Damascus, one must ever look fixedly at the ground, under penalty
of a shaking stumble over cross-bars of roots, or fallen branches
hidden by grass and mud. And the worst of these wet walks is
that, sooner or later, they bring on swollen feet, which the
least scratch causes to ulcerate, and which may lame the
traveller for weeks. They are often caused by walking and sitting
in wet shoes and stockings; it is so troublesome to pull off and
pull on again after wading and fording, repeated during every few
hundred yards, that most men tramp through the brooks and suffer
in consequence. 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