RIO JANEIRO. 



59 



information was known. The part of the continent which they are 

 said to inhabit is still unexplored ; the account which one of them 

 gave Mr. Hale was, that he had been three days with his captors in 

 canoes, from his native place, M'te, situated on the great river Muote, 

 before reaching Loango, where he embarked. It is probable that M'te 

 is in the interior, two or three hundred miles northeast of Loango, and 

 that he was brought to the coast by the Zaire river; but in this wild 

 unexplored ground, all is yet conjecture. The next town or tribe to 

 M'te he called Mudimbe. 



MUNDJOLA. 



The extensive territory, bounded on the north by the river Coanza, 

 in latitude 9° 20' S., on the west by the Atlantic, on the south by the 

 Great Desert, which interposes between it and the country of the 

 Hottentots, and reaching to an indefinite distance in the interior, is 

 known under the name of Benguela, or as the natives pronounce it, 

 Bengera. Over this extent of country, comprising at least half of 

 Lower Guinea, the same general language is supposed to prevail, 

 though subdivided into several dialects. 



BKNGUELAN. 



The Benguela blacks have a much higher character as slaves than 



