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. 



