crown over the letters G.R., and with the
arrow which is supposed to mark the property of the government. The
barrel is three feet four inches long, and the bore is that of an
artesian well. The native fills four inches of this cavity with
powder and the remaining three feet with rusty nails, barbed wire,
leaden slugs, and the legs and broken parts of iron pots. An officer
of the W.A.F.F.'s, in a fight in the bush in South Nigeria, had one
of these things fired at him from a distance of fifteen feet. He
told me all that saved him was that when the native pulled the
trigger the recoil of the gun "kicked" the muzzle two feet in the
air and the native ten feet into the bush. I bought a Tower rifle at
the trade price, a pound, and brought it home. But although my
friends have offered to back either end of the gun as being the more
destructive, we have found no one with a sufficient sporting spirit
to determine the point.

Libreville is a very pretty town, but when it was laid out the
surveyors just missed placing the Equator in its main street. It is
easy to understand why with such a live wire in the vicinity
Libreville is warm. From the same cause it also is rich in flowers,
vines, and trees growing in generous, undisciplined abundance,
making of Libreville one vast botanical garden, and burying the town
and its bungalows under screens of green and branches of scarlet
and purple flowers. Close to the surf runs an avenue bordered by
giant cocoanut palms and, after the sun is down, this is the
fashionable promenade. Here every evening may be seen in their
freshest linen the six married white men of Libreville, and, in the
latest Paris frocks, the six married ladies, while from the verandas
of the factories that line the sea front and from under the paper
lanterns of the Cafe Guion the clerks and traders sip their absinthe
and play dominoes, and cast envious glances at the six fortunate
fellow exiles.

For several days we lay a few miles south of Libreville, off the
mouth of the Gabun River, taking in the logs of mahogany. It was a
continuous performance of the greatest interest. I still do not
understand why all those engaged in it were not drowned, or pounded
to a pulp. Just before we touched at the Gabun River, two tramp
steamers, chartered by Americans, carried off a full cargo of this
mahogany to the States. It was an experiment the result of which the
traders of Libreville are awaiting with interest. The mahogany th