Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 3/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
THE CAMEROONS.
General Survey.
HE Portuguese term Camarãos, or "Prawns," was originally applied by navigators to the chief estuary at the extreme head of the Gulf of Guinea, but it has been gradually extended under the English form of Cameroons and German Kamerun not only to the basin of the Rio de Camarãos and surrounding plains, but also to the superb volcanic mass which continues on the mainland the chain of the Annobon and Fernando-Po islands, and recently to all the territory by the Germans laid down on the map as constituting their future possessions in this part of Equatorial Africa. The Portuguese had applied to the great mountain the name of Terra dos Ambozes, that is, the land of the Zambus, or of Amboise spoken of by the old French geographers. One of the islands in the gulf is still called the Isle of Ambas.
How the Germans, after long political discussions, have become masters of this extensive region is already matter of history. English missionaries had for some years maintained a station at the foot of the mountain; English had become the common language of the coast people, and the British flag had even been hoisted in many villages of the interior. On the other hand, German traders had factories on the coast and had purchased land on the slope of the hill. Conflicts had taken place between the agents of the two nations, giving rise to irritating correspondence between the respective Governments. At last Great Britain agreed in 1885 to waive all claims to the Cameroons Mountains, and recalled her consuls and other agents.
South of the estuary the situation was different; this seaboard, held by a multitude of petty chiefs, having been visited by numerous traders, all of whom had concluded conventions with these kinglets and purchased territory for a few rifles and casks of fiery spirits. Old documents showed that such and such points and river mouths belonged to France or to Spain, and when the European Governments were seized with the recent mania for annexations, this coast was claimed partly by Germany, partly by France. But in 1885 the German factories in South Senegambia were by special treaty ceded to France in exchange for all her claims on this seaboard. Here the German territory is separated in the
north from the British possessions in the Niger basin by the Memé, or Rio de THE CAMEROONS. 37X Rey, and in the soutli by the Etembue, or Rio del Campo, from the French colonial domain, the total distance along the coast being about 300 miles. Towards the interior a straight line, drawn from the north-west frontier of the Cameroons to the Benue above Yola, marks the conventional limits between the British and German imaginary possessions; but only a very small portion of the region claimed by the latter power has been explored, and a still smaller portion brought under its direct influence. This territory is estimated by M. Langhans at about 11,000 square miles, with a population of four hundred and eighty thousand. The Cameroons Mountain, facing Fernando-Po, and towering over 3,000 feet above the insular peak, is one of the most imposing summits on the surface of the globe. It is certainly exceeded in height by Kenia, Kilimanjaro, the Abyssinian Simen, and possibly even by some of the Atlas crests, but, owing to its position on the seacoast, it presents a much bolder appearance than all these mountains. From the creeks winding round the wooded headlands at its foot an uninterrupted view is commanded of the whole mass nearly 14,000 feet high, including even the terminal points known as the " Three Sisters." On the slopes follows a succession of climatic zones, revealed below by a forest vegetation, higher up by a herbaceous flora, and towards the top by ashes and bare lavas, at times streaked with snow. So formidable does the giant appear to the natives that they have named it Monga- ma-Loba, that is, the " Mountain of the gods." It was first ascended by Merrick in 1847, but a party of Alpine climbers, including Burton, Calvo, and the botanist Mann, were the first to reych the summit in 1861. Since then several explorers have also mounted to the terminal crater. Although not yet entirely surveyed, there can be no doubt as to the volcanic nature of the mountain, which everywhere presents heaps of ashes, lava streams, even some recent scoria), and dozens of lateral cones, one of which, the Little Cameroon, towards the south-west, seems, from certain points of view, almost a rival of the supreme crest. At the time of Burton's ascension smoke was emitted from the great crater, and the natives have often spoken of vapours rising from the highest peaks. The whole mass is, in fact, a vast volcano resting on a base 800 square miles in extent, and completely isolated on all sides. The forest vegetation clothing the lower slopes preserves its tropical character to a height of over 6,000 feet. The cultivated species, such as the cocoa-nut, banana, and oil-palm, disappear successively, not one being found above 3,500 feet, the limit of the zone inhabited by the natives. But the eriodendron, bombax, and other large trees, generally festooned with creepers, ascend much higher, the upper verge of the timber zone assuming a European aspect, and at last abruptly yielding to the grasses carpeting the more elevated crests. Towards the summit all is bare as if swept by the wind, except where a few trailing plants find shelter in the hollows. The Alpine flora is very poorly represented, doubtless owing to the relatively recent formation of the volcano, w4iich has been developed by innumerable layers of superimposed lavas and scoriae. Notwithstanding the heavy rainfall springs are rare, none being met higher than 9,100 feet, a phenomenon due, as in Etna, to the extremely porous character of the soil. Hence health-resorts for Europeans can be founded only at the few points where spring-water occurs. In any case the fierce gales prevailing on the upper slopes would render a prolonged residence almost impossible.
From the heights dominated by the Albert Peak, the eye sweeps over a vast horizon, commanding a superb view of the surrounding lowlands and island studded waters, and towards the north of other cone-shaped masses. In 1885 Schwarz and Knuston, who penetrated over 70 miles in this direction, found the
northern horizon bounded by a range of peaks presenting every variety of outline, forest-clad at their base, and apparently from 8,000 to 10,000 feet high. Being disposed in a line with Fernando-Po and the Cameroons, these Ba-Farami mountains, as they have been named from the tribe inhabiting their slopes, are also perhaps of igneous character, more especially as the intervening plains are studded in many places with blocks of lava. North-west of the Cameroons rises another mountain mass some 8,000 feet high, known as the Rumbi, which dominates the low-lying lands carved into peninsulas by the lateral estuaries of the Rio del Key.
RIVERS.
The Cameroons are almost completely encircled by marine or fluvial waters. On the west the broad Rio del Key estuary is joined by the Meme, whose numerous affluents rise on the Ba-Kundu plain, intermingling their sources with those of the headstreams of the Mungo, which flows to the east of the Cameroons. Near the water-parting lies the little lacustrine basin, 6 miles in circumference, to which Mr. Comber has given the name of Lake Rickards. It seems to be a flooded crater with no emissary in the dry season, and in the wet season probably sending its overflow to the Mungo.
Some 36 miles to the north-east lies the larger Balombi-ma-Mbu, or "Elephant Lake," also apparently an old crater draining to the Mungo, which here falls through a series of rapids a total height of from 70 to 80 feet. Some 12 miles below these rapids the Mungo begins to be navigable for barges, and throughout its lower course, of about 70 miles, is obstructed only by one other rapid at all dangerous. But before reaching the sea it overflows into a broad muddy plain, throwing off towards the south-west the river Bimbia, which enters the Gulf of Guinea by a wide and deep mouth accessible to the largest vessels. The main stream, which retains the name of Mungo, trends eastwards, not to the sea, but to the estuary of the Cameroons River above the bar.
The Cameroons River was ascended in 1886 by Johnston for about 60 miles from its mouth to a point where it flows south-eastwards between gneiss walls, rushing over a cataract from the terraces which here seem to form the escarp- ments of the inland plateaux. Farther down the Wuri, as the natives call it, ramifies into two branches enclosing a large island, below which it is joined by the Abo or Yabiang, which has its source near the falls of the Mungo. Where the main stream assumes the aspect of an estuary it receives several other affluents, while the numerous channels of its delta communicate on one side with the Mungo, on the other with the Lungasi.
On the coast between the Cameroons estuary and Cape Saint John several other streams reach the sea, some of which rival in volume the Mmigo and the Wuri. Most of them are interrupted near the coast by cataracts, and all are marked at their mouth by mangrove-covered or alluvial banks, which under the influence of the in-shore marine current are uniformly disposed in the direction from south to north. The Edea, northernmost of these streams, and navigable by boats for 34 miles upwards, communicates by lateral channels with the Malimba and the Kwa- Kwa (Qua- Qua), besides sending two independent branches seawards. Beyond it follows the Moanya, or *' Great Water," ascended by ZoUer for 24 miles to the falls, to which point it is navigable for small steamers, having a mean breadth of 160 yards, with a depth ranging from 12 to 25 feet at high water.
The Lobe, or "Great Ba-Tanga," a small stream chiefly fed by the surface waters from the Elephant Mountain during the rainy season, is famous for the beauty of its cascade, which is visible even from, the sea. At this distance it looks like a bright silver thread drawn across the current, but a nearer view reveals a broad sheet of water falling from a height of 50 feet over a rocky ledge above which rise two huge granite boulders, one crowned with a wide-branching tree and encircled by a green girdle of brushwood. Half a mile lower down the river enters the sea between two sandy banks strewn with granite rocks.
Climate — Flora — Fauna.
Apart from the great mountain, which forms a little world of its own, the Cameroons climate and natural history differ but slightly from those of the Slave
Coast and Lower Niger. As in the neighbouring tropical regions the summer rains, already abundant in May, continue to increase till the end of August, usually ceasing by the beginning of October. In November sudden squalls and tornadoes are frequent, and the vapours are so dense that even from the foot of the volcano the summit is visible only at dawn and sunset, except when the dry north-east harmattan prevails.
As on the Guinea coast, the spontaneous vegetation is represented by the man-grove on the half-submerged marine banks, by the pandandus and raffia palm on the lowlands, and higher up by forests of great trees matted together by a tangled THE CAMEROONS. 375 network of tall creepers. The cultivated plants are also the same— cocoa-nuts, oil-palms, wine-palms, bananas, yams, ground-nut^, sweet potatoes, manioc, and especially colocasia, here called coco, but which is simply the tare of the South Sea Islands. Although still but partly explored, the Cameroons fauna is already known to be extremely diversified. On the banks of the Abo, Buchholz collected about forty species of venomous and harmless snakes, and the same naturalist has discovered in this region some new species of tortoises, cameleons, frogs, toads, and fish. Every fourth year the Cameroons and the neighbouring estuaries teem in the months of August and September with little yellowish shrimps of a hitherto unknown fhalassina species, so closely packed that they are collected in basketfuls. These shrimps are smoked and forwarded in vast quantities to the peoples of the inland plateaux. The insect world is also very rich, butterflies sometimes producing the efPect of a sort of haze in the atmosphere, while the ground sparkles with the ruby and emerald sheen of the beetles. A species of glossina, scarcely differing in appear- ance from the true tsetse, buzzes about men and beasts, but its sting is perfectly harmless and not even very painful. It is remarkable that the spider family is represented by but few species in a region where they might find such abundant prey. The large mammals are gradually retiring from the coastlands, although apes still abound in the forest, but the chimpanzees and gorillas, spoken of by the missionaries have not j-et been seen. The elephant still lingers about the sea- board, but his true domain lies some 60 miles inland in the Mungo basin, where numerous herds are still met. The ivory, however, of the Cameroons elephants is somewhat coarse-grained and of a dull brown colour. In certain circumstances these huge tusks are said to be shed, like the deer's antlers, and traders pretend to be able to recognise by their texture whether they belong to a healthy or diseased animal. Inhabitants. Nearly all the natives of the territory claimed by Germany are classed by enthnologists amongst the Bantu Negroes, that is, the great South African family of which the Zulu Kafirs are typical representatives. Some tribes, however, occupying a part of the district along the left bank of the Meme, chief tributary of the Eio del Hey, are related to those of Old Calabar, and like them speak the Efik language. With the exception of these tribes, numbering about twenty thousand souls, all the rest, as far as is at present known, are of Banti^ speech, although a community of language by no means necessarily implies common descent. From the Niger delta to the Cameroons and Moanya estuaries, the transitions are almost imperceptible in the physical ai^pearance of the natives, who everywhere present nearly the same complexion and general outward features. In the Cameroons territory the chief Bantu tribes, as they may be collectively called, are the Ba-Kisk, that is, people of Kisk on the left bank of the Meme; 376 WEST AEEICA. the Ba-Farami at the foot and in the valleys of the mountain range named from them ; the Ba-Kundu in the plains stretching north of the Cameroons Mountain ; the Ba-Mbuku on the western slope of the same mountain ; the Ba-Long and Mufundu in the Mungo basin ; the Dwallas, Abos, Wuris, and Budumans of the Cameroons River, and farther south the Bassas, Ba-Kokos, Ba-Nokos, Ba-Pukos, and Ibeas. Several of these tribes are at constant war with each other, and through mutual fear some remain separated by uninhabited borderlands. In the western districts the best-known nation are the Ba-Kwiri, who have settlements about the Victoria and Bimbia factories, and whose territory has to be traversed to reach the mountain. Traditionally they came from the east, and are noted for the great disparity between the size and complexion of the sexes, most of the women being remarkably short and of lighter colour than the men. The "Brushmen," for such is the meaning of the tribal name, are grouped in about sixty separate clans of bravQ warriors and daring hunters. They are lively and intelligent, displaying singular oratorical power in the popular assemblies, in which all married men take part, and which are presided over by a responsible "king." At the evening gatherings they sing impromptu songs, and give proof of consider- able musical talent. Paternal and filial love are sometimes carried to excess, cases being mentioned of madness or suicide through grief at the loss of a child. The feeling of solidarity is even extended from the family group to the whole com- munity, the hunter freely sharing the produce of the chase with all his neigh- bours, the brandy-bottle earned by a workman quickly going the round of his friends. On the other hand, the law of blood for blood is pitilessly enforced even in the case of accidental homicide, and sorcery carries off even more victims than the vendetta. Charges of witchcraft are at times so frequent that whole villages have to be abandoned, and the Isle of Ambas, in the inlet of the same name, near Victoria, has been depopulated, most of the inhabitants having poisoned each other off with their everlasting ordeals, and the few survivors ending by dreading the very air they breathe. Each Mo-Kwiri has his life regulated beforehand by the tribal code of magic. No chief can approach the sea under pain of death ; no woman dare eat an egg or a chicken, and in many places to touch mutton except on feast-days is a capital offence. Peligion is a mere system of ancestry worship. At a king's death tradition requires the sacrifice of a captive, whose body was formerly shared, like the funeral baked meats, between the dead and the living. Good and evil spirits rule over the earth, those of the forests and the sea being held in special awe. For the Cameroon highlanders, the " Seat of the Gods " is itself a god, "half stone, half man," who wraps himself in a white snowy mantle whenever anj^ serious event is pending over his subjects. The Ba-Kundus of the northern slopes far excel the Ba-Kwiri in the industrial arts, although apparently not their superiors in natural intelligence. Their dwellings are not mere hovels of branches and reeds, like those of the coast villages, but real stone houses, properly cemented, and sometimes even decorated with rude frescoes representing men and animals. The "palaces " of the kings are also embellished with carved fetishes; but the talent of the Ba-Kundu artists is displayed especially in the ornamentation of the "palaver houses," which,
however, also serve as shambles. The warrior who has slain his foe, the woman who has given birth to a son, paint themselves in red to manifest their renown to the eyes of all. The chief occupation of the people is the weaving of nets and 378 WEST AFRICA. cordage, with which they enclose extensive spaces in the forests to entrap the game driven in by the heaters. The plantations of the Ba-Kundus are cultivated as carefully as the finest European gardens by their slaves, nearly all imported from beyond the Ba-Farami mountains. These slaves, generally taller, stronger, and braver than their masters, and their equals in intelligence, are serfs in little more than the name, living in separate villages, and sometimes even forming autonomous republics with their local chiefs and general assemblies. Their communal independence is complete, and according to the missionary Richardson, who resided many years in the country, the political supremacy threatens to pass from the nominal rulers to the nominal slaves The authority of the fetishmen is scarcely less extensive than amongst the Ba- Kwiri. A young man who had committed the crime of eating a chicken at the missionary's table, was himself eaten by his fellow tribesmen. The sight of an owl forebodes great danger ; the ghosts, especially of enemies, are much dreaded, and to them are evidently attributed the tastes of vampires, for at the death of a Mo-Kundu two graves are dug, one in his cabin, the other in the forest, in order to puzzle the spirits and prevent them from knowing where the body has been deposited ; but this precaution not being deemed perhaps quite sufficient, after a certain time it is again disinterred, and removed to a distant cave. East of the Ba-£undus dwell the Ba-Longs and Abos, the former in the Mungo, the latter in the Yabiang basin, both keen traders and active boatmen. But amongst the Ba-Longs all the profits go to the community, and the commu- nistic idea is carried so far that some of the houses are large enough to contain a whole village of five hundred persons. Smaller groups of not less than ten families reside together in a vast hall, while the Abos, on the contrary, live quite apart, each family in its own cabin, often completely isolated or perched on some artificial mound, and surrounded by a ditch as a protection against the periodical fioods. Of all the Cameroons peoples the best known are the D wallas, whose settle- ments on the chief estuary have long been in direct commercial relation with the English and Germans. Although as dark as their neighbours, the Dwallas, who number j)erhaps twenty eight thousand altogether, approach nearest to the European or Semitic type. The women cover their bodies with intricate tattoo designs, the men contenting themselves with a few simple geometrical figures on the face, or even dispensing entirely with such marks. Physically they are a fine race, whose well- developed calves upset the theory of certain writers, who regard this anato- mical feature as an essential characteristic of the western Aryans, The Dwallas are very proud of their pure blood, and until recently were accustomed to kill all half- castes, looking on them as monsters, whose complexion reflected dishonour on the tribe. But the women are held in as low esteem as in any part of the continent, being regarded as mere chattels, possessing no personal rights, and a few years after birth sold to their future masters. like the Ba-Kwiri and some other neighbouring tribes, the Dwallas use the THE CAMEROONS. 379 tam-tam or drum not merely for warlike or festive purposes, but for the trans- mission of detailed news. This curious telephonic system, quite as ingenious as the discovery of pictorial writing, consists in a rapid beating of the instrument with varied strength and tone, so combined as to represent either syllables or distinct words. It is a true language, which adepts reproduce by the medium of the lips, but which cannot be understood until the ear learns by practice to distinguish the sounds. The Ba-Kwiri also speak it by means of a kind of horn, whose notes resound from hill to hill. All the initiated on hearing the tam-taming are bound immediately to repeat it, so that intelligence is thus rapidly transmitted to the extremities of the land, like the ripples produced on the surface of a lake by the fall of a stone. Slaves are not allowed to learn this drum language, which very few women have mastered, and the secret of which has never yet been revealed to any European. Anthropophagy as a religious rite survived till recently. On great occasions the body of a man was quartered, each of the four chief headmen receiving a share. All accession to power was preceded by a sacrifice, the king having no right to exercise his functions until his hands were stained with blood. The royal power is more firmly established among the Dwallas than elsewhere in the Cameroons. The kings have grown rich with trade, and one of them is certainly one of the wealthiest men in Africa, a sort of millionaire in the European sense. Their large profits are derived from their position as middlemen for all the transit trade between the interior and the factories on the coast. Hence their alarm at the efforts of the whites to penetrate inland, and commercial jealousy has certainly been the chief cause that has hitherto prevented the exploration of this part of the continent. Travellers who have crossed the zone of the coastlands find themselves suddenly arrested by, a thousand unexpected obstacles; the guides refuse to accompany them, the porters bolt to the bush or throw down their loads midway ; perhaps also on certain occasions the exploring zeal of the whites has been cooled by a dose of poison. Even when the middlemen on the coast allow expedi- tions to be organised, they find means of thwarting them before direct relations can be established with the inland populations. As in the Niger basin the staples of export are palm-oil and nuts. Ivory and some dyewoods are exported, besides caoutchouc, extracted by the Swedish settlers on the Cameroons mountains from CandoIjMa florida, a species of creeper from 160 to 200 feet long. Ebony and a little coffee complete the cargoes taken in exchange for spirits (here generally called rum), tobacco, textile fabrics, pearls, arms, and furniture, spirits representing two-thirds of the total value. Except the Swedish settlers on the mountains, there are no European colonists in the Cameroons, and very few whites even on the coast, beyond some thirty or forty missionaries and traders. Several of the factories are even managed by blacks or men of colour, who show such aptitude for trade that it may be asked whether they may not ultimately acquire a complete monoply of the local trafiic. WEST AFEICA. Topography. Towards the nortli-west frontier the first station is the fishing village of JBibundf, which serves as the outport of Bomana, lying 10 miles inland. The German traders propose to make it the depot for the produce of the Upper Oyono, at pre- sent forwarded to the English factories at New Calabar. Victoria^ the chief station in the Caraeroons, was founded in 1858 by some Baptist missionaries who had been expelled from Fernando-Po by an intolerant Spanish governor. The whole district was acquired by them for a few casks of salt meat and biscuits, and one of the most picturesque sites in the world selected for the station, at the foot of the forest- clad mountain and on the shores of an island- studded inlet. The two verdant islands of Amhas {Ambozes, Amboise) and MondoU stand out against the hazy background of Fernando-Po with its cloud- capped cone, while the beach-, fringed with dense vegetation, stretches away to the south and west. Victoria offers some advantages as a naval station, the roadstead north of the islands being accessible to vessels of average draught, which may here procure a supply of pure water from a copious stream descending from the mountain. The deep inlet of Man-of-War Bay, penetrating far inland, might also be easily connected with Victoria by a short road, perhaps even by a canal cut across the intervening muddy neck of the peninsula. At present almost the only inhabitants of Victoria are some Ba-Kwiri and fugitives threatened with the vendetta or the vengeance of the fetishmen. Owing to the political changes, the English Baptist missionaries have been compelled to sell their establishment and their proprietary rights over the neighbouring lands. The German Government has introduced in their place missionaries from Basle, charged to instruct the natives in the German tongue and teach them to obey their new masters. East of the wooded headland at the southern extremity of the great mountain lies the haven of Bimbia, partly sheltered from the surf by Nichols Island. But the approach is tortuous and difficult, and during the rainy season the billows break furiously on the bar. The bay is lined by three villages forming an almost continuous row of houses inhabited chiefly by fishermen. Bimbia is the natural outport for the large Ba-Kwiri villages Sopo, Lissoka, Bicassa, Btcea or Bea, scattered over the surrounding slopes. In the Mungo basin the port and chief market near the large village of Mbinga communicates with Mbinga by a deep channel offering excellent anchor- age to large vessels. Farther on lies Bakundii-ba-Nambele, an American missionary station in the Ba-Kundu territory. Kumba, much farther inland, appears to be a great market for slaves and palm-oil, with a population, according to Schwarz, of nearly four thousand. The name Cameroons is applied collectively to about a dozen villages with a joint population of ten thousand on the east side of the Cameroons estuary, some of which are separately known as King Bill's Town, King Akica's Toiim, from the names of the local kings." They are reached by vessels of average tonnage, those of larger size stopping at the entrance of the roadstead. A few hulks are
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also moored opposite the factories, although most of the traders now reside in well built modern houses on the mainland. The palace of the governor crowns a gently sloping terrace, where stood a native village destroyed by the German flotilla in 1885. But the officials usually reside at the health resort established on the exposed sandy beach at the extremity of Cape Swellaba, to which the Germans have given the somewhat eccentric name of Kaiser Wilhelni's Bad.
The term Biafra figuring on most maps as the name of a town in the Cameroons basin has absolutely no existence. It appears to have been applied to some imaginary kingdom or capital, and afterwards extended to the neighbouring
bight. But it should be removed from modern geographical nomenclature, having apparently originated through a clerical error for Mafra, the name of a mountain inscribed in the early maps on the exact site of the Ba-Farami range, so that the resemblance between these two terms may not be altogether fortuitous. Near the mouth of the Moanya have been established three factories trading with the neighbouring "Little," or Northern Ba-Tangas. Higher up the centre of traffic is at the large village of Javanja, where the less civilised Ba-Kokos of the interior come in contact with the Ba-Tangas. Under the common designation of "Great Ba-Tangas" are comprised two distinct tribes, the Ba-Pukos north of THE CAMER00N3. 383 Elephant Mountain, and the Ba-Xokos in the Criby district and farther south to the mouth of the Rio del Campo, The long-standing blood-feud between these two tribes was recently brought to an end by the intervention of the European traders. This group of tribes are the most skilful boat-builders in the whole of Africa. They launch on the Moanya large war galleys impelled by about sixteen rowers, with a speed unrivalled by any European craft. Amongst the Southern or Great Ba-Tongas these boats have been replaced by skiffs of amazingly light build, about 7 feet long, 12 inches broad, 6 inches deep, weighing but from 10 to 20 pounds, with which they skim over the crests of the waves, fearlessly crossing the dangerous surf -beaten bars which Europeans scarcely venture to approach in open boats. The factories in the Great Ba-Tanga territory are at present the most important depots for the ivory trade, brought from the interior by the Ibeas (Ma- Bea), or " Brush People," who speak a very different idiom from that of the coast tribes. Like the Fans farther south, these Ibeas are constantly moving seawards, and have already reached the coast at two points north and south of the Lobe River. Beyond the coast plateaux and the hypothetical Sierra Guerreira range, east of their domain, lie the regions stretching towards the Upper IJ-Banghi and Shari basins, where is found the Liba, or " Lake," frequently mentioned by the natives. But whether it is really a great sheet of water, or a large river, perhaps the U-Banghi itself, is still unknown. Of all the unexplored Central African regions these have hitherto best preserved their secret.