SKETCH OF GABOON. 
433 
passed Evehelee and Cormee, when they came to a fall of water 
upwards of twenty feet high. A native, who preceded them in 
his canoe, directed them to enter a small channel to the east, which, 
by a considerable sweep, avoided it, but the natives, he persisted, 
both pulled their canoes up, and let them down this fall, by long 
fibrous roots twisted into cordage, and affixed to the large trees 
above; frequently, however, the most expert were victims to their 
intrepidity, generally in the descent; their canoes were made pur- 
posely in the shape of a bow. I expressed my doubts, questioned 
him with seennng indifference, at many different times, on this 
subject, and requested others to do the same ; his account never 
varied. He was natnrally very cautious in what he said, by no 
means given to the marvellous in recounting his travels, but a cor- 
rector of that disposition in others. To the last moment he per- 
sisted in this report. Just beyond this fall is the confluence of the 
Ogooawai and the Congo, which takes place in Tanyan.* From 
* " The information received here (at Mavoonda) of the upward course of the river, 
was more distinct than any we have yet had ; all the persons we spoke to agreeing tha after 
ten days in a canoe, we should come to a large sandy island, which makes two eliannels, 
one to the north west, and the other to the north east ; that in the latter there is a fall, hut 
that canoes are easily got above it ; that twenty days above the island, the river issues by 
many small streams from a great marsh or lake of mud." Captain Tuckey's Narrative. 
In a map, " Regna Congo et Angola," in Dapper's Description de I'Afrique, 1686, a 
large arm is laid down, about two hundred and fifty miles up the Zaire, running to or 
coming from the north-east. As this book is scarcely known, there being but one copy 
in England, it may be interesting to the reader to see a descinption of the Congo and 
its source, according to the geographical opinions, a century and a half ago, for 1686 is 
the date of the translation from the German. Refer first to my copy of a part of one of the 
many maps in Dapper's work, p. 211. Au midi de cette riviere (Niger) est le Zaire, ou la 
grande riviere de Congo qui prend sa source de trois lacs, au sentiment de Pigaser. Le 
premier se nomme Zambre d'ou procede le Nil, le second Zaire d'ou sortent les rivieres 
de Lelunde et de Coanze, et le troisieme est un lac forme par le Nil. Mais le principal 
estle Zambre qui est comme le centre d'ou les fleuves de nord le Nil, au levant Cuama 
3 K 
