Sevena

In the broader valleys, where the streams are smaller, or have done less destruction to the country, grows the giant diàdia grass, the stems often attaining two and a half inches in circumference and a mean height of fifteen feet; there may be found some of the richest soil in the world. Where the diàdia has been exists the wildest luxuriance of vegetation; palms, plantain, Indian corn,31 ground-nuts, yams and all garden produce are at their best, and ever at the mercy of the elephants, who rejoice in such choice selection. In the Majinga country the native houses have to be scattered through their rich farms, and morning and night the people shout, scream, and beat their drums to frighten off these giant marauders. It is not a forest country. Strange clumps of trees grow on the tops of the hills, which mark the ancient plateau level, but the rich soil beside the streams and in the snug valleys is generally well wooded. The vegetation presents an altogether tropical appearance, the bra

Roughly we may describe the Basin of the Congo as extending from the 5th degree of North, to the 12th degree of South, latitude, and from the hills skirting the coast of the Atlantic Ocean to 31st or 32nd degree of East longitude. Along what is known as the South-West Coast of Africa, from the Gulf of Biafra southwards, stretches a ridge of hill country. It commences about fifty to seventy miles inland, and is about 300 miles in width. In some parts it attains an elevation of 5,000 or more feet, but the general altitude near the Congo is from 2,000 to 2,500 above the level of the sea. It is really a belt or elevated plateau; rich soil is to be found on the summits of the ‘hills,’ but the whole has been torn and worn by the rains; little streams have in time cut out deep gorges, the sides of which are being further eroded, until what was once a rolling table-land appears as a chaos of hills; only from a21 few heights can one gain a fair idea of the nature of the country. This plateau be

In 1484 Diogo Cam, a Portuguese navigator, first sighted the mouth of the Congo River. Four centuries have since elapsed, and only now have14 we the definite knowledge of the course of that mighty flood. Seven years after the discovery of the river, an embassy was sent to the capital of the Congo country, known as San Salvador; Roman Catholic missionaries followed, who in time penetrated some 250 miles into the interior. They made, however, San Salvador their head-quarters and cathedral city, but were finally expelled by the Governor of Angola some 130 years ago. They appear to have kept away from the river; what records of their work remain throw no light as to its course. The slave trade flourished in the mouth of the river, but interiorwards the land remained unknown. In 1816 Captain Tuckey was commissioned by the Admiralty to endeavour to solve the mystery, and was instructed to ascertain whether there was any connection between the Niger and the Congo. This ill-fated expedition pe