Constant care of the feet is necessary in African
travel, and the ease with which they are hurt--sluggish
circulation, poor food and insufficient stimulants being the
causes--is one of its deplaisirs. The people wash and anoint
these wounds with palm oil: a hot bath, with pepper-water, if
there be no rum, gives more relief, and caustic must sometimes be
used.
We reached Mbata at 6.15 P.M., and all agreed that two hours of
such forest-walking do more damage than five days along the
sands.
Since my departure from the coast, French naval officers,
travellers and traders, have not been idle. The Marquis de
Compiegne, who returned to France in 1874, suffering from
ulcerated legs, had travelled up the Fernao Vaz, and its
tributary the highly irregular Ogobai, Ogowai, or Ogowe (Ogobe);
yet, curious to remark, all his discoveries arc omitted by Herr
Kiepert. His furthest point was 213 kilometres east of "San
Quita" (Sankwita), a village sixty-one kilometres north (??) of
Pointe Fetiche, near Cape Lopez; but wars and receding waters
prevented his reaching the confluence where the Ivindo fork
enters the north bank of the Ogobe.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176