and the Mpongwe . 
73 
fluently and with tolerable accent, but always bar¬ 
barously ; they are more successful with the easier 
neo-Latin tongues. Their one aim in life is not 
happiness, but “ trust,” an African practice un¬ 
wisely encouraged by Europeans; so Old Calabar 
but a few years ago was not a trust-river,” and 
consequently the consul and the gunboat had little 
to do there. Many of them have received advances 
of dollars by thousands, but the European merchant 
has generally suffered from his credulity or rapa¬ 
city. In low cunning the native is more than a 
match for the stranger; moreover, he has “the 
pull ” in the all-important matter of time; he can 
spend a fortnight haggling over the price of a 
tooth when the unhappy capitalist is eating his 
heart. Like all the African aristocracy, they hold 
agriculture beneath the dignity of man and fit only 
for their women and slaves; the “ladies” also 
refuse to work at the plantations, especially when 
young and pretty, leaving them to the bush-folk, 
male and female. M. du Chaillu repeatedly asserts 
(chap xix. ) “ there is no property in land,” but this 
is a mistake often made in Africa. Labourers are 
hired at the rate of two to three dollars per mensem, 
and gangs would easily be collected if one of the 
chiefs were placed in command. No sum of money 
will buy a free-born Mpongwe, and the sale is for¬ 
bidden by the laws of the land. A half-caste would 
fetch one hundred dollars ; a wild “ nigger ” near 
