Up the Gaboon River. 
193 
introduced by the Laptots or Lascar sailors of 
the Senegal. M. du Chaillu (“ Second Expedi¬ 
tion,” chap, iii.) mentions “the island Nengue 
Shika” on the Lower Fernao Vaz River; and Bow- 
dich turns the two into Ompoongu and Soombea. 
The third is Anenga-nenga, not Ninga-ninga, about 
one mile long from north to south, and well 
wooded with bush and palms; here the Gaboon 
Mission has a neat building on piles. The senior 
native employs was at Glass Town, and his junior, 
a youth about nineteen, stood a la NapolSon in the 
doorway, evidently monarch of all he surveyed. 
I found there one of the Ndiva, the old tribe of 
Pongo-land, which by this time has probably died 
out. We anchored off Wosuku, a village of some 
fifty houses, forming one main street, disposed 
north-east—south-west, or nearly at right angles 
with the river. The entrance was guarded by a 
sentinel and gun, and the “ king,” Imondo, lay right 
royally on his belly. A fine plantation of bananas 
divides the settlement, and the background is 
dense bush, in which they say “ Nyare” and deer 
abound. The Bakele supply sheep and fowls to 
the Plateau, and their main industry consists in 
dressing plantain-fibre for thread and nets. 
We now reach the confluence of the Nkomo or 
north-eastern, with the Mbokwe, or eastern branch, 
which anastomose to form the Gaboon ; the latter, 
being apparently the larger of the two, preserves the 
1. 
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