.^3^ CONGO EXPEDITION. 
even to foppishness ; in short, quite gentlemen 
d la Franfaise, Many of their present visitors 
were ostensibly Christians 5 and one having ac- 
quired the faculty of writing his own name and 
that of St Anthony, was judged well entitled to 
exercise the functions of a priest. He and his 
flock were accordingly laden with crucifixes, and 
with various relics, which appeared quite equal 
in dignity and worth to the negro fetiches. He 
by no means held himself bound, however, by 
the Romish law of celibacy, having, as he assured 
them, not only one wife, but five concubines ; on 
the use of which last he maintained that St Peter 
never could have been so harsh as to impose any 
restriction. 
Captain Tuckey finding that the Dorothy could 
not be got up the river without many delays, 
caused the stores to be transhipped on board the 
Congo, and proceeded with that vessel along the 
southern bank of the river. The shore consisted 
of a morass extending inland for seven or eight 
miles^ and entirely covered with mangrove trees 
growing in the water. A solemn impression was 
produced by the deep silence and shade of these 
watery forests. Innumerable parrots chattered 
through the air, with whose voices those of a few 
singing birds were mingled. The whole party 
seem here to have been struck with deep disap- 
pointment at the dimension of the river, and to 
