The traditions of countries along the coast where white men have long settled speak of much greater, more powerful kingdoms in the past; and after due allowance has been made for exaggeration, it is too evident that the kings of Congo, Kabinda, Loango, and Angola, exerted at one time far more influence than they do to-day. Indeed, the King of Congo is the only chief who maintains his style and title; the others have become extinct during this century. We find then the whole country in a state of disintegration; every town a separate state, and its chief, to all practical purposes, independent. Makoko, the Teke chief with whom De Brazza made his famous treaty, is said to have levied taxes on the north bank people near his town. The King of Congo used to receive a tribute from the remnants of the old Congo empire; but to-day he has to content himself with levying a mild blackmail on passing caravans, and receives a present, when he gives the ‘hat’ and the insignia of office to those who succeed to chieftainships over which in olden times the kings exercised suzerainty. Few, indeed, of those acknowledge him to-day even to that extent. These independent townships group themselves into tribes and tribelets; it is, however, a matter of great difficulty to learn the tribal names, which are best obtained from neighbours. The old Congo empire formerly included the countries on the south bank from the coast to Stanley Pool, and southward to the Bunda-speaking people of Ngola (Angola), while homage was rendered by the kings of Loango and Kabinda. To-day the influence of the king is merely nominal outside his town. He is respected, however, in a radius of thirty or forty miles, but seldom if ever interferes in any matters. San Salvador is situated on a plateau 1,700 feet above the sea, about two-and-a-half miles long by one mile wide. Broad valleys 300 feet deep surround it, and in the south flows the little river Lueji, a tributary of the Lunda-Mpozo. There are abundant traces of its former importance. The ruins of a stone wall, two feet thick and fifteen feet high, encircle the town. The ruins of the cathedral are very interesting, and show it to have been a very fine building. The material is an ironstone conglomerate, while the lime was burnt from rock in the neighbourhood.