We had a great number of baskets. The women carried these to put the fish in. We did not forget guns; for leopards lurk in the jungle, on the south side of the cape, and the boa hangs from the trees, waiting for his prey. If you got up early there, as everybody at a watering-place should, you can see huge elephants trotting down along the beach, and cooling their tender toes in the surf.
It was a very jolly party, for Cape Lopez is the Cape May, or Nahant of Sangatanga. The dry season there answers to our July, when "everybody that is anybody" is supposed to be "out of town and down by the seaside."
Niamkala and Aboko were of the party; for we were great friends; and wherever I went they wanted to go with me. They were slaves of King Bango; but we had shared the same dangers, we had shared the same pleasures.
At last everything was ready. I embarked in the biggest canoe, which was manned by sixteen oarsmen. As usual, there was a good deal of shouting and bustle before we got off. The sails, made with matting, were unfurled, and we set out across the bay. We had an exciting race to see which canoe was the fastest. There was a stiff breeze; but unfortunately the wind was nearly in our faces, so that our sails were of little use. The men worked lustily at their paddles, and as they paddled they sang their wild canoe songs. The morning was clear and bright, but in the afternoon the sky became clouded. We reached Fetich Point a little before sunset; and the men, who seemed as lively and jolly as could be, at once cast their net, in a way not materially different from our mode of using the hand-net, and made a great haul of fish, the principal part of which were mullets. How beautiful they looked! They seemed like silver fish.
The men went immediately in search of firewood. We lighted our fires; and, having cooked and eaten our fish, which were delicious, we prepared for a night's rest by spreading mats upon the sand. It was terribly cold; for we were not sheltered from the wind, which went right through my blanket.
Not far from Fetich Point is the river Tetica, one of the tributaries of the Nazareth river. The Nazareth falls into the bay, through a tangled, dreary, and poisonous track of back country, consisting of mangrove swamps, like those I have described on the Monda river, and where, I daresay, no animals, except serpents, are to be found. There are no human habitations there.
In the morning, I wished to see the Oroungou burial-ground, before starting for Cape Lopez itself. It lay about a mile from our camp, towards Sangatanga, from which it is distant about half a day's pull in a canoe.
It was only by the promise of a large reward that I persuaded Niamkala to accompany me. The negroes visit the place only on funeral errands, and hold it in the greatest awe, conceiving that here the spirits of their ancestors wander about, and that they are not lightly to be disturbed.