196 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
penetrating with any number of mén by land, along the 
sides of the river, both from the nature of the country, and 
impossibility of procuring provisions. 
On the 30th, I sent Lieutenant Hawkey to Voonda to 
endeavour to hire canoes, to enable us to go up to the first 
Sangalla, being determined to make an attempt by water, | 
though with little hopes of success. 
Where there are neither written annals, legends, nor an- 
cient national songs, nor chronology beyond a month, the 
history of a nation must be very vague and confined. The 
only idea I have been able to obtain of the Congoese his- 
tory, is, that Congo once formed a mighty empire, the chief 
of which had three sons, between whom he divided his 
dominions at his death, giving to one the upper part of the 
river on both sides as far as Sangalla; to a second, the left 
bank of the river (the Blandy N’Congo), and to the third, 
the right bank, Banzey N’Yonga. 
The Congoese are evidently a mixed nation, having no 
national physiognomy, and many of them perfectly south 
European in their features. This, one would naturally 
conjecture, arises from the Portuguese having mixed with 
them ; and yet there are very few Mulattoes among them. 
The creeping plants serve for cordage; some of which 
are not less then six inches in diameter. Fleas and bugs 
