INTRODUCTION. xi 
It is true, the first notice of this river is but vaguely given. 
Diego Cam, in proceeding down the coast, observed a 
strong current setting from the land, the waters of which 
were discoloured, and when tasted, found to be fresh. These 
circumstances Jed him to conclude, that he was not far 
from the mouth of some mighty river, which conclusion 
was soon confirmed by a nearer approach. He named it 
the Congo, as that was the name of the country through 
which it flowed, but he afterwards found that the natives 
called it the Zaire; two names which, since that time, 
have been used indiscriminately by Europeans. It now 
appears that Zaire is the general appellative for any great 
river, like the Nile in North Africa, and the Ganges in 
Hindostan, and that the native name of the individual 
river in question is Moienzi enzaddi, or the river which ab- 
sorbs all other rivers. 
All subsequent accounts agree in the magnitude and 
velocity of this river. In the “ Chronica da Companhia 
de Jezus em Portugal,” after noticing the Egyptian Nile, 
and the common but erroneous notion of its proceeding 
from the same lake with the Zaire, (namely Zembré, « the 
mother of waters,”) the latter is described as ‘ so violent 
and so powerful from the quantity of its water, and 
the rapidity of its current, that it enters the sea on the 
western side of Africa, forcing a broad and free passage (in 
spite of the ocean) with so much violence, that for the space 
of twenty leagues it preserves its fresh water unbroken by 
the briny billows which encompass it on every side; as 
if this noble river had determined to try its strength in 
pitched battle with the ocean itself, and alone deny it the 
tribute which all the other rivers in the world pay without 
