The Adooma Encampment Is Very Picturesque, For They Have
Got Their Bright-Coloured Chintz Mosquito-Bars Erected As Tents.
Dr. Pelessier then insists on banging down monkey bread-fruit with a
stick, to show me their inside.
Of course they burst over his
beautiful white clothes. I said they would, but men will be men.
Then we go and stand under the two lovely odeaka trees that make a
triumphal-arch-like gateway to the Post's beach from the river, and
the Doctor discourses in a most interesting way on all sorts of
subjects. We go on waiting for the Eclaireur, who, although it is
past four o'clock, is still down at Dumas' beach. I feel nearly
frantic at detaining the Doctor, but neither he nor Mr. Cockshut
seem in the least hurry. But at last I can stand it no longer. The
vision of the Administrator of the Ogowe, worn out, but chewing Kola
nut to keep himself awake all night while he finishes his papers to
go down on the Eclaireur to-morrow morning, is too painful; so I say
I will walk back to Dumas' and go on the Eclaireur there, and try to
liberate the Administrator from his present engagements, so that he
may go back and work. No good! He will come down to Dumas' with
Mr. Cockshut and me. Off we go, and just exactly as we are getting
on to Dumas' beach, off starts the Eclaireur with a shriek for the
Post beach. So I say good-bye to Mr. Cockshut, and go back to the
Post with Dr. Pelessier, and he sees me on board, and to my immense
relief he stays on board a good hour and a half, talking to other
people, so it is not on my head if he is up all night.
June 25th. - Eclaireur has to wait for the Administrator until ten,
because he has not done his mails. At ten he comes on board like an
amiable tornado, for he himself is going to Cape Lopez. I am
grieved to see them carrying on board, too, a French official very
ill with fever. He is the engineer of the canoniere and they are
taking him down to Cape Lopez, where they hope to get a ship to take
him up to Gaboon, and to the hospital on the Minerve. I heard
subsequently that the poor fellow died about forty hours after
leaving Njole at Achyouka in Kama country.
We get away at last, and run rapidly down river, helped by the
terrific current. The Eclaireur has to call at Talagouga for planks
from M. Gacon's sawmill. As soon as we are past the tail of
Talagouga Island, the Eclaireur ties her whistle string to a
stanchion, and goes off into a series of screaming fits, as only she
can. What she wants is to get M. Forget or M. Gacon, or better
still both, out in their canoes with the wood waiting for her,
because "she cannot anchor in the depth," "nor can she turn round,"
and "backing plays the mischief with any ship's engines," and "she
can't hold her own against the current," and - then Captain Verdier
says things I won't repeat, and throws his weight passionately on
the whistle string, for we are in sight of the narrow gorge of
Talagouga, with the Mission Station apparently slumbering in the
sun. This puts the Eclaireur in an awful temper. She goes down
towards it as near as she dare, and then frisks round again, and
runs up river a little way and drops down again, in violent
hysterics the whole time. Soon M. Gacon comes along among the trees
on the bank, and laughs at her. A rope is thrown to him, and the
panting Eclaireur tied up to a tree close in to the bank, for the
water is deep enough here to moor a liner in, only there are a good
many rocks. In a few minutes M. Forget and several canoe loads of
beautiful red-brown mahogany planks are on board, and things being
finished, I say good-bye to the captain, and go off with M. Forget
in a canoe, to the shore.
CHAPTER V. THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWE.
The Log of an Adooma canoe during a voyage undertaken to the rapids
of the River Ogowe, with some account of the divers disasters that
befell thereon.
Mme. Forget received me most kindly, and, thanks to her ever
thoughtful hospitality, I spent a very pleasant time at Talagouga,
wandering about the forest and collecting fishes from the native
fishermen: and seeing the strange forms of some of these Talagouga
region fishes and the marked difference between them and those of
Lembarene, I set my heart on going up into the region of the Ogowe
rapids. For some time no one whom I could get hold of regarded it
as a feasible scheme, but, at last, M. Gacon thought it might be
managed; I said I would give a reward of 100 francs to any one who
would lend me a canoe and a crew, and I would pay the working
expenses, food, wages, etc. M. Gacon had a good canoe and could
spare me two English-speaking Igalwas, one of whom had been part of
the way with MM. Allegret and Teisseres, when they made their
journey up to Franceville and then across to Brazzaville and down
the Congo two years ago. He also thought we could get six Fans to
complete the crew. I was delighted, packed my small portmanteau
with a few things, got some trade goods, wound up my watch,
ascertained the date of the day of the month, and borrowed three
hair-pins from Mme. Forget, then down came disappointment. On my
return from the bush that evening, Mme. Forget said M. Gacon said
"it was impossible," the Fans round Talagouga wouldn't go at any
price above Njole, because they were certain they would be killed
and eaten by the up-river Fans.
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