It is evident that European
languages have been a mistake in Africa: the natives learn a
smattering sufficient for business purposes and foreigners remain
without the key to knowledge; hence our small progress in
understanding negro human nature. Had we so acted in British
India, we should probably have held the proud position which now
contents us in China as in Western Africa, with factories and
hulks at Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi, and Madras.
From Comte de Paris Roads the southern Gaboon shore is called in
charts Le Paletuvier, the Mangrove Bank; the rhizophora is the
growth of shallow brackish water, and at the projections there
are fringings of reefs and "diabolitos," dangerous to boats.
After two hours we crossed the Mombe (Mombay) Creek-mouth, with
its outlying rocks, and passed the fishing village of Nenga-Oga,
whence supplies are sent daily to the Plateau. Then doubling a
point of leek-green grass, based upon comparatively poor soil,
sand, and clay, and backed by noble trees, we entered the Mbata
River, the Toutiay of the chart and the Batta Creek of M. du
Chaillu's map.
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