1883. from its upper end, though we had been steadily
October21. ^ ’ „ . TSL ... « B ^ iboko, steaming. In 1877, while gently paddling with the
current, it had occupied us five and a half hours. The
guide indicated to us Boleko’s village, and also Mata
Bwyki’s; but we chose a dismal and dank camp on an
islet opposite the former, the channel between being
about 500 yards across. Yumbila, the guide, departed
to see Boleko quite unconcernedly, leaving us to he
gazed at until sunset by a thousand of the Bangala.
I could not help wondering in my mind what they
thought of the “ Ibanza ” who had passed through
their ranks in 1877, amid so much flame and smoke.
In form they were a fine people that we regarded—
broad of shoulder, large-muscled, grandly full in the
chest, slender-waisted, of rather tall height, to whom
life on the river, by the easy manner of their carriage
in the generally cranky canoes, must have been an
•every-day existence. While there were some of them
of very black complexion, the majority of them were
light bronze, and there were several light as Arabs in
complexion.
Yumbila returned at sunset with the chief Boleko,
who was a young man of about twenty-five, of powerful
build. Though he was cordial in manner, and offered
to introduce me to Mata Bwyki, who would no doubt
do all that was in his power to . satisfy my wishes, I
observed that the young man was furtive-eyed—almost
what one • may; .call„ thievish. in look. His hair was
dressed in the usual Kiyanzi style,, the marks on the
face being .'slight, .incisions over the upper part of each
cheek, while the centre of the forehead was distin- 1883.
October 21.
guished by three fleshy lumps. This I learned after- xbo]£0.
wards to be the special tribal marks of the Bangala.
After a night spent in indescribable discomfort on
the islet, Boleko came to us early in the morning to
introduce us to his own village, forty canoes serving
as an escort of honour to the flotilla.
What struck me on entering the creek, on the banks
of which Boleko’s village was situate, was that this
was the same creek whence issued the first hostile
canoes that attacked me in 1877, and which I took to
ONE OF THE BANGALA.
be an affluent of the Congo, whereas it is a narrow
channel, separated by a large and fertile island from the
main right branch. I t affords a capital harbour for
canoes and boats in bad weather on account of thé
reeds, which arrest the movement of the canoes, pro-
tecting them from being floated down by the current.
At Boleko’s landing-place trading began in a most
lively manner, as provisions were unusually cheap.
Six eggs were sold for four cowries ; ten rolls of
cassava bread for a brass rod; a large fowl fetched
g 2