Zfl4 FEEDERS OF THE CONGO. 



could not but admire their capabilities for easy irrigation. 

 On reaching the river Chikapa, (lat. 10° 10' S., long. 19° 

 42' E .,) the 25th of March, we found it fifty or sixty yards 

 wide, and flowing E.N.E. into the Kasai. The adjacent 

 country is of the same level nature as that part of Londa 

 formerly described ; but, having come farther to the east- 

 ward than our previous course, we found that all the rivers 

 had worn for themselves much deeper valleys than at the 

 points we had formerly crossed them. 



Surrounded on all sides by large gloomy forests, the 

 people of these parts have a much more indistinct idea of 

 the geography of their country than those who live in hilly 

 regions. It was only after long and patient inquiry that I 

 became fully persuaded that the Quilo runs into the Chi- 

 kapa. As we now crossed them both considerably farther 

 down, and were greatly to the eastward of our first route, 

 there can be no doubt that these rivers take the same 

 course as the others, into the Kasai, and that I had been 

 led into a mistake in saying that any of them flowed to 

 the westward. Indeed, it was only at this time that I 

 began to perceive that all the western feeders of the Kasai, 

 except the Quango, flow first from the western side toward 

 the centre of the country, then gradually turn, with the 

 Kasai itself, to the north, and, after the confluence of the 

 Kasai with the Quango, an immense body of water, col- 

 lected from all these branches, finds its way out of the 

 country by means of the river Congo or Zaire, on the west 

 coast. 



The people living along the path we are now following 

 were quite accustomed to the visits of native traders, and 

 did not feel in any way bound to make presents of food 

 except for the purpose of cheating : thus, a man gave me 

 a fowl and some meal, and after a short time returned. 

 I offered him a handsome present of beads ; but these he 

 declined, and demanded a cloth instead, which was far 

 more than the value of his gift. They did the same with 

 my men, until w e had to refuse presents altogether. Others 



