Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, vol 1 | Page 4

be despised.
Her Majesty's steam-ship "Griffon," Commander Perry, found herself,
at 2 P.M. on Monday, March, 17, 1862, in a snug berth opposite Le
Plateau, as the capital of the French colony is called, and amongst the
shipping of its chief port, Aumale Road. The river at this neck is about
five miles broad, and the scene was characteristically French. Hardly a
merchant vessel lay there. We had no less than four naval consorts "La
Caravane," guard-ship, store-ship, and hospital-hulk; a fine transport,
"La Riège," bound for Goree; "La Recherche," a wretched old sailing
corvette which plies to Assini and Grand Basam on the Gold Coast; and,
lastly, "La Junon," chef de division Baron Didelot, then one of the
finest frigates in the French navy, armed with fifty rifled sixty-eight
pounders. It is curious that, whilst our neighbours build such splendid
craft, and look so neat and natty in naval uniform, they pay so little
regard to the order and cleanliness of their floating homes.
After visiting every English colony on the West Coast of Africa, I
resolved curiously to examine my first specimen of our rivals, the
"principal centre of trade in western equatorial Africa." The earliest
visit--in uniform, of course--was to Baron Didelot, whose official title
is "Commandant Supérieur des Établissements de la Côte d'Or et du
Gabon;" the following was to M. H. S. L'Aulnois, "Lieutenant de
Vaisseau et Commandant Particulier du Comptoir de Gabon." These
gentlemen have neat bungalows and gardens; they may spend their
days ashore, but they are very careful to sleep on board. All the official
whites appear to have a morbid horror of the climate; when attacked by
fever, they "cave in" at once, and recovery can hardly be expected. This
year also, owing to scanty rains, sickness has been rife, and many cases

which began with normal mildness have ended suddenly and fatally.
Besides fear of fever, they are victims to ennui and nostalgia; and,
expecting the Comptoir to pay large profits, they are greatly
disappointed by the reverse being the case.
But how can they look for it to be otherwise? The modern French
appear fit to manage only garrisons and military posts. They will make
everything official, and they will not remember the protest against
governing too much, offered by the burgesses of Paris to Louis le
Grand. They are always on duty; they are never out of uniform,
mentally and metaphorically, as well as bodily and literally. Nothing is
done without delay, even in the matter of signing a ship's papers. A
long procès-verbal takes the place of our summary punishment, and the
gros canon is dragged into use on every occasion, even to enforce the
payment of native debts.
In the Gaboon, also, there is a complication of national jealousy,
suggesting the mastiff and the poodle. A perpetual war rages about
flags. English craft may carry their colours as far up stream as Coniquet
Island; beyond this point they must either hoist a French ensign, or sail
without bunting--should the commodore permit. Otherwise they will be
detained by the commander of the hulk "l'Oise," stationed at
Anenge-nenge, some thirty-eight to forty miles above Le Plateau.
Lately a Captain Gordon, employed by Mr. Francis Wookey of
Taunton, was ordered to pull down his flag: those who know the
"mariner of England" will appreciate his feelings on the occasion.
Small vessels belonging to foreigners, and employed in cabotage, must
not sail with their own papers, and even a change of name is effected
under difficulties. About a week before my arrival a certain pan-
Teutonic Hamburgher, Herr B--, amused himself, after a copious
breakfast, with hoisting and saluting the Union Jack, in honour of a
distinguished guest, Major L--. report was at once spread that the
tricolor had been hauled down "with extreme indignity;" and the
Commodore took the trouble to reprimand the white, and to imprison
"Tom Case," the black in whose town the outrage had been allowed.
This by way of parenthesis. My next step was to request the pleasure of

a visit from Messrs. Hogg and Kirkwood, who were in charge of the
English factories at Glass Town and Olomi; they came down stream at
once, and kindly acted as ciceroni around Le Plateau. The landing is
good; a reef has been converted into a jetty and little breakwater;
behind this segment of a circle we disembarked without any danger of
being washed out of the boat, as at S'a Leone, Cape Coast Castle, and
Accra. Unfortunately just above this pier there is a Dutch-like jardin
d'été--beds of dirty weeds bordering a foul and stagnant swamp, while
below the settlement appears a huge coal-shed: the expensive mineral is
always dangerous when exposed in the tropics, and some thirty per cent.
would be saved by sending out a hulk.