To the native name, 'Anku' or 'Manku,' the
Portuguese added Cobra, expressing its snaky course. Bowdich, followed by
many moderns, calls it Seenna, for Sanma or Sanuma, meaning 'unless a gale
(of wind).' The legend is that a savage and murderous old king of the
Apollonians, whose capital was Atabo, built a look-out upon a tall
cocoanut-tree, and declared that nothing but a storm could lay it low.
Sanma is still the name of the settlement on the right bank near the
rivermouth.
We rested at Kumprasi, a few huts close to the _embouchure_ of the
iron-bedded Avin streamlet and backwater. The little zinc-roofed hut,
called by courtesy a store, belonging to Messieurs Swanzy, was closed.
Katubwe, the northern hill on the left bank, had been bought, together
with Akromasi Point and the Avin valley, by the late M. Bonnat, who
cleared it and began shafting it for gold in the usual routine way. During
the last six months it has been overgrown with dense vegetation. Mr.
Walker believes, not unreasonably, that this lode is connected with the
Apatim or Bujia reefs.
Ferrying across, we could note the wild features of the Ancobra's mouth.
The bar, which in smooth weather allows passage to a load of five tons,
not unfrequently breaks at an offing of four miles, and breaks obliquely.
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