Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/135

 Fernan Vaz and Cape Lopez are nowadays more important outlets for trade than Gaboon. To the former comes the trade of the Rembo river, and a certain amount of the Ogowé main trade, since the discovery of the Ogololé creek—a sort of natural canal about twelve miles long and of a fairly uniform breadth of fifty-five feet. Its course is twisted to and fro through the dense forest, and during the rains it is possible to take a small stern wheel steam-boat up and down it. Cape Lopez is the outlet of the Yombas arm of the lower Ogowé, which is also navigable by a small steam-boat. The Chargeur Reunis Company, subsidised by the Government, supply this vessel, the Éclaireur, to run from Cape Lopez to Njole, the highest navigable point for vessels on the Ogowé. Messrs. Hatton and Cookson used to have another small steamer, which went straight to and fro from Gaboon to Njole, but alas! she is no more. Nowadays Gaboon is merely a depot, and were it not for her magnificent harbour and the fact that the government is already established there in firm solid buildings, Gaboon would be abandoned, for not only has the trade coming out at Cape Lopez and Fernan Vaz increased, but the trade coming down the Gaboon itself decreased. This is possibly on account of French enterprise having made the route for trade by the Ogowé main stream the safer and easier.

There is now another rival to Gaboon in Congo Français, Loango. Loango owes its importance to the clear-sightedness and daring of M. de Brazza who, when he reached Brazzaville, as it is now rightly called, on Stanley Pool, saw that there was a possibility of a practicable route viâ the Niari Valley from the Middle Congo regions to the sea. For M. de Brazza to see the possibility of the practicability of a thing means that he makes it so, and Loango will gradually become the outlet for a very large portion of the Congo trade, when the railway along the Niari Valley is completed. It has also been suggested that the head station of the government should be moved from Gaboon to Loango, but against, this being done is the initial expense and the inferiority of the Loango anchorage. Still, things tend to gravitate towards Loango, as it is the more important position from a local political