Up the Congo River. 
83 
will apply at the distance of a mile further south. 
This acute angle shows a glorious clump, the 
“ Tall Trees,” white mangroves rising a hundred 
feet, and red mangroves based upon pyramidal 
cages of roots ; and beyond it the immediate shore 
is covered with a dense tropical vegetation, a 
tangle of bush, palms, and pandanus, matted 
with creepers and undergrowth, and rhyzophoras 
of many varieties delighting in brackish water. 
We passed on the right the Ponta de Jacare (Point 
of the Crocodile), fronting Point Senegal on the 
other side. The natives call the former Ngandu 
(pi. Jigandu), and farcical tales are told about it: 
in the lower settlements Europeans will not go 
abroad by night without a lantern. During my 
trip I sighted only one startled crocodile that 
floated log-like a mile off, and Captain Baak, of 
the Dutch house, had not seen one during a whole 
year at Banana Point. 
We anchored for the night off the south side 
of the Zunga chya Ngombe, in Portuguese Ilha 
do Boi (Bullock), the Rhinoceros Island of our 
early charts. It emerges from the waters of the 
right bank, a mere “ ponton ” plumed with dark 
mangroves and streaked with spar-like white 
trunks. This is probably the “ Island of Horses,” 
where the Portuguese, flying from the victorious 
Hollanders, were lodged and fed by the courteous 
Count of Sonho; perhaps it is Battel’s “ Isle 
