CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 165 



by the promise of handsome pa}-, and still more through the 

 assurance of safety offered by our muskets, that I could pre- 

 vail on a guide to promise to accompany me to banza Inga. 



All my endeavours to find a slave trader who knew some- 

 thing of the river have been fruitless. One man at Cooloo 

 presented himself, and said he had been a month's journey 

 from that place, but always travelled by land, except in the 

 passage of several rivers by canoes and fords ; the direction 

 of his course appeared to be to the N. E. and the country, 

 according to him, more mountainous than where we are. 

 Indeed it appears that the people of Congo never go them- 

 selves for slaves, but that they are always brought to them 

 b}^ those they call bushmcn, who, they say, have no towns 

 nor acknowledge any government. All however agree 

 in asserting that the country on the south is still more diffi- 

 cult than that on the north, which, together with there ap- 

 pearing to be no traces of the Portuguese missions on the 

 lattei^,* as Avell as the river again taking a direction to 

 the north, induces me to prefer this side for my farther 

 progress. 



Aug. 19. In pursuance of my intention to endeavour to 



* At Noki the crucifixes left by the missionaries were strangely mixed with the 

 native fetiches, and the people seemed by no means improved by this melange 

 of Christian and Pagan idolatry. 



