mbata

Updated: May 29, 2025

Before dark, Forteune appeared, and swore that he had spent the day in the forest, he had shot at a gorilla, but the gun missed fire of course he had slept in a snug hut. This last determined me to leave Mbata; the three Kru-men had returned; one of them was stationed in charge of the boat, and next morning we set out at 6 A.M. for Nche Mpolo, the headquarters of "Young Prince."

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1

It is not a little curious to find these confirmations of Herodotean reports about dwarfish tribes in the far interior, the Dokos and the Wabilikimo, so long current at Zanzibar Island, and so long looked upon as mere fables. Our departure from Mbata had broken the spell, and Forteune did keep his word; I was compelled in simple justice to cry "Peccavi."

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1

Jacob Best and A. Bushnell, are absent in the United States for the benefit of their health. My first visit to the Rev. William Walker made me regret my precipitate trip to Mbata: he told me what I now knew, that it was the wrong line, and that I should have run two or three days up the Rembwe, the first large influent on the southern bank of the Gaboon.

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1

At the Gaboon mouth the tide rises three feet; at the head of the Mbata Creek, where it arrests the sweet water rivulet, it is, of course, higher. And now the scene improved. Then clearings appeared. At Ejene, the second of two landing-places evidently leading to farms, we transferred ourselves to canoes, our boat being arrested by a fallen tree.

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1

At 6.30 A.M., after an hour's work, probably representing a mile, and a total of 7 h. 30 m., or six miles in a south-south-west direction from Le Plateau, we left the ugly cul de sac of a creek, and entered Mbata, which the French call "La Plantation."

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1

About midnight, Prince Paul, who had bewailed the hardship of passing a night sans mostiquaire in the bush, and whose violent plungings showed that he failed to manage un somme, proposed to land and to fetch fire from l'habitation. "What habitation?" "Oh! a little village belonging to papa." "And why the -didn't you mention it?" "Ah! this is Mponbinda, and you know we're bound for Mbata!"

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1