The New York herald., 1877-11-14


Captain Tuckey was the author OF book on
maritime geography. Still, having found
one cataract on his chart where there ought
to have been dozens of falls, soon discov-
evered that his qualifications did not pre-
vent him from going wrong. Between that
position and Isangila, or Sangala, the exist
ing map is tissue of errors. From Sangala,
or rather Isangila, Falls we travelled over
land, in five easy marches, to Bonva with
q sick and starving expedition. dis
tance which the Congo expedition esti-
mated at 100 miles in straight line,
or one hundred and thirty miles or
so according to the road, to have
accomplished which, though took
no observations en- route overland, consider
would have been an impossible feat. con-
sidering the character of the country and
the debility of our people. According to
pedometer the distance we travelled was
ffty-seven miles geographically, forty-fve
miles One of Captain Tuckey's sentences,
"Terrible march; worse to us than the re-
treat from Moscow" and the sad general
mortality in that expedition both of Euro
peans and negroes, / suspect may together
explain the enormous discrepancy between
their distances and ours Under such
physical prostration what wonder that
mile should seem league! In such
state as the members of that unfortunate
and disastrous expedition must have been
/ doubt whether any of them took the
trouble to make astronomical observations.
ERRONEOUS NOMENCLATURE.
In Stanford's map, which believe to
have been constructed from information
obtained from Captain Tuckey's expedition,
with additions from the Fathers at San
Salvador. find great many names of
countries and towns also about which no
one could give me any information.
"Pombo, general name for the inland
country" means nothing of the kind, but
Mpumbus is the name Of great market or
fair district on the south bank, inhabited by
the Basesse, near longitude 16 deg. east.
'Auzico," printed large and black, is un-
known. "Monsol. Royal Town." unknown,
may mean Mossul, or Little River, as called
by the up tribes. ''Concobella" may pos
sibly be Nchuvila, ''King of Nkunda,
Esseno, Hondi, Canga, Dinjee, Condo
Yonga, Pangwelunghi, are all un-
known. ''vambre" and ''Vambre River"
inquired particularly for, but
did not succeed in discovering one native
who had ever heard of such name. Mo-
songo is, no doubt, Misongo in Uyanzi.
Mopendea and Fungeno are absolutely un-
known. The Bancora River is no doubt o
corruption Of Bangala or Bangara, people
inhabiting Mangala.
THE BASIN OF THE CONGO.
AS have stated above, in rough numbers
the entire area drained by the river of
Congo, or the river Kwango, as 1t should
be called, is about $50, 900 square miles,
45O, 600 miles Of which is almost taken up
entirely by the great basin lying between
the lake and maritime regions. The length
of the Congo is about 1890 miles, divided
thus:-From the source to Nyangwe, LOO
miles; from Nyangwe to the Atlantic, nearly
1900 miles. fp
THE ANNUAL RISE.
My experiences Of the river date from the
1st OF November, 1876, to the 18th of August,
1877, a period of over nine months. It's
highest rise lasted from the 8th of May to
the 22d Of May, and was caused by the peri
odical rains known to us on the East Coast
as the Masika. While the food is of great
advantage to the navigation above the cata-
racts Of the maritime region, where the river
assumes lacustrine breadth, it vastly in
creases its terrors at the cataracts, because
| of the trebled fury with which the swollen
water sweeps down the steep incline of
its bed through the rocky narrows
to the sea. The depth Of the
rise varies naturally, owing to the great
disproportion Of the breadth of the stream.
Up river it is about eight feet, but in the mar
rows it is from twenty to fifty feet. In some
places of the cataract district the rise was
as much as fifteen inches per diem, but then
the river was at that point only 500 yards
wide. Whatever efforts may be made by
the explorer in future in the commercial
development of this river no one need try