58 
Central Africa. 
and in these, the whole of the Expedition embarked, pre- 
pared to reach the open sea. 
The Congo flowed northward still, although the Equator 
was passed, so that Stanley was just as undecided as to the 
outcome of the quest, but he had ventured too far into 
the wilderness to retrace his steps. By-and-by, he came to 
Stanley Pool, and here the character of the river changed. 
The stream, reinforced by enormous volumes of water from 
its tributaries, had broadened into four thousand yards in 
width. Many cataracts had been passed, before, not without 
loss of life ; but here they had to encounter terrible chasms 
and falls, down which it would have been sheer madness to 
have urged their descent. True, the yells and attacks and 
showers of poisoned arrows had become less, for the natives 
on both sides the stream were either better disposed to the 
explorers, or less cannibal in their nature. But the Congo 
had narrowed into an impetuous torrent of twelve hundred 
yards, and this deep volume of water rushed over giant 
rocks. Stanley says, " It was no longer the stately stream, 
whose majestic beauty, noble grandeur, and gentle uninter- 
rupted flow fascinated us, despite the savagery of its peopled 
shores ; but a furious river rushing down a steep bed, ob- 
structed by reefs of lava, projecting barriers of rock, and 
lines of immense boulders, winding in a crooked course, 
through deep chasms, and dropping down over terraces, in 
a long series of falls, cataracts, and rapids. Our frequent con- 
tests with the savages, culminated in tragic struggles with the 
mighty river, as it rushed and roared through the deep yawn- 
ing pass that leads from the broad table-land down to the 
Atlantic Ocean. With inconceivable fury, the Livingstone 
sweeps through clifl'-lined gorges into the broad Lower Con- 
go." As before mentioned, Stanley had re-named the Congo 
The Livingstone River ^ out of reverence to his dead hero. 
