into the tropics and spurned the equator, and when every naval
officer, high and low, went mad about concluding treaties and
conquering territory on paper, France was persuaded to set up a
naval station in Gorilla-land. The northern and the southern
shore each had a king, whose consent, after a careless fashion,
was considered decorous. His Majesty of the North was old King
Glass[FN#1] and his chief "tradesman," that is, his premier, was
the late Toko, a shrewd and far-seeing statesman. His Majesty of
the South was Rapwensembo, known to the English as King William,
to the French as Roi Denis.

Matters being in this state, M. le Comte Bouet-Willaumez, then
Capitaine de Vaisseau and Governor of Senegal, resolved, coute
que coute, to have his fortified Comptoir. Evidently the northern
shore was preferable; it was more populous and more healthy,
facing the fresh southerly winds. During the preliminary
negotiations Toko, partial to the English, whose language he
spoke fluently, and with whom the Glass family had ever been
friendly, thwarted the design with all his might, and, despite
threats and bribes, honestly kept up his opposition to the last.
Roi Denis, on the other hand, who had been decorated with the
Legion d'Honneur for saving certain shipwrecked sailors, who knew
French well, and who hoped to be made king of the whole country,
favoured to the utmost Gallic views, taking especial care,
however, to place the broad river between himself and his white
friends. M. de Moleon, Capitaine de Fregate, and commanding the
brig "Le Zebre," occupied the place, Mr. Wilson[FN#2]("Western
Africa," p. 254) says by force of arms, but that is probably an
exaggeration. To bring our history to an end, the sons of Japheth
overcame the children of Ham, and, as the natives said, "Toko he