TO BOLOBO. | 165 
quite painful, whilst each of his comrades repeated after 
him, with an hysterical, and a falsetto voice, ‘“ Mpongwe, 
mpongwe!” Therefore, being on terms of such cordiality, - 
I took the liberty of asking them to go away and let me 
eat and sleep in peace, which, to my relief, they promptly 
did, telling the Zanzibaris before leaving that I must 
indeed be a great chief to possess two whole bottles of 
salt. | 
March 4th.—What a miserable morning! One can 
hardly believe oneself in the same world as yesterday— 
a sky filled with fearful storm-clouds and a thick rain 
falling. It required some resolution to start, and the 
Zanzibaris suggested our remaining till noon where we 
were, but right or wrong I insisted on going on. I don’t 
think I stood very well in the men’s graces this morning. 
Yesterday I gave them two hours’ more work than they 
wanted, and to-day I made them start in the rain. Two 
or three smart showers followed up the storm, then a burst 
of furious wind which lashed the Congo into waves and 
‘rocked our boat as if we were on the sea; then a dead 
calm and, at last, our faithless friend, the sun, veiling 
himself with white clouds, appeared in a half-hearted, 
shame-stricken manner. About noon, the orb now shining 
brightly, we stopped at a little island, one of the many 
that dot the surface of the vast river, to give the men time 
to cook their bananas. It was not remarkable for much 
beyond footprints in the moist soil. I drew several of 
these impressions in my sketch-book, as they gave an 
excellent idea of the “artiodactyle ” foot in an incipient 
stage. Here too, and on other neighbouring islands, was 
growing a papilionaceous plant new to me, having leaves 
and a thorny stem like the mimosas, with flowers of a 
gaudy orange. 
Towards sunset we halted at a sand-bank, or sandy 
island, in the middle of the Congo, half a mile in width 
and perhaps a mile long. On arriving, a multitude of 
water birds were in possession, but at our approach they 
flew off to other haunts. There only remained large flocks 
of red-billed terns, which circled and screamed round our 
