fish and young crocodiles. Our engineers, from pure
fun, patronised them, and purchased one young crocodile,
of whose character we came to know a great deal
before he deserted us. The crocodilian character, from
what we discovered of it, would make a fine one for a
novel. The ungrateful little beast, lashed to a strong
tree close to the river, despite our kindness to him,
deserted our expedition during the night. Lukolela
finds the hatching of crocodiles to he remunerative.
When nests are discovered, they take the eggs and
place them in sand in a locality little disturbed, and
when the shell is broken and the young emerge,
they are placed in a pond which is carefully covered
with a net. They are here fed until they have attained
a certain weight and size; and on market days they
are taken out to be sold.
On the 4th of June we passed several populous
districts, first Ngombe, which is situated at another
contraction of the Congo similar to the one described
at Lukolela. Below and above Ngombe the river is
from four to six miles wide ; but at the strait all the
various channels of the Congo are united in one stream,
which flows nearly two miles wide with a strong current.
On the left bank is Ngombe, high and dry on a level
about 40 feet above the river, with a wealth of banana-
groves and other signs of abundance.
A few miles higher up than the Strait of Ngombe*
is the district of Nkuku, inhabited by a people that
showed a strong inclination to trade. They followed
us for such a distance, offering articles for sale without
[ success, until they showed us a couple of Muscovy ducks,
: which we bought with the value of Is. Ad. eaeh.
Two hours later we arrived opposite Butunu, at
which the natives raised frantic cries expressive of
delight. “ Malamu ! malamu ! ” (“ Good ! good ! 1 was
echoed from end to end.
3 One hour beyond Butunu we came to the populous
I district of Usindi, the inhabitants of which were out-
Irageous in their clamours of applause. These were
Iso irrepressible in their joy that a hearty response
¡from our side was not deemed enough. About a
hundred manned their canoes, followed us, bawled
I at us, and finally stormed at us in a friendly manner,
lunt.il we halted. Eleven fellows immediately came
¡aboard the En Avant, sprawled over everybody, shook
¡hands with white and black, old and young,. and
»when they saw the black boiler they seemed to look so
¡earnestly at it that it might have been thought they
¡would embrace it. More of these thoughtless, irrepressible
rogues would have come aboard Jiad we per-
Imtted it, but as we were already captured we yielded
■ n d steamed back again to the landing-place of Usindi,
■be hardy eleven looking as proud as though they had
■one a gallant deed worthy of the Victoria or the Iron
■cross.
■ On the shore a perfect' burst of joyful welcoming
■ e t us. Sueh an extraordinary people! Nkuku
■pfled on us; Butunu hailed us as friends, but
■ sm d i shot out to midstream to embrace us f This
■markable, and sudden development of friendship
c 2
1883.
June 4.
Nkuku.