140 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
human flesh had been sold by them, while they 
occupied that place. They offered it liberally, 
he says, to the Portuguese, who came to trade 
with them ; but the latter rather wished the cap- 
tives 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 I787 and I788 on the 
coast of Africa, published on his return the result 
of his observations, under the title of Voyage d 
la Cote occidentale d'Afrique, Paris, 1801. This 
work does not contain any narrative of travels or 
adventures, but merely a general description, and 
that chiefly of the coast ; for he appears scarcely 
to have penetrated at all into the interior. It 
was, till of late, the most recent account publish- 
ed ; but as it is now superseded by the narrative 
of Captain Tuckey's voyage, of which an account 
will be found at the end of this volume, we shall 
not swell these pages with any analysis of its con- 
tents. 
As the course and origin of the Congo has ex- 
cited such extraordinary interest in Europe, it 
may not be improper to bring into one view the 
views, however imperfect, which the early Por- 
tuguese writers have given upon the subject. 
All descriptions agree as to the impetuosity of 
the stream of the Congo, and the vast mass of 
