378 JOUENEY TO THE COAST. Chap. XIX. 



ing, after a march tlirougli the forest, reached the 

 village. 



July Z\st. The Ishogo chief of Ayamba presented 

 me with a goat. We were conducted by the villagers 

 into the strangers' ouandja, where we cooked our 

 morning meal. As usual we were much pressed by 

 the j^eople to remain a day or two with them, but 

 I was firm in my determination to march on : we did 

 not need j)orters, and knew the road, so were inde- 

 pendent of them all. I had declined to stay at 

 Ayamba on my outward march, and the people 

 recalled this to mind, saying that they believed their 

 place must be bewitched, as I had refused both times 

 to stay in it. Magouga repeated his old game of 

 pretending to be dreadfully angry with me for not 

 staying, but of course I took no notice of him this 

 time, except to laugh at the trick. 



In the afternoon we reached the good village of 

 Mokenga. The astonishment of the inhabitants at 

 our return was unbounded. We were soon sur- 

 rounded by an eager crowd, all asking questions, 

 and Magouga became at once a man of great import- 

 ance. It filled him with pride to be able to say to 

 the villagers^ when order was somewhat restored, 

 and all were ready to listen to his account of our 

 journey, " Here we are, people of Mokenga ! Your 

 men gave into my hands the Ibamba and his people 

 at Niembouai, and now I give you them back in 

 safety." In narrating the events of the past few 

 weeks he repeated the little troubles he had had at 

 Niembouai and Mobaua, and when he came to the 

 Mouaou Kombo business he got quite eloquent, and 



