^0 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
from the southern shore. This is one of the most 
fertile and populous districts of the kingdom ; 
and the inhabitants, who are called Mosombos, 
are said to be the mildest and most humane of all 
its inhabitants. The duke, as he is termed, main- 
tains a court, the splendour of which almost ri- 
vals that of the king. His army is estimated at 
seventy or eighty thousand men ; and he is allow- 
ed, on account of the vicinity of barbarous nations 
to the east, to keep a company of musqueteers ; a 
privilege not indulged to any of the other de- 
pendencies of the throne of Congo. 
The missionaries, on their way, found the roads 
thronged with persons coming to be baptized. Whole 
villages flocked to them at once, so that they were 
often obliged to spend days on the road for the pur- 
pose of admitting these numerous converts within 
the pale of the church. At length they arrived 
at Congo-Batta, the largest town in the province, 
and the theatre of a considerable trade. Here, 
too, they found their ministration in such request, 
that they could scarcely find time for sleep or 
food. After nearly the whole city and neighbour- 
hood had been baptized, they made a somewhat 
mortifying discovery. One part of the ceremony, 
according to the Romish ritual, consists in placing 
salt upon the mouth ; which circumstauce, as salt 
is here scarce and an object of luxury, probablj 
aided the alacrity with which the nation came to 
