THE LEOPARD AND HIS PREY.

sounding with the cry which had so startled me.

161

And now a

dull booming roar succeeded, and I could guess that beyond my sight, out in some other open space, some fortunate leopard had gained a meal. Determined to see the fight if possible, I made toward the sounds, and, emerging from a piece of wood, saw scudding across the plain, and at but little distance from me, a wild bull, on whose neck was crouched what I instantly knew, from the natives' description, to be a leopard. Vainly the poor beast reared, tossed, ran, stopped, roared, and yelled. In its blind terror it at last even rushed against a tree, and nearly tumbled over with the recoil. But once more anguish lent it strength, and it set out on another race. I took as good aim at the leopard's figure as I could and fired, but with no effect that I could discover. The exciting spectacle lasted but a minute; then the bull was lost to my sight, and presently his roars ceased. Probably the leopard had sucked away his life, and was now feasting on his prey.

We staid a week. In that time the party collected five hundred pounds of India-rubber, and then returned with cheery songs to the village, each one expecting to make great bargains with the Mpongwe traders, or with white men.

To return, now, to my regular route, from which this has been a very long digression.

The country about the Ikoi Creek seems to be a great bird country. During my stay at Mr. Best's I killed a great many beautiful birds, some rare, and two of hitherto unknown varieties. One was a variety of the partridge, the Francolin squamatus, a gray bird, whose loud call was heard in the forests every evening calling its mate. They sleep side by side on a particular branch of some tree where they have their home, and one does not cease to call until the other arrives at this rendezvous. The othera very curious bird-has been since named the Barbatula du Chaillu. It is a really beautiful animal; throat and breast a glossy blue-black; head scarlet; a line of canary-yellow running from above the eyes along the neck; and the back, which is black, covered with canary-yellow spots. This singular little bird makes its nest with great pains and long toils with wood of dead trees. The male and female settle upon a tree which seems to have been dead a.sufficient time to soften the wood a little, and then going to work with their bills, peck out a circular open

L

162

SINGULAR BIRDS' NEST.

ing two inches in diameter, and perhaps two inches deep. This done, they dig perpendicularly down for about four inches. The cavity thus made is their nest. Of course, as they are small birds, it takes them a long time to perform this piece of carpenteringoften two or three weeks. Then it is lined softly, and the female lays her eggs and hatches them in security.

From the Ikoi Creek I returned without incident or adventure to the Gaboon.

Creek Navigation. - Nocturnal Habits of the Negroes.-A royal Farm.-Beachtravel.-Canoe-building.—Ogoula-Limbai.—A great Elephant-hunter.-In the Surf. Shark River.—Prairies.—Sangatanga.—King Bango.—An Audience of Royalty.—A Ball.—Barracoons.—Unwelcome Guest.—A Slaver in the Offing.— Decline of the Slave-trade on this Coast.-Idols.

My stay in Gaboon was only long enough to enable me to secure my specimens and send them on, and to prepare myself for a trip to Cape Lopez. I was anxious to see for myself the barracoons of the slave-traders, as well as to hunt the wild buffalo, which is found in great numbers on the prairies of that part of the interior.

When all was ready, I placed all my goods, and guns, and ammunition in one of the immense canoes which the Mpongwe make, and we started for Mbata Creek, on which lay the plantation of my old friend King Rompochombo, or Roi Dennis, as the French call him.

We entered the Mbata Creek at four P.M., and paddled up and up, the stream growing narrower all the time, and more overhung with trees, till about midnight the men had to pull the canoe through the brushwood, which made more swamp than creek. This brought us pretty soon to where there was no more creek, and then we found ourselves on the royal plantation.

My baggage was immediately taken to the king's first wife's house. Though so late, or rather now getting early, the people were not asleep. It is a singular habit the Africans have, and very like the highest class of society in our own cities-they do not sleep at night, but lie about their fires and smoke and tell stories, dozing off all day afterward. I was not surprised, therefore, to find the Princess Akerai lying, with three or four other women, near a huge fire (the thermometer was at 85°) smoking her pipe, and saying she was glad to see me.

However, all was busy in an instant. The princess hurried off to cook me some plantains and fish which her slaves were preparing, and which I greatly enjoyed, for our day's journey had

made me hungry. A fire was built in the centre of the floor of the house which I was to occupy, and around this several of the king's wives assembled, while the queen busied herself in preparing a corner for my sleeping accommodations. For bed I had a mat simple enough, but not so hard for the bones as the bamboo couch I had enjoyed at Mbene's; and there was added to my mat, in this case, the unusual luxury of a musquito netting, by help of which I was able to enjoy a good sleep.

The negroes are very hospitable and kind, but generally very poor and dirty. However, it does not seem dirt to them; and as for their poor half-starved lives, they enjoy them as though no misery was in the world; till death or great distress comes, and then their sorrow is something terrible—literally a sorrow without hope.

King Rompochombo's people are among the most thriving of the Mpongwe. The plantations where I now was belong to them, and are the most flourishing I saw any where on the coast. The village, which lies at the head of the Mbata Creek, is surrounded by a fertile prairie, which was now in full cultivation. The people have a great many slaves, and the women seem really to have a taste or liking for agricultural operations-perhaps because in their Gaboon villages they have before them only Sandy Point, a long sandy flat, where nothing will grow. Here I saw on every hand, and for several miles in all directions, fields of ground-nuts, plantains, corn, sugar-cane, ginger, yams, manioc, squash (a great favorite with all the negroes); while near their little huts were growing the paw-tree, the lime, the wild orange, together with abundance of plantains and pine-apples. The life of peaceful industry they led here really gave me a high opinion of this little nation, who have greater persistence in this direction than any of their fellows I have seen. They seemed even to care for animals, for every where I saw goats, and the diminutive African chickens.

The king was at his town on the coast, but had given orders to have me forwarded on to Cape Lopez, Sangatanga, the chief town of the Cape, being about sixty miles from Mbata. The king. gives himself no trouble about this beautiful plantation, and visits it only during the dry season. Indeed, I suspect that he has little authority there, the queen ruling supreme, managing every thing, and ordering the labor of the slaves and the succession of the agricultural operations. Occasionally she sets her own hand