16 TEE GONGO.
Lukolela.
were ignorant how far we might have to proceed before
meeting with another market so well supplied as this,
we agreed to resume the marketing next morning.
At sunrise the following day canoe after canoe
appeared, and the barter was so successfully conducted
that we had soon secured three dozen fowls, four goats,
a sheep, and eight days’ rations for each member of the
coloured force. The fear the natives entertained of the
strange steamer was now changed for liveliest admiration.
We were no longer supposed to be laden with
mischief, but full of “good things.” They had informed
us that they were dying of famine yesterday, but this
day plenty had come back to them, their chiefs lived,
and no plague or pest decimated the people !
We asked them slyly what was the cause of this
remarkable change.
“ Oh,” they replied, “ why do you remember what we
said in our fear of you. Neither our oldest people nor
their fathers before them ever saw or heard of such
things as these,” pointing to the steamers. '
As it was a capital position for a station, we delicate y
hinted to them that on our return we should have some
more words with them.
The people of Lukolela some twenty years ago lived
on the right bank, but the Irebu warriors, during a little
misunderstanding with them, descended the river and
attacked and burnt their villages; upon which, after
peace was restored, they crossed the Congo and established
themselves on the left, bank in the noble forest
along the river.
NGOMBÉ. 17
Two hours steaming midday on the 2nd of June took isss.'
us through the whole length of this narrow and singular
contraction of the Congo. The' left bank rises into a
hill probably 100 feet above the river, nourishing magnificent
timber; the right bank also shows that it is
much higher than the ground above or below this
strait-like contraction of the river channel, and is also
remarkable for its fine trees. Still clinging to the left
bank of the river, we entered a narrow channel between
islets exuberant with flourishing forests, and low shores
showing alternately prairie levels, and low, tree-clad
ridges running perpendicularly to the river.
We passed three villages, which sent out scouts to us
with fresh fish to sell, and to glean intelligence about
the strange craft that made such unusual noises. They
were too small and insignificant to induce us to delay
our advance.
On the evening of this day as we were at camp in
,a deserted village two hours above the highest of these
’villages, fourteen dense divisions of small birds were
| seen flying from the direction o*f the right to the left
[bank, and a straggling army of large birds of the size
| of crows followed till the dusk deepened ; they were
| too high to enable me to distinguish them.
On the evening of the next day, having selected a
I camp a few miles below Ngombe, two canoes approached
|u s , calling out the name of “ Stanley” with excellent
¡pronunciation. They had picked up the name by some
lodd fashion, and would .doubtless have hailed the first
j^hite with it in the same way. They only wished to sell
VOL. II. c