AN AFRICAN GENTLEMAN.

45

must expect to labor; for of the grown negro, in whom the love of idleness and chicanery are already habits, it is next to impossi ble to make any thing.

But it would be wrong to condemn the whole people. As future pages will show, I met every where in my travels men and women honest, well-meaning, and in every way entitled to respect and trust; and the very fact that a white man could travel alone, single-handed and without powerful backers, through this rude country without being molested or robbed, is sufficient evidence that the negro race is not unkindly-natured.

One of the chief men of Glass Town, a man whom I knew and loved, was a remarkable exception to the general dishonesty of the coast Mpongwe. This man was respected and trusted by all the traders of the various nations who came to the Gaboon, and enjoyed as well the esteem of his countrymen and of the whites. Though not a professing Christian, his long intercourse with the missionaries had opened his eyes to the deceits and cruelties of fetichism. He adhered to polygamy, probably because he saw no way to rid himself of his numerous family. But he was really, in manners and conduct, a black gentleman; genial, affable, polite, kind, and benevolent. No stranger or poor person ever passed his bamboo house without help from him. No one asked in vain for a share of his means or his influence. ery white man liked him; and he was never known to "make palaver," as is too much the custom among his fellows. died when I was in the Commi country; and, as an extraordinary proof of his benevolence and enlightenment, with his last words he forbade strictly that any of his slaves should be killed over his grave: unlike one of his fellow-chiefs, Toko, who, dying but a little while before, had a great number of poor wretches tortured and killed at his funeral.

As a trader, ev

He

Poor Will Glass! He lies in the mission burying-ground, near the men whom he loved in life, and who had before him fallen victims to their zeal for Christ and their love for their fellowmen.

I sat one day in Will Glass's house, when he began to speak of his friends, missionaries who had returned home, and whose absence he grieved over. Especially he seemed to feel the loss of the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, our common friend, and now the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Mr.

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FOOD.-PLANTATIONS.

Wilson's memory is still cherished among the people of the Gaboon; and Will Glass told me how the natives in crowds escorted Mr. and Mrs. Wilson to the boat when they were about to leave the coast. "Little did I think we should never see him again," said he; then, after a pause, "I shall never see him again."

And looking up, I saw two great tears rolling down the wrinkled cheeks of this old black man, who had probably known no tears for many years before. Such is the affection which that missionary and others inspired in the breasts of natives who are not even their converts..

The vegetable food of the Mpongwe, and with little variation of most of the other tribes of this region near the sea-shore, consists of Indian corn, the plaintain, yams, sweet potatoes, cassava (manioc), tania, pumpkins, and ground or pea-nuts. The last produce enormously, and considerable oil could be made if any one would give attention to their cultivation for this purpose. The forests abound in wild fruits and nuts, some of which are eaten; for instance, the pine-apple grows wild in all parts of this region, and is a delicious fruit.

Their plantations are never near their villages, and often many miles away. The consequence is, that during the dry season the Mpongwe villages are mostly deserted, all hands, men, women, and slaves, being busily engaged on their farms in preparing the soil for the crop, which must be put down by the beginning of the rainy season. This is a busy time, as generally new clearings have to be made, for which the men cut down the trees and burn them, when the women come in and put in the crop. They use no plows or hoes, but only a little tool like a gardener's dibble, with which they turn up a piece of sod, put in a seed, cover it over, and pass on to the next. But, rude as their agricultural knowledge is, they sometimes raise good crops.

The soil is well fitted for raising many valuable articles of commerce. Sugar-canes grow luxuriantly on the banks of the Gaboon. Coffee-plants were first introduced by the Rev. J. L. Wilson, fifteen years ago, and now bear finely, those about the mission-grounds being particularly loaded with berries. And I have no doubt other valuable tropical plants not indigenous would succeed, if only the labor necessary for proper culture were attainable.

The Mpongwe eat the meat of almost every animal found in the forest and river-deer, antelopes, wild boar. Civilization has taught them not to eat animals of other orders like the other natives, such as chimpanzee, crocodile, monkeys, rats, and so forth; such food is eaten by their slaves. Often, when hunters succeeded in killing for me a rare and unknown bird, I was disappointed of preserving it, because they would slyly eat the meat and ruin the skin.

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CORISCO THE BEAUTIFUL.

CHAPTER IV.

Corisco the Beautiful.—The Mbingas.-Missionary Stations.-African Wake.—Set out for the Muni.—An Explorer's Outfit.—Plan of Operations.-Poor Debtor in Africa.-Lynch Law.-My Canoe.-The Muni.-Mangrove Swamps.-Lost.King Dayoko.-Salutations.

THE Gaboon, being old and beaten ground, did not need my explorations. It was useful to me as a starting-place or point of departure, because here only could I lay in such supplies of goods as I needed from time to time to make my way into the interior; and hither I returned to rest and regain health and strength after each of my tours. Beyond this we shall have nothing to do with the Gaboon henceforth.

It was my intention to proceed first on an exploration of the River Muni, and for this purpose I sailed from Gaboon for Corisco Island, where I was to get canoes and men to help me at least a part of the way up river. Corisco-the picturesque Corisco it deserves to be called-is an island situated in the bay of the same name, and at about twelve miles from the main land of Cape St. John, between that and Cape Steiras. It is a tolerably high and well-wooded island, and its shores are lined chiefly with cocoanutpalms, the produce of some cocoanuts floated hither from the isles of Prince's and St. Thomas, where they are very plenty, whereas here the cocoanut is scarce known.

Though but a small island, Corisco has its hills and valleys, forests and prairies, and has even a little lake or pond, where ducks often come to bathe and fish. It seems a little world, and a very lovely little world at that. The shores are sometimes rocky and steep, presenting a firm front to the waves which rage and dash against its sides; and then again flat and sandy, forming beautiful white shell-strewn beaches backed by lovely palms, among which the little native villages are clustered, with their plantations of plaintain, manioc, peanuts, and corn showing through the palmgroves.

The villages are scattered all along the shore, so that, which

ever side you sail past, you see the smoke pleasantly curling above the tree-tops. Great quantities of beautiful shells are found on the shores, and among the rocks at low tide sea-birds also abound, and on almost any steep rock overhanging the water the hunter may see fish-hawks and eagles patiently sitting and watching for their finny prey below. Great quantities of fish are caught by the natives, and at certain seasons turtle frequent the shores, and are "turned" in considerable numbers. The interior forests abound in parrots and smaller birds.

The climate of the island is healthier than that of the neighboring coast. Water is scarce at certain seasons, though there are a few springs and little rivulets of pure water in the centre of the island which never run dry. The soil produces, besides cocoanuts, manioc, plantain, sweet potatoes, yams, and ground-nuts; limes are also abundant. Manioc is, however, the chief food of the people. Palm-oil-trees grow abundantly, but not much palmoil is made, and the natives consume all the island produces. But the palm adds another grace to a landscape of which my eyes never tired, and the bright-feathered parrots and other beautiful birds, and squirrels who constantly run about this palm and feed on its bunches of yellow nuts, make the tree a favorite with lovers of nature.

The island is not more than twelve miles in circumference. Its population, of about 1000 souls, is scattered all over the island. They are a quiet, peaceable people, hospitable to strangers and fond of white men, particularly of the missionaries who have settled among them. They belong to the Mbenga tribe, who are the most enterprising traders and the most daring boatmen of the coast. They were formerly the most warlike tribe of this part of the country, and, when I first came on the coast, were continually fighting with their neighbors. About ten years ago the Presbyterian Board of Missions sent out some missionaries, and the labors of these worthy gentlemen have almost entirely changed the character of the Mbenga. They are no longer so quarrelsome, and have lost that reputation for ferocity which formerly they prided themselves on.

also the land about Their language dif

This tribe inhabits not only Corisco, but the neighboring Capes Steiras and St. John. fers somewhat from the Bakalai, but has, like that, no letter R, while the Mpongwe and its dialects abound in the use of this letter.

D