The language of the Mpongwe has been fairly studied. T. Edward
Bowdich ("Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee," London,
Murray, 1819) when leaving the West Coast for England, touched at
the Gaboon in a trading vessel, and visited Naango (King George's
Town), on Abaaga Creek, which he places fifty miles up stream. He
first gave (Appendix VI.) a list of the Mpongwe numerals. In 1847
the "Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M." Gaboon Mission, Western
Africa, printed a "Grammar of the Mpongwe Language, with
Vocabularies" (New York,Snowden and Pratt, Vesey Street), perhaps
a little prematurely; it is the first of the four dialects on
this part of the coast reduced to system by the American
Missionaries, especially by the Rev. Mr. Leighton Wilson, the
others being Bakele, Benga, and Fan.

In 1856, the same gentleman, who had taken the chief part in the
first publication, made an able abstract and a comparison with
the Grebo and Mandenga tongues ("Western Africa," part iv. chap.
iv.). M. du Chaillu further abridged this abridgement in his
Appendix without owning his authority, and in changing the
examples he did all possible damage. In the Transactions of the
Ethnological Society of London (part ii. vol. i. new series), he
also gave an abstract, in which he repeats himself. A
"vocabulaire de la langue Ponga" was printed in the "Memoires de
la Societe Ethnologique," tome ii., by M. P. H. Delaporte.

The other publications known to me are:--

1. The Book of Proverbs, translated into the Mpongwe language at
the mission of the A. B. C. F. M., Gaboon, West Africa. New York.
American Bible Society, instituted in the year MDCCCXVI. 1859.