Still he kept up a good heart, but when he arrived at
island he found his predecessor had died of fever; and
he himself, the day after landing, went down with a bad
attack and he was placed in a b ed - th e same bed, he
was mournfully informed, in which the last Governor
expired. Then he did believe, all in one awful lump,
stories he had been told, and added to their horrors a e
original conceptions of death and purgatory, and a ot ot
transparent semi-formed images of his own •
Fortunately both prophecy and personal conviction all
miscarried, and the Governor returned j j j M g j B
death. But without a moment’s delay h e wdhdrew from he
Port of Clarence and went up the mountain to Basile, which
is in the neighbourhood of the highest native village where
he built himself a house, and around it a little village o f
homes for the most unfortunate set of human j ^ g g g
ever laid eye on. They are the remnant of a set of Spanish
colonists, who had been located at some spot m the Spanish
possessions in Morocco, and finding
human life, petitioned the Government to remove them and
let them try colonising elsewhere.
The Spanish Government just then had one of its occa
sional fits of interest in Fernando Po, and so shippe
here and the Governor, a most kindly and generous man who
would have been a credit to any country, established them
and their families around him at Basile, to s ^ 1
the advantages of the superior elevation I advantages fte
profoundly believed in, and which he h a s S B H B H B
disposal of any sick white man on the island, of whatsoever
nationality or religion. Undoubtedly the fever is not so
severe at Basile as in the lowlands, but there are here
usual drawbacks to West African high land, namely an over
supply of rain, and equally saturating mists, to say nothing
of sudden and extreme alternations- of temperature, and so-
the colonists still fall off, and their Children die continuously
from the various entozoa which abound upon the island.
When the Governor first settled upon the mountain he w a s
v e ry difficult to g e t at for business purposes and a telephone
was therefore run up to him from Clarence through the forest,.
and Spain at large felt proud at this dashing bit of enterprise
in modern appliance. Alas ! the primeval forests of Fernando
Po were also charmed with the new toy, and they talked to each
other on it with their leaves and branches to such an extent
that a human being could not get a word in edgeways. So
the Governor had to order the construction of a road along
the course of the wire to keep the trees off it, but unfortunately
the telephone is still an uncertain means of communication,
because another interruption in its usefulness still afflicts
it, namely the indigenous- natives’ habit of stealing bits out of
its wire, for they are fully persuaded that they cannot be
^ found out m their depredations provided they take sufficient
I I S W M they are not caught in the act. The Governor is
1 us iable to be cut off at any moment in the middle of a
|conversation with Clarence, and the amount of “ Hellos”
U M y°Uf f reS ?” and “ Speak louder, pleases” in Spanish
- M B ™ i I i “ 1 *1" “ •” P°"rcd ° “‘ m d wasted in the
fm a ^ l n t ? ' brcakiSreaIiSed . man sent off as a messenger, is terrible to“ thdi nak" ofu. nfortunate
? E But nothing would persuade the-Governor to come a mile
I down towards Clarence until the day he should go there to
; jam the vessel that was to take him home, and I am bound
to say he looked as if the method-was a sound one, for he
| was an exceedingly healthy, cheery-looking man. Possibly his
L S " I Femando Po water—a dangerous b ev e rag e -
; ttoo ddoo“ w aittfh rhisn i•m6 mt0u nai tyf° rfmro m° f feHvgehr,t fSohr ehrri*s nheaidg hsboomurest hitnhgf
colonists and priests who are stationed near him, are by no
I means good advertisements for Basile as a health-resort.
ernando Po is said to be a comparatively modern island
and not so- very long ag„ to haie U g
Uacrrooss,i ^andd nnoot 'thTa vbinegtw aeenny td5eeemp bs«o»ugnd iOnnglsy. 1n inIe tfeaeiln tom isleees
w at grounds there are for these ideas, for though Fernando
J o s volcanoes are not yet extinct, but merely have their fires
: I H I