30

MPONGWE HAIR-DRESSING.

light out of such darkness, to remove the superstitions, the ignorance, the idleness and wickedness in which these poor heathen are steeped is a labor of many years. Many times, doubtless, my poor friends the missionaries are discouraged at the slight result of their hard labor; but they do their best and wisely leave the rest to God, knowing that He works in his own good time, and often effects great ends with slightest means.

I can not close this chapter without recording my gratitude to the Rev. Wm. Walker, missionary of the American Board on the Gaboon River, whose house was my home during my stay in Af rica, and from whom I received very many kindnesses.

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF AFRICAN TRIBES. 31

CHAPTER II.

The Gaboon People. — Mysterious Disappearance of African Tribes. - Mpongwe Villages.-Houses, how built.-A Mpongwe Interior.-Costume.-An African Trader.-Monopolies.-The commission Business among the Negroes.—“Trust.” -Extensive System of Credit.-Native Jealousy.-A Day with an African Trader. -Time of no value.-Mpongwe Coasting-trade.-Their Vessels.-Products of the Gaboon.-The Ivory-trade.

THE object of my stay at this time (January, 1856) was to be thoroughly acclimated before setting out on my interior explorations. I had known the Gaboon country and people for several years, but took occasion at this time to study closely the habits and customs of this tribe-the Mpongwe-who, once numerous, are now, like so many of the African tribes, from various reasons, entirely disappearing.

The causes for this mysterious and, to some extent, unaccountable extermination of certain tribes, who die out, leaving no mark behind them, I shall consider in some future chapter. The fact is patent to every observer.

The Mpongwe are a branch of one of the great families of the negro race, which has moved gradually from the head-waters of the Nazareth down toward the sea-shore, extending its limits meantime to the north and south, till now they are found from the Gaboon River on the north to Cape St. Catherine on the south. A portion have taken possession of the sea-shore, and others are located inland. They have probably taken the place of other tribes who have disappeared in the strange way in which even. the Mpongwe are now gradually lessening, while the Ndina tribe is nearly gone, only three persons remaining of what was once a numerous people. They die, and little more can be said.

All the divisions of the Mpongwe speak the same language, with a difference of but a few words; though others again, sandwiched between, speak an entirely different tongue. The migrations of the great African nations can not be understood till we know more about the interior. I know only that there are eight different tribes now settled along the coast south of the Gaboon

and in the interior, who speak the same language and have evidently a common origin.

The Mpongwe inhabit mostly the right side of the Gaboon for about thirty miles up. They live in villages, which are generally located with particular regard to the trading facilities afforded by the position, for these negroes are inveterate traders-in fact, the most intelligent and acute merchants on the coast.

The Mpongwe villages, though not extensive, are the neatest and best arranged I have seen in Africa. They have generally but one main street, on both sides of which the houses are built. Sometimes there are a few short cross-streets. In a considerable village, the main street is often 20 yards wide and 200 yards long. The houses, of course, vary in size according to the wealth of the owner. They are built of a kind of bamboo, which is obtained from a species of palm very plentiful hereabouts, and whose leaves also furnish them mats for the roofs. Indeed, this palm is one of the most generally useful products of the country to the negroes.

The houses are always of quadrangular form, and from 20 to 100 feet in length or breadth. The principal room is in the centre. The floor is of clay, which is pounded hard, and by long use becomes a hard and clean flooring. Both houses and street are neatly kept.

The walls are built up by first driving stakes into the ground, and to these stakes neatly tying the split bamboos. One set is tied outside and another inside, and the crevices which are left between are made close with the leaves of the palm-tree. Thus the walls are smooth and glossy, and perfectly clean. Near the creeks they get a large yellowish-white bamboo, which has a particularly fine appearance.

The building of such a house is a matter of considerable importance to a Mpongwe man. He has great quantities of mpavo -the matting for the roof-made up ready, then collects a sufficiency of the bamboo, which has sometimes to be brought a considerable distance up the river, and finally, getting all his slaves together, marks out his ground-plan, drives in his stakes, and puts up the walls. Then comes the question of doors and windows, in which each man exercises his own taste, which gives a certain pleasing variety to the outsides. As for the interior, the various rooms are fitted up with all the riches of their owner;

MPONGWE COSTUME.

33 and on the coast it is not uncommon to see them adorned with looking-glasses, chairs, tables, sofas, and very often a Yankee clock.

There is a great contrast between such neat dwellings and the low, circular, dark, and dirty hovels of the negroes between the Niger and Senegambia, with their rude high-peaked roofs and clay walls.

They are the best-looking people I have seen, looking very much like the Mandigoes; of ordinary size and with pleasant negro features, but handsomer than the Congo tribes. The men wear a shirt, generally of English, French, or American calico, over which is wrapped a square cloth, which falls to the ankles. To this is added a straw hat for the head. Only the king is allowed to wear the silk hat, of American or European manufacture. The wealthier men and chiefs, however, are fond of dress, and, when they can afford it, delight to show themselves in a bright military costume, sword and all.

The chief, and, in most cases, only garment of the women is a square cloth, which is wrapped about the body, and covers them from above the hips to just below the knees. On their bare legs and arms they delight to wear great numbers of brass rings, often bearing from twenty-five to thirty pounds of brass on each ankle in this way. This ridiculous vanity greatly obstructs their locomotion, and makes their walk a clumsy waddle.

Both sexes are extremely fond of ornaments and of perfumery, with which they plentifully besprinkle themselves, with little regard to kind.

The most characteristic point about the Mpongwe-indeed of all the negro tribes I have seen-is their great eagerness and love for trade. My friends the Mpongwe live by trade. Their position at and near the mouth of the Gaboon gives them such facilities and such a command of the interior as they know but too well how to use and misuse to their own advantage.

Let me here give the reader an idea of African commerce. The rivers, which are the only highways of the country, are, of course, the avenues by which every species of export and import must be conveyed from and to the interior tribes. Now the river banks are possessed by different tribes. Thus, while the Mpongwe hold the mouth and some miles above, they are succeeded by the Shekiani, and these again by other tribes, to the

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number of almost a dozen, before the Sierra del Crystal mountains are reached. Each of these tribes assumes to itself the privilege of acting as go-between or middle-man to those next to it, and charges a heavy percentage for this office; and no infraction of this rule is permitted under penalty of war. Thus a piece of ivory or ebony may belong originally to a negro in the far interior, and if he wants to barter it for "white man's trade," he dares not take it to a market himself. If he should be rash enough to attempt such a piece of enterprise his goods would be confiscated, and he, if caught, fined by those whose monopoly he sought to break down, or most likely sold into slavery.

He is obliged by the laws of trade to intrust it to some fellow in the next tribe nearer than him to the coast. He, in turn, disposes of it to the next chief or friend, and so ivory, or ebony, or bar-wood, or whatever, is turned and turned, and passes through probably a dozen hands ere it reaches the factory of the trader on the coast.

This would seem to work against the white trader by increas; ing the price of products. But this is only half the evil. Although the producer sold his ivory, and though it was resold a dozen times, all this trade was only a commission business with no advances. In fact, the first holder has trusted each successive dispenser with his property without any equivalent or "collateral" security. Now, when the last black fellow disposes of this piece of ebony or ivory to the white merchant or captain, he retains, in the first place, a very liberal percentage of the returns for his valuable services, and turns the remainder over to his next neighbor above. He, in turn, takes out a commission for his trouble and passes on what is left; and so, finally, a very small remainder too often nothing at all—is handed over to the poor fellow who has inaugurated the speculation or sent the tusk.

Any one can see the iniquity of this system and the fatal clog it throws on all attempts at the building up of a legitimate commerce in a country so rich in many products now almost indispensable to civilized nations. The poor interior tribes are kept by their neighbors in the profoundest ignorance of what is done on the coast. They are made to believe the most absurd and horrid stories as to the ferocity, the duplicity, and the cunning of the white traders. They are persuaded that the rascally middle-men are not only in constant danger of their lives by their intercourse