The Fan were accompanied in their seaward movement by the Osheba or ’Sheba, the Moshebo and Moshobo of M. du Chaillu’s map.  They are said to be a tribe of kindred blood and warlike tastes, speaking a remarkably guttural tongue, but intelligible to the Mpangwe.  They too were doubtless pressed forward by the Inner Bati, who are.also affected by the Okana, the Yefa, and the Sensoba.  The latter are the innermost known to my negro informants, and their sheep and goats have found their way to the Gaboon:  they are doughty elephant-hunters, and they attack the Njina, although they have no fire-arms.  The Mpangwe deride the savagery of these races, who have never heard of a man riding a horse or an ass, which the Mpongwes call Cavala and Buro burro).  The names of these three races, which are described as brave, warlike, and hospitable to strangers, will not be found on any map; indeed the regions east of the Gaboon belong to the great white blot of inter-tropical Africa, extending from north latitude 7 degrees to south latitude 5 degrees.  Major de Ruvignes heard also of a tribe called Lachaize (Osheba?) which excels the Fan in strength and courage as much as the latter do the coast tribes:  a detachment of them had settled near one of the chief Mpangwe towns, “Mboma.”  Some days after his arrival he saw several of these people, and describes them as giants, compared with the negro races to which his eye was accustomed.  The general stature varied from six feet to six feet four inches; their complexion was a light cafe au lait; their hair was ornamented with cowries, strung so thickly as to suggest a skull-cup, whilst long streamers of elephants’ tails, threaded with the Cypraea and brass rings, hung down from the head behind the ears, covering the nape of the neck.  All these, we may observe, are Congo customs.  In their manufacture of iron, dug by themselves, they resemble the cannibals.

The Fan have now lodged themselves amongst the less warlike, maritime, and sub-maritime tribes, as the (Ashantis) Asiante lately did in Fante-land; now they visit the factories on the estuary, and wander as far as the Ogobe.  In course of time, they will infallibly “eat up” the Bakele, as the latter are eating up the Mpongwe and Shekyani.  They have their own names for neighbouring tribes:  the Mpongwe, according to Bowdich, called the Shekyani, and the inner tribes “Boolas, a synonym of Dunko in Ashantee;” hence, probably, the “Bulous” of Mr. Hutchinson (p. 253), “a tribe on the Guergay Creek, who speak a different language from the Mpongwes.”  The Fan call the Mpongwes, Bayok; the Bakele, Ngon; the Shekyani, Besek; and the Gaboon River, Aboka.  The sub-tribes of cannibals, living near my line of march, were named to me as follows:—­1.  The Lala (Oshebas?), whose chief settlement, Sankwi, is up the Mbokwe River; 2. their neighbours, the Esanvima; 3. the Sanikiya, a bush tribe; 4. the Sakula, near Mayyan; 5. the Esoba, about Fakanjok; 6. the Esonzel of the Ute, or Auta village; 7. the Okola, whose chief settlement is Esamasi; and 8. the Ashemvon, with Asya for a capital.