were on their way to England. I was shown for the first time the
Ndambo, or Ndambie (Bowdich, "Olamboo"), which gives the india
rubber of commerce; it is not a fat-leaved fig-tree (Ficus
elastica of Asia) nor aeuphorbia (Siphonia elastica), as in South
America, but a large climbing ficus, a cable thick as a man's leg
crossing the path, and "swarming up" to the top of the tallest
boles; the yellow fruit is tart and pleasant to the taste. In
1817 the style of collecting the gum (olamboo) was to spread with
a knife the glutinous milk as it oozed from the tree over the
shaved breast and arms like a plaister; it was then taken off,
rolled up in balls to play with or stretched over drums, no other
use being known. The Rev. Mr. Wilson declares (chap. ii.) that he
"first discovered the gum elastic, which has been procured, as
yet, only at Corisco, Gabun, and Kama." In 1854, Mr. Thompson (p.
112) found it in the Mendi country, near Sherbro; he describes it
as a vine with dense bark, which yields the gum when hacked, and
which becomes soft and porous when old. The juice is milk-white,
thick, and glutinous, soon stiffening, darkening, and hardening
without aid of art. I should like to see the raw material tried
for making waterproofs in the tropics, where the best vulcanized
articles never last. The Ndambo tree has been traced a hundred
miles inland from the Liberian Coast; that of the Gallinas and
Sherbro is the best; at St. Paul's River it is not bad; but on
the Junk River it is sticky and little prized. The difficulty
everywhere is to make the negro collect it, and, when he does, to
sell it un-adulterated: in East Africa he uses the small branches
of the ficus for flogging canes, but will not take the trouble
even to hack the "Mpira" tree.