88 
Up the Congo River . 
da Lenha, above which they are harmless, these 
men have ever been dangerous to strangers, and 
the effect of the slave-trade has been to make them 
more formidable. Lieutenant Boteler (1835) was 
attacked by twenty-eight canoes, carrying some 
140 men, who came on boldly, “ducking” at the 
flash, and who were driven off only by a volley of 
musketry and a charge of grape. In i860 a 
whaler and crew were attacked by their war- 
canoes sallying out from behind Scotchman's 
Head. These craft are of two kinds, one shaped 
like a horse-trough, the other with a lean and 
snaky head. The “ Wrangler” lost two of her 
men near Zunga chyd Kampenzi, and the “ Griffon” 
escaped by firing an Armstrong conical shell. 
They have frequently surprised and kept for 
ransom the white agents, whom “ o negocio” 
deterred from reprisals. M. Pissot, our companion, 
was amarrS by them for some weeks, and the 
most unpleasant part of his captivity was the 
stunning concert of songs and instruments kept up 
during the day to prevent his escaping by night 
The more sensible traders at Boma pay them 
black mail by employing them as boats’ crews, 
upon our Anglo-Indian principle of the “ Paggi” 
and the “ Ramosi.” 
Merolla calls these men Musilongo or Sonhese. 
The word appears to me opprobrious, as if each 
tribe termed itself Mushi-Congo (Congo people), 
