Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/447





THE CAMEROONS.

HE Portuguese term Camarãos, or "Prawns," was originally applied by navigators to the chief estuary at the extreme head of the Gulf of Guinea, but it has been gradually extended under the English form of Cameroons and German Kamerun not only to the basin of the Rio de Camarãos and surrounding plains, but also to the superb volcanic mass which continues on the mainland the chain of the Annobon and Fernando-Po islands, and recently to all the territory by the Germans laid down on the map as constituting their future possessions in this part of Equatorial Africa. The Portuguese had applied to the great mountain the name of Terra dos Ambozes, that is, the land of the Zambus, or of Amboise spoken of by the old French geographers. One of the islands in the gulf is still called the Isle of Ambas.

How the Germans, after long political discussions, have become masters of this extensive region is already matter of history. English missionaries had for some years maintained a station at the foot of the mountain; English had become the common language of the coast people, and the British flag had even been hoisted in many villages of the interior. On the other hand, German traders had factories on the coast and had purchased land on the slope of the hill. Conflicts had taken place between the agents of the two nations, giving rise to irritating correspondence between the respective Governments. At last Great Britain agreed in 1885 to waive all claims to the Cameroons Mountains, and recalled her consuls and other agents.

South of the estuary the situation was different; this seaboard, held by a multitude of petty chiefs, having been visited by numerous traders, all of whom had concluded conventions with these kinglets and purchased territory for a few rifles and casks of fiery spirits. Old documents showed that such and such points and river mouths belonged to France or to Spain, and when the European Governments were seized with the recent mania for annexations, this coast was claimed partly by Germany, partly by France. But in 1885 the German factories in South Senegambia were by special treaty ceded to France in exchange for all