332 ADVANCE WITHOUT GUIDES. 



forest through which we were passing, and I was glad to 

 hear my companions coming to the conclusion that, as we 

 were now in parts visited by traders, we did not require 

 the guides, whose chief use had been to prevent misappre- 

 hension of our objects in the minds of the villagers. The 

 country was somewhat more undulating now than it had 

 been, and several fine small streams flowed in deep woody 

 dells. The trees are very tall and straight, and the forest 

 gloomy and damp ; the ground in these solitudes is quite 

 covered with yellow and brown mosses, and light-coloured 

 lichens clothe all the trees. The soil is extremely fertile, 

 being generally a black loam covered with a thick crop 

 of tall grasses. We passed several villages too. The 

 headman of a large one scolded us well for passing, when 

 he intended to give us food. Where slave-traders have 

 been in the habit of coming, they present food, then demand 

 three or four times its value as a custom. We were now 

 rather glad to get past villages without intercourse with 

 the inhabitants. 



We were travelling W.N.W., and all the rivulets we here 

 crossed had a northerly course, and were reported to 

 fall into the Kasai or Iyoke ; most of them had the peculiar 

 boggy banks of the country. As we were now in the 

 alleged latitude of the Coanza, I was much astonished at 

 the entire absence of any knowledge of that river among 

 the natives of this quarter. But I was then ignorant of 

 the fact that the Coanza rises considerably to the west of 

 this, and has a comparatively short course from its source 

 to the sea. 



The famous Dr. Lacerda seems to have laboured under 

 the same mistake as myself, for he recommended the 

 government of Angola to establish a chain of forts along 

 the banks of that river, with a view to communication 

 with the opposite coast. As a chain of forts along its 

 course would lead southwards instead of eastwards, we 

 may infer that the geographical data within reach of that 

 eminent man were no better than those according to 

 which I had directed my course to the Coanza where it 

 does not exist. 



2.6th. — We spent Sunday on the banks of the Quilo, or 

 Kweelo ; here a stream of about ten yards wide. It runs 

 in a deep glen, the sides of which are almost five hundred 

 yards of slope, and rocky, the rocks being hardened cal- 

 careous tufa lying on clay shale and sandstone below, with 



