Travels In West Africa (Congo Francais, Corisco And Cameroons)
By Mary H. Kingsley.
To my brother, C. G. Kingsley this book is dedicated.
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
PREFACE TO THE ABRIDGED EDITION OF TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. LIVERPOOL TO SIERRA LEONE AND THE GOLD COAST.
CHAPTER II. FERNANDO PO AND THE BUBIS.
CHAPTER III. VOYAGE DOWN COAST.
CHAPTER IV. THE OGOWE.
CHAPTER V. THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWE.
CHAPTER VI. LEMBARENE.
CHAPTER VII. ON THE WAY FROM KANGWE TO LAKE NCOVI.
CHAPTER VIII. FROM NCOVI TO ESOON.
CHAPTER IX. FROM ESOON TO AGONJO.
CHAPTER X. BUSH TRADE AND FAN CUSTOMS.
CHAPTER XI. DOWN THE REMBWE.
CHAPTER XII. FETISH.
CHAPTER XIII. FETISH - (Continued).
CHAPTER XIV. FETISH - (Continued).
CHAPTER XV. FETISH - (Continued).
CHAPTER XVI. FETISH - (Concluded).
CHAPTER XVII. ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS - (Continued).
CHAPTER XIX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS - (Continued).
CHAPTER XX. THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS - (Concluded).
CHAPTER XXI. TRADE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA.
CHAPTER XXII. DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA.
APPENDIX. THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM.
PREFACE
TO THE READER. - What this book wants is not a simple Preface but an
apology, and a very brilliant and convincing one at that.
Recognising this fully, and feeling quite incompetent to write such
a masterpiece, I have asked several literary friends to write one
for me, but they have kindly but firmly declined, stating that it is
impossible satisfactorily to apologise for my liberties with Lindley
Murray and the Queen's English. I am therefore left to make a
feeble apology for this book myself, and all I can personally say is
that it would have been much worse than it is had it not been for
Dr. Henry Guillemard, who has not edited it, or of course the whole
affair would have been better, but who has most kindly gone through
the proof sheets, lassoing prepositions which were straying outside
their sentence stockade, taking my eye off the water cask and fixing
it on the scenery where I meant it to be, saying firmly in pencil on
margins "No you don't," when I was committing some more than usually
heinous literary crime, and so on. In cases where his activities in
these things may seem to the reader to have been wanting, I beg to
state that they really were not. It is I who have declined to
ascend to a higher level of lucidity and correctness of diction than
I am fitted for. I cannot forbear from mentioning my gratitude to
Mr. George Macmillan for his patience and kindness with me, - a mere
jungle of information on West Africa. Whether you my reader will
share my gratitude is, I fear, doubtful, for if it had not been for
him I should never have attempted to write a book at all, and in
order to excuse his having induced me to try I beg to state that I
have written only on things that I know from personal experience and
very careful observation. I have never accepted an explanation of a
native custom from one person alone, nor have I set down things as
being prevalent customs from having seen a single instance. I have
endeavoured to give you an honest account of the general state and
manner of life in Lower Guinea and some description of the various
types of country there. In reading this section you must make
allowances for my love of this sort of country, with its great
forests and rivers and its animistic-minded inhabitants, and for my
ability to be more comfortable there than in England. Your superior
culture-instincts may militate against your enjoying West Africa,
but if you go there you will find things as I have said.
January, 1897.
PREFACE TO THE ABRIDGED EDITION OF TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA.
When on my return to England from my second sojourn in West Africa,
I discovered, to my alarm, that I was, by a freak of fate, the sea-
serpent of the season, I published, in order to escape from this
reputation, a very condensed, much abridged version of my
experiences in Lower Guinea; and I thought that I need never explain
about myself or Lower Guinea again. This was one of my errors. I
have been explaining ever since; and, though not reconciled to so
doing, I am more or less resigned to it, because it gives me
pleasure to see that English people can take an interest in that
land they have neglected. Nevertheless, it was a shock to me when
the publishers said more explanation was required. I am thankful to
say the explanation they required was merely on what plan the
abridgment of my first account had been made. I can manage that
explanation easily. It has been done by removing from it certain
sections whole, and leaving the rest very much as it first stood.
Of course it would have been better if I had totally reformed and
rewritten the book in pellucid English; but that is beyond me, and I
feel at any rate this book must be better than it was, for there is
less of it; and I dimly hope critics will now see that there is a
saving grace in disconnectedness, for owing to that disconnectedness
whole chapters have come out without leaving holes.
As for the part that is left in, I have already apologised for its
form, and I cannot help it, for Lower Guinea is like what I have
said it is. No one who knows it has sent home contradictions of my
description of it, or its natives, or their manners or customs, and
they have had by now ample time and opportunity. The only
complaints I have had regarding my account from my fellow West
Coasters have been that I might have said more. I trust my
forbearance will send a thrill of gratitude through readers of the
736-page edition.
There is, however, one section that I reprint, regarding which I
must say a few words.
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