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 verv 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, b}' artificial and moral cultivation ; but 

 with the exception of the river itself, there are probably 

 few points between the motith 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 moimtains, though in 

 general not high (the most elev'ated 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 o;rand forests, as mio-ht 

 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- 

 gins of the river, the level alluvial banks, which extend 

 from the mouth nearly to Embomma, are clothed with a 



