92 
The Slave Depot , 
also full of large villages, invisible like the streams 
till entered. A single tree, apparently growing 
out of the great stream-bed, showed shallow water 
as we passed the Ponte de tres Palmeiras; the 
three oil-palms are still there, but the easternmost 
is decaying. At 2 p.m. we were in sight of the 
chief slaving settlement on the Congo, the Whydah 
of the river, Porto da Lenha. Our charts have 
“ Ponta de Linha,” three mistakes in as many 
words. Some authorities, however, prefer Ponta 
da Lenha, “ Woody Point, 5 ' from the piles flanking 
the houses ; others, Ponte da Lenha, from a bridge 
built by the agent of Messrs. Tobin’s house over the 
single influent that divides the settlement. Cruizers 
have often ascended thus far; the Baltimore 
barque of 800 tons went up and down safely in 
1859, but now square-rigged ships, which seldom 
pass Zunga chya Kampenzi, send up boats when 
something is to be done higher up. 
Porto da Lenha dates like Abeokuta from the 
second decade of the present century. In Tuckey’s 
time the projection from the northern bank 
was known as “ Tall Trees, 55 a term common to 
several places in the “ Oil rivers; 55 no factories 
existed, schooners sailed to Boma for cargo, and 
dropped down stream as soon as loaded. From 
French Point it is distant 40,000 measured metres 
(=21 statute miles and 1,615 yards); our charts 
show 20*50 nautical miles (= 32,500 metres in 
