Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/394

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He fixed on a point for his first station at the confluence of the Passa with the Ogowé, and founded there the station now know as Franceville in June, 1880. In the middle of the same month he sent down to the coast M. Michaud with 770 men and forty-four canoes to meet M. Ballay, whom he expected would by this time have arrived at Gaboon with the sections of the steamer; and leaving M. Noguez at Franceville to get on with making it, de Brazza started off in a way characteristic of him, alone, with a small party of
AN UPPER OGOWÉ VILLAGE. natives for the Congo; although he fully expected to meet with opposition from the Apfuru tribe, who had on his previous journey barred the way to him down the Alima. He says he "relied on his growing reputation for friendliness, throughout the region, for softening the hostility of the natives." He may have done so; but if he had not had time to acquire it, de Brazza would have gone on, relying on something else, his luck, most likely—that luck which, as the story on the Ogowé goes, once saved him from immolation at the hands of the Fans by