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