972 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
earnings. The Kabindas in their dealings with the 
Portuguese much resemble the relations between the 
Krumen of the Liberian coast and the English. Both 
races are largely influenced by their intercourse with the 
white people, and though in neither case has there been 
any conquest or previous occupation of territory, yet, on 
the one hand, every Kabinda knows more or less Portu- 
guese, and few—I might say no—Krumen of the coast 
are ignorant of English. I think the recent attempt of 
the Portuguese to establish themselves on the Ka-kongo 
coast, whatever may be the view taken by the great 
powers, will meet with the approval of the natives, who 
have so long served under their new masters abroad that 
they will take kindly to their dominion at home. 
On the southern bank of the Lower river, opposite the 
Kabinda people, the little-known country of Sonyo or 
Songo is inhabited by the Au-shi-rongo, as the Portu- 
enese call them, a degraded branch of the great Ba- 
kongo race which stretches in reality, though it undergoes 
some variations, from Kabinda to Kinrembo on the coast, 
and from Stanley Pool to Banana along the river. The 
Ba-kongo group is split up into several separate tribes, all 
of which, however, speak more or less the same tongue, 
which is sometimes called Fiote (meaning “the common 
people”), and more correctly Ki-shi-kongo. Amongst 
the Ba-kongo peoples, or inhabitants of the river along 
its lower course from Stanley Pool to the sea, there are 
the Ba-shi-kongo already mentioned, who probably re- 
present the van of the Bantu invasion in this direction, 
mixed with an antecedent negro population; then the 
Ba-kongo proper, who have their centres about Sao 
Salvador and Palabala, the Basundi, the Ba-bwende, 
and the Wa-buno. In the names of all these tribes but 
one, it is curious to notice that the old plural prefix, 
“Ba,” is retained, whereas in the spoken tongue it has 
degenerated to “Wa” and even “A.” The only excep- 
tion is in the case of the Wa-buno, who are probably a 
later subdivision from the main stock. The Ba-kongo 
proper were once the ruling race over all this district, 
4 
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