The chief of Prince's Town, Eshanchi, _alias_ 'Septimulus,' a name showing
a succession of seven sons, not without a suspicion of twins, would have
accompanied us up stream. Guinea-worm, however, forbade, and he sent a
couple of guides, one of whom, Wafapa, _alias_ 'Barnabas,' a stout, active
freedman of the village, proved very useful.
We resolved to shoot the banks going, and to collect botanical specimens
on return. The land appears poor in mammals, rich in avifauna, and
exceedingly abundant in insect life. Of larger animals there are leopards,
cat o' mountains and civet-cats, wild hog and fine large deer; we bought a
leg weighing 11-1/2 lbs., and it was excellent eating seasoned with 'poor
man's quinine,' _alias_ garlic. Natives and strangers speak of the
jungle-cow, probably the Nyare antelope (_Bos brachyceros_) of the Gaboon
regions, the _empacasso_ of the Portuguese. Two small black squirrels,
scampering about a white-boled tree, were cunning enough never to give a
shot. We sighted only small monkeys with white beards and ruddy coats. 'He
be too clever for we,' said the Kruboys when the wary mannikins hid in the
bush. I saw nothing of the _kontromfi_, cynocephalus or dog-faced baboon,
concerning whose ferocity this part of Africa is full of stories.
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