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
I looked curiously at these specimens of the Musulungu or
Musurungu, a wilder race than that of Shark Point: the English,
of course, call them Missolonghi, because Lord Byron died there.
Here the people say "le" for "re," and "rua" for "lua,"
confounding both liquids, which may also be found in the Kibundo
tongue. In Loango, according to the Abbé Proyart, the national
organ does not admit the roughness of the r, which is changed to
l. Monteiro and Gamitto assert (xxii.) that the "Cazembes or
Lundas do not pronounce the letter r, in whose place they use l."
The "Ibos" of the lower Congo, dwelling on the southern shore
between the mouth and the Porto da Lenha, above which they are
harmless, these men have ever been dangerous to strangers, and
the effect of the slave-trade has been to make them more
formidable. Lieutenant Boteler (1835) was attacked by twenty-
eight canoes, carrying some 140 men, who came on boldly,
"ducking" at the flash, and who were driven off only by a volley
of musketry and a charge of grape. In 1860 a whaler and crew were
attacked by their war-canoes sallying out from behind Scotchman's
Head. These craft are of two kinds, one shaped like a horse-
trough, the other with a lean and snaky head. The "Wrangler" lost
two of her men near Zungá chyá Kampenzi, and the "Griffon"
escaped by firing an Armstrong conical shell. They have
frequently surprised and kept for ransom the white agents, whom
"o negocio" deterred from reprisals. M. Pissot, our companion,
was amarré by them for some weeks, and the most unpleasant part
of his captivity was the stunning concert of songs and
instruments kept up during the day to prevent his escaping by
night. The more sensible traders at Boma pay them black mail by
employing them as boats' crews, upon our Anglo-Indian principle
of the "Paggi" and the "Ramosi."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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