greatly facilitate shipping negroes.  The lesser Congo delta is bounded north by the Banana or Malela stream, whose lower fork is “Pirates’ Creek;” and south by the mangrove-clad drains, which subtend the main line:  the base measures 12-15 miles.  At the highest station, Boma, I shall have something to say about the greater delta.  The left bank of the embouchure projects further seaward, making it look “under hung,” representing in charts a lower jaw, and the projection of Shark Point the teeth, en profile.

My first care was to collect news at the factories.  French Point is a long low spit, which supports two establishments where the chart (September 1859) gives “Emigration Depot.”  It is the old Banana Point, and probably the older Palmeirinha Point of James Barbot, who places it in the territory of Goy (Ngoy), now Cabinda.  This part has greatly changed since 1859; either the Banana River requires removing two miles to the north, or French Point must be placed an equal distance south.  The principal establishment, M. Regis’ of Marseilles, is built in his best style; a two-storied and brilliantly “chunam’d” house, containing a shop and store on the ground-floor, defended by a three-pounder.  Behind it a square “compound,” with high walls, guards the offices and the other requisites of a bar racoon.  It is fronted by a little village where “Laptots,” Senegal Moslems, and men-at-arms live with their families and slaves.  In the rear stands the far more modest and conscientious establishment of Messrs. Pencoff and Kerdyk:  their plank bungalow is full of work, whilst the other lies idle; so virtue here is not, as in books, its own reward.

M. Victor Parrot, the young Swiss agent of M. Regis, hospitably asked us to take up our quarters with him, and promised to start us up stream without delay; his employer fixes the tariff of every article, and no discretion is left to the subordinates.  We called upon M. Elkman of the Dutch factory.  His is a well-known name on the river, and, though familiar with the people, he has more than once run some personal risk by assisting our cruizers to make captures.  He advised us to lose no time in setting out before the impending rains:  I wanted, however, a slight preparation for travel, and determined to see something of the adjoining villages, especially the site of the historic Padrao.

Whilst crossing the stream, we easily understood how the river was supposed to be in a perpetual state of inundation.  The great breadth and the shallows near either jaw prevent the rain-floods being perceptible unless instruments are used, and “hydrometry,” still in an imperfect state, was little to be depended upon in the days when European ideas concerning the Congo River were formed.  Twenty miles up stream the high-water mark becomes strongly marked, and further on, as will be seen, it shows even better.