1884. its bold outline to the. height of 13,800 feet. The J,une 20. ° - ’
Fernando lower slopes and shores of Fernando Po are a marvel
of tropical vegetation ; but the upper tracts- appear to
be grassy and denuded of trees. The inhabitants seem
to be more degraded and forbidding in features than
any I have seen in Congo-lands.
The 21st of June we arrived at Duke Town in the
Old Calabar or Cross River. This is said to be one
OLD CALABAR FACTORIES, NEAR DUKE TOWN.
of the best oil-producing rivers. About 500 casks
of palm-oil had been shipped only a week before we
■arrived, and there was a freight of 300 casks ready
for the Kinsembo. As a cask weighs about 15 cwt.-,
it may be imagined what tonnage of palm-oil leaves
this river.
Through the kindness of the traders I was- enabled
to proceed up and “ explore” this oil river,- For
company I had Mr. James Munroe, Dr. Mackenzie, 188^
Mr. Albert Grillis, and Captain Jolly, of the Kinsembo. Duke
I saw Greek Town, and a Scotch mission . there.' We
wandered amid sea-washed creeks, and then returned
to Duke Town. I The sketch on the opposite page will
enable the reader to imagine Duke Town. But what
struck me was its miniature reproduction of the
Upper Congo. Could I have been suddenly lifted
in the En Avant at night, and deposited on the river
near Ikunitu, I should . have seen nothing very different
to the scenes which the darkness of night had
hidden from me. There were the same palms, perpendicular,
inclined, or fallen over into the stream; the
same density of forest, the samesweetly green verdure,
the same rich reddish loam, the same kind of clearings,
and the same architecture of huts. But at Duke
Town and' Creek Town I observed a sight which was
priceless to me. I saw that the residences of. the
native chiefs had been constructed in England,; and
transported section by section and erected here—one
costing £4000, oue £3000, one.£2000. This was the
result, of peaceful barter of palm-oil—corrugated iron
buildings for African chiefs ! They were furnished,
too, in European style with carpets, chairs, mirrors and
window curtains! Conquer that horror of-the march
from Yivi to the Stanley Pool, and I can conceive Ngal-
yema, Makabi, Bankwa, Ibaka, Mangombo, Mugwala,
Mata Bwyki,. and a host of Upper Congo chiefs orders
ing corrugated iron houses and .furniture from Europe
for .their ivory, their palm-oil, their rubber, their gum,