192 
Up the Gaboon River. 
more resembles the languages of the eastern coast 
than its western neighbour, at the same time less 
than the Fiote or the Congoese. It has a larger 
number of declensions, and its adjectives and pro¬ 
nouns are more flexible and complicated. On the 
other hand, it possesses few of the conjugations 
which form so conspicuous a feature in the tongues 
of the Lower River, and, reversing the usage of the 
Mpongwe, it makes very little use of the passive. 
Running the gauntlet of cheer and chaff from 
the noisy inmates of the many Bakele villages, and 
worried by mangrove-flies, we held our way up 
the muddy and rapidly narrowing stream, whose 
avenues of rhizophoras and palms acted as wind- 
sails ; when the breeze failed the sensation was 
stifling. Lyamba (Cannabis sativa) grew in patches 
upon the banks, now apparently wild, like that 
about Lagos and Badagry. Not till evening did 
the tide serve, enabling us to send our papers for 
visa on board the guard-ship “ L’Oise,” where a 
party of young Frenchmen were preparing for la 
ckasse. A little higher up stream are two islets, 
Nenge Mbwendi, so called from its owner, and 
Nenge Sika, or the Isle of Gold. The Mpongwe 
all know this name for the precious metal, and the 
Bakele appear to ignore it: curious to say, it is the 
Fanteand Mandenga word, probably derived from 
the Arabic Sikkah, which gave rise to the Italian 
Zecca (mint) and Zecchino. It may have been 
