When he had passed the Leketi, a southern branch of the
Alima, his route lay across the plateau of Achicuya, an
elevated district lying about 2,600 feet above sea level, and
separated from another similar plateau (the Aboma) by the
river Mpama. (Mpama = Ox.)
The chief of Achicuya received the traveller in a friendly
manner, and a similar reception awaited him on reaching the
Abooma tribe. These latter people he describes as being the
handsomest and bravest he had met; and it was from them he
received information regarding the Congo and the powerful
chief Makoko, whose sovereignty the Abooma acknowledge.
Leaving the Abooma district he travelled along the Lefini
(the Lawson of Mr. Stanley), and just as he was finishing the
construction of a raft to descend the Lefini, he received
messengers from King Makoko with friendly greetings and
offers of assistance. This much facilitated his further proceedings.
He descended the Lefini with the envoy as far as
Ngampo on his raft, and then landed and went overland
for two days across an uninhabited tableland. He states his
march over the sun-scorched plateau was most wearisome;
and that two days’ march must have been a choice spot,
if, as I conjecture, this tableland was of the same formation
as those truly horrible Pallaballa mountains, that have in their
composition an immense percentage of mica, which glistens
in' the sun like diamond dust, and dazzles you, and which,
bare of vegetation, reflect back the burning heat in a scorching
way, forming a layer of hot air, and making the whole
desolate, hideous scene vibrate before, your eyes as you can
see things vibrating through the hot air over a line of gas jets.
Never shall I forget my short experience in the Pallaballa
range. Never have I in all West Africa come across a thing
that came up to one’s ideals of the infernal region so completely.
And the nights, when you had the whole earth
round you exhaling a heavy, hot breath with the heat it
had been soaking in during the day. Small wonder M. de
Brazza should have “ begun to find fault with his guide,
Makoko’s envoy, just before eleven o’clock on the second
night after a forced march.” Fortunately shortly afterwards he
came in sight of the Congo. “ It appeared like an immense