The
barrel is three feet four inches long, and the bore is that of an
artesian well. The native fills four inches of this cavity with
powder and the remaining three feet with rusty nails, barbed wire,
leaden slugs, and the legs and broken parts of iron pots. An officer
of the W.A.F.F.'s, in a fight in the bush in South Nigeria, had one
of these things fired at him from a distance of fifteen feet. He
told me all that saved him was that when the native pulled the
trigger the recoil of the gun "kicked" the muzzle two feet in the
air and the native ten feet into the bush. I bought a Tower rifle at
the trade price, a pound, and brought it home. But although my
friends have offered to back either end of the gun as being the more
destructive, we have found no one with a sufficient sporting spirit
to determine the point.
Libreville is a very pretty town, but when it was laid out the
surveyors just missed placing the Equator in its main street. It is
easy to understand why with such a live wire in the vicinity
Libreville is warm. From the same cause it also is rich in flowers,
vines, and trees growing in generous, undisciplined abundance,
making of Libreville one vast botanical garden, and burying the town
and its bungalows under screens of green and branches of scarlet
and purple flowers. Close to the surf runs an avenue bordered by
giant cocoanut palms and, after the sun is down, this is the
fashionable promenade.
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