Bolobo.
be situated in a fork at a confluence of two rivers—tbe
Congo and a white water affluent. He was much confused,
he said, by the quantity of water and islands
there—“ there was no end to the water.”
Two hours’ journey inland from Bolobo there is a
large market-place called Mpumbu, where dogs, crocodiles,
hippopotamus meat, snails, iguanas, fish and redwood
powder are sold in great quantities. Little,
however, that is of utility to Europeans and people of
more refined tastes is sold at this particular place.
Bolobo is a great centre for the ivory and camwood
powder trade, principally because its people are so
enterprising’. The native traders have agents residing
at Stanley Pool, to whom the ivory collected here is
delivered, and the merchandise from the coast lying in
store is consigned to the wealthy traders at Bolobo.
One must not be hasty in judging from the poverty
of their garb that the chiefs of this trading district are
poor! They are frugally inclined, having a certain
standard of wealth which they must endeavour to
achieve before they bear on their persons in every day
life the habit befitting their station and prosperity.
Thus Mangi, residing at Kintamo, is the junior chief
of Itimba, Bolobo. He visits Leopoldville daily,
dressed in a cotton robe of dark blue baft, but he is
lord of three villages, and may probably be worth
£3000. Lugumbila, vizier to Ibaka and his oldest slave,
is probably worth an equal amount. But Manguru, of
Bolobo, is a nabob ; if his worldly belongings were
sold, at auction in Bolobo, it is very possible his effects
would realise double this sum. His canoes and slaves
exploit every creek and affluent as far as Irebu and
Ubangi; at Eimbangu, on the south bank of Stanley
Pool, and at Malima, on the north bank, he has a faithful
factor; while at Bolobo he keeps a hundred armed
slaves. Yet Manguru, now well advanced in years,
paddles his own canoe along the river front of the
district, trading from one place to another daily. It
is this Rothschild of Bolobo who induced Gfatula to
A SPECIMEN OF THE ET-YANZI.
(By Mb. G l a v e . )
choose between two evils—war, or forfeit of money, and
by his arguments convinced him that to lose money
was a less evil than the loss of his life and property.
On the 28th of May the flotilla set out from Bolobo
for the establishment of two stations on the Upper
Congo. The expedition- was accompanied by three
guides—Msenné, from Mswata, and two slaves belonging
to Ibaka, who knew well the countries of Uyanzi
,fmd UbangOfi.
B 2
1883.
May 24.
Bolobo.