Arrival at “ the Bush!' 
39 
tongue. But reputation as a linguist is easily made 
in these regions by speaking a few common sen¬ 
tences. The gorilla-hunter evidently had only a 
colloquial acquaintance with the half-dozen various 
idioms of the Mpongwe and Mpangwe (Fa n) Ba- 
kele, Shekyani, and Cape Lopez people. Yet, 
despite verbal inaccuracies, his facility of talking 
gave him immense advantages over other whites, 
chiefly in this, that the natives would deem it use¬ 
less to try the usual tricks upon travellers. 
Forteune is black, short, and “ trapu ; ” curls of 
the jettiest lanugo invest all his outward man ; 
bunches of muscle stand out from his frame like 
the statues of Crotonian Milo ; his legs are bandy ; 
his hands and feet are large and patulous, and he 
wants only a hunch to make an admirable Quasi¬ 
modo. He has the frank and open countenance 
of a sportsman—I had been particularly warned 
by the Plateau folk about his skill in cheating and 
lying. Formerly a cook at the Gaboon, he is a 
man of note in his tribe, as the hunter always is ; 
he holds the position of a country gentleman, who 
can afford to write himself M. F. H.; he is looked 
upon as a man of valour; he is admired by the 
people, and he is adored by his wives—one of them 
at once took up her station upon the marital knee. 
Perhaps the Nimrod of Mbata is just a little hen¬ 
pecked—the Mpongwe mostly are—and I soon 
found out that soigner les femmes is the royal road 
