18 Le Plateau , 
anxious for some support, and they agitate for 
an unpaid Consular Agent: at present they have, 
in African parlance, no “back.” A Kruman, 
offended by a ration of plantains, when he pre¬ 
fers rice, runs to the Plateau, and lays some fic¬ 
titious complaint before the Commandant. Mon.- 
sieur summons the merchant, condemns him to 
pay a fine, and dismisses the affair without even 
permitting a protest. Hence, impudent robbery 
occurs every day. The discontent of the white 
reacts upon his clients the black men ; of late, les 
Gabons , as the French call the natives, have gone 
so far as to declare that foreigners have no right 
to the upper river, which is all private property. 
The line drawn by them is at Fetish Rock, off 
Pointe Fran§aise, near the native village of Mpfra, 
about half a mile above the Plateau; and they 
would hail with pleasure a transfer to masters who 
are not so uncommonly ready with their gros 
canons. 
The Gaboon trade is chronicled by John Bar- 
bot, Agent-General of the French West African 
Company, “ Description of the Coast of South 
Guinea,” Churchill, vol. v. book iv. chap. 9; and 
the chief items were, and still are, ivory and bees’- 
wax. Of the former, 90,000 lbs. may be exported 
when the home prices are good, and sometimes 
the total has reached 100 tons. Hippopotamus 
tusks are dying out, being now worth only 2 s. per 
