Return to the Congo Mouth. 301 
way. Here a canoe would carry us for a day 
(12 miles) to the Sangala Rapids : then would 
come the third portage of two days (22 miles) to 
Nsundi. My outfit at Banza Nokki was wholly 
insufficient; the riverine races were no longer 
tractable as in the days of his father, when white 
men first visited the land. My best plan was to 
return to Boma at once, organize a party, and 
march upon Congo Grande (S. Salvador); there I 
should find whites, Portuguese, Englishmen and 
their “ Kru-men” the term generally applied on the 
southern coast to all native employes of foreign 
traders. If determined upon being “ converted 
into black man” I might join some trading party 
into the interior. As regards the cloth and beads 
advanced by me for the journey to Nsundi, a fair 
proportion would be returned at Banza Nokki. 
And so saying the old fox managed to look as if 
he meant what he said. 
All this, taken with many a grain, was reason¬ 
able. The edge of my curiosity had been taken 
off by the Yellala, and nothing new could be ex¬ 
pected from the smaller formations up stream. 
Time forbade me to linger at Banza Nkulu. The 
exorbitant demand had evidently been made by 
express desire of Gidi Mavunga, and only a fort¬ 
night’s delay could have reduced it to normal 
dimensions. Yet with leisure success was evident. 
All the difficulties of the Nsundi road would have 
