— 
STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 145 
this exception there was no sign of man for some distance 
after leaving Kimpoko. The country, especially on the 
western bank, appears quite uninhabited,* and is a 
beautiful, uncultivated waste, with verdant slopes lke 
natural meadows, clumps of shady forest and numberless 
rills of water. The vegetation overhanging the river is of 
a very rich character, and endlessly varying and ever- 
charming effects; above all, when it 1s mirrored in some 
tranquil bay, where the deep green of the foliage becomes 
enhanced by a brilliant shore-line of yellow-white sand, 
and the tender grace and the fanciful forms of the many 
parasitic creepers contrast with the whitened snags and 
fallen trees which rear their gnarled Lmbs out of the 
placid water. On these suags are perched many water 
birds Little jewel-like kinegfishers, smalt-blue and 
verditer, with scarlet beaks ; queer little bitterns, scarcely 
distinguishable by their modest grey coats and angular 
bearing from the branch on which they are posed, and an 
occasional black-and-white vulture or a sacred ibis. These 
spots offer a continual succession of little pictures with a 
never-ending natural charm, whether in diversity of com- 
position or colouring. ‘The sun has set and night has 
fallen ere we land at a village which as yet bears no name 
known to white men. It stands a little distance back 
from the river, but some natives fortunately come down 
and sell us fowls and bananas. I did not dine this 
evening until ten oclock, but when Mafta at length 
announced the meal ready, I found it most enjoyable, for 
I had gained a great appetite and the dinner happened to 
be well cooked, one fowl being turned into soup and the 
other roasted. Moreover, Mafta has got into the way of 
making delicious “ compotes de bananes.” He takes half- 
a-dozen of the small, sweet bananas, those that the French 
eall “ bananes d’argent,” boils them in a little water to a 
pulp, puts in a spoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, two 
or three drops of brandy (to replace sherry), stirs the whole 
vigorously, and turns out what seems to me an irreproach- 
* Through recent internecine wars on the part of the natives, 
L 
