ARRIVAL ON THE WELLE. 441 



my returning to their relations all the women who had been 

 captured. With one blow, therefore, peace was restored and 

 the road reopened, at least here, whilst the district in the west 

 will have to wait a little. 



Monbuttu now lay before me, from whence I was receiving 

 letters every day requesting my personal presence to put 

 matters in order. I determined to go there at once, as I 

 was able to spare a few days. 



After crossing the Dongu near the small military station of 

 the same name (the river was a hundred and twenty-five 

 feet broad and eight feet deep, and had many rapids), we 

 marched through the narrow strip of Zande country which lay 

 between it and the banks of the Kibali, which we reached at 

 midday on the 1 5 th of June. All the Zande call the Kibali 

 Makua. The Zande word Welle means, as far as I can make 

 out, " the river par excellence" in contradistinction to small 

 streams. At the place where we crossed the river it was 

 two hundred and forty feet broad, twelve feet deep, and flowed 

 at the rate of fifty-seven feet per minute. You may believe 

 me when I tell you that at this point I thought very much of 

 you, especially when one of my soldiers, who was born in Kuka, 

 made the remark that the river we were crossing was probably 

 his river [i.e., the Shari]. 



We were now in Monbuttu proper, although the whole of 

 this part of the country is inhabited by a tribe which the real 

 Monbuttu call Bamba, and the Zande, Abangba, and which is 

 actually identical with your Abanga. It is a very interesting 

 fact, and one which illustrates well the movements and wander- 

 ings of this tribe, that the Mundu, or Mondu, of the Makraka 

 country are really identical with these Bamba, who, it may be 

 supposed, were driven by the Zande to the east, and thus 

 separated from their relations many long years ago. The 

 language of the Mundu, which diners entirely from that 

 spoken by the other tribes living in Makraka, is identical with 

 that of the Bamba, and many of my people from Mundu met 

 with their relations here. The Nyapu and the A-Barambo, 

 both aboriginal inhabitants of the country, known to-day as 

 Monbuttu, are also related by identity of language to both the 

 Mundu and Bamba. Another branch of the Monbuttu family. 



