in his country the hunters contrived to drug the elephants by placing poisoned food in their haunts before they attacked them.

One will naturally inquire why the Fans resort to so laborious a method of killing elephants as that of decoying them into an inclosure, and keeping them there till a certain period of the moon. To this I reply that there can be little doubt that elephants were once caught alive in this manner in Africa, as in India. We know that the Africans once possessed the secret of taming elephants, and that it has expired with many sciences and arts. The elephants which performed in the Roman amphitheatres, dancing, and writing on tablets, were African. We see them represented in the ancient medals with the convex forehead, and the huge pendent ears which mark the type. Polybius tells us also that Hannibal had eighty elephants at the battle of Zama; and Sallust relates that Sextius, the Quæstor of the Proconsul Calphurnius, seized thirty elephants at Vacca, part of the royal stud of Jugurtha.

I will finally quote the English translation of Leo Africanus to prove that this method of killing elephants has been practiced in the more northern parts of Africa:

"And although it be a mightie and fierce beast, yet there are great store of them caught by the Ethiopian hunters in manner following: These hunters, being acquainted with the woodes and thickets where they keepe, use to make among the trees a rounde hedge of strong boughes and rafters, leaving a space open on the side thereof, and likewise a doore standing upon the plaine ground, which may be lift up with ropes, whereby they can easily stoppe the said open place or passage. The elephant, therefore, coming to take his rest under the shady boughes, entereth the hedge and inclosure, when the hunters, by drawing the said rope and fastening the door, having imprisoned him, descend downe from the trees and kill him with their arrows, to the end they may get his teeth, and get sale of them. But if the elephant chanceth to break through the hedge, he murthereth as many men as he can find."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CAMMA COUNTRY.

By Sea and Creek.-The Fernand Vaz.-The King of the Rembo.-Arrival at Ngumbi.-The Princess Ananga.-The Tobacco Question.-Relative Happiness. -The Cannibal Salute.

HAVING made myself tolerably well acquainted with the countries of the Muni and Gaboon, I now desired to visit the Fernand Vaz, a river about two hundred miles south of the latter, and to enter the interior of the Camma country.

I did not find it easy to carry out this project. There was no kind of communication between these two rivers, since the only trader in the Fernand Vaz (a Captain Lawlin) had lately died there. I knew that to go by land would be almost impossible, since a large delta is formed by the Nazareth and Faz rivers, and a huge swamp barrier thereby opposed. And at this time of year the wind blows always from the southwest, and one can not sail a canoe against the wind.

But it happened that a Captain Johnson had been sent out from Boston to take charge of the vacated factory. He was in Gaboon, and about to sail to Camma in a fine surf-boat, sloop-rigged. He was glad to get a companion, I a passage, and we agreed to go together. On the 28th of May we set sail, and stole slowly from the river into the broad and swelling sea.

During five days we enjoyed that romantic freedom of ocean life, of which poets have written so much, and which consists in being hermetically imprisoned in a small conveyance, and in being at the mercy of every wind and current. However, we contrived to enjoy ourselves tolerably well. At sunrise we would breakfast off a piece of salt beef soaked and boiled over night, with a dish of plantains, a pot of coffee, Durham mustard, chutney, and pickled onions-necessities of civilized life, but luxuries here. After meals, we dipped our fingers in the great finger-basin over the boat's side, and dried them with flourishes in the air, like the Normans of ancient days.

During these excursions I took no stimulants but tea, and some

K

times, but rarely, a pipe of tobacco. Johnson, on the contrary, lived on gin. He had a case of Hollands, upon which he rested his elbow by day, and his head by night. It was a pillow, half an arm-chair, a solace, and an occupation. He had two china mugs, one of which he filled at intervals of fifteen minutes with spirits, the other with water. He emptied the gin mug first, and the water mug afterward. There was a fixed method in his debauchery which I could not but admire. It was a systematic suicide, which he told me was necessary for the preservation of his health; and he died a few months afterward without having for an hour neglected these somewhat perilous precautions.*

In the bows there was a tub half filled with sand wherein blazed a fire, which, like that of the vestals, was never suffered to go out. Round this would be squatting or lying four Kru-men, two Camma men, the boat's cook, and Oshupu.

Sometimes when there was no wind we would run in near the shore and anchor. Then the anchor-watch would sleep like a dormouse, and the captain like a hare. At the first puff of a fair wind this wonderful man would spring into full life, and cry, "Now, then, hurry up, hurry up there! Now, Captain Jack, wake your boys there—give them hell!" And, Captain Jack, the head Kru-man, having waked his boys and given them "hell" in the language of the Grebboes, the anchor would be hauled up with a hoarse rattle, we would dash on through the morning dusk, the spray falling over us, the ruddy glare of the tub-fire on the sail, the water bubbling music beneath us, while the captain, in a nautical ecstasy, would cry, "Go it, Sal! and I'll hold your bonnet!"

It was the first week of the dry season, and we did not have a single shower, which, as we had no awning, was just as well. The natives had begun to burn the grass of the little prairies which crowned the hilly shore between Gaboon and Cape Lopez. At night these presented exactly the appearance of burning mountains.

On the fifth day we entered the Delta at the fork of Cape Lopez, that labyrinth of streams which connect the Nazareth and Fernand Vaz rivers. After ten miles we left the mangroves behind us, and passed through a mass of marshy undergrowth, from

* In England a drunkard acknowledges that he is ruining his health, and owns (when sober) that he is the victim of an infatuation. In Africa, where debauchery is death, he tells you that you must always keep a bottle of brandy ahead of the fever.

which rose graceful palms, their leaves rustling in the wind. The country seemed to be one vast swamp, in which locomotion on land could only be achieved on stilts. One small pebbled spot there was on the bank, and hither the boat was directed by the men, without orders. On inquiring the reason, we were sternly informed that people who made this voyage always got out there. This was unanswerable; we got out accordingly, and stretched our limbs, which were tolerably cramped by remaining in almost the same position for six days and nights.

'Here I was amused by seeing two land-crabs sparring, it was so complete a caricature of a prize-fight. They sidled up to one another, and round and round on their hind claws. Presently one darted in a quick blow; the other avoided it with the "back run" after the most approved method of the P. R. The boxing attitude, though not assumed by the gorilla, is adopted by some of the lower orders in creation. A rat, for instance, when "cornered," squats on its hind legs, with its fore paws hanging down in

front.

In the daytime the voyage was far pleasanter than by the process of "beating" out at sea. Our progress was slow but sure; and there was generally something to look at a monkey, a jumping-Johnny, or an eagle. But with the night came misery upon our heads. Then rose the musquitoes, and swarmed around us. Then from the swamps rose the gray deadly vapor, which, breathing poison, enveloped us like a shroud. In the morning we would wake and look curiously at each other's pale faces. But the salt beef was an excellent restorative, and we would soon recover from the effects of a sleep which in Europe supplies stamina, in Africa frequently disease.

On the afternoon of the seventh day we emerged into a beauti ful river, its banks lined with villages and green prairies. Down to the beach poured men and women when our sail was seen, and cried, "Trade come! Lawli's son!! Lawli's son!!!" There had been no trade in the river for several months, and these people had ragged waist-cloths and no tobacco. They welcomed Johnson (whom they supposed to be Lawlin's son-Heaven knows why; but, having seen so few white men, they think that we are all related to each other, and that we represent a small sub-marine family), as poor men "out of work" touch their hats with cordial fingers to the farmer who finds them a job.

We had entered the river about ten miles from the mouth.

Ten miles more and we arrived at Captain Lawlin's factory, which was in excellent repair, and placed under the charge of Retimbo, a native king or head man. He came to meet us, and with his battered beaver hat, a belcher round his neck, and a short stick in his hand, reminded me of Sam Collins, the comic Irishman. After dinner we went to look at Captain Lawlin's grave.

This man deserves a public epitaph. He was an American, and had spent much of his life in this river, for which he had done so much, and in which he died at the age of seventy. His factory had formerly been on the other side of the river, and he had called it New York. In '57 he had received an island as a gift from the natives. This island, which he called Brooklyn, was surrounded by a belt of trees, inclosing a prairie in the centre. His first step was to cut down and uproot the trees on the south side. He built a large factory of bamboo, floored it with planks sawn from native timber, and built a wharf or pier adjoining. The bamboo huts of his Kru-men and Camma laborers made quite a little village, which he built like a college, having a quadrangle of sand in the midst. In this sand-square was a large bell, upon which were chimed the sea-bells half-hourly, day and night, while a Kru-man, always on guard with a musket, chanted the "AH's well!" in sentry fashion.

Behind his village was the prairie, in which a herd of antelopes might be seen feeding every morning, and which he allowed no one to molest. A herd of river-horses sported round the island, raising their huge black heads, and spouting jets of foam into the air; and the social grosbeaks had formed their republic, like a miniature rookery, in the trees round the house.

This man was so much beloved and honored by the natives that they made him a Makaga-one allowed to speak in council -a privilege which no white man but himself has ever received. An African M.P., he soon created revolutions in the Legislature, a fact which in itself proves what influence he must have exercised. All absurd customs which tended to excite war or obstruct trade were abolished, and a warlike aggression was subject to severe penalties, as my narrative will presently show. The thief and the adulterer were handed over to the prosecutor, who could kill, flog, or enslave, the latter being the usual course pursued. Murder was to be punished by hanging; and an execution was actually carried out while I was in the river. Without this explanation, the use of the slip-knot in Africa would have puz