494 THE KASAI AND QUANGO. 



I was always anxious to transmit an account of my discoveries on 

 every possible occasion, lest, any thing happening in the country 

 to which I was going, they should be entirely lost. I also fondly 

 expected a packet of letters and papers which my good angel at 

 Loanda would be sure to send if they came to hand, but I after- 

 ward found that, though he had offered a large sum to any one 

 who would return with an assurance of having delivered the last 

 packet he sent, no one followed me with it to Cabango. The 

 unwearied attentions of this good Englishman, from his first wel- 

 come to me when, a weary, dejected, and worn-down stranger, I 

 arrived at his residence, and his whole subsequent conduct, will 

 be held in lively remembrance by me to my dying day. 



Several of the native traders here having visited the country of 

 Luba, lying far to the north of this, and there being some visitors 

 also from the town of Mai, which is situated far down the Kasai, 

 I picked up some information respecting those distant parts. In 

 going to the town of Mai the traders crossed only two large rivers, 

 the Loajima and Chihombo. The Kasai flows a little to the east 

 of the town of Mai, and near it there is a large waterfall. They 

 describe the Kasai as being there of very great size, and that it 

 thence bends round to the west. On asking an old man, who 

 was about to return to Jiis chief Mai, to imagine himself stand- 

 ing at his home, and p^int to the confluence of the Quango and 

 Kasai, he immediately turned, and, pointing to the westward, said, 

 "When we travel five days (thirty-five or forty miles) in that 

 direction, we come to it." He stated also that the Kasai received 

 another river, named the Lubilash. There is but one opinion 

 among the Balonda respecting the Kasai and Quango. They inva- 

 riably describe the Kasai as receiving the Quango, and, beyond 

 the confluence, assuming the name of Zaire or Zerezere. And 

 the Kasai, even previous to the junction, is much larger than the 

 Quango, from the numerous branches it receives. Besides those 

 we have already crossed, there is the Chihombo at Cabango; 

 and forty-two miles beyond this, eastward, runs the Kasai itself; 

 fourteen miles beyond that, the Kaunguesi ; then, forty-two miles 

 farther east, flows the Lolua ; besides numbers of little streams, 

 all of which contribute to swell the Kasai. 



About thirty-four miles east of the Lolua, or a hundred and 

 thirty-two miles E.N.E. of Cabango, stands the town of Matiamvo, 



