EARLY ENGLISH DISCOVERIES. 57 



Other powers of still higher name held sway over the de- 

 luded minds of the people of Congo. Some ladies of rank 

 ^•ent about beating a drum before them, with dishevelled 

 hair, and pretending to work magical cures. There was 

 also a race of mighty conjurers, called Scingilli, who had 

 the power of giving and withdrawing rain at pleasure ; and 

 they had a king called Ganja Chitorne, or God of the Earth, 

 to whom its first-fruits were regularly offered. This per- 

 son never died ; but when tired of his sway on earth, he 

 nominated his successor and killed himself, — a step doubt- 

 less prompted by the zeal of his followers, when they saw 

 any danger of his reputation for immortality being compro- 

 mised. This class argued strongly in favour of their vo- 

 cation, as not only useful, but absolutely essential ; since 

 without it the earth would be deprived of those influences by 

 which alone it was enabled to minister to the wants of man. 

 The people accordingly viewed with the deepest alarm any 

 idea of giving offence to beings whose wrath might be dis- 

 played in devoting the land to utter sterility. 



We do not possess any record of the period or the manner 

 in which the Portuguese and their missionaries were ex- 

 pelled from Congo ; but a late expedition did not find on 

 the banks of the Zaire any trace or even recollection of 

 either. 



CHAPTER V. 



Early English Discoveries. 



The Portuguese, while they bore away the palm of mari- 

 time enterprise from all other nations, considered Africa 

 most especially as a region which they had won for them- 

 selves, and had covered with trophies of discovery and vic- 

 tory. But after being subjected to the cruel and degrading 

 yoke of Philip II. of Spain, they lost all their spirit and 

 energy. Under the same influence, they became involved 

 in hostility with the Dutch, who had risen to the first rank as 

 . nuval people, and whose squadrons successively stripped 



