the interior, and that the village women would not, or rather
could not, give us "chop." This was a settler to my Mpongwe
friends. Nimrod, however, declared that some bushmen had lately
seen several gorillas in the direction of Sanga-Tanga, two
marches down coast from Mbata, and about half-way to Cape Lopez.
I did not believe a word of his intelligence; the direction is
south-west instead of south-east, towards the sea instead of into
the forest. But it was evidently hopeless to seek for the "ole
man" in these parts, and I had long been anxious to see Sanga-
Tanga; we therefore agreed nem. con. to set out before dawn on
the next day.

But the next day dawned, and the sun rose high, and the world was
well heated and aired before the bushmen condescended to appear.
After a two hours' battle with the sand-flies we set off at 7.35
A.M., Forteune, Hotaloya, and Kanga at the head of the
musketeers, one of them also carrying an axe; sixteen guns form a
strong party for these regions. The viol (nchambi) was not
allowed to hang mute in Mbata's halls, this instrument or the
drum must never be neglected in African travel; its melody at the
halt and the camp-fire are to the negro what private theatricals
are to the European sailor half fossilized in the frozen seas.
Our specimen was strung with thin cords made from the fibre of a
lliana; I was shown this growth, which looked much like a
convolvulus. The people have a long list of instruments, and
their music, though monotonous, is soft and plaintive: Bowdich
gives a specimen of it ("Sketch of Gaboon," p. 449), and of a
bard who seems to have been somewhat more frenzied than most
poets. Captain Allen (iii. 398) speaks of a harp at Bimbia
(Camarones) tightly strung with the hard fibre of some creeping