xclaimed with an uncomfortable sensation of
sickness.

"Yes, indeed," the agent replied. "Dog's meat is considered a luxury in
Bonny, and dogs are bred specially for the table."

"You'll eat stranger things than that before you've done, Frank," Mr.
Goodenough continued, "and will find them just as good, and in many
cases better, than those to which you are accustomed. It is a strange
thing why in Europe certain animals should be considered fit to eat
and certain animals altogether rejected, and this without the slightest
reason. Horses and donkeys are as clean feeders as oxen and sheep. Dogs,
cats, and rats are far cleaner than pigs and ducks. The flesh of the
one set is every bit as good as that of the other, and yet the poorest
peasant would turn up his nose at them. Here sheep and oxen, horses and
donkeys, will not live, and the natives very wisely make the most of the
animals which can do so."

Frank was soon tired of Bonny, and was glad to hear that they would
start the next day for Fernando Po in a little steamer called the
Retriever. The island of Fernando Po is a very beautiful one, the peak
rising ten thousand feet above the sea, and wooded to the very summit.
Were the trees to some extent cleared away the island might be very
healthy. As it is, it is little better than the mainland.

There was not much to see in the town of Clarence, whose population
consists entirely of traders from Sierra Leone, Kroomen, etc. The
natives, whose tribal name is Adiza, live in little villages in the
interior. They are an extremely primitive people, and for the most part
dispense altogether with clothing. The island belongs to Spain, and is
used as a prison, the convicts being kept in guard ships in the harbor.
After a stay of three days there Mr. Goodenough and Frank took passage
in a sailing ship for the Gaboon.

CHAPTER IX: THE START INLAND

After the comforts of a fine steamer the accommodation on board the
little trader was poor indeed. The vessel smelt horribly of palm oil
and was alive with cockroaches. These, however, Mr. Goodenough and Frank
cared little for, as they brought up their mattresses and slept on deck.
Upon their voyage out from England Frank, as well as several of the
other passengers, had amused himself by practicing with his rifle at
empty bottles thrown overboard, and other objects, and having nothing
else to do now, he resumed the practice, accustoming himself also to the
use of his revolver