The amusements of the people of Loango consist of a game resembling our game of draughts; another game of striking each other's hands; concerts of music; and, above all, dancing. They dance for sorrow and for rejoicing, at a wedding and a funeral, and they accompany their movements with songs of mirth or sadness. The missionaries, one day, saw a woman dancing for the death of her husband, and lamenting her loss and that of her children. "Alas!" cried she, "the roof is fallen; the building is exposed to the injuries of the weather, and its ruin is inevitable!" Another time, as the missionaries were passing through a village, a woman was informed that her son was caught, and sold to the Europeans. The poor woman rushed out of her house, holding her daughter by the hand, and began to dance with her, chanting her misfortune in the most affecting manner. Sometimes she cursed the day that made her a mother; then called her son, execrating the wretches who had stolen him, and the Europeans who had bought him. Her tears and exclamations, even the irregularity of her dance, and the disorder of her movements, expressed so forcibly the anguish of her soul, that the good missionaries retired weeping.

The women labour only three days together; the fourth is the market, and a day of rest, and on this they meet for recreation and dancing. The men, generally unemployed, except during harvest, are, on this day, more so than on the others they walk, play, and frequent the markets.

At night, the people light flambeaux made of an odoriferous gum, that emits an agreeable scent,

and they light fires to purify the air. In the dry season the fire is made in the middle of their court; but they retire to their huts to sleep.

The religion is the same as that of Cacongo, and the gangas, or priests, are also the physicians. Their remedies consist of outward applications, bandages, and breathing on the part affected; but if the patient can afford the expence, a number of auxiliaries are called in, who make the greatest noise possible, with stringed instruments, trumpets, drums, tambours, and the voice. This sometimes continues incessantly for several days and nights, and as the case becomes more desperate, the clamour becomes more deafening. When the sick man expires, the musicians quit the house, and the relations console themselves by reflecting that they have done all in their power to frighten away death.

The language of Loango is the same as that of Cacongo. It is a dialect of the Conghese; but it differs materially from that language. The people of these countries regard as a prodigy the power possessed by the Europeans of communicating their ideas by characters; and they cannot be persuaded that their own language is capable of being understood by this marvellous art.

The missionaries who went from France to Cacongo in the year 1773, were set on shore at a port in the kingdom of Jomba, a country adjoining that of Loango on the north. From hence they walked to the port of Loango, in their way to Malemba. They were ten days in performing the journey. On the second night they found no water; but the following morning they breakfasted by the side of a large, rapid, and beautiful

river. This river they could only pass at its mouth, where it was from three to four feet deep. The fourth night they passed at a village called Makanda, the first in the kingdom of Loango. At the approach of the fifth night, they found themselves at the mouth of a large river, which was not fordable, and no person appeared to render them assistance. They passed the night on its bank, and the next morning walked by its side, till nine o'clock, when they saw a man in a canoe, who, for a handkerchief, carried them over, but on condition of taking no more than two at a time.

The missionaries were now in want of provisions, and they removed farther from the coast to obtain a supply. Chance conducted them to a large town called Kilonga, where, for the only time in Africa, they were ill received; the inhabitants refusing either to give or sell them food. They offered to God, as they say, this little trial, and, shaking the dust from their feet, they trusted to him to provide their supper. They add, that their confidence was not vain; for afterwards, in a deserted cabin, they found palm-nuts, and manioca in abundance, old and new, dressed and undressed, with a fire ready lighted to their hands. It is possible that the family, who fled at the approach of the missionaries, thought they had provided this store for themselves; but the missionaries thought otherwise; for, after returning thanks to God for having spread their table in the wilderness, they not only satisfied their hunger and passed the night in the hut, but loaded themselves the next morning with what provisions they wanted, without leaving any recompence for their former owner.

On the seventh day the travellers were again ferried over a large river, and they passed the night under a shed erected for the purpose of boiling salt. On the eighth day they were entertained by a great man, who had married a sister of the King of Loango; and who, like all the other persons they met with, except the inhabitants of Kilonga, was very desirous to retain them, and listen to their instructions. On the ninth day they arrived at the bank of a large and deep river, where a multitude of persons were waiting to take their passage. As soon as the missionaries appeared, all drew back, saying that, as travellers and strangers, it belonged to them to go over first. The next day they arrived at the French factories at Loango.

The country they had passed consisted of vast forests, interspersed with fine plains, producing grass, the height of which announced the fertility

of the soil.

Two of the missionaries died at the French settlement of Loango, and the others having recovered from the fatigue of the journey, repaired to Booali, the capital, where they had an audience of the King. In this, one of them explained to him the principal doctrines of the Christian religion. When he had ended, the king said "You tell us great things, and you must be convinced of their importance, or you would not have come so far to instruct us in them." One of the great men asked a question that would have been formidable to many Christian preachers; but the missionary answered boldly, and I hope truly, in the affirmative-" Do you practice what you teach ?" The

king of Loango offered the missionaries a settlement in his country; but they preferred that of Cacongo, and had lands given them by the king, near Malemba, as has been mentioned before.

CHAPTER XIX.

RIVER GABON. BENIN.

PASSING Cape Lopez de Gonsalvo, the southern extremity of the Gulph of Guinea, I crossed the equator, and entered the river Gabon, which is more than two miles wide at the mouth. Its latitude is 30' north, and longitude 8° 42′ east. I sailed about forty-five miles up this river, and landed at the town of Naängo, which is frequented by European shipping. Naängo is situated about two miles up a romantic creek, and consisted of one street, wide, regular, and clean. The houses were neatly constructed with bamboo, and the rooms, which were all on the ground-floor, were lofty. The inhabitants were about 500 in number; they sleep on bedsteads, surrounded with musquito curtains of bamboo cloth.

A man of consequence never drinks before his inferiors without hiding his face from them, believing that, at this moment only, his enemies have the power of laying a spell upon him, in spite of the guardianship of his fetish. The whiskers of the men, and the side-locks of both