510 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
had horizontally stratified gneiss and sandstone with an 
irregular coping of granite masses, and here and there a 
protrusion of the darker trappean rocks. Below Mpa- 
kambendi, the river is disturbed by many protruded 
ledges of the softer greenish shales, which have been so 
pounded and battered by the river that we have merely 
rapids without whirlpools and leaping waves to interrupt 
our descent. Every other mile or so of the river shows 
symptoms of interruption, and its surface is here marked 
by thin lines of low waves, and there by foamy 
stretches. 
From Mpakambendi to the rounded mount-shoulder 
on which Nsenga is situate stretches about a mile and a 
half of calm river, deep and majestic, and a long strip 
of land along the right side affords admirable camping- 
places or sites for fishing-stations. 
The Wang wan a still persisted in robbing the natives. 
Two were here apprehended by them for stealing the 
fowls and maltreating the women, and of course I had 
either to redeem them or leave them in the hands of 
those whom they had injured. We consented to redeem 
them, and paid so largely that it left us nearly beggared 
and bankrupt. Again a warning was given to them 
that such a course must end in my abandoning them to 
their fate, for they must never expect me to use force to 
release them from the hands of the natives, or to adopt 
any retaliatory measures on behalf of thieves. 
Two poor souls succumbed to life’s trials and weari- 
ness here — one of them from mortification supervening 
on ulcers ; the other of chronic dysentery. This latter 
disease worried many of the people, and scant and poor 
food had reduced us all to hideous bony frames. 
The Western Babwende, from Mpakambendi to the 
lands of the Basundi are wilder in appearance than those 
farther east, and many adopt the mop head, and bore 
the lobes of their ears, like the Wasagara and Wagogo 
on the east side of the continent. Some Bakongo and 
Bazombo natives of Congo and Zombo were seen here as 
they were about to set olf east for a short trading trip. 
It appeared to me on regarding their large eyes and 
