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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2
+by Richard F. Burton
+(#20 in our series by Richard F. Burton)
+
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+Title: Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2
+
+Author: Richard F. Burton
+
+Release Date: May, 2004  [EBook #5761]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 27, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: Latin1
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TWO TRIPS TO GORILLA LAND AND THE CATARACTS OF THE CONGO ***
+
+
+
+
+Scanned by JC Byers, (www.wollamshram.ca/1001)
+Proofread by the volunteers of the Distributed Proofreaders site.
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+
+                          Two Trips to
+
+                          Gorilla Land
+
+                              and
+                  the Cataracts of the Congo.
+
+                               By
+
+                       Richard F. Burton.
+
+                         In Two Volumes
+
+                            Vol. II.
+
+                          London: 1876
+
+
+
+
+Contents of Vol. I.
+
+Chapter I.     From Fernando Po to Loango Bay.--the German
+               Expedition
+Chapter II.    To São Paulo De Loanda
+Chapter III.   The Festival.--a Trip to Calumbo--portuguese
+               Hospitality
+Chapter IV.    The Cruise along Shore--the Granite Pillar of
+               Kinsembo
+Chapter V.     Into the Congo River.--the Factories.--trip to
+               Shark's Point.--the Padrao and Pinda
+Chapter VI.    Up the Congo River.--the Slave Depot.--porto Da
+               Lenha.-arrival at Boma
+Chapter VII.   Boma.--our Outfit for the Interior
+Chapter VIII.  A Visit to Banza Chisalla
+Chapter IX.    Up the Congo to Banza Nokki
+Chapter X.     Notes on the Nzadi or Congo River
+Chapter XI.    Life at Banza Nokki
+Chapter XII.   Preparations for the March
+Chapter XIII.  The March to Banza Nkulu
+Chapter XIV.   The Yellala of the Congo
+Chapter XV.    Return to the Congo Mouth
+Chapter XVI.   The Slaver and the Missionary in the Congo River
+Chapter XVII.  Concluding Remarks
+Appendix:--
+I.   Meteorological
+II.  Plants collected in the Congo, at Dahome, and the Island of
+     Annabom, by Mr. Consul Burton
+III. Heights of Stations, West Coast of Africa, computed from
+     Observations made by Captain Burton
+IV.  Immigration Africaine
+
+
+
+
+
+                            PART II.
+
+                  The Cataracts of the Congo.
+
+
+
+"Allí o mui grande reino está de Congo,
+     Por nós ja convertido à fé de Christo,
+Por onde o Zaire passa claro e longo,
+     Rio pelos antiguos nunca visto."
+
+"Here lies the Congo kingdom, great and strong,
+     Already led by us to Christian ways;
+Where flows Zaïre, the river clear and long,
+     A stream unseen by men of olden days."
+
+The Lusiada, V. 13.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            Part II.
+
+                  The Cataracts of the Congo.
+
+                           Chapter I.
+
+    From Fernando Po to Loango Bay.--the German Expedition.
+
+
+
+During the hot season of 1863, "Nanny Po," as the civilized
+African calls this "lofty and beautiful island," had become a
+charnel-house, a "dark and dismal tomb of Europeans." The yellow
+fever of the last year, which wiped out in two months one-third
+of the white colony--more exactly, 78 out of 250--had not
+reappeared, but the conditions for its re-appearance were highly
+favourable. The earth was all water, the vegetation all slime,
+the air half steam, and the difference between wet and dry bulbs
+almost nil. Thoroughly dispirited for the first time, I was
+meditating how to escape, when H. M. Steamship "Torch" steamed
+into Clarence Cove, and Commander Smith hospitably offered me a
+passage down south. To hear was to accept. Two days afterwards
+(July 29, 1863) I bade a temporary "adios" to the enemy.
+
+The bitterness of death remained behind as we passed out of the
+baneful Bights. Wind and wave were dead against us, yet I greatly
+enjoyed the gradual emerging of the sun through his shroud of
+"smokes;" the increasing consciousness that a moon and stars
+really exist; the soft blue haze of the sky, and the coolness of
+73° F. at 6 A.M. in the captain's cabin. I had also time to enjoy
+these charms. The "Torch" was not provided with "despatch-
+boilers:" she was profoundly worm-eaten, and a yard of copper,
+occasionally clapped on, did not prevent her making some four
+feet of water a day. So we rolled leisurely along the well-known
+Gaboon shore, and faintly sighted from afar Capes Lopez and St.
+Catherine, and the fringing ranges of Mayumba-land, a blue line
+of heights based upon gently rising banks, ruddy and white,
+probably of shaly clay. The seventh day (August 5) placed us off
+the well-known "red hills" of Loango-land.
+
+The country looks high and bold after the desperate flatness of
+the Bights, and we note with pleasure that we have left behind us
+the "impervious luxuriance of vegetation which crowns the
+lowlands, covers the sides of the rises, and caps their summits."
+During the rains after October the grass, now showing yellow
+stubble upon the ruddy, rusty plain, becomes a cane fence, ten to
+twelve feet tall; but instead of matted, felted jungle, knitted
+together by creepers of cable size, we have scattered clumps of
+dark, lofty, and broad-topped trees. A nearer view shows great
+cliffs, weather-worked into ravines and basins, ribs and ridges,
+towers and pinnacles. Above them is a joyful open land,
+apparently disposed in two successive dorsa or steps, with bright
+green tiers and terraces between, and these are pitted with the
+crater-like sinks locally called "holes," so frequent in the
+Gaboon country. Southwards the beauty of eternal verdure will
+end, and the land will become drier, and therefore better fitted
+for Europeans, the nearer it approaches Mossamedes Bay. South of
+"Little Fish," again, a barren tract of white sand will show the
+"Last Tree," an inhospitable region, waterless, and bulwarked by
+a raging sea.
+
+Loango is a "pool harbour," like the ancient Portus Lemanus
+(Hythe), a spit of shingle, whose bay, north-east and south-west,
+forms an inner lagoon, bounded landwards by conspicuous and
+weather-tarnished red cliffs. This "lingula" rests upon a base of
+terra firma whose westernmost projection is Indian Point. From
+the latter runs northwards the "infamous" Indian Bar, compared by
+old sailors with a lengthened Bill of Portland; a reef some three
+miles long, which the waves assault with prodigious fury; a
+terror to slavers, especially in our autumn, when the squalls and
+storms begin. The light sandy soil of the mainland rests upon
+compact clay, and malaria rises only where the little drains,
+which should feed the lagoon, evaporate in swamps. Here and there
+are clumps of tall cocoas, a capot, pullom or wild cotton-tree,
+and a neat village upon prairie land, where stone is rare as on
+the Pampas. Southwards the dry tract falls into low and wooded
+ground.
+
+The natural basin, entered by the north-east, is upwards of a
+mile in length, and the narrow, ever-shifting mouth is garnished
+with rocks, the sea breaking right across. Gunboats have floated
+over during the rains, but at dead low water in the dry season we
+would not risk the gig. Guided by a hut upon the beach fronting
+French Factory and under lee of the breakers off Indian Bar, I
+landed near a tree-motte, in a covelet smoothed by a succession
+of sandpits. The land sharks flocked down to drag the boat over
+the breakwater of shingle. They appeared small and effeminate
+after the burly negroes of the Bights, and their black but not
+comely persons were clad in red and white raiment. It is a tribe
+of bumboat men, speaking a few words of English, French, and
+Portuguese, and dealing in mats and pumpkins, parrots, and
+poultry, cages, and Fetish dolls called "idols."
+
+Half a mile of good sandy path led to the English Factory, built
+upon a hill giving a charming view. To the south-east, and some
+three miles inland from the centre of the bay, we were shown
+"Looboo Wood," a thick motte conspicuously crowning a ridge, and
+forming a first-rate landmark. Its shades once sheltered the
+nyáre, locally called buffalo, the gorilla, and perhaps the more
+monstrous "impungu" (mpongo). Eastward of the Factory appears
+Chomfuku, the village of Jim Potter, with a tree-clad sink,
+compared by old voyagers with "the large chalkpit on Portsdown
+Hill," and still much affected by picnickers. At Loanghili, or
+Loanguilli, south of Looboo Wood, and upon the right bank of a
+streamlet which trickles to the sea, is the cemetery, where the
+kings are buried in gun-boxes.
+
+The Ma-Loango (for mwani, "lord" of Loango), the great despot who
+ruled as far as the Congo River, who used to eat in one house,
+drink in another, and put to death man or beast that saw him
+feeding, is a thing of the past. Yet five miles to the eastward
+(here held to be a day's march) King Monoyambi governs "big
+Loango town," whose modern native name, I was told, is Mangamwár.
+He shows his power chiefly by forbidding strangers to enter the
+interior.
+
+The Factory (Messrs. Hatton and Cookson) was a poor affair of
+bamboos and mats, with partition-walls of the same material, and
+made pestilent by swamps to landward. Little work was then doing
+in palm oil, and the copper mines of the interior had ceased to
+send supplies. We borrowed hammocks to cross the swamps, and we
+found French Factory a contrast not very satisfactory to our
+insular pride. M. Charles de Gourlet, of the Maison Régis, was
+living, not in a native hut lacking all the necessaries of
+civilized man, but in a double-storied stone house, with
+barracoons, hospital, public room, orchestra, and so forth,
+intended for the "emigrants." Instead of water, the employés had
+excellent cognac and vermouth, and a succulent cuisine replaced
+the poor Britishers' two barrels of flour and biscuit. No wonder
+that in our half-starved fellow countrymen we saw little of the
+"national failing, a love of extravagant adventure." The
+Frenchmen shoot, or at least go out shooting, twice a week, they
+walk to picnics, learn something of the language, and see
+something of the country. They had heard a native tradition of
+Mr. Gorilla's "big brother," but they could give no details.
+
+I will conclude this chapter with a notice of what has taken
+place on the Loango Coast a decade after my departure. Although
+Africa has changed but little, Europe has, and we can hardly envy
+the German nation its eminence and unexpected triumphs in war
+when we see the energy and persistency with which they are
+applying themselves to the arts of peace--especially of
+exploration. And nowhere have they been more active than in this
+part of the world, where their old rivals, the English, are
+apparently contented to sit at home in ease, working their
+factories and counting out their money.
+
+To begin with the beginning. The year 1872 found the Berlin
+Geographical Society intent upon "planting a lance in Africa,"
+and upon extending and connecting the discoveries of Livingstone,
+Du Chaillu, Schweinfurth, and other travellers. Delegates from
+the various associations of Germany met in congress, and
+organized (April 19, 1873) the Germanic "Afrikanische
+Gesellschaft." Ex-President Dr. Adolf Bastian, a well-known
+traveller in Siam, Cambodia, China, and the Indian Archipelago,
+and who, moreover, had visited Ambassi or Salvador do Congo, the
+old missionary capital, in 1857, was at once sent out as pioneer
+and vanguard to prospect the coast for a suitable station and a
+point de départ into the interior--a scientific step dictated by
+trained and organized common sense. The choice of leader fell
+upon Dr. Gussfeldt, Herr von Hattorf being his second in command,
+and with them were associated Dr. Falkenstein as zoologist, and
+Dr. Soyaux as botanist. A geologist, Dr. Lenz, of Hamburg, was
+sent to connect the Ogobe and Okanda rivers with, the Loango
+coast, unless he found a likely northeastern route. In this case,
+the Society would take measures to supply him with the necessary
+equipment.
+
+The expedition began unfortunately, by the loss of outfit and
+instruments in the "Nigritia," wrecked off Sierra Leone: it
+persevered, however, and presently met Dr. Bastian and Professor
+von Gorschen at Cabinda. The former had collected much
+information about the coast. He had learned from slaves that the
+old kingdoms of Loango, Mahango, and Angay are bounded eastwards,
+or inland, by Mayombe, a belt of forest, the threshold of the
+unknown interior. It begins the up-slope to the great Ghat ridge,
+which, visible after a day's journey, separates the coast from
+the central basin. A fortnight or three weeks' march leads to an
+open country, a land of metalliferous hills, where the people
+barter their goods against gunpowder and weapons, brought by
+traders from the east. These "Orientals" are now heard of almost
+all along the West African coast, and doubtless, in several
+places, the report will prove true. The prospector had also
+visited, in search of a depôt, Futila in Cabinda-land; the
+Tschiluango (Chiloango), or Cacongo River, a fine navigable
+stream, where the people float down their palm oil; Landana;
+"Chinsonso" (Chinxoxo, pronounced Chinshosho), Chicambo, Loango,
+and the Quillu (Kwillu) stream, the latter breaking through the
+coast range, disemboguing near Loango Bay, and reported to be
+connected with the great Congo. He found the old despotism of
+Loango to be insignificant, reduced, in fact, to the strip of
+coast between the Quillu and the Luema-Lukallo Rivers. The slave
+trade, once a monopoly of kings, princes, and chiefs, is now no
+more; legitimate commerce has levelled ranks, and the real power
+is in the hands of the wealthiest merchants.
+
+From the Abbé Durand, librarian of the Paris Geographical
+Society, we learn: 1. That Loango is in the Province of Cacongo;
+2. That Cacongo is considered a province of Loango; 3. That
+Cacongo forms a kingdom of itself, with a capital, Ringwele. The
+name of the late king was "Dom João, Capitão Mempolo," and,
+though he had died some years ago, he was not buried, for the
+usual reasons, in early 1874. Meanwhile his nephew and successor,
+Mwátá Bona, was acting regent until the obsequies shall take
+place.
+
+The station finally chosen by the German explorers was Chinxoxo,
+or, as Herr Kiepert uncompromisingly writes it,
+"Tschinschonkscho." It is within easy distance of the Chiloango
+or "Luiza Loango" River; and its port, Landana in Cabindaland,
+has become a thoroughly Europeanized settlement, with five
+trading stations up stream. An empty Dutch factory was repaired,
+and the house, containing a parlour, three small bed rooms, and
+the usual offices, was ready for habitation by the second week in
+October.
+
+On October 26th, Dr. Güssfeldt, after shaking off the "seasoning
+fever" at Ponta Negra, proceeded to make a trial trip, and a
+route survey with compass and chronometer, up the important
+Quillu River. As usual, it has a bar; within the last few years
+the right bank has been carried away by the floods, and some of
+the old factories are under water. The average breadth is 400
+paces, which diminishes to 25 at the rocky "gates" near Kama-
+Chitoma, Manyamatal and Gotu. At 29 direct miles from the mouth
+lies "Chimbak," a trading station, where Dr. Güssfeldt rested and
+recruited strength for a month. Thence he went leisurely up
+stream to the Bumina Rapids, and found the easterly rhumb of the
+river bending to the N.E. and the N.N.E.; its channel did not
+exceed 50 yards in width, and precipitous rock-walls rose on
+either hand. At Bumina as at Gotu the Quillu breaks through the
+parallel lines of Ghats, whose trend is from N.W. to S.E.; in
+fact, these "Katarakten" are the Yellalas of the Congo. A march
+of four hours brought him to the Mayombe country (circ. S. Lat.
+4°), which must not be confounded with the Ma-yumba or
+northernmost possession of the Congo kingdom; the latter word
+properly means "King of Yumba," as Ma-Loango is Mwani-Loango. The
+Mayombe chief proved friendly, and assisted Dr. Güssfeldt to hire
+bearers (November 7) for Yangela, where his excursion ended. The
+boundary-line is marked by a large gate, like the two openings in
+the wooden wall denoting the Loango frontier between the Quillu
+and Luema rivers. The character of the country changed to the
+normal park-like aspect of Africa above the Ghats; the dense
+forests waxed thin; picturesque views presented themselves,
+reminding the wayfarer of Switzerland; and bare, dome-shaped
+mountains formed the background. At Nsunsi, about 2,100 feet
+above sea-level, the eye ranged over the Yangela country, as far
+as the land of the Batetye, whose grassy plains are traversed by
+ranges trending to the W.S.W., and apparently culminating to the
+south. At the Tondo village the skull of a gorilla was remarked.
+The upper Quillu, after its great bend, proved to be 350 to 400
+paces broad; and the traveller ascertained that, instead of being
+connected with the great artery, it rises in a lake nearly due
+north of Nsundi (Sundi), near the country of the Babongo and the
+Babum. Dr. Güssfeldt returned to the coast on December 2, and
+prepared for the great march into the interior.
+
+Dr. Falkenstein, the medicus and zoologist, in November 1873
+reported favourably of Chinxoxo. The station is situated on a
+hilly ridge commanding a view of the sea. "It looks imposing
+enough, but it would produce more effect if we could hoist the
+German flag, as the other establishments here do those of their
+respective nations. German ships would then take home news of the
+progress of our undertaking, and the natives would see at a
+distance this token of the enterprising spirit of the German
+nation, and come to us with provisions and other natural
+products." He adds, "In Fernando Po, an island which I would
+recommend as a sanatorium for wealthy hypochondriacs, we found an
+extraordinary abundance of fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, mangoes,
+delicious oranges, and pine-apples...The ivory trade on the
+Gaboon is very flourishing. A German firm which I visited
+exports, £10,000 worth per annum, the value of total exports
+being, £26,000. The tusks are very large; one weighed about 80
+lbs., and some have ranged to 120 lbs. The other articles
+exported are gum and ebony, which are brought by the natives,
+especially the Fans and Mpangwes (sic) from the interior. The
+slave trade is said still to be carried on by Europeans, though
+it is not known where the slaves go to " (of course to São Thomé
+and Prince's Island). "In the immediate vicinity of our station
+the chief trade is in palm oil and ground nuts..... Rings,
+chains, crosses, watches, &c., are readily taken by the savages
+in exchange for native goods, and I obtained a valuable fetish
+for a chain and a cross worth a silbergroschen."
+
+After three months spent upon the coast, and much suffering from
+fever, the energetic Dr. Bastian was welcomed home on December
+13, 1873. His present book[FN#1] makes only one instalment of the
+work, the other being the "Correspondenzblätter der Afrikanischen
+Gesellschaft." Briefly, everything has been done to lay the
+foundation for success and to advertise the undertaking. Finally,
+not satisfied with these steps, the German Society for the
+Exploration of equatorial Africa organized in September, 1874, a
+second expedition. Captain Alexander von Homeyer, a well-known
+ornithologist, will lead it viâ S. Paulo de Loanda and Cassange
+(Kasanji) to the mysterious lands of the Mwata ya Nvo, and thus
+supplement the labours of Portuguese travellers. This fine
+undertaking set out early in 1875.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter II.
+
+                    To São Paulo De Loanda.
+
+
+
+At Loango, by invitation of Commander Hoskins, R.N., I
+transferred myself on board H.M. Steamship "Zebra," one of the
+nymphs of the British navy, and began the 240 miles southwards.
+There was no wind except a slant at sunset, and the current often
+carried us as far backwards as the sails drove us onwards. The
+philosophic landlubber often wonders at the eternal restlessness
+of his naval brother-man, who ever sighs for a strong wind to
+make the port, and who in port is ever anxious to get out of it.
+I amused myself in the intervals of study with watching the huge
+gulls, which are skinned and found good food at Fernando Po, and
+in collecting the paper-nautilus. The Ocythoë Cranchii was often
+found inside the shell, and the sea was streaked as with cotton-
+flecks by lines of eggs several inches long, a mass of mucus with
+fine membraneous structure adhering to the rocks, and coagulating
+in spirits or salt water. The drum-fish was not heard except when
+we were at anchor; its sound somewhat suggests a distant frog-
+concert, and I soon learned to enjoy what M. Dufosse has
+learnedly named "ichthyopsophosis," the song of the fish. Passing
+Cabinda, 57 miles from Loanda, but barely in sight, we fell in
+with H.M. Steamship "Espoir," Commander Douglas, who had just
+made his second capture of a slave-schooner carrying some 500
+head of Congos. In these advanced days, the representative man
+walks up to you as you come on board; touches his cap or his
+wool, and expresses his best thanks in West Coast English; when
+you offer him a dram he compares it with the trade article which
+"only ‘ting, he no burn." The characteristic sights are the
+captured Moleques or negrokins, who, habited in sacks to the
+knees, choose an M.C. to beat time, whilst they sing in chorus,
+extending the right arm, and foully abusing their late masters,
+who skulk about the forecastle.
+
+Ten days sped by before we sighted the beginning of the end, Cape
+Spilemberta and Dande Point, two bluffs in distinct serrations;
+the aspect of the land was pleasant, a vista of tall cliffs,
+white or red, rising wall-like from a purple sea, jagged with
+sharp, black reef and "diabolito," and bearing on the summit a
+plateau well grown with grass and tree. We then opened a deep
+bight, which has the honour of being entitled the longest
+indentation from Cape Lopez to Great Fish Bay, some 17° or a
+thousand miles of coast. A gap in the cliff line and darker
+vegetation showed the Zenza River, generally called Bengo from
+the district (Icolo e Bengo) which it traverses. Here was once a
+busy settlement much frequented by shipping, which thus escaped
+harbour dues. The mosquito-haunted stream, clear in the dries,
+and, as usual, muddy during the rains, supports wild duck, and,
+carried some ten miles in "dongos" or flat-bottomed boats,
+supplies the capital of Angola with drinking water and dysentery.
+
+As we glide towards the anchorage two features attract my
+attention: the Morro or hill-ridge on the mainland, and the
+narrow strip which forms the harbour. The escarpment, sweeping
+from a meridian to a parallel, juts westward in the bluff Cape
+Lagostas (Lobsters), a many-coloured face, in places not unlike
+the white cliffs of Dover; it then trends from north-east to
+south-west, bending at last in a picturesque bow, with a shallow
+sag. The material is the tauá or blood-red marl of the Brazil,
+banded with white and brown, green, chocolate, and yellow; huge
+heaps of "rotten earth," washed down by the rains, cumber the
+base of the ruined sea-wall north of the town; in front is a
+pellucid sea with the usual trimmings, while behind roll the
+upland stubbles of autumn, here mottled black with fire, there
+scattered with the wild ficus and the cashew, a traveller from
+the opposite hemisphere.
+
+The Ilha de Loanda, which gave its name to the city, according to
+Mr. W. Winwood Reade ("Savage Africa," chapter xxv.), is "derived
+from a native word meaning bald:" I believe it to be the Angolan
+Luánda, or tribute. Forming the best harbour of the South African
+coast, it is made by the missionaries of the seventeenth century
+to extend some ten leagues long. James Barbot's plan (A.D. 1700)
+shows seven leagues by one in breadth, disposed from north-east
+to south-west, and, in the latter direction, fitting into the
+"Mar Aparcelado" or shoaly sea, a curious hook-shaped bight with
+a southern entrance, the "Barra de Curinba" (Corimba). But the
+influences which formed the island, or rather islands (for there
+are two) have increased the growth, reducing the harbour to three
+and a half miles by two in breadth, and they are still
+contracting it; even in the early nineteenth century large ships
+floated off the custom house, and it is dry land where boats once
+rode. Dr. Livingstone ("First Expedition," chapter xx.) believes
+the causa causans to be the sand swept over the southern part of
+the island: Douville more justly concludes that it is the gift of
+the Cuanza River, whose mud and ooze, silt and débris are swept
+north by the great Atlantic current. Others suppose that it
+results from the meeting of the Cuanza and the Bengo streams; but
+the latter outfall would be carried up coast. The people add the
+washings of the Morro, and the sand and dust of the sea-shore
+south of the city.
+
+This excellent natural breakwater perfectly shelters the shipping
+from the "calemas," or perilous breakers on the seaward side, and
+the surface is dotted with huts and groves, gardens and palm
+orchards. At the Ponta do Norte once stood a fort appropriately
+called Na. Sa. Flór de Rosa; it has wholly disappeared, but
+lately, when digging near the sea, heaps of building stone were
+found. Barbot here shows a "toll-house to collect the customs,"
+and at the southern extremity a star-shaped "Fort Fernand."
+
+This island was the earliest of Portuguese conquests on this part
+of the coast. The Conquistador Paulo Dias de Novaes, a grandson
+of Bartholomeo Dias, was sent a second time, in A.D. 1575, to
+treat with the king of "Dongo," who caused trouble to trade.
+Accompanied by 700 Portuguese, he reached the Cuanza River,
+coasted north, and entered by the Barra de Corimba, then
+accessible to caravels. He landed without opposition amongst a
+population already Christianized, and, after occupying for a few
+months the island, which then belonged to Congo, he founded,
+during the next year, the Villa de São Paulo de Loanda on the
+mainland.
+
+The importance of the island arose from its being the great money
+bank of the natives, who here collected the zimbo, buzio, cowrie,
+or cypræa moneta. Ample details concerning this industry are
+given by the old writers. The shell was considered superior to
+the "impure or Braziles," brought from the opposite Bahia (de
+Todos os Santos), though much coarser than the small Indian, and
+not better than the large blue Zanzibar. M. Du Chaillu ("Second
+Expedition," chap, iv.) owns to having been puzzled whence to
+derive the four sacred cowries: "They are unknown on the Fernand
+Vaz, and I believe them to have come across the continent from
+eastern Africa." There are, indeed, few things which have
+travelled so far and have lasted so long as cowries--they have
+been found even amongst "Anglo-Saxon" remains.
+
+The modern Muxi-Loandas hold aloof from the shore-folk, who
+return the compliment in kind. They dress comparatively well, and
+they spend considerable sums in their half-heathen lembamentos
+(marriages) and mutambé (funerals).
+
+As might be expected, after three centuries of occupation, the
+Portuguese, both in East and West Africa, have naturalized a
+multitude of native words, supplying them with a Lusitanian
+termination. The practice is very useful to the traveller, and
+the despair of the lexicographer. During the matumbé the
+relations "wake" the toasted, swaddled, and aromatized corpse
+with a singular vigour of drink and general debauchery.
+
+I arrived with curiosity at the capital of Angola, the first
+Portuguese colony visited by me in West Africa. The site is
+pleasing and picturesque, contrasting favourably with all our
+English settlements and with the French Gaboon; for the first
+time after leaving Teneriffe, I saw something like a city. The
+escarpment and the sea-bordering shelf, allowing a double town
+like Athenæ or Thebæ, a Cidade Alta and a Cidade Baixa, are
+favourites with the Lusitanians from Lisbon to the China seas,
+and African São Paulo is reflected in the Brazilian Bahia. So
+Greece affected the Acropolis, and Rome everywhere sought to
+build a Capitol. The two lines follow the shore from north-east
+to south-west, and they form a graceful amphitheatre by bending
+westward at the jutting headland, Morro de São Miguel, of old de
+São Paulo. Three hundred years of possession have built forts and
+batteries, churches and chapels, public buildings and large
+private houses,white or yellow, withample green verandahs--each
+an ugly cube, but massing well together. The general decline of
+trade since 1825, and especially the loss of the lucrative slave
+export, leave many large tenements unfinished or uninhabited,
+while the aspect is as if a bombardment had lately
+
+026--- taken place. Africa shows herself in heaps of filthy
+hovels, wattle and daub and dingy thatch; in "umbrella-trees"
+(ficus), acacias and calabashes, palms and cotton-trees, all
+wilted, stunted, and dusty as at Cairo. We are in the latitude of
+East African Kilwa and of Brazilian Pernambuco; but this is a
+lee-land, and the suffering is from drought. Yet, curious to say,
+the flora, as will appear, is here richer than in the well-
+watered eastern regions.
+
+Steaming onwards, at one mile off shore, we turned from south-
+east to south-west, and presently rounded the north-east point of
+Loanda Island, where a moored boat and a lantern showed the way.
+We passed the first fort, São Pedro do Morro (da Cassandama),
+which reminded me of the Aguada at the mouth of Goa Harbour. The
+two bastions and their batteries date from A.D. 1700, and have
+been useful in administering a strongish hint--in A.D. 1826 they
+fired into Captain Owen. The next work is the little four-gun
+work, Na. Sa. da Conceição. We anchored in five fathoms about
+1,200 yards off shore, in company with some fifteen craft, large
+and small, including a neat despatch cruizer, built after the
+"Nimrod" model. Fort São Francisco, called "do Penedo," because
+founded upon and let into a rock, with the double-tiered
+batteries à la Vauban, carefully whitewashed and subtended by any
+amount of dead ground, commands the anchorage and the northern
+road, where strings of carregadores, like driver-ants, fetch and
+carry provisions to town. A narrow causeway connects with the
+gate, where blacks on guard lounge in fantastic uniform, and
+below the works are the coal-sheds. Here the first turf was
+lately turned by an English commodore--this tramway was intended
+to connect with the water edge, and eventually to reach the
+Cuanza at Calumbo. So Portugal began the rail system in West
+Africa.
+
+The city was preparing for her ecclesiastical festival, and I
+went ashore at once to see her at her best. The landing-place is
+poor and mean, and the dusty and sandy walk is garnished with a
+single row of that funereal shrub, the milky euphorbia. The first
+sensation came from the pillars of an unfinished house--
+
+          "Care colonne, che fate quà?
+           --Non sappiamo in verità!"
+
+The Ponta de Isabel showed the passeio, or promenade, with two
+brick ruins: its "five hundred fruit-trees of various
+descriptions" have gone the way of the camphor, the tea-shrub,
+and the incense-tree, said to have been introduced by the
+Jesuits. "The five pleasant walks, of which the central one has
+nine terraces, with a pyramid at each extremity, and leads to the
+Casa de Recreio, or pleasure-house of the governor-general,
+erected in 1817 by Governor Vice-Admiral Luiz da Motta Feio,"
+have insensibly faded away; the land is a waste, poor grazing
+ground for cattle landed from the south coast, whilst negrokins
+scream and splash in the adjoining sea.
+
+Beyond the Government gardens appears the old Ermida (chapel), Na
+Sa. da Nazareth, which English writers have dubbed, after
+Madeiran fashion, the Convent. The frontage is mean as that of
+colonial ecclesiastical buildings in general, and even the
+epauletted façades of old São Paulo do not deserve a description.
+Here, according to local tradition, was buried the head of the
+"intrepid and arrogant king of Congo," Dom Antonio, whose 100,000
+warriors were defeated at Ambuilla (Jan. ist, 1666) by Captain
+Luiz Lopes de Sequeira, the good soldier who lost his life, by a
+Portuguese hand, at the battle of Matamba (Sept. 4th, 1681). A
+picture in Dutch tiles (azulejos) was placed on the right side of
+the altar to commemorate the feat.
+
+After the Ermida are more ruined houses and ragged plantations
+upon the narrow shelf between the sea-cliff and the sea: they
+lead to the hot and unhealthy low town skirting the harbour, a
+single street with small offsets. A sandy strip spotted with
+cocoa-nuts, represents the Praia do Bungo (Bungo Beach), perhaps
+corrupted from Bunghi, a praça, or square; it debouches upon the
+Quitanda Pequena, a succursale market-place, where, on working-
+days, cloth and beads, dried peppers, and watered rum are sold.
+Then come a single large building containing the Trem, or
+arsenal, the cavalry barracks, the "central post-office," and the
+alfandega, or custom-house, which has a poor platform, but no
+pier. The stables lodge some half-a-dozen horses used by mounted
+orderlies--they thrive, and, to judge from their high spirits,
+the climate suits them. In Captain Owen's time (A.D. 1826) there
+was "a respectable corps of cavalry."
+
+Passing the acting cathedral for the See of Angola and Congo,
+which deserves no notice, you reach the Quitanda Grande, where
+business is brisker. There is a sufficiency of beef and mutton,
+the latter being thin-tailed, and not "five-quartered." Fish is
+wisely preferred to meat by the white man, "affirming that it is
+much easier digested;" and a kind of herring, and the sparus
+known upon the Brazilian coast as the "tainha," the West African
+"vela," and the French "mulet," at times superabound. All the
+tropical fruits flourish, especially the orange; the exotic
+vegetables are large and sightly, but tasteless and insipid,
+especially peas and radishes: the indigenous, as tomatoes, are
+excellent, but the list is small. Gardens are rare where the soil
+is so thin, and the indispensable irrigation costs money. The
+people still "choke for want of water," which must be bought:
+there is only one good well sunk in the upper town, about 1840,
+when the Conde de Bomfim was Minister of Marine and the
+Colonies,--it is a preserve for government officials. Living in
+the native style is cheap; but cooks are hardly procurable, and a
+decent table is more expensive than in an English country town. A
+single store (M. Schutz) supplies "Europe" articles, of course at
+fancy prices, and here a travelling outfit may be bought. It has
+been remarked that Loanda has no shop that sells "food for the
+mind;" this is applicable, not only to all East and West Africa,
+but to places far more progressive. A kind of cafe-billard
+supplies a lounge and tepid beer. The attendants in Portuguese
+houses are slaves; the few English prefer Cabindas, a rude form
+of the rude Kru-boy, and the lowest pay of the lowest labourer is
+5d. per diem.
+
+The "Calçada Nova," a fine old paved "ramp"--to speak Gibraltar-
+English--connects Basse Ville and Hauteville. The latter was once
+a scatter of huge if not magnificent buildings, now in ruins; we
+shall pass through it en route to Calumbo. Here are the remains
+of the three chief convents, the Jesuit, the Carmelite, and the
+Third Order of St. Francis. The citadel de São Miguel, lately
+blown up, has been restored; the extensive works of dressed
+freestone, carefully whitewashed, stand out conspicuously from
+the dark bush dotting the escarpment top. Here also is the Alto
+das Cruzes, the great cemetery, and the view from the sheer and
+far-jutting headland is admirable. A stroll over this cool and
+comparatively healthy escarpment ended by leaving a card at the
+Paço do Governo.
+
+Lopes de Lima (vol. iii. part ii.) gives São Paulo in 1846 a
+total of 5,065 whites, mulattoes, and blacks, distributed into
+1,176 hearths; the census of 1850-51 raised the number to 12,000,
+including 7,000 negroes, of whom 5,000 were serviles; in 1863 the
+figure was understood to have diminished rather than to have
+increased. Old authors divided the population into five orders.
+The first was of ecclesiastics, the second contained those who
+were settled for command or trade, and the third were convicts,
+especially new Christians of Jewish blood, who were prevented
+from attending the sacred functions for a scandalous reason. Then
+ranked the Pomberos, or Pombeiros, mostly mulattoes, free men,
+and buyers of slaves; their morals seem to have been abominable.
+Last and least were the natives, that is, the "chattels." Amongst
+the latter the men changed wives for a time, "alleging, in case
+of reproof, that they are not able to eat always of the same
+dish;" and the women were rarely allowed by their mistresses to
+marry--with the usual results. The missionaries are very severe
+upon the higher ranks of colonists. Father Carli (A.D. 1666)
+found the whites the most deceitful and the wickedest of men,--an
+effect caused by the penal settlement. Father Merolla (A.D. 1682)
+declares that "the women, being bred among blacks, suffer
+themselves to be much perverted--they scarcely retain anything
+white about them except their skins." J. C. Fêo Cardoso (Memoir
+published in Paris in 1825) attributes the decadence of Angola
+and Benguela to three reasons; rare marriages amongst the higher
+orders; poverty amongst the lower; and the immorality and
+incontinence of both. Lopes de Lima (p. 149 loc. cit.) traces the
+decline and fall of Christianity in the eighteenth century to the
+want of priests, to the corruption of the regular clergy
+(Carmelites and Franciscans), for whom West Africa, like Syria
+and Palestine, was made a kind of convict station, and to the
+inhuman slave-export, as opposed to domestic slavery. All has now
+changed for the better; society in Angola is not a whit inferior
+to that of any English colony in West Africa, and, as a convict
+establishment, Loanda is a great success.
+
+The theoretical garrison is one regiment of the line, a squadron
+of cavalry, and two companies of artillery with three-pounders;
+the real force is of some 800 men, mostly convicts. No difference
+is made between white and black, nor is the corps force, which
+was once very cruelly used, severely treated as the Légion
+Etrangère of Algeria. Most of the men have been found guilty of
+capital crimes, yet they are allowed to carry arms, and they are
+intrusted with charge of the forts. Violence is almost unheard of
+amongst them: if an English sailor be stabbed, it is generally by
+the free mulattoes and blacks, who hate the uniform for
+destroying their pet trade of man-selling. It is true that these
+convicts have hopes of pardon, but I prefer to attribute their
+remarkable gentleness and good behaviour to the effects of the
+first fever, which, to quote from the Latin grammar,
+
+          "Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros."
+
+The negroes of Loanda struck me as unusually ill-favoured; short,
+"stumpy," and very dark, or tinged with unclean yellow. Lepers
+and hideous cripples thrust their sores and stumps in the face of
+charity. There was no local colouring compared with the
+carregadores, or coolies, from the northeast, whose thrum-mop
+heads and single monkey skins for fig-leaves, spoke of the wold
+and the wild. The body-dress of both sexes is the tángá, pagne,
+or waist-cloth, unless the men can afford trousers and ragged
+shirts, and the women a "veo preto," or dingy black sheet,
+ungracefully worn, like the graceful sárí of Hindostan, over the
+bright foulard which confines the wool. "It is mighty ridiculous
+to observe," says the old missionary, "that the women, contrary
+to the custom of all other nations, buy and sell, and do all
+things which the men ought to do, whilst their husbands stay at
+home and spin or weave cotton, or busy themselves in such other
+effeminate actions." This is not wholly true in ‘63. The
+"munengana,"or machila-man, is active in offering his light cane
+palanquin, and he chaffs the "mean white" who is compelled to
+walk, bitterly as did the sedan-chairmen of Bath before the days
+of Beau Nash. Of course the Quitandeira, or market-woman, holds
+her own. The rest of the street population seems to consist of
+negro "infantry" and black Portuguese pigs, gaunt and long-
+legged. The favourite passe-temps is to lie prone in sun or
+shade, chattering and smoking the cachimbo, a heavy clay pipe,
+with peculiar stem--"to sleep supine," say the Arabs, "is the
+position of saints; on the dexter side, of kings; on the
+sinister, of learned men; and on the belly, of devils."
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter III.
+
+    The Festival--a Trip to Calumbo--portuguese Hospitality.
+
+
+
+My first step after reaching S. Paolo de Loanda was to call upon
+Mr. Commissioner Vredenburg, who had lately taken up the
+undesirable appointment, and who, moreover, had brought a pretty
+French wife from Pará. I had warned him that he was risking her
+life and that of her child; he bravely made the attempt and
+nearly lost them both. I have reason to be grateful to him and to
+Mr. Vice-consul E. H. Hewett for hospitality during my stay at
+the Angolan capital. There is a place called an hotel, but it is
+in the Seven Dials of the African city, and--nothing more need be
+said.
+
+Fortunately for me, as for herself, Loanda had got rid of Mr.
+Vredenburg's predecessor, who soon followed the lamented Richard
+Brand, first British Consul, appointed in 1844. The "real whole-
+hearted Englishman" was after that modern type, of which La
+Grundy so highly approves. An honest man, who does not hold to
+the British idea that "getting on in the world" is Nature's first
+law, would be sorely puzzled by such a career.
+
+The day after my arrival was the festival which gives to São
+Paulo de Loanda its ecclesiastical name "da Assumpção." The
+ceremonies of the day were duly set forth in the Boletim Official
+do Governo Geral da Provincia de Angola. A military salute and
+peals of bells aroused us at dawn; followed a review of the
+troops, white and black; and a devout procession, flags flying
+and bands playing, paced through the chief streets to the
+Cathedral. A visit of ceremony in uniform to the Governor-
+General, Captain José Baptista de Andrade, a historic name in
+Angola, led to an invitation for the evening, a pleasant soirée
+of both sexes. The reception was cordial: whatever be the
+grievances of statesmen and historians, lawyers and slave-
+mongers, Portuguese officers are always most friendly to their
+English brethren. The large and airy rooms were hung with
+portraits of the several dignitaries, and there was an Old World
+look about Government House, like the Paço at Pangim (Goa). Fifty
+years ago colonial society was almost entirely masculine; if you
+ever met a white woman it was in a well-curtained manchila
+surrounded by "mucambas" or "mucacamas, negro waiting maids:" as
+the old missioner tells us, "when they go abroad, which is
+seldom, they are carried in a covered net with attendance of
+captives." All this is changed, except as regards leaving the
+house, which is never done during the day: constitutionals are
+not wanted in the tropics, and the negroes everywhere make the
+streets unfit, except for any but the very strongest-minded of
+the weaker sex. The evenings at Government House are passed with
+music and dancing, and petits jeux innocents for the juniors,
+whilst the seniors talk and play voltarete till midnight. I well
+remember one charming face, but I fear to talk about it--ten
+years in Africa cannot pass without the saddest changes.
+
+With an eye to future exploration, I was anxious to see something
+of the style of travel in Angola, and to prospect the proposed
+line of railway intended to checkmate the bar of the river
+Cuanza. The Cassange (Kasanjí) war on the eastern frontier had
+just ended honourably to Portuguese arms, but it proved costly;
+the rich traffic of the interior had fallen off, and the well-
+known Feira was sending down its fairings to independent
+Kinsembo. Moreover, in order to raise funds for the rail, the
+local Government talked of granting the land to an English
+company for growing the highly prized gossypium arboreum.
+
+Sr. João Soares Caldeira, C.E., kindly asked me to join his
+party, which started early on August 19. All rode the tipoia, a
+mere maca or hammock sadly heating to the back, but handier than
+the manchila: the bearers wore loose waistbelts, with a dozen
+small sheep's bells on the crupper, intended to proclaim our
+importance, and supposed to frighten away wild beasts. These
+gentry often require the stimulus of "ndokwe" (go on), but seldom
+the sedative of "malemba" (gently) or "quinga" (stop). The "boi-
+cavallo," the riding bull (not ox) of the interior, which costs
+about £4, is never used in these fashionable localities. I failed
+to remark the line of trenches supposed to defend the land-side,
+but I did remark the "maiangas," said to be indigo vats made by
+the Jesuits. After a hot depression we ascended a rough zigzag,
+and halting we enjoyed a charming view of St. Paul. The domed
+Morro concealing the squalid lower town was crowned with once
+lordly buildings--cathedral, palace, treasury, and fort; the
+colours of the ground-swell were red and white, with here and
+there a dot of green; and the blue sea rose in its loveliness
+beyond the hill horizon. For a whole league we were in the region
+of "arimos," or outside farms, where villages, villas, and
+plantations, threaded by hot and sandy lanes with hedges of green
+euphorbia, showed the former prosperity of the country. Beyond it
+the land forms, as in Yoruba, lines of crescents bulging west or
+seaward, quartz and pebbles showing here and there an old true
+coast.
+
+After a five hours' ride we reached Cavúa, the half-way house,
+where breakfast had been sent on; the habitations are wretched
+thatches, crowded with pigs and mosquitoes. Clearings had all
+ended, and the red land formed broken waves of poor soil, almost
+nude of vegetation at this mid-winter of the tropics, except
+thickets of "milk plant" and forests of quadrangular cactus; the
+latter are quaint as the dragon-tree, some twenty feet tall and
+mostly sun-scorched to touchwood. The baobab (adansonia) is
+apparently of two kinds, the "Imbundeiro," hung with long-
+stringed calabashes, which forms swarming-places for bees; and
+the "Aliconda" (Nkondo), whose gourd is almost sessile, and whose
+bark supplies fibre for cloth and ropes. The haskúl or big-aloe
+of Somali-land was not absent, and, amongst other wild fruits, I
+saw scattered over the ground the husks of a strychnine, like the
+east African species. Deer, hares, and partridges are spoken of
+in these solitudes, but they must be uncommonly hard to find at
+such a season.
+
+About three hours after leaving Cavúa were spent upon this high,
+dry, and healthy desert, when suddenly we sighted the long
+reaches of the Cuanza River, sharply contrasting, like the Nile,
+with the tawny yellow grounds about its valley. A steep descent
+over water-rolled pebbles showed the old bank; the other side,
+far and blue, gave a goodly breadth of five miles; then we
+plunged into the green selvage of the modern stream, following
+muddy paths where the inundation had extended last June. Here
+tobacco, orchilla, and indigo in the higher, and sugar-cane,
+rice, and ricinus on the lower lands flourish to perfection. The
+Angolan orchilla was first sent to Lisbon by Sr. F. R. Batalha:
+it is a moss, like the tillandsia of the Southern United States,
+and I afterwards recognized it in the island of Annobom. Passing
+Pembe and other outlying hamlets, after nine hours of burning
+sun, we entered Calumbo Town, and were hospitably lodged by the
+Portuguese Commandant. We had followed the highway, as a line for
+the intended railway had not yet been marked out, and the
+distance measured 33,393 metres (= 20.75 English miles).
+
+Calumbo is now a poor place, with a few dilapidated stone houses
+in a mass of wattle and daub huts, surrounded by large "arimos."
+The whole "Districto da Barra do Calumbo" contains only 444
+hearths. A little stone pier, which Loanda wants, projects into
+the stream; the lime was formerly procured from shells, but in
+1761 calcareous stone was found near the Dande stream. The
+sightliest part is the vegetation, glorious ceibas (bombax) used
+for dug-outs; baobabs, tamarinds which supply cooling fruit and
+distilled waters; limes and bitter oranges. The most remarkable
+growth is the kaju or cashew nut: an old traveller quaintly
+describes it "as like St. John's apple with a chestnut at the end
+of it." M. Valdez ("Six Years of a Traveller's Life," vol. ii.
+267), calls it "a strange kind of fruit," though it was very
+familiar to his cousins in the Brazil, of which it is an
+aborigine. Here it is not made into wine as at Goa: "Kaju-brandy"
+is unknown, and the gum, almost equal to that of the acacia, is
+utterly neglected. A dense and shady avenue of these trees, ten
+paces apart, leads from the river to the parish church of S.
+José, mentioned by Carli in 1666: an inscription informs us that
+it was rebuilt in 1850, but the patron is stored away in a
+lumber-room, and the bats have taken the place of the priest.
+Portugal has perhaps gone too far in abolishing these church
+establishments, but it is a reaction which will lead to the
+golden mean.
+
+The site of Calumbo is well chosen, commanding a fine view, and
+raised above the damps of the cold Cuanza, whose stagnant lagoon,
+the Lagôa do Muge on the other side, is divided from the main
+branch by a low islet with palms and some cultivation. At the
+base of Church Hill are huts of the Mubiri or blacksmiths, who
+gipsy-like wander away when a tax is feared; they are not
+despised, but they are considered a separate caste. I was shown a
+little north of the town a place where the Dutch, true to their
+national instincts, began a canal to supply Loanda with sweet and
+wholesome drinking material and water communication; others place
+it with more probability near the confluence of the Cuanza and
+the Lucala, the first great northern fork, where Massangano was
+built by the Conquistadores. This "leat" was left incomplete, the
+terminus being three miles from St. Paul's; the Governor-General
+José de Oliveira Barbosa, attempted to restore it, but was
+prevented by considerations of cost.
+
+Calumbo must be a gruesome place to all except its natives.
+Whilst Loanda has improved in climate since Captain Owen's day
+(1826), this has become deadly as Rome in 1873. The raw mists in
+early morning and the hot suns, combined with the miasmas of the
+retreating waters, sometimes produce a "carneirado" (bilious
+remittent) which carries off half the inhabitants. Dysenteries
+are everywhere dangerous between the Guinea Coast and Mossamedes,
+the cause being vile water. All the people looked very sickly;
+many wore milongos, Fetish medicines in red stripes, and not a
+few had whitewashed faces in token of mourning. I observed that
+my Portuguese companions took quinine as a precaution. Formerly a
+few foreign merchants were settled here, but they found the hot
+seasons fatal, and no wonder, with 130° (F.) in the shade! The
+trade from the upper river, especially from the Presidio das
+Pedras Negras de Pungo Andongo,[FN#2] consists of hides, cattle
+tame and wild (cefos); saltpetre washed from earth in sieves,
+mucocote or gum anime (copal), said by Lopes de Lima to be found
+in all the forests of Pungo Andongo; wax, white and yellow; oil
+of the dendêm (Elaïs Guineënsis) and mandobim, here called
+ginguba (arachis); mats, manioc-flour, and sometimes an ivory.
+
+Calumbo was built as early as 1577 by the Conquistador Porcador
+and first Capitão Mór Paulo Dias II., a gallant soldier, who died
+in 1589 at Massangano, the "Presidium," which he had founded
+between 1580-83, and who was buried in the Church of Na. Sa. da
+Vittoria; he is said also to have built the Church of Santa Cruz.
+Equidistant from Loanda and the sea, the settlement soon had a
+wealthy trade with the fortified stations of the interior, and
+large Government stores filled with merchandize. In 1820 a number
+of schooners, pinnaces, and small crafts plied up and down to
+Muchimo, Massangano, Cambembe, and other inland settlements; now
+we find out only a few canoes. The Cuanza at "Sleepers' Bay" has
+one of the worst shifting bars on the whole coast. At this
+distance, five leagues from the mouth, its width is one hundred
+fathoms, and the depth varies from eight to nine. It breeds good
+fish; the manatus is common, people talk of fresh-water sharks,
+and the jacare (crocodile) is fatal to many a pig even in the
+village. It is navigable for schooners, they say, six days, or
+150 miles, to the large "Presidio de Cambembe," where Andrew
+Battel (1589-1600) visited a "perpendicular water-fall, which
+made such a noise as to be heard thirty miles' distance." This
+and another water-fall higher up are laid down in the map of Dr.
+Livingstone's admirable first journey. Above Cambembe the river-
+bed is broken by archipelagoes, and the shoals render it fit only
+for boats. The Cuanza head has been explored only lately,
+although a royal order to that effect was issued on March 14,
+1800.
+
+After receiving and returning the visits of the principal whites,
+all habited in frocks and continuations of the blackest and
+heaviest broadcloth, we feasted with the excellent commandant,
+who was hospitality itself. The mosquitoes soon roused us from
+any attempt at sleep, and we passed the night after a fashion
+which sometimes leads to red eyes and "hot coppers" in the
+morning. I left early, for my companions had business at Calumbo;
+as they were no longer present to control the bearers, a race
+soft as putty, and I was not used to manage them, the gang became
+unbearable. The soldier sent to keep them in order did his best
+with his "supple-jack," and the consequence was that all bolted
+into the bush. At Cavúa two men were forcibly enlisted, but I
+preferred walking in. When at home in the Red House (Mr.
+Hewett's) the hammock men came complaining of my deserting them,
+and begging bakhshish.
+
+It was another lesson to me--the Gaboon had lately administered
+one--that, however well you may know the negro generally, each
+tribe requires a specific study. This, however, would not take
+long, and with a little knowledge of the language there would be
+no difficulty in following the footsteps of Joaquim Rodrigues
+Graça; letters would be required to the several commandants, the
+season of setting out should be in early Cacimbo (April), and the
+up march would take six months, with about four to return. But,
+unless active measures are adopted, only the seaboard will remain
+to the Portuguese. This is an exploration which I had kept "dark"
+for myself; but Captain von Homeyer has gained the day, and
+nothing remains for me but to give the gallant officer God speed.
+After a short but exceedingly pleasant visit, I left the capital
+of Angola with regret. All seemed anxious to further my views of
+travel; the authorities gave me the very best advice, and offered
+me introductions to all the district commandants, Sr. Moses
+Abecasis, and Sr. Francisco A. Flores, Sir Henry Huntley's host,
+obliged me with recommendations to the most influential agents at
+Porto da Lenha on the Congo River. Mr. Essex of St. Helena placed
+me in the hands of his compatriot, Mr. Scott, and Captain
+Hoskins, R.N., ended his kindness with ordering for me a passage
+on board H.M. Steamship "Griffon," an old acquaintance in the
+Gaboon River. Briefly, I quitted São Paulo with the best wishes
+for one and all who had befriended me.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter IV.
+
+    The Cruise along Shore--the Granite Pillar of Kinsembo.
+
+
+
+On August 22nd we left Loanda, and attacked the 180 miles
+separating it from the Congo mouth. Steaming along shore we
+enjoyed the vanishing perspective of the escarpment disappearing
+in the misty distance. The rivers Bengo, Dande, and Onze are
+denoted by densely wooded fissures breaking the natural sea-wall,
+and, as usual in West Africa, these lines are the favourite sites
+for settlements. The Onze or the Lifune of Mazula Bay--which the
+Hydrographic Chart (republished March 18, 1869) changes into
+"River Mazulo," and makes the mouth of the "River Onzo"--is
+chosen by Bowdich and writers of his day as the northern boundary
+of Angola, greatly to the disgust of the Portuguese, whose
+pretensions extend much farther north. Volumes of daily smoke and
+
+048--- nightly flame suggest the fires of St. John lighted by the
+goatherds of Tenerife. They greatly excite the gallant
+"Griffons," who everywhere see slaver-signals, and the system is
+old upon this coast as the days of Hanno and Herodotus. At this
+season they are an infallible sign that the dries are ending; the
+women burn the capim (tall grass) for future forage, and to
+manure the land for manioc, maize, and beans. The men seek
+present "bush-beef:" as the flames blow inland, they keep to
+seaward, knowing that game will instinctively and infallibly
+break cover in that direction, and they have learned the
+"wrinkle" of the prairie traveller to make a "little Zoar" in
+case of accidental conflagration.
+
+At 2 P.M. on the 24th we were abreast of Ambriz, an important
+settlement, where a tall red and white cliff, with a background
+of broken blue hill, showed a distinct "barra," or river mouth,
+not to be confounded with the English "bar." The north point of
+the Rio dos Ambres, of the "green" or "raw copal," is low and
+mangrove-grown, throwing into high relief its sister formation,
+Ambriz Head or Strong-Tide Corner, which stands up gaunt and
+bluff.
+
+A little to the south-east lies the fort, flying the argent and
+azure flag, and garrisoned by some 200 men; five large
+whitewashed houses and the usual bunch of brown huts compose the
+settlement. This nest of slavers was temporarily occupied in May
+15, 1855. The Governor-General, Senor Coelho de Amaral,
+reinforced by 1,000 soldiers from home, and levying 2,500
+"Empacasseiros,"[FN#3] embarked from Loanda in the "Dorn
+Fernando" frigate, landed here, once more burnt the barracoons,
+and built the fort. In 1856 a force was sent under Colonel
+Francisco Salles Ferreira, to re-open a communication with the
+Bembe mines of copper and malachite. That energetic officer
+marched on São Salvador, the old capital of Congo, and crowned
+Dom Pedro V., whose predecessor died the year before. He there
+fell a victim to fever, and his second in command, Major Andrade,
+was nearly cut off on his return. Shortly afterwards the natives
+blockaded, but were driven from, Bembe, and they attempted in
+vain to carry Ambriz.
+
+The far-famed copper mines were granted to the Portuguese in the
+sixteenth century by the King of Congo. They were the property of
+his feudatory, the (black) "Marquess of Pemba" (Bembe): Barbot
+mentions their being mistaken for gold, and feels himself bound
+to warn his readers that the metal was brought "from Sondy, not
+from Abyssinia or the empire of Prester John." They lost all
+their mystery about A.D. 1855, when they were undertaken by an
+English company, Messrs. John Taylor & Co. of London, after
+agreement with the concessionists, Messrs. Francisco A. Flores
+and Pinto Perez of Loanda. Between Ambriz and Bembe, on the
+Lunguila (Lufula?) River, and 770 feet above sea-level, the
+Angolan government built four presidios, Matuta, Quidilla,
+Quileala, and Quimalenco. But the garrison was not strong enough
+to keep the country quiet, and the climate proved deadly to white
+men. The 24 sappers and 60 linesmen extracted nearly 4,000 lbs.
+of gangue per diem, when the English manager and his assistant,
+with four of the ten miners died, and the plant was destroyed by
+fire. I was assured that this line (Ambriz-Bembe) was an easy
+adit to the interior, and so far the information is confirmed by
+the late Livingstone-Congo Expedition under Lieutenant Grandy.
+
+In 1863 the coast was still in confusion. The Portuguese claimed
+too much seaboard according to the British: the British
+government ignored the just claims of Portugal, and the political
+bickerings were duly embittered by a demoralized race of English
+traders, who perpetually applied for cruisers, complaining that
+the troops interfered with their trade. Even in the seventeenth
+century the Portuguese had asserted their rights to the Reino do
+Congo, extending between the great stream of that name and the
+Ambriz, also called the Loge and Doce River. In the older maps--
+for instance, Lopes de Lima--the Loge is an independent stream
+placed north of the Ambriz River; in fact, it represents the Rue
+or Lue River of Kinsembo, which is unknown to our charts. Within
+the Doce and the Cuanza lies the Reino de Angola, of which, they
+say, the Congo was a dependency, and south of the Cuanza begins
+the Reino de Benguela. The Government-General of Loanda thus
+contained four provinces-Congo (now reduced to Ambriz), Angola,
+Benguela, and Mossamedes. The English government has now agreed
+to recognize the left or southern bank of the Ambriz as the
+northern frontier of Angola and of Portuguese rule.
+
+Passing the river mouth, we were alongside of independent lands,
+and new to us. Boobies (Pelecanus sula), gulls, petrels, and men-
+of-war birds (P. aquila), flew about the ship; according to the
+experts, they were bound for fetid marshes which outlie the Loge
+River. Before nightfall we were off the Lue or Rue River of
+Kinsembo, which disputes with Landána (not "Landano"[FN#4]) the
+palm of bad landing. At this season boats are
+
+052--- sometimes kept waiting fourteen days, and the "barreiras"
+(cliffs) are everywhere at unbounded war with the waters. I
+determined to land and to inspect the "remarkable lofty granite
+pillar," which was dimly visible from our deck; but we rowed in
+vain along the tall and rusty sea-walls. No whaler could attack
+the huge rollers that raised their monstrous backs, plunged over
+with a furious roar, and bespread the beach with a swirl of foam.
+At last, seeing a fine surf-boat, artistically raised at stern
+and bow, and manned by Cabindas, the Kruboys of the coast, made
+fast to a ship belonging to Messrs. Tobin of Liverpool, we
+boarded it, and obtained a passage.
+
+The negroes showed their usual art. Paddling westward they
+rounded the high red and white South Point, where a projecting
+reef broke the rollers. We waited for some twenty minutes for a
+lull; at the auspicious moment every throat was strained by a
+screaming shout, and the black backs bent doughtily to their
+work. We were raised like infants in the nurse's arms; the good
+craft was flung forward with the seething mass, and as she
+touched shore we sprang out, whilst our conveyance was beached by
+a crowd of stragglers. The dreaded bar is as usual double: in the
+heaviest weather boats make for a solitary palm-tree at the
+bottom of the sandy bay. Some of the dug-outs are in pairs like
+the Brazilian Ajoujo; the sides are lashed together or fastened
+by thwarts, and both are made to bend a little too much inwards.
+
+It was dark when we climbed up the stiff Jacob's ladder along the
+landward side of the white Kinsembo bluff. There are three ramps:
+the outermost is fit only for unshod feet; the central is better
+for those who can squeeze through the rocky crevices, and the
+furthest is tolerably easy; but it can be reached only by
+canoeing across the stream. Mr. Hunter of Messrs. Tobin's house
+received us in the usual factory of the South Coast, a ground-
+floor of wicker-work, windowless, and thatched after native
+fashion. The chief agent, who shall be nameless, was drunk arid
+disorderly: it is astonishing that men of business can trust
+their money to such irresponsible beings; he had come out to
+Blackland a teetotaller, and presently his condition became a
+living lecture upon geographical morality.
+
+The night gave us a fine study of the Kinsembo mosquito, a large
+brown dipter, celebrated even upon this coast. A barrel of water
+will act as nursery; at times the plagues are said to extinguish
+a lantern, and to lie an inch deep at the bottom. I would back
+them against a man's life after two nights of full exposure: the
+Brazilian "Marimbondo" is not worse. At 7 A.M. on the next day we
+descended the easiest of the ramps, which are common upon this
+coast, and were paddled over the Kinsembo River. Eleven miles
+off, it issues from masses of high ground, and at this season it
+spreads out like the Ambriz in broad stagnant sheets, bordered
+with reeds and grass supplying fish and crabs, wild ducks and
+mosquitoes. Presently, when the Cacimbo ends in stormy rains and
+horrid rollers, its increased volume and impetus will burst the
+sand-strip which confines it, and the washed-away material will
+recruit the terrible bar.
+
+Leaving the ferry, wre mounted the "tipoias," which Englishmen
+call "hammocks" after the Caribs of Jamaica, and I found a
+strange contrast between the men of Kinsembo and of São Paulo.
+The former are admirable bearers, like their brethren of
+Ambrizette, famed as the cream of the coast: four of them carried
+us at the rate of at least six miles an hour; apparently they
+cannot go slowly, and they are untireable as black ants. Like the
+Bahian cadeira-men, they use shoulder-pads, and forked sticks to
+act as levers when shifting; the bamboo-pole has ivory pegs, to
+prevent the hammock-clews slipping, and the sensation is somewhat
+that of being tossed in a blanket.
+
+Quitting the creeper-bound sand, we crossed a black and fetid
+mire, and struck inland to a higher and drier level. The
+vegetation was that of the Calumbo road, but not so utterly
+sunburnt: there were dwarf fields of Manioc and Thur (Cajanus
+indicus), and the large wild cotton shrubs showed balls of
+shortish fibre. As we passed a euphorbia-hedged settlement,
+Kizúlí yá Mú, "Seabeach Village," a troop of women and girls,
+noisy as those of Ugogo, charged us at full gallop: a few silver
+bits caused prodigious excitement in the liberal display of
+charms agitated by hard exercise. The men were far less
+intrusive, they are said not to be jealous of European rivals,
+but madly so amongst themselves: even on suspicion of injury, the
+husband may kill his wife and her lover.
+
+At Kilwanika, the next hamlet, there was a "king;" and it would
+not have been decent to pass the palace unvisited. Outside the
+huts stood a bamboo-girt "compound," which we visited whilst H.M.
+was making his toilette, and where, contrary to Congo usage, the
+women entered with us. Twenty-two boys aged nine or ten showed,
+by faces whitened with ashes, that they had undergone
+circumcision, a ceremony which lasts three months: we shall find
+these Jinkimba in a far wilder state up the Congo. The rival
+house is the Casa das Tinta, where nubile girls are decorated by
+the Nganga, or medicine-man, with a greasy crimson-purple pigment
+and, preparatory to entering the holy state of matrimony, receive
+an exhaustive lecture upon its physical phases. Father Merolla
+tells us that the Congoese girls are locked up in pairs for two
+or three months out of the sight of man, bathing several times a
+day, and applying "taculla," the moistened dust of a red wood;
+without this "casket of water" or "of fire," as they call it,
+barrenness would be their lot. After betrothal the bride was
+painted red by the "man-witch" for one month, to declare her
+engagement, and the mask was washed off before nuptials. Hence
+the "Paint House" was a very abomination to the good Fathers.
+Amongst the Timni tribe, near Sierra Leone, the Semo, or
+initiation for girls, begins with a great dance, called Colungee
+(Kolangí), and the bride is "instructed formally in such
+circumstances as most immediately concern women."
+
+After halting for half an hour, ringed by a fence of blacks, we
+were summoned to the presence, where we found a small boy backed
+by a semi-circle of elders, and adorned with an old livery coat,
+made for a full-grown "Jeames." With immense dignity, and without
+deigning to look at us, he extended a small black paw like a
+Chimpanzee's, and received in return a promise of rum--the sole
+cause of our detention. And, as we departed through the euphorbia
+avenue, we were followed by the fastest trotters, the Flora
+Temples and the Ethan Allens, of the village.
+
+Beyond Kilwanika the land became rougher and drier, whilst the
+swamps between the ground-waves were deeper and stickier, the
+higher ridges bearing natural Stonehenges, of African, not
+English, proportions At last we dismounted, ascended a rise, the
+most northerly of these "Aravat Hills," and stood at the base of
+the "Lumba" The Pillar of Kmsembo is composed of two huge blocks,
+not basaltic, but of coarse-grained reddish granite the base
+measures twenty and the shaft forty feet high. With a little
+trimming it might be converted into a superior Pompey's Pillar:
+we shall see many of these monoliths in different parts of the
+Congo country.
+
+The heat of the day was passed in the shade of the Lumba,
+enjoying the sea-breeze and the novel view. It was debated
+whether we should return viâ Masera, a well-known slaving
+village, whose barracoons were still standing. But the bearers
+dissuaded us, declaring that they might be seized as "dash,"
+unless the white men paid heavy "comey" like those who shipped
+black cargoes: they cannot shake off this old practice of
+claiming transit money. So we returned without a halt, covering
+some twelve of the roughest miles in two hours and a quarter.
+
+The morning of the 26th showed an ugly sight from the tall
+Kinsembo cliff. As far as the eye could reach long green-black
+lines, fronted and feathered with frosted foam, hurried up to the
+war with loud merciless roars, and dashed themselves in white
+destruction against the reefs and rock-walls. We did not escape
+till the next day.
+
+Kinsembo does not appear upon the old maps, and our earliest
+hydrographic charts place it six miles wrong.[FN#5] The station
+was created in 1857-61 by the mistaken policy of Loanda, which
+determined to increase the customs three per cent, and talked of
+exacting duties at Ambriz, not according to invoice prices, but
+upon the value which imported goods represented amongst the
+natives. It was at once spread abroad that the object was to
+drive the wax and ivory trade to São Paulo, and to leave Ambriz
+open to slavers. The irrepressible Briton transferred himself to
+Kinsembo, and agreed to pay the king £9 in kind, after "country
+fashion," for every ship. In 1857 the building of the new
+factories was opposed by the Portuguese, and was supported by
+English naval officers, till the two governments came to an
+arrangement. In February, 1860, the Kinsembo people seized an
+English factory, and foully murdered a Congo prince and
+Portuguese subject, D. Nicoláo de Agua Rosada, employed in the
+Treasury Department, Ambriz. Thereupon the Governor-General sent
+up two vessels, with thirty guns and troops; crossed the Loge
+River, now a casus belli; and, on March 3rd, burned down the
+inland town of Kinsembo. On the return march the column debouched
+upon the foreign factories. About one mile in front of the point,
+Captain Brerit, U.S. Navy, and Commander A. G. Fitzroy, R.N., had
+drawn up 120 of their men by way of guard. Leave was asked by the
+Portuguese to refresh their troops, and to house six or seven
+wounded men. The foreign agents, headed by a disreputable M--M--,
+now dead, protested, and, after receiving this unsoldierlike
+refusal, the Portuguese, harassed by the enemy, continued their
+return march to Ambriz. The natives of this country have an
+insane hate for their former conquerors, and can hardly explain
+why: probably the cruelties of the sixteenth and seventeenth
+centuries, not peculiar to the Lusitanians, have rankled in the
+national memory. A stray Portuguese would infallibly be put to
+death, and it will, I fear, be long before M. Valdez sees
+"spontaneous declarations of vassalage on the part of the King of
+Molembo (Malemba) and others."
+
+In 1860 the trade of Kinsembo amounted to some £50,000, divided
+amongst four houses, two English, one American, and one Rotterdam
+(Pencoff and Kerdyk). The Cassange war greatly benefited the new
+station by diverting coffee and other produce of the interior
+from Loanda. There are apochryphal tales of giant tusks brought
+from a five months' journey, say 500 miles, inland. I was shown
+two species of copal (gum anime) of which the best is said to
+come from the Mosul country up the Ambriz River: one bore the
+goose-skin of Zanzibar, and I was assured that it does not
+viscidize in the potash-wash. The other was smooth as if it had
+freshly fallen from the tree. It was impossible to obtain any
+information; no one had been up country to see the diggings, and
+yet all declared that the interior was open; that it would be
+easy to strike the Coango (Quango) before it joins the Congo
+River, and that 150 miles, which we may perhaps reduce by a
+third, would lodge the traveller in the unknown lands of "Hnga."
+
+Bidding kindly adieu to Mr. Hunter and wishing him speedy
+deliverance from his dreadful companion, we resumed our travel
+over the now tranquil main. Always to starboard remained the
+narrow sea-wall, a length without breadth which we had seen after
+the lowlands of Cape Lopez, coloured rosy, rusty-red, or white,
+and sometimes backed by a second sierra of low blue rises, which
+suggests the sanatorium. Forty miles showed us the tall trees of
+Point Palmas on the northern side of the Conza River; on the
+south of the gap-like mouth lies the Ambrizette settlement, with
+large factories, Portuguese and American, gleaming against the
+dark verdure, and with Conza Hill for a background. The Cabeça de
+Cobra, or "Margate Head," led to Makula, alias Mangal, or Mangue
+Grande, lately a clump of trees and a point; now the site of
+English, American, and Dutch factories. Here the hydrographic
+charts of 1827 and 1863 greatly vary, and one has countermarched
+the coast-line some 75 miles: Beginning with the Congo River, it
+lays down Mangue Pegueno (where Grande should be), Cobra, and
+Mangue Grande (for Pequeno) close to Ambrizette. Then hard ahead
+rose Cape Engano, whose "deceit" is a rufous tint, which causes
+many to mistake it for Cape or Point Padrão. To-morrow, as the
+dark-green waters tell us, we shall be in the Congo River.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Chapter V.
+
+Into the Congo River.--the Factories.--trip to Shark's Point.--
+                     the Padrão and Pinda.
+
+
+
+The best preparation for a first glance at the Congo River is to
+do as all do, to study the quaint description which old Purchas
+borrowed from the "Chronica da Companhia de Jesus em Portugal."
+
+"The Zaire is of such force that no ship can get in against the
+current but near to the shore; yea, it prevails against the
+ocean's saltness three-score, and as some say, four-score miles
+within the sea, before his proud waves yield their full homage,
+and receive that salt temper in token of subjection. Such is the
+haughty spirit of that stream, overrunning the low countries as
+it passeth, and swollen with conceit of daily conquests and daily
+supplies, which, in armies of showers, are, by the clouds, sent
+to his succour, runnes now in a furious rage, thinking even to
+swallow the ocean, which before he never saw, with his mouth wide
+gaping eight-and-twenty miles, as Lopez[FN#6] affirmeth, in the
+opening; but meeting with a more giant-like enemie which lies
+lurking under the cliffes to receive his assault, is presently
+swallowed in that wider womb, yet so as, always being conquered,
+he never gives over, but in an eternall quarrel, with deeper and
+indented frownes in his angry face, foaming with disclaine, and
+filling the aire with noise (with fresh helpe), supplies those
+forces which the salt sea hath consumed."
+
+I was disappointed after the Gambia and Gaboon rivers in the
+approach to the Congo. About eight miles south of the mouth the
+green sea changed to a clear brown which will be red during the
+flood. Some three degrees (F. 79° to 82°) cooler than the salt
+tide, the lighter water, which was fresh as rain, feathered out
+like a fan; a rippling noise was faintly audible, and the clear
+lines of white foam had not time to melt into the coloured
+efflux. The flow was diverted into a regular curve northwards by
+the South Atlantic current; voyagers from Ascension Island to the
+north-west therefore feel the full throb of the great riverine
+pulse, and it has been recognized, they say, at a distance of 300
+miles. Lopez, Merolla, and Dapper[FN#7] agree that the Congo
+freshens the water at thirty miles from the mouth, and that it
+can be distinguished thirty leagues off. The Amazonas tinges the
+sea along the Guiana coast 200 miles, and the effect of the
+Ganges extends to about twenty leagues. At this season, of
+course, we saw none of the floating islands which during the
+rains sail out sixty to seventy leagues from land. "Tuckey's
+Expedition" informs us, that the Hon. Captain Irby, H.M.S.
+"Amelia," when anchored twelve miles from the South Point, in
+fifteen fathoms, "observed on the ocean large floating islands
+covered with trees and bushes, which had been torn from the banks
+by the violent current." The Journal of Captain Scobell, H.M.S.
+"Thais," remarks: "In crossing this stream I met several floating
+islands or broken masses from the banks of that noble river." We
+shall find them higher up the bed, only forming as the inundation
+begins; I doubt, however, that at any time they equal the meadows
+which stud the mouth of the Rio Formoso (Benin River).
+
+Historic Point Padrao, the "Mouta Seca," or Dry Bush, of the
+modern Portuguese, showed no signs of hospitality. The fierce
+rollers of the spumous sea broke and recoiled, foaming upon the
+sandy beach, which they veiled with a haze of water-dust, almost
+concealing the smoke that curled from the mangrove-hedged "King
+Antonio's Town." Then, steaming to the north-east, we ran five
+miles to Turtle Cove, formerly Turtle Corner, a shallow bay,
+whose nearest point is "Twitty Twa Bush," the baptismal effort of
+some English trader. And now appeared the full gape of the Congo
+mouth, yawning seven sea-miles wide; the further shore trending
+to the north-west in a low blue line, where Moanda and Vista,
+small "shipping-ports" for slaves, were hardly visible in the
+hazy air. As we passed the projecting tooth of Shark Point, a
+sandspit garnished with mangroves and dotted with palmyras, the
+land-squali flocked from their dirty-brown thatches to the beach,
+where flew the symbolic red flag. Unlike most other settlements,
+which are so buried in almost impenetrable bush that the
+traveller may pass by within a few yards without other sign but
+the human voice, this den of thieves and wreckers, justly named
+in more ways than one, flaunts itself in the face of day.
+
+The Congo disclaims a bore, but it has a very distinct bar, the
+angle pointing up stream, and the legs beginning about Bananal
+Bank (N.) and Alligator River (S.). Here the great depth above
+and below (145 and 112 fathoms) shallows to 6-9. Despite the
+five-knot current we were "courteously received into the embraces
+of the river;" H.M. Steamship "Griffon" wanted no "commanding
+sea-breeze," she found none of the difficulties which kept poor
+Tuckey's "brute of a transport" drifting and driving for nearly a
+week before he could anchor off Fuma or Sherwood's Creek, the
+"Medusa" of modern charts (?) and which made Shark Point, with
+its three-mile current, a "more redoubtable promontory than that
+of Good Hope was to early navigators." We stood boldly E.N.E.
+towards the high blue clump known as Bulambemba, and, with the
+dirty yellow breakers of Mwáná Mazia Bank far to port, we turned
+north to French Point, and anchored in a safe bottom of seven
+fathoms.
+
+Here we at once saw the origin of the popular opinion that the
+Congo has no delta. On both sides, the old river valley, 32 miles
+broad, is marked out by grassy hills rolling about 200 feet high,
+trending from E.N.E. to W.S.W., and forming on the right bank an
+acute angle with the Ghats. But, whilst the northern line
+approaches within five or six miles, the southern bank, which
+diverges about the place where "King Plonly's town" appears in
+charts, sweeps away some seventeen miles down coast, and leaves a
+wide tract of mangrove swamps. These, according to the Portuguese
+traders, who have their own plans of the river, extend some
+seventy miles south to Ambrizette: slavers keep all such details
+very close, and doubtless for good reasons--"short-cuts" greatly
+facilitate shipping negroes. The lesser Congo delta is bounded
+north by the Banana or Malela stream, whose lower fork is
+"Pirates' Creek;" and south by the mangrove-clad drains, which
+subtend the main line: the base measures 12-15 miles. At the
+highest station, Boma, I shall have something to say about the
+greater delta. The left bank of the embouchure projects further
+seaward, making it look "under hung," representing in charts a
+lower jaw, and the projection of Shark Point the teeth, en
+profile.
+
+My first care was to collect news at the factories. French Point
+is a long low spit, which supports two establishments where the
+chart (September 1859) gives "Emigration Depot." It is the old
+Banana Point, and probably the older Palmeirinha Point of James
+Barbot, who places it in the territory of Goy (Ngoy), now
+Cabinda. This part has greatly changed since 1859; either the
+Banana River requires removing two miles to the north, or French
+Point must be placed an equal distance south. The principal
+establishment, M. Régis' of Marseilles, is built in his best
+style; a two-storied and brilliantly "chunam'd" house, containing
+a shop and store on the ground-floor, defended by a three-
+pounder. Behind it a square "compound," with high walls, guards
+the offices and the other requisites of a bar racoon. It is
+fronted by a little village where "Laptots," Senegal Moslems, and
+men-at-arms live with their families and slaves. In the rear
+stands the far more modest and conscientious establishment of
+Messrs. Pencoff and Kerdyk: their plank bungalow is full of work,
+whilst the other lies idle; so virtue here is not, as in books,
+its own reward.
+
+M. Victor Parrot, the young Swiss agent of M. Régis, hospitably
+asked us to take up our quarters with him, and promised to start
+us up stream without delay; his employer fixes the tariff of
+every article, and no discretion is left to the subordinates. We
+called upon M. Elkman of the Dutch factory. His is a well-known
+name on the river, and, though familiar with the people, he has
+more than once run some personal risk by assisting our cruizers
+to make captures. He advised us to lose no time in setting out
+before the impending rains: I wanted, however, a slight
+preparation for travel, and determined to see something of the
+adjoining villages, especially the site of the historic Padrão.
+
+Whilst crossing the stream, we easily understood how the river
+was supposed to be in a perpetual state of inundation. The great
+breadth and the shallows near either jaw prevent the rain-floods
+being perceptible unless instruments are used, and "hydrometry,"
+still in an imperfect state, was little to be depended upon in
+the days when European ideas concerning the Congo River were
+formed. Twenty miles up stream the high-water mark becomes
+strongly marked, and further on, as will be seen, it shows even
+better.
+
+If Barbot's map have any claim to correctness, the southern shore
+has changed greatly since A.D. 1700. A straight line from Cape
+Padrão to Chapel Point, now Shark Point, was more than double the
+breadth of the embouchure. It is vain to seek for the "Island of
+Calabes" mentioned by Andrew Battel, who was "sent to a place
+called Zaire on the River Congo, to trade for elephants' teeth,
+wheat, and palm oil." It may be a mistake for Cavallos, noticed
+in the next chapter; but the "town on it" must have been small,
+and has left, they say, no traces. After a scramble through the
+surf, we were received at Shark Point, where, at this season, the
+current is nearer five than three knots, by Mr. Tom Peter,
+Mafuka, or chief trader, amongst these "Musurungus." He bore his
+highly respectable name upon the frontal band of his "berretta"
+alias "corôa," an open-worked affair, very like the old-fashioned
+jelly-bag night cap. This head-gear of office made of pine-apple
+fibre-- Tuckey says grass--costs ten shillings; it is worn by the
+kinglets, who now distribute it to all the lieges whose fortunes
+exceed some fifty dollars.
+
+Most of the Squaline villagers appeared to be women, the men
+being engaged in making money elsewhere. Besides illicit trade,
+which has now become very dangerous, a little is done in the
+licit line: grotesquely carved sticks, calabashes rudely
+ornamented with ships and human figures, the neat bead-work
+grass-strings used by the women to depress the bosom, and
+cashimbos or pipes mostly made about Boma. All were re-baptized
+in 1853, but they show no sign of Christianity save crosses, and
+they are the only prostitutes on the river.
+
+Following Tom Peter, and followed by a noisy tail, we walked to
+the west end of Shark Point, to see if aught remained of the
+Padrão, the first memorial column, planted in 1485 by the
+explorer Diogo Cam, knight of the king's household, Dom João II.
+"O principe perfeito," who, says De Barros ("Asia," Decad. I.
+lib. iii. chap. 3), "to immortalize the memory of his captains,"
+directed them to plant these pillars in all remarkable places.
+The Padrões, which before the reign of D. João were only wooden
+crosses, assumed the shape of "columns, twice the height of a man
+(estado), with the scutcheon bearing the royal arms. At the sides
+they were to be inscribed in Latin and Portuguese (to which James
+Barbot adds Arabic), with the name of the monarch who sent the
+expedition, the date of discovery, and the captain who made it;
+on the summit was to be raised a stone cross cramped in with
+lead." According to others, the inscription mentioned only the
+date, the king, and the captain. The Padrão of the Congo was
+especially called from the "Lord of Guinea's favourite saint, de
+São Jorge"--sit faustum! As Carli shows, the patron of Congo and
+Angola was Santiago, who was seen bodily assisting at a battle in
+which Dom Affonso, son of Giovi (Emmanuel), first Christian king
+of Congo, prevailed against a mighty host of idolaters headed by
+his pagan brother "Panso Aquitimo." In 1786 Sir Home Popham found
+a marble cross on a rock near Angra dos Ilheos or Pequena (south
+latitude 26° 37'), with the arms of Portugal almost effaced. Till
+lately the jasper pillar at Cabo Negro bore the national arms.
+Doubtless much latitude was allowed in the make and material of
+these padrões; that which I saw near Cananea in the Brazil is of
+saccharine marble, four palms high by two broad; it bears a
+scutcheon charged with a cross and surmounted by another.
+
+There is some doubt concerning the date of this mission. De
+Barros (I. iii. 3) says A.D. 1484. Lopes de Limn (IV. i. 5) gives
+the reason why A.D. 1485 is generally adopted, and he believes
+that the cruise of the previous year did not lead to the Congo
+River. The explorer, proceeding to inspect the coast south of
+Cape St. Catherine (south latitude 2° 30'), which he had
+discovered in 1473, set out from São Jorge da Mina, now Elmina.
+He was accompanied by Martin von Behaim of Nürnberg (nat. circ.
+A.D. 1436, ob. A.D. 1506), a pupil of the mathematician John
+Müller (Regiomontanus); and for whom the discovery of the New
+World has been claimed.
+
+After doubling his last year's terminus, Diogo Cam chanced upon a
+vast embouchure, and, surprised by the beauty of the scenery and
+the volume of the stream, he erected his stone Padrão, the first
+of its kind. Finding the people unintelligible to the
+interpreters, he sent four of his men with a present of hawk's
+bells (cascaveis) and blue glass beads to the nearest king, and,
+as they did not soon return, he sailed back to Portugal with an
+equal number of natives as hostages, promising to return after
+fifteen moons. One of them, Caçuta (Zacuten of Barbot), proved to
+be a "fidalgo" of Sonho, and, though the procedure was contrary
+to orders, it found favour with the "Perfect Prince." From these
+men the Portuguese learned that the land belonged to a great
+monarch named the Mwani-Congo or Lord of Congo, and thus they
+gave the river a name unknown to the riverine peoples.
+
+Diogo Cam, on his second visit, sent presents to the ruler with
+the hostages, who had learned as much Portuguese and Christianity
+as the time allowed; recovered his own men, and passed on to
+Angola, Benguela and Cabo Negro, adding to his discoveries 200
+leagues of coast. When homeward bound, he met the Mwani-Sonho,
+and visited the Mwani-Congo, who lived at Ambasse Congo (São
+Salvador), distant 50 leagues (?). The ruler of the "great and
+wonderful River Zaire," touched by his words, sent with him
+sundry youths, and the fidalgo Caçuta, who was baptized into Dom
+Joao, to receive instruction, and to offer a present of ivory and
+of palm cloth which was remarkably strong and bright. A request
+for a supply of mechanics and missionaries brought out the first
+mission of Dominicans. They sailed in December, 1490, under
+Gonçalo de Sousa; they were followed by others, and in the
+sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the country was fairly over-
+run by the Propaganda. A future page will enter into more
+details, and show the results of their labours.
+
+The original Padrão was destroyed by the Dutch in 1645, an act of
+barbarism which is justly called "Vandalica façanha." Father
+Merolla says (1682), "The Hollanders, out of envy, broke the fine
+marble cross to pieces; nevertheless, so much remained of it,
+when I was there, as to discover plainly the Portuguese arms on
+the ruins of the basis, with an inscription under them in Gothic
+characters, though not easy to be read." In 1859 a new one was
+placed in Turtle Cove, a few yards south-west of Shark Point; but
+the record was swept away by an unusually high tide, and no
+further attempt has been made.
+
+We were then led down a sandy narrow line in the bush, striking
+south-east, and, after a few yards, we stood before two pieces of
+marble in a sandy hollow. The tropical climate, more adverse than
+that of London, had bleached and marked them till they looked
+like pitted chalk: the larger stump, about two feet high, was
+bandaged, as if after amputation, with cloths of many colours,
+and the other fragment lay at its feet. Tom Peter, in a fearful
+lingua-Franca, Negro-Anglo-Portuguese, told us that his people
+still venerated the place as part of a religious building; it is
+probably the remnant thus alluded to by Lopes de Lima (iii. 1-6):
+"Behind this point (Padrão) is another monument of the piety of
+our monarchs, and of the holy objects which guided them to the
+conquest of Guinea, a Capuchin convent intended to convert the
+negroes of Sonho; it has long been deserted, and is still so.
+Even in A.D. 1814, D. Garcia V., the king of Congo, complained in
+a letter to our sovereign of the want of missionaries." Possibly
+the ruined convent is the church which we shall presently visit.
+Striking eastward, we soon came to a pool in the bush
+sufficiently curious and out of place to make the natives hold it
+"Fetish;" they declare that it is full of fish, but it kills all
+men who enter it--"all men" would not include white men. Possibly
+it is an old piscina; according to the Abbé Proyart, the
+missionaries taught the art of pisciculture near the village of
+Kilonga, where they formed their first establishment. The place
+is marked "Salt-pond" in Barbot, who tells us that the condiment
+was made there and carried inland.
+
+A short walk to a tall tree backing the village showed us,
+amongst twenty-five European graves, five tombs or cenotaphs of
+English naval officers, amongst whom two fell victims to
+mangrove-oysters, and the rest to the deadly "calenture" of the
+lower Congo. We entered the foul mass of huts,
+
+                    "Domus non ullo robore fulta
+          Sed sterili junco cannâque intecta palustri."
+
+It was too early for the daily debauch of palm wine, and the
+interiors reeked with the odours of nocturnal palm oil. The older
+travellers were certainly not blasés; they seemed to find
+pleasure and beauty wherever they looked: Ca da Mosto (1455),
+visiting the Senegal, detected in this graveolent substance, fit
+only for wheel-axles, a threefold property, that of smelling like
+violets, of tasting like oil of olives, and tinging victuals like
+saffron, with a colour still finer. Even Mungo Park preferred the
+rancid tallow-like shea butter to the best product of the cow. We
+chatted with the Shark Point wreckers, and found that they
+thought like Arthegal,
+
+          "For equal right in equal things doth stand."
+
+Moreover, here, as in the Shetlands of the early nineteenth
+century, when the keel touches bottom the seaman loses his
+rights, and she belongs to the shore.
+
+Tom Peter offered to show us other relics of the past if we would
+give him two days. A little party was soon made up, Mr. J. C.
+Bigley, the master, and Mr. Richards, the excellent gunner of the
+"Griffon," were my companions. We set out in a south-by-easterly
+direction to the bottom of Sonho, or Diogo's Bay, which Barbot
+calls "Bay of Pampus Rock." Thence we entered Alligator River, a
+broad lagoon, the Raphael Creek of Maxwell's map, not named in
+the hydrographic chart of 1859. Leading south with many a bend,
+it is black water and thick, fetid mud, garnished with scrubby
+mangrove, where Kru-boys come to cut fuel and catch fever; here
+the dew seemed to fall in cold drops. After nine miles we reached
+a shallow fork, one tine of which, according to our informants,
+comes from the Congo Grande, or São Salvador, distant a week's
+march. Leaving the whaler in charge of a Kru-man, we landed, and
+walked about half a mile over loose sand bound by pine-apple
+root, to the Banza Sonho, or, as we call it, King Antonio's Town-
+-not to be mistaken for that placed in the charts behind Point
+Padron. Our object being unknown, there was fearful excitement in
+the thatched huts scattered under the palm grove, till Tom Peter
+introduced us, and cleared for us a decent hut. The buildings, if
+they can be so called, are poor and ragged, copies of those which
+we shall see upon the uplands. Presently we were visited by the
+king named after that saint "of whom the Evil One was parlous
+afraid." This descendant of the "Counts of Sonho," in his dirty
+night-cap and long coat of stained red cloth, was a curious
+contrast to the former splendour of the "count's habit," with cap
+of stitched silk which could be worn only by him and his nobles,
+fine linen shirt, flowered silk cloak, and yellow stockings of
+the same material. When King Affonso III. gave audience to the
+missioners (A.D. 1646), the negro grandee "had on a vest of cloth
+set with precious stones, and in his hat a crown of diamonds,
+besides other stones of great value. He sat on a chair under a
+canopy of rich crimson velvet, with gilt nails, after the manner
+of Europe; and under his feet was a great carpet, with two stools
+of the same colour, and silk laced with gold." After the usual
+palaver we gave the black earl a cloth and bottle of rum for
+leave to pass on, but no one would accompany us that evening, all
+pretending that they wanted time to fit up the hammocks. At night
+a body of armed bushmen marched down to inspect us.
+
+The demands for porterage were so exorbitant next morning, that
+we set out on foot under the guidance of Tom Peter. We passed
+southwards over large tracts of bush and gramineous plants, with
+patches of small plantations, manioc and thur; and settlements
+girt by calabash-trees, cocoas, palmyra and oil palms. The people
+poured out, threatened impotent vengeance on those who brought
+the white men to "make their country," that is, to seize and
+settle in it. The only animals were fowls and pigs; small strong
+cages acting as hogstyes showed that leopards were dangerous; in
+1816 Lieutenant Hawkey found signs of these animals, together
+with elephant, wild boar, and antelope. Now there is no sport
+below the cataracts, and possibly very little, except in the
+water, above them. Thence we debouched upon rolling land, loose
+and sandy waves, sometimes divided by swamps; it is the lower end
+of the high yellow band seen from the south of the river, the
+true coast of alluvial soil, scattered here and there with quartz
+and pebbles. Then the bush opened out, and showed to the north-
+east stretches of grassy land, where the wild fig-tree drooped
+its branches, laden with thick fleshy leafage, to the ground;
+these are the black dots which are seen from afar studding the
+tawny desert-like surface. Flowers were abundant despite the
+lateness of the season, and the sterility of the soil was
+evidenced by cactus and euphorbia.
+
+After a walk of six miles Tom Peter pompously announced that we
+had reached the church. We saw only an oblong furrow and a little
+worm-eaten wood near three or four of the most miserable
+"magalia;" but a bell, hung to a dwarf gallows, was dated 1700,
+and inscribed, "Si Deus cum nobis Qis (sic) contra nos?" The
+aspect of this article did not fail to excite Mr. Richards'
+concupiscence: I looked into the empty huts, and in the largest
+found a lot of old church gear, the Virgin (our Lady of Pinda),
+saints, and crucifixes, a tank-like affair of iron that acted as
+font, and tattered bundles of old music-scores in black and red
+ink. In Captain Tuckey's day some of the Sonho men could read the
+Latin Litany; there was a priest ordained by the Capuchins of
+Loanda, a bare-footed (and bare-faced) black apostle, with a wife
+and five handmaids; and a multitude of converts loaded with
+crucifixes and satchels of relics. Our home march was enlivened
+by glimpses of the magnificent river seen through the perennial
+tropical foliage, and it did not suggest trite reflections upon
+the meanness of man's highest aspirations in presence of eternal
+Nature.
+
+We had been treading upon no vulgar spot. We are now in the
+earldom of Sonho, bounded north by the Congo River and south by
+the Ambriz, westward by the Atlantic, and eastward by the "Duchy
+of Bamba." It was one of the great divisions of the Congo
+kingdom, and "absolute, except only its being tributary to the
+Lord Paramount." The titles of Portugal were adopted by the
+Congoese, according to Father Cavazzi, after A.D. 1571, when the
+king constituted himself a vassal of the Portuguese crown. Here
+was the Pinda whose port and fort played an important part in
+local history. "Built by the Sonhese army at the mouth of the
+River Zaire," it commanded both the stream and sea: it was
+plundered in 1600 by four French pirates. According to Carli
+(1666-67) "the Count of Sonho, the fifth dignitary of the empire,
+resided in the town of Sonho, a league from the River Zaire."
+Pinda was for a time the head-quarters of the Portuguese Mission,
+subject only to that of São Salvador; it consisted of an
+apartment two stories high, which caused trouble, being contrary
+to country custom.
+
+At the French factory I found the employés well "up" in the
+travels of the unfortunate adventurer Douville ("Voyage au Congo
+et dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique Equinoxiale fait dans les années
+1828, 1829, et 1830. Par J. B. Douville, Secrétaire de la Société
+de Géographic de Paris pour l'année 1832, etmembre de plusieurs
+Sociétés savantes françoises et étrangères. Ouvrage auquel la
+Société de Géographic a décerné le prix dans sa séance du 30
+mars, 1832. 3 tomes. 8vo. Paris, 1832"). Dr. Gardner, in his
+Brazilian travels, gives an account of Douville's murder, the
+consequence of receiving too high fees for medical attendance on
+the banks of the São Francisco. So life like are his descriptions
+of the country and its scenery, that no one in the factory would
+believe him to have been an impostor, and the Frenchmen evidently
+held my objections to be "founded on nationality." The besetting
+sins of the three volumes are inordinate vanity and
+inconséquence, but these should not obscure our vision as to
+their solid and remarkable merits. Compare the picturesque
+account of São Paulo with those of the latest English travellers,
+and the anthropology of the people, their religion, their
+ceremonies, their magic, their dress and costume, their trade,
+their manufactures, their maladies (including earth-eating),
+their cannibalism, the condition of their women, and the
+necessity of civilizing them by education before converting them,
+all subjects of the highest interest, with that of Mungo Park,
+for instance, arid we have a fair measure of the French
+traveller's value. The native words inserted into the text are
+for the most part given with unusual correctness, and the carping
+criticism which would correct them sadly requires correction
+itself. "Thus the word which he writes mouloundu in his text, and
+mulundu in his vocabulary, is not singular, as he supposes, but
+the plural of loondu, a mountain" (p. 200 of the" Review").
+Firstly, Douville has warned the reader that the former is the
+spelling best adapted to French, the latter to Portuguese.
+Secondly, "mulundu" in Angolan is singular, the plural being
+"milundu"--a handful, the Persians say, is a specimen of the
+heap. The excess of female births in low and unhealthy places (1,
+309) and as the normal result of polygamy (3, 243), is a highly
+interesting subject still awaiting investigation. I do not mean
+that Douville was the first to observe this phenomenon, which
+forced itself upon the notice of physiologists in ancient times.
+Foster ("Cook's Third Voyage") remarks that, wherever men and
+animals have many females, the feminine births preponderate over
+the masculine; a fact there explained by the "organic molecule"
+of Buffon. Pigafetta, the circumnavigator, gives the King of
+Tidor eighteen daughters to eight sons.
+
+The French traveller does not pretend to be a mineralogist, but
+he does his best to lay open the metallic riches of the country;
+he gives careful observations of temperature, in water as well as
+air, he divines the different proportions of oxygen in the
+atmosphere, and he even applies himself to investigating the
+comparative heat of the negro's blood, an inquiry still far from
+being exhausted. The most remarkable part is certainly the
+medical, and here the author was simply in advance of his age.
+Instead of the lancet, the drastic cathartics, and the calomel
+with which our naval surgeons slew their patients, he employed
+emetics and tonics to an extent that would have charmed my late
+friend, Dr. Dickson, the chromothermalist, and he preceded Dr.
+Hutchinson in the use of quinine wine. Indeed, the peculiar
+aptitude for medicine shown in these pages led to the traveller's
+adopting the destructive art of healing as a profession, and
+caused his unhappy end. The curious mixture of utter imposture
+and of genius for observation which a traveller can detect in
+Douville renders him worthy of a monograph.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter VI.
+
+Up the Congo River.--the Slave Depot, Porto Da Lenha.--arrival at
+                             Boma.
+
+
+
+M. Parrot was as good as his word. By August 31st, "L'Espérance,"
+a fine schooner-rigged palhabote (launch) of thirty-five tons,
+heavily sparred and carrying lots of "muslin," was ready to
+receive my outfit. The party consisted of the commander, Mr.
+Bigley, and five chosen "Griffons," including William Deane,
+boatswain's mate, as good a man as his namesake in Blake's day,
+and the estimable Friend, captain's cook and Figaro in general.
+M. Pissot, an Arlésien, clerk to the factory, went up on business
+with a crew of eight useless Cabindas under Frank, their pagan
+"patron," who could only run us aground. Finally, there was a
+guard of half-a-dozen "Laptots," equally good sailors and
+soldiers. The French squadron in West Africa has the advantage
+over ours of employing these men,
+
+086--- who are clean, intelligent, and brave; whilst we are
+reduced to the unprogressive Kru-man, who is, moreover, a model
+coward, a poltroon on principle.
+
+At 5 P.M. our huge canvas drove us rapidly over the shoals and
+shallows of this imperfectly known sea: the Ethiopic Directory
+justly grumbles, "It is a subject of regret that navigators who
+have had occasion to enter the Congo, and to remain there some
+time, have not furnished us with more information about the
+tides." This will be a work of labour and endurance; detached
+observations are of very little use. We at once remarked the
+complication caused by the upper, surface, or freshwater current
+of 3 to 4 knots an hour, meeting the under, or oceanic inflow.
+There is a short cut up Pirate's Creek, but we avoided it for the
+usual reason, fear of finding it very long. Passing a low point
+to port, subtended north and south by the Bananal River and
+Pirate's Creek, after some six knots we were abreast of
+Bulambemba (the Boulem beembo of Tuckey's Vocabulary). It is
+interpreted "Answer," hence our "Echo Point"(?); but others
+render it, "Hold your tongue." The former is correct, and the
+thick high screen of trees explains the native and English names.
+Old writers call it Fathomless Point, which it is not now; a
+bank, the south-eastern projection of the great Mwáná Mázia
+shoal, has formed a few feet below the surface; but the term will
+apply at the distance of a mile further south. This acute angle
+shows a glorious clump, the "Tall Trees," white mangroves rising
+a hundred feet, and red mangroves based upon pyramidal cages of
+roots; and beyond it the immediate shore is covered with a dense
+tropical vegetation, a tangle of bush, palms, and pandanus,
+matted with creepers and undergrowth, and rhyzophoras of many
+varieties delighting in brackish water. We passed on the right
+the Ponta de Jacaré (Point of the Crocodile), fronting Point
+Senegal on the other side. The natives call the former Ngándu
+(li. Jigándu), and farcical tales are told about it: in the lower
+settlements Europeans will not go abroad by night without a
+lantern. During my trip I sighted only one startled crocodile
+that floated log-like a mile off, and Captain Baak, of the Dutch
+house, had not seen one during a whole year at Banana Point.
+
+We anchored for the night off the south side of the Zungá chyá
+Ngombe, in Portuguese Ilha do Boi (Bullock), the Rhinoceros
+Island of our early charts. It emerges from the waters of the
+right bank, a mere "ponton" plumed with dark mangroves and
+streaked with spar-like white trunks. This is probably the
+"Island of Horses," where the Portuguese, flying from the
+victorious Hollanders, were lodged and fed by the courteous Count
+of Sonho; perhaps it is Battel's "Isle Calabes." The place is
+backed by the Monpanga or Mombang, the "Look-out Islands" of the
+chart, which has greatly changed since the beginning of the
+century; the dark mass of mangroves is now apparently part of the
+northern shore. Almost due south of the Ilha do Boi is the Zungá
+chyá Kampenzi, whence our word chimpanzee: in the hydrographic
+chart it is miswritten Zoonga Campendi, and in Tuckey's map,
+which contradicts his text, "Zoonga Casaquoisa." His "Zoonga
+Kampenzey," also named "Halcyon Island," appears to be the
+Draper's Island or the "Monkey Island" of Mr. Maxwell: the latter
+in modern charts is more to the north-east, that is, above Porto
+da Lenha, than the former. The Simiads have been killed out;
+Captain Tuckey going up the river saw upwards of twenty which,
+but for their tails, might have been mistaken for negroes.
+Merolla says that wild men and women (gorillas?) have been
+captured in Sonho, and he carefully distinguishes them from
+baboons: one of them was presented to a friar of his order, who
+"bestowed it on the Portuguese governor of Loanda." Chimpanzee
+Island may be the Zariacacongo of Father Merolla, who makes
+Cacongo (Great Congo) a large and independent kingdom" lying in
+the middle between Congo and Loango." He describes Zariacacongo,
+"none of the smallest, and situate in the midst of the River
+Zaire." It abounded in all sorts of provisions, was well peopled,
+consisted of a plain raised eight fathoms above water, and was
+divided from the kingdom of Congo by a river, over which there
+was a bridge.
+
+After a pleasant breezy night upon the brown waters, on September
+1st we hove anchor betimes and made for Scotchman's Head, a
+conspicuous mangrove bluff forming a fine landmark on the left
+bank. The charts have lately shifted it some two miles west of
+its old position. Six or seven miles beyond it rise the blue
+uplands of the "Earldom of Sonho." On our right, in mid-stream,
+lay a "crocodile bank," a newly fixed grass islet, a few square
+feet of green and gold, which the floods will presently cover or
+carry away. To the left, above the easternmost "Mombang" and the
+network of islands behind it, opens the gape of the Malela River,
+a short cut to French Point, found useful when a dangerous tide-
+rip is caused by the strong sea-breeze meeting the violent
+current of the Thalweg. Above it lies a curious formation like
+concentric rings of trees inclosing grass: it is visible only
+from the north-east. Several slave factories now appear on either
+shore, single-storied huts of wood and thatch, in holes cut out
+of the densest bush, an impenetrable forest whose sloppy soil and
+miry puddles seem never to dry. The tenements serve as videttes
+and outposts, enabling cargoes to ship without the difficulties
+of passing Palm Point, and thus to make a straight run down
+stream. There are three on the north bank, viz. M. Rágis (aîné),
+now deserted, Sr. Lima Viana, and Sr. Antonio Fernandez; and
+three on the left side, Sr. Alessandro Ferreira, Sr. Guilherme,
+and Sr. Fonseca. Those on the southern or left bank facilitate
+overland transit to Mangue, Ambrizette, and other dépôts. At
+present it is "tiempo seco" (dull time), and the gérants keep
+their hands in by buying ground-nuts and palm oil. The slave
+trade, however, makes 500, not 50, per cent., and the agents are
+naturally fond of it, their mere salaries being only some 150
+francs a month.
+
+Landing at the factory of Sr. Fernandez, we were received by his
+agent, Sr. Silva, in a little bungalow of bamboo and matting,
+paved with tamped earth and old white ostreoid shells, a kind of
+Mya, relished by the natives but not eaten by Europeans. To
+these, doubtless, Mr. W. Winwood Reacle refers ("Savage Africa,"
+chap, xxxvii.), "The traders say that in Congo there are great
+heaps of oyster-shells, but no oysters. These shells the negroes
+also burn for lime." I did not hear of any of these "ostreiras,"
+which, if they exist, must reflect the Sambaquis of the opposite
+Brazilian shore. The house was guarded by three wooden figures,
+"clouterly carved," and powdered with ochre or red wood; two of
+them, representing warriors in studded coatings of spike nails,
+with a looking-glass fixed in the stomach, raised their hands as
+if to stab each other. These figures are sometimes found large as
+life: according to the agents, the spikes are driven in before
+the wars begin, and every one promises the hoped-for death of an
+enemy. Behind them the house was guarded by a sentinel with drawn
+sword. The unfortunate tenant, who looked a martyr to ague, sat
+"in palaver" with a petty island "king," and at times the tap of
+a war-drum roused my experienced ear. The monarch, habited in a
+shabby cloth coat, occupied a settee, with a "minister" on either
+side; he was a fat senior of light complexion, with a vicious
+expression upon features, which were not those of the
+"tobacconist nigger," nor had he the effeminate aspect of the
+Congoese.
+
+I looked curiously at these specimens of the Musulungu or
+Musurungu, a wilder race than that of Shark Point: the English,
+of course, call them Missolonghi, because Lord Byron died there.
+Here the people say "le" for "re," and "rua" for "lua,"
+confounding both liquids, which may also be found in the Kibundo
+tongue. In Loango, according to the Abbé Proyart, the national
+organ does not admit the roughness of the r, which is changed to
+l. Monteiro and Gamitto assert (xxii.) that the "Cazembes or
+Lundas do not pronounce the letter r, in whose place they use l."
+The "Ibos" of the lower Congo, dwelling on the southern shore
+between the mouth and the Porto da Lenha, above which they are
+harmless, these men have ever been dangerous to strangers, and
+the effect of the slave-trade has been to make them more
+formidable. Lieutenant Boteler (1835) was attacked by twenty-
+eight canoes, carrying some 140 men, who came on boldly,
+"ducking" at the flash, and who were driven off only by a volley
+of musketry and a charge of grape. In 1860 a whaler and crew were
+attacked by their war-canoes sallying out from behind Scotchman's
+Head. These craft are of two kinds, one shaped like a horse-
+trough, the other with a lean and snaky head. The "Wrangler" lost
+two of her men near Zungá chyá Kampenzi, and the "Griffon"
+escaped by firing an Armstrong conical shell. They have
+frequently surprised and kept for ransom the white agents, whom
+"o negocio" deterred from reprisals. M. Pissot, our companion,
+was amarré by them for some weeks, and the most unpleasant part
+of his captivity was the stunning concert of songs and
+instruments kept up during the day to prevent his escaping by
+night. The more sensible traders at Boma pay them black mail by
+employing them as boats' crews, upon our Anglo-Indian principle
+of the "Paggi" and the "Ramosi."
+
+Merolla calls these men Musilongo or Sonhese. The word appears to
+me opprobrious, as if each tribe termed itself Mushi-Congo (Congo
+people), and its neighbours Musulungus: Barbot writes as a
+Frenchman Moutsie, the Portuguese Muxi (Mushi). Mushi-Longo would
+perhaps mean Loango-people; but my ear could not detect any
+approach to "Loango" in "Musulungu." The first syllable, Mu, in
+Fiote or Congoese, would be a contraction of Muntu (plural
+Wántú). They inhabit the islands, own a part of the north bank,
+and extend southwards to Ambriz: eastward they are bounded by the
+Fiote or Congo-speaking peoples, to whom their tongue is
+intelligible. They have no tattoo, but they pierce the nose
+septum and extract the two central and upper incisors; the Muxi-
+Congoes or Lower Congoese chip or file out a chevron in the near
+sides of the same teeth-- an ornament possibly suggested by the
+weight of the native pipe. The chipping and extracting seem to be
+very arbitrary and liable to change: sometimes the upper, at
+other times the lower teeth are operated upon. The fashionable
+mutilation is frequently seen in Eastern Africa, and perhaps it
+is nothing but a fashion. They are the "kallistoi" and "megistoi"
+of the Congoese bodies, taller and darker, fiercer and braver
+than their neighbours, nor will they cease to be river pirates
+till the illicit trade dies.
+
+After taking leave of Sr. Silva we resumed our way, the
+thermometer (F.) showing at 1.45 P.M. 95° in the air when the sun
+was obscured, and the mirage played the usual fantastic tricks.
+The mangrove, which Tuckey's introduction prolongs to fifty miles
+from the mouth, now disappears; in fact, it does not extend much
+above Bullock Island, nineteen direct miles on the chart from
+Shark Point and, as usual, it enables us to measure the extreme
+limit where the salt-tide ascends. The palhabote went gallantly,
+
+               "The water round her bows
+          Dancing as round a drinking cup."
+
+Small trembling waves poppled and frothed in mid-stream, where
+the fresh water met wind and tide; and by the "boiling" of the
+surface we saw that there was still a strong under-current
+flowing against the upper layer. A little beyond the factory we
+were shown on the northern bank Mariquita Nook, where the slaver
+of that name, commanded by a Captain Bowen, had shipped some 520
+men. She was captured by H.M. Steamship "Zebra," Commander
+Hoskins, after being reported by a chief, whom her captain had
+kicked, to a trader at the river mouth, and by him to the
+cruizer. Slavers used to show their sense by starting on Sundays,
+when the squadron kept a careless look-out; but their inevitable
+danger was the general "drunk" of the officers and crew to
+celebrate the event, and this libation often caused delays which
+led to seizure. It was an admirable site, a bit of golden sand
+fronting the cleared bush, commanding an unbroken sweep of vision
+to the embouchure, and masked by forest from Porto da Lenha. It
+is easily known by its two tall trees, and that nearest the sea,
+when viewed from the east, appears surmounted by what resemble
+the "Kangaroo's Head:" they are cones of regular shape, covered
+to the topmost twig with the lightest green Flagellaria. The
+"bush" now becomes beautiful, rolling in bulging masses of
+verdure to the very edge of the clear brown stream. As in the
+rivers of Guinea, the llianas form fibrous chains, varying in
+size from a packthread to a cable; now straight, then twisted;
+investing the trees with an endless variety of folds and
+embraces, and connecting neighbours by graceful arches like the
+sag of an acrobat's rope. Here and there a grotesque calabash
+contrasted with the graceful palms towering in air for warmth and
+light, or bending over water like Prince of Wales's feathers. The
+unvarying green was enlivened by yew-like trees with scarlet
+flowers, the "Burning Bush" of Sierra Leone, setting off the
+white boles of the cotton-trees; and the whole was edged by the
+yellow green of the quaint pandanus hung with heavy fruit.
+
+A little beyond "Mariquita Nook" the right bank becomes a net-
+work of creeks, "obscure channels," tortuous, slimy with mud,
+banked with the snake-like branches of trees, and much resembling
+the lower course of the Benin, or any other north equatorial
+African river; the forest is also full of large villages,
+invisible like the streams till entered. A single tree,
+apparently growing out of the great stream-bed, showed shallow
+water as we passed the Ponte de tres Palmeiras; the three oil-
+palms are still there, but the easternmost is decaying. At 2 P.M.
+we were in sight of the chief slaving settlement on the Congo,
+the Whydah of the river, Porto da Lenha. Our charts have "Ponta
+de Linha," three mistakes in as many words. Some authorities,
+however, prefer Ponta da Lenha, "Woody Point," from the piles
+flanking the houses; others, Ponte da Lenha, from a bridge built
+by the agent of Messrs. Tobin's house over the single influent
+that divides the settlement. Cruizers have often ascended thus
+far; the Baltimore barque of 800 tons went up and down safely in
+1859, but now square-rigged ships, which seldom pass Zungá chyá
+Kampenzi, send up boats when something is to be done higher up.
+
+Porto da Lenha dates like Abeokuta from the second decade of the
+present century. In Tuckey's time the projection from the
+northern bank was known as "Tall Trees," a term common to several
+places in the "Oil rivers;" no factories existed, schooners
+sailed to Boma for cargo, and dropped down stream as soon as
+loaded. From French Point it is distant 40,000 measured metres (=
+21 statute miles and 1,615 yards); our charts show 20.50 nautical
+miles (= 32,500 metres in round numbers). The river opposite the
+projection narrows to a gate barely a mile and a half broad,
+whilst the valley stretches some five miles, and the blue hills
+inhabited by the Musulungus are clearly visible; the flood rises
+four or five feet, and drinking water must be brought from up
+stream. The site of the settlement is on the right or northern
+bank behind the projection, a slip of morass backed by swamps and
+thick growths, chiefly bombax, palm and acacia, lignum vitae, the
+mammee-apple and the cork-tree, palmyra, pandanus, and groves of
+papyrus. Low and deeply flooded during the rains, the place would
+be fatal without the sea-breeze; as it is, the air is exceedingly
+unwholesome. There is no quay, the canoe must act gondola; the
+wharf is a mere platform with steps, and in places the filthy
+drains are not dry even at this season. The length of the station
+is about one mile, and of no depth except what is taken up by the
+neat and expensive gardens. Eastward or up stream it thins out,
+and the foundations give considerable trouble; the inhabitants
+are condemned to do beavers' work, to protect the bank with
+strong piles, and to heap up earth for a base, whilst, despite
+all their toil, the water often finds its way in. The sixteen
+houses look well; they are substantial bungalows, built country
+fashion, with timber and matting; they have large and shady
+verandahs, and a series of inner rooms. Each house has a well-
+kept pottage plot, inferior, however, to those up stream.
+
+The tenure of ground here, as at Borna, is by yearly rent to the
+two "kings," Nengongo and Nenzalo, each of whom claims a half.
+Like the chiefs of Porto Novo, the despot of Dahome, the rulers
+of many Nigerian tribes, and even the Fernandian "Bube," these
+potentates may not look at the sea nor at the river. Their power
+is, therefore, deputed to "linguisters" or interpreters,
+linguistele ya Nchinu, "linguist to the king," being the official
+titles of these worthies, who massacre the Portuguese language,
+and who are empowered to receive "comey" (customs) and rent. The
+revenue is composed of three principal items; an ounce ($16) per
+head of negro embarked at Porto da Lenha; four per cent, on all
+goods sold, and, lastly, a hundred hard dollars monthly ground-
+rent--£l92 (English pound symbol) a year. The linguist becomes
+more powerful than the chief, who is wholly in his power, and
+always receives the best presents. Neagongo's fattore is old
+Shimbah, an ignoble aspect with a "kink in his leg;" Mashel or
+Machela, a corruption of the Portuguese Maciel, died about two
+months aeo: we shall see him disembarked for burial at Boma.
+
+It is evident that the slavers were wrong not to keep hulks like
+those of the Bonny River; health would have gained, and the
+procedure might have modified negro "sass." The chiefs begin
+early morning by going their rounds for drink, and end business
+between 7 and 10 A.M. Everywhere on this coast a few hours of
+work support a "gentleman;" even the comparatively industrious
+and hard-working Egbas rarely do anything after noon. These lords
+and masters are fully aware that the white men are their willing
+slaves as long as the large profits last. If a glass of watered
+rum, which they detect more easily than we do watered milk, be
+offered to them, it will be thrown in the donor's face. Every
+factory must keep a barrel of spirits ready broached if the
+agents would buy eggs and yams, and the poorest negro comes
+regularly with his garrafa. The mixed stuff costs per bottle only
+a hundred reis (= fourpence), and thoroughly demoralizes the
+black world.
+
+We landed at once, sent our letters to M. Monteiro, who
+hospitably offered his house, and passed the day quickly enough
+in a round of visits. Despite the general politeness and
+attention to us, we found a gloom overhanging the place: as at
+Whydah, its glories have departed, nor shall they ever return.
+The jollity, the recklessness, the gold ounces thrown in handfuls
+upon the monte-table, are things of the past: several houses are
+said to be insolvent, and the dearth of cloth is causing actual
+misery. Palm and ground-nut oil enable the agents only to buy
+provisions; the trade is capable of infinite expansion, but it
+requires time--as yet it supports only the two non-slaving
+houses, English and Dutch. The forty or fifty tons brought in
+every month pay them cent, per cent.; the bag of half a hundred
+weight being sold for four fathoms of cloth; or two hatchets, one
+bottle of rum, and a jug or a plate.
+
+Early next day I went to the English factory for the purpose of
+completing my outfit. Unfortunately, Mr. P. Maculloch, the head
+agent, who is perfectly acquainted with the river and the people,
+was absent, leaving the business in the hands of two "mean
+whites," walking buccras, English pariahs. The factory--a dirty
+disgrace to the name--was in the charge of a clerk, whom we saw
+being rowed about bareheaded through the sun, accompanied by a
+black girl, both as far from sober as might be. The cooper, who
+was sitting moony with drink, rose to receive us and to weigh out
+the beads which I required; under the excitement he had recourse
+to a gin-bottle, and a total collapse came on before half the
+work was done. Why should south latitude 6°, the parallel of
+Zanzibar, be so fatal to the Briton?
+
+At 2.20 P.M. on September 2, we left Porto da Lenha, and passed
+Mashel's Creek, on whose right bank is the village of Makatalla;
+the charts call it Foomou, and transfer it to the left. Here we
+enter upon the riverine archipelago. The great stream before one,
+now divides into three parallel branches, separated by long
+narrow islands and islets, banks and shallows. The northernmost
+channel in our maps, "Maxwell River," is known to Europeans and
+natives as Noangwa; Mamballa or the central line is called by the
+moderns Nshibúl, and the southern is dubbed by the hydrographer,
+"Rio Konio," a truly terrible mistake for Sonho. As a rule, the
+Noangwa, though infested during the rains by cruel mosquitoes, is
+preferred for the ascent, and the central for dropping down
+stream. The maximum breadth of the Congo bed, more than half
+island, is here five miles; and I was forcibly reminded of it
+when winding through the Dalmatian Archipelago.
+
+The river still maintained its alluvial aspect as we passed along
+the right bank. The surface was a stubble strewn with the usual
+trees; the portly bombax; the calabash, now naked and of wintry
+aspect; and the dark evergreen palmyra, in dots and streaks upon
+the red-yellow field, fronted by an edging of grass, whose king,
+cyperus papyrus, is crowned with tall heads waving like little
+palms. This Egyptian bush extends from the Congo mouth to Banza
+Nokki, our landing-place; it grows thickest about Porto da Lenha,
+and it thins out above and below: I afterwards observed it in the
+sweet water marshes of Syria and the Brazils. We passed sundry
+settlements--Loango Pequeno, Loango Grande, and others--and many
+canoes were seen plying up and down. On the left or to the south
+was nothing but dense reedy vegetation upon the low islands,
+which here are of larger dimensions than the northern line. As
+evening drew near, the grasshoppers and the tree frogs chirped a
+louder song, and the parrots whistled as they winged their rapid
+flight high overhead. Presently we passed out of the lower
+archipelago, and sighted the first high land closing upon the
+stream, rolling hills, which vanished in blue perspective, and
+which bore streaks of fire during the dark hours. Our Cabinda
+Patron grounded us twice, and even the high night breeze hardly
+enabled us to overcome the six-knot current off the narrow, whose
+right side is called Ponta da Diabo. Devil's Point is not so
+named in the chart: the place is marked "Strong Tide" (No. 1),
+opposite Chombae Island, which the natives term Zungá chyá
+Bundika, hence probably the name of the village Bemandika (Boma
+ndika). At this satanic headland, where the banks form a gate
+three miles broad, a man hailed us from the bank; none understood
+him, but all made up their minds that he threatened to visit us
+during the night.
+
+A light breeze early next morning fortunately freshened as we
+approached "Strong Tide" (No. 2). We ran north of the second
+archipelago above the gate; south of us lay the "Low Islands" of
+the chart, with plantations of beans and tobacco; the peasants
+stood to stare like Icelanders, leaning on oblong-bladed paddles
+six feet long, or upon alpen-stocks capped with bayonets; the
+"scare-crows" were grass figures, with pots for heads and wooden
+rattles suspended to bent poles. On the right bank a block of
+hills narrows the stream, and its selvage of light green grasses
+will contribute to the "floating islands." Higher up, blocks and
+boulders of all sizes rise from the vegetation, and prolong
+themselves into the shallower waters. There are two distinct
+bluffs, the westernmost marked by a tree-clump at its feet, and
+between them lies a baylet, where a dozen palms denote the once
+dreaded village Bemandika. The second block, 400 to 500 feet
+high, bears on its rounded summit the Stone of Lightning, called
+by the people Tadi Nzázhí, vulgò, Taddy Enzazzi. The Fiote
+language has the Persian letter Zh (j), sounding like the initial
+of the French "jour:" so Lander ("On the Course and Termination
+of the Niger," "Journal Royal Geographical Society," vol. i. p.
+131) says of the Island Zegozhe, that "zh is pronounced like z in
+azure." This upright mass, apparently 40 feet high, and seeming,
+like the "Lumba" of Kinsembo to rest upon a basement, is very
+conspicuous from the east, where it catches the eye as a watch-
+tower would. At the bluff-base, a huge slab, an irregular
+parallelogram, slopes towards the water and, viewed far up
+stream, it passably represents a Kaffir's pavoise. This Fingal's
+Shield, a name due to the piety of Mr. George Maxwell, is called
+by the French La Pierre Fétiche: it must not be confounded with
+our Fetish Rock (Tádi ya Muingu) on the southern bank at the
+entrance of the Nshibúl and Sonho branches. I can add nothing to
+Tuckey's description or Lieutenant Hawkey's tracing of the rude
+figures which distinguish a not unusual feature. Tuckey (p. 97)
+calls Fingal's Shield Taddy d'ya M'wangoo, and Professor Smith,
+Taddi Moenga (p. 303); the only defect in Lieutenant Hawkey's
+sketch is that of exaggerating the bluff, a mere mamelon, one of
+many lumps upon a continued level. Both rocks are of the oldest
+granite, much weather-worn and mixed and banded with mica and
+quartz. M. Charles Konig found in the finer-grained varieties
+"minute noble garnets," which also appeared in the mica-slate of
+"Gombac" higher up stream, and in the primitive greenstone of
+"Boka Embomma."[FN#8]
+
+Beyond this point, where Boma is first sighted, lies the large
+marauding village of Twáná. Here also a man shouted to us from
+the bank "Muliele! muliele!" for the Portuguese "mulher," one of
+the interminable corruptions of the tongue--a polite offer, as
+politely declined. The next feature is the Rio Jo Jacaré, a
+narrow sedgy stream on the right bank, which, winding northward
+through rolling lines of hills, bends westward, and joins, they
+say, the Rio Lukullu (Lukallo?) of Cabinda Bay. Men have
+descended, I am told, three leagues, but no one has seen the
+junction, consequently there may be a portage between the drains.
+If not, this is the apex of the greater Congo delta, a false
+formation, whose base between Cabinda Bay (S. lat. 5° 25') and
+Ambrizette (S. lat. 7° 16') measures 1° 51', equal to 111 direct
+geographical miles, whilst its depth inland would be sixty.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter Vii.
+
+               Boma.--our Outfit for the Interior
+
+
+
+We now reach Boma, the furthest Portuguese factory, about thirty,
+usually reckoned thirty-eight, nautical miles from Porta da
+Lenha, and a total of 52.50 from French Point.
+
+The upper dépôt of the Congo lies upon the north bank, accidenté
+ground, poor, stony, and sandy soil, with rounded, grass-clad
+hills, The southern is less broken; there are long slopes and
+waves of land which trend in graceful lines, charmingly
+diversified, to the uplands, where the old capital, São Salvador,
+is situated; and upon the undulating blue ridges, distance behind
+distance, appear markings by Nature's hand, which the stranger's
+eye can hardly distinguish from villa or village. The view
+explains how the old expedition felt "every day more in love with
+this beautiful country," The sea-like river wants nothing but
+cattle on its banks to justify the description--
+
+
+          "Appunto una scena pastorale, a cui fanno
+           Quinci il mar, quinci i colli, e d' ogn' intorno
+           I fior, le piante, e l' ombre, e l' onde, e ‘l cielo.
+           Unteatro pomposo."
+
+In the centre of the broad stream, whose southern arm is not
+visible, are three islets. The western most, backed by a long,
+grassy, palm-tasselled bank, is called Zungá chyá Bundiká. This
+Chombae Island of the charts is a rocky cone, dark with umbrella-
+shaped trees. Its north-eastern neighbour, Simúle Kete, the
+Molyneux Island of Mr. Maxwell, the Hekay of Tuckey, and the
+Kekay of the chart, contrasts sharply with the yellow stubbles
+and the flat lines of Zungá chyá Ngándi. Here, since Tuckey's
+time, the trees have made way for grass and stones; the only
+remnants are clumps in the south-eastern, which is not only the
+highest point, but also the windy and watery direction. On the
+Congo course the foul weather is mostly from the "sirocco," where
+the African interior is a mass of swamps. At the mouth tornadoes
+come down the line of stream from the north-east, and I heard
+traditions of the sea-tornado, which blows in shore instead of
+offshore as usual. About the close of the last century one or
+other of these islands was proposed as a dépôt and settlement,
+which a few simple works would convert into a small Gibraltar.
+The easternmost Buka, the Booka Embomma of the charts and maps,
+will presently be described. In this direction the Zaire assumes
+the semblance of a mountain lake, whilst down stream the broad
+bosom of the Nshibúl branch forms almost a sea-horizon, with dots
+showing where tall, scattered palms spring from the watery
+surface. We cannot but admire the nightly effects of the wintry
+bush-fires. During the day livid volumed smoke forms cumuli that
+conceal their enemy, the sun, and discharge a rain of blacks ten
+times the size of Londoners. In the darkened air we see storms of
+fire fiercely whirling over the undulating ranges, here sweeping
+on like torrents, there delaying, whilst the sheets meet at the
+apex, and a giant beard of flame (<Greek>                  )
+flouts the moon. The land must be splendidly grassed after the
+rains.
+
+The Boma factories are like those of Porto da Lenha, but humbler
+in size, and more resembling the wicker-work native houses. The
+river, which up stream will show a flood mark of twelve feet,
+here seldom rises above five, and further down three and four;
+consequently piles are not required, and the swiftness of the
+current keeps off the jacaré. Formerly there were fourteen
+establishments, which licit trade in palm oil and ground-nuts,
+instead of men, women, and children, have reduced to ten. The air
+is sensibly drier and healthier than at the lower settlement, and
+apparently there is nothing against the place but deadly ennui
+and monotony.
+
+We landed at once, and presented our letters to Sr. Antonio
+Vicente Pereira, who at once made us at home: he had seen Goa as
+well as Macáo, so we found several subjects in common. The
+factory enjoyed every comfort: the poultry yard throve, far
+better than at Porto da Lenha; we saw fowls and pigeons,
+"Manilla" ducks and ducklings, and a fine peacock from Portugal,
+which seemed to enjoy the change. The fish is not so good as that
+caught further down, and the natives have a habit of narcotizing
+it: the Silurus electricus is exceptionally plentiful. The
+farmyard contained tame deer, and a house-dog fierce as a
+tethered mastiff; goats were brought whenever wanted, and the
+black-faced, thin-tailed sheep gave excellent mutton. Beef was
+impossible; the Portuguese, like the natives, care little for
+milk, and of the herd, which strangers had attempted to
+domesticate, remained only a bull and a cow in very poor
+condition--the deaths were attributed to poisonous grass, but I
+vehemently suspect Tsetse. A daily "quitanda," or market, held
+under the huge calabashes on a hill behind the house, supplied
+what was wanted.
+
+Upon Market Hill executions also take place, the criminal being
+shot through the heart. M. Pereira's garden produces all that
+Porta da Lenha can grow, with less trouble and of a superior
+kind. Water-melons, tomatoes, onions, and pimento, or large
+pepper (pimentão, siliquastrum, ndungu ya yenéne), useful to
+produce "crocodiles' tears;" mint, and parsley flourish
+remarkably; turnips are eatable after two months; cabbage and
+lettuce, beet, carrot, and endive after three or four. It is a
+waste of ground to plant peas; two rows, twelve feet by four,
+hardly produce a plateful. Manioc ripens between the sixth and
+ninth month, plantains and bananas once a year, cotton and rice
+in four months, and maize in forty days--with irrigation it is
+easy to grow three annual crops. The time for planting is before
+the rains, which here last six weeks to two months, September and
+October. The staple of commerce is now the nguba, or ground-nut
+(plural, jinguba), which Merolla calls incumba, with sometimes a
+little milho (maize), and Calavance beans. Of fruits we find
+trellised grapes, pines, and guavas, which, as at Fernando Po,
+are a weed. The agrumi, limes, oranges and citrons are remarkably
+fine, and hold, as of old, a high place in the simple medicines
+of the country. A cup of lime-leaf tea, drunk warm in the
+morning, is the favourite emetic and cathartic: even in Pliny's
+day we find "Malus Assyria, quam alii vocant medicam (Mediam?,
+venenis medetur" (xii. 7). On the Gold Coast and in the Gaboon
+region, colic and dysentery are cured by a calabash full of lime-
+juice, "laced" with red pepper. The peculiarity of European
+vegetables throughout maritime Congo and Angola is the absence of
+all flavour combined with the finest appearance; it seems as
+though something in the earth or atmosphere were wanting to their
+full development. Similarly, though in the upper regions the
+climate is delicious, the missionaries could not keep themselves
+alive, but died of privation, hardship, and fatigue.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter VIII.
+
+                   A Visit to Banza Chisalla,
+
+
+
+Boma, at the head of the Congo delta, the great dépôt between the
+interior and the coast, owes its existence wholly to
+
+                    "the cruel trade
+           Which spoils unhappy Afric of her sons."
+
+Father Merolla (1682), who visited it from "Angoij," our
+"Cabinda," speaks of it as a pretty large island, tributary to
+the Mani-Congo, extremely populous, well supplied with
+provisions, and outlaid by islets belonging to the Count of
+Sonho. Tuckey's Embomma was an inland banza or town, and the site
+of the factories was called Market Point; the Expedition map and
+the hydrographic chart term it Loombee, the latter being properly
+the name of a large quitanda (market) lying two miles to the
+north-west. Early in the present century it is described as a
+village of a hundred huts, opposite which trading vessels
+anchored under charge of the "Fuka or king's merchant;" no market
+was held there, lest, in case of dispute, the royal person might
+suffer. Although the main features of our maps are still correct,
+there have been great changes in the river-bed between Porto da
+Lenha and Boma, especially about the latter place, which should
+be transferred from its present site to Lumbi. The broad Chisalla
+Creek, which Mr. Maxwell calls Logan, between the northern bank
+and the island "Booka Embomma," is now an arm only 200 feet wide.
+In fact all the bank about Boma, like the lower delta, urgently
+calls for re-surveying.
+
+This part of the river belongs to the "Rei dos Reis," Nessalla,
+under whom are some ten chief officers called "kings," who buy
+and sell; indeed, Africa knows no other. The title is prostituted
+throughout the West Coast, but it is nowhere so degraded as in
+the Congo regions; the whites abuse it to flatter the vanity of
+the astute negro, who accepts it with a view to results--a "king-
+dash" must, of course, be greater than that of a subject. Every
+fellow with one black coat becomes a "preese" (prince), and if he
+has two he styles himself a "king." Without permission of the
+"King of Kings" we could obtain neither interpreter, canoe, nor
+crew; a visit to Banza Chisalal was therefore necessary and, as
+it would have been vain to ask anything empty-handed, I took with
+me a fine spangled cloak, a piece of chintz, and a case of ship's
+rum, the whole worth £9.
+
+At 6.30 A.M. on September 5th we set out up stream in a fine
+canoe, wall-sided and rather crank, but allowing the comfort of
+chairs. She was of Mayumba make, superior to anything built on
+the river, and the six men that drove her stood up to pole, and
+paddle. Above Boma the hills, which are the outlines of the west
+African Ghats, form a graceful semicircle, separated from the
+water by a flat terrace garnished with little villages and tree-
+islets. On the north bank are many of the crater-like sinks which
+dot the coast from the Gaboon to Loango. We hugged the right side
+to avoid the rapid swirl; there was no backwater at the points,
+and hard work was required to prevent our being swept against the
+boulders of gneiss, schiste, and pudding-stone edging the shores
+and stretching into the stream. Here the fish is excellent as at
+Porto cla Lenha, and we found the people catching it in large
+spoon-shaped basins: I enquired about the Peixe mulher (woman-
+fish), the French sirène, which old missioners describe as an
+African mermaid, not exactly as she appeared to the "lovely lord
+of Colonsay," and which Barbot figures with "two strutting
+breasts." He makes the flesh taste like pork, and tells us that
+the small bones of the hand were good for gravel, whilst
+bracelets made of the left rib were worn near the heart, to stop
+bleeding. This manatus, like the elephant and the hippopotamus,
+has long disappeared before the gun.
+
+After some three quarters of an hour we reached the entrance of
+Chisalla Creek, which is the northernmost branch of the main
+stream. On the left (north) was a plain showing traces of a large
+village, and we sighted our first grass-island--a compact mass of
+fibrous, earth-washed roots and reedy vegetation, inhabited by
+serpents and ardeine birds. To the right, or southward, rises the
+tall island of Boma, rocky and wooded, which a narrow channel
+separates from its eastern neighbour, Chisalla Islet. The latter
+is the royal Pere la Chaise, the graves being kept carefully
+concealed; white men who have visited the ground to shoot
+antelope have had reason to regret the step. Here also lie three
+officers of the Congo Expedition-- Messrs. Galwey, Tudor, and
+Cranch--forgotten, as Gamboa and Reitz at Mombasah.
+
+The banks of the winding creek were beautified with the
+malaguetta pepper, the ipomsea, the hibiscus, and a yellow flower
+growing upon an aquatic plant like a magnified water-cress.
+Animal life became somewhat less rare; we saw sandpipers, hawks,
+white and black fish-eagles, and long-legged water-hens, here
+supposed to give excellent sport. An embryo rapid, formed by a
+gneiss-band connecting the north bank with the islet, delayed us,
+and the rocks on the right showed pot-holes dug by the poling-
+staves; during the rains canoes from Boma avoid this place, and
+seek fuel down stream. After a total of two hours and a quarter
+we reached Banza Chisalla: it is a "small country," in African
+parlance, a succursal of Boma proper, the Banza on the hills
+beyond the reedy, grassy plain. The site is charming--a flat
+palm-orchard backed by an amphitheatre of high-rolling ground,
+and the majestic stream approaches it through a gate, whose right
+staple is the tall Chisalla, and whose left is a rocky islet with
+outlying needles.
+
+We ascended the river-bank, greeted by the usual accidents of an
+African reception; the men shouted, the women rushed screaming
+under cover, and the children stood howling at the horrible
+sight. A few paces placed us at the "palace," a heap of huts,
+surrounded by an old reed-fence. The audience-room was a trifle
+larger than usual, with low shady eaves, a half-flying roof, and
+a pair of doorways for the dangerous but indispensable draught; a
+veteran sofa and a few rickety chairs composed the furniture, and
+the throne was known by its boarded seat, which would have been
+useful in taking a "lamp-bath."
+
+Presently entered the "Rei dos Reis," Nessalla: the old man,
+whose appearance argued prosperity, was en grande tenue, the
+State costume of Tuckey's, not of Merolla's day. The crown was
+the usual "berretta" (night-cap) of open work; the sceptre, a
+drum-major's staff; the robes, a "parochial" beadle's coat of
+scarlet cloth, edged with tinsel gold lace. His neck was adorned
+with hair circlets of elephants' tails, strung with coral and
+beads; the effect, to compare black with white, was that of Beau
+Brummell's far-famed waterfall tie, and the head seemed supported
+as if on a narrow-rimmed "charger." The only other ornament was a
+broad silver ring welded round the ankle, and drawing attention
+to a foot which, all things considered, was small and well
+shaped.
+
+Some of the chiefs had copper rings of home manufacture, with
+neatly cut raised figures. The king held in his right hand an
+article which at first puzzled us--a foot's length of split reed,
+with the bulbous root attached. He may not, like his vassals,
+point with the finger, and without pointing an African can hardly
+give an order. Moreover, the Sangálávú or Malaguetta pepper
+(Amomum granum Paradisi), fresh or old, is not only a toothstick,
+but a fetish of superior power when carried on journeys.
+Professor Smith writes "Sangala woo," and tells us that it was
+always kept fresh in the house, to be rolled in the hands when
+invoking the Fetish during war-time; moreover, it was chewed to
+be spat at the enemy. Possibly he confuses it with the use as a
+tooth-stick, the article which Asia and Africa prefer to the
+unclean hog's- bristle brush of Europe.
+
+On the left of the throne sat the Nchinu, or "second king,"
+attired in a footman's livery of olive-coloured cloth, white-worn
+at the seams, and gleaming with plated buttons, upon which was
+the ex-owner's crest--a cubit arm.
+
+The stranger in Africa marvels why men, who, as Dahome shows, can
+affect a tasteful simplicity, will make themselves such "guys."
+When looking at these caricatures, he is tempted to read
+(literally) learned Montesquieu, "It is hardly to be believed
+that God, who is a wise being, should place a soul, especially a
+good soul, in such a black, ugly body," and to consider the few
+exceptions as mere "sporting plants." But the negro combines with
+inordinate love of finery the true savage taste--an imitative
+nature,--and where he cannot copy the Asiatic he must ape the
+European; only in the former pursuit he rises above, in the
+latter he sinks below his own proper standard. Similarly, as a
+convert, he is ennobled by El Islam; in rare cases, which may be
+counted upon the fingers, he is civilized by Christianity; but,
+as a rule, the latter benefits him so far only as it abolishes
+the barbarous and murderous rites of Paganism.
+
+But there is also a sound mundane reason which causes the African
+"king" to pose in these cast-off borrowed plumes. Contrast with
+his three-quarter nude subjects gives him a name; the name
+commands respect; respect increases "dash;" and dash means
+dollars. For his brain, dense and dead enough to resist
+education, is ever alive and alert to his own interest; whilst
+the concentration of its small powers prevails against those who,
+in all other points, are notably his superiors. The whole of
+negro Africa teaches this lesson. "The Ethiopians," says Father
+Merolla, "are not so dull and stupid as is commonly imagined, but
+rather more subtle and cunning than ordinary;" and he adds an
+instance of far-sighted treachery, which would not have been
+despicable even in a Hindoo.
+
+A desultory palaver "came up;" the soul of the meeting not being
+present. M. Pissot explained my wish to "take walk and make
+book," carefully insisting upon the fact that I came to spend,
+not to gain money. The grizzled senior's face, before crumpled
+like a "wet cloak ill laid up," expanded at these last words, and
+with a grunt, which plainly meant "by' m' by," he rose, and
+retired to drink-- a call of nature which the decencies of
+barbarous dignity require to be answered in private. He returned
+accompanied by his nephew, Manbuku Prata (pronounced Pelata), the
+"Silver Chief Officer," as we might say, Golden Ball. The title
+is vulgarly written Mambuco; the Abbé Proyart prefers Ma-nboukou,
+or "prince who is below the Makaia in dignity." The native name
+of this third personage was Gidifuku. It was a gorgeous
+dignitary: from the poll of his night-cap protruded a dozen
+bristles of elephant's tail hair, to which a terminal coral gave
+the graceful curve of a pintado's crest, and along his ears, like
+the flaps of a travelling casquette, hung two dingy little
+mirrors of talc from Cacongo, set in clumsy frames of ruddled
+wood. Masses of coral encircled his neck, and the full-dress
+naval uniform of a French officer, with epaulettes of stupendous
+size, exposed a zebra'd guernsey of equivocal purity. A long
+black staff, studded with broad-headed brass beads, served to
+clear the room of the lieges, who returned as fast as they were
+turned out--the baton was evidently not intended to be used
+seriously.
+
+But the Manbuku Prata is not a mere "Punch in a puppet show." His
+face expresses more intelligence and resolution than usual, and
+his Portuguese is not the vile article of the common trader. He
+means business. When other chiefs send their "sons," that is
+their slaves, to fight, he leads them in person--venite, non ite.
+The French "Emigration Libre" put 30,000 dollars into his pocket,
+and he still hopes against hope to ship many a cargo for the
+Banana factory. He has some 300 armed serviles at Chinímí and
+Lámbá, two villages perched like condors' nests upon hills
+commanding the river's northern bank, and, despite the present
+dearth of "business," he still owns some 100,000 francs in cloth
+and beads, rum and gunpowder.
+
+As the "Silver Minister" took his seat upon the ground before the
+king, all removed their caps with a simultaneous grunt and
+performed the "Sákilá" or batta-palmas; this hand-clapping must
+be repeated whenever the simplest action is begun or ended by
+king or chief. Monteiro and Gamitto (pp. 101 et seg.) refer to
+the practice everywhere on the line of country which they
+visited: there it seems to be even a more ceremonious affair than
+in the Congo. The claps were successively less till they were
+hardly audible; after a pause five or six were given, and the
+last two or three were in hurried time, the while without
+pronouncing a word. The palaver now opened steadily with a drink:
+a bottle of trade "fizz" was produced for the white man, and rum
+for his black congeners; then the compliment of healths went all
+round. After this we fell to work at business. By dint of
+abundant wrangling and with an immense display of suspicion,
+natural under the circumstances, it was arranged that the king
+should forward me in a couple of his own canoes to Banza Nokki,
+the end of river navigation, as we were told, and falsely told;
+in my turn I was to pay goods valued about £6, at least three
+times the usual tariff. They consisted of fourteen red caps, as
+many "sashes," and fifty-two fathoms of cloth for the crew; ten
+Peças de lei or Chiloes for each interpreter, and two pieces for
+the canoes. I should have given four fathoms for each man and the
+same for each boat. The final scene was most gratifying to the
+African mind: I solemnly invested old Nessala with the grand
+cloak which covered his other finery; grinning in the ecstasy of
+vanity, he allowed his subjects to turn him round and round, as
+one would a lay figure, yet with profound respect, and, lastly,
+he retired to charm his wives.
+
+This part of the negotiations ended with presenting some "satin
+stripe" and rum to the Nchinu and Manbuku Prata, and with shaking
+hands--a dangerous operation. The people are cleanly; they wash
+when rising, and before as well as after every meal; they are
+always bathing, yet from prince to pauper, from baby to grey
+beard, they are affected with a psora known by its Portuguese
+name, "sarnas." The Congo "fiddle" appears first between the
+articulations of the fingers, and bleaches the hands and wrists
+as if it were leprosy. Yet I did not see a single case of true
+lepra Arabum, or its modifications, the huge Barbadoes leg
+(elephantiasis), and the sarcoma scrotale and sarcocele of
+Zanzibar and East Africa. From the extremities the gale extends
+over the body, especially the shins, and the people, who appear
+in the perpetual practice of scalpturigo, attribute it to the
+immoderate use of palm wine. I observed, however, that Europeans,
+in the river, who avoid the liquor, are hardly ever free from
+this foul blood-poison, and a jar of sulphur mixture is a common
+article upon the table. Hydrocele is not unfrequent, but hardly
+so general as in the Eastern Island; one manner of white man, a
+half caste from Macáo, was suffering with serpigo, and boasted of
+it.
+
+All predicted to me a similar fate from the "botch of Congo," but
+happily I escaped. Indeed, throughout the West African Coast,
+travellers risk "craw-craw," a foul form of the disease, seen on
+board the African steamers. Kru-men touching the rails of the
+companion ladders, have communicated it to passengers, and these
+to their wives and families.
+
+The town was neat and clean as the people. The houses were built
+upon raised platforms, and in the little fenced fields the
+Cajanus Indicus vetch was conspicuous. In Hindostani it is called
+Thur, or Doll-plant, by the Eastern Arab Turiyan, in Kisawahili
+Mbarazi, in Angola voando (Merolla's Ouuanda), and in the Brazil
+Guandu.[FN#9] The people had lost their fear, and brought their
+exomphalous little children, who resembled salmon fry in the
+matter of umbilical vesicles, to be patted by the white man; a
+process which caused violent screams and in some cases nearly
+induced convulsions-- the mothers seemed to enjoy the horror
+displayed by their hopefuls. There is little beauty amongst the
+women, and settled Europeans prefer Cabinda girls. The latter
+have perhaps the most wiry and wig-like hair on the whole West
+African coast, where all hair is more or less wiry and wig- like.
+Cloth was less abundant in the village than a smear of red; the
+bosom even after marriage was unveiled, and the rule of fashion
+was shown by binding it tightly down. The rich wore armlets and
+leglets of staircase rods, brass and copper, like the metal
+gaiters and gauntlets of the Gaboon River. The only remarkable
+object was the Quesango, a wooden effigy of a man placed in the
+middle of the settlement: Battel mentions it amongst the "Gagas
+or Guides," and Barbot terms it "Likoku Mokisi." Three faint
+hurrahs, a feeble African echo of England like the "hoch!" of
+Vienna, and the discharge of a four- pounder were our parting
+honours.
+
+We returned viâ the gateway between the two islets. On the south-
+eastern flank of Chisalla is a dwarf precipice called Mbondo la
+Zumba and, according to the interpreters, it is the Lovers' Leap
+of Tuckey. But its office must not be confounded with that
+attributed to the sinister-looking scaur of Leucadia; here the
+erring wives of the Kings of Boma and their paramours found a
+Bosphorus. The Commander of the First Congo Expedition applies
+the name to a hanging rock on the northern shore, about eighteen
+miles higher up stream. A portentous current soon swept us past
+Père la Chaise, and shortly after noon we were comfortably at
+breakfast with Sr. Pereira.
+
+During the last night we had been kept awake by the drumming and
+fifing, singing and shouting, weeping and howling, pulling at
+accordions and striking the monotonous Shingungo. Merolla names
+this cymbal Longa, and describes it justly as two iron bells
+joined by an arched bar: I found it upon the Tanganyika Lake, and
+suffered severely from its monotonous horrors. Monteiro and
+Gamitto (p. 232) give an illustration of what is known in the
+Cazembe's country as "Gomati:" The Mchua or gong-gong of Ashanti
+has a wooden handle connecting the cones. Our palhabote had
+brought up the chief Mashel's bier, and to-day we have the
+satisfaction of seeing it landed. A kind of palanquin, covered
+with crimson cloth and tinsel gold like a Bombay "Tabút," it had
+three horns or prominences, two capped with empty black bottles,
+and the central bearing the deceased's helmet; it was a fancy
+article, which might have fitted him of Gath, with a terrific
+plume and the spoils of three horses in the sanguine hues of war.
+Although eight feet long by five broad, the coffin was said to be
+quite full. The immense respect which the Congoese bear to their
+rulers, dead as well as alive, prevented my verifying the
+accounts of the slave dealers. I knew that the chief who had died
+at Kinsembo, had been dried on a bamboo scaffolding over a slow
+fire, and lay in state for some weeks in flannel stockings and a
+bale of baize, but these regions abound in local variations of
+custom. Some declared, as we find in Proyart, that the corpse had
+been mummified by the rude process of smoking; others that it had
+been exposed for some days to the open air, the relatives sitting
+round to keep off the flies till preliminarily bandaged.
+According to Barbot (iii. 23), the people of Fetu on the Gold
+Coast and the men of Benin used to toast the corpse on a wooden
+gridiron; and the Vei tribe, like the Congoese, still fumigate
+their dead bodies till they become like dried hams. This rude
+form of the Egyptian rite is known to East as well as to West
+Africa: Kimera, late King of Uganda, was placed upon a board
+covering the mouth of a huge earthern pot heated from below.
+
+Instances are known of bodies in the Congo region remaining a
+year or two above ground till the requisite quantity of fine
+stuffs has been procured--the larger the roll the greater the
+dignity, and sometimes the hut must be pulled down before it can
+be removed. Here, as on the Gold Coast, we find the Jewish
+practice recorded by Josephus of converting the tomb into a
+treasury; in the case of Mashel some £600 in gold and silver,
+besides cloth, beads, and ornaments, shared, they say, his fate.
+The missionaries vainly fought against these customs, which are
+evidently of sentimental origin--
+
+          "Now bring the last sad gifts, with these
+               The last lament be said;
+           Let all that pleased and still may please
+               Be buried with the dead."
+
+The bier was borne by slaves, as the head men would not even look
+at it; at times the carriers circled round, as if to deprecate
+the idea that they were hurrying it to its bourne. The grave was
+a pit fifteen to twenty feet deep, cut like a well, covered with
+stones to keep out wild beasts, and planted round with the
+cylindrical euphorbia by way of immortelles.
+
+I could not find out if the Congoese still practise the vivi-
+sepulture so common on the Western Coast--the "infernal
+sacrifices of man's flesh to the memory of relatives and
+ancestors," as the old missioners energetically expressed
+themselves. According to Battel, the "Giaghi" corpse was seated
+as if alive in a vault; in this "infernal and noisome dungeon"
+were placed two wives with their arms broken, and thus there was
+no danger of the Zumbi or ghost killing men by reapparition. When
+the king of Old Calabar died, a huge hole was dug, with an off
+chamber for two sofas, one of which supported the dressed and
+ornamented corpse. Personal attendants, such as the umbrella,
+sword, and snuff-box bearers, holding the insignia of their
+offices, together with sundry virgins, were either slaughtered or
+thrown in alive, a rude in pace. Quantities of food and trade
+goods, especially coppers, were heaped up; after which the pit
+was filled and the ground was levelled. The less wealthy sort of
+"gentlemen" here are placed in smaller graves near the villages;
+and the slaves are still "buried with the burial of an ass,"--
+cast forth into the bush.
+
+Yet, by way of showing themselves kind to the dead, the Congoese
+are "commonly very cruel to the living." Lately, a chief, called
+from his wealth, "Chico de Ouro" (Golden Frank) died somewhat
+suddenly. The Nganga or medicine man who, on such occasions, here
+as elsewhere, has the jus vitæ et necis, was called in; he
+charged one of the sons with parricide by witchcraft, and the
+youth was at once pierced by the bayonets of his brothers.
+"Golden Frank" was peculiar in his ways. He used to entertain the
+factors at dinner, imitating them from soup to cheese; his only
+objections were to tea, and to drinking toasts out of anything
+but the pet skull of an enemy: it was afterwards placed upon his
+grave.
+
+Boma is no longer "the emporium of the Congo Empire," if it ever
+did deserve that title. Like Porto da Lenha, it is kept up by the
+hopes of seeing better days, which are not doomed to dawn. Even
+at the time of my visit some 400 to 500 negroes were under guard
+in a deserted factory, and, whilst we were visiting Nessalla,
+they were marched down to bathe. When I returned from the
+cataracts, the barracoon contained only fifty or sixty, the rest
+having been shunted off to some unguarded point. At a day's
+notice a thousand, and within a week 3,000 head could be procured
+from the adjoining settlements, where the chattels are kept at
+work. As in Tuckey's day, "those exported are either captives in
+war or condemned criminals." During the Free Emigration as much
+as $80 have been paid per man, a large sum for "Congoes:" whilst
+a cargo of 500 "Minas" (Guinea negroes) loses at most 20 per
+cent., these less hardy gangs seldom escape without at least
+double the deaths by dysentery or some other epidemic. Now they
+are freely offered for $10 to $20, but there are no buyers; the
+highest bid of which I heard was $100 for a house-"help."
+
+The slave-traders in the Congo look upon their employment as did
+the contrabandist in the golden days of smuggling; the "free
+sailor" whom Marryatt depicts, a law-breaker, yet not less a very
+pleasant, companionable fellow. The unhappy differences between
+the late British Commissioner for Loanda and the Judge of the
+mixed Court, Sr. José Julio Rodriguez, who followed his enemy to
+the grave on April 12, 1863, rendered São Paulo anything but a
+pleasant place to an English resident; but the rancour had not
+extended to the Congo, and, so far from showing chagrin, the
+agents declared that without the "coffin squadron," negroes would
+have been a mere drug in the market. The only déplaisir is that
+which I had already found in a Gaboon factory, the excessive
+prevalence of petty pilfering. The Moleques or house-boys steal
+like magpies, even what is utterly useless to them; these young
+clerks of St. Nicholas will scream and writhe, and confess and
+beg pardon under the lash, and repeat the offence within the
+hour: as they are born serviles, we cannot explain the habit by
+Homer's,
+
+          "Jove fixed it certain that whatever day
+           Makes man a slave takes half his worth away."
+
+One of our watches was found in the pocket of a noble
+interpreter, who, unabashed, declared that he placed it there for
+fear of its being injured; and the traders are constantly
+compelled to call in the Fetishman for the protection of their
+stores against the prigging chiefs. Yet in Tuckey's time there
+was only one thief at Boma, a boy who stole a knife, confessed,
+and restored it. During a month's residence amongst the pagans of
+the interior, where the houses swarmed with serviles, and where
+my outfit, which was never locked up, must have represented a
+plate-chest in England, not the smallest article was "found
+missing," nor could anything be touched except by collusion with
+the head man.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter IX.
+
+                  Up the Congo to Banza Nokki.
+
+For a wonder the canoes came in time, and, despite their mat-
+sails, we could not complain of them. There were twelve paddlers
+two for the stem, and two for the stern of each craft, under a
+couple of interpreters, Jotakwassi and Nchama-Chamvu, who were
+habited in European frock-coats of broadcloth, and in native
+terminations mostly "buff." Our excellent host bade us a kindly
+adieu, with many auguries of success--during the last night the
+frogs had made a noise in the house. Briefly, we set out on
+September 6th.
+
+In the forty-five miles between Boma, where we enter the true
+trough of the Congo, and the landing-place of Banza Nokki below
+the cataracts, there are half-a-dozen reaches, the shortest of
+three, the longest of fifteen miles. They are not straight, as
+upon the chart; the windings of the bed exclude direct vision,
+and the succession of points and bays suggest, like parts of the
+Rhine, a series of mountain-tarns. The banks show the high-water
+level in a low shelf, a ribbon of green, backed by high rolling
+hills, rounded and stony, with grass dry at this season; the
+formation is primitive, and the material of the lower bed has
+been held to "prove the probability that the mountains of
+Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and other adjacent parts of South
+America, were primevally connected with the opposite chains, that
+traverse the plains of Congo and Loango." In parts the rocks fall
+bluff into the river, and here the current rushes past like a
+mill-race without a shadow of backwater. The heights are
+intersected by gullies and ravines, of which I counted sixty-nine
+on the right and fifty-four on the left bank; many of them are
+well wooded, and others are fronted by plains of the reeds and
+flags, which manufacture floating islands, cast loose, like those
+of the Niger, about the end of July by the "Malka" rains. About a
+dozen contained running water: Captain Tuckey did not see one
+that would turn a mill in August and September; but in November
+and December all these fiumaras will discharge torrents.
+
+The breadth of the entroughed bed varies from 700 yards to two
+miles where it most dispreads itself. The current increases from
+the normal three to five knots in rare places; the surface loses
+the glassiness of the lower section, and at once shows the
+boiling and swirling which will be noticed near the cataracts.
+The shores are often foul, but the midway is mostly clear, and,
+where sunken rocks are, they are shown by whirlpools. The flow of
+the tide, or rather the damming up of the lower waters between
+Porto da Lenha and the mouth, causes a daily rise, which we found
+to measure about a foot; thus it assists in forming a treble
+current, the rapid down-flow in the Thalweg being subtended by a
+strong backwater on either side carrying a considerable portion
+in a retrograde direction, and showing a sensible reflux; this
+will continue as far as the rapids. In the Amazonas the tides are
+felt a hundred leagues from the mouth; and, whilst the stream
+moves seawards, the level of the water rises, proving an evident
+under-current. Mr. Bates has detected the influence of oceanic
+tides at a point on the Tapajos, 530 miles distant from its
+mouth, such is the amazing flatness of the country's profile:
+here we find the reverse.
+
+The riverine trough acts as wind-conductor to a strong and even
+violent sea-breeze; on the lower section it begins as a ground-
+current--if the "bull" be allowed--a thin horizontal stratum near
+the water, it gradually curves and slides upwards as it meets the
+mountain flanks, forming an inverted arch, and extending some
+2,000 to 3,000 feet above the summits. At this season it is a
+late riser, often appearing about 3 P.M., and sometimes its
+strength is not exhausted before midnight. The brown water,
+grass-sheeted at the sides, conceals the bright yellow sand of
+the bed; when placed in a tumbler it looks clear and colourless,
+and the taste is perfectly sweet--brackishness does not extend
+far above Porto da Lenha. Yet at Boma the residents prefer a
+spring near the factories, and attribute dysentery to the use of
+river-water. According to Mr. George Maxwell, the supply of the
+lower bed has the quality of rotting cables, and the same
+peculiarity was attributed to the Tanganyika.
+
+Of late years no ship has ventured above Boma, and boats have
+ascended with some difficulty, owing to the "buffing stream." Yet
+there is no reason why the waters should not be navigated, as
+proposed in 1816, by small steamers of good power, and the strong
+sea-breeze would greatly facilitate the passage. In older and
+more enterprising days merchant-schooners were run high up the
+Zaire. The master of a vessel stated to Tuckey that he "had been
+several voyages up to the distance of 140 miles from the mouth"
+without finding any difficulty.
+
+Our course passed by Banza Chisalla where, as we had paid double,
+there was a vain attempt to make us pay treble. Travelling up the
+south-eastern reach, we passed a triangular insulated rock off
+the southern bank, and then the "diabolitos" outlying Point Kilu,
+opposite Banza Vinda on the other side. A second reach winding to
+the north-east showed on the right Makula (Annan) River, and a
+little further Munga-Mungwa (Woodhouslee); between them is the
+terminus of the São Salvador road. On the northern bank where the
+hills now become rounded mountains, 1,500 feet above the stream,
+perches Chinimi the village of Manbuku Prata, who expects canoes
+here to await his orders; and who was sorely offended because I
+passed down without landing. The next feature of the chart,
+Matádi "Memcandi," is a rocky point, not an island. Turning a
+projection, Point Makula (Clough Corner), we entered No. 3, elbow
+bending southeast; on its concave northern side appeared the
+settlement Vinda la Nzádi. This is the Vinda le Zally of Tuckey;
+on the chart Veinde len Zally, and according to others Vinda de
+Nzadi, or village of the Zaire River. It is probably the "Benda"
+of the Introduction (p. xxxiv.); and as b and v sound alike in
+Fiote, Cabinda, Cabenda or Kabendah is evidently Ca-vinda--great
+village.
+
+Our terminus that day was the usual resting-place of travellers,
+"Mfumba" behind Nkumungu (Point) Kaziwa, a mass of granitoid
+slabs, with a single tree for landmark. Opposite us was Sandi ya
+Nzondo, which others call Sanga ya Ngondo; in the chart this one-
+tree island is written "Catlo Zonda," it is the first of two
+similar formations. Oscar Rock, its western (down stream)
+neighbour, had shared the fate of "Soonga lem Paccula," (Zunga
+chya Makula?) a stone placed in the map north-east of the Makula
+or Annan debouchure; both were invisible, denoted only by swirls
+in the water. We had taken seven hours to cover what we easily
+ran down in two, and we slept comfortably with groan of rock and
+roar of stream for lullaby.
+
+September 7.--Our course now lay uninterruptedly along the left
+bank, where the scenery became yet more Rhine-like, in natural
+basins, reaches on the chart: here and there rugged uprocks
+passably simulated ruined castles. The dwarf bays of yellow sand
+were girt by a goodly vegetation, the palm and the calabash only
+telling us that we were in Africa.
+
+Our men pointed to the work of a Nguvu or hippopotamus, which
+they say sometimes attacks canoes; they believe with Tuckey that
+the river-horses cause irregularity of soundings by assembling
+and trampling deep holes in the bed; but the Ngadi is a proof
+that they do not, as M. du Chaillu supposes, exclusively affect
+streams with shoals and shallows. The jacaré (crocodile) is known
+especially to avoid the points where the current sweeps swiftly
+past, yet no one will hang his hand over the canoe into the
+water: we did not see any of these wretches, but at Boma Coxswain
+Deane observed one about sixteen feet long.
+
+Curls of smoke arose from the mountain-walls of the trough,
+showing that the bush was being burned; and spired up from a
+grassy palm-dotted plain, between two rocky promontories on the
+left bank, the site of the Chacha or Wembo village: in a gap of
+the herbage stood half-finished canoes, and a man was bobbing
+with rod, line, and float. After an hour's paddling we halted for
+breakfast under "Alecto Rock," a sheer bluff of reddish schist,
+150 feet high; here a white trident, inverted and placed ten feet
+above the water, showed signs of H.M. Ship "Alecto," (late)
+Captain Hunt, whose boat passed up in 1855. The people call it
+Chimbongolo. The river is now three quarters of a mile wide, and
+the charming cove shows the brightest of sands and the densest of
+vegetation waving in the cool land-wind.
+
+Resuming our way at 9 P.M., we passed on the left "Scylla Rocks,"
+then a wash, and beyond them four high and tree-clad heads off
+the right bank. Three are islets, the Zunga chya Gnombe--of the
+bull--formed by a narrow arm passing round them to the north:
+other natives called them Zunga chya Umbinda, but all seem to
+differ. These are the Gombac Islands of the chart, Hall Island
+being the easternmost, and the northern passage between the three
+horns and the main is called by us "Gombac Creek." Half an hour
+beyond was a mass of villages, in a large, grassy low-land of the
+left bank, girt by mountains higher than those down stream. Some
+outlying huts were called by the interpreters Suko Nkongo, and
+formed the "beach town" of large interior settlements, Suko do
+Wembo and Mbinda. Others said Lasugu or Sugo Nkongo, the Sooka
+Congo of the charts: others again for "Mbinda" proposed "Mpeso
+Birimba." This is probably the place where according to the mail
+of November, ‘73, diamonds were found, and having been submitted
+to "Dr. Basham (Dr. Bastian before mentioned), Director of the
+Museum of Berlin," were pronounced to be of very fine water. It
+is possible that the sandstone may afford precious stones like
+the itacolumite of the Brazil ("Highlands of the Brazil," i.
+380), but the whole affair proved a hoax. In mid-stream rose No.
+2, "One-Tree Island," Zunga chya Nlemba or Shika chya Nzondo; in
+Tuckey it is called Boola Beca or Blemba (the husband) Rock; the
+old ficus dying at the head, was based upon a pedestal which
+appeared groin-shaped from the east. Here the mirage was very
+distinct, and the canoes seemed to fly, not to swim--
+
+     "As when far out of sea a fleet descried,
+      Hangs in the clouds."
+
+ The northern bank shows a stony projection called by Maxwell
+"Fiddler's Elbow;" it leads to the fourth reach, the second of
+the north-eastern series; and the breadth of the stream, once
+more a mountain lake, cannot be less than two miles.
+
+I foresaw trouble in passing these settlements. Presently a
+snake-like war canoe with hawser-holes like eyes, crept out from
+the southern shore; a second fully manned lay in reserve, lurking
+along the land, and armed men crowned the rocks jutting into the
+stream. We were accosted by the first craft, in which upon the
+central place of honour sat Mpeso Birimbá, a petty chief of Suko
+Nkongo; a pert rascal of the French factory, habited in a red
+cap, a green velvet waistcoat, and a hammock-shaped tippet of
+pine-apple fibre; his sword was a short Sollingen blade. The
+visit had the sole object of mulcting me in rum and cloth, and my
+only wish was naturally to expend as little as possible in mere
+preliminaries. The name of Manbuku Prata was duly thrown at him
+with but little effect: these demands are never resisted by the
+slave-dealers. After much noise and cries of "Mwendi" (miser,
+skin-flint) on the part of the myrmidons, I was allowed to
+proceed, having given up a cloth twenty-four yards long, and I
+felt really grateful to the "trade" which had improved off all
+the other riverine settlements. Beyond this point we saw nothing
+but their distant smokes.
+
+Before the second north-eastern reach, the interpreters exclaimed
+"Yellala falla"--"the cataract is speaking," and we could
+distinctly hear the cheering roar. The stream now assumed the
+aspect of Niagara below the Falls, and the circular eddies
+boiling up from below, and showing distinct convexity, suggested
+the dangerous "wells" of the northern seas. Passing the "Three
+Weird Sisters," unimportant rocks off, the right bank, we entered
+upon the remarkably long stretch, extending upwards of five
+miles, and, from its predominating growth, we proposed to call it
+"Palmyra Reach." The immediate river banks were clad with sedge,
+and the broad leaves of the nymphæa, a plant like the calamus of
+Asia, but here used only as a toothpick, began to oust the rushy
+and flaggy growth of the lower bed. The pink balls of the spinous
+mimosa, and bright flowers, especially the convolvulus and
+ipomaea, illuminated the dull green. The grassy land at the foot
+of the mountains was a mere edging, faced by outlying rocks, and
+we were shown the site of a village long ago destroyed.
+
+The Nteba, or palmyra nobilis, mixed here and there with a
+glorious tamarind, bombax or calabash, forms a thin forest along
+the reach, and rarely appears upon the upper hills, where we
+should expect it. The people use both fruit and wine, preferring,
+however, the liquor of the Ebah (oil palm-tree), and the autumnal
+fires can hardly affect so sturdy a growth. The other trees are
+the mfuma, cotton-tree or bombax (Pentandria truncospinoso,
+Smith), much valued as a canoe: Merolla uses Mafuma, a plural
+form, and speaks of its "wonderful fine wool." The wild figs show
+glorious stature, a truly noble growth, whose parents were sun
+and water.
+
+The birds were lank black clivers (Plotus), exceedingly wild; the
+African roller (Coracias); halcyons of several species,
+especially a white and black kingfisher, nimble and comely; many
+swallows, horn-bills, and wild pigeons which made the bush
+resound; ardeine birds, especially a heron, like the large Indian
+"kullum;" kites, crows, "whip-poor-wills," and a fine haliaetus,
+which flies high and settles upon the loftiest branches. One of
+these eagles was shot, after a gorge of the electric fish here
+common; its coat was black and white, and the eyes yellow, with
+dark pupils. Various lizards ran over the rocks; and we failed to
+secure a water-snake, the only specimen seen on the whole trip.
+
+About noon we struggled past Point Masalla, our "Diamond Rock," a
+reef ending in a triangular block, towering abruptly, and showing
+by drift-wood a flood-line now twelve feet high. There are
+several of these "bench-marks;" and the people declare that after
+every few years an unusual freshet takes place. Here the current
+impinges directly upon the rocks, making a strong eddy. "They die
+each time," said the interpreters, as the canoemen, with loud
+shouts of "Vai ou nao Vai? Vai sempre! Vai direito, ya mondele!"
+and "Arister," a mariner's word, after failing to force the way,
+tumbled overboard, with a hawser of lliana to act as tow-line.
+"Vai direito," according to Father Ciprani, also applies to a
+"wonderful bird, whose song consists in these plain words;" and
+"Mondele" is synonymous with the Utangáni of the Gaboon and the
+East African Muzungu, a white man.
+
+This bend was in former days the terminus of canoe travel up
+stream. Grisly tales of mishap are told; and even now a musketry
+salute is fired when boats pass without accident. Beyond Diamond
+Rock is a well-wooded, stony cove, "Salan Kunkati:" Captain
+Tuckey makes this the name of the Diamond Rock, and translates it
+"the strong feather." Quartz, before in lines and bands, now
+appears in masses: the "Coal Rock," which the chart places near
+Insála (Bechope Point) on the northern bank, was probably
+submerged. High cliffs towered above us, and fragments which must
+have weighed twenty tons had slipped into the water; one of them
+bore an adansonia, growing head downwards.
+
+The next feature was Npunga Bay, low and leek-green, between the
+blue-brown water, here some 700 yards broad, and the yellow sun-
+burnt trough-sides. A little further on, at 2 P.M., the canoe-men
+halted beyond a sandy point with two large "Bondeiro" trees, and
+declared their part of the bargain to have been fulfilled.
+"Bonderro" is a corruption of the Lusitanianized imbundeiro, the
+calabash, or adansonia (digitata?): the other baobab is called
+nkondo, probably the Aliconda and Elicandy of Battel and old
+travellers, who describe the water-tanks hollowed in its huge
+trunk, and the cloth made from the bark fibre. Thus the "Condo
+Sonio" of the Chart should be "Nkondo Sonho," the latter a proper
+name. It is seldom that we find trees turned to all the uses of
+which they are capable: the Congo people despise the nutritious
+and slightly laxative flour of the "monkey bread," and the young
+leaves are not used as pickles; the bast is not valued for cloth
+and ropes, nor are the boles cut into cisterns.
+
+As will be seen, we ought to have insisted upon being paddled to
+Kala cliff and bight, the Mayumba Bay of the Chart, where the bed
+trends west-east, and shows the lowest rapids: the First Congo
+Expedition went up even higher. At Nkongo ka Lunga, the point
+marked by two calabashes, we inquired for the Nokki Congo, of
+which we had heard at Chisalla, and which still exists upon the
+chart,--districts and villages being often confounded. All
+laughed, and declared that the "port-town" had long been sold
+off, the same had been the case, even in Tuckey's day, with the
+next settlement, "Condo Sonio" (the Baobab of Sonho), formerly
+the great up-stream mart, where the slave-traders transacted
+their business. All the population was now transferred inland
+and, like our predecessors, we were promised a two hours' climb
+over the rough, steep highland which lay in front. Then we
+understood that "Nokki" was the name of a canton, not of a
+settlement. Its south-eastern limits may have contained the "City
+of Norchie, the best situated of any place hitherto seen in
+Ethiopia," where Father Merolla (p. 280) baptized 126 souls,--and
+this is rendered probable by the crucifixes and coleworts which
+were found by the First Congo Expedition.
+
+Here, then, at 97.50 miles from the sea, ended our clan's cruize.
+We could only disembark upon the clean sand, surrounded by cool
+shade and blocks of gneiss, the favourite halting-place, as the
+husks of ground-nuts show. Nchama Chamvu was at once sent off
+with a present of gin and a verbal report of arrival to
+Nessudikira Nchinu, (King), of Banza Nkaye, whilst we made ready
+for a night's lodging à la belle étoile. The mesenger returned,
+bringing a goat, and the good news that porters would be sent
+early next morning. We slept well in the cool and dewless air,
+with little trouble from mosquitoes. The voice of the cataract in
+its "sublime same-soundingness" alone broke the silence, and the
+scenery suggested to us, as to the first Britishers, that we
+might be bivouacking among the "blue misty hills of Morven."
+
+September 8.--Shortly after sunrise appeared Gidi Mavunga, father
+to the "king," accompanied by five "princes," in the usual black
+coats, and some forty slaves, armed with pistols, blunderbusses,
+and guns of French and Yankee build. Our visitors wore the
+official berretta, European shirts, that contrasted with coral
+necklaces and rings of zinc, brass, and copper, and handsome
+waistcoats, fronted by the well-tanned spoil of some "bush"
+animal, generally a wild cat, hanging like a Scotch sporran--this
+is and has long been the distinctive sign of a "gentleman."
+According to John Barbot (Supplement, Churchill, v. 471), all men
+in Loango were bound to wear a furskin over their clothes, viz.,
+of an otter, a tame cat, or a cat-o'-mountain; a "great wood or
+wild cat, or an angali (civet-cat). Besides which, they had very
+fine speckled spelts, called ‘ enkeny,' which might be worn only
+by the king and his peculiar favourites."
+
+On the great man's mat was placed a large silver-handled dagger,
+shaped somewhat like a fish-slicer; and the handsome hammocks of
+bright-dyed cottons brought down for our use shamed our humble
+ship's canvas. The visitors showed all that African câlinerie,
+which, as fatal experience told me, would vanish for ever,
+changing velvet paw to armed claws, at the first question of
+cloth or rum. Meanwhile, we had only to visit their village "upon
+the head of Gidi Mavunga."
+
+About 9 A.M. we attacked a true Via Dolorosa, the normal road of
+the Lower Congo. The steep ascent of dry, clayey soil was strewed
+with schist and resplendent silvery gneiss; quartz appeared in
+every variety, crystallized and amorphous, transparent white,
+opaque, dusky, and rusty. Tuckey's mica slate appears to be
+mostly schist or gneiss: I saw only one piece of true slate which
+had been brought from the upper bed. Merolla's talc is mostly
+mica.
+
+Followed an equally rough descent to a water set in fetid mud,
+its iridescence declaring the presence of iron; oozing out of the
+ground, it discharges during rains into the river: and,
+throughout the dry season, it keeps its little valley green with
+trees and shrubs. I observed what appeared to be the Esere or
+Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum), whose hairy pod is very
+distasteful to the travelling skin: it was a "Mucuna urens."
+
+Another scramble upon a highly inclined hogsback, where weather-
+worn brown-black granite, protruded bone-like from the clay
+flesh, placed us at the outlying village of Kinbembu, with its
+line of palms; here the aneroid showed 1,322 feet. After a short
+rest, the hammock men resumed work over a rough plateau: the
+rises were scattered with brush-wood, and the falls were choked
+with the richest vegetation. Every hill discharged its own
+rivulet bubbling over the rock, and the waters were mostly
+chalybeate.
+
+Presently appeared a kind of barracoon, a large square of thick
+cane-work and thatch about eight feet high, the Fetish house of
+the "Jinkimba" or circumcised boys, who received us with
+unearthly yells. After a march of an hour and three
+quarters,'covering five indirect and three direct miles in a
+south-eastern rhumb, we reached Banza Nkaye, the royal village,
+where the sympiesometer showed 1430 feet. Our bearers yelled
+"Abububu!" showing that we had reached our destination, and the
+villagers answered with a cry of "Abía-a-a!" The entrance was
+triumphal: we left the river with a tail of fifty-six which had
+swelled to 150 ragged followers.
+
+After a short delay we proceeded to the "palace," which was
+distinguished from afar by a long projecting gable, forming a
+cool verandah. Descending some three hundred feet, we passed a
+familiar sight in Africa, where "arboribus suus horror inest." A
+tree-trunk bore three pegged skulls somewhat white with age;
+eight years ago they were taken off certain wizards who had
+bewitched their enemies. A labyrinthine entrance of transparent
+cane-work served to prevent indecent haste, and presently we
+found ourselves in presence of the Mfumo, who of course takes the
+title of "Le Rei." Nessudikira was a "blanc-bec," aged twenty or
+twenty-one, who till lately had been a trading lad at Boma--now
+he must not look upon the sea. He appeared habited in the usual
+guy style: a gaudy fancy helmet, a white shirt with limp Byronic
+collar, a broad-cloth frock coat, a purple velvet gold-fringed
+loin-wrap: a theatrical dagger whose handle and sheath bore cut-
+glass emeralds and rubies, stuck in the waist-belt; brass anklets
+depended over naked feet, and the usual beadle's cloak covered
+the whole. Truly a change for the worse since Tuckey's day, when
+a "savage magnificence" showed itself in the display of lions'
+and leopards' skins; when no women were allowed to be present,
+and when the boys could only clap hands: now the verandah is
+surrounded by a squatting crowd and resounds with endless chatter
+and scream.
+
+Nessudikira, whose eyes by way of grandeur never wandered from
+the floor, shook hands with us without rising from his chair,
+somewhat after the fashion of certain women in civilized society,
+who would be dignified, and who are not. His father, Gidi
+Mavunga, knelt before him on the ground, a mat being forbidden in
+the presence: he made the "batta-palmas" before he addressed his
+"filho de pistola," as he called him, in opposition to filho de
+fazenda. The "king" had lately been crowned in virtue of his
+mother being a uterine sister of his predecessor. Here the goods
+and dignity of the father revert after death to his eldest
+maternal brother; to his eldest nephew, that is, the eldest son
+of the eldest uterine sister, and, all others failing, to the
+first born of the nearest maternal relative. This subjection of
+sire to son is, however, mainly ceremonious: in private life the
+king wears a cotton pagne, and his "governor" asserts his birth-
+right even by wigging royalty.
+
+We disposed ourselves upon seamen's chests covered with red
+baize, fronting the semi-circle of frock-coated "gentlemen" and
+half-naked dependants and slaves. Proceedings began with the
+"mata-bicho" de rigueur, the inevitable preliminary and
+conclusion of all life-business between birth and burial. The
+Congo traveller will hear "Nganna! mata bicho" (Master! kill the
+worm, i.e., give me a dram), till the words seem, like
+"Bakhshish" further east, to poison his ears. This excuse for a
+drink arose, or is said to have arisen, from some epidemic which
+could be cured only by spirits, and the same is the tradition in
+the New World ("Highlands of the Brazil," i. chap. 38). Similarly
+the Fulas of the Windward coast, who as strict Moslem will not
+drink fermented liquors, hold a cup of rum to be the sovereignest
+thing in the world for taenia. The entozoon of course gives rise
+to a variety of stale and melancholy jokes about the early bird,
+the worm that dieth not, and so forth.
+
+A greybeard of our gin was incontinently opened and a tumbler in
+a basin was filled to overflowing; even when buying ground-nuts,
+the measure must be heaped up. The glass was passed round to the
+"great gentlemen," who drank it African fashion, expanding the
+cheeks, rinsing the mouth so that no portion of the gums may lose
+their share, and swallowing the draught with an affectedly wry
+face. The basin then went to the "little gentlemen" below the
+salt, they have the "vinum garrulum," and they scrambled as well
+as screamed for a sup of the precious liquor. I need hardly quote
+Caliban and his proposed genuflections.
+
+I had been warned by all the traders of the lower river that
+Banza Nokki would be to me the far-famed point of which it was
+said,
+
+          "Quern passar o Cabo de Nam
+           Ou tornará, ou n o,"
+
+and prepared accordingly. Old Shimbal, the linguist, had declared
+that a year would be required by the suspicious "bush-men" to
+palaver over the knotty question of a stranger coming only to
+"make mukanda," that is to see and describe the country. M.
+Pissot was forbidden by etiquette to recognize his old employé
+(honours change manners here as in Europe), yet he set about the
+work doughtily. My wishes were expounded, and every possible
+promise of hammocks and porters, guides and interpreters, was
+made by the hosts. The royal helmet was then removed, and a
+handsome burnous was drawn over the king's shoulders, the hood
+covering the berretta in most grotesque guise. After which the
+commander and M. Pissot set out for the return march, leaving me
+with my factotum Selim and the youth Nchama Chamvu. To the
+question "Quid muliere levius?" the scandalous Latin writer
+answers "Nihil," for which I would suggest "Niger." At the
+supreme moment the interpreter, who had been deaf to the
+charmer's voice (offering fifty dollars) for the last three days,
+succumbed to the "truant fever." He knew something of Portuguese;
+and, having been employed by the French factory, he had scoured
+the land far and wide in search of "emigrants." He began well;
+cooked a fowl, boiled some eggs, and made tea; after which he
+cleared out a hut that was declared très logeable, and found a
+native couch resembling the Egyptian kafas.
+
+We slept in a new climate: at night the sky was misty, and the
+mercury fell to 60° (F.). There was a dead silence; neither beast
+nor bird nor sound of water was heard amongst the hills; only at
+times high winds in gusts swept over the highlands with a
+bullying noise, and disappeared, leaving everything still as the
+grave. I felt once more "at home in the wilderness"--such,
+indeed, it appeared after Boma, where the cockney-taint yet
+lingered.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Chapter X.
+
+               Notes on the Nzadi or Congo River.
+
+
+
+And first, touching the name of this noble and mysterious stream.
+Diogo Cam, the discoverer in 1485, called it River of Congo,
+Martin von Behaim Rio de Padrao, and De Barros "Rio Zaire." The
+Portuguese discoveries utilized by Dapper thus corrupted to the
+sonorous Zaïre, the barbarous Nzadi applied by the natives to the
+lower bed. The next process was that of finding a meaning.
+Philippo Pigafetta of Vicenza,[FN#10] translated Zaïre by "so,
+cioè Sapio in Latino;" hence Sandoval[FN#11] made it signify "Rio
+de intendimiento," of understanding. Merolla duly records the
+contrary. "The King of Portugal, Dom John II., having sent a
+fleet under D. Diego Cam to make discoveries in this Southern
+Coast of Africa, that admiral guessed at the nearness of the land
+by nothing so much as by the complexion of the waters of the
+Zaire; and, putting into it, he asked of the negroes what river
+and country that was, who not understanding him answered
+‘Zevoco,' which in the Congolan tongue is as much as to say ‘I
+cannot tell;' from whence the word being corrupted, it has since
+been called Zairo."
+
+D'Anville (1749), with whom critical African geography began,
+records "Barbela," a southern influent, perhaps mythical, named
+by his predecessors, and still retained in our maps: it is the
+Verbele of Pigafetta and the Barbele of Linschoten, who make it
+issue either from the western lake-reservoir of the Nile, or from
+the "Aquilunda" water, a name variously derived from O-Calunga,
+the sea (?), or from A-Kilunda, of Kilunda (?) The industrious
+compiler, James Barbot (1700), mentions the "Umbre," the modern
+Wambre, rising in the northern mountains or, according to P.
+Labat, in a lake: Dapper (1676), who so greatly improved the
+outline of Africa, had already derived with De Barros the "Rio
+Zaïre" from a central reservoir "Zaïre," whose island, the
+Zembre, afterwards became the Vambere, Wambre, and Zambere, now
+identified through the Zambeze with the Maravi, Nyassa or Kilwa
+water. The second or northernmost branch is the Bancora of modern
+maps, the Brankare of Pigafetta, and the Bancari of Cavazzi; it
+flows from the same mountain as the Umbre, and Duarte Lopez
+(1560) causes it to mingle with the Zaire on the eastern borders
+of Pango, at the foot of the Sierra del Crystal. In certain
+modern maps the Bankare fork is called "Lekure,"and is made to
+receive the "Bambaye." The Barbela again anastomoses with the
+Luba (?) or northern section of the Coango, including its
+influent, the Lubilash; the Kasai (Kasabi) also unites with the
+Coango, and other dotted lines show the drainage of the Lualaba
+into the Kasai.
+
+The Portuguese, according to Vasconcello, shunning all fanciful
+derivations, were long satisfied to term the Congo "Rio de
+Patron" (Rio do Padrao) from the first of memorial columns built
+at its mouth. In 1816 Captain Tuckey's expedition learned with
+Maxwell that the stream should be called, not Zaire, but Moienzi
+Enzaddi, the "great river" or the "river which absorbs all other
+rivers." This thoroughly corrupted name, which at once found its
+way into popular books, and which is repeated to the present day
+even by scientific geographers, suggested to some theorists
+"Zadi," the name of the Niger at Wassenah according to Sidi
+Harriet, as related by the American, James Riley, of the brig
+"Commerce," wrecked on August 28, 1815: others remembered "Zad"
+which Shaykh Yusuf (Hornemann), misleading Mungo Park, learned to
+be the Niger east of Tinbuktu, "where it turns off to the
+southward." I need hardly say that this "Zadi" and "Zad" are
+evident corruptions of Bahr Shady, Shary, Shari, Chad, Tsad, and
+Chadda, the swampy lake, alternately sweet and brackish, which
+was formerly thrown by mistake into the Chadda River, now called
+the Binue or Bimúwe, the great eastern fork of the Negro-land
+Nile: the true drainage of the Chadda in ancient times has lately
+been determined by the adventurous Dr. Nachtigal. Mr.
+Cooley[FN#12] applied, as was his wont, a superficial knowledge
+of Kibundo to Fiote or Congoese, and further corrupted Moienzi
+Enzaddi to Muenya (for Menha or Menya) Zinzádi-this Angolan
+"emendation," however, was not adopted.
+
+The natives dwelling upon the Congo banks have, as usual in
+Africa, no comprehensive generic term for the mighty artery of
+the West Coast. Each tribe calls it by its own name. Thus even in
+Fiote we find "Mulángo," or "Lángo," the water; "Nkoko," the
+stream, "Mwánza," the river, and "Mwanza Nnenne," the great
+river, all used synonymously at the several places. The only
+proper name is Mwánza Nzádi, the River Nzadi: hence Zaire, Zaïre,
+Zahir, Zaira the "flumen Congo olim Zaida" (C. Barlé)--all
+corruptions more or less common.
+
+The homogeneous form of the African continent causes a whimsical
+family resemblance, allowing for the difference of northern and
+southern hemispheres, in its four arterial streams--the Nile and
+Niger, the Congo and Zambeze. I neglect the Limpopo, called in
+its lower bed Espirito Santo, Maniça, Manhiça (Manyisa), and
+Delagoa River; the Cunene (Nourse) River, the Orange River, and
+others, which would be first-rate streams in Europe, but are mere
+dwarfs in the presence of the four African giants. The Nile and
+Niger, being mainly tenanted by Moslemized and comparatively
+civilized races, have long been known, more or less, to Europe.
+The Zambeze, owing to the heroic labours of Dr. Livingstone, is
+fast becoming familiar to the civilized world; and the Congo is
+in these days (1873) beginning at last to receive the attention
+which it deserves. It is one of the noblest known to the world.
+Whilst the Mississippi drains a basin of 1,244,000 English square
+miles, and at Carrollton, in Louisiana, discharges as its mean
+volume for the year 675,000 cubic feet of water per second, the
+Congo, with a valley area of 800,000 square miles, rolls at least
+2,500,000 feet. Moreover, should it prove a fact that the Nzadi
+receives the Chambeze and its lakes, the Bangweolo (or Bemba),
+the Moero, near which stands the capital of the Cazembe, the
+Kamalondo, Lui or Ulenge, "Lake Lincoln" (Chibungo), and other
+unvisited waters, its area of drainage will nearly equal that of
+the Nile.
+
+The four arteries all arise in inner regions of the secondary
+age, subtended east and west by ghats, or containing mountains
+mostly of palaeozoic or primary formation, the upheaval of
+earthquakes and volcanoes. These rims must present four distinct
+water-sheds. The sea-ward slopes discharge their superabundance
+direct to the ocean often in broad estuaries like the Gambia and
+the Gaboon, still only surface drains; whilst the counterslopes
+pour inland, forming a network of flooded plains, perennial
+swamps, streams, and lakes. The latter, when evaporation will not
+balance the supply to a "sink," "escape from the basin of the
+central plateau-lands, and enter the ocean through deep lateral
+gorges, formed at some ancient period of elevation and
+disturbance, when the containing chains were subject to
+transverse fractures." All four head in the region of tropical
+rains, the home of the negro proper, extending 35° along the
+major axis of the continent, between Lake Chad (north latitude
+14° to 15°), and the Noka a Batletle or Hottentot Lake, known to
+the moderns as Ngami (south latitude 20° to 21°). Consequently
+all are provided with lacustrine reservoirs of greater or smaller
+extent, and are subject to periodical inundations, varying in
+season, according as the sun is north or south of the line. Those
+of the northern hemisphere swell with the "summer rains of
+Ethiopia," a fact known in the case of the Nile to Democritus of
+Abdera (5th cent. B.C.), to Agatharchidas of Cnidos (2nd cent.
+B.C.) to Pomponius Nida, to Strabo (xvii. 1), who traces it
+through Aristotle up to Homer's "heaven-descended stream" and to
+Pliny (v. 10). For the same reason the reverse is the case with
+the two southern arteries; their high water, with certain
+limitations in the case of the Congo, is in our winter.
+
+By the condition of their courses, all the four magnates are
+broken into cataracts and rapids at the gates where they burst
+through the lateral chains; the Mosi-wa-túnya (smoke that
+thunders) of the Zambeze, and the Ripon Falls discovered by
+Captains Speke and Grant upon the higher Nile, are the latest
+acquisitions to geography, whilst the "Mai waterfall," reported
+to break the Upper Congo, still awaits exploration. This accident
+of form suggests a division of navigation on the maritime section
+and on the plateau-bed which, in due time, will be connected,
+like the St. Lawrence, by canals and railways. All but the Nzadi,
+and perhaps even this, have deltas, where the divided stream,
+deficient in water-shed, finds its sluggish way to the sea.
+
+The largest delta at present known is the Nigerian, whose base
+measures 155 direct geographical miles between the Rivers Kontoro
+east, and Benin west. Pliny (v. 9) makes the Nile delta extend
+170 Roman miles, from the Canopic or African to the Pelusiac or
+Asiatic mouth, respectively distant from the apex 146 and 166
+miles; the modern feature has been reduced to 80 miles from east
+to west, and a maximum of 90 from north to south. The Zambeze
+extends 58 miles between the Kilimani or northern and the west
+Luabo, Cuama or southern outlet-at least, if these mouths are not
+to be detached. The Nzadi is the smallest, measuring a maximum of
+only 12 to 15 miles from the Malela or Bananal Creek to the
+mangrove ditches of the southern shore.
+
+In these depressed regions the comparatively salubrious climates
+of the uplands become dangerous to the European; the people also
+are degraded, mostly pirates and water-thieves, as the Nigerian
+Ibos, the Congoese Musulungus, and the Landim (Amalandi) Kafirs
+about the lower Zambeze. There is a notable similarity in their
+productions, partly known to Pliny (v. 8), who notices "the
+calamus, the papyrus, and the animals" of the Nigris and the
+Nile. The black-maned lion and the leopard rule the wold; the
+gorilla, the chimpanzee, and other troglodytes affect the thinner
+forests; the giraffe, the zebra, and vast hosts of antelopes
+scour the plains; the turtle swims the seas; and the
+hippopotamus, the crocodile, and various siluridae, some of
+gigantic size, haunt the lakes and rivers. The nymphæa, lotus or
+water-lily, forms rafts of verdure; and the stream-banks bear the
+calabash, the palmyra, the oil-palm, and the papyrus. Until late
+years it was supposed that the water-lily, sacred to Isis, had
+been introduced into Egypt from India, where it is also a
+venerated vegetable, and that it had died out with the form of
+Fetishism which fostered it. It has simply disappeared like the
+crocodile from the Lower Nile. Finally, to conclude this rapidly
+outlined sketch, all at the present moment happily share the same
+fate; they are being robbed of their last mysteries; the veil of
+Isis is fast yielding to the white man's grasp.
+
+We can hardly as yet answer the question whether the Congo was
+known to the ancients. Our acquaintance with the oldest
+explorations is at present fragmentary, and we are apt to assume
+that the little told us in our school-books is the sum-total of
+former exploits. But possibly inscriptions in the New World, as
+well as in the Old, may confirm the "first circumnavigation" so
+simply recounted by Herodotus, especially that of the
+Phoenicians, who set out from the Red Sea, and in three years
+returned to the Mediterranean. The expression, "they had the sun
+to the right," is variously explained. In the southern hemisphere
+the sailors facing west during our winter would see the sun at
+noon on the right, and in the northern hemisphere on the left.
+But why should they face west? In the "Chronicle" of Schedel (p.
+ccxc., printed in 1793, Pigafetta, Pinkerton, xi. 412) we read:
+"These two, (i.e. Jacob Cam and Martin Behem, or Behaim) by the
+help of the gods, ploughing the sea at short distance from shore,
+having passed the equinoctial line, entered the nether
+hemisphere, where, fronting the east, their shadow fell towards
+the south, and on their right hand." Perhaps it may simply allude
+to the morning sun, which would rise to port as they went
+southwards, and to starboard as they returned north. Again, the
+"First Overland Expedition" is related by the Father of History
+with all the semblance of truth. We see no cause to doubt that
+the Nasammones or Nasamones (Nás Amún), the five young Lybians of
+the Great Syrtis (Fezzan) crossed the <Greek>           (watered
+strip along the Mediterranean), passed through the
+<Greek>         (the "bush") on the frontier, still famed for
+lions, and the immeasurably sandy wastes (the Sahara proper,
+across which caravan lines run). The "band of little black men"
+can no longer be held fabulous, since Miani and Schweinfurth
+added the Akya to M. du Chaillu's Obongo. The extensive marshes
+were the northern limit of the tropical rains, and the "City of
+Enchanters" is the type of many still existing in inner Africa.
+The great river flowing from west to east, whose crocodiles
+showed it to be the Nile, must have been the Niger. The ancients
+knew middle Ethiopia to be a country watered by lakes and
+streams: Strabo (xvii. 3) tells us that "some suppose that even
+the Nile-sources are near the extremities of Mauritania." Hence,
+too, the Nilides, or Lake of Standing Water in Pliny (v. 10). For
+the most part they made a great central river traverse the
+northern continent from west to east, whereas the Arabian
+geographers of the middle ages, who were followed by the
+Portuguese, inverted the course. Both may be explained by the lay
+of the Quorra and the Binúwe, especially the latter; it was
+chronically confounded with the true Nile, whose want of western
+influents was not so well known then as now.
+
+The generation which has discovered the "Moabite Stone," the
+ruins of Troy (Schliemann), and the key to the inscriptions of
+Etruria (Corssen), need not despair of further progress. It has
+been well remarked that, whereas the course of modern exploration
+has generally been maritime, the ancients, whose means of
+navigation were less perfect, preferred travelling by land. We
+are, doubtless, far better acquainted with the outlines of the
+African coast, and the immediately maritime region, than the
+Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs. But it is still
+doubtful whether their information respecting the interior did
+not surpass ours. Eratosthenes, librarian of Alexandria (B. C.
+276-196) expresses correct notions concerning the upper course of
+the Nile; Marinus of Tyre[FN#13] had the advantage of borrowing
+from the pilot, Diogenes, who visited the Nile reservoirs of
+central inter-tropical Africa, and Ptolemy has been justified in
+certain important points by our latest explorations.
+
+No trace of the Nzadi or Congo is to be found in the Pelusian
+geographer, whose furthest point is further north. In the "Tabula
+Rotunda Rogeriana" of A. D. 1154 (Lelewel, No. X.) two lakes are
+placed upon the equator, and the north-western discharges to the
+Atlantic the river Kauga or Kanga, which the learned Mr. Hogg
+suspected to be the Congo. Marino Sanudo (1321), who has an idea
+of Guinea (Ganuya) and of Zanzibar (Zinziber), here bends Africa
+to the south-east, and inscribes, "Regio inhabitabilis propter
+calorem." Fra Mauro (1457) reduces "Ethiopia Occidentalis et
+Australis" to the minimum, and sheds the stream into the F. Xebe
+(Webbe or Galla-Somal River). Martin von Behaim of Nürnberg
+(1492) in whose day Africa began to assume her present form,
+makes the Rio de Padron drain the western face of the Montes
+Lunae. Diogo Ribera, chief pilot of the Indies under Charles V.
+(Seville, 1529) further corrects the shape of the continent, and
+places the R. do Padrão north, and the Rio dos Boms Sinhaes
+(Zambeze) south of the Montes Lunae. Mercator and Henry Hondt
+(1623) make the Zaire Lacus the northern part of the Zembre
+Lacus. John Senex (circ. 1712) shows the "R. Coango," the later
+Quango, believed to be the great south-western fork of the Congo.
+It is not a little peculiar that the last of the classics,
+Claudius Claudianus, an Alexandrian Christian withal, describes
+the Gir, or Girrhaeus, with peculiarly Congoese features. In "De
+laud. Stilicho." (lib. i. 252) we have--
+
+               "Gir, notissimus amnis
+          Æthiopum, simili mentitus gurgite Nilum."
+
+And again ("Eidyll. in Nilum," 20):
+
+          "Hunc bibit infrenis Garamas, domitorque ferarum
+           Girrhæus, qui vasta colit sub rupibus antra,
+           Qui ramos ebeni, qui denies vellit eburnos."
+
+Here we find a Wady or torrent discharging into the
+Mediterranean, made equal to "Egypt's heaven-descended stream;"
+caused to flow under great rocks, as the Niger was long believed
+to pass underground to the Nile, of which it was a western
+branch; and said to supply ebony, which is the characteristic not
+even of the Niger regions, but of the Zaire.[FN#14] A little of
+this peculiar and precious commodity is produced by Old Calabar,
+east of the Nigerian delta, and southwards it becomes common.
+
+Pliny (v. i) places his Gir (which some editions read "Niger")
+"some distance" beyond the snowy Atlas. Ptolemy (iv. 6) tells us
+"in Mediterraneâ verò fluunt amnes maximi, nempe Gir conjungens
+Usargalam montem et vallem Garamanticam, à quo divertens amnis
+continet secundum situm (east longitude) 42° (north latitude)--
+16°." Again: "Et Nigir fluvius jungens et ipse Mandrum" (Mandara,
+south of Lake Chad?) "et Thala montes" (the range near the
+western coast on the parallel of Cabo Blanco?). "Facit autem et
+hic Nigritem Paludem" (Lake Dibbie or Debu, north-east of Sego
+and Sansanding?) cujus situs 15°-18°."
+
+Here the Gir, Ger, Gar, or Geir is clearly laid down as a
+Mediterranean stream, whilst "Niger" gave rise to the confusion
+of the Senegal with the true Niger. The name has greatly
+exercised commentators' ingenuity. D'Anville believes the Niger
+and the Gir to end in the same quarter of Africa, and the latter
+to be entirely unknown. Gosselin, agreeing with Pliny, whose Ger
+is the Nigir of the Greeks, places them south of the Atlas. Mr.
+Leake (loc. cit.) holds all conjecture useless. Not so the Rev.
+M. Tristram, whose geography is of the ornithological or bird's-
+eye order. In "The Great Sahara" (pp. 362-4, Appendix I.), he
+asks, "May not the name Giris or Gir be connected with Djidi?" i.
+e. the Wadi Mzi, a mean sink in El Areg, south of Algeria.
+Gräberg ("Morocco") had already identified it with the Ghir,
+which flows through Sagelmessa; Burckhardt with the Jir, "a large
+stream coming from about north latitude 10°, and flowing north-
+west through the Wadaí, west of the borders of Dar-Fur." No
+wonder that some geographers are disposed to believe Gir, Giris,
+Ger, and Geir to be "a general native name for a river, like Bá"
+(Bahr), "Bi" (in many Central African tongues a river,
+Schweinfurth, ii. 241), "Quorra (Kwara), Gulbi and Gambaru (the
+Yeou), Shadda, and Enzaddi."
+
+It is still interesting to consider the circumstances which gave
+rise to Captain Tuckey's disastrous expedition. As any map of
+Africa during the early quarter of the present century, Bowdich
+or Dupuis for instance, may prove, the course of the Niger was
+laid down, now according to the ancients, then after Arab
+information. The Dark Continent, of which D'Anville justly said
+that writers abused, "pour ainsi dire, de la vaste carrière que
+l'intérieur y laissait prendre" ("Mém. de l'Acad. des
+Inscriptions," xxvi. 61), had not been subjected to scientific
+analysis; this was reserved for the Presidential Address to the
+Royal Geographical Society by the late Sir R. I. Murchison, 1852.
+Geographers did not see how to pass the Niger through the" Kong
+Mountains, which, uniting with the Jebel Komri, are supposed to
+run in one unbroken chain across the continent;" and these Lunar
+Mountains of the Moslems, which were "stretched like a chaplet of
+beads from east to west," undoubtedly express, as M. du Chaillu
+contends, a real feature, the double versant, probably a mere
+wave of ground between the great hydrographic basins of the Niger
+and the Congo, of North Africa and of Central Africa. Men still
+wasted their vigour upon the Nigritis Palus, the Chelonídes
+waters, the Mount Caphas, and the lakes of Wangara, variously
+written Vancara and Vongara, not to mention other ways. Maps
+place "Wangara"to the north-west of Dahome, where the natives
+utterly ignore the name. Dupuis ("Ashantee," 1824) suggests that,
+like "Takrúr," it is an obsolete Moslem term for the 660 miles of
+maritime region between Cape Lahu and the Rio Formoso or the Old
+Calabar River. This would include the three despotisms, Ashanti,
+Dahome, and Benin, with the tribes who, from a distance of
+twenty-five days, bring gold to Tinbuktu (the Tungubutu of De
+Barros, i. 220). Thus the lakes of Wangara would be the lagoons
+of the Slave-coast, in which the Niger may truly be said to lose
+itself.
+
+At length M. Reichard, of Lobenstein ("Ephémerides
+Géographiques," Weimar, 1802), theoretically discovered the mouth
+of the Niger, by throwing it into the Bight of Benin. He was
+right in essentials and wrong in details; for instance, he
+supposed the Rio Formoso or Benin River and the Rio del Rey to
+join in one great stream beyond the flat alluvial delta: whereas
+the former is indirectly connected through the Wari with the
+Niger, and the latter has no connection with it at all. The truth
+was received with scant courtesy, and the hypothesis was
+pronounced to be "worthy of very little attention." There were,
+however, honourable exceptions. In 1813, the learned Malte-Brun
+("Précis de la Géographie Universelle," vol. iv. 635) sanctioned
+the theory hinted at by Mungo Park, and in 1828 the well-abused
+Caillié, a Frenchman who had dared to excel Bruce and Mungo Park,
+wrote these remarkable words: "If I may be permitted to hazard an
+opinion as to the course of the River Dhioliba, I should say that
+it empties itself by several mouths into the Bight of Benin." In
+1829, fortified by Clapperton's opinion, my late friend, James
+Macqueen, who to immense industry added many qualifications of a
+comparative geographer, recommended a careful examination of the
+estuaries between the Rio Formoso and Old Calabar. The question
+was not finally set at rest till 1830 (November 15th), when
+Richard and John Lander entered Yoruba viâ Badagry and,
+triumphantly descending the lower Niger, made the sea by the
+"Nun" and Brass embouchures.
+
+Meanwhile, Mr. George Maxwell, a Scotchman who had long traded in
+the Congo, and who subsequently published a chart of the lower
+river proposed, at the end of the last century, to take from
+England six supernumerary boats for rowing and sailing, which
+could be carried by thirty people and portaged round the
+cataracts. This gave rise to Captain Tuckey's first error,
+depending upon labour and provisions, which were not to be had
+"for love or money" anywhere on the Congo above the Yellala. With
+thirty or forty black rowers, probably Cabinda men, Maxwell
+advised navigating the river about May, when the Cacimbo or dry
+season begins; and with arms, provisions, and merchandize he
+expected to reach the sources in six weeks. The scheme, which was
+rendered abortive by the continental war of 1793, had two
+remarkable results. It caused Mungo Park's fatal second journey,
+and it led to the twin expeditions of Tuckey and Peddie.
+
+
+In July, 1804, the ardent and irrepressible Scot wrote from
+Prior's Lynn, near Longtown, to a friend, Mr. William Kier, of
+Milholm, that the river "Enzaddi" was frequented by Portuguese,
+who found the stream still as large as near the mouth, after
+ascending 600 miles. It is useful to observe how these distances
+are obtained. The slave-touters for the Liverpool and other
+dealers used, we are told, to march one month up country, and
+take two to return. Thirty days multiplied by twenty miles per
+diem give 600 miles. I need hardly point out that upon such a
+mission the buyer would be much more likely to travel 60 miles
+than 600 in a single month, and I believe that the natives of the
+lower river never went beyond Nsundi, or 215 indirect miles from
+Point Padrão.
+
+With truly national tenacity and plausibility Perfervidum
+Ingenium contended that the Congo or Zaire was the Nigerian
+debouchure. Major Rennell, who had disproved the connection of
+the Niger and the Egyptian Nile by Bruce's barometric
+measurements on the course of the mountain-girt Bahr el Azrak,
+and by Brown's altitudes at Darfur, condemned the bold theory for
+the best of reasons.
+
+Mungo Park, after a brief coldness and coquetting with it, hotly
+adopted to the fullest extent the wild scheme. Before leaving
+England (Oct. 4, 1804), he addressed a memoir to Lord Camden,
+explaining the causes of his conversion. It is curious to note
+his confusion of "Zad," his belief that the "Congo waters are at
+all seasons thick and muddy," and his conviction that "the annual
+flood," which he considered perpetual, "commences before the
+rains fall south of the equator." The latter is to a certain
+extent true; the real reason will presently be given. Infected by
+the enthusiasm of his brother Scot, he adds, "Considered in a
+commercial point of view, it is second only to the discovery of
+the Cape of Good Hope; and, in a geographical point of view, it
+is certainly the greatest discovery that remains to be made in
+this world."
+
+Thereupon the traveller set out for the upper Niger with the
+conviction that he would emerge by the Congo, and return to
+England viâ the West Indies. From the fragments of his Journal,
+and his letters to Lord Camden, to Sir Joseph Banks, and to his
+wife, it is evident that at San-sanding he had modified his
+theories, and that he was gradually learning the truth. To the
+former he writes, "I am more and more inclined to think that it
+(the Niger) can end nowhere but in the sea;" and presently a
+guide, who had won his confidence, assured him that the river,
+after passing Kashna, runs directly to the right hand, or south,
+which would throw it into the Gulf of Guinea.
+
+The fatal termination of Park's career in 1805 lulled public
+curiosity for a time, but it presently revived. The geographical
+mind was still excited by the mysterious stream which evaporation
+or dispersion drained into the Lake-swamps of Wangara, and to
+this was added not a little curiosity concerning the lamented and
+popular explorer's fate. We find instructions concerning Mungo
+Park issued even to cruizers collecting political and other
+information upon the East African coast; e.g., to Captain Smee,
+sent in 1811 by the Bombay Government. His companion, Lieutenant
+Hardy, converted Usagára, west of the Zanzibar seaboard, into
+"Wangarah," and remarks, "a white man, supposed to be Park, is
+said to have travelled here twenty years ago" ("Observations,"
+&c.).
+
+About ten years after Mungo Park's death, two expeditions were
+fitted out by Government to follow up his discovery. Major Peddie
+proceeded to descend the Niger, and Captain Tuckey to ascend the
+Congo. We have nothing to say of the former journey except that,
+as in the latter, every chief European officer died--Major
+Peddie, Captain Campbell, Lieutenant Stokoe, and M. Kummer, the
+naturalist. The expedition, consisting of 100 men and 200
+animals, reached Kakundy June 13, 1817, and there fell to pieces.
+Concerning the Zaire Expedition, which left Deptford on February
+16, 1816, a few words are advisable.
+
+The personnel was left to the choice of the leader, Commander J.
+K. Tuckey, R. N. (died). There were six commissioned officers--
+Lieutenant John Hawkey, R.N. (died); Mr. Lewis Fitz-maurice,
+master and surveyor; Mr. Robert Hodder and Mr. Robert Beecraft,
+master's mates; Mr. John Eyre, purser (died); and Mr. James
+McKerrow, assistant surgeon. Under these were eight petty
+officers, four carpenters, two blacksmiths, and fourteen able
+seamen. The marines numbered one sergeant, one corporal, and
+twelve privates. Grand total of combatants, forty-nine. To these
+were added five "savants": Professor Chetien Smith, a Norwegian
+botanist and geologist (died); Mr. Cranch, collector of objects
+of natural history (died); Mr. Tudor, comparative anatomist
+(died); Mr. Galway, Irishman and volunteer naturalist (died); and
+"Lockhart, a gardener" (of His Majesty's Gardens, Kew). There
+were two Congo negroes, Benjamin Benjamins and Somme Simmons; the
+latter, engaged as a cook's mate, proved to be a "prince of the
+blood," which did not prevent his deserting for fear of the
+bushmen.
+
+The allusions made to Mr. Cranch, a "joined methodist," and a
+"self-made man," are not complimentary. "Cranch, I fear," says
+Professor Smith, "by his absurd conduct, will diminish the
+liberality of the captain towards us: he is like a pointed arrow
+to the company." And, again, "Poor Cranch is almost too much the
+object of jest; Galway is the principal banterer."In the
+Professor's remarks on the" fat purser,"we can detect the
+foreigner, who, on such occasions, should never be mixed up with
+Englishmen.
+
+Sir Joseph Banks had suggested a steamer drawing four feet, with
+twenty-four horse-power; an admirable idea, but practical
+difficulties of construction rendered the "Congo" useless. Of the
+fifty-four white men, eighteen, including eleven of the "Congo"
+crew, died in less than three months. Fourteen out of a party of
+thirty officers and men, who set out to explore the cataracts viâ
+the northern bank, lost their lives; and they were followed by
+four more on board the "Congo," and one at Bahia. The expedition
+remained in the river between July 6th and October 18th, little
+more than three months; yet twenty-one, or nearly one-third,
+three of the superior officers and all the scientific men,
+perished. Captain Tuckey died of fatigue and exhaustion (Oct.
+4th) rather than of disease; Lieutenant Hawkey, of fatal typhus
+(which during 1862 followed the yellow fever, in the Bonny and
+New Calabar Rivers); and Mr. Eyre, palpably of bilious remittent.
+Professor Smith had been so charmed with the river, that he was
+with difficulty persuaded to return. Prostrated four days
+afterwards by sickness on board the transport, he refused physic
+and food, because his stomach rejected bark, and, preferring cold
+water, he became delirious; apparently, he died of
+disappointment, popularly called a "broken heart." Messrs. Tudor
+and Cranchalso fell victims to bilious remittents, complicated,
+in the case of the latter, by the "gloomy view taken of
+Christianity by that sect denominated Methodists." Mr. Galway, on
+September 28th, visited Sangala, the highest rapid ("Narrative,"
+p. 328). In the Introduction, p. 80, we are wrongly told that he
+went to Banza Ninga, whence, being taken ill on August 24th, he
+was sent down stream. He, like his commander, had to sleep in the
+open, almost without food, and he also succumbed to fever,
+fatigue, and exhaustion.
+
+The cause of this prodigious mortality appears in the records of
+the expedition. Officers and men were all raw, unseasoned, and
+unacclimatized. Captain Tuckey, an able navigator, the author of
+"Maritime Geography and Statistics," had served in the tropics;
+his biographer, however, writes that a long imprisonment in
+France and "residence in India had broken down his constitution,
+and at the age of thirty (ob. æt. thirty-nine) his hair was grey
+and his head nearly bald." The men perished, exactly like the
+missionaries of old, by hard work, insufficient and innutritious
+food, physical exhaustion, and by the doctor. At first "immediate
+bleeding and gentle cathartics" are found to be panaceas for mild
+fevers (p. 46): presently the surgeon makes a discovery as
+follows: "With regard to the treatment I shall here only observe
+that bleeding was particularly unsuccessful. Cathartics were of
+the greatest utility, and calomel, so administered as speedily to
+induce copious salivation, generally procured a remission of all
+the violent symptoms." The phlebotomy was inherited from the
+missioners, who own almost to have blinded themselves by it. When
+one was "blooded" fifteen times and died, his amateur Sangrado
+said, "It had been better to have bled him thirty times:" the
+theory was that in so hot a climate all the European blood should
+be replaced by African. One of the entries in Captain Tuckey's
+diary is, "Awaking extremely unwell, I directly swallowed five
+grains of calomel"--a man worn out by work and sleeping in the
+open air! The "Congo" sloop was moored in a reach surrounded by
+hills, instead of being anchored in mid stream where the current
+of water creates a current of air; those left behind in her died
+of palm wine, of visits from native women, and of exposure to the
+sun by day and to the nightly dews. On the line of march the
+unfortunate marines wore pigtails and cocked hats; stocks and
+cross-belts; tight-fitting, short-waisted red coats, and knee-
+breeches with boots or spatter-dashes--even the stout Lord Clyde
+in his latest days used to recall the miseries of his march to
+Margate, and declare that the horrid dress gave him more pain
+than anything he afterwards endured in a life-time of marching.
+None seemed capable of calculating what amount of fatigue and
+privation the European system is able to support in the tropics.
+And thus they perished, sometimes of violent bilious remittents,
+more often of utter weariness and starvation. Peace to their
+manes!--they did their best, and "angels can no more." They
+played for high stakes, existence against fame--
+
+          "But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
+           Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears,
+           And slits the thin-spun life."
+
+"The Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire"
+(London, John Murray, 1818), published by permission of the Lords
+Commissioners of the Admiralty, was necessarily a posthumous
+work. The Introduction of eighty-two pages and the General
+Observations (fifty-three pages) are by anonymous hands; follow
+Captain Tuckey's Narrative, Professor Smith's Journal, and an
+Appendix with seven items; 1, vocabularies of the Malemba and
+Embomma (Fiote or Congo) languages; 2, 3, and 4, Zoology; 5,
+Botany; 6, Geology; and 7, Hydrography. The most valuable is No.
+5, an admirable paper entitled "Observations, Systematical and
+Geographical, on Professor Christian Smith's Collection of Plants
+from the Vicinity of the River Congo, by Robert Brown, F.R.S."
+The "Geology," by Mr. Charles Konig, of the British Museum, is
+based upon very scanty materials. The folio must not be severely
+criticized; had the writers lived, they might have worked up
+their unfinished logs into interesting and instructive matter.
+But evidently they had not prepared themselves for the work; no
+one knew the periods of rain at the equator; there was no
+linguist to avoid mistakes in the vocabulary; moreover, Professor
+Smith's notes, being kept in small and ill-formed Danish
+characters, caused such misprints as "poppies" for papaws. Some
+few of the mistakes should be noticed for the benefit of
+students. The expedition appears to have confused São Salvador,
+the capital, with St. Antonio placed seven days from the river
+mouth (p. 277). It calls Santo Antão (Cape Verds) "San Antonio;"
+the Ilha das Rôlas (of turtle doves) Rolle's Island; "morfil"
+bristles of the elephant's tail, and manafili ivory, both being
+from the Portuguese marfim; moudela for mondele or mondelle, a
+white man; malava, "presents," for mulavu (s. s. as msámbá, not
+maluvi, Douville), palm wine, which in the form mulavu m'putu
+(Portuguese) applies to wine and spirits. We have also "Leimba"
+for Lyámba or Dyámba (Cannabis saliva); "Macasso, a nut chewed by
+great people only," for Makazo, the bean of the Kola (Sterculia);
+"Hyphæa" and "Dom" for Palmyra Flabelliformis, whose "fruit hangs
+down in bunched clusters;" "Raphia" for Raphia Vinifera, commonly
+called the bamboo or wine palm, and "casa," a purgative legumen,
+for nkasa, "sass," or poison wood, identified with the red-water
+tree of Sierra Leone, the erythropheum of Professor Afzelius, of
+the order Cæalpineae, which gave a name to the Brazil.
+
+The next important visit to the Congo River was paid by Captain
+Owen's Expedition, when homeward bound in 1826. The "Leven" and
+"Barracouta" surveyed the stream twenty-five miles from its mouth
+during a week, beginning with January 1, just after the highest
+flood. At thirteen miles out at sea the water was fresh and of a
+dingy red; it fermented and remained in a highly putrescent state
+for some days, tarnishing silver; kept for four months, it became
+perfectly clear and colourless, without depositing any sediment.
+This reminds us of the changing colours, green, red and milky
+white, to which the Nile and all great African rivers that flood
+periodically are subject.[FN#15]
+
+The next traveller that deserves notice is the unfortunate
+Douville,[FN#16] through whose tissue of imposture runs a golden
+thread of truth. As his first journey, occupying nearly two of
+the three volumes, was probably confined to the Valley of the
+Cuanza River, so his second, extending beyond the equator, and to
+a meridian 25° east of Paris, becomes fable as he leaves the
+course of the Loge Stream. Yet, although he begins by doubting
+that the Coango and the Zaire are the same waters, he ends by
+recognizing the fact, and his map justly lays down the Fleuve
+Couango dit Zaire à son embouchure. Whether the tale of the
+mulatto surveyor be fact or not is of little matter: the
+adventurer had an evident inkling of the truth.
+
+A flood of side light is thrown upon the head waters of the Congo
+River by Dr. Livingstone's first memorable journey (1852-56),
+across Africa, and by the more dubious notices of his third
+expedition The Introduction (p. xviii.) to Captain Tuckey's
+narrative had concluded from the fact of the highest flood being
+in March, and the lowest level about the end of August, that at
+least one branch of the river must pass through some portion of
+the northern hemisphere. The general observations affixed to
+"Narrative" (p. 346), contain these words: "If the rise of the
+Zaire had proceeded from rains to the southward of the Line,
+swelling the tributary streams and pouring in mountain torrents
+the waters into the main channel, the rise would have been sudden
+and impetuous." Of course the writer had recourse to the "Lakes
+of Wangara," in north latitude 12° to 15°: that solution of the
+difficulty belonged inevitably to his day. Captain Tuckey (p.
+178) learned, at Mavunda, that ten days of canoeing would take
+him beyond all the rapids to a large sandy islet which makes two
+channels, one to the north-west, the other to the north-east. In
+the latter there is a fall above which canoes are procurable:
+twenty days higher up the river issues, by many small streams,
+from a great marsh or lake of mud.[FN#17] Again, a private letter
+written from the "Yellala" (p. 343) declares that "the Zaire
+would be found to issue from a lake or a chain of lakes
+considerably to the north of the Line; and, so far from the low
+state of the river in July and August militating against the
+hypothesis, it gives additional weight, provided the river swell
+in early September"--which it did. In his "Journal" (p. 224), we
+find a memorandum, written as it were with a dying hand,
+"Hypothesis confirmed. The water..."
+
+On February 24, 1854, Dr. Livingstone, after leaving what he
+calls the "Dilolo Lake," found on an almost level plain, some
+4,000 to 5,000 feet high and then flooded after rains, a great
+water parting between the eastern and the western continental
+shores. I have carefully considered the strictures upon this
+subject by the author of "Dr. Livingstone's Errors" (p. 101), and
+have come to the conclusion that the explorer was too experienced
+to make the mistakes attributed to him by the cabinet geographer.
+The translation "despair" for "bitterness" (of the fish?) and the
+reference to Noah's Deluge may be little touches ad captandum;
+but the Kibundo or Angolan tongue certainly has a dental though
+it lacks a cerebral d.
+
+The easterly flow was here represented by the Leeba or upper
+course of the "Leeambye," the "Diambege of Ladislaus Magyar, that
+great northern and north-western course of the Zambeze across
+which older geographers had thrown a dam of lofty mountains,
+where the Mosi-wa-tunya cataract was afterwards discovered. The
+opposite versant flowing to the north was the Kasai or Kasye
+(Livingstone), the Casais of the Pombeiros, the Casati of
+Douville, the Casasi and Casézi of M. Cooley (who derives it from
+Casezi, a priest, the corrupted Arabic Kissis ); the Kassabi
+(Casabi) of Beke, the Cassaby of Monteiro and Gamitto (p. 494),
+and the Kassaby or Cassay of Valdez. Its head water is afterwards
+called by the explorer Lomame and Loke, possibly for Lu-oke,
+because it drains the highlands of Mossamba and the district of
+Ji-oke, also called Ki-oke, Kiboke, and by the Portuguese
+"Quiboque." The stream is described as being one hundred yards
+broad, running through a deep green glen like the Clyde. The
+people attested its length by asserting, in true African style,
+"If you sail along it for months, you will turn without seeing
+the end of it:" European geographers apparently will not
+understand that this declaration shows only the ignorance of the
+natives concerning everything a few miles beyond their homes. The
+explorer (February 27,1854) places the ford in south latitude 11°
+15' 47", and his map shows east longitude (G.), 21° 40' 30",
+about 7° 30' (=450 direct geographical miles) from Novo Redondo
+on the Western Coast. He dots its rise in the "Balobale country,"
+south latitude 12° to 13°, and east longitude 19° to 20°.
+Pursuing his course, Dr. Livingstone (March 30) first sighted the
+Quango (Coango) as it emerged from the dark jungles of Londa, a
+giant Clyde, some 350 yards broad, flowing down an enormous
+valley of denudation. He reached it on April, 1854, in south
+latitude 9° 53', and east longitude (G.) 18° 37', about 300
+geographical linear miles from the Atlantic. Three days to the
+west lies the easternmost station of Angola, Cassange: no
+Portuguese lives, or rather then lived, beyond the Coango Valley.
+The settlers informed him that eight days' or about 100 miles'
+march south of this position, the sources are to be found in the
+"Mosamba Range" of the Basongo country; this would place them in
+about south latitude 12° to 13° and east longitude (G.) 18° to
+19°.
+
+The heights are also called in Benguela Nanos, Nannos, or Nhanos
+(highlands);[FN#18] and in our latest maps they are made to
+discharge from their seaward face the Coango and Cuanza to the
+west and north, the Kasai to the north-east and possibly to the
+Congo, the Cunene south-westwards to the Atlantic, and southwards
+the Kubango, whose destination is still doubtful. Dr. Charles
+Beke ("Athenæum," No. 2206, February 5, 1870), judged from
+various considerations that the "Kassábi" rising in the primeval
+forests of Olo-vihenda, was the "great hydrophylacium of the
+continent of Africa, the central point of division between the
+waters flowing to the Mediterranean, to the Atlantic, and to the
+Indian Ocean"--in fact, the head-water of the Nile. I believe,
+however, that our subsequent information made my late friend
+abandon this theory.
+
+On his return march to Linyanti, Dr. Livingstone, who was no
+longer incapacitated by sickness and fatigue, perceived that all
+the western feeders of the "Kasa" flow first from the western
+side towards the centre of the continent, then gradually turn
+with the main stream itself to the north, and "after the
+confluence of the Kasai with the Quango, an immense body of water
+collected from all these branches, finds its way out of the
+country by means of the River Congo or Zaire, on the Western
+Coast" (chap. xxii.). He adds: "There is but one opinion among
+the Balonda respecting the Kasai and the Quango. They invariably
+describe the Kasai as receiving the Quango, and beyond the
+confluence assuming the name of Zairé or Zerézeré. And thus he
+verifies the tradition of the Portuguese, who always speak of the
+Casais and the Coango as "suppôsto Congo." It is regrettable that
+Dr. Livingstone has not been more explicit upon the native names.
+The Balonda could hardly have heard of the semi-European term
+Zaire, which is utterly unknown even at the Yellalas. On the
+other hand, it must be borne in mind that Maxwell was informed by
+native travellers that the river 600 miles up country was still
+called "Enzaddi," and perhaps the explorer merely intends Zairé
+to explain Zerézeré. It is hardly necessary to notice Douville's
+assertion (ii. 372).
+
+Meanwhile the late Ladislaus Magyar, who had previously informed
+the Benguelan Government that the Casais was reported to fall
+into the Indian Ocean at some unknown place, in 1851 followed
+this great artery lower than any known traveller. He heard that,
+beyond his furthest exploration point (about south latitude 6°
+30,[FN#19] and east longitude, G. 22°), it pursues a north-
+easterly direction and, widening several miles, it raises waves
+which are dangerous to canoes. The waters continue to be sweet
+and fall into a lake variously called Mouro or Moura (Moráve or
+Marávi?), Uhanja or Uhenje (Nyanza?), which is suspected to be
+the Urenge or Ulenge, of which Livingstone heard in about south
+latitude 3°, and east longitude (G.) 26°. The Hungarian traveller
+naturally identified it with the mythical Lake Nyassa which has
+done such portentous mischief in a day now gone by. Ladislaus
+Magyar also states:[FN#20] "The Congo rises, I have convinced
+myself by reports, in the swamp named Inhan-ha occupying the high
+plateau of Moluwa, in the lands of the Luba, uniting with the
+many streams of this region; at a distance of about five days
+from the source it becomes a deep though narrow river, which
+flows to the westward, through a level country covered with dense
+forests, whose frequent streams coming from the north (?) and
+south are taken up "by the river; then it bends north-westward
+under the name of Kuango." Here we find the drowned lands, the
+"sponges" of Livingstone, who, however, placed the sources much
+further to the south-east.
+
+Dr. Livingstone's third and last expedition, which began on March
+24, 1866, and which ended (1873) with fatal fitness in the swamps
+of the Bangweolo, suggests a new and more distant derivation for
+the mighty Congo. After travelling from the Rovuma River to Lake
+Nyassa, the great explorer in l867-8 came upon an "earthern
+mound," west of Lake Bangweolo or Bemba, in about south latitude
+11°; and here he places the sources of the Nile, where
+geographers have agreed provisionally to place the sources of the
+Congo. Already, in 1518, Fernandez de Enciso (Suma de
+Geographia), the "theoretical discoverer" of Kilimanjaro, was
+told by the Congoese that their river rises in high mountains,
+from which another great stream flows in an opposite direction--
+but this might apply to more watersheds than one. The subject is
+treated at considerable length in an article by Dr. E.
+Behm,[FN#21] certain of whose remarks I shall notice at the end
+of this chapter.
+
+The article proves hypsometrically that the Lualaba, in which the
+explorer found the head waters of the Egyptian river, cannot feed
+the Tanganyika nor the Lake Nzige (N'zíghe, Mwutan, Chowambe, or
+Albert Nyanza Lake), nor even the Bahr el Ghazal, as was once
+suspected. From the latter, indeed, it is barred by the water
+parting of the Welle, the "Babura" of Jules Poncet (1860), in the
+land of the Monbuttú; whose system the later explorer, Dr.
+Schweinfurth, is disposed to connect with the Shari.
+Hydrometrically considered, the Lualaba, which at Nyangwe, the
+most northerly point explored by Dr. Livingstone (1870), rolls a
+flood of 124,000 cubic feet per second in the dry season, cannot
+be connected either with the Welle (5,100 cubic feet), nor with
+the Bahr el Ghazal (3,042 to 6,500 cubic feet), nor with the Nile
+below the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal (11,330); nor with the
+Shari (67,500); nor with the shallow Ogobe, through its main
+forks the Rembo Okanda and the Rembo Nguye.
+
+But the Lualaba may issue through the Congo. The former is made
+one of the four streams ferried over by those travelling from the
+Cazembe to the Mwata ya Nvo, and Dr. de Lacarda[FN#22] records it
+as the "Guarava," probably a dialectic form of Lualava. It is the
+Luapula of the "Geographer of N'yassi," who, with his usual
+felicity and boldness of conjecture (p. 38), bends it eastward,
+and discharges it into his mythical Central Sea.
+
+Dr. Behm greatly under-estimates the Congo when he assigns to it
+only 1,800,000 cubic feet per second. He makes the great artery
+begin to rise in November instead of September and decrease in
+April, without noticing the March-June freshets, reported by all
+the natives to measure about one-third of the autumnal floods.
+His elements are taken from Tuckey, who found off the "Diamond
+Rock" a velocity of 3.50 knots an hour, and from Vidal's Chart,
+showing 9,000 English feet or 1.50 nautical miles in a Thalweg
+fifty fathoms deep. Thus he assumes only two nautical miles for
+the current, or sixty inches per second, which must be
+considerably increased, and an average depth of ten fathoms,
+which again is too little. For 1,800,000 cubic feet of water per
+second, which Tuckey made 2,000,000, we may safely read
+2,500,000.
+
+Dr. Livingstone himself was haunted by the idea that he was
+exploring the Upper Congo, not the Nile. From a Portuguese
+subordinate he "learned that the Luapula went to Angola." He asks
+with some truth, "Who would care to risk being put into a
+cannibal pot, and be converted into blackman for anything less
+than the grand old Nile?" And the late Sir Roderick I. Murchison,
+whose geographical forecasts were sometimes remarkable, suspected
+long ago[FN#23] that his "illustrious friend" would follow the
+drainage of the country to the western coast.
+
+The "extraordinary quiet rise of the periodical flood," proved by
+the first expedition, argues that the Congo "issues from the
+gradual overflowing of a lake or a chain of lakes." The increment
+in the lower bed, only eight to twelve feet where the Nile and
+the Ganges rise thirty and the Binuwe fifty, would also suggest
+that it is provided with many large reservoirs. The Introduction
+to Tuckey's "Narrative" (p. xviii.) assumes that the highest
+water is in March, but he entered the stream only on July 6, and
+the expedition ended in mid-October. The best informants assured
+me that from March till June there are heavy freshets. As in the
+Ogobe, the flood begins in early September, somewhat preceding
+that of the Lualaba, but, unlike the former stream, it attains
+its highest in November and December, and it gradually subsides
+from the end of June till August, about which time the water is
+lowest.
+
+In the middle region of the Tanganyika, I found the rainy season
+lasting from September to May. At Lake Liemba, the south-eastern
+projection of the Tanganyika, Dr. Livingstone in 1867 saw no rain
+from May 12 to September, and in Many-wema-land, west of the
+central Tanganyika, about south latitude 5°, the wet season began
+in November, and continued till July with intervals, marking the
+passage of the belt of calms. But, for the Congo to rise in
+September, we must assume the rains to have fallen in early
+August, allowing ten or fifteen days for the streams to descend,
+and the rest for the saturation of the land. This postulates a
+supply from the Central African regions far north of the equator.
+Even for the March-June freshets, we must also undoubtedly go
+north of the Line, yet Herr H. Kiepert[FN#24] places the
+northernmost influent of Congo some 150 miles south of the
+equator. Under these limitations I agree with Dr. Behm:--"Taking
+everything into consideration, in the present state of our
+knowledge, there is the strongest probability that the Lualaba is
+the head stream of the Congo, and the absolute certainty that it
+has no connection with the Nile or any other river (system) of
+the northern hemisphere." And again: "As surely as the sun stands
+over the southern hemisphere in our winter and the northern in
+our summer, bringing the rains and the swellings of the tropical
+rivers when it is in the zenith with regard to them, so surely
+can it be predicated, from a comparison of the rainy seasons and
+times of rising, that the Lualaba belongs to no river of the
+northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere Africa possesses
+only one river, the Congo, which could take up the vast water
+supply of the Lualaba." The Brazil shows the curious feature of
+widely different and even opposite rainy seasons in the same
+parallel of latitude; but this is not the place to discuss the
+subject.
+
+Since these lines were written, I have to lament the collapse of
+the Livingstone-Congo Expedition. In 1872 the great explorer's
+friends, taking into consideration the prospect of his turning
+westward, organized a "relief" from West as well as from East
+Africa. Mr. J. Young, of Kelly, generously supplied the sinews of
+travel, and Mr. Clements R. Markham, Secretary of the Royal
+Geographical Society, lent important aid in preparing the
+exploration. Navigating-Lieutenant W. J. Grandy, who had seen
+service on the eastern coast of Africa, landed at S. Paulo de
+Loanda in early 1873, and set out from Ambriz in March of that
+year. The usual difficulties were met and overcome, when
+Lieutenant Grandy was summarily recalled. The official
+explanation ("Royal Geographical Society," December 14th, 1874),
+is that the measure was in consequence of Livingstone's death.
+The traveller himself says:--"Complying with instructions, we,
+with many regrets at the idea of leaving our work unfinished when
+all seemed so full of promise, commenced preparations for the
+return, leaving good presents with the chiefs, in order to
+procure a good reception for those who might come after us." An
+Ex-President of the Royal Geographical Society had asserted, "The
+ascent of the (Upper) Congo ought to be more productive of useful
+geographical results than any other branch of African
+exploration, as it will bring to the test of experiment the
+navigability of the Congo above the Falls, and thus possibly open
+out a means of introducing traffic by steam into the heart of the
+continent at least two thousand miles from the mouth of the
+river."
+
+With this explicit and stimulating assertion before us, we must
+lament that England, once the worthy rival in exploration of
+Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, is now too poor to support
+a single exploration on the West African Coast, when Germany is
+wealthy enough liberally to subsidize two.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Note.
+
+                   A nous deux, Dr. E. Behm!
+
+
+
+My objections to your paper are the three following: 1. It
+generally understates the volume of the Nzadi, by not allowing
+sufficiently for the double equinoctial periods of high water,
+March to June, as well as September to December; and by ignoring
+the north-equatorial supply. 2. It arbitrarily determines the
+question of the Tanganyika, separating it from the Nile-system
+upon the insufficient strength of a gorilla, and of an oil-palm
+which is specifically different from that of the Western Coast;
+and 3. It wilfully misrepresents Dr. Livingstone in the matter of
+the so-called Victoria Nyanza.
+
+My first objection has been amply discussed. I therefore proceed
+to consider the second. As Mr. Alexander G. Findlay observed
+("Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," No. 3, vol.
+xvii. of July 28, 1873):--"Up to the time of Stanley's arrival at
+Ujiji, and his journey to the north of the lake, Livingstone was
+fully impressed with the conviction that the Tanganyika is
+nothing more than what he called a ‘lacustrine river' (329 miles
+long by twenty of average breadth); flowing steadily to the north
+and forming a portion of the Great Nile Basin. The letters
+contained his reasons for forming that opinion, stating that he
+had been for weeks and months on the shores of the lake watching
+the flow of the water northwards" (at the rate of a knot per
+hour). At times the current appeared to run southwards, but that
+was under the influence of strong northerly winds. Also by Dr.
+Livingstone's letters to Sir Thomas Maclear and Dr. Mann ("
+Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,"No. i of 1873, pp.
+69-70), it is evident that the explorer believed only in the lake
+outlet north of Ujiji. Again, Mr. Findlay, after attentively
+considering the unsatisfactory visit of Dr. Livingstone and Mr.
+Stanley to the Rusizi River in November and December, 1871, holds
+it to be a mere marsh-drain, which when the south winds prevail,
+would possibly flow in the opposite direction; and he still
+believes that Captain Speke and I, when at Uvira, were within
+five or six miles of the head.
+
+Since Dr. Livingstone's visit we have heard more upon this
+disputed subject. A native of Karagwah assured my friend Sir
+Samuel Baker--who, despite all prepossessions, candidly accepted
+the statement--that it is possible and feasible to canoe from
+Chibero,on the so-called Albert Nyanza, past Uvira, where the
+stream narrows and where a pilot is required, to the Arab dépôt,
+Ujiji. He described the northern portion of the Tanganyika as
+varying much in breadth, immensely wide beyond Vacovia, and again
+contracting at Uvira. His report was confirmed by a Msawahíli,
+sent by King Mtesa, with whom he had lived many years, to
+communicate with Baker Pasha at Fatiko; this man knew both Uvira
+and Ujiji, which he called "Uyiyi." Nothing can be more
+substantial than this double testimony, which wears all the
+semblance of truth.
+
+On the other hand, Lieut. Cameron, whose admirable work has, so
+to speak, re-constructed the Tanganyika Lake, discovered, on the
+3rd of May, 18-74, the Lukuga River, which he supposes to form
+the outlet. It lies 25 direct miles to the south of the Kasenge
+Archipelago, numbering seventeen isles, visited by Captain Speke
+in March, 1857. Dr. Livingstone touched here on July 13, 1869,
+and heard nothing of the outlet; he describes a current sweeping
+round Kasenge to south-east or southwards according to the wind,
+and carrying trees at the rate of a knot an hour. But Mr. Stanley
+(pp. 400 et passim) agrees with Dr. Krapf, who made a large river
+issue from "the lake" westwards, and who proposed, by following
+its course, to reach the Atlantic. The "discoverer of
+Livingstone" evidently inclines to believe that the Tanganyika
+drains through the caverns of Kabogo near Uguhha, and he records
+the information of native travellers that "Kabogo is a great
+mountain on the other side of the Tanganyika, full of deep holes,
+into which the water rolls; "moreover, that at the distance of
+over a hundred miles he himself heard the" sound of the
+thundering surf which is said to roll into the caves of
+Kabogo."In his map he ‘cutely avoids inserting anything beyond
+"Kabogo Mountains, 6,000 to 7,000 feet high."
+
+The gallant young naval lieutenant's exploration of the Lukuga
+has not yet reached us in a satisfactory form. He found the
+current sluggishly flowing at the rate of 1.2 knots per hour; he
+followed it for four or five miles, and he was stopped by
+floating grass and enormous rushes (papyri?). A friendly chief
+told him that the Lukuga feeds the Lualaba which, beyond Nyangwe
+(Livingstone's furthest point, in about south latitude 4°) takes
+the name of Ugarowwa. An Arab had descended this stream fifty-
+five marches, and reached a place where there were ships and
+white merchants who traded largely in palm-oil and ivory, both
+rare on the Congo River. And, unfortunately, "the name (River)
+Congo was also mentioned," a term utterly unknown except to the
+few Portuguese-speaking natives.
+
+At present, therefore, we must reserve judgment, and the only
+conclusion to which the unprofessional reader would come is that
+the weight of authority is in favour of a double issue for the
+Tanganyika, north and west.
+
+The wilful misrepresentation is couched in these words: "The
+reports obtained by Livingstone are if anything favourable to the
+unity of the Victoria Nyanza (Ukerewe, Ukara,) because along with
+it he names only such lakes as were already known to have a
+separate existence from it." As several were recognized, ergo it
+is one! Dr. Livingstone heard from independent sources that the
+so-called Victoria Nyanza is a lake region, not a lake; his
+account of the Okara (Ukara), and the three or four waters run
+into a single huge sheet, is substantially the same as that
+which, after a study of the Rev. Mr. Wakefield's Reports I
+offered to the Royal Geographical Society, and which I
+subsequently published in "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast."
+You, Dr. Behm, are apparently satisfied with a lake drained by an
+inverted delta of half-a-dozen issues--I am not. Nor can I agree
+with you that "whether the Victoria Nyanza is one lake or several
+is a point of detail of less importance," when it has disfigured
+the best maps of Africa for nearly a score of years. The last
+intelligence concerning the "unity" of the lake is from Colonel
+C. C. Long, a staff-officer in the service of His Highness the
+Khedive, who was sent by Colonel Gordon on a friendly mission to
+King Mtesa of Uganda. With permission to descend "Murchison
+Creek," and to view "Lake Victoria Nyanza," Colonel Long, after a
+march of three hours, took boat. He sounded the waters of the
+lake, and found a depth of from 25 to 35 feet; in clear weather
+the opposite shore was visible, appearing "to an unnautical eye"
+from 12 to 15 miles distant; nor could this estimate be greatly
+wrong. After much negotiation and opposition he obtained leave to
+return to Egyptian territory by water, and on the way, in north
+latitude 1° 30', he discovered a second lake or "large basin," at
+least 20 to 25 miles wide. The geography is somewhat hazy, but
+the assertions are not to be mistaken.
+
+Finally, I read with regret such statements as the following,
+made by so well-known a geographer as yourself: "Speke's views
+have been splendidly confirmed; the attacks of his opponents,
+especially of Burton, who was most inimically inclined to him,
+collapse into nothing." This unwarrantable style of assertion
+might be expected from the "Mittheilungen," but it is not
+honourable to a man of science. There are, you well know, three
+main points of difference between the late Captain Speke and
+myself. The first is the horse-shoe of mountains blocking up the
+northern end of the Tanganyika; this, after a dozen years, I
+succeeded in abolishing. The second is the existence of the
+Victoria Nyanza, which I assert to be a lake region, not a lake;
+it is far from being a "point of detail," and I hope presently to
+see it follow the way of the horse-shoe. Thirdly is the drainage
+of the Tanganyika, which Captain Speke threw southward to the
+Zambeze, a theory now universally abandoned. This may be your
+view of "splendid confirmation"--I venture to think that it will
+not be accepted by the geographical world.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XI.
+
+                      Life at Banza Nokki.
+
+
+
+I was now duly established with my books and instruments at
+Nkaye, and the inevitable delay was employed in studying the
+country and the people, and in making a botanical collection. But
+the season was wholly unpropitious. A naval officer, who was
+considered an authority upon the Coast, had advised me to travel
+in September, when a journey should never begin later than May.
+The vegetation was feeling the effect of the Cacimbo; most of the
+perennials were in seed, and the annuals were nearly dried up.
+The pictorial effects were those of
+
+          "Autumn laying here and there
+           A fiery finger on the leaves."
+
+Yet, with Factotum Selim's assistance, I managed to collect some
+490 specimens within the fortnight. We had not the good fortune
+of the late Dr. Welwitsch (Welwitschia mirabilis), but there is
+still a copious treasure left for those who visit the Congo River
+in the right season.
+
+I was delighted with the country, a counterpart of the Usumbara
+Hills in Eastern Africa, disposed upon nearly the same parallel.
+The Cacimbo season corresponded with the Harmattan north of the
+Line; still, grey mornings, and covered, rainless noons, so
+distasteful to the Expedition, which complained that, from four
+to five days together, it could not obtain an altitude. The
+curious contrast in a region of evergreens was not wanting, the
+varied tintage of winter on one tree, and upon another the
+brightest hues of budding spring. The fair land of grass and
+flowers "rough but beautiful," of shrubbery-path, and dense
+mottes or copse islets, with clear fountains bubbling from the
+rocks, adorned by noble glimpses of the lake-like river, and of a
+blue horizon, which suggested the ocean--ever one of the most
+attractive points in an African landscape,--was easily invested
+by the eye of fancy with gold and emerald and steely azure from
+above, whilst the blue masses of bare mountain, thrown against a
+cloudless sky, towered over the black-green sea of vegetation at
+their base, like icebergs rising from the bosom of the Atlantic.
+
+As in the Brazilian Rio de São Francisco, the few miles between
+the mouth and the hill-region cause a radical change of climate.
+Here the suns are never too hot, nor are the moons too cold; the
+nights fall soft and misty, the mornings bring the blessing of
+freshness; and I was never weary of enjoying the effects of dying
+and reviving day. The most delicate sharpness and purity of
+outline took the place of meridian reek and blur; trees, rocks,
+and chalets were picked out with an utter disregard to the
+perspective of distance, and the lowest sounds were distinctly
+heard in the hard, clear atmosphere. The damp and fetid
+vegetation of the Coast wholly disappeared. By the benefit of
+purest air and water, with long walks and abundant palm wine from
+the trees hung with calabashes, the traces of "Nanny Po" soon
+vanished; appetite and sleep returned, nightly cramps were things
+unknown, and a healthy glow overspread the clammy, corpse-like
+skin. When the Lower Congo shall become the emporium of lawful
+trade, the white face will find a sanatorium in these portals of
+the Sierra del Crystal,--the vine will flourish, the soil will
+produce the cereals as well as the fruits and vegetables of
+Europe, and this region will become one of the "Paradises of
+Africa."
+
+The banzas of Congo-land show the constitution of native society,
+which, as in Syria, and indeed in most barbarous and semi-
+barbarous places, is drawn together less by reciprocal wants than
+by the ties of blood. Here families cannot disperse, and thus
+each hamlet is a single house, with its patriarch for president
+and judge. When the population outgrows certain limits, instead
+of being confounded with its neighbours, it adds a settlement
+upon neighbouring ground, and removal is the work of a single
+day. The towns are merely big villages, whose streets are
+labyrinths of narrow pathways, often grass-grown, because each
+man builds in his own way. Some translate the word "Banza" by
+city, unaware that Central African people do not build cities.
+Professor Smith rightly explains it "a village, which with them
+means a paterfamilias, and his private dependants." So the
+maligned Douville (i. 159)--"On donne le nom de banza à la ville
+ou réside le chef d'une peuplade ou nation nègre. On l'attribue
+aussi à l'enceinte que le chef ou souverain habite avec les
+femmes et sa cour. Dans ce dernier sens le mot banza veut dire
+palais du chef."
+
+Our situation is charming, high enough to be wholesome, yet in a
+sheltered valley, an amphitheatre opening to the south-east or
+rainy quarter; the glorious trees, here scattered, there gathered
+in clumps and impenetrable bosquets, show the exuberant fertility
+of the soil. Behind and above the village rises a dwarf plateau,
+rich with plantains and manioc. After the deserted state of the
+river banks,--the effect of kidnapping,--we are surprised to find
+so populous a region. Within cannon-shot, there are not less than
+twelve villages, with a total, perhaps, of 2,400 souls.
+
+Banza Nkaye, as usual uninclosed, contains some forty
+habitations, which may lodge two hundred head. The tenements are
+built upon platforms cut out of the hill slopes; and the make
+proves that, even during the rains, there is little to complain
+of climate. Ten of these huts belong to royalty, which lives upon
+the lowest plane; and each wife has her own abode, whilst the
+"senzallas" of the slaves cluster outside. The foundation is
+slightly raised, to prevent flooding. The superstructure strikes
+most travellers as having somewhat the look of a châlet, although
+Proyart compares it with a large basket turned upside down. Two
+strong uprights, firmly planted, support on their forked ends a
+long strut-beam, tightly secured; the eaves are broad to throw
+off the rain, and the neat thatch of grass, laid with points
+upwards in regular courses, and kept in site by bamboo strips, is
+renewed before the stormy season. The roof and walls are composed
+of six screens; they are made upon the ground, often occupying
+months, and they can be put together in a few minutes. The
+material, which an old traveller says is of "leaves interwoven
+not contemptibly with one another," is a grass growing everywhere
+on the hills, plaited and attached to strips of cane or bamboo-
+palm (Raphia vinifera); the gable "walls" are often a cheque-
+pattern, produced by twining "tie-tie," "monkey rope," or
+creepers, stained black, round the dull-yellow groundwork; and
+one end is pierced for a doorway, that must not front the winds
+and rains. It is a small square hole, keeping the interior dark
+and cool; and the defence is a screen of cane-work, fastened with
+a rude wooden latch. The flooring is hard, tamped clay, in the
+centre of which the fire is laid; the cooking, however, is
+confined to the broad eaves, or to the compound which, surrounded
+with neat walls, backs the house. The interior is divided into
+the usual "but" and "ben." The latter communicates with the
+former by a passage, masked with a reed screen; it is the
+sleeping-place and the store-room; and there is generally a
+second wicket for timely escape. The only furniture consists of
+mats, calabashes, and a standing bedstead of rude construction,
+or a bamboo cot like those built at Lagos,--in fact, the four
+bare walls suggest penury. But in the "small countries," as the
+"landward towns" are called, where the raid and the foray are not
+feared, the householder entrusts to some faithful slave large
+stores of cloth and rum, of arms and gunpowder.
+
+The abodes suggest those of our semi-barbarous ancestors, as
+described by Holingshed, where earth mixed with lime formed the
+floor; where the fire was laid to the wall; where the smoke,
+which, besides hardening timber, was "expected to keep the good
+man and his family from quake and fever, curled from the door;
+and where the bed was a straw pallet, with a log of wood for a
+pillow. But the Congoese is better lodged than we were before the
+days of Queen Elizabeth; what are luxuries in the north, broad
+beds and deep arm-chairs, would here be far less comfortable than
+the mats, which serve for all purposes. I soon civilized my hut
+with a divan, the Hindostani chabutarah, the Spanish estrada, the
+"mud bank" or "bunting" of Sierra Leone, a cool earth-bench
+running round the room, which then wanted only a glass window.
+But no domestic splendour was required; life in the open air is
+the life for the tropics: even in England a greater proportion of
+it would do away with much neuralgia and similar complaints. And,
+if the establishment be simple, it is also neat and clean: we
+never suffered from the cimex and pulex of which Captain Tuckey
+complains so bitterly, and the fourmis voyageuses (drivers),
+mosquitoes, scorpions, and centipedes were unknown to us.
+
+The people much resemble those of the Gaboon. The figure is well
+formed, except the bosom, whose shape prolonged lactation,
+probably upon the principle called Malthusian, soon destroys;
+hence the first child is said to "make the breasts fall." The
+face is somewhat broad and flat, the jowl wide, deep, and strong,
+and the cerebellum is highly developed as in the Slav. The eye is
+well opened, with thick and curly lashes, but the tunica
+conjunctiva is rarely of a pure white; the large teeth are of
+good shape and colour. Extensive tattoos appear on breasts,
+backs, and shoulders; the wearers are generally slaves, also
+known by scantier clothing, by darker skins, and by a wilder
+expression of countenance. During their "country nursing," the
+children run about wholly nude, except the coating of red wood
+applied by the mothers, or the dust gathered from the ground. I
+could not hear of the weaning custom mentioned by Merolla, the
+father lifting the child by the arm, and holding him for a time
+hanging in the air, "falsely believing that by those means he
+will become more strong and robust." Whilst the men affect caps,
+the women go bare-headed, either shaving the whole scalp, or
+leaving a calotte of curly hair on the poll; it resembles the
+Shúshah of Western Arabia and East Africa, but it is carried to
+the fore like a toucan's crest. Some, by way of coquetterie,
+trace upon the scalp a complicated network, showing the finest
+and narrowest lines of black wool and pale skin: so the old
+traveller tells us "the heads of those who aspire to glory in
+apparel resemble a parterre, you see alleys and figures traced on
+them with a great deal of ingenuity." The bosom, elaborately
+bound downwards, is covered with a square bit of stuff, or a
+calico pagne--most ungraceful of raiment-wrapped under the arms,
+and extending to the knees:
+
+          "In longitude'tis sorely scanty,
+             But ‘tis their best, and they are vaunty."
+
+The poor and the slaves content themselves with grass cloth. The
+ornaments are brass earrings, beads and imitation coral; heavy
+bangles and manillas of brass and copper, zinc and iron, loading
+the ankles, and giving a dainty elephantine gait; the weight also
+produces stout mollets, which are set off by bead-garters below
+the knees. The leg, as amongst hill people generally, is finely
+developed, especially amongst the lower orders: the "lady's"
+being often lank and spindled, as in Paris and Naples, where the
+carriage shrinks the muscles as bandages cramp Chinese feet.
+
+In these hamlets women are far more numerous than men. Marriage
+being expensive amongst the "Mfumo" or gentry, the houses are
+stocked with Hagars, and the children inherit their father's rank
+as Mwana Mfumos, opposed to Mwanangambe, labouring people, or
+Wantu, slaves.
+
+The missionaries found a regular system of "hand-fasting." Their
+neophytes did not approve of marriage in facie ecclesiæ, "for
+they must first be satisfied whether their wife will have
+children; whether she will be diligent in her daily labour, and,
+lastly, whether she will prove obedient, before they will marry
+her. If they find her faulty in any of these points, they
+immediately send her back again to her parents." The woman, not
+being looked upon the worse for being returned into stores, soon
+afterwards underwent another trial, perhaps with success.
+Converts were fined nine crowns for such irregularities. "But,
+oh!" exclaims a good father, "what pains do we take to bring them
+to marry the lover, and how many ridiculous arguments and reasons
+do they bring to excuse themselves from this duty and restraint."
+He tells us how he refused absolution to a dying woman, unless
+she compelled her daughter to marry a man with whom she was
+"living upon trial." The mother answered wisely enough, "Father,
+I will never give my daughter cause to curse me after I am dead,
+by obliging her to wedlock where she does not fancy." Whereupon
+the priest replied, "What! do you not stand more in awe of a
+temporal than an eternal curse?" and, working upon the feelings
+of the girl, who began to tremble and to weep, extorted from her
+a promise to accept the "feigned husband." He adds,
+"Notwithstanding this, some obstinate mothers have rather chosen
+to die unconfessed, than to concern themselves with the marriage
+of their daughters." Being obliged to attend Communion at Easter,
+these temporary couples would part on the first day of Lent;
+obtain absolution and, a week afterwards, either cohabit once
+more or find otherpartners. The "indiscreet method of courtship,"
+popularly known as "bundling," here existed, and was found by
+Caillié amongst the southern Moors: "When everybody is at rest,
+the man creeps into his intended's tent, and remains with her
+till daybreak."
+
+An energetic attempt was made to abolish polygamy, which, instead
+of diminishing population as some sciolists pretend, caused the
+country to swarm like maritime China. Father Carli, who also
+dilates upon the evil practice of the sexes living together on
+trial, ca. didly owns that his main difficulty lay in "bringing
+the multitude to keep to one wife, they being wholly averse to
+that law." Yet old travellers declare that when the missionaries
+succeeded, the people "lived so Christian-like and lovingly
+together, that the wife would suffer herself to be cut to pieces
+rather than deceive her husband." Merolla, indeed, enlarges on
+the constancy of women, whether white or black, when lawfully
+married to their mates; and praises them for living together in
+all manner of love and amity. "Hence may be learned what a
+propensity the women have to chastity in these parts, many of
+whom meet together on the first day of Lent, and oblige
+themselves, under pain of severe penance, to a strict continence
+till Easter." In case of adultery the husband could divorce the
+wife; he was generally satisfied by her begging his pardon, and
+by taking a slave from the lover. Widowed "countesses," proved
+guilty of "immorality," suffered death by fire or sword. On the
+other hand, the "princess" had a right to choose her husband;
+but, as in Persia, the day of his splendid wedding was the last
+of his liberty. He became a prisoner and a slave; he was
+surrounded by spies; he was preceded by guards out of doors, and
+at the least "écart" his head was chopped off and his paramour
+was sold. These ladies amply revenged the servitude of their sex-
+-
+
+          "Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum."
+
+Rich women were allowed to support quasihusbands until they
+became mothers; and the slaves of course lived together without
+marriage. Since the days of the Expedition a change for the
+better has come over the gentil sesso. The traveller is no longer
+in the "dilemma of Frère Jean," and, except at the river-mouth
+and at the adjacent villages, there is none of that officious
+complaisance which characterizes every hamlet in the Gaboon
+country. The men appear peculiarly jealous, and the women fearful
+of the white face. Whenever we approached a feminine group, it
+would start up and run away; if cooking ground-nuts, the boldest
+would place a little heap upon the bottom of an upturned basket,
+push it towards us and wave us off. The lowest orders will submit
+to a kind of marriage for four fathoms of cloth; exactly double
+the tariff paid in Tuckey's time (pp. 171-181); and this ratio
+will apply to all other articles of living. Amongst themselves
+nubile girls are not remarkably strict; but as matrons they are
+rigid. The adulterer is now punished by a heavy fine, and, if he
+cannot pay, his death, as on many parts of the Southern Coast, is
+lawful to the husband.
+
+The life is regular, and society is simple and patriarchal, as
+amongst the Iroquois and Mohawks, or in the Shetlands two
+centuries ago. The only excitement, a fight or a slave hunt, is
+now become very rare. Yet I can hardly lay down the "curriculum
+vitae" as longer than fifty-five years, and there are few signs
+of great age. Merolla declares the women to be longer-lived than
+the men. Gidi Mavunga, who told me that the Congo Expedition
+visited their Banza when his mother was a child, can hardly be
+forty-five, as his eldest son shows, and yet he looks sixty. The
+people rise at dawn and, stirring up the fire, light the
+cachimbos or large clay pipes which are rarely out of their
+mouths. Tobacco (nsunza) grows everywhere and, when rudely cured,
+it is sold in ringlets or twisted leaves; it is never snuffed,
+and the only chaw is the Mákázo or Kola nut which grows all over
+these hills; of these I bought 200 for 100 coloured porcelain
+beads, probably paying treble the usual price. No food is eaten
+at dawn, a bad practice, which has extended to the Brazil and the
+Argentine Republic; but if a dram be procurable it is taken "por
+la manana." The slave-women, often escorted by one of the wives,
+and accompanied by the small girls, who must learn to work whilst
+their brothers are idling with their rattles, set out with water-
+pots balanced on their Astrachan wool, or with baskets for grain
+and firewood slung by a head-strap to the back The free-born
+remain at home, bathing and anointing with palm-oil, which
+renders the skin smooth and supple, but leaves a peculiar aroma;
+they are mostly cross enough till they have thoroughly shaken off
+sleep, and the morning generally begins with scolding the slaves
+or a family wrangle. I have seen something of the kind in Europe.
+
+Visiting, chatting, and strolling from place to place, lead to
+the substantial breakfast or first dinner between 9 and 10 A.M.
+Meat rarely appears; river fish, fresh or sun-dried, is the usual
+"kitchen," eaten with manioc, toasted maize, and peeled, roasted,
+and scraped plantain: vegetables and palm-oil obtained by
+squeezing the nut in the hands, are the staple dish, and beans
+are looked upon rather as slaves' food. They have no rice and no
+form of "daily bread:" I happened to take with me a few boxes of
+"twice-baked," and this Mbolo was the object of every chiefs
+ambition. "Coleworts" are noticed by Merolla as a missionary
+importation; he tells us that they produce no seed; and are
+propagated by planting the sprouts, which grow to a great height.
+The greens, cabbages, spinach, and French beans, mentioned by
+Tuckey, have been allowed to die out. Tea, coffee, sugar, and all
+such exotics, are unappreciated, if not unknown; chillies, which
+grow wild, enter into every dish, and the salt of native
+manufacture, brown and earthy, is bought in little baskets.
+
+Between breakfast and midday there is a mighty drink. The palm-
+wine, here called "Msámbá," and on the lower river "Manjewa," is
+not brought in at dawn, or it would be better. The endogen in
+general use is the elai's, which is considered to supply a better
+and more delicate liquor than the raphia. The people do not fell
+the tree like the Kru-men, but prefer the hoop of "supple-jack"
+affected by the natives of Fernando Po and Camarones. A leaf
+folded funnel-wise, and inserted as usual in the lowest part of
+the frond before the fruit forms, conveys the juice into the
+calabashes, often three, which hang below the crown; and the
+daily produce may be ten quarts. On the first day of tapping, the
+sap is too sweet; it is best during the following week and, when
+it becomes tart, no more must be drawn or the tree will be
+injured. It cannot be kept; acetous fermentation sets in at once,
+and presently it coagulates and corrupts. At Banana and Boma it
+is particularly good; at Porto da Lenha it is half water, but the
+agents dare not complain, for the reason which prevents them
+offering "spliced grog" to the prepotent negro. Europeans enjoy
+the taste, but dislike the smell of palm-wine; those in whom it
+causes flatulence should avoid it, but where it agrees it is a
+pleasant stimulant, pectoral, refreshing, and clearing the primæ
+vice. Mixed with wine or spirits, it becomes highly intoxicating.
+The rude beers, called by Merolla Guallo and by Tuckey (p. 120)
+Baamboo, the Oualo of Douville, and the Pombeof East Africa,
+mentioned by almost every traveller, are not now found on the
+lower river.
+
+About noon the slaves return from handling their trowel-shaped
+iron hoes, and the "gentleman" takes a siesta proportioned to his
+drink. The poorer classes sit at home weaving, spinning, or
+threading beads, whilst the wives attend to household work,
+prepare the meals, buy and sell, dig and delve. Europeans often
+pity the sex thus "doomed to perform the most laborious
+drudgery;" but it is a waste of sentiment. The women are more
+accustomed to labour in all senses of the word, and the result is
+that they equal their mates in strength and stature; they enjoy
+robust health, and their children, born without difficulty, are
+sturdy and vigorous. The same was the case amongst the primitive
+tribes of Europe; Zamacola (Anthrop. Mem. ii. 38), assures us
+that the Basque women were physically powerful as the men, with
+whom they engaged in prize-fights.
+
+The master awakes about 3 P.M. and smokes, visits, plays with his
+children, and dawdles away his time till the cool sunset, when a
+second edition of the first meal is served up. If there be
+neither dance nor festival, all then retire to their bens, light
+the fire, and sit smoking tobacco or bhang, with frequent
+interruptions of palm wine or rum, till joined by their partners.
+Douville (ii. 113), says that the Pangué or chanvre, "croît
+naturellement dans lepays" I believe the questions to be still
+sub judice, whether the intoxicating cannabis be or be not
+indigenous to Africa as well as to Asia; and whether smoking was
+not known in the Old World, as it certainly was in the New,
+before tobacco was introduced. The cannabis Indica was the
+original anæsthetic known to the Arabs and to civilized Orientals
+many centuries before the West invented ether and chloroform.
+
+Our landlord has two wives, but one is a mother and will not
+rejoin him till her child can carry a calabash of water unaided.
+To avoid exciting jealousy he lives in a hut apart, surrounded by
+seven or eight slaves, almost all of them young girls. This
+regular life is varied by a little extra exertion at seed-time
+and harvest, by attending the various quitandas or markets of the
+country side, and by an occasional trip to "town" (Boma). When
+the bush is burning, all sally out with guns, clubs, and dogs, to
+bring home "beef." And thus they dwell in the presence of their
+brethren, thinking little of to-day, and literally following the
+precept, "Take no thought for the morrow." As the old missioners
+testify, they have happy memories, their tempers are mild, and
+quarrels rarely lead to blows; they are covetous, but not
+miserly; they share what they have, and they apply the term
+"close-fist" to the European who gives "nuffin for nuffin."
+
+The most superstitious of men, they combine the two extremes of
+belief and unbelief; they have the firmest conviction in their
+own tenets, whilst those of others flow off their minds like
+water from a greased surface. The Catholic missioners laboured
+amongst them for nearly two hundred years; some of these
+ecclesiastics were ignorant and bigoted as those whom we still
+meet on the West African Coast, but not a few were earnest and
+energetic, scrupulous and conscientious, able and learned as the
+best of our modern day. All did not hurry over their superficial
+tasks like the Neapolitan father Jerome da Montesarchio, who
+baptized 100,000 souls; and others, who sprinkled children till
+their arms were tired. Many lived for years in the country,
+learning the language and identifying themselves with their
+flocks. Yet the most they ever effected was to make their
+acolytes resemble the Assyrians whom Shalmaneser transplanted to
+Assyria, who "feared the Lord and served their graven images" (2
+Kings, xvii. 33-41). Their only traces are the word "Deus,"
+foully perverted like the Chinese "joss;" and an occasional
+crucifix which is called cousa de branco--white man's thing.
+Tuckey was justified in observing at Nokki that the crucifixes,
+left by missioners, were strangely mixed with native fetishes,
+and that the people seemed by no means improved by the muddle of
+Christian and Pagan idolatry.
+
+The system is at once complicated and unsettled. There is,
+apparently, the sensus numinis; the vague deity being known as
+Nzambi or Njambi, which the missionaries translated into God, as
+Nganna Zambi--Lord Zambi. Merolla uses Zambiabungù, and in the
+vocabulary, Zabiambunco, for the "Spirit above" (Zambi-a-npungo):
+Battel tells us that the King of Loango was called "Sambee and
+Pango, which mean God." The Abbé Proyart terms the Supreme
+"Zambi," and applies Zambi-a-n-pongou to a species of malady
+brought on by perjury. He also notices the Manichæan idea of
+Zambi-a-Nbi, or bad-God, drawing the fine distinction of European
+belief in a deity supremely good, who permits evil without
+participating in it. But the dualism of moral light and darkness,
+noticed by all travellers,[FN#25] is a bonâ fide existence with
+Africans, and the missionaries converted the Angolan "Cariapemba"
+into the Aryo-Semitic Devil.
+
+Zambi is the Anyambia of the Gaboon country, a vox et præterea
+nihil. Dr. Livingstone ("First Expedition," p. 641), finds the
+word general amongst the Balonda, or people of Lunda: with the
+"Cazembes" the word is "Pambi," or "Liza," and "O Muata Cazembe"
+(p. 297) mentions the proverb, "Ao Pambi e ao Mambi (the King)
+nada iguala." In the "Vocabulario da lingua Cafrial" we see (p.
+469) that "Murungo" means God or thunder. It is the rudimental
+idea of the great Zeus, which the Greeks worked out, the God of
+Æther, the eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient, "who was, who is,
+and who is to come," the Unknown and Unknowable, concerning whom
+St. Paul quoted Aristæus on Mars' Hill. But the African brain
+naturally confused it with a something gross and material: thus
+Nzambi-a-Npungu is especially the lightning god. Cariambemba is,
+properly, Kadi Mpemba or Ntangwa, the being that slays mankind:
+Merolla describes it as an "abominable idol;" and the word is
+also applied to the owl, here as in Dahome the object of
+superstition. I could trace no sign of worship paid to the sun
+(Tangwa or Muinyi), but there are multitudes of minor gods,
+probably deified ghosts, haunting particular places. Thus,
+"Simbi" presides over villages and the "Tadi Nzazhi," or
+Lightning Rock, near Boma; whilst the Yellala is the abode of an
+evil being which must be propitiated by offerings. As usual
+amongst Fetish worshippers, the only trace of belief in a future
+state is faith in revenants--returning men or ghosts.
+
+Each village has an idol under a little wall-less roof,
+apparently an earthern pot of grease and feathers, called
+Mavunga. This may be the Ovengwa of the "Camma people," a
+"terrible catcher and eater of men, a vampire of the dead;
+personal, whilst the Ibamba are indistinct; tall as a tree;
+wandering through the woods, ever winking; whereas the Greek
+immortals were known by their motionless eyelids. "Ngolo Wanga"
+is a man-shaped figure of unpainted wood, kept in the hut. Every
+house is stuck inside and outside with idols and fetishes,
+interpreters of the Deity, each having its own jurisdiction over
+lightning, wind, and rain; some act as scarecrows; others teach
+magic, avert evils, preserve health and sight, protect cattle,
+and command fish in the sea or river. They are in all manner of
+shapes, strings of mucuna and poison-beans; carved images stuck
+over with feathers and tassels; padlocks with a cowrie or a
+mirror set in them; horns full of mysterious "medicine;" iron-
+tipped poles; bones; birds' beaks and talons; skins of snakes and
+leopards, and so forth. We shall meet them again upon our
+travels.
+
+No man walks abroad without his protecting charms, Nkisi or
+Nkizi, the Monda of the Gaboon, slung en baudrier, or hanging
+from his shoulder. The portable fetish of our host is named "Báká
+chyá Mázínga: Professor Smith (p. 323) makes "Mázengá" to be
+"fetishes for the detection of theft." These magicæ vanitates are
+prophylactics against every evil to which man's frailty is heir.
+The missioners were careful not to let their Congo converts have
+anything from their bodies, like hair or nail parings, for fear
+lest it be turned to superstitious use; and a beard (the price of
+conversion) was refused to the "King of Micocco." Like the idols,
+these talismans avert ill luck, bachelorhood, childlessness,
+poverty, and ill health; they are equally powerful against the
+machinations of foes, natural or supernatural; against wild
+beasts, the crocodile, the snake, and the leopard; and against
+wounds of lead and steel. They can produce transformation;
+destroy enemies; cause rain or drought, fine or foul weather;
+raise and humble, enrich and impoverish countries; and, above all
+things, they are sovereign to make man brave in battle. Shortly
+before we entered Banza Nkaye a propitiation of the tutelary gods
+took place: Coxswain Deane had fired an Enfield, and the report
+throughout the settlement was that our guns would kill from the
+river-bank.
+
+The Nganga of Congo-land, the Mganga of the Wasawahili and the
+Uganga of the Gaboon, exactly corresponds with M. Michelet's
+Sorcière of the Middle Ages, "physicienne," that is doctor for
+the people and poisoner; we cannot, however, apply in Africa the
+adage of Louis XIII.'s day, "To one wizard ten thousand witches."
+In the "Muata Cazembe" (pp. 57, et passim) we read "O Ganga or O
+Surjão;" the magician is there called "Muroi," which, like
+"Fite," is also applied to magic. The Abbé Proyart opines of his
+professional brother, "he is ignorant as the rest of the people,
+but a greater rogue,"--a pregnant saying. Yet here "the man of
+two worlds" is not l'homme de révolution, and he suffices for the
+small "spiritual wants" of his flock. He has charge of the
+"Kizila," the "Chigella" of Merolla and the "Quistilla" of James
+Barbot--Anglicè putting things in fetish, which corresponds with
+the Tahitian tapu or taboo. The African idea is, that he who
+touches the article, for instance, gold on the eastern coast of
+Guinea, will inevitably come to grief. When "fetish is taken
+off," as by the seller of palm wine who tastes it in presence of
+the buyer, the precaution is evidently against poison. Many of
+these "Kizila" are self-imposed, for instance a water melon may
+never enter Banza Nokki, and, though slaves may eat bananas upon
+a journey, the master may not. Others refuse the flesh of a fowl
+until it has been tasted by a woman. These rules are delivered to
+the young, either by the fetishman or the parents, and, when
+broken, they lead to death, doubtless often the consequence of
+strong belief. The Nganga superintends, as grand inquisitor, the
+witch-ordeal, by causing the accused to chew red-wood and other
+drugs in this land ferax venenorum. Park was right: "By
+witchcraft is meant pretended magic, affecting the lives and
+healths of persons, in other words it is the administering of
+poison." European "Narratives of Sorcery and Magic" exactly
+explain the African idea, except in one point: there the witch
+"only suffered from not being able to prove to Satan how much she
+burned to suffer for his sake;" here she has no Satan. Both
+European and African are the firmest believers in their own
+powers; they often confess, although knowing that the confession
+leads directly to torture and death, with all the diabolical
+ingenuity of which either race was capable. In Tuckey's time a
+bargain was concluded by breaking a leaf or a blade of grass, and
+this rite it was "found necessary to perform with the seller of
+every fowl:" apparently it is now obsolete. Finally, although the
+Fetish man may be wrong, the fetish cannot err. If a contretemps
+occur, a reason will surely be found; and, should the "doctor"
+die, he has fallen a victim to a rival or an enemy more powerful
+than himself.
+
+A striking institution of the Congo region is that of the
+Jinkemba, which, curious to say, is unnoticed by Tuckey. It is
+not, however, peculiar to the Congo; it is the "Semo" of the
+Susus or Soosoos of the Windward Coast, and the "Purrah" of the
+Sherbro-Balloms or Bulloms, rendered Anglicè by "free-masonry."
+The novitiate there lasts for seven or eight years, and whilst
+the boys live in the woods food is placed for them by their
+relations: the initiation, indeed, appears to be especially
+severe. Here all the free-born males are subjected to the wrongly
+called "Mosaic rite." Merolla tells us that the wizards
+circumcise children on the eighth day (like the Jews), not out of
+regard for the law, but with some wicked end and purpose of their
+own. At any time between the ages of five and fifteen (eight to
+ten being generally preferred), boys are taken from their parents
+(which must be an exceeding comfort to the latter), and for a
+native year, which is half of ours, they must dwell in the Vivála
+ya Ankimba, or Casa de Feitiço, like that which we passed before
+reaching Banza Nokki. They are now instructed by the Nganga in
+the practices of their intricate creed; they are taught the
+mysteries under solemn oaths, and, in fine, they are prepared for
+marriage. Upon the Congo they must eat no cooked food, living
+wholly upon roots and edibles; but they are allowed to enter the
+villages for provisions, and here they often appear armed with
+matchets, bayonets, and wooden swords. Their faces and necks,
+bodies and arms, are ghastly white with chalk or ashes; the hair
+is left in its original jet, and the dingy lower limbs contrast
+violently with the ghostlike absence of colour above. The dress
+is a crinoline of palm-fronds, some fresh and green, others sere
+and brown; a band of strong mid-rib like a yellow hoop passed
+round the waist spreads out the petticoat like a farthingale, and
+the ragged ends depend to the knees; sometimes it is worn under
+the axillae, but in all cases the chalked arms must be outside.
+The favourite attitude is that of the Rhodian Colossus, with the
+elbows bent to the fore and the hands clasped behind the head. To
+increase their prestige of terror, the Jinkomba abjure the use of
+human language, and, meeting a stranger, ejaculate with all their
+might, "Hár-rr-rr-rr-rr!" and "Jojolo! Jojolo!" words mystic and
+meaningless. When walking in procession, they warn the profane
+out of the way by striking one slip of wood upon another. They
+are wilder in appearance than the Hindu Jogi or Sanyasi, who also
+affects the use of ashes, but neglects that of the palm-thatch.
+It is certainly enough to startle a man of impressible nerves--
+one, for instance, who cannot enter a room without a side-long
+glance at an unexpected coffin--to see these hideous beings
+starting with their savage cry from the depths of an African
+forest. Evidently, also, such is the intention of the costume.
+
+Contrasting the Congoese with the Goanese, we obtain a measure of
+difference between the African and the Asiatic. Both were
+Portuguese colonies founded about the same time, and under very
+similar circumstances; both were catechized and Christianized in
+the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; both had governors and
+palaces, bishops and cathedrals, educational establishments and a
+large staff of missioners. But Asia was not so inimical, mentally
+or bodily, to the European frame as Africa; the Goanese throve
+after a fashion, the mixed breed became the staple population,
+and thus it continues till this day. On the other hand the
+Hamitic element so completely asserted its superiority over
+insititious Japheth, that almost every trace has disappeared in a
+couple of centuries. There lingers, it is true, amongst the
+Congoese of the coast-regions a something derived from the olden
+age, still distinguishing them from the wild people of the
+interior, and at times they break out naturally in the tongue of
+their conquerors. But it requires a practised eye to mark these
+minutiae.
+
+The Congoese are passably brave amongst themselves; crafty and
+confined in their views, they carry "knowledge of life" as far as
+it is required, and their ceremonious intercourse is remarkable
+and complicated. They have relapsed into the analphabetic state
+of their ancestors; they are great at eloquence; and, though
+without our poetical forms, they have a variety of songs upon all
+subjects and they improvise panegyrics in honour of chiefs and
+guests. Their dances have been copied in Europe. Without ever
+inventing the modes of the Greeks, which are still preserved by
+the Hindoos, they have an original music, dealing in harmony
+rather than in tune, and there are motives, of course all in the
+minor key, which might be utilized by advanced peoples; these
+sons of nature would especially supply material for that
+recitative which Verdi first made something better than a vehicle
+for dialogue. Hence the old missioners are divided in opinion;
+whilst some find the sound of the "little guitar," with strings
+of palm-thread and played with the thumbs of both hands, "very
+low, but not ungrateful," others speak of the "hellish harmony"
+of their neophytes' bands. The instrument alluded to is the
+nsambi or nchambi; four strings are attached to bent sticks
+springing from the box; it is the wambi of the Shekyanis (Du
+Chaillu, chap. xii), but the bridge, like that of our violin,
+gives it an evident superiority, and great care and labour are
+required in the maker.
+
+This form of the universal marimba is a sounding-board of light
+wood, measuring eight inches by five; some eight to eleven iron
+keys, flat strips of thin metal, pass over an upright bamboo
+bridge, fixed by thongs to the body, and rest at the further end
+upon a piece of skin which prevents "twanging." The tocador or
+performer brings out soft and pleasing tones with the sides of
+the thumbs and fingers. They have drums and the bell-like cymbals
+called chingufu: M. Valdez (ii. 221 et passim), writes
+"Clincufo," which he has taken from a misprint in Monteiro and
+Gamitto. The chingufu of East Africa is a hollow box performed
+upon with a drum-stick of caoutchouc. The pipes are wooden tubes
+with sundry holes and a bridge below the mouth-piece; they are
+played over edge like our flutes. The "hellish harmonies" mostly
+result from an improvised band, one strumming the guitar, another
+clapping the sticks, and the third beating the bell-shaped irons
+that act as castanets.
+
+The language of the people on and near the Congo River is called
+"Fiote," a term used by old travellers to denote a black man as
+opposed to Mundele (white), and also applied to things, as
+Bondefiote or black baft. James Barbot (p. 512) gives specimens
+of some thirty-three words and the numerals in the "Angoy
+language, spoken at Cabinde," which proves to be that of the
+River. Of these many are erroneous: for instance, "nova," to
+sleep (ku-núa); "sursu," a hen (nsusu): while "fina," scarlet;
+"bayeta," baize; and "fumu," tobacco, are corrupted Portuguese. A
+young lad, "muleche" (moleque), Father Merolla's "molecchas, a
+general name among the negroes," for which Douville prefers
+"moleke" (masc.) and "molecka" (fem.), is applied only to a
+slave, and in this sense it has extended west of the Atlantic. In
+the numerals, "wale" (2) should be "kwále," "quina" (4) "kúyá,"
+and "evona" (9) "iowá." We may remark the pentenary system of the
+Windward Coast and the Gaboon negroes; e.g., 6 is "sambano"
+("mose" and "tano" 1 + 5), and 7 is "sambwale" ("mose" and
+"kwale") and so forth, whilst "kumi" (10), possibly derived from
+neighbouring races, belongs to the decimal system.
+
+The first attempt at a regular vocabulary was made by Douville,
+(vol. iii. p. 261): "Vocabidaire de la Langue Mogialoua, et des
+deux dialectcs principaux Abunda (Angolan) et Congo" (Fiote); it
+is also very incorrect. The best is that published in Appendix
+No. I. to the Congo Expedition, under the name of "Embomma;" we
+may quote the author's final remark: "This vocabulary I do not
+consider to be free from mistakes which I cannot now find time to
+discover. All the objects of the senses are, however, correct."
+M. Parrot showed me a MS. left at Banana Point by a French
+medical officer, but little could be said in its praise. Monteiro
+and Gamitto (pp. 479-480) give seventeen "Conguez" words, and the
+Congo numerals as opposed to the "Bundo."
+
+The Fiote is a member of the great South African family; some
+missionaries argued, from its beauty and richness, that it had
+formerly been written, but of this there is no proof. M. Malte-
+Brun supposes the Congoese dialects to indicate "a meditative
+genius foreign to the habitual condition of these people,"
+ignoring the fact that the most complicated and laborious tongues
+are those of barbarous nations, whilst modern civilization in
+variably labours to simplify. It is copious; every place, tree,
+shrub, or plant used by the people has its proper name; it is
+harmonious and pleasing, abounding in vowels and liquids,
+destitute of gutturals, and sparing in aspirates and other harsh
+consonants. At the same time, like the rest of the family, it is
+clumsy and unwieldy, whilst immense prolixity and frequent
+repetition must develope the finer shades of meaning. Its
+peculiarity is a greater resemblance to the Zanzibarian
+Kisawahili than any tongue known to me on the Western Coast:
+often a question asked by the guide, as "Njia hápá?" (Is this the
+road?) and "Jina lako nani?" (What's your name?) was perfectly
+intelligible to me.The latter is a fair specimen of the peculiar
+euphony which I have noticed in "Zanzibar" (vol. i. chap. x.). We
+should expect "Jina jako," whereas this would offend the native
+ear. It requires a scholar-like knowledge of the tongue to apply
+the curious process correctly, and the self-sufficient critic
+should beware how he attempts to correct quotations from the
+native languages.
+
+I need hardly say that the speakers are foul-mouthed as the
+Anglo-African of S'a Leone and the "English" Coast; they borrow
+the vilest words from foreign tongues; a spade is called a spade
+with a witness, and feminine relatives are ever the subject of
+abuse; a practice which, beginning in Europe with the Slav race,
+extends more or less throughout the Old World. I specify the Old
+World, because the so-called "Indians" of North and South America
+apparently ignore the habit except where they have learned it
+from Southern Europe. Finally, cursing takes the place of
+swearing, the latter being confined, I believe, to the
+Scandinavians, the Teutons, and their allied races.
+
+Nothing can be more unpleasant than the Portuguese spoken by the
+Congoman. He transposes the letters lacking the proper sounds in
+his own tongue; for instance, "sinholo" (sinyolo) is "senhor;"
+"munyele" or "minyele" is "mulher;" "O luo" stands in lieu of "O
+rio," (the river); "rua" of "lua" (luna), and so forth. For to-
+morrow you must use "cedo" as "manhaa" would not be understood,
+and the prolixity of the native language is transferred to the
+foreign idiom. For instance, if you ask, "What do you call this
+thing?" the paraphrase to be intelligible would be, "The white
+man calls this thing so-and-so; what does the Fiote call this
+thing?" sixteen words for six. I have elsewhere remarked how
+Englishmen make themselves unintelligible by transferring to
+Hindostani and other Asiatic tongues the conciseness of their own
+idiom, in which as much is understood as is expressed. We can
+well understand the outraged feelings with which poor Father
+Cannecattim heard his sermons travestied by the Abundo negroes do
+Paiz or linguists, the effect of which was to make him compose
+his laborious dictionary in Angolan, Latin, and Portuguese. His
+wrath in reflecting upon "estos homems ou estos brutos" drives
+the ecclesiastic to imitate the ill-conditioned layman who
+habitually addresses his slave as "O bruto! O burro! O bicho! O
+diabo!" when he does not apply the more injurious native terms as
+"Konongwako" and "Vendengwandi." It is only fair to confess that
+no race is harsher in its language and manners to its "black
+brethren," than the liberated Africans of the English
+settlements.
+
+At Banza Nokki I saw the first specimen of a Mundongo slave girl.
+The tribe is confounded with the Mandingo (Mandenga) Moslems by
+the author of the "Introduction to Tuckey's Journey" (p. Ixxxi.);
+by Tuckey (p. 141), who also calls them Mandonzo (p. 135), and by
+Prof. Smith (p. 315); but not by the accurate Marsden (p. 389).
+She described her tribe as living inland to the east and north-
+east of the Congo peoples, distant two moons--a detail, of
+course, not to be depended upon. I afterwards met many of these
+"captives," who declared that they had been sold after defeats: a
+fine, tall race, one is equal to two Congo men, and the boldness
+of demeanour in both sexes distinguishes them from other
+serviles. Apparently under this name there are several tribes
+inhabiting lands of various elevations; some are coloured café au
+lait, as if born in a high and healthy region; others are almost
+jet black with the hair frightfully "wispy," like a mop.
+Generally the head is bullet-shaped, the face round, the features
+negroid, not negro, and the hands and feet large but not ill-
+shaped. Some again have the Hausa mark, thread-like perpendicular
+cuts from the zygomatic arches running parallel with the chin; in
+other cases the stigmata are broad beauty-slashes drawn
+transversely across the cheeks to the jawbone, and forming with
+the vertical axis an angle of 45°. All are exceedingly fond of
+meat, and, like the Kru-men, will devour it semi-putrified. The
+Congoese declare them to be "papagentes" (cannibals), a term
+generally applied by the more advanced to the bushmen living
+beyond their frontier, and useful to deter travellers and
+runaways. They themselves declare that they eat the slain only
+after a battle--the sentimental form of anthropophagy. The slave-
+girl produced on this occasion was told to sing; after receiving
+some beads, without which she would not open her lips, we were
+treated to a "criard" performance which reminded me of the
+"heavenly muse" in the Lake Regions of Central Africa.
+
+The neighbours of the Mundonoros are the Mubangos, the Muyanji
+(Muyanzi?), and the Mijolo, by some called Mijere. Possibly
+Tuckey alludes to the Mijolos when he tells us (p. 141), that the
+"Mandingo" slave whom he bought on the Upper River, called his
+country "M'intolo." I have seen specimens of the three, who are
+so similar in appearance that a stranger distinguishes them only
+by the tattoo. No. 1 gashes a line from the root of the hair to
+the commissure of the nose: No. 2 has a patch of cuts, five in
+length and three in depth, extending from the bend of the eye-
+brow across the zygomata to the ear, and No. 3 wears cuts across
+the forehead. I was shown a sword belonging to the Mijolo: all
+declared that it is of native make; yet it irresistibly suggested
+the old two-handed weapon of Europe, preserved by the Bedawin and
+the Eastern Arabs, who now mostly derive it from Sollingen. The
+long, straight, flexible, and double-edged blade is neatly
+mounted by the tang in a handle with a pommel, or terminating
+knob, of ivory; others prefer wood. The guard is very peculiar, a
+thin bar of iron springing from the junction of blade and grip,
+forming an open oval below, and prolonged upwards and downwards
+in two branches parallel with the handle, and protecting the
+hand. They dance, brandishing this weapon, according to the
+slaves, in the presence of their princes.
+
+I inquired vainly about the Anzicos, Anzichi, Anzigui, Anzigi, or
+Anziki, whose king, Makoko, the ruler of thirteen kingdoms, was
+placed by Dapper north-west of Monemugi (Unyamwezi), and whom
+Pigafetta (p. 79) located close to the Congo, and near his
+northern Lake. "It is true that there are two lakes, not,
+however, lying east and west (Ptolemy's system), but north and
+south of each other, and about 400 miles asunder. The first is in
+south latitude 12°. The Nile, issuing from it, does not,
+according to Odoardo (Duarte Lopez), sink in the earth nor
+conceal itself, but, after flowing northwards, it enters the
+second lake, which is 220 miles in extent, and is called by the
+natives a sea." If the Tanganyika shall be found to connect with
+the Luta Nzige or Mwutan Lake, this passage will be found
+wonderfully truthful. The Tanganyika's southern versant is now
+placed in south latitude 8° 46' 54", or in round numbers 9°, and
+the other figures are nearly as correct. James Barbot causes
+these Anzikos to wander "almost through all Africa," from Nubia
+to the Congo, like negro Bedawin or Scythians; the common food
+was man's flesh fattened for the market and eaten by the
+relatives, even of those who died diseased. Their "capital,"
+Monsol, was built by D'Anville, close to the equator in the very
+centre of Africa (east longitude Greenwich, 26° 20') hard by
+Douville's "Yanvo;" and the "Opener of Inner Africa in 1852" (pp.
+3, 4, 69), with equal correctness, caused them to "occupy the
+hills opposite to Sundi, and extending downwards to Emboma below
+the Falls."
+
+Mr. Cooley ("Ocean Highways," June, 1873), now explains the word
+as A-nzi-co, "people not of the country," barbarians, bushmen.
+This kind of information, derived from a superficial knowledge of
+an Angolan vocabulary, is peculiarly valueless. I doubt that a
+negative can thus be suffixed to a genitive. The name may simply
+have been A-nziko (man) of the back-settlement. In 1832, Mr.
+Cooley writes: "the nation of the Anziko (or Ngeco):" in 1845,
+"the Anziki, north of Congo:" in 1852, "the Micoco or king of the
+Anziko"--und so weiter. What can we make of this geographical
+Proteus? The first Congo Expedition who covered all the ground
+where the Creator of the Great Central Sea places the Anzikos,
+never heard of them--nor will the second.
+
+Not being then so well convinced of the nonexistence of the
+Giaghi, Giagas, Gagas, or Jagas as a nation, I inquired as vainly
+for those terrible cannibals who had gone the way of all the
+Anzikos. According to Lopez, Battel, Merolla, and others, they
+"consider human flesh as the most delicious food, and goblets of
+warm blood as the most exquisite beverage." This act on the part
+of savage warriors might have been a show of mere bravado. But I
+cannot agree with the editor of Tuckey's "Narrative," "From the
+character and disposition of the native African, it may fairly be
+doubted whether, throughout the whole of this great continent, a
+negro cannibal has any existence." The year 1816 was the Augustan
+age of outrageous negrophilism and equally extreme anti-
+Napoleonism. "If a French general" (Introduction, p. i),
+"brutally seized the person and papers of a British naval
+officer, on his return from a voyage of discovery," who, I would
+ask, plundered and destroyed the fine botanical collection made
+at risk of health and life, during fifteen months of hard labour,
+by the learned Palisot de Beauvois, author of the "Flore
+d'Oware?" The "Reviewer" of Douville (p. 177) as sensibly
+declares that cannibalism "has hitherto continually retired
+before the investigation of sober-minded, enlightened men," when,
+after a century or two of intercourse with white traders, it
+still flourishes on the Bonny and New Calabar Rivers.
+
+We are glad to be rid of the Jagas, a subject which has a small
+literature of its own; the savage race appeared everywhere like a
+"deus ex machina," and it became to Intertropical Africa what the
+"Lost Tribes" were and even now are in some cases, to Asia and
+not rarely to Europe. Even the sensible Mr. Wilson ("West
+Africa," p. 238) has "no doubt of the Jagas being the same people
+with the more modernly discovered Pangwes" (Fans); and this is
+duly copied by M. du Chaillu (chap. viii.). M. Valdez (ii. 150)
+more sensibly records that the first Jaga established in
+Portuguese territory was called Colaxingo (Kolashingo), and that
+his descendants were named "Jagas," like the Egyptian Pharaohs,
+the Roman Ceesars, the Austrian Kaisers, and the Russian Czars:
+he also reminds us (p. 150) that the chief of the Bangalas
+inhabiting Cassange (= Kasanjí) was the Jaga or ruler par
+excellence.
+
+Early on the morning of September 11, I was aroused by a "bob" in
+the open before us. We started up, fearing that some death by
+accident had taken place: the occasion proved, on the contrary,
+to be one of ushering into life. The women were assembled in a
+ring round the mother, and each howled with all the might of her
+lungs, either to keep off some evil spirit or to drown the
+sufferer's cries. In some parts of Africa, the Gold Coast for
+instance, it is considered infamous for a woman thus to betray
+her pain, but here we are amongst a softer race.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XII.
+
+                  Preparations for the March.
+
+
+
+Gidi Mavunga, finding me in his power, began, like a thoroughbred
+African, to raise obstacles. We must pass through the lands of
+two kings, the Mfumo ma Vivi (Bibbie of Tuckey) and the Mfumu
+Nkulu or Nkuru (Cooloo). The distance was short, but it would
+occupy five days, meaning a week. Before positively promising an
+escort he said it would be necessary to inspect my outfit; I at
+once placed it in the old man's hands, the better to say, "This
+is not mine, ask Gidi Mavunga for it."
+
+My patience had been severely tried on first arrival at Banza
+Nokki. From ruler to slave every one begged for cloth and rum,
+till I learned to hate the names of these necessaries. Besides
+the five recognized kings of the district, who wore black cloth
+coats, all the petty chiefs of the neighbourhood flocked in,
+importunate to share the spoils. A tariff, about one-third higher
+than at Boma, was set upon every article and, if the most
+outrageous price was refused, the seller, assuming an insipid
+expression of countenance, declared that great white men
+travelled with barrels, not with bottles of aguardente, and that
+without liberality it would be impossible to leave the village.
+Nsundi, the settlement above the Falls, was a journey of two
+moons, and none of the ten "kings" on the way would take less
+than Nessudikira's "dash." Congo Grande, as the people call São
+Salvador, was only four marches to the E.S.E.; the road, however,
+was dangerous, and an escort of at least fifty men would be
+necessary.
+
+But when I was "upon the head of Gidi Mavunga" matters changed
+for the better. Shortly after he took charge, one Tetu Mayella,
+"King" of Neprat, accompanied by some twenty followers, entered
+the village with a view to the stranger's rum: by referring them
+to the new owner they perforce contented themselves after three
+hours' "parliamenting," with a single bottle. The ruler of Nokki
+wanted, besides gin and cloth, a pair of shoes for his poor feet,
+which looked clad in alligator's skin; I referred him to his
+father, and he got little by that motion.
+
+On the evening of September 10, Gidi Mavunga, who had been
+visiting his "small country," returned, and declared himself
+ready to set out. He placed before me ten heaps, each of as many
+ground-nuts, and made me understand that, for visiting Nsundi and
+S. Salvador, he would take fifty short "pieces" (of cloth) for
+himself and the same number for his slaves; one moiety to be
+advanced before the first trip to the Cataracts and the rest to
+follow. For half my store of beads he undertook to ration his
+men; a work which would have given us endless trouble. As I
+agreed to all his conditions he promised to move on the next day-
+-without the least intention of carrying out any one of his
+conditions.
+
+These people are rich, and not easily tempted to hard work.
+During the French émigration, the district of Banza Nokki drove
+slaves to the value of 60,000 dollars per annum, and the dollar
+is to the African the pound sterling of Europe. It is one of the
+hundred out-stations which supplied the main dépôts, Boma and
+Porto da Lenha. Small parties went out at certain seasons
+provided with rum, gunpowder, and a little cloth; and either
+bought the "chattels" or paid earnest money, promising to settle
+the whole debt at their villages. Gidi Mavunga, like most of the
+elders, was perfectly acquainted with the routes to Nsundi, S.
+Salvador, and other frontier places, where the bush people
+brought down their criminals and captives for barter. Beyond
+those points his information was all from hearsay.
+
+Besides the large stores in their "small countries," the middle-
+men have a multitude of retainers, who may at any moment be
+converted into capital. Yet "slave" is a term hardly applicable
+to such "chattels," who, as a rule, are free as their lords. They
+hold at their disposal all that the master possesses, except his
+wives; they sleep when they choose, they work when they like;
+they attend to their private affairs, and, if blamed or punished,
+they either run away, as at Zanzibar, to their own country, or
+they take sanctuary with some neighbouring Mfumo, who, despite
+the inevitable feud, is bound by custom to protect them. Cold and
+hunger, the torments of the poor in Europe, are absolutely
+unknown to them, and their condition contrasts most favourably
+with the "vassus" and the "servus" of our feudal times. Their
+wives and children are their own: the master cannot claim the
+tyrannous marriage-rights of the baron; no "wedding-dish" is
+carried up to the castle; nor is the eldest born "accounted the
+son of the serf's lord, for he perchance it was who begat him."
+The brutality of slavery, I must repeat, is mainly the effect of
+civilization. "I shall never forget," says Captain Boteler, "the
+impatient tosses of the head and angry looks displayed by a--
+lady--when the subject was canvassed. ‘A negro, a paltry negro,
+ever understand or conform to the social tie of wedlock! No,
+never! never!' Yet this lady was an English-woman." And when
+James Barbot's supercargo begins to examine his negroes like
+cattle he is begged, for decency's sake, to do it in a private
+place, "which shows these blacks are very modest." It rather
+proved the whites to be the reverse.
+
+At 7.20 A.M. on September 11, the "moleques" seized our luggage,
+and we suddenly found ourselves on the path. Gidi Mavunga,
+wearing pagne and fetish-bag, and handling a thin stick in which
+two bulges had been cut, led us out of Banza Nokki, and took a
+S.S.W. direction. The uneven ground was covered with a bitter
+tomato (nenga) and with the shrub which, according to Herodotus,
+bears wool instead of fruit. I sent home specimens of this
+gossypium arboreum, which everywhere grows wild and which is
+chiefly used for wicks. There is scant hope of cotton-culture
+amongst a people whose industry barely suffices for ground-nuts.
+The stiff clay soil everywhere showed traces of iron, and the
+guide pointed out a palm-tree which had been split by the
+electric fluid, and a broad, deep furrow, several feet long,
+ending in a hole. The Nzazhi (lightning) is as dangerous and as
+much dreaded on these hills as in Uganda: the south-west trade
+meets the land wind from the north-east; strata of clouds in
+different states of electricity combine, says the popular theory,
+to produce the thunder and lightning which accompany rain like
+the storms upon the mountains of Yemen. After 30' (- 1.50 miles)
+we reached our destination, Banza Chinguvu, the head-quarters of
+Gidi Mavunga. As we entered it he pointed to a pot full of greasy
+stuff under a dwarf shed, saying, "Isso è meu Deus:" it was in
+fact his Baka chya Mazinga. Beyond it stood the temple of Nbambi;
+two suspended pieces of wood, cut in the shape of horns, bore
+monkey skins on both sides of a dead armadillo, an animal
+supposed to attract lightning when alive, and to repel it after
+death.
+
+The Banza was beautifully situated on a dwarf platform, catching
+the full force of the sea-breeze, and commanding to the north-
+west a picturesque glimpse of the
+
+               "waters rippling, flowing,
+           Flashing along the valley to the sea;"
+
+a mountain tarn representing the mighty stream. On the right lay
+fields, dotted with papaw-trees, and plantations of maize and
+manioc, thur (Cajanus), and sweet potatoes, a vegetable now
+common, but not noticed by Tuckey; on the left, a deep ravine,
+densely forested with noble growth, and supplying the best of
+water, divides it from Tadi ja Mfimo, a pile of rock on the
+opposite hill-side; here lay the Itombo village, belonging to
+Gidi Mavunga's eldest son. Beyond it, the tree-clad heights,
+rolling away into the distance, faded from blue-brown to the
+faintest azure, hardly to be distinguished from the empyrean
+above. The climate of these breezy uplands is superior even to
+that of Banza Nokki, which lies some 170 feet lower; and the
+nights are sensibly cooler.
+
+A few fathoms of altitude here make a surprising difference. The
+little valleys with their chalet-like huts reminded me of the
+Maroro and Kisanga basins, in the sister formation, the East
+African Ghats, but now we have a hill-climate without ague and
+fever. Our parallel is that of Yorukan Abokuta, where the people
+are anti-oeci, both being about 6° distant from the Line,-- those
+north, these south. There the bush is fetid, and the clammy air
+gives a sense of deadly depression; here the atmosphere is pure,
+the land is open, and there is enjoyment in the mere sense of
+life. The effete matter in the blood and the fatty degeneration
+of the muscles, the results of inactivity, imperfect respiration,
+and F. Po, were soon consumed by the pure oxygen of the highland
+air. I can attribute this superiority of the Congo region only to
+the labours of an old civilization now obsolete; none but a thick
+and energetic population could have cleared off the forest, which
+at one time must have covered their mountains.
+
+The Banza consists of about fifty cottages, which are being new-
+thatched before the rains, and the population may number 300. Our
+host assigned to us one of his own huts; it fronted west, and was
+a facsimile of that which we had just left. The old fox,
+determined not to be "taken alive," has provided his earth with
+three holes, opening to the north, to the east, and to the west.
+We often detected him in the "ben," the matrimonial sanctum,
+listening to private conversations which he could not understand.
+Gidi Mavunga is decidedly a "serious person." The three walls
+round the standing bedstead are hung with charms and amulets,
+like the sacred pictures in country parts of Europe; and at the
+head is his "Mavunga," of which Tuckey says (p. 180), "Each
+village has a grand kissey (nkisi), or presiding divinity, named
+Mevonga:" it is an anthropoid log, about three feet high, red,
+white, and black, the former colour predominating. Two bits of
+looking-glass represent the eyes, the nose is patulous, as though
+offended by evil savour; the upper lip is drawn up in disdain,
+the under overlaps the chin; and a little mirror is inserted into
+the umbilical region. Mavunga's dress is represented by an
+English billy-cock hat; while all kinds of "medicines,"
+calabashes, and a coarse knife depend from his neck to his
+shoulders. The figures at the door are generally called
+"Ngolowándá."
+
+It is said, I believe, of the Englishwoman-
+
+          "If she will, she will, you may depend on't;
+           If she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't."
+
+I may safely predicate the same of the negro, who owns, like the
+goose, a "singularly inflexible organization." Whenever he can,
+he will, and he must, have his head. Gidi Mavunga would not even
+break his fast before touching the cloth and beads, which are to
+pay for guidance and carriage. The hut-door was closed, and in
+half an hour all was settled to every one's satisfaction. Yet the
+veteran did not disdain a little rascality. Awaiting his
+opportunity, he tossed into a dark corner a little bundle of two
+fancy cloths which I had given the "linguistero" and, when
+detected, he shamelessly declared that such people have no right
+to trade.
+
+Finally, our departure was settled for the next morning, and the
+women at once began their preparations. Although they have sperm-
+candles, torches are preferred for the road; odoriferous gums are
+made up, as in the Gaboon, with rags or splints of bark; hence
+the old writers say, "instead of putting wicks into the torches,
+they put torches into the wicks." The travelling foods are mostly
+boiled batatas (sweet potatoes), Kwanga, a hard and innutritious
+pudding-like preparation of cassava which the "Expedition" (p.
+197) calls "Coongo, a bitter root, that requires four days'
+boiling to deprive it of its pernicious quality;" this is
+probably the black or poisonous manioc. The national dish,
+"chindungwa," would test the mouth of any curry-eater in the
+world: it is composed of boiled ground-nuts and red peppers in
+equal proportions, pounded separately in wooden mortars, mixed
+and squeezed to drain off the oil; the hard mass, flavoured with
+salt or honey, will keep for weeks. The bees are not hived in
+Congo-land, but smoked out of hollow trees: as in F. Po and
+Camarones Peaks, they rarely sting, like the harmless Angelito of
+the Caraccas, "silla," or saddleback; which Humboldt ("Personal
+Narrative," chap. xiii.) describes as a "little hairy bee, a
+little smaller than the honey-bee of the north of Europe."
+Captain Hall found the same near Tampico; and a hive-full was
+sent to the blind but ingenious Francis Huber of Geneva, who died
+in 1831. This seems to be the case with the busy hymenopter
+generally in the highlands of Africa; the lowland swarms have
+been the terror of travellers from Mungo Park's day to that of
+the first East African Expedition.
+
+About noon we were visited by the confidential slaves of a
+neighbouring chief, who prospectively welcomed us to his
+territory. These men were gaudily attired in cast-off clothes,
+and in the crimson night-caps formerly affected by the English
+labourer: on the mountains, where the helmet is confined to
+royalty, it is the head-dress used for state occasions. They sat
+in the hut, chatting, laughing, and discussing palm wine by the
+gallon, till they had their wicked will in the shape of a bottle
+of gin; after this, they departed with many low congés.
+
+It was a study to see Gidi Mavunga amidst the vassals and serfs
+of his own village. He had no moated castle, no "Quinquengrogne;"
+but his habitation was grander far,--that glorious hill-side,
+with all its prospects of mountain and river, field and forest,
+valley and village. As he sat upon the mat under his little
+piazza, all the dependants gathered in an outer semicircle, the
+children, dogs, and cats forming an inner chord. A crowd of
+"moleques" placed before him three black pots, one containing a
+savoury stew, the others beans and vegetables, which he
+transferred to a deep platter, and proved himself no mean
+trencherman. The earthenware is of native make, by no means
+ornamental, but useful because it retains the heat; it resembles
+the produce of the Gold Coast, and the "pepper-pot" platter of
+the West Indies. His cup was filled as fast as he drained the
+palm wine, and, at times, he passed a huge mouthful to a small
+son or daughter, smiling at the serious and awkward attempts at
+deglutition. The washing of hands and mouth before and after
+feeding shows progress after Tuckey's day (p. 360). We were not
+asked to join him: an African, when upon a journey, will beg for
+everything he sees you eat or drink, but there is no return in
+kind. I have read of negro hospitality, but it has never been my
+fate to witness an approach to that virtue. The chief will, it is
+true, quarrel with you if his house be passed without a visit;
+but his object in taking you in is to make all he can of you. If
+a purse be pulled out, he waxes wroth, because he wishes to
+secure at once the reputation of generosity and the profits of a
+present doubling the worth of a regular "addition." When Gidi
+Mavunga rose from his meal, the elder dependants took his place;
+the junior bipeds followed, and the remnants were thrown to the
+quadrupeds. It was a fair copy in black of a baronial and
+mediæval life.
+
+The dogs were not neglected during the meal; but over-eagerness
+was repressed by a stout truncheon lying handily near the old
+negro Jarl. The animals are small and stunted, long-nosed and
+crooked-limbed, with curly tails often cut, sharp ears which show
+that they have not lost the use of the erecting muscles, and so
+far wild that they cannot bark. The colour is either black and
+white or yellow and white, as in Stambul and India. Overrun with
+ticks and foul with mange, they are too broken-spirited to rob,
+except by secretly sneaking into the huts, and, however often
+beaten off, they return to the charge like sitting hens. The
+people prize these wretched tikes, because they are ever ready to
+worry a stranger, and are useful in driving game from the bush.
+Yet they barbarously ill-treat them. The hungry cats are as poor
+a breed as the pure English, and, though no one feeds them, these
+domesticated tigerkins swarm. The only happy pets are the
+parrots. Every village swarms with hogs, the filthy wealth of the
+old Saxon proprietor, and their habits are disgusting as their
+forms are obscene. Every Anglo-Indian will understand what I
+mean.
+
+My memory of "Congo chop" is all in its favour: I can recommend
+it even to "Fin Bee." The people of S'a Leone declare that your
+life is safe when you can enjoy native food. Perhaps this means
+that, during the time required to train the palate, strangers
+will have escaped their "seasoning" fevers and chills. But
+foreigners will certainly fare better and, cæteris paribus,
+outlive their brother whites, when they can substitute African
+stews for the roast and boiled goat and cow, likest to donkey-
+meat, for the waxy and insipid potato and for heavy pudding and
+tart, with which their jaded stomach is laden, as if it had the
+digestion of north latitude 50°. It is popularly believed that
+the Germans, who come from the land of greatest extremes, live
+longer at the White Man's Grave than the English, whereas the
+Spaniards are the most short-lived, one consul per annum being
+the normal rate. Perhaps the greater "adaptability" of the Teuton
+explains the cause.
+
+The evening began with a game of ball in the large open space
+amongst the houses forming the village square. The implement was
+a roll of palm-coir tightly bound with the central fibre of the
+plantain-leaf. The players, two parties of some twenty slaves, of
+all ages and sizes, mingled, each side striving to catch the
+ball, and with many feints and antics to pass it on to a friend.
+When it fell out of bounds, the juniors ran to pick it up with
+frantic screams. It was interesting, as showing the difference
+between the highlander and the lowlander; one might pass years on
+the Congo plains without seeing so much voluntary exertion: yet a
+similar game of ball is described by the Rev. Mr. Waddell
+("Twenty-nine years in the West Indies and Central Africa," chap.
+xvii. London, Nelsons, 1863). The evening ended, as it often does
+before a march, when rest is required, with extra hard work, a
+drinking bout deep as the Rhineland baron's in the good old time,
+and a dance in which both sexes joined. As there were neither
+torches nor moon, I did not attend; the singing, the shouting,
+and the drumming, which lasted till midnight, spoke well for the
+agility and endurance of the fair montagnardes.
+
+What lightens Gidi Mavunga's steps is the immediate prospect of
+the Munlola or preliminary showers, which, beginning in mid-
+September, last, with a certain persistence of fall, till
+October. During the Munlola, the sea-breeze is silent, and the
+sky is clad with a very thin mist, which, however, supplies
+abundant downfalls. The year in the Lower Congo corresponds with
+that of the Gaboon in practice, if not in theory, and the storms
+are furious as those of Yoruba, where the seasons are, of course,
+inverted, the great rains extending from May to August. The
+climate is capricious, as everywhere about the equator, and the
+nearer the river the heavier are the showers. The people double
+their lives by reckoning the rains as one year, and the dries as
+another: when the old missionaries wished to explain that the
+Saviour offered Himself for the sins of man at the age of thirty-
+three, they said that he was sixty-six seasons old.
+
+After the light rains of the autumnal equinox, come the Mvula za
+Chintomba, the "Chuvas grandes" of the Portuguese, lasting to the
+end of November. They are heavy, accompanied by violent tornadoes
+and storms, greatly feared by the people. The moisture of the
+atmosphere, not being gradually condensed by forests, must be
+precipitated in violent downfalls, and this is perhaps the
+principal evil of clearing the country. December begins the
+"little dries," which extend to February and March; then set in
+the rains of the vernal equinox, with furious discharges of
+electricity; June is the wettest month on the highlands, but not
+on the lower river. In mid-July commence the "middle-dries," here
+called Ngondi Asivu (Tuckey's "Gondy Assivoo"); upon the upper
+river this Cacimbo lasts between April and September; when it
+passes over the bush is burned, and the women hoe the ground to
+receive its seed. Carli well describes this season when he says:-
+-"The winter of the kingdom of Congo is the mild spring or autumn
+of Italy; it is not subject to rains, but every morning there
+falls a dew which fertilizes the earth." This meteor was not
+observed on the highlands of Banza Nokki and Nkulu; it is
+probably confined to the low country, where I found it falling
+heavily.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XIII.
+
+                   The March to Banza Nkulu.
+
+
+
+But revelry at night brings morning headache, and we did not set
+out, as agreed, at dawn. By slow degrees the grumbling, loitering
+party was mustered. The chiefs were Gidi Mavunga, head guide, and
+his son Papagayo, a dull quiet body; Chico Mpamba, "French
+landlord" of Banza Nokki, and my interpreter Nchama Chamvu.
+Fourteen armed moleques carried our hammocks and our little
+viaticum in the shape of four bottles of present-gin, two costa-
+finas, (= twenty-four yards of fancy cotton), and fourteen
+fathoms of satin-stripe, the latter a reserved fund. The boy
+"Lendo," whose appropriate name means "The Go," bore a burden of
+his own size all day, and acted as little foot-page at the halt.
+The "gentlemen" were in full travelling costume. Slung by a thong
+to the chief guide's left shoulder were a tiger-cat skin,
+cardamom-sheaths and birds' beaks and claws clustering round a
+something in shape like the largest German sausage, the whole
+ruddled with ochre: this charm must not be touched by the herd; a
+slave-lad, having unwittingly offended, knelt down whilst the
+wearer applied a dusty big toe between his eyebrows. Papagayo had
+a bag of grass-cloth and bits of cane, from which protruded
+strips of leather and scarlet broadcloth.
+
+At 6.45 A.M. on Saturday, September 12, we exchanged the fields
+surrounding Banza Chinguvu for a ridge or narrow plateau trending
+to the north-east and bending to the magnetic north. A few
+minutes led to a rock-slope, fit only for goat-hoofs or nude-
+footed natives. Winding along the hill-sides, we passed out of
+the Nokki territory into that of Ntombo, the property of Mfumo
+Nelongo: here we descended into a little vale or gorge bright as
+verdure could make it--
+
+                   "arborets and flowers
+          Imborder'd on each bank"
+
+of a bubbling brook, a true naiad of the hills, which ran to the
+embrace of the mighty stream; it characteristically stained its
+bed with iron. On our right was a conspicuous landmark, Zululu ke
+Sombe, a tall rock bearing the semblance of an elephant from the
+north-east, visible from the Congo's right bank and commanding a
+view of all the hills. Banza Vivi, our first destination,
+perching high on the farther side of the blue depression, bore
+due north. We then struck the roughest of descents, down broken
+outcrops and chines of granite--no wonder that the women have
+such grand legs. This led us into a dark green depression where
+lay Banza Chinsavu, the abode of King Nelongo. Our course had
+been three miles to the north-north-east.
+
+Nothing can be more charming than the site, a small horseshoe
+valley, formed by a Wady or Fiumara, upon whose raised left bank
+stands the settlement, sheltered by palms, plantations, and wild
+figs. Eastward is a slope of bare rock polished by the rain-
+torrents; westward rise the grassy hills variegated with bush and
+boulder. We next crossed a rocky divide to the north and found a
+second basin also fertilized by its own stream; here the cactus
+and aloes, the vegetation of the desert, contrasted with half-a-
+dozen shades of green, the banana, the sycamore, the egg-plant,
+the sweet potato, the wild pepper, and the grass, whose colours
+were paling, but not so rapidly as in the lower lands.
+
+We dismounted in state from our tipoias at the verandah of an
+empty house, where a chair had been placed; and we prepared for
+the usual delay and display. The guides will not leave these
+villages unvisited lest a "war" result; all the chiefs are
+cousins and one must not monopolize the plunder. A great man
+takes an hour to dress, and Nelongo was evidently soothing the
+toils of the toilette with a musical bellows called an accordeon.
+He sent us some poor, well-watered Msámbá (palm toddy), and
+presently he appeared, a fat, good-natured man, as usual,
+ridiculously habited. He took the first opportunity of curtly
+saying in better Portuguese than usual, "There is no more march
+to-day!" This was rather too much for a somewhat testy traveller,
+when he changed his tone, begged me not to embroil him with a
+powerful neighbour, and promised that we should set out that
+evening. He at once sent for provisions, fowls, and a small
+river-fish, sugar-cane, and a fine bunch of S. Thomé bananas.
+
+About noon appeared Chico Furano, son of the late Chico de Ouro,
+in his quality of "English linguister;" a low position to which
+want of "savvy" has reduced him. His studies of our tongue are
+represented by an eternal "Yes!" his wits by the negative; he
+boasts of knowing how to "tratar com o branco" and, declining to
+bargain, he robs double. He is a short, small, dark man with
+mountaineer legs, a frightful psora, and an inveterate habit of
+drink. He saluted his superior, Nelongo, with immense ceremony,
+dating probably from the palmy times of the Mwani-Congo. Equals
+squat before one another, and shaking hands crosswise clap palms.
+Chico Furano kneels, places both "ferients" upon the earth and
+touches his nose-tip; he then traces three ground-crosses with
+the Jovian finger; again touches his nose; beats his "volæ" on
+the dust, and draws them along the cheeks; then he bends down,
+applying firstly the right, secondly the left face side, and
+lastly the palms and dorsa of the hands to mother earth. Both
+superior and inferior end with the Sakila or batta-palmas,[FN#26]
+three bouts of three claps in the best of time separated by the
+shortest of pauses, and lastly a "tiger" of four claps. The
+ceremony is more elaborate than the "wallowings" and dust-
+shovellings described by Ibn Batuta at the Asiatic courts, by
+Jobson at Tenda,by Chapperton at Oyo,by Denham amongst the
+Mesgows, and by travellers to Dahome and to the Cazembe. Yet the
+system is virtually the same in these distant kingdoms, which do
+not know one another's names.
+
+Chico Furano brought a Mundongo slave, a fine specimen of
+humanity, some six feet high, weighing perhaps thirteen stone,
+all bone and muscle, willing and hard-working, looking upon the
+Congo men as if they were women or children. He spoke a few words
+of Portuguese, and with the master's assistance I was able to
+catechize him. He did not deny that his people were "papagentes,"
+but he declared that they confined the practice to slain enemies.
+He told a number of classical tales about double men, attached,
+not like the Siamese twins, but dos-à-dos; of tribes whose feet
+acted as parasols, the Plinian Sciapodæ and the Persian Tasmeh-
+pa, and of mermen who live and sleep in the inner waters--I also
+heard this from M. Parrot, a palpable believer. He described his
+journey down the great river, and declared that beyond his
+country's frontier the Nzadi issues from a lake which he
+described as having a sea-horizon, where canoes lose sight of
+land, and where they are in danger from violent storms; he
+described the latter with great animation, and his descriptions
+much reminded me of Dibbie, the "Dark Lake." Probably this was
+genuine geography, although he could not tell the name of the
+inner sea, the Achelunda of old cosmographers. Tuckey's map also
+lays down in N. lat. 2° to 3° and in E. long. (G.) 17° to 18° a
+great swamp draining to the south; and his "Narrative" (p. 178)
+tells us that some thirty days above Banza Mavunda, which is 20
+to 24 miles above the Yellala, "the river issues by many small
+streams from a great marsh or lake of mud." This would suggest a
+reservoir alternately flooded and shrinking; possibly lacustrine
+bays and the bulges formed by the middle course of the Lualaba.
+
+Despite the promise, we were delayed by King Nekorado, whose
+town, Palabala, lies at some distance, and who, negro-like, will
+consult only his own convenience. In the afternoon we were
+visited by a royal son, who announced that his royal father
+feared the heat, but would appear with the moon, which was
+equivalent to saying that we might expect him on the morrow. He
+is known to be a gueux, and Gidi Mavunga boasts of having harried
+and burned sundry of his villages, so he must make up by
+appearance for deficient reality. His appearance was announced by
+the Mpungi, the Egyptian Zagharit, the Persian Kil; this
+"lullilooing" in the bush country becomes an odd moaning howl
+like the hyaena's laugh. Runners and criers preceded the hammock,
+which he had probably mounted at the first field; a pet slave
+carried his chair, covered with crimson cloth, and Frédérique his
+"linguister" paced proudly by its side.
+
+After robing himself in Nelongo's house, King Nekorado held a
+levee under the shadiest fig, which acted bentang-tree; all the
+moleques squatting in a demi-lune before the presence. A short
+black man, with the round eyes, the button-like nose, the fat
+circular face, and the weakly vanishing chin which denote the
+lower type of Congoese, he coldly extended a chimpanzee's paw
+without rising or raising his eyes, in token that nothing around
+him deserved a glance. I made him au-fait as to my intentions,
+produced, as "mata-bicho," a bottle of gin, and sent a dash of
+costa-fina, to which a few yards of satin-stripe were thrown in.
+
+The gin was drunk with the usual greed, and the presents were
+received with the normal objections.
+
+"Why should not I, a king like Nessudikira, receive a ‘dash'
+equal to his?"
+
+"He is my host, I pay him for bed and board!"
+
+"We are all cousins; why shall one be treated better than the
+other?"
+
+"As you please! you have received your due, and to-day we march."
+
+After this I rose and returned to my hut ready for the inevitable
+"row."
+
+It was not long coming; the new arrivals set up the war-song, and
+Gidi Mavunga thought it time to make a demonstration. Drawing an
+old cutlass and bending almost double, he began to rush about,
+slashing and cutting down imaginary foes, whilst his men looked
+to their guns. The greenhorn would have expected a regular stand-
+up fight, ending in half-a-dozen deaths, but the Papagayo
+snatched away his father's rusty blade, and Chico Furano, seizing
+the warrior's head, despite the mildest of resistance, bent it
+almost to the ground. Thus valour succumbed to numbers. "He is a
+great man," whispered my interpreter, "and if they chaunt their
+battle-song, he must show them his bravery." The truly
+characteristic scene ended in our being supplied with some
+fourteen black pots full of flesh, fowl, beans, and manioc,
+together with an abundance of plantains and sugar-cane; a select
+dish was "put in fetish" (set aside) for Gidi Mavunga, and the
+friendly foes all sat down to feast. The querelle d'Allemand
+ended with a general but vain petition for "t'other bottle."
+
+Fahrenheit showed 90° in the shade, as we bade adieu to the
+little land-bay, and made for the high rugged wall to the north-
+north-east separating the river valley from the inner country. On
+the summit we halted to enjoy the delicious sea-breeze with its
+ascending curve, and the delightful prospect far below. Some
+1,300 feet beneath us appeared the Nzadi, narrowed to a torrent,
+and rushing violently down its highly inclined bed, a straight
+reach running east and west, in length from four and a half to
+five miles. As we fronted north, the Morro (cliff) Kala fell
+bluff towards its blue bight, the Mayumba Bay of the chart, on
+our left; to the right a black gate formed by twin cliffs shut
+out the upper stream from view. The panorama of hill-fold and
+projection, each bounded by deep green lines, which argued
+torrents during the rains; the graceful slopes sinking towards
+the river and indenting the bed and the little tree-clad isle,
+Zun gáchyá Idí (Tuckey's "Zunga Tooly Calavangoo") hugging the
+northern side, where the Lufu torrent adds its tribute to the
+waters, convinced me that the charms of Congo scenery had not
+been exaggerated. Yet the prospect had its element of sadness;
+the old ruffian, Gidi Mavunga, recounted how he had burned this
+place and broken that, where palm-clumps, grass-clearings, and
+plantations lying waste denoted the curse of Ham upon the land.
+
+Our course now wound north-eastwards along hill-shoulders, rich
+in flowery plants and scented mimosa. After two hours' walking,
+we came suddenly upon the Morro or cliff of the river-trough, now
+about 1,000 feet deep. Here the prospect again shifted; the black
+gate opened, showing the lowest of the long line of rapids called
+Borongwa ya Vivi, with the natives and their canoes, like flies
+upon bits of straw.
+
+On the southern bank was a small perennial influent, lined with
+bright green above, and with chocolate brown below, within some
+twenty yards of its mouth. It arises, they say, near S. Salvador,
+and is not navigable, although in places it bears canoes. The
+people call it Npozo, possibly it represents the S. Salvador
+River of old travellers. The distance was three direct or five
+indirect miles north of the stony cone, Zululu ke Sombe.
+
+The descent was a malevoie, over slabs and boulders, loose stones
+and clayey ground, slippery as ice after rain. The moleques
+descended like chamois within twenty minutes: Selim and I, with
+booted feet, took double the time, but on return we ascended it
+in forty-five minutes. Viewed from below, the base rests upon
+cliffs of gneiss, with debris and quartz in masses, bands and
+pebbles, pure and impure, white and rusty. Upon it rises a
+stratum of ferruginous clay, with large hard-heads of granite,
+gneiss, and schist, blocks of conglomerate, and nodules of
+ironstone. Higher still is the bank of yellow clay, capped with
+shallow humus. The waving profile is backed by steep hills, with
+rocky sides and long ridges of ground, the site of the palm-
+hidden Banzas.
+
+Reaching the base, a heap of tumbled boulders, we crossed in a
+canoe the mouth of the Npozo to a sandy cove in the southern
+bank, the terminus of river navigation. The people called it
+Unyenge Assiku: I cannot but suspect that this is the place where
+Tuckey left his boats, and which he terms "Nomaza Cove." The name
+is quite unknown, and suggests that the interpreters tried to
+explain by "No majia" (water) that here the voyage must end.
+
+Off this baylet are three rocky islets, disposed in a triangle,
+slabs collected by a broken reef, and collectively known as Zunga
+Nuapozo; the clear-way is between them and the southern bank,
+which is partly provided with a backwater; the northern three
+quarters of the bed show something like a scour and a rapid.
+Zunga chya Ingololo, the northernmost and smallest, bears a
+single tree, and projects a bar far into the stream: the central
+and westernmost is a rock with a canoe passage between it and the
+southern and largest, Zunga chya Tuvi. The latter has three tree-
+clumps; and a patch of clean white sand on its western side
+measures the daily rise of the water, eight inches to a foot, and
+shows the highest level of the flood, here twelve to thirteen
+feet. The fishermen use it as a drying-ground for their game.
+They also crowd every day to two sandy covelets on the southern
+bank, separated by a tongue of rough boulders. Here naked urchins
+look on whilst their fathers work, or aid in drying the nets, or
+lie prone upon the sand, exposing their backs to the broiling
+sun. The other denizens of the place are fish-eagles, who sit en
+faction upon the topmost branches of withered trees. I saw only
+two kinds of fish, one small as a minnow, and the other
+approaching the size of a herring. Up stream they are said to be
+much larger. They are not salted, but smoked or sun-dried when
+the weather serves: stuffed with chillies and fried with oil,
+they are good eating as the Kinnam of the Gold Coast.
+
+We prepared to bivouac under a fine shady Saffu, or wild fig, a
+low, thick trunk whose dark foliage, fleshy as the lime-leaf, so
+often hangs its tresses over the river, and whose red berries may
+feed man as well as monkey. The yellow flowers of hypericum,
+blooming around us, made me gratefully savour our escape from
+mangrove and pandamus. About sunset a gentle shower, the first of
+the season, caused the fisher-boys to dance with joy; it lasted
+two good hours, and then it was dispersed by a strong westerly
+breeze. Canoes and lights flashed before our eyes during half the
+night; and wild beasts, answering one another from rock to rock,
+hundreds of feet above us, added a savage, African feature to the
+goodly mise-en-scène.
+
+Arising early next morning, I was assured that it is necessary to
+cross the stream in order to reach the Cataracts. Tuckey did so,
+but further inquiry convinced me that it is a mistake to march
+along the northern bank. Of course, in skirting the southern
+side, we should not have approached so near the stream, where
+bluffs and débris rendered travelling hopeless. The amiable
+ichthyophagi agreed for two fathoms of fancy cloth to ferry us
+across the river, which is here half a mile broad. The six-knot
+current compels canoes to run up the left shore by means of its
+backwater, and, when crossing, to make allowance for the drift
+downwards. The aneroid now showed 860 feet of absolute altitude,
+and about sixty-five feet above the landing-place of Banza Nokki;
+the distance along the stream is fourteen miles, and thus the
+fall will be about five feet per mile below the Borongwa ya Vivi.
+We could see from a level the "smaller rapids of Vivi" bursting
+through their black gate with angry foam, flashing white from
+side to side. No canoe could shoot this "Cachoeira," but I do not
+think that a Nile Dahabiyah or a Brazilian Ajôjô would find great
+difficulty. Between us and the rapids, the concavity of the
+southern bank forms a bight or bay. The vortices, in which
+Tuckey's sloop was whirled round despite oars and sails, and in
+whose hollow the punt entirely disappeared, "so that the
+depression must have been three or four feet deep," were nowhere
+seen at this fuller season. The aspect of the surface is that of
+every large deep stream with broken bottom; the water boils up in
+ever widening domes, as though a system of fountains sprang from
+below. Each centre is apparently higher than its circle; it
+spreads as if a rock had been thrown into it, and the outer rim
+throws off little eddies and whirls no larger than a thimble. The
+mirrory surface of the lower river thus becomes mottled with
+light and shade, and the reflected image of the trough-cliff is
+broken into the most fantastic shapes.
+
+Fifteen minutes of hard paddling landed us at Selele, a stony
+point between two sandy baylets: amongst the mass of angular
+boulders a tree again showed the highest flood-mark to be 13
+feet. Here for the first time I remarked the black glaze
+concerning which so much has been written.[FN#28] The colour is a
+sunburnt black, tinted ferruginous red like meteoric stones, and
+it is generally friable, crumbling under the nails. It tastes
+strongly of iron, which flavours almost every spring in the
+country, yet the most likely places do not show this
+incrustation. Sometimes it looks like a matrix in which pudding-
+stone has been imbedded; it may be two or three lines in
+thickness and it does not colour the inside. At other times it
+hardly measures the thickness of paper, coating the gneiss slabs
+like plumbago. Humboldt tells us ("Personal Narrative," ii. 243,
+Bohn), that the "Indians" of the Atures declare the rocks to be
+burnt (carbonized) by the sun's rays, and I have often found the
+same black glaze upon the marly sandstones that alternate with
+calcareous formations where no stream ever reached them--for
+instance, on the highlands of Judea, between Jerusalem and the
+Dead Sea; in inner Istria, and in most countries upon the borders
+of the Mediterranean.
+
+Leaving Selele, we ascended a steep hill with many glissadès, the
+effect of last night's rain. These hammock-journeys are mostly
+equivalent to walking and paying for carriage; it would be
+cruelty to animals were one to ride except when entering the
+villages. After threading for half an hour lanes of grass, we
+were received in a little village of the Banza Vivi district by
+Nessala, linguistère to King Luvungungwete. The guest room was
+furnished with every luxury; hides of a fine antelope described
+as the Kudu; cruets, basins, bottles, and other vases; "lustre
+mugs," John Andersons and Toby Philpots. A good calabash, full of
+
+                    "Freshening wine
+          More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
+          Which Bacchus pours,"
+
+was produced, although the drought and scarcity of June rain had
+dried the palms. Before I outstretched myself, the fairer half of
+the population sent a message to say that they had never seen a
+white man: what less could be done than to distribute a few beads
+and pat the children, who screamed like sucking pigs and
+"squirmed" like young monkeys?
+
+The Chrononhotonthologus of a king came in the afternoon with a
+tail of a hundred vertebræ: he was a milder specimen than usual;
+he had neither Mambrino's helmet nor beadle's cloak, and perhaps
+his bashfulness in the presence of strangers arose from a
+consciousness that his head-gear and robes were not in keeping
+with his station. But he did not fail to grumble at his "dash;"
+indeed, he must be more than African who shall say, "Hold!
+enough." He vouchsafed a small return in fowls and "beneficent
+manioc," and sent with us three slaves, to serve, not as guides,
+but as a basis for a separate charge.
+
+After sunset all was made ready for the Batuque. The ball-room
+was the village square; the decorations were the dense trees; the
+orchestra consisted of two drums, a grande caisse eight feet and
+a half long, placed horizontally, and a smaller specimen standing
+on a foot like that of an old-fashioned champagne-glass; the
+broader ends were covered with deer skins, upon which both hands
+perform; and the illuminations were flaming heaps of straw,
+which, when exhausted, were replaced by ground-nuts spitted upon
+a bamboo splint. This contrivance is far simpler than a dip-
+candle, the arachis is broken off as it chars, and, when the lamp
+dims, turning it upside down causes a fresh flow of oil. The
+ruder sex occupied one half of the ring, and the rest was
+appropriated to dame and damsel. The Batuque is said to be the
+original Cachucha; Barbot calls it a danse des filoux, and it has
+the merit of perfectly expressing, as Captain Cook's companions
+remarked of the performances in the South Sea Islands, what it
+means.
+
+The hero of the night was Chico Mpamba; he must have caused a
+jealous pang to shoot through many a masculine bosom. With
+bending waist, arms gracefully extended forwards, and fingers
+snapping louder than castanets; with the upper half of the body
+fixed as to a stake, and with the lower convulsive as a scotched
+snake, he advanced and retired by a complicated shuffle, keeping
+time with the tom-tom and jingling his brass anklets, which
+weighed at least three pounds, and which, by the by, lamed him
+for several days. But he was heroic as the singer who broke his
+collar-bone by the ut di petto. A peculiar accompaniment was a
+dulcet whistle with lips protruded; hence probably the fable of
+Pliny's Astomoi, and the Africans of Eudoxus, whose joined lips
+compelled them to eat a single grain at a time, and to drink
+through a cane before sherry-cobblers were known. Others joined
+him, dancing either vis-à-vis or by his side; and more than one
+girl, who could no longer endure being a wall-flower, glided into
+the ring and was received with a roar of applause. In the
+feminine performance the eyes are timidly bent upon the ground;
+the steps are shorter and daintier, and the ritrosa appears at
+once to shun and to entice her cavalier, who, thus repulsed and
+attracted, redoubles the exciting measure till the delight of the
+spectators knows no bounds. Old Gidi Mavunga flings off his upper
+garment, and with the fire of a youth of twenty enters the
+circle, where his performance is looked upon with respect, if not
+with admiration. Wilder and wilder waxeth the "Devil's delight,"
+till even the bystanders, especially the women, though they keep
+their places in the outer circle, cannot restrain that wonderful
+movement of haunch and flank. I laughed till midnight, and left
+the dancers dancing still.
+
+At 5 A.M. the strayed revellers found to their disgust a thick
+fog, or rather a thin drizzle, damping grass and path, and
+suggesting anything but a pleasant trudge. They declared that
+starvation awaited us, as the "fancy cloths" were at an end, but
+I stopped that objection by a reference to the reserved fund.
+After an hour of sulky talk we set out towards the upper part of
+Banza Vivi, passing a small but pretty hill plain, with manioc-
+fields, gum-trees, and the bombax very symmetrical. We saw no
+animals: here and there appeared the trail of a hyaena, the only
+larger carnivor that now haunts the mountains. The song of Mkuka
+Mpela, the wild pigeon, and Fungú, the cuckoo, were loud in the
+brake: the Abbé Proyart makes the male cuculus chant his coo,
+coo, coo; mounting one note above another with as much precision
+as a musician would sound his ut, re, mi: when he reached the
+third note, his mate takes it up and ascends to the octave. After
+this both recommence the same song.
+
+The stiff ascent gave us lovely views of the lake-like river and
+both its banks: after three quarters of an hour we reached Vivi
+of Banza Simbo. The people vainly called to us, "Wiza!"-- "Come
+thou!" and "Luiza! luiza kwenu!"-- "Come, come here!" Our
+moleques, disliking the dangerous proximity, advanced at a walk
+which might be called a canter.
+
+Presently we reached the dividing ridge, 1,394 feet high, between
+Banza Vivi and Nkulu, whose palm-trees, thrown out against the
+sky, bore 82° (M.) Looking to the north with easting, we had a
+view of no less than six distinct distances. The actual
+foreground, a hollow between two land-waves, could not conceal
+the "Crocodile's Head:" the latter, five miles off and bearing
+65° (M.), forms the southern staple of the Yellala Gate, whose
+rapids were not visible, and it fronts the Quoin, which hems in
+the stream on the other side. The key-stone of the inverted arch
+between them was a yellow-flanked, tree-topped hill, rising
+immediately above the great rapids: beyond if waved, in far
+succession, three several swells of ground, each flatter and
+bluer than its nearer neighbour, and capping the whole stood
+Kongo de Lemba, a tall solitary sugarloaf, bearing 75° (M.), with
+its outlying conelets concealing like a mass of smoke the world
+that lay beyond.
+
+The ridges appeared to trend north and south, and to approach the
+river's bending bed at different angles; their sides were steep,
+and in places scarped where they fell into the intervening
+hollows. The valleys conducted many a water to the main drain,
+and during the wet season they must be well-nigh impassable. At
+the end of the dries the only green is in the hill-folds and the
+basin-sinks, where the trees muster strong enough to defend
+themselves from the destructive annual fires. These bush-burnings
+have effectually disforested the land, and in some places
+building timber and even fuel have become scarce. In the Abrus,
+barely two feet high, I could hardly recognize the tall tree of
+Eastern Africa, except by its scarlet "carats," which here the
+people disdain to use as beads. The scorching of the leaves
+stunts the shrubs, thickens the bark, and makes the growth
+scrubby, so that the labourer has nothing to do but to clear away
+the grass: I afterwards remarked the same effects on the
+Brazilian Campos.
+
+We descended the dividing ridge, which is also painfully steep,
+especially near the foot, and crossed the rolling hollow with its
+three chalybeate brooks, beyond which lay our destination. Tuckey
+describes the hills between Boma and Nkulu as stony and barren,
+which is perhaps a little too strong. The dark red clay soil,
+dried almost to the consistency of laterite, cannot be loosened
+by rain or sun, and in places it is hardened like that of
+Brazilian Porto Seguro, where the people complain that they
+cannot bury their dead. All the uplands, however, grow grass
+which is sometimes ten to twelve feet tall, and in places there
+are shrubs and trees. About Nkulu the highlands are rightly
+described as "steep hills of quartz, ferruginous earth, and
+syenite with fertile tops:" rocks and stones are rare upon the
+plateaux: they are rich enough to produce everything from wheat
+to coffee, and hardly a hundredth part is cultivated. Thin and
+almost transparent lines of palms denote the several Banzas on
+the ridges, and in the valley are rock circles like magnified and
+prostrated Stonehenges.
+
+The "termes arborum" is universal, and anthills form a prominent
+feature. It has been remarked that these buildings are the most
+conspicuous architectural efforts of the country, and the Abbé
+Proyart observes that here more effectually than in any other
+land man ought to be sent to the ant school. The material is of
+dark and sometimes black earth as in the Gaboon, and the shape is
+the umbrella, rarely double or pagoda-roofed. The column may be
+twelve to eighteen inches high, and the diameter of the capital
+attains two feet: I never saw, however, a "gigantic toadstool as
+high as a one-storied house."[FN#28] Nor are the mushroom tops
+now used as chafing-dishes.
+
+The grateful tamarind grows everywhere, but nowhere so gloriously
+as on the lower elevations. The only true sycomores which I saw
+were stunted specimens near the Yellala. They contrasted poorly
+with the growth of the Ugogi Dhun, a noble patriarch, whose
+circle of shade under a vertical sun was 500 feet, and which I
+thought worthy of a portrait in "Lake Regions of Central Africa"
+(p. 195, vol. i.). I need hardly warn the reader that, properly
+speaking, it is the "Sycamine which produces the fruit called
+Syconwrus or fig-mulberry;" but we apply the term "Sycomore" to
+the tree as well as to its fruit.
+
+After three hours of actual marching (= seven miles) in an east-
+north-easterly direction, we ascended a path greasy with drizzle,
+parquetted by negro feet and infested with "drivers," which now
+became troublesome. It led to Banza Nkulu, a shabby settlement of
+unclean plantations and ragged huts of far inferior construction:
+stacks of grass were piled upon the ground, and this new thatch
+was greatly wanted. Here the lands of the "bush-men" begin:
+instead of marching directly to the chief's house, we sat in our
+wet clothes under a friendly wild fig. The women flocked out at
+the cry of the hammock-bearers and, nursing their babies, sat
+down to the enjoyment of a stare; they had lost, however, the
+merriment of their more civilized sisters, and they hardly ever
+vouchsafed a laugh or a smile. The curiosity of the "Zinkomba"
+knew no bounds; all were unusually agitated by the aspect of a
+man coloured like themselves; they jerked out their leafy
+crinolines by forward movements of the lower body, swayed
+violently from side to side, and cried "Ha-rr-rr-rr-rr!" and
+"Jojolo! jojolo!" till they were hoarse. As usual, the adults
+would not allow me to approach them, and I was obliged to rest
+contented with sketching their absurdities. To punish this
+daring, the Jinkomba brought a man masked like a white, with
+beard and whiskers, who is supposed to strike the stranger with
+awe: it was all in vain, I had learned to trill the R as roundly
+as themselves, and they presently left me as a "perdido," an
+incorrigible.
+
+In the days of the Expedition, Nkulu had but one ruler, of whom
+Tuckey says (p. 148), that he found less pomp and noise, but much
+more civility and hospitality than from the richer kings he had
+visited. Now there are three who require their "dashes," and each
+has his linguister, who must not be passed by without notice.
+Moreover, as population and luxury have increased on the line of
+route, bark-cloth has disappeared and even the slaves are dressed
+in cottons. We waited, patiently hungry, till 4 P.M. because the
+interpreters had gone on some "fish palaver" to the river. At
+that hour a procession of some two hundred and fifty men headed
+by a drum and Chingufu (cymbal-bells) defiled before us, crowding
+round three umbrellas, trade-articles in the last stage of
+"seediness." These comforts protected from the sun, which was
+deep hid behind a purple nimbus, an equal number of great men in
+absurd red nightcaps or old felt wideawakes, shirts of coloured
+cotton, and second-hand waistcoats of silk or satin. The only
+signs of luxury were here and there a well-carved ebony stick,
+and a gunstock resplendent with brass tacks. All sat down in a
+semi-circle before us, six or seven deep in front and four or
+five at the sides: the women and children took their places in
+the rear, and one of them fondled a prick-eared cur with an
+attempt at a ribbon round its neck.
+
+The head linguister, who, like "Persian interpreters" to
+commanders in chief of India during my clay, could not speak a
+word of any language but his own, after clapping hands,
+congratulated us in the name of the great king Nekulu; he lives,
+it appears, in a Banza at some distance to the north or north-
+east, out of sight of the river, and he cannot be visited without
+great outlay of gunpowder and strong waters. We returned
+compliments, and after the usual complications we came to the
+main point, the "dash." I had privily kept a piece of satin-
+stripe, and this was produced as the very last of our viaticum.
+The interpreter, having been assured that we had nothing else to
+give, retired with his posse to debate; whilst we derided the
+wild manners of these "bush-folk," who feared to shake hands with
+us. After an hour or so the council returned, clapped palms, sat
+clown, grumbled at the gift and gave formal leave to see the
+Yellala--how the word now jarred in my ears after its abominable
+repetition! Had these men been told a month before that a white
+would have paid for permission to visit what they considered
+common property, they would have refused belief: with
+characteristic readiness, however, the moment they saw an
+opportunity of "making money," they treated the novelty as a
+matter of course.
+
+This palaver settled, the chiefs danced within a ring formed by
+their retainers; the speeches were all sung, not spoken; and
+obeisances and dustings of elaborate complexity concluded the
+eventful meeting, which broke up as it began with drum and
+Chingufu. There was not a symptom of hospitality; we had
+preserved some provaunt from our last station, or we should have
+been famished. My escort forgot their disappointments in a
+"ball," which lasted through the cool, clear and dewy night till
+nearly dawn. It is evidently a happy temperament which can dance
+off hunger and fatigue.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XIV.
+
+                   The Yellala of the Congo.
+
+
+
+At dawn (September 16), I began the short march leading to the
+Yellala.[FN#29] By stepping a few paces south of Nkulu, we had a
+fine view of the Borongwa ya Vivi, the lowest rapids, whose
+foaming slope contrasted well with the broad, smooth basin
+beyond. Palabala, the village of Nekorado on the other side of
+the stream, bore south (Mag.), still serving as a landmark; and
+in this direction the ridges were crowned with palm orchards and
+settlements. But the great Yellala was hidden by the hill-
+shoulder.
+
+We at once fell into a descent of some 890 feet, which occupied
+an hour. The ground was red iron-clay, greasy and slippery; dew-
+dripping grass, twelve to fifteen feet tall, lined the path; the
+surface was studded with dark ant-hills of the mushroom shape;
+short sycomores appeared, and presently we came to rough
+gradients of stone, which severely tried the "jarrets." After an
+hour, we crossed at the trough-foot a brook of pure water, which,
+uniting with two others, turns to the north-east, and, tumbling
+over a little ledge, discharges itself into the main drain. An
+ascent then led over a rounded hill with level summit, and
+precipitous face all steps and drops of rock, some of them six
+and seven feet high, opposed to the stream. Another half hour,
+and a descent of 127 feet placed us under a stunted calabash, 100
+feet above the water, and commanding a full view of the Yellala.
+
+On the whole, the impression was favourable. Old Shimbah, the
+Linguister at Porto da Lenha, and other natives had assured me
+that the Cataracts were taller than the tallest trees. On the
+other hand, the plain and unadorned narrative of the "Expedition"
+had prepared me for a second-rate stream bubbling over a strong
+bed. The river here sweeps round from the north-west, and bends
+with a sharp elbow first to the south-west and then to the south-
+east, the length of the latter reach being between four and five
+miles. As far as the eye can see, the bed, which narrows from 900
+to 400 and 500 yards, is broken by rocks and reefs. A gate at the
+upper end pours over its lintel a clear but dwarf fall, perhaps
+two feet high. The eastern staple rises at first sheer from the
+water's edge to the estimated altitude of a thousand feet,--this
+is the "Crocodile's Head" which we saw on the last march, and
+already the thin rains are robing its rocky surface with tender
+green. The strata are disposed at angles, varying from 35° to
+45°, and three streaks of bright trees denote Fiumaras about to
+be filled. Opposite it is the "Quoin Hill," bluff to the stream,
+and falling west with gradual incline. The noise of this higher
+fall can hardly be heard at Nkulu, except on the stillest nights.
+
+Below the upper gate, the bed, now narrowing to 300 yards, shows
+the great Yellala; the waters, after breaking into waves for a
+mile and a half above, rush down an inclined plane of some thirty
+feet in 300 yards, spuming, colliding and throwing up foam, which
+looks dingy white against the dull yellow-brown of the less
+disturbed channel--the movement is that of waves dashing upon a
+pier. The bed is broken by the Zunga chya Malemba, which some
+pronounced Sanga chya Malemba, an oval islet in mid-stream, whose
+greater diameter is disposed along the axis of the bed. The
+north-western apex, raised about fifty feet above the present
+level of the waters, shows a little bay of pure sand, the
+detritus of its rocks, with a flood-mark fifteen feet high,
+whilst the opposite side bears a few wind-wrung trees. The
+materials are gneiss and schist, banded with quartz--Tuckey's
+great masses of slate. This is the "Terrapin" of the Nzadi. The
+eastern fork, about 150 yards broad, is a mountain-torrent,
+coursing unobstructed down its sandy trough, and, viewed from an
+eminence, the waters of the mid-channel appear convex, a shallow
+section of a cylinder,--it is a familiar shape well marked upon
+the St. Lawrence Rapids. The western half is traversed by a reef,
+connecting the islets with the right bank. During August, this
+branch was found almost dry; in mid-September, it was nearly
+full, and here the water breaks with the greatest violence. The
+right bank is subtended for some hundred yards by blocks of
+granite and greenstone, pitted with large basins and pot-holes,
+delicately rounded, turned as with a lathe by the turbid waters.
+The people declare that this greenstone contains copper, and
+Professor Smith found particles in his specimens. The Portuguese
+agents, to whom the natives carefully submit everything curious,
+doubt the fact, as well as all reports of gold; yet there is no
+reason why the latter should not be found.
+
+The current whirls and winds through its tortuous channels, which
+are like castings of metal, in many distinct flows; some places
+are almost stagnant, suggesting passages for canoes. Here the
+fishermen have planted their weirs; some are wading in the pools,
+others are drying their nets upon the stony ledges. During the
+floods, however, this cheval-de-frise of boulders must all be
+under water, and probably impassable. Tuckey supposes that the
+inundation must produce a spectacle which justifies the high-
+flown description of the people. I should imagine the reverse to
+be the case; and Dr. Livingstone justly remarked[FN#30that, when
+the river was full, the Yellala rapids would become comparatively
+smooth, as he had found those of the Zambeze; and that therefore
+a voyage pittoresque up the Congo should be made at that season.
+
+Before leaving the Yellala, I wandered along the right bank, and
+found a cliff, whose overhanging brow formed a fine cavern; it
+remarkably resembled the Martianez Fountain under the rock near
+the beautiful Puerto de Orotava. Here the fishermen were
+disporting themselves, and cooking their game, which they
+willingly exchanged for beads. All were of the Silurus family,
+varying from a few inches to two feet. Fish-eagles sat upon the
+ledges overhanging the stream, and a flight of large cranes
+wheeled majestically in the upper air: according to the people,
+they are always to be seen at the Yellalas.
+
+The extent of a few hundred feet afforded a good bird's eye view
+of the scene. The old river-valley, shown by the scarp of the
+rocks, must have presented gigantic features, and the height of
+the trough-walls, at least a thousand feet, gives the Yellala a
+certain beauty and grandeur. The site is apparently the highest
+axis of the dividing ridge separating the maritime lowlands from
+the inner plateau. Looking eastward the land smoothens, the dorsa
+fall more gently towards the counter-slope, and there are none of
+the "Morros" which we have traversed.
+
+With the members of the Congo Expedition, I was somewhat startled
+by the contrast between the apparently shrunken volume of waters
+and the vast breadth of the lower river; hence Professor Smith's
+theory of underground caverns and communications, in fact of a
+subterraneous river, a favourite hobby in those days. But there
+is not a trace of limestone formation around, nor is there the
+hollow echo which inevitably would result from such a tunnel.
+Evidently the difference is to be accounted for by the rapidity
+of the torrent, the effect of abnormal slope deceiving the eye.
+At the Mosî-wa-tunya Falls the gigantic Zambeze, from a breadth
+of a thousand yards suddenly plunges into a trough only forty-
+five to sixty feet wide: the same is the case with the Brazilian
+São Francisco, which, a mile wide above the Cachoeira de Paulo
+Affonso, is choked to a minimum breadth of fifty-one feet. At the
+Pongo (narrows) de Manseriche also, the Amazonas, "already a
+noble river, is contracted at its narrowest part to a width of
+only twenty-five toises, bounded on each margin by lofty
+perpendicular cliffs, at the end of which the Andes are fairly
+passed, and the river emerges on the great plain."[FN#31] Thus
+the Yellala belongs to the class of obstructed rapids like those
+of the Nile, compared with the unobstructed, of which a fine
+specimen is the St. Lawrence. It reminded me strongly of the Búsa
+(Boussa) described by Richard Lander, where the breadth of the
+Niger is reduced to a stone-throw, and the stream is broken by
+black rugged rocks arising from mid-channel. It is probably a
+less marked feature than the Congo, for in June, after the
+"Malka" or fourteen days of incessant rain, the author speaks of
+whirlpools, not of a regular break.
+
+I thus make the distance of the Yellala from the mouth between
+116 and 117 miles and the total fall 390 feet, of which about one
+half (195) occurs in the sixty-four miles between Boma and the
+Yellala: of this figure again 100 feet belong to the section of
+five miles between the Vivi and the Great Rapids. The Zambeze,
+according to Dr. Livingstone ("First Expedition," p. 284), has a
+steeper declivity than some other great rivers, reaching even 7
+inches per mile. With 3 to 4 inches, the Ganges, the Amazonas,
+and the Mississippi flow at the rate of three knots an hour in
+the lowest season and five or six during the flood: what, then,
+may be expected from the Nzadi?
+
+According to the people, beyond the small upper fall where
+projections shut out the view, the channel smoothens for a short
+space and carries canoes. Native travellers from Nkulu usually
+take the mountain-path cutting across an easterly bend of the bed
+to Banza Menzi, the Manzy of Tuckey's text and the Menzi Macooloo
+of his map. It is situated on a level platform 9 miles north of
+Nkulu, and they find the stream still violent. The second march
+is to Banza Ninga, by the First Expedition called "Inga," an
+indirect line of five hours = 15 miles. The third, of about the
+same distance, makes Banza Mavunda where, 20 to 24 miles above
+the Yellala, Tuckey found the river once more navigable, clear in
+the middle and flowing at the rate of two miles an hour--a
+retardation evidently caused by the rapids beyond: I have
+remarked this effect in the Brazilian "Cachoeiras."[FN#32] Above
+it the Nzadi widens, and canoeing is practicable with portages at
+the two Sangallas. The southern feature, double like the Yellala,
+shows an upper and a lower break, separated by two miles, the
+rapids being formed as usual by sunken ledges of rock. Two days'
+paddling lead to the northern or highest Sangalla, which
+obstructs the stream for 22 miles: Tuckey (p. 184) makes his
+Songo Sangalla contain three rapids; Prof. Smith, whose
+topography is painfully vague, doubles the number, at the same
+time he makes Sanga Jalala (p. 327) the "uppermost fall but one
+and the highest." Finally, at Nsundi (on the map Soondy N'sanga),
+which was reached on Sept. 9, a picturesque sandy cove at the
+opening of a creek behind along projecting point, begins a lake-
+like river, three miles broad, with fine open country on both
+banks: the explorer describes it as "beautiful scenery equal to
+anything on the banks of the Thames."
+
+Here the Nzadi is bounded by low limestone hills already showing
+the alluvial basin of Central Africa; and the land is well
+populated, because calcareous districts are fertile in the
+tropics and provisions are plentiful. Prof. Smith (p. 336) was
+"so much enraptured with the improved appearance of the country
+and the magnificence of the river, that it was with the greatest
+difficulty he was prevailed on to return." Of course, the coaster
+middle-men report the people to be cannibals.
+
+From the Vivi Rapids to Nsundi along the windings of the bed is a
+total of 115 miles, about the distance of Vivi to the sea; the
+direct land march was 75 miles. Captain Tuckey heard nothing of
+the Lumini River entering 43 leagues above the Yellala, and he
+gives no professional opinion touching the navigability of the
+total of six greater rapids which, to judge from what I saw, can
+hardly offer any serious obstruction to the development of the
+Nzadi.
+
+At Nkulu an intelligent native traveller whom I examined through
+the interpreters, strongly advised the line of the southern bank:
+five stages would lead to Nsundi, and the ten "kings" on the road
+are not such "rapacious gentlemen" as our present hosts. A glance
+at Tuckey's map shows that this southern line cuts across a long
+westerly deflection of the bed.
+
+I had been warned when setting out that a shipful of goods would
+not take me past Nkulu. This was soon confirmed. On the evening
+after arrival I had directed my interpreter to sound the "bush-
+kings" touching the expense of a march to Nsundi. They modestly
+demanded 100 lbs. of beads, fifty kegs of powder, forty demijohns
+of rum, twelve uniforms, ten burnuses, a few swords, and 200
+whole pieces of various expensive cloths, such as Costa Finas,
+Riscados, and satin stripes,--briefly, about £300 for three days'
+march. It suggested the modest demand made by King Adooley of
+Badagry, from the brothers Lander.
+
+The air of Nkulu was a cordial; the aspect of the land suggested
+that it is the threshold to a country singularly fertile and
+delicious, in fact, the paradise which Bishop Berkeley (Gaudentio
+di Lucca) placed in Central Africa. The heat of the lowlands had
+disappeared,--
+
+                    "The scorching ray
+          Here pierceth not, impregnate with disease."
+
+The thermometer, it is true, did not sink below 67° (F.), whilst
+the "Expedition" (p. 118) had found it 60° in August, even at
+Boma during the dewy nights. The lowest temperature of the water
+was 75°, and the highest 79°, whereas at the mouth it is
+sometimes 83°; Tuckey gives 76°-77°; 74° in the upper river above
+the Falls, and 73° where there are limestone springs. The
+oxydization of iron suddenly ceased; after a single day's drying,
+the plants were ready for a journey to England, and meat which
+wrill hardly keep one day in the lowlands is here eatable on the
+fifth.
+
+Whilst the important subject of "dash" was being discussed I set
+out in my hammock to visit a quitanda or market held hard by. As
+we started, the women sang,
+
+          "Lungwá u telemene ko
+           Mwanza Ko Yellala o kwenda."
+
+"The boat that arrives at the Mwanza (the River) the same shall
+go up to the Yellala" (rapids). It is part of a chant which the
+mothers of men now old taught them in childhood, and the sole
+reminiscence of the Congo Expedition, whose double boats, the
+Ajôjôs of the Brazil, struck their rude minds half a century ago.
+
+These quitandas are attended by people living a dozen miles off,
+and they give names to the days, which consequently everywhere
+vary. Thus at Boma Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are
+respectively called "Nkenge," "Sona," "Kandu," and "Konzo." This
+style of dividing time, which is common throughout Pagan West
+Africa, is commonly styled a week: thus the Abbé Proyart tells us
+that the Loango week consists of four days, and that on the
+fourth the men "rest" by hunting and going to market. Tuckey also
+recognizes the "week of four days," opposed to the seven days'
+week of the Gold Coast.
+
+After half an hour's run to the north-west my bearers, raising
+loud shouts of "Alii! vai sempre!" dashed into the market-place
+where about a hundred souls were assembled. The women rose in
+terror from their baskets and piles of vendibles; some began
+hastily to pack up, others threw themselves into the bush. Order
+was soon restored by the interpreter; both sexes and all ages
+crowded round me with hootings of wonder, and, when they had
+stared their fill, allowed me to sit down under a kind of ficus,
+not unlike the banyan-tree (Ficus Indica). Tuckey (p. 181) says
+that this fig is planted in all market-places and is considered
+sacred; his people got into trouble by piling their muskets
+against one of them: I heard of nothing of the kind. The scanty
+supplies--a few fowls, sun-dried fish, kola-nuts, beans, and red
+peppers--were spread upon skins, or stored in well-worked
+baskets, an art carried to perfection in Africa; even the Somali
+Bedawin weave pots that will hold water. The small change was
+represented by a medium which even Montesquieu would not set down
+as a certain mark of civilization. The horse-shoe of Loggun
+(Denham and Clapperton), the Fán fleam, the "small piece of iron
+like an ace of spades on the upper Nile" (Baker), and the iron
+money of the brachycephalic Nyam-nyams described and drawn by
+Schwein furth (i. 279), here becomes a triangle or demi-square of
+bast-cloth, about 5 inches of max. length, fringed, coloured like
+a torchon after a month of kitchen use, and worth one-twentieth
+of the dollar or fathom of cloth. These money-mats or coin-clouts
+are known to old travellers as Macuitas and Libonges (in Angolan
+Libangos). Carli and Merolla make them equivalent to brass money;
+the former were grass-cloth a yard long, and ten = 100 reis; in
+1694 they were changed at Angola for a small copper coin worth 2
+1/2 d., and the change caused a disturbance for which five
+soldiers were shot. Silver was represented by "Intagas," thick
+cottons the size of two large kerchiefs (=. Is. 6d.) and
+"Folingas," finer sorts used for waist-cloths (=. 3s. 6d.); and
+gold by Beirames (alii Biramis): Carli says the latter are coarse
+Indian cottons 5 ells long and each = 200 reis; others describe
+them as fine linen each piece worth 7s. 6d. to 8s. The bank-note
+was the "Indian piece or Mulech, a young black about twenty years
+of age, worth 20 Mil Keys (dollars) each." (Carli.) In the
+Barbots' day each "coin-clout") was equivalent to 2d.; some were
+unmarked, whilst others bore the Portuguese arms single or
+double. The wilder Kru-men still keep up their "buyapart" (= 25
+cents), a cloth 4 inches square and thickly sewn over with
+cowries.
+
+The only liquor was palm wine in huge calabashes. The smoking of
+Lyamba (Bhang or Cannabis sativa) seems to become more common as
+we advance. I did not find the plant growing, as did Dr.
+Livingstone at Linyanti and amongst the Batoka ("First
+Expedition," 198, 541). The pipe is the gourd of a baobab, which
+here sometimes grows a foot and a half long; it is cleared,
+filled with water and provided with a wooden tube fixed in the
+upper part away from the mouth, and supporting a small "chillam"
+or bowl of badly baked clay. The people when smoking affect the
+bunched shoulders, the deep inhalation, and the loud and body-
+shaking bark, which seems inseparable from the enjoyment of this
+stimulant. I have used it for months together, and my conclusion
+is, that mostly the cough is an affectation. Tobacco is smoked in
+the usual heavy clay pipes, with long mouthpieces of soft wood,
+quite as civilized as the best European. "Progress" seems unknown
+to the pipe; the most advanced nations are somewhat behind the
+barbarians, and in the matter of snuff the Tupi or Brazilian
+savage has never been rivalled.
+
+The greater part of the vendors seemed to be women, of the buyers
+men; there was more difference of appearance than in any European
+fair, and the population about Nkulu seemed to be a very mixed
+race. Some were ultra-negro, of the dead dull-black type,
+prognathous and long-headed like apes; others were of the red
+variety, with hair and eyes of a brownish tinge, and a few had
+features which if whitewashed could hardly be distinguished from
+Europeans. The tattoo was remarkable as amongst the tribes of the
+lower Zambeze.[FN#33] There were waistcoats, epaulettes, braces
+and cross-belts of huge welts, and raised polished lumps which
+must have cost not a little suffering; the skin is pinched up
+between the fingers and sawn across with a bluntish knife, the
+deeper the better; various plants are used as styptics, and the
+proper size of the cicatrice is maintained by constant pressure,
+which makes the flesh protrude from the wound. The teeth were as
+barbarously mutilated as the skin; these had all the incisors
+sharp-tipped; those chipped a chevron-shaped hole in the two
+upper or lower frontals, and not a few seemed to attempt
+converting the whole denture into molars. The legs were
+undeniably fine; even Hieland Mary's would hardly be admired
+here. Whilst the brown mothers smoked and carried their babies,
+the men bore guns adorned with brass tacks, or leaned upon their
+short, straight, conical "spuds" and hoes, long-handled bits of
+iron whose points, after African fashion, passed through the
+wood. I nowhere saw the handsome carved spoons, the hafts and
+knife-sheaths figured by the Congo Expedition.
+
+We left the quitanda with the same shouting and rushing which
+accompanied my appearance.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XV.
+
+                   Return to the Congo Mouth.
+
+
+
+In the evening there was a palaver.
+
+I need hardly say that my guide, after being paid to show me
+Nsundi, never had the slightest intention to go beyond the
+Yellala. Irritated by sleeping in the open air, and by the total
+want of hospitality amongst the bushmen, he and his moleques had
+sat apart all day, the picture of stubborn discontent, and
+
+                    "Not a man in the place
+          But had discontent written large in his face."
+
+I proposed to send back a party for rum, powder, and cloth to the
+extent of £150, or half the demand, and my factotum, Selim,
+behaved like a trump. Gidi Mavunga, quite beyond self-control,
+sprang up, and declared that, if the Mundele would not follow
+him, that obstinate person might remain behind. The normal
+official deprecation, as usual, made him the more headstrong; he
+rushed off and disappeared in the bush, followed by a part of his
+slaves, the others crying aloud to him, "Wenda!"-- get out!
+Seeing that the three linguisters did not move, he presently
+returned, and after a furious address in Fiote began a Portuguese
+tirade for my benefit. This white man had come to their country,
+and, instead of buying captives, was bent upon enslaving their
+Mfumos; but that "Branco" should suffer for his attempt; no
+"Mukanda" or book (that is, letter) should go down stream; all
+his goods belonged of right to his guide, and thus he would learn
+to sit upon the heads of the noblesse, with much of the same
+kind.
+
+There are times when the traveller either rises above or sinks to
+the level of, or rather below, his party. I had been sitting
+abstractedly, like the great quietist, Buddha, when the looks of
+the assembly suggested an "address." This was at once delivered
+in Portuguese, with a loud and angry voice. Gidi Mavunga, who had
+been paid for Nsundi, not for the Yellala, had spoken like a
+"small boy" (i.e., a chattel). I had no wish to sit upon other
+men's heads, but no man should sit on mine. Englishmen did not
+want slaves, nor would they allow others to want them, but they
+would not be made slaves themselves. My goods were my own, and
+King Nessala, not to speak of Mambuco Prata--the name told--had
+made themselves responsible for me. Lastly, if the Senhor Gidi
+Mafung wanted to quarrel, the contents of a Colt's six-shooter
+were at his disposal.
+
+Such a tone would have made a European furious; it had a contrary
+effect upon the African. Gidi Mavunga advanced from his mat, and
+taking my hand placed it upon his head, declaring me his
+"Mwenemputo." The linguisters then entered the circle, chanted
+sundry speeches, made little dances, then bent their knuckles to
+earth, much in the position of boys preparing to jump over their
+own joined hands, dusted themselves, and clapped palms. Very
+opportunely arrived a present from the king of fowls, dried fish
+and plantains, which restored joy to the camp. "Mwenemputo," I
+must explain, primarily meaning "the King of Portugal," is
+applied in East Central Africa to a negro king and chiefs ("The
+Lands of the Cazembe," p. 17). In Loango also it is the name of a
+high native official, and, when used as in the text, it is
+equivalent to Mfumo, chief or head of family.
+
+At night Gidi Mavunga came to our quarters and began to talk
+sense. Knowing that my time was limited, he enlarged upon the
+badness of the road and the too evident end of the travelling
+season, when the great rains would altogether prevent fast
+travel. Banza Ninga, the next stage, was distant two or three
+marches, and neither shelter nor provisions were to be found on
+the way. Here a canoe would carry us for a day (12 miles) to the
+Sangala Rapids: then would come the third portage of two days (22
+miles) to Nsundi. My outfit at Banza Nokki was wholly
+insufficient; the riverine races were no longer tractable as in
+the days of his father, when white men first visited the land. My
+best plan was to return to Boma at once, organize a party, and
+march upon Congo Grande (S. Salvador); there I should find
+whites, Portuguese, Englishmen and their "Kru-men" the term
+generally applied on the southern coast to all native employés of
+foreign traders. If determined upon bring "converted into black
+man" I might join some trading party into the interior. As
+regards the cloth and beads advanced by me for the journey to
+Nsundi, a fair proportion would be returned at Banza Nokki. And
+so saying the old fox managed to look as if he meant what he
+said.
+
+All this, taken with many a grain, was reasonable. The edge of my
+curiosity had been taken off by the Yellala, and nothing new
+could be expected from the smaller formations up stream. Time
+forbade me to linger at Banza Nkulu. The exorbitant demand had
+evidently been made by express desire of Gidi Mavunga, and only a
+fortnight's delay could have reduced it to normal dimensions. Yet
+with leisure success was evident. All the difficulties of the
+Nsundi road would have vanished when faced. The wild people
+showed no feeling against foreigners, and the Nkulu linguisters
+during their last visit begged me to return as soon as possible
+and "no tell lie." I could only promise that their claims should
+be laid before the public. Accordingly a report of this trip was
+at once sent in to Her Majesty's Foreign Office, and a paper was
+read before the British Association of September, 1864.
+
+Early on Thursday morning (Sept. 17) we began the down march. It
+was a repetition of the up march, except that all were bent upon
+rushing home, like asses to their stables; none of those posés,
+or regular halts on the line of march, as practised by well-
+trained voyageurs, are known to Congo-land. There was some reason
+for the hurry, and travellers in these regions will do well to
+remember it, or they may starve with abundance around them. The
+kings and chiefs hold it their duty to entertain the outward
+bound; but when cloth, beads, and rum have been exhausted, the
+returning wanderer sits under a tree instead of entering the
+banza, and it is only an exceptional householder who will send
+him a few eggs or plantains. They "cut" you, as a rule, more
+coolly than ever town man cut a continental acquaintance.
+Finally, the self-imposed hardships of the down march break men's
+spirits for further attempts, and their cupidity cannot
+neutralize their natural indolence thus reinforced.
+
+We entered on the next afternoon Gidi Mavunga's village, where
+the lieges received him with shouts and hand-clappings: at the
+Papagayo's there was a dance which lasted through that night and
+the next. I stayed three days at Chinguvu finishing my sketches,
+but to have recovered anything from the guide would have required
+three weeks. The old villain relaxed his vigilance over the
+women, who for the first time were allowed to enter the doors
+without supervision: Merolla treats of this stale trick, and
+exclaims,--
+
+          "Ah pereat! didicit fallere si qua virum."
+
+I was reminded of the classical sentiment upon the Rio de S.
+Francisco ("Highlands of the Brazil," ii. chap, xiv.), where,
+amongst other sentiments, the boatmen severely denounce in song
+
+          "Mulher que engana tropeiro."
+
+As a rule throughout West Africa, where even the wildest tribes
+practise it, the "panel dodge" served, as Dupuis remarked, to
+supply the slave-trade, and in places like Abeokuta it became a
+nuisance: the least penalty to which it leads is the confiscation
+of the Lothario's goods and chattels. Foiled in his benevolent
+attempt, the covetous senior presently entered the hut, and began
+unceremoniously to open a package of cloth which did not belong
+to him. Selim cocked his revolver, and placed it handy, so the
+goods were afterwards respected.
+
+At length, on Sept. 19, a piece of cloth (=48 yards) procured a
+canoe. But calico and beads are not removed from an African
+settlement without disturbance: my factotum has given a detailed
+account of the scene.[FN#35] Gidi Mavunga so managed that the
+porters, instead of proceeding straight to the stream, marched
+upon Banza Nokki where his royal son was awaiting us. Worse
+still, Nessudikira's royal mother was there, a large old virago,
+who smoked like a steam-engine and who "swore awful." The
+moleques were armed, but none liked proceeding to extremes; so,
+after an unusually loud quarrel, we reached the river in three
+hours, and at 9.45 A.M. we set out for Boma.
+
+The down voyage was charming. Instead of hugging the southern
+bank, we raced at a swinging pace down mid-stream. A few showers
+had wonderfully improved the aspect of the land, where
+
+          "Every tree well from his fellow grew
+           With branches broad, laden with leaves new,
+           That springen out against the sunny sheen,
+           Some very red and some a glad light green;"
+
+and the first breath of spring gave life to the queer
+antediluvian vegetation--calabash and cactus, palmyra, bombax,
+and fern. An admirable mirage lifted the canoes which preceded us
+clean out of the river, and looking down stream the water seemed
+to flow up hill, as it does, according to Mrs.---, in the
+aqueducts of Madeira. Although the tide began to flow up shortly
+after 10 A.M., and the sea-breeze wafe unusually strong, we
+covered the forty-five miles in 7 hrs. 15 m. Amidst shouts of
+"Izakula Mundeh,"--white men cum agen!--we landed at Boma, and
+found that the hospitable Sr. Pereira had waited dinner, to which
+I applied myself most "wishedly."
+
+Once more in civilization, we prepared for a march upon S.
+Salvador.
+
+No white man at Boma knew anything of the road to the old
+Capital; but, as a letter had been received from it after three
+days' march, there was evidently no difficulty. I wrote to Porto
+da Lenha for an extra supply of "black money," which was
+punctually forwarded; both Chico Furano and Nihama Chamvu
+volunteered for the journey, and preparations were progressing as
+rapidly as could be expected in these slow-moving lands, when
+they were brought to the abruptest conclusion. On the 24th Sept.
+a letter from the Commodore of the station informed me that I had
+been appointed H. M.'s Commissioner to Dahome, and that, unless I
+could at once sail in H.M.S. "Griffon," no other opportunity
+would be found for some time. The only step left was to apply for
+a canoe, and, after a kindly farewell to my excellent host, I
+left Boma on the evening of Sept. 25.
+
+With a view of "doing" the mosquitoes, we ran down the Nshibul or
+central arm of the Nzadi, and found none of the whirlpools
+mentioned by the "Expedition" near Fetish Rock. The bright clear
+night showed us silhouettes of dark holms, high and wooded to the
+north, and southwards banks of papyrus outlying long straggling
+lines of thin islands like a huge caterpillar. The canoe-men
+attempted to land at one place, declaring that some king wanted
+"dash," but we were now too strong for them: these fellows, if
+allowed, will halt to speak every boat on the river. The wind
+fell to a dead calm, and five hours and a half sufficed to cover
+the thirty miles between Boma and Porto da Lenha. Here Mr. Scott
+supplied me with a fine canoe and a fresh crew of seven paddles.
+
+The noon was grey and still as we left the Whydah of the south,
+but at 2 P.M. the sea-breeze came up stiff and sudden, the tide
+also began to flow; the river roared; the meeting of wind and
+water produced what the Indus boatmen call a "lahar" (tide rip),
+and the Thalweg became almost as rough as the Yellala. Our canoe
+was literally
+
+          "Laying her whole side on the sea,
+           As a leaping fish does."
+
+Unwilling to risk swamping my instruments, I put into the
+northern bank, where our friend, the palhabote Espérance, passed
+under a tricolour, and manned only by Laptots. As we waved a
+signal to them, they replied with a straggling fire of musketry
+to what they considered a treacherous move on the part of
+plundering Musurungus. At sunset a lump of scirrhus before the
+sun was so dense that its dark shadow formed a brush like the
+trabes of a comet. This soon melted away, and a beautifully
+diaphanous night tempted us to move towards the dreary funnel of
+darkness which opened ahead. The clouds began to pour; again the
+stream became rough, and the swift upper or surface current
+meeting the cross-tide below represented an agitated "Race of
+Portland." Wet and weary we reached Banana Point on Sunday, Sept.
+27, 1863, fortunately not too "late for the mail," and, next day,
+I was on board "Griffon," ready for Dahome and for my late host
+King Gelele.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XVI.
+
+       The Slaver and the Missionary in the Congo River.
+
+
+
+In the preceding pages some details have been given concerning
+domestic slavery upon the Congo River. Like polygamy, the system
+of barbarous and semi-barbarous races, it must be held
+provisional, but in neither case can we see any chance of present
+end. Should the Moslem wave of conquest, in a moral as well as a
+material form, sweep--and I am persuaded that it will sweep--from
+North Africa across the equator, the effect will be only to
+establish both these "patriarchal institutions" upon a stronger
+and a more rational basis.
+
+All who believe in "progress" are socially anti-slavers, as we
+all are politically Republicans. But between the two extremes,
+between despotism, in which society is regimented like an army,
+and liberty, where all men are theoretically free and equal,
+there are infinite shades of solid rule and government which the
+wisdom of nations adapts to their wants. The medium of
+constitutional monarchy or hereditary presidentship recommends
+itself under existing circumstances to the more advanced peoples,
+and with good reason; we nowhere find a prevalence of those manly
+virtues, disinterestedness and self-sacrifice to the
+"respublica," which rendered the endurance of ancient republics
+possible. Rome could hardly have ruled the world for centuries
+had her merchants supplied Carthage with improved triremes or
+furnished the Parthians with the latest style of weapons. We must
+be wise and virtuous before we can hope to be good republicans,
+and man in the mass is not yet "homo sapiens;" he is not wise,
+and certainly he is not virtuous.
+
+The present state of Africa suggests two questions concerning the
+abolition of the export slave-trade, which must be kept
+essentially distinct from domestic servitude. The first is, "Does
+the change benefit the negro?" Into this extensive subject I do
+not propose to enter, contenting myself with recording a negative
+answer. But upon the second, "Is the world ready for its
+abolition?" I would offer a few remarks. They will be ungrateful
+to that small but active faction which has laboured so long and
+so hard to misinform the English public concerning Africa, and
+which is as little fitted to teach anything about the African as
+to legislate for Mongolian Tartary. It has prevailed for a time
+to the great injury of the cause, and we cannot but see its
+effects in almost every step taken by the Englishman, civilian or
+soldier, who lands his British opinions and prejudices on the
+West Coast, and who, utterly ignoring the fact that the African,
+as far as his small interests are concerned, is one of the
+clearest sighted of men, unhesitatingly puts forth addresses and
+proclamations which he would not think of submitting to
+Europeans. But I have faith in my countrymen. If there be any
+nation that deserves to be looked upon as the arbiter of public
+opinion in Europe, it is England proper, which, to the political
+education of many generations, adds an innate sense of
+moderation, of justice, and of fair play, and a suspicion of
+extreme measures however theoretically perfect, which do not
+exist elsewhere. Heinrich Heine expressed this idea after his
+Maccabean fashion, "Ask the stupidest Englishman a question of
+politics, and he will say something clever; ask the cleverest
+Englishman a question of religion and he will say something
+stupid." Hence the well-wishers of England can feel nothing but
+regret when they find her clear and cold light of reason
+obscured, as it has been, upon the negro question by the mists
+and clouds of sentimental passion, and their first desire is to
+see this weakness pass away.
+
+
+I unhesitatingly assert--and all unprejudiced travellers will
+agree with me--that the world still wants the black hand.
+Enormous tropical regions yet await the clearing and the draining
+operations by the lower races, which will fit them to become the
+dwelling-place of civilized man.
+
+But slave-exportation is practically dead; we would not revive
+it, nor indeed could we, the revival would be a new institution,
+completely in disaccord with the spirit of the age. It is for us
+to find something which shall take its place, and which shall
+satisfy the just aspirations of those who see their industry and
+energy neutralized by want of labour. I need hardly say that all
+requirements would be met by negro-emigration; and that not only
+Africa, but the world of the east as well as of the west, call
+for some measure of the kind. The "cooly" from Hindostan may in
+time become a valuable article, but it will be long before he can
+be induced to emigrate in sufficient numbers: the Chinese will be
+a mistake when the neglected resources of the mighty "Central
+Empire," mineral and others, shall be ready to be developed, as
+they soon must, under the supervision of Europeans. It remains
+only for us to draw upon the great labour-bank of Negro-land.
+
+A bonâ fide emigration, a free engagé system, would be a boon to
+Western and Inner Africa, where the tribes live in an almost
+continual state of petty warfare. The anti-slavers and the
+abolitionists, of course, represent this to be the effect of the
+European trade in man's flesh and blood; but it prevails, and has
+ever prevailed, and long will prevail, even amongst peoples which
+have never sent a head of negro to the coast. And there is a
+large class of men captured in battle, and a host of those
+condemned to death by savage superstition, whose lives can be
+saved only by their exportation, which, indeed, is the African
+form of transportation. "We believe," says the Abbé Proyart
+(1776), "that the father sells his son and the prince his
+subjects; he only who has lived among them can know that it is
+not even lawful for a man to sell his slave, if he be born in the
+country, unless he have incurred that penalty by certain crimes
+specified by law."
+
+It will be objected that any scheme of the kind must be so
+involved in complicated difficulties that it cannot fail to
+degenerate into the old export slave-trade. This I deny.
+Admitting that such must at first be its tendency, I am persuaded
+that the details can so be controlled as to secure the use
+without the abuse. Women and children, for instance, should never
+be allowed on board ship, unless accompanying husbands and
+parents. Those who speak some words of a foreign tongue, English,
+French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and on the eastern coast
+Hindostani, might lead the way, to be followed in due time by the
+wilder races. Probably the best ground for the trial would be the
+Island of Zanzibar, where we can completely control its
+operations. And what should lend us patience and courage to meet
+and to beat down all difficulties is the consideration that
+success will be the sole possible means, independent of El Islam,
+of civilizing, or rather of humanizing, the Dark Continent. The
+excellent Abbé Proyart begins his "History of Loango" with the
+wise and memorable words: "Touching the Africans, these people
+have vices,--what people is exempt from vice? But, were they even
+more wicked and more vicious, they would be so much the more
+entitled to the commiseration and good offices of their fellow-
+men, and, should the missionary despair of making them
+Christians, men ought still to endeavour to make them men."
+
+The "Free Emigration" schemes hitherto attempted have been mere
+snares and delusions; chiefly, I hold, because the age was not
+ripe for them. In 1844 three agencies were established at Sierra
+Leone for supplying hands to British Guiana, Trinidad and
+Jamaica. As wages they offered per diem $0.75 to $1, with leave
+to return at pleasure; the "liberated" preferred, however, to
+live upon sixpence at home, suspecting that the bait was intended
+as a lure to captivity. Nor were their fears lulled by the fact
+that the agents shipped amongst 250 "volunteers" some seventy-six
+wild slaves, fresh captives, who were not allowed to communicate
+with their fellow-countrymen ashore. In 1850 certain
+correspondents from Liverpool inquired of King "Eyo Honesty" if
+he could provide for service in the West Indies 10,000 men,
+women, and children, as the "quotum from the Old Calabar River,"
+which would mean 100,000 from the West Coast. "He be all same ole
+slave-trade," very justly remarked that knowing potentate: he
+added, that he would respect the Suppression Treaty with England,
+and that he personally preferred palm-oil, but that all the
+"Calabar gentlemen" and the neighbouring kings would be glad to
+supply slaves at a fixed price, four boxes of brass and copper
+rods.
+
+Followed, in 1852-3, the gigantic scheme of MM. Régis et Cie,
+which began operations upon the East as well as the West Coast of
+Africa. Having studied it on both sides of the continent, I could
+not help forming the worst opinion of the attempt. The agents
+never spoke of it except as a slave- trade; the facetiæ touching
+"achat" and "rachat" were highly suited to African taste, and I
+have often heard them declare before the people that "captives"
+are the only articles which can profitably be exported from the
+coasts--in fact, as old Caspar Barlé said, "precipuæ merces ipsi
+Ethiopes sunt." I subjoin to this chapter the form of French
+passport; it will serve, when a bonâ fide emigration shall be
+attempted, to show "how not to do it." Happily this "emigration"
+has come to an end": M. Régis, seeing no results, gave orders to
+sell off all the goods in his factories, and to retain only one
+clerk as housekeeper. The ouvriers libres deserted and fled in
+all directions, for fear of being "put in a cannibal pot" and
+being eaten by the white anthropophagi.
+
+The history of missionary enterprise in the Congo regions is not
+less interesting than the slave-trade. The first missioners
+sailed in December, 1490, under Goncalo de Sousa; of the three
+one were killed by the heat, and another having made himself
+"Chaplain to the Congolan Army," by a "Giaghi" chief. The seed
+sown by these friars was cultivated by twelve Franciscans of the
+Order of Observants. The Right Reverend Fathers of the Company
+appeared in 1560 with the Conquistador Paulo Dias de Novaes.
+According to Lopez de Lima, who seems to endorse the saying, "Si
+cum Jesuitis, non cum Jesu itis," they worried one captain-
+general to death, and they attempted to found in Congo-land
+another Uruguay or Paraguay. But here they totally failed, and,
+as yet indeed, they have not carried out, either in East or West
+Africa, the celebrated boast popularly attributed to their
+general, Borgia (1572):
+
+          "We shall come in like the lambs;
+           We shall be driven out like the dogs,
+           We shall rush like the wolves;
+           We shall be icnewed like the eagles."
+
+The baptism of D. Alvaro I. (1491), the founding of the cathedral
+at S. Salvador (1534), the appointment of the Bishop and Chapter,
+and their transfer to São Paulo de Loanda (1627), have already
+been alluded to.
+
+According to Fathers Carli and Merolla, Pope Alexander VII. sent
+twelve to fifteen Capuchins and apostolic missioners, who
+baptized the King and Queen of Congo and the Count of Sonho.
+Between A.D. 1490 and 1690 were the palmy days of Christianity in
+Congo-land, and for two centuries it was more or less the state
+religion. After this great effort missionary zeal seems to have
+waxed cold, and disestablishment resulted, as happens in such
+cases, from unbelief within and violent assaults from without.
+Under the attacks of the Dutch and French the Church seems to
+have lost ground during the eighteenth century. In A.D. 1682 the
+number of propagandists in Sonho fell from a father superior and
+six missioners to two (Merolla). In A.D. 1700 James Barbot found
+at Sonho only two Portuguese friars of the Order of Bernardins.
+In A.D. 1768 the Loango Mission was established, and in A.D. 1777
+the fathers were followed by four Italian priests sent by the
+Propaganda for the purpose of re-christianizing Sonho. Embarking
+at La Rochelle they entered the Nzadi, where one died of poison,
+and the survivors escaped only by stratagem. Christianity fell
+before the old heathenism, and in 1814 we find the King of Congo,
+D. Garcia V., complaining to His Most Faithful Majesty that
+missioners were sadly wanted. Captain Tuckey's "Expedition" (A.D.
+1816) well sets forth the spiritual destitution of the land. He
+tells us that three years before his arrival some missionaries
+had been murdered by the Sohnese; the only specimen he met was an
+ignorant half-caste with a diploma from the Capuchins of Loanda,
+and a wife plus five concubines. In 1863 I found that all traces
+of Christianity had disappeared.
+
+These reverends--who were allowed to dispense with any
+"irregularity" except bigamy or wilful murder, and "to read
+forbidden books except Machiavel,"--took the title of Nganga
+Mfumo[FN#35]--Lord Medicine-man. In the fulness of early zeal
+they built at S. Salvador the cathedral of Santa Cruz, a Jesuit
+College, a Capuchin convent, the residence of the father
+superior, maintained by the King of Portugal; a religious house
+for the Franciscans, an establishment for the Bishop and his
+Chapter, and half-a-dozen stone churches. All these edifices have
+long been in ruins.
+
+Father Cavazzi da Monte Cuccoli, Denis de Carli, and Merolla,
+themselves missioners, have left us ample accounts of the
+ecclesiastical rule which, during its short tenure of office,
+bore a remarkable family resemblance to that of the Jesuit
+missions in South America. The religious despotism was complete,
+a tyranny grossly aggravated by the credulity, the bigotry, and
+the superstition,--I will not say of the age, because such things
+are of all ages, but of the imperfect education which the age
+afforded. There was no improvement, but rather a deterioration
+from the days of Pliny. One father tells the converts that comets
+forbode ill to the world. Another describes a bird not much
+unlike a sparrow, at first sight it seems wholly black, but upon
+a nearer view it looks blue; the excellency of its song is that
+it harmoniously and articulately pronounces the name of Jesus
+Christ. A third remarks, "they (the heathen) are excited by the
+heavens forming a cross under the zone; they are excited by the
+mountains which have the cross carved on them, without knowing by
+whom; they are excited by the earth which draws the crucifix in
+its fruit called Nicefo." Yet all these things are of little
+force to move the hearts of those Gentiles who scoffingly cry,
+"When we are sick, forsooth, the wood of this cross will cure
+us!" Another father, resolving to denounce certain heathen
+practices, placed on the Feast of Purification an image of the
+Virgin in relievo upon the altar, and "with a dagger struck
+through her breast on which the blood followed:" like Mark
+Antony, he "improved the occasion," and sent home the fathers of
+families to thrash their wives and daughters who were shut up in
+the "paint houses." It is gravely related how a hungry friar
+dines copiously on fish with an angel; how another was saved by
+the "father of miracles, the glorious Saint Anthony of Padua,"
+whom another priest, taking as his patron, sees before his
+hammock. A woman, bearing a child in her arms and supposed to be
+the Virgin, attends the Portuguese army, and she again appears in
+the shape of a "beautiful beggar." The miraculous resurrection of
+a boiled cock is gravely chronicled. A certain man lived 380
+years "at the intercession of Saint Francis d'Assise." Of course,
+the missioners saw water-monsters in the Congo River. A child
+"came from his mother's womb with a beard and all his teeth,
+perhaps to show he was born into the world grown old in vice." A
+certain scoffer "being one day to pass a river with two
+companions, was visibly taken up by an invisible hand into the
+air. One of his companions, going to take hold of him by the
+feet, had such a cuff given him that he fell down in the boat,
+and the offender was seen no more." Father Merolla talks of a
+breed in the Cabo Verde Islands "between bulls and she-asses,
+which they compassed by binding a cow's hide upon the latter:" it
+would be worth inquiring if this was ever attempted, and it might
+add to our traditions about the "Jumart." And the tale of the
+elephant-hunters deceiving the animals by anointing themselves
+with their droppings deserves investigation. Wounds of poisoned
+arrows are healed by that which produced them. A woman's milk
+cures the venomous foam which cobras spit into the eyes. A snake
+as big as a beam kills and consumes men with its look. An "ill
+liver," reprimanded by his father for vicious inclinations, fires
+a pistol at him; the rebound of the bullet from the paternal
+forehead, which remains whole, severely wounds the would-be
+parricide: the ablest surgeons cannot heal the hurt, and the
+flesh ever continues to be sore and raw upon the forehead, acting
+like the brand of Cain.
+
+It is said that two of a trade never agree, and accordingly we
+find the hottest wrath of the missioners vented upon their rival
+brethren, the Ngangas or medicine-men in Africa, and the Pages or
+Tupi doctors in South America. The priestly presence deprives an
+idol of all its powers, the sacerdotal power annihilates all
+charms and devices, "thereby showing that the performances of
+Christ's ministers are always above those of the devil's." These
+"Scinghili," or "Gods of the Earth" (magicians), can sink boats,
+be ferried over rivers by crocodiles, and "converse with tigers,
+serpents, lions and other wild animals." The "great ugly wizards"
+are "sent martyrs to the devil" on all possible occasions. One
+father soundly belabours one of these "wicked Magi" with the cord
+of his order, invoking all the while the aid of Saint Michael and
+the rest of the saints: he enters the "hellish tabernacle, arming
+himself frequently with the sign of the cross," but he retreats
+for fear of a mischief from the "poor deluded pagans,"--showing
+that he is, after all, but an "unbelieving Thomas." On the other
+hand, the wizards solidly revenged themselves by killing and
+eating Father Philip da Salesia. And the deluded ones must have
+found some difficulty in discovering the superiority of exotic
+over indigenous superstitions. When there is a calm at sea the
+sailors stick their patron against the mast, and kneeling before
+him say, "Saint Antony, our countryman, you shall be pleased to
+stand there, till you have given us a fair wind to continue our
+voyage!" A certain bishop of Congo makes the sign of the cross
+upon a "banyan-tree," whereupon it immediately died, like the
+fig-tree cursed by our-Saviour. A ship is "sunk in a trice" for
+not having a chaplain on board her. The missioners strongly
+recommend medals, relics, Agni-Dei, and palm-leaves consecrated
+on Palm Sundays. They rage furiously against and they flog those
+who wear "wizards' mats," against magic cords fastened round
+young children as amulets, and against the teeth and bones of
+animals, and cloth made from the rind of certain trees carried as
+preservatives from disease and supernatural influences: even
+banners in burial-places are "superstitious and blamable." They
+claim the power of stopping rain by cursing the air, and of
+producing it by prayer, and by "a devout procession to Our Lady
+of Pinda," a belief truly worthy of the Nganga; and a fast ship
+is stranded that "men may learn to honour holidays better." When
+the magicians swear falsely they either burst like Judas or
+languish and die--"a warning to be more cautious how they jest
+with God." An old hag, grumbling after a brutish manner, proceeds
+to bewitch a good father to death by digging a hole and planting
+a certain herb. The ecclesiastic resolved to defeat her object by
+not standing long in one place. He remembers the saying of the
+wise man, "Mulier nequam plaga mortis;" and at last by ordering
+her off in the name of the Blessed Trinity and the Holy Virgin,
+"withal gently blowing towards her," she all of a sudden giving
+three leaps, and howling thrice, flies away in a trice. The
+Bolungo or Chilumbo oath or ordeal is, of course, a "hellish
+ceremony." Demons play as active a part in Africa as in China.
+The Portuguese nuncio permits the people in their simplicity to
+light candles before and to worship the so-called "Bull of the
+Blessed Sacrament," that by which Urban VIII. allowed the Congo
+kings to be crowned after the Catholic manner by the Capuchins,
+because the paper bears the "venerable effigies."
+
+Priests may be good servants, but they are, mundanely speaking,
+bad masters. The ecclesiastical tyranny exercised upon the people
+from the highest to the lowest goes far to account for the
+extinction of Christianity in the country where so much was done
+to spread it. The kings of Congoland, who "tread on the lion in
+the kingdom of their mothers" must abjectly address their
+spiritual lords. "I conjure you, prostrate at your holy feet, to
+hearken to my words." Whilst the friars talk of "that meekness
+which becomes a missioner," their unwise and unwarrantable
+interference extends to the Count of Sonho himself; whose
+election was not valid unless published in the church, owning
+withal that, "though a Black, he is an absolute Prince; and not
+unworthy of a Crown, though he were even in Italy, considering
+the number of his Servants and the extent of his Dominions." They
+issue eight ordinances or "spiritual memorandums" degrading
+governors of cities and provinces who are not properly married,
+who neglect mass, or who do not keep saints' festivals. Flogging
+seems to have been the punishment of all infractions of
+discipline, for those who used "magic guards" to their fields
+instead of "setting the sign of the Cross;" and for all who did
+not teach their children "to repeat, so many times a day, the
+Rosary or the Crown, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, to fast on
+Saturdays, to eat no flesh on Wednesdays, and such things used
+among Christians." One of the Mwanis (governors) refuses to grub
+up and level with his own hands a certain grove where the
+"hellish trade" (magic) was practised; he is commanded to
+discipline himself in the church during the whole time of
+celebrating mass. If the governor is negligent in warning the
+people that a missioner has arrived, "he will receive a deserved
+punishment, for we make it our business to get such a person
+removed from his employment, even within his year,"--a system of
+temporal penalties affixed to spiritual lâches not unknown
+elsewhere. The following anecdote will show the style of reproof.
+Father Benedict da Belvedere, a Neapolitan who had preached at
+Rome and was likewise confessor to the nuns, heard the chief
+elector, one of the principal nobles, asking the heretical
+question, "Are we not all to be saved by baptism?" A "sound box
+on the ear" was the reply, and it led to a tumult. The head of
+the mission sent for the offended dignitary, and offered him
+absolution if he would sincerely recant his words and beg pardon
+of the churchman militant. The answer was, "That would be
+pleasant indeed; he was the aggressor, yet I must make the
+excuse! Must I receive a blow, and, notwithstanding, be thought
+to have done wrong?" But the peace-maker explained that the blow
+was given not to offend, but to defend from hearkening to
+heresies; that it was administered, moreover, out of paternal
+affection by a spiritual father, whom it did not mis-become, to a
+son who was not dishonoured by receiving it. The unfortunate
+elector not only suffered in the ear, but was also obliged to
+make an abject apology, and to kiss the offender's feet before he
+was re-admitted to communion. At Maopongo the priests lost favour
+with the court and the women by whipping the queen, and, by the
+same process they abated the superhuman pretensions of the
+blacksmith.
+
+When the chiefs and princes were so treated, what could the
+subjects expect? The smallest ecclesiastical faults were punished
+with fining and a Talmudic flogging, and for disobedience, a man
+was sent "bound to Brazil, a thing they are more than ordinarily
+afraid of." A man taking to wife, after the Mosaic law, a woman
+left in widow-hood by his kinsman, is severely scourged, and the
+same happens to a man who marries his cousin, besides being
+deprived of a profitable employment. Every city and town in Sonho
+had a square with a central cross, where those who had not
+satisfied the Easter command or who died unconfessed were buried
+without privilege of clergy. The missioners insist upon their
+privilege of travelling free of expense, and make a barefaced use
+of the corvée. The following is the tone of a mild address to the
+laity: "Some among you are like your own maccacos or monkeys
+amongst us who, keeping possession of anything they have stolen,
+will sooner suffer themselves to be taken and killed, than to let
+go their prey. So impure swine wallow in their filth and care not
+to be cleansed."
+
+A perpetual source of trouble was of course the slave-trade:
+negroes being the staple of the land, and ivory the other and
+minor item, the great profits could not fail to render it the
+subject of contention. The reasons why the Portuguese never
+succeeded in making themselves masters of Sonho are reduced by
+the missioner annalists to three. Firstly, the opposition of the
+people caused by fear; secondly, the objections of the Sonhese to
+buying arms and ammunition; and, thirdly, the small price paid by
+the Portuguese for "captives." The "Most Reverend Cardinal Cibo,"
+writing in the name of the Sacred College, complained that the
+"pernicious and abominable abuse of slave-selling" was carried on
+under the eyes of the missioners, and peremptorily ordered them
+to remedy the evil. Finding this practically impossible, the holy
+men salved their consciences by ordering their flocks not to
+supply negroes to the heretical Hollanders and English, "whose
+religion is so very contrary to ours," but to the Portuguese, who
+would "withdraw the poor souls out of the power of Lucifer." One
+father goes so far, in his fear of heretical influences, as to
+remunerate by the gift of a slave the dealer Ferdinando Gomez,
+who had supplied him with "a flask of wine for the sacrament and
+some other small things," yet he owns F. Gomez to be a rogue.
+
+As the Portuguese would not pay high prices like the heretics,
+disturbances resulted, and these were put down by the desperate
+expedient of shutting the church-doors--a suicidal act not yet
+quite obsolete. Whereupon the Count of Sonho, we are told,
+"changed his countenance almost from black to yellow," and
+complained to the bishop at Loanda that the sacraments were not
+administered: the appeal was in vain, and, worse, an extra aid
+was sent to the truculent churchmen. Happily for them, the small-
+pox broke out, and the ruler was persuaded by his subjects to do
+the required penance. Appearing at the convent, unattended, with
+a large rope round his neck, clad in sackcloth, crowned with
+thorns, unshod, and carrying a crucifix, he knelt down and kissed
+the feet of the priest, who said to him, "If thou hast sinned
+like David, imitate him likewise in thy repentance!"
+
+The schismatics caused abundant trouble Captain Cornelius Clas
+"went about sowing heretical tares amidst the true corn of the
+Gospel;" amongst other damnable doctrines and subtleties, this
+nautical and volunteer theologian persuaded the blacks, whom he
+knew to be desirous of greater liberty in such matters, that
+baptism is the only sacrament necessary to salvation, because it
+takes away original sin, as the blood of the Saviour actual sin.
+He furthermore (impudently) disowned the real presence in the
+consecrated Host; he invoked Saint Anthony, although his tribe
+generally denies that praying to saints can be of any use to man;
+and he declared that priests should preach certain doctrines
+(which, by the way, were perniciously heretical). Thus in a
+single hour he so prevailed upon those miserable negroes that
+their hearts became quite as black as their faces. An especially
+offensive practice of the Hollanders, in the eyes of the good
+shepherds, was that of asking the feminine sheep for a whiff of
+tobacco--it being a country custom to consider the taking a pipe
+from a woman's mouth a "probable earnest of future favours." When
+an English ship entered the river, the priests forbade by
+manifesto the sale of slaves to the captain, he being a Briton,
+ergò a heretic, despite the Duke of York. The Count of Sonho
+disobeyed, and was excommunicated accordingly: he took his
+punishment with much patience, although upon occasions of reproof
+he would fly into passions and disdains; he was reconciled only
+after obliging 400 couples that lived in concubinage to lawful
+wedlock, and thus a number of "strayed souls was reduced to
+matrimony."
+
+We can hardly wonder that, under such discipline, a large
+ecclesiastical body was necessary to "maintain the country in its
+due obedience to the Christian faith," and that, despite their
+charity in alms and their learning, no permanent footing was
+possible for the strangers. Nor can we be astonished that the
+good fathers so frequently complain of being poisoned. On one
+occasion a batch of six was thus treated near Bamba. In this
+matter perhaps they were somewhat fanciful, as the white man in
+India is disposed to be. One of them, for instance cured himself
+with a "fruit called a lemon" and an elk-hoof, from what he took
+to be poison, but what was possibly the effect of too much pease
+and pullet broth. In "O Muata Cazembe "(pp. 65-66), we find that
+the Asiatic Portuguese attach great value to the hoof of the
+Nhumbo (A. gnu), they call it "unha de grãbesta," and use it even
+in the gotta-coral (epilepsy).
+
+And yet many of these ecclesiastics, whom Lopez de Lima justly
+terms "fabulistas," were industrious and sensible men, where
+religion was not concerned. They carefully studied the country,
+its "situation, possessions, habitations, and clothing." They
+formed always outside their faith the justest estimate of their
+black fellow-creatures. I cannot too often repeat Father
+Merolla's dictum, "The reader may perceive that the negroes are
+both a malicious and subtle people that spend the most part of
+their time in circumventing and deceiving."
+
+Nor has spiritual despotism been confined to the Catholic
+missions in West Africa: certain John Knoxes in the Old Calabar
+River have repeated, especially in the case of the king "young
+Eyo," whom they excluded from communion, all the abuses and the
+errors of judgment of the seventeenth century with the
+modifications of the nineteenth. And we must not readily endorse
+Dr. Livingstone's professional opinion. "In view of the desolate
+condition of this fine missionary field, it is more than probable
+that the presence of a few Protestants would soon provoke the
+priests, if not to love, to good works." Such is not the history
+of our propagandism about the Cape of Good Hope. Dr. Gustav
+Fritsch ("The Natives of South Africa," 1872), thus speaks of the
+missionary Livingstone, who must not be confounded with the great
+explorer Livingstone: "A man who is borne onward by religious
+enthusiasm and a glowing ambition, without our being able to say
+which of these two levers works more powerfully in his soul.
+Certain it is that he endured more labours and overcame more
+geographical difficulties than any other African traveller either
+before or after him; yet it is also sure that, on account of the
+defective natural-historical education of the author, and the
+indiscreet partisanship for the natives against the settlers, his
+works have spread many false views concerning South Africa."
+This, I doubt not, will be the verdict of posterity. See
+"Anthropologia," in which are included the Proceedings of the
+London Anthropological Society (inaugurated 22 January, 1873. No.
+1, October, 1873. London: Baillière, Tindall, and Co.) The Review
+(pp. 89-102), bears the well-known initials J. B. D., and it is
+not saying too much that no man in England is so well fitted as
+Dr. Davis to write it. I quote these passages without any feeling
+of disrespect for the memory of the great African explorer. Truth
+is a higher duty even than generous appreciation of a heroic
+name, and the time will come when Negrophilism must succumb to
+Fact.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XVII.
+
+                      Concluding Remarks.
+
+
+
+I have thus attempted to trace a picture of the Congo River in
+the latter days of the slave-trade, and of its lineal descendant,
+"L'Immigration Africaine." The people at large are satisfied, and
+the main supporters of the traffic--the chiefs, the "medicine-
+men," and the white traders--have at length been powerless to
+arrest its destruction.
+
+And here we may quote certain words of wisdom from the "Congo
+Expedition" in 1816: "It is not to be expected that the effects
+of abolition will be immediately perceptible; on the contrary, it
+will probably require more than one generation to become
+apparent: for effects, which have been the consequence of a
+practice of three centuries, will certainly continue long after
+the cause is removed." The allusion in the sentence which I have
+italicized, is of course, to the American exportation--domestic
+slavery must date from the earliest ages. These sensible remarks
+conclude with advocating "colonization in the cause of
+civilization;" a process which at present cannot be too strongly
+deprecated.
+
+That the Nzadi is capable of supplying something better than
+slaves may be shown by a list of what its banks produce. Merolla
+says in 1682: "Cotton here is to be gathered in great abundance,
+and the shrubs it grows on are so prolific, that they never
+almost leave sprouting." Captain Tuckey ("Narrative," p. 120)
+declares "the only vegetable production at Boma of any
+consequence in commerce is cotton, which grows wild most
+luxuriantly, but the natives have ceased to gather it since the
+English have left off trading to the river," I will not advocate
+tobacco, cotton and sugar; they are indigenous, it is true, but
+their cultivation is hardly fitted to the African in Africa.
+Copper in small quantities has been brought from the interior,
+but the mineral resources of the wide inland regions are wholly
+unknown. If reports concerning mines on the plateau be
+trustworthy, there will be a rush of white hands, which must at
+once change, and radically change, all the conditions of the
+riverine country. Wax might be supplied in large quantities; the
+natives, however, have not yet learnt to hive their bees. Ivory
+was so despised by the slave-trade, that it was sent from the
+upper Congo to Mayumba and the other exporting harbours; demand
+would certainly produce a small but regular supply.
+
+The two staples of commerce are now represented by palm-oil,
+which can be produced in quantities over the lowlands upon the
+whole river delta, and along the banks from the mouth to Boma, a
+distance of at least fifty direct miles. The second, and the more
+important, is the arachis, or ground-nut, which flourishes
+throughout the highlands of the interior, and which, at the time
+of my visit, was beginning to pay. As the experience of some
+thirty years on different parts of the West Coast has proved,
+both these articles are highly adapted to the peculiarities of
+the negro cultivator; they require little labour, and they
+command a ready, a regular, and a constant sale.
+
+When time shall be ripe for a bonâ fide emigration, the position
+of Boma, at the head of the delta, a charming station, with
+healthy air and delicious climate, points it out as the head-
+quarters. Houses can be built for nominal sums, the neighbouring
+hills offer a sanatorium, and due attention to diet and clothing
+will secure the white man from the inevitable sufferings that
+result from living near the lower course.
+
+With respect to the exploration of the upper stream, these pages,
+compared with the records of the "First Congo Expedition," will
+show the many changes which time has brought with it, and will
+suggest the steps most likely to forward the traveller's views.
+At some period to come explorers will follow the line chosen by
+the unfortunate Tuckey; but the effects of the slave-trade must
+have passed away before that march can be made without much
+obstruction. When Lieutenant Grandy did me the honour of asking
+my advice, I suggested that he might avoid great delay and
+excessive outlay by "turning" the obstacle and by engaging
+"Cabindas" instead of Sierra Leone men. At the Royal Geographical
+Society (Dec. 14th, 1874) he thus recorded his decision: "For the
+guidance of future travellers in the Congo country, I would
+suggest that all the carriers be engaged at Sierra Leone, where
+any number can be obtained for 1s. 3d. a day. From my experience
+of them I can safely say they will be found to answer every
+requirement, and the employment of them would render an
+expedition entirely independent of the natives, who, by their
+cowardice and constant desertion, entailed upon us such heavy
+expenses and serious delays. My conviction, after nearly four
+years of travel upon the West African coast, is this: if Sierra
+Leone men be used, they must be mixed with Cabindas and with
+Congoese "carregadores," registered in presence of the Portuguese
+authorities at S. Paulo de Loanda.
+
+I conclude with the hope that the great Nzadi, one of the
+noblest, and still the least known of the four principal African
+arteries, will no longer be permitted to flow through the White
+Blot, a region unexplored and blank to geography as at the time
+of its creation, and that my labours may contribute something,
+however small, to clear the way for the more fortunate explorer.
+
+
+
+
+                                        Appendix
+
+
+                                           I.
+
+                                      METEORLOGICAL
+
+
+
+Instruments used for altitudes:--
+          Pocket aneroid, corrected  +0.55, "R.G.S"
+          Casella's Alpine Sympiesometer, corrected to 67° (F.).
+
+N.B.--    Returning to Fernando Po, found that part of the liquid has lodged in upper
+          bulb, and therefore corrected index error by standard aneroid 1.15 (Symp. =
+          29.258, and standard, 30.400).
+
+Observations at the Congo mouth in February, 1863 (from log of H.M.S. "Griffon").
+
+    Thermometer    Barometer           Winds               Place
+Engine     in sea.                 Force & Direction
+Room.                              A.M.      P.M.
+
+
+86°       76°       29.90     (1)  S.E. (1)  N.N.W.    Loanda.
+92°       77°       29.92     (1)  S.W. (2)  W.N.W.    En route to Congo.
+108°      76°       29.90     (1)  S.   (3)  S.S.W.    En route to Congo.
+86°       78°       29.90     (2)  S.   (3)  W.        En route to Congo.
+88°       78°       29.90     (2)  S.W. (2)  S.S.W.    En route to Congo.
+94°       80°       29.90     (2)  S.E. (2)  S.W.      En route to Congo.
+90°       83°       29.90     (2)  S.   (2-3)S.        Congo.
+90°       80°       29.90     (0)  Calm (1)  W.        Congo.
+
+
+
+(Signed)          F. F. Flynne,
+                     Assistant-Surgeon in Charge.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Place and Date.     Time of Day.   Thermometer.   Symp.               Remarks.
+
+9th September  6 a.m.          65°    28.00 cor. 29.12 Cold morning, light wind from N.N.E.,
+   Banza nokki 9 a.m.          72°    27.70 cor. 28.82   threatened rain, 8 a.m.; noon misty,
+on hills above Noon.           78°    27.90 cor. 29.02   day hazy; 3 p.m., sun hot, wind cooler
+river          3 p.m.          80.5°  27.85 cor. 28.97   from west; evening, stiff sea-breeze,
+               6 p.m.          72°    27.90 cor. 29.02   people complain of cold; night, heavy
+                                                         dew.
+
+10th Sept.     6 a.m.          67°    27.90 cor. 29.02 Misty morning, warm at 9 a.m., wind; noon,
+   Same place, 9 a.m.          75°    27.75 cor. 28.87   hot sun, high sea-breeze; 3 p.m., hot
+Nokki.         Noon.           83°    27.85 cor. 28.97   sun, cool west wind; cloudy evening;
+               3 p.m.          85°    27.75 cor. 28.87   windy night, dew cold and heavy.
+               6 p.m.          74°    27.85 cor. 28.97
+          Altitude of Nokki above sea, 1,430 feet.
+
+11th Sept.     9 a.m.          77°    27.70 cor. 28.82 Misty morning, warm but clouding over;
+   Banza       Noon.           87°    27.55 cor. 28.67   at noon high sea-breeze, glare and hot
+Chingufu       3 p.m.          83°    27.45 cor. 28.57   sun, when clouds break 97° in sun,
+above Nokki;   6 p.m.          73°    27.50 cor. 28.62   2 p.m.; 3 p.m., high sea-breeze up
+see also 18th                                            river; 6 p.m., cold sea-breeze, cloudy
+and 19th Sept.                                           sky.
+          Altitude of Chingufu, 1,703 feet.
+
+          Chingufu
+
+12th Sept.          6 a.m.     65°    27.70 cor. 28.82 Clear fine morning; high west wind
+  First observation      Nekolo.                         at 6 a.m.; pocket aneroid 29.00
+  Chingufu,         9 a.m.     76°    28.50 cor. 29.62 Shady verandah facing to west; at
+others at Nekolo    Noon.      84°    28.35 cor. 29.47   noon aneroid 30.05; 3 p.m., hot
+lower down & near   3 p.m.     85°    28.40 cor. 29.52   sun, westerly breeze, few clouds;
+river.              6 p.m.     77°    28.30 cor. 29.42   6 p.m., very clear, east wind
+                                                         strong; no dew at night.
+
+                         Negolo Nkulu.
+13th Sept.          6 a.m.     70°    28.45 cor. 29.57 Close cloudy morning; 9 a.m.,
+  Negolo and near   9 a.m.     77°    28.50 cor. 29.62 alternately clear and cloudy,
+  Congo River.      Noon.      90°    28.45 cor. 29.57 glare, no wind; noon bright and
+                                                       sultry, no clouds; 3 p.m., in shady
+                                                       cove 10 feet above river; rain at
+                                                       5.30 p.m., lasted two hours;
+                                                       dispersed by westerly breeze.
+                         Cove near river.
+                    3 p.m.     94°    29.10 cor. 30.22
+                         Height of Negolo, 828 feet.
+
+                         Left bank.
+14th Sept           6 a.m.     74°    29.30 cor 30.50  Dull, warm, and cloudy.
+                         Right bank.
+Banza Vivi on       9 a.m.     84°    29.35 cor. 30.57 Aneroid 30.60, dull day.
+  hills above right Noon.      80°    28.95 cor. 30.07 Anerodi 30.10 dull day, very little
+  bank.             3 p.m.     84°    28.35 cor. 29.47   breeze, village shut in, clouds
+                    6 p.m.     79°    28.85 cor. 29.97   from west
+
+                         Banza Vivi.
+15th Sept.          6 a.m.     74°    29.15 cor. 30.25 Thick drizzle from west, no wind.
+                         At Banza Simbo, half way up Vivi range, aneroid 29.42.
+Banza Nkulu         Noon       78°    28.10 cor. 29.22 Under tree facing north; puffs of
+  above rapids.                                          west wind, threatened rain, none
+                                                         came.
+                    6 p.m.     75°    28.10 cor. 29.22 In veranda facing north-east; clear
+                                                         night, heavy dew.
+
+                         Banza Nkulu.
+16th Sept.          6 a.m.     69°    28.20 cor. 29.32 Grass wet, heavy dew, rain
+                                                         threatened, aneroid 29.50.
+                         100 feet above rapids.
+                    7.30 a.m.  73°    29.25 cor. 30.37 Aneroid 30.55.
+Banza Nkulu again   Noon.      80°    28.10 cor. 29.22 Aneroid 29.55, dull, cloudy, rain
+                                                         threatened.
+                    3 p.m.     75°    28.00 cor. 29.12 Dull day, clearer towards evening,
+                    6 p.m.     75°    28.00 cor. 29.12   very heavy dew.
+                         Altitude of Nkulu, 1212 feet.
+                         Altitude of Yellala Rapids, 390 feet.
+
+                         Nkulu.
+17th Sept.          5.30 a.m.  67°    28.15 cor. 29.27 Grey, cool; threatens sunny day.
+                         Right bank of river.
+                    9.20 a.m.  77°    29.30 cor. 30.42 Cool west wind.
+                         In canoe on river below Little Rapids.
+                    10.50 a.m. 81°    20.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.57(59)
+                         Left bank 20 feet above water, under fig-tree facing north.
+                    Noon.      81°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.50.
+  Negolo Town       3 p.m.     83°    28.30 cor. 29.42 Day hot, aneroid in verandah 30.50.
+                         Banza Chingufu.
+                    6 p.m.     71°    27.55 cor. 28.67 Clear evening, misty towards night,
+                                                         young moon with halo.
+                         Height of river below Vivi Fall, 195 feet.
+
+18th Sept.          6 a.m.     65°    27.60 cor. 28.72 Cool, grey, no wind.
+  At Chingufu as    9 a.m.     76°    27.65 cor. 28.77 Strong land wind, from east, no
+  before.                                                sun, heavy clouds N.E.
+                    Noon.      90°    27.50 cor. 28.62 High west wind, hot sun.
+                    3.30 p.m.  88°    27.35 cor. 28.47 Clear at 1 p.m., thermometer 100°
+                                                         little wind, sun hot.
+                    6 p.m.     77°    27.45 cor. 28.57 Clear evening, no dew, misty moon,
+                                                         high sea-breeze at night.
+
+19th Sept.          6 a.m.     67°    27.70 cor. 28.82 Still grey morning, no wind.
+  At Chingufu.      9.30 a.m.  76°    27.65 cor. 28.77 Lighter, wind from west.
+                    Noon.      81°    27.60 cor. 28.72 Dull, light west wind.
+                    3 p.m.     88°    27.45 cor. 28.57 Cloudy and sunny, west wind.
+                    6 p.m.     72°    27.50 cor. 28.62 Clear, fine, little wind.
+                         How do these agree with September 11?
+
+                         Chingufu.
+20th Sept.          6 a.m.     69°    27.70 cor. 28.82 Fine, clear, and still morning.
+                         On river.
+  Down river        9 a.m.     82°    29.35 cor. 30.47 Hot day, aneroid 30.55; at 10 a.m.
+                                                         29.85.
+                         Off Chacha village on river.
+                    Noon.      87°    29.35 cor. 30.47 Sea-breeze, sun hot, but obscured
+                                                         by smoke of bush fires.
+                         On river.
+                    3 p.m.     86°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.40, stiff sea breeze.
+                         Last observation taken about 5 miles above Boma.
+
+21 Sept.            9 a.m.     76°    29.30 cor. 30.42 Cool, cloudy, pleasant.
+  At Boma.          Noon.      81.5°  29.25 cor. 30.37 Dull, threatens rain.
+                    3 p.m.     86°    29.25 cor. 30.37 Dull, muggy, cloudy.
+
+22nd Sept.          6 a.m.     77°    29.10 cor. 30.22 Dull, cloudy, cool; instrument in
+  Boma.                                                  verandah facing south-west.
+                    9 a.m.     76°    20.30 cor. 30.42
+                    Noon.      84°    29.30 cor. 30.42 Dull and warm.
+                    3 p.m.     84°    29.10 cor. 30.22 Very dull, strong sea-breeze comes
+                                                         up in afternoon, and lasts till
+                                                         9 p.m.
+                    6 p.m.     79°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Dull night.
+                         Mean altitude of Boma (commonly called Embomma), 73 feet.
+
+23rd Sept.          6 a.m.     70.5°  29.20 cor. 30.32 Dull morning
+  Boma.             9 a.m.     81.75° 29.25 cor. 30.37 Clear and sunny.
+                    3 p.m.     92°    29.10 cor. 30.22 Clear, hot, and sunny.
+                    6 p.m.     79°    29.15 cor. 30.27 High wind, sun.
+
+24th Sept.          6 a.m.     74°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Cool and clear.
+  Boma.             9 a.m.     81°    29.30 cor. 30.42 Hot and clear.
+                    12.30 p.m. 93.75° 29.10 cor. 30.22 Hot and clear.
+                    3 p.m.     93.57° 29.05 cor. 30.17 Very strong sea-breeze till late at
+                                                         night.
+                    6 p.m.     79.5°  29.15 cor. 30.27 Very strong sea-breeze till late at
+                                                         night.
+
+25th Sept.          6 a.m.     74°   29.20 cor. 30.32  Dull, no sun, rain threatened.
+                    Noon.      81°   29.20 cor. 30.32
+                    3 p.m.     83°   29.19 cor. 30.31  Aneroid 30.15.
+                    6 p.m.     78°   29.10 cor. 30.22  Dull, no sun, wind subsided at
+                                                         night.
+
+                         Porto da Senha at factory.
+26th Sept.          6 a.m.     78°    29.25 cor. 30.37 Aneroid 30.62, day clear.
+                    9 a.m.     76°    29.30 cor. 30.42 Aneroid 30.40, hot sun.
+                         On passage in canoe down river.
+                    Noon.      87°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.45.
+                    3 p.m.     95.5°  29.00 cor. 30.12 Aneroid 30.52.
+                         Mean altitude of Porto da Lenha, 38 feet.
+
+28th Sept.          6 a.m.     71.25° 29.15 cor. 30.27 Dry, cloudy morning.
+  Banana factory,   9 a.m.     75°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Calm, land and sea breezes very
+  mouth of river,                                        regular.
+  60 feet above     Noon.      81°    29.10 cor. 30.22 At noon thermometer at seaside in
+  sea level.                                             sun (overcast) 83.5°.
+                    3 p.m.     75.5°  29.05 cor. 30.17
+                    6 p.m.     74°    29.05 cor. 30.17 Symp. (corrected) 30.32°.
+
+29th Sept.          6 a.m.     73°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Weather calm; at seaside in sun
+  same place.       9 a.m.     80°    29.20 cor. 30.32   (overcast) thermometer 74.5°.
+                    Noon.      83°    29.10 cor. 30.22
+                    3 p.m.     80°    29.15 cor. 30.27 Symp. (corrected) 30.32°.
+                    6 p.m.     74°    29.05 cor. 30.17 Night cold and windy.
+
+30th Sept.          6 a.m.     71°    29.20 cor. 30.32 Clear weather, high wind.
+  same place.       9 a.m.     79°    29.15 cor. 30.27
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              II.
+
+  Plants Collected in the Congo, at Dahome, and the Island of
+                 Annabom, by Mr. Consul Burton.
+
+         Received at the Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew,
+                        September, 1864.
+
+
+
+Argemone Mexicana                         Dahome.
+Cleome Guineensis, Hf.                    Congo.
+Gynardropsis pentaphylla, D. C.           Ditto.
+Ritcheia fragrans. Br.                    Dahome.
+Alsodeia sp.                              Congo.
+Flacourtia sp.                            Dahome.
+Polygala avenaria, Willd.                 Congo.
+Polycarpæa linearifolia                   Dahome (not laid in).
+Seda cordifolia, L.                       Congo.
+Seda an S. humilis (?)                    Ditto.
+Seda urens, L.                            Ditto.
+Abutilon sp.                              Ditto.
+Urena lobata, L.                          Annabom and Congo.
+Hibiscus cannabinus, L.                   Dahome.
+Hibiscus vitifolius, L.                   Congo.
+Hibiscus (Abelmoschus) Moschatus, Moench  Ditto.
+Hibiscus aff. H. Sabdariffæ               Dahome.
+Gossypium sp.                             Congo.
+Walthenia Indica, L.                      Dahome.
+Walthenia (?)                             Congo.
+Triumfetta rhomboidea (?)                 Congo, Annabom, Dahome.
+Acridocarpus sp.                          Congo.
+Citrus Aurantium (?)                      Annabom (not laid in).
+Citrus sp.                                Annabom (not laid in).
+Cardiospermum Helicacabum, L.             Annabom.
+Anacardium occidentale, L.                Congo and Annabom.
+Spondias dubia? Reich.                    Annabom.
+Cnestis(?) sp.                            Dahome.
+Cnestis(?) sp.                            Congo.
+(?)Spondias sp. (very young)              Ditto (not laid in).
+(?)Soindeia sp. fl. ft.                   Congo.
+Rosa sp.                                  Ditto (not laid in).
+Jussieua acuminata, Jno.                  Congo.
+Jussieua linifolia(?) Vahl.               Ditto.
+Mollugo Spergula, L.                      Ditto.
+Combretum spinosum(?)                     Dahome (fl. only).
+Combretum sp.                             Congo.
+Quisqualis ebracteata(?)                  Ditto.
+Combretum sp. (fruct.)                    Ditto (not laid in).
+Combretum sp.                             Congo.
+Modeeca tamnifolia(?), Kl.                Annabom.
+Syzygium Avariense, Kth.                  Congo.
+Melothria triangularis(?), Kth.           Ditto.
+Melothria(?) sp.                          Ditto.
+Cucurbitaceæ               (3 other spp. very imperfect and not laid in).
+Umbelliferæ                               Congo.
+Desmodium Mauritianum(?), D.C.            Ditto, Annabom(?)
+Desmodium do. v. adscendens               Congo.
+Desmodium latifolium, D.C.                Dahome.
+Desmodium Gargeticum (?), D. C.           Annabom.
+Cajanus Indicus, L.                       Congo.
+Eniosema cajanoides                       Ditto.
+Eniosema aff. id.                         Ditto.
+Eniosema aff. glomerata                   Ditto.
+Abrus precatorius(?)                      Annabom.
+Pisum sativum                             Congo.
+Phaseolus sp.                             Annabom.
+Rhynchaesia sp.                           Congo.
+Tephrosia sp.                             Ditto.
+Milletia(?) sp.                           Ditto.
+Milletia(?)                               Ditto.
+Milletia or Lonchocarpus (?)              Congo.
+Indigofera af. I. endeeaphylla. Jacq.     Annabom.
+Indigofera sp.                            Congo.
+Indigofera sp.                            Dahome.
+Indigofera sp.                            Ditto.
+Sesbania sp.                              Congo.
+Crotalaria sp.                            Dahome.
+Glycine labialis (?)                      Annabom.
+Erythrina sp. (?)                         Dahome.
+Berlinia sp. (?)                          Congo.
+Cassia occidentalis, L.                   Ditto (not laid in)
+Cassia mimosoides (?), L.                 Congo.
+Dichrostachys nutans (?)                  Ditto.
+Mimosa asperata (?), L.                   Congo (not laid in)
+Zygia fastigiata (?) Ela                  Dahome.
+Vernonia (Decaneuron), Senegalensis       Ditto, Annabom.
+Vernonia                                  Congo.
+Vernonia an V. pandurata (?)              Ditto.
+Vernonia cinerea                          Ditto.
+Ethulia conyzoides                        Ditto.
+Vernonia an V. pauciflora (?)             Dahome.
+Vernonia stæchadifolia, Sch.              Ditto.
+Ageratum conyzoides, L.                   Annabom, Congo.
+Mikania chenopodiifolia, Wild.            Ditto.
+Grangea, sp.                              Congo.
+Bidens pilosa, L.                         Ditto.
+Coronocarpus (?)                          Dahome.
+Blumea (?) sp.                            Ditto.
+Blumea sp.                                Ditto.
+Blumea sp.                                Ditto.
+Chrysanthellum Sengalense (?), D.C.       Dahome.
+Verbesinoid. dub.                         Congo.
+Gnaphalium an luteo-album (?)             Ditto.
+Hedyotis corymbosa, L.                    Ditto.
+Otomeria Guineensis (?), Kth.             Ditto.
+Randia longistyla, D. C.                  Dahome.
+Borreria ramisparsa (?), D. C. var.       Ditto.
+Octodon (?) sp.                           Dahome.
+Spermacoce Ruelliæ (?), D. C.             Ditto.
+Baconia Corymbosa, D. C.                  Ditto.
+Baconia aff. d.                           Annabom.
+Rubiaceæ, dub.                            Congo.
+Rubiaceæ                                  Ditto.
+Rubiaceæ                                  Annabom.
+Diospyros (?) sp.                         Congo.
+Cynoctonum (?) aff.                       Ditto.
+Ipomæa sp. (?).                           Ditto.
+Ipomæa sp.                                Ditto.
+Ipomæa sp.                                Ditto.
+Ipomæa sp.                                Dahome.
+Ipomæa filicaulis, Bl.                    Congo.
+Ipomæa sp.                                Ditto.
+Ipomæa involucrata.                       Dahome.
+Ipomæa sessiliflora (?) Clius (?)         Ditto, Congo.
+Leonotis nepetifolia. Bil.                Congo.
+Ocymum an O. gratissimum (?)              Ditto (not laid in).
+Moschoesma polystachya (?)                Ditto (ditto).
+Heliophytum Indicum, D. C.                Ditto.
+Heliotropium strigosum (?), Willd.        Dahome.
+Brillantaisia an B. patula, P. A. (?)     Congo.
+Dicliptera verticillaris (?), Juss.       Ditto.
+Asystasia Coromandeliana (?)              Dahome.
+Justicia Galeopsis                        Ditto.
+Lycopersicum esculentum                   Congo.
+Capsicum an C. frutescens (?)             Ditto (ditto).
+Solanum                                   Ditto (ditto).
+Solanum                                   Annabom (ditto).
+Solanum                                   Congo (ditto).
+Schwenckia Americana, L.                  Ditto.
+Scoparia dulcis, L.                       Congo (not laid in).
+Spathodea lævis (?)                       Dahome.
+Sesamum Indicum, var.                     Ditto.
+Plumbago Zeylanica, L.                    Congo (ditto.)
+Clerodendron multiflorum (?), Don.        Ditto, imp., Ditto.
+Clerodendron sp.                          Congo.
+Lippia sp.                                Ditto.
+Lippia an L. Adoensis?                    Ditto.
+Stachytarphita Jamaicensis, V.            Dahome.
+Celosia trigyna (?), L.                   Congo.
+Erua lanata                               Ditto (ditto).
+Pupalia lappacea, Moq.                    Annabom.
+Achyranthes involucrata, Moq.             Dahome.
+Achyranthes argentea (?), Lam.            Congo.
+Celosia argentea, L.                      Dahome (ditto).
+Amaranthus paniculatus, L.                Congo.
+Euxolus irridis                           Congo.
+Phyllanthus pentandrus (?)                Dahome.
+Phyllanthus Nivari, L.                    Congo.
+Acalypha sp.                              Ditto.
+Manihot utilissima (?)                    Ditto.
+Antidesma venosum                         Ditto.
+Euphorbia pilulifera, L.                  Annabom.
+Croton lobatum                            Dahome.
+Phytolacca an P. Abyssinica (?)           Congo (bad, not laid in).
+Ricinus communis (?)                      Congo (not laid in).
+Phyllanthus sp.                           Ditto.
+Cannabis sativa, L.                       Ditto (ditto).
+Boerhaavia paniculata                     Ditto (ditto).
+Polygonum Senegalense, Meiss              Ditto.
+Castus Afch.                              Ditto (ditto).
+Aneilema adhærens (?)                     Ditto.
+Aneilema an A. ovato-oblongeum            Ditto.
+Aneilema Beninense                        Congo.
+Commolyna (?)                             Dahome.
+Fragts. Commolyneæ                        (not laid in).
+Phœnix (?) spadix                         Congo.
+Canna Indica (?)                          Congo and Annabom.
+Chloris Varbata (?), Sw.                  Congo (not laid in).
+Andropogon (Cymbopogon) sp. (?)           Ditto.
+Andropogon, an Sorghum (?)                Ditto (ditto).
+Panicum an Oplismenus (?)                 Ditto (ditto).
+Panicum sp.                               Congo and Annabom.
+(?) Eleusine Indica                       Annabom (not laid in).
+Eragrostis megastachya, Lk.               Congo.
+Leptochloa sp (?)                         Ditto.
+Pennisetum sp.                            Ditto.
+Pennisetum sp.                            Dahome.
+Pennisetum sp.                            Congo.
+Mariscus sp.                              Annabom.
+Cy. flagellatus (?) Hochst                Congo.
+Cy. sphacelatus                           Annabom.
+Scleria an S. racemosa                    Congo.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              III.
+
+Heights of Stations, West Coast of Africa, Computed from Observations Made by
+                         Capt. Burton.
+
+
+
+1863.                              feet.
+Sept. 9.--     On route to Banza
+          Nokki                    1322
+Sept. 11.      Nokki               1553
+Sept. 9.--     Nokki, on hills     1577\
+            above river.           1347 |
+                "                  1393 |
+                "                  1379 |
+Sept. 10.       "                  1404 |- Mean = 1430 feet.
+                "                  1517 |
+                "                  1371 |
+                "                  1467 |
+                "                  1415/
+Sept. 11.--    Chingufu above      1656\
+            Nokki                  1775 | Mean 1703 feet:
+                "                  1769 | See Sept. 18., &c.
+Sept. 12.       "                  1613/
+
+Nelongo's Village, lower down      781-\
+  and nearer village.              872 |
+                "                  818 |
+                "                  961 |-Mean = 828 feet.
+Sept. 13.       "                  861 |
+                "                  766 |
+                "                  736-/
+Sept. 13.--    Cove near Congo  River   78 feet.
+Sept. 14.--    Hills above Banza   315
+              River.               411
+                "                  865
+Sept. 15.--    Banza River         179 at level of river.
+            Banza Nkulu above      1149 \
+            rapids.                1172 |-Mean = 1140.
+Sept. 16.       "                  1099 /
+          Banza Nkulu              1144 \
+                "                  1270 |-Mean = 1212.
+                "                  1270 |
+Sept. 17.       "                  1162 /
+          Nelongo's Village–
+                 Negolo            923
+              Banza Chingufu      1732
+Sept. 18.--    Chingufu.          1711 \
+                "                 1611 |
+                "                 1697 |
+                "                 1854 |
+                "                 1804 |
+Sept. 19.       "                 1600 |-Mean = 1694 feet.
+                "                 1609 | See Sept. 11.
+                "                 1636 |
+                "                 1751 |
+                "                 1775 |
+Sept. 20.       "                 1586 /
+Sept. 21.        Boma.               9 \
+                 "                   9 |
+                 "                  19 |
+                 "                 189 |
+Sept. 22.        "                   9 |
+                 "                  57 |
+                 "                 135 |
+                 "                  76 |
+Sept. 23.        "                 140 |
+                 "                  19 |
+                 "                  78 |-Mean = 73 feet.
+                 "                 124 |
+Sept. 24.        "                 113 |
+                 "                  29 |
+                 "                  59 |
+                 "                 107 |
+                 "                 124 |
+Sept. 25.        "                 113 |
+                 "                  67 |
+                 "                  58 |
+                 "                 180 /
+Sept. 26.--    Porto de Lenha.      38
+Sept. 28.--    Banana factory.      94 \
+                 "                  18 |
+                 "                  67 |
+                 "                 150 |
+                 "                 160 |
+Sept. 29.        "                  28 |-Mean = 56 feet.
+                 "                  19 |
+                 "                  48 |
+                 "                  29 |
+                 "                  16 |
+Sept. 30.        "                  47 |
+                 "                  29 /
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              IV.
+
+                   (Form of French Passport.)
+
+                     Immigration Africaine.
+
+
+
+Ce jourd'hui _______________ mil huit cent soixante _______________ par devant
+nous  _______________ Commissaire du Gouvernement Français, Agent
+d'émigration, conformément à l'article 8 du décret du 27 Mars 1852, assisté de
+_______________ témoins requis, a comparu le nommé _______________ noir libre,
+né au village de _______________ côte de _______________ âgé de
+_______________ lequel nous a déclaré consentir librement et de son plein gré
+à partir pour une des Colonies Françaises d'Amérique pour y contracter
+l'engagement de travail ci-après détaillé et présenté par M _______________ au
+nom de M. Régis, au profit de l'habitant qui sera désigné par l'Administration
+locale à son arrivée dans la Colonie.
+
+Les conditions d'engagement de travail sont les suivantes:
+
+                            ART. 1.
+
+Le nommé ______________________________ s'engage, tant pour les travaux de
+culture et de fabrication sucrière &c. que pour tous autres d'exploitation
+agricole et industrielle auxquels l'engagiste jugera convenable de l'employer
+et généralement pour tous les travaux quelconques de domesticité.
+
+                            ART. 2.
+
+Le présent engagement de travail est de dix années à partir du jour de
+l'entrée au service de l'engagiste. L'engagé doit 26 jours de travail
+effectifs et complets par mois; les gages ne seront dus qu'après 26 jours de
+travail. La journée de travail ordinaire sera celle établie par les règlements
+existant dans la Colonie. A l'époque de la manipulation l'engagé sera tenu de
+travailler sans augmentation de salaires suivant les besoins de
+l'établissement où il sera employé. (The employer can thus overwork his slaves
+as much as he pleases.)
+
+                            ART. 3.
+
+L'engagiste aura le droit de céder et transporter à qui bon lui semblera, sous
+le contrôle de l'Administration le présent engagement de travail contracté à
+son profit. (N.B.--The owner can thus separate families.)
+
+                            ART. 4.
+
+L'engagé sera logé sur l'établissement où il sera employé; il aura droit, de
+la part de l'engagiste aux soins médicaux, à sa nourriture, laquelle sera
+conforme aux règlements et à l'usage adopté dans la Colonie pour les gens de
+travail du pays. Bien entendu que toute maladie contractée par un fait
+étranger, soit à ses travaux, soit à ses occupations, sera à ses frais. (Thus
+bed and board are at the discretion of the employer, and the gate of fraud is
+left open.)
+
+                            ART. 5.
+
+Le salaire de l'engagé est de:     12 francs pour les hommes,
+                                   10 francs pour les femmes,
+                                    8 francs pour les enfants de 10 à 14 ans.,
+par mois de 26 jours de travail, comme il est dit à l'article 2, à partir de 8
+jours après son débarquement dans la colonie. Moitié de cette somme lui sera
+payée fin chaque mois, l'autre moitié le sera fin de chaque année. (Not even
+festivals allowed as holidays.)
+
+                            ART. 6.
+
+L'engagé reconnait avoir reçu en avance, du représentant de M. Régis, la somme
+de DEUX CENTS FRANCS dont il s'est servi pour sa libération et pour divers
+frais à son compte, Ces avances seront retenues sur ses salaires à raison de
+par mois.
+
+                            ART. 7.
+
+L'engagé déclare par avance se soumettre aux règlements rendus dans la Colonie
+pour la police du travail et de l'immigration.
+
+                            ART. 8.
+
+A l'expiration de son temps d'engagement le rapatriement sera accordé à
+l'immigrant pour lui, sa femme, et ses enfants non adultes, à la condition par
+celui-ci de verser mensuellement à la Caisse d'immigration le dixième de son
+salaire.
+
+Si l'engagé renonce à son rapatriement, toute somme versée par lui lui sera
+remboursée.
+
+En cas de réengagement les conditions en seront débattues de gré-à-gré entre
+l'engagé et le propriétaire engagiste.
+
+Fait et signé de bonne foi, le
+
+Certifié par le délégué de
+l'administration faisant fonctions
+d'Agent d'émigration.
+
+
+
+
+
+[FN#1]   "Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loango Küuste, nebst
+älteren Nachrichten über die zu erforschenden Länder." Von Adolf
+Bastian. Jena and London (Trübner and Co.), 1874.
+
+[FN#2]   See "The Lands of the Cazembe," p. 15, Royal
+Geographical Society, London, 1873.
+
+[FN#3]   See "The Lands of the Cazembe" (p. 25, note), where,
+however, the word has taken the form of "Impaçeiro." At p. 27,
+line 6, a parenthesis has been misplaced before and after
+"Impalancas," a word differently interpreted by Portuguese
+writers.
+
+[FN#4]   The Directory and Charts.
+
+[FN#5]   That of the Hydrographic Office, dated 1863, assigns it
+to S. Lat. 7° 44', and E. Long. 13° 5'; and the Granite Pillar to
+S. Lat. 7° 36' 15", and E. Long. 13° 6' 30".
+
+[FN#6]   Duarte Lopez, the Portuguese Captain, whose journals
+were used by Pigafetta. He went to the Congo regions in 1578, and
+stayed there ten years. "Philipp's Voyages," vol. iii. p. 236.
+
+[FN#7]   "Philipp's Voyages," vol. iii. p. 236.
+
+[FN#8]   Appendix to Tuckey's "Expedition," No. 6.
+
+[FN#9]   See the note of the learned Robert Brown, p. 472,
+Appendix V., Tuckey's "Congo."
+
+[FN#10]  "Relazione del Reame di Congo, e delle circonvicine
+contrade, tratta dagli Scritti e Raggionamenti di Odoardo Lopez,
+Portogheze, per Philippo Pigafetta." Roma, 1591, fol.
+
+[FN#11]  "Historia de Etiopia," p. 65.
+
+[FN#12]  "Geography of N'yassi," note, p. 51.
+
+[FN#13]  See "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast," vol. i. p. 5.
+"Marinus of Tyre" became by misprint "mariners of Tyre."
+
+[FN#14]  Chap. xvii. of the Rev. Mr. Waddell's "Twenty-nine Years
+in the West Indies and Central Africa."
+
+[FN#15]   "Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and
+Arabia," by Captain Thomas Boteler. London: Bentley, 1835;
+repeated from Owen's "Voyages to Africa, Arabia," &c. London:
+Bentley, 1833. Lt. Wolf, R.N., has given an able analysis of this
+great surveying undertaking in the "Journal of the Geographical
+Society," vol. iii. of 1833.
+
+[FN#16]  See chap. v.
+
+[FN#17]  Of this lake I shall have something to say in chap. xii.
+
+[FN#18]  See "The Lands of the Cazembe," p. 24.
+
+[FN#19]  Petermann's "Geog. Mitt." of 1860, pp. 227-235. I have
+duly obtained at Pest the permission of Professor Hunfálvy, who
+in 1859 edited the Hungarian and German issues, to translate into
+English the highly interesting volume, the only remains of
+Ladislaus Magyar, the traveller having died, Nov. 19, 1864, after
+visiting large and previously unknown tracts of south-western
+Africa. The work has been undertaken by the Rev. R. C. G.
+O'Callaghan, consular chaplain, Trieste, and I hope that it will
+soon appear with notes by myself. It will be a fitting pendant to
+Dr. de Lacerda's "Journey to the Lands of the Cazembe."
+
+[FN#20]  "Geog. Mitt." 1857, p. 190.
+
+[FN#21]  Proofs of the identity of the Lualaba with the Congo;"
+translated by Mr. Keith Johnston from the "Geogr. Mittheilungen,"
+i. 18, Bund, 1872, and published in the "Proceedings of the Royal
+Geographical Society," No. i, vol. xviii. of Feb. 24, 1873.
+
+[FN#22]  "The Lands of the Cazembe," p. 47.
+
+[FN#23]  "Daily Telegraph," Sept. 6, 1869.
+
+[FN#24]  "Erläuterungen," &c. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1874.
+
+[FN#25]  Tuckey (p. 214), and the General Observations prefixed
+to the Diaries.
+
+[FN#26]  This palm-clapping is often alluded to in "O Muata
+Cazembe" (pp. 223 et passim).
+
+[FN#27]  "Highlands of the Brazil," vol. ii. chap. xv. The red
+clay of the Congo region is an exact copy of what is found on the
+opposite side of the Atlantic.
+
+[FN#28]  "Journal of an African Cruiser," by an Officer of the
+United States Navy, p. 173. London, 1848. Tuckey ("Narrative,"
+132) gives a sketch of the building.
+
+[FN#29]  See frontispiece.
+
+[FN#30]  At the memorable Bath meeting of the British
+Association, Sept. 1864.
+
+[FN#31]  Mr. Richard Spruce, "Ocean Highways," August, 1873, p.
+213.
+
+[FN#32]  "Lowlands of the Brazil," chap. xvii. Tinsleys, 1875.
+II.
+
+[FN#33]  "Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. iii.
+p. 206, 1833.
+
+[FN#34]  In the "Geographical Magazine" for February, 1875.
+
+[FN#35]  In Carli Gramga and Fomet, evident cacography.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Volume 2 of Two Trips to Gorilla Land.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TWO TRIPS TO GORILLA LAND AND THE CATARACTS OF THE CONGO ***
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