Chap. VI. VISIT TO CHIEF ANGOUKA. 119 



suspicious of witchery, &c., the minor chiefs and the 

 people will keep out of his way. It will be seen 

 hereafter that the slave-village of King Olenda, in 

 the neighbouring woods, was a much larger and 

 better-ordered settlement than his own town. 



Angouka, like many other chiefs, had moved his 

 village since I last visited the country. We passed 

 through the remnants of it on our way. Strange to 

 say, these people seem to leave their villages just as 

 the fruit-trees, which they have planted with con- 

 siderable labour, have begun to bear. My faithful 

 friend Quengueza accompanied me, and Angouka 

 gave us a hearty welcome. In remembrance of his 

 former kindness to me, I presented the chief with a 

 big coat, a white shirt, a piece of fine cloth, and a 

 necklace of large beads. We feasted heartily on 

 an antelope which had been killed just before our 

 arrival. 



The most remarkable feature about Angouka's 

 place was the great extent of his plantain-groves. 

 It was the largest plantation of this tree I had ever 

 seen in Africa ; there being, according to my cal- 

 culation, about 30,000 trees, most of them planted 

 about five feet apart. Each tree would bear, on an 

 average, half a dozen shoots, which would in time 

 grow to trees, but the natives generally cut all these 

 away except two or three. The bunches of plantain 

 produced by each tree weighed from 20 to 40 lbs., 

 but I found many weighed as much as from 80 to 

 120 lbs. No cereal could give in the same space of 

 ground so large a supply of food. There were many 

 varieties ; some bear about six months after the 



