THE LOWER CONGO—BANANA POINT TO VIVI. 35 
attack a friend of Stanley’s seems to the natives scarcely 
less futile than attacking Stanley himself. Stanley turned 
suddenly as the chief of the station introduced me, and 
welcomed me in a thoroughly cordial manner; then. 
dismissing the native chiefs, who had examined me 
curiously under the belief that I was “ Bula Matadi’s”’ son, 
he sent Dualla for some tea. Dualla was a handsome 
Somali lad, son of the chief of the police at Aden, and 
versed in many European and African languages. He 
had been Stanley’s body-servant on the Congo since 1879. 
On the first night of my arrival we were a larger party 
—some twenty-seven white men in all—than the ordinary 
dining-room would comfortably contain, so, as the night 
was brilliantly fine and still, the long dinner-table was 
spread in the open moonlight near the edge of the jagged 
cliff, and here we sat long after the meal was over, calmly 
enjoying the balmy night, and listening to Stanley’s always 
vivid descriptions of past African experiences, enhanced 
in this case by such a splendid mise en scene to his dis- 
course as Vivi, the dark mountains, the rushing river, and 
the quiet moonlight could lend. Vivi station* is about 
360 feet above the sea, and a clear 270 feet above the 
Congo. The projecting mass of hill upon which the 
station is placed rises higher as it nears the river, and is 
almost inappreachable save from the inland side, or by 
means of a road winding up from the river bank. On the 
left of this precipitous hill a little stream, dashing in tiny 
cascades through a series of small chasms in the blue-grey 
rock, gives rise to some vegetation, and, indeed, rather 
picturesque hanging woods, and fertilises the large gardens 
and banana plantations that have been made in the valley. 
This stream is very nearly perennial, but in the dry season 
it occasionally fails, otherwise it may be looked upon as 
the water supply of Vivi, for its water is more agreeable 
to drink than that of the Congo, which, though perfectly 
wholesome, is charged with sandy sediment and has often 
* Vivi is no longer in existence. It.-was-found to be a -very-un- 
healthy place, and the river approach was very difficult. The settle- 
-ment, therefore, was removed to the opposite bank at Matadi.—H. H. J. 
|S ae Sa 
