaten by the up-river Fans. Internally consigning the entire +tribe to regions where they will get a rise in temperature, even on +this climate, I went with Mme. Forget to M. Gacon, and we talked it +over; finally, M. Gacon thought he could let me have two more +Igalwas from Hatton and Cookson's beach across the river. Sending +across there we found this could be done, so I now felt I was in for +it, and screwed my courage to the sticking point--no easy matter +after all the information I had got into my mind regarding the +rapids of the River Ogowe. + +I establish myself on my portmanteau comfortably in the canoe, my +back is against the trade box, and behind that is the usual mound of +pillows, sleeping mats, and mosquito-bars of the Igalwa crew; the +whole surmounted by the French flag flying from an indifferent +stick. + +M. and Mme. Forget provide me with everything I can possibly +require, and say that the blood of half my crew is half alcohol; on +the whole it is patent they don't expect to see me again, and I +forgive them, because they don't seem cheerful over it; but still it +is not reassuring--nothing is about this affair, and it's going to +rain. It does, as we go up the river to Njole, where there is +another risk of the affair collapsing, by the French authorities +declining to allow me to proceed. On we paddled, M'bo the head man +standing in the bows of the canoe in front of me, to steer, then I, +then the baggage, then the able-bodied seamen, including the cook +also standing and paddling; and at the other extremity of the canoe- +-it grieves me to speak of it in this unseamanlike way, but in these +canoes both ends are alike, and chance alone ordains which is bow +and which is stern--stands Pierre, the first officer, also steering; +the paddles used are all of the long-handled, leaf-shaped Igalwa +type. We get up just past Talagouga Island and then tie up against +the bank of M. Gazenget's plantation, and make a piratical raid on +its bush for poles. A gang of his men come down to us, but only to +chat. One of them, I notice, has had something happen severely to +one side of his face. I ask M'bo what's the matter, and he answers, +with a derisive laugh, "He be fool man, he go for tief plantain and +done got shot." M'bo does not make it clear where the sin in this +affair is exactly located; I expect it is in being "fool man." +Having got our supply of long stout poles we push off and paddle on +again. Before we reach Njole I recognise my crew have got the +grumbles, and at once inquire into the reason. M'bo sadly informs +me that "they no got chop," having been provided only with plantain, +and no meat or fish to eat with it. I promise to get them plenty at +Njole, and contentment settles on the crew, and they sing. After +about three hours we reach Njole, and I proceed to interview the +authorities. Dr. Pelessier is away down river, and the two +gentlemen in charge don't understand English; but Pierre translates, +and the letter which M. Forget has kindly written for me explains +things and so the palaver ends satisfactorily, after a long talk. +First, the official says he does not like to take the responsibility +of allowing me to endanger myself in those rapids. I explain I will +not hold any one responsible but myself, and I urge that a lady has +been up before, a Mme. Quinee. He says "Yes, that is true, but +Madame had with her a husband and many men, whereas I am alone and +have only eight Igalwas and not Adoomas, the proper crew for the +rapids, and they are away up river now with the convoy." "True, oh +King!" I answer, "but Madame Quinee went right up to Lestourville, +whereas I only want to go sufficiently high up the rapids to get +typical fish. And these Igalwas are great men at canoe work, and +can go in a canoe anywhere that any mortal man can go"--this to +cheer up my Igalwa interpreter--"and as for the husband, neither the +Royal Geographical Society's list, in their 'Hints to Travellers,' +nor Messrs. Silver, in their elaborate lists of articles necessary +for a traveller in tropical climates, make mention of husbands." +However, the official ultimately says Yes, I may go, and parts with +me as with one bent on self destruction. This affair being settled +I start off, like an old hen with a brood of chickens to provide +for, to get chop for my men, and go first to Hatton and Cookson's +factory. I find its white Agent is down river after stores, and +John Holt's Agent says he has got no beef nor fish, and is precious +short of provisions for himself; so I go back to Dumas', where I +find a most amiable French gentleman, who says he will let me have +as much fish or beef as I want, and to this supply he adds some +delightful bread biscuits. M'bo and the crew beam with +satisfaction; mine is clouded by finding, when they have carried off +the booty to the canoe, that the Frenchman will not let me pay for +it. Therefore taking the opportunity of his back being turned for a +few minutes, I buy and pay for, across the store counter, some trade +things, knives, cloth, etc. Then I say goodbye to the Agent. +"Adieu, Mademoiselle," says he in a for-ever tone of voice. Indeed +I am sure I have caught from these kind people a very pretty and +becoming mournful manner, and there's not another white station for +500 miles where I can show it off. Away we go, still damp from the +rain we have come through, but drying nicely with the day, and +cheerful about the chop. + +The Ogowe is broad at Njole and its banks not mountainous, as at +Talagouga; but as we go on it soon narrows, the current runs more +rapidly than ever, and we are soon again surrounded by the mountain +range. Great masses of black rock show among the trees on the +hillsides, and under the fringe of fallen trees that hang from the +steep banks. Two hours after leaving Njole we are facing our first +rapid. Great gray-black masses of smoothed rock rise up out of the +whirling water in all directions. These rocks have a peculiar +appearance which puzzle me at the time, but in subsequently getting +used to it I accepted it quietly and admired. When the sun shines +on them they have a soft light blue haze round them, like a halo. +The effect produced by this, with the forested hillsides and the +little beaches of glistening white sand was one of the most perfect +things I have ever seen. + +We kept along close to the right-hand bank, dodging out of the way +of the swiftest current as much as possible. Ever and again we were +unable to force our way round projecting parts of the bank, so we +then got up just as far as we could to the point in question, +yelling and shouting at the tops of our voices. M'bo said "Jump for +bank, sar," and I "up and jumped," followed by half the crew. Such +banks! sheets, and walls, and rubbish heaps of rock, mixed up with +trees fallen and standing. One appalling corner I shall not forget, +for I had to jump at a rock wall, and hang on to it in a manner more +befitting an insect than an insect-hunter, and then scramble up it +into a close-set forest, heavily burdened with boulders of all +sizes. I wonder whether the rocks or the trees were there first? +there is evidence both ways, for in one place you will see a rock on +the top of a tree, the tree creeping out from underneath it, and in +another place you will see a tree on the top of a rock, clasping it +with a network of roots and getting its nourishment, goodness knows +how, for these are by no means tender, digestible sandstones, but +uncommon hard gneiss and quartz which has no idea of breaking up +into friable small stuff, and which only takes on a high polish when +it is vigorously sanded and canvassed by the Ogowe. While I was +engaged in climbing across these promontories, the crew would be +busy shouting and hauling the canoe round the point by means of the +strong chain provided for such emergencies fixed on to the bow. +When this was done, in we got again and paddled away until we met +our next affliction. + +M'bo had advised that we should spend our first night at the same +village that M. Allegret did: but when we reached it, a large +village on the north bank, we seemed to have a lot of daylight still +in hand, and thought it would be better to stay at one a little +higher up, so as to make a shorter day's work for to-morrow, when we +wanted to reach Kondo Kondo; so we went against the bank just to ask +about the situation and character of the up-river villages. The row +of low, bark huts was long, and extended its main frontage close to +the edge of the river bank. The inhabitants had been watching us as +we came, and when they saw we intended calling that afternoon, they +charged down to the river-edge hopeful of excitement. They had a +great deal to say, and so had we. After compliments, as they say, +in excerpts of diplomatic communications, three of their men took +charge of the conversation on their side, and M'bo did ours. To +M'bo's questions they gave a dramatic entertainment as answer, after +the manner of these brisk, excitable Fans. One chief, however, soon +settled down to definite details, prefacing his remarks with the +silence-commanding "Azuna! Azuna!" and his companions grunted +approbation of his observations. He took a piece of plantain leaf +and tore it up into five different sized bits. These he laid along +the edge of our canoe at different intervals of space, while he told +M'bo things, mainly scandalous, about the characters of the villages +these bits of leaf represented, save of course about bit A, which +represented his own. The interval between the bits was proportional +to the interval between the villages, and the size of the bits was +proportional to the size of the village. Village number four was +the only one he should recommend our going to. When all was said, I +gave our kindly informants some heads of tobacco and many thanks. +Then M'bo sang them a hymn, with the assistance of Pierre, half a +line behind him in a different key, but every bit as flat. The Fans +seemed impressed, but any crowd would be by the hymn-singing of my +crew, unless they were inmates of deaf and dumb asylums. Then we +took our farewell, and thanked the village elaborately for its kind +invitation to spend the night there on our way home, shoved off and +paddled away in great style just to show those Fans what Igalwas +could do. + +We hadn't gone 200 yards before we met a current coming round the +end of a rock reef that was too strong for us to hold our own in, +let alone progress. On to the bank I was ordered and went; it was a +low slip of rugged confused boulders and fragments of rocks, +carelessly arranged, and evidently under water in the wet season. I +scrambled along, the men yelled and shouted and hauled the canoe, +and the inhabitants of the village, seeing we were becoming amusing +again, came, legging it like lamp-lighters, after us, young and old, +male and female, to say nothing of the dogs. Some good souls helped +the men haul, while I did my best to amuse the others by diving +headlong from a large rock on to which I had elaborately climbed, +into a thick clump of willow-leaved shrubs. They applauded my +performance vociferously, and then assisted my efforts to extricate +myself, and during the rest of my scramble they kept close to me, +with keen competition for the front row, in hopes that I would do +something like it again. But I refused the encore, because, bashful +as I am, I could not but feel that my last performance was carried +out with all the superb reckless ABANDON of a Sarah Bernhardt, and a +display of art of this order should satisfy any African village for +a year at least. At last I got across the rocks on to a lovely +little beach of white sand, and stood there talking, surrounded by +my audience, until the canoe got over its difficulties and arrived +almost as scratched as I; and then we again said farewell and +paddled away, to the great grief of the natives, for they don't get +a circus up above Njole every week, poor dears. + +Now there is no doubt that that chief's plantain-leaf chart was an +ingenious idea and a credit to him. There is also no doubt that the +Fan mile is a bit Irish, a matter of nine or so of those of ordinary +mortals, but I am bound to say I don't think, even allowing for +this, that he put those pieces far enough apart. On we paddled a +long way before we picked up village number one, mentioned in that +chart. On again, still longer, till we came to village number two. +Village number three hove in sight high up on a mountain side soon +after, but it was getting dark and the water worse, and the hill- +sides growing higher and higher into nobly shaped mountains, +forming, with their forest-graced steep sides, a ravine that, in the +gathering gloom, looked like an alley-way made of iron, for the +foaming Ogowe. Village number four we anxiously looked for; village +number four we never saw; for round us came the dark, seeming to +come out on to the river from the forests and the side ravines, +where for some hours we had seen it sleeping, like a sailor with his +clothes on in bad weather. On we paddled, looking for signs of +village fires, and seeing them not. The Erd-geist knew we wanted +something, and seeing how we personally lacked it, thought it was +beauty; and being in a kindly mood, gave it us, sending the lovely +lingering flushes of his afterglow across the sky, which, dying, +left it that divine deep purple velvet which no one has dared to +paint. Out in it came the great stars blazing high above us, and +the dark round us was be-gemmed with fire-flies: but we were not as +satisfied with these things as we should have been; what we wanted +were fires to cook by and dry ourselves by, and all that sort of +thing. The Erd-geist did not understand, and so left us when the +afterglow had died away, with only enough starlight to see the +flying foam of the rapids ahead and around us, and not enough to see +the great trees that had fallen from the bank into the water. +These, when the rapids were not too noisy, we could listen for, +because the black current rushes through their branches with an +impatient "lish, swish"; but when there was a rapid roaring close +alongside we ran into those trees, and got ourselves mauled, and had +ticklish times getting on our course again. Now and again we ran up +against great rocks sticking up in the black water--grim, isolated +fellows, who seemed to be standing silently watching their fellow +rocks noisily fighting in the arena of the white water. Still on we +poled and paddled. About 8 P.M. we came to a corner, a bad one; but +we were unable to leap on to the bank and haul round, not being able +to see either the details or the exact position of the said bank, +and we felt, I think naturally, disinclined to spring in the +direction of such bits of country as we had had experience of during +the afternoon, with nothing but the aid we might have got from a +compass hastily viewed by the transitory light of a lucifer match, +and even this would not have informed us how many tens of feet of +tree fringe lay between us and the land, so we did not attempt it. +One must be careful at times, or nasty accidents may follow. We +fought our way round that corner, yelling defiance at the water, and +dealt with succeeding corners on the vi et armis plan, breaking, +ever and anon, a pole. About 9.30 we got into a savage rapid. We +fought it inch by inch. The canoe jammed herself on some barely +sunken rocks in it. We shoved her off over them. She tilted over +and chucked us out. The rocks round being just awash, we survived +and got her straight again, and got into her and drove her +unmercifully; she struck again and bucked like a broncho, and we +fell in heaps upon each other, but stayed inside that time--the men +by the aid of their intelligent feet, I by clinching my hands into +the bush rope lacing which ran round the rim of the canoe and the +meaning of which I did not understand when I left Talagouga. We +sorted ourselves out hastily and sent her at it again. Smash went a +sorely tried pole and a paddle. Round and round we spun in an +exultant whirlpool, which, in a light-hearted, maliciously joking +way, hurled us tail first out of it into the current. Now the grand +point in these canoes of having both ends alike declared itself; for +at this juncture all we had to do was to revolve on our own axis and +commence life anew with what had been the bow for the stern. Of +course we were defeated, we could not go up any further without the +aid of our lost poles and paddles, so we had to go down for shelter +somewhere, anywhere, and down at a terrific pace in the white water +we went. While hitched among the rocks the arrangement of our crew +had been altered, Pierre joining M'bo in the bows; this piece of +precaution was frustrated by our getting turned round; so our +position was what you might call precarious, until we got into +another whirlpool, when we persuaded Nature to start us right end +on. This was only a matter of minutes, whirlpools being plentiful, +and then M'bo and Pierre, provided with our surviving poles, stood +in the bows to fend us off rocks, as we shot towards them; while we +midship paddles sat, helping to steer, and when occasion arose, +which occasion did with lightning rapidity, to whack the whirlpools +with the flat of our paddles, to break their force. Cook crouched +in the stern concentrating his mind on steering only. A most +excellent arrangement in theory and the safest practical one no +doubt, but it did not work out what you might call brilliantly well; +though each department did its best. We dashed full tilt towards +high rocks, things twenty to fifty feet above water. Midship backed +and flapped like fury; M'bo and Pierre received the shock on their +poles; sometimes we glanced successfully aside and flew on; +sometimes we didn't. The shock being too much for M'bo and Pierre +they were driven back on me, who got flattened on to the cargo of +bundles which, being now firmly tied in, couldn't spread the +confusion further aft; but the shock of the canoe's nose against the +rock did so in style, and the rest of the crew fell forward on to +the bundles, me, and themselves. So shaken up together were we +several times that night, that it's a wonder to me, considering the +hurry, that we sorted ourselves out correctly with our own +particular legs and arms. And although we in the middle of the +canoe did some very spirited flapping, our whirlpool-breaking was no +more successful than M'bo and Pierre's fending off, and many a wild +waltz we danced that night with the waters of the River Ogowe. + +Unpleasant as going through the rapids was, when circumstances took +us into the black current we fared no better. For good all-round +inconvenience, give me going full tilt in the dark into the branches +of a fallen tree at the pace we were going then--and crash, swish, +crackle and there you are, hung up, with a bough pressing against +your chest, and your hair being torn out and your clothes ribboned +by others, while the wicked river is trying to drag away the canoe +from under you. After a good hour and more of these experiences, we +went hard on to a large black reef of rocks. So firm was the canoe +wedged that we in our rather worn-out state couldn't move her so we +wisely decided to "lef 'em" and see what could be done towards +getting food and a fire for the remainder of the night. Our eyes, +now trained to the darkness, observed pretty close to us a big lump +of land, looming up out of the river. This we subsequently found +out was Kembe Island. The rocks and foam on either side stretched +away into the darkness, and high above us against the star-lit sky +stood out clearly the summits of the mountains of the Sierra del +Cristal. + +The most interesting question to us now was whether this rock reef +communicated sufficiently with the island for us to get to it. +Abandoning conjecture; tying very firmly our canoe up to the rocks, +a thing that seemed, considering she was jammed hard and immovable, +a little unnecessary--but you can never be sufficiently careful in +this matter with any kind of boat--off we started among the rock +boulders. I would climb up on to a rock table, fall off it on the +other side on to rocks again, with more or less water on them--then +get a patch of singing sand under my feet, then with varying +suddenness get into more water, deep or shallow, broad or narrow +pools among the rocks; out of that over more rocks, etc., etc., +etc.: my companions, from their noises, evidently were going in for +the same kind of thing, but we were quite cheerful, because the +probability of reaching the land seemed increasing. Most of us +arrived into deep channels of water which here and there cut in +between this rock reef and the bank, M'bo was the first to find the +way into certainty; he was, and I hope still is, a perfect wonder at +this sort of work. I kept close to M'bo, and when we got to the +shore, the rest of the wanderers being collected, we said "chances +are there's a village round here"; and started to find it. After a +gay time in a rock-encumbered forest, growing in a tangled, matted +way on a rough hillside, at an angle of 45 degrees, M'bo sighted the +gleam of fires through the tree stems away to the left, and we bore +down on it, listening to its drum. Viewed through the bars of the +tree stems the scene was very picturesque. The village was just a +collection of palm mat-built huts, very low and squalid. In its +tiny street, an affair of some sixty feet long and twenty wide, were +a succession of small fires. The villagers themselves, however, +were the striking features in the picture. They were painted +vermilion all over their nearly naked bodies, and were dancing +enthusiastically to the good old rump-a-tump-tump-tump tune, played +energetically by an old gentleman on a long, high-standing, white- +and-black painted drum. They said that as they had been dancing +when we arrived they had failed to hear us. M'bo secured a--well, I +don't exactly know what to call it--for my use. It was, I fancy, +the remains of the village club-house. It had a certain amount of +palm-thatch roof and some of its left-hand side left, the rest of +the structure was bare old poles with filaments of palm mat hanging +from them here and there; and really if it hadn't been for the roof +one wouldn't have known whether one was inside or outside it. The +floor was trodden earth and in the middle of it a heap of white ash +and the usual two bush lights, laid down with their burning ends +propped up off the ground with stones, and emitting, as is their +wont, a rather mawkish, but not altogether unpleasant smell, and +volumes of smoke which finds its way out through the thatch, leaving +on the inside of it a rich oily varnish of a bright warm brown +colour. They give a very good light, provided some one keeps an eye +on them and knocks the ash off the end as it burns gray; the bush +lights' idea of being snuffed. Against one of the open-work sides +hung a drum covered with raw hide, and a long hollow bit of tree +trunk, which served as a cupboard for a few small articles. I +gathered in all these details as I sat on one of the hard wood +benches, waiting for my dinner, which Isaac was preparing outside in +the street. The atmosphere of the hut, in spite of its remarkable +advantages in the way of ventilation, was oppressive, for the smell +of the bush lights, my wet clothes, and the natives who crowded into +the hut to look at me, made anything but a pleasant combination. +The people were evidently exceedingly poor; clothes they had very +little of. The two head men had on old French military coats in +rags; but they were quite satisfied with their appearance, and +evidently felt through them in touch with European culture, for they +lectured to the others on the habits and customs of the white man +with great self-confidence and superiority. The majority of the +village had a slight acquaintance already with this interesting +animal, being, I found, Adoomas. They had made a settlement on +Kembe Island some two years or so ago. Then the Fans came and +attacked them, and killed and ate several. The Adoomas left and +fled to the French authority at Njole and remained under its +guarding shadow until the French came up and chastised the Fans and +burnt their village; and the Adoomas--when things had quieted down +again and the Fans had gone off to build themselves a new village +for their burnt one--came back to Kembe Island and their plantain +patch. They had only done this a few months before my arrival and +had not had time to rebuild, hence the dilapidated state of the +village. They are, I am told, a Congo region tribe, whose country +lies south-west of Franceville, and, as I have already said, are the +tribe used by the French authorities to take convoys up and down the +Ogowe to Franceville, more to keep this route open than for +transport purposes; the rapids rendering it impracticable to take +heavy stores this way, and making it a thirty-six days' journey from +Njole with good luck. The practical route is via Loango and +Brazzaville. The Adoomas told us the convoy which had gone up with +the vivacious Government official had had trouble with the rapids +and had spent five days on Kondo Kondo, dragging up the canoes empty +by means of ropes and chains, carrying the cargo that was in them +along on land until they had passed the worst rapid and then +repacking. They added the information that the rapids were at their +worst just now, and entertained us with reminiscences of a poor +young French official who had been drowned in them last year--indeed +they were just as cheering as my white friends. As soon as my +dinner arrived they politely cleared out, and I heard the devout +M'bo holding a service for them, with hymns, in the street, and this +being over they returned to their drum and dance, keeping things up +distinctly late, for it was 11.10 P.M. when we first entered the +village. + +While the men were getting their food I mounted guard over our +little possessions, and when they turned up to make things tidy in +my hut, I walked off down to the shore by a path, which we had +elaborately avoided when coming to the village, a very vertically +inclined, slippery little path, but still the one whereby the +natives went up and down to their canoes, which were kept tied up +amongst the rocks. The moon was rising, illumining the sky, but not +yet sending down her light on the foaming, flying Ogowe in its deep +ravine. The scene was divinely lovely; on every side out of the +formless gloom rose the peaks of the Sierra del Cristal. Lomba- +ngawku on the further side of the river surrounded by his companion +peaks, looked his grandest, silhouetted hard against the sky. In +the higher valleys where the dim light shone faintly, one could see +wreaths and clouds of silver-gray mist lying, basking lazily or +rolling to and fro. Olangi seemed to stretch right across the +river, blocking with his great blunt mass all passage; while away to +the N.E. a cone-shaped peak showed conspicuous, which I afterwards +knew as Kangwe. In the darkness round me flitted thousands of fire- +flies and out beyond this pool of utter night flew by unceasingly +the white foam of the rapids; sound there was none save their +thunder. The majesty and beauty of the scene fascinated me, and I +stood leaning with my back against a rock pinnacle watching it. Do +not imagine it gave rise, in what I am pleased to call my mind, to +those complicated, poetical reflections natural beauty seems to +bring out in other people's minds. It never works that way with me; +I just lose all sense of human individuality, all memory of human +life, with its grief and worry and doubt, and become part of the +atmosphere. M'bo, I found, had hung up my mosquito-bar over one of +the hard wood benches, and going cautiously under it I lit a night- +light and read myself asleep with my damp dilapidated old Horace. + +Woke at 4 A.M. lying on the ground among the plantain stems, having +by a reckless movement fallen out of the house. Thanks be there are +no mosquitoes. I don't know how I escaped the rats which swarm +here, running about among the huts and the inhabitants in the +evening, with a tameness shocking to see. I turned in again until +six o'clock, when we started getting things ready to go up river +again, carefully providing ourselves with a new stock of poles, and +subsidising a native to come with us and help us to fight the +rapids. + +The greatest breadth of the river channel we now saw, in the +daylight, to be the S.S.W. branch; this was the one we had been +swept into, and was almost completely barred by rock. The other one +to the N.N.W. was more open, and the river rushed through it, a +terrific, swirling mass of water. Had we got caught in this, we +should have got past Kembe Island, and gone to Glory. Whenever the +shelter of the spits of land or of the reefs was sufficient to allow +the water to lay down its sand, strange shaped sandbanks showed, as +regular in form as if they had been smoothed by human hands. They +rise above the water in a slope, the low end or tail against the +current; the down-stream end terminating in an abrupt miniature +cliff, sometimes six and seven feet above the water; that they are +the same shape when they have not got their heads above water you +will find by sticking on them in a canoe, which I did several times, +with a sort of automatic devotion to scientific research peculiar to +me. Your best way of getting off is to push on in the direction of +the current, carefully preparing for the shock of suddenly coming +off the cliff end. + +We left the landing place rocks of Kembe Island about 8, and no +sooner had we got afloat, than, in the twinkling of an eye, we were +swept, broadside on, right across the river to the north bank, and +then engaged in a heavy fight with a severe rapid. After passing +this, the river is fairly uninterrupted by rock for a while, and is +silent and swift. When you are ascending such a piece the effect is +strange; you see the water flying by the side of your canoe, as you +vigorously drive your paddle into it with short rapid strokes, and +you forthwith fancy you are travelling at the rate of a North- +Western express; but you just raise your eyes, my friend, and look +at that bank, which is standing very nearly still, and you will +realise that you and your canoe are standing very nearly still too; +and that all your exertions are only enabling you to creep on at the +pace of a crushed snail, and that it's the water that is going the +pace. It's a most quaint and unpleasant disillusionment. + +Above the stretch of swift silent water we come to the Isangaladi +Islands, and the river here changes its course from N.N.W., S.S.E. +to north and south. A bad rapid, called by our ally from Kembe +Island "Unfanga," being surmounted, we seem to be in a mountain- +walled lake, and keeping along the left bank of this, we get on +famously for twenty whole restful minutes, which lulls us all into a +false sense of security, and my crew sing M'pongwe songs, +descriptive of how they go to their homes to see their wives, and +families, and friends, giving chaffing descriptions of their +friends' characteristics and of their failings, which cause bursts +of laughter from those among us who recognise the allusions, and how +they go to their boxes, and take out their clothes, and put them on- +-a long bragging inventory of these things is given by each man as a +solo, and then the chorus, taken heartily up by his companions, +signifies their admiration and astonishment at his wealth and +importance--and then they sing how, being dissatisfied with that +last dollar's worth of goods they got from "Holty's," they have +decided to take their next trade to Hatton and Cookson, or vice +versa; and then comes the chorus, applauding the wisdom of such a +decision, and extolling the excellence of Hatton and Cookson's goods +or Holty's. These M'pongwe and Igalwa boat songs are all very +pretty, and have very elaborate tunes in a minor key. I do not +believe there are any old words to them; I have tried hard to find +out about them, but I believe the tunes, which are of a limited +number and quite distinct from each other, are very old. The words +are put in by the singer on the spur of the moment, and only +restricted in this sense, that there would always be the domestic +catalogue--whatever its component details might be--sung to the one +fixed tune, the trade information sung to another, and so on. A +good singer, in these parts, means the man who can make up the best +song--the most impressive, or the most amusing; I have elsewhere +mentioned pretty much the same state of things among the Ga's and +Krumen and Bubi, and in all cases the tunes are only voice tunes, +not for instrumental performance. The instrumental music consists +of that marvellously developed series of drum tunes--the attempt to +understand which has taken up much of my time, and led me into queer +company--and the many tunes played on the 'mrimba and the orchid- +root-stringed harp: they are, I believe, entirely distinct from the +song tunes. And these peaceful tunes my men were now singing were, +in their florid elaboration very different from the one they fought +the rapids to, of--So Sir--So Sur--So Sir--So Sur--Ush! So Sir, +etc. + +On we go singing elaborately, thinking no evil of nature, when a +current, a quiet devil of a thing, comes round from behind a point +of the bank and catches the nose of our canoe; wringing it well, it +sends us scuttling right across the river in spite of our ferocious +swoops at the water, upsetting us among a lot of rocks with the +water boiling over them; this lot of rocks being however of the +table-top kind, and not those precious, close-set pinnacles rising +up sheer out of profound depths, between which you are so likely to +get your canoe wedged in and split. We, up to our knees in water +that nearly tears our legs off, push and shove the canoe free, and +re-embarking return singing "So Sir" across the river, to have it +out with that current. We do; and at its head find a rapid, and +notice on the mountain-side a village clearing, the first sign of +human habitation we have seen to-day. + +Above this rapid we get a treat of still water, the main current of +the Ogowe flying along by the south bank. On our side there are +sandbanks with their graceful sloping backs and sudden ends, and +there is a very strange and beautiful effect produced by the flakes +and balls of foam thrown off the rushing main current into the quiet +water. These whirl among the eddies and rush backwards and forwards +as though they were still mad with wild haste, until, finding no +current to take them down, they drift away into the landlocked bays, +where they come to a standstill as if they were bewildered and lost +and were trying to remember where they were going to and whence they +had come; the foam of which they are composed is yellowish-white, +with a spongy sort of solidity about it. In a little bay we pass we +see eight native women, Fans clearly, by their bright brown faces, +and their loads of brass bracelets and armlets; likely enough they +had anklets too, but we could not see them, as the good ladies were +pottering about waist-deep in the foam-flecked water, intent on +breaking up a stockaded fish-trap. We pause and chat, and watch +them collecting the fish in baskets, and I acquire some specimens; +and then, shouting farewells when we are well away, in the proper +civil way, resume our course. + +The middle of the Ogowe here is simply forested with high rocks, +looking, as they stand with their grim forms above the foam, like a +regiment of strange strong creatures breasting it, with their +straight faces up river, and their more flowing curves down, as +though they had on black mantles which were swept backwards. Across +on the other bank rose the black-forested spurs of Lomba-njaku. Our +channel was free until we had to fight round the upper end of our +bay into a long rush of strong current with bad whirlpools curving +its face; then the river widens out and quiets down and then +suddenly contracts--a rocky forested promontory running out from +each bank. There is a little village on the north bank's +promontory, and, at the end of each, huge monoliths rise from the +water, making what looks like a gateway which had once been barred +and through which the Ogowe had burst. + +For the first time on this trip I felt discouraged; it seemed so +impossible that we, with our small canoe and scanty crew, could +force our way up through that gateway, when the whole Ogowe was +rushing down through it. But we clung to the bank and rocks with +hands, poles, and paddle, and did it; really the worst part was not +in the gateway but just before it, for here there is a great +whirlpool, its centre hollowed some one or two feet below its rim. +It is caused, my Kembe islander says, by a great cave opening +beneath the water. Above the gate the river broadens out again and +we see the arched opening to a large cave in the south bank; the +mountain-side is one mass of rock covered with the unbroken forest; +and the entrance to this cave is just on the upper wall of the south +bank's promontory; so, being sheltered from the current here, we +rest and examine it leisurely. The river runs into it, and you can +easily pass in at this season, but in the height of the wet season, +when the river level would be some twenty feet or more above its +present one, I doubt if you could. They told me this place is +called Boko Boko, and that the cave is a very long one, extending on +a level some way into the hill, and then ascending and coming out +near a mass of white rock that showed as a speck high up on the +mountain. + +If you paddle into it you go "far far," and then "no more water +live," and you get out and go up the tunnel, which is sometimes +broad, sometimes narrow, sometimes high, sometimes so low that you +have to crawl, and so get out at the other end. + +One French gentleman has gone through this performance, and I am +told found "plenty plenty" bats, and hedgehogs, and snakes. They +could not tell me his name, which I much regretted. As we had no +store of bush lights we went no further than the portals; indeed, +strictly between ourselves, if I had had every bush light in Congo +Francais I personally should not have relished going further. I am +terrified of caves; it sends a creaming down my back to think of +them. + +We went across the river to see another cave entrance on the other +bank, where there is a narrow stretch of low rock-covered land at +the foot of the mountains, probably under water in the wet season. +The mouth of this other cave is low, between tumbled blocks of rock. +It looked so suspiciously like a short cut to the lower regions, +that I had less exploring enthusiasm about it than even about its +opposite neighbour; although they told me no man had gone down "them +thing." Probably that much-to-be-honoured Frenchman who explored +the other cave, allowed like myself, that if one did want to go from +the Equator to Hades, there were pleasanter ways to go than this. +My Kembe Island man said that just hereabouts were five cave +openings, the two that we had seen and another one we had not, on +land, and two under the water, one of the sub-fluvial ones being +responsible for the whirlpool we met outside the gateway of Boko +Boko. + +The scenery above Boko Boko was exceedingly lovely, the river shut +in between its rim of mountains. As you pass up it opens out in +front of you and closes in behind, the closely-set confused mass of +mountains altering in form as you view them from different angles, +save one, Kangwe--a blunt cone, evidently the record of some great +volcanic outburst; and the sandbanks show again wherever the current +deflects and leaves slack water, their bright glistening colour +giving a relief to the scene. + +For a long period we paddle by the south bank, and pass a vertical +cleft-like valley, the upper end of which seems blocked by a finely +shaped mountain, almost as conical as Kangwe. The name of this +mountain is Njoko, and the name of the clear small river, that +apparently monopolises the valley floor, is the Ovata. Our peace +was not of long duration, and we were soon again in the midst of a +bristling forest of rock; still the current running was not +dangerously strong, for the river-bed comes up in a ridge, too high +for much water to come over at this season of the year; but in the +wet season this must be one of the worst places. This ridge of rock +runs two-thirds across the Ogowe, leaving a narrow deep channel by +the north bank. When we had got our canoe over the ridge, mostly by +standing in the water and lifting her, we found the water deep and +fairly quiet. + +On the north bank we passed by the entrance of the Okana River. Its +mouth is narrow, but, the natives told me, always deep, even in the +height of the dry season. It is a very considerable river, running +inland to the E.N.E. Little is known about it, save that it is +narrowed into a ravine course above which it expands again; the +banks of it are thickly populated by Fans, who send down a +considerable trade, and have an evil reputation. In the main stream +of the Ogowe below the Okana's entrance, is a long rocky island +called Shandi. When we were getting over our ridge and paddling +about the Okana's entrance my ears recognised a new sound. The rush +and roar of the Ogowe we knew well enough, and could locate which +particular obstacle to his headlong course was making him say +things; it was either those immovable rocks, which threw him back in +foam, whirling wildly, or it was that fringe of gaunt skeleton trees +hanging from the bank playing a "pull devil, pull baker" contest +that made him hiss with vexation. But this was an elemental roar. +I said to M'bo: "That's a thunderstorm away among the mountains." +"No, sir," says he, "that's the Alemba." + +We paddled on towards it, hugging the right-hand bank again to avoid +the mid-river rocks. For a brief space the mountain wall ceased, +and a lovely scene opened before us; we seemed to be looking into +the heart of the chain of the Sierra del Cristal, the abruptly +shaped mountains encircling a narrow plain or valley before us, each +one of them steep in slope, every one of them forest-clad; one, +whose name I know not unless it be what is sometimes put down as Mt. +Okana on the French maps, had a conical shape which contrasted +beautifully with the more irregular curves of its companions. The +colour down this gap was superb, and very Japanese in the evening +glow. The more distant peaks were soft gray-blues and purples, +those nearer, indigo and black. We soon passed this lovely scene +and entered the walled-in channel, creeping up what seemed an +interminable hill of black water, then through some whirlpools and a +rocky channel to the sand and rock shore of our desired island Kondo +Kondo, along whose northern side tore in thunder the Alemba. We +made our canoe fast in a little cove among the rocks, and landed, +pretty stiff and tired and considerably damp. This island, when we +were on it, must have been about half a mile or so long, but during +the long wet season a good deal of it is covered, and only the +higher parts--great heaps of stone, among which grows a long +branched willow-like shrub--are above or nearly above water. The +Adooma from Kembe Island especially drew my attention to this shrub, +telling me his people who worked the rapids always regarded it with +an affectionate veneration; for he said it was the only thing that +helped a man when his canoe got thrown over in the dreaded Alemba, +for its long tough branches swimming in, or close to, the water are +veritable life lines, and his best chance; a chance which must have +failed some poor fellow, whose knife and leopard-skin belt we found +wedged in among the rocks on Kondo Kondo. The main part of the +island is sand, with slabs and tables of polished rock sticking up +through it; and in between the rocks grew in thousands most +beautiful lilies, their white flowers having a very strong scent of +vanilla and their bright light-green leaves looking very lovely on +the glistening pale sand among the black-gray rock. How they stand +the long submersion they must undergo I do not know; the natives +tell me they begin to spring up as soon as ever the water falls and +leaves the island exposed; that they very soon grow up and flower, +and keep on flowering until the Ogowe comes down again and rides +roughshod over Kondo Kondo for months. While the men were making +their fire I went across the island to see the great Alemba rapid, +of which I had heard so much, that lay between it and the north +bank. Nobler pens than mine must sing its glory and its grandeur. +Its face was like nothing I have seen before. Its voice was like +nothing I have heard. Those other rapids are not to be compared to +it; they are wild, headstrong, and malignant enough, but the Alemba +is not as they. It does not struggle, and writhe, and brawl among +the rocks, but comes in a majestic springing dance, a stretch of +waltzing foam, triumphant. + +The beauty of the night on Kondo Kondo was superb; the sun went down +and the afterglow flashed across the sky in crimson, purple, and +gold, leaving it a deep violet-purple, with the great stars hanging +in it like moons, until the moon herself arose, lighting the sky +long before she sent her beams down on us in this valley. As she +rose, the mountains hiding her face grew harder and harder in +outline, and deeper and deeper black, while those opposite were just +enough illumined to let one see the wefts and floating veils of +blue-white mist upon them, and when at last, and for a short time +only, she shone full down on the savage foam of the Alemba, she +turned it into a soft silver mist. Around, on all sides, flickered +the fire-flies, who had come to see if our fire was not a big +relation of their own, and they were the sole representatives, with +ourselves, of animal life. When the moon had gone, the sky, still +lit by the stars, seeming indeed to be in itself lambent, was very +lovely, but it shared none of its light with us, and we sat round +our fire surrounded by an utter darkness. Cold, clammy drifts of +almost tangible mist encircled us; ever and again came cold faint +puffs of wandering wind, weird and grim beyond description. + +I will not weary you further with details of our ascent of the Ogowe +rapids, for I have done so already sufficiently to make you +understand the sort of work going up them entails, and I have no +doubt that, could I have given you a more vivid picture of them, you +would join me in admiration of the fiery pluck of those few +Frenchmen who traverse them on duty bound. I personally deeply +regret it was not my good fortune to meet again the French official +I had had the pleasure of meeting on the Eclaireur. He would have +been truly great in his description of his voyage to Franceville. I +wonder how he would have "done" his unpacking of canoes and his +experiences on Kondo Kondo, where, by the by, we came across many of +the ashes of his expedition's attributive fires. Well! he must have +been a pleasure to Franceville, and I hope also to the good Fathers +at Lestourville, for those places must be just slightly sombre for +Parisians. + +Going down big rapids is always, everywhere, more dangerous than +coming up, because when you are coming up and a whirlpool or eddy +does jam you on rocks, the current helps you off--certainly only +with a view to dashing your brains out and smashing your canoe on +another set of rocks it's got ready below; but for the time being it +helps, and when off, you take charge and convert its plan into an +incompleted fragment; whereas in going down the current is against +your backing off. M'bo had a series of prophetic visions as to what +would happen to us on our way down, founded on reminiscence and +tradition. I tried to comfort him by pointing out that, were any +one of his prophecies fulfilled, it would spare our friends and +relations all funeral expenses; and, unless they went and wasted +their money on a memorial window, that ought to be a comfort to our +well-regulated minds. M'bo did not see this, but was too good a +Christian to be troubled by the disagreeable conviction that was in +the minds of other members of my crew, namely, that our souls, +unliberated by funeral rites from this world, would have to hover +for ever over the Ogowe near the scene of our catastrophe. I own +this idea was an unpleasant one--fancy having to pass the day in +those caves with the bats, and then come out and wander all night in +the cold mists! However, like a good many likely-looking +prophecies, those of M'bo did not quite come off, and a miss is as +good as a mile. Twice we had a near call, by being shot in between +two pinnacle rocks, within half an inch of being fatally close to +each other for us; but after some alarming scrunching sounds, and +creaks from the canoe, we were shot ignominiously out down river. +Several times we got on to partially submerged table rocks, and were +unceremoniously bundled off them by the Ogowe, irritated at the +hindrance we were occasioning; but we never met the rocks of M'bo's +prophetic soul--that lurking, submerged needle, or knife-edge of a +pinnacle rock which was to rip our canoe from stem to stern, neat +and clean into two pieces. + +The course we had to take coming down was different to that we took +coming up. Coming up we kept as closely as might be to the most +advisable bank, and dodged behind every rock we could, to profit by +the shelter it afforded us from the current. Coming down, fallen- +tree-fringed banks and rocks were converted from friends to foes; so +we kept with all our power in the very centre of the swiftest part +of the current in order to avoid them. The grandest part of the +whole time was coming down, below the Alemba, where the whole great +Ogowe takes a tiger-like spring for about half a mile, I should +think, before it strikes a rock reef below. As you come out from +among the rocks in the upper rapid it gives you--or I should perhaps +confine myself to saying, it gave me--a peculiar internal sensation +to see that stretch of black water, shining like a burnished sheet +of metal, sloping down before one, at such an angle. All you have +got to do is to keep your canoe-head straight--quite straight, you +understand--for any failure so to do will land you the other side of +the tomb, instead of in a cheerful no-end-of-a-row with the lower +rapid's rocks. This lower rapid is one of the worst in the dry +season; maybe it is so in the wet too, for the river's channel here +turns an elbow-sharp curve which infuriates the Ogowe in a most +dangerous manner. + +I hope to see the Ogowe next time in the wet season--there must be +several more of these great sheets of water then over what are rocky +rapids now. Just think what coming down over that ridge above Boko +Boko will be like! I do not fancy however it would ever be possible +to get up the river, when it is at its height, with so small a crew +as we were when we went and played our knock-about farce, before +King Death, in his amphitheatre in the Sierra del Cristal. + + + +CHAPTER VI. LEMBARENE. + + + +In which is given some account of the episode of the Hippopotame, +and of the voyager's attempts at controlling an Ogowe canoe; and +also of the Igalwa tribe. + +I say good-bye to Talagouga with much regret, and go on board the +Eclaireur, when she returns from Njole, with all my bottles and +belongings. On board I find no other passenger; the Captain's +English has widened out considerably; and he is as pleasant, cheery, +and spoiling for a fight as ever; but he has a preoccupied manner, +and a most peculiar set of new habits, which I find are shared by +the Engineer. Both of them make rapid dashes to the rail, and +nervously scan the river for a minute and then return to some +occupation, only to dash from it to the rail again. During +breakfast their conduct is nerve-shaking. Hastily taking a few +mouthfuls, the Captain drops his knife and fork and simply hurls his +seamanlike form through the nearest door out on to the deck. In +another minute he is back again, and with just a shake of his head +to the Engineer, continues his meal. The Engineer shortly +afterwards flies from his seat, and being far thinner than the +Captain, goes through his nearest door with even greater rapidity; +returns, and shakes his head at the Captain, and continues his meal. +Excitement of this kind is infectious, and I also wonder whether I +ought not to show a sympathetic friendliness by flying from my seat +and hurling myself on to the deck through my nearest door, too. But +although there are plenty of doors, as four enter the saloon from +the deck, I do not see my way to doing this performance aimlessly, +and what in this world they are both after I cannot think. So I +confine myself to woman's true sphere, and assist in a humble way by +catching the wine and Vichy water bottles, glasses, and plates of +food, which at every performance are jeopardised by the members of +the nobler sex starting off with a considerable quantity of the +ample table cloth wrapped round their legs. At last I can stand it +no longer, so ask the Captain point-blank what is the matter. +"Nothing," says he, bounding out of his chair and flying out of his +doorway; but on his return he tells me he has got a bet on of two +bottles of champagne with Woermann's Agent for Njole, as to who +shall reach Lembarene first, and the German agent has started off +some time before the Eclaireur in his little steam launch. + +During the afternoon we run smoothly along; the free pulsations of +the engines telling what a very different thing coming down the +Ogowe is to going up against its terrific current. Every now and +again we stop to pick up cargo, or discharge over-carried cargo, and +the Captain's mind becomes lulled by getting no news of the +Woermann's launch having passed down. He communicates this to the +Engineer; it is impossible she could have passed the Eclaireur since +they started, therefore she must be some where behind at a +subfactory, "N'est-ce pas?" "Oui, oui, certainement," says the +Engineer. The Engineer is, by these considerations, also lulled, +and feels he may do something else but scan the river a la sister +Ann. What that something is puzzles me; it evidently requires +secrecy, and he shrinks from detection. First he looks down one +side of the deck, no one there; then he looks down the other, no one +there; good so far. I then see he has put his head through one of +the saloon portholes; no one there; he hesitates a few seconds until +I begin to wonder whether his head will suddenly appear through my +port; but he regards this as an unnecessary precaution, and I hear +him enter his cabin which abuts on mine and there is silence for +some minutes. Writing home to his mother, think I, as I go on +putting a new braid round the bottom of a worn skirt. Almost +immediately after follows the sound of a little click from the next +cabin, and then apparently one of the denizens of the infernal +regions has got its tail smashed in a door and the heavy hot +afternoon air is reft by an inchoate howl of agony. I drop my +needlework and take to the deck; but it is after all only that shy +retiring young man practising secretly on his clarionet. + +The Captain is drowsily looking down the river. But repose is not +long allowed to that active spirit; he sees something in the water-- +what? "Hippopotame," he ejaculates. Now both he and the Engineer +frequently do this thing, and then fly off to their guns--bang, +bang, finish; but this time he does not dash for his gun, nor does +the Engineer, who flies out of his cabin at the sound of the war +shout "Hippopotame." In vain I look across the broad river with its +stretches of yellow sandbanks, where the "hippopotame" should be, +but I can see nothing but four black stumps sticking up in the water +away to the right. Meanwhile the Captain and the Engineer are +flying about getting off a crew of blacks into the canoe we are +towing alongside. This being done the Captain explains to me that +on the voyage up "the Engineer had fired at, and hit a hippopotamus, +and without doubt this was its body floating." We are now close +enough even for me to recognise the four stumps as the deceased's +legs, and soon the canoe is alongside them and makes fast to one, +and then starts to paddle back, hippo and all, to the Eclaireur. +But no such thing; let them paddle and shout as hard as they like, +the hippo's weight simply anchors them. The Eclaireur by now has +dropped down the river past them, and has to sweep round and run +back. Recognising promptly what the trouble is, the energetic +Captain grabs up a broom, ties a light cord belonging to the +leadline to it, and holding the broom by the end of its handle, +swings it round his head and hurls it at the canoe. The arm of a +merciful Providence being interposed, the broom-tomahawk does not +hit the canoe, wherein, if it had, it must infallibly have killed +some one, but falls short, and goes tearing off with the current, +well out of reach of the canoe. The Captain seeing this gross +dereliction of duty by a Chargeur Reunis broom, hauls it in hand +over hand and talks to it. Then he ties the other end of its line +to the mooring rope, and by a better aimed shot sends the broom into +the water, about ten yards above the canoe, and it drifts towards +it. Breathless excitement! surely they will get it now. Alas, no! +Just when it is within reach of the canoe, a fearful shudder runs +through the broom. It throws up its head and sinks beneath the +tide. A sensation of stun comes over all of us. The crew of the +canoe, ready and eager to grasp the approaching aid, gaze blankly at +the circling ripples round where it sank. In a second the Captain +knows what has happened. That heavy hawser which has been paid out +after it has dragged it down, so he hauls it on board again. + +The Eclaireur goes now close enough to the hippo-anchored canoe for +a rope to be flung to the man in her bows; he catches it and freezes +on gallantly. Saved! No! Oh horror! The lower deck hums with +fear that after all it will not taste that toothsome hippo chop, for +the man who has caught the rope is as nearly as possible jerked +flying out of the canoe when the strain of the Eclaireur contending +with the hippo's inertia flies along it, but his companion behind +him grips him by the legs and is in his turn grabbed, and the crew +holding on to each other with their hands, and on to their craft +with their feet, save the man holding on to the rope and the whole +situation; and slowly bobbing towards us comes the hippopotamus, who +is shortly hauled on board by the winners in triumph. + +My esteemed friends, the Captain and the Engineer, who of course +have been below during this hauling, now rush on to the upper deck, +each coatless, and carrying an enormous butcher's knife. They dash +into the saloon, where a terrific sharpening of these instruments +takes place on the steel belonging to the saloon carving-knife, and +down stairs again. By looking down the ladder, I can see the pink, +pig-like hippo, whose colour has been soaked out by the water, lying +on the lower deck and the Captain and Engineer slitting down the +skin intent on gralloching operations. Providentially, my prophetic +soul induces me to leave the top of the ladder and go forward--"run +to win'ard," as Captain Murray would say--for within two minutes the +Captain and Engineer are up the ladder as if they had been blown up +by the boilers bursting, and go as one man for the brandy bottle; +and they wanted it if ever man did; for remember that hippo had been +dead and in the warm river-water for more than a week. + +The Captain had had enough of it, he said, but the Engineer stuck to +the job with a courage I profoundly admire, and he saw it through +and then retired to his cabin; sand-and-canvassed himself first, and +then soaked and saturated himself in Florida water. The flesh +gladdened the hearts of the crew and lower-deck passengers and also +of the inhabitants of Lembarene, who got dashes of it on our arrival +there. Hippo flesh is not to be despised by black man or white; I +have enjoyed it far more than the stringy beef or vapid goat's flesh +one gets down here. + +I stayed on board the Eclaireur all night; for it was dark when we +reached Lembarene, too dark to go round to Kangwe; and next morning, +after taking a farewell of her--I hope not a final one, for she is a +most luxurious little vessel for the Coast, and the feeding on board +is excellent and the society varied and charming--I went round to +Kangwe. + +I remained some time in the Lembarene district and saw and learnt +many things; I owe most of what I learnt to M. and Mme. Jacot, who +knew a great deal about both the natives and the district, and I owe +much of what I saw to having acquired the art of managing by myself +a native canoe. This "recklessness" of mine I am sure did not merit +the severe criticism it has been subjected to, for my performances +gave immense amusement to others (I can hear Lembarene's shrieks of +laughter now) and to myself they gave great pleasure. + +My first attempt was made at Talagouga one very hot afternoon. M. +and Mme. Forget were, I thought, safe having their siestas, Oranie +was with Mme. Gacon. I knew where Mme. Gacon was for certain; she +was with M. Gacon; and I knew he was up in the sawmill shed, out of +sight of the river, because of the soft thump, thump, thump of the +big water-wheel. There was therefore no one to keep me out of +mischief, and I was too frightened to go into the forest that +afternoon, because on the previous afternoon I had been stalked as a +wild beast by a cannibal savage, and I am nervous. Besides, and +above all, it is quite impossible to see other people, even if they +are only black, naked savages, gliding about in canoes, without +wishing to go and glide about yourself. So I went down to where the +canoes were tied by their noses to the steep bank, and finding a +paddle, a broken one, I unloosed the smallest canoe. Unfortunately +this was fifteen feet or so long, but I did not know the +disadvantage of having, as it were, a long-tailed canoe then--I did +shortly afterwards. + +The promontories running out into the river on each side of the +mission beach give a little stretch of slack water between the bank +and the mill-race-like current of the Ogowe, and I wisely decided to +keep in the slack water, until I had found out how to steer--most +important thing steering. I got into the bow of the canoe, and +shoved off from the bank all right; then I knelt down--learn how to +paddle standing up by and by--good so far. I rapidly learnt how to +steer from the bow, but I could not get up any pace. Intent on +acquiring pace, I got to the edge of the slack water; and then +displaying more wisdom, I turned round to avoid it, proud as a +peacock, you understand, at having found out how to turn round. At +this moment, the current of "the greatest equatorial river in the +world," grabbed my canoe by its tail. We spun round and round for a +few seconds, like a teetotum, I steering the whole time for all I +was worth, and then the current dragged the canoe ignominiously down +river, tail foremost. + +Fortunately a big tree was at that time temporarily hanging against +the rock in the river, just below the sawmill beach. Into that tree +the canoe shot with a crash, and I hung on, and shipping my paddle, +pulled the canoe into the slack water again, by the aid of the +branches of the tree, which I was in mortal terror would come off +the rock, and insist on accompanying me and the canoe, via Kama +country, to the Atlantic Ocean; but it held, and when I had got safe +against the side of the pinnacle-rock I wiped a perspiring brow, and +searched in my mind for a piece of information regarding Navigation +that would be applicable to the management of long-tailed Adooma +canoes. I could not think of one for some minutes. Captain Murray +has imparted to me at one time and another an enormous mass of hints +as to the management of vessels, but those vessels were all pre- +supposed to have steam power. But he having been the first man to +take an ocean-going steamer up to Matadi on the Congo, through the +terrific currents that whirl and fly in Hell's Cauldron, knew about +currents, and I remembered he had said regarding taking vessels +through them, "Keep all the headway you can on her." Good! that +hint inverted will fit this situation like a glove, and I'll keep +all the tailway I can off her. Feeling now as safe as only a human +being can feel who is backed up by a sound principle, I was +cautiously crawling to the tail-end of the canoe, intent on kneeling +in it to look after it, when I heard a dreadful outcry on the bank. +Looking there I saw Mme. Forget, Mme. Gacon, M. Gacon, and their +attributive crowd of mission children all in a state of frenzy. +They said lots of things in chorus. "What?" said I. They said some +more and added gesticulations. Seeing I was wasting their time as I +could not hear, I drove the canoe from the rock and made my way, +mostly by steering, to the bank close by; and then tying the canoe +firmly up I walked over the mill stream and divers other things +towards my anxious friends. "You'll be drowned," they said. +"Gracious goodness!" said I, "I thought that half an hour ago, but +it's all right now; I can steer." After much conversation I lulled +their fears regarding me, and having received strict orders to keep +in the stern of the canoe, because that is the proper place when you +are managing a canoe single-handed, I returned to my studies. I had +not however lulled my friends' interest regarding me, and they +stayed on the bank watching. + +I found first, that my education in steering from the bow was of no +avail; second, that it was all right if you reversed it. For +instance, when you are in the bow, and make an inward stroke with +the paddle on the right-hand side, the bow goes to the right; +whereas, if you make an inward stroke on the right-hand side, when +you are sitting in the stern, the bow then goes to the left. +Understand? Having grasped this law, I crept along up river; and, +by Allah! before I had gone twenty yards, if that wretch, the +current of the greatest, etc., did not grab hold of the nose of my +canoe, and we teetotummed round again as merrily as ever. My +audience screamed. I knew what they were saying, "You'll be +drowned! Come back! Come back!" but I heard them and I heeded not. +If you attend to advice in a crisis you're lost; besides, I couldn't +"Come back" just then. However, I got into the slack water again, +by some very showy, high-class steering. Still steering, fine as it +is, is not all you require and hanker after. You want pace as well, +and pace, except when in the clutches of the current, I had not so +far attained. Perchance, thought I, the pace region in a canoe may +be in its centre; so I got along on my knees into the centre to +experiment. Bitter failure; the canoe took to sidling down river +broadside on, like Mr. Winkle's horse. Shouts of laughter from the +bank. Both bow and stern education utterly inapplicable to centre; +and so, seeing I was utterly thrown away there, I crept into the +bows, and in a few more minutes I steered my canoe, perfectly, in +among its fellows by the bank and secured it there. Mme. Forget ran +down to meet me and assured me she had not laughed so much since she +had been in Africa, although she was frightened at the time lest I +should get capsized and drowned. I believe it, for she is a sweet +and gracious lady; and I quite see, as she demonstrated, that the +sight of me, teetotumming about, steering in an elaborate and showy +way all the time, was irresistibly comic. And she gave a most +amusing account of how, when she started looking for me to give me +tea, a charming habit of hers, she could not see me in among my +bottles, and so asked the little black boy where I was. "There," +said he, pointing to the tree hanging against the rock out in the +river; and she, seeing me hitched with a canoe against the rock, and +knowing the danger and depth of the river, got alarmed. + +Well, when I got down to Lembarene I naturally went on with my +canoeing studies, in pursuit of the attainment of pace. Success +crowned my efforts, and I can honestly and truly say that there are +only two things I am proud of--one is that Doctor Gunther has +approved of my fishes, and the other is that I can paddle an Ogowe +canoe. Pace, style, steering and all, "All same for one" as if I +were an Ogowe African. A strange, incongruous pair of things: but +I often wonder what are the things other people are really most +proud of; it would be a quaint and repaying subject for +investigation. + +Mme. Jacot gave me every help in canoeing, for she is a remarkably +clear-headed woman, and recognised that, as I was always getting +soaked, anyhow, I ran no extra danger in getting soaked in a canoe; +and then, it being the dry season, there was an immense stretch of +water opposite Andande beach, which was quite shallow. So she saw +no need of my getting drowned. + +The sandbanks were showing their yellow heads in all directions when +I came down from Talagouga, and just opposite Andande there was +sticking up out of the water a great, graceful, palm frond. It had +been stuck into the head of the pet sandbank, and every day was +visited by the boys and girls in canoes to see how much longer they +would have to wait for the sandbank's appearance. A few days after +my return it showed, and in two days more there it was, acres and +acres of it, looking like a great, golden carpet spread on the +surface of the centre of the clear water--clear here, down this side +of Lembarene Island, because the river runs fairly quietly, and has +time to deposit its mud. Dark brown the Ogowe flies past the other +side of the island, the main current being deflected that way by a +bend, just below the entrance of the Nguni. + +There was great rejoicing. Canoe-load after canoe-load of boys and +girls went to the sandbank, some doing a little fishing round its +rim, others bringing the washing there, all skylarking and singing. +Few prettier sights have I ever seen than those on that sandbank-- +the merry brown forms dancing or lying stretched on it: the gaudy- +coloured patchwork quilts and chintz mosquito-bars that have been +washed, spread out drying, looking from Kangwe on the hill above, +like beds of bright flowers. By night when it was moonlight there +would be bands of dancers on it with bush-light torches, gyrating, +intermingling and separating till you could think you were looking +at a dance of stars. + +They commenced affairs very early on that sandbank, and they kept +them up very late; and all the time there came from it a soft murmur +of laughter and song. Ah me! if the aim of life were happiness and +pleasure, Africa should send us missionaries instead of our sending +them to her--but, fortunately for the work of the world, happiness +is not. One thing I remember which struck me very much regarding +the sandbank, and this was that Mme. Jacot found such pleasure in +taking her work on to the verandah, where she could see it. I knew +she did not care for the songs and the dancing. One day she said to +me, "It is such a relief." "A relief?" I said. "Yes, do you not +see that until it shows there is nothing but forest, forest, forest, +and that still stretch of river? That bank is the only piece of +clear ground I see in the year, and that only lasts a few weeks +until the wet season comes, and then it goes, and there is nothing +but forest, forest, forest, for another year. It is two years now +since I came to this place; it may be I know not how many more +before we go home again." I grieve to say, for my poor friend's +sake, that her life at Kangwe was nearly at its end. Soon after my +return to England I heard of the death of her husband from malignant +fever. M. Jacot was a fine, powerful, energetic man, in the prime +of life. He was a teetotaler and a vegetarian; and although +constantly travelling to and fro in his district on his evangelising +work, he had no foolish recklessness in him. No one would have +thought that he would have been the first to go of us who used to +sit round his hospitable table. His delicate wife, his two young +children or I would have seemed far more likely. His loss will be a +lasting one to the people he risked his life to (what he regarded) +save. The natives held him in the greatest affection and respect, +and his influence over them was considerable, far more profound than +that of any other missionary I have ever seen. His loss is also +great to those students of Africa who are working on the culture or +on the languages; his knowledge of both was extensive, particularly +of the little known languages of the Ogowe district. He was, when I +left, busily employed in compiling a dictionary of the Fan tongue, +and had many other works on language in contemplation. His work in +this sphere would have had a high value, for he was a man with a +University education and well grounded in Latin and Greek, and +thoroughly acquainted with both English and French literature, for +although born a Frenchman, he had been brought up in America. He +was also a cultivated musician, and he and Mme. Jacot in the +evenings would sing old French songs, Swiss songs, English songs, in +their rich full voices; and then if you stole softly out on to the +verandah, you would often find it crowded with a silent, black +audience, listening intently. + +The amount of work M. and Mme. Jacot used to get through was, to me, +amazing, and I think the Ogowe Protestant mission sadly short- +handed--its missionaries not being content to follow the usual +Protestant plan out in West Africa, namely, quietly sitting down and +keeping house, with just a few native children indoors to do the +housework, and close by a school and a little church where a service +is held on Sundays. The representatives of the Mission Evangelique +go to and fro throughout the district round each station on +evangelising work, among some of the most dangerous and uncivilised +tribes in Africa, frequently spending a fortnight at a time away +from their homes, on the waterways of a wild and dangerous country. +In addition to going themselves, they send trained natives as +evangelists and Bible-readers, and keep a keen eye on the trained +native, which means a considerable amount of worry and strain too. +The work on the stations is heavy in Ogowe districts, because when +you have got a clearing made and all the buildings up, you have by +no means finished with the affair, for you have to fight the Ogowe +forest back, as a Dutchman fights the sea. But the main cause of +work is the store, which in this exhausting climate is more than +enough work for one man alone. + +Payments on the Ogowe are made in goods; the natives do not use any +coinage-equivalent, save in the strange case of the Fans, which does +not touch general trade and which I will speak of later. They have +not even the brass bars and cheetems that are in us in Calabar, or +cowries as in Lagos. In order to expedite and simplify this goods +traffic, a written or printed piece of paper is employed-- +practically a cheque, which is called a "bon" or "book," and these +"bons" are cashed--i.e. gooded, at the store. They are for three +amounts. Five fura = a dollar. One fura = a franc. Desu = fifty +centimes = half a fura. The value given for these "bons" is the +same from Government, Trade, and Mission. Although the Mission +Evangelique does not trade--i.e. buy produce and sell it at a +profit, its representatives have a great deal of business to attend +to through the store, which is practically a bank. All the native +evangelists, black teachers, Bible-readers and labourers on the +stations are paid off in these bons; and when any representative of +the mission is away on a journey, food bought for themselves and +their canoe crews is paid for in bons, which are brought in by the +natives at their convenience, and changed for goods at the store. +Therefore for several hours every weekday the missionary has to +devote himself to store work, and store work out here is by no means +playing at shop. It is very hard, tiring, exasperating work when +you have to deal with it in full, as a trader, when it is necessary +for you to purchase produce at a price that will give you a +reasonable margin of profit over storing, customs' duties, shipping +expenses, etc., etc. But it is quite enough to try the patience of +any Saint when you are only keeping store to pay on bons, a la +missionary; for each class of article used in trade--and there are +some hundreds of them--has a definite and acknowledged value, but +where the trouble comes in is that different articles have the same +value; for example, six fish hooks and one pocket-handkerchief have +the same value, or you can make up that value in lucifer matches, +pomatum, a mirror, a hair comb, tobacco, or scent in bottles. + +Now, if you are a trader, certain of these articles cost you more +than others, although they have an identical value to the native, +and so it is to your advantage to pay what we should call, in +Cameroons, "a Kru, cheap copper," and you have a lot of worry to +effect this. To the missionary this does not so much matter. It +makes absolutely no difference to the native, mind you; so he is by +no means done by the trader. Take powder for an example. There is +no profit on powder for the trader in Congo Francais, but the native +always wants it because he can get a tremendous profit on it from +his black brethren in the bush; hence it pays the trader to give him +his bon out in Boma check, etc., better than in gunpowder. This is +a fruitful spring of argument and persuasion. However, whether the +native is passing in a bundle of rubber or a tooth of ivory, or +merely cashing a bon for a week's bush catering, he is in Congo +Francais incapable of deciding what he will have when it comes to +the point. He comes into the shop with a bon in his hand, and we +will say, for example, the idea in his head that he wants fish- +hooks--"jupes," he calls them--but, confronted with the visible +temptation of pomatum, he hesitates, and scratches his head +violently. Surrounding him there are ten or twenty other natives +with their minds in a similar wavering state, but yet anxious to be +served forthwith. In consequence of the stimulating scratch, he +remembers that one of his wives said he was to bring some Lucifer +matches, another wanted cloth for herself, and another knew of some +rubber she could buy very cheap, in tobacco, of a Fan woman who had +stolen it. This rubber he knows he can take to the trader's store +and sell for pocket-handkerchiefs of a superior pattern, or +gunpowder, or rum, which he cannot get at the mission store. He +finally gets something and takes it home, and likely enough brings +it back, in a day or so, somewhat damaged, desirous of changing it +for some other article or articles. Remember also that these Bantu, +like the Negroes, think externally, in a loud voice; like Mr. +Kipling's 'oont, "'e smells most awful vile," and, if he be a Fan, +he accompanies his observations with violent dramatic gestures, and +let the customer's tribe or sex be what it may, the customer is +sadly, sadly liable to pick up any portable object within reach, +under the shadow of his companions' uproar, and stow it away in his +armpits, between his legs, or, if his cloth be large enough, in +that. Picture to yourself the perplexities of a Christian minister, +engaged in such an occupation as storekeeping under these +circumstances, with, likely enough, a touch of fever on him and +jiggers in his feet; and when the store is closed the goods in it +requiring constant vigilance to keep them free from mildew and white +ants. + +Then in addition to the store work, a fruitful source of work and +worry are the schools, for both boys and girls. It is regarded as +futile to attempt to get any real hold over the children unless they +are removed from the influence of the country fashions that surround +them in their village homes; therefore the schools are boarding; +hence the entire care of the children, including feeding and +clothing, falls on the missionary. + +The instruction given in the Mission Evangelique Schools does not +include teaching the boys trades. The girls fare somewhat better, +as they get instruction in sewing and washing and ironing, but I +think in this district the young ladies would be all the better for +being taught cooking. + +It is strange that all the cooks employed by the Europeans should be +men, yet all the cooking among the natives themselves is done by +women, and done abominably badly in all the Bantu tribes I have ever +come across; and the Bantu are in this particular, and indeed in +most particulars, far inferior to the true Negro; though I must say +this is not the orthodox view. The Negroes cook uniformly very +well, and at moments are inspired in the direction of palm-oil chop +and fish cooking. Not so the Bantu, whose methods cry aloud for +improvement, they having just the very easiest and laziest way +possible of dealing with food. The food supply consists of +plantain, yam, koko, sweet potatoes, maize, pumpkin, pineapple, and +ochres, fish both wet and smoked, and flesh of many kinds--including +human in certain districts--snails, snakes, and crayfish, and big +maggot-like pupae of the rhinoceros beetle and the Rhyncophorus +palmatorum. For sweetmeats the sugar-cane abounds, but it is only +used chewed au naturel. For seasoning there is that bark that +tastes like an onion, an onion distinctly passe, but powerful and +permanent, particularly if it has been used in one of the native- +made, rough earthen pots. These pots have a very cave-man look +about them; they are unglazed, unlidded bowls. They stand the fire +wonderfully well, and you have got to stand, as well as you can, the +taste of the aforesaid bark that clings to them, and that of the +smoke which gets into them during cooking operations over an open +wood fire, as well as the soot-like colour they impart to even your +own white rice. Out of all this varied material the natives of the +Congo Francais forests produce, dirtily, carelessly and wastefully, +a dull, indigestible diet. Yam, sweet potatoes, ochres, and maize +are not so much cultivated or used as among the Negroes, and the +daily food is practically plantain--picked while green and the rind +pulled off, and the tasteless woolly interior baked or boiled and +the widely distributed manioc treated in the usual way. The sweet +or non-poisonous manioc I have rarely seen cultivated, because it +gives a much smaller yield, and is much longer coming to perfection. +The poisonous kind is that in general use; its great dahlia-like +roots are soaked in water to remove the poisonous principle, and +then dried and grated up, or more commonly beaten up into a kind of +dough in a wooden trough that looks like a model canoe, with wooden +clubs, which I have seen the curiosity hunter happily taking home as +war clubs to alarm his family with. The thump, thump, thump of this +manioc beating is one of the most familiar sounds in a bush village. +The meal, when beaten up, is used for thickening broths, and rolled +up into bolsters about a foot long and two inches in diameter, and +then wrapped in plantain leaves, and tied round with tie-tie and +boiled, or more properly speaking steamed, for a lot of the rolls +are arranged in a brass skillet. A small quantity of water is +poured over the rolls of plantain, a plantain leaf is tucked in over +the top tightly, so as to prevent the steam from escaping, and the +whole affair is poised on the three cooking-stones over a wood fire, +and left there until the contents are done, or more properly +speaking, until the lady in charge of it has delusions on the point, +and the bottom rolls are a trifle burnt or the whole insufficiently +cooked. + +This manioc meal is the staple food, the bread equivalent, all along +the coast. As you pass along you are perpetually meeting with a new +named food, fou-fou on the Leeward, kank on the Windward, m'vada in +Corisco, ogooma in the Ogowe; but acquaintance with it demonstrates +that it is all the same--manioc. + +It is a good food when it is properly prepared; but when a village +has soaked its soil-laden manioc tubers in one and the same pool of +water for years, the water in that pool becomes a trifle strong, and +both it and the manioc get a smell which once smelt is never to be +forgotten; it is something like that resulting from bad paste with a +dash of vinegar, but fit to pass all these things, and has qualities +of its own that have no civilised equivalent. + +I believe that this way of preparing the staple article of diet is +largely responsible for that dire and frequent disease "cut him +belly," and several other quaint disorders, possibly even for the +sleep disease. The natives themselves say that a diet too +exclusively maniocan produces dimness of vision, ending in blindness +if the food is not varied; the poisonous principle cannot be +anything like soaked out in the surcharged water, and the meal when +it is made up and cooked has just the same sour, acrid taste you +would expect it to have from the smell. + +The fish is boiled, or wrapped in leaves and baked. The dried fish, +very properly known as stink-fish, is much preferred; this is either +eaten as it is, or put into stews as seasoning, as also are the +snails. The meat is eaten either fresh or smoked, boiled or baked. +By baked I always mean just buried in the ground and a fire lighted +on top, or wrapped in leaves and buried in hot embers. + +The smoked meat is badly prepared, just hung up in the smoke of the +fires, which hardens it, blackening the outside quickly; but when +the lumps are taken out of the smoke, in a short time cracks occur +in them, and the interior part proceeds to go bad, and needless to +say maggoty. If it is kept in the smoke, as it often is to keep it +out of the way of dogs and driver ants, it acquires the toothsome +taste and texture of a piece of old tarpaulin. + +Now I will ask the surviving reader who has waded through this +dissertation on cookery if something should not be done to improve +the degraded condition of the Bantu cooking culture? Not for his +physical delectation only, but because his present methods are bad +for his morals, and drive the man to drink, let alone assisting in +riveting him in the practice of polygamy, which the missionary party +say is an exceedingly bad practice for him to follow. The inter- +relationship of these two subjects may not seem on the face of it +very clear, but inter-relationships of customs very rarely are; I +well remember M. Jacot coming home one day at Kangwe from an +evangelising visit to some adjacent Fan towns, and saying he had had +given to him that afternoon a new reason for polygamy, which was +that it enabled a man to get enough to eat. This sounds sinister +from a notoriously cannibal tribe; but the explanation is that the +Fans are an exceedingly hungry tribe, and require a great deal of +providing for. It is their custom to eat about ten times a day when +in village, and the men spend most of their time in the palaver- +houses at each end of the street, the women bringing them bowls of +food of one kind or another all day long. When the men are away in +the forest rubber or elephant-hunting, and have to cook their own +food, they cannot get quite so much; but when I have come across +them on these expeditions, they halted pretty regularly every two +hours and had a substantial snack, and the gorge they all go in for +after a successful elephant hunt is a thing to see--once. + +There are other reasons which lead to the prevalence of this custom, +beside the cooking. One is that it is totally impossible for one +woman to do the whole work of a house--look after the children, +prepare and cook the food, prepare the rubber, carry the same to the +markets, fetch the daily supply of water from the stream, cultivate +the plantation, etc., etc. Perhaps I should say it is impossible +for the dilatory African woman, for I once had an Irish charwoman, +who drank, who would have done the whole week's work of an African +village in an afternoon, and then been quite fresh enough to knock +some of the nonsense out of her husband's head with that of the +broom, and throw a kettle of boiling water or a paraffin lamp at +him, if she suspected him of flirting with other ladies. That +woman, who deserves fame in the annals of her country, was named +Harragan. She has attained immortality some years since, by falling +down stairs one Saturday night from excitement arising from "the +Image's" (Mr. Harragan) conduct; but we have no Mrs. Harragan in +Africa. The African lady does not care a travelling whitesmith's +execration if her husband does flirt, so long as he does not go and +give to other women the cloth, etc., that she should have. The more +wives the less work, says the African lady; and I have known men who +would rather have had one wife and spent the rest of the money on +themselves, in a civilised way, driven into polygamy by the women; +and of course this state of affairs is most common in nonslave- +holding tribes like the Fan. + +Mission work was first opened upon the Ogowe by Dr. Nassau, the +great pioneer and explorer of these regions. He was acting for the +American Presbyterian Society; but when the French Government +demanded education in French in the schools, the stations on the +Ogowe, Lembarene (Kangwe), and Talagouga were handed over to the +Mission Evangelique of Paris, and have been carried on by its +representatives with great devotion and energy. I am unsympathetic, +in some particulars, for reasons of my own, with Christian missions, +so my admiration for this one does not arise from the usual ground +of admiration for missions, namely, that however they may be carried +on, they are engaged in a great and holy work; but I regard the +Mission Evangelique, judging from the results I have seen, as the +perfection of what one may call a purely spiritual mission. + +Lembarene is strictly speaking a district which includes Adanlinan +langa and the Island, but the name is locally used to denote the +great island in the Ogowe, whose native name is Nenge Ezangy; but +for the sake of the general reader I will keep to the everyday term +of Lembarene Island. + +Lembarene Island is the largest of the islands on the Ogowe. It is +some fifteen miles long, east and west, and a mile to a mile and a +half wide. It is hilly and rocky, uniformly clad with forest, and +several little permanent streams run from it on both sides into the +Ogowe. It is situated 130 miles from the sea, at the point, just +below the entrance of the N'guni, where the Ogowe commences to +divide up into that network of channels by which, like all great +West African rivers save the Congo, it chooses to enter the Ocean. +The island, as we mainlanders at Kangwe used to call it, was a great +haunt of mine, particularly after I came down from Talagouga and saw +fit to regard myself as competent to control a canoe. + +From Andande, the beach of Kangwe, the breadth of the arm of the +Ogowe to the nearest village on the island, was about that of the +Thames at Blackwall. One half of the way was slack water, the other +half was broadside on to a stiff current. Now my pet canoe at +Andande was about six feet long, pointed at both ends, flat +bottomed, so that it floated on the top of the water; its freeboard +was, when nothing was in it, some three inches, and the poor thing +had seen trouble in its time, for it had a hole you could put your +hand in at one end; so in order to navigate it successfully, you had +to squat in the other, which immersed that to the water level but +safely elevated the damaged end in the air. Of course you had to +stop in your end firmly, because if you went forward the hole went +down into the water, and the water went into the hole, and forthwith +you foundered with all hands--i.e., you and the paddle and the +calabash baler. This craft also had a strong weather helm, owing to +a warp in the tree of which it had been made. I learnt all these +things one afternoon, paddling round the sandbank; and the next +afternoon, feeling confident in the merits of my vessel, I started +for the island, and I actually got there, and associated with the +natives, but feeling my arms were permanently worn out by paddling +against the current, I availed myself of the offer of a gentleman to +paddle me back in his canoe. He introduced himself as Samuel, and +volunteered the statement that he was "a very good man." We duly +settled ourselves in the canoe, he occupying the bow, I sitting in +the middle, and a Mrs. Samuel sitting in the stern. Mrs. Samuel was +a powerful, pretty lady, and a conscientious and continuous paddler. +Mr. S. was none of these things, but an ex-Bible reader, with an +amazing knowledge of English, which he spoke in a quaint, falsetto, +far-away sort of voice, and that man's besetting sin was curiosity. +"You be Christian, ma?" said he. I asked him if he had ever met a +white man who was not. "Yes, ma," says Samuel. I said "You must +have been associating with people whom you ought not to know." +Samuel fortunately not having a repartee for this, paddled on with +his long paddle for a few seconds. "Where be your husband, ma?" was +the next conversational bomb he hurled at me. "I no got one," I +answer. "No got," says Samuel, paralysed with astonishment; and as +Mrs. S., who did not know English, gave one of her vigorous drives +with her paddle at this moment, Samuel as near as possible got +jerked head first into the Ogowe, and we took on board about two +bucketfuls of water. He recovered himself, however and returned to +his charge. "No got one, ma?" "No," say I furiously. "Do you get +much rubber round here?" "I no be trade man," says Samuel, refusing +to fall into my trap for changing conversation. "Why you no got +one?" The remainder of the conversation is unreportable, but he +landed me at Andande all right, and got his dollar. + +The next voyage I made, which was on the next day, I decided to go +by myself to the factory, which is on the other side of the island, +and did so. I got some goods to buy fish with, and heard from Mr. +Cockshut that the poor boy-agent at Osoamokita, had committed +suicide. It was a grievous thing. He was, as I have said, a +bright, intelligent young Frenchman; but living in the isolation, +surrounded by savage, tiresome tribes, the strain of his +responsibility had been too much for him. He had had a good deal of +fever, and the very kindly head agent for Woermann's had sent Dr. +Pelessier to see if he had not better be invalided home; but he told +the Doctor he was much better, and as he had no one at home to go to +he begged him not to send him, and the Doctor, to his subsequent +regret, gave in. No one knows, who has not been to West Africa, how +terrible is the life of a white man in one of these out-of-the-way +factories, with no white society, and with nothing to look at, day +out and day in, but the one set of objects--the forest, the river, +and the beach, which in a place like Osoamokita you cannot leave for +months at a time, and of which you soon know every plank and stone. +I felt utterly wretched as I started home again to come up to the +end of the island, and go round it and down to Andande; and paddled +on for some little time, before I noticed that I was making +absolutely no progress. I redoubled my exertions, and crept slowly +up to some rocks projecting above the water; but pass them I could +not, as the main current of the Ogowe flew in hollow swirls round +them against my canoe. Several passing canoefuls of natives gave me +good advice in Igalwa; but facts were facts, and the Ogowe was too +strong for me. After about twenty minutes an old Fan gentleman came +down river in a canoe and gave me good advice in Fan, and I got him +to take me in tow--that is to say, he got into my canoe and I held +on to his and we went back down river. I then saw his intention was +to take me across to that disreputable village, half Fan, half +Bakele, which is situated on the main bank of the river opposite the +island; this I disapproved of, because I had heard that some Senegal +soldiers who had gone over there, had been stripped of every rag +they had on, and maltreated; besides, it was growing very late, and +I wanted to get home to dinner. I communicated my feelings to my +pilot, who did not seem to understand at first, so I feared I should +have to knock them into him with the paddle; but at last he +understood I wanted to be landed on the island and duly landed me, +when he seemed much surprised at the reward I gave him in pocket- +handkerchiefs. Then I got a powerful young Igalwa dandy to paddle +me home. + +I did not go to the island next day, but down below Fula, watching +the fish playing in the clear water, and the lizards and birds on +the rocky high banks; but on my next journey round to the factories +I got into another and a worse disaster. I went off there early one +morning; and thinking the only trouble lay in getting back up the +Ogowe, and having developed a theory that this might be minimised by +keeping very close to the island bank, I never gave a thought to +dangers attributive to going down river; so, having by now acquired +pace, my canoe shot out beyond the end rocks of the island into the +main stream. It took me a second to realise what had happened, and +another to find out I could not get the canoe out of the current +without upsetting it, and that I could not force her back up the +current, so there was nothing for it but to keep her head straight +now she had bolted. A group of native ladies, who had followed my +proceedings with much interest, shouted observations which I believe +to have been "Come back, come back; you'll be drowned." "Good-bye, +Susannah, don't you weep for me," I courteously retorted; and flew +past them and the factory beaches and things in general, keenly +watching for my chance to run my canoe up a siding, as it were, off +the current main line. I got it at last--a projecting spit of land +from the island with rocks projecting out of the water in front of +it bothered the current, and after a wild turn round or so, and a +near call from my terrified canoe trying to climb up a rock, I got +into slack water and took a pause in life's pleasures for a few +minutes. Knowing I must be near the end of the island, I went on +pretty close to the bank, finally got round into the Kangwe branch +of the Ogowe by a connecting creek, and after an hour's steady +paddling I fell in with three big canoes going up river; they took +me home as far as Fula, whence a short paddle landed me at Andande +only slightly late for supper, convinced that it was almost as safe +and far more amusing to be born lucky than wise. + +Now I have described my circumnavigation of the island, I will +proceed to describe its inhabitants. The up-river end of Lembarene +Island is the most inhabited. A path round the upper part of the +island passes through a succession of Igalwa villages and by the +Roman Catholic missionary station. The slave villages belonging to +these Igalwas are away down the north face of the island, opposite +the Fan town of Fula, which I have mentioned. It strikes me as +remarkable that the Igalwa, like the Dualla of Cameroons, have their +slaves in separate villages; but this is the case, though I do not +know the reason of it. These Igalwa slaves cultivate the +plantations, and bring up the vegetables and fruit to their owners' +villages and do the housework daily. + +The interior of the island is composed of high, rocky, heavily +forested hills, with here and there a stream, and here and there a +swamp; the higher land is towards the up-river end; down river there +is a lower strip of land with hillocks. This is, I fancy, formed by +deposits of sand, etc., catching in among the rocks, and connecting +what were at one time several isolated islands. There are no big +game or gorillas on the island, but it has a peculiar and awful +house ant, much smaller than the driver ant, but with a venomous, +bad bite; its only good point is that its chief food is the white +ants, which are therefore kept in abeyance on Lembarene Island, +although flourishing destructively on the mainland banks of the +river in this locality. I was never tired of going and watching +those Igalwa villagers, nor were, I think, the Igalwa villagers ever +tired of observing me. Although the physical conditions of life +were practically identical with those of the mainland, the way in +which the Igalwas dealt with them, i.e. the culture, was distinct +from the culture of the mainland Fans. + +The Igalwas are a tribe very nearly akin, if not ethnically +identical with, the M'pongwe, and the culture of these two tribes is +on a level with the highest native African culture. African +culture, I may remark, varies just the same as European in this, +that there is as much difference in the manners of life between, +say, an Igalwa and a Bubi of Fernando Po, as there is between a +Londoner and a Laplander. + +The Igalwa builds his house like that of the M'pongwe, of bamboo, +and he surrounds himself with European-made articles. The neat +houses, fitted with windows, with wooden shutters to close at night, +and with a deal door--a carpenter-made door--are in sharp contrast +with the ragged ant-hill looking performances of the Akkas, or the +bark huts of the Fan, with no windows, and just an extra broad bit +of bark to slip across the hole that serves as a door. On going +into an Igalwa house you will see a four-legged table, often covered +with a bright-coloured tablecloth, on which stands a water bottle, +with two clean glasses, and round about you will see chairs--Windsor +chairs. These houses have usually three, sometimes more rooms, and +a separate closed-in little kitchen, built apart, wherein you may +observe European-made saucepans, in addition to the ubiquitous +skillet. Outside, all along the clean sandy streets, the +inhabitants are seated. The Igalwa is truly great at sitting, the +men pursuing a policy of masterly inactivity, broken occasionally by +leisurely netting a fishing net, the end of the netting hitched up +on to the roof thatch, and not held by a stirrup. The ladies are +employed in the manufacture of articles pertaining to a higher +culture--I allude, as Mr. Micawber would say, to bed-quilts and +pillow-cases--the most gorgeous bed-quilts and pillow-cases--made of +patchwork, and now and again you will see a mosquito-bar in course +of construction, of course not made of net or muslin because of the +awesome strength and ferocity of the Lembarene strain of mosquitoes, +but of stout, fair-flowered and besprigged chintzes; and you will +observe these things are often being sewn with a sewing machine. + +The women who may not be busy sewing are busy doing each other's +hair. Hair-dressing is quite an art among the Igalwa and M'pongwe +women, and their hair is very beautiful; very crinkly, but fine. It +is plaited up, close to the head, partings between the plaits making +elaborate parterres. Into the beds of plaited hair are stuck long +pins of river ivory (hippo), decorated with black tracery and +openwork, and made by their good men. A lady will stick as many of +these into her hair as she can get, but the prevailing mode is to +have one stuck in behind each ear, showing their broad, long heads +above like two horns; they are exceedingly becoming to these black +but comely ladies, verily, I think, the comeliest ladies I have ever +seen on the Coast. Very black they are, blacker than many of their +neighbours, always blacker than the Fans, and although their skin +lacks that velvety pile of the true negro, it is not too shiny, but +it is fine and usually unblemished, and their figures are charmingly +rounded, their hands and feet small, almost as small as a high-class +Calabar woman's, and their eyes large, lustrous, soft and brown, and +their teeth as white as the sea surf and undisfigured by filing. + +The native dress for men and women alike is the cloth or paun. The +men wear it by rolling the upper line round the waist, and in +addition they frequently wear a singlet or a flannel shirt worn MORE +AFRICANO, flowing free. Rich men will mount a European coat and +hat, and men connected with the mission or trading stations +occasionally wear trousers. The personal appearance of the men does +not amount to much when all's done, so we will return to the ladies. +They wrap the upper hem of these cloths round under the armpits, a +graceful form of drapery, but one which requires continual +readjustment. The cloth is about four yards long and two deep, and +there is always round the hem a border, or false hem, of turkey red +twill, or some other coloured cotton cloth to the main body of the +paun. In addition to the cloth there is worn, when possible, a +European shawl, either one of those thick cotton cloth ones printed +with Chinese-looking patterns in dull red on a dark ground, this +sort is wrapped round the upper part of the body: or what is more +highly esteemed is a bright, light-coloured, fancy wool shawl, pink +or pale blue preferred, which being carefully folded into a roll is +placed over one shoulder, and is entirely for dandy. I am thankful +to say they do not go in for hats; when they wear anything on their +heads it is a handkerchief folded shawl-wise; the base of the +triangle is bound round the forehead just above the eyebrows, the +ends carried round over the ears and tied behind over the apex of +the triangle of the handkerchief, the three ends being then arranged +fan-wise at the back. Add to this costume a sober-coloured silk +parasol, not one of your green or red young tent-like, brutally +masculine, knobby-sticked umbrellas, but a fair, lady-like parasol, +which, being carefully rolled up, is carried handle foremost right +in the middle of the head, also for dandy. Then a few strings of +turquoise-blue beads, or imitation gold ones, worn round the shapely +throat; and I will back my Igalwa or M'pongwe belle against any of +those South Sea Island young ladies we nowadays hear so much about, +thanks to Mr. Stevenson, yea, even though these may be wreathed with +fragrant flowers, and the African lady very rarely goes in for +flowers. The only time I have seen the African ladies wearing them +for ornament has been among these Igalwas, who now and again stud +their night-black hair with pretty little round vividly red blossoms +in a most fetching way. I wonder the Africans do not wear flowers +more frequently, for they are devoted to scent, both men and women. + +The Igalwas are a proud race, one of the noble tribes, like the +M'pongwe and the Ajumba. The women do not intermarry with lower- +class tribes, and in their own tribe they are much restricted, owing +to all relations on the mother's side being forbidden to intermarry. +This well-known form of accounting relationships only through the +mother (Mutterrecht) is in a more perfected and elaborated form +among the Igalwa than among any other tribe I am personally +acquainted with; brothers and cousins on the mother's side being in +one class of relationship. + +The father's responsibility, as regards authority over his own +children, is very slight. The really responsible male relative is +the mother's elder brother. From him must leave to marry be +obtained for either girl, or boy; to him and the mother must the +present be taken which is exacted on the marriage of a girl; and +should the mother die, on him and not on the father, lies the +responsibility of rearing the children; they go to his house, and he +treats and regards them as nearer and dearer to himself than his own +children, and at his death, after his own brothers by the same +mother, they become his heirs. + +Marriage among the Igalwa and M'pongwe is not direct marriage by +purchase, but a certain fixed price present is made to the mother +and uncle of the girl. Other propitiatory presents (Kueliki) are +made, but do not count legally, and have not necessarily to be +returned in case of post-nuptial differences arising leading to a +divorce--a very frequent catastrophe in the social circle; for the +Igalwa ladies are spirited, and devoted to personal adornment, and +they are naggers at their husbands. Many times when walking on +Lembarene Island, have I seen a lady stand in the street and let her +husband, who had taken shelter inside the house, know what she +thought of him, in a way that reminded me of some London slum +scenes. When the husband loses his temper, as he surely does sooner +or later, being a man, he whacks his wife--or wives, if they have +been at him in a body. He may whack with impunity so long as he +does not draw blood; if he does, be it never so little, his wife is +off to her relations, the present he has given for her is returned, +the marriage is annulled, and she can re-marry as soon as she is +able. + +Her relations are only too glad to get her, because, although the +present has to be returned, yet the propitiatory offerings remain +theirs, and they know more propitiatory offerings as well as another +present will accrue with the next set of suitors. This of course is +only the case with the younger women; the older women for one thing +do not nag so much, and moreover they have usually children willing +and able to support them. If they have not, their state is, like +that of all old childless women in Africa, a very desolate one. + +Infant marriage is now in vogue among the Igalwa, and to my surprise +I find it is of quite recent introduction and adoption. Their own +account of this retrograde movement in culture is that in the last +generation--some of the old people indeed claim to have known him-- +there was an exceedingly ugly and deformed man who could not get a +wife, the women being then, as the men are now, great admirers of +physical beauty. So this man, being very cunning, hit on the idea +of becoming betrothed to one before she could exercise her own +choice in the matter; and knowing a family in which an interesting +event was likely to occur, he made heavy presents in the proper +quarters and bespoke the coming infant if it should be a girl. A +girl it was, and thus, say the Igalwa, arose the custom; and +nowadays, although they do not engage their wives so early as did +the founder of the custom, they adopt infant marriage as an +institution. + +I inquired carefully, in the interests of ethnology, as to what +methods of courting were in vogue previously. They said people +married each other because they loved each other. I hope other +ethnologists will follow this inquiry up, for we may here find a +real golden age, which in other races of humanity lies away in the +mists of the ages behind the kitchen middens and the Cambrian rocks. +My own opinion in this matter is that the earlier courting methods +of the Igalwa involved a certain amount of effort on the man's part, +a thing abhorrent to an Igalwa. It necessitated his dressing +himself up, and likely enough fighting that impudent scoundrel who +was engaged in courting her too; and above all serenading her at +night on the native harp, with its strings made from the tendrils of +a certain orchid, or on the marimba, amongst crowds of mosquitoes. +Any institution that involved being out at night amongst crowds of +those Lembarene mosquitoes would have to disappear, let that +institution be what it might. + +The Igalwa are one of the dying-out coast tribes. As well as on +Lembarene Island, their villages are scattered along the banks of +the Lower Ogowe, and on the shores and islands of Eliva Z'Onlange. +On the island they are, so far, undisturbed by the Fan invasion, and +laze their lives away like lotus-eaters. Their slaves work their +large plantations, and bring up to them magnificent yams, ready +prepared ogooma, sweet-potatoes, papaw, etc., not forgetting that +delicacy Odeaka cheese; this is not an exclusive inspiration of +theirs, for the M'pongwe and the Benga use it as well. It is made +from the kernel of the wild mango, a singularly beautiful tree of +great size and stately spread of foliage. I can compare it only in +appearance and habit of growth to our Irish, or evergreen, oak, but +it is an idealisation of that fine tree. Its leaves are a softer, +brighter, deeper green, and in due season (August) it is covered-- +not ostentatiously like the real mango, with great spikes of bloom, +looking each like a gigantic head of mignonette--but with small +yellow-green flowers tucked away under the leaves, filling the air +with a soft sweet perfume, and then falling on to the bare shaded +ground beneath to make a deep-piled carpet. I do not know whether +it is a mango tree at all, for I am no botanist: but anyhow the +fruit is rather like that of the mango in external appearance, and +in internal still more so, for it has a disproportionately large +stone. These stones are cracked, and the kernel taken out. The +kernels are spread a short time in the shade to dry; then they are +beaten up into a pulp with a wooden pestle, and the pulp put into a +basket lined carefully with plantain leaves and placed in the sun, +which melts it up into a stiff mass. The basket is then removed +from the sun and stood aside to cool. When cool, the cheese can be +turned out in shape, and can be kept a long time if it is wrapped +round with leaves and a cloth, and hung up inside the house. Its +appearance is that of almond rock, and it is cut easily with a +knife; but at any period of its existence, if it is left in the sun +it melts again rapidly into an oily mass. + +The natives use it as a seasoning in their cookery, stuffing fish +and plantains with it and so on, using it also in the preparation of +a sort of sea-pie they make with meat and fish. To make this, a +thing well worth doing, particularly with hippo or other coarse +meat, reduce the wood fire to embers, and make plantain leaves into +a sort of bag, or cup; small pieces of the meat should then be +packed in layers with red pepper and odeaka in between. The tops of +the leaves are then tied together with fine tie-tie, and the bundle, +without any saucepan of any kind, stood on the glowing embers, the +cook taking care there is no flame. The meat is done, and a superb +gravy formed, before the containing plantain leaves are burnt +through--plantain leaves will stand an amazing lot in the way of +fire. This dish is really excellent, even when made with python, +hippo, or crocodile. It makes the former most palatable; but of +course it does not remove the musky taste from crocodile; nothing I +know of will. + +The great and important difference between the M'pongwe, {167} +Igalwa, and Ajumba fetish, and the Fetish of those tribes round +them, consists in their conception of a certain spirit called O +Mbuiri. They have, as is constant among the Bantu races of South- +West Africa, a great god--the creator, a god who has made all +things, and who now no longer takes any interest in the things he +has created. Their name for this god is Anyambie, which when +pronounced sounds to my ears like anlynlae--the l's being very +weak,--the derivation of this name, however, is from Anyima a +spirit, and Mbia, good. This god, unlike other forms of the +creating god in Fetish, has a viceroy or minister who is a god he +has created, and to whom he leaves the government of affairs. This +god is O Mbuiri or O Mbwiri, and this O Mbwiri is of very high +interest to the student of comparative fetish. He has never been, +nor can he ever become, a man, i.e. be born as a man, but he can +transfuse with his own personality that of human beings, and also +the souls of all those things we white men regard as inanimate, such +as rocks, trees, etc., in a similar manner. + +The M'pongwe know that his residence is in the sea, and some of them +have seen him as an old white man, not flesh-colour white, but chalk +white. There is another important point here, but it wants a volume +to itself, so I must pass it. O Mbuiri's appearance in a corporeal +form denotes ill luck, not death to the seer, but misfortune of a +severe and diffused character. The ruin of a trading enterprise, +the destruction of a village or a family, are put down to O Mbuiri's +action. Yet he is not regarded as a malevolent god, a devil, but as +an avenger, or punisher of sin; and the M'pongwe look on him as the +Being to whom they primarily owe the good things and fortunes of +this life, and as the Being who alone has power to govern the host +of truly malevolent spirits that exist in nature. + +The different instruments with which he works in the shaping of +human destiny bear his name when in his employ. When acting by +means of water, he is O Mbuiri Aningo; when in the weather, O Mbuiri +Ngali; when in the forests, O Mbuiri Ibaka; when in the form of a +dwarf, O Mbuiri Akoa, and so on. + +The great difference between O Mbuiri and the lesser spirits is +this: --the lesser spirits cannot incarnate themselves except +through extraneous things; O Mbuiri can, he can become visible +without anything beyond his own will to do so. The other spirits +must be in something to become visible. This is an extremely +delicate piece of Fetish which it took me weeks to work out. I +think I may say another thing about O Mbuiri, though I say it +carefully, and that is, that among the M'pongwe and the tribe who +are the parent tribe of the M'pongwe--the now rapidly dying out +Ajumba, and their allied tribe the Igalwa--O Mbuiri is a distinct +entity, while among the neighbouring tribes he is a class, i.e. +there are hundreds of O Mbuiri or Ibwiri, one for every remarkable +place or thing, such as rock, tree, or forest thicket, and for every +dangerous place in a river. Had I not observed a similar state of +affairs regarding Sasabonsum, a totally different kind of spirit on +the Windward coast, I should have had even greater trouble than I +had, in finding a key to what seemed at first a mass of conflicting +details regarding this important spirit O Mbuiri. + +There is one other very important point in M'pongwe Fetish; and that +is that the souls of men exist before birth as well as after death. +This is indeed, as far as I have been able to find out, a doctrine +universally held by the West African tribes, but among the M'pongwe +there is this modification in it, which agrees strangely well with +the idea I found regarding reincarnated diseases, existent among the +Okyon tribes (pure negroes). The malevolent minor spirits are +capable of being born with, what we will call, a man's soul, as well +as going in with the man's soul during sleep. For example, an Olaga +may be born with a man and that man will thereby be born mad; he may +at any period of his life, given certain conditions, become +possessed by an evil spirit, Onlogho Abambo, Injembe, Nkandada, and +become mad, or ill; but if he is born mad, or sickly, one of the +evil spirits such as an Olaga or an Obambo, the soul of a man that +has not been buried properly, has been born with him. + +The rest of the M'pongwe Fetish is on broad lines common to other +tribes, so I relegate it to the general collection of notes on +Fetish. M'pongwe jurisprudence is founded on the same ideas as +those on which West African jurisprudence at large is founded, but +it is so elaborated that it would be desecration to sketch it. It +requires a massive monograph. + + + +CHAPTER VII. ON THE WAY FROM KANGWE TO LAKE NCOVI. + + + +In which the voyager goes for bush again and wanders into a new lake +and a new river. + +July 22nd, 1895.--Left Kangwe. The four Ajumba {170} did not turn +up early in the morning as had been arranged, but arrived about +eight, in pouring rain, so decided to wait until two o'clock, which +will give us time to reach their town of Arevooma before nightfall, +and may perhaps give us a chance of arriving there dry. At two we +start. We go down river on the Kangwe side of Lembarene Island, +make a pause in front of the Igalwa slave town, which is on the +Island and nearly opposite the Fan town of Fula on the mainland +bank, our motive being to get stores of yam and plantain--and +magnificent specimens of both we get--and then, when our canoe is +laden with them to an extent that would get us into trouble under +the Act if it ran here, off we go again. Every canoe we meet shouts +us a greeting, and asks where we are going, and we say "Rembwe"--and +they say "What! Rembwe!"--and we say "Yes, Rembwe," and paddle on. +I lay among the luggage for about an hour, not taking much interest +in the Rembwe or anything else, save my own headache; but this soon +lifted, and I was able to take notice, just before we reached the +Ajumba's town, called Arevooma. The sandbanks stretch across the +river here nearly awash, so all our cargo of yams has to be thrown +overboard on to the sand, from which they can be collected by being +waded out to. The canoe, thus lightened, is able to go on a little +further, but we are soon hard and fast again, and the crew have to +jump out and shove her off about once every five minutes, and then +to look lively about jumping back into her again, as she shoots over +the cliffs of the sandbanks. + +When we reach Arevooma, I find it is a very prettily situated town, +on the left-hand bank of the river--clean and well kept, and +composed of houses built on the Igalwa and M'pongwe plan with walls +of split bamboo and a palm thatch roof. I own I did not much care +for these Ajumbas on starting, but they are evidently going to be +kind and pleasant companions. One of them is a gentlemanly-looking +man, who wears a gray shirt; another looks like a genial Irishman +who has accidentally got black, very black; he is distinguished by +wearing a singlet; another is a thin, elderly man, notably silent; +and the remaining one is a strapping, big fellow, as black as a +wolf's mouth, of gigantic muscular development, and wearing +quantities of fetish charms hung about him. The two first mentioned +are Christians; the other two pagans, and I will refer to them by +their characteristic points, for their honourable names are awfully +alike when you do hear them, and, as is usual with Africans, rarely +used in conversation. + +Gray Shirt places his house at my disposal, and both he and his +exceedingly pretty wife do their utmost to make me comfortable. The +house lies at the west end of the town. It is one room inside, but +has, I believe, a separate cooking shed. In the verandah in front +is placed a table, an ivory bundle chair and a gourd of water, and I +am also treated to a calico tablecloth, and most thoughtfully +screened off from the public gaze with more calico so that I can +have my tea in privacy. After this meal, to my surprise Ndaka turns +up. Certainly he is one of the very ugliest men--black or white--I +have ever seen, and I fancy one of the best. He is now on a holiday +from Kangwe, seeing to the settlement of his dead brother's affairs. +The dead brother was a great man in Arevooma and a pagan, but Ndaka, +the Christian Bible-reader, seems to get on perfectly with the +family and is holding tonight a meeting outside his brother's house +and comes with a lantern to fetch me to attend it. Of course I have +to go, headache or no headache. + +Most of the town was there, mainly as spectators. Ndaka and my two +Christian boatmen manage the service between them, and what with the +hymns and the mosquitoes the experience is slightly awful. We sit +in a line in front of the house, which is brilliantly lit up--our +own lantern on the ground before us acting as a rival entertainment +to the house lamps inside for some of the best insect society in +Africa, who after the manner of the insect world, insist on +regarding us as responsible for their own idiocy in getting singed; +and sting us in revenge, while we slap hard, as we howl hymns in the +fearful Igalwa and M'pongwe way. Next to an English picnic, the +most uncomfortable thing I know is an open-air service in this part +of Africa. Service being over, Ndaka takes me over the house to +show its splendours. The great brilliancy of its illumination +arises from its being lit by two hanging lamps burning paraffin oil. +The most remarkable point about the house is the floor, which is +made of split, plaited bamboo. It gives under your feet in an +alarming way, being raised some three or four feet above the ground, +and I am haunted by the fear that I shall go through it and give +pain to myself, and great trouble to others before I could be got +out. It is a beautiful piece of workmanship, and Arevooma has every +reason to be proud of it. Having admired these things, I go, dead +tired and still headachy, down the road with my host who carries the +lantern, through an atmosphere that has 45 per cent. of solid matter +in the shape of mosquitoes; then wishing him good-night, I shut +myself in, and illuminate, humbly, with a candle. The furniture of +the house consists mainly of boxes, containing the wealth of Gray +Shirt, in clothes, mirrors, etc. One corner of the room is taken up +by great calabashes full of some sort of liquor, and there is an +ivory bundle chair, a hanging mirror, several rusty guns, and a +considerable collection of china basins and jugs. Evidently Gray +Shirt is rich. The most interesting article to me, however, just +now is the bed hung over with a clean, substantial, chintz mosquito +bar, and spread with clean calico and adorned with patchwork-covered +pillows. So I take off my boots and put on my slippers; for it +never does in this country to leave off boots altogether at anytime +and risk getting bitten by mosquitoes on the feet, when you are on +the march; because the rub of your boot on the bite always produces +a sore, and a sore when it comes in the Gorilla country, comes to +stay. + +No sooner have I carefully swished all the mosquitoes from under the +bar and turned in, than a cat scratches and mews at the door--turn +out and let her in. She is evidently a pet, so I take her on to the +bed with me. She is a very nice cat--sandy and fat--and if I held +the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl, I should have no +hesitation in saying she had in her the soul of Dame Juliana +Berners, such a whole-souled devotion to sport does she display, +dashing out through the flaps of the mosquito bar after rats which, +amid squeals from the rats and curses from her, she kills amongst +the china collection. Then she comes to me, triumphant, expecting +congratulations, and accompanied by mosquitoes, and purrs and kneads +upon my chest until she hears another rat. + +Tuesday, July 23rd.--Am aroused by violent knocking at the door in +the early gray dawn--so violent that two large centipedes and a +scorpion drop on to the bed. They have evidently been tucked away +among the folds of the bar all night. Well "when ignorance is bliss +'tis folly to be wise," particularly along here. I get up without +delay, and find myself quite well. The cat has thrown a basin of +water neatly over into my bag during her nocturnal hunts; and when +my tea comes I am informed a man "done die" in the night, which +explains the firing of guns I heard. I inquire what he has died of, +and am told "He just truck luck, and then he die." His widows are +having their faces painted white by sympathetic lady friends, and +are attired in their oldest, dirtiest clothes, and but very few of +them; still, they seem to be taking things in a resigned spirit. +These Ajumba seem pleasant folk. They play with their pretty brown +children in a taking way. Last night I noticed some men and women +playing a game new to me, which consisted in throwing a hoop at each +other. The point was to get the hoop to fall over your adversary's +head. It is a cheerful game. Quantities of the common house-fly +about--and, during the early part of the morning, it rains in a +gentle kind of way; but soon after we are afloat in our canoe it +turns into a soft white mist. + +We paddle still westwards down the broad quiet waters of the O'Rembo +Vongo. I notice great quantities of birds about here--great +hornbills, vividly coloured kingfishers, and for the first time the +great vulture I have often heard of, and the skin of which I will +take home before I mention even its approximate spread of wing. +There are also noble white cranes, and flocks of small black and +white birds, new to me, with heavy razor-shaped bills, reminding one +of the Devonian puffin. The hornbill is perhaps the most striking +in appearance. It is the size of a small, or say a good-sized hen +turkey. Gray Shirt says the flocks, which are of eight or ten, +always have the same quantity of cocks and hens, and that they live +together "white man fashion," i.e. each couple keeping together. +They certainly do a great deal of courting, the cock filling out his +wattles on his neck like a turkey, and spreading out his tail with +great pomp and ceremony, but very awkwardly. To see hornbills on a +bare sandbank is a solemn sight, but when they are dodging about in +the hippo grass they sink ceremony, and roll and waddle, looking--my +man said--for snakes and the little sand-fish, which are close in +under the bank; and their killing way of dropping their jaws--I +should say opening their bills--when they are alarmed is comic. I +think this has something to do with their hearing, for I often saw +two or three of them in a line on a long branch, standing, stretched +up to their full height, their great eyes opened wide, and all with +their great beaks open, evidently listening for something. Their +cry is most peculiar and can only be mistaken for a native horn; and +although there seems little variety in it to my ear, there must be +more to theirs, for they will carry on long confabulations with each +other across a river, and, I believe, sit up half the night and talk +scandal. + +There were plenty of plantain-eaters here, but, although their +screech was as appalling as I have heard in Angola, they were not +regarded, by the Ajumba at any rate, as being birds of evil omen, as +they are in Angola. Still, by no means all the birds here only +screech and squark. Several of them have very lovely notes. There +is one who always gives a series of infinitely beautiful, soft, +rich-toned whistles just before the first light of the dawn shows in +the sky, and one at least who has a prolonged and very lovely song. +This bird, I was told in Gaboon, is called Telephonus erythropterus. +I expect an ornithologist would enjoy himself here, but I cannot-- +and will not--collect birds. I hate to have them killed any how, +and particularly in the barbarous way in which these natives kill +them. + +The broad stretch of water looks like a long lake. In all +directions sandbanks are showing their broad yellow backs, and there +will be more showing soon, for it is not yet the height of the dry. +We are perpetually grounding on those which by next month will be +above water. These canoes are built, I believe, more with a view to +taking sandbanks comfortably than anything else; but they are by no +means yet sufficiently specialised for getting off them. Their flat +bottoms enable them to glide on to the banks, and sit there, without +either upsetting or cutting into the sand, as a canoe with a keel +would; but the trouble comes in when you are getting off the steep +edge of the bank, and the usual form it takes is upsetting. So far +my Ajumba friends have only tried to meet this difficulty by tying +the cargo in. + +I try to get up the geography of this region conscientiously. +Fortunately I find Gray Shirt, Singlet, and Pagan can speak trade +English. None of them, however, seem to recognise a single blessed +name on the chart, which is saying nothing against the chart and its +makers, who probably got their names up from M'pongwes and Igalwas +instead of Ajumba, as I am trying to. Geographical research in this +region is fraught with difficulty, I find, owing to different tribes +calling one and the same place by different names; and I am sure the +Royal Geographical Society ought to insert among their "Hints" that +every traveller in this region should carefully learn every separate +native word, or set of words, signifying "I don't know,"--four +villages and two rivers I have come across out here solemnly set +down with various forms of this statement, for their native name. +Really I think the old Portuguese way of naming places after Saints, +etc., was wiser in the long run, and it was certainly pleasanter to +the ear. My Ajumba, however, know about my Ngambi and the Vinue all +right and Eliva z'Ayzingo, so I must try and get cross bearings from +these. + +We have an addition to our crew this morning--a man who wants to go +and get work at John Holt's sub-factory away on the Rembwe. He has +been waiting a long while at Arevooma, unable to get across, I am +told, because the road is now stopped between Ayzingo and the Rembwe +by "those fearful Fans." "How are we going to get through that +way?" says I, with natural feminine alarm. "We are not, sir," says +Gray Shirt. This is what Lady MacDonald would term a chatty little +incident; and my hair begins to rise as I remember what I have been +told about those Fans and the indications I have already seen of its +being true when on the Upper Ogowe. Now here we are going to try to +get through the heart of their country, far from a French station, +and without the French flag. Why did I not obey Mr. Hudson's orders +not to go wandering about in a reckless way! Anyhow I am in for it, +and Fortune favours the brave. The only question is: Do I +individually come under this class? I go into details. It seems +Pagan thinks he can depend on the friendship of two Fans he once met +and did business with, and who now live on an island in Lake Ncovi-- +Ncovi is not down on my map and I have never heard of it before-- +anyhow thither we are bound now. + +Each man has brought with him his best gun, loaded to the muzzle, +and tied on to the baggage against which I am leaning--the muzzles +sticking out each side of my head: the flint locks covered with +cases, or sheaths, made of the black-haired skins of gorillas, +leopard skin, and a beautiful bright bay skin, which I do not know, +which they say is bush cow--but they call half a dozen things bush +cow. These guns are not the "gas-pipes" I have seen up north; but +decent rifles which have had the rifling filed out and the locks +replaced by flint locks and converted into muzzle loaders, and many +of them have beautiful barrels. I find the Ajumba name for the +beautiful shrub that has long bunches of red, yellow and cream- +coloured young leaves at the end of its branches is "obaa." I also +learn that in their language ebony and a monkey have one name. The +forest on either bank is very lovely. Some enormously high columns +of green are formed by a sort of climbing plant having taken +possession of lightning-struck trees, and in one place it really +looks exactly as if some one had spread a great green coverlet over +the forest, so as to keep it dry. No high land showing in any +direction. Pagan tells me the extinguisher-shaped juju filled with +medicine and made of iron is against drowning--the red juju is "for +keep foot in path." Beautiful effect of a gleam of sunshine +lighting up a red sandbank till it glows like the Nibelungen gold. +Indeed the effects are Turneresque to-day owing to the mist, and the +sun playing in and out among it. + +The sandbanks now have their cliffs to the N.N.W. and N.W. At 9.30, +the broad river in front of us is apparently closed by sandbanks +which run out from the banks thus: - + + yellow} +S. bank bright-red} N. bank. + yellow} + +Current running strong along south bank. This bank bears testimony +of this also being the case in the wet season, for a fringe of torn- +down trees hangs from it into the river. Pass Seke, a town on north +bank, interchanging the usual observations regarding our +destination. The river seems absolutely barred with sand again; but +as we paddle down it, the obstructions resolve themselves into spits +of sand from the north bank and the largest island in mid-stream, +which also has a long tail, or train, of sandbank down river. Here +we meet a picturesque series of canoes, fruit and trade laden, being +poled up stream, one man with his pole over one side, the other with +his pole over the other, making a St. Andrew's cross as you meet +them end on. + +Most luxurious, charming, and pleasant trip this. The men are +standing up swinging in rhythmic motion their long, rich red wood +paddles in perfect time to their elaborate melancholy, minor key +boat song. Nearly lost with all hands. Sandbank palaver--only when +we were going over the end of it, the canoe slips sideways over its +edge. River deep, bottom sand and mud. This information may be +interesting to the geologist, but I hope I shall not be converted by +circumstances into a human sounding apparatus again to-day. Next +time she strikes I shall get out and shove behind. + +We are now skirting the real north bank, and not the bank of an +island or islands as we have been for some time heretofore. Lovely +stream falls into this river over cascades. The water is now rough +in a small way and the width of the river great, but it soon is +crowded again with wooded islands. There are patches and wreaths of +a lovely, vermilion-flowering bush rope decorating the forest, and +now and again clumps of a plant that shows a yellow and crimson +spike of bloom, very strikingly beautiful. We pass a long tunnel in +the bush, quite dark as you look down it--evidently the path to some +native town. The south bank is covered, where the falling waters +have exposed it, with hippo grass. Terrible lot of mangrove flies +about, although we are more than one hundred miles above the +mangrove belt. River broad again--tending W.S.W., with a broad +flattened island with attributive sandbanks in the middle. The fair +way is along the south bank of the river. Gray Shirt tells me this +river is called the O'Rembo Vongo, or small River, so as to +distinguish it from the main stream of the Ogowe which goes down +past the south side of Lembarene Island, as well I know after that +canoe affair of mine. Ayzingo now bears due north--and native +mahogany is called "Okooma." Pass village called Welli on north +bank. It looks like some gipsy caravans stuck on poles. I expect +that village has known what it means to be swamped by the rising +river; it looks as if it had, very hastily in the middle of some +night, taken to stilts, which I am sure, from their present rickety +condition, will not last through the next wet season, and then some +unfortunate spirit will get the blame of the collapse. I also learn +that it is the natal spot of my friend Kabinda, the carpenter at +Andande. Now if some of these good people I know would only go and +distinguish themselves, I might write a sort of county family +history of these parts; but they don't, and I fancy won't. For +example, the entrance--or should I say the exit?--of a broadish +little river is just away on the south bank. If you go up this +river--it runs S.E.--you get to a good-sized lake; in this lake +there is an island called Adole; then out of the other side of the +lake there is another river which falls into the Ogowe main stream-- +but that is not the point of the story, which is that on that island +of Adole, Ngouta, the interpreter, first saw the light. Why he ever +did--there or anywhere--Heaven only knows! I know I shall never +want to write his biography. + +On the western bank end of that river going to Adole, there is an +Igalwa town, notable for a large quantity of fine white ducks and a +clump of Indian bamboo. My informants say, "No white man ever live +for this place," so I suppose the ducks and bamboo have been +imported by some black trader whose natal spot this is. The name of +this village is Wanderegwoma. Stuck on sandbank--I flew out and +shoved behind, leaving Ngouta to do the balancing performances in +the stern. This O'Rembo Vongo divides up just below here, I am +told, when we have re-embarked, into three streams. One goes into +the main Ogowe opposite Ayshouka in Nkami country--Nkami country +commences at Ayshouka and goes to the sea--one into the Ngumbi, and +one into the Nunghi--all in the Ouroungou country. Ayzingo now lies +N.E. according to Gray Shirt's arm. On our river there is here +another broad low island with its gold-coloured banks shining out, +seemingly barring the entire channel, but there is really a canoe +channel along by both banks. + +We turn at this point into a river on the north bank that runs north +and south--the current is running very swift to the north. We run +down into it, and then, it being more than time enough for chop, we +push the canoe on to a sandbank in our new river, which I am told is +the Karkola. I, after having had my tea, wander off, and find +behind our high sandbank, which like all the other sandbanks above +water now, is getting grown over with hippo grass--a fine light +green grass, the beloved food of both hippo and manatee--a forest, +and entering this I notice a succession of strange mounds or heaps, +made up of branches, twigs, and leaves, and dead flowers. Many of +these heaps are recent, while others have fallen into decay. +Investigation shows they are burial places. Among the debris of an +old one there are human bones, and out from one of the new ones +comes a stench and a hurrying, exceedingly busy line of ants, +demonstrating what is going on. I own I thought these mounds were +some kind of bird's or animal's nest. They look entirely unhuman in +this desolate reach of forest. Leaving these, I go down to the +water edge of the sand, and find in it a quantity of pools of +varying breadth and expanse, but each surrounded by a rim of dark +red-brown deposit, which you can lift off the sand in a skin. On +the top of the water is a film of exquisite iridescent colours like +those on a soap bubble, only darker and brighter. In the river +alongside the sand, there are thousands of those beautiful little +fish with a black line each side of their tails. They are perfectly +tame, and I feed them with crumbs in my hand. After making every +effort to terrify the unknown object containing the food--gallant +bulls, quite two inches long, sidling up and snapping at my fingers- +-they come and feed right in the palm, so that I could have caught +them by the handful had I wished. There are also a lot of those +weird, semi-transparent, yellow, spotted little sandfish with cup- +shaped pectoral fins, which I see they use to enable them to make +their astoundingly long leaps. These fish are of a more nervous and +distrustful disposition, and hover round my hand but will not come +into it. Indeed I do not believe the other cheeky little fellows +would allow them to. + +The men, having had their rest and their pipes, shout for me, and +off we go again. The Karkola {181} soon widens to about 100 feet; +it is evidently very deep here; the right bank (the east) is +forested, the left, low and shrubbed, one patch looking as if it +were being cleared for a plantation, but no village showing. A big +rock shows up on the right bank, which is a change from the clay and +sand, and soon the whole character of the landscape changes. We +come to a sharp turn in the river, from north and south to east and +west--the current very swift. The river channel dodges round +against a big bank of sword grass, and then widens out to the +breadth of the Thames at Putney. I am told that a river runs out of +it here to the west to Ouroungou country, and so I imagine this +Karkola falls ultimately into the Nazareth. We skirt the eastern +banks, which are covered with low grass with a scanty lot of trees +along the top. High land shows in the distance to the S.S.W. and +S.W., and then we suddenly turn up into a broad river or straith, +shaping our course N.N.E. On the opposite bank, on a high dwarf +cliff, is a Fan town. "All Fan now," says Singlet in anything but a +gratified tone of voice. + +It is a strange, wild, lonely bit of the world we are now in, +apparently a lake or broad--full of sandbanks, some bare and some in +the course of developing into permanent islands by the growth on +them of that floating coarse grass, any joint of which being torn +off either by the current, a passing canoe, or hippos, floats down +and grows wherever it settles. Like most things that float in these +parts, it usually settles on a sandbank, and then grows in much the +same way as our couch grass grows on land in England, so as to form +a network, which catches for its adopted sandbank all sorts of +floating debris; so the sandbank comes up in the world. The waters +of the wet season when they rise drown off the grass; but when they +fall, up it comes again from the root, and so gradually the sandbank +becomes an island and persuades real trees and shrubs to come and +grow on it, and its future is then secured. + +We skirt alongside a great young island of this class; the sword +grass some ten or fifteen feet high. It has not got any trees on it +yet, but by next season or so it doubtless will have. The grass is +stabbled down into paths by hippos, and just as I have realised who +are the road-makers, they appear in person. One immense fellow, +hearing us, stands up and shows himself about six feet from us in +the grass, gazes calmly, and then yawns a yawn a yard wide and +grunts his news to his companions, some of whom--there is evidently +a large herd--get up and stroll towards us with all the flowing +grace of Pantechnicon vans in motion. We put our helm paddles hard +a starboard and leave that bank. + +Our hasty trip across to the bank of the island on the other side +being accomplished, we, in search of seclusion and in the hope that +out of sight would mean out of mind to hippos, shot down a narrow +channel between semi-island sandbanks, and those sandbanks, if you +please, are covered with specimens--as fine a set of specimens as +you could wish for--of the West African crocodile. These +interesting animals are also having their siestas, lying sprawling +in all directions on the sand, with their mouths wide open. One +immense old lady has a family of lively young crocodiles running +over her, evidently playing like a lot of kittens. The heavy musky +smell they give off is most repulsive, but we do not rise up and +make a row about this, because we feel hopelessly in the wrong in +intruding into these family scenes uninvited, and so apologetically +pole ourselves along rapidly, not even singing. The pace the canoe +goes down that channel would be a wonder to Henley Regatta. When +out of ear-shot I ask Pagan whether there are many gorillas, +elephants, or bush cows round here. "Plenty too much," says he; and +it occurs to me that the corn-fields are growing golden green away +in England; and soon there rises up in my mental vision a picture +that fascinated my youth in the Fliegende Blatter, representing +"Friedrich Gerstaeker auf der Reise." That gallant man is depicted +tramping on a serpent, new to M. Boulenger, while he attempts to +club, with the butt end of his gun, a most lively savage who, +accompanied by a bison, is attacking him in front. A terrific and +obviously enthusiastic crocodile is grabbing the tail of the +explorer's coat, and the explorer says "Hurrah! das gibt wieder +einen prachtigen Artikel fur Die Allgemeine Zeitung." I do not know +where in the world Gerstaeker was at the time, but I should fancy +hereabouts. My vigorous and lively conscience also reminds me that +the last words a most distinguished and valued scientific friend had +said to me before I left home was, "Always take measurements, Miss +Kingsley, and always take them from the adult male." I know I have +neglected opportunities of carrying this commission out on both +those banks, but I do not feel like going back. Besides, the men +would not like it, and I have mislaid my yard measure. + +The extent of water, dotted with sandbanks and islands in all +directions, here is great, and seems to be fringed uniformly by low +swampy land, beyond which, to the north, rounded lumps of hills show +blue. On one of the islands is a little white house which I am told +was once occupied by a black trader for John Holt. It looks a +desolate place for any man to live in, and the way the crocodiles +and hippo must have come up on the garden ground in the evening time +could not have enhanced its charms to the average cautious man. My +men say, "No man live for that place now." The factory, I believe, +has been, for some trade reason, abandoned. Behind it is a great +clump of dark-coloured trees. The rest of the island is now covered +with hippo grass looking like a beautifully kept lawn. We lie up +for a short rest at another island, also a weird spot in its way, +for it is covered with a grove of only one kind of tree, which has a +twisted, contorted, gray-white trunk and dull, lifeless-looking, +green, hard foliage. + +I learn that these good people, to make topographical confusion +worse confounded, call a river by one name when you are going up it, +and by another when you are coming down; just as if you called the +Thames the London when you were going up, and the Greenwich when you +were coming down. The banks all round this lake or broad, seem all +light-coloured sand and clay. We pass out of it into a channel. +Current flowing north. As we are entering the channel between banks +of grass-overgrown sand, a superb white crane is seen standing on +the sand edge to the left. Gray Shirt attempts to get a shot at it, +but it--alarmed at our unusual appearance--raises itself up with one +of those graceful preliminary curtseys, and after one or two +preliminary flaps spreads its broad wings and sweeps away, with its +long legs trailing behind it like a thing on a Japanese screen. + +The river into which we ran zigzags about, and then takes a course +S.S.E. It is studded with islands slightly higher than those we +have passed, and thinly clad with forest. The place seems alive +with birds; flocks of pelican and crane rise up before us out of the +grass, and every now and then a crocodile slides off the bank into +the water. Wonderfully like old logs they look, particularly when +you see one letting himself roll and float down on the current. In +spite of these interests I began to wonder where in this lonely land +we were to sleep to-night. In front of us were miles of distant +mountains, but in no direction the slightest sign of human +habitation. Soon we passed out of our channel into a lovely, +strangely melancholy, lonely-looking lake--Lake Ncovi, my friends +tell me. It is exceedingly beautiful. The rich golden sunlight of +the late afternoon soon followed by the short-lived, glorious +flushes of colour of the sunset and the after-glow, play over the +scene as we paddle across the lake to the N.N.E.--our canoe leaving +a long trail of frosted silver behind her as she glides over the +mirror-like water, and each stroke of the paddle sending down air +with it to come up again in luminous silver bubbles--not as before +in swirls of sand and mud. The lake shore is, in all directions, +wreathed with nobly forested hills, indigo and purple in the dying +daylight. On the N.N.E. and N.E. these come directly down into the +lake; on N.W., N., S.W., and S.E. there is a band of well-forested +ground, behind which they rise. In the north and north-eastern part +of the lake several exceedingly beautiful wooded islands show, with +gray rocky beaches and dwarf cliffs. + +Sign of human habitation at first there was none; and in spite of +its beauty, there was something which I was almost going to say was +repulsive. The men evidently felt the same as I did. Had any one +told me that the air that lay on the lake was poison, or that in +among its forests lay some path to regions of utter death, I should +have said--"It looks like that"; but no one said anything, and we +only looked round uneasily, until the comfortable-souled Singlet +made the unfortunate observation that he "smelt blood." {185} We +all called him an utter fool to relieve our minds, and made our way +towards the second island. When we got near enough to it to see +details, a large village showed among the trees on its summit, and a +steep dwarf cliff, overgrown with trees and creeping plants came +down to a small beach covered with large water-washed gray stones. +There was evidently some kind of a row going on in that village, +that took a lot of shouting too. We made straight for the beach, +and drove our canoe among its outlying rocks, and then each of my +men stowed his paddle quickly, slung on his ammunition bag, and +picked up his ready loaded gun, sliding the skin sheath off the +lock. Pagan got out on to the stones alongside the canoe just as +the inhabitants became aware of our arrival, and, abandoning what I +hope was a mass meeting to remonstrate with the local authorities on +the insanitary state of the town, came--a brown mass of naked +humanity--down the steep cliff path to attend to us, whom they +evidently regarded as an Imperial interest. Things did not look +restful, nor these Fans personally pleasant. Every man among them-- +no women showed--was armed with a gun, and they loosened their +shovel-shaped knives in their sheaths as they came, evidently +regarding a fight quite as imminent as we did. They drew up about +twenty paces from us in silence. Pagan and Gray Shirt, who had +joined him, held out their unembarrassed hands, and shouted out the +name of the Fan man they had said they were friendly with: "Kiva- +Kiva." The Fans stood still and talked angrily among themselves for +some minutes, and then, Silence said to me, "It would be bad palaver +if Kiva no live for this place," in a tone that conveyed to me the +idea he thought this unpleasant contingency almost a certainty. The +Passenger exhibited unmistakable symptoms of wishing he had come by +another boat. I got up from my seat in the bottom of the canoe and +leisurely strolled ashore, saying to the line of angry faces +"M'boloani" in an unconcerned way, although I well knew it was +etiquette for them to salute first. They grunted, but did not +commit themselves further. A minute after they parted to allow a +fine-looking, middle-aged man, naked save for a twist of dirty cloth +round his loins and a bunch of leopard and wild cat tails hung from +his shoulder by a strip of leopard skin, to come forward. Pagan +went for him with a rush, as if he were going to clasp him to his +ample bosom, but holding his hands just off from touching the Fan's +shoulder in the usual way, while he said in Fan, "Don't you know me, +my beloved Kiva? Surely you have not forgotten your old friend?" +Kiva grunted feelingly, and raised up his hands and held them just +off touching Pagan, and we breathed again. Then Gray Shirt made a +rush at the crowd and went through great demonstrations of affection +with another gentleman whom he recognised as being a Fan friend of +his own, and whom he had not expected to meet here. I looked round +to see if there was not any Fan from the Upper Ogowe whom I knew to +go for, but could not see one that I could on the strength of a +previous acquaintance, and on their individual merits I did not feel +inclined to do even this fashionable imitation embrace. Indeed I +must say that never--even in a picture book--have I seen such a set +of wild wicked-looking savages as those we faced this night, and +with whom it was touch-and-go for twenty of the longest minutes I +have ever lived, whether we fought--for our lives, I was going to +say, but it would not have been even for that, but merely for the +price of them. + +Peace having been proclaimed, conversation became general. Gray +Shirt brought his friend up and introduced him to me, and we shook +hands and smiled at each other in the conventional way. Pagan's +friend, who was next introduced, was more alarming, for he held his +hands for half a minute just above my elbows without quite touching +me, but he meant well; and then we all disappeared into a brown mass +of humanity and a fog of noise. You would have thought, from the +violence and vehemence of the shouting and gesticulation, that we +were going to be forthwith torn to shreds; but not a single hand +really touched me, and as I, Pagan, and Gray Shirt went up to the +town in the midst of the throng, the crowd opened in front and +closed in behind, evidently half frightened at my appearance. The +row when we reached the town redoubled in volume from the fact that +the ladies, the children, and the dogs joined in. Every child in +the place as soon as it saw my white face let a howl out of it as if +it had seen his Satanic Majesty, horns, hoofs, tail and all, and +fled into the nearest hut, headlong, and I fear, from the +continuance of the screams, had fits. The town was exceedingly +filthy--the remains of the crocodile they had been eating the week +before last, and piles of fish offal, and remains of an elephant, +hippo or manatee--I really can't say which, decomposition was too +far advanced--united to form a most impressive stench. The bark +huts are, as usual in a Fan town, in unbroken rows; but there are +three or four streets here, not one only, as in most cases. The +palaver house is in the innermost street, and there we went, and +noticed that the village view was not in the direction in which we +had come, but across towards the other side of the lake. I told the +Ajumba to explain we wanted hospitality for the night, and wished to +hire three carriers for to-morrow to go with us to the Rembwe. + +For an hour and three-quarters by my watch I stood in the +suffocating, smoky, hot atmosphere listening to, but only faintly +understanding, the war of words and gesture that raged round us. At +last the fact that we were to be received being settled, Gray +Shirt's friend led us out of the guard house--the crowd flinching +back as I came through it--to his own house on the right-hand side +of the street of huts. It was a very different dwelling to Gray +Shirt's residence at Arevooma. I was as high as its roof ridge and +had to stoop low to get through the door-hole. Inside, the hut was +fourteen or fifteen feet square, unlit by any window. The door-hole +could be closed by pushing a broad piece of bark across it under two +horizontally fixed bits of stick. The floor was sand like the +street outside, but dirtier. On it in one place was a fire, whose +smoke found its way out through the roof. In one corner of the room +was a rough bench of wood, which from the few filthy cloths on it +and a wood pillow I saw was the bed. There was no other furniture +in the hut save some boxes, which I presume held my host's earthly +possessions. From the bamboo roof hung a long stick with hooks on +it, the hooks made by cutting off branching twigs. This was +evidently the hanging wardrobe, and on it hung some few fetish +charms, and a beautiful ornament of wild cat and leopard tails, tied +on to a square piece of leopard skin, in the centre of which was a +little mirror, and round the mirror were sewn dozens of common shirt +buttons. In among the tails hung three little brass bells and a +brass rattle; these bells and rattles are not only "for dandy," but +serve to scare away snakes when the ornament is worn in the forest. +A fine strip of silky-haired, young gorilla skin made the band to +sling the ornament from the shoulder when worn. Gorillas seem well +enough known round here. One old lady in the crowd outside, I saw, +had a necklace made of sixteen gorilla canine teeth slung on a pine- +apple fibre string. Gray Shirt explained to me that this is the +best house in the village, and my host the most renowned elephant +hunter in the district. + +We then returned to the canoe, whose occupants had been getting +uneasy about the way affairs were going "on top," on account of the +uproar they heard and the time we had been away. We got into the +canoe and took her round the little promontory at the end of the +island to the other beach, which is the main beach. By arriving at +the beach when we did, we took our Fan friends in the rear, and they +did not see us coming in the gloaming. This was all for the best, +it seems, as they said they should have fired on us before they had +had time to see we were rank outsiders, on the apprehension that we +were coming from one of the Fan towns we had passed, and with whom +they were on bad terms regarding a lady who bolted there from her +lawful lord, taking with her--cautious soul!--a quantity of rubber. +The only white man who had been here before in the memory of man, +was a French officer who paid Kiva six dollars to take him +somewhere, I was told--but I could not find out when, or what +happened to that Frenchman. {189} It was a long time ago, Kiva +said, but these folks have no definite way of expressing duration of +time nor, do I believe, any great mental idea of it; although their +ideas are, as usual with West Africans, far ahead of their language. + +All the goods were brought up to my hut, and while Ngouta gets my +tea we started talking the carrier palaver again. The Fans received +my offer, starting at two dollars ahead of what M. Jacot said would +be enough, with utter scorn, and every dramatic gesture of dissent; +one man, pretending to catch Gray Shirt's words in his hands, flings +them to the ground and stamps them under his feet. I affected an +easy take-it-or-leave-it-manner, and looked on. A woman came out of +the crowd to me, and held out a mass of slimy gray abomination on a +bit of plantain leaf--smashed snail. I accepted it and gave her +fish hooks. She was delighted and her companions excited, so she +put the hooks into her mouth for safe keeping. I hurriedly +explained in my best Fan that I do not require any more snail; so +another lady tried the effect of a pine-apple. There might be no +end to this, so I retired into trade and asked what she would sell +it for. She did not want to sell it--she wanted to give it me; so I +gave her fish hooks. Silence and Singlet interposed, saying the +price for pine-apples is one leaf of tobacco, but I explained I was +not buying. Ngouta turned up with my tea, so I went inside, and had +it on the bed. The door-hole was entirely filled with a mosaic of +faces, but no one attempted to come in. All the time the carrier +palaver went on without cessation, and I went out and offered to +take Gray Shirt's and Pagan's place, knowing they must want their +chop, but they refused relief, and also said I must not raise the +price; I was offering too big a price now, and if I once rise the +Fan will only think I will keep on rising, and so make the palaver +longer to talk. "How long does a palaver usually take to talk round +here?" I ask. "The last one I talked," says Pagan, "took three +weeks, and that was only a small price palaver." "Well," say I, "my +price is for a start to-morrow--after then I have no price--after +that I go away." Another hour however sees the jam made, and to my +surprise I find the three richest men in this town of M'fetta have +personally taken up the contract--Kiva my host, Fika a fine young +fellow, and Wiki, another noted elephant hunter. These three Fans, +the four Ajumba and the Igalwa, Ngouta, I think will be enough. +Moreover I fancy it safer not to have an overpowering percentage of +Fans in the party, as I know we shall have considerable stretches of +uninhabited forest to traverse; and the Ajumba say that the Fans +will kill people, i.e. the black traders who venture into their +country, and cut them up into neat pieces, eat what they want at the +time, and smoke the rest of the bodies for future use. Now I do not +want to arrive at the Rembwe in a smoked condition, even should my +fragments be neat, and I am going in a different direction to what I +said I was when leaving Kangwe, and there are so many ways of +accounting for death about here--leopard, canoe capsize, elephants, +etc.--that even if I were traced--well, nothing could be done then, +anyhow--so will only take three Fans. One must diminish dead +certainties to the level of sporting chances along here, or one can +never get on. + +No one, either Ajumba or Fan, knew the exact course we were to take. +The Ajumba had never been this way before--the way for black traders +across being via Lake Ayzingo, the way Mr. Goode of the American +Mission once went, and the Fans said they only knew the way to a big +Fan town called Efoua, where no white man or black trader had yet +been. There is a path from there to the Rembwe they knew, because +the Efoua people take their trade all to the Rembwe. They would, +they said, come with me all the way if I would guarantee them safety +if they "found war" on the road. This I agreed to do, and arranged +to pay off at Hatton and Cookson's subfactory on the Rembwe, and +they have "Look my mouth and it be sweet, so palaver done set." +Every load then, by the light of the bush lights held by the women, +we arranged. I had to unpack my bottles of fishes so as to equalise +the weight of the loads. Every load is then made into a sort of +cocoon with bush rope. + +I was left in peace at about 11.30 P.M., and clearing off the +clothes from the bench threw myself down and tried to get some +sleep, for we were to start, the Fans said, before dawn. Sleep +impossible--mosquitoes! lice!!--so at 12.40 I got up and slid aside +my bark door. I found Pagan asleep under his mosquito bar outside, +across the doorway, but managed to get past him without rousing him +from his dreams of palaver which he was still talking aloud, and +reconnoitred the town. The inhabitants seemed to have talked +themselves quite out and were sleeping heavily. I went down then to +our canoe and found it safe, high up among the Fan canoes on the +stones, and then I slid a small Fan canoe off, and taking a paddle +from a cluster stuck in the sand, paddled out on to the dark lake. + +It was a wonderfully lovely quiet night with no light save that from +the stars. One immense planet shone pre-eminent in the purple sky, +throwing a golden path down on to the still waters. Quantities of +big fish sprung out of the water, their glistening silver-white +scales flashing so that they look like slashing swords. Some bird +was making a long, low boom-booming sound away on the forest shore. +I paddled leisurely across the lake to the shore on the right, and +seeing crawling on the ground some large glow-worms, drove the canoe +on to the bank among some hippo grass, and got out to get them. + +While engaged on this hunt I felt the earth quiver under my feet, +and heard a soft big soughing sound, and looking round saw I had +dropped in on a hippo banquet. I made out five of the immense +brutes round me, so I softly returned to the canoe and shoved off, +stealing along the bank, paddling under water, until I deemed it +safe to run out across the lake for my island. I reached the other +end of it to that on which the village is situated; and finding a +miniature rocky bay with a soft patch of sand and no hippo grass, +the incidents of the Fan hut suggested the advisability of a bath. +Moreover, there was no china collection in that hut, and it would be +a long time before I got another chance, so I go ashore again, and, +carefully investigating the neighbourhood to make certain there was +no human habitation near, I then indulged in a wash in peace. +Drying one's self on one's cummerbund is not pure joy, but it can be +done when you put your mind to it. While I was finishing my toilet +I saw a strange thing happen. Down through the forest on the lake +bank opposite came a violet ball the size of a small orange. When +it reached the sand beach it hovered along it to and fro close to +the ground. In a few minutes another ball of similarly coloured +light came towards it from behind one of the islets, and the two +waver to and fro over the beach, sometimes circling round each +other. I made off towards them in the canoe, thinking--as I still +do--they were some brand new kind of luminous insect. When I got on +to their beach one of them went off into the bushes and the other +away over the water. I followed in the canoe, for the water here is +very deep, and, when I almost thought I had got it, it went down +into the water and I could see it glowing as it sunk until it +vanished in the depths. I made my way back hastily, fearing my +absence with the canoe might give rise, if discovered, to trouble, +and by 3.30 I was back in the hut safe, but not so comfortable as I +had been on the lake. A little before five my men are stirring and +I get my tea. I do not state my escapade to them, but ask what +those lights were. "Akom," said the Fan, and pointing to the shore +of the lake where I had been during the night they said, "they came +there, it was an 'Aku'"--or devil bush. More than ever did I regret +not having secured one of those sort of two phenomena. What a joy a +real devil, appropriately put up in raw alcohol, would have been to +my scientific friends! + +Wednesday, July 24th.--We get away about 5.30, the Fans coming in a +separate canoe. We call at the next island to M'fetta to buy some +more aguma. The inhabitants are very much interested in my +appearance, running along the stony beach as we paddle away, and +standing at the end of it until we are out of sight among the many +islands at the N.E. end of Lake Ncovi. The scenery is savage; there +are no terrific cliffs nor towering mountains to make it what one +usually calls wild or romantic, but there is a distinction about it +which is all its own. This N.E. end has beautiful sand beaches on +the southern side, in front of the forested bank, lying in smooth +ribbons along the level shore, and in scollops round the +promontories where the hills come down into the lake. The forest on +these hills, or mountains--for they are part of the Sierra del +Cristal--is very dark in colour, and the undergrowth seems scant. +We presently come to a narrow but deep channel into the lake coming +from the eastward, which we go up, winding our course with it into a +valley between the hills. After going up it a little way we find it +completely fenced across with stout stakes, a space being left open +in the middle, broader than the spaces between the other stakes; and +over this is poised a spear with a bush rope attached, and weighted +at the top of the haft with a great lump of rock. The whole affair +is kept in position by a bush rope so arranged just under the level +of the water that anything passing through the opening would bring +the spear down. This was a trap for hippo or manatee (Ngany +'imanga), and similar in structure to those one sees set in the +hippo grass near villages and plantations, which serve the double +purpose of defending the vegetable supply, and adding to the meat +supply of the inhabitants. We squeeze through between the stakes so +as not to let the trap off, and find our little river leads us into +another lake, much smaller than Ncovi. It is studded with islands +of fantastic shapes, all wooded with high trees of an equal level, +and with little or no undergrowth among them, so their pale gray +stems look like clusters of columns supporting a dark green ceiling. +The forest comes down steep hill sides to the water edge in all +directions; and a dark gloomy-looking herb grows up out of black +slime and water, in a bank or ribbon in front of it. There is +another channel out of this lake, still to the N.E. The Fans say +they think it goes into the big lake far far away, i.e., Lake +Ayzingo. From the look of the land, I think this river connecting +Ayzingo and Lake Ncovi wanders down this valley between the mountain +spurs of the Sierra del Cristal, expanding into one gloomy lake +after another. We run our canoe into a bank of the dank dark- +coloured water herb to the right, and disembark into a fitting +introduction to the sort of country we shall have to deal with +before we see the Rembwe--namely, up to our knees in black slime. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. FROM NCOVI TO ESOON. + + + +Concerning the way in which the voyager goes from the island of +M'fetta to no one knows exactly where, in doubtful and bad company, +and of what this led to and giving also some accounts of the Great +Forest and of those people that live therein. + +I will not bore you with my diary in detail regarding our land +journey, because the water-washed little volume attributive to this +period is mainly full of reports of law cases, for reasons +hereinafter to be stated; and at night, when passing through this +bit of country, I was usually too tired to do anything more than +make an entry such as: "5 S., 4 R. A., N.E Ebony. T. 1-50, etc., +etc."--entries that require amplification to explain their +significance, and I will proceed to explain. + +Our first day's march was a very long one. Path in the ordinary +acceptance of the term there was none. Hour after hour, mile after +mile, we passed on, in the under-gloom of the great forest. The +pace made by the Fans, who are infinitely the most rapid Africans I +have ever come across, severely tired the Ajumba, who are canoe men, +and who had been as fresh as paint, after their exceedingly long +day's paddling from Arevooma to M'fetta. Ngouta, the Igalwa +interpreter, felt pumped, and said as much, very early in the day. +I regretted very much having brought him; for, from a mixture of +nervous exhaustion arising from our M'fetta experiences, and a touch +of chill he had almost entirely lost his voice, and I feared would +fall sick. The Fans were evidently quite at home in the forest, and +strode on over fallen trees and rocks with an easy, graceful stride. +What saved us weaklings was the Fans' appetites; every two hours +they sat down, and had a snack of a pound or so of meat and aguma +apiece, followed by a pipe of tobacco. We used to come up with them +at these halts. Ngouta and the Ajumba used to sit down, and rest +with them, and I also, for a few minutes, for a rest and chat, and +then I would go on alone, thus getting a good start. I got a good +start, in the other meaning of the word, on the afternoon of the +first day when descending into a ravine. + +I saw in the bottom, wading and rolling in the mud, a herd of five +elephants. I remembered, hastily, that your one chance when charged +by several elephants is to dodge them round trees, working down wind +all the time, until they lose smell and sight of you, then to lie +quiet for a time, and go home. It was evident from the utter +unconcern of these monsters that I was down wind now, so I had only +to attend to dodging, and I promptly dodged round a tree, and lay +down. Seeing they still displayed no emotion on my account, and +fascinated by the novelty of the scene, I crept forward from one +tree to another, until I was close enough to have hit the nearest +one with a stone, and spats of mud, which they sent flying with +their stamping and wallowing came flap, flap among the bushes +covering me. + +One big fellow had a nice pair of 40 lb. or so tusks on him, +singularly straight, and another had one big curved tusk and one +broken one. Some of them lay right down like pigs in the deeper +part of the swamp, some drew up trunkfuls of water and syringed +themselves and each other, and every one of them indulged in a good +rub against a tree. Presently when they had had enough of it they +all strolled off up wind, through the bush in Indian file, now and +then breaking off a branch, but leaving singularly little dead water +for their tonnage and breadth of beam. When they had gone I rose +up, turned round to find the men, and trod on Kiva's back then and +there, full and fair, and fell sideways down the steep hillside +until I fetched up among some roots. + +It seems Kiva had come on, after his meal, before the others, and +seeing the elephants, and being a born hunter, had crawled like me +down to look at them. He had not expected to find me there, he +said. I do not believe he gave a thought of any sort to me in the +presence of these fascinating creatures, and so he got himself +trodden on. I suggested to him we should pile the baggage, and go +and have an elephant hunt. He shook his head reluctantly, saying +"Kor, kor," like a depressed rook, and explained we were not strong +enough; there were only three Fans--the Ajumba, and Ngouta did not +count--and moreover that we had not brought sufficient ammunition +owing to the baggage having to be carried, and the ammunition that +we had must be saved for other game than elephant, for we might meet +war before we met the Rembwe River. + +We had by now joined the rest of the party, and were all soon +squattering about on our own account in the elephant bath. It was +shocking bad going--like a ploughed field exaggerated by a terrific +nightmare. It pretty nearly pulled all the legs off me, and to this +hour I cannot tell you if it is best to put your foot into a +footmark--a young pond, I mean--about the size of the bottom of a +Madeira work arm-chair, or whether you should poise yourself on the +rim of the same, and stride forward to its other bank boldly and +hopefully. The footmarks and the places where the elephants had +been rolling were by now filled with water, and the mud underneath +was in places hard and slippery. In spite of my determination to +preserve an awesome and unmoved calm while among these dangerous +savages, I had to give way and laugh explosively; to see the portly, +powerful Pagan suddenly convert himself into a quadruped, while Gray +Shirt poised himself on one heel and waved his other leg in the air +to advertise to the assembled nations that he was about to sit down, +was irresistible. No one made such palaver about taking a seat as +Gray Shirt; I did it repeatedly without any fuss to speak of. That +lordly elephant-hunter, the Great Wiki, would, I fancy, have strode +over safely and with dignity, but the man who was in front of him +spun round on his own axis and flung his arms round the Fan, and +they went to earth together; the heavy load on Wiki's back drove +them into the mud like a pile-driver. However we got through in +time, and after I had got up the other side of the ravine I saw the +Fan let the Ajumba go on, and were busy searching themselves for +something. + +I followed the Ajumba, and before I joined them felt a fearful +pricking irritation. Investigation of the affected part showed a +tick of terrific size with its head embedded in the flesh; pursuing +this interesting subject, I found three more, and had awfully hard +work to get them off and painful too for they give one not only a +feeling of irritation at their holding-on place, but a streak of +rheumatic-feeling pain up from it. On completing operations I went +on and came upon the Ajumba in a state more approved of by +Praxiteles than by the general public nowadays. They had found out +about elephant ticks, so I went on and got an excellent start for +the next stage. + +By this time, shortly after noon on the first day, we had struck +into a mountainous and rocky country, and also struck a track--a +track you had to keep your eye on or you lost it in a minute, but +still a guide as to direction. + +The forest trees here were mainly ebony and great hard wood trees, +{200} with no palms save my old enemy the climbing palm, calamus, as +usual, going on its long excursions, up one tree and down another, +bursting into a plume of fronds, and in the middle of each plume one +long spike sticking straight up, which was an unopened frond, +whenever it got a gleam of sunshine; running along the ground over +anything it meets, rock or fallen timber, all alike, its long, dark- +coloured, rope-like stem simply furred with thorns. Immense must be +the length of some of these climbing palms. One tree I noticed that +day that had hanging from its summit, a good one hundred and fifty +feet above us, a long straight ropelike palm stem. + +The character of the whole forest was very interesting. Sometimes +for hours we passed among thousands upon thousands of gray-white +columns of uniform height (about 100-150 feet); at the top of these +the boughs branched out and interlaced among each other, forming a +canopy or ceiling, which dimmed the light even of the equatorial sun +to such an extent that no undergrowth could thrive in the gloom. +The statement of the struggle for existence was published here in +plain figures, but it was not, as in our climate, a struggle against +climate mainly, but an internecine war from over population. Now +and again we passed among vast stems of buttressed trees, sometimes +enormous in girth; and from their far-away summits hung great bush- +ropes, some as straight as plumb lines, others coiled round, and +intertwined among each other, until one could fancy one was looking +on some mighty battle between armies of gigantic serpents, that had +been arrested at its height by some magic spell. All these bush- +ropes were as bare of foliage as a ship's wire rigging, but a good +many had thorns. I was very curious as to how they got up straight, +and investigation showed me that many of them were carried up with a +growing tree. The only true climbers were the calamus and the +rubber vine (Landolphia), both of which employ hook tackle. + +Some stretches of this forest were made up of thin, spindly stemmed +trees of great height, and among these stretches I always noticed +the ruins of some forest giant, whose death by lightning or by his +superior height having given the demoniac tornado wind an extra grip +on him, had allowed sunlight to penetrate the lower regions of the +forest; and then evidently the seedlings and saplings, who had for +years been living a half-starved life for light, shot up. They +seemed to know that their one chance lay in getting with the +greatest rapidity to the level of the top of the forest. No time to +grow fat in the stem. No time to send out side branches, or any of +those vanities. Up, up to the light level, and he among them who +reached it first won in this game of life or death; for when he gets +there he spreads out his crown of upper branches, and shuts off the +life-giving sunshine from his competitors, who pale off and die, or +remain dragging on an attenuated existence waiting for another +chance, and waiting sometimes for centuries. There must be tens of +thousands of seeds which perish before they get their chance; but +the way the seeds of the hard wood African trees are packed, as it +were in cases specially made durable, is very wonderful. Indeed the +ways of Providence here are wonderful in their strange dual +intention to preserve and to destroy; but on the whole, as Peer Gynt +truly observes, "Ein guter Wirth--nein das ist er nicht." + +We saw this influence of light on a large scale as soon as we +reached the open hills and mountains of the Sierra del Cristal, and +had to pass over those fearful avalanche-like timber falls on their +steep sides. The worst of these lay between Efoua and Egaja, where +we struck a part of the range that was exposed to the south-east. +These falls had evidently arisen from the tornados, which from time +to time have hurled down the gigantic trees whose hold on the +superficial soil over the sheets of hard bed rock was insufficient, +in spite of all the anchors they had out in the shape of roots and +buttresses, and all their rigging in the shape of bush ropes. Down +they had come, crushing and dragging down with them those near them +or bound to them by the great tough climbers. + +Getting over these falls was perilous, not to say scratchy work. +One or another member of our party always went through; and precious +uncomfortable going it was, I found, when I tried it in one above +Egaja; ten or twelve feet of crashing creaking timber, and then +flump on to a lot of rotten, wet debris, with more snakes and +centipedes among it than you had any immediate use for, even though +you were a collector; but there you had to stay, while Wiki, who was +a most critical connoisseur, selected from the surrounding forest a +bush-rope that he regarded as the correct remedy for the case, and +then up you were hauled, through the sticks you had turned the wrong +way on your down journey. + +The Duke had a bad fall, going twenty feet or so before he found the +rubbish heap; while Fika, who went through with a heavy load on his +back, took us, on one occasion, half an hour to recover; and when we +had just got him to the top, and able to cling on to the upper +sticks, Wiki, who had been superintending operations, slipped +backwards, and went through on his own account. The bush-rope we +had been hauling on was too worn with the load to use again, and we +just hauled Wiki out with the first one we could drag down and cut; +and Wiki, when he came up, said we were reckless, and knew nothing +of bush ropes, which shows how ungrateful an African can be. It +makes the perspiration run down my nose whenever I think of it. The +sun was out that day; we were neatly situated on the Equator, and +the air was semisolid, with the stinking exhalations from the swamps +with which the mountain chain is fringed and intersected; and we +were hot enough without these things, because of the violent +exertion of getting these twelve to thirteen-stone gentlemen up +among us again, and the fine varied exercise of getting over the +fall on our own account. + +When we got into the cool forest beyond it was delightful; +particularly if it happened to be one of those lovely stretches of +forest, gloomy down below, but giving hints that far away above us +was a world of bloom and scent and beauty which we saw as much of as +earth-worms in a flower-bed. Here and there the ground was strewn +with great cast blossoms, thick, wax-like, glorious cups of orange +and crimson and pure white, each one of which was in itself a +handful, and which told us that some of the trees around us were +showing a glory of colour to heaven alone. Sprinkled among them +were bunches of pure stephanotis-like flowers, which said that the +gaunt bush-ropes were rubber vines that had burst into flower when +they had seen the sun. These flowers we came across in nearly every +type of forest all the way, for rubber abounds here. + +I will weary you no longer now with the different kinds of forest +and only tell you I have let you off several. The natives have +separate names for seven different kinds, and these might, I think, +be easily run up to nine. + +A certain sort of friendship soon arose between the Fans and me. We +each recognised that we belonged to that same section of the human +race with whom it is better to drink than to fight. We knew we +would each have killed the other, if sufficient inducement were +offered, and so we took a certain amount of care that the inducement +should not arise. Gray Shirt and Pagan also, their trade friends, +the Fans treated with an independent sort of courtesy; but Silence, +Singlet, the Passenger, and above all Ngouta, they openly did not +care a row of pins for, and I have small doubt that had it not been +for us other three they would have killed and eaten these very +amiable gentlemen with as much compunction as an English sportsman +would kill as many rabbits. They on their part hated the Fan, and +never lost an opportunity of telling me "these Fan be bad man too +much." I must not forget to mention the other member of our party, +a Fan gentleman with the manners of a duke and the habits of a +dustbin. He came with us, quite uninvited by me, and never asked +for any pay; I think he only wanted to see the fun, and drop in for +a fight if there was one going on, and to pick up the pieces +generally. He was evidently a man of some importance from the way +the others treated him; and moreover he had a splendid gun, with a +gorilla skin sheath for its lock, and ornamented all over its stock +with brass nails. His costume consisted of a small piece of dirty +rag round his loins; and whenever we were going through dense +undergrowth, or wading a swamp, he wore that filament tucked up +scandalously short. Whenever we were sitting down in the forest +having one of our nondescript meals, he always sat next to me and +appropriated the tin. Then he would fill his pipe, and turning to +me with the easy grace of aristocracy, would say what may be +translated as "My dear Princess, could you favour me with a +lucifer?" + +I used to say, "My dear Duke, charmed, I'm sure," and give him one +ready lit. + +I dared not trust him with the box whole, having a personal +conviction that he would have kept it. I asked him what he would do +suppose I was not there with a box of lucifers; and he produced a +bush-cow's horn with a neat wood lid tied on with tie tie, and from +out of it he produced a flint and steel and demonstrated. + +The first day in the forest we came across a snake {205}--a beauty +with a new red-brown and yellow-patterned velvety skin, about three +feet six inches long and as thick as a man's thigh. Ngouta met it, +hanging from a bough, and shot backwards like a lobster, Ngouta +having among his many weaknesses a rooted horror of snakes. This +snake the Ogowe natives all hold in great aversion. For the bite of +other sorts of snakes they profess to have remedies, but for this +they have none. If, however, a native is stung by one he usually +conceals the fact that it was this particular kind, and tries to get +any chance the native doctor's medicine may give. The Duke stepped +forward and with one blow flattened its head against the tree with +his gun butt, and then folded the snake up and got as much of it as +possible into his bag, while the rest hung dangling out. Ngouta, +not being able to keep ahead of the Duke, his Grace's pace being +stiff, went to the extreme rear of the party, so that other people +might be killed first if the snake returned to life, as he surmised +it would. He fell into other dangers from this caution, but I +cannot chronicle Ngouta's afflictions in full without running this +book into an old fashioned folio size. We had the snake for supper, +that is to say the Fan and I; the others would not touch it, +although a good snake, properly cooked, is one of the best meats one +gets out here, far and away better than the African fowl. + +The Fans also did their best to educate me in every way: they told +me their names for things, while I told them mine. I found several +European words already slightly altered in use among them, such as +"Amuck"--a mug, "Alas"--a glass, a tumbler. I do not know whether +their "Ami"--a person addressed, or spoken of--is French or not. It +may come from "Anwe"--M'pongwe for "Ye," "You." They use it as a +rule in addressing a person after the phrase they always open up +conversation with, "Azuna"--Listen, or I am speaking. + +They also showed me many things: how to light a fire from the pith +of a certain tree, which was useful to me in after life, but they +rather overdid this branch of instruction one way and another; for +example, Wiki had, as above indicated, a mania for bush-ropes and a +marvellous eye and knowledge of them; he would pick out from among +the thousands surrounding us now one of such peculiar suppleness +that you could wind it round anything, like a strip of cloth, and as +strong withal as a hawser; or again another which has a certain +stiffness, combined with a slight elastic spring, excellent for +hauling, with the ease and accuracy of a lady who picks out the +particular twisted strand of embroidery silk from a multi-coloured +tangled ball. He would go into the bush after them while other +people were resting, and particularly after the sort which, when +split, is bright yellow, and very supple and excellent to tie round +loads. + +On one occasion, between Egaja and Esoon, he came back from one of +these quests and wanted me to come and see something, very quietly; +I went, and we crept down into a rocky ravine, on the other side of +which lay one of the outermost Egaja plantations. When we got to +the edge of the cleared ground, we lay down, and wormed our way, +with elaborate caution, among a patch of Koko; Wiki first, I +following in his trail. + +After about fifty yards of this, Wiki sank flat, and I saw before me +some thirty yards off, busily employed in pulling down plantains, +and other depredations, five gorillas: one old male, one young +male, and three females. One of these had clinging to her a young +fellow, with beautiful wavy black hair with just a kink in it. The +big male was crouching on his haunches, with his long arms hanging +down on either side, with the backs of his hands on the ground, the +palms upwards. The elder lady was tearing to pieces and eating a +pine-apple, while the others were at the plantains destroying more +than they ate. + +They kept up a sort of a whinnying, chattering noise, quite +different from the sound I have heard gorillas give when enraged, or +from the one you can hear them giving when they are what the natives +call "dancing" at night. I noticed that their reach of arm was +immense, and that when they went from one tree to another, they +squattered across the open ground in a most inelegant style, +dragging their long arms with the knuckles downwards. I should +think the big male and female were over six feet each. The others +would be from four to five. I put out my hand and laid it on Wiki's +gun to prevent him from firing, and he, thinking I was going to +fire, gripped my wrist. + +I watched the gorillas with great interest for a few seconds, until +I heard Wiki make a peculiar small sound, and looking at him saw his +face was working in an awful way as he clutched his throat with his +hand violently. + +Heavens! think I, this gentleman's going to have a fit; it's lost we +are entirely this time. He rolled his head to and fro, and then +buried his face into a heap of dried rubbish at the foot of a +plantain stem, clasped his hands over it, and gave an explosive +sneeze. The gorillas let go all, raised themselves up for a second, +gave a quaint sound between a bark and a howl, and then the ladies +and the young gentleman started home. The old male rose to his full +height (it struck me at the time this was a matter of ten feet at +least, but for scientific purposes allowance must be made for a +lady's emotions) and looked straight towards us, or rather towards +where that sound came from. Wiki went off into a paroxysm of +falsetto sneezes the like of which I have never heard; nor evidently +had the gorilla, who doubtless thinking, as one of his black co- +relatives would have thought, that the phenomenon favoured Duppy, +went off after his family with a celerity that was amazing the +moment he touched the forest, and disappeared as they had, swinging +himself along through it from bough to bough, in a way that +convinced me that, given the necessity of getting about in tropical +forests, man has made a mistake in getting his arms shortened. I +have seen many wild animals in their native wilds, but never have I +seen anything to equal gorillas going through bush; it is a +graceful, powerful, superbly perfect hand-trapeze performance. {208} + +After this sporting adventure, we returned, as I usually return from +a sporting adventure, without measurements or the body. + +Our first day's march, though the longest, was the easiest, though, +providentially I did not know this at the time. From my Woermann +road walks I judge it was well twenty-five miles. It was easiest +however, from its lying for the greater part of the way through the +gloomy type of forest. All day long we never saw the sky once. + +The earlier part of the day we were steadily going up hill, here and +there making a small descent, and then up again, until we came on to +what was apparently a long ridge, for on either side of us we could +look down into deep, dark, ravine-like valleys. Twice or thrice we +descended into these to cross them, finding at their bottom a small +or large swamp with a river running through its midst. Those rivers +all went to Lake Ayzingo. + +We had to hurry because Kiva, who was the only one among us who had +been to Efoua, said that unless we did we should not reach Efoua +that night. I said, "Why not stay for bush?" not having contracted +any love for a night in a Fan town by the experience of M'fetta; +moreover the Fans were not sure that after all the whole party of us +might not spend the evening at Efoua, when we did get there, +simmering in its cooking-pots. + +Ngouta, I may remark, had no doubt on the subject at all, and +regretted having left Mrs. N. keenly, and the Andande store +sincerely. But these Fans are a fine sporting tribe, and allowed +they would risk it; besides, they were almost certain they had +friends at Efoua; and, in addition, they showed me trees scratched +in a way that was magnification of the condition of my own cat's pet +table leg at home, demonstrating leopards in the vicinity. I kept +going, as it was my only chance, because I found I stiffened if I +sat down, and they always carefully told me the direction to go in +when they sat down; with their superior pace they soon caught me up, +and then passed me, leaving me and Ngouta and sometimes Singlet and +Pagan behind, we, in our turn, overtaking them, with this difference +that they were sitting down when we did so. + +About five o'clock I was off ahead and noticed a path which I had +been told I should meet with, and, when met with, I must follow. +The path was slightly indistinct, but by keeping my eye on it I +could see it. Presently I came to a place where it went out, but +appeared again on the other side of a clump of underbush fairly +distinctly. I made a short cut for it and the next news was I was +in a heap, on a lot of spikes, some fifteen feet or so below ground +level, at the bottom of a bag-shaped game pit. + +It is at these times you realise the blessing of a good thick skirt. +Had I paid heed to the advice of many people in England, who ought +to have known better, and did not do it themselves, and adopted +masculine garments, I should have been spiked to the bone, and done +for. Whereas, save for a good many bruises, here I was with the +fulness of my skirt tucked under me, sitting on nine ebony spikes +some twelve inches long, in comparative comfort, howling lustily to +be hauled out. The Duke came along first, and looked down at me. I +said, "Get a bush-rope, and haul me out." He grunted and sat down +on a log. The Passenger came next, and he looked down. "You kill?" +says he. "Not much," say I; "get a bush-rope and haul me out." "No +fit," says he, and sat down on the log. Presently, however, Kiva +and Wiki came up, and Wiki went and selected the one and only bush- +rope suitable to haul an English lady, of my exact complexion, age, +and size, out of that one particular pit. They seemed rare round +there from the time he took; and I was just casting about in my mind +as to what method would be best to employ in getting up the smooth, +yellow, sandy-clay, incurved walls, when he arrived with it, and I +was out in a twinkling, and very much ashamed of myself, until +Silence, who was then leading, disappeared through the path before +us with a despairing yell. Each man then pulled the skin cover off +his gun lock, carefully looked to see if things there were all right +and ready loosened his knife in its snake-skin sheath; and then we +set about hauling poor Silence out, binding him up where necessary +with cool green leaves; for he, not having a skirt, had got a good +deal frayed at the edges on those spikes. Then we closed up, for +the Fans said these pits were symptomatic of the immediate +neighbourhood of Efoua. We sounded our ground, as we went into a +thick plantain patch, through which we could see a great clearing in +the forest, and the low huts of a big town. We charged into it, +going right through the guard-house gateway, at one end, in single +file, as its narrowness obliged us, and into the street-shaped town, +and formed ourselves into as imposing a looking party as possible in +the centre of the street. The Efouerians regarded us with much +amazement, and the women and children cleared off into the huts, and +took stock of us through the door-holes. There were but few men in +the town, the majority, we subsequently learnt, being away after +elephants. But there were quite sufficient left to make a crowd in +a ring round us. Fortunately Wiki and Kiva's friends were present, +and as a result of the confabulation, one of the chiefs had his +house cleared out for me. It consisted of two apartments almost +bare of everything save a pile of boxes, and a small fire on the +floor, some little bags hanging from the roof poles, and a general +supply of insects. The inner room contained nothing save a hard +plank, raised on four short pegs from the earth floor. + +I shook hands with and thanked the chief, and directed that all the +loads should be placed inside the huts. I must admit my good friend +was a villainous-looking savage, but he behaved most hospitably and +kindly. From what I had heard of the Fan, I deemed it advisable not +to make any present to him at once, but to base my claim on him on +the right of an amicable stranger to hospitality. When I had seen +all the baggage stowed I went outside and sat at the doorway on a +rather rickety mushroom-shaped stool in the cool evening air, +waiting for my tea which I wanted bitterly. Pagan came up as usual +for tobacco to buy chop with; and after giving it to him, I and the +two chiefs, with Gray Shirt acting as interpreter, had a long chat. +Of course the first question was, Why was I there? + +I told them I was on my way to the factory of H. and C. on the +Rembwe. They said they had heard of "Ugumu," i.e., Messrs Hatton +and Cookson, but they did not trade direct with them, passing their +trade into towns nearer to the Rembwe, which were swindling bad +towns, they said; and they got the idea stuck in their heads that I +was a trader, a sort of bagman for the firm, and Gray Shirt could +not get this idea out, so off one of their majesties went and +returned with twenty-five balls of rubber, which I bought to promote +good feeling, subsequently dashing them to Wiki, who passed them in +at Ndorko when we got there. I also bought some elephant-hair +necklaces from one of the chiefs' wives, by exchanging my red silk +tie with her for them, and one or two other things. I saw fish- +hooks would not be of much value because Efoua was not near a big +water of any sort; so I held fish-hooks and traded handkerchiefs and +knives. + +One old chief was exceedingly keen to do business, and I bought a +meat spoon, a plantain spoon, and a gravy spoon off him; and then he +brought me a lot of rubbish I did not want, and I said so, and +announced I had finished trade for that night. However the old +gentleman was not to be put off, and after an unsuccessful attempt +to sell me his cooking-pots, which were roughly made out of clay, he +made energetic signs to me that if I would wait he had got something +that he would dispose of which Gray Shirt said was "good too much." +Off he went across the street, and disappeared into his hut, where +he evidently had a thorough hunt for the precious article. One box +after another was brought out to the light of a bush torch held by +one of his wives, and there was a great confabulation between him +and his family of the "I'm sure you had it last," "You must have +moved it," "Never touched the thing," sort. At last it was found, +and he brought it across the street to me most carefully. It was a +bundle of bark cloth tied round something most carefully with tie +tie. This being removed, disclosed a layer of rag, which was +unwound from round a central article. Whatever can this be? thinks +I; some rare and valuable object doubtless, let's hope connected +with Fetish worship, and I anxiously watched its unpacking; in the +end, however, it disclosed, to my disgust and rage, an old shilling +razor. The way the old chief held it out, and the amount of dollars +he asked for it, was enough to make any one believe that I was in +such urgent need of the thing, that I was at his mercy regarding +price. I waved it off with a haughty scorn, and then feeling +smitten by the expression of agonised bewilderment on his face, I +dashed him a belt that delighted him, and went inside and had tea to +soothe my outraged feelings. + +The chiefs made furious raids on the mob of spectators who pressed +round the door, and stood with their eyes glued to every crack in +the bark of which the hut was made. The next door neighbours on +either side might have amassed a comfortable competence for their +old age, by letting out seats for the circus. Every hole in the +side walls had a human eye in it, and I heard new holes being bored +in all directions; so I deeply fear the chief, my host, must have +found his palace sadly draughty. I felt perfectly safe and content, +however, although Ngouta suggested the charming idea that "P'r'aps +them M'fetta Fan done sell we." As soon as all my men had come in, +and established themselves in the inner room for the night, I curled +up among the boxes, with my head on the tobacco sack, and dozed. + +After about half an hour I heard a row in the street, and looking +out,--for I recognised his grace's voice taking a solo part followed +by choruses,--I found him in legal difficulties about a murder case. +An alibi was proved for the time being; that is to say the +prosecution could not bring up witnesses because of the elephant +hunt; and I went in for another doze, and the town at last grew +quiet. Waking up again I noticed the smell in the hut was violent, +from being shut up I suppose, and it had an unmistakably organic +origin. Knocking the ash end off the smouldering bush-light that +lay burning on the floor, I investigated, and tracked it to those +bags, so I took down the biggest one, and carefully noted exactly +how the tie-tie had been put round its mouth; for these things are +important and often mean a lot. I then shook its contents out in my +hat, for fear of losing anything of value. They were a human hand, +three big toes, four eyes, two ears, and other portions of the human +frame. The hand was fresh, the others only so so, and shrivelled. + +Replacing them I tied the bag up, and hung it up again. I +subsequently learnt that although the Fans will eat their fellow +friendly tribesfolk, yet they like to keep a little something +belonging to them as a memento. This touching trait in their +character I learnt from Wiki; and, though it's to their credit, +under the circumstances, still it's an unpleasant practice when they +hang the remains in the bedroom you occupy, particularly if the +bereavement in your host's family has been recent. I did not +venture to prowl round Efoua; but slid the bark door aside and +looked out to get a breath of fresh air. + +It was a perfect night, and no mosquitoes. The town, walled in on +every side by the great cliff of high black forest, looked very wild +as it showed in the starlight, its low, savage-built bark huts, in +two hard rows, closed at either end by a guard-house. In both +guard-houses there was a fire burning, and in their flickering glow +showed the forms of sleeping men. Nothing was moving save the +goats, which are always brought into the special house for them in +the middle of the town, to keep them from the leopards, which roam +from dusk to dawn. + +Dawn found us stirring, I getting my tea, and the rest of the party +their chop, and binding up anew the loads with Wiki's fresh supple +bush-ropes. Kiva amused me much; during our march his costume was +exceeding scant, but when we reached the towns he took from his bag +garments, and attired himself so resplendently that I feared the +charm of his appearance would lead me into one of those dreadful +wife palavers which experience had taught me of old to dread; and in +the morning time he always devoted some time to repacking. I gave a +big dash to both chiefs, and they came out with us, most civilly, to +the end of their first plantations; and then we took farewell of +each other, with many expressions of hope on both sides that we +should meet again, and many warnings from them about the dissolute +and depraved character of the other towns we should pass through +before we reached the Rembwe. + +Our second day's march was infinitely worse than the first, for it +lay along a series of abruptly shaped hills with deep ravines +between them; each ravine had its swamp and each swamp its river. +This bit of country must be absolutely impassable for any human +being, black or white, except during the dry season. There were +representatives of the three chief forms of the West African bog. +The large deep swamps were best to deal with, because they make a +break in the forest, and the sun can come down on their surface and +bake a crust, over which you can go, if you go quickly. From +experience in Devonian bogs, I knew pace was our best chance, and I +fancy I earned one of my nicknames among the Fans on these. The +Fans went across all right with a rapid striding glide, but the +other men erred from excess of caution, and while hesitating as to +where was the next safe place to plant their feet, the place that +they were standing on went in with a glug. Moreover, they would +keep together, which was more than the crust would stand. The +portly Pagan and the Passenger gave us a fine job in one bog, by +sinking in close together. Some of us slashed off boughs of trees +and tore off handfuls of hard canna leaves, while others threw them +round the sinking victims to form a sort of raft, and then with the +aid of bush-rope, of course, they were hauled out. + +The worst sort of swamp, and the most frequent hereabouts, is the +deep narrow one that has no crust on, because it is too much shaded +by the forest. The slopes of the ravines too are usually covered +with an undergrowth of shenja, beautiful beyond description, but +right bad to go through. I soon learnt to dread seeing the man in +front going down hill, or to find myself doing so, for it meant that +within the next half hour we should be battling through a patch of +shenja. I believe there are few effects that can compare with the +beauty of them, with the golden sunlight coming down through the +upper forest's branches on to their exquisitely shaped, hard, dark +green leaves, making them look as if they were sprinkled with golden +sequins. Their long green stalks, which support the leaves and bear +little bunches of crimson berries, take every graceful curve +imaginable, and the whole affair is free from insects; and when you +have said this, you have said all there is to say in favour of +shenja, for those long green stalks of theirs are as tough as +twisted wire, and the graceful curves go to the making of a net, +which rises round you shoulder high, and the hard green leaves when +lying on the ground are fearfully slippery. It is not nice going +down through them, particularly when Nature is so arranged that the +edge of the bank you are descending is a rock-wall ten or twelve +feet high with a swamp of unknown depth at its foot; this +arrangement was very frequent on the second and third day's marches, +and into these swamps the shenja seemed to want to send you head +first and get you suffocated. It is still less pleasant, however, +going up the other side of the ravine when you have got through your +swamp. You have to fight your way upwards among rough rocks, +through this hard tough network of stems; and it took it out of all +of us except the Fans. + +These narrow shaded swamps gave us a world of trouble and took up a +good deal of time. Sometimes the leader of the party would make +three or four attempts before he found a ford, going on until the +black, batterlike ooze came up round his neck, and then turning back +and trying in another place; while the rest of the party sat upon +the bank until the ford was found, feeling it was unnecessary to +throw away human life, and that the more men there were paddling +about in that swamp, the more chance there was that a hole in the +bottom of it would be found; and when a hole is found, the +discoverer is liable to leave his bones in it. If I happened to be +in front, the duty of finding the ford fell on me; for none of us +after leaving Efoua knew the swamps personally. I was too +frightened of the Fan, and too nervous and uncertain of the stuff my +other men were made of, to dare show the white feather at anything +that turned up. The Fan took my conduct as a matter of course, +never having travelled with white men before, or learnt the way some +of them require carrying over swamps and rivers and so on. I dare +say I might have taken things easier, but I was like the immortal +Schmelzle, during that omnibus journey he made on his way to Flaetz +in the thunder-storm--afraid to be afraid. I am very certain I +should have fared very differently had I entered a region occupied +by a powerful and ferocious tribe like the Fan, from some districts +on the West Coast, where the inhabitants are used to find the white +man incapable of personal exertion, requiring to be carried in a +hammock, or wheeled in a go-cart or a Bath-chair about the streets +of their coast towns, depending for the defence of their settlement +on a body of black soldiers. This is not so in Congo Francais, and +I had behind me the prestige of a set of white men to whom for the +native to say, "You shall not do such and such a thing;" "You shall +not go to such and such a place," would mean that those things would +be done. I soon found the name of Hatton and Cookson's agent- +general for this district, Mr. Hudson, was one to conjure with among +the trading tribes; and the Ajumba, moreover, although their +knowledge of white men had been small, yet those they had been +accustomed to see were fine specimens. Mr. Fildes, Mr. Cockshut, M. +Jacot, Dr. Pelessier, Pere Lejeune, M. Gacon, Mr. Whittaker, and +that vivacious French official, were not men any man, black or +white, would willingly ruffle; and in addition there was the memory +among the black traders of "that white man MacTaggart," whom an +enterprising trading tribe near Fernan Vaz had had the hardihood to +tackle, shooting him, and then towing him behind a canoe and +slashing him all over with their knives the while; yet he survived, +and tackled them again in a way that must almost pathetically have +astonished those simple savages, after the real good work they had +put in to the killing of him. Of course it was hard to live up to +these ideals, and I do not pretend to have succeeded, or rather that +I should have succeeded had the real strain been put on me. + +But to return to that gorilla-land forest. All the rivers we +crossed on the first, second, and third day I was told went into one +or other of the branches of the Ogowe, showing that the long slope +of land between the Ogowe and the Rembwe is towards the Ogowe. The +stone of which the mountains were composed was that same hard black +rock that I had found on the Sierra del Cristal, by the Ogowe +rapids; only hereabouts there was not amongst it those great masses +of white quartz, which are so prominent a feature from Talagouga +upwards in the Ogowe valley; neither were the mountains anything +like so high, but they had the same abruptness of shape. They look +like very old parts of the same range worn down to stumps by the +disintegrating forces of the torrential rain and sun, and the dense +forest growing on them. Frost of course they had not been subject +to, but rocks, I noticed, were often being somewhat similarly split +by rootlets having got into some tiny crevice, and by gradual growth +enlarged it to a crack. + +Of our troubles among the timber falls on these mountains I have +already spoken; and these were at their worst between Efoua and +Egaja. I had suffered a good deal from thirst that day, unboiled +water being my ibet and we were all very nearly tired out with the +athletic sports since leaving Efoua. One thing only we knew about +Egaja for sure, and that was that not one of us had a friend there, +and that it was a town of extra evil repute, so we were not feeling +very cheerful when towards evening time we struck its outermost +plantations, their immediate vicinity being announced to us by +Silence treading full and fair on to a sharp ebony spike driven into +the narrow path and hurting himself. Fortunately, after we passed +this first plantation, we came upon a camp of rubber collectors-- +four young men; I got one of them to carry Silence's load and show +us the way into the town, when on we went into more plantations. + +There is nothing more tiresome than finding your path going into a +plantation, because it fades out in the cleared ground, or starts +playing games with a lot of other little paths that are running +about amongst the crops, and no West African path goes straight into +a stream or a plantation, and straight out the other side, so you +have a nice time picking it up again. + +We were spared a good deal of fine varied walking by our new friend +the rubber collector; for I noticed he led us out by a path nearly +at right angles to the one by which we had entered. He then pitched +into a pit which was half full of thorns, and which he observed he +did not know was there, demonstrating that an African guide can +speak the truth. When he had got out, he handed back Silence's load +and got a dash of tobacco for his help; he left us to devote the +rest of his evening by his forest fire to unthorning himself, while +we proceeded to wade a swift, deepish river that crossed the path he +told us led into Egaja, and then went across another bit of forest +and downhill again. "Oh, bless those swamps!" thought I, "here's +another," but no--not this time. Across the bottom of the steep +ravine, from one side to another, lay an enormous tree as a bridge, +about fifteen feet above a river, which rushed beneath it, over a +boulder-encumbered bed. I took in the situation at a glance, and +then and there I would have changed that bridge for any swamp I have +ever seen, yea, even for a certain bush-rope bridge in which I once +wound myself up like a buzzing fly in a spider's web. I was +fearfully tired, and my legs shivered under me after the falls and +emotions of the previous part of the day, and my boots were slippery +with water soaking. + +The Fans went into the river, and half swam, half waded across. All +the Ajumba, save Pagan, followed, and Ngouta got across with their +assistance. Pagan thought he would try the bridge, and I thought I +would watch how the thing worked. He got about three yards along it +and then slipped, but caught the tree with his hands as he fell, and +hauled himself back to my side again; then he went down the bank and +through the water. This was not calculated to improve one's nerve; +I knew by now I had got to go by the bridge, for I saw I was not +strong enough in my tired state to fight the water. If only the +wretched thing had had its bark on it would have been better, but it +was bare, bald, and round, and a slip meant death on the rocks +below. I rushed it, and reached the other side in safety, whereby +poor Pagan got chaffed about his failure by the others, who said +they had gone through the water just to wash their feet. + +The other side, when we got there, did not seem much worth reaching, +being a swampy fringe at the bottom of a steep hillside, and after a +few yards the path turned into a stream or backwater of the river. +It was hedged with thickly pleached bushes, and covered with liquid +water on the top of semi-liquid mud. Now and again for a change you +had a foot of water on top of fearfully slippery harder mud, and +then we light-heartedly took headers into the bush, sideways, or sat +down; and when it was not proceeding on the evil tenor of its way, +like this, it had holes in it; in fact, I fancy the bottom of the +holes was the true level, for it came near being as full of holes as +a fishing-net, and it was very quaint to see the man in front, who +had been paddling along knee-deep before, now plop down with the +water round his shoulders; and getting out of these slippery +pockets, which were sometimes a tight fit, was difficult. + +However that is the path you have got to go by, if you're not wise +enough to stop at home; the little bay of shrub overgrown swamp +fringing the river on one side and on the other running up to the +mountain side. + +At last we came to a sandy bank, and on that bank stood Egaja, the +town with an evil name even among the Fan, but where we had got to +stay, fair or foul. We went into it through its palaver house, and +soon had the usual row. + +I had detected signs of trouble among my men during the whole day; +the Ajumba were tired, and dissatisfied with the Fans; the Fans were +in high feather, openly insolent to Ngouta, and anxious for me to +stay in this delightful locality, and go hunting with them and +divers other choice spirits, whom they assured me we could easily +get to join us at Efoua. I kept peace as well as I could, +explaining to the Fans I had not enough money with me now, because I +had not, when starting, expected such magnificent opportunities to +be placed at my disposal; and promising to come back next year--a +promise I hope to keep--and then we would go and have a grand time +of it. This state of a party was a dangerous one in which to enter +a strange Fan town, where our security lay in our being united. +When the first burst of Egaja conversation began to boil down into +something reasonable, I found that a villainous-looking scoundrel, +smeared with soot and draped in a fragment of genuine antique cloth, +was a head chief in mourning. He placed a house at my disposal, +quite a mansion, for it had no less than four apartments. The first +one was almost entirely occupied by a bedstead frame that was being +made up inside on account of the small size of the door. + +This had to be removed before we could get in with the baggage at +all. While this removal was being effected with as much damage to +the house and the article as if it were a quarter-day affair in +England, the other chief arrived. He had been sent for, being away +down the river fishing when we arrived. I saw at once he was a very +superior man to any of the chiefs I had yet met with. It was not +his attire, remarkable though that was for the district, for it +consisted of a gentleman's black frock-coat such as is given in the +ivory bundle, a bright blue felt sombrero hat, an ample cloth of +Boma check; but his face and general bearing was distinctive, and +very powerful and intelligent; and I knew that Egaja, for good or +bad, owed its name to this man, and not to the mere sensual, brutal- +looking one. He was exceedingly courteous, ordering his people to +bring me a stool and one for himself, and then a fly-whisk to battle +with the evening cloud of sand-flies. I got Pagan to come and act +as interpreter while the rest were stowing the baggage, etc. After +compliments, "Tell the chief," I said, "that I hear this town of his +is thief town." + +"Better not, sir," says Pagan. + +"Go on," said I, "or I'll tell him myself." + +So Pagan did. It was a sad blow to the chief. + +"Thief town, this highly respectable town of Egaja! a town whose +moral conduct in all matters (Shedule) was an example to all towns, +called a thief town! Oh, what a wicked world!" + +I said it was; but I would reserve my opinion as to whether Egaja +was a part of the wicked world or a star-like exception, until I had +experienced it myself. We then discoursed on many matters, and I +got a great deal of interesting fetish information out of the chief, +which was valuable to me, because the whole of this district had not +been in contact with white culture; and altogether I and the chief +became great friends. + +Just when I was going in to have my much-desired tea, he brought me +his mother--an old lady, evidently very bright and able, but, poor +woman, with the most disgusting hand and arm I have ever seen. I am +ashamed to say I came very near being sympathetically sick in the +African manner on the spot. I felt I could not attend to it, and +have my tea afterwards, so I directed one of the canoe-shaped little +tubs, used for beating up the manioc in, to be brought and filled +with hot water, and then putting into it a heavy dose of Condy's +fluid, I made her sit down and lay the whole arm in it, and went and +had my tea. As soon as I had done I went outside, and getting some +of the many surrounding ladies to hold bush-lights, I examined the +case. The whole hand was a mass of yellow pus, streaked with +sanies, large ulcers were burrowing into the fore-arm, while in the +arm-pit was a big abscess. I opened the abscess at once, and then +the old lady frightened me nearly out of my wits by gently +subsiding, I thought dying, but I soon found out merely going to +sleep. I then washed the abscess well out, and having got a lot of +baked plantains, I made a big poultice of them, mixed with boiling +water and more Condy in the tub, and laid her arm right in this; and +propping her up all round and covering her over with cloths I +requisitioned from her son, I left her to have her nap while I went +into the history of the case, which was that some forty-eight hours +ago she had been wading along the bank, catching crawfish, and had +been stung by "a fish like a snake"; so I presume the ulcers were an +old-standing palaver. The hand had been a good deal torn by the +creature, and the pain and swelling had been so great she had not +had a minute's sleep since. As soon as the poultice got chilled I +took her arm out and cleaned it again, and wound it round with +dressing, and had her ladyship carried bodily, still asleep, into +her hut, and after rousing her up, giving her a dose of that fine +preparation, pil. crotonis cum hydrargi, saw her tucked up on her +own plank bedstead for the night, sound asleep again. The chief was +very anxious to have some pills too; so I gave him some, with firm +injunctions only to take one at the first time. I knew that that +one would teach him not to take more than one forever after, better +than I could do if I talked from June to January. Then all the +afflicted of Egaja turned up, and wanted medical advice. There was +evidently a good stiff epidemic of the yaws about; lots of cases of +dum with the various symptoms; ulcers of course galore; a man with a +bit of a broken spear head in an abscess in the thigh; one which I +believe a professional enthusiast would call a "lovely case" of +filaria, the entire white of one eye being full of the active little +worms and a ridge of surplus population migrating across the bridge +of the nose into the other eye, under the skin, looking like the +bridge of a pair of spectacles. It was past eleven before I had +anything like done, and my men had long been sound asleep, but the +chief had conscientiously sat up and seen the thing through. He +then went and fetched some rolls of bark cloth to put on my plank, +and I gave him a handsome cloth I happened to have with me, a couple +of knives, and some heads of tobacco and wished him goodnight; +blockading my bark door, and picking my way over my sleeping Ajumba +into an inner apartment which I also blockaded, hoping I had done +with Egaja for some hours. No such thing. At 1.45 the whole town +was roused by the frantic yells of a woman. I judged there was one +of my beauties of Fans mixed up in it, and there was, and after +paying damages, got back again by 2.30 A.M., and off to sleep again +instantly. At four sharp, whole town of Egaja plunged into emotion, +and worse shindy. I suggested to the Ajumba they should go out; but +no, they didn't care a row of pins if one of our Fans did get +killed, so I went, recognising Kiva's voice in high expostulation. +Kiva, it seems, a long time ago had a transaction in re a tooth of +ivory with a man who, unfortunately, happened to be in this town to- +night, and Kiva owed the said man a coat. {223} + +Kiva, it seems, has been spending the whole evening demonstrating to +his creditor that, had he only known they were to meet, he would +have brought the coat with him--a particularly beautiful coat--and +the reason he has not paid it before is that he has mislaid the +creditor's address. The creditor says he has called repeatedly at +Kiva's village, that notorious M'fetta, and Kiva has never been at +home; and moreover that Kiva's wife (one of them) stole a yellow dog +of great value from his (the creditor's) canoe. Kiva says, women +will be women, and he had gone off to sleep thinking the affair had +blown over and the bill renewed for the time being. The creditor +had not gone to sleep; but sat up thinking the affair over and +remembered many cases, all cited in full, of how Kiva had failed to +meet his debts; also Kiva's brother on the mother's side and uncle +ditto; and so has decided to foreclose forthwith on the debtor's +estate, and as the estate is represented by and consists of Kiva's +person, to take and seize upon it and eat it. + +It is always highly interesting to observe the germ of any of our +own institutions existing in the culture of a lower race. +Nevertheless it is trying to be hauled out of one's sleep in the +middle of the night, and plunged into this study. Evidently this +was a trace of an early form of the Bankruptcy Court; the court +which clears a man of his debt, being here represented by the knife +and the cooking pot; the whitewashing, as I believe it is termed +with us, also shows, only it is not the debtor who is whitewashed, +but the creditors doing themselves over with white clay to celebrate +the removal of their enemy from his sphere of meretricious activity. +This inversion may arise from the fact that whitewashing a creditor +who was about to be cooked would be unwise, as the stuff would boil +off the bits and spoil the gravy. There is always some fragment of +sound sense underlying African institutions. Kiva was, when I got +out, tied up, talking nineteen to the dozen; and so was every one +else; and a lady was working up white clay in a pot. + +I dare say I ought to have rushed at him and cut his bonds, and +killed people in a general way with a revolver, and then flown with +my band to the bush; only my band evidently had no flying in them, +being tucked up in the hut pretending to be asleep, and uninterested +in the affair; and although I could have abandoned the band without +a pang just then, I could not so lightheartedly fly alone with Kiva +to the bush and leave my fishes; so I shouted Azuna to the +Bankruptcy Court, and got a Fan who spoke trade English to come and +interpret for me; and from him I learnt the above stated outline of +the proceedings up to the time. Regarding the original iniquity of +Kiva, my other Fans held the opinion that the old Scotch lady had +regarding certain passages in the history of the early Jews--that it +was a long time ago, and aiblins it was no true. + +Fortunately for the reader it is impossible for me to give in full +detail the proceedings of the Court. I do not think if the whole of +Mr. Pitman's school of shorthand had been there to take them down +the thing could possibly have been done in word-writing. If the +late Richard Wagner, however, had been present he could have scored +the performance for a full orchestra; and with all its weird grunts +and roars, and pistol-like finger clicks, and its elongated words +and thigh slaps, it would have been a masterpiece. + +I got my friend the chief on my side; but he explained he had no +jurisdiction, as neither of the men belonged to his town; and I +explained to him, that as the proceedings were taking place in his +town he had a right of jurisdiction ipso facto. The Fan could not +translate this phrase, so we gave it the chief raw; and he seemed to +relish it, and he and I then cut into the affair together, I looking +at him with admiration and approval when he was saying his say, and +after his "Azuna" had produced a patch of silence he could move his +tongue in, and he similarly regarding me during my speech for the +defence. We neither, I expect, understood each other, and we had +trouble with our client, who would keep pleading "Not guilty," which +was absurd. Anyhow we produced our effect, my success arising from +my concluding my speech with the announcement that I would give the +creditor a book on Hatton and Cookson for the coat, and I would +deduct it from Kiva's pay. + +But, said the Court: "We look your mouth and it be sweet mouth, but +with Hatton and Cookson we can have no trade." This was a blow to +me. Hatton and Cookson was my big Ju Ju, and it was to their sub- +factory on the Rembwe that I was bound. On inquiry I elicited +another cheerful little fact which was they could not deal with +Hatton and Cookson because there was "blood war on the path that +way." The Court said they would take a book on Holty, but with +Holty i.e. Mr. John Holt, I had no deposit of money, and I did not +feel justified in issuing cheques on him, knowing also he could not +feel amiable towards wandering scientists, after what he had +recently gone through with one. Not that I doubt for one minute but +that his representatives would have honoured my book; for the +generosity and helpfulness of West African traders is unbounded and +long-suffering. But I did not like to encroach on it, all the more +so from a feeling that I might never get through to refund the +money. So at last I paid the equivalent value of the coat out of my +own trade-stuff; and the affair was regarded by all parties as +satisfactorily closed by the time the gray dawn was coming up over +the forest wall. I went in again and slept in snatches until I got +my tea about seven, and then turned out to hurry my band out of +Egaja. This I did not succeed in doing until past ten. One row +succeeded another with my men; but I was determined to get them out +of that town as quickly as possible, for I had heard so much from +perfectly reliable and experienced people regarding the +treacherousness of the Fan. I feared too that more cases still +would be brought up against Kiva, from the resume of his criminal +career I had had last night, and I knew it was very doubtful whether +my other three Fans were any better than he. There was his grace's +little murder affair only languishing for want of evidence owing to +the witnesses for the prosecution being out elephant-hunting not +very far away; and Wiki was pleading an alibi, and a twin brother, +in a bad wife palaver in this town. I really hope for the sake of +Fan morals at large, that I did engage the three worst villains in +M'fetta, and that M'fetta is the worst town in all Fan land, +inconvenient as this arrangement was to me personally. Anyhow, I +felt sure my Pappenheimers would take a lot of beating for good +solid crime, among any tribe anywhere. Moreover, the Ajumba wanted +meat, and the Fans, they said, offered them human. I saw no human +meat at Egaja, but the Ajumba seem to think the Fans eat nothing +else, which is a silly prejudice of theirs, because the Fans do. I +think in this case the Ajumba thought a lot of smoked flesh offered +was human. It may have been; it was in neat pieces; and again, as +the Captain of the late s.s. Sparrow would say, "it mayn't." But +the Ajumba have a horror of cannibalism, and I honestly believe +never practise it, even for fetish affairs, which is a rare thing in +a West African tribe where sacrificial and ceremonial cannibalism is +nearly universal. Anyhow the Ajumba loudly declared the Fans were +"bad men too much," which was impolitic under existing +circumstances, and inexcusable, because it by no means arose from a +courageous defiance of them; but the West African! Well! "'E's a +devil an' a ostrich an' a orphan child in one." + +The chief was very anxious for me to stay and rest, but as his +mother was doing wonderfully well, and the other women seemed quite +to understand my directions regarding her, I did not feel inclined +to risk it. The old lady's farewell of me was peculiar: she took +my hand in her two, turned it palm upwards, and spat on it. I do +not know whether this is a constant form of greeting among the Fan; +I fancy not. Dr. Nassau, who explained it to me when I saw him +again down at Baraka, said the spitting was merely an accidental by- +product of the performance, which consisted in blowing a blessing; +and as I happened on this custom twice afterwards, I feel sure from +observation he is right. + +The two chiefs saw us courteously out of the town as far as where +the river crosses the out-going path again, and the blue-hatted one +gave me some charms "to keep my foot in path," and the mourning +chief lent us his son to see us through the lines of fortification +of the plantation. I gave them an equal dash, and in answer to +their question as to whether I had found Egaja a thief-town, I said +that to call Egaja a thief-town was rank perjury, for I had not lost +a thing while in it; and we parted with mutual expression of esteem +and hopes for another meeting at an early date. + +The defences of the fine series of plantations of Egaja on this side +were most intricate, to judge from the zigzag course our guide led +us through them. He explained they had to be because of the +character of the towns towards the Rembwe. After listening to this +young man, I really began to doubt that the Cities of the Plain had +really been destroyed, and wondered whether some future revision +committee will not put transported for destroyed. This young man +certainly hit off the character of Sodom and Gomorrah to the life, +in describing the towns towards the Rembwe, though he had never +heard Sodom and Gomorrah named. He assured me I should see the +difference between them and Egaja the Good, and I thanked him and +gave him his dash when we parted; but told him as a friend, I feared +some alteration must take place, and some time elapse before he saw +a regular rush of pilgrim worshippers of Virtue coming into even +Egaja the Good, though it stood just as good a chance and better +than most towns I had seen in Africa. + +We went on into the gloom of the Great Forest again; that forest +that seemed to me without end, wherein, in a lazy, hazy-minded sort +of way, I expected to wander through by day and drop in at night to +a noisy savage town for the rest of my days. + +We climbed up one hill, skirted its summit, went through our +athletic sports over sundry timber falls, and struck down into the +ravine as usual. But at the bottom of that ravine, which was +exceeding steep, ran a little river free from swamp. As I was +wading it I noticed it had a peculiarity that distinguished it from +all the other rivers we had come through; and then and there I sat +down on a boulder in its midst and hauled out my compass. Yes, by +Allah! it's going north-west and bound as we are for Rembwe River. +I went out the other side of that river with a lighter heart than I +went in, and shouted the news to the boys, and they yelled and sang +as we went on our way. + +All along this bit of country we had seen quantities of rubber +vines, and between Egaja and Esoon we came across quantities of +rubber being collected. Evidently there was a big camp of rubber +hunters out in the district very busy. Wiki and Kiva did their best +to teach me the trade. Along each side of the path we frequently +saw a ring of stout bush rope, raised from the earth on pegs about a +foot to eighteen inches. On the ground in the middle stood a +calabash, into which the ends of the pieces of rubber vine were +placed, the other ends being supported by the bush rope ring. Round +the outside of some of these rings was a slow fire, which just +singes the tops of the bits of rubber vine as they project over the +collar or ring, and causes the milky juice to run out of the lower +end into the calabash, giving out as it does so a strong ammoniacal +smell. When the fire was alight there would be a group of rubber +collectors sitting round it watching the cooking operations, +removing those pieces that had run dry and placing others, from a +pile at their side, in position. On either side of the path we +continually passed pieces of rubber vine cut into lengths of some +two feet or so, and on the top one or two leaves plaited together, +or a piece of bush rope tied into a knot, which indicated whose +property the pile was. + +The method of collection employed by the Fan is exceedingly +wasteful, because this fool of a vegetable Landolphia florida +(Ovariensis) does not know how to send up suckers from its root, but +insists on starting elaborately from seeds only. I do not, however, +see any reasonable hope of getting them to adopt more economical +methods. The attempt made by the English houses, when the rubber +trade was opened up in 1883 on the Gold Coast, to get the more +tractable natives there to collect by incisions only, has failed; +for in the early days a man could get a load of rubber almost at his +own door on the Gold Coast, and now he has to go fifteen days' +journey inland for it. When a Fan town has exhausted the rubber in +its vicinity, it migrates, bag and baggage, to a new part of the +forest. The young unmarried men are the usual rubber hunters. +Parties of them go out into the forest, wandering about in it and +camping under shelters of boughs by night, for a month and more at a +time, during the dry seasons, until they have got a sufficient +quantity together; then they return to their town, and it is +manipulated by the women, and finally sold, either to the white +trader, in districts where he is within reach, or to the M'pongwe +trader who travels round buying it and the collected ivory and +ebony, like a Norfolk higgler. In districts like these I was in, +remote from the M'pongwe trader, the Fans carry the rubber to the +town nearest to them that is in contact with the black trader, and +sell it to the inhabitants, who in their turn resell it to their +next town, until it reaches him. This passing down of the rubber +and ivory gives rise between the various towns to a series of +commercial complications which rank with woman palaver for the +production of rows; it being the sweet habit of these Fans to +require a life for a life, and to regard one life as good as +another. Also rubber trade and wife palavers sweetly intertwine, +for a man on the kill in re a wife palaver knows his best chance of +getting the life from the village he has a grudge against lies in +catching one of that village's men when he may be out alone rubber +hunting. So he does this thing, and then the men from the victim's +village go and lay for a rubber hunter from the killer's village; +and then of course the men from the killer's village go and lay for +rubber hunters from victim number one's village, and thus the blood +feud rolls down the vaulted chambers of the ages, so that you, +dropping in on affairs, cannot see one end or the other of it, and +frequently the people concerned have quite forgotten what the +killing was started for. Not that this discourages them in the +least. Really if Dr. Nassau is right, and these Fans are +descendants of Adam and Eve, I expect the Cain and Abel killing +palaver is still kept going among them. + +Wiki, being great on bush rope, gave me much information regarding +rubber, showing me the various other vines besides the true rubber +vine, whose juice, mingled with the true sap by the collector when +in the forest, adds to the weight; a matter of importance, because +rubber is bought by weight. The other adulteration gets done by the +ladies in the villages when the collected sap is handed over to them +to prepare for the markets. + +This preparation consists of boiling it in water slightly, and +adding a little salt, which causes the gummy part to separate and go +to the bottom of the pot, where it looks like a thick cream. The +water is carefully poured off this deposit, which is then taken out +and moulded, usually in the hands; but I have seen it run into +moulds made of small calabashes with a stick or piece of iron +passing through, so that when the rubber is set this can be +withdrawn. A hole being thus left the balls can be threaded on to a +stick, usually five on one stick, for convenience of transport. It +is during the moulding process that most of the adulteration gets +in. Down by the side of many of the streams there is a white +chalky-looking clay which is brought up into the villages, powdered +up, and then hung up over the fire in a basket to attain a uniform +smuttiness; it is then worked into the rubber when it is being made +up into balls. Then a good chunk of Koko, Arum esculentum (Koko is +better than yam, I may remark, because it is heavier), also smoked +approximately the right colour, is often placed in the centre of the +rubber ball. In fact, anything is put there, that is hopefully +regarded as likely to deceive the white trader. So great is the +adulteration, that most of the traders have to cut each ball open. +Even the Kinsembo rubber, which is put up in clusters of bits shaped +like little thimbles formed by rolling pinches of rubber between the +thumb and finger, and which one would think difficult to put +anything inside of, has to be cut, because "the simple children of +nature" who collect it and bring it to that "swindling white trader" +struck upon the ingenious notion that little pieces of wood shaped +like the thimbles and coated by a dip in rubber were excellent +additions to a cluster. + +The pure rubber, when it is made, looks like putty, and has the same +dusky-white colour; but, owing to the balls being kept in the huts +in baskets in the smoke, and in wicker-work cages in the muddy pools +to soak up as much water as possible before going into the hands of +the traders, they get almost inky in colour. + + + +CHAPTER IX. FROM ESOON TO AGONJO. + + + +In which the Voyager sets forth the beauties of the way from Esoon +to N'dorko, and gives some account of the local Swamps. + +Our next halting place was Esoon, which received us with the usual +row, but kindly enough; and endeared itself to me by knowing the +Rembwe, and not just waving the arm in the air, in any direction, +and saying "Far, far plenty bad people live for that side," as the +other towns had done. Of course they stuck to the bad people part +of the legend; but I was getting quite callous as to the moral +character of new acquaintances, feeling sure that for good solid +murderous rascality several of my old Fan acquaintances, and even my +own party, would take a lot of beating; and yet, one and all, they +had behaved well to me. Esoon gave me to understand that of all the +Sodoms and Gomorrahs that town of Egaja was an easy first, and it +would hardly believe we had come that way. Still Egaja had dealt +with us well. However I took less interest--except, of course, as a +friend, in some details regarding the criminal career of Chief Blue- +hat of Egaja--in the opinion of Esoon regarding the country we had +survived, than in the information it had to impart regarding the +country we had got to survive on our way to the Big River, which now +no longer meant the Ogowe, but the Rembwe. I meant to reach one of +Hatton and Cookson's sub-factories there, but--strictly between +ourselves--I knew no more at what town that factory was than a +Kindergarten Board School child does. I did not mention this fact; +and a casual observer might have thought that I had spent my youth +in that factory, when I directed my inquiries to the finding out the +very shortest route to it. Esoon shook its head. "Yes, it was +close, but it was impossible to reach Uguma's factory." "Why?" +"There was blood war on the path." I said it was no war of mine. +But Esoon said, such was the appalling depravity of the next town on +the road, that its inhabitants lay in wait at day with loaded guns +and shot on sight any one coming up the Esoon road, and that at +night they tied strings with bells on across the road and shot on +hearing them. No one had been killed since the first party of +Esoonians were fired on at long range, because no one had gone that +way; but the next door town had been heard by people who had been +out in the bush at night, blazing down the road when the bells were +tinkled by wild animals. Clearly that road was not yet really +healthy. + +The Duke, who as I have said before, was a fine courageous fellow, +ready to engage in any undertaking, suggested I should go up the +road--alone by myself--first--a mile ahead of the party--and the +next town, perhaps, might not shoot at sight, if they happened to +notice I was something queer; and I might explain things, and then +the rest of the party would follow. "There's nothing like dash and +courage, my dear Duke," I said, "even if one display it by deputy, +so this plan does you great credit; but as my knowledge of this +charming language of yours is but small, I fear I might create a +wrong impression in that town, and it might think I had kindly +brought them a present of eight edible heathens--you and the +remainder of my followers, you understand." My men saw this was a +real danger, and this was the only way I saw of excusing myself. It +is at such a moment as this that the Giant's robe gets, so to speak, +between your legs and threatens to trip you up. Going up a +forbidden road, and exposing yourself as a pot shot to ambushed +natives would be jam and fritters to Mr. MacTaggart, for example; +but I am not up to that form yet. So I determined to leave that +road severely alone, and circumnavigate the next town by a road that +leaves Esoon going W.N.W., which struck the Rembwe by N'dorko, I was +told, and then follow up the bank of the river until I picked up the +sub-factory. Subsequent experience did not make one feel inclined +to take out a patent for this plan, but at the time in Esoon it +looked nice enough. + +Some few of the more highly cultured inhabitants here could speak +trade English a little, and had been to the Rembwe, and were quite +intelligent about the whole affair. They had seen white men. A +village they formerly occupied nearer the Rembwe had been burnt by +them, on account of a something that had occurred to a Catholic +priest who visited it. They were, of course, none of them +personally mixed up in this sad affair, so could give no details of +what had befallen the priest. They knew also "the Move," which was +a great bond of union between us. "Was I a wife of them Move white +man," they inquired--"or them other white man?" I civilly said them +Move men were my tribe, and they ought to have known it by the look +of me. They discussed my points of resemblance to "the Move white +man," and I am ashamed to say I could not forbear from smiling, as I +distinctly recognised my friends from the very racy description of +their personal appearance and tricks of manner given by a lively +Esoonian belle who had certainly met them. So content and happy did +I become under these soothing influences, that I actually took off +my boots, a thing I had quite got out of the habit of doing, and had +them dried. I wanted to have them rubbed with palm oil, but I +found, to my surprise, that there was no palm oil to be had, the +tree being absent, or scarce in this region, so I had to content +myself with having them rubbed with a piece of animal fat instead. +I chaperoned my men, while among the ladies of Esoon--a forward set +of minxes--with the vigilance of a dragon; and decreed, like the +Mikado of Japan, "that whosoever leered or winked, unless +connubially linked, should forthwith be beheaded," have their pay +chopped, I mean; and as they were beginning to smell their pay, they +were careful; and we got through Esoon without one of them going +into jail; no mean performance when you remember that every man had +a past--to put it mildly. + +Esoon is not situated like the other towns, with a swamp and the +forest close round it; but it is built on the side of a fairly +cleared ravine among its plantain groves. When you are on the +southern side of the ravine, you can see Esoon looking as if it were +hung on the hillside before you. You then go through a plantation +down into the little river, and up into the town--one long, broad, +clean-kept street. Leaving Esoon you go on up the hill through +another plantation to the summit. Immediately after leaving the +town we struck westwards; and when we got to the top of the next +hill we had a view that showed us we were dealing with another type +of country. The hills to the westward are lower, and the valleys +between them broader and less heavily forested, or rather I should +say forested with smaller sorts of timber. All our paths took us +during the early part of the day up and down hills, through swamps +and little rivers, all flowing Rembwe-wards. About the middle of +the afternoon, when we had got up to the top of a high hill, after +having had a terrible time on a timber fall of the first magnitude, +into which four of us had fallen, I of course for one, I saw a sight +that made my heart stand still. Stretching away to the west and +north, winding in and out among the feet of the now isolated mound- +like mountains, was that never to be mistaken black-green forest +swamp of mangrove; doubtless the fringe of the River Rembwe, which +evidently comes much further inland than the mangrove belt on the +Ogowe. This is reasonable and as it should be, though it surprised +me at the time; for the great arm of the sea which is called the +Gaboon is really a fjord, just like Bonny and Opobo rivers, with +several rivers falling into it at its head, and this fjord brings +the sea water further inland. In addition to this the two rivers, +the 'Como (Nkama) and Rembwe that fall into this Gaboon, with +several smaller rivers, both bring down an inferior quantity of +fresh water, and that at nothing like the tearing, tide-beating back +pace of the Ogowe. As my brother would say, "It's perfectly simple +if you think about it;" but thinking is not my strong point. Anyhow +I was glad to see the mangrove-belt; all the gladder because I did +not then know how far it was inland from the sea, and also because I +was fool enough to think that a long line I could see, running E. +and W. to the north of where I stood, was the line of the Rembwe +river; which it was not, as we soon found out. Cheered by this +pleasing prospect, we marched on forgetful of our scratches, down +the side of the hill, and down the foot slope of it, until we struck +the edge of the swamp. We skirted this for some mile or so, going +N.E. Then we struck into the swamp, to reach what we had regarded +as the Rembwe river. We found ourselves at the edge of that open +line we had seen from the mountain. Not standing, because you don't +so much as try to stand on mangrove roots unless you are a born +fool, and then you don't stand long, but clinging, like so many +monkeys, to the net of aerial roots which surrounded us, looking +blankly at a lake of ink-black slime. It was half a mile across, +and some miles long. We could not see either the west or east +termination of it, for it lay like a rotten serpent twisted between +the mangroves. It never entered into our heads to try to cross it, +for when a swamp is too deep for mangroves to grow in it, "No bottom +lib for them dam ting," as a Kruboy once said to me, anent a small +specimen of this sort of ornament to a landscape. But we just +looked round to see which direction we had better take. Then I +observed that the roots, aerial and otherwise, were coated in mud, +and had no leaves on them, for a foot above our heads. Next I +noticed that the surface of the mud before us had a sort of quiver +running through it, and here and there it exhibited swellings on its +surface, which rose in one place and fell in another. No need for +an old coaster like me to look at that sort of thing twice to know +what it meant, and feeling it was a situation more suited to Mr. +Stanley than myself, I attempted to emulate his methods and +addressed my men. "Boys," said I, "this beastly hole is tidal, and +the tide is coming in. As it took us two hours to get to this +sainted swamp, it's time we started out, one time, and the nearest +way. It's to be hoped the practice we have acquired in mangrove +roots in coming, will enable us to get up sufficient pace to get out +on to dry land before we are all drowned." The boys took the hint. +Fortunately one of the Ajumbas had been down in Ogowe, it was Gray +Shirt, who "sabed them tide palaver." The rest of them, and the +Fans, did not know what tide meant, but Gray Shirt hustled them +along and I followed, deeply regretting that my ancestors had parted +prematurely with prehensile tails, for four limbs, particularly when +two of them are done up in boots and are not sufficient to enable +one to get through a mangrove swamp network of slimy roots rising +out of the water, and swinging lines of aerial ones coming down to +the water a la mangrove, with anything approaching safety. Added to +these joys were any quantity of mangrove flies, a broiling hot sun, +and an atmosphere three-quarters solid stench from the putrefying +ooze all round us. For an hour and a half thought I, Why did I come +to Africa, or why, having come, did I not know when I was well off +and stay in Glass? Before these problems were settled in my mind we +were close to the true land again, with the water under us licking +lazily among the roots and over our feet. + +We did not make any fuss about it, but we meant to stick to dry land +for some time, and so now took to the side of a hill that seemed +like a great bubble coming out of the swamp, and bore steadily E. +until we found a path. This path, according to the nature of paths +in this country, promptly took us into another swamp, but of a +different kind to our last--a knee-deep affair, full of beautiful +palms and strange water plants, the names whereof I know not. There +was just one part where that abomination, pandanus, had to be got +through, but, as swamps go, it was not at all bad. I ought to +mention that there were leeches in it, lest I may be thought too +enthusiastic over its charms. But the great point was that the +mountains we got to on the other side of it, were a good solid +ridge, running, it is true, E. and W., while we wanted to go N.; +still on we went waiting for developments, and watching the great +line of mangrove-swamp spreading along below us to the left hand, +seeing many of the lines in its dark face, which betokened more of +those awesome slime lagoons that we had seen enough of at close +quarters. + +About four o'clock we struck some more plantations, and passing +through these, came to a path running north-east, down which we +went. I must say the forest scenery here was superbly lovely. +Along this mountain side cliff to the mangrove-swamp the sun could +reach the soil, owing to the steepness and abruptness and the +changes of curves of the ground; while the soft steamy air which +came up off the swamp swathed everything, and although unpleasantly +strong in smell to us, was yet evidently highly agreeable to the +vegetation. Lovely wine palms and rafia palms, looking as if they +had been grown under glass, so deliciously green and profuse was +their feather-like foliage, intermingled with giant red woods, and +lovely dark glossy green lianes, blooming in wreaths and festoons of +white and mauve flowers, which gave a glorious wealth of beauty and +colour to the scene. Even the monotony of the mangrove-belt +alongside gave an additional charm to it, like the frame round a +picture. + +As we passed on, the ridge turned N. and the mangrove line narrowed +between the hills. Our path now ran east and more in the middle of +the forest, and the cool shade was charming after the heat we had +had earlier in the day. We crossed a lovely little stream coming +down the hillside in a cascade; and then our path plunged into a +beautiful valley. We had glimpses through the trees of an +amphitheatre of blue mist-veiled mountains coming down in a crescent +before us, and on all sides, save due west where the mangrove-swamp +came in. Never shall I forget the exceeding beauty of that valley, +the foliage of the trees round us, the delicate wreaths and festoons +of climbing plants, the graceful delicate plumes of the palm trees, +interlacing among each other, and showing through all a background +of soft, pale, purple-blue mountains and forest, not really far +away, as the practised eye knew, but only made to look so by the +mist, which has this trick of giving suggestion of immense space +without destroying the beauty of detail. Those African misty +forests have the same marvellous distinctive quality that Turner +gives one in his greatest pictures. I am no artist, so I do not +know exactly what it is, but I see it is there. I luxuriated in the +exquisite beauty of that valley, little thinking or knowing what +there was in it besides beauty, as Allah "in mercy hid the book of +fate." On we went among the ferns and flowers until we met a swamp, +a different kind of swamp to those we had heretofore met, save the +little one last mentioned. This one was much larger, and a gem of +beauty; but we had to cross it. It was completely furnished with +characteristic flora. Fortunately when we got to its edge we saw a +woman crossing before us, but unfortunately she did not take a fancy +to our appearance, and instead of staying and having a chat about +the state of the roads, and the shortest way to N'dorko, she bolted +away across the swamp. I noticed she carefully took a course, not +the shortest, although that course immersed her to her armpits. In +we went after her, and when things were getting unpleasantly deep, +and feeling highly uncertain under foot, we found there was a great +log of a tree under the water which, as we had seen the lady's care +at this point, we deemed it advisable to walk on. All of us save +one, need I say that one was myself? effected this with safety. As +for me, when I was at the beginning of the submerged bridge, and +busily laying about in my mind for a definite opinion as to whether +it was better to walk on a slippy tree trunk bridge you could see, +or on one you could not, I was hurled off by that inexorable fate +that demands of me a personal acquaintance with fluvial and paludial +ground deposits; whereupon I took a header, and am thereby able to +inform the world, that there is between fifteen and twenty feet of +water each side of that log. I conscientiously went in on one side, +and came up on the other. The log, I conjecture, is odum or ebony, +and it is some fifty feet long; anyhow it is some sort of wood that +won't float. Gray Shirt says it is a bridge across an under-swamp +river. Having survived this and reached the opposite bank, we +shortly fell in with a party of men and women, who were taking, they +said, a parcel of rubber to Holty's. They told us N'dorko was quite +close, and that the plantations we saw before us were its outermost +ones, but spoke of a swamp, a bad swamp. We knew it, we said, in +the foolishness of our hearts thinking they meant the one we had +just forded, and leaving them resting, passed on our way; half-a- +mile further on we were wiser and sadder, for then we stood on the +rim of one of the biggest swamps I have ever seen south of the +Rivers. It stretched away in all directions, a great sheet of +filthy water, out of which sprang gorgeous marsh plants, in islands, +great banks of screw pine, and coppices of wine palm, with their +lovely fronds reflected back by the still, mirror-like water, so +that the reflection was as vivid as the reality, and above all +remarkable was a plant, {241} new and strange to me, whose pale- +green stem came up out of the water and then spread out in a +flattened surface, thin, and in a peculiarly graceful curve. This +flattened surface had growing out from it leaves, the size, shape +and colour of lily of the valley leaves; until I saw this thing I +had held the wine palm to be the queen of grace in the vegetable +kingdom, but this new beauty quite surpassed her. + +Our path went straight into this swamp over the black rocks forming +its rim, in an imperative, no alternative, "Come-along-this-way" +style. Singlet, who was leading, carrying a good load of bottled +fish and a gorilla specimen, went at it like a man, and disappeared +before the eyes of us close following him, then and there down +through the water. He came up, thanks be, but his load is down +there now, worse luck. Then I said we must get the rubber carriers +who were coming this way to show us the ford; and so we sat down on +the bank a tired, disconsolate, dilapidated-looking row, until they +arrived. When they came up they did not plunge in forthwith; but +leisurely set about making a most nerve-shaking set of preparations, +taking off their clothes, and forming them into bundles, which, to +my horror, they put on the tops of their heads. The women carried +the rubber on their backs still, but rubber is none the worse for +being under water. The men went in first, each holding his gun high +above his head. They skirted the bank before they struck out into +the swamp, and were followed by the women and by our party, and soon +we were all up to our chins. + +We were two hours and a quarter passing that swamp. I was one hour +and three-quarters; but I made good weather of it, closely following +the rubber-carriers, and only going in right over head and all +twice. Other members of my band were less fortunate. One and all, +we got horribly infested with leeches, having a frill of them round +our necks like astrachan collars, and our hands covered with them, +when we came out. + +We had to pass across the first bit of open country I had seen for a +long time--a real patch of grass on the top of a low ridge, which is +fringed with swamp on all sides save the one we made our way to, the +eastern. Shortly after passing through another plantation, we saw +brown huts, and in a few minutes were standing in the middle of a +ramshackle village, at the end of which, through a high stockade, +with its gateway smeared with blood which hung in gouts, we saw our +much longed for Rembwe River. I made for it, taking small notice of +the hubbub our arrival occasioned, and passed through the gateway, +setting its guarding bell ringing violently; I stood on the steep, +black, mud slime bank, surrounded by a noisy crowd. It is a big +river, but nothing to the Ogowe, either in breadth or beauty; what +beauty it has is of the Niger delta type--black mud-laden water, +with a mangrove swamp fringe to it in all directions. I soon turned +back into the village and asked for Ugumu's factory. "This is it," +said an exceedingly dirty, good-looking, civil-spoken man in perfect +English, though as pure blooded an African as ever walked. "This is +it, sir," and he pointed to one of the huts on the right-hand side, +indistinguishable in squalor from the rest. "Where's the Agent?" +said I. "I'm the Agent," he answered. You could have knocked me +down with a feather. "Where's John Holt's factory?" said I. "You +have passed it; it is up on the hill." This showed Messrs. Holt's +local factory to be no bigger than Ugumu's. At this point a big, +scraggy, very black man with an irregularly formed face the size of +a tea-tray and looking generally as if he had come out of a +pantomime on the Arabian Nights, dashed through the crowd, shouting, +"I'm for Holty, I'm for Holty." "This is my trade, you go 'way," +says Agent number one. Fearing my two Agents would fight and damage +each other, so that neither would be any good for me, I firmly said, +"Have you got any rum?" Agent number one looked crestfallen, +Holty's triumphant. "Rum, fur sure," says he; so I gave him a five- +franc piece, which he regarded with great pleasure, and putting it +in his mouth, he legged it like a lamplighter away to his store on +the hill. "Have you any tobacco?" said I to Agent number one. He +brightened, "Plenty tobacco, plenty cloth," said he; so I told him +to give me out twenty heads. I gave my men two heads apiece. I +told them rum was coming, and ordered them to take the loads on to +Hatton and Cookson's Agent's hut and then to go and buy chop and +make themselves comfortable. They highly approved of this plan, and +grunted assent ecstatically; and just as the loads were stowed +Holty's anatomy hove in sight with a bottle of rum under each arm, +and one in each hand; while behind him came an acolyte, a fat, small +boy, panting and puffing and doing his level best to keep up with +his long-legged flying master. I gave my men some and put the rest +in with my goods, and explained that I belonged to Hatton and +Cookson's (it's the proper thing to belong to somebody), and that +therefore I must take up my quarters at their Store; but Holty's +energetic agent hung about me like a vulture in hopes of getting +more five franc-piece pickings. I sent Ngouta off to get me some +tea, and had the hut cleared of an excited audience, and shut myself +in with Hatton and Cookson's agent, and asked him seriously and +anxiously if there was not a big factory of the firm's on the river, +because it was self-evident he had not got anything like enough +stuff to pay off my men with, and my agreement was to pay off on the +Rembwe, hence my horror at the smallness of the firm's N'dorko +store. "Besides," I said, "Mr. Glass (I knew the head Rembwe agent +of Hatton and Cookson was a Mr. Glass), you have only got cloth and +tobacco, and I have promised the Fans to pay off in whatever they +choose, and I know for sure they want powder." "I am not Mr. +Glass," said my friend; "he is up at Agonjo, I only do small trade +for him here." Joy!!!! but where's Agonjo? To make a long story +short I found Agonjo was an hour's paddle up the Rembwe and the +place we ought to have come out at. There was a botheration again +about sending up a message, because of a war palaver; but I got a +pencil note, with my letter of introduction from Mr. Cockshut to +Sanga Glass, at last delivered to that gentleman; and down he came, +in a state of considerable astonishment, not unmixed with alarm, for +no white man of any kind had been across from the Ogowe for years, +and none had ever come out at N'dorko. Mr. Glass I found an +exceedingly neat, well-educated M'pongwe gentleman in irreproachable +English garments, and with irreproachable, but slightly floreate, +English language. We started talking trade, with my band in the +middle of the street; making a patch of uproar in the moonlit +surrounding silence. As soon as we thought we had got one +gentleman's mind settled as to what goods he would take his pay in, +and were proceeding to investigate another gentleman's little +fancies, gentleman number one's mind came all to pieces again, and +he wanted "to room his bundle," i.e. change articles in it for other +articles of an equivalent value, if it must be, but of a higher, if +possible. Oh ye shopkeepers in England who grumble at your lady +customers, just you come out here and try to serve, and satisfy a +set of Fans! Mr. Glass was evidently an expert at the affair, but +it was past 11 p.m. before we got the orders written out, and +getting my baggage into some canoes, that Mr. Glass had brought down +from Agonjo, for N'dorko only had a few very wretched ones, I +started off up river with him and all the Ajumba, and Kiva, the Fan, +who had been promised a safe conduct. He came to see the bundles +for his fellow Fans were made up satisfactorily. The canoes being +small there was quite a procession of them. Mr. Glass and I shared +one, which was paddled by two small boys; how we ever got up the +Rembwe that night I do not know, for although neither of us were +fat, the canoe was a one man canoe, and the water lapped over the +edge in an alarming way. Had any of us sneezed, or had it been +daylight when two or three mangrove flies would have joined the +party, we must have foundered; but all went well; and on arriving at +Agonjo Mr. Glass most kindly opened his store, and by the light of +lamps and lanterns, we picked out the goods from his varied and +ample supply, and handed them over to the Ajumba and Kiva, and all, +save three of the Ajumba, were satisfied. The three, Gray Shirt, +Silence, and Pagan quietly explained to me that they found the +Rembwe price so little better than the Lembarene price that they +would rather get their pay off Mr. Cockshut, than risk taking it +back through the Fan country, so I gave them books on him. I gave +all my remaining trade goods, and the rest of the rum to the Fans as +a dash, and they were more than satisfied. I must say they never +clamoured for dash for top. The Passenger we had brought through +with us, who had really made himself very helpful, was quite +surprised at getting a bundle of goods from me. My only anxiety was +as to whether Fika would get his share all right; but I expect he +did, for the Ajumbas are very honest men; and they were going back +with my Fan friends. I found out, by the by, the reason of Fika's +shyness in coming through to the Rembwe; it was a big wife palaver. + +I had a touching farewell with the Fans: and so in peace, good +feeling, and prosperity I parted company for the second time with +"the terrible M'pongwe," whom I hope to meet with again, for with +all their many faults and failings, they are real men. I am faint- +hearted enough to hope, that our next journey together, may not be +over a country that seems to me to have been laid down as an +obstacle race track for Mr. G. F. Watts's Titans, and to have fallen +into shocking bad repair. + + + +CHAPTER X. BUSH TRADE AND FAN CUSTOMS. + + + +Wherein the Voyager, having fallen among the black traders, +discourses on these men and their manner of life; and the +difficulties and dangers attending the barter they carry on with the +bush savages; and on some of the reasons that makes this barter so +beloved and followed by both the black trader and the savage. To +which is added an account of the manner of life of the Fan tribe; +the strange form of coinage used by these people; their manner of +hunting the elephant, working in iron; and such like things. + +I spent a few, lazy, pleasant days at Agonjo, Mr. Glass doing all he +could to make me comfortable, though he had a nasty touch of fever +on him just then. His efforts were ably seconded by his good lady, +an exceedingly comely Gaboon woman, with pretty manners, and an +excellent gift in cookery. The third member of the staff was the +store-keeper, a clever fellow: I fancy a Loango from his clean-cut +features and spare make, but his tribe I know not for a surety. + +One of these black trader factories is an exceedingly interesting +place to stay at, for in these factories you are right down on the +bed rock of the trade. On the Coast, for the greater part, the +white traders are dealing with black traders, middle men, who have +procured their trade stuff from the bush natives, who collect and +prepare it. Here, in the black trader factory, you see the first +stage of the export part of the trade: namely the barter of the +collected trade stuff between the collector and the middleman. I +will not go into details regarding it. What I saw merely confirmed +my opinion that the native is not cheated; no, not even by a fellow +African trader; and I will merely here pause to sing a paean to a +very unpopular class--the black middleman as he exists on the South- +West Coast. It is impossible to realise the gloom of the lives of +these men in bush factories, unless you have lived in one. It is no +use saying "they know nothing better and so don't feel it," for they +do know several things better, being very sociable men, fully +appreciative of the joys of a Coast town, and their aim, object and +end in life is, in almost every case, to get together a fortune that +will enable them to live in one, give a dance twice a week, card +parties most nights, and dress themselves up so that their fellow +Coast townsmen may hate them and their townswomen love them. From +their own accounts of the dreadful state of trade; and the awful and +unparalleled series of losses they have had, from the upsetting of +canoes, the raids and robberies made on them and their goods by +"those awful bush savages"; you would, if you were of a trustful +disposition, regard the black trader with an admiring awe as the man +who has at last solved the great commercial problem of how to keep a +shop and live by the loss. Nay, not only live, but build for +himself an equivalent to a palatial residence, and keep up, not only +it, but half a dozen wives, with a fine taste for dress every one of +them. I am not of a trustful disposition and I accept those +"losses" with a heavy discount, and know most of the rest of them +have come out of my friend the white trader's pockets. Still I can +never feel the righteous indignation that I ought to feel, when I +see the black trader "down in a seaport town with his Nancy," etc., +as Sir W. H. S. Gilbert classically says, because I remember those +bush factories. + +Mr. Glass, however, was not a trader who made a fortune by losing +those of other people; for he had been many years in the employ of +the firm. He had risen certainly to the high post and position of +charge of the Rembwe, but he was not down giddy-flying at Gaboon. +His accounts of his experiences when he had been many years ago away +up the still little known Nguni River, in a factory in touch with +the lively Bakele, then in a factory among Fans and Igalwa on the +Ogowe, and now among Fans and Skekiani on the Rembwe, were +fascinating, and told vividly of the joys of first starting a +factory in a wild district. The way in which your customers, for +the first month or so, enjoyed themselves by trying to frighten you, +the trader, out of your wits and goods, and into giving them fancy +prices for things you were trading in, and for things of no earthly +use to you, or any one else! The trader's existence during this +period is marked by every unpleasantness save dulness; from that he +is spared by the presence of a mob of noisy, dangerous, thieving +savages all over his place all day; invading his cook-house, to put +some nastiness into his food as a trade charm; helping themselves to +portable property at large; and making themselves at home to the +extent of sitting on his dining-table. At night those customers +proceed to sleep all over the premises, with a view to being on hand +to start shopping in the morning. Woe betide the trader if he gives +in to this, and tolerates the invasion, for there is no chance of +that house ever being his own again; and in addition to the local +flies, etc., on the table-cloth, he will always have several big +black gentlemen to share his meals. If he raises prices, to tide +over some extra row, he is a lost man; for the Africans can +understand prices going up, but never prices coming down; and time +being no object, they will hold back their trade. Then the district +is ruined, and the trader along with it, for he cannot raise the +price he gets for the things he buys. + +What that trader has got to do, is to be a "Devil man." They always +kindly said they recognised me as one, which is a great compliment. +He must betray no weakness, but a character which I should describe +as a compound of the best parts of those of Cardinal Richelieu, +Brutus, Julius Caesar, Prince Metternich, and Mezzofanti, the latter +to carry on the native language part of the business; and he must +cast those customers out, not only from his house; but from his +yard; and adhere to the "No admittance except on business" +principle. This causes a good deal of unpleasantness, and the +trader's nights are now cheered by lively war-dances outside his +stockade; the accompanying songs advertising that the customers are +coming over the stockade to raid the store, and cut up the trader +"into bits like a fish." Sometimes they do come--and then--finish; +but usually they don't; and gradually settle down, and respect the +trader greatly as "a Devil man"; and do business on sound lines +during the day. Over the stockade at night, by ones and twos, +stealing, they will come to the end of the chapter. + +Moonlight nights are fairly restful for the bush trader, but when it +is inky black, or pouring with rain, he has got to be very much out +and about, and particularly vigilant has he got to be on tornado +nights--a most uncomfortable sort of weather to attend to business +in, I assure you. + +The factory at Agonjo was typical; the house is a fine specimen of +the Igalwa style of architecture; mounted on poles above the ground; +the space under the house being used as a store for rubber in +barrels, and ebony in billets; thereby enabling the trader to hover +over these precious possessions, sleeping and waking, like a sitting +hen over her eggs. Near to the house are the sleeping places for +the beach hands, and the cook-house. In front, in a position +commanded by the eye from the verandah, and well withdrawn from the +stockade, are great piles of billets of red bar wood. The whole of +the clean, sandy yard containing these things, and divers others, is +surrounded by a stout stockade, its main face to the river frontage, +the water at high tide lapping its base, and at low tide exposing in +front of it a shore of black slime. Although I cite this factory as +a typical factory of a black trader, it is a specimen of the highest +class, for, being in connection with Messrs. Hatton and Cookson it +is well kept up and stocked. Firms differ much in this particular. +Messrs. Hatton and Cookson, like Messrs. Miller Brothers in the +Bights, take every care that lies in their power of the people who +serve them, down to the Kruboys working on their beaches, giving +ample and good rations and providing good houses. But this is not +so with all firms on the Coast. I have seen factories belonging to +the Swedish houses beside which this factory at Agonjo is a palace +although those factories are white man factories, and the +unfortunate white men in them are expected by these firms to live on +native chop--an expectation the Agents by no means realise, for they +usually die. Black hands, however, do not suffer much at the hands +of such firms, for the Swedish Agents are a quiet, gentlemanly set +of men, in the best sense of that much misused term, and they do not +employ on their beaches such a staff of black helpers as the English +houses, so the two or three Kruboys on a starvation beach can fairly +well fend for themselves, for there is always an adjacent village, +and in that village there are always chickens, and on the shore +crabs, and in the river fish, and for the rest of his diet the +Kruboy flirts with the local ladies. + +Although, as I have laid down, the bush factory at its best is a +place, as Mr. Tracey Tupman would say, more fitted for a wounded +heart than for one still able to feast on social joys, it is a +luxurious situation for a black trader compared to the other form of +trading he deals with--that of travelling among the native villages +in the bush. This has one hundred times the danger, and a thousand +times the discomfort, and is a thoroughly unhealthy pursuit. The +journeys these bush traders make are often remarkable, and they +deserve great credit for the courage and enterprise they display. +Certainly they run less risk of death from fever than a white man +would; but, on the other hand, their colour gives them no +protection; and their chance of getting murdered is distinctly +greater, the white governmental powers cannot revenge their death, +in the way they would the death of a white man, for these murders +usually take place away in some forest region, in a district no +white man has ever penetrated. + +You will naturally ask how it is that so many of these men do +survive "to lead a life of sin" as a missionary described to me +their Coast town life to be. This question struck me as requiring +explanation. The result of my investigations, and the answers I +have received from the men themselves, show that there is a reason +why the natives do not succumb every time to the temptation to kill +the trader, and take his goods, and this is twofold: firstly, all +trade in West Africa follows definite routes, even in the wildest +parts of it; and so a village far away in the forest, but on the +trade route, knows that as a general rule twice a year, a trader +will appear to purchase its rubber and ivory. If he does not appear +somewhere about the expected time, that village gets uneasy. The +ladies are impatient for their new clothes; the gentlemen half wild +for want of tobacco; and things coming to a crisis, they make +inquiries for the trader down the road, one village to another, and +then, if it is found that a village has killed the trader, and +stolen all his goods, there is naturally a big palaver, and things +are made extremely hot, even for equatorial Africa, for that village +by the tobaccoless husbands of the clothesless wives. Herein lies +the trader's chief safety, the village not being an atom afraid, or +disinclined to kill him, but afraid of their neighbouring villages, +and disinclined to be killed by them. But the trader is not yet +safe. There is still a hole in his armour, and this is only to be +stopped up in one way, namely, by wives; for you see although the +village cannot safely kill him, and take all his goods, they can +still let him die safely of a disease, and take part of them, +passing on sufficient stuff to the other villages to keep them +quiet. Now the most prevalent disease in the African bush comes out +of the cooking pot, and so to make what goes into the cooking pot-- +which is the important point, for earthen pots do not in themselves +breed poison--safe and wholesome, you have got to have some one who +is devoted to your health to attend to the cooking affairs, and who +can do this like a wife? So you have a wife--one in each village up +the whole of your route. I know myself one gentleman whose wives +stretch over 300 miles of country, with a good wife base in a Coast +town as well. This system of judiciously conducted alliances, gives +the black trader a security nothing else can, because naturally he +marries into influential families at each village, and all his +wife's relations on the mother's side regard him as one of +themselves, and look after him and his interests. That security can +lie in women, especially so many women, the so-called civilised man +may ironically doubt, but the security is there, and there only, and +on a sound basis, for remember the position of a travelling trader's +wife in a village is a position that gives the lady prestige, the +discreet husband showing little favours to her family and friends, +if she asks for them when he is with her; and then she has not got +the bother of having a man always about the house, and liable to get +all sorts of silly notions into his head if she speaks to another +gentleman, and then go and impart these notions to her with a +cutlass, or a kassengo, as the more domestic husband, I am assured +by black ladies, is prone to. + +You may now, I fear, be falling into the other adjacent error--from +the wonder why any black trader survives, namely, into the wonder +why any black trader gets killed; with all these safeguards, and +wives. But there is yet another danger, which no quantity of wives, +nor local jealousies avail to guard him through. This danger arises +from the nomadic habits of the bush tribes, notably the Fan. For +when a village has made up its mind to change its district, either +from having made the district too hot to hold it, with quarrels with +neighbouring villages; or because it has exhausted the trade stuff, +i.e. rubber and ivory in reach of its present situation; or because +some other village has raided it, and taken away all the stuff it +was saving to sell to the black trader; it resolves to give itself a +final treat in the old home, and make a commercial coup at one fell +swoop. Then when the black trader turns up with his boxes of goods, +it kills him, has some for supper, smokes the rest, and takes it and +the goods, and departs to found new homes in another district. + +The bush trade I have above sketched is the bush trade with the +Fans. In those districts on the southern banks of the Ogowe the +main features of the trade, and the trader's life are the same, but +the details are more intricate, for the Igalwa trader from +Lembarene, Fernan Vaz, or Njole, deals with another set of trading +tribes, not first hand with the collectors. The Fan villages on the +trade routes may, however, be regarded as trade depots, for to them +filters the trade stuff of the more remote villages, so the +difference is really merely technical, and in all villages alike the +same sort of thing occurs. + +The Igalwa or M'pongwe trader arrives with the goods he has received +from the white trader, and there are great rejoicing and much uproar +as his chests and bundles and demijohns are brought up from the +canoe. And presently, after a great deal of talk, the goods are +opened. The chiefs of the village have their pick, and divide this +among the principal men of the village, who pay for it in part with +their store of collected rubber or ivory, and take the rest on +trust, promising to collect enough rubber to pay the balance on the +next visit of the trader. Thereby the trader has a quantity of +debts outstanding in each village, liable to be bad debts, and +herein lies his chief loss. Each chief takes a certain understood +value in goods as a commission for himself--nyeno--giving the +trader, as a consideration for this, an understood bond to assist +him in getting in the trust granted to his village. This nyeno he +utilises in buying trade stuff from villages not on the trade route. +Among the Fans the men who have got the goods stand by with these to +trade for rubber with the general public and bachelors of the +village, in a way I will presently explain. In tribes like Ajumbas, +Adooma, etc., the men having the goods travel off, as traders, among +their various bush tribes, similarly paying their nyeno, and so by +the time the goods reach the final producing men, only a small +portion of them is left, but their price has necessarily risen. +Still it is quite absurd for a casual white traveller, who may have +dropped in on the terminus of a trade route, to cry out regarding +the small value the collector (who is often erroneously described as +the producer) gets for his stuff, compared to the price it fetches +in Europe. For before it even reaches the factory of the Coast +Settlement, that stuff has got to keep a whole series of traders. +It appears at first bad that this should be the case, but the case +it is along the west coast of the continent save in the districts +commanded by the Royal Niger company, who, with courage and +enterprise, have pushed far inland, and got in touch with the great +interior trade routes--a performance which has raised in the breasts +of the Coast trader tribes who have been supplanted, a keen +animosity, which like most animosity in Africa, is not regardful of +truth. The tribes that have had the trade of the Bight of Biafra +passing through their hands have been accustomed, according to the +German Government who are also pressing inland, to make seventy-five +per cent. profit on it, and they resent being deprived of this. A +good deal is to be said in favour of their views; among other things +that the greater part of the seaboard districts of West Africa, I +may say every part from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, is structurally +incapable of being self-supporting under existing conditions. Below +Cameroon, on my beloved South-west coast, which is infinitely richer +than the Bight of Benin, rich producing districts come down to the +sea in most places until you reach the Congo; but here again the +middleman is of great use to the interior tribes, and if they do +have to pay him seventy-five per cent, serve them right. They +should not go making wife palaver, and blood palaver all over the +place to such an extent that the inhabitants of no village, unless +they go en masse, dare take a ten mile walk, save at the risk of +their lives, in any direction, so no palaver live. + +We will now enter into the reason that induces the bush man to +collect stuff to sell among the Fans, which is the expensiveness of +the ladies in the tribe. A bush Fan is bound to marry into his +tribe, because over a great part of the territory occupied by them +there is no other tribe handy to marry into; and a Fan residing in +villages in touch with other tribes, has but little chance of +getting a cheaper lady. For there is, in the Congo Francais and the +country adjacent to the north of it (Batanga), a regular style of +aristocracy which may be summarised firstly thus: All the other +tribes look down on the Fans, and the Fans look down on all the +other tribes. This aristocracy has sub-divisions, the M'pongwe of +Gaboon are the upper circle tribe; next come the Benga of Corisco; +then the Bapuka; then the Banaka. This system of aristocracy is +kept up by the ladies. Thus a M'pongwe lady would not think of +marrying into one of the lower tribes, so she is restricted, with +many inner restrictions, to her own tribe. A Benga lady would marry +a M'pongwe, or a Benga, but not a Banaka, or Bapuka; and so on with +the others; but not one of them would marry a Fan. As for the men, +well of course they would marry any lady of any tribe, if she had a +pretty face, or a good trading connection, if they were allowed to: +that's just man's way. To the south-east the Fans are in touch with +the Bakele, a tribe that has much in common with the Fan, but who +differ from them in getting on in a very friendly way with the +little dwarf people, the Matimbas, or Watwa, or Akoa: people the +Fans cannot abide. With these Bakele the Fan can intermarry, but +there is not much advantage in so doing, as the price is equally +high, but still marry he must. + +A young Fan man has to fend for himself, and has a scratchy kind of +life of it, aided only by his mother until--if he be an enterprising +youth--he is able to steal a runaway wife from a neighbouring +village, or if he is a quiet and steady young man, until he has +amassed sufficient money to buy a wife. This he does by collecting +ebony and rubber and selling it to the men who have been allotted +goods by the chief of the village, from the consignment brought up +by the black trader. He supports himself meanwhile by, if the +situation of his village permits, fishing and selling the fish, and +hunting and killing game in the forest. He keeps steadily at it in +his way, reserving his roysterings until he is settled in life. A +truly careful young man does not go and buy a baby girl cheap, as +soon as he has got a little money together; but works and saves on +until he has got enough to buy a good, tough widow lady, who, +although personally unattractive, is deeply versed in the lore of +trade, and who knows exactly how much rubbish you can incorporate in +a ball of india rubber, without the white trader, or the black bush +factory trader, instantly detecting it. When the Fan young man has +married his wife, in a legitimate way on the cash system, he takes +her round to his relations, and shows her off; and they make little +presents to help the pair set up housekeeping. But the young man +cannot yet settle down, for his wife will not allow him to. She is +not going to slave herself to death doing all the work of the house, +etc., and so he goes on collecting, and she preparing, trade stuff, +and he grows rich enough to buy other wives--some of them young +children, others widows, no longer necessarily old. But it is not +until he is well on in life that he gets sufficient wives, six or +seven. For it takes a good time to get enough rubber to buy a lady, +and he does not get a grip on the ivory trade until he has got a +certain position in the village, and plantations of his own which +the elephants can be discovered raiding, in which case a percentage +of the ivory taken from the herd is allotted to him. Now and again +he may come across a dead elephant, but that is of the nature of a +windfall; and on rubber and ebony he has to depend during his early +days. These he changes with the rich men of his village for a very +peculiar and interesting form of coinage--bikei--little iron +imitation axe-heads which are tied up in bundles called ntet, ten +going to one bundle, for with bikei must the price of a wife be +paid. You do not find bikei close down to Libreville, among the +Fans who are there in a semi-civilised state, or more properly +speaking in a state of disintegrating culture. You must go for +bush. I thought I saw in bikei a certain resemblance in underlying +idea with the early Greek coins I have seen at Cambridge, made like +the fore-parts of cattle; and I have little doubt that the articles +of barter among the Fans before the introduction of the rubber, +ebony, and ivory trades, which in their districts are comparatively +recent, were iron implements. For the Fans are good workers in +iron; and it would be in consonance with well-known instances among +other savage races in the matter of stone implements, that these +things, important of old, should survive, and be employed in the +matter of such an old and important affair as marriage. They thus +become ju-ju; and indeed all West African legitimate marriage, +although appearing to the casual observer a mere matter of barter, +is never solely such, but always has ju-ju in it. + +We may as well here follow out the whole of the domestic life of the +Fan, now we have got him married. His difficulty does not only +consist in getting enough bikei together but in getting a lady he +can marry. No amount of bikei can justify a man in marrying his +first cousin, or his aunt; and as relationship among the Fans is +recognised with both his father and his mother, not as among the +Igalwa with the latter's blood relations only, there are an awful +quantity of aunts and cousins about from whom he is debarred. But +when he has surmounted his many difficulties, and dodged his +relations, and married, he is seemingly a better husband than the +man of a more cultured tribe. He will turn a hand to anything, that +does not necessitate his putting down his gun outside his village +gateway. He will help chop firewood, or goat's chop, or he will +carry the baby with pleasure, while his good lady does these things; +and in bush villages, he always escorts her so as to be on hand in +case of leopards, or other local unpleasantnesses. When inside the +village he will lay down his gun, within handy reach, and build the +house, tease out fibre to make game nets with, and plait baskets, or +make pottery with the ladies, cheerily chatting the while. + +Fan pottery, although rough and sunbaked, is artistic in form and +ornamented, for the Fan ornaments all his work; the articles made in +it consist of cooking pots, palm-wine bottles, water bottles and +pipes, but not all water bottles, nor all pipes are made of pottery. +I wish they were, particularly the former, for they are occasionally +made of beautifully plaited fibre coated with a layer of a certain +gum with a vile taste, which it imparts to the water in the vessel. +They say it does not do this if the vessel is soaked for two days in +water, but it does, and I should think contaminates the stream it +was soaked in into the bargain. The pipes are sometimes made of +iron very neatly. I should imagine they smoked hot, but of this I +have no knowledge. One of my Ajumba friends got himself one of +these pipes when we were in Efoua, and that pipe was, on and off, a +curse to the party. Its owner soon learnt not to hold it by the +bowl, but by the wooden stem, when smoking it; the other lessons it +had to teach he learnt more slowly. He tucked it, when he had done +smoking, into the fold in his cloth, until he had had three serious +conflagrations raging round his middle. And to the end of the +chapter, after having his last pipe at night with it, he would lay +it on the ground, before it was cool. He learnt to lay it out of +reach of his own cloth, but his fellow Ajumbas and he himself +persisted in always throwing a leg on to it shortly after, and there +was another row. + +The Fan basket-work is strongly made, but very inferior to the Fjort +basket-work. Their nets are, however, the finest I have ever seen. +These are made mainly for catching small game, such as the beautiful +little gazelles (Ncheri) with dark gray skins on the upper part of +the body, white underneath, and satin-like in sleekness all over. +Their form is very dainty, the little legs being no thicker than a +man's finger, the neck long and the head ornamented with little +pointed horns and broad round ears. The nets are tied on to trees +in two long lines, which converge to an acute angle, the bottom part +of the net lying on the ground. Then a party of men and women +accompanied by their trained dogs, which have bells hung round their +necks, beat the surrounding bushes, and the frightened small game +rush into the nets, and become entangled. The fibre from which +these nets are made has a long staple, and is exceedingly strong. I +once saw a small bush cow caught in a set of them and unable to +break through, and once a leopard; he, however, took his section of +the net away with him, and a good deal of vegetation and sticks to +boot. In addition to nets, this fibre is made into bags, for +carrying things in while in the bush, and into the water bottles +already mentioned. + +The iron-work of the Fans deserves especial notice for its +excellence. The anvil is a big piece of iron which is embedded +firmly in the ground. Its upper surface is flat, and pointed at +both ends. The hammers are solid cones of iron, the upper part of +the cones prolonged so as to give a good grip, and the blows are +given directly downwards, like the blows of a pestle. The bellows +are of the usual African type, cut out of one piece of solid but +soft wood; at the upper end of these bellows there are two chambers +hollowed out in the wood and then covered with the skin of some +animal, from which the hair has been removed. This is bound firmly +round the rim of each chamber with tie-tie, and the bag of it at the +top is gathered up, and bound to a small piece of stick, to give a +convenient hand hold. The straight cylinder, terminating in the +nozzle, has two channels burnt in it which communicate with each of +the chambers respectively, and half-way up the cylinder, there are +burnt from the outside into the air passages, three series of holes, +one series on the upper surface, and a series at each side. This +ingenious arrangement gives a constant current of air up from the +nozzle when the bellows are worked by a man sitting behind them, and +rapidly and alternately pulling up the skin cover over one chamber, +while depressing the other. In order to make the affair firm it is +lashed to pieces of stick stuck in the ground in a suitable way so +as to keep the bellows at an angle with the nozzle directed towards +the fire. As wooden bellows like this if stuck into the fire would +soon be aflame, the nozzle is put into a cylinder made of clay. +This cylinder is made sufficiently large at the end, into which the +nozzle of the bellows goes, for the air to have full play round the +latter. + +The Fan bellows only differ from those of the other iron-working +West Coast tribes in having the channels from the two chambers in +one piece of wood all the way. His forge is the same as the other +forges, a round cavity scooped in the ground; his fuel also is +charcoal. His other smith's tool consists of a pointed piece of +iron, with which he works out the patterns he puts at the handle-end +of his swords, etc. + +I must now speak briefly on the most important article with which +the Fan deals, namely ivory. His methods of collecting this are +several, and many a wild story the handles of your table knives +could tell you, if their ivory has passed through Fan hands. For +ivory is everywhere an evil thing before which the quest for gold +sinks into a parlour game; and when its charms seize such a tribe as +the Fans, "conclusions pass their careers." A very common way of +collecting a tooth is to kill the person who owns one. Therefore in +order to prevent this catastrophe happening to you yourself, when +you have one, it is held advisable, unless you are a powerful person +in your own village, to bury or sink the said tooth and say nothing +about it until the trader comes into your district or you get a +chance of smuggling it quietly down to him. Some of these private +ivories are kept for years and years before they reach the trader's +hands. And quite a third of the ivory you see coming on board a +vessel to go to Europe is dark from this keeping: some teeth a +lovely brown like a well-coloured meerschaum, others quite black, +and gnawed by that strange little creature--much heard of, and +abused, yet little known in ivory ports--the ivory rat. + +Ivory, however, that is obtained by murder is private ivory. The +public ivory trade among the Fans is carried on in a way more in +accordance with European ideas of a legitimate trade. The greater +part of this ivory is obtained from dead elephants. There are in +this region certain places where the elephants are said to go to +die. A locality in one district pointed out to me as such a place, +was a great swamp in the forest. A swamp that evidently was deep in +the middle, for from out its dark waters no swamp plant, or tree +grew, and evidently its shores sloped suddenly, for the band of +swamp plants round its edge was narrow. It is just possible that +during the rainy season when most of the surrounding country would +be under water, elephants might stray into this natural trap and get +drowned, and on the drying up of the waters be discovered, and the +fact being known, be regularly sought for by the natives cognisant +of this. I inquired carefully whether these places where the +elephants came to die always had water in them, but they said no, +and in one district spoke of a valley or round-shaped depression in +among the mountains. But natives were naturally disinclined to take +a stranger to these ivory mines, and a white person who has caught-- +as any one who has been in touch must catch--ivory fever, is +naturally equally disinclined to give localities. + +A certain percentage of ivory collected by the Fans is from live +elephants, but I am bound to admit that their method of hunting +elephants is disgracefully unsportsmanlike. A herd of elephants is +discovered by rubber hunters or by depredations on plantations, and +the whole village, men, women, children, babies and dogs turn out +into the forest and stalk the monsters into a suitable ravine, +taking care not to scare them. When they have gradually edged the +elephants on into a suitable place, they fell trees and wreathe them +very roughly together with bush rope, all round an immense +enclosure, still taking care not to scare the elephants into a rush. +This fence is quite inadequate to stop any elephant in itself, but +it is made effective by being smeared with certain things, the smell +whereof the elephants detest so much that when they wander up to it, +they turn back disgusted. I need hardly remark that this +preparation is made by the witch doctors and its constituents a +secret of theirs, and I was only able to find out some of them. +Then poisoned plantains are placed within the enclosure, and the +elephants eat these and grow drowsier and drowsier; if the water +supply within the enclosure is a pool it is poisoned, but if it is a +running stream this cannot be done. During this time the crowd of +men and women spend their days round the enclosure, ready to turn +back any elephant who may attempt to break out, going to and fro to +the village for their food. Their nights they spend in little bough +shelters by the enclosure, watching more vigilantly than by day, as +the elephants are more active at night, it being their usual feeding +time. During the whole time the witch doctor is hard at work making +incantations and charms, with a view to finding out the proper time +to attack the elephants. In my opinion, his decision fundamentally +depends on his knowledge of the state of poisoning the animals are +in, but his version is that he gets his information from the forest +spirits. When, however, he has settled the day, the best hunters +steal into the enclosure and take up safe positions in trees, and +the outer crowd set light to the ready-built fires, and make the +greatest uproar possible, and fire upon the staggering, terrified +elephants as they attempt to break out. The hunters in the trees +fire down on them as they rush past, the fatal point at the back of +the skull being well exposed to them. + +When the animals are nearly exhausted, those men who do not possess +guns dash into the enclosure, and the men who do, reload and join +them, and the work is then completed. One elephant hunt I chanced +upon at the final stage had taken two months' preparation, and +although the plan sounds safe enough, there is really a good deal of +danger left in it with all the drugging and ju-ju. There were eight +elephants killed that day, but three burst through everything, +sending energetic spectators flying, and squashing two men and a +baby as flat as botanical specimens. + +The subsequent proceedings were impressive. The whole of the people +gorged themselves on the meat for days, and great chunks of it were +smoked over the fires in all directions. A certain portion of the +flesh of the hind leg was taken by the witch doctor for ju-ju, and +was supposed to be put away by him, with certain suitable +incantations in the recesses of the forest; his idea being +apparently either to give rise to more elephants, or to induce the +forest spirits to bring more elephants into the district. + +Dr. Nassau tells me that the manner in which the ivory gained by one +of these hunts is divided is as follows: --"The witch doctor, the +chiefs, and the family on whose ground the enclosure is built, and +especially the household whose women first discovered the animals, +decide in council as to the division of the tusks and the share of +the flesh to be given to the crowd of outsiders. The next day the +tusks are removed and each family represented in the assemblage cuts +up and distributes the flesh." In the hunt I saw finished, the +elephants had not been discovered, as in the case Dr. Nassau above +speaks of, in a plantation by women, but by a party of rubber +hunters in the forest some four or five miles from any village, and +the ivory that would have been allotted to the plantation holder in +the former case, went in this case to the young rubber hunters. + +Such are the pursuits, sports and pastimes of my friends the Fans. +I have been considerably chaffed both by whites and blacks about my +partiality for this tribe, but as I like Africans in my way--not a +la Sierra Leone--and these Africans have more of the qualities I +like than any other tribe I have met, it is but natural that I +should prefer them. They are brave and so you can respect them, +which is an essential element in a friendly feeling. They are on +the whole a fine race, particularly those in the mountain districts +of the Sierra del Cristal, where one continually sees magnificent +specimens of human beings, both male and female. Their colour is +light bronze, many of the men have beards, and albinoes are rare +among them. The average height in the mountain districts is five +feet six to five feet eight, the difference in stature between men +and women not being great. Their countenances are very bright and +expressive, and if once you have been among them, you can never +mistake a Fan. But it is in their mental characteristics that their +difference from the lethargic, dying-out coast tribes is most +marked. The Fan is full of fire, temper, intelligence and go; very +teachable, rather difficult to manage, quick to take offence, and +utterly indifferent to human life. I ought to say that other +people, who should know him better than I, say he is a treacherous, +thievish, murderous cannibal. I never found him treacherous; but +then I never trusted him, remembering one of the aphorisms of my +great teacher Captain Boler of Bonny, "It's not safe to go among +bush tribes, but if you are such a fool as to go, you needn't go and +be a bigger fool still, you've done enough." And Captain Boler's +other great aphorism was: "Never be afraid of a black man." "What +if I can't help it?" said I. "Don't show it," said he. To these +precepts I humbly add another: "Never lose your head." My most +favourite form of literature, I may remark, is accounts of +mountaineering exploits, though I have never seen a glacier or a +permanent snow mountain in my life. I do not care a row of pins how +badly they may be written, and what form of bumble-puppy grammar and +composition is employed, as long as the writer will walk along the +edge of a precipice with a sheer fall of thousands of feet on one +side and a sheer wall on the other; or better still crawl up an +arete with a precipice on either. Nothing on earth would persuade +me to do either of these things myself, but they remind me of bits +of country I have been through where you walk along a narrow line of +security with gulfs of murder looming on each side, and where in +exactly the same way you are as safe as if you were in your easy +chair at home, as long as you get sufficient holding ground: not on +rock in the bush village inhabited by murderous cannibals, but on +ideas in those men's and women's minds; and these ideas, which I +think I may say you will always find, give you safety. It is not +advisable to play with them, or to attempt to eradicate them, +because you regard them as superstitious; and never, never shoot too +soon. I have never had to shoot, and hope never to have to; because +in such a situation, one white alone with no troops to back him +means a clean finish. But this would not discourage me if I had to +start, only it makes me more inclined to walk round the obstacle, +than to become a mere blood splotch against it, if this can be done +without losing your self-respect, which is the mainspring of your +power in West Africa. + +As for flourishing about a revolver and threatening to fire, I hold +it utter idiocy. I have never tried it, however, so I speak from +prejudice which arises from the feeling that there is something +cowardly in it. Always have your revolver ready loaded in good +order, and have your hand on it when things are getting warm, and in +addition have an exceedingly good bowie knife, not a hinge knife, +because with a hinge knife you have got to get it open--hard work in +a country where all things go rusty in the joints--and hinge knives +are liable to close on your own fingers. The best form of knife is +the bowie, with a shallow half moon cut out of the back at the point +end, and this depression sharpened to a cutting edge. A knife is +essential, because after wading neck deep in a swamp your revolver +is neither use nor ornament until you have had time to clean it. +But the chances are you may go across Africa, or live years in it, +and require neither. It is just the case of the gentleman who asked +if one required a revolver in Carolina and was answered, "You may be +here one year, and you may be here two and never want it; but when +you do want it you'll want it very bad." + +The cannibalism of the Fans, although a prevalent habit, is no +danger, I think, to white people, except as regards the bother it +gives one in preventing one's black companions from getting eaten. +The Fan is not a cannibal from sacrificial motives like the negro. +He does it in his common sense way. Man's flesh, he says, is good +to eat, very good, and he wishes you would try it. Oh dear no, he +never eats it himself, but the next door town does. He is always +very much abused for eating his relations, but he really does not do +this. He will eat his next door neighbour's relations and sell his +own deceased to his next door neighbour in return; but he does not +buy slaves and fatten them up for his table as some of the Middle +Congo tribes I know of do. He has no slaves, no prisoners of war, +no cemeteries, so you must draw your own conclusions. No, my +friend, I will not tell you any cannibal stories. I have heard how +good M. du Chaillu fared after telling you some beauties, and now +you come away from the Fan village and down the Rembwe river. + + + +CHAPTER XI. DOWN THE REMBWE. + + + +Setting forth how the Voyager descends the Rembwe River, with divers +excursions and alarms, in the company of a black trader, and returns +safely to the Coast. + +Getting away from Agonjo seemed as if it would be nearly as +difficult as getting to it, but as the quarters were comfortable and +the society fairly good, I was not anxious. I own the local scenery +was a little too much of the Niger Delta type for perfect beauty, +just the long lines of mangrove, and the muddy river lounging almost +imperceptibly to sea, and nothing else in sight. Mr. Glass, +however, did not take things so philosophically. I was on his +commercial conscience, for I had come in from the bush and there was +money in me. Therefore I was a trade product--a new trade stuff +that ought to be worked up and developed; and he found himself +unable to do this, for although he had secured the first parcel, as +it were, and got it successfully stored, yet he could not ship it, +and he felt this was a reproach to him. + +Many were his lamentations that the firm had not provided him with a +large sailing canoe and a suitable crew to deal with this new line +of trade. I did my best to comfort him, pointing out that the most +enterprising firm could not be expected to provide expensive things +like these, on the extremely remote chance of ladies arriving per +bush at Agonjo--in fact not until the trade in them was well +developed. But he refused to see it in this light and harped upon +the subject, wrapped up, poor man, in a great coat and a muffler, +because his ague was on him. + +I next tried to convince Mr. Glass that any canoe would do for me to +go down in. "No," he said, "any canoe will not do;" and he +explained that when you got down the Rembwe to 'Como Point you were +in a rough, nasty bit of water, the Gaboon, which has a fine +confused set of currents from the tidal wash and the streams of the +Rembwe and 'Como rivers, in which it would be improbable that a +river canoe could live any time worth mentioning. Progress below +'Como Point by means of mere paddling he considered impossible. +There was nothing for it but a big sailing canoe, and there was no +big sailing canoe to be had. I think Mr. Glass got a ray of comfort +out of the fact that Messrs. John Holt's sub-agent was, equally with +himself, unable to ship me. + +At this point in the affair there entered a highly dramatic figure. +He came on to the scene suddenly and with much uproar, in a way that +would have made his fortune in a transpontine drama. I shall always +regret I have not got that man's portrait, for I cannot do him +justice with ink. He dashed up on to the verandah, smote the frail +form of Mr. Glass between the shoulders, and flung his own massive +one into a chair. His name was Obanjo, but he liked it pronounced +Captain Johnson, and his profession was a bush and river trader on +his own account. Every movement of the man was theatrical, and he +used to look covertly at you every now and then to see if he had +produced his impression, which was evidently intended to be that of +a reckless, rollicking skipper. There was a Hallo-my-Hearty +atmosphere coming off him from the top of his hat to the soles of +his feet, like the scent off a flower; but it did not require a +genius in judging men to see that behind, and under this was a very +different sort of man, and if I should ever want to engage in a wild +and awful career up a West African river I shall start on it by +engaging Captain Johnson. He struck me as being one of those men, +of whom I know five, whom I could rely on, that if one of them and I +went into the utter bush together, one of us at least would come out +alive and have made something substantial by the venture; which is a +great deal more than I could say, for example, of Ngouta, who was +still with me, as he desired to see the glories of Gaboon and buy a +hanging lamp. + +Captain Johnson's attire calls for especial comment and admiration. +However disconnected the two sides of his character might be, his +clothes bore the impress of both of his natures to perfection. He +wore, when first we met, a huge sombrero hat, a spotless singlet, +and a suit of clean, well-got-up dungaree, and an uncommonly +picturesque, powerful figure he cut in them, with his finely +moulded, well-knit form and good-looking face, full of expression +always, but always with the keen small eyes in it watching the +effect his genial smiles and hearty laugh produced. The eyes were +the eyes of Obanjo, the rest of the face the property of Captain +Johnson. I do not mean to say that they were the eyes of a bad bold +man, but you had not to look twice at them to see they belonged to a +man courageous in the African manner, full of energy and resource, +keenly intelligent and self-reliant, and all that sort of thing. + +I left him and the refined Mr. Glass together to talk over the +palaver of shipping me, and they talked it at great length. Finally +the price I was to pay Obanjo was settled and we proceeded to less +important details. It seemed Obanjo, when up the river this time, +had set about constructing a new and large trading canoe at one of +his homes, in which he was just thinking of taking his goods down to +Gaboon. Next morning Obanjo with his vessel turned up, and saying +farewell to my kind host, Mr. Sanga Glass, I departed. + +She had the makings of a fine vessel in her; though roughly hewn out +of an immense hard-wood tree: her lines were good, and her type was +that of the big sea-canoes of the Bight of Panavia. Very far +forward was a pole mast, roughly made, but European in intention, +and carrying a long gaff. Shrouds and stays it had not, and my +impression was that it would be carried away if we dropped in for +half a tornado, until I saw our sail and recognised that that would +go to darning cotton instantly if it fell in with even a breeze. It +was a bed quilt that had evidently been in the family some years, +and although it had been in places carefully patched with pieces of +previous sets of the captain's dungarees, in other places, where it +had not, it gave "free passage to the airs of Heaven"; which I may +remark does not make for speed in the boat mounting such canvas. +Partly to this sail, partly to the amount of trading affairs we +attended to, do I owe the credit of having made a record trip down +the Rembwe, the slowest white man time on record. + +Fixed across the stern of the canoe there was the usual staging made +of bamboos, flush with the gunwale. Now this sort of staging is an +exceedingly good idea when it is fully finished. You can stuff no +end of things under it; and over it there is erected a hood of palm- +thatch, giving a very comfortable cabin five or six feet long and +about three feet high in the centre, and you can curl yourself up in +it and, if you please, have a mat hung across the opening. But we +had not got so far as that yet on our vessel, only just got the +staging fixed in fact; and I assure you a bamboo staging is but a +precarious perch when in this stage of formation. I made myself a +reclining couch on it in the Roman manner with my various +belongings, and was exceeding comfortable until we got nearly out of +the Rembwe into the Gaboon. Then came grand times. Our noble craft +had by this time got a good list on her from our collected cargo-- +ill stowed. This made my home, the bamboo staging, about as +reposeful a place as the slope of a writing desk would be if well +polished; and the rough and choppy sea gave our vessel the most +peculiar set of motions imaginable. She rolled, which made it +precarious for things on the bamboo staging, but still a legitimate +motion, natural and foreseeable. In addition to this, she had a +cataclysmic kick in her--that I think the heathenish thing meant to +be a pitch--which no mortal being could foresee or provide against, +and which projected portable property into the waters of the Gaboon +over the stern and on to the conglomerate collection in the bottom +of the canoe itself, making Obanjo repeat, with ferocity and +feeling, words he had heard years ago, when he was boatswain on a +steamboat trading on the Coast. It was fortunate, you will please +understand, for my future, that I have usually been on vessels of +the British African or the African lines when voyaging about this +West African sea-board, as the owners of these vessels prohibit the +use of bad language on board, or goodness only knows what words I +might not have remembered and used in the Gaboon estuary. + +We left Agonjo with as much bustle and shouting and general air of +brisk seamanship as Obanjo could impart to the affair, and the +hopeful mind might have expected to reach somewhere important by +nightfall. I did not expect that; neither, on the other hand, did I +expect that after we had gone a mile and only four, as the early +ballad would say, that we should pull up and anchor against a small +village for the night; but this we did, the captain going ashore to +see for cargo, and to get some more crew. + +There were grand times ashore that night, and the captain returned +on board about 2 A.M. with some rubber and pissava and two new hands +whose appearance fitted them to join our vessel; for a more +villainous-looking set than our crew I never laid eye on. One +enormously powerful fellow looked the incarnation of the horrid +negro of buccaneer stories, and I admired Obanjo for the way he kept +them in hand. We had now also acquired a small dug-out canoe as +tender, and a large fishing-net. About 4 A.M. in the moonlight we +started to drop down river on the tail of the land breeze, and as I +observed Obanjo wanted to sleep I offered to steer. After putting +me through an examination in practical seamanship, and passing me, +he gladly accepted my offer, handed over the tiller which stuck out +across my bamboo staging, and went and curled himself up, falling +sound asleep among the crew in less time than it takes to write. On +the other nights we spent on this voyage I had no need to offer to +steer; he handed over charge to me as a matter of course, and as I +prefer night to day in Africa, I enjoyed it. Indeed, much as I have +enjoyed life in Africa, I do not think I ever enjoyed it to the full +as I did on those nights dropping down the Rembwe. The great, +black, winding river with a pathway in its midst of frosted silver +where the moonlight struck it: on each side the ink-black mangrove +walls, and above them the band of star and moonlit heavens that the +walls of mangrove allowed one to see. Forward rose the form of our +sail, idealised from bed-sheetdom to glory; and the little red glow +of our cooking fire gave a single note of warm colour to the cold +light of the moon. Three or four times during the second night, +while I was steering along by the south bank, I found the mangrove +wall thinner, and standing up, looked through the network of their +roots and stems on to what seemed like plains, acres upon acres in +extent, of polished silver--more specimens of those awful slime +lagoons, one of which, before we reached Ndorko, had so very nearly +collected me. I watched them, as we leisurely stole past, with a +sort of fascination. On the second night, towards the dawn, I had +the great joy of seeing Mount Okoneto, away to the S.W., first +showing moonlit, and then taking the colours of the dawn before they +reached us down below. Ah me! give me a West African river and a +canoe for sheer good pleasure. Drawbacks, you say? Well, yes, but +where are there not drawbacks? The only drawbacks on those Rembwe +nights were the series of horrid frights I got by steering on to +tree shadows and thinking they were mud banks, or trees themselves, +so black and solid did they seem. I never roused the watch +fortunately, but got her off the shadow gallantly single-handed +every time, and called myself a fool instead of getting called one. +My nautical friends carp at me for getting on shadows, but I beg +them to consider before they judge me, whether they have ever +steered at night down a river quite unknown to them an unhandy +canoe, with a bed-sheet sail, by the light of the moon. And what +with my having a theory of my own regarding the proper way to take a +vessel round a corner, and what with having to keep the wind in the +bed-sheet where the bed-sheet would hold it, it's a wonder to me I +did not cast that vessel away, or go and damage Africa. + +By daylight the Rembwe scenery was certainly not so lovely, and +might be slept through without a pang. It had monotony, without +having enough of it to amount to grandeur. Every now and again we +came to villages, each of which was situated on a heap of clay and +sandy soil, presumably the end of a spit of land running out into +the mangrove swamp fringing the river. Every village we saw we went +alongside and had a chat with, and tried to look up cargo in the +proper way. One village in particular did we have a lively time at. +Obanjo had a wife and home there, likewise a large herd of goats, +some of which he was desirous of taking down with us to sell at +Gaboon. It was a pleasant-looking village, with a clean yellow +beach which most of the houses faced. But it had ramifications in +the interior. I being very lazy, did not go ashore, but watched the +pantomime from the bamboo staging. The whole flock of goats enter +at right end of stage, and tear violently across the scene, +disappearing at left. Two minutes elapse. Obanjo and his gallant +crew enter at right hand of stage, leg it like lamplighters across +front, and disappear at left. Fearful pow-wow behind the scenes. +Five minutes elapse. Enter goats at right as before, followed by +Obanjo and company as before, and so on da capo. It was more like a +fight I once saw between the armies of Macbeth and Macduff than +anything I have seen before or since; only our Rembwe play was +better put on, more supers, and noise, and all that sort of thing, +you know. It was a spirited performance I assure you and I and the +inhabitants of the village, not personally interested in goat- +catching, assumed the role of audience and cheered it to the echo. + +We had another cheerful little incident that afternoon. While we +were going along softly, softly as was our wont, in the broiling +heat, I wishing I had an umbrella--for sitting on that bamboo stage +with no sort of protection from the sun was hot work after the +forest shade I had had previously--two small boys in two small +canoes shot out from the bank and paddled hard to us and jumped on +board. After a few minutes' conversation with Obanjo one of them +carefully sank his canoe; the other just turned his adrift and they +joined our crew. I saw they were Fans, as indeed nearly all the +crew were, but I did not think much of the affair. Our tender, the +small canoe, had been sent out as usual with the big black man and +another A. B. to fish; it being one of our industries to fish hard +all the time with that big net. The fish caught, sometimes a bushel +or two at a time, almost all grey mullet, were then brought +alongside, split open, and cleaned. We then had all round as many +of them for supper as we wanted, the rest we hung on strings over +our fire, more or less insufficiently smoking them to prevent +decomposition, it being Obanjo's intention to sell them when he made +his next trip up the 'Como; for the latter being less rich in fish +than the Rembwe they would command a good price there. We always +had our eye on things like this, being, I proudly remark, none of +your gilded floating hotel of a ferry-boat like those Cunard or +White Star liners are, but just a good trader that was not ashamed +to pay, and not afraid of work. + +Well, just after we had leisurely entered a new reach of the river, +round the corner after us, propelled at a phenomenal pace, came our +fishing canoe, which we had left behind to haul in the net and then +rejoin us. The occupants, particularly the big black A. B., were +shouting something in terror stricken accents. "What?" says Obanjo +springing to his feet. "The Fan! the Fan!" shouted the canoe men as +they shot towards us like agitated chickens making for their hen. +In another moment they were alongside and tumbling over our gunwale +into the bottom of the vessel still crying "The Fan! The Fan! The +Fan!" Obanjo then by means of energetic questioning externally +applied, and accompanied by florid language that cast a rose pink +glow smelling of sulphur, round us, elicited the information that +about 40,000 Fans, armed with knives and guns, were coming down the +Rembwe with intent to kill and slay us, and might be expected to +arrive within the next half wink. On hearing this, the whole of our +gallant crew took up masterly recumbent positions in the bottom of +our vessel and turned gray round the lips. But Obanjo rose to the +situation like ten lions. "Take the rudder," he shouted to me, +"take her into the middle of the stream and keep the sail full." It +occurred to me that perhaps a position underneath the bamboo staging +might be more healthy than one on the top of it, exposed to every +microbe of a bit of old iron and what not and a half that according +to native testimony would shortly be frisking through the atmosphere +from those Fan guns; and moreover I had not forgotten having been +previously shot in a somewhat similar situation, though in better +company. However I did not say anything; neither, between +ourselves, did I somehow believe in those Fans. So regardless of +danger, I grasped the helm, and sent our gallant craft flying before +the breeze down the bosom of the great wild river (that's the proper +way to put it, but in the interests of science it may be translated +into crawling towards the middle). Meanwhile Obanjo performed +prodigies of valour all over the place. He triced up the mainsail, +stirred up his fainthearted crew, and got out the sweeps, i.e. one +old oar and four paddles, and with this assistance we solemnly +trudged away from danger at a pace that nothing slower than a Thames +dumb barge, going against stream, could possibly overhaul. Still we +did not feel safe, and I suggested to Ngouta he should rise up and +help; but he declined, stating he was a married man. Obanjo +cheering the paddlers with inspiriting words sprang with the agility +of a leopard on to the bamboo staging aft, standing there with his +gun ready loaded and cocked to face the coming foe, looking like a +statue put up to himself at the public expense. The worst of this +was, however, that while Obanjo's face was to the coming foe, his +back was to the crew, and they forthwith commenced to re-subside +into the bottom of the boat, paddles and all. I, as second in +command, on seeing this, said a few blood-stirring words to them, +and Obanjo sent a few more of great power at them over his shoulder, +and so we kept the paddles going. + +Presently from round the corner shot a Fan canoe. It contained a +lady in the bows, weeping and wringing her hands, while another lady +sympathetically howling, paddled it. Obanjo in lurid language +requested to be informed why they were following us. The lady in +the bows said, "My son! my son!" and in a second more three other +canoes shot round the corner full of men with guns. Now this looked +like business, so Obanjo and I looked round to urge our crew to +greater exertions and saw, to our disgust, that the gallant band had +successfully subsided into the bottom of the boat while we had been +eyeing the foe. Obanjo gave me a recipe for getting the sweeps out +again. I did not follow it, but got the job done, for Obanjo could +not take his eye and gun off the leading canoe and the canoes having +crept up to within some twenty yards of us, poured out their simple +tale of woe. + +It seemed that one of those miscreant boys was a runaway from a Fan +village. He had been desirous, with the usual enterprise of young +Fans, of seeing the great world that he knew lay down at the mouth +of the river, i.e. Libreville Gaboon. He had pleaded with his +parents for leave to go down and engage in work there, but the said +parents holding the tenderness of his youth unfitted to combat with +Coast Town life and temptation, refused this request, and so the +young rascal had run away without leave and with a canoe, and was +surmised to have joined the well-known Obanjo. Obanjo owned he had +(more armed canoes were coming round the corner), and said if the +mother would come and fetch her boy she could have him. He for his +part would not have dreamed of taking him if he had known his +relations disapproved. Every one seemed much relieved, except the +causa belli. The Fans did not ask about two boys and providentially +we gave the lady the right one. He went reluctantly. I feel pretty +nearly sure he foresaw more kassengo than fatted calf for him on his +return home. When the Fan canoes were well back round the corner +again, we had a fine hunt for the other boy, and finally unearthed +him from under the bamboo staging. + +When we got him out he told the same tale. He also was a runaway +who wanted to see the world, and taking the opportunity of the +majority of the people of his village being away hunting, he had +slipped off one night in a canoe, and dropped down river to the +village of the boy who had just been reclaimed. The two boys had +fraternised, and come on the rest of their way together, lying +waiting, hidden up a creek, for Obanjo, who they knew was coming +down river; and having successfully got picked up by him, they +thought they were safe. But after this affair boy number two judged +there was no more safety yet, and that his family would be down +after him very shortly; for he said he was a more valuable and +important boy than his late companion, but his family were an +uncommon savage set. We felt not the least anxiety to make their +acquaintance, so clapped heels on our gallant craft and kept the +paddles going, and as no more Fans were in sight our crew kept at +work bravely. While Obanjo, now in a boisterous state of mind, and +flushed with victory, said things to them about the way they had +collapsed when those two women in a canoe came round that corner, +that must have blistered their feelings, but they never winced. +They laughed at the joke against themselves merrily. The other +boy's family we never saw and so took him safely to Gaboon, where +Obanjo got him a good place. + +Really how much danger there was proportionate to the large amount +of fear on our boat I cannot tell you. It never struck me there was +any, but on the other hand the crew and Obanjo evidently thought it +was a bad place; and my white face would have been no protection, +for the Fans would not have suspected a white of being on such a +canoe and might have fired on us if they had been unduly irritated +and not treated by Obanjo with that fine compound of bully and +blarney that he is such a master of. + +Whatever may have been the true nature of the affair, however, it +had one good effect, it got us out of the Rembwe into the Gaboon, +and although at the time this seemed a doubtful blessing, it made +for progress. I had by this time mastered the main points of +incapability in our craft. A. we could not go against the wind. B. +we could not go against the tide. While we were in the Rembwe there +was a state we will designate as C--the tide coming one way, the +wind another. With this state we could progress, backwards if the +wind came up against us too strong, but seawards if it did not, and +the tide was running down. If the tide was running up, and the wind +was coming down, then we went seaward, softly, softly alongside the +mangrove bank, where the rip of the tide stream is least. When, +however, we got down off 'Como Point, we met there a state I will +designate as D--a fine confused set of marine and fluvial phenomena. +For away to the north the 'Como and Boque and two other lesser, but +considerable streams, were, with the Rembwe, pouring down their +waters in swirling, intermingling, interclashing currents; and up +against them, to make confusion worse confounded, came the tide, and +the tide up the Gaboon is a swift strong thing, and irregular, and +has a rise of eight feet at the springs, two-and-a-half at the +neaps. The wind was lulled too, it being evening time. In this +country it is customary for the wind to blow from the land from 8 +P.M. until 8 A.M., from the south-west to the east. Then comes a +lull, either an utter dead hot brooding calm, or light baffling +winds and draughts that breathe a few panting hot breaths into your +sails and die. Then comes the sea breeze up from the south-south- +west or north-west, some days early in the forenoon, some days not +till two or three o'clock. This breeze blows till sundown, and then +comes another and a hotter calm. + +Fortunately for us we arrived off the head of the Gaboon estuary in +this calm, for had we had wind to deal with we should have come to +an end. There were one or two wandering puffs, about the first one +of which sickened our counterpane of its ambitious career as a +marine sail, so it came away from its gaff and spread itself over +the crew, as much as to say, "Here, I've had enough of this sailing. +I'll be a counterpane again." We did a great deal of fine varied, +spirited navigation, details of which, however, I will not dwell +upon because it was successful. We made one or two circles, taking +on water the while and then returned into the south bank backwards. +At that bank we wisely stayed for the night, our meeting with the +Gaboon so far having resulted in wrecking our sail, making Ngouta +sea-sick and me exasperate; for from our noble vessel having during +the course of it demonstrated for the first time her cataclysmic +kicking power, I had had a time of it with my belongings on the +bamboo stage. A basket constructed for catching human souls in, +given me as a farewell gift by a valued friend, a witch doctor, and +in which I kept the few things in life I really cared for, i.e. my +brush, comb, tooth brush, and pocket handkerchiefs, went over the +stern; while I was recovering this with my fishing line (such was +the excellent nature of the thing, I am glad to say it floated) a +black bag with my blouses and such essentials went away to leeward. +Obanjo recovered that, but meanwhile my little portmanteau +containing my papers and trade tobacco slid off to leeward; and as +it also contained geological specimens of the Sierra del Cristal, a +massive range of mountains, it must have hopelessly sunk had it not +been for the big black, who grabbed it. All my bedding, six Equetta +cloths, given me by Mr. Hamilton in Opobo River before I came South, +did get away successfully, but were picked up by means of the +fishing line, wet but safe. After this I did not attempt any more +Roman reclining couch luxuries, but stowed all my loose gear under +the bamboo staging, and spent the night on the top of the stage, +dozing precariously with my head on my knees. + +When the morning broke, looking seaward I saw the welcome forms of +Konig (Dambe) and Perroquet (Mbini) Islands away in the distance, +looking, as is their wont, like two lumps of cloud that have dropped +on to the broad Gaboon, and I felt that I was at last getting near +something worth reaching, i.e. Glass, which though still out of +sight, I knew lay away to the west of those islands on the northern +shore of the estuary. And if any one had given me the choice of +being in Glass within twenty-four hours from the mouth of the +Rembwe, or in Paris or London in a week, I would have chosen Glass +without a moment's hesitation. Much as I dislike West Coast towns +as a general rule, there are exceptions, and of all exceptions, the +one I like most is undoubtedly Glass Gaboon; and its charms loomed +large on that dank chilly morning after a night spent on a bamboo +staging in an unfinished native canoe. + +The Rembwe, like the 'Como, is said to rise in the Sierra del +Cristal. It is navigable to a place called Isango which is above +Agonjo; just above Agonjo it receives an affluent on its southern +bank and runs through mountain country, where its course is blocked +by rapids for anything but small canoes. Obanjo did not seem to +think this mattered, as there was not much trade up there, and +therefore no particular reason why any one should want to go higher +up. Moreover he said the natives were an exceedingly bad lot; but +Obanjo usually thinks badly of the bush natives in these regions. +Anyhow they are Fans--and Fans are Fans. He was anxious for me, +however, to start on a trading voyage with him up another river, a +notorious river, in the neighbouring Spanish territory. The idea +was I should buy goods at Glass and we should go together and he +would buy ivory with them in the interior. I anxiously inquired +where my profits were to come in. Obanjo who had all the time +suspected me of having trade motives, artfully said, "What for you +come across from Ogowe? You say, see this country. Ah! I say you +come with me. I show you plenty country, plenty men, elephants, +leopards, gorillas. Oh! plenty thing. Then you say where's my +trade?" I disclaimed trade motives in a lordly way. Then says he, +"You come with me up there." I said I'd see about it later on, for +the present I had seen enough men, elephants, gorillas and leopards, +and I preferred to go into wild districts under the French flag to +any flag. I am still thinking about taking that voyage, but I'll +not march through Coventry with the crew we had down the Rembwe-- +that's flat, as Sir John Falstaff says. Picture to yourselves, my +friends, the charming situation of being up a river surrounded by +rapacious savages with a lot of valuable goods in a canoe and with +only a crew to defend them possessed of such fighting mettle as our +crew had demonstrated themselves to be. Obanjo might be all right, +would be I dare say; but suppose he got shot and you had eighteen +stone odd of him thrown on your hands in addition to your other +little worries. There is little doubt such an excursion would be +rich in incident and highly interesting, but I am sure it would be, +from a commercial point of view, a failure. + +Trade has a fascination for me, and going transversely across the +nine-mile-broad rough Gaboon estuary in an unfinished canoe with an +inefficient counterpane sail has none; but I return duty bound to +this unpleasant subject. We started very early in the morning. We +reached the other side entangled in the trailing garments of the +night. I was thankful during that broiling hot day of one thing, +and that was that if Sister Ann was looking out across the river, as +was Sister Ann's invariable way of spending spare moments, Sister +Ann would never think I was in a canoe that made such audaciously +bad tacks, missed stays, got into irons, and in general behaved in a +way that ought to have lost her captain his certificate. Just as +the night came down, however, we reached the northern shore of the +Grand Gaboon at Dongila, just off the mouth of the 'Como, still some +eleven miles east of Konig Island, and further still from Glass, but +on the same side of the river, which seemed good work. The +foreshore here is very rocky, so we could not go close alongside but +anchored out among the rocks. At this place there is a considerable +village and a station of the Roman Catholic Mission. When we +arrived a nun was down on the shore with her school children, who +were busy catching shell-fish and generally merry-making. Obanjo +went ashore in the tender, and the holy sister kindly asked me, by +him, to come ashore and spend the night; but I was dead tired and +felt quite unfit for polite society after the long broiling hot day +and getting soaked by water that had washed on board. + +We lay off Dongila all night, because of the tide. I lay off +everything, Dongila, canoe and all, a little after midnight. Obanjo +and almost all the crew stayed on shore that night, and I rolled +myself up in an Equetta cloth and went sound and happily asleep on +the bamboo staging, leaving the canoe pitching slightly. About +midnight some change in the tide, or original sin in the canoe, +caused her to softly swing round a bit, and the next news was that I +was in the water. I had long expected this to happen, so was not +surprised, but highly disgusted, and climbed on board, needless to +say, streaming. So, in the darkness of the night I got my +portmanteau from the hold and thoroughly tidied up. The next +morning we were off early, coasting along to Glass, and safely +arriving there, I attempted to look as unconcerned as possible, and +vaguely hoped Mr. Hudson would be down in Libreville; for I was +nervous about meeting him, knowing that since he had carefully +deposited me in safe hands with Mme. Jacot, with many injunctions to +be careful, that there were many incidents in my career that would +not meet with his approval. Vain hope! he was on the pier! He did +not approve! He had heard of most of my goings on. + +This however in no way detracts from my great obligation to Mr. +Hudson, but adds another item to the great debt of gratitude I owe +him; for had it not been for him I should never have seen the +interior of this beautiful region of the Ogowe. I tried to explain +to him how much I had enjoyed myself and how I realised I owed it +all to him; but he persisted in his opinion that my intentions and +ambitions were suicidal, and took me out the ensuing Sunday, as it +were on a string. + + + +CHAPTER XII. FETISH. + + + +In which the Voyager attempts cautiously to approach the subject of +Fetish, and gives a classification of spirits, and some account of +the Ibet and Orunda. + +Having given some account of my personal experiences among an +African tribe in its original state, i.e. in a state uninfluenced by +European ideas and culture, I will make an attempt to give a rough +sketch of the African form of thought and the difficulties of +studying it, because the study of this thing is my chief motive for +going to West Africa. Since 1893 I have been collecting information +in its native state regarding Fetish, and I use the usual terms +fetish and ju-ju because they have among us a certain fixed value--a +conventional value, but a useful one. Neither "fetish" nor "ju-ju" +are native words. Fetish comes from the word the old Portuguese +explorers used to designate the objects they thought the natives +worshipped, and in which they were wise enough to recognise a +certain similarity to their own little images and relics of Saints, +"Feitico." Ju-ju, on the other hand, is French, and comes from the +word for a toy or doll, {286} so it is not so applicable as the +Portuguese name, for the native image is not a doll or toy, and has +far more affinity to the image of a saint, inasmuch as it is not +venerated for itself, or treasured because of its prettiness, but +only because it is the residence, or the occasional haunt, of a +spirit. + +Stalking the wild West African idea is one of the most charming +pursuits in the world. Quite apart from the intellectual, it has a +high sporting interest; for its pursuit is as beset with difficulty +and danger as grizzly bear hunting, yet the climate in which you +carry on this pursuit--vile as it is--is warm, which to me is almost +an essential of existence. I beg you to understand that I make no +pretension to a thorough knowledge of Fetish ideas; I am only on the +threshold. "Ich weiss nicht all doch viel ist mir bekannt," as +Faust said--and, like him after he had said it, I have got a lot to +learn. + +I do not intend here to weary you with more than a small portion of +even my present knowledge, for I have great collections of facts +that I keep only to compare with those of other hunters of the wild +idea, and which in their present state are valueless to the cabinet +ethnologist. Some of these may be rank lies, some of them mere +individual mind-freaks, others have underlying them some idea I am +not at present in touch with. + +The difficulty of gaining a true conception of the savage's real +idea is great and varied. In places on the Coast where there is, or +has been, much missionary influence the trouble is greatest, for in +the first case the natives carefully conceal things they fear will +bring them into derision and contempt, although they still keep them +in their innermost hearts; and in the second case, you have a set of +traditions which are Christian in origin, though frequently altered +almost beyond recognition by being kept for years in the atmosphere +of the African mind. For example, there is this beautiful story now +extant among the Cabindas. God made at first all men black--He +always does in the African story--and then He went across a great +river and called men to follow Him, and the wisest and the bravest +and the best plunged into the great river and crossed it; and the +water washed them white, so they are the ancestors of the white men. +But the others were afraid too much, and said, "No, we are +comfortable here; we have our dances, and our tom-toms, and plenty +to eat--we won't risk it, we'll stay here"; and they remained in the +old place, and from them come the black men. But to this day the +white men come to the bank, on the other side of the river, and call +to the black men, saying, "Come, it is better over here." I fear +there is little doubt that this story is a modified version of some +parable preached to the Cabindas at the time the Capuchins had such +influence among them, before they were driven out of the lower Congo +regions more than a hundred years ago, for political reasons by the +Portuguese. + +In the bush--where the people have been little, or not at all, in +contact with European ideas--in some ways the investigation is +easier; yet another set of difficulties confronts you. The +difficulty that seems to occur most easily to people is the +difficulty of the language. The West African languages are not +difficult to pick up; nevertheless, there are an awful quantity of +them and they are at the best most imperfect mediums of +communication. No one who has been on the Coast can fail to +recognise how inferior the native language is to the native's mind +behind it--and the prolixity and repetition he has therefore to +employ to make his thoughts understood. + +The great comfort is the wide diffusion of that peculiar language, +"trade English"; it is not only used as a means of +intercommunication between whites and blacks, but between natives +using two distinct languages. On the south-west Coast you find +individuals in villages far from the sea, or a trading station, who +know it, and this is because they have picked it up and employ it in +their dealings with the Coast tribes and travelling traders. It is +by no means an easy language to pick up--it is not a farrago of bad +words and broken phrases, but is a definite structure, has a great +peculiarity in its verb forms, and employs no genders. There is no +grammar of it out yet; and one of the best ways of learning it is to +listen to a seasoned second mate regulating the unloading or +loading, of cargo, over the hatch of the hold. No, my Coast +friends, I have NOT forgotten--but though you did not mean it +helpfully, this was one of the best hints you ever gave me. + +Another good way is the careful study of examples which display the +highest style and the most correct diction; so I append the letter +given by Mr. Hutchinson as being about the best bit of trade English +I know. + +"To Daddy nah Tampin Office, - + +Ha Daddy, do, yah, nah beg you tell dem people for me; make dem +Sally-own pussin know. Do yah. Berrah well. + +Ah lib nah Pademba Road--one bwoy lib dah oberside lakah dem two +Docter lib overside you Tampin office. Berrah well. + +Dah bwoy head big too much--he say nah Militie Ban--he got one long +long ting so so brass, someting lib dah go flip flap, dem call am +key. Berrah well. Had! Dah bwoy kin blow!--she ah!--na marin, +oh!--nah sun time, oh! nah evenin, oh!--nah middle night, oh!--all +same--no make pussin sleep. Not ebry bit dat, more lib da! One +Boney bwoy lib oberside nah he like blow bugle. When dem two woh- +woh bwoy blow dem ting de nize too much too much. + +When white man blow dat ting and pussin sleep he kin tap wah make +dem bwoy carn do so? Dem bwoy kin blow ebry day eben Sunday dem kin +blow. When ah yerry dem blow Sunday ah wish dah bugle kin go down +na dem troat or dem kin blow them head-bone inside. + +Do nah beg you yah tell all dem people 'bout dah ting wah dem two +bwoy dah blow. Till am Amtrang Boboh hab febah bad. Till am titty +carn sleep nah night. Dah nize go kill me two pickin, oh! + + Plabba done. Good by Daddy. + Crashey Jane." + +Now for the elementary student we will consider this letter. The +complaint in Crashey Jane's letter is about two boys who are +torturing her morning, noon, and night, Sunday and weekday, by +blowing some "long long brass ting" as well as a bugle, and the way +she dwells on their staying power must bring a sympathetic pang for +that black sister into the heart of many a householder in London who +lives next to a ladies' school, or a family of musical tastes. "One +touch of nature," etc. "Daddy" is not a term of low familiarity but +one of esteem and respect, and the "Tampin Office" is a respectful +appellation for the Office of the "New Era" in which this letter was +once published. "Bwoy head big too much," means that the young man +is swelled with conceit because he is connected with "Militie ban." +"Woh woh" you will find, among all the natives in the Bights, to +mean extremely bad. I think it is native, having some connection +with the root Wo--meaning power, etc.; but Mr. Hutchinson may be +right, and it may mean "a capacity to bring double woe." + +"Amtrang Boboh" is not the name of some uncivilised savage, as the +uninitiated may think; far from it. It is Bob Armstrong--upside +down, and slightly altered, and refers to the Hon. Robert Armstrong, +stipendiary magistrate of Sierra Leone, etc. + +"Berrah well" is a phrase used whenever the native thinks he has +succeeded in putting his statement well. He sort of turns round and +looks at it, says "Berrah well," in admiration of his own art, and +then proceeds. + +"Pickin" are children. + +"Boney bwoy" is not a local living skeleton, but a native from Bonny +River. + +"Sally own" is Sierra Leone. + +"Blow them head-bone inside" means, blow the top off their heads. + +I have a collection of trade English letters and documents, for it +is a language that I regard as exceedingly charming, and it really +requires study, as you will see by reading Crashey Jane's epistle +without the aid of a dictionary. It is, moreover, a language that +will take you unexpectedly far in Africa, and if you do not +understand it, land you in some pretty situations. One important +point that you must remember is that the African is logically right +in his answer to such a question as "You have not cleaned this +lamp?"--he says, "Yes, sah"--which means, "yes, I have not cleaned +the lamp." It does not mean a denial to your accusation; he always +uses this form, and it is liable to confuse you at first, as are +many other of the phrases, such as "I look him, I no see him "; this +means "I have been searching for the thing but have not found it"; +if he really meant he had looked upon the object but had been unable +to get to it, he would say: "I look him, I no catch him," etc. + +The difficulty of the language is, however, far less than the whole +set of difficulties with your own mind. Unless you can make it +pliant enough to follow the African idea step by step, however much +care you may take, you will not bag your game. I heard an account +the other day of a representative of Her Majesty in Africa who went +out for a day's antelope shooting. There were plenty of antelope +about, and he stalked them with great care; but always, just before +he got within shot of the game, they saw something and bolted. +Knowing he and the boy behind him had been making no sound and could +not have been seen, he stalked on, but always with the same result; +until happening to look round, he saw the boy behind him was +supporting the dignity of the Empire at large, and this +representative of it in particular, by steadfastly holding aloft the +consular flag. Well, if you go hunting the African idea with the +flag of your own religion or opinions floating ostentatiously over +you, you will similarly get a very poor bag. + +A few hints as to your mental outfit when starting on this sport may +be useful. Before starting for West Africa, burn all your notions +about sun-myths and worship of the elemental forces. My own opinion +is you had better also burn the notion, although it is fashionable, +that human beings got their first notion of the origin of the soul +from dreams. + +I went out with my mind full of the deductions of every book on +Ethnology, German or English, that I had read during fifteen years-- +and being a good Cambridge person, I was particularly confident that +from Mr. Frazer's book, The Golden Bough, I had got a semi-universal +key to the underlying idea of native custom and belief. But I soon +found this was very far from being the case. His idea is a true key +to a certain quantity of facts, but in West Africa only to a limited +quantity. + +I do not say, do not read Ethnology--by all means do so; and above +all things read, until you know it by heart, Primitive Culture, by +Dr. E. B. Tylor, regarding which book I may say that I have never +found a fact that flew in the face of the carefully made, broad- +minded deductions of this greatest of Ethnologists. In addition you +must know your Westermarck on Human Marriage, and your Waitz +Anthropologie, and your Topinard--not that you need expect to go +measuring people's skulls and chests as this last named authority +expects you to do, for no self-respecting person black or white +likes that sort of thing from the hands of an utter stranger, and if +you attempt it you'll get yourself disliked in West Africa. Add to +this the knowledge of all A. B. Ellis's works; Burton's Anatomy of +Melancholy; Pliny's Natural History; and as much of Aristotle as +possible. If you have a good knowledge of the Greek and Latin +classics, I think it would be an immense advantage; an advantage I +do not possess, for my classical knowledge is scrappy, and in place +of it I have a knowledge of Red Indian dogma: a dogma by the way +that seems to me much nearer the African in type than Asiatic forms +of dogma. + +Armed with these instruments of observation, with a little industry +and care you should in the mill of your mind be able to make the +varied tangled rag-bag of facts that you will soon become possessed +of into a paper. And then I advise you to lay the results of your +collection before some great thinker and he will write upon it the +opinion that his greater and clearer vision makes him more fit to +form. + +You may say, Why not bring home these things in their raw state? +And bring them home in a raw state you must, for purposes of +reference; but in this state they are of little use to a person +unacquainted with the conditions which surround them in their native +homes. Also very few African stories bear on one subject alone, and +they hardly ever stick to a point. Take this Fernando Po legend. +Winwood Reade (Savage Africa, p. 62) gives it, and he says he heard +it twice. I have heard it, in variants, four times--once on +Fernando Po, once in Calabar and twice in Gaboon. So it is +evidently an old story: - + +"The first man called all people to one place. His name was +Raychow. 'Hear this, my people' said he, 'I am going to give a name +to every place, I am King in this River.' One day he came with his +people to the Hole of Wonga Wonga, which is a deep pit in the ground +from which fire comes at night. Men spoke to them from the Hole, +but they could not see them. Raychow said to his son, 'Go down into +the Hole'--and his son went. The son of the King of the Hole came +to him and defied him to a contest of throwing the spear. If he +lost he should be killed, if he won he should go back in safety. He +won--then the son of the King of the Hole said, 'It is strange you +should have won, for I am a spirit. Ask whatever you wish,' and the +King's son asked for a remedy for every disease he could remember; +and the spirit gave him the medicines, and when he had done so, he +said, 'There is one sickness you have forgotten--it is the Krawkraw, +and of that you shall die.' + +"A tribe named Ndiva was then strong but now none remain (Winwood +Reade says four remain). They gave Raychow's son a canoe and forty +men, to take him back to his father's town, and when he saw his +father he did not speak. His father said, 'My son, if you are +hungry eat.' He did not answer, and his father said, 'Do you wish +me to kill a goat?' He did not answer; his father said, 'Do you +wish me to give you new wives?' He did not answer. Then his father +said, 'Do you want me to build you a fetish hut?' Then he answered, +'Yes,' and the hut was built, and the medicines he had brought back +from the Hole were put into it. + +"'Now,' said the son of King Raychow, 'I go to make Moondah enter +the Orongo' (Gaboon); so he went and dug a canal and when this was +finished all his men were dead. Then he said, 'I will go and kill +river-horse in the Benito.' He killed four, and as he was killing +the fifth, the people descended from the mountains against him. So +he made fetish on his great war-spear and sang + + My spear, go kill these people, + Or these people will kill me; + +and the spear went and killed the people, except a few who got into +canoes and flew to Fernando Po. Then said their King, 'My people +shall never wear cloth till we have conquered the M'pongwe,' and to +this day the Fernando Poians go naked and hate with a special hatred +the M'pongwe." + +Now this is a noble story--there is a lot of fine confused feeding +in it, as the Scotchman said of boiled sheep's head. + +You learn from it - + +A. The name of the first man, and also that he was filled with a +desire for topographical nomenclature. + +B. You hear of the Hole Wonga Wonga, and this is most interesting +because to this day, apart from the story, you are told by the +natives of a hole that emits fire, and Dr. Nassau says it is always +said to be north of Gaboon; but so far no white man has any +knowledge of an active volcano there, although the district is of +volcanic origin. The crater of Fernando Po may be referred to in +the legend because of the king's son being sent home in a canoe; but +I do not think it is, because the Hole is known not to be Fernando +Po, and it has got, according to local tradition, a river running +from it or close to it. + +C. The kraw-kraw is a frightfully prevalent disease; no one has a +remedy for it, presumably owing to Raychow's son's forgetfulness. + +D. The silence of the son to the questions is remarkable, because +you always find people who have been among spirits lose their power +of asking for what they want, for a time, and can only answer to the +right question. + +E. The sudden way in which Raychow's son gets fired with the desire +to turn civil engineer just when he has got a magnificent opening in +life as a doctor is merely the usual flightiness of young men, who +do not see where their true advantages lie--and the conduct of the +men in dying, after digging a canal is normal, and modern +experiences support it, for men who dig canals down in West Africa +die plentifully, be they black, white, or yellow; so you can't help +believing in those men, although it is strange a black man should +have been so enterprising as to go in for canal digging at all. +There is no other case of it extant to my knowledge, and a +remarkable fact is, that the Moondah does so nearly connect, by one +creek, with the Gaboon estuary that you can drag a boat across the +little intervening bit of land. + +F. Is a sporting story that turns up a little unexpectedly, +certainly; but the Benito is within easy distance north of the +Moondah, so the geography is all right. + +G. The inhabitants of Fernando Po have still an especial hatred for +the M'pongwe, and both they and the M'pongwe have this account of +the one tribe driving the other off the mainland. Then the Bubis +{295}--as the inhabitants on Fernando Po are called, from a +confusion arising in the minds of the sailors calling at Fernando +Po, between their stupidity and their word Babi = stranger, which +they use as a word of greeting--these Bubis are undoubtedly a very +early African race. Their culture, though presenting some +remarkable points, is on the whole exceedingly low. They never wear +clothes unless compelled to, and their language depends so much on +gesture that they cannot talk in it to each other in the dark. + +I give this as a sample of African stories. It is far more +connected and keeps to the point in a far more business-like way +than most of them. They are of great interest when you know the +locality and the tribe they come from; but I am sure if you were to +bring home a heap of stories like this, and empty them over any +distinguished ethnologist's head, without ticketing them with the +culture of the tribe they belonged to, the conditions it lives +under, and so forth, you would stun him with the seeming inter- +contradiction of some, and utter pointlessness of the rest, and he +would give up ethnology and hurriedly devote his remaining years to +the attempt to collect a million postage stamps, so as to do +something definite before he died. Remember, you must always have +your original material--carefully noted down at the time of +occurrence--with you, so that you may say in answer to his Why? +Because of this, and this, and this. + +However good may be the outfit for your work that you take with you, +you will have, at first, great difficulty in realising that it is +possible for the people you are among really to believe things in +the way they do. And you cannot associate with them long before you +must recognise that these Africans have often a remarkable mental +acuteness and a large share of common sense; that there is nothing +really "child-like" in their form of mind at all. Observe them +further and you will find they are not a flighty-minded, mystical +set of people in the least. They are not dreamers, or poets, and +you will observe, and I hope observe closely--for to my mind this is +the most important difference between their make of mind and our +own--that they are notably deficient in all mechanical arts: they +have never made, unless under white direction and instruction, a +single fourteenth-rate piece of cloth, pottery, a tool or machine, +house, road, bridge, picture or statue; that a written language of +their own construction they none of them possess. A careful study +of the things a man, black or white, fails to do, whether for good +or evil, usually gives you a truer knowledge of the man than the +things he succeeds in doing. When you fully realise this acuteness +on one hand and this mechanical incapacity on the other which exist +in the people you are studying, you can go ahead. Only, I beseech +you, go ahead carefully. When you have found the easy key that +opens the reason underlying a series of facts, as for example, +these: a Benga spits on your hand as a greeting; you see a man who +has been marching regardless through the broiling sun all the +forenoon, with a heavy load, on entering a village and having put +down his load, elaborately steal round in the shelter of the houses, +instead of crossing the street; you come across a tribe that cuts +its dead up into small pieces and scatters them broadcast, and +another tribe that thinks a white man's eye-ball is a most desirable +thing to be possessed of--do not, when you have found this key, drop +your collecting work, and go home with a shriek of "I know all about +Fetish," because you don't, for the key to the above facts will not +open the reason why it is regarded advisable to kill a person who is +making Ikung; or why you should avoid at night a cotton tree that +has red earth at its roots; or why combings of hair and paring of +nails should be taken care of; or why a speck of blood that may fall +from your flesh should be cut out of wood--if it has fallen on that- +-and destroyed, and if it has fallen on the ground stamped and +rubbed into the soil with great care. This set requires another key +entirely. + +I must warn you also that your own mind requires protection when you +send it stalking the savage idea through the tangled forests, the +dark caves, the swamps and the fogs of the Ethiopian intellect. The +best protection lies in recognising the untrustworthiness of human +evidence regarding the unseen, and also the seen, when it is viewed +by a person who has in his mind an explanation of the phenomenon +before it occurs. The truth is, the study of natural phenomena +knocks the bottom out of any man's conceit if it is done honestly +and not by selecting only those facts that fit in with his +preconceived or ingrafted notions. And, to my mind, the wisest way +is to get into the state of mind of an old marine engineer who oils +and sees that every screw and bolt of his engines is clean and well +watched, and who loves them as living things, caressing and scolding +them himself, defending them, with stormy language, against the +aspersions of the silly, uninformed outside world, which persists in +regarding them as mere machines, a thing his superior intelligence +and experience knows they are not. Even animistic-minded I got +awfully sat upon the other day in Cameroon by a superior but kindred +spirit, in the form of a First Engineer. I had thoughtlessly +repeated some scandalous gossip against the character of a naphtha +launch in the river. "Stuff!" said he furiously; "she's all right, +and she'd go from June to January if those blithering fools would +let her alone." Of course I apologised. + +The religious ideas of the Negroes, i.e. the West Africans in the +district from the Gambia to the Cameroon region, say roughly to the +Rio del Rey (for the Bakwiri appear to have more of the Bantu form +of idea than the negro, although physically they seem nearer the +latter), differ very considerably from the religious ideas of the +Bantu South-West Coast tribes. The Bantu is vague on religious +subjects; he gives one accustomed to the Negro the impression that +he once had the same set of ideas, but has forgotten half of them, +and those that he possesses have not got that hold on him that the +corresponding or super-imposed Christian ideas have over the true +Negro; although he is quite as keen on the subject of witchcraft, +and his witchcraft differs far less from the witchcraft of the Negro +than his religious ideas do. + +The god, in the sense we use the word, is in essence the same in all +of the Bantu tribes I have met with on the Coast: a non-interfering +and therefore a negligible quantity. He varies his name: Anzambi, +Anyambi, Nyambi, Nzambi, Anzam, Nyam, Ukuku, Suku, and Nzam, but a +better investigation shows that Nzam of the Fans is practically +identical with Suku south of the Congo in the Bihe country, and so +on. + +They regard their god as the creator of man, plants, animals, and +the earth, and they hold that having made them, he takes no further +interest in the affair. But not so the crowd of spirits with which +the universe is peopled, they take only too much interest and the +Bantu wishes they would not and is perpetually saying so in his +prayers, a large percentage whereof amounts to "Go away, we don't +want you." "Come not into this house, this village, or its +plantations." He knows from experience that the spirits pay little +heed to these objurgations, and as they are the people who must be +attended to, he develops a cult whereby they may be managed, used, +and understood. This cult is what we call witchcraft. + +As I am not here writing a complete work on Fetish I will leave Nzam +on one side, and turn to the inferior spirits. These are almost all +malevolent; sometimes they can be coaxed into having creditable +feelings, like generosity and gratitude, but you can never trust +them. No, not even if you are yourself a well-established medicine +man. Indeed they are particularly dangerous to medicine men, just +as lions are to lion tamers, and many a professional gentleman in +the full bloom of his practice, gets eaten up by his own particular +familiar which he has to keep in his own inside whenever he has not +sent it off into other people's. + +I am indebted to the Reverend Doctor Nassau for a great quantity of +valuable information regarding Bantu religious ideas--information +which no one is so competent to give as he, for no one else knows +the West Coast Bantu tribes with the same thoroughness and sympathy. +He has lived among them since 1851, and is perfectly conversant with +their languages and culture, and he brings to bear upon the study of +them a singularly clear, powerful, and highly-educated intelligence. + +I shall therefore carefully ticket the information I have derived +from him, so that it may not be mixed with my own. I may be wrong +in my deductions, but Dr. Nassau's are above suspicion. + +He says the origin of these spirits is vague--some of them come into +existence by the authority of Anzam (by which you will understand, +please, the same god I have quoted above as having many names), +others are self-existent--many are distinctly the souls of departed +human beings, "which in the future which is all around them" retain +their human wants and feelings, and the Doctor assures me he has +heard dying people with their last breath threatening to return as +spirits to revenge themselves upon their living enemies. He could +not tell me if there was any duration set upon the existence as +spirits of these human souls, but two Congo Francais natives, of +different tribes, Benga and Igalwa, told me that when a family had +quite died out, after a time its spirits died too. Some, but by no +means all, of these spirits of human origin, as is the case among +the Negro Effiks, undergo reincarnation. The Doctor told me he once +knew a man whose plantations were devastated by an elephant. He +advised that the beast should be shot, but the man said he dare not +because the spirit of his dead father had passed into the elephant. + +Their number is infinite and their powers as varied as human +imagination can make them; classifying them is therefore a difficult +work, but Doctor Nassau thinks this may be done fairly completely +into: - + +1. Human disembodied spirits--Manu. + +2. Vague beings, well described by our word ghosts: Abambo. + +3. Beings something like dryads, who resent intrusion into their +territory, on to their rock, past their promontory, or tree. When +passing the residence of one of these beings, the traveller must go +by silently, or with some cabalistic invocation, with bowed or bared +head, and deposit some symbol of an offering or tribute even if it +be only a pebble. You occasionally come across great trees that +have fallen across a path that have quite little heaps of pebbles, +small shells, etc., upon them deposited by previous passers-by. +This class is called Ombwiri. + +4. Beings who are the agents in causing sickness, and either aid or +hinder human plans--Mionde. + +5. There seems to be, the Doctor says, another class of spirits +somewhat akin to the ancient Lares and Penates, who especially +belong to the household, and descend by inheritance with the family. +In their honour are secretly kept a bundle of finger, or other +bones, nail-clippings, eyes, brains, skulls, particularly the lower +jaws, called in M'pongwe oginga, accumulated from deceased members +of successive generations. + +Dr. Nassau says "secretly," and he refers to this custom being +existent in non-cannibal tribes. I saw bundles of this character +among the cannibal Fans, and among the non-cannibal Adooma, openly +hanging up in the thatch of the sleeping apartment. + +6. He also says there may be a sixth class, which may, however only +be a function of any of the other classes--namely, those that enter +into any animal body, generally a leopard. Sometimes the spirits of +living human beings do this, and the animal is then guided by human +intelligence, and will exercise its strength for the purposes of its +temporary human possessor. In other cases it is a non-human soul +that enters into the animal, as in the case of Ukuku. + +Spirits are not easily classified by their functions because those +of different class may be employed in identical undertakings. Thus +one witch doctor may have, I find, particular influence over one +class of spirit and another over another class; yet they will both +engage to do identical work. But in spite of this I do not see how +you can classify spirits otherwise than by their functions; you +cannot weigh and measure them, and it is only a few that show +themselves in corporeal form. + +There are characteristics that all the authorities seem agreed on, +and one is that individual spirits in the same class vary in power: +some are strong of their sort, some weak. + +They are all to a certain extent limited in the nature of their +power; there is no one spirit that can do all things; their +efficiency only runs in certain lines of action and all of them are +capable of being influenced, and made subservient to human wishes, +by proper incantations. This latter characteristic is of course to +human advantage, but it has its disadvantages, for you can never +really trust a spirit, even if you have paid a considerable sum to a +most distinguished medicine man to get a powerful one put up in a +ju-ju, or monde, {301} as it is called in several tribes. + +The method of making these charms is much the same among Bantu and +Negroes: I have elsewhere described the Gold Coast method, so here +confine myself to the Bantu. This similarity of procedure naturally +arises from the same underlying idea existing in the two races. + +You call in the medicine man, the "oganga," as he is commonly called +in Congo Francais tribes. After a variety of ceremonies and +processes, the spirit is induced to localise itself in some object +subject to the will of the possessor. The things most frequently +used are antelopes' horns, the large snail-shells, and large +nutshells, according to Doctor Nassau. Among the Fan I found the +most frequent charm-case was in the shape of a little sausage, made +very neatly of pineapple fibre, the contents being the residence of +the spirit or power, and the outside coloured red to flatter and +please him--for spirits always like red because it is like blood. + +The substance put inside charms is all manner of nastiness, usually +on the sea coast having a high percentage of fowl dung. + +The nature of the substance depends on the spirit it is intended to +be attractive to--attractive enough to induce it to leave its +present abode and come and reside in the charm. + +In addition to this attractive substance I find there are other +materials inserted which have relation towards the work the spirit +will be wanted to do for its owner. For example, charms made either +to influence a person to be well disposed towards the owner, or the +still larger class made with intent to work evil on other human +beings against whom the owner has a grudge, must have in them some +portion of the person to be dealt with--his hair, blood, nail- +parings, etc.--or, failing that, his or her most intimate belonging, +something that has got his smell in--a piece of his old waist-cloth +for example. + +This ability to obtain power over people by means of their blood, +hair, nails, etc., is universally diffused; you will find it down in +Devon, and away in far Cathay, and the Chinese, I am told, have in +some parts of their empire little ovens to burn their nail- and +hair-clippings in. The fear of these latter belongings falling into +the hands of evilly-disposed persons is ever present to the West +Africans. The Igalwa and other tribes will allow no one but a +trusted friend to do their hair, and bits of nails and hair are +carefully burnt or thrown away into a river; and blood, even that +from a small cut or a fit of nose-bleeding, is most carefully +covered up and stamped out if it has fallen on the earth. The +underlying idea regarding blood is of course the old one that the +blood is the life. + +The life in Africa means a spirit, hence the liberated blood is the +liberated spirit, and liberated spirits are always whipping into +people who do not want them. + +Charms are made for every occupation and desire in life--loving, +hating, buying, selling, fishing, planting, travelling, hunting, +etc., and although they are usually in the form of things filled +with a mixture in which the spirit nestles, yet there are other +kinds; for example, a great love charm is made of the water the +lover has washed in, and this, mingled with the drink of the loved +one, is held to soften the hardest heart. + +Some kinds of charms, such as those to prevent your getting drowned, +shot, seen by elephants, etc., are worn on a bracelet or necklace. +A new-born child starts with a health-knot tied round the wrist, +neck, or loins, and throughout the rest of its life its collection +of charms goes on increasing. This collection does not, however, +attain inconvenient dimensions, owing to the failure of some of the +charms to work. + +That is the worst of charms and prayers. The thing you wish of them +may, and frequently does, happen in a strikingly direct way, but +other times it does not. In Africa this is held to arise from the +bad character of the spirits; their gross ingratitude and +fickleness. You may have taken every care of a spirit for years, +given it food and other offerings that you wanted for yourself, +wrapped it up in your cloth on chilly nights and gone cold, put it +in the only dry spot in the canoe, and so on, and yet after all +this, the wretched thing will be capable of being got at by your +rival or enemy and lured away, leaving you only the case it once +lived in. + +Finding, we will say, that you have been upset and half-drowned, and +your canoe-load of goods lost three times in a week, that your +paddles are always breaking, and the amount of snags in the river +and so on is abnormal, you judge that your canoe-charm has stopped. +Then you go to the medicine man who supplied you with it and +complain. He says it was a perfectly good charm when he sold it you +and he never had any complaints before, but he will investigate the +affair; when he has done so, he either says the spirit has been +lured away from the home he prepared for it by incantations and +presents from other people, or that he finds the spirit is dead; it +has been killed by a more powerful spirit of its class, which is in +the pay of some enemy of yours. In all cases the little thing you +kept the spirit in is no use now, and only fit to sell to a white +man as "a big curio!" and the sooner you let him have sufficient +money to procure you a fresh and still more powerful spirit-- +necessarily more expensive--the safer it will be for you, +particularly as your misfortunes distinctly point to some one being +desirous of your death. You of course grumble, but seeing the thing +in his light you pay up, and the medicine man goes busily to work +with incantations, dances, looking into mirrors or basins of still +water, and concoctions of messes to make you a new protecting charm. + +Human eye-balls, particularly of white men, I have already said are +a great charm. Dr. Nassau says he has known graves rifled for them. +This, I fancy, is to secure the "man that lives in your eyes" for +the service of the village, and naturally the white man, being +regarded as a superior being, would be of high value if enlisted +into its service. A similar idea of the possibility of gaining +possession of the spirit of a dead man obtains among the Negroes, +and the heads of important chiefs in the Calabar districts are +usually cut off from the body on burial and kept secretly for fear +the head, and thereby the spirit, of the dead chief, should be +stolen from the town. If it were stolen it would be not only a +great advantage to its new possessor, but a great danger to the +chief's old town; because he would know all the peculiar ju-ju +relating to it. For each town has a peculiar one, kept exceedingly +secret, in addition to the general ju-jus, and this secret one would +then be in the hands of the new owners of the spirit. It is for +similar reasons that brave General MacCarthy's head was treasured by +the Ashantees, and so on. + +Charms are not all worn upon the body, some go to the plantations, +and are hung there, ensuring an unhappy and swift end for the thief +who comes stealing. Some are hung round the bows of the canoe, +others over the doorway of the house, to prevent evil spirits from +coming in--a sort of tame watch-dog spirits. + +The entrances to the long street-shaped villages are frequently +closed with a fence of saplings and this sapling fence you will see +hung with fetish charms to prevent evil spirits from entering the +village and sometimes in addition to charms you will see the fence +wreathed with leaves and flowers. Bells are frequently hung on +these fences, but I do not fancy ever for fetish reasons. At +Ndorko, on the Rembwe, there were many guards against spirit +visitors, but the bell, which was carefully hung so that you could +not pass through the gateway without ringing it, was a guard against +thieves and human enemies only. + +Frequently a sapling is tied horizontally near the ground across the +entrance. Dr. Nassau could not tell me why, but says it must never +be trodden on. When the smallpox, a dire pestilence in these +regions, is raging, or when there is war, these gateways are +sprinkled with the blood of sacrifices, and for these sacrifices and +for the payments of heavy blood fines, etc., goats and sheep are +kept. They are rarely eaten for ordinary purposes, and these West +Coast Africans have all a perfect horror of the idea of drinking +milk, holding this custom to be a filthy habit, and saying so in +unmitigated language. + +The villagers eat the meat of the sacrifice, that having nothing to +do with the sacrifice to the spirits, which is the blood, for the +blood is the life. {306} + +Beside the few spirits that the Bantu regards himself as having got +under control in his charms, he has to worship the uncontrolled army +of the air. This he does by sacrifice and incantation. + +The sacrifice is the usual killing of something valuable as an +offering to the spirits. The value of the offering in these S.W. +Coast regions has certainly a regular relationship to the value of +the favour required of the spirits. Some favours are worth a dish +of plantains, some a fowl, some a goat and some a human being, +though human sacrifice is very rare in Congo Francais, the killing +of people being nine times in ten a witchcraft palaver. + +Dr. Nassau, however, says that "the intention of the giver ennobles +the gift," the spirit being supposed, in some vague way, to be +gratified by the recognition of itself, and even sometimes pleased +with the homage of the mere simulacrum of a gift. I believe the +only class of spirits that have this convenient idea are the +Imbwiri; thus the stones heaped by passers-by on the foot of some +great tree, or rock, or the leaf cast from a passing canoe towards a +promontory on the river, etc., although intrinsically valueless and +useless to the Ombwiri nevertheless gratify him. It is a sort of +bow or taking off one's hat to him. Some gifts, the Doctor says, +are supposed to be actually utilised by the spirit. + +In some part of the long single street of most villages there is +built a low hut in which charms are hung, and by which grows a +consecrated plant, a lily, a euphorbia, or a fig. In some tribes a +rudely carved figure, generally female, is set up as an idol before +which offerings are laid. I saw at Egaja two figures about 2 feet 6 +inches high, in the house placed at my disposal. They were left in +it during my occupation, save that the rolls of cloth (their power) +which were round their necks, were removed by the owner chief; of +the significance of these rolls I will speak elsewhere. + +Incantations may be divided into two classes, supplications +analogous to our idea of prayers, and certain cabalistic words and +phrases. The supplications are addresses to the higher spirits. +Some are made even to Anzam himself, but the spirit of the new moon +is that most commonly addressed to keep the lower spirits from +molesting. + +Dr. Nassau gave me many instances out of the wealth of his +knowledge. One night when he was stopping at a village, he saw +standing out in the open street a venerable chief who addressed the +spirits of the air and begged them, "Come ye not into my town;" he +then recounted his good deeds, praising himself as good, just, +honest, kind to his neighbours, and so on. I must remark that this +man had not been in touch with Europeans, so his ideal of goodness +was the native one--which you will find everywhere among the most +remote West Coast natives. He urged these things as a reason why no +evil should befall him, and closed with an impassioned appeal to the +spirits to stay away. At another time, in another village, when a +man's son had been wounded and a bleeding artery which the Doctor +had closed had broken out again and the haemorrhage seemed likely to +prove fatal, the father rushed out into the street wildly +gesticulating towards the sky, saying, "Go away, go away, go away, +ye spirits, why do you come to kill my son?" In another case a +woman rushed into the street, alternately objurgating and pleading +with the spirits, who, she said, were vexing her child which had +convulsions. "Observe," said the Doctor in his impressive way, +"these were distinctly prayers, appeals for mercy, agonising +protests, but there was no praise, no love, no thanks, no confession +of sin." I said, considering the underlying idea, I did not see how +that could be, thinking of the thing as they did, and the Doctor and +I had one of our little disagreements. I shall always feel grateful +to him for his great toleration of me, but I am sure this arose from +his feeling that I saw there was an underlying idea in the minds of +the people he loved well enough to lay down his life for in the hope +of benefiting and ennobling them, and that I did not, as many do, +set them down as idiotic brutes, glorying in an aimless cruelty that +would be a disgrace to a devil. + +Regarding the cabalistic words and phrases, things which had long +given me great trouble to get any comprehension of, the Doctor gave +me great help. He says some of these phrases and words are coined +by the person himself, others are archaisms handed down from +ancestors and believed to possess an efficacy, though their actual +meaning is forgotten. He says they are used at any time as defence +from evil, when a person is startled, sneezes, or stumbles. Among +these I think I ought to class that peculiar form of friendly +farewell or greeting which the Doctor poetically calls a "blown +blessing" and the natives Ibata. I thought the three times it was +given to me that it was just spitting on the hand. Practically it +is so, but the Doctor says the spitting is accidental, a by-product +I suppose. The method consists in taking the right hand in both +yours, turning it palm upwards, bending your head low over it, and +saying with great energy and a violent propulsion of the breath, +Ibata. + +Idols are comparatively rare in Congo Francais, but where they are +used the people have the same idea about them as the true Negroes +have, namely, that they are things which spirits reside in, or +haunt, but not in their corporeal nature adorable. The resident +spirit in them and in the charms and plants, which are also regarded +as residences of spirits, has to be placated with offerings of food +and other sacrifices. You will see in the Fetish huts above +mentioned dishes of plantain and fish left till they rot. Dr. +Nassau says the life or essence of the food only is eaten by the +spirit, the form of the vegetable or flesh being left to be removed +when its life is gone out. + +In cases of emergency a fowl with its blood is laid at the door of +the Fetish hut, or when pestilence is expected, or an attack by +enemies, or a great man or woman is very ill, goats and sheep are +sacrificed and the blood put in the Fetish hut as well as on the +gateways of the village. These sacrifices among the Fan are made +with a very peculiar-shaped knife, a fine specimen of which I +secured by the kindness of Captain Davies; it is shaped like the +head of a hornbill and is quite unlike the knives in common use +among the tribes, which are either long, leaf-shaped blades +sharpened along both edges, or broad, trowel-shaped, almost +triangular daggers. All Fan knives are fine weapons, superior to +the knives of all other Coast tribes I have met with, but the +sacrifice knife is distinctly peculiar. I found to my great +interest the same superstition in Congo Francais that I met with +first in the Oil Rivers. Its meaning I am unable to fully account +for, but I believe it to be a form of sacrifice. In Calabar each +individual has a certain forbidden thing or things. These things +are either forms of food, or the method of eating. In Calabar this +prohibition is called Ibet, and when, in consequence of the +influence of white culture, a man gives up his Ibet, he is regarded +by good sound ju-juists as leading an irregular and dissipated life, +and even the unintentional breaking of the Ibet is regarded as very +dangerous. Special days are set apart by each individual; on these +days he eats only the smallest quantity and plainest quality of +food. No one must eat with him, nor any dog, fowl, etc., feed off +the crumbs, nor any one watch him while eating. I suspect on this +day the Ibet is eaten, but I have not verified this, only getting, +from an untrustworthy source, a statement that supported it. + +Dr. Nassau told me that among Congo Francais tribes certain rites +are performed for children during infancy or youth, in which a +prohibition is laid upon the child as regards the eating of some +particular article of food, or the doing of certain acts. "It is +difficult," he said, "to get the exact object of the 'Orunda.' +Certainly the prohibited article is not in itself evil, for others +but the inhibited individual may eat or do with it as they please. +Most of the natives blindly follow the custom of their ancestors +without being able to give any raison d'etre, but again, from those +best able to give a reason, you learn the prohibited article is a +sacrifice ordained for the child by its parents and the magic doctor +as a gift to the governing spirit of its life. The thing prohibited +becomes removed from the child's common use, and is made sacred to +the spirit. Any use of it by the child or man would therefore be a +sin, which would bring down the spirit's wrath in the form of +sickness or other evil, which can be atoned for only by expensive +ceremonies or gifts to the magic doctor who intercedes for the +offender." + +Anything may be an Orunda or Ibet provided only that it is connected +with food; I have been able to find no definite ground for the +selection of it. The Doctor said, for example, that "once when on a +boat journey, and camped in the forest for the noon-day meal, the +crew of four had no meat. They needed it. I had a chicken but ate +only a portion, and gave the rest to the crew. Three men ate it +with their manioc meal, the fourth would not touch it. It was his +Orunda." "On another journey," said the Doctor, "instead of all my +crew leaving me respectfully alone in the canoe to have my lunch and +going ashore to have theirs, one of them stayed behind in the canoe, +and I found his Orunda was only to eat over water when on a journey +by water." "At another place, a chief at whose village we once +anchored in a small steamer when a glass of rum was given him, had a +piece of cloth held up before his mouth that the people might not +see him drink, which was his Orunda." + +I know some ethnologists will think this last case should be classed +under another head, but I think the Doctor is right. He is well +aware of the existence of the other class of prohibitions regarding +chiefs and I have seen plenty of chiefs myself up the Rembwe who +have no objection to take their drinks coram publico, and I have no +doubt this was only an individual Orunda of this particular Rembwe +chief. + +Great care is requisite in these matters, because a man may do or +abstain from doing one and the same thing for divers reasons. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. FETISH--(continued). + + + +In which the Voyager discourses on deaths and witchcraft, and, with +no intentional slur on the medical profession, on medical methods +and burial customs, concluding with sundry observations on twins. + +It is exceedingly interesting to compare the ideas of the Negroes +with those of the Bantu. The mental condition of the lower forms of +both races seems very near the other great border-line that +separates man from the anthropoid apes, and I believe that if we had +the material, or rather if we could understand it, we should find +little or no gap existing in mental evolution in this old, +undisturbed continent of Africa. + +Let, however, these things be as they may, one thing about Negro and +Bantu races is very certain, and that is that their lives are +dominated by a profound belief in witchcraft and its effects. + +Among both alike the rule is that death is regarded as a direct +consequence of the witchcraft of some malevolent human being, acting +by means of spirits, over which he has, by some means or another, +obtained control. + +To all rules there are exceptions. Among the Calabar negroes, who +are definite in their opinions, I found two classes of exceptions. +The first arises from their belief in a bush-soul. They believe +every man has four souls: a, the soul that survives death; b, the +shadow on the path; c, the dream-soul; d, the bush-soul. + +This bush-soul is always in the form of an animal in the forest-- +never of a plant. Sometimes when a man sickens it is because his +bush-soul is angry at being neglected, and a witch-doctor is called +in, who, having diagnosed this as being the cause of the complaint, +advises the administration of some kind of offering to the offended +one. When you wander about in the forests of the Calabar region, +you will frequently see little dwarf huts with these offerings in +them. You must not confuse these huts with those of similar +construction you are continually seeing in plantations, or near +roads, which refer to quite other affairs. These offerings, in the +little huts in the forest, are placed where your bush-soul was last +seen. Unfortunately, you are compelled to call in a doctor, which +is an expense, but you cannot see your own bush-soul, unless you are +an Ebumtup, a sort of second-sighter. + +But to return to the bush-soul of an ordinary person. If the +offering in the hut works well on the bush-soul, the patient +recovers, but if it does not he dies. Diseases arising from +derangements in the temper of the bush-soul however, even when +treated by the most eminent practitioners, are very apt to be +intractable, because it never realises that by injuring you it +endangers its own existence. For when its human owner dies, the +bush-soul can no longer find a good place, and goes mad, rushing to +and fro--if it sees a fire it rushes into it; if it sees a lot of +people it rushes among them, until it is killed, and when it is +killed it is "finish" for it, as M. Pichault would say, for it is +not an immortal soul. + +The bush-souls of a family are usually the same for a man and for +his sons, for a mother and for her daughters. Sometimes, however, I +am told all the children take the mother's, sometimes all take the +father's. They may be almost any kind of animal, sometimes they are +leopards, sometimes fish, or tortoises, and so on. + +There is another peculiarity about the bush-soul, and that is that +it is on its account that old people are held in such esteem among +the Calabar tribes. For, however bad these old people's personal +record may have been, the fact of their longevity demonstrates the +possession of powerful and astute bush-souls. On the other hand, a +man may be a quiet, respectable citizen, devoted to peace and a +whole skin, and yet he may have a sadly flighty disreputable bush- +soul which will get itself killed or damaged and cause him death or +continual ill-health. + +There is another way by which a man dies apart from the action of +bush-souls or witchcraft; he may have had a bad illness from some +cause in his previous life and, when reincarnated, part of this +disease may get reincarnated with him and then he will ultimately +die of it. There is no medicine of any avail against these +reincarnated diseases. + +The idea of reincarnation is very strong in the Niger Delta tribes. +It exists, as far as I have been able to find out, throughout all +Africa, but usually only in scattered cases, as it were; but in the +Delta, most--I think I may say all--human souls of the "surviving +soul" class are regarded as returning to the earth again, and +undergoing a reincarnation shortly after the due burial of the soul. + +These two exceptions from the rule of all deaths and sickness being +caused by witchcraft are, however, of minor importance, for +infinitely the larger proportion of death and sickness is held to +arise from witchcraft itself, more particularly among the Bantu. + +Witchcraft acts in two ways, namely, witching something out of a +man, or witching something into him. The former method is used by +both Negro and Bantu, but is decidedly more common among the +Negroes, where the witches are continually setting traps to catch +the soul that wanders from the body when a man is sleeping; and when +they have caught this soul, they tie it up over the canoe fire and +its owner sickens as the soul shrivels. + +This is merely a regular line of business, and not an affair of +individual hate or revenge. The witch does not care whose dream- +soul gets into the trap, and will restore it on payment. Also +witch-doctors, men of unblemished professional reputation, will keep +asylums for lost souls, i.e. souls who have been out wandering and +found on their return to their body that their place has been filled +up by a Sisa, a low class soul I will speak of later. These doctors +keep souls and administer them to patients who are short of the +article. + +But there are other witches, either wicked on their own account, or +hired by people who are moved by some hatred to individuals, and +then the trap is carefully set and baited for the soul of the +particular man they wish to injure, and concealed in the bait at the +bottom of the pot are knives and sharp hooks which tear and damage +the soul, either killing it outright, or mauling it so that it +causes its owner sickness on its return to him. I knew the case of +a Kruman who for several nights had smelt in his dreams the savoury +smell of smoked crawfish seasoned with red peppers. He became +anxious, and the headman decided some witch had set a trap baited +with this dainty for his dream-soul, with intent to do him grievous +bodily harm, and great trouble was taken for the next few nights to +prevent this soul of his from straying abroad. + +The witching of things into a man is far the most frequent method +among the Bantu, hence the prevalence among them of the post-mortem +examination,--a practice I never found among the Negroes. + +The belief in witchcraft is the cause of more African deaths than +anything else. It has killed and still kills more men and women +than the slave-trade. Its only rival is perhaps the smallpox, the +Grand Kraw-Kraw, as the Krumen graphically call it. + +At almost every death a suspicion of witchcraft arises. The witch- +doctor is called in, and proceeds to find out the guilty person. +Then woe to the unpopular men, the weak women, and the slaves; for +on some of them will fall the accusation that means ordeal by +poison, or fire, followed, if these point to guilt, as from their +nature they usually do, by a terrible death: slow roasting alive-- +mutilation by degrees before the throat is mercifully cut--tying to +stakes at low tide that the high tide may come and drown--and any +other death human ingenuity and hate can devise. + +The terror in which witchcraft is held is interesting in spite of +all its horror. I have seen mild, gentle men and women turned by +it, in a moment, to incarnate fiends, ready to rend and destroy +those who a second before were nearest and dearest to them. +Terrible is the fear that falls like a spell upon a village when a +big man, or big woman is just known to be dead. The very men catch +their breaths, and grow grey round the lips, and then every one, +particularly those belonging to the household of the deceased, goes +in for the most demonstrative exhibition of grief. Long, low howls +creep up out of the first silence--those blood-curdling, infinitely +melancholy, wailing howls--once heard, never to be forgotten. + +The men tear off their clothes and wear only the most filthy rags; +women, particularly the widows, take off ornaments and almost all +dress; their faces are painted white with chalk, their heads are +shaven, and they sit crouched on the earth in the house, in the +attitude of abasement, the hands resting on the shoulders, palm +downwards, not crossed across the breast, unless they are going into +the street. + +Meanwhile the witch-doctor has been sent for, if he is not already +present, and he sets to work in different ways to find out who are +the persons guilty of causing the death. + +Whether the methods vary with the tribe, or with the individual +witch-doctor, I cannot absolutely say, but I think largely with the +latter. + +Among the Benga I saw a witch-doctor going round a village ringing a +small bell which was to stop ringing outside the hut of the guilty. +Among the Cabindas (Fjort) I saw, at different times, two witch- +doctors trying to find witches, one by means of taking on and off +the lid of a small basket while he repeated the names of all the +people in the village. When the lid refused to come off at the name +of a person, that person was doomed. The other Cabinda doctor first +tried throwing nuts upon the ground, also repeating names. That +method apparently failed. Then he resorted to another, rubbing the +flattened palms of his hands against each other. When the palms +refused to meet at a name, and his hands flew about wildly, he had +got his man. + +The accused person, if he denies the guilt, and does not claim the +ordeal, is tortured until he not only acknowledges his guilt but +names his accomplices in the murder, for remember this witchcraft is +murder in the African eyes. + +If he claims the ordeal, as he usually does, he usually has to take +a poison drink. Among all the Bantu tribes I know this is made from +Sass wood (sass = bad; sass water = rough water; sass surf = bad +surf, etc.), and is a decoction of the freshly pulled bark of a +great hard wood forest tree, which has a tall unbranched stem, +terminating in a crown of branches bearing small leaves. Among the +Calabar tribes the ordeal drink is of two kinds: one made from the +Calabar bean, the other, the great ju-ju drink Mbiam, which is used +also in taking oaths. + +In both the sass-wood and Calabar bean drink the only chance for the +accused lies in squaring the witch-doctor, so that in the case of +the sass-wood drink it is allowed to settle before administration, +and in the bean that you get a very heavy dose, both arrangements +tending to produce the immediate emetic effect indicative of +innocence. If this effect does not come on quickly you die a +miserable death from the effects of the poison interrupted by the +means taken to kill you as soon as it is decided from the absence of +violent sickness that you are guilty. + +The Mbiam is not poisonous, nor is its use confined, as the use of +the bean is, entirely to witch palaver; but it is the most respected +and dreaded of all oaths, and from its decision there is but one +appeal, the appeal open to all condemned persons, but rarely made-- +the appeal to Long ju-ju. This Long ju-ju means almost certain +death, and before it a severe frightening that is worse to a negro +mind than mere physical torture. + +The Mbiam oath formula I was able to secure in the upper districts +of the Calabar. One form of it runs thus, and it is recited before +swallowing the drink made of filth and blood: - + +"If I have been guilty of this crime, +"If I have gone and sought the sick one's hurt, +"If I have sent another to seek the sick one's hurt, +"If I have employed any one to make charms or to cook bush, +"Or to put anything in the road, +"Or to touch his cloth, +"Or to touch his yams, +"Or to touch his goats, +"Or to touch his fowl, +"Or to touch his children, +"If I have prayed for his hurt, +"If I have thought to hurt him in my heart, +"If I have any intention to hurt him, +"If I ever, at any time, do any of these things (recite in full), +"Or employ others to do these things (recite in full), +"Then, Mbiam! THOU deal with me." + +This form I give was for use when a man was sick, and things were +generally going badly with him, for it is not customary in cases of +disease to wait until death occurs before making an accusation of +witchcraft. In the case of Mbiam being administered after a death +this long and complicated oath would be worded to meet the case most +carefully, the future intention clauses being omitted. In all +cases, whenever it is used, the greatest care is taken that the oath +be recited in full, oath-takers being sadly prone to kiss their +thumb, as it were, particularly ladies who are taking Mbiam for +accusations of adultery, in conjunction with the boiling oil ordeal. +Indeed, so unreliable is this class of offenders, or let us rather +say this class of suspected persons, that some one usually says the +oath for them. + +From the penalty and inconveniences of these accusations of +witchcraft there is but one escape, namely flight to a sanctuary. +There are several sanctuaries in Congo Francais. The great one in +the Calabar district is at Omon. Thither mothers of twins, widows, +thieves, and slaves fly, and if they reach it are safe. But an +attempt at flight is a confession of guilt; no one is quite certain +the accusation will fall on him, or her, and hopes for the best +until it is generally too late. Moreover, flying anywhere beyond a +day's march, is difficult work in West Africa. So the killing goes +on and it is no uncommon thing for ten or more people to be +destroyed for one man's sickness or death; and thus over immense +tracts of country the death-rate exceeds the birth-rate. Indeed +some of the smaller tribes have thus been almost wiped out. In the +Calabar district I have heard of an entire village taking the bean +voluntarily because another village had accused it en bloc of +witchcraft. Miss Slessor has frequently told me how, during a +quarrel, one person has accused another of witchcraft, and the +accused has bolted off in a towering rage and swallowed the bean. + +The witch-doctor is not always the cause of people being subjected +to the ordeal or torture. In Calabar and the Okyon districts all +the widows of a dead man are subjected to ordeal. + +They have to go the next night after the death, before an assemblage +of chiefs and the general surrounding crowd, to a cleared space +where there is a fire burning. A fowl is tied to the right hand of +each widow, and should that fowl fail to cluck at the sight of the +fire the woman is held guilty of having bewitched her dead husband +and is dealt with accordingly. + +Among the Bantu, although the killing among the wives from the +accusation of witchcraft is high, some of them being almost certain +to fall victims, yet there is not the wholesale slaughter of women +and slaves sent down with the soul of the dead that there is among +the Negroes. + +In doubtful cases of death, i.e. in all cases not arising from +actual violence, when blood shows in the killing, the Bantu of the +S.W. Coast make post-mortem examinations. Notably common is this +practice among the Cameroons and Batanga region tribes. The body is +cut open to find in the entrails some sign of the path of the +injected witch. + +I am informed that it is the lung that is most usually eaten by the +spirit. If the deceased is a witch-doctor it is thought, as I have +mentioned before, that his familiar spirit has eaten him internally, +and he is opened with a view of securing and destroying his witch. +In 1893 I saw in a village in Kacongo five unpleasant-looking +objects stuck on sticks. They were the livers and lungs, and in +fact the plucks, of witch-doctors, and the inhabitants informed me +they were the witches that had been found in them on post-mortems +and then been secured. + +Mrs. Grenfell, of the Upper Congo, told me in the same year, when I +had the pleasure of travelling with her from Victoria to Matadi, +that a similar practice was in vogue among several of the Upper +Congo tribes. + +Again in 1893 I came across another instance of the post-mortem +practice. A woman had dropped down dead on a factory beach at +Corisco Bay. The natives could not make it out at all. They were +irritated about her conduct: "She no sick, she no complain, she no +nothing, and then she go die one time." + +The post-mortem showed a burst aneurism. The native verdict was +"She done witch herself," i.e. she was a witch eaten by her own +familiar. + +The general opinion held by people living near a river is that the +spirit of a witch can take the form of a crocodile to do its work +in; those who live away from large rivers or in districts like Congo +Francais, where crocodiles are not very savage, hold that the witch +takes on the form of a leopard. Still the crocodile spirit form is +believed in in Congo Francais, and to a greater extent in Kacongo, +because here the crocodiles of the Congo are very ferocious and +numerous, taking as heavy a toll in human life as they do in the +delta of the Niger and the estuaries of the Sierra Leone and +Sherboro' Rivers. + +One witch-doctor I know in Kacongo had a strange professional +method. When, by means of his hand rubbings, etc., he had got hold +of a witch or a bewitched one, he always gave the unfortunate an +emetic and always found several lively young crocodiles in the +consequence, and the stories of the natives in this region abound in +accounts of people who have been carried off by witch crocodiles, +and kept in places underground for years. I often wonder whether +this idea may not have arisen from the well-known habit of the +crocodile of burying its prey on the bank. Sometimes it will take +off a limb of its victim at once, but frequently it buries the body +whole for a few days before eating it. The body is always buried if +it is left to the crocodile. + +I have a most profound respect for the whole medical profession, but +I am bound to confess that the African representatives of it are a +little empirical in their methods of treatment. The African doctor +is not always a witch-doctor in the bargain, but he is usually. +Lady doctors abound. They are a bit dangerous in pharmacy, but they +do not often venture on surgery, so on the whole they are safer, for +African surgery is heroic. Dr. Nassau cited the worst case of it I +know of. A man had been accidentally shot in the chest by another +man with a gun on the Ogowe. The native doctor who was called in +made a perpendicular incision into the man's chest, extending down +to the last rib; he then cut diagonally across, and actually lifted +the wall of the chest, and groped about among the vitals for the +bullet which he successfully extracted. Patient died. No +anaesthetic was employed. + +I came across a minor operation. A man had broken the ulna of the +left arm. The native doctor got a piece--a very nice piece--of +bamboo, drove it in through the muscles and integuments from the +wrist to the elbow, then encased the limb in plantain leaves, and +bound it round, tightly and neatly, needless to say with tie-tie. +The arm and hand when I saw it, some six or seven months after the +operation, was quite useless, and was withering away. + +Many of their methods, however, are better. The Dualla medicos are +truly great on poultices for extracting foreign substances, such as +bits of iron cooking-pot--a very frequent form of foreign substance +in a man out here, owing to their being generally used as bullets. +Almost incredible stories are told by black and white of the +efficacy of these poultices; one case I heard from a reliable source +of a man who had been shot with fragments of iron pot in the thigh. +The white doctor extracted several pieces and said he had got all +out, but the man still went on suffering, and could not walk, so, at +his request, a native doctor was called in, and he applied his +poultice. In a few minutes he removed it, and on its face were two +pieces of jagged iron pot. Probably they had been in the poultice +when it was applied, anyhow the patient recovered rapidly. + +Baths accompanied by massage are much esteemed. The baths are +sometimes of hot water with a few herbs thrown in, sometimes they +are made by digging a hole in the earth and putting into it a +quantity of herbs, and bruised cardamoms, and peppers. Boiling +water is then plentifully poured over these and the patient is +placed in the bath and is covered over with the parboiled green +stuff; a coating of clay is then placed over all, leaving just the +head sticking out. The patient remains in this bath for a period of +a few hours, up to a day and a half, and when taken out is well +rubbed and kneaded. This form of bath I saw used by the M'pongwe +and Igalwas, and it is undoubtedly good for many diseases, notably +for that curse of the Coast, rheumatism, which afflicts black and +white alike. Rubbing and kneading and hot baths are, I think, the +best native remedies, and the plaster of grains-of-paradise pounded +up, and mixed with clay, and applied to the forehead as a remedy for +malarial headache, or brow ague, is often very useful, but apart +from these, I have never seen, in any of these herbal remedies, any +trace of a really valuable drug. + +The Calabar natives are notably behindhand in their medical methods, +depending more on ju-ju than the Bantus. In a case of rheumatism, +for example, instead of ordering the hot bath, the local +practitioner will "woka" his patient and extract from the painful +part, even when it has not been wounded, pieces of iron pot, +millipedes, etc., and, in cases of dysentery, bundles of shred-up +palm-leaves. These things, he asserts, have been by witchcraft +inserted into the patient. His conduct can hardly be regarded as +professional; and moreover as he goes on to diagnose who has witched +these things into the patient's anatomy, it is highly dangerous to +the patient's friends, relations, and neighbours into the bargain. + +With no intentional slur on the medical profession, after this +discussion on their methods I will pass on to the question of dying. + +Dying in West Africa particularly in the Niger Delta, is made very +unpleasant for the native by his friends and relations. + +When a person is insensible, violent means are taken to recall the +spirit to the body. Pepper is forced up the nose and into the eyes. +The mouth is propped open with a stick. The shredded fibres of the +outside of the oil-nut are set alight and held under the nose and +the whole crowd of friends and relations with whom the stifling hot +hut is tightly packed yell the dying man's name at the top of their +voices, in a way that makes them hoarse for days, just as if they +were calling to a person lost in the bush or to a person struggling +and being torn or lured away from them. "Hi, hi, don't you hear? +come back, come back. See here. This is your place," etc. + +This custom holds good among both Negroes and Bantus; but the +funeral ceremonies vary immensely, in fact with every tribe, and +form a subject the details of which I will reserve for a separate +work on Fetish. + +Among the Okyon tribes especial care is taken in the case of a woman +dying and leaving a child over six months old. The underlying idea +is that the spirit of the mother is sure to come back and fetch the +child, and in order to pacify her and prevent the child dying, it is +brought in and held just in front of the dead body of the mother and +then gradually carried away behind her where she cannot see it, and +the person holding the child makes it cry out and says, "See, your +child is here, you are going to have it with you all right." Then +the child is hastily smuggled out of the hut, while a bunch of +plantains is put in with the body of the woman and bound up with the +funeral binding clothes. + +Very young children they do not attempt to keep, but throw them away +in the bush alive, as all children are thrown who have not arrived +in this world in the way considered orthodox, or who cut their teeth +in an improper way. Twins are killed among all the Niger Delta +tribes, and in districts out of English control the mother is killed +too, except in Omon, where the sanctuary is. + +There twin mothers and their children are exiled to an island in the +Cross River. They have to remain on the island and if any man goes +across and marries one of them he has to remain on the island too. +This twin-killing is a widely diffused custom among the Negro +tribes. + +There is always a sense of there being something uncanny regarding +twins in West Africa, and in those tribes where they are not killed +they are regarded as requiring great care to prevent them from dying +on their own account. I remember once among the Tschwi {324} trying +to amuse a sickly child with an image which was near it and which I +thought was its doll. The child regarded me with its great +melancholy eyes pityingly, as much as to say, "A pretty fool YOU are +making of yourself," and so I was, for I found out that the image +was not a doll at all but an image of the child's dead twin which +was being kept near it as a habitation for the deceased twin's soul, +so that it might not have to wander about, and, feeling lonely, call +its companion after it. + +The terror with which twins are regarded in the Niger Delta is +exceedingly strange and real. When I had the honour of being with +Miss Slessor at Okyon, the first twins in that district were saved +with their mother from immolation owing entirely to Miss Slessor's +great influence with the natives and her own unbounded courage and +energy. The mother in this case was a slave woman--an Eboe, the +most expensive and valuable of slaves. She was the property of a +big woman who had always treated her--as indeed most slaves are +treated in Calabar--with great kindness and consideration, but when +these two children arrived all was changed; immediately she was +subjected to torrents of virulent abuse, her things were torn from +her, her English china basins, possessions she valued most highly, +were smashed, her clothes were torn, and she was driven out as an +unclean thing. Had it not been for the fear of incurring Miss +Slessor's anger, she would, at this point, have been killed with her +children, and the bodies thrown into the bush. + +As it was, she was hounded out of the village. The rest of her +possessions were jammed into an empty gin case and cast to her. No +one would touch her, as they might not touch to kill. Miss Slessor +had heard of the twins' arrival and had started off, barefooted and +bareheaded, at that pace she can go down a bush path. By the time +she had gone four miles she met the procession, the woman coming to +her and all the rest of the village yelling and howling behind her. +On the top of her head was the gin-case, into which the children had +been stuffed, on the top of them the woman's big brass skillet, and +on the top of that her two market calabashes. Needless to say, on +arriving Miss Slessor took charge of affairs, relieving the +unfortunate, weak, staggering woman from her load and carrying it +herself, for no one else would touch it, or anything belonging to +those awful twin things, and they started back together to Miss +Slessor's house in the forest-clearing, saved by that tact which, +coupled with her courage, has given Miss Slessor an influence and a +power among the negroes unmatched in its way by that of any other +white. + +She did not take the twins and their mother down the village path to +her own house, for though had she done so the people of Okyon would +not have prevented her, yet so polluted would the path have been, +and so dangerous to pass down, that they would have been compelled +to cut another, no light task in that bit of forest, I assure you. +So Miss Slessor stood waiting in the broiling sun, in the hot +season's height, while a path was being cut to enable her just to +get through to her own grounds. The natives worked away hard, +knowing that it saved the polluting of a long stretch of market +road, and when it was finished Miss Slessor went to her own house by +it and attended with all kindness, promptness, and skill, to the +woman and children. I arrived in the middle of this affair for my +first meeting with Miss Slessor, and things at Okyon were rather +crowded, one way and another, that afternoon. All the attention one +of the children wanted--the boy, for there was a boy and a girl--was +burying, for the people who had crammed them into the box had +utterly smashed the child's head. The other child was alive, and is +still a member of that household of rescued children all of whom owe +their lives to Miss Slessor. There are among them twins from other +districts, and delicate children who must have died had they been +left in their villages, and a very wonderful young lady, very plump +and very pretty, aged about four. Her mother died a few days after +her birth, so the child was taken and thrown into the bush, by the +side of the road that led to the market. This was done one market- +day some distance from the Okyon town. This particular market is +held every ninth day, and on the succeeding market-day some women +from the village by the side of Miss Slessor's house happened to +pass along the path and heard the child feebly crying: they came +into Miss Slessor's yard in the evening, and sat chatting over the +day's shopping, etc., and casually mentioned in the way of +conversation that they had heard the child crying, and that it was +rather remarkable it should be still alive. Needless to say, Miss +Slessor was off, and had that waif home. It was truly in an awful +state, but just alive. In a marvellous way it had been left by +leopards and snakes, with which this bit of forest abounds, and, +more marvellous still, the driver ants had not scented it. Other +ants had considerably eaten into it one way and another; nose, eyes, +etc., were swarming with them and flies; the cartilage of the nose +and part of the upper lip had been absolutely eaten into, but in +spite of this she is now one of the prettiest black children I have +ever seen, which is saying a good deal, for negro children are very +pretty with their round faces, their large mouths not yet coarsened +by heavy lips, their beautifully shaped flat little ears, and their +immense melancholy deer-like eyes, and above these charms they +possess that of being fairly quiet. This child is not an object of +terror, like the twin children; it was just thrown away because no +one would be bothered to rear it, but when Miss Slessor had had all +the trouble of it the natives had no objection to pet and play with +it, calling it "the child of wonder," because of its survival. + +With the twin baby it was very different. They would not touch it +and only approached it after some days, and then only when it was +held by Miss Slessor or me. If either of us wanted to do or get +something, and we handed over the bundle to one of the house +children to hold, there was a stampede of men and women off the +verandah, out of the yard, and over the fence, if need be, that was +exceedingly comic, but most convincing as to the reality of the +terror and horror in which they held the thing. Even its own mother +could not be trusted with the child; she would have killed it. She +never betrayed the slightest desire to have it with her, and after a +few days' nursing and feeding up she was anxious to go back to her +mistress, who, being an enlightened woman, was willing to have her +if she came without the child. + +The main horror is undoubtedly of the child, the mother being killed +more as a punishment for having been so intimately mixed up in +bringing the curse, danger, and horror into the village than for +anything else. + +The woman went back by the road that had been cut for her coming, +and would have to live for the rest of her life an outcast, and for +a long time in a state of isolation, in a hut of her own into which +no one would enter, neither would any one eat or drink with her, nor +partake of the food or water she had cooked or fetched. She would +lead the life of a leper, working in the plantation by day, and +going into her lonely hut at night, shunned and cursed. I tried to +find out whether there was any set period for this quarantine, and +all I could arrive at was that if--and a very considerable if--a man +were to marry her and she were subsequently to present to Society an +acceptable infant, she would be to a certain extent socially +rehabilitated, but she would always be a woman with a past--a thing +the African, to his credit be it said, has no taste for. + +The woman's own lamentations were pathetic. She would sit for hours +singing or rather mourning out a kind of dirge over herself: +"Yesterday I was a woman, now I am a horror, a thing all people run +from. Yesterday they would eat with me, now they spit on me. +Yesterday they would talk to me with a sweet mouth, now they greet +me only with curses and execrations. They have smashed my basin, +they have torn my clothes," and so on, and so on. There was no +complaint against the people for doing these things, only a bitter +sense of injury against some superhuman power that had sent this +withering curse of twins down on her. She knew not why; she sang "I +have not done this, I have not done that"--and highly interesting +information regarding the moral standpoint a good deal of it was. I +have tried to find out the reason of this widely diffused custom +which is the cause of such a pitiful waste of life; for in addition +to the mother and children being killed it often leads to other +people, totally unconcerned in the affair, being killed by the +relatives of the sufferer on the suspicion of having caused the +calamity by witchcraft, and until one gets hold of the underlying +idea, and can destroy that, the custom will be hard to stamp out in +a district like the great Niger Delta. But I have never been able +to hunt it down, though I am sure it is there, and a very quaint +idea it undoubtedly is. The usual answer is, "It was the custom of +our fathers," but that always and only means, "We don't intend to +tell." + +Funeral customs vary considerably between the Negro and Bantu, and I +never yet found among the Bantu those unpleasant death charms which +are in vogue in the Niger Delta. + +The Calabar people, when the Consular eye is off them, bury under +the house. In the case of a great chief the head is cut off and +buried with great secrecy somewhere else, for reasons I have already +stated. The body is buried a few days after death, but the really +important part of the funeral is the burying of the spirit, and this +is the thing that causes all the West Africans, Negro and Bantu +alike, great worry, trouble, and expense. For the spirit, no matter +what its late owner may have been, is malevolent--all native-made +spirits are. The family have to get together a considerable amount +of wealth to carry out this burial of the spirit, so between the +body-burying and the spirit-burying a considerable time usually +elapses; maybe a year, maybe more. The custom of keeping the affair +open until the big funeral can be made obtains also in Cabinda and +Loango, but there, instead of burying the body in the meantime, +{329} it is placed upon a platform of wood, and slow fires kept +going underneath to dry it, a mat roof being usually erected over it +to keep off rain. When sufficiently dried, it is wrapped in clothes +and put into a coffin, until the money to finish the affair is +ready. The Duallas are more tied down; their death-dances must be +celebrated, I am informed, on the third, seventh, and ninth day +after death. On these days the spirit is supposed to be +particularly present in its old home. In all the other cases, I +should remark, the spirit does not leave the home until its devil is +made and if this is delayed too long he naturally becomes fractious. + +Among the Congo Francais tribes there are many different kinds of +burial--as the cannibalistic of the Fan. I may remark, however, +that they tell me themselves that it is considered decent to bury a +relative, even if you subsequently dig him up and dispose of the +body to the neighbours. Then there is the earth-burial of the +Igalwas and M'pongwe, and the beating into unrecognisable pulp of +the body which, I am told on good native authority, is the method of +several Upper Ogowe tribes, including the Adoomas. I had no +opportunity of making quiet researches on burial customs when I was +above Njoli, because I was so busy trying to avoid qualifying for a +burial myself; so I am not quite sure whether this method is the +general one among these little-known tribes, as I am told by native +traders, who have it among them that it is--or whether it is +reserved for the bodies of people believed to have been possessed of +dangerous souls. + +Destroying the body by beating up, or by cutting up, is a widely +diffused custom in West Africa in the case of dangerous souls, and +is universally followed with those that have contained wanderer- +souls, i.e. those souls which keep turning up in the successive +infants of a family. A child dies, then another child comes to the +same father or mother, and that dies, after giving the usual trouble +and expense. A third arrives and if that dies, the worm--the +father, I mean--turns, and if he is still desirous of more children, +he just breaks one of the legs of the body before throwing it in the +bush. + +This he thinks will act as a warning to the wanderer-soul and give +it to understand that if it will persist in coming into his family, +it must settle down there and give up its flighty ways. If a fourth +child arrives in the family, "it usually limps," and if it dies, the +justly irritated parent cuts its body up carefully into very small +pieces, and scatters them, doing away with the soul altogether. + +The Kama country people of the lower Ogowe are more superstitious +and full of observances than the upper river tribes. + +Particularly rich in Fetish are the Ncomi, a Fernan Vaz tribe. I +once saw a funeral where they had been called in to do the honours, +and M. Jacot told me of an almost precisely similar occurrence that +he had met with in one of his many evangelising expeditions from +Lembarene. I will give his version because of his very superior +knowledge of the language. + +He was staying in a Fan town where one of the chiefs had just died. +The other chief (there are usually two in a Fan town) decided that +his deceased confrere should have due honour paid him, and resolved +to do the thing handsomely. + +The Fans openly own to not understanding thoroughly about death and +life and the immortality of the soul, and things of that sort, and +so the chief called in the Ncomi, who are specialists in these +subjects, to make the funeral customs. + +M. Jacot said the chief made a speech to the effect that the Fans +did not know about these things, but their neighbours, the Ncomi, +were known to be well versed in them and the proper things to do, so +he had called them in to pay honour to the dead chief. Then the +Ncomi started and carried on their weird, complicated death-dance. + +The Fans sat and stood round watching them in a ring for a long +time, but to a rational, common-sense, shrewd, unimaginative set of +people like the Fans, just standing hour after hour gazing on a +dance you do not understand, and which consists of a wriggle and a +stamp, a wriggle and a stamp, in a solemn walk, or prance, round and +round, to the accompaniment of a monotonous phrase thumped on a tom- +tom and a monotonous, melancholy chant, uttered in a minor key +interspersed every few minutes with an emphatic howl, produces a +feeling of boredom, therefore the Fans softly stole away and went to +bed, which disgusted the Ncomi, and there was a row. In the dance I +saw the same thing happened, only when the Ncomi saw the audience +getting thin they complained and said that they were doing this +dance in honour of the Fans' chief, in a neighbourly way, and the +very least the Fans could do, as they couldn't dance themselves, was +to sit still and admire people who could. The Fan chief in my +village quite saw it, and went and had the Fans who had gone home +early turned up and made them come and see the performance some +more; this they did for a time, and then stole off again, or slept +in their seats, and the Ncomi were highly disgusted at those brutes +of Fans, whom they regarded, they said in their way, as Philistines +of an utterly obtuse and degraded type. + +The Ncomi themselves put the body into coffins. A barrel is the +usual one, but gun-cases or two trade boxes, the ends knocked out +and the cases fitted together, is another frequent form of coffin +used by them. These coffins are not buried, but are put into +special places in the forest. + +Along the bank of the Ogowe you will notice here and there long +stretches of uninhabited bush. These are not all mere stretches of +swamp forest. If you land on some of these and go in a little way +you will find the forest full of mounds--or rather heaps, because +they have no mould over them--made of branches of trees and leaves; +underneath each of these heaps there are the remains of a body. One +very evil-looking place so used I found when I was on the Karkola +river. Dr. Nassau tells me they are the usual burying grounds (Abe) +of the Ajumbas. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. FETISH--(continued). + + + +In which the Voyager discourses on the legal methods of natives of +this country, the ideas governing forms of burial, of their manner +of mourning for their dead, and the condition of the African soul in +the under-world. + +Great as are the incidental miseries and dangers surrounding death +to all the people in the village in which a death occurs, +undoubtedly those who suffer most are the widows of a chief or free +man. + +The uniform custom among both Negroes and Bantus is that those who +escape execution on the charge of having witched the husband to +death, shall remain in a state of filth and abasement, not even +removing vermin from themselves, until after the soul-burial is +complete--the soul of the dead man being regarded as hanging about +them and liable to be injured. Therefore, also to the end of +preventing his soul from getting damaged, they are confined to their +huts; this latter restriction is not rigidly enforced, but it is +held theoretically to be the correct thing. + +They maintain the attitude of grief and abasement, sitting on the +ground, eating but little food, and that of a coarse kind. In +Calabar their legal rights over property, such as slaves, are +meanwhile considerably in abeyance, and they are put to great +expense during the time the spirit is awaiting burial. They have to +keep watch, two at a time, in the hut, where the body is buried, +keeping lights burning, and they have to pay out of their separate +estate for the entertainment of all the friends of the deceased who +come to pay him compliment; and if he has been an important man, a +big man, the whole district will come, not in a squadron, but just +when it suits them, exactly as if they were calling on a live +friend. Thus it often happens that even a big woman is bankrupt by +the expense. I will not go into the legal bearings of the case +here, for they are intricate, and, to a great extent, only +interesting to a student of Negro law. + +The Bantu women occupy a far inferior position in regard to the +rights of property to that held by the Negro women. + +The disposal of wives after the death of the husband among the +M'pongwe and Igalwa is a subject full of interest; but it is, like +most of their law, very complicated. The brothers of the deceased +are supposed to take them--the younger brother may not marry the +elder brother's widows, but the elder brothers may marry those of +the younger brother. Should any of the women object to the +arrangement, they may "leave the family." + +I own that the ground principle of African law practically is "the +simple plan that they should take who have the power, and they +should keep who can," and this tells particularly against women and +children who have not got living, powerful relations of their own. +Unless the children of a man are grown up and sufficiently powerful +on their own account, they have little chance of sharing in the +distribution of his estate; but in spite of this abuse of power +there is among Negroes and Bantus a definite and acknowledged Law, +to which an appeal can be made by persons of all classes, provided +they have the wherewithal to set the machinery of it in motion. The +difficulty the children and widows have in sharing in the +distribution of the estate of the father and husband arises, I +fancy, in the principle of the husband's brothers being the true +heir, which has sunk into a fossilised state near the trading +stations in the face of the white culture. The reason for this +inheritance of goods passing from the man to his brother by the same +mother has no doubt for one of its origins the recognition of the +fact that the brother by the same mother must be a near relation, +whereas, in spite of the strict laws against adultery, the +relationship to you of the children born of your wives is not so +certain. Nevertheless this is one of the obvious and easy +explanations for things it is well to exercise great care before +accepting, for you must always remember that the African's mind does +not run on identical lines with the European--what may be self- +evident to you is not so to him, and vice versa. I have frequently +heard African metaphysicians complain that white men make great +jumps in their thought-course, and do not follow an idea step by +step. You soon become conscious of the careful way a Negro follows +his idea. Certain customs of his you can, by the exercise of great +patience, trace back in a perfectly smooth line from their source in +some natural phenomenon. Others, of course, you cannot, the traces +of the intervening steps of the idea having been lost, owing partly +to the veneration in which old customs are held, which causes them +to regard the fact that their fathers had this fashion as reason +enough for their having it, and above all to the total absence of +all but oral tradition. But so great a faith have I in the lack of +inventive power in the African, that I feel sure all their customs, +had we the material that has slipped down into the great swamp of +time, could be traced back either, as I have said, to some natural +phenomenon, or to the thing being advisable, for reasons of utility. + +The uncertainty in the parentage of offspring may seem to be such a +utilitarian underlying principle, but, on the other hand, it does +not sufficiently explain the varied forms of the law of inheritance, +for in some tribes the eldest or most influential son does succeed +to his father's wealth; in other places you have the peculiar custom +of the chief slave inheriting. I think, from these things, that the +underlying idea in inheritance of property is the desire to keep the +wealth of "the house," i.e. estate, together, and if it were allowed +to pass into the hands of weak people, like women and young +children, this would not be done. Another strong argument against +the theory that it arises from the doubtful relationship of the son, +is that certain ju-ju always go to the son of the chief wife, if he +is old enough, at the time of the father's death, even in those +tribes where the wealth goes elsewhere. + +Certain tribes acknowledge the right of the women and children to +share in the dead man's wealth, given that these are legally married +wives, or the children of legally married wives; it is so in +Cameroons, for example. An esteemed friend of mine who helps to +manage things for the Fatherland down there was trying a palaver the +other day with a patience peculiar to him, and that intelligent and +elaborate care I should think only a mind trained on the methods of +German metaphysicians could impart into that most wearisome of +proceedings, wherein every one says the same thing over fourteen +different times at least, with a similar voice and gesture, the only +variation being in the statements regarding the important points, +and the facts of the case, these varying with each individual. This +palaver was made by a son claiming to inherit part of his father's +property; at last, to the astonishment, and, of course, the horror, +of the learned judge, the defendant, the wicked uncle, pleaded +through the interpreter, "This man cannot inherit his father's +property, because his parents married for love." There is no +encouragement to foolishness of this kind in Cameroon, where legal +marriage consists in purchase. + +In Bonny River and in Opobo the inheritance of "the house" is +settled primarily by a vote of the free men of the house; when the +chief dies, their choice has to be ratified by the other chiefs of +houses; but in Bonny and Opobo the white traders have had immense +influence for a long time, so one cannot now find out how far this +custom is purely native in idea. + +Among the Fans the uncle is, as I have before said, an important +person although the father has more rights than among the Igalwa, +and here I came across a peculiar custom regarding widows. M. Jacot +cited to me a similar case or so, one of which I must remark was in +an Ajumba town. The widows were inside the dead husband's hut, as +usual; the Fan huts are stoutly built of sheets of flattened bark, +firmly secured together with bark rope, and thatched--they never +build them in any other way except when they are in the bush rubber- +collecting or elephant-hunting, when they make them of the branches +of trees. Well, round the bark hut, with the widows inside, there +was erected a hut made of branches, and when this was nearly +completed, the Fans commenced pulling down the inner bark hut, and +finally cleared it right out, thatch and all, and the materials of +which it had been made were burnt. I was struck with the +performance because the Fans, though surrounded by intensely +superstitious tribes, are remarkably free from superstition {338} +themselves, taking little or no interest in speculative matters, +except to get charms to make them invisible to elephants, to keep +their feet in the path, to enable them to see things in the forest, +and practical things of that sort, and these charms they frequently +gave me to assist and guard me in my wanderings. + +The M'pongwe and Igalwa have a peculiar funeral custom, but it is +not confined in its operation to widows, all the near relatives +sharing in it. The mourning relations are seated on the floor of +the house, and some friend--Dr. Nassau told me he was called in in +this capacity--comes in and "lifts them up," bringing to them a +small present, a factor of which is always a piece of soap. This +custom is now getting into the survival form in Libreville and +Glass. Nowadays the relatives do not thus sit, unwashed and +unkempt, keenly requiring the soap. Among the bush Igalwa, I am +told, the soap is much wanted. + +It is not only the widows that remain, either theoretically or +practically unwashed; all the mourners do. The Ibibios seem to me +to wear the deepest crape in the form of accumulated dirt, and all +the African tribes I have met have peculiar forms of hair cutting-- +shaving the entire head, not shaving it at all, shaving half of it, +etc.--when in mourning. The period of the duration of wearing +mourning is, I believe, in all West Coast tribes that which elapses +between the death and the burial of the soul. I believe a more +thorough knowledge would show us that there is among the Bantu also +a fixed time for the lingering of the soul on earth after death, but +we have not got sufficient evidence on the point yet. The only +thing we know is that it is not proper for the widow to re-marry +while her husband's soul is still in her vicinity. + +Among the Calabar tribes the burial of his spirit liberates the +woman. Among the Tschwi she requires special ceremonies on her own +account. In Togoland, among the Ewe people, I know the period is +between five and six weeks, during which time the widow remains in +the hut, armed with a good stout stick, as a precaution against the +ghost of her husband, so as to ward off attacks should he be ill- +tempered. After these six weeks the widow can come out of the hut, +but as his ghost has not permanently gone hence, and is apt to +revisit the neighbourhood for the next six months, she has to be +taken care of during this period. Then, after certain ceremonies, +she is free to marry again. So I conclude the period of mourning, +in all tribes, is that period during which the soul remains round +its old possessions, whether these tribes have a definite soul- +burial or devil-making or not. + +The ideas connected with the under-world to which the ghost goes are +exceedingly interesting. The Negroes and Bantus are at one on these +subjects in one particular only, and that is that no marriages take +place there. The Tschwis say that this under-world, Srahmandazi, is +just the same as this world in all other particulars, save that it +is dimmer, a veritable shadow-land where men have not the joys of +life, but only the shadow of the joy. Hence, says the Tschwi +proverb, "One day in this world is worth a year in Srahmandazi." +The Tschwis, with their usual definiteness in this sort of detail, +know all about their Srahmandazi. Its entrance is just east of the +middle Volta, and the way down is difficult to follow, and when the +sun sets on this world it rises on Srahmandazi. The Bantus are +vague on this important and interesting point. The Benga, for +example, although holding the absence of marriage there, do not take +steps to meet the case as the Tschwis do, and kill a supply of wives +to take down with them. This reason for killing wives at a funeral +is another instance that, however strange and cruel a custom may be +here in West Africa, however much it may at first appear to be the +flower of a rootless superstition, you will find on close +investigation that it has some root in a religious idea, and a +common-sense element. The common-sense element in the killing of +wives and slaves among both the Tschwi and the Calabar tribes +consists in the fact that it discourages poisoning. A Calabar chief +elaborately explained to me that the rigorous putting down of +killing at funerals that was being carried on by the Government not +only landed a man in the next world as a wretched pauper, but added +an additional chance to his going there prematurely, for his wives +and slaves, no longer restrained by the prospect of being killed at +his death and sent off with him would, on very slight aggravation, +put "bush in his chop." It is sad to think of this thorn being +added to the rose-leaves of a West Coast chief's life, as there are +99.9 per cent. of thorns in it already. + +I came across a similar case on the Gold Coast, when a chief +complained to me of the way the Government were preserving vermin, +in the shape of witches, in the districts under its surveillance. +You were no longer allowed to destroy them as of old, and therefore +the vermin were destroying the game; for, said he, the witches here +live almost entirely on the blood they suck from children at night. +They used, in old days, to do this furtively, and do so now where +native custom is unchecked; but in districts where the Government +says that witchcraft is utter nonsense, and killing its proficients +utter murder which will be dealt with accordingly, the witch +flourishes exceedingly, and blackmails the fathers and mothers of +families, threatening that if they are not bought off they will have +their child's blood; and if they are not paid, the child dies away +gradually--poison again, most likely. + +I often think it must be the common-sense element in fetish customs +that enables them to survive, in the strange way they do, in the +minds of Africans who have been long under European influence and +education. In witching, for example, every intelligent native knows +there is a lot of poison in the affair, but the explanation he gives +you will not usually display this knowledge, and it was not until I +found the wide diffusion of the idea of the advisability of +administering an emetic to the bewitched person, that I began to +suspect my black friends of sound judgment. + +The good ju-juist will tell you all things act by means of their +life, which means their power, their spirit. Dr. Nassau tells me +the efficacy of drugs is held to depend on their benevolent spirits, +which, on being put into the body, drive away the malevolent +disease-causing spirits--a leucocytes-versus-pathogenic-bacteria +sort of influence, I suppose. On this same idea also depends the +custom of the appeal to ordeal, the working of which is supposed to +be spiritual. Nevertheless, the intelligent native, believing all +the time in this factor, squares the commonsense factor by bribing +the witch-doctor who makes the ordeal drink. + +The feeling regarding the importance of funeral observances is quite +Greek in its intensity. Given a duly educated African, I am sure +that he would grasp the true inwardness of the Antigone far and away +better than any European now living can. A pathetic story which +bears on this feeling was told me some time ago by Miss Slessor when +she was stationed at Creek Town. An old blind slave woman was found +in the bush, and brought into the mission. She was in a deplorable +state, utterly neglected and starving, her feet torn by thorns and +full of jiggers, and so on. Every care was taken of her and she +soon revived and began to crawl about, but her whole mind was set on +one thing with a passion that had made her alike indifferent to her +past sufferings and to her present advantages. What she wanted was +a bit, only a little bit, of white cloth. Now, I may remark, white +cloth is anathema to the Missions, for it is used for ju-ju +offerings, and a rule has to be made against its being given to the +unconverted, or the missionary becomes an accessory before the fact +to pagan practices, so white cloth the old woman was told she could +not have, she had been given plenty of garments for her own use and +that was enough. The old woman, however, kept on pleading and +saying the spirit of her dead mistress kept coming to her asking and +crying for white cloth, and white cloth she must get for her, and so +at last, finding it was not to be got at the Mission station, she +stole away one day, unobserved, and wandered off into the bush, from +which she never again reappeared, doubtless falling a victim to the +many leopards that haunted hereabouts. + +To provide a proper burial for the dead relation is the great duty +of a negro's life, its only rival in his mind is the desire to avoid +having a burial of his own. But, in a good negro, this passion will +go under before the other, and he will risk his very life to do it. +He may know, surely and well, that killing slaves and women at a +dead brother's grave means hanging for him when their Big Consul +knows of it, but in the Delta he will do it. On the Coast, Leeward +and Windward, he will spend every penny he possesses and, on top, if +need be, go and pawn himself, his wives, or his children into +slavery to give a deceased relation a proper funeral. + +This killing at funerals I used to think would be more easily done +away with in the Delta than among the Tschwi tribes, but a little +more knowledge of the Delta's idea about the future life showed me I +was wrong. + +Among the Tschwi the slaves and women killed are to form for the +dead a retinue, and riches wherewith to start life in Srahmandazi +(Yboniadse of the Oji), where there are markets and towns and all +things as on this earth, and so the Tschwi would have little +difficulty in replacing human beings at funerals with gold-dust, +cloth, and other forms of riches, and this is already done in +districts under white influence. But in the Delta there is no +under-world to live in, the souls shortly after reaching the under- +world being forwarded back to this, in new babies, and the wealth +that is sent down with a man serves as an indication as to what +class of baby the soul is to be repacked and sent up in. As wealth +in the Delta consists of women and slaves I do not believe the +under-world gods of the Niger would understand the status of a chief +who arrived before them, let us say, with ten puncheons of palm oil, +and four hundred yards of crimson figured velvet; they would say, +"Oh! very good as far as it goes, but where is your real estate? +The chances are you are only a trade slave boy and have stolen these +things"; and in consequence of this, killing at funerals will be a +custom exceedingly difficult to stamp out in these regions. Try and +imagine yourself how abhorrent it must be to send down a dear and +honoured relative to the danger of his being returned to this world +shortly as a slave. There is no doubt a certain idea among the +Negroes that some souls may get a rise in status on their next +incarnation. You often hear a woman saying she will be a man next +time, a slave he will be a freeman, and so on, but how or why some +souls obtain promotion I have not yet sufficient evidence to show. +I think a little more investigation will place this important point +in my possession. I once said to a Calabar man, "But surely it +would be easy for a man's friends to cheat; they could send down a +chief's outfit with a man, though he was only a small man here?" + +"No," said he, "the other souls would tell on him, and then he would +get sent up as a dog or some beast as a punishment." + +My first conception of the prevalence of the incarnation idea was +also gained from a Delta negro. I said, "Why in the world do you +throw away in the bush the bodies of your dead slaves? Where I have +been they tie a string to the leg of a dead slave and when they bury +him bring the string to the top and fix it to a peg, with the +owner's name on, and then when the owner dies he has that slave +again down below." + +"They be fool men," said he, and he went on to explain that the +ghost of that slave would be almost immediately back on earth again +growing up ready to work for some one else, and would not wait for +its last owner's soul down below, and out of the luxuriant jungle of +information that followed I gathered that no man's soul dallies +below long, and also that a soul returning to a family, a thing +ensured by certain ju-jus, was identified. The new babies as they +arrive in the family are shown a selection of small articles +belonging to deceased members whose souls are still absent; the +thing the child catches hold of identifies him. "Why he's Uncle +John, see! he knows his own pipe;" or "That's cousin Emma, see! she +knows her market calabash," and so on. + +I remember discoursing with a very charming French official on the +difficulty of eradicating fetish customs. + +"Why not take the native in the rear, Mademoiselle," said he, "and +convert the native gods?" + +I explained that his ingenious plan was not feasible, because you +cannot convert gods. Even educating gods is hopeless work. All +races of men through countless ages, have been attempting to make +their peculiar deities understand how they are wanted to work, and +what they are wanted to do, and the result is anything but +encouraging. + +As I have dwelt on the repellent view of Negro funeral custom, I +must in justice to them cite their better view. There is a custom +that I missed much on going south of Calabar, for it is a pretty +one. Outside the villages in the Calabar districts, by the sides of +the most frequented roads, you will see erections of boughs. I do +not think these are intended for huts, but for beds, for they are +very like the Calabar type of bed, only made in wood instead of +clay. Over them a roof of mats is put, to furnish a protection +against rain. + +These shelters--graves or fetish huts they are wrongly called by +Europeans--are made by driving four longish stout poles into the +ground while at the height of about three feet or so four more poles +are tied so as to make a skeleton platform which is filled in with +withies and made flat. Another set of five poles is tied above, and +to these the roof is affixed. On the platform, is placed the +bedding belonging to the deceased, the undercloth, counterpane, +etc., and at the head are laid the pillows, bolster-shaped and +stuffed with cotton-tree fluff, or shredded palm-leaves, and covered +with some gaily-coloured cotton cloth. In every case I have seen-- +and they amount to hundreds, for you cannot take an hour's walk even +from Duke Town without coming upon a dozen or so of these erections- +-the pillows are placed so that the person lying on the bed would +look towards the village. + +On the roof and on the bed, and underneath it on the ground, are +placed the household utensils that belonged to the deceased; the +calabashes, the basins, the spoons cut out of wood, and the boughten +iron ones, as we should say in Devon, and on the stakes are hung the +other little possessions; there is one I know of made for the ghost +of a poor girl who died, on to the stakes of which are hung the +dolls and the little pincushions, etc., given her by a kind +missionary. + +Food is set out at these places and spirit poured over them from +time to time, and sometimes, though not often, pieces of new cloth +are laid on them. Most of the things are deliberately damaged +before they are put on the home for the spirit; I do not think this +is to prevent them from being stolen, because all are not damaged +sufficiently to make them useless. There was a beautifully made +spoon with a burnt-in pattern on one of these places when I left +Calabar to go South, and on my return, some six months after, it was +still there. On another there was a very handsome pair of market +calabashes, also much decorated, that were only just chipped and in +better repair than many in use in Calabar markets, and I make no +doubt the spoon and they are still lying rotting among the debris of +the pillows, etc. These places are only attended to during the time +the spirit is awaiting burial, as they are regarded merely as a +resting-place for it while it is awaiting this ceremony. The body +is not buried near them, I may remark. + +In spite, however, of the care that is taken to bury spirits, a +considerable percentage from various causes--poverty of the +relations, the deceased being a stranger in the land, accidental +death in some unknown part of the forest or the surf--remain +unburied, and hang about to the common danger of the village they +may choose to haunt. Many devices are resorted to, to purify the +villages from these spirits. One which was in use in Creek Town, +Calabar, to within a few years ago, and which I am informed is still +customary in some interior villages, was very ingenious, and +believed to work well by those who employed it. + +In the houses were set up Nbakim,--large, grotesque images carved of +wood and hung about with cloth strips and gew-gaws. Every November +in Creek Town (I was told by some authorities it was every second +November) there was a sort of festival held. Offerings of food and +spirits were placed before these images; a band of people +accompanied by the rest of the population used to make a thorough +round of the town, up and down each street and round every house, +dancing, singing, screaming and tom-toming, in fact making all the +noise they knew how to--and a Calabar Effik is very gifted in the +power of making noise. After this had been done for what was +regarded as a sufficient time, the images were taken out of the +houses, the crowd still making a terrific row and were then thrown +into the river, and the town was regarded as being cleared of +spirits. + +The rationale of the affair is this. The wandering spirits are +attracted by the images, and take shelter among their rags, like +earwigs or something of that kind. The charivari is to drive any of +the spirits who might be away from their shelters back into them. +The shouting of the mob is to keep the spirits from venturing out +again while they are being carried to the river. The throwing of +the images, rags and all, into the river, is to destroy the spirits +or at least send them elsewhere. They did not go and pour boiling +water on their earwig-traps, as wicked white men do, but they meant +the same thing, and when this was over they made and set up new +images for fresh spirits who might come into the town, and these +were kept and tended as before, until the next N'dok ceremony came +round. + +It is owing to the spiritual view which the African takes of +existence at large that ceremonial observances form the greater part +of even his common-law procedure. + +There is, both among the Negro and Bantu, a recognised code of law, +founded on principles of true but merciless justice. It is not +often employed, because of the difficulty and the danger to the +individual who appeals to it, should that individual be unbacked by +power, but nevertheless the code exists. + +The African is particularly hard on theft; he by no means "compounds +for sins he is inclined to by damning those he has no mind to," for +theft is a thing he revels in. + +Persons are tried for theft on circumstantial evidence, direct +testimony, and ordeal. Laws relating to mortgage are practically +the same among Negroes and Bantu and Europeans. Torts are not +recognised; unless the following case from Cameroon points to a +vague realisation of them. A. let his canoe out to B., in good +order, so that B. could go up river, and fetch down some trade. B. +did not go himself, but let C., who was not his slave, but another +free man who also wanted to go up for trade, have the canoe on the +understanding that in payment for the loan of the said canoe C. +should bring down B's. trade. + +A. was not told about this arrangement at all. B. says A. was, only +A. was so blind drunk at the time he did not understand. Well, up +river C. goes in the canoe, and fetches up on a floating stump in +the river, and staves a hole you could put your head in, in the bow +of the said canoe. C. returns it to B. in this condition. B. +returns it to A. in this condition. A. sues B. before native chief, +saying he lent his canoe to B. on the understanding, always implied +in African loans, that it was to be returned in the same state as +when lent, fair wear and tear alone excepted. B. tries first to get +C. to pay for the canoe, and for the rent of the canoe on top, as a +compensation for the delay in bringing down his, B's., trade. C. +calls B. the illegitimate offspring of a greenhouse-lizard, and +pleads further that the floating log was a force majeure--an act of +God, and denies liability on all counts. B. then pleads this as his +own defence in the case of A. and B. (authorities cited in support +of this view); he also pleads he is not liable, because C. is a free +man, and not his slave. + +The case went on for a week; the judge was drunk for five days in +his attempt to get his head clear. The decision finally was that B. +was to pay A. full compensation. B. v. C. is still pending. + +The laws against adultery are, theoretically, exceedingly severe. +The punishment is death, and this is sometimes carried out. The +other day King Bell in Cameroon flogged one of his wives to death, +and the German Government have deposed and deported him, for you +cannot do that sort of thing with impunity within a stone's throw of +a Government head-quarters. But as a general rule all along the +Coast the death penalty for murder or adultery is commuted to a +fine, or you can send a substitute to be killed for you, if you are +rich. This is frequently done, because it is cheaper, if you have a +seedy slave, to give him to be killed in your stead than to pay a +fine which is often enormous. + +The adultery itself is often only a matter of laying your hand, even +in self-defence from a virago, on a woman--or brushing against her +in the path. These accusations of adultery are, next to witchcraft, +the great social danger to the West Coast native, and they are often +made merely from motives of extortion or spite, and without an atom +of truth in them. + +It is customary for a chief to put his wives frequently to ordeal on +this point, and this is almost always done after there has been a +big devil-making, or a dance, which his family have been gracing +with their presence. The usual method of applying the ordeal is by +boiling palm-oil--a pot is nearly filled with the oil, which is +brought to the boil over a fire; when it is seething, the woman to +be tried is brought out in front of it. She first dips her hands +into water, and then has administered to her the M'biam oath saying +or having said for her that long elaborate formula, in a form +adjusted to meet the case. Then she plunges her hand into the +boiling oil for an instant, and shakes the oil off with all possible +rapidity, and the next woman comes forward and goes through the same +performance, and so on. Next day, the hands of the women are +examined, and those found blistered are adjudged guilty, and +punished. In order to escape heavy punishment the woman will accuse +some man of having hustled against her, or sat down on a bench +beside her, and so on, and the accused man has to pay up. If he +does not, in the Calabar district, Egbo will come and "eat the +adultery," and there won't be much of that man's earthly goods left. +Sometimes the accusation is volunteered by the woman, and frequently +the husband and wife conspire together and cook up a case against a +man for the sake of getting the damages. There is nothing that +ensures a man an unblemished character in West Africa, save the +possession of sufficient power to make it risky work for people to +cast slurs on it. + +The ownership of children is a great source of palaver. The law +among Negroes and Bantus is that the children of a free woman belong +to her. In the case of tribes believing in the high importance of +uncles considerable powers are vested in that relative, while in +other tribes certain powers are vested in the father. + +The children of slave wives are the only children the father has +absolute power over if he is the legal owner of the slave woman. +If, as is frequently the case, a free man marries a slave woman who +belongs to another man, all her children are the absolute property +of her owner, not her husband; and the owner of the woman can take +them and sell them, or do whatsoever he chooses with them, unless +the free man father redeems them, as he usually does, although the +woman may still remain the absolute property of the owner, +recallable by him at any time. + +This law is the cause of the most brain-spraining palavers that come +before the white authorities. There is naturally no statute of +limitations in West Africa, because the African does not care a row +of pins about time. The wily A. will let his slave woman live with +B. without claiming the redemption fees as they become due--letting +them stand over, as it were, at compound interest. All the male as +well as the female children of the first generation are A.'s +property, and all the female children of these children are his +property even unto the second and third generation and away into +eternity. A. may die before he puts in his claim, in which case the +ownership passes on into the hands of his heir or assignees, who may +foreclose at once, on entering into their heritage, or may again let +things accumulate for their heirs. Anyhow, sooner or later the +foreclosure comes and then there is trouble. X., Y., Z., etc., free +men, have married some of the original A.'s slave woman's +descendants. They have either bought them right out, or kept on +conscientiously redeeming children of theirs as they arrived. Of +course A., or his heirs, contend that X., Y., Z., etc. have been +wasting time and money by so doing, because the people X., Y., Z. +have paid the money to had no legal title to the women. Of course +X., Y., Z. contend that their particular woman, or her ancestress, +was duly redeemed from the legal owner. + +Remember there is no documentary evidence available, and squads of +equally reliable and oldest inhabitants are swearing hard--all both +ways. Just realise this, and that your Government says that +whenever native law is not blood-stained it must be supported, and +you may be able to realise the giddy mazes of a native palaver, +which if you conscientiously attempt to follow with the +determination that justice shall be duly administered, will for +certain lay you low with an attack of fever. + +The law of ownership is not all in favour of the owner, masters +being responsible for damage done by their slaves, and this law +falls very heavily and expensively on the owner of a bad slave. +Indeed, when one lives out here and sees the surrounding conditions +of this state of culture, the conviction grows on you that, morally +speaking, the African is far from being the brutal fiend he is often +painted, a creature that loves cruelty and blood for their own sake. +The African does not; and though his culture does not contain our +institutions, lunatic asylums, prisons, workhouses, hospitals, etc., +he has to deal with the same classes of people who require these +things. So with them he deals by means of his equivalent +institutions, slavery, the lash, and death. You have just as much +right, my logical friend, to call the West Coast Chief hard names +for his habit of using brass bars, heads of tobacco, and so on, in +place of sixpenny pieces, as you have to abuse him for clubbing an +inveterate thief. It's deplorably low of him, I own, but by what +alternative plan of government his can be replaced I do not quite +see, under existing conditions. In religious affairs, the affairs +which lead him into the majority of his iniquities, his real sin +consists in believing too much. In his witchcraft, the sin is the +same. Toleration means indifference, I believe, among all men. The +African is not indifferent on the subject of witchcraft, and I do +not see how one can expect him to be. Put yourself in his place and +imagine you have got hold of a man or woman who has been placing a +live crocodile or a catawumpus of some kind into your own or a +valued relative's, or fellow-townsman's inside, so that it may eat +up valuable viscera, and cause you or your friend suffering and +death. How would you feel? A little like lynching your captive, I +fancy. + +I confess that the more I know of the West Coast Africans the more I +like them. I own I think them fools of the first water for their +power of believing in things; but I fancy I have analogous feelings +towards even my fellow-countrymen when they go and violently believe +in something that I cannot quite swallow. + + + +CHAPTER XV. FETISH--(continued). + + + +In which the Voyager complains of the inconveniences arising from +the method of African thought, and discourses on apparitions and +Deities. + +However much some of the African's mental attributes get under- +rated, I am sure there are others of them for which he gets more +credit than he deserves. One of these is his imagination. It +strikes the new-comer with awe, and frequently fills him with rage, +when he first meets it; but as he matures and gets used to the +African, he sees the string. For the African fancy is not the +"aerial fancy flying free," mentioned by our poets, but merely the +aerial of the theatre suspended by a wire or cord. The wire that +supports the African's fancy may be a very thin, small fact indeed, +or in some cases merely his incapacity to distinguish between +animate and inanimate objects, which give rise to his idea that +everything is possessed of a soul. Everything has a soul to him, +and to make confusion worse confounded, he usually believes in the +existence of matter apart from its soul. But there is little he +won't believe in, if it comes to that; and I have a feeling of +thankfulness that Buddhism, Theosophy, and above all Atheism, which +chases its tail and proves that nothing can be proved, have not yet +been given the African to believe in. + +The African's want of making it clear in his language whether he is +referring to an animate or inanimate thing, has landed me in many a +dilemma, and his foolishness in not having a male and female gender +in his languages amounts to a nuisance. For example, I am a most +ladylike old person and yet get constantly called "Sir." The other +day, circumstances having got beyond my control during the +afternoon, I arrived in the evening in a saturated condition at a +white settlement, and wishing to get accommodation for myself and my +men, I made my way to the factory of a firm from whose +representatives I have always received great and most courteous +help. The agent in charge was not at home, and his steward-boy +said, "Massa live for Mr. B.'s house." "Go tell him I live for come +from," etc., said I, and "I fit for want place for my men." I had +nothing to write on, or with, and I thought the steward-boy could +carry this little message to its destination without dropping any of +it, as Mr. B.'s house was close by; but I was wrong. Off he went, +and soon returned with the note I here give a copy of: - + +"DEAR OLD MAN, + "You must be in a deuce of a mess after the tornado. Just help +yourself to a set of my dry things. The shirts are in the bottom +drawer, the trousers are in the box under the bed, and then come +over here to the sing-song. My leg is dickey or I'd come across.-- +Yours," etc. + +Had there been any smelling salts or sal volatile in this +subdivision of the Ethiopian region, I should have forthwith fainted +on reading this, but I well knew there was not, so I blushed until +the steam from my soaking clothes (for I truly was "in a deuce of a +mess") went up in a cloud and then, just as I was, I went "across" +and appeared before the author of that awful note. When he came +round, he said it had taken seven years' growth out of him, and was +intensely apologetic. I remarked it had very nearly taken thirty +years' growth out of me, and he said the steward-boy had merely +informed him that "White man live for come from X," a place where he +knew there was another factory belonging to his firm, and he +naturally thought it was the agent from X who had come across. + +You rarely, indeed I believe never, find an African with a gift for +picturesque descriptions of scenery. The nearest approach to it I +ever got was from my cook when we were on Mungo mah Lobeh. He +proudly boasted he had been on a mountain, up Cameroon River, with a +German officer, and on that mountain, "If you fall down one side you +die, if you fall down other side you die." + +Graphic and vivid descriptions of incidents you often get, but it is +not Art. The effect is produced entirely by a bald brutality of +statement, the African having no artistic reticence whatsoever. One +fine touch, however, which does not come in under this class was +told me by my lamented friend Mr. Harris of Calabar. Some years ago +he had out a consignment of Dutch clocks with hanging weights, as is +natural to the Dutch clock. They were immensely popular among the +chiefs, and were soon disposed of save one, which had seen trouble +on the voyage out and lost one of its weights. Mr. Harris, who was +a man of great energy and resource, melted up some metal spoons and +made a new weight and hung it on the clock. The day he finished +this a chief came in, anxious for a Dutch clock, and Mr. Harris +forthwith sold him the repaired one. About a week elapsed, and then +the chief turned up at the factory again with a rueful countenance, +followed by a boy carrying something swathed in a cloth. It was the +clock. + +"You do me bad too much, Mr. Harris," said the chief. Mr. Harris +denied this on the spot with the vehemence of injured innocence. +The chief shook his head and spat profusely and sorrowfully. + +"You no sabe him clock you done sell me?" said he. "When I look him +clock it no be to-day, it be to morrow." Mr. Harris took the clock +back, to see what was the cause of this strange state of affairs. +Of course it arose from his having been too liberal in the amount of +spoon in the weight, and this being altered, the chief was not +hurried onward to his grave at such a rattling pace; "but," said Mr. +Harris, "that clock was a flyer to the last." + +But I will not go into the subject of African languages here, but +only remark of them that although they are elaborate enough to +produce, for their users, nearly every shade of erroneous statement, +they are not, save perhaps M'pongwe, elaborate enough to enable a +native to state his exact thought. Some of them are very dependent +on gesture. When I was with the Fans they frequently said, "We will +go to the fire so that we can see what they say," when any question +had to be decided after dark, and the inhabitants of Fernando Po, +the Bubis, are quite unable to converse with each other unless they +have sufficient light to see the accompanying gestures of the +conversation. In all cases I feel sure the African's intelligence +is far ahead of his language. + +The African is usually great at dreams, and has them very noisily; +but he does not seem to me to attach immense importance to them, +certainly not so much as the Red Indian does. I doubt whether there +is much real ground for supposing that from dreams came man's first +conception of the spirit world, and I think the origin of man's +religious belief lies in man's misfortunes. + +There can be little doubt that the very earliest human beings found, +as their descendants still find, their plans frustrated, let them +plan ever so wisely and carefully; they must have seen their +companions overtaken by death and disaster, arising both from things +they could see and from things they could not see. The distinction +between these two classes of phenomena is not so definitely +recognised by savages or animals as it is by the more cultured races +of humanity. I doubt whether a savage depends on his five senses +alone to teach him what the world is made of, any more than a Fellow +of the Royal Society does. From this method of viewing nature I +feel sure that the general idea arose--which you find in all early +cultures--that death was always the consequence of the action of +some malignant spirit, and that there is no accidental or natural +death, as we call it; and death is, after all, the most impressive +attribute of life. + +If a man were knocked on the head with a club, or shot with an +arrow, the cause of death is clearly the malignancy of the person +using these weapons; and so it is easy to think that a man killed by +a fallen tree, or by the upsetting of a canoe in the surf, or in an +eddy in the river, is also the victim of some being using these +things as weapons. + +A man having thus gained a belief that there are more than human +actors in life's tragedy, the idea that disease is also a +manifestation of some invisible being's wrath and power seems to me +natural and easy; and he knows you can get another man for a +consideration to kill or harm a third party, and so he thinks that, +for a consideration, you can also get one of these superhuman +beings, which we call gods or devils, but which the African regards +in another light, to do so. + +A certain set of men and women then specialise off to study how +these spirits can be managed, and so arises a priesthood; and the +priests, or medicine men as they are called in their earliest forms, +gradually, for their own ends, elaborate and wrap round their +profession with ritual and mystery. + +The savage is also conscious of another great set of phenomena +which, he soon learns, take no interest in human affairs. The sun +which rises and sets, the moon which changes, the tides which come +and go: --what do they care? Nothing; and what is more, sacrifice +to them what you may, you cannot get them to care about you and your +affairs, and so the savage turns his attention to those other +spirits that do take only too much interest, as is proved by those +unexpected catastrophes; and, as their actions show, these spirits +are all malignant, so he deals with them just as he would deal with +a bad man whom he was desirous of managing. He flatters and fees +them, he deprives himself of riches to give to them as sacrifices, +believing they will relish it all the more because it gives him pain +of some sort to give it to them. He holds that they think it will +be advisable for them to encourage him to continue the giving by +occasionally doing what he asks them. Naturally he never feels sure +of them; he sees that you may sacrifice to a god for years, you may +wrap him up--or more properly speaking, the object in which he +resides--in your only cloth on chilly nights while you shiver +yourself; you and your children, and your mother, and your sister +and her children, may go hungry that food may rot upon his shrine; +and yet, in some hour of dire necessity, the power will not come and +save you--because he has been lured away by some richer gifts than +yours. + +You white men will say, "Why go on believing in him then?" but that +is an idea that does not enter the African mind. I might just as +well say "Why do you go on believing in the existence of hansom +cabs," because one hansom cab driver malignantly fails to take you +where you want to go, or fails to arrive in time to catch a train +you wished to catch. + +The African fully knows the liability of his fetish to fail, but he +equally fully knows its power. One, to me, grandly tragic instance +of this I learnt at Opobo. There was a very great Fetish doctor +there, universally admired and trusted, who lived out on the land at +the mouth of the Great River. One day he himself fell sick, and he +made ju-ju against the sickness; but it held on, and he grew worse. +He made more ju-ju of greater power, but again in vain, and then he +made the greatest ju-ju man can make, and it availed nought, and he +knew he was dying; and so, with his remaining strength, he broke up +and dishonoured and destroyed all the Fetishes in which the spirits +lived, and cast them out into the surf and died like a man. + +Then horror came upon the people when they knew he had done this, +and they burnt his house and all things belonging to him, and cried +upon the spirits not to forsake them, not to lay this one man's +deadly sin at their doors. + +In connection with the gods of West Africa I may remark that in +almost all the series of native tradition there, you will find +accounts of a time when there was direct intercourse between the +gods or spirits that live in the sky, and men. That intercourse is +always said to have been cut off by some human error; for example, +the Fernando Po people say that once upon a time there was no +trouble or serious disturbance upon earth because there was a +ladder, made like the one you get palm-nuts with, "only long, long;" +and this ladder reached from earth to heaven so the gods could go up +and down it and attend personally to mundane affairs. But one day a +cripple boy started to go up the ladder, and he had got a long way +up when his mother saw him, and went up in pursuit. The gods, +horrified at the prospect of having boys and women invading heaven, +threw down the ladder, and have since left humanity severely alone. +The Timneh people, north-east of Sierra Leone, say that in old times +God was very friendly with men, and when He thought a man had lived +long enough on earth, He sent a messenger to him telling him to come +up into the sky, and stay with Him; but once there was a man who, +when the messenger of God came, did not want to leave his wives, his +slaves, and his riches, and so the messenger had to go back without +him; and God was very cross and sent another messenger for him, who +was called Disease, but the man would not come for him either, and +so Disease sent back word to God that he must have help to bring the +man; and so God sent another messenger whose name was Death; and +Disease and Death together got hold of the man, and took him to God; +and God said in future He would always send these messengers to +fetch men. + +The Fernando Po legend may be taken as fairly pure African, but the +Timneh, I expect, is a transmogrified Arabic story--though I do not +know of anything like it among Arabic stories; but they are infinite +in quantity, and there is a certain ring about it I recognise, and +these Timnehs are much in contact with the Mohammedan, Mandingoes, +etc. In none of the African stories is there given anything like +the importance to dreams that there is given to attempts to account +for accidents and death; and surely it must have been more +impressive and important to a man to have got his leg or arm snapped +off by a crocodile in the river, or by a shark in the surf, or to +have got half killed, or have seen a friend killed by a falling tree +in the forest in the day time, than to have experienced the most +wonderful of dreams. He sees that however terrific his dream- +experiences may have been, he was not much the worse for them. Not +so in the other case, a limb gone or a life gone is more impressive, +and more necessary to account for. + +No trace of sun-worship have I ever found. The firmament is, I +believe, always the great indifferent and neglected god, the Nyan +Kupon of the Tschwi, and the Anzambe, Nzam, etc., of the Bantu +races. The African thinks this god has great power if he would only +exert it, and when things go very badly with him, when the river +rises higher than usual and sweeps away his home and his +plantations; when the smallpox stalks through the land, and day and +night the corpses float down the river past him, and he finds them +jammed among his canoes that are tied to the beach, and choking up +his fish traps; and then when at last the death-wail over its +victims goes up night and day from his own village, he will rise up +and call upon this great god in a terror maddened by despair, that +he may hear and restrain the evil workings of these lesser devils; +but he evidently finds, as Peer Gynt says, "Nein, er hort nicht. Er +ist taub wie gewohnlich" for there is no organised cult for Anzam. + +Accounts of apparitions abound in all the West Coast districts, and +although the African holds them all in high horror and terror, he +does not see anything supernatural in his "Duppy." It is a horrid +thing to happen on, but there is nothing strange about it, and he is +ten thousand times more frightened than puzzled over the affair. He +does not want to "investigate" to see whether there is anything in +it. He wants to get clear away, and make ju-ju against it, "one +time." + +These apparitions have a great variety of form, for, firstly, there +are all the true spirits, nature spirits; secondly, the spirits of +human beings--these human spirits are held to exist before as well +as during and after bodily life; thirdly, the spirits of things. +Probably the most horrid of class one is the Tschwi's Sasabonsum. +Whether Sasabonsum is an individual or a class is not quite clear, +but I believe he is a class of spirits, each individual of which has +the same characteristics, the same manner of showing anger, the same +personal appearance, and the same kind of residence. I am a devoted +student of his cult and I am always coming across equivalent forms +of him in other tribes as well as the Tschwi, and I think he is very +early. As the Tschwi have got their religious notions in a most +tidy and definite state, we will take their version of Sasabonsum. + +He lives in the forest, in or under those great silk-cotton trees +around the roots of which the earth is red. This coloured earth +identifies a silk-cotton tree as being the residence of a +Sasabonsum, as its colour is held to arise from the blood it whips +off him as he goes down to his under-world home after a night's +carnage. All silk-cotton trees are suspected because they are held +to be the roosts for Duppies. But the red earth ones are feared +with a great fear, and no one makes a path by them, or a camp near +them at night. + +Sasabonsum is a friend of witches. He is of enormous size, and of a +red colour. He wears his hair straight and he waylays unprotected +wayfarers in the forest at night, and in all districts except that +of Apollonia he eats them. Round Apollonia he only sucks their +blood. Natives of this district after meeting him have crawled home +and given an account of his appearance, and then expired. + +Ellis says he is believed to be implacable, and when angered can +never be mollified or propitiated, but it is certain that human +victims are constantly sacrificed to him in districts beyond white +control; in districts under it, the equivalent value of a human +sacrifice in sheep and goats is offered to him. In Ashantee he has +priests, and of course human sacrifice. Away among the Dahomeyan +tribes--where he has kept his habits but got another name, and seems +to have crystallised from a class into an individual--the usual way +in which a god develops--he has priests and priestesses, and they +are holy terrors; but among the Tschwi, Sasabonsum is mainly dealt +with by witches, and people desirous of possessing the power of +becoming witches. They derive their power from him in a remarkable +way. I put myself to great personal inconvenience (fever risk, +mosquito certainty, high leopard and snake palaver probability, and +grave personal alarm and apprehension) to verify Colonel Ellis's +account of the methods witches employ in this case, to obtain +ehsuhman and I find his account correct. {363} + +The chief use of a suhman is the power it gives its owner to procure +the death of other people, not necessarily his own enemies, for he +will sell charms made by the agency of his suhman to another person +whose nerves have not been equal to facing Sasabonsum on his own +account. He can also provide by its agency other charms, such as +those that protect houses from fire, and things and individuals from +accidents on the road, or in canoes, and the home circle from good- +looking but unprincipled young men, and so on. + +As a rule the person who has a suhman keeps the fact pretty quiet, +for the possession of such an article would lead half the +catastrophes in his district, from the decease of pigs, fowls, and +babies, to fires, etc., to be accredited to him, which would lead to +his neighbours making "witch palaver" over him, and he would have to +undergo poison-ordeal and other unpleasantness to clear his +character. He, however, always keeps a special day in his suhman's +honour, and should he be powerful, as a king or big chief, he will +keep this day openly. King Kwoffi Karri Kari, whom we fought with +in 1874, used to make a big day for his suhman, which was kept in a +box covered with gold plates, and he sacrificed a human victim to it +every Tuesday, with general festivities and dances in its honour. + +I should remark that Sasabonsum is married. His wife, or more +properly speaking his female form, is called Shamantin. She is far +less malignant than the male form. Her name comes from Srahman-- +ghost or spirit; the termination "tin" is an abbreviation of +sintstin--tall. She is of immense height, and white; perhaps this +idea is derived from the white stem of the silk-cotton trees wherein +she invariably abides. Her method of dealing with the solitary +wayfarer is no doubt inconvenient to him, but it is kinder than her +husband's ways, for she does not kill and eat him, as Sasabonsum +does, but merely detains him some months while she teaches him all +about the forest: what herbs are good to eat, or to cure disease; +where the game come to drink, and what they say to each other, and +so forth. I often wish I knew this lady, for the grim, grand +African forests are like a great library, in which, so far, I can do +little more than look at the pictures, although I am now busily +learning the alphabet of their language, so that I may some day read +what these pictures mean. + +Do not go away with the idea, I beg, that goddesses as a general +rule, are better than gods. They are not. There are stories about +them which I could--I mean I could not--tell you. There is one +belonging also to the Tschwi. She lives at Moree, a village five +miles from Cape Coast. She is, as is usual with deities, human in +shape and colossal in size, and as is not usual with deities, she is +covered with hair from head to foot,--short white hair like a goat. +Her abode is on the path to surf-cursed Anamabu near the sea-beach, +and her name is Aynfwa; a worshipper of hers has only got to mention +the name of a person he wishes dead when passing her abode and +Aynfwa does the rest. She is the goddess of all albinoes, who are +said to be more frequent in occurrence round Moree than elsewhere. +Ellis says that in 1886, when he was there, they were 1 per cent. of +the entire population. These albinoes are, ipso facto, her priests +and priestesses, and in old days an albino had only to name anywhere +a person Aynfwa wished for, and that person was forthwith killed. + +I think I may safely say that every dangerous place in West Africa +is regarded as the residence of a god--rocks and whirlpools in the +rivers--swamps "no man fit to pass"--and naturally, the surf. Along +the Gold Coast, at every place where you have to land through the +surf, it fairly swarms with gods. A little experience with the said +surf inclines you to think, as the dabblers in spiritualism say +"that there is something in it." I will back this West Coast surf-- +"the Calemma," as we call it down South, against any other +malevolent abomination, barring only the English climate. Its ways +of dealing with human beings are cunning and deceitful. In its most +ferocious moods it seizes a boat, straightway swamps it, and feeds +its pet sharks with the boat's occupants. If the surf is merely +sky-larking it lets your boat's nose just smell the sand, and then +says "Thought you were all right this time, did you though," and +drags the boat back again under the incoming wave, or catches it +under the stern and gaily throws it upside down over you and yours +on the beach. Variety, they say, is charming. Let those who say +it, and those who believe it, just do a course of surf-work, and +I'll warrant they will change their minds. + +There is one thing about the surf that I do not understand, and that +is why witches always walk stark naked along the beach by it at +night, and eat sea crabs the while. That such is a confirmed habit +of theirs is certain; and they tell me that while doing this the +witches emit a bright light, and also that there is a certain +medicine, which, if you have it with you, you can throw over the +witch, and then he, or she, will remain blazing until morning time, +running to and fro, crying out wildly, in front of the white, +breaking, thundering surf wall, and when the dawn comes the fire +burns the witch right up, leaving only a grey ash--and palaver set +in this world and the next for that witch. + +A highly-esteemed native minister told me when I was at Cape Coast +last, that a fortnight before, he had been away in the Apollonia +district on mission work. One evening he and a friend were walking +along the beach and the night was dark, so that you could see only +the surf. It is never too dark to see that, it seems to have light +in itself. They saw a flame coming towards them, and after a +moment's doubt they knew it was a witch, and feeling frightened, hid +themselves among the bushes that edge the sandy shore. As they +watched, it came straight on and passed them, and they saw it +disappear in the distance. My informant laughed at himself, and +very wisely said, "One has not got to believe those things here, one +has in Apollonia." + +To the surf and its spirits the sea-board-dwelling Tschwis bring +women who have had children and widows, both after a period of eight +days from the birth of the child, or the death of the husband. + +A widow remains in the house until this period has elapsed, +neglecting her person, eating little food, and sitting on the bare +floor in the attitude of mourning. On the Gold Coast they bury very +quickly, as they are always telling you, usually on the day after +death, rarely later than the third day, even among the natives; and +the spirit, or Srah, of the dead man is supposed to hang about his +wives and his house until the ceremony of purification is carried +out. This is done, needless to say, with uproar. The relations of +each wife go to her house with musical instruments--I mean tom-toms +and that sort of thing--and they take a quantity of mint, which +grows wild in this country, with them. This mint they burn, some of +it in the house, the rest they place upon pans of live coals and +carry round the widow as she goes in their midst down to the surf, +her relatives singing aloud to the Srah of the departed husband, +telling him that now he is dead and has done with the lady he must +leave her. This singing serves to warn all the women who are not +relations to get out of the way, which of course they always +carefully do, because if they were to see the widow their own +husbands would die within the year. + +When the party has arrived at the shore, they strip every rag off +the widow, and throw it into the surf; and a thoughtful female +relative having brought a suit of dark blue baft with her for the +occasion, the widow is clothed in this and returns home, where a +suitable festival is held, after which she may marry again; but if +she were to marry before this ceremony, the Srah of the husband +would play the mischief with husband number two or three, and so on, +as the case might be. + +In the inland Gold Coast districts the widows remain in a state of +mourning for several months, and a selection of them, a quantity of +slaves, and one or two free men are killed to escort the dead man to +Srahmandazi; and as well as these, and in order to provide him with +merchandise to keep up his house and state in the under-world, +quantities of gold dust, rolls of rich velvets, silks, satins, etc., +are thrown into the grave. + +Among the dwellers in Cameroon, when you are across the Bantu +border-line, velvets, etc., are buried with a big man or woman; but +I am told it is only done for the glorification of his living +relatives, so that the world may say, "So and so must be rich, look +what a lot of trade he threw away at that funeral of his wife," or +his father, or his son, as the case may be; but I doubt whether this +is the true explanation. If it is, I should recommend my German +friends, if they wish to intervene, to introduce the income tax into +Cameroon--that would eliminate this custom. + +The Tschwis hold that there is a definite earthly existence +belonging to each soul of a human kind. Let us say, for example, a +soul has a thirty years' bodily existence belonging to it. Well, +suppose that soul's body gets killed off at twenty-five, its +remaining five years it has to spend, if it is left alone, in +knocking about its old haunts, homes, and wives. In this state it +is called a Sisa, and is a nuisance. It will cause sickness. It +will throw stones. It will pull off roofs, and it will play the +very mischief with its wives' subsequent husbands, all because, not +having reached its full term of life, it has not learnt its way down +the dark and difficult path to Srahmandazi, the entrance to which is +across the Volta River to the N.E. This knowledge of the path to +Srahmandazi is a thing that grows gradually on a man's immortal soul +(the other three souls are not immortal), and naturally not having +been allowed to complete his life, his knowledge is imperfect. A +man's soul, however, can be taught the way, if necessary, in the +funeral "custom" made by his relatives and the priests; but in a +case of an incompletelifeonearthsoul, as a German would say, when it +does arrive in the land of Insrah (pl.) it is in a weak and feeble +state from the difficulties of its journey, whereas a soul that has +lived out its allotted span of life goes straightway off to +Srahmandazi as soon as its "custom" or "devil" is made and gives its +surviving relatives no further trouble. Still there is great +difference of opinion among all the Tschwis and Ga men I have come +across on this point, and Ellis likewise remarks on this difference +of opinion. Some informants say that a soul that has been sent +hence before its time, although it is exhausted by the hardships it +has suffered on its journey down, yet recovers health in a month or +so; while a soul that has run its allotted span on earth is as +feeble as a new-born babe on arriving in Srahmandazi, and takes +years to pull round. Other informants say they have no knowledge of +these details, and state that all the difference they know of +between the souls of men who have been killed and the men who have +died, is that the former can always come back, and that really the +safest way of disposing of this class of soul is, by suitable spells +and incantations, to get it to enter into the body of a new-born +baby, where it can live out the remainder of its life. + +Before closing these observations on Srahmandazi I will give the +best account of that land that I am at present able to. Some day +perhaps I may share the fate of the Oxford Professor in In the Wrong +Paradise and go there myself, but so far my information is second- +hand. + +It is like this world. There are towns and villages, rivers, +mountains, bush, plantations, and markets. When the sun rises here +it sets in Srahmandazi. It has its pleasures and its pains, not +necessarily retributive or rewarding, but dim. All souls in it grow +forward or backward into the prime of life and remain there, some +informants say; others say that each inhabitant remains there at the +same age as he was when he quitted the world above. This latter +view is most like the South West one. The former is possibly only +an attempt to make Srahmandazi into a heaven in conformation with +Christian teaching, which it is not, any more than it is a hell. + +I have much curious information regarding its flora and fauna. A +great deal of both is seemingly indigenous, and then there are the +souls of great human beings, the Asrahmanfw, and the souls of all +the human beings, animals, and things sent down with them. The +ghosts do not seem to leave off their interest in mundane affairs, +for they not only have local palavers, but try palavers left over +from their earthly existence; and when there is an outbreak of +sickness in a Fantee town or village, and several inhabitants die +off, the opinion is often held that there is a big palaver going on +down in Srahmandazi and that the spirits are sending up on earth for +witnesses, subpoenaing them as it were. Medicine men or priests are +called in to find out what particular earthly grievance can be the +subject of the ghost palaver, and when they have ascertained this, +they take the evidence of every one in the town on this affair, as +it were on commission, and transmit the information to the court +sitting in Srahmandazi. This prevents the living being incommoded +by personal journeys down below, and although the priests have their +fee, it is cheaper in the end, because the witnesses' funeral +expenses would fall heavier still. + +Although far more elaborated and thought out than any other African +underworld I have ever come across, the Tschwi Srahmandazi may be +taken as a type of all the African underworlds. The Bantu's idea of +a future life is a life spent in much such a place. As far as I can +make out there is no definite idea of eternity. I have even come +across cases in which doubt was thrown on the present existence of +the Creating God, but I think this has arisen from attempts having +been made to introduce concise conceptions into the African mind, +conceptions that are quite foreign to its true nature and which +alarm and worry it. You never get the strange idea of the +difference between time and eternity--the idea I mean, that they are +different things--in the African that one frequently gets in +cultured Europeans; and as for the human soul, the African always +believes "that still the spirit is whole, and life and death but +shadows of the soul." + + + +CHAPTER XVI. FETISH--(concluded). + + + +In which the discourse on apparitions is continued, with some +observations on secret societies, both tribal and murder, and the +kindred subject of leopards. + +Apparitions are by no means always of human soul origin. All the +Tschwi and the Ewe gods, for example, have the habit of appearing +pretty regularly to their priests, and occasionally to the laity, +like Sasabonsum; but it is only to priests that these appearances +are harmless or beneficial. The effect of Sasabonsum's appearance +to the layman I have cited above, and I could give many other +examples of the bad effects of those of other gods, but will only +now mention Tando, the Hater, the chief god of the Northern Tschwi, +the Ashantees, etc. He is terribly malicious, human in shape, and +though not quite white, is decidedly lighter in complexion than the +chief god of the Southern Tschwi, Bobowissi. His hair is lank, and +he carries a native sword and wears a long robe. His well-selected +messengers are those awful driver ants (Inkran) which it is not +orthodox to molest in Tando's territories. He uses as his weapons +lightning, tempest, and disease, but the last is the most favourite +one. + +There is absolutely no trick too mean or venomous for Tando. For +example, he has a way of appearing near a village he has a grudge +against in the form of a male child, and wanders about crying +bitterly, until some kind-hearted, unsuspecting villager comes and +takes him in and feeds him. Then he develops a contagious disease +that clears that village out. + +This form of appearance and subsequent conduct is, unhappily, not +rigidly confined to Tando, but is used by many spirits as a method +of collecting arrears in taxes in the way of sacrifices. I have +found traces of it among Bantu gods or spirits, and it gives rise to +a general hesitation in West Africa to take care of waifs and strays +of unexplained origin. + +Other things beside gods and human spirits have the habit of +becoming incarnate. Once I had to sit waiting a long time at an +apparently perfectly clear bush path, because in front of us a +spear's ghost used to fly across the path about that time in the +afternoon, and if any one was struck by it they died. A certain +spring I know of is haunted by the ghost of a pitcher. Many ladies +when they have gone alone to fill their pitchers in the evening time +at this forest spring have noticed a very fine pitcher standing +there ready filled, and thinking exchange is no robbery, or at any +rate they would risk it if it were, have left their own pitcher and +taken the better looking one; but always as soon as they have come +within sight of the village huts, the new pitcher has crumbled into +dust, and the water in it been spilt on the ground; and the worst of +it is, when they have returned to fetch their own discarded pitcher, +they find it also shattered into pieces. + +There is also another class of apparition, of which I have met with +two instances, one among pure Negroes (Okyon); the other among pure +Bantu (Kangwe). I will give the Bantu version of the affair, +because at Okyon the incident had happened a good time before the +details were told me, and in the Bantu case they had happened the +previous evening. But there was very little difference in the main +facts of the case, and it was an important thing because in both +cases the underlying idea was sacrificial. + +The woman who told me was an exceedingly intelligent, shrewd, +reliable person. She had been to the factory with some trade, and +had got a good price for it, and so was in a good temper on her +return home in the evening. She got out of her canoe and leaving +her slave boy to bring up the things, walked to her house, which was +the ordinary house of a prosperous Igalwa native, having two +distinct rooms in it, and a separate cook-house close by in a clean, +sandy yard. She trod on some nastiness in the yard, and going into +the cook-house found the slave girls round a very small and +inefficient fire, trying to cook the evening meal. She blew them up +for not having a proper fire; they said the wood was wet, and would +not burn. She said they lied, and she would see to them later, and +she went into the chamber she used for a sleeping apartment, and +trod on something more on the floor in the dark; those good-for- +nothing hussies of slaves had not lit her palm-oil lamp, and +mentally forming the opinion that they had been out flirting during +her absence, and resolving to teach them well the iniquity of such +conduct, she sat down on her bed into a lot of messy stuff of a +clammy, damp nature. Now this fairly roused her, for she is a +notable housewife, who keeps her house and slaves in exceedingly +good order. So dismissing from her mind the commercial +consideration she had intended to gloat over when she came into her +room, she called Ingremina and others in a tone that brought those +young ladies on the spot. She asked them how they dared forget to +light her lamp; they said they had not, but the lamp in the room +must have gone out like the other lamps had, after burning dim and +spluttering. They further said they had not been out, but had been +sitting round the fire trying to make it burn properly. She duly +whacked and pulled the ears of all within reach. I say within reach +for she is not very active, weighing, I am sure, upwards of eighteen +stone. Then she went back into her room and got out her beautiful +English paraffin lamp, which she keeps in a box, and taking it into +the cook-house, picked up a bit of wood from the hissing, +spluttering fire, and lit it. When she picked up the wood she +noticed that it was covered with the same sticky abomination she had +met before that evening, and it smelt of the same faint smell she +had noticed as soon as she had reached her house, and by now the +whole air seemed oppressive with it. + +As soon as the lamp was alight she saw what the stuff was, namely, +blood. Blood was everywhere, the rest of the sticks in the fire had +it on them, it sizzled at the burning ends, and ran off the other in +rills. There were pools of it about her clean, sandy yard. Her own +room was reeking, the bed, the stools, the floor; it trickled down +the door-post; coagulated on the lintel. She herself was smeared +with it from the things she had come in contact with in the dark, +and the slaves seemed to have been sitting in pools of it. The +things she picked up off the table and shelf left rims of it behind +them; there was more in the skillets, and the oil in the open palm- +oil lamps had a film of it floating on the oil. Investigation +showed that the whole of the rest of her house was in a similar +mess. The good lady gave a complete catalogue of the household +furniture and its condition, which I need not give here. The slave +girls when the light came were terrified at what they saw, and she +called in the aristocracy of the village, and asked them their +opinion on the blood palaver. They said they could make nothing of +it at first, but subsequently formed the opinion that it meant +something was going to happen, and suggested with the kind, helpful +cheerfulness of relatives and friends, that they should not wonder +if it were a prophecy of her own death. This view irritated the +already tried lady, and she sent them about their business, and +started the slaves on house-cleaning. The blood cleaned up all +right when you were about it, but kept on turning up in other +places, and in the one you had just cleaned as soon as you left off +and went elsewhere; and the morning came and found things in much +the same state until "before suntime," say about 10 o'clock, when it +faded away. + +I cautiously tried to get my stately, touchy dowager duchess to +explain how it was that there was such a lot of blood, and how it +was it got into the house. She just said "it had to go somewhere," +and refused to give rational explanations as Chambers's Journal does +after telling a good ghost story. I found afterwards that it was +quite decided it was a case of "blood come before," and at Okyon, +Miss Slessor told me, in regard to the similar case there, that this +was the opinion held regarding the phenomenon. It is always held +uncanny in Africa if a person dies without shedding blood. You see, +the blood is the life, and if you see it come out, you know the +going of the thing, as it were. If you do not, it is mysterious. +At Okyon, a few days after the blood appeared, a nephew of the +person whose house it came into was killed while felling a tree in +the forest; a bough struck him and broke his neck, without shedding +a drop of blood, and this bore out the theory, for the blood having +"to go somewhere" came before. In the Bantu case I did not hear of +such a supporting incident happening. + +Certain African ideas about blood puzzle me. I was told by a +Batanga friend, a resident white trader, that a short time +previously a man was convicted of theft by the natives of a village +close to him. The hands and feet of the criminal were tied +together, and he was flung into the river. He got himself free, and +swam to the other bank, and went for bush. He was recaptured, and a +stone tied to his neck, and in again he was thrown. The second time +he got free and ashore, and was recaptured, and the chief then, most +regretfully, ordered that he was to be knocked on the head before +being thrown in for a third time. This time palaver set, but the +chief knew that he would die himself, by spitting the blood he had +spilt, from his own lungs, before the year was out. I inquired +about the chief when I passed this place, more than eighteen months +after, and learnt from a native that the chief was dead, and that he +had died in this way. The objection thus was not to shedding blood +in a general way, but to the shedding in the course of judicial +execution. There may be some idea of this kind underlying the +ingenious and awful ways the negroes have of killing thieves, by +tying them to stakes in the rivers, or down on to paths for the +driver ants to kill and eat, but this is only conjecture; I have not +had a chance yet to work this subject up; and getting reliable +information about underlying ideas is very difficult in Africa. The +natives will say "Yes" to any mortal thing, if they think you want +them to; and the variety of their languages is another great +hindrance. Were it not for the prevalence of Kru English or trade +English, investigation would be almost impossible; but, fortunately, +this quaint language is prevalent, and the natives of different +tribes communicate with each other in it, and so round a fire, in +the evening, if you listen to the gossip, you can pick up all sorts +of strange information, and gain strange and often awful lights on +your absent white friends' characters, and your present companions' +religion. For example, the other day I had a set of porters +composed of four Bassa boys, two Wei Weis, one Dualla, and two +Yorubas. None of their languages fitted, so they talked trade +English, and pretty lively talk some of it was, but of that anon. + +I cannot close this brief notice of native ideas without mentioning +the secret societies; but to go fully into this branch of the +subject would require volumes, for every tribe has its secret +society. The Poorah of Sierra Leone, the Oru of Lagos, the Egbo of +Calabar, the Isyogo of the Igalwa, the Ukuku of the Benga, the +Okukwe of the M'pongwe, the Ikun of the Bakele, and the Lukuku of +the Bachilangi Baluba, are some of the most powerful secret +societies on the West African Coast. + +These secret societies are not essentially religious, their action +is mainly judicial, and their particularly presiding spirit is not a +god or devil in our sense of the word. The ritual differs for each +in its detail, but there are broad lines of agreement between them. +There are societies both for men and for women, but mixed societies +for both sexes are rare. Those that I have mentioned above are all +male, except the Lukuku, and women are utterly forbidden to +participate in the rites or become acquainted with their secrets, +for one of the chief duties of these societies is to keep the women +in order; and besides it is undoubtedly held that women are bad for +certain forms of ju-ju, even when these forms are not directly +connected, as far as I can find out, with the secret society. For +example, the other day a chief up the Mungo River deliberately +destroyed his ju-ju by showing it to his women. It was a great ju- +ju, but expensive to keep up, requiring sacrifices of slaves and +goats, so what with trade being bad, fall in the price of oil and +ivory and so on, he felt he could not afford that ju-ju, and so +destroyed its power, so as to prevent its harming him when he +neglected it. + +The general rule with these secret societies is to admit the young +free people at an age of about eight to ten years, the boys entering +the male, the girls the female society. Both societies are rigidly +kept apart. A man who attempts to penetrate the female mysteries +would be as surely killed as a woman who might attempt to +investigate the male mysteries; still I came, in 1893, across an +amusing case which demonstrates the inextinguishable thirst for +knowledge, so long as that knowledge is forbidden, which +characterises our sex. + +It was in the district just south of Big Batanga. The male society +had been very hard on the ladies for some time, and one day one +star-like intellect among the latter told her next-door neighbour, +in strict confidence, that she did not believe Ikun was a spirit at +all, but only old So-and-so dressed up in leaves. This rank heresy +spread rapidly, in strict confidence, among the ladies at large, and +they used to assemble together in the house of the foundress of the +theory, secretly of course, because husbands down there are hasty +with the cutlass and the kassengo, and they talked the matter over. +Somehow or other, this came to the ears of the men. Whether the +ladies got too emancipated and winked when Ikun was mentioned, or +asked how Mr. So-and-so was this morning, in a pointed way, after an +Ikun manifestation, I do not know; some people told me this was so, +but others, who, I fear, were right, considering the acknowledged +slowness of men in putting two and two together, and the treachery +of women towards each other, said that a woman had told a man that +she had heard some of the other women were going on in this +heretical way. Anyhow, the men knew, and were much alarmed; +scepticism had spread by now to such an extent that nothing short of +burning or drowning all the women could stamp it out and reintroduce +the proper sense of awe into the female side of Society, and after a +good deal of consideration the men saw, for men are undoubtedly more +gifted in foresight than our sex, that it was no particular use +reintroducing this awe if there was no female half of Society to be +impressed by it. It was a brain-spraining problem for the men all +round, for it is clear Society cannot be kept together without some +superhuman aid to help to keep the feminine portion of it within +bounds. + +Grave councils were held, and it was decided that the woman at whose +house these treasonable meetings were held should be sent away early +one morning on a trading mission to the nearest factory, a job she +readily undertook; and while the other women were away in the +plantation or at the spring, certain men entered her house secretly +and dug a big chamber out in the floor of the hut, and one of them, +dressed as Ikun, and provided with refreshments for the day, got +into this chamber, and the whole affair was covered over carefully +and the floor re-sanded. That afternoon there was a big +manifestation of Ikun. He came in the most terrible form, his howls +were awful, and he finally went dancing away into the bush as the +night came down. The ladies had just taken the common-sense +precaution of removing all goats, sheep, fowls, etc., into enclosed +premises, for, like all his kind, he seizes and holds any property +he may come across in the street, but there was evidently no +emotional thrill in the female mind regarding him, and when the +leading lady returned home in the evening the other ladies strolled +into their leader's hut to hear about what new cotton prints, beads, +and things Mr.--- had got at his factory by the last steamer from +Europe, and interesting kindred subjects bearing on Mr.---. When +they had threshed these matters out, the conversation turned on to +religion, and what fools those men had been making of themselves all +the afternoon with their Ikun. No sooner was his name uttered than +a venomous howl, terminating in squeals of rage and impatience, came +from the ground beneath them. They stared at each other for one +second, and then, feeling that something was tearing its way up +through the floor, they left for the interior of Africa with one +accord. Ikun gave chase as soon as he got free, but what with being +half-stifled and a bit cramped in the legs, and much encumbered with +his vegetable decorations, the ladies got clear away and no arrests +were made--but Society was saved. Scepticism became in the +twinkling of an eye a thing of the past; and, although no names were +taken, the men observed that certain ladies were particularly +anxious, and regardless of expense, in buying immunity from Ikun, +and they fancied that these ladies were probably in that hut on that +particular evening, but they took no further action against them, +save making Ikun particularly expensive. There ought to be a moral +to an improving tale of this order, I know, but the only one I can +think of just now is that it takes a priest to get round a woman; +and I always feel inclined to jump on to the table myself when I +think of those poor dear creatures sitting on the floor and feeling +that awful thing clapper-clawing its way up right under them. + +Tattooing on the West Coast is comparatively rare, and I think I may +say never used with decorative intent only. The skin decorations +are either paint or cicatrices--in the former case the pattern is +not kept always the same by the individual. A peculiar form of it +you find in the Rivers, where a pattern is painted on the skin, and +then when the paint is dry, a wash is applied which makes the +unpainted skin rise up in between the painted pattern. The +cicatrices are sometimes tribal marks, but sometimes decorative. +They are made by cutting the skin and then placing in the wound the +fluff of the silk cotton tree. + +The great point of agreement between all these West African secret +societies lies in the methods of initiation. + +The boy, if he belongs to a tribe that goes in for tattooing, is +tattooed, and is handed over to instructors in the societies' +secrets and formula. He lives, with the other boys of his tribe +undergoing initiation, usually under the rule of several +instructors, and for the space of one year. He lives always in the +forest, and is naked and smeared with clay. + +The boys are exercised so as to become inured to hardship; in some +districts, they make raids so as to perfect themselves in this +useful accomplishment. They always take a new name, and are +supposed by the initiation process to become new beings in the magic +wood, and on their return to their village at the end of their +course, they pretend to have entirely forgotten their life before +they entered the wood; but this pretence is not kept up beyond the +period of festivities given to welcome them home. They all learn, +to a certain extent, a new language, a secret language only +understood by the initiated. + +The same removal from home and instruction from initiated members is +also observed with the girls. However, in their case, it is not +always a forest-grove they are secluded in, sometimes it is done in +huts. Among the Grain Coast tribes however, the girls go into a +magic wood until they are married. Should they have to leave the +wood for any temporary reason, they must smear themselves with white +clay. A similar custom holds good in Okyon, Calabar district, +where, should a girl have to leave the fattening-house, she must be +covered with white clay. I believe this fattening-house custom in +Calabar is not only for fattening up the women to improve their +appearance, but an initiatory custom as well, although the main +intention is now, undoubtedly, fattening, and the girl is constantly +fed with fat-producing foods, such as fou-fou soaked in palm oil. I +am told, but I think wrongly, that the white clay with which a +Calabar girl is kept covered while in the fattening-house, putting +on an extra coating of it should she come outside, is to assist in +the fattening process by preventing perspiration. + +The duration of the period of seclusion varies somewhat. San +Salvador boys are six months in the wood. Cameroon boys are twelve +months. In most districts the girls are betrothed in infancy, and +they go into the wood or initiatory hut for a few months before +marriage. In this case the time seems to vary with the +circumstances of the individual; not so with the boys, for whom each +tribal society has a duly appointed course terminating at a duly +appointed time; but sometimes, as among some of the Yoruba tribes, +the boy has to remain under the rule of the presiding elders of the +society, painted white, and wearing only a bit of grass cloth, if he +wears anything, until he has killed a man. Then he is held to have +attained man's estate by having demonstrated his courage and also by +having secured for himself the soul of the man he has killed as a +spirit slave. + +The initiation of boys into a few of the elementary dogmas of the +secret society by no means composes the entire work of the society. +All of them are judicial, and taken on the whole they do an immense +amount of good. The methods are frequently a little quaint. +Rushing about the streets disguised under masks and drapery, with an +imitation tail swinging behind you, while you lash out at every one +you meet with a whip or cutlass, is not a European way of keeping +the peace, or perhaps I should say maintaining the dignity of the +Law. But discipline must be maintained, and this is the West +African way of doing it. + +The Egbo of Calabar is a fine type of the secret society. It is +exceedingly well developed in its details, not sketchy like Isyogo, +nor so red-handed as Poorah. Unfortunately, however, I cannot speak +with the same amount of knowledge of Egbo as I could of Poorah. + +Egbo has the most grades of initiation, except perhaps Poorah, and +it exercises jurisdiction over all classes of crime except +witchcraft. Any Effik man who desires to become an influential +person in the tribe must buy himself into as high a grade of Egbo as +he can afford, and these grades are expensive, 1,500 pounds or 1,000 +pounds English being required for the higher steps, I am informed. +But it is worth it to a great trader, as an influential Effik +necessarily is, for he can call out his own class of Egbo and send +it against those of his debtors who may be of lower grades, and as +the Egbo methods of delivering its orders to pay up consist in +placing Egbo at a man's doorway, and until it removes itself from +that doorway the man dare not venture outside his house, it is most +successful. + +Of course the higher a man is in Egbo rank, the greater his power +and security, for lower grades cannot proceed against higher ones. +Indeed, when a man meets the paraphernalia of a higher grade of Egbo +than that to which he belongs, he has to act as if he were lame, and +limp along past it humbly, as if the sight of it had taken all the +strength out of him, and, needless to remark, higher grade debtors +flip their fingers at lower grade creditors. + +After talking so much about the secret society spirits, it may be as +well to say what they are. They are, one and all, a kind of a sort +of a something that usually (the exception is Ikun) lives in the +bush. Last February I was making my way back toward Duke Town-- +late, as usual; I was just by a town on the Qwa River. As I was +hurrying onward I heard a terrific uproar accompanied by drums in +the thick bush into which, after a brief interval of open ground, +the path turned. I became cautious and alarmed, and hid in some +dense bush as the men making the noise approached. I saw it was +some ju-ju affair. They had a sort of box which they carried on +poles, and their dresses were peculiar, and abnormally ample over +the upper part of their body. They were prancing about in an +ecstatic way round the box, which had one end open, beating their +drums and shouting. They were fairly close to me, but fortunately +turned their attention to another bit of undergrowth, or that +evening they would have landed another kind of thing to what they +were after. The bushes they selected they surrounded and evidently +did their best to induce something to come out of them and go into +their box arrangement. I was every bit as anxious as they were that +they should succeed, and succeed rapidly, for you know there are a +nasty lot of snakes and things in general, not to mention driver +ants, about that Calabar bush, that do not make it at all pleasant +to go sitting about in. However, presently they got this something +into their box and rejoiced exceedingly, and departed staggering +under the weight. I gave them a good start, and then made the best +of my way home; and all that night Duke Town howled, and sang, and +thumped its tom-toms unceasingly; for I was told Egbo had come into +the town. Egbo is very coy, even for a secret society spirit, and +seems to loathe publicity; but when he is ensconced in this ark he +utters sententious observations on the subject of current politics, +and his word is law. The voice that comes out of the ark is very +strange, and unlike a human voice. I heard it shortly after Egbo +had been secured. I expect, from what I saw, that there was some +person in that ark all the time, but I do not know. It is more than +I can do to understand my ju-ju details at present, let alone +explain them on rational lines. I hear that there is a tribe on the +slave coast who have been proved to keep a small child in the drum +that is the residence of their chief spirit, and that when the child +grows too large to go in it is killed, and another one that has in +the meantime been trained by the priests takes the place of the dead +one, until it, in its turn, grows too big and is killed, and so on. +I expect this killing of the children is not sacrificial, but arises +entirely from the fact that as ex-kings are dangerous to the body +politic, therefore still more dangerous would ex-gods be. + +Very little is known by outsiders regarding Egbo compared to what +there must be to be known, owing to a want of interest or to a sense +of inability on the part of most white people to make head or tail +out of what seems to them a horrid pagan practice or a farrago of +nonsense. + +It is still a great power, although its officials in Duke or Creek +Town are no longer allowed to go chopping and whipping promiscuous- +like, because the Consul-General has a prejudice against this sort +of thing, and the Effik is learning that it is nearly as unhealthy +to go against his Consul-General as against his ju-ju. So I do not +believe you will ever get the truth about it in Duke Town, or Creek +Town. If you want to get hold of the underlying idea of these +societies you must go round out-of-the-way corners where the natives +are not yet afraid of being laughed at or punished. + +Of the South-West Coast secret societies the Ukuku seems the most +powerful. The Isyogo belonging to those indolent Igalwas, and +M'pongwe is now little more than a play. You pretty frequently come +upon Isyogo dances just round Libreville. You will see stretched +across the little street in a cluster of houses, a line from which +branches are suspended, making a sort of screen. The women and +children keep one side of this screen, the men dancing on the other +side to the peculiar monotonous Isyogo tune. Poorah I have spoken +of elsewhere. + +I believe that these secret societies are always distinct from the +leopard societies. I have pretty nearly enough evidence to prove +that it is so in some districts, but not in all. So far my evidence +only goes to prove the distinction of the two among the Negroes, not +among the Bantu, and in all cases you will find some men belonging +to both. Some men, in fact, go in for all the societies in their +district, but not all the men; and in all districts, if you look +close, you will find several societies apart from the regular youth- +initiating one. + +These other societies are practically murder societies, and their +practices usually include cannibalism, which is not an essential +part of the rites of the great tribal societies, Isyogo or Egbo. In +the Calabar district I was informed by natives that there was a +society of which the last entered member has to provide, for the +entertainment of the other members, the body of a relative of his +own, and sacrificial cannibalism is always breaking out, or perhaps +I should say being discovered, by the white authorities in the Niger +Delta. There was the great outburst of it at Brass, in 1895, and +the one chronicled in the Liverpool Mercury for August 13th, 1895, +as occurring at Sierra Leone. This account is worth quoting. It +describes the hanging by the Authorities of three murderers, and +states the incidents, which took place in the Imperi country behind +Free Town. + +One of the chief murderers was a man named Jowe, who had formerly +been a Sunday-school teacher in Sierra Leone. He pleaded in +extenuation of his offence that he had been compelled to join the +society. The others said they committed the murders in order to +obtain certain parts of the body for ju-ju purposes, the leg, the +hand, the heart, etc. The Mercury goes on to give the statement of +the Reverend Father Bomy of the Roman Catholic Mission. "He said he +was at Bromtu, where the St. Joseph Mission has a station, when a +man was brought down from the Imperi country in a boat. The poor +fellow was in a dreadful state, and was brought to the station for +medical treatment. He said he was working on his farm, when he was +suddenly pounced upon from behind. A number of sharp instruments +were driven into the back of his neck. He presented a fearful +sight, having wounds all over his body supposed to have been +inflicted by the claws of the leopard, but in reality they were +stabs from sharp-pointed knives. The native, who was a powerfully- +built man, called out, and his cries attracting the attention of his +relations, the leopards made off. The poor fellow died at Bromtu +from the injuries. It was only his splendid physique that kept him +alive until his arrival at the Mission." The Mercury goes on to +quote from the Pall Mall, and I too go on quoting to show that these +things are known and acknowledged to have taken place in a colony +like Sierra Leone, which has had unequalled opportunities of +becoming christianised for more than one hundred years, and now has +more than one hundred and thirty places of Christian worship in it. +"Some twenty years ago there was a war between this tribe Taima and +the Paramas. The Paramas sent some of their war boys to be ambushed +in the intervening country, the Imperi, but the Imperi delivered +these war boys to the enemy. In revenge, the Paramas sent the +Fetish Boofima into the Imperi country. This Fetish had up to that +time been kept active and working by the sacrifice of goats, but the +medicine men of the Paramas who introduced it into the Imperi +country decreed at the same time that human sacrifices would be +required to keep it alive, thereby working their vengeance on the +Imperi by leading them to exterminate themselves in sacrifice to the +Fetish. The country for years has been terrorised by this secret +worship of Boofima and at one time the Imperi started the Tonga +dances, at which the medicine men pointed out the supposed +worshippers of Boofima--the so-called Human Leopards, because when +seizing their victims for sacrifice they covered themselves with +leopard skins, and imitating the roars of the leopard, they sprang +upon their victim, plunging at the same time two three-pronged forks +into each side of the throat. The Government some years ago forbade +the Tonga dances, and are now striving to suppress the human +leopards. There are also human alligators who, disguised as +alligators, swim in the creeks upon the canoes and carry off the +crew. Some of them have been brought for trial but no complete case +has been made out against them!" In comment upon this account, +which is evidently written by some one well versed in the affair, I +will only remark that sometimes, instead of the three-pronged forks, +there are fixed in the paws of the leopard skin sharp-pointed +cutting knives, the skin being made into a sort of glove into which +the hand of the human leopard fits. In one skin I saw down south +this was most ingeniously done. The knives were shaped like the +leopard's claws, curved, sharp-pointed, and with cutting edges +underneath, and I am told the American Mendi Mission, which works in +the Sierra Leone districts, have got a similar skin in their +possession. + +The human alligator mentioned, is our old friend the witch +crocodile--the spirit of the man in the crocodile. I never myself +came across a case of a man in his corporeal body swimming about in +a crocodile skin, and I doubt whether any native would chance +himself inside a crocodile skin and swim about in the river among +the genuine articles for fear of their penetrating his disguise +mentally and physically. + +In Calabar witch crocodiles are still flourishing. There is an +immense old brute that sporting Vice-Consuls periodically go after, +which is known to contain the spirit of a Duke Town chief who shall +be nameless, because they are getting on at such a pace just round +Duke Town that haply I might be had up for libel. When I was in +Calabar once, a peculiarly energetic officer had hit that crocodile +and the chief was forthwith laid up by a wound in his leg. He said +a dog had bit him. They, the chief and the crocodile, are quite +well again now, and I will say this in favour of that chief, that +nothing on earth would persuade me to believe that he went fooling +about in the Calabar River in his corporeal body, either in his own +skin or a crocodile's. + +The introduction of the Fetish Boofima into the country of the +Imperi is an interesting point as it shows that these different +tribes have the same big ju-ju. Similarly, Calabar Egbo can go into +Okyon, and will be respected in some of the New Calabar districts, +but not at Brass, where the secret society is a distinct cult. +Often a neighbouring district will send into Calabar, or Brass, +where the big ju-ju is, and ask to have one sent up into their +district to keep order, but Egbo will occasionally be sent into a +district without that district in the least wanting it; but, as in +the Imperi case, when it is there it is supreme. But say, for +example, you were to send Egbo round from Calabar to Cameroon. +Cameroon might be barely civil to it, but would pay it no homage, +for Cameroon has got no end of a ju-ju of its own. It can rise up +as high as the Peak, 13,760 feet. I never saw the Cameroon ju-ju do +this, but I saw it start up from four feet to quite twelve feet in +the twinkling of an eye, and I was assured that it was only modest +reticence on its part that made it leave the other 13,748 feet out +of the performance. + +Doctor Nassau seems to think that the tribal society of the Corisco +regions is identical with the leopard societies. He has had +considerable experience of the workings of the Ukuku, particularly +when he was pioneering in the Benito regions, when it came very near +killing him. He says the name signifies a departed spirit. "It is +a secret society into which all the males are initiated at puberty, +whose procedure may not be seen by females, nor its laws disobeyed +by any one under pain of death, a penalty which is sometimes +commuted to a fine, a heavy fine. Its discussions are uttered as an +oracle from any secluded spot by some man appointed for the purpose. + +"On trivial occasions any initiated man may personate Ukuku or issue +commands for the family. On other occasions, as in Shiku, to raise +prices, the society lays its commands on foreign traders." + +Some cases of Ukuku proceedings against white traders have come +under my own observation. A friend of mine, a trader in the Batanga +district, in some way incurred the animosity of the society's local +branch. He had, as is usual in the South-West Coast trade several +sub-factories in the bush. He found himself boycotted; no native +came in to his yard to buy or sell at the store, not even to sell +food. He took no notice and awaited developments. One evening when +he was sitting on his verandah, smoking and reading, he thought he +heard some one singing softly under the house, this, like most +European buildings hereabouts, being elevated just above the earth. +He was attracted to the song and listened: it was evidently one of +the natives singing, not one of his own Kruboys, and so, knowing the +language, and having nothing else particular to do, he attended to +the affair. + +It was the same thing sung softly over and over again, so softly +that he could hardly make out the words. But at last, catching his +native name among them, he listened more intently than ever, down at +a knot-hole in the wooden floor. The song was--"They are going to +attack your factory at . . . to-morrow. They are going to attack +your factory at . . . to-morrow," over and over again, until it +ceased; and then he thought he saw something darker than the +darkness round it creep across the yard and disappear in the bush. +Very early in the morning he, with his Kruboys and some guns, went +and established themselves in that threatened factory in force. The +Ukuku Society turned up in the evening, and reconnoitred the +situation, and finding there was more in it than they had expected, +withdrew. + +In the course of the next twenty-four hours he succeeded in talking +the palaver successfully with them. He never knew who his singing +friend was, but suspected it was a man whom he had known to be +grateful for some kindness he had done him. Indeed there were, and +are, many natives who have cause to be grateful to him, for he is +deservedly popular among his local tribes, but the man who sang to +him that night deserves much honour, for he did it at a terrific +risk. + +Sometimes representatives of the Ukuku fraternity from several +tribes meet together and discuss intertribal difficulties, thereby +avoiding war. + +Dr. Nassau distinctly says that the Bantu region leopard society is +identical with the Ukuku, and he says that although the leopards are +not very numerous here they are very daring, made so by immunity +from punishment by man. "The superstition is that on any man who +kills a leopard will fall a curse or evil disease, curable only by +ruinously expensive process of three weeks' duration under the +direction of Ukuku. So the natives allow the greatest depredations +and ravages until their sheep, goats, and dogs are swept away, and +are roused to self-defence only when a human being becomes the +victim of the daring beast. With this superstition is united +another similar to the werewolf of Germany, viz., a belief in the +power of human metamorphosis into a leopard. A person so +metamorphosed is called 'Uvengwa.' At one time in Benito an intense +excitement prevailed in the community. Doors and shutters were +rattled at the dead of night, marks of leopard claws were scratched +on door-posts. Then tracks lay on every path. Women and children +in lonely places saw their flitting forms, or in the dusk were +knocked down by their spring, or heard their growl in the thickets. +It is difficult to decide in many of these reports whether it is a +real leopard or only an Uvengwa--to native fears they are +practically the same,--we were certain this time the Uvengwa was the +thief disguised in leopard's skin, as theft is always heard of about +such times." + +When I was in Gaboon in September, 1895, there was great Uvengwa +excitement in a district just across the other side of the estuary, +mainly at a village that enjoyed the spacious and resounding name of +Rumpochembo, from a celebrated chief, and all these phenomena were +rife there. Again, when I was in a village up the Calabar there +were fourteen goats and five slaves killed in eight days by +leopards, the genuine things, I am sure, in this case; but here, as +down South, there was a strong objection to proceed against the +leopard, and no action was being taken save making the goat-houses +stronger. In Okyon, when a leopard is killed, its body is treated +with great respect and brought into the killer's village. Messages +are then sent to the neighbouring villages, and they send +representatives to the village and the gall-bladder is most +carefully removed from the leopard and burnt coram publico, each +person whipping their hands down their arms to disavow any guilt in +the affair. This burning of the gall, however, is not ju-ju, it is +done merely to destroy it, and to demonstrate to all men that it is +destroyed, because it is believed to be a deadly poison, and if any +is found in a man's possession the punishment is death, unless he is +a great chief--a few of these are allowed to keep leopards' gall in +their possession. John Bailey tells me that if a great chief +commits a great crime, and is adjudged by a conclave of his fellow +chiefs to die, it is not considered right he should die in a common +way, and he is given leopards' gall. A precisely similar idea +regarding the poisonous quality of crocodiles' gall holds good down +South. + +The ju-ju parts of the leopard are the whiskers. You cannot get a +skin from a native with them on, and gay, reckless young hunters +wear them stuck in their hair and swagger tremendously while the +Elders shake their heads and keep a keen eye on their subsequent +conduct. + +I must say the African leopard is an audacious animal, although it +is ungrateful of me to say a word against him, after the way he has +let me off personally, and I will speak of his extreme beauty as +compensation for my ingratitude. I really think, taken as a whole, +he is the most lovely animal I have ever seen; only seeing him, in +the one way you can gain a full idea of his beauty, namely in his +native forest, is not an unmixed joy to a person, like myself, of a +nervous disposition. I may remark that my nervousness regarding the +big game of Africa is of a rather peculiar kind. I can confidently +say I am not afraid of any wild animal--until I see it--and then-- +well I will yield to nobody in terror; fortunately as I say my +terror is a special variety; fortunately, because no one can manage +their own terror. You can suppress alarm, excitement, fear, fright, +and all those small-fry emotions, but the real terror is as +dependent on the inner make of you as the colour of your eyes, or +the shape of your nose; and when terror ascends its throne in my +mind I become preternaturally artful, and intelligent to an extent +utterly foreign to my true nature, and save, in the case of close +quarters with bad big animals, a feeling of rage against some +unknown person that such things as leopards, elephants, crocodiles, +etc., should be allowed out loose in that disgracefully dangerous +way, I do not think much about it at the time. Whenever I have come +across an awful animal in the forest and I know it has seen me I +take Jerome's advice, and instead of relying on the power of the +human eye rely upon that of the human leg, and effect a masterly +retreat in the face of the enemy. If I know it has not seen me I +sink in my tracks and keep an eye on it, hoping that it will go away +soon. Thus I once came upon a leopard. I had got caught in a +tornado in a dense forest. The massive, mighty trees were waving +like a wheat-field in an autumn gale in England, and I dare say a +field mouse in a wheat-field in a gale would have heard much the +same uproar. The tornado shrieked like ten thousand vengeful +demons. The great trees creaked and groaned and strained against it +and their bush-rope cables groaned and smacked like whips, and ever +and anon a thundering crash with snaps like pistol shots told that +they and their mighty tree had strained and struggled in vain. The +fierce rain came in a roar, tearing to shreds the leaves and +blossoms and deluging everything. I was making bad weather of it, +and climbing up over a lot of rocks out of a gully bottom where I +had been half drowned in a stream, and on getting my head to the +level of a block of rock I observed right in front of my eyes, +broadside on, maybe a yard off, certainly not more, a big leopard. +He was crouching on the ground, with his magnificent head thrown +back and his eyes shut. His fore-paws were spread out in front of +him and he lashed the ground with his tail, and I grieve to say, in +face of that awful danger--I don't mean me, but the tornado--that +depraved creature swore, softly, but repeatedly and profoundly. I +did not get all these facts up in one glance, for no sooner did I +see him than I ducked under the rocks, and remembered thankfully +that leopards are said to have no power of smell. But I heard his +observation on the weather, and the flip-flap of his tail on the +ground. Every now and then I cautiously took a look at him with one +eye round a rock-edge, and he remained in the same position. My +feelings tell me he remained there twelve months, but my calmer +judgment puts the time down at twenty minutes; and at last, on +taking another cautious peep, I saw he was gone. At the time I +wished I knew exactly where, but I do not care about that detail +now, for I saw no more of him. He had moved off in one of those +weird lulls which you get in a tornado, when for a few seconds the +wild herd of hurrying winds seem to have lost themselves, and wander +round crying and wailing like lost souls, until their common rage +seizes them again and they rush back to their work of destruction. +It was an immense pleasure to have seen the great creature like +that. He was so evidently enraged and baffled by the uproar and +dazzled by the floods of lightning that swept down into the deepest +recesses of the forest, showing at one second every detail of twig, +leaf, branch, and stone round you, and then leaving you in a sort of +swirling dark until the next flash came; this, and the great +conglomerate roar of the wind, rain and thunder, was enough to +bewilder any living thing. + +I have never hurt a leopard intentionally; I am habitually kind to +animals, and besides I do not think it is ladylike to go shooting +things with a gun. Twice, however, I have been in collision with +them. On one occasion a big leopard had attacked a dog, who, with +her family, was occupying a broken-down hut next to mine. The dog +was a half-bred boarhound, and a savage brute on her own account. +I, being roused by the uproar, rushed out into the feeble moonlight, +thinking she was having one of her habitual turns-up with other +dogs, and I saw a whirling mass of animal matter within a yard of +me. I fired two mushroom-shaped native stools in rapid succession +into the brown of it, and the meeting broke up into a leopard and a +dog. The leopard crouched, I think to spring on me. I can see its +great, beautiful, lambent eyes still, and I seized an earthen water- +cooler and flung it straight at them. It was a noble shot; it burst +on the leopard's head like a shell and the leopard went for bush one +time. Twenty minutes after people began to drop in cautiously and +inquire if anything was the matter, and I civilly asked them to go +and ask the leopard in the bush, but they firmly refused. We found +the dog had got her shoulder slit open as if by a blow from a +cutlass, and the leopard had evidently seized the dog by the scruff +of her neck, but owing to the loose folds of skin no bones were +broken and she got round all right after much ointment from me, +which she paid me for with several bites. Do not mistake this for a +sporting adventure. I no more thought it was a leopard than that it +was a lotus when I joined the fight. My other leopard was also +after a dog. Leopards always come after dogs, because once upon a +time the leopard and the dog were great friends, and the leopard +went out one day and left her whelps in charge of the dog, and the +dog went out flirting, and a snake came and killed the whelps, so +there is ill-feeling to this day between the two. For the benefit +of sporting readers whose interest may have been excited by the +mention of big game, I may remark that the largest leopard skin I +ever measured myself was, tail included, 9 feet 7 inches. It was a +dried skin, and every man who saw it said, "It was the largest skin +he had ever seen, except one that he had seen somewhere else." + +The largest crocodile I ever measured was 22 feet 3 inches, the +largest gorilla 5 feet 7 inches. I am assured by the missionaries +in Calabar, that there was a python brought into Creek Town in the +Rev. Mr. Goldie's time, that extended the whole length of the Creek +Town mission-house verandah and to spare. This python must have +been over 40 feet. I have not a shadow of doubt it was. Stay-at- +home people will always discredit great measurements, but +experienced bushmen do not, and after all, if it amuses the stay-at- +homes to do so, by all means let them; they have dull lives of it +and it don't hurt you, for you know how exceedingly difficult it is +to preserve really big things to bring home, and how, half the time, +they fall into the hands of people who would not bother their heads +to preserve them in a rotting climate like West Africa. + +The largest python skin I ever measured was a damaged one, which was +26 feet. There is an immense one hung in front of a house in San +Paul de Loanda which you can go and measure yourself with +comparative safety any day, and which is, I think, over 20 feet. I +never measured this one. The common run of pythons is 10-15 feet, +or rather I should say this is about the sized one you find with +painful frequency in your chicken-house. + +Of the Lubuku secret society I can speak with no personal knowledge. +I had a great deal of curious information regarding it from a Bakele +woman, who had her information second-hand, but it bears out what +Captain Latrobe Bateman says about it in his most excellent book The +First Ascent of the Kasai (George Phillip, 1889), and to his account +in Note J of the Appendix, I beg to refer the ethnologist. My +information also went to show what he calls "a dark inference as to +its true nature," a nature not universally common by any means to +the African tribal secret society. + +In addition to the secret society and the leopard society, there are +in the Delta some ju-jus held only by a few great chiefs. The one +in Bonny has a complete language to itself, and there is one in Duke +Town so powerful that should you desire the death of any person you +have only to go and name him before it. "These jujus are very swift +and sure." I would rather drink than fight with any of them--yes, +far. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS. + + + +Setting forth how the Voyager is minded to ascend the mountain +called Mungo Mah Lobeh, or the Throne of Thunder, and in due course +reaches Buea, situate thereon. + +After returning from Corisco I remained a few weeks in Gaboon, and +then left on the Niger, commanded by Captain Davies. My regrets, I +should say, arose from leaving the charms and interests of Congo +Francais, and had nothing whatever to do with taking passage on one +of the most comfortable ships of all those which call on the Coast. + +The Niger was homeward-bound when I joined her, and in due course +arrived in Cameroon River, and I was once again under the dominion +of Germany. It would be a very interesting thing to compare the +various forms of European government in Africa--English, French, +German, Portuguese, and Spanish; but to do so with any justice would +occupy more space than I have at my disposal, for the subject is +extremely intricate. Each of these forms of government have their +good points and their bad. Each of them are dealing with bits of +Africa differing from each other--in the nature of their inhabitants +and their formation, and so on--so I will not enter into any +comparison of them here. + +From the deck of the Niger I found myself again confronted with my +great temptation--the magnificent Mungo Mah Lobeh--the Throne of +Thunder. Now it is none of my business to go up mountains. There's +next to no fish on them in West Africa, and precious little good +rank fetish, as the population on them is sparse--the African, like +myself, abhorring cool air. Nevertheless, I feel quite sure that no +white man has ever looked on the great Peak of Cameroon without a +desire arising in his mind to ascend it and know in detail the +highest point on the western side of the continent, and indeed one +of the highest points in all Africa. + +So great is the majesty and charm of this mountain that the +temptation of it is as great to me to-day as it was on the first day +I saw it, when I was feeling my way down the West Coast of Africa on +the S.S. Lagos in 1893, and it revealed itself by good chance from +its surf-washed plinth to its skyscraping summit. Certainly it is +most striking when you see it first, as I first saw it, after +coasting for weeks along the low shores and mangrove-fringed rivers +of the Niger Delta. Suddenly, right up out of the sea, rises the +great mountain to its 13,760 feet, while close at hand, to westward, +towers the lovely island mass of Fernando Po to 10,190 feet. But +every time you pass it by its beauty grows on you with greater and +greater force, though it is never twice the same. Sometimes it is +wreathed with indigo-black tornado clouds, sometimes crested with +snow, sometimes softly gorgeous with gold, green, and rose-coloured +vapours tinted by the setting sun, sometimes completely swathed in +dense cloud so that you cannot see it at all; but when you once know +it is there it is all the same, and you bow down and worship. + +There are only two distinct peaks to this glorious thing that +geologists brutally call the volcanic intrusive mass of the Cameroon +Mountains, viz., Big Cameroon and Little Cameroon. The latter, +Mungo Mah Etindeh, has not yet been scaled, although it is only +5,820 feet. One reason for this is doubtless that the few people in +fever-stricken, over-worked West Africa who are able to go up +mountains, naturally try for the adjacent Big Cameroon; the other +reason is that Mungo Mah Etindeh, to which Burton refers as "the +awful form of Little Cameroon," is mostly sheer cliff, and is from +foot to summit clothed in an almost impenetrable forest. Behind +these two mountains of volcanic origin, which cover an area on an +isolated base of between 700 and 800 square miles in extent, there +are distinctly visible from the coast two chains of mountains, or I +should think one chain deflected, the so-called Rumby and Omon +ranges. These are no relations of Mungo, being of very different +structure and conformation; the geological specimens I have brought +from them and from the Cameroons being identified by geologists as +respectively schistose grit and vesicular lava. + +After spending a few pleasant days in Cameroon River in the society +of Frau Plehn, my poor friend Mrs. Duggan having, I regret to say, +departed for England on the death of her husband, I went round to +Victoria, Ambas Bay, on the Niger, and in spite of being advised +solemnly by Captain Davies to "chuck it as it was not a picnic," I +started to attempt the Peak of Cameroons as follows. + +September 20th, 1895.--Left Victoria at 7.30, weather fine. Herr +von Lucke, though sadly convinced, by a series of experiments he has +been carrying on ever since I landed, and I expect before, that you +cannot be in three places at one time, is still trying to do so; or +more properly speaking he starts an experiment series for four +places, man-like, instead of getting ill as I should under the +circumstances, and he kindly comes with me as far as the bridge +across the lovely cascading Lukole River, and then goes back at +about seven miles an hour to look after Victoria and his sick +subordinates in detail. + +I, with my crew, keep on up the grand new road the Government is +making, which when finished is to go from Ambas Bay to Buea, 3,000 +feet up on the mountain's side. This road is quite the most +magnificent of roads, as regards breadth and general intention, that +I have seen anywhere in West Africa, and it runs through a superbly +beautiful country. It is, I should say, as broad as Oxford Street; +on either side of it are deep drains to carry off the surface +waters, with banks of varied beautiful tropical shrubs and ferns, +behind which rise, 100 to 200 feet high, walls of grand forest, the +column-like tree-stems either hung with flowering, climbing plants +and ferns, or showing soft red and soft grey shafts sixty to seventy +feet high without an interrupting branch. Behind this again rise +the lovely foot hills of Mungo, high up against the sky, coloured +the most perfect soft dark blue. + +The whole scheme of colour is indescribably rich and full in tone. +The very earth is a velvety red brown, and the butterflies--which +abound--show themselves off in the sunlight, in their canary- +coloured, crimson, and peacock-blue liveries, to perfection. After +five minutes' experience of the road I envy those butterflies. I do +not believe there is a more lovely road in this world, and besides, +it's a noble and enterprising thing of a Government to go and make +it, considering the climate and the country; but to get any genuine +pleasure out of it, it is requisite to hover in a bird- or +butterfly-like way, for of all the truly awful things to walk on, +that road, when I was on it, was the worst. + +Of course this arose from its not being finished, not having its top +on in fact: the bit that was finished, and had got its top on, for +half a mile beyond the bridge, you could go over in a Bath chair. +The rest of it made you fit for one for the rest of your natural +life, for it was one mass of broken lava rock, and here and there +leviathan tree-stumps that had been partially blown up with +gunpowder. + +When we near the forest end of the road, it comes on to rain +heavily, and I see a little house on the left-hand side, and a +European engineer superintending a group of very cheerful natives +felling timber. He most kindly invites me to take shelter, saying +it cannot rain as heavily as this for long. My men also announce a +desire for water, and so I sit down and chat with the engineer under +the shelter of his verandah, while the men go to the water-hole, +some twenty minutes off. + +After learning much about the Congo Free State and other matters, I +presently see one of my men sitting right in the middle of the road +on a rock, totally unsheltered, and a feeling of shame comes over me +in the face of this black man's aquatic courage. Into the rain I +go, and off we start. I conscientiously attempt to keep dry, by +holding up an umbrella, knowing that though hopeless it is the +proper thing to do. + +We leave the road about fifty yards above the hut, turning into the +unbroken forest on the right-hand side, and following a narrow, +slippery, muddy, root-beset bush-path that was a comfort after the +road. Presently we come to a lovely mountain torrent flying down +over red-brown rocks in white foam; exquisitely lovely, and only a +shade damper than the rest of things. Seeing this I solemnly fold +up my umbrella and give it to Kefalla. I then take charge of Fate +and wade. + +This particular stream, too, requires careful wading, the rocks over +which it flows being arranged in picturesque, but perilous +confusion; however all goes well, and getting to the other side I +decide to "chuck it," as Captain Davies would say, as to keeping +dry, for the rain comes down heavier than ever. + +Now we are evidently dealing with a foot-hillside, but the rain is +too thick for one to see two yards in any direction, and we seem to +be in a ghost-land forest, for the great palms and red-woods rise up +in the mist before us, and fade out in the mist behind, as we pass +on. The rocks which edge and strew the path at our feet are covered +with exquisite ferns and mosses--all the most delicate shades of +green imaginable, and here and there of absolute gold colour, +looking as if some ray of sunshine had lingered too long playing on +the earth, and had got shut off from heaven by the mist, and so lay +nestling among the rocks until it might rejoin the sun. + +The path now becomes an absolute torrent, with mud-thickened water, +which cascades round one's ankles in a sportive way, and round one's +knees in the hollows in the path. On we go, the path underneath the +water seems a pretty equal mixture of rock and mud, but they are not +evenly distributed. Plantations full of weeds show up on either +side of us, and we are evidently now on the top of a foot-hill. I +suspect a fine view of the sea could be obtained from here, if you +have an atmosphere that is less than 99.75 per cent. of water. As +it is, a white sheet--or more properly speaking, considering its +soft, stuffy woolliness, a white blanket--is stretched across the +landscape to the south-west, where the sea would show. + +We go down-hill now, the water rushing into the back of my shoes for +a change. The path is fringed by high, sugar-cane-like grass which +hangs across it in a lackadaisical way, swishing you in the face and +cutting like a knife whenever you catch its edge, and pouring +continually insidious rills of water down one's neck. It does not +matter. The whole Atlantic could not get more water on to me than I +have already got. Ever and again I stop and wring out some of it +from my skirts, for it is weighty. One would not imagine that +anything could come down in the way of water thicker than the rain, +but it can. When one is on the top of the hills, a cold breeze +comes through the mist chilling one to the bone, and bending the +heads of the palm trees, sends down from them water by the bucketful +with a slap; hitting or missing you as the case may be. + +Both myself and my men are by now getting anxious for our "chop," +and they tell me, "We look them big hut soon." Soon we do look them +big hut, but with faces of undisguised horror, for the big hut +consists of a few charred roof-mats, etc., lying on the ground. +There has been a fire in that simple savage home. Our path here is +cut by one that goes east and west, and after a consultation between +my men and the Bakwiri, we take the path going east, down a steep +slope between weedy plantations, and shortly on the left shows a +steep little hill-side with a long low hut on the top. We go up to +it and I find it is the habitation of a Basel Mission black Bible- +reader. He comes out and speaks English well, and I tell him I want +a house for myself and my men, and he says we had better come and +stay in this one. It is divided into two chambers, one in which the +children who attend the mission-school stay, and wherein there is a +fire, and one evidently the abode of the teacher. I thank the +Bible-reader and say that I will pay him for the house, and I and +the men go in streaming, and my teeth chatter with cold as the +breeze chills my saturated garment while I give out the rations of +beef, rum, blankets, and tobacco to the men. Then I clear my +apartment out and attempt to get dry, operations which are +interrupted by Kefalla coming for tobacco to buy firewood off the +mission teacher to cook our food by. + +Presently my excellent little cook brings in my food, and in with it +come two mission teachers--our first acquaintance, the one with a +white jacket, and another with a blue. They lounge about and spit +in all directions, and then chiefs commence to arrive with their +families complete, and they sidle into the apartment and +ostentatiously ogle the demijohn of rum. + +They are, as usual, a nuisance, sitting about on everything. No +sooner have I taken an unclean-looking chief off the wood sofa, than +I observe another one has silently seated himself in the middle of +my open portmanteau. Removing him and shutting it up, I see another +one has settled on the men's beef and rice sack. + +It is now about three o'clock and I am still chilled to the bone in +spite of tea. The weather is as bad as ever. The men say that the +rest of the road to Buea is far worse than that which we have so far +come along, and that we should never get there before dark, and "for +sure" should not get there afterwards, because by the time the dark +came down we should be in "bad place too much." Therefore, to their +great relief, I say I will stay at this place--Buana--for the night, +and go on in the morning time up to Buea; and just for the present I +think I will wrap myself up in a blanket and try and get the chill +out of me, so I give the chiefs a glass of rum each, plenty of head +tobacco, and my best thanks for their kind call, and then turn them +all out. I have not been lying down five minutes on the plank that +serves for a sofa by day and a bed by night, when Charles comes +knocking at the door. He wants tobacco. "Missionary man no fit to +let we have firewood unless we buy em." Give Charles a head and +shut him out again, and drop off to sleep again for a quarter of an +hour, then am aroused by some enterprising sightseers pushing open +the window-shutters; when I look round there are a mass of black +heads sticking through the window-hole. I tell them respectfully +that the circus is closed for repairs, and fasten up the shutters, +but sleep is impossible, so I turn out and go and see what those men +of mine are after. They are comfortable enough round their fire, +with their clothes suspended on strings in the smoke above them, and +I envy them that fire. I then stroll round to see if there is +anything to be seen, but the scenery is much like that you would +enjoy if you were inside a blanc-mange. So as it is now growing +dark I return to my room and light candles, and read Dr. Gunther on +Fishes. Room becomes full of blacks. Unless you watch the door, +you do not see how it is done. You look at a corner one minute and +it is empty, and the next time you look that way it is full of rows +of white teeth and watching eyes. The two mission teachers come in +and make a show of teaching a child to read the Bible. After again +clearing out the rank and fashion of Buana, I prepare to try and get +a sleep; not an elaborate affair, I assure you, for I only want to +wrap myself round in a blanket and lie on that plank, but the rain +has got into the blankets and horror! there is no pillow. The +mission men have cleared their bed paraphernalia right out. Now you +can do without a good many things, but not without a pillow, so hunt +round to find something to make one with; find the Bible in English, +the Bible in German, and two hymn-books, and a candle-stick. These +seem all the small articles in the room--no, there is a parcel +behind the books--mission teachers' Sunday trousers--make delightful +arrangement of books bound round with trousers and the whole affair +wrapped in one of my towels. Never saw till now advantage of +Africans having trousers. Civilisation has its points after all. +But it is no use trying to get any sleep until those men are +quieter. The partition which separates my apartment from theirs is +a bamboo and mat affair, straight at the top so leaving under the +roof a triangular space above common to both rooms. Also common to +both rooms are the smoke of the fire and the conversation. Kefalla +is holding forth in a dogmatic way, and some of the others are +snoring. There is a new idea in decoration along the separating +wall. Mr. Morris might have made something out of it for a dado. +It is composed of an arrangement in line of stretched out singlets. +Vaseline the revolver. Wish those men would leave off chattering. +Kefalla seems to know the worst about most of the people, black and +white, down in Ambas Bay, but I do not believe those last two +stories. Evidently great jokes in next room now; Kefalla has thrown +himself, still talking, in the dark, on to the top of one of the +mission teachers. The women of the village outside have been +keeping up, this hour and more, a most melancholy coo-ooing. Those +foolish creatures are evidently worrying about their husbands who +have gone down to market in Ambas Bay, and who, they think, are lost +in the bush. I have not a shadow of a doubt that those husbands who +are not home by now are safely drunk in town, or reposing on the +grand new road the kindly Government have provided for them, either +in one of the side drains, or tucked in among the lava rock. + +September 21st.--Coo-ooing went on all night. I was aroused about +9.30 P.M., by uproar in adjacent hut: one husband had returned in a +bellicose condition and whacked his wives, and their squarks and +squalls, instead of acting as a warning to the other ladies, +stimulate the silly things to go on coo-ooing louder and more +entreatingly than ever, so that their husbands might come home and +whack them too, I suppose, and whenever the unmitigated hardness of +my plank rouses me I hear them still coo-ooing. + +No watchman is required to wake you in the morning on the top of a +Cameroon foot-hill by 5.30, because about 4 A.M. the dank chill that +comes before the dawn does so most effectively. One old chief +turned up early out of the mist and dashed me a bottle of palm wine; +he says he wants to dash me a fowl, but I decline, and accept two +eggs, and give him four heads of tobacco. + +The whole place is swathed in thick white mist through which my +audience arrive. But I am firm with them, and shut up the doors and +windows and disregard their bangings on them while I am dressing, or +rather re-dressing. The mission teachers get in with my tea, and +sit and smoke and spit while I have my breakfast. Give me cannibal +Fans! + +It is pouring with rain again now, and we go down the steep hillock +to the path we came along yesterday, keep it until we come to where +the old path cuts it, and then turn up to the right following the +old path's course and leave Buana without a pang of regret. Our +road goes N.E. Oh, the mud of it! Not the clearish cascades of +yesterday but sticky, slippery mud, intensely sticky, and intensely +slippery. The narrow path which is filled by this, is V-shaped +underneath from wear, and I soon find the safest way is right +through the deepest mud in the middle. + +The white mist shuts off all details beyond ten yards in any +direction. All we can see, as we first turn up the path, is a patch +of kokos of tremendous size on our right. After this comes weedy +plantation, and stretches of sword grass hanging across the road. +The country is even more unlevel than that we came over yesterday. +On we go, patiently doing our mud pulling through the valleys; +toiling up a hillside among lumps of rock and stretches of forest, +for we are now beyond Buana's plantations; and skirting the summit +of the hill only to descend into another valley. Evidently this is +a succession of foot-hills of the great mountain and we are not on +its true face yet. As we go on they become more and more abrupt in +form, the valleys mere narrow ravines. In the wet season (this is +only the tornado season) each of these valleys is occupied by a +raging torrent from the look of the confused water-worn boulders. +Now among the rocks there are only isolated pools, for the weather +for a fortnight before I left Victoria had been fairly dry, and this +rich porous soil soaks up an immense amount of water. It strikes me +as strange that when we are either going up or down the hills, the +ground is less muddy than when we are skirting their summits, but it +must be because on the inclines the rush of water clears the soil +away down to the bed rock. There is an outcrop of clay down by +Buana, but though that was slippery, it is nothing to the +slipperiness of this fine, soft, red-brown earth that is the soil +higher up, and also round Ambas Bay. This gets churned up into a +sort of batter where there is enough water lying on it, and, when +there is not, an ice slide is an infant to it. + +My men and I flounder about; thrice one of them, load and all, goes +down with a squidge and a crash into the side grass, and says +"damn!" with quite the European accent; as a rule, however, we go on +in single file, my shoes giving out a mellifluous squidge, and their +naked feet a squish, squash. The men take it very good temperedly, +and sing in between accidents; I do not feel much like singing +myself, particularly at one awful spot, which was the exception to +the rule that ground at acute angles forms the best going. This +exception was a long slippery slide down into a ravine with a long, +perfectly glassy slope up out of it. + +After this we have a stretch of rocky forest, and pass by a widening +in the path which I am told is a place where men blow, i.e. rest, +and then pass through another a little further on, which is Buea's +bush market. Then through an opening in the great war-hedge of +Buea, a growing stockade some fifteen feet high, the lower part of +it wattled. + +At the sides of the path here grow banks of bergamot and balsam, +returning good for evil and smiling sweetly as we crush them. Thank +goodness we are in forest now, and we seem to have done with the +sword-grass. The rocks are covered with moss and ferns, and the +mist curling and wandering about among the stems is very lovely. + +In our next ravine there is a succession of pools, part of a +mountain torrent of greater magnitude evidently than those we have +passed, and in these pools there are things swimming. Spend more +time catching them, with the assistance of Bum. I do not value +Kefalla's advice, ample though it is, as being of any real value in +the affair. Bag some water-spiders and two small fish. The heat is +less oppressive than yesterday. All yesterday one was being +alternately smothered in the valley and chilled on the hill-tops. +To-day it is a more level temperature, about 70 degrees, I fancy. + +The soil up here, about 2,500 feet above sea-level, though rock- +laden is exceedingly rich, and the higher we go there is more +bergamot, native indigo, with its underleaf dark blue, and lovely +coleuses with red markings on their upper leaves, and crimson +linings. I, as an ichthyologist, am in the wrong paradise. What a +region this would be for a botanist! + +The country is gloriously lovely if one could only see it for the +rain and mist; but one only gets dim hints of its beauty when some +cold draughts of wind come down from the great mountains and seem to +push open the mist-veil as with spirit hands, and then in a minute +let it fall together again. I do not expect to reach Buea within +regulation time, but at 11.30 my men say "we close in," and then, +coming along a forested hill and down a ravine, we find ourselves +facing a rushing river, wherein a squad of black soldiers are +washing clothes, with the assistance of a squad of black ladies, +with much uproar and sky-larking. I too think it best to wash here, +standing in the river and swishing the mud out of my skirts; and +then wading across to the other bank, I wring out my skirts. The +ground on the further side of the river is cleared of bush, and only +bears a heavy crop of balsam; a few steps onwards bring me in view +of a corrugated iron-roofed, plank-sided house, in front of which, +towards the great mountain which now towers up into the mist, is a +low clearing with a quadrangle of native huts--the barracks. + +I receive a most kindly welcome from a fair, grey-eyed German +gentleman, only unfortunately I see my efforts to appear before him +clean and tidy have been quite unavailing, for he views my +appearance with unmixed horror, and suggests an instant hot bath. I +decline. Men can be trying! How in the world is any one going to +take a bath in a house with no doors, and only very sketchy wooden +window-shutters? + +The German officer is building the house quickly, as Ollendorff +would say, but he has not yet got to such luxuries as doors, and so +uses army blankets strung across the doorway; and he has got up +temporary wooden shutters to keep the worst of the rain out, and +across his own room's window he has a frame covered with greased +paper. Thank goodness he has made a table, and a bench, and a +washhand-stand out of planks for his spare room, which he kindly +places at my disposal; and the Fatherland has evidently stood him an +iron bedstead and a mattress for it. But the Fatherland is not +spoiling or cosseting this man to an extent that will enervate him +in the least. + +The mist clears off in the evening about five, and the surrounding +scenery is at last visible. Fronting the house there is the cleared +quadrangle, facing which on the other three sides are the lines of +very dilapidated huts, and behind these the ground rises steeply, +the great S.E. face of Mungo Mah Lobeh. It looks awfully steep when +you know you have got to go up it. This station at Buea is 3,000 +feet above sea-level, which explains the hills we have had to come +up. The mountain wall when viewed from Buea is very grand, although +it lacks snowcap or glacier, and the highest summits of Mungo are +not visible because we are too close under them, but its enormous +bulk and its isolation make it highly impressive. The forest runs +up it in a great band above Buea, then sends up great tongues into +the grass belt above. But what may be above this grass belt I know +not yet, for our view ends at the top of the wall of the great S.E. +crater. My men say there are devils and gold up beyond, but the +German authorities do not support this view. Those Germans are so +sceptical. This station is evidently on a ledge, for behind it the +ground falls steeply, and you get an uninterrupted panoramic view of +the Cameroon estuary and the great stretches of low swamp lands with +the Mungo and the Bimbia rivers, and their many creeks and channels, +and far away east the strange abrupt forms of the Rumby Mountains. +Herr Liebert says you can see Cameroon Government buildings from +here, if only the day is clear, though they are some forty miles +away. This view of them is, save a missionary of the Basel mission, +the only white society available at Buea. + +I hear more details about the death of poor Freiherr von +Gravenreuth, whose fine monument of a seated lion I saw in the +Government House grounds in Cameroons the other day. Bush fighting +in these West African forests is dreadfully dangerous work. Hemmed +in by bush, in a narrow path along which you must pass slowly in +single file, you are a target for all and any natives invisibly +hidden in the undergrowth; and the war-hedge of Buea must have made +an additional danger and difficulty here for the attacking party. +The lieutenant and his small band of black soldiers had, after a +stiff fight, succeeded in forcing the entrance to this, when their +ammunition gave out, and they had to fall back. The Bueans, +regarding this as their victory, rallied, and a chance shot killed +the lieutenant instantly. A further expedition was promptly sent up +from Victoria and it wiped the error out of the Buean mind and +several Bueans with it. But it was a very necessary expedition. +These natives were a constant source of danger to the more peaceful +trading tribes, whom they would not permit to traverse their +territory. The Bueans have been dealt with mercifully by the +Germans, for their big villages, like Sapa, are still standing, and +a continual stream of natives come into the barrack-yard, selling +produce, or carrying it on down to Victoria markets, in a perfectly +content and cheerful way. I met this morning a big burly chief with +his insignia of office--a great stick. He, I am told, is the chief +or Sapa whom Herr von Lucke has called to talk some palaver with +down in Victoria. + +At last I leave Herr Liebert, because everything I say to him causes +him to hop, flying somewhere to show me something, and I am sure it +is bad for his foot. I go and see that my men are safely quartered. +Kefalla is laying down the law in a most didactic way to the +soldiers. Herr Liebert has christened him "the Professor," and I +adopt the name for him, but I fear "Windbag" would fit him better. + +At 7.30 a heavy tornado comes rolling down upon us. Masses of +indigo cloud with livid lightning flashing in the van, roll out from +over the wall of the great crater above; then with that malevolence +peculiar to the tornado it sees all the soldiers and their wives and +children sitting happily in the barrack yard, howling in a minor key +and beating their beloved tom-toms, so it comes and sits flump down +on them with deluges of water, and sends its lightning running over +the ground in livid streams of living death. Oh, they are nice +things are tornadoes! I wonder what they will be like when we are +up in their home; up atop of that precious wall? I had no idea +Mungo was so steep. If I had--well, I am in for it now! + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(continued). + + + +Wherein is recounted how the Voyager sets out from Buea, and goes up +through the forest belt to the top of the S.E. crater of Mungo Mah +Lobeh, with many dilemmas and disasters that befell on the way. + +September 22nd.--Wake at 5. Fine morning. Fine view towards +Cameroon River. The broad stretch of forest below, and the water- +eaten mangrove swamps below that, are all a glorious indigo flushed +with rose colour from "the death of the night," as Kiva used to call +the dawn. No one stirring till six, when people come out of the +huts, and stretch themselves and proceed to begin the day, in the +African's usual perfunctory, listless way. + +My crew are worse than the rest. I go and hunt cook out. He props +open one eye, with difficulty, and yawns a yawn that nearly cuts his +head in two. I wake him up with a shock, by saying I mean to go on +up to-day, and want my chop, and to start one time. He goes off and +announces my horrible intention to the others. Kefalla soon arrives +upon the scene full of argument, "You no sabe this be Sunday, Ma?" +says he in a tone that tells he considers this settles the matter. +I "sabe" unconcernedly; Kefalla scratches his head for other +argument, but he has opened with his heavy artillery; which being +repulsed throws his rear lines into confusion. Bum, the head man, +then turns up, sound asleep inside, but quite ready to come. Bum, I +find, is always ready to do what he is told, but has no more +original ideas in his head than there are in a chair leg. Kefalla, +however, by scratching other parts of his anatomy diligently, has +now another argument ready, the two Bakwiris are sick with abdominal +trouble, that requires rum and rest, and one of the other boys has +hot foot. + +Herr Liebert now appears upon the scene, and says I can have some of +his labourers, who are now more or less idle, because he cannot get +about much with his bad foot to direct them, so I give the Bakwiris +and the two hot foot cases "books" to take down to Herr von Lucke +who will pay them off for me, and seeing that they have each a good +day's rations of rice, beef, etc., eliminate them from the party. + +In addition to the labourers, I am to have as a guide Sasu, a black +sergeant, who went up the Peak with the officers of the Hyaena, and +I get my breakfast, and then hang about watching my men getting +ready very slowly to start. Off we get about 8, and start with all +good wishes, and grim prophecies, from Herr Liebert. + +Led by Sasu, and accompanied by "To-morrow," a man who has come to +Buea from some interior unknown district, and who speaks no known +language, and whose business it is to help to cut a way through the +bush, we go down the path we came and cross the river again. This +river seems to separate the final mass of the mountain from the +foot-hills on this side. Immediately after crossing it we turn up +into the forest on the right hand side, and "To-morrow" cuts through +an over-grown track for about half-an-hour, and then leaves us. + +Everything is reeking wet, and we swish through thick undergrowth +and then enter a darker forest where the earth is rocky and richly +decorated with ferns and moss. For the first time in my life I see +tree-ferns growing wild in luxuriant profusion. What glorious +creations they are! Then we get out into the middle of a koko +plantation. Next to sweet-potatoes, the premier abomination to walk +through, give me kokos for good all-round tryingness, particularly +when they are wet, as is very much the case now. Getting through +these we meet the war hedge again, and after a conscientious +struggle with various forms of vegetation in a muddled, tangled +state, Sasu says, "No good, path done got stopped up," so we turn +and retrace our steps all the way, cross the river, and horrify Herr +Liebert by invading his house again. We explain the situation. +Grave headshaking between him and Sasu about the practicability of +any other route, because there is no other path. I do not like to +say "so much the better," because it would have sounded ungrateful, +but I knew from my Ogowe experiences that a forest that looks from +afar a dense black mat is all right underneath, and there is a short +path recently cut by Herr Liebert that goes straight up towards the +forest above us. It had been made to go to a clearing, where +ambitious agricultural operations were being inaugurated, when Herr +Liebert hurt his foot. Up this we go, it is semi-vertical while it +lasts, and it ends in a scrubby patch that is to be a plantation; +this crossed we are in the Urwald, and it is more exquisite than +words can describe, but not good going, particularly at one spot +where a gigantic tree has fallen down across a little rocky ravine, +and has to be crawled under. It occurs to me that this is a highly +likely place for snakes and an absolutely sure find for scorpions, +and when we have passed it three of these latter interesting +creatures are observed on the load of blankets which is fastened on +to the back of Kefalla. We inform Kefalla of the fact on the spot. +A volcanic eruption of entreaty, advice, and admonition results, but +we still hesitate. However, the gallant cook tackles them in a sort +of tip-cat way with a stick, and we proceed into a patch of long +grass, beyond which there is a reach of amomums. The winged amomum +I see here in Africa for the first time. Horrid slippery things +amomum sticks to walk on, when they are lying on the ground; and +there is a lot of my old enemy the calamus about. + +On each side are deep forested dells and ravines, and rocks show up +through the ground in every direction, and things in general are +slippery, and I wonder now and again, as I assume with unnecessary +violence a recumbent position, why I came to Africa; but patches of +satin-leaved begonias and clumps of lovely tree-ferns reconcile me +to my lot. Cook does not feel these forest charms, and gives me +notice after an hour's experience of mountain forest-belt work; what +cook would not? + +As we get higher we have to edge and squeeze every few minutes +through the aerial roots of some tremendous kind of tree, plentiful +hereabouts. One of them we passed through I am sure would have run +any Indian banyan hard for extent of ground covered, if it were +measured. In the region where these trees are frequent, the +undergrowth is less dense than it is lower down. + +Imagine a vast, seemingly limitless cathedral with its countless +columns covered, nay, composed of the most exquisite dark-green, +large-fronded moss, with here and there a delicate fern embedded in +it as an extra decoration. The white, gauze-like mist comes down +from the upper mountain towards us: creeping, twining round, and +streaming through the moss-covered tree columns--long bands of it +reaching along sinuous, but evenly, for fifty and sixty feet or +more, and then ending in a puff like the smoke of a gun. Soon, +however, all the mist-streams coalesce and make the atmosphere all +their own, wrapping us round in a clammy, chill embrace; it is not +that wool-blanket, smothering affair that we were wrapped in down by +Buana, but exquisitely delicate. The difference it makes to the +beauty of the forest is just the same difference you would get if +you put a delicate veil over a pretty woman's face or a sack over +her head. In fact, the mist here was exceedingly becoming to the +forest's beauty. Now and again growls of thunder roll out from, and +quiver in the earth beneath our feet. Mungo is making a big +tornado, and is stirring and simmering it softly so as to make it +strong. I only hope he will not overdo it, as he does six times in +seven, and make it too heavy to get out on to the Atlantic, where +all tornadoes ought to go. If he does the thing will go and burst +on us in this forest to-night. + +The forest now grows less luxuriant though still close--we have left +the begonias and the tree-ferns, and are in another zone. The trees +now, instead of being clothed in rich, dark-green moss, are heavily +festooned with long, greenish-white lichen. It pours with rain. + +At last we reach the place where the sergeant says we ought to camp +for the night. I have been feeling the time for camping was very +ripe for the past hour, and Kefalla openly said as much an hour and +a half ago, but he got such scathing things said to him about +civilians' legs by the sergeant that I did not air my own opinion. + +We are now right at the very edge of the timber belt. My head man +and three boys are done to a turn. If I had had a bull behind me or +Mr. Fildes in front, I might have done another five or seven miles, +but not more. + +The rain comes down with extra virulence as soon as we set to work +to start the fire and open the loads. I and Peter have great times +getting out the military camp-bed from its tight, bolster-like case, +while Kefalla gives advice, until, being irritated by the bed's +behaviour, I blow up Kefalla and send him to chop firewood. +However, we get the thing out and put up after cutting a place clear +to set it on; owing to the world being on a stiff slant hereabouts, +it takes time to make it stand straight. I get four stakes cut, and +drive them in at the four corners of the bed, and then stretch over +it Herr von Lucke's waterproof ground-sheet, guy the ends out to +pegs with string, feel profoundly grateful to both Herr Liebert for +the bed and Herr von Lucke for the sheet, and place the baggage +under the protection of the German Government's two belongings. +Then I find the boys have not got a fire with all their fuss, and I +have to demonstrate to them the lessons I have learnt among the Fans +regarding fire-making. We build a fire-house and then all goes +well. I notice they do not make a fire Fan fashion, but build it in +a circle. + +Evidently one of the labourers from Buea, named Xenia, is a good +man. Equally evidently some of my other men are only fit to carry +sandwich-boards for Day and Martin's blacking. I dine luxuriously +off tinned fat pork and hot tea, and then feeling still hungry go on +to tinned herring. Excellent thing tinned herring, but I have to +hurry because I know I must go up through the edge of the forest on +to the grass land, and see how the country is made during the brief +period of clearness that almost always comes just before nightfall. +So leaving my boys comfortably seated round the fire having their +evening chop, I pass up through the heavily lichen-tasselled fringe +of the forest-belt into deep jungle grass, and up a steep and +slippery mound. + +In front the mountain-face rises like a wall from behind a set of +hillocks, similar to the one I am at present on. The face of the +wall to the right and left has two dark clefts in it. The peak +itself is not visible from where I am; it rises behind and beyond +the wall. I stay taking compass bearings and look for an easy way +up for to-morrow. My men, by now, have missed their "ma" and are +yelling for her dismally, and the night comes down with great +rapidity for we are in the shadow of the great mountain mass, so I +go back into camp. Alas! how vain are often our most energetic +efforts to remove our fellow creatures from temptation. I knew a +Sunday down among the soldiers would be bad for my men, and so came +up here, and now, if you please, these men have been at the rum, +because Bum, the head man, has been too done up to do anything but +lie in his blanket and feed. Kefalla is laying down the law with +great detail and unction. Cook who has been very low in his mind +all day, is now weirdly cheerful, and sings incoherently. The other +boys, who want to go to sleep, threaten to "burst him" if he "no +finish." It's no good--cook carols on, and soon succumbing to the +irresistible charm of music, the other men have to join in the +choruses. The performance goes on for an hour, growing woollier and +woollier in tone, and then dying out in sleep. + +I write by the light of an insect-haunted lantern, sitting on the +bed, which is tucked in among the trees some twenty yards away from +the boys' fire. There is a bird whistling in a deep rich note that +I have never heard before. + +September 23rd.--Morning gloriously fine. Rout the boys out, and +start at seven, with Sasu, Head man, Xenia, Black boy, Kefalla and +Cook. + +The great south-east wall of the mountain in front of us is quite +unflecked by cloud, and in the forest are thousands of bees. We +notice that the tongues of forest go up the mountain in some places +a hundred yards or more above the true line of the belt. These +tongues of forest get more and more heavily hung with lichen, and +the trees thinner and more stunted, towards their ends. I think +that these tongues are always in places where the wind does not get +full play. All those near our camping place on this south-east face +are so. It is evidently not a matter of soil, for there is ample +soil on this side above where the trees are, and then again on the +western side of the mountain--the side facing the sea--the timber +line is far higher up than on this. Nor, again, is it a matter of +angle that makes the timber line here so low, for those forests on +the Sierra del Cristal were growing luxuriantly over far steeper +grades. There is some peculiar local condition just here evidently, +or the forest would be up to the bottom of the wall of the crater. +I am not unreasonable enough to expect it to grow on that, but its +conduct in staying where it does requires explanation. + +We clamber up into the long jungle grass region and go on our way +across a series of steep-sided, rounded grass hillocks, each of +which is separated from the others by dry, rocky watercourses. The +effects produced by the seed-ears of the long grass round us are +very beautiful; they look a golden brown, and each ear and leaf is +gemmed with dewdrops, and those of the grass on the sides of the +hillocks at a little distance off show a soft brown-pink. + +After half an hour's climb, when we are close at the base of the +wall, I observe the men ahead halting, and coming up with them find +Monrovia Boy down a hole; a little deep blow-hole, in which, I am +informed, water is supposed to be. But Monrovia soon reports "No +live." + +I now find we have not a drop of water, either with us or in camp, +and now this hole has proved dry. There is, says the sergeant, no +chance of getting any more water on this side of the mountain, save +down at the river at Buea. + +This means failure unless tackled, and it is evidently a trick +played on me by the boys, who intentionally failed to let me know of +this want of water before leaving Buea, where it seems they have all +learnt it. I express my opinion of them in four words and send +Monrovia Boy, who I know is to be trusted, back to Buea with a +scribbled note to Herr Liebert asking him to send me up two +demijohns of water. I send cook with him as far as the camp in the +forest we have just left with orders to bring up three bottles of +soda water I have left there, and to instruct the men there that as +soon as the water arrives from Buea they are to bring it on up to +the camp I mean to make at the top of the wall. + +The men are sulky, and Sasu, Peter, Kefalla, and Head man say they +will wait and come on as soon as cook brings the soda water, and I +go on, and presently see Xenia and Black boy are following me. We +get on to the intervening hillocks and commence to ascend the face +of the wall. + +The angle of this wall is great, and its appearance from below is +impressive from its enormous breadth, and its abrupt rise without +bend or droop for a good 2,000 feet into the air. It is covered +with short, yellowish grass through which the burnt-up, scoriaceous +lava rock protrudes in rough masses. + +I got on up the wall, which when you are on it is not so +perpendicular as it looks from below, my desire being to see what +sort of country there was on the top of it, between it and the final +peak. Sasu had reported to Herr Liebert that it was a wilderness of +rock, in which it would be impossible to fix a tent, and spoke +vaguely of caves. Here and there on the way up I come to holes, +similar to the one my men had been down for water. I suppose these +holes have been caused by gases from an under hot layer of lava +bursting up through the upper cool layer. As I get higher, the +grass becomes shorter and more sparse, and the rocks more +ostentatiously displayed. Here and there among them are sadly tried +bushes, bearing a beautiful yellow flower, like a large yellow wild +rose, only scentless. It is not a rose at all, I may remark. The +ground, where there is any basin made by the rocks, grows a great +sedum, with a grand head of whity-pink flower, also a tall herb, +with soft downy leaves silver grey in colour, and having a very +pleasant aromatic scent, and here and there patches of good honest +parsley. Bright blue, flannelly-looking flowers stud the grass in +sheltered places and a very pretty large green orchid is plentiful. +Above us is a bright blue sky with white cloud rushing hurriedly +across it to the N.E. and a fierce sun. When I am about half-way +up, I think of those boys, and, wanting rest, sit down by an +inviting-looking rock grotto, with a patch of the yellow flowered +shrub growing on its top. Inside it grow little ferns and mosses, +all damp; but alas! no water pool, and very badly I want water by +this time. + +Below me a belt of white cloud had now formed, so that I could see +neither the foot-hillocks nor the forest, and presently out of this +mist came Xenia toiling up, carrying my black bag. "Where them +Black boy live?" said I. "Black boy say him foot be tire too much," +said Xenia, as he threw himself down in the little shade the rock +could give. I took a cupful of sour claret out of the bottle in the +bag, and told Xenia to come on up as soon as he was rested, and +meanwhile to yell to the others down below and tell them to come on. +Xenia did, but sadly observed, "softly softly still hurts the +snail," and I left him and went on up the mountain. + +When I had got to the top of the rock under which I had sheltered +from the blazing sun, the mist opened a little, and I saw my men +looking like so many little dolls. They were still sitting on the +hillock where I had left them. Buea showed from this elevation +well. The guard house and the mission house, like little houses in +a picture, and the make of the ground on which Buea station stands, +came out distinctly as a ledge or terrace, extending for miles +N.N.E. and S.S.W. This ledge is a strange-looking piece of country, +covered with low bush, out of which rise great, isolated, white- +stemmed cotton trees. Below, and beyond this is a denser band of +high forest, and again below this stretches the vast mangrove-swamp +fringing the estuary of the Cameroons, Mungo, and Bimbia rivers. It +is a very noble view, giving one an example of the peculiar beauty +one oft-times gets in this West African scenery, namely colossal +sweeps of colour. The mangrove-swamps looked to-day like a vast +damson-coloured carpet threaded with silver where the waterways ran. +It reminded me of a scene I saw once near Cabinda, when on climbing +to the top of a hill I suddenly found myself looking down on a sheet +of violet pink more than a mile long and half a mile wide. This was +caused by a climbing plant having taken possession of a valley full +of trees, whose tops it had reached and then spread and interlaced +itself over them, to burst into profuse glorious laburnum-shaped +bunches of flowers. + +After taking some careful compass bearings for future use regarding +the Rumby and Omon range of mountains, which were clearly visible +and which look fascinatingly like my beloved Sierra del Cristal, I +turned my face to the wall of Mungo, and continued the ascent. The +sun, which was blazing, was reflected back from the rocks in +scorching rays. But it was more bearable now, because its heat was +tempered by a bitter wind. + +The slope becoming steeper, I gradually made my way towards the left +until I came to a great lane, as neatly walled with rock as if it +had been made with human hands. It runs down the mountain face, +nearly vertically in places and at stiff angles always, but it was +easier going up this lane than on the outside rough rock, because +the rocks in it had been smoothed by mountain torrents during +thousands of wet seasons, and the walls protected one from the +biting wind, a wind that went through me, for I had been stewing for +nine months and more in tropic and equatorial swamps. + +Up this lane I went to the very top of the mountain wall, and then, +to my surprise, found myself facing a great, hillocky, rock- +encumbered plain, across the other side of which rose the mass of +the peak itself, not as a single cone, but as a wall surmounted by +several, three being evidently the highest among them. + +I started along the ridge of my wall, and went to its highest part, +that to the S.W., intending to see what I could of the view towards +the sea, and then to choose a place for camping in for the night. + +When I reached the S.W. end, looking westwards I saw the South +Atlantic down below, like a plain of frosted silver. Out of it, +barely twenty miles away, rose Fernando Po to its 10,190 feet with +that majestic grace peculiar to a volcanic island. Immediately +below me, some 10,000 feet or so, lay Victoria with the forested +foot-hills of Mungo Mah Lobeh encircling it as a diadem, and Ambas +Bay gemmed with rocky islands lying before it. On my left away S.E. +was the glorious stretch of the Cameroon estuary, with a line of +white cloud lying very neatly along the course of Cameroon River. + +In one of the chasms of the mountain wall that I had come up--in the +one furthest to the north--there was a thunderstorm brewing, +seemingly hanging on to, or streaming out of the mountain side, a +soft billowy mass of dense cream-coloured cloud, with flashes of +golden lightnings playing about in it with soft growls of thunder. +Surely Mungo Mah Lobeh himself, of all the thousands he annually +turns out, never made one more lovely than this. Soon the white +mists rose from the mangrove-swamp, and grew rose-colour in the +light of the setting sun, as they swept upwards over the now purple +high forests. In the heavens, to the north, there was a rainbow, +vivid in colour, one arch of it going behind the peak, the other +sinking into the mist sea below, and this mist sea rose and rose +towards me, turning from pale rose-colour to lavender, and where the +shadow of Mungo lay across it, to a dull leaden grey. It was soon +at my feet, blotting the under-world out, and soon came flowing over +the wall top at its lowest parts, stretching in great spreading +rivers over the crater plain, and then these coalescing everything +was shut out save the two summits: that of Cameroon close to me, +and that of Clarence away on Fernando Po. These two stood out +alone, like great island masses made of iron rising from a formless, +silken sea. + +The space around seemed boundless, and there was in it neither sound +nor colour, nor anything with form, save those two terrific things. +It was like a vision, and it held me spell-bound, as I stood +shivering on the rocks with the white mist round my knees until into +my wool-gathering mind came the memory of those anything but sublime +men of mine; and I turned and scuttled off along the rocks like an +agitated ant left alone in a dead Universe. + +I soon found the place where I had come up into the crater plain and +went down over the wall, descending with twice the rapidity, but ten +times the scratches and grazes, of the ascent. + +I picked up the place where I had left Xenia, but no Xenia was +there, nor came there any answer to my bush call for him, so on I +went down towards the place where, hours ago, I had left the men. +The mist was denser down below, but to my joy it was warmer than on +the summit of the wind-swept wall. + +I had nearly reached the foot of this wall and made my mind up to +turn in for the night under a rock, when I heard a melancholy croak +away in the mist to the left. I went towards it and found Xenia +lost on his own account, and distinctly quaint in manner, and then I +recollected that I had been warned Xenia is slightly crazy. Nice +situation this: a madman on a mountain in the mist. Xenia, I +found, had no longer got my black bag, but in its place a lid of a +saucepan and an empty lantern. To put it mildly, this is not the +sort of outfit the R.G.S. Hints to Travellers would recommend for +African exploration. Xenia reported that he gave the bag to Black +boy, who shortly afterwards disappeared, and that he had neither +seen him nor any of the others since, and didn't expect to this side +of Srahmandazi. In a homicidal state of mind, I made tracks for the +missing ones followed by Xenia. I thought mayhap they had grown on +to the rocks they had sat upon so long, but presently, just before +it became quite dark, we picked up the place we had left them in and +found there only an empty soda-water bottle. Xenia poured out a +muddled mass of observations to the effect that "they got fright too +much about them water palaver." + +I did not linger to raise a monument to them, but I said I wished +they were in a condition to require one, and we went on over our +hillocks with more confidence now that we knew we had stuck well to +our unmarked track. + + "The moving Moon went up the sky, + And nowhere did abide: + Softly she was going up, + And a star or two beside." + +Only she was a young and inefficient moon, and although we were +below the thickest of the mist band, it was dark. Finding our own +particular hole in the forest wall was about as easy as finding "one +particular rabbit hole in an unknown hay-field in the dark," and the +attempt to do so afforded us a great deal of varied exercise. I am +obliged to be guarded in my language, because my feelings now are +only down to one degree below boiling point. The rain now began to +fall, thank goodness, and I drew the thick ears of grass through my +parched lips as I stumbled along over the rugged lumps of rock +hidden under the now waist-high jungle grass. + +Our camp hole was pretty easily distinguishable by daylight, for it +was on the left-hand side of one of the forest tongues, the grass +land running down like a lane between two tongues here, and just +over the entrance three conspicuously high trees showed. But we +could not see these "picking-up" points in the darkness, so I had to +keep getting Xenia to strike matches, and hold them in his hat while +I looked at the compass. Presently we came full tilt up against a +belt of trees which I knew from these compass observations was our +tongue of forest belt, and I fired a couple of revolver shots into +it, whereabouts I judged our camp to be. + +This was instantly answered by a yell from human voices in chorus, +and towards that yell in a slightly amiable--a very slightly +amiable--state of mind I went. + +I will draw a veil over the scene, particularly over my observations +to those men. They did not attempt to deny their desertion, but +they attempted to explain it, each one saying that it was not he but +the other boy who "got fright too much." + +I closed the palaver promptly with a brief but lurid sketch of my +opinion on the situation, and ordered food, for not having had a +thing save that cup of sour claret since 6.30 A.M., and it being now +11 P.M., I felt sinkings. Then arose another beautiful situation +before me. It seems when Cook and Monrovia got back into camp this +morning Master Cook was seized with one of those attacks of a desire +to manage things that produce such awful results in the African +servant, and sent all the beef and rice down to Buea to be cooked, +because there was no water here to cook it. Therefore the men have +got nothing to eat. I had a few tins of my own food and so gave +them some, and they became as happy as kings in a few minutes, +listening and shouting over the terrible adventures of Xenia, who is +posing as the Hero of the Great Cameroon. I get some soda-water +from the two bottles left and some tinned herring, and then write +out two notes to Herr Liebert asking him to send me three more +demijohns of water, and some beef and rice from the store, promising +faithfully to pay for them on my return. + +I would not prevent those men of mine from going up that peak above +me after their touching conduct to-day. Oh! no; not for worlds, +dear things. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(continued). + + + +Setting forth how the Voyager for a second time reaches the S.E. +crater, with some account of the pleasures incidental to camping out +in the said crater. + +September 24th.--Lovely morning, the grey-white mist in the forest +makes it like a dream of Fairyland, each moss-grown tree stem +heavily gemmed with dewdrops. At 5.30 I stir the boys, for Sasu, +the sergeant, says he must go back to his military duties. The men +think we are all going back with him as he is our only guide, but I +send three of them down with orders to go back to Victoria--two +being of the original set I started with. They are surprised and +disgusted at being sent home, but they have got "hot foot," and +something wrong in the usual seat of African internal disturbances, +their "tummicks," and I am not thinking of starting a sanatorium for +abdominally-afflicted Africans in that crater plain above. Black +boy is the other boy returned, I do not want another of his attacks. + +They go, and this leaves me in the forest camp with Kefalla, Xenia, +and Cook, and we start expecting the water sent for by Monrovia boy +yesterday forenoon. There are an abominable lot of bees about; they +do not give one a moment's peace, getting beneath the waterproof +sheets over the bed. The ground, bestrewn with leaves and dried +wood, is a mass of large flies rather like our common house-fly, but +both butterflies and beetles seem scarce; and I confess I do not +feel up to hunting much after yesterday's work, and deem it +advisable to rest. My face and particularly my lips are a misery to +me, having been blistered all over by yesterday's sun, and last +night I inadvertently whipped the skin all off one cheek with the +blanket, and it keeps on bleeding, and, horror of horrors, there is +no tea until that water comes. I wish I had got the mountaineering +spirit, for then I could say, "I'll never come to this sort of place +again, for you can get all you want in the Alps." I have been told +this by my mountaineering friends--I have never been there--and that +you can go and do all sorts of stupendous things all day, and come +back in the evening to table d'hote at an hotel; but as I have not +got the mountaineering spirit, I suppose I shall come fooling into +some such place as this as soon as I get the next chance. + +About 8.30, to our delight, the gallant Monrovia boy comes through +the bush with a demijohn of water, and I get my tea, and give the +men the only half-pound of rice I have and a tin of meat, and they +eat, become merry, and chat over their absent companions in a +scornful, scandalous way. Who cares for hotels now? When one is in +a delightful place like this, one must work, so off I go to the +north into the forest, after giving the rest of the demijohn of +water into the Monrovia boy's charge with strict orders it is not to +be opened till my return. Quantities of beetles. + +A little after two o'clock I return to camp, after having wandered +about in the forest and found three very deep holes, down which I +heaved rocks and in no case heard a splash. In one I did not hear +the rocks strike, owing to the great depth. I hate holes, and +especially do I hate these African ones, for I am frequently +falling, more or less, into them, and they will be my end. + +The other demijohns of water have not arrived yet, and we are +getting anxious again because the men's food has not come up, and +they have been so exceedingly thirsty that they have drunk most of +the water--not, however, since it has been in Monrovia's charge; but +at 3.15 another boy comes through the bush with another demijohn of +water. We receive him gladly, and ask him about the chop. He knows +nothing about it. At 3.45 another boy comes through the bush with +another demijohn of water; we receive him kindly; HE does not know +anything about the chop. At 4.10 another boy comes through the bush +with another demijohn of water, and knowing nothing about the chop, +we are civil to him, and that's all. + +A terrific tornado which has been lurking growling about then sits +down in the forest and bursts, wrapping us up in a lively kind of +fog, with its thunder, lightning, and rain. It was impossible to +hear, or make one's self heard at the distance of even a few paces, +because of the shrill squeal of the wind, the roar of the thunder, +and the rush of the rain on the trees round us. It was not like +having a storm burst over you in the least; you felt you were in the +middle of its engine-room when it had broken down badly. After half +an hour or so the thunder seemed to lift itself off the ground, and +the lightning came in sheets, instead of in great forks that flew +like flights of spears among the forest trees. The thunder, +however, had not settled things amicably with the mountain; it +roared its rage at Mungo, and Mungo answered back, quivering with a +rage as great, under our feet. One feels here as if one were +constantly dropping, unasked and unregarded, among painful and +violent discussions between the elemental powers of the Universe. +Mungo growls and swears in thunder at the sky, and sulks in white +mist all the morning, and then the sky answers back, hurling down +lightnings and rivers of water, with total disregard of Mungo's +visitors. The way the water rushes down from the mountain wall +through the watercourses in the jungle just above, and then at the +edge of the forest spreads out into a sheet of water that is an inch +deep, and that flies on past us in miniature cascades, trying the +while to put out our fire and so on, is--quite interesting. (I +exhausted my vocabulary on those boys yesterday.) + +As soon as we saw what we were in for, we had thrown dry wood on to +the fire, and it blazed just as the rain came down, so with our +assistance it fought a good fight with its fellow elements, spitting +and hissing like a wild cat. It could have managed the water fairly +well, but the wind came, very nearly putting an end to it by +carrying away its protecting bough house, which settled on +"Professor" Kefalla, who burst out in a lecture on the foolishness +of mountaineering and the quantity of devils in this region. Just +in the midst of these joys another boy came through the bush with +another demijohn of water. We did not receive him even civilly; I +burst out laughing, and the boys went off in a roar, and we shouted +at him, "Where them chop?" "He live for come," said the boy, and we +then gave him a hearty welcome and a tot of rum, and an hour +afterwards two more boys appear, one carrying a sack of rice and +beef for the men, and the other a box for me from Herr Liebert, +containing a luxurious supply of biscuits, candles, tinned meats, +and a bottle of wine and one of beer. + +We are now all happy, though exceeding damp, and the boys sit round +the fire, with their big iron pot full of beef and rice, busy +cooking while they talk. Wonderful accounts of our prodigies of +valour I hear given by Xenia, and terrible accounts of what they +have lived through from the others, and the men who have brought up +the demijohns and the chop recount the last news from Buea. James's +wife has run away again. + +I have taken possession of two demijohns of water and the rum +demijohn, arranging them round the head of my bed. The worst of it +is those tiresome bees, as soon as the rain is over, come in +hundreds after the rum, and frighten me continually. The worthless +wretches get intoxicated on what they can suck from round the cork, +and then they stagger about on the ground buzzing malevolently. +When the boys have had the chop and a good smoke, we turn to and +make up the loads for to-morrow's start up the mountain, and then, +after more hot tea, I turn in on my camp bed--listening to the soft +sweet murmur of the trees and the pleasant, laughing chatter of the +men. + +September 25th.--Rolled off the bed twice last night into the bush. +The rain has washed the ground away from under its off legs, so that +it tilts; and there were quantities of large longicorn beetles about +during the night--the sort with spiny backs; they kept on getting +themselves hitched on to my blankets and when I wanted civilly to +remove them they made a horrid fizzing noise and showed fight-- +cocking their horns in a defiant way. I awake finally about 5 A.M. +soaked through to the skin. The waterproof sheet has had a label +sewn to it, so is not waterproof, and it has been raining softly but +amply for hours. + +About seven we are off again, with Xenia, Head man, Cook, Monrovia +boy and a labourer from Buea--the water-carriers have gone home +after having had their morning chop. + +We make for the face of the wall by a route to the left of that I +took on Monday, and when we are clambering up it, some 600 feet +above the hillocks, swish comes a terrific rain-storm at us +accompanied by a squealing, bitter cold wind. We can hear the roar +of the rain on the forest below, and hoping to get above it we keep +on; hoping, however, is vain. The dense mist that comes with it +prevents our seeing more than two yards in front, and we get too far +to the left. I am behind the band to-day, severely bringing up the +rear, and about 1 o'clock I hear shouts from the vanguard and when I +get up to them I find them sitting on the edge of one of the clefts +or scars in the mountain face. + +I do not know how these quarry-like chasms have been formed. They +both look alike from below--the mountain wall comes down vertically +into them--and the bottom of this one slopes forward, so that if we +had had the misfortune when a little lower down to have gone a +little further to the left, we should have got on to the bottom of +it, and should have found ourselves walled in on three sides, and +had to retrace our steps; as it is we have just struck its right- +hand edge. And fortunately, the mist, thick as it is, has not been +sufficiently thick to lead the men to walk over it; for had they +done so they would have got killed, as the cliff arches in under so +that we look straight into the bottom of the scar some 200 or 300 +feet below, when there is a split in the mist. The sides and bottom +are made of, and strewn with, white, moss-grown masses of volcanic +cinder rock, and sparsely shrubbed with gnarled trees which have +evidently been under fire--one of my boys tells me from the burning +of this face of the mountain by "the Major from Calabar" during the +previous dry season. + +We keep on up a steep grass-covered slope, and finally reach the top +of the wall. The immense old crater floor before us is to-day the +site of a seething storm, and the peak itself quite invisible. My +boys are quite demoralised by the cold. I find most of them have +sold the blankets I gave them out at Buana; and those who have not +sold them have left them behind at Buea, from laziness perhaps, but +more possibly from a confidence in their powers to prevent us +getting so far. + +I believe if I had collapsed too--the cold tempted me to do so as +nothing else can--they would have lain down and died in the cold +sleety rain. + +I sight a clump of gnarled sparsely-foliaged trees bedraped heavily +with lichen, growing in a hollow among the rocks; thither I urge the +men for shelter and they go like storm-bewildered sheep. My bones +are shaking in my skin and my teeth in my head, for after the +experience I had had of the heat here on Monday I dared not clothe +myself heavily. + +The men stand helpless under the trees, and I hastily take the load +of blankets Herr Liebert lent us off a boy's back and undo it, +throwing one blanket round each man, and opening my umbrella and +spreading it over the other blankets. Then I give them a tot of rum +apiece, as they sit huddled in their blankets, and tear up a lot of +the brittle, rotten wood from the trees and shrubs, getting horrid +thorns into my hands the while, and set to work getting a fire with +it and the driest of the moss from beneath the rocks. By the aid of +it and Xenia, who soon revived, and a carefully scraped up candle +and a box of matches, the fire soon blazes, Xenia holding a blanket +to shelter it, while I, with a cutlass, chop stakes to fix the +blankets on, so as to make a fire tent. + +The other boys now revive, and I hustle them about to make more +fires, no easy work in the drenching rain, but work that has got to +be done. We soon get three well alight, and then I clutch a +blanket--a wringing wet blanket, but a comfort--and wrapping myself +round in it, issue orders for wood to be gathered and stored round +each fire to dry, and then stand over Cook while he makes the men's +already cooked chop hot over our first fire, when this is done +getting him to make me tea, or as it more truly should be called, +soup, for it contains bits of rice and beef, and the general taste +of the affair is wood smoke. + +Kefalla by this time is in lecturing form again, so my mind is +relieved about him, although he says, "Oh, ma! It be cold, cold too +much. Too much cold kill we black man, all same for one as too much +sun kill you white man. Oh, ma!. . .," etc. I tell him they have +only got themselves to blame; if they had come up with me on Monday +we should have been hot enough, and missed this storm of rain. + +When the boys have had their chop, and are curling themselves up +comfortably round their now blazing fires Xenia must needs start a +theory that there is a better place than this to camp in; he saw it +when he was with an unsuccessful expedition that got as far as this. +Kefalla is fool enough to go off with him to find this place; but +they soon return, chilled through again, and unsuccessful in their +quest. I gather that they have been to find caves. I wish they had +found caves, for I am not thinking of taking out a patent for our +present camp site. + +The bitter wind and swishing rain keep on. We are to a certain +extent sheltered from the former, but the latter is of that +insinuating sort that nothing but a granite wall would keep off. + +Just at sundown, however, as is usual in this country, the rain +ceases for a while, and I take this opportunity to get out my +seaman's jersey. When I have fought my way into it, I turn to +survey our position, and find I have been carrying on my battle on +the brink of an abysmal hole whose mouth is concealed among the +rocks and scraggly shrubs just above our camp. I heave rocks down +it, as we in Fanland would offer rocks to an Ombwiri, and hear them +go "knickity-knock, like a pebble in Carisbrook well." I think I +detect a far away splash, but it was an awesome way down. This +mountain seems set with these man-traps, and "some day some +gentleman's nigger" will get killed down one. + +The mist has now cleared away from the peak, but lies all over the +lower world, and I take bearings of the three highest cones or peaks +carefully. Then I go away over the rocky ground southwards, and as +I stand looking round, the mist sea below is cleft in twain for a +few minutes by some fierce down-draught of wind from the peak, and I +get a strange, clear, sudden view right down to Ambas Bay. It is +just like looking down from one world into another. I think how +Odin hung and looked down into Nifelheim, and then of how hot, how +deliciously hot, it was away down there, and then the mist closes +over it. I shiver and go back to camp, for night is coming on, and +I know my men will require intellectual support in the matter of +procuring firewood. + +The men are now quite happy; over each fire they have made a tent +with four sticks with a blanket on, a blanket that is too wet to +burn, though I have to make them brace the blankets to windward for +fear of their scorching. + +The wood from the shrubs here is of an aromatic and a resinous +nature, which sounds nice, but it isn't; for the volumes of smoke it +gives off when burning are suffocating, and the boys, who sit almost +on the fire, are every few moments scrambling to their feet and +going apart to cough out smoke, like so many novices in training for +the profession of fire-eaters. However, they soon find that if they +roll themselves in their blankets, and lie on the ground to windward +they escape most of the smoke. They have divided up into three +parties: Kefalla and Xenia, who have struck up a great friendship, +take the lower, the most exposed fire. Head man, Cook, and Monrovia +Boy have the upper fire, and the labourer has the middle one--he +being an outcast for medical reasons. They are all steaming away +and smoking comfortably. + +I form the noble resolution to keep awake, and rouse up any +gentleman who may catch on fire during the night, and see to wood +being put on the fires, so elaborately settle myself on my wooden +chop-box, wherein I have got all the lucifers which are not in the +soap-box. Owing to there not being a piece of ground the size of a +sixpenny piece level in this place, the arrangement of my box camp +takes time, but at last it is done to my complete satisfaction, +close to a tree trunk, and I think, as I wrap myself up in my two +wet blankets and lean against my tree, what a good thing it is to +know how to make one's self comfortable in a place like this. This +tree stem is perfection, just the right angle to be restful to one's +back, and one can rely all the time on Nature hereabouts not to let +one get thoroughly effete from luxurious comfort, so I lazily watch +and listen to Xenia and Kefalla at their fire hard by. + +They begin talking to each other on their different tribal +societies; Kefalla is a Vey, Xenia a Liberian, so in the interests +of Science I give them two heads of tobacco to stimulate their +conversation. They receive them with tragic grief, having no pipe, +so in the interests of Science I undo my blankets and give them two +out of my portmanteau; then do myself up again and pretend to be +asleep. I am rewarded by getting some interesting details, and form +the opinion that both these worthies, in their pursuit of their +particular ju-jus, have come into contact with white prejudices, and +are now fugitives from religious persecution. I also observe they +have both their own ideas of happiness. Kefalla holds it lies in a +warm shirt, Xenia that it abides in warm trousers; and every half- +hour the former takes his shirt off, and holds it in the fire smoke, +and then puts it hastily on; and Xenia, who is the one and only +trouser wearer in our band, spends fifty per cent. of the night on +one leg struggling to get the other in or out of these garments, +when they are either coming off to be warmed, or going on after +warming. + +There seem but few insects here. I have only got two moths to- +night--one pretty one with white wings with little red spots on, +like an old-fashioned petticoat such as an early Victorian-age lady +would have worn--the other a sweet thing in silver. + +(Later, i.e., 2.15 A.M.). I have been asleep against that +abominable vegetable of a tree. It had its trunk covered with a +soft cushion of moss, and pretended to be a comfort--a right angle +to lean against, and a softly padded protection to the spine from +wind, and all that sort of thing; whereas the whole mortal time it +was nothing in this wretched world but a water-pipe, to conduct an +extra supply of water down my back. The water has simply streamed +down it, and formed a nice little pool in a rocky hollow where I +keep my feet, and I am chilled to the innermost bone, so have to +scramble up and drag my box to the side of Kefalla and Xenia's fire, +feeling sure I have contracted a fatal chill this time. I scrape +the ashes out of the fire into a heap, and put my sodden boots into +them, and they hiss merrily, and I resolve not to go to sleep again. +5 A.M.--Have been to sleep twice, and have fallen off my box bodily +into the fire in my wet blankets, and should for sure have put it +out like a bucket of cold water had not Xenia and Kefalla been +roused up by the smother I occasioned and rescued me--or the fire. +It is not raining now, but it is bitter cold and Cook is getting my +tea. I give the boys a lot of hot tea with a big handful of sugar +in, and they then get their own food hot. + + + +CHAPTER XX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS--(continued). + + + +Setting forth how the Voyager attains the summit of Mungo Mah Lobeh, +and descends therefrom to Victoria, to which is added some remarks +on the natural history of the West Coast porter, and the native +methods of making fire. + +September 26th.--The weather is undecided and so am I, for I feel +doubtful about going on in this weather, but I do not like to give +up the peak after going through so much for it. The boys being dry +and warm with the fires have forgotten their troubles. However, I +settle in my mind to keep on, and ask for volunteers to come with +me, and Bum, the head man, and Xenia announce their willingness. I +put two tins of meat and a bottle of Herr Liebert's beer into the +little wooden box, and insist on both men taking a blanket apiece, +much to their disgust, and before six o'clock we are off over the +crater plain. It is a broken bit of country with rock mounds +sparsely overgrown with tufts of grass, and here and there are +patches of boggy land, not real bog, but damp places where grow +little clumps of rushes, and here and there among the rocks sorely- +afflicted shrubs of broom, and the yellow-flowered shrub I have +mentioned before, and quantities of very sticky heather, feeling +when you catch hold of it as if it had been covered with syrup. One +might fancy the entire race of shrubs was dying out; for one you see +partially alive there are twenty skeletons which fall to pieces as +you brush past them. + +It is downhill the first part of the way, that is to say, the trend +of the land is downhill, for be it down or up, the details of it are +rugged mounds and masses of burnt-out lava rock. It is evil going, +but perhaps not quite so evil as the lower hillocks of the great +wall where the rocks are hidden beneath long slippery grass. We +wind our way in between the mounds, or clamber over them, or +scramble along their sides impartially. The general level is then +flat, and then comes a rise towards the peak wall, so we steer +N.N.E. until we strike the face of the peak, and then commence a +stiff rough climb. + +We keep as straight as we can, but get driven at an angle by the +strange ribs of rock which come straight down. These are most +tiresome to deal with, getting worse the higher we go, and so rotten +and weather-eaten are they that they crumble into dust and fragments +under our feet. Head man gets half a dozen falls, and when we are +about three parts of the way up Xenia gives in. The cold and the +climbing are too much for him, so I make him wrap himself up in his +blanket, which he is glad enough of now, and shelter in a depression +under one of the many rock ridges, and Head man and I go on. When +we are some 600 feet higher the iron-grey mist comes curling and +waving round the rocks above us, like some savage monster defending +them from intruders, and I again debate whether I was justified in +risking the men, for it is a risk for them at this low temperature, +with the evil weather I know, and they do not know, is coming on. +But still we have food and blankets with us enough for them, and the +camp in the plain below they can reach all right, if the worst comes +to the worst; and for myself--well--that's my own affair, and no one +will be a ha'porth the worse if I am dead in an hour. So I hitch +myself on to the rocks, and take bearings, particularly bearings of +Xenia's position, who, I should say, has got a tin of meat and a +flask of rum with him, and then turn and face the threatening mist. +It rises and falls, and sends out arm-like streams towards us, and +then Bum, the head man, decides to fail for the third time to reach +the peak, and I leave him wrapped in his blanket with the bag of +provisions, and go on alone into the wild, grey, shifting, whirling +mist above, and soon find myself at the head of a rock ridge in a +narrowish depression, walled by massive black walls which show +fitfully but firmly through the mist. + +I can see three distinctly high cones before me, and then the mist, +finding it cannot drive me back easily, proceeds to desperate +methods, and lashes out with a burst of bitter wind, and a sheet of +blinding, stinging rain. I make my way up through it towards a peak +which I soon see through a tear in the mist is not the highest, so I +angle off and go up the one to the left, and after a desperate fight +reach the cairn--only, alas! to find a hurricane raging and a fog in +full possession, and not a ten yards' view to be had in any +direction. Near the cairn on the ground are several bottles, some +of which the energetic German officers, I suppose, had emptied in +honour of their achievement, an achievement I bow down before, for +their pluck and strength had taken them here in a shorter time by +far than mine. I do not meddle with anything, save to take a few +specimens and to put a few more rocks on the cairn, and to put in +among them my card, merely as a civility to Mungo, a civility his +Majesty will soon turn into pulp. Not that it matters--what is done +is done. + +The weather grows worse every minute, and no sign of any clearing +shows in the indigo sky or the wind-reft mist. The rain lashes so +fiercely I cannot turn my face to it and breathe, the wind is all I +can do to stand up against. + +Verily I am no mountaineer, for there is in me no exultation, but +only a deep disgust because the weather has robbed me of my main +object in coming here, namely to get a good view and an idea of the +way the unexplored mountain range behind Calabar trends. I took my +chance and it failed, so there's nothing to complain about. + +Comforting myself with these reflections, I start down to find Bum, +and do so neatly, and then together we scramble down carefully among +the rotten black rocks, intent on finding Xenia. The scene is very +grand. At one minute we can see nothing save the black rocks and +cinders under foot; the next the wind-torn mist separates now in one +direction, now in another, showing us always the same wild scene of +great black cliffs, rising in jagged peaks and walls around and +above us. I think this walled cauldron we had just left is really +the highest crater on Mungo. {439} + +We soon become anxious about Xenia, for this is a fearfully easy +place to lose a man in such weather, but just as we get below the +thickest part of the pall of mist, I observe a doll-sized figure, +standing on one leg taking on or off its trousers--our lost Xenia, +beyond a shadow of a doubt, and we go down direct to him. + +When we reach him we halt, and I give the two men one of the tins of +meat, and take another and the bottle of beer myself, and then make +a hasty sketch of the great crater plain below us. At the further +edge of the plain a great white cloud is coming up from below, which +argues badly for our trip down the great wall to the forest camp, +which I am anxious to reach before nightfall after our experience of +the accommodation afforded by our camp in the crater plain last +night. + +While I am sitting waiting for the men to finish their meal, I feel +a chill at my back, as if some cold thing had settled there, and +turning round, see the mist from the summit above coming in a wall +down towards us. These mists up here, as far as my experience goes, +are always preceded by a strange breath of ice-cold air--not +necessarily a wind. + +Bum then draws my attention to a strange funnel-shaped thing coming +down from the clouds to the north. A big waterspout, I presume: it +seems to be moving rapidly N.E., and I profoundly hope it will hold +that course, for we have quite as much as we can manage with the +ordinary rain-water supply on this mountain, without having +waterspouts to deal with. + +We start off down the mountain as rapidly as we can. Xenia is very +done up, and Head man comes perilously near breaking his neck by +frequent falls among the rocks; my unlucky boots are cut through and +through by the latter. When we get down towards the big crater +plain, it is a race between us and the pursuing mist as to who shall +reach the camp first, and the mist wins, but we have just time to +make out the camp's exact position before it closes round us, so we +reach it without any real difficulty. When we get there, about one +o'clock, I find the men have kept the fires alight and Cook is +asleep before one of them with another conflagration smouldering in +his hair. I get him to make me tea, while the others pack up as +quickly as possible, and by two we are all off on our way down to +the forest camp. + +The boys are nervous in their way of going down over the mountain +wall. The misadventures of Cook alone would fill volumes. Monrovia +boy is out and away the best man at this work. Just as we reach the +high jungle grass, down comes the rain and up comes the mist, and we +have the worst time we have had during our whole trip, in our +endeavours to find the hole in the forest that leads to our old +camp. + +Unfortunately, I must needs go in for acrobatic performances on the +top of one of the highest, rockiest hillocks. Poising myself on one +leg I take a rapid slide sideways, ending in a very showy leap +backwards which lands me on the top of the lantern I am carrying to- +day, among miscellaneous rocks. There being fifteen feet or so of +jungle grass above me, all the dash and beauty of my performance are +as much thrown away as I am, for my boys are too busy on their own +accounts in the mist to miss me. After resting some little time as +I fell, and making and unmaking the idea in my mind that I am +killed, I get up, clamber elaborately to the top of the next +hillock, and shout for the boys, and "Ma," "ma," comes back from my +flock from various points out of the fog. I find Bum and Monrovia +boy, and learn that during my absence Xenia, who always fancies +himself as a path-finder, has taken the lead, and gone off somewhere +with the rest. We shout and the others answer, and we join them, +and it soon becomes evident to the meanest intelligence that Xenia +had better have spent his time attending to those things of his +instead of going in for guiding, for we are now right off the track +we made through the grass on our up journey, and we proceed to have +a cheerful hour or so in the wet jungle, ploughing hither and +thither, trying to find our way. + +At last we pick up the top of a tongue of forest that we all feel is +ours, but we--that is to say, Xenia and I, for the others go like +lambs to the slaughter wherever they are led--disagree as to the +path. He wants to go down one side of the tongue, I to go down the +other, and I have my way, and we wade along, skirting the bushes +that fringe it, trying to find our hole. I own I soon begin to feel +shaky about having been right in the affair, but soon Xenia, who is +leading, shouts he has got it, and we limp in, our feet sore with +rugged rocks, and everything we have on, or in the loads, wringing +wet, save the matches, which providentially I had put into my soap- +box. + +Anything more dismal than the look of that desired camp when we +reach it, I never saw. Pools of water everywhere. The fire-house a +limp ruin, the camp bed I have been thinking fondly of for the past +hour a water cistern. I tilt the water out of it, and say a few +words to it regarding its hide-bound idiocy in obeying its military +instructions to be waterproof; and then, while the others are +putting up the fire-house, Head man and I get out the hidden +demijohn of rum, and the beef and rice, and I serve out a tot of rum +each to the boys, who are shivering dreadfully, waiting for Cook to +get the fire. He soon does this, and then I have my hot tea and the +men their hot food, for now we have returned to the luxury of two +cooking pots. + +Their education in bush is evidently progressing, for they make +themselves a big screen with boughs and spare blankets, between the +wind and the fire-house, and I get Xenia to cut some branches, and +place them on the top of my waterproof sheet shelter, and we are +fairly comfortable again, and the boys quite merry and very well +satisfied with themselves. + +Unfortunately the subject of their nightly debating society is human +conduct, a subject ever fraught with dangerous elements of +differences of opinion. They are busy discussing, with their mouths +full of rice and beef, the conduct of an absent friend, who it seems +is generally regarded by them as a spendthrift. "He gets plenty +money, but he no have none no time." "He go frow it away--on woman, +and drink." "He no buy clothes." This last is evidently a very +heavy accusation, but Kefalla says, "What can a man buy with money +better than them thing he like best?" + +There is a very peculiar look on the rotten wood on the ground round +here; to-night it has patches and flecks of iridescence like one +sees on herrings or mackerel that have been kept too long. The +appearance of this strange eerie light in among the bush is very +weird and charming. I have seen it before in dark forests at night, +but never so much of it. + +September 27th.--Fine morning. It's a blessing my Pappenheimers +have not recognised what this means for the afternoon. We take +things very leisurely. I know it's no good hurrying, we are dead +sure of getting a ducking before we reach Buea anyhow, so we may as +well enjoy ourselves while we can. + +I ask my boys how they would "make fire suppose no matches live." +Not one of them thinks it possible to do so, "it pass man to do them +thing suppose he no got live stick or matches." They are coast +boys, all of them, and therefore used to luxury, but it is really +remarkable how widely diffused matches are inland, and how very +dependent on them these natives are. When I have been away in +districts where they have not penetrated, it is exceedingly rarely +that the making of fire has to be resorted to. I think I may say +that in most African villages it has not had to be done for years +and years, because when a woman's fire has gone out, owing to her +having been out at work all day, she just runs into some neighbour's +hut where there is a fire burning, and gives compliments, and picks +up a burning stick from the fire and runs home. From this comes the +compliment, equivalent to our "Oh! don't go away yet," of "You come +to fetch fire." This will be said to you all the way from Sierra +Leone to Loanda, as far as I know, if you have been making yourself +agreeable in an African home, even if the process may have extended +over a day or so. The hunters, like the Fans, have to make fire, +and do it now with a flint and steel; but in districts where their +tutor in this method--the flint-lock gun--is not available, they +will do it with two sticks, not always like the American Indians' +fire-sticks. One stick is placed horizontally on the ground and the +other twirled rapidly between the palms of the hands, but sometimes +two bits of palm stick are worked in a hole in a bigger bit of wood, +the hole stuffed round with the pith of a tree or with silk cotton +fluff, and the two sticks rotated vigorously. Again, on one +occasion I saw a Bakele woman make fire by means of a slip of rafia +palm drawn very rapidly, to and fro, across a notch in another piece +of rafia wood. In most domesticated tribes, like the Effiks or the +Igalwa, if they are going out to their plantation, they will enclose +a live stick in a hollow piece of a certain sort of wood, which has +a lining of its interior pith left in it, and they will carry this +"fire box" with them. Or if they are going on a long canoe journey, +there is always the fire in the bow of the canoe put into a calabash +full of sand, or failing that, into a bed of clay with a sand rim +round it. + +By 10 o'clock we are off down to Buea. At 10.15 it pours as it can +here; by 10.17 we are all in our normal condition of bedraggled +saturation, and plodding down carefully and cheerfully among the +rocks and roots of the forest, following the path we have beaten and +cut for ourselves on our way up. It is dangerously slippery, +particularly that part of it through the amomums, and stumps of the +cut amomums are very likely to spike your legs badly--and, my +friend, never, never, step on one of the amomum stems lying straight +in front of you, particularly when they are soaking wet. Ice slides +are nothing to them, and when you fall, as you inevitably must, +because all the things you grab hold of are either rotten, or as +brittle as Salviati glass-ware vases, you hurt yourself in no end of +places, on those aforesaid cut amomum stumps. I am speaking from +sad experiences of my own, amplified by observations on the +experiences of my men. + +The path, when we get down again into the tree-fern region, is +inches deep in mud and water, and several places where we have a +drop of five feet or so over lumps of rock are worse work going down +than we found them going up, especially when we have to drop down on +to amomum stems. One abominable place, a V-shaped hollow, mud- +lined, and with an immense tree right across it--a tree one of our +tornadoes has thrown down since we passed--bothers the men badly, as +they slip and scramble down, and then crawl under the tree and slip +and scramble up with their loads. I say nothing about myself. I +just take a flying slide of twenty feet or so and shoot flump under +the tree on my back, and then deliberate whether it is worth while +getting up again to go on with such a world; but vanity forbids my +dying like a dog in a ditch, and I scramble up, rejoining the others +where they are standing on a cross-path: our path going S.E. by E., +the other S.S.W. Two men have already gone down the S.W. one, which +I feel sure is the upper end of the path Sasu had led us to and +wasted time on our first day's march; the middle regions of which +were, as we had found from its lower end, impassable with +vegetation. So after futile attempts to call the other two back, we +go on down the S.E. one, and get shortly into a plantation of giant +kokos mid-leg deep in most excellent fine mould--the sort of stuff +you pay 6 shillings a load for in England to start a conservatory +bed with. Upon my word, the quantities of things there are left +loose in Africa, that ought to be kept in menageries and greenhouses +and not let go wild about the country, are enough to try a Saint. + +We then pass through a clump of those lovely great tree-ferns. The +way their young fronds come up with a graceful curl, like the top of +a bishop's staff, is a poem; but being at present fractious, I will +observe that they are covered with horrid spines, as most young +vegetables are in Africa. But talking about spines, I should remark +that nothing save that precious climbing palm--I never like to say +what I feel about climbing palms, because one once saved my life-- +equals the strong bush rope which abounds here. It is covered with +short, strong, curved thorns. It creeps along concealed by +decorative vegetation, and you get your legs twined in it, and of +course injured. It festoons itself from tree to tree, and when your +mind is set on other things, catches you under the chin, and gives +you the appearance of having made a determined but ineffectual +attempt to cut your throat with a saw. It whisks your hat off and +grabs your clothes, and commits other iniquities too numerous to +catalogue here. Years and years that bush rope will wait for a +man's blood, and when he comes within reach it will have it. + +We are well down now among the tree-stems grown over with rich soft +green moss and delicate filmy-ferns. I should think that for a +botanist these south-eastern slopes of Mungo Mah Lobeh would be the +happiest hunting grounds in all West Africa. + +The vegetation here is at the point of its supreme luxuriance, owing +to the richness of the soil; the leaves of trees and plants I +recognise as having seen elsewhere are here far larger, and the +undergrowth particularly is more rich and varied, far and away. +Ferns seem to find here a veritable paradise. Everything, in fact, +is growing at its best. + +We come to another fallen tree over another hole; this tree we +recognise as an old acquaintance near Buea, and I feel disgusted, +for I had put on a clean blouse, and washed my hands in a tea-cupful +of water in a cooking pot before leaving the forest camp, so as to +look presentable on reaching Buea, and not give Herr Liebert the +same trouble he had to recognise the white from the black members of +the party that he said he had with the members of the first +expedition to the peak; and all I have got to show for my exertion +that is clean or anything like dry is one cuff over which I have +been carrying a shawl. + +We double round a corner by the stockade of the station's +plantation, and are at the top of the mud glissade--the new +Government path, I should say--that leads down into the barrack- +yard. + +Our arrival brings Herr Liebert promptly on the scene, as kindly +helpful and energetic as ever, and again anxious for me to have a +bath. The men bring our saturated loads into my room, and after +giving them their food and plenty of tobacco, I get my hot tea and +change into the clothes I had left behind at Buea, and feeling once +more fit for polite society, go out and find his Imperial and Royal +Majesty's representative making a door, tightening the boards up +with wedges in a very artful and professional way. We discourse on +things in general and the mountain in particular. The great south- +east face is now showing clear before us, the clearness that usually +comes before night-fall. It looks again a vast wall, and I wish I +were going up it again to-morrow. When "the Calabar major" set it +on fire in the dry season it must have been a noble sight. + +The north-eastern edge of the slope of the mountain seems to me +unbroken up to the peak. The great crater we went and camped in +must be a very early one in the history of the mountain, and out of +it the present summit seems to have been thrown up. From the sea +face, the western, I am told the slope is continuous on the whole, +although there are several craters on that side; seventy craters all +told are so far known on Mungo. + +The last reported eruption was in 1852, when signs of volcanic +activity were observed by a captain who was passing at sea. The +lava from this eruption must have gone down the western side, for I +have come across no fresh lava beds in my wanderings on the other +face. Herr Liebert has no confidence in the mountain whatsoever, +and announces his intention of leaving Buea with the army on the +first symptom of renewed volcanic activity. I attempt to discourage +him from this energetic plan, pointing out to him the beauty of that +Roman soldier at Pompeii who was found, centuries after that +eruption, still at his post; and if he regards that as merely +mechanical virtue, why not pursue the plan of the elder Pliny? Herr +Liebert planes away at his door, and says it's not in his orders to +make scientific observations on volcanoes in a state of eruption. +When it is he'll do so--until it is, he most decidedly will not. He +adds Pliny was an admiral and sailors are always as curious as cats. + +Buea seems a sporting place for weather even without volcanic +eruptions, during the whole tornado season (there are two a year), +over-charged tornadoes burst in the barrack yard. From the 14th of +June till the 27th of August you never see the sun, because of the +terrific and continuous wet season downpour. At the beginning and +end of this cheerful period occurs a month's tornado season, and the +rest of the year is dry, hot by day and cold by night. + +They are talking of making Buea into a sanatorium for the fever- +stricken. I do not fancy somehow that it's a suitable place for a +man who has got all the skin off his nerves with fever and quinine, +and is very liable to chill; but all Governments on the Coast, +English, German, or French, are stark mad on the subject of +sanatoriums in high places, though the experience they have had of +them has clearly pointed out that they are valueless in West Africa, +and a man's one chance is to get out to sea on a ship that will take +him outside the three-mile-deep fever-belt of the coast. + +Herr Liebert gives me some interesting details about the first +establishment of the station here and a bother he had with the +plantations. Only a short time ago the soldiers brought him in some +black wood spikes, which they had found with their feet, set into +the path leading to the station's koko plantations, to the end of +laming the men. On further investigation there were also found +pits, carefully concealed with sticks and leaves, and the bottoms +lined with bad thorns, also with malicious intent. The local +Bakwiri chiefs were called in and asked to explain these phenomena +existing in a country where peace had been concluded, and the chiefs +said it was quite a mistake, those things had not been put there to +kill soldiers, but only to attract their attention, to kill and +injure their own fellow-tribesmen who had been stealing from +plantations latterly. That's the West African's way entirely all +along the Coast; the "child-like" native will turn out and shoot you +with a gun to attract your attention to the fact that a tribe you +never heard of has been and stolen one of his ladies, whom you never +saw. It's the sweet infant's way of "rousing up popular opinion," +but I do not admire or approve of it. If I am to be shot for a +crime, for goodness sake let me commit the crime first. + +September 28th.--Down to Victoria in one day, having no desire to +renew and amplify my acquaintance with the mission station at Buana. +It poured torrentially all the day through. The old chief at Buana +was very nice to-day when we were coming through his territory. He +came out to meet us with some of his wives. Both men and women +among these Bakwiri are tattooed, and also painted, on the body, +face and arms, but as far as I have seen not on the legs. The +patterns are handsome, and more elaborate than any such that I have +seen. One man who came with the party had two figures of men +tattooed on the region where his waistcoat should have been. I gave +the chief some tobacco though he never begged for anything. He +accepted it thankfully, and handing it to his wives preceded us on +our path for about a mile and a half and then having reached the end +of his district, we shook hands and parted. + +After all the rain we have had, the road was of course worse than +ever, and as we were going through the forest towards the war hedge, +I noticed a strange sound, a dull roar which made the light friable +earth quiver under our feet, and I remembered with alarm the +accounts Herr Liebert has given me of the strange ways of rivers on +this mountain; how by Buea, about 200 metres below where you cross +it, the river goes bodily down a hole. How there is a waterfall on +the south face of the mountain that falls right into another hole, +and is never seen again, any more than the Buea River is. How there +are in certain places underground rivers, which though never seen +can be heard roaring, and felt in the quivering earth under foot in +the wet season, and so on. So I judged our present roar arose from +some such phenomenon, and with feminine nervousness began to fear +that the rotten water-logged earth we were on might give way, and +engulf the whole of us, and we should never be seen again. But when +we got down into our next ravine, the one where I got the fish and +water-spiders on our way up, things explained themselves. The bed +of this ravine was occupied by a raging torrent of great beauty, but +alarming appearance to a person desirous of getting across to the +other side of it. On our right hand was a waterfall of tons of +water thirty feet high or so. The brown water wreathed with foam +dashed down into the swirling pool we faced, and at the other edge +of the pool, striking a ridge of higher rock, it flew up in a lovely +flange some twelve feet or so high, before making another and a +deeper spring to form a second waterfall. My men shouted to me +above the roar that it was "a bad place." They never give me half +the credit I deserve for seeing danger, and they said, "Water all go +for hole down there, we fit to go too suppose we fall." "Don't +fall," I yelled which was the only good advice I could think of to +give them just then. + +Each small load had to be carried across by two men along a +submerged ridge in the pool, where the water was only breast high. +I had all I could do to get through it, though assisted by my +invaluable Bakwiri staff. But no harm befell. Indeed we were all +the better for it, or at all events cleaner. We met five torrents +that had to be waded during the day; none so bad as the first but +all superbly beautiful. + +When we turned our faces westwards just above the wood we had to +pass through before getting into the great road, the view of +Victoria, among its hills, and fronted by its bay, was divinely +lovely and glorious with colour. I left the boys here, as they +wanted to rest, and to hunt up water, etc., among the little cluster +of huts that are here on the right-hand side of the path, and I went +on alone down through the wood, and out on to the road, where I +found my friend, the Alsatian engineer, still flourishing and busy +with his cheery gang of woodcutters. I made a brief halt here, +getting some soda water. I was not anxious to reach Victoria before +nightfall, but yet to reach it before dinner, and while I was +chatting, my boys came through the wood and the engineer most kindly +gave them a tot of brandy apiece, to which I owe their arrival in +Victoria. I left them again resting, fearing I had overdone my +arrangements for arriving just after nightfall and went on down that +road which was more terrible than ever now to my bruised, weary +feet, but even more lovely than ever in the dying light of the +crimson sunset, with all its dark shadows among the trees begemmed +with countless fire-flies--and so safe into Victoria--sneaking up +the Government House hill by the private path through the Botanical +Gardens. + +Idabea, the steward, turned up, and I asked him to let me have some +tea and bread and butter, for I was dreadfully hungry. He rushed +off, and I heard tremendous operations going on in the room above. +In a few seconds water poured freely down through the dining-room +ceiling. It was bath palaver again. The excellent Idabea evidently +thought it was severely wanted, more wanted than such vanities as +tea. Fortunately, Herr von Lucke was away down in town, looking +after duty as usual, so I was tidy before he returned to dinner. +When he returned he had the satisfaction a prophet should feel. I +had got half-drowned, and I had got an awful cold, the most awful +cold in the head of modern times, I believe, but he was not +artistically exultant over my afflictions. + +My men having all reported themselves safe I went to my comfortable +rooms, but could not turn in, so fascinating was the warmth and +beauty down here; and as I sat on the verandah overlooking Victoria +and the sea, in the dim soft light of the stars, with the fire-flies +round me, and the lights of Victoria away below, and heard the soft +rush of the Lukola River, and the sound of the sea-surf on the +rocks, and the tom-tomming and singing of the natives, all matching +and mingling together, "Why did I come to Africa?" thought I. Why! +who would not come to its twin brother hell itself for all the +beauty and the charm of it! + + + +CHAPTER XXI. TRADE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA. + + + +As I am under the impression that the trade of the West African +Coast is its most important attribute, I hope I may be pardoned for +entering into this subject. My chief excuse for so doing lies in +the fact that independent travellers are rare in the Bights. The +last one I remember hearing of was that unfortunate gentleman who +went to the Coast for pleasure and lost a leg on Lagos Bar. Now I +have not lost any portion of my anatomy anywhere on the Coast, and +therefore have no personal prejudice against the place. I hold a +brief for no party, and I beg the more experienced old coaster to +remember that "a looker on sees the most of the game." + +First of all it should be remembered that Africa does not possess +ready-made riches to the extent it is in many quarters regarded as +possessing. It is not an India filled with the accumulated riches +of ages, waiting for the adventurer to enter and shake the pagoda +tree. The pagoda tree in Africa only grows over stores of buried +ivory, and even then it is a stunted specimen to that which grew +over the treasure-houses of Delhi, Seringapatam, and hundreds of +others as rich as they in gems and gold. Africa has lots of stuff +in it; structurally more than any other continent in the world, but +it is very much in the structure, and it requires hard work to get +it out, particularly out of one of its richest regions, the West +Coast, where the gold, silver, copper, lead, and petroleum lie +protected against the miner by African fever in its deadliest form, +and the produce prepared by the natives for the trader is equally +fever-guarded, and requires white men of a particular type to work +and export it successfully--men endowed with great luck, pluck, +patience, and tact. + +The first things to be considered are the natural resources of the +country. This subject may be divided into two sub-sections--(1) The +means of working these resources as they at present stand; (2) The +question of the possibility of increasing them by introducing new +materials of trade-value in the shape of tea, coffee, cocoa, etc. + +With regard to the first sub-division the most cheerful things that +there are to say on the West Coast trade can be said; the means of +transport being ahead of the trade in all districts save the Gold +Coast. I know this is heresy, so I will attempt to explain the +matter. First, as regards communication to Europe by sea, the West +Coast is extremely well off, the two English lines of steamers +managed by Messrs. Elder Dempster, the British African, and the +Royal African, are most enterprisingly conducted, and their devotion +to trade is absolutely pathetic. Let there be but the least vague +rumour (sometimes I have thought they have not waited for the +rumour, but "gone in" as an experiment) of a puncheon of oil, or a +log of timber waiting for shipment at an out-of-the-world, one house +port, one of these vessels will bear down on that port, and have +that cargo. In addition to the English lines there is the Woermann +line, equally devoted to cargo, I may almost say even more so, for +it is currently reported that Woermann liners will lie off and wait +for the stuff to grow. This I will not vouch for, but I know the +time allowed to a Woermann captain by his owners between Cameroons +and Big Batanga just round the corner is eight days. + +These English and German lines, having come to a friendly +understanding regarding freights, work the Bights of Benin, Biafra, +and Panavia, without any rivals, save now and again the vessels +chartered by the African Association to bring out a big cargo, and +the four sailing vessels belonging to the Association which give an +eighteenth-century look to the Rivers, and have great adventures on +the bars of Opobo and Bonny. {455} The Bristol ships on the Half +Jack Coast are not rivals, but a sort of floating factories, +shipping their stuff home and getting it out by the regular lines of +steamers. The English and German liners therefore carry the bulk of +the trade from the whole Coast. Their services are complicated and +frequent, but perfectly simple when you have grasped the fact that +the English lines may be divided into two sub-divisions--Liverpool +boats and Hamburg boats, either of which are liable when occasion +demands to call at Havre. The Liverpool line is the mail line to +the more important ports, the Hamburg line being almost entirely +composed of cargo vessels calling at the smaller ports as well as +the larger. + +There is another classification that must be grasped. The English +boats being divided into, firstly, a line having its terminus at +Sierra Leone and calling at the Isles do Los; secondly, a line +having its terminus at Akassa; thirdly, a line having its terminus +at Old Calabar; fourthly, a line having its terminus at San Paul de +Loanda, and in addition, a direct line from Antwerp to the Congo, +chartered by the Congo Free State Government. Division 4, the +South-westers, are the quickest vessels as far as Lagos, for they +only call at the Canaries, Sierra Leone, off the Kru Coast, at +Accra, and off Lagos; then they run straight from Lagos into +Cameroons, without touching the Rivers, reaching Cameroons in +twenty-seven days from Liverpool. After Cameroons they cross to +Fernando Po and run into Victoria, and then work their way steadily +down coast to their destination. Thence up again, doing all they +know to extract cargo, but never succeeding as they would wish, and +so being hungry in the hold when they get back to the Bight of +Benin, they are liable to smell cargo and go in after it, and +therefore are not necessarily the quickest boats home. + +Two French companies run to the French possessions, subsidised by +their Government (as the German line is, and as our lines are not)-- +the Chargeurs Reunis and the Fraissinet. The South-west Coast +liners of these companies run to Gaboon and then to Koutonu, up near +Lagos, then back to Gaboon, and down as far as Loango, calling on +their way home at the other ports in Congo Francais. They are +mainly carriers of import goods, because they run to time, and on +the South-west Coast unless Time has an ameliorating touch of +Eternity in it you cannot get export goods off. + +Below the Congo the rivals of the English and German lines are the +vessels of the Portuguese line, Empreza Nacional. These run from +Lisbon to the Cape Verde Islands, thence to San Thome and Principe, +then to the ports of Angola (Loanda, Benguella, Mossamedes, +Ambrizette, etc.), and they carry the bulk of the Angola trade at +present, because of the preferential dues on goods shipped in +Portuguese bottoms. + +The service of English vessels to the West Coast is weekly; to the +Rivers fortnightly; to the South-west Coast monthly; and it is the +chief thing in West Coast trade enterprise that England has to be +proud of. + +Any one of the English boats will go anywhere that mortal boat can +go; and their captains' local knowledge is a thing England at large +should be proud of and the rest of the civilised world regard with +awe-stricken admiration. That they leave no room for further +development of ocean carriage has been several times demonstrated by +the collapse of lines that have attempted to rival them--the Prince +line and more recently the General Steam Navigation. + +But although the West Coast trader has at his disposal these +vessels, he has by no means an easy time, or cheap methods, of +getting his stuff on board, save at Sierra Leone and in the Oil +Rivers. Of the Gold Coast surf, and Lagos bar I have already +spoken, and the Calemma as we call the South-west Coast surf is +nearly, if not quite as bad as that on the Gold Coast. Indeed I +hold it is worse, but then I have had more experience of it, and it +has frequently to be worked in native dugouts, and not in the well- +made surf boats used on the Gold Coast. But although these surf- +boats are more safe they are also more expensive than canoes, as a +fine 40 or 60 pounds surf-boat's average duration of life is only +two years in the Gold Coast surf, so there is little to choose from +a commercial standpoint between the two surfs when all is done. + +As regards interior transport, the difficulty is greater, but in the +majority of the West Coast possessions of European powers there +exist great facilities for transport in the network of waterways +near the coast and the great rivers running far into the interior. + +These waterways are utilised by the natives, being virtually roads; +in many districts practically the only roads existing for the +transport of goods in bulk, or in the present state of the trade +required to exist. But there is room for more white enterprise in +the matter of river navigation; and my own opinion is that if +English capital were to be employed in the direction of small +suitably-built river steamers, it would be found more repaying than +lines of railway. Waterways that might be developed in this manner +exist in the Cross River, the Volta, and the Ancobra. I do not say +that there will be any immediate dividend on these river steamboat +lines, but I do not think that there will be any dividend, immediate +or remote, on railways in West Africa. This question of transport +is at present regarded as a burning one throughout the Continent; +and for the well-being of certain parts of the West Coast railways +are essential, such as at Lagos, and on the Gold Coast. Of Lagos I +do not pretend to speak. I have never been ashore there. Of the +Gold Coast I have seen a little, and heard a great deal more, and I +think I may safely say that railway making would not be difficult on +it, for it is good hard land, not stretches of rotten swamp. The +great difficulty in making railroads here will consist in landing +the material through the surf. This difficulty cannot be got over, +except at enormous expense, by making piers, but it might be +surmounted by sending the plant ashore on small bar boats that could +get up the Volta or Ancobra. When up the Volta it may be said, "it +would be nowhere when any one wanted it," but the cast-iron idea +that goods must go ashore at places where there are Government +headquarters like Accra and Cape Coast, places where the surf is +about at its worst, seems to me an erroneous one. The landing place +at Cape Coast might be made safe and easy by the expenditure of a +few thousands in "developing" that rock which at present gives +shelter WHEN you get round the lee side of it, but this would only +make things safer for surf-boats. No other craft could work this +bit of beach; and there is plenty of room for developing the Volta, +as it is a waterway which a vessel drawing six feet can ascend fifty +miles from July till November, and thirty miles during the rest of +the year. The worst point about the Volta is the badness of its +bar--a great semicircular sweep with heavy breakers--too bad a bar +for boats to cross; but a steamer on the Lagos bar boat plan might +manage it, as the Bull Frog reported in 1884 nineteen to twenty-one +feet on it, one hour before high water. The absence of this bar +boat, and the impossibility of sending goods out in surf-boats +across the bar, causes the goods from Adda (Riverside), the chief +town on the Volta, situated about six miles up the river from its +mouth, to be carried across the spit of land to Beach Town, and then +brought out through the shore surf--the worst bit of surf on the +whole Gold Coast. The Ancobra is a river which penetrates the +interior, through a district very rich in gold and timber and more +than suspected of containing petroleum. It is from eighty to one +hundred yards wide up as far as Akanko, and during the rains carries +three and a half to four and a half fathoms, and boats are taken up +to Tomento about forty miles from its mouth with goods to the Wassaw +gold mines. But the bar of the Ancobra is shallow, only giving six +feet, although it is firm and settled, not like that of the Volta +and Lagos; and the Portuguese, in the sixteenth century, used to get +up this river, and work the country to a better profit than we do +nowadays. + +The other chief Gold Coast river, the Bosum Prah, that enters the +sea at Chama, is no use for navigation from the sea, being +obstructed with rock and rapids, and its bar only carrying two feet; +but whether these rivers are used or not for the landing of railroad +plant, it is certain that that plant must be landed, and the +railways made, for if ever a district required them the Gold Coast +does. It is to be hoped it will soon enter into the phase of +construction, for it is a return to the trade (from which it draws +its entire revenue) that the local government owes, and owes +heavily; and if our new acquisition of Ashantee is to be developed, +it must have a railway bringing it in touch with the Coast trade, +not necessarily running into Coomassie, but near enough to Coomassie +to enable goods to be sold there at but a small advance on Coast +prices. + +It is an error, easily fallen into, to imagine that the natives in +the interior are willing to give much higher prices than the sea- +coast natives for goods. Be it granted that they are compelled now +to give say on an average seventy-five per cent. higher prices to +the sea-coast natives who at present act as middlemen between them +and the white trader, but if the white trader goes into the +interior, he has to face, first, the difficulty of getting his goods +there safely; secondly, the opposition of the native traders who +can, and will drive him out of the market, unless he is backed by +easy and cheap means of transport. Take the case of Coomassie now. +A merchant, let us say, wants to take up from the Coast to Coomassie +3,000 pounds worth of goods to trade with. To transport this he has +to employ 1,300 carriers at one shilling and three pence per day a +head. The time taken is eight days there, and eight days back, = +sixteen days, which figures out at 1,300 pounds, without allowing +for loss and damage. In order to buy produce with these goods that +will cover this, and all shipping expenses, etc., he would have to +sell at a far higher figure in Coomassie than he would on the sea- +coast, and the native traders would easily oust him from the market. +Moreover so long as a district is in the hands of native traders +there is no advance made, and no development goes forward; and it +would be a grave error to allow this to take place at Coomassie, now +that we have at last done what we should have done in 1874 and taken +actual possession, for Coomassie is a grand position that, if +properly managed for a few years, will become a great interior +market, attracting to itself the routes of interior trade. It is +not now a great centre; because of the oppression and usury which +the Kings of Ashantee have inflicted on all in their power, and +which have caused Coomassie mainly to attract one form of trade, +viz., slaves; who were used in their constant human sacrifices, and +for whom a higher price was procurable here than from the Mohammedan +tribes to the north under French sway. And as for the other trade +stuffs, they have naturally for years drained into the markets of +the French Soudan; instead of through such a country as Ashantee, +into the markets of the English Gold Coast; and so unless we run a +railroad up to encourage the white traders to go inland, and make a +market that will attract these trade routes into Coomassie, we shall +be a few years hence singing out "What's the good of Ashantee?" and +so forth, as is our foolish wont, never realising that the West +Coast is not good unless it is made so by white effort. + +The new regime on the Gold Coast is undoubtedly more active than the +old--more alive to the importance of pushing inland and so forth-- +and a road is going to be made twenty-five feet wide all the way to +Coomassie, and then beyond it, which is an excellent thing in its +way. But it will not do much for trade, because the pacification of +the country, and the greater security of personal property to the +native, which our rule will afford will aid him in bringing his +goods to the coast, but not so greatly aid our taking our goods +inland, for the carriers will require just as much for carrying +goods along a road, as they do for carrying goods along a bush path, +and rightly too, for it is quite as heavy work for them, and +heavier, as I know from my experience of the governmental road in +Cameroon. In such a country as West Africa there can be no doubt +that a soft bush path with a thick coating of moss and leaves on it, +and shaded from the sun above by the interlacing branches, is far +and away better going than a hard, sunny wide road. This road will +be valuable for military expeditions possibly, but military +expeditions are not everyday affairs on the Gold Coast; and it +cannot be of use for draught animals, because of the horse-sickness +and tsetse fly which occur as soon as you get into the forest behind +the littoral region: so it must not be regarded as an equivalent +for steam transport, as it will only serve to bring down the little +trickle of native trade, and possibly not increase that trickle +much. + +The question of transport of course is not confined to the Gold +Coast. Below Lagos there is the great river system, towards which +the trade slowly drains through native hands to the white man's +factories on the river banks, but this trade being in the hands of +native traders is not a fraction of what it would become in the +hands of white men; and any mineral wealth there may be in the +heavily-forested stretches of country remains unworked and unknown. +The difficulty of transport here greatly hampers the exploitation of +the timber wealth, it being utterly useless for the natives to fell +even a fine tree, unless it is so close to a waterway that it can be +floated down to the factory. This it is which causes the ebony, +bar, and cam wood to be cut up by them into small billets which a +man can carry. The French and Germans are both now following the +plan of getting as far as possible into the interior by the +waterways, and then constructing railways. The construction of +these railways is fairly easy, as regards gradients, and absence of +dense forest, when your waterway takes you up to the great park-like +plateau lands which extend, as a general rule, behind the forest +belt, and the inevitable mountain range. The most important of +these railways will be that of M. de Brazza up the Sanga valley in +the direction of the Chad. When this railway is constructed, it +will be the death of the Cameroon and Oil River trade, more +particularly of the latter, for in the Cameroons the Germans have +broken down the monopoly of the coast tribes, which we in our +possessions under the Niger Coast Protectorate have not. The Niger +Company has broken through, and taken full possession of a great +interior, doing a bit of work of which every Englishman should feel +proud, for it is the only thing in West Africa that places us on a +level with the French and Germans in courage and enterprise in +penetrating the interior, and fortunately the regions taken over by +the Company are rich and not like the Senegal "made of sand and +savage savages." Where in West Africa outside the Company will you +find men worthy as explorers to be named in the same breath with de +Brazza, Captain Binger, and Zintgraff? + +Some day, I fear when it will be too late, we shall realise the +foolishness of sticking down on the sea coast, tidying up our +settlements, establishing schools, and drains, and we shall find our +possessions in the Rivers and along the Gold Coast valueless, +particularly in the Rivers, for the trade will surely drain towards +the markets along the line of the French railroad behind them, for +the middlemen tribe that we foster exact a toll of seventy-five per +cent. on the trade that comes through their hands, and the English +Government is showing great signs of an inclination to impose such +duties on the only stuff the native cares much for--alcohol--that he +will take his goods to the market where he can get his alcohol; even +if he pays a toll to these markets of fifty per cent. But of this I +will speak later, and we will return to the question of transport. +Mr. Scott Elliot, {463} speaking on this subject as regarding East +African regions, has given us a most interesting contribution based +on his personal experience, and official figures. As many of his +observations and figures are equally applicable to the West Coast, I +hope I may be forgiven for quoting him. His criticism is in favour +of the utilisation of every mile of waterway available. He says, +regarding the Victoria Nyanza, that "it is possible to place on it a +steamer at the cost of 12,677 pounds. Taking the cost of +maintenance, fuel and working expenses at 1,200 pounds a year (a +large estimate) a capital expenditure of 53,000 pounds, (13,000 +pounds for the steamer and 40,000 pounds to yield three per cent. +interest) would enable this steamer to convey, say thirty tons at +the rate of five to ten miles an hour for 1,600 pounds a year. This +makes it possible to convey a ton at the rate of a halfpenny a mile, +while it would require about 53,000 pounds to build a railway only +eighteen miles long." + +The Congo Free State railway I am informed, has cost, at a rate per +mile, something like eight times this. Further on Mr. Elliot says: +"In America the surplus population of Europe, and the markets in the +Eastern States have made railway development profitable on the +whole, but in Africa, until pioneer work has been done, and the +prospects of colonisation and plantation are sufficiently definite +and settled to induce colonists to go out in considerable numbers, +it will be ruinous to build a long railway line." + +I do not quote these figures to discourage the West Coaster from his +railway, but only to induce him to get his Government to make it in +the proper direction, namely, into the interior, where further +development of trade is possible. Judging from other things in +English colonies, I should expect, if left to the spirit of English +(West Coast) enterprise, it would run in a line that would enable +the engine drivers to keep an eye on the Atlantic Ocean instead of +the direction in which it is high time our eyes should be turned. I +confess I am not an enthusiast on civilising the African. My idea +is that the French method of dealing with Africa is the best at +present. Get as much of the continent as possible down on the map +as yours, make your flag wherever you go a sacred thing to the +native--a thing he dare not attack. Then, when you have done this, +you may abandon the French plan, and gradually develop the trade in +an English manner, but not in the English manner a la Sierra Leone. +But do your pioneer work first. There is a very excellent +substratum for English pioneer work on our Coasts in the trading +community, for trade is the great key to the African's heart, and +everywhere the English trader and his goods stand high in West +African esteem. This pioneer work must be undertaken, or subsidised +by the Government as it has been in the French possessions, for the +West Coast does not offer those inducements to the ordinary +traveller that, let us say, East Africa with its magnificent herds +of big game, or the northern frontier of India, with its mountains +and its interesting forms, relics, and monuments of a high culture, +offer. Travel in West Africa is very hard work, and very unhealthy. +There are many men who would not hesitate for a moment to go there, +were the dangers of the native savagery the chief drawback; but they +hesitate before a trip which means, in all probability, month after +month of tramping through wet gloomy forests with a swamp here and +there for a change, {465} and which will, the chances are 100 to 1, +end in their dying ignominiously of fever in some wretched squalid +village. + +Reckless expenditure of money in attempts to open up the country is +to be deprecated, for this hampers its future terribly, even if +attended with partial success, the mortgage being too heavy for the +estate, as the Congo Free State finances show; and if it is attended +with failure it discourages further efforts. What we want at +present in West Africa are three or four Bingers and Zintgraffs to +extend our possessions northwards, eastwards, and south-eastwards, +until they command the interior trade routes. And there is no +reason that these men should enter from the West Coast, getting +themselves killed, or half killed, with fever, before they reach +their work. Uganda, if half one hears of it is true, would be a +very suitable base for them to start from, and then travelling west +they might come down to the present limit of our West Coast +possessions. This belt of territory across the continent would give +us control of, and place us in touch with, the whole of the interior +trade. A belt from north to south in Africa--thanks to our +supineness and folly--we can now never have. + +I will now briefly deal with the second sub-division I spoke of some +pages back--the possibility of introducing new trade exports by +means of cultivating plantations. The soil of West Africa is +extremely rich in places, but by no means so in all, for vast tracts +of it are mangrove swamps, and other vast tracts of it are miserably +poor, sour, sandy clay. It is impossible in the space at my +disposal to enter into a full description of the localities where +these unprofitable districts occur, but you will find them here and +there all along the Coast after leaving Sierra Leone. The sour clay +seems to be new soil recently promoted into the mainland from dried- +up mangrove swamps, and a good rough rule is, do not start a +plantation on soil that is not growing hard-wood forest. +Considerable areas on the Gold Coast, even though the soil is good, +are now useless for cultivation, on account of their having been +deforested by the natives' wasteful way of making their farms, +coupled with the harmattan and the long dry season. + +The regions of richest soil are not in our possessions, but in those +of Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, namely, the Cameroons and +its volcanic island series, Fernando Po, Principe, and San Thome. + +The rich volcanic earths of these places will enable them to compete +in the matter of plantations with any part of the known world. +Cameroons is undoubtedly the best of these, because of its superior +river supply, and although not in the region of the double seasons +it is just on the northern limit of them, and the height of the +Peak--13,760 feet--condenses the water-laden air from its +surrounding swamps and the Atlantic, so that rain is pretty frequent +throughout the year. When within the region of the double seasons +just south of Cameroons you have a rainfall no heavier than that of +the Rivers, yet better distributed, an essential point for the +prosperity of such plantations as those of tea and tobacco, which +require showers once a month. To the north of Cameroons there is no +prospect of either of these well-paying articles being produced in a +quantity, or quality, that would compete with South America, India, +or the Malayan regions, and they will have to depend in the matter +of plantations on coffee and cacao. Below Cameroons, Congo Francais +possesses the richest soil and an excellently arranged climate. The +lower Congo soil is bad and poor close to the river. Kacongo, the +bit of Portuguese territory to the north of the Congo banks, and +that part of Angola as far as the River Bingo, are pretty much the +same make of country as Congo Francais, only less heavily forested. +The whole of Angola is an immensely rich region, save just round +Loanda where the land is sand-logged for about fifty square miles, +and those regions to the extreme south and south-east, which are in +the Kalahari desert regions. + +Coffee grows wild throughout Angola in those districts removed from +the dry coast-lands--in the districts of Golongo Alto and Cassengo +in great profusion, and you can go through utterly uncultivated +stretches of it, thirty miles of it at a time. The natives, now the +merchants have taught them its value, are collecting this wild berry +and bringing it in in quantities, and in addition the English firm +of Newton and Carnegie have started plantations up at Cassengo. The +greater part of these plantations consist of clearing and taking +care of the wild coffee, but in addition regularly planting and +cultivating young trees, as it is found that the yield per tree is +immensely increased by cultivation. + +Six hundred to eight hundred bags a month were shipped from +Ambrizette alone when I was there in 1893, and the amount has since +increased and will still further increase when that leisurely, but +very worthy little railroad line, which proudly calls itself the +Royal Trans-African, shall have got its sections made up into the +coffee district. It was about thirty miles off at Ambaca when I was +in Angola, but by now it may have got further. However, I do not +think it is very likely to have gone far, and I have a persuasion +that that railroad will not become trans-African in my day; still it +has an "immediate future" compared with that which any other West +Coast railway can expect; for besides the coffee, Angola is rich in +malachite and gum of high quality, and its superior government will +attract the rubber from the Kassai region of the Congo Free State. + +In our own possessions the making of plantations is being carried on +with much energy by Messrs. Miller Brothers on the Gold Coast, {468} +by several private capitalists, including Mr. A. L. Jones of +Liverpool, at Lagos; by the Royal Niger Company in their territory, +and by several head Agents in the Niger Coast Protectorate. Sir +Claude MacDonald offered every inducement to this trade development, +and gave great material help by founding a botanical station at Old +Calabar, where plants could be obtained. He did his utmost to try +and get the natives to embark on plantation-making, ably seconded by +Mr. Billington, the botanist in charge of the botanical station, who +wrote an essay in Effik on coffee growing and cultivation at large +for their special help and guidance. A few chiefs, to oblige, took +coffee plants, but they are not enthusiastic, for the slaves that +would be required to tend coffee and keep it clean, in this vigorous +forest region, are more profitably employed now in preparing palm +oil. + +Of the coffee plantation at Man o' War Bay I have already spoken, +and of those in Congo Francais, which, although not at present +shipping like the German plantation, will soon be doing so. In +addition to coffee and cacao attempts are being made in Congo +Francais to introduce the Para rubber tree, a large plantation of +which I frequently visited near Libreville, and found to be doing +well. This would be an excellent tree to plant in among coffee, for +it is very clean and tidy, and seems as if it would take to West +Africa like a duck to water, but it is not a quick cropper, and I am +informed must be left at least three or four years before it is +tapped at all, so, as the gardening books would say, it should be +planted early. + +It is very possible many other trees producing tropical products +valuable in commerce might be introduced successfully into West +Africa. The cultivation of cloves and nutmegs would repay here +well, for allied species of trees and shrubs are indigenous, but the +first of these trees takes a long time before coming into bearing +and the cultivation of the second is a speculative affair. Allspice +I have found growing wild in several districts, but in no large +quantity. Cotton with a fine long staple grows wild in quantities +wherever there is open ground, but it is not cultivated by the +natives; and when attempts have been made to get them to collect it +they do so, but bring it in very dirty, and the traders having no +machinery to compress it like that used in America, it does not pay +to ship. Indigo is common everywhere along the Coast and used by +the natives for dyeing, as is also a teazle, which gives a very fine +permanent maroon; and besides these there are many other dyes and +drugs used by them--colocynth, datura soap bark, cardamom, ginger, +peppers, strophanthus, nux vomica, etc., etc., but the difficulty of +getting these things brought in to the traders in sufficient +quantities prevents their being exported to any considerable extent. +Tea has not been tried, and is barely worth trying, though there is +little doubt it would grow in Cameroons and Congo Francais where it +would have an excellent climate and pretty nearly any elevation it +liked. But I believe tea has of late years been discovered to be +like coffee, not such a stickler for elevation as it used to be +thought, merely requiring not to have its roots in standing water. + +Vanilla grows with great luxuriance in Cameroons. In Victoria a +grove of gigantic cacao trees is heavily overgrown with this lovely +orchid in a most perfect way. It does not seem to injure the cacaos +in the least, and there are other kinds of trees it will take +equally well to. I saw it growing happily and luxuriantly under the +direction of the Roman Catholic Mission at Landana; but it requires +a continuously damp climate. Vanilla when once started gives little +or no trouble, and its pods do not require any very careful +manipulation before sending to Europe, and this is a very important +point, for a great hindrance--THE great hindrance to plantation +enterprise on the Coast--is the difficulty of getting neat-handed +labourers. I had once the pleasure of meeting a Dutch gentleman--a +plantation expert, who had been sent down the West Coast by a firm +trading there, and also in the Malay Archipelago--prospecting, at a +heavy fee, to see whether it would pay the firm to open up +plantations there better than in Malaysia. I believe his final +judgment was adverse to the West African plan, because of the +difficulty of getting skilful natives to tend young plants, and +prepare the products. Tea he regarded as quite hopeless from this +difficulty, and he said he did not think you would ever get Africans +at as cheap a rate, or so deftly fingered to roll tea, as you can +get Asiatics. No one knows until they have tried it the trouble it +is to get an African to do things carefully; but it is a trouble, +not an impossibility. If you don't go off with fever from sheer +worry and vexation the thing can be done, but in the meantime he is +maddening. I have had many a day's work on plantations instructing +cheerful, willing, apparently intelligent Ethiopians of various +sexes and sizes on the mortal crime of hoeing up young coffee +plants. They have quite seen it. "Oh, Lor! massa, I no fit to do +dem thing." Aren't they! You go along to-morrow morning, and +you'll find your most promising pupils laying around them with their +hoes, talking about the disgraceful way their dearest friends go on, +and destroying young coffee right and left. They are just as bad, +if not slightly worse, particularly the ladies, when it comes to +picking coffee. As soon as your eye is off them, the bough is off +the tree. I know one planter who leads the life of the Surprise +Captain in W. H. S. Gilbert's ballad, lurking among his groves, and +suddenly appearing among his pickers. This, he says, has given them +a feeling of uncertainty as to when and where he may appear, +kassengo and all, that has done much to preserve his plantation; but +it is a wearying life, not what he expected from his book on coffee- +plantations, which had a frontispiece depicting a planter seated in +his verandah, with a tumblerful of something cool at his right hand, +and a pipe in his mouth, contemplating a large plantation full of +industrious natives picking berries into baskets on all sides. + + +LABOUR.--The labour problem is one that must be studied and solved +before West Africa can advance much further than its present culture +condition, because the climate is such that the country cannot be +worked by white labourers; and that this state of affairs will +remain as it is until some true specific is discovered for malaria, +something important happens to the angle of the earth's axis, or +some radical change takes place in the nature of the sun, is the +opinion of all acquainted with the region. The West African climate +shows no signs of improving whatsoever. If it shows any sign of +alteration it is for the worse, for of late years two extremely +deadly forms of fever have come into notice here, malarial typhoid +and blackwater. The malarial typhoid seems confined to districts +where a good deal of European attention has been given to drainage +systems, which is in itself discouraging. + +The labour problem has been imported with European civilisation. +The civilisation has not got on to any considerable extent, but the +labour problem has; for, being a malignant nuisance, it has taken to +West Africa as a duck to water, and it is now flourishing. It has +not yet, however, attained its zenith; it is just waiting for the +abolition of domestic slavery for that--and then! Meanwhile it +grows with the demand for hands to carry on plantation work, and +public works. On the West Coast--that is to say, from Sierra Leone +to Cameroon--it is worse than on the South West Coast from Cameroon +to Benguella. + +The Kruman, the Accra, and the Sierra Leonian are at present on the +West Coast the only solution available. The first is as fine a +ship-and-beach-man as you could reasonably wish for, but no good for +plantation work. The second is, thanks to the practical training he +has received from the Basel Mission, a very fair artisan, cook, or +clerk, but also no good for plantation work, except as an overseer. +The third is a poor artisan, an excellent clerk, or subordinate +official, but so unreliable in the matter of honesty as to be nearly +reliable to swindle any employer. Lagos turns out a large quantity +of educated natives, but owing to the growing prosperity of the +colony, these are nearly all engaged in Lagos itself. + +An important but somewhat neglected factor in the problem is the +nature of the West African native, and as I think a calm and +unbiassed study of this factor would give us the satisfactory +solution to the problem, I venture to give my own observations on +it. + +The Kruboys, as the natives of the Grain Coast are called, +irrespective of the age of the individual, by the white men--the +Menekussi as the Effiks call them--are the most important people of +West Africa; for without their help the working of the Coast would +cost more lives than it already does, and would be in fact +practically impossible. Ever since vessels have regularly +frequented the Bights, the Kruman has had the helpful habit of +shipping himself off on board, and doing all the heavy work. Their +first tutors were the slavers, who initiated them into the habit, +and instructed them in ship's work, that they might have the benefit +of their services in working their vessels along the Slave Coast. +And in order to prevent any Kruboy being carried off as a slave by +mistake, which would have prejudiced these useful allies, the +slavers persuaded them always to tattoo a band of basket-work +pattern down their foreheads and out on to the tip of their broad +noses: this is the most extensive bit of real tattoo that I know of +in West Africa, and the Kruboys still keep the fashion. Their next +tutors were the traders, who have taught and still teach them beach +work; how to handle cargo, try oil, and make themselves generally +useful in a factory,--"learn sense," as the Kruboy himself puts it. +To religious teaching the Kruboy seems for an African singularly +impervious, but the two lessons he has learnt--ship and shore work-- +are the best that the white has so far taught the black, because +unattended with the evil consequences that have followed the other +lessons. Unfortunately, the Kruman of the Grain Coast and the +Cabinda of the South West Coast, are the only two tribes that have +had the benefit of this kind of education, but there are many other +tribes who, had circumstances led the trader and the slaver to turn +their attention to them, would have done their tutors quite as much +credit. But circumstances did not, and so nowadays, just as a +hundred years ago, you must get the Kruboy to help you if you are +going to do any work, missionary or mercantile, from Sierra Leone to +Cameroon. Below Cameroon the Kruboy does not like to go, except to +the beach of an English or German house, for he has suffered much +from the Congo Free State, and from Spaniards and Portuguese, who +have not respected his feelings in the matter of wanting to return +every year, or every two years at the most, to his own country, and +his rooted aversion to agricultural work and carrying loads about +the bush. + +The pay of the Kruboy averages 1 pounds a month. There are +modifications in the way in which this sum is reached; for example, +some missionaries pay each man 20 pounds a year, but then he has to +find his own chop. Some South-West Coast traders pay 8 pounds a +year, but they find their boys entirely, and well, in food, and give +them a cloth a week. English men-of-war on the West African Station +have, like other vessels to take them on to save the white crew, and +they pay the Kruboys the same as they pay the white men, i.e., 4 +pounds 10s. a month with rations. Needless to say, men-of-war are +popular, although service on board them cuts our friend off from +almost every chance of stealing chickens and other things of which I +may not speak, as Herodotus would say. I do not know the manner in +which men-of-war pay off the Kruboy, but I think in hard cash. In +the circles of society I most mix with on the Coast--the mercantile +marine and the trading--he is always paid in goods, in cloth, gin, +guns, tobacco, gunpowder, etc., with little concessions to his +individual fancy in the matter, for each of these articles has a +known value, and just as one of our coins can be changed, so you can +get here change for a gun or any other trade article. + +The Kruboy much prefers being paid off in goods. I well remember an +exquisite scene between Captain --- and King Koffee of the Kru Coast +when the subject of engaging boys was being shouted over one voyage +out. The Captain at that time thought I was a W.W.T.A.A. and +ostentatiously wanted Koffee to let him pay off the boys he was +engaging to work the ship in money, and not in gin and gunpowder. +King Koffee's face was a study. If Captain ---, whom he knew of +old, had stood on his head and turned bright blue all over with +yellow spots, before his eyes, it would not have been anything like +such a shock to his Majesty. "What for good him ting, Cappy?" he +said, interrogation and astonishment ringing in every word. "What +for good him ting for We country, Cappy? I suppose you gib gin, +tobacco, gun he be fit for trade, but money--" Here his Majesty's +feelings flew ahead of the Royal command of language, great as that +was, and he expectorated with profound feeling and expression. +Captain ---'s expressive countenance was the battle ground of +despair and grief at being thus forced to have anything to do with a +traffic unpopular in missionary circles. He however controlled his +feelings sufficiently to carefully arrange the due amount of each +article to be paid, and the affair was settled. + +The somewhat cumbrous wage the Kruboy gets at the end of his term of +service, minus those things he has had on account and plus those +things he has "found," is certainly a source of great worry to our +friend. He obtains a box from the carpenter of the factory, or buys +a tin one, and puts therein his tobacco and small things, and then +he buys a padlock and locks his box of treasure up, hanging the key +with his other ju-jus round his neck, and then he has peace +regarding this section of his belongings. Peace at present, for the +day must some time dawn when an experimental genius shall arise +among his fellow countrymen, who will try and see if one key will +not open two locks. When this possibility becomes known I can +foresee nothing for the Kruboy but nervous breakdown; for even now, +with his mind at rest regarding the things in his box, he lives in a +state of constant anxiety about those out of it, which have to lie +on the deck during the return voyage to his home. He has to keep a +vigilant eye on them by day, and sleep spread out over them by +night, for fear of his companions stealing them. Why he should take +all this trouble about his things on his voyage home I can't make +out, if what is currently reported is true, that all the wages +earned by the working boys become the property of the Elders of his +tribe when he returns to them. I myself rather doubt if this is the +case, but expect there is a very heavy tax levied on them, for your +Kruboy is very much a married man, and the Elders of his tribe have +to support and protect his wives and families when he is away at +work, and I should not wonder if the law was that these said wives +and families "revert to the State" if the boy fails to return within +something like his appointed time. There must be something besides +nostalgia to account for the dreadful worry and apprehension shown +by a detained Kruboy. I am sure the tax is heavily taken in cloth, +for the boys told me that if it were made up into garments for +themselves they did not have to part with it on their return. +Needless to say, this makes our friend turn his attention to +needlework during his return voyage and many a time I have seen the +main deck looking as if it had been taken possession of by a +demoniacal Dorcas working party. + +Strangely little is known of the laws and language of these Krumen, +considering how close the association is between them and the +whites. This arises, I think, not from the difficulty of learning +their language, but from the ease and fluency with which they speak +their version of our own--Kru-English, or "trade English," as it is +called, and it is therefore unnecessary for a hot and wearied white +man to learn "Kru mouth." What particularly makes me think this is +the case is, that I have picked up a little of it, and I found that +I could make a Kruman understand what I was driving at with this and +my small stock of Bassa mouth and Timneh, on occasions when I wished +to say something to him I did not want generally understood. But +the main points regarding Krumen are well enough known by old +Coasters--their willingness to work if well fed, and their habit of +engaging for twelve-month terms of work and then returning to "We +country." A trader who is satisfied with a boy gives him, when he +leaves, a bit of paper telling the captain of any vessel that he +will pay the boy's passage to his factory again, when he is willing +to come. The period that a boy remains in his beloved "We country" +seems to be until his allowance of his own earnings is expended. +One can picture to one's self some sad partings in that far-away +dark land. "My loves," says the Kruboy to his families, his voice +heavy with tears, "I must go. There is no more cloth, I have +nothing between me and an easily shocked world but this decayed +filament of cotton." And then his families weep with him, or, what +is more likely, but not so literary, expectorate with emotion, and +he tears himself away from them and comes on board the passing +steamer in the uniform of Gunga Din--"nothing much before and rather +less than half of that behind," and goes down Coast on the strength +of the little bit of paper from his white master which he has +carefully treasured, and works like a nigger in the good sense of +the term for another spell, to earn more goods for his home-folk. + +Those boys who are first starting on travelling to work, and those +without books, have no difficulty in getting passages on the +steamers, for a captain is glad to get as many on board as he can, +being sure to get their passage money and a premium for them, so +great is the demand for Kru labour. But even this help to working +the West Coast has been much interfered with of late years by the +action of the French Government in imposing a tax per head on all +labourers leaving their ports on the Ivory Coast. This tax, I +believe, is now removed or much reduced; but as for the Liberian +Republic, it simply gets its revenue in an utterly unjustifiable way +out of taxing the Krumen who ship as labourers. The Krumen are no +property of theirs, and they dare not interfere with them on shore; +but owing to that little transaction in the celebrated Rubber +Monopoly, the Liberians became possessed of some ready cash, which, +with great foresight, they invested in two little gun-boats which +enabled them to enforce their tax on the Krumen in their small +canoes. I do not feel so sympathetic with the Krumen or their +employers in this matter as I should, for the Krumen are silly hens +not to go and wipe out Liberia on shore, and the white men are silly +hens not to--but I had better leave that opinion unexpressed. + +The power of managing Kruboys is a great accomplishment for any one +working the West Coast. One man will get 20 per cent. more work out +of his staff, and always have them cheerful, fit, and ready; while +another will get very little out of the same set of men except +vexation to himself, and accidents to his goods; but this very +necessary and important factor in trade is not to be taught with +ink. Some men fall into the proper way of managing the boys very +quickly, others may have years of experience and yet fail to learn +it. The rule is, make them respect you, and make them like you, and +then the thing is done; but first dealing with the Kruboy, with all +his good points, is very trying work, and they give the new hand an +awful time of it while they are experimenting on him to see how far +they can do him. They do this very cleverly, but shortsightedly, +more Africano, for they spoil the tempers of half the white men whom +they have to deal with. It is not necessary to treat them brutally, +in fact it does not pay to do so, but it is necessary to treat them +severely, to keep a steady hand over them. Never let them become +familiar, never let them see you have made a mistake. When you make +a mistake in giving them an order let it be understood that that way +of doing a thing is a peculiarly artful dodge of your own, and if it +fails, that it is their fault. They will quite realise this if it +is properly managed. I speak from experience; for example, once, +owing to the superior sex being on its back with fever and sending +its temperature up with worrying about getting some ebony logs off +to a bothering wretch of a river steamer that must needs come +yelling along for cargo just then, I said, "You leave it to me, I'll +get it shipped all right," and proceeded, with the help of three +Kruboys, to raft that ebony off. I saw as soon as I had embarked on +the affair, from the Kruboys' manner, I was down the wrong path, but +how, or why, I did not see until a neat arrangement of ebony billets +tied together with tie-tie was in the water. Then I saw that I had +constructed an excellent sounding apparatus for finding out the +depth of water in the river; and that ebony had an affinity for the +bottom of water, not for the top. The situation was a trying one +and the way the captain of the vessel kept dancing about his deck +saying things in a foreign tongue, but quite comprehensible, was +distracting; but I did not devote myself to giving him the +information he asked for, as to what PARTICULAR kind of idiot I was, +because he was neither a mad doctor nor an ethnologist and had no +right to the information; but I put a raft on the line of a very +light wood we had a big store of, and this held up the ebony, and +the current carried it down to the steamer all right. Then we +hauled the line home and sent him some more on the patent plan, but, +just to hurry up, you understand, and not delay the ship, a deadly +crime, SOME of that ebony went off in a canoe and all ended happily, +and the Kruboys regarded themselves as having been the spectators of +another manifestation of white intelligence. In defence of the +captain's observations, I must say he could not see me because I was +deploying behind a woodstack; nevertheless, I do not mean to say +this method of shipping ebony is a good one. I shall not try it +again in a hurry, and the situation cannot be pulled through unless +you have, as Allah gave me, a very swift current; and although, when +the thing went well, I DID say things from behind the woodstack to +the captain, I did not feel justified in accepting his apologetic +invitation to come on board and have a drink. + +My experiences with Kruboys would, if written in full, make an +excellent manual for a new-comer, but they are too lengthy for this +chapter. My first experience with them on a small bush journey aged +me very much; and ever since I have shirked chaperoning Kruboys +about the West African bush among ticklish-tempered native gentlemen +and their forward hussies of wives. + +I have always admired men for their strength, their courage, their +enterprise, their unceasing struggle for the beyond--the something +else, but not until I had to deal with Krumen did I realise the +vastness to which this latter characteristic of theirs could attain. +One might have been excused for thinking that a man without rates +and taxes, without pockets, and without the manifold, want-creating +culture of modern European civilisation and education would +necessarily have been bounded, to some extent, in his desires. But +one would have been wrong, profoundly wrong, in so thinking, for the +Kruman yearns after, and duns for, as many things for his body as +the lamented Faustus did for his soul, and away among the apes this +interesting creature would have to go, at once, if the wanting of +little were a crucial test for the determination of the family +termed by the scientific world the Hominidae. Later, when I got to +know the Krumen well, I learnt that they desired not only the vast +majority of the articles that they saw, but did more--obtained them- +-at all events some of them, without asking me for them; such +commodities, for example, as fowls, palm wine, old tins and bottles, +and other gentlemen's wives were never safe. One of that first gang +of boys showed self-help to such a remarkable degree that I +christened him Smiles. His name--You-be-d--d--being both protracted +and improper, called for change of some sort, but even this brought +no comfort to one still hampered with conventional ideas regarding +property, and frequent roll-calls were found necessary, so that the +crimes of my friend Smiles and his fellows might not accumulate to +an unmanageable extent. + +This used to be the sort of thing--"Where them Nettlerash lib?" "He +lib for drunk, Massa." "Where them Smiles?" "He lib for town, for +steal, Massa." "Where them Black Man Misery?" But I draw a veil +over the confessional, for there is simply no artistic reticence +about your Kruman when he is telling the truth, or otherwise, +regarding a fellow creature. + +After accumulating with this gang enough experience to fill a hat +(remembering always "one of the worst things you can do in West +Africa is to worry yourself") I bethought me of the advice I had +received from my cousin Rose Kingsley, who had successfully ridden +through Mexico when Mexico was having a rather worse revolution than +usual, "to always preserve a firm manner." I thought I would try +this on those Kruboys and said "NO" in place of "I wish you would +not do that, please." I can't say it was an immediate success. +During this period we came across a trader's lonely store wherein he +had a consignment of red parasols. After these appalling objects +the souls of my Krumen hungered with a great desire. "NO," said I, +in my severest tone, and after buying other things, we passed on. +Imagine my horror, therefore, hours afterwards and miles away, to +find my precious crew had got a red parasol apiece. Previous +experience quite justified me in thinking that these had been +stolen; and I pictured to myself my Portuguese friends, whose +territory I was then in, commenting upon the incident, and reviling +me as another instance of how the brutal English go looting through +the land. I found, however, I was wrong, for the parasols had been +"dashed" my rapacious rascals "for top," and the last one connected +with the affair who deserved pity was the trader from whom I had +believed them stolen. It was I, not he, who suffered, for it was +the wet season in West Africa and those red parasols ran. To this +day my scientific soul has never been able to account for the vast +body of crimson dye those miserable cotton things poured out, +plentifully drenching myself and their owners, the Kruboys, and +everything we associated with that day. I am quite prepared to hear +that some subsequent wanderer has found a red trail in Africa itself +like that one so often sees upon the maps. When they do, I hereby +claim that real red trail as mine. + +I confess I like the African on the whole, a thing I never expected +to do when I went to the Coast with the idea that he was a degraded, +savage, cruel brute; but that is a trifling error you soon get rid +of when you know him. The Kruboy is decidedly the most likeable of +all Africans that I know. Wherein his charm lies is difficult to +describe, and you certainly want the patience of Job, and a +conscience made of stretching leather to deal with the Kruboy in the +African climate, and live. In his better manifestations he reminds +me of that charming personality, the Irish peasant, for though he +lacks the sparkle, he is full of humour, and is the laziest and the +most industrious of mankind. He lies and tells the truth in such a +hopelessly uncertain manner that you cannot rely on him for either. +He is ungrateful and faithful to the death, honest and thievish, all +in one and the same specimen of him. + +Ingratitude is a crime laid very frequently to the score of all +Africans, but I think unfairly; certainly I have never had to +complain of it, and the Krumen often show gratitude for good +treatment in a grand way. The way those Kruboys of gallant Captain +Lane helped him work Lagos Bar and save lives by the dozen from the +stranded ships on it and hauled their "Massa" out from among the +sharkey foam every time he went into it, on the lifeboat upsetting, +would have done credit to Deal or Norfolk lifeboat men, but the +secret of their devotion is their personal attachment. They do not +save people out of surf on abstract moral principles. The African +at large is not an enthusiast on moral principles, and one and all +they'll let nature take its course if they don't feel keen on a man +surviving. + +Half the African's ingratitude, although it may look very bad on +paper, is really not so very bad; for half the time you have been +asking him to be grateful to you for doing to, or giving him things +he does not care a row of pins about. I have quite his feelings, +for example, for half the things in civilised countries I am +expected to be glad to get. "Oh, how nice it must be to be able to +get about in cars, omnibuses and railway trains again!" Is it? +Well I don't think so, and I do not feel glad over it. Similarly, +we will take an African case of ingratitude. A white friend of mine +put himself to an awful lot of trouble to save the life of one of +his sub-traders who had had an accident, and succeeded. It had been +the custom of the man's wife to bring the trader little presents of +fowls, etc., from time to time, and some time after the accident he +met the lady and told her he had noticed a falling off in her +offerings and he thought her very ungrateful after what he had done +for her husband. She grunted and the next morning she brings in as +a present the most forlorn, skinny, one-and-a-half-feathered chicken +you ever laid eye on, and in answer to the trader's comments she +said: "Massa, fo sure them der chicken no be 'ticularly good +chicken, but fo sure dem der man no be 'ticularly good man. They +go" (they match each other). + +I have referred at great length to the Krumen because of their +importance, and also because they are the natives the white men have +more to do with as servants than any other; but methods of getting +on with them are not necessarily applicable to dealing with other +forms of African labourers, such as plantation hands in the Congo +Francais, Angola, and Cameroon. In Cameroon the Germans are now +using largely the Batanga natives on the plantations; the Duallas, +the great trading tribe in Cameroon River, being too lazy to do any +heavy work; and they have also tried to import labourers from Togo +Land, but this attempt was not a success, ending in the revolt of +1894, which lost several white lives. The public work is carried +on, as it is in our own colonies, by the criminals in the chain- +gang. The Germans have had many accusations hurled against them by +people of their own nationality, but on the whole these "atrocities" +have been much exaggerated and only half understood; and certainly +have not amounted to anything like the things that have gone on in +the "philanthropic" Congo Free State. The food given out by the +German Government is the best Government rations given on the whole +West Coast. When they have allowed me to have some of their native +employes, as when I was up Cameroon Mountain, for example, I bought +rations from the Government stores for them, and was much struck by +the soundness and good quality of both rice and beef, and the +rations they gave out to those Dahomeyans or Togolanders who +revolted was so much more than they could, or cared to eat, that +they used to sell much of it to the Duallas in Bell Town. This is +not open to the criticism that the stuff was too bad for the +Togolanders to eat, as was once said to me by a philanthropic German +who had never been to the Coast, because the Duallas are a rich +tribe, perfectly free traders in the matter, able to go to the river +factories and buy provisions there had they wished to, and so would +not have bought the Government rations unless they were worth +having. The great point that has brought the Germans into disrepute +with the natives employed by them is their military spirit, which +gives rise to a desire to regulate everything; and that other +attribute of the military spirit, nagging. You should never nag an +African, it only makes him bothered and then sulky, and when he's +sulky he'll lie down and die to spite you. But in spite of the +Germans being over-given to this unpleasant habit of military +regularity and so on, the natives from the Kru Coast and from Bassa +and the French Ivory Coast return to them time after time for spells +of work, so there must be grave exaggeration regarding their bad +treatment, for these natives are perfectly free in the matter. + +The French use Loango boys for factory hands, and these people are +very bright and intelligent, but as a M'pongwe, who knew them well, +said: "They are much too likely to be devils to be good too much" +and are undoubtedly given to poisoning, which is an unpleasant habit +in a house servant. Their military force are composed of Senegalese +Laptot, very fine, fierce fellows, superior, I believe, as fighting +men to our Hausas, and very devoted to, and well treated by, their +French officers. + +That the Frenchman does not know how to push trade in his +possessions, the trade returns, with the balance all on the wrong +side, clearly show; still he does know how to get possession of +Africa better than we do, and this means he knows how to deal with +the natives. The building up of Congo Francais, for example, has +not cost one-third of the human lives, black or white, that an +equivalent quantity of Congo Belge has, nor one-third of the expense +of Uganda or Sierra Leone. It is customary in England to dwell on +the commercial failure, and deduce from it the erroneous conclusion +that France will soon leave it off when she finds it does not pay. +This is an error, because commercial success--the making the thing +pay--is not the French ideal in the affair. It is our own, and I am +the last person to say our ideal is wrong; but it is not the French +ideal, and I am the last person to say France is wrong either. +There may exist half a hundred or more right reasons for doing +anything, and the reasons France has for her energetic policy in +Africa are sound ones; for they are the employment of her martial +spirits where their activity will not endanger the State, the +stowing of these spirits in Paris having been found to be about as +advisable as stowing over-proof spirits and gunpowder in a living- +room with plenty of lighted lucifers blazing round; and her other +reason is the opportunity African enterprise affords for sound +military training. You will often hear in England regarding French +annexation in Africa, "Oh! let her have the deadly hole, and much +good may it do her." France knows very well what good it will do +her, and she will cheerfully take all she is allowed to get quietly, +as a sop for her quietness regarding Egypt, and she will cheerfully +fight you for the rest--small blame to her. She knows Africa is a +superb training ground for her officers. Sham fights and autumn +manoeuvres have a certain value in the formation of a fighting army, +but the whole of these parlour-games, put together in a ten-year +lump, are not to be compared to one month's work at real war, to fit +an army for its real work, and France knows well the real work will +come again some day--not far off--for her army. How soon it comes +she little cares, for she has no ideal of Peace before her, never +has had, never will have, and the next time she tries conclusions +with one of us Teutonic nations, she will be armed with men who have +learned their trade well on the burning sands of Senegal, and they +will take a lot of beating. We do not require Africa as a training +ground for our army; India is as magnificent a military academy as +any nation requires; but we do require all the Africa we can get, +West, East, and South, for a market, and it is here we clash with +France; for France not only does not develop the trade of her +colonies for her own profit, but stamps trade at large out by her +preferential tariffs, etc.; so that we cannot go into her colonies +and trade freely as she and Germany can come into ours. We can go +into her colonies and do business with French goods, and this is +done; but French goods are not so suitable, from their make, nor +capable of being sold at a sufficient profit to make a big trade. +But France throws few obstacles, if any, in the matter of plantation +enterprise. Still this enterprise being so hampered by the dearth +of good labour is not at the present time highly remunerative in +Africa. + + +FOREIGN LABOUR.--Several important authorities have advocated the +importation of foreign labour into Africa. This seems to me to be a +fatal error, for several reasons. For one thing, experience has by +now fully demonstrated that the West Coast climate is bad for men +not native to it, whether those men be white, black, or yellow. The +United Presbyterian Mission who work in Old Calabar was founded with +the intention of inaugurating a mission which, after the white men +had established it, was to be carried on by educated Christian +blacks from Jamaica, where this mission had long been established +and flourished. But it was found that these men, although primarily +Africans, had by their deportation from Africa in the course, in +some cases, of only one generation, lost the power of resistance to +the deadly malarial climate their forefathers possessed, and so the +mission is now carried on by whites; not that these good people have +a greater resistance to the fever than the Jamaica Christians, but +because they are more devoted to the evangelisation of the African; +and what black assistance they receive comes, with the exception of +Mrs. Fuller, from a few educated Effiks of Calabar. + +The Congo Free State have imported as labourers both West Indian +negroes--principally Barbadians--and Chinamen. In both cases the +mortality has been terrible--more than the white mortality, which +competent authorities put down for the Congo at 77 per cent., and +the experiment has therefore failed. It may be said that much of +this mortality has arisen from the way in which these labourers have +been treated in the Free State, but that this is not entirely the +case is demonstrated by the case of the Annamese in Congo Francais, +who are well treated. These Annamese are the political prisoners +arising from the French occupation of Tong-kin; and the mortality +among one gang of 100 of them who were employed to make the path +through swampy ground from Glass to Libreville--a distance of two +and a half miles--was seventy, and this although the swamp was +nothing particularly bad as swamps go, and was swept by sea-air the +whole way. + +Even had the experiment of imported labour been successful for the +time being, I hold it would be a grave error to import labour into +Africa. For this reason, that Africa possesses in herself the most +magnificent mass of labour material in the whole world, and surely +if her children could build up, as they have, the prosperity and +trade of the Americas, she should, under proper guidance and good +management, be able to build up her own. But good guidance and +proper management are the things that are wanted--and are wanting. +It is impossible to go into this complicated question fully here, +and I will merely ask unprejudiced people who do not agree with me, +whether they do not think that as so much has been done with one +African tribe, the Krumen--a tribe possessing no material difference +in make of mind or body from hundreds of other tribes, but which +have merely been trained by white men in a different way from other +tribes--that there is room for great hope in the native labour +supply? And would not a very hopeful outlook for West Africa +regarding the labour question be possible, if a regime of common +sense were substituted for our present one? + +This is of course the missionary question--a question which I feel +it is hopeless to attempt to speak of without being gravely +misunderstood, and which I therefore would willingly shirk +mentioning, but I am convinced that the future of Africa is not to +be dissociated from the future of its natives by the importation of +yellow races or Hindoos; and the missionary question is not to be +dissociated from the future of the African natives; and so the +subject must be touched on; and I preface my remarks by stating that +I have a profound personal esteem for several missionaries, +naturally, for it is impossible to know such men and women as Mr. +and Mrs. Dennis Kemp, of the Gold Coast, Mme. and M. Jacot, and Mme. +and M. Forget, and M. Gacon, and Dr. Nassau, of Gaboon, and many +others without recognising at once the beauty of their natures, and +the nobility of their intentions. Indeed, taken as a whole, the +missionaries must be regarded as superbly brave, noble-minded men +who go and risk their own lives, and often those of their wives and +children, and definitely sacrifice their personal comfort and safety +to do what, from their point of view, is their simple duty; but it +is their methods of working that have produced in West Africa the +results which all truly interested in West Africa must deplore; and +one is bound to make an admission that goes against one's insular +prejudice--that the Protestant English missionaries have had most to +do with rendering the African useless. + +The bad effects that have arisen from their teaching have come +primarily from the failure of the missionary to recognise the +difference between the African and themselves as being a difference +not of degree but of kind. I am aware that they are supported in +this idea by several eminent ethnologists; but still there are a +large number of anatomical facts that point the other way, and a far +larger number still relating to mental attributes, and I feel +certain that a black man is no more an undeveloped white man than a +rabbit is an undeveloped hare; and the mental difference between the +two races is very similar to that between men and women among +ourselves. A great woman, either mentally or physically, will excel +an indifferent man, but no woman ever equals a really great man. +The missionary to the African has done what my father found them +doing to the Polynesians--"regarding the native minds as so many +jugs only requiring to be emptied of the stuff which is in them and +refilled with the particular form of dogma he is engaged in +teaching, in order to make them the equals of the white races." +This form of procedure works in very various ways. It eliminates +those parts of the native fetish that were a wholesome restraint on +the African. The children in the mission school are, be it granted, +better than the children outside it in some ways; they display great +aptitude for learning anything that comes in their way--but there is +a great difference between white and black children. The black +child is a very solemn thing. It comes into the world in large +quantities and looks upon it with its great sad eyes as if it were +weighing carefully the question whether or no it is a fit place for +a respectable soul to abide in. Four times in ten it decides that +it is not, and dies. If, however, it decides to stay, it passes +between two and three years in a grim and profound study-- +occasionally emitting howls which end suddenly in a sob--whine it +never does. At the end of this period it takes to spoon food, walks +about and makes itself handy to its mother or goes into the mission +school. If it remains in the native state it has no toys of a +frivolous nature, a little hoe or a little calabash are considered +better training; if it goes into the school, it picks up, with +astonishing rapidity, the lessons taught it there--giving rise to +hopes for its future which are only too frequently disappointed in a +few years' time. It is not until he reaches years of indiscretion +that the African becomes joyful; but, when he attains this age he +always does cheer up considerably, and then, whatever his previous +training may have been, he takes to what Mr. Kipling calls "boot" +with great avidity--and of this he consumes an enormous quantity. +For the next sixteen years, barring accidents, he "rips"; he rips +carefully, terrified by his many fetish restrictions, if he is a +pagan; but if he is in that partially converted state you usually +find him in when trouble has been taken with his soul--then he rips +unrestrained. + +It is most unfair to describe Africans in this state as "converted," +either in missionary reports or in attacks on them. They are not +converted in the least. A really converted African is a very +beautiful form of Christian; but those Africans who are the chief +mainstay of missionary reports and who afford such material for the +scoffer thereat, have merely had the restraint of fear removed from +their minds in the mission schools without the greater restraint of +love being put in its place. + +The missionary-made man is the curse of the Coast, and you find him +in European clothes and without, all the way down from Sierra Leone +to Loanda. The pagans despise him, the whites hate him, still he +thinks enough of himself to keep him comfortable. His conceit is +marvellous, nothing equals it except perhaps that of the individual +rife among us which the Saturday Review once aptly described as "the +suburban agnostic"; and the "missionary man" is very much like the +suburban agnostic in his religious method. After a period of +mission-school life he returns to his country-fashion, and deals +with the fetish connected with it very much in the same way as the +suburban agnostic deals with his religion, i.e. he removes from it +all the inconvenient portions. "Shouldn't wonder if there might be +something in the idea of the immortality of the soul, and a future +Heaven, you know--but as for Hell, my dear sir, that's rank +superstition, no one believes in it now, and as for Sabbath-keeping +and food-restrictions--what utter rubbish for enlightened people!" +So the backsliding African deals with his country-fashion ideas: he +eliminates from them the idea of immediate retribution, etc., and +keeps the polygamy and the dances, and all the lazy, hazy-minded +native ways. The education he has received at the mission school in +reading and writing fits him for a commercial career, and as every +African is a born trader he embarks on it, and there are pretty +goings on! On the West Coast he frequently sets up in business for +himself; on the South-West Coast he usually becomes a sub-trader to +one of the great English, French, or German firms. On both Coasts +he gets himself disliked, and brings down opprobrium on all black +traders, expressed in language more powerful than select. This +wholesale denunciation of black traders is unfair, because there are +many perfectly straight trading natives; still the majority are +recruited from missionary school failures, and are utterly bad. + +"Post hoc non propter hoc" is an excellent maxim, but one that never +seems to enter the missionary head down here. Highly disgusted and +pained at his pupils' goings-on, but absolutely convinced of the +excellence of his own methods of instruction, and the spiritual +equality, irrespective of colour, of Christians; the missionary +rises up, and says things one can understand him saying about the +bad influence of the white traders; stating that they lure the +pupils from the fold to destruction. These things are nevertheless +not true. Then the white trader hears them, and gets his back up +and says things about the effect of missionary training on the +African, which are true, but harsh, because it is not the +missionaries' intent to turn out skilful forgers, and unmitigated +liars, although they practically do so. My share when I drop in on +this state of mutual recrimination is to get myself into hot water +with both parties. The missionary thinks me misguided for regarding +the African's goings-on as part of the make of the man, and the +trader regards me as a soft-headed idiot when I state that it is not +the missionary's individual blame that a lamb recently acquired from +the fold has gone down the primrose path with the trust, or the rum. +Shade of Sir John Falstaff! what a life this is! + +The two things to which the missionary himself ascribes his want of +success are polygamy and the liquor traffic. Now polygamy is, like +most other subjects, a difficult thing to form a just opinion on, if +before forming the opinion you make a careful study of the facts +bearing on the case. It is therefore advisable, if you wish to +produce an opinion generally acceptable in civilised circles, to +follow the usual recipe for making opinions--just take a prejudice +of your own, and fix it up with the so-called opinion of that class +of people who go in for that sort of prejudice too. I have got +myself so entangled with facts that I cannot follow this plan, and +therefore am compelled to think polygamy for the African is not an +unmixed evil; and that at the present culture-level of the African +it is not to be eradicated. This arises from two reasons; the first +is that it is perfectly impossible for one African woman to do the +work of the house, prepare the food, fetch water, cultivate the +plantations, and look after the children attributive to one man. +She might do it if she had the work in her of an English or Irish +charwoman, but she has not, and a whole villageful of African women +do not do the work in a week that one of these will do in a day. +Then, too, the African lady is quite indifferent as to what extent +her good man may flirt with other ladies so long only as he does not +go and give them more cloth and beads than he gives her; and the +second reason for polygamy lies in the custom well-known to +ethnologists, and so widely diffused that one might say it was +constant throughout all African tribes, only there are so many of +them whose domestic relationships have not been carefully observed. + +As regards the drink traffic--no one seems inclined to speak the +truth about it in West Africa; and what I say I must be understood +to say only about West Africa, because I do not like to form +opinions without having had opportunities for personal observation, +and the only part of Africa I have had these opportunities in has +been from Sierra Leone to Angola; and the reports from South Africa +show that an entirely different, and a most unhealthy state of +affairs exists there from its invasion by mixed European +nationalities, with individuals of a low type, greedy for wealth. +West African conditions are no more like South African conditions +than they are like Indian. The missionary party on the whole have +gravely exaggerated both the evil and the extent of the liquor +traffic in West Africa. I make an exception in favour of the late +superintendent of the Wesleyan mission on the Gold Coast, the Rev. +Dennis Kemp, who had enough courage and truth in him to stand up at +a public meeting in Liverpool, on July 2nd, 1896, and record it as +his opinion that, "the natives of the Gold Coast were remarkably +abstemious; but spirits were, 'he believed,' of no benefit to the +natives, and they would be better without them." I have quoted the +whole of the remark, as it is never fair to quote half a man says on +any subject, but I do not agree with the latter half of it, and the +Gold Coast natives are not any more abstemious, if so much so, as +other tribes on the Coast. I have elsewhere {493} attempted to show +that the drink-traffic is by no means the most important factor in +the mission failure on the West Coast, but that it has been used in +an unjustifiable way by the missionary party, because they know the +cry against alcohol is at present a popular one in England, and it +has also the advantage of making the subscribers at home regard the +African as an innocent creature who is led away by bad white men, +and therefore still more interesting and more worthy, and in more +need of subscriptions than ever. I should rather like to see the +African lady or gentleman who could be "led away"--all the leading +away I have seen on the Coast has been the other way about. + +I do not say every missionary on the West Coast who makes untrue +statements on this subject is an original liar; he is usually only +following his leaders and repeating their observations without going +into the evidence around him; and the missionary public in England +and Scotland are largely to blame for their perpetual thirst for +thrilling details of the amount of Baptisms and Experiences among +the people they pay other people to risk their lives to convert, or +for thrilling details of the difficulties these said emissaries have +to contend with. As for the general public who swallow the +statements, I think they are prone, from the evidence of the evils +they see round them directly arising from drink, to accept as true-- +without bothering themselves with calm investigation--statements of +a like effect regarding other people. I have no hesitation in +saying that in the whole of West Africa, in one week, there is not +one-quarter the amount of drunkenness you can see any Saturday night +you choose in a couple of hours in the Vauxhall Road; and you will +not find in a whole year's investigation on the Coast, one- +seventieth part of the evil, degradation, and premature decay you +can see any afternoon you choose to take a walk in the more densely- +populated parts of any of our own towns. I own the whole affair is +no business of mine; for I have no financial interest in the liquor +traffic whatsoever. But I hate the preying upon emotional sympathy +by misrepresentation, and I grieve to see thousands of pounds wasted +that are bitterly needed by our own cold, starving poor. I do not +regard the money as wasted because it goes to the African, but +because such an immense percentage of it does no good and much harm +to him. + +It is customary to refer to the spirit sent out to West Africa as +"poisonous" and as raw alcohol. It is neither. I give an analysis +of a bottle of Van Hoytima's trade-gin, which I obtained to satisfy +my own curiosity on the point. + + "ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE OF TRADE-GIN. + + "With reference to the bottle of the above I have the honour to +report as follows: - + + It contains-- Per cent. + Absolute alcohol . . . . . 39.35 + Acidity expressed as acetic acid . 0.0068 + Ethers expressed as acetic acid . 0.021 + Aldehydes. . . . Present in small quantity. + Furfural . . . . Ditto ditto + Higher alcohols . . Ditto ditto + +"The only alcohol that can be estimated quantitatively is Ethyl +Alcohol. + +"There is no methyl, and the higher alcohols, as shown by Savalie's +method, only exist in traces. The spirit is flavoured by more than +one essential oil, and apparently oil of juniper is one of these +oils. + +"The liquid contains no sugar, and leaves but a small extract. In +my opinion the liquid essentially consists of a pure distilled +spirit flavoured with essential oils. + +"Of course no attempt to identify these oils in the quantity sent, +viz., 632 c.c. (one bottle) was made. The ethers are returned as +ethyl acetate, but from fractional distillation amyl acetate was +found to be present. + + "I have the honour to be, etc., + (Signed) "G. H. ROBERTSON. + "Fellow of the Chemical Society, + "Associate of the Institute of Chemistry." + +In a subsequent letter Mr. Robertson observed that he had been +"assisted in making the above analysis by an expert in the chemistry +of alcohols, who said that the present sample differed in no +material particulars from, and was neither more nor less deleterious +to health than, gin purchased in different parts of London and +submitted to analysis." + +In addition to this analysis I have also one of Messrs. Peters' gin, +equally satisfactory, and as Van Hoytima and Peters are the two +great suppliers of the gin that goes to West Africa, I think the +above is an answer to the "poison" statements, and should be +sufficient evidence against it for all people who are not themselves +absolute teetotalers. Absolute teetotalers are definite-minded +people, and one respects them more than one does those who do not +hold with teetotalism for themselves, but think it a good thing for +other people, and moreover it is of no use arguing with them because +they say all alcohol is poison, and won't appreciate any evidence to +the contrary, so "palaver done set"; but a large majority of those +who attack, or believe in the rectitude of the attack on, the +African liquor traffic are not teetotalers and so should be capable +of forming a just opinion. + +My personal knowledge of the district where most of the liquor goes +in--the Oil Rivers--has been gained in Duke Town, Old Calabar. I +have been there four separate times, and last year stayed there +continuously for some months during a period in which if Duke Town +had felt inclined to go on the bust, it certainly could have done +so; for the police and most of the Government officials were away at +Brass in consequence of the Akassa palaver, and those few who were +left behind and the white traders were down with an epidemic of +malarial typhoid. But Duke Town did nothing of the kind. I used to +be down in the heart of the town, at Eyambas market by Prince +Archebongs's house, night after night alone, watching the devil- +makings that were going on there, and the amount of drunkenness I +saw was exceedingly small. I did the same thing at the adjacent +town of Qwa. My knowledge of Bonny, Bell, and Akkwa towns, +Libreville, Lembarene, Kabinda, Boma, Banana, Nkoi, Loanda, etc., is +extensive and peculiar, and I have spent hours in them when the +whole of the missionary and Government people have been safe in +their distant houses; so had the evils of the liquor traffic been +anything like half what it is made out to be I must have come across +it in appalling forms, and I have not. + +The figures of the case I will not here quote because they are +easily obtainable from Government reports by any one interested in +the matter. I regard their value as being small unless combined +with a knowledge of the West Coast trade. The liquor goes in at a +few ports on the West Coast, and into the hands of those tribes who +act as middlemen between the white trader and the interior trade- +stuff-producing tribes; and is thereby diffused over an enormous +extent of thickly inhabited country. We English are directly in +touch with none of the interior trade--save in the territory of the +Royal Niger Company, and the Delta tribes with whom we deal in the +Oil Rivers subsist on this trade between the interior and the Coast, +and they prefer to use spirits as a buying medium because they get +the highest percentage of profit from it, and the lowest percentage +of loss by damage when dealing with it. It does not get spoilt by +damp, like tobacco and cloth do; indeed, in addition to the amount +of moisture supplied by their reeking climate, they superadd a large +quantity of river water to the spirit before it leaves their hands, +while with the other articles of trade it is one perpetual grind to +keep them free from moisture and mildew. In their Coast towns there +are immense stores of gin in cases, which they would as soon think +of drinking themselves as we, if we were butchers, would think of +eating up the stock in the shop. A certain percentage of spirit is +consumed in the Delta, and if spirits are wanted anywhere they are +wanted in the Niger Delta region; and about one-eighth part of that +used here is used for fetish-worship, poured out on the ground and +mixed with other things to hang in bottles over fish-traps, and so +on to make residences for guardian spirits who are expected to come +and take up their abode in them. Spirits to the spirits, on the +sweets to the sweet principle is universal in West Africa; and those +photographs you are often shown of dead chiefs' graves with bottles +on them merely demonstrate that the deceased was taking down with +him a little liquor for his own use in the under-world--which he +holds to be possessed of a chilly and damp climate--and a little +over to give a propitiatory peg to one of the ruling authorities +there--or any old friend he may come across in the Elysian fields. +This is possibly a misguided heathen thing of him to do, and it is +generally held in European circles that the under-world such an +individual as he will go to is neither damp, nor chilly. But +granting this, no one can contest but that the world he spends his +life here in is damp, and that the natives of the Niger Delta live +in a saturated forest swamp region that reeks with malaria. Their +damp mud-walled houses frequently flooded, they themselves spend the +greater part of their time dabbling about in the stinking mangrove +swamps, and then, for five months in the year, they are wrapped in +the almost continuous torrential downpour of the West African wet +season, followed in the Delta by the so-called "dry" season, with +its thick morning and evening mists, and the air rarely above dew- +point. Then their food is of poor quality and insufficient +quantity, and in districts near the coast noticeably deficient in +meat of any kind. I think the desire for spirits and tobacco, given +these conditions, is quite reasonable, and that when they are taken +in moderation, as they usually are, they are anything but +deleterious. The African himself has not a shadow of a doubt on the +point, and some form of alcohol he will have. When he cannot get +white man's spirit--min makara, as he calls it in Calabar--he takes +black man's spirit min effik. This is palm wine, and although it +has escaped the abuse heaped on rum and gin, it is worse for the +native than either of the others, for he has to drink a disgusting +quantity of it, because from the palm wine he does not get the +stimulating effect quickly as from gin or rum, and the enormous +quantity consumed at one sitting will distribute its effects over a +week. You can always tell whether a native has had a glass too much +rum, or half a gallon or so too much palm wine; the first he soon +recovers from, while the palm wine keeps him a disgusting nuisance +for days, and the constitutional effects of it are worse, for it +produces a definite type of renal disease which, if it does not cut +short the life of the sufferer in a paroxysm, kills him gradually +with dropsy. There is another native drink which works a bitter woe +on the African in the form of intoxication combined with a brilliant +bilious attack. It is made from honey flavoured with the bark of a +certain tree, and as it is very popular I had better not spread it +further by giving the recipe. The imported gin keeps the African +off these abominations which he has to derange his internal works +with before he gets the stimulus that enables him to resist this +vile climate; particularly will it keep him from his worst +intoxicant lhiamba (Cannabis sativa), a plant which grows wild on +the South-West Coast and on the West for all I know, as well as the +African or bowstring hemp (Sanseviera guiniensis). The plant that +produces the lhiamba is a nettle-like plant growing six to ten feet +high, and the natives collect the tops of the stems, with the seed +on, in little bundles and dry them. It is evidently the seeds which +are regarded by them as being the important part, although they do +not collect these separately; but you hear great rows among them +when buying and selling a little bundle, on the point of the seeds +being shaken out, "Chi! Chi! Chi!" says A., "this is worthless, +there are no seeds." "Ai, Ai," says B., "never were there so many +seeds in a bunch of lhiamba," etc. It is used smoked, like the +ganja of India, not like the preparation bhang, and the way the +Africans in the Congo used it was a very quaint one. They would +hollow out a little hole in the ground, making a little dome over +it; then in went a few hemp-tops; and on to them a few stones made +red hot in a fire. Then the dome was closed up and a reed stuck +through it. Then one man after another would go and draw up into +his lungs as much smoke as he could with one prolonged deep +inspiration; and then go apart and cough in a hard, hacking +distressing way for ten minutes at a time, and then back to the reed +for another pull. In addition to the worry of hearing their coughs, +the lhiamba gives you trouble with the men, for it spoils their +tempers, making them moody and fractious, and prone to quarrel with +each other; and when they get an excessive dose of it their society +is more terrifying than tolerable. I once came across three men who +had got into this state and a fourth man who had not, but was of the +party. They fought with him, and broke his head, and then we +proceeded on our way, one gentleman taking flying leaps at some +places, climbing up trees now and again, and embedding himself in +the bush alongside the path "because of the pools of moving blood on +it." ("If they had not kept moving," he said as he sat where he +fell--"he could have managed it")--the others having grand times +with various creatures, which, judging from their description of +them, I was truly thankful were not there. The men's state of mind, +however, soon cleared; and I must say this was the only time I came +across this lhiamba giving such strong effects; usually the men just +cough with that racking cough that lets you know what they have been +up to, and quarrel for a short time. When, however, a whiff of +lhiamba is taken by them in the morning before starting on a march, +the effect seems to be good, enabling them to get over the ground +easily and to endure a long march without being exhausted. But a +small tot of rum is better for them by far. Many other intoxicants +made from bush are known to and used by the witch doctors. + +You may say: --Well! if it is not the polygamy and not the drink +that makes the West African as useless as he now is as a developer, +or a means of developing the country, what is it? In my opinion, it +is the sort of instruction he has received, not that this +instruction is necessarily bad in itself, but bad from being +unsuited to the sort of man to whom it has been given. It has the +tendency to develop his emotionalism, his sloth, and his vanity, and +it has no tendency to develop those parts of his character which are +in a rudimentary state and much want it; thereby throwing the whole +character of the man out of gear. + +The great inferiority of the African to the European lies in the +matter of mechanical idea. I own I regard not only the African, but +all coloured races, as inferior--inferior in kind not in degree--to +the white races, although I know it is unscientific to lump all +Africans together and then generalise over them, because the +difference between various tribes is very great. But nevertheless +there are certain constant quantities in their character, let the +tribe be what it may, that enable us to do this for practical +purposes, making merely the distinction between Negroes and Bantu, +and on the subject of this division I may remark that the Negro is +superior to the Bantu. He is both physically and intellectually the +more powerful man, and although he does not christianise well, he +does often civilise well. The native officials cited by Mr. Hodgson +in his letter to the Times of January 4, 1895, as having +satisfactorily carried on all the postal and the governmental +printing work of the Gold Coast Colony, as well as all the +subordinate custom-house officials in the Niger Coast Protectorate-- +in fact I may say all of them in the whole of the British +possessions on the West Coast--are educated Negroes. I am aware +that all sea-captains regard this latter class as poisonous +nuisances, but then every properly constituted sea-captain regards +custom-house officials, let their colour be what it may, as +poisonous nuisances anywhere. In addition to these, you will find, +notably in Lagos, excellent pure-blooded Negroes in European +clothes, and with European culture. The best men among these are +lawyers, doctors, and merchants, and I have known many ladies of +Africa who have risen to an equal culture level with their lords. +On the West African seaboard you do not find the Bantu equally +advanced, except among the M'pongwe, and I am persuaded that this +tribe is not pure Bantu but of Negro origin. The educated blacks +that are not M'pongwe on the Bantu coast (from Cameroons to +Benguela), you will find are Negroes, who have gone down there to +make money, but this class of African is the clerk class, and we are +now concerned with the labourer. The African's own way of doing +anything mechanical is the simplest way, not the easiest, certainly +not the quickest: he has all the chuckle-headedness of that +overrated creature the ant, for his head never saves his heels. +Watch a gang of boat-boys getting a surf boat down a sandy beach. +They turn it broadside on to the direction in which they wish it to +go, and then turn it bodily over and over, with structure-straining +bumps to the boat, and any amount of advice and recriminatory +observations to each other. Unless under white direction they will +not make a slip, nor will they put rollers under her. Watch again a +gang of natives trying to get a log of timber down into the river +from the bank, and you will see the same sort of thing--no idea of a +lever, or any thing of that sort--and remember that, unless under +white direction, the African has never made an even fourteenth-rate +piece of cloth or pottery, or a machine, tool, picture, sculpture, +and that he has never even risen to the level of picture-writing. I +am aware of his ingenious devices for transmitting messages, such as +the cowrie shells, strung diversely on strings, in use among the +Yoruba, but even these do not equal the picture-writing of the South +American Indians, nor the picture the Red Indian does on a raw elk +hide; they are far and away inferior to the graphic sporting +sketches left us of mammoth hunts by the prehistoric cave men. + +This absence of mechanical aptitude is very interesting, though it +most likely has the very simple underlying reason that the +conditions under which the African has been living have been such as +to make no call for a higher mechanical culture. In his native +state he does not want to get heavy surf-boats into the sea; his own +light dug-out is easily slid down, he does not want to cut down +heavy timber trees, and get them into the river, and so on; but this +state is now getting disturbed by the influx of white enterprise, +and not only disturbed, but destroyed, and so he must alter his ways +or there will be grave trouble; but it is encouraging to remark that +the African is almost as teachable and as willing to learn +handicrafts as he is to assimilate other things, provided his mind +has not been poisoned by fallacious ideas, and the results already +obtained from the Krumen and the Accras are good. The Accras are +not such good workmen as they might be, because they are to a +certain extent spoilt by getting, owing to the dearth of labour, +higher wages and more toleration for indifferent bits of work than +they deserve, or their work is worth; but they have not yet fallen +under that deadly spell worked by so many of the white men on so +many of the black--the idea that it is the correct and proper thing +not to work with your own hands but to get some underling to do all +that sort of thing for you, while you read and write. This false +ideal formed by the native from his empirical observations of some +of the white men around him, has been the cause of great mischief. +He sees the white man is his ruling man, rich, powerful, and +honoured, and so he imitates him, and goes to the mission-school +classes to read and write, and as soon as an African learns to read +and write he turns into a clerk. Now there is no immediate use for +clerks in Africa, certainly no room for further development in this +line of goods. What Africa wants at present, and will want for the +next 200 years at least, are workers, planters, plantation hands, +miners, and seamen; and there are no schools in Africa to teach +these things or the doctrine of the nobility of labour save the +technical mission-schools. Almost every mission on the Coast has +now a technical school just started or having collections made at +home to start one; but in the majority of these crafts such as +bookbinding, printing, tailoring, etc., are being taught which are +not at present wanted. Still any technical school is better than +none, and apart from lay considerations, is of great religious value +to the mission indirectly, for there are many instances in mission +annals of a missionary receiving great encouragement from the +natives when he first starts in a district. At first the converts +flock in, get baptised in batches, go to church, attend school, and +adopt European clothes with an alacrity and enthusiasm that +frequently turns their devoted pastor's head, but after the lapse of +a few months their conduct is enough to break his heart. Dressing +up in European clothes amuses the ladies and some of the young men +for a long time, in some cases permanently, but the older men and +the bolder youths soon get bored, and when an African is bored--and +he easily is so--he goes utterly to the bad. It is in these places +that an industrial mission would be so valuable to the spiritual +cause, for by employing and amusing the largely preponderating lower +faculties of the African's mind, it would give the higher faculties +time to develop. I have frequently been told when advocating +technical instruction, that there are objections against it from +spiritual standpoints, which, as my own views do not enable me to +understand them, I will not enter into. Also several authorities, +not mission authorities alone, state with ethnologists that the +African is incapable of learning, except during the period of +childhood. + +Prof A. H. Keane says--"their inherent mental inferiority, almost +more marked than their physical characters, depends on physiological +causes by which the intellectual faculties seem to be arrested +before attaining their normal development"; and further on, "We must +necessarily infer that the development of the negro and white +proceeds on different lines. While with the latter the volume of +the brain grows with the expansion of the brain-pan; in the former +the growth of the brain is on the contrary arrested by the premature +closing of the cranial sutures, and lateral pressure of the frontal +bone." {504} You will frequently meet with the statement that the +negro child is as intelligent, or more so, than the white child, but +that as soon as it passes beyond childhood it makes no further +mental advance. Burton says: "His mental development is arrested, +and thenceforth he grows backwards instead of forwards." Now it is +nervous work contradicting these statements, but with all due +respect to the makers of them I must do so, and I have the comfort +of knowing that many men with a larger personal experience of the +African than these authorities have, agree with me, although at the +same time we utterly disclaim holding the opinion that the African +is a man and a brother. A man he is, but not of the same species; +and his cranial sutures do, I agree, close early; indeed I have seen +them almost obliterated in skulls of men who have died quite young; +but I think most anthropologists are nowadays beginning to see that +the immense value they a few years since set upon skull measurements +and cranial capacity, etc., has been excessive and not to have so +great a bearing on the intelligence as they thought. There has been +an enormous amount of material carefully collected, mainly by +Frenchmen, on craniology, which is exceedingly interesting, but full +of difficulty, and giving very diverse indications. Take the +weights of brain given by Topinard: - + + 1 Annamite . . . . 1233 grammes + 7 African negroes . . 1238 " + 8 African negroes . . 1289 " + 1 Hottentot . . . . 1417 " + +and I think you will see for practical purposes such considerations +as weight of brain, or closure of sutures, etc., are negligible, and +so we need not get paralysed with respect for "physiological +causes." Moreover I may remark that the top-weight, the Hottentot, +was a lady, and that M. Broca weighed one negro's brain which scaled +1,500 grammes, while 105 English and Scotchmen only gave an average +of 1,427. + +So I think we may make our minds easy on the safety of sticking to +outside facts, and say that after all it does not much affect the +question of capacity for industrial training in the African if he +does choose to close up the top of his head early, and that the +whole attempt to make out that the African is a child-form, "an +arrested development," is--well, not supported by facts. The very +comparison between white and black children's intelligence to the +disadvantage of the former is all wrong. The white child is not his +inferior; he is not so quick in picking up parlour tricks; but then +where are either of the children at that alongside a French poodle? +What happens to the African from my observations is just what +happens to the European, namely, when he passes out of childhood, he +goes into a period of hobbledehoyhood. During this period, his +skull might just as well be filled inside with wool as covered +outside with it. But after a time, during which he has succeeded in +distracting and discouraging the white men who hoped so much of him +when he was a child, his mind clears up again and goes ahead all +right. It is utter rubbish to say "You cannot teach an adult +African," and that "he grows backwards"; for even without white +interference he gets more and more cunning as the time goes on. +Does any one who knows them feel inclined to tell me that those old +palm-oil chiefs have not learnt a thing or two during their lives? +or that a well-matured bush trader has not? Go down to West Africa +yourself, if you doubt this, and carry on a series of experiments +with them in subjects they know of--trade subjects--try and get the +best of a whole series of matured adults, male or female, and I can +promise you you will return a wiser and a poorer man, but with a +joyful heart regarding the capacity of the African to grow up. +Whether he does this by adding convolutions or piling on his gray +matter we will leave for the present. All that I wish to urge +regarding the African at large is that he has been mismanaged of +late years by the white races. The study of this question is a very +interesting one, but I have no space to enter into it here in +detail. In my opinion--I say my own, I beg you to remark, only when +I am uttering heresy--this mismanagement has been a by-product of +the wave of hysterical emotionalism that has run through white +culture and for which I have an instinctive hatred. + +I have briefly pointed out the evil worked by misdirected missionary +effort on the native mind, but it is not the missionary alone that +is doing harm. The Government does nearly as much. Whether it does +this because of the fear of Exeter Hall as representing a big voting +interest, or whether just from the tendency to get everything into +the hands of a Council, or an Office, to be everlastingly nagging +and legislating and inspecting, matters little; the result is bad, +and it fills me with the greatest admiration for my country to see +how in spite of this she keeps the lead. That she will always keep +it I believe, because I believe that it is impossible that this +phase of emotionalism--no, it is not hypocrisy, my French friends, +it is only a sort of fit--will last, and we shall soon be back in +our clear senses again and say to the world, "We do this thing +because we think it is right; because we think it is best for those +we do it to and for ourselves, not because of the wickedness of war, +the brotherhood of man, or any other notion bred of fear." + +The way in which the present ideas acting through the Government do +harm in Africa are many. English Government officials have very +little and very poor encouragement given them if they push inland +and attempt to enlarge the sphere of influence, which their +knowledge of local conditions teaches them requires enlarging, +because the authorities at home are afraid other nations will say we +are rapacious landgrabbers. Well, we always have been, and they +will say it anyhow; and where after all is the harm in it? We have +acted in unison with the nations who for good sound reasons of their +own have cut down Portuguese possessions in Africa because we were +afraid of being thought to support a nation who went in for slavery. +I always admire a good move in a game or a brilliant bit of +strategy, and that was a beauty; and on our head now lie the affairs +of the Congo Free State, while France and Germany smile sweetly, +knowing that these affairs will soon be such that they will be able +to step in and divide that territory up between themselves without a +stain on their character--in the interests of humanity--the whole of +that rich region, which by the name of Livingstone, Speke, Grant, +Burton, and Cameron, should now be ours. + +Then again in commercial competition our attitude seems to me very +lacking in dignity. We are now just beginning to know it is a +fight, and this commercial war has been going on since 1880--since, +in fact, France and Germany have recovered from their war of 1870. + +And if we are to carry on this commercial war with any hope of +success, we must abandon our "Oh! that's not fair; I won't play" +attitude--and above all we must have no more Government restrictions +on our foreign trade. In West Africa governmental restriction +settles, like dew in autumn, on the liquor traffic. It is a case of +give a dog a bad name and hang him. Moreover, raising the import +dues on liquor may bring into the Government a good revenue; but it +is a short-sighted policy--for the liquor is the thing there is the +best market for in West Africa. The natives have no enthusiasm +about cotton-goods, as they seem from some accounts to have in East +Central, and the supply of them they now get, and get cheap and +good, is as much as they require. And if the question of the +abstract morality of introducing clothes, or introducing liquor, to +native races, were fairly gone into, the results would be +interesting--for clothing native races in European clothes works +badly for them and kills them off. Indeed the whole of this +question of trade with the lower races is full of curious and +unexpected points. Speaking at large, the introduction of European +culture--governmental, religious, or mercantile--has a destructive +action on all the lower races; many of them the governmental and +religious sections have stamped right out; but trade has never +stamped a race out when dissociated from the other two, and it +certainly has had no bad effect in tropical Africa. With regard to +the liquor traffic, try and put yourself in the West African's +place. Imagine, for example, that you want a pair of boots. You go +into a shop, prepared to pay for them, but the man who keeps the +shop says, "My good friend, you must not have boots, they are +immoral. You can have a tin of sardines, or a pocket-handkerchief, +they are much better for you." Would you take the sardines or the +pocket-handkerchiefs? more particularly would you feel inclined to +take them instead of your desired boots if you knew there was a shop +in a neighbouring street where boots are to be had? And there is a +neighbouring shop-street to all our West Coast possessions which is +in the hands of either France or Germany. + +I do not for a moment deny that the liquor traffic requires +regulation, but it requires more regulation in Europe than it does +in Africa, because Europe is more given to intoxication. In Africa +all that is wanted is that the spirit sent in should be wholesome, +and not sold at a strength over 45 degrees below proof. These +requirements are fairly well fulfilled already on the West Coast, +and I can see no reason for any further restriction or additional +impost. If further restrictions in the sale of it are wanted, it is +not for interior trade where the natives are not given to excess, +but in the larger Coast towns, where there is a body of natives who +are the debris of the disintegrating process of white culture. But +even in those towns like Sierra Leone and Lagos these men are a very +small percentage of the population. {508} If things are even made +no worse for him than they are at present, the English trader may be +trusted to hold the greater part of the trade of West Africa for the +benefit of the English manufacturers; if he is more heavily +hampered, the English trade will die out, the English trader remain, +because he is the best trader with the natives; but it will be small +profit to the English manufacturers because the trader will be +dealing in foreign-made stuff, as he is now in the possessions of +France and Germany. English manufacturers, I may remark, have +succeeded in turning out the cloth goods best suited for the African +markets, but there has of late years been an increase in the +quantity of other goods made by foreigners used in the West Coast +trade. The imports from France and Germany and the United States to +the Gold Coast for 1894 (published 1896) were 217,388 pounds 0s. +1d., the exports 212,320 pounds 1s. 3d.; and the Consular Report +(158) for the Gold Coast says that while the trade with the United +Kingdom has increased from 1,054,336 pounds 17s. 6d. in 1893 to +1,190,532 pounds 1s. 3d in 1894, or roughly 13 per cent., the trade +with foreign countries has increased upwards of 22 per cent., +namely, from 350,387 pounds 3s. 5d to 429,708 pounds 1s. 4d. In the +Lagos Consular Report (No. 150) similar comparative statistics are +not given, but the increase at that place is probably greater than +on the Gold Coast, as a heavy percentage of the Lagos trade goes +through the hands of two German firms; but this increase in foreign +trade in our colonies seems to be even greater in other parts of +Africa, for in a Foreign Office Report from Mozambique it is stated, +regarding Cape Colony, that "while British imports show an otherwise +satisfactory increase, German trade has more than trebled." {509} + +There is a certain school of philanthropists in Europe who say that +it is not advisable to spread white trade in Africa, that the native +is provided by the Bountiful Earth with all that he really requires, +and that therefore he should be allowed to live his simple life, and +not be compelled or urged to work for the white man's gain. I have +a sneaking sympathy with these good people, because I like the +African in his bush state best; and one can understand any truly +human being being horrified at the extinction of native races in the +Polynesian, Melanesian, and American regions. But still their view +is full of error as regards Africa, for one thing I am glad to say +the African does not die off as do those weaker races under white +control, but increases; and herein lies the impossibility of +accepting this plan as within the sphere of practical politics, most +certainly in regard to all districts under white control, for the +Bountiful Earth does not amount to much in Africa with native +methods of agriculture. It sufficed when a percentage of the +population were shipped to America as slaves; now it suffices only +to help to keep the natives in their low state of culture--a state +that is only kept up even to its present level by trade. The +condition of the African native will be a very dreadful one if this +trade is not maintained; indeed, I may say if it is not increased +proportionately to the increase of white Government control--for +this governmental control does many things that are good in +themselves, and glorious on paper. It prevents the export slave +trade; it suppresses human sacrifice; it stops internecine war among +the natives--in short, it does everything save suppress the terrible +infant mortality (why it does not do this I need not discuss) to +increase the native population, without in itself doing anything to +increase the means of supporting this population; nay, it even wants +to decrease these by importing Asiatics to do its work, in making +roads, etc. + +It may be said there is no fear of the trade, which keeps the +native, disappearing from the West Coast, but it is well to remember +that the stuff that this trade is dependent on, the stuff brought +into the traders' factory by the native, is mainly--indeed, save for +the South-West Coast coffee and cacao, we may say, entirely--bush +stuff, uncultivated, merely collected and roughly prepared, and it +is so wastefully collected by the native that it cannot last +indefinitely. Take rubber, for example, one of the main exports. +Owing to the wasteful methods employed in its collection it gets +stamped out of districts. The trade in it starts on a bit of coast; +for some years so rich is the supply, that it can be collected +almost at the native's back door, but owing to his cutting down the +vine, he clears it off, and every year he has to go further and +further afield for a load. But his ability to go further than a +certain point is prevented by the savage interior tribes not under +white control; and also on its paying him to go on these long +journeys, for the price at home takes little notice of his +difficulties because of the more carefully collected supply of +rubber sent into the home markets by South America and India; +therefore the native loses, and when he has cleared the districts +reachable by him, the trade is finished there, and he has no longer +the wherewithal to buy those things which in the days of his +prosperity he has acquired a taste for. The Oil Rivers, which send +out the greatest quantity of trade on the West Coast possessions, +subsist entirely on palm oil for it. Were anything to happen to the +oil palms in the way of blight, or were a cheap substitute to be +found for palm oil at home, the population of the Oil Rivers, even +at its present density, would starve. The development of trade is a +necessary condition for the existence of the natives, and the +discovery of products in the forests that will be marketable in +Europe, and the making of plantations whose products will help to +take the place of those he so recklessly now destroys, will give him +a safer future than can any amount of abolitions of domestic +slavery, or institutions of trial by jury, etc. If white control +advances and plantations are not made and trade with the interior is +not expanded, the condition of the West African will be a very +wretched one, far worse than it was before the export slave-trade +was suppressed. In the more healthy districts the population will +increase to a state of congestion and will starve. The Coast +region's malaria will always keep the black, as well as the white, +population thinned down, but if deserted by the trader, and left to +the Government official and the missionary, without any longer the +incentive of trade to make the native exert himself, or the +resulting comforts which assist him in resisting the climate, which +the trade now enables him to procure, the Coast native will sink, +via vice and degradation, to extinction, and most likely have this +process made all the more rapid and unpleasant for him by incursions +of the wild tribes from the congested interior. + +I do not cite this as an immediate future for the West African, but +"a little more and how much it is, a little less and how far away." +Remember human beings are under the same rule as other creatures; if +you destroy the things that prey on them, they are liable to +overswarm the food-producing power of their locality. It may be +said this is not the case; look at the Polynesians, the South +American Indians, and so on. You may look at them as much as you +choose, but what you see there will not enable you to judge the +African. The African does not fade away like a flower before the +white man--not in the least. Look at the increase of the native in +the Cape territory; look at what he has stood on the West Coast. +Christopher Columbus visited him before he discovered the American +Indians. Whaling captains, and seamen of all sorts and +nationalities have dropped in on him "frequent and free." He has +absorbed all sorts of doctrine from religious sects; cotton goods, +patent medicines, foreign spirits, and--as the man who draws up the +Lagos Annual Colonial Report poetically observes--twine, whisky, +wine, and woollen goods. Yet the West Coast African is here with us +by the million--playing on his tom-tom, paddling his dug-out canoe, +living in his palm leaf or mud hut, ready and able to stand more +"white man stuff." Save for an occasional habit of going raving or +melancholy mad when educated for the ministry, and dying when he, +and more particularly she, is shut up in the broiling hot, +corrugated-iron school-room with too many clothes on, and too much +headwork to do, he survives in a way which I think you will own is +interesting, and which commands my admiration and respect. But +there is nowadays a new factor in his relationship with the white +races--the factor of domestic control. I do not think the African +will survive this and flourish, if it is to be of the nature that +the present white ideas aim to make it. But, on the other hand, I +do not believe that he will be called upon to try, for under the +present conditions white control will not become very thorough; and +in the event of an European war, governmental attention will be +distracted from West Africa, and the African will then do what he +has done several times before when the white eye has been off him +for a decade or so,--sink back to his old level as he has in Congo +after the Jesuits tidied him up, and as he must have done after his +intercourse with the Phoenicians and Egyptians. The travellers of a +remote future will find him, I think, still with his tom-tom and his +dug-out canoe--just as willing to sell as "big curios" the debris of +our importations to his ancestors at a high price. Exactly how much +he will ask for a Devos patent paraffin oil tin or a Morton's tin, I +cannot imagine, but it will be something stiff--such as he asks +nowadays for the Phoenician "Aggry" beads. There will be then as +there is now, and as there was in the past, individual Africans who +will rise to a high level of culture, but that will be all for a +very long period. To say that the African race will never advance +beyond its present culture-level, is saying too much, in spite of +the mass of evidence supporting this view, but I am certain they +will never advance above it in the line of European culture. The +country he lives in is unfitted for it, and the nature of the man +himself is all against it--the truth is the West Coast mind has got +a great deal too much superstition about it, and too little of +anything else. Our own methods of instruction have not been of any +real help to the African, because what he wants teaching is how to +work. Bishop Ingram would have been able to write a more cheerful +and hopeful book than his Sierra Leone after 100 Years, if the +Sierra Leonians had had a thorough grounding in technical culture, +suited to the requirements of their country, instead of the ruinous +instruction they have been given, at the cost of millions of money, +and hundreds of good, if ill-advised, white men's lives. For it is +possible for a West African native to be made by European culture +into a very good sort of man, not the same sort of man that a white +man is, but a man a white man can shake hands with and associate +with without any loss of self-respect. It is by no means necessary, +however, that the African should have any white culture at all to +become a decent member of society at large. Quite the other way +about, for the percentage of honourable and reliable men among the +bushmen is higher than among the educated men. + +I do not believe that the white race will ever drag the black up to +their own particular summit in the mountain range of civilisation. +Both polygamy and slavery {514} are, for divers reasons, essential +to the well-being of Africa--at any rate for those vast regions of +it which are agricultural, and these two institutions will +necessitate the African having a summit to himself. Only--alas! for +the energetic reformer--the African is not keen on mountaineering in +the civilisation range. He prefers remaining down below and being +comfortable. He is not conceited about this; he admires the higher +culture very much, and the people who inconvenience themselves by +going in for it--but do it himself? NO. And if he is dragged up +into the higher regions of a self-abnegatory religion, six times in +ten he falls back damaged, a morally maimed man, into his old swampy +country fashion valley. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA. + + + +Great as is the delay and difficulty placed in the way of the +development of the immense natural resources of West Africa by the +labour problem, there is another cause of delay to this development +greater and more terrible by far--namely, the deadliness of the +climate. "Nothing hinders a man, Miss Kingsley, half so much as +dying," a friend said to me the other day, after nearly putting his +opinion to a practical test. Other parts of the world have more +sensational outbreaks of death from epidemics of yellow fever and +cholera, but there is no other region in the world that can match +West Africa for the steady kill, kill, kill that its malaria works +on the white men who come under its influence. + +Malaria you will hear glibly talked of; but what malaria means and +consists of you will find few men ready to attempt to tell you, and +these few by no means of a tale. It is very strange that this +terrible form of disease has not attracted more scientific +investigators, considering the enormous mortality it causes +throughout the tropics and sub-tropics. A few years since, when the +peculiar microbes of everything from measles to miracles were being +"isolated," several bacteriologists isolated the malarial microbe, +only unfortunately they did not all isolate the same one. A resume +of the various claims of these microbes is impossible here, and +whether one of them was the true cause, or whether they all have an +equal claim to this position, is not yet clear; for malaria, as far +as I have seen or read of it seems to be not so much one distinct +form of fever as a group of fevers--a genus, not a species. Many +things point to this being the case; particularly the different +forms so called malarial poisoning takes in different localities. +This subject may be also subdivided and complicated by going into +the controversy as to whether yellow fever is endemic on the West +Coast or not. That it has occurred there from time to time there +can be no question: at Fernando Po in 1862 and 1866, in Senegal +pretty frequently; and at least one epidemic at Bonny was true +yellow fever. But in the case of each of these outbreaks it is said +to have been imported from South America, into Fernando Po, by ships +from Havana, and into Bonny by a ship which had on her previous run +been down the South American ports with a cargo of mules. The +litter belonging to this mule cargo was not cleared out of her until +she got into Bonny, when it was thrown overside into the river, and +then the yellow fever broke out. But, on the other hand, South +America taxes West Africa--the Guinea Coast--with having first sent +out yellow fever in the cargoes of slaves. This certainly is a +strange statement, because the African native rarely has malarial +fever severely--he has it, and you are often informed So-and-so has +got yellow fever, but he does not often die of it, merely is truly +wretched and sick for a day or so, and then recovers. {516} + +Regarding the haematuria there is also controversy. A very +experienced and excellent authority doubts whether this is entirely +a malarial fever, or whether it is not, in some cases at any rate, +brought on by over-doses of quinine, and Dr. Plehn asserts, and his +assertions are heavily backed up by his great success in treating +this fever, that quinine has a very bad influence when the +characteristic symptoms have declared themselves, and that it should +not be given. I hesitate to advise this, because I fear to induce +any one to abandon quinine, which is the great weapon against +malaria, and not from any want of faith in Dr. Plehn, for he has +studied malarial fevers in Cameroon with the greatest energy and +devotion, bringing to bear on the subject a sound German mind +trained in a German way, and than this, for such subjects, no better +thing exists. His brother, also a doctor, was stationed in Cameroon +before him, and is now in the German East African possessions, +similarly working hard, and when these two shall publish the result +of their conjoint investigations, we shall have the most important +contribution to our knowledge of malaria that has ever appeared. It +is impossible to over-rate the importance of such work as this to +West Africa, for the man who will make West Africa pay will be the +scientific man who gives us something more powerful against malaria +than quinine. It is too much to hope that medical men out at work +on the Coast, doctoring day and night, and not only obliged to +doctor, but to nurse their white patients, with the balance of their +time taken up by giving bills of health to steamers, wrestling with +the varied and awful sanitary problems presented by the native town, +etc., can have sufficient time or life left in them to carry on +series of experiments and of cultures; but they can and do supply to +the man in the laboratory at home grand material for him to carry +the thing through; meanwhile we wait for that man and do the best we +can. + +The net results of laboratory investigation, according to the French +doctors, is that the mycetozoic malarial bacillus, the microbe of +paludism, is amoeboid in its movements, acting on the red +corpuscles, leaving nothing of them but the dark pigment found in +the skin and organs of malarial subjects. {517} The German doctors +make a practice of making microscopic examinations of the blood of a +patient, saying that the microbes appear at the commencement of an +attack of fever, increase in quantity as the fever increases, and +decrease as it decreases, and from these investigations they are +able to judge fairly accurately how many remissions may be expected; +in fact to judge of the severity of the case which, taken with the +knowledge that quinine only affects malarial microbes at a certain +stage of their existence, is helpful in treatment. + +There is, I may remark, a very peculiar point regarding haematuric +disease, the most deadly form of West Coast fever. This disease, so +far as we know, has always been present on the South-West Coast, at +Loando, the Lower Congo and Gaboon, but it is said not to have +appeared in the Rivers until 1881, and then to have spread along the +West Coast. My learned friend, Dr. Plehn, doubts this, and says +people were less observant in those days, but the symptoms of this +fever are so distinct, that I must think it also totally impossible +for it not to have been differentiated from the usual remittent or +intermittent by the old West Coasters if it had occurred there in +former times with anything like the frequency it does now; but we +will leave these theoretical and technical considerations and turn +to the practical side of the question. + +You will always find lots of people ready to give advice on fever, +particularly how to avoid getting it, and you will find the most +dogmatic of these are people who have been singularly unlucky in the +matter, or people who know nothing of local conditions. These +latter are the most trying of all to deal with. They tell you, +truly enough no doubt, that the malaria is in the air, in the +exhalations from the ground, which are greatest about sunrise and +sunset, and in the drinking water, and that you must avoid chill, +excessive mental and bodily exertion, that you must never get +anxious, or excited, or lose your temper. Now there is only one-- +the drinking water--of this list that you can avoid, for, owing to +the great variety and rapid growth of bacteria encouraged by the +tropical temperature, and the aqueous saturation of the atmosphere +from the heavy rainfall, and the great extent of swamp, etc., it is +practically impossible to destroy them in the air to a satisfactory +extent. I was presented by scientific friends, when I first went to +the West Coast, with two devices supposed to do this. One was a +lamp which you burnt some chemical in; it certainly made a smell +that nothing could live with--but then I am not nothing, and there +are enough smells on the Coast now. I gave it up after the first +half-hour. The other device was a muzzle, a respirator, I should +say. Well! all I have got to say about that is that you need be a +better-looking person than I am to wear a thing like that without +causing panic in a district. Then orders to avoid the night air are +still more difficult to obey--may I ask how you are to do without +air from 6.30 P.M. to 6.30 A.M.? or what other air there is but +night air, heavy with malarious exhalations, available then? + +The drinking water you have a better chance with, as I will +presently state; chill you cannot avoid. When you are at work on +the Coast, even with the greatest care, the sudden fall of +temperature that occurs after a tornado coming at the end of a +stewing-hot day, is sure to tell on any one, and as for the orders +regarding temper neither the natives, nor the country, nor the +trade, help you in the least. But still you must remember that +although it is impossible to fully carry out these orders, you can +do a good deal towards doing so, and preventive measures are the +great thing, for it is better to escape fever altogether, or to get +off with a light touch of it, than to make a sensational recovery +from Yellow Jack himself. + +There is little doubt that a certain make of man has the best chance +of surviving the Coast climate--an energetic, spare, nervous but +light-hearted creature, capable of enjoying whatever there may be to +enjoy, and incapable of dwelling on discomforts or worries. It is +quite possible for a person of this sort to live, and work hard on +the Coast for a considerable period, possibly with better health +than he would have in England. The full-blooded, corpulent and +vigorous should avoid West Africa like the plague. One after +another, men and women, who looked, as the saying goes, as if you +could take a lease of their lives, I have seen come out and die, and +it gives one a sense of horror when they arrive at your West Coast +station, for you feel a sort of accessory before the fact to murder, +but what can you do except get yourself laughed at as a croaker, and +attend the funeral? + +The best ways of avoiding the danger of the night air are--to have +your evening meal about 6.30 or 7,--8 is too late; sleep under a +mosquito curtain whether there are mosquitoes in your district or +not, and have a meal before starting out in the morning, a good hot +cup of tea or coffee and bread and butter, if you can get it, if +not, something left from last night's supper or even aguma. +Regarding meals, of course we come to the vexed question of +stimulants--all the evidence is in favour of alcohol, of a proper +sort, taken at proper times, and in proper quantities, being +extremely valuable. Take the case of the missionaries, who are +almost all teetotalers, they are young men and women who have to +pass a medical examination before coming out, and whose lives on the +Coast are far easier than those of other classes of white men, yet +the mortality among them is far heavier than in any other class. + +Mr. Stanley says that wine is the best form of stimulant, but that +it should not be taken before the evening meal. Certainly on the +South-West Coast, where a heavy, but sound, red wine imported from +Portugal is the common drink, the mortality is less than on the West +Coast. Beer has had what one might call a thorough trial in +Cameroon since the German occupation and is held by authorities to +be the cause in part of the number of cases of haematuric fever in +that river being greater than in other districts. But this subject +requires scientific comparative observation on various parts of the +Coast, for Cameroons is at the beginning of the South-West Coast, +whereon the percentage of cases of haematuric to those of +intermittent and remittent fevers is far higher than on the West +Coast. + +A comparative study of the diseases of the western division of the +continent would, I should say, repay a scientific doctor, if he +survived. The material he would have to deal with would be +enormous, and in addition to the history of haematuric he would be +confronted with the problem of the form of fever which seems to be a +recent addition to West African afflictions, the so-called typhoid +malaria, which of late years has come into the Rivers, and +apparently come to stay. This fever is, I may remark, practically +unknown at present in the South-West Coast regions where the "sun +for garbage" plan is adhered to. At present the treatment of all +white man's diseases on the Coast practically consists in the +treatment of malaria, because whatever disease a person gets hold of +takes on a malarial type which masks its true nature. Why, I knew a +gentleman who had as fine an attack of the smallpox as any one would +not wish to have, and who for days behaved as if he had remittent, +and then burst out into the characteristic eruption; and only got +all his earthly possessions burnt, and no end of carbolic acid +dressings for his pains. + +I do not suppose this does much harm, as the malaria is the main +thing that wants curing; unless Dr. Plehn is right and quinine is +bad in haematuria. His success in dealing with this fever seems to +support his opinion; and the French doctors on the Coast, who dose +it heavily with quinine, have certainly a very heavy percentage of +mortality among their patients with the haematuric, although in the +other forms of malarial fever they very rarely lose a patient. + +But to return to those preventive measures, and having done what we +can with the air, we will turn our attention to the drinking water, +for in addition to malarial microbes the drinking and washing water +of West Africa is liable to contain dermazoic and entozoic +organisms, and if you don't take care you will get from it into your +anatomy Tinea versicolor, Tinea decalvans, Tinea circinata, Tinea +sycosis, Tinea favosa, or some other member of that wretched family, +let alone being nearly certain to import Trichocephalus dispar, +Ascaris lumbricoides, Oxyuris vermicularis, and eight varieties of +nematodes, each of them with an awful name of its own, and +unpleasant consequences to you, and, lastly, a peculiar abomination, +a Filaria. This is not, what its euphonious name may lead you to +suppose, a fern, but it is a worm which gets into the white of the +eye and leads there a lively existence, causing distressing itching, +throbbing and pricking sensations, not affecting the sight until it +happens to set up inflammation. I have seen the eyes of natives +simply swarming with these Filariae. A curious thing about the +disease is that it usually commences in one eye, and when that +becomes over-populated an emigration society sets out for the other +eye, travelling thither under the skin of the bridge of the nose, +looking while in transit like the bridge of a pair of spectacles. A +similar, but not identical, worm is fairly common on the Ogowe, and +is liable to get under the epidermis of any part of the body. Like +the one affecting the eye it is very active in its movements, +passing rapidly about under the skin and producing terrible pricking +and itching, but very trifling inflammation in those cases which I +have seen. The treatment consists of getting the thing out, and the +thing to be careful of is to get it out whole, for if any part of it +is left in, suppuration sets in, so even if you are personally +convinced you have got it out successfully it is just as well to +wash out the wound with carbolic or Condy's fluid. The most +frequent sufferers from these Filariae are the natives, but white +people do get them. + +Do not confuse this Filaria with the Guinea worm, Filaria +medinensis, which runs up to ten and twelve feet in length, and +whose habits are different. It is more sedentary, but it is in the +drinking water inside small crustacea (cyclops). It appears +commonly in its human host's leg, and rapidly grows, curled round +and round like a watch-spring, showing raised under the skin. The +native treatment of this pest is very cautiously to open the skin +over the head of the worm and secure it between a little cleft bit +of bamboo and then gradually wind the rest of the affair out. Only +a small portion can be wound out at a time, as the wound is very +liable to inflame, and should the worm break, it is certain to +inflame badly, and a terrible wound will result. You cannot wind it +out by the tail because you are then, so to speak, turning its fur +the wrong way, and it catches in the wound. + +I should, I may remark, strongly advise any one who likes to start +early on a canoe journey to see that no native member of the party +has a Filaria medinensis on hand; for winding it up is always +reserved for a morning job and as many other jobs are similarly +reserved it makes for delay. + +I know, my friends, that you one and all say that the drinking water +at your particular place is of singular beauty and purity, and that +you always tell the boys to filter it; but I am convinced that that +water is no more to be trusted than the boys, and I am lost in +amazement at people of your intelligence trusting the trio of water, +boys, and filter, in the way you do. One favourite haunt of mine +gets its drinking water from a cemented hole in the back yard into +which drains a very strong-smelling black little swamp, which is +surrounded by a ridge of sandy ground, on which are situated several +groups of native houses, whose inhabitants enhance their fortunes +and their drainage by taking in washing. At Fernando Po the other +day I was assured as usual that the water was perfection, "beautiful +spring coming down from the mountain," etc. In the course of the +afternoon affairs took me up the mountain to Basile, for the first +part of the way along the course of the said stream. The first +objects of interest I observed in the drinking-water supply were +four natives washing themselves and their clothes; the next was the +bloated body of a dead goat reposing in a pellucid pool. The path +then left the course of the stream, but on arriving in the region of +its source I found an interesting little colony of Spanish families +which had been imported out whole, children and all, by the +Government. They had a nice, neat little cemetery attached, which +his excellency the doctor told me was "stocked mostly with children, +who were always dying off from worms." Good, so far, for the +drinking water! and as to what that beautiful stream was soaking up +when it was round corners--I did not see it, so I do not know--but I +will be bound it was some abomination or another. But it's no use +talking, it's the same all along, Sierra Leone, Grain Coast, Ivory +Coast, Gold Coast, Lagos, Rivers, Cameroon, Congo Francais, Kacongo, +Congo Belge, and Angola. When you ask your white friends how they +can be so reckless about the water, which, as they know, is a +decoction of the malarious earth, exposed night and day to the +malarious air, they all up and say they are not; they have "got an +awfully good filter, and they tell the boys," etc., and that they +themselves often put wine or spirit in the water to kill the +microbes. Vanity, vanity! At each and every place I know, "men +have died and worms have eaten them." The safest way of dealing +with water I know is to boil it hard for ten minutes at least, and +then instantly pour it into a jar with a narrow neck, which plug up +with a wad of fresh cotton-wool--not a cork; and should you object +to the flat taste of boiled water, plunge into it a bit of red-hot +iron, which will make it more agreeable in taste. BEFORE boiling +the water you can carefully filter it if you like. A good filter is +a very fine thing for clearing drinking water of hippopotami, +crocodiles, water snakes, catfish, etc., and I daresay it will stop +back sixty per cent. of the live or dead African natives that may be +in it; but if you think it is going to stop back the microbe of +marsh fever--my good sir, you are mistaken. And remember that you +must give up cold water, boiled or unboiled, altogether; for if you +take the boiled or filtered water and put it into one of those +water-coolers, and leave it hanging exposed to night air or day on +the verandah, you might just as well save yourself the trouble of +boiling it at all. + +Next in danger to the diseases come the remedies for them. Let the +new-comer remember, in dealing with quinine, calomel, arsenic, and +spirits, that they are not castor sugar nor he a glass bottle, but +let him use them all--the two first fairly frequently--not waiting +for an attack of fever and then ladling them into himself with a +spoon. The third, arsenic--a drug much thought of by the French, +who hold that if you establish an arsenic cachexia you do not get a +malarial one--should not be taken except under a doctor's orders. +Spirit is undoubtedly extremely valuable when, from causes beyond +your control, you have got a chill. Remember always your life hangs +on quinine, and that it is most important to keep the system +sensitive to it, which you do not do if you keep on pouring in heavy +doses of it for nothing and you make yourself deaf into the bargain. +I have known people take sixty grains of quinine in a day for a +bilious attack and turn it into a disease they only got through by +the skin of their teeth; but the prophylactic action of quinine is +its great one, as it only has power over malarial microbes at a +certain state of their development,--the fully matured microbe it +does not affect to any great degree--and therefore by taking it when +in a malarious district, say, in a dose of five grams a day, you +keep down the malaria which you are bound, even with every care, to +get into your system. When you have got very chilled or over-tired, +take an extra five grains with a little wine or spirit at any time, +and when you know, by reason of aching head and limbs and a +sensation of a stream of cold water down your back and an awful +temper, that you are in for a fever, send for a doctor if you can. +If, as generally happens, there is no doctor near to send for, take +a compound calomel and colocynth pill, fifteen grains of quinine and +a grain of opium, and go to bed wrapped up in the best blanket +available. When safely there take lashings of hot tea or, what is +better, a hot drink made from fresh lime-juice, strong and without +sugar--fresh limes are almost always to be had--if not, bottled +lime-juice does well. Then, in the hot stage, don't go fanning +about, nor in the perspiring stage, for if you get a chill then you +may turn a mild dose of fever into a fatal one. If, however, you +keep conscientiously rolled in your blanket until the perspiring +stage is well over, and stay in bed till the next morning, the +chances are you will be all right, though a little shaky about the +legs. You should continue the quinine, taking it in five-grain +doses, up to fifteen to twenty grains a day for a week after any +attack of fever, but you must omit the opium pill. The great thing +in West Africa is to keep up your health to a good level, that will +enable you to resist fever, and it is exceedingly difficult for most +people to do this, because of the difficulty of getting exercise and +good food. But do what you may it is almost certain you will get +fever during a residence of more than six months on the Coast, and +the chances are two to one on the Gold Coast that you will die of +it. But, without precautions, you will probably have it within a +fortnight of first landing, and your chances of surviving are almost +nil. With precautions, in the Rivers and on the S.W. Coast your +touch of fever may be a thing inferior in danger and discomfort to a +bad cold in England. + +Yet remember, before you elect to cast your lot in with the West +Coasters, that 85 per cent. of them die of fever or return home with +their health permanently wrecked. Also remember that there is no +getting acclimatised to the Coast. There are, it is true, a few men +out there who, although they have been resident in West Africa for +years, have never had fever, but you can count them up on the +fingers of one hand. There is another class who have been out for +twelve months at a time, and have not had a touch of fever; these +you want the fingers of your two hands to count, but no more. By +far the largest class is the third, which is made up of those who +have a slight dose of fever once a fortnight, and some day, +apparently for no extra reason, get a heavy dose and die of it. A +very considerable class is the fourth--those who die within a +fortnight to a month of going ashore. + +The fate of a man depends solely on his power of resisting the so- +called malaria, not in his system becoming inured to it. The first +class of men that I have cited have some unknown element in their +constitutions that renders them immune. With the second class the +power of resistance is great, and can be renewed from time to time +by a spell home in a European climate. In the third class the state +is that of cumulative poisoning; in the fourth of acute poisoning. + +Let the new-comer who goes to the Coast take the most cheerful view +of these statements and let him regard himself as preordained to be +one of the two most favoured classes. Let him take every care short +of getting frightened, which is as deadly as taking no care at all, +and he may--I sincerely hope he will--survive; for a man who has got +the grit in him to go and fight in West Africa for those things +worth fighting for--duty, honour and gold--is a man whose death is a +dead loss to his country. + +The cargoes from West Africa truly may "wives and mithers maist +despairing ca' them lives o' men." Yet grievous as is the price +England pays for her West African possessions, to us who know the +men who risk their lives and die for them, England gets a good +equivalent value for it; for she is the greatest manufacturing +country in the world, and as such requires markets. Nowadays she +requires them more than new colonies. A colony drains annually +thousands of the most enterprising and energetic of her children +from her, leaving behind them their aged and incapable relations. +Moreover, a colony gradually becomes a rival manufacturing centre to +the mother country, whereas West Africa will remain for hundreds of +years a region that will supply the manufacturer with his raw +material, and take in exchange for it his manufactured articles, +giving him a good margin of profit. And the holding of our West +African markets drains annually a few score of men only--only too +often for ever--but the trade they carry on and develop there--a +trade, according to Sir George Baden-Powell, of the annual value of +nine millions sterling--enables thousands of men, women and children +to remain safely in England, in comfort and pleasure, owing to the +wages and profits arising from the manufacture and export of the +articles used in that trade. + +So I trust that those at home in England will give all honour to the +men still working in West Africa, or rotting in the weed-grown, +snake-infested cemeteries and the forest swamps--men whose battles +have been fought out on lonely beaches far away from home and +friends and often from another white man's help, sometimes with +savages, but more often with a more deadly foe, with none of the +anodyne to death and danger given by the companionship of hundreds +of fellow soldiers in a fight with a foe you can see, but with a foe +you can see only incarnate in the dreams of your delirium, which +runs as a poison in burning veins and aching brain--the dread West +Coast fever. And may England never again dream of forfeiting, or +playing with, the conquests won for her by those heroes of commerce, +the West Coast traders; for of them, as well as of such men as Sir +Gerald Portal, truly it may be said--of such is the Kingdom of +England. + + + +APPENDIX. THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM. + + + +This story is taken down from an Eboe, but practically the same +story can be found among all the cloth-making tribes in West Africa. + +In the old times there was a man who was a great hunter; but he had +a bad wife, and when he made medicine to put on his spear, she made +medicine against his spear, but he knew nothing of this thing and +went out after bush cow. + +By and by he found a big bush cow, and threw his spear at it, but +the bush cow came on, and drove its horns through his thigh, so the +man crept home, and lay in his house very sick, and the witch doctor +found out which of his wives had witched the spear, and they killed +her, and for many days the man could not go out hunting. But he was +a great hunter, and his liver grew hot in him for the bush, so he +dragged himself to the bush, and lay there every day. One day, as +he lay, he saw a big spider making a net on a bush and he watched +him. By and by he saw how the spider caught his game, and that the +spider was a great hunter, and the man said "If I had hunted as this +spider hunts, if I had made a trap like that and put it in the bush +and then gone aside and let the game get into it and weary itself to +death quickly,--quicker and safer than they do in pit-falls--that +bush cow would not have gored me." And so after a time he tried to +make a net like the spider's, out of bush rope, and he did this +thing and put his net into the forest, and caught bush deer +(gazelles) and earthpig (pangolins) and porcupines, and he made more +nets, and every net he made was better, and he grew well, and became +a greater hunter than before. One day he made a very fine net, and +his wife said "This is a cloth, it is better than our cloth (bark +cloth) because when the rain gets to it, it does not shrivel. Make +me a cloth like this and then I will beat it with the mallet and +wear it." And the man tried to do this thing, but he could not get +it a good shape and he said, "Yet the spider gets a shape in his +cloth. I will go and ask him again this thing." And he went to the +spider, and took him another offering, and said: "Oh, my lord, +teach me more things." And he sat and watched him for many days. +By and by he saw more (his eyes were opened) and he saw the spider +made his net on sticks, and so he went home and got fine bush rope +that he had collected, and taken there, to make his game nets with, +and he brought them to the bush near the spider, and fixing the +strings on to the bush he made a new net and he got shape into it, +and he made more nets this way, and every net he made was better. +And his wife was pleased and gave him sons, and by and by the man +saw that he did not want all the sticks of a bush to make his net +on, only some of them; and so he took these home and put them up in +his house, and made his nets there, and after a time his wife said: +"Why do you make the stuff for me with that bush rope? Why do you +not make it with something finer?" And he went into the bush and +took offerings to the spider and said: "Oh, my lord, teach me more +things!" And he sat and watched the spider, but the spider only +went on making stuff out of his belly. And the man said: "Oh, my +lord, you pass me. I cannot do this thing." And as he went home he +thought and saw that there are trees, and there are bush ropes, +thick bush rope and thin bush rope, and then there is grass which +was thinner still, and he took the grass, and tried to make a net +with it, and did this thing and made more nets and every net he made +was better. And his wife was pleased and said "This is good cloth." +And the man lived to be very old and was a great chief and a great +hunter. For it is good for a man to be a great hunter, and it is +good for a man to please women. This is the origin of the cloth +loom. + +It was in the old time, and men have got now thread on spools from +the white man, for the white man is a great spider; but this is how +the black man learnt to make cloth. + + + +NOTES. + + + +{14} Sierra Leone has been known since the voyage of Hanno of +Carthage in the sixth century B.C., but it has not got into general +literature to any great extent since Pliny. The only later classic +who has noticed it is Milton, who in a very suitable portion of +Paradise Lost says of Notus and Afer, "black with thunderous clouds +from Sierra Lona." Our occupation of it dates from 1787. + +{15} Lagos also likes to bear this flattering appellation, and has +now-a-days more right to the title. + +{28} Along the Coast, and in other parts of Africa, the coarser, +flat-sided kinds of banana are usually called plantains, the name +banana being reserved for the finer sorts, such as the little +"silver banana." + +{37} From Point Limbok, the seaward extremity of Cameroons Mountain, +to Cape Horatio, the most eastern extremity of Fernando Po, the +soundings are, from the continent, 13, 17, 20, 23, 27, 29, 30, 34 +fathoms; close on to the island, 35 and 29 fathoms. + +{44} I am informed that the allowance made to these priests exceeds +by some pounds the revenues Spain obtains from the Island. In +Spanish possessions alone is a supporting allowance made to +missionaries though in all the other colonies they obtain a +government grant. + +{47} Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians, T. J. Hutchinson. + +{48a} There is difference of opinion among authorities as to whether +Fernando Po was discovered by Fernando Po or by Lopez Gonsalves. + +{48b} From April 1777 till the end of 1782, 370 men out of the 547 +died of fever. + +{51} Porto is the Bubi name for black men who are not Bubis, these +were in old days Portuguese slaves, "Porto" being evidently a +corruption of "Portuguese," but it is used alike by the Bubi to +designate Sierra Leonian and Accras, in fact, all the outer +barbarian blacks. The name for white men, Mandara, used by the +Bubis, has a sort of resemblance to the Effik name for whites, +Makara, i.e., the ruling one, but I do not know whether these two +words have any connection. + +{55} I am glad to find that my own observations on the drink +question entirely agree with those of Dr. Oscar Baumann, because he +is an unprejudiced scientific observer, who has had great experience +both in the Congo and Cameroon regions before he came to Fernando +Po. In support of my statement I may quote his own words: --"Die +Bube trinken namlich sehr gerne Rum; Gin verschmahen sie +vollstandig, aber ausser Tabak und Salz gehort Rum zu den +gesuchtesten europaischen Artikeln fur sie. Wie bekannt hat sich in +Europa ein heftiges Geschrei gegen die Vergiftung der Neger durch +Alcohol erhoben. Wenn dasselbe schon fur die meisten Stamme +Westafrikas der Berechtigung fast vollstandig entbehrt und in die +Categorie verweisen worden muss die man mit dem nicht sehr schonen +aber treffenden Ausdrucke 'Humanitatsduselei' bezeichnet, so ist es +den Bube gegenuber wohl mehr als zwecklos. Es mag ja vorkommen dass +ein Bube wenn er sein Palmol verkauft hat, sich ein oder zweimal im +Jahre mit Rum ein Rauschlein antrinkt. Deshalb aber gleich von +Alkohol-Vergiftung zu sprechen ware mindestens lacherlich. Ich bin +uberzeugt dass mancher jener Herren die in Wort und Schrift so +heftig gegen die Alkolismus der Neger zetern in ihren Studenten- +jahren allein mehr geistige Getranke genossen haben als zehn Bube +wahrend ihres ganzen Lebens. Der Handelsrum welcher wie ich mich +ofters uberzeugt zwar recht verwassert aber keineswegs abstossend +schlecht schmeckt, ist den Bube gewohnlich nur eine Delikatesse +welche mit Andacht schluckweise genossen wird. Wenn ein Arbeiter +bei uns einen Schluck Branntwein oder ein Glas Bier geniesst um sich +zu starken, so findet das Jeder in der Ordnung; der Bube jedoch, +welcher splitternackt tagelang in feuchten Bergwaldern umher +klettern muss, soll beliebe nichts als Wasser trinken!" Eine +Africanische Tropen. insel Fernando Poo, Dr. Oscar Baumann, Edward +Holzer, Wien, 1888. + +{56} "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Bubisprache auf Fernando Poo," O. +Baumann, Zeitschrift fur afrikanische Sprachen. Berlin, 1888. + +{61} Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians. T. J. Hutchinson. + +{80} The Sierra del Cristal and the Pallaballa range are, by some +geographers, held to be identical; but I have reason to doubt this, +for the specimens of rock brought home by me have been identified by +the Geological Survey, those of the Pallaballa range as mica schist +and quartz; those of the Sierra del Cristal as "probably schistose +grit, but not definitely determinable by inspection," and "quartz +rock." The quantity of mica in the sands of the Ogowe, I think, +come into it from its affluents from the Congo region because you do +not get these mica sands in rivers which are entirely from the +Sierra del Cristal, such as the Muni. The Rumby and Omon ranges are +probably identical with the Sierra del Cristal, for in them as in +the Sierra you do not get the glistening dove-coloured rock with a +sparse vegetation growing on it, as you do in the Pallaballa region. + +{96} The villages of the Fans and Bakele are built in the form of a +street. When in the forest there are two lines of huts, the one +facing the other, and each end closed by a guard house. When facing +a river there is one line of huts facing the river frontage. + +{167} The M'pongwe speaking tribes are the M'pongwe, Orungu, Nkami, +Ajumba, Inlenga and the Igalwa. + +{170} These four Ajumba had been engaged, through the +instrumentality of M. Jacot, to accompany me to the Rembwe River. +The Ajumba are one of the noble tribes and are the parent stem of +the M'pongwe; their district is the western side of Lake Ayzingo. + +{181} As this river is not mentioned on maps, and as I was the first +white traveller on it, I give my own phonetic spelling; but I expect +it would be spelt by modern geographers "Kakola." + +{185} A common African sensation among natives when alarmed, +somewhat akin to our feeling some one walk over our graves. + +{189} Since my return I think the French gentleman may have been M. +F. Tenaille d'Estais, who is down on the latest map (French) as +having visited a lake in this region in 1882, which is set down as +Lac Ebouko. He seems to have come from and returned to Lake +Ayzingo--on map Lac Azingo--but on the other hand "Ebouko" was not +known on the lake, Ajumba and Fans alike calling it Ncovi. + +{200} Diospyros and Copaifua mopane. + +{205} Vipera nasicornis; M'pongwe, Ompenle. + +{208} I have no hesitation in saying that the gorilla is the most +horrible wild animal I have seen. I have seen at close quarters +specimens of the most important big game of Central Africa, and, +with the exception of snakes, I have run away from all of them; but +although elephants, leopards, and pythons give you a feeling of +alarm, they do not give that feeling of horrible disgust that an old +gorilla gives on account of its hideousness of appearance. + +{223} An European coat or its equivalent value is one of the +constant quantities in an ivory bundle. + +{241} Specimen placed in Herbarium at Kew. + +{286} It is held by some authorities to come from gru-gru, a +Mandingo word for charm, but I respectfully question whether gru-gru +has not come from ju-ju, the native approximation to the French +joujou. + +{295} The proper way to spell this name is booby, i.e. silly, but as +Bubi is the accepted spelling, I bow to authority. + +{301} This article has different names in different tribes; thus it +is called a bian among the Fan, a tarwiz, gree-gree, etc., on other +parts of the Coast. + +{306} Care must be taken not to confuse with sacrifices +(propitiations of spirits) the killing of men and animals as +offerings to the souls of deceased persons. + +{324} Pronounced Tchwee. + +{329} Among the Fjort the body cannot be buried until all the +deceased's debts are paid. + +{338} In speaking of native ideas I should prefer to use the good +Yorkshire term of "overthrowing" in place of "superstition," but as +the latter is the accepted word for such matters I feel bound to +employ it. + +{363} "Tshi-speaking People," Colonel Sir H. B. Ellis. + +{439} Since my return to England I have read Sir Richard Burton's +account of his first successful attempt to reach the summit of the +Great Cameroons in 1862. His companions were Herr Mann, the +botanist, and Senor Calvo. Herr Mann claimed to have ascended the +summit a few days before the two others joined him, but Burton seems +to doubt this. The account he himself gives of the summit is: +"Victoria mountain now proved to be a shell of a huge double crater +opening to the south-eastward, where a tremendous torrent of fire +had broken down the weaker wall, the whole interior and its +accessible breach now lay before me plunging down in vertical cliff. +The depth of the bowl may be 360 feet. The total diameter of the +two, which are separated by a rough partition of lava, 1,000 feet. . +. Not a blade of grass, not a thread of moss, breaks the gloom of +this Plutonic pit, which is as black as Erebus, except where the +fire has painted it red or yellow." This ascent was made from the +west face. I got into the "Plutonic pit" through the S.E. break in +its wall, and was said to be the first English person to reach it +from the S.E., and the twenty-eighth ascender, according to my well- +informed German friends. + +{455} The African Association now own two steamers. Alexander +Miller Brothers and Co. also charter steamers. + +{463} A Naturalist in Mid Africa, 1896. + +{465} The accounts given by the various members of the Stanley Emin +Relief Expedition well describe the usual sort of West African +hinterland work, but the forests of the Congo are less relieved by +open park-like country than those of the rivers to the north or +south. Still the Congo, in spite of this disadvantage, has greater +facilities for transport in the way of waterways than is found east +of the Cross or Cameroon. + +{468} Export of coffee from the Gold Coast, 1894, given in the +Colonial Report on that year published in 1896, was of the value of +1,265 pounds 3s. 4d.; cocoa, 546 pounds 17s. 4d. The greater part +of this coffee goes to Germany. + +Export of coffee from Lagos, given in Colonial Report for 1892, +published in 1893, was of the value of 12 pounds. No figures on +this subject are given in the 1894 report, published in 1896, but I +cite these figures to show the delay in publishing these reports by +the Colonial Office and the difficulty of getting reliable +statistics on West African trade. + +{493} "The Development of Dodos." National Review, March, 1896. + +{504} Ethnology, p. 266. A. H. Keane, Cambridge, 1896. + +{508} Lagos Annual Consular Report (150, p.6), 1894: "There were +only three cases of drunkenness. Considering that in the Island of +Lagos alone the population is over 33,300, this clearly proves that +drunkenness in this part of Africa is uncommon, and that there is +insufficient evidence for the contention which is advanced that the +native is being ruined by what is so often spoken of as the heinous +gin traffic; it is a well-known fact by those in a position best +able to judge by long residence that the inhabitants of this country +have a natural repugnance to intemperance." + +{509} Board of Trade Journal, August 1896. + +{514} By slavery, I mean the quasi-feudal system you find existing +among the true negroes. I do not mean either the form of domestic +slavery of Egypt, or the system of labour existing in the Congo Free +State; although I am of opinion that the suppression of his export +slave trade to the Americas was a grave mistake. It has been +fraught with untold suffering to the African, which would have been +avoided by altering the slave trade into a coolie system. + +{516} Bilious Haemoglobinuric, black water fever. + +{517} See also Klebs and Tommasi Crudeli, Arch. f. exp. Path., xi.; +Ceci, ibid., xv.; Tommasi Crudeli, La Malaria de Rome, Paris, 1881; +Nuovi Studj sulla Natura della Malaria, Rome, 1881; "Malaria and the +Ancient Drainage of the Roman Hills," Practitioner, ii., 1881; +Instituzioni de anat. Path., vol. i., Turin, 1882; Marchiafava e +Cuboni, Nuovi Studj sulla Natura della Malaria, Acad. dei Lincei, +Jan. 2, 1881; Marchand, Virch. Arch., vol. lxxxviii.; Laveran, +Nature parasitaire des Accidents d'Impaludisme, Paris, 1881; +Richard, Comptes Rendus, 1881; Steinberg, Rep. Nat. Board of Health +(U.S.), 1881. Malaria-krankheiten, K. Schwalbe; Berlin, 1890; +Parkes, On the Issue of a Spirit Ration in the Ashantee Campaign, +Churchill, 1875; Zumsden, Cyclopaedia of Medicine; Ague, Dr. M. D. +O'Connell, Calcutta, 1885; Roman Fever, North, Appendix I. British +Central Africa, Sir H. H. Johnstone. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 5891 *** |