CAMERON'S ADDRESS TO WORKING MEN. 701 



heads of animals, some of them very close to nature. In other cases the heads 

 •were those of devils, which they carved with the view of saving themselves 

 from the evil spirits. 



He told next of his journey through Manyema, and of his entrance 

 into an iron-producing district beyond. The people here were expert smiths, 

 and worked up speculum ore into a variety of weapons and utensils. Not 

 only was the work they turned out with the hand so fine that one would ima- 

 gine that they had all the appliances of the forge, but the spears and knives 

 were often ornamented with open iron and copper work. Having failed to 

 get boats to enable him to follow the River Lualaba down to the west he struck 

 southward, and after parting from Tipo Tipo he met with a chief settled on 

 the Lomami who refused to allow him to pass, as he said no caravan with guns 

 had ever been in his country, and if he could prevent it they never should. 

 He said he must pass through, and eventually the chief consented to grant a 

 passage. He told afterwards of a black fellow who knew the white traders, 

 and who promised to speak the truth "like an Englishman," but who never 

 spoke the truth at all. He also gave a brief account of a visit he paid to Lake 

 Mohyra, where were lake dwellings similar to those described by Sir Arthur 

 Helps in "Realmah." These were modern examples of those old lake dwell- 

 ings, and the reason why they were erected was to protect the inhabitants 

 from the ravages of their chief Kasonga. 



At Kilemba he was long delayed, but at length, on the 4th June, 1875, 

 he started in company with a caravan belonging to certain Portuguese traders 

 for the coast. On the way down he had full oportunity of seeing the horrid 

 cruelties perpetrated by the caravans belonging to the Portuguese, whose chief 

 business in the interior was to purchase and capture slaves. In the course of 

 his journey he passed across the watershed of the Zambesi and the Kwanza. 

 The latter river fell into the sea at St Paul de Loanda. It was ascended for 

 a considerable distance by vessels belonging to a Scotch firm settled at Loanda. 

 They were only able to go up as far as the rapids; but were a steamboat put 

 on above those rapids, there would be no difficulty in going a considerable 

 way into the interior. 



In concluding his lecture, Captain Cameron said that the country 

 through which he travelled was one of the richest in the world. Amongst 

 its minerals were several varieties of iron, cinnabar, silver, gold, copper, and 

 tin ; and last, though not least, coal was also to be found. Cotton grew wild 

 in some places, in others it was cultivated admirably. On the east coast 

 there was the best supply of copal gum in the world, and in the interior 

 there were deposits of the same material. The great staple trade be- 

 tween this country and the west coast of Africa was palm oil. Now, the 

 palm tree grew the whole distance up the Congo and the Lualaba, and was 

 found two thousand six hundred, in some cases three thousand feet above 



