GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 351 
lets of warm blood as the most exquisite beverage ;” a ca- 
lumny, which there is every reason to believe has*not the 
smallest foundation in fact. From the character and 
disposition of the native African, it may fairly be doubted 
whether, throughout the whole of this great continent, a 
negro cannibal has any existence. 
That portion of the Congo territory, through which the 
Zaire flows into the southern Atlantic, is not very inte- 
resting, either in the general appearance of its surface, its 
natural products, or the state of society, and the condition 
of its native inhabitants. The first is unalterable; the 
second and third are capable of great extension and 
improvement, by artificial and moral cultivation; but 
with the exception of the river itself, there are probably 
few points between the mouth of the Senegal and Cape 
Negro, on that coast, which do not put on a more interest- 
ing appearance, in a physical point of view, than the 
banks of the Zaire. The cluster of mountains, though in 
general not high (the most elevated probably not’ ex- 
ceeding two thousand feet), are denuded of all vegeta- 
tion, with the exception of a few coarse rank grasses ; and 
the lower ranges of hills, having no grand forests, as might 
be expected in such a climate, but a few large trees only, 
scattered along their sides and upon their summits, the 
most numerous of which are, the Adansonia, Mimosa, 
Bombax, Ficus, and palms of two or three species. 
Between the feet of these hills, however, and the mar- 
gius of the river, the level alluvial banks, which extend 
from the mouth nearly to Embomma, are clothed with a 
