Gaboon
or GABUN, a French colony on the W. coast of Africa on an estuary of the Gaboon river, 40 miles long by 10 miles, just north of the equator. The climate on the coastal strip is extremely unhealthy. On the inland plateau (2,600 feet above sea-level) it is better. Among the exports figure timber, gum, ivory, gutta-percha, palm oil and kernels, earth nuts, sesamum, and malachite; other products are brown hematite, quicksilver, sugar cane, cotton and bananas. The people belong for the most part to tribes of the Bantu stock, the more important being the Mpongwe, the Fans, Bakele, Bateke, etc. Sheep and goats are numer- 1873. ous, but the former yield no wool. This part of Africa was discovered by the Spaniards in the 15th century. The French made their first settlement on the Gaboon estuary in 1842; 20 years later they extended their sway to the Ogowe.
But they seem never to have attached any importance to the colony till after Savorgnan de Brazza began to explore it in 1876-1886. See FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA.