374 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
to strangers, and always ready to share their pittance, 
sometimes scanty enough, with the passing visitor. In one 
of the notes only, they are characterized as shrewd, cunning, 
and thievish. Men living in astate of society like theirs, have 
occasion for all their shrewdness and cunning ; but with re- 
spect to their thievish propensity, though common to almost 
all savage and half-civilized tribes, the testimony of Captain 
Tuckey is rather in favour of their honesty. It is true, that 
when returning down the river in a sickly and helpless condi- 
tion, and in great haste and anxiety to reach the vessels, some 
trifling advantage was taken to pilfer part of their baggage; 
but it is in favour of these people that, considering all the 
circumstances of the distressed situation of the party, they 
were able to bring away with them any part of their scat- 
tered property. 
The stature of the men of Congo is that of the middle size, 
and their features, though nearest to those of the negro 
tribe, are neither so strongly marked, nor so black as the 
Africans are in general. ‘They are not only represented as 
being more pleasing, but also as wearing the appearance 
of great simplicity and innocence. Captain ‘Tuckey could 
not discover among the people any national physiognomy ; 
but few mulattoes; and many had the features of south- 
ern Europeans. ‘The discovery, by the party, of burnt 
bones, and of human sculls hanging from trees, might 
have led to the injurious idea of their being addicted 
to the eating of human flesh, had no further enquiries 
been made concerning them: accounts of cannibalism have 
been inferred by travellers on appearances no_ better 
founded than these: and it is probable, that the many idle 
