to her imposts being more reasonable than those of the Free
State.
I will not here attempt to go further into the political side
ofde Brazza’s journey and its attendant conquests for France,
but will pass on to his return journey to the Coast.
A D O O M A S , U P P E R O G O W É .
He left a Senegal sergeant and a few men at Brazzaville
and proceeded to explore a new route from the Stanley Pool
to the sea. This was by the valley of the' N’Duo, which
empties itself into the Niari1 and leads from Ntamo to the A tlantic
in a nearly due westerly direction. He thought this would
1 In M’pongwe, Nyari = Buffalo.
be the easiest way to the sea ; but it was so entirely unexplored
that the very name under which the Niari enters the sea was
unknown. IMoreover the route proved so hazardous that he
was compelled to continue his journey down the Congo, on
his way meeting with Mr. Stanley, who gave him a cordial
reception.
From the mouth of the Congo he sailed to Gaboon, reaching
Libreville on the 15th of December, 1880. Here a cruel disappointment
awaited him, needless to say connected with that
steamer. Neither de Ballay nor the steamer had arrived, and
a very bitter nuisance this' must have been, and one that would
have caused many a man to throw up thè whole undertaking ;.
for he had sent down those 77° men and 44 canoes, promising
them divers wonderful manifestations of white man s
power and plenty of work, and there was neither; and de
Brazza owned it was with painful feelings that he found himself
so ill supported, and obliged, instead of returning to Europe
to rest from his fatigues, having performed himself all he had
undertaken to do, to hasten again into the interior in order to
carry reinforcements to the men left in charge of the two stations
he had founded, distant, the one 500, the other 800 miles.
He started back into the interior with a party strengthened
by two French sailors, Guiral and Amiel, and a number of
native carpenters, gardeners, &c. In ascending the Ogowé for
the third time his canoe was upset at the Boué Falls and
he suffered much from illness brought on by having to' work
long in the water to save his baggage. Arriving at Franceville
in February, 1881, he found there 100 natives satisfactorily
■established and engaged in various industries. The gardens
had been well cared for and the settlement was self-supporting.
De Brazza however had not lost faith in that steamer even
yet, and he set about preparing means of transport for the
thing when it should arrive. There were seventy-five miles
o f portage intervening between the station Franceville and
the confluence of the Obia and Lekiba with the Alima, the point
chosen for the commencement of the navigation of the Alima.
The clearing of a path for the transport of the sections of the
steamer was accomplished by the aid of 400 labourers superintended
by Michaud, Guiral, and Amiel.