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.