CHAPTER IX. 
EVENTS AND PROCEEDINGS, CONTINUED, PREVIOUS 
TO REACHING STANLEY POOL. 
T he attempt to reach the upper river by the 
Makuta route again proving impracticable, 
Mr. Comber and Mr. Hartland returned to 
San Salvador, and went immediately down 
to Musuka, with the hope of joining the expedition 
on the north bank. In this hope they were disap- 
pointed, as Mr. Bentley and Mr. Crudgington were 
a week's journey in advance. They did not, however, 
retrace their steps until they had reached Kinguvu, 
nearly half-way up to the Pool, and only then being 
driven back by failing supplies. 
En route^ Mr. Comber rested at a station of the 
Livingstone Inland Mission ; and afterwards met 
with Mr. Stanley, who was superintending the founda- 
tion of the Congo Free State, from whom he received 
much valuable information. 
Whilst on this journey, a letter arrived for Mr. 
Comber at Boma, from the British Consul, with the 
intelligence that four Jesuits had reached Loanda 
from Portugal ; that, under the protection and patron- 
age of the Portuguese Government, they were on a 
no 
