Description

Contents:

CHAPTER I
I leave New York for Africa—Narrow quarters on the schooner—Our cargo—Out of sight of land—The sea and all that therein is—A storm brewing 1

CHAPTER II
A storm at sea—A tempest-tossed little bird—Fine weather again—Fight between a swordfish and a whale 10

CHAPTER III
The Sargasso Sea—The northeast trade-winds—Dolphins and bonitas—New stars come into view 17

CHAPTER IV
The “Doldrums”—Fierce heat of the sun—Strong local currents—The southwest trade-winds—Huge sharks all around us 22

CHAPTER V
Crossing the equator—The southeast trade-winds—The equatorial current—The Gulf Stream—Struck by a tornado—Land in sight—Africa at last—The great forest 28

xCHAPTER VI
Wandering through the forest and learning the country—I reach King Mombo’s village—Received by the king—His fear of witchcraft—Visits my dwelling and receives presents from me 35

CHAPTER VII
Superstitions of King Mombo—Visits to the house of his idols and his ancestors—A strange meal followed by a strange dance 41

CHAPTER VIII
Bad luck of Mombo’s village—Ascribed to witchcraft—Arrival of a great medicine-man—His incantations—The accused sold as slaves 50

CHAPTER IX
King Mombo gives me the stick “Omemba”—I leave the village on a hunting trip—Parting injunctions—A herd of hippopotami 55

CHAPTER X
Sounds of human voices—I encounter Regundo and his wife, slaves of King Mombo—Other slaves—Hunters and warriors of Mombo 63

CHAPTER XI
Wonder of the natives at my Waterbury clock, magnet, matches, and music-box—Character of Mombo’s plantation 72

xiCHAPTER XII
King Mombo’s plantation—Work of the slaves in clearing and cultivating the forest—Strange village of the slaves—Houses of the spirits—Regundo’s account of witchcraft and its punishment—Ovengua 79

CHAPTER XIII
The native dogs—How they hunt their own game when they are not fed—Their ways of attack—Their usefulness to their masters in war-time—Oshoria’s story 87

CHAPTER XIV
A great hunting-feast—“Roondah”—Different viands of the menu—Speeches at the banquet—Music and dancing—A weird forest scene in the torchlight 95

CHAPTER XV
A talk with King Mombo’s slaves—Why slaves do not run away—Various features of the traffic—The cannibals of the interior—My daily occupations 104

CHAPTER XVI
The animals of the forest—Five kinds of apes—The ngina or gorilla—His great strength and fierceness—How he attacks man and other animals—Oshoria’s account of him 116

CHAPTER XVII
The other apes of the great forest—Oshoria tells about the nshiego mbouvés—Capture of a baby “man of the woods”—His mother killed—Correspondence of the different apes with the various human races 124

xiiCHAPTER XVIII
Angooka, the medicine-man—His strange appearance—Eavesdropping—I overhear the conversation of the slaves—They talk among themselves about the Oguizi 131

CHAPTER XIX
News brought that gorillas are near by in the forest—The dogs got ready for the hunt—Their names—A grand hunting council—Regundo’s wise advice—Cautions to be observed 134

CHAPTER XX
We start after the gorillas—Cautious walking through the forest—The dogs find the ngina—Yells of the monster brought to bay—He slaughters two of the dogs—Taunts of the hunters—Shot through the heart at last 142

CHAPTER XXI
Singular sight in the forest—All kinds of animals fleeing in one direction—A terrible ant—The bashikouay army—Attacked everywhere at once—How I escaped the tormentors 153

CHAPTER XXII
A journey to the elephant country—Serious annoyance from flies, wasps, and mosquitoes—In the midst of a drove of hippopotami 158

CHAPTER XXIII
Mudbanks covered with crocodiles—How they stalk their prey—An unsuspecting boar suddenly swallowed up—Habits of the huge creatures 164

CHAPTER XXIV
Difficulty of making our way—Fallen trees and dense thickets—Our meat gives out—Looking for koola trees—A meal of their nutritious nuts—Their importance to the traveller in the forest 171

CHAPTER XXV
Lost in the forest—A herd of elephants lures me on—Separated from my hunters—Two nights on the ground and one in a tree—Found at last—Joy of the men 178

CHAPTER XXVI
The elephant hunting-ground—The beautiful prairie skirting the forest—The welcome sky and sun and stars after the forest gloom—Hunting elephants by moonlight—Three large herds—Narrow escape of Oshoria and myself—Death of the huge tusker 193

CHAPTER XXVII
The killing of a second elephant—How bull elephants fight—The contest for the leadership of the herd—Oshoria’s graphic account of a battle royal witnessed by him—Return to the plantation 206

CHAPTER XXVIII
Departure from the slaves’ plantations—Arrival at King Mombo’s—A warm greeting from the old king—His sacred promise never to part with his slaves—Farewell to him and his people 214