Chapter I: Part 1

THE CAMEROONS

THE
CAMEROONS

BY
ALBERT F. CALVERT, F.C.S.,

_Knight Grand Cross of The Royal Order of Isabel
the Catholic, Knight Grand Cross of The
Royal Order of Alfonso XII., etc._

AUTHOR OF

_The German African Empire_, _South-West Africa_,
_Nigeria and its Tinfields_, _The Political Value of our Colonies_,
_The Exploration of Australia_,
_Mineral Resources of Minas Geraes, Brazil, etc._

London:
T. WERNER LAURIE, LTD.,
8, ESSEX STREET, LONDON.
1917.

_E. Goodman & Son, The Phœnix Press, Taunton._

PREFACE.

Although the designs, which German philosophers conceived and German statesmen and strategists spent thirty years in perfecting, for the conquest of our Cape territories and the creation of a Greater Germany extending from the Mediterranean to Table Bay, are best illustrated and exposed by the defiantly defensive policy they pursued in South-West Africa, the rise, development and fall of the German Colonial Empire is more completely epitomised in the chapter dealing with the Cameroons.

The establishment of the German East African protectorate forms a story that is intensely interesting, inasmuch as it reveals the duplicity of Teutonic methods in their relations with native races, European rivals and their own agents. Bismarck, the last barbarian of genius, repudiated Dr. Karl Peters when, equipped with private capital and acting on his own initiative, he was acquiring in the hinterland of Zanzibar a well-watered, fertile province equal in extent to South Germany, and obtaining from the Sultan the concession for the ports of Dar-es-Salaam and Pangani. It was necessary in 1884 for Germany to assure England that the Imperial Government had no intention of securing possessions in a region which was admittedly within Britain’s sphere of influence, and Bismarck pursued Dr. Peters to Africa with an official intimation that the State would not grant him protection for the lives of his party, or for any possessions he might acquire opposite Zanzibar. But when the intrepid Teuton, as the representative of the German East Africa Company, had accomplished the spade work and returned to Berlin, the Government continued negotiations with the Sultan through their Consul-General at Zanzibar. The formal ratification of the treaties made in the name of the Company, was followed by a revolt of the Arabs, and when the Company’s representatives had been allowed to be murdered or put to flight, Bismarck was able to declare that the situation that had arisen was beyond the control of private enterprise, and an expedition, under Major von Wissman, was accordingly despatched to East Africa to suppress the slave traffic which still flourished in that region. For the furtherance of such a humane and civilising purpose, the co-operation of the British fleet was readily enlisted, and with this support and the energetic measures taken by von Wissman’s army of ex-British native soldiers, the disaffected populace was eventually “pacified,” even if the slave traffic was not suppressed. The Company’s claims to the territorial concessions granted under the treaties having been made good--Great Britain could not, in politeness, protest against the acquisition of Mount Kilimanjaro, since the amiable Kaiser had expressed a sentimental wish that the highest peak in Africa might be within the sphere of German _kultur_!--the Reichstag voted ten and a half million marks for the maintenance and development of these newly acquired territories. Then, and not until then, did England realise that with the connivance of Downing Street and the assistance of British men-of-war, this rich and important territory, with an area of 384,000 square miles, had become a Protectorate of Germany. Having duped England, punished the natives, and established their rule, it was only necessary to recall Dr. Peters and hand him over to the tender mercies of his official and political enemies, to make this chapter of the history of German empire building characteristic in its completeness.

What Germany succeeded in doing in East Africa after years of intrigue and deceit, and the expenditure of much blood and money, she accomplished in the acquisition of Togoland with a minimum of cost or trouble. Dr. Nachtigal, in the capacity of German Trade Commissioner, was sent to West Africa by his Government to enquire into and report upon the progress of German commerce in those latitudes. He was despatched at a time when the English Government had completed their leisurely deliberations upon the appeal of the peoples of Togoland and the Cameroons to be taken under the protection of the British flag, and Mr. Hewitt, a British Consul, was voyaging to the Gulf of Guinea for the purpose of complying with the native request, when Nachtigal arrived there on his commercial mission. The German Commissioner, acting under instructions from the Imperial Chancellor, hastily unfurled the flag of the Fatherland at Lome, in Togoland, and succeeded in reaching Duala, and formally placing the Cameroons under German rule, before Hewitt arrived upon the scene. Lord Granville addressed a reproof to Bismarck for not having divulged the nature of the errand upon which Nachtigal had been sent, and the incident was closed. In the three decades that followed, the German administrators in Togoland, with the thoroughness with which the Teuton is gifted, taught the natives the “sharp lesson” considered necessary to prepare them for the reception of Germany’s civilising rule, furnished the colony with 200 miles of railway, over 750 miles of excellent roads of native construction, a score of postal and telegraph stations, and a telephone system, and established a wireless station--the most powerful in the world outside Europe--which was not only in communication with Berlin, 3,450 miles distant, but with East Africa, the Cameroons and South-West Africa. The final installations at Kamina were completed in June, 1914; in August the German operators learnt by wireless that Great Britain had declared war on Germany; and on 26th August the Kamina Station notified Berlin that the colony of Togoland, the smallest, completest, and only financially independent German possession, had capitulated to an Anglo-French force.

The German annexation of South-West Africa was a more intolerably humiliating and provocative act of aggression; it is one that only now--after the territory has been recovered by the brilliant campaign of the Union Army under General Louis Botha--can be forgiven Lord Granville. Prior to 1883 the natives of Damaraland and Namaqualand, suspicious of the intentions of Germany, had petitioned to be taken under British protection. Downing Street experienced a temporary uneasiness, but Bismarck’s assurance that Germany had no intention of establishing Crown colonies in Africa, extinguished the fleeting distrust. The Cape Colony was not so easily satisfied. A British Commissioner, who was appointed to confer with the native chiefs, reported favourably upon the proposal to officially confirm the authority of the Cape Government over the region extending northward from the Orange River to Portuguese Angoland. Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of Cape Colony, urged upon the home Government the desirability of the step, and the Colonial Office decided upon the formal acquisition of the port at Walfisch Bay. Bismarck, hesitating to commit what might be construed as a deliberately hostile act, invited Great Britain to state her intentions with regard to the rest of the south-west territory, but failing to receive any definite reply, he decided upon bold if impudent measures, and in April, 1884, the Chancellor announced that the territory north of the Orange River was under the protection of the German Empire. As Bryden says, in his _History of South Africa_, “it was an unfriendly act, carried out in an unpleasant manner, and the British Colonists in South Africa are not soon likely to allow it to pass out of remembrance.” It not only destroyed the symmetry of a British South Africa, and gave Germany rights in territories marching with British colonies, but it added 322,450 square miles of African territory to the German Colonial Empire, for which a Bremen merchant named Luderitz parted with a hundred pounds and a score of old muskets.

Germany’s method of developing her new possession in South-West Africa was entirely in keeping with her manner of acquiring it. From the first she proceeded to colonise on military lines. Railways were constructed with regard to their strategic importance; they were made on what is still called the Cape gauge; and were directed towards the Union border. A standing army was raised and compulsory service was instituted. An artillery depot established at Windhoek, the capital, contained a worthless collection of old gun-carriages and bales of locally-collected hay. This was to secure the colony against the imaginary evil intentions of the inoffensive and unarmed Ovambos, who inhabit the north-east corner of the colony. At Keetmanshoop, some hundreds of miles further from Amboland, but within 150 miles of Cape territory, was a great arsenal, furnished with guns and shells, rifles and cartridges, ambulances, transport vehicles, and military stores and supplies sufficient to equip and maintain an army of fifteen thousand men for two years. In the face of these facts and figures, we may be forgiven for doubting the honesty of the German Colonial Secretary’s denial that Germany ever had any intention of occupying, either permanently or temporarily, the territory of the South African Union, and of disregarding the expression of Lord Haldane’s pious belief that the Kaiser’s life’s purpose was “to make the world better,” and that in Germany’s method of colonial expansion, “she was penetrating everywhere to the profit of mankind.”

In some ways the story of Germany’s annexation of the Cameroon provinces, and her subsequent extension of that area, is the most interesting of all, because if she secured her footing in East Africa by subterfuge, and in South-West Africa by the exercise of sharp practice supplemented by a certain display of bold decision, she edged her way into the Gulf of Guinea by virtue of no other quality than that of sheer bluff, but, having consolidated herself in the positions she had thus gained in West Africa, she allowed the world to understand that she was determined to expand her sphere of influence, if necessary, by recourse to arms. In 1885 Germany legalised her occupation of the Cameroons by placating France with an exchange of unimportant territories, and renouncing in favour of Britain her nominal claims to St. Lucia and to Forcados, at the mouth of the Niger River.

Having thus solidified their position, and secured themselves against what Passarge calls “the intrigues and provocations of the English,” the German administrators proceeded to Germanize their new province and systematically to develop its tropical resources. Although they established customs houses, courts of justice and post-offices, and constructed about 125 miles of a projected railway system of 285 miles, and, between 1898 and 1911, increased the total trade of the colony by nearly forty million marks, the colony did not prove a departmental or material success. The staffs of the Experimental Institute of Agriculture at Victoria and the Department of Agriculture at Buea, devoted their energies to the scientific raising of tropical economic plants, to experiments in plantation culture, and to the training of young natives in the virtues of Teutonic industry and organisation, while, by Government Proclamation, all native children were compelled to attend the Government schools, acquire an intelligent knowledge of the language and history of Germany, and practice the art of singing German patriotic songs. Despite this paternal concern for the agricultural and educational well-being of the natives, the application of German methods proved a disappointment. The children at the end of their school course considered themselves too superior to undertake manual labour, while the men, resenting the German indifference to their national feeling and inherited methods of work, developed the spirit of native unrest. A lack of sympathetic understanding of the natives was attended by culpably injudicious treatment of them by the German officials, and the relations between the authorities and the aborigines led to the frequent employment of the Imperial troops, while the inadequacy of means of internal communication rendered the progress of “one of the most productive countries in the world” both slow and difficult.

But, disappointing and costly as was the German failure to administer and develop the Cameroons, the Teutonic lust for territory was unabated, and, in its resolve to extend its holding in this quarter of the globe, the Government did not hesitate to emperil the peace of Europe. When the German cruiser _Panther_ appeared at Agadir, in July, 1911, the object of the Wilhelmstrasse was not to protect purely imaginary German interests in that part of Morocco, but to maintain a menacing attitude that would compel the French to cede to the Bully of Europe their territory to the south of the German Cameroons. The negotiations for the transfer were concluded in June, 1913, and fifteen months later French and British troops commenced a joint expedition to wrest from the German authority, by military means, the province from which the former had been ejected by diplomatic blackmail and the insistant rattle of the sword in the scabbard.

It is instructive to recall the methods by which Germany acquired her African possessions, if only for the partial answer it provides to the question as to what the Allies intend to do with them. It is absolutely certain that however the Allies agree to dispose of the four colonies in question, they will never be restored to Germany, notwithstanding the fact that Herr Dernburg has committed the Emperor to the pledge that he will never consent to make peace except on terms which include their surrender. Germany got into Africa as a burglar effects an entrance into a well-stored building, but it is not because her gains were ill-gotten that she will be deprived of them. Having experimented in the civilisation of natives for three decades, she has revealed an utter inability to colonise for the benefit of mankind, but the hopeless failure of the German system of imposing her rule upon subject races, is not the reason why she will henceforth be debarred from participation in the work of civilising the world. The colonial possessions of Germany, as well as of England, France and Belgium, form part of the stakes for which all Europe is in arms, and they will become the spoils of the conquerors. As the Imperial Chancellor has announced, the future of the Cameroons will be decided not in West Africa, but in another theatre of war.

Germany’s explanation of her desire to acquire colonies was based upon her need for extra territory capable of supporting her growing population. For this purpose she acquired East Africa, and immediately set about the task of raising, equipping and drilling a large force of black troops. She seized the French Cameroons, and at once increased the handful of natives which the French had found sufficient for the maintenance of order in the colony, to an army of 1,550 black and 185 white troops, and she had planned the formation of additional corps of mounted infantry, and the rearming of all the troops with modern rifles. As soon as wireless telegraphy became a practical means of communication, a wireless station was installed in Togoland which rendered the little colony of inestimable potential value from a military point of view, while in South-West Africa, the extent and completeness of her defensive and offensive preparations, is abundant proof that the real value to Germany of this territory lay in the proximity of the region to the Boer States, disaffected to Great Britain. “The land was not taken for _bona fide_ colonisation,” wrote the Rev. William Greswell over thirty years ago, “only as a _point d’appui_.” Germany pushed forward her military preparations in East, West and South Africa, as she did in Prussia, because she had convinced herself of England’s ultimate inability to hold India, Egypt and her colonial dominions. Her professors assured the Kaiser and his junker parasites, that the English had lost both “the qualities of creative genius in religion and the valour in arms of a military caste”, that we had become “a timorous, craven nation, trusting to its fleet”; and that, while we had “failed to impress our dominion” on the chiefs of the Indian Tributary States, the colonies were “shivering with impatience under the last slight remnant of the English yoke.”

Because of their arrogant attempt to put their theories and their conclusions to the test, the German people are being stripped of all their overseas possessions. They have already lost their South-West Protectorate and Togoland, and the Allies are now successfully engaged in crushing German resistance in Eastern Africa. It is not my purpose in this little book to follow the fortunes of the Allied troops; it will be time enough to write the story of the campaigns when the task is accomplished, and the future administrations of the colonies are in operation. My object in the following pages is to give the public the particulars about the Cameroons which I have collected not without the expenditure of a considerable amount of time and trouble. A natural desire to ascertain the nature of the difficulties that would have to be surmounted by the allied forces, and a desire to learn something of the natural resources and commercial potentialities of the territory that was about to be acquired, sent me to bookshops and libraries in search of works that would satisfy my curiosity. I was disappointed to find that the information I wanted was not available in English form, English authors having decided, apparently, that the colony did not lend itself to interesting or marketable compilation, and since the British Government had not accredited a Consul to the Cameroons, not even a belated Consular Report was procurable. In this extremity I turned my attention to such German publications as were obtainable in this country and, from the official writings of Dr. Paul Rohrback, Dr. Grotefeld, Dr. Paul Preuss, Dr. Walter Busse, Herr Eltester, and Siegfreid Passarge, I gathered a mass of information concerning the geographical and geological features, the vegetation and forestry, and the natives and native cultivation, together with an interesting summary of the progress made under the German system of development and the success they had attained in their experiments in plantation cultivation. In a paper written by Captain W. A. Nugent, R.A., who had been a member of the Boundary Commission in 1907, and acted as British Commissioner appointed to survey and fix the boundary between the German Cameroons and Nigeria in 1912, I found a full and admirable description of the territory traversed. This volume contains the result of my researches, selected and arranged in such a manner as will, I trust, be found acceptable to English readers who share my curiosity concerning the natural resources, the commercial position and the prospects of the colony, and who also entertain the hope that part of it, at least, will ultimately form a link in the chain of British overseas dominions.

ALBERT F. CALVERT.

ROYSTON,

ETON AVENUE, N.W.

CONTENTS

PAGE

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 1

PLANTATION CULTIVATION 24

NATIVE EDUCATION 56

THE CAMEROON-NIGERIAN BOUNDARY 62

COLOURED PLATE

Victoria, Cameroon _Frontispiece_

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE

Duala 1

The Quay at Duala 2

Landing-place at Duala 3

Post Office, Duala 4

Court House at Duala 5

Hospital at Duala 6

Natives’ Metal Work 7

The Bâle Mission at Duala 8

Workshop of the Bâle Mission, Duala 9

Manga Beli’s Palace, Duala 10

The Native Quarter, Duala 11

Business Offices in Duala 12

Natives Wood Carving 13

The Woermann Floating Dock at Duala 14

Landing Jetty 15

Constructing the Central Railway from Duala to the Nyong River 16

View of the Wuri River at Bonaberi 17

The Wuri River above Duala 18

Elephant Grass 19

Buea, former Seat of the German Government of Cameroon. Great Cameroon Mountains in the Background 20

View of Buea 21

The late German Governor’s Palace, Buea 22

Buea 23

Algau Cattle grazing near Buea 24

Grazing Land near Buea 25

Tobacco Plantation near Buea 26

The new Okoti Crater on the Cameroon Mountain taken from the East 27

Forest on the Cameroon Peak at an elevation of 1,800 metres 28

View of Victoria 29

Victoria, with the Great Cameroon Mountain and Little Cameroon Mountain 30

View of Ambas Bay 31

Steep Coast near Victoria 32

Botanical Gardens, Victoria 33

Office in the Botanical Gardens, Victoria 34

Buildings of the Victoria Co., Victoria 35

Vegetation in the Forest 36

Kribi, at the Mouth of the Kribi River, the Chief Trading-place on the Coast of South Cameroon 37

Kribi 38

Low-lying Coast near Kribi 39

Mission House at Kribi 40

Boa-constrictor 41

Natives of Bule 42

Marshy Land in the Oil-palm Region near the Coast 43

Oil-palm in a Maize Field 44

Preparation of Palm-oil by Native Methods 45

Oil-palms 46

Cocoa Tree with Fruit 47

Seven-year-old Oil-palm Trees 48

The Oil-palm. Crown with Clusters of Fruit 49

Station Yard at Edea 50

The Sanaga River near Edea 51

The Sanaga River near Edea 52

Bridge over the Southern Arm of the Sanaga River (Duala-Nyong Railway) 53

Entrance to the Forest near Edea 54

Woermann Line Boats on the Sanaga River 55

Rapids in the Sanaga River 56

Maize Stores at Jaunde 57

Park-like District in a Clearing of the Forest on the Edea-Jaunde Road 58

Native Soldiers at Jaunde 59

Native Troops in Camp 60

Native Troops on Active Service 61

Native Village. Gabled Huts 62

On the Upper Nyong River 63

Colonial Troops at a Factory on the Upper Nyong River 64

Ferry Boat on the Nyong River 65

Steamer at the Landing-place of a Factory on the Nyong River 66

Collecting Rubber in the Forest 67

Dehane Rubber Plantation (Nyong River) 68

Dehane Rubber Plantation (Nyong River) 69

Manager’s House on the Dehane Rubber Plantation 70

Clearing the Ground for Planting Rubber Trees 71

Ground Cleared for Planting 72

Mixed Trees in a Plantation 73

Pay Day on a Rubber Plantation 74

A Path through the Dehane Plantation on the Nyong River 75

Natives Waiting for the Dinner Bell 76

Banana Trees on a Rubber Plantation 77

A Four-year-old Rubber Tree ready for Tapping 78

Natives at Dehane 79

Roll Call of Labourers on a Plantation 80

Elephant Grass 81

Tapping the Rubber Tree 82

Small huts for Patients suffering from Sleeping Sickness 83

Forest on the Banks of the Mungo River 84

Native Suspension Bridge over the Mungo River 85

Native Suspension Bridge over the Mungo River 86

The “Mungo” German Government Steamer on the River 87

A Tree Trunk used as a Bridge 88

Village of Ninong at the Western Base of the Manenguba Mountains 89

The Elong Mountain in the Bamenda Range seen from the foot of the Manenguba Mountains 90

Forest on the Banks of the Cross River 91

Fishing on the Cross River 92

The Cross River at Nssanakang 93

Factory on the Cross River for Trading with the Natives 94

Banana Trees near Ossidinge 95

A Village in Keakaland, Ossidinge 96

Head-dress and Tribal Marks of Keaka Women 97

Native Musical Instruments in Keakaland 98

Caravan Crossing the Ndi River near Fontschanda 99

Typical Vegetation 100

A Palm Grove 101

A Suspension Bridge 102

A Suspension Bridge 103

Suspension Bridge over the Fi, near Tinto 104

Fumban in Bamum 105

Native Market at Bamum. Provisions and Kolo Nuts being Sold 106

Ndjoia, Sultan of Bamum, between two War Drums, at Fumban 107

Sultan of Bamum with the Captains of his Troops 108

Made by the Natives of Bamum 109

Trial Field for Cotton and Tobacco at the Government Station, Fumban, Bamum 110

Bamum. Note the Frieze of Animals under the Grass Roof 111

Street Scene in Bamum 112

Street Scene in Bamum 113

Street Scene in Bamum 114

A House in Bamum 115

A Street in the Women’s Quarter 116

Cotton Field near Bamum 117

Dracæna the Fetish Trees of West Africa 118

Market-place at Banjo with the Banjo Mountains in the Distance 119

The “Malam” of Banjo in Hausa State Costume 120

Banjo, a Settlement in the Interior 121

Vegetation in the Forest 122

The “Island” Mountain District in North Adamaua between Ntem and the Ribäu Slope on the Banjo Road 123

Granite Mountain in Central Cameroon 124

Sudan Natives of Central Cameroon. Wute Natives in War Costume 125

War Games of the Wute Natives 126

Woman of the Wute Tribe 127

Woman of the Wute Tribe 128

Sudan Natives in Central Cameroon. Wute Archers 129

Sudan Natives in Central Cameroon. Wutes with their War Drums 130

Hump-backed Cattle of Adamaua 131

Hump-backed Cattle of Adamaua 132

The Faro above Tschamba 133

Caravan Travelling. Resting 134

Kumbo Highlands on the way to Lake Mauwe, between Bakumbi and Banka 135

Kumbo Highlands between Banka and Lake Mauwe 136

The Remains of a Volcano in the Kumbo Highlands 137

Forest in the Highlands 138

Change from Forest to Grass Country on the broken edge of the Inner Highlands near Fontem 139

Cultivated Portions of Grass Country 140

Typical Grass Country in Bafu-Fondong, on the Great Dschang-Bamenda Road 141

Women Working in the Fields in the Grass Country, North-west Cameroon 142

Death Dance of the Natives near Dschang 143

The Chief Bafu-Fondong on his Throne 144

Tatooed Fondong Negro 145

A Chief’s Wife in the Grass Country 146

Parasites on a Tree, near the Grass Country 147

Bali Negress in the Grass Country 148

Mbo, a Fortified Station near the Grass Country 149

Kusseri, a Fortified Station in North Cameroon 150

The Resident’s House at Kusseri 151

Mecca Pilgrims at Kusseri 152

Log Path through a Swamp 153

Horsemen in North Cameroon 154

View of Elephant Lake 155

Village of Kilgrim in the Mandara Mountains 156

The Lagone River at Musgum 157

Caravan Crossing a River 158

Njoja, with his Wives and Children, sitting in front of his Palace 159

Bakwiri Women and Children Dancing 160

The Head Chief Balwen in his War Costume 161

Chieftain in Gala Attire 162

Hausa Girl at a Spring 163

Natives of North Cameroon 164

Deng-Deng, a Settlement in the Interior 165

Dikoa, a Settlement in the Interior 166

Ebolowa, a Settlement in the Interior 167

Floods near Ssigal 168

Sultan of Ngaumdere with his Bodyguard 169

Market at Ngaumdere 170

Main Buildings of the Bibundi Plantation 171

Bungalow on the Bibundi Plantation 172

Plantation in Full Bearing 173

Baia Youths 174

Baia Women 175

Dead Elephant 176

Walrus 177

A Hausa Village 178

A Native Village. Musgum Huts 179

A Native Village. Huts with Cone-shaped Roofs 180

Caravan Travelling. Hiring Carriers 181

Rubber Caravan 182

Ivory Caravan 183

Scene at an Ivory Factory 184

Weighing the Ivory 185

Factory in the Interior of South Cameroon 186

Roll-call of Labourers 187

Bridging over a Ravine 188

Sawing Wood 189

Njem Woman, South Cameroon 190

Prow of a War Canoe 191

MAPS vPLATE

Density of the Population 192

Flora 193

Fauna 194

River Basins 195

Ivory Districts 196

Chart showing Entrance to Duala from the Sea 197

Hausa Territory 198

Profile of Cameroon 199

A. F. Calvert’s Map of Cameroon 200

THE CAMEROONS

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.

The large bay or estuary in the Gulf of Guinea, lying south of Nigeria and facing the island of Fernando-Po, was discovered by Portuguese navigators in the fifteenth or sixteenth century and christened the Rio dos Camaroes (the River of Prawns), from the abundance of Crustacea that infested its waters. The name was also used to designate the neighbouring mountains, which rise to the north-west of the bay. The English usage, until the end of the nineteenth century, was to confine the term, the Cameroons, to the mountain range, and to speak of the estuary as the Cameroon River. It was left to the acquisitive Germans to extend the use of the name in its Teutonic form--Kamerun--to the whole Protectorate.

The establishment of German trading firms and factories at various places on the West African coast suggested to the Imperial Chancellor the practicability of laying the foundations of his projected German Colonial Empire in the Cameroon region of the Dark Continent. On March 19th, 1884, Dr. Nachtigal, a former Consul at Tunis, was instructed to proceed on this civilising mission, and on July 5th and 6th he hoisted the German flag at Bayida and Lome, in Togoland. On the 10th of that month the English gunboat _Goshawk_ entered the Cameroon River, and the mission’s hope of further extending the sphere of German influence on the coast of West Africa appeared doomed to extinction. But the _Goshawk_ departed on the following day, leaving the field clear for Nachtigal, who rushed through some agreements with the chiefs Deido, Bell and Akva, declared the country to be under the protection of Germany on July 14th, and appointed Doctor Buchner Provisional Governor of the newly acquired territory. The new Governor acknowledged the protest against German occupation, which was formally made by the British Consul on July 19th, and proceeded to hoist the German flag at Bumbia, Maliba, and Batanga.

In this nefarious and undignified manner the German Government obtained a foothold in the Gulf of Guinea, but it still remained for them to regulate their intrusion among the nations already established in the region. In order to solidify the position they had taken up, and, in the phrase employed by Siegfreid Passarge, “to withstand the intrigues and provocations of the English,” who laid claims to Victoria and the Rio del Rey coast, it was necessary to have the treaty of occupation confirmed. On May 7th, 1885, a treaty was concluded by which the British waived their claims in favour of Germany, who reciprocated by renouncing their nominal claims to Forcados, at the mouth of the Niger, and to St. Lucia. In the same year the French ceded Great Batanga and the island west of Kwakwa-Kriek in exchange for the German possession of Konakry. These treaties legalised the position, and Germany was left a free hand to develop her possessions in the Cameroons, under the Governorship of Baron von Goden.

In July, 1911, the German cruiser _Panther_ appeared off the coast of Morocco, at Agadir, for the alleged purpose of protecting German interests, of which no trace existed in that quarter of the globe. The incident was ultimately closed by the cession to Germany of the French territory to the south of their Cameroon colony, which was subsequently incorporated with it under the name of New Cameroon. The transfer was made in June, 1913. Under French domination, three military stations, garrisoned with a total force of four officers, twelve non-commissioned officers, and 200 native troops, had been sufficient to preserve order, but the new rulers had their own ideas as to the military requirements of their growing Empire. We read in _Jahrbuch über die Deutscher Kolonien_ (1913) that the German defence force numbers 185 Europeans and 1,550 natives, while it was the intention of the Government to form an additional corps of mounted infantry, to establish a stud farm for the breeding of troop horses, and to arm all the troops with 98·3 carbines. Since the declaration of war in August last, Togoland has capitulated to the French and British, and the German Cameroons are now being systematically and successfully invaded by the allied forces. The political future of these territories is, as yet, undetermined, but however they may be ultimately allocated, German domination in West Africa, with its blundering mismanagement and bumptious militarism, is a chapter of colonial history that is closed for ever.

THE EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR.

Although the commercial activities of the tribes inhabiting the African Mohammedan empires, and the construction of trade routes connecting Senegal with the Red Sea, had opened up the Soudan to Europeans, the territory which since 1884 has been known as German Cameroon was practically unexplored at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1822 an English expedition succeeded in reaching Lake Tchad and exploring its western and southern boundaries. This discovery was supplemented in 1851-52 by Barth and Overweg. Barth went from Kuka to Yola, and discovered the upper course of the Benue. He penetrated further, through the country south of Lake Chad to Bagirmi. In 1854 Baikie went up the Benue, as far as Djen, about fifty kilometres from Yola. Rohlf’s journey in 1865-67 and Nachtigal’s in 1869-74 are of little importance. In 1879 began the activity of Edward Flegel, who, on the steamer _Henry Benn_, navigated the Benue as far as Garna. Of much greater importance were the explorations of the Benue district in 1882 and 1883, the southern limit of which was marked by the towns of Ngaumdere, Banjo, Gaschaka, and Takum.

The knowledge of the coastal district was extremely limited. Burton and Mann had ascended the Cameroon mountains in 1861-62. In 1872-75 three German scientists, Buchholz, Reichenow and Lüders, made important zoological discoveries, while Rogozinsky, a Pole, in 1883, reached as far as Lake Barombi. But all efforts to penetrate into the interior were frustrated by the impracticable condition of the roads, the unhealthiness of the coast district--which was for the greater part uninhabited virgin forest--and by the hostile attitude of the natives.

After many fruitless endeavours to explore this coastal region, an expedition in 1888 succeeded in crossing from Batanga by way of Njong and Sanaga, and in settling the boundary between Bantio and Sudannegern. The effort to reach the Cameroon estuary was frustrated by the opposition of the Bakoko; and after a journey of much difficulty the expedition returned to the coast. In 1899 a station was established and a foothold secured. In the same year the region north of Duala was explored, and the forest district traversed, the plateau of Baliland was ascended, and the grassy lands reached. With indescribable difficulty the districts from Ibi on the Benue to Yola were traversed. In 1902-4 an Anglo-German expedition, after a very minute survey, fixed the boundary line between Yola and Lake Chad, and in 1908 an agreement was made between Germany and France regarding the south and east boundaries. In 1907-8 the frontier between Cameroon and the Nigerias was surveyed by the British and German representatives, and the approximate line of demarcation subsequently settled between the two Governments was fixed and marked by an Anglo-German commission in 1912-13.

BOUNDARIES AND TOWNS.

The Cameroons are bounded on the north-west by Nigeria, on the north-east and east by the French possessions of the Military Territory of Chad and the Middle Congo and the French possession of Gaboon. The frontier runs in a north-easterly direction from near Calabar in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria to Lake Chad, and then in a general south-south-east direction to about lat. 2° N., from whence it strikes south-west by west, reaching the Atlantic just south of Spanish Guinea, which is thus surrounded on the north, east and south by German territory. The general outline of the country thus described is broken in the middle east by a triangular piece of land which gives access to the Ubangi river, an affluent of the Congo, at Singa, in lat. 3° 40´ N.; whilst in the south-east corner a strip of land seventy miles broad runs southwards, giving access to the Congo itself in about lat. 1° S.

The Protectorate, with an area of 290 square miles, had in 1913 an estimated native population of 2,650,000, and a European population of 1,871, of whom 1,643 were Germans.

The chief towns on the coast, from north to south, are Victoria, Duala (the capital), Kribi, and Ukoko. Buea is a large town on the eastern slopes of the Cameroon mountain, and Edea is on the Sanaga, about forty miles from its mouth. In the mountainous region in the north-west are Bare, Dschang, Bali, Bamenda, Wum, Esu, and Kentu; to the east of these is Fumban, and to the west, in the low-lying country near the Nigerian border, Ossidinge. In the western portion of the plateau are Tibati, Banyo and Tingere, and in the centre, at the junction of the main routes of the interior, is Ngaumdere. In the country north of the plateau the chief towns are Garua, an important trading centre on the Benue, Lere, Binder, Marua, Mora, Dikoa, and Kusseri. In the southern part of the country are Yaunde, Dume, Bertua, Gaza, Carnot, Bania, Lomie, and Akoafim. Molondu is in the extreme south-east.

THE PROGRESS OF THE PROTECTORATE.

In the first twenty-eight years of their occupation the Germans had established courts of justice at Buea, Duala, Kribi, and Lomie, custom houses at Duala and Buea, thirty-eight post offices throughout the territory, and had maintained order among the natives by means of twelve companies of Imperial troops. They had constructed and opened 108 kilometres of the 1-m. gauge line of 160 kilometres from Duala to the Manenguæ Mountains, and had opened the central line from Duala to Widimange, on the Nyong River--a distance of 293 kilometres of 1-m. gauge line--as far as Edea, ninety kilometres from Duala. The imports had increased from 9,296,796 marks in 1898 to 29,317,514 marks in 1911, and their exports in the same period had risen from 4,601,620 to 21,250,883 marks, a total increase in the trade of the colony of nearly thirty-seven million marks. The want of means of communication was found a hindrance in the economic development of the territory, which was admittedly possessed of “unlimited liabilities.” Vast tracts in the interior were proved to be suited for cotton cultivation; oil palms, cocoa, and rubber were ascertained to be of “incalculable wealth,” and the Cameroons were described by Dr. Grotewold as among the most productive countries in the world.

But the administration, or the critics of the administration of the Protectorate, had discovered that the lack of proper means of communication was not the only factor that retarded the progress of this richly endowed country. The unrest amongst the natives had revealed on the part of the authorities the lack of that sympathetic understanding of their native subjects which makes for successful colonisation. Their treatment of the natives was culpably injudicious, and their mistakes in dealing with them were so frequent and serious that the relations between the Government and the native population were constantly strained, and the services of the Imperial troops were in great demand.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

The country on the whole is mountainous and forms the north-west limit of the central African plateau. The coastland is flat alluvial country spreading out on either side of the Cameroon Mountains, and broken up with mangrove swamps, lagoons and deep estuaries. The Rio del Rey region on the west of the Cameroon Mountains is a stretch of alluvial land with a breadth of thirty to forty kilometres, which forms the extreme eastern portion of the great alluvial plain extending from the Gold Coast to the Cameroon, and attaining its greatest development in the Niger Delta. Within the alluvial the volcanic massive of the Cameroon Mountain rises to a height of 4,070 m., and divides the land into two parts, which are connected only by a small and high strip of territory. To the east of the dividing mountain lies Dualaland. The other three orographical regions which comprise the Cameroon country includes the Cameroon plateau, which forms the largest and most important part of the colony; the enormous region of Adamana, which is generally level and nowhere reaches an elevation of more than 600 metres; and the extensive swampy lands of the Lake Chad basin which are under water during several months of the year.

The greater part of the colony is covered with red, loamy, sandy weatherings, which are characteristic of the tropics. If this red earth contains hard concretions of brown iron ore, they are named “Laterit.” These cellular-like volcanic scoria are characteristic of the surface of the soil generally, and especially in those districts where the loamy deposits have been washed away by heavy rains. Vegetable soil is more abundant in the rainy regions of the south, and also in the lowlands. Indeed the result of this humid weathering is a kind of whitish yellowy kaolin, or china clay, which is found in the south plateau. A blackish mould to a thickness of one or two feet covers the lowland south of Lake Chad, and is there called “Firki.” Whilst in the south of the colony red and yellow clayey soil preponderates, the further north one goes to the dryer regions, reddish sand, a product of the physical weathering, is to be found.

CLIMATE.

In the coast region of the Cameroons the climate is warm and moist, with a high rainfall. The temperature is not excessively high, the heat being tempered by the cold Benguela current coming northward from the Polar regions. According to Knox (_The Climate of Africa_) February is the warmest month and July the coolest, the maximum and minimum temperatures being 89·7° F. and 66° F. respectively. The mean temperature at Victoria and Duala is about 77° F. The coast is one of the most unhealthy places in Africa, but the conditions are considerably better and more suited to Europeans in the high-lying districts in the north. The climate of the latter is largely of the continental type, characterised by extremes of temperature. At Bali the mean temperature is about 64° F., the maximum 87° to 90° F., and the minimum 43° to 45° F. At Fort Crampel, on the eastern side of the plateau, the maximum temperature reaches 113° F., and the minimum 49° F. On the Ngaumdere plateau it is sometimes very cold, and sleet storms are not uncommon, the temperature sometimes falling to 37° F.

As regards rainfall, there are as a rule four more or less distinct seasons in the southern and central regions--the chief dry season at the beginning of the year, the so-called long wet season from June to September, a short dry season in October and November, and a short period of great rainfall in part of November and in December--but the divisions indicated are by no means well marked. The Adamana district, situated on the north of the plateau, lies beyond the equatorial beet, and there are consequently only two seasons, one wet and one dry.

The massive of the Cameroon Mountains presents a district which is singular with regard to its climate, vegetation and animal life. At its base is a primeval forest, and the climate is tropical and humid. Debundja and Bibundo have practically no dry season, the rain being continuous nearly the whole year round. On the east side, the rainy season lasts for only two to three months in the year. Buea, which lies on the lower slopes of the misty region, has a fresh, cool climate, and is quite free from malaria. The temperature varies frequently, in some cases from 1·5° to 2° Cent. in the course of two or three minutes. Instead of the usual heavy tropical rains, it has only a drizzling rain, and the humidity penetrates everywhere, even the dwellings. On the upper slopes, when the north-east wind blows, it is icy cold, except at midday. Hoar frost is frequent and snow fairly so. The mountain is nearly always cloud-capped, and it is seldom possible to obtain a really clear view of the summit.

VEGETATION AND FORESTRY.

The combination of tropical heat and rain in the alternate regions of forests and brushwood swamps produces a tropical growth of cocoa palms, cotton plants, flax and fibrous trees, and rubber vines in prodigal luxuriance and variety. The virgin forests are tropical to a height of about 1,000 m., when they become less dense, and the oak ferns make their appearance. Between 1,500 and 1,800 m. the wild coffee shrub grows abundantly, the oak ferns disappear, and are succeeded by glades and brushwood. At an altitude of 2,200 m. the forest suddenly comes to an end and the grass land begins. Only in the ravines, in which the soil is moist and sheltered from the winds, the forest continues to the 2,700 m. level. The high forest--the most magnificent of all tropical forest formations--is characterised by its amazing variety of entirely different trees, including, among others, the great wool tree, the mahogany tree, the yellow and red wood trees, the oil-palm, and rubber. Among the trees of the brushwood districts the principal are acacias and the oil-palm, which to a height of from 700 to 900 m. covers the slopes of the Cameroon plateau to the coast.

The chief planting activity appears to have been at Johann-Albrechts-Höhe, and in the Dibombari district on the Northern Railway. A forestry plantation at Manoka, near Duala, was abandoned on account of its remoteness, the difficulty of water supply, and the constant lack of labour. The principal work for the making of forest and state reserves has been conducted in Yabassi, Yaunde, Edea, and Dschang. The efforts of the forest department and of private persons have been concerned mainly with: (_a_) Investigations of woods suitable for beams, wharves, and for boat and waggon building; (_b_) trials of woods resistant to _teredo navalis_ for small boats; and (_c_) experimental shipments to German South-West Africa of woods serviceable for building, mining and street paving.

A large increase, amounting to 270 per cent. in the production of building and other timber, took place in 1911. The first place in the exports is held by Cameroons mahogany, which is stated to be increasing gradually in value in the market; its exports having risen in value from £7,022 in 1910 to £22,000 in 1912. The next wood in importance is Cameroons ebony, the exports of which have been as follows: 1909, 672 tons, worth £3,038; 1910, 1,221 tons, worth £6,090; 1911, 1,652 tons, worth £6,777; whilst in 1912 the value of the shipment was £9,055. The increase of exports has been largely due to an increase of cutting by the natives, and this has entailed a considerable amount of robbery by them. As a consequence, timber exploitation on Government lands was entirely prohibited to natives in the period 1912-13, and concessions were given to Europeans with much caution; a decrease in the production was therefore expected. A difficulty regarding the exploitation of timber in the Cameroons is the lack of good waterways in the forest regions.

CATTLE RAISING.

In spite of the very great difficulties caused by the tsetse fly, much attention has been paid to stock-breeding in the Cameroons, although with the exception of certain efforts made in Kusseri, in the extreme north, and in Garua, in Adamana, nothing in the nature of methodical horse-breeding by natives exists. The indigenous cattle are of two kinds, the dwarf cattle and the humped cattle. Cattle-breeding in the proper sense is only found among the Fulla tribe in Adamana, in Banyo and the Lake Chad regions. From these places there was once an active export of cattle to the neighbouring British and French Protectorates, but this has been diminished in recent years owing to a large export duty. The interest in cattle-production on the part of the natives has been increased in recent years, under official encouragement, in the districts of Dschang and Bamenda.

The Fulla cattle are greatly prized in the central districts, in which, by reason of the ravages of the tsetse fly, no cattle can be bred, and when railway communication has cleared the infected regions, a thriving cattle export industry to the coast will be developed. The increased prosperity of the rubber districts of the south, especially Molondu, Dume and Lomie, has led, in recent years, to a demand for meat among the natives, and this has been supplied from the Hausa and Fulani herds. In 1911 about 20,000 head of large stock and 8,000 of small stock were sent from Adamana to the south, and this is estimated to mean an exchange between the north and the south to the value of about £150,000.

As is usual in West Africa, the natives possess neglected goats, sheep and fowls, and in some cases pigs, though this is only true to a very small extent in the southern districts.

NATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

The chief agricultural products of the Cameroons are rubber, palm kernels, cocoa and palm oil, and the Protectorate may be said, in a general way, to present three chief agricultural areas: the southern, with rubber in increasing production; the middle province around the Cameroon river basin, with their plantations and areas rich in oil palms; and the grass country, northward, suited specially for cattle breeding. Nearly all the rubber exploited has been derived from the native exploitation of wild plants. Almost all the male population of Lomie, Molondu, Dume, and Dengdeng was concerned in rubber collection in 1910-11, in which years more than 1,000 coloured middlemen bought the rubber from the natives and sold it to the forty-nine mercantile firms who had no fewer than 230 stations established for its purchase. The comparatively small share of rubber plantations in the whole production of the Protectorate is shown by the fact that, of a total export of 5,957,516 lbs. in 1911, all except 23,912 lbs. was from wild plants; whilst in 1912 cultivated plants accounted for only 53,040 lbs. in a total shipment of 6,184,222 lbs. The results of the attempts to induce the natives to take up new cultivations depend on the presence or absence in their district of wild plants that they can exploit. Whilst, for example, the inhabitants of the Lomie district, who still know of rich stands of wild rubber plants, are hardly to be excited to commence rubber cultivation, it has been experienced in Kribi, where these do not exist, that the distribution of young plants are gratefully received and readily planted.

It is also recorded that oil-palm cultivation has been introduced with some success to the natives, in the districts of Lomie and Yaunde, but any “cultivation” by the natives is very simple in nature, consisting merely in the keeping of the stands clear of “bush.” The large decrease in the exports of ivory in recent years is due in great measure to the exhaustion of the stores of ivory hoarded by the natives and the extent of elephant shooting in the past ten years. The exports in 1910 amounted to sixteen tons, valued at £124, and although there was a slight increase of quantity in the following year, the export in 1912 showed a large diminution. The other native products are chiefly djair nuts, shea nuts, kola, and gum arabic, but there has been comparatively little activity as regards the actual cultivation of crops, because of the natural richness of the country in products which enable the inhabitants to buy what they require. The raising of food crops exists, however, for special demands, such as arise near railways, administrative stations and larger towns, and the chief places on the caravan routes and rivers. Near such places the native raises maize, plantains, bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes and ground nuts, as well as sorghum (dura or dari) in the northern districts, and some kola and sesame in isolated places. In several districts a certain amount of tobacco is planted; there is also some little fruit raising, notably in the villages of Ambam. In the highlands of Dschang, and in other places, such as Ebelowe and Yaunde, new crops, such as the English potato, “black bush” beans and turnips, for which the climate seems to be suited, have been introduced. Numerous inhabitants of the districts of Duala and Edea have in recent years laid out farms for the raising of cassava, plantains, maize, yams, and other products.

North of the watershed the principal crops are guinea-corn, millet, ground-nuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes; cotton and tobacco are also cultivated by the Chamba pagans, Zumperis and Munchis. The corn is planted in April at the end of the rainy season, the method of cultivation being as follows. The ground is first cleared of weeds and the remains of the last year’s crop. It is then prepared for sowing by digging shallow trenches with a rough kind of hoe, the earth being piled up to form ridges between the trenches. Guinea-corn (_Sorghum vulgare_), the staple food of the country, is planted in these ridges. It grows to a great height, often fifteen to twenty feet, and is harvested in November. Millet is planted in the furrows; it ripens rapidly and is harvested in July. Cotton is ready for picking after December; tobacco and cassava are cultivated during the dry season on the hillsides, the streams being used for irrigation.

From October to March, during the dry season, the natives are engaged in stacking their corn into mud-walled granaries, and threshing what they require for immediate use. These months are also spent in repairing the damage done to the villages, grass being cut and tied into bundles for thatching roofs, and making new zana matting. The dry season is also the hunting season, when the long grass has been laid low by fire. This grass-burning is an annual institution, although the Government has given orders prohibiting it on account of the damage done to trees. But the hill tribes care very little for trees or grass, and a good deal for meat.

As in all parts where the tsetse fly prevails, and the employment of cattle for ploughing is impossible, the land is chiefly cultivated with the hoe; and as the West African hoe is a tool which calls for the exercise of patience rather than skill or strength, the native leaves the field work to his women. From this form of servitude the women will not be emancipated until cattle are rendered immune from tsetse fly and the hoe is supplanted by the plough.

PLANTATION CULTIVATION.