158 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
booty. Merolla says he saw, without the capital, 
shambles, where human flesh had been sold by 
them, while they occupied that place. They of- 
fered it liberally, he says, to the Portuguese, who 
came to trade with them ; but the latter rather 
wished the captives as slaves, " than to have their 
" bellies filled with such barbarous food," 
• 
M. Degrandpre, an officer in the French ma- 
rine, who spent the years 1787 an d 1788 on the 
coast of Africa, published on his return the result 
of his observations, under the title of Voyage a la 
Cote occidentale d'AJriqve, Paris, 1801. This work 
does not contain any narrative of travels or adven- 
tures ; but merely a general description, and that 
chiefly of the coast, for he appears scarcely to have 
penetrated at all into the interior. It is, however, 
by much the most recent, and probably the most 
authentic description, being the only one which has 
mot passed through the hands of the Romish mis- 
sionaries. As it is besides scarcely known in this 
country, a short abstract of its contents will, we 
conceive, be interesting. 
The coast of all this country is, in commercial 
language, called generally the coast of Angola. 
From Cape Lopez Gonsalvo to St Philipe de Ben- 
guela, it includes a range of nearly twelve degrees ; 
the former of these places being in 0° 44', and the 
latter 12° 14' S. lat. Congo, however, is through- 
out the name given to the people \ who, as to lau- 
