Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/467

 club him on the head, and throw the body in the river, so "palaver done set." These Benga and M'pongwe people seem just to let lunatics alone, though to their credit be it said they had tried to feed this poor fellow from Gaboon, because, they said, they feared he would starve. When lunatics are dangerous they secure them to trees by a chain. There was one, I am told, chained near Glass a long time, but one night he broke loose and was never heard of again.

I should say my lady passenger left here. I fancy she had had enough of the Lafayette. She said she "would walk the rest of the way," which may be translated into she'd write to Mr. A. L. Jones. We get out through the breakers and hoist our mainsail and beat along among the rollers, rolling ourselves like mad as the heavy waves sweep broadside on under us. Just off the Cape itself we have to run almost out of smell of land, to get round a rock reef; I am bound to confess the consequences of this spirited display of seamanship are not encouraging. A terrific marine phenomenon exhibits itself suddenly off our weather bow, at a distance of fifteen to twenty feet. My first opinion is that it is the blow-up of a submarine volcano, not because I am a specialist in marine volcanic methods, having never seen one out of a picture-book, but this is very like the picture-book, waves and foam and flying water. In another second it explains itself completely, for out of the centre of it springs aloft the immense fluke of a great whale, as high as our mainmast. It swings round with a flourish and then comes flop down on to and into the broken sea, sending sheets of water over us and into the boat. We bale hard all, and stand by for another performance, but, to my intense relief, we see the whale blow a few minutes later a good distance off, and then have another flourish—a most charming spectacle on the horizon. My crew then say, as they take the baling easier, it is a common affair in Corisco Bay just about now, for it is the courting time for whales. I don't come again into Corisco Bay in canoes or small craft while any of that wretched foolishness is going on. They also tell me that the other day four people coming from Cape Esterias to Gaboon in a canoe were drowned, all hands, and they think they must have fallen in