Chap. Y. NAVIGATE THE NGOUYAI TJVEK. 97 



no harm should come to me from the Aviia people, 

 for they were all his friends, several of his sisters 

 were married amongst them, &c., &c. 



7///. 'J'he canoe given me for the voyage was a 

 leaky, rotten affair, and on trial I found that it would 

 not contain all our party, with my instruments and 

 the provisions for the journey. I was obliged to 

 leave three men behind with half the plantains. 

 Even then the wretched vessel was only an inch and 

 a half above the water. It seemed to me to be 

 running too great a risk to trust my chronometers on 

 such a journey. If the canoe upset we might swim 

 or scramble ashore, saving what we could, but the 

 loss of the watches would put an end to lunar 

 observations, which I felt to be one of the principal 

 objects of mj" expedition. So I determined to confide 

 them to Dihaou till my return. The three men we 

 left out of the canoe were to go a tedious march by 

 land and meet us at the Falls. 



We left the town at a quarter to nine a.m. and 

 entered tlie great Rcmbo (the river Ngouyai) at ten 

 minutes past ten a.m., the distance being about ten 

 miles. It was with some pride that I greeted again 

 this fine river, which I had the honour of discovering 

 on my former journey, at the upper part of its course 

 in the Apiiigi country ;* up to the present time I 

 was the only white man who had ever embarked on 

 its waters. 



The Ovigui, at its junction with the Ngouyai, is 



* 'Adventures in Equatorial Africa,' p. 438. In the Apin?;i country 

 it is called the llembo (river) Apingi, under wliicli name 1 described it 

 loc. cit. 



