The Spanish Government Just Then Had One Of Its Occasional Fits Of
Interest In Fernando Po, And So Shipped Them
Here, and the Governor,
a most kindly and generous man, who would have been a credit to any
country, established
Them and their families around him at Basile,
to share with him the advantages of the superior elevation;
advantages he profoundly believed in, and which he has always placed
at the disposal of any sick white man on the island, of whatsoever
nationality or religion. Undoubtedly the fever is not so severe at
Basile as in the lowlands, but there are here the usual drawbacks to
West African high land, namely an over supply of rain, and equally
saturating mists, to say nothing of sudden and extreme alternations
of temperature, and so the colonists still fall off, and their
children die continuously from the various entozoa which abound upon
the island.
When the Governor first settled upon the mountain he was very
difficult to get at for business purposes, and a telephone was
therefore run up to him from Clarence through the forest, and Spain
at large felt proud at this dashing bit of enterprise in modern
appliance. Alas! the primaeval forests of Fernando Po were also
charmed with the new toy, and they talked to each other on it with
their leaves and branches to such an extent that a human being could
not get a word in edgeways. So the Governor had to order the
construction of a road along the course of the wire to keep the
trees off it, but unfortunately the telephone is still an uncertain
means of communication, because another interruption in its
usefulness still afflicts it, namely the indigenous natives' habit
of stealing bits out of its wire, for they are fully persuaded that
they cannot be found out in their depredations provided they take
sufficient care that they are not caught in the act. The Governor
is thus liable to be cut off at any moment in the middle of a
conversation with Clarence, and the amount of "Hellos" "Are you
theres?" and "Speak louder, pleases" in Spanish that must at such
times be poured out and wasted in the lonely forests before the
break is realised and an unfortunate man sent off as a messenger, is
terrible to think of.
But nothing would persuade the Governor to come a mile down towards
Clarence until the day he should go there to join the vessel that
was to take him home, and I am bound to say he looked as if the
method was a sound one, for he was an exceedingly healthy, cheery-
looking man.
Fernando Po is said to be a comparatively modern island, and not so
very long ago to have been connected with the mainland, the strait
between them being only nineteen miles across, and not having any
deep soundings. {37} I fail to see what grounds there are for these
ideas, for though Fernando Po's volcanoes are not yet extinct, but
merely have their fires banked, yet, on the other hand, the island
has been in existence sufficiently long to get itself several
peculiar species of animals and plants, and that is a thing which
takes time.
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