334 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



on the 2d of June, the unexplored region. He 

 established friendly relations with the inhabi- 

 tants the Ossyebas and Adumas although he 

 was impelled to kill the chief of one of the 

 Ossyeba villages, who behaved in a surly and 

 threatening manner, and to have an Aduma 

 chief beaten by his attendants. When he was 

 taken with vomiting, after having had the chief 

 Dyamba bound, the natives attributed his sick- 

 ness to the etish, or enchantment of Dyamba ; 

 it was this same negro whom he afterward 

 killed in the act of overturning his boat. Leav- 

 ing this village, he commenced to descend the 

 river with only his two attendants, but the 

 same day met Dr. Ballay with twenty-three 

 laden canoes. Brazza was very ill at this tune, 

 yet they proceeded upward as far as the vil- 

 lage Ngeme in the Aduma country. M. Marche 

 explored the river above that point, beyond the 

 entrance of the Sibe and the cataract of Dume, 

 as far as the point where a river called the 

 Kilei flows in, the eastern boundarv of the 

 country of the Alzanas, lat. 1 16' S., 1 48' 

 E. of Lope. He went a short distance above 

 the confluence, and reached his farthest point 

 the 26th of September. Beyond the Ivindo 

 the direction of the river's course changes from 

 east and west to northwest, ascending in the 

 direction of the river Congo. Above the fall 

 of Buwe they had encountered many strong 

 rapids, extending for a long distance; again 

 beyond the Dume cataract, which has a con- 

 siderable fall, there were many more rapids. 

 The necessity of carrying a large amount of 

 merchandise, beside their accoutrements, made 

 their progress slow and difficult. Dr. Ballay 

 had long to wait for the departure of Okandas, 

 a tricky and avaricious race, who trade with 

 the interior. They conveyed the stores as far 

 as Ngeme. The intrigues of these people pre- 

 vented the other tribes from assisting as much 

 as they would have done. M. di Brazza must 

 descend to Lope again with the Okanda boat- 

 men, in order to protect them from the Ossye- 

 bas, and there had to wait three or four months 

 for the floods to cease on the river. He ac- 

 quired considerable authority among the negro 

 tribes, and intermediated in their quarrels. 

 His person was always respected, and he as- 

 sumed, like the native chiefs, a staff for his mes- 

 sengers, which was always held inviolate. He 

 made friends with the Ossyebas, who had shown 

 themselves hostile in the beginning. This tribe 

 he identifies with the Fans of the Mundah river, 

 and with the Pahuins, and conjectures that 

 they may belong to the same race with the 

 Niam-niams encountered by Schweinfurth on 

 the Welle. He describes them as exceedingly 

 bellicose and courageous. The Ossyeba chiefs 

 told him that they were his friends, but would 

 not be friends with the Okandas, who before 

 they, the Ossyebas, had jjuns (about 1860), 

 robbed them of their wives and children, and 

 massacred their men. He purchased several 

 slaves from the interior, who would have an 

 interest in ascending the river, not being able 



to depend further on the Okandas; to these 

 slaves he offered their liberty, but they staid 

 by him. Dr. Ballay removed the effects from 

 Ngeme as far as the Dume cataract. They ex- 

 pected to depart for the interior by the open- 

 ing of the dry season, about the middle of May. 

 They had explored the Ogowe so far about 500 

 miles. M. Marche returned to Europe in Octo- 

 ber. He expressed the opinion that the Ogowe 

 would be found to be a mouth of the Congo, 

 branching off further to the north, but did not 

 think it probable that the expedition would be 

 able to penetrate much farther into the inte- 

 rior. Dr. Lenz divides the multitude of small 

 peuplades who inhabit the basin of the Ogowe 

 into three classes: 1. The aboriginal inhabi- 

 tants, who have been dispersed and displaced 

 in the successive immigrations, to which class 

 belong the scattered Abongo (Akkoa) people, 

 the so-called dwarf races. 2. The people whose 

 occupation dates back hundreds of years, which 

 class includes (a) all the Mpongwe or Gaboon 

 tribes, such as the Mpongwes, Orungus, Inin- 

 gas, Ncomis, Ajumbas, and (&) all the Okanda 

 tribes, as the Okotas, Yalimbongos, Apinshis, 

 Okandas, Asimbas, etc. 3. Those who have in- 

 truded within the last 20 or 30 years ; such are 

 the Akelle tribes, among which are the Mbang- 

 wes, which tribe came probably from the south, 

 and such also the Fans, who are also called the 

 Ossyebas and Mpangwes. The southern limits 

 of the Fan nations may be set at the right bank 

 of the Ogowe river, whose course ranges be- 

 tween the equator and lat. 1 S. ; they extend 

 northward up to lat. 4 or 5 N. They have 

 a few settlements on the coast. They extend 

 eastward far back into the unexplored country, 

 and are undoubtedly nearlyrelated to the Niam- 

 niams and the Monbuttus of Schweinfurth. 

 They seem to belong to a great family of tribes, 

 which occupy a broad belt stretching entirely 

 across equatorial Africa; as tribes have been 

 found in widely separated regions showing 

 strong analogies in their ibrm and character- 

 istics, all of them cannibals, and possessing the 

 same arts, particularly great skill in working 

 iron, giving the same forms to their weapons, 

 and showing other resemblances. 



In a hypsometric map of equatorial Africa, 

 from 15 N. latitude to 15 S. latitude, which 

 has been prepared by Guido Cora, the follow- 

 ing elevations are distinguished: (a) depres- 

 sions below the level of the sea, to wit, the 

 salty flats around Lakes Alelbad and Assal near 

 the coast of Abyssinia; (b) from the level of 

 the sea to 500 metres, embracing the great de- 

 pressions of lake Tsad and that of the "White 

 Nile as far as Gondokoro, the eastern littoral 

 of the continent, and the basin through which 

 run the Ogowe, the Congo, and the Lualaba ; 

 (e) from 500 to 1,000 metres above the level 

 of the sea, which includes the whole interior 

 from the lake-region to the Atlantic coast 

 lands, from the basin of the Congo on the south, 

 whose northern limit nearly coincides with 

 the equator, up to about latitude 8 N., with a 



