A
little higher up stream are two islets, Nenge Mbwendi, so called
from its owner, and Nenge Sika, or the Isle of Gold. The Mpongwe
all know this name for the precious metal, and the Bakele appear
to ignore it: curious to say, it is the Fante and Mandenga word,
probably derived from the Arabic Sikkah, which gave rise to the
Italian Zecca (mint) and Zecchino. It may have been introduced by
the Laptots or Lascar sailors of the Senegal. M. du Chaillu
("Second Expedition," chap. iii.) mentions "the island Nengue
Shika" on the Lower Fernao Vaz River; and Bowdich turns the two
into Ompoongu and Soombea. The third is Anenga-nenga, not Ninga-
ninga, about one mile long from north to south, and well wooded
with bush and palms; here the Gaboon Mission has a neat building
on piles. The senior native employe was at Glass Town, and his
junior, a youth about nineteen, stood a la Napoleon in the
doorway, evidently monarch of all he surveyed. I found there one
of the Ndiva, the old tribe of Pongo-land, which by this time has
probably died out. We anchored off Wosuku, a village of some
fifty houses, forming one main street, disposed north-east--
south-west, or nearly at right angles with the river.
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