544 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
where a tragedy had been enacted a short time before 
the relief caravan had passed it the day previous. Two 
thieves had robbed a woman of salt, and, according to the 
local custom which ordains the severest penalties for theft 
in the public mart, the two felons had been immediately 
executed, and their bodies laid close to the path to deter 
others evilly disposed from committing like crimes. 
At noon we surmounted the lofty range which we had 
viewed near Banza Mbuko, and the aneroid indicated a 
height of 1500 feet. A short distance from its base, on 
two grassy hills, is situate N’lamba N’lamba, a settlement 
comprising several villages, and as populous as Mbinda. 
The houses and streets were very clean and neat ; but, 
as of old, the natives are devoted to idolatry, and their 
passion for carving wooden idols was illustrated in every 
street we passed through. 
On the 8th we made a short march of five miles to 
N’safu, over a sterile, bare, and hilly country, but the 
highest ridge passed was not over 1100 feet above the 
sea. Uledi and Kacheclie returned at this place with 
more cheer for us, and a note acknowledging my letter 
of thanks. 
In a postscript to this note, Mr. Motta Yeiga prepared 
me for a reception which was to meet me on the road 
halfway between N’safu and Boma ; it also contained the 
census of the European population, as follows : — 
“ Perhaps you do not know that in Boma there are 
only eleven Portuguese, one Frenchman, one Dutchman, 
one gentleman from St. Helena, and ourselves (Messrs. 
Motta Yeiga and J. W. Harrison), Messrs. Hatton and 
Cookson being in Liverpool, and the two signatures above 
being names of those in charge of the English factory 
here.” 
On the 9th of August, 1877, the 999th day from the 
date of our departure from Zanzibar, we prepared to greet 
the van of civilization. 
From the bare rocky ridges of N’safu there is a per- 
ceptible decline to the Congo valley, and the country 
becomes, in appearance, more sterile — a sparse popula- 
