rolling lines of hills, bends westward, and joins, they say, the Rio Lukullu (Lukallo?) of Cabinda Bay.  Men have descended, I am told, three leagues, but no one has seen the junction, consequently there may be a portage between the drains.  If not, this is the apex of the greater Congo delta, a false formation, whose base between Cabinda Bay (S. lat. 5deg. 25’) and Ambrizette (S. lat. 7deg. 16’) measures 1deg. 51’, equal to 111 direct geographical miles, whilst its depth inland would be sixty.

Chapter Vii.

Boma.—­our Outfit for the Interior

We now reach Boma, the furthest Portuguese factory, about thirty, usually reckoned thirty-eight, nautical miles from Porta da Lenha, and a total of 52.50 from French Point.

The upper depot of the Congo lies upon the north bank, accidente ground, poor, stony, and sandy soil, with rounded, grass-clad hills, The southern is less broken; there are long slopes and waves of land which trend in graceful lines, charmingly diversified, to the uplands, where the old capital, Sao Salvador, is situated; and upon the undulating blue ridges, distance behind distance, appear markings by Nature’s hand, which the stranger’s eye can hardly distinguish from villa or village.  The view explains how the old expedition felt “every day more in love with this beautiful country,” The sea-like river wants nothing but cattle on its banks to justify the description—­

“Appunto una scena pastorale, a cui fanno
Quinci il mar, quinci i colli, e d’ ogn’ intorno
I fior, le piante, e l’ ombre, e l’ onde, e ’l cielo. 
Unteatro pomposo.”

In the centre of the broad stream, whose southern arm is not visible, are three islets.  The western most, backed by a long, grassy, palm-tasselled bank, is called Zunga chya Bundika.  This Chombae Island of the charts is a rocky cone, dark with umbrella-shaped trees.  Its north-eastern neighbour, Simule Kete, the Molyneux Island of Mr. Maxwell, the Hekay of Tuckey, and the Kekay of the chart, contrasts sharply with the yellow stubbles and the flat lines of Zunga chya Ngandi.  Here, since Tuckey’s time, the trees have made way for grass and stones; the only remnants are clumps in the south-eastern, which is not only the highest point, but also the windy and watery direction.  On the Congo course the foul weather is mostly from the “sirocco,” where the African interior is a mass of swamps.  At the mouth tornadoes come down the line of stream from the north-east, and I heard traditions of the sea-tornado, which blows in shore instead of offshore as usual.  About the close of the last century one or other of these islands was proposed as a depot and settlement, which a few simple works would convert into a small Gibraltar.  The easternmost Buka, the Booka Embomma of the charts and maps, will presently be described.  In this direction the Zaire assumes the semblance of a mountain lake, whilst down stream the broad bosom