The Eastern Congo 



missionary being a " tenderfoot " believed him and wrote 

 to his friends in America, where Renter's reporters got hold 

 of the story. Be that as it may, the natives in many parts 

 of Central Africa believe in the existence of a gigantic water 

 animal* which has been described to me by the Buanga 

 natives inhabiting the swamps of the south of Lake Bang- 

 weulu, as a water rhinoceros ; they had even a name for it, 

 which was chimpelwi, and described it as able to kill a hippo- 

 potamus with which it was in the habit of fighting ; the bones 

 of one of these animals, they averred, were to be found in 

 the swamps. 



An authenticated case of a white man having seen such 

 an animal was told me by the man himself, an acquaintance 

 of mine named Defries. It is, of course, necessary to state 

 he is an extremely abstemious man, besides being a good 

 sportsman, a trained naturalist, and for a considerable period 

 rubber conservator for North-western Rhodesia. When 

 carrying out his duties in the latter capacity he had reason 

 to pass by a small lake between Lakes Chaa and Kapopo 

 on the upper Kafue River. This lake or rather lakelet 

 is so deep as to be unfathomable, and has moreover no visible 

 outlet. 



Defries put up his tent near by and towards evening 

 whilst strolling to the water's edge with his rifle, he was 

 astonished to see a massive form lying or floating on the 

 water. Now, Defries was a very old resident in Central 

 Africa and knew a hippo as you, dear reader or I, know a 

 bull in a field, perhaps better, and he empnatically states 

 it was not a hippo. He describes it as a long, dark floating 

 body, at which he fired and which he hit, being not more 



* This is also the case on the Victoria Nyanza. — H. H. J. 



190 



