876 LIFE OF DA VID LI VINGSTONE, LL.D. 



body of water and the current still very swift. From the mouth to beyond 

 this place, the banks are deeply cut in innumerable creeks and rivers, and 

 form many large islands. For many years, and up to the year 1868, the 

 Congo was the principal shipping place for slaves on the South- West Coast, 

 the large number of creeks in it affording safe hiding-places for loadiDg the 

 ships engaged in the traffic, and the swift current enabling them to go out 

 quickly a long way to sea, and clear the cruisers. Boma was the centre or 

 point for the caravans of slaves coming from different parts of the interior, and 

 there was little or no trade in produce. 



At the mouth of the Congo, and on its north bank, a long spot of sand 

 separates the sea from a small creek or branch of the river. On this narrow 

 strip, called Banana, are established several factories, belonging to Dutch, 

 French, and English houses, and serving principally as depots for their other 

 factories higher up the river and on the coast. Mr. Monteiro ascended the 

 river in a steamer belonging to the Dutch house, in February, 1873. The first 

 place he touched at was Porto da Leuha, about forty or forty-five miles from 

 Banana. Porto da Leuha consists of half-a-dozen trading factories, built on 

 ground enclosed from the river by piles, forming quays in front, where large 

 vessels can discharge and load close alongside. From this place he proceeded 

 to Boma, also situated on the north bank of the river, about ninety-five miles 

 from Banana. Here he spent a fortnight. 



"All the lovely coloured finches," he says, " and other birds of the grassy 

 regions, were here most conspicuous in number and brilliancy, and it was 

 really beautiful to see the tall grass alive with the brightest scarlet, yellow, 

 orange, and velvet black of the many different species, at that season in their 

 full plumage. We were very much amused at a pretty habit of the males of 

 the tiny sky-blue birds (Estrelda cyanogastra) that, with other small birds 

 such as the Spermestes, Estreldas, Pytelias, etc., used to come down in flocks 

 to feed in the open space round the house. The greatest mites would take a 

 grass flower in their beaks, and perform quite a happy dance on any little 

 stick or bush, bobbing their feathery heads up and down, whilst their tiny 

 throat swelled with the sweetest little song-notes and trills imaginable. This 

 was their song to the females feeding about on the ground below them. The 

 long-tailed whydah birds (Vidua principalis) have a somewhat similar habit 

 of showing off whilst the hens are feeding on the ground : they keep hover- 

 ing in the air about three or four feet above them, twit-twitting all the time, 

 their long tails rising and falling most gracefully to the up-and-down motion 

 of their little bodies." 



The natives of the Congo, from its mouth to a little above Porto da Leuha, 

 belong to the Mussurongo tribe. They are fond of wearing ankle-rings, 

 which, when of brass, are made in Birmingham ; but in many cases they are 

 made by the natives of iron forged by their smiths, and cast-tin or pewter, 



