Chapter IV

SUBSEQUENT ASCENTS BY MESSRS. CALVO, SAKER, AND MANN.

For a week we led a tranquil life, free from the care of cities, and beyond reach of the barbarous Bakwiri, in this Paradise of wildernesses. ‘O Corte, O Cortejo,’ says the Spanish proverb; it speaks the truth, like Sancho Panza. There are no azure fiends here. Even the Judge felt no disposition to ‘caer la paletilla.’[80] Not a soul approached us; the natives feared a rough reception by day from white men, who were doubtless collecting the vast stores of cloth with which the mountains are supposed to be covered;[81] and at night the jungle is not a favourite walk with them. We rose with the sun, whose beams, passing through a thicker atmosphere than that of the plains, were but faintly warm, comforted ourselves chatting round the bright wood-fire, wrote our journals, and, after breakfast at 8 A.M., proceeded to the business of the day. The Judge made sundry excursions, with a view to short cuts. M. Mann set out with his wire frames, and returned only to dry his specimens, a process which must be repeated every day in these damp regions, and which cannot be committed to natives. The Krumen, not having been allowed to ‘wax fat and kick,’ and tamed by the discipline of the pelourinho, laughed and sang whilst they worked at the camp and felled trees. I was experimenting upon the time it would take one man to make cultivable ground of an acre of bush—an operation at which, as it involves destruction, they appear proficients. Selim sallied forth with Black Beggar, the cook,—who is also my instructor in the Kru tongue, and a first-rate shot with an old rattletrap musket,—in search of specimens of small beasts and birds. As the dried nests showed, the season of nidification was passed, and the juveniles were already on the wing. Unhappily, our shot was too large; the arsenical soap would not come up from Victoria before Mr. Saker, and many of the birds were too young for good preservation. The little barbarians were so wholly unacquainted with rice that when placed upon the ground as bait they paid no attention to it. Insects are remarkably scarce at these altitudes, whereas in the lowlands every dead tree’s bark contains a swarm. Only two land shells were found, and none appeared in the grassy region above the woods. Besides the field-rat before alluded to, no fewer than three animals new to science were secured, and duly forwarded to the British Museum—a mus, a crocidura, an anomalurus, and, the most interesting of the series, a ‘beautiful new species’ of Sciurus, which Dr. Gray was kind enough to name Sciurus Isabella.[82] Some of these were shot, others were caught in the Kruman trap. A fine hawk or eagle haunted us for days, but never trusted himself within reach of Black Beggar’s unerring ‘scattering-iron.’ We also rigged up a musket in the usual way, baited with a bit of meat attached to the trigger. After salt pork had been tried in vain, we supplied its place with fresh meat, but met no success. The larger animals appear very wary on the mountains. More than once, especially at early dawn, antelope were sighted from afar, grazing in the open, but never allowed a shot. Selim also saw two hawks attacking a deer which was apparently maimed. It made the bush, however, before he could reach the spot. The Krumen were often frightened at night by the loud breathing and the laughing of the hyæna close to our huts—once they met it during the day, when both parties fled precipitately in opposite directions—and lay close under their blankets, the only way to invite attack from the cowardly beast. After sitting up for several nights, we abandoned the hope of securing a skin of this animal, which did not fail, however, to strip our springes of their ‘small deer,’ rats and mice.

The forest wore a European look, but with dyes so limpid and tender that the eye never wearied in contemplating it. This is here the ‘sweet of the year,’ and the deadliest season at Fernando Po and upon the coast. The days are those of the Tuscan Apennine in spring and autumn; the morning is still, and ‘clear as the eyes of Christabel,’ and we hear the distant murmurs of the restless waves upon the sounding Æthiopic shore. During the day a mist-cloud, which the wind cannot rout, sweeps round Earthwork Crater, bringing a refreshing change, and the evenings are mild and serene. At times it threatens rain, but the downfall is never more than a few drops. The daily wind is the north-easter, not a Trade, the tyrant of the sub-tropical seas, but a land breeze, increased I believe, by induction through the mountain-tops, and drawn with steady and ceaseless force, as if from an endless reservoir, towards the regions of damp heat below. The return current, or south-wester, was rare; perhaps we had not attained its height. The clouds are torn to pieces by it, and we sometimes see them travelling, as at Madeira, in three several directions; when they meet, fierce and furious are the battles. We meet once more at 3 P.M. for food, and after that we keep our minds from starving with a book, or we ‘imp feathers to the broken wings of Time’ with sketching. Thus the day walks on _lanei pedes_, and after 6 P.M., when the sun is about to set through the lowland mists, we collect round the blazing hearth of basalt blocks—there is no better company to the wanderer than a fire[83]—and while away the last hours with chat and drink. The deep, dark forest is as silent as the grave, except when the screech-owl, most melancholy if not most musical, throws her note into the shades, or the hyæna whimpers in the distance, ghostly as the shade of some ancient denizen of the wild, or a mighty rushing wind from the north sweeps high over the tree tops, hardly causing the flame below to flicker. An avenue cut along the side of Earthwork Crater shows the Evening Star smiling upon us with her soft and lovely light,—I watch her as a lover when she sinks to rest behind the curtain of moonlit cloud. We separate at 8 P.M., and enjoy sparingly the pleasures of memory, which, methinks, the careful mental husbandman should reserve like cards, in case of such accident as old age, when all the passions, except that of eating, shall have been extinguished. During night the grumbling of thunder far beneath our feet is our rude lullaby. Once, and only once, I heard a cracking in the underwood, which my ears, now familiar with the sounds of the backwoods, at once recognized as the effect of a human visitor, perhaps of two. Selim brought my revolvers, and we debated upon the propriety of firing a shot over the spot, as a caution to spies. It is well we did not; we should only have disturbed some harmless hunter visiting the spring. After a cool and comfortable night—the mercury stands at 50°—unblemished by a single mosquito, or without an atom of perspiration on the proboscis, we are awakened at earliest dawn by the small brown birds, some tapping like woodpeckers the hollow tree-trunks, others singing with might and main tutu-pigi- tutu-pigi-tutu-pi. Who was it that said birds have no song in the tropics? Any ear can hear that they are singing, and a good ear, when familiarized with the novel music, can detect as much melody in it as in that of any others. I presume, however, that association has more to do with the pleasure derived from the singing of birds than with most other human enjoyments.

The expedition, Krumen and all, save myself, being now in a high state of preservation, it was judged advisable to make a second reconnaissance. Mr. Saker had written to us on the 26th, telling us not to wait for him. The letter, by-the-by, did not reach us till the evening of the 29th, showing that our lazybones who had escorted the returner had spent four days upon a two days’ march. Knowing that the ‘book’ which they brought up would probably mention their desertion, they prudently left it with one of their number in the rear, and the rest pressed on to receive a glass of rum. At 10·25 A.M., on the 2nd January, 1862, Messrs. Calvo and Mann set out, accompanied by six Krumen and King Eyo, with provisions for four days. I despatched about the same time six other ‘boys’ to Victoria, in case Mr. Saker might wish to return, and remained on the hill-side with Selim Aga and the four fellows that completed the party.

Messrs. Calvo and Mann suddenly returned before sunset two days after they had started. The latter had brought on a relapse, and looked weak and weary; besides which they had allowed the Krumen to finish their water and their stores. Moreover, they had forgotten to furnish themselves with liquor; and the coldness of the mountain water had begun to tell upon them. They had marched, after leaving camp, in an hour and three quarters, to Mount Helen; and after resting thirty-five minutes had reached in another hour and a half Mount Isabel, where they found the water-breakers safe but rather leaky. Whilst their Krumen prepared a roosting-place in an old crater, a grassy hollow, promising defence from the alpine violence of the night winds, they ascended to the summit, and with great difficulty. The azimuth compass had no stand, and their ‘tropical hands’ were dead with cold. They took bearings of the principal points in the glorious sub-range of southern mountains over which they had passed; and they found the dormitory anything but unpleasant.

At six A.M., on the 3rd January, the reconnoitrers arose, breakfasted, fed their men, and were _en route_ before the hour was ended. They followed the west—not, as we did, the east—of Lava Bed No. 3, and found it, contrary to what had been expected, by far the longer and rougher of the two. After about an hour and a half of marching they reached the grass-grown hills at the foot of the Pico Grande, and M. Mann named the tallest, on the left hand or westward, ‘Mount Hooker.’ Passing round its western flank, they found in the northern base a tolerably sheltered nighting-place, where they deposited their luggage, under the charge of three Krumen. Accompanied by Messrs. John, George, Clipper, and Tom Pepper, whose activity was stimulated by hopes of cloth, after an hour’s rest they reached the base of the great cone at 11 A.M. As had been agreed upon in camp, they turned towards the left, or Albert Crater, instead of ascending the front, and, rounding the western side, they wound up the slope, which, overlaid with fine black scoriæ and ashes, often caused them to ‘sink two steps backwards for one forwards.’ They also found the wind so strong that it nearly blew them down. When near the summit, they caught sight of a huge depression, distant about four miles, and separated from the mountain by a long slope of cinder. They described it as an ‘_effondrement_,’ a vast chasm in the earth, oval or horse-shoe shaped, with a longer diameter of not less than three miles; the sides, sparsely clad with shrubs and plants, fell sheer down. The depth they placed at the enormous figure of 3000 feet; and the cavity appeared large enough for the Peak to fit into it.

At 1·45 P.M., after nearly four hours’ climb, the explorers stood upon the high back wall of Albert Crater, which commands a view of the whole summit. They stayed there for half an hour; hung up the self-registering thermometers, and left the top, too much benumbed by cold—the mercury sank to 45° 50′—for further observations. The violent north-easter seemed to pierce through them, and they descended the south-western slope, between Albert and Victoria Craters, where they found what M. Mann called ‘a wall of granite in huge blocks.’ At 2·30 P.M. they descended as rapidly as possible; and at 3·10 P.M., after forty-five minutes of slipping and sliding, they reached the rendezvous. King Eyo, Black Beggar, and the handsome Ire—so called because he was probably the ugliest nigger ever invented—having finished the whole breaker of water, Sio, _alias_ Tom Pepper, was sent to fetch another from Mount Isabel. Not relishing a solitary walk, he persuaded Clipper and King Eyo to accompany him. The precious two started, and were seen no more that night. The travellers did not raise the tent; they spent the hours of darkness under _la belle étoile_, at the foot of the grassy cone, and found the air exceedingly cold.

On the 4th January the reconnoitrers were delayed till 7·30 A.M. for water, of which two breakers came instead of one. The idle Krumen had suffered as they deserved: one half with thirst, the other with cold. King Eyo, the sablest of youths, looked almost white, and threw himself about as one with a colic. M. Mann’s relapse necessitating immediate return, the party moved at 9·30 A.M.: reaching Mount Isabel, they saw a strange apparition. On the opposite side of the crater stood a native hunter, with his two small prick-eared curs, adorned with bell necklaces. The man was habited in a rug round the loins, and held nothing in his hand but a staff or spear. These tribes ignore the bow and arrow. The poor wretch halted, spell-bound, which is not to be wondered at, by the sight. Evil spirits in Africa are white and ugly, by the same rule that they are black and ugly in Europe; and he must have thought himself in dire proximity to what we should term the Devil. Perhaps he saw before him the Great Pale Face, who haunts the big water, guarding the treasures of the mountain.[84] M. Mann, wishing a sketch, motioned him to approach: he waved an emphatic negative, tossed his arms, and simultaneously shouted, with a peculiar wild cry, to his dogs, who were drawing near the strangers, making them turn to the right- about, like a file of soldiers. After this he fled wildly down the hill- side, and was seen no more. The Bwea people, on the east of the mountain, and the mountaineers generally, travel high up. Perhaps this phenomenon accounts for the crashing of the wood which I had heard on the previous night.[85] It is lucky that the country people are not less cowardly than the Krumen. Of these, four out of the five, all armed with matchets, ‘bolted’ from one naked hunter; John being the only brave that stood his ground. They were not found till near the camp, when, _mendaces in excelsis_, they declared that they had run away to warn their masters, who had remained behind making collections, of the danger that threatened the party.

I had been suffering from ague on that afternoon, and it much resembled the pleasant inebriating attack at Lagos. It is, I have said, a highly intellectual complaint; it heightens all the faculties; the memory becomes most acute; visions of past things flit before the mental eye with startling vivacity; flattering hopes of the future bubble from the brain. You sing, sketch novels, compose _ariettes_, and spin verse like an Italian improvisatore. In this state of wide-awakeness to all around, I fancied, about 5 P.M., that a Kru cry was sounding in the distance, and ordered those in camp to answer it. They obeyed, but manifestly thought me _exalté_. However, at 5·30 P.M. we saw a line of bearers winding along Earthwork Crater, a few yards above our heads, and I had the pleasure of finding that there had been no accident. M. Mann had been somewhat disappointed. He brought home some fine specimens of ranunculus, monica, senecio, and leucathoë,[86] besides gramineæ, helichrysum, veronica, cytisus, and others, inhabiting the lava-fields which surround the highest mountain. But he had found only six species not growing in the temperate region; the rest were the lower forms, stunted and wilted by wind and cold. He discovered no Alpine types. The conifer which he had met at San Thomé, 5000 feet above sea-level, is absent from these mountains even at double that altitude. The evening passed pleasantly in recounting past adventures. The four fugitive Krumen were duly punished; the ringleader received three dozen; the others were at once sent back with full breakers to Mount Isabel, and all forgot for a week the taste of pork and grog.

On the next day our party upon the hill-side received another accession. At 8 A.M. the usual shouts and answers in the Victoria road announced the return of Mr. Saker, who was accompanied by Mr. R. Smith, a coadjutor of the Camaroons Mission, six Krumen, and three Camaroons men, who deserted _en masse_ on the third day. Their ascent presented few novelties. Myombi and Botani had been harangued by Mr. Johnson upon the folly of ill-treating white men who could close the market to them: and this threat of what is to an African the worst of penalties, made both chiefs and people exceptionally civil. They had persuaded two Bosumbo men to carry part of the loads to Mapanya, and a few leaves of tobacco had induced old ‘Balmat’ to accompany them to ‘Ridge Camp.’ They had also found a short cut between Bosumbo and Mapanya, enabling them to avoid the long eastern _détour_ over bad ground which we had made during our ascent. They had performed the journey in fifteen hours and fifteen minutes of actual marching, and Mr. Saker estimated the distance at twenty-three miles.[87]

We now became a thoroughly dilapidated party, ‘a pitiful company for mountain research.’ Mr. Saker took sights all day, and had fever every night; Mr. Smith worked out a two months’ tertian which he had caught in the Camaroons River; my foot was still painful; and M. Mann suffered so much from an old dysentery that it was thought better for him to try change of air. It is frequently the effect of the hill climates in India, and even of a return from the tropics to England, to draw forth a disease whose seeds are latent in the system, after which crisis the sufferer may expect a complete return of health.

Active steps were also rendered necessary by the state of our provisions. The twenty-five hungry Krumen had got through 1000 lbs. of rice in a fortnight, no stores had arrived in the adjoining river from England, and Victoria market supplied nothing but yams and kokos, the latter of which were sold at eight per leaf of tobacco. ‘Balmat’ made his appearance in camp, accompanied by two youths equipped with sword and musket, and hung round with little gourds containing their ammunition. They brought a present of provisions, and, by way of securing a larger return gift, they declared, in their loud and barking voices, that a neighbouring ‘king,’ hearing of white men being upon the mountain, had declared war against them for allowing us to pass,—a campaign that may terminate in the loss of a goat. They promised to hunt the neighbourhood for ‘bush-beef’[88] and to supply us with meat, but we could not place faith in their words.

The Krumen were sent under Black Will to bring up the remainder of our stores from Victoria on the 6th of January, and four days later M. Mann, with ten others, took with him sixteen dollars, cloth, and matchets, to tempt the people to sell stock. He was accompanied by the Judge, who had reasons for wishing to reach Fernando Po before the next mail departure, and who, though the only sound man amongst four sick, found his position the reverse of pleasant. He took with him King Eyo, whose departure was a relief; the little rascal’s extreme idleness was really painful to contemplate. A manchila was rigged up for the invalid, but the shaking and jolting of the inexperienced bearers soon rendered it unendurable. The travellers left at 10 A.M., and with great difficulty reached Victoria that night. Their men shirked as usual, lagged behind, and, when urged on with the stick, threatened to desert.

On the 13th of January, Mr. Smith still remaining unwell, Mr. Saker set out with four Krumen to effect his ascent. Starting at 7·30 A.M., he made for Mount Isabel, and boiled thermometers. After halting there two hours, he entered upon Lava Bed No. 3, and, warned by Judge Calvo’s and M. Mann’s experience, followed its eastern side. Another two hours placed him at the foot of a small grassy cone, which he named Mount Arthur, and he camped in the rim or hollow; round the base were blocks of lava, rising eight or ten feet from a bed in front and forming a kind of shelter. The night was most enjoyable, the mercury at dawn showing 33° Fah.

On the next day Mr. Saker left his camp at 6 A.M. and ascended the long south-eastern ridge, where lava-lumps and stunted tufts of grass afforded a superior footing. After three hours and ten minutes of hard climbing, the party stood on Mount Victoria, about 150 feet below the highest summit. The day was favourable and windless. A single B. P. observation was made, 188° (Fah.), temperature 59°. As will presently appear, much importance cannot be attached to this, the first of observations. Water cannot be overboiled, but it is fair to suspect the lower estimate of underboiling. The descent of the cone occupied him one hour and a half. He left his camp at 2·10 P.M. on the same day, and reached us a little before dark. Mr. Smith had already commenced the descent; on the next day he was followed by Mr. Saker. After ten hours of actual walking they arrived without accident at their home.

The following is the only account of this third ascent which has yet appeared; it was first printed in some missionary paper, and bore date 10th February, 1862:—

‘In company with M. Mann and Mr. Consul Burton we reached an elevation of pure air, and stayed there some days. After a careful survey of the high region where we were encamped, I left to explore the peak, and ascended from the south side. During my absence M. Mann had ascended the north side, and Consul Burton had attempted the west face.[89] After a day’s weary toil over beds of lava, we reached the foot of a small mount somewhat sheltering to weary travellers. There I spread my blanket and passed the night. It was a glorious evening, but somewhat cold; at early dawn I found the glass at 31° Fah. But the sun rose: a cloudless morning, and it soon grew warm. At 6 A.M. I began the ascent, and at 10 reached the southern summit or ridge. By this time it was very warm, and the wind that sweeps so fearfully in these regions seemed hushed, and light, fleecy clouds ever and anon shut in the surrounding scenery. Towards the east I saw a range of mountains that I had never before observed, and took their bearings, but the attempt to secure the angles of summit towards the west was not so successful; as, ere I could bring two points together, one would be obscured. At this point I found the water boil at 188°, thermometer 58°. This gives an elevation nearly the same as our charts give it from trigonometrical survey below. My attempt to explore the crater was a failure; the whole was enshrouded in cloud. The crater must be of enormous extent; the two most prominent peaks we named Victoria and Albert (little did we think then, in December, that the nation and our beloved Sovereign were then being plunged into irreparable grief); and those peaks present a large angle at seven miles’ distance. I regret I did not previously take it, and my failure to take angles leaves me in much ignorance of what I wished to ascertain. After a long delay I began the descent, and at _two_ reached my nightly place, and after rest and refreshment set out on return to our camp. Here I found the Consul a little better, but still unable to walk much. As I had stayed on this second run up the mountains ten days, I was compelled to leave for this place and for Cameroons.

‘It is only needful to mention here that in those visits to the highest regions we have ascertained that there are now native towns at about 3500 feet elevation, that cultivation extends but little further, and that beyond these heights there is every inducement to seek a temporary home for invalids and wearied missionaries.’

[Footnote 80: A popular Spanish phrase for home-sickness, from which the soldiers at Fernando Po suffer severely. The idea is that the shoulder- blade falls and the arm loses strength. The remedy is very Oriental; I have seen it at El Medinah. The patient lies upon the ground, a friend walks over and tramples upon him, and he recovers.]

[Footnote 81: In the East hidden treasures consist of gold and jewels, and the magical methods by which they are brought to light are applied to milk by the pastoral Somal and the Irish, and to cotton cloth and copper-rods by the trading West Africans. The only explanation to the natives of our ascending the mountain was the existence of these treasures.]

[Footnote 82: See Appendix IV.]

[Footnote 83: Even at Fernando Po I find a stove absolutely necessary in mornings and evenings for health and comfort; but it is only the old African who thinks of so apparently unnatural a procedure.]

[Footnote 84: The reader will find this explained in Appendix II.]

[Footnote 85: On the 1st February M. Mann, when collecting plants sheltered in a hollow from the strong wind, had a similar rencontre. ‘I suddenly,’ he says, ‘observed a native close by, who, without seeing me, had unwittingly dropped upon me. When I addressed him he stretched out his hand, and after a few minutes pronounced the word “tobacco.” I called to him to come nearer, which he was unwilling to do, and when I went towards him I saw that he trembled with fright. He was a head taller than I, and nearly twice as stout, without any clothes except a small piece of thin cloth about his loins: he had arms and a cutlass. I made him understand that he should bring me a hyæna and a gazelle, which he promised, and slowly went away, looking back as though afraid that I should lay hands upon him.’]

[Footnote 86: In this region the temperate zone, botanically speaking, would extend from 5000 feet to the summit. In more northerly mountains, Etna for instance, the zones are usually reckoned to be five, viz. lowland or cultivated, wooded, shrubby, grassy, and of cryptogams. For sanitarial purposes the torrid would extend from the shore to 1500 feet above sea-level, the temperate from 1500 to 7000 feet, and the frigid to the top.]

[Footnote 87: This is about double the true figure, 13 geographical miles. I made a practice of asking each member of the expedition his estimate of every march, registered the lowest, and found on comparing it with actual measurement by the cord that it was usually twice too long. When instruments are not used this must ever be expected. But it is no objection to the general credibility of a book if its 300 miles of distance are reduced to 120. This sounds like a truism: apparently, however, it is not generally acknowledged to be true.]

[Footnote 88: Formerly there were wild cattle upon the Peak of Fernando Po; but they were probably let loose there by Spaniards in the last century. We heard of none on Camaroons Mountain.]

[Footnote 89: Mr. Saker knew perfectly the facts of the case, which he here ‘pretty considerably’ misstates.]