Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
200 of the" Review").
Firstly, Douville has warned the reader that the former is the
spelling best adapted to French, the latter to Portuguese.
Secondly, "mulundu" in Angolan is singular, the plural being
"milundu"--a handful, the Persians say, is a specimen of the
heap. The excess of female births in low and unhealthy places (1,
309) and as the normal result of polygamy (3, 243), is a highly
interesting subject still awaiting investigation. I do not mean
that Douville was the first to observe this phenomenon, which
forced itself upon the notice of physiologists in ancient times.
Foster ("Cook's Third Voyage") remarks that, wherever men and
animals have many females, the feminine births preponderate over
the masculine; a fact there explained by the "organic molecule"
of Buffon. Pigafetta, the circumnavigator, gives the King of
Tidor eighteen daughters to eight sons.
The French traveller does not pretend to be a mineralogist, but
he does his best to lay open the metallic riches of the country;
he gives careful observations of temperature, in water as well as
air, he divines the different proportions of oxygen in the
atmosphere, and he even applies himself to investigating the
comparative heat of the negro's blood, an inquiry still far from
being exhausted. The most remarkable part is certainly the
medical, and here the author was simply in advance of his age.
Instead of the lancet, the drastic cathartics, and the calomel
with which our naval surgeons slew their patients, he employed
emetics and tonics to an extent that would have charmed my late
friend, Dr. Dickson, the chromothermalist, and he preceded Dr.
Hutchinson in the use of quinine wine. Indeed, the peculiar
aptitude for medicine shown in these pages led to the traveller's
adopting the destructive art of healing as a profession, and
caused his unhappy end. The curious mixture of utter imposture
and of genius for observation which a traveller can detect in
Douville renders him worthy of a monograph.
Chapter VI.
Up the Congo River.--the Slave Depot, Porto Da Lenha.--arrival at
Boma.
M. Parrot was as good as his word. By August 31st, "L'Espérance,"
a fine schooner-rigged palhabote (launch) of thirty-five tons,
heavily sparred and carrying lots of "muslin," was ready to
receive my outfit. The party consisted of the commander, Mr.
Bigley, and five chosen "Griffons," including William Deane,
boatswain's mate, as good a man as his namesake in Blake's day,
and the estimable Friend, captain's cook and Figaro in general.
M. Pissot, an Arlésien, clerk to the factory, went up on business
with a crew of eight useless Cabindas under Frank, their pagan
"patron," who could only run us aground. Finally, there was a
guard of half-a-dozen "Laptots," equally good sailors and
soldiers. The French squadron in West Africa has the advantage
over ours of employing these men,
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