lethargy of the rest of the West Coast tribes ; but of Fans I
will speak by and by ; and merely preface my diary by stating
that Congo Français has a coast line of about 900 miles,
extending from the Campo River to a point a few miles north
of Landana, with the exception of the small Corisco region
claimed by Spain. The Hinterland is not yet delimitated,
except as regards the Middle Congo. The French possession
runs from Brazzaville on Stanley Pool up to the confluence of the
M’Ubanji with the Congo, then following the western bank of
the M'Ubanji. Away to the N.N.E. it is not yet delimitated,
and although the French have displayed great courage and
enterprise, there are still great stretches of country in Congo
Français that have never been visited by a white man ; but
the same maybe said to as great an extent of the West Coast
possessions of England and Germany.
The whole of the territory that is at present roughly delimitated,
may have an area of 220,000 square miles, with a
population variously estimated at from two to five millions.
The two main outlets of its trade are Gaboon and Fernan
Vaz. Gaboon is the finest harbour on the western side of the
continent, and was thought for many years to be what it looks
like, namely, the mouth of a great river. Of late years, however,
it has been found to be merely one of those great tidal
estuaries like Bonny-— that go thirty or forty miles inland
and then end in a series of small rivers. While under the
impression that Gaboon was one of the great water ways of
Africa, France made it a head station for her West African
Squadron, and the point of development from which to
start on exploring the surrounding country. Her attention,
it is said, was first attracted to the importance of Gaboon by
the reports brought home by the expedition under Prince de
Joinville in the Belle Poule— who, in 1840, brought the body
of Napoleon from St. Helena for interment in Paris— and after
de Joinville the northern termination of the Gaboon estuary
is officially known, although it is locally called Cape Santa
Clara, which is possibly the name given it by the Portuguese
navigator, Lopez Gonsalves, who, in 1469, made his great
voyage of discovery on this coast, and whose name Cape Lopez
— at the mouth of one of the Ogowé streams— still bears.
Fernan Vaz and Cape Lopez are nowadays more important
outlets for trade than Gaboon. To the former comes the
trade of the Rembo river, and a certain amount of the Ogowé
main trade, since the discovery of the Ogololé creek— a sort
of natural canal about twelve miles long and of a fairly
uniform breadth of fifty-five feet. Its course is twisted to
and fro through the dense forest, and during the rains it is
possible to take a small stern wheel steam-boat up and down
it. Cape Lopez is the outlet of the Yombas arm of the lower
Ogowé, which is also navigable by a small steam-boat. The
Chargeur Reunis Company, subsidised by the Government,
supply this vessel, the Eclaireur, to run from Cape Lopez to
Njole, the highest navigable point for vessels on the Ogowé.
Messrs. Hatton and Cookson used to have another small
steamer, which went straight to and fro from Gaboon to Njole,
but alas ! she is no more. Nowadays Gaboon is merely a
depot, and were it not for her magnificent harbour and the
fact that the government is already established there in firm
solid buildings, Gaboon would be abandoned, for not only has
the trade coming out at Cape Lopez and Fernan Vaz increased,
but the trade coming down the Gaboon itself
decreased. This is possibly on account of French enterprise
having made the route for trade by the Ogowé main
stream the safer and easier.
There is now another rival to Gaboon in Conog o Franç5a is,’
Loango. Loango owes its importance to the clear-sightedness
and daring of M. de Brazza who, when he reached Brazzaville,
as it is now rightly called, on Stanley Pool, saw that there
was a possibility of a practicable route viâ the Niari Valley
from the Middle Congo regions to the sea. For M. de Brazza
to see the possibility of the practicability of a thing means
that he makes it so, and Loango will gradually become the
outlet for a very large portion of the Congo trade, when the
railway along the Niari Valley is completed. It has also been
suggested that the head station of the government should be
moved from Gaboon to Loango, but against this being done
is the initial expense and the inferiority of the Loango
anchorage. Still, things tend to gravitate towards Loango,
as it is the more important position from a local political