PREFACE. xui 



Okauda. It would appear lliat M. Serval has ex- 

 tended llie Ogobai much too far east. The second 

 French expedition under Messrs. Labigot and 

 Touchard, which carried the exploration of the 

 Ogobai as far as the junction of the Ngouyai and 

 Okanda, has probably made observations which would 

 enable us to settle this doubtful part of the geography 

 of the region ; but I have been informed by my 

 friend M. Malte-Brun, that the results of the expe- 

 dition are not yet published. 



Next to geography, I paid most attention, during 

 my last expedition, to the study of the natives. My 

 long experience amongst the tribes of the Fernand 

 Yaz, and knowledge of the Commi and Ashira lan- 

 guages, gave me some facilities in investigating the 

 political state of the tribes, and comprehending their 

 customs, the meaning of their legends, and so forth. 

 There is no part of Africa hitherto visited by tra- 

 vellers where the negro exists in a more primitive 

 condition ; for in the regions of the Niger and the 

 Nile he has been much modified by the influences of 

 Mahommedanism, in the interior of South Africa 

 by the incursions of the Boers, and in Eastern Africa 

 by contact with Arab traders. The descriptions I 

 have given in the present volume ought therefore to 

 be of some interest, as representing the negro as he 

 is, undisturbed by the slave-dealing practices, the 

 proselytism or the trading enterprise of other races. 



The irreparable loss of the collection of photo- 

 graphs which I made myself on the earlier part of 



