364 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
most productive parts ; and nothing appeared that could 
give the least colour to those exaggerated statements of the 
Catholic missionaries, who speak of such masses of men 
collected together as are not to be met with in the most 
populous parts of Europe. Carli, for instance, states the 
«© Grand Duke’s” army to amount to 160,000 men ; and 
he accounts for the vast population of Congo from the 
indulgence of every man being allowed to take as many 
wives as he pleases, and the absence of all those religious 
institutions and societies which, in Europe, consign their 
members to a state of celibacy. Nay, we are told, that the 
king, Don Antonio, could muster an army of 900,000 
men, and that he actually brought 80,000 against the 
Portuguese, who with 400 Europeans and 2000 negroes, 
with the help of the Virgin Mary, easily put to route this 
great force, dethroned the king, and set up a new one of 
their own. Whether such a population ever existed, or if 
so, What became of it; whether wars, pestilence, or famine, 
swept those vast multitudes away, or whether their pro- 
geny were sent off to other lands, the Portuguese, who 
best could tell, have been silent on the subject ; it is quite 
clear, however, that no such population exists at the pre- 
sent day. 
Leaving out the paramount sovereign of Congo, whose 
existence seems to be rather doubtful, the component parts 
of a tribe or society, would appear to consist of—1. the 
Chenoo ; 2. the members of his family; 3. the Mafooks; 
4. Foomos; 5. fishermen, coolies and labouring people ; 
6. domestic slaves. 
