All the rivers we
crossed on the first, second, and third day I was told went into one
or other of the branches of the Ogowe, showing that the long slope
of land between the Ogowe and the Rembwe is towards the Ogowe. The
stone of which the mountains were composed was that same hard black
rock that I had found on the Sierra del Cristal, by the Ogowe
rapids; only hereabouts there was not amongst it those great masses
of white quartz, which are so prominent a feature from Talagouga
upwards in the Ogowe valley; neither were the mountains anything
like so high, but they had the same abruptness of shape. They look
like very old parts of the same range worn down to stumps by the
disintegrating forces of the torrential rain and sun, and the dense
forest growing on them. Frost of course they had not been subject
to, but rocks, I noticed, were often being somewhat similarly split
by rootlets having got into some tiny crevice, and by gradual growth
enlarged it to a crack.
Of our troubles among the timber falls on these mountains I have
already spoken; and these were at their worst between Efoua and
Egaja. I had suffered a good deal from thirst that day, unboiled
water being my ibet and we were all very nearly tired out with the
athletic sports since leaving Efoua. One thing only we knew about
Egaja for sure, and that was that not one of us had a friend there,
and that it was a town of extra evil repute, so we were not feeling
very cheerful when towards evening time we struck its outermost
plantations, their immediate vicinity being announced to us by
Silence treading full and fair on to a sharp ebony spike driven into
the narrow path and hurting himself. Fortunately, after we passed
this first plantation, we came upon a camp of rubber collectors -
four young men; I got one of them to carry Silence's load and show
us the way into the town, when on we went into more plantations.
There is nothing more tiresome than finding your path going into a
plantation, because it fades out in the cleared ground, or starts
playing games with a lot of other little paths that are running
about amongst the crops, and no West African path goes straight into
a stream or a plantation, and straight out the other side, so you
have a nice time picking it up again.
We were spared a good deal of fine varied walking by our new friend
the rubber collector; for I noticed he led us out by a path nearly
at right angles to the one by which we had entered. He then pitched
into a pit which was half full of thorns, and which he observed he
did not know was there, demonstrating that an African guide can
speak the truth.
