Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/403

 be the easiest way to the sea; but it was so entirely unexplored that the very name under which the Niari enters the sea was unknown. Moreover the route proved so hazardous that he was compelled to continue his journey down the Congo, on his way meeting with Mr. Stanley, who gave him a cordial reception.

From the mouth of the Congo he sailed to Gaboon, reaching Libreville on the 15th of December, 1880. Here a cruel disappointment awaited him, needless to say connected with that steamer. Neither de Ballay nor the steamer had arrived, and a very bitter nuisance this must have been, and one that would have caused many a man to throw up the whole undertaking; for he had sent down those 770 men and 44 canoes, promising them divers wonderful manifestations of white man's power and plenty of work, and there was neither; and de Brazza owned it was with painful feelings that he found himself so ill supported, and obliged, instead of returning to Europe to rest from his fatigues, having performed himself all he had undertaken to do, to hasten again into the interior in order to carry reinforcements to the men left in charge of the two stations he had founded, distant, the one 500, the other 800 miles.

He started back into the interior with a party strengthened by two French sailors, Guiral and Amiel, and a number of native carpenters, gardeners, &c. In ascending the Ogowé for the third time his canoe was upset at the Boué Falls and he suffered much from illness brought on by having to work long in the water to save his baggage. Arriving at Franceville in February, 1881, he found there 100 natives satisfactorily established and engaged in various industries. The gardens had been well cared for and the settlement was self-supporting. De Brazza however had not lost faith in that steamer even yet, and he set about preparing means of transport for the thing when it should arrive. There were seventy-five miles of portage intervening between the station Franceville and the confluence of the Obia and Lekiba with the Alima, the point chosen for the commencement of the navigation of the Alima. The clearing of a path for the transport of the sections of the steamer was accomplished by the aid of 400 labourers super-intended by Michaud, Guiral, and Amiel.