I20 



NATURE 



\ytine 5, 1879 



traveller during a journey undertaken at the request of 

 the German African Society, and extending over three 

 years (1874 to 1877). Everything, therefore, which Dr. 

 Lenz describes, he has seen and witnessed himself, and 

 apart from this important advantage the sketches have 

 that additional one, that they are written from a com- 

 pletely unprejudiced and neutral point of view as far as 

 the social or political conditions of the various West 

 African tribes are dwelt upon. Thus a series of no less 

 than fourteen different pictures of travel are presented to 

 the reader, and it is indeed difficult to determine which 

 of them are the most interesting. 



After a condensed account of the previous exploring 

 expeditions, and an explanation of the great difficulties 

 attending all travels in Western Africa, Dr. Lenz begins 

 his first sketch with the French colony of Gaboon. In 

 June, 1874, he landed for the first time on African soil, 

 viz., on the small island of Elobi in the Bay of Corisco. 

 This bay is situated in lat. 1° N., between Capes Ninje 

 (St. Jean) and Esteiras and contains the three islands — 

 Corisco, the larger and the smaller Elobi; Spain numbers 

 these islands amongst its colonies, as is also the case with 

 the large and well-wooded island Fernando Po, a few 

 degrees further north, with its high volcano called 

 Clarence Pic. Between Capes Santa Clara and Pongara 

 the sea forms a wide inlet into the coast of the mainland, 

 and here the French have established a colony in the fine 

 estuary of Gaboon and have extended their influence 

 even to the mouth of the mighty Ogowe River, Two 

 large rivers, the Muni and the Mundah, the sources of 

 which are situated in the outskirts of the West African 

 Slate Mountains, or the Sierra do Crystal, have their 

 estuaries in the Bay of Corisco, which has flat banks 

 thickly clad with evergreen mangrove trees. These 

 mangrove swamps form the dark and dense wall which 

 here protects the African continent against European 

 trespassers, as they give rise to the fatal fever miasma 

 which has won for this coast the unenviable reputation of 

 being the most deadly one in the world. Many a traveller 

 who landed here full of hope and with a view of exploring 

 the interior and adding his share towards making it 

 accessible to commerce and civilisation, has acquired in 

 these mangrove swamps the germs of premature death ; 

 many an active and striving colonist who sent home to 

 Europe the costly natural products of the land and who 

 introduced to the natives the useful appliances and pro- 

 ductions of the "n'tangani," i.e., white men, here fell a 

 victim to the ever-prevalent fevers. 



From Elobi Dr. Lenz proceeded to Gaboon, a journey 

 which in the opposite direction a steamer can perform in 

 about eight hours, but which on account of both wind 

 and tide coming in a south-northerly direction took some 

 three days in a sailing vessel. The sanitary conditions 

 of Gaboon are much better than those of the coast a little 

 further north, yet malaria fevers are frequent. The 

 annual mean temperature, although the colony is situated 

 almost on the equator, does not rise beyond 27-28° C. ; 

 yet the fact that the thermometer never sinks below 20" C. 

 makes the chmate unbearable to all Europeans in the 

 long run. The best months for travelling here are June, 

 July, August, and the beginning of September. In the 

 middle of the latter month the rainy season sets in and 

 lasts till the middle of Januar)-, when a short dry season 



begins, lasting to the beginning of March. Then another 

 rainy period commences and continues to the end of 

 May. It is very peculiar that during the long dry period 

 from the end of May till September the sky is invariably 

 overcast, while during the rain season the sun sends 

 down its perpendicular rays with all their intensity, the 

 sky covering itself with heavy rain clouds only towards 

 evening. 



Dr. Lenz mentions a curious fact in connection with 

 the sanitary conditions on the west coast of Africa : — 



" It appears that amongst the European colonists each 

 one thinks his particular place of residence to be the 

 healthiest of all. Thus the colonists at Banana, a sandy 

 strip of land near the mouth of the Congo, consider this 

 place extremely healthy and know of no worse parts for 

 fever than the Gaboon districts ; but in the latter the 

 colonists make the sign of the cross if the Congo is men- 

 tioned. The inhabitants of St. Paul de Loanda are in 

 raptures about their upper town (in the lower town, close 

 to the sea, there are only stores and shops) and others 

 again designate this largest town of West Africa, the only 

 place indeed which has a right to the name of town, as 

 the worst plague-hole in the world. Unfortunately there 

 is no place on the west coast which is unanimously 

 designated as healthy (perhaps with the only exception 

 of Mossamedes, in the south of Benguela), but on the 

 other hand there are a number of districts about the 

 deadly climate of which nobody is in doubt. To 

 these Gaboon distinctly does not belong, while Cape 

 Lopez in the delta of the Ogowe estuary does ; and so 

 does the island of Fernando Po and a number of the 

 so-called ' oil rivers,' such as Camerun, Old and New 

 Calabar, Bonny, Opobo, &c., places of great importance 

 in the palm-oil trade." 



The native population of Gaboon belongs to the great 

 family of Bantu negroes, and they call themselves 

 Mpungwe. They are a relatively fine race, and certainly 

 superior in frame and growth to the neighbouring Akelle, 

 Okota, and others. They have not progressed very much 

 in civilisation in spite of their long connection with the 

 I'rench, yet there exists a tolerably friendly feeling 

 betwixt them and the colonists; they are even to a certain 

 extent guided by French laws. Their political significance 

 is very small ; the last of their kings, Denis by name, 

 died two years ago aged over ninety years. The 

 Mpungwe live in little huts, of which some ten or twenty 

 form a village, and these are disseminated in every direc- 

 tion among the "factories" of the Europeans. The 

 former occupation of the native Gaboonese was solely 

 and exclusively slave trading, but at present their prin- 

 cipal object in life seems to be to obtain goods on credit 

 from European colonists, and to exchange them against 

 gums, ivory, or ebony in the interior. Apart from this 

 the slave trade still flourishes among the Mpungwe 

 themselves, indeed the wealth of a Mpungwe nigger 

 consists principally in the number of his slaves, whom, 

 however, he treats very kindly. Polygamy of course 

 exists generally among the West African natives, also 

 with the Mpungwe, although most of the latter call them- 

 selves Christians. But with all this the superstitious 

 customs and fetish creed of past centuries exist to this 

 very day, and if the wealthy Gaboonese laughs at them 

 in public he yet continues the same old religious humbug 

 on his travels into the interior. Apart from the Gaboonese 

 proper, the Mpungwe, different other tribes live close to 

 the European colonies, such as the mighty Fan and 



