CH AP TER X X IV
1 ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS
Setting forth how the Voyager is minded to ascend the mountain called
Mungo Mah Lobeh, or the Throne of Thunder, and in due course
reaches Buea, situate thereon.
A f t e r returning from Corisco I remained a few weeks in
Gaboon, and then regretfully left on the Niger. My regrets,
I should say, arose from leaving the charms and interests of
Congo Français, and had nothing whatever to do with taking
passage on one of the most comfortable ships of all those
which call on the Coast.
The Niger was homeward-bound when I joined her, and in
due course arrived in Cameroon River, and I was once again
under the dominion of Germany. It would be a very interesting
thing to compare the various forms of European government
in Africa-fsEnglish, French, German, Portuguese, and
Spanish ; but to do so with any justice would occupy more
space than I have at my disposal, for the subject is extremely
intricate. Each of these forms of government have their good
points and their bad. Each of them are dealing with bits
o f Africa differing from each other— in the nature of their
inhabitants and their formation, and so on— so I will not enter
into any comparison of them here, but merely remark that, on
the whole, German colonial methods in Africa are more akin
to English than to French, and that Germany has one of
the main English faults in an emphasised state— namely, a
want of due appreciation of the work of the men who serve
her in Africa. Time after time I have come across cases of
German officers in Cameroon who have done their country
o-ood and noble service, and who yet, on their return to the
Fatherland they have loved so well, have found, not only a
want of due reward, but worse. When the flush of enthusiasm
for colonial enterprise dies out in Germany— as it may die
out in the face of the want of profit from her colonies,
arising from a too heavy expenditure of money on them
— the sin of her ingratitude to those men who have s^ved
her in Cameroon will find her out, and no longer will her
best and bravest sons risk their honour in her service, lh e
worst case of German ingratitude to Germans is the last,
that of the late Vice-Governor of Cameroon, Herr von Lucke,
of whom I shall later have occasion to speak. This fine young
officer, full of enthusiasm for his country and devoted to his
Emperor, was driven to suicide from a vile he to the effect
that he had spoken disrespectfully of his Emperor— a lie told
by I know not whom, but I presume by some of those in
Germany who seem to make it their special mission in lile to
run down her greatest colony, Cameroon. A m'ore devoted
subject, or a truer gentleman and soldier than Herr von
Lucke, no country and no ruler ever possessed. I also see in
German newspapers that Governor von Puttkamer has been
accused of severity to natives in Cameroon, and I and those
Englishmen who know him have no hesitation in saying t is
accusation is also ill-founded ; but I hope Germany in carpet
slippers and in barracks has by this time realised that it is not
fitted to judge Germany in Africa. I will say no more, however,
on this subject (for I am devoted through good and ill
report to my first-cousins, the German and the Dane), but
will return to my own trivial experiences.
From the deck of the Niger I found myself again confronted
with my great temptation— the magnificent Mungo
Mah Lobeh— the Throne of Thunder. Now it is none of my
business to go up mountains. There’s next to no fish on
them in West Africa, and precious little good rank fetish, as
the population on them is sparse— the African, like myself,
abhorring cool air. Nevertheless, I feel quite sure that no
white man has ever looked on the great Peak of Cameroon
without a desire arising in his mind to ascend it and know
in detail the highest point on the western side of the