416 General Notes.. ee ‘[May, 
of the equator or between 2° and 3° south latitude and be- 
tween the river Mpaka-Mpama and the Lawson(?). Gaining the 
favor of King Makoko, he was able peacefully to descend the 
Alima to its junction with the Congo. On October 3d, he 
founded the station Ntamo-Nkouma, on land ceded by the king, 
on the right bank of the Congo. Makoko is King of Ubanji 
(Ubangi-Stanley), The distance by this route from the Ogowé to 
the Congo is twelve marches, over a plateau of an average height of 
eight hundred metres. The country is healthy and the population 
dense and peaceful. He left a sergeant and three men at Ntamo- 
Nkouma,who can be supplied and revictualled from Ogowe station 
by an easy route. 
Descending the Congo in boats in November, he arrived at 
Mdambi-Mbongo, about long. 14° east, the advanced post of Mr. 
Stanley, whom he met and with whom he reached the latter's 
headquarters at Vivi, on November 12th. He reached the 
Gaboon, on December 16th. In two days he started again for 
the Ogowé and the basin of the Congo. His first station, Mas- 
hogo, is in the country of the Okandi. This tribe is devoted 
to agriculture, and food is plentiful in their country. . 
Brazza has now taken with him, in sections, a small steam vessel, 
which has been lately built of steel expressly for his explorations, 
and after reaching the upper course of the Ogowé he hopes to be 
able to get it conveyed to the Alima or one of the other affluents 
of the Congo. 
. de Brazza is the first European traveler, who has penetrated 
into the interior of equatorial Africa from the west coast. [© 
believes the Ogowé to be the best means of communicating with 
the interior, as the Congo is so interrupted by cataracts and 
STANLEY ON THE Conco.—The permanent station on the Congo 
of the Stanley expedition is on an elevated plateau below f 
Yellala falls. It is now a small town containing the dwellings d 
Mr. Stanley and his European staff, workshops, warehouses, oe 
h ; ‘ss les of almost 
uts for his laborers and a garden producing vegetables of about 
1 See NATURALIST, February, p, 167, 
