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 35deg. to 45deg., 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 Mosi-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 Sao 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 Busa (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 L300 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 67deg. (F.), whilst the "Expedition" (p. 118) had found it 60deg. in August, even at Boma during the dewy nights. The lowest temperature of the water was 75deg., and the highest 79deg., whereas at the mouth it is sometimes 83deg.; Tuckey gives 76deg.-77deg.; 74deg. in the upper river above the Falls, and 73deg. 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,

"Lungwa 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 Ajojos 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 Abbe 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 Fan 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 L150, 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 employes 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 poses, 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 Esperance, 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 bona fide emigration, a free engage 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 Abbe 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 Abbe 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. Regis 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 facetiae 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 Barle said, "precipuae merces ipsi Ethiopes sunt." I subjoin to this chapter the form of French passport; it will serve, when a bona fide emigration shall be attempted, to show "how not to do it." Happily this "emigration" has come to an end": M. Regis, 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 Sao 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 laches 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 corvee. 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, ergo 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 grabesta," 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: Bailliere, 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 bona 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 67deg. (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.

86deg. 76deg. 29.90 (1) S.E. (1) N.N.W. Loanda. 92deg. 77deg. 29.92 (1) S.W. (2) W.N.W. En route to Congo. 108deg. 76deg. 29.90 (1) S. (3) S.S.W. En route to Congo. 86deg. 78deg. 29.90 (2) S. (3) W. En route to Congo. 88deg. 78deg. 29.90 (2) S.W. (2) S.S.W. En route to Congo. 94deg. 80deg. 29.90 (2) S.E. (2) S.W. En route to Congo. 90deg. 83deg. 29.90 (2) S. (2-3)S. Congo. 90deg. 80deg. 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. 65deg. 28.00 cor. 29.12 Cold morning, light wind from N.N.E., Banza nokki 9 a.m. 72deg. 27.70 cor. 28.82 threatened rain, 8 a.m.; noon misty, on hills above Noon. 78deg. 27.90 cor. 29.02 day hazy; 3 p.m., sun hot, wind cooler river 3 p.m. 80.5deg. 27.85 cor. 28.97 from west; evening, stiff sea-breeze, 6 p.m. 72deg. 27.90 cor. 29.02 people complain of cold; night, heavy dew.

10th Sept. 6 a.m. 67deg. 27.90 cor. 29.02 Misty morning, warm at 9 a.m., wind; noon, Same place, 9 a.m. 75deg. 27.75 cor. 28.87 hot sun, high sea-breeze; 3 p.m., hot Nokki. Noon. 83deg. 27.85 cor. 28.97 sun, cool west wind; cloudy evening; 3 p.m. 85deg. 27.75 cor. 28.87 windy night, dew cold and heavy. 6 p.m. 74deg. 27.85 cor. 28.97 Altitude of Nokki above sea, 1,430 feet.

11th Sept. 9 a.m. 77deg. 27.70 cor. 28.82 Misty morning, warm but clouding over; Banza Noon. 87deg. 27.55 cor. 28.67 at noon high sea-breeze, glare and hot Chingufu 3 p.m. 83deg. 27.45 cor. 28.57 sun, when clouds break 97deg. in sun, above Nokki; 6 p.m. 73deg. 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. 65deg. 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. 76deg. 28.50 cor. 29.62 Shady verandah facing to west; at others at Nekolo Noon. 84deg. 28.35 cor. 29.47 noon aneroid 30.05; 3 p.m., hot lower down & near 3 p.m. 85deg. 28.40 cor. 29.52 sun, westerly breeze, few clouds; river. 6 p.m. 77deg. 28.30 cor. 29.42 6 p.m., very clear, east wind strong; no dew at night.

Negolo Nkulu. 13th Sept. 6 a.m. 70deg. 28.45 cor. 29.57 Close cloudy morning; 9 a.m., Negolo and near 9 a.m. 77deg. 28.50 cor. 29.62 alternately clear and cloudy, Congo River. Noon. 90deg. 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. 94deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Height of Negolo, 828 feet.

Left bank. 14th Sept 6 a.m. 74deg. 29.30 cor 30.50 Dull, warm, and cloudy. Right bank. Banza Vivi on 9 a.m. 84deg. 29.35 cor. 30.57 Aneroid 30.60, dull day. hills above right Noon. 80deg. 28.95 cor. 30.07 Anerodi 30.10 dull day, very little bank. 3 p.m. 84deg. 28.35 cor. 29.47 breeze, village shut in, clouds 6 p.m. 79deg. 28.85 cor. 29.97 from west

Banza Vivi. 15th Sept. 6 a.m. 74deg. 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 78deg. 28.10 cor. 29.22 Under tree facing north; puffs of above rapids. west wind, threatened rain, none came. 6 p.m. 75deg. 28.10 cor. 29.22 In veranda facing north-east; clear night, heavy dew.

Banza Nkulu. 16th Sept. 6 a.m. 69deg. 28.20 cor. 29.32 Grass wet, heavy dew, rain threatened, aneroid 29.50. 100 feet above rapids. 7.30 a.m. 73deg. 29.25 cor. 30.37 Aneroid 30.55. Banza Nkulu again Noon. 80deg. 28.10 cor. 29.22 Aneroid 29.55, dull, cloudy, rain threatened. 3 p.m. 75deg. 28.00 cor. 29.12 Dull day, clearer towards evening, 6 p.m. 75deg. 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. 67deg. 28.15 cor. 29.27 Grey, cool; threatens sunny day. Right bank of river. 9.20 a.m. 77deg. 29.30 cor. 30.42 Cool west wind. In canoe on river below Little Rapids. 10.50 a.m. 81deg. 20.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.57(59) Left bank 20 feet above water, under fig-tree facing north. Noon. 81deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.50. Negolo Town 3 p.m. 83deg. 28.30 cor. 29.42 Day hot, aneroid in verandah 30.50. Banza Chingufu. 6 p.m. 71deg. 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. 65deg. 27.60 cor. 28.72 Cool, grey, no wind. At Chingufu as 9 a.m. 76deg. 27.65 cor. 28.77 Strong land wind, from east, no before. sun, heavy clouds N.E. Noon. 90deg. 27.50 cor. 28.62 High west wind, hot sun. 3.30 p.m. 88deg. 27.35 cor. 28.47 Clear at 1 p.m., thermometer 100deg. little wind, sun hot. 6 p.m. 77deg. 27.45 cor. 28.57 Clear evening, no dew, misty moon, high sea-breeze at night.

19th Sept. 6 a.m. 67deg. 27.70 cor. 28.82 Still grey morning, no wind. At Chingufu. 9.30 a.m. 76deg. 27.65 cor. 28.77 Lighter, wind from west. Noon. 81deg. 27.60 cor. 28.72 Dull, light west wind. 3 p.m. 88deg. 27.45 cor. 28.57 Cloudy and sunny, west wind. 6 p.m. 72deg. 27.50 cor. 28.62 Clear, fine, little wind. How do these agree with September 11?

Chingufu. 20th Sept. 6 a.m. 69deg. 27.70 cor. 28.82 Fine, clear, and still morning. On river. Down river 9 a.m. 82deg. 29.35 cor. 30.47 Hot day, aneroid 30.55; at 10 a.m. 29.85. Off Chacha village on river. Noon. 87deg. 29.35 cor. 30.47 Sea-breeze, sun hot, but obscured by smoke of bush fires. On river. 3 p.m. 86deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.40, stiff sea breeze. Last observation taken about 5 miles above Boma.

21 Sept. 9 a.m. 76deg. 29.30 cor. 30.42 Cool, cloudy, pleasant. At Boma. Noon. 81.5deg. 29.25 cor. 30.37 Dull, threatens rain. 3 p.m. 86deg. 29.25 cor. 30.37 Dull, muggy, cloudy.

22nd Sept. 6 a.m. 77deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Dull, cloudy, cool; instrument in Boma. verandah facing south-west. 9 a.m. 76deg. 20.30 cor. 30.42 Noon. 84deg. 29.30 cor. 30.42 Dull and warm. 3 p.m. 84deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Very dull, strong sea-breeze comes up in afternoon, and lasts till 9 p.m. 6 p.m. 79deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Dull night. Mean altitude of Boma (commonly called Embomma), 73 feet.

23rd Sept. 6 a.m. 70.5deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Dull morning Boma. 9 a.m. 81.75deg. 29.25 cor. 30.37 Clear and sunny. 3 p.m. 92deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Clear, hot, and sunny. 6 p.m. 79deg. 29.15 cor. 30.27 High wind, sun.

24th Sept. 6 a.m. 74deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Cool and clear. Boma. 9 a.m. 81deg. 29.30 cor. 30.42 Hot and clear. 12.30 p.m. 93.75deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Hot and clear. 3 p.m. 93.57deg. 29.05 cor. 30.17 Very strong sea-breeze till late at night. 6 p.m. 79.5deg. 29.15 cor. 30.27 Very strong sea-breeze till late at night.

25th Sept. 6 a.m. 74deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Dull, no sun, rain threatened. Noon. 81deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 3 p.m. 83deg. 29.19 cor. 30.31 Aneroid 30.15. 6 p.m. 78deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 Dull, no sun, wind subsided at night.

Porto da Senha at factory. 26th Sept. 6 a.m. 78deg. 29.25 cor. 30.37 Aneroid 30.62, day clear. 9 a.m. 76deg. 29.30 cor. 30.42 Aneroid 30.40, hot sun. On passage in canoe down river. Noon. 87deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Aneroid 30.45. 3 p.m. 95.5deg. 29.00 cor. 30.12 Aneroid 30.52. Mean altitude of Porto da Lenha, 38 feet.

28th Sept. 6 a.m. 71.25deg. 29.15 cor. 30.27 Dry, cloudy morning. Banana factory, 9 a.m. 75deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Calm, land and sea breezes very mouth of river, regular. 60 feet above Noon. 81deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 At noon thermometer at seaside in sea level. sun (overcast) 83.5deg.. 3 p.m. 75.5deg. 29.05 cor. 30.17 6 p.m. 74deg. 29.05 cor. 30.17 Symp. (corrected) 30.32deg..

29th Sept. 6 a.m. 73deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Weather calm; at seaside in sun same place. 9 a.m. 80deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 (overcast) thermometer 74.5deg.. Noon. 83deg. 29.10 cor. 30.22 3 p.m. 80deg. 29.15 cor. 30.27 Symp. (corrected) 30.32deg.. 6 p.m. 74deg. 29.05 cor. 30.17 Night cold and windy.

30th Sept. 6 a.m. 71deg. 29.20 cor. 30.32 Clear weather, high wind. same place. 9 a.m. 79deg. 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. Polycarpaea 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. Sabdariffae 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. Cucurbitaceae (3 other spp. very imperfect and not laid in). Umbelliferae 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 staechadifolia, 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 Ruelliae (?), D. C. Ditto. Baconia Corymbosa, D. C. Ditto. Baconia aff. d. Annabom. Rubiaceae, dub. Congo. Rubiaceae Ditto. Rubiaceae Annabom. Diospyros (?) sp. Congo. Cynoctonum (?) aff. Ditto. Ipomaea sp. (?). Ditto. Ipomaea sp. Ditto. Ipomaea sp. Ditto. Ipomaea sp. Dahome. Ipomaea filicaulis, Bl. Congo. Ipomaea sp. Ditto. Ipomaea involucrata. Dahome. Ipomaea 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 laevis (?) 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 adhaerens (?) Ditto. Aneilema an A. ovato-oblongeum Ditto. Aneilema Beninense Congo. Commolyna (?) Dahome. Fragts. Commolyneae (not laid in). Phoenix (?) 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 Francais, Agent d'emigration, conformement a l'article 8 du decret du 27 Mars 1852, assiste de ___ temoins requis, a comparu le nomme ___ noir libre, ne au village de ___ cote de ___ age de ___ lequel nous a declare consentir librement et de son plein gre a partir pour une des Colonies Francaises d'Amerique pour y contracter l'engagement de travail ci-apres detaille et presente par M ___ au nom de M. Regis, au profit de l'habitant qui sera designe par l'Administration locale a son arrivee dans la Colonie.

Les conditions d'engagement de travail sont les suivantes:

ART. 1.

Le nomme _____ s'engage, tant pour les travaux de culture et de fabrication sucriere &c. que pour tous autres d'exploitation agricole et industrielle auxquels l'engagiste jugera convenable de l'employer et generalement pour tous les travaux quelconques de domesticite.

ART. 2.

Le present engagement de travail est de dix annees a partir du jour de l'entree au service de l'engagiste. L'engage doit 26 jours de travail effectifs et complets par mois; les gages ne seront dus qu'apres 26 jours de travail. La journee de travail ordinaire sera celle etablie par les reglements existant dans la Colonie. A l'epoque de la manipulation l'engage sera tenu de travailler sans augmentation de salaires suivant les besoins de l'etablissement ou il sera employe. (The employer can thus overwork his slaves as much as he pleases.)

ART. 3.

L'engagiste aura le droit de ceder et transporter a qui bon lui semblera, sous le controle de l'Administration le present engagement de travail contracte a son profit. (N.B.—The owner can thus separate families.)

ART. 4.

L'engage sera loge sur l'etablissement ou il sera employe; il aura droit, de la part de l'engagiste aux soins medicaux, a sa nourriture, laquelle sera conforme aux reglements et a l'usage adopte dans la Colonie pour les gens de travail du pays. Bien entendu que toute maladie contractee par un fait etranger, soit a ses travaux, soit a ses occupations, sera a 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'engage est de: 12 francs pour les hommes, 10 francs pour les femmes, 8 francs pour les enfants de 10 a 14 ans., par mois de 26 jours de travail, comme il est dit a l'article 2, a partir de 8 jours apres son debarquement dans la colonie. Moitie de cette somme lui sera payee fin chaque mois, l'autre moitie le sera fin de chaque annee. (Not even festivals allowed as holidays.)

ART. 6.

L'engage reconnait avoir recu en avance, du representant de M. Regis, la somme de DEUX CENTS FRANCS dont il s'est servi pour sa liberation et pour divers frais a son compte, Ces avances seront retenues sur ses salaires a raison de par mois.

ART. 7.

L'engage declare par avance se soumettre aux reglements 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 accorde a l'immigrant pour lui, sa femme, et ses enfants non adultes, a la condition par celui-ci de verser mensuellement a la Caisse d'immigration le dixieme de son salaire.

Si l'engage renonce a son rapatriement, toute somme versee par lui lui sera remboursee.

En cas de reengagement les conditions en seront debattues de gre-a-gre entre l'engage et le proprietaire engagiste.

Fait et signe de bonne foi, le

Certifie par le delegue de l'administration faisant fonctions d'Agent d'emigration.



[FN#1] "Die Deutsche Expedition an der Loango Kuuste, nebst alteren Nachrichten uber die zu erforschenden Lander." Von Adolf Bastian. Jena and London (Trubner 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 "Impaceiro." 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. 7deg. 44', and E. Long. 13deg. 5'; and the Granite Pillar to S. Lat. 7deg. 36' 15", and E. Long. 13deg. 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.

THE END