Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2 — John Shaqi
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
"spontaneous declarations of vassalage on the part of the King of
Molembo (Malemba) and others."
In 1860 the trade of Kinsembo amounted to some £50,000, divided
amongst four houses, two English, one American, and one Rotterdam
(Pencoff and Kerdyk). The Cassange war greatly benefited the new
station by diverting coffee and other produce of the interior
from Loanda. There are apochryphal tales of giant tusks brought
from a five months' journey, say 500 miles, inland. I was shown
two species of copal (gum anime) of which the best is said to
come from the Mosul country up the Ambriz River: one bore the
goose-skin of Zanzibar, and I was assured that it does not
viscidize in the potash-wash. The other was smooth as if it had
freshly fallen from the tree. It was impossible to obtain any
information; no one had been up country to see the diggings, and
yet all declared that the interior was open; that it would be
easy to strike the Coango (Quango) before it joins the Congo
River, and that 150 miles, which we may perhaps reduce by a
third, would lodge the traveller in the unknown lands of "Hnga."
Bidding kindly adieu to Mr. Hunter and wishing him speedy
deliverance from his dreadful companion, we resumed our travel
over the now tranquil main. Always to starboard remained the
narrow sea-wall, a length without breadth which we had seen after
the lowlands of Cape Lopez, coloured rosy, rusty-red, or white,
and sometimes backed by a second sierra of low blue rises, which
suggests the sanatorium. Forty miles showed us the tall trees of
Point Palmas on the northern side of the Conza River; on the
south of the gap-like mouth lies the Ambrizette settlement, with
large factories, Portuguese and American, gleaming against the
dark verdure, and with Conza Hill for a background. The Cabeça de
Cobra, or "Margate Head," led to Makula, alias Mangal, or Mangue
Grande, lately a clump of trees and a point; now the site of
English, American, and Dutch factories. Here the hydrographic
charts of 1827 and 1863 greatly vary, and one has countermarched
the coast-line some 75 miles: Beginning with the Congo River, it
lays down Mangue Pegueno (where Grande should be), Cobra, and
Mangue Grande (for Pequeno) close to Ambrizette. Then hard ahead
rose Cape Engano, whose "deceit" is a rufous tint, which causes
many to mistake it for Cape or Point Padrão. To-morrow, as the
dark-green waters tell us, we shall be in the Congo River.
Chapter V.
Into the Congo River.--the Factories.--trip to Shark's Point.--
the Padrão and Pinda.
The best preparation for a first glance at the Congo River is to
do as all do, to study the quaint description which old Purchas
borrowed from the "Chronica da Companhia de Jesus em Portugal."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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