unable to get across, I am told, “ because the road is now
.stopped between Ayzingo and the Rembwe by “ those fearful
Fans.” “ How are we going to get through that wa y?” says
I, with natural feminine alarm. “ We are not, sir,” says Gray
.Shirt. This is what Lady MacDonald would term a chatty
little incident ; and my hair begins to rise as I remember
■what I have been told about those Fans and the indications I
have already seen of its being true when on the Upper Ogow6.
Now here we are going to try to get through the heart of their
•country, far from a French station, and without the French
flag. Why did I not obey Mr. Hudson’s orders not to go
-wandering about in a reckless way ! Anyhow I am in for it,
.and Fortune favours the brave. The only question is : Do I
individually come under this class ? I go into details. It
seems Pagan thinks he can depend on the friendship of two
Fans he once met and did business with, and who now live on
.an island in Lake Ncovi— Ncovi is not down on my map and
I have never heard of it before— anyhow thither we are bound
now.
Each man has brought with him his best gun, loaded to
the muzzle, and tied on to the baggage against which I am
leaning— the muzzles sticking out each side of my head : the
flint locks covered with cases, or sheaths, made of the blackhaired
skins of gorillas, leopard skin, and a beautiful bright
Fay skin, which I do not know, which they say is bush cow—
hut they call half a dozen things bush cow. These guns are
not the “ gas-pipes ” I have seen up north ; but decent rifles
which have had the rifling filed out and the locks replaced by
flint locks and converted into muzzle loaders, and many of
them have beautiful barrels. I find the Ajumba name for the
beautiful shrub that has long bunches of red yellow and
cream-coloured young leaves at the end of its branches is
•“ obaa.” I also learn that in their language ebony and a monkey
have one name. The forest on either bank is very lovely.
Some enormously high columns of green are formed by a sort
o f climbing plant having taken possession of lightning-struck
trees, and in one place it really looks exactly as if some one
had spread a great green coverlet over the forest, so as to keep
it dry. No high land showing in any direction. Pagan tells
me the extinguisher-shaped juju filled with medicine and made
o f iron is against drowning— the red juju is “ for keep foot in
path.” Beautiful effect of a gleam of sunshine lighting up a
red sandbank till it glows like the Nibelungen gold. Indeed
the effects are Turneresque to-day owing to the mist, and the
sun playing in and out among it.
The sandbanks now have their cliffs to the N.N.W. and
N.W. A t 9.30, the broad river in front of us is apparently
closed by sandbanks which run out from the banks thus :—
yellow a
S. bank bright-red IN. bank. Current running strong along
yellow )
south bank. This bank bears testimony of this also being the
case in the wet season, for a fringe of torn-down trees hangs
from it into the river. Pass Seke, a town on north bank,
interchanging the usual observations regarding our destination.
The river seems absolutely barred with sand again ; but as we
paddle down it, the obstructions resolve themselves into spits
•of sand from the north bank and the largest island in midstream,
which also has a long tail, or train, of sandbank down
river. Here we meet a picturesque series of canoes, fruit and
trade laden, being poled up stream, one man with his pole
over one side, the other with his pole over the other, making
a St. Andrew’s cross as you meet them end on.
Most luxurious, charming, and pleasant trip this. The
men are standing up swinging in rhythmic motion their long,
rich red wood paddles in perfect time to their elaborate melancholy,
minor key boat song. Nearly lost with all hands.
Sandbank palaver— only when we were going over the end
of it, slipped sideways over its edge. River deep, bottom
sand and mud. This information may be interesting to the
geologist, but I hope I shall not be converted by circumstances
into a human sounding apparatus again to-day. Next time
she strikes I shall get out and shove behind.
We are now skirting the real north bank, and not the bank
of an island or islands as we have been for some tirrie heretofore.
Lovely stream falls into this river over cascades.
The water is now rough in a small way and the width of the
river great, but it soon is crowded again with wooded islands.