walk to picnics, learn something of the language, and see
something of the country. They had heard a native tradition of
Mr. Gorilla's "big brother," but they could give no details.

I will conclude this chapter with a notice of what has taken
place on the Loango Coast a decade after my departure. Although
Africa has changed but little, Europe has, and we can hardly envy
the German nation its eminence and unexpected triumphs in war
when we see the energy and persistency with which they are
applying themselves to the arts of peace--especially of
exploration. And nowhere have they been more active than in this
part of the world, where their old rivals, the English, are
apparently contented to sit at home in ease, working their
factories and counting out their money.

To begin with the beginning. The year 1872 found the Berlin
Geographical Society intent upon "planting a lance in Africa,"
and upon extending and connecting the discoveries of Livingstone,
Du Chaillu, Schweinfurth, and other travellers. Delegates from
the various associations of Germany met in congress, and
organized (April 19, 1873) the Germanic "Afrikanische
Gesellschaft." Ex-President Dr. Adolf Bastian, a well-known
traveller in Siam, Cambodia, China, and the Indian Archipelago,
and who, moreover, had visited Ambassi or Salvador do Congo, the
old missionary capital, in 1857, was at once sent out as pioneer
and vanguard to prospect the coast for a suitable station and a
point de depart into the interior--a scientific step dictated by
trained and organized common sense. The choice of leader fell
upon Dr. Gussfeldt, Herr von Hattorf being his second in command,
and with them were associated Dr. Falkenstein as zoologist, and