{47} Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians, T. J. Hutchinson.
{48a} There is difference of opinion among authorities as to whether
Fernando Po was discovered by Fernando Po or by Lopez Gonsalves.
{48b} From April 1777 till the end of 1782, 370 men out of the 547
died of fever.
{51} Porto is the Bubi name for black men who are not Bubis, these
were in old days Portuguese slaves, "Porto" being evidently a
corruption of "Portuguese," but it is used alike by the Bubi to
designate Sierra Leonian and Accras, in fact, all the outer
barbarian blacks. The name for white men, Mandara, used by the
Bubis, has a sort of resemblance to the Effik name for whites,
Makara, i.e., the ruling one, but I do not know whether these two
words have any connection.
{55} I am glad to find that my own observations on the drink
question entirely agree with those of Dr. Oscar Baumann, because he
is an unprejudiced scientific observer, who has had great experience
both in the Congo and Cameroon regions before he came to Fernando
Po. In support of my statement I may quote his own words: - "Die
Bube trinken namlich sehr gerne Rum; Gin verschmahen sie
vollstandig, aber ausser Tabak und Salz gehort Rum zu den
gesuchtesten europaischen Artikeln fur sie. Wie bekannt hat sich in
Europa ein heftiges Geschrei gegen die Vergiftung der Neger durch
Alcohol erhoben. Wenn dasselbe schon fur die meisten Stamme
Westafrikas der Berechtigung fast vollstandig entbehrt und in die
Categorie verweisen worden muss die man mit dem nicht sehr schonen
aber treffenden Ausdrucke 'Humanitatsduselei' bezeichnet, so ist es
den Bube gegenuber wohl mehr als zwecklos. Es mag ja vorkommen dass
ein Bube wenn er sein Palmol verkauft hat, sich ein oder zweimal im
Jahre mit Rum ein Rauschlein antrinkt. Deshalb aber gleich von
Alkohol-Vergiftung zu sprechen ware mindestens lacherlich. Ich bin
uberzeugt dass mancher jener Herren die in Wort und Schrift so
heftig gegen die Alkolismus der Neger zetern in ihren Studenten-
jahren allein mehr geistige Getranke genossen haben als zehn Bube
wahrend ihres ganzen Lebens. Der Handelsrum welcher wie ich mich
ofters uberzeugt zwar recht verwassert aber keineswegs abstossend
schlecht schmeckt, ist den Bube gewohnlich nur eine Delikatesse
welche mit Andacht schluckweise genossen wird. Wenn ein Arbeiter
bei uns einen Schluck Branntwein oder ein Glas Bier geniesst um sich
zu starken, so findet das Jeder in der Ordnung; der Bube jedoch,
welcher splitternackt tagelang in feuchten Bergwaldern umher
klettern muss, soll beliebe nichts als Wasser trinken!" Eine
Africanische Tropen. insel Fernando Poo, Dr. Oscar Baumann, Edward
Holzer, Wien, 1888.
{56} "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Bubisprache auf Fernando Poo," O.
Baumann, Zeitschrift fur afrikanische Sprachen. Berlin, 1888.
{61} Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians. T. J. Hutchinson.
{80} The Sierra del Cristal and the Pallaballa range are, by some
geographers, held to be identical; but I have reason to doubt this,
for the specimens of rock brought home by me have been identified by
the Geological Survey, those of the Pallaballa range as mica schist
and quartz; those of the Sierra del Cristal as "probably schistose
grit, but not definitely determinable by inspection," and "quartz
rock." The quantity of mica in the sands of the Ogowe, I think,
come into it from its affluents from the Congo region because you do
not get these mica sands in rivers which are entirely from the
Sierra del Cristal, such as the Muni. The Rumby and Omon ranges are
probably identical with the Sierra del Cristal, for in them as in
the Sierra you do not get the glistening dove-coloured rock with a
sparse vegetation growing on it, as you do in the Pallaballa region.
{96} The villages of the Fans and Bakele are built in the form of a
street. When in the forest there are two lines of huts, the one
facing the other, and each end closed by a guard house. When facing
a river there is one line of huts facing the river frontage.
{167} The M'pongwe speaking tribes are the M'pongwe, Orungu, Nkami,
Ajumba, Inlenga and the Igalwa.
{170} These four Ajumba had been engaged, through the
instrumentality of M. Jacot, to accompany me to the Rembwe River.
The Ajumba are one of the noble tribes and are the parent stem of
the M'pongwe; their district is the western side of Lake Ayzingo.
{181} As this river is not mentioned on maps, and as I was the first
white traveller on it, I give my own phonetic spelling; but I expect
it would be spelt by modern geographers "Kakola."
{185} A common African sensation among natives when alarmed,
somewhat akin to our feeling some one walk over our graves.
{189} Since my return I think the French gentleman may have been M.
F. Tenaille d'Estais, who is down on the latest map (French) as
having visited a lake in this region in 1882, which is set down as
Lac Ebouko. He seems to have come from and returned to Lake
Ayzingo - on map Lac Azingo - but on the other hand "Ebouko" was not
known on the lake, Ajumba and Fans alike calling it Ncovi.
{200} Diospyros and Copaifua mopane.
{205} Vipera nasicornis; M'pongwe, Ompenle.
{208} I have no hesitation in saying that the gorilla is the most
horrible wild animal I have seen. I have seen at close quarters
specimens of the most important big game of Central Africa, and,
with the exception of snakes, I have run away from all of them; but
although elephants, leopards, and pythons give you a feeling of
alarm, they do not give that feeling of horrible disgust that an old
gorilla gives on account of its hideousness of appearance.
{223} An European coat or its equivalent value is one of the
constant quantities in an ivory bundle.
