CHAPTER VIII. 
UP THE GABOON RIVER. 
ETESTABLE weather detained me 
long at the hospitable factory. Tor¬ 
nadoes were of almost daily occurrence 
—-not pleasant with 200 barrels of gun¬ 
powder under a thatched roof; they were useful 
chiefly to the Mpongwe servants of the establish¬ 
ment. These model thieves broke open, under 
cover of the storms, a strong iron safe in an inner 
room which had been carefully closed; they stole 
my Mboko skin, and bottles were not safe from 
them even in our bedrooms. 
My next step was to ascend the “ Olo’ Mpon¬ 
gwe,” or Gaboon River, which Bowdich (“Sketch 
of Gaboon ”) calls Oroongo, and its main point 
Ohlombopolo. The object was to visit the Fa^, 
of whose cannibalism such curious tales had been 
told. It was not easy to find a conveyance. The 
factory greatly wanted a flat-bottom iron steamer, 
a stern-wheeler, with sliding keel, and furnaces fit 
