14 
Le Plateau , 
is well stocked, and the polite Commodore readily 
allows our cruizers to buy bullocks. Madame also 
is not a “ bird with a long billthe dinner, includ¬ 
ing piquette, alias vin ordinaire, coffee, and the petit 
verre, costs five francs to the stranger, and one 
franc less pays the dejeuner a la fourchette —most 
men here eat two dinners. The soi-disant Medoc 
(forty francs per dozen) is tolerable, and the cassis 
(thirty francs) is drinkable. I am talking in the 
present of things twelve years past. What a 
shadowy, ghostly table d'hote it has now become 
to me! 
After dinner appeared cigar and pipe, which 
were enjoyed in the verandah : I sat up late, ad¬ 
miring the intense brilliancy of the white and blue 
lightning, but auguring badly for the future,— 
natives will not hunt during the rains. A strong 
wind was blowing from the north-east, which, with 
the north-north-east, is here, as at Fernando Po 
and Camaronen, the stormy quarter. A “ dry tor¬ 
nado,” however, was the only result that night. 
My trip to Gorilla-land was limited by the cruise 
upon which H.M. S.S. “ Griffon” had been ordered, 
namely, to and from the South Coast with mail- 
bags. Many of those whom I had wished to see 
were absent; but Mr. Hogg set to work in the 
most business-like style. He borrowed a boat from 
the Rev. William Walker, of the Gaboon Mission, 
who kindly wrote that I should have something 
