And If Any One Had Given Me The Choice Of
Being In Glass Within Twenty-Four Hours From The Mouth Of The
Rembwe, Or In Paris Or London In A Week, I Would Have Chosen Glass
Without A Moment's Hesitation.
Much as I dislike West Coast towns
as a general rule, there are exceptions, and of all exceptions, the
one I like most is undoubtedly Glass Gaboon; and its charms loomed
large on that dank chilly morning after a night spent on a bamboo
staging in an unfinished native canoe.
The Rembwe, like the 'Como, is said to rise in the Sierra del
Cristal. It is navigable to a place called Isango which is above
Agonjo; just above Agonjo it receives an affluent on its southern
bank and runs through mountain country, where its course is blocked
by rapids for anything but small canoes. Obanjo did not seem to
think this mattered, as there was not much trade up there, and
therefore no particular reason why any one should want to go higher
up. Moreover he said the natives were an exceedingly bad lot; but
Obanjo usually thinks badly of the bush natives in these regions.
Anyhow they are Fans - and Fans are Fans. He was anxious for me,
however, to start on a trading voyage with him up another river, a
notorious river, in the neighbouring Spanish territory. The idea
was I should buy goods at Glass and we should go together and he
would buy ivory with them in the interior.
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