Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-05-06


overrun by them.
Monpessi. who labored under the de-
fusion that he was a great sportsman,
had meanwhile primed himself with
big gourd full of palm wine, and he now
set off with Glave's Express rifle in a
small canoe. padded by his unwilling
wife, to shoot a hippopotamus whleh
was playing about in the Congo opposite
| the village.
! The canoe wobbled fearfully owing
| to Mongessi's wild attempts to stand up
right in it, and long ere the canoe
we promptly dispatched after him for
the recovery of the rife had been able
to overtake them, he and his wife were
laundering in the river; but the rife,
fortunately enough, was safe at the bot
! tom of the canoe. Mongessl returned
somewhat damped, and the poor wife
consoled herself for her ducking by
spelling his evening meal and making
herself generally disagreeable for the
remainder of the evening.
By this time we had had enough of
Bakanga so we departed an hour later
for the Equator by new route, through
different network of islands, in the
channels between which we came upon
herds of hippos, but very wild, owing
to the presence of many fishing canoes.
We succeeded in shooting couple, but,
although they were badly wounded, we
could not tell if we had succeeded in
killing them outright or not, and were
obliged to continue our journey in or
der to reach our station before night,
where l arrived suffering from severe
touch of fever, brought on by exposure
to the sun during our long passage of
the river.
On October % the long-expected
Florida appeared in sight, steaming
round the point below our station. We
had been YEARLY waiting for her,
Glave and |, to make our eagerly -desired
journey up the Lulungu river which,
with its main feeder, the Malinga native
report described as being the richest
ivory producing afluent of the Con-
CO. We were anxious, too, to pen
citrate the country of the Balolo, the
strange people dwelling on the banks of
the Malinga, of whom Rev. George
Grenfell, of the English Baptist Mission,
had brought down some curious infor-
nation from his trip up the Malinga on
the little mission steamer Peace. His
had been the first visit of a white man
to that river, and we were anxious to
see how the natives would now receive
u.s. stopping at every village as we in
tended doing, and endeavoring to make
friends by undergoing the ceremony of
blood brotherhood, done by scratching
the arm of each party and rubbing one
abrasion against the other, and pur-
chasing almost any thing the natives
would bring us to sell.
Not wishing to provoke hostilities by
introd ucing quarrelsome foreign ele-
ment we left the regular Zanzibar and
conservative crew of the Florida at
Equator, replacing them by the best
and most capable of our native friends
from the surrounding villages. There
still remained the two Lagos men, from
the British colony on the Gold Coast
who acted as assistants to our white
engineer in looking after the engines
and fires-two or three Loango firemeu
from a district north of the Congo
mouth-and my Loango servant Tati,
as we'll as one Zanzibar, Andrew,
who had been educated at Mission in
Zanzibar, but who unfortunately proved
great thief.
On Thursday, November 8, a great
crowd of natives came down to see us
off and bid goodbye to their friends
who were members of our crew. Bionelo,
our native head man. and one or two of
the other natives brought wife each
with them to look after cooking arrange
ments.
Amid the cries of farewell and the
waving of cloths from the crowd on
shore we steamed off up against the
strong current of the Congo Soon
passing the wide mouth of the Ronki
which pours dark flood of water nearly
mile broad into the Congo, we ar
rived off the grassy shores of the
lkelemba, smaller tributary, and CON
tinued our way up toward Lulangu, a
large village situated at the mouth of
the Lulungu river, which we hoped to
reach ere nightfall.
On arriving at Lulangu next morning
we procured guide who had made sew
eral trading and slave-raiding expedi-
tions up as far as Malinga town on the
main branch of the Lulungu, which. as
have said, is called the Malinga river.
Our guides name was Elenge Minto
literally Young Man." and we suisse
quently found him very useful COM
panion.
The Lulangu people had been accus-
toned to the sight OF an occasional
passing steamer going up the Congo to
Bangala or Stanley Falls; but we were
now leaving the great highway and fol-
lowing where only Gronfcll and VaugeH
"a Belgian officer who assembled the
Lopori, Il second and smaller tributary
Of the Lulungu than the Malinga1 mad
gone before us many months previously,
The Lulangu natives were very friend
ly, and crowded the banks in LONG lines
of aged and youthful loneliness as we
steamed past the two or three miles OF
huts fronting the Lulungu.
At noon we arrived off a Village we
were informed by Elenre Mimic was
called Bolongo on the left bank. We
put in here and halted for the day. The
ehlefan old man named Nzemba, insisted
on making blood brothers" with rs.
and then regretted his inability to give
us any thing save firewood, on account
OF the siege his village was enduring.
owing to the attacks of a neighboring
settlement Landing we found that
the place consisted of about two hun
dred hutS, surrounded by a high batri
eade of tree trunks, old canoes and ban
ma stems and beyond this lay a cleared