CHAPTER XVI. 



THE GABOON. 



" And of the cannibals that each other eat — 

 The Anthropophagi." 



Othello. 



The Gaboon Eiver. — " Plateaux." — Glass. — Walker's hospitality. — 

 The American mission. — M. Du Chaillu. — The M'pongue tribe. 

 — Preparations for a trip up the river. — The start. — The 

 voyage. — A stroke of luck. — The Como. — A colony of pelicans. 

 —Appearance of the country. — A strange rencontre.— A Fan 

 village. — My reception by the cannibals. — The king. — 

 N'miamba. — My installation. — Great rejoicings. — An acces- 

 sion to my people. — The magic lantern, and white man's 

 fetish. — The forest on the spurs of the Sierra del Crystal.— 

 The rapids of the Como. — The country beyond. — The mountain 

 range. — A new specie's of boar.— Keturn to the Gaboon. 



At daybreak on the morning of the 14th Februaryj 

 just fifty-two days after leaving Liverpool, we 

 found ourselves at the entrance of the Gaboon, 

 an arm of the sea about six miles broad. Scarcely 

 a breath of air was stirring, but towards 11 a.m. 

 a breeze sprang up, which enabled us to get under 



