4 
Le Plateau , 
17, 1862, in a snug berth opposite Le Plateau, as 
the capital of the French colony is called, and 
amongst the shipping of its chief port, Aumale 
Road. The river at this neck is about five miles 
broad, and the scene was characteristically French. 
Hardly a merchant vessel lay there. We had no less 
than four naval consorts “ La Caravane,” guard- 
ship, store-ship, and hospital-hulk ; a fine transport, 
“ La Riege,” bound for Goree ; “ La Recherche,” a 
wretched old sailing corvette which plies to Assini 
and Grand Basam on the Gold Coast; and, lastly, 
“La Junon,” chef de division Baron Didelot, then 
one of the finest frigates in the French navy, armed 
with fifty rifled sixty-eight pounders. It is curious 
that, whilst our neighbours build such splendid 
craft, and look so neat and natty in naval uniform, 
they pay so little regard to the order and cleanli¬ 
ness of their floating homes. 
After visiting every English colony on the West 
Coast of Africa, I resolved curiously to examine 
my first specimen of our rivals, the “ principal 
centre of trade in western equatorial Africa.” The 
earliest visit—in uniform, of course—was to Baron 
Didelot, whose official title is “ Commandant Supe- 
rieur des Etablissements de la Cote d’Or et du 
Gabon ; ” the following was to M. H. S. L’Aulnois, 
“ Lieutenant de Vaisseau et Commandant Particu- 
lier du Comptoir de Gabon.” These gentlemen 
have neat bungalows and gardens ; they may spend 
